Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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I've read through it, and have plans to run it next week. I've spotted a couple things I want to point out/discuss, mostly minor. I'm sure others will come along with more important things than I, but I figured I'd at least start the process:
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1 - The title, once again, is an unnecessary spoiler. Why do you guys keep doing this?
Call it anything other than this spoilerific title, please. Of course, it's too late for this one, but can we please avoid this mistake in the future?
2 - Torrential rains from a storm lasting several days, and you find tracks around the broken down cart? The location of these tracks, and perhaps the cart, needs to be changed to the stables. I'd actually rather the tracks weren't present, at all. It's a much better surprise, that way.
3 - I'm always dismayed when intelligent, important people do silly things like leave personal journals behind while taking entire armies with them when they leave their headquarters "in a hurry." I will be reworking a few of these set pieces to include burned notes or supplies left behind under the assumption that Vaga would follow with them.
4 - So, if the PCs don't use or know the pass phrase for the gargoyle, and drive it off instead of killing it, then they fail? It won't return until the geas forces it back (which, I'm assuming, would be after 24 hours, when things start to go badly for it), well after the PCs have likely left. Do we really not give them their prestige point because the gargoyle escaped? I don't think I'm going to do this, as the gargoyle will fight to the death to instead escape the geas.
That's all I have, for now. If I don't come up with anything else, I will at least post a write-up of the adventure after I run it next week.
PS - Vaga is one of my new favorite bad guys. Awesome job on her, Larry. You're rapidly becoming a favorite, when it comes to giving bad guys a personality I get to play with.
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Larry, did you envision the manor house as built into a mountain or hillside? The map on page 6 makes it appear so, but the location of the windows contradicts my theory. What does the surrounding countryside look like? Hill country, forest, plains? The description says the manor is the only shelter in sight. I'm confused.
First, I concur with Drogon. I do love the maps for this one. However, I think the scale is wrong. It appears it should be 1 square = 10 feet. Otherwise, how can 4 large creatures hide in a 10x10 haystack in the stable? The same issue goes for the fountain. When I draw this map out, the first modification will be the scale.
Also, with a title like Day of the Demon you are begging players to bring paladins. Pretty much every monster that hides is going to be located with the detect evil radar. This ability is going to negate at least three "surprise!" encounters. There are two paladins in the party I am running on Sunday so I expect to be grouchy on Monday.
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First, I concur with Drogon. I do love the maps for this one. However, I think the scale is wrong. It appears it should be 1 square = 10 feet. Otherwise, how can 4 large creatures hide in a 10x10 haystack in the stable? The same issue goes for the fountain. When I draw this map out, the first modification will be the scale.
well crap, that defeats paying to print the map out then :/
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Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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I do love the maps for this one. However, I think the scale is wrong. It appears it should be 1 square = 10 feet. Otherwise, how can 4 large creatures hide in a 10x10 haystack in the stable? The same issue goes for the fountain. When I draw this map out, the first modification will be the scale.
Completely agree. Looking it over it is totally obvious that the scale marker was messed up. The upstairs hallways would be 2' hallways if the scale was correct. The shaft to get down into the basement (B7) would likewise be an impossible fit. There are also a lot of 2' beds designed for kids. I guess if the entire place is populated by halflings...
Anyhoo, this seems like something that should be corrected on the PDF.
Edit: I'm going to make a post to the same effect in the product page in the hope that it gets noticed by someone important.
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Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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The whole thing is off, actually. There's tons of miniature furniture (a grand piano that's only 2 & 1/2 feet wide?), hallways that are too narrow to navigate, stairs that even small sized creatures would have to squeeze onto, and stables that can only fit ponies (and most ponies I've seen wouldn't actually fit).
But if they correct it they'll simply re-label it to be 1square=10'. They won't double the squares, I suspect.
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Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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if a person does want to print it, knowing that they are going to have to use a 1 square = 10 feet scale is going to be key.
Yeah, you'd have to double the size and put one square at two inches. Then you'd have to draw in the other squares, or your players' heads will explode.
Although...
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Larry, did you envision the manor house as built into a mountain or hillside? The map on page 6 makes it appear so, but the location of the windows contradicts my theory. What does the surrounding countryside look like? Hill country, forest, plains? The description says the manor is the only shelter in sight. I'm confused.
From the text on page 3:
"The manor stands on a high bluff overlooking a well-traveled road leading through the mountains, making it a memorable landmark for travelers passing from Kintargo to points south and vice versa."From the text on page 5:
"Lightning slashes through the overcast sky, highlighting a darkened manor that stands defiantly upon a jagged bluff."
I envisioned it as a manor on a high hill with a cliff to one side. The grey "rock formations" in the map on page 6 I think are just ground outside rather than rock walls (otherwise the stable would be built into the rock).
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The whole thing is off, actually. There's tons of miniature furniture (a grand piano that's only 2 & 1/2 feet wide?), hallways that are too narrow to navigate, stairs that even small sized creatures would have to squeeze onto, and stables that can only fit ponies (and most ponies I've seen wouldn't actually fit).
But if they correct it they'll simply re-label it to be 1square=10'. They won't double the squares, I suspect.
Just stole a look at the map.
The only place I can see a problem is the four large creatures in encounter 1. Looks like the text was written for the low tier and copy-pasted for the high tier with no cross checking if it would fit.That's been a problem in previous scenarios, it's hardly new.
The fountain is a minor issue - it is more than 10' wide (just) and works fine at low tier and requires a suspension at high tier.
The grand piano is almost 10' across at the current scale, the beds are about 3' wide except the double that's about 5'. They're a bit more than one square long, so about 6'.
The upper hallways are about 3' wide - pretty standard for a house.
The trap in the encounter that talks about a 20' line reaches EXACTLY to the door on the current scale.
If you make the squares 10' all the furniture becomes sized for giants, and so do the doors.
So, I'm thinking the one problem requiring a suspension of disbelief is that first encounter at the higher tier. ANd perhaps the second one at high tier
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Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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The whole thing is off, actually. There's tons of miniature furniture (a grand piano that's only 2 & 1/2 feet wide?), hallways that are too narrow to navigate, stairs that even small sized creatures would have to squeeze onto, and stables that can only fit ponies (and most ponies I've seen wouldn't actually fit).
But if they correct it they'll simply re-label it to be 1square=10'. They won't double the squares, I suspect.
Just stole a look at the map.
The only place I can see a problem is the four large creatures in encounter 1. Looks like the text was written for the low tier and copy-pasted for the high tier with no cross checking if it would fit.
That's been a problem in previous scenarios, it's hardly new.The fountain is a minor issue - it is more than 10' wide (just) and works fine at low tier and requires a suspension at high tier.
The grand piano is almost 10' across at the current scale, the beds are about 3' wide except the double that's about 5'. They're a bit more than one square long, so about 6'.
The upper hallways are about 3' wide - pretty standard for a house.
The trap in the encounter that talks about a 20' line reaches EXACTLY to the door on the current scale.
If you make the squares 10' all the furniture becomes sized for giants, and so do the doors.So, I'm thinking the one problem requiring a suspension of disbelief is that first encounter at the higher tier. ANd perhaps the second one at high tier
All this might be standard for a real world house. But no game house I've ever seen mapped is that small. And, by rules as written, there is a lot of squeezing going on in all these locations.
Also, if my bed at home is only 6' long, my feet stick off the end. That pisses me off. I can't see "luxury" beds only being 3' x 6'.
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The whole thing is off, actually. There's tons of miniature furniture (a grand piano that's only 2 & 1/2 feet wide?), hallways that are too narrow to navigate, stairs that even small sized creatures would have to squeeze onto, and stables that can only fit ponies (and most ponies I've seen wouldn't actually fit).
But if they correct it they'll simply re-label it to be 1square=10'. They won't double the squares, I suspect.
Just stole a look at the map.
The only place I can see a problem is the four large creatures in encounter 1. Looks like the text was written for the low tier and copy-pasted for the high tier with no cross checking if it would fit.
That's been a problem in previous scenarios, it's hardly new.The fountain is a minor issue - it is more than 10' wide (just) and works fine at low tier and requires a suspension at high tier.
The grand piano is almost 10' across at the current scale, the beds are about 3' wide except the double that's about 5'. They're a bit more than one square long, so about 6'.
The upper hallways are about 3' wide - pretty standard for a house.
The trap in the encounter that talks about a 20' line reaches EXACTLY to the door on the current scale.
If you make the squares 10' all the furniture becomes sized for giants, and so do the doors.So, I'm thinking the one problem requiring a suspension of disbelief is that first encounter at the higher tier. ANd perhaps the second one at high tier
All this might be standard for a real world house. But no game house I've ever seen mapped is that small. And, by rules as written, there is a lot of squeezing going on in all these locations.
Also, if my bed at home is only 6' long, my feet stick off the end. That pisses me off. I can't see "luxury" beds only being 3' x 6'.
No argument about your bed in the real world. But in Pathfinder, max height for a human is 6'6".
Referencing the 2 bedrooms side by side - the rectangular ones. Outside dimensions of that block are 15' x 20', making each room 15' x 10' (less wall thickness). Makes the beds closer to 4' wide and nearly 7' long at a closer look. 10' squares makes those beds 8' x 14', great for a party but overkill for sleeping in. The text also says the beds have been taken out and replaced by cots.The trap text states it goes from the NW corner to the SE corner, a length of 20' - which is what 5' squares give.
Squeezing along the balcony - yep. But that only comes into play if there's a combat.
Hey guys I got a copy. The scale is 5-ft. You can blame me for any issues. In my turn over I had something different in the hay stack... The manor is built on a bluff, not in the mountain. There is squeezing. that shaft symbolizes rebirth into the sect of asmodious, ill let you infer what other shaft we squeeze through involving birth. I may have goofed with the fountain, but the denizens take flight making it have a third dimension thus solving the space issue. I admit the space restriction on maps was a challenge in my map turn over. This feedback helps.
Any other questions I'm happy to attempt to answer....
Larry
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Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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Yeah, I gotta say doubled in size makes the whole thing feel better. I get the "birth" idea, but that could have been built in still with nice, grand rooms. Looking at the map just makes me uncomfortable; it's so small at 1 square being 5 feet. d-:
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Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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The stalls are only 5' squares themselves, Mark. I don't mean to be a pest about this, but large creatures in confined spaces like those two fights ('cuz the gargoyle counts) makes for depressing combats where everyone just stands there and trades dice rolls.
Hey drogon,
Larry
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Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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I will absolutely use those kinds of tactics, Larry. Don't worry. And the first combat is certainly going to end up outside. For one, it has to. For another thing, I get to use fun environmental effects if it ends up outside. However, this forces me to alter what is written and presented in the scenario, and I'm not a fan of that option.
The second combat being multilevel will be cool with a bunch of medium gargoyles. With a single large gargoyle...not so much. And with the size of the balconies there is nowhere for him to land except above the dining room, which leaves him very few options for whatever he wants to do next.
Don't worry. I'll come up with stuff. It's just not a friendly map size. Confined spaces frustrate players just as much as GMs. And in a situation like this, it can generate a lot of arguments. That is definitely not something I'm a fan of.
We'll figure it out, though.
PS - Because I like beating a dead horse, apparently: Comparing the sizes of some of those rooms even to my own (tiny) house makes me cringe. My own master bedroom is bigger than that one, and I know it feels cramped; I live in it. The gold standard for comfortable guests in a store, restaurant, or at a party is 32 square feet per person. That's a little bigger than a 5' square, obviously. Entertaining guests in this house would have resulted in some very cramped, uncomfortable guests if the party went anywhere over a couple dozen people. I guess they were reclusive, and such, but maintaining appearances would be kind of hard.
Done, now. I'll leave it alone as of this...
Doug,
Drogon,
Larry
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Ran this yesterday at 6-7 tier with a melee heavy group, players had a great time.
The fight with the howlers: what I did was place each one on the upper rooms and one in the lower rooms. When the players got close to the wagon I had them jump out of the barn windows.
Fight at the fountain: lets just say it didnt survive to the second round.
Babau: skipped encounter due to time (lots of RP with 'Tilly')
Vaga went undiscovered as 'Tilly' until the very last fight. She slumbered "her saviour" who was behind the party defending poor'Tilly'and then attempted a coup de grace. Her paltry damage dice and my bad rolling allowed the characer an easy save.
At this point the players panicked - but they minimized the meta-gaming and went along with them as Tilly told them that the "thin man did this and ran off down the hall" as two other players chased after the "thin Man".
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Ran it today, for three pregens (Lem, Lini, Seelah) and a cleric who barely did anything. Tier 6-7. The howlers were easily dispatched without expending resources (couldn't hit barkskinned Seelah). The bard bypassed the gargoyle with Knowledge. The babau fight was the only one that was remotely difficult, so it seems bad if it's skipped for time. Tilly/Vaga has as her tactics to use "attacks from range", but her only damaging attack is magic missile. She managed a nice ray of enfeeblement at least but didn't hurt anyone, and the yeth hound was pounded by Seelah into dust. People enjoyed the ambience quite a bit but were a bit let down by how easy the final fight was, even though she got the drop on them and I gave her time for even more prebuffs than on the list, since they were totally unsuspicious of her.
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I ran this weekend for a table of six at the high tier. I had them pre-roll four Will saves, Perception checks and Sense Motive Checks to suspend the urge to metagame.
The howler encounter took longer than I expected and scored a number of hits with the quills. The poor barbarian got stuck with five of them.
Dan likely would remind me if I didn't add this part. His gunslinger blew the gargoyle's head off with a 90HP crit in the first round.
The encounter with Vaga was interesting. I placed her in the kitchen storeroom. The misdirection DC is only 13, so the Hellknight saw right through her. It did work against a detect magic and the players never searched her either. The chaotic good Ulfen female barbarian (grapple-monkey) immediately cuddled Vaga to comfort her, but couldn't penetrate the illusion. Despite their suspicions the players did not metagame. I still had her play innocent to see what the party would do. They decided to lock her into the storeroom (for her own protection) as they searched the rest of the house. After they left Vaga used her potion of gaseous form to escape. I considered having her shadow the party as they went through the house, but on her own she's not really a challenge and I didn't want to risk her getting spotted. Ultimately she stayed gaseous and, having taken the party's measure, returned to The Pit for the final encounter. The players found some evidence upstairs that Vaga was not telling the truth, but when they returned to question her she was gone.
I ran the optional encounter and hoo-boy, it was bad. The babau got a surprise round and lit up the Hellknight, then turned out the lights with a darkness. It went from bad to worse. Only one PC in the Tier 6-7 party had the means to see in the dark. I think I could have TPKed them if I would have been ruthless but frankly being slaughtered in darkness is simply not fun and leads to bitterness. Three PCs were down and two more were on the ropes when I had the last demon precipitously flee. This encounter took a very long time to run due to the party's inability to deal with under CRed monsters & darkness.
The encounter at The Pit was tactically challenging but the party was in no true danger. Vaga used invisibility to buy herself time, but she really couldn't deal damage. It was like fighting the bard in PFS#1-51 The Shadow Gambit. Two PCs fled due to the yeth hounds' baying, but even without them the players handled business without flinching.
In summary, I think Vaga is the highlight of the scenario and I look forward to getting better practiced at her ruse. I really like the idea of acting demon-possessed, that is just genius. I will have to use it next time I run this.
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Will, it's not reliable for me to say how long it will take until I've run it more. My first table took about 5 and a half hours but more than an hour was taken up by the optional encounter. I didn't trigger a fight with Vaga which probably saved time, as did Dan Luckett's crit on the gargoyle. There were six players which also can eat up time. So you can see there are a lot of variables at work. We never took a break either. I am thinking if you have less than 4 hours, you need to push the players to make their mind up on what action they will take before their turn comes. That's the #1 time sink; players need to be ready for their turn or be placed on Delay.
Victor, the item must be wielded, which means held in a free hand.
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Ran this twice at Connooga this past weekend. Once at low tier and once hight. The scale for the barn is impossible, so I upped it, thinking the map was off, and it worked fine both times. The gargoyle(s) were not much of a challenge either time, but both parties had ways to neutralize them. Vega was fun. She worked quite well for both groups. I even had a paladin fail to see through the mislead and couldn't bring himself to attack a child at the end.
The Babaus were deadly at both tiers. Darkness is always a heavy risk, and parties seem to have a tendency to send a lone flying member up to the balcony to drop a rope. This ends poorly for said character. Both groups had a player drop due to this, at high tier he was two away from dead.
The last fight is a nice reveal, but Vega is pretty much a kitten in terms of threat level. The Yeth hounds just don't have the staying power, hitting power, or fear DC. I love the story, but the big bad isn't a threat to really any group. Not sure what to do about that.
Overall it's got a great atmosphere, and both groups loved it. I agree that the Big Evil Guy shouldn't leave entire diaries around and that burned remains or the like fit the atmosphere better. The way to go with this seems to mirror a lot of tricks one might use for Empyreal Enlightenment: will/perception/sense motive rolled beforehand, and touches to the general table atmosphere to give a sense of something very off going on, just out of sight. The fights are decent, but not the main attraction, so don't worry too much about PCs blowing through combats initially. That being said, the babaus will humble many a party.
Not sure what to do with the scale. I agree that it feel incredibly cramped as is, especially the stables. The howlers are large in either tier, and fitting them isn't possible. Perhaps they're back from a hunt and attack the party from outside the stables? Whatever you do, if the scale stays the same, the fight needs to get outside and fast, perhaps as they come upon the wagon.
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Ran it one more time on Sunday. It is fast (though it was faster for the pregens that breezed through on Saturday, it was still fast for these guys too). This second group was 5 characters at APL 5, and they still played up after I mentioned how much of a breeze it was for the four pregens the day before. It was much more challenging for them, but they still pulled through with no casualties, and they could feel the creepy ambiance more since they weren't curbstomping everything. Particularly, this group had a lot of characters who had "level 1 AC" (AC 16 after mage armor), which really upped the challenge level a lot compared to buffed Seelah's AC 28. They had no frontliner. Only one character (the inquisitor, who had limited rounds of bane) could do sustainable damage. But they did have a witch with the sleep hex (the DC wasn't too high, but most of the enemies didn't have a great Will save).
They beat the howlers with two sleep hexes, one dropped from damage, and the other retreating from low health. They barded past the gargoyle (but this bard didn't have inspire courage). They set up a Rube-Goldberg-like gambit to open the armory, involving a summoned earth elemental with bull's strength and an assistant wielding a crowbar, and somehow they made the DC 28. The babaus were tougher for them because 3 babaus vs 5 PCs is way trickier for action economy than 2 babaus vs 4 PCs. The PCs kept using daylight and I kept dispelling their dayligt, but eventually sleep hex prevailed. The last one greater teleported away to tell Tancred about the little problem. The sorcerer, planning on Blakros Matrimony the following week, kept the copy of the note by Tancred about going to a wedding, hoping to use it to enhance RP in that scenario.
Vaga somehow was actually an interesting fight. First of all, they were blindsided by her. Second of all, they weren't paying attention to the sheet with the names of the serial killers. Third, their witch usually RPs singing a creepy lullaby with slumber hex. So the Lullaby Lady decided to invite the witch to join her in killing and posing the other PCs. Then I sung creepy lullabies for the rest of the fight, and had her go for her "possessed" gambit anyway when it was clear they were still confused about her betrayal. Combatwise, it was a challenge this time, though this is mainly because the cleric blew his channels on ineffectual alignment channels, so they didn't have good healing options available, and her yeth hounds, which couldn't hit the pregens, were nomming on the "level 1 AC" characters, including the witch (bad news because they need that witch). Vaga herself was magic missiling the inquisitor, who actually had a reasonable AC, and she was getting him low. But he proved to actually have cure magic that he just never used, and in a tense moment where the player initially wanted to heal himself, he healed the sleeping witch, who used his second sleep hex on Vaga (first failed, but he had accursed hex) and I rolled a 4. I might have actually beaten them there if my magic missile supply outlasted the inquisitors healing, which seemed likely. The bard declared countersong, saying "I don't think it's having an in-game effect, but this singing is creepy, so I'm going to countersong just in case". The yeth hounds were actually low enough in HD to be taken out by a color spray, and the party sorcerer got one that way, and they eventually uncovered Vaga's ruse when they found the real Tilly in the pit.
Meanwhile, I found the answer to my question on the product page, which was "why bother saying the book burns only non-evil PCs". The sorcerer had a bloodline ability to make characters count as evil for all purposes, which he used to get everyone the boon except the two PCs who refused. This included the Silver Crusade PC, but he completed his alternate Season 4 faction goal by helping the kids at the end and teaching them about ancient curses and evil magics so they can be better protected the next time. I called for Knowledge Arcana for this, which wasn't a high skill for him, so he blew an Evoking Day boon and also rolled really high, getting a 30 on Knowledge Arcana following some extremely high Diplomacy to calm them down and get them to listen. The Lantern Lodge cleric tried to use Bluff as a creative solution to his mission but failed. Also, the Grand Lodge mission is insultingly easy, since you can't even come close to completing the main mission without doing the Grand Lodge mission without doing something really weird (I guess a level 7 character could just blindly dimension door straight down and find the dungeons and do the same thing to get out, but even if you blindly dimension door down, the way back up is quite obvious from down there).
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I was in the same group as nosig above. I had offered her food/water when we met her and she barely ate which made me extremely suspicious so I sensed motive. Apparently I did not have enough intuition to see through her bluff.
I found out she was a bad "guy" when she stabbed me in the back as I was protecting her at the pit.
From now on I whack all little girls with non-lethal damage on sight! Its better to be safe than sorry. :)
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Regarding the map and sizing issues with the first encounter...I dont think there is necessarily anything wrong with it as written. No, it doesnt make sense for them all to occupy that small a space during combat, but I find it perfectly reasonable that they would likely sleep cuddled up together like many regular animals tend to do.
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Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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Reading through this thread again it seems the consensus is that the babaus are the only challenging fight. So, I'm going to make sure that I run it; time constraints be damned.
I'm curious, though: at sub-tier 3-4 the lone demon eventually tries to summon a buddy. At sub-tier 6-7, however, this tactic is left out. Obviously, they can attempt it, seeing as the ability is in the lower sub-tier. Should I not, seeing as it's not listed in the tactics the way it is in the low sub-tier? It should result in one extra each time, with a reasonable possibility of two. Of course, after hitting a success twice there is no reason to necessarily try for a third. Unless the party is tearing this encounter apart, as well.
Thoughts?
RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8
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I ran the table that Hyren played at, and here was the recap (spoilers abound).
I will preface by saying this -- Valsin didn't lie, Ostergarde is not a kind place.
They were a party of 5 at APL 6, so played the 6-7 subtier. Party consisted of a gunslinger, bard, cavalier, negative energy cleric, and a magus. After Valsin's breakdown, the bard rolled his knowledge checks, getting a 24 (29 after book modifiers) and missing the DC 30 by 1. This means that the gargoyle would engage when they got to it.
The first fight claimed the life of the cavalier's horse, Bloodwind the Third. The cavalier wiped the bitter tears from his face and the party prepared themselves for the mansion. Bard opened the door, then stepped in first.
Initiative was rolled, the gargoyle used it's surprise round (DC 30 stealth) to move into melee range with the bard. Gunslinger shot it a bit, it went, killed the bard with half it's attacks for the round, five foot closer and cripped the gunslinger. Cavalier stepped up, challenged, did some good damage. Cleric and magus chipped away at it, bard bled to death. Gunslinger retreated, went to fire and rolled a 1. Portfolio reroll for another 1. Gun jammed. Cavalier was the only target in range, and he had challenged, so I had the gargoyle "make an example of him." 100+ points of damage in one round, dropping him to negative 40ish. The party finished him off on the subsequent round.
Party was now down to three: magus, gunslinger, cleric. They began discussing retreat, leaving the house, regrouping, rezzing the dead, etc. I had Vaya start whimpering and get noticed, and she quickly drags the PCs in to what becomes a difficult situation for any character with a conscience. Do they leave as planned, abandoning the innocent folk to die? Or be the heroes, and come up with some way to get her family to safety? The gunslinger mentioned he was stealthy, and I had Vaya advantage this. "I'm sneaky too! I could show you where they are, then you could save them and we could all leave together!!" The party went for it. They gave the gunslinger darkvision and some buffs and sent him off with Vaya. He put her in his backpack. I was fine with it.
At this point I had the gunslinger accompany me to another table. We went through a couple of rooms, Vaya directing him as he made stealth checks. As he got into the area with the babaus, I figured that since Vaya is a serial killer, and is under orders to just murder any Pathfinders she encounters, she would do this "the fun way." Deep Slumber on the gunslinger. He failed his will save. Off screen, I had Vaya instruct the Babaus to strip him of his gear and tie him up for torture and killing later. Then, they were to await her signal to engage the remaining pathfinders upstairs. Vaya then went invisible and snuck back upstairs. The gunslinger and I then returned to the main table.
"Well guys, it's been a while, no gunslinger -- what do you want to do?" They start conversing, and decide that they'll write a note and then leave. At this point, I have Vaya drop her Summon Monster IV, blocking their escape with a wall of dretches. Combat starts and the babaus teleport in. It's pretty brutal, and ends with the cleric trying to escape by jumping off the nearby cliff and feather falling to safety. The babaus have greater teleport, however, and meet him on the ground, killing him moments later.
Overall, it was a game that would have been much better if:
1. The 6th player actually had a character level 3-7, and didn't leave to play at another table.
2. The bard had rolled 1 higher on his knowledge check.
3. They hadn't split the party, sending the gunslinger down by himself.
I think that everyone did have a good time, despite the fact that it was a brutal session. On the upswing, a TPK that quickly makes a ninety minute game!
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Bard rolled 1 higher...
Walter, what archetype was the bard? If it was a vanilla bard, he should have been able to take 20 on a knowledge check once a day, and since travel to Ostergarde takes more than a day and this is the only knowledge check to roll that day, it would have been a no-brainer to use it. That's how the two bards in my stories trounced the check.