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I had to prompt them for additional information after they all talked. No one mentioned the name of the ship or the Okeno pirate connection. Would have made her follow up speech awkward. ..
They also couldn't harp enough about the enslaved Pathfinder, to which Lady Darchanna expressed sympathy, but pointed out it wasn't the core issue. Repeatedly. :-)
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I had to prompt them for additional information after they all talked. No one mentioned the name of the ship or the Okeno pirate connection. Would have made her follow up speech awkward. ..
They also couldn't harp enough about the enslaved Pathfinder, to which Lady Darchanna expressed sympathy, but pointed out it wasn't the core issue. Repeatedly. :-)
Which shows how this scenario demands the players' attention. Sloppy convention players might miss out everything because of the rucku behind them.
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Yes, I loved that Lady Darchana wanted reports from multiple PCs. I think she ended up calling one an "incompetent buffoon" because all he could do was shrug and point at the rogue when asked for his take on the situation.
I plan to specifically call on players I know have not taken very good notes when I run this. :) I'm a meanie.
I played it over the weekend at high subtier at a convention. We had my zen archer and a gunslinger so the combats were fairly trivial even though the gunslinger did fall through the grate kicking off the second encounter before the top level was under control. Just made it a little bit more exciting is all.
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Which shows how this scenario demands the players' attention. Sloppy convention players might miss out everything because of the rucku behind them.I had to prompt them for additional information after they all talked. No one mentioned the name of the ship or the Okeno pirate connection. Would have made her follow up speech awkward. ..
I think it was more getting caught off guard by how she questioned the group than anything. I saw at three of them scribble down this information when it was revealed, so I know they knew the name of the ship.
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I am glad to see people are having fun with this scenario! Giving the GM the prompt to 'pick out' players at the table to engage in roleplay seemed like a great idea for that encounter. My original idea was to intentionally pick out wallflowers as the strong talker types had probably already been running the table in the prior encounters.
If you are so inclined, product reviews are always helpful recommendations for people who may or may not read threads like these as well. :D
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Yes, I loved that Lady Darchana wanted reports from multiple PCs. I think she ended up calling one an "incompetent buffoon" because all he could do was shrug and point at the rogue when asked for his take on the situation.I plan to specifically call on players I know have not taken very good notes when I run this. :) I'm a meanie.
I played it over the weekend at high subtier at a convention. We had my zen archer and a gunslinger so the combats were fairly trivial even though the gunslinger did fall through the grate kicking off the second encounter before the top level was under control. Just made it a little bit more exciting is all.
I specifically called on the people who hadn't said more than 2 words so far in the session.
I think if the pre-gen Jirelle had failed her save and fallen through the grate, they almost certainly would have TPKed.
One of the gnolls fell through on my table. He took the kennel master's potion and joined the bottom fight, which ended up making it a lot more difficult.
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I am glad to see people are having fun with this scenario! Giving the GM the prompt to 'pick out' players at the table to engage in roleplay seemed like a great idea for that encounter. My original idea was to intentionally pick out wallflowers as the strong talker types had probably already been running the table in the prior encounters.
This worked like a charm! Second time I ran this there were two new players who felt a bit shy, but when Lady D directly asked those PC's to report their findings they had actually taken proper notes of their discoveries! I was glad to see that the lessons from The Confirmation is getting through to new players from the start.
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Any idea why aram zey was working through the master of swords to deal with the party? It just seemed like throwing one more name into the soup.
Venture-Captain Ambrus Valsin is not the Master of Swords, which is who I believe you meant. I wondered myself who Lady Darchana would approach within the Pathfinder Society with such serious and grave concerns. Aram Zey seems the closest thing to a 'professional contact' that the Archdean might have. Also, you are going to take such a concern to the Master of Swords and as much as I love Krighteon Shaine I can't imagine Lady Darchana having a serious conversation with him.
Additional, one of my themes was 'nothing happens directly.' So you don't just go to Misery Row. You don't just show up and talk to Lady Darchana, you don't just pop down to the harbor and find the ship. So, Lady Darchana didn't just talk to Venture-Captain Valsin, he's no important enough for her. :)
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Lady Darchana is the Archdean of the Arcanamirium. So there's a connection with Aram Zey. Logic!
To be honest I was a tad concerned about the "pick a player" mechanic, some GMs being 'encouraging' and making the socially awkward player speak out for the whole team. Then again that's the GM's fault, not the scenario's.
To reiterate the issue about the gnome pathfinder, I find it hard to believe the pathfinder could make obvious signs to the other pathfinders to indicate she's in the same gang. Then again there are some things to consider.
a) All the slaves are chained to the wall.
b) Three are human, one is gnome.
c) The gnome is only one gagged.
d) As the scenario says, she "excitedly beckons for the PCs to free her". Wouldn't the other slaves as well?
Overall I feel like it'd require some sort of a simple Sense Motive check (the base DC for 'hunch' is often 20) to determine she's the enslaved pathfinder they are looking for.
Mark, what say you?
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In my mind's eye, despite being chained to the wall and manacled I don't think there is any reason Pathfinder's hand-signs could be given. The way I picture most manacles do not preclude the use of your hands in that way.
As to the psychology of the other slaves vs. the gnome there are many factors that can play into all of this though her low-light vision and likelihood of identify wayfinders and such on the PCs probably give her a slight edge in wanting to gain the attention of the people who just assaulted the ship.
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Played this last night. Is it just me, or is this pretty brutal if someone falls through the grate and combines combat encounters?
We had 3 tables of this scenario at our store. The high tier table was still in combat when I left, so I don't know how that turned out, but knowing some of those players and their well built PCs, I'm assuming they're fine.
There was one table with 6 level 1 PCs, including at least 2 very experienced players and 1 complete newbie - not sure about the others. They TPKed.
At my table, we had 6 players at low tier, also, but 2 of us were level 2, while the rest were level 1. One was a summoner, so we had a level 1 eidolon as a 7th party member.
We went straight to the harbor once we got the name of the ship, but the harbor master couldn't find a record of the At Sea coming in, so we tried to ask around in the vicinity of the docks. That didn't go well, either, so we went back to Lady Darchana, but it felt like we were reporting to her too soon, since the situation wasn't resolved yet. But as it turned out, that's what we were supposed to do, and she filled us in on the ship's fake name.
Once we got to the ship and started combat, it was rough. Someone fell through the grate to set off the second combat below deck at the same time we were fighting the guys up top. The eidolon was "killed" (banished for the day), and 3 of the 6 of us were knocked unconscious, including my bard, who was the closest thing our group had to healer. Luckily, they managed to finish off the enemies top side and pour a potion of CLW down my throat. I pulled out my CLW wand and woke the other bleeding PC above deck, while the others were rushing down to help the unconscious, but stable, PC below deck. In the end, we won with no permanent deaths, but it was close.
I am curious to read this one and get some of the story details I may have missed in the noisy store, but that probably won't happen until I get a chance to GM it, which probably won't be any time soon. After running 3 full tables of this scenario last night, we won't run it again at that store for another 6 months, at least, and I don't think I'll be doing any conventions any time soon.
Also, besides freeing the slaves on the ship, my ex-slave character in Liberty's Edge insisted on buying and freeing the original handmaiden slave who had been the cause of the whole thing (I forget her name now). From the GMs reaction, I'm guessing it doesn't take that possibility into account in the scenario. Given the bad associations with that slave, he decided that the Lady would be willing to sell that slave, and he charged us 100 gp, which most of the PCs in the group were willing to split.
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Played this last night. Is it just me, or is this pretty brutal if someone falls through the grate and combines combat encounters?
GM for Fromper's table here. I'm pretty sure I screwed up dropping the character through the grate. He was the only one on the grate, so it should have held until someone else was on there with him. If I'd handled it correctly, he would have been down there with another PC (which would have helped keep him up) or one of the gnolls (which would have helped the rest of the party finish up top sooner).
Even having read through it twice, I nearly missed the small section on what happens if they interview Atlag. In retrospect, I should have assumed they'd want to talk to her and prepared a character card.
Now that I think about it, in nearly every scenario I've GM'd that includes slaves, one or more Andoran/Liberty's Edge PCs have wanted to buy their freedom. What's the going rate for a slave in Absalom these days? I should start having a price ready (and decide on an owner's willingness to sell).
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The main reason I did not include pricing for such a transaction was that I wasn't aware of a good rules reference for such a thing. The way it is handled with Mahjub keeps the notion of money changing hands out of it. Of course, Mahjub is looking to fleece the PCs in numerous other ways...
If the character on the grate was more than 250 lbs (including gear) then you are fine. And if not, up side is nobody died and they now have an epic fight to share in character and out of character :)
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Bah! Weren't you supposed to jump on the grate, to fall down there? Why I was only doing what the Accidental God would have done! Of course, I did want to throw a gnoll down there, that would have been hilarious!
But, as I said, and am probably repeating myself, it all worked out in the end. Probably helped, though, that I was level three playing at 1-2? I will, say, though, that I was also probably saved by my use of greater weapon of the chosen! Rolling twice for each attach! AWESOME!
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I ran my players through this last Thursday. And My team tried pretending they were harbor pilots while their sneaky assassin snuck below deck and occupied the people down there including the captain, so no letter burning, I was very proud of them on that one.
That being said by the end of it the pathfinder slave was 1dmg away from death and the whole party had dropped except the paladin who was prone for almost the entire fight, and won, pretty much soloed the rest of the bottom half of the ship by himself.
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I ran my players through this last Thursday. And My team tried pretending they were harbor pilots while their sneaky assassin snuck below deck and occupied the people down there including the captain, so no letter burning, I was very proud of them on that one.
That is quite a rare feat to do, yes. Mark, would it be too much to ask for a special favor and have you write the whole letter, as a special reward for those who actually manage to obtain the letter in one piece? ;)
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That is quite a rare feat to do, yes. Mark, would it be too much to ask for a special favor and have you write the whole letter, as a special reward for those who actually manage to obtain the letter in one piece? ;)
That would be a really neat handout! I was reading a play by post where they were able to take the ship intact as well. :D
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Venture-Captain, Germany—Bavaria
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My group must have been amazing, the adventure seemed very straightforward to me, we talked to the majordomo, asked her plenty of questions and got her write us a letter to the gentleman who dealt with the paperwork.
A little diplomatic threatening later, that gentleman lead us to the slave seller, and after we saved his bacon and healed him, he was quite cooperative (and considering what the law will/would do to him..).
We informed Lady Darchana, she gave us a scout and a ship, and we infiltrated the pirate ship and once in the captains cabin, out bard started the combat by casting charm person on the captain... who succeeded on the will save.
The fight was pretty straightforward, we had the right energy types to deal with the dog and the other crew members didn't pose much of a challenge.
We got the papers, saved the slaves.... and somehow the ship caught fire... ^^
To be honest, it was a good group:
Level 1 gnome Alchemist (very aware, that level 1 is tough so he did the right thing and left melee to everyone else)
Level 2 elf Hunter (my character, no social skills to speak of, but quite a number of very lucky diplomacy rolls ...to aid others)
Level 3 cleric (good skills, and thx to the fire domain, he always had something to do in combat)
Level 4 Bard/Fighter (plans to go DD, but his social skills were pretty damn useful)
I can see this adventure being a lot harder if the group lacks the social skills required, but the "investigation" is actually pretty straightforward.
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After being put through the wringer running The Beacon Below, it was a pleasant ride to run Slave Ships this weekend. The players' every move was predicted and covered by Mr. Garringer's fine authorship. We were done in 3 hours. The longest fight was on the main deck, which took over 10 rounds. During that time, the dwarvern investigator managed to fail every Climb check to get up the rope ladder and onto the deck. He came close, but couldn't make two checks in a row before failing one by more than 5. He was repeated dunked in the drink. If not for Zigil, the dwarvern pilot, taking a shine to him he would have drowned. Despite the risk, she stuck around and hauled him out of the water time and time again. The investigator's player went through a number of d20s...
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I ran this on Saturday, and the group did really well.
The characters:
Shaman 3
Life Oracle 3
Paladin 2
Witch 2 (yeah, he had freaking Slumber)
Druid/Cleric 3.
So, they played 1-2 -- not 100% sure this was right, but they did not have any characters in sub-tier, so...
Anyway, they talked to the Majordomo, and thanks to the Life Oracle (a half-orc Kuthite, at that), were able to get her to give the information on the slaver. They also received the "request" to get a refund. They talked to Atlag a bit, and got what they could from her (which isn't much).
They skipped the solicitor, because they already knew where the slave seller was. They went there, and ended up subduing the thugs, and driving them off. They got Madhi to promise to refund the fees, and learned of the At Sea, and her captain.
Then, they were trying to decide where to go next, but in the end went to Lady Darchana. There was some amusement when the first person (randomly determined) to talk to was the Paladin with INT 7 (Ok, avoiding a low INT was hard in this group!).
Eventually, all of the story was told, and the SoCo mission was given. They received the papers, and then went to the docks, where they almost forgot to give the halfling Lady Darchana's papers! Once given, they found the certificate, but didn't yet destroy it.
They took the boat out, and approached the "Kat Season"... once aside, one person threw a grappling hook up (the INT 7 paladin), one climbed, and the shaman used his Heaven's Leap leap to get up. Three up at once, and the combat started!
The Shaman ended up throwing the Oracle onto one of the grates, and down he went. He instantly cast Sanctuary, and immediately thought that might not have been a good idea when the trollhound attacked a slave! This situation was made better when the Paladin decided to just jump down (almost landing on the trollhound) - and became the next target. Once they had dispatched the gnolls and first mate, all but the shaman had jumped down.
Round 4 starts, and the Captain steps out, right next to the witch, and slashes him with her kukri. Slumber hex, and she's down (stupid witches). Two rounds later, the captain is dead from a CdG.
All in all, they did a great job, and were challenged well in the scenario. They even did it all in 3.5 hours! The only thing they failed at was to capture the captains documents intact (they wanted to use Mending on the burned notes, but it was agreed that wouldn't work). The certificate, you ask? Burned in Rilla's Flaming Sphere!
Venture-Captain, Michigan—Mt. Pleasant
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For those of you that made face cards or decided they should have made them, which characters (besides those pictured in the scenario) did you make/want to make?
I assume those pictured as well as the majordomo, solicitor, and slave. Any others? I'm prepping this for next weekend and trying to decide just how much work I want to do for something I might not use.
Venture-Captain, Montana—Kalispell
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This was a really fun module, as others have reported. As far as the maps go - They're all sub-par. Madhi's shop was the worst for my group. I had to come up with complete on-the-fly surroundings. It was an oversight on my part, but I really wish I'd have done it beforehand.
The setup is a little confusing, especially for players newer to PFS. Not a single person at my table remembered what they were supposed to be doing, and the relationships between Lady Silvania, Lady Darchana, and Atleg never made sense to them. After they got the information from Madhi, I basically had to stop the game and do a simplified summary of the module up to that point.
The lack of quality in the maps and the confusion about the setup didn't take much away from the fun of the module. Everybody really enjoyed it, mostly because every PC in the party had something to do. This is a really great module, and I advise those that run it in the future to just take a little time to improve the maps during your prep (Madhi's shop in particular), and also make sure everybody understands where all the NPC's stand, how they interact, and what the party is expected to do.
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Particularly for Madhi's shop, you can expand the surrounding by using the City Streets Flip-mat.
Glad to hear everyone enjoyed it. So they got lost in the weeds, but had a good time doing so? :)
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The setup is a little confusing, especially for players newer to PFS. Not a single person at my table remembered what they were supposed to be doing, and the relationships between Lady Silvania, Lady Darchana, and Atleg never made sense to them.
This is where the extra face cards helped, and I laid them out during the VC briefing, instead of as they met the characters.
Still a bit of confusion, but nothing significant.
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Venture-Captain, Montana—Kalispell
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Particularly for Madhi's shop, you can expand the surrounding by using the City Streets Flip-mat.
Glad to hear everyone enjoyed it. So they got lost in the weeds, but had a good time doing so? :)
Good advice with the flip mat.
My group had a memorable encounter at Mahdi's. The small shop space and the windows made for some really fun rounds of scrambling, going in/out, and positioning. The sorceress hit Mezuk with a potently rolled max damage Elemental Ray that had him pull out his two-hander and chase her out the window and down the street, that was exciting for everybody.
Once they got the info on the At Sea, Okeno pirates & etc. they immediately wanted to go find the ship in the harbor and rescue the Pathfinder slave. We went through a short roleplay where it became obvious that the party didn't have the resources or influence to pick out which ship they needed to investigate out of the dozens anchored in the harbor. I reminded them that they had been assigned to get information on the origins of Atleg the slave girl for Lady Darchana, and that if the day came to a close the At Sea would certainly have docked by then, dispersing any potentially dangerous slave cargo and the captured Pathfinder as well.
With a few not-so-subtle hints that the party didn't have the political influence to get any infomation from the harbormaster's office on their own, and the reminder about their mission specifics, the party quickly decided to go talk to Lady Darchana. The module took back off from there as planned with a great ship-board fight. I just moved the grates on the main deck around a bit so it made more sense.
Everybody commented on what a great module it was and how much fun they had. After struggling for a couple weeks on the Drowned Level of the Emerald Spire, this was a great urban respite for my beleaguered Pathfinders.
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Venture-Captain, Michigan—Mt. Pleasant
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The only connection to slave pits is you visit the same region (misery row/Slave Pits of Absalom) and the guy has an almost identical company name "____'s Chattel - Absalom's Finest"
The connection to Dalsine Affair is the person doing the scrying, the one whose name you recover at the end semi-betrayed the Society by killing the Taldor faction head at the time.
I doubt your players will even know the connection. I had to explain who Muhlia was to mine, though they kind of remembered her from Dalsine Affair.
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Eric is right on-point here. There are more head nods to Slave Pits than tie-ins. Both involve doing political favors for well connected Houses in Absalom. There are important scenes in both that take place in Misery Row, and thus can be used to build a sense of continuity for the characters and Slave Ships can be a particularly good callback to Slave Pits if you run them a few sessions apart from each other. Back to back would probably not have the same impact as running them a 3-5 sessions apart, like running Mists of the Mwangi and Voice in the Void. I was also deliberate about including gnolls on the ship for the same reason to give a sense of continuity.
As for the Muhlia reveal, that has been a bit more of a let down than I expected. It is really good in the sense that it sets up the obvious future conflict, however it's a little sad for me that many (newer) players have no idea she was ever a thing. When she steps back into the spotlight though it'll be amazing.
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As for the Muhlia reveal, that has been a bit more of a let down than I expected. It is really good in the sense that it sets up the obvious future conflict, however it's a little sad for me that many (newer) players have no idea she was ever a thing. When she steps back into the spotlight though it'll be amazing.
I ran this again on Wednesday to a group that had never played during Season 0, and didn't know about Muhlia in any way. Last time I ran it one player yelled out "SON OF A B*&&%" when I revealed the name, but this time I got an awkward silence. I explained that Muhlia was an ex-faction leader, and did an appearance in Dalsine Affair.
So this scenario is a treat to veterans.
And I too need to voice my opinion about those maps. The ship map pack is a horrible product. I still struggle to understand how the ship works. Worse yet the scenario indeed is missing vital pieces.
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Thanks Starglim! I remade my own map for the ship that made more sense. A ladder into the forecastle from the weather deck ON THE BOW makes no sense what so ever! First time the ship drove into waves of any height the ship would flood and sink. 3D10 minutes for a wooden ship to burn to the gunwales? Seriously?