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I just ran the Last part of the cabin encounter.

A reasonably balanced party of 5: Cleric, evoker, druid, barbarian/ninja, unchained rogue. 20 pt builds, a stronger party so I keep them one level lower than they should be. Skilled, careful players but not huge powergamers.

The cabin's save dcs on the haunts were to low to hurt the party, but the haunts were successfully creepifying. The party talked to Silas and decided to search for his brother's bones. The druid cast a control weather spell to stop the snowstorm. The wendigo won the caster-level roll off that I did secretly, but ended the snow to lure the pcs out.

The ghost fight went very badly for the party. The ghost criticalled the cleric, doing a lot of con damage, and the worm finished him off. The party killed them fairly quickly. The evoker decided to teleport the party back to civilization. I had decided the wendigo would be able to cast dispel magic 3x day, and he dispelled the spell as she cast it. The wendigo now changed the weather back to blizzard conditions. The PCs could not see or use their air walk due to the high wind, so they tied themselves together with the druid in front, who used her survival skill and find the path as the PCs took a three hour slog through deep snow.

The wendigo made a flyby attack, severing the druid's rope. Next round, it flew by again and grabbed the druid, taking her up 200 feet over the next two rounds and dropping her. The one change I made is I did give the wendigo dispel magic 3x day. It dispelled the air walk on the druid and dropped her. She used wild shape to transform into a eagle, and managed to deal with the buffetting winds and and with little damage.

Back at the cabin the party decided to bring out the bones and give them to Silas' ghost instead of attempting a umd to raise the cleric. The enraged wendigo ripped off the porch door and howled, sending the druid, her animal companion, and the barbarian/ninja running down the stairwell in the cabin. The rogue and evoker held their own, using fire spells and a cold iron magic dagger.

Meanwhile the panicked party members run out the front door and are attacked by the undead pine tree. The flee back inside, and the panic ends as the tree rips the walls apart and attacks them. They run back upstairs to join the wendigo fight, rightly judging it to be critical.

They arrive as the wendigo rips open the wall of the cabin closest to the bones of Silas' brother. The tiger companion, barbarian/ninja and rogue all attack the wendigo as the wizard and druid drop spells on it, having a lot of trouble with the high SR. The wendigo bullrushes the party back from the bones, and grabs them. The pcs try to finish the creature off, but fails, and it retreats into the storm, mocking their failure.

At this point, the tree monster breaks through the wall on the other side of the cabin. It's climbed up and as the blizzard howls, the exhausted party throws the last of their magic against the undead creature. It pounds the barbarian/ninja and the druid to death before being burnt to a crisp by the evoker.

With 3 PCs down, the party uses their emergency recall spell to return to civilization.

So, what will the wendigo do to prepare for the pcs return? I might have him abduct and transform local shoanti heroes into undead servants. I want something new to challenge the players when they return loaded for bear. . . I mean wendigo.

Hi all, I use combat manager a great deal, and the new pc version has monsters up to bestiary 5, and stats for pfs scenario opponents up to I believe season six (let me know if I'm wrong!)

I recommend the product, it is a free download.

http://www.combatmanager.com/

And of course, courts of the shadow fay! It's a great adventure centered around the race and their rulership

The Mound, which he ghost-wrote, is a strong contender to be the basis of the underdark and dark elves. . . James Jacobs I believe notes it in his underdark book as a source for the Golarion underdark.

I take that as a compliment, about phantom phenomenon. I'm a heavy lovercraft reader, and I tried to put his ideas into the parts I wrote. By the way, this is a great lovecraft podcast: www.hppodcraft.com

About Janira Gavix -

Almost every PFS group plays "The confirmation", and some GMs love to have the actual minis for each encounter and NPC.

Sooo. . . as a VL, what are the possibilities of a PFS themed set of pathfinder miniatures with characters like the VCs, major creatures from games like wounded wisp, confirmation, etc. that are heavily played?

I'm for respectful dipictions of female heroes in RPGs. I get the feeling that the artist, who've I've met and talked to, was looking to get serious action shots for the backgrounds - getting the iconics off of the ground in creative ways. Amiri has lower leg armor and a loincloth, so if she is up and attacking at that angle, that's kinda what it is going to look like. Perhaps not the best decision, as my wife and I have discussed, but maybe not meant for fanservice, but for dynamism. Let's let the artist talk about his intent before we make judgements about intent.

Kingmaker seems to be Paizo's second most popular AP - from the number of forum posts. It's older and out of print. I suspect it would be the best option, especially because the kingdom building rules need some polishing. It's the AP I most want to run. . .

Nick

kobolds please!

Hey, Crystal, I heard a rumor that the first RPG you ever played was Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles and other strangeness. As it turns out, mine as well. Do you have any good memories of those games? Something cool?

Congratulations on Finishing your Shadows Under Sandpoint Campaign! I hope it ended with a bang, and that you accomplished all that you wished too! So. . . what's next?

James,

Thanks for all the hard work. Doing creative work involves serious ups and downs, but we all appreciate the wonderful adventures coming out of Paizo. A project can be like a child, and we look after it. I know I'm crushed when something I've worked on gets a bad review. Ruins my whole day. Anyway, I personally am looking forward to seeing hideous stalk-snouted bear creatures in a module soon.

So, I am just beginning burnt offerings, and my party is ambling about sandpoint getting into trouble the day before the swallowtale festival.

My question is this:
What little rpg town encounter do you love to run in sandpoint but isn't yet published? I'd like to run it for my group.

Also, what do you love best about sandpoint? I have to say, it's something special and my players are really getting to like the place.

Generally, I don't CDG. If there are no other PCs up, that's what happens. I feel most things with a survival instinct will 'quiet the room' before they feed/slit throats. That said, I have CDGed when a PC went off on their own and got ambushed by morhgs. He was paralyzed, there were no other targets, and it was a high level adventure.

I would not CDG newbs.

When they go to the first world, hit 'em with

Courts of the Shadow Fay by Kobold press. Great intrigue and court adventures, very dark and cutting and interesting. If you want 'different' this is it!

http://paizo.com/products/btpy8wuk?Courts-of-the-Shadow-Fey

I ran this yesterday with a group of new young players, and they had a lot of fun. It's a great mod, and allows for a lot of roleplaying. Ham up the weirdness, and have fun with the adventure.

I had all of the water and creatures get sucked back into mistress koi's mouth at the end, and then have her get sucked back into the scroll, which rolled itself up and tied itself with a red ribbon at the very end. Kind of a big finish for the party.

I think this is a great mod, and a blast to run.

I'd like to take the time to thank Kim Mohan for all of his extra editing help. As a newer writer, his feedback and patience made all the difference. Enz, Your comments after AR: kobolds were taken to heart and I worked hard improve.

Nick

Thank you for the review. I'm glad that the product was to your standards of quality!

NIck

This is great. I LOVE dungeon dressing and the mimic goes perfectly with this!

I've used midgard for my home game that has run for the last 5 years, planting the dungeonaday dungeon north of Morgau and Doresh. My group has loved Zobeck, adventured beneath a cursed citadel in the Ironcrags, and dealt with the devious shadow fay when not exploring the dungeon. A really cool world, and worth looking into.

Favorite supplements:
Guide to Zobeck
Streets of Zobeck
Halls of the Mountain King (not available currently)
Courts of the Shadow Fay.

Nick

Hmm. What does the kobold overlord have up his sleeves in terms of pathfinder upgrades for ancient 3.5 adventures? No one knows!

However, remember that courts of the shadow fay got an amazing upgrade to PF. I ran it and everyone had an awesome time!

I'd just like to thank John Compton and other editors for taking the time to return such useful and professional criticism. It helps me write better, and I hope it will help Paizo enjoy a higher standard of writing in their open call. I am currently correcting 80 high-school sophomore essays, so I know what a grind editing is. Thanks, John.

I use passive voice to much and I plan to do something about it. Anyone else get any gems of wisdom?

So, Wolfgang Baur wrote a lot of the backstory for the old Al-Qadim rules setting for 2nd edition. I expect this will be a very cool kickstarter indeed. I am already backing it. I was really satisfied with Deep Magic.

My group has a great deal of knitting going on. My wife and others will will knit at a table, and she can run a character quite well and do so. As she explains it, it helps with her ADHD. Now, you want to have a simple pattern. A sock is an easy pattern, so she could likely have paid attention.

Also, don't push knitters. They're automatically armed.

Brian is an amazing Gm, great friend, and pillar of the So-Cal gaming community! He really embodies the 5 star GM concept, and I love to play at his tables!

Historically, there are people of color in Authurian myths, the myths of Roland and Charlemange, and not as villians, but as protagonists. The vikings certainly met the people of east Africa and the middle east. The Huns and Avars were asiatic, and traders from India visited the Roman empire.

Do check out Pett's wonderful "Your Whispering Homonculus", by kobold press. Lots of Pett awesomeness, I use it my home game on a regular basis!

http://paizo.com/products/btpy8s2o?Your-Whispering-Homunculus

Johnny Rotten from his sex pistol days. Punk as a movement can be described as chaotic, some aspects good, some aspects neutral. Maybe even a few evil. But when I think Chaotic Neutral, I go to Johnny Rotten.

I've always had an interest in Spiderfolk. I be we could do something cool with that.

Well, I've killed several of my wife's characters as DM. Just on Valentines day, at a con in southern california, I offed her elf druid with a brutal ju-ju zombie in PFS. She was mad, but I immediately gave her her Valentine's day card, which kept her from killing me until another player had her character reincarnated as a half-orc. Yeah, I get in trouble DMing. . .

I've seen my item 3 times, my wife has seen my item twice. So, we've been very lucky.

Monocle. Drink!

Misty Moors is my exotic dancer name. ;)

You. Yeah you, with the tusks. You need iron rations. Lots of 'em. Let's say about 200 gold pieces worth. I don't care what you do with 'em, but you need iron rations.

I admit, some of the Scarzni stuff is shady. Not murderhoboish, as it's civilized extortion instead of indescriminate murder.

Now what would be cool is if adventurers went into the dungeons, beat up the monsters, let them live, and came back monthly to take 'protection money', and god forbid the goblins or stone giants didn't make their quota!

I've heard it said, when you don't know what to write next, have a man with a gun come after the main character. Who is this guy? Why is he trying to kill the main character?

You can have a bunch of idiotic addicts/thieves/anarchists grab the item purely by mistake and get into real trouble - now the party has to save the idiots and the news is out. They were just breaking into the father's house looking for distilled spirits and gold, but found the artifact and ran off with it.

You can have an 'interested party' come after the adventurers - to torture them for information about the object - if the recovery of the object is a secret, is it a secret that the adventurers were looking for it? Is it another party hired by the same patron, but a less savory group?

you can have some sort of cataclysm or disaster occur, that can only be cured by the use of the the artifact- this is a great moral choice for the players- yes, you can hold out for more money, but then all the orphans will die and turn into half-pint juju zombies! MWAHAHAHAHA!

GMing is fun. Unleash your inner evil genius.

I'm grinding through some nasty, cunning kobold spells and other evilness. It should be a lot of fun to spring on your poor players! Or even better, have a kobold caster and do horrible things to NPCs.

Zobeck. Check out midgard.

There are also kobolds in Absalom

Gender doesn't make a difference in ability to GM. I am more concerned with a GM's attitude and ability to make a game fun.

As a hobby that has a history of being heavily male, I am pleased to see more and more female GMs and players, and I am glad that the young female students in my gaming club see adult female role models like my wife and her friends roleplaying.

Keep on GMing!

Well, ethnically, a lot of different people are called "German" today. Northern Germans tend to be taller and fairer, while Barvarians and Swabians are stouter and a bit darker in complexion.

We can compare Cheliax to fascist Spain, China under Shih Huang Ti, and Communist Cambodia and Russia just as easily as Nazi Germany. Lawful evil is lawful evil. I'm half German myself and have visited many times. Medieval "Germany" was a mess of small states with several large ones - like the river kingdoms. Southern Germans might be described as Ustilavian, Northerners as Ulfen.

My two cents are, its a slightly hurtful stereotype to talk about Germans as Nazis. My German ancestors were heavily persecuted by the Nazis for their beliefs.

Good question. Look at the DCs of your fighter and thieves. Are they 1st level? 10th?

A hard DC should be around the top 5 possible rolls of the character. For example, if Pylas the elven thief has a disable device of +20, then the DC of a hard lock should be around 35, require a 15+ on the roll.

A moderate DC should be around the top 10, an easy, around the top 15.

I use this as a rule of thumb, feel free to adjust, but its a good way to tailor your games to the characters you are playing.

Nick

Thanks for a great convention, I really enjoyed coming down for the day and being (mostly) a player!

I am currently running Dragon's Delve and plan to continue. I would back a kickstarter, especially if the material was all converted to Pathfinder.