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Is this field supposed to be Reputation gain?

Going over my bookshelf yesterday, I discovered that Pathfinder AP # 155 and 156 are missing. It seems there was a payment problem last May when my credit card expired, and when the payment was corrected, those two subscription issues remained stuck in a "Pending" status rather than getting ordered properly.

Could you folks give those a shove back into the water slide?

Thanks!

So, book 2. The Scarlet Triad gave the Cinderclaws a powerful magic ritual, a clay golem, and a shard of the Orb of Dragonkind*, and possibly other resources as well. In exchange, they get the arsenic-and-maybe-Dahak-tainted gold. What the heck for? There's no reference to the gold in future adventures, and no real indication of a ritual it's being used for, despite references to "draconic resonance" and Hezle testing its "divine purity."

Is the gold just a red herring? Does the Scarlet Triad simply want to help the Cinderclaws free Dahak for their own reasons, and asked for the gold to make their offer more plausible? [edit: I suppose it does say in a sidebar at the very front of Cult of Cinders that they're drawing "motes" of energy out of the gold to reconstruct the Orb. But the Cinderclaw's contact is Laslunn, who is only involved in the slavery side of things? But I suppose the gold can be somewhat explained. It doesn't answer the larger question below, when the nul-acrumi vazghul is specifically intended to help crack open Huntergate and let out the Dahak fragment, and Against the Scarlet Triad specifically has Zandivar trying to release him.]

Which leads to the larger question, why does the Scarlet Triad want to free Dahak's fragment? The books say that the Triad has two plans for getting Mengkare off their back so they can maintain their wealth: the Orb of Dragonkind to control him, and releasing Dahak to distract him. But...really? They're not lunatic cultists, they're rich pragmatists. How is releasing a force that wants to crack open their planet like a walnut compatible with them maintaining lives of comfort and wealth?

Can anyone suggest an alternative motivation for the Triad to help the Cinderclaws that doesn't involving releasing Dahak, but which is compatible with their actions in the other books? It's entirely plausible that they don't even believe the stories of Dahak being trapped in Huntergate, but I get stuck at that point trying to figure out what they are doing there.

* and then we face the issue that giving away the fragment is like Thanos thinking the best way to gather the infinity stones is to give Loki his only infinity stone.

I put in this order on August 14, and must have mis-clicked something, I didn't intend for it to be side-carted. However, I noticed that day that my subscription order had also been sent to processing, so I emailed customer service that day to confirm that they would ship together.

I have not received a response to my email, and the subscription was mailed out while my CRB remained in the side cart. Can you please ship out this order immediately?

Thanks in advance!

The party killed Vimanda, but bugged out without heading back upstairs and taking everybody else out. I don't think they ever even realized that Glorio is also a Rakshasa. The Ring of Evasion has stuck around, and thus Glorio has been watching their adventures like his favorite television program.

We finished up Scarwall with two characters dead to the demi-lich, the Pally and Rogue hiking across Belkzen hoping to find a rezzer in Ustalav somewhere.

Enter Glorio (built as a PRPG Rakshasa Rog8 to maintain CR 14) and Carnochan (Rakshasa Sor3). They 'port into the PC's camp the first night out and demand the sword. PCs move to resist, so they port away, buff up, and port back greater invis. Both PCs see through it thanks to mantis masks. The dice go seriously against them, and in the span of a round and a half, Glorio walks up, disarms Serithtial away, eats a neg level, beats the Ego save, and Carnochan teleports them away.

So, here's where I'm stuck. What would Glorio do to make himself King now that he's got the sword? He's not foolish enough to go against Illiosa with an uncooperative artifact...who's to say it would still kill her?

Two possible plots come to mind:

1) Glorio gives the sword to some Good NPC that he's tricked into believing him to be noble. NPC gets himself killed, Serithtial is left in Castle Korvosa...maybe in the hands of Togomor? Would Illiosa be stupid enough to give it to Sabina?

2) The PCs already managed to hustle/forced march themselves into Ustalav and UMD a scroll of Wind Walk fast enough that they're actually in Kaer Maga 3 days after the theft. Glorio can still see through the ring, so he knows they're gunning for him at high speed, and he needs leverage. I'd like him to offer the sword back to the Pally in exchange for an oath to put Glorio on the throne. Any ideas how to work this? What's the fantasy version of "bombs in hospitals" if they betray him?

Most recent volume:
Volume #15 should ship by Friday via USPS Package Service (estimated 4 to 8 business days in transit)

Next volume:

Pathfinder #14—Second Darkness Chapter 2: "Children of the Void" (OGL) Print Edition (Pending)

Volume #16 is scheduled to ship November 2008

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The first time #14 attempted to bill, my credit card had expired. I corrected that a while ago, but it looks like #14 got stuck in the queue, somehow.

PAX in the Seattle area is 2 weeks after Gen Con, and it's local to you folks. Any chance we're going to see some Pathfinder Society action going on there?

I originally posted these questions to the Age of Worms board, but this feels like a more appropriate place for questions like this.

I'm noticing that the SRD and DMG definitions of the fear conditions are different (the SRD ones are harsher, and made this encounter much more difficult for my players).

Shaken - virtually identical, no worries here

Frightened - Per DMG, the "run away" condition only lasts until you're out of sight of the fearsome thing (I assume the "hearing" clause refers to frightening sonic effects?) Does the character still act "shaken" when away from the fright source? If they do not, does regular shaken go away when out of sight? The SRD does not have the "out of sight" language...is there errata for the DMG I'm not finding which makes the SRD language correct?

Panicked - Both DMG and SRD agree that the character must flee by a "random path," though no rules exist for determining that path. How do you guys generally define the path? The SRD allows for characters to use special abilities and spells to flee, but still says they must cower if unable to flee. All characters are capable of attempting an overrun, so should this be interpreted as "can use special abilities unless that would involve moving TOWARD the source of the fear?"

The SRD also contains language in panicked that the affected character must "drop anything it holds," which the DMG lacks. Which way do most people play that?

Finally, neither the SRD nor the DMG allow for a panicked character to behave normally once away from the source of the fear. Should this be implied down from Frightened, or does my panicked Scout on open ground really run away at 160 ft/round for the full duration of the fear effect?

After more searching around on the WotC site, I found an "In the Works" article from a draft version of the 3.5 DMG with the exact same text as the SRD conditions. Looks to me like the DMG text is the newer and presumably more RAW interpretation.

I'm still really curious about how folks would answer some of my interpretation questions though. In particular, how do other groups define "by a random path," and can a panicked character act normally once out of sight from the source of their fear?

Thoughts?