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Name: BreezeChaser
Race: Wolf
Classes/levels: Druid Animal Companion 11
Adventure: The Frozen Stars
Location: Rimekeening Crevasse, Frost Worm Attack
Catalyst: "The better part of Valor", and Frost Worms hurt more than anyone thought was possible.
Gory details: BreezeChaser has been the loyal companion of Druid Talnar since they used to wander the Border Wood outside Heldren together well before the adventure started.
The party had been tearing through Rimekeening Crevasse, and despite almost losing their Magus to the Carnivorous Crystal in C2, continued on to C3.
The first Frost Worm popped out of the ground and blasted the Party with the most powerful breath weapon they've faced yet. A furious fight ensued, the first worm was down to about 25% when the second popped up.
Magus and elemental-themed Cleric blasted the second Worm with Fire and managed to take it down in a round before it could use its breath weapon, due to some clutch crits and generally decent dice. When they figured out the Death Throes explosion, just about everyone cleared out of the first Worm, leaving it with only BreezeChaser to attack. He happily "bit", dropping the wolf. Then the second worm exploded. Killing the first worm, who also exploded.
At the end of the encounter, BreezeChaser was at negative 101 hit points. Talnar is currently scraping chunks of meat, chitin, and bone off of the walls of the glacier, trying to separate wolf from worm.

Now, if your DM started 'Reign of Winter' and didn't give any foreshadowing at the start that the latter parts of the campaign would include "alternative" setting material (his or her prerogative on how specific), well in my opinion it's an instance of poor DMing. It's usually not cool (depending on the group) to not give some kinds of heads-up prior to going off-the-wall.

I am totally looking forward to springing this on the PCs.

One of my favorite parts of DMing is the big reveal, when the players realize how screwed they really are, especially when what they thought were minor plot points in the past start to make sense. They think they know what they're up against. Then they find out there's more. Then they get a glimpse of how bad it really is.

They're going to step out of the hut, full of warnings about stuff they think they can handle. What do level 12-13 PCs have to fear? They'll step out of the hut. All quiet. A ruined village, not the first one they've seen. With a fire. Maybe they'll be clever and try to stealth, or illusion, or sneak forward.

Then one of them will step on a land mine. Click. They won't know what that is, of course. Big explosion. Then the riflemen will take their readied action. Then they'll see the motion as the Tsar Tank's turret turns in their direction. Boom goes the cannon. Then the machine guns start. I have the sound effects all ready. The look of "Oh crap. OH CRAP" on their faces is why I DM.

Oh ... then they'll meet a wild-eyed Monk named Rasputin. They might even be panicked enough to attack him.

I have literally been looking forward to this moment from the instant I opened Book 5.

Can someone recommend a module to substitute rasputin must die with? I am really not to keen to bring my table to a WW1 scenario in russia. The ap already feels very disjointed between the books.

I wouldn't swap this book out for the world. Springing this on my overconfident PCs is 75% of why I'm running Reign of Winter.

RIP the Whole Party :(

Name: Xanthippe "Zan" Euphram
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Bladebound Magus 6

Name: Justin Verres
Race: Aasimar
Classes/levels: Battle Oracle 6

Name: Rahel "Ray" Banashim
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Witch 6

Name: Rhys Hawkwind
Race: Elf
Classes/levels: Swashbuckler 6

Name: Talnar
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Druid 6

Adventure: Maiden, Mother, Crone
Catalyst: The Witchdaughter's Nightmare, an underratedly brutal encounter for CR8

The Gory Details: The party had just arrived in Iobaria, and hadn't had a chance to fully heal up before they started to explore. And of course the first room that they try is the Chamber of Dawn.
The Challenge of Endurance went just about exactly as written - players kept asking the Animate Dream about her background, she kept getting more and more agitated, before she started demanding that the party "free" her and attacked. Everyone was conveniently bunched up, so she started with Confusion.
Xan, Ray, and Justin all failed their saves (and started rolling terribly on their Confusion rolls). Rhys and Tanlar charged in and started nickling and diming the Dream down, but not much they can do vs Incorporeal. Ray, Justin, and Xan spend 3-4 rounds stabbing themselves and each other. Rhys dropped, but stabilized on a natural 20. Talnar dropped. Ray was put to sleep (Deep Slumber). Xan had a few moments of clarity, but whiffed the round before she dropped. Justin, wearing heavy armor, couldn't escape and was cut down to complete the wipe.

Zan was 19. The daughter of Heldren's blacksmith, she loved working in the forge and practicing with weapons, but also studying magic. She could deal some pretty insane damage sometimes (She'd two-shot Logrivich on two crits a few sessions ago), and while she'd faced some close calls, her luck held out. Until last night.
Her Black Blade, a Katana called The Ronin Prince, had been passed down in Justin's family for generations before Zan reforged him. Now he's stuck in the Dancing Hut until another Bladebound Magus walks by ...

Justin was 26 and thought he was human. His family's Oracle "Curse" was a result of Celestial blood, but he knew it only as some kind of family shame. The Ronin Prince had been allied with one of his ancestors, and was trying to convince him that there was nothing to be ashamed of.
Justin had a massive but hidden crush on Zan. Nothing's going to happen there now ...

Ray was an orphan, brought up by a shady Witch living ouside of Heldren. Her parents were part of a coven of high-class socialite Witches in Oppara, but "something went terribly wrong" and her guardian barely escaped to obscurity in Heldren with two-year-old Ray in tow.
I was looking forward to dropping subltle hints and eventually building up that she is descended from the Jadwiga Tashanna. Now she'll never know. (Unless you're reading this, in which case I hope the adventure is over! And that you guys didn't TPK again).

Rhys wasn't in top shape going into this encounter; he was suffering from Bloodfire Fever from a Troll Hound bite in the Clock Tower, and was suffering from ST and Dex damage (awful for a Swashbuckler) and Fatigue (certainly doesn't help). He'd failed every saving throw he rolled vs disease and I'd gotten sadistic pleasure in describing just how painful this disease is.
At least that pain is over.

Talnar was a stereotypical filthy hippy, living in a ramshackle hut well outside of Heldren, in the woods. He refused to learn any healing spells besides Goodberry, but he had an evangelical calling to distribute those berries and try to convince anyone who would listen (nobody) that they would cure any disease, curse, magic, impotence, anything.

If there's a silver lining, it's that this group has consistently shown that they can bang out interesting and entertaining characters, who are fun to play and for whom I like DMing. I'll miss this party. But soon we'll see the next one.

(Turns out, way before this all started, the White Rider called in some favors with a bunch of 7th level adventurers, then hid them in the Hut when everything went south).

These aren't true deaths, but they're in negative hit points which is still pretty scary at level six.

Plus one PC managed to do it three times in one evening. Achievement Unlocked!

Name: Rhys Hawkwind
Race: Elf
Classes/levels: Swashbuckler 6
Adventure: The Shackled Hut
Location: Market Square, Font of Water
Catalyst: Auraenos, Overconfidence

The Gory Details: Rhys had already had some close calls in the previous session last week; getting trapped in a summoned spiked pit, getting charmed by the Baccae, getting sneak attacked by Silverthorn ... he was at about half hit points when he ran into Auraenos' pool to start last night's session. He took damage from an Aqueous Orb (which he easily escaped), and a Dissonance dropped him down to single digits. The rest of the party was focused on freeing the Oracle from the Aqueous Orb ... Auraenos remembered that he had a rapier. Critted poor Rhys right in the chest. He was two rounds away from bleeding out when the rest of the party managed to stablize him ...

Name: Rhys again
Race: Elf
Classes/levels: Swashbuckler 6
Adventure: The Shackled Hut
Location: Market Square, The Dancing Hut
Catalyst: Nazhena Vasiliovna, Refusal to retreat.

The Gory Details: Did I mention that Rhys was the one to finish off Radosek at the end of book 1? Plugged him with a lucky crossbow bolt. (Then Radosek's Fly spell failed and he crashed in the courtyard). I didn't think Nazhena knew about this but she must have found out somehow.
She's supposed to start off with a Wall of Ice, but I like playing smart enemies smart. The party was nice and compact and she led off with Ice Storm. Druid dragged his Wolf to safety, Witch, Magus, and Oracle took to the air, leaving Rhys in single digit hit points to deal with the Ice Golem. A few rounds later, Golem drops him.

Name: Rhys!
Race: Elf
Classes/levels: Swashbuckler 6
Adventure: The Shackled Hut
Location: Dancing Hut, Cauldron Room
Catalyst: Glyph of Warding

The Gory Details: Rhys thinks he's a Rogue sometimes. "I check the door for traps", rolls a 14. "All set, there are no traps!"
Then he opens the door and boom. Fails his save. His party mates had healed him just barely exactly enough after the Nazhena Vasiliovna fight that he survived, although not before collapsing for the third time that night and into accidental legend.

I'm looking forward to posting more in this thread when the Party makes it to Artrosa. And I have no idea how they're ever going to survive Book 5 ... well, if you're reading this thread, you know what they'll face sooner or later.

I told my PCs that she was disliked and unpopular, but I wanted to kind of hide how evil she really is for as long as possible.

So in the pre-campaign introductions, I made sure to talk about how she got blamed for everything King Eodred did. Just a poor misunderstood foreign girl who keeps getting scapegoated by all those manipulative, conniving nobles. Kind of a Marie Antoinette situation.

And I hate to brag but my players just lapped it up. When they visited the throne room, I played the sympathy card pretty hard. She'd just lost her beloved husband, she's all alone with no allies, just trying to maintain some law and order while the city riots around her. I thought I was overacting but the players loved her at the beginning.

This is coming out right about when my group will be either wrapping up, or at least getting through book six.

I'm still probably going to buy the hardcover though. Just to have it. It's been a great year and a half running this campaign, so this is going to be like a souvenir for me.

I love the Queen Ileosa cover art. Can probably forget about players believing in her for the first couple books though, if they see that ;)

You don't even need to summon, you can combine encounters. If Ramoska shows up when the players are fighting Rolth's group or Lady Andaisin, suddenly that's a challenging fight even for seven PCs.
"What is all this racket, mortals?? I am trying to WORK here!"

Then if you're really evil, have him Dominate whoever has the worst Will save in the party ;)

Or recruit a friend and run two groups of four :)

They still believed that Queen Ileosa was the victim of some bad advice and scheming nobles throughout book 2. And I tried to always have some kind of excuse or explanation ready. Queen's Physicians? Why, Doctor Davaulus must be taking advantage of a naive and inexperienced queen! Merciless Way Massacre? Why, the Gray Maidens are just zealous about protecting the city from the horrible Blood Veil threat!

But the opening of Book 3 was pretty hard to ignore. And on a personal level, that was probably the best and most satisfying scene I've run as a DM. Just the look on my players' faces made it worth it. It went from "meh, more bad news" to "uh-oh" to "Oh Crap it can't get worse" to "nope, it's worse!"

Well, I started running Crimson Throne last June, so in a month an a half we'll have been at it for a year. I expect to have finished book 4 by then. Although I expect books 5 and 6 to be slightly faster, that's still well over a year and approaching a year and a half for a single, six-book AP.
(We try to play every week, but everyone has a life outside of gaming and in reality we end up playing, on average, about once every 1.5 to 2 weeks).

At that pace, it would take nearly three decades to get through all of the modules above. And Paizo keeps publishing more!

So who's up for a wild and exciting PRG at our retirement home in like 2050? Presumably starting at noon and running until 4:30, when we go out for the early bird special at the local Chinese buffet? :-D

PF Characters are superheroes, sure, but they shouldn't always feel like it if there's going to be a proper horror atmosphere. I grew up reading Lovecraft, and the main theme is that the protagonists are weak and powerless - they are scarcely even capable of comprehending the horrors which they are encountering, never mind actually doing anything about it.

Which makes for a great story but might suck in a game.

But I'm loving the premise of book 1, nothing is going to make players seem vulnerable like not even knowing who they are. Will the players not even make their characters' own background? That would be so much fun to figure out. "Hey, maybe I used to be a blacksmith? Wait, there's a bruise on my cheek the exact same size as your fist, were we fighting? Why"?

Excited to see where this goes :)

Barbarians are pretty vulnerable. Their armor class is never going to be great, and while they tend to have a lot of hit points compared to other characters, their main defense is to take their opponents down quickly.

I think their biggest vulnerability is when their rage ends. They lose their extra hit points (which can just flat-out kill a vanilla barbarian, Unchained fixes that glitch by making the extras "temporary hit points" but it can still be brutal), and leaving them fatigued.

A smart opponent will exploit this by sending in the mooks first. The barbarian rages, splatters some unsuspecting underling with a greataxe crit, flexes for his friends, then pauses to catch his breath. That's when you send in the real threat.

Don't do that too often, but it's totally fair to have smart villains fight smart.

Just added up the votes.

During my summation, I ended up having different results than SheepishEidolon and Porridge did when I got to their posts. We're probably counting differently, so this is how I did it:

- I counted first place votes only.
- If someone was tied between two AP's, I gave each a half vote.
- Otherwise, I did not count where a poster had no clear preference (some of you just listed a couple APs and wrote out pros and cons). That's interesting information, but it means no clear favorite.
- I only counted votes for PF AP's.
- I am sometimes an idiot; just ask any of my PCs. It's possible that I miscounted at some point.

And the results so far:

24 Votes: Curse of the Crimson Throne
21.5 Votes: Kingmaker

These two are clearly the two favorite APs by a long shot.

9.5 Votes: Carrion Crown
7.5 Votes: Rise of the Runelords (Regular or Anniversary)
7.5 Votes: Skull & Shackles
7 Votes: Iron Gods
6.5 Votes: Reign of Winter
5 Votes: Wrath of the Righteous

These seem to be a "middle tier" of popular AP's.

3.5 Votes: Jade Regent
3 Votes: Serpent's Skull
3 Votes: Hell's Rebels
2 Votes: Legacy of Fire
1 Vote: Second Darkness
1 Vote: Shattered Star
1 Vote: Mummy's Mask
1 Vote: Giantslayer
1 Vote: Hell's Vengeance

Some people loved these but apparently they're not everybody's cup of tea.

I counted no votes for Council of Thieves or Strange Aeons (which obvs isn't out yet). I was hoping to glance at the list and get some insights into "what makes an AP good" or "what kind of APs does everyone like", but the only thing which is obvious to me is that there are a wide range of tastes and preferences, and that there are good AP's for everyone!

Queen Ileosa's music is the Tannhäuser Overture:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRmCEGHt-Qk

(It was playing in the Throne Room when my party arrived with the brooch).

It's not music, but during the rioting part of Edge of Anarchy, I played shouting and rioting sounds. I think it set the mood well. Or maybe just irritated the crap out of my players.

I played the Jaws theme when the party entered the Direption.

When Lady Andaisin transformed, there was only one choice: O Fortuna!

And of course I'm saving this for Scarwall:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyknBTm_YyM

Well, looks like Endrin's failed assassination finally turned my party on the Queen. They had a bad feeling when Endrin was even there (he had debriefed the party about the Temple of Urgathoa), a worse feeling when I showed them the Crown of Fangs, and, judging by their reactions, what happened next was even worse than their worst-case expectation.

Comments ranged from "So, I hear Magnimar is quite nice this time of year!" to "Wait, WHY does she need a bodyguard again??". Fortunately, they took the time to consult with Cressida before going off the rails, and heard that Vencarlo was asking after them, so they nipped off to Old Korvosa for what they assumed would be a quick search-and-rescue.

When did your party figure out that Queen Ileosa was rotten to the core and turn on her?

As I mentioned in another thread, I might have laid it on a bit thick at the beginning with the "I am a young and innocent queen, who needs brave heroes to save my city!" bit. It's such a trope that I expected the party to be suspicious. But I kept a straight face with the "I love Korvosa, like my beloved husband before me ..." speech, and the party just lapped it up.

(To my Party: if you guys are reading this after the campaign ends, I'm not saying you were being dumb or should have seen it coming. If anything, you guys are the most legitimately good-hearted party I've seen in a long time. You take enemies alive. You make personal sacrifices of loot and time to save NPCs. You've shown a genuine concern for some of the terrible things which are happening in your city. And you gave your evil tyrant of a Queen the benefit of the doubt for far longer than I thought you would!
I'd love to tell you guys it gets better. But if you're reading this after our campaign ends, you'll know it gets worse. Oh so much worse).

At every turn, every time the Queen does something evil, I've made sure that there's some plausible explanation. The Queen is a manipulative sociopath and she wants to be adored, so there'll always be a fall guy, or an excuse, or some other explanation.

When the Party captured Trinia Sabor, I made sure that there were a bunch of scheming and feuding nobles calling for her head. "She's just a weak and inexperienced ruler!". And Blackjack bailed her out, with considerable help from the PCs. When the Gray Maidens showed up during Seven Days, with their police state tactics and were about to butcher rioting plague victims in Merciless Way, the Party stepped in and defused the situation with illusions and diplomacy. When they found a Plague Doctor at the bottom of the river in the Direption, they realized that something was wrong (remembering that the Queen's Physicians weren't formed until AFTER the ship sank and the plague broke out). They uncovered Doctor Davaulus at the Hospice, the cultist physicians, the foul temple of Urgathoa. Lady Andaisin flat-out told them that the Queen was the one behind the Blood Veil. The response was, "I'm not sure I believe her!".
To be fair, they soon had bigger things to worry about. Lady Andaisin is no pushover. But I'll let you know when they figure it out.

Escape from Old Korvosa starts in a few weeks (holidays are really messing with our gaming schedule). I'm trying to play up what a stalwart champion of Truth and Justice Commandant Endrin is, for maximum effect at the start of Escape. I think once Cressida Kroft turns on the Queen after that, the party will side with her ... but if they stay loyal to the Queen even after that ... ... who knows. I might need to improvise some ... or stage yet another spectacle which is too awful to ignore. Maybe publicly execute some of the Sable Company. Should be fun!

The Party has finished book one so I can actually add an appropriate response to this thread.

I sprung the Execution on them quickly, because I wanted to finish the book. It's definitely too short as a standalone session, and there's no way I was going to tack that on to the start of book two. So the party emerges from the Dead Warrens, battered and bruised and almost completely out of spells. They expect to drop off Gaekhen and collect their reward and go home - instead, Kroft asks them to attend the execution, at sunset that very night.

And they came up with a plan. Not a bad plan either, as far as PC plans go. It had a pretty decent chance of succeeding on its own even without any outside efforts. If you guys are reading this, (hopefully way after the fact, otherwise STOP there be spoilers), I'm kinda proud of you guys.

Anyway, the party looks through their lists to figure out what spells they still have. Not much. Cantrips, some scrolls, a few odd situational spells which are unlikely to be helpful.

The party decides to attend the execution and wait until Trinia is on the block. The wizard casts Invisibility from a scroll and delivers it through his familiar, turning Trinia invisible. At the same time, they ask Zellara to cast a major image of Trinia right where she was. Invisible Trinia runs (The bard knew Message and would warn her), Illusion Trinia gets executed, problem solved.

Of course, as soon as the headsman raises his axe, Blackjack shows up. The exact opposite of subtlety. He plays it by the book, calling out the Queen, freeing Trinia.

Then Trinia disappears. Familiar had his instructions. Zellara is as shocked as anybody else, but she gets her illusion up pretty quickly. Blackjack looks surprised, but he makes his saving throw and figures it out. He makes his escape with Illusion Trinia, and hilariously, the PCs have no idea whether Invisible Trinia went with him or not. But she hasn't been seen since (although they'll run into her again soon) and neither has Blackjack.

Blackjack's the talk of the town now, of course, and gets all the credit for Trinia's escape. The party were reasonably subtle about what they were doing and kept a low profile. Queen Ileosa is a laughingstock, she's retreated to the castle to (we all know what she's up to).

I'm not sure how they feel about the Queen now. They've been rationalizing away some of the subtle hints, but "Off with her Head" was kind of hard to ignore.

The queen should be a master manipulator, so having the PCs deceived by her is an excellent story-element.

Well now they've stepped in it. We've had a few weeks where people couldn't make it, and the Bard sent the queen a letter offering her a sympathetic ear if she's lonely:

--------------------------------------

"Ileosa, (specifically not your highness, or queen, or any other title, just the name)

I am sure you tire of nobles pushing for favors, and countless attempts of courting. I assure you, this is neither. I merely offer empathy for your difficult time. You seemed so happy with such a simple thing as returning your stolen brooch, as if it were hard to believe good in people.

I make no assumption that you lack for friendship, but if ever you need something as simple as a chat without obligation or intention, as discretely as you wish, I would be delighted."

--------------------------------------

I think it's sweet and probably deserves a response of some kind. Poor guy is going to be genuinely hurt when he realizes that she cares for nothing besides her own power, but until then I'm trying to figure out how to milk this.

The Party heads to the Dead Warrens tonight, and if they tear through that as quickly as they've been tearing up the rest of the content, they could finish that in a few hours and experience "the final scene". If she does respond, it won't be until after that (when I know how the PCs responded to the Execution).

After that there's a few weeks of game time between the end of book 1 and the start of book 2. Plenty of time for some good old fashioned DM mind-f*ckery.

Any suggestions?

(The bard in question is the second son of a low-end Korvosan noble family, whose name he disgraces by performing in the theater. By now he's a well-known actor (under a stage name but everyone knows who he is)).

Looking more for entertainment value than letting any real harm come of this. My default if I can't think of anything fun will be either no response, or a curt note from Sabinia (who handles the Queen's mail) telling him not to waste the queen's time.

Hi Xen,

I'm running Curse of the Crimson Throne and I'll tell you the same thing that I told my players: Play whatever you like.

It sounds unsatisfying, but the campaign, at least as written, is less of a kick-down-the-doors and beat up the monster of the week kind of game. There are many different situations which you'll face. Some of them really reward creative and intelligent role-playing.

Another thing I told my players about the Ranger feat in the Player's Guide - it gets you a Hippogriff as an animal companion (awesome!) and a spot in the Sable Company (nice!). But like every D&D game ever, the toughest fights are indoors and underground, so a flying mount is not nearly as much of an advantage as it sounds. In particular, there are many corridors where large creatures will need to seriously squeeze. Same problem as a cavalier.

Obviously much of the campaign takes place in Korvosa, the largest and most civilized city in Varisia, so you might want to make your character more urbane and less of a murder hobo than you see in some wilderness-based games. But that's more of a character background thing. You'll find it rewarding to give your character ties to the city. But roll up whatever class you feel like playing and make it work. There isn't really a "wrong" choice.

My party barely captured Trinia, she was a double move away from freedom when she failed her will save against a Command spell and hit the roof.

They turned her over to Kroft without any fuss or ever really considering setting her free. The Party still LIKES Queen Ileosa and while I've been dropping subtle hints, it's either gone over their heads or they've rationalized it as a naive young queen getting bad advice from scheming nobles.

I may have laid it on a bit thick in the second session with the whole "Oh heroes, I am just a weak and innocent queen, please help me save my city" bit. Everyone liked her and the Bard is openly planning to seduce her.
No regrets on my part though, they'll find out soon enough what they're dealing with. I love seeing that "we totally should have seen this coming" look on their faces, and I'm looking forward to seeing it when the OFF WITH HER HEAD moment arrives.

Anyway, the Party is off to the Dead Warrens next Friday, where they'll face what sure looks like by far the toughest fights in the module. Which is fine, they need a challenge. They've been blasting through content so far and have hardly broken a sweat.