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Hey, folks. I've been following the discussion here for a while and taking lessons learned for any future projects I work on. I can't comment or speculate on any of the decisions and revisions that were made after I submitted my text, but I'd like to try to clarify a couple of things.
1) Summoning a fiendish chimera is an option from the Pathfinder #77 article on Baphomet (see page 75). Priests of Baphomet can summon one with summon monster VI. Although Thurl isn't technically a priest, he's a summoner who fervently worships the demon lord. It just made sense to me that he'd be able to do it, too.
2) The missing acid flask component for acid spray was a total oversight on my part. I've added "Ensure material components and foci for spells are in character's gear" to my NPC creation checklist to make sure that kind of thing doesn't happen again.
And, yes, my intent was for Tancred to drink the potion of haste at the first sign of trouble. I think I had originally given a potion to him at both tiers, but the one from the lower tier was subsequently removed.
I hope that helps. Thanks.
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Hey, folks. I've been following the discussion here for a while and taking lessons learned for any future projects I work on. I can't comment or speculate on any of the decisions and revisions that were made after I submitted my text, but I'd like to try to clarify a couple of things.
1) Summoning a fiendish chimera is an option from the Pathfinder #77 article on Baphomet (see page 75). Priests of Baphomet can summon one with summon monster VI. Although Thurl isn't technically a priest, he's a summoner who fervently worships the demon lord. It just made sense to me that he'd be able to do it, too.
2) The missing acid flask component for acid spray was a total oversight on my part. I've added "Ensure material components and foci for spells are in character's gear" to my NPC creation checklist to make sure that kind of thing doesn't happen again.
And, yes, my intent was for Tancred to drink the potion of haste at the first sign of trouble. I think I had originally given a potion to him at both tiers, but the one from the lower tier was subsequently removed.
I hope that helps. Thanks.
Cool man. I just wanted to know where he got it from and I have to say much cooler than the other options.
Also, I just got to run this for the 1st time and I have to say that that barb vs. Thrul fight needs to be streamlined and his crazyness better explained. As it stands I ran it on the low tier and that whole encounter is just a bear to run and eats up time. I will say though the environment option does really add a lot of atmospheric umph that the scenario needs.
If I were given the option I would cut the 1st encounter, make the weather more central, let me fight Thrul after somehow removing the barbs from combat for a spell or automate their moves then fight them, and make the thing with the golem a pivotal part of the scene. It sucks that I had to cut that scene in order to get everyone home before midnight considering how evocative it is to the whole affair.
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1) Summoning a fiendish chimera is an option from the Pathfinder #77 article on Baphomet (see page 75). Priests of Baphomet can summon one with summon monster VI. Although Thurl isn't technically a priest, he's a summoner who fervently worships the demon lord. It just made sense to me that he'd be able to do it, too.
Just to hopefully keep the waters clear, this was an NPC-only choice made by the author. Player Characters in PFS can only use the customized summons lists if they are clerics.
I'll talk with Hyrum about this tomorrow and we'll see if we can't codify some definition for using these within PFS play. Until then, "priest" is cleric only. Wizards and sorcerers or whatever can still cast spells on their spell list that say druid (Gozreh) for example, but until we take a look at them, only a cleric of a specific deity can use alternate summon lists granted by their god in PFSOP.
It still hasn't appeared in the FAQ, but there you have it.
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Contributor
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I like this idea for flair, although it did make it really confusing to prep since that's not listed in available monsters. I am curious to what you think about my choice for different monsters with his access to Summon Monster VI. I wanted to pick creatures that were semi-similar to his eidolon in being multiple creatures almost fused into one, and still evil.
Thanks! I realize it's a bit of a stretch, especially given Mark Moreland's comments, of which I was not aware. But I considered Thurl's relationship with Baphomet special enough that it was worth offering up. Additionally, it presents an unusual circumstance that PCs won't expect.
As to your substitutions, if it turns out they are necessary, I think they seem like fine options. The azata is a good creature, but since he's *not* a cleric, he's not limited to summoning evil ones. I think he'd like the idea of forcing a good creature to fight for him, even if the spell gains the [good] descriptor as a result. Seems like a situation in which casting a good spell is still an evil act. ;)
He actually does have a potion of haste in both tiers, lower-tier is top line of page 23, second potion in his combat gear, and high-tier is middle of page 24, second listed potion in combat gear.
So it is. I was looking for it in the tactics section. Then, it's still an option, at least. :)
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The rooftop entry to the tower was a bit iffy.
The minute I saw the tower as a GM I thought about the most likely entry being the roof, and the second the party saw the keep and suspected a dwarves fort would be full of nasty traps on the killer front door the very first thing they did was check the roof. They were blown away that the rooftop entry was such an easy option.
Its like having a massive security door with all the bells and whistles to keep the burglars out, and then having an unprotected window left open beside it.
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Yeah. A detail I should have mentioned was that the external doors (and arrow slits, for that matter) are locked and fit into the walls in such a way that they are very difficult to see, similar to the main door. It's certainly possible to find the door on the roof from the outside, but not on a cursory inspection.
"Should haves" don't help you much, I know, but that was what I was thinking.
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I like this idea for flair, although it did make it really confusing to prep since that's not listed in available monsters. I am curious to what you think about my choice for different monsters with his access to Summon Monster VI. I wanted to pick creatures that were semi-similar to his eidolon in being multiple creatures almost fused into one, and still evil.Thanks! I realize it's a bit of a stretch, especially given Mark Moreland's comments, of which I was not aware.
Not a stretch at all necessarily. "Priest" is defined in each deity's write-up - it's the "Priests, Temples, and the Church" section in Gods & Magic. Not sure if you'll find Summoner in that for Baphomet, but I wouldn't be surprised. Here's Desna's for instance.
"Priests of Desna - cleric, bard, ranger, or the rare druid - ..."
The customized summon lists are available for those who can operate as priests in the religion, as defined in the deity write-up.
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"His priests are adepts, clerics, rangers, witches, and fallen paladins." (Pathfinder #77 72). So, it looks like I did stretch things, although I do think it makes for a more flavorful encounter. I'm not sure if John will want to make an official change to the scenario. Perhaps Thurl's devotion to forming amalgamations and his strong connection to Baphomet's other servitors grants him special favor.
Thanks, Shifty. I'm learning. Writing PFS scenarios is a bit different from writing "traditional" modules. I understand people's frustration at the length of this one, especially in a convention setting. But I hope others are enjoying the opportunity to go up against these long-running foes.
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Even as a GM I was happy to see these long running foes finally being wrapped off. The only other thing I'd chip in from the sideline was that it was a bit 'Christmas morning' in that we got to unwrap so many presents all at once that we almost didn't have time to savour every butt kicking to its fullest before getting into the next one... a trilogy or two parter next time perhaps? :p
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Just ran this as a season ender for a group here in the netherlands.
We had a blast. It took us well over the normal timeslot for a scenario, but we had the time. (We gamed till 2AM).
Some highlights
- The Thurl fight, it was really awesome.
- The Nabasu managed to gaze at one point, taking down the horse of a player. Ghoul Horse! Much fun was had.
- Tancred Desimire was actually confronted on the 2nd floor of the watchtower. This lead to a very crowded fight, but a very cool one. The black tentacles were simply annoying, very nasty indeed.
- My players interrupted his teleport, so managed to take him in. But they did WANT to kill him badly.
- A player cast commune when they came upon Thurl's prison. This was a good moment for me to cram in some of the backstory, the players really appreciated that.
Some not so high-lights:
- It was very unclear if players had to open or not open the gates to Jormundur.
- The scenario is unclear about how long the journey actually is, just that 6 rations are handed out.
- Thurl was harder then Tancred by far (for our party).
- As mentioned by others, the backstory between Thurl and Tancred is not known to the players at all.
Pitfalls for GMs:
- Prepare by reading weather conditions in the Worldwound guide, it came in very handy.
- Thurl is a complicated fight, especially prepare the Nabasu demon(s).
- Be familiar with the Nabasu gaze ability.
- This one will run long.
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- The Nabasu managed to gaze at one point, taking down the horse of a player. Ghoul Horse! Much fun was had.
. The horse die but only humanoids come back as ghouls
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- The scenario is unclear about how long the journey actually is, just that 6 rations are handed out.
I had them roll survival checks and pretended the result mattered :-). When they rolled high they caught up a little, low they lost ground.
As others have said, there is a LOT happening in this. I wish this had been a 2 parter, there easily is enough material and it would have allowed more time to play in the world wound with a high level party (the LOWEST entry in the random encounter table in the World wound book for this area is CR 11).
Fudge the heck out of the second encounter. I just ballparked average damage when the barbs and critturs were fighting
