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Interestingly, Battle Host Occultists are proficient with ALL martial weapons and armor and shields (INCLUDING tower shields). I've fused my Warpriest with this, and am happy to have it.
Will we be headed to Carcosa at some point in this adventure? Or, more accurately, is Carcosa coming for us?** spoiler omitted ** Perhaps I missed this in an earlier question, but it relates. Any visits to Aucturn? Or visits from natives of Aucturn? It would certainly fit...
I ran a cosmic horror campaign a while back incorporating the old 3.5 "Taint" mechanics and space travel. Essentially the campaign finished with Hastur the Unspeakable totally wiping out the party (who were Mythic and level 20) One thing these campaigns need is the sense that the characters may die at any given moment. The old Call of Cthulu games had a pretty high mortality rate. Then a new character (pregenerated with tie-in to back story) can be brought into the investigation and intrigue. With the Occult Adventures book out (and it's so so good) there is even greater potential for a frightening foray into the unspeakable. Remember. Yog Sothoth is the Gate.
That's great, but my immediate question is... will there be Aeons? Yknow... the true neutral duality based outsiders? They always struck me as eerie enough to fit such an adventure path.
Anyone remember the Neutral Zone aliens in Futurama? Those remind me of the old D&D race The Rilmani... for Pathfinder, I've been finding myself gravitating towards neutral races, especialy neutral outsiders. It seems like most of them are native to the Boneyard. I really enjoy the Psychopomps, but have had a difficult time finding many instances in adventure paths or elsewhere that Aeons are put to any use. I've used both liberally in homebrew games, but I'm curious if I just missed them or they just aren't present. Any Aeon sightings outside of the Bestiaries?
I'm currently running a game with a fella whose girlfriend is playing an elf witch. Trying to keep her engaged with cool spells, but hexes seem to be the meat and potatoes of the class. I've gone over their spell list, and it seems like they are in a weird zone of spellcasters, not quite up to snuff, quasi-bardic. Anyone got any suggestions for spells? We're up to 6th level now, just about to get their first Mythic Tier. Anyone with experience in Witches is welcome to chime in.
The fading effect is an eloquent way to keep the party from going overboard, but I might also make it a roundabout way to lessen the price of say, shadow armor, by incorporating this particular metal (or raise it, if it raises the bonus to stealth). Another thought I have for this commodity: higher bonuses to armor might make its enhancement to stealth (naturally) last longer, so a higher level character with more powerful armor would discover his increased stealth bonus lasts longer the higher over masterwork or +1 it is enhanced. Other commodities may include: Gems capable of binding Kytons, stone capable of blocking shadows (but not ghosts or other incorporeal creatures), and of course, slaves. The more I think about albino dire rats as a foods source (who are fed by cavern mold and lichen), the more I want to make a scenario centered on an underground rat ranch.
As for interdimensional traders, aside from shadow plane denizens, I have settled on the Cheitan Janni. Their propensity for taking offense even when it is not intended, and keeping the location of the city/island secret from most other genies (while profiting off an exclusive deal with the secret syndicate running the place) will dovetail nicely with the attitude of the city's masters. Like I said before, the city has access to materials nowhere else in the world, and though the serpentfolk (who dominated the region for centuries) resent the nagaji's efforts at the opening of trade, they too are profiting from it.
It's not a pleasant place, so far... NE Large city
DEMOGRAPHICS Government Secret Syndicate
MARKETPLACE Base Value 8,000 gp; Purchase Limit 75,000 gp; Spellcasting 7th
I was going to go with Svirfneblin but they hate reptilians, and Drow might be good for slave trade, but would likely invade the city if it was common knowledge to them. Totally thinking that Fetchlings, shae, and duergar (as the primary export) will be involved, and possibly a few choice genies. The reskinning idea for fetchlings is PERFECT, since in this city the Shae in the city are a leisure slave class, and shae give birth to fetchlings. The mining for shadow metal is something else I had considered, but the more I think about it the better it sounds (inherent ghost touch property!) That helped a lot, actually. Thanks.
That was what I was thinking... they could be like "The Twenty-One Balloons" book, where a small group of people live on an island with such an abundance of diamonds they would crash the world economy if they introduced them all. So they trickle the diamonds out, and live richly in a paradise full of diamonds. This is similar, except they are evil. Evil snake people. With evil snake person slaves. I don't think I mentioned it before, but this is a city hidden in the largest mountain range of an island campaign.
The small-hold Framers/Ranchers which surround the city are extremely (and violently) clannish, the city is a sort of neutral ground where their feuds are conducted through the courts instead of through the battlefield. The city would be at the mercy of the farmers/ranchers if they would band together, so it goes to great lengths to prevent this from happening. The major functions of the city WRT to farmers/ranchers (R/F) is to find a way to legally secure title to a farming cave one holder stole from another 200 years ago, and provide legal excuses to attack other holders to steal ranching caves from them. The city also participates in a balancing act WRT arming the R/F, providing enough arms at a cheap enough a price to keep the R/F from making their own arms, while preventing any of the R/F acquiring enough of an armory to become a large-holder. I absolutely love the idea of them tying each other up in court. A cold war occasionally flaring up with "death by natural causes" assassinations. So...the slaves are built into a strict contract system run by the Nagaji guildmasters, the serpentfolk are notoriously abusing the system, the farmers... I hadn't really considered the albino dire cave rat farmers... that may be ... the small population of fetchlings I pictured as being intermediaries for... possibly duergar that don't ask too many questions. Lot of smuggling opportunities in farming situations, also... yeaaahhh okay, yeah, good one.
Mining is the backbone of their economy, and the slave class (degenerate serpentfolk) are the spinal fluid for that backbone. Nagaji are the legalistic ones, as I have it planned, and operate the guilds (unions) for most merchants. Essentially the Serpentfolk, as I pictured it, are the entrenched power structure (falling apart for ages), and the Nagaji are the relatively new (and thoroughly resented) consortium making most trade happen. Of course this is all subject to change. Food is, for the slaves, cultivated from the albino dire cave rats they raise in mold caves. And I was debating whether or not the wealthier class uses magic and genies to make more elaborate food happen. Create food and water is a great spell for isolated communities of arcanist sorts.
Mining is the backbone of their economy, and the slave class (degenerate serpentfolk) are the spinal fluid for that backbone. Nagaji are the legalistic ones, as I have it planned, and operate the guilds (unions) for most merchants. Essentially the Serpentfolk, as I pictured it, are the entrenched power structure (falling apart for ages), and the Nagaji are the relatively new (and thoroughly resented) consortium making most trade happen. Of course this is all subject to change. Qualities I have in place right now: financial, government capitol, magically attuned, organized crime, strong underground. Disadvantage: Bad Neighbors.
I'm running a game where there is a large Neutral Evil Nagaji/Serpentfolk city located deep underground. This city has been cut off from the rest of the world for centuries, but I wanted them to have a pretty strong economy, despite that. This city has limited ties to the Plane of Shadow... and maybe very limited ties to the Darklands. I wanted them to be bankers, barristers, and miners, mostly, but again, no proper connections to the rest of the world (just a few limited locations around the mountain). Any suggestions for how I could make this work, semi-realistically? |
