BulgarianFirstborn's page

Name: Cocidius
Race: Ratfolk (originally Human..long story)
Class/Level: Rogue (Knife Master/Relic Raider) 9
Adventure: The Frozen Stars
Catalyst: Critted by a masterwork glaive-wielding Drakelands brass dragonkin.

The party was somewhat split because two players were still in the hut, and the monk missed the session, though it was still a 3 member party with a companion and Bescaylie on her dragonkin.
This happened during the last aerial combat encounter, 200ft. from Spurhorn.
Cocidus managed to avoid the dragonkin's fire breath and managed to do some sneak attacks on the dragon (the party was under the effects of flying ointments), so naturally, on his turn, the brass dragonkin went for the poor rogue.
I looked at the attack.. 2d8+9/x3.
Thought to myself, "A crit would hurt..a lot". Described how the injured dragonkin is swinging his glaive, aiming for the rogue's exposed neck.
Rolled a natural 20. Confirmed. Ended up rolling d6's by mistake, and ended up doing a total of 52 damage. Brought the rogue down to -20. Dead. Decapitated head. Head and body still descending slowly under the effects of the ointment, his blood quickly freezing and falling, ever so slowly besides his body, like miniscule rubies in mourning.

They ended up bringing him back from the dead with the help of the Oracle in Spurhorn, and can't wait to kill some true dragons and use their blood to get rid of his permanent negative levels.

Deuzhero, Zorka the Kikimora should be more than happy to set some old mattresses or the equivalent for the players, given they have gained her trust. My players slept in the library and in the attic area.

Any spellcaster of a high enough level can do that, and the trope is older than Doctor Who.
Also, we know that she is Earth born and from Sarmatian origin, so there's no way for her to be a Gallifrey-born Time Lord.

I knew my players were going to fail the Animate Dream. It was also the first of the three challenges they encountered. I was also afraid of her Phantasmal Killer, and told myself that I'd only use it if she were provoked or really antagonized.
They answered the riddle immediately, but didn't really understand what they had to do, even when the raven intervened around round 2 with a swift reminder of their task. The druid of the party did try a few Bluff checks, but they were low, low, low. Surprisingly enough, the Inquisitor DID NOT use his Confess ability!!! I had a mirror in the room, which I assumed the players would have smashed immediately...but the rogue of the party decided to turn it and have it face the Animate Dream, which pissed her off enough to cast Phantasmal Killer. He failed, and "died", and this will have some extra in-game consequences (tied to the temple of Mestama in Artrosa). After they killed the Animate Dream, they failed and decided to do the other tasks then come back.

In the end, the goblin Inquisitor/Gunslinger got this strange idea of...sleeping in the bloodied bed. So I decided that I'd give him a vision of Baba Yaga killing her daughter....but first he had to resist a Phantasmal Killer of his own. He had his own nightmare, but he disbelieved the figment of his imagination and saved against the spell, getting what the party needed to complete the challenge.

About Nadya: She hasn't been very useful at all besides her Survival checks (even though she rolled a 1 and led the players into an ambush). She's a Rogue with 8 Wisdom, and even when she levels up at level 4, she's barely doing any damage with her handaxe and pick axe. I usually just have her jump on things like tables to get slight elevation (it has turned in to a bit of a joke) and just pling baddies. If they are low in health, I just say she misses (and she usually does - lots of broken strings due to 1's on my part...). I have her retrained as a Trapper archetype Ranger without a pet (naturally), though that's a bit useless until level 5.
I find it easier to just make the enemies sstronger by slapping on extra abilities or just the simple Advanced Template.

Hey there, folks. I thought it'd be nice to share some of the cool and creative moments from my run of Reign of Winter campaign. I tend to customize and change a lot of things, so hopefully you find something of use here. I'll start by copy-pasting some info I've already shared about my party @ at the Snows of Summer general thread:

Suan, the Half-Elf Sorceress (Cross-blooded Fey/Celestial)
Cocidius, Human Rogue (Knife Master/Relic Raider with a Legalistic Oracle curse added)
Silphi, the Snowcaster Elf Investigator (Spiritualist, but can still make potions)
San De, the Human Monk (Qinggong)
Absoleth, the Human Warpriest of Desna (Arsenal Chaplain)
All the players are first-timers.

I also use some DnD 5ed elements in my game, such as a Background (just as a way to create well-made characters), the Inspiration mechanic (a token that can be used to roll a second d20 in a time of need. Rewards excellent roleplaying), and, of course, the random trinkets!

First of all, I'm particularly happy with how I managed to tie all the players to the story. A good amount of them had some pretty legitimate reasons to be in Heldren, either temporarily or permanently, and I tried to tie each and every player with at least one NPC in order to give them that extra dose of attachment. The Spiritualist Investigator, for example, was one a job - she was hired by local authorities to investigate a massacre at a Taldan military outpost by speaking to the dead soldiers' spirits. Lore-wise, the encampment was swiftly defeated by some of the first waves of creatures from the portal, but the local authorities are trying to pin it on the Qadirans. When she was taken to the mausoleum with all the remains of the soldiers, all the remains were missing. (Stolen and animated by Rokhar). She was staying with Old Mother Theodora, who I decided was going to be a relatively powerful and Good-aligned ancient Hedge Witch. The statue in Heldren was dedicated to her. The Rogue was visiting Heldren to interrogate the Butcher of Jalrune, the sorceress was working at the lumbermill, doing some accounting and gambling on the side.. etc.

From the get-go, the players were terrified of the zombies at the massacre site. I wanted to make things extra creepy and had one of the horses still alive, but very injured. They were very cautious of it, and as soon as they were done with the zombies in the carriage (Rogue was on top of the carriage and managed to very swiftly dispose of them..), they were very hesitant on what to do with the horse, thinking that it might turn into a zombie horse. Cleric raised it, and with some pretty good Handle Animal and Ride checks, they were able to use it to drag the wagon forward (completely forgetting about the frozen captain up top... it was a fun scene when they went back to Heldren with the frozen body on top of the carriage).

The spiked log trap almost 1-shot the Investigator with a nasty crit. She was very close to dying.
The Tatzlwurm was easy, but it almost killed the sorceress.

The players got Yuln's masterwork cold iron longsword.

One fun little encounter I added to the game was a single Winter-touched Tooth Fairy. It ambushed the party while they were resting in a cave and managed to put the meditating monk standing guard to sleep. Then it went to the sorceress who had the highest Charisma, and got one of her teeth. The look of sheer horror as the player woke up numbed (staggered), and paralyzed.. Priceless. They managed to kill the fairy in like a round, but they didn't have the magical healing to put the tooth back. I added this encounter with Angus Goldtooth (the barger/surgeon/dentist ... and jeweler (that's my addition) of Heldren), hoping that they'd go back to him for some much needed dental work. The players also found a gold tooth.. which eventually turned out to belong to Angus Goldtooth.

They went back to town and Yuln told them that they could keep the sword if they find the lost scabbard (conveniently, it's the scabbard with the decorated filigree of deer, located in Teb Knotten's cave) they could keep it

Down the line, the players fought the Giant Weasel, and the sorceress (who is purely a support, low-magic caster), attempted to cast Magic Weapon from a scroll. Back then I wasn't 100% sure on how casting stuff from a scoll worked and assumed that she'd have to do an Use Magical Device check since the spell was not a spell she knew (turns out no UMD is needed as long as the spell is on her spell list of spells available. Not known. Oh well). She rolled a 1. I rolled on a random table an said that the spell worked on her weapon and on the fists of the monk she was casting it on, but it did some nasty fire damage. I also secretly gave her vulnerability to magical weapons as a hidden flaw.

Then they fought Hammelstaub and the air elemental... Same thing. Sorceress cast Magic Weapon on the masterwork cold iron longsword given to them by Yuln. Natural 20. I ruled that the previously "rewarded" vulnerability to magical weapons was removed... and made the sword permanently magical.

They completely destroyed Teb Knotten by bombarding him with alchemist's fires. They almost split the party in front of his tree shape, but at the last moment the Investigator did a DC30-ish Knowledge (Nature) check and I just had to tell her that the big tree in front of them was not typical for the region...

THEN! The Black Rider! AND A BIG REVEAL.
As part of the Monk's backstory, he is searching for his parents and we decided that though he was raised in Tian Xia, he was not from there. Secretly, we also decided that he knows of the potential existence of the planet Earth and that he knows he is from there.
Anyways... the Black Rider turned out to be his grandfather. A warlord from the Land of the Linnorm Kingdoms who was well on his way of becoming one of the Kings who succumbed to temptation when Baba Yaga asked him to be her Rider. He joined with the hope that when he is done serving her, he'd use all his new powers to lead a rebellion in order to free Irrisen. Baba Yaga allowed him, as a boon, to sire a child after he had served about 30 or so years.. but his child grew to be resented by his peers in the Linnorm Kingdoms who knew of his father and called him a traitor and a turncoat. Eventually he started hating his father and redoubled his efforts to defeat Baba Yaga. So when the Black Raider's son had a son, the Black Raider (with his mother's approval), stole the child in order to break the circle of hatred, and dropped him off at one of the most peaceful and serene places he knew of - a temple in Tian Xia.

It was a very epic encounter full of joy, some answers, and even more questions. And when the Black Rider gave his grandson the artifacts to operate the Dancing Hut and slit his throat, there was definitely a very emotional outburst from the group. I actually made my Monk player tear up...
His last words were "Though you have accepted the Mantle of the Black Rider, you still have to prove yourselves worthy of carrying it. You will be watched and judged whether you succeed or fail. But I'm sure that you will succeed in this, my grandchild. Go forth, but never repeat the mistakes I've made. Farewell, <insert Monk's actual birthname which he got to hear for the first time!!!!>...
..and then, I transported the players to do Kobold Press' Challenge of the Fang quest (from their Tales of the Old Margreve adventure path). One big change I made to the environment is that I said that the Old Margreve forest is of The First World.

On the Black Rider's Mantle - I gave all players their choice of a +2 to one attribute, but they couldn't pick their highest attribute, nor could the same attribute be chosen by more than one person.
Based on how they fared with The Challenge of the Fang adventure, I also awarded them an additional trait of my choice, plus the Signature Skill feat for a skill of my choice.

Let's see here.
First thing that comes to mind is the cold weather. Do yourself a favor and really learn how it works. It's pretty harsh at first, but once your players get used to it, it stops being a factor.
Movement is also an issue, since the deep snow prevents a lot of fast movement, almost always acting as difficult terrain (half movement) which also rules out 5ft. steps and charging.
Visibility during the bad weather is also a factor if you have a lot of ranged characters.

Fey could be surprisingly tricky at low levels due to high AC, flying, and their DR5/Cold Iron. Expect some frustration from your players.

With 5, especially 6 players, be prepared to give most encounters, especially the more important ones, the Advanced template (basically +2 to all rolls, more HP, etc)

The first really deadly encounter is The High Sentinel's Lodge - lots of foes, a "necromancer" who turns them into undead, etc. It's a tough one to balance, but if you have 5-6 players I would give the caster in there some levels in Rogue.

One of the annoying things in running this campaign with a lot of players is the fact that there are some pretty important NPC's early on, who are significant for the storyline and the AP kind of expects you to use them as "the guide" for the party. So if you have 6 players, the party becomes a 7-person party... not counting any familiars, mounts, summoned creatures or animal companions.

Witch Doctor Shaman. Plenty of nasty spells and curses all over..because witches.

Hey there. First things first, go read my journal so far. It's on page 17 of the Snows of Summer thread.
To run this adventure, you should consider the following:

How are your players connected with this? I had all of my players somehow connected to Heldren or a person in Heldren to begin with. I had one of the players be (unbeknownst to me them) related to the Black Raider.

The most important thing is to realize that this is not an adventure about saving Baba Yaga because you feel for her, because you sympathize with her, yada, yada, yada.
This is an adventure about saving the world. The players are going out of their way to save the planet from eternal winter. You need to convey to your players the idea that Baba Yaga is evil. Unquestionably so. But that she keeps other evil forces at Bay, that there are nation's, even worlds who only exist because they are under her protection for one reason or another.
During the first two AP, your job should be to be creative and keep updating your players about what's happening around the world as various places far and wide and slowly becoming wintery. You can do that by having them discover Pathfinder Society logs. How is that affecting people and the economy?

Thanks, Luna eladrin!
More update: My players ended up saving Nadya from inside the White Weasel after they successfully hid from the soldiers when they came to get Nadya. Even though they were suspicious..
Sorceress cast Disguise Self to look like the babysitter..

After taking care of the soldiers (had the Sargeant with the Advanced template), they dressed up like soldiers and off they went for the Pale Tower, pretending to be bringing Nadya Petska for questioning..

Note: After the players slaughtered the soldiers and tried to pawn off all their armor and weapons to the local smithy, the guy only offered to buy them for a quarter of what they are worth. His reasoning was that since he makes them and knows who the only buyers are going to be, he knows that the White Witches and their soldiers will basically extort him for the gear and pay less than half their worth anyways, so he refused to buy the gear for 50% as is the norm and offered 25%. They failed to convince him otherwise.

Nadya Petska used Survival to find a shortcut that might provide some cover from the prying eyes of patrolling birds..
And she rolled a 1.

So I ran the suggested encounter with the Snare Sisters - I had them face 5 trappers. 4 were geared and armed as per the original NPC in the book, one was armed with a masterwork musket. I also had 5 bear traps - identical to the ones in the White Weasel encounter.
Now, these trappers technically are supposed to be paired with badger animal companions, but since the general description of the random encounter mentioned no badgers, I missed that part in the NPC statblock and didn't run them. The encounter was conveniently just enough experience for them to level up, which I think is ideal for the Pale Tower encounter, especially if they go all commando and start massacring everything in sight - at least they'll be all leveled up and we won't have to slow things down from them to do their level 4 "accounting". Plus, they'll get to practice their new skills and abilities on some of the first encounters!

I figured, since the game is going to introduce modern firearms down the line, it would be cool to at least introduce some firearms early on, just in case one of the characters is interested in becoming proficient with this powerful weapon.

Additionally, the trappers are conveniently equipped with a plethora of useful gear which will come in handy especially if the PC's had no luck with the hostile merchants. There's X2 scrolls of cure light wounds, climber's kits (to scale that frozen wall), healer's kit....per trapper!

Yesterday my players finally reached Waldsby, but before that they had to face against the Raven Swarm!
Now, my party is a 5-man party and recently they have been really crushing all these challenges. I decided to up the ante a little bit, and decided to make a couple changes to the swarm.
1. I gave the Swarm the Advanced template, so it got stronger in general with more HP, AC, and basically +2 to everything, making it's Distract (to Nauseate) Fortitude DC 16, and the eye-rake (to blind for 1d4 days) at Reflex DC 16.
2. I added the Crow's Curse.. well, curse, from Irrisen - Land of Eternal Winter, at a Will DC 15 - initial effect is panicked for 5 rounds, Secondary effect is shaken permanently. It does that as a reaction.

So, the relatively harmless raven swarm got pretty tricky all of a sudden, with challenging abilities targeting all three saves, an auto-wounding ability, with three different effects - nauseate, panicked/shaken, and blind!

The sorceress was quick to Disguise Self as one of Nadya's friends and stood in the open to make things less suspicious while everyone else hid in the snow/tarp. Everyone rolled really high on Stealth and I rolled really low on Perception, getting a 15 on a Perception +13, but that was enough to spot one of the players, so the ravens descended and started attacking.
It was a fight with lots of 1's on attack rolls. Two of the players got blinded (3 days and 1 day) and then they proceeded to roll 1's and drop their weapons. The Rogue got Cursed, Nauseated.

The best part was how they went about treating the blindness. You see, the Investigator Elf has the Mutant Eye trait, which gives her a third.. mutant eye on her forehead. She usually covers it with a metal diadem. So when she got blinded, I ruled that she wasn't totally blind, since she has her third eye.
Well... then the party's warpriest tried to help her. I ruled that with 8 hours of intensive care, 2 healing kits, basically a combination between Provide Long-Term Care/Treat Deadly Wounds. DC20.

He rolled a 1.

So I described his methodology of healing as relatively adequate, involving a concoction which managed to open up one of the damaged eyes.. however an unexpected side effect was that her mutant eye bagan to spasm and convulse, turning a milky white color. So opened one eye, closed another.

Then, he tried it again. 8 hours, 2 more healing kits. DC20 Heal.

He rolled a 1. Again.
At this point I just rolled a d20 to see the severity of this botched attempt, fully committed to blind her permanently if the result was low.
Rolled a natural 20...
So I ruled that a new concoction opened up her mutant eye, at the expense of destroying her normal sight. Mechanics wise, I'll give her a -2 to Perception checks and light sensitivity.

Hey, there, boyos. I've been reading this thread over and over while running my own campaign and decided to post here with some of the changes I've made so far. The party is about to enter Waldsby and consists of:
Suan, the Half-Elf Sorceress (Cross-blooded Fey/Celestial)
Cocidius, Human Rogue (Knife Master/Relic Raider with a Legalistic Oracle curse added)
Silphi, the Snowcaster Elf Investigator (Spiritualist, but can still make potions)
San De, the Human Monk (Qinggong)
Absoleth, the Human Warpriest of Desna (Arsenal Chaplain)
All the players are first-timers.

I also use some DnD 5ed elements in my game, such as a Background (just as a way to create well-made characters), the Inspiration mechanic (a token that can be used to roll a second d20 in a time of need. Rewards excellent roleplaying), and, of course, the random trinkets!

First of all, I'm particularly happy with how I managed to tie all the players to the story. A good amount of them had some pretty legitimate reasons to be in Heldren, either temporarily or permanently, and I tried to tie each and every player with at least one NPC in order to give them that extra dose of attachment. The Spiritualist Investigator, for example, was one a job - she was hired by local authorities to investigate a massacre at a Taldan military outpost by speaking to the dead soldiers' spirits. Lore-wise, the encampment was swiftly defeated by some of the first waves of creatures from the portal, but the local authorities are trying to pin it on the Qadirans. When she was taken to the mausoleum with all the remains of the soldiers, all the remains were missing. (Stolen and animated by Rokhar). She was staying with Old Mother Theodora, who I decided was going to be a relatively powerful and Good-aligned ancient Hedge Witch. The statue in Heldren was dedicated to her. The Rogue was visiting Heldren to interrogate the Butcher of Jalrune, the sorceress was working at the lumbermill, doing some accounting and gambling on the side.. etc.

From the get-go, the players were terrified of the zombies at the massacre site. I wanted to make things extra creepy and had one of the horses still alive, but very injured. They were very cautious of it, and as soon as they were done with the zombies in the carriage (Rogue was on top of the carriage and managed to very swiftly dispose of them..), they were very hesitant on what to do with the horse, thinking that it might turn into a zombie horse. Cleric raised it, and with some pretty good Handle Animal and Ride checks, they were able to use it to drag the wagon forward (completely forgetting about the frozen captain up top... it was a fun scene when they went back to Heldren with the frozen body on top of the carriage).

The spiked log trap almost 1-shot the Investigator with a nasty crit. She was very close to dying.
The Tatzlwurm was easy, but it almost killed the sorceress.

The players got Yuln's masterwork cold iron longsword.

One fun little encounter I added to the game was a single Winter-touched Tooth Fairy. It ambushed the party while they were resting in a cave and managed to put the meditating monk standing guard to sleep. Then it went to the sorceress who had the highest Charisma, and got one of her teeth. The look of sheer horror as the player woke up numbed (staggered), and paralyzed.. Priceless. They managed to kill the fairy in like a round, but they didn't have the magical healing to put the tooth back. I added this encounter with Angus Goldtooth (the barger/surgeon/dentist ... and jeweler (that's my addition) of Heldren), hoping that they'd go back to him for some much needed dental work. The players also found a gold tooth.. which eventually turned out to belong to Angus Goldtooth.

They went back to town and Yuln told them that they could keep the sword if they find the lost scabbard (conveniently, it's the scabbard with the decorated filigree of deer, located in Teb Knotten's cave) they could keep it

Down the line, the players fought the Giant Weasel, and the sorceress (who is purely a support, low-magic caster), attempted to cast Magic Weapon from a scroll. Back then I wasn't 100% sure on how casting stuff from a scoll worked and assumed that she'd have to do an Use Magical Device check since the spell was not a spell she knew (turns out no UMD is needed as long as the spell is on her spell list of spells available. Not known. Oh well). She rolled a 1. I rolled on a random table an said that the spell worked on her weapon and on the fists of the monk she was casting it on, but it did some nasty fire damage. I also secretly gave her vulnerability to magical weapons as a hidden flaw.

Then they fought Hammelstaub and the air elemental... Same thing. Sorceress cast Magic Weapon on the masterwork cold iron longsword given to them by Yuln. Natural 20. I ruled that the previously "rewarded" vulnerability to magical weapons was removed... and made the sword permanently magical.

They completely destroyed Teb Knotten by bombarding him with alchemist's fires. They almost split the party in front of his tree shape, but at the last moment the Investigator did a DC30-ish Knowledge (Nature) check and I just had to tell her that the big tree in front of them was not typical for the region...

THEN! The Black Rider! AND A BIG REVEAL.
As part of the Monk's backstory, he is searching for his parents and we decided that though he was raised in Tian Xia, he was not from there. Secretly, we also decided that he knows of the potential existence of the planet Earth and that he knows he is from there.
Anyways... the Black Rider turned out to be his grandfather. A warlord from the Land of the Linnorm Kingdoms who was well on his way of becoming one of the Kings who succumbed to temptation when Baba Yaga asked him to be her Rider. He joined with the hope that when he is done serving her, he'd use all his new powers to lead a rebellion in order to free Irrisen. Baba Yaga allowed him, as a boon, to sire a child after he had served about 30 or so years.. but his child grew to be resented by his peers in the Linnorm Kingdoms who knew of his father and called him a traitor and a turncoat. Eventually he started hating his father and redoubled his efforts to defeat Baba Yaga. So when the Black Raider's son had a son, the Black Raider (with his mother's approval), stole the child in order to break the circle of hatred, and dropped him off at one of the most peaceful and serene places he knew of - a temple in Tian Xia.

It was a very epic encounter full of joy, some answers, and even more questions. And when the Black Rider gave his grandson the artifacts to operate the Dancing Hut and slit his throat, there was definitely a very emotional outburst from the group. I actually made my Monk player tear up...
His last words were "Though you have accepted the Mantle of the Black Rider, you still have to prove yourselves worthy of carrying it. You will be watched and judged whether you succeed or fail. But I'm sure that you will succeed in this, my grandchild. Go forth, but never repeat the mistakes I've made. Farewell, <insert Monk's actual birthname which he got to hear for the first time!!!!>...
..and then, I transported the players to do Kobold Press' Challenge of the Fang quest (from their Tales of the Old Margreve adventure path). One big change I made to the environment is that I said that the Old Margreve forest is of The First World.

On the Black Rider's Mantle - I gave all players their choice of a +2 to one attribute, but they couldn't pick their highest attribute, nor could the same attribute be chosen by more than one person.
Based on how they fared with The Challenge of the Fang adventure, I also awarded them an additional trait of my choice, plus the Signature Skill feat for a skill of my choice.