The Jade Regent:
Book 1 Brinewall Legacy: August 25, 2012
A lone hero named Streamer who had eliminated the young Black Dragon Broken Fang and was present during part of the time of the Festival came out of retirement to take on a mission from the town of Sandpoint and brought with him a Garundi fighter named Makron Tek and a Cleric named Pixie Lips, saved the halfling ranger named Walthus Proudstump from the Faceless Stalker and started their attack on the goblins of the marsh.
They were met by a young Alchemist by the name of Morvius Mrack in the goblin village where they were then able to eliminate them all and find a map of the marsh to find the chief's treasure. Exploring further in the swamp led the group to a cave filled with skeletons all armed with swords from Tian Xia. Defeating their leader, the group found a message written in the language of Tian Xia and decided to show it to their friend Ameiko who could potentially be able to read the document.
Ameiko read the scroll being a message from her grandfather to her late father written 30 years prior gave her the idea to pay her buddy Sandru to launch a caravan to Brinewall Castle to see what happened to her gramps. They were then joined by a Blazko and a Baba Giza on their journey to Brinewall. The group found a secret entrance to the castle and was able to EVENTUALLY,(after deposing a lot of corbies, a yamagushi tengu, harpy and f&!*ing around with a catapult) get the Warding Box with the Amatatsu Seal conferring scion-ship upon all those present, with a plethora of disturbing visions to wit.
Book 2
Ameiko after being in a coma for the castle affair, felt her family's history needed to be researched and they decided to go to Kalsgard and onward to Minkai. Book 2 was one of upheaval because lots of party members decided that going back to Sandpoint was best for them. Highlights included, breaking into a Jarl's house extorting information from his wife, breaking onto a viking funeral ship to get back a Katana sword only to be bushwhacked by ninjas.
They then murdered a bunch of guild members for kidnapping their Varki friend and then found the location of their nemesis in a castle outside of town. Along the way, a half-elf druid named Treebark joined the group.
Fighting some ogre mages and an oni they were able to retrieve Ameiko's sword and the guide they required to cross the Crown.
Along the way they befriended a Were-bear.
Intermezzo:
The group stays in Kalsgard for a month, acquiring the proper equipment for the trek across the north pole and sells Ravenscraig fortress for a fine bit of cash.
As the group left the Lands of the Linnorm Kings and entered the Crown they were magically whisked off to another plane by the Baleful coven in which the PCs had to fight a mother scorned for the death of her ogre mage boy, hag and another witch.
Book 3:
After defeating the coven, the group advanced north eventually coming across the last major settlement of the north, Iqualiat, which was being tormented by an evil shaman, who no one knew was actually evil and a white dragon. They dispelled the possessed Naquun, who joined the party and eventually killed the shaman and the white dragon.
Continuing forward the cult's leader who was trying to destroy the world with wild wind storms. The party entered her tower ranger style where the ½ ork cleric fell. They defeated the evil sylph and moved onward into the snow. Where they were being followed by an army of undead creatures. Thanks to the help of a long dead hero they were able to defeat the army.
The cleric as crazy as he was bum rushed a gigantic spider and died for his try. The party then advanced into the Yeti caves and fought off scores of undead and the druid was able to charm the yeti king to allowing them pass.
Book 4:
Finally reaching the Dragon Empires section of Golarion, the party was welcomed to Ordhu-Agenhei in the nation of Hongal and was made guests of honor for the princes festivities. (One of the most fun experiences I had Gming ) The prince's games were entertaining, funny and allowed all of the characters to shine even the NPCs who were always in the back seat. The last feast coincided with a bushwhack by ninjas sent to kill the PCs and Ameiko, where they barely got out alive only with the help of Miyaro a Kitsune Rogue. The prince kicked the group out of the city, not willing to get his brother into a war with Jade Regent's forces.
The group then made their way into the Forest of Spirits where they had some interesting encounters with the varying kami and oni spirits inhabiting the forest. The kami then requested that the PCs go in and get their house back for them. After a grueling four story dungeon crawl, they finally defeated the leader of the Hobgoblin Oni forces and attained another intelligent weapon, who became friends with Suishen. At this point, Mary, Dae-han and Rogue guy showed up.
Book 5:
The group made their way into Minkai and here is where s&*& gets real thick... The big questions get asked: How are you going to run a country you have never been to? How do you get allies? And so on... Miyaro leads the group to meet with a ronin named Jiro who is surpervising a group of farmers and soldiers who are having difficulties with bandits.
The PCs agree to take on their castle while Jiro and his army take on the bulk of the army. The group then assaulted the castle and were able to take down the leadership with some clever interplay between the Paladin and alchemist. Dae-han the tengu fighter died in this battle...
The group was then tasked with gathering the support of the merchants, the ninja, the samurai and the geisha. The group met simultaneously with the Geisha and Ninja clans and went to rescue a key geisha who was being held by her step-father, who turned out to be a powerful Wujen wizard. Treebark was killed in this encounter and then was resurrected into a parrot. They enlisted the help of a turtle guy and were attacked by a sea dragons and then met and defeated the wizard saving the geisha. The other group tracked down the ninja assassin and defeated him after losing Miyaro in the process. A member of the group got the ninja's coin and turned evil, which turned in a pvp situation where the rogue was forced to leave the party.
The group then ambushed Daimyo on his way to his castle and were able to convince him that the Jade Regent was evil, the Daimyo fought for the party during this epic battle taking down some hefty customers, the Daimyou then commited Seppukku and left the governorship to his younger brother. They then went back to the castle and were attacked by a larger group of enemy soldiers. The PCs narrowly defeated them.
Book 6:
The group snuck into the capital of Kasai and were tasked with getting the people behind their coup, and the blessings of the five imperial families. Ameiko was charmed and commited suicide but was resurrected by Koya and the group went into the well of demons. They eliminated certain evil spirits but made deals with others.
Ameiko and the party empathized with the spirit Shojinawa Ito and allowed him to possess her to get out of well of demons. However, he made a side deal with the alchemist to remain in Ameiko's body while he continually cast conceal alignment on him/herself after he conjured a fake him leaving the body. Jiro's sohei assistant was going to be executed and the PCs had to rescue her. They did. The next thing was the taking down the Jade Regent.
The group came in and were able to use the seal to make the terracota soldier join with them and advances on the castle's entrance. The group then made their way to the treasure room to get the remaining seals from the dragon where they were able to sneak in and steal it from him as he meditated.
The pcs then attacked kabuki theater of the castle and were wiped out by the last Commander with her naginata blade.
The Jade Regent and Ammunaron decided to resurrect Ameiko and inadvertently resurrected Morvius Mrak and he went to meet up with the remaining members of the party to plan the assault. Through his roguish ninja connections the rogue reappeared to help the party take down the Jade Regent and went to see the Raven Prince and was able to hire him for a job in Xa Hoi to kill Pham Duc Quan, the dragon king.
Final Showdown:
The group arrived with the regular citizens of Minkai for the execution of Ameiko outside the city gates. The group attacked and were able to bring down the Jade Regent, the Typhoon Commander and Renshii Meiida, she went into a blood rage and was mowed down by an overwhelming onslaught of bombs by the alchemist. However, Anamurumon was able to escape.
Epilogue: Ameiko(Ito) and Morvius get married and bring forth the knowledge that the Jade Regent and Anamurumon were actually oni and they blame everything on the land of Chu Ye and is preparing a large naval armada to destroy the oni once and for all.
Due to the relatively high Rebellion Point score, turning Minkai's problems outward works to unite the people under Empress(or) Ameiko Mraak and her husband. As a one shot I may run a mini campaign for this conflict later.
Finished March 15, 2014
Review:
Book 1(Luckily, I am running JR on Pbp so I still remember most stuff)
The goblins and Walthus Proudstump. My players loved the grizzled Proudstump, who broke the mold of how a halfling is usually portrayed with gritty which I laid a layer of Lee Marvin from the Big Red One onto character as a veteran who helped the players get the job done.
The Goblin threat was good and kept the tension up.
After the goblins, I could see how the story can go amiss if the players were totally disinterested in following the tracks in the mud or didn't care about the skeletons. (The book does give some hints on how to get the players back out there, though)
The skeleton cave was well done and the players liked it.
Brinewall was good and the players enjoyed running through the castle with it's inherent dangers. How the harpy turns on them is good but depending on how injured she is I would have her fly off afterwards and come back maybe or just go where she wants to.
Book 2:
After getting to Kalsgard, the tension stays high throughout. When I was running the adventure the group was in complete flux so I couldn't run the tension encounters which was a shame but it did have some really cool moments... taking down the rimerunners guild, Asvig and the ninja battle scene on the burning ship... Ravenscraig was probably the best crawl in the game and its scope is probably what all of the crawls should have been.
Book 3:
The traveling and random encounters were the best with the side encounters on the way Iqualiat were fun and memorable. The second best NPC that my players liked was Naquun, because they were able to dispel the possession on him and my voice acting turned him into a perennial favorite(Think of Rick James as an Eskimo, baby!)
The white dragon was fun and Katiyana's tower was cool but I found the idea of a Yeti being attracted to the ghost of a Sylph ridiculous and then getting possessed dopey, so I augmented it... turning it into a rp battle of wits between my druid and the ghost with the yeti where the druid's diplomacy skill outshone that of Katiyana.
Book 4:
Starts off amazing, the feasts were fun and exciting and the RP was off the chisain... The encounters in the Forest were great as well but that damned House was completely and utterly tedious is beyond mention. The enemies were generally one of two kinds and just more and more boring.
In retrospect, I probably should have run the tournament adventure instead which a lot of people said was a good fit...
Book 5:
All in all a great book, if only they had come up with the option of sneaking into the Daimyo's castle, it would have prevented me from railroading the group but they snuck into the camp instead without any backup and then rp the Daimyo against the Jade Regent, helping the group defeat the Oni who was with him and then he committed seppukku. As I said this one was great.
Book 6:
Part 1 was ok... there should have been more options to make the people like the rebellion, one or two more optional encounters.
Part 2 was great... I liked it because of the lethality and the potential negotiations the party can make if the wanted to avoid a fight. My group chose to fight some and make deals with others. I think that is what makes it great the options.
Part 3:
The assault on the castle was good and the party enjoyed even though they were unsuccessful the first time.
If Ameiko was not possessed I probably would have had her destroy the seals and call for elections and she probably would have head back to Sandpoint to run her tavern and the Glass Factory probably selling that and staying the spunky woman she is. I personally figured that Ameiko would be a horrible Empress