Olwen's page

We finished our Strange Aeons campaign after about 35 sessions spread over 8 months and probably over ~160h of gameplay. This is the eighth AP that I more or less finish (after half of Rise of the Runelord, Legacy of Fire, Kingmaker, Shattered Star, 2 thirds of Mummy’s Mask, Hell’s Rebels, Return of the Runelords), mainly with the same group of players and all using Pathfinder 1st edition rules. It’s always a pleasure to reflect back on the path traveled, what worked and what didn’t. It’s a little different this time around because it took about half the time it usually takes us to go through an AP (thanks pandemic…) and everything is still quite fresh in our minds. Even though the AP didn’t last as long as usual in real life, it’s still quite a commitment to run an AP all the way through and it’s always a joy to wrap one up!

I GM’d a group of 4 players through the AP. It’s really enjoyable to have such a nice group of gamers and we’re able to have a lot of fun through these stories despite our sometimes different playstyles. The 4 characters went from from level 1 up to level 16 for the final session, with a group consisting of an android teleportation conjurator, a halfling shadow sorcerer, a human cleric of Horus within an animal companion, and a human grappling fighter. The characters were created with a 15-point buy, the players are very experienced, and the characters were quite optimized. The campaign was fairly tensed at times (as I like it to be) with a few deaths but nothing permanent (as I like it to be). And also with quite a bit of insanity as you would expect for the "lovecraftian AP."

So a huge thank you to Adam Daigle for developing this AP, and to the authors Wes Schneider, Tito Leati, Ron Lundeen, Richard Pett, John Compton, and Jim Groves for writing those adventures! There were some very high notes and some more frustrating times but, overall, this is an AP that is worthy of being played, especially because it’s quite different from most other APs because of its cosmic horror theme. It’s not my favorite AP of those I GM’d (that would probably be Kingmaker and Return of the Runelords) but it’s still an excellent AP and of the very high Paizo standard.

So let’s go straight to what frustrated me: since I know and love Call of Cthulhu as well as what is now commonly called Lovecraftian horror, I came into this AP with expectations (fighting unbeatable odds, cosmic, incomprehensible horror, etc) that don’t always play well with the Pathfinder rules in which character become super-heroes very quickly and in which dungeons sometimes overstay their welcome. While the Chulhu set up worked really well in the first chapter, and towards the end in the spooky lost city of Nerazuvin or in Carcosa, I felt very frustrated in the dungeons of The Whipser Out of Time. The sudden power change inherent to the Pathfinder rules also create some particularly jarring discontinuities in the flow of the story. The most egregious one is that, after spending all of chapter 3 journeying on the Sellen over 6 sessions and 1-2 months of game time, then the PCs reach level 9, have access to teleport, and the AP drops any focus on traveling, assuming the PCs just teleport to the next step. It’s so frustrating, especially since traveling and what happens during the travel times is an intrinsic part of the most famous Call of Cthulhu campaigns that Strange Aeons at times tries to emulate.

Among the changes I made to the AP, I was very happy with myself in the way I used a (less codified) version of the corruption rules instead of the insanity rules that quickly seemed too mechanical to me. When PCs were failing at their "SAN" checks in front of incomprehensible horror, I would give them some corruption effect, based on the one corruption theme each character had. I kept the rules fuzzy and it worked really well to represent the PC’s minds unravelling as they were in fugue state. That also gave them a very strong incentive to figure out what had happened to them. And it created some really good role-play opportunities that, I thought, were way more fun than just slapping crippling phobias on the PCs.

Towards the end, in the last two chapters, I also removed a lot of what I consider padding ("random-ish" encounters in Nerazuvin or in Carcosa) to focus more on the role-play of the alienness of these places and the impression to be in front of unfathomable beings/places/events. I find myself doing this more and more often at high level and it worked very, very well here because it avoids the issue of trying to scare the players but being undermined by a bunch of supposedly scary encounters that the characters beat in 2-3 rounds. Cosmic horror is best left to the thriving imagination of every player rather that put in stats to be fought!

Overall, here’s what I really enjoyed in the AP:
- The cosmic horror. When it worked (most of the time), it worked really well.
- As usual with Paizo APs, the encounters and role-play with interesting, lively, and lovely NPCs: Winter, Skywin Freeling, Upianshe, Queen Cassilda. There are fewer than in most APs but at least these four are very memorable.
- The start, in the asylum, without memories, surrounded by doppelgangers and ghouls. Wow, talk about unsettling!
- The fact that Lowls is present more or less from the start, grows into the villain quickly and gets stopped at the end, even if it’s not really him anymore.
- The exploration of the Dreamlands; the trip to the moon in the Dreamlands.
- The fight against the PCs own selves!
- The alien decor and locations towards the end (Nerazuvin and Carcosa).
- The story that becomes very meta if the players know of the play the King in Yellow, Chambers’ writing, or Chaosium’s Beyond the Mountain of Madness, etc. It’s so appropriate to have NPCs (or the PCs!) quote parts of the Chambers novel in Paris! And it’s very much in tradition with how the writing of these many authors (Chambers, Bierce, Lovecraft, Willis, …) combined to build the "lovecraftian" universe over more than a century.

And what I enjoyed less:
- As mentioned above the disconnect between the basis of the Pathfinder rules and the tenets of cosmic/lovecraftian horror. As a player put it: proto-shoggoths are supposed to be scary, not hit on the head until they die.
- The annoyance of confusion and frightening effects that dispossess the players of their characters. Insanity and fear are an intrinsic part of the Cthulhu mythos but, in Pathfinder terms, they are really punishing to the players of PCs with low Will saves.
- The high-level padding (the generic encounters described for Nerazuvin, the Shantaks in Paris, the Larvae of the Gods, the Shrike Worms at the end, all of which without much agency and requirement from a story point of view) that eat many pages of AP, especially at high level. These could have been better used to provide many more details about the alienness of Nerazuvin, of the Elder Thing city, or of Paris.
- The fact that Paris feels like an afterthought when it could have been the opportunity to go full meta and, for instance, do a set piece with a representation of the King in Yellow in 1923 Paris. Quite a missed opportunity.

Of course, it’s always the GM’s job to tailor any AP to their needs and those of their groups. It’s just like it felt that there were more of those frustrations than in other APs. But it’s a high quality campaign nevertheless: epic, alien, full of emotional moments, weirdness, and heroic moments!

As for specific details on the six chapter…

In Search of Sanity (4.5/5.0) That beginning in media res is very, very, very good. And the PCs having no memories of the last few years, with no idea of where they are, with monstrosities all around, bleeding doors, rats in the walls, a society of asylum patients, etc. That was a huge amount of fun to play through. It may be a little long and unnecessarily deadly once the PCs make it to the ghoul section of the asylum but that’s a minor complaint. The Tatterman that first appears in the PCs dreams at the very start before being the final encounter was a cool arc. And this sickly yellow fog, seeping everywhere, preventing any exit… That chapter was hugely exciting to play through.

It Came From Hollow Mountain (4.5/5.0) This one worked surprisingly well. I was originally skeptical when I read it but the many smalls encounters in Trushmoor with the locals who dislike the PCs while these don’t know why was very fun to play through and make the PCs discovery the horrible people they were before. The dungeon-y parts of the AP, with the fort and the manor are quite optional and the group only quickly explored Lowl’s manor, which was a bit of a relief to not bog the story down. It also gave me the opportunity to stage a takeover of Thrushmoor by the skums and the zombies who didn’t stay idly put in the fort. That was quite a classic Call of Cthuthlu move, with the skums taking the inhabitants prisoner to lead them into the lake while the zombies attacks the temple where the refugees from the asylum had settled it. It was much more dynamic than a simple dungeon exploration and a much better fit to the story.

Dreams of the Yellow King (4.5/5.0) One of these memorable modules because of both the well-crafted journey along the Sellen and the forays into the Dreamlands. Journeys are an integral part of the mythic Call of Cthulhu campaigns (the Masks of Nyarlathotep, Beyond the Mountain of Madness, Horror on the Orient Express, etc) and this volume was a nice tip of the hat in this direction. The Dreamlands adventures were also very enjoyable because of their quirkiness, because they threw the PCs of balance and allowed for very inappropriate encounters without consequences that were too severe (the shopkeeper, Bokrug). Searching for 7 gifts was a little too much, though, especially since I dislike this structure for modules (go fetch many things to advance the plots, sigh). The trip to the moon to rescue the Yellow King was quite something, though. And this final encounter, with the PCs fighting themselves! What a mess of an encounter for the GM, but that was a very fun mess!

The Whisper Out of Time (2.0/5.0) That was a real letdown for me because of the reasons I developed above (jarring change in the rhythm of the story with 3 disjoined locations separated by 100s of kilometers after a whole chapter spent traveling over the Sellen; basically 3 dungeons with things to bash to advance the story). I think this part of the story should have focused on a reckless chase after Lowls that would end in Nerazuvin rather than having these three set pieces. The set pieces aren’t bad but I felt I needed to edit them heavily to make them more interesting: in the Old Infirmary, I dropped everything related to the derros, which transformed the place into a spooky abandoned local with drying skins, stitched up monstrosities, etc. I removed a few encounters in the Nethys Library to go more quickly through it (and, really, Proto-Shoggoths shouldn’t be filler encounters…). I removed the small investigation in Katapesh that I felt had little purpose and, luckily, the PCs assaulted the Blossoming Thorn from the top, which allowed us to run it into a single protracted encounter. I was particularly disappointed by this chapter because I usually adore Richard Pett’s chapters and he seemed a very good fit for a Cthulhu campaign. A missed opportunity; it happens!

What Grows Within (4.0/5.0) The journey to Nerazuvin and the few encounters until the group reaches the city are weird enough that it helps setting up a strange atmosphere that blooms nicely with the exploration of the alien city itself. The literal alien Kaklatath helps to set up the mood. I felt the exploration of the city itself required quite a bit of work to remove the unnecessary bits ("random" encounters, the 8-room, dungeon-style exploration of the undercity that is supposed to be huge but empty) and make the rest creepy (no fighting encounter in the Snarl but entities that have been here for aeons). I think the work payed off, though, and there were some memorably moments: Upianshe, the battle with Kaklatath against the waking Polyps and the promised army of millions if the PCs failed, the Husk of Xhamen-Dor attacking the PCs as they are conducting the final ritual, etc.

Black Stars Beckon (5.0/5.0) I amped up the alienness of Carcosa throughout this book and it really worked. It was spooky, dangerous (a house full of vampires, slithering shoggoths in the dead city of the Elder Things, crazed humans in Paris, etc.), and this chapter provides a glimpse of Lovecraft’s, Chambers’, or Bierce’s writings. There’s ample opportunities to go meta and present scenes, encounters that resonate with the players who know that universe while their PCs don’t. It’s pretty damn cool! I thought Paris could have been more developed.
One part I changed and I’m very happy I did is to replace the Briarstone Witch with the Pallid Mask in the final encounter. The PCs haven’t heard about the Witch for 5 AP volumes and, even then, only as a vague legend, so I don’t think she makes for a satisfactory final encounter. On the other hand, having the Pallid Mask as a recurring villain who comes back here to try and thwart the PCs is much more interesting. The PCs know him, the players hate him from their first encounter, and he is a clear minion of Hastur, so why not use him again? That worked perfectly.

Thinking about the details of what I liked and disliked, it’s very clear that it was globally a great story, despite the sometimes discordant expectations between the Pathfinder and lovecraftian setups. I’m really glad we played this one and I’ll fondly remember many cool moments of this AP! The fact that it ended with one of the character betraying the others and fleeing with the Necronomicon is an added bonus!

The next stop should be Kenabres and the Worldwound for Wrath of the Righteous!

Dear Paizo,

I wanted to check how much ordering the Pathfinder core rulebook would cost me in shipping and handling for the humble bundle offer and it looks like I went a step too far and actually placed the order. Would it be possible to cancel it?

Thanks in advance!

After our Return of the Runelords campaign, we started Strange Aeons… But we had a free slot with a smaller part of the group, so we started Iron Gods too! This one with two players. I very much hope I'll be able to keep two journals running (with the players if they want too).

Session I:

Standby mode… buffering… Standby mode… buffering…
Energy saving mode activated… Sending probes… Satellite connection activated…

> The large beacon of light emerging from Torch has been silence for 8 days. Multiple expeditions have explored the newly found caves under Black Hill. The one of Khonnir Bain came back, bringing with it the remnants of a drone, stories of a wondrous place of metal. His second expedition never came back.

> The sixth expedition is a small one. A human highlander, expert in primitive firearms. They call him Angus. A sister android prone to violence from overloaded circuitry. They call her Basic.

> They reach the submerged entrance of caves under the Weeping Pond, as locals call a lake suffused with chemical seeping from broken machinery. Evidence of destroyed vermin, a strange toad-like creature. A couple of dead bodies from the previous expeditions. They stumble on heat-absorbing mold.

> A group of chameleon humanoids live in the caves. They are to guard the caves but the previous expeditions took their toll. They agree to let the sixth expedition pass in exchange for dealing with a group of gremlins. Agreement is reached. The sixth expedition explores the gremlins' warren. The gremlins are small, sneaky, nasty, like ghosts in the machine, bugs. Basic loads combat protocoles and deals with the gremlins. Angus produces more noise than damage with his primitive pistol.

> Back with the chameleon humanoids. They offer gifts as thanks. Brown access cards. Worn-out, useless batteries.

> Investigating the dead bodies found in the caves, the sixth expedition analyzes they are from Torch inhabitants. Probably part of the previous expeditions. The human is known and engaged in a social bond with another inhabitant. It is also infected by spores and mold that will grow and spurt plant specimens. The sixth expedition stores it away in the cold mold for conservation.

> They continue through a glaucite door, into a world they don't know.

Explanding scanning protocoles

> A succession of corridors and hallways, broken, collapsed. The sixth expedition does not have the knowledge of most of what they see. In the broken equipment, they find a set of grippers, a black e-pick, two full batteries. I am curious: they appear to know what these are and how to use them. Swiping access cards to open doors. Maybe there is hope.

> The final metal door leads to the desert of the habitat dome, expansive. But not cold. Broken machinery. How did we survive? How did we survive? How did we survive? How did we survive? How did we survive?

> How did we…

> How…

Overwhelmed sensors… Power spike reaching dangerous levels… Warning-warning-warning Emergency Shutting Down…

After our Return of the Runelords campaign, we started Strange Aeons… I'll try to keep a journal from… a nameless someone's perspective (it will eventually become obvious) and stick to it, like I did for our Shattered Star campaign.

Session 1

A time, a place, Carcosa

It hit them like a wave, like a dream, like a nightmare. The yellow fog engulfing the world, the screaming wind, the shapes in the mist, the wet street, the leprous walls of crumbling buildings. And the Tatterman, pounding closer and closer from the fog, assailing their sanity, slashing them to ribbons. The blood-covered cobbled street…

They woke up, or at least they thought they did, to the sound of the tortured man calling for help. Chaos followed. A scrambling of the shapeshifter with Mrriaál grappling her, Lorena making the scalpel the shapeshifter held fall to the ground. Claw, grappling, globs of acid being hurled. Chaos. And finally a dead, horrific, shapeshifter reverting to its natural asexual self. The tortured man was now dead. They were hurt. Badly. Tam's magic healed them. Little did they know. It would become obvious soon enough.

Bit had already started to change, it was eating her already. The others didn't know. They would.

No way out from this subterranean series of cells but a vent through a cold furnace and a chute over a mount of dead bodies, ripened beyond their time. They chose the vents leading to a boiler room, where they infringed on the territory of a zoog and its rat companions. Rats in the walls… Mrriaál and the zoog eventually talked and they agreed to leave the creature's territory.

In the hallway beyond, a barricade, warning crossbow shots. Humans at last! But why were they shooting? The humans would not let them through, crossbows ready. Too many shapeshifter. On the barricade, they didn't trust them and forced them away. Words did not help. On the barricade, they were too scared, they had been through too much to take any risk.

Down the dark hallway, rooms buried under rubble, the half collapsed walls of the Briarstone Asylum. Yes, that's where they were now, the Briarstone Asylum, Ustalav, Golarion, another place. Their place for then.

Corpses in the rubble. Asylum patients, doctors, visitors. And shapeshifters. All dead but one that almost fooled them, pretending to be a wounded old nurse. But it didn't. Paranoia has its virtue. But leaves you all alone.

A dead body that animated. Remnant necromantic magic. Haunts. Echo of events to come.

An old laundry room, an undead creature, attached to a wall, eating a corpse that was the only barrier preventing it from eating a crazed asylum patient. "Zandalus sees," he screamed. "Praise!" The undead creature gone, they took no risk. Subdued the crazed man. And moved to the only other door out of the laundry.

Unconscious:
- Bit, against the torturing shapeshifter
- Mrriaál, against the torturing shapeshifter

Sanity point losses:
- Bit: 1/37
- Lorena: 1/40
- Mrriaál: 2/29
- Tam: 1/38

After 16 months in real life, 35 sessions, and ~180h of game time, we concluded our Return of the Runelords campaign. This is the sixth AP I finish, mainly with the same group of players, and it's always both a relief and a sense of pride and accomplishment to conclude one of those, especially when it's been as interesting a story as in Return of the Runelord.

Our group started with 5 PCs before a player had to pull out a third of the way through and we played through most of the campaign with 4 PCs (15-point buy, very experienced players, and fairly optimized characters). There were a few PC deaths along the way, but nothing permanent. I actually found the whole campaign very well balanced: it was appropriately tensed for the concluding chapter of the Runelords trilogy and the world-shattering events happening in Return of the Runelords certainly deserved to be more than speed bumps for the players!

The details of the campaign can be found in this journal.

So a massive thank you to James Jacobs for developing this AP, seeding some hints to it throughout the last 10(!?!) years of Pathfinder APs. Our group played most of Rise of the Runelord and all of the excellent Shattered Star before playing this one and it sure was a boon. There were quite a few throwbacks to the old days that brought back very fun memories!

A big thank you also to the six authors — Adam Daigle, Mike Shel, Richard Pett, Jason Keeley, Amanda Hamon Kunz, and Greg Vaughn — for the adventures themselves. They were quite varied and not repetitive one bit, even over 35 sessions of gameplay. It's no surprise with this mix of "old-timers" and new(er) blood from Paizo employees whose talent pushed them very quickly to the forefront of the Pathfinder AP-writing team. I can't wait to see more AP chapters from these six!

It's hard to think of many things that didn't work out in this campaign that I played mainly as written. With APs, I usually end up changing half a chapter to a chapter because I don't find it suits my/our needs but that wasn't the case here, which is quite rare. I tweaked a few things, of course, but that was mainly for the campaign to resonate better with the PCs' background and with past events from the APs we played before in Varisia.

So what did I particularly like or found suboptimal?

Likes:
- The best parts of the AP were hands down the continuation from the past Varisia APs and the whole time travel and tempering arc. It felt epic, with a definite feel of finality in the air over the last couple of books at least.
- The last book was truly bloody epic! All those temporal events! The final battle against Alaznist! That one lasted 9 rounds and Alaznist expanded more than 30 spells.
- The throwback to the old days: Xanesha, Magnimar, Sheila Heidmarch!, the Sihedron heroes, the time wound that involves Xin. Of course, that only works if you've played the other APs in the trilogy before, but it certainly works very well if you did.
- It was a nice change to reach level 20. Pathfinder rules are as always quite cumbersome at that stage but, every once in a while, it's fun to use capstone abilities and hurl level 20 mythic wizards and their mythic meteor swarms at the PCs without killing them outright!
- A suite of very well crafted NPCs throughout the various chapters. It started with Audrahni at the very beginning but interesting NPCs kept appearing (Lullaby Vancaskerkin, Viralane, Sursha Antefalle, Sorshen!, the Steward of Stethelos, Ninuron, Belimarius,…).

Suboptimal:
- As usual with APs, the higher level books contain quite a bit of padding in dungeons, especially since encounters can take so long to resolved. But that's easily dealt with.
- Not much else, really.

So a truly excellent AP that I would rank up there with the best ones (Kingmaker and Shattered Star for those I've GM'd). Maybe a close second after Kingmaker, but for entirely different reasons?

As for specific details on the six chapter…

Secret's of Roderic's Cove (4.5/5.0) A very well crafted first chapter that hurls the PCs into a story they can't even fathom at this stage and with events already in motion. It's a very sandboxy first chapter and the author and developer were clearly trying to avoid the railroading from session 1 of chapter 1. If I had a criticism, it's that it sometimes feel a little too loose and sandboxy for the start. I imagine that may cause trouble for some groups that want a bit more guidance. But all the individual pieces of the chapter are very well crafted and the ghost of Roderic can serve as a "mission giver" if the PCs and players are a little lost about what to do next.

I particularly liked that the adversary NPCs tend to be in shades of grey rather than the common binary good/bad NPCs. Most of the NPCs can be interacted with and it's never entirely obvious whether the adversaries aren't just people in the wrong place at the wrong time who have to deal with a crappy situation. Even the goblins.

It Came From Hollow Mountain (5.0/5.0) Wow was this one tons of fun. The Hollow Mountain part of this AP is well crafted and enjoyable but it's the traveling part between Roderic's Cove, Magnimar, and Hollow Mountain that really made this one shine for me. So many opportunities to develop the interactions between PCs and NPCs! So many opportunities to show why some of the NPCs ended up being adversaries to the PCs! Varilane, Audrahni, Sursha… Stealing Baraket, the assassination attempt (and success!)in Magnimar… Damn, that was good!

The dungeon part may be a tad too long but it has numerous entrances and my group bypassed a quarter of it so it was about the right length and didn't last overly long.

Runeplague (4.0/5.0) I had my doubts about this chapter before playing it (too scattered over Varisia, with set pieces that feel too disconnected) but it turned out quite okay. I still find it would have been better if it had been more focused instead of trying to visit the four major cities of Varisia but the parts in Korvosa (Sorshen!!) and in Riddelport were particularly enjoyable. The part in Korvosa because it wasn't a dungeon (I also changed the festival rules and made it far less gamey and much more role-play-y) and it was a great opportunity to meet with a changed Sorshen… that the PCs had a really hard time figuring out and making a decision as to whether to trust her or not. The part in Riddleport with the base defense scenario was amazing. The PCs had time to prepare, and they did so well, but they still almost lost because of the repeated assaults on Zincher's Tenement.

It's also the first chapter the PCs get to clean out the (current) Runelords. Krune didn't stand a chance in from of a thoroughly prepared group but that's perfectly fine as it was a nice reward for the group and it made it obvious they were achieving something.

Temple of the Peacock Spirit (4.0/5.0) Still very good but maybe the weakest chapter of this AP, basically because it's primarily a long big dungeon? Still, it's varied enough that it's not too boring and there are some very good parts interspersed throughout: the peacock shrines that add an interesting twist, the fact that the cultists are not homicidal killers (contrary to some PCs, which led to particularly enjoyable philosophic discussions), Xanderghul's behavior and the multiple encounters with him. I also particularly liked the first part of this chapter in the time-locked Therassic Library. Ninuron is an interesting character too!

I did make one major change and got Xanderghul to reincarnate as the Peacock Spirit (more or less the mythic phoenix of Mythic Adventures) after he died. That was quite needed to make the final encounter truly epic.

The City Outside of Time (4.0/5.0) This chapter both suffers and benefits from high level play. The padding I mentioned earlier is quite apparent in the Realm of Frozen Tears but, at the same time, it's becoming quite epic with some traveling through the plane of shadows, visiting and helping a city locked in time that is being eaten by time and reality, the interaction with Runelord (Runelady, really) Belimarius, and the final encounter in her runewell. I particularly appreciated the nuanced stance with Belimarius: she's clearly a horrible person but she wishes to save the city as much as the PCs. So much so that, in chapter 6 Xin-Edasseril became the only safe place they could think of to regroup as Varisia was being destroyed.

Rise of New Thassilon (5.0/5.0) One of the best AP chapters I have ever played, if not the best one. I took what was written and ramped it all the way up to 11. Varisia was being destroyed with little to do against it, everything the PCs knew was falling apart and only they could save the timeline by repairing Alaznist's damage. It doesn't get more epic than this! At the same time, we played a session with the Sihedron heroes going on a suicide mission to prevent Yamasoth from entering Golarion (and that indirectly helped the PCs by lowering Alaznist's paradox points). It was so much fun to get to play with those characters again, 4-5 years later!!

Freeing Karzoug's soul in the Boneyard was certainly something. The final encounter, with Alaznist and her minions, is suitably epic (it was certainly touch and go for quite a moment!) But I think that it's the weirdness of the visit to Stethelos, the interaction with Tawil At'Umr, and the healing of the temporal wounds that I particularly enjoying. These are all short but incredibly well crafted encounters that give so much of the history of Thassilon to the characters and players. And to get to revisit these key moments in time and interact with them… Wow!

It's time for volume 3 of the Runelords' trilogy! Six years after starting Shattered Star, Varisia is at the forefront again.

The marks the 7th AP I've GM'd with more or less the same group (Rise of the Runelord, until the end of "The Hook Mountain Massacre"; Legacy of Fire, Kingmaker, Shattered Star, Mummy's Mask, until the end of "Secrets of the Sphinx"; Hell's Rebels).

The group of players is the same as for Shattered Star, with one addition. We have all played at least half of Rise of the Runelord (most of the players with me) and we obviously finished Shattered Star. The Sihedron Heroes will build heavily on the group that finished Shattered Star.

The heroes of Roderic's Cove are:
- Akkumsah Stonechild, Oread unchained monk 1
- Azriel, Varisian druid (menhir savant) 1
- Dr. Variel, Elf investigator (empiricist) 1
- Ice, Merfolk bard (dirge bard, sound striker) 1
- Szarlej, Human cleric of Cayden Cailean 1

The characters' point of view on the events of the campaign are over here. What follows are Audrahni's notes as things stir in Roderic's Cove…

After almost 2 years in real life, we finished our Hell's Rebels campaign yesterday. It probably took us about 200-250 hours over ~50 sessions. That's the sixth AP we finish, at least partially (after half of Rise of the Runelords, Legacy of Fire, Kingmaker, Shattered Star, the first four books of Mummy's Mask), and it's always the same long-term commitment and the same enjoyment to build a long story together with a group of friends!

As usual, it was a lot of fun and both the GM (me) and the players had a lot of fun dealing with Barzillai Thrune. Thank you Crystal Frasier, Mike Shel, Richard Pett, James Jacobs, Jim Groves, and Amber Scott for writing these 6 parts to the AP, and most certainly to James Jacobs for designing and developing the whole AP! It's interesting that Paizo can still be more and more daring in their APs. This one was particularly well crafted, with the different parts echoing each other. It's really obvious here that the campaign was developed as a whole and that it's larger than the sum of its parts.

We particularly appreciated the (mainly) single location, Kintargo, and it makes it so much easier to care about the story and freeing the city from the madman Barzillai. It also means that the AP has a very prominent cast of non-player characters who stay around and provide a solid background for the life in the city (Laria, Rexus, Lictor Octavio, Jilia Bainilius, Shensen, Captain Sargeta, Molly Mayapple, etc). The Lucky Bones are also pretty neat and help the PCs feel home… never mind the fact that it's one of those "secret" hideout everyone seems to know about!

Barzillai Thrune is a very adequate Evil Bad Guy™️ and the fact that he's present from day one of session one is quite a change from the usual AP. What I found surprising is the ability of the campaign to not make him feel stale after being the BBEG for the whole campaign. It certainly helps that he's dealt with at the end of book 3 (at least it looks that way at first), 4, and 6. It's as if he'll never keel over! The rhythm of these encounters with Barzillai is really balanced and works well with the overall flow.

Overall, the campaign was really nice and among the best I've GM'd for Pathfinder. There were quite a few tensed and difficult moments, but not quite insurmountable for our group of 3 very experienced players. In the end, we ended up with 4-5 deaths, but at levels for which it's more a hassle than game breaking. The group (cleric of Milani, swashbuckler, and unchained summoner) was quite powerful and ended the AP at level 16 and 1 mythic tier. Unfortunately, the final Barzillai went down in 6 seconds with a whimper. That would have been frustrating for another campaign, but since it was the third time they were encountering him or someone pretending to be him, it wasn't as problematic as it could been. I very much feel this AP is more about the journey than the destination. It's funny but I never felt that GM'ing any other Paizo campaign that all tend to build towards a final, epic clash, and I'm not quite sure where it comes from. Maybe from staying in Kintargo for so long that it kind of feels home, maybe because Barzillai has been around since the beginning and changed about as much as the PCs during the period of the AP.

There's a few things I would do differently if I were to play it again (not many) but there were mainly a lot of enjoyable parts to this AP. So here goes for the pros and cons list…

Cons:
• The rebellion rules. As usual with the Paizo subsystems, they are fun for a little while but after a book or so, they feel cumbersome and it's hard to find much use for them as they are quite gamey and it's very hard for the PCs to fail a check. We dropped them after book 2.
• The final Barzillai, who died in a single round. The problem when the whole campaign is about fighting devils is that the PCs are quite prepared by level 16 (and they should be). If I had to redo it, I would make Barzillai more powerful (I used the mythic version of him already) and more surprising (basically, not a devil).
• The whole Mangvhune story in books 2 and 5 felt out of place and really not well connected to the rest. It felt like a waste of time, especially in book 5 when the finale is getting closer.

Pros:
• Kintargo and it's a big plus. Hell's Rebels is the city campaign and it's really well done. The PCs care about the place, about the people, and they feel like they are doing something about it.
• The cast of NPCs. It's about the right size to be manageable by the GM and they all have a specific role/character, which makes it much easier for the PCs to care about them.
• Barzillai who comes back, and back, and back. It's like the guy will never die!
• The trips to Hell and, in particular, the interaction with Odexidie. It's great, for once, to have Hell have an agenda as opposed to simply being a caricature full of things to fight. It's much more scary that way!
• The battle for Kintargo, commando style.
• The battle of the Temple of Asmodeus, which was by far the most difficult battle of the full AP. The PCs won by a thread (and, on top of that, they were only one day away from the end of the ritual to Asmodeus that would have likely meant a premature end to the campaign!) but they won, and that felt special.
• Freeing Kintargo at the end of book 4, which means that the PCs have two other books to deal with "after." That's quite rare if you think about it!
• The diplomatic negotiations with Cheliax at the beginning of book 6. That was a very nice change of pace, especially so far into the campaign. Quite risky but very well done. It certainly helps that the assassin also killed the head of the Chelaxian delegation and threatened to cancel the discussions!

As for the specific volumes, here's what I thought as the GM:
In Hell's Bright Shadow: Really fun start, great start with the riot, great NPCs with Laria and Rexus. Very nice set pieces that give a good idea of what it's like to live under Barzillai's rule. Maybe a little too dungeony towards the end with the Hocum's Fantasmagorium and the Many-Steps Monastery.
Turn of the Torrents: The PCs are ready to get things done and this AP gives them the opportunity to do so and to start building their base. Great fun! The Lucky Bones is completely unrelated, plot-wise, but that's a nice change of pace and it's so the PCs can do something for themselves.
Dance of the Damned: The PCs are becoming real movers and rallying support left and right. The banquet with the Queen of Delights was very enjoyable and quite hilarious at time given how unprepared the PCs were for it. The Ruby Massacre is great fun and very brutal. It's probably best focused entirely on the ball and not on exploring the opera. That's really just a distraction but, luckily, my group didn't explore too much and focussed on the ball.
A Song of Silver: The real gem of this campaign. The proverbial s*** hits the proverbial fan and it's brutal. It feels that the PCs have to fight for it all and it's far from being obvious how the final showdown will unfold. A massive battle against Barzillai and, later, the final battle in the nave of the Temple were the most tensed moments of the campaign. When your players decide to bypass encounters so they can preserve resources for the finale, you know things are just as tense as they should!
The Kintargo Contract: Getting to play through the aftermath of the rebellion and secure the future of Kintargo was refreshing. The Kintargo Contract is a piece of genius and getting the players to realize how they can use it to their benefit is priceless. The rest of the book feels more like a distraction and filler. I think it requires a bit more work than I put in to avoid giving the impression that every part of the duchy of Ravounel wants the PCs to do a quest before signing up on their new rulership of the region. I found it hard to care much about Mangvhune.
Breaking the Bones of Hell: Surprisingly, the best part of this book is the diplomatic meeting. The part in Hell is fine and nicely builds up to the final encounter but, since this one was over in a round, it doesn't quite feel like the finale it might have been. In fact, it feels that the whole part in Hell is about as or more dangerous than Barzillai. Maybe a lack of balance, or simply luck. But it's a nice close to the full campaign and it certainly feels scary going to Hell, as it should. Discovering more about Barzillai's psyche only made the PCs hate him more.

So that's for the last two years of GMing. Soon we'll likely relocate to Nirmathas and my players will face the advance of the Ironfang Invasion. That should remind us of our past Kingmaker campaign!

Hi Paizo!

It's been almost two months, now, and I still haven't received my September subscription package (AP#86 and Undead Unleashed) so I fear it unfortunately got lost somewhere. I did receive my October subscription which was sent a month later, though. Can anything be done about this?

Thanks! :)

Four improbable companions.

Father,

They were chosen well. The most improbable companions teaming together to overcome overwhelming odds against their very survival.

The nimble would-be assassin; a girl, really, her lithe body not yet completely deformed by puberty. Cast as an outsider from her sect of shadow walkers because she dared steal from one of her marks instead of merely killing him, Chloé discovered the hard way that she did not wield the talents required to escape the Iomedan inquisitors of Lastwall tasked with tracking her down. Hunted down then captured in the northern reaches of the Fangwood Forest, she was charged with murder and fraud and the swift justice of Lastwall soon sent her on her way to Branderscar. She was to survive, though, to later be sent to the salt mines… and die there.
Chloé is a human rogue (knife master) going for the assassin prestige class.

The proud and manipulative diva; petite, but with a voice so powerful that it can move, hurt, fascinate her audience. Maybe it is this strangeness in her stemming from her improbable mother… So proud was Chrism, and so sure of her talents that she could not understand that Lastwall is not Cheliax, despite the invitation her Egorian troop had received to tour the shores of Lake Encarthan and play at Castle Everstand. One does not kill a servant boy because he brings cold coffee. That simply wouldn't do for the Lastwallians and it is the commander of Castle Everstand, Captain Thaum Gauntwood, who arrested her himself. The punishment was clear: beheading, to be conducted at Branderscar. And it would not come too soon for the Lastwallians.
Chrism Rosewood is a changeling bard (Chelish diva).

The dark witch; tall, brooding, consorting with dark powers beyond her purview. Æthelflæd… She's an interesting one, this one, talking to her pet scorpion and channeling dark powers through it. But which powers? The horrors from beyond space as she liked to pretend when she worked with this ragtag band of brigands preying on the roads between Ustalav and Lastwall? Or something else much more powerful and respectable? Either way, it did not help her when the bandits angered Lastwall enough that they a detachment of Knights of Ozem, led by the promising upstart Tholton Firrine. Captured with the others, she was the only one deemed sufficiently evil and dangerous to be sent to Branderscar to be hanged.
Æthelflæd Fhintain is a human witch with the Trickery patron.

The hunter; the "baron," he calls himself, despite his lack of noble titles and his bastard ascendancy, half human, half elven. But Mordrick has qualities for sure, not to hunt game, but to hunt humans. And he enjoys the hunt thoroughly. Too thoroughly, it seems, since it led him to kill his latest quarry in the very cathedral of the Inheritor in Vigil, where it had ran for protection. Ha! The sight of all these paladins and clerics of the upstart god witnessing a murder in their most holy site. What a scene it must have been! Sure, Mordrick benefitted from everyone's bewilderment to flee, but he did not flee for very long since, less than two days later, Marthas Harkon and his group of proud knights and priests of Iomedae brought the murderer back to the capital in chains, to be judged. Justice came swift, and the "baron" later arrived to Branderscar to be punished for desecration. The pyre would burn bright.
Mordrick Viscerian Baxter is a half-elf ranger (spirit ranger) with human as favored enemy and going for a two-weapon fighting specialty.

Yet none of the four would be punished. A little nudge at the door, as they say, and they would prove that they had what it takes. But will it be enough?

After finishing Legacy of Fire and Kingmaker over the last four years, our group successfully concluded Shattered Star. In total, we went through 36 sessions of 4-5 hours, adding up to a little more than 150 hours of game play. It's less than for our Kingmaker campaign, but it's still quite a commitment!

The final fight was suitably epic (although it could have been more so; more below), and the full campaign journal from Sheila Heidmarch's perspective can be found here.

The heroes of Magnimar are:

• Draco Don Zerba, fomer blacksmith from the Fenwall Mountains, male human alchemist (vivisectionist)/barbarian (invulnerable rager) 16
  
• Laslo Grigorovich Budynek, misunderstood anatomist, in "sabbatical" from his home country of Ustalav, male tiefling alchemist (beastmorph, vivisectionist) 17
  
• Nasim ibn Asad ibn Shahzad al-Fahim, hunted soul hailing from the far lands of Qadira, male tiefling magus 17
  
• Viveltre Vanderale, troubled daughter of one of the noble Magnimarian families, female aasimar cleric (theologian) of Asmodeus 17

The campaign was a huge blast to GM and I'd like to thank Paizo's developers and all the authors for creating such a fun AP. Of course, I should also thank the players for coming up with such quirky characters. ;)

At first, I was a little worried that this AP would turn into a slugfest because of all the dungeon crawls but Paizo did a masterful job at making these dungeons lively, and full of roleplaying opportunities. Once I made it clear that the PCs should not feel forced to clear every room but should let the story drive them and that I would compensate with additional material and cut scenes, the dungeon exploration unfolded beautifully. The artifact hunt was also quite a benefit since it meant that it was easy to go from one chapter of the AP to the next.

The good points of the campaign:

• the many roleplaying opportunity (Sheila, Lockerbie Brast, the troglodytes, Oriana, Kandamereus, General Stom, Morcruft,…);
  
• the numerous ways to overcome many encounters (fights, cunning, diplomacy, bluff,…);
  
• this trap in Curse of the Lady's Light that created even more roleplaying opportunities;
  
• the open dungeons which could be tackled in many different ways;
  
• the many links to Thassilon and Varisia's long history;
  
• Magnimar;
  
• saving Magnimar;
  
• the more and more epic episodes;
  
• the links to the previous APs;
  
• Pathfinder, of course.
  

The more negative points:

• it's hard to feel for Magnimar with only the first and final books taking place there;
  
• Xin's lack of foreshadowing;
  
• a little too many mind-affecting spells and effects?
  
• the Sihedron is too powerful and hurts the tension of the last chapter.
  

The most iconic moments of the campaign were:

• The fight against Ashamintalu, that the PCs lost, turning the end of this chapter into a hunt through the Lady's Light, splitting the group to bait the alu-demon so a small group could sneak back to the treasury to retrieve the shard and the body of a dead companion.
  
• The finale of Beyond the Doomsday Door, when the PCs faced the Crawling Chaos.
  
• The fight against Cadrilkasta, epic and indecisive. A suitable fight to retrieve the final shard.
  
• The tsunami.
  

Finally, my opinion on the various chapters:

Shards of Sin: A nice start to the campaign, starting small. The Tower Girls were fun as there were options to deal with them without killing them. The Crow's dungeon felt a little too long, with a bit too many rooms and levels. It sometimes felt like the dungeon dwellers did not bring much to the story (the devils, for instance). Great quick investigation in Magnimar to start everything, though!

Curse of the Lady's Light: Probably the best volume of the AP. Ah, this trap… What a masterful piece of adventure crafting. It needs to work and it won't for all groups, but it did for us and it had awesome consequences throughout the campaign. The wilderness part outside was great, with the possibility to side with the boggards or the troglodytes. So was the interaction with the Gray Maidens and the possibility to ally with them. Ashamintalu was probably the worse threat the PCs had to face and it was truly memorably, especially with her ability to turn the PCs against each other. The dungeon was varied and steeped in Thassilonian lore.

The Asylum Stone: I can't really comment on this one since we skipped it. I felt it suffered from two things. Firstly, too much variety in the encounters. Reading this chapter, it sometimes felt like the challenge had been to use every monster that had never been used in an AP so far: a coualt, caulborns, a pale stranger, an eoxian, and a dullahan all in the same chapter. That was too much for me. It's sad, because I really like what James Sutter usually does. I guess this one was just not my cup of tea. The other issue is that the campaign is set up so the PCs need to care about Magnimar in chapter 6, but they spend chapters 2-5 away, as written. So I added material in the City of Monuments to replace The Asylum Stone.

Beyond the Doomsday Door: A really good installment. I particularly liked that the PCs could enter through the lower levels and bypass a third of the dungeon if they were smart, or lucky, or both. The dungeon was flavorful and made sense. The finale of this one was really epic, with the appearance of the qlippoth lord.

Into the Nightmare Rift: It would be the best chapter if not for Curse of the Lady's Light. The labs and the embassy are so strange and weird that they become scary. It's the first time my players actually said "Let's not touch what we don't need to touch" and left part of the loot! The part in Leng is just bizarre and great, and the final fight against a slothful Cadrilkasta was a gem. They could have all died there if dice had been against them. It's worth a read here.

The Dead Heart of Xin: The reforging ritual and its consequences was really fun. The PCs got to realize the power of the Sihedron and use it to save the city. Xin's palace is also very well crafted. The visions, in particular (my PCs did not find the flamma horacalcum), were a nice touch to tell the story of Xin without going through hours of exposition. The dungeon made sense, but I felt it was undermined by the power of the Sihedron. The artifact is very powerful in a fight and effectively heals the PCs after it for free. That was just too much and robbed us of some of the necessary tension for a finale. We still had a great time and the final fight was epic enough, but I wish it had been a little more dicey for the PCs.

All in all, we had a wonderful time playing through this over a period of a little more than a year. So thanks to all the authors, developers, and players. :)

I have always wondered, is it a standard action to use, or a full-round action, as seems implied by the "it works like summon monster" clause?

Two weeks after wrapping up our Kingmaker campaign, our group has started Shattered Star in what will hopefully as fun a campaign to play (and GM for me).

The roll call is:
- Draco Don Zerba, fomer blacksmith from the Fenwall Mountains, male human barbarian (invulnerable rager) 1
- Laslo Grigorovich Budynek, misunderstood anatomist, in "sabbatical" from his home country of Ustalav, male tiefling alchemist (beastmorph, vivisectionist) 1
- Nasim ibn Asad ibn Shahzad al-Fahim, hunted soul hailing from the far lands of Qadira, male tiefling magus 1
- Viveltre Vanderale, troubled daughter of one of the noble Magnimarian families, female aasimar cleric (theologian) of Asmodeus 1

Between the tieflings with tail and maw, or tail and claws, and the butterfly winged aasimar, the group's adventures should be most interesting!

What follows is Volume 7 of the Pathfinder Chronicles of Magnimar, written by Sheyla Heidmarch…

After almost 2 years and 250-300 hours of gaming spread out over ~60-70 sessions, our group has finished the Kingmaker campaign. It was a lot of fun to see the PCs grow from level 1 to level 16, and from mercenaries to leaders of the kingdom of Gwendor, spreading over the Stolen Lands and Pitax.

The campaign was a lot of fun and, as usual, I'd like to thank Paizo as well as the authors (Tim Hitchcock, Rob McCreary, Greg Vaughan, Neil Spicer, Jason Nelson, Richard Pett, and the wrangler of all these deranged minds, James Jacobs) for writing such an enjoyable set of scenarios. Getting to play the archetypal fantasy trope of building one's own kingdom was exceptional. It was very different from the usual D&D/Pathfinder campaigns and the sand-boxiness was a very nice change, even though having done it once is probably enough. The amount of GM work required to benefit from the open setting is far from negligible and I'm looking forward to playing a simpler campaign (Shattered Star).

For us it's the highest level campaign we've ever played, and the first time we reach these levels. It was interesting to play at such high levels and see how the Pathfinder rules behave. It truly becomes a completely different game which is worth playing every so often. I'm not sure I would push to repeatedly go any higher than 16-17th level though, because the game does provide a bit too many options, both on the PC and GM sides, for quick and reactive sessions.

At the end, the group consisted of:

• Hêmael, male half-elf, cleric of Kurgess 14/fighter 2, general of the kingdom of Gwendor;
  
• Iaurinn, male elf, conjurer (teleportation sub-school) 16, high magister of the kingdom of Gwendor;
  
• Lilac, female gnome, paladin (shining knight) of Arshae 16, queen of the kingdom of Gwendor;
  
• Sempor, male gnome, druid 16, master spy of the kingdom of Gwendor;
  
• Bellatrix, female half-orc cohort, bard (arcane duelist) 14, bride of the queen of the kingdom of Gwendor.
  

Overall, we liked:

• the Pathfinder rules, as usual;
  
• the openness of the campaign which allows the kingdom to grow organically, with a lot of interactions with many NPCs who could (should?) have been single encounter NPCs;
  
• the NPCs and their detailed description which made it easy to play them (Oleg, Svetlana, Kressle, Jhod, Akiros, Grigori, Tig-Titter-Tut and Perlivash, Melianse, Mother Moon, Satinder Morne,…);
  
• the feys, with their quirks and craziness;
  
• the fact that the BBEG was different from usual and not the rather typical outsider, or high-level evil humanoid;
  
• the ambivalent opponents who could be turned (the brigands, the kobolds, Drelev and his band, the feys,…)
  
• the regular change in pace (small 4-room dungeons, large exploration periods, largish dungeons, lots of roleplaying encounters,…);
  
• the exploration;
  
• the gritty feeling of The Stolen Lands with the discovery of what would become the PCs' home;
  
• Varnhold Vanishing and its change of pace;
  
• the really epic Sound of a Thousand Screams with the blooms, Thousandbreaths, many dragons, and the House at the End of Time;
  
• the players building their own kingdom, and the PCs caring about their surroundings as a consequence!
  

What we thought was suboptimal:

• the (h)exploration after book 2 (by that point, the PCs have minions to do that for them);
  
• the kingdom rules after book 3 (just too much book keeping for little in-game benefit);
  
• as written the story is lacking connection from the PCs' point of view, (but I changed that and had sparse but regular mentions of the "fey queen" throughout the first 5 books; that worked great!);
  
• the Brevoy civil war letdown: it's emphasized in the Player's Guide, but never developed in the campaign;
  
• repeatedly rolling 1s on saves for the dragons (Ilthuliak become an acid breathing toad).
  

But it was overall a huge amount of fun and these suboptimal points were easily tweaked.

The final epic encounter with Nyrissa will follow later in this thread once I've written it up, likely in the next few days. It was a long tactical fight lasting 18 rounds, with 2 deaths and a petrified PC. Certainly suitable as an epic end-fight!

Hi Gary et al.

Our campaign thread here:
<http://paizo.com/campaigns/v5748p75hoh19/discussion>
has recently become very glitchy. Posting on this page sends one back to the paizo home page (but adds the post to the thread), as does clicking on the "(x new)" link, or the last post link.

Thanks!

This is the kingdom building discussion thread for our Kingmaker campaign so we can speed up kingdom building during the sessions.

The goal of this thread is to play a few months of kingdom building ahead of time, before the actual game sessions, so I can mesh it with what happens in your kingdom without the mechanics slowing actual gameplay. In some (probably rare) cases, we may have to backpedal a bit of a major event happens that make you change your mind for what you'd envision doing in the next months of kingdom building.

Do discuss your choices in this thread, but I'll ask of you that you make an effort to reach a consensus (which you would usually do fairly quickly, so I think that should be fine).

There should be two checks that need to be made each round: a Stability check at the beginning of the round, and an Economy check at the end of it. To do those, just use the forum dice roles (you type [*dice] 1d20+25[*/dice], for instance, removing the * everywhere). I'll generate the magic items and such things.

I think you already have an idea of what you want to be doing for the next few rounds, so let's start right away. Fill in the following!

Abadius 4712 AR
Economy: +27
Loyalty: +20
Stability: +24

DC: 29
Unrest: 0
BP: 18

Upkeep phase
Stability check: add dice roll here
Consumption list how much you've paid
Magic items: I'll fill that in when necessary
Unrest: higher than 11? royal assassin?

Improvement phase
Changes in leadership: I anticipate 'none', changes will be roleplay
Claimed Hexes: where? (with cost)
City improvement: new city? what improvement in which city? cost
Roads: where? (with cost)
Farmlands: where? (with cost)
Edicts:
- Promotion: currently Standard (+2 Stability, 2 BP)
- Taxation: currently Normal (+2 Economy, -2 Loyalty)
- Festivals: currently 6 (+2 Loyalty, 2 BP)

Income phase
Deposits/withdrawals: I anticipate 'none' in most cases
Magic items: which ones are you trying to sell, role an Economy check
Income (economy check): add dice roll here

Event phase
1d100 ⇒ 65 -- nothing worth mentioning happens in your kingdom during this cold and harsh month of Abadius 4712AR. Everyone is wintering…

Stolen Lands I
Session 1 – December 6, 2010

An improbable group of adventurers have joined forces to explore and pacify the Stolen Lands under the authority of the Surtovas, rulers of Brevoy. Two gnomes on their ponies are surrounding a tall elf.

The first gnome has purple skin and, with her magenta hair flowing behind her as she proudly rides her war pony, is clearly a combatant, in spite of her small size. Her lance, clipped to her saddle, sparkles in the light cast by the low sun, as does her armor made of small scales, and the tiny longsword sheathed at her side. She beams with the expectancy of new experience sure to meet her in the unexplored wilds. The small symbol of an unknown god dangles around her neck. Lilac, paladin (shining knight) of Arshae 1.

Riding in the back, the other gnome could be seen as a negative image of his companion. His hair, black, his hide armor, black, carved with a multitude of snakes, his attitude, sombre. A gloomy character miles away from the cheerful attitude that is expected from gnomes. Sempor, druid (serpent shaman) 1.

Between them walks the tall figure of the slender and haughty Iaurinn o-Lossaeglir. He carries himself as a figure of importance and the large tome that bounces on his leg each time he steps forward identifies him both as a knowledgeable person, and as someone who has little knowledge of the practicalities of life in the wild. At regular interval, he absent-mindedly rubs a birthmark on his left hand. Iaurinn conjurer (teleportation school) 1.

Under their feet, the packed dirt roads they use to exit Restov transform into a countryside path, before it becomes a trail and finally leads to an old rundown fort in the distance. We are on Calistril 28 and the group of explorers is about to reach Oleg's trading post, the starting point of their exploration of the Stolen Lands…

Calistril 28, 4711 — In the cold afternoon, they reach Oleg's Trading Post and are welcomed with relief by Svetlana and Oleg Leveton who mistake them for the guard they have called for to protect their small estate from the brigands. There is much exasperation when they realize that the PCs have not been sent to protect them, but Lilac is quick to offer their help and deal with the situation the next day, when the bandits are expected.

Pharast 1 — In the crisp morning (the temperatures are far below freezing), the group of brigands appear in front of the closed fort's door. They pretend to be mere travelers looking for a hot soup and a bit of comfort, but the group of adventurers easily sees through their bluff. The brigands and their angry leader leave for now. A decision is quickly made to follow them, using Sempor's knowledge of the wilderness. Before they leave, Oleg quietly asks the PCs to keep an eye for Svetlana's ring, that the brigands have stolen.

Traveling all day towards the west, the PCs reach the Thorn River bandit camp where the brigands have regrouped with their companions. Under the pale moon light, the small purple gnome, Lilac, leads the group into the bandit camp, with the elven wizard hastily casting silent images of guards accompanying them to bolster their numbers. They are stealthy enough to reach the central camp fire without being spotted and a tense confrontation with the eight brigands ensues. Lilac explains to them that the rule of brigands in the Greenbelt is over. Kressle finds the little paladin amusing and takes up her offer of a duel to decide their fate. It quickly turns sour for Kressle (even at level 1, the paladin's smite evil is quite powerful). She calls for helps from the other brigands but both Kressle and Happs quickly fall to a color spray and are made prisoner. The other brigands flee given the sudden turn of events.

Happs begs for his life, telling them about the Stag Lord, their leader whom he has never met. He mentions that some of their goods have been stolen by mites, who reside somewhere to the south-east. Kressle stays proud and spends most of her time taunting the PCs. She doesn't seem to care much about "their parody of justice."

After retrieving the bandits' loot to bring back to Oleg, the explorers put their camp together a mile away from the brigand's camp, still under Kressle's taunts. Both prisoners have been tied up and placed inside the cart that has been found at the brigand's camp.

Pharast 2 — The group sets up guard turns at night but, in the morning, Iaurinn realizes to his horror, that his bonded amulet has disappeared. It is quickly found around Kressle's neck, despite her being tied up. She seems as confused as him but quickly takes it as another opportunity to laugh at the PCs incompetence. The gnomes suspect feys might be at play here and they leave gifts behind them, in the form of a few coins and some of the liquor they had found amongst the brigands' loot.

The PCs make their way back towards Oleg's during this cold day; the cart with the prisoners slows them down. It is an uneventful day and they set camp at the limit of the Narlmarches forest. In the middle of the night, Sempor has a pile of snow suddenly being dumped on him. He is confused and angry at the prank as the PCs hear the flapping of wings in the distance. Only a few minutes after that, though, things turn sour as Kressle and Happs have successfully freed themselves and are running away from the camp. As the PCs try to run after them, and/or shoot them down, the forest suddenly comes to life to entangle the two brigands as the ground becomes slippery (grease). The feys, if they really are feys, giggle lightly at having helped in recapturing the brigands, but remain invisible.

Stats
Largest amount of damage from a PC on an NPC, with a melee attack: 6 (Lilac vs. Kressle, longsword, smite evil)
Largest amount of damage from a PC on an NPC, with a ranged attack: 4 (Lilac vs. Kressle, light crossbow)
Largest amount of damage from a PC on an NPC, with a spell or effect: none
Largest amount of damage from an NPC on a PC, with a melee attack: 4 (Kressle vs. Lilac, mwk handaxe)
Largest amount of damage from an NPC on a PC, with a ranged attack: none
Largest amount of damage from a NPC on an PC, with a spell or effect: none

XP: 200

Coming straight from the entrance of Xotani's grave, after having dealt with the Jann captains, the Nightmares, and the Janissaries, the group was huddling under an invisibility sphere when they reached the ledge overlooking Xotani's skeleton. Jhavuhl was reveling in the lava lake below, amid tendrils of lava that seemed to writhe with their own life, and within the deafening sound of Xotani's heartbeat. He saw them right away, in spite of the invisibility sphere, roared before confidently raising in the air, asking them to bow to his power and wish him to transform into Xotani. Only then would he consider keeping alive. That was met by a flurry of activity and a call for initiative. Jhavhul rolled a 1, the beginning of a bad day, his last…

Sidi Sahab goes first, frantically taking his expensive scroll of summon monster IX (bought only hours before) from his belt. He starts incanting. Barham uses his wand of greater invisibility, just in case. Nadir (who had the time to imbibe a potion of fly as Jhavhul was mocking them) did what a true paladin of Sarenrae could only do: he charges the Huge efreeti, alone, calling on his goddess to smite the evil creature. He hits for about 60 points of damage. Jhavhul uses his boots of speed and then retaliate on poor Nadir who ends the round barely able flying. 120 damage points, Nadir can't take two of these. The tendrils of lava animate themselves, trying to grab the group that is near the edge. They fail. Taka quickly drinks a potion of fly.

Sidi Sahab summons an Ice Devil which appear over the lava lake, it charges Jhavhul for little damage. The sorcerer hastes everyone but Nadir and the Ice Devil, too far off. Barham releases a volley of 5 +2 fire outsider bane arrows forged by Artel, the azer smith of Kakishon. They fly true and four of them hit Jhavhul. That's another 70 damage points but Jhavhul has not lost half of his hp. He's still confident. Nadir lays on hand and then sacrifices himself for Kelmarane. He knows he won't survive the next series of blows from Jhavhul, but he stands his ground nevertheless and unleashes a full attack on the efreeti. His last one. Out of 4 attacks, 2 hits, including a critical hits…

Smite evil is insane: that's 77 (crit) + 46 damage points in a single round. Jhavhul is down to 27 hp. At this point, the players were getting suspicious: "It's too easy, there's a trick." No, there's no trick, your paladin has just almost slaughtered the end campaign BBEG! That's what paladins are for and they are really good at it! Not that I'm complaining, it's part of the game.

Panic sparks in Jhavhul's eyes. He knows he needs to drop this paladin now, or he won't have the opportunity to finish his ritual. He unleashes all he can on poor Nadir. Two attacks hit, Nadir reaches -23 and his body slowly floats down to the surface of the lava lake below, where he disappears, body and gear. "No, not the gear, that's unfair!" complains someone A worthy sacrifice. Jhavhul gets a couple of shots on the Ice Devil and quickens an invisibility. He needs to heal before it's too late. I had given him a few potions of cure serious wounds, and ruled that he had a scroll of heal (CL 12th), in his mansion. He was now going for that. Taka takes the round to remove the grapple from the lake's tendrils. Two Fire Giants come from the northern lava river, attracted by the noise.

Sidi Sahab can see the invisible Jhavuhl, thanks to a permanent true seeing. He strikes the flying genie with an elemental blast. Jhavuhl saves and his cold resistance absorbs it all. Much cursing ensues. The Ice Devil tries attaching the invisible Jhavuhl and fails. Barham shoots another 5 arrows on where Sidi Sahab tells him the efreeti is. Only one hit. Jhavuhl is now down to 15 hp… The lava tendrils can't grab anyone. Javhul drinks a potion of cure serious wounds and flies south as fast as he can, getting beyond Sidi Sahab's vision. The two Fire Giants move into position, around the ledge, and attack Taka. At this point, I had given the control of the giants to Nadir's player. The glee with which he attacked he former companions was very amusing, or disturbing, it depends. Taka retaliates by raging, power attacking and full attacking with his keen greatsword. The giant takes it. Two more giants appear.

Sidi Sahab tries to dominate a Fire Giant, fails. Barham focuses his attention on the direct danger and unleashes +1 fire arrows yes, I know but that or regular +1 arrows, it doesn't make much of a difference at a Fire Giant, who drops. He is still invisible though, so the giants focus on Taka, at the edge of the lava lake. The barbarian takes it, and then flies above the giants to go for Jhavhul, in spite of the attacks of opportunity. He takes more than 120 damage points during this round, bringing him down to negatives, which triggers a contingency heal (CL13th). Thank you Nefeshti… In the meantime Jhavhul reaches his mansion.

In the next rounds, Sidi Sahab transform into an air elemental to go fly south in pursuit of Jhavuhl, followed by Taka. The sorcerer finds the time to summon an Erinyes for her true seeing. At the same time, Barham fells another giant and severely wounds yet another one. Being invisible, the giants try to attack him but only get a few blows through. Sidi Sahab, Taka, the Ice Devil and the Erinyes reach the entrance of Jhavuhl's mansion. They don't want to go in they can't anyway and place the two devils in front of the shimmering entrance whilst they float above the lava river. Barham's invisibility wears out and the giants now know where to hit. He is in deep trouble, and drops within a round, he is at -7. His shadowdancer's shadow, come to help him, doesn't last a round either. Barham fails his Fortitude save and take a negative level. He is now at -12, with a Constitution of 14. Close… The giants head south after the invaders.

Jhavhul reappears from the mansion, partially healed and with 155 hp left. He throws a bead of force on the Ice Devil. The resilient sphere is easily avoided by the devil. Taka and Sidi Sahab see their chances of survival dwindling by the second. It's now or never. Taka, realizing that he will take an attack of opportunity if he attacks Jhavuhl uses his Strike Back feat to protect Sidi Sahab and waits for the efreeti to attack him. The Ice Devil now played by Barham's player attacks Jhavhul, and fumbles. The fumble deck says "dazed for 2 rounds". The situation becomes even more dire. The Erinyes can't do much against Jhavhul's high AC. Sidi Sahab unleashes all he has: chain lightning. Jhavul's save: 1… Much hooting and shouting ensues. He takes about 60 damage points. He then quickens a magic missiles. Jhavuhl is hurt but it will take more than that to drop him. He moves and attacks the barbarian, who strike back first. It's a duel of titans. Swords clash and damage is taken. For good measure, the efreeti lord also casts a quickens scorching ray on the poor Taka. More than half of it is absorbed by Taka's ring of fire resistance but it still stings.

Another round. The stalemate is not at the heroes' advantage. Sidi Sahab unleashes another chain lightning and a quickened magic missiles. Still not enough even though Jhavhul has taken more than 220 damage points overall, by now. Jhavhul goes for Taka, who fails his Strike Back. A full attack and Taka can barely withstand it. Full power attack with 4 hits, 164 damage points! The barbarian is at 1hp!!! Jhavuhl finishes his round with his last quickened scorching ray. Taka should drop but, thanks to his orc heritage, he is still standing, sustained by his rage, calling on willpower he never thought he had. He is at -17, staggered, using his orc ferocity.

It's the moment of truth: the fire giants have just joined the fray, Taka is almost dead, the sorcerer knows he won't last alone. It has to be now or this is the end of Kelmarane. It has to be now or he will never see the marid princess again. It has to be now or his companions all died for nothing. Sidi Sahab casts one of his last chain lightnings. Jhavuhl saves but takes damage and sees his end, if only he could stay alive for this round, now that his giant minions are here…. Jhavuhl is down to 5hp, which I reveal to the players… Sidi Sahab's players frantically grabs his d4s… A quicken magic missiles is Sidi's last chance and, unbelievably, in a final deafening roar, the efreeti lord finally decides to die, thereby ending the Legacy of Fire. Screaming, shouting and hooting around the table…

A fight worthy of the end of a 200h-long campaign. One PC died, heroically; one dropped two points away from death; one, although still standing, was within 7 points of his death. Only the sorcerer was still at more than 80 hp. But a sorcerer doesn't last long, alone… The whole fight looked like it was going to end in two rounds, after the paladin's critical hit but, fortunately, it lasted for a good 10 rounds and was extremely close, up to the last round. A moment that we will remember for a long time.