BenPel's page

I'm preparing to launch my own Carrion Crown campaign as DM soon, and frankly, this thread has thrilled me! It is a project I've wanted to do for a long time, and have already read the whole Path for my own
personal pleasure.

I am shocked, though, that no one named the most obvious parallel to Adivion to me. Adrian Veidt, AKA Ozymandias from Watchmen was also born a genius from a fortunate family, cleared his studies with ease and boredom, and left to discover the world in hopes of discovering something or someone worthy of his unparalleled talent. Along the way he dilapidated his own fortune, only to prove he could rebuild his empire by himself. Our Adrissant did spend his family's riches on his obsession, yet it hardly seems to create any inconvenience in his endeavors. But most tellingly, when Veidt finally discovered somebody whose accomplishments and talents sparked his interest, his only peer was alas gone since millenias: Alexander the Great, probably THE greatest conqueror the world has ever seen. Finally, Veidt has also a great, but terrible plan that makes him the villain of his story, albeit in a more nuanced way than Adivion's goals and means of necromancy.

*gasps for air*

With that said, I feel interpreting AA similarly to Veidt is completely accurate to the character, or at least to the way he is written in the book. I don't care that the AP expect him to be undone after drinking his own mixture, if I can conclude book six with "I am not a fairy tales villain! I took the elixir myself five minutes ago" *Effects kicks in* (Or better yet, he teleported out with it, drinking it in his own estate while talking to the PCs through real-time illusions. Whatever I can devise.) I'll be a happy DM.

On the other hand, I dislike having him tied TOO closely to the Lorrimor, and by extension, the party, before the adventure begins. He and the late Professor will have known each other at some point, because they were both among the best and naturally spotted each other's talent. Petros Lorrimor was described as a good judge of character (hence being responsible for gathering the party in the first place), and a younger AA would have been less careful in showing his true colors. The Professor would have tutored him a while, but ultimately did not condone his penchant towards necromancy, and cut contact with Adrissant. Sadly, had the Professor not lost sight of him so early, he might have seen his pupil's mere unhealthy curiosity become something sinister, and thus could have avoided many tragedies- namely, his own.

In more recent events, Adivion would have been careful not to leave clue for the Professor to find, as it would have alarmed him and brought unwanted attention, but otherwise he didn't care all that much what happened to him though.

He might have been more familiar with Kendra, though. I saw them engaged in a few stories in this thread, but I'd like to make my own version. In the few years Adivion studied under the Professor, he courted with his daughter, whom he met by chance at the University. They actually became briefly engaged, yet when he appears at the funerals, she treats him coldly, and clearly does not wish his presence. If successful at a somewhat hard diplomacy check on the issue, she merely says bitterly: "I *bore* him."

Cue laughter, but it would actually be a real insight of Adivion's true nature. He's got Kendra, and most people around him, completely figured out, and has little interest in the average person, as described in the AP. Actually, Kendra's resentment only bothers him because it is "frustratingly predictable". His fondness of Kendra was, and still mostly is genuine though, and his affections are the reasons why he ultimately told her his opinion of her. Although she is a well-read, intelligent woman, she lacks the "true spark of genius to stimulate him as a peer".

Both father and daughter are aware of the other's falling out with Adrissant, but neither were quite willing to discuss it, so they only vaguely knew the reasons.

On another, final topic, many people, as I will myself do, had the PCs meet Adivion at the Professor's burial. I find interesting though, that nobody spotted the obvious thread: they meet him at the same event where they meet *each other*! The only common point between each PCs is that they all knew the same person. Now they share the same trait with the villain, too! What a coincidence!!

But what if it isn't? What if, had things been slightly different, had a CERTAIN GOD NOT DIED, Adivion Adrissant would have grown into a more caring person, and had still been left in Lorrimor's will, too? The party's characters aren't fully confirmed yet at this point, but should we have a Pharasmin cleric with us, I might drop hints that the party of 4 should have been fated to be a party of 5 instead, and that the last member has been lost to darkness...

I hope somebody read this, as I am quite late to the party. Though, if I start my own campaign only now, there is hope some others might too.

Jeez, it takes me so ridiculously little to become hyped for a new module... One only needs to slap an aboleth on the cover, and I already start checking what savings I have left.

*Rolls a Will Save Vs Consumerism*

Ooh, is that Belial, or Beelzebub (does he still have his slug form in PF)?

That is indeed Belial's favored form, but Baalzebul in Pathfinder has the appearance of (or is covered by) a swarm of flies due to rebelling agains Asmodeus over a matter of pride and greed.

I'm pretty sure the second art is one of the Mothman, which is also pretty exciting as far I'm concerned.

There was this time my players encountered a gibbering mouther. Only one of my player's a veteran, the others had never heard of this creature before.

So I turned up the volume, and played the korean voices of the Void Monsters (in a word, aberrations from League of Legends) Cho'Gath, Kha'Zix, and especially Kog'Maw. Simultaneously.

The players just looked at me with shock and horror, and then I said:
"Make a will save." And only then I named the monster and showed its picture to them.

So, conclusion: The scariest thing in Pathfinder is the GM.

No they don't. Familars have an intelligence relatable to humankind and as such are considered sentient, unlike animal. They act by themselves and if you want them to do something, you just have to tell them. At worse, it can require a Diplomacy check to convince them to do something they wouldn't want to (for example, putting themselves in danger of death), but they don't need any training to understand what you ask of them, and are usually considered Helpful characters on the Diplomacy scale.

As a rule of thumb, familiars are magical creature that look like (and once were) animals, while an animal companion is a savage beast that took a liking to you and behave like a domestic animal to you.

Edit: Saw it was already ansered, but still thought my role-play aspect to the answer could be pertinent.

My party was going to explore the hex of Rivers Run Red's last event despite having barely explored half of the map. I still had to make them understand that the Troll rumors they were hearing about was actually important, so I had them stumble on a troll camp. 2 trolls that failed their Perception check (lucky players) and, according to succeeded Survival checks, the promise of at least 2-3 other troll scouts who might come back at the worst moment if they attacked.

They decided to leave quickly, and understood that there were a pretty strong troll presence in the Greenbelt. Two birds, one stone. Also helps that I told 'em what I expected from them and I have one experimented player who knows when he's outmatched anyways.

My own group of adventurers aren't really in a rush for befriending the fey (only 2 of them did so, and a 3rd one out of five players is curently trying to), so I ran out of pranks during our last game... Hopefully with those tricks I might have enough pranks to last until they "solve" the encounter...

So far the fairies are following the group and doing one prank each every day. Here's a list of pranks that weren't already on this topic (although I might write a few redundant ones by mistake):

-Entangle to trap the group's horses (while they were mounting them).
-"I am an ass" written on a character's horse
-One of my character has an oversized sword, so they wrote "I compensayte for sumthin'" on his back.
-The next morning, he searched his sword for 10 minutes before tripping over it. It was invisible at the same place he left it.
-Grease was used on two occasion: when a character climbed into a tree (to get her armor that the other fairy tied up there), and on a rope held to help another character climb up.
-Casting Sleep on a character mid-sentence, and mid-walk.
-"Helpfully" undo the tent of a character. They were so helpful, in fact, they did it for him before he even wake up!
-Use a mix of Silent Image and Ghost Sound to make some loud singing animal appear (à la "Hello my baby" frog from Looney Tunes) when the character were busy, possibly making them forget what they were going to do/say because of the distraction.
-Keep using Flare in the face of a character several time.