jadony's page

If the PCs choose to go to Voz after hearing that Calmont was the arsonist and that he worked for the bookseller, they should find her there, frankly. She isn't supposed to have left town yet, and at that point really has no reason to. If the PCs question her, she doesn't even really have to lie: she'll say she fired Calmont, he stole a magical scroll from her on the way out, she hadn't yet decided if she wanted to go to the authorities about the theft or just wash her hands of him entirely. She can bad-mouth him all she wants, and since most of what she is saying is entirely accurate, she ought to probably get a bonus to her Deception DC for the few bits she's leaving out.

Even a successful roll is more likely to indicate that she's faking her outrage over the arson than anything else; the truth is, she's a cold fish and is far more upset that he betrayed her and stole from her than she is about how he nearly killed a couple dozen people in a fire. It won't even likely have occurred to her at that point that Calmont's defection is a threat to her; only later will she probably conclude that there's just enough danger to her plans if he manages to get himself caught that she might want to consider fabricating an excuse to head out of town.

Agreed that this would be the way to play it retroactively, although in the moment of trying to run the adventure on a skim with little prep as it was written, it didn't occur to me that this would be the case because I simply flipped to the "for more information about Voz's bookshop, see page X" as indicated in the description of the bookshop in the toolkit. Typically these sorts of issues wouldn't be a problem for me (like to digest an adventure with at least 1-2 full read throughs before I play) but in my haste to give it a spin, figured the book would guide me right.

Cracked open Hellknight Hill at Gencon last night with some folks. While we enjoyed the session mightily, a few things didn't track well for the group that I wanted to point out for those looking for potential stumbling blocks:

1. The group felt it was a little ridiculous (in character and out) that a citadel crammed with baddies is only a mile outside of town. It made them feel as though the town should by rights have been facing a lot more danger, as well as that the town leadership was kind of crazy to wait to go investigate the source of the goblin distress signal when it can practically be seen out the window.

2. As soon as it was revealed that Calmont was seen running away from the scene of the fire, and that he worked for the bookseller, the very first thing the group did was to go try to find/break into Voz's shop. We anticipate that many other groups will do something similar, setting up some issues in terms of plotting.

Other than that, we felt that the theme/plot was probably intentionally meant to feel a little bit "back to basics" with the system reset, but came away a little disappointed that the kickoff didn't offer something a little more unique as in past first volumes of APs, and definitely felt somewhat railroady.

Again, we enjoyed the heck out of it, and a lot of the meatier plotting/interesting encounters are a bit further down the road in the adventure, so not huge concerns - just things I wish I had taken a deeper look into before we started the session.

Hey all. I'm completely willing to abide by the group's thoughts on the matter of bringing me in. I've just sent Cyn a PM detailing the proposed change to Septimus's background (which is minor and makes perfect sense with my view of the character's story arc). I've also got a few mechanical tweaks in the works. Don't worry, Polypurpose Panacea isn't going anywhere. It truly pained the min-maxer in me to put that on my formulae list but it's so perfect for the character I couldn't pass it up.

The other thing I've got to do is make sure I'm fully caught up on both the discussion and gameplay threads, which might take me another day or two. While doing this I'll be thinking about how I plan to mechanically "grow" the character. Yes, Preservationists are "summoners" in a small way. However, the only things this summoning capability replaces is Poison Use/Immunity (not a great fit for Septimus anyway), and the admittedly pretty powerful Persistent Mutagen at Level 14. However, I figure that Septimus is going to make fairly sparing use of his Mutagen and will be more of a multipurpose buffer/backup healer/bomber (with a goal of getting access to different energy types to negate the nasty DR and immunities we're likely to see from our future foes).

Thoughts or concerns?

I've always believed that the way to a gaming group's heart is through cured pork products. It's my secret weapon.

Hmmm... not sure I have much to add on the pros/cons of bringing in Lem's friend. I have at least three minds on the subject. :)

On one hand, I'm a firm believer in networking with good players, good story contributors, and trying to give PbP newbies a good first experience. And I do like the Smythe colour. Would an alchemist come in handy in this kind of adventure? Quite possibly.

On the other hand, as folks have mentioned, eight is a large group... though Cyn seems to be juggling it pretty well. Although, as we progress in levels, juggling this rogues gallery may become more of a task. :)

On yet a third hand... I'm loath to stand in the way of a DM's decision. If Cyn feels like Smythe would be a good fit and he has confidence that the additional character could be juggled in successfully, I wouldn't object.

Hey there, I'm the man behind Septimus. I'm ultimately agnostic as to whether I join in or not. I've PbP'ed before (just not on these forums), so I'm not a total newbie, and I feel like the character is pretty strong. But that said, I agree that 8's a lot to juggle, whether in real life or on the internet.

As an X factor, I also do feel kind of bad having read that there were 28 submissions for 4-6 slots! So if the preference is to go back to that well, have at that path! I'm just happy to step in if needed, and if not, will gladly keep pace for my own edification and entertainment as an avid reader/observer. Kudos on the game so far, it's been a fun read.