Blakros Scenarios

[senshi_shinri_teki]

I am planning on running all the scenarios involving the Blakros family/museum and wanted to make sure I have my list right (in chronological order of release date):

Pathfinder Society Scenario #5: Mists of Mwangi (OGL/PFRPG)
Pathfinder Society Scenario #35: Voice in the Void (PFRPG) PDF
Pathfinder Society Scenario #2-11: The Penumbral Accords (PFRPG) PDF
Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-07: Echoes of the Overwatched (PFRPG) PDF

Are there any other scenarios the directly or indirectly involve the Blakros Museum or Blakros family?

[Bbauzh ap Aghauzh]

I believe that's it so far.

I think there is a retired one that deals with them sorta.

[Eric Clingenpeel]

senshi_shinri_teki wrote:

I am planning on running all the scenarios involving the Blakros family/museum and wanted to make sure I have my list right (in chronological order of release date):

Pathfinder Society Scenario #5: Mists of Mwangi (OGL/PFRPG)
Pathfinder Society Scenario #35: Voice in the Void (PFRPG) PDF
Pathfinder Society Scenario #2-11: The Penumbral Accords (PFRPG) PDF
Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-07: Echoes of the Overwatched (PFRPG) PDF

Are there any other scenarios the directly or indirectly involve the Blakros Museum or Blakros family?

For now, yes. But Mike or Mark mentioned at the PaizoCon PFS Q&A that next season sometime will see the Blakros Matrimony (or something like that, the wedding anyways). And I guess the grand convocation also had something to do with the Blakroses. But to my knowledge that was only available for play at PaizoCon (US & UK)

I'm a fan of the Blakros scenarios, and ran them all at the last convention I GM'd at.

[Mark Moreland]

The Blakros Matrimony is schedule to come out in November! And we'll likely release the Grand Convocation in some form at some point (because we spent a lot of time on it, and want people to get a chance to read it for continuity's sake even if they missed it in play). I don't know when we'll do the latter, though.

[Feegle]

Mark Moreland wrote:

The Blakros Matrimony is schedule to come out in November! And we'll likely release the Grand Convocation in some form at some point (because we spent a lot of time on it, and want people to get a chance to read it for continuity's sake even if they missed it in play). I don't know when we'll do the latter, though.

Might I suggest that you contract someone who was there in a playing capacity to write an event summary in-character? I really enjoyed reading Mattastophic's in-character journal from PaizoCon, and to summarize the important events for story continuity's sake as an in-character journal might be a good way to go about it.

You could even post it as Wednesday Web Fiction when it's done. :)

[marcGarcia]

Thanks, I intend to do the same. :)

[Andreas Forster]

The Blakros Matrimony also has some follow-ups:
There's Day of the Demon, which is 4-Ex, so unless you're a VO or 4-star GM, you'll have to wait until it's released as a regular scenario. But fortunately, it's not directly tied to the Blakroses.
Then, there's The Hellknight's Feast, starring Micaela and Damien Blakros.

[Scott Bianchi]

My group has gotten weak with all the goofy dumb bullcrap advanced classes that I feel are kinda stupid and broken. So I'm trying to run a core blakros game. I've got a list running from season 0 through 6, but there are gaps in levels. Can anybody suggest scenarios that mesh well that I can stick in there to bridge the gaps so they can have enough sheets to progress?
Will they work if you arrange them in level ascending order?

They've got 1 core game under their belt already...so....1 XP

Season/ Name/ Levels
0-5 The Mists of Mwangi 1-2
0-35 Voice in the Void 1-7
2-11 The Penumbral Accords 1-2
3-07 Echoes of the Overwatched 1-5
[Scenario Needed Here]
4-09 The Blakros Matrimony 3-7
5-14 Day of the demon 3-7
[4 Scenarios Needed Here]
5-03 The Hellknights Feast 5-9
5-23 Cairn of Shadows 5-9
6-02 The Silver Mount Collection 3-7

Thanks a million!

[Muser]

Delirium's Tangle(1-5) has no museum ties, but is very Absalomy and a great adventure with a useful boon. That's your first gap done.

Storming the Diamond Gate(3-7) has a tie-in to both #5-14 and #4-09. It also happens before them chronologically. Maybe change the order a bit?

Then I'd run a trilogy for that fifth level. Either #7, #49 and #3-8 or #3-9, #3-11 and #3-13. Shades of Ice is an option as well, but there's a major drop in quality midway through and it's a bit too tied to the Shadow Lodge arc. If your players are good, Slave Pits (1-5) Slave Ships(1-5) and Slavemaster's Mirror is a great, if a bit difficult, arc too.

Hope this helps.

[Scott Bianchi]

I appreciate it, I'm just in the beginning of planning this out, and can certainly switch scenarios around if it'd be best for the story.

So here's my thought on a plan...

Season/ Name/ Levels
N/A Master of the Fallen Fortress 1
0-5 The Mists of Mwangi 1-5
1-35 Voice in the Void 1-7

1-45 Delirium’s Tangle 1-5
2-11 The Penumbral Accords 1-5
3-07 Echoes of the Overwatched 1-5

3-25 Storming the Diamond Gate 3-7
4-09 The Blakros Matrimony 3-7
5-14 Day of the demon 3-7

0-7 Among the Living 1-7
1-49 Among the Dead 1-7
3-08 Among the Gods 3-7

5-03 The Hellknights Feast 5-9
5-23 Cairn of Shadows 5-9
6-02 The Silver Mount Collection 3-7

[kinevon]

VitV Concerns:

VitV is a great scenario, but it might be a bit difficult for them that early. It has a lot of stuff that can be really ugly for a first level party, especially if they haven't got any way to deal with swarms. Or deal non-lethal damage.

Except for GM leniency, it can be extremely easy to TPK the party in the next-to-last room, if they open that box, and have no way to deal with the contents.

Running away is not a real option, since the spiders have a climb speed, and the entryway there is slimy, requiring the PCs to have to make acrobatics or climb checks to go that way. "Sure, there are torches and lamps upstairs. So, what's your speed? 30'? That becomes 7.5' per move action. Along with a skill check. The spider swarm has a climb speed of 20'." Not good.

[tchrman35]

kinevon wrote:

** spoiler omitted **

If they learned anything from the bats in MotFF, they *should* be prepared for swarms. If not, a kind GM could use the briefing at the beginning to remind the pathfinders that they're going into the basement of a troubled museum, where they should be ready for anything. "Why, I've seen swarms of vermin in better places than that."

(Maybe with a more creative approach that would seem a little less ham-handed!)

[kinevon]

tchrman35 wrote:

kinevon wrote:

** spoiler omitted **

If they learned anything from the bats in MotFF, they *should* be prepared for swarms. If not, a kind GM could use the briefing at the beginning to remind the pathfinders that they're going into the basement of a troubled museum, where they should be ready for anything. "Why, I've seen swarms of vermin in better places than that."

(Maybe with a more creative approach that would seem a little less ham-handed!)

Can't argue with that, but, typically, having one or two Alchemist's Fires is sometimes worse than not having any.

If the target has a high touch AC, you just wasted 20 gp for minimal damage. And, even for a CR1 swarm, it can take multiple AFs to get the hit and take it out.

Then again, I am probably biased, since a recent run I did of it should have probably ended with a TPK, as the party in the basement set it off, with no anti-swarm stuff at all. I relented, and let them talk me into believing they could get oil from lamps on the main floor, after I knocked the cleric out.

[Muser]

I have to admit, we had a tpk there. It's not the foe, but the shaft. Escape, retreat etc, is crazy hard. When I ran it though, the obvious trap caused the group to just skip straight to boss.

The statues can be difficult, but they could be used as a puzzle encounter. What do you do when bashing it down doesn't cut it? Thinking with combat maneuvers, etc.

[Eric Clingenpeel]

Last time I ran it they skipped the obvious trap and went to boss... then someone "had" to check it before they left. They've never let him forget it...

[tchrman35]

Don't forget that if an AF hits, the target catches fire and takes damage again in the next round. I can see nothing about a swarm that give it immunity to that, but I've seen plenty of GM's forget about it.

[Muser]

Yeah, those cr 1 swarms are almost always OHKO with alchemist's fire's 2d6*1½. IF you land a hit.

By tier 3-4 and higher, you are often loaded with tools anyway.

[RealAlchemy]

I've never seen a swarm fail to go down to a low level party where everyone has one or two alchemists fire or acid flasks on them. Not only that, a lot of the time somebody played Confirmation and bought a partially charged wand of swarm wrecking.

[Muser]

Seen it a couple of times. Sometimes the dice just hate you.

[kinevon]

I had a party of 3rd and 4th levels, no AFs, acid, etc., at all. None. No arcane with area effect spells, nothing.

It was ugly.

And, of course, the parties where my PC is the only one, with a single one, and I miss with it. :( A lot of those swarms have pretty good touch ACs, especially at low level. Touch AC 17 is hard to hit with a BAB of 0 or 1...

[RealAlchemy]

kinevon wrote:

I had a party of 3rd and 4th levels, no AFs, acid, etc., at all. None. No arcane with area effect spells, nothing.

It was ugly.

And, of course, the parties where my PC is the only one, with a single one, and I miss with it. :( A lot of those swarms have pretty good touch ACs, especially at low level. Touch AC 17 is hard to hit with a BAB of 0 or 1...

I have to say a L3-4 party with no way to deal with swarms at all is asking for it.

[Brother Fen]

My party of level 5's with one mythic tier are still trying to figure out how to deal with swarms. It probably doesn't help that I keep switching up the type of swarm. This week, they had to deal with angry water spirit swarms from the Denizens of Avadnu. That was a lot of fun.

[Brother Fen]

I ran Voice in the Void on the higher tier over the weekend.

Regarding the ending:

Spoiler:

My players for some reason could not resist the box trap in the penultimate chamber. This made the final boss battle much more challenging because they aggro'd the swarm and then tore down the curtain separating the two chambers causing the rest of the beasts to attack en masse from behind the safety of the black tentacles spell.

It was a fun but quite challenging final encounter. I should mention that I updated the module by using Phrenic Scourges from Dreamscarred Press' Psionics Bestiary in place of the yellow musk creepers and such. It gave the scenario a much stronger Lovecraftian feel.

The PCs avoided a TPK but there were characters going down and up through the end. Highly enjoyable scenario. The challenges can be quite varied.

[Amanda Plageman]

So, running an all-Blakros PFS campaign still sounds like a great idea. As previously noted, there are gaps that need to be filled to keep the levels set up properly. So I chose a couple of other sub-themes: slavery and [REDACTED]. Since several new things have popped up lately, here's my proposed plan:

Level 1
S00-05 Mists of Mwangi (1-5)
S01-35 Voice in the Void (1-7)
S02-11 Penumbral Accords (1-5)

(I know that VitV can be tough on low-level PCs, but I'm pretty sure my group can deal with it.)

Level 2
S03 07 Echoes of the Overwatched (1-5)
S00-08 Slave Pits of Absalom (1-5)
S06-05 Slave Ships of Absalom (1-5)

Here's the first gap in the specifically Blakros-related scenarios, but they are set in Absalom, and fit the slavery sub-theme.

Level 3
S03-25 Storming the Diamond Gate (3-7)
S04-09 Blakros Matrimony (3-7)
S05-14 Day of the Demon (3-7)

StDG is only loosely connected to the Blakros family, but that's good enough for me, considering it's connection to 4-09 and 5-14.

Level 4
S07-07 Trouble in Tamran (1-5)
S05-11 Library of the Lion (1-5)
S06-11 Slavemaster’s Mirror (3-7)

TiT really has nothing to do with anything else, so far, but it matters for stuff that comes later. LotL also doesn't connect, but it gives people a hint of the value of subtlety, which is a lesson they'll need later. Besides, I really like LotL!

Level 5
S05-03 Hellknights Feast (5-9)
S05-09 Traitor’s Lodge (3-7)
S05-23 Cairn of Shadows (5-9)

TL doesn't seem to fit, but it ties into [REDACTED] later. CoS is only loosely connected, but it has a boon that may come in handy later, plus I just love Nidal, and we don't see many scenarios set there.

Level 6
S06-98 Serpents Rise (6-8) Pregens
S06-02 Silver Mount Collection (3-7)
S07-09 Blakros Connection (5-9)

SR has major ties to [REDACTED].

So...
What do y'all think? I've tried to keep the main story in chronological order, and the others are less time-sensitive, where metatplot is concerned.

Oh, and the kicker? I'll be running all this as CORE.

[Scott Bianchi]

My core group just recently beat the Silver Mount Collection.
They ALL b$&@%ed and moaned that it couldn't' be done core.
People even backed out and flatly refused to start it up.
"It's too hard" they said.
"They'll all die" They said.

I'm quite proud of them as well as Core PFS.