I (badly) sang these after jotting them down to provide a little extra pirate-sauce to our game and give some legends/foreshadowing for future encounters or events. Thar may be spoilers here... I'll never tell.
A couple more shanties to add to the Shackles:
Voices in the Waves (Sugar in the Hold)
I wish I was in Maidenspool, living in my fine stone house
But I'm hear-ing voices in the waves below,
Below, below, below
Chorus:
Hey, ho, below, below
Hear those voices in the waves below
Hey, ho, below, below
Hear those voices in the waves below
Bradesmar Wache had a mighty boast
Drenchport soon will be a ghost
But the Master of Gales called the wind to blow
Hear those voices in the waves below
(Chorus)
Locatha came up from the bay
Maidenspool won’t be the same
They drowned Wache’s Sunburst as their pay
And her voice is in the waves below
(Chorus)
Now Wache shouts out in into the wind
The Master must pay for his sin
And he cries out, "Ten diamonds for his skin"
Hear those voices in the waves below
Damned if it Didn’t Rain (Rollin Down to Old Maui)
When Sargava came to the Hurricane
We Pirates said we’d go
And we gave no damn when the Chels showed up
With their devils and crossbows
For freedom blood was spilled in a flood
And the Chels we killed and maimed
And though didn’t-give-a-damn when we drank our rum,
We were damned if it didn’t rain
(Chorus)
Damned if it didn’t rain, me boys
We were damned if it didn’t rain
And though we didn’t-give-a-damn when we drank our rum,
We were Damned if it didn’t rain
When Norgorber came to to his Priestess Main
Aiger stole Black.finger’s kiss
Captain Tevenida, known to murder men,
And make the Chelish piss,
She climbed the To-wer Black, A trap
While wielding magic blade
She never left The Black Tower’s cleft
We were damned if it didn’t rain
(Chorus)
The Cutlass Lass was a ship so fast,
It could fly right through the Eye
But a dragon beast, covered shells and teeth
Pursued her for her prize
She broke off sweet and through steam and sleet,
The Cutlass Lass made sail,
Hirgenzosk Caught her with his breath
A flaming blazing gale
(Chorus)
When Endymion was a Chelish Son,
And His wife a Chelish whore
He found her swoon In the bed of a Thrune,
And against him Vengeance swore
Now the Devil’s Own call the Shackles home
And Arronax calls us mates
When he sailed to town, Chelish upside down
And across it ol’ Crossbones
(Chorus)
And though we didn’t-give-a-damn when we drank our rum,
We’re Damned if it didn’t rain
And though we don’t give a damn when we drink our rum,
We’re Damned if it didn’t rain
Ancient Grognard here. I consume RPG content all week, for a huge chunk of every day. When I'm not crafting terrain, painting minis, prepping for one of my two weekly sessions or writing/planning/creating content for them, I'm consuming other people's content for inspiration and lulz.
Wot we like:
I won't list every single podcast or stream I listen to or have listened to, because the litany is real. Just some relevant choices.
I've been an avid GCP fan since around episode four, when I first heard them. Of course, I think they would be a billion times better if Mr. Mona would just stop fooling around with publishing and actually join the cast permanently.
I listen to a fun little podcast called "Swiss Army Scorpion" that is goofing their way through Skull and Shackles and a love it. And I don't know why. They're not professional voice actors, they're just nerds like most of us, but they do a great job. They're also very silly.
I listen to Gathering of the Ages who are currently in Carrion Crown and, like Swiss Army Scorpion they're mostly just nerds and family. It's pretty fun to listen to other people with dedication and energy play a game you love.
What we think:
But Critical Role? Thursday is always an event for me and my daughter. I almost always make pasta from scratch and then we watch until we have to go to bed (it's a bit late here). Critical Role is amazing because the (as Matt Colville puts it) 'Professionally Charming People' that play have an honest passion for the game and are really damn professionally charming. They could be playing nearly anything and be captivating (and they do, sometimes...) But they play 5e. So we love watching them play and we love mocking the 'baby rules' of fifth edition. Of course, we're only joking. We enjoy a good game of Dread, Fiasco, Monsterhearts or Urban Shadows as much as they next person. 5e is fine. It's just not the game we love to play for 8-16 hours a week.
I have enjoyed Oblivion Oath in the same way... Maybe a little more - that I enjoy Gathering of the Ages and Swiss Army Scorpion. Some darn good storytelling and people who are passionate about the game (or at least about the session ;) )
However, and meant as no slight to the Oblivion Oath team (whom I have honest affection for, especially Sara who is constantly channeling positive energy around here) they are not professionally charming people.
Matt Mercer is a supernova for 5e because he happens to love D&D in any incarnation AND is a talented voice actor and creative person. Couple that with a fairly largish group of other talented creatives and viola. It's not a complicated recipe, it just has very rare ingredients.
I have lived through edition wars of various roleplaying games, starting with AD&D.
I have no intention of investing in second edition. Not because I care anything about the system.
We'll keep on playing 1e because we have 10+ years of Adventure Paths for our two weekly groups to play through, and thousands of dollars invested in the campaign setting and rules for 1e. I'll be in my late 50s by the time we finish existing APs (and I am interested in running every single one of them) and since we have all the campaign setting books, the fun doesn't even end there.
I have liked most of and loved many of these stories. I have run out of new ones to read and have started on the ones that didn't interest me much at first.
My most recent and most favorite are Death's Heretic and the Redemption Engine.
They take place in various locations, both on Golarion and the Planes, but notables are:
Rahadoum
Thuvia
The River of Souls
The Boneyard
Kaer Maga (!!!)
Hell
Heaven
Salim is a wonderful protagonist, as he is deeply involved with one of Golarion's most popular religions, and at the same time possibly the least popular.
These aren't perfect books, but I was delighted to explore Golarion with a flawed hero on his indentured inquisition.
Unwieldly almost stopped our Vesk from using one, until we figured out:
1. Vesk can AoO with their bare 'hands'
2. Switching grips allows him to have his offhand free between turns
Yes, this prevents a full attack with the doshko if he still wants AoOs, but he seems fine with that. I have had no one even attempt a full attack yet.
So why did he want to use one? A 1,000 credit spending limit, 1d12 damage, "And it looks badass."
.... they fired a weapon as a show of strangth and it back fired on them and to save there own skin in a magical bunker. they turned into lich's and id say its safe to say the same bonesages of today are the same from when that happend to destory their planet.
Is that for sure confirmed canon? There were several theories (of which that was the most common) last I'd read.
It's in the CRB, but flavored as 'according to popular legend.'
so I realize this thread is no longer talking about this, but I just wanted throw my 2 cents in on the original question...
In my mind, when faced with the inevitable destruction of their world, but before the undeath solution was decided on; I would imagine Pharasma would have a huge up swing in worship by everyone trying to prepare for the end. Assuming the cataclysm didn't explode overnight this would have lead to huge cathedrals and centers for worship being built to her on Eox very quickly. Later, peer-preassure and general self preservation urges would lead a large number of these people to accept undeath.
Now that these enormous cathedrals are a constant reminder of the betrayal of their faith, this would lead to a guilt ridden, but still rather large body of worshipers. I like to imagine a heavy "forgive us for we have sinned" culture of self flagellating undead monks in their massive gothic cathedrals, begging Pharasma for her mercy for their weakness. This also makes one hell of a fun story hook that I hope to explore soon :D
That is quite lovely! I'm stealing this, even if it doesn't turn out to be true in some future canon.
It rings especially nicely as we have had a devout Pharasman (well, technically he's a devout whatever-god-is-listening-at-the-time, but Pharasma is important to him) struggling against the Ghoul corruption in our Strange Aeons game, so it would be quite clear to the group how such a thing would come about.
There's also a big difference between "I am created a Devil/Demon/Boogeywhatever and so I serve Evil!" and "I think I'll murder and torture a bunch of people or souls to become powerful and unliving."
Feinds are sentient creatures too. Is it wrong to go after them?
Nothing shown in Dead Suns contradicts Undead being Evil monsters.
Yes. Killing them for being Feinds is wrong. Killing them for doing evil things or because they are trying to kill you is justifiable.
Killing beings of pure Evil for existing is wrong. Okay then.
Killing any sentient creature merely because they exist is pretty sociopathic, yeah.
It's an interesting distinction. I have had Lawful Good characters (Paladins even) treat with a Devil they could have chosen (by all rights) to decide was 'Evil, so it must die' - simply because the devil in question was being polite. In the player's mind this creature probably deserved to be killed because of 'its very existence' but they couldn't bring themselves to do it. Perhaps a tiny part of their conscience prevented them from doing something that was so knee-jerk murdery. Naturally it devolved into murdery, but it started out very civil.
Kaer Maga has a publicly acknowledged district of necromancers. This is in the same city that boasts the Godsmouth Ossuary watched over by a fair sized contingent of Pharasmin devout. And yet, the priests haven't stormed Ankar-Te and put it to the torch. I don't see Eox being a Pact member as much different. If Pathfinder Tales can be taken as canon, even Pharasma's own Psychopomps made a choice not to molest the vile undead in Ankar-Te. Was it because even Pharasma could endure their sins as long as they were being orderly about it? Was there some other deal being made behind the scenes? Who knows...
Sometimes characters in stories have complicated reasons for things, and the alignment system doesn't really account well for that. Luckily having a thinking human being running the game instead of a computer makes it usable.
To be clear, I don't think there could be any public support for any sort of Pharasmin assault on Eox, due to all the various reasons pointed out.
But I do think the Church would certainly begin to take steps. Eox has been a valuable ally to the Pact, certainly. But they didn't come to that conclusion until at least one failed assault on Absolom. Anyone with half a brain in the Worlds should realize this alliance is only going to hold up until Eox feels strong enough to finish taking over the system.
And it's not wholly a problem with Eox, either. The Veskarium isn't the most peaceful of groups for example.
I love what the developers/authors did with Starfinder. It has a very Bablyon 5 feel to it. There's no good reason the Pact should hold up... But it has so far. It will be so much fun to see how it stays together, disintigrates or mutates. This is the kind of setting that is essentially made of plot bunnies running in every direction.
Lore refers the the text of stories, rumors histories and what is often referred to as 'fluff' in the text of the game. A body of knowledge about a subject. Sorry that wasn't clear. The game just came out, but the authors and developers provide us with what is known about the world...
I wasn't saying that ripping apart planes to make things easier was common sense. Sorry if that was confusing. It's common sense to assume that if large pieces of planes were deposited in the material plane at a rate of any great frequency then places like Absalom would be massive clouds of chaos and debris from these planes. The chaos and debris from the Armada are just squatters, not chunks of other planes, hehe.
"A bomb goes off"
"Every time"
These statements make it sound like every use of Drift is a catastrophe. That's an implied rate, however vague. It's false.
If you cause something terrible to happen by using a Drift drive it's an accident, not a premeditated act of evil.
This happens every time someone activates a Drift Engine, every time. It's not "astronomically small",
I don't understand why you are saying the chunks are always large enough to be an object, location or person.
From the core book it says verbatim "a tiny portion of a random plane."
This does not imply the size of something important. The incident in Dead Suns
Spoiler:
Is concerning a rare occurrence. If sizes of planes being deposited from Drift use were common there would be large chunks of random planes and demiplanes clogging all space around Absolom Station.
After all, the Drift has been in common use for hundreds of years. How many vessels do you think have drifted directly toward the Starstone and arrived at Absolom Station in 300 years?
To say that "This happens every time" where This equals "Something important is ripped out of a plane and embedded in the Material Plane" happens every time is an exaggeration. Something happens every time. But Dead Suns or a Dead Suns scale event does not happen every time. This is demonstrable in the lore and sort of common sense. The AP is about something that happened that is interesting and rare.
Yes, inevitably the universe will be shredded into a Maelstrom of chaos soup. No, there is no clear evidence that is happening at the rate implied by you Rysky.
Someone used the example of the Star Trek:TNG Episode "Force of Nature": in which the Federation discovers that using Warp Drive at a factor over five causes sever damage to spacetime itself. If you like that as a better analogy, it's there.
As far as the difference in evil between very slowly killing a planet and very slowly bringing about the apocalypse I don't think the Starfinder or Pathfinder alignment system tracks degrees of that nature. Both things are evil acts according to the proposed logic, or both things are not.
I get the feeling it's not hidden. I get the feeling the area around it is a war zone.
Mostly because that's how I want it to be.
But more seriously, if I recall correctly undead were officially recognized within the Pact World as having rights, so Pharasmins aren't legally allowed to kill them for no-reason. So I suspect it's a very cloistered city-like area which monitors the undead and looks for "opportunities". Keep your friends close and your enemies closer type of deal.
That was my first thought - some sort of living resistance. But I don't see anything anywhere else that would hint to that and I find "Center of Worship" to imply... Well, a central point of worship, less of a hidden cult for a deity like Pharasma.
The way it has been explained, it does not seem like an evil action.
"A tiny chunk" is likely insignificant. A one inch piece of my house could go missing and I might not notice for a very very long time. This one inch piece is probably much larger than the amount disturbed from a plane by using the Drift.
The chunk of hell example I assume is a rare occurrence. Many of daily drive fast moving slabs of metal and plastic that both produce varying amounts of pollutants (destroying 'a tiny piece' of the entire planet) and risking accidental death. Few consider this an evil action.
It is weird that they don't provide archaic shields, or technical advances on that theme. There are energy shields of various types, though none seem to be personal equipment outside the Mechanic's ability.
I don't find it useful to compare extant navy vessels which are designed to travel across an ocean in gravity with fictitious spacefaring fantasy vessels that may or may not run on unicorn farts and masochism.
I swear some of my players actually enjoy arguing with me. I don't enjoy it very much, but they're not obnoxious about it. For some people 'playing the system' is part (not all, I hope) of their fun. So they're having fun and unless it prevents me from having fun, that's a good.
Luckily, they're not usually belligerent about it if they're wrong, and we're all aware of and abide by the golden rule of Pathfinder and associated games.
They aren't just a bestiary entry, they are part of the final encounters in book 2.
Assuming that the Keeper repeats this line to both unnerve enemies and reveal allies, perhaps he can ask other pointed questions.
Have you seen the stars in black?
Will you unmask?
Do you hear its whispers?
Do the flapping of his tatters give you pause?
Who shall be the King?
After it falls below a threshold of hp (depending on how well or poorly the PCs are doing) perhaps it can begin answering questions for them.
The black stars rise before the lake...
There is NO MASK
It is a fearful thing...
You will die unheard...
The Living God must hide Yhtill forever..
These aren't just cryptic random quips. They're clues that some players will pick up on instantly, and those less versed in the mythos will just find obtuse.
We decided to use the expanded fear rules and the sanity rules from HA.
So far, we've only racked up one madness (the Slayer that thinks he can fly) and I really like how it worked out in Briarstone. At first I thought it was going to be a paperwork nightmare, but really our goal is not recreate CoC in Pathfinder. It highlights very well that, even for the strange world of Golarion, there are things that are unknowable and irrational afoot.
I was heavy handed at first - through waking up in the basement to their first brushes with haunts, dopplegangers and hideous piles of corpses, but then eased off - requiring sanity checks for sleeping outside of the Chapel, falling into the Oneirogen's fog and other Tatterman-related horror.
Interested to see how it works out in book 2. I think as long as you adjust for 'Hey, I grew up in Golarion, what sanity anyway' and sprinkle it like smokey paprika it serves to add to the flavor of the AP and give the DM another tension lever to fiddle with.
On the other hand, it is a useful source for GMs who go into the "Continuing the Campaign" mode after the appropriate APs are done. Some details may need to change.. such as NPCs who don't survive the AP in that GM's world... but overall, it gives some structure to how things *could* look after the AP.
Totally! This aspect is great.
But in this case, does this book even _belong_ in the RPG line? Dead horse, I know but...
I have had to politely ask my group not to read the book, since we're on part 4/5 of Curse of the Crimson Throne and they _don't know_ that Sabina is a possible ally. It sure would ruin the mounted dragon combat if when she lands they already know she's going to end up a good guy.
I really love the idea of this book but I'm bummed that such a cool campaign resource is full of spoilers. I haven't seen it yet, so maybe I'm confused; but I'm pretty certain that having a faction of 'good' Grey Maidens is spoileriffic, at least for my group.
Ah well, there are a few APs that this doesn't impact I guess. Maybe when we're done with Curse, and assuming we don't play one of these I can 'set it free.'
2nd-level Kayal Id Rager died in the Briarestone laundry room when Oathsday and Latchke double teamed him after he tore down the sheet with the minor illusion on it. Flanking death.
First death in the second session of the game, and I think my players understand that Strange Aeons is 'serious business' now.
Sadly, the backup character for that player is a Human Witch Killer (Slayer) with poorly rolled stats (the party were asked to make two characters, and choose for each either random stats (roll 4, drop lowest, 6 slots) or 15 point buy). Sanity threshold of 0 on the Slayer and no modifiers higher than 1 will probably mean either a gibbering pile of madness or death when the party ventures past the chapel.
Update: Not an obit but of amusing value. The Witch Killer was inflicted by a madness after his first sanity roll. The haunt in the visitor's chamber that levitates you has created in him a Delusion. He now thinks he can fly. Naturally the party gifted him with the Greater Talisman of Beneficial Winds as soon as they found it.
3) Rationalize the ban, ie FTL drives in some way destabilize large Extra D Space's but all for bag's of holding and portable hole's to exist.
Interested to know how it pans out in canon, but my hunch is that the same quality that allows extradimensional space plays into faster than light travel. And we all know what happens when you put a portable hole into a bag of holding.
