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Gary ran this multiple times at various conventions, as well as its sequel Minion Quest II. It's a side quest to the Way of the Wicked AP that he made, and according to Book 6 it takes place during Book 2's ritual.
I would really like to run this for my group, but there's no way Gary's going to get this done by the time we get to that point, as he's publishing it in Book 7, as part of the Kickstarter for Throne of Night, and figured it'd be mid-2014 by the time it comes out.
Was there anyone here on the forums that happened to play it, and via spoiler tab say what happened during it, and what the mission was? Maybe how everyone got recruited? Would be a big help.
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I got to play this scenario (note, Minion Quest II, not I) with Gary at PaizoCon last summer and it was quite a bit of fun. One important thing about it is that you don’t play with your characters from the WotW AP, you play with lower-level, one-shot characters. We played with pregens, I don’t know if they come with the AP or if it’s possible for players to make up their own. But I was a 3rd-level warrior, I believe (maybe a fighter, don’t recall for sure).
Having said that, here’s what else I recall:
• The setting is after the fall of the capitol, when all the forces of evil are looting like crazy and much of the city is on fire. We started in the evil forces camp and were “recruited” a couple of ways. One of the leaders of the evil forces summoned us to his tent and gave us a mission to find the duke and bring him in, and told us that Grumblejack would come along and help us – and be in charge of us. But then, once we left the tent, the giant bugbear leader announced that he’d give the duke’s golden sword to whoever first brought him bottles of the 13 famous drinks of Talingarde – and Grumblejack told us that’s what we were going to do, because he wanted the sword, and he didn’t care about finding the duke.
• We collected the bottles in various ways – shaking down others in the camp, making Knowledge checks to know where in the city they might be, going into a burning alchemist’s shop (with an excellent Random Explosion Table) where we believed there might be some, getting past a manticore that was chained up near the entrance to a small catacombs (though I didn’t get past it – I died there).
• At the end of the quest for the beverages, of course, you find the duke also.
• There were other groups looking for the special beverages also, so there was a good race against time feel to it. And Grumblejack threatened to kill anyone who wasn’t taking the necessary risks to achieve the mission. He happened to appreciate something my character did and said, “I like you. I’ll eat you last!”
It had a really great flavor – helped further by Gary really getting into it – and was a lot of fun. Hope that’s helpful.
That description makes this adventure sound like 'The Three Stooges join the Forces of Evil'. In a good way. XD
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When I talked to Gary at PaizoCon 2013, he said that parts I, II, and III will all be included in book 7 of WotW. Ferrin has a pretty good synopsis of MinionQuest II. Minion Quest I was similar, we all played with level 3 pregens that had no more than 1 level in a PC class (I played Nick the Knife, a lvl 2 expert/lvl 1 rogue). Our quest was another where were not necessarily expected to be able to complete it. Yet, with heavy casualties, we did. I am looking forward to getting these, but at the same time I think some of the fun was from having Gary GM. He is hilarious.
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** spoiler omitted **
Messaged Rogue Eidolon, and this is everything I was told in addition to what he said before.
We were just already agents of the Evil PCs. We started by being given contradictory instructions that we decided to interpret as taking down a fiery good-aligned envangelical cleric, "killing him without killing him". We decided to dig up dirt on him. We had heard that he had a gold holy symbol instead of silver, so maybe he was greedy or embezzling? Since my friend Cedric and I were both playing an Int 8 psycho, the brains of the operation was definitely the suave con man rogue played by Amber Scott's Significant Other (Jason, I think). I went in and pretended to be giving a confessional while the others looked for clues upstairs. Unfortunately, when the Vow of Silence nun got into a fight with one of the snoopers, and the stress caused the cleric to reveal his secret--he was a werewolf! I managed to run away and alert some guards, who caught him in hybrid form, and the guards killed him, so we somehow achieved our objective. The evil ones were pleased and sent us to recruit a hydra by whatever means necessary. We bought lots of ingested poison and slathered it on a goat, but in the end, the beast ambushed us and nearly killed all of us. We managed to catch it and bring it back only because one of the other minions (I think Amber's aristocratty minion who actually had social skills) managed to play on Grumblejack the ogre's pride to get him to come help.
The VoS nun was not necessarily a monk. She had a longsword and seemed like a cleric or something. She stayed on the first floor (and also apparently the chaining room where the priest usually chained himself when he went wolf was in a secret room in the basement).
No one else was in the church at the time. She just never talked or even tried to communicate with us. She watched the remaining characters while I went to confessional. She may have had Silent Spell? I don't know. You might be able to duplicate it with Deaf Oracle? What you have to understand about Gary is that he rarely followed the rules, but he did what he did with such panache that even the most rules-loving players just rolled with it.
With the hydra, it kind of went nuts on us, but we did manage to defeat it due to it splitting its attacks and some good luck, plus Grumblejack. The poisoned goat was one of like 10 crazy schemes we considered, and the one we went with in the end. But it wouldn't eat the goat, so it didn't work!
3000 gold was way more than we got, and particularly a choice of any PC class is way stronger, since we were random. What Gary did was he had a stack of these guys to hand out each time you died, and IIRC we all had non-elite array NPC stats 13 12 11 10 9 8 or something similarly weak. Somehow we had no deaths until the hydra and it basically just started murdering us. It was all due to clever planning and teamwork, but the idea was that we would die a lot and that was OK. I mean...we were expendable minions, not PCs. So like baseline NPC wealth and bad stats ahoy!
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I have no idea of the Vow of Silence Nun has a name or not, but here are the builds for the NPCs that are apparently encountered for Minion Quest 1, during Week 14 in Book 2. Nor do I have any clue if these builds are anything close to what Gary did. Book 7 isn't out, and my players start this next week. I had nothing to lose.
CR 2
XP 600
Male human afflicted werewolf expert 3
LG Medium humanoid (human, shapechanger)
Init +3; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +8
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DEFENSE
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AC 15, touch 11, flat-footed 14 (-1 Dex, +4 armor)
hp 27 (3d8+3); Death Threshold -15
Saves Fort +2, Ref +0, Will +5
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OFFENSE
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee mwk heavy mace +4 (1d8+2/19-20)
Ranged light crossbow +1 (1d8/19-20)
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STATISTICS
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Abilities Str 12 (+1), Dex 8 (-1), Con 12 (+1), Int 9 (-1), Wis 14 (+2), Cha 11 (+0)
Base Atk +2; CMB +3; CMD 12
Feats Improved Initiative, Persuasive
Skills Diplomacy +8, Heal +6, Intimidate +5, Knowledge (geography) +3, Knowledge (local) +3, Knowledge (religion) +4, Perception +8, Perform (oratory) +6
Languages Common
SQ change shape (human, hybrid, and wolf; polymorph)
Gear mwk chain shirt, mwk heavy mace, light crossbow with 20 bolts, cleric vestments, gold holy symbol
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Preacher Ezekiel Hawthorn (Werewolf Hybrid Form)
CE Medium humanoid (human, shapechanger)
Init +4; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +8
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DEFENSE
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AC 18, touch 10, flat-footed 18 (+4 armor, +4 natural)
hp 30 (3d8+6); Death Threshold -17
Saves Fort +3, Ref +1, Will +5
Defensive Abilities DR 5/silver
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OFFENSE
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee heavy mace +4 (1d8+6/19-20), bite -1 (1d6+1 plus trip)
Ranged light crossbow +2 (1d8/19-20)
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STATISTICS
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Abilities Str 14 (+2), Dex 10 (+0), Con 14 (+2), Int 9 (-1), Wis 14 (+2), Cha 11 (+0)
Base Atk +2; CMB +4; CMD 14
Feats Improved Initiative, Persuasive
Skills Diplomacy +8, Heal +6, Intimidate +5, Knowledge (geography) +3, Knowledge (local) +2, Knowledge (religion) +4, Linguistics +2, Perception +8, Perform (oratory) +6
Languages Common, Sign Language
SQ change shape (human, hybrid, and wolf; polymorph), lycanthropic empathy (wolves and dire wolves)
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SPECIAL ABILITIES
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Change Shape (Su): All lycanthropes have three forms—a humanoid form, an animal form, and a hybrid form. Equipment does not meld with the new form between humanoid and hybrid form, but does between those forms and animal form. A natural lycanthrope can shift to any of its three alternate forms as a move-equivalent action. An afflicted lycanthrope can assume animal or hybrid form as a full-round action by making a DC 15 Constitution check, or humanoid form as a full-round action by making a DC 20 Constitution check. On nights when the full moon is visible, an afflicted lycanthrope gains a +5 morale bonus to Constitution checks made to assume animal or hybrid form, but a –5 penalty to Constitution checks made to assume humanoid form. An afflicted lycanthrope reverts to its humanoid form automatically with the next sunrise, or after 8 hours of rest, whichever comes first. A slain lycanthrope reverts to its humanoid form, although it remains dead.
Lycanthropic Empathy (Ex): In any form, natural lycanthropes can communicate and empathize with animals related to their animal form. They can use Diplomacy to alter such an animal's attitude, and when so doing gain a +4 racial bonus on the check. Afflicted lycanthropes only gain this ability in animal or hybrid form.
Lycanthropy
A creature that catches lycanthropy becomes an afflicted lycanthrope, but shows no symptoms (and does not gain any of the template's adjustments or abilities) until the night of the next full moon, when the victim involuntarily assumes animal form and forgets his or her own identity. The character remains in animal form until the next dawn and remembers nothing about the entire episode (or subsequent episodes) unless he makes a DC 20 Will save, in which case he becomes aware of his condition.
A remove disease or heal spell cast by a cleric of 12th level or higher cures the affliction, provided the character receives the spell within 3 days of the infecting lycanthrope's attack. Alternatively, consuming a dose of wolfsbane (Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook 560) gives an afflicted lycanthrope a new Fortitude save to recover from lycanthropy.
In their humanoid form, werewolves look like normal people, though some tend to look a bit feral and have wild hair. Eyebrows that grow together, index fingers longer than the middle fingers, and strange birthmarks on the palm of the hand are all commonly accepted indications that a person is in fact a werewolf. Of course, such telltale signs are not always accurate, for such physical traits exist in normal people as well, but in areas where werewolves are a common problem, the traits can be damning regardless.
Of all the various types of lycanthropes, it is the werewolf that is the most widespread and the most feared. Stories of werewolves haunting lonely forest roads, prowling misty moors on the outskirts of rural societies, or dwelling in the shadows of the largest cities are widespread as well. In most societies, werewolves are feared and despised—and with good reason, as the typical werewolf personifies all that is savage and bestial in a lycanthrope. This isn't to say that good-aligned werewolves are unknown, but they're certainly a minority among their kind, and most werewolves are evil murderers who delight in the hunt and the succulent taste of raw meat.
Just as wolves are pack animals, werewolves have been known to gather in colonies and live among their own kind, humanoid by day and beast at night. Visitors to werewolf villages are generally rushed out of town before nightfall so as not to discover the citizenry's dark secret—unless, of course, the pack decides that the unlucky visitor won't be missed by friends back home.
CR 2
XP 600
Female human oracle 3
LG Medium humanoid (human)
Init +1; Senses Perception +5
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DEFENSE
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AC 17, touch 14, flat-footed 13 (+3 Cha, +3 armor, +1 dodge)
hp 30 (3d8+6); Death Threshold -17
Saves Fort +5, Ref +4, Will +3; +1 vs. language-dependent spells
Defensive Abilities Resist sonic 5
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OFFENSE
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee mwk light mace +3 (1d6)
Ranged dagger +3 (1d4/19-20)
Oracle Spells Known (CL 3th; concentration +10)
1st (6/day)—command (DC 15), cure light wounds, forbid action (DC 15), fumbletongue (DC 15)
0th (at will)—create water, detect magic, guidance, light, read magic
Mystery lunar
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STATISTICS
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Abilities Str 10 (+0), Dex 13 (+1), Con 14 (+2), Int 10 (+0), Wis 10 (+0), Cha 17 (+3)
Base Atk +2; CMB +2; CMD 13
Feats Combat Casting, Dodge, Great Fortitude, Silent Spell, Spell Focus (enchantment)
Flaws Partial Deaf (-2 to hearing-based Perception and Linguistics checks to understand a spoken language)
Skills Heal +5, Knowledge (nature) +6, Knowledge (religion) +5, Linguistics +1 Perception +5, Spellcraft +5
Languages Common, Sign Language
SQ oracle's curse (deaf), revelations (mantle of moonlight, prophetic armor)
Gear potion of cure moderate wounds, wand of know the enemy (8 charges), wand of remove sickness (10 charges), wand of shield of faith (22 charges), smokestick, thunderstone, mwk studded leather, dagger, masterwork light mace, cleric vestments, spell component pouch, silversheen (2 doses)