Chalkboard Sonata's page

We just had our first session this past Saturday, and are looking forward to many more exciting sessions to come.

My group decided they wanted to set the campaign in Al-Qadim, so I've created a mashup of the Pathfinder and Al-Qadim settings. Their characters are as follows:

Kahir al-Sayyid abd Katapesh: warblade, a Mamluk of Katepesh seeking to earn his freedom through combat and victory
Aziz al-Rasul: archivist, a timid scholar with uncontested knowledge of magic, but for whom daily life is often a struggle
Alimah: bard, a slave girl to one of the Pactmasters; is secretly a genie trying to trick her master into freeing her
Waleed ibn Anwar: sha'ir, a master of conjuration and enchantment, he has emerged from the deep desert to take back what was once lost

I second the above poster's sentiments. Although I have absolutely no knowledge of how to create or update a wiki, I was thinking that something to that effect was in order. Even now this thread is a little too spread out to be super-beneficial. If someone spear-headed the initiative, I'd be very willing to contribute (provided someone gives me a few pointers on how to do so).

I've just finished running my group through Part I of RotRL. It took us 15 sessions (We play on a virtual tabletop, so its a little slower than paper games), but we are finally ready to start the 2nd module.

I've read a little on these forums, and after listening to some feedback from my players, am starting to get worried that the campaign won't be as integrated, plot-wise, as they would like. I remember reading a thread a while back that spoke on this issue. So while I understand there is debate out there on whether or not this is fault or a feature of this particular adventure path, for my group at least, I think I'd like to find a remedy.

I'm still in the development stages, and have a couple months to go before I need to resolve this, but does anyone have any suggestions (or can point me to another thread where suggestions were proposed), on ways to make the metaplot more apparent earlier on? I want my players to have a greater sense of the overall goal in the early modules. Since our games are taking longer to resolve, I feel like the slow reveal will just kill interest in the game.

Second, I'm a little worried about how little treatment Sandpoint receives in the 2nd and 3rd modules. Consequently, in the 3rd book, I wanted to move Fort Rannick closer to Sandpoint, and substitute Sandpoint in for Turtleback Ferry. Does anyone see any major problems that could arise from this move?

Thanks for your feedback!
- Nate

Three sessions into the Adventure and my PCs, through a long string of bad luck, as well as a few unwise decisions, found themselves in the midst of a TPK. They have all rolled up new characters and I have a plausible reason for them to pick up where the other party started, but I have a few problems.

First, is Alden. Having read through the second adventure, I can see that he plays an important role in that part. Unfortunately, the PC Alden became infatuated with in the early game died, and I can't think of a non-gimmicky or obvious way to introduce Alden to the new PCs that can inspire that same devotion. I'm pretty sure if I tried a similar scene over again (PCs rescue him, or he compliments PCs on their martial prowess after witnessing a battle), my players would get very suspicious. Can anyone offer suggestions on subtle ways to reintroduce this important NPC?

I guess my second problem is of a slight more metagame nature. In the first couple of sessions, I had introduced the first party to Shelalu and had her spill the beans on her knowledge of local goblins. Obviously, the players still have all this info, but at the moment, none of their characters do. I feel it would be unnecessarily punitive if I force my players to try and 'forget' all that they learned, so I need a way to reintroduce the new PCs to this information in a quick and logical fashion.

Third, is somewhat minor, but I'm stumped. The first party enjoyed a well-deserved reputation as "Heroes of Sandpoint." How can I get the new party to inherit said praise?

Thanks for your help on getting me out of this bind.

I'm considering dropping RotRL on the coast of the Western Heartlands. My players are not huge realms buffs, so a little rearranging of distances and positions is fine by them (They know that Candlekeep, Baldur's Gate and Waterdeep are all somewhere on the Sword Coast, but I'm sure they wouldn't notice if any was moved closer or further away). I haven't read much on Varisia except what is printed in PF 1-3, so some of my conversions might conflict with established canon, but I'm alright with that.

I'm planning on placing Sandpoint somewhere on the mid-south Sword Coast. Windsong Abbey (I just saw it on the map, I'm not sure if it's important) will become Candlekeep. Korvosa, which I've only read a small amount about, will be replaced by Athkatla, Skullport seems to make a servicable replacement for Riddleport. I haven't yet decided if I want Baldur's Gate to function as Magnimar, or if I want to make Magnimar a city in its own right.

When it came to deities, I was not too concerned for a direct analogue, as I don't think specific deities or churches play a huge part in this adventure. I mostly just choose some of my favorites (Or the deities of PCs) to be in the temple at Sandpoint. So some fit with their Pathfinder counterparts, some don't, but I think altogether, the FR pantheon captures most of the important aspects of the Sandpoint gods in one way or another.

Erastil -> Chauntea
Iomedae -> Torm
Sarenrae -> Lathander
Shelyn -> Shaundakul
Desna -> The Goddess (A homebrewed amalgamation of Mystra, Tymora and Selune)
Abador -> Helm
Gozreh -> Silvanus

Since the Western Heartlands is so sparsely detailed (at least to my limited knowledge) it seemed like a great place to drop the Path in whole-hog.

Anyway, just thought I'd add to the thread in case anyone is looking for more examples of Realms conversions. Not sure it'll help anyone, but its here just in case.

With only four PCs and that smörgåsbord of classes, you are going to be hard-pressed avoiding a TPK. I would recommend against a multiclass character, unless you can find a good, well-supported niche. You're group looks like it is pretty lacking in the full BAB and heavy hitpoints category, and might be a little light on healing. Depending on your party's alignment (And your preferences), Paladin might be a good choice. Given some of the encounters in the Shackled City campaign, it certainly would be an interesting one.

We just finished Jzadirune last week, and quite honestly, both my group and I felt that the ending didn't come a moment too soon. My group was adamant that the children must be hidden somewhere in the city, and so were very thorough in their exploration, to the detriment of the atmosphere. They spent around 4 to 5 sessions, or perhaps 20-25 hours exploring the complex, and by the end, all semblance of flavor had fled. Simply put, there were just too many rooms to investigate, especially for a low-level party with limited resources. The size would have been manageable if they did not have the need to enter every last room, but the nature of their mission, and I don't fault them for this, lent itself inherently to doing just that.

And on top of this, they felt there were far too many empty/flavorless rooms. They would be completely understanding if there were a few red herring rooms, but braving those lethal traps time after time for little reward got old real quick. And furthermore, it allowed for a tone of monotony to quickly set in. Perhaps chalk it up to my inexperienced DMing skills if you will, but the dungeon left both myself and my players frustrated, fatigued, and altogether uninterested by the end.

(Another problem? Because my group was so thorough exploring the dungeon, they rapidly leveled up, and, at this current rate, are looking to be at 5th level or so by the time they even start Drakthar's Way. Adding more monsters into the empty rooms would just accelerate this.)

So, my recommendation would then be, unless you are a DM with copious dungeon-crawling experience, to cut down the empty/pointless rooms explored. You wouldn't necessarily need to hack them off altogether, but get rid of locked/trapped doors guarding them (Maybe just have the doors fallen off their hinges. Thus the group can see the contents of the room without wasting time going through the whole searching/opening routine. You could even take that opportunity to add some more flavor). Or perhaps make it easier to reach the elevator, or provide more explicit clues hinting to the party that their true goal does is beneath them in the Malachite Fortress.

Also, I would recommend adding more instances of flavor into the ruins. While the concept was nice, I felt it was not implemented enough as written that the players would catch on. Other posts have suggested ways to do this.

Overall, the dungeon stretched on a little bit too long for my taste and my group's taste. This also seems to be the case with at least a few other groups. However, if yours is the kind to relish large, somewhat empty, trapped dungeons, then they might get a kick out of this as written. If not, I wouldn't recommend spending more than 2 or 3 sessions in the gnome city.

- Chalkboard

Okay, from the PHB, you can take a move action and a standard action in any order, or take two move actions. Unless you don't actually go anywhere with the first move action (like standing up). The example they have actually has Tordek standing up, taking a 5' step, and attacking.

PHB pg 138 under move action.

So since the Geo didn't move anywhere when it merged with the ground, according to this it was legal: 5' step, attack, merge. Unless the special power to merge is considered a standard action and not a move action.

Except, at the moment, it is still unclear whether the "merge into the ground" ability is considered moving.

My group felt a little too constrained in Life's Bazaar, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to bend the game to their interests and get to know Cauldron a bit better. Since I was never too keen on the second adventure in the Path (And since it isn't immensely plot-important), I cut it in favor of a more free-form adventure between Bazaar and Flood. It'll be up to the PCs to root out possible encounters (I've got between 10 and 12 pre-made, short adventures ready to go, plus I am pretty adapt at creating encounters on the fly, if need be). The goals of this sojourn are three-fold: 1) Bring life to the city of Cauldron, 2) Let the PCs shape their own destinies of sorts, perhaps seeking out training for exotic feats or prestige classes (I have one PC looking to head into Master Specialist, and so will be wanting to find an appropriatly leveled Specialist Wizard; I have another PC interested in joining the Shadow Thieves of Amn), and 3)accruing enough experience to advance at least to level 4, if not higher.

If you have access to a plethora of rulebooks, skim some of the best class features, items, feats etc. that cover your PCs weaknesses and grant them freely to the PCs. Be sure to add lots of cool fluff about how or why they acquired this unique talents.

Chalkboard Sonata wrote:

I thinking overnight on it, I think what I will do is trade the Dark Creepers for Shades, the Skulks for Drow, and the Hobgoblins for Duergar. I'm still in the process of figuring out why all these disparate groups are working together, and I'm half a heart ready to unofficially retitle the adventure "Strange Bedfellows."

If you want to replace hobgoblins due to extensive use in a previous campaign, the duergar seem like a good replacement to me. As for the other two groups, why not something like the following?

Skulks: There is a hidden colony of skulks within Cauldron and the underlying tunnels. Kazmojen made contact with them and hired them as kidnappers, promising plenty of opportunity for murder and torture as well as coin. Fill out other activities and heirarchy as desired. As very chaotic creatures, there's not likely to be a coherent group structure beyond those who are in the employ of Kazmojen.

Dark Creepers: This was a small band travelling through the Underdark who were seeking out Jzadirune's secrets. They came to the Malachite Hold and met Kazmojen, who agreed to let them explore Jzadirune in return for protection against intruders.

I'm not sure I understand the desire for "high-fantasy flair", as I think the skulks and dark creepers actually have quite a bit of flair and are certainly rather fantastic. As the party in my campaign is just beginning exploration of Jzadirune, I'm finding that these creatures really help to lend a creepy, shadowy atmosphere to the ruins which highlights their haunted nature. YMMV.

Nix the "high-fantasy flair" statement. I was trying to figure out a way to describe what I thought about the creatures and that was the first thing that came out. I guess saying that I just felt the creatures were bland and without identifiable characteristics (Or too light-hearted, in the case of the Raggomuffyn) would have been more accurate. However, this new suggestion painting the Dark Creepers being the twisted result of The Vanishing has led me to reconsider my initial attitude. The Dark Creepers may yet find their way back in, but the Hobgoblins are replaced by Duergar (And I think I may recast Kazmojen as a Half-troll/Half-Duergar) and the Skulks are replaced by Shades.

I thinking overnight on it, I think what I will do is trade the Dark Creepers for Shades, the Skulks for Drow, and the Hobgoblins for Duergar. I'm still in the process of figuring out why all these disparate groups are working together, and I'm half a heart ready to unofficially retitle the adventure "Strange Bedfellows."

try a grick instead of raggomoffyn.

Bugbears or instead of hobs.

Duegar instead of creepers.

but to be honest, I'm not sure why you need to change the creatures just to make it a high fantasy flair? Whats wrong with it as written? I mean, its not the creatures, its the way you utilize them that will dictate whether or not the encounters are remembered for their flair; theres nothing at all wrong with the encounter types - plus the stalkers and creepers meet the criteria for silent stalkers at night stealing the kidnapped victims.

Happy Gaming, and good luck,
Robert

Like I said originally, I'm not sure why I'm not keen on the dark creepers and skulks, but they just didn't jive with me when I read through the adventure. Maybe I just wasn't in to monsters without developed histories when I read the AP the first time, maybe I just felt they were bland, I'm not entirely sure.

Maybe I could get some help identifying what role each creature plays in the adventure, especially from those who have already seen the monsters in action.

Right now, it looks like the skulks represent the spies/kidnappers for Kazmojen, while the Hobgoblins act as the enforcers. I'm having trouble figuring out what the Dark Creepers contribute, both in terms of logistical in-game, 'why they help with the Kidnappings' way, and a meta-game, 'why they are even in the adventure at all' way. To me, it almost seems like they are in the module just to be monsters, and if that's the case, it won't suffer much if they are removed or replaced by creatures who, in my opinion, are more interesting.

Anyway, I'm still very much interested in hearing other opinions.

Let me start by saying my group and I are 3 sessions into this Adventure Path (They just reached Ghelve's Locks) and are thoroughly enjoy every minute so far.

However, one thing that has consistently bothered me since I picked up the Path a month ago is the creatures in Jzadirune. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but they always strike me as kind of lame. So, at the last minute, I've decided to change them out for something a bit more to my tastes.

On that note, let me backtrack a bit and give a few details on my campaign. First of all, its set in the Western Heartlands of Faerun, but I play fast and loose with the campaign setting. I tried to set the game up with a traditional, high-fantasy flair, and so far, it seems to be holding up - maybe this is why the Dark Creepers, the Skulks and the Ragomuffyn (shudder) never sat right with me. I have five first level PCs with pretty high starting power (40 pt. buy, extra feat, ~1000 bonus starting gold), but none of them are very good at min/maxing, so they are probably a solid EL 2 party.

So, I've thrown out the Skulks, the Dark Creepers (And the Dark Stalker), the Ragomuffyn, and the Malachite Fortress's Hobgoblins (Our last campaign was Red Hand of Doom, so we've all had quite our share of Hobgoblins for the time being) but I've hit a snag trying to figure out what to replace them with. I've traded the Skulks for Shade warriors seeking the secrets of Jzadirune's spell weaver vault, but the others I'm unsure on. Possible creatures on the table include Derro, Duergar, Drow, and Troglodytes, but I'm open to all suggestions.

I'm most interested adding to the High Fantasy factor, while still maintaining the same general roles the replaced creatures held. What sort of creatures would best fit the bill?

I too disliked the Mummy in Zenith Trajectory. It never really made sense to me. However, I haven't yet figured out what to replace it with.

Forgive my ignorance, but what is the city emblem?

I've had a few ideas, actually, over the past week. Mind you, they are no where near fully fleshed out, but they might be a starting point.

First of all, I'll give a few details of the things I had trouble on regarding the Cagerights as Cyricists.

1) Many events assume that the shackleborn / cagerights have been around for a respectable amount of time.

2) I didn't want to completely rewrite the last few chapters. I'm a busy man.

3) There was a big logical jump between "We need to free our master from his madness" and "We're trying to link to your realm to release demons into the world and whatnot."

4) I kind of liked Admimarchus.

So, I've been thinking, perhaps the Adimarchus is an ancient, most terrible evil. The Cagerights, led by Dyr'ryd the demon (I'm not too keen on the Demodands) have toiled away, trying to link Adimarchus's realm to the material plane, allowing, quite literally, all hell to break loose. Unfortunately (for them at least), they have not had much success, and after Dyr'ryd and his 13 demon allies were bested following their month-long bloodbath, the cult largely faded. Enter the Cyricists (Who take the place of Fetor, as described in the AP).

Meanwhile, in the depths of the Abyss, Cyric discovers Adimarchus (The Lord of Madness). Cyric takes the place of Graz'zt and imprisons Adimarchus. Cyric departs to take care of other business. Adimarchus's madness leaks out from his prison, however, and slowly and quite deliberately, enters the mind of some of Cyric's key clergy (Cyric is by far too insane at this point to take any notice). The Cyricists, influenced by the whispers of Adimarchus, become convinced that their God is trapped in the Supreme Throne, a prisoner to some rival power, and that only by linking the two realms can he be released. Cyricists thus meet up with Cagerights. Duped by Adimarchus into helping to free him from Cyric's cage, the Cyricists diligently behave as detailed in the AP.

Well, that's what I've got so far. It's still rough, but please leave any input you have.

- Thanks!

I'm running SCAP using the Crime and Punishment document from RPGenius. However, I'll give the impression to the PCs that law in Cauldron takes the kind of Stern Father approach. It's better to punish for a possible transgression as to prevent such actions from happening in the future. Money and extent of time living in Cauldron will afford greater leniency when it comes to the law.

Maybe the Bathhouse is frequented too often by perceptive and upright citizens to act as a good location. Besides, the bathhouse, if I remember correctly, was pretty small.

I guess one question I have now is, what clues could I leave my players to let them know they'll be facing a relatively powerful druid in the near future, and more importantly, what kind of measures they could take to level the playing field a bit. If I go for the level 5 Bugbear Druid, they could be in for a world of hurt they stumble into the encounter blind.

I had an idea for possible motivation while I was playing around with the Goblin Graffiti - particularly "Drakthar is dead! Long live Drakthar!" Perhaps Drakthar believes (partly because of Admimarchus's mad whispers in his dreams) that he and his goblin ilk are on a crusade for reclamation of their ancient throne. Before Surabar arrived, the crater was controlled by a natural hierarchy, one in which the strong survived and the weak perished. Drakthar believes such is the way things ought to be and that human presence inverts this natural order, simply because Humans are so inherently weak compared to the rest of the animal kingdom. They survive, in his opinion, only because they surround themselves with complex (at least in his eyes) and unnatural technology.

The goblins follow him not out of any mind-effecting compulsion, but just out of a simple lust for better territory (As well as a respectable measure of fear). None of the goblins are entirely sure what exactly Drakthar is, and speculation ranges from him being a simply overfed goblin to an ancient vampire to a divine manifestation of Maglubiyet's will. Drakthar does little to set these rumors straight.

If anyone has any interest in this idea, I'll keep brainstorming.

What are some possible alternative graffiti signs if Drakthar is a mad Bugbear Druid corrupted by Adimarchus?

I was definitely playing around with the idea of Adimarchus as an aspect of Cyric. My player's are not big readers of the FR novels, so I have some liberty to play loose with established chronology. Maybe I could set the campaign just after Kelemvor has displaced Cyric as Lord of the Dead, right after Kelemvor becomes dispassionate.

Embril and Ike, Cagerights themselves, would be closet Cyricists working in the temple of Kelemvor (Whom I used to replace Wee Jas). I was thinking of having the Ebon Triad be composed of followers of the Dead Three - Myrkul, Bhaal and Bane. I think Bane would be a good replacement for Graz'zt.

Perhaps, as you suggested, the Cagewrights are working to cure their god of his madness. How do I explain the existence of the Shackleborn then, since Cyric has only been around for ten years?

I've just begun to scratch the surface of all the insightful threads on these message boards. I'm planning on setting SCAP in the Western Heartlands region of Forgotten Realms. I've been toying around with the idea of having the Cagerights be a Cyricist cult, but I'm not sure how exactly to pull this off, or really, what to do with it at all. What major obstacles might I run into? Has anyone tried something similar, or seen a thread about this? Or maybe has any suggestions. I'm still in the brainstorming stage right now.

P.S. I just read through some of delvesdeep's alternative adimarchus and the cagerights thread - I think I may try to incorporate some of this material.