Artistic Octopus

Jeffery Keown 232's page

29 posts. 1 review. No lists. No wishlists.




So what if I replace Tetisurah with a 10th level version of Sebti? Brings her back into the game, reducing the troubles of having flying cavalry allied to the party.

Too much of a stretch?


I'm going to run this for my group when I complete it, but I thought I'd let you fine folks rip into it first.

Let me say up front that I think ERB is spinning in his grave about Akiton, and this adventure specifically. I know the text below is practially word salad, but I'm inspired.

Akiton Dawn
A CR 6 Adventure for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game
Akiton is the planet just outside Golarion’s orbit in the official PFRPG campaign setting. It is a world of deserts, four armed giants and strange red people. Details can be found in Distant Worlds.

Adventure Synopsis
In the normal course of their travels the PCs encounter a dead Akitonian. The condition of the body suggests he died of multiple stab wounds and has been thoroughly looted. After the PCs examine the body, they are pursued by ruddy-skinned Lizardfolk in the hire of the Todaro Menk. He has journeyed to Golarion to retrieve a map and a special compass. His servants believe the PCs have the items and attack at the first opportunity. In truth, the items were taken by a band of humanoids native to the region you place the adventure in. This may be Gnolls in Katapesh, Orcs in Varisia, or Kobolds in the River Kingdoms.
One of the lizardfolk will give up Todaro’s name to the PCs.

At this point the PCs can talk to Menk (he is not an unreasonable sort). He offers to call off his lizards if the PCs hand over the items. Negotiations may reveal the PCs are empty handed. He offers to pay the PCs for the return of the items. If they will but track down the true thieves, he will compensate them heavily.

The PCs follow up on the clues left at the body, and retrieve the map and compass. Once the PCs have the compass, the game can either end, or take off to Akiton. The PCs may meet with Menk, return the items and be paid in strange, hexagonal coinage, or turn on the crazy red-skinned old man and use the compass to jump to Akiton.

There, the PCs fight their way out of a horde of Lizardfolk, free some prisoners, make contact with the relatives of the dead Akitonian from the start of the module and eventually follow the map to the Temple of the Moons. The journey, overland on strange, stinking, six-legged creatures, is fraught with bad weather, monsters, warring shobahd tribes, more of Menk's lizardfolk, an insane Akitonian Kobold and a mysterious princess and some guy with white hair. Once there, ancient vats of nutrients hold horrid creatures, alchemical zombies wander the halls and a magical plague is discovered in crystal decanters.
This was Menk’s original target and the reason his employer sends agents in pursuit of the PCs. The plague can be destroyed, ending its threat to the folk of Akiton. Twisted PCs keep the vile substance, and probably spread it around the planet.

The Pcs can keep any loot they find in the temple, perhaps using it to get home...

NPC Index
Todaro Menk (NE Male Akiton Human Wizard)
Feral Git (NE Male Ratman Rogue), an associate of Menk’s
Gravel-Eye (NE Male Lizardfolk Fighter) Leader of the Lizardfolk
Sun-Rock (NE Female Lizardfolk Bard) Gravel-Eye’s mate
Rift-Walker (NE Male Lizardfolk Sorceror) Gravel-Eye’s Sorceror
A Handful of Lizardfolk loyal to Gravel-Eye.

The MacGuffin
Amulet Gate
Aura Strong conjuration (teleportation); CL 12th
Slot Neck; Price 40,000 gp; Weight 1 lb.
DESCRIPTION
This strange amulet is actually a gate to a specific location on Akiton. Similar items exist to take one to other planets.
CONSTRUCTION
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, Lesser Interplanetary Teleport; Cost 20,000 gp


I have need of 2 evil clerics of a deity of Fire and Corruption for tomorrow night. It was an improvised encounter, so I used the generic ones out of the GameMastery Guide.

The party does not have a dedicated arcane caster, just a bomb-flinging goblin and a cleric of a different fire god. (an insane fire god whose physical manifestation make you go blind or burns you to death... very Cthuloid, what with his mad dreams guiding his deluded priesthood....but I digress)

So the party is 4th level, but there are more characters than normal. 7 when they all show up for a APL of I figure about 6 or 7.

So one High Priest of about 7 and an under-priest of probably 6. The remainder of the encounter is filled out with level 1 and 2 worshippers and acolytes of various stripes.

What do you like for the two main clerics? Keep in mind the high priest masquerades as a good guy when he's not culting the joint up at night.

I don't need full builds... just ideas...I'll jump into Hero Lab later and bang out the actual statblocks.


I'm writing an outline for a game set in the 13th century. My son came across this in Wikipedia:

The Devil's Brood
Popular legends surrounding the Angevins suggested that they had corrupt or demonic origins. While the chronicler Gerald of Wales is the key contemporaneous source for these stories, they often borrowed elements of the wider Melusine legend. For example, Gerald wrote in his De instructione principis of "a certain countess of Anjou" who rarely attended mass, and one day flew away, never to be seen again. A similar story was attached to Eleanor of Aquitaine in the thirteenth century romance Richard Coeur-de-lion. Gerald also presents a list of sins committed by Geoffrey V and Henry II as further evidence of their "corrupt" origins.

According to Gerald, these legends were not always discouraged by the Angevins. Richard the Lionheart was said to have often remarked of his family that they "come of the devil, and to the devil they would go." A similar statement is attributed to St. Bernard regarding Henry II. Henry II's sons reportedly defended their frequent infighting by saying "Do not deprive us of our heritage; we cannot help acting like devils." The legends surrounding the Angevins grew into English folklore and led some historians to give them the epithet "The Devil's Brood".

I think this makes Angevins, and their kids, the Plantagenets, a bunch of Tieflings and Infernal Sorcerors. This was the easy part.

The hard bits come from placing humanoids and demihumans. I want to place Dwarves in mountain ranges, Elves in forests, Halfings in hills, no problem.

If I give the Camargue and surrounding lowlands to the orcs, am I saying bad things about the French? This is real world stuff, and simple shuffling of populations could really annoy folks.

I want to avoid offending others (I have plenty of offensive material in the Cleric Domains already) but this seems like such rich material and a natural fit for the PFRPG.

If this Pathfindering of the real world interests you, please post any thoughts you might have. If it upsets you, 'cuz you live in Nottingham and don't want your town replaced with Halflings, post those thoughts as well.


My campaign has always been big on undead. I have this NPC Lich, the Netherarch Anzer, he's a memeber of a cabal of powerful undead known as the Dust Lords. I'm wanting to populate various areas of a mega-dungeon with his compatriots and creations.

I borrowed heavily from my library of 3.5 material, using Liber Mortis and (I think) Fiend Folio to create a Necropolitian Oracle (The Whispering Sage) and a trio of Swordwraiths known as the Sign of Three.

Further down in the complex Anzer has a Vampire he raised from an adventurer. She's dealing with her own busy unlife, and won't be seen by the PCs for a while yet.

The rest of the mega-dungeon is populated with Ooze Whisperers, Cloakers, Homebrew monsters with strong themes of other-worldliness. I'll be using Touchstones from [b]Planar Handbook[b], and various other resources, along with the Faction Guide's rules so that PCs who want the rather shaky social position of allying themselves with this après-vie society have that option.

What undead do you enjoy? I feel like he'd surround himself with interesting free-willed undead, not just a bunch of mindless zombies. (there will be one encounter with dozens of zombies and skeletons, just for fun, I do not suspect the PCs will have any trouble with them) Consider that Anzer is a 17th level necromancer. The world above does not realize his power, and thinks he's just some dead guy.

Feel free to answer using Golarion examples, while this is a homebrew game, I have plenty of Paizo's material and I can convert readily.


I'm going to be running Everflame starting Saturday at Arsenal Game Room in Indianapolis. 1st level, yadda, yadda, yadda... However, I have character generation software so we can generate and play on the spot. My preferred start time is noon.

Arsenal charges players $5 for the day. I might be persuaded to cover this charge myself for those who've never played there.

Respond to this thread, or the one at arsenalgameroom.com, so I know I have participation.
Thanks!
Jeffery