7-29 All for Immortality Part 3: Serpents Fall

[CanisDirus]

John and/or Linda,

As I finish prepping to run this tomorrow, I noticed this little story nugget-of-nexavarian-steel...

Quote:

...has also lifted the moratorium on underhanded practices in Mendev, following the successful conclusion of the Fifth Mendevian Crusade.

Things involving Mendev and The Worldwound are rather popular in my region...when players invariably ask me what the "PFS Canon" is for the results of the 5th Crusade...do you have any guidance/resources I can point them at?

Thanks very much in advance - really looking forward to running this!

[John Compton]

Mike Bramnik wrote:

John and/or Linda,

As I finish prepping to run this tomorrow, I noticed this little story nugget-of-nexavarian-steel...

Quote:

...has also lifted the moratorium on underhanded practices in Mendev, following the successful conclusion of the Fifth Mendevian Crusade.

Things involving Mendev and The Worldwound are rather popular in my region...when players invariably ask me what the "PFS Canon" is for the results of the 5th Crusade...do you have any guidance/resources I can point them at?

Thanks very much in advance - really looking forward to running this!

I believe the most explicit statements we've made about the post-Season-5 consequences of the fifth crusade appear in Pathfinder Society Scenario #7-17: Thralls of the Shattered God. The line you've selected above is a mention of how a different organization sees the situation.

[CanisDirus]

Ah ha! I had played that one but not GM'd or read it - I found the information now. Thanks very much, John!

My players *adored* this scenario. It was difficult, but they loved all the story threads tied together, and also loved the sense of danger, being part of something greater, and how good it felt as a spiritual successor to Eyes of the Ten.

To GMs - I strongly recommend giving yourselves LOTS of time to prepare the Hall of Blades encounter...I'd like to think that I'm fairly experienced as a GM, and that fight took me hours and hours of studying to prepare for, and I still needed a hand from one of my players who was more familiar with Occult Adventures stuff than I was!

[Markov Spiked Chain]

I'm looking at running this now, after playing it last year.

I'm still quite confused on how GM credit interacts with boons like this. If I GM only part III, can I take the boon to help a new character?

My general understanding is that the GM can end up with both side of a boon that requires a PC choice, and similar situations. But I have no idea how that interacts here?

[Serisan]

Markov Spiked Chain wrote:

I'm looking at running this now, after playing it last year.

I'm still quite confused on how GM credit interacts with boons like this. If I GM only part III, can I take the boon to help a new character?

My general understanding is that the GM can end up with both side of a boon that requires a PC choice, and similar situations. But I have no idea how that interacts here?

When I GM'd, I took the chronicle to have mutually exclusive boons related to the PC choice item, given that the PCs themselves have no means of completing both paths.

Regarding Incredible Protege, of course yes. It has no requirements regarding prior scenarios in the arc.

[Markov Spiked Chain]

Quote:

Regarding Incredible Protege, of course yes. It has no requirements regarding prior scenarios in the arc.

It doesn't say on the chronicle sheet, but it *does* say in the 7-29 module that you need to complete the other two scenarios, got True to the Mission, and had at most three deaths from teams. Whether and how that applies to GM chronicle sheets is what's not clear to me.

[KingTreyIII]

Question: in the Guards and Wards/Countless Barriers sections it says “attempt four of the following,” but in the Guards and Wards section it says “If the PCs succeed at four or five checks...” emphasis: mine.

So, how many checks are the PCs supposed to attempt? I misunderstood the first time I’m currently running Part 3 for the second time and allowed one check per PC.

[Markov Spiked Chain]

I finally hit 12 on the character I applied these GM credits to. I'm still not clear on the rules for selecting Boons as a GM.

Can I sell the Elixir in part 1 for an extra 6500 gp, but still take the Protege Boon from Part III?

[Philippe Lam]

Unless there's specific provisos prohibiting to select these as a GM or a combo of others (cf Bid for Alabastrine). There's nothing inside the PDFs of the scenarios forbidding you to do so, you're good to go !

[Majuba]

*A little bit of Necro in my life...*

KingTreyIII wrote:

Question: in the Guards and Wards/Countless Barriers sections it says “attempt four of the following,” but in the Guards and Wards section it says “If the PCs succeed at four or five checks...” emphasis: mine.

So, how many checks are the PCs supposed to attempt?

My best guess is originally it allowed five attempts at the five checks, and it was switched to four of their choice (which roughly equates to dropping the least likely to succeed check) to make things less swingy. Then the language on results in the upper tier didn't quite get updated. But the success language is different in other ways, so hard to know.

As for Selling the Elixir in part 1 but getting the boon that requires *not* doing that in Part 3? I really don't think so and certainly won't be granting myself that benefit (just finishing a run, and running at PaizoCon again). Here's the guide language fyi:

Guide, pg 17 wrote:

The GM can select any special boons bestowed by a Chronicle sheet, with the following exception: you can only select boons for specific factions if the character receiving credit is part of that faction. The GM’s character does not engage in Downtime activity.

To my reading, "Select" indicates getting to make whatever choice you want, not that you can make conflicting choices.

If the opinion is just that you can select as you like on Part 3, without concern for Part 1... I still don't think so, but that's harder to argue. Especially considering the case of someone who *only* runs part 3. I'd still say no, but it's thornier.

Note: Probably just me, but I almost didn't notice that the Optional Encounter note is if they fought Alexayn *OR* have less than 165 minutes. So no optional, even if they whipped right through somehow.