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My party latched onto the Viol in book 1 hard, they haven't found the note inside yet though. Should I award them if they still have it when they meet Erich Zann?

I was just commenting about what a missed opportunity this was to a friend/fellow GM. Something you find in Book 1, Scene 1 comes back to be useful and/or amazing in Book 6, Dying Scenes.

He laughed about it and said the party treasury player is so selling it when we hit the first town, not once thinking it may be significant. I agreed. If I had my way, the players would be too scared to sell things like this just in case it came back to be a plot hook.

Been wracking my noodle for ways to intimate that it might be more than just a bow-less Viol, and that they may be holding something of true value.

Looking for a little clarity on why the map of Katheer in Qadira: Gateway to the East (PZO9406) and Qadira: Jewel of the East (PZO9299) are so different in layout.

Specifically, the absence of the Azure Canal and the semi-circle of the Port of Katheer in the earlier book. Additionally, why change the old city areas of the early book into "ruins"? I know the text in Jewel does mention that some of the ruins are still the old city. Opportunity to do more as a GM and rely less on Paizo for details, I suppose.

I'm currently in Book 1 with a vigilante, and he has never left the vigilante persona. Not a lot of call for a secret identity.

Does it work? Sure, if you want to play a sub-optimal fighter.

And I don't know if it's a spoiler to say you are pursuing someone and don't stay in one place long enough to make a social identity worth your time, but there you go. My vigilante took the opposite of renown: obscurity.

Granted, he does expect to get flying at level 12, and took Avenger, so his BAB is fast, but come on, a fighter does the Vigilante Identity better and a bard or Rogue does the social better. And the whole party will be flying by level 6-8 with spells/magic/scrolls, etc...

I advised my player against playing a vigilante, and a paladin. Guess what he's playing? A vigilante acting like a paladin.

I was poking around all my CoC books, and had an idea to build up the Mythos side of things, my players might have (involuntary?) dream quests where they were investigators in a D20 Mythos adventure.

If they succumb to this, they are handed a character sheet for a random D20 investigator in some Mythos case, 1920s, 1990s Delta Green, what have you, that we can complete in short bursts. Whether they die or go insane it won't matter, this is the blurring of dimensional lines, not gambling with their own lives. I expect to keep the outside questlines short and interesting, largely to show how terrible dealing with the mythos is without destroying PCs permanently.

Anyway, the root of my question is this. The D20 Cthulhu Sourcebook from 2002(D&D v3.0 basis) has a number of great spells that have Sanity costs and ability damage costs and I'm thinking of trying to adapt them. I was debating changing the ability damage to fatigue or exhaustion, or keeping the ability damage and adding fatigue penalties.

Sample spell

I was considering adding them to books found and being ritual castings, rather than being on a spell list, so anyone could cast them, but would anyone? Such is the lure of forbidden knowledge.

We start Book 1 on Monday, and the Pathfinder/Cthulhu Kickstarter isn't due to ship until mid-month. Anyone have any "beta access" to let me know if my idea is in line with it? Are there any great leaps in making this work in a world where ability damage is a shrug and a wand of lesser restoration away from being dealt with?

Failing that, do you have any suggestions on applying this idea to a pathfinder campaign successfully? Has to have enough risk/reward to make it worth it.

Ah, so the OP lied to us? Interesting.

It would not have been a Black Blade if it was a Fighter, by the way, as that is a class feature of the Bladebound archetype for Magi. It would have been a normal intelligent magic weapon.
The GM overruling you making your save is a dick move.

Agreed. The weapon in question would nominally be a simple intelligent weapon, but the GM's vision was that Black Blades could be any weapon, in anyone's hands. A loose interpretation, agreed. However, it provided a "purpose" and I'm not going to say anything about that. My blade had a mission, I was helping it accomplish that when it aligned with party goals.

As for lying, that is a serious charge to level. I don't believe he lied. I just didn't feel all the information that led to this was available. Madokar is a good guy, and I don't think he would mislead with an eye to make himself look better.

Hi all, I know the thread has kind of died off but I feel I should offer some extra insights into the scenario.

I play the Black Blade Magus in question.

I have previously failed an ego check against the blade, 5 or 6 levels ago, and was compelled, by the intelligent weapon, to destroy another Black Blade. Yes, as was surmised, the story playing out with regard to this is a "highlander" scenario. At that time (5/6 levels ago) my eyes did not turn black. However I did kill the wielder in question, after offering the chance to yield before the fight started in earnest. The "black blade" was a halberd used by a fighter.

More recently, in fact the session in question, I did not fail a standard ego check. I rolled a 15 will save, which exceeded the 13 required. However, the GM saw fit to overrule that, in service to his story. I did not complain, I went with it, and engaged the dragon alone. Eyes black, not reasonable for BOTH contenders.

What I did not read in the description was that the dragon did initiate combat. After warning us not to open the door, which we ignored, the dragon used it's breath weapon on the party. All before the black blade had caused an issue. It was not a non-lethal warning breath weapon. The dragon was playing for keeps. The reason we ignored the warning? Because our Paladin was subject to a Geas spell to clear the temple complex. Why was he geased? He was being summarily punished in trumped up charges by the local city.

Other important notes here, with regard to the Paladin and the surprise of losing his class features, it was not without warning. On our arrival to the city, he was robbed by child pickpockets and punched one, lethally, and was warned by Iomedae, in his dreams that this was not okay. Further to this, we engaged in a fight with cultists of a dragon-like deity figure and he was coup de gracing sleeping or unconscious "bad guys" while there were still mobile and active foes to pay attention to. Another nocturnal visit from Iomedae to caution against this behaviour. (These dreams did take place between the player and the GM)

Back to the fight in question: The Magus (me) had been engaged with the dragon for 2 or 3 rounds, doing about 50 HP to the dragon. The Shaman, seeing I was not in control of my actions struck me with a spell that dazed me for 9 or so rounds. I was no longer making threatening motions, being dazed, and the Paladin saw it as his best option to continue to strike a target that was no longer threatening anything. The Silver Dragon on the other hand, continued it's assault on the Magus, with the assistance of the Paladin. The dragon also used a breath weapon on the whole party at one point during the fight with the Magus. Given this situation, I disagree with his contention that this action were the best of a bad lot. I do not think it bears scrutiny. The continued assault of the dragon after his foe was dazed, partnered with the paladin's continued attacks to subdue his own ally(dazed) parallels quite closely the previous warnings provided by the GM. Attacking unworthy/helpless foes is not OK.

Having said that, there seems to be a subplot ongoing where we have been given "gifts" that have changed us over the last 3 levels. In my case, I received pluses to base stats, damage reduction and elemental resistances as well as beginning to "fray at the edges" like I was turning ethereal slowly over time. This appears to be tied to my Black Blade intelligence being suborned by... something. The Paladin has been slowly transmuting into a creature of infernal or abyssal origin and the Shaman has been taking on undead-like qualities. I would not be surprised if the entire situation is tied to a story plot or long-game device that the GM has been working on for close to a year. I see no mention of the "gifts" the paladin has received in his description of the situation but Regen 5 for being a nice guy generally doesn't happen. Bills come due.

I'm looking at this situation as a "falls to rise" scenario and I am willing to let the GM see it through in service of the larger story. No GM no story, no story, no game. No game, sad me. For the record, I have played exactly 2 sessions more than Madokar with this group, though I have been a co-worker of the GM for 4 years now.

Edit: Spelling