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Great photos, as always! Nice to see Joe getting some play time with the Order.
Session sixty four was yesterday and lasted five hours. --------------------------------- The party agrees to act as couriers for the package, even though Virgil suspects that Whahar is representing the Unseen Hand, a clandestine organization known to commit bribery, blackmail, and minor acts of terrorism. The Unseen Hand is said to be run by a mysterious figure known only as Ghost. No one seems to know this person’s real name or what they look like. The party figures that they can accept the package from the Seer, and if it looks dangerous, they can go back on their word and deal with those consequences. Knowing they are likely dealing with very dangerous people, the party agrees to the task. Leaving the Red Dhabba, the party heads into the Nightstalls to find the tower of the Seer. The Seer’s storefront is unlike most others in the Nightstalls, for it is a three story tower of stone. Letting themselves inside, the party finds a dark shop filled with spell components of every kind inside delicate glass cases. Standing behind a large ledger in a figure in a deep red robe, its hands covered with thick leather gloves and its face hidden in the shadows of a deep cowl. “Greetings” says a voice from the robe, “I have been expecting you.” The party greets the Seer and tells them they are here to pick up a package for Whahar. The Seers tells them that the deal is unfortunately off, and he cannot give it to them. When asked why, the Seer tells them that the contents of the package pose a threat to his business and his livelihood. When the party displays their acumen with the magical arts (except for Rocco, of course), the Seer relents and gives them the package, telling them that he expects payment through the usual channels. The party accepts the package, a small thickly-made box secured with a heavy brass lock, putting it into Rocco’s bag of holding. As they are exiting the store, Thade gets an uncanny feeling about the Seer, and it clicks for them that the Seer is undead, and likely a lich. Glad to be out of his presence, the party heads out of the neighborhood to deliver the package. Taking an indirect route up to the inner city in case they are being followed, the party is stopped by the Zephyr Guard as they make their way through Jackal Gate. The sergeant in command activates a nearby spiritbound aluum, and after it scans the party and finds nothing, he lets the party proceed on their way. When asked why they were stopped, the sergeant informs the party that there are some criminal sorts about, and they are looking for fugitives. Rocco suspects that the guards were looking for their package, and it being in his bag of holding prevented its discovery. At the Marble Sphinx, an enormous 120 foot tall sandstone statue, the party decides to open the box before leaving it at the Sphinx. Thade casts magnificent mansion and enters with Rocco while Mym and Virgil keep watch outside. Rocco uses his skeleton key to open the lock and Thade uses one of the mansion’s servants to open the box. When nothing explodes nor comes out of the box, it is discovered that inside are three sapphires with a mild enchantment about them. Thade deduces that these are fake control gems for the spiritbound aluums operated by the Zephyr Guard. Deciding that the contacts are harmless, if illegal, they close up the box and leave the mansion, depositing the package at the badge of the Sphinx. Their task complete, they head back to the Tickled Pickle to rest, as it is now nearing dawn. At noon the following day Rocco heads back to the Red Dhabba to see if he can find Whahar, while the rest of the party continues their efforts to undermine the Scarlet Triad. In the tavern Rocco doesn’t find Whahar, but there is an envelope left for him at the bar. Inside is a gift of two grinning pugwampis, as well as a letter from Whahar. The letter congratulates the party for accomplishing the task given to them and informs them that Ghost has agreed to meet with them at the ibis fountain near the Guild of Peshmongers building, one hour before sunset. Rocco makes his way back to the Pickle and informs the party of his news, and they all set out to meet with Ghost. At the plaza the party finds a few citizens buying pesh and other drugs, but there is no sign of Whahar or anyone they think might be Ghost. After a few minutes of waiting around, a pair of Zephyr Guards with aluums following enter the plaza. One of the guards has a charcoal drawing and is showing it to passersby, seemingly asking them about it. Mym sends Pavel to climb atop one of the stalls and spy on the guards. Pavel discovers that the parchment shows the face of the dark-haired Garundi woman that was the disguise of the lamia matriarch that ambushed them in the salt warehouse. One of the citizens, upon seeing the drawing, points towards the fountain where a woman is filling a jug of water. As the guards advance towards her, the woman leaves her jug and tries to slip away into the stalls. Attempting to stop this escape, the guards pull out their aluum control amulets and command the constructs to capture the woman, but instead the aluum take hold of the guards and tear them limb from limb. Several party members notice that two humans in dark clothing have their own amulets and seem to have ordered the constructs to slay the guard. The aluum then turn their attention to the plaza, rampaging through it and attacking everything in reach as the two humans who set them loose flee from the area. Leaping into action the party attacks the constructs, hoping to save the citizens and businesses in the area from further destruction. Realizing that their magic is almost certainly going to be useless against these mindless machines, the party attacks with hammers, trident and sword to bring them down. Realizing their metal parts are resistant to his attacks, Virgil concentrates on tripping the automatons as Rocco smashes them effectively with his adamantine warhammer. Mym manages to slow them down with heal spells that also revitalize her friends. Though the fists and obliteration beams fired out of the eyes of the aluum are devastating, Mym’s magic is up to the task of countering the damage dealt. Soon enough Virgil, Rocco and Thade bring the constructs down, their bodies falling apart in the ruins of the plaza. Knowing that the sapphires in their chests trap the souls of those slain by the aluum, Thade makes an effort to smash the gems into dust, freeing the souls of the occupants to speed on their way to the Boneyard. --------------------------------- This will be the last session for a month as our yearly RPG marathon is coming up. While nothing is yet set in stone for what we are going to play, it looks like I will finally be running Starfinder for the group, the first time I have done so despite owning every hardcover for the system and many of the adventures. As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
Session sixty three was two weeks ago and lasted five hours. --------------------------------- Bshez throws her javelin at Thade, striking him squarely in the chest. She then drinks a potion of flying and flies up to Rocco atop the pillar. The Blood Blades then charge into the fray and begin punching everyone in range with their many fists. Rocco does a backflip off the pillar, landing squarely on his feet, much to the enjoyment of the crowd. Thade hits Bshez with a polar ray that devastates her. Mym mounts her broom and flies above the melee, using her magic to support her allies. Virgil wades in with his shield held high, deflecting blows from the calikangs and dealing out his own in turn. He then leaps atop a pillar by using two calikangs to propel himself upwards and strikes down at them from above. One of the calikangs is instantly slain as Thade’s beheading buzzsaw takes off its head. He then spellstrikes Bshez with phantasmal killer, taking her out of the fight. With his last ounce of magical energy he takes a second calikang down before collapsing himself. With Bzhez and two of the Blood Blades out of the fight, it is a simple matter for the rest of the party to defeat their remaining opponents. With the fight over, the crowd erupts into cheers. The dead are removed from the arena and Bshez declares the party the victors. She then removes her armor in shame and leaves the arena, and Katapesh, forever, her head hung low in shame. In the bowels of the arenas the other gladiators cheer for the party, happy to be rid of Bshez as she was a tyrant of a guildmistress. When offered the role of heading up the guild, the party refuses, and the gladiators choose Amrah al-Jifin to lead them. Amrah vows to support the party in their determination to have the Triad’s charter revoked in the upcoming council of guilds. As the party continues influencing Katapesh’s various guilds, Mym encounters a dwarf named Whahar in the lobby of the League of Peshmongers. He introduces himself as Whahar, and urges her to meet him at a tavern called the Red Dhabba down by the docks that same evening. When Mym and the party arrive that evening, Whahar tells them that he works for someone whom he is not willing to name, that can sway the Peshmongers to their cause if they do a job for his employer. Whahar plies the party with their favorite alcoholic drinks, and tells them that all they have to do is pick up a package from the Seer in the Nightstalls and deliver it to the Marble Sphinx within twenty four hours. The party has many questions for Whahar, and does not seem to entirely trust his intentions. --------------------------------- As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
There's a customer service portal? You learn something new every day.
Session sixty two was last month and lasted four hours. --------------------------------- The party takes Exavisu to the Jeweler’s Guild building, where she thanks them for freeing her and her fellow gnomes. She rewards the party and vows to do everything she can to have the guild charter for the Scarlet Triad revoked. When asked about what she was doing while in captivity, she tells them that she was locked in a magical forge, working to reconstruct a magical golden sphere, though she does not know its purpose. The party realizes that this could be an orb of gold dragonkind, an artifact that can be used to dominate gold dragons. Rocco recalls that he saw a shard of such an orb embedded in the chest of the red dragon Kyrion, whom he helped rescue from the cult in the Mwangi Expanse. The party decides they must prevent the Triad from using such a terrible weapon, as the destruction that can be wrought with such an artifact is immense. Back at the Tickled Pickle, the party rests and recuperates. While cleaning the perfume bottle she liberated from the vault below Bhetshamtal Estate, Thade accidentally summons from it a djinni named Palqari. When he is informed that there is a single wish remaining, Thade decides to use it to free Palqari from the bottle forever. The djinni thanks Thade for the kindness, and informs him that he will not forget the kindness. Perusing the ledger also removed from the estate’s vault, the party discovers that the Triad has been double dealing with many of the other guilds in Katapesh, and they quickly realize this proof will help them turn even more guilds against the Triad. Virgil takes the ledger to the Temple of Measured Weights, the largest church of Abadar in the city. There he shows the Garundi priest Aakif Ashad the ledger, and how the Triad is double dealing with the church of Abadar as well. Aakif thanks Virgil for the information, and informs him that the church will no longer be lending money to the Triad, though they cannot take direct action against the guild while their charter remains. Rocco spends a day talking to anyone who will listen, openly challenging Bshez “Sand Claws” Shak to a fight in the arena for control of the Gladiator’s Guild. When word gets back to her of Rocco’s arrogance, she finds him in a market and publicly accepts his challenge. They will fight in the arena at noon the next Toilday. When the day arrives, the party finds themselves facing off against Bshez and the four calikangs known as the Blood Blades. When Rocco refuses to come down from the pillar atop which he stands, Bshez calls him out as a coward, and urges the Blood Blades to slay all of the challengers. The crowd cheers for the hometown favorite as the fight for control of the guild begins! --------------------------------- We had a break of six weeks between sessions before this game, due to the holidays and several life challenges among the group, so it took me some time to write up my session notes. We have had one more session since this one that I still need to type up, so that will be posted as soon as I can get around to it. As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
I love the recap. Amazing photos as always! My group will be doing our third annual weeklong RPG marathon next month. Your reports here are what inspired me to organize it for our group. Thanks for the inspiration!
Pawns are back, baby! Woo!
Will the battle cards be remastered as well?
I am guessing a centaur's speed won't be too much higher than bipedal ancestries by default, but there will be some ancestral feats that will allow them to really get moving.
Yes, indeed. Stopping this book before reaching the end would be a mistake. And do try to forget that horrible Will Smith movie exists.
It would be great if I could load interactive maps into the graphics editor and delete the label, grid, and secret door layers, but I haven't been able to thus far. Yeah, because of this the interactive maps files are basically useless to me. I edit the extracted images to have secret doors and the fog of war as separate layers that I enable visiblity on as the party detects them (for secret doors) or erase as the party moves about the map (for the fog of war). If Paizo produced and sold ready-made maps like this they'd make a killing. 0one Games already does this (quite well, too!), but the maps are of course original and not tied to existing adventures.
I also use Foxit, and to grab the maps I don't use the interactive maps file but instead the AP files. I just use the Select Text and Image tool, click the map I want and right-click + copy and then paste into GIMP. I use GIMP to make any changes I may need and I am ready to go for use at the table.
Soon? Unlikely. A year or more down the road? Almost certainly.
Session sixty one was on Saturday and lasted five hours. --------------------------------- The lamia matriarch’s body shifts and changes, her legs fusing and becoming serpentine in shape as her true snake-like form is revealed. She also grows in size, towering above the party as she casts a spell on Rocco, his weakened mind unable to resist her magic. Rocco immediately releases her and leaves the building, magically compelled to abandon the fight as well as his friends. Now seeing their opponent’s true form and power, Virgil and Thade decide that with Mym and Rocco not able to support them, this fight is beyond their capacity to triumph. Thade traps the lamia with a maze spell, allowing Virgil to seize this opportunity to disengage and fall back, following Rocco out of the area. After just a few seconds pass, however, the lamia returns, and Thade is all alone with her. He decides to escape the best way he can, using dimension door to travel back to the Tickled Pickle, hoping his allies can regroup with him there. As Virigil makes his way out of the docks, he sees the lamia magically fly up through the opening on the roof of the salt warehouse, hissing at him as he escapes to safety. The group has evaded her for now, but fear they have not seen the last of her. In the morning, Rocco has recovered from the dosage of nightmare salt poison administered to him by the lamia. Mym travels to see Hahcuss at his home, and is able to use her magic to cure him of the nightmare salt as well. Hahcuss is immensely grateful to Mym, and assures her that his vote in the upcoming council meeting will be against the Scarlet Triad. With his vote, and the vote of the carpenter’s guild, whom Virgil is able to finally get on board, the party almost has the requisite number of votes to revoke the Triad’s charter. That evening the auction of Exavisu and other captured gnomes at Bhetshamtal estate is scheduled to take place during the Triad’s soirée, so the party spends much of the afternoon in preparation. Their plan is to use the greater hats of disguise they all recently acquired for this event to sneak into the party as caterers. They will then move about the estate separately to see if they can quickly locate the captives, planning on evading pursuit and changing their appearance again with the hats should they be discovered. Using the tradesman’s entrance at the rear of the estate, the party talks their way past the guard on duty and enters the grounds. Virgil and Mym grab drink trays from the kitchen and head into the garden to mingle among the guests, seeing who is present and listening in on conversations. Thade heads down into the basement while Rocco scouts out the first floor, pretending to be picking up discarded dinnerware for return to the kitchen. In the garden, Virgil and Mym take note of the guests arriving. All of them are wealthy though none of them are familiar to the party. Virgil checks to see if there are hidden guards about, but all he finds are the plainclothes ones on patrol, several of which have large hounds on leashes. Mym eavesdrops on conversations and gathers some gossip as the guests all have something negative to say about someone else at the event. Rocco finds nothing of note on the first floor so he heads upstairs. There he is challenged by a lone guard but his magical disguise allows him to convince the guard of his noble intentions. Finding nothing else of note upstairs other than some very fine indoor plumbing, he checks the attic. Here he finds nothing but dust, but realizes this would be a good spot to hide out if he were to be pursued. As he is exiting he once again is stopped by the guard, but he is able to talk his way out of the situation and is escorted off the floor and back into the foyer. In the basement Thade comes across two drunk guards leaving a room, soon followed by a servant adjusting her skirts. When she makes eye contact with Thade she blushes and hurries upstairs after the guards. Finding the wine cellar, Thade empties six vials of giant wasp venom into an equal number of bottles of fine wine, confident that this private stock of bottles will not kill anyone unaffiliated with the Triad. Behind a locked door in one remote part of the basement, Thade finds a cell, wherein three gnomes are chained up. He uses his magic to communicate this with Mym, who finds the rest of the party above ground and informs them that they are ready to extract the captives. Rocco heads to the kitchen to watch over the stairs leading into the basement while Virgil heads back out to the garden where the guests are, to signal Bishop of the Steel Falcons to create a distraction to cover the party’s exfiltration of the gnomes. Mym heads into the basement to assist Thade and notices one of the doors in the basement is likely the estate’s vault. Thade unlocks both the cell door and the chains securing the gnomes to the wall and uses his magic to disguise them as best he can. Since the dogs in the garden are no doubt trained to pursue escaped slaves, he gives them a scent of rotten potatoes and the gnomes and are hidden in large potato sacks. Mym and Rocco get them upstairs and into the kitchen, ready for Virgil to send the signal. As Virgil does so, several explosions are heard at the front gate as the Steel Falcons uphold their end of the plan. The guards in the garden all rush to the front gate and a battle ensues. Seizing this opportunity Mym, Rocco and Virgil get the gnomes out of the rear gate by talking their way past the guard, with Virgil now disguised at the head guard. With the gnomes safe, they make their way away from the estate with haste. Alone in the basement, Thade breaks into the vault and quickly loots it of everything valuable that he can find. Most importantly, he finds a ledger bearing the Triad’s sigil. Realizing this could be of invaluable assistance in convincing the remaining guilds to turn against the Triad (particularly the Aspis Consortium), he makes himself invisible and makes his exit out of the rear kitchen door. He is greeted by a sign of chaos, with guests running all about to escape the battle at the main gate and the head guard yelling at the rear gate guard, who is very confused as he just saw his leader leaving out of this very gate not one minute prior. As Thade emerges several of the hounds pick up his scent, but he activates his wings and flies up into the sky, leaving behind chaos and confusion. --------------------------------- The players were amazed that they made it out of the estate without combat, but they prepared well and aced all of their rolls, so their awareness was at zero. Well done for them. I plan on having the lamia matriarch make another appearance as she will now track down the party, though they have now leveled up and will be better preapred for when they face her again. She will also continue to poison guildmasters the party has swayed to their side. Maybe I will have her attack the party when they are otherwise engaged in combat, or perhaps have several minions with her if they track her down. I will need to think it over. This is the last session of the year for us as the holidays are coming up, so we won't play again until some time in January. As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
That table is on the GM Screen, or maybe the Advanced GM Screen. Either way I have easy access to it in my games.
I want to use a warhammer to Strike this teacup on the table. What AC do I need to make my attack roll against? I most definitely would not have a player make a roll for this, unless there was some circumstance that made it possible to fail.
Do you expect perfection on day one? If not, when? And why not release errata as soon as it is known it is needed?
That sort of incident is remarkably common in life. It's the entire premise of Three's Company.
Session fifty nine was yesterday and lasted four hours. --------------------------------- Over the next several days, the party continues to work against the Triad. Thade uncovers information regarding the Triad extorting the Farmer’s Union and that the Triad has failed to protect several caravans as they were ambushed in the desert on their way to bring the harvest into Katapesh. Thade also meets with the gnome farmer Milminik who is drowning his woes in a local pub. After plying him with several pints of Katapeshi Light, Thade is able to extract enough information from Milminik to determine that he was a survivor of the caravan ambushes, which took place at an oasis a day’s travel outside of the city. Milminik reveals that the caravan was ambushed just after sunset by large beetle-like creatures that spat fire and were capable of biting a camel in half with a single snap of their jaws. Thade realizes that these creatures are most likely Xotanispawn, and are immune to fire but are susceptible to light. He plans to use this information later when the party makes their way out to the oasis to deal with these creatures. Before Thade leaves, Milminik asks Thade to give those creatures a good kicking for him and his slain camel Bessie. Virgil makes contact with the Steel Falcons, a branch of the Eagle Knights of Andoran. These elite warriors are similar in nature to the Bellflower Network, whose mission is to free those held in bondage. This unit is in town to strike against the Scarlet Triad during their upcoming auction. Virgil’s Steel Falcon contact, going by the codename Bishop, informs him that the auction is happening at Bhetshamtal estate in three days' time. Bishop promises to aid the party in a raid to rescue the captives slated to be sold at this event. Rocco spends time with the Guild of Bakers and Butchers, sharing with them several recipes for dwarven bread that he made in his youth, as well as learning a few new recipes himself. Slowly but surely he is able to influence their members towards ending their support for the Scarlet Triad, and soon enough he will have their guildmaster’s promise to vote against the Triad at the upcoming Council of Guilds. On her way to meet with a member of the Guild of Poison Makers, Mym receives a letter bearing a seal from the Order of Alchemists and Potion Makers. The letter requests a meeting between her and the guildmistress Okztrok. Ignoring it for the time being, Mym makes her way to the Nightstalls to the store owned by Guur the Poison Maker. Shortly after she makes her way into the store, Guur recognizes Mym as the witch who has been causing so much commotion in the guild community lately, and tells her he cannot sell anything to her. As she is ushered out politely but forcefully, Mym asks why she is being treated this way. Guur tells her to speak with guildmaster Hahcuss, who can be found at the Tainted Leaf, a ways down the street. Making her way into the Tainted leaf, Mym sees it is a hookah lounge, decadently filled with cushions and silks. In the low candlelight, she is directed to a rear area where a Garundi man lounges, drinking alcohol from a salt-rimmed glass as two naked women partake of the hookah in the center of the chamber. Dismissing the women, he introduces himself as Hahcuss Hrann, guildmaster of the Guild of Poison Makers, and invites Mym to join him. From Hahcuss, Mym learns that Okztrok was poisoned, and some in that guild think she had something to do with it. Insisting that she is innocent, Mym convinces Hahcuss that she had nothing to do with the poisoning, and proposes that someone took advantage of her meeting with the guild to pin the assassination attempt on her. Hahcuss vows to investigate the matter himself, with the full power of his guild behind him. Hahcuss asks her to give him two days to find out what he can about this poisoning. Before heading back to the Tickled Pickle, Mym goes to see Okztrok, who is currently deathly ill from some kind of poison, and is barely clinging to life with the aid of Doctor Remie. The good doctor is unable to determine what kind of poison is affecting Okztrok, and it takes all of her medical skill to keep the patient alive. Mym is able to use her magic to determine that the poison used is nightmare salt, an extremely powerful poison used by only the most skilled of poisoners. With the doctor’s aid, Mym is able to extend Okztrok’s life for one more night, and vows to return in the morning with magic to cure her. True to her word, Mym returns in the morning at first light and uses her magic to remove the poison from Okztrok’s system. Though still weak, Okztrok is able to recall a bit of what happened before she fell ill - she had her normal meal of djamet, a stew of chicken, tomatoes, onion, and strong spices, served with salted flatbread. She slept poorly and awoke suddenly from a nightmare in which a dragon had set the bedroom on fire. Nightmares since have consistently involved deserts, heat shimmers, fire, and dangerous beasts. Mym is able to determine that there was an unknown cook in the guild’s kitchen that day, a middle-aged Garundi woman of generic appearance. Vowing to find this likely poisoner, Mym heads back to the Tickled Pickle to reunite with the party. Deciding to next take care of the Xotanispawn that ambushed the caravan at the oasis, Thade uses teleport to take the party there magically. Assuming that the creatures won’t make an appearance until nightfall, Virgil deploys the gourd home to provide some shelter from the sun, and the party settles in to ambush the ambushers. --------------------------------- We missed two scheduled sessions due to scheduling conflicts as well as sickness, but we are still on track to get through the rest of this adventure path. The holidays coming up are sure to cause some more issues, but we will get there eventually. Six weeks between sessions makes things hard to remember, but then that is partly why I type up my notes that end of getting posted here. This was another session without combat, which I believe makes four so far. It was also our shortest session of the campaign, and this is likely to be the norm going forward as circumstances have changed for some of the players, and with two of them having a one hour drive to reach my house, this is about the shorest we can go without feeling the time spent driving isn't worth it. As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
Recovery Checks: Critical Success Your dying value is reduced by 2.Success Your dying value is reduced by 1. Failure Your dying value increases by 1 (plus your wounded value, if any). Critical Failure Your dying value increases by 2 (plus your wounded value, if any). I fail to see how the above can be interpreted any way other than adding your wounded value when failing a recovery check. The same goes for when you take damage when dying and wounded. Some folks point to the conditions section to suggest there is ambiguity, but that section explicity states it is not complete, and to refer to the page where I got those lines for the rest of the rules. Also, even if it was true that the condition section is ambiguous (it's not), the rule about conditions not stacking is a general rule, and the rule above is a specific rule. Specific overrides general.
This has been asked before, and they're unlikely to answer for legal reasons. Basically if you're not charging money for it, you're fine as Paizo looks the other way, but they cannot explicitly say it is ok as strictly speaking it is not. But if you're not making money off of it, then no one cares. See the numerous AP Community Created Content threads on these forums remaining active for years as a reference. Here is the thread for Age of Ashes that you may find useful.
Conditions not stacking is a general rule. Adding your wounded value when failing a recovery check is a specific rule. Specific overrides general.
Intertesting, as I don't think I have ever played in a game that didn't have house rules.
Your maps are always so good looking. Well done!
None of it until my current campaign ends, which will likely be sometime next Spring. By then I will have had time to digest it and see what I like and what I do not.
If November shipping starts next week, we should have a shipping thread by now.
A battle is about to begin, excitement rises - and the game grinds to a halt, for rolling dice and bookkeeping, excitement cools down. I simply do not grok this. How many people are in the party? Does the GM roll for every creature individually? I have four players in my party who roll physical dice and I use Combat Manager to manage the combat. The app rolls for all of the creatures individually and then I ask the players what they got, plug in their numbers, sort the results and we're off in about twenty seconds.
I didn't read the entire thread, but the OP not valuing removing an action from an enemy is fundamentally misunderstanding the combat system in this game. Winning the action economy is one of the best ways to swing fights in your favor. As a GM, one of the most debilitating things for me in a fight is for one of the creatures I am running to be unable to use its cool three-action ability because it was hit with slow. This is doubly true when the creature is a solo boss, where it is already behind in the action economy.
Session fifty eight was on Saturday and lasted five and a half hours. --------------------------------- The following morning the party goes to see Maz Loturo, the auctioneer who sold Mekrem’s goods. Thinking he is in on the actions taken against Mekrem, they magically disguise themselves as Triad agents and claim they are there to collect the goods from Mekrem’s store. Talking smoothly, Thade is able to take a look at Maz’s record book and stealthily tear a page out. From this stolen page the party learns that the goods were sold at a steep discount to two individuals named Weyir and Aanam al-Jebir. A brief chat with Krystara confirms that they are Triad enforcers who can frequently be found gambling poorly at the Golden Scarab. That night at the Golden Scarab, the party takes some time to indulge in gambling. Rocco wins playing Knick Tickle while Mym tries her hand at The Stump. Virgil takes up a position at the bar while Thade moves about the crowd, looking for Weyir and Aanam. When Virgil decides to gamble on a game of Knivesies, Mym draws the ire of security when she casts guidance on the participant Virgil was betting on. This causes a stir but she is able to evade the guards and hide out at the bar. When Virgil scopes out a staircase leading to the basement, the party pays an entrance fee and is let downstairs. In the basement Thade decides to participate in the Jackal Box after seeing another contestant being torn to shreds by the wild animals. He is easily able to cross the pit without being bitten and collects his winnings. In the final chamber of the basement a game of Zombie Melee is about to begin. The party wages on the older, smaller contestant facing off against the shrouded newcomer. Both necromancers raise the corpses piled on a dais between them, and when the dust settles the newcomer is victorious. As they collect their winnings, they notice a pair arguing behind the losing contestant, and realize it is Weyir and Aanam. Seizing the opportunity the party quickly gets in their face and confronts them about their actions against Mekrem. Realizing they are outmatched, Weyir soon confesses to acting on Jelek’s command to ruin Mekrem’s reputation. Under threat of severe pain at the hands of the party, the pair of Triad enforcers agree to confess their deeds to the Guild of Anvillers in the morning. Later in the week the party decides to participate in the gladiatorial games at the arena. After being told the rules and signing paperwork absolving the Guild of Gladiators of any responsibility should they meet with death or dismemberment, the party faces off against the creature known as the Duneshaker. It is a gargantuan creature that was captured out in the depths of the desert, and though it is a fearsome opponent the party manages to take it down. With the creature defeated the party collects their purse (along with some money kicked in by other gladiators who lost comrades to the Duneshaker) and are now members of the Guild of Gladiators. They plan to challenge guildmaster Bshez “Sand Claws” Shak for control of the guild later in the month if she will not vote against the Triad at the upcoming council. --------------------------------- I thought the fight against the Duneshaker would be tougher for the party, but since this is the only fight the party had in the session they made good use of their Hero Point cards to reduce some of the damage taken by them. Thade using haste on the party greatly helped with dominating the action economy in the fight. One standout moment was when Virgil, after Mym cast wind walk on him, mimed running up the back of the creature to appear to ride it. I ruled this a great way to pander to the crowd, and he spent the last few rounds of the fight atop it like a cowboy at a rodeo. As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
As Cori mentioned above, Adventure Path #200 is set in and around Sandpoint. It's a special 200-page volume too, so there'll be a lot of Sandpoint and Varisia there. 200 pages for the 200th issue? Nice.
To mimic lair actions in Pathfinder 2nd Edition, customize the creature to give it abilities that interact with the lair around it. I think a hazard would be a better way to emulate 5e Lair actions.
Session fifty seven was on Saturday and lasted four and a half hours. --------------------------------- The party heads out to Katapesh with Satla leading the way. Though the trip should only take four days, a sandstorm impedes their progress and they don’t arrive until six days have passed. Fearing the Triad has already reached the city and registered Benneb as a slave, Satla decides to head straight to one of her local contacts after guiding the party to her friend’s inn, The Tickled Pickle, run by the orc Tharg. Tharg sets the party up in several rooms and tells them that any friend of Satla is welcome in his inn as long as they desire. Satla and Thade head into the Lower City district known as the Nightstalls, where Satla’s contact Krystara runs a perfume pavilion. Not entirely sure that Krystara can be trusted not to give up the party’s presence and intentions to the Triad, Thade magically disguises himself and enters Krystara’s Emporium to see if he can get some information out of Krystara. After buying some expensive perfumes he is able to discreetly learn that not only has the Triad brought Benneb into the city, but they have also captured the guildmaster of the Jeweller’s Guild, a gnome named Exavisu Kerndallion. Thade also learns that the gnomes are likely to be held in a secure location, and will be auctioned off later in the month. The party will need to act decisively if they are to prevent the gnomes from being purchased and moved out of the city, and the auction represents the best opportunity to do so. Once the gnomes are safe the party will destroy the Triad’s reputation and by working to get their guild charter revoked at the Council of Guilds later in the month. With just three weeks to go until the next council, they do not have much time to waste. The next day the party split up to handle various tasks. Rocco spends some time with members of the guild of Street Sweepers and Dung Carters, helping them cart their loads around the city and subtly influencing them away from the Scarlet Triad. Thade returns to Krystara and is able to build up a connection with her, giving him a greater chance of success to navigate Katapesh’s political climate in the future. Mym spent the day shopping for rare formulae but was unsuccessful. Virgil heads to the Gilded Shell, a store run by the master smith Malthus Feyhew. There he upgrades some of his weapons and also inquires about procuring arms for use by the Bellflower Network back in Kintargo. Virgil also seeks out another member of the Fraternal Order of the Anvil, one Mekrem Oagli of the SIlver Ewe. It turns out Mekrem’s been cast out of his guild, and he suspects Jelek Jaziman of the Scarlet Triad is responsible. Virgil agrees to help him out with this and vows to return that night with the rest of the party to investigate. That night the party heads to the Silver Ewe to see if they can help Mekrem clear his name. Surely if they are able to find evidence of Jelek’s misdeeds this will sway the Fraternal Order of the Anvil to vote against the Triad. Magically disguised as Zephyr Guards, they enter with a key provided by Mekrem and find nothing but scraps of paper and graffiti-covered walls. Noticeably they find no evidence of any dangerous ores being stored or worked here, which is one of the charges that were leveled at Mekrem when he was ousted from his guild. --------------------------------- I believe this was the third session of the campaign that featured no combat. The players really seem to be getting into the downtime activites available to take down the Triad, and I am eager to see what they do next session. As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
There is an opportunity to use Art Lore in one part of the adventure, and the adventure calls out a DC for the check. Maybe you just missed this part?
Session fifty six was on Saturday and lasted four and a half hours. --------------------------------- Thade is able to determine that these creatures are uthuls, evil elementals of wind and lightning that are native to the material plane. The remaining two uthuls are dispatched without much trouble as the party is largely able to dodge their electrical attacks, and the party investigates the house from which the civilians fled. Inside they find evidence that the civilians were holed up in here for some time, but were desperate to leave as they had run out of food and water. Deciding to head towards the largest building in town, the party collects the corpse of the slain elf and heads back out into the storm. They make it to the building without issue, and are relieved to enter the large building, safely out of the wind-driven sand. Inside they are greeted by Satla Kivarn, soukmaster of Finderplain. She explains to the party that FInderplain has been beset by an unnatural sandstorm for more than a week, and she is getting desperate as the refuge they are in is running critically low on food, water and medical supplies. Mym offers to help the wounded and provides what food and water she can with her magic. Satal implores the party to help them out by finding supplies in the granary on the other side of town, as well as seeing if any survivors are still out there, as the last few she sent out have not returned, and she fears the uthuls and worse have slain them. Heading out to the granary, the party hears a distant howling in the wind, an ominous sound. When they arrive at the granary they are able to easily find a large quantity of supplies. Using a combination of muscle and magic, they are able to get much of it back to Satla, though Mym loses some in the driving wind and does not go back for it for fear of being lost in the storm. With their immediate needs for sustenance fulfilled, Satla asks the party to now see if they can locate any survivors out in the town and bring them back to her. She points them in the direction of Royal Rise, where High King Narvimelbs has likely holed up with a large amount of supplies. Once again braving the storm, the party find their way to Royal Rise, which despite its grandiose name is little more than a few small homes awkwardly combined into a single compound with makeshift walls surrounding a simple courtyard. Knocking on the door of what seems to be the most likely residence for a “king” they are soon welcomed into a dimly-lit home by an older-looking gnome who quickly disappears into a back room. After a moment he re-emerges, this time wearing a stately ermine robe many sizes too large for him, and seats himself upon a wooden chair badly and incompletely painted in gold. He introduces himself as High King Narvimelbs and welcomes the party into his “kingdom.” Not quite sure what they were expecting, but knowing that it wasn’t this, the party is unimpressed, and asks the king if he has any supplies he can provide to Satla. He says all he has is a bit of alcohol, and tells the party he will return to Satla with it if they can match him in drinks. Thade steps up to the challenge, and manages to swallow the very watery beer, impressing the king enough to convince him to return with them. On the way back to Satla, the howling is once again heard, and this time Thade is able to identify its source: a wendigo. Normally found only in the arctic, Thade is not quite sure what such a beast is doing this far south, but suspects it is the source of not only the missing citizens but also the storm itself. Wendigos are known for causing unnatural weather, as well as tormenting mortals with hunger and starvation before cursing them with cannibalism and turning them into a wendigo also. Should they encounter the wendigo, they will have to kill it to end the supernatural storm and free the town. Satla shows the party to one of her citizens, a gnome named Eloisil who is in the infirmary not doing very well. Upon examination, Mym determines that Eloisil is likely a victim of the wendigo, as he has a fever and is uninterested in any of the food they brought back with them. Using her magic Mym is able to restore his health and remove the curse, for which Eloisil is immensely grateful. For a third time they head out into the storm, this time to Bluemarket to find some survivors. Upon arrival they see a light in an inn called the Stove and Cupboard. Inside they find desperate survivors, and learn that the wendigo is likely in the area, from the survivors' descriptions of a towering horned man with glowing eyes. Deciding that these civilians cannot make it back to Satla with such a beast in the area, the party heads outside to offer themselves up as bait, hoping to lure the creature into an ambush. Sure enough, as soon as Thade steps outside, he spies the creature atop a nearby building, from which it unleashes one of its terrifying howls. Though the party is not phased, the civilians in the inn cower in fear and are about to run for their lives. Rocco immediately fires arrows at the creatures as it flies down to meet them, grabbing Thade in one of its immense claws. Virgil charges it to free his compatriot and Mym blasts it with her magic. Thade escapes with dimensional assault and attacks it with his chain. Before the creature can recover, Thade lands a devastating blow with a disintegrate spellstrike, staggering the creature. It grabs Thade and attempts to fly away with him, but he resists the creature’s magic and Mym slashes it with her cold iron claws and Rocco bashes it with his cold iron warhammer. Before it can escape it dies, and the party notices an immediate lessening of the storm. The party marvels at the ease with which they have defeated the terror of Finderplain, and escort the civilians back to Satla. After resting with Satal and her people for the night, the next morning they get dire news: the Scarlet Triad was in town overnight and appears to have taken a local merchant of antiquities after ransacking his store. Satala offers up camels for the party if they can track down the Triad members and return the merchant safely to them. The party agrees and decides to head out after the Triad immediately, hoping to catch them before they can reach their apparent destination - the sprawling metropolis of Katapesh. --------------------------------- Due to several vacations, my anniversary and a general inability to get the group together, it was six weeks between sessions, but we are back at it again, though we will miss our next scheduled session due to the Labor Day holiday. The fight with the wendigo went far faster than I anticipated, mainly due to Thade landing a critical hit with his spellstrike disintegrate. He dealt 168 damage to the wendigo, more than half of its HP in a single blow and the most damaging single attack in the campaign so far. After that all it could do was try to grab his and escape, but he made his saving throws (having a liberator in the party also greatly helps with PCs being grabbed and such) and it died soon after. Such is life. As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you may be in the minority in enjoying 5e's Legendary Actions. Indeed. If I could only change one thing about 5e as a player, it's legendary actions/saves. Those are the worst.
He was great as The Spleen.
Yeah, a block or ignore function would be very nice. I don't get into it with folks here, but some here do. There are some regular posters here it is simply not worth engaging with, even if I agree with their position, because they simply will not let it go unless forced to by a moderator. I'd really rather not see all of that nonsense over and over again.
At 22.5 MBs it's the smallest of the rulebook line of PDFs. Treasure Vault is six times its filesize at 141 MB.
Fortunately, I do get to trade off with Gamer Girrl. Maybe you can do what my group does and alternate systems? I am in a group that plays 5e one week and then plays in my P2 game the next. We have been alternating since the P2 playtest (coming up on five years soon) and it works for us. It means campaigns take longer, but the other GM and I are far less likely to become burned out. If the other GM doesn't want to play P2, do they need to be included? Maybe they would appreciate having every other session off? At its largest my group consisted of seven people, and not everyone played in every game.
Run them through the Beginner Box and it sells itself.
Any plans on a working phone number for customer service?
Session fifty five was on Saturday and lasted five hours. --------------------------------- Continuing down the same passage, Rocco finds himself at the entrance to a round chamber, with another passage leading off to his right. The walls are adorned with a mural of an elven life, from birth, through adulthood and to old age and death. Suspecting this is not a normal room, Rocco calls for Thade to come check it out. Thade’s magical senses detect magic in a staff leaning against the far wall, and he thinks the room, and possibly the staff, is haunted. Thade asks Mym to assist, so he sends her spider Pvel into the room, and through him is able to suppress the haunt with an occult invocation. The party takes the staff without issue and hurries down the new passage into the next chamber. In the next chamber Rocco spies the exit portal, but something is off about it. It is currently active, when all the other portals they have encountered thus far have been inactive when found. Also, he can see a twilight desert landscape in the portal, whereas previous ones showed only a gray mist when active, and there is sand in this room at the base of the portal, having apparently been blown into the way station by the desert wind. He fires an arrow into the portal and sees it disappear into the desert. Deciding it is safe, he grabs a handful of sand and moves to throw it into the portal. However, as he approaches, he disappears into the sand and something hiding there engulfs him! Moving quickly, the rest of the party comes to Rocco’s aid, with Thade firing off spells at the now-discovered creature made of sand. Virgil steps up and attacks with his machete, and Mym uses her magic to support her allies. Rocco manages to escape from inside the creature before it can consume him, and though the creature blasts the party with great gouts of sandy breath and lands mighty blows with his sandy fists, they manage to slay the thing before it can do more harm to them. After Mym patches up their wounds, they step into the portal, deciding against exploring the rest of the way station in case there are more guardians like this sand creature. On the other side of the portal, the party finds themselves not in a desert but instead in a burning hellscape. All around them a town is aflame, with smoke choking their lungs and the screams of wounded and dying civilians filling their ears. To their horror, they soon realize they are in Breachill, and the keep they now call home has been destroyed as a volcano erupted from underneath it. A cloud of ash pours out of the volcano, covering the sky from horizon to horizon, swirling over the town in unnatural patterns. Virgil leaps into action immediately, heading into a nearby burning building to lift some fallen beams off of a trapped man. With the man wounded, Virgil leads him to an open spot in a nearby plaza and heads off into the smoke to seek out more people in need of help. Thade uses his cold magic spells to extinguish several fires nearby, growing his wings and flying up into the air to get a better vantage point of what is going on and to ensure his friends are not in immediate danger. Mym heads to the plaza where townsfolk are gathering, and tends to their wounds with both her magic and healing kit. Rocco climbs down from the building he found himself atop of and tries to kick in a door to help some people trapped on the other side, but the thick wooden door refuses to give way to his boot. The party all stop what they are doing as there is a rumble from the cloud above, and the cloud forms into the shape of a dragon and mocks the party in a voice born of thunder. It tells them they are puny mortals and shall burn with the rest of the world. Angered by this, Rocco fires an arrow into the cloud, and though the arrow strikes true, he is unsure if it had any effect other than causing another roll of thunder to boom across the town. Thade flies up into the cloud and unleashes a spellstrike into it with his magical chain, and he is sure it has some effect as he is hurled back to the ground afterwards by another explosion of thunder, his ears left ringing. Mym and Virgil continue to help folks on the ground. Angered by the arrogance of the party thinking they could hurt it, the cloud (which the party now realizes is a manifestation of Dahak) swirls down into the center of the town, and solidifies into the form of a gargantuan dragon, whose red scales eerily reflect the light emanating from the burning town all around it. Rocco fires an arrow into the dragon’s thick red hide, causing it to roar in pain and then he seeks cover behind a burning building, knowing it will soon unleash its fiery breath. Mym casts eclipse burt on the dragon, also hurting it and drawing its attention upon her. Thade joins in and uses his magic upon the dragon as well, preparing for the worst to come. Virgil raises his shield, using his battle prayer on the beast, hoping for Kazutal’s assistance in this direst of situations, though the dragon seems unconcerned by his appeal to Mother Jaguar. Tired of their feeble attempts to hinder it, the dragon unleashes a stream of fire from its mouth, enveloping the entire party even though they are scattered all around the plaza. As the fire burns their flesh, the party is thrown backwards and hears the dragon bellow in its thundering voice: “This is but the first of many devastations. Wherever you go, my fury shall follow.” As they fall to the ground the party suddenly finds themselves in a different location. Gone are the town, the screaming civilians, the volcano and cloud of ash. Instead they are in a barren desert landscape, much like the one they saw through the portal. It is after sunset and a dust storm is swirling all about them, limiting their vision and hampering their ability to move through the sand. Close by they find the Duskgate portal, canted at an angle and leaving against an obelisk rising out of the sand. At the base of the obelisk is the body of a gnome, which Rocco is able to determine has been dead for about two days, and his wounds are consistent with those suffered from falling from a great height. Thade determines that the dust storm is of supernatural origin, and that the party should seek shelter and wait it out. Though Rocco spies a town in the distance, they decide not to head towards it, fearing they can become lost too easily. Thade uses a scroll of magnificent mansion to create a shelter for them, and they proceed into it, with Virgil bringing along the body of the gnome. In the magical sanctuary, Virgil discovers some correspondence on the gnome, indicating that he was sent from the nearby town to seek help from the Pactmaster of Katapesh, hoping they can assist with the supernatural storm that has been ravaging their town for days on end. Virgil performs burial rites for the deceased gnome, and buries him in the extradimensional garden of the mansion, as that is the best he can do for the gnome in this situation. Once this is done, the party rests and recovers from their recent ordeal. The following morning, the party discovers the sandstorm is still raging, so they decide to try their luck by heading towards the town they can occasionally glimpse through breaks in the storm. Reaching the town, they find its streets eerily empty, though they suspect the residents are all sheltering from the storm. Deciding to head for the largest building in town, they come across a group of gnomes and an elf fleeing from a nearby building. Deciding to investigate the danger, the party prepares to enter the building when Rocco spies a creature inside that seems to be a living sandstorm, crackling with electrical energy. The creature sees them as well and exits the building, its body erupting with a thunderous roar as lightning bolts shoot from it in every direction. Though the party is unhurt by this, the elf in the rear of the group of fleeing civilians is slain instantly. Mym responds by casting curse of death on the creature, and though it suffers greatly under the spell, Thade puts it out of its misery by scaring it to death with phantasmal killer. Before the party can celebrate their victory, two more of the same creature descend from the storm above, intent on slaying the party as well as the civilians who have disappeared into the deserted streets. --------------------------------- This was a good session, and the party succeeded on all of the tasks in the manifestation encounter, dealing 85 damage to the Promise of Fire as well as passing almost all of the skill checks to help the civilians (six total successes, but poor Rocco couldn't breach a door and had to listen to the civilians burning alive on the other side). The players immediately suspected something wasn't right about this situation when I had the manifestation go last, as one of them rolled really low on their initiative roll. This was confirmed when the fiery breath hurled them into the desert, and they now beleive this is Breachill's future should they fail in their goal of defeating Dahak. They also didn't fully explore the Duskgate Way Station, which is unusual for them, although they are begining to more and more not fully explore places. Let's hope they don't miss too much more in the future, as they have already missed out on some powerful magic by failing perception checks (namely in the Temple of All Gods last book). As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
Loving the photos once again!
Interesting. They are not linked above under the previous link (left side) nor did I get them in an order even though I should have. Also, the next scenario link (right side) from 5-16 goes to 6-03, skipping these same scenarios. I will email customer service to see if they can rectify this.
Session fifty four was earlier this month and lasted four and a half hours. --------------------------------- With the magma dragon defeated, the party collects its treasures and heads back upstairs. They take some time to explore the rooms in the temple that they had bypassed, but do not find anything of importance, so they collect the insistent door knocker that was used to gain entry and head back to King Harral. Mym hands the crown of Saggorak to King Harral, and what passes for relief crosses his skeletal face. Placing it upon his head, he crumbles into dust, along with his death knights. His armor, maul and a wand are left behind, though, so the party collects these and heads back to Kovlar. Reporting to the council of what has happened over the past several days, they are treated as heroes, a feast is consumed that evening and a new holiday is declared honoring their accomplishment. They reunite with Zol, who has been studying with Archmage Hromgar Nalruven, trying to discover more secrets of the aiudara. He tells them that he has confirmed that some portion of Dahak’s essence has been trapped in the magical portals since he was defeated by the Ekujae long ago, but his power is growing and he soon might escape if nothing is done to stop him. Borrowing a large quantity of books from Nalruven, Zol promises to discover what he can and report back to the archmage, hopefully with a solution to this apocalyptic problem. Returning to Breachill via the portals, the party spends some time reuniting with their friends who have been busy at work restoring the keep. Tendulkar has been very successful in restoring the keep, and even upgrading parts of it to a better condition than it formerly had. Jack and Chiana are still here, heading out regularly to Cypress Point to help that town rebuild from its recent destruction at the hands of the Scarlet Triad. Having rested and restored themselves, after a week has passed they once again head into the portal, this time through Duskgate. Inside they find a room dedicated to elven artifice, and and attacked by frescoes of elves that magically animate to protect the way station. The party has little difficulty in defeating these golems, remarking to themselves afterwards that they have come a long way since the first golem they faced back in the Sunset Imports warehouse in Kintargo. --------------------------------- Much of this session was spent on downtime activities once the party returned to Breachill. They all retrained some feats and Thade scribed some scrolls. I had hoped they would progress to the encounter with Dahak's manifestatrion in this session as it would be a great place to leave off, but it was not to be as we had to cut the session shorter than our usual length. Afterwards it was decided to cut all future sessions at my house by an hour, so they should last around five hours each now. This helps out not only me, but also two of my players, who drive almost an hour to reach my house, and they have young kids that get quite antsy after six hours or so at my house. As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
Baghdad, Rome, Constantinople and Alexandria didn't have dragons roaming the countryside.
Am I missing an easy fix to the ACTUAL (not virtual) table top map aspect of the hobby? How do folks deal with this? These are not necessarily mutually exclusive. I use a 40" TV in my table on which I display maps at minis scale. It works wonderfully for my games. Here is a photo of my setup. A nice thing about having a TV in the center of the table is I can play my Syrinscape music through it. The second TV behind my seat is on wheels and oriented vertically. I use this to display the initiative window from the Combat Manager app as well as show images to the players (NPCs, city-scale maps, etc.). No one else uses a computer at the table, just me, so it doesn't feel like they're playing a VTT.
In my campaign one PC was a member of the local town guard because he was on the run from his family, and the guard offered not only a cover but also a place to live far from his home city.
Agreed. I wish them luck, but these are not the games for me.
I'd vote for The Shadow over Innsmouth to be in the top three. |