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Interesting. I'd never heard about Shield of Darkness, but I guess it's a kind of Displacement for divine casters. "Magical darkness" presumably means supernatural darkness, like you say, but I'll have to see if our DM agrees.


SmiloDan wrote:
For spells, maybe something to enhance mobility? Spell Immunity will be useful, too.

Burst of Speed is a very neat spell both for offense and retreat. I suppose I should consider Freedom of Movement, too.

Louise Bishop wrote:

Divine interference or Toughness.

If you have a group member able to load spellstoring weapon with vampric touch that is going to help you stay on your feet.

UMD skill + Wand of false life, mirror image, scrolls of stoneskin, barkskin/ironskin. Layered defenses are best.

I had not thought of using Vampiric Touch that way. We can definitely cast it, but would it actually work? I mean, wouldn't my weapon gain the healing (if that were possible) instead of my character?

I unfortunately don't think UMD is for this character. At least not at this point. His CHA is only 10 and UMD is not a class skill, so upping it to useful levels would take a lot of skill ranks.

avr wrote:
Something worth considering may be that given you have invisibility for situations where you need to hide, greater invisibility (4th level) offers you nothing that shield of darkness (3rd level) doesn't.

Shield of Darkness only requires darkvision and it'll be rendered useless. Does not seem very comparable to Greater Invisibility, although I have to admit Greater Invisibility was not my most inspired choice. I may swap it later.

I'm starting to think a Ring of Freedom of Movement should go on my wishlist.


I'm playing a dwarf inquisitor of Asmodeus in Rise of the Runelords, and aim to fill a tanky mage-slayer demon-hunter kind of role. Inquisitors are very good for this, and it's worked out quite well so far. We're currently level 13, and I'm looking for some advice in where to go from here. Deciding which feat to take at level 15, for example, is hard.

I generally aim for versatility in my builds, and am loath to min/max. Since I'm now filling the role of a tank, versatility means survivability especially. I enjoy being able to defend against almost any conceivable situation. This is my build so far:

Dwarf Fighter (Unbreakable) 2/Inquisitor 11 (20 pt):

AC 31, touch 15, flat-footed 28 (+10 armor, +2 deflection, +2 Dex, +1 dodge, +1 natural, +5 shield)
Fort +17, Ref +8, Will +15; +2 vs poisons, +4 vs spells and spell-like, +1 vs mind-affecting

Base Atk +10, CMB +15; CMD 30
Melee +1 defending dispelling cold iron dwarven waraxe +16/+11 (1d10+6/x3)
Ranged +1 repeating heavy crossbow +13/+8 (1d10+1/19-20)

Specials bane (+2/4d6, 16 rounds/day), inner strength 5d6, judgment 4/day (+4 dmg, 4 fast heal, +3/+6 atk, +4 vs SR, +3/+6 AC, +3/+6 saves, 8 energy resist, magic/law/adamantine smiting), relentless footing (7/day), stalwart, swap teamwork feat 4/day (Coordinated Charge)

Inquisitor Spells Known (CL 13; concentration +17)
1st (6/day)--burst bonds, divine favour, lend judgment, litany of sloth, litany of weakness, remove fear (page of spell knowledge), shield of faith
2nd (5/day)--blistering invective, flames of the faithful, invisibility, see invisibility, silence
3rd (5/day)--burst of speed, dispel magic, greater magic weapon, protection from energy
4th (3/day)--greater invisibility, judgment light, stoneskin
Domain/Inquisition Persistance Inquisition

Str 20 [16], Dex 14, Con 19 [17], Int 10, Wis 18 [16], Cha 10 [8]
Feats Blind-Fight, Combat Reflexes, Coordinated Charge (free tw), Craft Magic Arms & Armor, Diehard (free), Dodge, Endurance (free), Following Step, Mobility, Outflank (free tw), Shake It Off (free tw), Steel Soul, Step Up (free), Step Up and Strike
Traits Indomitable Faith, Magical Knack, Unintentional Linguist, Power-Hungry (drawback)

Combat Gear +4 buckler, +1 glamered fortification (moderate) mithral full-plate, +1 defending dispelling cold iron dwarven waraxe, +1 repeating heavy crossbow
Gear Baldric Bane, Cloak of Flash & Shadow (+2 Cha), Infernal Cord (+2 Con), Gauntlets of Takkok (+4 Str), Headband of Inspired Wisdom +2, Ring of Protection +2, Ring of the Ram, Lesser Extend Metamagic Rod, Straps of the Serpent (+1 Natural Armor, +3 res bonus to saves), Winged Boots

For my level 15 feat, I've considered Expanded Arcana, Forge Ring, Instant Judgment, Iron Will -> Devilish Pride, Spring Attack, Spell Focus (illusion) -> Veiled Illusionist, Destructive Dispel, Quicken Spell, Improved Critical, Divine Interference. In other words, I'm still looking for the one that screams "pick me!" Advice?

I'm also looking for some input on spells known. At our last level up I swapped out Wrath for Litany of Weakness, after realising Wrath is much weaker than it looks. What are some good utility spells that I may not have thought of? Many of the spells chosen so far are chosen largely due to fitting the character concept. In the future I'm looking at Righteous Might, Quest, Dimensional Anchor, Death Knell Aura, Bestow Insight, Divine Pursuit, Coordinated Effort, Magic Vestment, Spell Immunity, Cure Critical Wounds.

When it comes to magical items, the most important investment is probably fortification on my full-plate, which recently saved me from two simultaneous crits from scythe and katana due to battlemind link. Dispelling is useful enough that I'm considering increasing it to dispelling burst, but keen is also tempting.

Most body slots are occupied except for wrists and neck, and the rings I wear are not too important. Knowledge Pendant looks neat.

Obviously I've got enough ideas already to make it work out, but any suggestions and input will be deeply appreciated anyway. I'm kind of looking for the "must have" choices on several fronts.

The rest of the party consists of a damage-dealing flank-hungry intimidation fighter/rogue, dimensional dervish monk, illusion-focused transmuter wizard, and a druid who may reroll to cleric.


This thread should probably have a spoiler tag, so I'll wrap my entire response in one.

Spoiler:
How you use Malfeshnekor in your campaign really depends on your players, you, and your style. Across the forums you'll probably find that Malfeshnekor usually is either way overpowered, or incredibly anti-climatic. The reason for why he seems to rarely find a balanced spot in any campaign is probably two-fold: He is supposed to be a massively powerful optional boss; because of this, many DMs pull their punches to avoid utterly crushing the party. In other cases though, some lucky rolls from the barbarian or paladin may be enough to make Malfeshnekor a walk in the park.

How have your players fared so far? If they're steamrolling encounters, they may enjoy a situation where they feel outmatched, but that really depends a lot on what kind of challenges your players look for. The campaign is designed for 4 PCs built with 15 point-buy, so if that's what your party is made of, a greater barghest (without the Advanced template) flying at them with all the strength he's got may be just spot on. If your PCs are stronger than that, I would suggest keeping the Advanced template.

On the other hand, are your players completionists? Would they be dissatisfied with an encounter that they may not be able to complete? Or perhaps it would be extra satisfactory to be able to beat him after more than one attempt?

In my game, I did keep the Advanced template, but at the same time I grossly underestimated my players and overestimated Malfeshnekor. He would've dropped a PC in the very first round of combat if it weren't for that player's Hero Points. After that, I held back too much which resulted in a very disappointing and anti-climatic experience for the party, and some of them felt it was a waste defeating him at all, suggesting that Sandpoint's NPC's would've been able to withstand him anyhow. It is worth noting that I have six players, all of whom are above 15 point-buy.

Some stories end up with the players losing one or two PCs before deciding to leave Malfeshnekor alone for later. This is closer to what I wish had happened in my campaign (obviously, PC death is not actually a necessity), as long as they prioritised getting back there.


You can use both the languages and the ethnicities to help your players get a feel for Varisia and the campaign. Human characters may be shoanti, chelaxian, or varisian, (the three most common in Varisia) which should give them a bonus language depending on their upbringing. Throughout the campaign they'll also come across several garundi humans, who often hail from the Garund continent, and usually know how to speak Osiriani.

Thassilonian:
In my own campaign, I made a note of the fact that both the Varisian and Shoanti languages and dialects are connected to Thassilonian.

During the exploration of the catacombs beneath Sandpoint, they came across Ancient Thassilonian runes on the walls in the cathedral and some other places. One character in our group knew Thassilonian, but I decided that the version of the language taught today had grown slightly apart from the written Thassilonian from 10000 years ago. Because of this, he could only make out fragments of what was written, and needed to spent time and a Linguistics check to decipher the rest of of it. Knowledge of Varisian and Shoanti would help deciphering the runes.

This being my first ever campaign to DM, it unfortunately didn't work out quite as fun as I had hoped, but I still have a summary of the rules I made for the writings. Thay may not make as much sense as I thought then, but the idea might be useful for others anyhow.

Ancient Thassilonian:
A character familiar with Thassilonian would automatically recognise the runes as such, and be able to read some fragments clearly, but the texts appear to be of a wholly unknown dialect with confusing grammar.

Studying the runes for 1d6 hours and making a DC 15 Int check would allow them to realise that these old writings only appear to use two of the three runic systems that the complex Thassilonian alphabet is generally known to consist of.

Afterwards, 1d4+1 days of study and a DC 20 Linguistics allows a character to clearly read the writings on the wall. Being able to read Varisian and/or Shoanti each give +4 on this check. A successful check also gives the character "Ancient Thassilonian" as a bonus language, which can be useful later in the campaign.


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The attack rolls stated do not appear to take bull's strength or power attack into account. If either were included, his damage bonuses should be much higher than +8, since that is what he gets from his Strength modifier alone.

You could argue that his stated 26 Strength is after having cast bull's strength, but I don't believe that is the case. My reason for this is that Malfeshnekor is a greater barghest with the Advanced template, which grants a +4 increase to all abilities. Your run-of-the-mill greater barghest has a Strength score of 23; adding the Advanced template should make it 27, which is pretty close to Malfeshnekor's 26.

Of course, Malfeshnekor is a unique barghest in most respects, meaning the writers have probably taken liberties with his stats, and you should feel somewhat free to do so as well.

To summarise, his attacks -- after including both power attack and bull's strength -- should be as follows:
bite +16 (2d6+16), 2 claws +16 (1d6+16)

Attack bonus breakdown: +10 (base attack), +10 (Strength), -3 (power attack), -1 (size)
Damage bonus breakdown: +10 (Strength), +6 (power attack)

Note: It seems like the size penalty to attacks rolls might be missing from Malfeshnekor's stats as written.

EDITED NOTE: I just discovered that Malfeshnekor in the anniversary edition of RotR is just a greater barghest, not Advanced or "elite". The one I used for my campaign is the same one that you've found on d20pfsrd.com, which I believe is a freely converted version of the original D&D edition of RotR. I didn't start using the anniversary edition before somewhat later in the campaign.


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Adventure: Hook Mountain Massacre
Catalyst: The Graul Family all at once

Name of PC: Aphram Guardson; Race/Class/Level: Half-Drow Magus 7
Name of PC: Iacobus; Race/Class/Level: Varisian Cleric of Calistria 7
Name of PC: Maximus; Race/Class/Level: Half-Ogre Barbarian 7

The party had reached the Graul Homestead and quickly grew annoyed with the place. First off was a game of hit-and-run with Crowfood in the cornfields; second were the traps set at every entrance to the house, which blocked their attempt to follow Crowfood's retreat inside. Thirdly, once they decided to check the barn instead (at Kibb's incessant suggestions), they were by a huge ogre spider that managed to deliver his venom to the party magus.

At that point, he'd had enough, and threw three fireballs into the main house to end it all. Unfortunately, Mammy Graul had dimension door while Crowfood, Lucky, and Maulgro had windows to climb out of. Hucker came burning out through the kitchen some minutes later.

The battle that ensued was pretty devastating to the party, especially since they spent a lot of their resources on the encounters leading up to this one. Aphram, as the arsonist in this tale, became the main target of Mammy's rage; at first, she threw suffocation at him from above, but when it became clear that that was not going to take him down quickly enough, she supplied him with blood boil, bestow curse, and vampiric touch as well. Aphram did not last much longer, and soon hung dead and upside-down in the air by the mercy of his fly spell.

On the ground, Crowfood appeared from behind the porch some rounds later than Mammy, and charged the largest and tastiest target available. This would be Iacobus, the full-plated cleric. Crowfood's charge gave him sneak attack, while his ogre hook scored a critical hit, for a total of 87 damage. Too much. Much too much. Iacobus went out like a light, and the last thing he saw was his kidney and entrails clinging to Crowfood's ogre hook.

As Lucky and Maulgro appeared from the other side of the house, Mammy kept control of the battlefield by the use of black tentacles and solid fog. Along the way, I decided to give them the help of a half-naked Vale Temros (he picked up Aphram's katana), who somehow had reclaimed his strength as the battle seemed to go bad.

To summarize, the party barely won through in the end, with only the fighter and the wizard still standing. Hucker was the one to bring down Maximus, while Vale managed to take down Hucker. All in all, I may have made the Grauls too powerful, but it was the decision to draw the entire family out together that truly tipped the scales against the party.


I too have used Eel's End as a basis for constructing Paradise, but the main function of the place in my campaign will be to introduce Lucrecia, seeing as I feel she deserves a lot more in the way of interactions than what is offered by the AP as is. Here are some of my ideas, in their most railroady form.

Spoiler:
Knowing the players and their characters, our group will probably not bother with the gambling, drugs, or prostitution, and instead go straight for the lower deck (privileged guests area) of the Paradise to meet with Lucrecia as quickly as possible, before revealing their presence to her. I've changed the lower deck to consist of one large drinking hall packed with chairs and tables, along with a bar (bartenders Peto [night] & Nadia [day]) and two fireplaces; there are also doors that lead to a peaceful gambling/gaming room and a combined harem/drug-den. The group should be able to diplomacy/bluff/intimidate their way past friendly orderlies (possibly with the help of a Sihedron Amulet) to get below deck, but anything can happen.

In our campaign, I've boosted Lucrecia quite a bit, giving her 4 sorcerer levels instead of 2, which gives her access to one 5th level spell. I want her to be more powerful than Xanesha, and more powerful than proper for the current party level, as she has come all the way from Xin-Shalast. She is still arrogant, as is proper for her kind, but not careless. Behind silken veils along the walls of Paradise's lower deck is hidden a Symbol of Sleep, which she'll happily utilise if her establishment gets in trouble. However, being challenged by the PCs sure is a nice change from the monotony, and she may be tempted to see what the group is capable of before acivating her trap.

Most of the characters will be knocked out by the symbol, but at least two of them are immune to sleep, and of the other four some might make their save. Lucrecia would love to see them all (along with 2d6+10 other guests) fall asleep so that she could carve the Sihedron rune on their skin before sinking the ship, but ultimately this improvisation will fail. She is not really prepared for the group (since she doesn't know of them), but she gladly takes this circumstance as her excuse to jump ship and sink the Paradise.

The Red Mantis:
Additionally, the group may have Red Hand Assassins on their tail, if they have not yet encountered them on their way to Turtleback Ferry. In Magnimar, they believed Ironbriar to be wholly innocent and accepted his plea to be given a fair trial. The trial was conducted behind closed doors, and resulted in Ironbriar exiled from Magnimarian lands. He knows that the group carries his journal (which they have not deciphered) with information about himself, cultist activities, and deliveries to the Red Mantis. Hiring them to kill and/or retrieve was easy enough for Ironbriar.

If the group enters the Paradise at the right time, disguised Red Hand Assassins will follow them out there, killing the ferrymen on both of the ferries that take guests back and forth. A ship bell on the Paradise is rung whenever new guests arrive by one of the ferries, so the group may hear it herald the arrival of the assassins while waiting for Lucrecia to greet them. This means that the assassins silently make their way across the jetties and barges and orderlies that make up the Paradise (under cover of rain) while the group have their interaction with Lucrecia. In the end, their conversation may be interrupted by dual-wielding psychoes hungry for a showdown, which our bored Lady Lucrecia should enjoy.

I've not yet decided exactly how the Paradise will sink, but it definitively will sink. It may be rigged with magic or otherwise, or Lucrecia can take care of weak spots of the hull from below with her swim speed. The place has been there for more than a year, so she has had more than enough time to set up contingencies.

In the end, my players may be left on a sinking ship, more than half a mile from Turtleback Ferry, but I'm pretty sure they'll be fine. Depending on how everything goes down, the mayor could suspect that something is wrong, but all that's a bit in the wind for now. Lucrecia may set fire to the huts on some of the barges before leaving it all behind, which should signal the citizens easily enough. Also, among the ship, barges, and jetty, there is more than enough material to float back to shore if the not-sleeping characters act quickly enough.

I'd love for Lucrecia to become a recurring villain in the campaign until the group is more on par with her powers, but we'll see.


This is what I did, and it worked out well. The tension whenever the players felt like there was a piece of paper on the way was excellent, and they were always excited to see which of them would get the next one.

It works out especially well if your players enjoy roleplaying and improvising the unexpected effects. Some may even be disappointed when they succeed their Will save and don't get to experience the full effect.

Spoiler:
In the case of the suicide compulsion, the player who got it burst into laughter when he read the note that I handed him. Not exactly the reaction I had expected. He thought it was absolutely hilarious that he was about to kill himself, and played along without protest.

Luckily, he survived. An important thing to remember about that exact haunt is that the character won't have enough actions in the surprise round to coup de grace themself, which gives the rest of the party a Sense Motive and a chance to stop them.

If you do a quick search on this forum you'll find other GMs who have done this, and who have shared the notes for other GMs to use.


wraithstrike wrote:

The barbarian has a special ability that allows him to provoke so without something like that you can't just provoke because you want to.

Which special ability is that?


CountofUndolpho wrote:
Basillicum wrote:
However, if I'm able to choose to provoke an attack of opportunity along the way and before my attack, I can use acrobatics to negate the attack of opportunity.
CRB wrote:
In addition, you can move through a threatened square without provoking an attack of opportunity from an enemy by using Acrobatics.
Acrobatics doesn't negate an AoO you have already provoked, if your check succeeds your movement doesn't provoke an AoO in the first place.

Right. The point I'm trying to make is that as I read it, there needs be a chance of an attack of opportunity in the first place for Canny Tumble to be possible. Don't you agree?

With Spring Attack there is no chance of attack of opportunity from the target of my character's attack, which is why I want to ignore that part of Spring Attack, if possible.


Speaker for the Dead wrote:
I'm not entirely sure what you're trying to accomplish so I don't know if that's helpful. The only time I've purposely provoked AOO's was with a monk character that would run through melee provoking all the AOO's so the rest of his party could move freely. Not sure I'd recommend the tactic though. No matter how high your armor class, someone will eventually roll a 20 and turn your character into sushi :-)
Franz Lunzer wrote:

I'm not sure how you think those two feats interact...

I think you are trying the following:
-Move through an opponents space (Acrobatics)
-Attack said opponent from the other side (Canny Tumble)
-move some more (spring attack)

This would not require you to provoke at any point.
It would require you to make the acrobatics check.

If I just use Spring Attack, I move up to an enemy and roll a normal attack roll against him, then finish my movement afterwards, without provoking any attacks of opportunity.

However, if I'm able to choose to provoke an attack of opportunity along the way and before my attack, I can use acrobatics to negate the attack of opportunity. With Canny Tumble, avoiding the attack of opportunity in this way means that I gain a +2 bonus on my attack roll AND my enemy is denied his dexterity bonus on his AC against my attack. Then, with Spring Attack, I can pull back afterwards.

Note that Spring Attack is a full-round action, which means that I must choose to use that from the start of my movement. I can't simply say halfway through my turn that I want to turn Spring Attack on.


I can't find anything telling me that it is possible to voluntarily open up for an attack of opportunity, but neither can I find anything to the contrary. It seems like it should be possible to move about recklessly.

For example, if I have Canny Tumble and Spring Attack, could I choose to ignore Spring Attack's "does not provoke AoO" bit to combine it with Canny Tumble?

Spring Attack:
As a full-round action, you can move up to your speed and make a single melee attack without provoking any attacks of opportunity from the target of your attack. You can move both before and after the attack, but you must move at least 10 feet before the attack and the total distance that you move cannot be greater than your speed. You cannot use this ability to attack a foe that is adjacent to you at the start of your turn.

Canny Tumble:
When you use Acrobatics to move through an opponent's threatened area or space without provoking an attack of opportunity from that opponent, you gain a +2 circumstance bonus on your next melee attack roll against that opponent and that opponent is denied its Dexterity bonus to AC, as long as you make that attack before the start of your next turn.


Cyrad wrote:

I'm never really a fan of spells that counter a counter. This not only lets a spellcaster counter the counter, but also use it to their advantage.

I see your point. Didn't quite think of it that way, but I would argue that its ability as a counter is limited, seeing as it requires verbal component to cast. This means that if Silence is already up, Vocalize cannot be cast. At lower levels potions of Vocalize would also prove expensive, while at higher levels one should have a greater chance of countering the level 2 spell that is Silence.


Many probably remember the awesomeness that was the Vocalize spell in 2nd D&D. Seeing as Silence in Pathfinder is pretty powerful for its level, I decided it might make sense for a version of Vocalize to be available as well, although not quite as powerful as it once was, of course.

One of my main arguments behind allowing Vocalize is also that Silence is an illusion spell. I feel it makes sense that there exists a method to work around it. My suggestion is as follows...

Vocalize:
School abjuration; Level bard 2, cleric/oracle 3, inquisitor 3, sorcerer/wizard 3
---
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, F/DF (small tuning fork)
---
Range personal
Target you
Duration 1 round/level (D)
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance yes (harmless)
---

This spell allows your voice to circumvent the nature of magical silence, ignoring the illusion. As long as the spell is active, you may cast spells with verbal components within an area of magical silence.

Note that this not remove the verbal component of any spell you cast. Your voice only travels unimpeded through magical silence, and you may call out to anyone outside the silenced area. Anyone outside of the area may also hear you casting, but anyone inside the silenced area still hears nothing (including yourself, but you do not count as deafened).

Vocalize has no effect on any non-magical silence, such as an area underwater or otherwise without air.

What do you think? I've considered making it level 2 or 3, but I think I've landed on level 3. Perhaps range should be increased to "creature touched"?


Callum wrote:
I made a tiny change to The Skinsaw Murders - I had the PCs encounter the surviving farmer, Maester Grump, on the road as they travelled back from Habe's Sanatorium to Sandpoint. It seemed much better to do this than have Sheriff Hemlock feed them the next lead yet again - and send them back south again!

Much the same here, except it was one of Sheriff Hemlock's exhausted guards that had raced down to Habe's Sanatorium to find them, after Maester Grump came to town the same morning. I had already let the players control the NPCs that were slaughtered at Hambley Farm, so obviously they knew what was up.


Looking over the Skinsaw Cultists at the Seven's Sawmill, I felt they needed a boost for our party. At the same time, I've started to consider emphasising teamwork in their case, and swapping out their cleric level with an inquisitor archetype.

Let me know what you think.

Skinsaw Cultist (CR 3):

Human inquisitor (sanctified slayer) of Norgorber 1/rogue (unchained) 3
NE medium humanoid (human)
Init +4, Senses Perception +10

---
DEFENSE
AC 17, touch 15, flat-footed 12 (+4 Dex, +2 armor, +1 dodge)
hp 36 (4d8+4)
Fort +4, Ref +7, Will +5; +1 vs traps
Defensive Abilities danger sense +1, evasion

---
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft
Base Atk +2, CMB +1; CMD 16
Melee mwk shortsword +7 (1d6+4/19-20), or war razor +2 (1d4-1/19-20)
Ranged hand crossbow +6 (1d4/19-20)
Special Attacks precise strike (+1d6 when flanking), sneak attack +2d6, studied target (+1 attack/damage)

Spell-Like Abilities (CL 1; concentration +3)
5/day—copycat (1 round)

Inquisitor Spells Known (CL 1; concentration +3)
1st (3/day)—divine favor, shield of faith
0 (at will)—bleed (DC 12), light, mending, resistance
Domains trickery


TACTICS
Before Combat If the cultists are aware that combat is imminent, they will cast shield of faith, divine favor and resistance (if there is time). Otherwise they use shield of faith and copycat on the first round of combat.

During Combat Their goal is to flank a foe, which grants them both precise strike and sneak attack, which in turn grants the studied target bonus to attack and damage immediately. If flanking is not possible (or too dangerous), two cultist work together to feint and hit.

Morale If one of the cultists is slain, the remaining cultists will prefer to attempt to flee upstairs, joining larger numbers. The cultists drink a potion of cure light wounds if brought below 10 hp.

---
STATISTICS
Str 8, Dex 18, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 13
Feats Dodge, Feint Partner, Precise Strike, Weapon Finesse
Skills Acrobatics +11, Bluff +8, Climb +5, Disguise +8, Escape Artist +11, Intimidate +7, Knowledge (local) +6, Perception +9, Sleight of Hand +11, Stealth +11; Conditional Modifiers +1 Bluff, Knowledge, Perception, Sense Motive, Survival (studied target)

Languages Common
SQ finesse training (shortsword), monster lore, orisons, rogue talents (bleeding attack +2), stern gaze +1, trapfinding +1

Combat Gear potion of cure light wounds; Other Gear disguise kit (1d8 uses), leather armor, hand crossbow with 10 bolts, masterwork shortsword, skinsaw mask, war razor, 1d20 gp

But I've not yet tried running as big an encounter as this is likely to become. I may be overlooking something and giving them too much power in the way of teamwork feats, or too little.


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First PC deaths in our campaign, and first time for me as a DM.

Adventure: Skinsaw Murders
Catalyst: Near consistent rolls below 5, ghouls, goblin ghasts, and an untimely skaveling.

Name of PC: Levron; Race/Class/Level: Varisian Wizard 5
Name of PC: Jaali Sho; Race/Class/Level: Chelaxian Summoner 1/Enlightened Paladin of Iomedae 4
Name of PC: Thorrogg; Race/Class/Level: Dwarven Barbarian 5

Story: After exploring much of Foxglove Manor, the party reaches Iesha Foxglove's revenant, identifying her as such. There is some murmuring about what to do with her, but the decision to see what she is up to is made by the party cleric as he removes the mirror from in front of Iesha. She races downstairs, screaming for vengeance upon Aldern, and the party follows on her heels. Jaali (the party paladin) is intent on not letting her out of his sight, and as they make their way below to the Misgivings dungeons, they continue to follow her as close as they can despite being harried by ghouls from every corner.

Soon they see Iesha jumping 50 ft into the lower level of The Vent chamber, and a couple rounds later hear her pounding upon the metal door leading to Aldern. At this point, the party decides to make a stand against the ghouls surrounding them, making the sound tactical choice to stop in the three-way intersection between three larger chambers.

After a few rounds of battle, Levron (wizard safely hanging back) starts to hear the sound of large flapping wings behind him. The player looks over his options, realises that the way ahead is too tight with occupied squares and combat to get through, and submits to the idea that this is his character's final moments (Xan-style).

By this time most of the normal ghouls are destroyed, but the party is cursed with terrible rolls on their saving throws. Only thanks to constant repositioning of paralysed fellows is the party able to keep their own from being hit with a coup de grace, and at one point all five members of the party is either stunned (from skaveling's shriek) or paralysed (by a DC 13). Due to tight corners, there is for the most part only one square from which to reach the ghouls, and they have a superior number of attacks.

On the other side of the battle, Levron survives longer than he ever dared imagine, thanks to the party eidolon climbing past him to defend against the emerging skaveling. The ravenous dire bat is squeezing and crawling incessantly through the tight cave to get to the party, and takes a bunch of damage from the eidolon and the wizard's flaming sphere, but ultimately the eidolon is paralysed and feasted upon. Of course, to the skaveling's rising frustration, the eidolon is simply desummoned as it dies. Levron yet again becomes the target of its anger, and is killed by an attack of opportunity critical hit bite as he attempts to flee. Somewhere within the next few rounds, the skaveling is destroyed after a brief tussle with Thorrogg.

Around this time, Iesha is defeated by the joint force of Aldern and his goblin ghasts, and the ghasts have been sent to deal with the party, while Aldern licks his wounds (on my roll to determine his remaining hp, he was left with 11). Two goblin ghasts climb up The Vent to flank the characters with most maneuverability, but both are one-hit-KO'd either by an earth breaker charge or a braced longspear.

Unfortunately, the remaining two goblin ghasts, coming one by one through The Grave, proved too much for the party. There are critical hits against the party every round, and in the last few rounds almost every single roll by a PC is below 5, but what's most damning is probably that all their resources are utterly spent. The first goblin eventually paralyses Jaali and attempts to coup de grace in the following round, but is downed by a lucky longspear hit from Thorrogg. The second goblin moves in to coup de grace, and Jaali rolls a natural 1 on his saving throw.

The final round starts with Thorrogg at 4 hp, and the goblin ghast at 9. Thorrogg drops the longspear, picks up his earth breaker, steps in to hit, and misses with a 3 on the die. I award him a hero point because it felt like one of those moments, and he burns it to reroll, but rolls yet another 3. The player resigns his sheet, and rightly so, as the goblin ghast full-attacks and sends Thorrogg a long way into the negatives. The party cleric, free from paralysis immediately after watching his fellows fall, casts Invisibility and flees.

Good stuff: Everyone had a lot of fun.


Thanks for the input, Wiggz. I found the images that's on the wiki you've linked, but decided against them at first, since most of them unfortunately don't quite match up with what the different family members are described to look like. Regardless, the images are excellent, and in the end I went with most of them anyway. Worked out quite well. :)

I'm curious to hear what you did with the haunts. In my game, I handed each player notes which described to them what they saw and so on.


Our group is about to enter Foxglove Manor, and I realise it would be neat to have portraits to show of the entire family. Aldern and Iesha are both represented in the books, of course; but Vorel, Kasanda, Traver, Cyralie, and the kids are not.

I get that artwork of non-vital characters would be unnecessary for the books, but I'm sure other GMs have wanted to include them as well. For players that encounter these faces through haunts, it could be effective to show them actual pictures.

I've had a go searching the web and these forums for some fitting portraits, but so far without any luck. Does anyone know where I might find what I'm looking for?


I've tried to track down where I got the information about the renaming from, without any luck. Nothing about it in the RotR Anniversary Edition, the original edition, Jade Regent, or any wiki that I could find.

Soo yeah, I'm pretty sure CorvusMask is correct when he says that I've managed to confuse my own campaign with book info, not just regarding the old owners. It happens.


Tangent101 wrote:
Odd, considering the Rusty Dragon had existed for a while and Ameiko had bought it when she returned from being an Adventurer after getting an metaphorical arrow in her knee...

Yep. It existed as The Iron Dragon before Ameiko left for adventuring.

If I remember correctly, the owners were killed by Chopper while she was away, and then she bought it and renamed it when she returned. Chopper killing the owners may only be what I did in my campaign, not sure.


Concerning the False Vraxerises, I don't think it should be a problem to have them shout at intruders on their first round, THEN go invisible and fall silent. The message that they shout doesn't sound like it is meant to be repeated; it's merely a warning that they're going to attack.


SMNGRM, only thing you need to worry about is the PCs steamrolling your encounters. 6 players will require you to boost enemies quite a bit.

Other than that, when it comes to healing, they'll probably fetch a Wand of Cure Light Wounds first chance. :)


I know I've read posts by others who had Ironbriar conduct the trial against Tsuto/Lyrie/other baddies on these forums, but I didn't get to do that myself. Some say that he should be openly arrogant and basically sentence the accused almost immediately, but if you want to build up some trust for him he probably shouldn't seem corrupt.

In any case, if your players try to mingle with the elite, you should probably try to introduce more than just one Justice, else perceptive players may start making lucky guesses about the future. Justice Dorexhi (?) might be a good secondary.

Dawn of the Scarlet Sun:
The Dawn of the Scarlet Sun is a pretty interesting module which you could involve Ironbriar in. It may be that the town watch (Kasadei) that works the case in Underbridge is currently under the supervision of Ironbriar, making it his quest. A respected judge giving the PCs a quest to hunt down a demons should make them trust him.

Your players might want to investigate "the Skinsaw Man" if you included that name in Nualia's notes and journal. I don't know how well it would work (for my players, probably not), but you could consider allowing Justice Ironbriar to orchestrate the capture/killing of a fake Skinsaw Man, if you think this would give your players the illusion of closure for Burnt Offerings. Personally I considered changing Dawn of the Scarlet Sun a bit for this.


Ckorik's suggested build looks very nice. It'll be ages before my group gets to the Scribbler, but I'm looking forward to it already.

Since we have six players with rather powerful characters, I will have to compensate a bit. I'm considering making him a dual-wielder with the Dimensional Savant feat (and more fighter levels), which should fit nicely with his at will Dimension Door ability. I'll throw out the build here if I put it together any time soon.

I'm aware that the Scribbler only gets to use Dimension Door due to his sacred site, but I figure that -- just like an ability score bonus from a magic item worn for more than 24 hours -- it counts as permanent in regards to feat requirements.


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With six players, it took us two full sessions of about 6 hours.

In the first session, the group went through the room with all the debris, then passed the welcoming statue, fought some more sinspawn in the ancient prison, went on to finish Koruvus and discovered the levitation room.

In the second session, they backtracked and found the shrine to Lamashtu, then fought Erylium in the Cathedral of Wrath. This battle basically took the entire session, with the party flying in and out of the room due to fear and safety and so on. I actually ended the encounter a bit abruptly due to it growing very frustrating for all involved; Erylium can be kind of a drag if the players don't find a smart way to deal with her invisibility and flight.

Regarding preparation, I'm much the same as you. I take very much time rewriting a lot of the stuff in the AP to easier list the most obvious features of a room, instead of giving a long re-read description. I would advise you to save long descriptions and meticulous details for when players are extra interested about something, but it's probably different what works best for each group.


Qakisst Vishtani wrote:
Basillicum wrote:

Name of GMPC: Ameiko Kaijitsu

Adventure: Boggards in Brinestump Marsh
Catalyst: Critical Hit Shillelagh

Story

Bright side? I'm pretty sure the players plan to invest in Reincarnate for Ameiko. I'll definitely try to have that effect decide her appearance in Jade Regent, if I ever get there.

Being a noble and part of the wealthiest family in Sandpoint it would seem to me that Ameiko's estate can come up with the remaining funds for a Raise Dead. What's the point of being a wealthy noble if you can't be yourself?

Since Raise Dead isn't available in Sandpoint, and all of Ameiko's family is gone, I let the party choose how to deal with it. And they chose Reincarnate.


I ran the quest more or less as written (the one that Fernn linked), and it worked out quite well, even though the party was of course much too powerful for the attic whisperer (six players at level 4). For it to be a challenging encounter wasn't the point anyway, since I wanted to use the quest as foreshadowing for Foxglove's manor more than anything else.

They liked it, because I managed to do the horror thing decently enough.

As an example, when the party wizard examined the statue of Pazuzu and succeeded his Knowledge check to identify the deity, he subsequently explained Pazuzu to the rest of the group. At this point I stopped him, and told him that shivers suddenly went down his character's spine, and now he felt as though he had done something terribly wrong. I allowed his character to remember that you should not say Pazuzu's name out loud, and then asked him to roll Sense Motive (which returned as a hunch that something bad was going to happen to him).

Depending on your players and your general play style, you may not need to worry about the difficulty of the side quest. It may be interesting as something else entirely. And there is a lot of foreshadowing potential.

Sidenotes:
In my game, I'm thinking that the Sandpoint Devil is the result of cooperation or a secret tryst between Pazuzu and Lamashtu (this may very well have been JJ's plan all along; at least I feel it's hinted strongly at). So if the party encounters the Sandpoint Devil, it will focus its attention on the party wizard, I think.

Additionally, if I end up incorporating Chopper's Ghost anywhere, the PC that encountered his haunt will be Chopper's focus.


Hello all,

I'm looking to expand a bit on the Farmlands happenings in the Skinsaw Murders chapter, and want to share my ideas. Also looking for input, obviously.

My group just investigated the Sandpoint Lumber Mill, and I'm pretty sure they will be going to Habe's Sanatorium next session. While they do that, farmers in the south of the hinterlands will be planning to set out for the Hambley Farm by evening.

Caizarlu's notes at the sanatorium should give the party reason to travel to the farmlands, but I strongly suspect they will decide to rest up before going there. In this case, the setting changes, and I introduce them to a rainy evening near the Hambley Farm, where a mob of restless farmers are amassing to set upon the crazed Hambleys. At this point I hand each of my players one or two farmer NPCs (commoners and experts) to control.

Of course, the ghouls will surround and utterly destroy the mob. To make an interesting challenge out of the slaughter, I'm considering awarding hero points to the player that managed to do stuff such as slaying a ghoul or surviving to the tenth round or some such. I'm rarely giving out hero points as it is. It should be very difficult for any of them to escape, but it's possible. If none of them do, Maester Grump (under my control) ends up as the default survivor that arrives in Sandpoint the next morning.

The main point of this encounter is to impress upon the players the terrible danger that the farmlands are in, but I think it might be useful in other ways as well. For example, it might show them that their hanging back can have consequences. After all, should they choose to go to the farmlands immediately upon discovering Caizarlu's notes (or even before visiting the sanatorium at all), they might be able to stop the mob from going to their certain death.

Also, as an afterthough, how about a ghoul cow/aurochs?


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Alright, here goes! Sorry for the delay. These are the ones that I still feel make any sense.

Foreshadowing Skinsaw Murders Obsession:
If delivered through a reading with a deck of tarot cards, have the PC chosen for Aldern's obsession draw The Bear (N Str), which represents strength that cannot be tamed.

A large lump of darkness (a shadow?) wearing only a strange mask looms over you, a tendril vaguely hand-shaped pointing accusingly at you. You realise that its form spreads about the area effortlessly, and there are people, helpless observers, swallowed by the darkness.

Foreshadowing Barl/Mokmurian:
If delivered through a reading with a deck of tarot cards, have an PC draw The Rakshasa (LE Int), which represents dominance, mental control, and slavery.

A large stone boulder is being pulled by an army of ogres.

Foreshadowing Nualia's Story:
If delivered through a reading with a deck of tarot cards, have an empathic PC draw The Liar (CE Cha), which represents destructive, treacherous love. A pictured lamia signals represents star-crossed lovers or unrequited desire.

A girl with silvery hair sits crying in a cell, and she hides her face, even though there are no one else there. Underneath her forms a pool of blood, which someone seems to burn with angry and swirling hues of red and black.

Foreshadowing the Big Bad:
If delivered through a reading with a deck of tarot cards, have a good-aligned PC draw The Survivor (NG Con), which represents a creature presumed to be dead, but who has survived despite impossible odds.

There is a gargantuan pile of snow and ice. At its top is carved a gigantic eye above a similar carving of a hand. The eye is living and observing, and it alone remains as the world falls away. A woman with fiery red hair flies into a rage and screams.


the Lorax wrote:
Being a creepy haunted house, I just let them hear things - rats in the walls and such coming from upstairs - that was enough to get my players moving in the right direction. I believe I also let them see something fluttering in one of the upstairs windows.

I've been playing around a little bit with ambience playing in the background during sessions, and feel like Foxglove Manor should have, well, just what you said. The sound of rats running around in the walls, and the wind brushing across the side of the building. Creaking, and so on and so forth.

Anyone used ambience like that successfully in Foxglove Manor? So far, I've not found anything fitting. There are some dungeon sounds in Baldur's Gate that would work well, I think, but I'm bad at looping and don't have the files anyway.


Name of GMPC: Ameiko Kaijitsu
Adventure: Boggards in Brinestump Marsh
Catalyst: Critical Hit Shillelagh

Story
I decided to use the Brinestump Marsh sidequest in my game last sunday, but I changed it a little bit to make the final boss battle a bit more interesting and challenging for my group of six players. In my version, a swamp druid barbarian half-orc lady had been repeatedly cursed by the big bad, and she was also dominated with an amulet from old Thassilon.

As it turned out, only four of my players were able to attend, so I decided to involve Ameiko in both the hook and the adventure. She was quite useful, especially with Feather Step, so I think the group liked dragging her along.

Long story short, at the start of the final encounter my swamp druid barbarian lady popped out from hiding and cast Shillelagh on her club. The PCs were too far away to reach her though, and simply moved about the area, trying to position themselves. The actual big bad was not yet present. The PC cleric made his Sense Motive check to realise swamp druid barbarian lady was not quite herself, and planned to help her out.

One round too late, however. The repositioning of the group's characters incidentally left Ameiko as the most accessible target for swamp druid barbarian lady. It's not like I was going to start picking sides, so I felt obligated to have her charge Ameiko.

Natural bloody 20. Confirm? Yup, with a 19 on the die. It was oh-so tempting to fudge the roll in Ameiko's favour, but the dice had spoken, and she was absolutely devastated by 49 damage from swamp druid barbarian lady's shillelagh great club. I described Ameiko's form as giving way to the force of the blow, her crushed remains subsequently flung 10 ft to the side.

Bright side? I'm pretty sure the players plan to invest in Reincarnate for Ameiko. I'll definitely try to have that effect decide her appearance in Jade Regent, if I ever get there.


Sounds cool! I think a good idea might be to use the existing flip mat that covers the Sandpoint Festival area (in front of the cathedral) as a starting point. It gives you a good idea of how large common houses and paths should be, and one could build the rest of the town from that point.

I may have misunderstood what you plan to do though. Were you planning on putting together a map that focuses on each alley and square, or simply print an enlarged version of the Sandpoint map in the player's guide?


Earlier in my game, in the middle of Burnt Offerings, the group visited Madame Mvashti in Sandpoint, and I gave each of them some pretty stereotypical fortune teller mumbo jumbo.

Spoiler:
Everything Madame Mvashti told them that she saw was pretty prophetic though, and I tried foreshadowing the Thistletop bridge trap, ogres under the command of a giant stone, a woman pulling threads from a tower, and also put in some hints to a greedy mountain and an angry woman with fiery hair.

Looking back, I gave them (collectively) way too much. Luckily, my group paid none of it any mind at all, and simply decided Madame Mvashti was full of crap.

If this is the kind of thing you're looking for, I could give you some of the more elaborate descriptions I used.


What a fantastic thread this is. Excellent fleshing out of the area! Thanks to both Wheldrake and Yossarion for putting together these maps. :)


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I wrote up some diaries of hers and had tried to drop some pretty strong hints to what was her main issue with the world. That is, her celestial "taint" and how she has been treated because of it. While it never seemed likely to me that would be redeemed, I figured it was possible. For that to happen, she would in the least have to find a way to let go of her self-loathing.

Pretty early in the campaign, when PCs talked with experienced NPCs (like Shalelu) about life and death and such, I pitched the fact that Reincarnate might be the only raise spell available in Sandpoint. It's an interesting spell, so it became a regular talk around the table. Eventually, I figured a reincarnation for Nualia might be a good first step if she would ever be redeemed.

My group, however, did not come to the same conclusion. Which is perfectly understandable. She was b%*~@*& crazy and murderous, a chosen of the Demon Queen, allying with goblins and demons and plotting to release a horde of evil outsiders (and another evil outsider) upon Sandpoint, after harassing the place with goblins and murders in the glassworks. Her plans were wicked and unredeemable in their eyes.

They executed her and burned her on a pile at Thistletop. They also decided to not let the common people of Sandpoint know that Nualia was the one behind the festival raid, because they figured the town was better off not knowing, after reading Nualia's diaries. I think their choices made sense.


Misroi wrote:
** spoiler omitted **

Me too!:
In my campaign, I've made sure to describe the walls in the Catacombs of Wrath as having a faint abjuration aura (although dim makes a lot of sense), and then I've allowed my players to identify the effect as preservative. Funnily enough, this fact also made them less interested in destroying the whole place, since they figured they would first have to dispel all of the protective magics.

In Runeforge:
By the time we get to Runeforge, I hope to have gotten better at tracking the rounds it takes for Detect Magic to be useful. In some cases, the casters should even feel that their impulse to always detect everything around them becomes a liability. Concentrating on one area for several rounds should make one less aware of what happens outside their 60 ft-cone, which can be dangerous.

Detect Magic is still useful, and an important part of the game. I have to be careful not to have it slow down gameplay too much.


Matthew Downie wrote:
I think it would be reasonable for the GM to say that a deep bog isn't just difficult terrain, it's something worse, so feather step doesn't help.

Right, I think I agree. What I'm considering is to say that Feather Step allows you to ignore difficult terrain that only halves movement.

Suggestion: If the terrain you're in causes one-quarter movement or less, Feather Step may not help, or may lower the penalty by one step (for example, from one-quarter movement to half movement).

What do you think?


Should Feather Step, a level 1 spell, help against even the most severe kinds of difficult terrain and hampered movement, such as deep bog?


Ajit Shyama, Shadow Caller, you're a darling. Thank you! Corpse Puppet is exactly what I'm looking for.


Quick Question: If a faceless stalker dies while in a humanoid shape, can it keep the assumed appearance?

The description for its Change Shape ability tells me that it can maintain the new form indefinitely after changing. It also states that it is a swift action to return to its true form, which might sound like there is a small measure of effort involved in changing back, but probably not.


We started Rise of the Runelords back in September. Fourteen sessions in, and we've just recently finished Burnt Offerings, allowing for downtime and exploration and side quests before I start Skinsaw Murders.

I have a whole of six players, which means that as a first-time GM, things are moving somewhat slowly, but we're all having fun. And there is a lot of potential for character building that I hope to have them elaborate on.

* LG male chelaxian Summoner/Paladin of Iomedae (formerly caravan guard)
* NG female varisian/shoanti Ranger
* LN male half-elf Fighter
* TN male varisian Wizard (formerly innkeeper in Sandpoint)
* TN male varisian Cleric of Calistria
* CN male dwarf Barbarian wielding Thunderdad


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SheepishEidolon wrote:
This group doesn't have a trap disarmer, does it? Don't just put single traps on the floor, integrate them into your encounters. Examples would be alarm, immobilizing and debuff traps. Monsters could engage once the trap is triggered. You could even do kobold style: Traps don't trigger automatically, but are triggered manually once the party is in the right position.

Traps sound like a great way to go, especially magical ones, with Slow and/or Stinking Cloud (a certain necromancer springs to mind). Our ranger has focused a bit on disable device, but no one has trapfinding. Apparently rogues are underpowered and trapfinding "not worth it."

How does the kobold style trigger that you mentioned work mechanically? What's required? I couldn't find anything about such traps. I'm not very experienced with creating traps though.

Thanks for good ideas so far!


First time GM, running Rise of the Runelords. I have a group that consists of the following:
* Fighter
* Barbarian
* Summoner/Paladin
* Ranger
* Wizard
* Cleric

Obviously, I have more players than recommended for this campaign, which might be part of the issue, but that's not going to change, and I don't want it to. Most of the time, I feel I'm able to up the difficulty to compensate.

The group's three frontliners often find themselves near 0 hp, yet as long as the baddies don't find their way to the wizard in the back, he feels like every encounter is super easy.

My question is, how can I better create encounters that challenge ALL of the players? In the example of the wizard, I could have someone throw Shatter on his bonded object, but I feel like that is a big no-no. Am I being too nice?

Spells, tricks, effects, or other things that are good against large groups?


Kalshane wrote:
It always amazes me when someone actually falls for the trap under Thistletop (our half-orc fighter did, too, because his player wasn't paying attention and blundered into it while the rest of the party was screaming at him not to.) since the clean area in an otherwise dusty corridor flanked by two weapon-bearing statues just screams "There's a trap here!".

I digress:
In my game, the summoner sent his eidolon through the hallway first, as per usual, so they were alerted to the trap quite harmlessly, especially since the eidolon succeeded on his reflex. At least it resulted in the eidolon being trapped at the end of the hallway with Nualia and Bruthazmus, and subsequently desummoned.

Later in the battle, I had the baddies deactivate the trap, which became clear to the group when Bruthazmus stood on and moved across the spot without being harmed. The party's half-elf took the bait and charged Bruthazmus, which meant the half-elf ended his movement on the pressure plate, and Bruthazmus gleefully retreated back to the Observation Deck to reactivate it.

While the half-elf did his best to avoid the statue's glaives, Bruthazmus demanded the group's surrender while threatening the half-elf with his bow. The following exchange was literally just, "no! YOU surrender!" back and forth.


Depending on what happens next, your group could very quickly end up in a very dangerous situation. Nualia's yeth hound's howl should be heard through most of the complex, even if only characters on the third level of the dungeon are affected by the fear effect. If that's not enough to get Orik and Bruthazmus curious, the two yeth hounds in the cathedral may respond to the first one, making it seem even more like something is up. Goblins on the top floor might hear the howls as well. Obviously though, it's all up to you how you want to play it out.

If it were my game, I would actually have Lyrie use her scroll of whispering wind to get Orik and Bruthazmus's attention, or to send a message to Ripnugget. Either/or, though Orik and Bruthazmus makes most sense.

Say that any of that happens,

Spoiler:
and say that your group gets trapped and surrounded. Such a situation could be very, very, lethal, but it could also be suspenseful enough to be a lot of fun for everyone. If so, consider going easy on them, and make sure that if they think of a strategic solution, it works out for them. Well, depending on what sort of intensity works best for your group, of course. I digress. :)

I'm slightly curious about how your group managed to get down into the dungeons before defeating Ripnugget. By my memory the doors to the lower levels are locked with Ripnugget's keys, so that one has to defeat him before going down. If you've decided to bar that, or your group simply picked the locks, it would definitely make sense to have Ripnugget and his commandoes move about outside his throne room. PCs fleeing from yeth hound howls could very well be running straight into a bunch of vengeful goblins.

It is fine that he prepares an ambush within the throne room when he expects that the group is on their way to him, but he should realise it pretty quickly if they move on downstairs instead of finding him. Since Ripnugget actually does care a lot about Nualia's success, he would want to go after anyone that might ruin everything.


Wheldrake wrote:
Certainly, Ironbriar could get him released and recruit him to the cause. Perhaps Tsuto gets used as a messenger and sent to some later stage in the adventure path? Though I'm not sure how much use he'd be to the giant foes that the PCs will mostly face later.

Something like this is part of what I'm considering. Whether he stays with Ironbriar at first and then is sent away by Xanesha, or he is used as a messenger immediately, makes little difference. Except one of the options gives the party a chance to stop him.

Wheldrake wrote:
Even better would be if Tsuto tries to get Nualia raised from the dead. With a few additional levels, and a more demonic transformation for Nualia, they'd make a great threat later on.

I've considered this as well, but I'll have to see how the group feels about Nualia. I'm not sure I want to have the main villain return later in the campaign. Even though stuff like having her ride Longclaw seems like a lot of fun, I'm afraid her return could make the party feel like the first chapter of the AP was largely a waste.

Still, it certainly makes sense that Tsuto would TRY to revive her.


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I'm really interested to hear how your campaign has progressed since. Personally I definitely prefer sticking to a main story most of the way, but I think what your group is doing sounds like a lot of fun. Kind of admire the ability to improvise outside of the AP when it results in writing an entirely new story for both yourself and the players. Sounds exciting!


I think you can quite safely assume that the family name came first. As you say, the deed uses Vorel's surname. Additionaly, Foxglove does not seem like a fitting name for a river, or a spot, unless named after a person.

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