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I’ve seen the Mea Cupla offered on a few primarily RPG kickstarters recently. That said I don’t actually believe the latest estimate on shipping because Paizo keeps failing to build in any contingencies. Just another example of the poor project management on this.
One of the things to keep going with my tabletop group I have been asked to look at is making combat a little less lethal. As I said I don't think I've ever had a game where quite as many PCs were killed. That said I've also said to my players that being stupid and blundering into things will get them killed. I need to rebalance things and get the pirate flavour a bit more in the mix, but also get them to finish dealing with Bonegnaw and moving things on.
Having been going through FASB it really does need a summary spreadsheet as hunting down how many crew are needed means going through a lot. Though for Brvheart's online game we do now have the quirk where the two clerics are the navigator and Surgeon whilst the Bard smuggler is probably the Chaplain.
Speaking to my players they are concerned that they want to play quirkier characters and that it feels like the adventure assumes they will have damage dealers to be able to deal with stuff. They want to use combat maneuvers rather than just dish out damage. That said the reason they gave for rushing into stuff last session was that after way too long in the sewers they just wanted to get on a ship and do stuff. I'm tempted to try one of the island adventures with them to give them something different to do for a bit.
Session yesterday in my tabletop game. We started trying to build ships using Fire as She Bears. Has anyone already done this for Thunderstrike and Baron of the Tide? I'm having real issues seeing how the costs in the book to buy them relate to what size/type of ship should be built using FASB? Spoiler: On with the events and they quickly dealt with the Nightslinks threatening the Tulita and outskirts. Slightly concerned with how quickly they went down.
With that sorted they decided now was the time to go deal with Bonegnaw. They had run away from the Midnight deal before and didn't do any preparation to know what they were heading towards. This is compared to the PBP game BRvheart's running where we still had Garreg to give us information and we were ready to go deal with various beasts that Bonegnaw had. They hired Captain Montgomery and started to look for the cove. Due to the Captain they managed to spot it and then did a backtrack of the coves coming in from above. They didn't stealth up so the watchers fired a crossbow bolt warning of an approach. They did deposit all of the smugglers up top in the water and then fireballed the Cockatrices killing two. The other two they dealt with in the air as well as the Chimera. They used a haemonculous to observe the beach so knew there was a large number of people down there. A standoff started with Bonegnaw in the end calling them out to surrender or he would kill a slave. They tried to bluff that he should. So he did and Rake, the ex slave, demanded they get in there. So they backed off and went into the water via rope then water walked or swam in. Obadiah went in first and almost straight into the Chuul. Despite the players going that's a Chuul without having done the Knowledge checks they didn't seem to do a lot about him having been grabbed by a claw. Nor do much when the tentacles came into play. He kept attacking it with his rapier. Mary Belle, the cleric, went up to do a lightning bolt down the beach, targetting the smugglers, Bonegnaw and his hyena. Took out a few, but again not targetting the big threats. The others stayed out on the water with a fireball coming in on the clump of smugglers and Bonegnaw (who ignored it due to his effect). In the end Obadiah was eaten, Mary Belle has been captured and the rest have retreated. They are going to go back to try and rescue Mary Belle, hopefully this time with a proper plan. Mary Belle is the last remaining original party member. This is now the campaign I've done the most damage to a party in as well.
Well we managed to finish the sections of the sewers they were interested in and that I prepped for 2 sessions ago. Having killed 2 of the party and the others deciding to take responsibility for their own character builds the group now looks like this: Rake - Half Orc Bard 3/Ranger 2/Dragon Disciple 2 - ex slave who sympathises with the plight of the Tulita. According to his player he is focused on buffing, knowledge skills and acts as the trap monkey. Others in the party still aren't sure what he actually does. Obadiah Flint - Human Swashbukler 7, Pirate wanting to do piratey things - I so want to introduce him to Bethany. Dex Fighter, Bluff, Multiple AOO/trips and High AC. Did very well parrying and getting to attack in response. Mary Belle - Human Cleric of Pekko 7- encouraging whoring and drinking. Used to be an Aasimar, but no one ever remembered. She no acts as Heal bot, has the worst perception we've ever seen on a Cleric and did surprisingly good work helping defend with her shield. The new characters:
Angelino Durrante - Human Sorcerer 7 - didn't get to form much of a personality as his player turned up late in the day - the rest of the group had this very charismatic sorcerer act like Goofy instead. Already making friends though. Spoiler:
Having retreated from the Babau they took the body of Makakoa back to the Tulita having warned Zalen of the danger below. They met Hanale who joined them to aid them in their work for the people.
Back to Port Shaw and they met Rake's cousin, Angelino, who also introduced them to Major Roland Lawrence. They played it well given their hatred of the Dragoons and agreed to come back to meet him the next night. Then back to Lester and into the sewers again. The fight against the Babau went ok, but got dicey when Rake moved to get flanking and the Babau slammed him back into range of the Scorpion. So they had to go rescue him. So with all the enemies dealt with they sent the Tiki back with Lester and camped out in the barrel room to protect it overnight. In the morning stone shapes were used to create an opening and get the barrels up into the Chapter House. The plan was to sell some, give a chunk to the Tulita for later use and use some. Zalen was ready to Then they went to look in the room below Samuel's, back to Lester and heading to the top of the sewers. There were definite issues with how water was working in the Karikanti section given the descriptions, but also how water was not coming from some places - the pool room for example. They prepared to enter the sludge and started figuring how they would deal with forms of aquatic combat. They used the Tiki to look over the area flying in the space above the water so it didn't attract attention. Once they had an idea where to go they headed for the pool room first where the scout had retreated to. Once in they managed to spot some of the skulkers and attempted to bargain. They offered meat for free passage into the next room. The Karikanti were fine with that as it meant the party would be trapped. Into the Throne room and Roarog was impressive. He didn't get chance to surrender due to a good roll from Rake. They failed miserably to identify any items as Angelino revealed he didn't know Detect Magic. On to retrieve the bones and starting to figure what might be going on at Beacon Island. They finished the day breaking into the shrine, dealing with the Golems and then using Consecrate to try and deal with the shrine. So next time they plan to go see Roland, look to get a boat, off to the Broken Skull and then go after Bonegnaw finally. I'm hoping for a lot more roleplay focused next session. They are now on their way to getting on to the high seas.
Well I got another session and had planned to deal with 2 sections of the sewers. Spoiler: The session started with the group buying up supplies ready to go into the sewers. As is usual with my group they always seem to prep for the encounter they last had rather than ready for what might be coming so after the swarms they stocked up on blast effect weapons and swarm repellent. This was despite knowing they were looking into hoarding of alchemist's fire.
They got Lester to take them via the Roachlord area so they could get a sample to try and establish what the creature had been. Then on to section 2. They came in under cover of the dark and their Dragon disciple snuck ahead to see what was going on. He went left and then came back. The party moved up and then went to look in the room with the Scorpion which attacked with its stinger. They withdrew quickly and decided to leave the Scorpion alone. They dealt with the Kyton fairly quickly then moved up and got involved in a conversation with the Succubus. They spent a bit of time trying to establish who she was as she tried to coax one of them into the cage. Eventually they rumbled her at which point she summoned a Babau and the group of Quasit and Dretches which had been waiting her command descended. The group fought through them fairly well despite the resistances and no Prot from evil or overcoming the DR. The Quasits ended up getting into a dogfight with the Witch and eventually she managed to take them down. They were feeling pretty good and moved off to finish looking through the rest of the area before deciding if they would deal with the scorpion or go through the door at the top. Just a note that drawing out the map they decided it looked like a giant space invader with the cages being eyes. The Dragon disciple snuck off again and went into the alchemist fire room. Once in there the disturbed Babau moved around and began to summon their counterparts. The group ended up fighting them in the corridor, but set themselves up so that the teleporting Babau were able to get sneak attacks on them. The Witch moved through one of her party members despite the party pleading for her not to and died before being dragged in to be eaten by the Scorpion. Eventually the Tulita Barbarian died as well just as her rage expired. I had Lester having heard the fight and he came in as the summoned Babau disappeared. The group managed suggestions and other mind effecting abilities on the unsummoned Babau and got them to return to their guard positions. The group retreated and they came together as players to discuss what they needed to replace. I've allowed them to adjust some of the remaining characters because the players who play them are rebuilding them. Previously the group has had one of them build all the characters, but with the new characters coming in the whole group is being adjusted so they each know their roles and there is less overlap. Next time back to get revenge on the Babau and then up to look for the bones.
Yes but 4 swarms are CR8 and Roachlord plus 1-4 swarms is CR 7. One of the issues I do need to sort out is that they really want to get onboard a ship. I keep trying to head them up the coast to deal with the smugglers, but not biting so far. Once I've done a mass of sewer stuff I think they definitely need to get out, Spoiler: but luckily if they find Durrell's body that should be easily doable.
Managed to finally get a game with my real life group. Last time they were left dusting themselves off, trying to figure how to get into the Shrine of Frenzy. Spoiler: Having had a breather they were much more able to deal with the Karikanti and the Wights were dealt with so quickly that they started a running joke that all the undead they were facing were in fact just zombies.
Into the shrine area and a lucky sleep spell allowed them to coup de grace one of the Karikanti. 6 ropes were cut, but they were able to rescue all the prisoners and take out the Caller - I did blanche a little at AC 27, but the party managed to take him out. They took the tulita back and gave a choice about whether to keep the children hidden away, but in the end the parents chose to have them back. This has made the group more determined to free the tulita from slavery. They headed for town and called on Zalen. He asked for their help in locating a young girl called Lucinda who had not shown up for a few days. They also became aware of the body of an alchemist having floated out of the sewers as well a ghost that was haunting the docks. The plan as to go locate the girl and then return to the docks later to try and stake out the ghost. They found Lucinda fairly quickly and listened to her story. They fed her and got her back to Zalen before heading into the sewers. Then they came out again and took a homemade raft with them. The Roach swarms did a lot of damage to them with only 2 of the party able to take action against them. They anchored the raft, healed and then pushed on. A very lucky perception roll meant that they managed to spot the Roachlord before he rose from the sludge. Swarms were a problem again and Mary Belle, the cleric, and Maka Koa, the Barbarian, were very close to death when they managed to defeat the Roachlord. They searched and found the other child and then headed back to the surface to heal and get rid of some disease. Query on Roachlord as he's a CR 7 encounter whilst being able to summon up to 4 Roach swarms who are a CR 8 encounter themselves? Is that right? Having healed again they headed back to the docks where they encountered some Lacedons - again zombies who smelled a little - then Durrell. Durrell as an encounter can be taken various ways - particularly as it doesn't establish what he knows about where his body is. The group agreed that they would look and retrieve it for him. With an idea that Durrell as heading north they went and met Lester the next day. Lester also told them of Vrina. They agreed to help him avenge his friend and to look into the sewers in some depth.
Now I'm expecting probably some deaths in the party due to environment with Still waters, but in terms of keeping the game going I think it's important to: 1) try and get a narrative flow to the plots going
I have obviously not sold enough Garr Bloodbane maps lately.
Spoiler:
Unfortunately Jessica and Old Crow have already been out to play. Might use the Jawbone as it will make them feel a bit more smug that they've found it, though it may also get them to blurt out who has it which if someone can escape will come back and bit them in the bum. Good luck with the Ennies.
Managed to get another real time session in. The current party after the death of the ship's quartermaster/mage. Edora - Human Witch 5 - has been acting as major domo when the others pretended to be nobles.
Spoiler: We left group back at the Tulita hovels having been told of the missing Tulita who had disappared from Hargrove's plantation. I decided to set a few other things in play by letting them discover about the purchasing of alchemist fire and Drango sending them to look into the Nightslinks before he left to go find a ship to start "the armada".
The group had Mary and Obadiah dress up as nobles to pretend to be prospective investors looking to set up a plantation on the Razor Coast so they could get an audience with Hargrove. Hargrove was actually fairly nice to them and confided with them about issues he had had that were now resolved because the disappearances had stopped. The group proceeded to flirt, cajole and bluff the Tulita and the overseers to find out a bit more about what had gone on. (Note - the adventure's not great on actually establishing how many had gone missing and why some adults had been grabbed by the Shade). Off they went into the swamp after some discussion on canoes. The Slough Shade encounter became rather amusing as none of them could make a saving throw for 2 rounds with the first to do so being the leopard. Eventually Mary Belle made it and was able to use her Countersong to free the rest. Then into the temple and Karkanti are tough, especially when their opponents are pushing their way through water. No 5' steps was causing a number of problems. First fight had Obadiah down - though to be fair he is suppose to be the one to get hit and the party still haven't let him forget getting the mage killed. They then started to try and wait out the pair of Karikanti at the other entrance to the temple, but kept stepping up allow the Gatormen to move in and get a full round attack on them. A lot of fear and how do we deal with them. They backed off, were followed by sneaking gatormen and then tried diplomacy. I left the session with the party readying to go back in with 1 slightly injured Karikanti trying to defend both exits, whilst his friend has gone to warn the Caller. The group are now up to 6th level. One thing that was mentioned was they got the Witch and she spent a little bit at the end of last session talking about eating children, just before they found out about the missing children. This time they have been fighting Gatormen who worship Dajobas, and Rake has now become a Dragon Disciple complete with scales. It's a good thing they have been doing things that show their support for the Tulita. One thing that was said was that they expect some big clue at the end of this temple otherwise it just feels like a side quest. Shall have to work on something to give the Caller to aim them towards something else.
Mark = Silas I was actually surprised my party with the new members left the sewers, but a little fear is good I suppose, especially going into the swamps. Main issue at the moment I have had with my F2F group is how they've dealt or not dealt with the dragonsmoke smugglers and just have avoided properly engaging there. Now they are firmly linked in with the Tulita I see them getting told to go deal with that issue for the good of the people. I'm also planning on using the ghost to get them back down into the sewers. But first Still Waters and their first meeting with Hargrove.
Finally got another tabletop session in. Spoiler: Started out with interrogating Barrett through half the group being good cop to allow for diplomacy checks. They failed to find out who was directing the Ring of the Kraken, but did discover how the Ring are marked. They promptly killed him and then started to try and figure if they could take charge of the Barnacle. Heading back into town after disposing of the bodies they came across Drango escaping, who they helped surreptiously until they could get out of sight and then attacked the remaining Dragoons. Drango was fairly injured and they helped get him to the Tulita enclave where they also wanted to see Miliauka. They had picked up rumours about Karskor Thul and when talking to Miliauka, after handing over both Jessica and the Blood Orphan to see if he could cure them, he told them about the theft of the Jawbone. The party made the connection and started figuring going into the sewers. With Drango also present the party offered an alliance of getting the pirates to support the Tulita throwing off the corrupt rulership of Port Shaw. They offered to help get Drango a new ship and to make him a 'Pirate King'. He was dubious and told them what happened with Garr Bloodbane, but was willing to accept aid. Miliauka felt that without the Jawbone it was difficult to look for a future and would not contemplate moving his people whilst it was missing. So they started to propare to go into the sewers, made contact with Captain Farrows, and also met Old Fish selling him some doctored Dragoon items. NOTES - an equipped version of Drango would be useful. Information on the Nightslink itself as it seems clear that it's still reefed and not sure why players would not go look. Including Karskor Thul's name with the description would be useful given you have to make the connection yourself and I don't think he's even named when you find the body. Clearly the Tulita know his name otherwise how have they been asking after him. Some info on where Barrett actually lived would also have been good as no sign of a bed in the Barnacle. Next time it's Sewer activity. I had planned to do Lacedon stuff, but they weren't at the docks at night. I also think we'll be doing Still Waters as they have to deal with what is being done to the Tulita, meet Hargrove and also make a choice on whether to go with Drango or help save the innocents.
Going through the plot strands again to update. Plot strands Dragonsmoke smugglers - Garreg, cove 2 miles upcoast, tulita councilman Elder Nakuaka - to do when we hit 6th level.
Whispers Garr Bloodbane's gold
As I said I still haven't introduced Drango to my F2F group as it felt too crowded to hit them with everything even in the 2 long initial sessions I've run. Brim suffers from having the notion of hiring him, but limited information on the cost of doing so and I think it will work better if I get him helping if the party help him so I can direct them to plots that he's uncovered in his vigilante actions. That way he gives another way of directing the party towards plots and they have a better relationship to him. In Brvheart's PBP game I'm not certain we've gone anywhere near to where we might meet him, though we might have used him to help with our current recruitment issue :) I would say the PBP game has only stagnated as we know we have one definite option to do, but we want to be at the next level to do so and we're on the cusp of that. A few more rumours for us to follow and I think we're fine. One of the benefits I suppose of being a player who knows where we're going, but trying to keep the knowledge confined to in game only. Spoiler:
The ghost may work or getting us into the sewers for a little bit as so far we don't know we may want to look there as an option. Mentioning what's going on at Thumb's Reach may also happen as we've not touched that yet in game as I think we've only had the one Mcfarrows reference and probably haven't connected it to other things. Looking at the rumour list I pulled together shows what info we have. As one of the people who suggested the need for indexing I think that would help immeasurably as it's pretty much what I've had to do and thank goodness for search function on the pdf. But I did that as prep work for my F2f group because I know how they can wander off on tangents. The NPC sheet I did of pictures of the cast also has helped as a reminder sheet. It means they connect dots together that they may not always get. I've run wide ranging mystery games for them before and it would have worked much better with the NPC sheet as I'm the one in our group who focuses on that. Page numbers for adventure options at each level should reduce the need to repeat information on the lists, but also at the end of adventure options (if there isn't an index showing some of the connections) then include an idea where this might lead as some connections may not always be obvious.
Another long session with my tabletop group yesterday. Spoiler:
Last time finished with them ready to talk to Zalen about the Ring of the Kraken. He explained what he knew and they got to work finding the notes quickly.
Their focus as well was setting up a chapterhouse of the Church of Pekko and the Cleric got the group talking to the local floozies to get information on the Salty Dogs, the dubious places to go to and also to try and get interest started in them working for her. Whilst the group split in two to conduct enquiries Timmy the halfling cabin boy was down on the docks as the Blood Orphan encounter happened. Lots of tooing and froing as he tried to figure a way to help Eddie, but then also keep the schooner for their use. Eddie was eventually taken back to see Zalen. The Schooner was then moved to be looked after by Jenks until the morning. The group had found out about Garreg about the Barnacle and went to visit him - splitting into 2 groups again - this time Cleric, Wizard and their son, Timmy, whilst the Gunslinger and Tulita went with her cat. The Gunslinger ended up smoking Dragonsmoke with Garreg, who they managed to get to spill the beans about what Barett had been up to in the back of the Barnacle. The Cleric was unimpressed with the Barnacle, particularly the barmaid. They went back to the schooner to look over it. Whilst there they overheard the Midnight deal going on and sailed the Schooner over to investigate. They then ended up in a standoff with the smugglers on the refuge schiff, until the Tulita shouted out they wanted to join them smuggling. The smugglers started to sail off and fired on the schooner. Timmy got off the boat and swam to the schiff to take a bit of the ship as they had been taking bits off ships to be able to track them later. Eventually the smugglers got away, the pushers resolved to keep a watch out for who was on the schooner and most of the party except Timmy slept on the Schooner over night. Next morning they headed off with Captain Montgomery up to Toe's Reach to investigate what happened with Harok. There they saved Jessica, got confused as to which Wereshark said what to whom. They bought her and Relgin back and were concerned about dealing with any bites especially as the Tulita got bitten. Back on the docks they encountered Mili'kau confronting Darenar and much like the PBP game they fluked getting the Tulita Shaman away from being arrested. They took him to the Chapter house and he started to help Eddie. The group then went to Fort Stormshield to try and get Harok released and without any goodwill from the Dragoons they managed to get the execution stopped until the Inquisitor could visit Toe's reach. They then went to visit the Barnacle. The Cleric went in to try and get a job as the new Barmaid which didn't go well with Barrett. They others started investigating the outside of the Barnacle. I added a lock to the cellar because I couldn't see why he wouldn't lock it. In the end they broke into the Still. Blister was aware and waited to ambush them as he only became aware once they were inside. They made their way down and the Cleric spotted him as the last person descending. She managed to cast Hold person on him and he failed his will rolls so they had him bound before it wore off. They then warned him they would kill him if he tried to shout out, but he didn't believe them so shouted. The Tulita promptly killed him and they went to deal with Barrett who had heard the loud shout. They fought in the cellar, with Barret taking down the Tulita, but as the session ended they had just taken him down, saved their friend and were ready to interrogate him. Some lucky rolls and they are now massively interested in seeing people's chests to check for the mark of the Ring. They do want to keep going with trying to take over the underworld, set up a place of worship to Pekko and replace Dragonsmoke probably with something less dangerous and with a better profit margin.
Now I have questions about the Weresharks. Spoiler: Is it only Jalamar who can bite and infect as it seems to say yes that's right at one point then encourage you to have the Nightslinks bite and infect later?
In terms of cure once past the brief period where the poultice might work then it needs to be a 12th Level cleric casting to remove the bite? Can Mili'auka do it even though he's an 11th level adept? Otherwise there is no one I can spot as Zalen is 9th level and the party won't hit 12th level in time. It would have been very useful to have had a sidebar about the Bite and collecting all the information on cures etc together.
I've got my second epic table group session coming up end of this month, but they are already prepared with ideas at least for alternates and a couple of builds ready from our character designer. I'd say it was because we're playing Cthullhu as one of our other games, but the character designer loves building characters so it's normally more of an issue getting him to stick with one character.
Strands 2nd attempt after closing the wrong tab. Only included stuff the current party knows of. Plot strands Dragonsmoke smugglers - Garreg, cove 2 miles upcoast, tulita councilman Elder Nakuaka
Whispers Garr Bloodbane's gold
Started running the campaign yesterday with Stephen Harker - Half Elf Wizard 5 - purser, map enthusiast and someone who has a taste for the finer things even if he's running out of money
Spoiler:
Taking the lead to get the Wave Riders back as heroes. Mary Belle - Female Half Aasimar Cleric of Pekko - looking to set up a Chapter house for Pekko Tim - Halfling Rogue - pretending to be a human cabin boy. Fairly manipulative in terms of playing up hero worship. Obadiah "Four Fingers" Flint - Human Gunslinger - Another follower of Pekko who is all about the bluffing. Campaign so far
Spoiler: Run sesssion 5.1 and about halfway through 5.2. They've started trying to collect the Wave Riders; realised that they probably got stolen from by Jalia, given a drink already to Montgomery and arranged to try and hire Xander Brim. On that note - has anyone come up with some good rates for Xander to charge? They've also gone some way to earning Zalen's trust, though they seem to have gotten annoyed with the Tulita wanting to fight for themselves - the fight with the Whalers. They stopped the fight with Zalen's help as they were on their way back to the Chapterhouse with him. The party has no Knowledge Local, which means they really are newcomers. They tried to get rooms at the Kraken's Gullet, but were turned down because of their Tulita, who they did try to pass off as a servant. The Cleric of Pekko has taken an interest in the Dragonsmoke pushers, partly to find their source, but partly as she wants to replace drugs with good old fashioned booze and take over running the floozies and other such things in Port Shaw. This did lead to the Dragonsmoke pushers being asked "Had they considered the benefits of Absinthe and a good woman." They bought a map to Garr Bloodbane's treasure after scaring the seller who let them have it for 25gp and a share later. The Tulita tried to intimidate him, but failed even with a blade out, which led them to suggest that the seller really did have a backbone and should come in with them as an equal partner. Next time it'll be talking to Zalen about Noeliss, a trip to Toe's Reach [It would help if the time it's referred to as Thumb's Reach was either corrected or had a note to say the locals had called it the wrong name], and another encounter with the Dragonsmoke pushers I'd expect for starters.
I'm actually now building up an NPC portrait gallery for my players to reference so they can keep track of who is who easier. Obviously it'll grow as they progress and possibly not giving it to them until the end of what will be session 1 for us, which I expect to cover both 5.1 and 5.2 due to the time we play.
Ok character tally at the moment Sapele Lalolagi - Tulita Monk 5 - Mai'kal archetype
Blockade Runner Rogue/ Seasinger Bard
Ok so far we have Tulita Monk
Potential Cleric of Quell So for me to play:
Or Magus Hexcrafter who is blade bound - though just read the allowed classes so that's an ask if that's ok? Or Storm Druid. There's a storm coming to Port Shaw and I mean to control it.
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