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5)
Identify:
This spell functions as detect magic, except that it gives you a +10 enhancement bonus on Spellcraft checks made to identify the properties and command words of magic items in your possession. This spell does not allow you to identify artifactsSpellcraft: DC35 to identify the gauntlets. I doubt the PCs will make that check.
But I guess Occultists could identify it.
It actually states in the gauntlet's description that as soon as you put them on you immediately become aware of their abilities.
That's how my PCs figured it out.
It actually states in the gauntlet's description that as soon as you put them on you immediately become aware of their abilities.That's how my PCs figured it out.
A lot of players will simply never equip a magic item that they cannot identify. This is not unfounded paranoia; a high spellcraft DC to identify is a very strong indicator that the item may be cursed.
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So I wanted to get someone's opinion about this.
One of the things I like to do in my games is make magic items seem a bit more. . . . unique. Not every magic item, of course, but ones that seem like they might be important.
Now in the first of this AP, the PCs already encounter two artifact-level items, but basically they are supposed to use one to cancel out the other, and not really 'use' them. So, I had an idea to make a few of the items found in the book a bit more interesting, without throwing off Wealth by level too much.
In Roderick's Wreck, there is a pair of Featherstep Slippers. If we turn these into Roderick's personal nightime slippers, (perhaps after Roderick's death, the spiritual energy in the area latched onto his love for his family and empowered them) we can Make them Roderick's Storytelling Slippers. These Slippers function as Featherstep Slippers but also give the wearer +2 to Perform (Oratory) checks (as Roderick used to regail his children with stories on cold winter nights.)
Mother Nightthrush's Amulet of natural armor could become Amulet of the Roadkeepers. Functions as an amulet of natural armor, but also grants +1 to survival checks, or +3 to survival checks in the Churlwood.
Finally MOZAMER's +2 Halberd could become something like the Lesser Thassalonian Halberd of Wrath, which, when held, grants a +1 bonus to Sense Motive, Intimidate, Knowledge(arcana) and Spellcraft checks.
Each of these additions would grant competence bonuses, and would only add 600 gold to the cost of any given items. They wouldn't break the bank, but I think they would add a lot of flavor. Any thoughts?
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So, I'd like people's opinion. I rebuilt Jena Gildersleeves as a slayer mainly because I think that 2 skill ranks a level is not conducive to running a gang. I tried to keep her with the same equipment and the same general build. She came out slightly more combat capable with friends, almost the same with studied target, an a bit less out of the gate.
She ends up with 10 more GP because I gave her a ranged option. I also gave her a ring of deflection instead of an amulet, as the PCs already get an amulet of natural armor from Ms. Nightthrush.
Tell me what you think.
Jana "Gold" Gildersleeves
XP 1,600
Female human Slayer 6
CN Medium Humanoid (Human)
Init+3; Senses Perception +10
Defence
AC:22 Touch:15 Flat-Footed:18 (+6 armor, +1 dodge, +1 shield, +1 deflection)
HP:61 (6d10+24)
Fort+7 Ref+8 Will+3
Speed: 30
Melee:(+1 Quarterstaff)+9 (1d6+5)
OR Power attack +1 quarterstaff +7 (1d6+11)
OR Full attack +7/+7/+2/+2(1d6+3/1d6+2)
OR Power Full Attack: +5/+5/+0/+0(1d6+7/1d6+4)
Ranged: (thrown dagger)+9 (1d4+2)
Special Attacks: Sneak attack +2d6, Studied Target+2
Str 14, Dex:17, Con:14 Int 8 Wis 12 Chr 10
Feats: Dodge, Power Attack, Two weapon Defense, Toughness
Slayer Talents: Ranger Combat Style (Two weapon fighting) Two-Weapon Fighting, Improved Two-Weapon fighting; Rogue Talent: Terrain Mastery (Urban)
Skills:
Intimidate:+9, Perception: +10, Stealth: +11, Knowledge-Local: +8, Profession-Criminal: +10, Sense Motive: +10
Gear:
potions of cure moderate wounds (2),
alchemist’s fire (2), thunderstones (2); Other Gear
+2 Lamallar Leather armor, +1/+1 quarterstaff, Ring of deflection +1, daggers x5, ioun torchAPG, flayleaf (3), key to her cabinet
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I'm of the same thought as Saleem. I think the only reason to include stats is if one of the PCs is a Lawful Stupid paladin who wants to try and arrest her for starting a gang in the first place. Otherwise, she really is just a plot hook granting NPC.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but it looks like she attacks the party/defends her hideout if the PCs Attack her hideout without her invitation, which is exactly what happened in Owlen’s game (see journal entries, first page). They didn’t end up attacking her because they got their butts kicked and went at her unprepared, but they knew the fleshdregs were coming out of the well, knew those were attached to ancient Thassalon, so thought Baraket would be down the well. So they attacked the hideout that way.
The only thing that catches my eye about her is that her to-hit is pretty poor. Combining power attack and two-weapon fighting on an NPC is a great way to whiff every attack. I'd be inclined to get Weapon Focus in there and drop Power Attack for greater consistency. In terms of her non-combat capabilities she's definitely more suited to her role and could be used more extensively with a statblock like that.
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The only thing that catches my eye about her is that her to-hit is pretty poor. Combining power attack and two-weapon fighting on an NPC is a great way to whiff every attack. I'd be inclined to get Weapon Focus in there and drop Power Attack for greater consistency. In terms of her non-combat capabilities she's definitely more suited to her role and could be used more extensively with a statblock like that.
Remember: if she studies all her to-hits and Damage goes up by 2, which puts her on par with the character in the book (one less damage, but 2d6 sneak attack if she has a flanking partner.
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Vamp,
We were met in the morning, though, by a woman named Jana who apparently was the former leader of the Horned Fangs before monsters took over the gang. She had spirited away Akkumsah from the rest of the gang, and wanted us to help her get her position back. She said she would give us Akkumsah back if we cleared away the monsters but were careful not to harm the non-monstrous gang members. Upon learning that the monsters were attempting to form an army to bring back the might of Thassilon, we readily agreed, even though, frankly, I liked the monster we had talked to earlier more than I liked this Jana person.
It was two of the generic Horned Fangs and a fleshdreg they fought and lost to, not Jana herself. Indeed, based on Jana's bit written in part 1, she seems to go out of her way to keep the PCs from getting involved in exploring the Horned Fangs' base, including paying them 10 gp a week to investigate the Order of Resplendence and the Roadkeepers. Her tactics in H17 say it's possible that she may respond to the PCs' invasion, but it's also possible she won't, either.
Ultimately, her use in fighting the PCs seems to be largely GM dependent or player-action dependent. If the PCs don't go out of their way to antagonize or attack her, she's an NPC quest giver. If they do, they could end up fighting her. It really depends on how you, as the GM, play her, and how the players treat her.
I mean yes. What I guess I meant to say was that group was on track to fight her if they had done well in that fight and kept going. It was a very real scenario where they could have fought her. Just kinda saying it doesn’t require a lawful stupid Paladin “killing all the evil” to end up fighting Jenna.
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Okay, I hate to keep bringing up questions and bothering everyone here, but As I am prepping for the game, I find myself at the biggest loss at how to deal with the order of resplendence.
I mean the book seems split. On the one hand, there is absolutely NO information about how to retrieve the Baraket subtly. Only the Cambion and the boss lady know what the sword is or where it is kept, and there is no information on how to approach the situation diplomatically, which seems to encourage the murderhobo route.
On the other hand, if the PCs just murderhobo their way through they get zero XP for the entire ordeal (killing 4 or more of the initiates grants zero XP), and in her statblock is says the boss lady isn't above redemption.
So . . . what's the deal here? What do I do if the PCs just walk up to the mannor, knock on the door, and want to talk with the boss?
Okay, I hate to keep bringing up questions and bothering everyone here, but As I am prepping for the game, I find myself at the biggest loss at how to deal with the order of resplendence.
I mean the book seems split. On the one hand, there is absolutely NO information about how to retrieve the Baraket subtly. Only the Cambion and the boss lady know what the sword is or where it is kept, and there is no information on how to approach the situation diplomatically, which seems to encourage the murderhobo route.
On the other hand, if the PCs just murderhobo their way through they get zero XP for the entire ordeal (killing 4 or more of the initiates grants zero XP), and in her statblock is says the boss lady isn't above redemption.
So . . . what's the deal here? What do I do if the PCs just walk up to the mannor, knock on the door, and want to talk with the boss?
Okay, I can definitely agree that there isnt all that much info concerning the more subtle route, but I did manage to find a way to get around it. The pieces are there for you to work with, but it's definitely a big case of "see what the PCs do and act accordingly".
The way I see it, is that Corstela is prideful, but willing to accept those who bring information. It says in the descriptions for a few of the manor rooms how things play out if the PCs ask for an audience for Corstela. Given a peaceful front, the PCs should be able to at least accomplish this, and from there they may be able to infiltrate the Order as potentially interested members. Play Corstela up as pridefully arrogant, but still as someone who desires to learn as much as she can. How far this goes though, is entirely up to you and your players.
If they do decide to murderhobo it up, note that in the initiate's statblocks, their tactics state that they won't fight unless they have one of the monks with them, and even then are very likely to surrender without aid. Assuming your PCs aren't horrible folks, very few initiates should die when they decide to storm the manor.
Like I said, the pieces are there for you to work with, but it really comes down to seeing what your players do.
A lot of players will simply never equip a magic item that they cannot identify. This is not unfounded paranoia; a high spellcraft DC to identify is a very strong indicator that the item may be cursed.
It actually states in the gauntlet's description that as soon as you put them on you immediately become aware of their abilities.That's how my PCs figured it out.
How so? There is no correlation between the DC needed to identify an item (i.e. its caster level) and the fact that it may be cursed. By the rules, a cursed item usually "masquerades" as some normal item, and can be identified as that item by its own caster level. And you can find out that it is cursed if you beat the DC by 10.
By the rules, a cursed item usually "masquerades" as some normal item, and can be identified as that item by its own caster level.
That is not an actual rule. Cursed Items use their own caster level for identification purposes, not that of the item they're masquerading as.
While not all cursed items are like this, they often do have significantly higher caster levels than the item they're masquerading as. For instance, a Ring of Clumsiness is CL 15th, but the item it masquerades as is a Ring of Feather Falling, which is CL 1st. This means the real Ring of Feather falling requires a DC 16 spellcraft check to ID, while the Ring of Clumsiness requires a DC 25 spellcraft check to mis-identify as a Ring of Feather Falling and a DC 35 spellcraft check to correctly ID the cursed item.
It's not always the case, but cursed items often have abnormally high DC's when compared to level-appropriate loot and as a result players can be suspicious of items that are difficult to ID.
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So during lulls at work I managed to come up with some ideas.
First of all-Fixing the monks in Peacock manor. I found it weird that these philosophers and scholars who study Thassalonian lore didn't have any applicable skills or even speak Thassalonian. Plus, I think their skills are borked (they didn't account for the human +1 skill ranks a level, and they seem to benifit from 5th level +1/2 level to jumping checks despite being level 4) Luckily I have an easy fix.
If you change them to archetyped monks (Perfect Scholar) and change their skills around a bit, it seems to work better. They loose still mind and slow fall, and gain the following:
All Knowledge and linguistics are class skills, loose diplomacy and intimidate.
Lore: Can make all knowledge skill checks untrained, add 1/2 level to all knowledge checks.
When they miss an opponent, they get a +1 insight bonus to their next attack. This can only trigger 1/target/day.
Replace their skills with: Perception +9, Acrobatics +9, Knowledge-Arcane +9, Knowledge-History +9, Linguistics +4, Profession-Philosopher+8.
Add Thassalonian to their lanugages.
Now for the second part. Mini system for convincing Corstela to hand over Baraket and redeem herself.
The system requires getting through all five parts. Each stage has a series of skills, any one of which can be used to convince her. YOu can retry checks, but she gets fed up and refuses to talk to the PCs after three failed skill checks.
Step 1: Convince a philosopher to set up a meeting with Corstela :
Easy: Bluff they are interested in joining order of Resplendence: bluff 14
Moderate: Talk about collaboration: Knowledge-Arcana or History, or Profession-Philosopher, professor, or similar. DC 19
Hard: Just ask nicely: DC 24
(If the PCs have garnered a reputation in town for being knowledgable, they add a +2 to this check)
Step 2: PCs meet with Corstela. Before they can ask her about the sword, she asks a series of probing questions to see if they are 'worth her time.'
Easy: Answer-Linguistics OR Knowledge History, Arcana DC 14
Moderate: Reply politely and diplomatically that they are here for something else: Diplomacy 19
Hard: Fake it: Bluff 24
(PCs who speak Thassalonian get a +2 to this check)
Step 3: PCs confront Corstela about Baraket, she feigns ignorance.
Easy: Point out the tells that she's lying: Sense Motive DC 14
Moderate: Point out the evidence they have accrued: Diplomacy or Knowledge-Local (Or profession-Detective or the like) DC 19
Hard: Brow Beat her or press the issue diplomatically: Intimidate or Diplomacy 24
(+2 if they have interviewed Kelstrop, or +4 if they got the information from Kyane)
Step 4: Corstela admits she has Baraket, but says Peacock manor is a perfectly safe place to keep it. She has it magically warded.
Easy: Point out how powerful the magical protection would need to be to contain it: Knowledge-Arcana or Spellcraft DC 14
Moderate: Point out that the sword tends to have corrupting influences on the soul: Knowledge History, Religion, or Heal 19
Hard: Politely press the issue: Diplomacy 24
(+2 if they have the runeguard gauntlets)
Step 5: Corstela reveals the true purpose of the Order of Resplendence and how she needs to study the sword to understand Thassalonian magics more thoroughly.
Easy: Point out the mark Baraket has already left on her soul by killing six men: Religion or profession-Philosopher (or similar)DC 14
Medium: Point out that her pride could lead to her downfall, just like the previous runelord of pride: Perform Oratory, Knowledge History or Arcana
Hard: "YOUR IMMORTAL SOUL IS IN DANGER." Intimidate or Diplomacy DC 24
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Something I never like in Pathfinder are things like sleep, or color spray, or stuff like that. I don’t like “One bad roll-Turn your character off.” Color spray being especially egregious. And since Mother Nightthrush is basically built around that (color spray, one of her boys coup-de-grace) or fascinate, I thought I’d take a stab at a redesign. Tell me what you think, if she’s better, worse, or what. Or if I needn’t bother.
Mother Nightthrush
XP 800
Venerable Female human Oracle 5 (Lunar)
NE medium humanoid (human)
Init+2; Senses Perception +11, darkvision 60
Defence
AC:15 Touch: 10Flat-Footed:15 (+4 armor, +2 deflection, +1 natural, -2 dex)
HP:31 (5d8+5)
Fort+0 Ref-1 Will+7
Speed: 30
Melee:(Mwk cold iron dagger)+1 (1d4-3)(19-20)
Ranged: Lunar bean +1(1d6+2)(+fort save DC16 or blind for 1 rnd)
Spells (CL5, concentration +9)
2nd (5/day)Dust of Twilight(DC 16), Cure Moderate Wounds, Bone Fists, sound burst (DC 16)
1st (7/day)Bless, fubletounge(DC 15) Cure Light Wounds, shield of faith entropic shield, sanctuary (DC 15)
0-Create water, detect magic, read magic, guidance, light, stabilize
BAB+3, CMB +0, CMD8
Feats: combat Casting, Toughness, Cunning, improves Initiative
Str 4, Dex:7, Con:9 Int 10 Wis 17 Chr 18
Skills:
Diplomacy+12 Perception: +11, Survival+11 Knowledge-Relgiin+8, Profession-Criminal: +7, Sense Motive: +7, Spellcraft+6, Handle Animal +12
SQ: moonbeam, Primal Companion
Gear:
(As per book)
Startusk (animal Companion)
N medium Animal (boar)
Str 18 Dex 11, Con 17, Int 3, Wis 13, Chr 4
HP 42
AC 18 (+8 natural)
Melee: Gore +7 (1d8+6)
BAB +3
Fort +9, Ref+4, Will+2
Feats: Toughness, Skill focus (perception), great fortitude
Skills Perception +9, Acrobatics+4, Linguistics -3
Languages: Common
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It looks fine to me, although I'd say skip Primal Companion in favor of Prophetic Armor to make her harder to hit. It's important to remember that at the end of the day, she's a caster in a small room. She only goes outside to help the Roadkeepers if they retreat from the PCs and call for help. Otherwise, she lets them handle it.
EDIT: If you want to stick with Primal Companion, I'd say choose something more appropriate to her. She's called Mother Nightthrush - an avian of some kind might be a better choice.
I’d love to but primal companion limits you to boar, bear, croc, tiger, or wolf! I certainly tried for a bird.
I have to admit the animal companion came out more dangerous than I was thinking, and I could have made it worse (power attack, dodge, etc.). I dunno, I can just see her color spraying the entire party and then her boys coup de grace. Or hold person with that 17 will save at level 2!
Does it say anywhere how long Corstela and the Order of Resplendence have been in Roderic‘s Cove?
Does it say anywhere how long Corstela and the Order of Resplendence have been in Roderic‘s Cove?I can't find anything specific, but I was thinking no more than three years.
Thank you!
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I have a real problem with the map of area F. Alaznist's Armory on page 22.
The Churlwood map on the same page show the locations of areas B, C, D, and E in relation to Roderic's Cove. We know that area B, Hallen's Ferry is 5 miles from Roderic's Cove. Using a ruler, that makes area D. Bramblewood Den about 3 miles from E. Stonehouse Camp.
However, D5 (Bramblewood Den map) states the tunnel exiting to the east goes south for 100 feet before opening to area F1 (Alaznist's Armory map). Ok... but area E6 (Stonehouse Camp map) spirals directly down to F11 (Alaznist's Armory map).
That makes F1 and F11 approximately 3 miles apart if the Churlwood map is accurate. Which is it clearly not by looking at the Alaznist's Armory map. There is nothing on the map to indicate the western part of the Armory map is geographically separated from the eastern part of the map. The collapsed west-east tunnel almost directly below F7 has no symbols or text to imply that 5-10 foot tunnel collapse actually is 3 miles wide and most people will simply consider it a collapsed tunnel of 5 to 10 ft dimensions. That may satisfy most people to retcon the paradox the way I have...that 5-10 feet of collapse is actually 3 miles, or some powerful ancient magic makes it that people using the passage from D5 and the stairs from E6 down some 80 feet to think just that but in reality, they travelled 3 miles somehow.
Because the Bramblewood Den and the Stonehouse Camp simply can't be co-located side by side... the Churlwood map makes it clear the two locations are separated.
Any comment from Adam Daigle to how best to resolve this?
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I have a real problem with the map of area F. Alaznist's Armory on page 22.
[snip]
Any comment from Adam Daigle to how best to resolve this?
I'm not Adam, but I have a suggestion. I'd simply treat the distance from D5 to F1 as quite a bit longer. It has less connection to the ruins than the Stonehouse does. Then you can play up the problems of following a tunnel that goblins find easy but medium creatures won't.
I have more of a problem with the back stairs in Roderick's Wreck: they don't match up on each map. Each set of stairs is in line on the bottom floor, while they're offset five feet on the top floor. Furthermore, the back stairs are five feet further back from the back wall on the top floor than where they are shown on the bottom floor. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
So my party went after the goblins first - they are still level 2 (I gave them enough exp to level up but have not rested yet) - and have pushed down into the tunnel just to the 'gauntlet'.
My question is with the 3 heavy hitting casters - I don't want to overwhelm my party here - I'm thinking that the chief will race to attack once the fight starts - but I'll be making him roll perception checks along with time to get 'to' the fight.
The snake based on the writeup I think will stay hidden until the chief looks like he's in trouble - I'm just unsure about this and when/how to explain the snake.
The witch.. well that one has me nervous - the potion of fly really changes the game up on that encounter - the only saving grace is the writeup really gives a good reason why the witch won't rush to aid anything else going on - given her being shunned from the other goblins.
Still - I'm expecting this to be a really tough fight for my group and wondering how it panned out for others.
Still - I'm expecting this to be a really tough fight for my group and wondering how it panned out for others.
It is a tough set of fights. I realized right after the chief got off his fireball (Player reaction: He's fifth level?!) that if the other two came right away, the party was dead. So it ended up as three consecutive fights. They didn't have much time between, but one at a time is way less dangerous than all at once.
One thing I did that I really liked was having Crumble prepare by drinking his potion of fly and a potion of ghostly disguise, then cast obscuring mist and coming over the wall to really great effect. My players absolutely freaked for a good minute, but the rogue, choosing between doing nothing and proving it was an actual ghost, shot him with an arrow and managed to hit for damage.
For my group the chief was really destructive - the whole group was hit by the fireball (minus the evading monk), for 56 damage total, dropping one of them, and the spiritual weapon cast earlier finished the inquisitor/cavalier hybrid. Leaving two wizards without any spells and a good monk who had a lot of trouble hitting AC 21. They managed to keep everyone stable, then it was just a matter of who could hit the other sooner and eventually they won, and jumped inside the room and barricaded the stone door.
With about ten hit points between them and zero healing, I knew they weren't going to survive more, so Ssess then waltzed by and whispered of the horrible things he'd do to them if they didn't hand over nice things under the door. They passed him two bars of gold (probably just inside his drag capacity) then he left and took their mule left in the passageway.
Not sure if Crumble went with or not yet - we'll see :)
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I posted this in another forum earlier but to support the idea of this as a central place for GM's to collaborate about running this AP, I'll repost here too in case it is useful or amusing to anyone else running the AP.
I played around with fleshing out a few things more than the AP provided to make things more interesting, as you do. One thing I had in mind was that I wanted to explore Gold's character a little.
As written in the AP, in room H17b in the underflume area you find the bedroom of Jana "Gold" Gildersleeves, in which the party finds "a journal explaining her side of the story of her mother’s betrayal of the town and Jana’s life in Riddleport after she and her mother were run out of Roderic’s Cove."
I wanted my party to get to know Gold a little better and have a little fun with it so I did my best to write a few excerpts from a journal that a young girl (and later teenager) might write.
Erastus 18 4708
My name is Jana, I am 9 years old, and I DO NOT WANT TO GO AWAY. Everyone in the Cove is mad at mom and the bad people she talks to from Riddleport sometimes. My mom is Jess Gildersleeves. She is the port govnor of the cove. That means she runs the whole town xcept she is always in a mood after the people from Riddleport come. She never wants to talk about them. Now the Covers are yelling at mom that she is friends with pirats and say she will be arested and so she is forcing me to pack up and run away with her at middnite. I don’t know where we are going or if I’ll ever see my friends again.
Erastus 19
I hate camping in the woods. I hate all of this. Mom says it’s just for today then we will go with friends of hers. I alredy hate them too.
Erastus 30
I hate Riddleport. I hate mom’s friends. I hate what ever mom did that make us live in this stinky town. They are polit but I see more then they think. They are mean and I think are pirats or robbers. Mom says we will be safe here cause of her friends.
Calistril 9 4711
My exile in the gods-forsaken hole continues. Mother has settled into life as normal. This IS NOT normal. This IS NOT home. I hate it here. I will never in my entire life forgive her for making us escape her troubles back home and live here with all the criminals and thugs that are her “friends”. I have spent my time getting to know them and how they work. If mother won’t leave I will. As soon as I can. I have learned how to get around town and make a little coin. I am saving it all so one day I can get out of this stupid goblin-crap hole forever.
Gozran 23 4713
Happy Birthday to me. I learned the name of the pirate captain who has been demanding protection from ships going to the Cove and that he’s got the cooperation of the harbor master in this scheme. I have a new plan. I’m going to find out everything I can about the corruption in the Cove and who they are conspiring with among the criminal organizations here in Riddleport. Someday I’ll make them all pay for what they have done so the Cove can be free and a good place to live again.
Perhaps I’ve been too obvious about my need to save up all the coin I can earn here. My friends have started calling me by a nickname, “Gold.” Well, fine. It’s for something I believe in, not the selfish motives so many of them earn their nicknames for. Let them think I’m as shallow and low as all the rest of them are. Someday I won’t have to be here anymore.
Desnus 2, 4717
I am writing this by candle from inside the closet which is my hiding place aboard the ship I stowed onto. I don’t even know its name, I just heard it was heading to the Cove. After the news that mother had met with a fatal accident on the docks, I grabbed my life savings, notes, and ran to find the next ship out of here. I’ll sneak out at night to get food. I lived in Riddleport long enough, and am well-enough acquainted with mother’s “friends” to know what “accidents” mean and the danger that puts me in now. I am heading home at last to live in the only town I care about. And I have the names that will ruin a few people’s lives who seek to profit at the expense of the Cove in league with Riddleport scum.
Erastus 28
Still living at the Creekside. Can’t afford a real house with the savings I have. At least I’m home, and Galeena doesn’t mind me drinking away a generous amount of her stocks (paid for of course) to celebrate my return and drown my frustrations, and doesn’t mind if I sleep it off in the storeroom sometimes. That’s a fortunate thing for me in more ways than I dreamed. Today I discovered a secret door in the wall of the cold storage room. It leads to some old complex no one knows about as far as I can tell. It’s better than any house I could buy, and gives me an idea about how I can start making a positive change here.
Galeena agreed to 15 gp per month to rent the use of her cold storage room, and—to use a phrase I learned the full meaning of in Riddleport—“no questions asked.” She thinks I’m sleeping there sometimes but I have ideas for my new secret headquarters.
I can read people. To survive where I grew up, you had to. I have walked around the docks and sawmill and around the Cove and it’s so obvious who is unhappy with their lives here, frustrated by things as they are, and are open to joining with others who want to be more empowered to rise above their circumstances, demand fairness and have the strength to deal with the people on my list when the time comes. We can meet in my new hideout.
I even thought of a name for my gang. There is an intriguing symbol carved all over the walls down here. I don’t know what it is, but it looks like this: (image of Rune of Wrath here)
The tattoo artist I paid to ink the symbol on my skin said it looked like horns and fangs. Perfect, we’ll be the “horned fangs” which if I say so myself is an awesome gang name.
Kuthona 1
Had a run-in with Corstela today. Seems she has an issue with our gang symbol. She cornered me and demanded to know what I knew about the symbol and where I’d seen it. Relax, lady, it’s just our gang symbol. You WISH you thought of something that awesome for your little study group. She kept pressing about where I saw it, and I don’t want our hideout exposed, so I just shrugged that off and said I made it up.
I wish I could do the look she gave me before storming off back to her peacock manor.
Kuthona 4
Vancaskerkin can kiss my butt.
Kuthona 21
I’m still shaking a little. I was chilling in the cold room when the secret door opened. None of the Fangs were there so that was a shock to start with. What climbed out of the doorway, though, was something from a nightmare. It had a skull-like face, red eyes, and... the mouth... gods, the mouth. It was more of a mandible, opening sideways with rows of teeth. I thought it was deciding whether I would taste good, but with the amount of alcohol and flayleaf I had going at the time, I figured it was possibly just a bad trip starting up. Then it saw my new tat and the maw gaped open. It said something in a strange language I didn’t understand, and then a different one, and then spoke in Varisian, asking how a human came to wear “that rune”. I didn’t have an answer between my surprise and being drunk and high at the time, so he just opened the door into my hideout and said, “It appears this place is quiet for the night. Would you like another drink?” It led me into the nice chamber he called the “ambassador’s section” where he asked me a hundred questions about the town and the state of the world.
He kept asking about something called a “Hellstorm Flume”. When I eventually sussed that he meant the circle, he seemed really pissed off that the Flume thing had apparently been destroyed long ago. But then he got real interested in the Fangs, asking all about who was in the group, their abilities, their loyalty to me, and on and on like that. I think he may want to join up with us, but I don’t think he has The Cove’s best future in mind so I am troubled by this. He said something puzzling at the end of our chat. “I can feel the wrath simmering in you, all the wrongs done against your family. That will be a valuable asset.”
Abadius 3, 4718
Goblin balls. This is all such a mess now and it’s quickly moved out of my control. I wish now that Mozamer was a flayleaf hallucination after all. He swore that he would help teach me to be a great leader, to train up “my” gang, and lots of flattering talk. Now he’s ingratiated himself to the Fangs, telling them how he’d teach them new fighting techniques, saying how he’d make us all powerful and dangerous as his mistress Alaznist rose to her full power, with us at her side. Somewhere all of his talk to me about how he’d raise me up to be a power to crush my enemies and bend Roderic’s Cove to my will—unsettling to me because that’s more than I wanted to achieve anyway, but that’s just his way of talking—turned more and more into ME helping HIM rise to power, with me as HIS trusted lieutenant. And so I seem to no longer be in command of my own gang.
Mozamer won’t shut up about this Alaznist person who is going to take control of the world or something, and how we, the oppressed classes of the current regime will be in power to turn the tables and exact bloody revenge on everyone in our way.
This sounds just like Riddleport talk, only on an unbelievable scale. I’m spending a lot more of my time in my room now. MY room. Hah. MY room now has Mozamer living in it. I have a new room now, a much smaller one. In my own hideout.
He keeps telling me what place I’ll have in his army, how glorious it will be to give in to my hatred, blah blah blah. He’s even been inciting the Fangs to clash with the Keepers more. I hate him so very much but I can’t walk away from the Fangs when we might still be able to turn things for the better in the Cove somehow.
Desnus 9
Corstela continues to be hostile whenever she sees me. Thank the gods I learned how to disappear when someone’s looking for me. She keeps hassling me about our gang symbol. I think the Order of Resplendence is picking fights with my Fangs now or at least taunting them.
Desnus 27
The worst. We lost six Fangs last night. I’m certain Corstela is behind their murders. My investigation found out there was a midnight clash between the Fangs and an unknown group, with something shouted about us having no right to use our symbol, something Corstela has been arguing with me about for weeks and weeks. But now they’re dead, horrifically dead. The Order will play the victim, and my people will be blamed for everything, so we’re holing up in our hideout for it to blow over. Mozamer is increasing their training routines, and has been bringing in more of those flesh-glob things through the portal from his mountain fortress to spar with the Fangs. Some of them he sends (over my objections) up through the well to harass the Cove. He’s been working the Fangs into an angry frenzy to get revenge on the Keepers, who he’s telling them was behind the killing of the Fangs. Maybe they are. It would be like Corstela to use someone else to settle her scores, but I still suspect she’s behind it somehow, not the Keepers. Not that my opinions matter around here anymore.
We had a lot of fun in Roderic's Cove before moving on. My group actually didn't resolve Peacock Manor until the very end. They sent a couple of people in for a week in the middle of their time in town, who ingratiated themselves to Corstela as fellow scholars and learned a fair bit but then waited until they'd done everything else in the adventure. At that point they had a solid enough case to take to the Port Governor to get a warrant for Corstela's arrest which they managed to serve and take her into custody after a small confrontation resulting in Kantulin's demise. Alden didn't contest the arrest order for the sake of keeping the school going.
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I find it odd from a loot perspective that in Alaznist’s Vault players can "only" find the Runewarded Gauntlets, no other loot. For the most secure vault in a armoury made to supply the runelords best with suitable resources it seems lacking. Understandable Baraket was once stored here too but from a PC perspective I would find it to be underwhelming & lacking in practical immediately usable loot at the end of a dungeon delve.
My players are on their way towards this dungeon currently and I consider siphoning a part of the loot of area "E4. Barricaded Room" into the vault. For a side storeroom I find it odd how much loot is stacked in that single chest and lacking in the rest of the dungeon, probable most stuff has been taken long since by other travellers finding this location.
I plan to move the Metamagic Rod and the Diamond dust, my players are already prepared with glitterdust for any invisible enemy so I'm certain they'll find the chest. But I'd want to have the vault be more interesting that a minor artifact which will not see really much use except to suppress another artifact later.
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You could siphon loot from another area to include in the Vault. Or as I played it, the Vault other treasures were looted with Baraket. The gloves were left behind because didn't detect as magic, appearing as normal gauntlets (artifacts can be fickle like that). Allow the players to find a well hidden message in Thassalonian that suggests these gloves are more than they seem. This message was overlooked by the previous looting party. Gave my PCs a nice hook to investigate this interesting item.
You could siphon loot from another area to include in the Vault. Or as I played it, the Vault other treasures were looted with Baraket. The gloves were left behind because didn't detect as magic, appearing as normal gauntlets (artifacts can be fickle like that). Allow the players to find a well hidden message in Thassalonian that suggests these gloves are more than they seem. This message was overlooked by the previous looting party. Gave my PCs a nice hook to investigate this interesting item.
That's how I played it as well, that it had been looted previously, but the idea of adding more treasure there if you feel the party's in need of more loot at this point in the story is a good one.
You could siphon loot from another area to include in the Vault. Or as I played it, the Vault other treasures were looted with Baraket. The gloves were left behind because didn't detect as magic, appearing as normal gauntlets (artifacts can be fickle like that). Allow the players to find a well hidden message in Thassalonian that suggests these gloves are more than they seem. This message was overlooked by the previous looting party. Gave my PCs a nice hook to investigate this interesting item.
I didn't do this as I feel it completely goes against the story as it was set-up. In the end I just put the rod and diamond dust in there too.
Part of the story as set up is that Roderic due to a combination of sheer luck and skill was able to get into the vault, but due to setting off the traps he had to flee and barely made it out with his life. Narrowly avoiding death made Roderic never want to enter the vault again and made it so he only took Baraket. This is also what the Ghost of Roderic told my players, albeit a lot less coherently.
The vault being difficult to open is important to the story, I know my players well enough that they will start asking difficult questions and will start a hunt to this "mysterious 3rd party" that was able to crack this difficult vault and looted it but did not take the artefact.
"ornate set of gauntlets made from noqual covered in hundreds of softly glowing Thassilonian runes.
What genius would be able to crack this vault and loot it yet would leave the set of gauntlet behind? Unless you'd want players to be really paranoid about the gauntlets, which mine would probably be so we'd lose a lot of gametime while they try to figure out what's with the "cursed" gauntlets .
I'm starting this for my crew tomorrow and was wondering about the diplomacy check with Kynae. It says he's indifferent with a charisma bonus of +0, but then lists the check at DC 25. Indifferent is DC 15, hostile is DC 25. It has a throw-away line about befriending him first, which leads me into an expectation of role-playing, which I'll probably require (at least a little).
As it stands, our diplomat has a +7 and nobody else will be able to aid (the next best bonus is +0). Our diplomat is a bloodrager, for that matter. "Hulk smash?" "Why certainly big guy!"
Anyway, I took this one as a typo as the other two hard checks are explicit that the party won't be able to make them yet.
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I'm starting this for my crew tomorrow and was wondering about the diplomacy check with Kynae. It says he's indifferent with a charisma bonus of +0, but then lists the check at DC 25. Indifferent is DC 15, hostile is DC 25. It has a throw-away line about befriending him first, which leads me into an expectation of role-playing, which I'll probably require (at least a little).
My interpretation of this information is that Kynae is indifferent to the party, but views what he saw as secret, adding a +10 to the DC. However, by making him at least Friendly and/or convincing him there's no need to keep it a secret, the DC can be reduced by 5 or 10.
I do want him to hold out his information for a while (I'm doing a more slow-burn approach to the investigation portions), so the first time my party encounters him, his father will be present, making sure Kynae keeps his head down and doesn't draw any attention.
My guys got a 28 (after 2 aids) on this roll, and had already bought him a pastry, so I guess it didn't matter.
Is there lore or backstory I'm missing? How did Baraket end up in Alaznist's armory? The circumstances make sense - near gauntlets that could keep her ego suppressed so she could get into a vault. Even that the vault is near the 'ambassador rooms' so a 'safe' handoff of Baraket could happen.
But is there anything that describes why or how Xanderghul lost his Champion and his Alar'hai to Alaznist?
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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I'm starting to run the Underflume dungeon, and it's come up that aside from the ballroom, there doesn't seem to be any lighting mentioned in the area, despite most of the residents being human and not having darkvision. I'm going to be putting in lanterns in most occupied rooms, but it definitely was an unplanned issue when running the first battle on VTT where we do use lighting.
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I'm starting to run the Underflume dungeon, and it's come up that aside from the ballroom, there doesn't seem to be any lighting mentioned in the area, despite most of the residents being human and not having darkvision. I'm going to be putting in lanterns in most occupied rooms, but it definitely was an unplanned issue when running the first battle on VTT where we do use lighting.
I wanted to make the Underflume feel different from other locations and set up a theme of Thassilonian magic levels making it feel more modern, despite being 10,000 years old. So I declared each room was magically lit in a flattering ambient glow from the ceiling. Except the Ballroom has it's fire for ambience. I turned on daylight in my VTT for the Underflume spaces that weren't ruins (ie flooded cavern and Arcane storm). Definitely set those rooms up as dangerous too, since 'the lights don't work' is a good trope to trigger your players with.