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Summer moves to cut off the Tiefling's line of retreat. "You're surrounded and your friend fled, leaving you alone. Surrender!" Summer will take no other actions.
It looks like everyone's acted, so top of Round 2 with Bois up! Bois 16
I thought you two were off exploring in another direction, but getting the tar beat out of me should get your attention pretty easily.
"Ow!" cried out Summer, stumbling forward after receiving a vicious blow to the back of his head. Spinning around, instinct to protect himself took over and he reached out with his hands and... released.
Initiative summary: Bois 16
"How many other 'supplicants' have been ? Master Yithzak and his clan are wealthy Dwarven Mastercraftsmen; they are not seeking Pyros' service out of base greed or lust for power. How many other 'supplicants' can say the same?"
"Well, this is truly a lucky day for us all, then! This is a special occaision, in which Grand Master Yithzak and other members of his clan seek to take service with Pyros! Unfortunately, however, we do not know the way. Are you able to assist us?"
"Excuse me? Well, um, we're trying to find Pyros and following his guards seemed like a good idea," said the clearly inexperienced young sorcerer.
Summer looks confusedly at Bois before interpreting Valerie's cry for help after the fact. Watching the palace guards,
he only hopes to not lose sight of them before the three of them can trail after.
Summer keeps a keen eye on where the guards are going. Hopefully, they may unintentionally lead the way to the palace.
"Ritual combat? To first blood, surrender, knock out, or death?" asked Summer. "Weapons or bare fists? I read about this, once, you see." It is clear that the fact that he might be involved with it escaped him entirely. "No rules? Oh..." he stated, stymied.
Summer, like everyone else, tries peering around in every direction at once to locate the source of the helpful voice.
My interpretation of the current situation is that Bois, Valerie, and Aishara are checking random doors following a path of going "to the left". They tried one door, behind which was the Tiefling preparing to leave. Embarrased, Bois jumped back and, afriad he upset the Tiefling, is reluctant to ask him for directions. Summer and Fortis are with the dwarves, waiting for the other three to find another portal so that no one gets lost or separated and the dwarves are still guarded per their "hiring mission". My perception is that one of two things can happen now:
Mmm, sandwiches...
Pretty good, here. How's your new place?
"That should work, Bois," replied Summer.
"I, uhh, I guess I'll go with you, Fortis," said Summer, avoiding meeting anyone's eyes.
Summer meekly pipes up, "Huh, that's weird. The armed groups we're seeing in either direction are actually us. Yithzak said there are at least three more portals. Maybe we just start checking some of the doors for one of the next ones?"
Acutely ashamed of his words, Summer meekly slinks back to try and blend into the wall.
"Valerie, you're the least threatening and, if I may say so - I'm sorry, Aishara - the most attractive. You'd probably be best to help get us through here without any trouble catching up to us." He smiled in chagrin at Aishara, hoping she would not take offense to being compared unfavorably with Valerie.
"I don't suppose we could just ask them how to get to where we need to go? We just got here; surely they can't have any complaint against us."
"We seem to have come out from the side of a building, into a street. There are not many other people around."
Wow, that was a very strange feeling. I seem to be alright now, though. Where are we? "This seems... normal. I don't imagine Pyros put out a shingle, proclaiming his location and affairs," Summer commented. "There can't be all that many palaces here to have to try knocking on the door."
re: sorcerer in front, He doesn't know better: he's a farmboy It'll just take that first drubbing to sort that nonsense!
"To provide an escort should be simple enough. As it seems none of my companions have objected to anything so far, we shall do so. Very well, let's be about it." Summer looks at his fellow travellers and Yithzak, and at the portal. Thinking for a moment, he shrugs and walks through.
"Master Yithzak, am I to correctly understand that you desire our assistance with both locating and infiltrating Pyros' palace? As you acknowledge your need for us to act as warriors, do you know anything about how the palace is guarded - what we should expect? I beg your forgiveness if my questions seem impertinent; I merely seek to understand as much as possible before making a commitment."
Summer, completely ignorant of the customs and appropriate behavior in the City of Brass, stays silent while Fortis seems to be taking the lead in negotiating with the dwarves.
Summer smiles in simple joy at the sight of the garden. Just like home, he thought. When addressed by the three dwarves, he bows slightly in greeting. "Good day, sir. My name is Summer Wind Through The Grasses - or simply Summer, for brevity's sake - and my companions here and I were indeed hired by Akbar to escort you to the deity's palace." Pointing to each in turn, he continued, "This is Bois Guilbert, Fortis, Valerie Esper, and Aishara."
Summer chuckles to himself at Bois' generosity. "Well, Fortis - and Valerie! - seeing as our friend there has been so generous, what say we make the best of it? Another drink? How about you, Aishara? After you've finished your shift, of course! I suspect tomorrow to be a long, hot day, and I've nothing better to do with my time than rest in this refreshingly cool establishment in preparation! Oh! I suppose I should enquire after a room. Is there one available?" He continues chatting on into the evening, more to dispel nerves and bewilderment than anything else.
"Master Akabar, is there a particular time to meet this fellow tomorrow? Also, I don't think any of us know where the park of Aziz is."
"My thanks, sir, for answering my questions. Having put my concerns to rest, I would be more than happy to assist you in this matter."
"Something to do would certainly help me get my feet under me, so to speak, but I have to wonder just who this god is and why your client is so interested in meeting with them personally. I'm hardly a paladin, but I don't think I'd want to help, say, Asmodeus, or Norgorber." Summer looks uncomfortable about speaking up in what may be a contrary view to his companions' desires. "My apologies, sir, if I seem to be questioning your word of honor: such is not my intent."
Summer's eyebrows raise in astonishment at Valerie's statement, and contemplates asking to see her navel. Deciding it would be too rude, he tries something less invasive. "You're sure you didn't get hit in the head or have a spell cast on you to make you forget?"
Summer watches with guarded interest as the apparent proprietor approaches their table. If anything, he was most concerned that they'd interfered with Aishara's duties and were going to be kicked out.
"A fisherman, Fortis? I thought you said you were a bit of 'a weapons guy'. My apologies, I must've heard you wrong," he replied, intrigued but respectful of Fortis' clear desire to not talk about it. Focusing instead on the odd woman, "How peculiar, that you would not know where you're from. Where did you grow up?"
"Aishara, could you please bring me a beer?" "So what brings you here, Valerie? Fortis and Bois - correct me if I'm wrong, please - are here for training of various kinds. My purpose isn't so martial, though. I'm looking for someone, though I wasn't aware I'd end up here on the Plane of Fire. Truth be told, it wasn't that long ago I'd half-figured other planes tales the city boys would come out to tease us farm kids with... and the City of Brass a legend, to say the least!"
"I suppose I could say the same for myself, actually. I'd only read about people with the in-born talent for the arcane, but it seems I'm one of those rare few. I have an affinity for the air, wind, sky, and things like that since, well... this may sound silly, but I first found out when I thought the wind was talking to me, or through me, or something. I'm still not too sure what it's all about, actually, but I've spent a lot of time listening and there's always more yet to hear." Noticing Aishara's obvious passion, he coughs and smiles what he hopes comes across as kindly, "Uhh, miss - Aishara, right? - it seems to me that you might be getting a bit carried away with yourself. I'd hate for you to run into some kind of trouble, later." He nods politely to Valerie's greeting. "As I was just telling Bois and Fortis, my name is Summer Wind Through The Grasses - but you can call me Summer."
Well, it's just that there's not really anything going on that really requires my input. That was my thought as well.
Summer was surprisingly non-plussed at Aishara's mandatory attire-deficiency. No offense to her, but on the farm I've seen udders and such all my life. No need to get all worked up about the 'human' kind. Letting Aishara and Valerie get into religion, Summer instead looks at Bois inquisitively. "What kind of training are you pursuing?"
I don't think so, but I wouldn't know. Doesn't really matter, anyways.
Summer sighs in relief, and sits down to join them. "Oh, yes, please: something to drink would be truly wondrous. Anything with ice!"
Summer, milling around, accidentally bumped into another patron's chair. Flustered, he began turning around to apologize when the guest introduced himself as Bois Guilbert. Panicking slightly and thinking the address was to himself, he rushed out, "Summer Wind Through The Grasses, but most people call me just 'Summer'. I'm sorry for bumping into your chair, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. I'm not sure how I got here - well, I know how, I paid a wizard to cast a spell on me, but not why - and, well... uhh, yeah, sorry." Embarrassed at running on, he attempted a do-over greeting. Bowing quickly and in a more controlled manner of speaking, "Your pardon, Bois Guilbert. Summer, at your - and your companion's - service."
Summer is extremely confused. He had only the most vague idea where he was - the Plane of Fire, I think - and completely clueless as to the races of many of the beings he saw walking around in myriad forms of dress. It was, in fact, the relatively familiarity of Akabar's and its patrons that had attracted him there in the first place. Trying not to gawk - and likely failing miserably - he shuffled off to one side to try and get out of peoples' way.
Question on Liberty's Edge Liberator Reward, is that supposed to be 6+ goals completed or was it meant to be 7 like the other cards?It is meant to be 6+ goals because the Liberty's Edge Faction Journal Card is an exception to the rule that all cards have seven non-GM-related goals. The card does, however, have the same number of checkbox requirements (not including a few special "you can check this box in addition to another box" ones). Thank you for the clarification. You can see how far I've read on the cards so far. Looking great so far!
The other thing that GM stars allow on the RP side of things is a bonus on rerolls equal to the number of GM Stars and also you can use your GM stars to replay a scenario or module since there is a no replay rule. Also, there's a chronicle sheet that you can add to a character to gain bonuses as well based on your GM Star count. Since the ACG allows replays as you can't exactly use out of character knowledge to gain an advantage and adding your star total to a reroll in ACG would be very powerful, I don't think we need those rewards. In my opinion, if there was a reward for "ACG Stars", it would have to be something specific for ACG and not just a copy/paste of the RPG rewards. Mainly, I'd just like them as bragging rights.
I agree with Paladin in Citadel. I would like to see some recognition for sessions ran, but it would need to be separate from RPG stars. I don't know if you want to call it "ACG Stars" or any other name someone can think of, but if we were to have stars linked to the number of games organized, I think it would need to be double or triple compared to the RPG side of things. For our weekly group, I normally schedule a 4 hour window like we would normally for PFS, but I also run two or three scenarios in a night. Not only that, but I think with giving out "ACG Stars", it would help promote people running more games in my opinion, similar to the RPG side. Of course, some people still wouldn't want to organize the game, but it would be a nice reward.
Since there was a post on the FB group for PFS, I figured I'd post my picture again here to show how I reported it. In my characters situation, I played Wu Jen, took the reward and drew a dagger, but chose not to take it. I then upgraded one card in my deck from the board and took the MW Tools (Item B) to replace my Caltrops. Here's an additional question: Should we follow the same PFS template and include both the date and the event code in the "GM Initials and Pathfinder Society ID#" field? That way it's a little easier to track. Edit: MW Tools is an Item B card, not Item 1 - Sorry!
The worst thing I've seen happen from the player perspective is having the GM come to the table with the mentality "If I don't kill a player during this scenario, I will feel like I've failed as a GM", and announce that to the players. Later, there was a brief moment with the BBEG where it was very literally the PCs vs the GM. Also, the GM became very agitated when he didn't kill anyone, which just made things worse.
First off, thank you for posting this. I'm getting ready to run a scenario with a chase, so it's always good to review these rules. I agree with The Fox on this one. It's always going to be based on what kind of challenge the PCs are facing. I'm going to use the example chase map that is included in the chase rules from the PRD. This is all matter of opinion on how I'd run this chase map. Assuming you're getting the +16 from fly, you could auto pass the cluttered rooftop check (acrobatics dc 10) and use fly to fly over the secret handholds (perception dc25) The only ones I see that would be a problem to overtake with fly would be "Gap in the Wall", "Hidden Shortcut" and "Narrow Hole in the Wall". For those three, it all depends on how the area is described. If it's a wall that leads into a building, the flying PC isn't going to just fly to overtake, he's going to need to enter the building. If it's just a crack in a wall that he could climb over (such as Gap in the Wall combined with Clothesline Tightrope), then I'd let him use fly to get over that one as well.
Thanks BNW! In situations like you're referring to, I completely agree. The examples you gave is just like forcing a rouge to search every 10 feet down a dungeon corridor in my opinion. That even includes scenarios like Library in the Lion. I don't expect them to know the mechanics of searching a room, so I took time to explain that the moment they opened the first door. Since this is a puzzle room, that's where my thought was coming from. I didn't know if anyone had a player ask if they can calculate the angles or trying to use cleverness to figure out the solution to the puzzle. Since this is a puzzle that can be figured out with trial and error, I didn't want to give them the answer on a silver platter, but make them feel like they figured something out on their own.
Fully agree on your point Jeff. I've been looking over the differences between all three options and it's just surprising how much of a power difference you'll have between those three. The players who own Mythic Adventures are going to have a much greater advantage over those who don't. This is one of those situations where my economics degree kicks in and I'm curious if this scenario is going to cause a large increase of sales of Mythic Adventures or not, just to take advantage of option 1.
BNW, here's some differences I'm noticing between options 2 and 3. (Option 2 = chronicle sheets, option 3 = someone who hasn't played part 2) Minor differences:
Major differences:
Option 3 allows you to choose two of the following abilities: Heroic Dodge, Heroic Resilience, Heroic Skills, Heroic Speed, Heroic Spellcasting, Heroic Warrior AND you get a versatile surge ability that lets you use Mythic Might, Penetrating Strike, Savant and Unbeatable. The Heroic abilities are just things you get to add to your character and are static bonuses, but the versatile surge abilities are similar in nature with the mythic choices from option 2, but still less powerful than option 2. In summary, option 1 (having the book) is better than option 2 and option 2 is better than option 3 in my opinion.
While the GM in question does sound like a jerk, remember that it is the GM's job to be the antagonist to the players. I know it might look like we're maliciously trying to kill your characters, but we're secretly rooting for them the entire time. I agree with nosig on this one Victor. When judging, for me, the story is more important than the combats in 90% of the cases. (I've played through Bonekeep and that's the one time I've seen that combat is more important than the story.) As judge, I want to challenge the PCs, but it's not ME who's challenging them, it's the bad guys and encounters that the writer has provided me to deliver those challenges, I'm just the puppet master making those monsters do what they do. I'm sitting at under ~15 PFS scenarios and no character deaths. I've had a few close calls, but I don't pull my punches. I don't bask in the glory of the moment when a creature crits with a x4 weapon, because it wasn't me who crit, but that creature. There's a difference between being a jerk and being a good judge. There's a paragraph in the GM 101 that best explains my viewpoint. (Bolding for emphasis.)
I've seen what some of those mythic feats can do and even a one time use boon is still going to be a game changer. I would of hated to see what would happen if you could gain a free mythic feat or change a current feat to a mythic feat. Things would have gotten crazy, fast. Pick just the right feat and you could make scenarios like Bonekeep look like child's play.
I ran this on 3/23. I hated it and my players hated it. I think it should be taken off the website and rewritten. I will certainly avoid any scenarios written by the this author in the future. I'm going to agree with nosig. This is by far one of my favorite scenarios ran to date and my players loved it. Even the fighters who didn't have many skills still had ways to contribute.
Thank you very much Lord Fyre, I like the suggestions you've provided in regards to Jerusen as that makes a ton of sense as well as for Nyxervex, so I'm going to be working that into my game. I've had one idea that I've been running through my head in regards to the Mayor and the Council: CoT:
This idea starts about two weeks before the explosion. What if Crosael has finally gotten tired of trying to find the contract through stealth and finally showed her true colors, let some of the CoT into the lower levels and then roughed up the mayor in order to have him show them the Nessian Spiral and also to try to get the contract from him.
I would imagine that since the Mayor was a bit of a softie that he would be trying to save his own hide as much as possible, so he would show them where the entrance was (since he knew that there was some things down there that he never wanted to see, out of fear of death, so why not send some thieves down there to their own graves), but would hide the contract as he didn't want them to have full control over the manor. When the explosion happens, he then sees this as a chance to escape and track down the PCs in order to ask them to help him out. It even says in his red text that Crosael was even trying to find the contract, so I think this might help out a little. As for the barricades to the area... Barricades:
If we go with the assumption that Ilnerek has sent his minion to the area to look out for the PCs and he took over the Lieutenants of the Dottari before the explosion, then in Part 1, it mentions that there is a group of nobles that need help with a vampire infestation. Why wouldn't the vampire take this opportunity to send his guards to the area and better secure the area for himself while making it look like the guards are protecting the public? Thanks once again for your help. I think with these suggestions and getting a chance to talk this through with someone else, I can make this flow a little better. It just means giving my PCs a little downtime after Delvehaven to give them a few breadcrumbs as Treppa stated.
Since this thread hasn't had anything posted in a while, I figured I'll throw my 2cp in here also. Thank you EVERYONE for all your great comments so far. I'm going to be using a ton of the suggestions that have been provided because I do feel like Delvehaven just needed a little extra OOMPH because it's been the thing of legends so far to them. So here's my thoughts so far. I'll try and use the spoiler buttons liberally: Dolls:
I do like the idea of giving the dolls spring attack, but I think that I'm going to slowly introduce them throughout the manor. Just watching the PCs at first. I've been listening to some recordings from PaizoCon 2013 (specifically fear 101) and I think I'm going to have them just watch one PC a piece using some of the suggestions given through that session, such as whispering "beware" or "leave this place" when a PC gets close.
I'll also have the dolls be on the lookout for a wayfinder to see if the PCs are friends or enemies (I have a bard in the party that's trying to become a pathfinder, so he took the trait that gave him one). The dolls are on Bisby's side of things, so I figured they are one of his lookouts in the area. I just can't see them getting into too much combat except the hit and run tactics. If the dolls deem them a threat, then I'll have them do the spring attacks and other tactics to try and scare them away. If the PCs are deemed friends, they'll walk into the tea party and be invited to join them. I think then they'll be taken down to Bisby since that would join those two plot lines perfectly. Vampire's Dilemma:
I love the idea of them plotting back and forth and coming up with a plan on how to attack the PCs. I'm going to be using the ideas Christopher Dudley came up with. I think it's a perfect situation and I think it would compliment the vampires nicely. Much better than just hanging out and waiting.
Also, I think that the stomping around of the triceratops would also alert the vampires just as well as the baying of the hounds, so I'm going to be using that as a conditional factor also. How to open Delvehaven:
This has been bugging me also. Delvehaven, just based on the prior books, is supposed to be warded, protected and sealed by the Pre-Thrune pathfinders. I think that I'll be putting some puzzle with a wayfinder as well as the red door to help protect the lower levels of Delvehaven. Secondly, the Thrune pathfinders were supposed to have warded this also, so I think that I'm going to set up another puzzle to get past the main gates/front door to Delvehaven. Since this was supposed to be warded by Vheed and the Crux was his personal item, I'm going to link the two together. My initial idea (which will be refined over the weekend, since we game on Tuesday's) is to make it where the crux has to be presented placed on a seal on a specific side and when it's placed on the correct side, it'll release the initial ward. If they place it on the wrong side, I think this would be a good opportunity to revisit the fire damage from the Crux. I'm thinking I'm going to use the 20 fire damage on this one since one of my players currently has resistance to fire 10. I think that's a good summary of my thoughts so far about what my plans are for Delvehaven. Again, thank you everyone for the suggestions and the ideas. I'll be reading the forums for the rest of the books for sure now. If there's any additional ideas or suggestions, please let me know. |
