| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Pathfinder Rulebook
Starfinder Roleplaying Game
Thanks
Let Agents of Edgewatch #6 be the final one - but then cancel before the next AP starts, thanks.
I already cancelled my adventure path sub by email Sept 7th and haven’t gotten a response yet. If I receive it I will be marking it return to sender and asking for a refund. Reponse times seem very out of hand. It should not be this difficult to cancel a subscription.
It was Shadow Walk for us, but yeah... heh.
Don't you guys find that normally the characters are quite overpowered by the time they reach higher levels anyway (assuming wealth per level)? Part of the charm of the AP for me was the fact that the characters didn't have 'perfect' gear by the end. The players that I took through were not absolute min-maxers but they all played their characters well, so I found that even at the very end of book 6 most of the combats were still interesting, though if they got their rest in some were fairly easy, but much more tactically interesting to me anyway, because they didn't have absurd ACs and weapons. I'd almost prefer if Pathfinder had some kind of limit to attunement like the other game, which really keeps these things from becoming issues, and forces the players to make hard choices sometimes.
The Eldritch Scoundrel in the party that I'm running through it threw a thunderstone down the hole. I was so tempted have the Bhole chew its way up and surprise the hell out of them :) (but I didn't)... It will be fun when .. Later on: it shows up again later in Book 6 :)
While I really like a lot of the new components of the game and the general direction things are headed and am overall optimistic that the final product will be great, I am very concerned about the amount of testing that will be done on the final version of the game. It sounds like there are significant changes being done to the system, right down to the core math of the game. As an engineer, I cannot fathom making this amount of changes without doing another large-scale test on the final product. I know that you will be doing internal testing, but that is a significantly more limited scope that an open playtest. I really want Paizo and Pathfinder 2E to succeed. This isn't a car or some physical thing that will crash and harm people though. If they use the massive amounts of data and make a few changes towards what seems to be popular then that should be enough no? You'd think that this new system has already been tested far more than the original Pathfinder was, and we still love that system despite its warts - none of them ended up stopping us from playing it, and it seems like the new system has already fixed quite a few of those niggling issues from the past.
If you enjoy the complexity & tactics & builds of Pathfinder, like most of us here do you might get a little boost of enjoyment from 5e, but it might not last long. My group plays both 5e and Pathfinder - we've completed Age of Worms (to Level 20) with some Mythic thrown in, and I'm DMing a Strange Aeons which is currently in book 5 at level 14. D&D-wise we've played to level 11 twice, and are currently up to level 9 in Storm King's Thunder, plus I've DM'd a good part of the first campaign and Curse of Strahd. I ended up selling most of my 5e stuff, because to me it felt like it had run it's course, though a few of the people in the group still love 5e. I'd never sell my Pathfinder books. Right now I struggle to think of a character that I'd get excited about creating in 5e, while just glancing through the Pathfinder books I can think of a ton of classes & archetypes that I'd like to try. Anyway, my two cents. I too hope Paizo gets their web presence together and keeps putting out amazing books, but they've earned my trust at this point and they have a long, long rope to go through before they lose it.
Yikes! What a horrible thought. Removing the Player Companion info would ruin the function Nethys has served. It's probably the people that never spent a penny on Paizo products that are whining the loudest too, heh.
Session 2 - Winter is here, where are you? Connor (Human Oracle 1 (Lore))
The group return to the revolt survivor camp with evidence that they have cleaned out most of the northern rooms; three dead dopplegangers as per request. Vaustin York allows them to pass around the barricade and into the encampment, and they are taken to see the leader of the survivors, Winter Klaczka. She talks with them briefly as she walks around the camp, introducing them to a few people - like Tolman Leolies, who was doing origami with two little children; Brenton Lieklan and Maeve Kostenbau - in an attempt to keep their minds off the horrors of existence at the asylum. Also nurse, Naysa Walkia - who was attempting to get a young man named Loic to take his meds to calm down. Winter asked the party to see how they could help out since the camp was struggling at the moment just to get by. Connor was able to provide a healing touch to a few survivors who had been injured during the revolts and to quiet down the young man child Loic, so meds could be administered - preventing any self-harm from occurring. The group was also tasked to clear out the boiler room and get it fired back up again, Vaustin York had the key to get access. Cracking open the boiler room door the group was confronted by a human body, sprawled before the boiler, partly eviscerated. As they neared it, the body started to glow with magical energy and intestines and human meat leapt from inside the ribcage to entangle Connor. Seeing an entangled foe, a dire rat and a small flying creature, a zoog, leapt out from around the boiler to attack. A color spray from Vorlin knocked out the rat, leaving a viscera laden Connor to dodge the tiny Zoogs attacks. He was mostly able, though not without receiving a small bleeding gash to the forearm. The viscera lashed out again pinning the orc and the zoog slashed a deep cut into the Dwarven Barbarians chest. That was it for the creatures though, as they were soon felled by blows from the Monk and Barbarian. The group were able to fire up the boilers again, to provide some kind of heated water to the encampment. Returning to the chapel, the party were able to spend some time questioning Winter as she supped with them on some kind of stew and drink around a fire. She was able to provide some information; that she was a sister of the Maiden’s Choir Cathedral in Caliphas that had come, with a Royal Accuser named Omari, to investigate the Count of Versex Counties (one Hasterton Lowls) doings at the Briarstone Asylum. That the strangeness had began about a week ago, with a general revolt, seeming led by an Ulver Zandalus, a patient in the asylum. The strange part was that Zandalus had never shown any inkling towards violence before. She didn’t know why he would now. Winter was also able to point the group towards Eliege Losandro, the main administrator for the facility, in terms of being able to find out more about what was happening around them. She also mentioned that the creatures (dopplegangers and ghouls) had not existed in the asylum previous to the night of the revolt. She had little to say about the strange yellow eye that adorned the wall to the East of the chapel, which previous had led to the main asylum entrance, but now seemed to bar the survivors exit, while also preventing others from reaching them - a bit of a double edged sword, though she gave her blessing to the group if they could somehow remove the eye haunt without too much violence. Initially the Barbarian attempted to chop at the infestation his axe, though that brought on only series of howls from the eye, while doing little damage. The eye also asked ‘Who am I? I can’t see myself’. Puzzling over these cryptic words the group decided to rest on it. The next morning the group attempted the door again with a few different strategies, though ultimately bringing the mirror from the makeshift surgery to the eye, causing it to fade back from whence it came, and to reveal a warped door behind it. (Here the party reached level 2). Pushing through the warped door the party found itself in a huge room with many exits and entries, but also the main door to the Asylum itself. Cracking open the doors with a huge strength test and the aid of Vorlin, Zolash caught his breath as the smelly yellow fog started to penetrate into the room. Also glimpses of shadowy forms moving around in the mist convinced him to slam the doors shut again, and to turn his gaze back to the inside of the asylum. A door to the north lead to a room holding 6 bodies, beaten to a pulp and tossed against the wall with bags tied over their heads. From the bodies the group recovered 2 Thunderstones and a nice expensive looking ring. Removing themselves from that gruesome scene the group opened a door to the east, which lead into a courtyard. This courtyard had less of the yellow mist so the group decided to investigate only to be attacked viciously from above by a Nightguant, a devilish looking flying predator. The nightguant grappled the Monk, and attempted to take him to the sky to drop him from on high, but the Monk was able to squirm free of the nightguants embrace. Zolash ran at the creature and hacked at it, then Connor dealt it a brutal blow with his mace. Seeking somewhere to escape to the Nightguant grabbed onto Connor and poked him with its tail. Evading the claws though, Zolash and Pwyll were able to smash it down to the ground and cave its face in with a rapid flurry of fists. Exploring to the north the group came up a shed. This shed had stairs pointing down, though they dropped off after 6-7 feet of slope. The bottom of the drop evaded even dancing lights, it was simply too deep. Vorlin had a wonderful idea. Why not throw one of the thunderstones off and see what would happen. The Thunderstone fell for 5 or 6 seconds before exploding with a furious burst of sound. Something seemed to move down there, and the entire asylum shook on its foundations. Vorlin briefly lost his footing and almost flew off the steps into the darkness, though he was able to barely grab ahold of the final stair and hang on long enough for his companions to come rescue him. Returning to the main entrance, the group went north and opened the doors into a huge library filled with musty tomes, though also accompanied by a rather bestial scent. Movable ladders slid along the shelves and permitted the highest stacks to be reached. Entranced with all the books, Connor felt right at home. Always suspicious though, Zolash discovered a tiny tunnel on one of the the bottom shelves. Peering in he couldn’t see much, though standing up he caught a glimpse of a tiny ratlike figure standing on the top of the stacks ready to launch a heavy tome into his face. The session ended there.
Preamble: So this is my first post here, though I've been a frequent player in PH Dungeon's games for the last 3-4 years. I have characters in his Shadowrun game, his Swords of the Realms, Swords of the Moonsea, Swords of Saltmarsh, and Age of Worms.... and I'm running this game to partly give him the odd break so he can play a character, but also because I miss Pathfinder since we play more 5e these days.... Session 1 - Meet the Tatterman Connor (Human Oracle 1 (Lore))
The group find themselves immersed in a sickly, soupy yellow fog barely able to see the ground in front of them. They have little to no memory of how they got there, and do not even immediately recognize each other, though they have a feeling that they do know each other. They stagger around a little bit, running into walls and buildings that have remarkable but very foreign looking architecture. Behind them they can hear heavy steps. Something is making its way through the fog towards them. Suddenly the Half-Orc is grabbed from behind and pulled into the mist. The group hear him gag and his companions see the bloody scrawl that was their acquaintance splatter onto the wall and drip into a semblance of language - the word ‘Save!’. Vorlin pushes forward while the rest of the group hang back unsure of where to go. A ghastly figure in robes bursts through the fog into Vorlin’s path and quickly hacks him down with a heavy blade. Another bloody word gets splashed onto the wall ‘Me!’. Connor rushes forwards forwards to attempt to revive his comrade, only to find that he has very little of his equipment with him, and that Vorlin’s body has disappeared somehow. This leaves an opening and the Tattered figure again leaps out at Connor trying to make him one with the mist. After a brief struggle Connor falls, leaving the Dwarf to stand face to face with the ragged creature. The words ‘Wake Up!’ appear drawn with Connor’s blood on the wall beside Zolash. Wake Up! Save Me! Zolash sudden wakes, gasping for air. Only to find himself in a musty cell. Beside him is Connor who appears to be unharmed. In another cell to the right of them are Pwyll and Vorlin. They can see what looks like a torture chamber, with a man in some kind of medical orderly clothing strapped to a rack and someone in the bloody rags of a nurse uniform stripping skin from his leg with a scalpel. Suddenly a strap seems to break and the orderly lashes out a leg and slams the nurse back against the bars in front of Connor and Zolash. Quick to act, Connor pulls back on the neck of the nurses uniform and holds her tight to the bars while Zolash is able to rip the key ring from her belt. She lashes out and catches Connors hand and escapes his grip turning back to the man on the torture table in anger. As she exacts her vengeance on him Connor rifles open the cell door and tosses the keys to Vorlin. Seeing that her prisoners have escaped the nurse turns on Connor slashing him, while Zolash comes out from the cell behind him. Connor sees a dagger on the table holding the surgical implements and grabs it preparing to defend himself. The nurse throws herself at him, but rings her scalpel against the cell bars and ends up dropping her weapon into the cage holding Vorlin and the monk. Vorlin picks up the weapon and having opened his own cell door stabs the nurse in the back. Zolash and the monk pile on, and nurse soon lies dead on the floor. Looking around the party see an old furnace that is inoperable and cold as well as their own gear lying in a heap in the corner, which they reclaim. They also see a pile of bodies in a room to the east, gathered around the mouth of a drop chute. The chute is 8 feet off the ground, but the group is able to help each other up to it and make their way up to the a featureless room with a door. The door leads to a courtyard. Though it is dark the party can see that some kind of strange weather is happening outside. A yellow fog pervades the area, though not as thick as in their ‘dream’, and the rain is a strange muddy red color. A small path leads from their room to a door on the side of the building. They can see that some of the building has collapsed, though in general the architecture looks old and stable. The door opens to a corridor. To the south looks like a makeshift barricade and to the north the corridor extends into darkness. Heading south the group makes their way to the barricade and can see 2 guards with crossbows pointing at them through the rubble. Another more smartly armoured man approaches and introduces himself as Vaustin York. He seems a bit evasive and is unwilling to answer the parties questions, beyond the fact that they are in Briarstone Asylum, that he is responsible for a community of survivors, that some kind of revolt happened a few days previous, and that he does not recognize them. The group agree to clear out some of the threat to the north, and in return they will be allowed through the barrier. They are allowed to rest though and recover before heading out. In the north areas the party run into a similar creature to the one that they found in the furnace room. It hid amongst other bodies and grabbed Connors leg as he passed by, but the Barbarian hacks it down with no mercy. Making their way around the area the group find themselves in what appears to be a makeshift surgery room. Three prisoners are chained to tables which rest up against the wall. One appears to be undead, another is dressed in a yellow robe with an arcane symbol on his forehead, and the other appears to be truly dead. Before they decide what to do a humanoid figure opens the door and is surprised to find them in it’s surgery. It charges them and hacks at Zolash scoring a slash to his ribs. Zolash and the monk deliver blows to the pretend Doctor, and the Doctor slashes back at them scoring hits on Vorlin and Connor. Soon though the Dwarf’s fury takes hold and with a massive enraged swing of his axe he cleaves the creature in two. Searching the surgery/washing room the group finds a phylactery, a handy sack which seems bigger on the inside than outside, some jewelry, and a few scattered coins. The session ends there. |