Belloque's page

How did you handle The Blooding (p 402 in the Hardcover) in your campaigns?

I may have introduced it a bit too fast through one of the characters sister at the end of the first module. Now my players have started asking around, reading up on the history of the church of Asmodeus and also visited the place.

They were quite convincing and got an audience with Archbishop Ornher Reebs who said The Blooding was for the good of the city but didn't reveal anything else.

The players kept asking about the ritual with 13 virgins 30 years ago (Guide to Korvosa) and the names of the involved and if any of them were still alive. Reebs told them that the priest in charge of the ritual returned to Cheliax and to talk to his acolytes maintaining the archive regarding the 9 resurrected virgins. The player characters were supposed to return in a week. Then the bloodveil happened.

Now I could just let the church of Asmoedus not let them in because of the Bloodveil but I really want their research to pay off in some way without derailing the rest of the campaign. Letting them track down one of the virigns and perhaps get some info. Not sure what.

After Seven days to the grave I was planning to do Academy of Secrets tuned down levelwise and later on in Escape from Old Korvosa give hints through the painter (whats his name) of the queen dealing with hell. But what can I give them right now?

Cheers

Hello!

My group of 5 characters (fighter, rogue, sorcerer, shaman and bard) are all level 5 and about to head to Racker's alley in Seven days to the grave.

This far they've managed every encounter quite well and I'm wondering if letting them fight the 4 vampire spawns one level early will be too tough for them?

According to the anniversary edition of CotCT they're supposed to be lvl 6 and a group of 4 characters. We're all pretty new to Pathfinder and therefore I'm probably not playing the enemies as tough as I could. The group has no clue that vampires are involved and are heading there as the sun is setting, but they happen to have one or two silver weapons, silver syren, bardic Magic to bypass DR, holy water, and some divine magic to help them out. Also I'm planning to have the vampires go gaseous at 0 HP and head back to their coffins for the player characters to hopefully finish them there.

So should I let them have a go at this challenging encounter even if they still lack about 1000XP to lvl 6 which is the recommended lvl in the adventure module?

A player of mine picked this archetype - Shielded fighter - and is wondering about some abilities.

Shield fighter at lvl 5 and Shield mastery at lvl 19 seem like they are both worse than the regular fighter abilities. Could anyone explain how these differ from the original abilities. Especially Shield mastery.

A player of mine picked this archetype - Shielded fighter - and is wondering about some abilities.

Shield fighter at lvl 5 and Shield mastery at lvl 19 seem like they are both worse than the regular fighter abilities. Could anyone explain how these differ from the original abilities. Especially Shield mastery.

The characters are level 4 starting the chapter. Is it even possible for them to have the spell "remove disease" to help the sick girl Brienna? Seems a bit odd that this should be an alternative as no divine caster I know of can have that spell at level 4. Even though it really would have been perfect for a shaman or cleric to step forward here and save the day. Only option seems to be buying a scroll, potion or hire someone. Right?

"In Korvosa, for instance, where the use of shiver is tightly controlled, although not technically illegal, the price for a dose generally fluctuates around 25 gp."

When is it actually legal?

The Green Market is a Pathfinder society scenario that fits really well as a sidequest for my group. Especially for one of the characters that has a merchant brother in law that has replaced Zeeva Foxglove as the owner.

Problem is that the group is level 2 and the scenario is for level 5 if I remember correctly. Therefore I need to make the fights less deadly. I'll probably wing it a bit, but what I really would like to do is give them the opportunity to solve the final encounter with the shoanti ghost Greenheart peacefully. This encounter is way out of their league and also the Shaman even says that: "You see, he left this world a man of peace, not a man of war. Your best hope might be to make him remember that."

Do you have any ideas what could be an alternative to fight the Ghost with magical weapons and channeling? Something that is all about making the ghost remember its principles in life and stop being violent?

Diplomacy doesn't seem really fitting with an angry ghost. The group includes a shoanti Shaman lvl 2 as well and maybe he could be the solution and step into the spotlight?

Grateful for any help!

Finally I seem to have a group of 6 (!) players to play CotCT. One player wants to play a Shoanti shaman (Hawk clan, lore) and he has this great idea that he is in Korvosa searching for the forgotten spring of Gozreh. His investigations have led him to believe it is located in the vaults under control of some criminal gang. This is his reason to really care for the wellbeing of the city and maybe also have met Gaedren.

So my questions are:
1. Any reason playing a Shoanti shaman will be a problem?
2. What of the shoanti history in Korvosa should be known to him?
3. How can his backstory idea tie in with the actual evil under Korvosa?

As quite new to the setting any ideas are welcome.

Cheers

I've seen the module Murder's mark mentioned as a good starter before jumping into CotCT. What's your opinion on this? And if yes, what changes did you do?

I can see the connection geographically and also how the illegal activities could be connected to Gaedran. But on the other hand it would alter the start of CotCT where the characters aren't supposed to know each other but all get separate invutations to the harrower.

How to connect the dots?

In the first part and final encounter there is a giant hook fly with the ablility Brood spawn. She uses the entangled bodies to collect blood and drain constiturion. Is it possible for her to do this twice if she survives the slashing damage it causes her?

The way it's described makes me wonder if she can use this skill on one of the poor player characters afterwards.

I really like the content in this module but it is rather railroaded. I'd much rather have the players feeling as they have options and may decide what to do when. There are some side quests with missing persons and wolf activity in the area that seem to be glued to the main story. Perhaps these could be used to introduce the players to the main story instead? Any ideas of how to make the module a bit more sandboxy?

Hi! I'm new to Pathfinder and about to run Gallows of Madness with just 3 players. I've understood that most modules are meant to be played with four players so this might be bit of a challenge to them. The module has information for how to scale the adventures for 2nd level characters which is handy. So here's my two questions:

1. Should I make any changes or can adventure 1 be played as is at level 1 and adventure two at level two? Or should I make any changes further on?
2. As the xp-progression will be faster with only three players it seems they will end up at level 3 just in time for the third and last adventure in this mini-campaign. Can a party of three play this at level three, even if it's meant for level 2, party of four?

I'd be grateful for any help!

I'm about to introduce a couple of first time roleplayers to this fantastic hobby. I've GMd alot before but not Pathfinder even if I'm kind of familiar with the system. We're taking on one of the beginner box bash scenarios where the heroes fight a Mimic. It has a CR of 4 which to me seems quite tough. Will a group of three be able to handle that fight?

New to the forum and not sure if I'm posting this in the right place.

I've found alot of help regarding the campaign here but I still have plenty of questions. I have the new hardcover edition and I've read the first two parts. Let's start withe these questions:

1. It's obvious that it's important to tie the player characters to the city. The crimson throne player's guide seems great but it kinda gives away the Gaedren Lamm hook. Everyone will know this is what ties them together even before we start and then expect him to be the goal. Did you find this a problem?

2. It seems in Edge of Anarchy all the side quests Croft gives the players are just foreshadowing and could easily be skipped. Apart from the Shingles one they don't really add anything. All the meat in the world especially. Eels end is nice and maybe this could be where a runaway Lamm could be found. Perhaps The Dead Warrens is needed for introducing Rolth. Listening to the audio version these weren't even there. Am I missing something here?

3. In Seven days to the grave I'm having a hard time finding what clues are expected to make the players suspect Davaelus and the physicians? The sunken boat gives them the cult name and meeting the sick girl might make them suspect it's the coins that started the disease to spread, but why would they investigate the physicians? In the audio version two characters get sick and are taken to the sick house which is a solution. What's your take on this?

More to come...