Bit of a thread necro but I really like Serpent's Skull. My favorite AP to date and I've run it twice. My responses became a little jumbled in my musings: 1. Racing to ruin is my second favorite chapter, next to Soul's for Smuggler's Shiv which is my all time favorite chapter of any AP. Race has so many memorable stock encounters and it provides a nice sense of urgency between the sand box exploration of chapters 1 & 3. Chapter 4 restores urgency, but I would suggest delaying the catalyst event from City of Seven Spears until near the end of the adventure. 3. Chapter Chapter 3 and 5 leave a lot to be fleshed out. Lot's of repetitive encounters that the PCs will steam roll without modification. The Aboleth in Savinth is totally skippable. 2/3s of the encounters in Thousand Fangs below are optional, and by the time you get there everyone will probably be ready to focus on the meta-plot and less on sandbox exploration. 2. The serpentfolk come and go, but they do show up in some capacity in every single chapter of the AP. 4. NPCs don't arrive in Savinth-Yhi first. They arrive somewhere near by, but they are not looking for Savinth-Yhi and I don't believe they are aware of their proximity. 5. I really emphasized what I felt were the campaign motivations before character creation. The primary motivation for the first half of the adventure is good old basic fortune and glory. The primary motivation after City of Seven Spears is save the world hero stuff.
Our group just began chapter 2 of Serpent's Skull (Racing to Ruin). We use a free virtual table top (no video/voice chat). We also use Obsidian Portal for campaign logs, journals, game calendar, ect. The group is fairly role play heavy and not too serious for a good punchline. With a lot of vacations coming up over the next few weeks, we could use a player (or two) to join the campaign and keep weekly games going. We play most Friday nights 6:30pm-11:00ish central time. Group is level 4 and includes
PCs should have an inclination for fortune and glory. No evil or lawful stupid PCs. New or experienced players welcome. PM or post if interested and I can get you more details.
The 'one shot' will be three sessions (Oct 17, 24, and 31st). I don't want to give out too many details at this time. It's a play test for an adventure I wrote, and will be submitting for publication. I'll say that it's a level 1 urban adventure with a Police Academy/Naked Gun feel. Lighthearted with strong comedy elements, and frequent role play opportunities. Games are on Friday from 6:30pm-10:30pm central time. We play using a free virtual table top. No voice chat for those that might find it to be a deal breaker, or perhaps maker. After that we'll be launching a long term campaign, so this is a good option to test the waters, and perhaps get your foot in the door with a dedicated group of role players. I've got 3-4 other players lined up from a previous campaign. We've been together for 14 months but recently lost few players due to real life. Let me know if interested.
Good to know on the city hexes. I played in a kingmaker campaign and am GMing one now. I will say that both groups had a slow time getting their cities off the ground. Neither group was close to the recommended kingdom size at the end of book 2. If we treated farms the same as mines, sawmills, and quarries progress would have been a lot slower.
My group had the same questions. On a single hex you can have
That hex can also have 1 mine OR 1 quarry OR 1 saw mill. One thing that was never clear to me is what improvements town hexes can support. I ended up ruling that city hexes can have farms, fisheries, and asterisk improvements, but they could not have mines, quarries, and sawmills. If a mine can't share a hex with a sawmill, I can't imagine how it could share a hex with a city.
I'm recruiting players to take on the Emerald Spire Super Dungeon. Games will be 2-3 times per month on Saturday nights, start around 8:30 pm central, and run for 4-5 hours. I'm somewhat flexible on the start/end time to meet the needs of the group. Games will be hosted using Ttop RPG , a free easy to use virtual table top. The campaign will also have a private Obsidian Portal page , which will be used for game logs, scheduling, and communications. I expect this campaign to be fast paced and heavy on action. I wouldn't want to call it RP-lite, but I don't expect many sessions without combat encounters. The campaign begins at first level.
Interested players should post a proof of concept/character summary. I do not need a full character sheet at this time. I'm open to all options, including 3rd party, but reserve the right to say no.
Session 8 21 Pharast - Explored southwest 22 Pharast - Explored southwest
23 Pharast - Explored southwest
24 Pharast - Explored west - Giant Sycamore
25 Pharast - Explored southwest
26 Pharast - Explored West.
XP Summary:
Total XP = 3700 / 4 = 925 per Kas, Finn, Ahren, Garn = 3,410 Oak, Lhar 2,485
Session 7 15 Pharast - Evening - Party dines with the fey and sleeps peacefully under the stars. 16 Pharast - Parts explores east, where the moon radish patch was found. 17 Pharast - Party returns to Oleg's Trading Post. Unites with new recruits sent from Restov, on the same charter contract. 400 gold reward arrives for full filling bandit quota. Party moves east and meets Bokken, and hermit potion maker. Bokken offers discounted potions if the party can bring him Fangberries. 18 Pharast - Bokken's Hex explored. 19 Pharast - Party explores east. Encounter with boar family was adverted. 20 Pharast - Party explores east. Ambushed by a worg. - Afternoon- XP Summary:
Total XP = 2,000 / 6 = 333 XP per For simplicity the new players can start with the same XP as everyone else. XP totals at: 2485 each Gold pool was divided by the original party member. Everyone should now be tracking their own gold/loot. (494 each for the original 3, before anything was purchased.) Nothing was sold.
Our fighter dropped out. Party is in need of a high strength damage dealer. Healing has also been lacking, so a high strength cleric might be ideal. Party is heavily skewed towards good. Post here with a basic build/concept if interested. Game has settled in to mainly Friday nights (2-3 times per month, 6:30-10:30 pm central). We are about 1/3 of the way through the first part of the campaign.
Session 6 11 Pharast. Explored west. Found an ancient Cairn, and honored it with a prayer. 12 Pharast. Explored west. 13 Pharast. Explored south-east. 14 Pharast. Explored East. Tricked by Fey. Encountered shambling mound and found a dead trapper. -1 gold (offering). 15 Pharast. Explored East. Befriended Perlivash and Tyg Titter Tut. XP Summary: Explored Hexes 1,000
Loot summary:
Gold Pool = 1149 Gold
Session 5 8 Pharast - noon
Party finds Moon Radishes southwest of the trading post. They also find four kobolds gorged on them, and they defend the patch with their lives. Returned to Olegs for Moon Radish Reward. 9 Pharast Party meed a priest of Erastil, who has arrived at the trading post to offer Oleg his services. Jhod reports that news of the parties good deeds is beginning to spread. Jhod also mentions an abandoned temple in the deep woods, something that has been on his mind day and night. Party heads west. Hex explored. 10 Pharast. Party continues west, and stumbles onto a network of iron claw traps. Kas takes a grevious leg wound, but 25 traps are collected and disarmed in the hex. Hex explored. While camping that night the party is ambushed by a group of bandits, who almost manage to overcome the good adventurers. They discover a bounty on one of the bandits. It seems the Stag Lord wants their heads. Loot:
Party Gold Pool = 1150 XP:
Session XP = 569 per. Total character XP = 1677
Session 4 5 Pharast
“Our boss is a monster of a man. Calls himself the Stag Lord. He’s a deadeye with the bow, and I saw him crush a prisoner’s hand to mush in one fist. Come to think of it, I’ve never seen him without his creepy stag helmet on— some of my friends think he ain’t got no face under it, but not me—I think that creepy helm is his face!” “It’s hard keeping track of who’s working for the boss, so we use a master phrase as a sort of password to get in to the fort on the northeast shore of the Tuskwater. Unless it’s been changed recently, the current phrase is, ‘By the Bloody Bones of St. Gilmorg, who wants to know?’ And no, I have no idea who ‘St. Gilmorg’ is.” “The Stag Lord is a bloody drunk. All that booze under the platform’s for him. He's half of what he used to be, and ain’t never been right in the head. A few weeks ago he punched my horse for spittin' in the yard. Personally, I wouldn't care if he dropped dead tomorrow, but even drunk out of his mind he's still got a fair amount of fight to him.” “The Stag Lord keeps a strange old man locked up in the basement. I suspect the old guy might actually be running the show, using the Stag Lord as a puppet, you know. I got a look into the old guy’s eyes once, and it terrified me. He ain't someone I'd want to cross.” Hex Explored. 6 Pharast
Hex Explored 7 Pharast
8 Pharast
Kesten offered a reward for the capture of Falgrim Sneeg. Claimed reward on the bandit bounty. Loot recovered:
Items sold:
Items purchased:
XP
Party Gold Pool = 850
Unsold/unclaimed loot, stored at Olegs (prices set at resale value)
3 Pharast - Sold excess equipment to Oleg before tracking bandits to a nearby camp southwest of the trading post. 4 Pharast Defeated bandit lieutenant Kressle and 4 bandits. Buried bodies w/ rights performed. Destroyed bandit outpost. Camped for the night. XP
Loot 4 leather (20 gold)
215 loose gold
silver earrings (75 gold)
Gold Pool Total = 487.1
Hex exploration info: Each hex is 12 miles across (19.3 kilometers). 150 square miles of total area per hex. Crossing a plain hex will take 8 hours on foot, or 3 hours on horseback. Other terrain (mountains, hills, forest, swamp) takes 12 hours on foot or 5 on horseback. Exploring a hex on foot will take 2 days for plains, 3 for forest or hills, and 4 for swamps or mountains. On mounts hex exploration takes 1 day for any terrain type. Unless you are planning on riding your mount into combat, we'll be leaving them in the background, as we have been.
Session 2 2 Pharast 4710 - Arrived at Oleg's Trading Post: Informed of Olgeg and Svetlana's harassment by an organized group of bandits. 3 Pharast 4710 -Defeated a small group of bandits who came to take valuables from the post. XP Happs (bandit sergeant)= 200
Total: 1205 / 5 = 241 per Loot 2 potions of cure light wounds (quest reward)
Composite Long Bow (+2 strength rating)
General:
6 light riding horses w/ saddle bags
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