Muddman72's page

Good afternoon, my fellow gamers. Always great to get advice from the minds of such creative people!

Ok, so we're playing in a homebrew world and they have been pounding their way through to 6th level. They've endured to reassemble a statue of a fallen angel. They are currently trying to get the last piece. When reassembled, the true storyline of the campaign will be revealed. The angel is a messenger from the heavens, sent to the world to deliver the message that doom approaches. A great evil is about to wake and bring forth the end of the world.

This doom: an ancient king of legend that discovered fire and stole it from the gods. He stole away the ember of that power and retreated with his armies into undeath to protect it always. I have the baddie built, the armies laid out, even a cult to lead up to it, everything ready to go!

Problem: I don't really know what his motivation should be. He was noble in life, so I figure it should be at least a twisted form of nobility to bring him forth. But damned if I can think of anything.

Suggestions?

Good afternoon, my fellow gamers. Always great to get advice from the minds of such creative people!

Ok, so we're playing in a homebrew world and they have been pounding their way through to 6th level. They've endured to reassemble a statue of a fallen angel. They are currently trying to get the last piece. When reassembled, the true storyline of the campaign will be revealed. The angel is a messenger from the heavens, sent to the world to deliver the message that doom approaches. A great evil is about to wake and bring forth the end of the world.

This doom: an ancient king of legend that discovered fire and stole it from the gods. He stole away the ember of that power and retreated with his armies into undeath to protect it always. I have the baddie built, the armies laid out, even a cult to lead up to it, everything ready to go!

Problem: I don't really know what his motivation should be. He was noble in life, so I figure it should be at least a twisted form of nobility to bring him forth. But damned if I can think of anything.

Suggestions?

Good afternoon, my fellow gamers. Always great to get advice from the minds of such creative people!

Ok, so we're playing in a homebrew world and they have been pounding their way through to 6th level. They've endured to reassemble a statue of a fallen angel. They are currently trying to get the last piece. When reassembled, the true storyline of the campaign will be revealed. The angel is a messenger from the heavens, sent to the world to deliver the message that doom approaches. A great evil is about to wake and bring forth the end of the world.

This doom: an ancient king of legend that discovered fire and stole it from the gods. He stole away the ember of that power and retreated with his armies into undeath to protect it always. I have the baddie built, the armies laid out, even a cult to lead up to it, everything ready to go!

Problem: I don't really know what his motivation should be. He was noble in life, so I figure it should be at least a twisted form of nobility to bring him forth. But damned if I can think of anything.

Suggestions?

Here is what I have, looking for more events in a zombie adventure:

1. PCs are in a town, refugees come flooding in from a nearby city. Refugees say the city was attacked but almost no one knows from who.
2. They find a haunted guard who speaks of people walking the streets even after receiving wounds that should have killed them. He saw these people devouring others.
3. They hurry to find the city abandoned. Once well inside the city, the first of the walking dead will begin attacking them. Overwhelmed, they'll need to find shelter.
4. They find a basement with a few survivors, told the story of what happened, pointed towards the entrance to the city's catacombs.
5. Once inside they trace the zombies to a sphere being used by a spellcaster to awaken the dead. Fight ensues. They win... or not, whatever.

Thats what I have so far, seems kind of thin. Any ideas on ways to punch it up a bit? Add any plot points or goals?

I have some ideas but you guys are very creative and I'd love to get some advice:

In our last campaign on this homebrew world, an elder evil popped up, devoured all magic and almost ate the world. The heroes saved the day, ascended to godhood.

Its been 800 years and magic is still gone. I want it to come back, any ideas how? And how do you think the heroes should discover it?

Planning out a campaign and need some advice:

In the last campaign, the heroes confronted a demon god that devoured all the world's magic and, in doing so, ascended to godhood, becoming the game world's new pantheon.

In the next campaign, the world has been without magic for a few centuries and its all but been forgotten. Whats going to happen is that the fey are going to rise to try and conquer the world, but the heroes will rediscover magic and throw down with the fey queen.

My sticking point: how should they re-discover magic?

Any ideas?

I agree with CampinCarl, giving realistic permanent wounds to up front fighters is inherently unfair.

The Wizard in the back already has huge benefits from his spells that cause world ending damage. Now the up front fighter is not only at a massive disadvantage for that, but now he has one eye, no hearing in his right ear and a missing fingers on his left hand.

If I were paying the upfront fighter, I'd be pretty pissed.

For what its worth, I completely agree with you, I wouldn't let that fly and quite frankly your DM is a jerk to not throw the guy out.

Another world... hmmm...

Also digging the Rakshasa Plane, they even have a nemesis that pops up now and then thats a Mythic Rakshasa.

Brother Fen - The story behind the imprisoned Deva:

In an eon past, the God of Justice and the God of Undeath (Orcus, I like him) had a contest. Each chose champions and the God of Justice chose his Astral Deva, who was a legendary champion of good. Moments before the contest was to begin, the Deva found out that the God of Justice had been duped and if he wins the contest, it would unleash a plague upon the world. He had no time to tell his lord or any other of the assembled Gods, so the Deva what was the most right, he went out and lost on purpose.

The God of Justice was embarrassed and furious with his Deva, interpreting the loss as a violation of his oath to do as his lord commands, so rather than ask why he threw the contest, he ripped the Deva's wings off, effectively casting him down. Orcus was due a boon for winning the contest, so he announced that his prize would be the Deva. The God of Justice, now realizing his mistake, could not protect or deny Orcus since he just cast him out.

Orcus created a demi-plane prison to torment the Deva. Maybe he was indulging his sadistic side. Maybe he has plans for the champion of good but must break him first, maybe both. Whatever the reason, he is the only one who knows where the Waters of Eternity end. Thus, they must find him and convince him that their ends are just.

I have a character like this currently. He's worked out a way to give himself a butt load of negative hit points and act normally through them. He has upwards of 300 hp at 14th level.

One suggestion that works great: go Core Book only. Tell everyone playing at the beginning that if its not in the Core Book, its not in the game without your approval ahead of time. No leveling and then "Oh, can I take this?" They want it, they gotta give you days to consider it. That cuts out 95% of my headaches. Pathfinder has oodles of abilities that can interact to make MAJOR power characters, so you have to control what they take, big time.

Might be too late for your game and for that I am sorry.

In the end, if hes nice and cool, come to him directly and tell him you're having a problem with his playing style and others aren't having fun. If hes as nice as you say he won't want others to have a bad time. Talk to him about nerfing his character or changing him. Heck, maybe even give him a "going out in a blaze of glory" ending, he may like that.

If he can't or won't change for the good of 6 other people's enjoyment, then hes being a self centered jerk and to hell with him.

Ok, so my players are on the trail of a mythic power source to become semi-divine beings so they can take on a god. The only one who knows where this source is is a fallen Astral Deva imprisoned in a demonic prison. The prison, its guards, etc are already designed and ready to go.

What I don't have and seem kind of important: where to send them?

I want it to be a strange and wondrous plane they aren't used to and I want there to be an adventure while they're there to get to it. Mechanus sounds fun, but having a hard time coming up with an adventure or challenge. Other planes more apt for adventure have occurred to me (the abyss, Sigil, etc) but meh, feels kind of blah.

Ideas? Suggestions? Thanks everyone!

My question is this: would the AC bonus from each class "stack" as separate class features with the same name, or is it reasonable to combine them like sneak attack damage from levels of both rogue and ninja?

Just a side note, you can't combine Ninja and Rogue sneak attack. The Ninja is an alternate of the Rogue class. They work the same except that you can't take both classes, just like you can't be a Samurai/Cavalier.

"Alternate classes are standalone classes whose basic ideas are very close to established base classes, yet whose required alterations would be too expansive for an archetype. An alternate class operates exactly as a base class, save that a character who takes a level in an alternate class can never take a level in its associated class—a samurai cannot also be a cavalier, and vice versa."

One could be a rogue/slayer, since you can multi-class with hybrid classes.

Happy gaming :)

Ok, scenario time: my party had befriended the crown princess of the world's largest nation. Upon her father's death, she was to become Queen, but her younger brother usurped her and tried to have her killed, but she got away. The PCs helped her and have spent the last 6 levels raising an army to retake the throne. The battle ensued and they pushed their way into the castle.

Several big fights later they have captured the young king, who surrendered and is demanding the right to a trial by moot, a legal trial where a member of the royal family is brought before the Duke's and Duchess' of every major city and allowing them to decide the royal family member's fate. This is not only legal, by the law of the land this is the only way that a member of the royal family can be tried.

The new Queen doesn't want to give it to him, worried that her brother has too many contacts and friends among the noblemen to make for a fair trial. She wants the paladin (team leader and her betrothed) to execute him immediately for crimes against the throne. He is torn, after all, he knows the young king is not evil (his smite evil didn't work) and he is no immediate threat. Then again, if hes found innocent of his crimes by the moot, he'll be allowed to slither away to raise an army of his own.

So would carrying out this order (or allowing another to do it for him) cost the paladin his powers?

Alright, let me set it up for you:

Heroes have just saved the princess and defeated her usurper brother to put her back on the throne, as she should be. Sadly, she is the uber bad guy the PCs have suspected was around since the beginning. Using a trio of books her cult has stolen over the course of the last 5 levels, she summons the attention of Atropus, an undead god formed from an undead moon that is now heading towards their world. The dead of the civil war have risen as powerful undead and they were forced to flee the city.

The end game is for them to face the big bad evil undead entity on his moon when it arrives. But, what kind of adventures should they be doing in the meantime?

Loss of a sense of touch would cause serious harm to your central nervous system. he sensory deprivation chamber tends to cause hallucinations and would, given time, drive you insane.

Like some of these a lot, here are some other alternatives:

Dresden Files style White Court Vampire, they feed on life energy through sexual desire. Very high charisma, can alter the minds of others into giving in to their desires. Will saves to resist, when they fail they lose 1 hp permanently and the vampire can use that point to enhance strength, speed, senses, etc.

A Vampire that can feed on dreams, slowly driving people insane by the lack of REM sleep.

A vampire that feeds on disease. One might think him a caring doctor, but in fact hes spreading disease to the townsfolk to boost his food stock.

Went great! Just so you know, here is what happened:

They return home from a mission outside the city and find a festival in full swing highlighted by a huge circus.

They find the first body on a landing of the stairwell in their inn, one of the bargirl's is dead, her face twisted and warped until she looks like a man with a scar by his eye, but her body is still definitely female.Its also smiling maniacally. The cause of death? A string of silk handkerchiefs stuffed down her throat until she suffocated. The mother of the girl comes t the city's watch's main building to identify her as best she can, and is horrified to say that the man's face the girl now wheres was that of her dead husband, the girl's father and a former member of the city watch who died 3-4 years ago.

They found a tarot card hidden in her bra, the card of Judgement.

The captain of the watch, a paladin named Brenna Knightsworn, takes over the investigation and thanks them for their aid.

The PCs do some investigating and determine the face was changed using some form of advanced alchemy and after the point of death. The cleric finds the resting place of the dead watchman and casts speak with dead and found out that before his death, the guard arrested an alchemist named Esal Bailey who murdered his wife.

Then comes the 2nd murder, that of a renowned judge. He has his own face, but also that insane grin on his lips. His head was back and he swallowed a sword incorrectly, much the same way the circus' street performers are. He had a tarot card on him, that of the Sun.

They freak out and find a temple to the Sun god in the city. There they find the head priest who was also involved in the Esal Bailey case. He was a liaison to the Watch at the time and he cast a Zone of Truth. Bailey resisted the spell and told them he didn't kill his wife. They wait while the priest gets his temple in order and comes with them into protective custody at the Watch Headquarters where the Watch Captain, Knightsworn, put him in a cell to protect him.

They then examine the records and find another link, the Dutchess' SON was also involved, a playboy swordsman named Vinson. They track him down to a low rent inn and find him dead, his body frozen solid on a wet bed. Two sets of clothing are there (1 male, 1 female). They find the mixed in the man's clothes, the Hierophant!

They leave the Captain of the Watch to secure the scene and rush back to find the priest dead, poisoned hours ago. His tarot card is the Queen of Blades. Assuming this referred to the Captain, they seek her out and find that she has all but vanished. No where to be seen, no one knows where she went.

With no leads they seek out the imprisoned alchemist's old lab, thinking that he must be set up somewhere. The place is old and empty, the man was never wealthy. Tucked in the wardrobe they find a journal of the murdered mother. Turns out she hated her life and her husband's obsession with his craft. After the birth of their daughter, it got worse. When the girl was 15, the mother hated life so much she decided to kill herself and punish the people who made her life so miserable. This got him thrown in prison and left the girl to fend for herself.

They questioned the imprisoned alchemist and he told them he was innocent and how much she loved the circus, which just so happened to be in town when he was convicted.

The last piece of the puzzle, they found the decomposing form of the REAL Captain of the Watch, dead for several days.

They figured it out. The daughter ran away with the circus and recently returned to get revenge. She killed the Captain and assumed her form, using that shape to kill all of her targets. The only one she couldn't reach without help was the priest, who the PCs conveniently delivered to her.

They are on their way down to the circus now to confront her. How did she kill the dutchess' son? She makes simulacrums, made one of a gorgeous woman and stuffed a cold alchemist bomb inside her. The simulacrum's job was to seduce the young man, which was simple enough. When they had sex, the cold bomb went off, killing the young man. Heat from the hearth in the room melted what was left of the simulacrum.

Thanks for all the ideas guys! Feel free to use this storyline to your hearts content :)

Awesome stuff guys, thanks!

Good afternoon everyone!

Designing a villain that is a sort of Joker in design and hes after the PCs. Hes an alchemist with a real mean streak and a flare for the dramatic/ridiculous.

I figure he isn't going to confront the party directly himself, he's too smart for that and he knows he'd obviously lose.

First thing he'll do, hire some muscle to keep them occupied. Easy.

Second thing he's done, kidnapped a friend of theirs and placed a letter telling them he had to go into hiding and needs help. Meet me at the lighthouse.

When they get there, he's rigged the lighthouse to go up like a roman candle. Alchemical bombs all over the place, vats of alchemist fire to help it burn. They get to the top, find their friend with a slit throat and BOOM. They'll survive that, too much magic in this party to not make it. They get outside, see him smiling maniacally and giving them a dramatic clap before vanishing into a teleport.

So, what I need is a good secondary plot to get their attention and have a chance to threaten them. Something creative. I have a few ideas, but none that are particularly cool and you guys are nothing if not a gold mine for cool ideas.

Soooo... go! :) Thanks!

My answer as DM would have been something to the effect of:

"Your god, angered by your cavalier and lazy use of your divine as a crutch to avoid honest work, has revoked your paladin-hood. To regain your abilities you must atone for your sins by way of an Atonement spell and accompanying quest."

In all seriousness, Smite Evil is not an ability used like detect evil. It is used in battle to kill evil doers. I don't even let my paladins know if their ability worked until they actively attack the creature. My PCs fought a pack of chaos beasts that swarmed and slaughtered a caravan last night. He didn't know until he declared his smite and then laid into them. When asked if it worked I said "Nope, they're just Chaotic hungry."

Or I see what you mean:

"A mastermind can use inspiration on any Diplomacy, Intimidate, Knowledge, or skill checks without spending a use of inspiration.

This ability alters inspiration."

You're saying that because of the wording, the Mastermind should get the inspiration die on EVERY skill check.

I'd never ever rule that way. I don't know if its been "officially" changed, but its obviously not the spirit of the rule.

My group and I tried the rules lately and they're merely ok.

I recently used the Mass Combat rules to scare my PCs out of charging a 600 soldier army in a pass. They are 10th level and figured "We can take them out". To avoid a long drawn out fight that would have been an exercise in futility, I just shrugged and said "Ok, we'll use the Mass Combat rules. Their ACR is 6, your groups is 3. Good luck."

Needless to say, they rethought their strategy.

Well you haven't mentioned which cult the princess was accused of working for, but I supposed it doesn't really matter.

Sorry, I didn't mention which cult because thats a function of the campaign. The Elder Evils are not bound strongly to the material plane. Even knowing their name creates a maddening resonance in the knowers mind that can drive one insane over time as the knowledge of the evil's name can call the attention of that power, so no one actually speaks the names of the individual powers. Any cult worshiping any elder power is called "Chaos" worship, so shes been accused of that.

30. The Magisterium - a tower of crystal 800 feet tall at the heart of the Samsarran homeland. It is here that the Samsarrans grow their cloned infants. These soulless vessels sit in stasis, held in wait for their need. When a Samsarran dies, their soul travels through the gray wastes back to the Magisterium to claim one of these vacant vessels. The light of the crystalline tower can be seen from anywhere on the continent. The journey and transfer of soul to vessel are traumatic since an infants brain is not equipped to support a fully grown mind, and all but fragments of prior lives are lost. The child is then adopted to a Samsarran family as a form of civil service that most, if not all, undertake at some point, knowing full well that they will need the same aid in their next lives.

Story so far: the heroes have spent their time on the side of the crown princess who was supplanted by a younger brother on a false charge of cult worship. They have befriended foreign powers and internal factions to build and fund an army and they are currently preparing for civil war.

A side story has been a strange and powerful cult has been finding and stealing ancient texts, though the characters have no idea why. The books are part of a ritual to call the attention of a world eating deity sleeping in the void of space.

Anyone have any ideas how to weave these two stories together?

In my current campaign the heroes have saved the Princess from her treacherous younger brother who claimed the throne by falsly accusing her of cultist worship and killing the few stupid enough to openly disagree with him. They fled the country, where they are wanted criminals now for aiding a cultist. They have visited 2 countries and roleplayed out ways to get two small forces (100 soldiers each). So far so good.

But they will need more, a lot more! I figure the King has gathered a battalion in his home city (1000 troops), all well armed, well supplied with the best equipment and defensive entrenchments. To fight that, they'll need at least that many, so they'll have to gather support.

Any ideas for creative ways for them to do this?

He has the elemental bloodline arcana:

Bloodline Arcana: Whenever you cast a spell that deals energy damage, you can change the type of damage to match the type of your bloodline. This also changes the spell's type to match the type of your bloodline.

His just so happens to be water/cold.

No, he only does it 3 times a day, but thats about 150 points of damage to a big baddie even if he makes the ridiculous saves. Can't even throw fire immunity into it because he's an arcanist and can change it to frost by spending an arcane pool point.

Ok, live and learn :)

I have a 10th level arcanist in my group that is mythic (3rd tier) and fireball is one of his mythic spells. He routinely uses a lesser rod of maximized to throw 100+ dmg fireballs.

Seems broken to me, is there something I'm missing?

Really wishing there was a "get rid of burn, its stupid" option for the kineticist survey. Oh well :)

Building an entire system of class features around the idea of negating negatives you shouldn't be taking in the first place is like building a skyscraper on sand. The class has flavor and style, which I love, but the mechanics make the investment and exercise in futility.

Hargert is right, this class is the only translation class significantly worse than its 3.5 counterpart, the Warlock, which was a mediocre class to start with. No at will powers, the damage from their blast is VERY specific and easy to completely ignore and the powers that they have written are nifty tricks more than combat maneuvers.

You want me to invest countless levels just to be able to hurt myself MORE so I can be useful, but even still never even close to an archer, an Inquisitor (which I find to be weak)or even a rogue.

Ok, why am I playing this class again?

And its not like the thing you're trying to kill isn't taking hit points from you. There are a lot of things trying to kill you while you do all your fancy tricks. If you're taking uncurable non-lethal damage in addition to the damage that the baddies are inflicting, you're either severely limited to the base level blast and nothing else (boring) or you're suicidal.

And Rynjin is right, very few people play levels that high. I shouldn't have to play a character for 15 levels to make him balanced and effective in all fights.

Why not give them a kinetic pool or something to activate these abilities and then have the option to accept nonlethal damage once those points are used up? I wouldn't even care if that number is Con modifier +3 and never levels with the character, by the time you get to the abilities that require a lot of burn you'll have the hit points to survive them and still be in the fight.

Just got it. Am I the only one who is kind of miffed that the Kineticist is the only class in all of Pathfinder that is forced to take damage) to use his class abilities?

Any way to fix that?

+1 swords, +1 breastplates, etc, not worth the effort to carry them out, so I'll just drop more stuff later in the castle.

Cool, thanks!

So they're going through an adventure assaulting a Fire giant castle. They've killed a few and they looted the bodies aaaand... everything is giant sized? Their #1 longswords are the size of great swords and even then you're at a -2 because its not sized to you.

So my question is this: does the giant gear count as their reward for the adventure? I doubt they could effectively sell it in town. Last I checked most merchants don't go off into the wilderness to sell gear to ogres and trolls. Should the gear magically re-size to fit the pcs for simplicity sake? Should I tell them to leave it and leave appropriate reward gear within?

Albatoonoe for the win!

But seriously, I also equated these character to magic users from the Alex Verus book universe. Masters of their particular element/sphere of influence and there are a few that would work well:

Death magic (negative energy)
Life magic (positive energy) - alternate healer/undead hunter
Luck/probability magic

21 at 13th level too strong? With a belt? Heck no! Heck, the paladin of my party is 9th level and hes got a 20. Its your most important stat (along with Con) and determines your usefulness to the party. A weak barbarian is like having a dumb wizard or clumsy rogue.

Ok, some background:

The party spent literally 3 levels (3-6) getting the Crown Princess away from some bandits, then sneaking her back to the capitol, dodging assassins and being framed for a Duke's murder along the way. The Princess is a budding sorceress and carries an arcane bloodline long thought dead.

When they finally got to the capitol, the king (who thought she was dead) showered admiration upon the PCs. He met the paladin of the party and gave him an old map etched into leather. He told him it was the last resting place of the last paladin king of the kingdom. The brave king of old entered a lich's lair to stop him from wiping out the kingdom. He went in alone since he alone was strong enough to best the lich. As a precaution, he asked the most powerful being he knew, a storm giant wizard, to seal the entrance. The storm giant told him it would do little more than delay the lich, but agreed to do it to give the leaders of the world time to formulate a plan. The giant was to wait for either the king's signal or wait for the lich to begin unraveling the magic, but neither ever happened, and so everyone assumes the king and the lich destroyed each other, and so there lies the sword of the first king, a blade called Hestius, the sword of dawns.

What really happened? The two mythic characters fought and the paladin won, but narrowly. Seeing that the philactory was about to choose a new host and impossible to be destroyed, the king jammed it into his own chest and used every scrap of his magic to seal the lich's lair from teleport and sealed it in never ending ice, his power of choice. Over the years, the lich's soul has slowly corrupted the once great king. The now anti-paladin king is trapped with all his power, driven by the lich's lust for power but tempered with the warrior's cold, decisive action, tactical knowledge and leadership.(read the scenes ending)

What the PCs don't know: that the "king" that gave them the map was, in fact, the Princess. Shes the reincarnated soul of a Samsaran wizard princess who had gone mad 25 years ago and was killed, but her soul was never caught. Instead of heading back to her home country to be reborn in an inert clone infant and ultimately captured for her crimes, she roamed the earth in search of a powerful child she could possess. Ultimately she chose the princess of a neighbor country. She (along with the rest of the royal family) is aware the lich probably survived the king's battle and thats why no one has ever gone in search of the blade. So she used an illusion, disguised herself as the king and gave the map to the paladin of the party, knowing he'll been drawn to it like a bee to honey. The release of the lich/king will set off a series of events that will bring forth the apocalypse.

Mwahahahaha

Wow, loving these ideas, thanks! I have an image in my head: The heroes battle their way to the final chamber, a massive hall with pools of black liquid lining a single walkway upstairs. There, upon an unholy alter, lies the paladin king, impaled by his own sword.

The heroes file in, watching the environment for danger and the lich. Half way through the room, the pools writhe and boil to life as zombies begin to pull themselves free of the glop. They are no real threat except for their numbers, which seem endless. The fighter, cleric, wizard and rogue hold them monsters at bay while the paladin ascends the stairs, grabbing hold of the blade and pulling it free of the corpse and holding it high with triumph.

That is when he realizes something is wrong. Negative energy flows into him from the blade, sapping his life as a holy avenger would in the hands of an evil being. Just then, a cold, skeletal hand clamps down on the paladin's throat and a voice that sounds as if it were made by two pieces of sandpaper being rubbed together chides him, "Fool!"

The power of the lich's touch overwhelms him and he crumbles to the ground. The others whirl to see the lich king take up the sword and a surge of power flows through him, wreathing the undead in cold blue white fire that empowers them ten fold. Fighting for their lives, they try to push their way clear, but the paladin king channels his paralyzing touch through the blade (hes mythic, so he can do that) and to everyone it appears as though a single blow from his sword means death. When the last of them falls, he whispers to them, knowing they can hear him in that gravely voice, "My master comes and my time is at hand. For your service to the End, I give you your life, however fleeting. For your folly, I leave you here, entombed in the bile of your own failure, just as I was. Goodbye, fool... we will never meet again."

He then walks away, takes stride of his mount (a massive eagle construct that flies called Skyshadow) and takes leave of his prison. How do the heroes escape? Not sure yet, but that sounds like the perfect place to end a gaming session ;)

Mwahahahaha... (wringing my hands evily) Thanks everybody!

Ok, so heres the deal: I told them about a lost holy sword in a lich's lair, thinking to drop an adventure hook for future adventures. The group literally drops everything they're doing to go get it (seriously, they are ignoring a coup and a brewing civil war for this). I, being a simple story teller, don't want to tell them what to do, its not my thing.

So here is the story: paladin king goes into Lich's lair to defeat him and never returns. Powerful wizard seals the lair to prevent the Lich's escape, has remained sealed ever since.

Twist: The paladin was actually a paladin/sorcerer/eldritch knight (nice high level build, btw). He used his skill of magic to defeat the lich, absorb his power and was made into a lich himself. His sword is now an unholy sword and a symbol of death and pestilence rather than hope and freedom.

What I want: The result I want is for the Paladin Lich to escape his prison without killing them. He will begin spreading an undead plague, etc etc.

Ideas how? He could simply kill them, but thats kind of anti-climactic. He could simply walk out past them since hes such a higher level, but thats kind of lame.

Any cool ideas?

A little background:

My players rescued a woman from a band of brigands at 2nd level who turned out to be the crown princess of the kingdom. They have spent the last 4 levels evading attempts to take her back, been framed for murdering a Duke and had to take up being a crew aboard a trade ship just to smuggle her back to the capitol.

Well, they're almost there and something occurred to me... what should be their reward? I don't want it to be something as lame as a pile of gold, thats just so blah...

Ideas? I've considered titles, land, a map owned by the first king of the kingdom that they won't be able to use for 10 levels or so (yes, I'm that kind of jerk lol)

A little background:

My players rescued a woman from a band of brigands at 2nd level who turned out to be the crown princess of the kingdom. They have spent the last 4 levels evading attempts to take her back, been framed for murdering a Duke and had to take up being a crew aboard a trade ship just to smuggle her back to the capitol.

Well, they're almost there and something occurred to me... what should be their reward? I don't want it to be something as lame as a pile of gold, thats just so blah...

Ideas? I've considered titles, land, a map owned by the first king of the kingdom that they won't be able to use for 10 levels or so (yes, I'm that kind of jerk lol)

Hiho everybody!

Our group is looking for one or two mature players. We play Pathfinder mostly, but have mixed in some Legend of the Five Rings and experimented with others as well.

If interested, please respond here or email me at coxd72@yahoo.com!

Thanks!