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HMM

- my players took Fort Rannick, one of them (halforc cleric of Gorum ;) )was declared “Lord of Rannick” by Magnimar
- Lucrecia disguised herself and charmed the new Lord
- A rival group of adventurers (the pregenerated characters ;) ) rescue many citizens of Turtleback Ferry during the flood and start advertising for Korvosa
- My players discover Lucrecia, she flees to the ogre-clan in the mountains
- My players fix the dam and try to secure Magnimars influence in the region
- Their rivals trick them and Turtleback Ferry listens via scrying to their debate (“What about a sneaky assassination?” “As a last result we can always blow up the dam muhahah”, etc.)
- The people of turtleback ferry are shocked and will break off their connections to Magimar, Korvosa will be their new protector state
- my players still hold Fort Rannick but teleport frustrated to Magnimar

now i am working on the HMM-finale

So, who is actually manning the fort? (i.e., keeping the Ogres at bay.)

a cohort and 25 soldiers (from magnimar, sworn to the Lord of Rannick)

So she still wants to destroy the damn. How did the players leave it protected? It is possible that Lucrecia can find out from contacts back on Xin-Shalast how to "re-break" it.

good remark – the damn is not protected, it is still raining and nobody in the region knows about the inner workings of the damn

(Recently on my ROTRL-campaign)

- my players took Fort Rannick, one of them (halforc cleric of Gorum ;) )was declared “Lord of Rannick” by Magnimar
- Lucrecia disguised herself and charmed the new Lord
- A rival group of adventurers (the pregenerated characters ;) ) rescue many citizens of Turtleback Ferry during the flood and start advertising for Korvosa
- My players discover Lucrecia, she flees to the ogre-clan in the mountains
- My players fix the dam and try to secure Magnimars influence in the region
- Their rivals trick them and Turtleback Ferry listens via scrying to their debate (“What about a sneaky assassination?” “As a last result we can always blow up the dam muhahah”, etc.)
- The people of turtleback ferry are shocked and will break off their connections to Magimar, Korvosa will be their new protector state
- my players still hold Fort Rannick but teleport frustrated to Magnimar

I don’t think, my group will hunt down Lucrecia and destroy the ogre-clan. What do you think is the logical thing to do for Lucretia and Barl Breakbones now? (And how will this affect the next adventure?) (Besides more weapons for the giants ;) )

I indeed had the horses (with the exception of the recovered warhorse who got away) eaten by the carrion swarms.

bwhahaha

In my game the partially eaten horses came back from the dead and attacked their careless masters ;)

He really did a fantastic job.

Yes, indeed!

If, like me, you are playing in a more traditional group with 4-5 player/PCs, then this becomes a bit more problematic.

Do you split up the Party?

This is unfortunately not an option for me.

and I will likewise have him accompanied by Shalelu

Shalelu would be a great addition to my party – but i need a good way to bring them together (No “I have heard you are travelling in the this direction, may I come along for my private reasons”)

I (level 1 DM) will start Hook Mountain soon and would be grateful for some hints. (where did your Players have fun/problems/a nervous breakdown)

Did somebody come up with a timeline (discussed here) ?

This is my 1st ever post wahoo. I'm DMing and was wondering if anyone had any ideas for the repeating crossbow up for sale with the name VANSAYA enscribed upon it.

I described Vansaya (+1 shocking and darkwood in my campaign) and the history of the crossbow extensively.

One of my players got obsessed and tried to "confiscate" it during the raid - so he got one bolt in the chest from Savah (Oh sorry, i thought you were a goblin)

Later in the game Scarnetti used the crossbow as a bait to turn the greedy PC against his comrades.

I love this crossbow... ;)

How do you think handle the Hellknights low-level-crime in Magnimar? e.g. would they transfer an varisian petty criminal to the city watch or could they punish him themselves?

I have two side treks that I posted here and at Enworld's Wiki under 3E Adventures. One's a firefighting encounter, while the other's a backstage murder mystery. LEt me know what you think...

Could you post a link?

If that's the glitch, that explains what happened to Tenpenny ;-)

maybe... ;) 40 mines and 1 old man

This scenario is interesting: catdragons idea

My "Sihedron-Amulet-Guy" got arrested...

does anyone have an idea for a connection that will allow the party to actually solve the serial killer problem not just blunder in to it?

My players will soon travel to Magnimar and i have the same concerns. I think i will give Ironbriar more Time with the group (as a "nice" NPC) and give them the opportunity to infiltrate the brotherhood.

Mein Vater ist aus Deutschland (Hannau).

Is that enough to count me in?

Sure. Race: Half-German (+2 Constitution / –4 Charisma) ;)

***************************************
* Counter:
* ========
* - Austria: 3
* - Germany: 8
* - Switzerland: 0
* Place of residence: Salzburg / Austria
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Some Spoilers, please bevare!

Well, my group finished Rise of the Runelords! We began January 7th of this year and played 32 6-hour sessions. The campaign consisted of (in order):

PF1 Burnt Offerings
Homemade Boggart Side Trek
PF2 Skinsaw Murders
D0 Hollow’s Last Hope
E1 Carnival of Tears
PF3 Hook Mountain
U1 Gallery of Evil
PF4 Fortress of the Stone Giants
PF5 Sins of the Saviors
PF6 Spires of Xin-Shalast

Could you give a rookie-DM some hints how to interweave these adventures with the path?

i use flickering, blue light as part of the "old dungeon magic package"

I am afraid, that my players will guess who is behind "your lordship" too quick. Could somebody recommend an other name?

I'm certainly not going to use real blood. For one, gross. For two, unhygenic.

I will use pigs blood - so that the note is still wet and terrifying. Remember: it should be gross. (and blood is ihmo not "unhygenic" - just wash your hands ;))

Maybe there's a tie in, like the PC befriended a family, and the tattoo was given in gratitude. Now the PC is an honorary member, along with the other perks and obligations.

My thoughts are going in this directions.

(On the other side: why should only humans be able to draw magic tattoos based on ancient runes.)

Because of my far from perfect English-skills i am confused about the term "lordship". It is an other word for Lord - but are there "real"(=not crazy & killing) Lords in Sandpoint? Could you say "Oh Lord Scarnetti! what an charming businessman!"? Or is Lord a title, which you get from a monarch?

Can other cultures than the Varsians use the magic tattoos? more precisely: Could an Elf-Wizard have a varsian tattoo?

thanks for the hints

My group so far:

Galstak - Half-Orc Cleric of Gorum
Noal - Human (Varisian) Sorcerer/Barbarian
Merz - Human Rogue/Wizard
Itell - Human Rogue
Meynark - Human Fighter

When should my players gain new levels during the Skinsaw Murders - Adventure?

Name: Nivek, Warlock 18
Adventure: Kings of the Rift
Location of Death: Phylactery chamber anteroom
Catalyst: Brazzemal finally got the torch lit

As the party tank prepared to deliver the killing blow to Dragotha's phylactery, the wall suddenly melted away and the party was confronted with an ancient red dragon. "Back away from the phylactery," it commanded, and half the group complied. The others tried to flee up the stairs.

The dragon stuck his head around the corner of the stairs and dropped a Wall of Force ahead of the fleeing party, causing a train wreck that trapped all but one of our 'heroes'. Desperately, Nivek whipped out his Crushing Despair and Brazz upchucked a 1 on his saving throw, then proceeded to blow nearly every one of his "50% chance to take action" rolls, leading to his eventual demise. One of the actions he was able to take, however, was a Quickened Breath attack on the still-stacked-up group.

One failed reflex save later, and Nivek fell to earth, a crispy critter. He could take 116 points of damage before dying, and caught 118. He was promptly True Resurrected by the party cleric, of course.

This was the 15th death in the campaign.

Name: Jek Peppin, warmage 13

Adventure: The Spire of Long Shadows
Locations: On the road to Longsaddle
Catalyst: Wall of fire + wall of ice + barbed devils = character kebob

As the party slowly trudged across the countryside, the warlock, using his See Invisible ability, spotted the first group of two bone and one barbed devils. This gave the party an opportunity to take defensive measures, which included our hero casting a circular wall of fire around the party. This proved to be disastrous. A bone devil promptly dropped a wall of ice right down the middle of it, separating the two melee characters from the other three in a storm of steam.

This ring of fire had little effect on the devils, of course, other than it being opaque. So the barbs simply stood back and started throwing Order's Wrath and Unholy Blight while the boners started melee.

Jek, flanked by the party warlock (who could - and did - fly) and the rogue (who promptly fled) was soon trapped against the ice wall, double-dazed by the Wraths and badly hurt by the spells. Then the second wave of devils arrived.

Imaxian the barbed devil couldn't believe his luck when he stepped through the curtain of fire. A soul, ready for the taking.
"Come to me, little Snookums."

Two rounds later, including the only other spell that Jek was able to cast during the battle (which washed up on the shore of spell resistance), and the warmage was fatally skewered. The battle raged on for another couple hours. At no time did the party respond to the calls to "Give me the rod" with anything more than giggles.

The 14th fatality involving 13 characters, and we haven't hit the Spire yet.

Name: Jek Peppin, warmage 13

It had been a rough week for Jek. Death by devil is bad enough, on top of that embarrassing "polymorphed into a monkey by Ilthane" incident, but then having to put up with that paranoid wizard before being sent on another "fetch" mission to some godsforsaken jungle was just asking too much. If it hadn't been for the lovely parting gifts, he never would have taken this assignment.

But here he was, staring into the hideous faces of two Swords of Kyuss and a wormcaller (DMs Note: 3 SoK = TPK). "'Just one more door', they said," he thought to himself. "'We whacked the angels - how bad can it be?' they said. Fortunately, my Black Tentacles did a magnificent job of catching them. Unfortunately, said tentacles prevented our minotaur/big stick from reaching them as well."

"Then the bombs started dropping. And my low-rent companions started running. And once again, I'm left facing down the horde, all alone.
What's that you say, Mr. Wormcaller? Hold Person? Urkk. But I haven't recovered from all those invocations yet. What's that? Flame Strike?"

"So that's why I'm back here again, Lord Savras. And just when I think I'm out, they whip out their Resurrection scroll and pull me back in agaaaaaaain..."

Name - Randalf the Grey (groan) L3 cleric of Savras/L3 wizard
Adventure - Blackwall Keep
Catalyst - Poison Dusk lizardfolk not impressed with his storytelling ability

In the attempt to break the siege of the keep, the initial move consisted of having the old man move 50 feet away from the rest of the party(!) and attempt to Enthrall two squads of lizardfolk. He began his monologue in Draconic, one of the many languages he knows. Unfortunately, that spell requires a full round to cast. Once he started, his targets, seeing lunch being delivered, attacked. The lizardfolk mooks were unable to reach him in time, but the archers nailed him twice, cover and all. Minimal damage, but the following string of disasters spelled his doom:
Failed the concentration check to maintain the spell (only needed a five)
Failed one of the fortitude saves vs poison from the arrows, the CON loss knocking him unconscious.
Stabilized miraculously ("I've rolled nothing but ones all night, so I'm calling this one. One!")
Was brought back to life with his last two healing potions by a party member, just in time to:
Fail a Healing check to treat the poison (rolled a one when only a two was needed)
Fail the 2nd Fort save
Take 5 points of CON damage, exactly what he had left.

Poor Randalf - he was our last remaining initial party member. We've now had five fatalities.

PC Name: Hyde, human monk 3 and Borne, human hexblade 3
Adventure: Whispering Cairn, Session 5
Location of Death: The old observatory
Catalyst: Party was not at full strength, and the zombie bugbear was.

Despite having scouted out the situation, the group ignored the bodies floating in the vats and charged right in after Filge. It started well - the paladin laid out the skeleton, then the trog zombie (with a little help from the monk). The cleric managed to turn the other two trogs, but then the bugbear came into range and the tide turned. In four round of white-hot attack rolling, the villain dropped the (previously wounded) paladin, the monk, and the hexblade. The (spell-drained) cleric managed to stabilize the paladin, then was ghoul touched by Filge. By the time that wore off, he was the only one standing. He fled, and only by holding Filge's spellbook hostage was able to recover the bodies. Sadly, two of the heroes had bled out by this time.

PC Name: Haya (supposedly Japanese for 'go fast' or something like that. In this case, it was more like the sound Ms. Piggy makes when she whacks Kermit), human male rogue 2
Adventure: WC
Location of Death: Land Homestead
Catalyst: Bad strategy and a bad attitude on the owlbear.

The group sauntered into the Land farmstead intent on looting, never bothering to look or listen for any danger. I hadn't yet pulled out the map, knowing that would tip them off. The reaction was priceless when I did. (Two simultaneous "Oh ****"'s among others).

The rogue was the first to spot the owlbear, and the critter got the lowest initiative. Inexplicably, he charged the beast with his new magic shortsword. Mind you, this player, while new, had seen what one of these things could do in the WLD a few weeks ago. Two claw attacks (one a crit!) later and the rest of the party (still coming around the corner) was treated to a shower of rogue bits flying out of the next room.

The monk and the old cleric/mage charged in (what?), followed by the kill-anything-with-one-shot paladin, who cowered behind them(!!! - there will repercussions). The mage tried a Grease, which came oh-so-close, and the monk charged(!). The 'bear, wondering why these stupid humans keep serving lunch, nearly killed the monk as well.

Long story short, hilarity ensued. The wiz jumped out one window, the paladin another. The 'bear made a new window, then tripped over the little fence chasing the mage into the woods. The paladin rescued the dying monk, and everybody ran away. The owlbear was last seen walking into the woods, holding its cub under one arm and munching on what looked like a large turkey leg with the other. It had never been touched.

Paladin: "Is there any point trying to save the rogue?"
DM: "Not unless you like jigsaw puzzles."

The group's new motto is "Domino's - we deliver".