#7-03 The Bronze House Reprisal

[Iammars]

Notes added up to pfsprep.com

What is the caster level of the custom items? Either I'm missing it or it's not listed anywhere.

[Linda Zayas-Palmer]

Looks like they are not listed anywhere in the scenario.

custom item caster levels and auras:

Amulet of the god caller: CL 6, aura moderate transmutation
Mask of mental warding: CL 5, aura faint abjuration
Amulet of armored fists: CL 10, aura moderate evocation, illusion, necromancy, and transmutation

[Iammars]

Excellent! Thanks!

[Andrew Christian]

I'm curious about the final encounter.

Spoiler:

Anyone have any idea on how to keep the players on task with following the script of how the final encounter is supposed to go? In general, I prefer a more free-flowing conversational type thing. But this almost requires that they proceed from part 1 through part 3 in order. What happens if they start asking to make Perception and Sense Motive and Bluff checks and such that are totally off script or part of a later part of the script?

[Linda Zayas-Palmer]

Andrew Christian wrote:

I'm curious about the final encounter.

** spoiler omitted **

The final encounter:

You have a few options, depending on how PCs approach the scenario. First of all, if they try an alternate route that could plausibly achieve the goals of the part they are on, you can use the suggested DCs from the third paragraph on page 23. In Part 1, you could also use their skill checks to hint that Sloan seems pretty smug, and/or to suggest ways to knock him down a peg. At the end of the day, if the PCs don't seem that interested in trying to put Sloan off balance before questioning him, you can count it as having run out of ideas for unsettling Sloan, read the boxed text before Part 2, and move on. Part 1 is not necessary for the plot—it is a way for the PCs to gather some circumstance bonuses before questioning Sloan. PCs are likely to shove the writ in his face, if nothing else.

In Part 3, two of the three checks key off of Sloan's statement at the end of Part 2, and the third involves scrutinizing Sloan's appearance closely. That being said, if the PCs do scrutinize his appearance in an earlier part, succeeding at one of the three part 3 checks has no bearing on success conditions or rewards, so feel free to give them that bit of information "early" if it seems appropriate.

[Andrew Christian]

Thanks Linda!

[Rycaut]

I think there is an error in Elysi's stat block - at both tiers her stats for using a single shortsword instead of two weapon fighting show her damage as one less. I don't see a reason as she has a STR 12.

I'm also a tad worried that she could kill a few characters -

how she could tpk:

at the high tier she has the following capabilities - quick study means she can use studied combat as a swift action. If she then gets a full attack she can attack 4x at +18, +18 , +13 and +13 each hit being for 1d6+7 and she can spend 1 inspiration to add a 1d6 to her attack if she barely misses. She can then choose to make one of those strikes a studied strike to add 4d6. And she has a high crit range so has a good shot at a crit on at least one hit. Though I don't think her studied combat bonus to damage is multiplied on a crit. That's a not unlikely 9d6+30 in one round if she uses studied strike but she is better probably using that on a later round or only if she thinks she can drop a pc if she does.

Plus the target would have to make two saves vs purple worm poison and would be sickened when they do so.

The rest of the party will likely be distracted by the constructs and the invisible stalker so I can see this being a tough fight if it happens. With a very real potential for one or more pcs to drop.

I'm running this three times so we will see how it goes.

[Linda Zayas-Palmer]

Scenario Boon Clarification:

The scenario is unclear about the conditions for earning the Friend of Kasadei boon. The PCs earn the Friend of Kasadei boon if they gain her assistance in their strike on the Bronze House, which they do if they impress her by "subduing the Aspis non-lethally and questioning them without resorting to cruelty or torture" in area B (see page 13 of the scenario).

[Linda Zayas-Palmer]

Rycaut wrote:

I think there is an error in Elysi's stat block - at both tiers her stats for using a single shortsword instead of two weapon fighting show her damage as one less. I don't see a reason as she has a STR 12.

Her damage should be one less on her offhand shortsword when she fights with both, rather than on her only shortsword when she fights with one.

[Slothsy]

I also take it that to earn the other boon, the PCs must uncover the alchemist fires and present that as evidence?

[Linda Zayas-Palmer]

Rigby Bendele wrote:

I also take it that to earn the other boon, the PCs must uncover the alchemist fires and present that as evidence?

To earn the other boon, the PCs need to uncover the plot and inform the guards. Confronting Sloan about it in front of the guards counts, but they can also get credit for telling Kasadei or other guards after talking to Sloan.

[Jeffrey Stop]

Here are some things I found while prepping:

Information about the dig site:

On page 6 in Kasadei's boxed text she says, “Our diviner puts the site just over this rise, though he could see nothing else.”

But on page 5 in response to a question the PCs may ask she says, “I have scouts I trust watching the site, but not numerous or skilled enough for an assault. Once you secure the area, they can take it from there.” The scouts are mentioned again after the boxed text.

I'm not sure why the diviner is mentioned -- he doesn't have any information and Kasadei knows the dig location from her scouts, who have been watching it.

Also, the scouts should know something of the site, having been here for at least a little while.

Melnat's stat block:

In both subtiers, it lists "Custom Language" as one of her languages. This appears to be a typo as she appears to have the correct number of languages (9) without it.

The headband of vast intelligence does not list which skill it provides ranks in, in either subtier.

Melnat's tactics:

In both subtiers, Melnat's tactics list, "She uses her wall
of nausea to disable as many PCs as she can."

Maybe I'm misinterpreting how she's meant to use the spell, but wall of nausea can't be cast on people ("If its surface is broken by any object or creature when it is cast, the spell fails.") so talking about using it to disable PCs doesn't seem to fit.

Also, the DC (19 or 20, depending on subtier) for wall of nausea should be listed.

Marla:

I ran this a couple days ago and the PCs captured Marla. There really isn't any indication on how Melnat would react to that situation, though it seems like a fairly strong possibility that Marla could be captured. The PCs should have a relatively easy time of scouting the entrance without being spotted and will probably note that she's not just a regular old bird. Knowing that, they would certainly try to stop her from entering the dig site proper.

Planning the Raid:

On page 14, The Sneaky Route and Official Raid both say, "Unless the PCs take pains to conceal their approach to the Bronze House, rooftop sentries notice them early enough to sound the alarm 1 minute before the PCs arrive." I interpret conceal to mean stealth.

On the surface, this seems ridiculous. Do the guards sound the alarm when any armed people approach within 300 feet of the bronze house? At 300 feet, how do they even know that the people are headed to the Bronze House and not somewhere else? At this point, the folks at the Bronze House have no idea what's coming, so they shouldn't be on high alert. Why would the guards be sounding the alarm?

Mapisms:

C9: Says, "Another secret door lies past the double doors to the south." This appears the be a typo as there are no double doors to the south.

C7 does not mention a lock on the secret door to C9, C9 mentions the south exit being locked, and C10 mentions a locked door leading to C9. I assume if a door's locked, it's locked in both directions, so my interpretation is that the large doors between C9 and C10 are locked and the door between C7 and C9 is not locked.

C13: Says, "The fire does not spread past the thick, reinforced wall to area C9, ..." This should be C17.

C15: Says, "A polished darkwood desk rests in the center of the chamber." That should be a table, not a desk.

Confronting Maiveer Sloan:

Under the Sloan's Involvement section it says, "... or a DC 19 Linguistics check (DC 23 in Subtier 8–9) to present a forgery as evidence without Sloan recognizing it’s a fake."

I didn't see anything in the mod hinting about manufacturing evidence, especially about the convocation's events, so this seems like an extreme long shot. PCs would really need to think outside the box on this and it would need to be prepped ahead of time -- they can't just take any old piece of paper and make a Linguistics check at the last minute.

Also, unlike a Bluff, where the PC can intimate that they know something more than they do without revealing what they know, a forgery needs to lay things out. To my knowledge, the PCs have no information with which to base a believable document. At the very least, I think the DC is too low.

Under the The Conspiracy section, there is a Knowledge (arcana) check to determine that certain elements of the attack were beyond Sloan's capabilities. How does that work? Sloan's not going to be talking about the attack, nor does he have any reason to talk about magic in general. There is no check earlier that reveals any of Sloan's capabilities.

Secondary Success Conditions:

This seems rough; not a complaint, just an observation. In addition to finding 5 pieces of evidence, the PCs will have to do 2 of the following:
Masked Leader: any PC making a DC 27/30 Sense Motive. While everyone can try this, the DCs rule practically rule out success for anyone not trained.

The Spymistress: Any single PC must succeed at:
Disguise 18/21 or Perception 25/28
AND
Craft (alchemy) 25 or Knowledge (nobility) 25
AND
Bluff 20

Pawns: Any single PC must succeed at:
Perform (any) 20 or Spellcraft 25
AND
Perform (sing) 10
AND
Bluff 15

There don't appear to be options to aid another, given that the text specifically mentions who can make further checks. Am I interpeting all this correctly?

[Iammars]

Re: Melnat's Stat Block

Spoiler:

Clearly she made up her own language. It'll catch on when the rest of the world realizes how superior it is.

[andreww]

I am prepping this to run this Friday and overall I like what has been done here. However, the last section dealing with Sloan is I am afraid very badly done. It puts a strict structure around what is likely to be a far more free flowing conversation and makes all sorts of assumptions about what the PC's might already know or do. In particular the following seem to be problematic:

Spoiler:

The PC's don't know that it is being done in 3 stages and forcing that on them is terribly artificial.

The suggestion that they might present forged documents is completely out of left field and isn't something you can do without preparation.

The spymistress bit is completely bizarre, how they are supposed to jump from the tiny bit of detail to any sot of claim is beyond me. I am not even clear who it is supposed to be referring to.

The pawns bit is another bizarre one, it is a ridiculously narrow action as opposed to, say, simply confronting him about the issue.

Overall this section seems really forced and could have been done more effectively and usefully by getting rid of the 3 stages and simply having a range of options about how PC's could interact with him. You could interlink some together without this needless straight jacket.

The scenario also seems to be missing reporting instructions.

[Rogue Eidolon]

I talked to some of the people running this at Gencon. Here's one way I've seen for the three stages that seems to work pretty well. It involves letting the players know one bit but otherwise lets them do what they want:

Let the players know that they have a chance at the beginning to try to throw Sloan off his game to get advantages when it comes time to actually deal with him. This is Stage 1, and it covers the first three things the PCs try to do to throw him off (using the suggestions in the scenario to raise the DC but allow it if they try other things than the ones listed).

If they don't do that and go right to Stage 2 stuff, then that's fine; skip to Stage 2 in that case. They just don't get the small bonus from Stage 1.

There's no danger they will skip to Stage 3, since all of the bits in Stage 3 are based off Sloan's statement at the end of Stage 2, as well as facts for which you give them a passive check in Stage 3 (so Stage 3 isn't free-form, but they also can't get lost, as you are calling for the appropriate checks there).

This allows you to let the PCs do what they want to do, more-or-less as free-form as they like, for the stages that involve their own ideas and interactions. At most they might not get the +2 from Stage 1 on their checks in Stage 2.

[Matt Duval]

Jeffrey Stop wrote:

Here are some things I found while prepping:

...

With the caveat that it's just my opinion at this point, I think I can answer at least a couple of these and maybe save a developer a little time.

Dig Site-

Spoiler:

My thought here was they had first found the site through the diviner and the scouts were sent ahead to watch it before the PCs arrive, but have no information beyond what the PCs can get just by looking themselves.

Melnat's Stat Block

Spoiler:

I think Custom Language might be a typo from adding Thassilonian.

I have the headband as Bluff. That might have been changed in development.

Marla

Spoiler:

My thought is Melnat considers Marla a close friend (the only really trustworthy one she probably has) and would react accordingly based on the PCs treatment of the bird. That said, I consider Melnat a survivor who puts her own safety first.

Mapisms

Spoiler:

"so my interpretation is that the large doors between C9 and C10 are locked and the door between C7 and C9 is not locked."
My understanding is that is correct.
I believe I had the door from C2 to the hallway connecting C7 and C8 as locked and did not want to bog it down with every door being locked.

[andreww]

On the Marla issue

Spoiler:

As a familiar Marla and Melnat have an empathic link and so presumably she will be alerted regardless if combat breaks out.

[Rycaut]

A few further thoughts from having run this a few times at GenCon

dig site:

In every game I ran the initial encounter was more role play than combat (6 pcs vs 1 never went very well as a combat but was always a really fun initial role playing encounter. As part of that knowing that the specific idol that was sold was traced here by the diviner often helped get Chauncey to confess that he had been selling a few things on the side - once the players managed to get him friendly or intimidated or some combination )

Marla:

In one run the players rendered Marla unconscious but stable and later used her to negotiate with Melnat when they had fairly conclusively defeated her (this was at low tier so no teleport). On the higher tier run the PCs very conclusively killed Marla (raging bloodrager who grew enlarged when raging who bite Marla while Marla was trying to fly into the cave - very conclusively dead. In that case the party's diviner used Marla's remains to scry on Melnat which later helped when Melnat fled via Teleport.

[Quadstriker]

Player's perspective here.

Haven't read the scenario and don't know all the mechanics involved.

But just want to say that the "encounter" with Sloan felt like a big 'no whatever you're trying to do doesn't work right now because the scenario says so.' and I'm certain nobody at the table enjoyed it.

The end.

[TOZ]

Mostly because we completely botched collecting anything to have leverage against him. But also because of how it was written.

[Phylotus]

Let me tell you about that last encounter.

The last encounter is very definitely written very rigidly, with the assumption that the players will interact with Sloan in a very specific way, with little guidance on other ways to achieve the goals other than "this is the check." As well, there is mention to things that the players wouldn't have ANY reason to know about, whether they gathered evidence or not. I like the rest of the scenario, but the encounter with Sloan is so damn railroaded that unless you essentially said "this is the check you need," and then had the players role play around that, there was virtually no way they would walk out of the encounter with that second prestige.

Love the scenario, despise the simultaneous railroading and ambiguity of the final encounter.

[Quadstriker]

TOZ wrote:

Mostly because we completely botched collecting anything to have leverage against him. But also because of how it was written.

Yay team!

[Matthew Morris]

I'd love to talk about the last encounter, but we never reached it.

After 5 hours we were still in part 3.

[Muser]

I played up with a 7th level slayer. He and a gnome sorc/ninja used invisibility to sneak after Crispin, entered the sending stone room and managed to down her in one round. It's pretty rare a scouting attempt accomplishes anything, nevermind taking out a boss!

Then we started to backtrack and search for evidence and her constructs and an outsider attacked. 2 summoned tavern champions held them back until the rest of the party came bursting through the door. It was rather grand.

[Mike Tuholski]

I am in the midst of running this game on line and have been a bit frustrated by the lack of suggestions on how to proceed when the players reach the Bronze House. There are suggestions for different "routes" they might take but not much on what to do for each one.

For example, my players decided to go with the "Business as Usual" tactic, playing themselves off as merchants as they pretty good Bluff modifiers all-around. But once they sit down with the clerks, what then? I had one of the clerks present them with the mask from area C5 as an example of their wares but how are they supposed to find any secret documents or evidence using this method without just flipping the desks over mid-negotiation and fighting off the guards. Once they get in, there don't seem to be many subtle ways for them to investigate without raising the alarms immediately. That is, I am sure such ways exist but the scenario offers no suggestions on how to handle this part of the investigation. It's just basically "once they raise the alarm, Sloan shows up after x minutes."

[Suede]

I think you have to be pretty liberal and ready to run by the seat of your pants for that part.

I ran it twice at Dragoncon. The first party tried sneaking in a night when none of them can sneak, alerted the guards immediately, and proceeded to light most of the Bronze House on fire while scrambling for evidence.

The second group not only posed as merchants, but did it very well and decided they wanted to pitch meeting with Sloan to open up smuggling trade routes. It's not how the scenario writers did it, so I had to wing the entire second half, but they rolled some great bluffs, managed to get him to reveal enough info in their negotiations and had the rogue sneak off while they were chatting him up to grab a few other things.

I just changed it all on the fly, and they thanked me for letting them play it how they came at it and not railroad any of it. They also went back that night, tore the place to pieces, and found all the loot. Cause murderhobo, but they had already completed all their objectives by that point.

So I'd say just adjust to what they are doing and let them figure it out. If they just go in posing as merchants and don't come up with a way to get what they need, don't give it to them. But if they DO have a way, go with it.

[Matt Duval]

Suede wrote:

I ran it twice at Dragoncon. The first party tried sneaking in a night when none of them can sneak, alerted the guards immediately, and proceeded to light most of the Bronze House on fire while scrambling for evidence.

That's fantastic. My playtest group pretty much did the same thing. Burning hands in a warehouse full of flammable objects was ill-advised.

Re: Posing as merchants:

Perhaps emphasize the keys that might be stolen with sleight of hand, or the meeting room that lacks windows they saw as they came in where a clerk might be persuaded to provide assistance with no one the wiser? PCs might also be able to learn a little about the location from overheard chatter, such as someone saying they just came from the vault or complaining about teamsters dropping valuables in the warehouses. Maybe some extra details will inspire the PCs to a course of action?

[FLite]

We snuck in by pretending to be aspis agents, sent by Merlat to hide / secure the smuggled relics, because Merlat had received information that the pathfinders were on their way, and were planning on looting the place.

(It helps to have a specialist scroll scoundrel. That -5 to the DC on hard to believe lies almost certainly saved our bacon.)

That said, we had real problems with the Sloan confrontation, because we had pretty much looted the place by the time he got there, and he caught us coming out of his office.

We tried bluffing that we had caught him dead to rights, but maybe we could be convinced to let him off if he gave us someone bigger, or cut us in on his smuggling routes, but it seemed like whatever we tried, there was something in the scenario that blocked us until we stumbled onto the magic words, and then he broke like a dam. It was very unorganic.

[Rycaut]

I've run this scenario three times now and every time was very very different - twice at GenCon and once at Pacificon. It is quickly becoming one of my favorite scenarios to run because every run is different.

For Bronze House - I say you have to have both run it by the seat of your pants and go where the party's actions take you. Every party I have had has approached it differently and I've tried to build on what they do.

some of the approaches I've seen:

A couple groups split up - in one case staying away from the Bronze House and using their caster to d-door in with their stealthiest and highest skilled characters with silence up. I let them explore and didn't trigger many encounters (they were under silence and were making >40 DC's to disable devices to open up doors + they had decrypted the journal earlier so already were auto-making their knowledge history checks to find the relics. They managed to collect tons of loot and evidence, tripped the silent alarm and averted the fire attacks after they found the captured servant (and sent some of their party who weren't in the Bronze House running through the city back to the manor). When the final encounter happened with Sloan they rattled him throughly with all of their evidence and saw through his bluffs though they didn't get every single clue they did get most of them - and managed to play back Sloan's own voice via the sending stone in front of the city guard.

In that case I didn't have them do much with the security chief or the constructs and invisible stalker - they were being very stealthy and running a combat with half the party not present didn't seem like fun for anyone.

In another case the party bluffed their way in - with half the party posing as merchants in the front and the other half posing as the guards and teamsters with those merchants carrying the goods they had to sell. The managed to get inside but then the bluffs fell apart - however the Nagaji Aspirant druid went into her Naga form, had a charming gaze and managed to charm the head of security and all of her guards - at which point they basically had the run of the place (and somehow managed to succeed on their mission even with a T-rex running around. The did eventually trigger a combat with the invisible stalker.

I made use of the meeting rooms as a place where the party might be ushered in if they were successful at their initial bluffs - from there they managed to fine the secret door and a druid who could wild shape was able to squeeze through and searched the offices (triggering alarms in the process)

Overall I think every party will approach this differently which as a GM makes it one that is lots of fun to run multiple times. Plus there are some really fun NPCs you can play with (I run the first encounter as more of a role playing encounter than a combat one - has been tons of fun every time I've run it - and it has resolved itself differently yet also in incredibly memorable ways.

for example...:

a bloodrager raging, enlarging as part of that rage and biting the familiar out of the sky before she could return to warn her mistress

[GreySector]

I have a few questions:

Sloan's Office:

The description of C17a states that "...two angelic statues flank the northwest door." Are these the angelic guardians from the Golemworks? At DragonCon my GM ran them that way, and also had a pair with Elysi, but on page 17 there are only a total of two angelic guardians for both subtiers.

Additionally, is the northwest door referred to the secret door?

Regarding the various alarm spells. In some scenarios they are written up as magical traps, however as far as I can tell that isn't a general rule. So am I correct in thinking that the only way to bypass an alarm spell is to dispel it?

[andreww]

I believe you are correct about Alarm, that is how I ran it.

[FLite]

Michael Eshleman wrote:

I have a few questions:

** spoiler omitted **

partial answer:

It is a bit of a gray area:

Traps wrote:

Magic: Many spells can be used to create dangerous traps. Unless the spell or item description states otherwise, assume the following to be true.

A successful Perception check (DC 25 + spell level) detects a magic trap before it goes off.
Magic traps permit a saving throw in order to avoid the effect (DC 10 + spell level × 1.5).
Magic traps may be disarmed by a character with the trapfinding class feature with a successful Disable Device skill check (DC 25 + spell level). Other characters have no chance to disarm a magic trap with a Disable Device check.

So, is a ward a trap? Some people say yes, some people say no. James Jacob says yes, but he also says his rulings are not official. Since it is an abjuration spell, we know that if it overlaps another abjuration spell, the DC to spot it is 4 lower, which implys that there is a DC to spot it.

I would rule on the side of "yes it is a trap."

[Usual Suspect]

Reporting on the scenario: The Conclusion section does not include information on how to report (at least that I can find). What are the requirements to mark blocks A through D?

[Mizkitty]

About the checks in the final section. I just played this one and am now trying to prep it for a convention. When you present the writ it lists perform oratory as the skill. If I'm reading correctly based on the paragraph on pg 23, I could increase the DC and let them roll diplomacy instead right? It seems pretty harsh to punish a table for not having a bard. Same thing with the perform comedy check?

I too am confused about the spymistress reference. I'm not sure where it came from or who she is. Did I miss that in the text? It seemed like it was hinting maybe Sloan dresses in women's clothing and make up and masquerades as this person, but that part of part 3 is the only time I recall hearing of the person.

[Linda Zayas-Palmer]

Mizkitty wrote:

About the checks in the final section. I just played this one and am now trying to prep it for a convention. When you present the writ it lists perform oratory as the skill. If I'm reading correctly based on the paragraph on pg 23, I could increase the DC and let them roll diplomacy instead right? It seems pretty harsh to punish a table for not having a bard. Same thing with the perform comedy check?

You can increase the DC and let them use Diplomacy, or any other skill they suggest that seems reasonable to you as the GM. Perform checks are ideal for these situations, so the DCs are lowest if the PCs use Perform. PCs without a Perform skill can attempt Perform checks untrained if they wish.

Success conditions:

None of the checks in Part 1 is necessary for the PCs to succeed at their primary and secondary success conditions.

Mizkitty wrote:

I too am confused about the spymistress reference. I'm not sure where it came from or who she is. Did I miss that in the text? It seemed like it was hinting maybe Sloan dresses in women's clothing and make up and masquerades as this person, but that part of part 3 is the only time I recall hearing of the person.

Sharp eye! This scenario contains the first reference to that particular spymistress (but not necessarily the last..)

[BretI]

I've a quick question I'm hoping someone can answer about the last encounter.

Pawns:

What compulsion effect?

I played through Siege of Serpents and am in the progress of playing through Serpent's Rise via PbP. Please, no spoilers for Serpent's Rise.

It may be that I missed something to the background noise, or am not remembering it through the haze of a Con. I don't recall any Compulsion effect associated with any music. I remember the big booming voice with the monologue about how hypocritical the society is. I remember the release of all sorts of problems that we were supposed to deal with all at once -- escorting guests safely away, the menagerie, etc.

Could someone please give me the background on this?

[FLite]

Preping this for an upcoming con.

Does Elysi just hang out in the front rooms, taking off every ten minutes to inspect the guards? Or is she constantly moving, taking ten minutes to circle the building? Are her guardian statues with her? Or are they left in the front room or are they the statues in the office (C17)

[andreww]

I had her circulating through the building with the angels. No idea of that is actually right as the scenario is rather contradictory on the issue.

[Matt Duval]

For what it's worth and subject to developer review:

Elysi's patrol:

My original intent was that she spends ten minutes in the front rooms hanging out, watching the traffic through the main doors and the visitors in those areas and then does a sweep through the building, which probably takes about five minutes as she stops to check in with guards and check the locks. I intended her to be accompanied by the constructs. The statues in the office are meant to be decorative.

and on the higher subtier:

The invisible stalker is walking an opposite patrol, which is to say it's spending 10 minutes roving the other areas of the building and then watches the front rooms while Elysi is off doing her patrol.

[Rycaut]

that would have been helpful to have in the scenario. I've winged it every time I have run it - with some parties encountering her and others avoiding her patrols (the party that sent only their sneakiest members into the Bronze House via Dimension Door w/Silence up and with an Investigator capable of getting into nearly every door (and having already learned a lot thanks to earlier investigations) I allowed to avoid encountering her until they actually wanted to via their quick reactions and actions

[FLite]

Presumably Elysi sleeps sometime. (She even has a bedroom on the map.) I assume she is asleep from like 10:00 pm to 6:00 pm?

At which point presumably the clockwork guardians are on duty in the lobby and the stalker patrols?

[BretI]

The Bronze House is open until mid-night. I decided Crispin slept from about 1am until 9am and had the guardians protecting her. They might be able to patrol inside, but most golems require very simple instructions. They wouldn't be able to patrol outside, too high a chance of an incident with a civilian.

[Matt Duval]

FLite wrote:

Presumably Elysi sleeps sometime. (She even has a bedroom on the map.) I assume she is asleep from like 10:00 pm to 6:00 pm?

At which point presumably the clockwork guardians are on duty in the lobby and the stalker patrols?

Twenty hours seems excessive. :-)

My thought is she would most likely work late and wake up late, sleeping until 9 or 10 am since an issue is more likely to happen late night than in the morning.

[FLite]

Matt Duval wrote:

FLite wrote:

Presumably Elysi sleeps sometime. (She even has a bedroom on the map.) I assume she is asleep from like 10:00 pm to 6:00 pm?

At which point presumably the clockwork guardians are on duty in the lobby and the stalker patrols?

Twenty hours seems excessive. :-)

My thought is she would most likely work late and wake up late, sleeping until 9 or 10 am since an issue is more likely to happen late night than in the morning.

:P

That was supposed to be 6:00 AM (stupid typos)

But that seems pretty reasonable

[Chaosorbit]

Okay I was going to run this back in September and scrapped that plan because of 1 thing, now I want to try again, cause I like the whole thing. Except:

Pawns and Spymistress:

Every time I read these sections it confuses me like crazy, cause I see 0 reference to them anywhere else in the scenario and I really don't understand how the players are suppose to know about them??

Can anyone help?

[BretI]

@ChaosOrbit

See quote from author above on it.

Linda Zayas-Palmer wrote:

Mizkitty wrote:

I too am confused about the spymistress reference. I'm not sure where it came from or who she is. Did I miss that in the text? It seemed like it was hinting maybe Sloan dresses in women's clothing and make up and masquerades as this person, but that part of part 3 is the only time I recall hearing of the person.

Sharp eye! This scenario contains the first reference to that particular spymistress (but not necessarily the last..)

It is foreshadowing of something to come. Unfortunately I find it hard to pull off in any way that makes sense.

[Chaosorbit]

Thanks BretI yeah I read that, but still didn't find that that helpful. Agree it's very difficult to pull off and make meaningful. Oh well, I have a game on Tuesday too late to change again at the last minute, so I'm going to try to make the rest of it awesome and just leave some mystery at the end.

[FLite]

So, whats going on there is not really well laid out in the scenario.

I might start it by saying something like "He looks rattled and isn't guarding his tongue. Maybe if he thinks he will let something slip if he thinks you already know it." and then give them all the pure perception based checks.

It is a cat and mouse fishing expedition. He is letting out little bits of info bait, In the hopes that the PCs will say something like "that's not what was going on there, we know it was X..." Giving him something to use in the future. However, he is so rattled that he is likely to give out more information than bait if the PCs can trick him.

The entire value of what the PC get out of him in this last segment is that it is information only he knows, and there is no other way to get it other than by tricking him into spilling it. That is why it is not referenced elsewhere in the scenario. (That said, tying the second prestige point to that and only that, and making it a brutal series of skill checks, at least one of which requires the PC to do a specific action to even attempt is brutal. That section really needed to be written more flexibly)

[panpear]

I wrote a whole irish drinking song to Cayden Cailean, in case someone wants to hum something for the first part. :3 I've put it in spoiler tags because it is long.

Cayden Cailean Ballad:

To the tune of Generic Irish Drinking Song (similar to 'Lola the Pug' verse pattern).

Oh Cayden Cayden Cayden Cayden Cayden Cailean~

One night Cayden was drinkin'
In Absalom's fine bars
With friends and strangers near him
Beneath the shining stars
And then his friend said "Cayden
With strength and wit like thine
A god you should have right to be -
Here have some more fine wine"

Oh Cayden Cayden Cayden Cayden Cayden Cailean~

Then Cayden downed his tankard
and wiped up with his sleeve
"My friend is that a dare for me?
Your challenge I receive."
The gathered then at once moved out
To the Test of Starstone
And through the gates with drink aloft
went Cailean alone

Oh Cayden Cayden Cayden Cayden Cayden Cailean~

On the morn his friends awoke
Hungover through and through
They looked for their friend Cayden
Then realized what's true
"We've sent him to his death!" they cried
"No other fate for him
For only two before have lived
And neither drunk as sin."

Oh Cayden Cayden Cayden Cayden Cayden Cailean~

// slower
His friends, they mourned for three days
So sure that he had died
When suddenly burst from the doors
Cayden Cailean alive!
"Is this real?" he friends did ask.
"Why, do you think it's odd?
// a tempo
Chin up, me lads, the drinks on me
'cause I'm a bloody god!"

Oh Cayden Cayden Cayden Cayden Cayden Cailean~

The drinks were poured and tables set
For the festivities
And through it all his friends inquired
to his divinity
How did he pass such trials that night?
"I'm 'fraid I can't recall
The whole three days a hazy blur
account my drunken thrall!"

// with finality
Oh Cayden Cayden Cayden Cayden Cayden Cailean~~~~

If players are curious, they can do a roll perform, local, or religion to determine it's a common Cayden Cailean song, sung poorly. A higher roll recalls the 'chorus' line used to be 'The greatest god that ever lived is Cayden Cailean' but his followers always forgot the words and just stuck with his name.

I had just run this and I think I botched the last talking section. I think it might be better to either ask for a bunch of checks up front and then talk it out, or do part 1 and 2 via conversation and ask for the checks afterwards. Maybe next time? A lot of 'round 3' checks are a little awkward to throw in. Maybe those are better done beforehand while they are investigating, and if they roll high enough they can bring them up? Hmmmm.

[Chaosorbit]

Ran this one on low subtier (5-6) Tuesday and what a challenge. They dealt with the first guy easily dropping him in a pit; managed to crit the familiar, one shot. Went down in the tomb, and managed to take care of the invisible muscle, but could never came close to the gnome. He managed to exhaust almost all his spells, but since they weren't using lethal force, either was he per the scenario. He D'Doored out once he really didn't have any spells left. It was only going to go down hill for him and he was out of rounds of invisibility.

They spent a very long time trying figure out how to infiltrate the Bronze House, they decided to try to pose as merchants but when the guards didn't let them bringing in there giant weapons, they threw a fit and demanded to see the management. Which brought them face to face with Elysi. She handled them diplomatically, but the rolls weren't great so she was keeping an eye on them. The face of the group was trying to appear pretentious and was making demands of the clerks like bring me wine. They eventually got around to identifying what there business was and he tells the clerk, 'I want to buy Thassalion artifacts.' To which the clerk informed them, 'That's illegal here in Magnimar.' So the Bronze House was on high alert, with that request rubbing Elysi the wrong way, and the fact that the gnome had escaped. I decided the staff would likely try to keep them waiting in a conference room, with Elysi nearby, until Sloan returned. So Sloan shows up. I let them try to Bluff him into believing they really were naive artifact collectors, but when he tested out there story, they panicked and produced the writ. So they barely collected any evidence at the Bronze House.

That said they rolled well in the 3 part act with Sloan. When I got to the final part, I just told them, your picking up some clues from Sloan and pretty much had them roll all the checks which they nailed so they got the info.

They were shocked when they got back and found Heidemarch manor on fire. They never came close to sniffing that plot out.

They did a ton of roleplaying, so at the end, even though they were dangerously close to total failure, they all enjoyed it and thought it was a good scenario. LOL!