It is likely that my group will seek out Baaragrauth the Dragon Eel in tonight's game. Since the group is a powerful group of 4 level 9 characters (with a level 6 cohort), I figured a CR 12 will be an appropriate challenge for the group. So I bumped his HD by 2.
Anyone familiar with the ability arrays know if the MMIII monsters use the elite array or the standard array for abilities? I couldn't figure it out, so I ended up just bumping his int so I could take the Jump skill (so he can jump over boats, grabbing people as he goes over), and bumped his Con by 1 for more HP.
I changed some of his feats up for ones in Stormwrack to work better with the dastardly idea of him swimming in fast, grabbing someone then swimming away to digest. If need be he still has his usual boat sinking feats though with Power Attack, Powerful Charge and Improved Sunder.
The sacrifice of Improved Init hurt a little, but I don't want his CR to go past 12.... so I couldn't have everything.
Anyways... let me know what you guys think, and feel free to use this punk of a dragon eel on your party (but please tell me how the fights go!)
Som.
Here are his stats behind a spoiler tag:
Spoiler:
Baaragrauth the Cantankerous Dragon Eel
Large Dragon (Aquatic)
Hit Dice: 16d12+96 (200 hp)
Initiative: +0
Speed: 20 feet, swim 80 feet
Armor Class: 27 (-1 size, +18 natural), touch 9, ff 27
BAB/Grapple: +16/+28
Attack: Bite +23 melee (4d8+12 or with Poweful Charge 4d8+12 plus 2d6)
F.Attack: Bite +23 melee (4d8+12)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Improved grab, swallow whole
Special Qualities: Blindsense 30 ft., DR 5/adamantine, darkvision 60 ft., immunity to magic sleep effects and paralysis, low-light vision, keen scent
Saves: Fort +16, Ref +10, Will + 11
Abilities: Str 26, Dex 11, Con 22, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 13
Skills: Bluff +18, Hide +14, Listen +19, Sense Motive +19, Spot +19, Swim +16, Jump +17
Feats: Flying Fish Leap, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Sunder, Power Attack, Powerful Charge, Rapid Swimming, Swim-By Attack
CR: 12
After their ordeal in the old tunnels under Parrot Island, the party rows themselves (and their new treasure) back to Merchant District in the middle of the night and rests at Gregair's Place (the inn where Hal works/lives).
In the morning they get their magic items identified. Hear the news of the murder of old Keltar Islaran the Harbourmaster of Sasserine. Then head over to Vanderboren manor to deliver the bad news to Lavinia.
They are met by Kora of course, who ushers them in to Lavinia's dining room where she is taking her lunch. Shocked and dismayed by the news of her brother's treachery and villainous actions, she bids the party capture him alive if possible, but to make his death painless and quick if he makes it impossible.
As they are about to leave, a messenger brings a slip from a tailors that the party all have clothes to pick up. Kora and then Lavinia explain that they have all been invited to a dinner party at Arabani manor that evening, and that Rowyn Kellani (who's been very kindly assisting her get her affairs in order) has purchased these clothes for them.
The party briefly discusses not attending the party so that people (meaning Vanthus and perhaps the Lotus Dragons) won't know they're alive.
They inform Lavinia before leaving that she has been invited to the Seeker Lodge for some reason.
Then they head to the Taxidermist's Guildhall, and after a very brief scuffle, Shade manages to charm Nemian Roblach.
After talking with him for a short, Nemian reveals that the Lotus Dragons use his shop as an entrance to their guild hall below. He show's them the secret passage to the entrance. But that now that he's revealed this information, he's going to have to leave town, pronto. They let him go.
Climbing down the ladder into the dark damp beneath the guildhall, the party finds themselves in a rough hewn tunnel with some sand beneath their feet. Exploring further they find a tidal pool cave with a carpet of sea urchins all about. As they look around the space, they attract the attention of two sea ray like creatures that quickly move in to attack the intruders. Shade puts one to sleep and the other flees into the further water filled tunnels.
Instead of following it out in the water, the party turns back to a door that was by the ladder. It leads to a brick lined hallway and there is another door.
Moving quickly from door to door, then carefully searching each door for traps, they start to realize that the halls and rooms of this place are eerily quiet and empty. Eventually stumbling upon some card playing Lotus Dragon thieves, the party subdues them and ties them up.
The party is currently resting after a fight with a crocodile that was chained up west of a large chamber partially filled with brackish water and rotting seaweed.
Trapped by Vanthus under in the dark and wet smuggler's tunnels below Parrot Island, the party seeks an alternate way out.
Cautiously moving deeper into the man-made halls of the hideout, the group quickly attracts the attention of a group of ravenous zombie pirates who try to devour them with their powerful jaws.
A few close calls and groups of zombies later, the group makes it's way into a large chamber that has partially collapsed. There is a pool of water with a body floating in it. As Hal goes to inspect, he is assaulted by an army of monstrous crabs that try but fail to pierce his adamantine shell to any real effect.
Afterwards they encounter another kind of undead, a huecuva, which Raf remembers from his religious teachings. With a bane undead infusion, Hal makes short work of him, but not before he frightens them with the cold black flame of his death touch.
Shade discovers the sea urchin's poison the hard way, then the group finds Penkus' final resting spot and his note. From there, Shade has a hunch and uses a spell to find the Treasure Chamber that others could not.
Inside they find three chests full of copper, silver, gold, gems, and items of various magical powers. A good haul for sure.
Once they find their way out via an underwater tunnel, the party makes it back to shore. While moving about town to identify magic items, they hear the rumours that old Keltar Islaran has been murdered during the night!
The party plans to go speak with Lavinia before heading out in search of her brother once more.
It's not explained in the book either. For me it isn't a problem, but for the people I spoke to that didn't like it, it was the major reason they disliked the film. The major idea, I think, is that infertility is a metaphor for the loss of compassion and humanity in the human race.
If that was the intent, fine. I would prefer in that case that the author/director hint at it, at least. Perhaps Key has a minor epiphany as her child is born, or whatever. I'm not saying the movie has to end with 'and they all lived happily ever after' but I need at least the hint of an explanation for my peace of mind.
On the other hand, if the author/director doesn't want the story to be about discovering the cause of the infertility I'd like to have SOMETHING. Just say that it's a disease or pollution...something other than forcing me to take the situation on faith.
But the reason it happens is unimportant (as has been said before) to the plot of the film. It just serves as a starting point and an explanation for why the world became so topsy turvey. And there were some hints in the movie... well, not hints, but I believe there was some conjecture made by a couple of characters... Theo and Jaspar maybe?
Anyways... I have to add my name to the list of people who loved this movie too.
Great character arc for Theo. I like how this movie also didn't pull any punches or give in to Hollywood temptation and throw in action movie sequences. The camera work was amazing, and as was said before, very visceral.
My wife was in tears at the end of the movie, in shock. She doesn't usually go to these kinds of realistic/thinkpiece movies, and we really hadn't read or seen anything about this one before going except that it had some very good cinematography and the basic premise that humanity was infertile.
And I loved some of the irony in the film, especially with the title of the film what it is... all these people willing to kill and generally be animalistic to fellow human beings... does not fill me with great hope.
There is No Honour: Session Three
Our fresh faced adventurer's finished off the second half of their trials at the 6th Annual Zelkarune Challenge of Champions, only having trouble with one event.
They squeaked ahead of the second place team The Sasserine Serpents (led by the dangerously beautiful Diamondback) who didn't seem to pleased to be bested by the newcomers.
The team is awarded gold medals, lifetime membership in Zelkarune's Horns should they want it, and of course the prestige in the city for having won the tournament.
After the medal ceremonies, there was much celebrations to be had, and Lavinia meets up with her agents to congratulate them, and introduce them to the beautiful redhead Rowyn Kellani who had made a side wager with Lavinia. Rowyn of course lost her bet to Lavinia, but didn't seem that terribly put out by it. Rowyn congratulates the team and heads out to see to her mother.
Lavinia reminds the party that she would like to see them as soon as they have some free time (after they've rested and had some downtime) for a very important task.
Bhuvinder is approached by a gaggle of shy young women and one slightly bolder one offers for her to join their Young Women's Special Advisory Committee of the Dawn Council. They could use a strong figurehead such as herself to promote the image of a woman able to fend for herself in the city. Trying to break the remaining impressions the years of slave trade left in Sasserine, the committee already has several young noblewomen in their fold which allowed them to move from being a bunch of concerned citizens to becoming an advisory group within the Dawn Council.
After a couple weeks training animals (Raf trains his monkey to stay and fetch and Bhu's birds to perform with her)and creating scrolls or purchasing equipment, the party is sent for by Lavinia. Kora gives them a matronly admonishment for taking their sweet time.
When the party arrives they learn of Lavinia and Vanthus' childhood and Vanthus' subsequent fall into a bad crowd and disappearance.
Lavinia tasks them with finding where Vanthus is, and to bring him to her so she can talk some sense into him.
The party sets out right away and gathers some info around town. Seems Vanthus has been seen about with one Brissa Vantos, an artist/petty thief. They ask around Azure district, with little success, Sunshine similarly is devoid of information.
Finally after 2 days of searching high and low, in Shadowshore Shade and Raf find out that Vanthus had purchased a boat along with a man named Penkus at the store It Still Floats!. They loaded it up with equipment and headed west. Excited with the news, the two purchase their own skiff and head off to meet their companions in Merchant.
Meanwhile in the Merchant District, Bhuvinder recognizes the eight pointed star carved into the door of the large lodge building near Fishback market. Seeing Bhu's interest and hearing the possible connection between it and the Vanderboren Vault, Halcyon knocks on the heavy wooden door (much to Bhuvinder's shock at such audacity).
A snooty servant answers the door, questions them and Bhu tells some story about being sent by the Vanderboren's. The name catches his attention but he tells them to wait outside. 10 minutes later, he returns and bids them enter the guest room. Inside, Hal and Bhu meet Feldus Selvant, a soft spoken man in fine clothes wearing two rapiers at his hips. After a brief conversation, he tells them to come back with Lavinia, when she is next available.
Leaving they see their friends Raf and Shade pulling up in their boat and share what they've learned. They are interrupted by the sound of Shefton "Twitch" Rosk calling out to Shade to come talk to him down by the dock.
Twitch reveals that he's heard they're looking for Vanthus, and he can help them find him if they give him 10gp. He figures he'll get more money selling out Vanthus than Vanthus would give him for helping him excavate the new hideout for his smuggling operation.
The party agrees, Bhuvinder hesitantly due to he low opinion of those such as Twitch, and they head off under the direction of their new guide.
He takes them just a short trip over to Parrot Island (just off of Shadowshore), so named due to the many bright feathered birds that take up residence there.
Leading them up an overgrown path to the center of the island, Twitch takes them to a clearing wherein lies a concealed stone trap door in the rocky ground.
Taking his pay, he says he'll close the door behind them before he leaves, if they want him to. Shade pays him for his help, and climbs down the rope that is fixed into the wall of the dark shaft below the trapdoor. In the darkness he searches around the damp carved room.
Raf tells monkey to stay up here, and climbs down after with a lit torch so he and the non-tieflings can see.
Twitch offers a hand to Bhu so she can climb down. She politely refuses and climbs down easily of her own accord. Twitch bows in a very clumsy attempt at nobility. Halcyon climbs down last, pressing his feet firmly to the rock wall and grasping the rope tight in his metal fists.
As the hollow sounds of his landing footsteps fade, and the party shuffles in the eerie torchlight, they hear a grunt of surprise from above, and then the screeching of Raf's monkey. Moments later, the body of Shefton "Twitch" Rosk plummets to the ground before them and they see him land on his head in a very bad way. He lays still before them in the dank, and then they hear from above, "Say hello to Penkus' ghost for me while you're down there! This is what you get for messing about with my sister and for asking too many questions!" Looking up they see the shadowy form of Vanthus Vanderboren, holding the now silent monkey in one hand, and a bloody knife in the other. He slashes the rope free and as it piles down the shaft, he throws the poor monkey's corpse to the bottom with disdain and vanishes. Another moment later and the trap door slams shut and the party hears the sound of a large rock or something else very heavy being rolled onto it.
Suddenly the sound stops, and all they hear is the gentle sound of water washing against rock somewhere in the distance.
Having agreed to accompany Lavinia to the Vault, the next morning, the party travels to Teraknian Castle by Lavinia's coach, and down into the Vault.
The dwarven clerk escorts them to the Vandeboren vault within, gives Raf's pet monkey a stern eye, then takes his leave.
At the iron door to the vault the party sees a strange 8 pointed star symbol that none of them recognize, though Lavinia and Shade both find it familiar. After trying the door with the Vanderboren ring, Halcyon gives it back to Lavinia to try, and finds that it opens to an ante chamber with vaulted ceiling and pillars carved as snakes.
When the party moves in to investigate, Raf is set upon by an Iron Cobra as it uncoils from its hiding place at the base of one of the columns.
After a savage fight where both Raf and Bhu are bitten (Raf a couple of times) by the snake's venomous fangs, Shade discovers a hidden switch on the northern pillar set against the wall.
When the flip is switched the snakes of the column writhe away to form an archway leading to the actual vault chamber.
The walls of the room are carved into monstrous visages, and there is another grooved pillar in the center of the room.
After much discussion and debate, and using the note from Verik Vanderboren's ring, the adventurers unlock the combination of the vault and the 7 alcoves open to reveal the Vanderboren fortune.
Of course, once Lavinia starts going through the chests, she discovers to her horror that all of the treasure is missing! The chests are empty! It's not until the final alcove that she finds anything all.
She recovers only a small portion of what was to be in the vault, some ledgers recording some debts owed to the family by other nobles and her mother's journal (written in a strange elven-like language).
Discouraged, but determined, Lavinia thanks the party and pays them what she promised, and also asks them to come see her as soon after the next day's Challenge of Champions tournament as they can, so that they can help her with the next very important task she has for them.
As they leave the Castle, Lavinia stops and asks the clerk if anyone else had been in to the family vault recently. The clerk replies that Vanthus had been in several times in the last month and is surprised that he's supposed to be missing. Lavinia and the party ask that they be notified if he should attempt to re-enter the vault.
The next day is the 6th Annual Zelkarune's Horns' Challenge of Champions!
The party arrives to the brightly lit tents set up on the arena floor of Zelkarune Arena. They spy Diamondback, apparantly an old classmate of Bhu's from dance academy, and her team who are taking side pool on who will win the tournament. The party enters the pool and makes sure that the money will be kept by someone trustworthy.
The Challenge is comprised of 10 scenario events, designed to test the resourcefulness and teamwork skills of each team. Points are awarded for each teammate who finishes each scenario successfully, then tallied up at the end to see which team is this year's winners!
So far, the party has finished half their events, and have succeeded perfectly at all of them (although a couple with only seconds to spare). Will they fare so well on the second half? We'll have to wait and see! Tune in next week, for another exciting episode of... The Savage Tide!
Most historians would later look back on the events leading up to the Savage Tide and say that it all began when Verik and Larissa's boat burned up with them inside. But there are a few, who would look a bit further into things, and conclude that things actually began 9 months earlier, when certain events brought the attention of Lord and Lady Vanderboren to settle on the heroes of the tale.
The group all meet out front of Baldrick's warehouse in Sunrise District, where Bhu and Raf are introduced to Hal and Shade. Upon entering the warehouse they discover it in utter chaos, animals running rampant, birds and monkies up in the rafters. Before they can do anything, a large tiger bounds past them and runs into the street. Verik and Larissa give chase, indicating that the party should do what they can to assist Baldrick in this mess.
After dealing with a pair of frightened Shocker Lizards who had escaped their crates, the party easily corrals the rest of the animals and birds (especially with Raf's help) and they find Baldrick unconcious and bleeding from mysterious, possibly animal wrought, wounds.
Baldrick reveals that he was involved in a shady deal with some men he only knew through a contact from Shadowshore, Shefton "Twitch" Rosk (who Shade was familiar with, having done some work for him in the past).
The men stiffed Baldrick, took his animals and used them to disguise the fact that they were smuggling something.
Trying to find out who this was, and more importantly stop them, the group hit the streets trying to find out where they could have gone. Making their way to the docks in Azure District, they encounter Keltar Islaran, and find him to be most unhelpful due to his doddering incompetance, but find out from a dockhand that the shipment of animals did indeed make it onto a ship, but it also was being done by very "organized" people, and that they really shouldn't involve themselves.
Eventually they decide to take the information they do have to the Vanderborens (who have by then recovered the tiger for Baldrick) and are commended on the leg work they did.
Verik and Larissa then invite the group to be their sponsored team in the next annual Champion's Challenge at the Zelkarune Arena, a special tournament for adventuring types. The Vanderboren's feel that this group, while inexperienced, has the right skills to stand a chance, especially if they can learn some things in the coming months prior to the event.
(end prelude and fast forward nine months)
The players hear through the grapevine of a terrible fire that consumes Lord and Lady Vanderboren on their new boat, and they are not sure whether they are still sponsored at the upcoming tournament. Looking into things, Bhu finds the names of several other teams entered into the contest, notably one of them being The Sasserine Serpents (a name she recognizes from her time at Telvanta Dance Acadamy, a clique of girls who dropped out, led by their nasty leader, who prefers to call herself Diamondback).
Soon enough they get a missive requesting they come to Vanderboren manor to speak with Lavinia, Verik and Larissa's daughter.
Since her parents thought so well of them last year, Lavinia figures that they will be the perfect group to ask for assistance in aquiring the signet ring from The Blue Nixie, her parent's other boat.
After hearing of all the trouble she's had in getting the boat from the harbormaster's men, the party agrees to deal with it.
The plan was to wait until dusk, then the Warforged would climb up and distract the thugs on the starboard while the rest of the party snuck around to the portside and surprised them.
It didn't all go according to plan, but the party did make short work of Soller Vark's men, and even charmed Soller in the process, but not before he ordered the ship on fire and the Rhagodessa gets loose.
After a grueling fight that involved Raf nearly being eaten, and Halcyon bravely fighting the beastie off, the party is able to put out the fire and search the ship, finding Verik's ring and the 100 platinum that Lavinia had paid to Vark.
Returning to Lavinia, the party makes her very happy when they return her items. She is so happy, that she offers them regular employment for very good pay as personal guards and troubleshooters, on top of their reward for recovering the ring.
She invites them to help her with their first task, to accompany her to the Vanderboren family vault in Teraknian Castle and protect her from any guardians that may be there. The party of course agrees and they either sleep at the manor or on board the Blue Nixie.
I'm looking forwards to seeing how the ap plays out in eberron, as my players will likely demand I run it likewise when I get around to setting up a new campaign.
It should be fun. We're playing our first "real" session tonight with all players present. I'll post about it afterwards as per usual.
Glad to see someone is actually reading this too. :)
Tonight we had the second short prelude session for the campaign; this time focusing on Raf and Bhu (Dave and Kathryn's respective characters).
We started with Raf the shifter druid of Sunrise district doing work for an animal merchant named Baldrick. Raf typically spends most of his time out in the jungle anyways, but finds that from time to time he needs to go back to the city for various reasons. In order to get some money for his time spent in the city, he helps Baldrick by catching and taming animals to sell.
This time around, Raf finds out that Baldrick has hired many more people to bring in animals and that he needs help bringing the cages and crates of animals back to his warehouse in the city. Not having anything better to do, the druid agrees.
Meanwhile, having just finished a job (entertainment for an evening party) for Verik and Larissa Vanderboren, Bhu the human dancer (bard) is offered her choice of an animal from one of the lord and lady's merchant friends. Seemingly excited by the prospect, Bhu follows the Vanderboren's down to Sunrise to Baldrick's warehouse.
Baldrick, who owes Larissa a favor from a long ago incident, is happy to offer up whatever pet Bhu finds to her liking. The merchant also offers up Raf's knowledge of the animals, if they have any questions, even though Larissa probably knows plenty.
After a short while of perusing the many caged birds and animals, Bhu settles on a pair of lovebirds, who she gets Raf to speak to in order to find out more of what they like, so she can take good care of them.
Some small talk is exchanged by all, and both Raf and Bhu notice the Vanderboren's sizing Raf up for some reason. Raf also notices that Baldrick is a little nervous when discussing the big deal that has him bringing in so much fauna from the jungle.
After leaving the warehouse, the Vanderboren's invite the two to join them for a small meal at the Restless Lion, which is just around the corner.
The reason for this becomes apparant shortly after arriving, when Verik reveals that they are there to rendezvous with someone from the Meravanchi family, who is coming to payback a favour that they owe the Vanderborens.
Soon enough, they are met by the good looking, but very boorish Avner Meravanchi, who Bhu has heard of, but hasn't had the "pleasure" of meeting before. Avner wastes no time in making an impression, paying Verik then promptly leaving for The Hunter's Trap gambling hall next door (on his prized horse, Thunderstrike).
Before everyone departs for their respective homes, Verik questions Raf about his work for Baldrick, and find out that Raf is to come back in a week to do more work for the merchant. Curiously, Verik states that they'd like to come back and check things out, just to make sure things go smoothly for their friend and they look forward to meeting again.
Has anyone created or converted PHII affiliations for major organisations or are people using the ones listed in Dragon magazine all those months ago? I ask because I've prepared a Wayfinder Foundation, Greensingers, Church of the Silver Flame and Emerald Claw affiliation based on the Dragon mag article if anyone wants to see them. They're currently in Word format but I can convert them to PDF if there's enough interest.
I'm totally interested in seeing what you've done with them, Jason!
Please send (word is fine) to chris (underscore) slater (at) telus (dot) net
Up here in Vancouver, BC, we're supposed to get 80+ km/h winds all night... I'm in one of the suburbs and it's pretty windy outside right now... lots of rain too... last week we got hammered and it wreaked some havoc with power, transit and trees. Our hydro crews are already preparing for more of the same.
Yeah, that I don't know... I'll have to take a look at the effects in the magazine when I get home tonight. I can't really see a warforged growing another head, but that is the supernatural part of the disease...
Maybe it doesn't have a partial effect, maybe it is a completely different effect...
Morgenes wrote:
That's what I was hoping for! Let me know if you want my plans for the dungeons in Excel and/or PDF format, I can shoot them your way. It includes my modified layouts and piece counts on how many pieces it takes to make each layout as well as how many pages you need to print to get that many pieces.
Would I? Yes sirree!
If you could send 'em to:
chris (underscore) slater (at) telus (dot) net
that'd be great! Thanks! Could you send them in both PDF and Excel? If the file sizes aren't too big. PDF will be good to look at, and the Excel will be handy if I feel up to making my own modifications.
I hadn't really thought that far ahead... I have one warforged artificer in my campaign... so it might not be a huge issue if only one of them is immune to the effects.
But, I would like there to be some threat. Making it supernatural and not stopped by his immunities would make them freak out for sure... but I'm not sure if it's fair or not. It does take away from one of the benefits of their race. Even if they are a pretty powerful race.
Perhaps it only partially affects them?
I think that's what I'm going to do, unless I can think of something better, or unless someone here can present me with a better option.
BTW - I think I'm going to try my hand at some of the World Works stuff this holiday! Thanks for the inspiration the other thread!
How are people incorporating the Inspired in their STAP: Eberron if at all?
I'm pretty much following Keith Baker's advice in his conversion notes where Scarlet Brotherhood == The Inspired.
So the embassy is an embassy for Riedra, and the monk fellow who's a spy is one of the Inspired.
The smugglers are a bunch of Riedrans working for the Inspired, the blockade ships probably have Inspired captains. And the Scarlet Camp at the Isle of Dread is likewise a forward force trying to glean the secrets of the Isle before Khorvairans do.
I've been to four different bookstores in the last two days, and nobody has the Eberron Campaign Setting in stock. There doesn't appear to be an online version of it at WOTC's website, and my other internet searches have been fruitless so far. Needless to say, it's kind of hard to sell the idea of a new core class to a player when you can't even show them the whole thing.
Dalesman, I might be able to help you with the Artificer class.
Send me an email: chris [underscore] slater [at] telus [dot] net
MarkB, thanks for the link. And your warning about the pun fell on deaf ears, I'm afraid. ;)
Okay, so it's a lava lamp.
But what COULD it be then, that might come up later in a adventure down the road? Anyone got any fun ideas?
It's a Lava Lamp of Love! When activated, it grants a +4 enhancement bonus to Charisma to all within it's range and a +2 circumstance bonus to Diplomacy and Bluff checks if being used for an act of seduction. The effect has a radius of 20 feet.
Let's see... I may get some romance popping up in my campaign.
I've got:
Halcyon, male oriented Warforged Artificer... probably will make good friends with Urol... no romance likely.
Shade, male tiefling Sorceror... decent Charisma, maybe with one of the ladies, more likely Rowyn though, which could be interesting and maybe tragic.
Bhu, female changeling Bard (who passes as human all the time)... gets her way by seduction and deception usually, Avner seems like a likely choice, until he ruins it, I'm sure, but maybe Skald...
then there's the male Shifter Druid (no name yet) who I can't see getting into the romance game, but you never know...
It seems like it'll be a lot of fun to play up any romances or even just friendships/rivalries in this campaign. Makes for good fun!
Sean, I know you were joking about the Brokeback Dungeon thing, but I think you shouldn't dismiss it if it makes some sense. Characters can't help who they fall in love with. :)
Just in case anyone's interested, I'll post my session reports here as well as the yahoogroup I have set up for my campaign.
Prelude Session One (Shade and Halcyon)
Tonight Greg and Jason finished up their characters and I ran them through a short roleplay session where they met each other about a year before the campaign begins.
In Shadowshore, Greg's character, a tiefling sorceror known by some as "Shade", is asked by one of his shifty contacts, Twitch, to do a job of filling a list of clockwork parts from a Warforged tinkerer known to wander about the markets of the Merchant District. He is to meet back up with Twitch at The Plucked Parrot Inn at 6 bells. Shade rents a small raft or gondola from It Still Floats! and makes his way over to the Merchant District.
The tinkerer is actually Jason's character Halcyon Andonandon, a Warforged Artificer (Eberron race and class) who makes repairs clockwork toys and clock. He pulls a little cart around town and works out of the back of it. He stays in a shed behind Gregair's Place in exchange for lifting kegs of ale or mead into the tavern off of wagons or just helping out around the place.
While Shade looks around for Hal, Hal get's stopped by a young boy who's toy broke. Well, Hal stops his cart in the middle of the narrow Mead street to fix the toy. Because it's been so long since he's made one of these toys, it takes him a bit longer than normal to fix (he rolled low on his skill roll). Some more kids start gathering around with the first one, and they stare as the Warforged works on the toy. Pretty soon, other people are gathering around or are getting frustrated and having to move around the crowd, and soon there is quite a bit of congestion around the calmly working Hal.
Shade, a few blocks away, hears murmurs as some of the disgruntled merchants on the street send for the watch, and as he soon hears that there may have been a warforged involved he goes to investigate. The watch clear out the crowd and give Hal a warning, as he finishes up the toy repair. The kids run gleefully off, and Shade approaches Hal with his list.
Hal can sell him all but one item on the list. A No.3 Samophlange. But he figures that old Domaskio at Domaskio's Consortium could sell them a Samophlange. They head over. The old puppeteer would gladly sell them one, but he seems to be out of Samophlanges. But he looks up in his toy maker's manual what the No.3 Samophlange is used for, so they could possibly find another elsewhere. They discover that it's used in clamping inside seams together in stuffed toy animals and puppets, but also in taxidermy projects. So he sends Shade and Hal over to Nemian Roblach at the Taxidermy Guildhall and bids them tell him that Domaskio sent them.
Getting there, they discover the Guildhall crammed full of stuff animals, from bats to a small black dragon. Nemian doesn't really wish to part with his Samophlange at the cost price of 1 gold, but if they were to buy something, he might be willing to do so. Hal knows that some of the larger animals like the monkies or the dragon probably used No. 3 Samophlanges so inquires as to their prices. Unable to afford those larger animals, they make a deal with Roblach to buy a stuffed bat at regular price of 5gp, and the samophlange for 1gp. Being that he was only interested in making a sale, Nemian agrees. Claiming that he's very busy working on a stuffed jaguar project on commission for the Church of Dol Dorn, he quickly ushers the two out the door.
With the list now completed several hours ahead of schedule, Shade offers to go have a drink at the Restless Lion with Hal who agrees, despite not needing to drink anything.
While enjoying their relaxation, the two are approached by the wizened halfling woman Kora Whistlegap, who Hal has met before when he did some clock repair for a local noble family, the Vanderborens. It seems that their clocks needed retuning, so if Hal could please come see to it right away, the Vanderborens are hosting an event that evening. His strange looking friend could come too if he wanted.
So they go see to the clocks, they get to see a bit of Vanderboren manor, and say hi to Verik Vanderboren.
On their way off of manor grounds, they are accosted by a wild eyed gnome in dishevelled scholar's outfit laden with books and scrolls, who excitedly tells them about how he's been waiting for them to arrive (over there in a little leanto apparantly), and that the prophecy foretold this, that "the darkskinned horny man" would leave the "griffon's den" accompanied by the "toy soldier". It was all so clear! They would travel a far distance, to jungled shores, much danger to beware. But he said, it was all part of the Draconic Prophecy, so they needn't worry, no sir! The others would be along soon enough! Beware the two-faced monkey of despair!
As they muttered and disregarded the crazy gnome's ravings they noticed Larissa Vanderboren watching the proceedings calmly from the second floor of the manor.
That looks amazing! Good work on that! Thanks for giving the idea on how much time/money/effort it takes to put it together too, I really appreciate that. Perhaps I'll put one together over the Christmas holidays before I start the campaign off.
Question: Are you going to use it as the model for the Sea Wyvern as well or will you make a modified version?
I'm not familiar with the 'scout' color. Is that kind of a mottled green?
Perhaps he's talking about make-up? Scout might be that dull black stuff that commandos and scouts use on their faces as opposed to the stuff that women (and actors) use.
I am wondering at what height the opening, with the Illusory Wall, is above room D9 in the Lotus Dragon Guild Hall. The information about D9 says the water rised by a foot every two minutes until 8 feet from the cave roof. So I'm wondering at what point does the theif firing his crossbow in room D11 have to leave to avoid drowning?
Liam
It rises very slowly, only a foot every two mins... that's 20 rounds to raise a foot. The combat should be over, one way or another, long before it becomes an issue. I think the bigger issue may be can the PC's get through the doors by then.
Thanks Somnambulant. I placed a big order with the non-Paizo website yesterday (sorry guys, you're still my favorite). This is the first time that I'll really be using minis in a campaign, so I'm excited to see how it'll turn out.
El Skootro
No prob, El Skootro! I hope the minis make it more fun for you and your players, and that my sheet makes it easier to keep track of it all.
On that note - Anyone have any ideas on what to use for the Ixitxachatil (i'm sure i'm spelling that wrong) at the end of There Is No Honour... I just realized I don't have anything for them either...
Yeah, that wereshark mini is awesome. Reaper also has a really nice Demogorgon (not what they call it, but obviously what it is), and I'll definitely be picking this up for later in the campaign.
I just won an auction for the Demogorgon D&D mini on eBay for 10 bucks... can't wait to use it!
I'd go with 5 but then again I have 5 players in my (non-ST)campaign. A lot depends on how reliable your players are and whether or not you think they will attend every session. If some players are going to be missing sessions then you may want to have an extra player or two.
Olaf the Stout
I'm about to start the STAP as well, and I've got 4-5 players (5 but one isn't sure if he'll be able to play all the time).
I think 6 is an absolute maximum. 3-5 is my preferred range however.
As for the STAP toughness, I think 4-5 should be fine, assuming they have a decent party balance and have the four corners somewhat covered (tank/damage dealer, cleric, rogue/skills & trap monkey, arcane/knowledge monkey).
I had considered the Fiendish Giant Scorpion and the Huge Fiendish Spider as what most closely resembles a rhagodessa. However, the rhagodessa is a medium sized creature so those large minis would throw off the combat.
You could just make it a large creature, but that might make them really tough for low level PC's...
Also - I've emailed out the spreadsheet to those who requested above. Enjoy!
It seems like to me that by levels 5-7, when people are ready to prestige up, they're in the middle of the ocean on a boat, on their way to the IoD.
Do they get "schooled" back in Sasserine and level it up on the 'ship when they get the requisites filled?
Maybe they can be "book taught"? ;)
Not sure if I'll bother restricting it... perhaps the PC has been already on the road to discovery of the skills for that PrC, and has justfinally now mastered them? Could be one way to look at it...
I got a set of 10 plastic bullywogs for 4.oo off of ebay.
I made an excel spreadsheet of all the encountered monsters and NPC's in the campaign so far, and am locating figs for each of them... been pretty successful so far, if I can't find an exact match, I can find something pretty close. Hardest so far have been the Rhagodessa... torn between small dragons, or Mad Slashers...
But I nabbed some Bullywugs from someone, and some Sharn Cuthroats and Cloudreavers for rogues/pirate types.
I can probably email the spreadsheet to anyone who wants it.
The Vanderboren's have sponsored the PC's (whom they met in each of the PC's backstories) as a team in the upcoming Challenge of Champions (the Dungeon issue prior to the start of the AP had one) being held in the Arena by Zelkarune's Horns.
The Vanderboren's of course perish before the tournament, but they are already paid up, so can still compete. Lavinia will approach the PC's the day or two before the Challenge begins so they can get the battle on the Blue Nixie out of the way then do the Challenge. Afterwards, Lavinia will approach them about her other work as she is now thoroughly impressed by how they've handled themselves (hopefully).
Today is Worldwide D&D Gameday. I thought it would be good to share our experiences.
I'm prepared to run the standard adventure at one venue. I'm also prepared to run the battle between the colossal red dragon vs. the 4 20th level characters that was recently posted on the WotC site at two venues.
I ran the prepared adventure, "Curse at <something> Abbey" (forget the name of it already).
The party had a pretty easy time of it until the Hellcat as well. It Pounced on the Paladin who went in just ahead of the rest of the party, taking him from max hp down to negatives, but he used his Second Wind card to bring him back to 0 hp. The fighter and rogue came in next to take on the beast, both hitting fairly well since the wizard Glitterdusted the kitty. Paladin puts himself back into negatives with a last ditch attack, and the Hellcat takes the fighter down to negs, and all was looking like the rest of the party was going to be kitty food, when the rogue grabs the paladin's fallen bless weaponed mace and bashes the thing down for the win! A fun end, and none of the PC's perished.
I'm seeking a few able-bodied individuals to assist me at Gen Con So Cal in Anaheim, CA from 11/16 - 11/19. I will need you from 10 A.M. until 6 P.M. Thursday through Saturday and 10 A.M. until 4 P.M. on Sunday. You will be running KDL Live Play events in the hall outside the dealer hall and will be rewarded with glorious praise from the Paizo staff! Oh, and free stuff.
I'm putting together a comprehensive Thank You! pack for helping us out that includes GameMastery, Official D&D, Titanic products, and a free four day badge to the show.
The more folks I can get to help the better. Previous experience playing Kill Doctor Lucky would be nice, but is not required.
If you're interested, please email me at josh@paizo.com with the subject line "Gen Con Volunteer" or leave me a message at 425-289-1345. Serious inquiries only, please.
Thanks!
Darn! I wish you could have posted this a few months ago, then I could have saved up money for airfare/hotel. Myself and another former Cheapass Demo monkey here in Vancouver, BC would totally fly down for that, and we have plenty of demo experience.
Wonder what the drive would be like...
Jealous now.
Next year I guess... next year...
Actually, that reminds me, you could probably get some help from the Cheapass Demomonkey team if you asked 'em... there is still an email list that they use to communicate far and wide with monkies all over the place, for just such events.
oh... don't worry. We did set aside time to work on this stuff before Gen Con, which is why we're able to bring them to you before 2007.
Remember also that Keith and Eric also get hit with the Gen Con syndrome, so it's not just the production end of things that slows down the web enhancements.
Apologies for my last post. Of course you set time aside ahead of time... you guys are running a first rate magazine. For the first time in years, I'm seriously considering getting a subscription again to Dragon magazine, and my first subscription to Dungeon. And I just managed to track down a copy of issue #114 with the map of The Isle of Dread (The Savage Tide is sucking me in).
Anyways, thanks again for thinking of doing the Eberron conversion notes, I'm stoked!
I certainly believe they'll be released. Again, it takes us a few months to catch up after Gen Con robs nearly two weeks from the magazine's schedule, and during those months we never have time to catch up. More or less with today's turnover to press of issue #142, it looks like we're finally getting ahead of things again. This week's primary goal is to get the art/map supplements and conversions up and online through issue #140, with #141 coming along after ASAP.
Huzzah! Bet it feels good to be back ahead of the game again, James!
I was wondering, since it's an annual occurrence couldn't you set aside a little bit of time each week for a month or two ahead of GenCon to prepare the enhancements ahead of time?
Might not be feasible, but if you were to get a head of the game by an issue or two then you would have more breathing room when things like GenCon happen.
I am sure that there are people on the boards, who would donate time and help. If you need any help outside of the place, you just give the word. I mean I am no professional, but I'd be happy to help.
I *am* a professional with my own small company who'd gladly help out. Perhaps I'll send an email to Mr. Jacob's with a proposal.
Question: Let's say we've got a fighter, who's got the improved Trip feat and prefers to swing around a spiked chain as weapon of preference. He's got a base attack bonus of 6, meaning 2 attacks in a round. Say he's within range of 2 goblins. Can he trip both, one per attack, or can he trip one, be succesful, give up his extra attack after tripping and trip the other, be successful on that one as well, then hit both? Just wondering. I don't think the rules say, so it's open to discussion.
I think he has to take his automatic attack immediately upon the successful trip attack. I could be wrong though.
So it would go:
1st attack
(if successful then bonus attack on 1st tripped victim)
2nd attack
(if successful then bonus attack on 2nd tripped victim)
Does that answer your question? Or did I miss it completely?
Why not for second issue, I received it a few days ago.
I just have to start tearing my issue apart for scanning...
And then OCR, and then copy and paste and format to get the "Monsters Stat Blocks" doc done. I do it for me because I am a "paperless" DM, and in the end, as the doc is on my hard drive, why would I not share?
:)
Can I get in on this friendly sharing action? my email is:
I need to stress alignments in Eberron by having them move to Chaotic alignments. The good aligned cleric could have a crisis when a spell is needed but the Sovereign Host isn't answering.
(slightly offtopic) I don't know if you're running Eberron "by the book" or not, but The Sovereign Host as written wouldn't necessarily withhold spells from their clerics for an alignment shift. Flip to the section on the deities, i think it's in there, or maybe on clerics in Eberron. Alignment is a bit more... messy in Eberron. Doesn't mean you can't run it with a more standard method of alignment...(/slightly offtopic)
But you are right, there should be something tangible that he PC's feel for their actions. Cause and effect, Just Desserts, Reaping what you Sow, etc. etc...
I would definitely give less of a bonus out, as Lavinia's working with less money on hand now. And yeah, if she suspects them of screwing her over... cut them loose as James said, why would she hire them on for anything else? If she has concrete proof, call in the authorities.
If the party wants to play brigands and thieves, then they should really get to. They will start finding themselves out of work for the more upstanding citizens, and Rowyn's offer may be the only one they get.
