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Ran this today on subtier 1-2 with a meager 3 hours of prep time, but all went well and we had a blast. A very good scenario featuring a lot of NPCs.
Getting Started
I should have advised the players to take meticulous notes throughout the scenario; as it turned out, they forgot what they should have been doing: go to Lady Darchana to report their findings. The team made no questions, so I can't say if those listed are relevant.
The group headed to B (Salbus), then straight to C (Mahdi), and were already going to the docks after that. Apparently this scenario expects very thorough players, so other GMs: be sure to mention this to the players. Straightforward players will find this annoying.
C2
Can't say much about the fight, other than the tactics are sound. A shenanigans sorcerer build (lvl 2 casting 5d4+10 burning hands, FFS) wiped both thugs instantly and Muzak fled by jumping through the window. Still, because the tactics are sensible, I didn't get angry.
I really liked how Mahjub Mahdi had this manner of constantly pulling his hair back. These kinds of odd manners make NPCs memorable, and I suggest making similar hand gestures with other NPCs.
D
These scene was nice, having the players tell one by one what had happened. It also worked as a recount for them. This could cause a lot of trouble in some less social groups though. The GM should know whom to make a speech.
Also, the ship's name At Sea is very dumb. I made it a running gag making every NPC in the scenario say "At Sea? What a dumb name for a ship." It garnered some laughs.
Kat Season garnered a lot of laughter. Props for that.
On page 12, the map doesn't have Bleoran Berttio marked on the map. I guess he's at the helm.
On page 14... I have no idea how the maps work. The right-most wooden grate seems to be halfly over F3, the captain's room. And how can you get to the hold without going through the forecastle's staircase? I'm completely baffled by the map and figured to devise something of my own.
Kinore shouldn't even consider using tanglefoot bags. Everyone's in melee all the time, so he wouldn't have any chance of hitting anything with it.
The poor captain didn't get to fight until all the other combatants were subdued. And even after that she got to make one attack before getting frightened and so much fire damage. Also, Favored Enemy (magical beast)? I figured the 3 rounds time is too long, should be 2. But again, excellent tactics, reasonable.
Oh, and the reaction when I said "Muhlia". Priceless.
Also, probably THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION EVER... are the gnolls from Western Katapesh? :)
A truly excellent scenario I wish to run again. 5/5
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A truly excellent scenario I wish to run again. 5/5
I'm glad to hear you and your players enjoyed it!
Also, probably THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION EVER... are the gnolls from Western Katapesh? :)
The gnolls on the ship are not necessarily from western Katapesh, but trust me that I remember that boon and one day want to call out other gnolls as being from exactly that area.
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It seems that some things should be behind spoilers maybe, but GM Discussion section and all that so...players go away! :)
On page 12, the map doesn't have Bleoran Berttio marked on the map. I guess he's at the helm.
In subtier 4-5 where he appears, yes at the helm.
On page 14... I have no idea how the maps work. The right-most wooden grate seems to be halfly over F3, the captain's room. And how can you get to the hold without going through the forecastle's staircase? I'm completely baffled by the map and figured to devise something of my own.
There are two ways into the hold: the stairs down from the forecastle on the western end and the two 10x10 covered grates in the upper deck. I see what you mean about the grates partly covering F3. A reasonable solution would be to shift them 10 feet north on the hold map relative to their position on the Upper Deck map, and assume F3 is enclosed with a roof. I doubt the captain would want cargo dropped directly in her room.
As for favored enemy human and magical beasts? They seemed like good choices given the types of cargo she handles. :)
Very glad to hear it was enjoyed!
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The gnolls on the ship are not necessarily from western Katapesh, but trust me that I remember that boon and one day want to call out other gnolls as being from exactly that area.
Mm, delicious +1 to diplomacy. This scenario would have been the absolute best nostalgia trip for Season 0 veterans, if the gnolls had been from western Katapesh.
Actually, the table sported only one player who had been playing during Season 0, and was the only one to react to Muhlia's name. Others have only heard of her in...
As for favored enemy human and magical beasts? They seemed like good choices given the types of cargo she handles. :)
Yes well, on lower tier that's just magical beasts. Humans first! ;)
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Played this today in low tier. Forgive me when I write names wrong, as my character may have gotten them wrong as well, but this is how I wrote them down.
The two barbarians were played by younger players and were made to be big, strong and hard hitting (the players unfortunately had a slightly lower attentionspan, so they were given easier to play characters by the GM) and played key roles in the combats and with some encounters to be intimidating.
The oracle and sorcerer were key in most of the diplomatic encounters, with either a few wellplaced words (supported by the lorewarden and druid) or by an awesomely timed charm person, which caused us to gain a lot of information which we would otherwise had to pry out. The druid had some awesome sneaking around going for her and the companions were also cause for some very nice roleplay oppertunities.
We started with noting down all the names the venture captain was giving us, and decided to start with the solicitor. He was very well portrayed as a slick cheliaxan laywer and my character instantly disliked him (Andoran Freedom Fighter trait) for his callous regard about slaves. We managed to bribe him into giving us the information he knew. We learned about Mahjub Mahdi.
Then we went to the mansion to meet with the major domo Milana and the handmaiden to find out more. Queue more diplomatic dancing around, and after some succesful talking we got to question the handmaiden. During the talk the druid and my lorewarden figured out that she was used as a puppet and we decided to go after Mahjub.
When we arrived there, the shop was closed and some windows were busted, but we heard the din of a very unpleasant conversation. The druid and the lorewarden sneak in to listen, and after a short moment we throw open the door to find Mahjub being threatened by a half-orc and two of his cronies. Before one of them got the chance to say something the druid went: "We are here to bring the word of Erastil, have you heard of his teachings yet?". GM baffled, npcs baffled.
Meanwhile the sorceress had come up, and her being portrayed as someone who always has cookies with her offers the half-orc and his cronies cookies if they agree to talk it out. After some back and forth talking the oracle pulls out the amount the half-orc wants, and offers it so they leave. The half-orc tried to act though against one of the barbarians but failed his strength check and got thrown to the ground, but since he had his payment, they left.
The talk with Mahdi wasn't going too well, him being very arrogant and acting as if nothing was going on. That is, until the sorceress cast a charm person on him and he suddenly was our best friend and gave us all the information we wanted, and also helped out with our missive of getting payment for damaged goods for the major domo.
After this we first went by the major domo to give the payment, then on to Skyreach to brief venture captain Valsin, who send us onward to Lady Darchana to bring her our report. Each of us (except the barbarians) told our view of the happenings. We got briefed about the ship that we found out was coming and that it had an outstanding bounty, and that she wanted some documents to vanish.
We got access to the office of the pilot's guild and while the person there was away to get our pilot we quickly scanned for the papers and thanks to the keen eyes of the druid and one of the barbarians found the papers really fast. We fed some of them to the turtle and kept just enough to be able to claim our bounty.
[/spoilers]
[spoiler=The big finale]
Then the time came to go to the ship. The sorceress and oracle disguised themselves as Geishas (the two barbarian players were too young to go with a more common name), the druid had a touch of the sea prepared so she would be swimming along with the turtle and the roc would be circling high above us, the barbarians went as the rowers using their swords as paddles and my lorewarden tried to pretend to be the pupil of the pilot.
The ruse worked and only after we all got on board of the ship and drew weapons the guards were yelling alert. Some blows were exhanged and the gnolls and half-orc? went down but not before they inflicted some grievous wounds on one of the barbarians. The barbarians then got enlarged by the oracle and sorcerer and together with the roc they took down the half-orc easily. Enter the captain and her trollhound. The trollhound first got hit by one of the enlarged barbarians who had readied an action to whack anything that came up the stairs, then provoked an attack of oppertunity from the same barbarian by walking through his reach and got dropped before he could even do something. The captain managed to get a hit in on the oracle before being completely surrounded by everyone in the party but the sorceress and got smashed into pulp by the large barbarians.
After cleaning up and tossing the trollhound overboard, we rescued two pathfinders and a slave, brought them back to the lodge and got briefed on all the happenings and how happy people were with us.
End result for my Freedom Fighter:
1 Okeno slaveship less, one slaver crew dead.
3 Slaves rescued, 2 of them pathfinders.
Even getting paid for the removal of the slaveship, for an extra added awesome bonus.
A good day for Andoran and Liberty's Edge :)
This is a good scenario if you have players who enjoy investigating stuff and don't mind combat light/low scenario's.
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In that case I misunderstood the GM.
Since I can't edit my post anymore, updated end result:
4 slaves rescued, 1 of them being a pathfinder. Even better :D
No wonder. The scenario has a total of 18 NPCs of which 2 are only mentioned during the scenario, the rest are more or less talkative. I doubt you'd get to talk a lot on board the At Sea.
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Hey, since there seems to be quite a bit of discussion here, and the topic is general, I thought I'd ask my own question. Hope you don't mind, Duessu.
Not sure if there are spoilers here (none as big as the opening post for sure, but still playing it safe):
Normally, there is a little note to say what to do if they don't defeat this or that enemy. However, I'd really like to know how to track the cases where they buy their way out of situations. If it costs a party of six players 250gp to get a certain piece of information, what happens with tracking at the end? Most PFS players are pretty tight and would rather risk their character's life than their character's wallet, but still. Also, what if one character refuses to pay, but the others agree? I guess the players decide on how to split it, then.
Finally, the reward... it's not clear as to whether that has been included in the scenario's gold or not. It's for the BBEG and the ship she rode in on, but the "reduce if..." mentioned above only mentions the BBEG. Is the reward additional to the scenario gold? It would certainly be a good way to offset potential financial losses from playing this with (say) a party lacking the diplomacy skill.
In terms of reporting at the end, what happens?
Fully aware that the above questions may have already been answered by other PFS threads (and possibly rules that I've missed). I just can't find anything that matches the above.
Also, loving it so far. PbP is offering some challenge for the diplomatic encounters, but the players are doing very well.
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I just purchased this scenario to run Friday night. It looks awesome but I had one question about final gp that I can't seem to wrap my head around...
Any help would really be appreciated -- thanks!
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Wilmannator - if they buy their way out of the encounter, (or use diplomacy or a smart trick or whatever to succeed without combat), they have succeeded at it, and get the gold for it. ("Reward Creative Solutions" in the Guide to Organized Play.) You then deduct the amount of money they spent on their Chronicle sheet (split evenly or whatever the party agreed to). I make them agree to the split at the time, and not after the fact - someone is actually pulling out the gold in character, so I want to know where it is coming from.
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I was given this scenario to run at a convention coming up this weekend. I also played in this past weekend. The GM ran it completely cold, but did an admirable job nonetheless. He complained about the confusion of the maps, and now I see what he was talking about.
Both maps in this scenario are absolutely dreadful.
What's worse it seems the maps are ready-made map pack maps, so either wrong decks were used or the map pack is fundamentally flawed.
No wait, this is cruel!! The whole map hassle makes a lot more sense if you check the other parts in the map pack. Particularly this. It is supposed to show you inside the forecastle and whatnot. Still though, the grates go both to F3 and F2.
Oh boy.
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I was actually more confused by Mahdi's store map. It looked like there were stairs that lead to nowhere.
That map in the Map Pack has two levels, with a small second story on the building. It is not particularly relevant to the encounter though, as it doesn't really add a meaningful escape route for anyone (over other, better first floor escape routes already present). If it is more helpful, make the space a private restroom for employees only instead :)
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Speaking of Mahjub Mahdi's chattel and Mezuk, the encounter was over in round one thanks to a shenanigans sorcerer (lvl 2 sorcerer dealing 27 damage with Burning Hands... legit), and Mezuk then proceeded to flee. Fortunately he can just jump through the closest window. He failed the acrobatics check and took the 1d4 points of damage, but he was otherwise unscratched.
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I'm pretty sure one of my VLs owns this map pack, and he's not running anything at the convention so I'll just ask him to borrow it.
I was actually more confused by Mahdi's store map. It looked like there were stairs that lead to nowhere.
I'm running the scenario the slot before you and have both map packs. You can borrow them if you want.
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Ran this last night, prepped for high tier but a last-minute switch moved us to low subtier. Had to retcon when I accidentally started a high-tier encoutner - major differences between subtiers in this one, not just extra minions and class levels.
Overall, a good scenario, nice mix of investigation and combat, although not many players had the background to appreciate the big reveal - it's just been too long. I had to play this up in the final conclusion with both Lady D and the V-C to stress its import.
Certain elements remind me of Hydra's Fang - namely, the heavily-armored paladin falling into the water. Sir Sinks-a-lot didn't drown, but it was touch and go there for a bit.
Other issues: the group nearly went straight to the ship after the first two clues, without reporting to Lady D - it wouldn't have affected events much, other than the fact that they could not have gotten the special mission. If you have Sovereign Court PCs, make sure you get them to visit Lady D before heading to the docks.
The group had a moment of internal conflict when they realized that the bounty for the ship was worth far less than the value of the ship itself... there was a few moments where the group discussed "retiring" these characters from PFS and going pirate (with me running the Skulls and Shackles AP for them)! In the end, the paladin's steadfastness prevented this group from just going off on their own. (They left that tidbit out of their final report to the V-C...)
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Other issues: the group nearly went straight to the ship after the first two clues, without reporting to Lady D - it wouldn't have affected events much, other than the fact that they could not have gotten the special mission. If you have Sovereign Court PCs, make sure you get them to visit Lady D before heading to the docks.
I figured that because At Sea is disguised as Kat Season (what a stupid name for a ship), they couldn't find the said ship from the harbor. They'd also be laughed off for trying to look for a docked ship with a bounty.
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Other issues: the group nearly went straight to the ship after the first two clues, without reporting to Lady D - it wouldn't have affected events much, other than the fact that they could not have gotten the special mission. If you have Sovereign Court PCs, make sure you get them to visit Lady D before heading to the docks.I figured that because At Sea is disguised as Kat Season (what a stupid name for a ship), they couldn't find the said ship from the harbor. They'd also be laughed off for trying to look for a docked ship with a bounty.
I've run this twice now, the first group ran around asking for the ships around The Docks. They eventually did remembered their mission and headed over to Lady D. I started thinking about running the finale from Slavepits of Absalom if they just won't remember the mission. :)
Second group went straight to Lady D when they had interviewed the slave trader.
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Venture-Captain, New Zealand—Dunedin
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My group did some excellent sleuthing work in the Harbormaster's office, including looking back a number of months to find ships that had been in Absalom two month's ago, which was when Mahdi told them he last had contact with the slaver in question.
They reasoned that they would better rewarded by going to Lady Darchana's place after they had sorted everything on the ship. I couldn't argue - possibly there could be a more firm hook in the future that states they NEED to go see Lady Darchana before poking around the docks.
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My group did some excellent sleuthing work in the Harbormaster's office, including looking back a number of months to find ships that had been in Absalom two month's ago, which was when Mahdi told them he last had contact with the slaver in question.
They reasoned that they would better rewarded by going to Lady Darchana's place after they had sorted everything on the ship. I couldn't argue - possibly there could be a more firm hook in the future that states they NEED to go see Lady Darchana before poking around the docks.
When I ran this, the party wanted to charge to the docks and start searching ships, too. Then I asked them on whose authority are you raiding a ship that is transporting legal cargo into the city? One of them remembered that Lady Darchana was a member of the Absolom Low Council, and figured she might authorize them to take care of things if they went and talked to her.
Raiding the At Sea without authorization might be grounds for having the party arrested under a host of charges, depending on how the raid went. They are in a major city, and everything takes place under the city's area of control (which includes the harbor). Even if they know the ship has a bounty on it, attempting to collect the bounty without notifying the proper authorities probably puts them on shaky legal grounds.
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As for favored enemy human and magical beasts? They seemed like good choices given the types of cargo she handles. :)
I note familiars are magical beasts... just an observation.
Also if you take celestial companion for your AC it makes it a magical beast.
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When we played the game - too may female NPCs, we kept mixing up who was being talked about when the GM said "she" or "her" rather than names.
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We also had an odd table - all positive charisma modifiers - my +11 diplomacy was the 5th best at the table - the fighter was the only one who had to roll to aid and we all talked all the time (fighter,paladin/oracle,cleric,druid,bard and spell warrior). Lots of high 20s - low 30s diplomacy totals.
The game would have gone on longer if we hadn't restrained ourselves a bit in the merits/non-merits to Golarian slavery. but it broke out between the Andorans and others all the time anyway.
It was a fun and interesting module with one the best GMs of our area.
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RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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I recently played this, and there's something I'm dying to know: was there something in this scenario that interacts with character weight? My GM asked everybody what their character (not their gear, their character) weighed, which I assumed was for maybe some kind of rotted wooden floor trap thing or something. But then it never came up. Maybe we bypassed it due to Diplomacizing some potential encounters?
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RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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I assume it is for the part on the main deck of the At Sea where you could fall through to the hold if you walk across the grates. Though it seems odd to exclude gear from that question.
Sorry, I didn't mean he was excluding gear, I was just trying to communicate that he wasn't simply enforcing encumbrance.
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Your GM misread the scene on the upper deck of the At Sea. The scenario calls out that each grate can hold 250 lbs (the weight of an average gnoll and its gear), but then it says that anybody who walks across the grate has to make the reflex save, regardless of weight.
I assume that is a mis-edit, and anyone over that weight (or who jumps/falls on it, or some such) could break it.
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I didn't worry about it... whatever the weight restriction was... I figured that a fit warpriest in battle kit would easily break the grate... which it did!
To great amusement of those around me, I landed on my feet! Then, of course, was Greased by the keeper, which made me fight the trollhound from my back!
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Comically enough, this came into play at the Saturday game I ran. Four players, tier 4-5 BTW.
I had the bad guy and the trollhound be surprised the first round to give him a fighting chance - little did I know he had burst bounds prepped, so he immediately freed Rilla. He would have been toast on his own. She was able to contribute by healing him and using her flaming sphere on the trollhound. The rest of the party never made it below deck as they struggled with the gnoll and gunslinger due to bad dice rolls more than anything.
The captain joined the below deck fray after three rounds, and ending up retreating after eating a nasty critical from the fighter/inquisitor. She escaped by running upstairs, drinking his invisibility potion, and diving out a window in the captain's cabin. This took her two rounds, but no one was any shape to pursue her at that point.
Really fun scenario. Highly recommended.
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Just a question... how did they know to free Rilla? She's the one gagged as well as bound. So she couldn't yell out for help any more than the other three slaves.The scenario says when she sees a fellow Pathfinder she gestures and makes noises to get their attention. Since the PCs know there is a captured Pathfinder agent on board, it's not hard to put 2 and 2 together.
Oh right. When I ran this, the players had forgotten about there being a pathfinder onboard. Then again there are three other slaves who presumably are making noises as well.
Possibly some GM variation, maybe.
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I enjoyed running this! My party also ended up going straight to the docks after visiting Mahjub and ended up at the Harbormaster's office, so I had them learn that the ship was barred from docking and hadn't been seen for a while. Afterwards, most of the party stayed by the docks to ask around about Waheeda while sending the cleric to talk to Lady Darchana. For the research creativity, they found a sailor who was eager to "see what great beasts she's bringing in on this trip." The one SoCo player I had didn't make any effort to go visit either of the nobles, so he ended up missing out on both faction rewards. I really like that Lady Darchana is specifically written to bring multiple people into the RP-side of things, and ended up using that at the end instead of the middle because of how the party split up.