Zrinka does an amazing job and gives her best at keeping everything running, people interested and getting new players. I'm taking a guess here but I'd say two or three people each week show up interested in Pathfinder, ones who never played anything before or just experienced players looking for fun. Even if I'm sort of off here, conventions and other events she's devotedly attending make up for that. Oftentimes I think she's trying too hard and should slow down a bit. ;) At this tempo we're probably gonna need more GMs to host games than we currently have available or willing to take that role. They'll come in time I suppose.
Besides being a good Venture-Captain, she's also a great GM at whose table it's always a pleasure to play. She usually starts off new players with First Steps I, which she knows by heart at this point, and no one ever leaves disappointed (even when they end up beaten, bleeding and robbed in some shady street).
Anyway, the player base is growing and that's what counts. Players are varied and generally nice, games are fun and overall we have a good time. There's still much to learn and explore though, for all of us, in order to improve the Society, but let's have faith and see where she'll take us next. :)
I played this one before GM-ing it at Eurocon this weekend, and it turned out... well, let's just say it didn't went as expected, so I thought it would be great to try to run it to get the full experience of it. Scavenging this topic for preparation I gathered some fine ideas I tried to implement, especially Chris' descriptions of goblins. Anyway, I had four amazing players, we played lower tier and had a blast! Especially because we had plenty of time so I didn't have to rush things and they wanted to role-play.
Meet the party:
Human Fighter (Cheliax) - I actually didn't get a good grasp of the character but he was the one showing goblins who's the boss.
Half-Orc Monk (Shadow Lodge) - All quiet and insightful, and needs his dose of fighting and grappling things.
Human Barbarian (Andoran) - Young lad of Ulfen blood turned out as a comic relief at the table with his lack of experience. The player was actually new to Society and perhaps role-playing in general, not sure, so it only accentuated his behavior.
Human Paladin/ Oracle (Grand Lodge) - Character lost his paladin powers during some previous scenario and player decided to pick Oracle level(s) for role-playing purposes and flavor until he redeems/ atones himself. He had most interaction with the goblins and won their hearts in the end. ;)
Before (seriously) starting the first act I tried to emphasize how much headache the goblins will cause and that it's really important to keep a close eye on them but I had to work with some boundaries since PCs decided to cuff the goblins and to tie them together with a rope (yup, no alchemist fire for me). And funny thing, while they were in the camp, HOrc was worried about fetching the orders but it somehow ended up with paladin serving as a diversion with him questioning Ragna about mission, goblins and other things so she didn't notice a thing. :D
Act 1:
So, once they got to the towers we shifted focus down to battle grid and the front two characters who were holding the rope and leading the goblins, kinda forgot about that and rushed to the towers which led to the captives trying to discreetly change the course and escape but paladin wouldn't allow that so he tied them up to the nearest stone. Eventually, three of them were at the towers - two at western, one at eastern and the fighter was called back to keep an eye on the goblins who were now chewing through the rope. After some failed diplomacy and intimidation, and seeing they completely disrespect his authority, the fighter proceeded slapping each of them to stop and eventually punching the persistent one for six points of damage. Yes, he was staggered for some time and was about to slow them down.
At the towers, HOrc grappled one goblin, pinned and threw him from the tower while the barbarian fell the other in a single strike. Meanwhile paladin was dealing with the shaman and... after a successful fight they eventually put out the fire. Paladin panicked more of the goblins will arrive if they saw the signal so they rushed on, carrying the bruised goblin on the back.
Act 2:
Act two went with no particular problems but was so much fun nudging player's paranoia. After some debating how to construct a shelter, they succeeded and storm caught them just as they were finishing up. They took watches during the night so I had goblins do something during each watch. I can't really remember what I had them do first two watches except to look all sneaky as if planning something - someone from the party spotted it but failed at extracting more information. On the paladin's watch I had two of them attack the other so he got a serious bite wound right there and paladin separated them, tried to find out if that was what they were planning and everything. He tended to the wounded and checked on the now unconscious one who seemed to be very cold and breathing slowly so, SO - paladin gave his bedroll to the poor goblin and ended up sleeping on the cold ground.
After that, barbarian was up for the watch and since he was standing guard at the entrance, I mentioned he hears wind howling outside and after a poor perception check I suggested he might be hearing wolves howling in the distance (I intended to wait for the morning for the actual encounter) which was a nice hint at what will follow so he woke up paladin who then woke up everyone else and they went out all ready for battle and after an hour of futile search they went to sleep scared. Paladin actually accused the smartest goblin, with which he had most interaction with, about devising a plan to attract wolves by persuading another to bite the third and letting the wolves smell the blood! Hilarious!
Act 3:
Next morning they had a brief fight with the wolves who didn't prove to be a match for them. Goblins actually pleaded them to spare the wolves and were shocked at pure barbarism PCs showed by killing the two of young wolves. After some more role-playing - feeding goblins, comforting them and explaining why they had to kill the wolves(!!!), preparing to move on, etc. they arrived at Harvest's End.
Act 4:
By here, we were kinda tired so this one was a bit clunky (at least for me) but they succeeded to pass Rimetusk through pure diplomacy, bluffing, and general role-playing. HOrc went in first while humans waited outside the village, and he managed to gather some information but couldn't get Rimetusk's approval to use the ferry. It was fun depicting the troll trying to intimidate them and make them show him respect. Looks on their faces were priceless when they finally brought goblins before Rimetusk and I had them scream "Help, zirr, we ahre being kidnapped, uumans treat uz badly!" Somehow they managed to speak their way out of combat by praising mighty Rimetusk and his giant axe. :D
Barbarian ended up harassing the woman in the bar while trying to complete his mission and almost got himself into trouble with the bouncer, but decided to leave peacefully instead.
Act 5:
We took a break and when we gathered again, act five followed with party approaching the forest. Goblins were obviously shaken and were tied (again, damn!) to a tree and barbarian kept an eye on them. Some time passed until their paranoia subsided and they finally approached the house. It was my fault again because I had paladin (who's haunted because of oracle class) hear a child's voice invite him in to play because it's lonely. This and goblin's moaning of the Witch Queen scared the hell out of them. So, once they approached the house, HOrc tried to burn it with alchemist fire, but he rolled a 1. Happy time! After that, fighter dared to go in and, again, the players were terrified when I described the face of the doll... ehm, fighter swung his flail at the doll lying on the chair, missed and knocked the chair over. Monk goes in, tries to punch it, and misses so he hits the floor (hilarious scene). After that, the doll decided to end them but failed after monk grappled her for good and fighter bust her to pieces.
After that, goblins were still sensing witch's gaze upon them (the doll's eyes) so the party left the forest as quickly as possible.
Act 6:
Final act was great fun too but by now we were trying to close everything. It basically consisted of barbarian and fighter trying to out-drink Enrik (he tried to keep them busy until his men deal with paladin and goblins), while chaplain was with monk who heard footsteps on the roof and went out to check. Action followed with barbarian having his great moment of jumping on the table (almost failing) and accusing Enrik for betrayal. By the end two PCs went to negative, HOrc managed to heal to positive thanks to Orc Ferocity and paladin ended up on exactly 0 HP before healing. Chaplain was the last one standing and surrendered when they healed. Oh yeah, one goblin went down and paladin gave him a potion just so he could open his eyes, say something and assure the rest of his friends he's okay.
Role-played the conclusion and that's it.
Again, it was a great game with a lot of facepalming at the goblins (which means I did good portraying them), funny moments and bursts of paranoia. I probably forgot some great moment but this is enough already.
Sorry for the long post, I just had to share it, and perhaps someone will find/ scavenge something useful for his/ her own session. This is definitely a scenario you want to run when you have enough time just so all the players could get a complete experience and enjoy themselves.
