Order of the Amber Die
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Leading off with the "A Tomb of Winter's Plunder" ePub:
Finally, an alchemist! I got to play one about a year ago, it was a blast! [Sorry.] It might too early on to play the archetype guessing game but hopefully that'll happen soon in City of the Fallen Sky. The base alchemist class is great as it is, but are so many colorful archetypes to choose from that make the class really versatile.
I liked the interplay between Alaeron and Rodrick - a scientist and a scoundrel with comparable skill and cunning, but contrasting alignments and rightfully distrustful of one another, yet working together in a dangerous environment although one could be the larger threat to the other. As for the conclusion, I was really looking forward to an encounter with the linnorm, with Alaeron and/or Rodrick to showcase more of their respective abilities, but I guess we'll just have to wait for that...
On a final note, I've noticed that all of the protagonists that we've read about so far in the PTBC are human: Tyressa in The Crusader Road, Salim in Death's Heretic and The Redemption Engine, Isiem in Nightglass and Nightblade, Torius in Pirate's Honor and Pirate's Promise, and now we have Alaeron - all humans. Also, from playing two campaigns where we selected PCs from the iconic characters, I noticed that about 75% of them are also human. Given that there are so many races available to PCs, I wonder why that is...
What does PTBC stand for?
Pathfinder Tales Book Club
Hmm OK.
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Order of the Amber Die
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Where should we be by next week?
We should read from Chapters One through Eight for Saturday.
I've been trying to keep the pace comfortable at a book per month (including ePubs) so we don't leave anyone behind, and also so we don't run out of books to read over the next few years...
How does this work?
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Order of the Amber Die
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How does this work?
Readings are assigned each week - usually about eight chapters - but are not discussed throughout that week to avoid spoilers. Then on Saturday afternoon I start the discussion of said readings and after that everyone is free to make comments. That same day, the next set of readings begin and posts continue throughout that week until the next Saturday, and so on and so forth.
As we are approaching the end of a title, we vote on the next novel(s) a week before we finish so everyone has time to acquire it. As we did this week, we also read the web fiction associated with the novel(s) in chronological order.
So please free to jump right in! Pick up City of the Fallen Sky and be ready to join the discussion of the first eight chapters this Saturday.
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I was wondering - the solution that Alaeron gave Rodrick to put him to sleep, as well as the one he ingested to keep himself alert - were those alchemical items or extracts? If they were alchemical items (or a poison) it could have been a dose of oil of taggit and Alaeron could've just taken an antitoxin to help his saving throw, but it didn't really read like that. However, if they were extracts (infusion or a potion) I guess it would have to be deep slumber, but what spell could help counter that effect?
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I don't think they were infusions. Aileron made a specific point about how his infusion would work for him but not Roderick. I would guess poison and antidote.
Alaeron referred to it as a "poison", but the "antidote" part threw me off. Although it would make sense to have an antidote to a specific poison [this question has come up in-game several times] I don't know of any rules about creating one, just the antitoxin that grants a +5 bonus to saving throws against poison. Also, if Alaeron has the Brew Potion feat he could've created a deep slumber potion that would've worked on Rodrick, but that's what brought up the question of what would counter that spell, which I don't know of either. Maybe it's just outside the rules...
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Alaeron seems to have a knack for finding himself surrounded be nefarious characters in precarious situations. I guess that’s what happens when a scholar turns adventurer though. So let’s see if I have this straight – he’s working for some sort of crime lord, Ralen Vadim, who has assigned Skiver, a thief and murderer, to escort him and a charlatan, Jaya, to the lost civilization of Kho where few people return from, most of whom die in a few years? Yeah. Not good. Anyone can see that the place is cursed. Alaeron might have better chances going back to Numeria. Granted, he’s got some really nice toys to help him along the way, but so does his Technic League rival, and more of them it seems. I liked the scene in the Golden Eagle tavern when we first met Kormak – a Kellid in a nice coat, boots, and spectacles – like a bigger, tougher, meaner version of Alaeron. It’s still unclear whether he's the primary or secondary antagonist (compared to Ralen Vadim) but either way you look at it, Alaeron has his work cut out for him.
Then there’s Zernebeth. I loved Chapter Eight; it captured the feel of the technology in Silver Mount exactly the way I had envisioned it, and I’ve been running Iron Gods with elements of horror in that vein, like anything you touch could be the end of you.
There was a discolored patch on the floor beneath her boot, as if the metal were tarnished…or just worn from being touched many, many times. “I think I just activated something,” she said, in the same tone one might use to say, “I think it’s incurable.”
So does anyone have any idea what Zernebeth is? At first glance I thought maybe she was a snowcaster half-elf winter witch turned Technic League, but on the very next page Alaereon recalled that her skin was cold to the touch so clearly she’s something else - maybe one of the cold fey from Chillblight in Irrisen, or something in the Reign of Winter AP bestiary? Well, whatever she was, she was pretty cool…
[So sorry for that one.]
Minor spoiler maybe, but Zernebeth's true nature gets spelled out in Reign of Stars. So: the answer is forthcoming!
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I really enjoy all of the Numeria flashbacks, both because of the feel they establish that is later built on in Reign of Stars, but also because they help demonstrate how emotionally stunted Alerion is. Not from trauma (though his time with the Technic League was without a doubt traumatizing) but because he has real trouble the the concept of other people as actual people.
Skiver is just a great, unabashed scoundrel.
Kormak, as the story goes on, takes on a more immediate roll as the driving villain. As an unstoppable force, he excels, but I do wish we'd learned a bit more about him as a character.
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Finally caught up. Honestly, a pretty surprising turn of events in just eight chapters. Didn't see Alerion's intro being that dramatic or learning about Skiver. Need to keep more of an open mind.
Jaya-can't really place her yet. Either she's not interested in Alerion, disturbed by her brother being in a cage, or just here to get money.
Looking forward to see what happens next.
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[Apologies...I tried to post from my phone this afternoon, but obviously it didn't go through...]
And I thought we were done with naval battles for awhile, haha. The confusion bombs were a nice touch, but I thought they only affected the target of a direct hit? Is there a feat that grants the effect to the splash radius? It's probably not an archetype class feature, so maybe Alaeron doesn't have one, unless anyone else picked up on something.
Also, how did Ernst dispel the wand the tiefling was wielding? Dispel Magic only works for a few rounds against a magic item, and Mage's Disjunction only for minutes, so how could it have been rendered nonfunctional until the next day? But maybe he was bluffing...
Anyway, I love all of the Technic League flashbacks. It continues to be good food for thought for the Iron Gods campaign and I can't wait to read more. I'm especially looking forward to the next Kormak encounter. (He is very much like the Terminator...and who knows, he actually could be a machine!)
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Anyway, I love all of the Technic League flashbacks. It continues to be good food for thought for the Iron Gods campaign and I can't wait to read more. I'm especially looking forward to the next Kormak encounter. (He is very much like the Terminator...and who knows, he actually could be a machine!)
Yes he is. The Technic League does not play around.
I like that we get a smattering of Osirion adventure on our way to the Expanse. Pratt actually covers a lot of ground, with a light touch, in just this book.
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As we're getting ready to finish up City of the Fallen Sky tomorrow, let’s go ahead and get a copy of the sequel, Reign of Stars, if you haven’t already.
However, I'll be at GenCon on August 1st, and will need to postpone the initial discussion of Reign of Stars until the following weekend, August 8th. With that in mind, for those of you who will also be at GenCon next week, would anyone be interested to meet in person on Thurs, Fri, or Sat morning for a cup of coffee and a live discussion? I believe there’s a Starbucks adjacent to the convention center, but I‘m open to suggestions.
If so, please reply with your availability so we can narrow down the best times for as many of us to get together as possible. This may be the only chance we get to do this in the near future, and I think it'll be fun to talk to each other face-to-face for a change!
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Wow. Kormak was BEAST up until the very end! If those elementals didn't show up after he killed Ernst that would've been TPK for sure. Then again after the ratfolk broke him out of the rubble, if he hadn't got cocky and tried to capture everyone. Alaeron finally learning how to use the skymetal relics and doing so to bring him down was amazing, and probably the only way they could've defeated him considering how many technological items Kormak has in his extradimensional coat. He totally was like the Terminator, even grabbing on after his legs destroyed. Awesome.
Is it wrong to like the antagonist as much, if not more, than the protagonist?
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Yeah, Kormak was without a doubt a total bad ass.
I posited in another discussion thread that he kind of had to be a mobile natural disaster - Aleron and Skiver aren't really very heroic, and Aleron in particular isn't all that likable (must be his low Charisma) so Kormak has to be this nigh unstoppable beast so the characters can rise to the challenge, becoming heroes through deed at least, if not motivation.
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So the Tuitele, or "light-haters", mentioned earlier on - would that be the Shory prince and his army? They used to be human, but since they've adapted to subterranean life, would that make them more like skulks instead of human? They were interesting, I would have liked to learn more about them.
I also liked the incorporation of the daemons in the remnants of the Shory Empire. Leukodaemons worshipping Apollyon, the Horseman of Pestilence, that even resemble him as they have horse-like skulls for heads...plus the ratfolk and using "recovered" treasures to spread disease...were all quite nasty. As terrible as all that sounds, it all makes sense in so many ways, and I laud the author for putting such a horrific combination together, and imbedding it so aesthetically into the story of modern Kho
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Hello all! I'm really looking forward to Reign of Stars, and I apologize to anyone disappointed that I need to take a break this weekend, but GenCon has been great (and keeping me quite busy) so far. I got to meet James L. Sutter, Chris A. Jackson, Howard Andrew Jones, Gary Kloster...and I'm going back to the Paizo booth later today to talk to them some more, and perhaps more PT authors, so if any of you are here and would like to join me I'll be there around noon. Hopefully Tim Pratt will be there, I'd really like to talk to him about the sequel before we get started, and about a few things regarding the Technic League...
(Rest in Pieces, Kormak.)