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Ironically, when I played it, we didn't have anyone from Shadow Lodge in our group, yet we still talked her into it. My CN Taldor gnome sorcerer just liked the ideas of breaking the rules, and having blackmail material on the Blackros family. Once we talked her into it, my PC talked to the replacement bride during the whole walk back to the reception about all the details she'd need to convince everyone she'd been there all along.
In the end, we had a second debate about whether or not we'd report the bride switch to the Pathfinder Society, and we ended up deciding not to.
Venture-Captain, New Zealand—Dunedin
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Played this one this past Saturday.
Human Rogue 7
Human Sorcerer 4
Gnome Wizard 7
Gnome Bard 6
Half-orc Barbarian 5
They played up. Enjoyed the role-playing with all of the PCs, and would've had all of the PCs in their pockets with Influence checks, but at the wedding the (decidedly dim) Andoren barbarian (who drank Bedard under the table at the reception the night before) stood up to defend Bedard and said, and I quote...
"Um, yeah, he's probably still hungover from last night. We drank A LOT. Don't pay any attention to anything he said."
And then sits back down. AUTO-FAIL. Bedard storms out and all the PCs lose their Influence checks with him.
At the wedding reception, I made certain (when the throat-singing bard offered to Madame Blakros a tribute to the wedding) that the PC realized that he was performing not just for the Blakros family, a whole lot of influential Hellknights, and the creme de la creme of Absalom's social circles, but also Venture-Captains Dralneen, al-Hakim, Amara Li, and Morilla. I don't think I've ever seen so much ride on one roll (he did a fair performance, but not one to impress the VCs).
They recovered Michellia and Eleanir after making short work of the Ulfens. Michellia gave Eleanir a full-arm slap across the face for her subterfuge, resulting in a "Bridezilla!" chant from the table. Humorous.
The PCs were shocked at the combats, but entered into them with gusto. They were really shocked when I described some of the guests being hunted down and torn in two by the demons. They were especially shocked when they saw their VCs bloodied during the battle outside of the tent.
Good scenario. Ran long (thanks to the role-playing) at 5 hours.
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I have a question that is purely bookkeeping related. Would a GM be able to mark their own chronicle sheet as having influenced everyone on the Impressive Influence list?
ooo, that's a good question ... i wonder if we can only get the ones that the group influenced
Venture-Captain, Michigan—Mt. Pleasant
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I have a question that is purely bookkeeping related. Would a GM be able to mark their own chronicle sheet as having influenced everyone on the Impressive Influence list?
Yes, each PC's Chronicle sheet should reflect that PC's individual influence results. A GM could choose not to have the influence of a particular NPC if she chose not to (not all of them will be good to have influence with, while others will be beneficial) but she can have as many of them as she wants.
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Now, I just want to make sure; but there's nothing stopping the characters from Taking 10 on the Influence checks, is there? It seems to me that many of them (who have 10+ in a social skill, ala bluff, diplomacy, or intimidation), could just go around Taking 10 on every Influence check and succeeding. True, this wouldn't net them multiple successes on a single check, but they could still pass the mission with ease. Or did I miss something in the Scenario preventing that?
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UE, I had a bard in my game that did just that. On a couple of the checks he actually got multiple influence points because of it too. :)
Awesome! That's much as I expected. I think the highest social skill in the group is a +11, so no multiple successes, but she'll auto-succeed if she chooses to do so.
Managing Creative Director (Starfinder)
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Correct! It is basically a small space. Originally I had some stuff where the final encounter would involve the pavilion falling on the PCs and shenanigans with the villain being incorporeal... I took it out because I'm no Kyle Baird.
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I have the dumbest question ever, but I want to make sure I'm doing this right. The final battle occurs in the small little pavilion map on p. 7 listed as "meeting area" correct? I can't find another map for the battle.
there really isn't a map for the first one that you're talking about ... I told my group that there was a small private beach behind the abandoned/ruined manse and that they were all down there with the boat and stuff ...
when i played it, the GM had it more as long a small river ... I think that it's an encounter that is really really left up to GM interpretation as to the exact location
*unless there is one in there and I didn't catch it and then I'm wrong and oops*
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Oh there's a map for the battle against the Ulfen raiders and the nutcase on page 17. It takes half the page. :) It uses the GameMastery Flip-Mat: Pirate Island.
I'm still a little puzzled about the conclusion and prestige awards...
If the party manages to get enough influence to befriend three different NPCs, then the success condition is met and they get their 1PP for a successful mission and are treated as heroes? Or does it require *EVERY* PC to get those 3 influences for the success conditions to meet?
The chronicle sheet then has separate, individual influence for each PC separately. This is probably straight-forward?
Did I get this right?
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Per Mark Moreland: A PC who has a bunch of Influence Points spread out over several NPCs but hasn't reached the target number with any of them does not earn a Prestige Point for the primary mission.
That's exactly why I'm asking it again. Every time before the primary mission is based on group success, but this time it's possible to have one with 0 PP and one with 2 PP. To me that's rather counter-intuitive, as they are there to represent the Pathfinder Society, and I'd imagine one PC doing it all be sufficient.
So in order for the guests to cheer for the PCs each PC must have garnered enough influence to three different NPCs? That seems like a near impossible feat then if there's just that one silent player with a charisma 5 dwarf.
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That's why I keep asking it. It seems to confuse more than just me. I actually reread that part time after time again to make it clear.
This would indicate in a group effort. Later in the success conditions PCs are mentioned individually. So yes, PPs are going out individually but it would seems sufficient if a total of three different NPCs are influenced to give a "good" ending.
That's more to my liking. Ambrus Valsin can scold the non-charismatic characters for being so non-charismatic then. :)
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when I ran this, I had one PC that decided to go on the boat the night before. The rest when on the boat in the morning.
The morning boat people did some good work with influencing the NPCs and made some headway. The evening boat PC did not get credit for those as the was not there.
In the end, when filling out the chronicles, the evening boat PC got credit for the ones he helped with only.
I see it as a group effort with individual results (if they split like that).
As for the paragraph, if you have a PC that doesn't help with any of it, obviously he's going to get swept up into the "hero worship" of the event, however, in the end, he isn't going to have the credit to back up the worship and would only get influence credit for the ones he helped with.
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when I ran this, I had one PC that decided to go on the boat the night before. The rest when on the boat in the morning.I thought they explicitly COULDN'T take separate boats, as they needed to turn in the invitation as a single group to set foot on the island.
I may have missed that part in the scenario
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Well I screwed the pooch on this one. I ran it the other night and thought it was a group effort to influence the NPC's. Even with that and 3 of 6 players having a good diplomacy skills the group barely got the 3 required. In the end they got 5 out of 6. But 3 of those just barely influenced on the last round of social interaction. Oh well the players got one on me.
As a side note this is easily one of the most difficult things that I have run and I have been DMing various games for 30 years. From players going off book and trying to keep the game within a time crunch, to the large number of NPC role playing that is introduced at the exact same time, to the difficulty of the shadow demon having a gazillion resistances and being incorporeal, this scenario had a lot of stuff going on.
I have now played this as a player and judged it and both times I came away with a empty feeling that something was missing. I applaud the effort of creation of a scenario that is really different. I think in the end if there was a sense of accomplishment it would have been better, but coming up against a creature that could not be defeated and left on its own accord made things seem in the end an empty accomplishment.
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I have now played this as a player and judged it and both times I came away with a empty feeling that something was missing. I applaud the effort of creation of a scenario that is really different. I think in the end if there was a sense of accomplishment it would have been better, but coming up against a creature that could not be defeated and left on its own accord made things seem in the end an empty accomplishment.
I have a feeling that another scenario will be tying up the loose ends this one left. Perhaps Fortress of the Nail? We will just have to wait and see.
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I think the main thing making it difficult for me was keeping it within time frame and not changing the story for the main characters outside of the scenario despite some players best intention to do so.
If I was running this as a non-PFS scenario I would have took my time and played out all the things the players wanted to do, and wouldn't have been too concerned about players moving the story in a completly different direction.
When I mean different direction I had a player who was trying to poison the groom and take his place in the wedding ceremony and he himself get married to tha Blackros daughter. Way off story. But would have been a super fun twist in my own campaign.
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Venture-Captain, Michigan—Mt. Pleasant
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i asked a few other groups how they awarded the group prestige for this scenario and they did it the same way I did it. The entire group had to influence 3 of the NPC's it wasn't awarded individually.
That's how I did it as well. The group was sent to gain influence. It makes no sense if they had to each get influence. If that were the case, the best way to do it would be to have everyone aid another the best diplomancer and hope for extra influence points each check.
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I ran this and whoah ... it lasted for 5 ½ hours. This scenario can be long.
Solveig, Human Barbarian/Bard/Dragon Disciple, total level 7
Jo Stiggson, Human Paladin 3
Pregen Hayato, lvl 4 Samurai
I start by saying that this scenario demands a lot from the GM and the players alike. The players must be very observant, and the GM must have prepared absolutely everything. Without a track sheet this scenario becomes an ultimate mess.
The start was nice, and the players were really creative. They spent the free day browsing through the library, and the dwarf monk searched the library for pictures and information about the plant (he was osiriani). And that monk had ranks in profession (librarian), so I let him roll that with the +5 library bonus to find a book. That garnered him a +5 to the survival check when it became necessary. Other library checks were conducted, each carrying some information to them. I incorporated most of the Discovery things in this, so Jo Stiggson found out about Rubaani Shafar's interest in tales of battle and legends. This worked well, I thought.
The boat ride was nice and the RP was fine. It still bothers me a lot that the Welcome part says there are 2 influence checks whereas there are THREE. These small, seemingly minor, editing errors are so frustrating. I eventually made a mistake with these influence checks ... after the ceremony during the reception, I made the mistake of giving them two influence checks before having the speeches.
Anyway, Jo Stiggson managed to influence Rubaani Shafar by 3 successes and one time conversed with other guests. Solveig influenced Nigel Aldain (3 successes), Jeon Raeng-Woo (we dubbed him PSY and made him do Gangnam Style...) and Tancred Desimire (3 successes). Hung was with Solveig when she influenced Jeon, and thus had one influence. Pregen Hayato tried his best but didn't a single success. I'll get back to these below.
They skipped the Olaf battle, as IC they didn't have a clue and believed Eleanir's story. OOC they all knew about the ruse. Thus they lost almost half of the treasure. :(
The last match was horrible. I can't put to words the frustration I felt when I had to plow through numerous pages for Shadow conjuration, giant centipedes, shadow demon (making it young was a really douchy move, IMO), magic jar... I checked, and the group had no possibility to win. A 25 damage blow only did 2 damage (first half due to incorporeal, then the DR 10...) Fortunately the demon teleports away, but leaves the players confused. What's the Onyx Alliance? I found no explanation to this either.
In the aftermath I decided to reward them as a team. They were cheered as heroes, since, as a group, the got four different NPCs influence. So if I was to have their influences treat them differently, only Solveig would have gotten the success PP. I felt this to be injustice, as they eventually started to give these "discovery" checks to be done by the less charismatic (Hayato and Hung), and the influencing itself was left mainly to Solveig and Jo. To punish this sort of teamwork is rather against the nature of gaming so I disregarded such a method. In the end they had four influenced NPCs and I marked each NPC on their chronicle sheets.
All in all, I was rather disappointed by the time the scenario ended. The shadow demon attack is uncalled for, gives a near-unknown organization, feels impossible, and then just leaves. I know leaving open questions is good, but just annoying the players isn't. Otherwise the scenario has a lot to offer, albeit being cumbersome and time-consuming.
4 stars out of 5.
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stuff about Onyx Alliance
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stuff about Onyx Alliance** spoiler omitted **
What bothers me is that this Onyx Alliance doesn't seem to exist anywhere except in that one scenario and a convention special I will most likely never see in my life. The unofficial Pathfinderwiki holds a miraculous three rows of text regarding the organization.
I got my hands on Penumbral Accords, and the background information in the scenario are enough to suffice my curiosity. I find this information very relevant for the GM to explain the players/PCs if they happen to ask the mercenaries or Hamaria just what the hell is the Onyx Alliance...
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I just got a chance to play this module earlier this afternoon, and enjoyed it a great deal. I did have the advantage of playing a very social rogue/sorcerer, who is working towards arcane trickster, so I felt like I had the right sort of character to contribute and be successful.
Two humorous moments . . .
We had just finished running The Disappeared, so that one of the level two characters could be high enough level to play in Blackros Matrimony. In The Disappeared, Tancred Desimire turns out to be responsible for a whole bunch of trouble, so there was a lot of "Oh, it's THAT guy. We know HE'S up to no good!"
Upon arriving at the beach, things went down sort of like this . . .
Party: Halt, villains! What are you doing with the bride?
Shadow Lodge PC: Umm, actually, they're cool. It's kind of important that we swap one sister out for the other.
Rest of Party: What?!?
Aspiring Arcane Trickster: Oooh, this will be my best sleight of hand trick ever!
And so we managed to skip over that fight.
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I ran this scenario and we had a good time but I have a few questions and maybe a comment or two.
Party make up..Paladin (Cha based) + 11 Diplomacy, Rogue +7 Bluff, Fighter..lol skills at all and Wizard...not much to add.
First, the "Gaining Influence" mechanic...did GM's stop and explain how it works? Or did you just let the players figure it out
Here is what happened to us....
I tried to run it in game, with hints and a little direction but the party did not full catch on until after the first 2 attempts on the boat. First they split up, the Paladin was Andoran so he went right for Bedad, the rogue and wizard started to mingle and find the lay of the land the fighter started to eat and drink. Paladin tired to influence Bedad with a grand speech about how he needs to up hold the Andoran name and not make an ass out of himself (faction mission). It was a good speech, not really on topic but I gave him the plus +2 just for the entertainment...he rolled a one. Failed...since no one else was there I assumed the Influence Attempted failed.
Next the Wizard and the Rogue went after Nigel Aldain, they chatted him up then asked to make a knowledge local to find out more...bingo then found the weakness, I explained in character..the Rogue made a Bluff Attempt and the Wizard assisted both lauding his work at the museum, talk about how the pathfinder society is some times a little heavy handed and jabbing at him...telling how brave he was not to take the Blakros name and all the hardships he had to endure due to that decision. SO I gave the a +2 for good a good bluff and +4 for mentioning his weakness. The rogue rolled the check and wizard assisted. the y made it but only gained one influence...I sort assumed that since they both acted..bluffing one rolling and one assisting the Influence attempt was over.
After that the started all working together..the paladin rolling and everyone else assisting even the fighter. I did force everyone even the assisting members to contribute to the attempt verbally..it seemed to go well then managed to get 4 out of the 6 people Influenced.
I think I ran this right..so can people assist and only those in the attempt get to act...meaning team work is key. Also I sort of hinted at the rules for Gaining Influence but never really spelled them out. I think there still confused by how the weakness worked at then of the module.
Did people find the fight on the beach harder then the end fight?
He is what happened to us....
Our group hard a much harder time time with Olaf then with the shadow demon. I almost TPKED the party but the managed to drop Olaf and one of the guards...the other one surrendered.
The shadow Demon was not as tough, they seemed to make all the will saves more then 50% of the time so the Shadow Conjuration and Shadow Evocation was more of an annoyance...since it drops to 20% strength. Also since there were only 4 players I was conjuring fiendish giant centipedes...only managed to poison the rogue.
The Wizard focus on Allistair...dropping him with Magic Missile (wand) and Scroaching Ray in 3 rounds. then the shadow demon came out, dropped Deeper Darkness, the Paladin countered with a Daylight ability I am not sure I did right...It did not dispell the effect but moved it up one level to dim light..allowing the Dwarf fighters dark vision to work...
I suppose I did make a mistake that turned the fight..I attacked with the shadow demo then spent the move to shadown Bend but did not move...the fighter charged the space he was in crited with a great ax power attacking and basically killed the demon in one hit..we even rolled the mischance. Since he was suppose to get away I did not kill him but dropped him to a knee and teleported away on his next turn (next in the init order). I am thinking that was right...
It just seemed like the Barbarian beach fight was tougher with the amount of damage thrown around since the Shadown demon Conjured the first 3 rounds while in Allistair.
All in all we had a good time...just a few things I was not sure on and was wondering how other people handled it
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I ran this scenario and we had a good time but I have a few questions and maybe a comment or two.
Party make up..Paladin (Cha based) + 11 Diplomacy, Rogue +7 Bluff, Fighter..lol skills at all and Wizard...not much to add.** spoiler omitted **...
Killing the shadow demon with one hit requires a magic weapon, and the crit should deal 110 damage. See, first you halve it because of the Shadow Demon's incorporeality, and you get 55. Then the DR kicks in and it drops to 45 damage, and that's the demon's total hit points.
Paladins rock this though. With Smite Evil they ignore the DR, which is very good already.
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The way I have read the various conflicting texts on prestige, I *think* this is how it goes:
* If the party as a whole influences 3 guests, then the whole party gets the 1PP for mission completion.
* On the Chronicle sheet, each player only gets "influence" with NPCs he or she personally influenced.
To me, this is the only fair way to run it - otherwise, there really isn't a way to get the prestige point unless you do everything yourself, and so does everyone else. There are mechanics (the Trade Prince's visit) to tell you when you've already gotten influence with a particular NPC, so presumably you can concentrate on others then. Otherwise, everyone should be influencing everyone all the time, and no one should Aid Another because it reduces your own reward, and there's no benefit to working as a team.
Either the mission is completed or it isn't. If the Society wants to reward some members of a team and not others when the team accomplishes their goal, we open a very dangerous box full of Pandora.
Anyway, that's the way I've been running it.
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I ran this scenario for the first time this weekend. The players enjoyed it, as did I. My biggest complaint/disappointment was actually with the editing of the box text. I would read the text, read it again, and realize it was wrong. Is it too much to ask Paizo to make sure the editors check for proper grammar in box text?
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I ran this scenario and we had a good time but I have a few questions and maybe a comment or two.
Party make up..Paladin (Cha based) + 11 Diplomacy, Rogue +7 Bluff, Fighter..lol skills at all and Wizard...not much to add.** spoiler omitted **...
Killing the shadow demon with one hit requires a magic weapon, and the crit should deal 110 damage. See, first you halve it because of the Shadow Demon's incorporeality, and you get 55. Then the DR kicks in and it drops to 45 damage, and that's the demon's total hit points.
Paladins rock this though. With Smite Evil they ignore the DR, which is very good already.
Oh man!!! I messed that up...I missed the incorporeal man I mucked that one up...He did a bunch of damage power attacking with his great ax 3d12 + 33 so he would not have taken the demon out so quick...hmm Darn.
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Oh man!!! I messed that up...I missed the incorporeal man I mucked that one up...He did a bunch of damage power attacking with his great ax 3d12 + 33 so he would not have taken the demon out so quick...hmm Darn.
I think what you did had little to do with the outcome. The shadow demon lasts only for the number of rounds Fourchek was around, regardless of whether the demon is winning or not.
Also - I didn't remember to bring this up - the start fights within the pavilion. I ruled that there was normal light inside, bright light outside. Thus the deeper darkness drops the normal light to regular darkness, allowing characters with darkvision to see normally inside. Going outside the pavilion would allow them to see in dim light (bright -> normal -> dim). At least that's how I saw it to be.
So I came into this scenario with a personal mission of getting a blackrose daughter to fall in loive with me. So I dropped 3 grand on a philter of love and tricked Hammaria into drinking it alone with my gnome. There's full influence for ya.
Too bad Hamaria Blakros is the mother of Michellia. :)
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So I came into this scenario with a personal mission of getting a blackrose daughter to fall in loive with me. So I dropped 3 grand on a philter of love and tricked Hammaria into drinking it alone with my gnome. There's full influence for ya.Too bad Hamaria Blakros is the mother of Michellia. :)
[gnomelogic]She's still somebody's daughter. Gotta fight that Bleaching somehow.[/gnomelogic]
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[gnomelogic]She's still somebody's daughter. Gotta fight that Bleaching somehow.[/gnomelogic]So I came into this scenario with a personal mission of getting a blackrose daughter to fall in loive with me. So I dropped 3 grand on a philter of love and tricked Hammaria into drinking it alone with my gnome. There's full influence for ya.Too bad Hamaria Blakros is the mother of Michellia. :)
...ew.
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Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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Oh man!!! I messed that up...I missed the incorporeal man I mucked that one up...He did a bunch of damage power attacking with his great ax 3d12 + 33 so he would not have taken the demon out so quick...hmm Darn.I ran this scenario and we had a good time but I have a few questions and maybe a comment or two.
Party make up..Paladin (Cha based) + 11 Diplomacy, Rogue +7 Bluff, Fighter..lol skills at all and Wizard...not much to add.** spoiler omitted **...
Killing the shadow demon with one hit requires a magic weapon, and the crit should deal 110 damage. See, first you halve it because of the Shadow Demon's incorporeality, and you get 55. Then the DR kicks in and it drops to 45 damage, and that's the demon's total hit points.
Paladins rock this though. With Smite Evil they ignore the DR, which is very good already.
Shadow demons have the incorporeal subtype. That means they cannot be critically hit, either.
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Deussu wrote:
Finlanderboy wrote:
So I came into this scenario with a personal mission of getting a blackrose daughter to fall in loive with me. So I dropped 3 grand on a philter of love and tricked Hammaria into drinking it alone with my gnome. There's full influence for ya.
Too bad Hamaria Blakros is the mother of Michellia. :)
[gnomelogic]She's still somebody's daughter. Gotta fight that Bleaching somehow.[/gnomelogic]
...ew.
SO here is how it went down.
"Ok, You see Hamaria Blackrose come into the room."
"There is my target"
"Do you want to know more about her first?"
"Is she a Blackrose?"
"Yes."
"Is she hot?"
"Yes."
"Thats all I need."