I opened my brick (sorry, guys, finances won't allow more) of figs last night and was more excited with each box. While there were a couple of figs with less-than-ideal paint jobs (I am looking at you Sorshen), in general, I was very pleased with the figs I received. And overjoyed with the wyvern--holy cow! What a fig! And the raging troll, iron golem, and Xin. I will definitely be looking at singles to round out my collection.

This was my second-favorite fig, right behind the wyvern, that I received in my brick.

I DM with a fairly regular group. We have completed Shackled City and Age of Worms over the last five to seven years. We are very close to finishing Savage Tide. Then, we will move to a homebrew campaign I am putting together with my favorite modules from each of the Pathfinder APs.

Name: Vardirvoshanon
Race/Class/Level: Elven Cleric 11
Catalyst: Giant Crocodile in Broken Lake

Name: Tirol
Race/Class/Level: Human Wizard 5/Wild Mage 2
Catalyst: Giant Crocodile in Broken Lake

The party had clambored into outrigger canoes to cross the lake and were about halfway across when the half-dragon shaman, Balasar, noticed that there was a shadow coming up from deep below. Unfortunately, he was wearing the Cloak of the Manta Ray (yes, I know that it only works in salt water; we just made it work in any water) and could not communicate. One big munch and Tirol was much blood on the water. A few rounds later, as the croc was dying, he tried to make an escape by overrunning the outrigger canoe. Unfortunately, V missed his Reflex saving throw and ended up crushed beneath the tons of croc. Fortunately, both were able to be at least reincarnated and are back with the party.

Hey, it just hit me that, if you use this hook, the adventure could be about Finding Eando.

I'm just sayin'

The group I DM for generally deals with not having a rogue in the following manner:

The fighter walks about 15 feet ahead of the party, with the cleric ready to heal him.

What can I say? Works for them. They say, "A tank (fighter) is the best trap finder out there."

We are in Magnimar right now. The group (which varies from three to six members, depending on the night) is around fifth level and just defeated Ironbriar. However, they had to retreat from sawmill (if you call making a mad dash for the river and doing a cliff dive off the top of the mill a retreat...) before they took him out. So, the day after the trip to the sawmill, the wizard heads to the Arvensoar to report the cult activity. At which point, the guard arrest *him* because Ironbriar had given them his name and description as a person of interest in a murder case at the sawmill. The other two PCs (a ranger and a sorcerer) infiltrate the sawmill (which had been depopulated by the group the night before) and confront Ironbriar (who was feeling pretty confident in his ability to defeat the group). One Will save and critical hit later, and the elf was singing another tune altogether. However, the remaining two now have to figure out how to get the wizard out of jail. Could be an interesting side quest....

To avoid this sort of thing, we have a home rule that says the first die on a critical hit is always full. That means, if you do 4d6 on the critical hit, the first is 6 and then you roll 3d6 for the rest of the damage.

Gets rid of those embarrassing low criticals. (And makes critical hits mean something...)

One more dead Jade Dragon:

Name: Adriatus Quickshaft
Class: Rogue 5
Race: Human
Encounter: Sidetrek sea battle with the Aboleth Reign
Short Reason for Death: Frickaseed

Long story: The party sees the sails of the Aboleth Reign on the horizon shortly after they spot land to the south and west. Over the next four hours, the ship closes on them and engages in a sea battle. The Aboleth Reign's ship wizard is throwing fireballs all over the place, the party on the Sea Wyvern is putting out fires and trying to get in position to board the Reign (my players have this idea that they are invincible). Quickshaft moves to the front of the ship to man the ballista just about the time that the Aboleth Reign moves into position to use her red dragon living figurine to rake the ship with 10d10 damage. Quickshaft failed his Reflex save and became a molten glob stuck to the front of the ship. Fortunately, the party was able to raise dead again, and (using a chart taken from another thread) Quickshaft is now a bugbear.

Orthos wrote:

Kurukami wrote:

Orthos wrote:

Matthew Vincent wrote:

The original Isle of Dread adventure has a few more details

Any idea where we could find that?

eBay?

*is broke* Ah well.

** spoiler omitted **

Or, you could do a quick search for "Used Role Playing Games" and then "Isle of Dread" on those sites. I found several copies here:

http://www.nobleknight.com/RPG.asp

I am sure there are others out there.

--Rick

We finally had our first fatality of the campaign:

Name: Mischel dan Valentjn
Class: Bard 5
Race: Elf
Encounter: Assassin vines on the Rage
Short Reason for Death: Squoze to death

Long story: The party is exploring the wreck of the Rage and moves through the hold to the back of the ship where the captain's log is waiting. The tank in the group is a mimic (the player wanted to have some fun, so, being the nice DM, I allowed a LN mimic to join the group--I see him as being Odo), and when he enters the captain's quarters, the floor buckles under him (having the log teetering on the edge just seemed too cliched for me). The mimic makes his saving throw while the bard, right behind him, does not. The assassin vines attack, squeeze, squeeze, and squeeze some more. Finally, the rest of the party intervenes and the plants are dead, but so is Mischel. Fortunately, the log landed on his body and was lodged where they could find it once they hauled him out. Best part--the party used a Raise Dead scroll on him and now has a kobold bard.

Yes, the two maps are the same; the fold-out one was, as Luna noted, just bigger than the one in the player's guide.

I am prepping the encounter with Kyuss, pretty much as I type (just looking through the boards for hints and tips). We begin our Marathon Session to end the Adventure Path in about 40 minutes!

Next up for us: Savage Tide AP.

1) What will happen when the PC kisses the fey?
2) Why doesn't the fey let the PC in on his lineage, ruining the drama of the situation?

Thoughts?

O

1) The fey has a connection to the royal bloodline of Korvosa, the most powerful (sorry, Magnimar) city in Varisia, and can influence events to its liking over the next few centuries.

2) It's fey. They don't *have* to have a reason to act strangely. They just do.

--Rick

At mailbox today
Said quick silent prayer and
opened box. Answered!

Name: Vayen (Paladin 12)
Module: Spire of Long Shadows
Cause of Death: Really nasty critical hit

Name: Vayen (Paladin 11)
Module: Spire of Long Shadows
Cause of Death: Failed Reflex Save

Poor Vayen! The party tank had some problems this past session, getting critically hit by a fallen angel and then tanking the reflex save against they kyuss knights. It's a good thing he was being NPC'd that night; otherwise, his player might have needed a referral for therapy...

Campaign count:
11 dead (the paladin 3 times; the cleric 7 times; the ranger once)

Not too bad out of a party of 6-7 (depending on who is able to play)

Just wanted to update that Jameson Deepwell, our party's cleric, bought the farm twice in our last two games, bringing his death total to 5. The guy really must want to commune with his god in person...

The penultimate time, he was reincarnated as a kobold. The ultimate time, he was reincarnated as a human.

So, the death toll for the Gorilla Concert (long story involving a bard and playing concerts for the public at hastily announced locations and a scribe with poor spelling and comprehension skills) stands at 7: the ranger, the paladin, and poor Jameson five times.

--Rick

I generally poof the bad guys at 0 rather than -10 (or, as in the house rule, -CHA). It makes it easier as a DM to track, and I think that the PCs are supposed to be Heroes, anyway, so I give them that break (and very few others, if you talk to my players;^)

Besides, I thought that you did not heal even 1 HP per day if you were in the negatives. I could be wrong, and that could just be a house rule, but I thought I read that somewhere...

--Rick

Name: Vayen (half-elf paladin 8)
Adventure: The Champions Belt
Catalyst: A nice slay living spell coupled with a poor Fortitude save.

Long Description:

The party was skulking through the depths of the arena, looking for Ekaym's sister Lahaka when they stumbled across Bozal Zohal's undead mooks. They dispatched the first group of three Spawn of Kyuss fairly easily. Then, they came upon the mohrg and the other six spawn and the fight got a bit tougher. It ended up that five of the six spawn ran for Zohal after they were freed from the cleric's turn undead (hey, they are mindless, not stupid...). After the mohrg goes down, Zohal and the five spawn return to face the party. Fortunately for the group, they had cast wall of flame previously and it was still active, effectively cutting off contact between the two groups. However, Bozal starts summoning monsters to attack the party and it becomes more advantageous to drop the wall (those darn flames kept turning the party's arrows into so much ash). A few rounds later, Zohal is buffed and wading into combat. The paladin closes with him. Unfortunately for the paladin, Zohal made his cast defensively concentration check and his touch attack and Vayen missed his saving throw.

Zohal was toast about two rounds after that. Vayen was resurrected as an elf.

Current tally of deaths for the group:

Five--Vayen (paladin), I'Kale (ranger), Jameson Deepwell (cleric--3 times)

I have two over the last two weeks (just haven't had time to update).

Name: I'Kale Manapo, Elf Ranger 7
Module: Hall of Harsh Reflections
Catalyst: Four words: Invisible stalker critical hit

Long story: The party, with the doppelganger in tow (replacing one of the party's major spellcasters), enters the room with the planks over the water. The doppelganger heads out onto the beams, using "deception" in his conversation with the other party members. Since he has no problems, the rogue in the group heads out after drinking a potion of invisibility. Since neither of these two have difficulties, I'kale and the other two party members head out. The stalkers attack, but miss badly. Eventually, I'kale clambers to the northern landing with the group's paladin in tow. The gnome wizard is stuck on the beams, the cleric (Jameson, mentioned below) is falling in water and climbing out. The rogue, over by the door and still invisible, tosses a rope to I'Kale. The invisible stalker in the area swoops down and nails the rogue. I'Kale starts shooting at the stalker while the rogue tries to melee with it. After a brief battle, the rogue is down and the stalker heads over to I'Kale. This battle is brief, really just two hits--the invisible stalker critically hits I'Kale and I'Kale hits the floor.

(BTW, the end of this fight goes something like this:

Doppelganger and Cleric are on the eastern landing after having both just climbed up from the water.

Dopp: "Heal me, heal me, heal me."

Cleric: "Here's my last 3rd level spell." [zap]

Dopp: "How many hit points do you have?"

Cleric: "Seven."

Dopp: "I backstab him."

The room falls silent.)

PC Name: Jameson Deepwell Half-elf Clr 6
Module: Hall of Harsh Reflections
Catalyst: A well-placed fireball by Telakin

Long Story: After being taken into unconsciousness by the doppelganger, the party wakes up to find themselves tied to chairs and facing outward in a circle. The spellcaster that the doppelganger replaced is really here, too. But the party wizard is gone (the player had to drop out of the campaign). Oh, and they have no armor or equipment.

The party escapes, battles through the hall of mirrors and confronts Telakin, who takes the form of the party wizard. A big battle ensues. The paladin and the Jameson rush Telakin and fall into the pits (the rogue had not yet examined that area of the room). The fight continues with Telakin surrounding the rogue and the ranger with a wall of fire and almost killing the rogue, who said something to the effect of, "I have evasion and a high Reflex save. I can just walk through this." The other spellcaster runs out of the room and back into the hall of mirrors. Telakin reverts to his barbarian form and chases. A couple of fireballs by the party spellcaster later and the ranger, who had followed them into the hall of mirrors came running back into the room smoking from the blasts. By this time, Jameson had climbed out of the pit and healed the rogue, who went walking back into the fray. Jameson heals the ranger just in time to catch a well-placed fireball from Telakin. The ranger and rogue (who criticalled) finally take down Telakin.

In the aftermath, Jameson was reincarnated. Now, remember from last time he died, Jameson is very Xenophobic and really hates elves. He was reincarnated as a half-elf last time. This time, his god saw fit to bring him back as, you guessed it, a full elf. (Gotta love those die rolls some times...)

My group is moving through the AP surprisingly fast, though they have a penchant for leaving plot threads dangling (which I'm going to make come back and haunt them when they return to Diamond Lake). We began in September or October 2006 and are already to Hall of Harsh Reflections. I assume that the pace will slow here a bit, but compared to my Shackled City campaign (now entering its third year and not yet to the volcanic eruption), we are flying through this one.

Name: Jameson Deepwell, male human Cleric 5 (of Mota [homebrew campaign--similar to Kord])
Adventure: Encounter at Blackwell Keep
Location: The Mistmarsh
Catalyst: Saving the party wizard from being swallowed by a boa constrictor.

The nasty wandering monster, huge constrictor snake, dropped into the middle of the party, right on top of the gnome wizard (who must have appeared to be a nice, tasty snack). Since he was the closest to the helpless gnome, Jameson moved up and attacked the snake. A nice solid thunk with his mace later, Jameson was now enemy number one for the snake (who let the unconscious gnome fall to the ground). A bite and two constrictions later, and the poor cleric was visiting with his buff, bench-pressing god (Mota is the god of strength). Fortunately, for the party, they had a reincarnation scroll handy, and Jameson came back as a half-elf. Unfortunately for the slightly xenophobic Jameson, he is now "half-human," as he likes to say.

BTW, this is the first PC death in the campaign so far. A couple of well-planned battles and some lucky rolls have kept everyone alive to the point where they can almost fend for thesmselves. Which, I'm sure, will mean even more PC deaths in the future.

I've actually been quite successful at keeping Allustan out of the picture for now. As the PCs were being created, I gave one of them an aunt who was a battlemage in the marsh--Marzena. When the stuff hit the fan at Blackwall Keep, she used sending to contact her nephew (the PC) when she could not reach Allustan (who is researching the Kyuss worms and scrying on his apprentice in the party). The PCs bolted off to Blackwall Keep without even stopping by Allustan's to see if he would help. (Gotta love those go-getters.) So, by-and-large, I have not had to worry about Allustan's motivations and perceptions as being a coward (though I was going to play that card, if necessary; now, the rift between he and Tenser will have to be more philosophical in nature--more along the lines of Tenser being very paranoid about his allies than anything else).

How about:

Kevin Spacey as The Faceless One
Gary Sinese as Darl Quethos
Kevin Pollack as Allustan
James Spader as Allustan's brother (whose name, I am ashamed to say, I forget)
Michael Chiklis as Balabar Smenk (though he needs a good wig...)

and, saving the best for last:

As Kyuss--Jack Nicholson

Just began the AoW with a sidequest to clean out the mine office (wanted to bump up levels before they hit WC). Here is the party:

I'kale male elf Ranger 2
Vayen male half-elf Paladin 2
Keith Gibson male human Bard 2
Donovan male human Cleric 2

The party is a bit lacking in arcane spells (though the bard, which is being played as a home-brew variant, may make up for that later), some tank-ness (the Paladin's AC stinks and the Ranger is focusing on bow), and roguishness (I'm thinking of bringing in an NPC male human rogue next time). But, they work well together, and appear to be a "thinking" rather than "acting" group, which speaks well for their ability to make it through AWAP.

--Rick

David Hazlett wrote:

I am also awaiting a Black Dragon order. I understand you are shipping them out as fast as you can.

So, approximately how fast is 'fast as you can'?

I asked something similar in another thread and they said you'll get it as soon as they can ship it, no kind of time frame. Rick, when did you place your order and when did it ship?

I ordered my dragon the night I received that Dragon magazine. Then, two or three weeks after that (much sooner than I expected), I received an e-mail that it was shipped, and it was in my mailbox probably last Friday (the 14th), though I did not check the mail until Saturday (our neighborhood has community mailboxes and my wife and I have to remember to stop on our way home from work--don't get me started on it...). So, if I were to guess, I think it took about 4 weeks from order to my table top.

--Rick

I just wanted to say that I received my dragon mini over the weekend and placed it at a place of honor right in front of my DM's screen on our playing table.

It was great to see the look on my players' faces as they came in: "We're not facing that today, are we?" they ask, with dread.

"Oh, no," I reply. "I just wanted to show you what came in the mail today."

Too much fun for the DM.

Thanks again!

I stumbled across the name Storm Chasers while I was searching for something else, and figured my players missed out on something. Sounded pretty fitting to me.

But, they started with the Real Heroes of Cauldron, just to get the discount. Then, after defeating Gottrod and taking different parts of him to be worked into weaponry, they have settled on the Dragonfangs. It could still change, as only two of the five current members were original Dragonfangs.

whizz wrote:

The Keep of Jarl Khurok - is it in the adventure path? If not any suggestions/how did you deal with it?

I thought this was a nod to the old G2 Module--Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl. Figured if my PCs wanted to go that way, I would update the module to 3.5 (and the AP info--so, few giants left and no hook to the Fire Giants...)

--Rick

Another series that does something similar is the series by Stephen R. Donaldson..."Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever." Incredibly awesome and in fact, the rights have been picked up to make a major motion picture. Check out the books. Killer good. You wont be dissappointed!

But I would recommend only the first triology. The second one was not as good, IMO. And, Stephen Donaldson's sci fi work is not to my taste at all.

--Rick

This is an interesting coincidence you struck upon Walter. Linking these two NPCs would be very interesting. Perhaps fighting through the endless pain that caused the scars gave her freedom of fear and was a rite of passage.

Can you remember who caused the fallen angels scars?

Delvesdeep

Just read through the module this weekend in anticipation of playing it. Adimarchus caused Saureya to become scarred as part of Saureya's torture.

--Rick

In the SCAP, the party began calling themselves "The Real Heroes of Cauldron," but no one was satisfied with that moniker.

After defeating the black dragon in Zenith Tragectory (I apologize, I have forgotten his name), and giving the fighter some time to use his Craft feat, many in the group now have dragon bone daggers. They settled on the (better, in my opinion) name of Dragonfangs.

Other groups I have either DM'd or played for:

Companions of the Fallen Moon
The Answer ("You have a question, we're The Answer.")
The Wild Pack
Seekers of the Crimson Pale

In my campaign, I have had the citizens of Cauldron attribute every save to the Stormblades--the children were rescued, praise be the Stormblades; the Stormblades found the control water wands and lowered the level of the lake; did you hear that the Stormblades stopped the rampaging umber hulk, etc. ad nauseum.

It should probably come as no surprise that the PCs *hate* the Stormblades right now.

We are in the middle of Demonskar Legacy, usually run with between 4 and 8 PCs. The lineup from the last game looks like this:

Human Cleric 9
Halfling Rogue 9
Half-Kender Evoker 6, Oozemaster 1 (character-created prestige class--yes, he *does* play with oozes and has a small gelatinous cube familiar)
Dwarf Figher 7
Elf Warlock 7
Halfling Bard 6
Halfling Druid 5, Master of Many Forms 1

We also have a Human Barbarian 4, Rogue 2 who is on temporary assignment. There have been a number of other characters who have joined for a while and left (either via death or player attrition). We have had a couple of different druids, a soulknife, a ninja, a samurai, and a ritual warrior, to name a few, amongst those who have left. I also killed off the halfling druid/mmf last night, so the player is going to bring in a paladin.

It has been fun, as well as a challenge to keep up with the party.

I ran an abbreviated version (five tests) of the Challenge of Champions in conjunction with the Flood Festival. There were a number of other competitions--100 yard dash, story-telling, archery, knife throwing, swordsmanship, pie eating, and magic, I believe--which were culminated by the Team Competition (CoC). I told my PCs that there were a number of local groups that got together and formed four-man teams, but that the serious challenge came from the Stormblades (who were the people's favorites).

The PCs and the Stormblades basically split the competitions leading up to the Team Challenge (with the exception that a group called the Rumblebellies won the pie-eating contest), so the CoC became important as the PCs wanted to beat the SB so badly. Came down to the last challenge, which they pulled off flawlessly, and had a great time role playing the Heroes' Feast, where the Lord Mayor, with Vhalantru in the background, gave the PCs their medallions and trophy while the SB stalked off out of the yard.

Reinforcers can be quite powerful! But... is this an example of a Fixed Interval (FI) schedule of reinforcement, or Variable Interval (VI)? And was the AoW supplement the reinforcer in this case, or the messages on the board? If only we could see a graph of the "hits" on the page, by frequency vs. time! :-)

I'd say the posts are definitely the reinforcer in this case, which makes the schedule a Variable Interval schedule of reinforcement (the first behavior [reading the thread] after a variable amount of time has passed is reinforced [a new post has been posted]).

And I hope I'm not the only one on the thread that actually understood what you were asking....;^)

You know, it took me a while to figure out what this meant:

I don't mean to be getting carried away here... 2 instalments in a 12 part campaign does not a GDQ1-7 (or B1) make.

Then it hit me: back when I bouhgt 'em and ran 'em, they were G1-3 (Against the Giants), D1-3 (Against the drow), and Q1 (Queen of the demonweb Pits). Ahh, what memories...

--Rick

The party is currently working through Flood Season. They have located and explored some of the Kopru Ruins. Even have one wand of control water. The group, as it is now:

Addabar Silverwhisper (male gnome Rogue 4)
Schnyder (male human Soulknife 2/ Cleric 2)
Jadyn (female human Ninja 2/ Soulknife 1)
Cirlyn the Colourful (male half kender Wizard 3)
Joshua Jacobson (male human Cleric 3)

Until recently, two others were with the party:

Isamu (male human Samurai 3)
Vishnak Goblinsmasher (male half orc Ritual Warrior 2)

The players for these two PCs went home over the summer, so they have not been able to play.

Still looking for a name for the group, however...