Avarna's page

And this is why so many groups don't allow 3rd party material...

On many tables I've played at, Alignment is either irrelevant, or an obstacle that gets in the way.

People are going to play their characters the way they want to regardless of what two letter abbreviation they put on their character sheet.

I'll admit, that I've not read all the responses to this, so I'll apologize in advance if I repeat something someone has already said. That said, I still feel like putting my two cents in.

I've known people like Player A, and to a lesser degree have had similar experiences. Wanting to save people from themselves. Solve the problems of the world etc, etc.... But eventually they reach a breaking point. It wears on a person when you give someone advice, get them where they need to be to get help.... and then watch as it all falls apart because the person isn't ready for the help, fails to follow through with things like paperwork, or go to appointments.

Player T, is used to having player A be their knight in shining armor. The one person they can vent too, etc, etc.. And frankly could be taking advantage of Player A's good nature.

Either Player T needs to accept the change that's come over Player A, just as Player A has accepted the change that's come over Player T. Player A doesn't want to hear about other people's problems because it could easily be the same stuff again and again, without Player T taking responsibility for their actions, and making movement to resolve these problems.

I don't have an answer for the OP, because HE doesn't need an answer. The issue is between the PLAYERS and THEY are the ones that need to sort things out.

I have to start with my favorite quote from tonight's session:

"I like my soul..not feasted upon, thank you very much."

So The group goes with Urol to explore the famous ruins. The Basklisk and Gibbering Mouth don't prove to be much of a hazard to the heros. Since I've decided to skip the Saragoth to save time, I've added some of the treasure here, and intend to let the Purity's Prow be more successful in pass engagements.

The iconography of the batlike creatures eating humanoids in the ante-chamber gave the player's pause, But eventually pushed forward, at Malachi's insistance, against Zantar's reluctance. It actually seems fitting that those two were the ones that failed the save against the mummy Rot trap.

In the Rise of the Runelord game I'm currently playing in on roll20. We have a goblin PC. How he ended up joining us is he turned against the other Goblins at the start of the Battle of Sandpoint, Yes it meant he missed the fun of the festival, but it was a natural point to include him, and immediately helps establish him as different from the other goblins.

I'm playing an Aasimir Paladin, in this game, and when he was introduced at the end of the first battle I almost felt the other players turn to me, Fortunately my character is from an Order that prioritize Vigilance, so she simply replied "If he's willing to fight his own kin, let him."

Sorry its been so long since I've done an update. There just hasn't been much to update. We missed a few sessions and overall progress has been slow.

Nightwind has left us, and we disposed of him in our normal manner... (( He was eaten by a shark)) Fortunately, they met Lessar at Fort Blackwell, and the burglar needed quick transportation...

As soon as the Good Father started complaining about not feeling well, Zantar slapped him with a remove disease.... *mutters about prudent half-orc druids ruining the GMs fun*

I've decided that Roywn is going to hold off, and might end up joining the attack on Farshore in ToD...

I'm suprised no one has mentioned

Grand Admiral Thrawn- another very smart villain. Both manipulative and ruthless, with clear motives. Aware of his own limitations, and taking steps to resolve them.

I do think some of the best villans are the "Twist of Fate" variety. Magneto is an example of this, in that if things were different, he might have been the hero of the story instead of Xavier.

*sighs*

so the PCs prudently did a roll call to make sure all the passengers were accounted for, and searched the ship. Zantar got a natural 20 on his search check and found Roywn. She might have had a chance, but Zantar passed his will save to resist a hold person...Immediately calling for help, the other PCs arrived and knocked her out. Tied her up and healed her.

She's currently "playing possum" and the PCs plan to turn her over to authorities in Fort Blackwell.... I wonder if she'll escape in time to make it aback aboard the ship...

I don't remember the exact book, but it was mentioned in 3.5, that neutral necromancers generally cause wandering updead. They animated a corpse, because they needed a hole dug then released control of it when it was no longer needed....

It really depends on your view of Necromancy. I've thought about this over the years and have thought of things two different ways. And ultimately it depends on what makes necromancy work...

If your just using magic to animate a corpse, as was mentioned its not that different from a golem. and this wouldn't really be evil.

If on the other hand, Your forcing the soul back into its body and binding it to your will. Then yes, this is evil necromancy.

Hello Everyone!

Sorry for no update last week, there just wasn't too much to report, as the session was mostly taken up with playing with a Deck of Many things. They didn't draw any results that ultimately make a difference overall. One player drew the card that gave him the service of a 4th level fighter, so I decided to level Lirith, and let him have her as the 4th level fighter in his service.

This week we did do the dinner with Lavinia. I played up Avner a bit more, being more dismissive of the "Savage" and child-like NPCs. As most of the PCs respect her, I decided to put in an arranged marriage subplot between her and Avner, even as she is now pregnant with Michi's child.

The fight with the water Mephit was very brief, and Nightwind wasn't in danger of drowning. But now they're aware it was sabotage.

I really didn't expect anything to happen tonight, as we started Sea Wyvern's Wake.

In order to reduce the strain on me as a GM, of trying to keep track of multiple named NPC, I had assigned an NPC to each player to play. so Lirth, Urol, Skald, Father Feres, and Tavey are under the control of my players...((I also did this as an experiment to see if I should allow them to take the leadership feat.))

When I informed my players that there was still room in the hold for more cargo, in true PC fashion decided to take on 40 tons of booze. This of meant that when Avner showed up wit Thunderstrike, there was no room in the hold for the horse. They wisely advised Avner that taking on thunderstrike would overload the ship, and that they were going to charge him 500GP for the cargo they left behind ((Which is the total I had charged them for the 40 tons of alcohol.)) Avner of course refused and Thunderstrike got left behind with the promise to send for her later. They offered to set up some privacy screens for Avner in the hold, when he complained about not having a private cabin, I decided this was enough to give them a situational modifier on the diplomacy check.

At this point, I just had them set sail, and then RP with each other and the other NPCs.

I've not looked at skulls and shackles. But I'm still planning to stick straight with STAP. But its an interesting idea.

Slashing/Fencing grace might be better if you were planning to grab a shield.

While the Magus does not have shield proficiency, and he experiences Arcane spell failure from shields... that hardly matters if you grab a Mithral Buckler. Those have 0 ACP and 0% spell failure. Unless I am misunderstanding something here.

So the ability to just grab +1 to +6 more AC is rather tempting. It doesn't appear to interfere with your spell casting, and you aren't going to use your offhand for 2 handing... overall, it seems like something to consider.

Spell combat is still going to require you have one hand free... So no shield.

It really depends on your build. If your intending to pick up weapon focus anyway, might as well do slashing grace. Personally though I prefer Dervish Dance, because I'd rather pay the skill tax, then the feat tax.

Shut in: a nice little adventure, where you can inject some good horror elements into it, and the PCs will get as much out of it as they put in.

Yesterday's session was a little different then the other sessions. Instead of running head long into Sea Wyvern's Wake. I decided to have a short side mission.

I've given them 3 months in game time, most of them have actually used this time for retraining in addition to purchasing magical items. Malachi has successfully seduced Liamae. I've introduced Lirith early, and Nightwind is attempting to do the same with the tomboy warrior.

Now,at the urging of Henda ((the witch NPC I've bought in for some extra support)) the Sea Wyvern takes stail. Roughly two days out, they encounter another ship. This one however, is a ship made of bone and crewed by skeletons under the command of Captain Masters. Boarding lines made of intestines are cast over the rail, and a few skeletons cross over, at the same time as Nightwind crosses over to the bone ship. And is promptly challenged to a dual by the Captain.

Nightwind manages to win, because he forced the captain to resort to his Magus abilities. offered them each a piece of treasure from his hold to get them to depart. Zantar didn't want the undead creation to get away ((spouting the usual anti-undead nonsense of it being against nature and such)) Only to find out that the living bones of the ship respond to the Captain's command and ends up catapulting him off the Bone Ship.

Zantar unable to destroy the undead, turns his anger and frustration against the one that brought them here. and has cut ties with Henda for the time being.

In all this is just a fun sandbox type adventure that I came up with on the fly, to give the PCs some extra treasure before they end up on the Isle of Dread. and foreshadow a possible future ally or foe.

6. If you can dodge a wrench you can dodge a fireball... ((couldn't resist))
7. Just Hit it harder!
8. Does it hurt! Good, Now don't do that again!

Wow! I'm surprised by how quickly things progressed tonight.

They came into port with the Sea Wyvern. and immediately started pushing their way though the streets. Nightwind immediately suggested using the rooftops to bypass the crowds, I ruled that there were going to be parts of the city it wouldn't work. I couldn't resist throwing in a few of my own encounters in there. Including an encounter with Avner, a random amorous woman. I let them bypass the encounter with the battle dancer by going up onto the roofs just to keep things moving.

They got to the manner then without further delays, and went though the front door, immediately killed two of the bullywags, and injured the third, that went into the trophy room to get help. Zantar and Malachi chased after him, while Kayin and Nightwind ran upstairs. (( yeah, split the party fun )) Now Zantar's ape animal companion (Koba) finished off the wounded bullywag, Zantar and Malachi managed to drop one each. and again the one survivor decicded to get help, this time going down into the basement enough to get the chief attention, before Koba killed him, and lead to a fight between the two half-orcs and the bullywag chief and his pet.

Nightwind and Kayin went upstairs, and with Kaying calling for Lavinia gets directed into the master bedroom. They try to take the peaceful approach taking it out with the First Mate. they seemed a stalemate, when I had Lavinia aid their diplomacy check, ((and gave them a hefty circumstance bonus for a 400GP bribe)) then the shaman got bored of the taking and summoned a fiendish crocodile. Drevork turned against the shaman and chopped him up soundly, while Kayin and Nightwind dealt with the summoned monster.

One thing that I found helpful for dealing with the split party situation, is I had them roll init at the first encounter, and knowing they would be getting into combat again right away, I simply kept things in init order.

42: Deliver Thank you notes (( this just happened in my game tonight))

So the group was now joined by Zantar, a half-orc Druid.

It was a relatively short session last night. The group finished exploring Kraken cove. While Kayin and Zantar explored the Captain's quarters, Michi decided to jump on the bed, and I couldn't resist having the Captain's rapier poke up through the mattress to poke him in the bottom. They proceeded to threaten to set the bed on fire a few times in different languages, before they finally just looked under it. (( not as good as the Gazebo, but it amused me ))

When they encountered captain Harliss Javell, I rolled her attacks openly. I didn't need to play up her flamboyant combat style, The fact that she was taking three swings a turn was more then enough to convince the players that she wasn't someone they wanted to mess with. They then immediately loaded up on the Sea Wyvern to head back to Sasserine to save Lavinia.

And then update the Obituaries thread.

Thank you Hagor, and Luna. :)

I Have taken the time to read though the other threads here, and I intend to include some of those ideas already (( like the no ship wreck is a GREAT idea, if only to Foreshadow a future encounter.))

55. Giving a druid a free proficiency in Greatclub, when the character is supposed to be like a savage orc shaman type character.

Elf, because I'm not sure I understand the question. And pointy ears are sexy. :P

If you had to start with a single piece of Non-magical equipment ((and nothing else)) what would it be?

BTW: If anyone is actually reading and enjoying this, I'd like to know..

Okay. Another good session. Despite more player issues. Michi wasn't able to make it due to work, and Lars ended up dropping out in the middle of the session.. ((without saying a word... But then he was never very active in the first place))

So they continued to explore Kraken cove, Dispatching many Savage Pirates, and Ripclaw made a valiant effort to make a snack out of Kayin. However when it turned out we were short two players, I brought in Henda (an NPC Witch I intended as a support character) to give them some needed support. I decided to skip the encounter with the Savage Krenshaw since there was so much other combat. ((I'm not tracking exp, leveling people at suitable times, aka after they've met Harliss in this case ))

I decided to remove one savage pirate from the messhall, and combine the encounter with Wyrmsting in the hallway. It made more sense to me to run it as a single encounter instead of two separate ones. We ended the session, with the PCs having a debate over what to do with the Savage Prisioners.

Okay, Its been awhile since my last update, but there has been some major shake-ups in the game...

After the PCs had cleared the smuggler tunnels, two of my players dropped out. Since I was going to be recruiting new players, I decided to change the character creation guidelines. Instead of rolling for stats, going to a 25 point buy, and then restricting races to core book races only. This of course meant my two remaining players needed to make changes.

Malachi: male Half-orc Bloodrager
Michi: male Human Fighter
Kayin: female Human Fighter
Lars: male Human Sorcerer
Nightwind: male Human Slayer

Now since we were starting with new players, I felt starting with the assault on the Lotus Dragons was an awkward place to begin, since practically none of my original characters remain. So I fast forwarded, starting the players at Level three, and the start of Bullywug Gambit. I did provide a summary of the events of Chapter one, along with a "who's who" of named NPCs. At least one of my players has latched onto the "We're not supposed to like Vanthus."

So Reboot: First session...
Went Very well. I was expecting it to be a cat herding session, with maybe a random encounter or two if time permitted. but everyone was on task, quickly figured out where they needed to go, They still bought the map of the region and hired a fishing boat to land them just north of Kraken Cove.

For the 16 hour trip, they encountered a grey ooze, that had absorbed some blanks. my attempt to foreshadow the future encounter with the flotsam ooze latter in the campaign, and handled it well. When the ship landed, I immediately started to drop the hints about the smoke raising from the cove, and the deformed and distorted animals. they made short work of the savage monkeys.

We left the game for the night, exactly were I was hoping too... The players overlooking the fire that was the ships harbored in Kraken's Cove, and knowing that things were still alive. One of them with a spy glass seeing the sail of a ship fleeing away from Kraken's cove..

I won't speak for anyone else.

But the times I feel like writing up a character background, ((I normally develop it during play)) I am intentionally vague about the characters I've interacted with, out lining a basic past. Just so there are plot hooks there for the GM to latch onto.

I agree with most people. I prefer a group of 4 or 5 players.

One player games can be a lot of fun, providing that the player and GM come to an understanding that you can't run the same encounters as you would for a larger group.

22: You want to put this bag of holding, in this portable hole
23: Sit on your hands ((Order of the stick to thank for this one))
24: How long can you hold your breath?

6. Could you get me something to drink?
7. You should get that coin in the mud.
8. Didn't you leave the oven on?

Okay. I'm someone that plays regularly on Roll20. so I feel I need to weigh in here...

First of all: You have to speak up for yourself. If the GM isn't willing too, then No one else will. If this is something you Feel strongly about, Then its time to Stand up, TELL THEM that this behavior is bothering you, that its rude and unacceptable and to shut up.

Do you game using voice chat?

If Yes: Use the voice chat to talk to the other players, its almost as good as calling, and doing a video chat is almost as good as talking to them in person. I'm thinking this is how your playing, because of how you say they interrupt you. Don't let them. If they start trying to talk over you just politely say "Hey, Its my turn, shut up." You don't need to start swearing and cussing to get your points across. And don't be afraid to just sit there and stall the game.

If No: Then you're probably using text based chat. And they can't interrupt you as much, as they just ignore what your typing. Short of typing novels, or in all caps there is no easy fix for this. But consider posting something in the game forums explaining that you don't like whats happening. And that you will need to leave the game if it continues, and that the behavior is rude and unacceptable.

Its really up to you to decide: Is your self respect worth putting up with this stuff? Do you seriously enjoy the game enough that you are willing to put up with this stuff? I have a feeling the answer is no, as your asking for help. I know its easy for the other players to say Find a new game, when that's the last thing you want to do. But that's ultimately what your choice is.

Session 4:

So My players failed on their gather information checks to find out anything useful. But I still threw out the names Barris and Penkus. We did this over the forums during the week to try to save time.

In the actual session, Shafton showed up on queue. And finally got to Parrot Island to be trapped in the tunnels, and realizing this is a lethal part of the AP, they only encountered two of the zombies.

Hello. I've recently started running the STAP with a group of players over Roll20. and decided to start a journal of the adventure so far. We are using a 25pt build, with pathfinder races and classes, but taking from 3.5 when it suits me.

Characters:
Malachi: male Human Swashbuckler
Hunts-The-Seas: ? Seascared Bloodrager
Moishe: male Human cleric
Iiysavel: female aasimar arcanist

Session Zero:
This was our first session. It was little more then Be being a cat herder, getting things organized, making characters etc... nothing excited.

Session one:

The player characters responded to the message from Lavinia, Malachi made certain to give Liamea a flirting smile, which she responded in kind when the two groups of adventurers passed each other. Nothing out of the ordinary happened, and they made their way to the Blue Nixie.

Malachi made a knowledge local roll to see what he knew about Vark, and learned that he was a smuggler that did business with the Lotus Dragons. This gave him the bright idea to try to get aboard the ship by posing as messengers from the Lotus Dragons. Vark didn't fall for it, and attacked. Shooting crossbow bolts down at the group in their boat. This is when Hunt-The-Seas jumps out of the water in shark form, and grabs Vark dragging him under at negative HP. This was enough by itself to cause the rest of the thugs to scatter. 100 feet is nothing with Hunts swim speed, it was nothing for Hunts to drag Vark to shore, only to catch sight of the fire and make her way back to the boat just in time to help put down the Rhagodessa. Of course Vark stabilizes and the rest of the thugs run off with him....

Session Two:

With the signet ring in hand, the group head to the Vanderboren Vault. With Lavinia with them, they have no issues getting into the castle and down into the vault. Malachi takes the lead, so is of course the one attacked by the Iron Cobra. The fight ensures With Malachi failing multiple fort saves against the strength sapping poison (Taking a total of 9 points of str damage) Finally Moishe puts things together and gets Lavinia to display the ring. The riddle gave them some issues, and there was a short argument over should the linguist skill let them auto-solve riddles... Eventually with some heavy hints they figured it out..

Session Three (tonight's session)

Having spent some downtime to let Malachi recover from his str damage, They were all invited back to the Vanderboren estate. I decided that this was enough time for the Jade Ravens to return from Caudron, so they joined the group for dinner with Lavinia. Liamea and Malachi flirted some more, and the group finally selected a group name, Selecting the Storm Ravens. Lavinia brought the dinner to a close, with a toast to the two teams of adventurers and the continued fortunes for them all. The Jade Ravens then retired to the parlor, while Lavinia gave the group their new mission, to track down Vanthus.

So far I'm happy with the progress that's been made. Tonight session was cut short by one of the players being called into work early. I wanted to give the players more time to get to know the Jade Ravens before their appearance in the next module. One of the things that has drawn me to Savage Tide over some of the older APs was how they seem to encourage relationships with the NPCs more then in Age of Worms or Shackled City.