Olaf the Stout's page

I'm having trouble placing an order. I want to buy some old Dungeon and Dragon Magazines (in hard copy) and have them ship to Australia.

It's been 2 years since my last non-PDF order here, so the Paizo ordering screens have definitely changed since then.

My issue is the only shipping option I can see for the order is US Priority Mail. That has a very short shipping time but, quite understandably, is very expensive.

Are there other shipping options available to me? If so, how do I select them?

When I click on the button for US Priority Shipping something loads on the page (a loading icon comes up on screen), but it goes away after a few seconds and nothing seems to change.

My group is halfway through the Champion's Belt adventure. They easily survived the first gladiator fight and Ekaym spilled the beans on what his real motives were. The party agreed to search for his sister.

After finding the palace too heavily guarded, the decided to look around the arena understructure. With the help of the deaf mute, they found their way down to Bozal's hideout. The Spawn of Kyuss and the Mohrg were easily dealt with. The fight with Bozal was almost even easier than that.

Bozal started with a number of spells up, including Anti-life Shell. One natural 20 Dispel Magic check and that was gone and the party's meat shield was up in his face. Bozal's first action was to bring out the big guns, Harm. I proceed to roll a 1 on the Concentration check, the spell fizzles and he takes 40 points damage from the AoO.

This is followed up by a Nat 20 critical hit with an axe that is confirmed with a second Nat 20 (making it x4 damage - house rule). This left Bozal with just enough hit points for the Wizard's Enervation spell to take him down so that the Crusader could then smash his unconscious body to death.

I had decided before the combat even began that the Ulgurstasta would be awoken if Bozal was killed (or he could activate it early if he wanted to). So, the party heard a loud roar and the sound of something being smashed coming through the double doors.

They opened the doors and saw the Ulgurstasta down the hallway. Immediately they realised that it was too big to escape the room it was in. However, for some unknown reason the Crusader still decided to charge it (without even bothering with a Knowledge: Religion check to see what exactly he was up against).

He didn't even get close as the Ulgurstasta chomped him with an Improved Grab bite attack, grappling him in it's maw. The Knight then charged down and attacked, only to have his damage completely negated by the 10/Magical Piercing DR. The Crusader managed to avoid being swallowed thanks to a Nat 1 on the Ulgurstasta's grapple check but copped 30 points damage when the Wizard decided it was a good idea to hurl an Orb of Force into a grapple (the attack is randomised).

At this point the party was nicely in place for a Necromantic Acid breath weapon attack. The attack hit everyone in the party, with only the Rogue and the Cleric making their reflex saves. I then proceeded to roll 16 Con damage on 3d6, killing the Crusader, Knight and Wizard outright! The Rogue and Wizard (wisely) fled at this point.

That stopped the session for the night and we talked about what the party could have done differently, and where to from here in the campaign. We eventually decided that we wanted to continue the campaign and the party (well the 3 that were left - the Bard was left back and the Conoeby as his player was absent) would try and get the 3 that were killed resurrected.

That part I have figured out. I'm going to hand wave the 3 remaining members killing the Spawn of Kyuss that their fellow party members have turned into and then recover their bodies (or part of them) for resurrection. They will also recover the (now powerless) Apostolic Scrolls and find Lahanka's zombie coprse.

The question is what happens to the Ulgurstasta? After it killed half the party it then burst upwards into the arena, where it would continue its rampage. It is about midnight, so the arena is empty. So I figured that the Ulgurstasta would continue on wreaking havoc and turning people into spawns until it was finally killed by some of the higher levelled NPC's that live in the Free City of Greyhawk.

So, what sort of damage should the beast be able to do before it is finally killed? I don't think it will be anywhere near as bad as turning 20,000 people into Wights, but it still should do quite a bit of damage and create a fair few Spawns of Kyuss that then need to be killed.

Any suggestions? My next session is a week away, so I have until then to decide just how much destruction it causes before being destroyed. This will all be handled out of game as the party will not be taking it on again, they will be recovering the bodies of the PC's who were killed.

Olaf the Stout

I run a 3.5E D&D campaign, but I really don't like the 3.5E Turn Undead rules. So what I am doing is using the Channel Energy rules from Pathfinder RPG.

The slight problem I run into is dealing with things like the +2 synergy bonus having 5 ranks in Knowledge (Religion) gives to Turn Undead checks or creatures with Turn Resistance.

I was thinking of perhaps having a +2 bonus equate to a +1 bonus to the Will save for half damage. So the +2 synergy bonus from Knowledge (Religion) would increase the save DC by 1. A creature with +4 Turn Resistance would get a +2 bonus to their Will save vs Channel Energy.

Has anyone else tried using the Channel Energy rules with 3.5E? How did you mesh it in with the 3.5E rules?

Olaf the Stout

Well we started the Age of Worms AP last night. I decided to open the campaign up with Mad God's Key before moving on to the Whispering Cairn. Having just run my group through the Shackled City AP, it wasn't until one of my players commented about the opening adventure again involving a locksmith (Mad God's Key involves finding a stolen key) that I even realised the coincidence!

I had the game start with the players acting as a caravan guard for Allustan (he is the mentor of the Elf Wizard in the party) on a trip to the Free City of Greyhawk. Howwever, I did make it clear to the players that they felt like Allustan could probably more than handle himself if there was any trouble, and that they were brought along for company and to let them have a bit of fun in Greyhawk. This gave me a chance to build the relationship between the players and Allustan early on in the campaign as I really want them to think of him as a strong ally (much like Jenya was in SCAP).

Just after sunrise on the second day of travel I had the party attacked by 4 lizardmen, foreshadowing the Encounter at Blackwall Keep, as well as allowing the players to have an early combat encounter to get into their new PC's grooves. The Crusader on watch spotted the lizzies when they were about 20-30ft away, avoiding a potential ambush. Combat was then on like Donkey Kong. The Crusader copped a fair bit of damage, but the party dispatched the lizardmen without anyone dropping into the negatives. I had Allustan stay back watching to see what they party was capable of and then burst out into applause and compliments once the players had killed the last lizardman. He also gave them a small GP bonus for protecting him so well.

From there the party safely made it to Greyhawk without any more trouble. At this point Allustan told them he was off to do his business, research at the library, etc. He paid for their room and meals at an inn and told them he would send someone to notify them when he was finished. Until then they were free to do as they wished. I gave the players a day to spend their lizardmen booty and explore the city before dropping the opening scene from Mad God's Key on them.

They kindly took the hook I laid out, stopped the 2 petty criminals from looting the locksmith and agreed to try and help him find his key for 5gp per person per day, at least until Allustan was ready to head back. They found out that the person they needed to speak to was a half-orc named Irontusk and head to Barge End to find him. From here it played out like a scene from Hot Fuzz, with the Crusader the Nicholas Angel of the party and the other PC's imitating Danny Butterman.

The Crusader climbed onto the roof of a nearby building and ran from rooftop to rooftop, including clearing a 10ft gap at one point, before dropping down and attacking Irontusk. 2 or 3 combat rounds later and Irontusk was well and truly unconscious after the Crusader confirmed a critical with his Waraxe, dealing 37 points of damage! Thankfully he was doing non-lethal damage or they would have been picking chunks of half-orc off the docks for days!

Meanwhile the Dwarven Cleric (20ft move and, unlike everyone else, in his armour) decided he was better spending 4 rounds running to the next dock than risk falling in the water and drowning. The Rogue (with a fear of open water chosen before the game began!) decided to do the same.

The aloof and arrogant Wizard spent 2 rounds cutting through a rope tying one of the boats to the dock (horrible damage rolls and he could have just untied the rope in the first place! :-D), then leapt on to the boat to slipped around in fish guts for a few rounds (4 consecutive failed Balance checks). When he finally got up and attempted to jump to the next boat he rolled a 3 and took a dive into the water! We were all cracking up laughing at this point (player of the Wizard included), commenting that at least the water should help clean off the fish guts.

While that happened, the Ranger jumped into the same boat as the Wizard, slipped on fish guts for a bit before regaining his footing and leaping across to another barge. He was going ok until he ran into a couple of guard dogs. 2 attacks of opportunity bites and 1 regular attack bite later and the Ranger was into the negatives and still getting gnawed on. So much for being a friend of the animals! That had the whole group splitting their sides with laughter once again at their own ineptness.

Thankfully the Cleric showed up at that point in time to heal the Ranger and get him away from the guard dogs. They then both went over to help pull the blubbering wizard out of the water, who at this point was clinging to the side of a barge.

Ah 1st level, I forgot how total failure can be so much fun sometimes! :-D

Olaf the Stout

After 3 years of play my group finally completed the Shackled City AP a week or so ago. I gave them a few different options and it looks like Age of Worms will be the next campaign we play.

In order to make this the best game possible I plan on taking my time to really prep beforehand. I'm going to read through all of the adventures and the Age of Worms Overload document.

For those that have played or run the campaign before are there any problems that need to be fixed?

Are there any points in the plot that are a bit disjointed and could be improved upon?

Do any of the main bad guys or NPC's need to be foreshadowed better in earlier adventures so that they don't seem to appear out of nowhere when the PC's finally encounter them?

Thanks to a lot of help from other DM's on the Shackled City board, I made a number of changes to the campaign that improved the game a whole heap. This included removing some of the minor bad guys, foreshadowing many of the NPC's better, adding in basically 2 new adventures, creating my own final adventure and changing the ending of the campaign considerably.

So, given that, I'm not afraid of putting a lot of work into the game to make it a better overall experience for my players. At the same time, if others have already gone before me and done the work, I'm not too proud to "borrow" heavily from it! :-D

Olaf the Stout

Hi all,

After 3 years of play my Shackled City campaign is coming to an end. In preparation for my next campaign I'm putting together a list of various options for my players to look at to help decide what they want to play next.

I got the ST adventures when they first came out, but haven't really read them. I'm just after a general overview of the campaign, the types of adventures (i.e. dungeon crawls, travel, urban) and what monsters the PC's will face off against.

Here is an example of the sort of thing that I am looking for.

Shackled City AP

Summary: The campaign is largely set in and around Cauldron, a city built in the mouth of a dormant volcano (which totally won't erupt at some point during the campaign! :-D). An evil organisation is trying to open a gate to a plane of Hell and it is up to the PC's to try and stop them
Levels: 1-20
Adventure Types: A mix of dungeon, city and planar adventures, as well as a number of roleplaying encounters. Relatively light on wilderness adventures.
Creatures Likely To Encounter: Demons and dragons feature prominently. Undead, orcs, half-orcs, kuo-toa, dark creepers and various humanoid NPC’s are also encountered.

I've had a look around here on the boards and online but I haven't been able to find much on what types of adventures to expect other than dungeon crawls and what creatures besides undead. So any help would be greatly appreciated.

Olaf the Stout

Hi all,

After 3 years of play my Shackled City campaign is coming to an end. In preparation for my next campaign I'm putting together a list of various options for my players to look at to help decide what they want to play next.

I have the AoW adventures but haven't really looked at them in years. I'm just after a general overview of the campaign, the types of adventures (i.e. dungeon crawls, travel, urban) and what monsters the PC's will face off against.

Here is an example of the sort of thing that I am looking for.

Shackled City AP

Summary: The campaign is largely set in and around Cauldron, a city built in the mouth of a dormant volcano (which totally won't erupt at some point during the campaign! :-D). An evil organisation is trying to open a gate to a plane of Hell and it is up to the PC's to try and stop them
Levels: 1-20
Adventure Types: A mix of dungeon, city and planar adventures, as well as a number of roleplaying encounters. Relatively light on wilderness adventures.
Creatures Likely To Encounter: Demons and dragons feature prominently. Undead, orcs, half-orcs, kuo-toa, dark creepers and various humanoid NPC’s are also encountered.

I've had a look around here on the boards and online but I haven't been able to find much on what types of adventures to expect other than dungeon crawls and what creatures besides undead. So any help would be greatly appreciated.

Olaf the Stout

After 3 years of playing my group has entered the Fiery Sanctum and will likely halt the gate ritual in the next session or so.

At that point I would prefer to go with the alternate ending that delvesdeep proposed, with the PC's going to the Haunted Village, entering Adimarchus' mind, etc.

The only problem is that I just have the rough outline that I was able to find on these boards.

delvesdeep, I see that you are still around the traps. Have you now run this "adventure" of the AP? Do you have any more detailed notes that you might be able to share, or did you come up with it on the fly?

Any help here would be appreciated as I'd really like to end this campaign on a high note.

Olaf the Stout

After over 3 years of fortnighly sessions, my group is coming to the end of the Shackled City AP. As such, I have started looking ay what to run next for the group.

In addition to Dungeon Magazine, Necromancer Games, Goodman Games and Malhavoc Press adventures, I have the following Paizo AP's available as options:

Age of Worms AP
Savage Tide AP
Rise of the Runelords AP
Legacy of Fire AP
Serpent's Skull AP

What I am looking for is summaries of each AP that I can give to my players so that they can get a general idea of what the AP's are about. Does anybody know if such a beast exists?

I know that there are 2-page campaign summaries in each of the AP's but that is probably too detailed for what I am after. Ideally I want something which summarizes the campaign in a couple of paragraphs. It doesn't have to be totally spoiler-free as I want the players to choose a campaign that they are interested in playing. For example, here is what I would give as a Shackled City AP summary.

Shackled City Summary

This campaign is largely set around a city that is built in the mouth of a dormant volcano (which totally won't erupt at some point during the campaign! :-D). An evil organisation is trying to open a gate to a plane of Hell and it is up to the PC's to try and stop them.

The campaign has a mix of urban, dungeon and planar adventures as well as a number of roleplaying encounters. It is relatively light on wilderness adventuring. Demons and dragons feature prominently in the campaign.

So as you can see, I don't mind if a bit of the campaign is "spoiled" up front. While it may appear like I'm giving too much away, I don't want the players to get halfway through the campaign before they decide that the aren't really interested in fighting demons.

Plus, after a few sessions players either forget about what I mentioned in my elevator pitch or the general overarching plot of the campaign is revealed anyway.

Olaf the Stout

Ok, I'm assuming that this is well and truly covered in the adventures themselves but, after reading the summaries for the 6 Jade Regent adventures, my first question was, "What happens if Ameiko gets killed?"

It seems like she is the heir to the throne so having her killed could possibly stop the campaign dead (no pun intended) at that point.

Is there steps in place to make sure this doesn't happen, while at the same time, not getting into a situation where the players don't worry about Ameiko's safety as they know that she is too important to the plot for the DM to have her die?

Olaf the Stout

Hi guys,

Can you please cancel my AP subscription. No real issues, other than having enough adventures for now and the next AP not really pulling me in as a must-have.

Thanks,

Olaf the Stout

Hi there,

I am still waiting on 2 of the 4 parcels from order #1564384. The first 2 parcels arrived on 4/1/2011 but I haven't seen the other 2 yet. I have had some parcels in the same order take longer than others, but there has never been a gap of over 2 weeks before.

I am in Australia, so I understand that shipping times are longer. I think the order is currently only just over the expected transit time of 12-20 business days. However, since I received the first 2 parts of the order 16 days ago now (and all 4 parcels were all sent on the same day) I am a little worried.

On top of that, today I received an order I made from KenzerCo that I placed on the 1/1/2011. So if their package, which was sent 2 weeks later, has reached me then I am thinking my remaining Paizo packages may have taken a wrong turn somewhere.

Olaf the Stout

I've just tried to make an order using the Holiday Discount Code. Everything was fine until I entered the code. After I entered the code in the shipping price switched to the higher of the 2 options and will not switch back to the cheaper option, even if I try and reselect it.

Any suggestions as to what I should do?

Olaf the Stout

Hi guys,

I recently made an order (#1271030) that was sent in 3 packages. The first part of the package arrived a week ago, the second part 2 days after that. However the third part still hasn't arrived. Is it unusual for 3 packages sent at the same time to arrive so far apart from each other?

The missing package is the one with just the 2 books in it, Welcome to Necroamerica and Las Vegas Crawl. That's good in that, if it is missing, I've lost the least amount of books. However I'd really like these 2 to complete my X-Crawl collection.

Olaf the Stout

There are several spots in the SCAP where the DM rolls to see if there is a random encounter and then rolls on a table to see what that encounter is. Am I correct in assuming that any treasure from those encounters hasn't been taken into account in the book? (i.e. you need to give the PC's additional treasure for those encounters.)

What about when there are specified encounters but the combat is only with creatures straight out of the MM? (i.e. the encounter is listed as Hill Giants (3) HP's XX,YY, ZZ)

Do I also need to give the PC's additional treasure or is that taken into account already? (i.e. there are several locations in the SCAP where there are rooms with lots of treasure and little or no defence - like a treasury room or the empty BBEG's room)

Olaf the Stout

Hi guys,

I logged on to the RPGenius website yesterday to try and see if anyone had uploaded the image of the Starry Mirror that I could hand out to my players. However, although I could log in to the site, it appears that the file repository isn't there any more.

Does anyone know what has happened to it? Are these files available in another location or are they gone forever?

I know the RPGenius went offline late last year, but I thought it was put back up again with all the resources still on there.

Olaf the Stout

We had a good laugh during last night's session. The PC's are going through all the unexplored rooms in Bhal-Hamatugn, looking for any more Kuo-toans. They enter Dhorlot's room and I start drawing out the 25ft x 25ft square room.

Then one of the players, upon seeing the size of the room says jokingly, "You see a dragon!". Another player, who has only played D&D for about 2-3 years said, "that would be so lame". A third player (who's been playing since 1E) then told him how big dragons in small dungeon rooms used to be not that unusual in the "old days".

At this point, with Black Dragon mini in hand under the table, I was barely able to control my laughter. I put the mini on the table and told the players, "this is what you see when you open the door" before adding, "and no, I'm not kidding!"

We all cracked up laughing at the situation, wrote down the quotes for posterity and then launched into the battle against Dhorlot. The PC's took him down with only 1 PC being taking into the negatives and no deaths. The high point of the battle was probably when the Hexblade managed to stop Dhorlot's attempted Bull Rush to escape the room. This allowed the Rogue with Improved Invisibility to sneak attack his way to victory! :)

Olaf the Stout

Last session one of the PC's in my party cast See Invisibility in the fight vs Zenith Splintershied and the Invisible Stalker. As a result he saw the invisible birthmark of Carceri on Zenith's face. I showed him a picture of what he saw and he wanted to know if he knew what it was or meant.

So what exactly should the PC's know about the Carcerian sign at this point? What will various knowledge checks tell them? I want to give him some information but I'm not sure what I should be telling the players at this point. Is there information and DC's in the hardcover or the magazines? If there is can someone tell me the page numbers so I can look it up.

The next session is about 24 hours from now and I had forgotten all about this so I need help quickly!

Thanks in advance,

Olaf the Stout

Ok, with the 35% PDF sale currently on I have decided to pick up some Pathfinder PDF's. The only ones I currently own are the free ones and the Rise of the Runelords AP. So I need suggestions!

Currently my list is:

D1: Crown of the Kobold King
J1: Entombed with the Pharaohs
E1: Carnival of Tears

So what do people think of those 3 adventures? Are there any other adventures I should be getting instead or in addition to those?

What about other Pathfinder PDF's? Any that stand out?

Olaf the Stout

Last session the party I am running through the Shackled City AP continued their search of Bhal-Hamatugn in search of Zenith.

The party is as follow:

Dwarven Warblade 7
Human Conjurer 7
Half-Elf Cleric 7
Halfling Rogue 7
Human Hexblade 6 (due to a death in Flood season)

The session before last the party defeated the 4 Kuo-toan guarding the entrance as well as the 4 sleeping in the room near the front of Bhal-Hamatugn. They then proceeded to head downstairs via the prison cells where they dealt with the Mummy relatively easily.

From there they found the secret back entrance to the area 5, the central room of the complex. They had a bit of difficulty with the Kou-toan Whips but still managed to kill all of the Kuo-toans and heal back up to full before Ashunna showed up.

Here's where things got messy. When Aushunna appeared the PC's were all standing on the platform next to the big statue. A 32 on a Knowledge:The Planes roll, combined with seeing her shoot off 4 arrows in 1 round told the PC's they were in trouble.

2 PC's jumped straight off the edge of the platform to the ground below (happily taking the 3d6 damage from the ground rather than staying in the open). The Rogue panicked, opened the door on the platform he had just unlocked (the door led to Mangu-Michu's chambers) and then shut it behind him. They other 2 PC's ran down the stairs, jumped off just before they got to the bottom and then tried to hide behind the pillars supporting the platform above them.

Ashunna shot another 4 at the Cleric who was prone next to the steps (he failed his Jump and Balance checks when he jumped off the stairs), hitting a couple of times. The party then started moving towards the secret door to get out of the room.

The rogue, after hearing more armour clinking in the room but not being able to see what it was coming from, panicked again, ran back out into the main area, and Spider Climbed underneath the platform towards the secret door.

Since everyone had bunched together nicely, Aushunna took advantage and dropped down to throw an Unholy Blight amongst the party, hitting all 5 of them. The party retreated into the passage but with little in the way of ranged weapons there wasn't a lot the PC's could do to hurt her.

The Conjurer cast fly on the Warblade and Polymorped the Hexblade into a Troll but it still wasn't enough. Even though I rolled appallingly with Ashunna's ranged attacks she still had the party quickly burning through almost all of their healing potions.

The Rogue was knocked unconscious 3 times and all of the others got close. They just couldn't deal with her mobility. The Warblade was the only one who could fly and when he got close to her she could just Greater Teleport away, regroup and attack the party again. Even if the PC's were right next to her she could just cast defensively (at a +20 to the roll). She did fail her concentration check once, took 2 AoO's and then passed the second check to get her spell off.

The DC 19 Unholy Blight meant that 3 or 4 of the party would fail their Will save each time and take 20-odd damage. The Rogue failed every Will save against it and kept dropping in and out of consciousness. The session ended with Aushunna teleporting from the side tunnel back to the main chamber after taking about 45 points of damage (less than half her hit point total).

So what do the PC's do now? A TPK is looking increasingly likely. The one possible hope for them (in my opinion at least) is to use a Rope Trick to hide. Aushunna will be able to see where the PC's are but she won't be able to do anything about it.

Once her 10 minutes are up and she disappears the PC's should be able to flee Bhal-Hamatugn, rest up and come back for revenge. My only worry is that once Mangu Michu gets his armour on he will find out where Aushunna is, discover the Rope Trick, and dispell it. This will leave the PC's facing both Aushunna and the Kuo-toan Cleric at the same time.

Does anyone else have any other ideas? I really don't want to see a TPK here but it is looking increasingly likely.

Olaf the Stout

My group had their fight with Gottrod last night. I came very, very close to killing 3 PC's. In the end all of PC's just managed to survive with Gottrod killed just before he was about to breath on 3 of the party for a second time.

The main problem my group had was a lack of ranged damage. The party consists of a Conjurer, Hexblade, Rogue, Cleric and Warblade. The Conjurer doesn't really have much in the way of damaging area-of-effect spells. She's mainly a battlefield controller. The Hexblade doesn't have any ranged weapons. The Warblade is largely ineffective at ranged attacks. He can make them but his damage is a lot less than it is in melee. The Cleric is a bit of a party buffer/healer. The Rogue can do a little bit of ranged damage but it's pretty minimal.

The fight started with the party spotting Gottrod about 100 feet away (I put Jared's hut on a hilltop) as he was laying waste to Crazy Jared's "castle". The party started the encounter on horseback (they only had 3 horses between the 5 of them thanks to a passing Roc the previous day :-) ) so they were able to close the distance to Gottrod pretty quickly.

However it also meant that Gottrod was nicely set up to hit 3 of the PC's with his breath weapon. The Rogue managed to avoid the blast with his Evasion. It was lucky that he did as Gottrod's breath did 37 points damage. That would have been enough to kill the Rogue outright (he's 6th level but rolled horribly for HP's).

The Cleric cast Command on Gottrod and he failed the save, rolling a 3. I'm not sure why the Cleric did this as it just meant that Gottrod was now in melee range of him and proceeded to take the Cleric into the negatives with his next attack.

The Warblade and Conjurer were still a bit away from the fight at this point. The Conjurer cast fly on the Warblade, allowing him to get into melee with the dragon. The Warblade and Hexblade moved it to attack Gottrod, with the Warblade taking an AoO bite for his trouble. The two of them were able to do a bit of damage to Gottrod while the Rogue went to the aid of the Cleric.

Still relatively healthy, Gottrod took to the sky once more, taking a couple of AoO's for his trouble. The Conjurer tried to Glitterdust him (again, I'm not sure why) which unsurprisingly had little effect. The Rogue was able to do a little more damage with his sling while the Warblade flew up (taking another AoO bite) and used a manoveur to take the dragon's HP's into the teens.

In return he received a full attack that just about took him out. I don't know how many hit points he had left but I think it wa in the single digits. To make matters worse, the next round Gottrod had his breath back.

At this point in the fight I was wondering if I should get Gottrod to
flee the next turn or breathe on the PC's again. I knew that if I did it would probably kill 2 or 3 of them, even if they made their save. I didn't really want to slaughter the party but it was looking increasingly likely.

Thankfully for me I didn't have to make that decision. Just before Gottrod could act again the Warblade got to attack. He made a full attack and hit the dragon with both attacks, killing him. Thankfully none of the PC's were standing directly under the dragon's body, otherwise I think he would have killed them by falling on them!

Overall it was a good fight. I would have liked to have seen Gottrod escape to bother the party at a later date but it wasn't to be. Amazingly, despite playing D&D for well over 10 years that was the first Dragon fight I have DM'd. I've fought against 2 back in my 2E ADD days but this was the first 3.xE Dragon I've put up against the PC's (I did attack them with a kobold polymorphed into a medium Bronze Dragon but I don't think that counts!).

Dragons are definitely as tough as I thought they were. I knew they were strong for their CR and this fight proved that for me. A lot of the previous combats my party has breezed through. There are 5 PC's and they have access to most splatbooks so they are stronger than core only PC's. On top of that Jarrod was inspiring competence on them the whole combat, resulting in some attacks hitting instead of missing.

Having said that, my players made quite a few tactical mistakes. Their first mistake was charging off towards the dragon as soon as they saw him. They should have waited until the Conjurer had cast Haste on everyone before charging off.

Secondly, they stood together in a nice group for the dragon to hit them with his breath weapon. Next time I think they'll spread out.

Thirdly, the normally smart Conjurer player didn't seem to play this combat well at all. He cast Glitterdust on the dragon instead of a number of better spells he could have cast. Given that the dragon had blindsense anyway (not that he knew that though) it wouldn't have really done much to him. He also seemed more concerned with staying away from the Dragon to avoid its breath weapon than getting in and helping fight.

Hopefully they learn from this combat because Aushunna is just around the corner! Things could get messy there too! :-)

Olaf the Stout

Hi guys,

I placed order #1112272 on January 31st and want to know if it is possible to make an addition to my order. The order is currently listed as pending. If possible could I please add:

How to Paint Miniatures DVD - Kraken Editions

Obviously I understand that adding the DVD will increase the overall shipping costs. I am fine with that.

I have also sent an e-mail to customer.service@paizo.com about this order.

Thanks,

Olaf the Stout

Well last night we ran the Demonskar Ball in my campaign. Many thanks go out to delvesdeep for his work in coming up with all the events of the ball. It was a really fun session. I enjoyed it and I think my players did as well.

I was able to get them to interact with a few more of the NPC in Cauldron, give them some information about the history of Cauldron and the surrounding areas and also build up the animosity between them and the Stormblades. There was also an interesting (and unexpected) development between one PC and Cora.

In the opening dance the party's halfling rogue, Beau, was paired up with Cora. Beau had the bone demon costume which made him normal human height, rather than halfling height. Cora attempted to step on his costume but Beau saw it coming and moved of the way. Beau rolled really well in response to that and decided to teach her a lesson by giving her a bit of a feel up.

I was a little surprised by that (we're not really that immature, honestly! :-) ) but I decided that Cora would be slightly offended, but mainly shocked and intrigued by his bold move. Based on what I knew about Cora I figured it was an appropriate response for her. She comes across as the wild, unpredictable, "living on the edge" one in the Stormblades. If he had tried the same thing on Annah he definitely would have got a different (i.e. bad) response!

This tension between the two of them continued throughout the evening. The Stormblades and the PC's clashed with words on a few occasions but Cora was a little more reserved than normal, throwing a wink and sly smile the halfling's way.

Beau and Cora were again paired up with each other for the final Demonskar dance. They both won a few of the dance checks and they did a little bit to embarrass each other. However, it was a lot less competitive compared to what the other PC/Stormblade match-ups were like. Both Cora and Beau chose not to do anything bad to the other when they had the opportunity to do so on a couple of occasions.

The way things ended I think there is definitely the opportunity for the situation between the to of them to get very interesting. I certainly didn't expect anything like that to happen, especially given how much animosity there has been between the PC's and the Stormblades.

The rest of the night ran well. Lord Vhalantru spoke to the PC's about being worried about how the Lord Mayor was spending the money and how Tereson was pushing to increase the town guard numbers. They seem to like and trust Vhalantru (which will make for an even better reveal moment when it happens) so they definitely took in what he was saying. However, I think they also trust Tereson (and they told Vhalantru that).

They also got to speak more with Celeste (I had her sit at the PC's table in addition to those suggested by delvesdeep). This was good as it won't be so jarring when I get her to send the PC's off to find Zenith next session. They also learnt that Annah's father, Anakin, doesn't think much of the group and appears to be "leaning" on the Lord Mayor to get the PC's to move on to another town.

The Zachary and Margaret Aslaxin did like the PC's (the group made a very good impression on them when they first greeted them). I say did as the final part of the evening definitely changed everything.

The PC selected to be Nabathtoron (sp?) was Dagnal Ironshield, the Dwarven Fighter in the group. Zachary Jr picked him as he seemed like the soft target in the group. Dagnal has Charisma 6 and isn't the lightest on his feet either. Being extremely nervous about being selected (but knowing that he couldn't refuse the honour), he made sure to take plently of dance and etiquette lessons to prepare for the ball.

The problem though is that this particular player has the special "ability" to roll really, really badly. He's got quite the reputation for it in our group. And true to form, when the dance checks came up for the final dance he managed to only pass the first one. Out of the other 4 rolls, two of them were 1's and the other two weren't very high either.

The crowd was a bit disappointed with his performance and gave him a half-hearted clap. After he was "revealed" and introduced to the audience he just lost it, accusing Zachary (the father, not the son in the Stormblades) in a very loud voice of setting him up for this, knowing that he would fail. The crowd (and Zachary) was speechless at this point as Dagnal stormed out of the room.

It ruined any relationship that the party had built up with the Aslaxin family! The player in question just got frustrated at his poor rolling, especially after all the preparation he put in to give himself the best chance at succeeding (I think he spend about 1,000gp in dance and etiquette lessons). It was definitely in line with his character though and was a very "Dagnal" moment.

The player was a little worried that his outburst might have ruined the campaign a bit but I don't think it has. It has definitely put the PC's in one camp so to speak. The Aslaxin's will be going out of their way to make life hard for the party now. At the same time, there will be others, including other nobles, who don't like the Aslaxin's either and will think of the PC's more favourably now as a result.

Either way, it has spiced up the campaign some more and I am interested in seeing where it will lead.

Olaf the Stout

Hi all,

So far in my SCAP campaign I have been irregularly giving my players issues of the Cauldron Chronicle, the town's newspaper, as a hand-out. It is normally 1-2 pages long with articles about what has been going on around town. I've had 5 issues so far and I'm just writing up the sixth one. This one will be mainly about the recovery of the wands of water control.

Obviously the PC's have featured in it quite a bit, with them rescuing the kidnapped townsfolk, elimitating the goblin menace and finding the missing wands of water control. However I have also included other articles on things such as the rising taxes, the illegal jester coins, the Demonskar ball and accomplishments of the Stormblades.

Each issue also normally has advertisements for 2 businesses in town. Sometimes these are directly relevant to the PC's, like Skie's Treasury. Other time, they are just there for fluff and background, like the Sure Foot Livery. It all helps me to build up the city as a whole.

I've basically used it as a way of passing on information about what has been going on in and around Cauldron. I've put some of the rumours from the SCAP hardcover in there as well as some of my own that I came up with. It has allowed me to drop little clues in, as well as several red herrings. :-)

The players like reading the issues, especially when the PC's are mentioned and it has helped me stoke the rivalry fire between them and the Stormblades (the Stormblades have made some rude comments about the PC's in the paper).

Now we come to my current situation. As I write more and more issues, I am finding it harder to find things to fill up the pages. The current adventure normally gives me a main article to write, like the kidnapped townsfolk, or the Flood Festival. However, I need some other articles to help round out each issue. I have also run out of hardcover rumours to use (until I get to the later chapters) so I have had to start writing them all myself.

I am also struggling to find some pictures to put in each issue. I like to use pictures just to break up the text a bit. I have used pictures of various NPC's from the hardcover (such as Jenya, Vhalantru and the Stormblades) to good effect, but that is getting a bit repetitive now. Real photos wouldn't really fit the theme of the newspaper so I am left with just hand-drawn artwork to choose from.

So I am calling on the combined intellects of the Paizo boards to help me out. Give me your suggestions for articles and rumours that I can use in future issues. Links to any pictures that I could use would also be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Olaf the Stout

My SCAP campaign is currently at the end of the Flood Season chapter. I am about to run the group through delvesdeep's Demonscar Ball and then we will be moving on to the next chapter.

So far in my campaign I have had a bit of trouble introducing both the Striders and Maavu into the campaign. The party came across Fario and Fellian in Chapter 1 but they still don't really know anything about them. They were suspicious of the 2 half-elves since they were proclaiming to be working for the Mayor but no-one seemed to know anything about them.

Since then I haven't really introduced them into the campaign again. I'd like to weave them in but I'm not really sure how. The party have met Shensen the drow druid twice and are on relatively good terms with her. They've met Meethern(sp?) once (but only when he was disguised as a merchant) when they were rewarded with the Boots of Striding and Springing.

I like the Striders concept and I'd like to work them in more but I don't know how they really integrate with the campaign. Anyone have any suggestions?

As for Maavu, I know he is an important character in the later chapters so I'd like to make the PC's aware of him before the Tax Riots. I've put an ad for Maavu's Imports in the Cauldron Chronicle issues I give my players. I'll also get him to make an appearance at the Demonskar Ball. Any other ideas as to how I foreshadow him more?

Thanks,

Olaf the Stout

Hi guys,

I just wanted to clear something up that I'm not too sure about. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

As I understand it Goodman Games are making 4E DCC's. Due to licencing legal business, they cannot sell the 3.5E DCC PDF's after December 31 2008. I am pretty sure that is correct.

What I am wondering is, if I buy any of the 3.5E DCC's before Dec 31, can I still continue to download copies of the PDF after Dec 31? Or will the download links to the DCC's I have bought be removed as well?

Thanks,

Olaf the Stout

Hi guys,

My group is currently in the middle of Flood Season. Last session I had to come up with a divination that would point the party to Artus Shemwick. I came up with it on the spot but I think it turned out pretty good. I just thought I would post it up here for others to use/modify for their campaign.

"If you're hungry for information, look for the unsteady man and he'll point you in the right direction."

The first bit refers to the fact that Artus is a part time cook as well as an information broker. The second part refers to the Tipped Tankard. Drinking alcohol makes you unsteady and the "Tipped" Tankard also indicated something similar. It also tells the party that the person the are after is male. The third party is obviously referring to the fact he has a map for them.

Olaf the Stout

My group has been playing the SCAP for 14 sessions now. The players have almost finished Drakthar's Way (just need to find the crypt and destroy it). Yes, we are slow at completing adventures! :)

For the first time in a D&D campaign I've kept track of some records from session to session. The results have been interesting and the players seem to enjoy breaking a record. Here are some of the stats for the PC's up to 4th level:

Creatures Killed By PC's: 132
PC Deaths: 0
PC's Knocked Out (usually means 0 or less HP's): 15
Biggest Negative Hit Point Total: -8 (twice)

Highest Attack Roll: AC 31
Lowest Attack Roll: AC 0 (twice! - including one attack on an unconscious Skulk!)
Highest Saving Throw: Knowledge:Local DC 34
Highest Skill Check: Fortitude DC 26 (vs Bat Swarm's Distraction attack)

Most Melee Damage Dealt in 1 Hit: 37 with a Greataxe (vs Goblin Sneak)
Most Melee Damage Dealt in 1 Round: 54 with a Greataxe (vs 2 Goblin Sneaks)
Most Ranged Damage Dealt in 1 Hit: 14 with Melf's Acid Arrow (vs Silent Wolf Goblin)
Most Ranged Damage Dealt in 1 Round: 14 with Melf's Acid Arrow (vs Silent Wolf Goblin)
Most Spell Damage Dealt in 1 Round: 14 with Melf's Acid Arrow (vs Silent Wolf Goblin)

Most Damage Taken in 1 Hit: 26 vs 2 Shocker Lizards (Lethal Shock attack)
Most Damage Taken in 1 Round: 26 vs 2 Shocker Lizards (Lethal Shock attack)

Some of the stats are very interesting. It definitely highlights the melee orientation of the group. The lack of spell damage is probably a little surprising for most people as well. There is a Cleric and a Conjurer in the group but neither of them have used much in the way of ranged damage spells. The Conjurer has taken Evocation as a banned school so that has made life interesting (no Fireball obviously).

I was surprised at the sheer number of creatures that the group has killed so far. 132 is a lot at 4th level. The most kills in one session is 35 (mainly Goblins). That's fair going for a 4 hour session!

The amount of melee damage that the Fighter has been able to do in one hit and one round (37 & 54) has also been a bit unexpected. I know that Greataxes can be deadly when they crit but 37 at only 4th level is pretty impressive in my opinion.

Olaf the Stout

I'm interested in hearing about any parties that had PC that took the Long Shadowed trait (from the SCAP hardcover). One of the PC's in the group I am running has taken it and I really think it will be the death of him. Here is the text for the trait:

You are descended from a tribe of indigenous people who died out as a separate tribe many centuries ago. Still, this tribe’s penchant for necromantic magic runs in your blood.

Benefit: You automatically stabilize if reduced to negative hit points. When you take damage from negative energy, you reduce the actual damage you take by 5 points.
Drawback: Healing magic works poorly on you. Whenever you regain hit points from magical healing, you gain 1 less point of healing per character level you possess, to a minimum of one point per die rolled.
Roleplaying Ideas: You are somewhat morbid and intrigued by death and undeath, even if these interests are purely to learn more of your enemies.

We are only up to 4th level but it has already proven to be a huge drawback. The party no longer uses Wands of Cure Light Wounds on the PC with the trait as the charges are almost useless. When you are rolling 1d8+1 and taking 4 from that number you are only going to get 1 hit point back half of the time. At best he is only getting 5 hit points back. That's barely 1 hit at 4th level.

The party has resorted to using a Wand of Lesser Vigour on him at all times. While this is good out of combat (11 hit points back every time), in combat it isn't so great. It takes 11 rounds to get those 11 hit points and nultiple spells don't stack. So if you need a lot of hit points back in a hurry then you are in trouble as wands/potions/spells of Cure XX are your only option (and they are affected by the trait).

As the PC goes up in levels the situation doesn't really change much. By the time the party is mid-level and using Cure Moderate/Serious Wounds more often the PC loses even more hit points per charge. All he is really doing is treading water.

There are a number of options to try and minimise the problem. The PC in question has gotten hold of an item that gives him DR1/- for up to 10 points of damage per day. This helps a bit but it still doesn't offset the trait.

On the other side of things, the benefits from the trait are minimal. You automatically stabilize when you hit negative HP's. This will see some use because you will find yourself frequently in the negatives! It's a bit of a false benefit though because if you didn't have the trait you probably wouldn't be in negative hit point territory in the first place!

The other benefit is that you take 5 points less damage from negative energy attacks. Those attacks come up all the time in my game. Oh wait, no they don't!

Overall I really can't see how this trait is balanced. I would think very long and hard before I decided to take this trait for my PC (and even then I probably still wouldn't take it!). I have offered to let the player in my campaign change the trait as it seems overly harsh but he has decided to keep it. He knows that the trait will probably be the reason why his PC dies but he's ok with that.

I just wonder what everyone else's experience with this trait is?

Olaf the Stout

My group has just about gotten to the end of Chapter 2 (Drakthar's Way) and I am finding that their XP totals are getting too high. For the last 2 sessions I have had to cut the XP rewards in half just to slow things down. Even still, I expect that all PC's will easily be 5th level by the end of Drakthar's Way. This is a full level ahead of what they should be at.

I haven't added much to the campaign by way of additional encounters or given out a whole heap of bonus XP for good roleplaying that would explain the extra XP. Looking back at my notes for each session I have found that those types of things add up to less than 350XP per PC. This is certainly less than the 4000XP difference from 4th to 5th level. On top of all this I have 5 PC's, rather than the standard 4, so if anything I thought that the PC's would have less XP than normal.

Has this happened to anyone else or am I just the odd one out?

Olaf the Stout

I plan to use dreams as suggested by delvesdeep. However the first dream suggested is a little too specific for my liking.

I am planning on multiple PC's experiencing the dream and having them all dream about their family being killed by their crazed mother doesn't really make sense.

I've looked around the RPGenius website and haven't been able to find anything suitable.

Does anyone here have any ideas?

I plan on using the delvesdeep dreams to fill in more of the Adimarchus backstory as the campaign continues. Something terrifying and haunting with some sort of demon(s), causing the PC to wake up screaming in a sweat would be appropriate. I'm just struggling for ideas at the moment.

Olaf the Stout

Hi guys,

I have 2 orders going at the moment. Order #684087 is about to ship (and I have got a confirmation e-mail regarding it) while order #735149 is still listed as pending.

At the moment my credit card has been pre-charged for AUD$256.25

I'm wondering if something(s) in order #735149 are perhaps missing off the order as the amount I have been pre-charged seems too low. Order #735149 is for USD$247.08 (taking out a couple of PDF's that have already been charged makes it USD$240.37 still owed) while order #684087 is for USD$63.46

It gets a little confusing as there is an exchange rate in there. I thought perhaps that I had been pre-charged for the bigger order only (order #735149) and the smaller order (order #684087) was still to be charged but the maths still doesn't work out (the exchange rate would be a little too good). I only ask as I want to make sure that there isn't a mistake in my order and something has been left off of it.

My credit card shouldn't have any other charges on it so the pre-charges must be from Paizo.

Re-reading what I have just written it is a bit confusing. Hopefully someone there can make sense of what I'm saying and get back to me about it.

Thanks,

Olaf the Stout

Hi there,

Could someone please cancel my Pathfinder subscription. No complaints about the product. Now that I've got all of the RotRL I just don't think I'll need any more adventure paths for 3.5E. I've got more than enough adventures to keep me going for years, even if I don't make the switch to 4E. I might pick my subscription back up when/if you guys change over to producing 4E adventures.

Thanks,

Olaf the Stout

I wanted to order Expedition to Castle Ravenloft but I couldn't see it in the store. Am I not seeing it or is it no longer available for some reason? I can't even see a spot for it that says "Currently Unavailable".

Olaf the Stout

The title pretty much says it all. Does it say anywhere in the hardcover how high above sea level Cauldron is? And how high does Cauldron rise above the surrounding areas?

Olaf the Stout

Well my SCAP campaign kicks off next week. I've been doing a fair bit of reading on these boards and on the RPGenius site to get ideas of what other people have done with the campaign. I think I'm ready but I thought I might throw my plans up here to see if anyone thinks I have missed something.

At the moment I plan on using the material that DelvesDeep and others have come up with regarding Adimarchus and the Cagewrights (with the alternate ending) as well as the Demonskar ball. As suggested I'll be getting rid of a lot of the extra Cagewrights and replacing with the 13 main villains (I always thought Vhalantru should have been a Cagewright anyway). I'm also making the changes regarding Skylar and Triel being previously engaged.

In regards to foreshadowing, what people or events need to be foreshadowed in the first chapter that are currently missing? Here is how I plan to begin the campaign, making a few changes so things are a little more forshadowed.

The party are all friends and/or relatives from a village near Cauldron (I plan to make this village lie on the road that connects Cauldron with Sasserine, probably 1 or 2 days travel from the Lucky Monkey). The group has been hired on as caravan guards for a merchant that is taking goods to Cauldron.

By starting this way the PC's already know each other well and we can just jump straight into the campaign. I also plan on a couple of the PC's having relatives in Cauldron (maybe one of them has been kidnapped?) to give them a stronger link to the city.

Along the road to the Lucky Monkey the caravan the party is guarding is attacked by Hill Baboons and/or Apes (foreshadowing the attack on the Lucky Monkey).

The party stays overnight at the Lucky Monkey. I'll be using Findas's write-up of the Lucky Monkey (from these messageboards) for this part. By getting them to meet and interact with the people that own and work at the Lucky Monkey it will make things a little more personal when they go there again and find most of them dead. I might even make one of the staff someone that used to live in the PC's village. Along with other travellers the group will meet Sarcem who is on his way to Sasserine to get the Wands of Control Water (not that the PC's know that).

Getting back on the road, the rest of the trip is pretty uneventful until they are close to Cauldron. There the party comes across some Kobolds who are fleeing the Stormblades. They might fight the Kobolds or just let them flee. Either way the Stormblades will be rude to the PC's for stealing "their" kills or for letting the Kobolds escape, hopefully setting up some animosity between the 2 parties. I'm also going to have one of the PC's "think" they catch a glipse of a large spherical creature during the Kobold fight (although it was hard for them to be certain with rain and fog making visibility poor).

Not long after the fight Skylar Krewis and some guards come down to see about the Kobolds (the Stormblades sent one of their lackeys back to town to fetch the guards so they could show off their efforts to them). I'm hoping to work Skylar into the AP a bit more.

When they finally get into Cauldron the caravan will check their goods in, pay the PC's and then send them on their way. The caravan is staying in town for a few days so they have a while to check out the town before they head off again. They let the PC's know of an inn where they can stay at a cheap rate. On the way to the inn the Ruphus scene occurs.

Throught this all I plan to have it raining a lot. Rain seems to be a central theme in the early chapters of the SCAP so I think it sets the scene rather well if the party are trudging through the rain right from the start.

That's what I've done so far. I imagine that once we spend time creating characters the group will be lucky to even get to Cauldron by the first session. Even still I want to make sure I'm ready for them if things move along quickly.

The only thing I'm a little unsure of at the moment the motivation the PC's might have to leave their village, go to Cauldron and want to stay there. I'm thinking that the village might be suffering from hard times so the PC's have to go out in the world and earn their own keep.

Another idea I had was that one of the families in the village owns a business in Cauldron and is looking for some extra help i.e. the PC's. (In this situation the PC's aren't caravan guards, they are just travelling to Cauldron). However, unbeknown to the PC's, the business owner has been kidnapped by the skulks. The PC's get there, go to find him and someone lets them know he's missing, possibly kidnapped. This gives the PC's a bit of motivation to solve the kidnapping.

The only thing is if I combine it with one of the PC's family who lives in Cauldron getting kidnapped it sounds a little too contrived. I could ditch the other family or another alternative I thought of is that the PC's get to Cauldron and find out that there isn't work for them at all. The business where they thought they were going to work is actually going poorly and is about to go under. The owner didn't want to tell the PC's not to come because he was embarrassed about it and didn't want the village to think he was a failure.

I'm basically trying to get them to Cauldron, and make it feel homely enough for them to want to stay. I could just have them be from Cauldron in the first place, but I think it works better if they are from a nearby village but know a few people in town that can show them around the place.

So what does everyone think? Is there anything I should change? Am I missing or overlooking something? Is there anything else I need to prepare?

Olaf the Stout

My Shackled City AP game is due to kick off next week. I've decided to base it in the Wilderlands of High Fantasy campaign setting (originally by Judges Guild, rereleased for 3.5E by Necromancer Games). The only question now is where to I stick Cauldron and the surrounding area on the Wilderlands map?

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Olaf the Stout

I'm about to start running the SCAP and I've decided to go with point buy for stat generation for the very first time, instead of the usual roll 4d6 6 times. The question is, how many points?

The SCAP Hardcover suggests using 28 points. At the moment it looks like I will only have 4-5 players, rather than the 6 that it was designed for. Do you think I should bump up the point buy to 30 or 32 points to even things up or just leave it at 28?

If you used point buy in your SCAP, how many points did you give the players to spend?

Olaf the Stout

Ok, sometime in the near future I will be running the SCAP for my gaming group. Anyone care to suggest to me what things I need to read or prep before I run the first session.

I collected and read the original adventures when they first came out so I have a reasonable idea of how the campaign goes. I also have a copy of the compiled hardcover version.

So far I have read all the background information in the book as well as about half of the first chapter. I plan to read all of the first two chapters before the first session.

What about the RPGenius site? Are there any articles there that are must reads?

And would it be beneficial to prep anything to give to the players before we start play? A short player's guide to the campaign or something along those lines?

Thanks in advance,

Olaf the Stout

My order #755791 is currently pending (and has been since November 15). Part of that order is a copy of Dungeon #122. I notice that that particular issue is now half price. Will I be charged full price for that issue or will get it for half price?

Olaf the Stout