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!

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!

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"

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"