Jiro Florite's page

What I'm considering for my group is sending them a side mission from Lute Haggersly before they leave Kalsgard, he's wanting to set up his own guild in the wake of the Rimmerunners tanking (even if they aren't officially removed by the King they're name is ruined). However Lute has a little problem, he has the money, business partners and everything all lined up, but he can't get a caravan out fast enough to secure the trade contacts the Rimerunners had (in this instance, the Rimerunners were a perfectly legitimate business, but were the cover for the Frozen Shadows). So he makes a deal with Sandru, you deliver a few messages for me to these contacts and assure them that my guild is taking the Rimerunners place before the competition gets them and in return he invest in the caravan so they can make it over the Crown.

Here's where it gets interesting, they miss out on the big fish on the list. I'm not sure who, but someone they can run into before heading into the Forest of Spirits. Anyway, he's willing to give them the same chance he's giving the people who have already contacted him to set up trade over the Crown, they have to win the Ruby Phoenix Tournament and secure for him one of the artifacts in the vault. To make the deal sweater, because I know my PC's will just tell him to stuff it and move on, he'll mention that he recognizes the sword my Summoner is using as one of the five imperial weapons... and that two of them are also in the vault as potential prizes. I'm not sure what they'll be yet, but that's largely because we're just entering The Hungry Storm and I have no idea who will make it through to see this.

* There be spoilers ahead if the titles wasn't enough of a clue*

Alright, my group is just now (after a long break) making their way through the events in Kalsgard and have just finished taking down Longthews. My question however is about what's just a head for them, Helgarval. So far I revealed nothing about the Five Storms that I absolutely didn't have to, all the party knows is that there are enemies of the Minkai Throne who are out to end the bloodline (pretty much what they could infer from Brinewall and the Visions of Jade). They don't know that this enemy is the Five Storms or any information about them. Hell, right now they're not even sure that Longthews or the Rimerunners are even connected to what happened at Brinewall (all be it tangently). I decided that I wanted to keep that secret for as long as possible (I've some people playing who've been gaming for years and could read the plot from a mile away, I want to try and keep them on their toes).

With all that said, Helgarval presents a bit of a problem for me. I know that once he starts talking they're going to ask him a lot of questions about who their enemy is, and I have no problem telling them, through Helgarval, that it is this shadowy entity is known as the Five Storms. With that said I really would like to play a bit of a shell game with them and not give out much more then that. They already figure that they'll have to fight whoever this Jade Regent is (out of character), but if I can pull a bit of a trick and distract them with the possibility of the Five Storms being something else, the might throw them for a loop. What I want to know is how everyone else is incorporating the back story into the campaign and how well that's going.

Mind, I am a first time DM and also haven't had the time to read through all of the AP as I've been busy with classes and I'm just taking it module by module until summer comes and I can read it all (though I am making strides at reading ahead). If this was covered in another thread I didn't see it and decided to make this one, if that's the case a link to that thread would be nice.

Gluttony wrote:

(And who wants to bet they ignore the snakes and just charge into combat, rendering my preparation pointless?)

Well...don't they have to make a perception check just to notice the vipers hiding in there?

I know my party missed them....then again they also didn't see through the disguise...

Same story here, my party saw through his disguise (in so much as they thought he was fishy as hell) and tried to force their way inside from the front door. It wasn't long after that the Warden came out of hiding and (eventually) made comment that if any of his vipers survived they'd be out back. After that no one really bothered with them.

Jiro Florite wrote:

Edit: I could be reading the AP incorrectly, but are the items 9,000gp each or am I wrong and they should simply total to 9,000gp?

By the book they should total 9,000 gp. I think they might as well be a bit over that; there's a +1 returning starknife somewhere that you can remove to add about 8000 to the total, if you think it's too much treasure.

Ah, that would explain why I thought those items were so under powered, I though they were supposed to be worth 9000 each! I'll definitely take your advice and remove the starknife so I can get some wiggle room to make each item unique for the characters (after all, their supposed to be).

I was considering silken ceremonial armor for the witch but in some way that it would stack with Mage Armor. Initially I was considering the idea of there being runes on it which could teach the familiar an improved version of Mage Armor that stacks it's bonus with light armor, but that got messy really quick when you consider other casters in the group. I'm currently looking into giving it a custom enchantment called Entwine which would allow it's bonus to AC stack with Mage Armor/Shield of Faith, but at the cost of requiring specialty work to further enchant the armor (doubling the cost and meaning not just anyone could enchant it). Though that would require a DM feat to ignore the necessary initial +1 enchantment (indeed replacing it entirely, making the next enchantment cost 8,000). I like this idea, but I'm strapped on the gold to balance it out and I don't want to give one person something worth a good 2k more then everything else.

Also, Harek Ivarson, I'm going to straight up steal your idea for the gunslinger as it perfectly fits how I was going to let him build his own advanced firearms over the course of the adventure and this would not only kick start that but speed it up handily.

Certainly good ideas, though the Witch already has Mage Armor as a spell (turns out she's been underselling how many spell slots she has a day, which has been corrected) as well as that not really working with how the Witch class learns spells (what with the consuming of scrolls). I also think the boots and the cape are interesting but a bit under power (or should I say under wealth). But I do love the idea of the amulet/clasp, it puts what I was thinking of in an very elegant package.

Also, I don't have anything for the Gunslinger, the mention of him building a revolver over the course of the game was meant to convey that I can't just give him a gun as that's going to be taken care of.

Edit: I could be reading the AP incorrectly, but are the items 9,000gp each or am I wrong and they should simply total to 9,000gp?

Hello, I'm a first time DM running Jade Regent and I'm having a little trouble coming up with treasures for the Brinewall vault that fit my group. My group consist of a healing witch, Summoner, Rogue rake, Ranger and a Gunslinger. I've been racking my mind for some unique ideas but I'm still pretty new to this.

So far I've only got ornate Special Ceremonial Armor +3 (for the witch who's lacking in AC badly) and a vague idea for some item that would allow the Summoners Eidolon and him to share cloak of resistance bonuses (which I have no idea how to do outside of another item slot). I've got nothing for the Rogue and the ranger just bought new armor (which was my original idea) and he's doing pretty well in the damage out put area. As for the Gunslinger I've already worked out for him to build a revolver over the course of the adventure.

I could really use some ideas as I'm pretty much banging my head against the books here.