When are the PCs 'supposed' to level up during Shadow in the Sky?
I'm sure I've read something about this elsewhere on these boards, but I just can't find it now. If anybody could provide some insight or point me in the right direction, I'd be very grateful.
When are the PCs 'supposed' to level up during Shadow in the Sky?
I'm sure I've read something about this elsewhere on these boards, but I just can't find it now. If anybody could provide some insight or point me in the right direction, I'd be very grateful.
Check out the last paragraph before Thieves and Thugs on p. 9.
Gah! That's what you get from reading way, way too much every single day. You begin to skip things ... just to speed up your read.
In any event, thanks a lot, Joana :).
Say, did anybody find (or rig up) stats for gendarmes? Not that I expect my party to get into any trouble in Riddleport, but....
Thanks,
Treppa
Here are the stats for gendarmes and gendarme officers that I used in the original manuscript but that didn't make the cut.
Thanks so much for the response, Greg. I can't use them exactly as-is, but they definitely provide the flavor needed. My vision was more of halberdiers, but I wasn't sure that was the correct feel for what seems to be essentially a legally sanctioned gang. These fit that mold a bit better, for me. Gracias!
So when they enter there stake in the Steal the Devils Gold how much money do they get to play or they can use as much of their own gold as they want?
So when they enter there stake in the Steal the Devils Gold how much money do they get to play or they can use as much of their own gold as they want?
I let them use as much as they wanted, but my group was sadly not terribly interested in the games, so we didn't run the tourney very long before disaster hit.
So when they enter there stake in the Steal the Devils Gold how much money do they get to play or they can use as much of their own gold as they want?I let them use as much as they wanted, but my group was sadly not terribly interested in the games, so we didn't run the tourney very long before disaster hit.
Yeah we are playing in two weeks and what im going to do is have them make four rolls each, and say each was a half hour of gambling then they have moved tables to all be at the same bounder table and maybe play a few hands of bounder as the fireworks go off
Sorry very basic I know, I am GMing one of these adventure paths (SD, seems to suit my group best) for the first time, can someone tell me which experience path the PC should progress along medium or fast (I have a larger party than is recommended and am already massaging encounter CR levels and ammounts?
To keep up with the expected leveling points, the "fast" progression is assumed for APs written for 3.5 rules, including Second Darkness. Council of Thieves is the first AP written specifically for Pathfinder RPG rules, and from then on, "medium" progression is assumed.
As you know, a larger or smaller than usual party will require further DM tinkering. :) I believe most, if not all, the books in Second Darkness specify what level the party should be when facing certain encounters.
Hmm. I think I may have painted myself into a corner a little bit with this one. One problem is easily fixed: I used the medium XP track instead of fast. But the problem is that my players (uncharacteristically) decided to play by their alignments and not kill people when they had a chance. So they're a bit behind on treasure they would have received from killing Braddikar at the docks and Smeed on rat street. So far what they have is the money they've earned from the Gold Goblin, the bracers of armor from the mage they downed in the heist and what they looted from the toughs during the raid. Having six PCs may blunt the impact a bit, but lacking a few masterwork weapons and minor magical items can make things a little more difficult. So, for those of you that have run through the adventure: is it worthwhile to try and rectify that now or just let them loose on the wererat ambush and trust things will level out? Or maybe Zincher sends them an anonymous gift or two since they'll want to get even with Saul after the double cross?
Well I had the same problem Paladin in the party So I made the Set Piece Thieves working for Sal and DA and had them dress up as cops after each battle and come in a kill them and then the PCs got all the magic items from them
So how wide is the cybergate? For the PCs and DA to run across
pg50 says the Cyphergate is 700 feet in diameter, so 700 feet across and rising to 350 about the harbor.
I presume Joey Virtue is asking how wide the arch is for running-on-top-of purposes, and I don't think the book ever says. For comparison purposes, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis is is 630 feet tall -- almost twice the height of the Cyphergate -- but the width from base to base and height from ground to top are equal. The legs are equilateral triangles, tapering from 54 feet per side at the bottom to 17 feet per side at the top. Up to 160 tourists can fit into the viewing area at the top. Someone more mathy than I can do a comparison, but it sounds like there ought to be plenty of width for running on, although the steep slope to the top ought to deter anyone without access to spider climb or the like.
That sounds pretty standard the party wanted to go in and Kill Saul after the wererats
Im sure the palidin wants to crush the imps skull I know our wanted to and i allowed him to
A pure LE creature like an imp is going to obey the letter of the law in his contract very strictly but is going to take advantage of every loophole he can find in that contract to further his own agenda. It would be up to you to determine how exactly Saul has worded his commands and how the imp might twist his intentions. Obviously if Saul dies, the imp's debt would be null and void, so he'd probably do everything he could short of explicitly breaking his contract to lead to that outcome. That doesn't mean he'd help the PCs, I don't think, but he'd certainly withhold aid from Saul if he could get away with it.
So, my players have captured Saul. Being the sniveling weasel he is, I figure he'll happily spill the beans on Deprova, draw the PCs a map, give them the key, and wish them luck -- in exchange for his freedom. Bojask is also holding Lily as hostage which works as an extra bargaining chip.
What would you guys do? Saul wakes up, tied to a chair, the party barbarian standing over him. Does he break down and immediately give up the goods? Try to bluff his way out? Sell out Deprova for his freedom?
I assume this is after the Boneyard Ambush and the reverse raid on the Goblin?
Yeah, I figure he'd blame everything on Depora and claim to be just a pawn in her wicked scheme. Play up how powerful she is to explain why he simply had no choice but to go along with her -- and to get the PCs a little bit worried about facing her.
My PCs have also captured Depora. Torturing her into revealing the whole plot seems a bit early at this point. I figure that once she starts talking, Abraxus will teleport a dretch directly into Depora's torso and it will quickly and messily eat it's way out.
(Actually, since my gods are different and the main god for me is a goddess of the sea, Depora will be devoured from the inside by that godess's symbol - shark teeth.)
In my game, I simply don't allow any of the PCs to be able to initimidate the drow. It's DM fiat, but I don't like the idea that beings that have grown up in one of the most depraved and sadistic societies imaginable will start spilling all their secrets because the CG human fighter rolled a 27 or whatever. The only surface beings able to get information out of a drow prisoner he/she isn't already likely to divulge just because he/she wants to screw over his/her superiors are the Shin'Rakorath and the Mordant Spire elves, who, due to their particular racial hatred, are willing to get their hands dirty enough to resort to tortue anything like what they might meet with in Zirnakaynin. (Now, if you could capture an underling and a male, he might well see imprisonment by the elves as a resort vacation compared to the treatment he's used to; Bixus the necromancer was happy to tell the PCs everything he could (which wasn't a lot, as he wasn't very "in the loop," just because he hated Fisaria and the other drow women who had kept him under their thumbs; he knew if he returned to the drow after Fisaria had been killed, he'd be executed in the most painful manner possible for failure anyway).
If the players informed Kwava before heading down the trapdoor, I suppose a second option is for him to show up and silence Deprova before she reveals the entire plot. Makes sense but probably complicates things for later.
After deciphering Depora's journal, my players wanted to go to Devil's Elbow. They hired a ship to take them there that was promptly destroyed in the tidal wave. They went to the Mithral Wave, tried to hire it away from the dwarves, were told no, asked to go along, were told no, tried to pay their way along and were told no. Next they went to the Foamrunner and were told no, they couldn't go. They did book passage on the Dark Pearl, only to have Clegg steal it.
At this point, my players were pretty pissed. They asked me if they weren't supposed to go to Devil's Elbow since it seems the DM was forbidding them from going there. They all agreed that Clegg would be killed on sight if they ever found him and that they were all hoping a second tidal wave might come along and wipe Riddleport off the map.
To avoid mutiny, I had to give up on the story as written and I allowed the players to buy one-way passage on the Mithral Wave and go with the dwarves. That's not a disaster by any means.
If your players are easily frustrated, you might want to re-think this whole ship business. A better setup (for me) would have been to make all of the 5 ships available, each of the group hires it's own ship, and the speed of repairs determines who leaves when. Telling the players that Ship X is leaving next and, no, you can't go on that one, didn't work so well.
At least, you probably won't have any problems getting your players to leave Riddleport for part 3 :)
My players would likely feel the same way yours did, so that is good information to have.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
A DM's Familiar dataset is now available for Shadow in the Sky. It can be downloaded here.
DM's Familiar is a program you use at the gaming table to run your combat's faster and smoother, easily look up rules, and keep your game organized. The dataset contains the OGC creatures from the adventure so that you don't have to do any data entry!
This seems a bit like an insulting place to ask but...
I'm looking to replace Shadow in the Sky with another adventure. Last time I ran Second Darkness the group collapsed halfway through the first module and I don't want to bring up those memories. In addition I don't want to cement Riddleport as the AP's true base of operations and have my player's (yes, singular) enjoyment lessened because of it.
Any suggestions? Comments? Just make sh*t up?
|
In another thread someone* brought up the good idea of starting Second Darkness with "Souls for Smuggler's Shiv", a fantastic starting adventure.
From there, the party can go up the coast and continue with the AP as written from Riddleport in Chp 2 and on. Or you can move the island from "Shadow in the Sky" down off the Sargavan coast somewhere to continue the AP in the south.
* Didn't want to look up who said it but also didn't want to take credit for someone else's great idea. :)
You could also try the Freeport Trilogy, but base it in Riddleport.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
So I'm a bit late to the party, but I have an offering regarding the climactic encounter with Depora. I, too, am hopeful that an epic scene will unfold atop the Cyphergate in front of all of Riddleport. How awesome would that be?! (My PCs are currently back at the Gold Goblin after surviving the Boneyard Ambush. They were able to sneak in through the back door and catch the guards unawares. I have an especially charismatic bunch and a fight hasn't broken out ... yet. And, incidentally, we ended our last session with Saul hiding under the dining room table as his trusted guard Hans tries bluffing! Pins and needles! hehe)
I'm yet to see how this actually plays out, but in the hopeful chase that will ensue up the slope of the Cyphergate, I'm reluctant to rest the success of the PCs' pursuit on a single skill check: Climb.
I can already envision the disappointment of my players as they fail these crucial roles and Depora slips away without a satisfying stand-off.
So, I decided to add some scaffolding at the base of the Cyphergate, and justified it being there for the Cyphermages' use, as they study the mysterious runes. It's designed to take longer than the string of Climb checks specified, but I figured it would add some dynamic action as they rush around dumb-founded Cyphermages, perhaps making Reflex/Acrobatics rolls to avoid tripping over them as they tinker away at the wall. It will also help to include all the players, even those with crap for their Climb check. Once they get to the top of the scaffold I've made, they'll be high enough up the Cyphergate that Climb checks will no longer be necessary.
I'll post a follow-up about how it actually goes!
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I made Ol'Scratch a two-headed imp, and gave him the voices of the two old hagglers on the Muppet Show... lol
I'm having him yell obsanities at the clients and PCs in quick one-tow punchline jokes:
To the long-haired barbarian: "Hey Rapunzle! The Thassilonians called; They said they want their hairstyle back!! Har-har-har!!"
To Saul, after he tells them to stop haggling the clients: "Hey, watch where you point that thing!! Yeah, what are YOU going to do?... UNLOCK us to death?!? Har-har-har!!"
To the human rogue (varisian): "If your family tree doesn't branch; You KNOW you're a Varisian!! Har-har-har!!"
Pointing to the PC Elf: "Aaaaahhh!! Gay-er than TWILIGHT!! Har-har-har!!"
Heard yelling at themselves in the middle of the night: "Shut up!! No, YOU shut up!! No, YOU SHUT UP!! Hey, don't make me go over there!!"... Followed by the cage rattling loudly...
Ultradan
My players ran through the Flat on Rat Street encounter last session, and there are no notes about areas A4-A7 in my book, not even in quick reference, and certainly no description... What on earth happened and what should I do about these areas?
Previously asked here and answered by the author in the next post. Apart from the strongbox, just assume they're rooms without encounters or treasure.
That is correct, and it's a freaking nightmare to draw: not only all the irregular angles but trying to make one square into four. I frankly went mapless for the water tunnels after repeatedly trying to draw out the first room and messing it up.
Where is the missing priest of Desna, Milon Chath, who (according to the SD Player's guide) disappeared into the caves of Calphiak Mountains a week before the beginning of the game?
Can't find any mention of him so far in the first book..
That's just a red herring, an irrelevant rumor. That's his only mention in the AP.
I thought that there was some reference to him in book 3 or 4?
(I'm AFB and it's been a long time since I looked at them, so please take that with a grain of salt.)
In what year (and what month of the year) is SD starting?
Officially, APs begin in the Golarion equivalent of the month and year they're released. Shadow in the Sky released in February of 2009, so that would be Calistril 4709 AR.
Really, however, there aren't any seasonal cues in the AP so you could have it start anytime you want.