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Did anyone else's group have the misfortune of letting the Magister escape? If so, what was your plan for her revenge?

There is an imp sitting on the rails of a balcony that overlooks the area below. He is on the corner where the rails begin to go down the stairs.
XXXXTT
XXSSTT
XXSSTT
XXXDTT

X= floor bellow
S = stairs
T = floor above
D = the imp sitting on the rails

Each letter reresents a 5ft square. Does moving through the bottom left S provoke?

Question: One of my players is attempting to pick up a cursed weapon without touching it. He is using a bedroll to wrap it up. The group is in combat so I wanted to make him use some sort of DC to accomplish the move. What type of DC?

The Weapon: Cursed Corrosive Shortsword of Light - Along with normal damage, it does an additional 1d6 acid damage. Curse: Every time the sword gets a killing blow it glows brighter with rage. The brightness is faint at first (5ft) but with every kill it gets brighter (5ft per kill). When the weapon lands a crit it releases its stored energy with an explosion of acid. The acid is strongest at center point and splashes outward depending on its stored strength. For example if it had 25ft of stored strength the crit explodes 5d6 at the point of impact, 4d6 at 5ft, 3d6 at 10ft...etc. A reflex save gives half damage. DC save to sheath, drop, or give up the weapon is Will 10 + Users HD + Number Stored kills.

The Situation: The group ran into a horde of zombies, eight on the ground, and twelve hanging from nooses in a large tree. APL is 5 with four players and an NPC helper. As you can imagine the rogue with the sword was going around slaying the helpless ones hanging from the trees, alas building a massive amount of "rage". Talk about fun seeing a rogue hoping not to get a crit. He says "I'm going to sheath it and use my other sword." I request a will save of 22, he fails, I tell him he has to attack with the sword, he crits in the middle of 4 zombies, two player summons, a monk, and the ranger's hawk. He passes his Reflex save and with evasion takes no damage, everything else in range dies or is in critical condition (monk 1 hp). On the ranger's turn he disarms the rogue, then the monk bull rushes him away. I tell him he has to make another Will to not go for the sword and he finally passes. Now the ranger is trying to pick the sword up using a bedroll.

As of now it's a green lightly glowing corrosive short sword. The corrosive adds 1d6 acid damage. Every time it gets a killing shot or a crit the glow gets brighter. At the time that it was available to my player it was too OP (level 1), so to try to discourage him from taking it I had an NPC tell him it was cursed. Surprisingly, four levels later, he has gotten his first kill shot with it, but not a single crit.

What I need is some good imagination on what will happen when it gets X amount of kills or crits. Or a percentage cumulative or not that activates said happening.

There is always the couple of people who say, "then why did you let him take it" so here's the story on that. They were to be saving a level 6 NPC at the time, but instead they stayed back. They are very weary of NPCs in the wild, and most of the time are over paranoid. The creatures attacking the NPC kept getting insanely lucky crits so after defeating the baddies she had low hp. They finally conversed with the NPC and the sorcerer said Eff it and magic missiled her. Luckily it was by a river so the rest of the gear was lost.

I have an all new player group that started with Skulls and Shackle's, they made it through the first book and just finished squibbing their first ship. Once they ran into their first enemy ship they felt that adventure path was too open ended and that they all agree that they want to run a more "on the rails" adventure. I gave them a list of the paths I had and Shattered Star was their choice.

They are about to hit level 5 and don't want to start fresh. So my question to people who have ran the first few books is: where can I slide them in so I don't send them through the first book all OP. Or shoulld I let them walk through everything. I want them to do a few quick ennounters to get the first two shards then maybe start book 2 off normal.

They are on their way to Magnimar now, so I have some time before they get there.

Hook wise they received a letter to head to Magnimar to help find one of the characters missing sister (Vancasterkin).

A sorcerer wants to summon a creature outside while staying safely indoors and looking out the window. Will this work?

They are hiding from multiple swarms of wasps, in case any one wanted to know.

I created this to help people with events while traveling on the ship.
Info:
- First I use http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2p54b?Naval-Combat-For-a-Whole-Party#1 for additional rules.
- I use Ultimate campaign for downtime.
- Pirates are paid a % of sold plunder each. Currently in my group some npc officers demand 5% each, while no name npc pirates get 1%. These adjust based on performance, (depending on their demands).
- moral bonuses reset after a battle.
- I use food rations. The amount of rations per day per pirate is up to the Cook or Captain. 1 per day = -1 moral. 2 per day is normal. 3 per day = +1 moral
- Added a downtime action of fishing for the cook. He makes a survival check and his outcome is the number of food rations replaced.
- 10 goods equal 1 plunder.
- When the pcs map out where they want to go I figure out how far it is in miles and this is their total Profession sailor checks they make until they get to their destination. The sailing master makes the check each morning. If he focuses on something else during the day (downtime/crafting) he doesn't get his bonus on his check. Other pcs may aid the check for +2 as a downtime action. Every 5 pirates above the ships minimum grants a +2 to Sailor checks. For each 1 below the minimum -1 to the checks.
(Example: the crew wants to go 30 miles to their next destination, they need a total of 30 profession sailor points. Day one the sailing master makes his d20 Profession Sailor roll +3 (what he is trained). Two pcs use their downtimes to help give a +4. They are running at normal capacity of 20 pirates so get no additional bonus. Best case: He rolls a 20 + 7 and they are almost there in one day. Worst case: He rolls a 1+7. So to get the 30 miles they will take 2 to 4 days.)
(Also debating on making the Shackels larger scale wise, maybe making the 50 mile scale to 100 miles. Giving more time at sea between destinations)
- It is possible to end with a negative number in their sailor check. If this happens they are lost at sea (normal rules).
- There is a 20% chance +5% per day of an event taking place. Resetting to 20% when an event happens.

Ship events.

1-2 Good Fortune
3-8 Day of Rest
9-12 Weather in your Favor
13-37 Random or scheduled encounter
38 Festival/Holiday/Occasion
39 Contamination
40 Friendly Competition
41 Unstable Mutagen
42 Duel
43 Explosion
44 Scandal
45 Outbreak
46 Spoiled Pirate
47-48 Robbery
49 Hazing Gone Wrong
50 Brawl
51 Mysterious Item
52 Drinking Contest
53 Grand Feast
54-55 Jester Fun
56-57 Uprising
58 Mutiny
59 Hearts Desire
60-61 Sweaty Pox
62-63 Wild Night
64-65 Prosperity
66-67 Infighting
68-69 Lazy Worker
70-71 Small Ship Problem
72-73 Rumormongering
74-75 Food/Water Shortage
76-77 Bad Weather
78-79 Violence
80 Fire
81-82 Bad Accident
83-84 Infestation
85-86 Burglary
87-88 Rivalry
89-90 Sickness
91-92 Quitter
95-96 Escaped Animal
97-98 Entertainment ship
99-100 Roll Twice

I have been adding, taking away, and adjusting some events. You don't know how they work until you try them.

The first one is to promote the evil side. When they kill an opponent they get bonus xp for an overkill. For every 1 hp they get 10 xp. For example when a pirate submits at 2 hp and they decide to kill them, hitting them with 10 dmg and leaving them at -8hp, this gives them 80bonus xp. It seems like a lot at first but by the time they collect thousands of xp this isn't much. Plus I have 5 players so it helps not having to bump up the CR or force more random encounters.

The second is because we kind of hate rebuilding characters so we have a injury/death chart. When a character reaches 0hp they roll on it. The roll is 1d20 + heal bonus + con bonus + their current negative xp. So the bigger the hp loss the more likely the major injury or possibly death. The roll outcomes are as follows:

1 or less. Death
2-7 permanent ability loss. 2. Str. 3. Dex...etc. (loss of limb str dex, knocked out teeth Cha, poked out eye, major concussion int, wis) The amount of the loss depends on a 1d6 roll.
8-13 major ability loss. 8. Str 9. Dex...etc. (major cuts, broken bones, fat lips, black eyes) The amount of loss is 1d6. These heal slowly over time, not like normal ability point heals. These I require two Fort saves in a row to heal 1 ability point. The save is equal to 10+the ability point total loss. For example one of my players rolled and lost 6 dex. The way we played it out in story is that he got stuck in the thigh with a dagger. He attempts a DC 16 Fort save two days in a row to heal 1 dex. Once he heals the 1 point it drops to a DC 15 because he only has 5 dex loss.
14-19 minor ability loss. These are the same only they last for hours instead of days.
20 Now this one you can decide if they just replenish their hp or something like that. It's like you stared death in the face and came out unharmed. Mine I have set up so they then roll a 1d6. 1. Half health back. 2 full health. 3. Adinaline boost they get a free turn immediatly. 4. 2 free turns. 5. They get a turn with a auto crit. 6. They auto kill their opponent.
21+ nothing. Just returned hp

After they roll on the death chart they then replenish hp in the amount equal to their number of HD. For example a level 2 monk would rol 2d8.

This leaves your group open to look like pirates. Not too far in and we got a monk with a limp, a sorcerer with a disfigured nose, and a fighter with missing teeth. We are just waiting to see who gets the first pegleg or hook hand.

Here is how our first "death" went down.
Our monk was at 3hp and was hit with dagger for 6dmg putting him at -3hp. He rolled on the death chart with +2 con,+2 heal and -3 hp, he rolled an 8 giving him a total of 9. This was a major dex injury. He then was unlucky and rolled a 6 giving him -6 dex. Story wise the pirate stabbed his thigh as he was backing away tearing major ligaments. The monk then rolled his 2d8 for his hp getting a lousy 3hp back. The fighter was up next and crit the pirate for 10dmg leaving him at -7 and gainning the group 70 bonus xp to split.

So, not thinking ahead I gave my group a Bag of Holding that they raided from the Man's Promise. For their last night activity they got Grok drunk and robbed the crap out of the quartermaster shop. They successfully stashed the full bag on the Man's Promise and now it's the last morning on the ship. They are already boarding the Mans Promise and they think they are in the clear. Do I let them get away with this or how should I deal with it from here?

How does this work sense the person with snatch arrow can immediately throw the weapon back or keep it for later?

When they throw it back does it just vanish?
or
Can the wizard get hit by his own weapon?

Snatch Arrow: Thrown weapons can immediately be thrown back as an attack against the original attacker (even though it isn't your turn) or kept for later use.

Hand of Apprentice: As a standard action, you can make a single attack using a melee weapon at a range of 30 feet. This attack is treated as a ranged attack with a thrown weapon.