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I made this timeline up to help me describe what was going on on other parts of the battlefield during the Crimson fleet attack on Farshore. Hopefully, someone will be able to make use of this (IMC, a control water made me redo a lot of this on the fly).

Format

The entries will be made in this format:

*[timestamp in rounds; the zero round is the point the scheduled battle sequence begins] : [events occuring this round]

Timeline of Doooom

*0 : Ships 1, 2, and 3 drop anchor some 200 feet from shore; ship 4 drops anchor some 300 feet from shore. Ship 4’s captain tries to pick a spot with least obstructed line of sight to shore. Ships 1, 2, and 3 are supposed to avoid anchoring in the middle of the harbor to avoid giving ship 4 line of sight problems.
*1 : Yuanti ship (ship 4) deploys flesh golems (*splash*)
*2 : Ship 4 begins deploying launches, ship 5 drops anchor some 250 feet from shore
*3 : Ships 1, 2, and 3 fire ballista at shore
*4 : Ships 1, 2, and 3 begin lowering launches
*5 : Ship 5 begins firing ballista at shore
*6 : Ship 5 begins lowering launches
*7 : Ship 4’s launches afloat; crew begins boarding. Four yuan-ti, captain, and another pirate stay aboard, with 24 pirates boarding launches.
*9 : Ships 1, 2, and 3s’ launches afloat; crew begins boarding. Captain and ballista operator remain onboard each ship, with 28 pirates from each ship divided up into four launches per ship.
*11 : Ship 5’s launches afloat; crew beings boarding. Vanthus, vrocks, captain and ballista operator remain onboard ship, with 24 pirates loading onto three launches.
*14 : Ship 4’s launches away; expected travel of 300 feet at 30 ft/round, with two additional rounds for launches loaded on far side and another two rounds to gain speed
*16 : Ships 1, 2, and 3s’ launches away; expected travel of 200 feet at 30 ft/round, with two additional rounds for launches loaded on far side and another two rounds to gain speed
*18 : Ship 5’s launches away; expected travel of 250 feet at 30 ft/round, with two additional rounds for launches loaded on far side and another two rounds to gain speed
*25 : Six launches from ships 1, 2, and 3 reach shore (7 pirates per launch). Depending on circumstances, the first signaling plumes and resulting fireballs from ship 4 should begin in a couple rounds from now.
*26 : Ship 4’s first pair of launches reach shore (8 pirates per launch)
*27 : Six remaining launches from ships 1, 2, and 3 reach shore (7 pirates per launch)
*28 : Ship 4’s last launch reaches shore (8 pirates)
*29 : Ship 5’s first pair of launches reach shore (8 pirates per launch), flesh golems heads appear above waterline 20’ from shore
*31 : Ship 5’s last launch reaches shore (8 pirates)
*31 : Flesh golems appear on shore
*V (is for Vrocks) : Vanthus, peering through a spyglass from a window in the captain’s quarters of ship 5, orders the vrocks to begin be ready to teleport into the fight with 30 seconds. Ideally, you should have Vanthus issue this order at such a time as would allow the PCs to engage the vrocks after dealing with the flesh golems and either before or after dealing with the yuan-ti. If you do have the vrocks arrive before the PCs have focused on the yuan-ti, it might be wise to position the vrocks someplace where the yuan-ti won’t be able to fireball the PCs every round, either because the PCs have cover, concealment, or there is a lack of living pirates who can throw targeting flairs.
*V+1 : Vrocks cast mirror image on themselves
*V+2 : Vrocks cast heroism on themselves
*V+6 : Vrocks teleport into Farshore

I don't get the hate.

Psionists get two new powers a level. This means there was some level at which this character invested half of it's psionist flexibility into this power.

Object Reading isn't available to general Psionists. It is only available to those with the Clairsentience specialization. This means this character is focused on information gathering powers, to the detriment or absence of his or her damaging, healing, movement, defensive, buffing, and conjurative powers. It seems very likely that the player is going to enjoy this, otherwise he or she wouldn't have chosen this specialty.

If you, as a DM, can't be happy revealing major plot background information until after it is tactically or strategically useful to the players, I wouldn't be happy as your player. If my character is focused on finding things out, it is the nature of the game that my character is very likely worse at other aspects of the game. It balances out.

The only reason to prevent a player from having a character that figures out what is going on earlier in a plotline than is typical is if you, as a DM, won't have fun in that situation. Think about that; if you're unhappy that your players have figured out they need to see a troglodyte about a shadow pearl within an hour after Vanthus is dead, why are you unhappy? You should be happy that one of your PCs has had an opportunity to move the story along in a cool way. It's not like they "ruined" hours of your work setting up some convoluted-yet-one-dimensional story that didn't hold up under the pressure of rationally acting characters.

And don't tell me that you just don't feel this fits the fantasy theme. Fantasy is strewn with characters using magic or fantastical abilities to find out things before they would 'normally' be able to. Take LotR as an example: Palantiri, Dunedain foresight, the magic throne near the Anduin, Galadriel's pool. What would have been so out of place had Gandalf had the power to hold an object for an hour or so and done an 'Object Reading' on it?

Now, would it have fit with the mythos of LotR had Gandalf been able to do an unobstructed Object Reading on the One Ring? I don't think so, at least not without some nasty or stressful consequences. Shadow pearls, however, are not major artifacts. I would consider some Wisdom damage on a failed Will saving throw after each 10 minutes of Object Reading, but I certainly wouldn't have it impart some sort of permanent damage.

Nah, its just a supernatural ability that modifies a spell-like ability.

Oh, and I didn't describe what happened to the sorcerer above, correctly. He failed his casting defensively check, so wasn't able to cast greater invisibility. He flew away (dragonborn), getting an attack of opportunity, cursing that he'd rolled a 4 on his Concentration check. Of course, he didn't know that being invisible wouldn't have helped him avoid the attack of opportunity.

It turns out that the BoVD and Fiendish Codex versions of bar-lgura do differ on two pertinent issues. The BoVD defines the teleporting ability as a supernatural ability, but uses the word 'grab' when defining how their teleport ability is used to transport foes. It also says that the teleport ability can be used in a grapple, but only if the opponent is pinned. The Fiendish Codex doesn't require pinning, but does define the teleport ability as the spell-like ability 'greater teleport' at will.

I've decided I'm going to run the encounter as bar-lguras' abilities dictate; basically, run the rules like the first encounter, but with some thought on the bar-lguras' part on how to better get earlier abduction attempts, perhaps from multiple bar'lguras, without exposing themselves to as much damage. The first attempt was doing with interest in terrorizing and abducting, the second will be just for abduction's sake. I will, though, have Olangru demonstrate his pounce ability this time, so the players are properly worried about it, before facing him in the temple.

So my party foiled Olangru's first abduction attempt. I'm not sure I'm running Olangru and his mates correctly, and I know I strayed from the text of the adventure, so I figured I'd check in with you guys.

After getting my players quite worried about being stuck in the Fogmire (they followed an Olman road away from the stone ruins only to arrive at the ruins again an hour later, from the opposite direction; then sent a flying scout up only to retreat once they realized there was no visibility above the tree-tops), they decided to bed down for the night in the ruins. As per the suggestion in the adventure, the fiends teleported in invisible. However, I didn't follow the direction of the adventure by making the fiends attack in the first round. Instead, the two mates chose locations to arrive at that would allow Olangru to move away from the campsite with a grappled victim more easily, and Olangru teleported directly next to Urol.

The first round was appropriately frightening. The three fiends all made their Move Silent checks versus the rogue-on-guard's Listen, so in the surprise round three orangutan-like beasts appeared from no where with no warning. Olangru grappled Urol; each of his mates attacked one of the prone NPCs that might be able to make movement out of the camp harder for Olangru. The arrangement of camp was by chance/player decision. The mates would have attacked PCs instead if it had been PCs blocking the escape route. Unfortunately for Tavey, he was criticalled and killed in one attack from one of the mates. The other mate attacked Avner, wounding him badly.

The next round consisted of Olangru moving 25' with Urol grappled (standard action) and the two mates attacking Venakalie and the sorcerer (the other PC on guard). The rogue got an attack in, while the sorcerer retreated (taking an attack of opportunity due to a failed cast-defensively Concentration check). The rest of the party (three other PCs) got up from their bedrolls to join the fight.

The second full round consisted of Olangru pinning Urol (a standard action) and one mate making a full attack and another stepping out of reach and turning invisible. The mate that turned invisible did so because the sorcerer unloaded on it, the rogue sneak attacked it, and the fighter Improved Tripped it, leaving it at about 30% health.

The third full round consisted of all three fiends teleporting away but Urol making his Will check to avoid being abducted.

The abduction attempt would have been so much easier if Olangru just had ranks in Concentrate. He couldn't cast defensively, so I house-ruled that you didn't have to Concentrate to cast spells in a grapple if you had your opponent pinned. Is this how the rest of you are handling this? I don’t want Olangru to have to kill everyone just so he can make off with a victim with little fuss. I guess he ought to have simply made a touch attack as part of casting Greater Teleport, as long as only Urol was adjacent to him and no one with a significant melee attack was threatening Olangru.

In the end, I think I might have done better to stick with the text of the adventure, having all three fiends charge in during the surprise round, probably killing two NPCs and badly damaging the sorcerer. Olangru could have turned invisible the next round and moved somewhere with good access to Urol, then moved adjacent to Urol in the third round and risked an attack of opportunity when he made a touch attack on Urol as part of casting Greater Teleport.

I guess I'll get another chance at this, since I still need Olangru to abduct someone. Venkalie is probably the best candidate, since the party likes her, and I think Olangru will take a different victim if he determines his preferred victim has a high enough Will save to avoid abduction.

PC: Zathrus, Tiefling Wizard1
Adventure: There is No Honor
Location of Death: One foot of urchin strewn seawater
Catalyst: One foot of urchin strewn seawater and bad luck

Zathrus the wizard wanted to be useful. So when someone with good balance was needed to head out into the surging seawater of the tunnel to see where it led, Zathrus volunteered. Casting mage armor on himself, he managed to make it out of sight before finally failing to stay upright in the water. Zathrus then proceded to fail three reflex saves and two more balance checks, despite having 18 Dex. Each time he fell in the urchins, they dealt max damage (3) to him. He died, drowned in one foot of seawater, an unused potion of cure light wounds drifting from his hand (because he chose to try to stand and retrieve the potion from his pouch, instead of staying prone, retrieving the potion, and quaffing it).

My players had a problem with this puzzle, because they immediately dismissed the idea of the number of eyes matching the direction to turn the indicator to as "too simple". They correctly assumed that the number of eyes was the identifier for each position of the lock mechanism, but their interpretation of the clue sheet found on the Blue Nixie actually makes more sense than that provided in the adventure.

They decided that the indicator (the red arrow that rotates with the pillar) was actually the fixed "directional". They started by assuming it ment north. Thus, when a monster with four eyes was described as looking to sunset, that ment the arrow should be turned so that it was 90 degrees clockwise of the wall with four eyes (The arrow IS north, therefore when a monster looks west with four eyes, the mechanism has to be turned the four eyed wall is in the "west" position).

This solution felt both much more clever and less dependant on our modern notions of what a combination lock notation should look like. Unfortunately, the players came up with this solution during downtime between play sessions, and proceded to execute it without telling me their conclusion, and I casually told them it didn't work. Once I had asked enough questions to figure out how they had come to up with the sequence, I realized their solution fit the puzzle better, but it was too late to substitute in theirs for the published version.

Actually, the PHB and the DMG disagree to the amount of time you can hold your breath. Pg 84 of the PHB (Swim) gives the time you can remain underwater, due to failed swim checks or intentionally diving under, as one round per Con. The DMG, pg 304 (Drowning), gives the duration for breath holding at two rounds per Con. I have houseruled, barring further official clarification, that the two rounds per Con only applies when someone chooses to go underwater and then remains stationary and inactive.

I'm trying to put more work into preparing the play atmosphere for my STAP campaign, such as prerolling weeks worth of weather and what-not. I've realized, though, that I ought to try using otherworldly day/month references, espcially for the date sensative stuff like journal entries or letters. Can someone direct me to a resource that would define such things for Greyhawk?

I am considering adding psionics to STAP. My group has no experience with psionics but has expressed an interest in trying it out. I realize that I would need to do some work to modify some NPCs to use psionics, as well as adjusting treasure to include psi items. (As a side note, it would be neat to see some sort of guide psi conversion notes in Dungeon noting that such-and-such recurring NPCs would be good candidates for conversion to psi classes.)

Any psi success/failure stories out there from the previous APs?