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Of course there was no voice from Aroden when you grasped his statue's hand. He wasn't a god anymore, just a deaf-mute mortal man (who used to be a god) living out the remains of his mortal life on Hermitage island off the southern tip of Mediogalti island. But the info and insight gained from the Test of Aroden itself...priceless!
We played some more of book 6 of the Return of the Runelords AP this past Saturday. We leveled up to 18 before we started. Spoiler:
We made it to Stethelos and to the Well of All where we met Ninuron again and he led us to Tawil at'Umr, the avatar of Yog-Sothoth on Golarion.
Tawil at-Umr essentiall told us about Alaznist coming to Dimension of Time, making her way to the Well of All and then, one at a time, creating tears in Golarion's timeline that she went through and changed things. Twil at-Umr told us that only we can to go through each of these "wounds" in time to set things right and restore the Golarion timeline. We repaired the first two "wounds" with no real problems.The third wound involves us going to "fix" what happened when the Oliphaunt of Janderlay defeated an Azlanti army. I'm guessing she made it so the Azlanti army won, so I think we need to undo whatever the Oliphaunt did that made it lose. We have 5 more "wounds" to fix and GM Matt said we will probably take two more sessions to finish the AP. I guess we'll level up to 19th at the next session and to 20th during the last session. We play next on Oct. 24th.
Also note that while some nations/areas on Golarion are partially inspired by real-world (and even fictional) cultures (some more than others), they are not simply "carbon copies" with a few minor changes. I am with you guys here. I am puzzled as to why many parts of Golarion seem to have to be inspired by real world regions of earth?? I mean I understand why someplace in northern Golarion might *seem* like they're inspired by RL Russia or Scandanavia, but I wouldn't go so far as to bring up the White Russians of 1930s Russia, Rasputin, or religious leaders like Saint Patrick of Ireland (fey stuff-related) or Saint Canute of Denmark (not that anyone has brought up Canute, but it seems clear to me somebody here very well might). Can we not just appreciate Varisia and other places on Golarion just because they make a good fantasy setting? It seems like Tian Xia, for the most part, has avoided bringing RL issues into that setting. There are a few examples, of course, where one country's politics has been inspired by China or North Korea, but not overtly so. I think the authors did an EXCELLENT job of keeping Tian Xia a FANTASY setting.
Our group made to the Court of Amendment, defeated the mythic astradaemon and did two things. Spoiler:
First, my character sat on the astradaemon's throne and passed sentence on Xanderghul. I sent him to the fiery pit. Heh.
Second, we placed Zinlun's skull in Hallowed ground and destroyed him permanently while Karzoug's soul watched. That allowed us to convince Karzoug to give us the Fulcrum Key ritual which would then allow us to operate the Cyphergate in Riddleport. My character passed sentence on Karzoug and I sent him to the river of souls to be judged by Pharasma's Court. After that we teleported to Riddleport, successfully completed the Fulcrum Key ritual and went through the Cyphergate to the Dimension of Time. We met the Steward of Stethelos again and she pointed us in the direction of Stethelos so that we could go to the Well of All. We play next in two weeks on October 3rd.
Looks like I was heard. I placed my order a few minutes ago.
Cheliax, Infernal Inheritance will be out in three weeks, yet I still can't place my order. :Sad Panda:
You know, it's now less than a month before Cheliax, Infernal Inheritance is due out (Oct. 7th), and I still can't place an order for it. That's got to be an oversight on whoever runs the Paizo Store's side. Please make it possible to order this very soon-to-be-released product. Thank you.
** spoiler omitted **Say what?? Oh, ffs! You'd think they'd announce a new AP like that either on the Paizo Home page or here in their blog. HUGE :eyeroll: Thanks.
This past Saturday, our party found Zinlun and "disabled" him for 2-12 days (we don't know for sure how long) and plane-shifted to the Boneyard. We found Pharasma's Spire (it's hard to miss) and made our way to where we should find the Court of Amendment where, hopefully we'll find Karzoug's soul. We play again not this Saturday, but the following one, the 19th.
Eh, these books kinda have to cherry pick their topics for space reasons, and I can understand why they'd go with the current capital of a decaying Hell empire housing a recently minted infernal demigod tyrant, rather than the husk of a town that used to be the capital before any of that stuff happened. It's about where the action is, y'know? No one is saying Egorian shouldn't have the most info about it in the book. Clearly, it should. We're just saying Westcrown shouldn't be treated like it didn't matter anymore. Sure, it matters less than it used to, but iirc, it's still the second-largest city in Cheliax, with (according to Cheliax, Empire of Devils) almost 115,000 people.
It's changed hands in war multiple times at this point (in 4717 and 4726). That it's not any more an abandoned husk than it is, is something of a minor miracle.This is one of the reasons I think it's important to have a section dedicated to this city. Pezzak was recently visited during the AP. Vire and Nisroch haven't experienced any major changes or events; even Ravounel's independence had a relatively minor impact on the autonomous city. Westcrown, however, has experienced many changes in recent decades. Yes. Westcrown is still very relevant.
I saw the contents of the Cheliax book, and I'll reiterate my old thought. I'm quite disappointed that of the Cheliax cities, only Egorian is described in detail, while Westcrown is relegated to the status of other geographical features. In my opinion, Westcrown, as a city, is too large and important in terms of lore and size to be ignored in this way. Agreed. Westcrown used to be the capital, after all.
I can play most anything. Melee, ranged, divine, arcane, you name it. I haven't played any psionic/occult characters, though. My groups tend to steer clear of those kinds of builds. Personally, I *prefer* to play ranged Slayers and S&B Paladins. Sorcs and Oracles are my preferred casters. Speaking of casters, I'm really digging the Mystic Theurge I'm playing in the Return of the Runelords AP one of my groups is going through right now. I'd like to play a Brawler someday, though.
My every-other-Saturday group finished off Curse of the Riven Sky run by GM Vicki last night. It was a fun module that I'd recommend for most groups. After we finished, we leveled up to 12th. Next time we get together, we'll start on the last book of Return of the Runelords run by GM Matt. I play a Cleric3/Sorc4/MysticTheurge10 in that game. Hopefully, he will be a Cleric3/Sorc7/MysticTheurge10 by the end of that AP. After GM Matt finishes RotL, GM Vicki will run the PF1 module The Ruby Phoenix Tournament, published in 2011. After we do that, my kobold monk will stay in Tian Xia, entering all sorts of other martial arts tournaments that won't be good for our group. I'll have to make a different character for the next module, Blood of Dragonscar, which I *think* takes place in Cheliax. I'm looking into playing an Unchained Summoner for the rest of GM Vicki's campaign. After Blood of Dragonscar, we're probably going to do Witchwar Legacy, and then an undetermined 20th-level adventure. Looking forward to playing that Summoner, as I've never played one before.
Ah. You know what? I haven't played any PF2 APs because my groups aren't playing PF2. We either still love D&D 3.5/PF1 or are too stingy to buy yet another edition of a game genre we like to play. It would be awesome if some third party would, as part of their business, publish PF2 to PF1 conversions of the PF2 adventures and APs. Yeah, if I knew PF2 well enough, I might be able to do the conversions myself, but I'd rather pay someone else to do it by buying the conversions from them. I get why Paizo probably won't do it (they want people to play PF2), but I'd think conversions might sell fairly well. I also think it likely that there are more PF1 groups out there than some people might think. P.S. James, this post is in response to your response, but I'm not expecting you to reply to it. I wish somebody else would, though.
With the fall of Runelord Belimarius, ruler of the New Thassilonian city of Xin-Edasseril, relics from ancient Thassilon have found their way onto the black markets throughout the Saga Lands. This is big news. What do we know about it? Can't say I'm surprised, but I thought she'd last a little longer that a few years.
Last night we played Part 3 of Curse of the Riven Sky and leveled up to 11th level. Part IV (and the last part) will be in 2 weeks. My kobold monk got a Greater Hat of Disguise (has the Alter Self power instead of the Disguise power). At 11th level, he took the Draconic Paragon kobold racial feat, so now he can fly (20 feet, Average). Still a fun game.
Aroden the man and Aroden the god are, as far as I understand things, the same thing. They're both dead. Curious way to put it, but thanks for your take. I'm sure both I and the members of the Order of the Amber Die will keep a close watch for any signs regarding the not-so-last Azlanti! :-P
Where/when did we learn this? I think it's strange that the Hermit mysteriously washes up on that little island right after the Eye of Abendego (which is pretty close by) forms which, by the way, happens shortly after Aroden the god "dies." James, I've espoused my theory about Aroden's "death" before on these forums and you have dutifully responded that Aroden is dead. Even though it is my theory and not yours, I still say Pharasma has been quiet about Aroden's "death" because Aroden the god and she worked out a deal. After Aroden's many screw-ups (not finishing off Tar-Baphon on the Isle of Terror, failing to finish off Deskari at the Lake of Mists, making off with those aeon orbs from the vault of Vask in order to make Kortos island inhabitable but dooming the Xulgaths, destroying the Kumaru tree and the Veins of Creation in Xopatil, etc.), he decided he was not a very good god and didn't want to be one anymore lest he screw something else up. The deal they worked out was in return for allowing Pharasma to take his divinity away, Pharasma had to keep the secret about making Aroden a man again and returning him to Golarion (via the Eye of Abendego). To make sure that the secret was kept, Pharasma, when she sent Aroden through the Eye, also took his ability to speak so HE would not give their secret away. I say that saying the god Aroden is dead is accurate. But no one at Paizo, as far as I can tell, has ever said Aroden the man is also dead.
Owen Stephens and Alex Augunas talk AoN.Owen Stephens and Alex Augunas talk AoN. Gamers are not very good at getting to the point. I watched/listened for about 20 minutes and became exhausted by their meandering. Give me a 20 minute video (30 minutes at most) that gets straight to the point, please. I realize that some people might want all the various pieces of background information like OGL vs. ORC, AoN taking over maintaining the SRD, why Starcraft and Pathfinder are compatible, etc. but those things have been covered elsewhere and on multiple occasions. There's no need to re-hash all that previous stuff here. This is not a court of law. Just give me the new pieces of information, especially stuff that has gone on in the background that has not been posted here on the Paizo Forums by Jim Butler or by the AoN account.
True, friend. The players on this roster are the ones who believe the most. Colossal is the right word though. Is this a good time for a shakeup? The god, Aroden, is dead. The being that became the god is not. He's just a man again, living on the island known as The Hermitage. Not much world-shaking going on there, I'm afraid. I say leave him alone and move on.
After reading Jim Butler's side of the story, I retract my above statement/post that concerns this particular management decision...except the part about me not liking the direction Paizo as a company took after the pandemic. I still don't like that.
Interesting mechanic. Are these "Plot Twist" cards a real thing (if so, where can I get them?) or are these things something your group or your GM came up with on their own?
The every-other-Saturday group I play with played in our second session of the old Curse of the Riven Sky module three days ago. This old module has been surprisingly fun. I think we only have one or two sessions left to finish it. After that, I hope we play the original Ruby Phoenix Tournament module that was first published in 2011.
Ok, so for the High Council, I'll go with Oracle 15th, plus or minus one or two levels. Good point about Zhuge Shuang Ying...Investigator 15th, then. For the Lower Council, I'll go with 5th to 10th with various classes represented (maybe one-quarter to one-third are actual oracles, though). I like your suggestion that Shi Yin Ling and Aoyuong Fong have the Lore mystery as they seem to be holed up in the Sacred Archives in Tuotuo. Not sure I agree with you about Zhao Meng's mystery, though. He doesn't strike me a being particularly studious, for some reason. Thanks. |
