the Lorax's page

Cheers! . . . Teds Survival Guide Book 1

Ted, that document is really great, just outstanding.

All I can say is that I'm sorry for your loss.

Really sorry to hear that.

Thank you both for the kind words.

I really like this campaign as it turns a lot of expectations on its head, and makes each and every NPC a critical piece of your game.

For this campaign, I think that making the settlement at least SEEM alive is important.
In between every session I tried to use the "three things happen" guide, (kind of self explanatory).

But I shared out those duties - often assigning the task of what happened or who it happened to, to one of the players, such as:

"There's some celebration in the settlement - what is being celebrated?"
or
"Someone has had an religious epiphany and perhaps change of faith, who is it?"

Sometimes just as simple as "Someone in town approaches <different player's character> to talk, who is it?"
or alternately, "what does the person want?"

Just something small to not only create activity in the settlement, but to get the player's invested in the (very limited number) of NPCs in the settlement.

Global pandemics and other local issues really slowed down my progress in this campaign.

With my heavy modifications making the campaign not just Roanoke, but combined elements of John Carter, Lost (even more than already there), Stargate and Gilligan's Island.

I was very happy with the changes and adaptations I utilized, making a resource available with images available for every colonist along with brief bios and updated information.

I made my player's stretch by allowing them to incorporate story and social elements into the colony to make it a living place - to make the players care about the colony and their fellow colonists.

With decades of experience upon both sides of the gm screen, I was pretty proud of what I was doing with this campaign, I was stretching my skills and my player's - even if it was only for three players.

This forum is also a great resource for ideas and has helped me build my campaign and saved me a bunch of work. But now I'm not feeling the motivation to complete this campaign, and its a little sad that I won't get to see how it all plays out as the story progresses. But not as sad as I am about the reason why.

Earlier this month, one of those players died due to complications after surgery. A player who I've shared a table with regularly for over 30 years. He'll be missed.

Making the players respond to questions about themselves while on the spot really did work for my group - people were quickly getting into character and already being forced to answer some questions - perhaps even to themselves about their own characters.

If you have a chance to do any sort of interview process with your players I think it could be of value.

I also created some hand out Stock Certificates for their personal stock in the venture. A tangible item for them to hold on to so that they had some sense of ownership in the success of the mission. They went over pretty well too.

I've actually started running this - but this will only be very loosely a "Ruins of Azlant" campaign.

I'll still share what I've done in case it sparks any ideas.

I've set the stage, the players made their NPC classed characters - hereafter "colonist characters" and we role-played the selection process with the characters making assorted skill checks.

I went around the table asking questions that could be pertinent and included some questions based on Mars One guidelines. The players had no knowledge that they were going to the moon until the end of the session.

The "...to the moon..." bombshell was exciting, and the players began talking about what to do and plans for their real..."explorer characters".
For a group of long-time jaded players, this was a nice bit of excitement, and the players began revising their explorer character plans.

Role-playing out the interview process turned out better than I'd hoped even if I wasn't quite as prepared as I wanted to be. With all the players there, they quickly were able to get into their colonist characters and at least somewhat begin to form a persona. I also gave the players free reign to make "peanut gallery" comments when their own character was not being questioned. Heckling the active player.
Along with that, they were able to "introduce" their characters without any stilted typical beginning of campaign introductions or descriptions.

If you're thinking of starting this campaign, I thought it worked well for me and my players.

In the last AP I ran I made the occasional use of "cut scenes" - giving the players the chance to play through some of the events that happen off screen from their regular characters by playing some of the background NPCs for part of a session.

Show rather than tell.
It was very effective in communicating the story to the players.

The thought I have is to begin the campaign with that idea.

Here's the outline:

1 - Before actual character generation, have each player build a 15 point npc classed character.

2 - Have the players experience the selection process through to the final step of the first wave selection, but will ultimately NOT be selected as a first wave colonist.

3 - Have the players generate their own PC characters for the second wave selection after having experienced the selection process once on another character.

4 - The NPC classed characters will be part of the second wave and join the PCs on their mission as second wave colonists.

5- The NPC classed characters will be used on a recurring basis to show the players things that their actual characters are not their for.

Thoughts?

My reading between the lines of history seems to indicate a huge financial incentive behind the Roanoke colony, and its continued existence - I want to play a bit more with that idea and try to let at least some of that bleed through into the campaign. The idea that the colonists are being used for financial gain - that there are bigger movers and shakers that may not have their best interests at heart.

I also want to build Buy In from the players and a bit of character development in the direction of why they WANT to be colonist, and to let that be a guiding idea during character creation and initial development.

I really feel like I'm missing a few of the guards I've used, but only Keeler, Jacoby and Belor himself received any development beyond their initial stat blocks.

Jacoby started as an expert 1 and a new recruit - as two of the PCs spent time at the Turandarok Academy, and were notable as pranksters and trouble makers, he was intended to be a bit of both a foil and ally, that plotline never developed.

Keeler was the guard that the PCs always wanted to talk to, so he ended up with a bit of a story and a few minutes in the spotlight - and thus his level of expert gained at level 3 along with the realization that he is NOT an adventurer and he may want anther way to make a living. Privately Ethram Valdemar has suggested he may be the next sheriff.

Belor gets plenty of action, and his depression takes a back seat to the clean-up duties he takes part in (first goblins, then ghouls, then the odd ogre issue). As the PCs move out of the area during Hook Mountain, tensions in town begin ramping up Titus begins trying to take over the glassworks, and opposes a new town run grain mills construction. The Sczarni and the other families work against them, and Belor struggles with the moral issue of allowing the Sczarni to be a thorn to the Scarnetti. But when he saves some townsfolk and guards during Stones over Sandpoint he makes a turning point and realizes that some things he is capable of and others are outside his control, he begins to come to terms with his relation with Stoot (and his brother) and moves more directly against the Sczarni. He moves from 4th to 8th across that time.

ooof, had a LONG post ready here, and then lost it, very painful.

Well, this most of it all over again, a bit abreviated.

Info I had used for the town guards and Belor.

Benk Griffon – Town Guard

Wallace Fard – Town Guard

Keeler Gaar – Town Guard

Pol – Town Guard

"Chert" (actually Devon Chertom) – Town Guard

Barto Markovi - Town Guard

Jacoby Trume - Town Guard

Belor Hemlock – Sheriff

Love this idea - though I think the concept would work better if it was structured by power groups rather than individuals.

I've got plenty of stuff for the town guards, but only a little on Belor himself.

During Stones over Sandpoint, I allowed the players to participate in mini scenes across town (I ran it a bit differently, than presented, giving the players no real forewarning of the attack)with each player getting to run some of the NPCs of the town, each player getting to run the closest think to the mentor type of their actual character, and answer a couple of questions about the character and their motives.

For me, Belor is in a bit over his head - he got his job with the support of the Scarnetti family, who want to use the town guards as their own personal anti-Sczarni task force. The Scarnetti also wanted someone who owes them something in charge of the guards in the wake of the Avertin/Deverin alliance of the previous years. Belor is a decent guard and a man of his word and is out of his depths in dealing with the political aims of the Scarnetti. The secret that truly haunts him however is that Chopper is actually his great uncle, and he maintains his tight control over himself because he is secretly afraid that he may have the same evil inside.

I'd be reluctant to keep playing keep away with Karzoug/Karzoug's Soul.

I can easily see players getting annoyed at repeatedly yanking the rug out from under them - "HA HA, Karzoug's soul is free, you gotta go track it down, uh oh, not this time, you gotta go trade for it with a demon, whoops a powerful Daemon got it now..."

Monkey in the Middle isn't fun.

If its just a number goal to reach, I'd be inclined to add more to all of Spires, then just do the first part of what you have planned (I'm not familiar with the Witchwar Legacy), capping off with a Tuerny the Merciless style Karzoug (Glabrezu with lots of wizard levels...)

If its the 20(+) level experience that the players want, well I'd keep Karzoug's soul out of reach until the finale.

I didn't track sins and virtues, so when i got to SotS, I had to figure out what to do.

I had 7 players and, when they retrieved the keys, they decided to each hold a different key. I had the idea that when they entered Runeforge, the key they carried transformed into a smaller version of itself on a chain around their necks that they couldn't remove (and didn't take up an item slot).

I liked your idea, and went with a modified version.

I had been tracking sins, so I decided that any character could use any key...except for their two opposition keys - when they tried to the keys became so heavy that they were unable to use them, if anyone had tried to use the key for their sin, then they would have felt a charge as they used it, (and gotten some extra minor buffs, like Fox's cunning for the duration of the Runeforge, but they didn't find that solution). They fumbled through solving the puzzle, gathering enough NPC allies to fill out the 7. I didn't give them a necklace, but gave out the buff in the appropriate wing.

I also described to each player the urges that they were experiencing - urges appropriate for their key.

While I didnt give them any mechanical incentive to explore or resist the urges, most of the players went along with letting their sin key slightly affect their actions, I suppose if one of them really just asks to Give In/Exploit their connection to a sin I may have to think something up - maybe give them a bonus trait/trait-like feature.

<shrug> Any ideas?

I think people have covered the "why" pretty well - its a flavor feat to show "Skald's know runes - spells are made of mystic symbols...runes...so Skald's have Scribe Scroll."

However, read Egil's Saga.

Come back and try to explain why Egil is NOT 900AD's version of a gangster rapper.

Use the PFS variant for Scribe Scroll.

Laugh maniacally as you turn everyone in the party into a barbarian.

Really scribe scroll is a pretty awful feat for a skald - a flat +1 to UMD would be better.

Another possibility could be that the entire library is one giant intelligent magical artifact that can create the illusion of a human librarian at will within the walls of the library...

I like that too.

Robed humanoid figure with a gold mask fades into view - an odd metallic sounding voice comes from the figure.
"This is the emergency bibliographic assistant. Please state the nature of your bibliographic emergency."

=P

I went with Skeld's logic here - the ancients were wierd and had different stuff then modern people - and in the Runeforge, the lighting has been like flourescent lights - flickering to life as people come into the area, but I can understand not wanting clockwork stuff.

A golem as Skeld points out would work fine.

An undead (pick one that you like - maybe a Crypt Thing on a floating chair)

An outsider - maybe you put a celestial here who honestly WANTS to help the party out, even though its bound by rules.

Something new - maybe a golem-like creature made of magic, behaves just like the clockwork version, you just painted it with a glowing pink and blue sparkles and made it composed of magical force.<shrug>

I don't think that the handful of corner cases that the difference would apply to make it an important distinction to make.

I'd just call it Keen with the expanded range regardless of the damage type the wielder wants to deal - the Keen enchant does not restrict its effect based upon the type of damage being delt, just as to which weapons can have the enchant put on at all.

Fey?

They're in yer base, killin' yer dudes, what else?

That's totally what I was thinking (about Katrine).

She's business minded and somewhat ruthless - she's really using a relationship with Banny to get things out of the lumber mill at discounts.

Shamus' fight with Banny is all about Shamus thinking that Banny is taking advantage of his sister.

(also getting to introduce Banny before he shows up as a corpse is a good thing, especially if you show him as capable and rugged, making his death all the more concerning. "Hey Banny was a bit of a tough guy - what the heck handled him so easy?")

Shamus the shopkeep...I'd go the route of making him a dreamer and a poet - I'll suited to the drudgery of day in day out sameness of being a shopkeeper, woefully unprepared to do things like make sure that he doesn't lock himself out of the store.

Instead of Shayless' "Hey, could you kill some rats in my basement *wink**wink*" it could be "Excuse me, this is embarrassing, but I seem to have locked myself out of my shop, I still have to do some cleaning and my father is due back this evening, could you help me get back in?" Add in a bucket of water "trap" left out under a window for a PC to slip and fall into. Make him as tactically sound of a combatant as a goblin - or just hapless. Perhaps he just ends up being lucky in a fight (he spooks a horse while trying to get a make shift weapon out of a wagon - the horse tramples some goblins in the street. Hes a good guy, just one you'd want no part of having on your team during an adventure.

Have Shamus get into a public fight with Banny Harker during the Swallowtail Festival, and then arrested for Banny Harker's murder later on.

I think it can work just fine.

As for the whole twins thing - as a shortcut I'd assign one a NG alignment, and the other a CN alignment and build their personalities off of that just so you can have a basis for giving them different personas.

I don't use 'em - as I run my long term home brew deities.

To me, deities need to have a redeeming quality to them - even the "evil" ones.

<warning the following contains gross simplification and generalization>
In real world pantheons there are many deities that were often termed as "evil", but many of them had important duties and followings, and their followers were not overly ostracized.

I think its important for deities to have a campaign/setting specific role beyond their purpose as a patron for a divine spellcaster in a roleplaying game, and I feel that many of the gods of the Golarion pantheon are oddly specific and wierd (I don't care for a bunch of 'em actually).

I think that some need to be split up, some need to be merged. I think I would be very careful about not providing gods specifically to fill the requirements for a race/class/alignment combination (oh you're a______? Well your god is _____.) The mythology needs to come first, the roles need to be filled second.

Interesting idea.

As for what language does the word count use - I would say that has to be the the language that the game is being played in.

I suppose if you wanted to make a rule of some sort, some way to mechanically adjudicate trying to fit more information into less words using linguistic tricks, off the top of my head, you could make a ruling that you can use a number of words equal to 20+(int. mod.)+ Ranks in Linguistics words, using the lowest numbers between the two characters for both, or just allow adding of words based upon Linguistics ranks.

I've seen many sending spells written out in advance, word counted and trimmed to convey the most info in the least amount of words - I've also seen the opposite happen - where some characters waste words to fulfill their on particular idiom. ("Hello Mister Smith, this is Bill Brown...and I wanted to let you know that is is very important that...[end transmition]")

the Lorax wrote:

Oh I know about Vraxeris - he also didn't have access to too many druids.

But if you're a wizard thinking of immortality and eyeballing that Clone spell in your spellbook, you can probably find a work around or two for becoming 'Stinky Bob - Troglodyte Wizard'.

Or if you're a machinist just keep killing yourself until you get a shape you can live with.

Pretty sure you meant 'Masochist', and you wouldn't even need to be that.

"Just kill me again and lets give it another go." is a perfectly rational response to becoming a Troglodyte, Bugbear on the other hand is nothing but WIN.

If you're looking a Clone in your book, you may well also have Wish a few pages further.

I thought I remembered a line of text somewhere saying that there were ways to influence the result (but then gave no specifics). Is that random bad data retained from an earlier edition?

Oh I know about Vraxeris - he also didn't have access to too many druids.

But if you're a wizard thinking of immortality and eyeballing that Clone spell in your spellbook, you can probably find a work around or two for becoming 'Stinky Bob - Troglodyte Wizard'.

If the filthy powergamers would shower with soap and washcloth, it would help...

HA! So it is!

I just assumed it was a link to the 3 Dragon Ante version, and as I already have a digital version of the original article I didn't bother to go look.

Now that I have ...GREAT JOB - your thought processes on how to start to go about doing it mirror those that have been in my head.
Breaking down all the numbers and such from the 3DA version proved to be a bit more insightful than I expected - I had always just assumed that there was an even distribution of effects. It looks like you resolved the number challenges well.

Have you thought about...I'll post that to your linked thread instead.

What I really need now is a set of cards that have the rules ON them so I dont need to refer to the article.

Maybe the published monsters would have a better chance of working if their agent would get them some actual paying gigs.

Looks like I arbitrarily decided that Deadly Aim works like Power Attack for purposes of giant boulders (1.5 x bonus damage) - seems fair.

I found my list on a back-up flashdrive. Looks like Hythlodeus beat me to it, but incase you want another take on them here's what I had.

I just bumped them all up a few stat points and didn't worry over much about the skill points unless they could be a combat related skill - and just eyeballed them and their gear really - I didn't expect to have to use them, I gave them a once over, but can't promise that everything is 100% - but I don't think the odd +1 to Climb is gonna make a difference.

I added another camp to the grounds - for assorted stragglers and singletons not part of any other tribe that has flocked to M's banner (ettins, trolls, straggling Kreeg...).
The last leader on the list is to watch over that camp.

Halvara is a bit of a beast if she gets going...

I did some rough versions after I did the outline for the variant builds for each clan - I didn't double check them for correctness - my players spent a good deal of time scouting the situation from range and came to the conclusion that a frontal attack was suicide.

I discontinued work on the project - but I should have them in my archives somewhere. I'll see what I can find, as they arn't in my main support files for some reason...

Aww man I came here looking for where to get the best Flan.

I've been calling them "Heptagram Amulets" to prevent those type of shenanigans.

The letter from Mokmurian to Barl must be one of those changes in the AE, as I don't see it in my version.

Which is the path I went along with, it helped that I wanted a break from running for the summer and allowing there to be a sort of natural IN Game campaign break felt pretty natural, when things start back up I intend to use some of the ideas in the section on Ruling Rannick, let the players get back into their characters.

In the original edition, there is the exact opposite of "implied urgency", there is explicit lack of urgency, and a direction to give the PCs some "time off".

I can see how such a letter would keep things moving along, but that's not the direction I went leading into my break for the summer.

Like Skeld said, for some of the maps I've just adjusted the scale. Others I just fudged to add an extra 5' here and there.

For some though (like the Graul house) I just left it as is, the tight, difficult to move around spaces left my party of flankers and spring attackers a bit out of their element, which is good every so often.

I added Shayliss to Aldren's scene during the attack on Sandpoint - allowing the person who was going to be Shayliss' target choose himself (ie whoever was most concerned about saving HER), then did the Aldren obsession triangle of Lust for Shayliss, Envy for lover. Slowly the pieces fell into place and the PCs figgered out most of what was going on.

I'm advocating not just killing her because there are good, not directly related to the AP plot threads that can play out, and Shayliss is an added link to the party being concerned about Sandpoint which IS important to the AP.

If you've already set the scene, too late for this advice, but you could always try this:

You hear feeble ragged breathing amidst the carnage of dead bodies scattered around the base of the hill. Slurred and mumbled words are drowned out but the cries of the carrion birds already beginning to feast.
Following the sounds you see two men leaning against a large rock, one of them is closing the eyelids of the second man. The first man sighs, looks up to you and speaks, "I am soon to follow my brother here, I am nothing, but he lost his life trying to save mine, please see to it that even if his grave be unmarked that he does not suffer the indignity of being crow food."

The still living, but dying guy can relate whatever story needs to be.
If the PCs use healing and save the guy, so be it, the original story teller is still dead.

I had a player who was being distracted "play" the guy who fell overboard (a local drunkard and gambler commoner 2, I forget the name that I used)

The horrible bite from the killer turtle scared the PCs enough to think better of doing anything in the water.

Love the idea of the party getting into a fight on a burning and sinking boat, you gotta do something where round by round there's more water. Players being able to see/feel the clock ticking is a good tension builder.

The neat part is you can make the PCs walk home, as all the boats will be being repaired from damage taken during the mini-flood.

Right now?

Jethro Tull - Aqualung

I had to consider how to rule on things like this myself.
In the end I decided to trust my guy about the reasons behind the PC actions.

In the situation you mention above, my first question is, Why does the player know the Lust tracker score?

As for how the points are tallied, I'd continue as you are - the PCs actions, even though GOOD, do make him more prone to Lust, which I think is the real point to the tracking.

His acceptance and continuance of a relationship with Shayliss make him suspect. Shayliss is entering into the relationship not due to Love or a belief in open and free sexuality, she seeks out a PC due to jealousy about the attention her sister is receiving. Shayliss is trying to use sex as a weapon to get back at her sister and attract the attention of her parents. A worshiper of Arshea should really have nothing to do with sex for that reason unless the character was going to lengths to educate her about Arshea - Shayliss' behavior in this regard, her reasons behind her actions should probably be abhorrent to a follower of Arshea.

I´m just preparing the Raid on Sandpoint. On p. 187(AE), it is stated that the giant split "along tribal lines". Starting on p. 200, the various tribes are named, with leaders and numbers of giants.

Now, did anyone think about which tribes the giants attacking Sandpoint belong to?

It's probably too late to be of any use to you, but I'd had the same thoughts, I was more thinking about it for all of the camps in the Valley of the Black Tower, and then worked back towards the battle at Sandpoint.

So I started with a brief description/idea, and used that to make minor changes to the stat blocks (spoiler tagged)

Black Fist Hill Giant Clan – The fists of these giants are stained with dark bitter roots. After the supplies came from Hook Mountain, these giants now wield crude spiked gauntlets, and are now eager to test out their new Kreeg-forged equipment.

Red Shield Ogre Clan – Using large morningstars and brown stained hide covered wooden shields that they drip the blood of their enemies upon. They now wear Kreeg-forged breastplates.

Nightshade – these stealthy Ogres like to use poisoned weapons and attack from hiding

The Maidens of Minderhal – This tribe of all female stone giants has a fearsome reputation. The Maidens use a point down triangle with an anvilans their clan symbol, burned into their left shoulder.

Jormunsir Clan –This tribe of stone giants wear a cord around their right bicep, bone disks dangle from this cord each engraved with a run representing a giantish virtue that inspires the individual and one with an oval crescent with a seven pointed star – this symbol of their clan

Valissgander Clan – This tribe of stone giants wear leather bracers tooled with the symbol of their clan - a triangle divided by several lines capped with a seven pointed star.

Crannoch Clan – Wearing fur cloaks and having Facial tattoos and dies to make their eyes sunken and display snarling fanged visage upon their face and mouth are the only identifiers of this clan.

Kavarvatti Clan - These giants wear a beaten copper medallion with their clan symbol tooled into the surface – a black circle surrounded by 7 small evenly spaced triangles.

As for which group was where during Stones over Sandpoint?
I'm thinking it should look something like this. If you want to add the Maidens - put them in at Looting Scarnetti Manor.

The Northgate Siege - Valissgander
Chaos at Tanner’s Bridge - Crannoch
Mill Pond - Kavarvatti
Beer or Death - Jormunsir
Looting Scarnetti Manor - Kavarvatti

Stuff I used at the beginning, lots of if re-themed and/or repopulated.
All of this wasn't used for 2nd level, but could easily be used for such, anyway stuff I used somewhere between the Swallowtail Festival and Thistletop:

The Firemaker - set the town out past Biston's Pond, traded hobgoblins for goblins.
Toadstool Goblins - a goblin encounter someone wrote up on the messageboards.
Master of the Fallen Fortress Requires a bit of work as I replaced most of the monsters with goblins, and put the keep on the edge of Devil's Platter. Also made the captive "Junior Grump", Farmer Grump's adult son.
We Be Goblins (I let the PCs meet Scribbleface who led them to the boat, totally playing up the fact that he was Vorka's ex-boyfriend trying to get his records back from her apartment. Let them beat up Vorka, then have the 1st level goblin party show up and announce "Now Vorka you die for killing too many Goblinz!")
Chopper's Isle - I replaced everything there with Haunts, but I didn't feel that I did a good job of it. It still played out good, I just wish I would have gotten more of Chopper's story out to the players. One of the players almost cried when they brought the stuffed dog back to Das Korvut.

I actually do change any name that doesn't feel comfortable to my mouth or was consistently causing typing spelling issues unless there is a specific reason to keep it.

"Jakardros" became "Jakardos", a fair amount of stuff like that.

Gonna be playing in a 1st level game for the first time in a while, and I intend on making or at least roughing out, 4(ish) different characters for my group and gonna let the DM pick one, then flesh it out.

I don't really expect this game to last to particularly high level - I doubt we'll hit much more than 10-12.

I do have an idea of what the other players are building:

1 - human bloodrager (I expect abyssal claw machine)
2 - human monk of the 4 winds
3 - human cleric (gonna assume that this will be a generic healer/buffer)

While I have a few thoughts of my own, as the title states - I'm just fishing for ideas.

I expect the bloodrager to be mechanically sound, but not high end optimized.
I expect the cleric will be able to cure and buff, not optimized at all.
I expect the monk to take up a 5' square, the player has a history of builds that only function when the stars are right.

Thanks in advance.

Sounds like its a good time for a cut scene!

Run the encounter with the players playing a group of 3rd level non-optimal build characters - heck, make them 10pt stat builds.
Make the ranger player play the Druid with the Hawk companion.

Let the ghouls tear up the 3rd level party. When they start to run into ghouls in Skinsaw, you have a built in fear of ghouls and a good red herring for the Skinsaw Man, just be prepared for your PC to head straight to the Paupers Graves.

And I swiped Story Archer's dwarves - but I put a Forked-tail Wyvern in, instead of Harpies.

My handout for the deed to the manor specifies that the river is to be...well lemme just go get the actual text.

"Vorel Foxglove and his heirs will maintain all property, land, harvest, water and mineral rights for the area demarked by the Whisperwood River, and all lands for 3 miles north of the river, and within 5 miles of the coast...Furthermore, the Whisperwood River will, henceforth be named the "Foxglove River" in perpetuity."

Which is how I ran it, seemed good to me, but I see that James just beat me to the punch and posted the actual official ruling - THANKS AS ALWAYS FOR PARTICIPATING IN THE FORUMS JAMES!

Absolutely, the Valdemar are somewhat helpless to do anything about it.

I've been playing Ethram as an old man who, despite being mostly bed-ridden with hacking, bloody coughing fits, knows everything that is going on around town. Enfeebled, but still sharp as a whip. It's time that my PC who has been trying to get in the good graces of the Valdemar to receive an invite to Valdemar Manor.

The Valdemar's situation makes them a good foil to Scarnetti activity.

My PCs have a mixed, but mostly antagonistic relationship with the Scarnetti, as there is some suspicion that the Scarnetti were behind their families lumber mill burning down and the death of their parents.
I really expect it to come to blows at some point - but I actually want to portray Titus as a pro-Sandpoint guy, one who is looking out for the town but you can't really trust much either - its a fine line.

Nice stuff everyone, Misroi, as always you have stuff for me to swipe!

In my NPCs You've added to the AP thread here, I have the major NPCs that I've added so far, including Titus' niece and nephew, and his fixer.

One of the challenges is that the Scarnetti seem to be alone in town.
The Deverin and Valdemar are clearly cautious and/or resentful of Scarnetti influence. With the death of Lonjiku, Titus making some sort of play for the Glassworks and trying to discredit Ameiko causes more problems with the Kaijitsu. The Sczarni are decidedly anti-Scarnetti.

That doesn't leave many people in Titus' corner.

Possibilities:
Aesrick Battlehorn - a rival to the shipyards/Valdemar
Father Zantus - an outsider perhaps he sees Titus' desire to improve Sandoint?
Ven Vinder - His daughters' rebellions are do to their overly strict upbringing, perhaps Ven supports the Scarnetti Family.
Any of the older history/knowledge based NPCs like Quink, Hadlan and Parooh - They approve of his conservative values.

My players are Sandpoint now, and I'm building up to HMM, I've dropped some hints about the Scarnetti hiring mercenaries to go around the farmlands to clear up the ghoul infestation, giving me some ground work for having the Scarnetti have a bunch of armed guys around.

Titus' nephew has been seen around town with an attractive woman (who happens to be Jubryl's sister - thanks fellow forum members again). Neither one is romantically interested in each other - only in trying to find out information about each others sides. For now they appear to be a couple, but actually do not like each other.

Sure.

The Scarnetti are a family with their finger in every pot, looking to take as much as they can.

They control the grain mills - controlling the Deverin's ability to process the bounty of their farmlands.

They control the lumber mills - controlling the Valdemar's access to ship and dock building supplies.

I've added a community called "Borsky's Landing" (which I read about someone else adding, and swiped, thanks whoever mentioned it) near Biston Pond, it....well from my player's guide...
"Borsky's Landing: A small community of six or so families, Borsky’s Landing is located along the Turandarok River between the Three Kings and Devil’s Platter. Borsky’s Landing once boasted the most impressive lumber mill in the area, with a water run saw blade crafted by giants. The Borsky's Landing lumber mill is now a charred husk, the once impressive blade now rusting at the bottom of the Turandarok ever since wild fires were rampant in the area during the Late Unpleasantness. Borsky’s Landing now serves primarily as a mining community run by the Scarnetti, supplying materials for the glassworks."

The below information leaves out A LOT of background info, and side NPCs, but it at least give an overview of what is going on.

Three of my PCs are brothers - Scarnetti distant relations who the Scarnetti look down upon, and would rather see their line come to an end.

The PCs family was amongs the "brothers and cousins" that Alamon Scarnetti launched his ill-fated asualt during the founding of the town. Alamon tried to pin the blame on the PCs family, a ploy that was only partially successful.

Titus would like to see their family line end so that he can promote the pro-Scarnetti version of the history. He and his family are taking the long view to all of this - he can see that the bloodlines of the other three families are failing - something he has been working to ensure does not happen to his own.

He really DOES want what is best for the town...but he also believes that him being in charge IS best for the town.

During the Late Unpleasentness, the PC's family ran a lumber mill - which burned down. The PCs, to varying degrees blame the Scarnettis for this.

SO the Scarnettis are set up as rivals to the party, but rivals who want to protect and see the power and influence of the town grow.

I have plans to try to carry out a Fist Full of Dollars like scenario using the Scarnetti and the Sczarni. I'm heading into a phase where the PCs may be involving themselves more in this plot line, so I'll see how it develops.

Does that help or were you hoping for something different?

OK, bad wizard, no bisket *spray with water bottle*.

IF the wizard is actually feeling bad about it, the wizard needs to do something and come clean. Putting an "E" on the wizards sheet kinda requires no remorse (although the rationalizing "I didnt expect to kill it" doesn't hold much water unless this is a new player).

Penalizing the Sorcerer in this case does seem a little unfair, some of the other challenges that are going to come from NOT having fey allies should be penalty enough.

On a bit of a contrarian note however, fey can be pretty capricious and cruel - even "good" ones. The fey could well understand someone being upset with being lied to and COULD POSSIBLY understand some over reaction followed by remorse - with the right approach and diplomacy skill checks some of the problems can be made to go away.

Or the fey could just become a bigger pain in the behind then the Kreegs ever could be.

Let the players talk themselves out of or deeper into the mess the wizard created.

The plan is to:

Send the PCs to Turtleback Ferry - let them see the Paradise and meet some of the Black Aarows, give them a couple side missions.

Let them go back to "Sandpoint" deal with issues there, including:
-Finishing up the Misgivings (they bought a scroll of Dispel Evil) to purge the hauntings.
-Lyrie has gone to try to catch up with them there (they have her MONEY)
-Maybe a Sandpoint Devil encounter
-Local political challenges (Glassworks, Scarnettis)
-Maybe some Goblin mop up action

Then move on to Hook Mountain, as scripted - possibly with Shelalu being the instigator instead of the Lord Mayor.

I've found a (passable) layout for a real riverboat that I've been tweeking just for my own purposes, but I dont really want to use a map for encounters on the Paradise.

I've been going the halfway point between Eels End and the post bythelesuit that you mention.

I've streamlined it to Three Boats, the Paradise, the Goldenhawk and the Twin Tigers (which is remade as a brothel).

The Paradise is where all of the Bar/restaurant/gambling/drug parlor action is.

I've been toning down the seediness, and working on write ups for all the major rooms.

I'm lucky that where I've put TBF in my homebrew actually IS along an overland trade route, so something like the Paradise doesn't stick out like a sore thumb - wealthy merchants needing a ferry and perhaps some entertainment fits in well.

I don't WANT the players getting too interested in Paradise during this visit - while the whole trip will take a while in game time, I'd like the whole thing to be one, MAYBE two sessions, then back to dealing with some other things for a few weeks before things draw them back to TBF.