Mahavira's page

I like the idea of escapees. "invaders" liberating a DotB planet would be interesting but I suspect it might be difficult to make PC level actions seem significant given that this would probably be a fairly large scale military operation. One possibility would be the PCs are survivors of a failed attempt who have banded together to try to make the evac point, and along the way run across information that would allow a small strike force to turn the tide / make a second attack successful (maybe they were the part of the first wave, which went rather badly, but the actual liberation force is still viable).

Some background - for some time I've been playing around in my head with the idea of a dark tapestry themed campaign, featuring an alien lich (bone sage of eox, for those that care) using a Yithian mind transfer device to assume control of Golarion natives (with the possible end goal of recreating Eox civilization by having all the bone sages do this, or even using it to implant thousands or even millions of alien ghosts on the citizens of a country).

While it is all well and good to come up with a villain and an evil scheme, a starting point for L1 characters is sometimes hard to find. It occurred to me to possibly have the PCs all have been previously Yithed, have no idea what they were doing for the past several months, and languishing in a madhouse for weeks after their unwanted tenants departed. The PCs all return to lucidity around the time something terrible happens to the asylum (haven't decided whether it's a cleanup team of MIBs or whether one of the lunatics was actually possessed and a bottom tier demon or devil was able to manifest) and they have to escape from the no longer safe asylum (as a change, I was going to have it run by kindly nurses and doctors that are part of a minor holy order of Sarenrae or someone rather than a hellpit run by sadists who experiment on people).

Once out, perhaps rescuing a visiting expert (perhaps he proscribed new medications that caused the PCs to recover) or perhaps just getting his journal which contains hints to the next adventure, the PCs realize they all suffered the same memory loss for around the same time, and start looking into what happened. For campaign traits, I thought each trait could be based on a kind of fictional/cinematic insanity (as opposed to a realistic depiction of actual mental illness), basically the symptoms they had while recovering from the mind transfer relate to what their bodies did while under alien control (this would come out in later adventures).

Catatonic: while in the asylum, the PC just sat and stared into space, unresponsive to anything. The PC was actually contemplating something (incomprehensible now), and now has greater powers of concentration (+1 to all concentration checks) and is unusually able to be still (+1 to stealth).

"the Gibbering": while in the asylum, the PC spoke only Aklo. The PC knows Aklo, and linguistics is always a class skill.

Writes on walls (wizard only): as one occasinally sees in movies, th character was constantly scribbling complex diagrams, equations and the like on the walls of his cell. The character knows one additional L1 spell, which is not in his spellbook but which may be prepared as though he had the Spell Mastery feat.

Violent: the PC was uncontrollably violent and begins play wearing a straightjacket. Not sure what the trait bonus should be, except perhaps a bonus to fighting with unarmed strikes or improvised weapons.

Paranoid: the PC was convinced that some person or organization was out to get him (and was responsible for his presence in the asylum), even to the point of believing that from one day to the next the nurses and doctors were being replaced by imposters. Bonus to initiative or sense motive?

Sleepwalker: despite being tied down and locked in his room, the PC always ended up sleepwalking in the atrium or garden. The PC has +1 to escape artist and disable device, and has a lockpick secreted on his person.

Apparently lucid: the PC spent the entire time in the asylum thinking and acting completely normally. Despite this, the staff were clearly afraid of him. Not sure what the bonus for it should be, it just seemed interesting.

Phobic: the PC has a morbid fear of some particular type of creature (a fairly limited list) and spent his time in the asylum terrified of even pictures of it. The PC has a +1 dodge bonus to AC against creatures of the type (dogs, perhaps, or vermin)

Obsessed with cleanliness/purity: the PCs obsession with the purity of his precious bodily essences took the form of excessive cleanliness, picky eating, and obscure exercises. It turned out he was on to something, as he now has +1 to fortitude saves.

Any fantasy insanities I've missed or suggestions for trait bonuses? Or is this a terrible idea for a campaign start and I should go back to the drawing board?

Pendagast wrote:

can you enlighten us as to why members of the winter council turned into Drow in SD? Presence of Demons? Energies from a darklands artifact? Never washed his undies??

As detailed in that adventure, the spontaneous transformation of an elf into a drow is SUPER rare, but can happen if an elf is sufficiently chaotic evil AND worships a demon lord, and even then it's super super rare. It's happened twice in hundreds of books we've published—both times in the Second Darkness adventure path (once with an event that starts things rolling by creating the AP's big bad end gal, and once "on-screen" so the PCs can see it happen).

Hm, hadn't realized the BBEG was a demon worshipper from the start. I'd always assumed she was a cleric of Callistria who didn't realize she had long since ceased to be CN, and converted to Abraxus after joining house Azinrae.

Presumably transformation didn't happen on Castrovel because of distance from the source of corruption, the surface of Golarion is close enough that it's possible but super rare, and once you're deep enough to be in the darklands proper, it's more likely (if a pregnant elf was held prisoner in Darklands for an extended period, would the baby be drow, I wonder...).

Back to the original thought, based on his eminence's contributions, it seems likely that Drow syndrome as such can't be readily transported to Castrovel, you'd have to find or create a similar source of corruption and even then the result would probably not be precisely drow but would rather have features relating to the source.

A simple question: can elves from Castrovel turn into drow? When elves returned to Golarion, they discovered that normal elves can turn into drow, but were they elves fresh from Castrovel, or were they born on Golarion? If drow went to Castrovel, could they cause sufficiently evil Castrovel elves to become drow, or is the cause not something easily taken from Golarion (the "magnetic field" or whatever)?

I'm sort of disappointed the mancatcher won't be a Runelord weapon. It seems a natural for the Runelord of Lust to have.

I'm pretty sure Sorshen doesn't need a man catcher, she seems to be able to catch them just fine as is.

The title says it all really. Seriously, you're a L20+ wizard and at some point in your career you had nothing better to do with a feat than learn "martial weapon proficiency: obscure pole arm?" Did Xin make his apprentices fight gladiatorial duels while he and his friends bet thousands of quatloos on the victor? Do they get an initiative bonus because the enemy stops to ponder "is that a Voulge or a Glaive-guisarme?" Or were the wizard weapon proficiencies just that different back in Thassilon. It kind of makes sense for the runelords of wrath because they were mostly eldritch knights (though even there, I would expect a one handed weapon that allows them a hand free to cast while they still threaten), but for everyone else?

I've been looking for a recording of the goblin song in Burnt Offerings, but all I can find is this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7zTUIYQVpY

While it probably sounds more or less like goblins singing, I have trouble making out the words and I have the lyrics in hard copy, so it's not much help as a "game aid". Does anyone know of another recording anywhere?

The title more or less says it all, but here goes: now that Demons, Devils, and Daemons have had their day, is there any chance that more exotic fiends could get a bit of detail work? Obviously what gets made depends on a combination of what the creative staff are interested in and what is considered to be potentially marketable. With the Dragon Empires gazetteer etc. out, and Jade Regent done, an Oni book might have some selling power and people might actually see an Oni outside of Jade Regent if a bit more was known about them (we have 30 odd years of lore about demons and devils, even if some of the details have changed). Rakshasa are even worse off - there is no Vudra AP (or even module, or is there?) though having read a few books setting the legend of Rama to the modern style of epic fantasy, I would actually be interested. Either Oni or Rakshasa would have been more interesting to me than Daemons (this is obviously a matter of taste, however). So, would anyone buy such a suppliment if it was written?

Getting closer to running Carrion Crown, and thought some music would be in order.

This thread http://paizo.com/forums/dmtz3qrp&page=1?Carrion-Crown-Soundtrack goes a bit more in detail than I intend to though.

I've selected the following characters/scenes that seem to need a theme. Suggestions sought:

Funeral of Professor Lorrimor - the music from the Halo ODST commercials
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WN7MJISCA2A&feature=related
or Song of the Volga Boatmen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55KNMMGcLaw

The Skipping Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLwW745WJ2Y the Freddy Krueger counting song in German

Stirges in Ravengro
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSoITBvyC48

Fire in the Town Hall
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYPFwEbC91k

First view of Harrowstone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekLuKK7e9kQ

Vesorianna
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIBdpFJyFkc&ob=av2n or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04_rDXjQuoQ&feature=related

The Illmarsh Piper
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIHbAyBhWqc Not really satisfied with this but can't find better - evil and/or ghostly flute music is kind of hard to search for

Father Charlatan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJGIJn24Nrk&feature=related OK, probably not...Gregorian chants were my only other thought, but they don't seem quite right either

The Mosswater Marauder
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpCV2wgoxC8 Ok, no, but
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4_zaZ3utUY it's even about dwarves!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L07Ur1M9PRY&feature=fvst Everything sounds twice as evil in German! Other suggestions?

The Splatter Man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08hwxkEQiCQ Not sure here, the words are actually shockingly appropriate, but the music itself doesn't

Actually in the trial of Joan of Arc, there were originally over 10 charges but the judge decided to dismiss most of them because he felt they distracted from the seriousness of the heresy charge. Alternately since it's basically open and shut, the trial for the university break in could already be done - the sentence can be banishment (so he's someone else's problem).

Seems to me that the Count Galdana idea requires that either she is adopted

Given that HoH hypes making the PCs feel at least a little invested in her (so they don't just ditch town rather than deal with the prison)it seems like a waste to not have her involved at all in the rest of the campaign. The 'obvious' course would be for her to sell the house, and initially move to Liepstadt, perhaps intending to take a few courses. I wouldn't expect her to be hugely useful during the trial proper, except as a source of "well what about X?", or a source of 'gossip' if they are slow to investigate the break in at the college. The Lorrimor name could have the order of teh Palatine Eye taking an interest in her. Silent Moon and Wake of the Watcher don't look like appropriate venues, but getting her to Caliphas for Ashes at Dawn doesn't seem like a stretch (either pursuing studies there, visiting a family friend, on a mission for the order) and the Whispering Way could possibly kidnap her for use as a hostage in shadows of gallowspire. What have others done with her?

I'll be running HoH soon enough, and was wondering what people thought of the following:

+2 for defeating each of the five prisoners, as the psychic pressure abates somewhat as the 'ringleaders' are removed (this is mostly just to partly counteract the relentless -1 per day)

-1 for public intoxication after the first incidence (cutting loose once is one thing, but they aren't in town long enough for multiple binges being normal)

+1 for attending the weekly church service. If a PC impresses Father Grimburrow (DC 20 knowledge religion check, DC 15 diplomacy check) he will invite the PC to give the sermon for another +1

+2 for defeating the stirges that attack the town

+1 for impressing the local schoolmaster (DC 20 knowledge check, any counts), and will be asked to give a lecture at the school, a further +1 if accepted

Rather than a lich, I'd go with demons. Authority in Galt is arbitrary, capricious, and always changing, and it beggars belief that no evil force wants a piece of the souls in the Final Blades. Have the Grey Gardeners be in fact a demon cult (easy to imagine them wanting to piggyback onto a movement opposed to the diabolists in Cheliax) who are also involved in turning the mob against each new revolutionary council. The demonic overseer is enjoying the spectacle of mortals willingly harvesting souls for his/her benefit and is collecting enough souls to rise to the rank of demon lord.

Another angle would be to have the PCs start out helping someone bring order, only to discover they've installed Napoleon.