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On a similar topic... When I played it I was a little incredulous that Fimbrik was still alive after 400 years making him over 440 years old - as I didn't realize Gnomes could live that long.
Technically is is possible according to the aging chart as maximum age is 200+3d%, but it is statistically very unlikely (and convenient). Though I guess as a wizard he could have taken the 20th level immortality discovery. Also the scenario notes he has been absent for several years, which could be code for long dead.
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Contributor
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Its simple... The note is 400+ years old... The tomb got moved to make room for more houses. ;)Across to the other side of town?
It happens more often than you might think. When I was in Lisbon last year I was startled to come across Fernando Pessoa's relocated tomb in the Monastery of Jerónimos, probably ten or fifteen kilometers from his original internment site. And the remains of the 19th century Franco-Turk polymath Constantine Rafinesque were removed from, I think, Boston, to a crypt on the grounds of Transylvania University just a block from my house here in Lexington.
Both of those gentlemen were notorious for one reason or another, of course, but it happens to common folks, too. As TOZ mentioned, there's the real estate question. Entire cemeteries are frequently relocated in service of commerce.
Venture-Captain, Alabama—Birmingham
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You got it Paul! I wanted to leave it just vague enough so GMs could have fun with it.
Now, if only I could continue that thread about the Onyx Alliance...
7-10 The Onyx Beggar
Venture captain Drandle Dreng goes missing during an extended undercover mission. After a rather exuberant party of relieved pathfinders who expect never to be awakened in the dead of night again, Master of Spells Aram Zey drags you out of bed in the dead of morning. Painfully interrupting your hangover, he orders you on a mission to find the missing Venture-Captain.
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mental note to add drunken pathfinders at a table arguing whether the whisp or the pigs paunch is where it really started. This being the whisp of course anyone mentioning the paunch has to buy the next round.
Re-playable season 6 Special? - 'The Gangs of Absalom' In which a street war breaks about between rival gangs of agents, with one side shouting 'Pig Pig Pig!' and the other shouting 'Wisp Wisp WIsp!'! :)
Which side will the PCs take to end the violence..? ;)
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Its simple... The note is 400+ years old... The tomb got moved to make room for more houses. ;)
We made the same joke after the confusion arose, complete with Poltergeist references. :)
As for the handouts, when I played this last week we never had a problem with the handouts. They went around the table quickly and even though we had a very distractable player, everyone leaned in and tried to work out the clues. I guess it depends on the group.
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This single 8x10 could be printed for the encounter in the basement.
I get a blank screen when opening this.
Venture-Captain, Germany—Bavaria
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I played this adventure recently and liked it, obviously since it is a 1-2 scenario, the combat difficulty is rather limited and there are plenty of safeguards. This adventure seems to be a good choice for new players.
As a GM, my opinion differs a bit, but that is somewhat caused by my usual players (RPG veterans of 18+ years) they disliked Firsts steps I: in service to lore quite strongly. Their complaint was, that it features a lot of rather plain and pedestrian challenges without much of a connecting plot, which frankly is true. I blame myself for the choice, since I really should have see this coming (should have used The Confirmation).
The reason why I talk about the other evergreen here, is that they do happen to share a weakness, the rather expect the players to have some investment into the Pathfinder Society... which really is not (yet) the case with my players.
They played through the first parts of WotR and completed Kingmaker, and the fact that the Society really does not play a significant role (outside of scenarios and awesome books about the count and Radovan).
Their second scenario, the Dissapeared received a far better reception. I think that the scenario benefited from a giving the PCs a clear directive, allowing them a number of tactics (sneaking, impersonating staff.. etc.) and giving them the satisfaction to feeling smarter than the NPCs. The code is frankly one of the not so well received features here, once they have the code, translating the text seems like busy work and the directions for the air ducts seemed unnecessary and confusing.
But at the end of the day a much better scenario, and I would be willing to GM it again without getting credit.
The group consists of :
Level 1 Gnome Swashbuckler (has rapier and enjoys being the party face)
Level 1 Half-Orc Bloodragers (well a half orc follower of Gorum, chances are he likes combat with that character ^^)
Level 1 Human Slayer : (Likes to sneak and to fight ^^, the player doesn't
And a pregen, I usually suggest Harkon, since he is amazing ^^
Disclaimer: I didn't have quit enough time to prepare this scenario.
Introductions were rather quick, the players were told, that is has been quite some time since their last mission, and that their characters have mostly been doing chores and sharpening their weapons.
A chance to meed the other venture captain was well received, since Venture Captain Vanlsin, had them almost kicked out of his office twice (lack of respect, and getting a bit greedy), the "mission" briefing with Dreng went very well. It helped, that they didn't ask any details about the package.
They managed the relevant knowledge checks, but felt, that this popular pathfinder bar should already be known to them. I explained it with the fact, that they are still the new guys.
They went into to tavern, and the social encounters worked very well, obviously the barbarian brothers are the stars of this part of the adventure. I couldn't really find a nice hook for the inquisitor and the "normal" person though. Since one of my players was already quite tired, the just went to the bar to nurse his beer.
I really feel that this part benefits from some GM preparation, and I think I could have done this better.
The backroom worked well enough, other than the fact, that I was so busy RPing the owner, that I forgot the damn rotten board.
They ended up fighting the spiders, ideally something with more HP would have been a bit more rewarding - but considering the level range it is not surprising.
The handouts worked well enough, but since I read it to my players (and translated it into German on the fly) it took some time.
They did inquire about bringing another bottle, but since it was not covered, I mentioned that the other wines are quite expensive and that their employed hadn't paid for those yet.
Oh and that part of the adventure does seem to miss the word "fail".
Rewards: If the PCs to defeat the creatures in area A 13 ,
(with or without help), reduce each PC’s gold earned by
50 gp.
The graveyard worked quite well, they reconsidered breaking and entering once they spotted the cleric of abbadar, and since they aced their diplomacy check he even fetched a crowbar to deal with the "stuck" door. Really just and excuse to talk about his days as a nasty gang fighter (trying because of the parent thing in his history). They didn't even ask about keeping the coin, one player distracted the cleric, the other snatched it.
Since they didn't have access to detect magic they went back into the Wisp and asked Janira Gavix for help. Nice opportunity to instill the whole "cooperate" idea into new players.
The house of Fimbrik proved to be quite entertaining, especially once the players discovered the illusions.
However, the line "PCs might spot the trap, but the players must clearly state their intention to check for traps or other hazards after they open the door " is something I really don't like. In my experience this just results in players spamming "I look for traps, and is it human? (rangers..)" all the time.
Oh and once my players searched in the basement full of newspapers, and were surprised, that they didn't get a handout or a clue from that ^^.
The wall of names went quite well, I only wish, that the complete references from page 26 had been with the puzzle on page 12.
When the players went to the shrine of the failed, one of my players tried to steal some of his hair (the price was going to go up either way) but quickly reasoned, that just taking any hair and lying was more expedient.
At this point my players were already pretty tired from a combination of pregnant wifes, long work days and renovating their houses (tough week), so the a tried to wrap up the adventure at this point.
Finding the secret room went well (even though the perception DC is rather high) and while the encounter seems to be unavoidable, at least in this case the group knows why they are getting attacked.
The players took out the aspis agents until the last one surrendered. The letter from VC Valsin was quite well received, since he didn't even threaten them a little.
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A really nice scenario, and I would love to run it again. Not great for a cold read, and can really benefit from a well prepared GM (particularly when it comes to portraying the various NPCs), but I would suggest it to anybody, and it is great for new players.
Well done.
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Is it just me or is this story driven by both PCs and NPCs being criminals, idiots and trigger-happy murderers?
"Hey, we just established the home owner is not home and is trying to fool people into not breaking in. Let's break in!"
Sure, let's keep the stereotype of Pathfinders breaking every law they come across.
"Hey, let's break into the tower of the 400 year old wizard. What could possibly go wrong?"
In most home games a 1st level character trying to pull a stunt like this would probably end up as a piece of charcoal...
"You are stealing something from a grave? I WILL F%(§)%$G MURDER YOU!"
(or even worse)
"GET OFF THE GRAVEYARD!"
"But...it's not forbidden to..."
"DIE, SCOUNDREL!"
I can kinda see the first case, but for christ's sake - Onyeka's course of action isn't Neutral, that's borderline CE...and I strongly expect the statblock to be in error because this character is in no way Chaotic Good. Neutral (as the text says) seems far more likely.
I can see how the clerics are far more suspicios of people arriving fully armed and in groups than they would be of normal people, but still - any player pulling a stunt like this would probably be escorted to the next jail pretty fast.
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Venture-Captain, Germany—Bavaria
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Is it just me or is this story driven by both PCs and NPCs being criminals, idiots and trigger-happy murderers?
"Hey, we just established the home owner is not home and is trying to fool people into not breaking in. Let's break in!"
Sure, let's keep the stereotype of Pathfinders breaking every law they come across."Hey, let's break into the tower of the 400 year old wizard. What could possibly go wrong?"
In most home games a 1st level character trying to pull a stunt like this would probably end up as a piece of charcoal..."You are stealing something from a grave? I WILL F%(§)%$G MURDER YOU!"
(or even worse)
"GET OFF THE GRAVEYARD!"
"But...it's not forbidden to..."
"DIE, SCOUNDREL!"I can kinda see the first case, but for christ's sake - Onyeka's course of action isn't Neutral, that's borderline CE...and I strongly expect the statblock to be in error because this character is in no way Chaotic Good. Neutral (as the text says) seems far more likely.
I can see how the clerics are far more suspicios of people arriving fully armed and in groups than they would be of normal people, but still - any player pulling a stunt like this would probably be escorted to the next jail pretty fast.
Well in theory the players could just call someone from the academy and help them get in, but considering, that there are stacks of at least several year old newspapers on the door, they could argue that they are investigating a death.
Regarding the grave robbing thing, they can just ask the clerics in charge and/or bribe them. They don't actually have to break the law.
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Yeah, I guess you could argue that looking inside to make sure everything's alright could work. But the clerics - the Asmodean cleric is a bully, but not too dangerous unless they attack him right away, sure. The cleric of Pharasma seems pretty trigger-happy, though (imagine a grave robber being gunned down by a security guard without a chance to say "Um...I give up?") and the Sarenrae cleric clearly is not chaotic good and even neutral is a stretch. Killing somebody just because they are refusing to leave a place they are not forbidden to be in is pretty evil.
And this is not somewhere out in the country, that's in the middle of a huge city.
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Regional Venture-Coordinator, Central Europe
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I don't see the problem here.
All clerics can be persuaded to let the party do their thing by just talking to them and being honest and respectful amd making some not hard diplomacy rolls.
Regarding the Pharasma cleric:
According to her tactic she spends multiple rounds buffing herself and then "she uses command and her wand of cause fear to force the PCs to retreat from the necropolis". She only uses deadly force if seriously threatened. Nowhere in her tactic does it say that she accepts no surrender on part of the party. So there is still a lot of time for the party to surrender and talk to her, even after sneaking past her and getting caught plundering a grave.
Regarding the Sarenite cleric:
She is neutral, the CG in the statblock is an error, and is very close to falling because she is so aggresive. And even then she is not just suddenly attacking the party, she asks them to leave and only initiates combat if the party does not comply. And the party is not automatically allowed to be on the graveyard. It is church property and the cleric is the offical guard and representant of the church, so she totally has the authority to deny the party access to it.
To nake it quite clear: If the party is attacking the priest or stealing from the grave or not leaving the graveyard when told to do, they are the ones breaking the law.
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I have to admit that I did not read the Tactics of every cleric. I should have, the Pharasma cleric makes much more sense this way.
The Sarenrae cleric still bothers me a bit, but not as much. I also just noticed I'm both a racist and a sexist (because I somehow expected her to be a male half-orc). It still seems extreme to me to murder someone who refuses to follow your orders, but still - she seems to be a highly unstable person, so it makes some sense at least, given how most Pathfinders present themselves - I have yet to see the player who declares he walks through Absalom without his weapons and armour...
OT
Also: I love how the only people responding at this time of day are the Germans.
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This is my absolute favorite scenario. I sat down to prep it for Pensacon and fell in love. So many returning characters(Janira, my heart doth skip for thee), so much flavor. Well written. Explicit directions on running it for a party who's already played it and tips for new players are a huge plus.
I often find myself frustrated prepping a scenario, but this was a joy from start to finish. I applaud Thurston and all involved. Keep doing this. This exact thing.
It's icing on the cake that something this marvelous is evergreen and replayable. B)
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EDIT: I would remind them of this several times throughout the encounter, though - don't surprise folks, just encourage them to think about the consequences and consider them in their choices.
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I ran this twice at Pensacon this weekend, and there were no disappointments.
The first table enjoyed it immensely. They played up. Upon finding that Drendle Drang couldn't get his wine, they immediately searched for the trashiest bottle of wine they could, as revenge for sending them on this ridiculous mission. (I joked that it was Sour Cream and Onion flavored) When they decided they were going to back to find Janira and ask for her help, I told them she wasn't there, so they decided to go on to the Wall. I had Janira at the wall, in the rain, having her weekly picnic near her father's name. The ranger and I both teared up. I rolled for the cleric of Abadar both times, which was good, because I play a paladin of Abadar and roleplayed them similarly. The cleric at the table, a character named Monsieur Alphonse with a thick french accent, was the one who found the Pathfinder's Coin. He has Profession Undertaker. The table both knew it was a replayable, and that I was running it again the next day, and opted to have Monsieur Alphonse re-record the message, with a pitch that I read it the next day in his voice. I gave it my best shot, but at that point I'd run five games in two days and had pretty much lost my voice. I misread the map and had one of the windows above the bed, so when they broke in they fell right onto sleeping Fimbrik illusion. This tipped the player's off to the the fact that it was an illusion, but none of them made their save, so all the characters were convinced this gnome was comatose. Pretty funny.
The second table enjoyed it even more. They played down. There were four fighter types, someone playing Merisel, a gnome alchemist (playing the closest thing to Mogmurch I've seen since Mogmurch) and a warpriest. They also got Dreng the worst bottle they could. They were excited to see Janira again (everyone is, she's so great). The two notable occurrences were that when they got to Fimbrik's house, Merisel decided that no one was home and she would jump on the couch. She then failed to notice the summoning circle activate, and fought off the three fire beetles from prone. Good stuff. They also opted to go talk to Sir Reinhardt, and try and help him. He hired Totally-Not-Mogmurch to try and make his leap even cooler by throwing a bomb under him as he made it across. Unfortunately, as we all know, he did NOT make it across, and took an extra six fire damage on the way down for his troubles. They asked me what his domain was going to be if he made it- I told them Orphans, thinking it would be a cute little backstory that he had grown up in an orphanage and wanted to give orphans Golarion over someone to look up to. I did not take into account that he dies, leaving the poor orphans with even less than they had. Pretty sad. The table thought it was funny.
Overall, stellar reviews- even from the last table, who had to put up with me running with no voice.
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I'm still confused over how to run the wall and the randomness of choosing who the culprit is. Is there any way I can do it with more finesse rather than, "It was this guy." I've GM'd it once and am doing so again tonight, and can't help but wonder if I'm missing something. Going to go read through and prep, hopefully someone can get back to me in the next 5ish hours.
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When they are at the Wall of Names, all they should be doing is finding out that the three names listed in the notes seem to be related to three different Failed Aspirants, through the epitahps whicha re carvde into the Wall of Names. There isn't really a "culprit" at this point - they only find out which of the names was important when they get the note from Fimbrik's house.
RAW, the only was is to make your Knowledge (religion) check, but they're at the Grand Lodge - they can ask someone else, go to the library, or something to get the info.
Not only was it strange that Janira was now saying the Wisp was 'where it started' but even stranger because she had been killed by a Minotaur when I had played The Confirmation. All I could do was assume she was an imposter!
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Hello everyone :)
I'm going to GM this scenario soon and reading through it I thought the leap from the Wall of Names to the Shrine of the Failed wasn't really intuitive... I'll try to explain myself:
I'm GMing a group of novice Pathfinders (we're just a very young lodge here in Italy) and my guess is many, if not all of them, don't know many things about Absalom and its points of interest, like the Shrine or even the Starstone Cathedral for example. I mean, their characters might know but the PLAYERS don't.
I thought it would be quite awkward to say "Hey, with your history check, your character remembers that there's a monument called Shrine of The Failed [...] <insert description of the Shrine here>" and they'd be like "oh well I guess we have to go there then!".
Don't get me wrong, I'm just trying to ask if a player should be familiar with the city setting to actually have a chance to remember about the Shrine or if it's clearly pointed out with its name (and not only with the tombstone clues, which are quite pointless if the players don't know that the Shrine even exists...)
I'm sorry if I wasn't clear above, as you might have noticed english is not my first language :P
Thanks for your replies!
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I'm going to GM this scenario soon and reading through it I thought the leap from the Wall of Names to the Shrine of the Failed wasn't really intuitive... I'll try to explain myself:
I'm GMing a group of novice Pathfinders (we're just a very young lodge here in Italy) and my guess is many, if not all of them, don't know many things about Absalom and its points of interest, like the Shrine or even the Starstone Cathedral for example. I mean, their characters might know but the PLAYERS don't.
I thought it would be quite awkward to say "Hey, with your history check, your character remembers that there's a monument called Shrine of The Failed [...] <insert description of the Shrine here>" and they'd be like "oh well I guess we have to go there then!".
Don't get me wrong, I'm just trying to ask if a player should be familiar with the city setting to actually have a chance to remember about the Shrine or if it's clearly pointed out with its name (and not only with the tombstone clues, which are quite pointless if the players don't know that the Shrine even exists...)
You're certainly right. I made sure to mention and explain the Starstone in my introduction and give them rumours about Sir Rheinhart's attempt as they went along, so when they made their skill checks (or asked others) to understand the information from Arkath's tomb and the Wall of Names, they would understand the context for the Shrine. I still had to explain it a couple of times.
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You can also use the NPCs back at the bar to convey some of that information, especially when they first arrive. Janira and Yargos are probably the best choices to tell new Pathfinders all about the city. You could have them explain a bit of the history, and give a bit of background about the different neighborhoods and major sites.
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I think the only thing the randomization adds to it is that a player cannot carry knowledge over from a previous run through.
On the random ambush party stats:
[...]
2) The brute's to hit is not listed, it should be +6.3) I note that the brute does +12 damage when raging and power attacking - rolling high damage or a critical is one hit one kill against first level PCs - so possibly not to be used on an all new player table and also used with care against an all level one party.
I just stumbled over this bit while prepping and this is false.
The statblock is missing the attack, that much is true. But the statblock does describe the already raging brute. Why I think this? Simple:1. His AC includes "-2 rage".
2. His Willsave should be +2, his wisdom modifier. It's +4 though, suggesting that he is raging.
3. If his statistics described a non-raging barbarian, his point buy would've been done with 36 points. If they describe a raging barbarian it's been done with 14 points - far closer to what NPCs in PFS scenarios usually have to show.
So yeah. It should be
Melee greatclub +6 (1d10+6)
Obviously greatclub +5 (1d10+9) when power attacking. This is still enough to bring most characters into serious trouble, but not as ridiculous as 1d10+12 is.
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I've uplaoded my maps to the Shared Prep drive if anyone wants to use them. They include versions with and without the hidden things.
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How has everyone else prompted your players to (ask to) get into the crypt?
Once the Abadarian cleric deduced that they were investigating a breach of the Society's rules and duties (and had been sufficiently bribed, sorry, indemnified for the variation to his contractual obligations) he escorted them in and helped them open the sarcophagus.
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I'm confused about Handout #4. Doesn't the underlining telegraph a substantial portion of the puzzle? Figuring out the area of concern doesn't seem to be that hard anyway, and with the underlining there, it's pretty bloody obvious.
If I remake the handouts to remove the underlining, would that be naughty?
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Not had a problem either time I've run tihs.
I used the priest of Sarenrae when I ran it first time. It's a great RP encounter with this overly aggressive cleric spoiling for a fight! :)
I used the cleric of Pharasma the second time. This was because one of the PCs was also a cleric of Pharasma and it gave them a moment to shine (RPing).
I'm confused about Handout #4. Doesn't the underlining telegraph a substantial portion of the puzzle? Figuring out the area of concern doesn't seem to be that hard anyway, and with the underlining there, it's pretty bloody obvious.
If I remake the handouts to remove the underlining, would that be naughty?
I'd leave it as is. I've run this a couple of times now and one group breezed it and the other struggled. The underlining is a useful clue that's not sooo obvious IMO. :)
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Venture-Captain, California—Sacramento
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From tonights game.
Very puzzled servant opens the door to Paracountess Zarta Dralheen's town house. Sees a couple of chokers on the door step with a ribbon around them and a tag:
"Present for the Countess."
Starts to drag them inside, sees the smaller text squeezed in below:
"Don't worry, they aren't dead."
Backs off. "Can I get some help here?"
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So I don't get the initial part of the scenario.
Drendle Dreng wants you to go get a bottle on wine in the cellar of the Wounded Wisp and it just happens to be a secret lever to open a hidden cache that ultimately leads to a piece of the Skykey?
He clearly knew, but thought this was ok to leave with brand new pathfinders?
Are all the venture captains insane?
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In Dreng's case, maybe...
I think the intention may have been to leave it ambiguous as to whether he knew or was just taking advantage of the low level agents as errand boys. He does mention going through in order, so perhaps the dozen or so previous agents he sent did come back with perfectly normal bottles of wine. Or maybe he expects there's something hidden, but not how important it might be.
I did run this recently, and noticed that, because of the order they went through, it seemed like they had all the information they really needed before they went to Arkath's tomb, if they do the other two first. Has anyone else noticed that?
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They don't really have all the information they need. The second table I ran at PaizoCon had all new players who hadn't played Wounded Wisp before. After discovering the secret room under the Wisp, they went to Fimbrik's house, and then the Wall of Names. After that, they went to the Shrine of the Failed. (They had a bard at the table as well as a couple of others with good knowledge checks. The player of said bard was despite being a fairly new player to Pathfinder (this was only her third or fourth PFS game, and she's only been playing Pathinder for a few months). However, she was actually pretty well versed in Golarion lore; it turns out that one of the books she's read since getting into Pathfinder is the Inner Sea World Guide. (I approve. I'd rather the second book a player read after the Core Rulebook -- and they don't even need to read all of that, perhaps just reference stuff the Strategy Guide tlels them -- be the Inner Sea Primer than anything else.)
So, they went t the Shrine of the Shrine of the Failed before they went to tomb. They poked around, and were able to see through the illusion, and see the door, but they couldn't figure out how to open it. Only with the line from the coin they get at the tomb did they realize they needed to pay attention to the name plate on the appropriate shrine in the Shrine of the Failed, so they went back.
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Here are my notes on running The Wounded Wisp.
I've run it 3 times now and take the following approach.
First things first:
I have a piece of the paper with the chosen Fake Pathfinder, three Aspirants, and all the randomised content all on it.
Personally I tend to:
1. Use spiders in the first encounter. Dog sized spiders are creepy and they have just the right amount of HPs and AC to make the first fight interesting.
2. Consider any religious PCs when deciding which NPC to have in the Graveyard. Same faith is always interesting - especially if it's Sarenrae! I like giving the Cleric etc a chance to shine/roleplay this scene out.
3. I usually go with the Aspis Consortium for the final encounter. It ties in closer to the events of the rest of the season and feels 'right'.
Before the first scene, I introduce the Pathfinder Society, and then give a little bit of history about Golarion, Absalom, and The Starstone - including the test, and mentioning those few that have become gods.
I do this for 2 reasons:
1. A lot of players of The Wounded Wisp are new to PFS (and also even a few more experienced players don't know the history).
2. It adds some context to the backstory, and the events taking place in the city during the adventure.
I typically start with the PCs in a boring 'class' in the Grand Lodge listening to a tedious tutor talk about fauna in the Mwangi Expanse - namely fire beetles. Drone drone drone. Then they get a 'pass' when a message comes from Drendle..
Later of course, when the fire beetles are summoned in Fimbriks house, this puts a wry smile on the faces of the players.
The Wounded Wisp:
I find this the hardest part to get right. Straight off the bat we're asking PCs to start talking to the NPCs for no real reason. This can be tough if the players are new (I ran this Core at the weekend and most of the player were new to the game - 5 pregens!)
I try to:
Ensure Heryn tells them that these are fellow Pathfinders so might have some experience to share.
Make sure that they overhear the buzz about Sir Reinhardt
Ensure that they see a Wayfinder hanging around the neck of one of the NPCs.
Travelling around the city:
I mention that everyone is talking about Sir Reinhardt.
I mention the general lack of horses in Absalom.
I describe the various districts.
It's raining - heavily.
The Wall of names:
I ask the PCs if they have any other PFS characters that have died? If so, what does it say on their epitaph? :)
I don't waste too much time on figuring out that the underlined sections relate to Failed Apirants - if a player doesn't get it right away, I call for the knowledge checks.
Tomb
As above - I choose the Cleric. This can be a fun encounter.
I have a small coin (actually from the Prosperity set of Dominion! ;) ) that I give the person that takes it out of his mouth.
Fimbriks
This is run as is.
I've been tempted though to write out my own phys-rep, with a different password, just incase I have a player that's done it before and decides to be a jerk about it.
Perhaps next time...
Shrine
In all cases so far, the PCs go there before they have all the information they need. Usually they find the chalkboard and once they found the secret door.
I give them a wipeoff card and marker so that they can write down and show me exactly what they write.
I always have them ambushed in the large room on the way out. I tried it in the cave area once, and the combat didn't work as well. With a minimum of 4 v 4 it needs room to breathe.
Once they report back, I then make up a cut-scene of Sir Reinhardt galloping towards the gap surrounding Ascendant Court. The rising cheers of the throng of people, the pounding of his steed, the mirror-like sheen of his armour.
He leaps, rising up to the sky! The crowd cheers!
He drops short, descending into darkness and is never seen again..Someone says 'Well that was a waste of a good horse...'
Finally, I print the letter from Valsin on the back of the Chronicle sheet, as it feels rather special.
I'm a big fan of The Wounded Wisp. I hope we see it around for a long time.