The encounter is balanced for level 9 (at least according to the header). Since levelling up just before the final boss seemed a bit weird to me, I just tweaked it for level 8, removing two excorions, and then added one back since I had 5 players.
The fight still is nasty, especially if the skinner manages to chain someone up.
The Skinner managed to kill one party member. The fight was easier than I expected besides the one death. Excorions die pretty quickly. Their AC is fairly low for their CR. The rogue that died was a bit reckless and played up front more like a fighter. He was low on hit points and tried to go for a killing strike and failed, so The Skinner made him pay.
How did the PC actually die... did they already have Wounded 2 and got crit to death? Or did the rest of the PCs let him bleed out.
I had her actually finish off dying creatures by attacking them.
And she's a crit machine.
How did the PC actually die... did they already have Wounded 2 and got crit to death? Or did the rest of the PCs let him bleed out.
Wounded 1, then crit, then The Skinner hit him again to make sure he was dead because she was tired of people getting up and she wanted to kill one before they took her out.
Brutal. Did they pay for a Raise Dead or reroll?
Brutal. Did they pay for a Raise Dead or reroll?
They paid for a resurrect ritual. I figured in Absalom, easy to find.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Just started this book and OH BOY are we off to the races already. The PC's were given the leads to the three banks, the tannery, and the request for aid from Ziraya against the smugglers. They decide to ignore all of that to investigate the Copper Hands directly and went to their "friend" Jeremin Hoff from the House of the Planes for info. They had left on good terms with Hoff (largely because he doesn't know they're in Edgewatch), so I figured Hoff could point them towards Percen Droan's smuggling operation as a way to "distribute their new drugs" they have as part of their undercover personas.
So instead of showing up at Droan's as part of the Muckrucker raid, they show up undercover with a business offer by boat. With some good Diplomacy rolls and name dropping Hoff and Droan, they get into a meeting with Droan to talk...just in time for the sirens to start howling outside as Ziraya's raid begins. Their current plan is to "rescue" Droan from the raid as a way to gain his trust and use that to get info on the Copper Hand. Love this twist, should be a blast!
So instead of showing up at Droan's as part of the Muckrucker raid, they show up undercover with a business offer by boat. With some good Diplomacy rolls and name dropping Hoff and Droan, they get into a meeting with Droan to talk...just in time for the sirens to start howling outside as Ziraya's raid begins. Their current plan is to "rescue" Droan from the raid as a way to gain his trust and use that to get info on the Copper Hand. Love this twist, should be a blast!
Hahaha. This is the work of genius. Did you come up with it on the spot or did you have a plan in advance? Poor Ziraya.
My party is soon going to go into the catacombs and I have a question about the Dullahan encounter that I have not been able to find in the Interner.
How do you play his Nightmare mount? I do not know which of the following options is true.
- As a summon: The Dullahan has to spend one action sustaining it and the Nightmare gets two actions.
- As a mount: The Dullahan has to spend one action to command it each time he acts and they share the same multiple attack penalty.
- As an independent creature with is own initiative and three actions.
I ran it as a mount.
@Naurgul: Had to pull that one out of my butt, but it worked great! Its going to be really interesting next session as their plan is to try to "rescue" Droan by taking him away on the boat they rented and use that to gain his trust and learn about the Copper Hand. If that doesn't work out, they'll be arrested by Ziraya and be able to identify themselves as Edgewatch, then search the place for info on the Copper Hand.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
One thing I do plan on changing is setting up the Skinsaw cult a bit better. Most of the book revolves around the bank heist and dealing with the Copper Hand, then does an abrupt key change to the murder cult.
I think what I'll do is flesh out the Dicaspiron's plan a bit more. I like the idea of Father Skinsaw teaching his followers to use the way a person dies to divine the future (as opposed to reading the stars, the flight patterns of birds, tea leaves, etc.). They chart out each stab, cut, throttling, etc. on the body and read it like omens. So Dicaspiron's end-game is to re-shape the world via murder and use this grim omen reading as a way to do it, but on a larger scale. One Skinsaw killer can glean a few secrets, but what if you had an entire city of people committing murder? What if you could fill entire populations with murderous intent? Think of the revelations one could get by killing Absalom!
Dicaspiron is using Norgorberite rituals to fill the minds of others with a drive to kill (similar to the PF1 spell Murderous Command) and use that to put her divination into hyper-drive. To test it out, she's doing smaller versions of the ritual that only target a few people at a time (I'm choosing Gilel, Kolo when confronted about the Penny & Sphinx robbery, Franzic from Droan's gang, and one of the NPC's in Edgewatch itself). All of them have been having dreams of committing acts of extreme violence and have been on edge for several days as the ritual fills them with a bloodlust they've never known.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
One thing I do plan on changing is setting up the Skinsaw cult a bit better. Most of the book revolves around the bank heist and dealing with the Copper Hand, then does an abrupt key change to the murder cult.
I think what I'll do is flesh out the Dicaspiron's plan a bit more. I like the idea of Father Skinsaw teaching his followers to use the way a person dies to divine the future (as opposed to reading the stars, the flight patterns of birds, tea leaves, etc.). They chart out each stab, cut, throttling, etc. on the body and read it like omens. So Dicaspiron's end-game is to re-shape the world via murder and use this grim omen reading as a way to do it, but on a larger scale. One Skinsaw killer can glean a few secrets, but what if you had an entire city of people committing murder? What if you could fill entire populations with murderous intent? Think of the revelations one could get by killing Absalom!
Dicaspiron is using Norgorberite rituals to fill the minds of others with a drive to kill (similar to the PF1 spell Murderous Command) and use that to put her divination into hyper-drive. To test it out, she's doing smaller versions of the ritual that only target a few people at a time (I'm choosing Gilel, Kolo when confronted about the Penny & Sphinx robbery, Franzic from Droan's gang, and one of the NPC's in Edgewatch itself). All of them have been having dreams of committing acts of extreme violence and have been on edge for several days as the ritual fills them with a bloodlust they've never known.
I modified the blackfinger blight poison to being a poison that gives the permanent confused condition on various stages ( i can post details here again if you want) instead.
Basically I wanted it to be a bit like Valentine's cell phones in kingsmen, with a bit of zombie put in there.
That might tie into the overall plot well for your twist?
@AlastarOG: oh yeah, that'd be great! Thank you very much.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Saving Throw DC 32 Fortitude; Onset 1 round; Maximum Duration 6 rounds; Stage 1 confused 1 round (1 round); Stage 2 confused 1 round, gain a +1 status bonus to attack and damage, -1 status to AC (1 round); Stage 3: Permanently confused.
Neutralise poison or similar effects can counteract the permanent confusing.
Virulent poison.
Okay just completed prepping up the Catacombs map in Roll20 and OH BOY is that a HUGE map. Had to break the entire dungeon into 5 chunks because Roll20 couldn't handle the entire image file. I'm almost afraid to try Dynamic Lighting with it lol.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
What's Roll20's issue?
Unmanageably massive technical debt.
#ohsnap
@narchy: I used a fan-made recreation with more room details and such that made the file too large to upload into Roll20.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 8
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I was going to say, the pre-built map of the catacombs I got from the Roll20 Book 2 package seemed to work fine, even with the dynamic lighting turned on.
(Though, I am for sure switching to Foundry after I'm done with this AP, for a host of reasons).
Okay, so my game has gone off the rails in a spectacularly fun way! The party decided to ignore ALL of the leads presented at the start of the book and just go talk to Jeremin Hoff at the House of the Planes for info on the Copper Hand (undercover, they're pretending to be drug dealers who need the Copper Hand for distribution).
Hoff points them towards Percen Droan's smuggling operation where they get into a meeting with Droan when suddenly the Muckruckers and Ziraya start their raid! The PC's convince Droan and Franzic to escape with them via boat, which they do successfully. Droan and Franzic now trust the party and introduce them to Aarushi, one of the Copper Hands.
Aarushi tells the PC's a few details about the bank robbery (namely that they're targeting the Penny & Sphinx Trust) but also clues them into the Skinner coercing the Copper Hands into the bank heist. The PC's tell Aarushi that they'll help "take care of" the Skinner in exchange for help distributing the drugs (that they don't have and are not real).
The party plans on asking Cass Hamish and the Garrote Sisterhood for help taking out the Skinner's cult (they left Cass on good terms as well). I think I'll have Cass hesitant to go after the Skinner, but willing to tell the PC's that the Skinner is located in the Ascendant Court. The PC's are gonna have some REAL trouble if they try to go to the Catacombs under-leveled, as they plan on taking out the Skinner before the bank robbery is necessary (hoping this will make the Copper Hand stop the robbery entirely).
I've got some GM-prep to do lol...
I'm finding the Copperhand hideout seems pretty small the enemies that are in the building, C9 where's there two weretigers(large) and two thieves supposed to fit in the room?
Or is it better to make the map bigger than what has been set out in the book?
Weretigers are variably sized when not in their tiger forms, which I think should fit that room assuming they are human/Medium.
Ahhh ok I totally missed that, thank you.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
How do the players figure out the heist in part 2 if Droan burns the journal as indicated if they fail to sneak into the raid?
Just curious as that seems to be a hard dead end that can be activated fairly easily.
There's a few clues:
- First, out of all the bank investigations, the Penny & Sphinx is the only one for which you can discover some evidence that isn't fully resolved: the ladder, the test robbery, the disappeared goblin, Kolo's demotion etc. All the stuff you find in other banks is neatly explained: Orvington's vandalism you can track down the culprit easily and there's nothing else, Stonesworn it's just the ether spiders making the noises and it's also the most protected, Chadraxa is too small and unimportant.
- Second, if the PCs help Chadraxa she tells them that it's either Betram's bank (Penny & Sphinx) or Rohka's (Stonesworn) adding that she thinks it's probably the former because "trying to rob that dwarf is an even stupider idea than working for the Skinsaws".
But you don't need to stop there. This part of the story is very ripe for inserting your own clues and events. In my case, I turned the whole thing into an elaborate investigation.
Not only that, but my players completely botched the smugglers' lair mission. As a consequence, after barely escaping, they asked Ziraya to monitor the location while they healed. She tracked down Franzic (the gang accountant) to the House of Planes. They laid a trap waiting for him to re-emerge from the only entrance. When he did, they chased him down (I used the chase subsystem from the GMG). They interrogated him and he led them to one of Droan's safehouses. There they got lucky and charmed him so he spilled the beans, giving them a few more clues about the plan (but still not the exact target bank).
After that there were more clues, they found the warehouse where the Copper Hand kept the float, they had a stake-out there etc etc
All in all I felt it was a pretty rewarding experience, running around for clues, never being 100% sure which bank would be the target, using logic and instinct to figure out the odds for each bank. Fun stuff.
So my group decided to investigate the Copper Hand directly and as able to learn about their connection to the Skinner & Skinsaw Cult BEFORE the bank robbery even happened. Seeing the Skinsaws as the bigger threat, they decided to hunt down the cult directly. I concocted a few investigation sessions (including the noble sorcerer's ancestors being part of the Fellowship of Prospectus), a doppelganger, some drama at the Iomedaen church, and an Abandoned Zealot of Aroden to spar with before they entered the Catacombs.
Problem is, they're still a level under where the book "wants" them to be. I'm doing milestone leveling, but they're still level 6. My plan is to give them a level up after they clear out some rooms in the Catacombs, but I'm not sure when that should be. The adventure expects them to hit level 9 around the time they fight the Skinner, but that means I need to get them up to 7, 8, and most of the way to 9 within the 35 rooms of the catacombs. I could just have them level up after 17 rooms, but there's no guarantee they go through enough rooms to justify that.
What suggestions do folks have? They completely sidestepped Cap. Runewulf and the Graycloaks, so they have no idea there are other guards down there. Maybe make Frefferth a recurring threat that NEEDS to be put down before progress can be made? Maybe Tyrroicese in the Eldridtch Tomb needs to be taken down before they can go further? We just got a mastermind-rogue in the party, so an Aroden-themed or Ascendant Pantheon theme could be good too.
Thoughts? Suggestions?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Problem is, they're still a level under where the book "wants" them to be. I'm doing milestone leveling, but they're still level 6. My plan is to give them a level up after they clear out some rooms in the Catacombs, but I'm not sure when that should be.
What about the bank robbery? Are they just gonna let it happen? Perhaps stopping the robbery is a good chance to give them that 7th level. Otherwise, the first few rooms of the catacombs are moderate or low encounters for 7th level characters, which means they'll be either moderate or severe for 6th level. Just give them a level up right after they survive a tough fight around there I say. Don't delay it too much unless you want to make this place more of a challenge than it already is.
They completely sidestepped Cap. Runewulf and the Graycloaks, so they have no idea there are other guards down there.
How did that happen btw? The Graycloaks are supposed to be guarding entrances to the catacombs for thieves/cultists or the return of their fellow guards. Perhaps your PCs can have a chance meeting with some of them guarding entrances if they ever decide to go back to the surface to rest and resupply.
@Naurgul: Because the adventure so far with my group has been going in this kind of direction, they met up with one of the Copper Hands while undercover (I picked Aarushi, the lady watching the hideout near the front door). She told them the Skinner and Skinsaw cult had coerced the Copper Hand into doing the bank robbery (leaving out the CH's willful involvement) and implied if the PC's stop the Skinner the CH won't need to rob the bank anymore. None of them got high enough on their Perception to see through her story or notice the logical inconsistencies (they've already prepared, the robbery isn't for a couple days, if the Skinsaw cult is taken out they still have a REALLY good chance of pulling off the bank robbery so why would they stop?, etc.)
Its also still a few days before the bank robbery is scheduled to happen, so the party figures they'll just pop into the Undercity and take out the murder cult, easy-peasy. Yeah...
As for skipping the Graycloaks, the PC's have focused on their undercover work as a way to investigate. They suspect other guard precincts in Absalom are crooked (not incorrect there) so they've just done all their own investigation. I had to prep a bunch of alternative ways for them to get to the Catacombs and thankfully they followed those leads.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
In that case maybe you could give them a hint they were deceived about the bank robbery not taking place and if they don't bite you could just let them in the catacombs and give them the level up at your earliest convenience as previously discussed. You can even surprise them with a shocking frontpage of the robbery when they emerge to the surface bloodied and probably not even half-way having dealt with the cult.
(Interesting how you played Aarushi as someone in the know about everything. In my game, I made everyone but the leader trio have very limited knowledge of Skinner and all that stuff. They only knew there were "others" who are providing help but are also very dangerous.)
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Does it seem odd to anyone else that Droan is apparently smuggling moonshine, of all things? Absalom would seem to have no restrictive liquor laws, AFAICT, so why would there even be a black market for alcohol?
At any rate, I'm changing it to an equivalent value in Pesh, as I'm also rewriting Droan as a former noble slaver, who's recapturing the slaves he was forced to manumit and shipping them off to Katapesh.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Does it seem odd to anyone else that Droan is apparently smuggling moonshine, of all things? Absalom would seem to have no restrictive liquor laws, AFAICT, so why would there even be a black market for alcohol?
Maybe it was smuggled to avoid paying import duties. Or maybe it's counterfeit made to look authentic when in actuality it's off-brand or bad quality.
At any rate, I'm changing it to an equivalent value in Pesh, as I'm also rewriting Droan as a former noble slaver, who's recapturing the slaves he was forced to manumit and shipping them off to Katapesh
I try to avoid the enemies being too evil so that the players have second thoughts and doubts when attacking them (yay moral dilemmas). On the other hand, one of my players is a former slave so I could probably use a plot point like that. I'm wondering where to insert it though and how.
@GreatGraySkwid: Yeah, that was underwhelming (even if it can make sense diagetically). I switched it for drugs concocted by the Blackfingers temple to try and plant that story-seed, but the PC's never looked at what as inside the smuggling boxes.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
At any rate, I'm changing it to an equivalent value in Pesh, as I'm also rewriting Droan as a former noble slaver, who's recapturing the slaves he was forced to manumit and shipping them off to KatapeshI try to avoid the enemies being too evil so that the players have second thoughts and doubts when attacking them (yay moral dilemmas). On the other hand, one of my players is a former slave so I could probably use a plot point like that. I'm wondering where to insert it though and how.
I think that's a valid concern, but I'm also stealing some plot elements from the Playtest adventure "Rose Street Revenge" as a pretext to get them to do a favor for Kassi Aziril.
Kassi had secretly traveled to Absalom under the cover of the Festival to meet with Wennel and other contacts, but when she got to Wennel's clinic she found it ransacked. She also found his hidden document cache and a slip of paper with a series of names on it, the first of which was Esker's missing friend with his residence listed as her camp, so she sought her out. The Agents had made a good impression on her, previously, so she convinced Kassi they could bring them in.
The Agents quickly note that Wennel's contact book has an extra column of what appears to be a surname unrelated to the individuals, often repeated. All the missing people on the slip of paper have the same extra column value: "Droan," but this means nothing to them, Esker, or Kassi. They go to investigate the clinic, near the border of the Puddles and Westgate districts, and there they encounter Ziraya Al-Shurati, who had been the one who gave Wennel the list of missing former slaves after one of the other missing slaves associates had mentioned Wennel as someone else the victim knew. She hadn't previously figured out the Droan connection, but immediately recognizes the name and the Smuggler operation commences mostly as written.
I'm rather proud of how all that hangs together; anyone else who wants to use it is welcome to!
I think that's a valid concern, but I'm also stealing some plot elements from the Playtest adventure "Rose Street Revenge" as a pretext to get them to do a favor for Kassi Aziril.
Haha, you had a player ask for access to that feat too? Same thing happened to me, except the way I connected it was quite different. In my version Kassi is visiting Absalom after being invited to give a lecture at the Noxious Resort (see book 3 of the AP). When she realised she was being deceived and she was expected to lecture in a religious location, she was furious and refused to and left. My players will find the falsely advertised lecture and then I assume they will track her down try to calm her down and help her set up a new location for a lecture independent of any religious institution.
I figured it out. They'll get a level if they put Frefferth the dullahan to rest or defeat him 2 times (I'm having him rejuvenate in 1d4 hours instead of days and putting the Chain of the Stilled Spirit in D17 with the otyughs). They can also gain a level by defeating the the Tyrroicese (definitely a big achievement). If they don't do either, they can get a level by finding the Greycloaks and/or slaying enough monsters.
Ugh. One of my players saw the "Ethersight Ring" in Archive of Nethys, and is annoyed he never found it. I've been scouring the adventure and I can't find it in there! Where was this treasure?
|
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 8
|
Ugh. One of my players saw the "Ethersight Ring" in Archive of Nethys, and is annoyed he never found it. I've been scouring the adventure and I can't find it in there! Where was this treasure?
I don’t think it’s in the adventure anywhere. Not everything in the toolbox shows up as treasure. Frex, the swarmeater’s clasp doesn’t show up either.
| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
I wrote out Wrent's confession for my players as a side-story in between sessions. It sums up book 2, and gives an idea of book 3. I embellished it some (the bank robbery was meant to get Wrent some gold so that she could break away from the Twilight Four, but I felt the reasoning to be suspicious. And the book never states how she got either gang to work for her.)
Find it here.
I wrote out Wrent's confession for my players as a side-story in between sessions. It sums up book 2, and gives an idea of book 3. I embellished it some (the bank robbery was meant to get Wrent some gold so that she could break away from the Twilight Four, but I felt the reasoning to be suspicious. And the book never states how she got either gang to work for her.)
This is great, but you spelled Norgorber two different ways...neither of them correct.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I wrote out Wrent's confession for my players as a side-story in between sessions. It sums up book 2, and gives an idea of book 3. I embellished it some (the bank robbery was meant to get Wrent some gold so that she could break away from the Twilight Four, but I felt the reasoning to be suspicious. And the book never states how she got either gang to work for her.)This is great, but you spelled Norgorber two different ways...neither of them correct.
Darn. What's the point of having players if they can't catch your mistakes!
Thanks for letting me know. I'll fix it after work today.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Keeping the spelling of his name ambiguous seems very on-brand for Norgyborgy.
Keeping the spelling of his name ambiguous seems very on-brand for Norgyborgy.
Valid!
Designer
|
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Ugh. One of my players saw the "Ethersight Ring" in Archive of Nethys, and is annoyed he never found it. I've been scouring the adventure and I can't find it in there! Where was this treasure?
If you're hoping for a prompt on where to put those, what I'd had in my original turnover was that Rohka Stonesworn gives the PCs her ethersight ring so that they can deal with the ether spiders in her vault and then lets them keep it as payment.
Wrent Dicaspiron was originally wearing the swarmeater's clasp.
So I don't want to undermine the developer's choices, but as a purely "what would the author do" kind of statement, that's where I put those for my players when I ran the adventure.
Wait a second, I didn't realise all those extras were meant to be part of the main path. I thought they were there in case players get off the rails and the GM improvises or preps their own stuff that is adjacent but quite separate to the adventure presented in the book.
Now I'm thinking of all the missed opportunities to insert all this stuff!
| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
For a variety of a reasons, I decided to flesh out the Radiant Parade's floats.
(Apologies in advance for the formatting; local notes are richer.)
I expect my party will stand guard at the PS&T, and BOLO for greasepaint/clowns, or anything that might get them over the fence.
It started off by wanting to provide some drama/tension with some red-herring floats. Taking clues from many other posters here and on reddit, I also wanted to incorporate some entities/foreshadowing from the AP.
something with trampolines
- a leading sign announces the Lucky Nimbus Casino
- (three performers dressed as) Jerbo the Genie do loops around the base of the float, waving to the crowd, tossing souvenir tokens
- a persistent nimbus surrounds the Jerbos, and lightly overflows the high sides of the float
- lithe, lightly-costumed performers leap between two shrouded, unseen trampolines at the front and rear of the float
- [Perception 10] the performers are in jumpsuits, no paint
- "soaring well over the height of the iron fence"
- tall posts jut from the fore and aft, as well, with platforms for performers
- a trailing sign announces "the Lucky Nimbus Casino presents the Floating Clouds Gala", in a couple of week's time
- as the float gets to the corner and pauses, a performer leaps exceptionally high into the air, then disappears, as fireworks spew forth from where they were, and "Jackpot!" rings out loudly
- [Perception 10] the effect is magical
- [Perception 15] the other performers visibly make room for the disappeared performer to appear
- [Perception 20] you can see the effect of the impact of the performer on the tower
Coins Fire Brigade Unit 5
- large ladders
- fire company showing off
- [Perception 10] a collection of stocky men and women in heavy coats
- [Perception 15] ash/coal black face-"paint"
- FIXME
a pair of floats, someone shooting out of a canon into a net
- what's in the middle?
- what's the float advertising?
- [Perception 10] ???
- FIXME
- the real deal
- large sails emblazoned with "The Marvelous Mizzen-Mast", the swaying masts of a pirate ship lurch down the road
- masts, rigging, sails
- masts are just a bit taller than the fence … 15' fence, 20' masts
- [GM] but the operative mast will extend 10'
- [Perception 15] Large clown in the crow's nest
- [Perception 20] grease-painted
- [Perception 25] It's a Skinstitch!
Again, as per others, wanted to include the Irorium and the upcoming Blood City Games…
- Foreign Quarter native son … Alistar with Arms!
- The Taldan Terminator … Vez!
- Last year's brutal champion … Oggvurm the Merciless!
- [other attractions as per text]
- single float with 3 creatures
- Creatures such as a two-headed rukh from Osirion, a miniature barometz raised by druids in Kyonin, and a particularly ornery peluda from the River Kingdoms are featured on the bill
And also in fitting with the text of the AP…
- Minkai Float ("shipped fully intact"): newly-crowned Emperess, Ameiko Amatatsu
- Linnorm Lands
- Cheliax
- Taldane
- Osirion
- Vudra
- Mwangi Expanse
Though I'm at a loss for exactly what to do here. :/
Then it came to some "filler" floats. I figure the Parade has order-of-175 floats, takes about 3 hours, and has a ~12mi route in order to hit all the districts/quarters.
I thought it'd be fun to have a football club for each quarter represent itself…
- Ascendant Court FC - The Ascended
- Coins FC - The Traders
- Docks FC - The Sea Dogs
- Eastgate FC - The Sentinels
- Foreign Quarter FC - The Wolfpack
- Ivy District FC- The Lions
- Petals District FC - The Mysteries
- Precipice Quarter FC - The Phoenix
- Puddles FC - The Raiders
- Westgate FC - The Bears
- Wise Quarter FC - The Dragons
And more fitting with the Radiant Festival, why wouldn't the Parade include some of Absalom's most notable entities…
Starstone Cathedral
- an impressive float that uses means both magic and mundane to construct an impressive replica of the Starstone Cathedral
- obvious illusion of a sort of infinite crevasse around an island of land
- basic column-fronted buildings, with people smiling and waving to the crowd, throwing favors
- in the center, a tall spire
- it takes up most of a city block
- you're surprised it can even fit around the corners
- [it gets stuck? tension, suspense?]
Norgorber (Noxious Retort tie-in)
- large sculpture of a mortal and pestle, surrounded by (fake) bubbling and boiling glassware
- a gray mist or smoke overflows the base of the float, dissipating a few feet away, like dry ice or a fog machine
- it's quite impressive
- a sign trails advertising the Noxious Retort in the coming weeks.
Pharasma (PC tie-in)
Iomedae (PC tie-in)
- recruitment drive
- skimpy-armored women
And finally, what up-and-coming Absalomian business would not want to use the parade as an opportunity to advertise and preen about their success; some random filler float/business ideas…
https://2e.aonprd.com/MonsterFamilies.aspx?ID=197
Cartographers
- Marcus' Maps and Surveying
- Roberto's Books! Books! Books!
Cobblers
- Queck's Cobblers
- it's simple frame affixed to a bicycle, in the rough shape of a … boot?
- it's pathetic, but it's earnest
Cooks and Bakers
- Mona's Pâtisserie
Glassblowers
- Zin's Fantastic Glassware
Herbalists
- The Overflowing Basket
Jewelers and gem cutters
- Captured Starlight
Locksmiths
- Securitas
Magecrafters
- Temera's Magical Services
Painters and sign makers
- Signs! Signs! Signs!
Physicians and apothecaries
- Apothecuriosities
Potion brewers
- What Ale's You - Brewery and Brewery
Potters
- Selinanian's Housewares
Shipwrights and Sailmakers
- The Marvelous Mizzen-Mast
- Unfurrled Sails
- Otari Lumberyard
Skinners and tanners
- Groton's Fishmarket (Dock 34)
- Steve the Fishmonger (Dock 32)
Weaponsmiths
- Brun'n'Graad Masterwork Weaponry
- Finster's Fine Armourments
Wandcrafters
Weavers
Woodcarvers and coopers
- Delora's Tack and Supply
- Arnaud's Cooperage
Wow! That's so many! In my case I only prepared description for a few floats:
- Siege engine with Karnas statue on top.
- Cayden Cailean looking like he's drinking a neverending mug of beer, a lot of which is running down his chin like a waterfall (the moving parts are all illusion magic).
- Iomedae made of clockwork with raising shield action.
- Aroden splitting the sea and raising the starstone (normally it would actually show the starstone being raised but due to the Coper Hand stealing the mechanism it's static).
- Oggvurm on a chariot posing with his axe with a sign above him that reads "Oggvurm: Blood City Games Champion"
- Keleshian float with dancers in genie costumes exhaling smoke clouds in exquisite shapes and small fireworks, has a sign that reads "The Lucky Nimbus"
- The pirate ship (the Copper Hand float)