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I would really appreciate it if somehow I could get some kind of official ruling on this, as I've never seen any of the game designers comment on this matter on the boards and I haven't been able to find any Errata for clarification.

There is a debate in my group on the matter of how long it takes someone to perform a coup de grace.

My understanding of the RAW regarding this matter is that the action is initiated on the initiative of the person performing the coup de grace and finishes (resulting in the crit and damage requiring the save) at the beginning of that person's next initiative, hence a full round action. Casting spells that require 1 round to cast follow the same timing.

Opposition to my understanding of this rule is that the RAW states that the coup de grace finishes at the end of the initiative round the person began the action.

Which is the correct understanding? The first allows people the opportunity to incapacitate or kill the person performing the coup de grace before it goes off, whereas the second option is an instant kill if the last person in the initiative order is the one who initiates the coup de grace, because it would go off right after they finish saying "I start a coup de grace" as it would be the end of the round.

The main argument for the opposition is this quote:

"Sorcerers and bards must take more time to cast a metamagic spell (one enhanced by a metamagic feat) than a regular spell. If a spell's normal casting time is 1 standard action, casting a metamagic version of the spell is a full-round action for a sorcerer or bard (except for spells modified by the Quicken Spell feat, which take 1 swift action to cast). Note that this isn't the same as a spell with a 1-round casting time. Spells that take a full-round action to cast take effect in the same round that you begin casting, and you are not required to continue the invocations, gestures, and concentration until your next turn."

My understanding of the rule is being dubbed a house rule, whereas I disagree and say it's RAW. So which is RAW and which is a house rule?

The above quote tells me that the term "full round action" has different meaning for different situations, as coup de grace is listed as a full round action, but so are full attacks, withdrawing, charging, running, loading a heavy crossbow, etc. These other actions like full attacks have their effects come into play immediately, however, so if coup de grace RAW functions like my understanding, do the rest of these actions technically function the same way? If a Barbarian makes a full attack on an evil cleric, could an evil wizard who goes next in the initiative order cast Hold Person on the barbarian and negate any damage his full attack had on the cleric?

It seems to me that things that have been given the same label but don't function exactly the same under that label. Or the opposition's understanding of the rule could be right and I have been making rulings on coup de grace completely wrong this entire time.

Thanks in advance!

Adivion Adrissant was one of the most brilliant students Petros Lorrimor had ever seen, nearly reaching the same level of his own brilliance. He saw the young man's struggle with academic boredom, as nothing ever came close to piquing his interest as it all seemed paltry and uninteresting - until Petros took him under his wing and showed him the darker side to history and the arcane.

The townspeople of Ravengro who attacked the Lorrimor funeral claiming the man to be a Necromancer were absolutely right. Somewhere along the way, Petros' study of the obscure, dark and magics of Ustalav led him to Necromancy and eventually to the Whispering Way. Adivion became his star pupil, and he showed him the dark abyss that is the lore of The Whispering Tyrant. Petros, already a powerful Necromancer in his own right, was the master and Adrissant the apprentice. The pair had their own theories as to how to free Tar-Baphon, and with Petros' help Adivion pieced together his plan to create the Carrion Crown Elixir. Petros, however, knew that creating a false imitation of The Whispering Tyrant was not enough. He needed a grand sacrifice to open a crack for his master to slip through into freedom, the scale of which transcended good and evil. It required the deaths of not only powerful good beings, but powerful evils ones as well. The sacrifice of the innocent as well as the corrupt. So Petros planned, and plotted, and put together the pieces in his head.

Over the course of his travels in his facade as a goodly professor of the arcane devoted to stemming the tide of the undead prsence in Ustalav and around Golarion, he had met several individuals who showed a certain spark of promise that in hindsight would be excellent candidates for his sacrifice. However, in their current states they were raw, unpolished and useless to his plans. He needed to bring them together in a singular event that would set them on a path that would forge them into the heroes that he required. Adivion had already recruited his own minions in Auren Vrood and his cronies, who Petros ensured never physically met, and so he would use them to set things into motion. He began making the necessary preparations that would allow him to become a lich, all while writing in his journal entries that cast a light of suspicion on cultists that were obsessed with undeath known as The Whispering Way and creating the last will and testament which would draw those he had chosen.

When he knew Vrood was at Harrowstone, he left his darling daughter at home to go investigate. Knowing they would kill any who stumbled onto their ritual, he played the part of doddering scholar, not making any effort to hide his active search of the prison's perimeter. Sure enough, Vrood killed Petros and made it look like an accident. However, Petros' soul did not pass onto the afterlife. Instead, it passed into the body he had prepared via Clone. He watched his own funeral from afar, delighted to see those named in his will arrive to console his daughter and pay their respects to his inert, lifeless remains. After the funeral, the spirits of Harrowstone began bringing back the dead as zombies to assault the living. Petros thought it appropriate to help things along and cement his status as a victim in all of this when he animated his own remains as a zombie and sent it to his own house to attack Kendra and his chosen champions. He knew that eventually they would become involved due to the unstable nature of the prison and catch Vrood's trail. Their sense of duty would drive them to pursue the cultists and in the process, forge them into what he needed.

With that aspect of his plan set into motion, Petros turned his attention towards his apprentice. He had kept Adivion in the dark about his plans, as the Magus was the second sacrifice he needed. He knew that Adrissant was black as coal, and would make an excellent candidate for the sacrifice so long as he was guided in the right direction. Using the elixir on a descendant of Tar-Baphon would be an excellent turn of events, but for Petros' plan he needed the host soul to be completely evil. Count Galdana was anything but that. Indeed, Petros would have to manipulate events so that his champions made it impossible for the elixir to be used on Galdana. He knew what kind of man Adivion was, and that if pushed to the limit he'd most likely use it on himself. That kind of transformation was what was needed for him to fulfill his destiny as the evil component of Petros' ritual; a corrupted soul which had become wholly evil.

The last aspect of his sacrifice would require a truly innocent soul, one unstained by the kind of hard decisions adventuring would bring about. No, there was only one person who could be the last part of his master plan, and he knew exactly who it had to be; Kendra Lorrimor, his own precious daughter. Once Petros left Ravengro and started the process that turned him into a Lich, any minuscule amount of doubt he had about sacrificing Kendra vanished. When the time was right, his agents would seize Kendra and bring her to Gallowspire, where she would be sacrificed to The Whispering Tyrant over the corpses of the fallen Adivion Adrissant, slain by the righteous heroes who championed good, who Petros would finish off as the battle with Adrissant wound down to a close. Such an epic battle with titanic forces of good versus evil, capped by a massacre and a sacrifice of pure innocence would open the seal just enough for Tar-Baphon to slip through and finally be free. Unlike Adivion, Petros had always known who his true master was and would always be.

So.. thoughts? My party is beginning Book IV, introduced with the Carrion hill module, so Petros is undergoing his transformation into a lich or has just completed it. He will continue to scry on the party and make sure they get to where he needs them to be. He knows Adivion will do his part because he trained him well. Getting Kendra will prove an easy task for him, as the party left her in Lepidstadt to study at the University and has been left alone for a while.

Hi all, Doomcrow here. Some of you may know of me from the Kingmaker forums here on Paizo's messageboards. I've decided after a short break to pick up Storytelling and begin anew with Carrion Crown and a completely new group.

I decided to use Obsidian Portal for this campaign, which you can visit here

I'll be using this thread to keep track of the game for the entertainment and amusement of my fellow storytellers, and to welcome any feedback and/or suggestions you may have.

My players get this one warning to keep out of this thread.

My players are just now beginning to throw around character ideas but things will be moving quickly as this Sunday is slated to be our first session.

Hi all! I will be starting Carrion Crown and I wanted to get the opinion of my fellow DMs on how uncommon races from the Advanced Race Guide would factor into the Ustalavian setting for the campaign.

I have these races added into the mix with the Core Races:

Catfolk
Changelings
Dhampirs
Fetchlings (I swapped out Shadow Blending for Emissary)
Goblins
Kitsune
Orcs
Ratfolk
Samsarans
Strix
Tengus
Tieflings

I already know how Changelings, Dhampirs and Orcs will be viewed as they were included in the CC Player's Guide.

Ustalav is filled with xenophobic, superstitious people so I'm not sure if any of these races besides the three already mentioned would actually live in/have settlements in the country. If anything it might be small groups. I'd bunch the goblins in with the Orcs as far as their situation. Some of the monstrous looking ones might actually be persecuted in Ustalav because of all the dangers its citizens face from undead and other creatures and they would just assume these people are the same as the monsters.

Any opinions?

So as some of you may know from my campaign thread, IMC during the 1 year celebration of the founding of my PC's kingdom, I ran Carnival of Tears module. Things got out of hand and my party waited too long and ended up getting 80% of their town's population killed by the malevolent fey, in addition to having one of their party members killed during the event.

Due to the devastating effect this would have had on the campaign, I decided to get creative. While the spirit of the dead PC Iorweth took his journey to the afterlife after being turned to paste by a lumber planing machine, he was intercepted by a tall, imposing figure clad in Yellow robes, his face hidden as he made an offer to the young wizard. He could help undo all the death and destruction his inaction and drunken stupidity caused (this character had gotten severely hammered during the festival and thus was heavily impaired when the fighting broke out) by striking a deal with the figure. It would bring back all those citizens who had perished due to the evil fey's cruelty and erase the memory of the massacre from everyone's memory (save the party), if Iorweth agreed on behalf of the party to pay an undisclosed price in 10 years time. Iorweth struck this bargain and the fledgling kingdom was saved.

The 10 year mark for the debt to be paid is nearing. Obviously the figure Iorweth met is Hastur, the King in Yellow, and nothing about this deal is good. There are so many things that could happen here when he comes calling that I wanted to open it up to my fellow DMs and see if we can't put our heads together and come up something rightfully epic.

The deal saved about 3,000 lives.. Right now the kingdom has grown and there's well over ten times that amount of people living in my party's main kingdom.

I want to come up with something special as this is the King in Yellow after all. I also want to begin foreshadowing it as I am 4-5 years out from the date but things are going by quickly. The party is just coming off a 2 year downtime and the next downtime may be even longer. Perhaps a play begins showing in the local theaters...

So, what say you my peers?

Somebody in another thread a while ago to use http://donjon.bin.sh/d20/weather/ to generate the weather in Kingmaker for the Stolen Lands, which I have been using ever since.

Using a Cold climate, in Winter, with Supernatural weather as Common, it produces some bitterly cold winters. A colder than normal day in winter can reach a low of -53F with a high of -37F. That would wipe out entire countries, one would think. The PCs circumvent this by very expensive investments in Endure Elements wands for the masses and investing in gnomish technology to heat the streets and homes in their towns and cities so people don't freeze to death where they stand.

Anyway, my reasoning behind this is that Nyrissa has taken every measure to ensure that the Stolen Lands are the most deadly, inhospitable lay of land you could find. The PCs, however, are defying her by settling them and thriving, but winter is baaad news Kingdom building wise. I double everything that gives consumption in winter, so Consumption usually rises into the 60s-70s per month (not a whole lot given the way Kingdom Building and BP generating works).

Regardless, I chalk this insane weather up to someone Nyrissa has tasked with using powerful magic to warp the weather in this region and conjure all this nasty, many times supernatural weather (like snow storms that can raise people who die in it as wights, or skies that make people go insane as confusion for hours on end).

I would appreciate ideas on who or what this entity may be that is controlling the weather from behind the scenes. My PCs suspect someone is behind it all, and want to find him/her/it soon. I want to create a whole adventure around finding and confronting this weather mastermind.

Some ideas that I have so far:
Powerful Witch
Enslaved Genie using Wishcraft magic to warp the weather
Some type of Fey creature with a tie to the elements/weather

Hello all! It's been a while since I posted here, my apologies for it's been very very hectic around here.

So, I come to you as I am in need of assistance from my fellow GMs. Since I started my Kingmaker game, I have asked my players each week on my campaign's forums a question for them to answer in character. I do this in order to help them further develop their character as well as to pluck and develop hooks to help immerse their characters in game. This Player Participation, an idea that my friend Robert Brambley inspired me to do with my campaigns, is totally optional. I add incentives by offering in-game bonuses to their character that are effective for the next session only, plus an extra boon for the entire party should everyone complete it before the beginning of the next session.

I have been fairly consistent in posing questions, however I am running out of things to ask!! I turn to you, my fellow GMs, for assistance in questions that have eluded me thus far. Below I will share the questions I have already posed to my party so please feel free to use them for your games if you are doing something similar or would like to start.

Questions:

Who or what do you fight or fight for?

What are your character's limitations?

What mysteries surround your character?

What triggered your desire to go adventuring? How did you happen to take up a sword, lockpick, or spell book and go looking for trouble?

Which god do you worship and why? Come up with a short phrase, prayer, poem etc in the gods honor or describe some sort of daily ritual that your character performs in your gods honor. How often do you pray and is there a specific time of day that you do so?

Describe a 'tic' that your character has.

What item do you carry with you at all times that is very special to you? What does it look like? Why is it unique? and Why is it so important to you?

Describe your birthplace. Were you born in a population center such as a city, town or village or were you born into a nomadic family that traveled to many places? Did you grow up there or did you move away? What is the culture like there? What deities in the pantheon are favored the most? Is there industry there? What's the local government and/or nobility like? What's the geography and weather like? What was it like for you personally to grow up there, or if you didn't, what was it like growing up never having a stationary place to live? 

Who is your nemesis? Someone you consider either a rival, or enemy. What is the reason behind this? How did you come to feel this way about this individual? Were you friends or allies before and then had a falling out? Tell me a little about this person. From where does he/she hail? What do they do?

In a morally grey situation, which side would your character fall on when the time for tough decisions had to be made? How would he/she react?

Create an idea for a Law for the Kingdom and a suitable punishment for breaking said law. It will then be voted on by the ruling council to determine if it will be written into law. You may come up with multiple ideas.

As a leader in the kingdom you are building, what are some goals that you would like to see achieved for your Capital City and nation as a whole?

What are some activities that you'd like to have at the Founder's Day Festival and why?? 

Eulogize someone who has died in the Carnival of Tears massacre.

Create two NPCs; the first will be related to your character in some way. Could be a relative, a friend, someone from your past, a business associate, an enemy, guardian, lover, whatever. It must be a NEW NPC (ie, not someone mentioned in your background already).  The second NPC is one of the 3,750 people living in Crimsondale, a normal citizen. 

Was there anyone you looked up to growing up as a child? A hero or role model that you knew of, or someone in your life that affected you in such a way that you wanted to take after them? Who was this person and what were they like?  If you didn't have anyone like this, why not?

Why did you choose the deity you currently call your Patron? What events if any led you to this spiritual calling? Were you born into the faith or was it something else?

As a player, if you could, what advice would you give your character? Speak as if he/she were sitting right here in front of you. Use proper tone so they might heed your advice...

What do you do for relaxation? What things do they do for enjoyment? What interests do you have? 

Describe a defining moment in your childhood and how it influenced your life.

If your life were to end in 24 hours, what 5 things would you do in those remaining hours?

What should Falconcrest's flag look like?? What colors, symbols and patterns would you include? What do they represent? 

List any past serious relationships that you have had, and give a brief overview of the relationship(s). And just in case your answer is a clever 'none', there's another interrogatory!! Name seven things you hate in others. 

This one was structured as an interview by the NPC in charge of the kingdom's newspaper:
Growing up were you in the majority or a minority of races where you lived?
How were you treated by other nearby races? 
Were you persecuted for your race?
Did this impact your outlook in any way?
Did it affect your personality?
How do you feel about other races?
Do you have any justification from your past experience for holding such views?

When was the first moment you realized you lived in a world with monsters living outside your door? Describe how this realization came to be. 

Describe the first time you killed another sentient being. How did it make you feel? Do you regret it, or does the decision haunt you to this day? 

Do you have a good luck charm? Describe it, how you came to get it and why you think it brings you good luck? If you don't have one, why not? Do you not believe in luck? Why or why not?

Do you have any sort of criminal record?  Elaborate if so. If not, were there any close calls?

Tell us what your favorite food and drink is, whether it is hard to make or contains rare ingredients, or if it's made by someone special. Is it a food or drink made In only one tavern, or can it be found everywhere?

Name one trait your character would possibly change about themselves, physically or otherwise, and explain the reasoning behind it. 

If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be? What is your reasoning behind this and why?

What do you think awaits you in the afterlife?

Does your character wear any jewelry? If so, what kind? (bracelet, non magical rings, crowns, necklaces, earrings? What are they made of? If not, explain why your character chooses not to wear jewelry.

Does your character frequent a town tavern? Do you have a "reserved" seat at the local restaurant? Are you a frequent visitor to the Brothel? If so, tell us about it!  What days you frequent the establishment, what you do there, any other pertinent information.

Tell us about your character's education. Do the have any formal schooling? Who taught them how to read or write, if they can do so? Is there a favorite teacher or mentor that your character had? If so, where are they?

Introduce me to your first born child; imagine your progeny, if you will, as you envision them at their twentieth birthday. Describe what they look like, tell me their names, tell me who you think their other parent could be, tell me what their hopes and dreams may be. Tell me if they followed you down the path of the adventurer, and if so, what kind of adventurer would they be? If for some reason you can't have kids or don't fathom any reason why you would, then this progeny could be adopted, a ward, or disciple you take up in the future.

Tell me one location your character has never been to and would like to visit once before they die. Why do you wish to go there? How did you come to know about this lace? Does the journey/destination have any special meaning to you?

Cheers,
DoomCrow

My Kingmaker game has been going on 3 months now. The party is level 7 and in the thick of RRR. I'll get you up to speed on my campaign thus far.

The campaign began in Restov, where the party attended a ceremony during which they were given their charter. They met the other adventuring groups who were also chartered. I took my own liberties with the Iron Wraiths and the fourth group who was hardly even mentioned.

Iron Wraiths: Led by the gallant Ser Warner Lionheart (an homage to a former player of mine, fellow GM and dear friend, Robert Brambley), a Paladin of Iomedae. His group eventually found the monarchy of Galanor in the Glenebon Uplands.

Souls of the Radiant Sun: Led by Dalaegar of the Eternal Flame, a Garundi man from Osirian who claims to have been given divine visions from the Dawnflower. In them, he was tasked with venturing into the Stolen Lands and found a kingdom, from which a holy crusade will be launched that will stave off the tide of an ancient undead horde that will awaken in the region and cause great havoc and suffering. His group of devout followers of the goddess found a theocracy called the Lambent Barony, at the northern tip of Lake Hooktongue.

Varnling Host: didn't change much about his group, however I made up a rather extensive Varn family that holds a great deal of power in the government. I also increased the standing of Maegar and his family within the swordlords as time progresses.

The party ventured out into the Greenbelt and did some exploring using Oleg's as their base. They befriended the Sootscales, found out that Svetlana is into Varisian curses when it comes to Kressle, liberated the temple of the elk, exterminated the Mites, and made friends with Tyg and Perlivash before taking on the Stag Lord.

When it was time to deal with the bandits, they infiltrated the Stag Lord's fort and slit his throat in his sleep and made short work of the rest. Only Dovan escaped.

Since then they have established the city of Crimsondale (no name for the country yet). After 2 and a half years of in game time the city is two districts. Tatzlford has been founded, as has the town of Glimmerscale, located in the Sootscale hex. The kobolds have been made citizens and live in Glimmerscale and in exchange they work the silver mine.

A major event was the 1 year anniversary of the town being founded, which when I ran the Carnival of Tears module. A third of the town's population was wiped out and the party's Magister Iorweth was killed in the battle. In the limbo between death and moving onto the afterlife, Iorweth was visited by a hooded figure cloaked in yellow. He offered to bring back those townspeople who had died in exchange for an unnamed price which he would collect in 10 years, to which Iorweth agreed. The slain townsfolk were revived that night, and only the party members remembered what had actually transpired.

There have been multiple encounters with dark fey that has caused a deep seeded hatred for fey to grow within my party. The Carnival of Tears was particularly excellent at accomplishing this. Oddly enough, the party is still able to give fey that they meet the benefit of the doubt, due to relationships they developed early on from benevolent fey like Tyg & Perlivash, Tiressia and Miri.

They have also encountered Hargulka, who I've made an Advanced Half-Green Dragon, Half Troll. I incorporated DM Dudemeister's fantastic ideas of having him establish a monster kingdom and going out and recruiting monsters to his realm the group encountered him at a banquet the Sootscales held, where he tried and ultimately failed to turn them against the party. The players have discovered the border of his kingdom in the south but have left him alone for over a year now. He has gathered Spriggans, a red scaled kobold tribe, Quicklings, Merrow and Grindylow to his cause thus far.

The players have made a lot of enemies but have also gained allies. They attempted to kill the Old Bedame (unsuccessfully) after breaking into her home while she was on her way home from gathering herbs. They managed to interrogate and turn Grigori into their double agent, having him feed false information to Fort Drelev via carrier birds while actig as town crier for Crimsondale. They have friendly relationships with Mivon, Gralton and Daggermark (to a degree). Galanor is also friendly, with Varnhold and are Lambent Barony on the neutral side for now. They are all still colonies of Restov (Rostland), and I am planning on introducing NPCs from the Brevish noble families and agents thereof soon to stir up some political intrigue as tensions and suspicions in Brevoy grow.

I also took the Old Margreve and inserted it to the south ofthe Greenbelt. It connects the Nalmarches, Embreth forest, and the forest south of Mivon all into one large forest being the Margreve.

There are many more details I've left out so please feel free to ask questions. I'm not at home right now so I can only post so much content without having access to all the details. I plan on elaborating later in future posts in this thread to provide updates and thoughts on future plans for hooks and story ideas.

I'd love to hear any feedback or suggestions. There are a ton of great ideas I've already seen on the Kingmaker boards and plan on incorporating and much as I can, but in the end it's really the players who'll decide which options they want to pursue so we'll see!!

IMC, the party wanted to celebrate their 1 year anniversary as a kingdom with a Founder's Day Festival. I decided this would be a good time to use PFM Carnival of Tears and tie in the evil fey with the main story.

SoI timed the arrival of Quinn's carnival to coincide with the festival. Quinn, having arrived a few days before the festival, said he heard about the event and wanted to provide entertainment for the people, and offered to hold off on opening the doors to the carnival until the day of the festival.

Things were going well, with the party having their events first and then the carnival opened afterwards. The party took their time looking around but never gained enough virtue points to meet with Syntira (I considered changing Syntira's race to something other than what she is in the Module; having too many of those might be a bit confusing since I am also planning on using Fellnight as well, however I also thought of Syntira being the good sister of Nyrissa who was trying to oppose her's sister's plans).

Without meeting with Syntira, the party was left exposed to the Eye of Rapture, and at 5th level all of them failed the saving throw, and I rolled max on the duration in hours. Seeing what they wanted to see, they were allowed to drift back to the castle for a feast with the River Kingdom dignitaries who were visiting at the castle. They spent 3 hours in the castle before they went up to the roof for a fireworks display and I took pity on them and allowed them another saving throw, which half of them made. They looked on in horror below as hundreds of people lay dead in and around the festival grounds (350 people per hour killed according to the table, that's 1/3 of their town's population) and began breaking their compatriots out of the illusion.

Now they are all free of the eye's effects and are en-route to combat this terror. I know in the module it says at 700 the fey retreat into the woods, but the town in the module is much smaller than my party's town. I figure the fey will stay longer until 2/3 of the town are slaughtered and then leave, sure that the rest will run in fear and spread the news.

I didn't expect them all to fail. A lot of my players are spellcasters with high Will saves, and I am using the Hero Point rules, and they all had HP and didn't USE them!! After I began the game reminding them about HP and even gave 1 free use of a HP for that session only to the players who had extra player participation for that week!

Has this scenario happened to any of you?

So, my CoT campaign took a few turns that were unintended but we are now back on the storyline. They just finished the Maggot Tree siege and are prepping to delve into Walcourt. They just made level 12 (yes I know, ahead of the curve.. i'll explain).

Let me first explain the party makeup. There are 7 Players, consisting of:

Paladin of Desna
Witch (Damn Cackle, Evil Eye and Misfortune Hexes!!!)
Two Weapon Wielding Fighter
Rogue
Oracle of the Heavens
Inquisitor
Cleric of Gorum

First off, the party FAILED to recover the Morrowfall from Delvehaven. They were defeated soundly by Jhair, the Mazeflesh Man and Vahnwynne, retreated, and then decided to head back to the safehouse and rest for two days.

The vamps, in the meantime, were able to discern from the battle that living creatures could handle the Morrowfall. So they went into Westcrown while the PCs were away, abducted one of the Children of Westcrown, dominated her, and made her take the Morrowfall with them to Walcourt for Ilnerik to decide what to do with it.

Next, they have YET to kill any vamp in this campaign.. Jerusen killed one of the former party members, a Sorceror, when he lagged behind in the far back during the fight with the Erinyes in the crater by Aberian Folly's ruins, and dragged him off to become a vamp.

They then entered the Nessian Spiral only to leave for a few days to replenish resources. Obviously I just can't leave the dungeon as they left it. When they came back, the Order of the Gate had quarantined the entrance to the Spiral, erecting a magical barrier and laying magical traps (the landmine force-field, swarm traps like around delvehaven).

The group decided to try and teleport through the barrier, but since the magic used to create the barrier is from the Order of the Gate, I said there was a 20% chance of a botch taking them to Hell... Well, go figure..

The Party didn't have the focus for Plane Shift to take them back to the Material Plane, so they had to wheel and deal in Erebus for one.

Now they are back, higher level than the normal progression, but I can just adjust the levels of the encounters accordingly..

However, there are about 15 vampires for the party to deal with now in Walcourt.

There are two former player characters that were taken and turned (one after a player quit and the other from being turned by Jerusen), one child of westcrown (Yakopulio), Zol, the Medusa and the Vulpinal from the Spiral (the party never got into the Spiral, they spent a week in Material Plane time in Hell.. Liebdaga got loose as a result, another problem). So with Sivana, Thessing, the leader of the Bastards (the party decided not to waste their time with the bastards, so they flourished and Ilnerik 'rewarded' him), Jerusen, Jhair, Vahnwynne and the Mazeflesh Man and Sivanshin, that's 14 vamps they gotta deal with in Walcourt.

My party likes to go against the grain and do what they please. I can't force them down a linear adventure as a DM, it just takes the spontaneity and fun out of the game if everything is pre-decided and laid out for them in a line. So I bend and flex and try to bring things back to the line eventually.

Should I pack them all (the vamps) in there, with no Morrowfall for the party?

My party is nothing to sneeze at.. They literally wiped out half of the Maggot Tree siege army in battle. Stiglor got put to sleep via Cloak of Dreams by the witch, caught, flown 180 feet into the air and freefell to his death.

The Witch single-handedly handled Madjaw, and the Rogue coup de-graced him.

These dudes can take on very hard battles and be fine.. It's tough trying to make things challenging without A. being overwhelming or B. totally undercutting their capability and having it end up with them walking through the encounter on a relative breeze.

Thoughts/Suggestions?

I will have 6 players in this group. Two of these players also play in my Council of Thieves Group, which I will be starting tomorrow.

So far only three players have come to me with character ideas:
Summoner
Bard
Human Rogue
?
?
?

One of the players asked me how I felt about him playing a 40 year old gnome. I haven't responded yet, but I'm leaning towards No. I would suspect 40 year old gnomes don't travel around Katapesh alone freely; they most likely would get picked up by the slave-traders and sold into a life of servitude.

Anyway, does anyone have some advice as to what to expect with this AP? Most of the players like to role-play more, but they all enjoy combat.

I wanted to post on this earlier but with starting a new job I haven't had the time to post here yet.

So I have a group of 7 for this group, that is broken down into the following:

Half-Orc Barbarian
Elf Rogue (plans to multi-class as ranger)
Human Fighter (plans to Multi-Class as Rogue)
Human Bard
Aasimar Cleric
Human Paladin
Human Druid

Note: this group is aware and OK with not having an arcane caster.

I decided to give the rest of the group a floating +2 to offset the advantage the Aasimar has right off the bat instead of nerfing him.

I should also note that this will be my first Pathfinder game, and the same goes for all my players. Everyone leans more towards Role-playing than combat in their style of play, so I thought this setting would be the best fit for them. I plan on developing my own content to add to this campaign as well as adding to the existing content in the AP.

Does anyone have any advice regarding this AP? I plan on linking one of the Children of Westcrown to each member of the party to give them a vested interest in their plans and a reason for Janiven to seek them out. I know that's a lot of work for footnote NPC's with such a large group, but I plan on whittling them down over the course of this adventure, either by arrested or worse by the Hellknights or by some other means of making them fade into obscurity. I'll keep one or two around maybe as contacts if I feel it's worth it or if the party keeps a strong interest in one of them, but I will mainly use them for transitioning the party into the storyline of the AP.