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Pressing onward through the Groetan complex, the students (and Raia) began cautiously moving through rooms with sarcophagi in the corners. Somehow, however, they must have triggered something, because twelve mummies poured out of said sarcophagi and attacked them, seemingly coordinating their attacks in an impossible manner.

The fight was long and brutal. The students prevailed, but they were exhausted. One of the mummies, a former priest of Groetus named Fadiyaz, was under Corwyn’s magical control. Fa revealed the location of a treasury, and the students were excited to check it out. They determined that one of the objects that they found was cursed, but were happy to take the rest.

Deciding that they should know a little more about their surroundings before confronting Fa’s boss, they went up the stairs. Fa had indicated that there was a peep hole where they could look into the Temple of Doomsday. They began searching for it but were attacked by a pair of qlippoth.

Feeling completely overwhelmed, they returned to the luxury yacht and—wanting to reprovision and go shopping—set sail for the pirate haven of Riddleport.

Armath Ethmaed (Half-elf unchained rogue 5/slayer 4/expert 1)
Camilo (Gnome mesmerist 9/expert 1)
Corwyn Greely (Vercite/Azlanti arcane bomber wizard 9/expert 1)
Tran Zusk (Winterborn Triaxian kineticist 9/expert 1)
Trixie Longtooth (Winterborn triaxian barbarian 9/expert 1)

Elalinda was recalled by the church of Rashelal and had to teleport to Castravel. The church left Raia the cleric as a temporary replacement. Raia looked on her charges as children who needed minding, and set about to do just that.

A judicious use of stone shape created a narrow passage from a cave that the PCs had discovered at the base of the cliff below Windsong Abbey. The Freedom (the yacht they were borrowing) was moored nearby.

Entering through the crawlspace, they found some stairs leading up and a room with a lot of religious iconography of Groetus. After some very tricky lockpicking, they managed to go deeper into the complex. The almost immediately encountered some hostile shadowy creatures. They survived the encounter but their resources were badly depleted.

They spent the rest of the day and the entire next day aboard the Freedom, fishing and recuperating.

Upon their return to the complex, they discovered a room with a column that had an apparent riddle. Deciding that they knew what they needed to do, they sent three people back to the shadow room and left two students (and Raia) behind in the riddle room. Unfortunately, the riddle room was attacked by some glowing creatures who were surprisingly tough. The sounds of battle called back the others, and ultimately the glowing things were vanquished.

Armath Ethmaed (Half-elf unchained rogue 5/slayer 4/expert 1)
Camilo (Gnome mesmerist 9/expert 1)
Corwyn Greely (Vercite/Azlanti arcane bomber wizard 8/expert 1)
Tran Zusk (Winterborn Triaxian kineticist 9/expert 1)
Trixie Longtooth (Winterborn triaxian barbarian 9/expert 1)

The students were eager to spend some of their newly-acquired money, and the merchants of the Bazaar of Sails were happy to help them empty their coin purses. Everyone seemed pleased with the transactions.

The next morning saw the students aboard the Freedom bright and early. They sailed all day, and soon after nightfall they were as close to the Lady's Light as Captain Meg was comfortable going in the dark. She assigned a rowboat to the students and they went so shore.

They landed just north of the swamp proper, and saw that a shack lay not too far off. A light shone from inside. They wandered slowly southward toward it, making sure to make a lot of noise so that they didn't seem threatening. Armath snuck ahead, creeping through the darkness and starting to cross the bridge. Before he reached the other side, however, he saw a woman hiding behind something and watching the approaching people. Their eyes met, and Armath quickly drew his sword. She abandoned her cover and tried to put him to sleep before he could reach her. Some of the other students, realizing that a confrontation had begun, began racing across the bridge. The lone woman, seeing all these strangers racing toward her home in the darkness, magically conjured a cloud of noxious vapour over and around the bridge.

The students retreated, and Elalinda (who hadn't actually stepped onto the bridge at all) called out and tried to ease the tension, offering a gift to the woman. The latter responded by saying that the group could return with their gift in the morning.

After dawn, the group returned without any surreptitious attempts to invade the woman's property, and Elalinda presented her with a gift basket from her home on Castrovel. The students acted in a friendly way, with Elalinda and Camilo doing most of the talking. The woman accepted the basket and welcomed the students, introducing herself as Maroux. She invited them to use her island as a safe place to stay while in the area and told them about the two groups of reptile people who were fighting nearby.

The students decided to approach the stinky reptiles (since that's the group that spoke the language shared by the students), but decided that they needed a plan. Leveraging the major image ability granted to them by the shard of pride, they decided to do a Lost Heir grift on the reptile people, with Camilo (the mesmerist) taking point. The idea was that they would create an illusion of a baby of the species and say that this was supposed to be the next ruler of their tribe and that the students had recovered the child and would soon be reuniting them all, but that first they needed passage through their tunnels.

This grift was wildly successful. After Camilo explained the situation to the guards, one fell on his face crying with joy while the other sprinted into the caves to spread the news. It turned out that the other reptile group had recently rendered this group childless, and there was much despair as a result. The reptile people were overjoyed and kept thanking the students, who began to feel a little guilty about the deception. Trixie wrote to the orphanage where she was raised on Triaxus and asked for an orphan "troglodite" do be adopted out.

The group pressed on through the tunnels, leaving the tentacle plants guarding the exit intact (as the reptile folk had requested) and pushed westward through the tunnels. They easily defeated some giant bugs then pressed on to a room where four columns surrounded a shaft leading down into darkness.

Armath ran ahead of the group into the room right up to the edge of the shaft, and stuck his head over the edge to look downward. He didn't see anything in the darkness, but his actions caused the four columns to animate and attack him. He quickly fell unconscious. The others raced to his defence, and were able to destroy the animated columns—unfortunately, Trixie's greatsword was ruined in the process.

Elalinda healed Armath then told Trixie that she could fix the greatsword. Before she had a chance to do this, however, Armath started throwing stones down the shaft, and something started climbing toward them from below. Trixie would have to face it without her trusty greatsword.

Armath Ethmaed (half-elf unchained rogue 4/expert 1)
Camilo (gnome mesmerist 3/expert 1)
Corwyn Greely (vercite arcane bomber wizard 4/expert 1)
Elalinda (lashunta oracle 4/expert 1)
Tran Zusk (winterborn triaxian kineticist 3/expert 1)
Trixie Longtooth (winterborn triaxian barbarian 4/expert 1)

The students caught up on sleep and then had breakfast. Lady Caiteil had left her cook behind, and the breakfast was magnificent. After they had dined they went back to the Freedom (Lady Caiteil’s yacht, which she had also left behind for them) and sailed out to the Crow. They climbed up and up, crossed over a long drop, and then went down many, many stairs. Eventually they found themselves back in the chamber with the shriezyx.

The fight was difficult (all the more so for Trixie and Tzizz’s absence) but ultimately they prevailed. The shriezyx went down and Camilo retrieved the shard of greed. Most of them were using potions of fly, but Armath had to physically climb the ten flights of stairs. He was tired.

They found some empty rooms and a lot of burn marks, and eventually discovered that Tzizz was hanging out near a source of natural gas, igniting it and giggling. They decided to leave it where it was happy, and continued exploring. They fought a carrion golem and retrieved some abandoned gear, then decided to descend the very long, very wide staircase.

The stairs were clearly extremely old, and the students were particularly careful. After descending for literally dozens of storeys, they found themselves on a platform with no way down. They were obviously in a very large cavern, and at one end they could see a glowing forest of mushrooms while at the other end it seemed like there was some sort of settlement. They talked about their options, then began the long trudge back up the stairs.

Corwyn had a date that evening with Alelda, the student body president of the Stone of the Seers.

The next morning the group teleported to Kaer Maga, where they met with Dola Rocksplitter. They handed over all of the antiquities that they had found, and she was as good as her word and gave them the ioun stones that they needed (plus a bit of cash). They spent the rest of the day enjoying Kaer Maga (very carefully).

The following morning saw them teleport back to Magnimar. They escorted Alelda down to where Tzizz was, and she used a scroll of dismissal to send it home.

Armath Ethmaed (half-elf unchained rogue 4/expert 1)
Camilo (gnome mesmerist 3/expert 1)
Corwyn Greely (vercite arcane bomber wizard 4/expert 1)
Elalinda (lashunta oracle 4/expert 1)
Tran Zusk (winterborn triaxian kineticist 3/expert 1)

Armath Ethmaed, the fuchsia half-elf from Castrovel, had been thinking a lot about the small fire elemental that the students had left trapped in the rune circle. He had studied Ignan, the language of fire, and decided that it was time to befriend the creature. Having procured a metal cage for transporting it, he was hoping to offer it a deal. He led the students back to the rune circle only to find the elemental right up next to what they had identified as a pinhole portal to the plane of fire. A very faint deep voice was only just audible coming from it. Armath advanced to the edge of the circle and began speaking with the deeper voice.

It turned out that this belonged to an older fire elemental who was trying to figure out how to get the small elemental home. Armath volunteered to take care of this, possibly after travelling together for a while. The deep voice suspected that a week would be a reasonable amount of time for this to take, and—feeling generous—told Armath that it wouldn't come looking for him until two weeks had passed without the small elemental returning home. Armath agreed.

A complicated procedure involving a borrowed bag of holding and the metal cage (which quickly became very hot indeed) got the small elemental out of the circle. It turned out that it was named Tzizz, and it rapidly ran off and started setting things on fire. Armath ran after it and tried to get it to agree to only burn things he designated. There was some doubt as to the full extent of the agreement, but it seemed at least a temporary solution.

The six students and Tzizz continued deeper into the caverns beneath the Crow. Getting Tzizz across the pool with the tentacle pillars was tricky but was managed eventually. The group got to an intersection and heard some singing, which they scared off. They soon found a large chamber with three derro and a massive staircase leading down. Elalinda felt a tug toward a certain wall, but had to delay investigating it.

A fight ensued, and the students knew their resources well and made quick work of the three derro, though they were much depleted when finished. Some investigation into the wall that was fascinating Elalinda revealed a secret door, behind which sat the corpse a large monster that looked like a sort of monkey spider. Some stairs descended next to it, though they were completely obscured with cobwebs. Tzizz went scurrying on ahead, clearing a path.

At the bottom of about twenty-five flights of stairs was a chamber that was strangely clear of cobwebs. A seven-pointed star on a pedestal contained the shard they were after, but there were two more of the monkey spider things. These were very afraid of Tzizz, and avoided him. They were nonetheless extremely tough, and one by one the students began to fall. Elalinda, desperate to find a way out, remembered the interplanetary teleportation device belonging to Low Bridge University. She plugged the Shard of Pride into it to serve as a power source and took all six students to her home on Castrovel.

Armath Ethmaed (half-elf unchained rogue 3/expert 1)
Camilo(gnome mesmerist 2/expert 1)
Corwyn Greely (vercite arcane bomber wizard 3/expert 1)
Elalinda (lashunta oracle 3/expert 1)
Tran Zusk (winterborn triaxian kineticist 2/expert 1)
Trixie Longtooth (winterborn triaxian barbarian 3/expert 1)

PCs visit Aroden's former realm during Beyond the Vault of Souls and there are no petitioners mentioned as remaining there. This might not be conclusive, but it's a data point.

[Armath's player was unexpectedly hospitalized with a wrist injury immediately before the game, so we only had three characters this session. The other players decided that Armath himself also had a wrist injury, and was recovering off-screen.]

With the puzzle door open before them, the students advanced through the cobwebs and down some stairs. They found a pool of murky liquid, and decided to skirt around it without disturbing it. This proved to be insufficiently cautious, and Trixie found herself attacked by an amorphous blob. Soon afterward the same thing happened to Corwyn. They defeated the blobs but (on the heels of the fight with the Puzzle Girls, particularly their wererat leader) they were short on resources. They heard bats ahead, and decided to cautiously advance anyway.

The bats were asleep, but there were thousands of them and the students inadvertently woke them up. This fight did not go well for them, and retreat seemed the best option. They handed in the Tower Girls for the reward and then did some shopping to prepare for their next trip.

That evening their hostess, Verine Caiteil, had a few of the local political leaders for dinner. She requested that the students join them, which they did.

Returning to the Crow the next morning aboard Freedom, the students made quick work of the bat swarm (mostly due to Corwyn's bombs), then explored further. They met some evil fey, which Elalinda knew had caused trouble on Castrovel. Sure enough, they discovered that the fey had been digging through the foundation and might soon have flooded the corridors. They dispatched many of the fey and their insect servants before calling it a day and returning to the manor house.

PCs:

Corwyn Greely (vercite arcane bomber wizard 2/expert 1)
Elalinda (lashunta oracle 2/expert 1)
Trixie Longtooth (winterborn triaxian barbarian 2/expert 1)

After a lovely breakfast prepared by Verine Caiteil’s chef, the students prepared to set out for the Crow (an ancient bridge piling outside Magnimar’s harbour). Their hostess made her yacht, Freedom, available to them, which they greatly appreciated. Before they left they received word from Kasadei of the watch that Natalya Vancaskerkin had revealed that the Tower Girls were currently headquartered in the Crow. Kasadei offered the group a substantial reward for the capture of Terisha and Ayala, as well as a smaller reward for any other Tower Girl they captured.

Aboard the Freedom the students shared some portobello stout they’d acquired with Retuka Wartankard (the boat’s master-at-arms) and told her that they’d probably be bringing back some prisoners. She prepared a room to serve as a brig while they rowed to the Crow.

They’d researched the Crow and learned that there was no real way inside so they were prepared for an extensive search for secret passages. They were almost disappointed to discover upon their arrival that someone had already found a secret passage and bashed through a wall to expose it. They spent a bunch of time exploring rooms and fighting criminals, and soon returned with some unconscious prisoners.

Upon their return to Freedom they were informed that a talking lizard had appeared and left a pouch for Elalinda. It contained a note a some platinum coins with her face on them. People were puzzled.

The next morning saw their return to the Crow. They defeated some more of the Tower Girls and found themselves in front of an ancient door with a puzzle lock on it. They opened the lock and discovered a passage with many, many cobwebs.

PCs:

Armath Ethmaed (half-elf unchained rogue 1/expert 1)
Corwyn Greely (vercite arcane bomber wizard 1/expert 1)
Elalinda (lashunta oracle 1/expert 1)
Trixie Longtooth (winterborn triaxian barbarian 1/expert 1)

Their two prisoners had very little information, but the students were able to confirm that the place under observation was indeed where Natalya Vancaskerkin was holed up. Armed with this knowledge they decided to do some shopping and prepare to capture her.

While they were shopping, Corwyn received an additional assignment from one of her profs. (As an honours student she agreed to complete extra assignments while participating in the directed studies course.) She was required to go to the Stone of the Seers (a local school) and acquire copies of two new spells that had been created there. Master Nivlandis agreed to this on the condition that each of the students give a guest lecture. They agreed, and the students prepared themselves and their topics, then made presentations.

When they returned to the Old Fang they discovered that they had an invitation to dine with the mayor in two days' time. They accepted the invitation with alacrity.

The next morning they entered Natalya's residence and fought with her and with the goblins she was leading. The students captured Natalya and turned her over to the city watch. Some of the Tower Girls attacked them, but the students defeated them, took their stuff, and left them behind.

Elelinda had been acting strangely since picking up a metal shard that Natalya had been carrying. The students weren't sure what it was, but they were hopeful that it was the completion of their directed studies course. They took it to the Stone of the Seers, where Master Nivlandis examined it and told them to insert an ioun stone in it so that it would fully activate.

The next morning the group went shopping. In addition to a cracked ioun stone they purchased what they needed for the mayor's party. Once the stone was inserted into the metal shard Elelinda received a vision of the next one, and the group determined that they needed to go to the pylon known as The Crow. They decided to wait until after the dinner party to begin that. Other guests that evening included Bevaluu Zimantiu, Ismeir Odinburge, Sabriyya Kalmeralm, and Verine Caiteil. Verine invited the students to stay in her manor house.

PCs:

Armath Ethmaed (half-elf unchained rogue 1/expert 1)
Corwyn Greely (vercite arcane bomber wizard 1/expert 1)
Elalinda (lashunta oracle 1/expert 1)
Trixie Longtooth (winterborn triaxian barbarian 1/expert 1)

The scholars of Prieta (on Triaxus) have a competition every thaw to compare what their students have been doing. Very soon now the schools will meet again, this being the third time it has happened. Both of the previous meets were won by Triaxus University, which is (perhaps not coincidentally) considered by many to be the greatest school not just on Triaxus but also in the entire star system. One professor at the nearby Low Bridge University is determined that TriU will not be able to claim three in a row.

Based on some castings of commune and one divination, Dr Zemira has created a directed studies course that will send her students to The Cage in order to retrieve something. They will use a precious artifact belonging to LBU to travel between planets, but it needs a power source. The artifact has a basin and if another artifact is placed in the basin then one can use interplanetary teleport, though this temporarily suppresses the other artifact's power. (The more powerful the artifact the more people who can travel, but even a minor artifact is strong enough to take a handful of students.)

The nearby town of Sunrise Beach has been under the ice for a long time, but every thaw it gets restored and serves as a resort town serving not just the two nearby universities but also anyone willing to travel from other parts of Triaxus. TriU and LBU share maintenance duties during the long winters. This week some squatters broke through the thinning ice and stole some furniture and shiny rocks, one of which was a minor artifact used to power the Sunrise Beach air coolers in the hot summer. The squatters were hoping to auction off their findings, but instead were chastised by the students, who used the artifact to teleport to The Cage.

They arrived inside a barn near the city of Magnimar (which they had been told to visit). There was a large hairy beast in the barn, which one of them identified from her studies as a creature called a "grizzly". The beast was startled and angry, but they managed to daze it with colour spray long enough to flee.

Arriving at the Magnimarian city gates they were presumed to be visiting from nearby Nybor (called "Horrorville" by certain less tolerant humans). It was recommended to them that they register, which at first was going to be enforced directly at the gate but after a bribe was made optional at the Arvensoar. The students decided that this was probably wise, and made their way there. They registered, and as part of explaining the reason for their visit they mentioned that a divination had led them to seek out the "kin of the cask", whom they presumed was some sort of vintner. This brought them to the attention of a watch officer named Kasadei.

After a long conversation Kasadei told the students about a local member of one of the organized crime groups whose name was Vancaskerkin. She asked them not to hurt the criminal, and offered them a small sum to bring her in for questioning. She told them that Vancaskerkin had been running with a group called the Tower Girls, whose location might be known to a man named Fenster in the Underbridge region.

The students thanked Kasadei for her time and then asked for directions to a bank of Abadar. Once they had some local currency they visited the Bazaar of Sails and acquired some appropriate equipment. They were also very tired because of the time shift (it was late in the day when they left Triaxus but only noon when they arrived near Magnimar) and got a room at the Old Fang. By midnight they were feeling refreshed, and made their way to Underbridge.

Their resources were tapped, but they gave Fenster the bribe he demanded. He gave them directions to another underbridge building where he said they could find Natalya Vancaskerkin. They approached slowly and decided on a thorough scouting of the nearby area. When they found someone on a nearby rooftop keeping watch on the building, they decided to confront her.

They would have settled for a peaceful talk, but such was not to be. The woman (and the three women working for her) were hostile. The students drove off two of them and captured the other two alive, albeit unconscious. They pondered what to ask their prisoners.

PCs:

Armath Ethmaed (half-elf unchained rogue 1/expert 1)
Corwyn Greely (vercite arcane bomber wizard 1/expert 1)
Elalinda (lashunta oracle 1/expert 1)
Trixie Longtooth (winterborn triaxian barbarian 1/expert 1)

Is there a story behind the character on the cover with an eyepatch?

Prophecy still worked.

My players were determined to be good pirates, and after they were attacked when they returned with supplies they researched what Plugg and company were supposed to be doing (ie going to Port Peril to sell the ship) and did that. They just wanted to make a good impression on Captain Harrigan.

IMC Azir has an unusually thriving arts scene (including theatre and opera), which is in part thanks to civic subsidies attempting (successfully) to draw bards to the city.

One important data point about redeeming Ileosa is the fact that at some point (perhaps while under the influence of the Teeth) she hired the Red Mantis assassins to take out the PCs. This means that the Red Mantis will keep coming for them for the rest of their lives, unless Ileosa calls them off. If they kill her then she can't do this for them.

I stressed the history of the city early on. The best monarch that Korvosa ever had was Domina the Great, and she was clearly evil. Being evil doesn't mean being bad for the city, so for a population trying hard to regain its alliance with Cheliax there's no shame in being on the lower edge of the alignment chart.

Their worry was that she was weak, and thus bad for their city. At this point (chapter five) they've figured out that something is influencing the way she acts, and they want to free her from the effects of the crown.

Even under chaos menace angels will never work with devils !

This turns out not to be the case. When Rovagug was threatening to destroy all of creation the gods and their servants formed an alliance to defeat him. Angels and devils worked together to combat his chaos.

Obviously you can say that this didn't happen in your setting, but canonically it's part of Golarion's history.

Level one solo encounters are really tough to balance, since unlucky dice rolls can have such a huge effect compared to later in the game. I suggest you give him some detective work to do. He could find out who discovered the professor's body, conduct an interview, ask around about any strangers who were in town at that point (and learn about the three WW agents and their homonculus), etc.

It's on p. 30 of Pirates of the Inner Sea. I don't know that I'm allowed to just copy and paste the entire thing, but that's where you'll find it.

You guys are amazing at Adventure Path Plug-Ins. Please make lots of those.

Your own adventure path would also be sweet, of course. (Excited!)

Not much at all. The Wormwood Mutiny ends with the PCs getting a ship that they need to stick into drydock for a while to get some work done. Raiders of the Fever Sea opens with the PCs choosing to go to Rickety's Squibs for the work. It's a very simple matter to have them instead go to Lilywhite, where they can begin Plunder & Peril while waiting for the work to finish on their ship.

But surely rule one of being a GM is "Always say yes." If what the players really want is to skip a chunk of the plot then shouldn't I let them?

Besides, I'm not convinced that they'd be skipping all that much. One reason it takes Admiral Doloruso so long to get her fleet in shape is that her boss is so distracted by his hatred of the PCs (ch 5, p. 35). Her primary ambition is a command of her own (ch.5, p. 54), so she'd take over Harrigan's fleet as planned, and really there aren't many who could challenge her on that. It probably also means that the grudge prisoners (Cut-Throat Grok et al) are either working for her or are free agents.

Admiral Thrune will have a bad moment when her primary patsy in the Shackles dies, but she's very resourceful. Surely she'll either make a deal with Doloruso or else deceive her into attacking Bonefist on her own (and then just time things so that Cheliax swoops in and wins everything).

Aside from the fight against Harrigan himself, the only thing that might be lost is the Battle of Empty Eyes, since Doloruso has no personal grudge against the PCs (unless I engineer one). This means that there are more ships in the final fight and that the PCs miss out on the experience and loot of fighting Harrigan.

I disagree that this is the GM saying "If you wish to skip a chunk of the plot, you should pay this toll." I think instead that it's the players saying, "Is there a toll we can pay to skip that chunk of the plot?" I think that I need to say yes and then make them regret their decision.

Wouldn't the Whale have eaten her already, once a few weeks had passed? Maybe he's started but hasn't finished. IMG I had someone missing a leg, and the PCs compensated her according to the Pirate Code. She saved up and eventually got a regenerate, which was kind of a cool moment.

The Advanced Bestiary from Green Ronin was my favourite 3.5 supplement, and it has just been updated for PFRPG. It's a book of extremely useful templates, which means that all your existing monster books just got exponentially more useful.

I do think that there's an inconsistency between, on the one hand, skull-crushing someone who was only vaguely a witness and, on the other hand, leaving someone alive to summer a slow death when they could easily stick a knife in him. I don't think that this inconsistency is roast-worthy, though. People in real life are this inconsistent all the time.

Maybe casting phantasmal killer is an easier step than actually murdering someone at close quarters. Maybe one (or more) of the three secretly misses/respects/belongs to the aristocracy of the Palatinates, and so argues against directly slaying one such noble when there's an easy alternative available. Maybe they fully intended to go back and kill him before they left but then they had to leave in a hurry/something prevented them/they got absent-minded.

As long as it's clear in your mind why the inconsistency happened then your players shouldn't be able to harass you too badly, I think.

My players were so afraid of Harrigan that after they defeated Captain Plugg they sailed to Port Peril like he was supposed to do and handed the Man's Promise back to Harrigan. They are now secretly in service to him, and have been instructed to obtain a letter of marque and build a fleet.

I'm also using the Skull & Shackles adventure path plug-ins from Legendary Games, which are proving really good for additional flavour.

Concerning the OP, I think that the Impervious makes an obvious inspiration in case you need to have more detailed stats for the Dominator, and also works as an ideal member of the escort if you're using the adventure path plug-in "Raid on the Emperor's Hand".

I feel like I definitely need to use the Ravishing Ruby somehow, possibly as a raider attacking the PCs before they get their letter of marque. I haven't decided about the other ships yet.

I'm also delighted to see a map of the trade routes. I'm sure that will excite my players no end.

The cheap stuff gets put into ship's stores. One of the players is the quartermaster and maintains a database. Another of the players is in charge of tracking NPC loot and equipment, and the crew is allowed to buy stuff out of stores at half book price. The crew receives shares of plunder from anything that's received as plunder, including selling captured ships.

Generally speaking, the answer to your question is "yes". This still results in an extremely well paid crew.

I don't have the book yet so I can't answer your original question, but I can tell you how I'm handling chapter two.

I've given my PCs motivation to want to get a letter of marque, and I've told them that they'll need a certain amount of infamy as well as a minimum amount of plunder in their hold when they apply, and I haven't told them what those amounts are yet. I plan to just run miscellaneous stuff until they get their letter of marque and then advance immediately to chapter three.

My group is way behind on plunder because they've decided to follow the pirate code. This decision is also resulting in a very motivated crew and a lot of demand to join their ship's company, so their support in that respect is very high. All of this is resulting in me needing to pad out chapter two. I'm mostly working my way through the Legendary Games adventure path plug-ins for Skull & Shackles at the moment, which my party is really enjoying. I recommend checking them out.

Good catch. Professor Lorrimor must have instructed Councillor Hearthmount to make sure the funeral was delayed until the PCs arrived. Father Grimburrow or one of his acolytes would have cast gentle repose two or three times in the interim.

I don't think everything is collected in one place.

The professor's body would presumably have been found where he died, up by Harrowstone. I don't know who found him, or how easy it was to identify him given that his head had been crushed.

They waited sixteen days to bury him because he specified in his will that he wasn't to be buried until all the principals in his will arrived. (I don't know why he specified that--it would have saved money avoiding castings of gentle repose if they'd buried him right away and just waited on the will reading.)

I had Captain Plugg be right up front about not liking the PCs, and he told them that he had enough water to sail with a reduced crew but not to take them along. If they wanted to leave the island they had to provide more water, and none of that magical crap. If they wanted to rescue their buddies, then they needed to provide water for them, too.

This meant that the PCs knew that he wasn't bluffing when he threatened to sail away without them.

If so, please point us to your campaign journal!

It sounds like in the interim they may have converted to Xon-Kuthon.

Here's what I have so far:

Doubt: You lack confidence in your abilities or confidence in the universe at large. Whenever you fail a skill or ability check, you take a -4 penalty on that type of skill or ability check for the next hour.

Jinxed Item: You possess an object that you shouldn’t. Perhaps it has some sort of supernatural badness about it. Perhaps it is stolen and someone desperately seeks it. Perhaps it is simply large and awkward. Regardless, for some reason you feel compelled to keep this object close about you. You may describe what your character believes to be true about this item, subject to GM approval. There will be some sort of penalty involved, which will be based on the item itself. If you ever lose this item, temporarily exchange this drawback for the Doubt drawback until you regain possession of it.

Misdeeds: You are a divine spellcaster of either Desna, Iomadae, or Pharasma. You have committed misdeeds that have cost you your spellcasting and other supernatural abilities. You either underwent or still need to undergo an atonement spell, and this fact is known to members of your faith in Ustalav. There will be some sort of penalty involved, which will be based on the specific misdeed.

Stranger to Ustalav: You are an aasimar, elf, fetchling, half-orc, orc, ratfolk, tiefling, or other race severely distrusted by the rural residents of Ustalav (subject to GM approval). You have a -2 penalty to Charisma-based checks other than Intimidate while your race is in evidence. The PCs begin the campaign with 1 fewer Trust point.

Supernatural Advisor: You hear a voice that gives you occasional advice. You do not know the voice’s origin, or its agenda. The voice does not always respond when you speak to it. You are under no obligation to follow the advice given to you by the voice. Any time a week passes without communication from your advisor, exchange this drawback for the Doubt drawback until communication resumes.

Technological Object: You possess a piece of technology more advanced than is generally available in Ustalav. You may describe what your character believes to be true about this piece of technology, subject to GM approval. While this technology is in evidence you have a -2 penalty to Charisma-based checks other than Intimidate. Characters with this drawback may take levels in the gunslinger class. If you ever have no high technology objects in your possession, temporarily exchange this drawback for the Doubt drawback. The PCs lose 1 Trust point the first time a resident of Ravengro sees this object.

Unreliable Patron: Someone occasionally offers you support, perhaps financially or perhaps in terms in information or maybe something else altogether. This patron is using you for unknown ends and does not have your best interests at heart.Your patron knows that you have travelled to Ravengro and why, and you have agreed to keep your patron apprised of your future travel plans. Occasionally your patron asks you to perform minor, unobtrusive tasks, and to date you have always done so. If you ever experience a falling out with your patron, exchange this drawback for the Doubt drawback until you reconcile.

Good points all around. I think I'll keep the PCs non-mythic and use the Imposition reward as written. I'm keeping the Impositions secret past whatever they get at the next threshold, so finding out that they'll eventually have access to abilities costing 10 points of Disrepute will probably intrigue them. Incidentally, the adventure says that Impositions are in the player's guide, but they're actually in chapter one of the AP.

I'm thinking that the encounter with Gamin "Half-Ear" Crystos will be more effective if the PCs have met him elsewhere first. I can easily seed him into some tavern encounter or something, but if any of you do anything more dramatic with him I'd be interested in hearing about it.

I may have overdone Captain Harrigan's fearsomeness. My players have successfully slain Captain Plugg and First Mate Scourge after the ambush (on their return to the Man's Promise from Bonewrack Isle), and now they're planning on sailing to Port Peril, just like Harrigan wanted Plugg to do. They don't have Plugg's contacts, so their plan is to dock the ship and wait for Harrigan to show up and tell him what happened.

Harrigan will, of course, refuse to believe them. The solution is that they'll volunteer for Abadar's truthtelling and repeat to him exactly what actually happened. Since it's the truth, odds are that the NPCs will mostly back them up, too.

I think that this is hilarious, and plan to allow it. It's right around now that Harrigan stops trying to raise capital and starts building a fleet, so he's going to tell the PCs to go get the ship squibbed and change their names, then build a fleet of their own that he will requisition at some point down the line. He'll want a certain amount of tribute, but under no circumstances are they to reveal to anyone that their true allegiance is to him. He'll even pay to have the ship squibbed.

Mostly for the near future this just means that they're paying a small bit of tribute to him, but things will get tricky right around the time of the regatta. Harrigan really wants a seat on the Council, so he's going to tell the PCs to take out competition until they're disqualified for doing so, which will allow him to win. I don't expect this to sit well with them, so it should be interesting to see how they react.

You're right! Thank-you!

The answer is: "an iron-and-glass vial containing a swirling gray mist".

My biggest suggestion is that the PCs should really want to be pirates. If your deepest desire is to delve dungeons then you're going to derail things. If, on the other hand, your deepest desire is to be a scourge of the seas then you're going to help keep things on track.

I didn't think they'd be allowed in the officers' quarters, particularly since many of them are on deck late at night getting drunk and would need to go between the hammocks of sleeping superiors in order to get back belowdecks. I just put ladders through open hatches and left it at that.

Is Captain Plugg bluffing when he says he'll leave without the PCs in forty-eight hours? My gut says no, but I'm not sure how fun being marooned would actually be.

Have any of you who have Plugg and/or Scourge show up later as a recurring villain explained how they got off the island? I assume it would be a passing ship seeing the signal fire, or some such. Any thoughts on which one might be the most fun to pick up stranded PCs? Or on how to get the PCs in possession of a ship after they fail to get the Man's Promise?

I loved the way that psychic powers enabled the early (pre-3.0) feel of psionics where characters of any class could have those abilities. I'd love to see that rebalanced and released for Pathfinder (possibly with an open playtest period first, given how much complexity has come about already rules-wise).

Hi,

I'm considering running Carrion Crown for a group of Augmenteds from Verces, This means, of course, that I need to be able to give them options to be cybernetically enhanced, and ideally I'd be able to point them to a PFRPG-compatible pdf rather than develop everything from scratch.

Any suggestions?

Dale

I was really looking forward to seeing what Paizo did with pantheistic belief systems, but it seems that all they did was to completely redefine the word to remove its actual meaning and make "pantheistic" synonymous with "pantheonic" in Golarion. Was this deliberate, or just a wide-spread error?

Pantheism (in the real world) is the belief that all of existence comprises an all-encompassing God. It is a key element of many forms of Hinduism.

Polytheism (again, in the real world) is the belief that many different gods exist, often divided into pantheons.

I know that it's just a game, and that lots of words get redefined by the game writers to mean completely different things within the game than they do in the real world, but I'm curious why "pantheism" has been changed this way instead of developed as its own in-game analogue to real-world pantheism.

(I'm not personally a pantheist, but I do have a BA in theology and was kind of looking forward to seeing a gaming version of pantheism.)

Name: Yssith-Atil
Race: purecast serpentfolk
Classes/levels: monstrous humanoid 5/conjurer 9
Adventure: Snactum of the Serpent God
Location: the eponymous sanctum
Catalyst: Raviaza
The Gory Details: Raviaza was doing a number on the archer, so the conjurer cast antimagic field and walked up to her. He lasted one round against her then she finished him off. After that an intellect devourer who had been lurking nearby hopped into his skull.

I don't get why these modules seem so opposed to humans with class levels as opponents--that has been the vast majority of foes my players have faced for 20 years now...

I think that's the answer. Some groups, such as yours, have a lot of fun facing the same kinds of foes over and over again, while others prefer variety. Almost every kind of Earth animal seems to get made into RPG monsters in D&D/PFRPG, and when it came time for gorillas/monkeys to get that make-over, they ended up in Garund rather than someplace with fewer apes. They're still not as silly as, say, owlbears.

The game we play is fully of pretty silly stuff, if you start looking at it hard enough. If your group can ignore some silliness but not this stuff, definitely switch it out.

I think that the average person would have no idea what a gillman was, and just assume he was a tiefling regardless of his claims.

I see no other problems in allowing the player the desired character, so long as you explain any perception issues.

Did the PCs impress him at all? Remember that his entire goal in leaving Saventh-Yhi was to find enough strength to kick Akarundo off his island and save his people. If the PCs seem capable of that, he's going to want to do whatever he can to manipulate them into doing so. He might even propose an alliance, once he's strong enough again, though it sounds like your group might have more fun fighting him again.

Anyway, I think his level choice will depend on what he plans to do next.

I have been writing a side quest for a goblin hideout where the party find an advert for goblin warriors on the body of a goblin they kill in the sewers during the first part.

Using pictograms? You could even draw it in crayon and give it as a handout.

As GM you can make this decision before you start recruiting players. I ran Rise of the Runelords for an all-goblin party, Second Darkness for an all-elf party, and am in the midst of Serpent's Skull with an all-serpentfolk party. These APs lend themselves to these particular combinations quite nicely.

I think Paizo could implement this in a way that's optional, so that GMs who want to allow their players to choose any race instead of the one most suited to the AP would have options.

That said, I love the idea.