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The city of Egede in northern Mendev has a vital role to play in the crusades against the Worldwound. It is the end of the River Road, bringing travelers from across Avistan to join in the crusade.

Many folk have ended up settling there and not making it to the front lines further to the west. There they work in the industries that support the war effort. Exhausted units are often rotated back to the city for rest and recreation away from the front lines.

Map of Egede

Responsibility for the city rests on the shoulders of Baron Tennyson Warwynd. The Baron commands a garrison of knights and footmen and a naval contingent that works to suppress smuggling and piracy on the Lake of Mist and Veils. Five ships rotate on patrols that sail to the southern shore and protect the commerce that supports the kingdom’s efforts in the crusades.

Amongst the Baron’s chief advisors are:

Mellikon Fortwit: an older human wizard who retired from active service in the crusade a decade ago and took up residence in a crooked tower in Egede.

Archdeacon Bartholomay: the highest ranking cleric of Iomedae in the city and pastor of the Red Cathedral in Egede is a devout middle-age human man originally from somewhere in the south. The cathedral sits on a main square in the city (called Temple square) and is a holy site with the undercroft containing the Tomb of Saint Merrick (a reliquary containing the known remains of a hero of the early crusades).

Merriweather Candless: a half-elven priestess of Desna who is the proprietress of The Traveler’s Rest, a large, four story, inn containing a small chapel to Desna in one of its side wings. The Traveler’s Rest also sits on temple square, although the local uptight followers of Iomedae feel that it is inappropriate.

Odo Pryce: One of the Baron’s unofficial advisors and close friends is an older dwarf who retired in Egede after a career as a Pathfinder and adventurer. He is apparently still a man of many talents, even in his advanced years. While he keeps his background and past exploits private, he is renowned for having a keen mind and an expansive library.

Other notable persons in Egede include:

Captain William Shorts: chief naval officer of the fleet and captain of the Peregrine, a fast warship. William is a stout human who is most at home on the deck of his ship.

Perry Buckstead: The halfling proprietor of a run-down tap room and brewery called The Lake Street Brewery that also doubles as a chapel of Cayden Cailean. The local clergy of Iomedae take a fair bit of umbrage at what they feel is just a dive bar masquerading as a place of worship.

Sarah Waldeeves: A half-elven merchant that runs a store catering to luxury imports, rare goods, and items of magical power. Madam Waldeeves is head of the local merchant’s council and a spellcaster in her own right.

Redd Balduck: the dodgier side of Egede is the location of the most skilled smith in the city. Redd is an ifrit, rare in this part of the world, and said to be descended from Salamander blood. There are nothing but rumors on how he came to the city, but it is undisputed that he is a master of his craft. His smithy and shop are always swelteringly hot to keep him comfortable (even as his apprentices and employees seem to be on the edge of passing out from the heat).

Welcome to the Dungeon of Graves.

A few "Stream of Consciousness" thoughts:

(1) I doubt anyone applied to this game without having an idea of the style adventure Rappan Athuk is, but just in case I'd like to make a warning. This game doesn't have the same style as a Paizo adventure path with challenges geared specifically to certain party levels. You'll end up facing a few moderate difficulty encounters, some easy ones, a tough one, and then walk straight into a potential TPK if you aren't paying attention. That's not a bug in this game, it's a feature.

It's one of the reason I'm not worried about a high point buy and 6 players. There's no particular balance here anyway.

Pay attention and if it looks scary, run away.

(2) (kind of a continuation of #1) Don't be surprised if a character dies. I expect it, not because I'm out to kill characters, but because there will be a lot of tough challenges and everyone drops a 1 on a save eventually. There will be plenty of resources to fix broken characters if the party is smart. If you don't want to fix your broken character, then you can make a new one and insert it.

(3) Much like a random mixture of tough/easy challenges are written in the adventure, there's a great deal of treasure inside Rappan Athuk. I expect the party to exceed typical wealth-by-level guidelines. I don't really see that as a problem because it just goes back to the 'balance' theme (or lack of).

What I am going to do is play with the rules about the availability to buy magic items during the game. You can trade in whatever cool item you find for gold, but only items up to 16,000gp are going to be available 'off-the-shelf' in a big city and only if you make the 75% or less roll.

More expensive items will be available, but you will have to either contract having them made (and wait for them) or make them yourself.

(4) Expect smart bad guys to be smart. Part of the fun for me is trying to plan out how the smart bad guys react. If you end up in a protracted guerilla war against the Temple of Orcus or the goblin city of Grezzor, expect the bad guys to adapt to fight you.

(5) I want to say right up front that: I will make mistakes!

There's a whole lot of system mastery in the group of players I selected. I expect that if I make mistakes, you guys will figure it out.

If I screw something up, I'll fix it. Don't take it personally, don't get mad, don't assume any intent to disadvantage your character.

I may bend the rules or put my thumb on the scales occasionally if I think it makes for a good story. I won't do that if it will create a situation that's un-fun for a player.

Many hundreds of years ago, the forces of good allied to destroy the main Temple of Orcus in Avistan. With their temple in ruins, the surviving high priests of this accursed demongod fled the city with an army of enemies on their trail—an army of heroic fighters, clerics and paladins—led by Zelkor, a powerful wizard. The exact fate of these evil priests was then unknown, for not only did the remnants of the followers of Orcus disappear from all human reckoning, but so did the army of light that followed after them disappear as well. Some said that in the eternal scales the loss of so many good men was a fair price to pay to rid the world of so much evil.

The evil cult, however, had not been destroyed. The surviving priests and their followers instead settled on a hill near the Estrovian Forest, a sylvan woodland near the coast in Mendev. There they found a vast underground complex of caverns and mazes, carving out a volcanic intrusion beneath the hill. There, the priests of Orcus found the perfect lair to continue their vile rituals. For many years, they carried on in secret, hidden from the light and from the knowledge of men.

Many years later, their underground delving completed, the evil priests erected a hideous mausoleum and a sunken graveyard atop the hill. It is believed that these graves are in fact the final resting place of the pursuing army of heroes that had been destroyed to a man. Soon after the mausoleum was erected the peaceful creatures of the wood began to disappear. Though many rangers and druids investigated these happenings, the cause of the creatures’ disappearance was not immediately determined. Some years later a powerful group of adventurers, led by Bofred, a high priest of Iomedae, investigated the evil happenings and found the sunken graveyard leading to a labyrinthine complex. Bofred and his companions found great hordes of evil creatures in the complex. Though some of his companions returned from their expedition, telling tales of fantastic treasure and ferocious monsters, Bofred was never seen again—lost in the catacombs beneath the cursed mausoleum.

For the last one hundred years, ranks of adventurers have ventured to the newfound dungeon. Many fell prey to bandits and monsters in the surrounding wilderness. Rumors suggest that of those who survived to reach the mausoleum and sunken graveyard, most were slain by guardians of green stone or perished on the very first level. Those rare few who return from deeper treks speak of horrible undead and creatures that cannot be slain. All who have explored Rappan Athuk offer this one universal piece of advice: “Don’t go down the Well.”

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Hello heroes, villains and everything in between. Adventurers, wanderers and all sorts of unfortunate souls have tried their luck and met with a gruesome end. This recruitment is for half a dozen more of those fools who, for their own reasons decide to venture forth. Rappan Athuk will be situated in Mendev near the coast of the Lake of Mist and Veils in the Golarion world.

You will start in Nerosyan in Mendev, being recruited to explore Rappan Athuk to determine the level of danger posed by the cult of Orcus to the kingdom. Almost all of the kingdom’s resources are focused on the World Wound, so a group of independents is needed to explore and investigate the threat.

You would each receive several rumors and the option to explore the wilderness around the Dungeon first if you want to.

This will be a 25pt buy.
Level 6
Any race or class is allowed.
Any alignments. You can be evil but don't be an ally killing maniac.
2 traits, optional drawback for a third.
Background skills
Starting Wealth - 16,000gp (no more than 50% spent on a single item)
Elephant in the Room feat tax rules
Recruitment open till the 24th of September.

Link characters backstories together if you want, but it is not necessary. You have all made it to Nerosyan in some way or another and been recruited.

Ok if I have forgotten anything, let me know or ask questions. Hopefully there is some interest.

It is the third day of Pharast (March) when our characters receive a summons from Sheila Heidmarch at Heidmarch Manor in the Alabaster district.

It has been several days for each of you since you last visited the lodge. You were certainly excited on your first visit at having become a part of something as large and exciting as the Pathfinder Society. Several of you actually thought that because you had been accepted into the Pathfinder Society that Heidmarch House was where you were going to live.

Mistress Heidmarch disabused you of any such notions pretty quickly on your first visit.

”I'm not sure how we're going to be able to make use of you here. I had hoped for someone with some experience to be assigned here.”

”For now, I'll need you to get out from underfoot and let me get back to organizing the lodge. When I need you, I'll contact you in the city.”

With that, you were shown out the door and left wondering about your career choices.

After a few days of nervous waiting, messages arrived for you this morning, summoning you to Heidmarch House at noon for a potential assignment.

As a first post, please describe where you've been staying, what your character is thinking, and what they look like as they arrive at the Pathfinder Lodge

Discussion thread for second attempt at Shattered Star AP

Opening discussion

Shattered Star Recruitment

I intend to run this recruitment with submissions open through the 21st of February with the plan being to select players and start the game by March 1st.

My goal is for the campaign to move at a fairly rapid pace. I would like to finish the first book in six months of playing time.

Posting Expectations: target frequency of 1/weekday. I’ll probably update the game on most weekends as well. Things come up and real life takes precedence, I have no issues with either myself or another player botting a character if a player needs a break. Given some of the dungeon crawl aspects of parts of the AP, I’d really like designated scout/perception/trap-monkey to be someone who posts frequently.

I am looking to strike a good balance between roleplaying and roll playing in the game. I know that different people enjoy their games for different reasons. I’d like to create a good story and create fun tactical problems to keep everyone happy.

The party I select won’t look like a traveling zoo. There’s room for some uniqueness, but standard fantasy tropes will be appreciated as well. Having said that, make a character that you’ll be interested in devoting the time and energy it takes to play through an adventure path.

As per the AP, the characters will start as novice members of the Pathfinder Society.

Please download and read the Shattered Star Players Guide

Backgrounds: you don’t have to write a novel, but I’d like to have some idea of how you envision your character. Your background should tie in with your AP trait and explain how you became a novice member of the Pathfinder Society. Your background can evolve some in the early days of the game as you figure out a better idea of who your character is.

Description: Give me and your fellow players an idea of what your character looks like and how they’re dressed. Remind people of your appearance/description in flavor text as you post. Stealing/linking some art from somewhere to give everyone an idea of what you look like is a good idea.

Character build: Give me a brief summary of what you’re planning with the character. I don’t need a road map for your entire build, but if you’re doing something that wouldn’t be obvious from looking at a first level character sheet, I’d like a heads up.

Party size: I will be selecting 5 characters that will need to form a well-balanced team

Build Rules:
* 1st level
* All pathfinder 1E official sources
* No 3rd party sources
* Classes: any 1st party, unchained Rogue/Barbarian/Summoner/Monk, probably not Vigilantes (I don’t see the secret identity working into the story)
* Races: Core, Featured - if you’re aiming for a unique concept, you’ll need a good backstory.
* Stat Buy: 15 point (nothing below 8 or above 18 before racials) (any harsh dump stats are expected to be roleplayed and apparent in game)
* Skills: Background skills rules
* Traits: 1 campaign, 1 other, + 1 additional in exchange for a meaningful drawback
* Wealth: max starting for your class
* Hit points: Max at first level, average rounded up thereafter.
* Encumbrance: I don’t want to (and won’t) track how much weight each party member is carrying, but I do believe that limited carrying capacity and encumbrance penalties are part of dumping strength.
* Alignment: I won’t place any restrictions on builds, but I have no interest in overseeing PvP conflicts so I will try to select a party that will work together.
* Hero Points: I intend to use the hero points system from the APG.
* Crafting: I’ll allow pre-game crafting, but work it into your backstory and post any necessary rolls in this thread along with your build. I will try to pace the adventures in a way that allows for crafting in-game if players show an interest.
* Magic Items: there won’t be a magic store that can sell your character whatever they want in the quantity they desire on a moment's notice. The adventures take place in/near large cities and items will be available but extremely specialized items might not be instantly available. (If the bad guys sunder your +3 agile, keen kukri you might need a backup plan for the next book while you commission a new one)

There’s no need to create a forum alias prior to selection.

Please format any submissions in this thread into spoilers to avoid things getting messy.

Any questions, please ask.