Scaling Experiment Report: Running an unadjusted ”Rose Street Revenge” with only two lvl 3 PCs.


Pathfinder Society Scenario Feedback


Due to various logistical issues, we were left with just two players in our play-test group, which temporarily halted our progress in Doomsday Dawn for several weeks. Our GM, seeing our disappointment, suggested a little experiment: Running an unadjusted level one four-player adventure with two level three characters, something he felt was compatible with the adjustment options in the Bestiary. This met with our approval, and he picked "Rose Street Revenge" for this.

What our GM changed was the background and location. He has been running a series of campaigns in the world of Greyhawk with a common and interconnected history. Thus, the Pathfinder Society in his world was founded by one of the characters during Rise of the Runelords in the image of the guilds in the Fairy Tail manga/anime, and the city chosen for the adventure, Kro Terlep, was one freed from the Scarlet Brotherhood slavers by one of the pirate fleets from Skull & Shackles. Also, gods and religions were switched to Greyhawk equivalents.

The two characters were:

Arami, lvl 3 elf maestro bard.
Str 12, Dex 16, Con 10, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 18.
Trained in Acrobatics, Athletics, Deception, Diplomacy, Intimidation, Entertainment Lore , Occultism, Society, Stealth. Expert in Performance and Perception.
Ancestral Feat: Nimble.
General Feat: Fleet.
Class Feats: Lingering Composition, Versatile Performance.
Skill Feats: Fascinating Performance, Virtuosic Performer (Dance).
Cantrips: Inspire Courage, Detect Magic, Light, Message, Telekinetic Projectile
Spells: Charm, Sleep, Soothe, Blur, Calm Emotion.
Equipment: Leather Armor, Expert Whip, Rapier, Flute, Greater Darkvision Elixir, 2x Minor Healing Potion, Oil of Potency, 2.20 gp reserve cash.

Keyt, lvl 3 half-elf rogue.
Str 10, Dex 18, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 14.
Trained in Acrobatics, Crafting, Diplomacy, Intimidation, Pathfinders Lore, Underworld Lore, Medicine, Performance, Society, Stealth, Thievery. Expert in Athletics, Deception, and Perception.
Ancestral Feat: Half-Elf.
General Feat: Fleet.
Class Feats: Nimble Dodge, Quick Draw.
Skill Feats: Additional Lore (Underworld), Cat Fall, Assurance (Athletics), Assurance(Deception).
Equipment: Studded Leather Armor, Short Sword, Dagger, Hand Crossbow + bolts, Thieves Tools, Replacement Picks, 2 x Minor Healing Potion, Darkvision Elixir, Bottled Lightning, Antidote, Caltrops, Silk Rope. ??? reserve cash.

--- First session ---

So, one by one, our two heroines sauntered into the local guild house to see if there was something interesting on the mission note-board, and they found three missions of a suitable difficulty level, if they did them together:
* Locate a missing pathfinder.
* Improve the diplomatic relations with the sewer Kobolds.
* Investigate the murder of a local cook.
Together, they found the missing pathfinder to be the most urgent mission, so they picked that note and went to the local venture captain, Ambrus Valsin, with it.

Valsin told us that the missing person was an elf alchemist that had been working as a clerk for the guild, and suggested that Arami and Keyt would start by investigating the Bloody Barbers, a local street gang. He warned them that while they could put some pressure on the Barbers, they should *not* start a gang war.

(OOC Discussion: Keyt had an unassigned Additional Lore, and wanted to have "Detective Lore". After some discussion with the GM we settled on "Underworld Lore", included in the stats above.)

To start the investigation off, the GM rolled secret Society rolls for us, and told us that we already knew that the Bloody Barbers indeed used barbershops as covers, especially close to a part of the city called "The Coins". More rolls told us that they often acted as loansharks.

Arami and Kent went off to The Coins and started asking around. 2 secret Gather information rolls revealed that the Bloody Barbers was the more known of two known crime gangs, the other being the more secret Smoke Knights, and the boss of the Bloody Barbers had been more paranoid lately. It also lead Arami and Keyt to the Smiling Cut, a barbershop just north of the docks.

Since Kro Terlep suffered a hot tropical climate, the barbershop proved to be little more that a shading roof, and it was very easy to see the inside. Being near the closing time, the barbershop was rather empty, with a big man with big hair as the only customer, and a female barber and a youth sweeping the floor as the only staff.

The two heroines entered the shop as prospective customers, Keyt to trim the already immaculate edges of her page haircut and Arami to buy some styling wax for her spiky hair. As Keyt got her hair cut, she tried to look around, while Arami tried to chat up the recalcitrant youth. To warm him up, she did a little improvised dance with his broom, sweeping the floor for him. Finally he revealed that he could tell her something, but only if they waited until after the shop closed - easy since it was almost closing time already.

Seeing that Arami only wanted to buy some hair wax, and no more customers awaited, the barber declared the store closed, and after the aid had done some more cleaning up, he asked Keyt and Arami to follow him out the back.

As they left, the boy started to whistle a false melody. Keyt immediately suspected something is up and drew her hand crossbow, which triggered a fight with the four gangers that were hiding in the alley behind the barbershop. Since Keyt tried to draw it sneakily, she got to roll Deception for initiative, and since she suspected the ambush, the gangers had to roll perception.

Initiatives:

Gangers, Perception: 24
Arami, Perception: 18
Keyt, Deception: 13

* Round 1:

Ganger 1 threw a dagger at Arami and missed.

Ganger 2 shot Arami with a sling. 19 to hit, 5 damage.

Ganger 3 missed Keyt with his sling.

Ganger 4 stepped, stabbed Keyt, and stepped away: 5 damage.

Arami started with Inspire Courage, moved to provide flank on Ganger 4, and drew her whip.

Keyt stepped up to Ganger 4, did a Quick Draw with her short sword and attacked the outflanked ganger: 16 damage, killed. She then shot Ganger 3 for 6 damage with her hand crossbow.

* Round 2:

Ganger 3: moved up to Keyt, drew a dagger and stabbed her for 2 damage.

Ganger 2: moved into outflank versus Keyt, and stabbed for another 2 damage, and missed with his final stab. The outflanking attack was not a backstab, since Keyt had Deny Advantage.

Ganger 2: also moved into outflank, and missed two stabs in a row.

Arami: Inspire Courage again, then she tried to trip the outflanked ganger 3 with her whip. She was off by one and missed, since outflank does not give combat maneuvers any bonus - something we all found very odd. Instead she finished by intimidating Ganger 2, who became Frightened 1.

Keyt started with backstabbing the outflanked Ganger 3 with a crit. 25 damage! The ganger was much more than dead. Then she tripped Ganger 1, and with a 15 from Assurance (Expert Athletics) it was an automatic success - no roll needed. She then jumped over the prone Ganger 1 to outflank him.

* Round 3:

Ganger 2 had enough and ran off.

Ganger 1, prone and outflanked, surrendered. (Although he technically could have run off the nearby map edge if he had tried)

Fight over.

Arami and Keyt interrogated the prisoner, who was very eager to talk. Apparently the Barbers thought there was a serial killer out to get them, as one of the victim had been a member called Renma. The odd thing about Renma was that he had joined after the Barbers had been hired to kill one of Renma's friends, a half-elf cleric named Wennel.

They double-checked the timeline. Yes, first Wennel had been killed by the Barbers, then Renma had joined, and finally Renma had been killed. And, no, this ganger did *not* know who had hired the Barbers to kill Wennel.

At this moment, Arami and Keyt looked at the two well and truly dead bodies, and remembered the venture captains words that they were *not* to start a gang war with the Barbers. Whoops. However, their prisoner was very quick to assure them that he would tell his bosses that it "had all been a minor misunderstanding".

As the day was over and Arami had used none of her spells, it was easy to cure all damage suffered.

Day 2.

Time to look into the murdered cook. Ambrus Vaslin, the venture captain, sent Arami and Keyt off to the Puddles to meet a local city guard, named Ziraya al-Shurati. Well, in that part of the city the guard were more of a scraped-together neighbourhood watch, called the Muckrakers.

Arami and Keyt found Ziraya trying to drive out a swarm of rats from a hovel. She was using an animated tattoo of a snarling dog to scare the rats, which impressed Keyt so much that she joined the rat killing with enthusiasm. Impressed by this fervor, Ziraya decided to trust Arami and Keyt, and tells them about Dahlia, a friend of the cook who was missing and whom Dahlia presumed to be murdered.

While they were killing of the last rats, Ziraya told about vermin coming up from the sewers in great masses lately. Keyt and Arami wondered among them selves if this could have something to do with the Kobold mission. Was some kind of monster threatening them and scaring up the rats?

Ziraya showed the way to the Frog's Tongue, a tavern that is half-sunken into the mud, and with the first floor turned into a frog pond. This was where Dahlia worked.

Dahlia was happy that someone at last was adressing her concerns, and told them about Justerian, a trainee cook who had been a slave. He was not a member of any churches or societies, and he lived alone in an old mansion - "not a good place". Dahlia did not dare to go there, but she suspected that Justerian was a victim of the serial killer.

Using Dahlia's directions, Arami and Keyt found the old abandoned mansion. The first floor was under water, so they decided to swim to the nearest wall and climb up to the second floor window there. GM decided the climb to be a high level 0 roll, i.e. DC 12. No problem.

Inside the window was a big hall, where there were traces of a big fight, with blood traces leading up a stairway to the attic. Up in the attic, Arami and Keyt found the dead body of a man that apparently had been severely clawed, and then bled to death. This had to be the missing Justerian.

Back down to the hallway where the fight had taken place. There they found a club with stuck tufts of hair, hair still attached to ripped-off pieces of rotting flesh - this had to be traces of something undead.

They also found an amulet with a strange rune that they identified as the Rune of Pursuit. After some debate they came to the conclusion that the rune was a lesser-known holy symbol of Triterion, one of Greyhawk's anti-slavery gods.

They also noticed some strange insects hovering around, which lead to a brief and fruitless search for invisible undead monsters in the room.

The room taken care off they crossed over the hallway to what appears to be the master bedroom. While peering into it, but not entering, Keyt and Arami got attacked by an ooze. They noticed that the floor was covered in acid, and a swarm of bats was hanging from the rafters.

Initiatives:
Bats, perception: 19.
Keyt, perception: 17.
Arami, perception: 13.
Ooze, perception: 9.

(OOC: Keyt asked if Oozes are affected by caltrops. After some confusion we decided to postpone the discussion for later.)

Bats had first initiative, but as they had not been scared by anyone entering the room or fighting, they did nothing.

Keyt moved along the corridor, away from the bedroom, hid and then sneaked.

Arami did the same.

And for the ooze, out of sight is out of mind, especially as it did not have any mind. Fight ended.

Keyt moved back a bit towards the bedroom, and attacked the rotten floor boards to make a simple improvised pit trap with the found pieces of undead flesh as bait. She rolled thievery for how good trap it became: 23.

However, working on the floor boards triggered the ooze's tremorsense, so a new fight started.

Initiatives:
Arami, perception: 20.
Keyt, perception: 19.
Bats, perception: 12.
Ooze, perception: 8.

* Round 1:

Arami started Inspire Courage, then managed Acrobatics to move partway down stairs towards the sunken bottom floor.

Keyt drew a dagger and threw at the ooze to make it follow, then retreated down the stairs too with an Acrobatics check.

The bat swarm, finally roused by the commotion, moved out into the corridor.

The ooze moved towards the trap, and Keyt got to roll a Deception for it to fall for it. Deception 23, which was a critical success versus the ooze - just what the GM had required. The ooze fell through the hallway floor, down to the submerged floor below.

* Round 2:

Arami cast Calm Emotions on the bats' area. The swarm failed the save, 12 vs a DC of 17. She then moved to the bedroom entrance.

Keyt also moved back to the entrance to the of the bedroom without entering, rolled Perception and noticed a half-smashed chest under the remains of the bed.

The bats, now calm, returned to their roost.

The ooze moved around downstairs.

Round 3:
Arami first concentrated on keeping up the Calm Emotion, and then cast Telekinetic Projectile, using the chest as the projectile, and the wall behind her as the target.

The chest was violently thrown out of the bedroom, carrying a splash of acid with it. Keyt rolled a natural one on the reflex save. Not wanting a critical fail, she spent two hero points for a re-roll and saved. Arami rolled a regular fail and took 3 damage.

Keyt took the chest and moved to the window we entered through.

The ooze slowly crawled up the stairs towards the second floor.

Round 4:

Arami moved to the window.

Keyt climbed down. Autosuccess on the climb with Assurance (Expert Athletics).

Fight ends. Arami climbed down successfully with an Athletics roll of 14.

Inside the chest they found various items, including:
* Minor Elixir of Life
* Nectar of Purification
* A letter from Wennel (handout)

The undead flesh, the holy symbol, and the letter makes Arami and Keyt think that Wennel had come back as an undead and had gone on a murder rampage.

End of session one. Two hero points used, no Resonance used, no Death saves.

--- Second Session ---

Day 3.

With new theories about undead enemies, both Arami and Keyt went shopping. Using their reserve cash, they bought a bottle of holy water each.

Also, with kobold problems looming, an undead cleric, and fleeing vermin - could there be a church filled with undead in the sewers, doing nasty stuff?

Well, time for a briefing from the venture captain on the third mission note. He told Arami and Keyt that the note was from Dragonspeaker Engashez, belonging to a gang of Kobolds called the Sewer Dragons. The kobolds had a deal with the local pathfinders, and that enabled them to ask for assistance. He could be found in a part of the sewers that had been turned into a trading place called the Undermarket, which being semi-official was easy to find.

The undermarket proved to be small-scale imitation of human markets, with small market stands, and even coffee shops and tea salon look-alikes. Engashez was easily found in one such establishment, and there he introduced Arami and Keyt to Fazgyn, a kobold expert on various traps.

The reason the Sewer Dragons needed assistance was unfortunately not any undead menace, but another Kobold klan, the Dragon Sharks, who had muscled in on Sewer Dragon territory. Now the Dragons were to take back what they considered theirs, and they needed a diversion. To make that successful, Fazgyn was to instruct Arami and Keyt in some typical kobold traps. Besides the instruction, Arami and Keyt also managed to negotiate that Engashez would look around for any undead shenanigans in the sewers. Keyt was especially fascinated with seeing kobold traps.

Fazgyn led Arami and Keyt deeper into the sewers, past traps that he did *not* want Keyt to look closer at.

Secret rolls: Society and Underground Lore for background info on kobolds. Amongst other things, they want to follow a strong leader, which is usually a sorcerer, and if you defeat the leader, they usually break.

Fazgyn went through a trap tutorial. This led to an intense OOC discussion on traps and snares.

After the tutorial there was an exam. First Keyt was sent down a corridor, and with a Perception roll of 17, she detected her trap, prodding it with a stick. She then disarmed it with a Thievery 16, with a +2 bonus for excellent narration included.

After Keyt it was Arami's turn. With a Perception roll of 11, she failed to detect her trap, but with a reflex save of 25 she dodged the shooting bolts without even noticing them - she just danced past the trap.

Keyt received a merit badge from Fazgyn for excellent performance - a tooth trophy. Arami did not get a badge.

It was finally time for the actual mission from Fazgyn. He indicated a corridor which Arami and Keyt were to follow, and when they found some guards from the other clan, they were to distract them. Keyt was internally wondering why they got hired and the kobolds didn't do the work themselves. She got free a Society roll for this - and rolled a 2. She had no idea.

Arami drank her Greater Darkvision potion. First resonance point spent in this adventure.

Time for exploration mode. Keyt and Arami chose to do stealth plus sneak at the same time, since they expected to reach their destination in less than 10 minutes, and thus a fatiguing tactic would not be a problem.

They moved through the sewers, and got to make perception rolls:
* Keyt, perception: 23.
* Arami, perception 14.

GM problem: On a successful roll, do you detect and identify the trap, or do you just detect it and then have to roll again to identify it? GM ruled that you both detect and identify.

Keyt tried to disarm the trap, while Arami switched to Lookout tactics. Arami rolled a 25 - critical success. Rules says that this is equivalent to two normal successes, and that traps need several successes to disarm. Problem for the GM was that the trap in the scenario did not list number of successes needed, so he ruled that the critical was enough.

Back to the "not-ten-minutes-combined-tactics". Round the corner to the right. The GM rolled secret rolls for perception + stealth. As Arami and Keyt neared the next corner they heard sounds. Another pair of secret rolls for traps - nothing. They looked around that corner, and presto: three kobolds a bit further down the corridor. Arami wanted to cast Sleep on them, but they were too spread out, and the distance was just five feet too far.

To help Arami, Keyt threw a rock that made just the right amount of noise for the kobolds to gather up closer to each other, looking in the wrong direction. That is, a Deceit roll of 20.

Arami moved around the corner and cast her Sleep. Save DC 17.
Kobold sorcerer rolls 9 - sleeping for one minute.
Kobold minion 1 rolls 13 - sleeping for one minute.
Kobold minion 2 rolls 7 - sleeping for one hour.

Arami wanted to jump over the five foot sewer channel to close to the sleeping kobolds, and a lot of confusion erupted. Afterwards we figured out that it originated from Arami referring to the Jump rules under Athletics, and the GM referring to the Leap rules under actions...

Keyt moved forward and looked for traps.

Arami did as the GM said, and jumped over the sewer channel using the Leap rules. She looked behind the sleeping kobolds, and there seemed to be a lot more kobolds further in.

Keyt moved again and looks for trap. Secret check, but the GM revealed that it was a critical success, so she could be certain there are no more traps.

As Arami now was standing next to a sleeping kobold, she decided to take its weapon. As the kobold was not consciously guarding its items, the GM ruled that a stealth roll was sufficient to do so - Thievery was not necessary. Arami rolled 24 to steal the minion's pick, Acrobatics 18 to move around him, and finally 17 to take the sorcerer's staff - all successes.

Keyt moved up to the final minion and stole his pick with a Thievery 13 roll.

Arami silently lamented that the kobolds didn't have shoelaces that could be tied together, but Keyt indicated she has a rope that could be used for a similar purpose.

Arami cut some of the rope and started to entangle the kobold sorcerer in it, but only rolled an 11 on Stealth, which meant that the sorcerer finally started to wake up, but as he was so disoriented he only got one action - and he tried to bite Arami. 21 to hit, but 0 damage on his d4-1.

Keyt hit the outflanked sorcerer with her fist: 13 damage. Unconscious. She then missed one of the sleeping minions, but hit it on her final attempt. 12 damage - and it too became unconscious.

The remaining minion rolled an 8 on perception and also started to wake up, but Arami bopped it with her fist; 6 damage, also out cold.

Fight ended.

Loot from the kobolds:
* Scroll
* Worn Hat
* 8 sp
* Waterlogged journal

The journal contained a list of names - handout time!

With the names in hand, Keyt and Arami decided to see if they could save any of the remaining ones, so they went looking for the gardener Aedo. They could find his store, but he was not at home. They did some Gather Information in the neighbourhood, and ran across a very unpleasant Half-Orc, who definitely did not want to share any information on one of his neighbours to strangers. Finally they managed to get together a list of Aedo's recent clients from more cooperative neighbours, and went to the first one. There luck did shine, because they met a halfling gardener just about to leave - no one else but Aedo.

Aedo proved to be very talkative, and informed Keyt and Arami about Wennel's old church, hidden in a sinkhole. He at first had problems taking the danger seriously but finally was persuaded (Diplomacy roll of 23) to seek shelter temporarily in the Pathfinder guild-house. He also knew where Omoak could be found, and showed the way to her grocery store.

Omoak proved easier to persuade to seek shelter (natural 20 on Diplomacy), but she wanted her husband to accompany her.

And who did that husband prove to be but the very Half-Orc that refused to help Arami and Keyt find Aedo earlier, and he was just as stubborn now. Persuation proved impossible, so finally Keyt challenged him for a match of fisticuffs to decide the matter. The half-orc agreed.

Keyt won initiative, managed to feint him (Deceit roll of 20) and finally hit him for 13 damage. Out cold, no more argument. Off to the guild-house.

End of session 2. No hero points used, one resonance used, no death saves.

--- Third Session ---

Arami and Keyt started back at the guild-house with the refugees and a location of the sinkhole where Wennel's old church was supposed to be.

Society rolls for info on the location:
* Arami, society: 15
* Keyt, society: 10
They realised that it was an old tavern, now sunk deep into a sinkhole in the Precipice part of the city, and that the gates to that part were closed during nighttime. As nighttime wasn't a good time to hunt undead anyway, they decided to wait for the next morning.

Day 4

Next morning, fresh and eager, they located the sinkhole. The weather was lousy, however, foggy and rainy. They looked for a way down:
* Keyt, perception: 17
* Arami, perception: 16
They found an old signpost with a painted rose with blood dropping from the thorns.

The GM muttered about the climbing rules in the scenario not matching the rule book.

Keyt easily climbed down using Assurance (Expert Athletics). She then climbed back up to Arami to offer a rope, but Arami stubbornly refused to use it.

What Arami rolled was:
* Athletics 7 - fail but not a fall
* Athletics 6 - fail but not a fall
* Athletics 7 - fail but not a fall
* Athletics 18 - finally success, and both arrived down at the bottom.

Thick fog outside the house at the bottom of the sinkhole. Secret Perception rolls were made, and Keyt discovered a small mud sinkhole just outside the door. She covered it with some of the loose planks that had fallen off from the house.

Arami and Keyt entered the house using the same "it's not fatiguing because we are not doing it for ten minutes" exploration tactics as above, combining moving + sneaking + searching.

First room was the pantry, and in a corner they saw a fresh new chest. It so obviously looked like bait, but Keyt could not resist it anyway.

As Keyt moved towards the chest, she looked into the main hall, while rolling a successful 24 on her Stealth. The room had been rebuilt into a macabre goth chapel. Secret religion rolls revealed it to be dedicated to Nerull, one of the nasty gods of death of Greyhawk.

Keyt moved up and took cover behind a pillar. Stealth: 24. Arami followed to the doorway. Stealth: 23.

Perception rolls:
* Arami, perception: 22.
* Keyt, perception: 22.
They saw a group of three undead, one who had remains of better clothes and equipment. Probably Wennel.

The GM allows Arami and Keyt to prepare by readying their bottles of Holy Water, before starting the fight.

Initiatives:
* Arami, stealth: 14.
* Keyt, stealth: 8.
* Wennel, perception: 14.
* Zombies, perception: 0.

Wennel went before Arami on equal initiatives, as he was a monster.

Round 1:

Wennel cast Protection on himself and raised his shield.

Arami started Inspire Courage, then moved and tried to trip Wennel using her whip. She critically succeeded, Wennel fell down and took 6 damage.

Keyt moved behind Wennel, shoved him up close to Zombie 1 for maximum holy water splash and to get outflank from Arami. Keyt ended by using that flanking to backstab Wennel. 22 to hit, 13 damage - 5 resistance = 8 damage.

Zombie 1 stepped up to Keyt, and missed with a 9.

Zombie 2 stepped up to Arami, and hit with an 18. 4 damage.

Round 2:

Wennel stood up and cast Harm on himself with a Unlife Blessing reaction, regaining 11 hp.

Arami cast Inspire Courage again, then hit Wennel with Holy Water for 4 damage, with 6 damage splash on Zombie 1. Here we realised that Wennel did not have a weakness versus holy water in his stats, which felt odd. She ended up tripping Wennel again with her whip: crit with ? damage.

Keyt backstabbed the prone Wennel, now using her fist to avoid resistance: 17 to hit, 8 damage. Second attack is 19 to hit, 12 damage, and the third is 10 to hit, miss.

Zombie 1 hit Keyt with 19 to hit, 8 damage, and grabbed her.

Zombie 2 hit Arami with 20 to hit, 7 damage, and grabbed her.

Round 3:

Wennel healed himself again, and raised his shield. He stayed prone.

Arami kept up her Inspire Courage. She then tripped zombie 1 with a 21 to hit (critical) and 1 damage, and finally tripped Zombie 2 with a 17.

Keyt backstabbed Wennel with a kick for 22 to hit, 13 damage, which destroyed him. Tried to hit Zombie 1 but missed. Finally she did a Break Grapple using her Assurance (Expert Athletics), which autosucceded.

Zombie 2 bit Arami while still prone. Natural 20, a crit for 14 damage. Arami had taken 25 of 30 hp here.

Zombie 1 stood up, and missed Keyt.

Round 4:

Arami kept up her Inspire Courage, then kicked the prone Zombie 2 with a 21 to hit (critical) for 9 damage. She then tripped Zombie 1 again with her whip.

Keyt moved into position, then shoved Zombie 1 into Zombie 2. Autosuccess with Assurance (Expert Athletics). She then smashed a bottle of holy water into Zombie 1, splashing Zombie 2 with 6 damage. This destroyed Zombie 1 while Zombie 2 kept crawling around on the floor.

Zombie 2 tried to hit Arami twice and missed.

Round 5:

Arami kicked Zombie 2 again, hit, and finally terminated it.

Fight ended.

Arami and Keyt found the missing Pathfinder alive in a hole under the floor boards.

While looking for magic items they fell into the mud trap they avoided on the way in. After a short fight against a skeleton they found what they had detected: an owlbear claw trinket. "Drawing a blank from the gumball machine" was the reaction.

End of session three. No hero points used, no resonance used, no death saves.

It felt rather unsatisfying to not find out who had ordered Wennel murdered, as that was the real bad guy of the story.


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Personal commentary:

* Trading levels for numbers this way gave us a very comfortable success rate. The game felt more stable.

* Assurance for Expert Athletics ruled when it came to combat maneuvers versus lower-level opponents - something we had theory-crafted beforehand.

* Outflank did not give a bonus for combat maneuvers, which felt wrong. On the other hand, raise shield did not give a bonus to defense versus such maneuvers.

* Also felt odd that Wennel did not have a vulnerability to holy water.

* The very different mechanics for Leap and Jump were confusing. Leap gets a bonus from speed and not athletics, while Jump gets a bonus from athletics but not speed.

* None of us two players were really interested in consumables and trinkets. What we purchased saw little use.

We will probably try to repeat this with two level 7 PCs versus a level 5 scenario.

...and what *is* the effect of caltrops on oozes? :)


Thanks for doing this. It's good to have this kind of data on file.


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As the GM in this game, I have to add that I used the "automatic 20 on Stealth rule when not visible" in the kobold encounter. The PCs had scouted out the kobolds' position and were behind a corner when initiative was rolled. This is RAW works decently as an ambush rule (almost guarantees you win initiative) but I wonder if using this on initiative is RAI.


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Starfox wrote:
As the GM in this game, I have to add that I used the "automatic 20 on Stealth rule when not visible" in the kobold encounter. The PCs had scouted out the kobolds' position and were behind a corner when initiative was rolled. This is RAW works decently as an ambush rule (almost guarantees you win initiative) but I wonder if using this on initiative is RAI.

Ah, that's where it came from!

So it is like this: "Being invisible gives you an an automatic 20 on stealth. When you surprise the opponent you get to use stealth. Thus you get an automatic 20 on initiative."?

I think I just enjoyed the result without questioning how we arrived there when we played that scene. :)


Thanks for sharing! I'm also running Rose Street Revenge for a smaller than recommended group and this has given me some ideas.


Mats Öhrman wrote:
The undead flesh, the holy symbol, and the letter makes Arami and Keyt think that Wennel had come back as an undead and had gone on a murder rampage.

My players failed the check on the flesh, but even with the holy symbol and the letter clues, they never considered the possibility that the priest of Milani was now the undead killer. They also got the clue from the Bloody Barber they questioned about the murder of the half-elf cleric, though they didn't get his name...

Did the GM provide some other key detail that helped you reach this conclusion?


jozh wrote:
Mats Öhrman wrote:
The undead flesh, the holy symbol, and the letter makes Arami and Keyt think that Wennel had come back as an undead and had gone on a murder rampage.

My players failed the check on the flesh, but even with the holy symbol and the letter clues, they never considered the possibility that the priest of Milani was now the undead killer. They also got the clue from the Bloody Barber they questioned about the murder of the half-elf cleric, though they didn't get his name...

Did the GM provide some other key detail that helped you reach this conclusion?

No, it was the clues listed above, plus the fact that Wennel had died from foul play. We also asked our GM a lot about the timeline: in which order had people died?

We did consider the idea that Wennel had faked his death, but the undead flesh provided a more probable explanation.


Right on. I wondered if maybe I accidentally withheld a something crucial that might have made the difference. Appreciate the feedback. : )


Mats Öhrman wrote:
We did consider the idea that Wennel had faked his death, but the undead flesh provided a more probable explanation.

Only in fantasy. :D


jozh wrote:
Right on. I wondered if maybe I accidentally withheld a something crucial that might have made the difference. Appreciate the feedback. : )

Writing detective scenarios seems very hard to do right. The clues are generally spread all over the scenario, so its hard for thew GM to make sure the players have the information they need. This situation HAS improved - I have run some of the investigation scenarios in early issues of Dungeon and found them very hard to GM - but its apparently still hard.

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