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Way of the Wicked—Book #2: Call Forth Darkness (PFRPG) PDF

3.80/5 (based on 13 ratings)
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A DUNGEON OF YOUR OWN!

The Horn of Abaddon was once a place of primal darkness. And then the forces of good moved in and ruined everything. It’s been eighty years and the kingdom of Talingarde sleeps soundly knowing that darkness has been vanquished. Now, it’s your turn to prove them wrong.

You will find the lost temple and do what no one else has ever dared. You will call forth the banished daemon prince. And from his unholy hand, you will recover a plague so virulent that it shall shake Talingarde to its foundations.

And then the fools will sleep no longer.

Welcome to the second chapter of the “Way of the Wicked” adventure path! Inside you’ll find:

  • “Call Forth Darkness,” an adventure compatible with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game for 6th-level villains by Gary McBride
  • Full color art and maps by Michael Clarke
  • A gazetteer of the frontier town of Farholde
  • Optional rules for building your own evil organization and managing your minions.
  • Advice for crafting unique variants of this adventure path
  • And more!

You’ve raided countless dungeons. Isn’t it time you had a horrid little dungeon of your own?

A 106-page full color Pathfinder Roleplaying Game-compatible PDF perfect to either stand alone or continue the "Way of the Wicked" adventure path. Includes a printer friendly version and seperate player handout PDF.

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Are there errors or omissions in this product information? Got corrections? Let us know at store@paizo.com.

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3.80/5 (based on 13 ratings)

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Good idea, flawed execution.

1/5 —

I've written this review 3 times now and the site keeps crapping out, so pardon the brevity.

+ Interesting idea that's not done in Good campaigns
- Falls into the Kingmaker Problem of 1 encounter/day but worse: 1/week until the last 5 days
- Doesn't accommodate for that at all: encounters are frequently only APL+1 or APL+2, and that's before factoring in dungeon minions, traps, etc.
- Too early to be fun; bear traps (CR 1 per 12) weren't yet guaranteed to be spotted or disabled by rogues, and they couldn't be bypassed by spellcasters without them expending their high-level slots (this got worse over time, since my mesmerist slowly augmented them with nodes of blasting)
- Obvious NPC errors, like a sorceress who is missing 2 on her fire evocation DCs and sometimes includes herself/the fire-resistant barbarian in the blasts (only possible since her as-written incarnation is impotent as a blaster)
- Has the gall to ask if a APL+4 encounter is too much. If it were just a 4v4, that's a mathematically even fight. Factor in the fact it's a 1v4, they have minions, etc. and it's audacious.

-1 Star from my actual rating because of the whole 'fraud' thing.

Fraud

1/5 —

I would love to give this product a higher rating but it has been written by a fraudster, Gary McBride, who tricked 315 people into giving him $40,000 through Kickstarter and refused to communicate with them for 4 years now. Despite multiple appeals from backers he has backed over 520 other kickstarters since then, logging in every week though seemingly unable to respond to his backers products. Shame on Paizo for selling the products of a con man and allowing him to continue profiting from rpg fans.

For details of the swindle and Gary McBride’s backing record see https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/730004812/throne-of-night-a-pathfinder -rpg-adventure-path/comments

Written by a fraudster

1/5 —

I would love to give this product a higher rating but it has been written by a fraudster, Gary McBride, who tricked 315 people into giving him $40,000 through Kickstarter and refused to communicate with them for 4 years now. Despite multiple appeals from backers he has backed over 520 other kickstarters since then, logging in every week though seemingly unable to respond to his backers products. Shame on Paizo for selling the products of a con man and allowing him to continue profiting from rpg fans.

For details of the swindle and Gary McBride’s backing record see https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/730004812/throne-of-night-a-pathfinder -rpg-adventure-path/comments

I loved it - others may not

5/5 —

Taking over and then defending your own multi-level Dungeon of Doom? Heck yeah!

As with the entire Way of the Wicked campaign there are significant sandbox elements, so long as the players are willing to take the risks if they gallivant about overlong.

I would rate this at 9/10 for the minion subsystem. It wasn't my cup of tea. Others may get a great deal more gratification from it than I did. Since fractional ratings on the 1-5 scale are not possible, I round up to 5/5 since this remains an excellent defend-your-sandbox plus extra.

The upside is that the campaign encourages taking Vile Leadership. You'll likely need the fireball fodder ...

Call Forth Darkness Review

4/5 —

Warning: Potential Spoilers. Written from a GM's perspective. I ran this for 6 PCs.

Pros:
The concept of Call Forth Darkness is really great. Getting to own your own dungeon and having to defend it against invaders is not something that players usually get to do.

Both the ally and enemy NPCs continue to be fun and memorable. Grumblejack is still a party favorite. Tenuous alliances with Ezra Thrice-Damned and Zikomo had the players sleeping with one eye open. Opponents were fleshed out well enough to make for memorable encounters. The minion system also opened up a lot of possibilities for roleplaying as the party threatened those not making quotas and began to pick favorites.

Finally, while the pacing of this book starts out rather slow, it really hits its stride in the final act. The presence of the Abbey and the watchtower in the town, as well as the impending threat of the dragon created a great feeling on tension as the players waited for their enemies next moves. The Sons of Balentyne were a good surprise for the party and proved to be worthy adversaries. Finally, the summoning of Vetra Kali felt like an appropriately epic finale.

Cons:
The only real criticism I have is that the book felt like it dragged in some sections. It took my group about five months of weekly play to make it to the end of the book. By comparison, the first book only took about eight sessions to complete. Between the unchanging location and the long stretches without level ups, there were definitely some moments where the game felt a little stagnant. I found a good way to deal with this was to cut a few encounters that didn't add much to the overall story, like the Wytch Lights and the Gorgimera. However, the most important thing, I found, was to encourage players to be proactive and add flavor based on their actions. Otherwise, the game risks falling into a monotonous pattern of "Does anyone want to do anything this week? No. Okay. So it's new week, does anyone want to do anything now?"

General Advice:
The Horn of Abaddon has nearly a hundred rooms and your players are heavily encouraged to modify its already complex layout. Pretty much every encounter has to be reviewed and carefully adjusted, so that players are challenged, while still feeling like their defense choices are meaningful. I would highly recommend printing out the player's map of the Horn and letting your players mark it up. Make sure that you have organized notes on the changes they make.

There are also a lot of potential allied NPCs to manage, which can easily throw off the encounter balance or overshadow PCs if not utilized carefully. The book recommends that the GM print out stat blocks for allied NPCs and have players run. I strongly recommend following this suggestion. Not only did it make running combats far more manageable for me, it also helped the players feel more connected to the NPCs. However, most importantly, it made it easy for me to keep all the players at the table involved, even though sometimes their PC was in the wrong place and was stuck spending their rounds running to the fight.

Finally, Call Forth Darkness is not an easy book for a GM to run. The book offers players a lot of freedom, which is great, but makes it extremely likely that the GM will have to create extra content for plans that the book didn't anticipate. An inexperienced GM might want to approach this one cautiously and any GM just looking for something quick and easy to run, should probably avoid this book entirely. However, when managed correctly, all these challenges can lead to an incredibly fun and unique gaming experience.

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What book would be more appropriate to be my 666th review here on Paizo?

Reviewed here, on DTRPG, posted about it on Lou Agresta's RPGaggression and sent it to GMS magazine.

Respect and reverence - this one was simply awesome!

EZ,

Wow. Really. I don't know what else to say. I am so glad you enjoyed "Call Forth Darkness" and humbled by all the nice things you had to say about it. Oh, and yes, we can get you a map of Farholde without numbers on it.

Thanks for taking the time to review my book.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to run off and try and convince the entire internet to read your review.

Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games
Dark Archive
Endzeitgeist wrote:

What book would be more appropriate to be my 666th review here on Paizo?

Reviewed here, on DTRPG, posted about it on Lou Agresta's RPGaggression and sent it to GMS magazine.

Respect and reverence - this one was simply awesome!

EZ, if this was so good it can't be bested, brace for impact when Tears of the Blessed comes knocking at your door.

It's all kinds of awesome.
Golem 101 wrote:

EZ, if this was so good it can't be bested, brace for impact when Tears of the Blessed comes knocking at your door.

It's all kinds of awesome.

As soon as the print copy is at my door, I'll gibber with glee. And I think it can be bested - there are some typos and a key-less map as well as a printer-friendly version would be nice. What made me enjoy this one so much was the fact that it does something NEW. I read so many adventures, it's hard to get excited anymore and this did the trick. I really hope "Tears of the Blessed" can stand up to it!

Fire Mountain Games wrote:
Wow. Really. I don't know what else to say. I am so glad you enjoyed "Call Forth Darkness" and humbled by all the nice things you had to say about it. Oh, and yes, we can get you a map of Farholde without numbers on it.

No pressure, though. ;) I'd really appreciate a key-less map - numbers, secret doors etc. detract from player-immersion and I try to avoid them as much as possible.

Fire Mountain Games wrote:
Thanks for taking the time to review my book.

Thank you for being as innovative as you've been with this one. I wasn't kidding when I wrote that this module brought so much joy to me.

Fire Mountain Games wrote:
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to run off and try and convince the entire internet to read your review.

I already posted it where I usually do - feel free to link etc. to it. :)

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Luca,

Thanks for the kind words and thanks for continuing to support our books.

Today, I statted up Chargammon the Black. My advice ... when you meet him, be polite.

Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games
Grand Lodge
Fire Mountain Games wrote:

Luca,

Thanks for the kind words and thanks for continuing to support our books.

Today, I statted up Chargammon the Black. My advice ... when you meet him, be polite.

Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games

So basically don't have Grumblejack or the barbarian be the diplomacers with this guy. Gotcha.

I would recommend against Grumblejack being your parties "face", yes.

But then, you already knew that didn't you?

Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games
Grand Lodge
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Fire Mountain Games wrote:

I would recommend against Grumblejack being your parties "face", yes.

But then, you already knew that didn't you?

Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games

Considering there was the potential of never getting him, or him never joining your party, yes. However, considering what PCs I have in my group, Grumblejack might actually qualify. He does have a 10 Int afterall.

Grand Lodge

Don't know if this was brought up yet and already hit the errata (in which case I need to download a newer version) but it's about Grumblejack's option scenario.

spoiler:

DEFENSE
AC 24, touch 9, flat-footed 24 (+9 armor, +6 natural, –1 size)
hp 48 (4d8+d10+25)

Should be 4d8+1d10+20+5+1
Or did you give him a favored class bonus in skill points?

Also, why are his combat stats automatically with Power Attack? I actually prefer to add it in later. Since he's 5 HD, I'm guessing it's -2 for +4 damage?

Finally, if he's using his greatsword, can't he also still use his bite for -5 attack?
Grand Lodge

With regards to Erik the Evoker, I don't see his hawk familiar's stats.

Kevin,

Oops. I missed your two last posts from last week.

First, thanks for the errata. Just use the normal hawk familiar stats.

Second, for creatures whose power attack is clearly their optimal choice, we tend to figure the power attack as their primary attack. Of course, you can always take away the modifiers. I don't remember Grumblejack's hit point totals off the top of my head, but I've noted your errata and will add it to the queue for the big errata update that's coming later this month.

And thanks for supporting "Way of the Wicked"!

Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games
Grand Lodge
Fire Mountain Games wrote:

Kevin,

Oops. I missed your two last posts from last week.

First, thanks for the errata. Just use the normal hawk familiar stats.

Second, for creatures whose power attack is clearly their optimal choice, we tend to figure the power attack as their primary attack. Of course, you can always take away the modifiers. I don't remember Grumblejack's hit point totals off the top of my head, but I've noted your errata and will add it to the queue for the big errata update that's coming later this month.

And thanks for supporting "Way of the Wicked"!

Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games

No problem. Loving the campaign, and am really hyped to run this at the convention on the 1st.

As for the hawk, I won't be able to just use the normal stats. If the hawk is a familiar, then it's the standard build plus natural armor bonus, higher Int (meaning possibly more skill ranks), and special abilities.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Pawns, Rulebook Subscriber

Greetings to the Book 2 forums. Finished book 1 just recently with my group, it was a resounding success. On to Call Forth the Darkness:

Spoiler:
The first session was mostly shopping and leveling up. They met with the Baron and successfully pleaded their case (probably helpd that the Baron's cousin is one of the PC's, a happy coincidence from when the PC's were first making their characters.), then it was off to find the Horn with map taken from the previous knots' room. Finding the Horn was a snap, and the managed to decieve their way past Jurak, claiming to be servants of Mitra sent to inspect the Horn and Seal for tampering. They also agreed to take care of the boggards.
Session two consisted of exploring the lower caves, managing to sneak around the boggard camp until finding Dagon's temple. Enlisting the aid of the oracle, they proceded to the boggard village, where the half-orc fighter challenged the boggard chieftan for leadership of the tribe. It was a brutal fight, and if not for the half-orc's feats and magic armor, he would not have made it. Securing the boggard village, the PC's set about thoroughly searching the caves, eventually finding the Horseman's Last Redoubt (and getting the items in it drug out by the witch's fiendish raven) and finding the spiral staircase. Ascending it (and ignoring helpful hints that there may be other ways up), they came face to face with Hexor and Vexor, and managed to talk their way past, ascending to the Sanctum. Which is where they faced off against the lightning elemental, which had them panicking a bit, but a lucky spell (Ear Piercing Scream) by the witch saved the day (ie - dazed the elemental). Will keep you posted on how the clearing and holding of the Horn goes.

John,

Another great update! Thanks once again for taking the time.

Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games

Mister McBride, I've just thought of this question. Now, in the Horn (and outside it to some extent), there are several encounters which can be settled by recruiting some monstrosity or tricking it. The suggestion you gave is that they should get the XP reward they would have gotten if they'd killed it if they recruit or outwit them.

If you later end up fighting these monsters

Spoiler:
like at the adventure's climax when everyone and their kid brother turns on you
, would you get the XP for beating them again, for killing them this time? It seems a bit like 'double dipping' to me, but I don't think the PCs should go through a nasty fight without getting some XP award if they win.
4 people marked this as a favorite.

Eric,

I agree the text of the adventure is not particularly clear about how to handle this. Here's how I would do this...

Spoiler:

Any creature you know is going to betray the PCs, award only half their XP when they are converted. Award the other half when the PCs defeat them. Any NPC who is converted and intends to remain loyal, the PCs get full XP. If the PCs ever attack that NPC, they get no XP. The battle was completely unnecessary and thus merits no reward.

You might want to keep this information concealed from the PCs so that they don't start to use this as meta-game information.

IF the PCs fight a particularly hard-fought battle and maybe they're a little short of XP (that you would otherwise have to make up with random encounters) then you might award full XP.

Honestly, for myself, the way I handle this is to award levels based on milestones instead of running XP totals.

They become level 2 when the PCs make it to the manor house (Book One)
They become level 3 when they complete Thorn's training
They become level 4 when they arrive safely in Aldencross
They become level 5 when they're about half way through infiltrating Balentyne (perhaps upon killing some major NPC)
They become level 6 when Balentyne burns
They become level 7 when they take control of the Horn (Book Two)
They become level 8 when they complete the second sacrifice (half way!)
They become level 9 when they complete the thirty one weeks
They become level 10 when they claim the daemon's gift
They become level 11 when they win the battle of Saintsbridge (Book Three)
They become level 12 when they extinguish the second fire
They become level 13 when Ara Mathra is slain and the third fire extinquished

It's a lot simpler to keep track of. But I realize this is unsatisfying for some.

Hope that helps,
Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games

Mister McBride, those all sound like very good ideas, and thanks for sharing them.
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Pawns, Rulebook Subscriber

The Horn is secure(ish)!

Spoiler:
Sending the witch's raven out for surveillance from the Sanctum balcony, they PC's finally noticed the staircases leading up either side of the Horn. Large amounts of exploration followed. The witch was quite excited to find the golem and is eager to bring it back online. The verdourous oozes nearly wiped the party (they missed indentifying them and walked into the room. I fogot about the sleep spores and we wound up rewinding the scene, particularly since things weren't going well for the PC's), but a reset occured in which the figher (who had been first through the door) slumped to the ground immediately upon entering. They have made the decision to leave the oozes and hole as is for the time being, considering the room to be of use as a trap and as a way to harvest some oozes for other locations. With Halthus the Flayer in tow, the PC's stand ready to begin the ritual. They have no idea about the fourth teleporter, which shold make things interesting.
Grand Lodge

Thanks for the insight Gary. I was using a different method (bonus goal accomplishing XP) for each point that you brought up. This was mostly because my PCs took a couple of level adjustments to make themselves a bit better than the average PC and I didn't want them to be too far behind what the modules actually wanted them to be. I made to make note of what was written though. It'll make giving the XP away easier if I know the precise moment they should get it.

John,

Spoiler:

I love the using the oozes not just as a foe but as part of the security system of the Horn. Go PCs!

Tell me, have they figured out Halthus' ahem...role in the ritual yet?

Anyways, keep up the reports. Sounds awesome!

Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Pawns, Rulebook Subscriber

Gary,

Spoiler:
They have figured out what role Halthus should play in the ritual, but have elected to try to find a descendant in town, as they like the idea of having a professional torturer on staff.

John,

Spoiler:

Very cool. Halthus the Flayer sounds like a natural candidate for a cohort in your campaign.

Anyways, as always, I appreciate all the updates.

Game on!

Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games

So we're revving up to begin Book 2. Stupid real life looks like it's delaying us until mid-June. Boo!

Thank you for making the Evil Organization mechanics section player-friendly! At least two of my party love pouring over and tweaking rule sets. This will make them really happy! Now to figure out how to edit the PDF and remove the GM-only paragraph.

Also: Hurray more Grumblejack! My party adores him. He was their first minion, after all. What's that phrase about never forgetting your first... ?
Oh right: You never forget your first Doctor.

Happy Spoiler:
And I can't wait until my alchemist gets his hands on that golem!

Lomky,

Glad you're enjoying "Way of the Wicked" and the evil organization mechanics.

Spoiler:
In my playtest group, I've got a mad-scientist alchemist, and the golem is sort of a gift to him.

And there will definitely be more Grumblejack. If you're going to be at PaizoCon be sure to check out MinionQuest. Grumblejack features prominently in that game.

Anyways, game on!

Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Pawns, Rulebook Subscriber

Gameplay update:

Spoiler:
So, the PC's weren't quite up to 7th level, but still had a couple of things to do. First, I gave them a week off to settle in a bit before starting the ritual (this worked out well since they wanted to keep Hadrus the Flayer around), as well as giving some opportunities for xp and exploring some of the other subplots of the module. Plus I have one particular PC who is a bit of a micromanager, so I let him micromanage for this week.
First order of business was to deal with Jurak the Elder, whom they had bamboozled on their first couple of encounters into believing they were servants of Mitra come to inspect the Seal. Using this lie to allow them to get close to Jurak, they quite literally burned Jurak to ash in about 3 rounds, counting the surprise round. Then it was back to Farholde gather some supplies and make contact with the Baron. During this time, they took great pains to keep their trip secret, except for the bit where the half-orc fighter and half-elf rogue stayed the night at a brothel on the bad part of town, where they bumped into Trik, who was surprised to see them there, as they were clearly not following through on their mission. Of course, later in the night, none of the PC's noticed any clues as to what activities Trik would have been up to at a brothel.
Returning back to the Horn, they came across the lillend and her consorts. The lillen was subdued during most of the fight (ear-splitting scream spell, again), which allowed the flame oracle and witch to blast away with lightning bolts and fire balls (those familiar with the stats on the lillend will have a good idea how effective that was). After 6 rounds of combat, the PC's managed to slay all of the consorts, with two still alive for questioning. The lillend managed to get away at the last second. And finally they started the ritual (they let the monk do it, since he braved the meditation chamber and is obsessed with killing people). They also collectively shat themselves when the Horn lit up, it was great. Looking forward to starting week one and the evil council!

John,

Another very cool update.

Spoiler:

And by the way the phrase "collectively shat themselves when the Horn lit up" gave me a good long diabolical laugh this morning.

Thanks for the updates and keep 'em coming!

Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Pawns, Rulebook Subscriber

Gary,

Spoiler:
It was pretty fun for me as well, given the great pains the group has gone to in order to keep themselves from being noticed. I do so enjoy seeing their well-thought out plans tumble to the ground with a well-placed flick of the finger.

Apropos of one thing from your report...

Spoiler:
Quote:
The lillend managed to get away at the last second.

boom - recurring enemy.

Gary provides for it in the module, and IMO quite rightly so. That should be one big difference playing the evil side -- good guys, being good, keep coming back and trying to foil your evil plans. And because they're good, they work together better than you do. The lillend should not only show up, but should get a shot at becoming a recurring PITA if the PCs don't go after her with extreme prejudice next time she shows.

cheers,

Doug M.

And remember one thing...

Spoiler:

Thanks to her working with the Prince of the Moon, this Calliaste Shanda is a shapechanger. She can take on an elven form and visit Farholde and find allies.

She really is a perfect recurring "good guy".

Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Pawns, Rulebook Subscriber

First, in reply to the other posts:

Spoiler:
I was pretty excited to have Calliaste make her escape, particularly after narrowly being defeated by the PC's. I fully intend to make use of her to harass the PC's, mostly to round out the numbers for some of the smaller adventuring parties, as I have six PC's, who like to go everywhere with their cohorts and skeletons.

And now a play update:

Spoiler:
So this week the PC's finally put together their council of evil, then spent a couple of hours debating which actions to take first, which really boiled down a great deal of wasted breath, as they failed most of the rolls for the actions they had taken, except for gathering information from Farholde. Not that the information was that useful as the three questions they asked were "Are there adventurers heading our way?" "How battle-capable are the nuns from the abbey?" and "Is there a descendant of the Victor in town?". Then we began the first week of prayers, they got Artephius up and running (which made the witch cackle with glee) and set about ambushing Hollack and his crew. It looked like a pretty close fight until (again), the witch's ear-splitting scream spell shut the priestess of Mitra down. Hollack was captured, as was Bianca, while the others were slaughtered in the fight. Sadly, due to the events regarding Bianca's capture, I have to shift the party's monk's alignment to NE, because it really isn't the kind of action that a LE character would do (and would be unlikely outside of CE). The player always struggled with playing LE, so this might be easier for him. And of course, I gave them the bright idea to use sleep deprivation and the meditation chamber to release former adventurers turned homicidal maniaces upon the town of Farholde.

John,

Another very cool play report! Thanks for posting, John.

Spoiler:

Artephius is online! That's great to hear. Hopefully, he'll get to rip apart at least one minion.

Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games
Silver Crusade

Thought I'd share my table-top groups exploits in book two. Just the highlights.

Spoiler:
First off was meeting Elise Zadaria. They didn't. As soon as they left the Barons, they managed to find the Inn that Aiden had rented and left town that night, intent on solving everything quickly and just putting her to shame. (this is where I did a mental evil pyramid).

So they managed to get in, and when they met with Zikomo, our inquisitor's first action, surprise round and everything, shoots him and crits. Zikomo's lying there, bleeding to death. It comes down to a misunderstanding, and we work it out that he's stabilized and revived, with a few diplomacy checks and whatnot. Plus the vision juice as part of the 'hallucination'.

Later on they meet Halthus. I gave him some good personality, focusing on the sadist aspect with a touch of masochist. They ended up torturing him abit, where I just had him give them pointers on how to do the job, including when they broke his legs and he explained how to do it better. They kinda don't want to kill him, but they don't trust him. Especially since they easily made the check to know he's kind of lying to them about being faithful.

Hexor and Vexor. O-M-G! Only three of our five party members were there (the other two had other obligations), so they were abit short. Our party was an Inquisitor, Anti-Paladin, and Bone Oracle. First off, the personality I gave them was based on the Looney Tunes Goofy Gophers, only a touch more sadistic. They loved every minute of it. I had them playing chess when they came in, and making the perception roll, worked into it how best to "Deal with the pawns climbing the stairs". So combat started, and it was one-sided from the beginning. The PCs failed their Knowledge (Planes) roll, had no idea what to do to hurt them. Then the Bone Oracle fails his save on Hold Monster, and the next two rounds as well (shouldn't dump stat wisdom, lol). In the end Hexor was down to half when they ran. To avoid a TPK, I added in to their personality a tad more sadism, the two Daemons letting them run because they wanted a rematch.

So they ended up going back to town, researching them, purchased a Resist Energy wand, and buffed for round 2. That fight was a tad more in their side of the ballpark. The best part was when the PCs told me they didnt' really want to kill them, they liked the two. I can't wait for them to come back, since now they actually have the control amulets.

Oh, the Verderous oozes. PCs get ready for a great combat. All five were there for it. Door's opened, party's ready, they lure the oozes to them. Sleep aura, four of the five PCs fail their saves. Door is immediately shut on that one.

Just a few highlights. Gotta say they love it! Awesome AP, can't wait to see more.

Xzaral,

Very cool. I love what you did with the daemons Hexor and Vexor in particular.

Thanks for the highlights and I'm glad you and your players are enjoying "Way of the Wicked"

Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Pawns, Rulebook Subscriber

Update

Spoiler:
Most of this week's session was taken up with deciding which actions to take during the week (our micromanager is back), so in terms of time not too much has passed. I did get to stump them with the moon dog sisters for a bit, particularly when Artephius also murdered a minion during the same evening that the moon dogs returned and killed more minions. They set up an ambush at the point the moon dogs had been invading, so of course I had the sisters come in the other way, guarded by Hexor and Vexor. Moon dogs got the jump on the demons, but the demons managed to resist being banished/dismissed, then blasted the moon dogs with their lightning attacks. I rolled poorly (actually, most of the evening was an exercise in how to roll below a 5, for everyone), so the moon dogs bailed after the first round. I fully intend to have the moon dogs return with the lillend and her new consorts sometime in the foreseeable future.

John,

Your updates continue to be excellent.

Spoiler:

Bethaniel, Darus Dandra and Calliaste all united, eh? That's a hell of a raiding party. Wow, are your villains in for some trouble. Be sure to keep us updated!

Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Pawns, Rulebook Subscriber

Another update

Spoiler:
This week the PC's attended the Baron's birthday, made some new contacts, and found a possible replacement for the Duke. I've red-herring-ed them a bit by stating that Lord Darian is single, so the PC's are thinking to try and set the Lord up to fall in love with someone they control. In the following week, they anticipate the arrival of Treya's group, splitting themselves to watch two of the entrances while the rest of the party watchs from the Seal room using the Eyes. It was a brutal fight, in which both rogues nearly bought the farm and the 1/2 orc nearly lost out to the ifrit. He was glad for the armor modification he has. In the end, the ifrit was torn apart and his entrails used as festive decorations by Hexor and Vexor, Tasker realized he wasn't going to be able to escape and switched sides. Palos was incinerated trying to fly away, and Traya herself was cleaved asunder by Grumblejack's greatsword. The oracle is sad that there isn't much left for him to raise as zombies.

Sorry if I missed this elsewhere... but will MinionQuest be available ( somehow/ in some format ) for those unable to attend the con??
1 person marked this as a favorite.

John,

Another cool update. And Grumblejack racks up a fairly impressive kill!

Grollub,

Once MinionQuest is finished and playtested (i.e. its been run at a con or two), yes, we will release it. Somehow. Someway.

It is going to be a humorous, one-session interlude you can run in Farholde while running "Way of the Wicked". Its includes a chance to gain your PCs' evil organization a minor boon.

More details will be provided as they become available.

Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games
Fire Mountain Games wrote:

John,

Another cool update. And Grumblejack racks up a fairly impressive kill!

Grollub,

Once MinionQuest is finished and playtested (i.e. its been run at a con or two), yes, we will release it. Somehow. Someway.

It is going to be a humorous, one-session interlude you can run in Farholde while running "Way of the Wicked". Its includes a chance to gain your PCs' evil organization a minor boon.

More details will be provided as they become available.

Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games

'

awesome... thank you sir... I'd hate to miss out on the fun ))
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Pawns, Rulebook Subscriber

Been a while since a play update!

Spoiler:
Not a whole lot accomplished in the last couple of weeks. The PC's did manage to capture One-Eye, it only nearly ate one of the PC's. One-Eye did lead the PC's on a merry chase through some elephant grass. But now he guards the caverns for them, so they are happy about that. The next week I squandered an opportunity to truly punish the PC's with Inquisitor Harkon. He managed to capture the blackblade magus without a fight and free 70% of their captives, but the magus got away (because I forgot to have them gag him), warned the others and Harkon gave chase. In the end, I had Harkon spend a heroic action point to take his own life rather than be captured and torotured and/or mind controlled (it's something I could only see an inquisitor doing), the PC's did manage to collect several Mitran sacrifices for use in the coming weeks. However, they did manage to lose the captives Harkon had freed as well as Thomas the Penitent. I have some ideas for repurcussions, but am always interested in the ideas of others.

John,

Another great update! Thomas the Penitent on the loose. Hah! Sounds like you have a recurrent "villain" in the making.

Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Pawns, Rulebook Subscriber

Spoiler:
Definite possibility, or I can use it to justify having, say, the Moon Dogs and the lillend have some very good intel when they perform their joint assault on the Horn (since they are also survived). I'm also pretty excited for our next session, as I just looked at the map and realized that two of the PC's(the ex-monk and knife master rogue) and two of their cohorts (Grumblejack and Tasker Twelve-Knives) are literally right next door to where the Ashen Nightmare manifests. It's going to be a bad night for the boys.
Dark Archive
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
John Malueg wrote:

Been a while since a play update!

** spoiler omitted **

Question

Spoiler:
who were the prisoners they allowed to escape?

John,

Wow. Thanks for keeping up with the updates.

Spoiler:

Joint lillend/moon dog strike. Ouch! I hope your PCs have created a truly deadly dungeon to greet them.

Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games

Little question, i'm looking for a dungeon managment system since my party want to run one, this seem interesting but i need all of the other book or just this one? (in order to have just the dungeon system)

Eleclipse,

"Call Forth Darkness" works fine as a stand alone adventure, however, there are references to Book One that you will not understand without the first book.

Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games

Thanks for the answer!

I'm not (yet) interested in the adventure, i'm actually running an evil campaign and i wanted the party to start running a dungeon and i'm looking for a system that could work "stand alone" so i was wondering if all the "dungeon system" was in this book or it evolved in the other with the increase of level of the AP

I was worried about also becouse my party is already 12 lvl

Eleclipse,

The minion management subsystem is designed for 1-20 level play. The design of the dungeon and the seven months of events are easily convertible to 12th level play by only buffing up the monsters and NPCs ("Call Forth Darkness" is a 6th-10th level adventure).

Regardless, thanks for your interest in "Way of the Wicked". If you have any other questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Pawns, Rulebook Subscriber
Kevin Mack wrote:
John Malueg wrote:

Been a while since a play update!

** spoiler omitted **

Question

** spoiler omitted **

Spoiler:
The prisoners were random country folk the villians had kidnapped every so often to keep Artephius the golem from randomly murdering one of their minions (or one of them). They had nearly gone through their original 8 they had captured and had just re-supplied, up to about 14. However, due to Harkon's interference, they are now down to 4.

John,

Spoiler:

That your PCs are kidnapping villagers to sate the bloodlust of their out-of-control murderous alchemical golem rather than trying to fix the automaton tells me your players have fully embraced their villainous role. They truly follow the Way of the Wicked.

It also almost made me spit tea out my nose.

Great stuff!

Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games
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