Nived's page

This might make my standard quip "No one can actually name all the Gods in Forgotten Realms." obsolete! Oh no!

Eh I still like Dragonlance. 21 gods that's it.

Interestingly enough the walking order of my party had three halflings walk right over the pressure plate before the elf set it off. They now joke about her weight.

And therein lies the problem. It doesn't quite equate to normal familiars and is too weak to be an improved familier.

Maybe the solution is to make it a 'Feindish Flying Monkey', thus also answering the question of "What's scarier than a flying monkey?" But for it's improved familiar rating... what do you think? -3 level?

A buddy and I were having a discussion the other night about the flying monkey as a familiar... because "What's more scary than a flying monkey?" Honestly?

I simply said "That's what improved familiar is for, all you have to do is figure out the effective level hit"

Of course this got us looking at the monkey stats beside a celestial hawk (the 'lowest' improved familiar) and saw the monkey vastly inferior.

Which begs the question... could the flying monkey be... just a normal familiar? Fez and all? And should he give the Wizard (or Sorcerer) a +2 intimidation bonus... because flying monkeys are scary.

scootrose, that might be true for you, but again, I'm not a subscriber, and I wouldn't be buying these if it wasn't for the 'promised saddle' at all.

KightErrantjr. I'm not furious with Piazo, and this will be my third post on this stupidly massive thread, and I'm only making it to make one point clear.

I'm more upset about being told that I shouldn't be upset than I am about the Overload being late.

Is it really us complaining about it that's making this thread so long, or it is the people who jump on and tell us that we have no justification for being exasperated. Every day that goes by since the original promised date (and yes I know they changed the ETA since then, and Eric thanks for keeping us informed) makes our frustraition greater. Meanwhile these hollow arguements of loyalty to paizo grow less and less.

Here's the thing, I'm stareing at a session this weekend that I am ill prepared for, and yes I can rewrite the module, hell I have the ability to run a 1 to 20 campaign with nothing but the core books... but I quite frankly don't have the time or the inclination anymore, I've found sessions are just as much fun with a fraction of the prep time because of a prepublished adventures.

Now if Overload isn't out by this weekend I can cancel game (which would get people frustraited and annoyed with me), I could try to convert the module myself (which I really don't have time for), or I could just go run something else, which, knowing my group, would probably lead to dropping AoW altogether.

Guess what? I don't want either of those three things to happen.

This is my situation, I don't expect everyone's to mirror mine. I'm letting Paizo know that now, two weeks after I bought 125 at full newstand price that I'm not happy about the situation, as I'm sure they're not either. I've let them know that I like their work. Every single time I posted on this thread I made it a point to tell them I like the adventure, I like their magazines, and I think they do good work! Still I don't have everything I need. I need, I don't care if you don't need it but I do... and I was told I was going to recieve it.

If you can't tell this isn't a rant about Paizo right now. Erik and other guys come on and tell us status and what's going on. Having followed other companys (Like Sovereign Press) who deal with licensing from Wizards, I've seen the 'approval' phase take time. I understand. This rant is directed at those telling me that the feelings I have, mainly frustration, are somehow unjustified.

Listen I'm impressed with Paizo's work on Dragon for years and Dungeon... well these last two months (the first two I've bought.) I like their work... I do, you guys do good work *gives the thumbs up*.

But the old addage "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth" isn't apt here. That phrase is describing checking the horse's teeth (a generally accepted way of seeing how healthy a horse is)... the phrase means "Don't complain about something that's free." But here's the thing... The Overload isn't free... it was a selling point.

I paid for Dungeon 124 and 125, dungeon 124 promised me eberron conversion in the next issue, which wasn't there, and dungeon 125 promised me I could download them 'today'. What's more I had checked the site and they told me it would be availible the day Dungeon 125 came out on news stands.

I payed for a product with the understanding I would recieve support for it. So this has nothing to do with complaining about the quality of something free... this is complaining about not getting something that I was told I would get to support something I paid for.

Now I'm not flipping out and saying that I'm never going to buy another Paizo product. I am, I'm going to buy Dungeon and Dragon, but I don't think that I'm overreacting by being unhappy not getting something that was a selling point.

I'm buying Dungeon right now because of Age of Worms. I'm running Age of Worms because I was told that it had conversions for Eberron. I'm running an Eberron game because my friend asked me to run a long Eberron game and he had already read (because he tried to run) the three released Eberorn modules.

So I bought issue 124 where I was told that conversion appendacies written by Keith Baker would be written for EACH adventure. I bought 125 with under the pretense of those conversion notes. Now I know they're forthcoming, and I know you guys are working hard... but I'm tired of being told that I don't have a right to be upset about this.

Guys, I'm looking forward to Overload, and I'm looking forward to 126, which I am going to buy. I trust there wont be more delays like this... if there are I might have to discontinue my plans for running this adventure path. Not because I want to but because I can't run a game.

Also before someone tells me "Make it up" I paid good money so I wouldn't have to. I don't have the time to rewrite a module, that's why I'm buying one in the first place.

Sean's post above described my situation nicely actually. I never bought an issue of Dungeon before #124, I pick up an issue of Dragon here or there when an article catches my eye but every issue of Dungeon I ever happened to come across (up till 125) had been plastic wrapped, I had no idea what they contained really and thus had no interest in buying something when I didn't know what I was getting.

Cue issue 124 and this quite incredible "adventure path" that I heard buzz about on various sites... "Alright I'm looking to run an Eberron campaign" simply because my friend asked me to, "I haven't been able to read a whole lot about Eberron but I seem to like it. And here I hear about a 12 part adventure series taking the party to 20th level... and it has prewritten conversions to Eberron, sweet deal."

So I bought #124 and I was blown away, I couldn't believe I never picked up Dungeon earlier. The Whispering Caren was pretty sweet but the Backdrop really sold it. Luckily I did come to the site and found the conversions. So I started running it and had quite a blast. Most of the time in game (and it's been three sessions to get through the first part of the adventure) has been run off the backdrop article not the adventure. I loved issue 124 I freaking loved it. Then I started hearing rumbles of 125 being not so good, that three faces didn't stack up.

I bought 125 hoping that the rumbling was wrong, yeah I flipped through it (cringed when I saw the maze) but I was in a hurry. I read the adventure... and the old conversion notes and the one paragraph descriptions of the deities in the EBCS... Not a lot to go on. Well overload should clear it up... and I didn't think Whispering Caren would be RP intesive but with the GREAT backdrop it ended up being mostly talking IC. Now here I sit, looking forward to a game on Saturday with very little to go on.

Don't get me wrong if I have to I'll pull off the conversion myself, but I don't know swat about the dark six, the Eberron Campaign setting doesn't have a lot on them. I was looking forward to Keith's article fleshing them out. Because The Mockery, The Shadow, and The Keeper are significantly different than Vecna, Hextor, well, I don't have the mag in front of me and lets agree I'd spell it wrong anyway.

I'm not angry, I'm not mad. I'm frustrated... but then again I'm also a Dragonlance fan and look at the delays Sovereign Press has had.

So what's my point? There is no point. I'm frustrated, and I'm venting. Listen Erik and the other guys at Dungeon. I trust that you have valid reasons for the delay. I trust you on that. And I know that there are probably a dozen reasons you can't just come out and say "This this and this" are holding us up". I don't expect you to. I believe you guys are trying your damnedest to get the Overload out. As you can tell I'm a trusting fellow but seriously guy... this was a screw up on your end. And that's just the truth.

I look forward to it, with great anticipation, and I trust it'll be great, I really do.

Now, my players didn't handle this in the best manner. Still this is amusing so I'll share.

Our heroes... three talenta halflings and a troll... no really a troll, savage species monster progression. They range between N, CN, and CG... but are thankfully, self motivating.

They go to the observitory commando style, for two reasons, one to catch the necromancer off gaurd, and because the sheriff is looking for them because of a condiluded side plot that involved a fight with the owner of the emporium.

The three halflings lead with the troll following a good distance back so not to make too much noise. They take out the tomb mote, the three skelletons without making too much noise or too much hassle. They stare in abject horror at the dinner scene "This guy has issues".

They creep up to the second floor, and before I even finish describing the room, the rogue makes an arm motion of picking up the Plat piece from the tongue as I'm describing the stuffed goblin. Not the smartest halfling rogue in the world. "INTRUDER! INTRUDER!" screams the head as the troll crushes it to shut it up. Merrowahn the owl flies up to tell Filge there's a big freaking monster downstairs.

The party members look at each other, and the three halflings roll hide checks, not a single one lower than a 25. The rogue dives under the bed, the ranger deftly hides under the desk. The barbarian goes for under the bed, stops, grabs the top hat, glasses, and platter from the stuffed goblin, throws the goblin under the bed (with the rogue) and takes the thing's place holding the platter and the smushed head. The troll, the poor poor troll, goes up against the south wall, stands there, strikes a pose, trying to look like a statue like the angelic one on the northwest wall.

The zombies come lumbering down a momment later... I roll spot without thinking that there was no reason I really should be... and roll a 1. The zombies, do not notice the troll. Filge meanwhile is casting and injecting himself upstairs buffing the the inevitable fight. But no sounds of battle came from below... seconds ticked away... nothing moved.

Filge slowly creeps downt he stairs, and peaks around the wall of the stairwell, and sees the troll, "KILL THE TROLL!" he screams. Last words he would ever say. I decided to give the troll, and just the troll a surpise round action. He innitiated a grapple with the nearest zombie, then all hell broke loose.

Inititives were rolled, Filge didn't win. The ranger rolled out from under the desk and threw his talenta boomerang mightily. Rolled high enough to pass the wizard's improved AC and pass the miss chance for cover, Filge is clocked with a boomerang. The rogue rolls out from under the bed and similarly rolls beautifully to throw a dagger into Filge's shoulder. Then the barbarian, using quick draw, drops the platter snatches up two of his throwing axes (he has twf) and throws one into a zombie, and the other into Filge. He crits! Filge now has an axe sticking out of his head. He's dead he just hasn't hit the floor yet. This is when the Troll who's not satisfide that the necromancer is good and dead yet, throws the zombe he had grappled into the necromancer knocking him off the stairs and into a heap... right in front of his 'grave stone'. One round, and Filge got slaughtered.

The zombies obey the last command and attack the troll, and deal some pretty good damage to the party before they all stay down. But overall it was a forgone conclusion.

The party looted the observitory for all it was worth... Smenk's going to be furious when he finds out. The party made a enemy of Khellek earlier, and the law's looking for them. I'm waiting for overload to decide when it all hits the fan.

UPDATE:

One of my players finally finished with summertime family obligations including 3 family reunions (two sides of his family and his fiance's) So at last the party is complete.

To reinterate... Eberron, three Talenta halflings, one rogue, one ranger, one barbarian.

And now the latest edition to the party.

Trajaued, which no one can pronounce so as a joke they call him 'Phil'. He's a troll.

That's right, three halflings and a troll.

It's Eberron so the lines between monsters and 'people' is blurred, and well I might as well get my money's worth out of Savage Species sometime. So he's taking monster class levels. His first level feat? Brutal Throw from Complete... I think warrior. So I think it wont belong before one of them thinks of the 'fastball special'.

I am a generally stoic person, and although I can be startled, I am rarely 'scared'. I make a distinction, startled is a surprized reaction that lasts 2 seconds at most. Fear is something worse, it stays with you, irrationally in a prolonged manner. Fear isn't something you just shake off. This is a story of a time I was scared.

I've come across plenty of wild animals, bears, coyotes, boar, and there was one incident with a lion, but none of those really scared me. I've been in some dangerous places I really shouldn't have been, but I was too cocky to be scared. I've even worked in a place (usually with the lights off) that has a 80 year history of being haunted. Still I wasn't scared. So when I tell you that the events I'm about to tell you about scared me, I mean it. Terrified to my very center.

This is a story of how I died.

That might sound odd, but stick with me. It was a dream, a nightmare. Now they say you can't die in a dream, if you do you snap awake, it is literally impossible to die in a dream. That's a lie. I have, and it was one of the most terrifying expiriences of my life.

The dream started something like this, the world was going to end, for whatever reason WW3 started and the nukes were flying, we knew this, and we knew there was nothing we could do. So my friends and I were playing poker waiting to die... seemed like the thing to do. Well another friend of mine called me who wasn't there freaked out, crying... so I agreed to go get them, so they didn't have to be alone at the end.

As I walked outside to get to my truck a flash came from the west. I know this because I was in my childhood neighborhood for some reason. I looked and saw the mushroom cloud, then I was hit with the impact, and tossed across the yard like a rag doll. From that point on I was blind, see I've watched the movie "Fat Man and Little Boy", it goes into great detail radiation poisoning. So I was blind, and I was vomiting up parts of myself. I was in a horrendous amount of pain. But I wasn't afraid, I remember thinking to myself "I'm going to die, there's nothing I can do about it, it shouldn't take too long, I'm going to die. I'll see what comes next."

The pain stopped. I was in darkness, a void. I didn't feel anything, I didn't see anything, I couldn't hear anything. I could think. I waited, "Dead, I must be dead." I thought to myself, and I waited. Nothing happened, I called out for someone, no one came. I called out to god and got no answer. I tried to justify it... end of the world, there must be a line or something... but I waited, and still nothing happened. I started calling out to god again, please let something anything happen. I called out for my mother, my father, dead relitives, nothing. I called out for something to happen. Nothing, I started to panic then. Something had to happen didn't it? Some sort of afterlife? Couldn't just be this void, nonexistance would be better than a eternity trapped with nothing but your own thoughts. I called out to every god of every religion and every demon or devil I could think of begging for something to happen. I don't know how long this lasted, seemed like a long time to me. I was screaming in my head, trying to move, trying to do anything other than think. But nothing I did mattered.

Nothing did. I was alone, abandoned, forever.

I woke up, covered in sweat, shaking. It seems cliche, the sitting bolt upright shot from hundreds of movies... but that's how it was. I was crying, not sobbing, I'm just telling you tears were coming down my face. I sat there, on my bed shaking, I never felt so alone in my entire life.

Now you can annalyze that dream 6 ways till Sunday, most agree that it has something to do with deep down me not believing in a God even though the thought of one not existing scares me. Still, for me, that was terror.

While Nived's PCs first plan of action was a good one, their second plan of action was verging on the suicidal. Ghouls aren't weak, and being paralyzed underwater is very, very bad. I think the PCs involved were lucky more than anything, because their plan shouted disaster.

I'll agree to you to a point, it was a rather dumb thing to do trying to tie the rope to the ghoul. That's why I had him take two attacks of opportunity for it... he took a good amount of damage too... but he made his Fort saves to fight of paralyzation. And I had the barbarian make two contested strength rolls to 'reel in' the Ghoul. He passed them.

It could have been a horrible disaster, but the dice were with them.

I would imagine "Identify" will have some new rules accociated with it once Weapons of Legacy comes out... I think we could easily consider this circlet a item of legacy.

I was actually surprized how my players handled this, paranoid of underwater creatures they tapped the surface of the water trying to see if anything was down there... thus drawing out the water elemental. Keeping themselves on dry land and giving them a huge advantage.

For the ghoul (or was it a gast... my memory sucks) only two of the party members went into the water... they tied ropes to themselves with the rest of the partymembers holding onto the other ends of the ropes... they took a third rope intending to tie it to any treasure they find making it easier to bring up... When the dead seeker started attacking the one with the rope took two attacks of opporunity to tie the rope to it... yanking on the rope the rest of the party hauled the ghoul to the stairs... where when it burst out of the water at them and combat ensued... the other players evenutally pulled themselves out of the water to help finish it off. All around smartly played.

Lead to one of the best lines of the game, screaming barbarian "Don't you ever! EVER! Send some crazy undead after me like that again!" He was the first in line hauling in the ropes... he was the strongest.

My PCs put the clues together, and even though two were fatigued and one considered it, the ones who made their saves kept anyone from laying down. They looted the seeker corpse (think it was only a ring on that one) and got out of dodge. Though one PC has made his intention clear to return to that room later to make certain. They are a collective group of "Steal everything that isn't bolted down, and bring a crowbar just in case" type group... and Dragon had to go and refine their skills with "The Plunderers Handbook".

Currently there are 4 'brushed nickel showerheads' in their inventory...

Doesn't bother me right now, the motivation for The Whispering Caren is looting...

Very stuble indeed, in fact this was the reaction from my players.

OOC Ragner "Wait you said it's finger is broken?"
me "Yes,"
OOC Ragner "Then I'm going to pull out the one I found with the wolves and put it back on."
IC Barbarian "Stop, don't do that!"
IC Rager "Why not?"
IC Barbarian "Because I don't want no hoobmajoob stone mummy to come popping out of that thing!"

Takk: Halfling Ranger 2, Region of origin Talenta Plains, weapons of choice Talenta boomerang and Talenta tangot.
Slaed: Halfling Barbarian 2, Region of origin Talenta Plains, weapons of choice throwing axes and a greataxe.
Dux: Halfling Rogue 2, Region of origin Talenta Plains, weapon of choice daggers, a lot of daggers.

So there is much death at knee height.

What originally was a patch to cover to get one of my player's concept involved may turn out to be the crux of the game.

When I proposed this game (using Eberron as the setting) the first player to get back to me wanted to play a Talenta halfling ranger, he really like them and wanted to play one badly. So I worked with him and came up with a reason why his character has been living in Diamond Lake. To accomidate both character backstory and low 1st level gp I came up with this hook he liked and agreed to.

He's a distant member of the House Jorasco, he was asked awhile back to run an errand for the family into Diamond Lake, which he did. While there his mount (a dinosaur, Fastieth, think velocaraptor, traditional mount for talentans for those unfamiliar with the setting) ate one of the Mayor's horses. Sheriff Cubbin and his thugs confiscated the Fastieth and was going to put it down. This is a huge deal for the character, coming from a nomadic tribal background where your mount isn't just an animal, it's seen as a hunting partner, literally a member of your clan, spiritually family. 'Luckily' Zalamandra bought off the athorities and saved his mount... kinda, until he can pay her back his mount is on display at the Emporium, shameful, but it's alive. Ever since he's been working at the House Jorasco hospital in town trying to earn enough money to get his mount back, but keeps getting screwed out of his money just when it seems like he's going to have enough. It's been over a year since ther original incident.

Excellent, we had motivation for him... then... my two other players bring me their characters... a Talenta halfling barbarian, and a Talenta halfling rogue they did this independantly... Well it took them five minutes talking to each other to decide they are all related and that they're in nearly identical situations... in fact it all happened at the same time and it's all Dux (the rogue's) fault.

Now to my point. That gives them all ample reason to go loot the Whispering Caren... but looking ahead to Three Faces I wonder how to get a group of neutral halflings involved taking down evil cults.... well it hit me. Go back to the original hook. After they finish looting and selling (and pick up the other two PCs when they get back from vacation, and I swear if they want to play halflings....). When they go to finally get their mounts back... one wont be there, Zalamandra sold it to one of the cults in Three Faces... giving plenty of justification for Halfling Death (tm) to decend upon the cults.