I'm rerunning this AP for a new party with great success.
One thing I wanted to share is the way I'm handling weather.
I've decided to model the region's climate after Dresden, Germany. A place I believe is geographically similar (when they go to the woods I show them pictures of the Black Forest) with weather that is not too harsh but gets cold enough in winter to have some snow.
Using this website: https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/germany/dresden/historic?month=1&ye ar=2016
I can simulate the weather day by day realistically by using the historic data.
Abandoned as an infant, he was raised by a priest of Sarenrae in a small town. The old priest taught him the precepts of his religion and a wealth of information acquired on his years of travels, Quzman learned general knowledge, languages and even use of the scimitar and how to survive in the hostile Quadiran desert.
After the old priest died of natural causes, Quzman found that knowing about distant lands wasn't enough, and set forth to experience it firsthand.
Being poor but talented, he got a spot helping a troupe of itinerant entertainers, from one of them he learned to draw arcane power from his performances.
Tired of touring Quadira, Quzman set forth to visit the northern Taldor. Taldorans mistrust his Kelish looks and mannerism, but his natural charm and his skill playing the Setar never fails to win at least some smiles.
Slowly making his way north, he lodged in the Silver Stoat in the small town of Haldren. The community reminds him of his childhood in Quadira, and tough he’s waiting for the appropriate opportunity to move on to Taldor’s capital, he is in no hurry to leave, as the locals enjoy his performances and his tales.
1. The adventure starts in the village of Heldren, a small village in Taldor just north of the Border Wood near Qadira. All characters should be residents of Heldren. Were you born there? Are you newly arrived?
I have been here a few weeks, this small village reminds me of the place where I grew up. I'm planning to move on to Taldor's capital, but I'm in no hurry, the people here are warm and seem to truly enjoy my stories.
2. If you're playing as a common race, how do you view other, rarer races? If you're playing as an uncommon race, how did you come to live among the common?
I follow the precepts of the Dawnflower, showing tolerance and patience towards creatures of all races that embrace peace, and the swift justice of the scimitar to those that only embrace evil.
3. What will your character contribute to the party in and out of battle?
I have travelled far, and heard stories from ever further. I offer my knowledge, as well as my ability to talk and understand people.
I'm also quite capable of defending myself and I have a few arcane tricks up my sleeve.
4. What goals/aspirations does your character have? These don't always need to be lofty or noble.
My wish is to travel, to visit distant lands and bring there my stories, and learn of theirs in turn.
Story:
Abandoned as an infant, he was raised by a priest of Sarenrae in a small town. The old priest taught him the precepts of his religion and a wealth of information acquired on his years of travels, Quzman learned general knowledge, languages and even use of the scimitar and how to survive in the hostile Quadiran desert.
After the old priest died of natural causes, Quzman found that knowing about distant lands wasn’t enough, and set forth to experience it firsthand.
Being poor but talented, he got a spot helping a troupe of itinerant entertainers, from one of them he learned to draw arcane power from his performances.
Tired of touring Quadira, Quzman set forth to visit the northern Taldor. Taldorans mistrust his Kelish looks and mannerism, but his natural charm and his skill playing the Setar never fails to win at least some smiles.
Slowly making his way north, he lodged in the Silver Stoat in the small town of Haldren. The community reminds him of his childhood in Quadira, and tough he’s waiting for the appropriate opportunity to move on to Taldor’s capital, he is in no hurry to leave, as the locals enjoy his performances and his tales.
I can get that it's a bit railorady, but my players played it for laughs. And all the quests and trials were interesting. Also between them there was some great interaction with the various barbarian tribes.
- The rivalry and respect with Krojun and his party
- Helping the moon maidens and partying with them after cleaning the temple, only to learn that one was niece to the truthsayer and having to marry one of them later.
- Getting the Mark of Desna (a colorful butterfly tatoo that appeared on the lower back of the ranger, he was pissed, everyone laughed at it)
- Dune-like taming of the Worm, with great cinematic action (the plan was to have it eat a globe-of-invulnerabilitied wizard gnome, who would dimension door out of it, but the idiot ranger shot it for a hundred hp and ended up getting swallowed. So the wizard made the worm swallow him, found the ranger, and dimension doored both of them out)
- Grueling test of resistance, holding the sun-totems (thanks to careful use of belts of strength, and switching damaged totems, everyone passed it BUT the barbarian, who rolled consecutive 1's)
- Epic final battle with gargolyes and red-mantises and cinderlander
I agree it's the weakest link so far on this AP, but I think we made it work.
Foreshadow
Give one quick read to the whole thing. The stories are very related and there are some great opportunities for foreshadowing.
Spoiler:
- Rolth: have wanted posters or rumours for a crazy necromancer or some corpse stealer
- Abadar Priest: Make the priest of Abadar befriend the party on the 1st adventure.
- Grau Soldado: Also
- Rumors and news of tension with the Shoan-ti
- Glorio Arkona: My players bumped into him on the market
- Raktvana Dagger: Make it seem magicaly but misterious. The player that finds it keeps finding it out amongst his gear, even if thrown away. Spooked the party
- Pilts Swatsel: He tried to hire one of the PCs to perform some VERY deviant and kinky acts on stage for his theater.
- Salvatore Scream: Mention him amongst the nobles as an extraordinary new artist.
and any other you can think about...
Read up on the city
Spoiler:
You'll spend more than half of the AP on this city, it's also very well done with lot's of interesting places and people. Give your players the run of it, sandbox style. Specially between missions on the first adventure.
They should get to know the Shingles, how dangerous old korvosa is, some of the nobles (the one that gets their house turned into a zombie masque ball on the second adv.). The acadamae and some of their students. The Sable company, the Palace... etc.
You have great material and space between missions/adventures to make it a MEMORABLE city.
The Queen
Spoiler:
Try to REALLY sell the Queen as a victim, and make the heores try to help her and become her saviours. She can easily fool the party with magic and skill (dont' let a bad die roll give her up, just change the result). Having the party get attached to the beautiful charismatic Queen, and then start doubting her intentions and finally realizing she IS the Big Bad and they are on her sh*t list was one of the high points of the first 2 Adv for me
BlackJack
Spoiler:
The Blackjack subplot is GREAT. If you have any swashbuckler characters you should try to get Vencarlo close to them, maybe offer fencing lessons (they have a temporary +1 to attack on the week they take lessons, or they gain a feat with limited uses per day or any other custom, not very unbalanced perk)
The party should hear rumors about Blackjack.
Vencarlo is too obvious candidate for Blackjack, but there is something you can do for this:
Description: Describe Blackjack as tall and long of limbs, and Vencarlo as shorter and more powerfully built, or vice-versa. In my game, part of the Blackjack gear is an enchanted cowl that works as a hat of disguise giving the owner the physical appeareance and voice of "Blackjack"
The arm: In my game, vencarlo is missing half of one of his arms from wounds of his duel with Grau. He hasn't cured it yet, but he has a magic prosthesis that he uses as Blackjack. This really threw my party of his lead.
Sighting: Have teh players see "a misterious dark figure jumping from roof to roof" while on the presence of Vencarlo (who smiles cryptically) or immediately after/before seeing him.
You don't have to say it's Blackjack, as its not (its just a common thief escaping with loot), but it will lead the party to believe they saw the misterious Hero.
This way I managed to keep them guessing about Blackjacks identity until they found the uniform at Vencarlo's on book 3. They were sure that he was one of Vencarlo's students, so flesh them up a little if they reach the academy
Ah, also when at the floating casino, the players got offered to play a gambling card game, where they have to add 21, called "Batman", that cracked everyone up.
The Harrow Deck
Truly a great prop, specially on the first adventures. Buy one deck and learn how to use it.
Spoiler:
You can do amazing feats with a preared reading and a little legerdemains, just pre-stack the cards and "shuffle" them in a way that some of the cards you want are sure to come up. Then give a spookily accurate reading of the players past and present and future.
(practice some card tricks)
HQ
Headcuarters. The butchery is a great place for the PCs to set up a base of operations in the city.
The NPCs
Lot's of opportunity for social and romantic involvement with the PCs, that really ties them to the city.
That's it for now. Let me know if it's useful for you, and any questions about how my CotCT went are welcome.
This campaign has worked GREAT for my group. We've had awesome moments in all of the modules.
Spoiler:
Yes, even when leaving the city the party took great to exploration and doing the whole shoan-ti scavenger hunt. Taming a giant worm dune-style and getting named honorary barbarians (and marrying one by mistake)
We've just finished scarwall and it went pretty well. The castle had them scared all the time at the beggining, until they cleared a few Anchors. It was great having them jump at noises and do ominous die-rolling, they would never know if it was a shambling lonely zombie or an unspeakable horror. A high point when they started literally hammering (earthbreaker barbarian) the barred door to the Donjon until the sound woke up the dragon.
The haunted house on RotR and the theatre play in CoT were also amazing.
Sounds great Tensility, in fact, the guy who will be playing the swordsage is a consummate min/maxer and is playing THAT exact build in my real life CotCT campaign.
Sorry guys, but my experience running PbP is limited and I don't believe I'll be able to handle 6 or 7 players. If any of the first ones drops out, then you can step in first come first served.
Ok, so the sword sage is in.....
Tensility, do you want to still go for a fighter or change? I don't think that having two front line fighters will be bad for the party.
Bacchreus: There are still plenty of classes to go. I see little healing so a cleric would be nice. If you want I think there is a cleric variant that forsakes domains powers in exchange for a fighter attack bonus taht would allow you to play a holy fighter type... but of course, a cleric is not a pary necessity, so you can take any role still unclaimed or that people have as second choice.
Great, so this is as much people as I think I can confortably handle. I'm saving the spot for my real life player, today we'll decide on the swordsage. The standings are:
Tensility: Fighter or Arcanist
Dax: Draconic Sorcerer or Cleric
Gryphon: Rogue or Wizard
Bachreus: Decision is still pending on accepting paladins. I think they are insanely overpowered unless they are played 100% LG and with paladin code, and then they can spoil a groups flexiblity.
So, the debate would be:
Allowing the Swordsage
Allowing the Paladin
What does the group think?
I've never DM'd a sworsage but my Rise of The Runelords RL campaign has a pally and I'll tell you.... he's insanely powerful.
Great, we have a fighter then..
Rules would be Pathfinder indeed. Since I stumbled upon the Adventure Paths and remembered how much I enjoyed directing paizo's Shackled City I've been a fan of the system. I was dissapointed by 4th edition and had managed to turn all my real life players into GURPS fans when the Beta test revived our love for D&D.
Anyway, I'm open to other sources of material also. I didn't allow it for any of my other 2 AP games, but a long time player asked to join playing a "Sword Sage" I'm still pondering the possibility as I've heard its a class that's VERY easy to abuse... but I thinl I'll allow it.
By the way, I'm getting today the Second Darkness players guide and if you don't have it I can fill you in on any background requirements.
I've directed quite a few campaigns in real life, currently going through the second Adventure Path (CotCT) and finding it really fun. Having recently started a dissapointingly slow play by post game as a player, I tought of starting my own and trying to keep a faster pace.
For this I'd need 3 to 5 volunteers who are willing to check the boards daily or at most skip a day (posting may wane on weekends).
I must warn you all that I've never participated in a succesful PbP campaign, as a player or as a DM. They all seem to die for lack of interest.
As soon as I get my hands on the SD players guide I'll post guidelines for character creation, but I'm thinking on making it 20pt buy and NO EVIL CHARACTERS. These AP are usually made for heroic characters and selfish destructivly evil chars usually take a lot of work to handle.
One feature I liked about this AP are the beautifully tought and designed castles.
I'm talking about Castle Korvosa and Castle Scarwall.
It's a shame that I can't find a good rendering to give my players a perspective of such wonderful buildings.
Has anyone tried making a good representation based on the detailed floorplans? I've tried, by software and by hand but my desing skills are lacking with both mediums.
Isn't there any architects or 3D designers that have drawn this?
All my players beign acomplished min-maxers, and after a week without any playing, they all have their characters planned to the last feat.
What filled me with dread is that this time they are planning to use EVIL characters. I mean, the good or neutral ones they used for the last campaign were already quite a menace... this time, all southern Varisia is in danger!.
Let them be warned, that if they start to spread to much mayhem, an anvil will fall on their head.
The lineup is>
Kaze Hawkeye: Male Elf Fighter. A cold blooded assasin, specialist in archery and will dip into Transmuter before taking Arcane Archer. Will always surprise you with the ridiculous amount of damage he can deal for his level and the most game-breaking out-of-the-box strategies.
Uchia, Tenchi: Male half-elf Druid - The most dangerous one. This sociopath wont stop at nothing to get what he wants and is prone to hurt any innocent he comes accross just for spite. His character is also very evil. He loves sending his tiger into a fight and dreams of the time he'll be able to morph into a huge elemental and stack his stat with ability boosting magic
Ooro - Male Dwarf Monk: A drunken and smelly beardless dwarf, with an evil temper and no morals whatsoever.
Arwen: - Female Drow Bard: The most reasonable character, no one in korvosa has ever seen a drow, so, even if a little conspicuous she is not beign lynched by a mob on sight.
Well, there isn't much movement in this boards about the second a.path.
My players thoroughly enjoyed Rise of the Runelords, in fact they are finishing the last adventure, but while one of them is on vacation we'll be starting on crimson throne meanwhile
Don't forget the horrendous ability to transfer the smite power to everyone at high levels.
Now when it comes to the final fight ALL my party is smiting the bad guys.
The critical focus feat tree gives plenty of cool options, but I have a question:
What happens when you hit a creature that is immune to criticals or has fortification? Do the "negate critical" effect cover more than the extra damage?
What about the burst weapons?
I specifically have a sword that applies to targets a petrify effect on a critical hit.... how does it work?
Terrifying Howl (Ex): The barbarian unleashes a terrifying howl as a standard action. All shaken enemies within 30 feet must make a Will save (DC equal to 10 + 1/2 the barbarian's level + the barbarian's Strength modifier) or be panicked for 1d4+1 rounds. Once an enemy has made a save versus terrifying howl (successful or not), it is immune to this power for 24 hours. A barbarian must have the intimidating glare rage power to select this rage power. A barbarian must be at least 8th level before selecting this power.
What happens to enemies that are not shaken when the barbarian howls? Nothing? Do they also panic?
What I would like to know is if you have an updated and buffed Karzourgh. My players have been able to handle most of what I've been throwing at them so I want a really memorable and tough fight.
Your notes were a BIG help and spiced things up nicely
I stand corrected. I could've sworn I saw Empowered Maximized Enervation somewhere...
You were right, I posted it when I reported my damned players using the same tactic to subdue mokmurian. But that was because I didn't remember correctly. They can only empower it for now.
It's a d4 of negative levels per round, so it'd be at least 3 rounds (and, therefore, three level 4 spell slots available or item charges expended) if all the ranged touches hit and the opponent had no spell resistance.
He mentioned earlier in the thread that it was an Empowered Maximized Enervation + an Empowered Enervation. So two rounds. (Although to be fair, Empowered Maximized Enervation requires a 9th level slot, unless there's a Sudden Maximize feat or a rod of Maximize being used somewhere.)
The target was a single white dragon, you-know-who and when.
It was hit by an EMPOWERED drain from the sorceress (who rolled a 4)
and then a wand used by the rogue, rolling a 3.
The next round another 4 from the sorceress.
Some options I had come up with were:
- A trip to the excelent City of Brass of Nec.games
- A trip to Hell, where the pit fiend they released from the Skull crossing dam may play a major role
- A trip to Sigil
- A trip in time to the long winter after earthfall or to the thasilonic empire itself.
All be warned of the power of ENERVATION.
My players have found out that level draining a foe until he has a -10 to his saves (about 2 or 3 rounds) and then casting Hold Monster or Hideous Laughter of some other stupid stuff is a VERY effective strategy.
Foes need some protection against this.
- Spell Immunity
- Death Ward
Your upgrades proved to be very necessary for my min/maxed players. They doubted me when NOTHING could hit Mokmurian and they even argued that it was not possible until I showed them a comprehensive list of buffs that skyrocketed his AC up to 40 (I added a +2 natural armor amulet). Still the sorceress with a 17 roll on the die JUST saved against petrification and hit him with an empowered maximized enervation and an empowered one draining 10 levels. After that they managed to kill them, but it really made them sweat.
An advice would be to include preparations for a ninja squad attack like the one attempted by my group. The rogue was polymorphed into a tiny mouse, so he didn't set the alarm traps, then made invisible and with mindblank inmune to detection by see invisibility. Still I said that Mokmurian was scrying on them since before, so he was still buffed.
I'm running this adventure for my group with great success. We are at the 5th module and having great fun.
Of course reading in this forums helped me avoid some of the pitfalls that stalled other campaigns.
The thing is... my players would LOVE to play up to level 20, maybe beyond (I've been wanting to run the uber-epic adventure Quicksilver Hourglass since I got the magazine, but levelling them up to lvl 30 is a bit of a stretch).
So, has anybody thought a way of continuing the campaign, if possible to patch in another published Dungeon mag adventure?
This idea has been running through my mind and I will have to prepare something..
I modified the rooftop map to have a little more room, and the silence spell didn't cover the initial part of the scaffolding (the wizard stayed there). As for dropping it, I don't remember if I did that or the cleric got out of range to cast the dispel. I remember that I dropped the effect to cast the empowered scorching ray at the sorceress.
Hey, I ran the Stone giant attack on sandpoint as you upgraded it, but I ALSO made Longtooth advance by one age category.
* The players are of sufficient level to be able to cast Raise dead
* It isn't necessary that the players stop the raid completely
* The dragon doesn't need to fight to the death
As it happens.. the players KILLED the frickin' dragon and stopped the whole raid!!!
My group had a tough scare but no deaths.
Before climbing to the roof they heal themselves full with a magic wand and cast every available buff.. they suspect that the boss is at the top of the tower.
They climb up the scaffolding and see the major image demon Xanesha casted as a diversion, the cleric opens with a targeted dispel magic that only dispels the image.
Xanesha attacks the cleric with her petrifying gaze. A certain death if it hits, but the cleric makes the save, then rushes her and attacks rolling a 32, his confidence wavers when I tell him "you miss". Then the paladin strikes her and does only one hit for a decent damage but she full attacks him and drops 3/4 of his Hp. She also finds herself on a zone of silence, but the sorceress keeps a safe distance
The sorcerer casts a maximized magic missile that bounces on her Shield and she gets an Empowered Scorching ray as an answer. She drops the silence spell as the main caster is staying away anyway.
They are really scared by this time but they press on. The paladin presses on swift heals himself (the Pathfinder paladin can take insane amounts of damage) and recieves a very hard full attack that could have dropped him to negatives, also the sorceress gets a quickened magic missile salvo.
The sorceress maximized scorching ray bounces against SR but the cleric lucks out with a targeted dispell and debuffs the poor lamia.
A much-easier-to-hit Xanesha is victim of a couple of sneaks attacks by the rogue and slashes by the cleric. The paladin smites her for a lot of damage and even the sorceress gets lucky with an empowered ray of enfeeblement dropping like 10 STR points.
The tide is turned so Xanesha turns to flying and exchanges a couple of ranged attacks with the party before fleeing.
Neither side knew that the paladin had only 5Hp left, the Sorceress around 10Hp and Xanesha left alive only because the dispel magic didn't dispel her sihedron medallion false life.
CONCLUSION> I played a wholly buffed Xanesha, I used her metamagic feats to improve the effects of her spells and even then the party surivived whole.
Dragonfire> So many attempts to kill my players.... I figured, they are a very tough crew, but I still want to score me some deaths, so not only I upped the enemies using Joey's priceless recommendations, but I also raised Longtooth one full age category (young adult red dragon).
While the whole party was entretained, the rogue using fly and improved invisibility took on the dragon. That the dragon had used see invisibility was a nasty surprise, and I was booed and accused of metagaming, but one of our rules lawyers defended me, saying it's a cheap and very common buff.
The rogue hit the dragon for a measly 5hp, while the dragon critted him on a bite for 45hp, leaving him 20hp from death. The cleric dispelled the see invisibility and the dragon was subject to a couple of full sneak attacks for a LOT of damage. Couple it with some hits from the sorceress and he was stripped of half his Hp on a couple of rounds. The annoying flying rogue reflexed his way out of a fire brath that would have roasted and then the sorceress got lucky on her second attempt at a hold monster and froze the dragon. The rogue closed in for the kill and latched to the beasts neck. The next round was decisive.. a roll of 7 or more meant the dragon would shake free of the spell and eat the already hurt rogue....
OF course I made an open roll, thinking of scoring me a good PC death... until it stopped showing a cursed "2" on the topmost face. My dragon could only watch helplessly as he was finished by a measly 1.2m tall rogue with a tiny sword.
Magic CPR> The paladin was fending off 3 stone giants and in a round of full attacks -one of them a crit- they reduced him to canned beef. Luckily the cleric tought fast and used his recently prepared Breath of Life to snatch him from the reaper.
Hookmaw appears> The -now quite powerful- party wasn’t having a very hard time with this adventure... they managed to sneak past most of the Ogres (with an appallingly low perception check, they never even had a chance) and into the top floor of Fort Rannick. They started from the dungeons and their confidence was high after easily overcoming Lucrecia
- This is too easy (commented the sorceress) after killing a couple of regular ogres.
After that, hookmaw opens a door to her left and hits her with all his might, rolling a 20. I rolled the damage first for suspense, the hit was a 36hp hit. If the crit confirmed, that meant 108hp and bye-bye sorceress. The ogre only needed a 12 to confirm, and on an open roll it rolled.... 11!.
Enter pappa Kreeg> In the middle of a tough fight with Dorella Kreeg and Hookmaw, the ogre leader bursts through the chapel door into the corridor on the back of the players. It promptly shreds to pieces the celestial dire wolf summoned by the cleric. The paladin attacks him for some respectable damage, but having a HUMAN BANE ogre hook, the brute hits him back dropping him to negatives (barely) after the usual maximized ray of enfeeblement and some coordinated attacks they manage to drop him, retaking the Fort.
You rat bastard!> At hook mountains, one of the first moves of the hag coven after beign attacked is a BALEFUL polymorf on the rogue, he gets turned into a RAT, but barely makes the will save to conserve his mind and we found no rule preventing him to use the sneak attack as a rodent, so he bited to death one of the hags. Later the ghost nymph restored him.
Deal with the Devil> The cleric promised the imprisoned Pit Fiend on skull Dam a swift death after winter, so he would have a couple of months to make peace with himself. The rogue used that time to go alone and deal with him.
They made a contract, where the fiend promised to deliver 50.000gp in silver ingots to the rogue, then leave the material plane for 100 years and not harm him or the party, directly or through minions ever..
The guy should have smelled a fish when the devil insisted to use SILVER and not gold.
They both sign the pact. The rogue breaks the circle and the freed devil says: "Your silver, as promised" and then banishes as the room goes dark.
After turning a light, the rogue finds that the corridor that lead to the chamber is COMPLETELY blocked with silver ingots. I thought I had him, but he REALLY had a "ring of sustenance" that kept him alive trough the arduous task of chipping his way out of a silver brick wall with a short sword. Also the cleric came 2 months later and helped him... hilarious.
Foxglove Manor>
The rogue failed his will save and tried to kill himself with a dagger. He was very lucky on the damage roll so the Fortitude check to stay alive was only 17, he made it barely. A while later he failed against another haunt and hurled himself through the window, but saved the reflex to grab onto the roof.
Travel to magnimar> (hilarious double-double crossing)
The party split for this travel (some players missed the session) and the rogue went alone with a caravan, but one criminal from sandpoint secretely hired the evil rogue to murder one merchand lord who travelled on a personal wagon with his fighter bodyguard.
The caravan is ambushed by robbers and the rogue slays the leader in single combat. After that the guards promt him to go check that the Lord mechant is safe. When he arrives, he finds the bodyguard fending off two robbers. As there are no live caravan guards on sight, he SNEAKS ATTACK the bodyguard (flanked by the robber), but he fails miserably and the bodyguard hits him reflexively. The guy attempts a BLUFF check to say that he didn't recognize the bodyguard and makes a VERY good check, so the bodyguard buys it and they fight the robbers.
The bodyguard kills one robber, and the rogue shouts that he will check the Lord is safe. He opens the caravan and the lord is there, so he attacks him and hits him, but rolls two 1's and hurts it for only 5 points, then attempts again the "I'm sorry, my mistake" bluff, but the Lord rolls a 20 and shouts for his bodyguard from help.
The bodyguard smashes our rogue over the head with his mace, but the remaining robber hurts the bodyguard. So the rogue turns around and uses the robber flanking to sneak attack and kill the bodyguard, but then with a very good roll, the Lord Merchant sinks a dagger on the rogues back. Raging mad, the rogue turns around and slashes the lord with his twin shortswords, rolling two d20 dice at the same time and rolls... TWO ONES. A 1 in 400 chance....
Then the robber sneak attacks our rogue (flanking with the Lord), dropping him to negative HP.
When he regain consiousness, the surviving caravan guards cure him and tell him that thanks to him killing the leader they routed the robbers, but even tough he OBIOUSLY fought almost to death to prevent it, they killed the Lord and his bodyguard before leaving.
foxglove impostor>
The cleric enters foxglove townhouse disguised as FOXGLOVE, in company of the sorceress. When they enter the manor they hear sound in the kitchen, and they open it to find a shocked IESHA who stares at TWO Foxgloves, they both start asking "who is this" when suddenly a shapeless humanoid monster appears to attack. My players automatically move between the "NPCs" and the monster and are VERY surprised when Iesha and Foxglove also shift and sneak attack them. The cleric was dropped to 8hp, but he grabbed the sorceress and using his Cheesy domain power teleports himself right outside the room, slams the door closed and casts stone shaping to meld the floor into the door. That gives him a couple of rounds to heal and, backs against the wall manage to defeat the shapeshifters.
Clocktower mayhem>
The Scarecrow was well hidden on the base's debris the paladin goes prodding with his sword and finds a huge golem that almost splits him in two with the scythe, after that the kill him easily
The falling bell>
It attacked the sorceress and, of course, the paladin. The sorceress ducked, but the paladin got smashed flat against the wall and just barely saved for reflex and held onto the stair (the fall would have finished him).
The bell rafters> A fight balanced on tight wood beams against two rogue shapeless stalkers... they ate a lot of sneak attacks there, and the rogue fell unconsious onto the bell below. I gave him 50/50 chances of rolling left and falling on the stairs or right and falling 150ft to his death. Coin flip and he fell on the stairs to everyone's relief.
Dreaded Xanesha>
It scared them to hell, I'll tell you. They opened with a dispel magic, misdirected at the demon image she had casted. The cleric saved against petrification (an almost certain death) and charged. He attacked for 31 and was confidently rolling for damage before processing my smiling "you miss" answer. The smile dropped from his face and they all started worrying. An empowered scorching ray from the sorceress bounced harmlessly against her SR, the paladin hurt her a little with his smite but she skewered him for 3/4 his Hp on the next attack. They were almost certainly doomed when the cleric (stocked with scrolls) managed to dispel most of her defenses and the sorcerer got through with an empowered ray of enfeeblement. A much less powerful Xanesha was pummeled within 3 Hp (really) of dying before she managed to escape.
Taking a page from some story hour I read, I left clues for her "hit" on the mayor so they ambushed her later and killed her
Catacombs of wrath> The Vargouille paralyzed the paladin and the rogue, then with an OPEN die roll I decided who it would kiss. It was the paladin, who saved succesfully, the rogue with a save 5 points lower would have been in trouble.
Thistletop bridge> Sensing a trap, the heavy paladin strapped a long rope on his waist before crossing the bridge on Thisletop, as he was the third to go, the bridge promptly collapsed. I allowed him a reflex save and he grabbed onto the bridge. Beign tied to the other side, I allowed him one big STR check each round to hold the whole bridge until the rogue tied a rope to the other side and the sorceress came and tied him at the waist. After two successful DC20 str checks, he let go and ends up tied on the middle. A 50' rope strapping him to the start and a 15' rope to the end. He cut the 50' rope and only smashed his face on the cliffside. But he may have saved the rest of the guys from a nasty fall to the sea.
Under thistletop> The fighter and the wizard bodyguards were ambushed on the same room. The paladin uses to "detect evil" through the door before the party smashes and enters, but in front of him was only the fighter, who was neutral. Of course the party wins initiative and the rogue runs fast to try and sneak attack him, but the ready wizard magic missiles him from the corner and he fails to hit the high AC of the READY fighter, who almost kills him with his bastard sword.
Lower level> The twin Karzoug statues stand on each side of the corridor. For no reason at all, the cleric decides to jump the space between them. The rest of the party walks. The statues almost make mincemeat of the paladin and he doesn't fall to the pit because the rogue saves a reflex check to grab him
Deadly Barghest> A very lucky search check from the rogue revealed the hidden door and they made it into the barghest chamber.
The fight was really brutal, my party WOULDNT quit even if I was shredding them to pieces. The barghest was slowly worn down and dealing damage equally to all present. When my almost dead, potion empty players sounded the retreat. When they turned around they saw a raging mad creature trapped by an invisible barrier. With a wicked smile they rained projectiles and spells on the unfortunate beast who collapsed dead.
My group and I are greatly enjoying this marvelous AP, and we are halfway through. I wanted to post a thread to enjoy some memorable and almost lethal moments. I personally consider a success when the players ALMOST die and surivie just barely through determination or luck.
This stuff is great! Beign a lazy DM without much time, I picked up the A.Path and been running with the Pathfinder Beta rules. My group loves it and it's very easy to tweak and run.
The problem is, that my group being formed by accomplished munchkins, they are starting to find the encounters very easy.
Using your modifications I scared the hell out of them and ALMOST killed a couple of PC (great session).
I've heard that you have a word version and I'd really appreciate if you could mail it to me at pab(dot)martinez(at)gmail(dot)com
I know I can get the info from this excellent thread but I'd like to have the most up-to-date version.
Also, very interested in continuing the campaign through level 20...
The campfire's embers crackled, spitting sparks into the night. She poked at a log with a stick, watching as the orange glow reflected in her eyes. The road was quiet, just a dark line stretching out in either direction.
It was in these quiet moments that the world seemed to shrink to just this small patch of light. The familiar weight of her mithral armor felt different here, less a suit of protection and more a second skin she wore for comfort. She ran a hand over the hilt of her blade, a habit she'd developed long ago. The cool metal was a steadying presence. She wasn't a stranger to herself when she sat here; she was Tessaria Moondown, a half-elf with a sword and a handful of spells, watching the fire die down.
A lone owl hooted from a distant tree, its call echoing through the darkness. She looked up at the stars, a blanket of silver dust against the black. She was just a small part of a larger, epic story, yet in this moment, under this vast sky, the only story that mattered was her own. She sighed, a wisp of breath in the cool night air, and soaked in the peace of the wilderness.
New land has been found, untapped and unexplored. The grand nation of Taldor wants a return to their shining days of exploration. But Empress Eutropia has decided to take a different approach from the Armies of Exploration of old: Use adventurers.
Establishing the Cartographer's Guild as an arm of her government, she put out a call for brave individuals to sail and explore the far away land. The mission is travel this new land, chronicling and mapping out a new world. And because of the distance from the Inner Sea region, it's only the most desperate, the most brave, and the most idiotic who sign up.
Really, there's not a lot of people. It's not been the success she has hoped for.
So now this new and unexplored land has slid from the empress' attention. But that hasn't stopped the slow trickle of adventurers, who hop aboard a boat to explore this new land. Who knows what they'll do?
You are 1st-level adventurers who traveled by boat for over a month to a new continent, and have just arrived in New Ridonport, a small but fortified village where the Cartographer's Guild originally set up. There are basic amenities, but you know that surviving in the wilderness will be very important.
Headquarters for you is an inn called The Broken Sling. The patrons are a smattering of locals, and any adventurers that have made the trip. Bells & Whistles is a general goods store run by Bellis, an absentminded man who outfit teams. The mayor, Kaleb Ashrun, collects reports of each adventurer's findings shares what's learned to each group that goes out into the wilds. He genuinely wants them to succeed… because he's afraid he'll lose his job.
You'll travel the land via hexploration. Most adventurers have met grizzly deaths or fled back to the Inner Sea. The land is very dangerous. There are many rumours of roving goblin bands, giant spiders, and fantastic beasts. One or two groups did uncover old ruins though, hinting at the potential of treasure. The question is: will you survive long enough to find it?
The tribe arrives in Iceferry, a district of Kalsgard located on the northern banks of the Rimeflow River. Kalsgard is the de facto capital of the Lands of the Linnorm Kings located on the opposite, namely southern, bank of the Rimeflow. Iceferry is where many of the gnomes of Kalsgard live, who like to think of Iceferry as more of an independent township.
The trip has been a long sea voyage, one with a starting goal of meeting with Venture Captain Bjersig Torrsen. As a group you make your way towards the Pathfinder Lodge.
Please take a moment to introduce your PC IC as you walk through the small town.
Based on a tweet made by John Compton that discussed/encouraged writing reviews for products, I took the liberty of examining the user experience in submitting a review.
My reason for this is because, as a regular user of the website, I've noted some... well, I can only call it odd behavior. It seemed to me that this user experience might directly impact a persons desire to submit a review. If it's easy and painless, people will generally feel okay to submit reviews. But if it's even a little bit off-putting I would expect that someone would just not bother.
My conclusion? I found the process clunky. Here's the step by step on my process:
Step 1) Navigate to paizo.com. No problem :)
Step 2) Search for a scenario using the top search bar. Since I'd recently run The Lion's Justice, I searched for it.
Step 3) I get search results. Sort of. The first thing I see are all the filters I can apply to the results, and they take up a significant amount of screen real estate (my screen resolution is 1920x1080, so I know it's not that). This is odd because I very rarely even need these filters. A better approach would be to have them on the left-hand side of the screen, or have them collapsed/hidden. This way the search results show near the top of the screen, where a user expects to look. I had to actually scroll down to see the link for the scenario. Anyhow, I then click the link for The Lion's Justice.
Step 4) The product page for the scenario loads, but I am again given a strange starting place. Instead of the page loading at the top, showing the scenario name and synopsis, it loads mid-way down the page at the Product Discussion section. This is probably one of the least pertinent places for a user to start at. Not only that, but I don't actually see anything at this point that tells me I'm at the right page. I need to scroll up first. Once I verify that I am at the right page though, I click on the Product Reviews tab.
Step 5) Ok, time to write a review. I go looking a button. None at the top of the reviews. None at the bottom of the reviews. Maybe I need to be logged in? I login to my account and navigate back. Still no "Write a Review" button. I'm about to give up, because this shouldn't be hard but I don't. I ask a buddy of mine, and he tells me there's a "Write a Review" hyperlink embedded in a sentence. I'm at first embarrassed because I missed it, but... why isn't this a more prominent button? If you want to encourage people to submit reviews, you want this to stand out. Embedding it as a hyperlink in text is subtle. In my mind there ought to be a big button at the bottom of the page as well, especially because if someone takes the time to look at the reviews, it's possible that they'd be willing to submit one too. In any case, I click on the hyperlink.
Step 6) The page for writing a review appears. This is simple and straightforward, which is nice. I quickly write up a review and give it a rating.
This was my first product review, and I want to reiterate that the process to do this was just difficult enough that I felt disinclined to write it. You might feel that this is a harsh assessment. If so, I'm sorry. But I do feel that if you want to increase the number of reviews (a metric people look at when buying products) that it's incredibly important to make that process as simple as possible. The user experience for me did not reflect that.
TL;DR - Search results show huge list of often unnecessary filters. Product page loads mid-way down unhelpfully. Write a Review hyperlink on product page is hard to spot. These three things make writing reviews clunky for a first time reviewer.
