My PCs investigated the misgivings thoroughly. Going through each room as they searched for their quarry. Much to my (and more importantly their) enjoyment. It was a lot of fun getting them caught up in the events that happened in some of the rooms. Needless to say they had some real bad luck on some of them. Luckily none have been added to the obituary just yet. But they've taken a lot of punishment and they were actually thinking about leaving and resting before going into the basement area (They checked the first and second floor, and most of the attic.) Battered and weakened they were about to leave when they noticed the dangers waiting outside, they quickly decided that was a bad option in their case. They decided then to hunker down in a room that 'wasn't dangerous' and nothing suspicious happened in them when they investigated.
Needless to say I wonder what I should do with them since they were pretty adamant about getting some rest to recover some and get spells back. Any suggestions?
I never thought they'd try sleeping a good 8-10 hours in this place but I guess they are desperate. :)
Creative Director
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Sleeping in Foxglove Manor should make for some harrowing nightmares! In fact, check the paragraph that starts at the bottom of page 24 for guidelines on what happens to PCs who sleep in the manor.
The short version: they have terrifying dreams and when waking must make a DC 15 Will save to avoid 1d4 Wisdom damage and being fatigued.
I must have passed over that figuring that it wouldn't come up. PCs really do have a way of mucking things up!
Thanks for pointing that out. I'll have to detail those nightmares some, I like the detail put into each of the events that occur. They seem to be enjoying it, although also frightened for their lives.....they just want more. XD
I'm just short of reading up to that chapter in The Skin Saw Murders, but I imagine your scenario (or any such taking place there, in general) might be a good place to incorporate additional ideas from the article "Not for the Living" in Dragon 336--written by one James Jacobs. Lots of ideas of rules and flavor for haunted dwellings!
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I'm just short of reading up to that chapter in The Skin Saw Murders, but I imagine your scenario (or any such taking place there, in general) might be a good place to incorporate additional ideas from the article "Not for the Living" in Dragon 336--written by one James Jacobs. Lots of ideas of rules and flavor for haunted dwellings!
The hauntings from "Not for the Living" would work perfectly in Foxglove; that article was in a lot of ways the first incarnation of the haunting stuff.
I'll have to see if I can find a copy of that. :3
Some of my players wanted to keep going when we played for about 7 hours! They just wanted more!
Of course work early the next day won over that. Paychecks are important to keep playing afterall.
Pathfinder#3 will be hard pressed to outdue this. But that's what I thought of Pathfinder#1 and its Goblin shenanigans.
I'll second the recommendation of that article from dragon . . . to me, it was the first time I took notice of the name James Jacobs. Oh how I'm sure he's hated my annoying comments since . . . ;)
I was checking casually the content of "The Skinsaw" and I have to admit that I'm eager to send my players in the Misgivings... What a freaky manor! :)
But, I have some difficulty understanding how to play the Haunts in the Manor... Not in the roleplaying sense, more in the game-mechanic sense. Can someone help me by giving me a "in-play" example about how to play them? It'd would be pretty helpful!
And on a side note, I've heard that Wizards was preparing a FOURTH edition of D&D (if THAT was really necessary :P)... How will it affect Pathfinder, if it affects it at all?
Thanks!
And on a side note, I've heard that Wizards was preparing a FOURTH edition of D&D (if THAT was really necessary :P)... How will it affect Pathfinder, if it affects it at all?
Thanks!
Why do I get this image of you as the fresh-faced private fresh out of basic getting sent to the front where you'll be greeted by a bunch of hardened, shell-shocked veterans?
I'm just kidding :) no bad feelings intended, just brought a smile to my face.
4th Edition D&D was announced at GenCon this year in August. Since then there has been lots of...discussion about 4th Edition, to put it diplomatically. Check
for a good overview of the 4th Edition. As far as Pazio is concerned, there is an impact, you can check out
for a MASSIVE thread on the topic on its impact on Pazio and the decisions facing the company.
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Creative Director
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The best analogy for a haunt is a trap. Treat them in play as traps, but traps that are evil and freaky and have a malevelont guiding intelligence behnd them.
Take the first trap, the Burning Manticore, as an example. The PCs may smell burnign hair the first time they pass through the room. The second time, the haunt manifests. Ask the PC who's haunted by burning to make a Spot check. If he fails the DC 20 check, the haunt manifests, makes its attack on him, and if he's hit he makes a Reflex save to avoid catching on fire. If he catches on fire, to his friends it looks like he just spontaneously combusts—he's the only one who can see the haunt, remember. Once the haunt's done its thing, that's it. It's done for a day; it can't be triggered again for 24 hours.
If the haunted PC makes that DC 20 Spot check, have him roll Initiative. Describe to him the image of the manticore lurching to life, its face shifting and its fur igniting, but don't have the haunt do its thing until initiative count 10. If the PC alerts his friends that something's going on, they get to roll Initiative checks as well. Anyone who goes before 10 gets to do something about the haunt (but remember, only the haunted character can SEE what's going on). This includes attempts to turn undead, to run out of the room, to cast resist elements (fire) on the haunted character, and so on. At initiative count 10, the haunt triggers (unless its target is gone, in which case it fades away and can't activate again for 24 hours) and does its thing, then fades away.
I thought I understood the way the haunts work after my quick read through of "Skin Saw," but, James, your explanation/extended example makes things much, much clearer. Thanks!
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32
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The best analogy for a haunt is a trap. Treat them in play as traps, but traps that are evil and freaky and have a malevelont guiding intelligence behnd them.
Take the first trap, //snip// for space
Excellant example. Thanks!!! That helps even when i thought i understood what was going on/how it worked.
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The best analogy for a haunt is a trap. Treat them in play as traps, but traps that are evil and freaky and have a malevelont guiding intelligence behnd them.
Take the first trap, //snip// for space
Excellant example. Thanks!!! That helps even when i thought i understood what was going on/how it worked.
Indeed! And these haunts are an extremely cool addition to the game.
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I'm going to run The Skinsaw Murders soon and I have a question about the manor house. I like to plan ahead for worst case scenarios my PCs could come up with and one thing I thought is what happens if the PCs come to the manor house, check things out from the outside and they just decide to follow the example set by the ruined outbuilding, take some torches and set the whole thing on fire without ever stepping inside? Will it not break the module, since the clues to continue are inside the house?
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I'm going to run The Skinsaw Murders soon and I have a question about the manor house. I like to plan ahead for worst case scenarios my PCs could come up with and one thing I thought is what happens if the PCs come to the manor house, check things out from the outside and they just decide to follow the example set by the ruined outbuilding, take some torches and set the whole thing on fire without ever stepping inside? Will it not break the module, since the clues to continue are inside the house?Heh. the same thought jumped in my head as I read the Misgivings section. Gonna hafta find a workaround for that very possible circumstance.
The only thing I've come up with so far is that the second someone reaches for a torch, a lightning strikes through the clouds and there begins a downpour of massive proportions lasting for at least a week. :-)
The best analogy for a haunt is a trap. Treat them in play as traps, but traps that are evil and freaky and have a malevelont guiding intelligence behnd them.
Whoa... Thanks a lot! And I feel honored to receive a word of advice from Mr. Jacobs, none the less! :)
Why do I get this image of you as the fresh-faced private fresh out of basic getting sent to the front where you'll be greeted by a bunch of hardened, shell-shocked veterans?
I'm just kidding :) no bad feelings intended, just brought a smile to my face.
Well... I WAS a gaming veteran... 10 years ago! My (personal, professional, etc.) life took me away from table-top RPG for that long, so I'll no way take offense for your comparison, because I do feel exactly like a jaded private running on Juno Beach!
But, I thank you too for the links about 4th Edition, I'll check them as soon as I can. But I still retain the "gut-feeling" I had when I first heard about WotC going to publish 4th Edition... and that's "Why?" But, WotC looks to me like a company only concerned with making money rather than giving quality products to the fans... They did that with the Star Wars card game (which they "stole" form Decipher), I can't see why they couldn't do it with D&D... :P
Hopefully, there's companies like Paizo that, while they're willing to make money, they strive to please the gaming community by offering awesome products like Pathfinder and not mocking them. As I read up in this thread, "Wherever Paizo go, I will follow"! :)
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Creative Director
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I'm going to run The Skinsaw Murders soon and I have a question about the manor house. I like to plan ahead for worst case scenarios my PCs could come up with and one thing I thought is what happens if the PCs come to the manor house, check things out from the outside and they just decide to follow the example set by the ruined outbuilding, take some torches and set the whole thing on fire without ever stepping inside? Will it not break the module, since the clues to continue are inside the house?
You've got 2 choices, as far as I can tell.
1: Let the house burn. It burns to the ground, and the PCs get no backstory for the haunting. The caves below are unharmed, though, and the Skinsaw Murders continue. Hope the PCs find the other entrance to the caves; otherwise they'll have to dig it out. In any event, the PCs should receive no XP for anything in Foxglove Manor, and no XP for burning the house down. That doesn't solve the problem of Foxglove Manor any more than never going there in the first place, and in my game, I ABSOLUTELY would want PCs who pulled a move like this to feel like they messed up and did something wrong.
2: Let the house put out the fire. This is my favored choice, especially since folks have tried to burn the house before and Vorel has acted to prevent it. Keep in mind that Foxglove is more than just a place where undead creatures are. It's, in many ways, an undead creature itself. It'll try and survive if parts of it are significantly threatened. I'd say that if PCs try to burn it down before they've explored the house and before they've dealt with the haunting, attempts should fail. The first one might just be a smouldering patch that burns out. Each time the PCs try to burn it down again, I'd raise the peril. Second time, the fire might go out because a carrionstorm sacrifices itself to smother it. Third time, the house might manifest a haunt to put it out, using something like a pyrotechnics or quench spell that also manifests something scary and does a fear affect on the party. Fourth time, and I might have the house transform the fire into a specter made out of fire who does fire damage in addition to level draining. If the PCs survive that and they try a fifth time, maybe I'd throw an elder fire elemetnal ghost at them. The point is to get them to realize that burning the house is the wrong answer. You can even have the haunt manifest images of children in the house as it starts to burn; this works especially well if the PCs haven't explored the place at all. Let the fire start, let PCs see kids in the windows all scared and then have the kids (actually manifestations of the children who have died in the house, of course) race back into the depths of the house, and then have the PCs faced with the fun task of putting out a fire they started.
Sweet suggestion about the children banging on the windows James. Get the paranoid PCs to rush right back in. Not to mention that would only help with the haunted feel of the place. They'll start to think there really are children trapped in this place.
Consider your ideas/comments officially yoinked.
I'm going to run The Skinsaw Murders soon and I have a question about the manor house. I like to plan ahead for worst case scenarios my PCs could come up with and one thing I thought is what happens if the PCs come to the manor house, check things out from the outside and they just decide to follow the example set by the ruined outbuilding, take some torches and set the whole thing on fire without ever stepping inside? Will it not break the module, since the clues to continue are inside the house?
You know, i can see my current players doing something similar. (One campaign the burned down their employers house to get rid of a lycanthrope problem. This current campaign they burned down a giants hall while he wasn't there. Yeah, they've got a thing for fire.)
I love James Jacobs suggestions. I've a sneaky suspicion though if they do it, they'll wait till they've explored half of it, or till the end. So I'm not worried about them getting the story information. Still pretty great ideas though.
I think the feel, with the growing mold and everything will have to be very 'Silent Hill' when I run it. I am frothing to run this....must get PC together!
You've got 2 choices, as far as I can tell. (snip)
Thank you for the great ideas on how to handle this situation!