Virellius's page

Hmm. Got my PDF for Draconic Codex but not for ROTRL. I'm assuming this is expected?

Good to see stormcrown dragons finally getting out there!

While blue dragons were traditionally my favorite of the OGL Ten (especially in the 3e Todd Lockwood interpretation), I really tried to come at the stormcrown dragon from first principles. What does it mean to be a primal dragon? A dragon of storms and lightning? (Blue dragons, at least to my mind, were really desert dragons—destroying potable liquids, creating mirages and illusions—that happened to breathe lightning.)

I'm not certain they'll always slot neatly into the niche blue dragons occupied—I suspect that the average stormcrown dragon would drive a lawful evil creature up the wall, although they do share a certain love of machination with their forebears—but I do hope people will find them both interesting and useful nonetheless. ^_^

Super excited to get a look at them, they sound amazing.

My longest running and very first DnD3e -> PF 1 and 2 PC was a blue dragon sorcerer extremely connected to the arcane. This is absolutely going to be a major change for my boy but I'm very excited to workshop him into being a primal caster now. Going to take some significant retooling of his lore I think, though I'm glad their love for machinations remained. He always was a schemer.

Still no gold, nothing in my library, and no updates. :/ At this point, I'd rather just have the old shop back lol. Was really looking forward to those pdfs and missing the ease-of-use, been a long week.

The store just tried to charge me for a second copy of my subscription. Luckily I'm broke so it didn't go through but what is going on here? I emailed CS about it but this is wild.

Got billed, nothing in either library; would be nice if the TOTAL it shows in our pending subs included tax and shipping. Still not sure if a discount applied or if I got 'gold'.

Hate to be so negative but aside from 'looking' pretty, this new rollout seems absolutely busted and way more complicated than it needs to be. Isn't the goal of a new store to make buying your items -easier- for the consumer, especially long-term subscribers?

Update: I do not have any gold. From this purchase or any.

Is there an update on when credit cards will be charged and PDFs released for subscriptions today?

Wondering myself. I saw something say 3am pst which absolutely didn't happen lol

Still no gold; CS told me it would be added eventually.
My sub skipped the 17th and is now coming next month.
I can't get discounts for Foundry Modules for things I already own in PDF.

I am paying more for less, am getting confusing 'gold' which really is not ideal (nobody likes gameification of discounts), and I'm not actually even sure if my subs are even still correctly applied.

Very confusing and frustrating.

Prince Maleus wrote:

So I am subscribed to Adventures, Adventure Paths, Lost Omens and Rulebooks.

Right now for Revenge of the Runelords: Into the Apocalypse Archive and the Draconic Codex, I am only seeing options for either add to pre-order now or add to my January 1st subscription.

How do I get these Now?
Or when will the December Subscription orders be submitted?

You'll receive your notification of the pending December subscription products on Wednesday. If you're subscribed to the lines you are expecting, there is nothing more that you need to do. If you're completely missing a subscription, please add it back to your account through the subscription pages.

-Jim

So even though it shows no pending price or cost, I will be charged for the upcoming Draconic Codex today via the Lost Omens Subscription?

If the concept of mythic HAD never re-emerged into 2e, what was the plan to 'power-scale' the formerly mythic NPCs? Just make levels beyond the normal limit perhaps?

On that note, Revenge looks amazing overall. Got my second book in recently and I cannot wait for a chance to run it.

The Shoanti are...

** spoiler omitted **...

Oh that's actually really cool!

That being the case, I am really happy to see the push towards more cultural sensitivity. I think Paizo really is at the forefront as the most progressive space in the 'biggest entity that isn't the Other Game Company' section of the ttrpg world and it always makes me proud to be able to tell people about the efforts you guys do to be respectful and inclusive.

HenshinFanatic wrote:

Personally, I feel the Shoanti haven't gotten much love in 2E, so I would definitely appreciate them getting more than just a few lines of description.

They got quite a bit of love in the second book of triumph of the tusk. including backmatter! :)

My... not concern, but interest, in the Shoanti as depicted in that book (specifically in art) was that they were very much depicted as Real Life Native Americans. Shoanti had always been a sort of unique to Golarion indigenous people of the region, and Arcadia exists to tell the stories of Native Americans and First Nations peoples, so making Shoanti ALSO that seems a bit confusing. You shouldn't just slap a real-life aesthetic onto people so I wonder if there's some in-universe lore for that? Perhaps a connection to Arcadia?

A background called Local Savior. Which is... My wife's online name and yet her PC is better suited for the one where you're the child of a previous runelords adventurer. A cruel choice by the gods!
This AP looks amazing.

Virellius wrote:

'Back in my day, we had to scale a mountain uphill both ways in the snow to beat our Runelords! And we weren't even mythic!'

"And don't even mention that clock tower in Magnimar... Or the other mountains (one in particular)... Or that wendigo, before even finding Xin-Shalast..."

Our cleric fell off that clocktower lmao. She survived with like... 2 hp? Something wild. It was painful.

So today is a most glorious day, my order shipped and I have my PDF downloaded.

I am at work so not able to really answer questions till later this evening. But taking a quick look.
There are Runelords in the toolbox.

Well, call me Belimarius because I am green with envy.

No, no, Prince Maleus, I think your excitement is warranted. I have been looking forward to this for so long, plus my home campaign is just about to reach Xin-Shalast to visit Sorshen (canonically about a month before this AP starts) so this gives me perfect time to flesh her out and subconsciously influence them to let me run Revenge for them.

Prince Maleus wrote:

I wonder when the Player's Guide will drop, I hope its this week.

No update on this, but I'll post here when we know!

What if it came out today so I could read it at work? :3

Look, I'll be honest. The rationale could be 'because funny' and I'd still buy it. I LOVE Thassilon content, and this book comes out at exactly the cosmically perfect time for me (I swear Paizo publishes around my own personal campaign schedule).

I really do hope it's something to do with a complete random chance slice of Gorum just clipping his soul on the way through the planes. I love the idea of such a large threat being a big statistical 'oops'.

If somehow Karzoug comes back too I may have to bring my old Rise party out of retirement somehow just to have them directly train the new generation.

'Back in my day, we had to scale a mountain uphill both ways in the snow to beat our Runelords! And we weren't even mythic!'

IDK if this was mentioned yet, but in the Lost Omens: Shining Kingdoms book, there is a picture of Stavian III in the Taldor section labeled as Stavian II.

Minor issue, unless Stavian III was a direct clone of his father.

Hey!
Looking into running an infiltration; I've done one before but the module to track it in Foundry doesn't seem to be updated.
Is there any online builder (the pf2 tools one seems to not load for me) or other module people like using? I can absolutely do it the old fashioned way but if there's a faster/more convenient method I'd love to know.

I have often wondered this too. The existing images of Xin-Shalast evoke a sort of 'Tibetan monastary hidden in the mountains Shangri-La' sort of vibe.

I haven't looked at the art in Shattered Star in a bit for the city of Xin; does it look similar?

This is sort of tangentially related; in at least Shattered Star there was a significant amount of Thassilonian clockwork (at least in the last book, if I remember correctly). How does this differ from the style used in Alkenstar? Are there any aesthetic differences or unique looks that would identify a Thassilonian clockwork from an Alkenstar type? On that note, how common were they in the day to day? Would it be likely that Sorshen may have some salvaged/rebuilt in this day and age or have they likely moved on from that whole thing?

I gotta say a big thank you to James for what you said may have been getting your own wires crossed; in planning more of my campaign I sort of off-the-cuff decided a level 10 strigoi vampire would be sealed up in an old, forgotten little outpost of Sorshen's near the base of Xin-Shalast (perhaps she had it built in ancient times as a way to keep an eye on the surrounding Runelords, as one does). I reasoned that this vampire would likely have been bound to her service around the time of the Age of Darkness.

I had 100% forgotten about the fact that literally exactly that (Strigoi who served Sorshen specifically during the Age of Darkness) was already canon in the lore and when I re-read those bits in Shadows at Sundown I felt briefly like an oracle.

Long story short, I love your work with the Runelords and Varisia and when my party finally gets to going far away for their adventures I'm gonna miss having Thassilonian messes to have them stumble over.

vyshan wrote:

What was the issue with Sorshen to begin with?

Being a Runelord entailed a lot of mass murder and enslavement as a matter of course. Sorshen decided to avoid starting up with that again not out of any realization that her actions were wrong but largely out of fear of the sticky ends her fellows met. And she was spectacularly successful in avoiding that outcome for herself, going above and beyond evading any negative consequences for her past deeds (not having to give anything up in reparation or as an earnest of her good faith) to maintaining or increasing her lavish lifestyle, personal and political power, and status. It comes across, at least to me, as a blatant exercise in narrative favor.

Consider this: Sorshen bought favor back by helping defeat the other Runelords. Also, it is boring if all the Runelords die. It makes for a more interesting setting if ancient rulers from a lost empire return changed.

I don't know about you, but thousands of years of the same thing, even the hedonistic excess that Sorshen no doubt engaged in, would get boring. Gods forbid a girl try new things.

Also consider: she's cool and I like her.

Virellius wrote:

CastleDour wrote:

Hellknight PCs will put Sorshen to justice sooner or later!

Hellknights removing the lawful and enduring ruler of a sovereign nation on her own soil?

On someone else's soil. Sorshen's soil is about 500 miles south of the realm she's currently ruling. Which she is doing by right of conquest.

Not conquest. Xin-Shalast was long-abandoned by the time she got there, thanks to the Sihedron Heroes. She is at worst moving into a derelict and refurbishing it.

If she WANTED to, she could try and move into Korvosa but I'm pretty sure she canonically decided it would be too much trouble. Plus the heroes of Korvosa would likely have something to say about that, and dealing with a party of 4 at least level 18 people who have already slain one queen using the Everdawn Pool may be a little bit complicated.

Hellknight PCs will put Sorshen to justice sooner or later!

Hellknights removing the lawful and enduring ruler of a sovereign nation on her own soil?

I don't think you know what the Hellknights are my friend.

4th level characters who get this thing and think about asking nicely the nice Runelord for wise advice about it would raise Sorshen's interest IMO. They can then, when the actual audience happens, strike her as potential reliable and efficient agents/allies.

To test them a bit, she might ask them, as a favor, to go check on Sandpoint's latest troubles. After all, things there do tend to have links to Thassilon's legacy.

And then you get the PCs to play Seven Dooms of Sandpoint.

And they should be in a perfect position to tackle Revenge after that.

My PCs actually will be level 10 by the time they get there; we have plans to run Seven Dooms with a different group of PCs tied to some of our Rise/Return heroes so we actually DID visit Sandpoint where everyone was very vague about the 'More Recent Unpleasantness' lol.

Essentially, the plan is for Godsrain to happen during an audience with Sorshen on the mountain top, the recurring antagonist to get a bit of the ol' Gorum Juice before the Lady of the House summarily removes him for the moment; the party gets the go-ahead from Sorshen to help collect some Warshards, get a little bit of their own mythic power, and then proceed to travel the world and the planes to gather the requirements to destroy the Item in Question.

My party got way too attached to the Rust-eze lol.

If you're planning on doing Revenge later with different PCs, then yeah, not as big a deal... but keep in mind that...

** spoiler omitted **

I did post something to that effect but the forums ate it.

But yes. The first volume of Revenge of the Runelords, which should be out in October, has this in it.

** spoiler omitted **

Maybe I can drag out the journey across the rest of the plateau and up the mountain until October, haha. I have it set for them to show up probably right before Godsrain and witness it from atop the mountain, so Revenge won't happen for a little while in our timeline.

Obviously this is all going to be theoretical since I don't think there's a lot of official public information but let's say travelers made their way to New Thassilon and trekked up to Sorshen's new capital. What do you think it would take to get an audience with the Runelord?

Is it a process full of red tape and long waiting? Is it a more free-form process, designed to take advantage of the new era of Thassilon and a removal of the old traditions?

Does she hold parades or would she think that's too vain and prideful?

I'm curious as to how people view what life under Sorshen's rule would be like. My party is about to visit her capital and I'm brainstorming how I want it all to play out. Do we think there is an Undercity of dissidents? Do they have legitimate complaints about her rule?

Just looking for people's opinions and thoughts.

So let me get this straight: I bought Gatewalkers when it came out. I bought the original FoundryVTT modules too. I ALSO bought the remaster.

And I have to pay FOURTY DOLLARS for the remastered FoundryVTT version AS WELL? When the changes are, let's be honest, minimal at best? That's not great, Paizo. :/ Love you guys but that sucks.

Just going to manually update the book3 stuff in Foundry myself.

Just picturing Luis Loza popping into this thread, actually seeing interest in this 'mentioned once' organization, and doing that Batman Hmmm gif.

Two years from now, the Darklight Sisterhood shows up in a new source book.

Makes sense that they aren't really used.

On the other hand, subtly inserting a 'Lady Insert Chelaxian Name Here Darklight, Noted Socialite' into a sidebar in an Old Cheliax setting book would be a very cool little treat.

Although, they're Korvosan not Chelaxian if I'm reading it right. Perhaps holdovers from when Korvosa was part of Cheliax?

Reading that the Pathfinders know almost nothing about them because they're sort of irrelevant gives me an amazing image of a bunch of 'trying too hard to be mysterious Team Rocket type girlfails' who simply are not effective but maybe stumble into some success on accident.

Wow, there's a name I haven't heard in a long time.

Sounds like a prime example of a deep cut that could be interesting to bring back in current times though considering the Cheliax situation.

Right, but I already own the Gatewalkers Foundry module. I would hate to have to buy THAT a second time.

I did get the pdf also; I subscribe so I got it a few days early.

Virellius wrote:

I really didn't get the hate the AP got. I feel like people just get weird about things without context; my table loves Sakuachi and Deniigi has been the source of at least two squabbles (two party members really like her and are bickering over who she thinks is cooler).

I love Pathfinder but sometimes I feel like I'm playing a different game after hearing from other members of the community lol.

A lot of people felt like the AP premise and players guide promise one type of campaign and then the AP itself doesn't deliver that. Missed expectations do a lot to sour people and then that impacts their view of what comes later. If you look at the worst rated APs in the big survey done last year, several of the ones at the bottom share this trait of "they promise a certain kind of campaign and don't deliver it." (Second Darkness is notorious for this as well.)

Lots of players also dislike not being the main character of the story and escort quests. FFXIV is also discovering that as it's formerly stellar player reviews have absolutely tanked in Drawntrail, and a big chunk of that is that much of the story is "the player follows Wuk Lamat around on her adventure."

When you have both of those problems in the same AP, it's going to turn a lot of players off.

To be fair, the hate Wuk gets is also due to rampant and highly prevalent transphobia directed at the VA. I don't think DT is the best expansion by a mile but it's mostly due to stagnation of the game's entire systems and direction, not any one character.

I will say though, after reading the guide and then actually running the AP, I really don't feel 'deceived' by the premise.

We're told we are people with missing memories investigating why that is; that's what we have been doing. At no point were we NOT people with missing memories investigating why until we got our memories back a bit and found out the reason is tied to the same thing Sakuachi is doing and then we're people who HAD missing memories who are still investigating why and working to resolve it.

Maybe my table is just different. Don't know; I surely wouldn't put this as worse than like Extinction Curse in terms of 'the flavor is not the story'. THAT one absolutely deserves the 'wait where did the circus plot go' criticism.

CastleDour, I can't see any similarity between Sakuachi and Nenio. Nenio is a nerd, hyper intellectual standoffish weirdo with a mysterious past and a completely socially inept personality. Sakuachi is an energetic woman with a very CLEAR past, strong goals, clear drive and focus, who travels with a group of dear friends who she is very close to. She's warm and compassionate and then sacrifices part of her own self to become the avatar for a demigod.

I REALLY don't see literally any similarities between the two characters. I -do- love Nenio but she is in no way a similar character nor does she fill even a vaguely similar role.

Also, to LordMoussaka, I REALLY hope I don't need to pay for the Foundry Module again lol. That would actually make me mad.

Mike McArtor was key in creating Darkmoon Vale and Korvosa WAY back in the early days of Pathfinder, and I suspect he either re-used the name without realizing it or threw it in there as an easter egg... but no, the Consortium hasn't been infiltrated in the same way that those in Korvosa were.

Ah well. Perhaps it's a distant cousin of the original Pre-Bahor Arkona family! Somehow. I think the Consortium one is a Dwarf actually. Darkmoon Vale is a blindspot of mine and I didn't realize that name was actually much older!

The Shining Kingdoms book has absolutely gotten me extremely excited for the upcoming plotlines, so kudos there. Great stuff in this one.

The name is so iconic among many of us long-term Pathfinder players; I saw it while reading through the Shining Kingdoms book and my eyebrow raised.

Coincidence, or has the Consortium been infiltrated by a (more) nefarious entity? Glorio and kin will always be favorites of mine; is anything written about this Jemi outside of this book?

I really didn't get the hate the AP got. I feel like people just get weird about things without context; my table loves Sakuachi and Deniigi has been the source of at least two squabbles (two party members really like her and are bickering over who she thinks is cooler).

I love Pathfinder but sometimes I feel like I'm playing a different game after hearing from other members of the community lol.

Morgan Freeman could play Jatembe. His voice is deep and soothing and I think it would work really well for a wise old wizard.

Now hear me out on this one... Curse of the Crimson Throne with Mia Goth as Illeosa. Her unhinged performance in Pearl could ABSOLUTELY work for the increasingly unstable and self-obsessed queen. 'But I'm a STAAAR!'

We decided to pause our run until the remaster came out and were just starting book 3. Haven't had time to look through it too much but I did notice some new art which is great.

Minor question: in the page for the dream scrapers in the bestiary, the sidebar mentions night hags. I thought for sure they were OGL. Was this a missed edit or is there a new remaster friendly night hag?

That aside, I am excited to finish our campaign and deal with a horrid frozen Eldritch space whale. How are other people feeling about the remaster?

Any idea if the Foundry module(once it's available) will get a discount if we buy the hardcover/pdf?

(much like the current modules are)

This is extremely important to know; I opted out of the AV and FotRP hardcovers simply because I either had the original or the Foundry module (or both). I don't really -need- this hardcover since I'm running it on Foundry anyways.

Still waiting on responses from customer service for an order issue so I hope this gets answered before y'all charge me lol.

Hey Virellius! This is a question for our Customer Service Team! Please send them an email to customer.service@paizo.com so they can look into it!

I did, haven't heard back. Back in the day I used to see people post order issues in the forums so wasn't sure if that was still a thing.

Thank you! I'll wait to hear back.

I was behind on bills and got behind on money in general. Just fixed the billing info for 44571882 and have enough for that order at this time. I don't have enough for both, as it's a change from 87 to 200+ dollars.

Can you do something to adjust it so they are split orders allowing me to get my funds in order for this months? Was really not expecting this change.

Oh that's actually pretty helpful. I was planning on introducing a group of outcast Shoanti to act as friendly NPCs during their travel across the plateau so perhaps they can actually meet at the mausoleum considering it's issues are likely handled.

It is a sacred Shoanti burial ground that was raided by a member of the Pathfinders.

In Debt to the Quah, the players are tasked with returning looted items and repairing relations with the Shoanti.

Awesome! Thank you. The wiki wasn't giving me anything and google was failing me.

Working on my eternal project of finally finishing a hex crawl across the Storval Plateau and I find the Muschkal Sepulcher listed on the map.

I can't find any notations about -where- it's listed or what it is. Anyone know? Is it in an old splatbook or society quest perhaps? If not, this is about to be VERY useful for me as a convenient dungeon location.

Paizo, I love you, but come on now. Nerfing the Vindicator? I got one in my campaign who is considering swapping characters because the subclass is just so underwhelming. They need something more, not less.

I love the insight into the process; makes a lot of sense!
I never noticed the two Stauntons, actually. That's really funny. I own the Magnimar book and Nethys knows I've read through parts enough for campaign planning, guess I missed him!
Then again, maybe the Vhanes are like the Vancaskerkins and there's one of them every time you flip over a rock.

In Rise of the Runelords, on page 200 of the pdf in the section referring to the other giant tribes around Jorgenfist we are introduced to the Jormunsir lead by Vlorian.

Vlorian... like the Vloriuan Cythnigot... as in from Vlorus, the realm of Xar-Azmak, dead Demon Lord of Rust!?

This is likely just a coincidence and means absolutely nothing, but I AM going to use this in my homebrew followup to Rusthenge. Thank you, almost-two-decades-ago Paizo for giving me a tiny little throwaway reference.

I love Golarion so much. :)