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Some length into the second book of my group's Wrath game we hit a bit of a snafu, and our GM needs some time off to finagle real life stuff. Real life stuff is dumb...On the upside, he's still good to play and the rest of the group is still wanting to kick in doors and kill people, er monsters...
So I'm going to be revisiting Rise of the Runelords. If by chance any of my players find themselves here, be aware there are going to be all the spoilers...so if that matters to you, stop reading. I'm not one to care, though if I see an abundance of coincidentally perfect tactics, almost as if you knew just what spells were prepared, feats were chose, and potions were bought...there might be a conversation...involving a hammer...and a rubber chicken. And I don't lube the chicken.
I digress...
So I'm picking up where my previous Rise game ended. A party of adventurers saved Sandpoint from a goblin raid, and discovered someone, likely not a goblin, has been organizing the little green psychopaths.
The previous group of adventurers went off into the wilds after finding tracks in the Sandpoint bone yard...and promptly disappeared. The events of that particular quest, those that happened in the actual game, are not going to be what really happened...and all those characters are currently MIA (the restart will begin a few days after the first party left, maybe not quite a full week).
The new party has been hired by the fine folks of Sandpoint to likewise go off into the big scary wilds...and hopefully figure out A) What is going on with the goblins, and B) What happened to the previous adventuring types.
That all being the case, I had the new batch of players (oddly the GM of our Wrath game was a player in my original Rise game, though he's using a different character this go around) make 4th level characters, and I'll be buffing up things at Thistletop.
Speaking of Thistletop...
Having looked over the mountains and mountains of incredible data on this AP, and having ran the first book a couple times now...I've decided to make some changes here.
My next post will probably be stat blocks for all the following NPCs, but for now I'm just going to briefly cover NPC modifications.
Nualia is a 6th level Bloodrager with two tiers of the Champion mythic path. I wanted to include the mythic rules in this AP, and figure ganking Nualia would be a good ascension point. The idea being she isn't just some random angry chica who found comfort in the arms of Lamashtu...but has been selected to be a potential avatar of the goddess.
Lyrie is a Mesmerist...as I want to get in on the playtest, and I like the idea presented on another thread of Lyrie and Nualia being a couple...so I made Lyrie into more of a tag along significant other than a true useful member of the black hat group. Sure, she has the skills to be a worthwhile member and act as a scholar...but why do that when you can wrap the boss lady around your little finger? Orik, Bruthazmus, and Tsuto absolutely hate Lyrie...as all the progress that's not being made cuz Ms. Geekgirl is too busy causing drama to hit the books...yeah, guess who Nualia blames?
Orik is still a Fighter and still uses a big sword and big shield.
Bruthazmus is a Slayer based around archery, and is still the mac daddy goblin playa...With adjusted tactics to take advantage of the situation.
Tsuto is a ninja and, again stealing from the brilliant minds of my fellow forumites, more than a little obsessed with his sister...in that deep south sorta way.
There are a bunch of goblins with class levels scattered throughout. Not necessarily named NPCs, but just a bigger variety over the existing goblin commandos and warchanters. I'm particularly fond of my remake of the commandos which use the freebooter archetype. I might have to put up a whole post just dedicated to goblins actually...
So far our new batch of heroes consists of ...an aassimar sorcerer, I forget the bloodline. This is the Wrath GM's character, and was actually made for my Night Below/Kingmaker/Second Darkness mash up...An elvin hunter and dwarf cleric, two characters played by one dude. I'm pretty sure the elvin hunter is locked in, not so sure about the dwarf cleric though. I know he wanted some type of healer...A human Medium I made to playtest that one of my fellow players from the Wrath game took a liking to...A halfling Archaeologist I made and have used in a number of games that the daughter of the guy playing the Medium took a shining to...A Monk that is basically a name swap and level adjustment of the Monk the wife of the guy playing my Medium played in Wrath. Least that was the plan last I heard...And finally an elvin Slayer (bounty hunter) I made for a friend that wasn't in the Wrath game who asked me to work him up something rangerlike. This character is going to have some connections with the gunslinger who worked as a bounty hunter that was involved with my previous Rise game.
I'll have a separate post detailing the PCs too, though that'll be down the road a little more as I'm still waiting on specs for a few. So...next post will detail Nualia and crew...then we'll have a goblin extravaganza...and after that details on our new heroes.
First session is scheduled for this coming sunday, so hopefully I'll have an after action report at some point early that week.
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Being that I'm skipping the first bit and when I ran it before I didn't play up Aldern enough that it's likely going to stick with my repeat player, I have some work to do with Mr. Foxglove. Being that he plays such an important part of the second book I really want him to stick out...and I REALLY want my players to dislike him. What I've decided is he is going to insinuate himself into the assault on Thistletop. Being that Sandpoint has hired adventurers to go out into the wilds, I'm going to have Aldern accept the job and introduce himself to the other adventurers. His reason for this is being right pissed at the goblins for ruining the festival, killing his dog, and unmanning him (I'm going to make it possible for the current crop of PCs to find out Aldern was cowering and whimpering like a little girl when the former PCs rescued him).
For his obsession, I have a couple options. The aassimar Sorcerer is the obvious choice, but she's also ran by the player I know the most out of this group...and the one who ends up on center stage most often. I'm going to see how things play out in game, but I'd like sparks to fly between either the human Medium or possibly one of the two elfs. In the previous game Aldern's target ended up being our aassimar Paladin, and I tried to give the impression said Paladin wasn't sure if the attention was sexual in nature or not, as I figured Aldern himself wasn't 100% sure. I'm probably going to skip the homosexual aspect (Paladin was male) this go around if the target ends up being male. I figure the medium's connection to the spirit world might be a good draw by itself considering Aldern's history...giving good opportunity for a "I'm not that kinda Medium" conversation.
I need to know more about the elf Hunter and elf Slayer before thinking up hooks there...but I'll keep the Sorcerer as an ace in my sleeve. As I said, the previous target was an aassimar, and though I didn't think of it at the time I could go with part of Aldern's attention being based on the idea of redemption. Aldern gets it in his head that this shining example of divine white-hatness is the key to pulling him out of the dark spiral that his life has become. With said aassimar dead and rotting somewhere on Thistletop it could make for an interesting scene, the discovery of the body and Aldern transfering his codependency issues onto the next shiny looking white-hatness...especially considering just who that really is...
Mechanically I've statted Aldern up as a Swashbuckler () to give him some pomp and foppishness. My plan is to have him dance around combat like a jack ass, "coming to the rescue" of his obsession whenever possible and generally bouncing back and forth between assent and liability as needed.
Male Human Swashbuckler (picaroon) 4
NE Medium Humanoid
CR:
Attributes
Str: 08
Dex: 18
Con: 08
Int: 08
Wis: 09
Cha: 18
Defense
AC: 16; Tch: 16; Flt: 10; CMD: ;
10+Armor+Dex+Shield
Fort: +0; Refl: +8; Will: +0;
HP: 24; HD: 4;
Offense
BA: +4; M: +3; R: +8; CMB: +3;
Spd: 30; Init: +;
Attacks
Full Attack: rapier +8 melee (1d6-1, piercing) 18x2;
Two Weapon Attack: rapier +6 melee (1d6-1, piercing) 18x2; double barreled pistol +6 ranged (1d8 bludgeoning and piercing) 20x4; Range: 20ft; Misfire: 1-2
Feats
Combat Expertise
Dodge
Improved Initiative
Point Blank Shot
Skills
Acrobatics 2+4+3
Bluff 4+4+3
Diplomacy 1+4+3
Intimidate 2+4+3
Knowledge (local)1-1+3
Knowledge (nobility) 2-1+3
Perception 2-1+3
Ride 2+4+3
Sense Motive 1-1+3
Stealth 3
There are a lot of different ideas floating out there for Nualia, Antipaladin, Warpriest, straight Cleric...I wanted something completely different. I figure with as messed up as this lady is, given her background and all, Bloodrager seemed like it was a good place to start. It would allow me to emphasis both the idea of an angry broken individual that was given the power to finally lash out at all the people who had hurt her (and everyone else)...as well as the ability to amp up the Abyssal taint without adding templates into the mix.
As mentioned above, Lyrie and Nualia are now an item, rather than Tsuto. So instead of the loyal and delusional puppy dog type lover, we have Nualia connected to the scheming and manipulative type lover.
Nualia
Female Assimar Bloodrager (archetype) 6
Favored Class: Bloodrager ()
Mythic Champion Tier 2
CE M Humanoid
CR: 7
Attributes (bloodraging)
Str: 21 (27)
Dex: 14 (12)
Con: 12 (16)
Int: 08
Wis: 10
Cha: 16
Defense
AC: 20; Tch: 12(15); Flt: 18; CMD: 25;
10+6Armor+2Dex+2Enhancement
Fort: +6; Refl: +4; Will: +2;
HP: 46; HD: 6;
acid 5, electric 5, cold 5
Offense
BA: +6/+1; M: +11/+6; R: +8/+3; CMB: +11;
Spd: 30; Init: +10;
Attacks
Full Attack: bastard sword +13/+8 melee (1d8+8, slashing, +2d6) 19x2;
Full Power Attack: bastard sword +11/+6 (1d8+14, slashing, +2d6) 19x2;
Full Power Bloodrage: bastard sword +13/+8 (1d8+19 slashing, +2d6) 19x2;
Feats
Exotic Weapon Proficiency (bastard sword)
Improved Initiative
Improved Initiative (mythic)
Medium Armor Proficiency (mythic)
Power Attack
Weapon Focus (bastard sword)
Skills
Acrobatics 4+2+3
Intimidate 6+3+3
Perception 5+0+3
Spellcraft 3-1+3
Special Abilities
darkvision 60',
Spellcasting
CL: 6; Casting Stat: Charisma;
Spell Slots: 2
Spells Known: 4
1st: Blade Lash, Color Spray, Infernal Healing, Shield,
Spell-Like Abilities
1/day: Daylight,
Equipment 16k
+1 Furious bastard sword, +2 breastplate
That's all I have for right now. Still working up Lyrie as a Mesmerist and need to start on Tsuto. Orik and Bruthazmus are both done but I'll but them in the next post too.
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I like the ideas but if I may add a few suggestions. I would leave lyrie as is unless her background doesn't come into play. Nualia as a bloodrager is interesting. I think it works with the mythic idea. Otherwise inquisitor would be a great fit. Also, adding the idea that Lyrie is possessed by a succubis of Lamashtu would be an interesting twist as a way of controlling the soon to be general.
The Tsuto being into his sister is creepy and awesome.
You could have Aldern captured on the road back to Magnimar and locked in a dark room in Thistletop. When the pc's first enter the room they could see glowing red eyes until the torch light shines on him. This would activate the obsession and foreshadow his change.
Hey thanks for the look and thoughts :)
I'm not expecting much of Lyrie's backstory to become relevant, as that kind of thing just normally doesn't in my experience. Going off memory I think she was a failed Pathfinder? That being the case, and I think it'll still work with the changes I have for her, though if I'm missing something please let me know.
Yeah, I wish I could remember who suggested the Tsuto/Ameiko thing so I could give credit. Going to have to go through the various campaign logs I've read and see if I can find it again. If I had to guess I'd say Story Archer, though it might have been something I saw on his log that he picked up from someone else.
I like the idea you bring up with Aldern. Our Slayer/bounty hunter didn't show last night, so what I might do is say the two of them went off alone to Thistletop and got themselves into some trouble. The guy who's playing the Slayer was introduced in our last game as a captive, so might as well develop a tradition, right?
To try and wrap up what I was doing with my last post, and talk about the Slayer a little...we're going to look at Orik for a minute.
I didn't change much so I'm not going to bother posting stats...he's a dude with a sword and a shield. I like the idea of him being a possible ally though. So adjustments I did make to him were largely to make him a little more resilient, so if the party gets too into the "kick down door, kill occupant" mode I'll hopefully have a round or two for him to attempt a parley. Also...with his background I figure he's the perfect target for a bounty hunter. The original campaign had a hobgoblin gunslinger who worked as a bounty hunter (player is a HUGE Boba Fett fan...like, I thought I was going to have a conversation with him about not naming PCs after iconic characters...), and the reason he was in Sandpoint was to track down Orik. So now we have an elf Slayer/bounty hunter taking on that contract, and possibly caring to find out what happened to the previous bounty hunter. The contract pays more for live capture (being commissioned by the guy from Khorvosa that hates Orik), which will also, hopefully, help keep the fighter alive long enough to make a deal with the rest of the PCs.
I haven't actually finished Bruthazmus' stats, so I'll post them once their done...but he's a Slayer (vanguard), and for his teamwork feat I gave him Coordinated shot. It bugs me that the pic of Brut is him holding a bow, he's described as having had firefights with Shalelu...and then he winds up being a guy with a flail in a little room. I'm going to keep him in his little room with Ripnugget's harem, which is probably a mistake...but I've statted the harem up as third level Rogue/knife masters...and they're going to be slavishly loyal to Bruty...so the second some horrible murder hobo comes and kicks in the door to their love shack, the harem is going to charge in and hopefully give Bruty an opportunity to put arrows in said hobo. He has a pretty good number of hitpoints, so after the harem is taken care of, or when it looks like that's inevitable, Bruty is going to try and make a break through the melee and become a possible reoccurring villain...which basically mean's he's going to flub the Acrobatics check and catch a crit AoO to the face...but whatcha gonna do?
Oh, before I forget...I strongly considered making Nualia an Inquisitor, and I really like the idea....but...my plan is to stat Ironbriar up as an Inquisitor, and I want both of them to be something my group doesn't see very often, as well as distinct from eachother.
Hopefully I'll get time to go over the events of our first session later tonight. There were lots and lots of hangups, so we didn't get very far, but it's still worth documenting.
I found Ironbriar as a Warpriest (Cult Leader) to be a very effective build on paper. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten to test him against my party yet due to scheduling issues. If that interests you; you can always use Nualia as an Inquisitor, or keep her as the Bloodrager, since that sounds fun.
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Hey I had a few thoughts on your remix for Runelords. I like where you're going with it, in my game I made Tsuto a gunslinger after he escaped from jail when the PCs caught him. It turned him into a young Lee VanCleef with a broody trench coat and a chip on his shoulder, my players loved it. Also I changed Nualia's old lover from some random dude to none other than Justice Ironbriar. Her child then ends up being a half aasimar half elf with a feindish template. She was sold to a disreputable orphanage that didn't ask any questions in Magnimar. The book states that the child was deformed, but doesn't specify in what way, so I decided that the child was born with an oversized claw-like red left hand. As a cruel joke Lamashtu "gifted" Nualia with the exact same deformity and doesn't plan on changing anything else on her just to see how far Nualia will go to please her.
In another twist I also made Ironbriar Tsuto's father. As an elf it's altogether possible that he would "sow his wild oats" for fifty years or more and if Sandpoint is in his jurisdiction for capital crimes like mass murder, terrorism, trying conspirators of invasion and such it not only gives him a decent timeframe to knock up Mrs. Kaijutsu and Nualia. He could have visited under the pretense of investigating the area looking for a nice summer home in a quiet town or just an inspection of the law enforcement facilities in Sandpoint. Secretly of course he's also scouting the countryside for potential talent for his murder cult. He being the head lawman in the area also gives the PCs a very valid reason to seek him out when the story moves to Magnimar in book 2.
I also didn't really like the transition from Aldern's townhouse to the seven's sawmill being in a conspicuous note saying "here's where you need to go now!" So I had the PCs hit a brick wall at Aldern's townhouse where they were summoned to Ironbriar's office. He proceeds to chew them out for stumbling into an ongoing investigation without his direction and has them look into a string of murders that may be related to what they're looking for. I inserted the Dawn of the Scarlet Sun module here and in context of the game it was just Ironbriar manipulating the heroes into assassinating a rival underworld boss who was threatening Xanesha's turf. Tsuto shows up at the end of the module and helps them can the succubus at the conclusion (which could very well be the same one who enthralled Lyrie in your game hmmmm...) he then reveals that they've been manipulated by Ironbriar, shares the revelation of his parentage and that of Nualia's daughter and says that Ironbriar has found her as well and is planning to sacrifice the young urchin himself. Ironbriar has gone a bit mad and has begun sacrificing victims directly to his Mistress, whom he sees as a manifestation of Norgorbor that he must please. Tsuto knows that the cultists will be moving the child to the sawmill for her sacrifice in a few hours and wants the players to intercept the coach she'll be travelling in leading to a chase sequence. At the end of the chase Tsuto ransoms his freedom with the girl in tow against the ultimate location of Ironbriar. As he will be expecting the arrival of the coach momentarily the PCs have about five minutes to decide whether to let the murderer and known abductor get away with an innocent (albeit deformed) child in his grasp, or track down the only lead they have to discover a ritualistic serial killer.
The scenario as I ran it forced the PCs into an endurance run that they weren't prepared for. They basically had to do the entire Dawn of the Scarlet Sun module a chase scene and the entire sevens sawmill encounter in one big go. That stretched my PC's capabilities quite thin and left them gasping for breath, but they all had a ton of fun and I didn't really need to stat up Ironbriar any because he was at the end of the gauntlet and their best spells and abilities were likely to be used up by then.
I know that this post is turning into a serious novel, but I just had to share what I did with Orik. I made him the most unlucky sod in the world. I mean his backstory has him being pretty unlucky in the first place so my PCs let him live and since I had a guest playing Shelalu at the time she gave him a letter of recommendation to Sheriff Hemlock. I had him end up joining the Sandpoint garrison, getting involved with Shayliss Vinder (and if one of your PCs is involved with her at this point it could lead to her cheating on him with a clueless Orik.) Because Shayliss wants to keep their relationship a secret from her father she demands that Orik be really quiet about it and as such Hemlock doesn't know any better than to send poor Orik to arrest her father when he becomes a suspect for the skinsaw murders, which Shayliss causes a huge scene at. He makes up for it later by bringing Vin home and claiming he helped clear her father's name, which of course is a lie and once that comes to light there's going to be some sort of nuclear fallout. I'm trying to think of some other incredibly unlucky thing that forces him to live through his bad luck. Perhaps he and Shayliss' wedding day will be punctuated by a stone giant attack. hmmm...
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I've seen Ironbriar as Tsuto's father so many times I actually forgot that wasn't cannon. That would be the case in my game too ;)
Ironbriar as Nualia's baby daddy is interesting, but I think I'll go a different route. I'm going to leave it largely up in the air, or as "generic NPC dude" for right now, and see if I can't connect it to a PC background later on as people give me more of their histories.
On the subject of Nualia...I'm considering running with an idea...Having Nualia be noticeably prego as of the group encountering her. I haven't fleshed the idea out very much as I'm dealing with half the players being fairly new to me so I'm not sure how they'll react...but the more I noodle it around the more I like it. I'm very curious to see what the party does when they come up against a pregnant woman who hits like a freight train.
Whenever I think of pregnancy I think of pickles and vomiting (long story), which leads me to another idea I'd love feedback on. Recently I came across Numenera, and while I don't like how wishy washy some of the rules are, I love a lot of the concepts in there...one of which is Intrusions.
For anyone who doesn't know, in Numeria the GM can perform an Intrusion every so often, giving a PC two experience points (one has to be given to another PC, because koomby yahh...) and complicates their situation. Maybe their energy sword's battery goes dead, maybe they trigger a trap and fall through the floor into an unexplored party of the complex...stuff like that. The PC can either take the experience and deal with the situation, or turn it down and spend a point of experience to cancel the Intrusion.
The reason this relates to throwing up and pickles is the Pickle Thieves of Thistletop. I've been trying to come up with various themed Intrusions for my group when they hit Thistletop, and one is one of the Pickle Thief goblins blowing chunks at a PCs feet, causing a Acrobatics check or fall prone. I know I have one other Intrusion I came up with but can't recall off hand and I'm away from my notes. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
back to Rycross...I really like the idea of Ironbriar going super nutty and will definitely use that. I'm planning on having the PCs meet up with him before book two if anyone from Thistletop is taken hostage. There will be a trial and some interaction and we'll see what all happens. Depending on how things go with my Slayer PC there might even be a recruitment.
Liking the idea of the murder investigation too...might have to play around with that.
Athos...if you want to share the write up for Irionbriar as a Cult Leader I'd take a look. I forgot all about that archetype actually.
I'm definitely keeping Nualia as a Bloodrager though. My group as an aassimar Sorcerer, so I like the idea of having a villainous aassimar Bloodrager. Would have been even better if their bloodlines had matched up, but it wasn't meant to be. When I first saw the character I think she was the Devil bloodline, but before we started she was switched to Primal Fire...was going to play with the devil/demon thing (Nualia is Abyssal) but oh well.
Up next, or at least up soon, the goblin thread...and the recap of the actual session...I promise :)
Cult Leader Ironbriar
I'd forgotten about the Archetype too, and was just going to rebuild him as a Warpriest. On a whim, I thought, let's take a look at the archetypes.
I'll update that thread in a few weeks when my party finally gets to him.
Athos, killer thanks man.
Previously I mentioned using the Fronts idea from Dungeon World. Here is what I came up with applying that to Burnt Offerings...
Tsuto and his goblins take over the glassworks without anyone knowing and trick Ameiko into showing up and being captured.
1. If the PCs respond immediately upon hearing Ameiko is missing they find half the eight workers and Lonjiko still alive. The goblins are torturing the workers, and Tsuto is torturing Lonjiko in front of his sister.
2. If the PCs respond the next day they find all of the workers dead but Lonjiko still alive. Tsuto is trying to convince Ameiko to kill their father.
3. If the PCs respond the next night all the workers and Lonjiko are dead. Tsuto and the goblins are preparing to leave with an unconscious Ameiko and the goblin pyro is in the process of trapping the building.
Doom: If the PCs respond any later than the next night Tsuto and the goblins have escaped with Ameiko and the building is fairly well trapped. Having witnessed the torture and death of her father and the suffering to come at Thistletop, when Ameiko is eventually freed she is emotionally broken and will never fully recover.
Nualia is sacrificing the previous adventurers to Lamashtu, and preparing to assault Sandpoint.
1. Most of the adventurers are dead when the PCs arive and the Thistletop tribe has only recieved token numbers of warriors from the other tribes.
2. All the adventurers are dead and Thistletop has recieved roughly half of the additional warriors.
3. All of the additional warriors have arived as well as a number of bugbears.
Doom: Nualia leads the goblin assault on Sandpoint, sending a small force of goblins and Tsuto up through the smuggler tunnels, and having Bruthazmus and his fellows perform skirmish attacks on the town's defenders.
Between the first two half sessions (both sessions have gone pretty short with lots of halfassedness on my part, so not much has been accomplished) our group of heroes have traveled from Sandpoint to Thistletop, encountering a goblin patrol along the way.
Once to Thistletop they easily followed goblin tracks through the nettles and discovered the secret entrance. They navigated the tunnels for a few minutes before alerting/discovering the refugees from the Birdcruncher clan.
Qualin, our human Medium stood ahead of his companions and smeared several goblins into pulpy paste as they tried to swarm past him and into the rest of the group. Monk and Ridley (the halfling archaeologist) got in a few licks as well, and Frumpstein the dwarven cleric cast Bless. The cramped confines of the nettle tunnels played a part, keeping most of the long-shanks attacks from hitting, and being the difference between missing and hitting a number of times on Qualin.
Part way through the fight Vletter the Hunter spotted a goblin down a side tunnel and charged in. He missed horribly, and the creature jumped IN TO the nettles and called out a parley.
There was some resistance to the idea, especially coming from Frump and Qualin, but with most of the Birdcrunchers either dead or cowering they decided to talk.
Grugmort, the goblin in the nettles explained he would like to make a deal, and laid out the situation with Ripnugget being atlepaited over some Demon Lady...and told the party if they killed both the chief and the Lady he could wrangle the Thistletop goblins under control and keep them from being a problem any longer. Again, there was some resistance, but a deal was struck, and the remaining Birdcrunchers were tossed into the Howling Hole.
Grugmort lead the party through the nettle tunnels, to the bridge and into the Thistletop Fortress, as he called it. The party spied the tower archers, and didn't like the look of the bridge (especially after Grug told them it was trapped and then went about "fixing it" so they could cross...was a bit of a conversation figuring out who would cross first).
We left off at a cliff hanger...the party had been lead into Ripnugget's throne room and introductions were being made. Erynnae and Frumpstein both cast spells (Charm Person on the chief and Cure Light Wounds on one of the other characters respectively), which essentially kicked the ant pile.
Fronts In Action
We've essentially started the Nualia Danger, so most of the previous adventurers are dead and will be found down below. I'm hoping after the fight with Ripnugget the party is hurt enough they either camp out or return to Sandpoint. In that case they will be met by Ameiko's halfling employee and we'll start the Tsuto Danger.
From there it'll be up to them as to which they focus on.
Intrusions
With the way things worked out my one planned Intrusion was voided, as the party never met up with the Pickle Thieves. Before the next session I'd like to come up with one or two that could happen with the Ripnugget fight. Also, I remembered the other Intrusion I wrote down.
Vissions from Mal
In the lower levels of Thistletop one of the PCs is exposed to Malfeshnekor's force of will, though only briefly. The player is told their character is hit with an Intrusion that will give them some Wisdom damage and an accompanying vision. If they decline then obviously nothing happens...If they accept they take 1d6 Wis damage (Will DC: 16 for half) and see a vision of Mal's experience being trapped within the dungeon. I don't have the vision written up yet, but I'd like it to show that this dungeon is old and foreshadow little bits of Thassilonian history.
No game yesterday on account of Pretend To Be Friends With Indians Then Kill Them And Take Their Land day...so I'm prepping for the relatively big fight with Ripnugget.
As said, the party was escorted to the throne room by Grugmort, who they'd made a deal with (whack the Chief and the goblins will play nice and show them where Demon Lady/Nualia is), though some are not too trusting of the good green druid.
I wrote myself a little prompt for the opening sequence, as it never fails when I have a decent sized combat like this I always space important details that, more often than not, make it a cakewalk for the players...
Surprise Round
Commando A and D fire at Frump with bows.
Commando C and B fire at Erynnae with bows.
Round 1
Commando A uses Freebooter's Bane on Qualin and fires at Qualin with bow.
Commando D uses Freebooter's Bane on Jean and fires at Jean with bow.
Commando C uses Freebooter's Bane on Ridley and fires at Ridley with bow.
Commando B uses Freebooter's Bane on Vletter and fires at Vletter with bow.
Wardrummer uses Raging Song.
Warchanter uses Inspire Courage.
Ripnugget uses Freebooter's Bane on Frump and Lead From the Back.
Cutter 1 cowers unless Wardrummer has Raging Song up, if so he charges closest PC.
Cutter 2 cowers unless Wardrummer has Raging Song up, if so he charges closest PC.
Round 2
Commando A jumps down on to closest PC taking 2d6 damage (Reflex DC: 20 for PC or they take the damage as well).
Commando B jumps down on to closest PC taking 2d6 damage (Reflex DC: 20 for PC or they take the damage as well).
Commando C resists rage and fires at a PC with bow.
Commando D resists rage and fires at a PC with bow.
Wardrummer charges into melee attempting to flank with a Cutter.
Warchanter casts spell and moves defensively.
Ripnugget uses Freebooter's Bond and continues to use Lead From the Back.
Cutter 1 charges closest PC or continues to attack previous PC, attempting to flank with Cutter 2 or Wardrummer.
Cutter 2 charges closest PC or continues to attack previous PC, attempting to flank with Cutter 1 or Wardrummer.
In the room visible is Ripnugget and four goblins. Two of the goblins are Cutters (Rogue 1), one is a Wardrummer (Skald 3 with a drum based archetype), and one is a Warchanter (Bard arcane duelist 3). Ripnugget has been changed to be a 5th level Ranger freebooter with the Lead From the Back feat.
In the rafters hidden are four Commandos (Ranger freebooter 3) without mounts.
In theory this is going to be an absolute bloodbath in favor of the goblins (haven't done the exact math yet...but gave it a good eyeballing). But...I have a few house rules that give the party a bit of a boost...and I plan on playing the goblins rather goblin-like here.
Next session things are going to open up with me telling Monk's player her character spotted a goblin in the rafters with a bow just in time to act right as he (and his friends) fire. Two Commandos are firing at Frump as he casts a cure spell on Qualin, and two are firing at Erynnae as she is casting Charm Person on Ripnugget.
Assuming Eryn's Charm succeeds Ripnugget and his gecko will climb into the rafters and go after one of the two Commando's who shot at the sorceress...but if not he'll do as mentioned above.
Grugmort is going to heal PCs and throw the occasional spell, all while trying to stay close to a door.
PCs began the campaign at 4th level and received max hit points for those four levels. In the future they will gain hit points like PFS.
A slightly modified Hero Point system is in effect and PCs receive Hero Points when GM uses Intrusions.
Second Wind
Using a Second Wind will heal a character of 1 point of ability damage or 1d6+character level hit points, or all non lethal hit points. The first time a character uses this ability it takes a Full Round action. The second time it takes ten minutes, and the third time it takes one hour. The character can do very little while taking a second wind, combat is completely out, move is reduced to half with no running possible, no spellcasting is possible, and many class abilities as decided by the GM will not be possible.
If attacked while using Second Wind the PC gains nothing from the time spent, but is treated as fully able to defend themselves. They act in the initiative turn immediately after the first creature to attack them. If a Second Wind is interrupted the PC doesn't count as having used it.
For example, Bob the Barbarian and his friends are in a fight with several ogres. Bob has slain the ogre nearest him, but took some damage in the process, so he elects to use Second Wind on his next turn. One of the surviving ogres moves up and engages Bob, making an attack but missing. Even though Bob's actions for the turn are essentially spent, having used a Full Round to use Second Wind, he now gets to complete a turn after the ogre is finished resolving its actions. If Bob brings the ogre down he can again elect to use a Full Turn to use Second Wind, rather than having to use his second use of the ability, which would require ten minutes.