Kot the Protector's page

This is lovely to see! Thank you so much for your hard work!

who put these tears in my eyes?

I won't forget the first time one of my fellows in a Pathfinder Lodge called my attention during their game to mention "hey! This gnome is non-binary!"

I won't forget the "aw yeahs" I heard myself chanting as I read about a trans man who helps spark a rebellion in a Pathfinder AP.

I won't forget the first time I learned about Arshea.

Paizo is doing some incredible work, and not just for me. Keep up the good work! I hope some of my work can do some good, too

I am in the early stages of a paid Carrion Crown adventure (my players are very excited for this adventure) and my excitement is mounting as I read through these forums.

I am enchanted by the idea of Adivion being an Occultist and I think I have hit upon something really exciting: the Haunt Collector archetype.

The powers are real cool, but the thing that is exciting me the most is the haunted implements letting him channel spirits connected to his implements. Hoping to gain a greater understanding of Tar Baphon, perhaps the one person Adivion might call a real peer, he collects relics from Tar-Baphon's secretive life and establishes something resembling a connection to the Whispering Tyrant. This can be represented as channeling the Lich spirit from Horror Adventures through a haunted implement.

But what if he had multiple haunted implements and was calling upon the lost souls of people from the whole campaign? Since he has taken the Carrion Crown the components he had collected might be considered close enough to an implement as part of his lich transformation that he can call upon some of the essence that remains of those used to craft the Carrion Crown.

Beyond the Carrion Crown he may have also collected implements from fallen agents.

While I am still in the process of building this version of Adivion I am very excited by the flavor of the build and the potential for callbacks I can plant in advance.

Had the honor of playing this with the author and I can assure you, this one is worth grabbing.

I loooooove this book, but I am gonna hold out some hope that there is a second one of these that features the Riftwardens and Blackfire Adepts!

While I could never fit all of these games into October alone, these are the scenarios I'm sending to my FLGS for consideration. Feel free to use this list:

#1: Silent Tide (1-5)
#5: Mists of Mwangi (1-5)
#6: Black Waters (1-5)
#7: Among the Living (1-7)
#24: Decline of Glory (1-7)
#35: Voice in the Void (1-7)
#36: Echoes of the Everwar Part 1: Prisoner of Skull Hill (7-11)
#42: Echoes of the Everwar Part 2: The Watcher of Ages (7-11)
#43: The Pallid Plague (1-7)
#44: Echoes of the Everwar Part 3: Terror at Whistledown (7-11)
#47: The Darkest Vengeance (1-5)
#49: Among the Dead (1-7)
#53: Echoes of the Everwar Part 4: The Faithless Dead (7-11)
#2-25: You Only Die Twice (5-9)
#3-07: Echoes of the Overwatched (1-5)
#3-15: The Haunting of Hinojai (5-9)
#3-16: The Midnight Mauler (3-7)
#3-22: The Temple of Empyreal Enlightenment (1-5)
#4-02: In Wrath's Shadow (3-7)
#4-03: The Golemworks Incident (5-9)
#4-08: The Cultist's Kiss (7-11)
#5-09: The Traitor's Lodge (3-7)
#5-23: Cairn of Shadows (5-9)
#6-06: Hall of the Flesh Eaters (1-5)
#6-23: The Darkest Abduction (7-11)
#7-19: Labyrinth of Hungry Ghosts (3-7)
#8-06: Reaping What We Sow (1-5)

You are definitely not alone in planning horror adventures!

I set up a kind of event last year, naming it Gobloween 2015, and we ran four horror modules. I plan on running more this year and writing a list of horror adventures for the local game store owner to consider putting on for the PFS crowd here!

This year I am running Emerald Spire Level 2: The Cellars, Feast of Ravenmoor, Carrion Crown part 1: The Haunting of Harrowstone, No Response from Deepmar, and I make it a tradition to run Carrion Hill just before Halloween every year!

EVERY ADVENTURE PATH IS IRON GODS NOW

Thank you so much, John! Best birthday present I could have asked for!

I'm excited to hear that Iron Gods sanctioning is getting closer! I can't wait to share this adventure path with my local lodge!

The novel Reign of Stars is definitely a great read for Iron Gods players!

Kul-Inkit would probably have more plans about uniting the tribes of Numeria than the complacent and drugged Kevoth-Kul did. She would probably be a powerful force, uniting the tribes of Numeria. The PCs might even start to get worried that she has plans of dominating more than Numeria if you want the campaign to take that kind of twist. I always saw Kul-Inkit as an ambitious type of person. I doubt she'd stop once she got the Numerian tribes together.

If the League has truly been decimated and Zenerbeth is not left to try and at least pick up pieces, then I imagine that technology will probably start leaking out of Numeria with people like the Pathfinder Society mounting expeditions and the Aspis Consortium running smuggling operations. If the League isn't there to stop them and others, I doubt that the barbarians of Numeria would have the aptitude for that much subterfuge and investigation. I see them as being much easier to steal from than the Technic League, and then tech starts falling into the hands of those who can't truly understand it, and before you know it there are inevitables walking Golarion trying to control the spread of the tech.

I have another question/problem:

My group just finished Ozmyn off and there is de facto no Leadership, as they also have gotten rid of Kevoth-Kul and the city is rioting right now. So what happens next? Will the population (and later on the other Barbarian tribes) accept Kul-Inkit as their new Leader? How will the city and Numeria as a whole react, if my PCs decide to disband the Technic League (one of many possibilities as they might chose to take the lead over themselves or to Zernebeth (whom they don't trust as of yet)). I would appreciate some ideas and suggestions on the general reaction of the population and the change in political scenery.

If Kevoth-Kul is dead and none of the PCs have made a claim to the throne, then Kul-Inkit would step in most likely to take her husband's place. It was her plan from the beginning, I believe.

If none of the PCs want to take control of the Technic League, then Zernebeth has wanted control of the League again after loosing it twice now. She is a canny person and will likely understand that the PCs may have some demands of her new regime, and will hopefully accommodate at least to their faces. She wants to study the Silver Mount more than anything, and the League's continued existence will help her do that.

It also may be good for Zenerbeth to bring up that the Technic League was really all that was keeping technology from the Silver Mount from leaving the country and spilling into a population that perhaps isn't prepared for it. She could sell herself as someone who would be more than happy to make sure that Golarion only finds this technology at a slow pace.

Thank you for the responses, Tonya! We appreciate the feedback, and it feels good to know that us Iron Gods fanatics have not been forgotten. We're just on the wait-list for now.

I'll be playing this adventure for the rest of my life, but once it is sanctioned I will run it for my local lodge over and over regardless of how many replays I have left.

I made it clear in the fight with Meyanda that she had some doubts about Hellion after all, but only for a moment before the fight began. Thankfully, that was all my PCs needed.

They took her alive and fixed the reactor, and when she came to she was given the chance to confront Hellion with her questions when the party would go to Starfall. She ended the campaign as a cohort and went into the final battle with the PCs.

Sanvil was also taken alive and given to the Torch Council, who made him promise to provide information on the Technic League and he was sentenced to community service on the recommendation of the PCs. This led him to assisting Garrit Burwaddle in the junkyard, and him accidentally saving Burwaddle's life when he came to show Sanvil a remarkably in-tact technological device (Sanvil immediately recognized was an activating inferno grenade). Throwing the grenade off the side of the hill and saving Burwaddle made him a small town hero, much to his disgust.

Having the League cometo Torch was something I did just as they PCs had returned to Torch after returning from book 4. Zaidow sent several remote-controlled Myrmidons, one with a hologram projector with Zaidow broadcasting, to ask the PCs to publicly swear allegiance to the League for all of Torch to see.

This event came on the heels of the PCs finding the organization that they had built (called the Torchbearers) was being divided into two factions: those who think that the League is too powerful to oppose right now and should be at least appeased if not outright supported by the Torchbearers and those who have either lost property, homes, friends, or family to the League's depredations and had had enough of their tyranny.

The PCs managed to placate the mob just in time for Zaidow to sent a flight of Myrmidons to strong-arm the PCs publicly. Unfortunately, the PCs did not roll high enough to keep the crowd quiet, and one soldier threw a spear at Zaidow's hologram.

Zaidow was about to order the Myrmidons to attack the crowd when my wife's character offered herself as a kind of "prize" (she was a member of the White Scar tribe, and had been offered to Zaidow as a potential wife in the past). Zaidow, enjoying the idea of having one of Numeria's up and coming heroes as a personal thrall proved too enticing, and Zaidow took her with him.

One PC defied her decision and tried to attack the Myrmidons, only to have his weapon bounce off the hardness and Zaidow order one building be made example of. After my wife's character was taken and they had retrieved any innocents in the burning building, tensions got hot between that PC at the soldier who threw the spear. He took blood from one of the dead and rubbed it on the face of the soldier, calling it the blood of those who died because of you. When the soldier tried to fight back with punches, the PC made an effort to not only block the attacks, but break the hands that he punched with.

The players then began book 5 from within and without Starfall, and things only got more interesting as the PCs in Torch tried to reach Starfall and gather info, and my wife's character made her escape from the Technic League compound.

The League adds drama, suffice to say, but be careful where you put them...

The player's guide is indispensable with this task. As everyone else has said, it is an important read here. There are quite a few interesting directions to take with your character in this particular AP:

How does your character appreciate technology? Does anything more advanced than crossbows and pulley systems worry them? Are they fascinated by the possibilities of such advanced tools and weaponry? How your character reacts to tech is a vital part of your character in this AP. While it can lower the amount of loot you feel you are getting, it does eventually balance out if your allies are working with you to make sure the wealth is distributed.

How does your character feel about the Technic League? Do they respect, fear, or hate the League? Has the League wronged them personally or someone they know? Has the League had no effect on their life? How would they feel about the League's practices of slavery and meaningless sacrificing of sentient lives to simply test out some cool iron boots they found in a wreck? How would they react to the very real and terrifying powers that they League wields with all of this technology at their disposal? The League is a major bogeyman in this AP, so nailing down how your character feels about them is also important.

Who does your character worship and how do they view divinity? This is a somewhat intimidating question, but a necessary one. This AP, while being very Sci-Fi, found a grand way to make Fantasy come into the fold of Sci-Fi, and the nature of divinity itself is made somewhat fuzzy. How your character understands divinity is very abstract, but may help you deal with things to come...

I second that Hetuath is a deadly foe for any parties who haven't hit level 2 by the time they meet him, and they typically would find him after several resources have been spent and they are starting to look a little winded. Hetuath nearly TPK'd my group, but a Black Butterfly-influenced deus ex machina saved the party from certain doom. We had only just started!

In book 2 I had my second death at the hands of Kulgara, and she nearly wiped the party on the second fight with her. Some karmic justice (the final blow being a crit from the weapon of the person she killed) brought it to a lovely conclusion. Hellion was a bit more than the party knew what to do with, but just as he was about to escape (will try harder to do this next run) he was destroyed by his greatest priest Meyanda, who the party had slowly been showing the larger world and one PC pursued a romantic interest in her.

Book 3 saw my third death (the above player's second character) from one too many concussion grenades being tossed at her in the Aurora.

Book 4 the PCs gained some steam, but did have trouble with the cleric deep in the base at the end.

Book 5 nearly saw a wipe of not only the PCs, but the final bosses, as the plasma ooze the PCs had contained for a minute or so finally burst into the room to devour everyone. PCs, kytons, Ozmyn Zaidow, everyone was on the menu. They all managed to escape, Zaidow headed to book 6, while Zernebeth quietly walked past the escaping PCs and cast a teleport on the ooze, who failed its save, and was teleported right about the head of the current queen of Irrisen. My players have vowed to include that moment if they run Reign of Winter.

Book 6 has seen some close calls, and the final battle is already looking pretty hairy with one near-death avoided, but we'll see if the whole adventure was for everything or for nothing!

My players had a fantastic time with the Choking Tower, as far as I could tell.

SO excited for Halloween this year! I've started running spooky adventures for my local players. So far we've had dark times in the Midnight Mirror (the ending of which actually might have jerked some tears), and we just did From Shore to Sea (I had one player, a Taldan noble proud of her Azlanti heritage, sweating for a lot of this adventure)! Tears at Bitter Manor will be played in full over two weekends and we will be ending with either Feast of Ravenmoor or the classic Carrion Hill! My October will be quite busy!

I also have used Prestige to purchase the Riftwardens vanity from Pathfinder Society Field Guide. That one did seem like a good choice.

I am just now noticing that there isn't much printed about the organization. But from what I can tell it is meant to be a fairly wide organization, and spells like dismissal and banishment are likely very important spells for them to know. Spiritualists can learn these spells, just late in their career.

I had her take Skill Focus (Knowledge [planes]) as her half-elf bonus feat. It seemed like the kind of thing that Riftwardens might do.

I've been a little wary about going into the prestige class (although it would be perfect) because the prestige class has little synergy with the spiritualist class. Her phantom would stop growing in power, her spellcasting gets a bit stunted, and it requires a feat that she would get very little use out of.

That being said, I'm still considering taking it after level 10...

Hello folks! I have a pretty simple question; what options are available for Pathfinder Society characters to reflect their membership in the Riftwardens and/or what might people suggest for a Spiritualist who wants to be a Riftwarden?

I have a spiritualist character who is also a member of the Riftwardens and I'd like to try and reflect that in not only her stats, but her gear and her mannerisms.

Are there any good sources to learning about the Riftwardens, or any magic items that are used typically by Riftwardens? Are the Riftwardens in the Faction Guide?

You may consider upping the difficulty if you have a fifth player, as Adventure Paths typically assume four characters with a 15 point buy. Making it a 20 point buy will not break the game, but if you have 5 players you should consider keeping it at 15 point buy.

If the players still handle themselves very well and the game seems like it's getting too easy, the advanced template can be a great friend to have. It changes little about the creature while making it much more potent, and this should be used with a bit of caution.

No problem! I love this AP and look forward to helping anyone else enjoy as much as I have!

One more bit I have been thinking about for a few hours comes up in book 1. The players are invited to gamble at Silverdisk Hall, but what exactly can be done is quite ambiguous. So I looked into some of my books a found a few games that could be offered to play. The most straightforward yet exciting option comes from the Gamemastery Guide section on gambling: Twentybone.

Also I remembered that the first book of the Second Darkness AP includes a gambling hall as well, but lists four games that are played in the hall and how to run them. They can easily be reskinned for other settings and could be used in Silverdisk Hall to make it really feel like a gambling hall and not a waste of time.

For reference, in the Gamemastery Guide, Twentybone and suggestions for gambling rules are on pages 240-241. In the first book of Second Darkness, Shadow in the Sky, the games are listed on pages 57-59.

First off, EXCELLENT choice of Adventure Path! Personally, I will never stop running this adventure. Soon as my current group is finished, I have another group waiting. I hope you and your players have as much fun as we have had!

But onto some other things;

One of the first real boss fights in Fires of Creation, as the end of the Habitat Module, there is a particularly nasty fight with an undead creature who nearly wiped my party because they had not yet hit level 2. Going up against him as a level 1 is dangerous, but there is plenty of opportunity for the party to gather some XP before heading into that fight.

Play up the tech! This is the only adventure path where you get to use technology from beyond Golarion! Do NOT let your players read the The Guide, for it will not only spoil things, but it will remove the magic from the discovery of tech. Don't just say "you find a laser pistol" but put it as, "you pick up what reminds you of the firearms from Alkenstar, but the frame is sleek and the grip feels more natural. The casing is scorched and chipped, clearly ages old, and it sparks on occasion." Let them experiment with the items to find out what they do. By book 5 they should be very familiar with lots of tech and how it works and its basic principles, but let it be magical for the first few books!

In book 5, maybe consider how many of the gearsman in the adventure have rocket launchers, and maybe have a few of them not carry them. My players would have rocked many things far too easily if they got the launchers quick enough. There are many, MANY, rocket launchers to pick up, so be careful about how many get into the hands of the players, as it could get chaotic and out of control pretty fast.

Give some careful thought into how to roleplay an android. The heroes will meet a few in the adventure, and they can be fascinating and somewhat frustrating conversation partners.

Give hints that some of the villains early on can be moved towards better ends. Don't simply roleplay them as bad guys to take down, but people who've made choices that are hurting them in the long run. Just killing all of the villains would have really ruined a lot of my home game. Two of the major villainous characters in the first book are still alive in my game, and have even begun romantic relations with some characters, and quickly been taken on as cohorts with Leadership!

If you play music, find some good tracks to use! I use Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed 2 and 3, Metal Gear Solid, Portal, Halo, Metroid Prime, and Fallout music in my games, and they really help with the personality of the adventure. Find some music that helps highlight the fantasy, the tech, and the mystery of it all!

On the topic of music, also consider using Syrinscape's Sci-Fi player for some excellent sci-fi sound effects!

Encourage the players NOT to be Kasatha, as it requires you to rewrite a few things about the campaign later on and could be difficult to work into the game easily.

The Technic League is one of the major villains in the campaign, so show them for the bastards that they are. Show their cruelty, their might as a political power, and their reach and technological prowess. You have plenty of villains to use!

I should probably leave this here before I write a whole essay on this AP, but I really hope you guys have lots of fun with it!

My group skipped a fight by not finding it, and thus were still level 1 when they reach Hetuath. Unfortunately, some bad luck on their part and excellent rolling on Hetuath's part put the PC's in danger of being wiped out. I had to pull a Deus Ex Machina to get them out to fight another day, but they came back with full resources and beat him on the second try.

Hetuath can be a tough fight, especially if the PCs haven't hit level 2 yet, and are possibly tired and missing resources from dealing with the habitat module.

One of my clever players has prepared an android kinetisist, focusing on lightning blasts and infusions. He has even thought of five previous lives that this android has undergone, and a catastrophic Technic League experiment that forced his reincarnation from the fifth incarnation to their current one, a transformation that shook not only their soul, but their body.

Now the electrical currents in their constructed body and the nanites in their blood are more erratic and powerful, manifesting in bolts of lightning that this android (who simply calls themselves Six, spelling it VI) has a growing degree of control over. Their powers will grow as they explore them, and their supposed transformation into the seventh incarnation may have been stunted by this development in their cycle of death and rebirth.

I'm excited to see how this plays out!

I have several soundtracks that I use for separate books on Iron Gods.

As a kind of "main theme" for the Iron Gods campaign, I use Metroid Prime 2's title theme.

When running Fires of Creation, I like to jump right into the sci-fi with music from Mass Effect 1, 2, and 3. They have good atmosphere and a sense of mystery that works well for starting a Numerian campaign.

When running Lords of Rust, I like using the soundtrack from Fallout 3. It has a lot of wasteland run-down tech vibes that compliment the images of navigating Scrapwall.

For the third book, the Choking Tower, I found that the soundtracks for Assassin's Creed 2 and 3 worked well for keeping the theme sound sci-fi while giving a more fantasy feel that works well in Iadenveigh and the Smokewood. When navigating the Choking Tower, I actually used some music from the Metal Gear Solid franchise. The tracks from Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops had a strong industrial feel that I thought worked well with a more steampunk part of the adventure.

In Valley of the Brain Collectors, I still used some Fallout 3 music for exploring the large and mostly empty valley, and when things started getting weird, I pulled out the Dead Space soundtracks!

In Palace of Fallen Stars, Metal Gear Solid soundtracks became much more useful. The industrial tech atmosphere of the music was followed by some great battle themes. Metal Gear Solid 4's soundtrack was a great backdrop to the final chapter of the book and it's exciting conclusion!

Finally, in The Divinity Drive, I found myself falling back to more Mass Effect, and mixing in lots of Metroid Prime soundtracks. The Prime music has a lot of mystery and darkness so it carries most of the encounters well!

Dang, why aren't you guys in Bloomington, Indiana?! This looks like a jolly crew!

Hello everyone! I have a question for my game as we have just finished Palace of Fallen Stars.

Zaidow got very smart in the first fight, and after they smacked him around quickly and suddenly in his personal chambers he retreated to meet with Gryne and her kyton allies. He convinced them to aid him in a final stand against the PCs, assuring that destroying them will help both of the groups (Unity and the Chapel of Rent Flesh) realize a common goal.

All but Krimox and Zaidow were slain, many of the heroes were wounded and tired, and the plasma ooze that the heroes accidentally let out by turning off the generators to the area. The ooze burst into the fight, and the heroes had already seen the ravenous mass consume a kyton in a matter of seconds, so the heroes fled the room, hoping to leave the plasma ooze with Zaidow and Krimox and let them fight each other. However, Krimox made his Knowledge (dungeoneering) check to recognize the power of such a creature and urged that they escape if their goal was to become reality. So Zaidow used his teleport spell to evacuate them both to Silver Mount to fight the heroes another day.

So my question is this: where do they end up in the next book? I have found only that Zaidow's morale entry claims that he retreats to the Silver Mount and to look to the next book for more details, but I have found no details.

Does Zaidow appear in The Dvinity Drive in any place of my choice? Or is there a more specific place that the book says he should appear in?

Can't wait to meet Ben this year!

I found that the chronicle sheet for scenarios like Fires of Karamoss and Return to Sky gaveme a lot of hope for how Iron Gods chronicle sheets could appear. Fires of Karamoss has a LOT of tech on the chronicle sheet, but nearly all of it is timeworn and several are partially charged, keeping the power of the items in check and making them more affordable.

Those could be great examples of how a chronicle sheet for Iron Gods could be written!

Any GM who uses any degree of sound in their games NEEDS this program. I've been using it for home games and PFS for months now, and my players always seem to have a good time and recall the adventures fondly. Accompany this program with music to play along with the mood (although many of the sound sets include music) and you can transport your players to towns, dripping wet dungeons, haunted houses, stormy beaches, and even dragon battles!

The "DC 20 + double implantation" is an error. That was the original formula I used, but it became apparent that it was too restrictive and instead I switched to an ad hoc method of simply assigning the implantation value as felt appropriate for the device.

The install DCs listed per item are correct.

The newest printing of the Tech Guide omits the error.

Thank you muchly Mr. Jacobs!

Is there any ruling for whether actually implanting the device requires a facility/special equipment or if it just requires that the patient bite a towel while their friend with a good Heal skill slices their skull open to get to their brain?

Hello happy people, a player of mine and I are a little confused by some odd wording in the Technology Guide, specifically the Cybertech section.

The first question I have is the Install DC. The text on page 35 claims that the DC is 20 + double the cybertech's implantation value. But as I looked through the cybertech entries a few of them did not follow this rule. Should I use the 20 + double implantation value or just stick to the specific entry's DC? (for example, the Mark II, IV, and V Dermal Plating install DCs do not follow this rule)

Second, does installing the cybertech require a facility? I think it should, as most player character don't have the medical tools you might need for installation (even if they take the feat Craft Cybertech). I know that they require a manufacturing lab to craft them, but I would imagine a medical lab or at least some kind of medical equipment would be needed.

I have a confession: one of my PCs in PFS is practically stolen from the NPC Codex. The entry for the fighter Flenta Casalina struck me as so much fun that I couldn't help but take it and make it my own. The fighter who wants to become a wizard but makes up for her lack of magical potential by using magical devices to feign magic talent sounded like roleplay gold and super useful too!

Unfortunately I have been having difficulty naming her anything other than Flenta Casalina, the name just fits her too well.

One of my players nearly died at Birdfood's fight, he full attacked and rapid shot the half-elf character and did exactly the number of damage needed to kill her, but she had enough Hero Points to save herself.

Kulgara nearly caused a TPK twice. On one occasion she one shot three party members in two rounds. She's quite the beast. They did try to break down the door to the processor and ended up being attacked by the orcs, dark stalker, ettin, and Kulgara while they were all confined to the tiny hallway. Thy did break the door down but then had to fight the four observer robots on top of everything else.

I just got the update (1.6.0) and it doesn't seem to want to open. After I got the update combat manager would start, but my task manager would tell it was not responding. I closed it, uninstalled it (had my custom data backed up) reinstalled it, and it didn't seem to fix the problem. I restarted my computer with the newly installed 1.6.0 but it still wouldn't start completely. I uninstalled the program, restarted my computer, then reinstalled it, and it still would not start.

I have reinstalled the previous version but Ithought I should let you know that the 1.6.0 version was giving me trouble with startup.

I try my best to craft the experience with tactics, vivid descriptions, snark from the NPCs, letting the PCs snark back, and making sure that I build something that makes the heroes feel like they have truly overcome something important and powerful.

Naturally all of this can be difficult if the PCs look at their numbers and shrug at whatever stands before them as a talking armor class with hit points, but not all players are like that.

I didn't think about having the PCs create defenses for Torch against the Technic League, that was very clever of your players!

I think that those Fame rewards make a lot of sense, they all seem to work well for rewarding the PCs for their choices and accomplishments.

Have you ever thought of making a list of Iron Gods-specific uses for Prestige?

./' Go, go, Prism Strikers! ./'

*epic guitar riff*

Incidentally, I do have a guitar riff prepared for when they face the final boss of the AP.

An interesting way of somewhat literally binding the party together and encouraging teamwork. Where are you going with the items' history? Who are the previous owners and how do they relate to Iron Gods? And most importantly, when do they each summon a giant robot that fuses together for a more giant robot?

The items belonged to original crew members of the Divinity. Specifically they belonged to a group of elite soldiers called the Prism Strikers. They are devices built to ensure greater cooperation between soldiers to make them a more unified force on a battlefield. These owners, as the memories the heroes watch will tell them, were among the first to understand that Unity was up to something (suggesting that Unity may have been corrupted by the Dominion of the Black forces long before they attacked them) and they were able to stop Unity from causing the annihilation of Divinity itself, allowing it to participate in the battle with the Dominion of the Black and then crash onto Golarion.

The heroes will get a little boost from the lost souls of these soldiers when they finally face Unity.

I have made the choice to use the Fame and Reputation campaign system from Ultimate Campaign (pages 180-185) as a shorthand for how well people probably already know the heroes when they continue their adventures, and to give the heroes a few extra edges to use in this adventure path (my party has nearly wiped about 3 times so far).

So far, here is the list of things I have placed down for Fame increases. I'm wondering if completing Fires of Creation with 12 fame seems reasonable to everyone else? I looked closely at the kinds of things that increase fame, and found that most of the encounters they completed did not grant as much fame as I originally suspected.

Character Level +4
Rescued Val Khonnir +1
Brought back Parda’s and Gerrol’s bodies +1
Rescued Khonnir Baine +1
Received posted reward from Torch’s Council +1
Survived four expeditions below Black Hill +1
Turned the Torch back on +3

Current Fame Score: 12

I did not add +1 for discovering the purpose of Black Hill's habitat module because I assumed that they wouldn't tell anyone about it. (with one of the PCs knowing what the Technic League will do should they hear of it) I also assumed they would have kept the discovery of the Power Relay under wraps, so I did not include that either. I am still shaky on whether saving Val Khonnir from the robot at the beginning of the adventure would be worth a Fame increase. I also didn't add any bonuses for completing difficult encounters because none of them were the party's APL+3 in CR.

Does all this seem fair? Is there anything I should adding? They did get Garmen Ulreth and his Ropefists behind bars and they did oust Sanvil Trett as a member of the Technic League.

Hello folks! My party just finished Fires of Creation (with a lot of close calls and near-death-experiences, Hetuath I'm look'n at you) and they are about to move onto Lords of Rust. However, as I like to do, I added a bit to this adventure path:

Before the adventure began, after the PCs had met each other, they noticed a strange blinking light in the Numerian plains outside of Torch. They naturally decided to investigate, and found a long metal shaft of skymetal extending from beneath the earth. A soft, spherical blinking light pulsed quietly on top of the rod, but they couldn't find anything strange about the rod or light themselves.

So they had the warpriest usehis heavy pick to dig out a pod made of more skymetal. The pod was originally carved in a circular shape, but was worn, plates had scraped off, and much of it was dented or sheared away from some great impact.

After some fiddling, the heroes managed to pry open the broken panels that originally would have slid open for them to find that the inside was insulated from whatever impact had taken place. The interior was lit, and contained a steel box with a handle on it (a steel briefcase) that the heroes cautiously opened and found inside four metal rods. The colors of the rods seemed to change as they looked at them from shifting perspectives, and were cold to touch.

Without warning, the four metal rods melted into liquid that seemed to move of its own accord and ran itself to the left forearms of the heroes, where it took shape as a strange gauntlet and dug several long needles into the arms of the heroes, fusing with their nerve systems.

I took the idea from the Pathfinder's Journal in the Fires of Creation book, and have been slowly revealing more details about the gauntlets, which upon casting technomancy the heroes know are officially called "Prism Striker's Companions".

They've been having to conceal these for most of the adventure, as the Technic League would LOVE to slice off their arms to take them back to Starfall for study (as our shaman who escaped from the White Scar tribe told everyone).

They've slowly figured out that the gauntlets needed power, and that charged silverdisks (batteries) can charge them. When finally given enough power to function, they can expend charges to give the heroes teamwork feats for a short time. They can also speak into them and communicate as if via a message spell.

Not only that, but they have also apparently been projecting the memories of the previous owners into the heroes' dreams.

Something I thought I'd add to the campaign to give the heroes more information about the backstory of the adventure, and I think they appreciate it.

I am so excited for this con, we're gonna have a blast! Hopefully meet some new faces for the local PFS lodge too!

Being a Druman Blackjacket might mean you join the Exchange, considering that you come from a nation called the "merchant's religious paradise". Just a suggestion.

I guess because the item itself is an "axe musket", which is a two-handed firearm first and foremost, I suppose it doesn't count for blackblade stuff. Darn.

Would totally do this for a home game if the GM let me.

Thanks for all the input everyone!

I often will have my Aldori Swordlord use the total defense action before moving up to striking range if the foes are many or have reach. It's a standard action, so you get one move action in that same round. I like to sue it when I know I'm walking into a place that will have people attacking me. That dodge bonus will definitely allow you to defend against ranged attacks.

You could, in theory, have total defense up at all times. It would mean that you cannot take any attacks of opportunity, gain a dodge bonus to your AC (which would go away when you're flat-footed), and restrict you to slower but more cautious movement.

If a character was walking around with total defense "on" at all times in town I would probably have NPCs point out that he is being pretty paranoid walking around slowly with his hands up in a defensive position, looking around with wide eyes.

I have a funny feeling I know the answer to this question, but I love the concept so much that I thought I would get a second opinion.

I have a PFS who is about to get his blackblade as part of his Bladebound archetype. This character is a tiefling born in Numeria who escaped his tribe and the Technic League to find the safety of the Pathfinder Society.

I wanted his battleaxe to be (flavorfully) a slightly high-tech-looking axe. I wanted the axe to "awaken" after I leveled up in a scenario called Trial by Machine. The axe awakens after the strange stirring take place in the scenario and would activate an AI inside the axe.This would be the intelligence inside the axe as part of the bladebound archetype.

My question is this: can I make this blackblade an axe musket?

The axe musket claims that the weapon is both a musket and a battleaxe. The blackblade needs to be a one-handed slashing weapon (or rapier or sword cane). A battleaxe is a one-handed slashing weapon.

I thought that the flavor of this was excellent but I am not sure it would be feasible for Society play.

Thoughts?