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is there a problem with late mail again?

[spoiler] Ok, so the party was doing "ok" until the fight with vanthrus- then he activated his pearl and farshore was infected by the savage tide.
Now, the pcs have invested alot into the city- my wife is really bummed. i expect the next session to play out like a zombie movie- with the party looking for survivors- then heading for the only whole ship.

How long until the island mainland is consumed by madness? with birds and fish in the area of the bttle exposed it should be pretty quick.
how many miles a day should it travel across the ocean? once it hits a pocket of sea elves or other advanced sea folk- the worlds days become numbered.

The rest of the adventure seems like it will change from stop the production off the pearls- to find a way to stop a speading plague.
how would you all handle this?

one more quick question too, if the pearl is activated by blood, and then hitting a hard surface- how is it not going to be activated in the battle with venthrus? he had it in a easily accessible spot- so- the very act of fighting, and dying will make it likely to activate

Ok, so I am 1 week away from the invasion (real time) and I think I have a cool idea.
As you know, I have had major problems with the fights tactics.
so, I figured out another option that Venthrus and crew moght use- what if he stages the abduction of an olman princess, then aided by the victimized villages warriors- attacks the big olman village? now, he not only gains allies- but farshore loses allies. Then, venthrus waits- sends an emmissary to farshore to negotiate surrender ( venthrus discovers that lavinia is here) and creating a marine blockade. Meanwhile lavinia wins the election and begins discussing options when the emmisary returns...they will lift the blockade if lavinia is surrendered. SO, public interest swings to hand her over (led by maravanchi) and lavinia is taken away.

Now, as soon as the party was able to- they teleported to sasserine and the party cleric spoke with the high priest of Osprem. The church agreed to send 200 troops and lots of trade goods in exchange for a position on the council and leadership of the church (see where i'm going with this?)

so the "invasion" now becomes a war and the party will be the attacker or defender as they wish. and the ground no longer favors the party.
why would i do this? well, my party is about to head into the big fight and they are only 9th level- and it just seems like a better tactic- will maravichi use the new found soldiers to annex olman villages? will venthrus beat him to it?

what is the best way to attack a heavily fortified harbor? a siege

ok- so my players don't really have any reason to dislike the scarlet brotherhood- only 1 of them were in sasserine when the brotherhood ruled, and his father was important. ANYWAY-
I decided to toughen up the big battle in tides of dread- but I wanted to be sure that they could handle what I wanted to do- so, I created an encounter with some brotherhood monks who were led by a monk2/cleric1/evoker7. They monks are using 2 very large apelike men (hill giants) to build a structure (a mission outpost).
The monks are not as aggressive as they were written- in fact, they invited the players to eat with them.( the giants were out of sight at this point) well- my wife decided to shoot one of them...no parley, no questions, just murder.
so- monk#1 heals himself, monk#2 casts sanctuary, monk3 and the evoker are not on the scene yet.
So the monks have yet to take ANY hostile action- ( unless you are a fish)- the duskblade decides to kill monk#1. the party cleric used spellcraft to notice the priest had cast sanctuary- he held his action- so long story short- the evoker has like 6 protective spells up and is levitating above a vortex of teeth spell.
dispel magic.
the completely unbuffed evoker is chopped up badly by the vortex of teeth spell.
before he died he had an ac of like 33, reverse arrow, acid and cold resistance 10 and damage reduction- needless to say, the scarlet brotherhood now has a great dislike for the party...it was a sad, sad day.

Ok, so the party is nearing Farshore. I DM for a group of (currently) 4. I want the battle for the town to be memorable and dangerous- but as it is written- well- it really isn't that tough. A well equipped and magic heavy party should be able to handle the fight with little trouble.
So, I am thinking of making the following modifications-

The pirates will attack from land- under cover of darkness.

The Vrocks will act as ariel bombers- targeting the watch towers with flaming balls of pitch - then trying to take the children of the outpost hostage.

the golems will attack from 2 different directions , each accompanied by a few pirates.

I will change " animate dead" as a known spell to dimension door on the lead Yaun Ti ( the main goal of the body guards will be to look out for approaching enemies- when they are spotted ( if they are spotted ) they will take viper form and hide- hmmmm maybe i should give the sorcerer natural spell...
regardless- they will keep the ship 100 feet out in the water- not 30.

I suspect the party will use lots of glyphs of warding and holy storm.

before the attack- the ememy will have sent a spy or 2 ( probably olman or people from lavinia's ship) and may try to hinder the fortifications - or trying to comprimise the integrity of " the anti dinosaur wall" they may take action to hinder the olman in other ways too- like disease or dinosaur attacks.

I will also allow for the green dragon to be hired (by both parties)

The enemy in this adventure is very smart and should be played as such. they would not try to dismantle all of the buildings- because they want an outpost there. so the golems will limit their destruction to non essential buildings ( library, temple, small residences, cemetary).

By the time they fight Venthrus- the battle is mostly over- so I will not change this fight much- i think after 4 rounds, a pirate will arrive every 2 rounds to help him.

am I making the battle too tough? how are these tactics? the idea of attacking in waves when you are outnumbered is silly.
So, I see the pirates working their way into the city in a circle-

So in the flavor text of the room he is listed as having 50+ hps-
In the monster discription though, they have an average of 90+ hp.
Is this a wussie golem- or are the hp off?

You ever wonder how mimics would survive in a world with out adventurers?

I wanted to share a couple of good mimic shape ideas...

A suit of strange looking armor- it speaks softly, in dwarven- praising Moradin that finally a dwarf worthy of donning him is here- the armor is a heavy suit of half plate....after being donned- it begins to eat the hapless adventurer...

a small bridge over a deep pit, or section of broken stairs

a small boat...in deep water do you kill it or make a deal with it?

I was thinking about a mimic who is bored of the dungeon life so becomes some sort of item and joins an adventuring party.

I was kind of thinking of having a pc spread the disease into the city somehow. then playing out the trip to the docks as a race against time- taking what stragglers they can ( as long as they are not wounded)

A few months ago it was said that we would get a DDM scale poster map of a ship. we haen't heard anything else about it. it seems that adventure 3 would be the logical spot for it.
so, are we getting it- or must I sharpen something small, steel and lethal?

So, what minis are in the mag? can we get scans?

So, I started reading the second insallment- and I think I may need to use a side trek to get some more xps into my party. the fisrt section just seems NASTY! I was thinking that the Jade Ravens are captured by XXX the money they have is taken and they are being ransomed- I figured that Fiddlers Cave would fit nicely. how tough and long should i make it? I figured a mini dungeon with like 6 rooms- a few lizard men, some humans, kobalds, and a troll sorcerer. as far as treasure- i figured the troll has an ion stone that absorbs spell levels- with 3-4 spell levels left and a potion of fire breath, and maybe a +1 weapon or a wand

We started playing last night-

Dwarven LG cleric of osprem (going holy inquisitor- can't turn undead)

Dwarven Fighter LG - Member of the watch of the Azure district. (also taking cleric of osprem and eventually knight of the chalice)

Human Assassin N ( from AEG's "swashbuckler setting- cool class- works as an "investigator" for the church of osprem

Human Swashbuckler N ( friend of Lavinia from reform school)

Gnome war mage cg- ( seeking out his necromancer brother)

I had Lavinia call in a favor to the church of osprem to recieve help-the help comes in the form of most of the party
The gnome is them at the request of the church because his brother is a cleric wanted for questioning in a number of robberies and he was last seen at the same time as Venthrus.

the party almost missed the fight on the boat because they decided to stake out Sollar Varks house and favorite bar- a few rumors eventually get them to the ship...almost a TPK. I had the rhedossa thing attack thug and pc alike to keep the last few of them up.
they found the ring and immediately solved the riddle ( these guys are sharp)

I played the informant as a down on his luck gambler with a score to settle against Venthrus. after the party payed off his debts he leads them to the caves under parrot island- where Venthrus pushes him in after the party...oops.

for a bit of icky ambiance I chose to hang a zombie from a noose in the crab room- his legs picked clean by probing crabs.
I changed the Huecuva to a cleric of osprem, and created a hidden temple where a poor victim lay on an alter with his legs sewn together in a mockery of a fish, and he had been gutted like a fish as well. I left a few remnents of scrolls written in the evil gnome necromancers handwritting to show that he was tied to this mockery of a sanctification ritual of Osprem.

We left the party in this room- still looking for a way out.

Ok right now we have a LG dwarven cleric (going inquisitor) god of the seas - so I figure he is mainly a pirate hunter.

waverunner gnome war mage CG who is hunting down his necromancer brother- looking for revenge.

a dwarven fighter with no back story (thank god)

My wife wants to make an assassin from AEG supplement "Swashbuckling Adventures".
My idea is that she is part of the same inquisition as the cleric- she is there to keep him from getting his hands dirty.
(maybe she is actually part of a higher order then him- but he doesn't know it)

how do i make this work?

Has anyone given any thought to running the adventure path with an asian flair? the jungle feel suits a campaign based in Thailand as easily as one that starts in Port Royale another option would be off the coast of Madagascar. Just a thought.

LOST PLOT- Ship wrecks on beach of mysterious island, an island that is home to a secret organization bent on world domination - a monster prowls to jungle(initially believed to be a dinosaur)- invisible til it strikes, on the other side of the island, there is more people are the friends or foes? in the center of the island is a building known as "the pearl"

STAP PLOT-Ship wrecks on island- fights dinosaur. then creature that is invisible til it strikes begins destroying party as they make their was inland. they eventually find an old temple complex where pearls play a major role- because of an evil group bent on destruction of civilization...and there is another group of people on the island that may be friend-or foe.

If there is a guy named Walt, I am quitting the game forever.

SO when we were introduced to scuttleport- in the porphory house of horrors- My wife decided to claim the building as the perfect location for her new thieves guild. And the sea access it granted was perfect for her flagship- which was crafted partly out of the bones and scales of a collassal red dragon- (long story- they took it fronm a bronze dragon pirate)
Now I am sitting thinking about my wifes guild, and her red ship- and their relationship to the "red fleet". Should I modify the Red Fleet to match her old guild?