Critic of the Dawn's page

Just wanted to give you folks a quick heads up. On 7/11/20, I sent a heads up email saying that my June subscription order had not been delivered. It just came in the mail today 7/25/20, and based on the postmark date (6/20/20), it looks like this is the original shipment rather than a resend. I can only assume the post office lost it for a while then found it. Fortunately everything is present and intact!

I know you guys are working through a big email backlog at the moment, and I wanted to make sure that you did not waste time and money processing a replacement shipment for me.

The email subject was "Paizo Order #26846476 Shipment", and my email was sent at 2:00 PM Eastern Time on 7/11/20. Please disregard that email, and feel free to clear it from your queue. No action is required.

Thanks!

If the Extinction Curse PCs run a circus, are they still murder hobos?

No, I believe this would qualify them as carnage carnies.

Name: Kamashi Godtouched
Race: Half-Orc
Classes: Inquisitor 11
Adventure: Vaults of Madness
Location: E7, Moldy Catacombs
Catalyst: Dem bones dem bones dem rawbones

The gory details: Since their encounter with the shadow demon en route to Saventh-Yhi, everything had gone smoothly for the party. Exploring the city had gone fairly smoothly, with none of the tribes inhabiting Saventh-Yhi being able to stand up to the group. Even the fearsome Green God went down with minimal trouble.

Success breeds overconfidence.

After clearing several of the Vaults, the group came to the conclusion that they were not a major threat. Having cleared the first five vaults in five days, the group decided that they were still in good enough shape to clear the sixth without resting.

The spectres in the entryway messed the group up pretty badly, but after a brief return to camp for Restoration (thanks Nkechi!) they came back again without resting for more punishment. Rushing right through the trapped chamber, the group came upon a hideous skinless vampire who took one look at them and retreated down the hall.

The party pursued, with the heavy melee-focused characters hanging back to self-buff while the Magus and Arcanist rushed forward. In short order the Magus was tripping balls and the Arcanist was nauseated, energy drained, and grappled, with both having taken a fair amount of damage from the Rawbones' vomit gore ability.

Kamashi rushed forward to the rescue while the party's Ranger provided fire support, and in short order the Terkow was cut down. This gave the Magus and the Arcanist time to retreat while the Druid moved forward to support Kamashi against the remaining Rawbones.

Unfortunately, the Rawbones continued vomiting gore, and soon the repeated shotgun blasts of blood and bone began to take their toll. Kamashi went down, out cold, and the last Rawbones had just enough time to toss off one last Vomit before going down itself. This was enough to kill Kamashi, and left the druid in pretty rough shape as well.

Fortunately, with the help of the flying Magus, the party's Oracle was able to get into position to use Breath of Life to bring back Kamashi before a round had passed, but the death still totally counts!

Confirmed!

Thanks for your help! :)

Thanks for your help Katina! :)

The post office has been pretty reliable up until this point, so here's hoping they got whatever mischief got my package damaged out of their system!

I got an email stating that a replacement copy of The Lost Outpost would be included in my next subscription order, but it didn't mention Incident at Absalom Station.

Do you know if it will be included in this shipment, if it will come separately, or if it's been scheduled to come out at the same time as the next Starfinder AP issue?

Thanks again for your help and for your time!

Hello Customer Service!

I've sent two emails related to this issue with no response on 8/19 and 8/26. I see from other threads that GenCon and Con Crud and probably vacations and possibly an email issue have all resulted in everything presently being on fire in the Customer Service department, so that's fine - I get it. Everything has been on fire at my workplace since May, so I can certainly empathize and I'm sure you're working through everything as quickly as you can.

With that said, since it's been a couple weeks I wanted to reach out this way in the hopes of getting the issue resolved sooner rather than later.

Basically, the post office seems to have dropped the package for this order in a puddle and then either stepped on it or run over it. The package showed up in my mailbox in one of those "Oops we broke your mail!" transparent bags that the Post Office uses when they destroy a package.

The package itself was crumpled and water damaged with several holes, and the books inside were likewise crumpled and water damaged.

Incident at Absalom Station seems to have thrown itself on the metaphorical grenade of Post Office carelessness and suffered a damaged spine and some serious contusions along the top of the pages as a result. I am reasonably sure that it cannot be opened without the whole thing starting to fall apart.

I@AS's sacrifice protected The Lost Outpost from the most extreme damage, but it is nonetheless crumpled pretty badly.

I understand and appreciate that you had nothing to do with the Post Office's decision to play water polo with my game books, but unfortunately that does not change the sad fact that neither book was received in acceptable condition.

If possible, I would appreciate it if you could replace both books. If it will be cheaper for you to send them with my next subscription package, that will be fine.

I can take pictures if you really need them, but given the fact that I've been an AP subscriber since the beginning with no previous requests of this nature and that I've already attempted to resolve this issue twice without response, I'm already a bit frustrated here.

Please let me know what, if anything, you need from me to resolve this issue.

Thanks for your time and for your assistance, and my apologies if I came across as a little grumpy! :)

Ever since I've been reading the Strange Aeons AP, something has been bugging at me every time a picture of Lowls shows up. I swear that I've seen him before, but until this morning I couldn't place where. Then, quite suddenly, it hit me.

Count Lowls looks familiar because he is, in fact, secretly a traveler from another world, and more importantly, from another time!

That's right! Lowls is secretly, in fact, none other than Guru Melchior from Chrono Trigger! And he would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for my misspent youth!

Seriously though. Just look at the evidence!

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Clearly this man is no longer fooling any of us. Gentlebeings, the prosecution rests!

Critic, for data purposes, was Nkechi being played as a PC at the time of death or is he just an NPC?

Nkechi is an NPC, but NPCs are run by my players in whatever encounters they choose to have them participate in.

Regarding the fetish, I plan to make it automatically succeed if the PCs manage to hit with it. The demon encounters in Racing to Ruin are tricky enough that an easy out isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Name: Zordlon Vaus
Race: Elf
Classes: Arcanist 5
Adventure: Racing to Ruin
Location: O, Bodies on the Riverbank
Catalyst: Itombu the Shadow Demon, revenge is a b#+&$

The gory details: Having previously defeated a wandering girallon with little trouble, a dire ape with 50% less arms seemed like a cakewalk. Then things started going strangely.

The ape somehow had spell resistance, which seemed odd. It also seemed to hit unusually hard.

The fact that a shadow demon popped out of it when they cut it down was also somewhat odd.

Unlike some parties, mine almost instantly remembered the spirit fetish and even tried to use it, but they had given it to the party's oracle, who is... not great at hitting things. The banishment attempt ended up missing, therefore.

The druid had a bright idea as well, however. Literally. Casting Diminish Plants, the druid managed to clear enough of the thick jungle canopy to bathe the shadow demon in sunlight. With a shriek of rage and humiliation, the shadow demon fled into the forest.

Unfortunately for the party, it held a grudge. Biding its time, it waited until over a day had passed for its second attempt to slay the party and/or find a new host. The party awakened to crocodiles rushing forth from the river, but a quick spell from the druid caused them to dissappear in a burst of shadowy vapor.

As the Arcanist attempted to explain what the hell had just happened, the Shadow Demon materialized in mid air above the party and dropped a Shadow Evocation fireball right in the middle of the party. Zordlon failed both the will and the reflex saves, and was dropped to just 1 shy of dead.

Unfortunately, he was next in initiative order and didn't manage to stabilize in time. The fight ended in a "To Be Continued!" with most of the party heavily injured, Zordlon dead, and Gelik unconscious. Can the party manage to smack the Shadow Demon with a monkey head in time? Or will they all die horribly? We'll find out next week!

Name: Nkechi the Tempest
Race: Human
Classes: Cleric of Gozreh 5
Adventure: Racing to Ruin
Location: M, Warriors of the Child God
Catalyst: Being the only human on watch, favored enemy + bane arrow + critical hit

The gory details: The proud warriors of Mzali would tolerate no intruders in territory they claimed as their own. Catching sight of the party in the early afternoon, they quietly trailed the group and concealed themselves as night fell, waiting for the moment to strike.

Once most of the party had turned in to rest, the rangers sprung their ambush, emerging from the undergrowth with bows drawn. Sighting down the shafts of their arrows at the two people on watch, they quickly determined that only one of them was identifiably human. The first archer fired and missed.

The second was luckier. He loosed the twisted black arrow, which flew almost silently across the 150 feet separating him from the target, only to find its new home right between the eyes of the surly nature priest. Nkechi swayed for a moment, then toppled over backward, dead before he hit the ground. 5d6+21 damage from a crit is NASTY at level 5!

Nkechi was subsequently reincarnated as a female elf with even less hit points!

Name: Nibi
Race: Gnome
Classes: Gunslinger 4
Adventure: Souls for Smuggler's Shiv
Location: Z7, Dark Lake
Catalyst: Gibbering mouther, being fun-sized, and splitting the party

The gory details: After a long and challenging battle against Yarzoth, the party stood triumphant. The strange serpent creature had attempted to flee by somehow turning into mist, but magic missiles and a few solid hits on the fleeing misty form proved the creature's undoing.

With the serpent woman dead, the party promptly split up to explore the remaining few rooms of the subterranean temple complex. After all, what could go wrong with the boss killed?

The party's frontline Inquisitor turned to mist and went to explore the serpentfolk's bolt-room with the party's druid. The party Magus also turned to mist and went to explore the rest of the cracks and crevices in the temple. And the Oracle (out of offensive spells), the Arcanist (also out of offensive spells) and the Gunslinger decided to work together to explore whatever was behind the portcullis in the east end of the sanctuary.

Turns out it was a Gibbering Mouther. The Gunslinger promptly failed her will save and started babbling incoherantly. The Oracle did what she could to support her friend. The Druid, Inquisitor, and Magus began to SLOWLY seep their way through the long cracks and crevices to help. And the Arcanist retreated, making his way entirely out of the temple by the end of the fight in a bid to try to recruit some Water Mephit reinforcements.

Unfortunately, the bite-sized Gunslinger was effectively helpless in her confused stupor, and was engulfed and gruesomely devoured before the party's frontliners finally showed up and defeated the Mouther.

If you (or someone else who has received them from you) could please send them to me at criticofthedawn (at) gmail (dot) com, I would be much obliged. This adventure badly needs fleshing out and these maps will help me out a lot once we get to book 3.

I really feel like the Swashbuckler needs mobility to play an increased role in their actual combat strategy. By this I mean that the class is missing an actual incentive to use its Derring-Do, Swashbuckler's Grace, Swashbuckler's Edge, plus feats like Spring Attack, etc.

I'd really like to see something from this class making moving around a meaningful and viable tactical option instead of lining up and exchanging broadsides like Fighters and Barbarians. In D&D 3.5, the Scout had an ability called Skirmish which gave a bonus to damage and AC, but only if the Scout moved at least 10 feet on their turn. I'm not necessarily suggesting that the Swashbuckler copy this mechanic (although it's an interesting option), but I do think that the Swashbuckler's list of Deeds could be expanded to include options that make moving around the battlefield a powerful option.

I'd personally like to see the following (or something similar):

Advancing Thrust: At 5th level, after moving at least 15 feet, a swashbuckler may spend 1 panache point as part of an attack action to roll the weapon’s damage dice for the attack twice and add the results together before adding bonuses from Strength, weapon abilities (such as flaming), precision-based damage, and other damage bonuses. These extra weapon damage dice are not multiplied on a critical hit, but are added to the total. This multiplier increases by 1 every 4 levels (for example, the swashbuckler will roll the weapon's damage dice three times at level 9) to a maximum of five times the weapon's damage dice at level 17. This works the same way as and does not stack with the bonus damage caused by the Vital Strike feat.

Cautious Advance: At 7th level, a swashbuckler with at least 1 point of panache may spend a move or double move action to move at half speed to gain the benefits of the Mobility Feat for one round. If the swashbuckler already possesses the Mobility feat, the dodge bonus to AC granted while using a cautious advance increases to +6.

Reckless Charge: At 11th level, a swashbuckler may spend 1 panache point as part of a charge to gain the benefit of the pounce special ability for that charge. Using a reckless charge provokes an attack of opportunity from the target, even if the charge would not normally result in the Swashbuckler leaving a threatened space.

Dance of Death: At 15th level, while wielding a light or one-handed piercing weapon in one hand, a swashbuckler who moves at least 15 feet may spend 1 point of panache as a swift action to triple the threat range of the weapon for one round. This does not stack with the Improved Critical feet, the Keen weapon enhancement, or other similar effects. For example, a Swashbuckler using a dance of death with a +3 keen rapier would have a threat range of 12-20.

Name: Solamus Aldori
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Witch 10
Adventure: Blood for Blood
Location: Drelev Keep
Catalyst: Overconfidence in the utility of greater invisibility

The Gory Details: With Baron Drelev dead, his guards surrendered, and Imeckus Stroon having taken his leave, the only foe between the party and victory in Drelev Keep was a group of Hill Giant Barbarians trying to fight their way up to the party.

The party had set up in the spiral staircase and were very effectively grinding the giants down one by one. Solamus, always one to take bold (and some might say foolhardy) risks, decided this was taking too long, and while still under the effects of a Greater Invisibility spell, broke out of the party's defensive line and flew carefully between the giants, then lined up and fired a lightning bolt which hit four of them.

Unfortunately for Solamus, he chose to do so from inside a doorway that two of the giants could reach. Knowing that a bolt of lightning had just blasted out of the door adjacent to them, the giants (who couldn't reach the party's warriors in the staircase yet anyway) decided to start swinging at where-ever that bolt of lighting came from. The 50% miss chance helped Solamus a little - it took 3 attacks instead of 2 for him to be squashed into oatmeal by the enraged giants.

The party managed to mop up the remaining giants 4 or 5 rounds later, and Solamus was raised by one of the party's scrolls of Raise Dead.

I've got a couple new ones to list since last I posted.

Name: Elsa Silvertongue Goldwhistle Orlovsky
Race: Halfling
Classes/levels: Bard 8
Adventure: The Varnhold Vanishing
Location: Vordakai's Tomb
Catalyst: Antipaladins are dicks

The Gory Details: After a long battle, the party managed to reach the inner sanctum of the ancient cyclops lich Vordakai. There they met the lich himself, along with the lich's champion - a Cyclops Graveknight Antipaladin (courtesy of the excellent six-player conversions stickied on this board). As the party's spellcasters traded spells with the lich, Baroness Drogza (the party paladin) challenged the Champion to a battle, and the two began smiting the hell (or heaven, as the case might be) out of each other.

This only lasted a round or two, before Kalinka, the party's battlefield control Sorcerer, used a combination of aqueous orbs and create pit spells to interrupt the impromptu duel.

It was several rounds before the Champion was able to emerge, and when he did, Drogza was ready to resume the battle. Being clever, she chose a position where the Champion would have to stand next to Kalinka's magical pits to engage her. Unfortunately, the Champion was also clever, and chose to ignore her and wade into the midst of the party's spellcasters instead, leaving only a space next to Kalinka's pit from which the mounted paladin could attack him. He then struck with his great flaming axe, doing grievious damage to Elsa while taunting Drogza to attack him if she dared.

Drogza maneuvered to a different position where the Champion could face her on even ground and once again called out a challenge. "Come and face me in honorable combat, and we shall end this once and for all!"

The Champion gazed at Drogza for just a moment before, with a laugh, burying his greataxe in the already critically-wounded halfling, killing her outright. "No! I'm Chaotic evil, motherf!&*#r!"

Needless to say, the Champion fell very quickly after that, and fortunately the party was able to get to Elsa with a Breath of Life spell before it was too late.

Name: Kalinka
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Sorcerer 10
Adventure: Blood for Blood
Location: Drelev Keep
Catalyst: High Level Spellcaster Rocket Tag with Imeckus Stroon

The Gory Details: After his dastardly, unprovoked attack on Tatzlford, it was plain that Baron Hannis Drelev had to pay. The plan was a simple one. Sneak into Drelev keep through the escape tunnel, find and rescue General Numesti, and make their way up to the baron to demand answers.

Unfortunately, with an axe-crazy Barbarian in the party, the whole "sneaking" and "talking" parts of that plan proved to be a little overly complicated. The party was spotted quite quickly and the alarm was sounded, putting the entire fortress on alert and sending reinforcements scrambling to support the central tower.

Angus (the afforementioned axe-crazy barbarian), after being buffed with a Greater Invisibility spell, made his way up to the throneroom above. A create pit and grease spell placed by Kalinka to discourage reinforcements actually ended up discouraging the party from getting up to assist Angus.

Of course, Angus didn't actually need much help, although his negotiating tactic of cleaving his way through the palace guard while invisible didn't actually prove to be an especially strong negotiating tactic. Still, Angus was just one man, and while he wasn't in any great danger, without assistence he was not able to press his advantage fast enough to keep the situation from escalating out of control. By the time the rest of the party arrived to reinforce him, the Baron's own reinforcements were starting to arrive - most significantly the Evoker Imeckus Stroon, who flew outside the throneroom and, casting through the window, dropped a forcecage on Drogza (the paladin) just as she emerged to join the battle.

Solamus (the party witch) and Elsa (the party bard) immediately teamed up to try to lock him down as best as possible, and after dropping the wounded Baron Drelev down a Hungry pit, Kalinka moved to join them. In the space of just a couple rounds, Stroon found himself with nearly 50 points of nonlethal damage, 4 negative levels, spending two rounds in a row stunned by sound bursts, and blown all the way from the window to the palace wall behind him by a river of wind.

When the lockdown on Stroon finally failed, the Evoker took note of the fact that his enemies were lined up nicely so that they could see out the window to target him effectively. He therefore sent an Empowered Lightning Bolt in through the window, hitting all but Drogza (still stuck in a forcecage) and Angus (who had gone downstairs to engage the giants as they started to enter the first floor.)

13d6+6 damage later, and Kalinka was killed outright. Solamus was knocked into negative hit points and left unconscious. Seradin (the party's Oracle and main healer) was still up, but with only 1 hit point left. Only Elsa made it through without taking too much damage. Seradin did his best, but ultimately failed the concentration check to defensively cast Breath of Life on Kalinka before it was too late.

With Kalinka dead, per our table rules all of her non-permanant spells failed. This included the various pits, including the one imprisoning Baron Drelev. Reinforcements flooded into the throneroom, and things were looking grim for our heros.

Then Angus ran back up the stairs, and killed Baron Drelev with a critical hit. Rather than continuing the battle after the baron's death, Imeckus Stroon called for a truce, and it was agreed that he could take his sister and his gear and leave in peace. The guards, being mercenaries themselves, were also willing to lower their swords at that point, which left only the giants to be disposed of before the castle could be secured.

Kalinka's player has not yet decided whether she wants to bring Kalinka back, or whether she will create a new character.

This brings me to a total of 3 deaths thus far in Kingmaker - so far, so good!

My first real encounter with Paizo was through the Shackled City adventure path. I had briefly held a subscription to both Dungeon and Polyhedron during my youth, but had never really gotten too heavily into either of them. I was one of those kids who bought tons of RPG books, but didn't have anyone interested in playing them around. After college, however, I found a group and the D&D bug bit me hard.

In those days, I was struggling to find steady work and my finances were in pretty sorry shape, so I'm little ashamed to admit I stumbled on to Shackled City through an illegal pdf of the adventures ripped from Dungeon magazine. I downloaded it on a whim, and was blown away by its exotic setting, the recurring characters, and the epic scope of the campaign. Nothing I had ever read before was anything like it.

Just like that, I was hooked. Once I found a decent job, I bought the Shackled City hardcover, then once I had devoured that, I bought up the Dungeon issues which contained the Age of Worms adventure path. I then signed up eagerly for a subscription to Dungeon so that I could see what happened with the Savage Tide. These were exciting days - being able to interact with the designers of these adventure paths while the formula was still being refined was quite an experience, and Dungeon magazine especially was at its creative height - truly the greatest value in gaming that the industry had seen before or since. Because of these factors, I quickly became a huge fan of Paizo.

Shortly before the termination of the Dungeon/Dragon liscence, I took a customer survey on the WotC website. In one of the comments, I wrote that WotC's relationship with Paizo was a huge advantage for the company. The low cost, high quality content in both Dungeon and Dragon combined with the way they conducted themselves on their own forum and others, and the sheer creative energy they brought to the magazines made them a huge positive contributor to the success of the D&D brand, in my eyes.

Although I'm sure it was only a coincidence, the timing of the announcement of the cancellation of Dungeon and Dragon only a few weeks or months later felt almost like a slap in the face. To their credit, Paizo has always been positive about the whole experience and how generous WotC had been in working with them for the transition, but for fans like me, it was still a bitter pill.

I worried about what would happen to the company that had released these fantastic adventures.

I worried about what would happen to the community that had been growing on the Paizo site.

I worried about the designers and editors who took so much of their time to interact with fans, answer questions, and occasionally to just unexpectedly chime in and mention that some custom content that someone had posted was really cool.

I believe my subscription expired with the final issue of Dungeon, but I was going to be damned if I turned my back on Paizo after so many good times when they were at their most vulnerable. I set up a subscription either on day 1 or pretty close to it, and I haven't looked back since. It's been my distinct pleasure to see Paizo succeed where so many (including myself!) feared they would falter - if you had told me back in 2007 that in 5 years, they would have released an RPG which would be outselling D&D, I'd have called you crazy!

The fact that things have turned around so thoroughly in such a short time is a credit to the passion and dedication of Lisa, James Jacobs, Erik Mona, Jason Bulmahn and the rest of the Paizo crew. I am proud to be one of the thousand-odd who still has the Charter Subscriber tag. I don't know about the rest of the Charter Subscribers out there, but I don't see my tag going anywhere anytime soon.

We had our first Kingmaker character death last night. I have a 6-player group, so we run the excellent 6 player conversions which are hosted on these boards. So far, the group has done a good job of steamrolling everything in their path, but last night they finally bit off a bit more than they could chew.

Name: Angus McDougal

Race: Male Human

Classes/levels: Barbarian 6

Adventure: Rivers Run Red

Location: Campsite an hour's ride from the Troll Lair

Catalyst: Half-assed retreat, followed by overconfidence and forgetting that trolls have a 10-foot reach.

The Gory Details: Having learned that a lair of trolls could be found in the southwestern corner of their lands from a drunken giant that they befriended, and being that they were already looking for some troll blood, the party mounted up and rode down to raid the place.

The fight went well initially, with the party's sorcerer and witch keeping the trolls bottled up with debuffs, Create Pits, Webs, and the like while the party's frontliners hacked their way through. Things went well, with more than half of the trolls in the lair being slain, when the group entered the natural caverns at the rear of the cave.

Once again they started with the battlefield control and debuff spells, but the appearance of the 3 named trolls (Nagrundi, Kargadd, and Hargulka) convinced the party to retreat, although not before they took out Nagrundi. The necklace of fireballs negating their tactic of hiding behind pit-blocked chokepoints was probably a deciding factor in this. The party covered their escape with several more web spells, got back on their mounts, and rode away to recover before returning.

The party didn't go very far - they stopped after only an hour's ride and confidently set up a cheery campsite complete with campfire to ward off the autumn chill. Unfortunately for them, Hargulka gathered Kargadd and the remaining 3 trolls under his command to attack the party at night. Fortunately the PCs on watch easily heard the massive trolls trying to sneak through the thick carpet of leaves on the ground, and the group was able to rouse itself for battle before they arrived.

The battle started off as well as the previous ones had, with Entangle and the Slumber hex forcing the first couple trolls to attack (and be defeated) one at a time. The third and forth to escape the entangle (Kargadd and a regular troll) got out at about the same time from opposite sides of the spell, leaving the Drogza (the Paladin Baroness, who had not had time to put on her heavy armor for the fight) to go after Kargadd and Angus to handle the regular troll. Kargadd got too close for Drogza to use her Spirited Charge/Rideby Attack combo on, so she called out to Angus to get out of the way of her charge and delayed until after him.

Rather than taking a step out of the way, Angus (momentarily forgetting about reach) decided to begin raging and charge at Kargadd instead. Unfortunately, the 20% miss chance from his Spirit Totem wasn't enough to protect his effective 12 AC from being hit by both the troll and Kargadd. He hit Kargadd and did pretty good damage, but then it was Kargadd's turn, and not even the Misfortune Hex and the penalty for Power Attack were enough to stop him from hitting a 12 AC with his bite, both claws, and the rend. In less than a round, the barbarian went from full HP to dead. The loss of Angus, combined with the overall lack of resources, prompted a retreat at this point, this time riding hard long into the night before setting up a hidden site with no fire to prevent Hargulka and Kargadd from finding them again.

The group was able to recover Angus's severed arm and his weapon, so they elected to send them on a fast horse to Restov along with the party Oracle and the Halfling Bard, who arrived just in time to have Angus reincarnated (Raise Dead being a bit outside of the party's pricerange). Angus came back as a Dwarf, which his player had almost picked as a race to start out with.

The party is now arming and preparing for a second raid on the Troll Lair to finish off Hargulka and Kargadd - and this time it's personal!

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"

Keep in mind that Savage Tide and Age of Worms are twice as long as all the another APs in your list. ST and AoW are both 12 parts the other APs are 6 parts.

I get the impression your group will like Savage Tide the best. If your campaign will be Greyhawk based you really can't beat Savage Tide. I feel every D&D group should play through it, especially if you are Greyhawk based.

Years from now having never played through Savage Tide will be like having never played through the G-series or D-series. Something will always be missing from your D&D DNA.

I've read each of the Adventure Paths, from Shackled City to present, so I'm familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of each.

I was originally going to move on to Age of Worms, then to Savage Tide, Rise of the Runelords, and so on in order, but because Shackled City will probably have taken just over 4 years to finish when we reach the end (playing online is slower than in person) and 8 new adventure paths had been released in that time period, I decided to allow the players to make the choice instead so as to maximize their enjoyment.

In this case they have selected Kingmaker, so that is what we will play. For what it's worth, I agree that Savage Tide is an awesome adventure path, and I'm sure the party would have loved it as well if it had come out on top. Who knows - maybe in another 3 or 4 years they'll pick Savage Tide as the next choice!

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"

Could you post the paragraph or two synopsis that you gave your players?

-- david
Papa.DRB

David, the brief synopsis that I gave to the group for each was pretty much directly copied and pasted from the synopsis of each adventure path in the Paizo store. With that in mind, there's no real point in repeating it here - poke around the paizo store for 5 minutes and you can get the same information.

In many cases, these synopses included minor spoilers about the general structure of the campaign, but considering the group was selecting an Adventure Path that most interested them, this doesn't strike me as anything likely to be very disruptive.

The only thing I added was the starting location (for those with access to the Campaign setting or the inclination to look it up on Pathfinder Wiki), the approximate level range of each campaign, and what sort of enemies were most prominent in the adventure path.

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"

I have been running the Shackled City Adventure Path for my group online using Virtual Table Top software since the beginning of 2007, and because we are getting close to the campaign, I gave them a bit of information about the other Paizo Adventure Paths released since Shackled City and allowed the to vote to determine which campaign we would be playing next.

I thought I would share the results along with some of the general thoughts about each from the group. I'm interested to see if anyone else has done anything similar with their groups, and if so, what the results were.

I also wanted to post the information here so the people at Paizo could see it. I know 6 players and 1 GM is not really a statistically significant sample size, but a lot of the feedback I've seen on these boards are from GMs who have read the entire adventure path and seen their strengths and weaknesses. These opinions are very much "first impressions" from my players with access to only a general synopsis, level range, etc, so it feels to me like it represents more "what sounds cool" than the merits and weaknesses of the adventures themselves.

Each of my six players was instructed to select their top three choices from a list consisting of both the Pathfinder and the old Dungeon Magazine adventure paths along with a paragraph or two synopsis of each. Their top choice was worth 3 points, the second worth 2, and the third worth one point. The adventure path with the most votes would be what we selected.

Here is how the results turned out:

1) Kingmaker - 12 points (3 1st, 1 2nd, 1 3rd): All but one of my players was intrigued by the idea of creating and running a kingdom. There was interest expressed in seeing how the mechanics of running a kingdom would work, as well as interest in some political action. My group really enjoyed the chance to help to elect a new Lord Mayor in Foundation of Flame, and it seems to have whet their appetite for more political fare. One player also mentioned that a friend of his had played in a Kingmaker campaign and had been raving about it.

2) Savage Tide - 7 points (2 1st, 1 3rd): Savage Tide was popular with several of my players for three reasons - for the swashbuckling style of the campaign, the starting setting near Cauldron, and for the fact that it, unlike the Pathfinder adventure paths thus far, is designed to go to level 20.

3) Legacy of Fire - 6 points (1 1st, 1 2nd, 1 3rd): The support for Legacy of Fire came exclusively from the fact that it was a desert campaign. One of my players indicated they had been wanting to play in a desert setting for a while, another indicated it was an interesting change from the standard D&D setting, and the last picked it because he really likes Dark Sun, and it seemed somewhat similar to him in setting if not in theme.

4(TIE)) Serpent's Skull - 3 points (1 2nd, 1 3rd): The players who voted for Serpent's Skull cited interest in its premise of the exploration of a jungle city along with the shipwrecked start as reasons for selecting it. Swashbuckling seems to be very popular with a group. The expected level range of 1-18 also probably helped.

4(TIE)) Age of Worms - 3 points (1 2nd, 1 3rd): Support for Age of Worms came mainly because it offered a full level 1-20 progression. Several people in the group mentioned that they were dissappointed that the Pathfinder adventure paths didn't reach 20th level. The people who mentioned that said that the lower level range felt less "epic" to them.

6(TIE)) Second Darkness - 2 points (1 2nd): Only one person picked Second Darkness, and he didn't pick it because the idea of a Drow war sounded exciting to him. Instead, he chose it because he liked the sound of Riddleport as a background for a campaign. He indicated that the idea of adventuring in a "wretched hive of scum and villainy" sounded really cool.

6(TIE)) Curse of the Crimson Throne - 2 points (1 2nd): The person who voted for Crimson Throne really enjoys political stuff, so this campaign seemed like a good fit for him. I think Crimson Throne might have done better if it did not have so much in common with Shackled City themewise (struggling against a corrupt government, etc). Kingmaker probably also drew a lot of support away from people who liked that kind of campaign with its promise of letting the players run their own country.

8) Rise of the Runelords - 1 point (1 3rd): Only one person voted for Runelords, and the reason they provided for selecting it was actually that they had previously played part of the first module with another DM who had not done a good job, so they wanted to give it another chance with a different DM to see how badly it was butchered. Other than that, there wasn't much interest.

9) Council of Thieves - 0 points (No votes): Nobody was interested in Council of Thieves for several reasons. The most common reason cited was the low level range (1-13) compared to all the others. Several players were dissappointed that most of the choices did not get to 20th level, and they felt that this simply didn't get far enough to feel worthwhile. Another player indicated that the setting sounded really grim and depressing, and that the idea of working hard in the hopes of just maybe making a city in an Evil Empire a bit less crappy to live in just didn't seem like fun.

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"

PC Name: Meric (Male Catfolk Rogue 6/Bard 1/Cloaked Dancer 5/Mounteback 4)

Adventure: Strike on Shatterhorn

Location of Death: Skullrot Asylum

Catalyst: Sacrificed by Embril

Long Description: There have been a number of brief deaths over the past few levels, but each time until now it was a cohort and/or was immediately repaired by one of the instant raise/reincarnate spells from the Spell Compendium.

This time was different.

Freedom's Dawn tracked the remaining Cagewrights down to their lair beneath the ruins of Shatterhorn, and after a fairly easy fight against Ssythar, the Mohrg, and Therynn (who had escaped the Firey Sanctum thanks to the party taking a poorly timed shopping trip immediately following stopping the Tree of Shackled Souls), and a much more frustrating fight against the Medusa Rogues, the party stumbled upon Embril's lifeless body. She was guarded by Shebelith (who had also escaped at the same time as Therynn) and the Spellweaver, who immediately scared the heck out of the party by casting Time Stop (the first level 9 spell they had encountered) and hitting Audric with 6 simultaneous Magic Missile spells respectively.

The rest of the party hurried down the narrow hall to reinforce Audric as Greater Shadows emerged to further stack the odds against them. Moving into the room, Meric had the misfortune to be the target of Embril's Magic Jar spell, and he failed the save by 1 point.

"I have a plan, guys!" announced the possessed Meric, who moved further into the room and took up a position next to Embril.

"What's your idea?" asked one of the other players.

"I touch Embril's body and plane shift out with it!" Jaws dropped.

"Wait, what?" "How did Meric do that?"

End of session.

A helpless captive of Embril, Meric was quickly moved to Skullrot, where she just had time to sacrifice him to Nerull before the guardians of the tower fell upon her and captured her themselves.

Of course, Meric's body was put to good use in golemcrafting, and it is my hope that the party will find Embril, tortured half-to-death and driven quite mad, when they arrive at Skullrot in chapter 12 themselves. If/when they do, it should be interesting to see whether the party puts her out of her misery or leaves her to her much deserved fate.

Meric's player has elected to bring in a new character, and has selected a Monk with a very amusing take on the Vow of Poverty.

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"

I have a question about the joust.

As written, Stage 1 looks likely to last a very very very long time if it is actually run as written.

From my reading of the event, each competitor takes turns jousting against Pitax Wardens until the Wardens have eventually defeated all but 2 competitors, correct?

With a ride check of +6 and opponents all well over +10 for ride checks, the Pitax Wardens are unlikely to get opportunities to roll their bull rush attempts to eliminate competitors very often at all. And with a CMB of +8, it looks like 2 of the competitors have CMDs that can only be beaten if the Wardens roll a natural 20, with the easiest requiring a roll of at least a 17. This adds up to make it extremely unlikely that the Wardens will win any given joust, which means that there will likely be a very large number of them.

Am I missing something, or is it really assumed that the first round will likely consist of dozens of easy cakewalk jousts until the vastly inferior Wardens get a few lucky 20s in a row against 3 of the assumed 5 competitors (4 NPCs and 1 PC)? Are the competitors supposed to start jousting each other in Stage 1? As written, it looks like there are no jousts between the competitors until Stage 2, but perhaps I am reading it wrong?

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"

PC Name: Audric Macalevan (Male Smoking Eye Human Fighter 2/Psychic Warrior 2/Swordsage 9)

Adventure: Lords of Oblivion

Location of Death: Oblivion

Catalyst: Zapped by Big V

Long Description: This is party death number 6, and the third trip to the afterlife for Audric. The party was feeling confident after waltzing through the Last Laugh Safehouse and House Rhiavadi more or less unscathed, and the easy defeat of the creatures in House Vhalantru only raised their confidence.

The party had no idea that combat was about to begin with Vhalantru when they arrived on the second floor of Oblivion, and after puzzling out a way to open the doors (they didn't have the proper spells prepared to trigger the doors, but they came up with a clever alternative of first dispelling the door to temporarily supress its wards and magical defenses, then to cast knock before it engaged again) Celia the paladin earthglided through the wall to the north to see what lay beyond.

It was Vhalantru.

Celia managed to retreat back through the wall before Vhalantru could react (thanks to a stellar 4 die-roll on V's initiative!), but Vhalantru was hot on his tail, opening the door only to come face to face with Meric, the party's Catfolk rogue. Thanks to Meric's poorly-playtested prestige class allowing him to use a dance that would force Vhalantru to make a Will Save each round or be dazed, a stalemate developed around the doorway, with Vhalantru using his anti-magic cone to stop it from effecting him. This also surpressed Celia's permanant enlarge person (as noted above, she was reincarnated as a female gnome) and scared the crap out of the party's spellcasters, who essentially ducked around corners and panicked for a few rounds.

Audric did his best to break the stalemate, however, moving quickly into Vhalantru's room to try to force him to split his attention and divert the antimagic cone. Unfortunately for Audric, he rolled a 1 on his Fort save to resist Vhalantru's Disintegrate ray, and took 93 points of damage right off the bat. He managed to resist a Slow ray successfully, but was finally hit with Finger of Death. He managed to pass the save, but after being almost blasted to dust, the 19 damage he took from the successful save was enough to kill him anyway.

The party pulled back out of sight, and this time it was Vhalantru's turn to be overconfident. As he emerged into the room they were in, he was hit with a number of readied actions doing enough damage to take away about half of his hit points. None of his Eye-Beams managed to take down another PC, either. Vhalantru knew things were going poorly, but before he could withdraw, Celia scored a critical hit with Power Attack and Smite Evil all active, and drew the Decapitated critical card.

While the idea of decapitating a creature that is essentially just a big floating head is odd, I allowed the card to function anyway. Celia did 79 damage with that Crit, which was enough to kill Vhalantru, even if he hadn't also failed the Fortitude Save to resist being killed by the critical.

The party is now preparing to withdraw to have Audric True-Resurrected, as his share of the haul from House Rhiavadi will more than cover the cost.

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"

PC Name: Celia (Human Female Paladin 11/Fist of Raziel 1)

Adventure: Secret of the Soul Pillars

Location of Death: Level 2 of Karran-Kural

Catalyst: Tried to out-melee a dracolich

Long Description: I got another one just 2 weeks after the last one! After a trip to Occipitus to Raise Audric and a quick jaunt to Sigil to replenish supplies, the party returned to Karran-Kural. Most of the guardians were dead by this point, and the party made short work of what remained.

When the party entered the room containing the Soul Pillars, however, Vittris Bale was waiting for them. Audric attempted to maneuver in quickly as is his usual style, however he quickly met the Dracolich's gaze and was paralyzed.

The party's spellcasters spread out and began pelting the dracolich with spells, but Vittris Bale shrugged most of the hits off while preparing itself for a nasty fight. The party's paladin, while not as quick as Audric, had recently come up with a few tricks of her own, including a limited earth-glide ability. She used this to pass through the wall and emerge on the same side of the pit as Vittris Bale, then hit the wyrm with a charging smite for a good 30-40 damage.

Enraged, the dracolich turned his full fury on the lone mortal who had dared to challenge it directly, and ripped the brave warrior apart with a massive flurry of power attacks. Unfortunately, the party's healers were too far away to save her in time, but a few Orbs of Fire from the party's Sorcerer were enough to bring the dracolich down before it could slay anyone else.

Celia was reincarnated the next day, which prompted ANOTHER emergency trip to Sigil to obtain a Permanant Enlarge Person, leaving Celia as a non-plussed 6'8", 380 pound male gnome!

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"

PC Name: Audric Macalevan (Male Smoking Eye Human Fighter 2, Psychic Warrior 2, Swordsage 7, Noble Trait)

Adventure: Secret of the Soul Pillars

Location of Death: Level 2 of Karran-Kural

Catalyst: Blasted to dust by Fetor Abradius

Long Description: There have been several deaths since the last one reported, but this was the first that wasn't prevented by one of those nifty spells from the Spell Compendium that allows you to bring back a character within 1 round of their death. Because they were reversed so quickly, I haven't counted those. This is death number 4, and the second death for Audric.

The party managed to make it through the first half of Karran-Kural with little difficulty, overwhelming and slaying the Ice Devil and Iron Golem with little difficulty. Once they descended into the lower level, however, their luck abandoned them. They arrived in the intersection right to the south of the hole from above, and noticed one of the corridors was obstructed by icy lattice.

The party elected to have the Sorcerer clear the strands away with a series of Firey Bursts (the reserve feat) before checking to see what was behind two doors at the end of the hallways. Unfortunately, this allowed Fetor Abradius to hear them coming before they even reached his Alarm point, and to spend several rounds buffing. The party failed their listen checks to notice his spellcasting, and were consequently surprised when a pair of lightning bolts nearly killed said sorcerer and severely damaged half of the rest of the party.

Audric charged Fetor Abradius as is his normal strategy, however Fetor's Mirror Image and other buffs were doing a good job of protecting the mage. One Empowered Magic Missile later, and Audric was down to single-digit hit points. The party Cleric was on the job, however, and a Heal spell brought Audric back to full fighting strength.

Growing frustrated by this turn, Fetor risked his Disintegrate spell against Audric, barely scoring a hit. Audric rolled his save and failed by one, suffering 28d6 damage. The dice came up with 99 damage, which was 9 hp more than Audric had at full, so Audric was blasted into dust.

The party quickly rallied, and a volley of Flamestrikes and a smite from the party's Paladin quickly eliminated the Loremaster. They were too late to bring back Audric, however, and had to retreat to Occipitus where he could be Raised.

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"

No, thank you for your perspective on this. It's definately giving me some great ideas and helping to organize my thoughts!

As I said before, I really like the idea of Vhalantru and/or Ike Iverson attending to gather intelligence on the party. For Vhalantru especially, this gives him a public forum to weaken Captain Skellerang's support among his own followers, plus he can subtly cast doubt on the PCs by loudly speculating about exactly why Skellerang's nephew's eye is suddenly burning with the unholy power of the Abyss, and what that says about their motivations.

Vhalantru does indeed have the ear of the Last Laugh, although he doesn't control it directly. It occurs to me that while it isn't in Vhalantru's best interest to have a fight break out if his side is seen to start it, it may be useful to have a few "town guards" (actually Last Laugh plants) start something. After a brief brawl, the offending "guards" will likely be kicked out of the event. They can then shout something along the lines of "You're dead Vhalantru, you hear me? DEAD!" as they storm out. When the party leaves, they can come upon those same "guards" having savagely beaten, wounded, and begun to lynch Vhalantru, spouting something along the lines of "The boss says you've gotta die tonight!" as they do so.

This serves the dual purpose of possibly instilling a little doubt in the PCs about who is really the guilty party, and it will also further turn the populace against Skellerang.

With regards to sending the assassins against Skellerang and the PCs together after the party, I actually don't think that's the best idea. Under the above scenario, Vhalantru has a chance to observe the party in combat up close, which gives him more to work with when he and Ike Iverson later set up the assassination attempt. Besides that, I have plans for the last stand of Captain Skellerang.

In short, while the party is investigating the Soul Pillars connection in Kuran Kural, Skellerang will find the evidence he is looking for. However, before he can make the information public, a Vhalantru sympathizer in the Town Guard leaks what has happened to Vhalantru, and Skellerang is assaulted by mercenaries in the street. He manages to slay several before being subdued. Knowing that the PCs are likely to return any time now and worried by the fact that they have by this point eliminated Ike Iverson, Vhalantru panics a bit and immediately has Skellerang publically executed, thus siezing control of the city with rather less grace than he had intended. This sets up the PCs as the likely core of a resistance movement against Vhalantru leading into Chapter 8.

But I'm digressing a bit here. I've got some really good ideas from this so far for what should happen at the party.

1) PCs get to advance their agenda of peaceful coexistence and an end to the standoff.
2) Vhalantru seems amenable, but takes the opportunity to try to sway support away from Skellerang and cast doubt on the PCs.
3) Last Laugh moles in the Town Guard start a brief brawl, but are subdued and ejected from the party.
4-6) Not sure about this yet - I'd like to have more happen before the end of the party.
End) The PCs rescue Vhalantru from the "town guard" supposedly trying to assassinate him.

Does anyone have any ideas for other events that might occur at the party?

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"

You raise some pretty good points here.

Ike Iverson and Vhalantru know that the party was on Occipitus due to a pair of encounters between the party and Jaasians that both ended peacefully, but don't have too many details about why they were there and what happened. That said, the groupmember who got the Smoking Eye template hasn't exactly gone out of his way to be subtle about it, so there are some rumors going around town. I kind of like the idea of Vhalantru and/or Iverson playing a game of cat and mouse trying to find more information about what happened.

I'd be more than happy to provide a little background, although I must warn you that it's fairly detailed.

In my campaign, the city is run by the Lord Mayor, who is selected by the nobility and who holds complete legislative and executive authority. He is assisted by the Small Council (Skellerang, Vhalantru, Lord Taskerhill, and Lord Aslaxin), which he appoints to aid him in an advisory manner and to deal with many day-to-day decisions. The extent to which they actually wield real power is directly controlled by the Lord Mayor, who can override their decisions, replace them, or even try ruling without a Small Council if he's either a gifted administrator or exceptionally foolish. If the nobility is unsatisfied with the Lord Mayor's performance, they can vote him out of office and choose a new Lord Mayor to replace him.

Thus, Captain Skellerang, as a member of the Small Council himself, is subordinate to the Lord Mayor, but not to the Small Council, because the Small Council has no real executive power. Shortly after the Lord Mayor dissappeared, Lord Vhalantru met with several members of the nobility and accused Captain Skellerang of assassinating him in a coup attempt. With the support of several of the nobles (including Lord Aslaxin in the Small Council), he called in a favor from his "old war buddy" Commander Zarn Kyass and apparently took control of the mercenaries away from Captain Skellerang. Thus, Vhalantru's supporters believe he is heroically struggling to prevent the Captain of the Town Guard (who has admittedly been acting fairly autocratic in response to the troubles of the past year) from overthrowing the government.

Several other nobles (including Lord Taskerhill of the Small Council) were not convinced by Vhalantru's claims, and instead chose to back Captain Skellerang, who publically denied any involvement in the Lord Mayor's dissappearance. Instead, he announced that he was launching an investigation of his own, and heavily implied that the only one with anything to gain from the Lord Mayor's dissappearance was Vhalantru, who has suddenly gained his own private army and was positioning himself to sieze control of the city.

Skellerang is outnumbered both in troops (there are about 100 town guards vs. about 500 mercenaries) and in support among the nobility and commoners (Vhalantru is a much more charismatic leader than Skellerang), but neither side has been able to convince enough people that they are in the right that an outright move against the other will be seen as justified by the city as a whole. Skellerang is feverishly investigating every lead he can find, while Vhalantru is planting ever more seeds of doubt about the Captain's motives.

Neither man is openly seeking to become Lord Mayor - instead they are publically trying to prevent the other from siezing power. With all the chaos and confusion caused by the standoff, and the fact that no body has been found, the nobility hasn't yet voted to end Lord Mayor Navalant's reign. This puts everyone in a kind of shadowy position with no real clear authority to act... which is just how Vhalantru wants it. If Vhalantru has his way, he will discredit, subdue, and capture Captain Skellerang, find him guilty in a massive show trial, and ride his popularity from that triumph to be elected Lord Mayor himself.

With regards to the PCs relationship with the various invitees, it is as follows:

Captain Skellerang is the uncle of the character who passed the Test of the Smoking Eye, and they are very close.

Lord Vhalantru has publically praised and supported the party several times, but is viewed with suspicion by the group because of his growing power. He sees them as a rapidly strengthening threat to his plans that must be dealt with as soon as possible.

The Stormblades are old rivals of the PCs, but the group has gone out of their way to mend fences since returning to Cauldron because they need the Stormblades' access to the nobility.

The churches of St. Cuthbert and Kord are both friendly to the PCs, and one of the members is a Cleric of Pelor, so they're also very close with the Pelorites.

The party deeply mistrusts the Wee Jas worshippers, and the Cleric of Pelor in the party believes (correctly, in fact - Ike Iverson did the deed himself) that they murdered his father, who was the former High Priest of Pelor. Ike Iverson is arrogant and a little overconfident, and holds nothing but disdain for the PCs. He believes that he could easily deal with them himself if necessary.

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"

So, my group has managed to pass the Test of the Smoking Eye with flying colors, and has just returned to Cauldron after cleaning up a few loose ends on Occipitus. When they returned, I allowed them a little time to explore the city to catch up with what had occurred during their month in the Abyss.

The party was surprised to discover that Lord Mayor Severn Navalant had vanished, and the two main authority figures in the city, Lord Vhalantru and Captain Terseon Skellerang, were locked in a standoff against one another, each accusing the other of perpetrating some foul deed against the Lord Mayor. One of my characters is playing as the nephew of Captain Skellerang, so I have been portraying the Captain in a generally more positive and tragic light than is suggested in the Adventure Path. The party suspects that Vhalantru is crooked, and even suspect that he may be either Master Orbius himself or in league with the beholder, but they have no concrete evidence.

The group has decided to do two things. First, they are investigating the dissappearance of the Lord Mayor, which is good. The second thing has thrown me for a bit of a loop - they have decided to do all they can to reduce tensions in the city, even going so far as to mend fences with the Stormblades in the hopes that their influence in the nobility can calm things down. That in and of itself isn't a bad thing - it's a pretty sensible thing to do, given the circumstances.

However, the party's low-wisdom Rogue has hit upon the idea of hosting a party to bring Vhalantru and Skellerang together along with some of their respective forces in the hopes of ending the standoff once and for all. In character, the idea seems to be that the half-orc mercenaries (supporting Vhalantru) and the Town Guard (supporting Skellerang) will have a few drinks, realize that they have a lot in common, and stop polarizing the situation so the mystery can be solved without violence. Out of character, the player who suggested the idea has acknowledged that he is sure the plan will go hilariously awry.

The guest list they've come up with looks something like this:

Captain Skellerang
Lord Vhalantru
The Stormblades
The PCs
Jenya and Rufus from the Temple of St. Cuthbert
Asfelkir from the Church of Kord
Kristof from the Shrine of Pelor
Ike Iverson from the Cathedral of Wee Jas
About 40 each members of the Town Guard and the Half-Orc mercenaries, focusing on officers and high-ranked members of each.

I personally think this sounds like a very interesting encounter, and it promises to have a good chance of devolving into a nasty brawl that spills out into the streets and only makes matters worse. I'm not sure of how I want to handle a few things, however, and I'd love some feedback/suggestions from other DMs.

1) I'm not sure whether all of the people invited should accept the invitation. I'll definately have the invited mercs and guardsmen show up, but a few of the named NPCs (Skellerang, Vhalantru, and Ike Iverson, especially) give me pause. Who do you think should come, and who should decline?

2) Behind the scenes, Orbius has ordered Ike Iverson to assassinate the PCs. This party seemed at first to be a perfect opportunity to carry out the assassination attempt detailed in Chapter 7. However, when they decided to invite so many important named NPCs and high-level guards and soldiers, it seemed to rule out that possibility. I am trying to decide whether I want to run the attempt before or after the party. I'm leaning towards after, as the party and the resulting brawl will give the NoGoodniks a chance to get a good idea of what the PCs are currently capable of. What do all of you think? Should I try to include the assassination attempt (maybe after the guards and mercs are too drunk to participate), or not, and if not, when should the attempt occur instead?

3) I'd like to make the party fun for my players while giving them a chance to try to advance their agenda and keep things under control before all hell breaks loose thanks to a combination of frayed nerves and plentiful alcohol. I've got an idea or two bouncing around in my head for possible events, but I'd love to hear some suggestions as well. Please be as detailed or as general as you'd like.

Thanks a lot for your consideration.

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"

Oh. Now that I think about it as an actual security system designed to confound intruders rather than just as a puzzle for the PCs to solve to avoid extra damage, it makes much more sense!

So if you just follow a straight 4-2-1 sequence from any entrance, you will not only never reach another exit safely unless you know about the teleport trick, but from the A2 entrance you will actually end up trapped with multiple unsafe fire walls between you and escape by doing so. Solving the puzzle still gives you some benefit, though, as you can avoid maybe 50% of the damage and all of the construct attacks. Hammering home the fact that this is a fire-themed dungeon right at the start as James Jacobs mentioned probably isn't a bad idea either.

While PCs at this level should have plenty of resources available to help them to get through this area, but several of my party members enjoy a good puzzle from time to time (they easily got through the puzzle in The Demonskar Legacy in Shackled City, for example), so do you guys have any suggestions for good ways to subtly hint at the teleport trick? Maybe subtly refer to the various vault rooms by their animal symbol (ie. The Vulture Vault, the Jackal Vault, etc), and relocate characters appropriately if they are discussing one of them while they pass through a fire wall? Any other ideas?

*EDIT*: Wait a second, Greg said that the sequence is supposed to work properly from the landing (A2, I assume), but according to my map, that takes you on a sequence of:

A2 -4-> A1a
A1a -2-> A1e
A1e -1-> A1f
A1f -4-> A1g

And 2 in A1g is a dead end. Are you supposed to be able to get safely from A2 to A5 without using the teleport trick, or no? If so, should 1 and 2 be switched in A1g and A1h?

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"

Not unless I'm reading it wrong.

My readthrough indicates that going through the next door in the 421 sequence will inflict no damage. Any other door inflicts fire damage. If the group selects door #3 at any point, they not only take fire damage, but are also ambushed by constructs.

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"

I've been trying to figure this out all day.

I have a couple questions about area A1.

The party first appears in Area A1a, with the riddle that leads to the 421 sequence plainly visible. I understand how the party is supposed to come up with the 421 sequence, but what I don't understand is exactly how it works in play.

The party starts out in A1a. The safe way to go here is door # 4, which leads directly out to Area A2. But the party needs the perpetual flame from A1c to progress here. Thus, the party has to re-enter the vaults through a wall of fire which I assume deals full damage.

So the party is back in A1a. The next safe choice is door # 2, which leads to A1e and a neat empty genie lamp.

Door # 1 is safe now, and that leads from A1e leads to A1f with a quiver of frost arrows.

In A1f, Door # 4 becomes the safe door, and this leads to A1g, which has nothing of note there.

In A1g, Door # 2 is now safe. Door # 2 is... a dead end. Now, the room's description mentions that any door can be used to access any room in the treasure vault if the PCs concentrate on the appropriate animal symbol. But unless I'm missing something, I don't believe the PCs have much of a chance as written to figure this out.

Assuming that they don't figure that out, what is supposed to happen when the sequence leads to a dead end? Should that count as passing through the correct number and set it to the next one in sequence?

If this is the intention, the sequence would continue:
A1g -1-> A1h
A1h -4-> A5, after which the party takes damage from the wall of fire to get back into the treasury.
A1h -1 because 2 is a dead end-> A1g
A1g -4-> A1f
A1f -1 because 2 is a dead end-> A1e
A1e -2 because 4 is a dead end-> A1a
A1a -1-> A1b
A1b -4-> A1c (Finally! The key to A2)
A1c -2-> A1d
A1d -2 because both 4 and 1 are dead ends-> A1c
A1c -4 because 1 is a dead end-> A1b
A1b -1 because 2 is a dead end-> A1a
A1a -4-> A2

Is the above the intended sequence?

Or should the map "wrap" around to the other side? If that was the case, we have a sequence looking like:
A1g -2-> A1f
A1f -1-> A1e
A1e -4-> A1a
A1a -2-> A1e
A1e -1-> A1f
A1f -4-> A1g
A1g -2-> A1f... uh oh. We're going around in circles here.

Or, finally, is a dead end literally just a dead end, and the next safe number remains the same until the PCs go through an appropriately numbered door? Is the assumption that the party will just bull through an unsafe wall of fire every time this happens?

If that is the case, we see a continuation of the sequence looking like this, assuming the party will always go in an unexplored direction upon encountering a dead end:

A1g -1 with fire damage-> A1h
A1h -4 with fire damage-> A5, then fire damage re-entering the vaults
A1h -1 with fire damage-> A1g
A1g -4 with fire damage-> A1f
A1f -1 with fire damage-> A1e
A1e -2-> A1a
A1a -1-> A1b
A1b -4-> A1c and the key!
A1c -2-> A1d
A1d -2 with fire damage-> A1c
A1c -4 with fire damage-> A1b
A1b -1-> A1a
A1a -4-> A2

Is one of these the intended sequences, or is the party supposed to figure out the animal teleport trick? If the latter, am I missing a hint that is given out for them?

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"

At the end of Demonskar Legacy, Nabthatoron is portrayed as being satisfied with killing Alek Tercival, thereby ensuring (or so he thinks) the conflict between Cauldron and Redgorge. As written, he only bothers with the PCs if they're able to hurt him, and then only long enough to get them out of the way. Otherwise, he has no interest in them.

Um...hello? One of the PCs at this point is likely brandishing Alakast, the very weapon carried into battle against against Nabthatoron and his armies, the very weapon that helped Surabar Spellmason defeat the demon, a defeat that resulted in Nabthatoron being banished to the material plane, where he has been in exile for nearly 700 years! And he's just supposed to ignore the PCs???

I think that Nabthatoron would very much want to know where/how the PCs came by Alakast, and he'd probably want to sunder it as well (though my version of Alakast will be far more difficult to damage than a normal magical quarterstaff).

Anyone else feel this way?

From my reading of things, Nabby's main motivation is to get the hell off the Material Plane as fast as he can. He's been exiled there for 700 years, and by this point he's just sick of it. He's tried crushing Redgorge through force of arms with the help of the Demons of the Demonskar, but was ultimately defeated by Spellmason. This not only disgraced him with Yeenoghu, but in my campaign the demons of the Demonskar no longer willingly follow him (at least once he leaves their sight) because he turned tail and ran before Spellmason during a siege that, to their way of thinking, SHOULD have succeeded.

So yes, if he recognizes Alakast he will probably try to snap it in a fit of spiteful rage. But he's been setting up a war between Cauldron and Redgorge for months, so he's not inclined to worry much about a group of meddlers unless they prove to be capable of putting his plans in jeapordy by harming him. After all, to his mind, if they can't hurt him, they also probably aren't powerful enough to get home in time to do any harm.

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"

Just had our group's third death earlier tonight.

PC Name: Audric Macalevan (Male Human Fighter 2, Psychic Warrior 2, Swordsage 4, Noble Trait)

Adventure: Zenith Trajectory

Location of Death: The Main Shrine at Bhal-Hamatugn

Catalyst: Mangh Mictho the CoDzilla rampages over the party's frontliner

Long Description:

The infiltration of Bhal-Hamatugn started out poorly for the party and didn't improve. After a Comprehend Languages spell and some creative use of a Hat of Disguise allowed the party to converse with the Kuo Toa ferryman, Audric informed him that the party was there to rescue Zenith. The Canoe was tipped, and the party had to attempt an amphibious landing under crossbow fire from the temple. They did well against the perimeter guards, but the combat plus the subsequent squealing of the portcullis leading to the Kuo Toa prison pretty much eliminated any chance of surprise the party might have had.

After defeating the Mummy with relative ease, the party burst into the main shrine from the secret door under the main platform. Again, instead of trying to approach subtly to see what they were up against and maybe make some kind of plan, they just walked in and looked around. They were fairly lucky, however, in that they took 10 minutes to thoroughly smash up the torture chamber, which gave Mangh-Mictho's numerous buff spells time to expire.

Unfortunately, he had saved the 1 Round/Level spells for actual contact with the enemy, and Divine Favor, Divine Power, and the aura of the statue all combined to make a very very powerful melee monster. Audric charged right in as he is usually wont to do, but it quickly became evident that he was outmatched. He tried Enlarging himself and tripping his foes to even the odds, and even managed to do a good 50 hp of damage to Mangh Mictho in a single round, but the Kuo Toa hung in there like a bulldog, and eventually a full attack ending with a Critical Hit brought Audric down, his head neatly removed by the Cleric's Pincer Staff.

The party managed to take out the rest of the enemy Kuo Toa over the next couple rounds when the party's Archivist noticed that the statue seemed to be gathering quite a lot of energy and deduced that something nasty was on its way. The party grabbed the body of their deceased comrade AND that of Mangh Mictho (in the hopes that he had a scroll of Raise Dead) and retreated to the secret tunnel, closing the secret door behind them. They now plan to sneak out of the temple, row back across the lake, and return to Town to recover and resupply.

Audric's player has not yet decided whether he will allow Audric to be raised, or whether he wants to try out a new character.

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"

Just had my first 2 deaths in the Adventure Path as follows:

PC Name: Asenath (Female Human Rogue3/Warlock4, Scarred Soul template)

Adventure: Zenith Trajectory

Location of Death: Crazy Jared's Hut

Catalyst: Gotrrod, and being the most effective ranged combatant in the party

Long Description:

Freedom's Dawn arrived at Crazy Jared's hut, only to find a large red dragon in the midst of attacking the old man. Asenath immediately became invisible and moved forward aggressively to engage the flying dragon, while most of her party moved up more slowly and cautiously, taking as much cover as they could.

Once she had gotten close enough, Asenath became visible as she started hurling Eldritch Blasts mixed with Ice at the angry dragon. Of course, this made Gotrrod very angry at her. After a successful flyby attack, Gotrrod executed a wingover and landed next to the lightly armored warlock and bit her with a full +13 power attack, inflicting 29 points of damage and taking her to -15. Clenching her in his mighty jaws, the young dragon shook the helpless woman like a puppy with a chew toy. The results were predictably gruesome.

Asenath had previously told the party that she would not want to be raised.

PC Name: Marievius Astrophage (Male Human Sorcerer 6)

Adventure: Zenith Trajectory

Location of Death: Crazy Jared's Hut

Catalyst: Red Dragon breath weapons are NASTY!

Long Description:
Marievius actually drew first blood against Gotrrod with a Magic Missile spell, but after that things went downhill for him. His strongest spells were all fire-based, which limited his effectiveness. After the young dragon landed and tore Asenath to pieces, Marievius approached to close range and hurled his favorite spell, Battering Ram, at the beast. Unfortunately, the spell was not sufficient to drive the dragon back and did only minor damage to it.

With the party's melee specialists closing in on him as well, Gotrrod noticed that they were all in a convenient cone-shaped formation to his southeast. I rolled well for the damage, inflicting 39 points of fire damage. The melee folks managed to save, but Marievius rolled a terrible 7 on his reflex save, which took him from full hp to -11 instantly.

The player is actually a bit upset because he was not present for the battle in which he died, but our group has always played with characters whose players aren't there being ghosted. The party and Marievius' player are now trying to decide whether to raise him or to look for a replacement.

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"

Chapter Three is over and done with, and the hard part of the campaign is about to begin. I still haven't had any character deaths yet, but I have lost 2 players and replaced them with two others. Here is the current party as of the end of Chapter Three:

Asenath (Female Human Rogue 3/Warlock4, Scarred Soul Trait): Still eager to get revenge on her father, Vervil Ashmantle, Asenath has seemingly added Todd Vanderboren and most of Cauldron's nobility to her shortlist of personal enemies. She is beginning to hint at an agenda beyond just promoting homeless shelters, but does not yet have the resources to accomplish anything of the sort. She is also growing increasingly paranoid, something that is helping the party greatly in dungeons thanks to her exceptional Search skill. In combat, however, she remains only somewhat effective.

Audric Macalevan (Male Human Fighter 2/Psychic Warrior 2/Swordsage 3, Noble Trait): Audric has really gotten behind Asenath's idea of promoting homeless shelters throughout the city, and while the idea seems popular, once taxes begin to shoot up, support for it is going to wane. As the only member of Cauldron's nobility currently part of Freedom's Dawn, he brings the group a much needed in to Cauldron's high society. In a fight, he is a dangerous spiked chain tripmonkey, but his Swordsage training is beginning to pay off with more esoteric maneuvers to add to his arsenal.

Celia (Female Human Paladin (Torm) 7, No trait): Cecil's mask was shattered by an opponent in Chapter 3, revealing that the stoic paladin was actually a woman in disguise much to the surprise of all. Since then, she has opened up a bit, including doing a bit of flirting with the Half-Orcish High Priest Asfelkir of Kord, who has promised to show her his Improved Grapple feat. In a fight, Celia is the party's biggest damage dealer, although her armor is slowly starting to become less invincible as the group encounters more skilled opponents. With her new Keen Bastard Sword and her Resounding Blow feat, she is becoming quite dangerous to the party's enemies!

Marievius Astrophage (Male Human Sorcerer 6, No trait): Marievius is the party's newest recruit, an absent-minded Professor of Percussive Thaumaturgy at Bluecrater Academy. Overly dramatic and more than a little childlike in character, Marievius promises to be an interesting and potent addition to the group, which had been in serious need of magical firepower.

Meric (Male Catfolk Rogue 5, No trait): Meric is an old friend of Asenath's that she actually rescued from captivity many years ago. Meric is a crack shot with a crossbow, but his real strength lies in his social skills. With a hat of disguise and a number of contacts, Meric is more than capable of finding out most hidden information the group might need. As mischievious as his race might suggest, he is quite an interesting and amusing addition to the party.

Selos (Male Human Cleric (Pelor) 7, Wyrm-Blooded trait): Selos has a fierce, firey temper and a strong sense of justice, and that combined with his adventures with Freedom's Dawn are quickly raising his stock in the eyes of the city of Cauldron. He's now a considerably more powerful cleric than Kristof, but has yet to claim the position of High Priest from him. His humility and compassion show him to be a good man, but he is also invaluable in a fight, delivering healing spells of uncommon power as well as supporting the fight with his own attack spells.

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"

That's a very good idea. I'll think about it, and see what I can come up with. I'd like to strongly encourage the rest of the community to pitch in as well, as this could be a very valuable resource. Perhapse if/when this whole thing is put together, a file can be compiled and uploaded to RPGenius.

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"

I suppose I might as well finish things off.

Spoilers abound as usual.

And that's the end. Lots of good stuff there.

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"

I have seen this post before and the most common response is, "it's all in the hardcover." While I understand this response, I happen to think a brief synopsis by chapter is a great idea! Anyone? All I've read up to is Chapter 4 (so bad of me), but here is the beginnings of my synopsis.

[MAJOR SPOILER ALERT BELOW -- DO NOT EVER READ IF YOU'RE PLAYING]

I'll take a turn, I suppose. Since I like the format, I'll stick with it as well. Here's chapters 5-7.

I also second the mega spoiler warning. If you're a player in this campaign, and ESPECIALLY if you're one of my players, reading this is BAD. Don't do it. Or else. You have been warned.

I think that'll do for now. It's getting late.

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"

I wouldn't completely write off the Alleybashers after Chapter 3, personally. While it's true that most of the rank-and-file members of the guild have been slain or captured in Chapter 3, remember that there are no members of the Alleybasher leadership present - surely the guild is led by someone more capable than a 2nd level Rogue!

Instead, I'm choosing to interpret the events at the Lucky Monkey and the Kopru Ruins as merely breaking the back of the guild - it lives on, but is no longer able to effectively resist the Last Laugh as it makes inroads into its territory. Still, enough Alleybashers remain alongside the leadership that a direct confrontation would draw too much attention and cost too many lives to be worthwhile for the Last Laugh.

This changes in Chapter 5, when Last Laugh Jester Velior Thazo purchases a scroll of Gate and brings in a pair of Huge Fire Elementals to attack Minuta's Board, both to further incriminate the Chisel in a plot to overthrow the city, and to raze the guildhouse of the Alleybashers. It's a relatively safe at this point to assume that the Alleybasher leadership has either been slain or driven off in the attack. Any members of the guild that remain will be looking for a chance to get back at the Last Laugh, and a Rogue PC with the proper connections could step into that role either at this point, or shortly after the group returns to Cauldron in Chapter 7. If you're concerned about your party's ability to survive the Assassin Attack in Chapter 7, having command of the Alleybashers could give your Rogue PC a bit of advance warning that someone had put a price on the party's head.

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"

While I suppose Lady Rhiavadi would work, I don't think you have to look that far.

A certain 19th level Mystic Theurge with a rather strong association to the Cathedral of Wee Jas just might have played a similar role in the creation or command of the zombies in question as well.

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"

I suppose if you really needed something you could have Nidrama come and relate to them pretty much all the information contained in the opening, history portion of the hardcover... lay the plot bare. This would give them the location of the final cagewrights and give them pretty big motivation to stop Adimarchus.

That said, it seems pretty heavy handed... on the other hand... what is the point of all the background if it never comes out? But is this the right time?

I think that in Chapter 11, it makes the most sense to reveal from the notes that the Cagewrights have been co-opted by a powerful imprisoned demon lord named Adimarchus, and that their real goal is to free him. I would suggest that revealing his exact location at this point is unwise - you want that final bit of information to serve as added incentive for the PCs to track the last Cagewrights to Shatterhorn.

The final reveal about exactly where Adimarchus is and that the only way to end things once and for all is to kill him should probably come in Early Chapter 12 with the reappearance of Nidrama after Smoking Eye Vhalantru comes to play.

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"

After breezing through Chapter 2, my party is poised to begin Chapter 3 - and I suspect the difficulty should be ramping up in the near future. So far I have been fortunate enough to have no character deaths, but I have a sneaking suspicion that won't last too much longer...

Here is the current party composition of our group, which is officially chartered as Freedom's Dawn:

Asenath - Female Human Rogue 2/Warlock 3, Scarred Soul trait. Asenath has thus far been only marginally useful in combat, because her multiclassing means her Eldritch Blast has not been especially powerful, and her Sneak Attack doesn't add much. She has proven to be a very efficient trapfinder and treasurehunter, however. She seems to have grown more comfortable with her powers since Chapter 1, and has displayed a surprising degree of devotion to helping the city's poor - a large portion of the treasure the group earned in Drakthar's Way went toward purchasing and improving a house in the slums to serve as a homeless shelter. Of course, with the events of Chapter 3, this should provide her with a good bit of incentive to seek out the missing Wands.

Audric Macalevan - Male Human Fighter 2/Psychic Warrior 2/Swordsage 1, Noble trait. Audric has probably been the most consistently useful frontliner in the party, due in large part to his ability to Enlarge himself and trip enemies like crazy with his spiked chain. Add Combat Reflexes into the mix, and he's essentially a Mook Blender. He remains almost equally effective against hardier foes, and thanks to the luck of having purchased a silver spiked chain when they still thought Drakthar was a wererat, and to a well-planned Enchant Weapon spell, Audric managed to very nearly one-shot Drakthar. Audric is, as mentioned previously, the nephew of Captain Terseon Skellerang of the Town Guard, and has taken a more assertive stance as the de facto party leader due to his involvement in the Trial of Keyghan Ghelve. Thanks to the party's research and Audric's strong speaking skills, they managed to get Ghelve's potential Death Sentence reduced to 1 year of hard labor.

Cecil - Male Human Paladin (Torm) 5, no trait. If Audric is the party's main hard hitter, Cecil is the core of its defensive line. Cecil has been difficult for most foes to hit ever since he had Kazmojen's Full Plate Armor resized. With an 18 Strength and a Bastard Sword, he is just beginning to experience the joys of Power Attacking. While he is frequently too slow to reach the front line, when he does, he routinely does the most damage of the entire party. Cecil is slowly becoming more involved with the roleplaying aspect of things, and is looking into having a shrine to his virtually unknown deity put into the homeless shelter that Asenath is heading up.

Kale Lathenmire - Male Human Swordsage 5, Noble Trait. Kale is a light, highly mobile support fighter who assists Audric on the front line. Because he dual wields shortswords and uses his maneuvers fairly sparingly, he is only just starting to come into his own as a major threat to the enemy. Kale has had difficulty so far against enemies with Damage Reduction. Kale remains fairly laid back on the roleplaying front, tending to follow the lead of his friend and sparring partner Audric Macalevan. Because his sister is a member of the Stormblades, he seems a bit less hostile to them than the other members of the party.

Lolly Diddle - Female Gnome Artificer 4/Bard 1, no trait. Up until very recently, Lolly was almost a liability in combat. Due to a few nice items the group has located (chief among them a Necklace of Fireballs), and because she took a level of Bard to help use Wands of Cure Light Wounds more consistently, she is becoming much more effective. Her innocent outlook contrasts sharply with Asenath's cynicism, and it is therefore quite amusing that the two have become unlikely friends.

Selos Auderin - Male Human Cleric (Pelor) 5, Wyrm-Blooded Trait. With his choice of the Healing Domain and a feat that increases the amount he is able to heal the party, Selos has embraced his role as the party healer. He also packs quite an offensive punch, and has demonstrated a major fondness for the Spiritual Weapon spell thus far. Selos is one of the more charitable members of the party, frequently donating portions of his share of the treasure to help the city's poor. After his cousin Audric, Selos is probably the most assertive member of the party, and frequently takes the leadership role as well. Recently, he and Audric approached Jenya Urikas of the Church of St. Cuthbert about arranging a backup plan in case of unforseen problems during the Flood Season. Selos is, at this point, the highest level and best regarded priest of Pelor in the city, but Brother Kristof remains the High Priest for now. This is likely to change in the near future.

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"

Sect wrote:

This is off topic, but, Robert? You say you're enjoying NWN2? My advice to you? When you reach the end of the second act, pretend that the credits are rolling.

Sect, if you're talking about the aspect of the game where we are expected to build up our keep and its forces, then I wanted to comment that I am thoroughly enjoying this aspect of the game. That is where I am at now.

On another topic, has anyone tried downloading and using the NWN2 Cauldron mod I posted on the vault yet? I had yet to hear from anyone's opinions on it yet, so just asking....

Robert

I had a look at it, and I was very impressed. Compared to the NWN1 toolset, the NWN2 toolset is almost totally non-intuitive in its design, so it's very impressive that you were able to build something as attractive as you were. A few thoughts:

1) The city needs more lights at night. I can understand the lowest levels being dark because they're essentially a slum, but even the outer ring isn't well lit.
2) The Lantern Street Orphanage is probably important enough to the SCAP that it deserves a pin on the minimap, if not a sign.
3) It felt to me like the color of the stone streets could have contrasted a bit more with the dirt used elsewhere, but maybe that's just me.
4) One of the boats on the lake seems surprisingly large given the level of economic activity supported by the lake (ie. light fishing).
5) Playing around with the doorways, some of them had 2 or even 3 doors in them!

All of these are very minor quibbles, and I emphasize again what an excellent job you've done on this map. I'm definately going to reccomend it to my group to give them a good look at what Cauldron must look like up close. I'd love to see this map developed further, and to see how the rest of the city comes out.

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"

Critic of the Dawn wrote:

Interestingly, his statblock lists him as carrying a shield, so it seems kind of odd to me that he gets 2 attacks.

The SRD wrote:

Slap or Slam

The creature batters opponents with an appendage, dealing bludgeoning damage.

A slam can just as easily be a headbutt or a kick, just like an unarmed attack.

Granted, but if that is the case why does he not get a morningstar attack and 2 slam attacks?

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"

OK. Sorry, I think I understand, now.

** spoiler omitted **Is that correct?

That is correct. Interestingly, his statblock lists him as carrying a shield, so it seems kind of odd to me that he gets 2 attacks.

My party fought Drakthar twice. The first time they encountered him, they had just been ambushed by a dozen goblins. He emerged from the darkness, inadvertantly revealed some interesting information (he mentioned that he thought the PCs were assassins sent by the "Cage Makers" as he called them) and quite politely told them he was going to kill them.

Since I gathered he was going to face them at least one more time, in the first fight I deliberately had him underestimate them. Since he was carrying his shield, he just got the 1 Morningstar attack - I was counting on his high AC, DR and Fast Healing to carry him through a few rounds. After smacking the Swordsage for max damage (even at 4th level, 13 points leaves a mark), he was promptly tripped by the Enlarged Spiked Chain Wielding Psychic Warrior, smacked with Burning Blade by the Swordsage, and finished off by a near-max damage Smite Evil by the party's (18 STR) Paladin. This forced Drakthar to turn into mist, and he led them on a merry chase through a section of the dungeon they had not yet explored. Adventurer's paranoia set in, and they slowed down to let the rogue search thoroughly, which allowed Drakthar time to slowly wafte out of sight.

By the time the party fought Drakthar again, he had had enough time to regenerate in his coffin, and was waiting for them at the top of the ladder in his treasure room. He summoned the children of the night, but I rolled REALLY badly - a paltry 2 bat swarms would arrive in 12 rounds. Luckily, the Dire Bat was there to put some hurt on the party. As the party tried to beat on the bat, Drakthar attempted to Dominate the Psychic Warrior who tripped him earlier. He rolled a 13 (the DC is 12), BARELY shaking off the vampire's influence. The cleric then cast Magic Weapon on his Silver Chain... and things went predictably from there. Drakthar turned to mist to attempt to float down to start melee, but he suffered an AoO from the enlarged Psychic Warrior - without all that armor it hit easily and did 15 damage, knocking Drakthar to 4 hp. Drakthar was going to close for melee anyway, this time dropping his morningstar and shield with a flourish and wading in with both slams firing, but the Cleric knocked him out of the fight with a Spiritual Weapon spell (Which he apparently prepared 3 of). This time the party was able to locate the coffin and staked him.

Total damage done by Drakthar over the course of 2 fights: 13 points.

I have GOT to stop underestimating my players. :)

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"

Havent read the whole adventure yet, but is there info somewhere about the lake?, are there fish?, whats the water like (warm?, sulforous?)..Also, i notice that others have posted "Events" on here, has anyone got any events that incluse the lake? (boat races, swimming races etc?)

Also, because of the sewage issue mentioned by James Jacobs, the lake has a bit of a stench to it even though the city's priests regularly purify it to make it safe for drinking. For this reason (as well as the lake's propensity to flood during the rainy season), the lakeside is mostly occupied by the lower class, warehouses, and the like. Cauldron's nobility and upper classes try to build their manors as far from the lake as possible.

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"

I'll be running my group through Drakthar's Way in a couple of weeks, and because they're 4th level instead of the recommended 3rd, I want to make sure I play Drakthar effectively enough to give them a challenge. My players are incredibly efficient/tactical in combat. An example: At 3rd level, four of them took out the Grell in Jzadirune in about 3 rounds. Granted, they made a deal with Yuathyb and knew of the Grell's existence before they entered the room, but still...

If Drakthar successfully dominates one of the PCs and tells them to attack another member of the party, does that trigger the "any subject forced to take actions against its nature receives a new saving throw with a +2 bonus" clause of the Dominate Person spell? If so, does the PC get to make a new save every round he spends attacking another party member, or just once to resist the general command. It's pretty obvious what my players' opinions will be on this, but I'd like to get some feedback from some GMs.

Also, in Drakthar's stat block, it lists his full attack as morningstar (primary) and slam (secondary). His slam attack is so much more devastating (damage + energy drain + temporary hp) than a swing with a morningstar, I don't understand why he even bothers with the morningstar. Wouldn't he be much more effective if he used his slam attack with his full attack bonus? What am I missing here?

According to his statblock, he's also got a light wooden shield. If he's got a morningstar in one hand and a shield in the other, which hand is he slamming with, anyway?

In my campaign, in the party's (first?) battle against Drakthar, he's mainly going to beat the snot out of them with his morningstar unless and until one of them finds a reliable method to beat his damage reduction. When that happens, he'll drop his weapon and break out the slams until one goes down.

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"

I'm planning on portraying Skellerang as a very sympathetic character because one of the characters in the campaign is his nephew. I've worked out a rough timeline for how I expect things to go. It goes something like this:

Chapter 1: Captain Skellerang is deeply troubled by the dissappearances of many citizens, but the fairly small Town Guard is unable to find any solid leads.. While the party explores Jzadirune, the Stormblades convince Ghelve to confess. Skellerang has Ghelve arrested and grants the Stormblades an exclusive charter to continue exploring Jzadirune and the Malachite Hold. He also privately scolds the party for trying to hide Ghelve's complicity.

Chapter 2: Lord Vhalantru convinces Captain Skellerang to give the PCs another chance by investigating the goblin problem. Skellerang agrees because he sees this as a relatively low-priority action, and the Town Guard focuses on building a case against Ghelve. When the party discovers a plan to smuggle mercenaries into the city involving the Blue Duke (an infamous war criminal in my campaign), he grows quite concerned. With help from Vhalantru, he convinces the Lord Mayor to increase funding to the Town Guard so they can investigate what is going on more effectively. No taxes are raised yet, but funding is diverted from a homeless shelter that the PCs have been pushing for. Ghelve is also tried in this chapter, with the result depending on how well the PCs represent him at the trial.

Chapter 3: When Sacrem is killed and the wands dissappear, Skellerang is convinced (like any good cop should be) that there is more going on than meets the eye. Rather than risk public panic, the Lord Mayor decides not to announce the loss of the wands, however taxes are raised significantly to cover the founding of the Magic Threats Agency. A number of gifted young spellcasters are recruited from Bluecrater Academy in the hopes that they will reduce the need of the city to rely on third parties to solve their serious problems. Aware of Skellerang's suspicions, Vhalantru has the Last Laugh begin planting evidence implicating a certain group of rich merchants and lesser nobles based out of Redgorge (the Chisel) in recent events.

Chapter 4: An umber hulk rampages through the city and again the City Guard is unable to stop it, however in the aftermath the MTA discovers evidence suggesting that Maavu of the Chisel summoned the creature. Skellerang comes to the conclusion that this was actually a coup attempt based on the proximity of the rampage to Town Hall. In a secret meeting with the Lord Mayor and Vhalantru, Skellerang presents this evidence, however because The Chisel contains a number of skilled spellcasters and Redgorge is heavily fortified, they come to the conclusion that Cauldron lacks the ability to retaliate. Taxes are once again raised sharply, and at Vhalantru's reccomendation, Zarn Kyass (introduced as a "former officer of the Blue Duke" that Vhalantru can personally vouch for) and a small mercenary army of Half-Orc soldiers are hired. No charges are filed, but plans are drafted for an attack on Redgorge. Shortly thereafter, Sir Alek Tercival, a known associate of The Chisel, sends a challenge to Captain Skellerang. Because he believes that the Chisel is trying to overthrow the government, this challenge is ignored.

Chapter 5: Maavu leads a public protest against the increased taxes, and when Sgt. Skyler Krewis along with a squad of half-orcs interrupts his speech to bring him in for questioning, the protest turns into a riot. To make matters worse, Maavu brings up the challenge publically. When this is followed by an attack on the main Half-Orc barracks by fire elementals, Skellerang and the Lord Mayor quickly conclude that this is a second Chisel-backed coup attempt. Maavu and the Chisel are declared Traitors, and the newly formed Half-Orc army musters to march on Redgorge in response. Only after a bit of skilled diplomacy and the death of Alek Tercival are the PCs able to convince Skellerang that the Chisel has been framed.

Chapter 6: While the PCs investigate Occipitus, events in Cauldron quickly come to a head. Skellerang devotes the entire resources of the Town Guard and the MTA to investigating the true cause of the problems. The Lord Mayor is a bit more insightful and less patient, and confronts Vhalantru privately with his suspicions. Vhalantru responds by eating the Lord Mayor. Vhalantru then uses the dissappearance of the Lord Mayor as justification to declare martial law with Skellerang's support. The Half-Orcs are still needed because the Town Guard and the MTA have nowhere near the numbers required to effectively control the city. Skellerang and Vhalantru form a temporary ruling council until a new Lord Mayor can be chosen.

Chapter 7: Distracted by his furious ongoing investigations, Skellerang's Town Guard is able to provide little assistence to the PCs after assassins strike at them. Once the PCs clear out the Cathedral of Wee Jas, the MTA discovers evidence linking Vhalantru to Ike Iverson, who obviously masterminded the assasination attempt. Everything suddenly begins to fall into place, and while the PCs are busy investigating Spellweaver Ruins, Skellerang summons his most loyal officers to plan the arrest of Vhalantru. Before he can carry out this plan, an MTA officer leaks word of his plans to Vhalantru, and a squad of Elite Half-Orcs invades Skellerang's home. Skellerang fights valiantly and even manages to kill two, but he is subdued, captured, and summarily executed. Vhalantru announces that Skellerang killed the Lord Mayor with the help of the Chisel, and declares himself the new Lord Mayor. When the PCs return, they find Skellerang hanging from a noose from the main gate of the city with a sign around his neck warning that "Thus Fall All Traitors." However, they are contacted by Skyler Krewis, who by now realizes what is going on. Thus the PCs form the core of a rebel organization along with the Church of St. Cuthbert, the Chisel, the Striders, loyal members of the Town Guard, and possibly even the Stormblades.

Just how I plan to do it, of course. I'm only halfway through Chapter 2, so there's a lot that could change between now and then.

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"

<snip>

How likely would you estimate it is they can beat Tongue-Eater?

And... do you think I need to pull him back a bit or adjust him, power-wise? He seems like a very tough CR 5 (pluss the baboons)... and I'm anxious about his uncanny dodge taking the rogue's sneak attack away. Been considering replacing a level or few of barbarian with fighter, so they can get their flank going.

Then again, they do have at last one use of fire breath sacking a 2nd level spell (4d6), and that necklace of fireballs they got from Drakthar's lair.

I haven't gotten quite this far in the Adventure Path yet, but this is what comes to my mind:

First of all, Uncanny Dodge is the least of your party's worries. That said, remember that a rogue can still sneak attack a foe with Uncanny Dodge if he flanks the foe - Uncanny Dodge just prevents said foe from losing his Dex bonus if flat-footed or facing an enemy he can't see. Improved Uncanny Dodge grants the ability to not be sneak attacked if flanked, and Tongue-Eater doesn't have that.

Having said that, looking at your party lineup, I suspect that due to the lack of a solid, dedicated tank, Tongue-Eater will carve through your Rogue and Swashbuckler tandem easily unless they get very lucky, have a high AC, or have a good plan. Furthermore, unless your Rogue and/or Swashbuckler has a silver weapon, they will basically be relegated to a role of trying to delay Tongue-Eater while the spellcasters do their thing. What spells do they have, out of curiosity? Even with a good selection, there's a good chance that Tongue-Eater will be able to all but ignore them to go after the squishies trying to burn him from the back.

That said, this is supposed to be a difficult fight. You MAY want to hold off on sending in simian reinforcements until they've got him on the ropes, or possibly take away one of Tongue-Eater's potions. But I wouldn't weaken him any further than that.

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"

<snip>

My plan for tomorrow's game is this. The Stormblades succeed totally against Skaven and start to exit the ruins, when the quasit finds them. Sensing kindred spirits, the quasit takes a liking to the Stormblades, especially Annah, who would be clever enough to flatter it shamelessly. The quasit turns the final Wand over to Annah, and the Stormblades take the cage to the upper ledge.

As they are about to leave, the PCs will exit the kopru ruins. Jealous of the attention the PCs have been getting, the Stormblades decide to play a little prank on them, cutting the rope as the first load of PCs starts ascending! The Stormblades figure a little dunk in the water should cool their heels without doing any real harm. What they don't know about is the existence of the outsider...

If your goal is to make your party hate the Stormblades, this will definately do a good job of that. My one concern is that giving them a fiend as a follower (even a little one) may press the idea that the Stormblades are not just rivals, but are actually outright evil. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but when it becomes increasingly evident that there's a conspiracy afoot, the Stormblades and their fiendish friend are going to stick out more than they normally would as possibly being involved.

That leaves you with the choice of using it as a red herring, or actually having the quasit manipulate the Stormblades into becoming Vhalantru's new cronies once he takes control of the city. The latter might actually be interesting and could lead to an interesting Civil War type situation in Lords of Oblivion, culminating in a clash between rebel forces led by the Party against the Half-Orc Guards led by the Stormblades.

Alternately, if your party is in to roleplaying and diplomacy, they might be able to convince the Stormblades to turn on Vhalantru's forces at a key moment during such a confrontation, thus giving your party the chance they need to go after Big V himself.

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"