The villain NPC has it because it is part of the way the combat encounter is balanced. And he is terrible as written anyway
He is a noble - that is how the rules got broken
He has it precisely because he raised it from birth
Giving it to your PCs for free risks making them more powerful than intended - although there are only going to be a handful of places it can easily fit
But realistically the player who uses it should have it as a cohort via leadership
But it is up to you on how unbalancing this addition may be
I think this can work fine as a reward for caring role-play by your players, although I agree you'll want to watch out for balance issues. If it becomes an issue, there's a goodly number of areas in book four where it wouldn't be a suitable mount--most of the dungeon crawls, excepting the main area of the Asmodean temple. It will be a very thematic addition for the dragon fight and useful for the bridge fight, though!
Is all the stuff you mentioned about the wyvern not being fully mentally developed actually in the book? I don't recall that but might have glossed over it
My table is another data point that DMs might have to have an argument prepped for why having the sheet music for the Song of Silver isn't enough to perform the ritual. I ended up using Elvis as an example for why it's not all on the page--he's a great due to his performances, not the lyrics he didn't often write, nor the music notations he often didn't make. I also ended up making an analogy to jazz. It was a bit touch and go for a while, especially when they argued that Shelyn would prefer individualized performance rather than rote repetition of a musical formula.
I did end up making it possible for the PCs to try to sing the song on their own. I gave it a Perform song with a DC 40. The player with max ranks and a racial bonus to that skill ended up making it on a natural 20. Had she failed badly, I might have made the resulting difficulties with teleportation affect everyone, not just evil outsiders.
My table is another data point that DMs might have to have an argument prepped for why having the sheet music for the Song of Silver isn't enough to perform the ritual.
Maybe I'm remembering it wrong, but isn't it because they just find the sheet music in the opera house, but not the lyrics? So in the next book, after you free and cure Jackdaw, you'll get the last piece of this two-part puzzle - the lyrics - and then the PCs, or an NPC with Perform, can do the ritual. Away from my books atm but this is how way we played it.
You're right about that, Razcar. Even though it's weird to have sheet music without the lyrics written on it...
(That's why, in my game, they found the lyrics written out instead of the sheet music and Jackdaw was humming the tune. It made more sense to me.)
Yeah, sheet music without lyrics was never going to pass the smell test for the musician and the music journalist at my table.
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You're right about that, Razcar. Even though it's weird to have sheet music without the lyrics written on it...
Typically scores are not reproduced in their entirety (unless for the conductor), but for specific instruments. So if you do want to preserve separateness of the sheet music and lyrics, perhaps the music is not the singer's part, but, say, the violin part? Or perhaps it's the singer's part, but the lyrics have been redacted?
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I don't think this was already answered in the threat, but I apologize if it was. What happens to Kintargo as far as the 'Rebellion in Play' rules go when the players are abroad? My group went from Vyre straight to Acisazi, and it's quite likely they've been gone as much as two weeks before they decided to return to Kintargo now. Do you think it makes sense to have xdy supporters leave per week since the PC's presence in Kintargo is lacking? Or perhaps the Silver Ravens' allies (Octavio, Laria, Rexus, etc.) kept the effort up while the PCs were gone? What other effects might there be from the players being away from home base?
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I don't think this was already answered in the threat, but I apologize if it was. What happens to Kintargo as far as the 'Rebellion in Play' rules go when the players are abroad? My group went from Vyre straight to Acisazi, and it's quite likely they've been gone as much as two weeks before they decided to return to Kintargo now. Do you think it makes sense to have xdy supporters leave per week since the PC's presence in Kintargo is lacking? Or perhaps the Silver Ravens' allies (Octavio, Laria, Rexus, etc.) kept the effort up while the PCs were gone? What other effects might there be from the players being away from home base?
If the PCs have leadership roles, the rolls those roles affect should lose the PCs' ability score bonuses. If the PCs are managing teams, the rebellion should lose access to the action types to which those teams grant access. The organization as a whole can keep operating, in other words, but potentially at a reduced capacity based on how much they typically rely on the PCs.
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I don't think this was already answered in the threat, but I apologize if it was. What happens to Kintargo as far as the 'Rebellion in Play' rules go when the players are abroad? My group went from Vyre straight to Acisazi, and it's quite likely they've been gone as much as two weeks before they decided to return to Kintargo now. Do you think it makes sense to have xdy supporters leave per week since the PC's presence in Kintargo is lacking? Or perhaps the Silver Ravens' allies (Octavio, Laria, Rexus, etc.) kept the effort up while the PCs were gone? What other effects might there be from the players being away from home base?
I never found anything that directed what to do in that case.
If your players took off for two weeks did they consider the rebellion phases?
If they thought about it and decided that the rebellion will be just fine without them, you have free reign to handle it however you wish. everything from mass mayhem, to a silver raven figurine waiting for them at Acisazi with a message from Rexus asking for direction.
If they didn't consider they were leaving for two weeks, why didn't they consider the rebellion phases? If they are not enjoying the rebellion mechanics, harsh consequences may suck the last of the fun out a sub-system they are already not enjoying. If they took off without considering the rebellion phases, is this because the rigid timeline isn't emphasized in your game and they assumed it would just work out? Or are their character a bunch of reckless Chaotic character that struggle with the organization aspect of a rebellion and this is a great chance to role play that disorganization.
This is a great time to grab any subplot that is remotely time sensitive and make it into a 5 alarm fire when they return.
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Flat out attacking a military post, fully armed and stocked seems like a very weird choice for the rebellion, especially since they haven't really done anything like that on official posts.
Well. At this point, the PCs or the rebellion have likely intervened in one or more state doghousings, and have almost certainly sprung several prisoners from the Holding House, a state prison. Either or both might have involved an overt assault.
There was one group who disguised themselves as a caravan with alcohol and other goods that was "gifted" by "Barzillai Thrune" to his cousin in control of the Menador Keep. While the garrison was busy partying and getting drunk, the Ravens investigated, found the secret door, and was able to activate the mechanism by which they destroyed the Keep (which also allowed pretty much everyone to escape).
So your party may very well find other ways to sneak in. There's no need to just give them a special way in and bypass the Keep. Let them use their brains and figure out other ways to infiltrate. :)
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My players are pretty smart about things so far and were able to avoid frontal assaults for the most part. The only open conflict that happened was at the first doghousing they witnessed, because one PC was outraged by it and charged in to end it.
But after it happened they had a long talk about things to prevent something like that in the future.
So I doubt they would walk into a place like Menador Keep just like that.
My players had the same approach, and didn't look to keenly on overt military action.
So I adjusted this encounter in two ways (with very little work; I just had the PCs find a dispatch, and then added a scene where the 4th army's vanguard marched into the city, soldiers I later used as troop units in the street fighting):1. I raised the stakes. I had the queen actually answer Barzillai's call for help and send a battalion from the retaken Kintara towards the Menador gap. This made the players scramble. Instead of the blocking of the Menador pass being 'nice to have' it became a necessity, and a very urgent one at that. It forced them out of their sneaky sneaky comfort zone.
2. With the impending commotion of moving over a thousand soldiers, wagons, horses, fire giants, devils and whatnot through a narrow pass, it opened up a lot of opportunity for subterfuge. Lucien Thrune was stressed with suddenly getting all this attention and the PCs ambushed a Chelish patrol, took their gear and with some faked documents, disguises, great role play and bluff checks went into the keep as "inspectors from the Chelish 4th army". That only lasted as far as the Erynies with True Seeing, but the whole scenario was a blast nonetheless.
How do you pronounce this name: Manticce?
Man-tich?
Man-ti-cee?
I pronounced it as Man-TEE-Chay
To take the Italian pronunciation into account, take a similar word like “exception” which is “eccezione” in Italian.
Pronounced (etch•etz•ee•own•ay)
CC: “ch” sound
-E: “ay” sound
As long as you’re consistent, I don’t think any way you pronounce it is a big deal.
How did people roleplay Manticce Kaleeki? I may have gone to the well once too many times with my decadent aristocrat schtick.
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How did people roleplay Manticce Kaleeki? I may have gone to the well once too many times with my decadent aristocrat schtick.
Haven't played her, but two other wells you might go to are the too-earnestly well-meaning bougie liberal (you know the type) and the enthusiastic eccentric way too into her projects.
Kaleecki isn't really an "aristocrat." She isn't guaranteed her position, or necessarily secure in it. The foundation of her wealth certainly isn't agricultural estates, it's commercial property. The sort of elite she's a part of is more like an early modern communal/free city/burgher commercial elite, characterized by a flamboyance more like the Italian communal magnates than the affected austerity of the Dutch and Hanseatic merchants.
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I had her as a manipulator that knew what she was doing. She wasn't decadent for decadence sake. Her art, her food, her demeanor was purposeful and designed to make others uncomfortable, to let them think that she had all of the power. Tieflings are so poorly treated I had her be the abused person that grew up and forced their way into a position of power that enjoyed being able to exert control over others. And she abused that power dynamic.
I wanted to make sure that the PCs didn't feel like she'd answer their beck and call, and I wanted them to not feel comfortable enough with her to try to get her to come over to Kintargo and fight their fight for them.
She was too influential to insult, you didn't want to talk badly about her afterwards because she might have spies that would overhear and report back to her (my group was paranoid of spiders while in Vyre), and she allowed herself to act as a foot in the door for the PCs to get their needs and desires known to the other kings and queens of Vyre because it meant that she had more people that owed her and having the Silver Ravens feel like they needed to go to her to get help with things in Vyre meant she now had some power in Kintargo.
Invisible Stalkers aren't technically living beings. They're Elemental beings. Given that you need a high-level spell in order to summon them so that they leave a body (Summon Monster wouldn't work as those beings vanish upon the end of the spell), it does not seem likely they'd be eaten for a simple meal.
That said, invisibility would be a really useful trait. So I could see a species of naturally invisible herbivores existing. Either that or someone crafted a Conjuration spell to create invisible brains for people to eat - basically a higher-level variation of Create Food and Drink.
It's reasonable from the player's end, because they don't know what's going to happen at the Masquerade. But on the DM's end, it becomes a shooting war almost immediately afterwards, so waiting on Menador Gap means not doing Menador Gap for quite a while. It's just awkward for them to leave an active revolution to go do that if they don't have teleportation magic. And that's especially difficult to time if you do what I did, which is to add a bunch of encounters premised on the idea that Thrune would first try to press his advantage before retreating into retaliations. (I did stuff like have an invasion of Old Kintargo with a whole Les Miserables But They Win vibe.)
The group hasn't visited Odexidie yet, Cheliax can still attack Kintargo... But would Barzillai be able to convince the crown to send support? Probably not at first...
Let them pass the time and wait for the masquerade, continue as normal, the group likely won't have time to deal with the Menador Gap. After the masquerade, the crown realizes they need to step in and send some troops that they're able to spare in the fight against the Glorious Reclamation. (Possibly slightly upgraded troops found at the Gap as the PCs will be slightly higher level, but maybe not because it's great for the PCs to feel like big damn heroes).
It would take at least a week for the troops to get to Kintargo. In that time the PCs will have likely finished book 4 and might have already visited Odexidie. Or maybe the Chelaxian army being at their doorstep is what pushes the group onward to find and assemble the Council. Maybe the Chelaxian army indiscriminately kills some civilians, such as people that the Thrune supporters on the council are close to which prompts them to agree to keeping Cheliax out.
Or just toss some troops in to book 4 as encounters for the group to fight with instead of devils and then, once the mayor is ratified the troops get called back by the queen.
Change the raid on the hideout so that it's lead by someone from the Chelaxian army instead of the leader of the CCG?
So my group is about to start this path and since our usual GM needed a break and wanted to play, it falls to me. Saddly I've not run for a long long time, but the various forums have been helpful so far, though on the following question I've not really been able to find an acceptable answer here (Doesn't mean there isn't one, just that my searches/comprehension failed)
I'm currently on this book reading through the entire path before I get to the nitty gritty of running book one, and something that comes to my mind.
How did GM's convey to their players the Alliance requirements. Some seems fairly straight forward to all but the most dense of players (and all players can be dense as heck to even obvious things... speaking from experience on that end here) I mean, enjoying hunting and Opera seem easy enough to convey, but how do you convey public opinion or really any of them without going "You need to make this, this or that roll".
Mostly looking how people would flow that information, as eventually it'll break down to the mechanics (you must roll this, this or that:P) but it shouldn't be the first horse out of the gate.
I'd appreciate any assist in how I could convey these facts with a better flair than 'you have to roll this' or such.
Thanks in advance
When my players are seeking out that kind of information, they tend to ask to sense motive in the moment. It helps that I supported that in the first two books, so they knew they could use it when they needed it.
Menador Keep.
I'm trying to picture it.
If I'm standing in front of the west gate, I think I see a wall in front of me with the gates, a multi-story structure built into the north side of the gap, and I might or might not see the single-story stable and gate control area built into the south side of the gap.
What I don't know: Is there a big arch of natural stone over the gap?
Where is the Anvil of Unmaking? I'm not sure how the third level of the keep aligns with the other two. My best guess is that it is in the middle of the arch above the gap (if there IS an arch!). The map makes it look like level 3 is surrounded by stone. An arch alone collapsing doesn't seem like it would plug the gap for very long, so I'm thinking a substantial amount of stone comes down from both sides of the mountain?
Any help will be appreciated, thanks.
I couldn't find the answer for days of reading, but of course I spot it just hours after posting the question here. The answer is in the description of C1. Yes, it's "an arch of stone that hangs over the pass itself forming a short, natural tunnel through the mountainside".
This was probably obvious to everyone else. Don't mind me.