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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)

tbug, a question: Why do all your PC's have a level of expert?

The PCs are students at Low Bridge University on Triaxus. They have one level of expert for each year of studies they've completed. They are currently in a group directed studies course which has taken them to the Cage.

Every thaw the various higher learning institutions on Triaxus have a competition showing what their students are up to, and all three times so far Triaxus University has won. Low Bridge University is determined to win this time, and a divination indicated that sending some students to reassemble the Sihedron could potentially do it for them.

Character Creation Guidelines

Name: Trixie Longtooth
Race: Triaxian
Classes/Levels: expert 1/barbarian 9
Adventure: Beyond the Doomsday Door
Location: E10. Crypts of the Final Priests
Catalyst: poisonous Groetan mummy
The Gory Details: This may be on me. I changed the mummies because I feel like twelve undead each trying to paralyze the PCs leads to a less fun combat that might (for our group, at least) drag on longer than desired. I gave the mummies the poisonous template from the Advanced Bestiary and ignored their Despair ability. This ended up being hard on the barbarian, who got hit a lot.

(I still think the fight was more fun for my players than it would have been with the standard mummy stat block.)

I just bought this product and downloaded it, but there was no HeroLab file included. How do I get that?

Name: Armath Ethmaed
Race: half-elf
Classes/Levels: expert 1/unchained rogue 5/slayer 3
Adventure: Beyond the Doomsday Door
Location: E4. Guardian Crypt
Catalyst: greater shadows
The Gory Details: The PCs were clever, and discovered how to skip directly to the sea level (ie Area E) by using stone shape in one of the caves. They were pretty under levelled, and the greater shadow fight was a really tough one for them. One of them fell to their Strength damage.

Thank-you for the quick response. That seems pretty definitively against a tie-in, so I'll just run them by the book.

For example, what’s the deal with the sinspawn? He brought at least thirty of them with him to Windsong Abbey from Hollow Mountain, and between them they had (at least) 100 +1 human bane arrows, 100 regular arrows, 10 potions of cure moderate wounds, 10 suits of +1 chainmail, and +1 composite longbows (of the appropriate Strength rating), and 10 masterwork halberds. Were these provided to the sinspawn by Alaznist and are thus over ten millennia old? Did Ardathanatus stop in Riddleport to go shopping? It seems unlikely he’d be able to find all this in stock.

So where in Hollow Mountain did he find thirty sinspawn (possibly a third of whom were fully equipped) free for the taking?

(This isn't by any means a criticism of the writing. This is an attempt to make cool tie-ins between the adventures.)

I had trouble lining up the windows on the exterior picture with the map. This only matters because my PCs were considering entering via flight rather than the front door. (They ended up going through the sally port though, so it worked out.)

Now that It Came From Hollow Mountain is out, do we have any additional insights into what Ardathanatus experienced before his return to Windsong Abbey? Are there any fun tie-ins we can make (or at least foreshadow)?

I'm in the process of running Beyond the Doomsday Door. Any thoughts on how I should be foreshadowing this adventure given all of Ardathanatus's adventures inside Hollow Mountain?

Thank-you! I was curious. It sounds like they're on top of things.

How did this turn out, wordelo?

Thank-you.

Exactly. I just enjoyed having the paper minis for such situations. I also found that creatures sometimes had flavour differences from the version in the bestiary, and the paper minis caught those.

It's not a big deal, but if they were available I'd be delighted to throw money at whoever made them.

I admit I haven't done a detailed analysis of Hell's Rebels, but I'm running Shattered Star right now and I keep using stuff from paper minis even though I have all the Bestiary boxes. I'll have to check Hell's Rebels more closely.

Are the days of Pathfinder Paper Minis all in the past? Is there any hope of a set for this AP?

I have the official Paizo paper minis, of course, but they don't cover everything (just some of the highlights).

Gah, it's so tempting to just buy the pdf instead of waiting for my subscription to process. I shall be strong.

I'm super excited about this one!

There's a significant dungeon crawl in each volume, but also significant opportunities for roleplaying in each volume. The latter are perhaps more easily minimized in this adventure path than average, but the nature of the connective tissue between chapters means that it's also fairly easy for a GM to add a bunch of roleplaying hooks.

Does this answer your question? If not, what specifically are you after?

This one takes a little explaining.

Name: Corwyn
Race: vercite (in the body of Sorshen)
Classes/Levels: expert 1/arcane bomber wizard 5
Adventure: Curse of the Lady's Light
Location: L1. Arrival Platform
Catalyst: Mochtau (from L4. Mochtau's Hall)
The Gory Details: It was early in the morning. The previous day had seen the adventurers make it to K12, where they encountered the incubus. Corwyn, now in the body of Sorshen, saw the incubus and told him that he was reassigned to her boudoir and to report there immediately. She got a 28 on her Bluff check, and the incubus teleported away. A few rounds later he teleported back with Ashamintallu, who had of course been in the boudoir already. The PCs were very low on resources but they managed to get a round one glitterdust off against Ashamintallu, piercing her spell resistance and lucking out when she failed her save. She had a hero point (long story) and used it to d-door back to her boudoir, since she wasn't sure who these people were who could blind her the instant she showed up she didn't go straight there when she couldn't leave. She instead made a plan that involved reassigning people, including the incubus who had followed Ashamintallu very soon afterward (having been disarmed and badly hurt).

So it was the next day, and among those reassigned was Mochtau, who was waiting on the arrival platform. The PCs were still fighting her when the incubus showed up as part of his process of teleporting from room to room throughout the entire complex looking for the intruders. He tried to teleport away almost immediately, but the PCs focussed on him. Unfortunately, this left Mochtau free to do as she wished; what she wished was to attack the person impersonating "her" (since she still believed she was the real Sorshen). She made short work of the wizard.

Where do most folks look when they want a specific kind of third-party 5e product? For example, I'm looking for a big book of spells (like Deep Magic or 1001 Spells for Pathfinder). I've found some Deep Magic small pdfs, but no big compilations from anyone. Please help me develop my search-fu!

I've been away from Freeport for a long time, but these articles are intriguing. Has Green Ronin made any 5e-related announcements with regards to Freeport?

Thanks for all your hard work on this!

Thanks for the price correction on the staff! I have made a note of that for when my PCs get to chapter four.

I'm not sure I understand your question for the jar. Are you asking if GMs running Kingmaker should use the Shattered Star stat block? (I mean, even if I answered your question it would just be my opinion; I'm just curious what it is you're actually asking.)

This works for me. I'm going to treat this as Taldane law until someone presents convincing evidence to the contrary. Thank-you for this!

As far as I can see there are no special rules added to that maneuver. I wonder if possibly Mr Hodge was thinking of the 3.5 disarm, which let you hold the object if you weren't using a weapon to do the disarm attempt. You could rule that the Reliquary uses a combat maneuver (standard action) to disarm and then a move action to telekinetically bring the Sihedron into one of its claws. I think that by RAW it falls to the ground, though.

So how many generations use regnal numbers? If you're the twelfth son of the Grand Prince and you're (for example) Ubar I then do you give your sons regnal numbers? Do they give their sons regnal numbers?

Name: Corwyn
Race: vercite
Classes/levels: expert 1/arcane bomber wizard 4
Adventure: Curse of the Lady's Light
Location: K1. The False Sepulcher
Catalyst: That trap
The Gory Details: The party had detected and disarmed the trap, then spent a very long time figuring out what was going on. Eventually they succeeded and decided to destroy the clone body against the chance of Sorshen coming back in it. Corwyn had a different idea, though. She triggered the trap and woke up in a new body. (She's carrying the shard of pride, and has done an excellent job roleplaying the effect it's having on her.)

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)

You could consider giving each of them a Sin theme. Maybe the cleric has the pride them, and her followers each have a different one, for example. Perhaps gluttony for the wizard, envy for the tattooed sorcerer, wrath for the slayer, and greed for the rogue? This doesn't have to be a mechanical thing, but it might help you in the process of selecting mechanics for them.

Magnimar is complicated. The Lord Mayor is human, but he technically answers to the Council of Ushers, whose executive moderator is an elf. (I know this isn't specifically what you're asking, but it seems a relevant data point.)

Nice! Thank-you for posting!

Note also that Vudra claims to be the oldest human civilisation in Golarion (much like the Hindu tradition, actually), older than Azlant. And hit has half-elves, who, according to the old Campaign Setting book, had access to psionics.

We know there's an interplanetary gate from Qabarat to somewhere on Golarion (PF90 p. 80), but as far as I can tell we're given no hints as to the Cage-side location. If it's in Vudra then that could explain why there hasn't been any mention of it in an Inner Sea sourcebook.

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)

Does the Lady's Light extinguish if Ashamintallu (the bound demon) is defeated? If not, what continues to power it? Could have sworn I read that some where in the book, but now can't find it. :(

Earlier in this thread (on Oct 8, 2012) James Jacobs confirmed that the light would be extinguished.

What did you end up doing, Groz?

I was planning on it, but I always think Mayor Grobaras is selfish and evil (even though the books technically say that he's true neutral) so my speech might not be to everyone's tastes.

I would certainly be very interested in seeing other people's takes on it!

You can run the adventure path with just the core rulebook so long as you have access to the rules on-line (which you obviously do, since you can post here). I would prioritize getting more information on the setting, such as the guide to Varisia or even the setting hardcover book.

I love it! Thanks for posting your list!

I think I made the list before Sins of the Saviors was released, but even so I don't think he should be on the list.

The dead body is that of Jaren Basvear, a corporal in the Sandpoint militia and the leader of the group of guards Hemlock sent into these chambers.

The militia is explicitly different from the town guard. There are 62 members of the militia (Burnt Offerings, p. 65) as opposed to only twelve full-time members of the city watch. The militia take 1d3 hours to call to duty, and just get used sporadically as I recall.

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.

The four students met with agents of Sabriyya and led them into the Crow so that they could recover the remains of her father. Sabriyya was quite grateful.

Continuing their descent, they met up with more mites. Armath and Elalinda (both of whom were born on Castrovel) were particularly wary of the giant ants, and made very sure that there were no formians anywhere near. Having assured themselves that their homeworld's invaders were nowhere to be found, they dispatched the remaining fey.

Further descent took them beneath the Crow and into caverns that spread out further than the diameter of the pylon. Two notable discoveries were a fountain that had special healing processes as well as a very angry creature that claimed it had lives over ten thousand years in wait for its mistress. After a spirited debate the students chose not to reveal the healing fountain to the people of Magnimar yet, pending further discussion. They reported the creature to Master Nivlandis, who suspected that it was an ancient sinspawn. Master Nivlandis began assembling a team to retrieve the sinspawn.

PCs:

Armath Ethmaed (half-elf unchained rogue 2/expert 1)
Corwyn Greely (vercite arcane bomber wizard 2/expert 1)
Elalinda (lashunta oracle 2/expert 1)
Trixie Longtooth (winterborn triaxian barbarian 2/expert 1)

[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)

To become an initiate shouldn't be too hard, it would be just checking if they have some basic aptitude for the job.

I dunno about this. Half the people who apply to become initiates fail. (Seekers of Secrets, p. 5)

For mind I'd give them some puzzles in real life or else have them make Intelligence tests to do the puzzles. I might also give them Linguistics checks to understand code.

For magic I might give them a couple wands to activate (maybe one of cure light wounds and one of silent image).

They don't have to succeed at all of the tests, so you can let them flounder a bit and them accept them, if that's your goal.

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)

Your math makes sense to me. Given that his main combat activity is melee combat, however, you could work around it if you didn't want to make the fight easier. For example, you could rule that the Mark of Yamasoth negates the effects of aging.

I could see places like Urgir, run by orcs, where they may actually participate in outside economies. For that, gold would be worthwhile.

Not to mention Fellstrok, in Urgir's basement.

tbug wrote:

I'm loving this so far. Nice job, everyone!

Anyone have any theories on how a ringhorn grazes? It looks like it could only eat the tops of very tall stalks/blades/plants. This might also be my eye betraying me, so if I'm misinterpreting the picture then I'll just assume it can graze like a sheep. (I'm also okay with the answer being "It looks cool, so don't worry about it. :D )

The art came out a little different than we expected, but if I had to pull out a no-prize, I'd say that this specimen is clearly near the end of the season, with his horns at their largest. The males gorge themselves all through spring and summer, but by late autumn, their horns grow too large to let them easily graze, encouraging more competition for the best grazing spots.

I love it! Thanks, Crystal!