** spoiler omitted **I agree 100%. It was a very strange choice and feels like a letdown considering the story being told. It feels like: "The climactic ending we wanted to do was cut due to budget and space constraints. Imagine something really cool happening off camera."
Yes, if I run this, I'll definitely make Abrogail a bit more of a presence in the finale. A bit of a Watchman type situation: Something like:
Spoiler: The heroes arrive to Gorthoklek's chamber to find Abrogail in conversation with her fiendish general. "You insubordinate insects are far too late. This isn't some Pathfinder serial where you'll arrive just in time to stop me. The contract was signed hours ago, even now my realm is immortalised as a Circle of Hell, and all that rightfully belongs to Cheliax will be brought back into my infernal empire. Your impetuous Empyrial Lord will be delivered to Asmodeus as a final tribute to the Lord of Laws, and you will die knowing you could never have stopped me. Perhaps by dying here your souls might be delivered to my new circle of hell for punishment. That would be most fitting." The final battle will be the PCs versus Abrogail, Gortholax and the fiends. While Abrogail is currently transforming into an archdevil, he transformation and apotheosis is incomplete, and the PCs have a window in which to deal a powerful blow to her. It won't kill her permanently, but she will need time to regenerate upon her infernal throne. Additionally she is lying about a key point, the Imperial Lord is not just a thank you gift, it is payment for Asmodeus to expend the power to extend hell beyond Cheliax's current uncontested borders. If it remains unpaid, the service will not be rendered. Talmandor will be in the final battle room awaiting sacrifice to Asmodeus, and the PCs will need to try and keep Talmandor alive/free him from infernal binding so he can assist. The death of Abrogail's mortal body is necessary for her final apotheosis into an Archfiend, and it was a step she hoped not to take as she did not want to spend her immortal life trapped in an infernal devil form, truly believing herself to be better than that.
Skull and Shackles Tempest Rising and Plunder and Peril: XP: 7100
Splitting the Fleet
Kelizar’s Atoll — The Ghost in the Wreck
Cho‑Tzu — Love, Lies, and Tengu Trouble
Laying Captain Dahoath to Rest
The Truth About Varossa Lanteri
The Rise of the Corvid
Port Peril — Shadows, Contracts, and Old Ghosts
Next Session: The Three Trials
I genuinely feel terrible for Westcrown that place has gone through it, and the heroes of its defining adventure path saved it from one crisis only to have the city to have the badguys take over again in Hell's Vengeance, and get Hell's Destiny Spoiler:
swallowed up into the 10th Circle of Hell! The heroes of the very first official Pathfinder AP really should have just moved out of town...
I just use the Chase rules from the GMG when I want to build a race.
Is it a charcoal Gryla or a propane Gryla?
Wrath of the Righteous Book 3:
So our heroes opened the door. Inside they found an elven woman straddling a corpse, making what can only be described as a bloody mess of bone meal of the body by smashing it with her serpentine staff.
She thanked the heroes for rescuing her from these cultists, but our heroes were naturally suspicious. The body was ruined too much to speak with dead, but our blood kineticist only needed blood enough for a blood biography. Realising the jig was up, the princess admitted she was the demon Jerribeth, and she hoped the PCs might help her get rid of Xanthir Vhang whos ambition was now a problem for Baphomet. She could even offer them the power of a wish to sweeten the deal. Our heroes decided no deals with Demons (this will be important later). An intense fight followed, with our heroes very narrowly avoiding some rocket-tag instant death buttons, and her mythic defenses putting up quite a challenge. But eventually they put the demon down. Looting the room they found a beautiful magical necklace, but nobody could identify it. Ausk put it on and immediately began choking as it slowly tightened around his neck. Once active, it was easy to identify as a necklace of strangulation, only removable with a limited wish, wish or miracle spell. Looking at the demon corpse, the party realised they would have to make a deal with a demon after all. Using a breath of life and the Dungeon Jailer/Prisoner rings they found on the body of Jerribeth. The party managed to leverage a wish out of the demon, in exchange for her "freedom". Thanks to Alan's theological debate skills he was able to convince the demon to present herself to Umbral Court of Nidal so they could utilise her abilities as a torturer. Ausk lives, thanks to the largesse of a demon.
XP: 1930
Skull & Shackles Tempest Rising AND Plunder and Peril: Our plunderin' pirates recruited some new crewmembers to join the newly christened Gozreh's Bite and shuffled crew across the two ships.
The Defiant
Gozreh's Bite
The ships headed for Beachcomber, but were accosted by some pirates looking to toll the passing ship. Looking to flex the muscles of the newly squibbed Gozreh's Bite nee Thresher, the pirates picked a fight. Working together the party were able to sink two ships and send two packing.
Spies: Slip had knowledge of spies, but would only trade the knowledge for the secret of speed plundered from a ship called the Brine Banshee, last seen sailing out of Port Peril. Wreckers/The Lady's Sting: The party were able to trade a secret for the location of a crew of Wreckers led by a Dromaar (half-orc) named Vakarla operating on a small island in the Rampore Isles. Location of Dajobas Cultists: Bez was given the task of killing a Tengu mutineer named Syrix Snowfeather. Snowfeather had stolen a ship called the Magpie Princess from under the nose of her Captain a woman named Varossa Lanteri from the port of Lilywhite.
Marcus also used the time to drop off some of the Pathfinder's secrets to a Chelish contact and earned a very special Platinum piece (and 9 other less special pieces in return). Next stop was Lilywhite where the party arrived just in time for the Rum Punch Festival. The party participated in a drinking competition while the Captain threw some money around town.
Next time: Dragon Plunder and Port Perils!
They look at the forums on a regular basis to gather info on what the player base is thinking. Several staff are also active on Reddit looking at that as well. I work customer experience, and asking for verbatims on experiences customers have had with a product, is feedback. In any case, if I had to hazard a guess the vast majority of APs canonical endings based on customer response would be: "The heroes were unable to organise their schedules and just sorta stopped adventuring, we never heard from them again, so I guess the badguys won by default?"
So we took a month off last month, but this time we're back. Wrath of the Righteous Book 3 Spoilers: Our heroes began the session in the Green Gorge, a statuary of basilisks hissed and charged the players as our Blood Kineticist loudly gathered energy. The CR 5 critters were no match for my Lvl 12/MR 3 party without even as single failed petrification save :(
Finding the actual entrance to the Ivory Labyrinth proved trickier, as the mythic master of the labyrinth had hidden the gate behind an illusiory veil. My party's weakness to Will Saves proved to be a hindrance, but the Cleric came in Clutch leading the party with closed eyes through the illusion only to get attacked through the gates by Half-Fiend Minotaur Antipaladins of Baphomet. Our sprite slayer easily fit through the gate gaps, avoiding attacks on his way past and figuring out the door mechanism, and the party sorcerer used dimension door to get the gates open enough for the party to push through and make short work of their enemies. They headed to the nearest door and found an armory, unfortunately a failed Stealth check triggered the backup minotaurs who charged out of their room like the kool-aid man, and managed to send three party members into extradimensional mazes! A quick Dismissal from the party sorcerer cleared out one of the trio, while a flurry of arrows from the the heretic demon and the blades of the party Shifter/Ranger finished off the other two. And so our heroes end the battle in a room that is quiet except for the sounds of pleasure coming from a room to the south?
I purchased this product, read it and ultimately think that for a GM looking for a vast divine conspiracy in the background of Golarion it might be a great campaign launching point. As far as writing quality, product polish and delivery on the premise as advertised: 9/10. For me, the whole idea was not to my taste, and completely flattens the religious complexities of a world like Golarion to actually reduce the story possiblities and make mortals even more unwitting pawns in the games of the gods and unless the conspiracy is an active part of a campaign, reduces the impact of too many stories. Its an interesting idea, that doesn't give enough points of interaction or conflict with the active divine factions of Golarion. Just because its not for me doesn't mean it won't be for you.
Build the Thornriver Watch Tower: As a downtime activity characters can contribute to the building of the Thornriver Fort. Prepare the Worksite
Critical Success Camping checks in the hex gain a +1 status bonus due to the secure camp. Build checks also benefit from this bonus for 1 week.
Gather Resources
Critical Success You gather 2 units of Lumber.
Build A Watchtower
Critical Success Two successes towards completion.
Recruit Guards
Critical Success You find two loyal guards of the level you're seeking who agree to work for the amount offered.
Though on the note for Kingmaker, I think I remember hearing somewhere that Kingmaker Remastered was not Paizo directly, but Legendary Games approved by Paizo, sort of a second party deal. Any truth to that? Legendary games mostly assisted with the conversion book for 5e and the companion book. Kingmaker is a fantastic sandbox, because it gives you a solid skeleton to hang your own player stories on. If the GM doesn't throw in a lot of personal side-quests and homebrew stories, and just runs the book as written then it will feel generic and like waiting for the next plot drop. I'll always go to bat for Kingmaker, as the additional content I've put into the campaign will attest (check my profile for more), but the complaints about the rules add-ons are fair, and if your party isn't really interested in Civilization: Golarion Edition, instead use the event rolls as session prompts and let your players use their own skills, roleplaying and leadership decisions to solve those events rather than relying on a sub-system.
Copilot Kingdom Building:
Prompts: Build me a kingdom in Pathfinder 1st edition rules. Assume there are plenty of plains, hills, forest and river/lake hexes within 10 hex radius of the starting location, mountains to the east begin about 15 hexes away, and swamps to the west starting around 20 hexes away. Assume a starting budget of 50 BP, and all leadership roles filled with NPCs where highest appropriate ability score modifier is +3. [The LLM built out a kingdom based on 1st turn set up here, not going to bother pasting all that] Prompt 2: Give me the kingdom sheet KINGDOM SHEET — Highcross Dominion (Pathfinder 1E) OVERVIEW
STATS
LEADERSHIP (All roles filled; highest relevant ability +3)
EDICTS (Default)
CAPITOL — Highcross (Plains)
NEARBY TERRAIN
NOTES
10 Kingdom Turns:
Prompt: Givem me the first 10 kingdom turns, favouring economy and stability. Then summarize those turns The LLM gave me a detailed 10 turn plan. Summary of the 10 Turns You stabilized your economy by front-loading 2–3 Farms and roads, flipping Consumption from +1 to –3/–5 by Turn 2–5.
Prompt: Simulate those 10 turns with the appropriate checks.
End-of-Turn-10 Snapshot
Capital: House, Barracks, City Hall, Shrine, Shop, Inn, Dump
Treasury (display-only): −71 BP (income not modeled—see below) Notes & Assumptions Leader bonuses included: Ruler +3 to all checks, Treasurer +3 to Economy, Warden +3 to Stability.
Prompt: Rerun using RAW income rules from ultimate campaign End‑of‑Turn‑10 Snapshot Size: 7 hexes (Control DC 29) [pathfinder...d20srd.org]
What this tells us (economy & stability focus) RAW tax income is meaningful early. With Economy +3–5 for most of the run, you averaged ~5–7 BP/turn from taxes when Unrest was low. (RAW: you add floor(check/3) BP regardless of beating DC.) [aonprd.com]
This could be useful for something along the lines of a rival or friendly kingdom growing alongside the PC kingdom so I don't have to do all the homework myself as a GM. Since its only referencing freely available rules on aonprd, I don't feel bad about a Large Language Model doing the scut-work of kingdom building. But I do feel guilty about the amount of water used for each prompt, as each answer took about a minute to generate, and that's a lot of water.
Yep!
I wanna go the other way. Turn alignment into something like a skill or save. Chaotic Evil character: "I am moved by the plight of this orphan. I will teach him the art of revenge." GM: "Give me an alignment check." CEC: "15 + 7 for my Evil Modifier." GM: "Excellent, with a 22, you recruit this pawn to the forces of evil." Paladin Player: "I knew I should have put more ranks in Lawful Good."
Skull & Shackles - Book 3: Tempest Rising - Session 1: XP Awards: 6400 - Ghost Captain (CR 9) 3200 - Skeletal Hulk (CR 7) 2400 - Skeletal Champions CR 2 (x4) 2400 - Zombie Lords CR 3 (x3) Number of Players (6) + Tessa Fairwind = 7 XP: 2057
Summary
She offered assistance with vengeance for Marina and Flynn, gifting Flynn a useful magic weapon called The Last Word - a war razor that would help give Flynn some closure.
But as they say, the Gods Laugh when Man Plans, and next session the turns might table on Aubrey's best laid plans...
Tyrant's Grasp, we're looking for Witch Gates so Arazni can teleport in and do something about Tar Baphon. Anyway, some undead knight from Geb and a trio of Daughters of Urgathoa popped up to try and stop us. Lucky our sorcerer can use mind control on undead thanks to their bloodline shenanigans, and so the knight was dominated while my phytokinetic knight Wink Wonk wrecked face with positive energy and well-timed insults for tanking, supported by arrows from the party Ranger (fav. enemy undead of course) and Eldritch Knight. Then we found a crater guarded by a Nightwing? Night something, last one we faced killed my last PC, and this one nearly murdered our ranger with a finger of death. Since I'm a medium as well as a kinetic knight, I channelled his spirit, and went full Gandalf "YOU SHALL NOT PASS", jumping onto the creature with positive energy stabs, supported by weighted infusion to drop it 200 ft into the pit, activating my feather fall and deactivating the feather fall effect so I could drop on it like a ton of bricks for another photokinetic stab/slam combo!
Wrath of the Righteous - Book 3 and Amarantha Agenda from Dungeon #123: Our heroes brave the Green Gates to find the Ivory Labyrinth, only to find their attempts cause them to become hopelessly lost in the woods. Due to some strange enchantment and rot that consumes the forest. Our heroes find themselves in front of an ancient Elven tower in the woods, and the nearby trees reshape themselves to speak. "I am Amarantha, and I am the last guardian of this green place. What brings you here."
The party warned her that such a deal was likely to turn sour, and Demons could not be trusted. The party negotiated with Amarantha and eventually she noted she could not break her agreement with the master of the Ivory Labyrinth and allow an army to tromp through the woods, but a small group could sneak under the roots via a secret cave entrance, and find an opening into the canyon which houses the Ivory Labyrinth. If Xanthir Vang could be routed from the Labyrinth it would go a long way to proving the heroes could do what they promised and defeat the Demon Lords assaulting the material plane. Our party travelled the World Wound finding a hidden cave entrance, and journeyed through the labyrinthine caves, until they came upon a force of fiendish Minotaurs, Gargoyles and a peir of Fire Giant Mercenaries. Our heroes fought together to bring down the threats, and navigated out into the Greengate Canyon, and the entrance of the Ivory Labyrinth, populated by fiendish basilisks.
Maybe something like the Corruption Rules in Horror adventures could work. Each point of Profane Knowledge increases the corruption, allowing players to choose unique powers, that come at a price?
I put together a semi-canonical one-shot for my Skull and Shackles players. So without Further Ado The Semi-Canonical Skull & Shackles Non-Denominational Winter Holiday Special We begin aboard the deck of The Defiant as the crew sings a traditional holiday sea shanty. Escape the Shanty Claus:
(Verse 1) When the icy fog is risin’ And the mast begins to groan, You’ll hear his boots come thund’ring Like a storm that stands alone. But the old salts whisper quietly As the lantern shadows toss: “There’s ways to dodge his shadow, Should he seek you, Shanty Claus.” (Chorus)
(Verse 2)
(Chorus)
(Verse 3)
(Bridge)
(Final Chorus)
Our heroes had a little Semi-Secret Shanty gift exchange,
Long after dark, when the crew was all tucked in their bunk,
The Shanty Slay came a-rollin', through snow and through fog,
The party scrambled to stations, and did battle with the Slay dodging icebergs, and cannon balls, and the ships guns! Until the ships closed, and boarding commenced, it was a fight for the ages, with magical narwhal charges, clockwork fey co-ordinated strikes, and Shanty Claus strange and special powers. Our heroes managed to defeat the Shanty Claus. When they awoke they had a set of Frostwake Sails: "
Frostwake Sails Aura: Strong Transmutation; CL 13; Slot: Sails; Price: 23,400 gp ____________________________________________________________ Description: ____________________________________________________________ This set of sails seems to made from fog and frost, Once per week, as a captain’s command, the ship becomes partially ethereal for 1 minute (or one ship round). While active: The ship may and crew pass through fog, ice, and nonmagical obstacles without hindrance. The ship gains a +20 circumstance bonus on checks to avoid hazards. Enemies suffer a –4 penalty on attack rolls made against the ship. Creatures on board remain corporeal and can attack normally. ____________________________________________________________ Construction Requirements: ____________________________________________________________ Craft Wondrous Item, ethereal jaunt, Cost11,700 and the same strange shared dream... Shanty Claus will return...
I mean the schedule for Paizo Live on Twitch has been constant for the last couple years (with exceptions when the first Friday of a month is the first or second day of the month). They do Paizo Lives on the first Friday of the month. That's where you're going to get some information about upcoming releases, and where the people who knew about Bastion of Blasphemies learned about it.NGL, I think it'd be good to have a weekly blog that embeds the VOD, and has a quick dot point of the highlights with time-stamps, but that'd probably be a bit of extra work. James Jacobs rightly pointed out that this feedback should be put in a place more likely to be visible to the blog team. The forum-lifers are set in our ways, and having a blog post or summary for the Paizo live VODs would be really great and get people hype about the announcements that happen on twitch, youtube and socials.
I mean the schedule for Paizo Live on Twitch has been constant for the last couple years (with exceptions when the first Friday of a month is the first or second day of the month). They do Paizo Lives on the first Friday of the month. That's where you're going to get some information about upcoming releases, and where the people who knew about Bastion of Blasphemies learned about it. NGL, I think it'd be good to have a weekly blog that embeds the VOD, and has a quick dot point of the highlights with time-stamps, but that'd probably be a bit of extra work.
Gods Rain Novel Climax:
It intimates that Gozreh had a hand in creating the eye to keep the Rovagug scar trapped at the bottom of the ocean, when the Godsrain fell, Rovagug was able to push the island back to the surface. The heroes were able to stop the villains from breaking one of the seals. This is a location similar to the Pit of Gormuz where Rovagug can exert influence even through the seal. There's more but I listened to the audio book so I don't have the exact text and am recalling from memory.
This is a great elevator pitch.
Like any large organisation, some are in it for the grift and personal gain, some are true believers, most are probably just going with the flow because even if Razmir isn't a god, he's powerful enough (politically and magically) that functionally there's no difference.
Everyone asks "Why Is Belkzen?", but nobody asks "How Is Belkzen?"
Rewards:
Skull & Shackles - Raiders of the Fever Sea Finale: The ancient mariner's aura of despair immediately paralysed Eegrush (half-orc unarmed fighter), Aubrey (half-elf oracle) and Marina (Undine Kineticist). Aselia and Flynn swam into action, flanking the Mariner, and doing their best to take the mummified mariner as quickly as possible. The mariner managed to vomit its toxic, necrotic breath into Aselia's mouth and gills, and the squamous and strange deep platinum token upon its neck kept Flynn shaken. However despite this the pair managed to overwhelm the mariner through sheer number of attacks with the last of Aubrey's haste from the previous battles still affecting them. The mariner managed to pull the paralysed party members into the room with a clever use of Control Water, and finish up the spin-cycle with a mighty swing of the anchor they were attached to. Flynn found an opening and plunged their blade through the creature's heart. It clung onto Flynn's arms: "Tell the Cap'n I weren't no traitor! T'was that Cabin Boy of His! He's the one what done it!"
Once the Captain was able to cough the last of the toxic necrotic sea water from their system, and the rest of the party were able to recover from the paralysis, they worked together to head back to Isabelle's air-filled chamber to rest, restore air to Eegrush's goblin-made air helmet, and change up some spells to see if they could remove the curse from the anchor now its original host was dead. Aselia tried first, but due to some magical mishap accidentally removed the wrong curse and instead of the anchor being removed, Flynn's form shifted from the rakish roguish sylph man the party knew to a female that could very well have been Flynn's own beautiful sister! As the girdle of gender transformation fell away from their form, Flyn (one "n" for the feminine), had some explaining to do. Talking to the Captain and the crew, they explained that in a past life they were betrothed to an Aspis Captain named Elder Barrison, a match Flyn (then named Essence) was interested in. So they escaped, eventually making their way to Taldor, changed their name and hid amongst the crowds and apprenticed to a basket weaver whos son left to become a wizard. They met a boy, a sailor who just signed onto a ship, and were set to marry, but the Consortium found them. The boy was slain, Essence escaped, and returned home. Her mistress was eager to help young Essence escape her pursuers and offered the magical trinkets her son had made to prover his apprenticeship, one of which was an accidentally cursed girdle of gender change.
Now undisguised, Flyn was still chained to the anchor. Aubrey, who was only half-paying attention to the story had one of the nearby Wendo untangle the curse from the anchor, freeing young Flyn from the encumberance (both literal and metaphorical). Eegrush was keen to claim the now uncursed anchor as a potent magical improvised weapon and the party, healed and ready headed to the heart of the Sahuagin nest. Upon approaching the throne room, they found Chief-King Krelloort brooding upon his cyclopean throne.
With that Krelloort launched himself at the Captain, while his consorts began streaming from nearby rooms hidden by curtains of kelp.
Captain Aselia used their divine strength to destroy the human bane trident, which just left 4 deadly claws to contend with. Flyn meanwhile, was attacking with a speed and precision the party had never seen before, with critical hits popping off left and right against the tough but clumsy concubines. Making good use of his bio materia to tick further damage off his enemies. Aubrey once again made good use of their animal bane dagger, keeping the pet hammerhead shark hemmed into a corner and gutting it quickly. Eegrush's new toy reduced enemy after enemy to bloody chum in the water, and Marina's bombs kept the group of frenzied concubines on the back-foot. Krelloort was killed by Flyn in another dramatic critical, gutting the Chief-King like a fish, and exposing his mutated innards. The frenzied concubines were a quick clean-up afterwards. A pair of concubines who wisely chose not to enter the fray, (without space to attack they kept to ranged attacks), surrendered immediately and submitted themselves to Flyn as their new conquerer. Flyn wasn't having any of that, and asked one to slap him.
The party looted every possible thing from these chambers, and with Krelloorts head on an 8,000 pound throne (carried by an Ant-Haul infused Aselia), the party headed back to the ships. The crew were quick to accept Flyn's new form, and Eegrush was invited to join the crew. The party claimed the Thresher as another ship for their growing fleet. Laden with Loot, the seas are wide open for our heroes, but a meeting in Quent with the firebrand Captain Fairwind awaits, some squibbing might be needed to install Besmara's Bones on the thresher, and our heroes should get around to picking up that Letter of Marque from the Hurricane King, based on their experience with the mariner, a man who might have been a traitor on Captain Wolfe's ship...
I really hope not.
Corrected below Jotunborn (1e)
Speed 30 feet
Size: Large (Tall) (10 ft space, 10 ft reach. -1 size penalty to attack and AC, +1 size bonus to CMB/CMD. -4 size penalty to Stealth and Fly) Iivlar Weaving Planar thread produced by creatures called iivlars is woven into your skin. This thread glows with dim light in a 10-foot emanation. You can suppress or activate this glow as a free action. Languages
Jotunborn Heritage
Keeper Jotunborn
Plane-Hopper Jotunborn
Sage Jotunborn
Warrior Jotunborn
Weaver Jotunborn
Just wanted to post and say that I really am enjoying your reviews, the Discworld is a formative part of my relationship with the fantasy genre, and with my fundamental relationship with the complexities of society as a human being. So these are a warm reminder of everything I enjoy about these books and I appreciate your thoughtful takes here.
I could easily see altering the Rebellion rules to something a little simpler to reduce the paperwork, and simplify the downtime actions for the PCs. Back of the napkin: Rebellion Level - Always equals the player level. Each week the PCs can make a check against the Rebellion level DC using a skill appropriate to the team they're working with: Advisers - Bluff, Performance
On a success the character gains 2 Preparation points for the week. If they beat the DC by more than 5 they gain 3 preparation points. On a failure they gain 1 preparation point (but increase Notoriety by 1d4), and if they roll a natural 1 they increase notoriety by 2d4 and gain no preparation points. A PC may spend preparation points during the week in the following ways: - Make a Diplomacy check to gather information as if they had performed the action during their downtime about a subject they come across while adventuring. - Secure a cache of useful items near an adventuring location (as the secure a cache action) - Have a team provide a distraction so the party can escape pursuers. - Extract a character from an adventuring location to a safe-house (to rescue an unconscious player character, or extract an NPC so the PCs can keep adventuring) - Call on an important Rebellion NPC to adventure with the party. - Pull a non-magical item with a value of no greater than 25 gp x Rebellion level from their pack as if they had prepared it earlier. - Reduce danger by 1d6 + Charisma - Add rebellion level to one non-combat skill check to represent practice, study or preparation for a particular task. Spending these points should be narrated with a flashback similar to a heist movie to represent the characters' planning, investigation and rebellion actions as they work with the teams and NPCs they've recruited through the adventure.
I think there should be no such thing as elemental planes, and elementals should be just be collected elemental matter that are primal/material manifestations of nature's will.Why? To differentiate further between divine and primal magic, and because I don't think inner planes add anything that interesting to the lore. But that's just personal preference. Back to your regularly scheduled 1e wishlist....
Controversial Take that continues to take this thread even further off the tracks: I think there should be no such thing as elemental planes, and elementals should be just be collected elemental matter that are primal/material manifestations of nature's will. So you can absolutely have mud elementals because it's just regular mud animated into a shape by a nature spirit or living lightning elementals, or furious fog. And sometimes it's just a mindless guardian, and sometimes its an intelligent spirit worthy of veneration, or some silly trickster.
More Skull & Shackles Raiders of the Fever Sea, getting back on the AP: Our heroes travelled to Little Oppara to sell loot, upgrade their ship, do some shopping before resuming the hunt for Isabella Locke. Aubrey and Marina discovered the consequences of the heat they built up by consistently f&%&ing with the Aspis Consortium, Aubrey talked her way out of trouble, while Marina lived up to the reputation of the Defiant by refusing to talk and getting her ass beat for her trouble. Aubrey picked up a couple of leads on some Aspis ships to steal from. The party installed some crafting stations into their ship to continue crafting, and negotiated a new contract with the crew. They spread rumours to fellow pirate Merril Pegsworthy, and around the bars at Little Oppara, increasing their Infamy to Despicable! They also took on a friendly bet with Captain Pegsworthy, and conspired to rob The Hale and Harty together. Captain Pegsworthy mentioned that Captain Harrigan was angling for a seat on the Captain's Council. He mentioned Captain Tessa Fairwind wasn't happy with the direction of the Shackles in recent years, and was organising likeminded pirates looking to abolish the slave-trade in the region, and do something about plundering of the local islands for foreign interests. He recommended Captain Aselia earn her letter of Marque from the Hurricane King sooner rather than later, and perhaps visit Quent on their way to Port Peril to have a talk with a like-minded pirate of Tessa Fairwind's kind. The next day Aubrey and Flynn booked disguises and passage on the Hale and Harty as passengers. Their plan was to infiltrate the ship, get an idea of what plunder was hidden aboard and perhaps sabotage one of the two gunships escorting the H&H (the Hewford and Dewford). Meanwhile the Defiant and Bonaventure headed out to the straits between Motaku Isle and Besmara's Throne to get ready to ambush the convoy.
The night before the ambush, Aubrey and Flynn dimension door'd invisibly onto the rearward gunship (the Dewford), and set to the powder room (a famously good plan that has never once gone wrong). The pair of them tried to take the Quartermaster out before he could raise the alarm, but the hold person spell failed to paralyse the mariner, and Flynn couldn't quite finish the job before the alarm was raised. Flynn set about making himself a masked distraction, while Aubrey invisibly filled a bag of holding with as much powder as she could before heading down to the bilge to set the explosive against the hull. As more sailors realised they were under sabotage the situation got more and more complicated, hoping to use Black Tentacles to disguise the ship's sabotage as a seamonster attack, her greater invisibility failed at the worst possible moment (using Luck to determine when a short term spell fails while running about outside of a strict combat scenario is fun). Cutting her losses, Aubrey leapt off the ship and used her spirit-granted power to run across the stretch of water back to the Hale & Harty, and make it clear she was aboard the ship and definitely not responsible for the strange explosion she heard in the background. With the Dewford sinking, the Captain was awoken and he ordered the anchors dropped and a rescue operation mounted for survivors. Aubrey considered for a long moment whether she should race back and make sure every possible witness was dead. But with the attack due at Sunrise, realised it was unlikely to matter anyway and set about invisibly plundering the Captain's quarters for his magical loot and art. Flynn had already teleported back to the Hale & Harty having set off the explosion (and hiding some fresh bullet holes he'd taken from the merchant marines for his troubles). He changed back to his Eugene disguise and made a spectacle of himself to help with the alibi. As the sun rose, the Defiant and the Bonaventure arrived ready to attack. The Defiant focused on capturing the remaining gunship (the Hewford), and with three ships were able to surround the Hale & Harty and secure a quick surrender. For their trouble the party earned 9 out of the 14 points of loot, and with a couple of Delilah's skeleton crew spells were able to send the Dewford off to get squibbed, a gunship would make a useful addition to the Defiant fleet. Heavy with plunder, the Defiant decided to finish the Sahuagin issue once and for all, and headed to Mancatcher cove. A relatively mild bit of weather and fair winds saw their way there. Flynn utilized his new familiar to note that the Thresher was waiting in ambush. The Defiant command crew decided to split, half the party led by acting Captain Killer Bill ("Meowdy"), would hunt down the Thresher, the rest would seek out the Sahuagin tribe and see to it their Chieftain would end his campaign of harrassment once and for all. The Defiant chased down the Thresher, and though they came close to sinking her, she managed to close within ramming range and tangled together a boarding party began.
A flying Isabella Locke retaliated with Lightning and Aqueous Orbs of her own. Though there were some close calls, the fight came out in the favour of the Defiant, prompting Isabella to dive beneath the ocean, likely a third round will determine final victory in this clash. Next Episode: The Secret of Mancatcher Cove
Skull & Shackles - More homebrew Dungeon Plundering: -- July 2026-- The pirates descended into the fort, where they fought Marsh Giants, their dinosaur pets, the prophecy haunted allips of ancient Ghol-Gan, some aberrations, and Pappy Clops, the self-styled inheritor of the Ghol-Gan empire. Eventually finding a hidden chamber where some ancient artifacts and ocularia were hidden. Aubrey unwittingly triggered the collapse and flooding of the Fort, and our pirates had to run with whatever they could grab. Taking some time to rest, recover, identify items and dry themselves off, our pirates returned to the beach they first landed on, where the crab they fought when they first reached the island rose again as an Exoskeletal monstrosity, and an ambush of Sahuagin awaited them. Taking a few hits in the process, our plundering pirates defeated the ambush, and found an unusual unholy symbol of Dajobas with a rare ocularium inside (Enemy Skill). Upon returning to the ship the party learned the ship also repelled a raiding party of Sahuagin, but did not realise the attack was a distraction to liberate their prisoner Isabelle Locke is free again! |
