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I liked the name. Not only did I find it intriguing (this was the first monster that caught my eye), I like the way it evokes the key visual characteristic of this beast. I don't think of oysters as having hands, so I would have appreciated more of an explanation for how it could wield a scimitar. But I haven't really played Pathfinder yet, so maybe I'm just unfamiliar with the characteristics of its mollusks.
I do think people are being a little nitpicky with the Golarion framework here. Those problems are easily fixed, even with a hamhanded "unite the clans" story starter. And while I think it's good to point out that the place simply can't work as a sewer, it would be easy to change the location. In my case, at least, I'm basing my judgment on how much I feel like adventuring there. And this place looks really cool. This map is not just well-drawn; it has a lot of evocative material. Writhing room, corpse floor, starving wizard, fighting pit--I like it. In fact, it's one of my favorites.
Congrats! Here's one question that I had: Why a nauseate effect? I had trouble reconciling that effect with the visual of beautiful butterflies.
Really like the simplicity of this low-powered, low-cost item. Re-roll (instead of additional bonus) seems like an apt effect.
Fantastic. My favorite so far of the top 32.
Makes me think we need more Paizo modules with a Scottish highlands theme. Or maybe even an AP that ultimately takes the characters into the equivalent of the English castle.
One of my favorites. This item is interesting because it also gives ideas for similar encounter strategies.
The party
Having gone upstairs to sell and buy, the party returned to Jazidrune to bust down more doors and wipe out more monsters. Finally provided with a rough map of the area, they intelligently made their way toward the place on the map that looked like a dead end (i.e., location of a bad guy or a way to him.) On their way to this elevator, they negotiated with a mimic, who demanded a week's worth of cooked beef for the peaceful surrender of the familiar he was guarding. Getting the week's worth of cooked beef required a trip upstairs and finding a willing cook, who, knowing when he had someone over a barrel, demanded more gold than the party had for the service. Tomorrow morning, the party will report to his place of work bright and early to clean the stables. (Perhaps they will name themselves "The Muckrakers"--'twould be apt for this campaign, actually ...) The party returned, took the familiar, slaughtered the hobgobs in the elevator, and descended into the Malachite Hold in search of the lost orphans. In the first room past the elevator, they encountered a stone spike and, 1 round later, a filthy ogre. The party's tactics at this point consist of having the fighters go toe to toe with the creatures and applying healing to the fighters as needed. Alas, this technique was not enough to save the fighter from being critted with a falchion and dropping to -10. Fortunately, his deity looked with favor upon him that day, and the damage was redirected to the crusader. The party all understand now that future divine intervention must come at the cost of honestly acquired spells. The party proceeded to slash its way through 10 more hobgoblins and 2 lemures before confronting Kaz, a (wussy) half-dwarf, half-troll guarding his dishonestly acquired orphans. Possession being 9/10 of the law, he demanded money for giving them up. "You realize," said Splatboy, "That we've just wiped out your entire hobgoblin army." A few more terse exchanges later had them rolling for initiative. Kaz and his howler chum Prickles rolled horribly, and Kaz continued to roll horribly for the rest of the combat: he got dazed twice, and thus was not even able to summon his animated chains until the third round (then he got hit with sunstroke). Fortunately his fast healing kept him in business. After Prickles had downed the crusader, a few more hobs had appeared through another door, and the sound of rattling chains was heard at the end of the hallway, things were looking up for the monsters; Splatboy, ashen-faced, whispered, "I think we should run." Alas, the hobs went sleepity sleep, Prickles was blinded by the Swindlespitter, and the fighter stepped up and critted Kaz with a greataxe for 40 pts of damage, dropping him to -13 and killing him instantly. Thus the polyhedra turn. I could have made this fight a bit more interested with a chest of marbles from elsewhere in the hold that I forgot to use; also, I rather stupidly had all the newbie hobgoblins stand together upon their entrance, whereupon they became targets of the bard's sleep spell. Not to worry; I am spending my time improving the BBEG from the end of Chapter 2. Things that are becoming annoying:
The crusader's ability to improve everyone's AC by 2 for 10 rounds. He needs to go, and he will, and there's something that might be able to do that in the next chapter ... Cheers,
It was a pleasant surprise to return to this thread and see that an update was in demand! Indeed, the holidays did interrupt our nascent gaming session. In the meantime, I developed an interest in the Roman empire, and neglected to check this thread. We managed to get a session together last night, though, so I have an adventure update to post. But first, some issues. Last night, Kirby couldn't make it at the last minute, so he decided to let Splatboy and ValorPal run both of his characters. Since I didn't want to lose the gaming session altogether, and since I don't want to have a party defeat chalked up to lack of players, I decided to allow it. This decision became a problem when I reduced Kirby's barbarian to -10 HP and Splatboy said, "Kirby's gonna be kind of bummed if his character dies when he's not around." Softie that I am, I decided not to frag the Barbarian after all. I sent the party an email in which I explained that I won't be so generous in the future. I'll chalk that up as a character death to me, though. So that's 3 TCDs (Technical Characater Deaths) in three sessions. I could live with this average. Especially when the players are rolling as hot as they were last night. In reply to a question about the Swindlespitter's save DC: generally, you can customize animal companion feats. Splatboy chose Ability Focus: Poison, rather than one of the feats that he wouldn't normally use. But it makes me think that I should probably redo a few monster feats when I get the chance--does anyone here think doing so would be inappropriate? And yes, the last session gave us plenty of action and raised a few questions for me, but I'll break it up to go easy on the eyes . . .
Well . . . At the request of my long-suffering DM, who is currently taking a group of us through Ptolus, I decided to give DMing a shot. Fortunately I stumbled on the threads of Allen Stewart and Turin the Mad. I've DM'd in the past, so I have some sins to atone for: handing out magic items like Halloween candy . . . manipulating saves to allow party members to survive their stupidity . . . fearing the death of a PC as if it were my own. The wheel of karma turns some more; Shiva rises, 8-armed, to cut her path of destruction. But be warned: I've got nowhere near the experience of 3.5 that I see in other people on these boards. Hence the research, especially to figure out how to run advanced encounters. Allen and Turin have been most helpful in this respect; props to them. And I am going to need plenty more help and advice; I hope a few of you out there will be willing to provide it. Our group, alas, has but three people in it: Splatboy, master of all known realms of knowledge; Kirby, whose characters generally talk their way up greased poles; and ValorPal, lover of paladins, crusaders, clerics, and their ilk. Thus, each person is responsible for two PCs. A little research enabled me to nix the frenzied berserker ahead of time; I now know what to say as soon as Splatboy begins cackling ("No, you can't"). Unfortunately, having no advance knowledge of other potentially broken character classes, I allowed a crusader in without demur. While ValorPal slowly worked the point-buy system (40 pts; let it not be said that I am ungenerous) to produce his cleric, Splatboy reavealed 2 of the 7 mad schemes that had kept him up late in the previous week: A venerable dragonwrought kobold bard with a str 6, dex 18, int 18, cha 21; immune to sleep and paralysis. "What's cool about kobolds is that that they don't take penalties for aging," says Splatboy. A Tortle druid with Cha 6, Wis 20, Con 16. "It's the one template that increases your wisdom score without requiring a level adjustment," says Splatboy. The druid has a dinosaur animal companion: a little dinosaur with a breath weapon. Meanwhile, Kirby cooks up a half elf half fey warmage (6 Str, 21 Cha; immune to enchantment, can fly, can charm at will.) He has a level adjustment of +3; I am waiting to see how his 6 HP fare in CR3 encounters. As ValorPal finishes his cleric, Splatboy must take quite a few minutes to convince him to take the travel domain, which allows freedom of movement as a granted power. ValorPal is a bit new to the system, and has yet to encounter packs of ghouls. And with that, they are ready to enter the streets of Cauldron. They should make excellent spawn . . . * * * We've just had our first session, and already a bit of disappointment is in the air. Can long imprisonment count as character death? Join us next time as the PCs decide that, having been in the town all of two days, they are ready to shake down city hall. |
