Venture-Agent, Massachusetts—Boston Metro 299 posts (11,192 including aliases). 26 reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 47 Organized Play characters. 19 aliases.
I regret not having the scenario, because some of what you describe does not fit what I played.
We entered Cheliax, left border patrols behind (no killing soldiers), found the escaped gnomes, accompanied them on the way back to Andoran (still no killing soldiers) and, for our final combat, happened on a Chelish contingent with the war machine and a commandant officer ordering his soldiers to use it on us, saying something like "We saw it reduce walls to ruin. Let's see if it does the same to pathfinders."
We fought and killed the Chelish soldiers who were actively trying to kill us and brought the gnomes to Andoran.
End of the story.
Nothing like mercenaries or war criminals...
That sounds a lot like 7--06, which is the 'Part 1' of that plot. And while I think the PFS Developers are still a bit cavalier in happily having PCs break into another nation, the fact it's in response to fleeing refugees reach you makes it fine imo
The newest 'Part 2' 7-14 has the Venture Captain have the PCs aid in an active Eagle Knights mission to savatoge a military facility and kidnap/kill a chelaxian figure. The Venture-Captain in question is both a VC and a still-active and commissioned Eagle Knight, and the adventure deeply blurs the line between him giving you a 'Pathfinder Society' mission and an 'Andoran Military objectives' one imo.
For my two cents, I don’t have a problem with Cheliax’s actions as described in this scenario/adventure. I mean morally I do have a problem - forced labor is bad. But as a situation happening in the middle of a war I find it a perfectly valid situation to come up and - most importantly - be designed for the PCs to stop.
Where I do actually agree with you is having a real problem with the Pathfinder Society’s involvement here. This isn’t the first (just the most recent and extreme) of the Society having its agents officially claiming to be neutral while simultaneously having their agents commit military actions against one side’s forces, sometimes invading that nation to do so. This particular adventure is especially egregious, as it has a Society leader using his authority in the Society to order Pathfinder agents to participate in the action of the National military unit he is also an officer of.
If this ethically dubious blurring of lines was an intentional arc about war’s murkiness I might disagree but could see something interesting there. But nothing in the depiction of this crisis or the PFS scenarios seem to even hint they’re thinking about it beyond “Cheliax bad so free-reign to @&)& ‘em”
I've successfully submitted reviews for Pathfinder prodcuts post-new store changeover. But trying to do so for a SFS scenario today I am not only no longer seeing the option to leave a review, but looking at the Reviews (/'Customer Testimonials') section of the product its displaying reviews for clearly unrelated books and products instead of the existing reviews for that scenario.
I'm just surprised they still let Pathfinders even have a Lodge there, given their Society previous gleefully participated in the old regime's 1936 Munich gamesduring Viridian's civil war.
Then why is the Goddess named progenitor of the goblins and orcs and other monstrous races an objectively evil goddess?
Well first off, she isn’t their progenitor.
Goblin ‘lore’ has them being birthed from the four ‘Goblin-Hero-God’ barghests but a) those aren’t Lamashtu even if she later bullied them into serving her, b) Golarion creation myths are varied, often contradictory, and rarely show to be objectively accurate Draconic creation myths for example differ from Asmodeus’ differ from Pharasma’s etc even before continuing the fact goblin societies passing down said myths are famously not great at record-keeping, and c) even if a and b are the case, those exact same myths constantly include goblins frequently not listening to the Hero-Gods and being difficult to be controlled by them.
Orcs are even less connected specifically to Lamashtu and as best I can find have no specific origin story in Golarion despite originating underground.
What about Lamashtu's edicts is evil? What about her domains is evil?
She's kind of the epitome of what I was talking about. We have her as the mother of monsters, the mother of the oppressed. Orcs driven from their homeland by the Dwarven Quest for Sky, Goblins constantly treated as sub-sapient. Everything she represents is GOOD.... but for some reason she is evil? Why can her followers not sanctify holy?
I mean let’s look at her Edicts (which already are softer/less ‘evil’ than in 1e):
Bring power to the outcasts and downtrodden - so far so good. However, important context is that Lamashtu generally values going power to outcasts for the sake of it rather than caring as much about justice. When this is granting power to oppressed and subjugated Goblins or Orcs, it can be ‘Good’. But she is also just as happy to grant power to say a pugwumpi who’s outcast because they regularly and maliciously try to harm communities. Lamasthu enjoys flipping power dynamic status quos regardless of why those status quos exist. As a result, this edit can be used for ‘Good’ or ‘Evil’
for contrast, Cayden Cailean has the edict ‘aid the oppressed’. The differences in the specific words used are instructive
Indoctrinate others into Lamashtu’s teachings - While it’s notable that proselytizing is explicitly an edict instead of just an implicit part of belief, this is fairly ‘Neutral’ imo leaning a bit ‘Evil’ due to the choice of ‘indoctrinate’ implying more forcible conversion
Make the beautiful monstrous - I struggle to see how this can be ‘Good’. Depending on your (and Lamashtu’s followers’) interpretation of this it could range from protesting conformist aesthetic standards to deliberately marring and scarring the things and people who are part of the mainstream.
Reveal the corruption and flaws in all things - Much like her first edict, this depends on how you use it. Unveiling hypocrisy in corrupt or biased institutions could be beneficial. Exposing weaknesses in communities just to tear groups apart, less so. And both are generally fine and promoted by Lamashtu - again she cares far more about the actions of disruption and societal change than whether the results of that are any better
Regarding Asmodeus, one of the justifications for worshiping him is that he promotes ORDER. Even if it may be a harsh order (especially for those lower in status); frankly, the evil aspects are considered less important to the higher-ups than maintaining control (and their place in the social hierarchy).
Add in some propaganda (both from the state and Asmodeus' priests) and a place like Cheliax can keep things together for a while.
Asmodeus is often referred to as "The Prince of Law" in Cheliax, for example, rather than the more widespread "Prince of Darkness" or "Prince of Lies."
For Cheliax specifically, it's important to remember that they had a different patron god for centuries. And then he died on them. At exactly the moment he was supposed to bring them to a new age.
Much if not most of Asmodean worship in Cheliax is because House Thrune promotes it - in part a quid pro quo for that House winning the civil war to take over the country in the first place. But I could see some citizens deciding that stability of Asmodeus - one of the single oldest beings in creation - could be a comforting hedge in their minds to having their savior deity fail them yet again.
Speaking of Zutha, what happenned to him? From what I heard, one third of his soul cage grimoire got destroyed in return of the runelords, and this somehow destroyed his soul, but what of the two other third, were they also destroyed?
Per Paizo 'main' canon
Return and Revenge of the Runelords spoilers:
In Revenge there's a whole sidebar that explicitly states that when the Cs in Return used the Bone Grimoire to fight a manifestation of Zutha that "The heroes emerged victorious, and as a result, the Gluttonous Tome crumbled to dust, permanently killing the last runelord of gluttony."
Basically while any of the three pieces of the Gluttonous Tome could have eventually allowed for Zutha to return, the specific rital the Return PCs used in concert with their acquired third of the phylactery manifested Zutha's spirit strongly enough that killing it there severed his ability to regenerate from the other two missing thirds. It's a bit of a retcon from how Return and other articles had established how the Tome worked (or at least the ritual in Runeplague changing that was not quite clear), but that's the setting-established status quo.
However, given the previous AP had Xanderghul
Spoiler:
killed, his simulacrum killed, and then his soul harvested and 'is forever dead and absorbed by Abaddon’s eclipsed sun'
and yet is still back again literally anything could happen.
Male Snow Goblin HP 127/127 | AC 30 | F +18 (E); R +22 (M); W +19 (E) | Perc +20 |
Brix curses himself for forgetting to grab a flying potion for Salliss earlier as he steps forwards towards the ritual circle.
The goblin crouches down. He starts to draw on the bits of Occult know-how he's picked up over the years, but he can't focus. Instead his anger keeps bubbling up. Anger at Zarta's weird coyness - even now! - about what they seem to know or have known about this demon lord. Anger at Hesla and how she decided mass-murder and conquering was an easier endgame than just sharing her plan with any of the dozens of groups who would have gladly helped her. Anger at how the city authorities seem happy to leave handling the arrest of a fraudulent international terrorist to the Society, but also so eager to blame us if the problem they kicked over to us to handle got handled the 'wrong way'. But moslty anger at the looming demon lord itself. Killing so many - driving others to kill against their nature and damning themselves in the process - all for nothing but sadistic glee.
Brix feels that anger boil over. And channels that rage into a honed point to be sent directly into Ingalor's throat.
"I'm not certain" Zarta answers Eddie after taking in the leshy's report of your party's actions. "Lady Embersplitter has no clear signs of injury, but many were affected by the rain in strange ways."
Closer to Hesla, several of you see for yourselves that Hesla's clothes appear ruffled but otherwise in fine health - just seemingly asleep. The few medics treating her intervene to stop Briney from kicking or poking the noble, while Lindevailë can cast Cleanse Affliction. The magic does not seem to have any direct effect, but there is something unusual about her condition.
Lindevailë Occultism DC 28:
You sense a faint supernatural power that seems to be pulsing through Lady Hesla. You've heard tales of some of those touched by the recent Godrain reacting strangely to it, a few even developing new abilities shortly afterwards. Perhaps this is a similar case.
Suddenly Hesla's eyes snap open. The medics treating her start before trying to keep her still, but the lady insists she's all right. Getting to her feet and looking around to take in the assembled crowd she speaks out:
"I am glad to see so many of you are safe and all right. Today was meant to be a day of gratitude and joy, but it seems it also is a sharp reminder of the dangers we face." She gestures to the corpses of the recently-defeated undead still lying around awaiting disposal. "Look upon them! Look at the destructive potential of the undead! These angry spirits were but a taste of what we might face if Tar-Baphon were to strike! These were the angry spirits of ordinary people—not trained undead soldiers, armed to the teeth! Thank you all for your heroism today, whether you fought against the undead, or donated to the cause. Every gold piece will be used to battle the Whispering Way!”
With that, Hesla steps down and asks Ulthun to escort her home — she’s still not feeling that well. As they depart Zarta and Eando sidle over to you. "Well, it seems the day's events certainly haven't thrown her." Zarta muses wryly aloud. "I'm glad today isn't filled with even more death, but someone had better keep an eye on Miss Embersplitter. I still believe there must be more motive here beyond merely combating Tar-Baphon.”
Khione raises her hand to volunteer. “Ooo! Oooo! I’ll keep an eye on her! After all, I’m very good at finding things out and reporting on them. I can-” Zarta cuts her off with a curt nod, and Eando agrees before Khione can begin listing off her full resume.
Both then look to you/ "you've had quite the day of it. Head back to the Lodge at your leisure. Full reports of your perspectives will be needed of course, but they can wait until tomorrow. And I suppose we can try to find you another light mission in the future for a half-day off that may not devolve into calamity...."
Male Snow Goblin HP 127/127 | AC 30 | F +18 (E); R +22 (M); W +19 (E) | Perc +20 |
With Pip doing plenty of encouragement, Brix sends a large rock towards the latest swarm before breaking towards the main Lodge Which direction is the main Lodge building?
◆◆ TK Projectile
Attack:1d20 + 18 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 18 + 1 = 25 for Bludgeoning:7d6 + 1 ⇒ (6, 2, 1, 4, 1, 3, 5) + 1 = 23
◆ Stride in direction of the main building
The phantom is incorporeal (and thus has a bit of Resist all non-force/ghost touch/spirit damage), but is definitely killable.
This combat's PC rolls so far (and its saves) have meant that to date its been missed a bunch and said Resistances took a save-for-half 5 damage down to 1, and another save-for-half from 7 down to 3.
Now, the haunt is obviously also a damaging danger off in the distance you can see the damaging supernaturally-charged rain appears to stop about 90 feet away from its center...so very helpfully essentially infinite range for the purposes of this map/combat., but trying to take down the phantom is very much not an impossible option. If you feel your own actions/abilities/equipment are limited than remember Readying to Aid an ally who may be better for the circumstance is also a possible choice.
this combat has been cited and discussed as being a Severe and in certain circumstances quite dangerous one. At your tier it definitely includes the multiple wake-up call questions of 'do i have a plan for incorporeal foes?' 'do I have a plan if my foe is flying/not in easy melee range?' and 'do I have plans to handle a recurring hazard in a fight?'
Male Snow Goblin HP 127/127 | AC 30 | F +18 (E); R +22 (M); W +19 (E) | Perc +20 |
Aside based on the IC 'what do you call out' discussion that made me think of this:
I once had a goblin caster who would consistently mis-name spells based on what they should be called.
I.E. when he uses a 3rd-level spell to create a massive spherical eruption of fire, clearly that's a 'flaming sphere'.
And a 2nd-leve spell that makes a ball -shaped bit of flame that you can move and 'kick' around over and over? 'Fireball', duh :p
Hmm, Tailwind was 1st round spell, did the 2nd round Elemental Motion (fly) happen?
It did: just failed to note that specifically on the initiative tracker
Lindevailë's dancing appears to greatly unnerve the undead attacking her ally. Unfortunately her sharp air ripples miss it entirely. Not the big one though: it seems to be sliced up real bad. Bad enough that another critical strike from Jack causes it to crumple!
Meanwhile Briney's carefully calculated shot stabs and burns the nearer menace.
The other large lumbering creature stomps forwards while moaning. It rears back one arms and flings the dead body in its grip straight ahead at Jack! The corpse slams into the leshy and spreads a disgusting set of fluids out onto the kineticist as it does.
Jack: I need a DC 22 Fort save to avoid being Sickened as you just had a squelchy corpse hurled into you. Gross!
Initiative
Fran 65/73 HP, panached, oaken resilienced, needs Fort save
Eddie green thing 13 damage
Lindevailë, tailwinded, elemental motion'd (fly)
Briney
Jack, need Fort save
red thing Nanoc
Hmm, definitely an interesting situation with a lot of different things going on.
I'm going to rule that with Animal Empathy you would be able to use Diplomacy instead of Nature to try and Comman the bears if you choose. However, the Group Impression/Glad Hand won't work or apply here: in the chaos of rain-stoked aggression you're not trying or able to Make an Impression to shift their attitudes - just possibly order them well enough to snap them back to their haphazard training.
that said, in this case:
Toady sends a bit of primal aid to Eddie when the druid tries to get the dancing bear to flee from the rain. Fozzie keeps swaying for a moment, but then shakes his head and looks around the wet fairground. His eyes lock on a covered pen and he begins turning to head over there and away from you and the fairgoers. Red is going to flee on his next turn and is no longer a threat!
Unfortunately the same can't be said for all the animals. One of the smaller bears - Yogi - drops to all fours and begins loaping towards you. When it finally reaches your party it roars and chomps down on 1d2 ⇒ 2 Fran ot deliver a sharp chomp!
Fran's blunt instructions and Briney's pleas get some people to head to the tents, but most of the crowd still ignores them in favor of fighting with each other over the nearby small awning space. in the latter's case, perhaps out of a lingering prejudice in the city about trusting goblins with matters of fire.
Jack's barker approach fits in a bit better with the Canrival theme of the night, but it's Lindevailë and Nanoc in the end whose 'good cop/bad cop' poles of persuasion seem to calm the crowd. The carnival goers still seem quite on edge, but though many still verbally snipe at each other they do begin to disperse for the larger covered spaces in a far more orderly fashion.
And perhaps just in time! For as the downpour intensifies at the carnival grounds all of you notice a red mist rising up from the cobblestones. Congealing in the mist are a series of angry faces: faint at first but looking more solid each passing moment!
Restless spirits seem to be literally rising up around you! To try and chase them off and disperse them while they are still weak you can each attempt an Occultism or Religion check, or an Absalom or Undead Lore (this is not a Recall Knowledge check)
Yes, of course. Lord-Watcher Ulthun says as your words help shake him out of his indecision. The man begins striding out into the rain, calling out in a deep voice in his gleaming armor: PLEASE, everyone move out of the streets and under cover. Swiftly, but not too hastily!
Hesla also steps carefully into the streets. She takes a second to re-smooth out her dress (even as it's already soaked from the precipitation and adds "Yes, let's all get dry until we see if this passes. There's an awning by the food tents that can provide some cover, or you can shelter under the tents for tonight's planned circus acts."
A nearby awning for the large food serving area provides some shelter, and a nearby large tent for the night’s circus acts looks like an ideal shelter. Briney notices that Hesla looks surprised at the storm and what’s happening, but she also seems to be intensely focused, like she’s rapidly calculating the ramifications as she tries to calm the crowd.
And you too can now try to get the broader crowd to clam down from their unnatural aggressiveness and get out of the rain, with Diplomacy, Deception, or Intimidation checks. Eddie: with that Group Impression/Glad Hand combo I'll count your last roll as also a success here.
Not for lack of trying... Brix mumbles as he lashes out - with the flat of his blade - at the lady. Sallis makes a valid PR point to the goblin at least.
But this is getting tiresome he adds. Looking at their foe in a rough place he whistles a bit to himself and draws on his scant magical reserve to try and get in the proverbial 'knock-out' blow.
If she's still standing: Brix then turns his head towards Makie and says While she's staggered, go for the fingers. Let's see if we can pry it loose!
◆ Prep to Aid Makie on a possible Disarm attempt.
[b]GM: what type of check would Brix' Aid check be in this case? Athletics? Attack? I'll roll the dice below, relevant modifers in his profile to add depending on what the ruling is.
↺ Aid:
1d20 ⇒ 7 +14 if Athletics, +21 if attck, +X if other (see profile)
There is indeed a rhyming contest still ongoing. Games too: knock-the-can, hoop the bottle, beat the owlbear (Test of Strength) and more!
A light rain has started, and is slowly increasing into a steady downpour, but while some of the carnivalgoers huddle for cover many more just shrug and lift their hoods: getting a bit wet is an acceptable tradeoff for such a memorable day.
I am currently out of town and remote for a wedding. With nothing immeadiately pressing, if there’s a carnival activity you want to take in, feel free (assume all the ‘standard’ fantasy-world carnival hijinks are around). A more substantive and DRAMATIC! post to come tomorrow…
Male Snow Goblin HP 127/127 | AC 30 | F +18 (E); R +22 (M); W +19 (E) | Perc +20 |
GM Tiger wrote:
"Well done, Pathfinders! Your next task is to bring back Hesla herself! Due to Shemis’s abilities, we were able to pinpoint some of Hesla’s movements, and know she has been staying at the home of Falwynd, leader of the Peacekeepers Alliance. If you are caught, it will not be easy for you to succeed but try your best, and return when you are done. If fortune sees it, you return with Riftcarver as well."
Valais comes up to you just before you leave. "If at all possible, please try not to kill Hesla, for there may yet be good within her, if only she can get past her pain."
BeforeWhoa, wait. Brix says, ignoring Valais entirely to focus on Zarta's casual reveal. What do you mean 'next task is just 'bring in Hesla'? Happy to stop her but ain't that the whole ballgame? What more steps are there? If we know where she is why did you need all of that other junk? What are you doing Z?
--
At the house Brix is a bit gobsmacked as Falwynd comes to lecture them right at the gate. Has everyone in this town lost their minds since I've been gone the goblin thinks as he pushes back What'll make it worse is keeping a wanted fugitive holed up in your yard 'stead of turning her in. We're not gonna jump to murder but you're pal's got so much blood on her hands.
As Hesla emerges - and immediately jumps to using a demon artifact for attempted murder, he begins racing forwards after Sallis. Look! he yells out to Hesla as he moves. Jail's better than the morgue and its still on the table. Drop the scythe NOW, last warning.
◆ Draw Weapon
◆ Stride
Closing with the 'lady', he lashes out with a strike of his own.
◆ Strike with his cold iron shortswordStrike v Off-guard:1d20 + 21 ⇒ (18) + 21 = 39 for Slashing:2d6 + 3 ⇒ (3, 5) + 3 = 11 plus Precision:3d6 ⇒ (1, 2, 6) = 9 If hit, she's Enfeebled 1 for a round from Debilitating Strike
the leshies approach Zarta, their colleagues in tow.
You see the archivist is dressed to the nines even in this casusal setting. Decked out in a flowing maroon coat she stands near a food stand called the Bustling Bakery. Zarta is nibbling at a pastry and nodding occasionally as a half-orc woman next to her is speaking. Excitedly, and at length.
'-so they said it was just a cold or a spout of food poisioning, but Muesello's never taken a day off in the last five year, and people were noticing that when Morilla went to the opera that night she was wearing an amethyst necklace, which she was also wearing right around when she was seen courting Farthing back in Sarenth, so I'm thinking there might be something going on there. And to think this is just after the Eastport ball I'm sure that adds to why she's trying to be discrete. Of course'
Zarta’s thin smile does little to hide her growing exasperation...from anyone paying attention at least. As the archivist notices your approach she hands a flaky biscuit to her companion to casue her to quiet for an instance as she briskly strides towards you, speaking loudly in introduction. "Ah, more Pathfinders! So good to see so many of you taking advantage of the evening. Have you any of your adventured alongside Khione here before?" she gestures to the half-orc, who gives you a wide-smile and a nod as she bites into the treat. “She has been telling me all about... well, everything. I don’t suppose you agents have a few minutes to spare? I could use a break from all this hustle and bustle. Why don’t you talk to Khione for a few minutes? I’m sure you’ve got lots to talk about. And if not...she certainly does!”
If any sarcasm was in that last statement, Khione certainly doesn't seem to have noticed. 'Oh, pleasure to meet you? How are you liking the carnival so far? That Embersplitter certainly put a big thing together - have you met her? What do you think? It's for a good cause at least: have any of you been in the Graelands yet? Terrible stuff, all that death. Even the gods are dying: I hope none of you were Gorumites! Have you been in the city long? Or I guess maybe you always adventure in Absalom, what have you done lately? Anywhere exotic?'
Agent Khione is quite personable and talkative, though as she occasionally pauses to take a bite of her pastry the occasional gap allows you an opportunity to actually speak up yourselves.
If you want to do Zarta a solid and keep Khione's attention for a bit so Zarta can get a break, you can converse with Khione about...well a pretty broad range of topics. A Lore skill, Diplomacy, or Performance are obvious tacks to take, but each of you could try a different route if you'd like.
Male Snow Goblin HP 127/127 | AC 30 | F +18 (E); R +22 (M); W +19 (E) | Perc +20 |
Brix's eyes widen behind his mask as he notices too late Hobbs' intent. Freezing for a moment as juice drips down the venture-captains face, he whirls at the wizard.
{In Goblin}'What are you doing?!?!? You're acting as impulsive as the stories paint us as! He was our ally, cooperating, one of our bosses. And more importantly, he did not sign the friendly-fire release!'
Turning back towards Jorsal, Brix takes off his mask so the crusader can see he face as he speaks. Jorsal, we met before. That incident around that Devil’s Rest post. Years back, you may not remember, but we're as dedicated to the Society as you are. even if some are not as tactful about it.
Look: tensions are high at the moment. Real high. Demons coming back, Lodge on high alert and expecting to be attacked. Enemy in the wind. Think Hobbs here took the pressure a bit too much to heart getting freaked about the time crunch and not basic tact Brix spares another stern glance backwards. But Helsa's still out there. so after she's all settled you can write up whatevr reports and reprimands you want. You've got witnesses who'll back ya. He indicates himself and most of the rest of the party. But while I am real real sorry you got mussed, first priority's gotta be protecting the Lodge, right?
Diplomacy:1d20 + 18 ⇒ (4) + 18 = 22
Also updated the macro sheet. Sorry for the delay!
A full range of expressions flash across Vin's face as she listens to Briney's words. Astonishment. Anticipation. Despair. Disappointment. Hope. Determination.
As the goblin presents the crayons, Vin adjusts her chest harness to make sure her baby brother isn't crushed before starting to scribble with a fiery passion. Nearby several of the other children cheer:
- You got it Vin!
- Remember science class!
- It's anti Sovr-
- Shhh! You mean Everlasting Adhesive
- Oh, right! Anti that!
After a minute or so, she looks down at her paper, then holds it up to Briney. The work is...shockingly accurate for a child. She's missed a few descriptors or details, but the drawing and formulas are fairly close. Vin looks up at Briney:
'Some of our Second Annual Prank War got a bit out of hand, so we had to make sure we cleaned up after ourselves' she explains to the fellow goblin, proudly.
Male Snow Goblin HP 127/127 | AC 30 | F +18 (E); R +22 (M); W +19 (E) | Perc +20 |
Brix stays pretty silent as Eando and the others explain the situation. He does let out a whistle when they seem finished for the moment. Don't ever just call me out for the calm ones do you?
Looking at Eando, the goblin asks Where's this Helsa at now? Your spies able to tell you that?
And 'Ingalor Reborn': what's the 'Re' part of that. I heard some rumors about that that demon was very much dead not a few months back.
Male Snow Goblin HP 127/127 | AC 30 | F +18 (E); R +22 (M); W +19 (E) | Perc +20 |
Yeah, but most of that was out in the cold. Brix explains to Pip as he accepts her card. Got recruited in by an old VC along with some of my tribe to do some scouting about in Irrisen. Guess you'd call it 'Field Commissioning' now, but back then it wasn't exactly common for any group to not mind working with goblins and the work seemed fine so I hopped aboard.
Brix moves over to the table to grab an apple himself. He munches on it while he continues. 'Course then we didn't hear much from that Captain for a loooong while. Didn't think too much of it, stories get passed around about Pathfinders they're always going off the gird for ages at a time. But by '19 I finally got worried enough to make my way to a Lodge and check in. mmmm, good fruit spread 'Finders there were mighty surprised, but still had my papers so got checked in. Been a lot more regular sorta work since then.
Brix finishes off the apple, smacking his lips. It is funny though. I mean by that time I think you all were getting more and more gobs involved. he smiles again at Hobbs, but they sure did seem all in a bother, whisperin' and messagin' when they saw my recuruitment papers and the signatures. Never did give me a clear answer on what happened to good old Catain Hestram either...
Brix has the 'Shadow Lodge Defector' background :p
Finally: the Pathfinder Society (and perhaps the Starfinders as well???) are noticing they are one of the most powerful paramilitaries in the setting, and that playing at pretend 'neutrality' in military conflicts is foolish and disingenuous.
Unleash the hounds of war! Dare to have an actual political stance!
I think broadly its a design choice to distinguish how the tactical 'feel' of fighting them is different
Demons generally have more hit points than daemons or devils of similar Levels. But if you know and can exploit their weakness this balances that out - it encourages characters exploiting their knowledge of the foes and taking clever actions. Similar at its core to zombies vs skeletons - zombies are buckets of health but have a glaring Weakness; Skeletons are more fragile but Resist a lot more.
While you could certainly argue as to why demons specifically were chosen for this approach over the other two main fiend types my guess is because the designers find exploiting a Sin has more interesting and creative options than exploiting say a 'cause of death', I think there's value in having one family of monsters treated differently this way.
the moment the ghost finally retreats Atu jets down towards the fallen Sakorus and Hinevera. If the morlamaw want to fix this and discover their past of course they'll fix it you #$%$hole. they buzz angrily as they assess the two large fallen Starfinders. And we'll help. You're talking NOW? We would have come for your in fellowship without you hijacking your species' present and trying to kill us to rot here.
Examining the unconscious agents, the spathinae casts Stabilize on both figures before pulling out a medkit and serum of healing.
Since they've felt the mind-damaging effect of the ghost's gaze themselves, I think Atu probably would be able to asses that's what's keeping Sakrous insensate - and sorry but I don't have a lesser restoration-esuqe option at the moment :( Something to put on the immediate shopping list, unless perhaps Hinerva might have something.
Could Atu use Medicine to see if Hinerva's out of it due to damage, mental ability damage, or something else? If seemingly just week/damaged they would try to use a healing serum to get her up.
Medicine:1d20 + 16 ⇒ (19) + 16 = 35 Oh now the dice feel like giving high numbers: not other points during a month+ of the fight
Just a thought, but - you're level 7, right? Can't you use specialization skill mastery to be taking 10 and mostly auto-tricking
A fair point and than you for pointing it out! Atu technically isn't Trick Attacking, having swapped it out for a slightly different if similar ability via the Magical Assassin class archetype, so I had been thinking this fight that the skill mastery wouldn't apply. But I had forgot Skill Mastery isn't Trick Attack specific: it's just any use of the skill.
I mean it happens. It's important that if you're running a given AP your players are willing to buy into its overall premise (ex: don't be playing Extinction Curse if your group is going to go 'why is this massive danger being left to a circus troupe to handle') but PCs will come up with clever ideas (or hard-swerve ideas they think are clever) all the time and adjusting around it can be part of the fun.
Major example from the group I ran Age of Ashes for:
Book 6, Broken Promises:
In book six, the AP assumes that the PCs will use the fifth elfgate key to try and go to Hermea, with the activation of this gate triggering a massive feedback loop from Dahak resulting in a full on multi-wave attack on the town. It's a huge setpiece: one that is a full third of book 6 and is meant to pay off the keep building the party has been doing over the whole course of the AP.
...except my players didn't actually use the key.
Instead, recalling that multiple other activation of new gates - including the prior one - had triggered dangerous hazards, and knowing from the evidence they'd found where that gate led to - Hermea - they decided instead to travel there the long way. They traveled to a few cities the sorcerer knew teleport from a scroll found earlier, and purchased a ship and a crew to sail from Kintargo to Hermea by sea.
Obviously this threw quite the wrench into my expected plans for them: they were skipping a full level's worth of encounters. But they plan made sense so I adapted. I made some roleplaying experiences and encounters around them finding a shipwright able to make what they needed and a captain willing to take them all the way to that isolationist isle. I created a few of my own encounters for them along the journey to replace the multitude of scripted ones they would never see: a bone ship emerging from a storm, some water elementals and brine dragons patrolling the island, etc. Even with all that they were still about a half-chapter behind party level for the rest of the AP, but I made sure to take a closer look at and slightly adjust if needed the encounters so that was not too catastrophic.
It was certainly different than expected, but it worked well enough and it kept the player's sense of agency and excitement about their choices intact. And that's just part of both the challenge and the joy of GMing
I can totally understand why people who want the occult spell list are voicing their opinions, but why would anyone try to shut down others from having the option to choose between the two lists? If you don't like divine spells, then just choose to play occult.
Another factor is that Paizo seems to view 'pick from multiple spell lists' as a factor in the 'power budget' of a class. Which would mean that if the Necromancer got a choice between multiple lists the classes other abilities would likely be more conservatively powered to compensate.
We already went through this with the Witch, which resulted in one of the lowest-powered casters in the game (I've heard the remaster helped give it many improved features, but that was only after years of disappointment.
I've thought a lot about it, and I think it's about time Pathfinder did an AP about the one of the oldest traditions of RPG characters and fantasy protagonists as a whole: committing tax evasion. (Yes, I follow Dave Prokopetz on Tumblr, why do you ask?)
Hey now, Tax Evasion can be brought into plenty of existing APs on its own :)
Age of Ashes spoilers:
To help motivate my party to start getting proactive again and not just keep doing Downtime stuff after Book 4, I had the law firm of 'Cerise, Rose, and Redwood' come by their keep to start an audit. They were a perfectly legal firm working on behalf of Isger so the PCs couldn't just murder them, but it was also clear that the pressure for said audit was coming from the Scarlet Triad trying to retaliate against the PCs
In terms of new AP ideas: I'd really like an AP that dealt with and took place significantly in the First World. We've had some fey subthemes before (most prominently in Kingmaker), but an adventure that really leaned fully into the somewhat-alien logic of the fey would be great.
Male Kobold Swashbuckler 4 - HP 50/50, AC 21 - Perception +8 - F +9/ R +12/ W +8 - Speed: 30 - Hero Points: 0/1
Well Chirrit says as the kobold pulls out a cloth to pat down and dry off their scales. That was certainly something. I expected battling the elements and elementals but demons? That shook up the journey a bit more than expected.
For what it's worth it was good adventuring with all of you. But, and I mean no offense, I for one could use a break. Something relaxing, maybe a carnival or something. I'd say we should all treat ourselves too - the last few days we've earned it.
I think skill challenges for this conversation referring to the specific 'Subsystems' involving skills can be good and in many cases have been used well in XFS. But there are plenty of other times where their execution has been spotty and several instances have run so many rounds and asked for so many checks that the 'encounter' tends to get drawn out, sapping the energy of the table.
For the two most common systems - Chases and Influence - my two biggest bugbears (and suggestions for improvement) are:
Chases: So many chases end up having far too many obstacles, especially when each obstacle has the same needed number of 'Chase Points' to overcome and there's no decisions involved in how to handle them.
Suggestion/more enjoyable chase possibilities: I am a big fan of the 'Fail forward with consequence' type of chases we've seen in SFS and occasionally in PFS2 where you face a new Obstacle each round regardless, but if the party did not get the needed successes they suffer a penalty (condition, damage, higher DCs for the next obstacle, etc). This keeps things moving without risking the PCs getting stuck in a 'rut' of bad rolls or lack or the right skills.
I also appreciate the sadly rare times a chase 'branches' giving the party choices as to which obstacles to face. It adds more player agency and choices to the game.
Influence: As a 'structured' RP system to sway or get info out of NPCs this can work occasionally, or in specific in-game contexts. But when the influence is done in simple rounds back-to-back with nothing in between it can feel like the PCs are just spamming their best skill over and over until they get the right amount of thumbs up. There also is a fine art to having the right number of NPCs involved. Too many and the party can spread themselves to thin to succeed (though this is a bit of a strategy vs character RP issue), while too few (2-07 imo) means IC the characters are just saying the same things to a person 5 times in a row
Suggestion: Influence encounters spread out over time, or with other events going on that could create different ways to approach the influence as the PCs react to the changes are ideal. 1e's Bid for Alabastrine is the gold standard for this, but in 2E 5-16's Influence encounter was an excellent example too.
I also feel that in so many of the 2e Influence situations so far the PCs are being assigned by the Society that they need to sway certain targets...but the breifers decline to give any help or suggestions about these (mostly) very well known personalities. Allowing some Influence skills to be delivered in advance (either in the mission briefings themselves, or via possible Recall Knowledge/Gather Info checks acting as 'free' Discovery rolls for well-known NPCs) would both help with the 'Discovery v Influence' action economy crunch and make more sense immersion-wise within the world.
One other issue I have noticed with skill challenges: they tend to have a disproportionate amount of Hero Points being used, since they involve everyone rolling a lot of d20 rolls (and have party-punishing crit-failure penalties) in a very compressed amount of time.
Male Kobold Swashbuckler 4 - HP 50/50, AC 21 - Perception +8 - F +9/ R +12/ W +8 - Speed: 30 - Hero Points: 0/1
Yeah, that makes sense. Just make sure to take a deep breath. Chirrit agrees. And be careful: from what I saw in there the place is pretty big but there was what might be, I don't know, some old blood smears.
Chirrit has a Swim speed (and a solid Athletics on top of that) so is happy to swim through. We should probably get a rope line going to - tie it off to a tree here and have the lead swimming carry it with them in case that entrance is a bit more tunnel-y or longer than expected.
GM: has the whole entry doorway/archway sunk below the water level? Or is there a small air gap?
Either way: Chirrit would dip his head underwater in the pool firstsecond and stare down to see if he can spot anything inside.
First He'll grab a branch or stick or something and poke the water - all this take of demons and acid pollution ones at that have made him more nervous about toxic water :P
Male Kobold Swashbuckler 4 - HP 50/50, AC 21 - Perception +8 - F +9/ R +12/ W +8 - Speed: 30 - Hero Points: 0/1
Ok Chirrit starts sketching out the circles in the dirt assuming there's at least one corner in the room of this old long-abandoned structure that's pretty dusty :) with his scabbard.
So if they've all gotta match, Brimorak lines up with Arson, lines up with Fire
He pauses. If the words stay in the same order, if we get one all the others would have to also line up anyway, right? Like if 'Arson' is always to the right of 'Pollution', then if we think the Brimorak stuff matches then it would have to be...
I think that would line up with:
Arson - Pollution - Mutilation - Death
Brimorak - Omox - Shemhazian - Vrolikai
Fire - Acid - None - Void
He looks to the group. Do we think that makes sense? I'll be the one to give it a spin if we want; if my idea's wrong only fair I get...demon-blasted or whatever.
Chirrit smirks as the dragon's bit misses him. Is that all you've got? the kobold asks as he strikes back...a question which is then answered when the dragon's tail smacks him solidly.
Shaking off the blow, Chirrit continues to stare at the dragon. You've got some aim then I see. But look about: there's six of us standing against you, more crew aboard coming over any minute, and your little imps are dropping like flies. So slink off, and you may live to tell tales of how you survived the Snapdragon!
Below is assuming the 'stand down' attempt is two actions, and that it's separate from Demoralize (and thus he isn't immune to Chirrit's attempt for the moment). If these assumptions are incorrect, let me know. Intimidate to stand down:1d20 + 9 ⇒ (6) + 9 = 15
Then to try and punctuate his point, he hurls out his hammer again at the scamp hassling Schek.
Male Kobold Swashbuckler 4 - HP 50/50, AC 21 - Perception +8 - F +9/ R +12/ W +8 - Speed: 30 - Hero Points: 0/1
Re: later Act 3 missions.
Schek's suggestion (voting in order 3,2,5,4) actually sounds solid to Chirrit kobolds together strong!
Can't do much if your boat sinks, and the swashbuckler is less likely to have relevant mystic skills to tease out old memories from weird magic receptacles.
That moment when you finally notice the party lacks a meat-shield :p
Gletch quickly constructs an aquatic maneuvering device while Freeman tactically repositions and Thraega - well perhaps the witchwarper does that too; he vanishes from your sight at the least so who knows.
Wading through the water, the second skeleton appraoches and fires its own beam of solar energy towards the loquacious envoy. Who easily dodges.
blue skeleton
Glowing sarcesian, glowing hot, one Diplomacy success to talk down
Freeman 18/42 SP, Drone 7 damage
Embidi 22/24 SP
Thraega 22/30 SP, invisible
Gletch 27/29 SP
red skeleton Amy 32/36 SP
Kalhoun 38/40 SP
The floor in the area is filled with water about two-feet deep, and is considered Difficult Terrain.
The machinery against the north wall is the control consoles for the arcane engine. If adjacent to it, you can begin the engine shutdown process with a Engineering, Computers, or Mysticism check as a Full Action. It will likely take multiple successes.
Even without the last of your crew that's good enough for now:
As Embidi takes the comms and spins a tale of a captured new ship, the rest of the hanakan's party does the work to back up his story. The Riveter on the other end sounds impressed.
"Deting wa gut cap! Amash demang was poke ere fo ge ta ge, eh? waperu, demang..." {That a good cap! But who was pokin' around to get got, eh? Wait, who...}
Amy has been able to take the ship in considerably closer during this conversation, but at such short range the asteroid's sensors seem to have seen through your ruse. On the exterior of the rock dozens of large hatches suddenly open up, releasing dozens of mines and chunks of twisted metal directly in your path of approach!
I need at least one of you to make a Piloting check to maneuver around the mines and debris. Others can help by either blasting the objects away (Gunnery), scanning or scrying for a clear path (Computers, Percpetion, or Mysticism), or boosting the impact shields (Engineering)
And with that, you're mission is complete! The city saved, the Order of Dawning Fate's quake weapon neutralized, and yet another Order founder taken down. And then there were two...
Congratulations agents: you've kicked of the Beginning of the End (of the Order). The 'End' end would await you in 6-16 Dawning Fate
Every time I see the title of this thread, I start to worry for the safety of Alex and the rest of campaign leadership. :/ I also wonder why, specifically, three was chosen as the number to eliminate.
I assure you I was thinking in-universe only. No Alexs were harmed in the making of this post!
1) How do I make the PCs sympathetic to these thieves? I understand that they are Robin Hood type characters, but in the scenario they seem rather unlikeable on first impression.
On a personal level, I'd argue they are unlikeable, and I as a player and GM for this campaign would rather we not let them go and stop tolerating their illegal antics on our property.
In addition to being vague on exactly 'how' their thefts benefit others in their prior appearance and in the background they're implied to be Robin Hood types but how much that's really true or why they stole from Shurrizih specifically beyond 'he's rich' is given no elaboration when the PCs finally do meet Shurrizih even if they talk him down from attacking you still need to also convince the theives to hand back what they stole. This rubs me entirely the wrong way: it implies the thieves ideal scenarios go:
A) The PCs solve the problem they caused and talk the aggrieved party into not caring about his stolen property.
B) If not that, the PCs might be able to kill the person they stole from so he can't retaliate against them
C) ...fine, I guess we'll give the thing back
THAT SAID: While the above could be argued to be framing things in an overly unsympathetic light, if you want to present them more neutrally and let the PCs react how they choose you could make it clear the thieves did not intend to affect the maze or cause any harm to it. Also, regardless of whether the PCs love or hate them, the disruption to the Maze still needs to be solved regardless so their attitudes towards the thieves only really comes up at the beginning and end of the scenario.
And if you are looking to skew towards presenting them in a brighter light, you could describe the item they stole unnamed in the scenario, maybe it has a interesting pedigree or useful abilities to help others, have the thieves bring up their past thefts and what they did with the spoils, or have Shurrizih be exceptionally haughty and dismissive of arguments for mercy or moderation when they appear.
Even in the context of Magic the Gathering, I find the "Timmy/Johnny/Spike" categories fairly flawed. Mark Rosewater - who invented the terms in this context - has changed the definitions of what he means by them over time so that even in a MTG context there's not always agreement as to what 'counts' as what, and ported onto an entirely different game system makes it further muddled.
Plus the whole theoretical premise that divide is based on is 'Psychographics', which is explicitly about how to market something to people rather than who they actually are
That said, if I had to, I'd point out that the broad and least derogatory description of Timmies is that they are there for the big experience. That means to me options that'd appeal to them are big 'number goes up' aspects, or 'big swing with high reward if it works' options. Meaning Barbarians and fighters, blaster mages, wild-shpae druids I'm a bear now! Rawwwr!. Swashbucklers with their panache seem a good thematic fit too.
Roughly, I'd also say Johnnies are more 'self-expression' so would take whatever option would fit their specific envisioned character regardless of its optimality, Spikes would min-max though not inherently for overall power (they could decide to take options to make them the best possible Leaper for example even if the rest of their combat or skill viability suffered), Vorthoes would focus on the flavor of their character in relation to the setting (very fine line between them and Johnnies in this context - again, these terms don't really map onto TRPGS), and Melvin-ism doesn't even at all apply to the playing of Pathfinder as they're just analyzing feat and design interactions.
