A DM's Familiar dataset is now available for Escape from Old Korvosa on the downloads page.
Parties who find out about the true nature of the Arkonas and are looking to prepare should check out the Second Darkness Player's Companion. Luthier's Rapier is a +1 holy rapier with a couple extra abilities, and it retails for five grand instead of eighteen.
Parties who find out about the true nature of the Arkonas and are looking to prepare should check out the Second Darkness Player's Companion. Luthier's Rapier is a +1 holy rapier with a couple extra abilities, and it retails for five grand instead of eighteen.
well, well, players participating in the AP should not really be reading this Thread in the first place, right ?
And then again, there are a lot of GMs who actually do _not_ subscribe to the "whatever precise stuff your characters want to buy is currently available at your local magical store"-syndrom, so actually buying it... SHOULD be difficult, at least by my book.
Korvosa doesn't even really have much of an "official" magical shop mentioned in either the city guide or the AP itself in the first place.
The Vivified Labyrinth
If Sivit is hanging out in her Throne room [room E20] and the labyrinth is in the positions as shown on page 48, how does she move anywhere else ? There doesn't seem to be any way to "move" the dungeon positions [no lever] in that section of the dungeon.
Any help?
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If Sivit is hanging out in her Throne room [room E20] and the labyrinth is in the positions as shown on page 48, how does she move anywhere else ? There doesn't seem to be any way to "move" the dungeon positions [no lever] in that section of the dungeon.
I modified the map slightly: the switch in area E14 is also accessible from E15, and I put another hidden switch in E17 as well.
There are still places that one can be trapped while in the labyrinth, but those were (to my point of view) the biggies.
Btw, Vimanda was killed last night. :( She was in area E12 and couldn't escape to E11 because the cleric stone shape'd the door. When she fled to area E16 (hoping to get to E5), a channel negative energy brought her down. Darn! If she had fled just one round earlier she would've been okay! >D
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1. Cressida says she got the note from Vencarlo that day. If a party has access to Dimension Door (which they should) they can get into Old Korvosa in a couple hours. At what point do the Red Mantis assassins start watching the place. If Cressida got the message in the morning and the party moves quick they could be at his house within an hour of being told. Will look odd that he is long gone when they reply so quick to his communication.
But the module doesn't say how she received the message.
It could have been a dead drop that she only checks once per day.
It could have been through a typical messenger service used around the city that, like UPS, has a variety of different delivery schedules and prices.
It could be it was delivered by someone whom Vencarlo told, "If you don't hear from me within 24 hours, please send this to the Citadel."
Lots of possibilities. Don't worry about the timing. :)
In fact, the R.M.s were probably watching his house as well as the school, but the school got torched first. When the others didn't see anyone coming and going from the house, they went in to investigate.
If Sivit is hanging out in her Throne room [room E20] and the labyrinth is in the positions as shown on page 48, how does she move anywhere else ? There doesn't seem to be any way to "move" the dungeon positions [no lever] in that section of the dungeon.I modified the map slightly: the switch in area E14 is also accessible from E15, and I put another hidden switch in E17 as well.
There are still places that one can be trapped while in the labyrinth, but those were (to my point of view) the biggies.
Btw, Vimanda was killed last night. :( She was in area E12 and couldn't escape to E11 because the cleric stone shape'd the door. When she fled to area E16 (hoping to get to E5), a channel negative energy brought her down. Darn! If she had fled just one round earlier she would've been okay! >D
Thanks.
Has there been any official clarification on this?
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This is probably a dumb question but here goes. With the Rakshasa is there Treasure already figured in to the Adventure? If not what about the two with class levels? The reason I ask is thus, in the description of Avidexu's Room it states that he "...carries the majority of his personal wealth..." Yet in the room descriotion where Avidexu is actually located he shows nothing extra leaving him with only the +1 Kukri. I am guessing tha Bahor and Vimanda's loot is figured into thye adventure.
Graywulfe
This is probably a dumb question but here goes. With the Rakshasa is there Treasure already figured in to the Adventure? If not what about the two with class levels? The reason I ask is thus, in the description of Avidexu's Room it states that he "...carries the majority of his personal wealth..." Yet in the room descriotion where Avidexu is actually located he shows nothing extra leaving him with only the +1 Kukri. I am guessing tha Bahor and Vimanda's loot is figured into thye adventure.
Graywulfe
Oh, believe me, there's enough wealth for 4-5 PC's in that adventure.
Long time listener, first time caller. I really love the show.
So I am running a group that has just moved into Old Korvosa. The rogue in the group took leadership and has started a gang and actually plans to start a gang war with the Ceruelan Society for control of the gangs in the city. I've looked around but don't see that this has been talked about much. The player has said when the groups goes to leave Korvoso he'll leave the character, effectively retiring him, but I am wondering what to do with the gang war he has started.
Has anyone else run into this and if so how did you handle it?
Thanks!
Long time listener, first time caller. I really love the show.
So I am running a group that has just moved into Old Korvosa. The rogue in the group took leadership and has started a gang and actually plans to start a gang war with the Ceruelan Society for control of the gangs in the city. I've looked around but don't see that this has been talked about much. The player has said when the groups goes to leave Korvoso he'll leave the character, effectively retiring him, but I am wondering what to do with the gang war he has started.
Has anyone else run into this and if so how did you handle it?
Thanks!
Have him effectively control that part of the city when the players come back to Korvosa. In effect, it doesn't change much about the rest of the AP and gives the player a sense of accomplishment for his retired character.
I am of course pre-supposing that the party will have taken care of the Arkonas and the Emperor at the point that they leave. If the Arkonas are still alive, things get mighty complicated for the Rogue.
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As my party is currently negotiating with the Emperor of Old Korvosa to see Salvator (and therefore about to have some nice matches of blood pig) it won't be long until they'll have to deal with the Arkonas and this is were my headaches start. I'm usually good in anticipating the moves of my groups but as of now I'm unsure if they will try to stealthily invade palace Arkona to find Vencarlo/Neolandus or march up to the front door asking bluntly for them. In the end it won't matter but mearly prolong the inevitable.
If they invade the palace they'll encounter the 4 Rakshasa guards and in slaying them witness their transformation back into their true form -> corrupting, dispicable, viciously evil outsiders. There's no way this WON'T come up in their little chat with Bahor/Glorio upstairs in his private quarters were he's supposed to idly sit around waiting for them to show up so he can present his vexing offer smiling through his beguiling 70s mustache. They will accuse him of having these fiends around strongly suspecting him to be one, too. [After all they're experienced players with some of them having played D&D for nearly 25 years)
Even if they parley with him and go down into the Vivified Labyrinth as tasked there's also no way they will only open the secret door to the labyrinth and so ignoring the big double doors at the bottom of the cave resulting in a skirmish with Avidexus and his little pets. If that's not a dead certain clue to what's going on in this noble house it'll be the encounter with Bahors/Glorios sister Vimanda. At the latest there they'll notice the Rakshasa infiltration amongst the Arkonas resulting again in a confrontation of the current landlord.
To bring my certainly unnecessarily long lead in to it's point: my players will confront Bahor/Glorio with the Rakshasa sightings in his house and will with 110% certainty suspect him to be one, too if not actively trying to unmask his doings therefore triggering his morale that clearly states "Bahor only stays behind to fight to the death if his enemies show that they know of his true nature—allowing anyone to escape his clutches with this knowledge is the thing he fears the most" (page 44).
This means all possible approaches to the Arkona problem will end inevitably in a fight with Bahor/Glorio and most certainly in a TPK as he's a nearly impossible to beat CR 15 encounter. At least for my 4 player, 15-points-point-buy group.
I'd sure appreciate any help, suggestions and/or tips here. Sir Pett? ;-)
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One of the things that you need to remind your characters is, what in their background allows them to know about rakshasha and their abilities or mannerisms?. The problem with experienced players is they will often times prepare for possible encounters without having a prior reason to do so.
A first level rogue goes into a dungeon and encounters a will o' wisp that had never before been known to be in the room. The rogue happens to have a bag of flour for just such an occasion. Why? When in his life had this first level rogue encountered problems with invisible creatures and had time to come up with a solution?
The player may know that Glorio is a Rakshasha, but his character would probably have no reason to suspect otherwise. Especially if Glorio can come up with a legitimate reason, such as his when his family made their fortune in Vudra, they also formed an alliance with the Rakshasha living there. Ever since then, the Arkonas provide the Rakshasha with Inner Sea supplies, materials etc. and in return, the Rakshasha provide potent bodyguards that are, more often than not, disgraced in their homeland and sent to the Arkona family, hoping they will be disposed of.
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One of the things that you need to remind your characters is, what in their background allows them to know about rakshasha and their abilities or mannerisms?
Well, that's what "Knowledge (Arcana)" is for - to identify the critter, his usual MO, his weaknesses and strengths and where he's coming from. And although my players are experienced and mostly know all monsters they still act as if they don't, make their respective knowledge roll and act appropriately. [And as they're all reading the messageboard, too - Thank you guys for not being pricks! :-) and if I ever catch you reading the GM reference threads you can go ahead rolling D20 to see how painful you'll die!]
The player may know that Glorio is a Rakshasha, but his character would probably have no reason to suspect otherwise.
Thanks for the tip but I don't see this happening - if they know he's trafficking with powerful fiends such as Rakshasas even their chars will suspect that he might be one, too or maybe something even more powerful/superevil. And as they all are good aligned (LG, 2x CG...well and one CN Cleric of Gorum who's ALWAYS in for a fight) with the Rogue/Wizard suspecting the Arkonas to be (rightfully) behind many outrages anyway they'll grill Bahor/Glorio on that. Not even a +55 on Bluff checks (looking despiteously at a certain Succubus in another AP) will help him then convincing the players that these are only bodyguards.
Oh well, I still can try that angle since I don't have any other great ideas to avoid this Catch 22 (other then broad hinting that they REALLY don't want to mess with that guy). I'll keep checking here, maybe somthing comes up in the next 9 hours until the session starts.
I started the game with a group of four PCs, but are now six. I have lost count of the experience that the group of four should have. Where should the PC's be (approximately) during Escape? What level they should have entering in the Arkona Palace and the Vivified Labyrinth?
I made pictures of the other three configurations of the Vivified Labyrinth. Can I share with this community, or would be a violation of copyright?
The long way to solve this is to look at the EL of the encounters. The party's average level should be within 1 point of the average EL, as a general rule. Don't bother including ELs for encounters that the PCs aren't really supposed to accomplish (like fighting Bahor, for example).
The short way is to post here and get an answer from the editor in chief. :P
By the time the PCs reach the Arkona Palace, they should be 9th level. By the time they're deep in the Vivified Labyrinth, they should be about to hit 10th level or should be 10th level.
Could just be my DMing, but the group managed to basically walk the emporors place at 7th level. So you still strongly suggest they should be 9th at Arkona's palace or 8th?
Edit: It's a group of 4, not 6 sorry and they're at a point buy 20 at character creation which could be why they're so powerful, but I have been improve the encounters by adding levels to NPCs to make them match CR and adding 50% of the enemies too and they still steamrolled so shall I stick at 8th or raise them to 9th. My origonal plan was to raise them to 9th when they enter the laybrinth and 10th at the end of this part.
Ok, I haven't seen this question come up in any of the other threads, so if this is a repeat from another place just direct me there.
My question has to do with Cressida's meeting with the PCs at the beginning of EfOK. She mentions that Vencarlo got her a message - which i'm fine with since Old Korvosa is quarantined so it would take time to get any messages through. What I'm concerned with is the content of the message.
A little background: i.e. what i know to have happened
Vencarlo caught wind of a rumor that Neolandus was alive and hiding out in Old Korvosa. He's been searching for the guy for several weeks (concurrently as the Red Mantis search as well) and gets a break with the artist Salvator. So far so good. Neolandus, before changing locations, was secretly researching the odd changes in our fair monarch. He finds some disturbing notations about the Midnights Teeth, and an evil power before his current 'internment'.
So, how does Vencarlo know about the "dark magic and a pact with the devil" so to speak that Cressida mentions in her opening musings to get the PCs intrigued and on their way to see Vencarlo? Is it safe to assume that perhaps Neolandus confided as much in Salvator who in turn spilled to Vencarlo? The fact that he ran off after sending a missive to try and 'rescue' Neolandus tells me he knows nothing of what Neolandus found, or perhaps expected to be sitting at home with Neolandus for the PCs to pick up and smuggle out of the city, which also wouldn't make sense given the fact that he knew the Red Mantis were now after him as well and a meetup at his home would've been too risky. And any missive sent before that would not have had any information other than - i'm close on a lead, come see me and i may have another very important task for you, etc.
If I don't have a good reason for the dialogue I may just make it a reveal that either Vencarlo told Cressida that he thought Neolandus was indeed still alive in the missive, or that it was just a cryptic message that would be delivered if he didn't check in soon enough (i.e. he was captured or killed while investigating and wanted the PCs to continue his search) and Cressida sends the PCs to find out what happened to him. Maybe both.
Ok, this may be a stretch, but I was thinking about this a different way and I wanted to see if people thought this may be an interesting twist.
We know that ultimately, Glorio wants the seneshal to 'Escape' and depose the Queen for his own purpose. With his ability to find out whats on someone's mind, he'd get some good info off both Neolandus and Vencarlo. With this in mind, could he have sent the note? The whole idea of sending the PCs to Vencarlo's house and having them 'figure out' where he went a kind of test to see if they were worthy of 'taking' Neolandus off his hands?
It really depends on your party.
I really, really liked the whole "Glorio is manipulating everything" approach, but then my PCs went and refused to try to meet with him. They snuck into Arkona Palace, killed the four sons, and looted Glorio's safe. When he tried to confront them, they knew exactly who he was and how to counter him (gnome rogue with Silence cast on her following him around to make sure he was stuck in physical combat with a paladin with Smite Evil going. Not fun for Glorio).
Why do I mention this? Because Glorio should be a mastermind. If you have a party that will behave as uncivilized as my party did, Glorio should know that that's how they're going to behave, and not send the note. If they are a more civilized party, he should absolutely send the note, meet with the party, and send them to go rescue Neolandus. I think it's a great idea. Just make sure it doesn't end up making Glorio look like a buffoon.
P.S. Yes, the paladin trying to climb over the hedgewall to sneak in the back of Arkona palace was side-splitting. And his demand that they parlay with everyone they met. Until they realized what was going on. Unfortunately, at that point it was, "Everyone in this building must die," (paladin of Iomedae's opinion on evil outsiders, anyone?), and things got less fun for the residents.
Ah, but its not 'Lawful' to break into someone's home, don't you know? Bad, Paladin, Bad!
Also, I believe that any good mastermind wouldn't allow the PCs to know that it was he that was pulling their strings, so the message would literally read like something from Vencarlo, and no one would have any idea Glorio actually sent it.
Initially, the group shouldn't have had any real reason to doubt they were shady types, other than the rumors that the Arkonas are involved with more 'unlawful' pursuits. Problem is, they are careful not to specifically tie their family name to any specific operation, not to mention that Glorio seems to be a local philanthropist.
Why did they refuse to meet with him anyway?
Ah, but its not 'Lawful' to break into someone's home, don't you know? Bad, Paladin, Bad!
Also, I believe that any good mastermind wouldn't allow the PCs to know that it was he that was pulling their strings, so the message would literally read like something from Vencarlo, and no one would have any idea Glorio actually sent it.
Initially, the group shouldn't have had any real reason to doubt they were shady types, other than the rumors that the Arkonas are involved with more 'unlawful' pursuits. Problem is, they are careful not to specifically tie their family name to any specific operation, not to mention that Glorio seems to be a local philanthropist.
Why did they refuse to meet with him anyway?
Lots of good questions deserve lots of mediocre answers:
- From the "Guide to Korvosa": "It is a poorly kept secret that the [Arkona] family controls or has influence over every major (and most minor) criminal enterprise in the city, from watered-down mead to murder." Two of the five characters have knowledge (local) maxed out, and one has knowledge (nobility) maxed out as well, so I think this is 'reasonable knowledge' for them to have.
- In "Escape from Old Korvosa", Salvatore reveals (bard + Diplomacy rolls = easy as cake) that he convinced Neolandus to go to the Arkonas for asylum, and hasn't seen him since, and when he told Vencarlo of this fact, Vencarlo vanished as well. Salvatore believes that Vencarlo went to try and save Neolandus and was captured as well.
The PC leader of my group has a long history of nasty bad guys who behave in a vicious, intelligent manner; i.e., when the chips are down, string up the prisoners and execute them if the PCs don't leave immediately. Her absolute belief was that if they came to the front door begging for an audience, they would end up getting themselves AND the prisoners killed.
So she (the bard) wanted to get the lay of the land. She convinced the paladin that a frontal approach would most likely end up in the deaths of both prisoners. I really like the person who keeps saying, "Paladins are lawful good, not lawful stupid." The paladin agreed to the break-in on the condition that no one got hurt. One could easily argue that I should have forced the paladin to hang around outside while everyone else broke in. It's a valid argument, but it's not what I ruled. If you've ever read Order of the Stick, we have a 'Belkar' in our party, and the paladin's the only thing keeping him in check, so the bard had an easy, "It's a lot less likely that anyone will get hurt if you stay with us," argument. (And for the record, it would have been a moot point, since the initial fight broke out right at the front door).
Unfortunately, they set off the alarms almost immediately, and a fight with two of the brothers broke out. Their DR and SR made them obviously "not human", and Sense Evil was going off great guns, so whether or not the break-in was OK became moot, as Evil Outsiders were involved. It didn't help the Arkonas' cause when the other two brothers attacked them in raksasha form. That was all the paladin needed to go on a seek-and-destroy mission. The approach was ridiculously simple: The rogue stabbed each person they encountered with a dagger. If the blade bounced off, the paladin killed the person. If it struck true, the paladin healed the person and apologized for the inconvenience. With that approach agreeable to all parties, they searched the estate and found the treasure room.
Believe it or not, even with all those protections, they got in (friggin' crit on the Disable Device roll by the rogue), and Bahor had to attack them rather than let them rifle through all the family secrets (and get the holy light crossbow). Against a paladin with smite evil going and a rogue who was shadowing him with Silence cast on her, he did poorly.
So that's it. Simply a question of the leader of the party having been hosed by too many GMs to trust diplomacy in the situation.
I will have to keep that approach in mind when our group gets that far. We too have a bard and a paladin! Go team!
I will have to keep that approach in mind when our group gets that far. We too have a bard and a paladin! Go team!
#1: Bless you FOREVER for not saying, "But you can't allow a paladin to DO that!" and turning this into a paladin thread. Every GM determines what paladins can and cannot do differently, and it really does turn things nasty surprisingly quickly.
#2: If I were you, right now I would mandate that, in spite of what the threads (and the esteemed Mr. Jacobs) say, paladins cannot use Smite Evil at range. It really makes most of the encounters stupid if the paladin can pull out his composite bow, bond it to make it Holy, and then Smite Evil at range. The AP wasn't designed with that in mind, so many of the BBEGs in Modules 2, 3, 5, and 6 rely on flying out of range of the angry paladins to stay alive. If you allow a bonded composite bow and Smite Evil at range (as I did after reading all the threads), you're going to end up with lots of insanely-dead 'bosses'.
#3: My wife disagreed with my depiction of her attitude towards the Arkonas, so, in the interest of marital bliss, here's her take: They knew that the Arkonas were criminal masterminds, and they knew that the Arkonas had Neolandus and Vencarlo. They had absolutely nothing to offer the Arkonas in return for the release of the prisoners, so the Arkonas were "either going to jerk us around, lie to us, or gather all their men so they could jump us all at once." So there was "no point in talking to them", which was why she convinced the paladin to try the "sneaky" approach. (And may I add that I LOVE making paladins make their Stealth rolls in full plate, because seeing someone roll a negative number never gets old to me...)
Happy gaming!
We're all the way into Crown of Fangs now, so I've been granted permission to lurk here if I want. :P
NobodysHome was also right the first time, the party was pretty convinced that if we attempted to bargain that (1) we had nothing to offer and so would place ourselves at the dubious mercy of an unscrupulous crime family and (2) that they would kill Vencarlo.
My bard was actually very uneasy and somewhat torn about the entire course of action, but it was honestly the only way I could figure at the time to keep the most people alive... which up to a certain point even included the Arkonas. I was quite relieved to discover a nest of vile and irredeemable rakshasas, it rather minimized my moral dilemma! ;)
Maybe it wasn't the best series of decisions ever, but it worked, darn it, and we had a great time!
Ok so because we've been talking about it....
First session of chapter three I allowed my group to 'witness' the debacle at the Queen's Speech via major image and some cool Zellara work. They cheered when Marcus shot her, then were sufficiently worried when she didn't die and killed him instead. I then proceeded into a pre-made Harrowing, where I had interpreted the spread ahead of time, talking of dualities of purpose and to be on their guard, as well as the discovery of cartain secrets being bad for their health.
The first session then the Paladin was extremely paranoid. The meeting at Vencarlo's went about as I imagined, except they caught the Red Mantis alive, and were able to charm one and learned that the Red Mantis were really after a certain Seneschal they failed so far to kill. After that, they met Laori and the two rakish characters immediately wanted to 'claim dibs' on the 'hot elf chick'. Of course, the Paladin's paranoia had already set in and he detected evil. I was really hoping to play her up a bit more in their ignorance before they asked her who she worked for and she could reply, "Zon-Kuthon, duhhhh". Oh well.
They then surprised me by threatening the old dock thugs, pulling swords vs diplomacizing and slaughtering all but one, who then cooperated nicely in taking them to Pilts' place. Once there, they didn't repeat said performance, and actually asked nicely to see Salvator, resulting in a long game of Blood Pig (I honestly didn't expect us to play). Best part about it though was bull rushing the fully armored paladin into a wolverine pit - poor guy couldn't get out, and the poor wolverine couldn't overcome his AC ;-).
Second Session: After learning that the Arkonas likely had Neolandus in their tender care, and that Vencarlo was missing after possibly going in to find Neolandus, they surprised me yet again by not jumping to the conclusion that the Arkonas were criminals and couldn't be trusted. I was careful to admit their reputation, but that Glorio has made a show of being kind to the poor, etc. They actually didn't assume Vencarlo went missing because of his investigations with the Arkonas, instead wondering if the Red Mantis had gotten ahold of him. So what do they do? They scry Vencarlo, and find him chained to a statue of a tiger-headed man, unconscious. Much discussion ensues, including the 'rarity' of such a statue, and if they cast locate object on the statue if it would be too unique and the spell would fail (check locate object rules its interesting). Anyways, they instead try to scry Vencarlo's clothing he's wearing and it pings toward the estates.
They then surprise me by walking in the front door and telling Glorio they know 'a citizen of Korvosa' is being held prisoner here and they wish him released to them. (Go Paladins! We do not negotiate!) Glorio, being the mastermind he is, quickly gains control of the situation by pretending to not want to talk around his majordomo, Carnochan. The party and Glorio then proceed to have an extensive conversation through bluff about how his cousin, Melyia, is trying to take control of the family and had Vencarlo and their other friend in the Vivified Labyrinth below the estate. He tells them he is unsure who to trust, and they should go down there and rescue them. The paladin then asks Glorio if he'd like to go with them, so they can help him escape as well. He says he's unsure if that is a good idea, as he is always watched. But he does tell them of the Elephant access as well as there should be a hidden smuggler's tunnel from the water which would be easier for them.
So they go the smuggler's route and proceed to walk right into the Temple with Avideux and two king cobras. End session 2.
I am always amazed and excited by the various ways different groups approach a situation. It is exceedingly fun listening to everyone's postings of how their story plays out, as well as the fun quirks each party takes on as they go about their adventure.
So they killed Laori? Aren't your PC's around level 6 or so in that part and she's level 10ish? (I don't have my books with me). If I'm not mistaken, she should have been able to very easily get away.
I'm a little worried about your Paladin just offing anyone that pings Evil. That sounds a little like he's playing Lawful Stupid. If he is, I hope you can break him of that habit.
It really sucks though, that she died. I'm fairly certain Laori is the #1 NPC from the Crimson Throne AP. I asked James Jacobs why Laori doesn't have a figurine but Trinia does, and he said because he was never satisfied with a concept art of what the figurine would look like. Laori is too awesome to simply use that art from the book, she is special and needs a unique picture that suits her perfectly.
Oh, sorry, no they didn't kill her. He actually behaved himself but it kinda put a damper on the other two guys in the party who were trying to hit on her, knowing she was into pain and darkness and whatnot. I meant that if he hadn't tried detecting on her I could've played her up a bit more before they realized what she was into. One of them did still try hitting on her though. She gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek before parting ways. ;-)
I actually made her 11th level, a little higher than in the book because I wanted her on equal-ish footing with Sial later.
And if you find a better picture for her, let me know. I have been on the hunt as well.
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I think this one is the best art found so far. The problem is, there are 3 'official' drawings of Laori, two in the AP, and one in Faiths of Corruption. The one in Escape is of a slightly anime, but cute elf girl, the one in Scarwall transformed her to to this disfigured horror story, and the one in Faiths gives her this really awkward 'why am I here, I don't want to be here' smile/grimacing face.
The other good picture I've seen of her isn't work-safe. Google Laori Vaus with safe search off and she should be the first picture. I don't think you even need safe search off, just not strict, and you'll find it.
I think the pictures from Faiths of Corruption is her best shot, though she does have a big smile on that one, but it fits her.
I don't know, the Faith's of Corruption picture looks like the smile is really forced. It really strikes me as though she doesn't want to be there, but she has to be or something.
I like her first picture best, I really think it just captures her 'friendly and spunky but will kill you with a smile on' personality.
On a side note, if you Google Laori Vaus, my avatar appears on page 3. Guess I should stop mentioning her in so many posts :P
She's a memorable elf, its hard not to mention her!
We'll have our next session on the 16th, so I'll let you know how the Vivified Labyrinth goes. Our group is currently carrying about Raktavarna and the Third Eye Ring.
So session 3 begins with a quick discovery of the secret door leading to the entrance to the Vivified Labyrinth. Of course, the way the map is drawn, the illusory wall looks a bit hinky, so the rogue immediately investigates. He quickly finds the illusion, they push the paladin through first, he finds a wall and pushes his shield through effectively 'knocking' on the currently hidden door.
The rogue opens said door, sees Senshiir and beelines straight for her. I probably didn't play her well, but she didn't get many hits in to theirs and they beat her up pretty easily. They free the guy who says he's a thief, and during a brief note passing my Paladin's player failed his sense motive check, misunderstanding his knowledge of the guy being Neolandus. The rest figured it out pretty quick though. A brief foray into the next room reveals the undead elephants running the gears, and they quickly understood not to mess with them until after exploring the dungeon.
They then tackle the Labyrinth itself. I had fun while they discussed whether or not each handle turned only one wheel at a time, or if it turned all of them, and how it looked so complicated etc. They turned once, explored the 3 chests, found and disabled 2 symbols, then failed on the symbol of stunning. After regaining their senses they went back to wheel 1, turned it once, and found it indeed rotated the entire dungeon because they found miss Sivit waiting to attack them. Then they found their dear Vencarlo and healed him up. Having their injured prisoners in hand, they decided the best course of action was to GTFO. So I had Vimanda head to the teleport room and teleport to the front of the dungeon so she could try to convince them that Glorio put her down there and she was the innocent noble and he the vile monster with a tiger head oh woe is me, etc etc.
Of course they were suspicious of her, and no one had true seeing memorized, so i had her bluff her way through a Detect Thoughts and we had plenty of discussion regarding the rules of Detect Magic and the Change Shape special quality. Well, they couldn't prove either way (and I gave her a ring of Mind Shielding to bluff through Detect Evil - take that Paladin!) so they offered to help her escape. She decided to take the second boat out, and then the reefclaw attacks!
And so ended session 3, and the chapter. They plan to go back 'later' to figure out who is telling the truth and take care of the rest of the Arkonas. Since I plan on sending them off into barbarian lands I figure I have some time to plan the Arkona's next moves. The party still has the Ring of Evasion as well as the Silver Dagger.
I'm not sure about the opening scene for this. It works great for pulp fiction, but it depends on the expectation that people are normally killed by a crossbow bolt into the forehead. It's not really true in D&D, where two equal level characters could trade a number of crossbow bolts before one of them dropping. Maybe making it a bolt of slaying would make it more reasonable that the Commandant thought it would drop her--and she's got a wizard there, who promptly teleported her away, so he might get two shots, if he wins initiative.
I think this would really frustrate me as a player; if we think about it in D&D, it's obvious there's deeper things going on, but I would also guess (correctly, in this case) that it's a vignette that works by its own rules and doesn't work on that level.
Actually, have it come off as a very unique Coup de Grat attempt that failed horrifically.
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This has always been my issue with D&D/Pathfinder, even way back with the simple first edition rules: Once you hit a high enough level, you can do things like fall off a cliff, walk in lava, or take a crossbow bolt to the head with impunity.
And, as you complain, it 'breaks' the storytelling aspect of the game when the story says, "There was an assassination attempt, she took a crossbow bolt directly to the forehead, and it didn't hurt her," and your players all say, "So what? We could take the same damage and it wouldn't hurt us, either."
If your players can't suspend disbelief of the game mechanics long enough to allow the story to be told, you'll have issues. "Oh, the princess is in danger, but she's probably at least a 7th-level aristocrat, so that fire's not going to burn her to death for at least 5 rounds..."
If game mechanics always apply in all situations, then assassination is eliminated on Golarion (unless the regent is asleep).
I'm trying to come up with ideas for you, but I'm drawing a blank. Game mechanics do not allow for quick kills of conscious opponents, so you have to add something somewhat evil to Marcus' attack.
Maybe a wand of Hold Person and then a coup de grace? A +1 human bane arrow that clearly criticalled? A Red Mantis-like hypnotic power to render her helpless? I think you have to give Marcus two rounds -- a surprise round to render her helpless (the wand of Hold Person's the only decent idea I've got. Sorry.) and then the crossbow coup-de-grace. As long as it's clear that the Hold Person did indeed affect her, then the coup de grace is believable and game mechanics are preserved.
When you consider the fact that the average person is level 3ish and that the assassination attempt was obviously a critical, it's not too hard to believe something freaky was going on.
A 13th level ranger with favored enemy humans (not so weird if you are usually fighting shoantis) and a human bane bolt (something obvious if he were going to kill the queen) could do the following damage in a critical:
Crossbow: +1d10
Improved Vital Strike: +2d10
Favored Enemy: +6
+1 Shocking burst crossbolt : +1+1d6+2d10
Bane Bolt: +2d6
Deadly Aim: +4x2 = +8
Point Blank Shot: +1
Critical: 1d10x2+2d10+1d6+2d10+2d6+(6+1+8+1)x2 = 6d10+3d6+32
Average: 76 hp
Max: 110 hp
I'm sure there are other modifiers that could be applied by drinking potions or having a wizard or cleric casting Greater Magic Weapon, etc.
Being the softie I've allowed my characters to find notes on the blinding night rituals and traditions so that the wizard can make a third eye himself.
It goes well as he's been making up his own little network using the wererats and this way he'd be able to track what happens when far away from Korvosa.
I'm curious though, it suggests you can use other eyes rarther than humans and I'm wondering what'd happen if you were to use the eye of, say, Bahor? would you gain darkvision 60ft, but only when using the third eye or would it just be a really cool tiger's eye in his hand that functions like a normal one?
Harm can't kill people anymore. It leaves them at 1 hp I think. At that point, have the Monk bop him on the head and knock him out.
Personally, if I mess up in a situation and a player's character dies because of it, when they re-create their character or revive them, I give them 1 free re-roll. Kind of an "I'm sorry" present. Only had to do it once so far.
I think the map scale is missing from the Pilts's Place map. I'm guessing it's 5 feet per square, bur you never know...
For any GMs out there that have run this recently, I want to make sure I'm reading the labyrinth right.
Anyone?
Since no one's replied, I will at least say that my fuzzy memory recalls that this is correct.
In fact, the labyrinth wasn't nearly as deadly as I expected it to be because the players put it into a position where neither BBEG on the level could get to a lever and then rested for the night.
So there are some... unfortunate configurations available, and I believe that having to pull the level twice is one of them.