Very nice stuff here, Gark. Dotted, and I'll add some of my fiddlings once I have time.
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One small trick I like, especially for larger parties, is raising monster max hp. I don't mean adding a template or anything, I just mean looking at the underlying HD+CON and then working out what range what would be better than the assumed "no rolls, average hp". After all, if PCs can roll above average for their hp, why not monsters? *For a beefier monster, try 2/3rds or even 3/4ths of the theoretical max hp, or if you want a miniboss, just max the hp and move on. It works especially well when a monster is in the right power band where adding levels/templates/stat buffs would make it hit too often/hard/etc. whereas adding more hp allows that baddie to stick around an extra round or two and have a chance of getting to use its nasty attacks and abilities against those pesky PCs.
The shopkeep nods, before answering in a noticeable Hallit accent. Inkrit: "Yas, Dolga is paying for one parte in five. Wy do have iron crows—prying bars, though allini in iron. If you wollnt something in eksoatisk metal, fine the artists or the guild."She drops a nearly-straight iron crowbar (with the forked end at an angle, the opposite end a flat wedge) with hexagonal cross-section onto the counter with a noticeable thunk. Roughly painted along the length is "2-Au.p." As you glance it, you're hit with a disorientingly-bad headache, like a stiletto shoved through your temples. After a few long moments, it resolves itself to just 'really bad'.
As you again get your bearings, you hear a piercing scream through the store's open windows, which your keen ears recognize as that of a humanoid girl. If you had to place it, it would be roughly a block away to the southeast...which would be the area that Aaron had left to check.
The priest seems surprised and looks at you in contemplation rather than fear, as if trying to make out Qat's construction. You're hit with a powerful, stabbing headache, like someone stabbed a live wire into your forehead. The initial shock goes away and is replaced with a mere splitting headache, a constant painful pressure. As you come to your senses, MiniQat does too, but visibly out-of-sorts.
Re: splitting the party:
The GM is not responsible for the consequences of splitting up the party, sticking appendages in the mouth of a leering green devil face, accepting a dinner invitation from ghouls, storming a frost giant feast hall, angering a dragon of any variety, or saying yes when I ask, 'Are you really sure?' :P @Whole party: The group says their goodbyes to Dolga as she trods back north to her foundry (#22 on the Torch map). "Oh, one last thing. If you need to buy supplies, tell a merchant yer working on Dolga's orders and they should knock off a fifth of the price. Well, technically, that fifth the town's payin' for, but eh. Come see me at my forge or the Clockfather if you need to get a hold of the council; we're likely easiest to track down." [u]@Nemiril:[/u] You walk across town, passing over a bridge as Crowfeather Lake and the presumed entry point lies to the underground complex, noting the strange building on the far side of the pond (#10 on the map), which has a number of pipes and brass appurtenances projecting from it. Despite the recent events, the Market Square (#11) is awash with peddlers and small-merchants, most notably metal artisans, junk traders, and blown glass. The general store (#2 on the map) is a single-story stone building run by a rough-set Kellid woman, Inkrit Kollisum with dirty blonde forelocks and facial tattoos, although she doesn't look the barbarian-warrior-type. A small metal sign out front proclaims "For weapons and armor, see the Guildhouse or Dolga's Foundry. We have most everything else". The inside is a scavenger's dream, with adventuring gear a'plenty, from chalk and crowbars to rope, pickaxes, a variety of lockpicks, hand tools, lanterns and oils, and the sought-after waterproof bags, the posted price of 6 sp each. Nemiril:
As you begin to browse the wares, As you finish shopping, you hear a scream from nearby. [u]@Aaron:[/u] You approach the familiar confines of the Foundry tavern (#12 on the map), which consists of three one-story buildings: the Tavern proper, a metalworking foundry and workshop separated by a fathom for fire-prevention reasons, and the Baine family home behind both. You duck your head inside the tavern to find it quiet—the cloakroom at the entrance is empty, and the half-dozen tables and long bar in the common room are empty of both patrons and Val, though the fireplace that shares a flue with the kitchen still has embers.
Aaron:
As you finish looking over the tavern, you hear a girl screaming from nearby. [u]@Qatrinnica:[/u] You make the short trek from the town hall to the Temple of Brigh (#17 on the map), an "E"-shaped stone cathedral that looks more functional than decorative, although the portico is strewn with bronze and silver wind chimes, counter-balanced hanging art (think mobiles), and brass clockwork statues. The high priest of the temple is an aged human man wearing a heavy leather smock over a mail hauberk, who stops and notices Qat's clearly mechanical nature.
Qatrinnica:
As he finishes speaking, MiniQat chirps, buzzes, and falls into your hand, chirping in Binary. "010001010101001001010010010011110101001000100000001101000011001000110001." Qatrinnica: MiniQat: "ERROR 421!"
Apologies for the recent slowness on my end. Memorial Day weekend and the last couple days either saw me punched in the face with lupus blahs or out and about in the rare gaps of function.
In the interests of disclosure, the water breathing option was put there by Paizo, not by me, presumably so that Joe Platemail III wouldn't drown at 1st level. :P
Dolga nods at the suggestion. "I don't have a badge or token that might prove it, but he is acquainted with young Master Aaron." She points a wrinkled index finger vaguely towards the self-proclaimed Foolseeker. "Also, you all could see about visiting his daughter and getting a trinket of proof from her. As for the swim, if you're not confident in your breaststroke, you can talk with Joram Kyte, our gear-priest. He told me he can pray for such a 'water breathing' spell to split amongst a group entering the caves."
Regarding glaucite:
Aaron or DC 15+:
Glaucite is a dull, dark/gunmetal-grey alloy of iron and skymetal common to Numerian ruins. Nemeril or DC 20+:
Glaucite is a relatively-heavy alloy of iron and adamantine, and inside Numeria, is what is meant when people refer to "Numerian steel". Outside of Numeria, the term gets thrown around for anything related to adamantine. Mini-Qat or Nat20, ALL THE KNOWINGS: Glaucite is a heavy alloy of iron and adamantine. Weaker than true adamantine, it's still sturdier than steel. It's rarely useful to adventurers, because it typically weighs ~150% per volume as much as steel, and extracting the adamantite component is both stupidly hard and expensive.
What it does see use for, is in starship hulls, blast doors, and robot armor plating, where the weight isn't a factor. Finding a wall of glaucite likely indicates a portion of starship hull is underneath the town...
Dolga chews her lip in thought before answering. "Khonnir noticed the tunnel when he saw footprints on the edge of Weeping Pond when he was out testing the water—the Crowfeather 'Palace' what filters the town's water being one of his projects—and saw a group of people had entered the pond around a deep spot but never emerged. So there might be folks who entered the caves before the Torch ever went out. Beyond that, Khonnir reported from his first trip that the caves had enormous vermin, scavengers, some sort'a humanoids that could blend in with the cave walls, and a nest of gremlins. He thought that the things lurking probably came up from the Darklands. He also found a wall of solid metal, 'alloy called glaucite, like the kind mined from the hills nearby, but in this, a wall, doors, things like looked like a structure. He also brought back a broken automaton, so there might be constructs afoot."
Dolga shakes her head. "There currently isn't one, as until recently, salvage was something one brought to Torch, not dug out of some machine wreckage under the town. That said, I talked with the other available counselors and you'd be welcome to keep whatever spoils or technology you find down there—we get enough on the smelters' tariff...or did, anyway. Try that within spitting distance of Starfall and the 'League would confiscate all yer 'salvage'. Prolly' take Miss Qatrinnica there too, chop her up. But I digress." She pauses to think for a moment. "From a more practical standpoint, instead of a writ, you might need an oilskin bag to get your gear and salvage in and out—the currently known entrance is underwater, through a tunnel in Crowfeather Lake."
Bueller...Bueller...
A stern dwarven matron, old enough to be old for a dwarf, purses her lips at the three would-be spelunkers assembled at the town hall*.
Dolga thinks for a moment, rapping her fingertips on the head of a hefty hammer holstered at her waist before she turns to Aaron and makes an audible aside. "You may also wish to check on his daughter back at 'The Foundry'. Young miss Baine has informed me that anyone investigating her father's disappearance may use their tavern as a base of operations, as it were." *#15 on the map at the end of the Player's Guide.
For Nemeril or DC 20 Knowledge(local) result: While the specific history of Torch's flame isn't known to you, clack from river boat pilots and locals relates that the Black Hill has had a history of periodically bursting from bonfire-sized purple flame to a dangerous column of purple flame for days at a time. Locals figured out how to predict the warning signs of such flare-ups via the flashes and earth tremors that precede such events, but there's no history of the flame ever going out entirely.
It is 4 Desnus 4717 AR, late spring. The last of the late winter coldsnaps have ended, the late spring storms have yet to arrive, and the steppes of the Sellen Hills in the east of Numeria and the theoretically-arable semi-arid Numerian Plains in the center-south of Numeria have bloomed with spring greenery, the hills awash with wild grasses, small wildflowers, and the odd hardy tree. Far from the Sellen proper and the bastions of Chesed and Hajoth Hakados sits the fortified hill town of Torch, a mesa of cultivated and irrigated civilization amidst the badlands. All is not well, however, amidst the stone homes and slate roofs. A week ago, Torch's namesake mountaintop flame has gone out. While independent, the town is heavily taxed by the Technic League, and without the income from skymetal smelting, the town's liberty might be in jeopardy—Torch may be rich, but the bulk of the money is tithed to Starfall, and the taxman is due soon. Town councilman, Khonnir Baine, local wizard and tinker, led an expedition beneath the city's central Black Hill and found evidence of a cave network beneath the town, returning with a scrapped automaton. However, on a more thorough second expedition, Khonnir went missing. Thus, the town council put out a call for adventurers, mercenaries, and troubleshooters. It's been a week. Three groups of adventurers have gone into the Black Hill Caves since, and thus far, none have reported back. With the local has-beens, wannabes, and thugs mostly scared off, only [u]three[/u] adventurers have answered the call, despite an ever-growing purse of reward money for the recovery of the councilman and investigation in the extinguished torch of Torch.
Testing forum markup because they don't seem to be working on the description page... Rolling to avoid certain perilous peril. Reflex save... Since I know my players, you have the option of using the forum's pseudorandom generator, using physical dice, or another method. I'll be using https://www.random.org/ and posting the [color=green]results[/color].
OOC Musings, Banter, and the like goes here. You can also reach me by IM, email, or by phone to discuss things.
Numeria has a long history of mystery and wonder buried under its rugged landscape, for on that one fateful night thousands of years ago, the Rain of Stars scarred the land. The fragmented remnants of a ship from beyond the stars fell from the sky, scattering strange technological ruins and deadly perils across the land. Today, these sites are feared by the barbaric tribes and coveted by the sinister spellcasters of the Technic League. Yet something worse than brutish berserker or super-science wizard has risen to power in these hidden technological halls.
[Pokes the game.]
Woo! I'm here.
Not too long ago, my technically-overpowered party o' six faced off against a certain Armag and his company of not-so-mook skeletal soldiers. First fight since a certain lich that made the players stop and go "oh crap, we might die horribly". I look forward to using the chapter 5 and 6 conversions. :)
Yup. I have an order from the 2nd of the month which is "$278.88 off suggested retail", and since it's older "dead tree" stuff, I'm happy to let sleeping warehouse raptors lie whilst their masters put out the proverbial logistical fires. :)
"Monsters as Cohorts" is one of those tables/sections that rarely gets updated/expanded, much like the Summon Monster/Nature's Ally options. 3.x used "ECL" as a static modifier, but Pathfinder notes (in the Monsters as PCs section) that monster HD to CR isn't linear, and it should taper off at later levels. That is, tacking a straight number doesn't always work without a bit of filing/polishing/CR adjusting. As for cohorts above 17, while Mythic didn't touch it, the older 3.x Epic system is Open Content under the OGL, and Epic Leadership certainly allows it.
No problem. You might be aware of it, but the PRD is the rules archive that Paizo puts out containing the hardcover core rulebooks, plus the recent technology guide. Another good resource is the Archives of Nethys a fansite under Community Use that compiles all the first-party Paizo book "crunch", including the softcovers. Neither would be accepting fan content or even 3PP content, though.
The Pathfinder Wiki is really meant for "fluff", and admin Yoda8myhead and others have said that game rules really shouldn't go on the wiki.
Also, city stats can change from book to book, especially the item section; there's not guarantee that the major magic items on sale in Spring 4708 would likely not be the same five or six years later in-world. Turns out this has already come up for discussion on the Wiki itself: PathfinderWiki's forum article on City Stats
Therefore, for city stats, the only "stats" would be the size of the city and its demographics, which have no real game impact or variability. Sorry. :(
Notice how the link provided has the tag "Fanmade". Does that mean we can create & upload our own content? If so, how would one go about doing so? To back out a step and clarify, the d20 PFSRD site already is a 3rd-party site, so it includes most anything that's Pathfinder Compatible, it just organizes things into Paizo content and 3rd party/fan-created content. Since they've gone semi-commercial to support themselves, they can't use Paizo IP (see the Compatibility License and Community Use License for details*), so names may be changed on some content. If you're looking to use it for a home game, it doesn't matter. If you do Pathfinder Society organized play, it does. The d20 PFSRD site does have a Community Custom Creations section; as for how to play around with that, you'd have to contact them, not Paizo. *Short version: Compatibility allows you to say that your OGL stuff works with the Pathfinder rules and use a logo to that effect; Community Use means you're non-commercial and if so allows you to play around with the Golarion/Pathfinder setting intellectual property for fan stuff.
Final PDF just went out to Kickstarter backers and to the printers, so purchasable PDF should be Soon™.
[Pokes Mars.]
It resumes! :D
Handy/interesting ref on the skies of Sol: Wikipedia on extraterrestrial skies.
Ref on the playing cards-sized jammer: http://www.ladyada.net/make/wavebubble/
As an aside, we now know the test to determine the mental maturity level of an AGI: the Turing-Diaz Test.
Apologies to Ms. Merciel, but with the title, all I can think of is the campy show-within-a-show Nyte Blayde from the Saints Row video games. :P
Did you just move to the area? He did, due to being snapped up by the Golem. See the Welcome to Paizo Owen KC Stephens threat
[Attempts to imagine the interplay of all six blights upon hapless mortals. Breaks into heretical laughter.]
P.S. Aroden is totes OP.
I was lucky enough to find a dead tree edition of the Shadowsfall Player Companion at PaizoCon 2013, and enjoyed the related Book of Beasts. Sorry to hear about the 3PP market getting a bit too much 3.0-ish for you. I look forward to the rest of Shadowsfall, regardless of what crunch goes with it. :)
And~ submission away!
In my play experience, the answer to that is usually "alpha strike" or "death from above." :D Or some combination of "Systems...Nominal", *Heat Warning Chiming*, and *Incoming Missile Warning Beep*. Many thanks for the blog mention, dread mistress. :D
Marbles. Why? Low-level nonlethal caltrops. Drop them to determine the slope of a floor. Or trigger a proximity-based trap from a distance. Cast light on one and you've got a quick way to judge the depth of the nearest abyss/well/shaft. Also good for distractions or as a moveable anchor for any object-targetable AoE spells. And you can still use them for a children's game.
In the immortal words of Bill the Cat, "Oop! Ack!".
Did someone say chicken familiars? ~_^
Other avians noted in the Animal Archive:
Very nice, sir. As an aside, I loved the Open Content pantheon, and will be using them (and adding a few of my own deities also released as Open Content) to one of my side projects.
Overhead at the last dungeon delve on Sunday of PaizoCon 2k13, otherwise known as Shaqnarok: Wes Schneider:: Is your character made of more than twenty percent water?
Just got back to my lodgings and nabbed the PDF version to go with my printed PaizoCon freebie. Delicious, Tim.
The Compatibility License Page answers all of these wondrous questions and more, dear sir. Specifically, Section 5 along with Exhibits A and B near the bottom. :)
My rental car is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. Thursday, since I'm staying with relatives instead of at the hotel. Depending on how the timing works out, I may make a trip to drop off luggage (likely missing the food) or head directly from the lot to the park. :) Props on the logistics, Venture-Captain.
Ready to volunteer to run a Pathfinder game. Not sure who to email or what..... The most recent blog post about volunteering to run Pathfinder Society-ish things: Official Call for PaizoCon 2013 Volunteers. :3
So...consider this a new challenge. Come up with your BB mini-adventure concept, and send in a summary to Wayfinder (wayfinder.fanzine@gmail.com), along with info about yourself and what you've written, adventure-wise. Tim, I've emailed my Beginner Box-based sidetrek proposal, with the subject line "Wayfinder #9 Beginner Box Adventure Proposal". Cheers.
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