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Oh , one more question. Then Pally had a short bow out when he becomes enraged. My first thought was drop it and chase someone, but in order to attack someone immediately I had him fire shots with the bow. Keep him shooting the party from range? I like the yakaty sax scene more but he already had the bow out.
I started it! Campaign blog! Just a intro for now, more to come! I have no idea of to link it here tho... Peace out!
Well, where to start... Having discovered the old worn faded box of AD&D adventures, home-made puzzles/traps, story lines, and character sheets I felt inspired to find some other fellows with inner geeks dying to see the light of day. I was surprised to find that it wasn't that hard to find people - all of which were already friends of mine! HUGE bonus... You don't know what characters you'll get with a Kijiji ad! YIKES! Given that I spend WAY more time than I need to in running this adventure, I felt it would be really cool to log it somehow. Having read a bunch of campaign blogs here, I figured I'd give it a shot. (Props to NobodysHome for the encouragement) I mean WHY NOT add more work to my GM week ;) haha For now, I'll just introduce the setup of our game, my approach to the AP, and next post I'll share the backgrounds of the characters. I'd do it all now but I'm just killing the 25 min before lunch! (Roll Stealth vs. supervisor's Sense Motive) THE SETTING - Our Adventure Room We do the living room type game, two players one the sofa, one on the love seat, one in the rocking chair (the Barbarian LOVES to rock I guess!). A long coffee table houses the flip mat, markers, figurines (although using d6's and d8's is SO much easier to keep track of 8 goblins in the glassworks!). House rules and combat summary notes printed and stored under tha table as well as the Core Rulebook ($30 on Amazon - NEW!). I haul over the dining table, behind the GM screen, under my bad-ass triforce lamp (check it out on Etsy) - thus I've secured the raised sacred realm position in the room ;) I use notes with info I create to complement the AP (most of my prep-time), a printed version of the Campaign book (thank you office resources!), my tablet running the android apps Masterwork Tools (full quick reference of Paizo materials) and "PF Battle" THIS Battle APP IS AMAZING!! Just try it out!! I use it to manage every encounter's initiate, damage, and hidden perception checks (just setup a battle with stats for Perception instead of initiative and VOILA)! All pre-loaded! I've also got my mac hooked up to a 47" flat-screen where I display handouts, images of monsters, and maps. For maps I didn't want to just give it all away, so I opened the GM maps from the AP in a presentation program, and I just create objects to overlay the map. As the PCs choose where to go, I uncover a piece of the map - they LOVE it! Oh, and I have the World of Warcraft soundtrack downloaded on my iPod which works great cause I find it's great ambiance music. I tried the LotR soundtrack but it wasn't the same. Too well recognized, to BIG too much perhaps? Either way, that's the setting in which we all delve into the world of heroing, bashing, backflipping, and better-than-average-half-elf-cleric-ing. :) UP HERE IN MY TREE - Into the Mind of the GM I did A LOT of reading and prep before we had our first session - easily 40-60h. I read a lot on the rules, but specifically house rules and rules that were considered broken by some GM's. Paperandpencils.com had some great articles on skills, encumbrance, and consumables! There's an author C+ who I related to a lot. With that, I've got a set of house rules which make encounters more FUN and less "Roll d20, here's your result". I spent A LOT of time adding more meat to the bones of the AP. I added playable gambling games, drinking and eating contests, strong man challenges, archery games, etc. All to give the open of the game a real festival feel - rather than just reading text and throwing fire and goblins into the mix. But I'll get more into that on Post 3 I guess. For now, It's great to meet you... Hello? (echo) Oh... See you soon!
That's a good point actually... Erylium wouldn't be able to use her invisibility at the end of her turn (having casted command). And she'd be the closest living creature... Hmmm... I can correct this with no issue. But it does remove the conundrum the party is currently in - disappointing to the GM but it leans towards being fair to the players. I was trying to get someone enraged by the runewell and, as cool as it seemed, I botched it up rule-wise... Then again, Erylium wouldn't have done that and stayed close... she would have cast command and stayed just far enough away... THAT seems more likely. Maybe I'll reduce the duration to be fair... Hmmm... for me, as a GM, fairness plays higher than forcing something interesting. What do you guys think - what would you do? The Pally would LOVE being enraged AND smiteful towards that Quasit Queen! And should they kill the quasit, what then of the Pally's rage - next closest? haha
Technically, the nearest living thing probably was the Quasit. Unless they all rushed her at the same moment... usually several party members would either be using bows, spells, or attacking the Sinspawn. I allowed Ms. Quasi to blip invisible as a free/swift action after she saw the paladin approach the rune well. If I could upload the pic of our map, you'd see it was a very close race of who was closest. But the half orc barbarian won and his movement isn't much better than the pally's! Good Lord am I in for a whirlwind next week! A neat thing about that flute, I play the wow soundtrack for ambience and such... there's times it gets super creepy RIGHT when the party was exploring the catacombs... the party would look back and shout at the cleric, "enough with the fluting!?"
I've got an idea brewing, but I'd like to delve into your thoughts as well... Our Cleric, as I mentioned he's the 'Failed Jedi' type, is really intrigued by Tsuto's masterwork flute. I was just chatting with him and he's gonna try and play it to calm down the Paladin; following the runewell incident... Now, I imagine Paizo just had the flute there as a simple instrument. But I'm temped to actually DO something with it... Given that Tsuto had it, it would have to have a purpose that would fit with his character... - He commanded goblins... mind control effect? - He was revenge driven... some sort of bloodlust buff? - He had an abandoned upbringing... could it inspire peace of mind? - Maybe it was dropped off to him annonomously at the boarding school, something from his real father, something of elven make, something that would represent his father's wish for him to rise above his struggles to become a better hero and adventurer... Oooooo I like this train of thought... I might even connect it to a side adventure... As for effects, possession could give the owner a +1 charisma (father's wish to be more than he currently is) and when you play it it has a bard-like effect of +1 dodge bonus to AC for all allies within a 20ft. radius(3/day). OMG! I just remembered that the Cleric is Half-Elf! And his back story is that he doesn't know who his father is... BINGO: His father is ALSO TSUTO'S FATHER! TSUTO IS HIS HALF BROTHER!! MAN, there's a WHOLE 'NOTHER AP brewing here!! Save his brother, search for his father, deal with a huge situation related to his father... like help save their father's failing elven clan, redeem the clan, over come some evil threat, uncover a plot set out by an evil wizard to have the sons of this father to be lost and unnamed, rather than fulfilling a destiny... It rings a bit like the whole Saruman/Rohan thing... but wow... I have to go now...
Hey Nobody! :) Thanks for replying! I have been debating a blog for a little while. I'm SURE my players would LOVE it! haha Reading about other Erylium encounters was SO hilarious and educational for setting up my own. I would get a kick out of a recording an account of our adventures! One question I was hoping you could lend your advice to was in regards to the runewell. Erylium successfully commanded the Paladin to step into it, and he's failed his saves. So there goes the bonus of a pally full of smite! lol How long does that "kill everyone" wrath thing last? How would you treat it? The rage effect is 2d6 minutes (rolled an 8), but what about the wrath state? Is the Wrath and Rage effects different? Same? Any help is appreciated! I gotta know how to handle this poor bugger! ;)
Oh, and as for how to get the PCs into the Catacombs, I share your concern there. My guys, being the heros that they are, having read Tsuto's journal, were all ready to charge into Thistletop! Noooo!! But the cleric made a successful "what-the-hecks-a-quasit" check and learning it wasn't from this plane, was an evil demon, and delighted in the tourture and suffering of others suggested to the party to consult with Father Zantus. In my head I went "YES"! See, I had embleished Father Zatus a bit earlier - during the meeting with the Sheriff, and Shalelu. Zantus shared horrible visions and nightmares about a terrible evil seeping up through the sands of Sandpoint, and just before he was about to be swallowed by it, a flash of bright light appeared and Father Tobyn appeared saving him from the dark oozy fate. In the process Father Tobyn was consumed by the evil. A vivid dream but it set the tone nicely! So now with the PCs divulging the recent events of the Glassworks to Father Zantus, he's conerns were now grounded in reality. Nualia (recognized form the drawings), didn't die in the fire, she likely started it, the reappearance of Tsuto, the death of Lonjiku... all hit him pretty hard. So that was my chance! Father Zantus charged the heros to vanquish this evil and free Sandpoint from this terrible fate. The more-than-eager rookie pally had been obsessed with the tower of light since the AP began, and was almost gleeful at the chance to smite some ass in the depths below Sandpoint. I also allowed Father Zantus to advise the PCs that a quasit demon that can disappear from sight is not to be taken lightly. He then had all the weapons blessed to gain the Good alignment to better aid them against the menace under Sandpoint. Honestly, it was rading other blogs here that helped me make these kind of decisions. It's helped me SO MUCH. And I LOVE NoBodysHome's take on things. I feel like we Gm very similarly! I love story and adding to the AP as much as I can - I had playable games in the Festival at the start of the AP (ie. chugging contests with Fort saves for each 'glug', dice gamling based of Risk dice rules to warm up the players to their dice, and I had Zelda like pressure plates and puzzles to open the secret door under the glassworks and gain entry to the Catacombs) I'm rambling again haha. I'm just happy to be able to converse with other GMs :) Bear with me! ;)
Hi guys, I'm green to the whole posting thing so forgive me if I'm posting where I shouldn't. I had a question about the encounter with Erylium... Now, I've done a lot of reading in this blog on some of your encounters and MAN did that inspire my creativity! And it helped me make the encounter really fun by fixing some of the 'stuff' that made it challenging or annoying for the players. We finished our session last night and the group really enjoyed it. My groups is really getting into know how to up their chances in the fight! They had their weapons blessed by Father Zantus AND bought cold iron projectiles! NICE! Once in the Cathedral, the 'failed jedi' cleric raised his blessed ale flask to up everyone's stats, and noticing the quasit blip in an out of sight, he readied his cold iron bolt... rolled a 1, so I gave him a reflex save to avoid dropping it, rolled a 1... and into the pool of 'safe' water it went. Next turn he spent a hero point to heal the party, grab his crossbow, and ready himself again. This time he nailed her when she blipped in which royally pissed her off. Out come a giant spider and dire rat over the next two turns flanking the cleric and causing the players to really worry about this quasit. The room now has a near dead sinspawn and two summoned monsters plus a 'who knows where' demon. Sorry I'm rambling, out of summon spells the quasit sees her chance for fun. She slumber hexes the Vanayran monk, and commands the smiteful pally to a come to her as she hovers over the minor runewell. He has JUST enough movement to make this happen, and with two fail saves in a row the pally is now enraged and consumed with wrath. His immediate action was 12 points of damage against the half-orc barbarian using Tsuto's composite bow. And that's where we ended off... They are nervous but doing well with the challenge so far. My question is how long does the runewell's wrath effect last? The rage buff/effect is 2d6 minutes... But what about being consumed with wrath? I'm fine with just letting the 2d6 minutes be the duration for both, but 8 min in combat is looong. Can the PC be awoken from the wrath trance? What are your thoughts? |
