Is this going to ship anytime soon? I think you have missed 3 of my monthly subscription shipments.
Bob
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Waah, Wednesday was my birthday also...
There is also mega minis.
In my opinion, the best mini for Lavinia is by Reaper. Unfortunately I was already using another mini before I saw it. I do have some suggestions if you want to stick with DDM, which I try to do myself. It saves time and that way I can get some value out of all the money i have put into them. Though Storm is a bit too unfeminine for the character of Lavina. More feminine ones for DDM would be
Be sure to post pics when you are done with your ship. Bob
Usually there is only one crow's nest on any ship, usually on the tallest mast. Though all of the pictures of the wyvern have it on the middle mast, but strangely between the bottom and top sails... Ahh, the picture of the wyvern in the dungeon before the savage tide even started (#138) has it with a crows nest on the first and second mast, below the top sail.A suggestion for a shortcut for a 3-d wyvern is to get the Pirateology ship model. It is exactly the correct lenght, but 1" too thin. Close enough though, and it looks really amazing for the price.
In other news I've started building a 3D miniture-scale model of the Sea Wyvern. For the prow, I'm going to get a plastic Wyvern mini and attach it to the ship (after painting it gold or something). Trying to decide if the sculpt from Aberrations or Dungeons of Dread would be better for this. I would go with the DoDread wyvern, it looks more figureheady, unfortunately neither looks all that cool. Here are some minis that I used for the first two modules. Rhagodessa - I did use the Deathjump Spider 54/60 Though later on there are huge sized Rhags, so I went with the "permian arachnids" from a Primeval action figure, being they are taxonomically related, same # legs and pedipalps and types of fangs.
Lotus Dragon Thieves/ thugs - I used Defiant Rake, as well as many others for variety: Halfling Tombseeker 20/60 Night Below, Assassin 27/60 Night Below, Changeling Rogue (w/head swap) 14/60 Unhallowed, Drow Assassin (painted human) 20/60 Demonweb,Drow Adventurer (painted human) 11/60 Demonweb, and Sharn Redcloak (cloak painted green) 44/60 Demonweb Shefton - Cloaktrick Rogue 43/60 Against the Giants Bugbear Zombie - Bugbear Warrior (w/ eyes gouged out and weapon removed) 33/60 Demonweb Lavinia Vanderboren - I used this mini for early Lavinia , then I used a heroclix mini because it fit and was cheap Small Monstrous Crabs - Playmobil crabs were about the right size, but difficult to get, If you don't mind them being hermit crabs, these are a good size and cheap also. Ixitxachitl Scouts - The toy manta's are usually too big. The stingray from Reaper is the correct size for a small creature, and you can order just it out of the set.
Sollar Vark - I used Heroclix Ra's al-Ghul and shaved his hair off and painted him dark. Pirate Zombies - I used a mix of GW empire state troops and zombies sprues to make my own set of zombies.
Brissa Santos (GW demonette with heroclix head and megaminis eels)
Diamondback (heroclix "Scarab" mod)
Harliss (darksword minis)
Nemien (pirates of the carribbean minifig w/feather) Violet fungus (Mushroom with tentacles from horrorclix) Savage Krenshars (DDM with painted velcro to represent the squiggly things) Savage Deinonychus (jurassic park board game mini) savage phanaton (heroclix "super ape igor" with tentacles) Savage Pirates
count_ravvas at verizon dot net *Smile*
In BG, it describes many horribly deformed corpses of savage pirates. But they blow up when they die, how do I explain this to my players? I had it where just their guts blew out of them, leaving an acid covered hollow corpse. Yeah, there are a few wonky things about savage creatures, and being that they have resistance to acid 10, I would assume that their bodies can stand their own acid. Much more realistic than drying up and blowing away. Bob
I had a SB side plot, where the SB was helping the PC's, against the SB. There are many factions in the SB, the one that has established the embassy with Sasserine wants to expand through diplomacy and trade, whereas there are other factions that still want to conquer, others that want to go back to secrecy, and others to piracy, ect. ect. The scenario started off like this. The harbormaster had 3 younger children in Sasserine and the module said nothing about what happened to them when the harbormaster was assassinated. So rather than killing them, I had them be taken by the assassin (who was hired by the Lotus Dragons as per the module, I suspect the assassin may have been Todd Vanderboren from SCAP, but my PC's never found out) to the Lotus Dragons who then later sold them to the SB. Vark had a contact with the SB as per the module. The SB was interested in them because most Sasserine nobles are of suel blood, therefore they would make great breeding vessels and such. Naturally the Embassy SB got wind of this, and asked the PC's to help, so that the SB would look good to Sasserine by ratting out it's own rivals in the favor of Sasserine. So the PC's agreed, had a rendevous with a SB slave ship that had the children on it, and did a basic shipboard assault, and in the SB slavers final throws they released some creatures they captured from the nearby jungle. Bob
So, has there been any news on new minis being released? Bob
Likewise. I have W2 in pdf form, but I can't copy the map out without the text, which is not very helpful. All they need to do is remove the text from the image. Bob
Same here my freind, I like playing in a big sandbox world. If you go into the ancient wyrms lair at first level...you should expect death. Why would anyone put in a guardian that only first level types could overcome? It's giving up logic at the altar of fetishizing game balance. But what Carborundum said is a good way to make it work. I have had players go up against things they have no way of defeating, and that's because they can't with combat, they have to either avoid it or use ingenuity. Bob
It is about twice the size, and for me it was worth it. Actually even the larger map was still a bit too small for my desires, but kinko's wouldn't let me make a copy of copywrighted material, so I made a high rez scan of it and print off small sections on my computer as needed. Bob
Yet more. For Brissa Santos, I was inspired from a picture I found somewhere on the web. I had Brissa shivvering in the tidepool as if she was hiding there from the Savage Creatures and showed this picture to the PC's: But when they got closer: To quote one of my PC's: "It's all right, come here, were here to rescue you, come here...(sees adjusted picture) no, stay back, please, stay back!" I made the mini based on this picture. I used a GW plastic demonette mini for the body, and then a heroclix female's head and Megaminiatures Eels for the hair. This mini shows wear, as it has been broken several times by my players. This is also my first attempt at blending paint. Better than I expected, but still needs work. And lastly, I made this out of the part of the Horrorclix figure here and a plastic shreiker mushroom. I think it turned out well with the paint and all. As with most minis, this creature did not last more than a round. Sigh. That's it for today, now I'm working on the Bullywug attack. I hope this provides inspiration for other's looking for minis to use. Bob
Diamondback
I used a heroclix mini, can't remember the name, trimmed her hair, cut off her hands and feet and replaced with more appropriate ones, and added a skull mask from a GW plastic skull. This mini was a labor of love, and I'm happy with the pose of it, if not the paint job. I made it so her mask was removeable, should she feature in future adventures like the firetrolls guys did, but unfortunately her target at the back of the party was someone who is not very forgiving of transgressions and made "brain jam" out of her. I also made stilt walkers using the bases from Mega Miniatures's bases for their birds and fish. The 2 minis are Heroclix Holly Quins. They were perfect for the scene. Though with my busy schedule, I wasn't able to finish painting them all before game time. These are 2 Mega Miniatures minis with bases removed. GW mini and unknown metal mini.
I based a Pirates of the Caribbean mini fig, painted, and put a feather in his hat. Unfortunately my PC's never encountered Nemien face to face... I also used other PotC mini figs unaltered for Savage Pirates. As well as Horrorclix, Hero Clix, Dreamblade, Mage Knight, Star Wars minis, and of course D&D minis. Savage Pirates 2
These minis below made perfect minis for the Pirate Chef's cave. I had a number of Savage Pirates sitting around a table while the chef was cutting up a body. I removed the pig head that the mini was carrying and replaced it with a torn body from another mini. I used the Heroclix Igor mini with tentacle arms for Wyverynsting to represent a mutant phanaton. I also made a squid boy from a sculpting dolly from megaminis. I used a gamepeice from a Jurassic Park boardgame for ripclaw. I used velcro cut into strips to represent the tentacles on his back and replaced his hands with some iron claws from another mini. I used touch up painted D&D minis of krenshars (the original minis were an ugly representation of a krenshar, but a good one for a savage krenshar) and added patches of green painted velcro to simulate the places where their fur was sloughed off revealing writhing tentacles. I also made a savage bodyguard and flank buddy for Brissa, because this AP has so many named characterss who have sneak attack, but doesn't put them in situations where they can use it.
The pics aren't loading... Sorry, first time I've posted pics here. Bob
I have just completed Kraken's Cove with my party, and I thought I would showcase some of the minis I used for that part of the adventure. Harliss - I used a mini from darksword minis with a sword from reaper glued to her side, aside from the armor, this has a very similar pose and look as the picture of Harliss in the adventure. More to come. Bob
Spoiler:
I used the boat as is, though I did have it be a rare thing that the consortium doesn't want to get into the hands of the competition. The PC's had orders to destroy it before giving it up, and there was a secret built in self destruct, ect.
Though if you don't like the magic engine, what would it be, steam powered? hampster wheel powered? I guess you could have a metal part break that there isn't a spare for. Being in the jungle the only option would be to temporarily carve a new part from an ironwood tree that happens to grow on top of a cave near a waterfall. Well, for my game, being that my players aren't uber minmaxers, I want them to be at least level 6 before SWW. mostly because I want to add other stuff in along the journey, but also because some of the encounters, like the ooze, are really deadly. But if you want them to be 5th, then just have creatures run away. The creatures are native to the jungle, so they should know how to get around better than the pc's. Other than that, just nerf the big bad guys into a lower CR. Bob
Paizo's own W2 River into Darkness is what I am using. Basically I'm having the consortium in that module be one of the companies that the Vanderboren's owed money to. So in order to pay the debt, Lavinia sends the PC's on this adventure to go into the jungle on a riverboat and help defend a beseiged trading post, that may not be morally worth saving. It is for 4th level pc's, but it has a few dangerous high CR encounters, as any good adventure should. Bob
Even the black markets it would be unlikely, being that Sasserine came out under the rule of a slave nation, they are very against subjugation of others right now. Though there are probably illegal smugglers to the Sea Princes or the Scarlet Brotherhood, both slave nations, that you could trade "goods" with. Though the penalties for getting caught would be severe. Halber
Procon has a good selection and decent price for larger dinosaurs of 1/50 to 1/60 scale. http://thedinosaurpark.com/index.php?cPath=43_42 and the sauropods from papo and safari are of the proper scale, though their other toys are 1/40 ish. Though the perfect scaled dinosaurs were from the Boston Museum of Science, but they are out of production and commanding a pretty penny. Oh and the Deinosuchus from Carnegie: http://thedinosaurpark.com/product_info.php?cPath=43_35&products_id=57 is 1/40 scale, but the Deinosuchus in the AP is actually oversized for a Deinosuchus, they may have advanced it in HD and caused it to become larger, but that makes the toy in perfect scale with the monster. Halber
There is an alternative that if the party were to kill Harliss that you would find a note to her superiors with her entire monologe in it. Who's to say she didn't drop such note in the disorder of a hurried escape. Maybe even have her come back looking for it at the wrong time for the PC's. Aside from that, just cause the PC's didn't witness it, doesn't mean it didn't happen. Drevoraz is going back to the manor, regardless what the PC's do. The PC's just don't get their usual welcome by an old halfling woman when they go back to the Vanderboren Manor this time. Halber
That's a good point. The Seekers tend to fund expeditions, as in pay for your ship and crew in return for the spoils of your expedition, much like the Queen of Spain did for Colombus. They were the ones that funded the original sailing to the Isle of Dread by Rory Barbossa, and being that Larissa is a Seeker, probably had some funding for the second expedition. So naturally if you provide your own boat or cargo, then you shouldn't have to worry about this penalty. Bob
As for the ship; did that model match the official size of the Sea Wyvern? I can tell you from my own megablocks Black Pearl, at 19 inches it is too big for the Sea Wyvern. The SW is a fairly small ship, only about 13 inches in scale. The bark from the piratology set is about the same size as the SW, but not in width. I used the Maiden of the Seas to make the Blue Nixie, but even then I had to cut it down by 2 inches on each side and 10 inches in length to get it to the 23 scaled inches it should be. But I still am going to take inspiration from his work and modify the Black Pearl as he has done. Good work! Bob
I have acquired both Stormwrack and Seafarer's Handbook from Fantasy Flight Games and I am wondering if there is someone here who has playtested both and can attest to pros and cons.(specifically about the rules of ship-to-ship combat) I also have Stormwrack as well as "Salt and Sea Dogs" from the Kalamar setting which is really good, and "Seas of Blood" from Mongoose publishing which is a bit too high fantasy for my tastes. I'm not sure if I have the seafaring handbook, or if I just didn't think it was all that good. I am mostly familiar with the ship combat rules of Stormwrack. S&SD seems to be a bit more detailed, but in turn a bit more complex and incongruous with Stormwrack's rules that I know, which is why I haven't familiarized myself with them. I am about to playtest Stormwrack rules when I have time.Though they have required a bit of tweaking, and if they don't work out, then I will go with general narration of ship battles for the adventure. I am using Pirates of the Spanish Main ships at a scale of 1/360, which makes a one inch square about 30 feet. The 6 second round of D&D combat won't work well for ships at this scale, as most of their speeds will be less than 30'/round. As long as ships are out of the range of long range spells (400 ft. + 40 ft./level, so 800ft at 10th level, 1200 ft. at 20th) you can do say 5 rounds of travel or actions in one turn. But once you get within attack range, you will need to go to single round turns, which may slow the action down. You may also need to make a ship record sheet, as Stormwrack suprisingly has none. Also another query: What happens after the resolution of a naval encounter? Well, a number of things can happen after a naval encounter. A faster ship can flee, the losing ship can be sinking or derelict or have all of it's crew killed (most likely outcome with the D&D rules). A boat with a lower draft can hide in shallow waters that one with a greater draft can't. That's almost like what happens after a combat on land with Bugbears. What are you expecting to happen?
Well, I would use the "there's always a bigger fish" strategy to bring it back into balance, should you so choose to not let them keep the captured ship. Though some may argue that an encounter with a foe greater than the PC's can handle is unbalanced, but I think those people are fetishizing balance. Other than that if they don't have the crew to man the second ship as you stated, there is the danger of collision with the captured ship in tow, especially if they run into bad weather. Even if successful and they go with the use of the captured ship, they would have to hire on new crew, who may not take kindly to bossy adventurers and mutiny on their new ship. Bob
Lovely, those rhagodessas. Add a rhagodessa, definitely. But a rhagodessa would attack Rowyn just as happily as a PC. Bob
What was your party makeup? How'd they hold up against this? The party is as follows: 2nd level:1/2 aquatic elf cleric of Procan 1/2 elf swashbuckler human sorceror aasimar paladin dwarf bard w/ an AC of 20 and shield another feat (+2 to adjacent allies AC) 1st level: human rogue human ranger I had made the minions 2nd level rogues and also added a level of bard to Rowyn, mostly to adjust for the number of people in the party and so that levelling and xp can keep up. The party entered the encounter just about tapped on all of their spells and powers, so at first it didn't look so good for them, 3 members down to only one minion, then they used the earth elemental gem from Parrot Island. I was going to keep Rowyn around until her minions kacked, as well as had her keep the potion of gaseous form in her off hand and with enough space behind her to take a 5' step and drink it. But because a large earth elemental has reach, and the party was focused on killing the leader with it, she fled early. Bob
Another thing to consider is that there are creatures from many different time periods in one place, Terror birds and dinosaurs, so that may mean that these creatures are drawn in from various elsewhens. If that is the case there is nothing stopping creatures from the future also being drawn in to the IoD. Hyper evolved creatures from the future, or even a lost regiment of Nazi's/Blackwater Mercenaries/Terminators/ect. Bob
I just did this encounter, and I added 4 minion guards to stand between her and the party, as well as to give the +1 bonus when Rowyn starts singing (as the adventure suggests she does under her tactics) to more than just Gut Tugger. I also have gut tugger hiding at the start of the encounter so that when the party charges up to Rowyn, GT can pop out from the shadows to flank. This also allows Rowyn to use her zombie wand on any fallen minions as well as PC's. Bob
Yes, very good catch, Kain. It's funny that one of the hooks for the adventure in Dungeon #114 was to join Captain "Mad" Madsen Atirr on his return voyage to the isle. Though Peruhain, Lavinia was a few months away from turning 23 when her parents died, because 23 is the age when they were going to introduce her to the Seekers, as that is the age of initiation for them. Oh, and also add:
Would it be off to say that Larissa's first voyage to the Isle of Dread was 27 years before the campaign begins? So 569. Well, your campaign may vary, but as far as I could tell, the journal relates Larissa's first and last time to the island. Verrik was the one who had interest in setting up the colony on Temute. According to Dungeon #114's writings on the Isle of Dread, the first non-Olman person recorded to discover the island was Rory Barbossa from the Great Kingdom in 565 cy (-31 years). Rory was funded by the Seekers, to which Larissa and Verrik also belonged. So Verrik himself may have never been to Temute Island before the colony trip, and they may have gotten all of the information on the island from the Seekers. Though it still wouldn't be out of place that they surveryed the islands sometime before that to find a suitable colony space. Hope that helps. Bob
Here is my Sasserine timeline up to the start of TiNH based upon various info in the modules and the modules starting year of 596 CY as I believe James Jacobs confirmed. 573 -23 years: Lavinia born
I had the starting date be Flocktime 16th.
So we know that Lavinia's aunt Aberrin survived the SCAP, but there is no mention of her uncle. Does that mean he didn't survive?
Speaking of the harbormaster Keltarn Islaran, we find out that his two eldest children that had disappeared 3 years ago, Aaron and Alissa, ended up in Scuttlecove in "Porphry House Horror" adventure in Dungeon #95. But what happened to the four children that were with him at the start of TinH? Being that they could take over as head of the house, were they assassinated along with him as well? Also a scion of House Teraknian has appeared in the AoW AP, and lastly ended up in the "Return to Castle Greyhawk" adventure. Does anyone know of any other Sasserine locals or nobles who have appeared in other adventures? Thanks,
What is the time before timeout of posting on this board. This is the second time I have tried to post this.
I'm interested to hear this too. I myself am responsible for a DM overthrow (the DM's NPC's were constantly overshadowing the players, and the DM would develop in depth the backstories of players he liked in the game, even though they did'nt show up that often, over the rest of the players). Because of this I am naturally a little sensitive to being usurped myself.
What started the whole situation I was complaining about above was he wants to “rest 8 hours to get his spells back” after every encounter. I was a bit annoyed with the very concept, but when I looked in the Magic section of the PH, I didn’t see any reason why he couldn’t. Then, the following day, someone pointed out that the Mage character section specifically says you are limited by how many spells you get per day. I know, a rookie mistake, but when you have a jillion other things to keep track of, you can’t always sit and flip through a rule book to prove a point. That is a rookie mistake that I still occasionally make even after checking the rule several times. I hate the 15 min adventuring day. What's even worse is that when I tell my players that 8 hours is just rest time, not renewal time, they just say they will rest 24 hours then. "Annoyed with the very concept" is putting it mildly for me. I usually try to have effects caused by this action, such as the baddies escaping with the treasure, setting traps, or gathering their forces and assaulting, but usually in the end it ruins the adventure. I almost feel like I am trying to punish them for their actions, maybe to some extent I am, maybe to some extent they should be. Either way, I don't like it. Bob
I have found the perfect mini for a skinwalker. The mageknight cats work for when they are transformed, but this mini (last one on the right) is perfect for before then. It is wearing a lion skin like in the picture in the adventure, if you were to turn the mini around you would see the lions rear paws hanging off. i'm also thinking of using a modified version of this mini to make into a kopru, and the mini on the far left would make a nice olman warrior. Bob
And is what my original query was about. A typical ship crew will be fried off of any ship before it gets anywhere near a boarding action. Also to consider is that ships have a minimum crew that it needs to operate properly, let alone survive long enough to board. Maybe it's just systematic of the whole 3e power creep as stated in the recent Knights of the Dinner Table. A first level fighter in 2nd could kill 5 goblins before dying, 10 goblins in 3rd, and now 24 goblins in 4th.
I had the same opinion before I started the AP, but quickly came to realize that the PC's make mince-meat out of naval battles at even mid-level power. I agree, but you would think in a world where ship mages were fairly common, that defenses against such things would develop. Maybe a ring of spell turning fitted for a ship or something. The ranges on most spells make it so that boarding rarely ever happens, it takes several rounds to close with another ship and by that time the whole crew can be fireballed to death, even with the +8 to saves that the gunwhales can provide. Anyone have any suggestions to make what to me is an exciting part of an adventure, ship battles, so that it can work with D&D? Bob
Lavinia isn't 100% necessary but she will make your life as DM that much easier. If you want to leave the ships where they fell then the PCs need a new patron. One that has ties to Vanthus. One that has a reason to go to the Isle of Dread. Playing the adventure without Lavinia is possible . . . but it will require rewrites. Lavinia had an aunt in Cauldron which the adventure "TINH" stated that she had sent the Jade Ravens to in order to receive her aid. Her name is Aeberrin Vanderboren from the Shackled City Adventure Path. Aeberrin would most definately be a person that could take over the estate of Lavinia in Sasserine and continue with Lavinia's original goals. Bob
From the crunch waffle website. http://www.crunch-waffle.com/miniatures_culture.php?cultureID=9 I too was thinking of the maephs...they just aren't quite right for me. Sure are cute though. Bob
The problem I have is things like small monstrous crabs, Ixixtxchils(spelling?) and various things of this nature... Funny, I have most of those toys already. Though I prefer using Reapers manta ray
Unfortunately Reaper no longer sells individual minis from packs, so you would have to get the whole set. As for Phanatons I have been tossing up between Crocodile Game's baboon with a head modification, but have been leaning towards Wizkids Super-Apes: Igor with a different head. Any Ideas for a Rhagodessa. I have been using a DDM Deathjump Spider, but would like something that is closer. Bob
Thanks for the mini ideas, I am currenty in the process of selecting minis for the baddies. Though I have no idea what mini I could use to represent a phanaton. Im thinking the Heroclix Superapes:Igor and then cut the head off...but what could I replace it with? Any better Ideas? Bob
Just started.
Don't have a strong beat-stick, but it seems well balanced otherwise. Bob
As for where she got the manacles and key, there is a temple of Dalt in Sasserine, Dalt being the god of keys and portals. That magic item sounds right up their alley. Maybe she had it with her for just such an occasion. Bob
Can anyone tell me if this is ever going to come off of backordered status? At least an estimate as to when they will come in. Thanks.
Though one thing with the whip is that it can easily get caught up in the rigging. That is why pirates used short swords (cutlasses) because longer weapons would be constantly snagged. There are plenty of lines on your own ship that you could use to swing over to the other ship. As for the double ballista, if you are using bolts it probably wouldn't be very effective. The chain would probably pull the arrows together. What you may want to do that would have the same effect as what the player is intending (a rigging/ mast attack weapon) is to use shot. Many ballista could be equipped to fire a bolt, or configured to fire a stone ball. Go to http://www.romanseas.com/roman_myths.html and myth #4 for an example of this. If a ballista can shoot a stone ball, it may well be able to shoot a bar shot (2 half balls with a bar in the center), or less likely a chain shot (2 balls with a chain). The chain shot wouldn't work as well because the barrel of the gun keeps both balls going in a forward motion, whereas the ballista would be like one pool ball hitting another, the moving one would stop and the stopped one would go. Hradek
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