Don't know if that's the right forum, but I'm looking for a battle map which I can use for a generic encounter in hell (Avernus, Dis or maybe Malebolge, not such special places like Stygia or Erebus). I have browsed some websites but have not found anything useful yet. It does not need to be free content, I'm willing to pay for it, but it should not be too expensive - I won't need it much often. Thanks for any hints!
Our CotCT campaign is coming to its end, and I have to decide which AP we are going to play next. At the moment I am still undecided between # Jade Regent,
My players like strong, interesting NPCs and decent possibilities to roleplay - therefore I tend to Jade Regent. But I don't know if the whole traveling aspect is right for us, and maybe we get what we want from Kingmaker as well. So your opinions are welcome: Why Kingmaker - or why not? Thanks, Exeter
For my group the Demilich was a walk in the park: at first they freaked out, when they realized what was lying on the altar. but then they prepared themselves pretty well: death ward all over them, silence (no wail of the banshee), everyone enlarged (more damage), and even some spell turning. the bishop lasted three rounds, and I don't know anymore if he caused any harm.
Tels wrote: Well the idea was that fighting Mandraivus wouldn't be a lethal event. If you lose, you revert back to your body, and Serithtial no longer functions for him until he defeats Mandraivus. He could re-challange Mandraivus the following day, and continue to do so until he defeats him. But that's rather anti climatic: if you don't suceed, just try again. in fact that's an encounter you cannot loose, and therefore an encounter nobody needs. and as the group on the other hand _needs_ to claim Seristial I wouldn't go for that duel kind of solution for the problem. I like the idea of Seristial being an ancestor's weapon, though, but that doesn't sounds like the best option for finally awaken the weapon.
Louis, thanks for your answer! I was hoping that this thread would catch the eye of any of the adventure path's writer's (In fact I would have contacted you way earlier, but as this forum does not have any pm function...). The points you mentioned are very informative, but not informative enough to decide if I will be able to run the AP as I wish. I cannot decide if the cost of flavor would be too high for me, for example. :) Is there a chance to get a closer looks on the plot, the organizations and/or places? I don't know, perhaps there is an exposé, a detailed preview or such? Please don't get me wrong: I don't want to catch free stuff, draw some inspiration from it and then make my own campaign. If RtR is the right one (and I hope it will be), and my group is open to play another urban campaign*, I will buy more than happily the whole campaign.
* By the time we reach the second half of Crown of Fangs I will ask them what they want to play next. As today I will offer them Jade Regent, Kingmaker, and Road to Revolution to choose from. And as the last choice depends on how that AP could fit into an post-CotCT Korvosa the blurbs are not really sufficient for me.
Thanks for your input! Unfortunately, running RtR before CotCT is not an option anymore, as we are right now in the middle of Skeletons of Scarwall... ;)
Months ago I made a battlemap of the Shingles. It does not fit to any specific chapter, but it may be useful for some random encounters. We used it twice: first time in an additional story line during Edge of Anarchy, the second time in Escape from Old Korvosa, when my group visited a group of Hell Knights, who decided not to leave the city like the Order of the Nail had ordered, but to enforce law on their own. Long story short, I uploaded the battlemap to sendspace, it is a pdf file with 12 pages (actually only 9 pages containing useful parts of the maps). You can find it here: http://www.sendspace.com/file/76i88f It's not as pretty as the maps in the adventure paths, but perhaps some of you will find a use for it. Enjoy ;)
p.s.: As the map is made with Map Tool, I don't think there is any copyright infringement here, but if there should be any complaints - tell me, and I will put it down.
Actually, that quote doesnt fit: it clearly says you have to choose the trapping function while casting the spell. Thats not only a totally different situation, but also it says nothing about the entering Part. There is somewhere mentioned that you can use that spell to hold summoned (called? Is there regarding that point a difference?) creatures at bay, though. But. Thats for the inward option of the spell. For the Option which allows creatures to enter and denies exiting. Its not for the option which denies entering and allows exiting. Sorry for any weird ortography: German iPhone autocorrect...
I know the spell description, and as you said: This is open for interpretation. I think it all depends on the interpretation of "enter" - either as just moving into the circle or as entering the circle in whatever way, e.g. being summoned. I hoped I would miss a thing or there would be a clarifiction on this.
Maybe I miss the forest for the trees, but is it possible to summon good creatures into an area protected by a Magic Circle against Good? The spell states that "good summoned creatures cannot enter the area" but does enter mean a) a creature summoned outside cannot enter the circle. a creature summoned inside the circle is not affected. or b) a creature cannot enter the area at all. not by going/flying/whatever from outside to inside, and not by being summoned right into the circle. if b) is right, what happens if it is tried: is the spell lost with no effect or does the creature appears in the nearest possible field outside of the circle? thanks for any clarification.
It was near the end of the first chapter of Curse of the Crimson Thrown: Spoiler: Croft asked the PCs to attend Trinia's execution (the false's one), as she had a bad feeling about the whole story and wanted to have some reliable guys there. So they got access to the nobles' tribune, where they chitchated with friends ands foes, when suddenly Black Jack turned up and caused a stir among the commons. They decided to swoop in, and our Cayden cleric jumped down from the tribune to get to the scaffold (i moved the execution from the palace's garden to the Domina Square and made it a big public event). His player found it an excellent idea to play out the "Jumping prooves a terrible choice" card and impaled himself with a nasty nail which protruded from the tribune. So he hang there at about 10 feet above ground, half down his way from the top of the framework. Great view, though.
Meanwhile the mob was breaking loose from its seats and tried to reach the scaffold (to tear Trinia and Black Jack in two, to defend them, or whatever), and the whole scene turned into a giant brawl. To heat things up, another player choosed to play out another plot twist card: "Everything is coming down". As a result the scaffold collapsed due to lazy construction, burying guards, the false Trinia, Black Jack, the executioners and the fastest brawlers alike (Black Jacl got away with the scapegoat, though: Dimension Door), and the breakdown was the final straw for the public, the whole Domina Square was seething chaos. Our factotum and our dragon fire adept, still on the nobles' tribune tried to reach the cleric. They grubbed a banner hanging down the framework, and the paladin climbed it down to get to the cleric. She failed her climbing check and falled - right into the stampede at the cleric's feet. So now it was on the factotum's turn to climb down. He did it, but just at the moment a pyromantic, anti feudalistic hedge wizard (a NPC who is turning up here and there in my campaign, but until now always in the background; the player don't know him yet, only witnessing his actions) aimed a fireball on the nobles' tribune. The tribune, being magically protected, wasn't harmed, but the crowd at its feet lost the rest of control, trampling the Paladin slowly but surely to mud. The factotum freed the cleric from its nail finally, but let him fall as he was not strong enough to hang onto the banner with one hand and to grab the cleric with the other. The cleric failed his acrobatic check to break his fall and joined the paladin. Then the factotum climed up again, took the stairs and together with the dragon fire adept ran downstairs to help both the cleric and the paladin. after finding the two (and healing them)the now unified group boxed its way through the brawl to the scaffold to examine the scene, retrieved some of the buried but only found Black Jack and "Trinia" missing. All in all it was a real chaotic scene, damn painful for at least two of my player's characters, but we all laughed our a**es off. :)
Our Curse of the Crimson Throne Campaign is coming to an end - or at least the end is near enough that I should spend some thinking on our next campaign. One of the options is: staying in Korvosa. My players love the city, the NPCs, and over the time they really got used to Korvosa. So I am wondering if it would be possible to convert The Great City AP to the Korvosa setting.
# How similar are both APs? CotCT is about an evil monarch, civil unrest and the saving of a city. And as far as I can see from the descriptions of the Great City modules this AP looks topicwise a bit the same. So if I don't want to run the same plot again - is The Great City the right AP for me and group (especially as I changed Crown of Fangs from a dungeon crawl adventure to some kind of civil war/rebellion adventure)? # Are there some major adventure parts which require buildings/institutions/whatever which Korvosa doesn't have? # If I decide to run The Great City AP aftwards are there plot seeds I should plant already in the last chapter of CoftC? (For example: Who will be king after Ileosa) # Is there alreay a pathfinder conversion of this AP? I know, it was talked about in some threads here in the forums, but I'm not sure what the outcome was. And on a scale from 1 to 10 how many work will it be to change the Great City to Korvosa? # After all: Can you recommend The Great City AP? The reviews are quite good but can it keep up with the Paizo stuff? Thanks for your thoughts!
Hehe, scheinen ja doch mehr Deutsche hier rumzuhängen als ich angenommen hatte - bzw. mehr, die gerade CotCT spielen... :) Besten Dank für die Komplimente, gern geschehen. Ich hätte noch so ein paar andere Handouts in deutsch anzubieten. Nichts derartig Aufwändiges wie Zellaras Lied, aber ein bisschen Schriftverkehr vom Vampir in Teil 2, die Verkündugn von Eodreds Tod, den Teufelspakt aus Teil 4 und so. Sagt Bescheid, wenn Ihr davon was braucht, bzw. gebt mir eure Mailadressen, dann schick ich Euch den Kram.
I translated Zellara's song into German for my campaign (and put a little more hints into it). I suppose it won't be helpful to a lot of you guys, but maybe there is one or another German DM out there who could use it. Enjoy ;) Im Ort, wo Schatten blüh’n und Totes geht
Vier Wächter sind’s, die sie dort binden
Ein Geist, gebor’n in blut’gem Osten
Und Todeshauch in grimmer Zwinge
Entkettet sie, dass kampfesmürbe
Im Ort, wo Schatten blüh’n und Totes geht
Just preparing SoS and I am not quite sure how to play the Zon-Kuthon gang. I assume that my group will accept the help of Laori and Sial, but that's where my indecision starts: Should I keep the Kuthonists by the group? Or should they stay back and sweep in time to time? First option would be the more realistic, I guess. But the guys have already Trinia with them and two more NPCs might be too much - especially in battle. And if the two sadists explore Scarwall on their one and only come to help when needed it's too much deus ex machina. I somehow tend to this last option, though, but as I said, I am not really decided, yet. So I am interested in how you coped with the situation. Thanks for sharing your experience!
Hi Douglas, I just copy this from another thread. This is how my players did it: The PCs went down in the labyrinth, met Melyi in the disguise of Vencarlo. They did not totally trust her/him, but they were separated from the fake Orsini as Sivith pulled a trigger deeper in the labyrinth, trying to hunt the players down. after that the PCs unfortunately went straight ahead to Sivith's temple and encountered there the real Orsini and freed him. Then they met the darksphinx (or the darksphinx met the the group), killed her and stumpled upon Melyia in a new disguise: a young woman, an undercover agent of Cressida Croft who tried to infiltrate one of the drug trafficking gangs of the Arkona's but was unmasked not long thereafter. this time they trusted her a little bit more but they decided to stay down in the labyrinth to search for the seneschall and not to go up with the agent to kill Glorio. so meliya decided to finish them off - and was killed in pretty intense battle.
We finished that EfOK some weeks ago, this is how it went: I made the changes, I mentioned above (Glorio said, his wife being "weird"; no rakshasa temple and motive in the labyrinth and so on). The PCs went down in the labyrinth, met Melyi in the disguise of Vencarlo. They did not totally trust her/him, but they were separated from the fake Orsini as Sivith pulled a trigger deeper in the labyrinth, trying to hunt the players down. after that the PCs unfortunately went straight ahead to Sivith's temple and encountered there the real Orsini and freed him. Then the met the darksphinx (or the darksphinx met the the group), killed her and stumpled upon Melyia in a new disguise: a young woman, an undercover agent of Cressida Croft who tried to infiltrate one of the drug trafficking gangs of the Arkona's but was unmasked not long thereafter. this time they trusted her a little bit more but they decided to stay down in the labyrinth to search for the seneschall and not to go up with the agent to kill Glorio. so meliya decided to finish them off - and was killed in pretty intense battle.
After all, I reallys recommend to strike all the rakshasa hints in that adventure (big surprise, I know *g*). as it makes more sense that way - and if you want to play other adventures in korvosa (perhaps with the same players but with different characters) as I do you've got the chance to keep a wondeful secret. second after all: I wanted to thank all you guys here: it was a pleasent discussion with a lot of good thoughts and recommendations!
One of player recently joined our group with a summoner. this is his eidolon build, and I would be happy if you could check it out, too, as I don't know if I am overlooking something: n eyes see more than two ;)
LVL6
DEFENSE
OFFENSE
STATISTICS
Feats
Evolutions points: 10 (Half Elf)
Free evolutions: bite, limbs(legs) Thanks!
Wyrd, I know what you mean, Gonturan has mentioned something like that before, and yes, you both have point. But. It's a weak point. My group writes a really detailed diary and talks about it, and at least one of my players gives a lot of thought to NPCs actions and motives. And I don't want to be caught with my pants down. But even if it wasn't that way: The argument "that's stuff the players won't likely realize" is still a poor one. I mean, we do not talk about some fan/amateur written adventure. it is a professional product, and I bought it with money. And if that comes into play i can expect a plot without holes. Don't get me wrong: I am a big fan of Paizo and its products, I think they are on top of the industry. But I wish they would have given some parts of CotCT one more rebrush to even things out.
regarding the revealing of the true form after death: on page 61 stands "In his death, Purusav was revealed to be a tiger-headed monstrosity with backward-bending hands." So I fear that option is none... I've come to a solution (it's a mix of my suggestions in this thread and Sethious's alienated wife idea) for my own and in two weaks my group will probably finish EfOK without recognizing that there were any plot holes. But it really annoys me that this module is so flawed at its very core. There are some discussions about "7 days" and plot holes in this forum, I started one by myself, and as far as I remember I read a thread about "Skeletons" being somehow ill-designed as well (I did not recognize any plot wholes during my first reading of this module but who knows what will come up during the preparation phase). So I hope at least "History" will be without bad surprises. I really, really like CotCT, and my players love it. But I, too, really, really dislike that I have to clean up stuff the writers should have done. That's somewhat of a downturner.
@Gonturan: you're welcome :) b2t: Walter, I think it is more than probably that the PCs at least suspect the true nature of Glorio once the first dead raksasha is revealed (that would probably be the one in the temple). And we all know what happens when PCs have suspicions...
"Even if the PC's know the truth I only see Bahor reacting violently immedietly if threatened directly, or he is certain the PC's will let his families secret out." Sorry, but I disagree. keeping the secret of his true nature is the foundation of all his plans and powers. He cannot let it happen that someone gets away after finding out the truth - and he would be a complete idiot if he expected the PCs to keep his secret. By the way Glorio's stat block says otherwise, too: "Bahor only stays behind to fight to the death if his enemies show that they know of his true nature—allowing anyone to escape his clutches with this knowledge is the thing he fears the most." okay, so how to fix this situation? here is an idea: at first strike the whole temple. and vimanda is not send into the labyrinth, either. so Glorio's plan is just that: let the PCs free neolandus and orsini and let them flee all together. It is straight forward, but there is no chance to find out about his true nature.
It is not very sophisticated anymore, but at least it will work. kind of annoys me that I have to make Vimanda dumb enough to risk the whole family secret, though. but I guess you could justify that: after years of being in the second row she is greedy enough to go all in. either she succeeds and wins the control over the Arkonas. Or, if she looses that final fight against the PCs, she has at least the satisfaction that glorio went down some seconds earlier. what do you think? have I overlooked something?
Sorry for the "SC", it was about 1 a.m. in the morning, and hogarth is right, it's "PC". Hm, the module says (p. 34): "Bahor does indeed want Queen Ileosa out of power, and he hopes to accomplish this goal by using seneschal Kalepopolis when the time is right so that he can step in to take her place. [...] Currently, Bahor is unsure how to proceed—he certainly doesn’t want to risk his own life directly opposing the queen, yet at the same time he knows something must be done before her power grows too great. As it turns out, the PCs may be his salvation.
Thus Glorio is fine by the PCs freeing Neolandus, it is his only chance to get the Neolandus wheel in motion. In fact, in this thread: http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/paizoPublishing/pathfinder/adventurePa th/crimsonThrone/escapeFromOldKorvosaGMReference&page=1&source=sear ch#32 Charles Evans 25 wrote: "Bahor wants the PCs to get away with Neolandus. Neolandus has information which Bahor hopes is damaging to Ileosa, and right now Bahor is worried about how powerful the Queen is getting and what she is up to. He wants Neolandus and his information out there, and if the PCs want to act on that information against Ileosa, so much the better. If the PCs kill Vimanda while they're at it, that's a bonus on top; sure he'd like that to happen- in fact he couldn't resist the temptation to set up the situation precisely so that it might- but his top priority is getting Neolandus and his information out of the House Arkona dungeons. The PCs can even have Vencarlo as well, if they want, whilst they're at it." And then James Jacobs replies: "Charles has it pretty much right in the previous post as regards the complex situation that the Arkonas have woven for themselves. The PCs don't really have to kill Bahor, in any event: they just need to get out with the two prisoners." And in another thread James writes: "Even then, Bahor's not supposed to be a combat encounter..." So the module does not intend that Glorio sweeps in after the PC/Vimanda battle to finish whoever survives it. He just wants the PCs to escape - and that gets in the way with objective #3.
I'm preparing Escape from Old Korvosa - and I blame me if I'm wrong but Glorio's aims are higly contradictory: In particular he pursues 3 main objective: #1 He wants the SCs to get away with Neolandus (and Orsini). Therefore he tells them about the entrance to the Vivified Labyrinth and how to manage its rotation. #2 He sends Vimanda down there, too, as he hopes the SC will finish her off. #3 But the most important objective is: to keep his real identity a secret. that is the conditio sine qua non of all his plans and plots. Yeah. And that's the point where the problems emerge.
Same with object #2: The fullfillment of this wish clearly endangers - if not directly sabotages - objective #3. Vimanda dies, and *poof* hey, that's a cute little foxy lady! wait, that's already the second of one the most evil races of the universe! never mind, let's search Neolandus and then let's get out of here.
Ergo: With sending the SCs down in the labyrinth Glorio has to reckon with killing the SCs by his own hands to keep his secret a secret - and thus not only endangering objective #3 but even objective #1. so why, oh why would he put the most important thing in his life at risk by sending the SCs down in the labyrinth? It just doesn't make any sense. For such a highly intelligent being as he is, for such a talented schemer and plotter as he is - this sounds utterly dumb. Okay, you could say: He bets on the stupidity of the SCs. And of course there is a chance that they will not put one and one together and slay some of his kin and not even grow suspicious about the housefather of this place. But, come on, that's really desperate. As I see it, nearly everything would be better than sending the SCs in the labyrinth. Sure, by simply freeing Neolandus and Orsini at his own discretion he fears loss of face among his family - and its consequences. But even if that resumes in some heavy confrontation with his own kin it would stay in the family. It's not a heart warming outlook. But it is better than letting someone reveal his very secret. I hope I have just overlooked something, but I don't think so. Any thoughts?
During the preparation og Seven Days To The Grave some questions poped up in my head. I think there are some serious plot flaws, and perhaps you could tell how you managed them. # The "Direption" is red hering created by the Red Mantis/Urgathoa cult to draw attention from the real source of Blood Veil - the tained coines in the Abbadar temple. Question 1: How can the PC get to know this? I searched the adventure over and over (and perhaps I've something overlooked), but the re is no chapter which deals with the revelation of the real source and the purification of the tainted coins. It looks for me as if there is a whole plot string missing. And if I am right and there is no such chapter/paragraph - the whole tainted coin thing is almost redudant: There could be a lot of people who git sick due to the contact with a Death Head Coffer (in fact, the first person the PCs have to cure is such an example), and a disease as contagious as Blood Veil does not really need an additional vector like the coins: it spreads fast enough all by itself. So: When there is no real chance that the PCs can deal with the temple/coin thing and the coins being not needed - why was this plot string implemented at all? Question 2: The Red Mantis/Urgathoa cult want to draw attention away from the coins by creating the "Mysterious Plague Ship Incident" (MPSI). So why, oh why did they leave evidence onboard that directly lead to them? In the text that is justified as they don't expect the ship to be examined? Really? I mean, the whole MPSI was created as a red hering! It should draw attention, and the plotters had to reckon that there would be some examination of the ship. It showed the plague light when it sailed to Korvosa and some time later the whole city is getting ill - but, hey, that's not reason enough to examine the wreck, is it?
# Dr. Davaulus and his of doctors are introduced as some sinister bunch of strangers: The Guard doesn't trust them, and the text mentions it that a lot citizens don't trust them either - there are even rumors that they expect that one will get sick if one visits the doctors. So. As I know my group they won't trust them either. The doctors are somehow fishy and so my PCs will surely plan to check them. My point is: The won't need the advice found on the "Direption" to focus on Davaulus and his men. They will take action from the first moment (perhaps the second) and the Hospice is the natural first place to go (the adventure mentions this, too). And therefore I fear that they will ignore all the minor quests. Okay, I could somehow force them or to encourage them to do this or do that. But that's not the point. The point is: The Hospice is the crux, the key to the later part of the adventure. And it is right there from the beginning... That's some really unfortunate adventure design here.
Thanks guys! I think I will let Trinia start at the card number 5 und extend the chase by one or two cards. and regarding "sleep": that's a real down turner I have not thought about. Maybe I will raise Trinia to level 5 - the chase is a too beautiful idea to let be spoiled by such frigging thing like a simple spell...
I am preparing the next session of EoA, the hunt for Trinia and I am wondering if the Shingle Chase is perhaps too short? I mean, Trinia starts on the card. The SCs will likely try to move three cards per turn so with some good luck for them and bad luck for Trinia they got her in the thrid round. I'm not sure if my assumptions are correct, but I think the chase will be over very quickly and I am thinking about to extend the chase by adding some cards and putting Trinia not on the fourth but on the fifth or sixth. What were your experiences with chase? Are my sorrows unfounded? Thanks for your help
In "Seven Days to the Grave" there a some new spells for followers of Abbadar (both clerics and paladins) so I am wondering if there are any products with the same for those who believe in Iomedae?
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