Sterling Brunsvold's page

Greetings, folks, here's the latest stat block info for our iconic rogue. Note her latest feat - Ready for Anything - which has made our Lookout teamwork feat even more valuable. All four PCs being able to act in the surprise round is going to make such a big difference for the last half of this AP, we're so excited for the next marathon!

MERISIEL
Elf unchained rogue (relic raider) 10
CG Medium humanoid (elf)

AC 23, touch 16, flat-footed 18 (+7 armor, +1 deflection, +5 Dex)
hp 76 (10d8+20)
Fort +5, Ref +15, Will +5
Defensive Abilities curse sense +3, danger sense +3, evasion

Melee mwk rapier +13/+8 (1d6+5/18-20) or dagger +12/+7 (1d4+1/19-20)
Ranged dagger +12 (1d4+1/19-20)
Special Attacks debilitating injury, sneak attack +5d6
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 10th; concentration +11)
1/day—vanish
at will—detect magic

Feats Alertness, Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Lookout, Quick Draw, Ready for Anything, Skill Focus (Perception), Weapon Finesse
Skills Acrobatics +12, Appraise +10, Climb +5, Diplomacy +10, Disable Device +23, Escape Artist +9, Knowledge (dungeoneering, local) +10, Perception +26/+31 to locate traps or to notice haunts, Profession (sailor) +5, Sense Motive +17, Sleight of Hand +9, Spellcraft +15/+20 to identify cursed items, Stealth +18, Swim +5, Use Magic Device +10

Str 13, Dex 20, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 10

Traits Classically Schooled, Skillful
Alternate Racial Traits Human-Raised

If you haven't already seen it, our latest blog for Marathon #3 is up, so take a look!

That apparatus of the crab sounds fantastic, should be some glorious submarine adventuring in the future! I'm once again in awe of the work you all put into these marathons, truly inspiring stuff.

Frogs, thank you! Speaking of submarine adventuring, a couple of our members spent the weekend working on building a custom version of the apparatus of the crab (since the one in the adventure holds 4 creatures) to feature on the next blog report!

Deeper into Azlant we go!

Awesome part II, guys. Interesting to hear that an exploration adventure has diplomacy at it's focus! Great screenshot of that underwater battle. I am a bit hesitant of introducing 3D battles, not the least because I'm such a bumbling fool I can see me toppling these nice platforms all the time. How does 3D combat work out? Is it complicated? Does it add interesting elements or is it just a fancy add-on?

Also, I need to hear more about your love triangles, guys ;)

Ahh, the love triangles. Kyra and Merisiel had some interesting developments over the course of Marathon 2. More to come!

As far as underwater combat, I touched on this a bit on the blog recap. It tests many aspects of play (for me playing as a rogue, dealing with flanking and sneak attack requires some extra brain space). Positioning is already important on a 2D grid, so as you can imagine it becomes more so when you add the extra dimension and deal with diagonals. If you decide to use it, as I mentioned, make sure your players are familiar with all the new/revised rules for underwater combat. We have a custom initiative board that allows us to track spell duration and effects. You probably want to leverage something similar, digital or otherwise. Not only does it keep things clean, it actually helps build tension to have the reminder there all the time.

As far as bumbling the platforms and minis, over time it gets better but we still have our spills!

I DEMAND DIVINE VENGEANCE FOR THE DEATH OF MADAM SANDSTRIDER! The Feeder in the Depths must DIE!

...but seriously, I hope the party goes back when their more powerful to finish off that hellspawn and give the soul of Anya some closure! :(

...also maybe this time the party could have help in the form of Anya's ghost which wants justice for her death as well by needing that accursed aquatic abomination dead as well? ;) :D

Berselius, thanks for engaging once again. It's always good to see your name!

The feeder in the depths encounter was definitely nerve-racking and left us all feeling the hurt of losing Anya (as Aerick touched on). She was really beginning to become a great companion. Underwater combat is definitely a test of patience and vision. Adding the additional axis along with diagonal movement takes its toll. A few of our players cut their teeth using Stormwrack from 3.5, but some were new to detailed underwater encounters. As our GM, Adam, mentioned above, it can put the pressure meter on high as buffs tick off quickly at these low levels.

It might go without saying, but having a firm grasp of the expanded underwater rules from Aquatic Adventures is highly recommended to anyone looking to play Ruins of Azlant.

Wishful thinking of course, but Anya's ghost would be awesome. Incorporeal ally? Yes, please.

Wow, that's trippy. I'm a big fan of Cryo Chamber for ambient themed soundtracks. They do a lot of Lovecraftian themed albums.

--Vrock Lobster

Scott, thanks for stopping by! Cryo is indeed great for ambient sound. We tried to approach the soundtrack to this project from a different angle than we have some of our other stuff, with only a single song that had any lyrics. As you and Adam mentioned, having the surf so close was amazing and we often opened up the doors to the deck and let the waves become the soundtrack. We will be releasing the track list eventually and I think people will really enjoy some of the options and themes it presents (Our GM worked on finding just the right list over many months and it really paid off!).

Hope to see you at Origins or GenCon this coming year!

I found you guys on FB but wasn't sure about posting because I'm newer to Pathfinder. You remind me of the Stranger Things kids. I really love the group pic, you guys are cute:)

Hi, Bailey. Thanks so much for the compliment and welcome to the greatest game in the world!

Although we take our game very seriously, we have a lot of fun doing what we do and putting together our group shots is always a great part of it all. This one was cool because everyone in the picture is posing/acting as their character. We were lucky with the weather over this weekend and got to enjoy our time outside.

We hope you come to love Pathfinder as much as we do.

Adventure awaits!

Hey everybody, we’re ready to go with our next iconic installment this week. From the conclusion of Marathon 1, here’s Merisiel:

MERISIEL
Elf unchained rogue (relic raider) 4
CG Medium humanoid (elf)

AC 20, touch 13, flat-footed 13
hp 38 (4d8+8)
Fort +2, Ref +7, Will +2

Melee rapier +6 (1d6+3/18-20) or dagger +6 (1d4+1/19-20)
Ranged dagger +6 (1d4+1/19-20)
Special Attacks sneak attack +2d6, debilitating injury
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 4th; concentration +5)
at will—detect magic

Feats Skill Focus (Perception), Lookout, Weapon Finesse, Improved Initiative
Skills Acrobatics +7, Appraise +5, Climb +4, Diplomacy +7, Disable Device +12, Escape Artist +7, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +7, Knowledge (local) +5, Perception +13/+15 to locate traps or to notice haunts, Profession (sailor) +5, Sense Motive +5, Spellcraft +6/+8 to identify cursed items, Stealth +8, Swim +5, Use Magic Device +7

Str 13, Dex 17, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 10

Traits Classically Schooled, Skillful
Alternate Racial Traits Human-Raised

Highlights for the iconic rogue:

- Merisiel is the first unchained class to be used in the Order, and we all noticed its increased potential right away. The abilities to add Dex to both attack and damage – for free – made a big difference against several foes, and it’ll be interesting to see how the other abilities work out as she progresses further.
- Having access to a large amount of skill ranks was refreshing. With some strong rolling, Merisiel was able to hit 30+ on skill checks multiple times with different skills, which is pretty amazing at lower levels. As expected, Perception and Disable Device helped us out of some sticky situations, and with her Relic Raider class features kicking in too, I’m confident she’ll be an integral part of discovering the mysteries of Azlant.

You can find additional materials from The Azlant Odyssey in our Dropbox.

Reveal:

Greetings all, I'll be playing Merisiel the iconic rogue in The Azlant Odyssey. We considered a lot of different archetypes for her, but the one I settled on was Relic Raider. It doesn’t substitute any abilities that we know Merisiel has (or will likely need throughout the AP) like Trapfinding and Trap Sense, which are the usual suspects for archetype substitutions. It also suits the type of rogue she’s portrayed as in the comic books, being more of a treasure hunter than a bounty hunter, and I think it’ll be the right fit for her role in the group.

Here’s her stat block:

MERISIEL
Elf unchained rogue (relic raider) 1
CG Medium humanoid (elf)
AC 16, touch 13, flat-footed 13 (+3 armor, +3 Dex)
hp 10 (1d8+2)
Fort +1, Ref +5, Will +1; +2 against enchantment spells and effects
Immune magic sleep effects

Melee rapier +3 (1d6+1/18-20) or dagger +3 (1d4+1/19-20)
Ranged dagger +3 (1d4+1/19-20)
Special Attacks sneak attack +1d6

Feats Skill Focus (Perception), Lookout, Weapon Finesse
Skills Acrobatics +6, Appraise +5, Disable Device +7, Escape Artist +6, Perception +10/+11 to locate traps, Sleight of Hand +6, Stealth +6, Spellcraft +6, Use Magic Device +4

Str 13, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 10

Traits Classically Schooled, Skillful
Alternate Racial Traits Human-Raised

Data Tracking:
-Successful uses of the Skillful trait
-Successful uses of Curse Sense and Disable Curse
-Sneak Attack damage dealt underwater

Soundtrack Song: "Your Future Is Not Mine" by Daisey Hamel-Buffa, which captures Merisiel's spontaneous personality from the comics, where no individual (despite how close a connection) could have much control over Meri's future--except for herself.

Immersion: I’ll be sporting actual bandoliers of daggers that she’s well-known for, although don’t expect me to be actually throwing them across the room at anyone. Well, maybe...

Key Feature: I will be playing Merisiel using the Unchained rules for Rogue, which makes this one of the few documented progressions of an Unchained Rogue to c. 17th level while employing the full rules set.

Additional Content: The interview screenplay for Merisiel is now available in our Dropbox along with Ezren’s, so please check it out! Interview with a Rogue

GM Commentary: "Sterling is one of the longest tenured players in the current OAD roster, having become a member back in 1998. He's also our Visual Director, whose dramatic photographs have captured the game in a way that has never been portrayed before, with his avant-garde approach being one of the reasons that the Order has been recognized to such a broad extent by the gaming community. At the table, he is the calm voice needed to settle a dispute or lay out the aspects of a challenging riddle again in detail. He's also clocked more miles than any member in the history of the Order, consistently crossing a handful of states with 10-hour car rides to reach our game. When it's 2am on a weeknight, he's probably tweaking the graphic design for our next project, or editing a photo from our last marathon which will continue to change perspectives on the game for years to come." --Adam Smith, GM

This makes me so happy.

Okay, question for you bold souls. Knowing little about Lovecraft or the Mythos going in... what were the scariest / creepiest / most got-under-your-skin bits of the Path? And, to be scrupulous about it, what were the bits that didn't work for you?

Doug M.

Great to hear from you Doug! We really appreciate you following along and your great engagement. Awesome question.

I think for me one of the creepiest moments was discovering the pickled punks in In Search of Sanity. The idea of one of those little things connecting to my neck in real life gave me chills. Dan (played Quinn in the project) noted feeling similar about these little abominations in his comment above (about 12 posts ago), so clearly they hit on something with those things. So nasty!

The scariest thing I experienced was probably the weather effects outside of the asylum in that same adventure. Each of them was really creepy and used to great effect by the author and our GM. We were not ready for it to rain eyeballs. What the hell?!?

As far as bits that didn't work, although the overall volume was good, Fort Hailcourse and parts of Iris Hill (main manor) in The Thrushmoor Terror felt rote compared to most of the rest of what we had experienced up to that point. Looking back after four more volumes, that feeling is probably even stronger.

Congratulations, y'all!

Thanks, Andrew!

Hey everyone! Just wanted to let the folks on this thread know that we will be running a seminar at PaizoCon 2017 on Marathon Gaming.

Details can be found here.

Hope to see some of you there!

Adam, everyone, thanks very much for the additional information! It sounds like this was atmospheric, creepy, and stressful -- exactly what you'd want for a romp through Lovecraft-land. Having a PC crack under the strain (and maybe change alignment?) is also totally appropriate!

Your add-ons (lighting and wind sounds) sound awesome.

One further question. Were you players actually able to get enough sleep? 68 hours of play in 108 hours... in theory, that leaves you just enough time to eat, get eight hours of sleep, and maybe check your e-mail. In practice, though, were you guys getting a bit worn down by the end of it? And if so, how much of that was "we're playing a long time and very intensively", and how much was this particular module?

Curiously yours,

Doug M.

Doug,

As far as the hours in this Marathon, most of it driven by the fact that we only have a set number of days to finish the entire module. With Order members traveling from hundreds and thousands (literally) of miles away and people using vacation days to play, we really do have to finish each adventure in one shot. For the most part there is no coming back to wrap things up the way many groups can in a regular campaign. So, we have to push ourselves physically and mentally to finish.

I'm sure our GM, Adam, can give some of his own insights but I think many of the AP modules require a decent time investment to really get high quality play experiences. The team at Paizo puts very rich material together for these APs and sometimes it takes some heavy lifting to explore everything to its fullest extent (as I'm sure you're aware). I don't know that this module in-particular is per se longer than any of the others, however I think it is fair to note that it was somewhat of a "sandbox" adventure without feeling like a sandbox (hats off to author John Compton for achieving this). In our last project with Paizo, The Giantslayer Endeavor, Marathon 3 was also a sandbox style adventure (Tim Hitchcock's Forge of the Giant God). Similarly, that weekend was an endurance test, requiring us to push hard with a 25-hour session to finish up and saw some of our players going to work that morning straight from the Marathon with no sleep. If I remember correctly, at the time it was one of our longest Marathons. Some players don't like sandbox style adventures but I think they can be quite enjoyable as long as your GM is managing the material well. Lucky for us, we have--in my opinion--maybe the best GM in the world so there isn't much standing in the way of having truly life-changing gaming experiences regardless of how the adventure is laid out.

Definitely interested in hearing more about this.

Module 5 had (I thought) a really interesting setting. Did that come across in play?

Doug M.

Doug,

The setting definitely came across amazingly during the Marathon. I would highly recommend this AP to anyone looking for something to spice up their game.

We also employed very bright yellow tinted lights to try and recreate the burn of the desert sun, then switched over to a diffused version when wandering the streets of Neruzavin (buildings blocking out the sun).

Having a great soundtrack (the track list from our Marathons can be found here in our Living PDF) along with the wind noise from the polyps (now one of my most despised monsters) and under city kept us all on edge. I would also mirror what our GM said above for session time. The longer you're in the game, the more ominous and nerve-wracking it all becomes. We never truly felt comfortable and anytime we got a little too relaxed there was always something to remind us we weren't in Kansas anymore.

Keep the pressure on high!

Hey all! Just wanted to let everyone here in the GM Ref Thread know that we are running a map giveaway contest where the prize is full color printed maps of the entire lunar prison at the end of Dreams of the Yellow King.

They have been remastered and resized to 1" scale.

Check it out here: Order of the Amber Die.

The contest closes on April 14th. Good luck!

Daji, I'm so proud of you! You looked after me when I was ruined by that insanity spell. And that feeblemind spell too, nasty little halfling. Well, let's keep it our secret that you've held everyone together throughout this entire journey. Also between you and me, is that we know you're now smarter than almost the entire party. I love you, my gorgeous fox!

I can't believe a fox is smarter than most of our iconic characters. What in the world....

nice

Hey Yakman! We appreciate you taking the time to follow along.

Just curious:

What is your favorite part of our projects?

Are you currently playing Strange Aeons? If not, do our reports make you feel more inclined to do so?

It's always nice to get feedback from fans and other GMs/Players in the community.

Thanks!

Impressive!

Thanks John! This was one for the record books for sure, but well worth the time. We are about to tackle your module! I don't believe any of us has ever faced off against any of your scenarios and the group is very much looking forward to the challenge. Your piece on the Graveknights in PF94 (We're also really psyched that Jim is capping off SA) was nice.

Is PF113 your first full module for an AP? Either way we are honored to be experiencing an in-depth ride into your imagination.

Looking forward to seeing you at PaizoCon.

Game on!

This makes me curious: what are you and your players picking up from / about the Lovecraft mythos by osmosis? Are you thinking "Okay, I see the appeal of this -- I'd like to sit down and read some of his stuff afterwards?" Or is it more "once a philosopher, twice a pervert?" (1)

Doug M.

Doug, thanks for asking. This is a really great question. I'm sure each of the PCs will respond when they get a chance. I definitely plan on checking out the mythos and reading up on things when we are done. I'm sufficiently intrigued at this point. Over the years I've felt a little repelled by some of it, as you quote "twice a pervert" in a sense. I feel differently now and would even like to explore some of the games like Cthulhu Wars, etc. Based on this, it seems our experiment is successful thus far.

After getting the tidbits we have up to now, as our characters are gathering clues to their past and what the ultimate plan is, in tandem we as players are gathering clues to a whole new world that we can decide to pursue further or leave be once it's all solved. This makes for a really great roleplaying experience because we actually are stumbling through it in awe the same as Alahazra, Erasmus, Feiya, and Quinn.

My sentiment: It's all a little strange.

But, in the best way possible. :)

As always, thank y'all for sharing your experiences at the table with the community!

Hey Adam! You are most welcome! The thanks goes to you though. We love sharing our adventures with the community and interacting with everyone. You have created a really awesome (and for us, unique) experience with Strange Aeons and we are incredibly excited for whatever you have in store for us next.

You keep lining 'em up and we'll keep coming up with awesome ways to knock 'em down.

Talk soon!

Sorry to hear about your loss. I'm honored that Mike was able to work with my adventure before his passing, and make the Sellen Starling a reality.

Ron, thanks so much for taking the time to comment. Mike did an amazing job on the Starling. It was a tough weekend for all of us, but Mike was the most positive guy we all knew and never once complained or acted any different through his whole ordeal. Truly a brave person.

The adventure was awesome and presented us with lots of new challenges and experiences, which is what we are always searching for. Great work! We look forward to tackling more of your material in the future.

Thanks again for your kind words.

The maps, miniatures, production value, and stories are great to see and read!

Thanks so much John. It's nice to also have feedback from people in development and hear that things are connecting. We appreciate the work you do. PFS is an impressive endeavor!

The level of dedication you all put into your games is amazing and it shows! I'm incredibly jealous! Keep up the good work; this is just inspiring.

Zeugma, thanks for the kind words! If you you haven't already, give our Facebook a look and a like and let your friends know too! If you have, thank you. Every little bit helps and we couldn't do this without support from folks like you.

One of the best parts of what we do is knowing that we inspire others in the community. Stop by and say hello anytime!

Pathfinders! A quick update: the first group of photos from our recent runthrough of The Thrushmoor Terror are up on our Facebook.

Enjoy!

Hey all! Just wanted to let everyone know that the first group of photos from Thrushmoor Terror are up on our Facebook. We hope you enjoy them!

They went in guns blazing and triggered nearly every group of enemies on the ground floor. However, they played into a choke point and barely pulled through. I didn't realize until later that the undead were actually intelligent so I could have definitely played hem much better tactically. I tried my best to play the soul sliver effectively but they trounced her almost instantly. The skum sorcerer folded like a house of cards but the ranger was a challenge (hurray favored enemy). They ran from the ghost at the end and never came back.

So far no one died but they would have if I was using PF death rules. Ive been using 5e death rules instead. How did your group handle that revenant? It seemed really strong.

Since I'm awake!

Yeah, we ran from the ghost too (although I wasn't there as Alahazra was enjoying the sweet sounds of gentle repose.) As far as the revenant, that is a nasty encounter and has the potential to kill a lot of PCs. It actually would have killed us, but as Alahazra I used erase from time to defensively remove one of our own characters causing the revenant to temporarily lose it's quarry, which bought us enough time to win.

We also killed the soul sliver almost instantly before it could get back into the mirror. We had a really awesome thing happen where we had two Feiya's on the board at once and actually had two professionally painted versions of her to accurately create the scene. Check our Facebook for pictures of the encounter in the near future.

Added spoiler tag to the spoiler.

Mark! Thanks so much for creating the spoiler tag to hide that comment. Adam just gave us the heads up we can actually look at this thread now!

Love the dedication! It was awesome talking with you at GenCon and definitely look forward to seeing you at PaizoCon next year!

Update!

Hello everyone!

We've posted the next set of photos from our marathon session of In Search of Sanity on our Facebook.

The Facebook link leads to the photos that were just posted. The rest of them, along with pictures from our other projects, can be found in the photo album area where each is clearly marked.

We regularly take more than 2,000 photos each marathon and as you can imagine this can take some time to properly arrange and edit. Keep you eyes peeled for more and give us a Like!

Enjoy!

Hey all!

Just wanted everyone here in the thread to know that we've posted the next set of photos from our marathon session of In Search of Sanity on our Facebook.

The link leads to the photos just posted. The rest can be found in the In Search of Sanity photo album which is clearly marked in the photo albums page.

We typically take over 2,000 photos each marathon so it can take a while to find the narrative and edit. More to come soon.

Enjoy!

So... that map you sent to the office is AWESOME, by the way!

Thanks Owen! We are glad you all like it. Many thanks for sharing it with the community and on your own Facebook as well. Happy gaming!

A truly AWESOME mapping job, and an amazing thing to send in. Thanks a ton!

We are glad it made it safely all the way across the country! It really is an amazing map Wes! The nature of how the map works was fun to see as it revealed itself room by room. Then, seeing it all laid out after playing through the entire adventure and how it gives the illusion of choice was enlightening.

It's in a proper home now. We hope having it fully rendered inspires you all as much as it did us.

The complete stat block for Alahazra after the completion of In Search of Sanity can now be seen in our Dropbox.
Enjoy!

Sterling-Order of the Amber Die,

Yes being consistent is the hard part and can take quite a while to get right for the program you are going to use to re-create such master's pieces in the future, or allow others to do the same.

I had some friends who were shooting a kickstarter video and even though that had quite a bit of TV experience they had trouble getting things to look right when trying to do it with inexpensive equipment. ie there generally is a reason for expensive things, not always but generally.

Good Luck
MDC

Mark, yes, consistency is an issue. Even with access to expensive things (one of the things the company I own does is photo and video production) and 15+ years experience with the Adobe Suite, the task of recreating a map in this way is frustrating. I know that it could be done, but would require a lot of problem solving both in execution and then in the later recreation. Like I said, maybe we will give it a try one of these days.

Thanks for being in on the conversation and offering up possible solutions to a tough part of what we do.

Happy gaming!

One thing that may help is to take a picture of the map and then you can digitally recreate it any time you want.

Just cut the piece you want and print it out.
Not as good as the old 30+ hour map but still nice. And if ever the table top monitor/screen becomes a cheep reality it will be ready to use again.
MDC

Mark, thanks for the idea! We definitely work hard to try and preserve the work put in. I'm worried the quality of this option is likely not quite where we would like to be if we have the choice. We have high resolution pictures of most of our maps, but printing them to 1" scale is rough. I've considered making a composite out of a bunch of photos, however, that would require being at exactly the same height and angle (preferably a perfect top down) for each and every picture, with no change in light. We do have the equipment to attempt it, so maybe one of these days we will kill 12+ hours trying to pull it off.

Tabletop monitor has been on our radar for a while now as it would save a ton of time. Yet, the analog nature of our game is part of what makes it special. The more creative we can get in mixing mediums and still keep it on the table is what we are aiming for. Getting pictures of tabletop screens isn't great either, at least from what we have seen so far. I'm sure at some point there will be more options for us, but it is unlikely (I'm hesitant to say never because that's unrealistic) you'll ever see us using D20 or the like. It works awesome for some, but just isn't how we envision Pathfinder at its best.

Yup Minor Shape Change. :-3 and will do, maybe I'll even attempt another Character journal here on the boards for him

Apparently we are now working with 15-pt character builds and no starting gear.

** spoiler omitted **...

Michael, thanks so much for taking the time to post this with the stat block. We love it when the community reaches out like this. Best of luck!

The play map is amazing. Both that you have a map that big (not to mention a table) but that you can fit the entire asylum on it. What did you do for the side maps? (the starting area & the upper floor)

I haven't seen the group's previous marathons, so maybe this level of thought and work put into it is typical for them but I'm kinda blown away by it all. And to produce a 55 page PDF on top of the game itself! I was disappointed that there wasn't an actual account of what happened during the play-through, but perhaps that's to come later? I saw that it was a "living" document, and I know from personal experience that such write-ups can take a long time to complete.

Spatula, thanks for the compliments! Our GM took over 30 hours to recreate the map. The level of detail you're seeing is something our group has always done and we decided it was time to share it with the community during our recent projects. The document is a lot of work but we try and split up the weight as much as possible and want something left behind to help other groups as they try and tackle these modules.

In reference to the play-through, there is some info in the Strange Aeons Experiment PDF and we will have a detailed photo-journal with captions of the whole marathon. Check our Facebook later today for the first 50 or so photos.

As for the side maps and the starting area, we were able to give those some special treatment of their own which you will be able to see in the pictures as they go up.

You listen to Metallica while playing Pathfinder?

Doing that next game!

Coeus, do it up! We use a ton of music keyed to events and characters in each of our projects. Our GM even has theme songs picked for major antagonists, allies, and encounters. We could not think of a more appropriate song while facing the Tatterman.

Our game employs a huge array of sound to deepen our experience. If you're looking for some ideas check out the soundtrack section of our living PDF, here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Alahazra's campaign trait:

Enduring Stoicism: Even though your pulse is pounding in your ears when you awake in the asylum, you feel strangely nonplussed. You can recognize that the situation you find yourself in is horrific, but you refuse to let that fear control you. It doesn’t feel like it’s worth worrying over too much. You know that when you face unspeakable forces, keeping your cool will keep you alive. You gain a +2 trait bonus on all saving throws against spells or effects with the fear or emotion descriptors. In addition, you gain a +1 trait bonus on Intimidate checks due to your intimidating presence, as people don’t know what to expect from you.

No stranger to strange things, this seems like an appropriate trait for Alahazra. The save bonus will surely be beneficial in what has been dubbed the "horror" AP and I expect the benefit to make the difference between failure and success right away. The Intimidate bonus will work in tandem with her Unnatural Presence trait that makes it a class skill, and lets her demoralize animals and vermin as well.

I still think my favorite thing about you guys is the music selections :D

Thanks Bard!

The Strange Aeons Experiment
Character Profile #2:

Since we started playing iconic characters I've been interested in playing Alahazra, almost getting a chance to play her in our Rise of the Runelords campaign, so I was excited to see that James Jacobs had chosen her for Strange Aeons. She was originally designed with the Flame mystery, which is evident in much of the artwork released for this adventure path, but after talking at length with developer Adam Daigle about our plans to push flavor in a direction more apropos to the Strange Aeons concept, I decided to select the time mystery.

Like most Rahadoumi she has no patron deity (even though she has divine powers) so she qualifies for the Godless Healing feat at 1st level, which is a rare opportunity, and will likely help her survive the early levels. For future feats, I'm going to push her time abilities to the limit and will likely take Extra Revelations for levels where she doesn't already receive them, as well as Abundant Revelations to get more use of the rarer once per day abilities. The oracle's curse will make things difficult, as I'll have to be mindful not to react to anything on the maps further than 30 ft, at least until her darkvision range increases. It'll take some getting used to and likely comes with some frustration but I welcome the challenge.

ALAHAZRA
Garundi human oracle 1
LG Medium humanoid (human)

AC 17, touch 11, flat-footed 16 (+6 armor, +1 Dex)
hp 11 (1d8+3)
Fort +2, Ref +1, Will +3

Melee quarterstaff +2 (1d6+3) or dagger +2 (1d4+2/19-20)
Ranged dagger +1 (1d4+2/19-20)
Oracle spells known (CL 1st; concentration +4)
1st—(4/day) cure light wounds, divine favor, protection from evil
0 (at will)—guidance, resistance, spark, virtue

Feats Godless Healing
Skills Intimidate, Perception, Sense Motive

Str 14, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 9, Wis 12, Cha 17

Traits Strange Aeons campaign trait [TBA]; Unnatural Presence
Alternate Racial Traits Dual Talent

SOUNDTRACK Song: "Oracle" by Haelos

For the complete stat block, see our Dropbox shortly after the first Paizo Blog report comes out.

Click here to see Alahazra's awesome miniature!

Truly an epic session! Thank you SO MUCH for sharing your adventures, and I look forward to hearing/seeing more.

Ouch, defeated in the final book, that is rough. Well played, and I toast the attempt.

Elorebaen and Dudemeister,

There's more to come!!

PS
If you haven't liked our Facebook yet we would greatly appreciate it. Help us break 500!

These guys are chewing the meat, crunching the bones, and sucking the marrow out of this adventure path!

Thanks for the compliment Adam! We work hard to utilize the material Paizo and the authors provide since you guys work just as hard to deliver the continuity that has made Giantslayer so amazing. And thanks for the shout out. Gaming with you on Saturday was awesome and getting to sit down outside of the Con and connect was unanimously our favorite part of the weekend. Very much looking forward to doing it again. Gearing up for Marathon 6.

Storm clouds are on the horizon...

- Sterling, Order of the Amber Die (playing as Crowe, iconic bloodrager)

Just finished reading the DropBox PDF for the 2 session's you've had and just wanted to say that it was great reading it and bravo for your dedication! Can't help but admit I'm pretty jealous! Look forward to seeing how future sessions play out!

Jeffrey,

Just wanted to reach out and say thank you for taking the time to read through the PDF. It's constantly evolving and we work hard to make it as entertaining and helpful as possible. If it inspires you to try something similar or at the very least helps enhance your game then we've done something good for the Pathfinder community.

I'm playing Crowe in the endeavor and he is fast becoming one of my favorite characters. Luckily my stats support him being more than just a brick wall that kills things, so it feels good to contribute to multiple aspects of the game. Playing the iconics has turned out to be a great experience.

I hope your group decides to give Giantslayer a try, or if you are a GM, that you can give your players the gift of this great AP. If you have any questions about the path for any of our players, we've created a thread here and welcome the discourse. We're excited and nervous for part 3 and glad to hear you're looking forward to riding along on this crazy adventure.

- Sterling, Order of the Amber Die