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Hi,

My order #979171 (skeletons of scarwall + guide to darkmoon vale), is still listed as pending even though my next subscription bundle is now shipping. Hopefully this can be resolved, so I don't end up with CotCT+6 TOO far in advance of CotCT#5

thanks!
Erik

I remember a thread here a while back where someone had compiled a timeline for Sea Wyvern's Wake. It was a really nice breakdown of what happened various days of the voyage, including when Rowyn would perform mischief, random monster encounters, bad weather, etc. I've tried searching the archives for it, but no luck. Does anyone happen to recall this and where I could find it?

Thanks!

We finished up The Bullywug Gambit last week, and the characters are now enjoying some downtime.

So, here are some thoughts on how the assault on the manor runs, and some amusing things my players have gotten up to.

The players hit the manor at full health and at Level 4. And it was dicey. I really liked the fact that they HAD to keep going. But Power Attack is just a killer. No one died, but there were some close calls. If the Jade Ravens hadn't been around to absorb hits from Drevoraz, it could have been bad.

I had Bua-Gorg summon a Dretch, which then proceeded to nauseate about 3/4 of the party. That was pretty nasty. He was then going to rebuke some of the necromancer's pets, but the Monk got to him first and that was the end of that. Grappling monks are nasty.

Chief Lorpth would have killed some people if Liamae hadn't gotten off her Charm Person. As it was, he was distracted for several rounds, but then they fought him anyway, once his minions were gone.

The players got a kick out of the huntress and her cigar-smoking frog lips. In fact, she is now a zombie named Frogger.

So now, the necromancer has quite a menagerie. Skeletor (i.e. Veldimar Krund, the invincible bone shield), Frogger the bullywug zombie, and Pet, the skeletal rust monster. There was an amusing sequence when he was trying to extract them from the Vanderboren manor. He ended up using Disguise Undead, to turn the rust monster into... a giant riding Ant. After Lavinia managed to get him past the guards cleanign up the mess in the manor, he paraded through the festive streets, a small olman shaman, riding a giant ant, flanked by 2 mute men. all covered in tattered cloaks. People gave him a wide berth.

Then we have another character who is a Courtesan. (we have great fun telling her all the time that she's just a fancy whore). She wanted to investigate the Lotus Dragon hideout again, to try to find proof of Heldrath Kellanis involvement. But, the Taxidermist's has been boarded up by the Sunrise Watch. So, she finds a guardsmen off duty, gets him drunk, and starts flirting with him. She is flailing about verbally, trying to think of a way to have him let her into the Taxidermist's. He wants to take her down to the docks, but she says "that sounds peacful. and sometimes thats nice. but I feel wild. like an animal". She eventually gets him into the Taxidermist's and proceeds to have sex with him in the middle of the showroom before heading off to check out the tunnels after he's passed out.

Later on she gets a custom made Heward's Handy Oversized Purse, because the standard model won't match her ladylike appearance.

Hi,

I just received my Pathfinder #9 / Gazetteer order and I too am missing the Gazetteer. Order number is 935692.

I'm running Savage Tide, and we decided to incorporate some of the pRPG Alpha rules to see how they fare. I'll post separate threads to talk about each aspect of the rules we are testing.

Arcane Schools -

Necromancy -

We have a necromancer in the party. He was excited to see the School Powers (and has decided not to go for a PrC because of them). This raises the question: do you keep the school power progression if you PrC out? If so, then there is still no reason to stay Wizard past level 5. This needs to be clarified. (Same with Domain Powers for Clerics)

He doesn't like the Spell-like ability saves being Cha based at all, but since the necro powers don't have many saves, he is ok. This particular instance of the playtest is a bit of an odd duck, since the powers that Jason chose for necromancy just about perfectly fit this particular character. Hence the player's excitement. I think if he were another type of specialist, the enthusiasm would have been significantly less. Losing 1 spell/level/day of your choice is a HUGE hit.

Aside: Any suggestions on how Focused Specialist from Complete Mage would work with the new specialist?

--Grave Touch

I misread this as a spell-like rather than a supernatural ability. We decided to let him try using it with Spectral Hand. Big Mistake! Way too good. But this shouldn't be possible with a supernatural ability, so no problem. I told him it won't be possible to use it that way next session. We'll see if he still likes it when he has to be in melee to use it. (Could you use spectral hand on it if it were a spell-like? We weren't sure).

--Ray of Enfeeblement

This was perfect for the character. He already uses it alot on a wand, so having some more, free, uses is great.

Enchantment -

I have a Psion(Telepath) in the party, so I made an Alpha version of the class, and ended up incorporating the Dazing Touch ability from the Enchantment School. The player thinks it is totally worthless. He would much much rather continue to plink away with his crossbow than get in melee in order to Daze something for a single round. Not sure if I agree with him or not. Of course, he also just blew all his Power Points with several encounters yet to go before he can rest, so it may see some use next session.

After a long hiatus we started up the Bullywug Gambit last night. I thought I would post about some of the more interesting things that happened with my group, as well as some things about the adventure that I noticed.

Since they never found the silver dagger below parrot island, their solution to Veldimar Krund was... interesting. They ended up grappling him, tieing him up, and tossing him into a tidal pool. So now that they're 3rd level, the party necromancer went back and liberally applied Command Undead.

This is going to be great fun story-wise. They now have a minion to dress in eyepatches and tricorn hats and so on. I'm having a great time roleplaying the guy too. I've given him a raspy whisper, and he is always wanting to kill things and be generally nasty. Should be fun when they make him give them healing for the first time. Negative Energy is healing, right?

Unfortunately, I think there are some problems with this situation balance wise. They essentially have an invincible attack sponge (DR 10/silver). While he is totally ineffective in combat, he does absorb attacks nicely. Took a full pounce from Ripclaw without a scratch. I think it will probably work its way out soon though as they level up and he remains the same. I'm also not sure just how willing he should be to go along with the necromancer's orders. I don't want to be mean about it, but I don't want to let the player get away with anything he wants to. (i.e. using the huecuva as a scout.) Any suggestions here?

On to the recap.

So the party makes it near the cove and are suitably weirded out by all the mutant savagery. I had great fun describing it, and gave a few players shivers. The monkeys were fabulous, chittering and skittering about, biting things as their heads exploded. I realized that the DR 5/magic was going to suck for my party (2 rogue/swashbucklers, necromancer, psion, and monk). They'll get over it, but it is very frustrating for them. As is the "immune to mind affecting" that continues to plague the psion (telepath).

The necromancer and one of the rogues contract savage fever, and now they're very worried about it, as the black rash and sores and bony protrusions are spreading. Veldimar's observation "What happened to you boss? I like it. You look good".

They make it to the cove and shenanigans ensue getting down to the beach. The psion tries to get out of the way of the Slippery Eel, fails his balance check, fails his reflex save, goes tumbling into the shallow water below, and the walkway falls in burning ruins onto his head. Not a happy player.

The huecuva ends up swan diving into the cove, sinks to the bottom, then climbs up the Sea Wyvern's anchor chain, hand over hand. The rest of the party is in love with the ship and really liked the description. We have a few sailors in the group, so this was fun. They searched the ship, but found nothing useful. The sea charts needed to get out of the cove are not aboard. I'm glad I did this, as they are a bunch of cowards and I pretty much have to force them to not run away all the time.

I ended up sprinkling the beach with slaughtered Black Shield Company mercs to tighten up the story in case the PCs get too curious.

The monk kept grappling and pinning the savage pirates, and the others poked at them. This was fun, as when they exploded, the whole party got splashed. This happened multiple times. Silly players.

Now to Ripclaw. He's nasty. Which I knew, but I didn't realize how much. A rogue ended up moving through the room invisibly, then pushed some silks away. At this point, ripclaw, who had been stalking her foot steps, pounced. I gave her a reflex save to get out of the way (she was invisible after all), and he crashed past her into the wall. the whole party starts fleeing at this point, out onto the beach. Ripclaw charges out of his room, zips forward and tackles Veldimar Krund, doing NO damage on 4 hits. Stupid DR 10. The rogue drops invisibility to get a sneak attack off and crits (players love the crit deck!). This just pisses Ripclaw off and after absorbing a rounds worth of attacks he turns and mauls her. I do 25 damage, but pull my punch and only do 23, so she drops to -9. That is a NASTY dinosaur. Luckily the rest manage to finish it off before the next round. (and I spare her unconscious body the acid damage too). I know, I'm too generous. But I think it's much more important that the players feel that death is always present, and that they could die if they screw up, than actually kill them arbitrarily with a random monster.

By this time the monk has the savage fever as well. And he only has 6 Int to start, so it could be rough. They are scared to death of the things biting them. It's great! I really like the flavor of this adventure so far and the evocativeness of it when describing scenes to the PCs.

Thought I would share a little story.

My group finally faced off against The Lady Lotus tonight, 10 sessions in to TiNH (we are unbelievably sloooow).

I was looking forward to some tumbling and sneak attacks, though I fully expected Rowyn and Gut Tugger to be killed in the end. Escape just didn't seem likely. However, the amount of total domination exerted by my players was ridiculous.

Rowyn was having her nice chat with the players. As 4/5 are CN, they were listening. However, the LN monk didn't dissapoint, and he attacked. Rowyn managed to react quickly enough to get a swing in with her rapier, only to miss. Gut Tugger had similar luck.

Then the monk slapped with a stunning fist. Rowyn failed her save, dropping her rapier and taking 10 points of damage right off the bat. (18 str monks are fun). She just stood there stunned, getting stabbed by the courtesan of the party (rogue/swashbuckler mechanically). Of course, she got sneak attack damage in due to the stunning. The monk proceeds to smack Rowyn again. Meanwhile, Gut Tugger has managed to do a little damage (I think). By the time Rowyn gets a chance to go, she has taken 17 points of damage, and is weaponless. She tries to tumble past everyone out the door to somewhere she can drink her potion and flee. I roll a 1 on the tumble check. She draws AOO's from both the courtesan and the monk, getting even closer to death. She then goes to grab her rapier to defend herself. The monk has combat reflexes and slaps her again, shattering her head against the nice lavender walls. Poor Rowyn never stood a chance.

Then the monk just grappled Gut Tugger and held him pinned while the others hacked away. This has turned into standard practice, learned from the smuggler's caves, when no had anything but daggers against the zombies.

Rather anticlimactic, I must say. Though at least Rowyn got to parry some improved feints and throw out a few lines.