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Azure keeps his vigil over the entrance, although he glances over his shoulder at the work his companions are doing. As they inspect the bodies, he recognizes every face turned over, and he forces himself to keep his watch ever more assiduously. It took him so long to think of himself as one of them. Part of him found the constant threat of Molthuni encroachment agreeable: the part of him that loved the thrill of a fight and the satisfaction of a hard won victory. But he had seen these people at market and tavern. They had eaten his quarries time and time again. He had escaped so much pain, only to find himself again mired in a surfeit of blood.

He is broken from his revelry of self-pity and shame when Faunra touches his arm, "Will you be alright? Is there anything you need to do before we leave? Something Ersatil requires in times like this?"

What do the Parables say about times like this? He knows Nulgreth would be amused. He knows Gorum would insist on another battle. Would Erastil crave vengeance, as Azure does? If he doesn't, what sort of god is he?

I don't mean that, Lord. It is for us to make good. We must take back our community or make sure this never happens again. I know this. But I don't feel so compelled for the community. I want it for myself. I want to find whoever is responsible for all this blood, and I want to drive my blade through his heart. Children lived here, Lord. Old men and pregnant women with no tools to fend off this menace. At times like this, isn't Calistria a worthy ally? I don't know. Please help me, Deadeye. I don't know what will become of me.

Without looking Faunra in the eye-- he simply cannot right now--
Azure says, "We are Nirmathas. We salvage what we can. We burn the rest. Leave them nothing more to take. Find more survivors. Gather them up. Kill any of these things that stand between us and the forest.

He doesn't know, of course, what Erastil would want, a fact that is driving him mad with guilt and shame. He only knows that it is better to help than to hurt, better to protect than to attack.

Azure has heard Aubrin's story before. It doesn't matter. He laughs along with everyone else, partly because the story is really funny but mostly because it's Aubrin.

Azure tips back his mug of mulled wine and looks around the Taproot for a moment. A smile creeps to his lips, and he feels a warmth, a fondness for these people that is almost painful. Human revelry is always a delight. Men throw their arms around one another relaxed gestures of camaraderie. Suitors and paramours make emboldened steps toward one another. Oh, and Azure loved the singing and dancing, even if that only seemed to come when men were deep in their cups. When humans caroused in Nirmathas, it was absent the rising scent of blood in the air, the ineluctable aura of malice and rancor seeking carnal closure that Azure remembered from his childhood with the Flaming Spear orcs.

Azure takes another pull from his mug, draining it of warm wine completely. Azure prays, even as he watches Aubrin carry on, Deadeye, in a life of uncertainty, give me a piece of this moment when life seems toughest, when I have no Taproot to fill my senses. Thank you, hunter among hunters, for these people and their joy.

Azure then stands and heads over to the bartop. He rolls his shoulders back, and his body prickles with the pain of all the briar thorns he waded through while he was chasing down that deer this morning. He got it. Manged to bring it back by himself, carrying it on his shoulders. The meat sold quickly. These cuts would probably not even at to his litany of scars.

Azure meets the barkeep's eye and nods, "Another," he says as he smiles with his mouth closed, for fear of looking too ferocious. Seeing Callistra and Faunra, he nods. A whirlwind of possible things to say collide in his mouth: he could ask Callistra for ointment for the cuts that adorned his back; he could tell Faunra about that funny conversation he had with the fox who saw him carrying the deer because Faunra loved foxes didn't she; maybe he should brag like the handsome men did; it's too late anyway because Callistra just spoke, and she'll think he's rude if he pipes up but maybe he could chime in about Faunra's mom, whom he genuinely likes. But none of these things cross the gap between Azure's mind and his tusk-interrupted lips. Instead, Azure furtively looks around for Skalla because he is so much more at ease with her, then he looks to his still open seat closer to Aubrin where he was so much more comfortable listening than talking, and the result is that he seems disinterested in his own words, and his momentary confusion looks something like an unearned snarl when he says in a low, uncertain voice to Callistra and Faunra, "Evening, women."

Psychic Battery is a Psi-Tech discovery for the psychic class that is meant to be used alongside technological items using the system outlined in the Technology Guide.

Psi-tech discoveries are taken in the place of phrenic amplifications, which are effectively metamagic feats applied to psychic spells.

Here is the text from the discovery:

"Psychic Battery (Su): You can expend an unused spell slot or a number of points from your phrenic pool as a swift action to power a technological device you are touching. Each spell level expended in this way grants the device 1 charge, and every 2 points from your phrenic pool spent grant 1 charge. Any charges unused at the end of the round are lost, and any charges used by the device that round that aren't provided by you must come from the device's own power reserves. You cannot use this ability to power timeworn technology. You can power only devices that use charges. You must be at least 7th level to select this discovery."

I cannot see why this ability isn't just garbage. I love the idea a lot, and it seems perfect for the psychic character my player is rolling up to replace his now-dead magus in our Iron Gods campaign, but since the charges are lost that round, it seems way, way underpowered. It's not nothing to sacrifice a spell slot, and it also means the character will never sacrifice more than a 2nd level spell over the duration of his adventuring career.

Moreover, how would the character use this? Why? Psychics don't wear armor. Psychics are unlikely to be using the technological weapons littered around Iron Gods except as a last resort, and most of the technological gear isn't suited for this because you're not likely to be needing a swift action charge buff RIGHT NOW.

Obviously it's possible that the ability is just underpowered, but can someone tell me why my reading is wrong?

If it turns out to be as bad as I think, I am going to boost the duration of the charges gained to equal the psychic level of PC and to allow the psychic to make a caster level check agains the Craft DC required to make the item in order to charge timeworn items. I've read the entire AP through twice, and with that in mind, even the short duration buff seems unnecessary, but I want to keep in the spirit of the original ability while enhancing it enough to be an attractive option for the PC in my campaign.

I'd love people's feedback.

I added a fun subplot to my Kingmaker campaign involving blighted fey.
Essentially, I didn't want Nyrissa to come out of nowhere, so in addition to the trolls and the owlbear and the issues with Count Drelev and whatnot, I had a fungal blight grow in the Narlmarches to the west of the PCs' kingdom.

It turns out the blight is being caused by a blighted fey (satyr) necromancer who was released from his prison in the plane of Shadow by our favorite crazy nymph. Her idea that if she can't find Briar, this fugitive fey will cause enough destabilization to allow her plan to come to fruition. He wields an artifact, a magical pitcher, that allows him to blight existing fey and reanimate humanoids as plant monsters, as well as to grow the Narlmarches and thus expand the blight.

The blighted fey satyr has no idea why he was released from his prison, but since the PCs didn't attend to him over the course of three modules, this is their in-between for Varnhold and the adventures with Drelev and Armag. Since the fugitive fey knows he is part of some kind of power game, he is trying to make alliances with any group who won't stop him from spreading his blight around. In the meantime, he has essentially turned the Narlmarches into his personal poison paradise, and the good+cold iron DR of blighted fey has been a hugely obnoxious (and thus fun for me) obstacle for the PCs, along with the need to resist poison since the entire place is now a toxic environment.

Now, the PCs are about to have the final showdown. Honestly, I don't think it's going to go very well because even if they "win," he will almost certainly teleport away. The blight won't end until they destroy his artifact.

Now that you have the gist, can any of you think of any additions to this plotline with your preexisting knowledge of Kingmaker? I intended this to be a challenge for around this level, but it has ended up being the de facto Bad Thing That's Happening to the PCs' kingdom, and I want to make sure it doesn't just end with a meek little slugfest.

lololol

Okay, guys. Cast aside thy worst case scenarios!

The player is NOT just blasting commoners with his fire. As I said, he got a lot better when the damage just became too much to casually use.

He is actually playing a CG servant of Lythertida, and he's doing it well. He only became the inquisitor after he DIDN'T use his power on a council member NPC (Kingmaker, again) betrayed the kingdom. That rattled the PC and player, so he took up the role of spymaster. I'm sorry for my wording above, but he is not capricious with that power. He most certainly remembers he has it, though, and it is definitely the party's go-to for detecting evil.

They are getting to be big kids, though-- level 9-- and as DM_Blake said, their enemies are going to be walking into their kingdom fully prepared for interrogations by the angelic spymaster.

My purpose in asking was to ask what those preparations ought to be. I mean, I DO want the sneaks to be discovered eventually. My goal isn't to screw over my players, just to thwart some of their conventions and scare them a little.

At ease, guys. He's playing a CG character, and he's doing it well.

Barry,
I am really picking up what you're putting down. I spend hours agonizing over stuff like this.

"How do I make this cool for my players?"

"How can I describe this in a way that makes them feel like they are there... yet not descend into purple prose that takes this from a game into a monologue?"

I describe as much as I can, I act, do voices, all that. I'm particularly proud of the art I had commissioned to commemorate their defeating the boss of the 3rd Kingmaker module.

All because my players could be playing a video game or watching a movie, so this game and I need to act in the stead of those things.

Did you see that video of Matt Mercer DMing at the table with Vin Diesel? Did you see Vin's face when Matt first described the energy blast class skill Matt had designed for the session? That's joy.

I want that every time I describe something! From every player! During every cool action! I'm a total slut for my players' sense of wonder.

But since this is a game, and I get to control the texture/lethality of my game and my Golarion by attaching d20 rolls and d100 rolls to all kinds of outcomes, I am obliged to do that. It is, after all, a wonder machine powered by a mighty fine combat engine.

The ability to seamlessly merge the two, the creative expression and the rules (attached as they are to the dice's lack of bias), is what always astounds me when I hear or watch a DM like Chris Perkins (from Acquisitions, Inc.) or Matt Mercer.

In my game, I would try to describe how it feels for the PC to have his body dematerialize, then to see the world get smaller and smaller, then what it feels like to have the birds actually pass through his body harmlessly. Stuff like that.

Whatever die roll you assign it-- and it should be just one for all the balance reasons above, i.e. don't make it a poor man's teleport-- just understand how tough you want it to be, and be consistent about it

**Dear players of mine who might be reading this: spoil the story for yourself if you want, but you know good and well that you shouldn't be here.**

I'm already starting to worry about TCT as my PCs close on the end of Fires of Creation. While reading through the campaign, *I* was annoyed by both the dungeons in the 3rd module acting as red herrings, and I feel like it would really exhaust my players' good will to go through an occasionally lethal crawl like the Choking Tower only to walk/fly-atop-a-space-moth away without the goody in question. Some of that is my own thing; I HATE red herrings in D&D. In real life, the game takes 4 hours of my nice players' weekends. It seems mean to tally up 20-28 hours of real world time to pull their narrative chair out from under them.

(Never mind that we do so to eventually equip the PCs with an NPC who can't shoulder her load in combat unless you break the rules when it comes to aggregates.)

So I'm here with you guys trying to re-do the whole thing. I like the idea of combining the android area and the Choking Tower into one dungeon under Iadenveigh.

I figure the best way to eradicate the red herring angle is to have something or someone very important at the bottom of Xoud's dungeon.

Ideas:

* a brain-dead Dominion agent who Xoud is trying to prod for information re: Casandalee.

* same, but with an android, possibly one of her followers from her time in the Silver Mount. (I am leaning toward this one)

* A locate object artifact/item. (As a PLAYER, I like this the best. As a DM, screw that!)

* A customizable aggregate that can track back to Casandalee in the Scar.

* A mi-go or intellect devourer who needs to be bargained with.

* Alternatively, the intellect devourer/mi-go/ could be a new addition to the dungeon after trespassing and being collected for interrogation.

* 90 degree turn: new Iron God, burgeoning Rovagug, went bonkers without Unity, android agents have been kidnapping and killing from Choking Tower. It's another red herring, kind of, except it stays on theme with the AP because a.) it' an Iron God, b.) it is one of TWO siblings referenced by Hellion or in Kulgara's notes. Xoud is just as anxious to get rid of new monster god as PCs would be. Star moth BEGS the PCs to help to stop the nightmares from within the tower. The PCs learn the same info re: Casandalee at the end, but at the end of the slog they feel like they've taken one useless option off the table.

Ideas?