Reading about Mr. Wigglebottom killed me inside, a little bit. I'd steal it for my game, but my fiance might leave me if I did that to her character.
81. A race borne of a wish spell. 82. A race whose members are uniformly overweight. Perhaps similar to halflings - fat, happy, and jolly. 83. An otherwise-neutral (or even evil) race that is cursed to help others and do good or suffer horrible ramifications. Maybe a great tragedy or genocide occurred because this race did nothing when they could have easily stepped in and helped, so a powerful entity cursed the whole species so that its members lose their minds or souls or somesuch, little by little, each time they refuse to help someone in need. 84. A playable hivemind. (As in: a PC plays one member of a hivemind species whose other members are presumably elsewhere). 85. A "race" of children (think: Peter Pan and Neverland). 86. A "race" of clones - all physically identical to the original, and all with similar - but not identical - personalities, shaped by their own experiences. For example, if the original was Lawful Neutral, a Chaotic Good member must have experienced extraordinary things to be changed so profoundly. (Yes, this is basically The Council of Ricks, from Rick and Morty.) 87. A race of diminutive parasites who form long-term bonds with human hosts. They don't hijack their minds; they actually live in harmony with their hosts, and develop relationships with them. 88. A playable, race-builder-style gnoll race, with a racial witch archetype that plays off the "cackle" class feature. 89. A playable, race-builder-style myconid race. 90. A race of cactacae, complete with rivebows. 91. A race of hotchi, complete with giant rooster steeds. 92. A flumph-style race: an alien race that looks very, very silly, but whose members are actually quite grave and serious-minded, possess a tragic backstory, and who have no real idea how silly they look to humanoids. 93. A race with ancestral recall. Basically, they inherent the memories of their ancestors. 94. A race sent to [insert campaign setting] in order to catalogue everything on it. Plot twist: ...because it's going to blow up / die / dis-corporate soon! Plot twist two: ...because their masters are preparing to assimilate / conquer / absorb it soon! Plot twist three: ...because they're really from the future / an alternate timeline / a parallel dimension. 95. A (non-reptile) race that sheds is skin periodically.
I certainly see where you might be coming from, Jessica, but (while I admittedly haven't read the thread "cover-to-cover"), it seems like this thread is more about whether or not women are playing tabletop RPGs in mixed-gender groups, not what men think or feel about it or whether or not they ought to play with men. I don't think there's been a deficit - historically - of blue-eyed people playing or not playing tabletop games, but there has been a disproportionate mix of players along sex and gender lines. This thread was started by a female player in order to celebrate what seemed to her to be a rising number of (and casual acceptance of) female gamers at the tables that she frequents. I think that the participants here (only some of which have remarked about their own genders) are, more or less, only joining the original poster in celebrating and confirming that trend.
Slim as my chances seemed for this round, that's still a bummer. I understand, though - I think I misread the rules as something like "the scale must be 5 feet to a square;" I must have missed that it had to be printed there. C'est la vie, I feel confident that this won't be my last RPG Superstar appearance; I learned a lot this year in terms of what kind of item makes the top 32. Thanks again to all the Superstar judges and to all my supporters!
Thanks for all your feedback, folks. In retrospect, "remain stationary" would've been a better choice than "remain still." Or maybe even something like "remain adjacent." If you're stealing defender's door for your home campaign: the wielder can attack and act normally while the item is in 'door form,' as long as he doesn't move from the spot.
HOW DO ANY OF YOU HAVE TIME TO POST IN HERE OH GOD I SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN MORE WORK DONE ON THE MAP BEFORE NOW NOOO NO NO WHYYYY
Oh. My. Glob. Thank you, everyone. Also, this. Congratulations to everyone! Lots and lots of familiar names and faces this year.
Defender’s Door
Description
Creatures that pass through the doorway are transported as if using a dimension door. If the door is set into the ground, creatures passing through the door emerge at any open location within range that the wielder can see. This location is set when the shield is planted, and is the same for all creatures. If the door is set against a wall, creatures emerge on the other side of that surface as long as an open space exists within range. If the wielder closes the door or passes through it, it becomes a shield again. Construction
Aaaand we're live. Player-base (if you can read this: that means you): go check out the GAMEPLAY THREAD, and then post your thoughts on the DISCUSSION THREAD. From now on, the discussion thread is where player deliberation will occur. The gameplay thread is NOT for players to post in! I know that's an idea that'll take some getting used to. Enjoy!
.....
Maraerys Starlight
Investigator update. See above. Extracts are done too (the consensus voted up crafter's fortune, enlarge person, heightened awareness, long arm, and shield). A couple of things left. 1.) So far as I can tell, Magical Knack (the narrow winner) does not improve the caster level of an alchemist or investigator's extracts. Unlike spellcasters, alchemist-type classes don't have caster levels. The alchemy class feature sets a caster level for created extracts, but that's not quite the same thing. I poked around the forums and found a general sense of "RAW says no" out there. Then again, "as far as I can tell" might not be far enough. If anyone can point to a ruling or FAQ that indicates otherwise, I'd like to be wrong about this one. Barring that happy event, shall we just go with Trade Talk or Resilient? 2.) The "Ancestral Arms or Skill Focus?" question sort of hangs in the balance on the "are we going to dip into a martial class?" question, so I'll wait for input regarding Magical Knack before nailing that down. If we do keep Skill Focus, it seems like Use Magic Device is the popular choice.
Is that the PC term?
Hey, folks. So - if you're reading this thread for the first time and the game is already underway, you are absolutely free to hop over to the discussion thread and begin contributing right now; anyone can join this game at any time. We're always in "recruitment." For all the rest of us... here's the idea. What if we all sit down and have ourselves a Rise of the Runelords: Anniversary Edition "Let's Play?" For those of you not familiar with the Let's Play phenomenon: basically one "host" will run a game that a large crowd of participants can have impact over. Or, in this case, full (albiet collective) hive-mind autonomy over. We'll build one party of four adventurers. Anyone who can post can play - but not by adding their own character to the party. Instead, players (that's you) will discuss and vote on actions that the characters should take over in the discussion thread, and the host (that's me) will execute those actions a couple times each day in the gameplay thread. No one player will control any one character; instead, everyone will vote or deliberate together on the actions that the party should take. The host (me, again) will thereafter simply execute those actions in the gameplay thread (round-by-round, turn-by-turn, or scene-by-scene, as appropriate), based on the popularity of voted-in actions. Then, you (the players) will begin discussing, voting, and deliberating again on what actions to take next, in response. The game will never end because this-or-that player quits, disappears, or gets bored. The GM (me) only has to post a couple times a day, whenever he (I) has the time, and never has to wait for players or chase errant participants down. We, as a community, could actually complete a play-by-post campaign, start to finish. Shock! Awe! Dedicated players can see the whole campaign through, and casual participants can come and go as they please. Interested parties in our little experiment can simply spectate, if they choose - everyone will be welcome in the discussion thread, always. I figure we can build the party right here in the discussion thread. Here are my parameters: + Rise of the Runelords characters begin at 1st level.
Disclaimer:
Yes, I'm the founder and lead developer for Abandoned Arts (a medium-sized third-party publisher). No, third-party content (including ours) isn't available; not everyone enjoys it, or has equal access to it. As for gameplay and hosting conventions, here are my thoughts for campaign rules as a whole: + No real houserules; we'll run a nice, simple RAW/RAI game.
If all of the above sounds good to you, then lets play some Rise of the Runelords. We can build the party right here in the recruitment thread. I strongly suggest that we take it one character at a time, and one aspect at a time (a class, or a race, or a role, or a party theme, or a roleplaying concept; however you folks choose to go about it). You can talk, vote, conceptualize, and strategize. You can start with a race/class suggestion, or a concept/backstory combo, or a full build. However you take it, I'll start "locking in" ideas as votes for this-or-that aspect of each character start adding up and opinions start trickling in... and - little-by-little - we'll build a party. Anyone on board? Anyone interested? If so; let's play a "let's play" of the Rise of the Runelords: Anniversary Edition. Get started!
Okay, folks. Here we go. Some basic rules - enough to understand what the characters you create in the Gameplay thread can actually do, once we get a look at them. Read on, then check out the gameplay thread. the Guild:
Adventurers come and go, but the guild is forever. The players will draft and maintain a stable of adventurers, sign questing contracts and undertake dangerous assignments for wealthy clients, and build upon and upgrade the guildhall to improve profits and keep adventuring members safe. Your guild also maintains a quest log – tasks put forth by wealthy clients. Each completed quest yields Prestige and Resources for the guild, and surviving adventurers are entitled to any spoils looted from the field by right of conquest. Back at the guildhall, adventurers can spend their hard-earned gold on training to improve their skills. Players can upgrade the guildhall between adventures, and expand the quest log by soliciting business (if they find themselves running out of things to do). Each action that the guild takes requires the expenditure of Prestige and Resources. The actions that a guild can take – and their respective costs – are as follows: > Recruit an Adventurer: 2 PRESTIGE > Resupply All Adventurers: 1 RESOURCE > Solicit Business: 1 RESOURCE For the purposes of this beta play-through, the upgrades available for a guild to purchase are: > Construct and Dedicate a Shrine (allows more variety in divine classes): 1 PRESTIGE, 5 RESOURCES > Construct or Expand a Vault (20 item slots): 8 RESOURCES > Construct a Training Hall (adventurers begin with extra skills): 18 RESOURCES > Construct a Workshop (adventurers can resupply for free): 12 RESOURCES > Construct an Armory (adventurers can repair damage gear more efficiently): 15 RESOURCES > Construct an Outfitter’s Office (for packmules and wagons): 15 RESOURCES > Construct a Great Hall (reduces the PRESTIGE cost to recruit adventurers to 1): 20 RESOURCES > Construct a Tavern (adventurers recover morale more quickly): 8 RESOURCES > Construct an Infirmary (adventurers recover from injuries more quickly): 18 RESOURCES > Construct a Secret Lair (allows conflicting shrines in the same guildhall): 10 RESOURCES Recruiting Adventurers:
Once the Prestige cost to do so has been paid, recruiting adventurers is as simple as choosing a race, a class, and a small handful of skill ranks. Optionally, characters may choose a faith as well, although this choice matters little if the character is not pious. Piety is a skill that any character may invest in, and allows a character to invest skill ranks in other skills relevant to the deity that the character worships. Divine character classes are the exception to the rule: a member of a divine character class (like paladin or priest) must choose a faith, and always begins with 1 free rank in the Piety skill. A divine character’s faith has an effect on how many of his or her skills work.
Races & Classes:
beta-ready Classes include: the Archer the Assassin the Berserker the Druid the Gunslinger the Paladin the Phantasmist the Priest the Rogue the Sorcerer the Warrior the Witchdoctor beta-ready Races include:
Detailed information on any given race and class will be made available as such information becomes relevant. Action Points:
Characters move, attack, cast spells, and perform other actions by expending Action Points (AP) from a pool which is refreshed at the start of each round. Some skills and abilities require a character to invest AP rather than expend them. Invested AP are not refunded at the start of each round; instead, they remain invested in the relevant skill or ability until such a time as they can be divested (un-invested from the skill). Generally, a skill that requires the expenditure of AP produces an instantaneous effect, while the effects of an invested skill persist so long as the requisite number of AP are invested in it. The size of an adventurer’s AP pool is a factor of both his or her race and class. Faster, more nimble races generally gain more AP than do members of slower species. Similarly, action-oriented classes like the warrior or rogue receive more AP than do priests or sorcerers. These variances are fairly minor, however; AP pools will vary in size from only 8 to 12 points. Health & Morale:
As with AP, Health is a factor of race and class. Injuries reduce Health – and when Health hits 0, the injured character is killed. Morale operates on a similar mechanic, but Morale is a static value. Each character begins with a Morale value of 10, regardless of race or class. When Morale reaches 0, the demoralized character has become so crazed or fearful that it becomes an NPC, and typically refuses to take further actions. Attributes:
Each character possesses a rank in each of five attributes: Strength, Agility, Endurance, Mobility, and Wisdom. In addition, each character may possess any number of skills. Attributes are fundamentally static; they generally do not increase after character creation. While attributes are largely a factor of race, a character’s class may also play a role in determining their rank. Apart from rank, attributes have two characteristics: checks and values. An attribute check is rolled when a character actively attempts some relevant action or feat, while an attribute value is often the “target” number or measuring stick against which actions are attempted when an outside force (like a creature or a spell) interacts with the character. When an attribute check is called for, a character rolls a number of dice equal to its attribute rank plus two. An attribute value is equal to a character’s attribute rank plus ten. Some “benchmark” attribute ranks are described below: Strength
Agility
Endurance
Mobility
Wisdom
Moving & the Field of Play:
As with any action, moving costs AP. The number of AP required to take a move action depends on a character’s race, and the type of armor that the character wears. An unarmored character spends 2 AP to move, although members of some slower races, like dwarves, might pay slightly higher AP costs when moving. Movement in AdventureCrawl is abstract; there’s no map or “grid” to keep track of. Instead, each area of a dungeon or adventure site is divided into zones, and characters spend AP to move between those zones. For example, a small graveyard might be divided by the northern and southern zones of the yard itself, with a third zone representing a gated courtyard between the two. Characters may also move within a zone, engaging in (and withdrawing from) melee with one another, or moving to interact with the features of that zone; features like doors, traps, shrines, chests, and so on. Engaging an opponent in melee means attempting a Mobility check against that character’s Mobility Value. If your check succeeds, you’ve chased your opponent down and engaged it. A character already engaged in melee with one or more opponents may not oppose your attempt to engage – no check is required in that case (although you are still required to spend AP to move, as usual). Withdrawing from melee is just as simple – a successful Mobility check against the Mobility Value of each opponent in melee with you enables you to withdraw from the scuffle. If your check fails to exceed the Mobility Value of any opponent engaged with you, however, your attempt fails. Additionally, many creatures may choose not to oppose certain kinds of movement. Ogres want you to engage them in melee – a Mobility check is required only to withdraw from melee with them. Similarly, fragile opponents may prefer to fight with spells or ranged weapons, opposing only checks made to engage them, but not to withdraw. This sort of “preference” varies from creature to creature. Opposed or unopposed, succeed or fail, a character must always expend the appropriate amount of AP to attempt a move action. Weapons & Attacks:
Attacking requires the expenditure of AP, and the AP cost of a weapon attack is a factor of the weapon itself. Lighter weapons require less AP to use, while heavier weapons require more. In addition to AP costs, weapons possess three other major properties: type, Hit Value, and Attack Dice. A weapon’s type describes the number of hands required to wield it, and the sort of damage it deals (crushing, piercing, or slashing). A weapon’s Attack Dice value indicates the number of dice rolled when attacking, while the Hit Value indicates the number that each die will need to roll during an attack check in order to contribute to the success of the attack. Each die scoring at least this value is a “hit.” Once an attack check is rolled, the value of each hit is totaled, and compared to the target’s Endurance Value. If the hit total equals or exceed the target’s Endurance Value, it receives an injury for each hit-scoring die rolled. If it does not, the target receives a “bruise” for each hit-scoring die, instead. The success of an attack roll is governed by one additional factor. Any attack check that results in at least one result of “1” on any die is in danger of missing the target altogether. The hit total for any such attack roll is first compared to the target’s Agility Value. If the hit total does not equal or exceed the target’s Agility value, the attack simply misses, regardless of how many hits were rolled. Similarly, any attack that does not score at least one hit simply fails to connect. Switching handed items requires an expenditure of AP equal to the AP cost of the character’s move action, accounting for armor. Injuries & Bruises:
Each injury reduces a character’s Health by 1, while each bruise simply lowers the character’s Endurance Value by 1, diminishing further resistance to injury. Armor & Shields:
Armor determines the Hit Values for the wearer’s movement rolls, provides a flat bonus to the wearer’s Endurance Value, and protects the wearer entirely from attacks whose hits total less than the bonus provided. For example, armor that provides an Endurance Value bonus of +8 protects the wearer from attacks whose hits total 7 or less. Shields are more similar to weapons than to armors. Like weapons, shield have AP Costs and Hit Values, and must be activated with AP before they can be of use in any given round. When a shield is activated, the player rolls a number of dice equal to the shield’s AP Cost, and invests one of those AP into the shield for every hit scored on the roll. While the shield is active, injuries and bruises are discarded from the shielded character’s shield-invested AP instead of from his or her Health or Endurance values, as usual. In order to block the damage from an attack, there must be enough AP invested in the shield to block all of the injuries. Injuries too severe to be absorbed by the shield entirely may not be partially absorbed, instead. Inventory & Equipment:
Armor, weapons, and magical objects are equipped to appropriate “body slots,” just like they are in traditional tabletop games and RPGs of all stripes. Inventory management, however, is handled a little differently. Carried items need to go somewhere – a backpack, a belt loop, or even a pocket. Characters possess “inventory slots” of various sizes: Small, Medium, and Large. A backpack might offer four Large slots, while a pocket offers only one Small slot. When a character runs out of space – he or she will have to carry what he can in his or her hands. After that – it’s time to drop some stuff. “Expendable” items have their own unique mechanics, too. Some of the most mundane expendables – like arrows – actually aren’t tracked at all. Others, like potions, magical ammunition, and the like, use a unique “quantity” mechanic. Such items have a Quantity Value and a Die Pool. Whenever a character uses such an item, all dice in the item’s Die Pool are rolled. If the total of the roll is equal to or greater than the items’ Quantity Value, then the item has lost quantity – reduce the number of dice in the Die Pool by 1. When an item’s Die Pool reaches 0 dice – it’s gone. It’ll have to be replaced (restored to its original Die Pool) back at the guildhall. Adventures & Dungeon Exploration: Dungeons are laid out like flow-charts, not maps. Moving from one area to another is as simple as following the “arrows” on a flowchart. When the Health and resources run low, it’s time to make camp until the next day – but the dungeon gains strength and may unmake some of your progress while you’re snoozing. For this reason, it’s a good idea to get as much done in any given day as you can.
Hi, folks. Daron here, for Abandoned Arts. I'm re-visiting a relatively new idea which I've floated once before... an "early beta" playtest of sorts for a rather involved and totally-free inDev PDF game... almost more of a free-to-share idea than anything else. If you're a fan of roguelikes or forum play-by-post games (even if only theoretically), see here. Basically, it's a forum game that EVERYONE can play together - the entire forums, in theory - that works on the principle of drawing PC actions from a pool of player suggestions. Check it out? Thanks in advance for your interest, Daron Woodson
Yiiikes... no way that is a CR 1/4. No way in hell. Invisibility + sleep, ability damage + bleed, a +7 bonus to hit with paralysis (!), a +7 CMB, a 60 ft. (perfect) flight speed, sickening death throes, damage reduction, and high AC and saves for the listed CR? Sorry - that's a CR 1/2 at least. Just one of these things could coup de grace a 1st-level character during the first round of combat (one paralysis bite during the guaranteed invisibility surprise round, then one coup de grace on round 1). It has a reasonable initiative mod, so it might even pull it off before anyone can engage it to cause the coup de grace to threaten. A perfect flight speed even means that there's no Fly check required to hover in the paralyzed creature's square. EDIT: Just realized the pliers also allow it to threaten creatures within 5 ft., which means it suffers virtually no disadvantage for its size. No way this is a CR 1/4.
But remember: dying is fun!
Would buy if it was PFS legal. (Not sure if it is or if the race requires a boon). :P If it would inspire you to buy the product, I can declare it PFS-legal. Spoiler: It wouldn't make it true, but I could definitely declare it.
A small confession: I think about this every time I hear think about an AP called Prepare for War. I move that we should consider an official theme song.
The blue, most definitely. The red doesn't contrast with with the parchment enough. The blue is more readily readable and adds a little something to the color scheme.
Assorted humanoids, A quick announcement: the Class Acts Compendium has (finally, and by popular request) been updated to include a single-file PDF containing all content printed in all thirty-eight Class Acts products. Naturally, the single-file product is bookmarked and hyperlinked for convenience and ease-of-use. If you've already purchased this product, be sure to re-download it for the handy single-file add-on. Even better news: I've reduced the price for this product to $29.99. This isn't a sale; it's simply a new price point. In short, this product just got cheaper and better. If the Class Acts Compendium has been sitting in your shopping cart, now's the time to click the "checkout" button. That's all! Enjoy. Daron Woodson
Eat your heart out, Choose-Your-Own-Adventures!
I just stopped in to say OH MY GOD DONALD GLOVER WOULD MAKE AN AWESOME MILES. It's so natural and perfect. He's got the right look and the perfect "sarcastic-but-just-too-inherently-likeable-to-come-across-as-a-jerk" delivery. Maybe one day... Spoiler: Nevermind that all he'd have to do to is outperform Toby "worst actor ever" Maguire.
Speaking of Farden's death, it IS time for an update! Sorry for the huge delays. Abandoned Arts has been working on a couple of massive projects, some post-release and some super-secret and still in-development. Shh. Also, we had kittens and I went on vacation. "Woot" on both counts. So, yeah, this update is nuts. Read on for the death-but-not-death of Farden, encounters with Marthek the Mad, Ambros the Ogre, Saracek the Fallen, Aragnak the Red Dragon, and a completely insane and partially-accidental assault on one of Orcus' temples! Also: someone (other than Farden) actually dies, and the module claims it's first real fatalities! Campaign Journal: Sessions 11, 12, 13, 14, & 15 Day 101: For the first time, the party takes the time to read the graves and tombstones outside of Rappan Athuk. One freshly-dug, open grave bears a tombstone warning that reads “Brugard, Paladin of Abadar, at Peaceful Rest Here Lies.” Ignoring the threat or warning, Farden grabs the key from the dwarven statue and approaches the mausoleum entrance. The green gargoyle guardians are slain with no trouble, and the party even pries open the sarcophagus inside to kill the black skeleton within it. With the surface guardians dispatched, our heroes descend again. Keeping a wary eye out for mimic toilet-monsters, the team heads back down to level two and begins to search a previously-unexplored southern corridor. Suddenly, Aatos’ tremorsense picks up movement on the other side of a wall that Farden is inspecting for traps, secret doors, and the like. Farden, alas, notices nothing and is denied a surprise round action. The secret door finds Farden before Farden can find it, and ghouls and ghasts lurch out and surround Farden. Some, on just the other side of the door, are able to five-foot step through and bite Farden in the surprise round, paralyzing him. The ghouls win initiative and Farden is coup-de-graced by a ghast bite before the first post-surprise round is even over. In the briefest of moments, a secret door opens, ghouls pour out, and Farden is paralyzed and dead. Mopping up the ghouls is no problem, and a couple of fireballs later and the mournful party is collecting what remains of Farden’s charred corpse (and its possessions). Glitch uses her arcane bond to cast make whole on Farden’s bag of holding, and his possessions are collected. Moments after the battle is concluded, however, something even more surprising happens… …Roustaf receives a sending from a very much still-alive Farden. Farden cryptically explains that he is fine and that the party should take care of his gear. It is revealed later that Farden had actually paid to have himself cloned with the clone spell during a previous trip to Nerosyan. The PCs quickly bury Farden’s corpse. His tombstone reads: ”Here lies Farden. He is alive and well.”
Day 102-104: The party reunites with clone-Farden at Zelkor’s Ferry, and spend this time using make whole to repair Farden’s gear and destroying some of the green guardians’ gemstone eyes. Day 105: The party travels back to Rappan Athuk, and kills four ogres outside of their rope trick in the night. Day 106: The party heads back into level two of the dungeon. In the days since the party’s last foray into the dungeon, Marthek the Mad has become fascinated with and moved into the star-shaped room where the ghouls once laired. There is a brief standoff when the party discovers Marthek, who screams and rages like a madman when encountered, which attracts Ambros the Ogre and his ogre companions. Marthek wields a jar at Sansara, who actually disarms him of it before he can throw it. Farden, not knowing what the jar contains but expecting it to be bad, blindly throws it at Ambros, splattering the hallway with green slime. Though his ogres go down quick, Ambros hangs on for a while, resisting hold person blasts from Farden’s wand and even defying Glitch’s black tentacles spell while fighting Sansara and smashing up Roustaf a bit. Sansara and Brugard clean house eventually, and the party finally explores the star-shaped room and Marthek’s belongings. Pressing on, the party comes across a large set of gilded doors – the doors to Saracek’s tomb. The skeletal champion Saracek easily hears the party approach (they are not a stealthy lot), and buffs up a little, hiding around the corner from the doors. During the surprise round, Saracek lands a very high-damage blow on Brugard (who used Harm’s Way to throw himself in front of an attack meant for Sansara). Unfortunately, the use of Saracek’s unholy blade tells the undead antipaladin that Brugard is a prime target for smiting. The PCs put some damage on the antipaladin, who smites Brugard hard. The dwarf goes down moments before Griznak crits him to death. After looting Saracek’s tomb and finding both an incredibly powerful unholy sword and a highly-magical holy shield (locked in a chest, since the antipaladin could no longer use it), the PCs also uncover an extraordinarily rare and valuable treasure: a tome of understanding +2. Afterward, the party continues exploring. Their next discovery, a garden of dangerous fungus and mold. Within, the PCs find a tunnel to ground level, and heads topside for a brief rest before returning to the dungeon. In an abandoned storage room, the group finds the elixir of stone to flesh. In the mess hall, black skeletons fall upon Roustaf, messing up his strength score pretty badly. Day 107: Griznak and Glitch successfully identify the treasure they’ve accumulated, and Sansara joyfully begins to study her tome of understanding. After heading down a level, the party finds a dire warning: “Beware of Purple Worms,” scrawled above the archway leading into the next level. The PCs quickly decide to turn around, and head into the Gut instead. Inside the Rune Chamber, the party discovers the lair of the Spiker. None of the party is affected by the Spiker’s gaze, but it is Griznak that fells the fallen Spiker with a postcombat coup-de-grace. Griznak narrowly avoids becoming the next Spiker, barely making his saving throw to avoid becoming overcome with the compulsion to spike his allies’ heads into to the wall. Shortly thereafter, Griznak narrowly avoids death a second time as he – the best swimmer on the team – elects to explore a waterlogged tunnel much deeper within the Gut. Griznak encounters an aquatic snake, who gets a surprise round on him, then goes negative within a round. The party hears the sound of battle and dives in to save him. Brugard gets freedom of movement from Roustaf, and a mildly scary underwater encounter ensues. Brugard takes a bit of damage, but – very fortunately – nobody is poisoned. The party camps near the snake’s lair. Day 108: The party discovers the Last One Inn, but is mildly creeped out by it and quickly moved on. After much exploration, the party unknowingly emerges into a lower level of the Mouth of Doom – a level called the Fountain of Pestilence. Our heroes explore the level, fighting rats and plague zombies. All is going well until Farden contracts the Pestilence when the party gets too close to the slime that leaks throughout the level. Farden also touches a book coated with contact poison, and is poisoned. The party looks for a way out and finds a previously-explored level of the Mouth of Doom. Before leaving, Farden and Griznak waste a few thousand gold playing with the Altar of Chance. Day 109: Back to Zelkor’s Ferry! Roustaf casts a sending to request a teleportation service to Nerosyan. Day 110-160: Selling and crafting in Nerosyan. Farden lies to Brugard about the fate of Saracek’s sword, which Farden sells on the black market. Sansara finishes reading the tome of understanding and upgrades her amulet of mighty fists to a +1 flaming amulet. She also buys bracers of armor +2 and buys a third tengu drinking jug. Brugard buys juggernaut’s pauldrons and Roustaf has Glitch make him gloves of storing and a noble’s vigilant pillbox Griznak upgrades his bow to a +3 adaptive composite longbow (because Strength damage and enlarging effects keep screwing up his ability to draw his bowstring. Glitch also spends some gold and time using the new retraining rules to trade her 8 Knowledge (arcana) ranks (which her headband gives her anyway) for 8 Perception ranks. Day 161:[/i] The party decides on their next move: they’re going to approach Ghotan at the ruined keep along the Lackthroat Road in order to claim the fort for the settlement that Farden plans to build. After meeting with a city planner, Farden (and his absolutely amazing Diplomacy bonuses) comes to a very advantageous agreement with the original landowners. Farden reserves the right to claim the fort by right of conquest after Ghotan is removed. Under the authority of Mendev’s ruling body, Farden is given what amounts to an eviction notice for Ghotan, revoking any “right of conquest” the bugbears might have had, and requiring by law Ghotan’s abandonment of the property. Ghotan, after a tense standoff meets with Farden in front of the fortress and, predictably, does not acknowledge Farden’s “piece of paper.” After buying time (by boasting about the brass dragon egg that they hold and the ravagers’ status as dragonslayers), for one of his ravagers made invisible with Scarl’s magic to sneak up on the party from behind, Ghotan orders a dozen or so of his bugbears to attack. Sansara opens with a fireball from her necklace of fireballs, but Ghotan is protected by a pre-combat resist energy from Scarl. Roustaf casts a blessing of fervor and moves his horse back, and Farden drinks a potion of invisibility and does the same (with Glitch riding on the back of his horse with him). Ghotan drinks a potion of shield of faith, and steps forward to meet Brugard in combat. The bugbear warlord tries an intimidating glare, but fails since Brugard is immune to fear. Glitch puts Farden, herself, and Roustaf inside an invisibility sphere. Griznak and his upgraded bow do a little damage to Ghotan from afar, but the shield of faith does a good job of protecting him from harm. The invisible bugbear behind the group uses scent to go after the also-invisible Glitch-and-Farden horse. Ghotan’s bugbears reveal their opening tactic: they have split up a necklace of fireballs between them and advance after peppering the party with fireballs. Scarl appears on the scene and holds the charge on an inflict serious wounds spell. Farden makes himself fly with a scroll of evolution surge, and Sansara enters her stance and provokes three or four bugbears with Panther Style. Griznak, a serious damage-output source, becomes quickly surrounded by ravagers, and Sansara attemps to come to his rescue. Ghotan engages Brugard in combat, who has used his juggernaut’s pauldrons to become Large sized. Glitch uses a greater invisibility spell on herself and produces a potion of invisibility for Roustaf. Griznak tries to step away from his attackers, using his arcane accuracy arcana and a fairly successful full attack action to thin out the ravagers surrounding himself and Brugard. Brugard, meanwhile, has brought Ghotan to 100 damage. More ravagers pour out of the keep while Farden tries in vain to hold Ghotan with his wand of hold person. Brugard gets a little banged up by Ghotan’s +1 morningstar of speed, but bad rolls keep Ghotan from putting Brugard down. A few bugbears take javelin shots at the airborne Farden, and Ghotan backs up for healing, filling in the ranks with bugbears to surround Brugard. Griznak readies an acid arrow for Scarl should he attempt to cast anything, which he does. It works, and Scarl’s healing spell (the casting of which ruins the inflict charge he was holding) is also ruined. A lightning bolt from Glitch kills both the weakened Ghotan and Scarl. The numerous bugbear ravagerss continue to fight, focusing on Brugard and Griznak. A couple of them fall into Glitch’s acid pit. Aatos tries to help out, but is put down by a raging ravager, and is soon after revived by Roustaf. After the ravagers are mopped up, the party explores the ruined fort. The PCs encounter a trio of ravagers in the fortress below, who, upon realizing that their numbers have been defeated, attempt to destroy the brass dragon egg that they hold. Glitch uses a telekinetic charge to launch Sansara close enough to the bugbears to save the egg before they smash it. After obliterating the lone trio of ravagers, the party rests within the fortress.
[b]Day 162:[/i] The party explores and claims the ruined fortress hex. Using resources provided by the Mendevian authorities that Farden negotiated with (Build Points), workers and pilgrims arrive and construction begins on Farden’s new settlement: the town of Goldthroat. [b]Day 174[/i] Two bugbears come by looking for Ghotan – a mighty bugbear warlord that they’d heard rumors of. The PCs are below the surface of the ruin when the bugbears arrive, and the monsters take hostages – a woman and a child. Farden negotiates with the bugbears, but one of them gets skittish and attacks. Sansara stuns the monster with a Stunning Fist, while Glitch puts the endangered hostage in a resilient sphere. Paladin Brugard slays the stunned bugbear, and peace is restored to the township-in-progress. Day 183: Days after Ghotan’s defeat, construction is underway on the settlement of Goldthroat. On patrol during the nighttime, an incredible and unexpected tragedy strikes the settlement. The great red dragon Aragnak – responsible for the ruination of the fortress in the first place, long ago – had been in negotiations with Ghotan for the brass dragon egg that his ravagers possessed. Upon hearing of the unexpected and swift defeat of Ghotan, Aragnak decided to “investigate” the new fortress-squatters. Without the shred of a warning, an invisible Aragnak materializes in the courtyard as it attacks the patrolling Brugard with its enormous bite attack. A Greater Vital Strike bite attack does some serious damage, and – when Aragnak wins initiative after the surprise round is over – the second one hurts just as much. His point made, Aragnak makes his demands… he wants the egg. The dragon demands the egg or the forfeit of the lives of everyone present, and every pilgrim and worker on-site. The Paladin Brugard – unable and unwilling to negotiate for the surrender of a helpless, good-aligned dragon to an evil one, refuses Aragnak’s demand, lays hands on himself, and takes a full attack action against “big red.” Roustaf hustles forward to heal Brugard. Angered at the refusal of his demands, Aragnak lets loose a cone of roasting-hot flames… killing both Brugard and Roustaf on the spot. Glitch blasts Aragnak with a well-rolled, high-damage lightning bolt. Aragnak lands in melee with Glitch, and Sansara takes an attack of opportunity to get past the dragon’s reach and into melee with Aragnak, then lands a critical hit on him. Griznak shoots him with an acid arrow, and the very injured Aragnak tells the party that the next time he arrives, they had better have his egg ready. The dragon casts invisibility, and successfully retreats... leaving Brugard and Roustaf dead in his wake. [ooc]At this point, we bring in Brugard’s replacement character and Farden’s new cohort. The arrival of pilgrims and workers to the under-construction settlement of Goldthroat is a perfect tie-in for new characters. Farden’s new cohort is a ratfolk witch (with the Deception patron) by the name of Skreel. Skreel is a support and utility caster built around the fortune, misfortune, evil eye, and cackle hexes. Brugard’s player is bringing in Madric, a hellknight signifier cleric and his master of blades, a gnomish hellknight by the name of Krolmket. Madric is built for offense and the use of the scorpion whip, and has fairly significant channeling abilities (very good Charisma and the Selective Channeling feat). Krolmket has the Bodyguard, Combat Reflexes, and In Harm’s Way feats. His small size, heavy armor, shield, feats, and general build are very defense-focused. Meanwhile, not far from the ruined fort, a small caravan of merchants is en-route across the Lacktorat Road. The caravan had picked up a passenger much earlier, a ratfolk named Skreel, recently escaped with his family from a village in Numeria after being run out of the settlement for being a witch. This unfortunate caravan encounters the fleeing Aragnak, flying across the road. Seeing an opportunity, Aragnak roasted the first several wagons, killing most everyone within. Skreel, who happened to be in a wagon near the back of the caravan at the time of the encounter, survived the attack, and it was then that the dragon roared his demands: go west, to Goldthroat, and tell the man called Farden that the dragon Aragnak would be sending minions and monsters to his fortress to wait and watch. The message that Skreel was bid to deliver was simple: if Farden or his crew sets foot outside of the fort before the dragon returns for the egg, his minions will burn and destroy everything and everyone within the town-in-progress. And so, the ratfolk Skreel, whose family (in exile, due to his status as a witch) had just been burned alive in the wagons near the front of the caravan, went west with several other survivors to deliver Aragnak’s message. Also arriving that night, on another caravan bearing workers and pilgrims headed for Farden’s fledgling settlement, are two important figures: a priest of the archdevil Moloch by the name Madric, and his servant, a gnome by the name of Krolmket. Both Madric and Krolmket belong to the Hellknights, and seek to establish a new Hellknight order in Goldthroat. Meanwhile, the surviving PCs have decided not to go after Aragnak tonight. Instead… they bury their allies. [b]Day 184: A plan is formed. Glitch begins to scry while the party buffs up in preparation for a big fight with the hopefully-still-grievously-injured Aragnak. Glitch’s scrying reveals Aragnak – who looks to be in much better shape than the party had hoped – settled into a thirty-foot wide pool of lava. Because Glitch’s teleportation abilities are limited, she can only take Madric, Griznak, and Skreel with her to attack the dragon and avenge Brugard and Roustaf. Aragnak, for his part, has received quite a lot of healing from the cultists of Orcus, to whom he fled for patching up. Knowing that the adventurers are very likely to be after him, he has taken great pains to be healed up (he only has a couple points of damage on him) and located somewhere defensible. When the party arrives, the PCs find Aragnak attended by several cultists and a vrock demon!
Fortunately, the party (or at least those members in attendance) gains a surprise round thanks to the teleport. Glitch opens with a surprise cone of cold on Aragnak, which also happens to kill a cultist. Aragnak returns with a cone of flame, but the pre-buffed party was ready for fire. This time around, the dragon’s fire breath deals only a bit of damage to the PCs. A cultist tries, unsuccessfully, to catch Madric with a ghoul touch, just before a cult leader, Zhen, reveals himself atop a platform suspended above the wide pit of lava that dominates the center of the room. Zhen uses his ring of telekinesis to telekinetically grapple Glitch, intending to dump her into the lava pit, but a liberating command spell from Madric frees her. Griznak puts an arrow in Aragnak causing the dragon to begin taking bleed damage. Aragnak, bleeding and somewhat seriously injured by the cone of cold (having had no opportunity to put resist energy up), casts invisibility and the PCs lose track of him. Madric’s invisibility purge does not reveal the dragon, and the vrock trips him with an attack of opportunity when he attempts to move the purge spell around the room. Zhen tries again to Grab glitch on his next turn, but Glitch escapes with her shadow step shadow subschool ability. New cultists arrive, but Skreel manages to catch most of them with a lightning bolt before they can do anything. Madric slaps a bestow curse on the vrock with his +1 spell storing scorpion whip, and begins losing actions left and right Zhen enervates Madric, firing from his lofty platform, and Aragnak reappears (having staunched his bleeding with a fortunate untrained Heal check), pinning Glitch into a corner, within his reach. His breath weapon having recharged, Aragnak turns a cone of fire on Madric, Griznak, and Skreel. Despite their resistances, the party is looking pretty banged up after the breath weapon, and Griznak is staggered. More acolytes arrive on the scene, and Glitch manages to cast defensively despite being pinned into a corner within the dragon’s reach, and successfully pulls off a lightning bolt that overcomes Aragnak’s spell resistance. The lightning bolt puts Aragnak into the negative hit point range, but the acolytes bring him back up with cure light wounds spells. The vrock loses action after action to Madric’s bestow curse, while Skreel and Madric heal the party up as best they can. Griznak puts the dragon back down with a hail of arrows, and Zhen fails to affect Glitch with a hold person spell. One of the acolytes, however, gets lucky with the same spell, causing Glitch to become paralyzed. Despite this setback, things were looking good… until Nardoj the specter appeared. The spectral wizard catches Skreel and Griznak inside a black tentacles spell. Aragnak, meanwhile, bleeds out and dies. Skreel struggles against the tentacle spell, but remains stuck. Madric channels negative energy, which kills the vrock and a couple of acolytes who had come up to coup-de-grace Glitch. Zhen attempts (but fails) to catch Madric with his ring of telekinesis, and the devil-priest begins climbing the stairway to the demon-priest’s platform. Things start to turn around when Glitch puts Nardoj in a resilient sphere[i] and Nardoj’s [i]black tentacles finally release Griznak, but Nardoj immediately escapes the sphere by using his arcane bond to cast a dimension door spell. A critical hit from Griznak kills Zhen dead, and a second shot puts a little damage on the specter. Madric backs off of the stairway, and heals Skreel, who is really getting his ass kicked by tentacles. Glitch tries to affect Nardoj with a scroll of feeblemind, but it doesn’t work. Griznak is landing hits on Nardoj, but the specter’s incorporeality is keeping it from taking much damage. Some of the remaining acolytes channel energy to harm the PCs, while others heal Nardoj. Madric dispels Nardoj’s black tentacles,[i] finally freeing Skreel (who casts a much-needed heal on himself). A pair of scorching rays from Nardoj staggers Griznak yet again, and Glitch’s scroll of fireball kills off the remaining acolytes, cutting off Nardoj’s healing and leaving the specter as the only target. Skreel heals Griznak with a potion, and Nardoj’s [i]magic missiles – which would have otherwise put Griznak down – are absorbed by the tiefling’s shield spell. Griznak, the party’s best option for putting damage on the specter and the clear focus of Nardoj’s attacks, gets a greater invisibility from Glitch. Madric tries a casting of spiritual weapon (which, as a force effect, can attack the specter easily), but the spell misses just about every swing. The battle becomes a damage-race; Madric uses his fire domain spell to hit Nardoj with a fireball, and Nardoj flies down and drops Skreel with an energy draining touch. Glitch uses dissolution’s child ability to become invisible and Madric heals Skreel back into the realm of positive hit point totals. Nardoj slaps a couple of negative levels onto the ratfolk, so Glitch casts her last greater invisibility[i] on him. Madric’s [i]spiritual weapon finally lands a couple of hits, and Madric heals himself up with a breath of life. Finally, the invisible Skreel kills Nardoj with a cure moderate wounds spell delivered by a spectral hand. Finally victorious despite the tremendous and ridiculous odds against them, the (mostly invisible) party dashes to shut and hold the doors in the room before anything else shows up… which it soon does. Three spectres, aware of their master’s death and now full-fledged specters themselves, float through the wall and into the temple chamber. The specters verbally toy with Madric, the only visible party member, until Glitch makes him invisible too. Using obscure languages to communicate invisibly, the party, heavily injured and bereft of resources – in no shape to take on three specters – agrees to convene on the small, raised platform. The party had no real time to loot anything, but they did have time to use detect magic to determine that Zhen had a number of magic items on him. While specters investigate the room, the party invisibly teleports out with Zhen’s corpse. Their destination? A wizard’s shop in the metropolis of Nerosyan – one that they had visited before. And so it came to be that the party teleported, invisibly, into a shop in the middle of a heavily-trafficked city under martial law, with an evil cultist’s corpse. Of course, all the attendant sees is a corpse, wearing a golden holy symbol of Orcus, teleport into the middle of his shop. Naturally, the shop attendant – a capable spellcaster in one of the most high-level cities in the campaign world – immediately screams for guards. Glitch dismisses her invisibility, and attempts to calm the shopkeeper down. Her Diplomacy check fails miserably, and actually makes the attendant’s attitude worse. The spellcasting shopkeeper, seeing the very strange wayang suddenly materialize to one side of the floating corpse before him, officially freaks out, and draws a wand. Griznak and Madric (a tiefling and a priest of Moloch, wearing his holy symbol) are the next to appear (and their Diplomacy rolls are almost as horrible), which does nothing to make matters better.
At this point, heavily-armed and well-armored guards kick open the door to the shop. Skreel, seeing the impending disaster unfolding before him and the only party member who is still invisible, simply scampers invisibly out the door. As Griznak attempts to explain himself to the guards, he, Madric, and Glitch are arrested. Injured and unwilling to take on all the forces of Nerosyan, the three do not resist arrest. A few moments after Griznak, Madric, and Glitch are dragged away and arrested, Skreel strolls into the shop, perfectly visible, and simply buys the necessary scrolls (including a scroll of shrink item for Aragnak’s corpse). Skreel teleports back to Goldthroat-that-will-be, and brings Farden and Sansara up to speed. Fortunately, Farden is able to smooth everything over and get everyone out of jail. The teleportation back to the temple is a success, and the party shrinks Aragnak’s corpse and teleports it back to the fort. Create treasure map is also a success, and the party learns of the location of the dragon’s treasure on an island to the east. They need to get there, and fast, but the team has no real, immediate options for fast, long-distance overland travel across water. So… Day 185: Madric casts lesser planar ally to conjure aid in travelling to Aragnak’s island. Moloch sees fit to send not a nightmare, as Madric hoped, but a bearded devil…
The fiend that Madric summons introduces himself, and agrees to perform a service which will allow the party to get to the island lair instantly. All he asks in return is that the party does a favor for him. There is a sword – an intelligent weapon – that possesses whatever remains of the spirit of a warrior which the bearded devil wishes to possess. The name of the warrior, and the sword, is Grindor. Madric, or any mortal that he chooses, may possess the sword for the extent of his mortal lifespan, after which the blade will fall into the bearded devil’s possession. The devil – who calls himself “Backsnapper” – says that Grindor’s onetime allies passed the sword which came to hold the vestiges of his soul down to their children and apprentices. Grindor’s last wielder went on a quest to assault some sort of cavern complex along the coast in the area. In life, Grindor and his allies were dragonslayers, and Backsnapper was once the servant of Aragnak’s father. Backsnapper expresses a wish to possess whatever remains of Grindor’s soul as a means of exacting revenge upon it for having slain his master in life. The party agrees, and Backsnapper – who is very familiar with the region – uses his greater teleport spell-like ability to teleport himself to Aragnak’s island lair so that Glitch can scry upon the place, observe it, and teleport the party there. The plan goes off without a hitch, and the party is able to collect and count the dragon’s hoard. In addition to VAST amounts of material wealth, the party finds: a suit of +3 full plate of spell resistance 13, a +5 sickle, a +1 icy burst heavy flail, a +1 heavy steel shield, a rod of negation, and a rod of the viper. Day 186: The party takes a trip to Nerosyan to sell and upgrade items. Glitch begins upgrading her headband of vast intelligence to a +6 item. Madric upgrades his weapon to a +3 spell storing scorpion whip. Griznak buys a ring of freedom of movement and upgrades his bow to a +4 adaptive composite longbow. Glitch buys a lesser maximized metamagic rod. More importantly, taking a cue from Farden, everyone (including Farden) has a clone made… even the cohorts! Day 192: Construction on Goldthroat is finally complete! The settlement of Goldthroat consists of housing and a single inn. Meepo, Draupnear, and the kobold clan are among the citizenship, and the town of Goldthroat is declared a place where members of any race may live and work, so long as they keep the peace and adhere to the laws of Mendev and of the city. Glitch settles in to spend the wealth acquired from the dragon’s hoard on wondrous item creation for herself and the team, so the PCs settle in for some settlement-development time during Glitch’s crafting spree. Despite this, a movement breaks out among some of Goldthroat’s population; almost an “inquisition” against the kobold membership of the populous. Meanwhile… Day 201: Glitch finishes upgrading her headband of intellect +6. Day 211: Glitch finishes upgrading Sansara’s headband of wisdom +6. Day 215: Glitch finishes creating Farden’s hand of glory. Day 220: The brass dragon hatches! The party is quite enamored of her, but does not give her a name, choosing to wait until she is old enough to choose a name for herself. The talkative, inquisitive young wyrmling quickly becomes a favorite citizen among the population of Goldthroat. Day 222: The first settlement phase is complete (read up on Ultimate Campaign’s settlement rules if you’re not familiar with settlement building). Construction is complete on a brewery and another small housing development. Farden is successful in putting down the kobold “inquisition.” Day 252: The second settlement phase is complete. Goldthroat now sports a jail. Day 261: Glitch finishes creating Sansara’s belt of physical perfection +4. Day 282: The third settlement phase is complete: Goldthroat now boasts an exotic artisan’s shop (a jeweler’s shop). Farden raises taxes, and Warden Krolmket’s guards captures some smugglers. Day 283: Glitch finishes upgrading Madric’s headband of mental prowess +4 and begins scribing some new scrolls. Day 286: Glitch is finished scribing her scrolls. Day 287-293: The PCs hang out in town, ruling the settlement and generally maintaining order.
Things that the founder of Abandoned Arts has abandoned: 1.) personal dignity
The campaign / campaign journal is not among them. Expect a large update in the next 2-3 days.
I'm collecting class names. I'll hit you with what I've got, and you'll see if you can add to it. Here are the rules. Fantasy / fantasy-steampunk genres only. Adventuring classes only (Necromancer yes, Blacksmith maybe, Commoner no). One-word class names only (hypenated names like Ur-Priest and compound names like Spellbinder are allowed). Random "nounverbs" (Firedancer, Earthspeaker) are allowed if they make sense or paint a fairly clear visual picture. Here's the list so far! Can you add to it? Abjurer
What's missing? Good luck, and remember the rules!
Very nice. I love the narrative. I think the party I'll be running in Rappan Athuk will have lots fun. I'm sure they will. Farden's having fun, for example. Aren't you, buddy? Make sure they have trapfinding. Trapfinding and (preferably) trap sense. And a damn good Perception mod. And a ten foot pole.
I just want to say that I read the thread title as "Mandancer" at first, and my instantaneous mental reaction was to imagine a base class based on the theatrics of the late Freddie Mercury. That is all.
Some of my players Spoiler:
Farden are whining about the speed with which I'm updating the campaign journal. You'd think I was trying to run a third-party retail enterprise or something. Campaign Journal: Session 5 Day 25 (continued): When we last left our "heroes" (do they count as heroes if only one of them is good-aligned?), they were heroically shopping at Zelkor's Ferry. Because the party managed to level up on the way back to the hamlet, this ends up being an extended stay while Glitch happily scribes no small number of spells into her spellbook. In the meantime, the party ditches Gelver (he hustles into town and actively avoids his rescuers for the duration of their stay), sells off treasure, and spends the three days Glitch needs to scribe spells by rolling Diplomacy checks around town to gather info on certain areas of the dungeon. Unfortunately, there isn't much information to gather. Farden asks around about the Altar of Chance, but learns nothing save it's proper name. Day 28: By the end of the twenty-eighth day (their third day back in town), Glitch has added spiked pit, haste, and several lower-level spells to her repertoire, and Farden isn't really any better off as far as information-gathering goes. The party heads back to the Mouth of Doom on communal mounts (one of Glitch's new tricks), and gets there around noon. Before delving into deeper levels, the party decides to wrap up a few loose ends. First stop: the infested mosaic. Upon their return to this room, the PCs are accosted by another handful of giant centipedes, which are easily dispatched. Brugard sends Aatos, his new celestial earth elemental companion, under the mosaic of glass tiles to peek at the empty space behind it. Aatos' tremorsense picks up a large number of creatures, and he quickly returns to the party. With an Intelligence score of 4, Aatos isn't good with numbers or details... but he does report that there are many, many creatures behind the mosaic. Farden, not content to leave any portion of the dungeon unexplored, produces his mining pick and sets about mining through the mosaic wall. Unbeknownst to the party, the noise eventually draws the attention of a pair of zombies, who slowly begin trudging toward the infested mosaic room. Before the slow-moving undead can arrive, Farden breaks through the glass-tiled wall, and all hell breaks loose. Behind the wall are thirty-three more man-sized centipedes. Farden wins initiative and gets the hell out of there, but Sansara (and just about everyone else) is not so lucky. The centipedes flood the room, crawling up the walls where there's no room to stand, and absolutely swarming and surrounding Sansara, Glitch, and Brugard. Farden, from the relative safety of the hallway outside, apologizes politely. Though the centipedes endanger Sansara more than the heavily-armored and highly poison-resistant Brugard, priority number one is getting Glitch out of the room. Aatos the elemental is able to clear a path for Glitch's egress into the hallway, but before her fireball can clear the room, Sansara ends up bitten and poisoned. Fortunately, the mindless creatures are helpless but to fall for her Panther Parry strategy, and she clears a path wide enough to allow her to position herself behind the now-broken mosaic and outside of fireball range. Glitch blasts the centipedes, who are all instantly incinerated. Unfortunately, she also - by necessity - blasts herself, and Brugard. The dwarf has hit points to spare, however, and emerges from the blast in good health. Glitch, less so. The instant that the centipedes are slain, Brugard drops his weapons and moves to help Sansara recover from her poison. With the help of an unlikely Heal check, Sansara's poison is cured just as the previously-mentioned zombies smash the southern door open and attack. (It's a good thing she was drunk for all this.) Paladin Brugard and Sansara-Sensi kill the zombies quickly, and the party finally gets a moment to recover and heal up with Farden's wands. Farden discovers no treasure or valuables in the nesting space behind the mosaic. Next stop: the Altar of Chance. Brugard insists that Farden is a fool for toying with altars of chance and chaos, but Farden considers the investigation of the extremely magical room to be an investment. Glitch and Sansara wait just outside the chamber, and Brugard heads in with Farden (lecturing him all the while), just in case something truly terrible happens. Having correctly assessed the gold-painted "bowl" to be a sacrificial altar, and having listened to Glitch's careful identification of the figures depicted in each alcove (all outsiders and gods of chance, luck, games, and chaos), Farden deposits a substantial 30 platinum coins into the bowl. Not knowing what to expect, Farden places his hand into the hand-shaped indentation at the back of the central alcove. A glowing rune in the shape of a crescent moon appears before him, and Farden repeats the process in the alcoves to either side. Presented with a glowing, runic arrangement of "circle-moon-sword," Farden's platinum pieces vanish. Having begun to piece together the nature of the room - some sort of divine "slot machine" artifact chamber - Farden's curiosity is slated, for now. Though the platinum pieces were his own, Farden's "investment" is criticized heavily by the rest of the party as a waste of wealth. As payoffs go, today is not a good day for poor Farden. In any case, the PCs are content to call this level fully-explored for now. Heading down the Pool of Descent, the party finds themselves on another level of the dungeon. A "Demon's Gullet" beneath the "Mouth," if you will. Encountering nothing more interesting than a plain and linear hallway lined with doors, the party explores an empty room before Farden's trap sense picks up danger in the second. Carefully examining a barren room whose entire floor seems to be one giant pressure plate, Farden seems to disarm the trap (which proves more difficult and complex than any other so far). Curious about the empty (but well-trapped) room, the party marks this place for follow-up later and moves on. The next room in the linear hall is filled with fungus, including three shriekers which screech loudly as soon as the door is open. This triggers an extended battle with eight zombies and three giant ants in the hall. While the PCs battle the monsters, Aatos begins destroying the defenseless shriekers. One long but unremarkable battle later, and the hallway is quiet again. Taking a westward bend in the hallway, the party encounters a strange room at the center of which sits a squat stone totem with a strange little face. Farden prods the room with a pole and searches the foyer for traps, but finds none. The totem radiates a magical aura, but there's nothing much to learn from the doorway. Brugard and Farden enter first, and each is sprayed with a head of lukewarm steam. Farden manages to duck the blast aimed at him, but Brugard catches a spray of magical mist right in the face, and promptly vanishes. Though initially alarmed, the party is reassured when Brugard's disembodied voice assures them that he's not dead or gone - just invisible. Farden searches the little stone face for traps or mechanisms, but finds none. Whatever it is, it's independently magical and not - or not inherently, anyway - a trap, in the strictest sense of the word. As Glitch crosses the threshold, she takes a third blast of steam which causes her to shrink to a height of one foot for the better part of a minute. After blasting the wayang, the totem goes still, it's funny little face now wearing a frown. Nothing rouses the small statue, which now seems defunct. Puzzled, the party moves on, exploring yet another empty room adjacent this one before trying another door in the back wall, and coming face-to-face with the Statue of Wishes. "What do you wish for?" asks the huge stone face. "Experience, or reawakening?" Glitch's incredible Knowledge (dungeoneering) check actually identifies this creature, and the... capricious nature of it's wish-granting nature. Risking whatever twisted "experience" this creature is rumored to subject some wishers to, the party collectively wishes for experience, and is treated to a large sum of XP.
In an instant, a wealth of experiences is transferred into the minds of our heroes. In a heartbeat, Brugard learns what it might feel like to lead an army against the Gates of Hell. Glitch gets a taste of the Dissolution, and all it might reveal. Farden gains false but revealing memories of a mercantile campaign leading to an absolute merchant monopoly in Brevoy. Sansara gains the wisdom of the great masters, and insights into true mastery of the "drunken monk" style.
Not being comfortable with romance/sex coming up at the table is a completely acceptable thing. Not being okay with homosexual character specifically, would be a problem. This. Sexuality probably isn't a major theme in most games, but if or when sexual themes do come up, specifically and intentionally excluding or ignoring homosexual/pansexual/transexual characters and scenarios isn't a socially responsible approach. You can claim that your campaign is modeled after [insert medieval culture here], but unless the reason that sexual bigotry in your campaign is modeled that way is to highlight the unfairness and travesty of such attitudes, then you're pretty much just targeting and excluding groups of people that you don't like (or don't understand). Sexual themes being rare, of course, you're probably doing so unconsciously (unless you're a jerk). The same goes for gender inequality, rape themes, and other issues of social equality. Actually setting your campaign, for example, in medieval Europe is one thing... but glorifying medieval attitudes of hatred and bigotry in-game is quite another. Daron Woodson
FYI: This campaign just got bumped up to two nights a week (some weeks). Expect slightly more frequent updates. Spoiler: If anyone is actually following along. ಠ_ಠ
I don't think it's been mentioned yet, but I really like Frog God Games' take on Rappan Athuk. It is a dungeon crawl, but it's a smart, dynamic, old-school dungeon crawl, and "face skills" can matter quite a lot. Actually, I like it so much that I'm running a campaign journal for it at present. As far as crunch and plug-and-play material, Abandoned Arts has quite a line-up for sale, but (for whatever my opinion is worth) Raging Swan Press does better work than anyone out there. They print modules, too. Just browse Endzeitgeist's Raging Swan reviews if you want confirmation. Good luck, and welcome to the world of third-party goodies. Cheers, Daron Woodson
I'd suggest you just outhouse rule it. *slow clap*
Campaign Journal: Session 1 Our first session had a few tense moments, though the party hasn't set one foot in the dungeon yet. The party begins their trek on the Lackthroat Road, to the far southern end of the campaign map. Day 1: The party heads north, up the Lackthroat Road. The group is quick to spot a ruined fortress to the west, overlooking the road. Farden and Glitch examine it with a spyglass, but choose to move on after spotting numerous bugbear guards. Glitch recalls rumors that a red dragon called Aragnak was originally responsible for the ruination of the small fortress, and Farden’s knowledge of the Mendevian nobility that originally built the doomed place lends credence to the rumor. To judge by reports of his age, Aragnak is certainly still very much alive today, the party is loathe to note. Later in the evening, a brigand leader and her band of five rogues spot the party camping on the Lackthroat Road. The bandit leader, Darla, tries to convince the party that her band are merely adventurers while she sizes up the party in conversation. Darla tells the party of Zelkor’s Ferry, and of the bugbear Ghotan and his ravagers, which the party spotted earlier. Correctly determining that the party is new to the area and relatively inexperienced, Darla's overconfidence gets the better of her. Moments after both groups go on their way, Darla orders her bandits to attack. Glitch instantly renders the majority of the bandits blind with glitterdust, and the fight goes south for Darla immediately. Darla knows that a novice wizard's spell is likely to wear off soon, and orders her thieves to split up and spread out while waiting off the effects. By the time their blindness subsides, half their number are incapacitated. Darla orders the thieves to fight on, threatening to kill them herself if they flee... but flee they do. Farden slays one bandit outright, and the party staggers or routs the rest. Darla surrenders all her weapons but one dagger (and her potion of cure moderate wounds) in exchange for her life, and tells the party (when questioned by Brugard) that she means to head for Zelkor’s Ferry. The next few days of northerly travel are uneventful. The party speaks to a patrolling sheriff from a Brevoy outpost on the west side of the lake, and crosses a southern bridge along the road. Day 5: The party encounters an even larger patrol in the dead of night, who question the party thoroughly (expressing concern over their wayang "witch" in particular). Farden puts the patrol's concerns to rest and makes fast friends with Sheriff Scarborough and his patrol. The patrol offers to escort the party to the northern bridge, where they can wait for the occasional ferry going to and from Zelkor's Ferry, if they like. En route to the bridge the next day, the patrol spots a worg scout. There is no attack, but the party learns that worg and wolf attacks are somewhat common in the region.
Day 7: The party meets up with a cavalry patrol, heading the opposite direction. About this time, Sheriff Scarborough asks Farden to walk with him to a spot just east of the Lackthroat Road. The Sheriff points out a marker and a trail, leading due east into the foothills. This is the closest the party has ever been to Rappan Athuk, though they do not head there yet. Sheriff Scarborough and his men tell the party of the rumors surrounding Zelkor's Ferry: the "necromancer," the Mouth of Doom, and so on. The prospect of a exploring a ruin other than Rappan Athuk appeals to the group, though rumors persist that the two places are somehow connected. Day 8: Several members of the party and the patrol accompanying them spot a band of outlaws moving through the forest outskirts at noon. The patrol moves on, traveling another hour to the northern bridge. After dropping the party off and wishing them well, the patrol heads south to meet up with the cavalry patrol spotted the day previous. Knowing that Darla's escaped bandits have likely joined up with another local gang, the patrol expects strong resistance in the area. Brugard considers assisting the patrol, but the party ultimately decides to remain at the bridge instead. There's no ferry waiting there, so the group decides to follow the river inland until they spot one. After a few hours of uneventful nighttime travel, the party camps, then continues the trek in the morning. Day 9: Late in the evening, the party has the misfortune of encountering a strange pack of worgs moving inland, as they are. Though the worgs take notice of the party, the wolf-things do not stop immediately. Farden hails the creatures, who immediately present a clear leader: a dark-colored worg who pauses to examine the party. After a brief (and thankfully polite) exchange, the "worg," whose name is Simrath, collects the names and titles of the curious but courteous humanoids along the river's edge, and - having fed quite well already, this evening - is content to go on his way. Farden later recalls the name Simrath, placing it as the name of a lord or general of the First Crusade. He and Brugard, who did of course detect the creature's distinct aura of evil, muse over the curiosity as they continue onward. Day 10: A worg and seven wolves attack at noon, with both the party and the wolf-monsters catching each other by surprise as either party crests opposite hills along the river's edge. Rushing the party, the wolves score no little lasting damage before being handily defeated. The party interrogates the helpless worg after the battle, are forced to put it down before they can learn very much. Twelve hours later, at midnight on the tenth day, three more worgs with eight wolves just behind them track their missing brothers east, up the river. Their path leads straight through the party's camp, naturally, and a terrible battle ensues as the worgs and wolves creep up on the party under cover of darkness. Sansara puts a dire hurting on half a dozen of the things before nearly succumbing to death by tooth and nail, and Farden fares no better. Glitch's spells fail her, and she spends much of the battle hiding under cover of invisibility while Brugard struggles to keep his allies standing, and to prevent the wolflike monsters from tearing out his downed allies' throats. Using invisibility, Farden's wand of infernal healing, and the potion of cure moderate wounds that the party lifted from Darla on the first day of their adventure, Glitch restores her allies to fighting shape and the party emerges from a harrowing battle with all parties accounted for.
Morning comes, and day eleven begins. To be continued... Daron Woodson
Dearest Humanoids, Daron here, founder and lead designer for Abandoned Arts. Recently, I've obtained a copy of the 666-page brick that is Rappan Athuk, the Dungeon of Graves. I am, of course, speaking of the latest version of the storied dungeon, by Frog God Games. After pouring through the wilderness areas and the first few levels (and related areas), my home group of four doomed players has signed on to give the module a playthrough... and this thread will serve as an online campaign-journal-and-obituary-file. Needless to say: spoilers ahead! We've got one session under our belt at this point, and our group meets once a week, so updates will be no more frequent than that. If you've played, run, or enjoyed Rappan Athuk in any of it's incarnations, kick back and be entertained by the misadventures of my home group (who, despite being a seasoned group of gamers eager for the challenge that such a notoriously difficult module must have to offer, has never played or even heard of Rappan Athuk before). Feel free to stop in, rub your hands together in mean-spirited glee, and remark about or delight in my party's exploits - but please avoid discussing spoilers about future events, encounters, floors, and NPCs here. My players are welcome in this thread, and I'd like to avoid spoiling anything. Thanks! I should note that I'll be making a very few tweaks to the module here and there, to suit my playstyle (adding an archetype here or there, for example). By and large, I'm running the module as-is (and I'll be noting exceptions as I go). The first and most significant change is that I've set the dungeon in Golarion. Rappan Athuk is located in Mendev, between the Lake of Mists and Veils and the outskirts of the Estrovian Forest, far from the Worldwound. Some of the names have changed, for example the Forest of Hope is now the Estrovian Forest Outskirts and the Sea Coast Road is now the Lackthroat Road (which runs all the way down to the village of Lackthroat, in Numeria - and, more importantly - on to the Mendevian metropolis of Nerosyan). I've also revised the Legend of Rappan Athuk to reflect these minor geographical changes. To date we've had only one session, a summary of which will follow this post (after a quick introduction to the characters and a brief revision of the Legend of Rappan Athuk, as adapted for use in Golarion). Enjoy! Daron Woodson
Cool! Great idea, End. Daron Woodson
Yeah, the track is no longer a ranger benefit. Virtually any druid out-tracks a ranger, and plenty of clerics and inquisitors do as well. [This is mainly caused by the fact that most Rangers need a variety of stats, so their Wisdom tends to be much lower than that of more caster-oriented characters.] Actually, rangers get half their level to Survival skill checks made to track. That alone makes them the kings of tracking, not accounting for the favored terrain, quarry, improved quarry, and master hunter class features. Plus the ranger gets gets an animal companion buddy that can track by scent. Rangers are better trackers than druids are, Wisdom scores be damned. Daron Woodson
I'd like to open something for discussion: are there any silly, counter-intuitive, or just plain bland rulesets that you'd like to see reworked? Something you'd be interested in if, say, a third-party product or amateur "fix" came along to address the rule. *wink* I know the Craft rules get a lot of flack, but I'll give you another example: The sundering / damaging objects rules. It is entirely possible (very easy, even) to sunder a worn headband or circlet (with a large axe or hammer, even) without harming the wearer. It is also harder to sunder a longbow with a dagger (or a sturdy pair of scissors; snip!) than it is with a flail. Corner-cases? Probably! But if you had the chance to decide which rules got a little extra love, what rulesets would you single out as "wonky?" Daron Woodson
After an impromptu, er, hiatus (e.g. real life took the founder-and-lead-designer out behind the woodshed!), Abandoned Arts is back on track for a weekly release schedule, just as before. First and foremost, I want everyone to know that we're releasing again starting this Friday! The More Feats! product line has six more releases before the first twenty items get bundled. In the meantime, we're working on some new product lines (as hinted at in our last giveaway), including a pair of brand-new base classes (the engineer and the royal) and a product line called Amazing Races (a racial counterpart to the Class Acts product line). Stay tuned, and catch the latest installment of our More Feats! product line this Friday. This week: Feats of Horsemanship and Feats of Witchcraft. Next week: Feats of Alchemy and Feats of Style (new style feats!). It's good to be back, and I'm stoked to get back to work on the upcoming base class releases currently in development. Keep an eye on us! Daron Woodson
Congrats, EZG! How much XP is that worth? Daron Woodson
Dearest Humanoids, Happy New Year! Abandoned Arts is looking to break away from our baseline products in the coming months, in order to walk some less commonly-travelled roads. In order to do a little crowdsourcing, expand our fanbase, and say "thank you" to our existing fans, we're starting the year with a free PDF giveaway! To claim your free Abandoned Arts PDF (limit one per person!), you must have a forum account which predates this thread, and you must post in this thread. Your post must name the PDF from the following list that you'd like to receive, and your post must also include one of the following two things:
The free PDFs available for giveaway are: Class Acts: Fighters
As with our last giveaway, thread management and the giveaway itself will be handled by me, and by Abandoned Arts' administrative demigoddess Tyg-Titter-Tut. If you have any questions: ask away, or drop us a line! Once your post contribution and your free PDF request has been posted, give our staff (and Liz) a few business days to get your free PDF out to you. This two-week promotion will continue until January 18th, 2013. Come on in, share your ideas, collect your booty, and tell a friend! Enjoy, Daron Woodson
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Hi, everyone. New products are up for sale on the webstore. Enjoy! Class Acts: Paladins
Daron Woodson
YOU GIVE LOOOOOOVE... A BAD NAME!
Thanks for the product nod, guys. I'm gonna go put this song on now. Daron Woodson
So I quite recently got it into my head that I'd very much like to play in a Way of the Wicked campaign. I decided to check the recruitment pages today, but it looks like I've just missed the boat on Flykiller's Recruitment Thread. There were a number of interested players who were not selected, so while interest is still high, I thought I'd ask... Would any GMs out there be interested in running a PbP for the Way of the Wicked adventure path, by Fire Mountain Games? If so, you should have your pick of the litter as far as players go. I'd run it myself if I weren't already running two campaigns while trying to simultaneously hold down a full-time job and a 3pp publication line (which has just committed to weekly releases). Any interested players?
Make my day. I want to be the bad guy. Daron Woodson
My character doesn't carry a ranged weapon because he's dead. Because he didn't carry a ranged weapon. Carry a ranged weapon. Daron Woodson
Mechanically? Hexes. Hexxxxxxesssss. Misfortune, Ill Omen, and Slumber alone are utterly superior to spells available at the same level, and they're simply usable once per day per target. Not even a sorcerer's spells per day can keep up with that. Not to mention that hexes can benefit from Ability Focus and don't provoke attacks of opportunity. You can get a DC 17 save-or-sleep at 1st level with no trouble, and it's spammable in every combat. When combined with a save-or-suck spell (or an allied caster), Ill Omen becomes a death sentence. Slumber even more so - no save-or-suck required. The Charm hex is largely superior to charm person, is usable against a broader range of creatures, and is vastly improved by the Diplomacy skill. At mid-level, hexes get even better. The Agony hex can cause an enemy to be rendered completely useless for an entire encounter, and is also useable in every encounter. Usually multiple times. Needless to say, the Grand Hexes are even more absurd. You ticked off a high-level witch? Good luck repairing your True Reincarnation. No amount of dispelling is gonna fix that. Unlike a wizard, a witch can output quite a lot of healing while still save-or-dying and save-or-sucking every enemy, every encounter. There are hexes that basically hand you one free cure moderate wounds per day per ally, or even one cure critical wounds per day per ally. And that's in addition to spells. They also get a vast number of utility spells and hexes, and there are archetypes out there which can get you some truly crazy things, like the ability to deliver touch spells at a range all day long, the ability to control and possess undead, access to rogue talents, and the ability to manifest animate, strangling, grappling, constricting, tripping hair with a reach of 30 feet in all directions. Spoiler:
And that's not even taking into account any of the neat third party stuff out there. If you're only looking at her spell list, the witch can seem underwhelming... so... don't do that. Hexes are not lame arcane school or bloodline powers. They're nearly-limitless at-will abilities that comprise some of the best debuffs and save-or-sucks in the game. Daron Woodson
Sir Ophiuchus, Makes you pine for the days of the CharOp forums, doesn't it? Your stats are going to be a problem, especially with a meager elite array. I'm thinking that your 14 ought go into Con and your racial bonus ought to go into Con as well. That'll leave you with a 10, and you can put your 15 into Charisma (because you're going to want to focus on spells, lay on hands, and channel energy). If stats turn out to be a real problem (or if you really want to optimize your Charisma), you could always opt for the new human variant in which you gain +2 to two stats in exchange for your bonus feat and your bonus skill ranks. Speaking of feats, my first thought is Guided Hand, which would allow you to use your Wisdom modifier to hit with your deity's favored weapon. You didn't specify a deity (or even a setting), so if you can scare up a deity that lists some kind of crossbow, firearm, or another non-Strength-dependent weapon as his or her favored weapon, you might actually be able to go pew-pew from your rocking chair (and your smites will actually be pretty fearsome thanks to your excellent Charisma score). Right now I'm picturing a little old lady in a wheelchair with a shotgun in her hands and a cross around her neck. There's also Eldritch Heritage. Which one you want, I'm not sure, but EH would give you a respectable feat chain for which you actually qualify, and you'll actually be able to select new things to do in combat and new ways to put your Charisma to work. Channeling feats would also be a good investment, since you'll have a lot of uses per day. You'll have a good number of spells per day too, so there's always buffing. Your Con and AC will be... not good, so you'll want to use your bonded mount to stay the hell away from melee. Mounted Combat / Mounted Archery if you go the "little old shotgun (/crossbow) lady" route. Good luck with this! Let me know how it turns out. Daron Woodson
James, Who would win: Superman vs. Runelord Karzoug? The Hulk vs. the Jabberwocky? Cthulu vs. Asmodeus? Batman vs. Razmir? Godzilla vs. Treerazer? Doctor Manhattan vs. the Iathavos Qlippoth? Daron Woodson
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