I was wondering if any other GM's have any experience or advice about how to implement the Party Crashers feat with Night of the Gray Death. Per the text of the feat, it honestly seems like Party Crashers completely negates the entire first chapter of the Adventure.
I get that Party Crashers is probably more intended for sandbox style games where gaining access to parties and such is more of a means to an end and streamlines that process, and I like the feat quite a bit. I'm honestly a little surprised there wasn't a sidebar or something in the adventure text to address this feat, as it had been available for quite a while before Night of the Gray Death was published.
I have a PC with the Dandy archetype, and Party Crashers is absolutely perfect for his character, and I don't want to just nix it, so I'd like to think of some benefits taking the feat could convey without just eliminating the entire first chapter. Here's my current idea: It provides a +1 circumstance bonus to checks related to acquiring an invitation, and they can't Critically Fail. I was wondering if anyone had any other suggestions for benefits in this case.
Catalyst: Mi-Go Evisceration (and, this being the player’s first character ever, he also learned a valuable lesson about using CON as a dump stat. Seriously. He had 6 CON)
The Gory Details:
Spoiler:
I added some encounters to explain the Heat Wave present at Rickety’s Squibs, because in the module a mere week before there was a huge storm in the area. So I added a fight between some Mi-Go and a Sea Hag, where the Hag was using the heat wave to roast out the Mi-Go, Rickety’s Squibs was just caught in the middle.
The Mi-Go were using a plant/device known as a Star Beacon to summon more of it’s kind, and every night there was a huge beam of light piercing out of the jungle.
The PC’s went to investigate, didn’t scout, and just charged the Mi-Go. It did not go well.
Character: Rhyzen
Race/Class: Human Druid (Aquatic) 4
Location: The Jungles north of Rickety’s Squibs
Catalyst: Eaten by a Tendriculous
The Gory Details:
Spoiler:
Same encounter as poor Jon above. The party learned a valuable lesson about scouting. The druid went into the Jungle to investigate something strange didn’t prepare Greensight, or Eagle Eye, or Speak With Animals, or any other spell that would have helped with scouting.
So, while the rest of the party was up dealing with the Mi-Go, nobody saw the Tendriculous hiding in the foliage to the left. It came out right next to the druid, Whack, Grab, Bite, Swallow Whole, Dead Druid.
Character: Fei
Race/Class: Human Barbarian 7
Location: Fort Smolder, Merrill Peggsworthy’s base on The Smoker (I did this when I hadn’t read far enough ahead to realize he was supposed to be based on Firegrass Isle)
Catalyst: Magmalodon (Dire Shark with the Fire Creature template)
The Gory Details:
Spoiler:
Due to a PC’s backstory, we ended up getting an Aboleth introduced to the AP wayyyy earlier than as written. This Aboleth had taken over Tidewater Rock and Merril Peggsworthy, and ambushed the PC’s there. They managed to free most of the people dominated by this Aboleth, but unfortunately Merril died in the process. The PC’s, smelling an opportunity, went to take his fort, not knowing The Smoker was guarded by The Magmalodon, a stonking great incorporeal Dire Shark made of fire. It would come up THROUGH the ship, catching everything on fire, and deliver spring attack bite attacks on the poor hapless crew. Fei managed to draw its aggro, allowing the others to do enough damage (and keep the ship from burning to the water) but Fei didn’t make it. RIP.
Character: Malorie
Race/Class: Human Oracle 8 (Dual Curse, Winter/Fire)
Location: Haekle's Dry Berth in Quent
Catalyst: Aspis Consortium Hit-squad
The Gory Details:
Spoiler:
The party decided to ransom the captain of the Truewind back to the Aspis Consortium, which got them on their radar. After weeks of intermittent scrying (which the party ignored), the regional leader of the Consortium made them an offer: Come to Bloodcove, pay me 25,000 gold, and all will be forgiven. You can guess what the players said to that…
So, a week later, while making Infamy rolls in a bar in Quent, they were jumped by an Aspis Hit Squad, that opened with Cloud Kill, and sent in their Trox Vivisectionist Alchemist who proceeded to wreck their s#$*. Malorie dropped fast to a longspear full attack with sneak attack from 20 feet away. The CON damage didn’t help.
Character: Orin
Race/Class: Undine Monk 8
Location: Haekle's Dry Berth in Quent
Catalyst: Aspis Consortium Hit-squad
The Gory Details:
Spoiler:
Orin could have gotten away. But he thought his AC was high enough that the hit squad wouldn’t be able to catch him. In addition, he assumed (correctly) that after the opening salvo of kill-spells, this hit squad of all casters wouldn’t be able to keep up. But, a lucky roll from the Trox alchemist undid him, and he dropped next to his captain, Malorie.
Character: Orin
Race/Class: Undine Monk 8
Location: The Island of Empty Eyes/Chellish Fort
Catalyst: Paeta the Phase Spider
The Gory Details:
Spoiler:
The party recovered the Immortal Dreamstone and returned it to Bikendi, who immediately started the ritual. Unfortunately, they never bothered to deal with Paeta and her gang. The Animate Dreams dropped Fear in the first round, and everybody but Orin failed their save. The phase spiders started grappling the Oracle (who was currently possessed by Bikendi and was attempting to do the ritual) to wrest away the Dreamstone. Orin took several incorporeal touch attacks and was in bad shape, but Bikendi managed to hand of the Dreamstone to him and he ran back to the ship.
Monks, as you know, can run pretty fast, and it took a little while for the Paeta to catch up. Orin hid underneath the ship for a few minutes, basically just long enough for Paeta to catch up and start searching the ship. If he’d just stayed where he was until everyone else got back, he’d have been fine. But he came out from under his hiding spot and went on deck. Just as he spotted the rest of the party on the beach, Peata sneack attacked from behind, killing him instantly. She took the Immortal Dreamstone and left, never to be seen again.
Kieren was with the party all of 15 minutes, having been teleported to the ship by their Aspis Consortium handlers. The party was irked at having this new crew member foisted on them, and were like “well, we’re about to get some sunken treasure, let’s see what you can do.”
Turns out what he can do is get eaten by sharks. The two Dire Sharks swim out of the darkness (attracted to the light as they searched for the sunken temple) and immediately hit Kieren with a bite/grab/swallow whole. He got one lighting bolt off before they were on him.
Fortunately the Aspis Consortium footed the bill for the Raise Dead.
My campaign has a background plot using characters from a previous campaign. A few years back a friend GM'd a game where we tried to get into the highest ranks of the Aspis Consortium. We ended with a PC being in charge of the Shackles/Sargava region, headquartered out of Blood Cove.
When the PC's in S&S took a Aspis Consortium ship in Book 2, they got on this former PC's radar, who sent kill squads after them. Eventually this lead to a near-TPK, and the NPC made them an offer they couldn't refuse: Do missions for me and you'll be allowed to live.
The NPC quickly realized The Shackles was rife for takeover, Bonefist was easy prey, so she just tasked the PC's with becoming the new Hurricane King. So, as far as the module plot goes, not much has changed.
HOWEVER, the PC's aren't super keen on being a puppet king, and still rankle at the ambush that got them into this situation in the first place. So if we continue after the modules, it will most likely be going after this puppet master in Bloodcove.
I see your point, but I'm not entirely convinced they were referring explicitly to the humanoid subtype in the grapple rules.
By your logic, a vampire would only need one hand to grapple, because it's not a humanoid, it's an undead.
I think in this case, they meant the non-mechanical definition of humanoid "having an appearance or character resembling that of a human."
In this sense, I would say a Xill counts as humanoid, it has a torso, a head, legs, and arms, it just happens to have an extra set of arms. One could accurately and quickly describe it by saying "Like a human but with an extra set of arms"
This still gives the Xill an advantage, as it is much easier for a Xill to have 2 hands free compared to a human.
The more I think about it, the more I am convinced the +16 Grapple refers to the "all claws, no swords" version of the Xill.
A Xill normally has 2 short swords, a shield, and 1 hand to do claw attacks.
Presumably, the free hand is to make use of their Grab ability.
The grapple rules say "Humanoid creatures without two free hands attempting to grapple a foe take a –4 penalty on the combat maneuver roll."
The Grab ability says: "The creature has the option to conduct the grapple normally, or simply use the part of its body it used in the grab to hold the opponent."
I'm assuming "conduct the grapple normally" implies having two free hands?
If I'm reading all this correctly, if a default Xill starts a grapple with its Grab, it's CMB is +12, unlike the +16 it says in the stat block, yes?
Lucianthe
Tork Shaw 854
