Sucros's page

I was reading the skinsaw murders on the bus on the way to work today, and I got the the page with the picture of the diseased rat on it. I found it so unnerving I couldn't focus on the adventure. Eventually I gave up and turned the page sideways so I could read the other page. After a few seconds, the guy next to me said "Hey, could you not point that at me? It's pretty creepy"

That rat was the creepiest picture I've seen on a role-playing product.

GREAT. WORK.

Seriously, all the art was incredible at supporting the grim theme of the adventure. The blood spatter was a great touch. (Especially since I've been watching Dexter)

Wizards has said that their october issue of "dragon" will contain a new demonicon article. I was just wondering if James Jacobs is continuing his work on the project, or if wizards has hired someone new.

supplementary post that may help: when I subscribed, I wasn't able to check either D2 OR U1 for my starting point. I really do want D2 though.

Wow, that excerpt got me excited for pathfinder #2, and #1 hasn't even shipped yet. That one little snippet captured so much, tying three gods together, and at the same time underlying the theme of nature being hostile of the pathfinder setting.

Since we *apparently* don't *deserve* free RPGs in Canada, at least not yet, is there any hope of the free prequel to Crown of the Kobold King to be offered as a PDF?

Thanks either way.

I know this is a hectic time, so no rush to get to this, but the FAQ page said that Pathfinder is looking for lots and lots of monsters. And I'm pretty sure there are alot of people on these boards interested in helping out.

So, I have a few questions (again, no rush), about the submission process:

1) What exactly will be the submission process? Will there be guidlines posted after the dust settles?

2) Are there any monster niches in particular that Pathfinder is desperately coveting? (Ie. age of worms needed worms and things eaten by worms)

3) Outsiders make up a decent chunk of the SRD, but their homes, the core cosmology, isn't in it. Will paizo develop their own cosmology, or will the cosmology be more like the early days of D&D, where the planes are entirely left blank?

Abinadi does a great job of this every month, but I thought I'd give it a shot, being that I have such strong feelings about this issue:

Cover: Great for an april cover. Straight, to the point, and humorous. The modron was really well done, and the simplicity works excellently. One of my favorites.

Scale mail, editorial: I must just say that Erik Mona is right. About everything written in those pages. Also the phrase "a botched dice roll when the party needs it the least" made me laugh so hard with an upspring of memories, such as the time i fell off my phantasmal steed, that the rest of the bus was staring at me.

First watch: It's nice to see projects like the open design and war of the burning sky up there with the stuff by the big guys. I got on at the tail end of the last OD project, and I really enjoyed it.

Core Beliefs Heironeous: Core beliefs for me are like the demonicon, the regular articles I count down issues for. This one was no exception. While not the most interesting of the articles to date, SKR did a great job of making the archetypal paladin god interesting. While I don't play greyhawk, preferring less traditional settings, I really enjoy the greyhawk lore that is rich in these articles. I also commend mr. Reynolds for always managing to find a way to merge the inconsistencies between 2nd and 3rd editions into more interesting wholes.
Also, a friend of mine frequently complains that, while D&D contains tons of beautiful women, most of the men look like retired boxers. While said friend was reading over my shoulder, he commented that the men in this article were actually attractive. I'm not saying this should always be the case, but it is nice to see on occasion.

Return of the Modrons: Ok, after my first taste of planescape from the first campaign classics issue of dragon, my first planescape product was the great modron march. I immediately fell in love with the race(?), so I came into this article with extrememly high expectations. And it met them. The old elements and feel of the race were captured, and the new elements were organic with the race and very interesting. Where the article deviated from traditional planescape lore (modrons as constructs rather than construct-like outsiders, and a schism between rogue and exiled modrons) surprisingly didn't bother me, as they stuck well to the feel of the race, and were used to good effect. While different, they were of equal quality to the concepts they replaced, and were well thought out, so they didn't bother me at all. The worst thing an article can do is be shackled by volumes of previous lore. I'd have bought this article just for the base modrons 3.5e stats. I got so much more.
Also, the art captured modrons amazingly well. The monodrone standing next to the pentadrone picture was just perfect, and I loved the acheron modrons.

Ancient PCs. In any other issue, this might have been my favorite of the articles. It provided exicting character origins and campaign hooks that can be used in any setting (rare for so flavorful an article to be entirely setting neutral, typically they invoke at least some campaign setting). The feats were well balanced and lent way to interesting and flavorful character builds. Too often flavorful feats are useless as they just can't compare to Iron Will, Weapon Focus, or Spell Penetration.

Ecology of the Kopru: The article is yet another quality ecology, with interesting tidbits. I liked how the article contained strong elements tying them to the savage tide, but without at all hindering the article for general use.

Savage Tidings: I'll preface by saying that in general, I hate savage tidings. I played untill the party wipe in age of worms, and never felt the need to renovate our abandoned base and put in hardwood floors. I never found them useful. Once we stopped playing the campaign, they were now uninteresting, unuseful articles that didn't even pertain to anything I was doing (and they reminded me of the party wipe!). WHile savage tidings have been marginally better, they haven't ever been up to par with the rest of the magazine, and even though I plan on dming Savage Tide, I don't expect to need many of these articles.
I'll also add that I generally don't like prestige classes, for reasons explored in other threads. There have been exceptions, such as the athasian dragon, and the demonicon thralls, but I loathe most of them.
This one I liked. It did exactly what a prestige class should do: allow characters to tie into organizations unique to the campaign, and give them access to options geared to working in the campaign. It was flavorful, balanced, and on topic. Savage tidings is a perfect place for a prestige class, for these reasons, (not just because I've written it off as wasted pages anyways). Also, I like the "what do you know" rumors at the end of the collumn. If you keep up with a monthly dragon tie in article for the next AP (god forbid) keep these. But seriously, make this article bimonthly next time. The organizations article, the phanaton article, and this one were worth reading. The rest are wasted treeflesh.

Volo's Guide: The return of elves to cormanthyr is the most exciting thing to happen to the realms, and returns the eyes of the setting to the original focus: myth dranor. This timeline is very useful for those interested in involving their PCs in the current intruiges. Great idea.

Dragonmarks: An awesome example of a dragonmarks article. It captured the boromar clan, and the tone of the setting (something even WOTC has trouble with periodically) perfectly. I loved it.

Sage advice: People ask the sage, he gives advice. Not much else to say.

Class Acts:
Arcane and Warrior: these are handy little articles that can save people playing such classes some page turning. If I end up playing such a class, I will definitely use these.
Divine: I'm loving the aztec pantheon, and am glad to hear that other pantheons are likely to be covered.
Adventurer: This was just plain cool. The article achieved different effects of ninjaness, and managed to not just maintain an asian ninja flavor, but actually amplified it.

Comics:
I'm sad to see no Zogonia, but I certainly understand that sometimes other things take priority. I eagerly await its return.
Order of the stick was hilarious. I laughed four or five times out loud.

All in all, this issue is a competitor for my favorite issue of dragon in the 2+ years I've been reading it.

This article was awesome. The ideas were flavorful, the article was very clear about implementing them, and all of the different hauntings had unique feels to them. This had much that I love aboud demonicon articles in them: Strong flavor, ready to implement into campaign status, and an overwhelming feel of evil.

You guys at dragon are doing evil well. I'm looking forwards greatly to next issue: lords of dust AND demonicon

Well, the (eberron adapted) age of worms chewed up our party and spat all but the warforged druid out. The old DM and I decided to switch chairs, and it's my turn to DM. Because our warforged, oak was still kicking, and I didn't want to make oak's player (who's quite new), get rid of a character he's just getting used to, I decided to forgo a homebrew campaign and instead continue in eberron.

The PCs are as such:

Oak, the warforged druid. Oak fought in the last war untill captured in the lhazzar principalities. He rid out the rest of the war in the wilds, wandering untill he ended up in diamond lake. He joined a trio of characters who were trying to locate the bones of a dead child's family. He's the only survivor.

Gilden, the wanderer from the human wastes. I have five pages on this character, run by the former DM, so I'll keep it short. The barbarian/ranger is from a clan in the wastes trained to hunt fiends. Long ago they were entrusted to guard an artifact and never wield it. When his father was captured by a powerful demon, Gilden and his uncle took the Aegen slaag and slew the demon with it. Banished from their hometown, they gave the aegen slaag to what appeared to be gilden's sister to take back to the clan. It never made it. Now gilden wants to find it.

Nuke, the dwarf fighter. Nuke is just like every other dwarf fighter that his player has run, right down to the name. Drinks ale, wields an axe, smashes stuff.

Minnow: Halfling rogue. Minnow was a spy for hire durring the last war.

The campaign started in diamond lake. The big news in the town was that a sentinel marshall had come to town. Sentinel marshalls are denieth heirs that are permitted to enforce the law beyond national boundaries. As such, the shadier aspects of diamond lake were busy trying to cover their tracks.

Gilden came to town with word that a resident would know something of the aegen slaag, only to find that the contact knew nothing of interest. He was shortly after contacted by the sentinel marshall who claimed he knew information on the aegen slaag, but wanted help in return.

The sentinel marshall, Gladan d'Deneith (Ftr2/Psion4), is from the sharn Deneith Enclave. He was a dreamlilly adict, and was possessed by a Quori spirit. He has three missions: Investigate the many deaths that have occured in diamond lake of late; Stop an agent of the Lords of Dust who is reaking havoc of the dreaming dark's plans, and find out what the kalashtar Talvakri (my old PC) was up to.

Gladan asked Gilden to investigate a string of murders of small children. He had rounded up the other three PCs and asked them to investigate. He, as an aside, asked Gilden to get ANY information he can on Oak, saying he suspects the warforged to be a dangerous criminal. Gladan's motives are to A) get an ally against the rogue rakshasa, B) Get information on Oak, Talvakri's last seen travelling companion, and C) do his job and stop the murders.

The PCs track down the murderer, a splinterwaif (mmIII), and dispatch of it. When the come back for a reward, they get a few hints that things are out of place. When Oak informs one of the parents of the deceased that the killer was found, the parent slips in having no knowledge of the gender of the murdered. The town archivist takes an inordinate interest in what murderer was caught, and looks relieved when the PCs name the splinterwaif.

What actually happened is the town is captured by a mercenary ship of changelings from the gray tide principality (see the "Principalities of Lhazzar, part 2" dragonshard at wizards.com), who are trying to capture and replace as much of the city as possible as to infiltrate brelish society.

The PCs figure out something is up, and get in a couple of scraps with townsfolk/changelings who try and sap the pcs (but can't hit worth BEANS). After feeling completely creeped out by the town, they manage to find Gladan (whom they can trust as imitating a dragonmark is hard), and he leads the PCs and other rescued townsfolk away from town.

The PCs meet with the brelish military, whom have enacted a state of emergency after one of the infiltrated changelings made an attempt on the life of king boranel. Everyone who was in the region was to be lightning railed to far away mistmarsh where they can be investigated bit by bit to screen out hostile changeling spies.

Whilst confined in mistmarsh, the PCs opt to reside outside the town in a shanty district led by Zade d'Tonn, a dragonmarked heir of house Tharrashk. The PCs deal with three abberations (a dolgaunt, a chocker, and a runehound), and accidentally travel near the path of a filth belcher (from Monsters Geographica: Marsh and aquatic).

Zade is a troubled man, who lived in fear of a small gang who forced him to front a crooked inquisitive agency. The guilt of his actions caused him to be slightly unhinged, and he now hears the whispers of Khyber (See Dragon 332). The stress of the changeling incursion has aggravated this. Abberations, following the will of Khyber, are starting to flock towards Zade.

One thing I rather like about this group is that they've never had me as a DM before. They thus know nothing of my "there are no random encounters" policy. In general, if you don't absolutely feel like a monster belongs in the environment you fought it in, there's probably a good reason for it to be there.

WHen it is time for the PCs to finally be vetted out for changeling status, the town of mistmarsh comes under attack from a large Darguul force. The task set forth for the gray tide is to instigate war between Breland and Darguun. On the lightning rail, they managed to kill a few soldiers and steal their clothes and identity papers. Under the guise of Brelish soldiers, they attacked a darguul border town in a hit and run operation. The invasion my PCs are fighting off is in retaliation for this.

Durring the battle: The pcs manage to save only one of the six inquisitors, Zade snaps and kills twelve goblins, the PCs help the Captain of the regiement in charge of this crisis, captain dallax.

Captain Dallax is in fact a changeling. The changeling sees captain dallax as his identity, and is a patriot to the brelish crown. He isn't opposed to using his shapechanging ability to help his platoon run properly, and will use heavyhanded measures such as drafting local citizens if he deems them necessary.

That's about as far as we got for our first session. I'll likely post my second session in a bit. Fun stuff happened that session.