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).
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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!
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)
I want to throw troops against my high level PCs occasionally, but I haven't seen clear rules for turning a guard into a troop of guards. Has anyone published such a guide? Even better, has anyone created a whole bunch of troop stat blocks? I tried checking on rpgnow.com but apparently my kung fu is weak.
Akara-Jetzii was tired of other serpentfolk, even those who weren't obsessing over bringing back Ydersius, and was spending some time up north. She was hanging out in Tamrivena with a particularly stupid orc named Goonug when she met her old acquaintance, Arlyxannah. The two knew each other from when they lived in Kaer Maga, and kept each other's secrets; Arlyx knew that "Kadara" was really a serpentfolk, and Akara-Jetzii knew that Arlyxannah was a werewolf-kin skinwalker. It was as close to friendship as a serpentfolk was likely to experience with a humanoid. Arlyx was accompanied by her friends, Miri and Ka'kutah. They were heading west to find out why the Belkzen orcs were riled up and hassling the Canterwall Foreguard. Miri had heard a rumour that the orcs had raided an orphanage and stolen candy from the children, and was determined that this would not stand. After fortifying themselves with drinks at Hilda's, they secured a sponsorship. In exchange for Hilda naming drinks after them, they would remove the orc problem in her name and publicize her business far and wide. This being an acceptable exchange all around, they set out for Castle Andachi. As they approached they had Goonug blow an orc horn Miri had been carrying around. They were tied in slip knots so that they could pretend to be prisoners. They horn worked, and two orcs riding gortheks charged toward them. Goonug recognized them as members of the Screamhunter tribe, and knew that he had fought them many times before. Realizing that this wasn't a peaceful encounter, the heroes began attempting to escape from what they'd intended as slipknots. As they fight against the gorthek riders progressed, it became apparent that the green stuff on the backs and heads of the orcs wasn't mere decoration but instead some sort of active fungus. After Arlyxannah recognized it as mindslaver mold the combat took on a new sense of urgency. Once they dispatched the two orcs they considered just leaving the whole business behind them, but the memory of Hilda's sponsorship made them reconsider. Content with their strategy, they approached Castle Andachi's main gate and blew the horn multiple times. Before long the fungus-riden orcs began to pour forth, accompanied by a drummer who tried to keep up their spirits. The fight was long and drawn out, but in the end Hilda's Glowing Carrots (as their company was now known) was victorious. Before returning to Tamrivena they poked around the interior of the castle a little, and discovered that the lower levels were entirely covered in fungus. They briefly considered burning it out, but thought better of it upon realizing that this was probably the main reason that more orcs didn't use the abandoned castle as a staging base against Ustalav. The only survivors they found were two uninfected orcs cowering from the mindslaver mold. They revealed that the reason that the Screamhunters were so far east was that some human woman had enslaved a bunch of orcs and taken Valorfoe, a castle not far to the southwest. She was only seen at night, but her control over her orcs was rock solid. Hilda's Glowing Carrots tentatively decided that this would be their next target. PCs: Akara-Jetzii (serpentfolk sorcerer 4)
NPC: Goonug (orc warpriest 5 of Gorum, played by Ka'kutah's player) (n.b. This game involves a PC from my Serpent's Skull campaign and three from my Carrion Crown campaign, and will soon be adding a character from my Skull & Shackles campaign.)
My PCs have just arrived in Ilizmagorti, and they'll be there a few days. They're doing piracy as part of chapter two and wanted to stop in at a nearby port outside the Shackles, and since they're there anyway they thought they'd request an estimate on how much it would cost for the Red Mantis to off Captain Harrigan (who is their current boss). I can run a fun quest and such just to get the opportunity to talk to a representative of the RMA, but I have no clue how much assassination actually costs. Are there guidelines anywhere (for any assassins at all, in 3.x or PFRPG)?
Has anyone done anything with the reflection of Port Peril on the Plane of Shadow? Any fetchlings in the crew? Any portals in the Knotworks?
Petros Lorrimor was dead, and the principals in his will were called to his funeral. The biggest surprise of the day was two women each named Miri who looked enough alike to be twins. Most people ignored that mystery, however, and concentrated on the matter at hand. Rather apologetically, Kendra Lorrimor said that Father Grimburrow had specified that "Ovidiu the Apostate" was not to be permitted as a pallbearer. The two Miris volunteered, along with Arlyxannah and Isenwen. Ovidiu joined the procession, with Ka'kutah (a Garundi halfling), several locals, and a fancily-dressed gentleman. Part way along, some locals stopped the procession and accused the professor of having been a necromancer. Before Kendra could explode the Miris stepped in and calmed things down. While the ringleader (an older gentleman named Gibs) seemed unrepentant, the other men all slunk off. Miri Vishki talked to Zokar, the local tavern keeper, and made arrangements to pay off Gibs' bar tab. The reading of the will was largely uneventful. The heroes discovered that they were requested to spend a month in Ravengro, which they accepted with good grace. The spent a couple of days helping Kendra get organized and getting to know some people of the town. There were some minor mysteries, and Arlyxannah seemed convinced that the professor's accident was related to her own mother's recent demise. There was one awkward moment, when the fancilly-dressed gentleman showed up at Lorrimor Manor the day after the funeral and letting everyone know he was available for the reading of the will at Kendra's convenience. When he discovered that his presence was not requested he left town. The group learned that his name was Adivion Adressant ("Uncle Adivion" to Kendra) and that he had paid for resurrection to be cast on Petros, who had declined to return. Adivion Adressant was bemused by the Miris, and when Miri Vishki had asked him if she could also call him "Uncle Adivion" he said yes. A hint about a secret stash in a false mausoleum got the group out to the Restlands again, this time to break into a crypt. Ovidiu felt profoundly uncomfortable with this. PCs: Arlyxannah (werewolf-kin skinwalker rogue 1)
Where are the rest of you putting this particular Adventure Path Plug-In? Near the Smoker? Outside the Shackles altogether (possibly closer to Mediagalti)?
I'm really on the fence about offering up a mythic tier. I know that a lot of work has already been done with regards to making Skull & Shackles mythic, but I hadn't decided to go that route. This is just so cool, though. What's everyone else doing?
I really like the use of campaign traits, to the point where I write my own when I'm not running an AP or just want to customize things. I've never created campaign drawbacks, but if ever there was a time I'd think it'd be for this adventure path. Have any of you done that or something similar? I'd love to hear your ideas before I dive in from scratch.
Any thoughts on the location of Tarin's Crown (from the AP PLug-In of the same name from Legendary Games)? I'm still trying to sort out what goes where in the Shackles.
Have any of you added Freeport to this AP? I think my players would enjoy it, but it might be too large a presence.
When hobgoblins become adults they officially join the military as lance-privates and go through a Year of Hell in order to qualify to serve. Flunking out of the Year of Hell means a life spent serving the rest of the tribe. The Crashing Horde tribe's latest group was about a month into its Year when a strange thin man, perhaps an elf, wandered toward them and sent them scattering in terror, visions of their greatest fears pursuing them. This qualifies as instant failure. Not all of them were willing to accept this meekly, however. Rumours of a hobgoblin named Svard persist, saying that he commands a crew of humans and is feared as a pirate captain. Thinking that accomplishing this might be enough to let them retake their Year of Hell, several of them set out for Port Peril to commandeer a ship. They re-encountered each other at the Formidably Maid, a tavern that seemed ideal for taking over a crew of pirates. Somehow while catching up with each other there they consumed something that didn't agree with them, and everything went black. Next thing they knew, they were aboard a ship being shaken awake by someone called Master Scourge. They declared step one of their plan to be a qualified success.
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
What do we know about the actual composition of the Council (before Chammady changes it)? There are eight nobles on the Council, four of whom are patriarchs/matriarchs (Vassindio Drovenge, Eirtein Oberigo, Lord/Lady Salisfer, and Lord/Lady Dioso (Lord Lucio Dioso IMC)) and four of lesser status. (PF30 p. 11) We don't know the families of these other four, but we can possibly eliminate some, or at least speculate. It seems most unlikely that Visbaronetess Aulamaxa is a member, and if it had been a member of her family assassinated in chapter six then I suspect the adventure path would mention it. I feel we can rule them out as belonging to the Council. Similarly, given the nature of Calseinica Nymmis' family's involvement in chapter six it seems rather unlikely that they are represented on the Council. Lord Ghival has systematically impoverished the rest of his family, and the way they are discussed suggests that none of them had any pull with the Council, let alone a seat on it. Lord Mayor Arvanxi seems to be the only living member of his House in town (since his older sister Lonosete married out of it), and he himself is clearly not a Council member. None of the Arvanxi client Houses (Mhartis, Ciucci, and Rasdovain) are given any kind of recognition by Council agents, and the kind of care to cover one's tracks when moving against fellow Council nobles is not in evidence. I feel it's safe to rule them out. The fact that agents of the Council seem to have caused Sascar Tilernos to disappear suggests that House Tilernos is not affiliated with the Council. (I might be wrong about this, though; I'm not sure I actually understand the subplot surrounding her disappearance.) House Chard is an interesting possibility, but I can't help but think that Paralictor Chard might have mentioned the assassination of one of his family members by the Council when talking to the PCs. The description of House Rosala in chapter six suggests none of them are (or have been) sitting on the Council. House Ulvauno is a possibility, but they frankly don't need any more focus. I like House Khollarix for one of the four other Houses. They aren't expanded upon within the body of the adventure path, but the excellent fan-created document on the Dusk Market ties them to the illicit slave trade. This still leaves lots of possibilities: Atenaar, Cemaine, Chillarth, Etrovain, Grulios, Ici, Imvius, Julistarc, Lorialn, Mezinas, Mironeth, Missepe, Nolmon, Phandros, Rufano, Rustachas, Seidraith, Starnon, Ucarlaar, Vitaron, and Xerysis. For my campaign, I think I'm going with Khollarix, Mironeth, Seidreth, and Vitaron. Aside from the eight noble members, do we know if there were any others? I can't seem to find an actual number anywhere, though we know they all comfortable sat around a table in Room D15 of Walcourt. Have any of you done anything in terms of nailing down membership further?
Have any other groups of players just allowed the plague to spread? My group ignored it for a while, and now is just trying to enact a quarantine over the human district to prevent the plague from taking the entire city. They've ignored the repeated references to the vrykolakas, so that's not even going to work. The boggards and serpentfolk have come into repeated contact with plague victims, so I guess they're next. (Akarundo is dead, so he won't be intervening.) I think the vegepygmies will be weaponizing the plague against the troglodyes and charau-ka, and certainly they'll be moving among the dying populations spreading spores. Four of the five caravans have been infiltrated by the serpentfolk patrols and will probably either die or leave town. Yog'oltha and M'deggog will likely do what they can, then bail. So the PCs will probably be heading to Ilmurea with no backup. Is this the first time this has happened, or might any of you be able to tell me what it's like? (I don't need suggestions on how to softball this for the PCs, btw; I know how to dumb things down if I choose to do so.)
My PCs are a bunch of idle rich from Westcrown in 4601 who got heartily sick of all the religious fanaticism surrounding Aroden's return and decided to have themselves frozen for about twenty-five years in order to skip it all. They figured that was long enough for life to return to normal. They ended up frozen for about a hundred years instead (because of all the instability) and now they're dealing with a radically changed world. I've been having fun with all the differences, including the appearance of drow in the world, but now I'm wondering what sorts of people might be flocking to Westcrown to interact with them. Anyone? It's not like there's a shortage of elves or dwarfs who were around back then, but the PCs have a couple magic items that were crafted by clerics of Aroden. Would collectors be after those? Is there anything I should be doing with that, or just carry on with the quasi-post-apocalyptic game I've been running?
My players will be starting the Cornucopia soon, since they're nearly finished performing The Six Trials of Larazod. The problem is that they crept into the mayoral manor and investigated the Asmodean Knot before they auditioned for the show. I didn't have a problem with this, and I like to reward player initiative, but now they have a long party coming up without any sort of subplot going on during the Cornucopia. The main thing I want is to avoid the party from getting boring. My secondary goal is to give the PCs motivation to question NPCs (possibly though not necessarily the same as they'd need to if doing stuff in the intended order). Any suggestions?
What's the material component for protection from evil? Is this in a FAQ someplace?
Before I ask my question, I should preface it with an explanation concerning my weird players. They played Rise of the Runelords as goblins. They played Curse of the Crimson Throne as members of the Korvosan aristocracy. They played Second Darkness as agents of the Winter Council. They're playing Serpent's Skull as serpentfolk. They like to play the difficult option. I've been warned that they want to play Way of the Wicked as an all-paladin party. I'm up for a challenge, and I'm going to try to make this work. The thing here is that I have to be true to the AP. If you talk to any of them about their campaigns (or read the play logs) you'll see that all of the events happened as written, but often the PCs were on the wrong end of things or otherwise just bizarrely interacting with their environment. I'm just not sure whether that's going to be possible this time around. As anyone who's been at an organized play table has probably experienced, paladins (particularly PC paladins) can be serious jerks. They get an idea in their head and nothing else whatsoever matters. Collateral damage becomes irrelevant, and killing everyone so that the gods can sort out the virtuous from the evil gets routinely suggested as the best tactic. My question is: will taking this to its logical extreme be enough to justify the assault on Talingarde?
One of my players complained recently about how tedious the collection and disposal of loot was compared to the rest of the play experience. On the one hand, selling treasure means you get good stuff so the players want it to happen, but on the other hand it's just looking up item after item and calculating the sum of their resale value. Are there any elegant solutions? I'm picturing an app or spreadsheet or web page that contains the items of the SRD and can just give a sum after having the appropriate checkboxes selected. If not that, then is there anything similar?
Has anything at all been done with Shadow Westcrown? I'm still trying to work out how Paizo is using the Plane of Shadows, but presumably this is a perfect situation to showcase that particular transitive plane. My players are already asking questions, so even if Paizo has been mum I'm going to have to work this out. Any suggestions would be welcome.
There's been talk about streamlining the adventure path by allowing PCs to begin Mother of Flies immediately after they emerge from Delvehaven. Has anyone actually done this? I think that the Infernal Syndrome looks like a great deal of fun and I'm sorry to lose it, but I'm considering taking this advice from people who have finished running the AP. What are the key plot elements of chapter four? Here's what I've got:
Have I missed anything?
Saventh-Yhi has two puppet masters: Yog'oltha and M'deggog. Surely they know about each other, right? Yog'oltha has several minions, as first encountered: four gibbering mouthers guarding it, and Ugimmo who's doing some exploring for it. Due to the lack of a shared language between Yog'oltha and Ugimmo, this is perhaps not the best explorer Yog'oltha has dominated, but it's easy to send out more. (As written, however, Ugimmo isn't even dominated any more but is following his last-received commands of his own free will.) M'deggog has more minions: Ivo Haigan, the Kaava bush-devil, a charau-ka, a boggard, a roper, and a derhii. Both of them are primarily after more information. Yog'oltha wants to know as much as possible about how the people here reacted to Earthfall, and M'deggog just wants to experiment on its mind control process until it perfects it. I figure we as GMs have two goals: 1. Make the two puppet masters sufficiently distinct that it doesn't seem like we're just using the same monster twice. 2. Give sufficient foreshadowing of M'deggog (who is, after all, the boss monster of Saventh-Yhi). My intention with regards to keeping them distinct is to always roleplay their goals, not their combat stats. I'm hoping that this is enough, but I would love to hear what people have done with them. Players don't even have hints of either of these monsters for quite a while, unless they decide to go to the island in the middle of the city early on. I gave them incentive to do this, and next session my PCs will be encountering Ugimmo. Since the lack of a common language means that Yog'oltha can only give Ugimmo the most basic instructions, my guess is that it turned him loose with a command such as "Learn" or "Explore". With the domination having already expired, the PCs don't even get Sense Motive checks to learn about it. If they stop and talk to him (which seems possible--as far as I can tell he starts out feeling indifferent toward the PCs) they he could tell them about the Green God and the "voice of the swamp". Not much of a clue there. The only other way to find out about Yog'oltha without adding a dominated character is to stumble on the gibbering Mouthers at the other end of the city. M'deggog is even more obscure, at least at first. As far as I can tell, there is no way to get even the slightest whisper about the intellect devourer until Event Two of chapter four. At the very least, I figure I can have the Children of the Spear and the Tribe of the Green God aware that one of their own went missing, and maybe even have witnesses to those two walking off into the city. Having two puppet masters in one place seems like it should just be really cool, and I'd love advice on how to make this particularly memorable for my players.
It looks like my PCs are going to try to get into Aberian's Folly before auditions even happen, let alone the cast party. This won't involve much more than adding back the guards to A17 for the main house, but I'm going to have to backtrack a fair bit to get the state of the Knot and the Spiral, I think. I'm hoping to get some feedback on my backtracking, and maybe we can add this information to the Council of Thieves GM's Guide (assuming that's still being maintained). Has anyone already tackled this? It would be nice to be saved some effort.
Is there a place where we can confirm who the cover portraits are? I think I know who everyone is, but it seems odd that I can't just find it listed anywhere. Chapter One: Arael
I'm least certain about chapters three and five. Any thoughts?
Starday, Lamashan 6, 4601: A group of rich Wiscrani aristocrats are sick of all of the hype about Aroden's pending return. They decide to subject themselves to temporal stasis for twenty-five years so that they can wake up when all of the religious fervour has died down. It turns out that they're out for longer than expected... We have our first session tomorrow evening. I'm quite looking forward to it.
We did character creation this evening, and one of my players made an Arvanxi PC. My first rule of GMing is "Always say yes!" so I let her. I'm not looking for ways to weasel out of this. I would love to hear any ideas on how to make this awesome.
I'll be starting a fantasy campaign soon that takes place almost entirely within a city. Is there a resource out there along the lines of "This is all the stuff you should consider if you're running a fantasy city campaign."? (I'll be running Council of Thieves, but that shouldn't make any difference.)
When gods are real it seems like there should be something more than just classes that get power from them. I want a supplement that gives a mechanic for faith and/or devotion. Does anything like that exist for 3.x/PFRPG? I'm picturing the party going into a super-dangerous situation, so before they start the cleric gets out the portable shrine and people make sacrifices and do a half-hour devotional/worship session, or something. I'm not looking for the players to have to do any of this; I just think that there should be some sort of in-game reward for the characters doing it. I can always just add hero points or something, but if there exists a supplement to support this then I'm interested in hearing about it.
There are hundreds, possibly thousands of noble serpentfolk active on or beneath the surface of Golarion. (PF37 p. 66) Vyr-Azul is the high priest of their god, commanding the respect and authority to mobilize thousands of degenerate serpentfolk to do his bidding. What are the other purecast serpentfolk up to? Yarzoth seemed to be acting independently of Vyr-Azul, trying to track down the location of Saventh-Yhi on her own initiative. (PF37 p. 7) In a way, the fact that the PCs get involved at all is her fault, since Vyr-Azul was completely on top of finding Ydersius' skull without her involvement. Any purecast serpentfolk in Ilmurea "serve as Vyr-Azul's lieutenants and enjoy high positions of prestige and power". (PF41 p. 37) Aside from those awakened from suspended animation, this consists of Sskhavo (who is disgraced and trying to redeem himself in Vyr-Azul's eyes) (PF41 p. 48) and Khavith (who has sequestered herself in her lab and tries never to interact with other serpentfolk) (PF41 p. 50). So there are three contemporary purecast serpentfolk in Ilmurea, total. There had been lots more, though; Vyr-Azul just got rid of them all. Vyr-Azul sent three up to the Overburn to find Juliver. (PF40 p. 36) When they weren't immediately successful, he sent a group of four, a group of eight, and a group of twelve purecast serpentfolk up to Saventh-Yhi, with no way to return. (PF40 p. 79) Prior to this, he had convinced four purecast serpentfolk to ritually commit suicide and become the coils of Ydersius. (PF42 p. 26) So including Vyr-Azul, there were thirty-four purecast serpentfolk behind this plot (only three of whom are named). When I started reading the AP I'd somehow gotten the impression that a majority of the noble serpentfolk were in favour of the return of Ydersius. Have I missed something, or are most of the purecast completely uninvolved? A side effect of this is that once the players finish chapter four then their characters have encountered almost all of the purecast serpentfolk they're ever going to meet. This feels wrong, somehow.
I'm getting conflicting impressions about how many people of which species live here. Is there a number anywhere? Even an order of magnitude would do wonders for my understanding of the current situation.
My players just voted on what they wanted to play next, and here's the campaign blurb (for Council of Thieves, natch) that won: As the lead up to Aroden's return to Westcrown approached, the player characters became heartily tired of hearing about nothing but the God of Humanity. Being rather rich, they paid to have themselves placed into magical suspended animation for twenty-five years to give all the religious fervour time to die down. They awaken over a hundred years later to find Aroden dead and Westcrown in disgrace, and set out to better their home town. So clearly the temporal stasis took a lot longer to be dispelled than they thought it would. I'm not sure yet how I'm going to justify it, but presumably Janiven arranged for it somehow. I suspect that one of the first things that the PCs will want to do will be to tromp into the local bank of Abadar and withdraw large sums of cash. I plan to lead them on a merry chase for a while and eventually (perhaps after the Trials) lead them to Vuiper Ghivel, who acknowledges their bank balances but declines to give them any money, since he spent it all. This should be a fun time. :) Any thoughts or suggestions before we dive into this?
One of the enemies in the pirate faction is going to be casting a lesser planar ally spell soon. What's an appropriate LPA for Besmara? Proteans just don't seem right, but there's nothing else we know about that's low enough in hit dice and native to the Maelstrom, right?
One idiosyncrasy of my players is that they great really irritated that PCs have to clean up other people's messes. They don't mean the bad guys; they just mean that there are sometimes already groups in the campaign world dedicated to the sort of problem they have to fix, so why can't that group take care of things? My solution to this is to make them members of that group. It's tricky, but I think I'm getting the hang of it and my players love it. Examples: Rise of the Runelords:
The Runelords aren't really anybody's problem in particular, but Magnimar has promised to look after all of the locations in the AP up until the second half of chapter five. If I were starting this AP again I'd probably give my players an option to play a squad of Magnimaran special forces. I'd even pay them some pittance. Curse of the Crimson Throne:
The problem of the queen came about because the king wouldn't believe his advisors when they told him about the curse and so married an ambitious trophy wife from Cheliax. This is a problem created by the Korvosan aristocracy, and my players are all members of said aristocracy. Second Darkness:
The elves have a secret society called the Winter Council dedicated to preventing the drow from doing the stuff they do in this AP. My players were all agents of the Winter Council. Legacy of Fire:
Jhavul was a mad efreeti bent on world destruction. Genies really ought to have some sort of policing body. Maybe there's some group based out of the City of Brass who should be preventing this sort of thing. Otherwise why haven't lots of efreet done the "one wish for you and two for me" thing before? So my record is spotty, but I try. The problem is that I'm not sure there's an appropriate group here? Whose problem is it that Sidonai Drovenge signed the contract? Whose problem is it that his kids are trying to drive Westcrown into ruin in order to take over the Council of Thieves? Maybe the Council should be take care of its own problems? Maybe at first it might not realize the scope of the problem and so it assigns the issue to low-level members (ie the PCs)?
Has anyone dropped the City State of the Invincible Overlord into Golarion yet? What are some good spots for it that won't radically change the setting as already established?
My players like to have adventuring parties intimately tied to an adventure path's plotline. In Rise of the Runelords they played goblins. In Curse of the Crimson Throne they played members of the Korvosan aristocracy. In Second Darkness they played agents of the Winter Council. In Legacy of Fire they played undead victims of an ancient wish that Jhavul had granted to one of their enemies. I'm looking for an equivalent option here. I'm thinking that the serpentfolk are being gathered in the rebuilt section of Ilmurea, and any non-degenerates among them are being given heavy responsibilities. What if some of these people didn't want their ancient god back? What if they were happy with the way that their lives had been? My theory is that the PCs would be serpentfolk who just wanted to live their lives without being forces to go to war against the humans. They are willing to fight to preserve their way of life, even if they're not willing to fight to restore the way that their people lived ten thousand years ago. What do you think?
I have a bunch of new players joining for chapter five, and I want to give them a good workup beneath Sandpoint before sending them off to Runeforge. Has anyone done any work figuring out what else Xaliasa had down those caved-in tunnels? North of A3 seems obvious. Mothers sometimes survived giving birth to monsters, but they'd be in pretty rough shape and would need a chamber where they could recuperate. There would probably also be a separate room for the newborn, and possibly a place to take mothers or children who didn't survive the process. (I'm not a parent. Anyone want to speculate on the makeup of the chambers beyond A3?) I'm assuming that there's no possible chance of any aberration still surviving in any of those places, though some sort of undead Lamashtu-spawn could be fun. South of A4 and A5 is probably fairly straightforward. I don't know how many other people Xaliasa had manning the shrine, but if we assume that there were always two people on duty and that people were occasionally sick or took personal days then there should be six or seven people other than him at the very minimum. If they each had their own meditation chamber then they'd be further south. We can see the remains of three in A8, so it seems obvious there'd be at least one south of A5. For my purposes, I think I'll say that there were four on each side plus a larger meditation chamber at the south end of the hall (used by Xaliasa). This gives us three rooms for undead Lamashtans, plus whatever might have been in Xaliasa's room (and there must be something, given that he's not willing to use the room currently). Any undead are clearly not incorporeal, or they'd be long gone. North of A6 is a mystery to me. Maybe it stored critters/prisoners for sacrifice? I'd think that they'd be in one of the two prisons in the level above though (ie B6 or B9). Those cells are only Medium-sized, but given that anyone entering the lower level did so via a five-foot-wide spiral staircase it seems unlikely that many Large (or bigger) sacrifices were made there. Presumably the passage north of A10 connected to the passage north of A6, since there doesn't seem any other way to get there. A9 was once a robing chamber for priests preparing for rituals, and A10 was once a guard chamber. This seems like an odd layout given how difficult it would be to walk from A9 all the way north off the map, then east, then south to get to the sanctuary. This implies to me that there was a purpose in the journey. Maybe there were monsters kept along the way that the priests would interact with in some sort of ritualistic basis? That's what I've got so far. Any thoughts on this? Any chance I'll luck out and someone has already mapped out the original complex?
Have any of you done any development on Venderlash? It's the village of outcasts in the Land of Black Blood "where a small community of derro work alchemical wonders with rare minerals and arcane reagents." In addition to the derro we know that residents include at least duergar, mongrelmen, and dark folk. We know it's a rather poor community, financially speaking, but I'm thinking that at the very least there would be a pub. (I'm not sure what that pub would be like, but it probably deserves some attention.) There'd be a volunteer fire department and probably a mayor (which would be a part-time job filled by one of the farmers). I'm picturing this place as having fewer than a thousand people. What else is going to be there? What's going on with the alchemists?
The PCs are crewmen aboard a Federation starship at the time of the original Star Trek TV series. They comprise a security squad, in fact. Every session they get an assignment that's almost impossible, and the goal is to not die. If even one crewman survives ten away missions then the whole group "wins" the campaign. If one of the PCs is taken out of the action, the squad's boss (a grumpy petty officer) beams down and takes over (so that the player has something to do). The starship gets lots of exciting assignments, but the squad usually only hears about them. They're not playing the bridge crew; they're the grunts. I may give them opportunities to interact with events aboard ship, but the win condition depends solely on away missions. This will be a GURPS 4e campaign, and the PCs will built on 25 points. I'm still in the initial planning stages, but I hope to start up the campaign when my current group of secret agent elves finishes Second Darkness. I want it to feel a little bit like Paranoia, in that they care about living to the end of the session more than they care about actually doing well at their assignments. Their missions are not fair, and the players will know that this is the premise of the campaign before they sign up. First draft of ten away missions:
1. Two teams beam down to a strange new world and there are two areas to survey. Team A (I'm thinking the captain, the first officer, the chief medical officer, and the navigator) goes to the section to the West and Team B (the PCs) goes to the section to the East. Team A finds wine, women, and song. Team B finds violent insurgents who offer to let them live if they betray Starfleet.
2. A derelict starship floats through space without any power. The PCs are sent over to find out what went wrong. It turns out that the ship belonged to the Orion Syndicate, and is full of traps. The PCs are ordered to retrieve the computer core, which is under very tight security. 3. The PCs beam down to a planet full of hostile monsters and are told to enter a cave system and retrieve the Federation monitoring equipment stored there. 4. At a resort planet just before shore leave, klingons attack and accuse Starfleet of having a hidden military outpost beneath the resort. The klingons send an away team down to expose it, and the PCs are sent to stop them. 5. The PCs fly a shuttlecraft full of supplies to an asteroid outpost while their starship visits another planet in the same system. They are attacked by pirates who want the shuttlecraft for themselves. 6. The bridge crew beams down to a planet and promptly gets taken hostage. Their captors are demanding anti-matter in exchange for releasing them. The PCs are sent to retrieve them. 7. While visiting a primitive planet, the bridge crew comes down with a terrible disease that will kill them very soon. The PCs are ordered to accompany the medical team to the planet and make sure that they succeed at curing the bridge crew. 8. A transporter malfunction on a prison planet puts the PCs in the bodies of prisoners and the minds of the prioners into their bodies. They are still behind bars when they see themselves beam back up to the ship, which then leaves. 9. The ship is transporting a Federation ambassador to another world. Before the ambassador beams down, the PCs scout ahead to make sure that everything is all clear. Things are not all clear. A bomb goes off and people are shooting. The PCs are told to sort things out and report back when the ambassador can beam down. 10. The starship is trapped in a nebula, and the PCs need to take a shuttlecraft out to figure out why this is the case. While they're out there, the starship shimmers and vanishes. Any thoughts?
Can we arrange to pick up our mid-June subscriptions at PaizoCon rather than having them shipped? It would save us a lot of money (particularly us international customers), plus we'd have the items earlier. Would this be too much extra work for Paizo, or is it possible?
Marita had decided to settle down. When she'd visited Varisia she'd been captured by stone giants and imprisoned in a place called Jorgenfist. After some odd giantkin goblins rescued her she headed to Korvosa and enjoyed the company at a host club. Eventually though she remembered Taldoran civilization, and headed home. She invited her rescuers and some of the hosts from the host club to her wedding. The guests converged in Cassomir and then went up a canal toward Dalaston until they had to go overland. Fellow prisoners from Jorgenfist: Gavin Deverin
Rescuers (all Birdcrunchers): Leader Shakkk
Hosts (and Hostess) from Korvosa: Hethibarb Arkona
As they approached the city they saw a lot of smoke overtop. Shakkk and Rotfen charged the gate and muscled it open. They saw a young woman with a scythe flanked by two dwarfs and standing over a corpse. Rotfen recognized that the woman was undead, and said so. The woman started to speak to the group, but Rotfen and Shakkk charged her. Once she and one of the dwarfs were dead, the other dwarf surrendered. He told the group much about what had been happening, and led them to the Day's End Inn. After they finished with him he tried to leave, but Rotfen felled him with a well-thrown rock. The Day's End was not the well-stocked pub that the adventurers had hoped to see, but they made the best of it. Vorvashali offered to make herbal tea for everyone, and Kezug made a great deal of beer out of water. When Rotfen heard that Hethibarb and Serai were engaged he said that he would marry them then and there. He got them both rather drunk, then performed the wedding ceremony. Meanwhile Svokui was using magic to scout out Dalaston. He managed to see a dwarf skulking about, and dimension-doored out to speak with him. He learned that the dwarf's name was Gath Morjan, and he was seeking his son. Svokui told Gath to meet them at the Day's End early the next morning. The group had an extended conversation and decided to storm the temple, which Svokui had determined was where "volunteers" to join the count's defenders were taken. Information on the temple was difficult to obtain. It turned out that this was because magic had been used to make it that way, so Rotfen and Shakkk stormed their way in. They saw some bloody double doors and opened them, only to end up fighting an undead swarm. This was a tough fight, and many of them were hurt. They'd identified a trap on the floor of the next room, and Hethibarb attempted to disarm it. Unfortunately he set it off in the process, and it killed him. Serai pulled a scroll out of her backpack, and Hethibarb brushed himself off and shook his head. PCs: Sir Hethibarb Arkona (aristocrat 3/rogue 8/fighter 1)
Have any of you tried the drow maps from 0one? Do they mesh well with Zirnakaynin?
We're starting Endless Night soon, and I still don't have all the noble houses straight in my head. How much have other people referenced them? Anyone made a cheat sheet? A) What did you put on it? B) May I please have a copy? Failing that, what are the types of points I need to remember about the different families? What did your players actually do in Zirnakaynin?
A lot of drow carry hand crossbows. What are they made of? If wood, where is it grown? What about other weapons that are traditionally made of wood, or even the hafts of things like axes?
I'm probably starting up an In Nomine campaign this summer, and since I've enjoyed having journals of my adventure paths I thought I'd keep one for that campaign too. Where's a good spot for journals for other RPGs?
Obviously we're not required to enforce the rules as written, but let's assume that we want to. :) We know that Arlindil "liaises between the Winter Council and Golarion's elven druids . . ." (A Memory of Darkness, p. 24), so clearly the two secret societies are prepared for some give and take. Presumably Arlindil had some operatives answering to him who were also members of this society. There's nothing saying that drow can't be druids, so that's likely an example of preying on each other (as described above). I don't know if this is a situation where Winter Council druids or drow druids could be forced into helping each other (or even sparing each other), but it seems worth pondering. Is this also a way that the Winter Council might have employed non-elf operatives in the past? If some WC druids are working to foil a drow plot and some non-elf druids are nearby and of lower rank, they seem obvious recruits. As a secret society, druids must be used to keeping secrets. I'm not really sure where I'm going with this, but it's amusing me to turn it over in my brain.
My players are trying to outwit the adventure path, and I've promised to "allow" this and run the adventure path exactly as written, taking their actions and coming up with the logical conclusions. It's their hope that they will have a much more survivable game as a result. So: they're recruiting people in Kakishon to go through the Earth Seed (activated using their ruby tuning fork) to go through and take care of whatever security has been placed around the Scroll back on the material plane (or so they believe). First, most of the group won't go through, since the gate doesn't work for Kakishon natives. I think it will primary (or possibly entirely) be the NPCs they brought with them. Second, the process will destroy the scroll and forever prevent that method of travel to and from Kakishon. I've recruited a second set of players who will play out what the NPCs do in Bayt al-Bazan, but the regular PCs will likely never interact with it. According to the AP, the destruction of the scroll settles the demi-plane into the deep ethereal (assuming that the protean threat isn't realized). Since Kakishon's proteans all have ethereal jaunt as a spell-like ability I'm assuming that they'd immediately escape. After some time in the Maelstrom they might eventually come back and cause problems, but that's probably not an immediate issue. Any genie who wanted to leave could then do so, via plane shift, but couldn't easily get back that way. I'm guessing that this won't be used much, since most of the genies who wanted to leave will have already done so. A bigger question concerns who's likely to arrive in Kakishon. For example, I suspect that the Sunset Ship will sail into port once every seven years, adding this destination to its itinerary. Various dream creatures and possibly night hags might wander in. Wakeless clergy of Desna will eventually find the place. I'm guessing that for the PCs it's going to be a matter of gaining experience until one of them can cast plane shift and then escaping, but in the meantime I want to show that Kakishon itself is changing in a permanent and significant way. Has anyone else done anything with its arrival in the deep ethereal?
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