Red Dragon

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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber. Organized Play Member. 46 posts. No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 1 Organized Play character.



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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Hi everyone!

I posted in these forums years ago when I was GMing an Age of Ashes campaign from 1-20 with my IRL gaming group. I've also done some short-form fiction publishing for Paizo in the past few years.

Combine those two interests and it's been niggling in the back of mind to write some Paizo fiction of my own for Pathfinder Infinite. I talked to Mark Moreland about my idea, and he was very encouraging (thank you Mark!) to pursue of a novelization of Age of Ashes.

I just dropped Volume 1, which essentially details Level 1 of the AP:
The Council's Chosen.

Here's hoping some of you enjoy it, and (gentle) feedback always welcome :)


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I have a group starting Malevolence tonight. I highly recommend it for spooky awesomeness!


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Hey everyone! My party is finishing up Finderplain and about to head to Katapesh. Despite some of the dialogue above, my players have really enjoyed the AP overall, are invested in both the Dahak and Scarlet Triad plots (and keep speculating about what, if any, the connection points are), and feel immersed in the style/feel for this different setting in Book 5. I would totally run this AP again for another group.

Others have asked, but I haven't seen any clear answers: Has anyone run through the heist and all of its crunchy mechanics as written? How did it go? Any advice on running it?


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Thank you for the feedback, all! This was a fun one to write.

Shisumo wrote:
Ly'ualdre wrote:
EDIT: Now they just need a Swashbuckling Dhampir to solidify their merry crew.
Isn't Goria a swashbuckler? I think it's a witch they're missing...

I had planned her as a ruffian rogue, but honestly swashbuckler works just as well. She definitely has the most wiggle room on class, from my perspective.


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
dmerceless wrote:
I guess it really depends on the kind of players you play with in the end. People are people, and they're all different. Most of the friends I've played with actually prefer character death to be something remote that almost never happens, especially in a game that sells itself as an "epic hero adventure" like Pathfinder.

Yeah, not so much with my friends. We just want PC death to be cinematic and to matter to the story. And to be clear: the danger in encounters doesn't take away from the "epic hero"-ness of the game for us... the current characters at 14th level feel like superheroes that can do truly amazing things. It's just that there are opponents who are just as impressive.


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I guess that I'm in the minority here, but my players love PF2E precisely because of the difficulty (we all came over from 5E). They want tactics to matter, for combats to be dangerous, and to be thoughtful about resources (including Hero Points). Same goes for social encounters. They want creative PC solutions to hard situations and for the story beats to be dramatic. We're at the end of Book 4 of Age of Ashes (plus have done Plaguestone and 4-5 PFS scenarios) and I've generally been moving to fewer, deadlier combats based on their feedback.

I'm about to introduce some new players via the Beginner's Box, so will soon have an opinion about both the Menace Under Otari adventure and how a different set of players respond to the system. But I'm generally finding the complaints about danger in PF2E to be hard to comprehend, especially coming from 5E where character death felt extremely remote.


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Hi Paizo Customer Service! I know that you have an email backlog and that it's impossible to reach out via telephone.

I've now sent four emails on two separate orders (#31292628 and #26185714) -- one of them preorders for products released in November that still show as not shipped. It's so frustrating to not know why my products haven't shipped, when they will, or to receive any sort of communication from Paizo about both. My Sidecart just sits there and taunts me, and doesn't even include all of the products I'm waiting for.

I don't know if this post will help bump me in any sort of queue since it sounds like you're backlogged months, but I would really, really love to know what's going on before I try ordering any physical product again.


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I love the AP format. Maybe my group is just really role-play and narrative focused, but I've used more of the "extra" content than not in my campaigns, either tying it to character backstory, generating new NPCs, providing depth to Lore checks, or whatever. I can't think of a section of the Age of Ashes books that I didn't dip into heavily at some point, actually.

And even if I didn't use it for our games, I totally resonate with the Dungeon Magazine comment above. After we ran Book 2 of Age of Ashes, I made an Ekujae PFS character using the extra content in that book. I made a one-shot side-quest based on the Droskar info in Book 4. I love the care and depth of the AP books.

As others have said, probably individual adventure modules are going to be your thing. Or maybe PF2E conversion of other system's dungeons. But at least for me, I hope they don't veer too far off their current Adventure Path format.


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
NielsenE wrote:

I mainly run on Fantasy Grounds, which makes it trivial to have the PC roll a secret check that only the GM can see (there's a dice tower on screen they can drop their virtual dice into). As a result when running there I tend to use secret checks extensively -- the player still feels like they're doing something even if they can't see the result.

When I run on roll20, however, and don't have that easy option/players don't have gmrolls set up, I tend to let the players roll ~70-80% of the secret checks. Normally I'll ask for a modifier for checks where players are bad about meta knowledge -- stealth checks (especially out of combat ones), perception checks (if the party doesn't use them often .... if they roll one in every room/area there's enough true negatives that I feel the don't metagame), in a PFS setting any of the during briefing checks.

I did secret checks less than I should because it slowed everything down with me having to track/find their modifiers. Then we switched from Roll20 to Foundry and among the MANY things I love about the VTT is that it makes secret rolls a) super easy & fast, and b) something the player does rather than me. Now I use secret checks a lot, and my whole group agrees that it adds a lot of fun to the game. When we're back in person, I like Fumarole's system (though we may also stay with Foundry even in person... it's that good).


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Sporkedup wrote:
I cut out the grikkitog and plan to add it in soon (the party just reached Kovlar). I didn't like how it was shoehorned into somewhere it didn't belong at all...

Oh, I don't know. Though it felt like a TPK-potential, I liked its placement, and my players commented how much they enjoyed the general dungeon overall. To me, the entire Hall of the Devouring Giants is meant to introduce the idea that Saggorak is a place overrun by horrors. The gugs have a bit of a gang stronghold there, and you can STILL find monstrosities like the Deculi or Grikkitog around any corner.

Also, there's this "What IS this place?!" question throughout the encounters as they progress through the ruins. I played up the Deception of the Grikkitog, and convinced them that an ancient dwarven spirit was trapped in the hearth and needed them to place a hand upon it and pray to their gods. If they were pure of heart, it said, he would be free and find peace (I also had a fun voice modulator which made it particularly fun). There were no evidence of gug activity in the room, which the spirit explained that only those with a noble purpose could enter. Once they killed the Grikkitog, I had a thin veneer of stone slide off the entire room, revealing gug bones and bloodstains, showing that the creature had actually fed on the gugs and they'd learned to avoid the room.


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Olivier Rayé-Lalonde wrote:
What are the choices that Barushak the infernal summoner can offer to the PCs on p.43?

We'll never know. Seems like it was an editing mistake, and whatever was there to explain that sentence was taken out :(


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I'm glad you all liked it! That was a fun one to write, and am really looking forward to the Pathfinder Society Guide coming out this month.


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I've gotten in the habit to see if I can add the extra monsters in the back of each book into the adventure without it feeling forced.

Book 3's only "extra" is the rusalka, which seems like it's there to emphasize the wilds of the Ravounel countryside. So last night my group had a session that started with the 3-day ride from Cypress Point to Kintargo with Halleka. Great, role-play heavy session that helped deal with some tensions in the party and interact with Halleka (I made Nidalese folks have German accents, which was also fun for me).

At one point the cleric wants to cast Detect Alignment on Halleka to find out if he's evil, but doesn't want him to notice. So he says he's waiting until Halleka needs to pee and gets off the wagon with his back turned. Served up perfectly, the rusalka beckons Halleka into the woods from a nearby river, and its call ends up snaring two other party members. The rusalka ended up realizing it was overmatched and the fighter had a cold-iron bastard sword, so it dove into the river and disappeared.

Super fun, flavorful encounter that really hit home the setting.


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Robert Hetherington wrote:
MagicJMS I've GMed this one... 7 times. I've got some thoughts and feedback based on your descriptions that may help your next game be even more awesome:

Really helpful PFS guideposts, Pirate Rob. Thank you!

As for the 9 hours, yeah... Like I said, veteran role-players. The gala took 2 hours. After the third mission there was a 45 minute tavern conversation. The carriage ride back to the Lodge one time turned into a character convinced the carriage driver was fey. It's quite intimidating as a GM to know how deep they want the setting to go (and hooray for Absalom where I can use any accent I want from character to character!), but the group does usually end up telling a compelling story.


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

One of our Age of Ashes players needed surgery and was out a week, so we decided to play our first PFS module with the remaining 4 players, me as GM. It wasn't officially sanctioned -- just making a bunch of level 1 newly-minted Pathfinders and following the story through the gala to the four quests.

The gala was fun but took a LOT of work for me as the GM to get up to speed on the PFS and Absalom as a setting. For a group new to Pathfinder (AoA is our first foray), this feels like a brutally difficult entry point. As others have noted, there are few handholds for each conversation. I also didn't get any real sense of this being the Faction leaders' first event as Faction leaders or the rebirth of the PFS after turmoil, so I tried to work all of these elements into the setting. I gave their "additional rewards" as rewards upon the completion of each mini-quest, since they reported back to the Grand Lodge after each mission and it felt weird to just say "thank you."

On the missions:
- The Flotsam Graveyard one was a fun setting but boring as a quest. One of the characters had Underworld Lore and was able to identify the smugglers' efforts. On the spot I let him name the organization, and now the "Winking Eye" is operating in Absalom and a fun spot for future adventures.
- The haunted house was great fun and almost resulted in a TPK as the zombies pulled themselves free of the floorboards and attacked after several Hazards. Also, I used the "crime lords" backstory to further solidify the Winking Eye as a thing.
- The Blakdos Museum was my favorite mission and the ritual hazard was both compelling and fun for everyone with lots of drama.
- The mechanics of the Statue Street mob/mob bosses were a little clunky, but thankfully I have a veteran group of roleplayers and we had a lot of fun with it. The goblins attacked at the end, resulting in another fun thread to pick up later (the whistleblower's threat to the city).

Both players and characters were astonished that there was no gold reward at the end, and instead they got engraved wayfinders. It made for a PERFECT closing to this ragtag group that think the PFS are now a bunch of loonies, though.

My general feedback is that the scenario is poorly organized (I had to keep flipping from the quest in the module to the back sections outlining how each hazard worked, for example) in an effort to be replayable. I appreciate the complexity of replayability, but I wish it was a tighter story and better introduction both to the Pathfinder Society and Absalom.

Also, how on earth do you do this scenario in 4 hours?! It took us around 9 hours start to finish. We're admittedly a role-playing heavy group who gets deep into character and enjoys a good XP-less side quest, but it's difficult to imagine how you'd navigate through a heavy RP heavy gala with 4 missions so quickly without making the whole thing perfunctory.

All of that said, we're excited to jump back into PFS scenarios when another member needs to be gone for a bit. I've read through The Mosquito Witch, which seems excellent.


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

We kicked off Book 3 last night! I already posted this in the "Cult of Cinders" thread, but for our game it didn't make sense to me that the Ekujae were withholding Eclipse the whole time. In addition, Voz got away in Book 1 and I had been looking for a way to bring her back in. So here is how I kicked off the book...

Heuberk Thropp was in Cypress Point and used Eclipse to transport to Breachill with a couple of Sneaks days before the PCs arrive from the Mwangi Expanse. I had the waystations only work to the destinations, not back (my thinking here is that the elves were creating "waiting rooms" to get you ready for the new location only -- also explains why Renali, Malarunk, etc. didn't encounter the vision of Dahak coming through Huntergate), so he has no idea about the night hags. He spent his days taking stock of the situation in Breachill, including liaising with Voz, killing Calmont in his cell, and capturing the haberdasher Winthrop Finney (the NPC my players have a stronger relationship with over the wainwright).

Thropp lures the PCs to the Pickled Ear (the PCs have a tense relationship with Roxie, so she's easily paid off to go on a holiday in the country), where he questions them about what happened to Voz, what they know about Alseta's Ring, if they've found any other keys, who they've told, etc. Once he has this info, he invites Voz (now 9th level) from the back room in to spring his trap. It's Thropp, both Sneaks, Voz, and 3 custom undead minions (7th level) in a big barfight free-for-all.

After the battle, the PCs now have Eclipse (the Ekujae told them what the keys were for each elf gate) and know the Scarlet Triad are on the other side of Dreamgate. This also helps me with why they're hanging out in and terrorizing Cypress Point, which others on this thread have wondered about. They also know that the Triad is a threat to Breachill, so there is even more incentive to get off into Dreamgate.

Anyway, super fun intro to the book and am excited to see how the rest of Book 3 goes!


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Fumarole wrote:
How are you going to reconcile Thropp using Eclipse with the hags residing in Dreamgate Way Station?

I have the waystations only work on the way out, not on the way to Breachill. I figured the elves wanted to create "waiting rooms" with the auidara to prepare travelers for the location, but they didn't give the same consideration on the way back. It's the same reason Renali, Malarunk, and the rest were able to get through Huntergate and not have to mess with the avatar of Dahak.

So on the way from Ravounnel to Breachill, you just appear in the citadel; on the way to Ravounnel, on the other hand, hello night hags.


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

My group finished the Fortress of Sorrow last night, and the last fight was pretty epic. Because the party was making noise and fighting their way through the temple, I had Belmazog pull the chimera into the final room, so it was her, two priests, two chimera, and the skull. So many breath weapons! In order to survive, they pulled the foes into Kyrion's room and shut the door to avoid the skull. When the dust settled, only the elven ranger and goblin rogue (monk dedication) were standing, with the other three (cleric, champion, druid) all down. Very tense and worthy climax, and once the healing was done they had a back-and-forth/fun conversation with Kyrion and decided to set him free instead of kill him. The party still needs to wrap up some loose threads--which they'll do next session--and then head back through Huntergate.

It didn't make sense to me that the Ekujae were withholding Eclipse, so instead I'm going to have Heuberk Thropp have it on him at the start of Book 3. This accomplishes two things: 1) it answers the question why the Scarlet Triad are conveniently on the other side of Dreamgate, because Heuberk used it to come through while the party was away, 2) there is now a more compelling reason than curiosity to actually go through Dreamgate, because now they will be pursuing the Scarlet Triad.

All in all, I really enjoyed Book 2 and so did the players. Fun fun!


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Fumarole wrote:

I sure did.

Cult of Cinders
Lava Tube

Yaaaaaas. Thanks Fumarole!


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Ruzza wrote:

I made some notes, but the ones I did are slightly embarassing. My group got a kick out of them, though. Maybe they'll be useful for you.

Notes on Breachill
Notes on Breachton

I copy+pasted the information from the book, printed it out and jotted down the notes in the margins. I passed it out to my players as Voz's scribblings within the book.

Also, my Voz was working a little more closely with the Triad than she is written.

These are AMAZING and just what I'd hoped to see for inspiration. Thank you!


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Hey everyone! My playgroup recently ported over from 5E to PF2, and I'm GMing us through Age of Ashes as our first foray. I've really been enjoying and appreciating this thread and all of the ideas therein. We are loving the system and story, though I generally agree with others that Book 1 is the weakest of the 6 books having read all of them.

We have 5 players: 1) Human/Haunting Visions/Cleric of Sarenrae (the leader & healer), 2) Human/Bounty Hunter/Champion of Sarenrae (his sidekick & muscle), 3) Human-Half-Orc/Emancipated/Barbarian (the raging brute), 4) Goblin/Entertainer/Bard (banjo-playing!), and 5) Goblin/Martial Disciple/Rogue w/ Monk Archetype (basically a gentrified goblin raised by humans).

We're through 7 sessions and the party is currently in the citadel vaults (Chapter 3 of Book 1). We're going slowly to learn the rules, and we also do a fair amount of role-playing. Here's a summary of the changes I've made so far:
- In the town hall fire, the group had a bucket brigade going but were still basically only able to keep the fire at a standstill, so after a bit I had the town guard rush in to help and put out the fire. Tactically, they played this encounter perfectly and had no casualties.
- As with seemingly everyone else here, the party went first to Voz's bookshop to investigate Calmont before heading to Hellknight Hill. We roleplayed the encounter, and she rolled a 30 on Deception, so they left feeling convinced Calmont was a rogue agent that had been fired days before. (she then hurriedly fled for Guardian's Way once they'd left)
- Because two of the party are Goblins, the Bumblebrashers and Helba specifically turned out to be more significant NPCs (I also enjoy doing goblin voices, so this has been a lot of fun). I'm doing milestone leveling, and the party made a beeline for ramparts after entering through the Giant Rats room of the citadel, so had encountered very little by the time they took Calmont captive (just the Rats and Grauladon). I needed them to get more XP, so Helba said she would only give them the location of the secret entrance if the party cleared out the first level of the citadel so they would have a place to live in case they didn't survive the cultists. This turned out to work great, and gave them a solid reason to explore the rest of Chapter 2.
- Thanks to the Haunting Visions background, I'm slowly and steadily feeding the group cut-scenes that portend of Chapter 1 of Book 6. A long way away, yes, but it's definitely painting a picture of "doom coming to Breachill" and a sense of unease about what's happening.
- I made Roxie have two unruly kids, who first appear in one of the above cut-scenes. These kids (Anso & Erika) are who the party has taking care of the warg puppies while they're away, all of which has been great comic relief. But when they find their way back to the Pickled Ear through the tunnel later, they'll have an established relationship with Roxie.
- It's my full intention to bring the warg mother back later--possibly much later--sometime when the group has fully bonded with the pups.
- The skeletons in Chapter 2 felt out of place to me, so I made them part of the necromantic ward triggering below. I gave them each a flail instead of normal weapons, and flavor-wise this was the manacles and chains from their imprisonment. Every undead creature animated by the ward has glowing purple eyes, and I have a cut-scene ready which will make this link clear. (they were all also exploding skeletons, which made for a great fight in the small space)
- The biggest change so far has been to Alak. The party had been crushing combats (it didn't take me long to start making Elite versions of enemies or sprinkling in higher numbers to each encounter), and I was genuinely worried about adding another front-line fighter to the mix. Thankfully, they a) met him at the very end of clearing out the first level, and b) didn't like him much, creating tension between Alak and the group. So while they all went back to Breachill to rest for the vaults, Alak stayed behind, got the location of the secret entrance himself from Helba, and proceeded ahead into the vaults. They party waited around the next morning and he never showed. By the time they went to the crypts, Alak will have been killed and raised as a second undead Hellknight to fight. I added a third Emperor Bird, dead by slashing wounds, into B1 as a clue.
- My sense of Level 1 of the citadel is that it's a bunch of small ecosystems without a lot of interesting movement potential. The cultists are different. The first time the party takes 20 minutes to heal and rest in the vaults, the cultists have gotten organized and have made for a very scary/dangerous encounter ready for the next session. Assuming they survive, I am expecting this to be a lesson of the trade-off of spending time resting in a dungeon while critters roam and have been alerted to their presence.

Whew. Sorry for the long post. Reading what I wrote, it occurs to me that I haven't structurally had to change much of Book 1 yet. If I end up doing so, I'll circle back here and post the changes.