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Starting a discussion topic for this scenario, just released today. I'll be running it Friday, and will have a better-informed opinion then.
But one thing that's been bugging me: why is the scenario named the way it is? I've only found one reference to a circle in the scenario (a mention by the sheriff about the "Circle of Life" in relation to the local god's worship). From that, it is implied to be a reference, perhaps, to how the druids screwed with the natural order in the community, but it feels a bit far-fetched to me. If I was a player in this, I'd be scratching my head at the end of the scenario.
Am I missing something? Was there originally more of a reference to the Circle of Life (or some other element) that explains it?
Venture-Agent, Massachusetts—Boston Metro
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Running this scenario in a week, and a few initial question came up.
1. How large is Mercy? From the descriptions I would guess around 70-80 people, mostly adults with twenty or so hidden children around, but I'm not sure if I missed the size described in the scenario itself. I'm going to come up with 6-10 names and personalities for them to interact with as the go about the town so that the players can put a name to the people they're talking with and questioning.
2.The 'transformation' effect. If I'm understanding this correctly, the children born and growing up in this town exhibit clearly visible and physical plants traits, but then by the time they age into adults the symptoms subside and they look normal, albeit slightly healthier from the experience. Is that correct?
3. A significant amount of backstory and information can seem to come about if the PCs use speak with plants, but almost no PCs in this will be able to cast it and there's only a single scroll of it in the scenario for three clear targets (and the most interesting one is at the end, long after they're likely to have already used it). Did I miss another means the PCs can find of communicating with the Verdant Spark? Otherwise I could see the last section of the adventure being a bit vague for the characters.
4. In encounter B, would the Smiling Shadow's unnerve effect also reduce the damage dealt by the swarm?
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Running this scenario in a week, and a few initial question came up.
1. How large is Mercy? From the descriptions I would guess around 70-80 people, mostly adults with twenty or so hidden children around, but I'm not sure if I missed the size described in the scenario itself. I'm going to come up with 6-10 names and personalities for them to interact with as the go about the town so that the players can put a name to the people they're talking with and questioning.
2.The 'transformation' effect. If I'm understanding this correctly, the children born and growing up in this town exhibit clearly visible and physical plants traits, but then by the time they age into adults the symptoms subside and they look normal, albeit slightly healthier from the experience. Is that correct?
3. A significant amount of backstory and information can seem to come about if the PCs use speak with plants, but almost no PCs in this will be able to cast it and there's only a single scroll of it in the scenario for three clear targets (and the most interesting one is at the end, long after they're likely to have already used it). Did I miss another means the PCs can find of communicating with the Verdant Spark? Otherwise I could see the last section of the adventure being a bit vague for the characters.
4. In encounter B, would the Smiling Shadow's unnerve effect also reduce the damage dealt by the swarm?
1. On page 9: "Approximately 100 wooden buildings." I'd estimate about half of those are homes so around 150 to 200 people, probably half of them are children.
2. That's what I read as well. I choose to depict it as affecting them until puberty when they would "molt" into their new selves.
3. Indeed an issue, see my next post.
4. Yes. In fact it's specifically mentioned in the morale conditions that the bat swarm can fail vs. the cloakers unnerving moan trance (which would take 6 rounds). Swarms are immune to targeted mind-affecting conditions but not ones that affect an area.
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I got a chance to run this yesterday. I have to say this adventure is likely to require a LOT of GM creativity. Not going to put a review here but a few tricks and tips instead.
- -This can go VERY long. Especially with a lot of roleplaying or if you're trying to nudge them in the right direction without spoon-feeding the plot to them. I put my experience in a spoiler at the bottom.
-The players are very likely to suspect some kind of "children of the corn" goings-on. Try to portray the townsfolk as polite and respectful (if not particularly helpful) unless the players REALLY do something to make them angry. Distant and standoffish is the best way to play the response to breaking an unwritten rule. You don't want to have players initiating hostilities because "they're clearly up to something."
-Finding out about the children can be tough, especially if the players are very lawful and respectful. Add in some children being shooed away by adults in the distance if you have to bring focus to them.
-A scroll of project image should probably only work on an image of the person reading it but I chose to let the scroll Nira gave them work on the dolls. A little loose with the rules but it helped.
-Well prepared players at low tier will destroy the bat swarm in about 1 round. Be sure you have a plan for how to depict things if the swarm is dead before Nira comes out or the cloaker is revealed.
-If they do decide to speak to Robori, don't play it as thinking it's a god. I veered a little too close to that side and that nearly derailed them from the Verdant Spark.
-It's REALLY hard to get the backstory and plot to the players. You need to find a spot to drop in the Ghorus knowledge check that doesn't feel like GM fiat. Probably while they're investigating Robori is best.
Even with the Ghorus information finding out what the Verdant Spark is is very hard. As Zoomba mentioned most players will have used the sole speak with plants scroll by then and unless they happen to have a 5th level druid with them it is highly unlikely anyone will be able to cast it as a spell. So there's a few things you can do.
- -Don't give them any info. When they remove the artifact and things start dying almost instantly they should draw the connection. Whether they put it back or take it to the Society, a "research team" can give them the info and backstory a few weeks after the mission debrief.
-If they're trying to find a way to cast speak with plants again give them an intelligence or wisdom check to remember that Alkenstar is only a day away and has a magic-using half where a scroll could be bought.
-Play it by ear. In my game the 3rd level wizard cranked up an identify, rolled a natural 20, and ended up with a spellcraft in the low 40s. I decided to go ahead and give them the backstory with that. (Time was also an issue.) Yes, the spell says you can't identify artifacts but as Wes Schneider said about identifying artifacts "At the end of the day, artifacts exist as a way to allow GMs and PCs to totally break the rules so they can tell the stories they want. Thus, a lot about them - including this - are left purposefully vague. It's more fun that way." If you don't have a time crunch maybe just a bit of info on some kind of Druidic ritual to create plant life and let them play on from there.
They were absolutely convinced that eating the food the town provided was going to turn them into zombies under the control of some plant intelligence. So they were eating hardtack and trail rations every day. Very loud laughter at the end when I let them know the truth about the priestess actually purifying the food for them.
I delayed the Feast of Bats a bit since they were planning to finally break the rules and go out that night. They spied on the ceremony, went looking at Amenira's house, and (finally!) spotted Nira on the way back. I let them use the scroll to enter the dolls and see what the children were like, then had the bats attack when the wizard started making plans to wake up the children and question them (time). Had to skip the encounter with the cloaker in the cave ("If there are at least 90 minutes remaining..." - we were at negative 12 minutes remaining at that point.)
They left the Spark in place and talked to the sheriff. He called the high priestess in and the players said "Robori isn't what's keeping this town safe." Priestess response: "Oh? How did you find out?" Had to push a little bit at the end when the Venture Captain asks for a report. "We tell him everything." "What exactly do you tell him?" "You mean you want to role-play this too? *sigh*" They didn't tell him about Robori but it was fairly rushed and they did enough other tasks to get the secondary success condition.
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 16
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I just started this as a PbP and it has elements that remind me of a stricter investigation scenario, Scars of the Third Crusade. I am grateful it doesn't use those rules, though, although I do wonder about all of the speak with plants stuff mentioned above. Here's hoping to a creative party, but at least PbP I'm not hurting for a time limit and I think I can have some fun with the party Mercy's rules at least :)
Good catch about the Robori derail; I'll watch for that when the players get there.
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I ran this on January 1st, low tier, for six players with levels ranging 1-3.
Unusually, I had a much longer block of time to work with than usual--up to 7 hours total. However, we got it done in about 5 hours.
A few things I noted during the playthrough:
1. Running the optional encounter in low subtier will almost certainly result in the destruction of Nira. She was engulfed and destroyed in about 3 rounds, before the PCs could damage the cloaker enough to drop it or get it to flee.
Since Amenira/Nira's soul is contained in the locket, which survived, I decided to allow its retrieval to be sufficient to fulfill a secondary success condition. I did not feel it fair to penalize them for losing out on a success condition simply because we had time to run the optional encounter.
2. The group figured out about the dolls and the enter image scroll. they actually did take the time to do untrained Craft (dollmaking) skill checks in Amenira's house to create a reasonable facsimile of the party's wizard. However, they could not immediately come up with a way to infiltrate the PC-doll into a villager's house, and because they were ready to hunt for the cloaker after talking to Nira, we moved into the bat encounter and thence to the final encounter before they could follow up further on this.
3. The party seemed to forget for a while that they had the scroll of speak with plants; I gave them an Int check near the end to remind them they had it, and they decided to use it on the Verdant Spark. They went back and forth on whether to take it; in the end they decided to take it back to Katapesh with them. (The fact that half the party were Dark Archive-aligned had an impact here.)
4. At low subtier, the party's Diplomacy bonuses were low enough that making checks to get information was hit-or-miss; they lost out on several opportunities to get information by failing these checks.
5. From a combat perspective, the gnoll encounter is mainly a matter of how quickly the PCs can reach their foe; once they get to melee range the battle ended quickly.
They had trouble with the bat swarm, in large part due to low rolls with splash weapons and touch attacks. However, they eventually took it out with a burning hands.
As previously mentioned, the optional encounter with the cloaker resulted in its death, but not before it had managed to kill Nira. Its ability to make tail attacks + Combat Reflexes meant it did fair damage to the PCs. Then too, I rolled really well on almost all of its attacks.
The final encounter with the yellow musk mother/zombie was not too much trouble. Their biggest challenge was the damage the zombie inflicted, as again I rolled well and hit frequently with its slam attacks.
One question that came up that the adventure does not cover, is what the impact is on the plant growths and the lifecycle of the villagers. The named NPCs are listed as augmented humans, but it never specifies what benefits they receive from growing up under the influence of the Verdant Spark. I decided it probably gave them increased longevity, faster natural healing in sunlight, and resistances to magical effects of the Mana Wastes. But I would be curious to know what the author's original intent had been.
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 8
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On page 8 there is a scroll of speak with plants and a scroll of mount (CL 5th). Are both scrolls CL 5, or is only the scroll of mount CL 5?
There are also three +1 seeking bullets. I presume that these are firearm bullets, and not sling bullets?
EDIT
IMO the +1 cold iron fey-bane ammunition on the chronicle sheet is extremely unoptimized. Presumably it is cold iron to bypass the cold iron DR of fey, however as +1 bane it will count as cold iron for bypassing the DR of fey creatures, so the extra gold spent to enchant the cold iron ammunition was essentially wasted and only serves to make the ammunition more expensive.
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On page 8 there is a scroll of speak with plants and a scroll of mount (CL 5th). Are both scrolls CL 5, or is only the scroll of mount CL 5?
The caster level of each scroll would be listed individually if the scrolls were of unusual levels. By coincidence the lowest possible level for a scroll of speak with plants (using normal PFS rules for item creation) is CL 5, so in this case they are both CL5.
There are also three +1 seeking bullets. I presume that these are firearm bullets, and not sling bullets?
The descriptive text says they came from a gunslinger's satchel, so firearm bullets is correct.
IMO the+1+2 cold iron fey-bane ammunition on the chronicle sheet is extremely unoptimized. Presumably it is cold iron to bypass the cold iron DR of fey, however as+1+2 bane it will count as cold iron for bypassing the DR of fey creatures, so the extra gold spent to enchant the cold iron ammunition was essentially wasted and only serves to make the ammunition more expensive.
That's completely a flavorful item. In the scenario it's an item the sheriff gives you that's been handed down for generations. Perhaps his great-grandmother had a pair of +2 cold iron arrows and - upon figuring out she was going to fight a fey - added the fey-bane property to them.
Also it's got a little bit more versatility as it works on something that has DR/cold iron but is NOT a fey. Not optimized for a bunch of rich Pathfinders but handy for a remote town.
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I ran this on this past Wednesday. We played the optional encounter, and Nira was the one to deliver the blow that KO'd her murderer. Two of my players were keeping good notes of information they got, and it took them no time at all to figure out what happened to Amenira. They got a kick out of the "Rules of Mercy". All in all, they thoroughly investigated a lot of the background information with several 30-40+ diplomacy checks, and several 30+ knowledge checks, in the 4-5 tier. They did end up getting tossed out of town in the end, but fixed that quickly. Only one town rules was broken, but they were able to get several of the diplomacy bonuses.
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Ran this on Saturday and it went okay, although we ran long and hit a hard stop right at the very end.
With a hydrokineticist and an undine, the party were getting some nasty looks the whole time they were in Mercy and there was incredibly little they could do about it. It was pretty funny.
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Venture-Agent, Massachusetts—Boston Metro
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Ran this today at low-tier, for a packed table of 7.
Overall the scenario went smoother than I feared it might. The players mostly obeyed the rules and were cautious the first day (though they got a glimpse of the villagers going to service through the curtains using a periscope(!)). By the end of the first day, they had invesitgated most of the clear mysteries in the town - Robori, Amenira's house, the odd rotting smells, the odd lotions - and as a result became a bit more reckless the next day.
1. Our druid not only made her check to use speak with plants on Robori and some other flowers, but also surprised me by using Speak with Animals on a bat. I had it foreshadow the "Smiling Shadow".
2. Two of them were extra skeptical about the Mercian's explanation for their wooden armor, so went to pick cashews with some of the townsfolk to check that story out. It ended up giving them a chance to become friendly with a villager.
3. While they discovered the roots of Robori had started being blighted recently, once they learned it was part of the ritual Zuri started they began assuming she was deliberately poisoning the god.
4. Our grippli observed the entire Robori prayers by sneaking out in the night and hiding in the branches of the tree itself (with some excellent stealth rolls)
5. The Bat encounter was a lot of set-up for very little rounds or challenge. It also led to a bit of a timeline issue: I fast-forwarded about 6 hours because the encounter mostly makes sense only near dusk but the players had mostly exhausted any non-rabbit hole investigating early in a morning.
6. I ran the optional encounter, because knowing that table, if they had not killed the cloaker then they would have continued to chase him down as soon as they finished searching the underground forest (and with 7 players and an animal companion, I knew the combat would not likely take long). Since the Delightful Smiling Shadow of Flight (great name) is the murderer at the center of this partial-murder mystery and a recent assault on the town, its strange to have the PCs not fight him.
7. They initially ripped out the Verdant Heart, but once they saw the vegetation start to droop and wither and realized what it was, they - after debate - had their good alignments win out over a more mercenary Pathfinder spirit and re-attached it. The Musk creepers were a speed-bump combat at this tier, and seemed to be a better fit for an optional encounter.
Overall this is a very prep-heavy session to run, and be prepared for the players to be ready to start investigating strange theories based on how they try and piece together what is going on. That said, is was an interesting change of pace from many recent scenarios. You will have to work to figure out how to incorporate a lot of the background information (and a lot of it still won't get through; lacking Undercommon as a language, the party had no idea what the cloaker's deal was by the end).
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Venture-Lieutenant, Massachusetts—Boston Metro
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Overall this is a very prep-heavy session to run, and be prepared for the players to be ready to start investigating strange theories based on how they try and piece together what is going on. That said, is was an interesting change of pace from many recent scenarios. You will have to work to figure out how to incorporate a lot of the background information (and a lot of it still won't get through; lacking Undercommon as a language, the party had no idea what the cloaker's deal was by the end).
You aren't joking about the strange theory part either. Our table was fixated on vampires to the point where we were outfitted to deal with their resistances. Oddly enough we were strangely on point as to what was going on with the town even as we were floundering with the fact that none of us could cast any of the scrolls. The most important part being the realization that everyone should be dead given what the information we were given.
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RPG Superstar 2013 Top 8
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There are also three +1 seeking bullets. I presume that these are firearm bullets, and not sling bullets?The descriptive text says they came from a gunslinger's satchel, so firearm bullets is correct.
I should know better than to try to be subtle on the internet. :) When writing scenarios, it is important to be specific. I shouldn't need to do detective work to figure out that these bullets are firearm bullets and not sling bullets. It should be clearly stated that they are firearm bullets.
IMO the+1+2 cold iron fey-bane ammunition on the chronicle sheet is extremely unoptimized. Presumably it is cold iron to bypass the cold iron DR of fey, however as+1+2 bane it will count as cold iron for bypassing the DR of fey creatures, so the extra gold spent to enchant the cold iron ammunition was essentially wasted and only serves to make the ammunition more expensive.That's completely a flavorful item. In the scenario it's an item the sheriff gives you that's been handed down for generations. Perhaps his great-grandmother had a pair of +2 cold iron arrows and - upon figuring out she was going to fight a fey - added the fey-bane property to them.
Also it's got a little bit more versatility as it works on something that has DR/cold iron but is NOT a fey. Not optimized for a bunch of rich Pathfinders but handy for a remote town.
IMO nobody in their right mind would shoot them at anything that isn't fey. Note that at the high subtier the ammunition isn't cold iron, because the ammunition already bypasses DR/cold iron with its innate enhancement bonus.
IMO it just serves to needlessly make this item more expensive on the chronicle.
Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area North & East
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Ran this last night for a party of 3 wizards (divination, evocation, and conjuration) at levels 2 & 3. They brought in the Bloodrager pregen to make a legal table. Turned out the bloodrager was the only one half-decent at diplomacy, but they turned out ok. Details in the spoiler.
Made all the initial knowledge checks, but completely ignored the vampire bit.
When they checked out the first cave, one latched onto the Azathoth stuff and became convinced that the entire town was under Azathoth's control and needed to be torched. Luckily the rest of the party kept him in check.
The first night, they stayed inside and did nothing. In the morning, they immediately went to Amenira's house - bringing the sheriff with them to make sure nothing unlawful went on with their missing person investigation. Nira tried to hide the fact that she was alive, but one wizard saw through it. Still they kept from questioning it until the sheriff left. So they got the unspoken rules right off the bat, and changed outfits as well as they could (left the wayang in his skivvies, but at least not blue) They started talking to Nira and got some initial info, but I figured she still had a bit of disassociation between Amenira's death and her - when they started asking about the death itself she fainted for a while.
Next they went to the tree & temple. Bloodrager noticed root problems, diviner had some craft alchemy so he tested the soil and found it acidic. Talking with the priest led to solving that problem and getting the nice town diplo bonus. They used the scroll of speak with plants here, talked to the tree for about 2 minutes, then booked it over to the plants at Amenira's place and got partway into a conversation with them before the spell wore off.
Then over to the artisan square, were the diplo bonus helped put down the arguments, and they started to general talking with townsfolk. Frustratingly, they never asked about Vampires, Bats, or Mana Storms with townsfolk or with the sheriff - only about Robori and Amenira. Saw the kid ushered off - I didn't let them track that one down, but that worked out because they next headed to
The weaver's house! With a perfectly good reason - the wayang needed clothes. (Ok, weaver doesn't necessarily = tailor, but I made him both). I gave them a perception check to hear the kid running off to a back room (made it) and then the weaver started taking measurements to make the clothes. They looted the mailbox and saw the toys on the floor, so they had a bit more to go on now.
The evoker wanted to press the Azathoth issue some more, so before sunset they checked out of town to go back to the cave, which did jog Nira's memory some more but nothing else. Came back into town after sunrise, picked up the clothes (met the weaver's wife getting into her armor for harvesting) and found the skin flap. Don't remember them having much else to do, so they talked with Nira more, found what the doll is capable of, and mostly chilled for the day (there WERE up most of the night, and they're wizards...)
Ran the bat encounter - they realized the attempt to communicate, so the wayang tried to use shadows to communicate back. Which was interrupted when Nira came out too and freaked out the cloaker. Nira was quite helpful taking out the swarm, then the cloaker flew off. I let the party have one salvo of magic missiles as it departed, which helped later.
The evoker was ready to go to the first cave again, and was very surprised when the bats led to a different cave. We had 75 minutes left, so we skipped the optional encounter (I was a bit sad). Then they find stuff (everyone really likes the combo potions) and get to the VS. Some good knowledge rolls (I made up a few about the Ghorans, particularly since the person making the checks had met one earlier this season) and some help from Nira and they pieced together that the VS was sustaining the town, which led to quite a debate. I offered a bit as Nira and the bloodrager, but let them come to the decisions. Eventually they decided to leave it in place and report about it.
Since the Yellow Musk fight didn't happen (and we thus had almost an hour left), I had the cloaker waiting for them on their way out. There was a surprise round where it wouldn't be able to move up and grab Nira, so I had it do the targeted moan on her instead, so now she's helpless. In actual rounds it comes up and grabs her, then she got liberating commanded, and the thing was promptly torched. I healed it about half the damage from the first fight, but that still put it down.
They went back to town and explained the VS stuff to the sheriff and the priest, carefully not insulting Robori while they did so. Told them that some pathfinder druids would come to check it out, but other than that not to let anyone in the cave.
Questions that came up:
1. Are there locks on the doors to the houses? Particularly the guest house, Amenira's house, and the weaver's house?
2. How does Nira feel about being seen by the sheriff and other townspeople? Does she try to hide that she's animated?
3. Given that there's 100 houses, I guessed that there's an average of 3 people per house (including kids) so about 300 people, maybe a bit more. Is that about right? Basic goods should be available?
4. The cloaker's "performance" is an attempt to communicate - what is he trying to say? How does he expect a response?
I'll say again outside the spoiler - people loved the combined potions.
In general, I had a great time running this. It was a fun investigation, fairly easy on the number crunching, some nice red orange herrings, and a great ethical dilemma at the end.
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Venture-Captain, Vermont—Peacham
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Jon,
I am prepping The Twisted Circle right now as I get ready to run this scenario next Sunday at TotalCon. I am very excited to run this great story!
At the moment, I have one question for you. I notice that Sheriff Molume begins with an attitude of indifferent in subtiers 1-2 and unfriendly in subtiers 4-5. To shift his attitude using diplomacy, the DC is 15+Molume's Cha modifier when he is indifferent, or 20+ Molune's modifier in Subtier 4-5 where he is unfriendly. What is the Charisma of the Sheriff? I notice that on page 10 it says
"In Subtier 4-5, the PCs must improve his attitude to indifferent with a DC 15 Diplomacy check before he is willing to share this information."
Does this mean that the sherrif has a Charisma score of 1? Is he really that grumpy? Is that correct? What do you think the Sheriff should have for a charisma score? What should I use for Diplomacy DCs to improve his attitude?
Thanks!
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My general rule in situations like this is that the scenario may have "special DCs" that override the normal DCs for various tasks. In subtier 4-5, it's not necessarily reasonable to expect a DC 20 Diplomacy from some parties with any consistency, even if they've invested in the skill. Just roll with what the scenario indicates whenever possible.
I ran this on Sunday at Con of the North and it is easily one of my favorite 1-5 scenarios. I'll be running it again this weekend.
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Venture-Captain, Minnesota
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Serisan, thank you for the laugh.
Everyone, do you have tips for running it in a timely manner and keeping the roleplay fun? I'll be running it on Sunday, and while I'm looking forward to the RP, I'm also worried about ending it in a timely manner. I'll be running it low tier.
Hmm
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Serisan, thank you for the laugh.
Everyone, do you have tips for running it in a timely manner and keeping the roleplay fun? I'll be running it on Sunday, and while I'm looking forward to the RP, I'm also worried about ending it in a timely manner. I'll be running it low tier.
Hmm
I'mma be there GMing the table with all the J names, Hmm. We can certainly chat then.
My biggest recommendation is to make sure that Sheriff Molume is talkative when they arrive and that the party knows that finding him and talking to him more is not a problem. That way, there's a friendly face that drops the right hints and prevents the party from floundering. The biggest wastes of time at my CotN table were the fire alarm (ok, that shouldn't count since it was an RL distraction) and people not agreeing where to go investigate. Managing that decision process is critical to fitting the slot.
During the bat swarm attack, if the players lack the resources to complete it in a timely fashion, Nira can spray 'em. I'd also recommend that this be a time-saver course of action, as well. During my CotN table, I had to do that and skip the optional to ensure we fit the slot. The frank and honest answer here is that, in subtier 1-2, the cloaker's tactics make the swarm absolutely brutal by having an effective touch AC of 18 unless someone provides cover fire. My players made the terrible mistake of lining up such that the swarm hit 4 of them at once and knocked one unconscious in the process.
Minus the kid at the table (he got bored), the players were very happy to spend this scenario mostly roleplaying and not worrying about the combats so much.
Edit: And don't forget to allot time (5ish minutes) at the end for the players to debrief with Roderus. It is their second PP, after all.
Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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When Monkhound ran this for me, the bit about the cloaker trying to communicate with shadowplay got lost in the "oh crap, swarms, what do we do" panic. It might be best to focus on the shadowplay, and only after the message has gotten through have the bats coalesce into swarms.
Also, swarm fights are kinda uninteresting anyway, so don't be afraid to let the players get rid of them with "easy" tactics like closing doors and such.
Finally, the scenario text specifically calls out torches being present. I'm assuming the author was thinking of D&D where IIRC torches could do 1 fire damage to a swarm.
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No dice today. Nira was destroyed, the Pathfinders took the Spark back to Katapesh thinking the damage was already done. Didn't quite have enough information to get that second prestige due to many missed moments.
What kind of benefits does Nira give as a familiar? Hero Lab doesn't have an option to add soulbound dolls as familiars, so I'm guessing I need to approximate something.
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What kind of benefits does Nira give as a familiar? Hero Lab doesn't have an option to add soulbound dolls as familiars, so I'm guessing I need to approximate something.
She gives all the normal benefits of an Improved Familiar and has the statistics of a neutral soulbound doll exactly as written in Bestiary 2.
If you're asking what special ability unique to each familiar she gives to her master (+3 to Appraise checks, +2 on reflex saves, etc.) - Improved Familiars don't give those bonuses, only normal familiars do so.
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Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area North & East
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When Monkhound ran this for me, the bit about the cloaker trying to communicate with shadowplay got lost in the "oh crap, swarms, what do we do" panic. It might be best to focus on the shadowplay, and only after the message has gotten through have the bats coalesce into swarms.
Also, swarm fights are kinda uninteresting anyway, so don't be afraid to let the players get rid of them with "easy" tactics like closing doors and such.
Finally, the scenario text specifically calls out torches being present. I'm assuming the author was thinking of D&D where IIRC torches could do 1 fire damage to a swarm.
Having the wayang in the party made the shadowplay interesting. Lots of attempts at communication.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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Improved Familiars don't give those bonuses, only normal familiars do so.So I guess I just pick some improved familiar that doesn't matter and add a doll to the character until such a time as they add soul bound dolls to the list.
No, normally you can't have soulbound dolls as improved familiars, because they're not on the Additional Resources. This boon unlocks it for that character specifically.
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Venture-Captain, Minnesota
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Thanks to the tips Serisan provided, my party had a fun run through this adventure. When the soulbound doll showed up, the party ran. It was hilarious... but they eventually befriended the doll, and they chose to leave the spark where it was after taking copious notes.
And just about everyone wanted the creepy doll as a familar. :)
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Table 2 of this for me today. The party discovered the tracks in the cave and realized it was roughly doll-shaped, saw the remaining dolls, and one of the players (roughly 9 years old, I think) destroyed two of the dolls before the rest of the party decided to tie up the last one and bring it with them.
My reading of Sheriff Molume has a slight southern/Georgian accent. I think this helps make the scene.
Party: We're looking for Amenira.
Sheriff: Oh, she used to live here, but we haven't seen her for a couple months. She used to make dolls for the children.
Party: You mean like this one?
Sheriff: What is this, some sort of bondage doll?
This successfully whooshed right over the two kids' heads.
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The largest chunk of time gets taken up by the investigation, so that's where you'll need to concentrate on moving things along. Either a map of a town, or just listing the options to visit on a flip-mat seems to keep the PCs a little more focused on the fact that this is an information gathering assignment, and thus they're more likely to split the party (covering more areas at once, speeding up learning the story).
Both times I ran it, I gave them one chance to talk to people before lunch, and then another chance after. Both groups needed less than 3 days to figure out everything. Don't be afraid to move up the cloaker's performance or else they'll think they're missing something, and go in a random direction. I gave my first group too much time to think about what they learned, and they decided to go looking for the cloaker (out in the Mana Waste), spending the night outside. I had them witness a storm going over the town (I used the description of the aspen trees protecting the town from a storm, which they hadn't heard yet) to get them back in town, and then the cloaker was able to make it's appearance.
The second group was more aggressive, and pushed their way into the weaver's house right before curfew (they had talked to them that morning), demanding to see the child. One of the parents went to get the sheriff, and the skald tried to charm person to get them to stop. The save was made, the sheriff was brought in, and an argument ensued. They made the diplomacy check against a hostile attitude to get the sheriff to listen to them about what they had learned (excluding Nira), and they all went over to confront the priestess (they weren't sure if she was purposefully poisoning the tree). They used the scroll to talk to the 'god' over the priestesses objections, but since the whole town had started to gather for worship, she couldn't make too much of a fuss. They soon decided it was all an honest mistake, but before they could really process what was going on, the cloaker came along (they were past curfew at this point).
At both tables, the cloaker encounter got cut for time. I think making this the optional was a big mistake, as both tables were fixated on getting rid of the threat to the village, which they had been specifically asked to do.
The first table didn't have anyone who could use the scroll, so they sent back to Alkenstar for Lem (there is no time limit, so I allowed it). When Lem arrived, I had him describe this cloaker he had seen by the side of the road riddled with bullet holes (which relieved them, and let them focus on the Spark [which they left alone]).
The second table had already used the scroll, but was still able to determine that the Spark was what was protecting the town, and left it alone. They then went back to the very first cave, thinking the cloaker had gone there. When they got there, I had them make a perception check, and then told them they saw a 'body' near the side of the road at the very bottom of the hill. They went down to investigate, and found the cloaker dead.
At both tables, they were a little disappointed that they didn't get to kill it, but were happy the threat was neutralized. Most groups won't assume they're done until they know the cloaker is dead, so if you don't have a good way to work in them finding the body, it may just be quicker to run the optional.
Overall, both groups had fun, but were left feeling like they didn't have all the information. While I filled out chronicle sheets, I let them know the parts of the story that they hadn't learned (each group will learn different things depending on what plant(s) they talk to), which went a long way towards giving the players resolution, even if their characters were still clueless.
Each table is going to have their own approach to the investigation, so try to get a feel for where they're going with it, and tailor it to them. Maybe this means combining information at some places, or adding in some gossip that will direct them to a better location for their style. You can even expand on Amenira's journal entries to give them some hints if they're struggling, as long as it's within the bounds of what she knew. If you have a particularly murder-hobo group, make sure to stress that the townsfolk really are a non-violent peaceful folk (the blacksmith/carpenter argument is about as heated as it gets; the town doesn't have a jail), even if they do have a secret. Also, if they're really stuck, remind them that since there is no in-game time limit (other than the cloaker making its appearance), they can always send for someone/something in Alkenstar, as long as they're willing to pay for services.
I hope your group has fun with this!
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Venture-Captain, Minnesota
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Yes, I had a list of options to visit, and had locations written on my map (I just arbitrarily labeled some of the things on the map with their locations.)
Concentrating on the investigation is great. The party moved through everything nice and quickly but they were so very paranoid. I truly enjoyed running this one. I think that Serisan's tips were invaluable.
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It looks like I am running this on March 3rd at the Fantasy Flight Game Center in MPLS (actually, near MPLS). I've only run this scenario during the play test phase (back in Oct).
I am curious to see if the published version of it runs long for me too!
We'll see how it goes! =)
That's where Hmm and I were on Sunday. How'd Adriano rope you into a Thursday night game?
Quick breakdown of time on the more recent table as a guideline for fitting a 5 hour slot:
15 min: introductions, Roderus, Alkenstar purchases
30 min (total 45): Gnoll(s) + cave
2 hours 30 min (total 3:15): Investigation until BATS!
30 min (total 3:45): BATS! + Cloaker
15 min (total 4:00): Verdant Spark + disease (flexes down if they've already used the Speak with Plants scroll)
15 min (total 4:15): Debrief with Roderus
15 min (total 4:30): Chronicles
This gives you a bit of flex in both directions. If anything takes longer, it's almost always the investigation in town.
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It looks like I am running this on March 3rd at the Fantasy Flight Game Center in MPLS (actually, near MPLS). I've only run this scenario during the play test phase (back in Oct).
I am curious to see if the published version of it runs long for me too!
We'll see how it goes! =)
That's where Hmm and I were on Sunday. How'd Adriano rope you into a Thursday night game?
It's a cute story. I posted on a meet up page for a Feb 28th game day at The Source. I wrote something like, "Hi, I'm the author and I would be happy to run a table or two of the scenario but I am not available on that specific day. If there is future interest I could run it March / April".
Almost immediately, Adriano responded to me on The Source page with a, "Hey, I'm from FFG. Can you run it for us instead, on March 3rd?"
So, he totally trolled me from his competitors page! Well played Adriano! =)
I think "competitor" is a strong word. BTW, we will have a table of it running in April at Your Mom's Basement, though the event isn't posted yet.
