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Thanks for the help!

I'm trying to find the name or number of a old PF1S scenario that was a murder mystery on a ship. Can anyone help? It had a rust monster.

Why: I use PFS scenarios as creative go juice for my home campaign. And I'm fleshing out an 'antagonist hiding on your ship' plot. So I'm looking for any adventures that have the find the antagonist hiding in your space plots. The more the focus is on hiding and evidence, and less on disguise and deception the better.

Link to the Crypt of the Everflame journal.

Ran it on impulse for a 2 player group. Went well.

This is the first chapter of a larger journal where I am running the Everflame arc as the parties backstory to lead into the Fists of the Ruby Phoenix adventure.

The primary purpose of this thread is a place to order my thoughts and keep a journal, however everyone is welcome to post here, add comments, and join the conversation. Ideally this will be a useful reference for others and at the worst just a journal.

Lets get started.

I did most the prep for this module back before the delta wave as I was excited to get playing again after the 3rd wave passed...

Last weekend while sheltering with my cohort we decided to play 2e on impulse. There was only three of us. This wasn't the group I prepped this adventure for. I was GMing off my phone working off prep notes I hadn't looked at in months. It was great.

The 2e Conversion.
This adventure converts fairly well, for many encounters I was just swapping 1e skeletons with 2e skeletons. So instead describing the conversion for every encounter I'm just going to discuss where there were hurdles and headaches. If anyone is interested I'll post a link to my conversion notes.

My group was a Giant Instinct Barbarian and a Cleric of Nethys (magic missile!). They came from Holgast's Home for Homeless Children, the local orphanage. It was a quick way to make any ancestry and background local to Kassen.

Part 1, First Fight.
This is the illusionary orc encounter. I used the Illusory Creature spell and GM fiat'd it so there would be 2 or 3 orcs. In this session a player opened with a 3 action magic missile hitting all of them and ending the encounter on the first turn. Anticlimactic but it worked. This didn't need to be a full encounter and it worked well to introduce the mystery that something was not right.

Part 1, Eyes in the Dark.
Wolves passed their stealth so no early warning of the attack (other than the howling) and no chance to avoid the attack. Used 3 weak wolves for 2 players. It went well, endless knockdowns.

Part 1, Unfortunate Bandit.
I'm trying lay the groundwork for the next chapter (Masks of the Living God) with the hints here with the age of the corpse and the coins. But I'm worried that it opened too many mysteries at once? Na, players are smart, they will figure it out.

I changed the loot from a masterwork weapon to a useful armor. Because I wanted limited magic weapons going into the shadow encounter.

Part 1, Treacherous Hillside.
For this I told the players that because everyone was trained in athletics they navigate the slopes safely. No rolls required. Was trying to reward skill investments by allowing being trained to be an auto-succeed.

Part 2, Crypt of the Everflame
Upper Level. Entry + 1. Entry Hall.
The fresh corpses at the entrance were helpful to let the players understand that these bodies and the lake body are not directly related. No one was trained in social so no one figured out that these were villagers.

I used skeletons but added no special abilities. None of them felt right.

2. Maze of Pits
This one worked really well with secret rolling. They only walked into one trap which worked well for revealing the pillows, and explaining the pillows they found earlier.

I was concerned about 2e non-lethal being a problem but it worked well, that there is no way falling 20ft isn't going to hurt (pillows are only so good), but it won't kill you.

It is here that I saw the first hints of a challenge with this group of players. After it became obvious that this room was full of pit traps, they did not try to improve their chances of finding them with clever solutions. No using the brooms to poke ahead or similar actions. They did use the rope as a grab line after falling in a pit trap the first time.

I decided against balancing the three switch puzzle for two players and left all three switches in. They tied the rope to one of the switches to pull all three at once.

3. Wailing Survivor
The group failed their diplomacy to calm Roldare down and did not attempt to intimidate him. But the cleric in the group made good use of his ramblings to try to figure out what kind of undead we was going on about.

One of the characters recognized his crossbow (through the cracks in the door) as one his mentor had made. Still no one coming out and saying "These are our villagers".

I made sure to let that character know that it was a +1 potency crossbow. Incase it came up with the upcoming shadow...

4. Hungry Beetle
Only level -1 or 4 beetles in the bestiary right now. So there wasn't an easy single beetle conversion. I added flash beetles until I had an appropriate challenge. With a larger group a normal/weak stag beetle is an option.

5. Shadowy Shapes
This is the encounter I was really worried about during my original prep. That a weak shadow might be too much for a 4 player party.

I used a double weak adjustment on the shadow. Ham-handed, but whatever. I also really played up that it was tied to the shadows the dagger was casting from the fire and that it was flinching from the light cantrip that the cleric has on their staff.

A few hits and a magic missile won the battle. I'm glad I really reduced the shadow's damage, because when I run this with 4-6 players I expect the shadow to drop 2-3 characters.

I made the dagger +1 striking.

6. Key Pool
This is a puzzle based in 1e mechanics. That there are 100 keys but the correct one is magic. I simplified the puzzle, having only one key at the bottom of the pool and making it magic so that detect magic tells you it is down at the bottom of the pool.

I was happy with the simplified version, but will continue to thing about how to add one more step.

7. Room of Reflection
The three part arc, Everflame - Masks - Golden Death, does not have really strong narrative ties from one chapter into the next. This is something I'm really trying to add because I am doing this as a three part arc. So I spent time describing their amulets, and did a simple sketch that showed that they were each about one third of a whole.

They used the bench from this room as a swimming anchor in the key pool... disrespectful...

8. Gauntlet
They easily found the pressure plate and jumped it. Some suspense as they wondered if they spotted all the pressure plates. This room did well as 80% narrative and 20% trap.

9. Shield Guardian
This was the weird encounter of the night.

When the players first encountered it, they looked at everything in the scene and thought it was a puzzle. They tried yelling at it, guessed different command words, and decided they hadn't found the hints for this puzzle yet. Then they backtracked to explore the rest of the crypt.

I used animated armor and added the weak adjustment for 2 players. I removed the Grab ability and gave it the ability to raise its shield.

After exploring the rest of the upper levels they returned to the golem. In their first attempt the barbarian went down the stairs and the cleric stayed on the elevated platform. With no one on the stairs the ramp trap never caught anyone. The golem won initiative, critically hit the barbarian and took them from full health to zero in one hit. The cleric was able to drag them up the stairs and heal them. This really sapped the player's fun, it was a bad experience for the barbarian to go from full to zero in a single hit.

After I encouraged the players to continue (we had been playing for 4 hours) they attempted again. They didn't attempt to cheese the fight by attacking it from the upper level which surprised me at the time, but this was from a combination of past experiences where cheesing constructs was unproductive and with it being late they didn't want to waste table time on unproductive paths.

In the second attempt the group was able to beat the golem with a simple approach of being more lucky. The barbarian didn't get crit and a combination for melee hits and magic missiles brought the golem down.

As for the puzzle aspects of this encounter. The group was aware of the key hole on the back but was wondering where the 3rd key was. Next time I'll ensure that the correct key is engraved with double shields. The group didn't suspect that disarming the shields would disable the golem, but I'm alright with this being a hidden solution. With the animated statue's fort save two successful grapples are unlikely, so I'm thinking about different options for using key to disable it. 2e's disarm rules also makes disarming the shields challenging, but more practical with a larger group and it's low reflex save, I'll leave the disarm as is.

10. Supply Vault
I added a +1 potency weapon for the barbarian (oversized) and a wand of magic missile for the cleric of Nethys. The wand might be a little too valuable for the location, two lvl 2 scrolls might be better, and scrolls give them some big guns going into the second level if needed.

11. Pillar of 1000 Arrows
I used the spear launcher hazard from the Core Rulebook. It one shot the cleric and missed, or wounded (I don't remember) in round one. I may tone down the damage slightly in the future.

I made sure the party knew that the door in was one way, that it had a 'fire close' on it so it would close if unattended and not propped open, and when they entered the room I described the arrow column starting to activate giving each character 3 actions before the trap acted at zero initiative. But I rolled initiative for them so the players were not certain when the trap would start. Cleric tried the exit door and cast the shield cantrip. Barbarian inspected the trap (failed) and then took cover on the floor. The cleric went down in the first volley. After some consideration on trying to run or saving the cleric the Barbarian retrieved the grapple hook and rope from his bandoleer, set the grapple hook securely, and rolled into the pit at the center (crawled). I thought it was cool. After finding the pit disappointingly empty (pillows at the bottom) they waited out the trap. I was worried that the 9 rounds of non-lethal damage hitting the cleric would remove the suspension of disbelief, but the group seemed to be entertained by the the descriptions of the violent beating the Barbarian could hear happening about him but could not see.

The party had seen but not fought the golem at this point, using the shields did not occur to them. Even if using the tower shields as full cover would be fiat in 2e, the players didn't know that tower shields could provide total cover in 1e.

12. Chamber of the Bloody Dead

Encounter went well. 4 bloody skeletons for 2 players. with the skeletons having 4 hp the bloody ability did very little. I did not carry over the 1e rule that they return to life after an hour if not sprinkled with holy water.

At this point we found out that the Cleric did not know that a 'basic' save meant something extra. So there was some disrupt undead damage we were missing earlier.

Thoughts and Feelings

So ya, not sure how I feel about puzzles that have solutions inside the game mechanics. Either the players know that mechanic, or you explain it as something there character would know, or you just don't use that solution. However, most these puzzles failed forward well with alternate solutions. And I like using the game mechanics, and I liked these puzzles as a player in 1e.

This was a fun dungeon crawl, and the players mostly liked the combat (golem being the outlier). With two players most the enemies were weaker than the characters, so combat felt really rewarding as their actions often succeeded. For the next level I'll keep that in mind and error on my encounter conversions towards more enemies, not stronger enemies.

I did try a MICE analysis on this chapter in an attempt to tie it into the bigger arc better but that will wait for another day.

This is my journal to talk about my experiences, struggles, and joys in running this Adventure Path. The primary purpose of this thread is a place to order my thoughts and keep a journal, however everyone is welcome to post here, add comments, and join the conversation. Ideally this will be a useful reference for others and at the worst just a journal.

The planning and how we arrived at the Fists of the Ruby Phoenix.
The pitch for this campaign resonated with the group and we were instantly 100% committed to playing it. Only then did we notice that it was level 11-20.

I didn't GM or play Pathfinder during the dark times that are not over but will pass, Urgathoa willing, so I was hesitant to jump straight into a 11th level 2E game. The players had a few more games under their belts, but were similarly hesitant to make 11th level characters from scratch. We considered the obvious choice of the Abomination Vaults for levels 1-10 but in the end decided to try something ambitious (for me).

The Origin Story Arc
I decided to string together 3 or 4 PF1 modules converted to 2E that would serve as the Origin Story of the heroes that go on to enter the Ruby Phoenix Tournament. Didn't I just say last paragraph that I'm still new to 2E, and now I'm converting 10 levels worth of content! I can not be trusted to make decisions for myself... The Price of Immortality trilogy (Crypt of the Everflame, Masks of the Living God, City of Golder Death) serves as a great arc, starting in a humble village, finishing in the abandoned Capitol of the Whispering Tyrant (backstory will happen before relevant events occur here, probably). I'm holding space for an extra module if there is something that really complements the themes of the group. I also plan to scale the modules so that the City of Golden Death is lvl 8-9 to let them finish on a super epic note. Converting and re-leveling, why am I committing to this!?

I'll post links to the origin story threads in their relevant forums to keep this forum on topic.

The Origin Story Mechanics?
I've been thinking a lot about what mechanical changes I could make to create a ludonarrative harmony in the Origin Story. That these origin adventures are the stories the future adventurers are telling about themselves, or these are the adventures as they remember them, not as they were. 'Back in my day we walked up hill to the dungeon both ways, in four feet of snow.' All these ideas would apply to the backstory adventures only.

We could roll in memory points and narrative rerolls: Either direct player override on the story "You're telling the story all wrong! I didn't fall off the roof and land on my butt surrounded, I made leap attack to take out the ringleader bandit from above! You were just to far away to see my prowess." The Prince of Persia, 'no that isn't how it happened' retcon also fits in this category. Or pull on different "I had a plan for this all along" or "I have a guy for this" mechanics. I'm not in favor of these because I don't want to remove too much tension, and without some meaningful balance point it feels like adding mechanics just to add them.

Next thought was that since this is the character's origin story; they due not die unless the player decided they die. I'm looking at this because I want to give the players the permission and power to make ambitious, crazy plans that they will look back on and laugh at. I'm a little hesitant to remove the risk of death without playing more combat rounds with players in the dying condition, just cause I don't want to remove too much tension. If I do dive into death manipulation, I could also add an option that when you hit dying you either follow normal rules (while still protected from dying), or enter a 'death or glory' state where your dying increases as normal in all ways except that you are not incapacitated and instead get a bonus to all rolls equal to your dying value, until you die. These rules could serve as a safety net if I get the encounter challenges wrong in the conversions.

Random secret objectives is something we have had fun with in dungeon crawling board games (Gloomhaven) and they add an interesting twist in those games. I thought about if random secret objectives could force some interesting dynamics. I would never consider this in a typical campaign, but if we insist the entire game is an unreliable narrator (if the objective does not match the character personality) and have some safety nets (to prevent silly TPKs) in place they might have a place. I don't like this idea because it isn't giving my players enough credit, they are going to create great and interesting dynamics with or without outside pressure.

All that said and considered, I don't think any of the mechanics above would benefit the backstory premise and that my best shot at having adventures that these characters look back on and tell tall tales about is to just run a few enjoyable, well paced games. We will however have level and time jumps where they needed with players filling in the time and level gaps with their own stories (6 to 8 levels of content taking them to level 9 or 10, so they may finish one adventure at level 2 and start the next one at level 4). Retraining will be very permissive.

Character Creation
Started with all Uncommon races are permitted.
Uncommon and rare options are negotiable.
It is already looking very exciting.

In Closing
That is enough for now. I'll post the links to the early adventure journal threads as they happen. The adventure will tentatively start in September, Urgathoa willing, so it will be while before we get started and longer before we start the Fists of the Ruby Phoenix.

Thread Ground Rules
Everyone is welcome. Post away on feedback, comments, or tangents. Everything in here is brainstorm or feedback on how things went, so there are no bad ideas. There shall be no vileness, cruelty, or arguing in the thread. This thread is full of spoilers for the Fists of the Ruby Phoenix. I'll be dropping any direct questions in the relevant GM Reference threads, any questions here are thinking out loud or an invitation to brainstorm on solutions specific to this campaign, or a chance to take tangents that are not helpful in the GM Reference.

It's possible that much of the emotional payoff of the module doesn't happen if the players can do too much dramatic rewriting of uncomfortable moments during the buildup.

I'm really hoping that the critical hit system against a wave of low level mooks really pays off here. But this module is the one I'm most concerned about because I do not have many 2E games under my belt. I'm concerned I might group too many combat encounters together or end up with critical fails on skill check.

I'm going to be running the Fist of the Ruby Phoenix Adventure Path that starts at 11th level. For a variety of reasons we do not want to start at 11th level. We have decided to convert to 2E and run the Price of Immortality trilogy (Crypt of the Everflame, Masks of the Living God, and City of Golden Death) which will serve as the party's 'origin story'.

I'm brainstorming mechanical and storytelling changes I can make to make these first three 'chapters' feel different than a typical adventure. To make them feel like something that has already happened, to make them feel bigger than life like they are the tall-tales told by seasoned adventurers.

A few ideas I'm bouncing around:
- Level jumps between chapters. The idea that they are looking back and only the exciting points are vivid in their memory. That the year they spent isolating in Nirmathas as a plague ravished the countryside is an uncertain blur.
- Super powering hero points. Leaning into the Prince of Persia death mechanic of the storytellers going "No, wait, that isn't how it happened." when something goes very wrong.
- More super powering hero points. This time to make the heroes the unreliable narrators of their own stories. Since these chapters are the telling of their adventures, not their actual adventures, some of their exploits can be extremely exaggerated.
- Frequently returning the narrative to the present. Starting each chapter or session from the point of view of the lvl 11 characters preparing for the tournament qualifier, either bragging up their exploits, reminiscing, or such.

What ideas do you have? I'm really focused on mechanical adjustments we can make that can reinforce this premise.

Thank for the input everyone. This is what I'm throwing in the alignment section of the session 0 guide. Let me know if when you read that you see anything that makes you feel unwelcome at the table or feel like that isn't a game you could play in.

ALIGNMENT:
Alignment is not a focus in my games. It will come up but I do not intend it to remain in the spotlight or to add artificial constraints to the characters.
I run that alignment is largely how your character justifies their actions to themselves. There will be exceptions and alignment is also a cosmic force with some spells and creatures being inherently evil or good regardless of how they are used and what they do. But anytime an alignment question comes up the first question will be ‘how does the character justify their actions?’
Example:
Your character captures a criminal, collecting a sizable bounty. It was a complicated circumstance but in the end what mattered the most was that (pick one or more):
- Everyone is safer because of my actions. We are better off.
- I have personally profited from this. I am better off.
- I have maintained order, and did right by the rules.
- I considered the circumstance by its own merits, and did right by the individuals.

R0b0tBadgr; I really appreciate your reply, it is helping me out.

I'm using a relativistic approach because I want this to be very permissive. I'm working to avoid moral absolutism and how others consider their actions because I'm sympathetic to players having to deal with different GMs having a different interpretation of the alignments. I want a method that allows the player and GM to have minor disagreements.

Every character is the hero or their own story, so I want every alignment to have a framing that so that every character can say that they are doing the 'Right and Good' thing (Right and Good != Good), in whatever their twisted framework is.

I'd say "I've profited from this" would be a better justification for Chaotic rather than Evil.

lol, I think your players are being evil and using the CN defense.

I don't think there is a Chaotic reason to do that beyond 'It gave me the money to stay self employed, which is to say free.'. Nor do I think the reason you have listed as 'Evil' is actually Evil. Personal profit is the main reason I can think of most Neutral people to do bounty hunting (a not uncommon occupation for them), and wanting to profit from things is only Evil if you're willing to hurt innocents or do other evil stuff to do it.

I think for capturing someone with a bounty to be Evil, you either need to know they're innocent and not care, or enjoy the idea of hurting and imprisoning people for its own sake (ala Jubal Early in Firefly).

Does this change help with the evil question? What I'm trying to communicate is that they are putting there selfishness ahead of any other concern:

Your character captures a criminal, collecting a sizable bounty. You some doubts about if what you did was right, but you go to sleep that night telling yourself that:
Good: The community is safer because of my actions.
Evil: I have personally profited from this.
Lawful: I have maintained order, and we all benefit from this.
Chaotic: ???

"I did it because I wanted to"

Lol, a huge pet peeve.

I feel that some players that use the CN excuse as a rebellion against an alignment system they find restrictive, opting to just not engage with it at all.

Hence why I want it as a session 0 topic: that your character is the alignment you say it is. I could go on, but I don't want to derail my own thread... If I haven't already.

I'm between campaigns and taking the chance to actually write up my session 0, welcome to my table guide. Right now I'm trying to make some examples for my 'how alignment is handled' section.

I run with a light hand on alignment and use the rule that if the character can rationalize their actions to themselves, then that is enough. This approach to alignment doesn't work for everyone and that is alright. I'm trying to come up with a benign example to demonstrate this and became immediately stumped.

My example:
Your character captures a criminal, collecting a sizable bounty.
Good: The community is safer because of my actions.
Evil: I have personally profited from this.
Lawful: I have maintained order, and we all benefit from this.
Chaotic: ???

Given the assumption that alignment is how a character explains their actions to themselves, how would would a chaotic neutral character justify their actions in the above example?> Or do you have a different recommended example where each alignment justifies their actions differently?

I had grand plans of the dragon throwing the gauntlet down in a dramatic manner: It made some fly-by breath attacks on isolated ravens outside the lucky bones, then perched on the roof of the temple in full view of the city. My plan was to give the group a good chance to buff to the nines and have a dramatic fight with larger stakes than just killing the dragon. So when the group approached the temple fully buffed the dragon took to the skies and flew full speed towards the opera house (the focal location of the song of silver), it had planned to spend a few rounds lighting the building on fire before the ravens arrived, I would get to use those maps again, and the players would have a chance to show off some of their more mobility orientated abilities (teleport, fly).

Unfortunately the clues I left about where exactly that dragon was flying were not successful, the group believed the dragons was fleeing. In their eyes the dragon was fleeing and they just spent an hour planning buffs. They were not allowing this to go to waste. They kicked open the temple doors and charged in, Starting a 3 session long epic encounter involving all of the temple and the dragon.

The dragon specifically arrived late to the fight because it took many rounds to realize the ravens would not be pursuing it and return to defend the temple. Because the group was still fighting the high priest and the vampire when the dragon arrived it served as a good flanking pressure on the group terrifying the casters. I also didn't want to TPK quickly so the dragon made some subpar tactical choices: throwing out breath weapons every time it was available and destroying summoned monsters that were doing a number on mooks. I'm quite sure the dragon would have caused a TPK as it came in to wipe up a wounded, depleted group, but the skald/hellknight multiclass got a very lucky curse on to the dragon, then it rolled to not act for 3 of the next 4 rounds...

So we are cruising to start the argument on what is good and what is evil. (The P word has already been dropped...)

My general advice is to ask your player how their character rationalizes their behavior to themselves. This does two things; it give you a good RP scene as they get to discuss their characters inner thoughts, and it avoids the players arguing with the GM over what is right and wrong and hopefully ends up with the characters arguing with each other over what is right and wrong.

Blosodriette wrote:

In my campaign I had to move two Chaotic Goods to Chaotic Neutral: it happened when they went to Hell and showed no empathy for the imprisoned souls. Something along the lines of, "They must have deserved it if they are in Hell; meh, let's move on."

I was like: "Wait, what?! you agree with Hell's reasons for damnation now? and you, like, totally don't care about these people's suffering at this present time, right under your nose?! that's a paddlin'!"

It's not Hell's reasons, but Pharasma's. You should have moved them to TN instead :P

Upholding the status quo? Tisk tisk, what poor revolutionaries... ;)

I'm running a short retirement arc that takes place years after the adventure path. I suspect the players are going to try to destroy the evil kukri Balgorrah.

Naturally I expect the search for the high level cleric of Norgorber to be quite difficult. To reflect this difficulty with something different that high DCs I plan to have the investigation to include a few scenes (1 scene as an instigating incident, 2-3 scenes investigation, then 1-2 scene for the final confrontation).

So what kind of complications could arrive while trying to track down a high priest of the skinsaw cult?

A few ideas I already have are:
1) The hunters become hunted and assassins ambush the group.
2) The information has an immorally high price (not happy with this idea, I'm already planning to have the murder-Vatican warded against anyone who isn't a murder, and they will have to trick the warding or admit to themselves the volume of violence they have in their past).

So many questions!

- one player wants to make a deal with Odexidie... Check out the Pathfinder Society scenario "What Prestige is Worth" it has a few ideas for a contract that isn't all or nothing (trading things other than a soul.

- did anyone have a chance player who wanted to be Lord Mayor?... Our Mesmerist became the mayor. I played it up that the former mayor was traumatized and happy to step into an advisory position. Because so many of the governors would vote the way the ravens told them too, I had the players do a blind ballot at the table as each character 'handled' their own governor. I cast a ballot for the more stubborn Governors. It was a fun RP session. We had no problem with an adventurer being mayor, after that point there was a lot a downtime and the future adventures they go on are short or actual diplomatic missions.

- how did people pad out getting the governors on side?... We kept it simple. I did flush out the recruiting the nobles step in an earlier book so it felt like familiar group to the group.

- one of the governors suggests a trade deal but it is mentioned that this is already resolved by Vyre. But if they qualify for the trade deal they also qualify to just include Vyre in Ravounel. I think my players would be skeptical about “a trade deal with themselves”... This never really came up for me. Frame it that Kintargo and Vyre are going to be sister cities, a robust trade treaty is necessary to limit power struggles in the future?

If you want to play it harsh, it is within the rules to have them fall.

Illusions give a save when they are interacted with. Which is the least helpful description, but I've ran it that unless they take some sort of action regarding the illusion, they won't get a save. This almost guarantees that in combat they won't get a save, but should allow them a save at the start of the fight if they took any time to stop and talk and take in the room.

There is the catch yourself while falling rules in the climbing rules, but the DC is very high, DC+20. If the character has a better acrobatics it would be easy to us a reflex or acrobatics to lunge across the gap then their foot goes through the floor?

Take a second to consider how likely death actually is. 20d6 is 70 damage, give or take a few. 70 damage from the fall, 70 damage from hellfire, less if they have protection from evil or fire resist. Then all they need is a fast fly or teleport to get out. Then as long as it doesn't derail the game, an early death here does cement the impression that Hell is a dangerous cruel place that will kill the reckless unfairly. (cause raise dead is affordable at their level.)

Just try to put Wex after a really hard fight as a pallet cleanser.

If it is any comfort Wex got trounced in my game too.

I got over it several books later when a super awesome assassin got to successfully death attack.

I don't think this was already answered in the threat, but I apologize if it was. What happens to Kintargo as far as the 'Rebellion in Play' rules go when the players are abroad? My group went from Vyre straight to Acisazi, and it's quite likely they've been gone as much as two weeks before they decided to return to Kintargo now. Do you think it makes sense to have xdy supporters leave per week since the PC's presence in Kintargo is lacking? Or perhaps the Silver Ravens' allies (Octavio, Laria, Rexus, etc.) kept the effort up while the PCs were gone? What other effects might there be from the players being away from home base?

I never found anything that directed what to do in that case.

If your players took off for two weeks did they consider the rebellion phases?

If they thought about it and decided that the rebellion will be just fine without them, you have free reign to handle it however you wish. everything from mass mayhem, to a silver raven figurine waiting for them at Acisazi with a message from Rexus asking for direction.

If they didn't consider they were leaving for two weeks, why didn't they consider the rebellion phases? If they are not enjoying the rebellion mechanics, harsh consequences may suck the last of the fun out a sub-system they are already not enjoying. If they took off without considering the rebellion phases, is this because the rigid timeline isn't emphasized in your game and they assumed it would just work out? Or are their character a bunch of reckless Chaotic character that struggle with the organization aspect of a rebellion and this is a great chance to role play that disorganization.

This is a great time to grab any subplot that is remotely time sensitive and make it into a 5 alarm fire when they return.

However, if you want this to be a win for the players.

Use traditional investigation methods; Get someone trusted to identify the bodies (would the church of Abadar be able to). Convince the nobles that agents of thrune were using these as a defences through evidence and arguments. Theme this that Thrune relies so heavily on magic and contracts that sometimes to obvious escapes his notice.

I think you use this as an opportunity to play up Thrune as a ruthless, intelligent villain that will be difficult to topple. Let the players discover all the things you mentioned, show them that it will be near impossible to to prove Thrune did this. Use sympathetic NPCs to let your players know that this is a failure, and that that is alright.

Key to this is the fail forward; use the time after it becomes obvious that they can not prove it was Thrune to move into the next plot point. You will need to distract the players to get them to change gears after the failure, otherwise they might keep trying to dig a deeper hole.

Decide on the theme you want for your game; It sounds like your group is being intentional in this, so I'd add some extra notoriety. One point for each survivor, but not the Nox bonus because these mooks don't have Thrune's attention and audience like Nox had.

1) Make this notoriety feel like a good thing (even if it is not), have citizens and guards sharing stories about the ravens where they can hear it. Emphasize the myth they are creating for themselves.

2) Since Thrune isn't willing to mention the Ravens, that means any arrest bounties have to list the two individually. And two more arrest warrants in these troubled times? Those could get lost in the pile. Do the redactors even have good IDs on these characters? An eccentric tiefling is going to stand out in their community, but they are all red skinned with horns to a guard... This lets the players recognize their own face on a poster, but allows you to run it that any given guard has a small chance of connecting their face to the poor one on the poster. (You can use this to foreshadow Thrune is spying in book 2 by having the posters increase in accuracy).

Shout out to GM Wageslave and Lau Bannenberg's comments, and to every PFS GM and writer that does this. Prisoners fading to black was one of the high points of the first PFS game I attended.

But on topic;
1) Do Not Narrate the Disruptiveness; Everything happens only with the GM consent, so do not narrate anything further regarding the prisoners; Tell them no, and just move straight into the next scene without discussion. This is a stalling tactic until you can resolve the situation in a better manner, it also reinforces that being disruptive does not get you extra attention.

2) Have the 'this isn't that type of campaign' discussion; Explain that this campaign doesn't really do ruthless nitty gritty, and that the a neutral character worshiping an evil god is going to struggle. It if a fun concept, but maybe best to shelf it until they are more familiar with the campaign themes. There is entire section here that I glossed over on why do they want to kill the prisoners, the answer to that will frame this who discussion?

3) Be ruthless; Give fair warning then deem their character evil, requiring atonement to continue playing. Not recommended as a first option, and speak with your Venture Agents ahead of time. But sometimes a player needs an ultimatum to halt their disruptive behaviour.

Romulus; Sorry for dropping your mini and breaking his arm, I'm even more sorry that you broke his other arm leaving the last game. Your character concept of this 17 year old teenager was a great contrast to highlight the literal and actual hell the Ravens went through.

June; Sorry that we never got to deliver on the brother plotline, it is a huge regret of mine. I loved how this character changed over the course of the rebellion, they started out as a friendly server and ended as a hellknight who was removing a stranger's ribs in hell to execute a contract of hell. Thanks for raising the bar on the food rotation, I always looked forward to your turn on food.

Pulver; Sorry it wasn't the banks all along. Pulver was an impressively consistent character which matched their compulsiveness perfectly. Your roleplaying really brought the whole table up.

Nova; Sorry everything you tried to disintegrate had a good fort save. I feel like in every boss fight, your summons tipped the scales (ants dragging survivors away at the opera house, turtles tanking dragons in the temple, paralyzing Nox in hell). Thank for running the treasure sheet.

Laetonia; Sorry for casting hold person on your tiefling that was immune to hold person and then coup de gracing them. Thanks for all the out of game contributions; The rebellion spreadsheet would have been a lot more difficult without you, your rules expertise was a great resource.

Sigmund; Sorry we never got to develop and use the possessed corruption. As soon a your mesmerist got elected mayor we all just decided he was actually a super-villain and was secretly pulling all the strings, Sorry for making Sigmund's time in the spotlight a running joke. As much as I complained about it slowing us down, I loved the humor you brought to the table.

This was a great group and I am truly fortunate to have met every one of you. I now challenge you to expand this group and find more strangers to game with, because 6 players is a lot and we should split into to two smaller groups, but more importantly because it is an investment in all future games. We will not always play together, but we will always play; Now is the time find others and show them the joys of a group with regular attendance, the ability to identify and resolve our conflicts, and a healthy discussion on the appropriate amount of quarterbacking.

Even though we have similar tastes and play well together, we all prefer different levels of role playing versus tossing dice. You should strive for the perfect game for you, find more players that like more of what you like while knowing who to game with when you want a fix of something different.

With that; fare well Silver Ravens. I look forward to playing with you in the next Adventure Path.
- DM Livgin.

Book 6, Session 9;

Thrune is dead! The Silver Ravens are victorious!

This session only included Corinstian in the Solitary Thousands and Thrune.

For the Corinstain encounter I added an additional Horned Devil and made all three devils advanced as the 6 player adjustment. A round one prismatic spray was able to planeshift Corinstain away before he could even act... that spell is a literal spray and pray. The horned devils performed well; they had a high enough attack bonus to land a few blows and the fear aura was able one of the melee characters.

For Thrune I traded one of his crafting feats out for quickened metamagic so that he could get divine favor up, I also used the mythic power Thrune and told the players these was the weakened version due to the flaws they had taken on (when you read this, sorry). As a six player adjustments I leveled Nox up to a 18 hit dice bearded devil, broken soul and added her in, she was such a memorable villain that it felt right to have her with thrune at the end.

He began the encounter with a blade barrier instead of the summoning spell his tactics use. I had serious reservations about the opening with the summoning spell tactic on a villian: If the team is not able to interrupt his casting; then the fight is now harder when they were already struggling. If the team does their round one alpha strike and interrupts the summoning; the villain has now done nothing for a round against a group that performing well. Enemies summoning in combat has a great place for soft balling encounters without it looking like a softball; The summoned creature is rarely strong enough to be a threat, but it sure feels threatening. In this case it was the worst of both worlds; the pit fiend summon was strong enough that it would make the fight harder, but the group was strong enough that Thrune needed to use every action well. So he won initiative and dropped the blade barrier right on the mesmerist so that he would have to dodge into the ring with Thrune, or back into the column of hellfire. (The mesmerist chose back for 20d6 hellfire damage, protection from fire mitigated half of it...)

Nox performed exactly as planned, in round one she was able to cleave to take a chunk out of two characters, then immediately failed a will save against a hold monster cast by a summoned monster and was coup de graced by the investigator. It was great the this villian that had caused so much pain in the early books went down so trivially. When I made her she had bad saves and intentionally left them bad because Thrune had such good saves, needed to throw a bone to the save or suck spells. I was half expecting the mesmerist to possess her, but this worked just as well.

All told it took the silver ravens 3 rounds to kill Thrune. In round 2 Thrune rolled less than 8 on every attack roll during his full attack and the bloodrage was able to get 200 damage in in one turn even past the 45 AC due to the large number of natural attacks. In round 3 Thrune dropped his critical stagger on the bloodrager hoping to buy some time, but then critically failed his fortitude save against a blinding critical from the investigator; which dropped his AC into kicking circle ranges. At the end of the round he was down, and the heard was returned...

With that the projection of Mephistopheles sent them on their way. I gave a short epilogue hinting at their actions over the next few years and we wrapped it up there. I still hope to do an actual epilogue campaign after a break, as there are several good plot hooks available. But for now, I get to be a player for a while.

Book 6, Session 7+8;

Crawling through hell is largely going as planned. The portals are making it easy to manage rooms and encounters although the portals (and Mephistopheles rules) prevents much of the shenanigans the party may have been tempted to try.

The high AC of Fangrave slowed the group down and made a memorable fight.

The flashbacks to Thrune's life are working great. They are visceral enough to make an impression on the group, but short enough that it doesn't feel like exposition.

I spoiled some signs of Nox. So ya, I need to stat up a CR 19 devil, broken soul, fighter that delivers on their history of her kicking their ass, while not overshadowing Thrune.

The warmonger devils in the The Cantonment was a slog. I added two more devils as the 6 player adjustment. With my group's high ACs I should have added the advanced template instead.

But how do you help stop persistent "good" damage (as in from Divine Smite)? I havent been able to think of anything for that one.

Same question but for persistent electric damage?

Not complaining, I enjoy this particular sub-system.

I had my players teleporting to Absalom, and then later plane shifting to the City of Brass, for purchasing magic items in the later books.

In that case then she's serving time in Hell fetching drinks for her master.

As a someone who served Thrune, it is easy to add her to the tower dedicated to punishing those who served Thrune. As there will be a way for her soul to end up in the tower of bone through hell's machinations.

Does it detract from Thrune's specialness (a bone devil inquisitor) to have there Nox as a barbed devil / fighter? Manghune was a demon/assassin, so it has already been presented once. And this is what was promised to those characters that bathed in the soul anchor.

What would be the torment Nox is submitted to in the Tower of Bone?

This is fantastic.

I'm trying to figure out how to write Nox into the finale of this book and am looking for more ideas.

Idea 1: Have her as a bearded devil with fighter levels. The downside here is it takes away from Thrune's uniqueness, the upside is it hints towards the future ahead of those who touched the soul anchor.

Idea 2: Some kind of undead? Also, I need to add enemies to the fights because I have 6 players, so I can just add her to any fight.

Idea 3: Have her one of the tormented souls and only in as a call out.

Any recommendations?

Thrune; weakened vs enhanced.

I've been thinking about the players ability to weaken Thrune by taking on the flaws. The having been taking these flaws, because they engage with every mechanic, and are well on the way to to reducing his soul points enough that he will be weakened. I feel like if the players knew the they were making themself weaker to make Thrune weaker, they would instead want to fight him at full strength while full strength (because maximum epicness).

So instead of weakening Thrune, I'm considering giving the group either a mythic tier or a level if they get his soul points below 6. I could explain the mythic tier by having Azrana the psychopomp arrive and bless them; or by explaining that that weakened resolve has to go somewhere and they could leach it, but by leaching it some of the resolve would return the Thrune.

Book 6, Session 6;

The side plots have been resolved, the money has been spent, Thrune has been located, the Silver Ravens are ready to swoop in for a decisive end to this battle for Kintargo;

Everyone got buffed up, ready to rock, opened a portal to Thrune... and ended up somewhere else in Hell.

I'm particularly happy with the Mephistopheles method of re-routing any planar travel. They used the Font of Visions to locate and open a portal to Thrune and dived in fully buffed. My mini map is an old TV with the PDF full screen and zoomed in, so it was set to the Thrune battlefield. Then when they jumped in the portal I started scrolling up past all the rooms on that page in the document, hopefully giving a sense of distance.

The group is engaging with the backstory which I'm happy with, and anytime the content becomes uncomfortable they defuse it by making jokes at Thrune's expense. So successes there. We are just entering the third room.

Nox:
As they discovered that this tower houses all who served Thrune in life, they joked about seeing Nox again... So I need to stat up a Nox and include her somewhere.

I'm considering adding her as my 6 player adjustment to one of the existing encounters (easily a CR 18 or 19 creature), the room for those that 'didn't quite fail' Thrune where petitioners are becoming demons is thematically appropriate if she is going to be a bearded devil with fighter levels. The other option is to add her to the Thrune fight as my 6 player adjustment (this adjustment might be the best adjustment to that fight).

The other decision is what she should be. Making her like Thrune and adding the fighter levels and the broken soul template to a bearded devil is easiest and looks like a good option, it does hint of what those that dipped in the soul anchor can become; but having a second person-devil detracts from Thrune's uniqueness and specialness. I'm open to other options, some type of undead?

They have expressed interest in interfering in that rebellion (non-aggression pact be damned). But I'm apprehensive about skimming 6 books to try to piece together the plot :(

The inquisitor gave the Asmodians the old Zon-Kuthon temple, in return the Queen Thrune sent a mithral bracelet as a gesture of goodwill. This bracelet fits the same plot device that the bracelet from the ambassador was intended to. So with a ritual the old temple was re-consecrated to Sarenrae and the Inquisitor's sword was blessed. Their scimitar is not Mystmorning and the powers were gradually revealed over a few sessions. The only power's not revealed are the neutralize poison and teleport abilities (Unicorns can only teleport within forests, should this sword have the same limitation, or should it be only within consecrated ground, or only to consecrated ground?).

They know that is is intelligent but I gave it extremely limited communication, so all they know is if it is content or distressed.

Book 6, Session MANY!!

I've fallen really behind on my posting...

The team cleared out all the haunts. The Greens was my favorite fight, the attacks in waves worked really well.

Then they found their way down to the soul anchor. The ghost rolled minimum recharge time on the breath weapon and was able to kill the mesmerist, luckily they had Shadow Endurance up, so they dodged death. But because the spell would deposit their unconscious body at the dragon's feet at the end of the duration it put a lot of pressure on the team to win instead of fleeing.

The memories of past and future lives was the most fun part of the soul anchor encounter. I described flashes of memories of the player's other characters from starfinder, pathfinder 2, society games, or NPCs they GMed.

The mesmerist caught glimpses of Absalom Station and latched on to Golarion being gone. Group headcanon is now that the mesmerist will dedicate their life to finding out why Golarion goes missing (using the soul anchor to continue after death if required), they will then find out about an unknown impending cataclysm and decide to hide golarion to keep it safe, wiping the whole universe's memory to keep the location hidden... This is of course the mesmerist the got elected Mayor, with no one remembering exactly why he was voted Mayor... suspicious?

They were able to use the Font of Visions to witness Barzillia's torment on the Tower of Bone, so are in a good position to storm hell. At the end of the last session they were fishing for side quests, so I think they are enjoying their characters and not ready to wrap things up. I think this means the we need to eventually do a retirement arc.

Is there anything we can help with, do you have any questions about completing the chronicles?

Did I miss the chronicles getting posted?

We tend to hit it off fairly well...

The Skald / Hellknight, Lictor of the Order of the Torrent, normally sings it. It is comes across pretty metal...

For this performance Shenshen performed it because the Skald player was absent.

Book 6, Session 2;

Peace was returned to the the Oakrib Inn as apologies were made for the false accusation sincere efforts to ensure the Negotiator's safety were made.

The team did not receive key concessions from the non-aggression pack and refused the military alliance. It was really obvious that two of the more confrontational players/characters were absent for this session, and their negotiations were obviously weaker because of that.

We had some good roleplaying as the inquisitor of Sarenrae discussed their plan for a new church of Asmodeus within Kintargo with the Negotiator. I feel like I'm a poor roleplayer and my games reflect this so I was really happy with how it went. It also helped that the Sarenrae inquisitor was really gunning to resolve the church subplot I'd just given them.

Sarenrae Sub-Plot!

After the Nine Day War, the Inquisitor of Sarenrae took the temple of Asmodeus for Sarenrae. But after 100 years of inheritance and amount of powerful magic that had been poured into it they were struggling to remove or reconsecrate large parts of it. They requested help from Absolom, and with the Dawnflower Cult involvement in the Skald/Hellknight sub-plot they also offered help. So two knowledgeable priests of Sarenrae are in the temple consulting the Inquisitor. The keystone obstacle to consecration is one particularly stubborn font of hellfire, both priests agree that an appropriate offering to Sarenrae would be appropriate. One recommends a gift given by an enemy, the Dawnflower cult recommends the blood on an enemy that has refused redemption (no second chances in the desert, as the desert soaks water, their blade soak blood and so on).

An enemy that refuses to repent is easy, as almost any enemy can be offered mercy and redemption and almost all their enemies will refuse it. No the Negotiator gifting her mithral bracelet is what I had planned but the Inquisitor missed the first negotiation session, and I didn't want this sub-plot resolved an hour after it was introduced... So The Negotiator parted on good terms but did not gift the bracelet. The instead House Thrune will offer a gift when the Inquisitor follows through on his plans and gives the Asmodians their own church again.

The inquisitor had already earmarked the former church of Zon Kuthon for the Asmodians and had put out job applications for a non-chelaxian high priest to 'witness it's contracts'. All that need to happen in the next session or two is for a priest to arrive and for the Silver Raven to not kill them...

Either way, the reward will be the same. The holy fires will turn the inquisitors scimitar into Mystmorning, an intelligent item with the powers of a unicorn, or an actual unicorn in a blade (the divine is unknowable). This will be a pretty powerful weapon compared to other intelligent weapons, so I'm worried I'm overshooting. I might unlock it's powers slowly as crisis strikes the group, I'm just nervous about making it feel organic, not like deus machina.

Back to Kintargo.

The teleported back to find a haunted city. The first signs being the clouds hanging over the temple and, the smell of sulfur and the paw prints of huge hounds scorched into the streets of Old Kintargo. After a little investigation the team decided that this called for the Song of Silver. Which was a perfect gathering of the Silver Raven and their allies for the Hounds of Old Kintargo to attack.

The team also starting hearing rumors of events in the Greens, the Silverspan, and in the Temple District.

Perception and Stealth are the skill rolls most commonly opposed to each other and are the most jarring in highlighting the swinging of the system.

This investigator was quite confident in their untouchable perception, I've had my own character that was equally confident in their perception. To the point that we both questioned whether this continued investment served a purpose (already blowing all the DCs out of the water), and if it was disruptive (With a 50 perception you can hear a bow being drawn at 150 while distracted in a busy market, or hear someone walking behind two walls, a door, 50 ft away, while asleep). Disruptive because in order to give the player credit for their skill investment they will have almost perfect information about any upcoming fight. And do you want every fight to be the party ambushing the enemy, that gets old fast?

And then that skill fails and you die in the surprise round...

I'm just glad none of my players have ever made a maxed out stealth character.

Book 6, Session 1;

The Investigator fails a perception check...

Negotiations have begun. The group is very off balance that Cheliax is asking for sincere peace, they were very on edge looking for Cheliax ambushes. But they started coming around to the idea after crushing the first three negotiations.

To make the negotiations more organic I used the concessions and changes the PCs suggested instead of the ones listed in the book and used the book as a guideline to decide what the negotiated would and could agree to.

Then on the third night the investigator noticed that the groundskeeper, a very Ravounelian looking man, had tied their boots in the Varisian fashion, not the way is normally taught to children in Ravounel and Cheliax... Suspicious! So, how do you narrate beating a DC 42 disguise check??? They told the group that something was off then followed the suspicious groundskeeper... They reached the groundskeeper's lodgings and spent two rounds searching for traps, before entering the lodging (missing the dc 52 perception on both rolls)... Then the assassin dropped down from their hiding in plain sight spot on the roof and used their swift death ability in the surprise round, killing the inquisitor outright... She didn't use true death because she was saving it for the real target, then I forgot about the silent death ability.

The group with a high perception roll heard the distant sound of the a body falling to the floor and the sounds of a great deal of blood leaving a body all at once... [/ooc]You know what, forgeting the silent death ability made the fight more interesting.[ooc] The group rushed in, had a hard fight, but eventually won in the end.

I'm glad Mangvhune was an easier fight for this group, because it made this fight feel much bigger by comparison.

They accused the negotiator of sending the assassin but discovered from a speak with dead that they were not the true target.

Next session we conclude the negotiation and the Haunting of Kintargo begins....

Continuing the last summary.

Now the Scald/Hellknight Multiclass learns that they are the youngest scion of the Urvis family. But it isn't so simple, their father is alive and well and still the head of the family as far as Chelish law is concerned.

Reunions are in order where we have a great scene where a Hellknight informs a blacksmith that they are a Lord of Kintargo and their presence is required in the motherland (all while keeping their identity as his daughter hidden, the character was very shy about this reunion). They learn that the father is now indebted to the Church as he ended up on the hook for property damage (50,000g) when the daughter fled. The father was slowly paying off the dept while the church extorted her bounty hunter brother to do dirty work for them.

I really should have asked earlier if the character knew what specific church it was... because it was at this point that I learnt it was the church of Sarenrae and the extortion seemed really weird...

So the church became the Dawnflower Cult on the fly and it was recruiting the characters brother to be one of their assassins... However with some high diplomacy and intimidate, the Church accepted the party paying off the debts on the condition that the character return for judgement later (the player will soon be missing a few session).

From here the character returns to her father and has an awkward reunion and talks her father into coming to Kintargo. The brother was off on a Dawnflower mission at this point as I'm leaving that open to a later tie in.

Book 5, Session 6

We have a Lord Mayor!

I let my group know that this journal exists and some of them are
excited to read it once the adventure has concluded. First; I'm sorry for anything nasty I may have said about you upthread (I also flipped character genders frequently when describing them, because there were times when I wanted to speak of and think of a hypothetical character instead of a specific character and that helped me). Second; I feel a little more pressure to complete an entertaining account of the adventures.

This session was mostly a custom side-adventure I made to 1) discover that a player character is an Urvis, and 2) get a tie in with one of the Urvis characters family which she had made a awesome backstory for. The Urvis character fled from the Mwangi to Kintargo about 2 years before the start of the adventure because her brother torched a church of Sarenrae (they were problem children) and she took the blame for it to protect her brother. She had not heard from her family since.

After calling in favors from Captain FancyPants and their allies in Vyre a meeting was arranged with a Mr. White, an elvish information broker who took careful account of the true names of all the refugees and exiles that came from Cheliax during its civil war before they took on aliases, should they prove useful one day... This broker had the new Urvis name but was not happy with gold alone but required a favor of these high level adventurers. I wonder what it is like when a high level party passes through your city? Is it like the Olympics where the city goes all out to leverage it but ends up causing more harm than good?

Mr. White required help with a local Ekujae clan. A Worm that Walks had taken up residence in their local burial grounds, a sacred place that only the Ekujae may enter. The monster had proved too powerful for the Ekujae own warriors, putting them between a rock and hard place of needing outside help, but being unable to accept outside help. Mr. White asked them to disguise themself as angels and slay the Worm the Walks, the group decided to instead disguise themselves as powerful Ekujae warriors. I made up some lore and let them claim the title of Avengers, powerful Ekujae warriors that are recognized by their unique insignia and totems (which the group faked).

The fight went exceptionally well. I was aiming for a fight that felt difficult but had minimal actual risk. For the level 15 group of 5 players I used two CR 15 Black Scorpions and the CR 14 Worm that Walks. I gave the Worm still + silent metamagic so that is could still toss a few spells while in swarm form. The group scouted the Black Scorpions but could not get close enough to spot the Worm. So the wizard flew in during the surprise round while all the melee got teleported in with the Scald, the mesmerist ran in. One black scorpion got possessed, one got beat to death over a couple turns. The Investigator used vomit swarm on the Worm that Walks and was able to nauseate it, then the mesmerist stare was able to confuse it, then a prismatic spray was able to planeshift it. It made the players feel awesome. Before dying one of the black scorpions was able to poison the skald, that poison is nasty and almost killed them. In the end the entire group was applying restorative ointments trying to stop the poison before it killed her.

The group easily bluffed the Ekujae and had a resounding success.

I'll continue this later.

Legacy of Fire 2 has the entry on Sarenrae.

Thanks for pointing me towards this.

I now have a plan. A Dawnmother from Absalom will come to aid, but also a member of the Dawnflower Cult will attend. They will both ask a different task to help consencrate the temple, from one a gift from any enemy given freely because Sarenrae treats even evil with kindness and respect so that they may one day repent, from the other the blood of one who has refused redemption as there are no second chances in the desert.

Either way will bless the character with Mystmorning, the 'sentient' scymitar.

Reach out to the event organizer with feedback. They will appreciate all constructive comments, whether they are positive, neutral or bad.

The event organizer should be the local venture agent, if the GM was the venture agent, then give your comments to the venture lieutenant or captain. They coordinate GMs and make sure the burnt out GMs get the breaks they need.

It can sometimes be hard to figure out who the local venture characters are, so you can always email the Captain or Region Coordinator for the area with the location and time, so that they can get the feedback to the right organizers. Link to captains and regionals upthread.