The Shifty Mongoose's page

I have the assumption that a small percentage of elementals willingly allow themselves to be summoned, or sign up for it or something. Either they don't really "get" the Material Plane and figure, "It's all fun, nobody really dies. See, I just get sent back home no matter what happens!"
Or they do it because they believe in their evil lords' propaganda of beating up Material people for funsies.
...Perhaps some of them rationalize that, if they were brought to this icky universe and told to smack that guy, it must have been for a good reason, right?
Or, in the case of called/bound elementals, they're probably really bored and willing to take it out on random passersby, just for something to do or the hope they get Dismissal'd back home.

I mean, there are/were vigilantes...
But if we're going down that route, just be glad that this guy named Barbatos can't run over to you and take a max-damage AoO if you try to use a scroll or potion within line of sight...

I mean, thanks to spells, electricity is commonly observed in places that aren't in Nex or Numeria. It was only a matter of time until people wondered how to make it happen non-magically, then to put it to use!

Yeah, I mean, it is one of those mysteries that doesn't really need a resolution.

I do admit, I did like the idea of a CG Gorumite, and imagined one of them doing a wedding:
"You! Will you fight!?"
"-And You! Will you fight!?"
"Will you both fight, together, on the same side, for as long as it is convenient!?"
"Great! You're married! Now let's go get wasted!!"

Then I realized that someone who encouraged self-improvement through constant struggle, even in a non-physical sense, would probably do better in the clergy of Kurgess.

I know there's been an ongoing cadre of wannabe lich PCs, and maybe this edition will make it actually plausible. Also, yeah, not having ability score substitution will take some adjustment, but this will hopefully make things a bit simpler.

From what I've seen and read, PF2 does seem well-thought-out and I would like to be both a player & GM in it. I still have a lot of stuff in PF1 to GM & play, so when I've finished with that, I'll try the new edition. Plus, by then, there'll be more sourcebooks and errata for the new stuff!

I do like the idea of, "Oh Me, what have I done?" but instead of murder, Aroden could always have faked his death and left humanity to decide on their own collective destiny, instead of being told what to do from on high. That also fits in nicely with the writing staff wanting to avoid PCs' actions being pre-ordained by Fate/Destiny/Prophecy, so that they can adjust the present to make their own future.

Or something like that. It also has the god of humanity realize he was being a human supremecist there, and avoid an explicit suicide.

Wow, that's going to be tricky. As much fun as it is to have two villains in an alliance with different motivations (and with one tricking the other) do you worry it might go over the players' heads?

As for Barbatos, I thought that as well. Focusing more toward corruption and secrecy as strictly enforced rules, as well as the social constructivism of, "Everything can be corrupted, therefore, everything IS being corrupted RIGHT NOW!" It's also a plus for Asmodeus, who might happily accept an Outer God into the outermost layer of Hell. Surely, this is proof that even jumbled madness must give way to his tight-fisted rule.

Yeah, I love the idea of a former Outer God who was driven sane by the plight of mortality. I really want to make well-meaning CN Elder Mythos Cultist of Desna who the mainstream Desnans keep telling not to be so furtive and creepy all the time. Since Desna makes her realm in Cynosure, for Desna, the stars are always right!

17: Leng You show up on a wide, wind-swept plateau, as is traditional. Some of its denizens offer to give you a ride back if you can send over any tas- that is, "helpful volunteers" when you return. Ignore the Leng Spider and its counter-offers. Those jerks cannot be trusted.

I was in a similar situation myself, only in that case, the paladin (of Aroden somehow) was bullying everyone, and the GM allowed it. Another player backed me up when I tattled to the GM, the player refused to believe he did anything wrong, then told us we were over-reacting, but PvP was not allowed.

So the only spell I cast on him was Enlarge Person in the hopes of making him a bigger target when he'd inevitably charge and alert everyone within shouting distance to his presence. When that didn't work, my character announced, "I don't want to be human any more," but nobody realized why. Then I announced I'd hand over a written transcript of all my findings to the Pathfinder Society, apologize to the others for being unable to cope with this undeserving, deluded battle oracle, and left to another continent.

Basically, when I couldn't take it any more, I left and put the same character into another AP that different people were partway through. He was my first character to never get killed in either adventure.

A toast to you, Daedalus, and to Greccen. Here's hoping nobody dies to Ms. X. Anyway, here's a two-fer.

PC: Koji Yamaoka
Details: Kitsune life Oracle 16
Adventure: Spires of Xin-Shalast
Place of Death: The Yetis' Home
Famous Last Words: "It's okay, I still have 10 HP!"
Gory Details:
They'd heard that the yeti's boss, let's call him Vooroog, had a Sihedron Ring he'd gotten from one of the Claimer's higher-ups, so they asked if they could borrow it. The yetis were nice enough, but Vooroog immediately accussed them of being sent by the Claimer to kill him, and rolled initiative. Vooroog told them to "aim for that one," and Koji tried to hit the disguised Khalib with a Greater Dispel, but got grabbed, unwillingly released, then full-attacked until he announced his epitaph. Then a yeti hit him for 1d8+10, and Vooroog, coward that he was, decided to double-tap with a single Magic Missile. Fortunately, he was under orders to keep his better spells in reserve, and dropped his Sihedron Ring to teleport away as soon as the physically toughest PC was about to close with him. The yetis, due to their chronic lack of fealty to the Claimer, had outlived their usefulness.

PC: Nordramel Embermaw
Details: Kobold Humility Illusionist 3/U-Rogue 3/Arcane Trickster 10
Adventure: Spires of Xin-Shalast
Place of Death: The Heptaric Locus
Cause of Death: Gamigin, reworked into an Advanced Roguish gelugon with the Assassinate slayer talent
Gory Details:
Shortly after they first met the skulks (who now have different hats), they were introduced to Gamil, a skulk who'd come from an enclave somewhere around the Tangle. He offered to lead them to a Sihedron Ring guarded by scarlet walkers, avoiding most of them. Having ran out of Invisibility but still the sneakiest of them, Nordramel snuck forward, seemingly unseen by the Walkers, then Gamil removed his Hat and stabbed Nordramel so hard that his head fell clean off. He then held off his Walkers, allowed them to resurrect their ally and take his Sihedron Ring, also offering information on Karzoug if they gave him valuable things. They refused.

I have four sets of dice. In a sort of Dragonlance fashion, I use the white dice for good characters, the red dice for neutral ones, and black dice for evil ones.

I also have a set of gold sparkly dice, but since those tend to fail me when I need them the most, I lend them out to other people who've forgotten theirs. That'll learn 'em.

Hah! Yeah, one of my PCs made a deal with him too, but called in the favour for help against Mokmurian.

So now, Gamigil got a thorough description of someone and a lot of juicy information, in return for killing him in as humiliating a manner as devilishly possible. I asked the PC, "Do you want us to conspire together about a coming Big, Dramatic Moment?" but he declined, wanting to take it as it happens. Oh well...

Really, I'm still happily amazed that Nualia not only successfully switched sides, but she's also now a PC!
I'd say, to make book-keeping easier for you, have the giant struggle occur as a background way to get your PCs into the Pinnacle without having to fight their way through all the enemy giants. While the Claimer-fealty giants "resort to harsh measures" as the "once-peaceful protest quickly turns into a furious riot," your smaller PCs can sneak their way in. Or duck between legs as one group shoves the other back down the stairs.

Otherwise, your PCs might end up thinking this is the prelude to the Final Battle, using up a lot of wide-angle spells, and after their victory, finding a bunch of other threats upstairs. Then what, do they retreat, with their foe's Rise so close at hand?

Then, an indeterminate time later, the breakthrough was made that crumbled the formerly impenetrable walls between Essences and Traditions, and the first Mystics appeared, followed by the first Technomancers.

Also, d'aww, another uplifting story about places on Golarion that aren't eternally fraught with danger and corruption. I love this one as well.

I've always thought that the main powers of the runewell, "Let Karzoug Out/Keep Up The Occluding Field" were enough. The way I'll play it, he can pull Greed out of the runewell to basically make any spells he wants permanent ahead of time; as well, some of his equipment was made from it, which will turn to liquid and flow back into the runewell when he's killed. As well, you can describe the giants and the dragon as sinspawn designed to look like giants and a dragon, since he built them from the runewell. You can play up that it's still almost completely full during the final fight to add some urgency.

As for your ideas specifically, does Karzoug have to use the runewell like he's casting a spell? 1 standard action on his turn? If so, he could always just cast those spells himself, though given the high level, high stakes, and immediacy of the fight, I don't see Windy Escape nor Curse of Burning Sleep being useful to him. Perhaps a Heightened Mass Enlarge, to be used on the PCs who never plan to attack hand-to-hand anyway? Or Telekinesis to push people off the platform, explained as a torrent of Greed pouring out of the runewell and into you/getting the floor slippery?

The story was beautiful, and even gave me a bit of much-needed encouragement today. Thank you for writing it.

Ooh, it's like Fallen Fortress for 2E? I mean, that it's a free intro adventure wherein everyone will have something to do?

Something that hasn't been asked in this thread yet, but something I can't help but think is implied:

How about if everyone else in Scrapwall refers to the cult's idol as "Hellion", but the Lords of Rust keep calling it The Hell Ion, up to and including their false demi-god itself?

Wow, now I want to wonder about how other abberations reproduce (though I probably shouldn't).

The More You Weren't Meant To Know.

Ooh, that's grim. Considering all the other blog tales, I was hoping for a dramatic last-minute rescue or sardonic mockery about Hellknights being literally dragged through the mud. Still, though, that's what a Hellknight does.

So, you can have a leshy druid who wants to sort of propgate the species, I guess?

I always wondered if, because of how they worked, raising/resurrecting them worked differently from how it usually works.

Also, this is more a gripe about players than leshies themselves, but I'm bracing myself for a bunch of "Chaotic Neutral" PFS leshies who insult the other PCs' players directly for, say, daring to be so mean as to fight back against the hungry undeads who're just desperate for lunch! They should play the scenario over! (preferably without belligerent players)

Though I expect some Good-aligned leshies would feel sorry for meaty people having to eat one another to survive.

"Who gets him? Who kills Tar-Baphon? At the end, is it Arazni? Who?"

"No one. No one kills him. He un-lives."

"ARODEN'S BEARD, GRAMPA, why'd you read me this!?"

Personally, I didn't mind that the entirety of Return's plot wasn't just "Kill All The Runelords". While time travel plots can get dangerously convoluted, I'm glad this one didn't.

Also personally, I never found myself excited for Giantslayer, mostly because I heard its pitch as, "Kill progressively larger giants!" I know there's more to it than that, and I'm certain all the writers were inspired and careful and the proofreaders tried to catch as many typos as they could, but it's still low on my list of APs. Mainly because there's so many, and they all take a long time to do.

Not personally, one of my friends refuses to have anything to do with Reign of Winter, purely because of that plot twist in book 5. Even my idea of having a session of Arkham Horror or Elder Sign or something and having it canon to the AP got dismissed.

Finally, because the staff says they plan to try something different with each AP, naturally they're going to be hit-or-miss with different groups. So I don't particularly mind if one's underwhelming. There are others, and there'll be more.

Just sticking my head in to mention something that may not have been outright stated here before: a likely reason why Tar-Baphon didn't do the sensible thing and persevere in the face of accidental self-nukage?

Humiliation.

He finally broke out of his prison. Finally marshalled all his disparate forces. Managed to kill Arazni - again! - and possibly killed her so hard that it even broke her phylactery (incidentally, is there any mention on that happening? If so, it can also make it more plausible that a similar thing happened to TB). He was ready to launch his attack on Absalom, when a bunch of random nobodies showed up, made fun of him, goaded him into using the ultimate weapon he wanted to start using less often and it literally blew up in his face.

The AP mentions, repeatedly, that he is a man of monstrous, bloated ego. It detailed his reaction at being locked in Gallowspire. If he shows up a week later, his forces in disarray, getting mopped up, his Urgathoan help rescinded, his very undead body permanently mutilated, he - he - the being who had successfully tricked Aroden himself, destroyed by some people whose presence he was almost wholly unaware and not even Mythical... I could accept it if he gave up right then and there and went Mythic Demilich in a fit of sour grapes.

...Kobolds around the world want to upstage those goblins as the new, cute little anklebiters everyone wants to hate on/play as?

Also, yeah, they don't have to be friendly to be playable. I do admit, I made up a LE yellow kobold as the "adorable little megalomaniac", well-practiced at sucking up to the bigger, stronger, richer people.

Actually, I meant would sorcerers call out a certain faith to be able to cast their attack cantrip aligned with that faith?
I do agree that most people who aren't divine spellcasters would probably be casually supportive of most religions, asking Pharasma for guidance, swearing on Norgorber's invisible blood, or whatever.
I was just looking at a different view, instead of "They get this spell but can't use it", could they also be able to get around its restrictions?

Alternatively, what about divine sorcerers who are pantheists? Offer a prayer to whichever religion fits the situation at the moment? Do their spells work with whichever alignment they want?

(Also, in a world with lots of religions, many of which overlap, you could always just decide to be "not religious")

So, you've got dragon sorcery, but felt like Abyssal sorcery would be a better fit for you? You could always ask a helpful incubus for advice...

Aw, you could've had Lucretia show the PCs her sihedron tatto and offer to give ones to the PCs.

Also, here's a suggestion in case you don't want Lucretia to just D-door away every time: if Barl's suspicious of her loyalty, or is just mean to her, have him use a Dimensional Anchor scroll on her before the fight. I mean, if she runs all the way to him.

Just because my PCs were unfailingly polite to her but avoided the Paradise. When they met her in the fort, they let her leave to warn Jaggrath, listening for their approach and casting spells on herself when she heard them buffing right outside the door; when they killed Jaggrath, she promised to leave the fort alone and never return, then D-door'd away to warn Barl. (Also, she'd told Kaven she was planning a surprise party for the fort, and he honestly never knew about the ogres until his capture)
She told Barl she'd be able to kill their healer if it wasn't for this spell all over her, and her epitaph was, "Mommy!" The PCs were crestfallen when they met Myrianna and realized they shouldn't have let [Lucretia] get away.

@Leigod: Wow, I couldn't have put it better myself. That's a great summation.

As for the other posts after that one, she was stated to be CE during her rule, her realm was the "Foreign Quarter" of Thassilon, and Enchantment is all the mind-affecting spells. All that, as well as Enchantment's sin being Lust, make for good reasons to gloss over Bad Stuff That Happened. All the GM needs to mention is something like there being no written propaganda because everyone was required by law to brainwash each other, or something like that.

It warms my heart to see people liking the Xopatl gazetteer. I had a lot of fun writing it and would love to dive back into Arcadia as soon as they'll let me!

They had better let you back in soon. That stuff was great, and I, like the many others, am eager to read more about it!

"Cheliax Conquers Shackles, Now Has To Defend It From Serpentfolk Invasion. Film at 11."

Also, because of Alaznist harming time itself, why not have every runelord up and about? That'd make it even worse for Xin's ghost...

Plus, isn't the whole reason you're meeting with her an offer of mutually beneficial assistance? So there isn't really much reason to attack her, other than she's the Succubus Queen, no redemption for her sort of thing.

But redemption is a part of the AP, and even if you do attack her for some bad reason, it's totally within her perrogative to fight back, then heal you, then ask if everyone could actually get down to business please?

I mean, really, now, trying to take a swing at an honestly helpful deific figure for no reason? Who'd do that?

As a random real-life aside, the Mayans had flushing toilets and sediment filtration.

Though back to the topic at hand: when it comes to evil societies in Arcadia, I would like to see more about what syrinx civilization is like. Would PCs be able to successfully bargain with a parliament of philosopher-monarchs, or would they consider you to all be tough and stupid for lacking natural flight? Are there populations of syrinx who aren't eternally snooty?

He is the embodiment of Apsu and Iomedae 's alliance. He wasn't born from their love, but rather from their vow to support each other if ever needed.

You can't find it in the books, but that was the answer I got when I asked the same question to the developers, although I can't remember exactly who answered me.

That is simultaneously admirable, adorable, and a lot better than my initial mental image. Thank you for immediately correcting/purifying it.

Still, you could always have him claim that he was adopted by Iomedae, or that she loved him like family.

Interesting, I've always pronounced it CZAR-knee.

Yeah, that's what I thought. Guess I have to tell my PCs I was wrong.

Ah yes, The Goblinblood Wars was my favourite AP. I still have fond memories of me & my group, back in 1999, when we saved Isger for the first time.

Seriously, though, if you wonder why your previous PCs aren't on the lookout for more ancient evil so they can Scry & Fry it, they probably retired to endless opulence in their timeless demiplanes, or fought each other over misunderstandings, or are trying to keep Sorshen under surveillance 'cause she's gotta be up to something, right?

Or whatever you/your GM can figure out, so as not to steal the upcoming thunder of your new PCs.

Actually, I'd want to be a barbarian and lift many things. Or that act where you spit alcohol over a torch. Maybe I'd claim I came from Sarusan and had to throw dinosaurs at other dinosaurs to survive!

66. Flithy the Sarenite

ABC: Goblin (maybe acolyte) Paladin (Champion?) of Sarenrae

Weapon: Scimitar, fire, piousness, determination to protect everyone from the symbol of all hypocrisy in the world.

Goblin Song:

Flithy always tried to pray/
and then got blessed by Sarenrae/
So now she shines the light of day/
on horses that she has to slay!!

Yes, that's what's keeping them there, and angry as well.

I mean, I was one of the people who like the idea of dual shields. Attack with one, defend with the other?

I mean, I had PCs who couldn't stand each other, kicking each other for non-lethal damage to wake up whichever one was sleeping.

Also, those same PCs (both of them Chaotically aligned) gave everyone consent to blast everyone in an AoE if they were surrounded by foes. If one of them had resistance to/protection from the incoming energy, so much the better.

2) "Tell my wife that I'll return within the month, the recent loss of face mended. Also - I apologize, I really should learn the better spell - your teeth have fallen out and your trousers are gone."

(My NE wizard wanted to send a message back home, but only had the Nightmare spell. He figured his manor's gardener was the sturdiest of his staff)

D'aww, being tempted by goodness is the best alignment shift ever.

36) The druid Earth Glides through the floor via wild shape, and deposits some slime all over the mill's saws/basket weaving tools. It might be dangerous green slime, or it might just be leftover cud. Either way, it's still gross.

37) Wild shape/wild empathy-led pigeon or seagull bombing run. Look at your precious statues now, and weep!

Has Karzoug been scrying on your PC? If he's certain the incoming nuisance is going to secure a Sihedron Ring, that narrows down the list of options. So I'd say he could be content to wait, send Khalib or someone to inform Sihedron Ring-wearers that someone's coming to kill them, and take this opportunity to determine which skulks are of sufficient loyalty, and which ones are treacherous turncoats who've betrayed their Claimer, and Greed itself.
Edit: later, in the Pinnacle of Avarice, one of the Karzoug holograms could thank your PC for showing him which skulks were worthless, and which weren't.