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Post by Munroe on Dec 13, 2012 7:18:18 GMT -5
I also just noticed:
The ghoul's ghoul fever only affects humanoids but the dread ghoul's create spawn ability affects creatures. That's a bit scarier for my party, I'd think since three of the five party members right now are native outsiders, not humanoids.
The newest character to be introduced is a CN female grimspawn (daemon-spawn tiefling) fighter. She joins the CN female sylph (basically a djinn-blooded air genasi) cleric of Pharasma, the N goddess of birth, death, fate, and prophecy and the CE male beastbrood (rakshasa-spawn tiefling) sorcerer that worships Pazuzu, who is still a CE demon with a bird theme.
The humanoids are presently the CN (who may go CG) male kitsune ninja who is probably going to worship Calistria, the CN goddess of lust, trickery, and revenge, and the N male human alchemist, who doesn't profess a faith and whose main aspiration is to build "the alchemical carriage."
The player of the female half-elf dropped out. We had a guy interested in joining last session who rolled up a level 1 ifrit (basically an efreet-blooded fire genasi) barbarian, but he got a phone call and left. This was shortly after having a confrontation with the party upon first meeting them that resulted in the beastbrood knocking him out and peeing on him. He would have been a nice tank too. he had a lot of hitpoints for level 1, being a barbarian and all. Hopefully he wasn't put out by the tiefling peeing on him, but he did pick the fight.
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Post by Munroe on Dec 15, 2012 5:04:48 GMT -5
I decided, since I never got to use Rukalla the Quiet before, that he is Rukalla the Quiet for my Pathfinder game. What can I say? I like the name. I've leveled him up to 5 and given him the Civilized ghoulishness feat and bleeding attack, as well as put all of his favored class bonuses into his hp (+1 per level). I also equipped him for the new level. He's equipped for the Slow level progression and high fantasy. (Treated as one level lower for purposes of value of gear due to slow progression, but in a high fantasy game the value is doubled.) I didn't precisely follow the gear breakdown advice, putting more into his offensive gear than his protective gear, and I threw on some cheaper non-magical stuff at the end without keeping a precise watch on the gp values, but it's within 50 gp. I did check to make sure he's not encumbered. He can carry up to 43 pounds in a light load. He's currently at 41 lbs by my calculations. (Equipped armor and clothing counts against load in Pathfinder as far as I'm aware.) Here's the text of the Civilized Ghoulishness feat from Pathfinder Chronicles: Classic Horrors Revisited: He's carrying a +1 alchemical silver dagger because right now the ghouls are working for the berbalang, who has a vendetta against the vampires. (I think Rukalla may actually be working for the vampires though, just taking advantage of the berbalang. He's no dummy.) The stakes he carries do double duty: They can be used to stake vampires, or they could be used to use the wire he has to make tripwire traps. If he takes a full-attack action and attacks with the short sword, he can still make natural attacks too. They're treated as secondary attacks so they're made at -5, and he can't make one with the claw that's holding the sword. Rukalla the Quiet CR 5 XP 1600 Variant human dread ghoul rogue 5 (Advanced Bestiary 76) CE Medium undead (augmented humanoid) Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft., scent; Perception +10 ====================================================== Defense ====================================================== AC 18, touch 13, flat-footed 15 (+3 armor, +3 Dex, +2 natural) hp 52 (5d8+30) Fort +4, Ref +7, Will +3 Defensive Abilities channel resistance +4, evasion, trap sense +1, uncanny dodge; Immune undead traits ====================================================== Offense ====================================================== Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft. Melee +1 alchemical silver short sword +7 (1d6+1/19–20) or bite +6 (1d6+1 plus disease and paralysis) and 2 claws +6 (1d6+1 plus paralysis) Ranged mwk shortbow +7 (1d6/x3) Special Attacks command ghouls, create spawn, paralysis (1d4+1 rounds, DC 14, elves are immune to this effect), sneak attack +3d6 plus 3 bleed ====================================================== Statistics ====================================================== Str 12, Dex 16, Con —, Int 16, Wis 14, Cha 18 Base Atk +3; CMB +4; CMD 17 Feats Civilized Ghoulishness (Classic Horrors Revisited 32), Combat Reflexes, Deceitful, Toughness, Weapon FinesseB Skills Acrobatics +10, Appraise +8, Bluff +12, Climb +13, Craft (traps) +10, Diplomacy +10, Disable Device +10, Disguise +10 (+20 to appear human), Escape Artist +10, Handle Animal +6, Intimidate +10, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +8, Knowledge (history) +4, Knowledge (local) +8, Knowledge (religion) +6, Linguistics +8, Perception +10, Perform (Dance) +10, Sense Motive +8, Sleight of Hand +8, Stealth +10, Survival +10, Swim +8; Racial modifiers +8 Climb, +10 Disguise to appear human, +8 Survival Languages Aklo, Common (Taldane), Goblin, Necril, Varisian SQ rogue talents (bleeding attack, finesse rogue), trapfinding +1 Combat Gear potion of inflict moderate wounds, potions of invisibility (2); Other Gear +1 alchemical silver short sword, +1 leather armor, masterwork shortbow with 20 arrows, smoke arrows (5), hammer, thieves’ tools, traveler’s outfit, wires (4), wooden stakes (4) ====================================================== Special Abilities ====================================================== Command Ghouls (Su) A dread ghoul can automatically command all normal ghouls within 30 feet as a free action. Normal ghouls never attack a dread ghoul unless compelled. Create Spawn (Su) Any creature killed by a dread ghoul that lies undisturbed and uneaten until the next midnight rises as a dread ghoul at that time. The new dread ghoul is not under the control of its creator. A protection from evil or gentle repose spell cast on the corpse prevents this. Disease (Su) Ghoul Fever: Bite—injury; save Fort DC 14; onset 1 day; frequency 1/day; effect 1d3 Con and 1d3 Dex damage; cure 2 consecutive saves. The save DC is Charisma-based. A humanoid who dies of ghoul fever rises as a ghoul at the next midnight. A humanoid who becomes a ghoul in this way retains none of the abilities it possessed in life. It is not under the control of any other ghouls, but it hungers for the flesh of the living and behaves like a normal ghoul in all respects. A humanoid of 4 Hit Dice or more rises as a ghast. |
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Post by Munroe on Dec 15, 2012 5:19:27 GMT -5
One thing I have learned from this is that leveling up a rogue seems much easier than leveling up an inquisitor.
I -should- be leveling up the NPC inquisitor of Pharasma instead of playing with ghouls. He's already been introduced to the party. He's mostly leveled though, I just need to distribute his skillpoints and equip him, I think. Oh, right, he's also a spontaneous divine spellcaster with a bard-like spell progression, so I need to pick his spells.
In spite of less skillpoints, I think inquisitor is a more complex class than rogue.
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Post by Munroe on Mar 3, 2013 8:23:50 GMT -5
I haven't been keeping up with the campaign here or on Facebook or on the Paizo campaign journals sub-forum, but I just posted this update to our campaign on Facebook (which the players can also see). Stuff they can't see I usually just save for this forum, since I don't think any of them would look here. Those juicy tidbits are below the quote.
The party keeps going to this crypt over and over kind of beating their heads on the wall, so for now they think they've destroyed the berbalang. A berbalang in incorporeal forum only has half its hitdice though and the other half remain with its body, which is where it returns if its incorporeal form is destroyed. So far they've only seen the berbalang in its incorporeal form and none of them made the necessary knowledge (religion) checks to know it has any other form.
But I want to move them away from the crypt for a few sessions so I'm going to let them think the berbalang is destroyed for awhile. they've wiped out its ghoul minions anyway so it's not going to pick a fight until it can gain a new army and perhaps take a level in badass. (Or at least a level in something. I'm looking to give it some class levels because its incorporeal form is really weak-sauce.)
I need to finish drawing the map of Castle Galdyce (I'm using the floorplan for Castle Korvosa from Curse of the Crimson Throne). I haven't really started it yet, but they've got some ground to cover before they actually reach the castle (there's a keep in front of the castle), and I do carry a printout of the castle with me to sessions, as well as sheets to draw it on, just in case they get there sooner than anticipated.
The castle and the monsters there are way beyond their pay grade though, so I'm looking to switch up to the werewolf subplot for awhile. I've painted up the vilkacis (incorporeal possessor spirit of a deceased werewolf) and that means he's finally ready to make his debut.
When I mentioned they had a meeting with the mayor, they agreed not to trust him because apparently there's a Magic: The Gathering card (I think all my players play M:tG) where the mayor is a werewolf. The mayor is a werewolf in my campaign too, so that kind of takes the surprise out of that. Of course technically he's not a werewolf yet in the campaign, but in the printed stats for him in my campaign binder I already statted him as a werewolf. (While the vilkacis is possessing someone, they can spread lycanthropy so the mayor is going to be one of its first victims.)
I also need to introduce Milora and Glistasia, the vishkanya rogue (deadly courtesan) sisters. The party wants to hire some people to work at the inn they're operating, and if they can get through the initial confrontation with Milora and Glistasia without killing them, the twins would be ideal to work for them.
They'll be undertaking a quest for the mayor to bring in someone else without killing him first, before they get the Milora and Glistasia quest.
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Post by Munroe on Mar 3, 2013 8:39:58 GMT -5
During the session two weeks ago the player of the beastbrood sorcerer (beastbrood = Rakshasa-spawn tiefling) told me that he eventually plans to become a lich, so he was letting me know in advance.
Our campaign is only supposed to run until about 12th level anyway, so lichdom might be a nice capstone for him. I've been reading up on the transformation process. Apparently so had he, we compared notes before the session started this time.
One of the guys who is a regular at the store, who had only played Pathfinder once before back in June on FreeRPGDay for the one-shot I ran, created a character for our campaign last night. He's playing Tepes, a svetocher wizard. Svetocher is a variant heritage for dhampir. One of the other players encouraged him to play a dhampir. I guess he decided to join the campaign because he's frequently around when we're playing and he wanted to get in on the action.
Svetocher is the moroi dhampir. (Moroi is the Pathfinder name for the kind of vampire that a standard vampire is, so the four breeds of vampire are jiang-shi, moroi, nosferatu, and vetala.) Since a standard (non-variant) dhampir is also generally assumed to be descended from a standard vampire, I just treat vanilla dhampir and svetocher as both valid results of a moroi/human pairing. They have different abilities, but they're still closer to each other than the vetala-dhampir and jiang-shi dhampirs.
The other guy that joined is actually a former player from my 3.5e Forgotten Realms campaign. He's playing a dwarven cavalier this time because he was a druid in our previous campaign and he wanted to get as far away from druid this time as possible. His dwarf has some ability that lets him get a bonus to saves when he's been drinking.
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Post by Munroe on Apr 21, 2013 4:29:22 GMT -5
I'm still running my Pathfinder RPG campaign set in Ustalav, every other Saturday. This isn't an update about that though. That's next Saturday.
Last night/this morning I just started playing in a campaign ran by one of the players in my campaign. His campaign takes place in the Five Kings Mountains region of Avistan (the continent), a few hundred miles south of my Ustalav campaign.
I'm playing a Lawful Good ratfolk rogue that follows Erastil. I was going to play him with an NG alignment, but Erastil is LG and he's very devout so I decided to go with LG. I went to the session last night to learn the party is mostly CN/CE. Most of the other players hadn't finalized the alignments of their characters but they were leaning toward evil more than neutral. The others are an LE dwarven fighter (he said he might go LN, but some of the ideas he's expressed in-character so far suggest LE), a CN fetchling summoner (he was going to go CE but decided on CN after he heard I was playing LG--so he might still go CE as the character comes to light), a CE human fighter (I think he's CE. He might be CN. He wasn't very "into" the game last night), and a CE ratfolk alchemist.
Depending on how things go, might consider making a new character with a more Chaotic alignment to match the group better.
I like my current guy though. He's a ratfolk with fur markings like a "fancy rat." His fur is in the style of a black-hooded rat (with white lower body), and with a symmetrical white blaze on his face. I swapped out some racial skill bonuses for the alternate racial trait of the Scent ability (this swap also incurs a -2 penalty on visual and auditory perception checks). He also has the Militia-trained trait, which grants him a +1 bonus on Survival checks, and he gains Survival as a class skill. (Useful for tracking by scent.)
For his personification, he sniffs the air a lot and talks like Kiefer Sutherland's character in the movie Dark City.
You'd think I'd be able to find a clip of Kiefer Sutherland from Dark City but I can't, so here's the whole movie on YouTube:
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Post by Munroe on Jun 6, 2013 2:52:25 GMT -5
I realized recently that I messed up a few of my NPCs (with the same error) in my current campaign, and want to make changes to a few others, so I've been reworking my NPCs this week.
I decided to change the as-yet-unintroduced human mastermind vampire librarian from Expert 6 to Witch 8, which is going to basically mean a full rebuild for her. I haven't started it yet. She's still going to be a human mastermind vampire librarian, but now she'll have spells, hexes, and the improved familiar feat to gain a ratling as a familiar. (Ratlings are based on the human-faced rat-monster witch's familiar in one of Lovecraft's stories. A mastermind vampire is just a variant vampire that can control 2x as many vampire spawn, and can share a mental link with any single spawn on the same plane.)
I decided to add 7 levels of oracle (spontaneous divine CHA-based full-caster that draws from the cleric spell list) to the berbalang (berbalang is basically a winged ghoul without ghoul fever that can switch to a weaker incorporeal form, leaving its body behind). I may have mentioned that already. It increases his CR substantially, but he's supposed to be a boss creature and the party hasn't encountered his true form yet.
I realized that I messed up the green hag witch and the ratling oracle because I gave them both the advanced simple template (+4 to all abilities, +2 natural armor, +1 CR) when I should have just used the +4, +4, +2, +2, +0, -2 ability modifiers for giving a monster class levels. Without the advanced template, their CR decreases so I can give them more class levels without ruining their CRs. The hag is getting a slight CR bump. I haven't decided if the ratling is getting a bump yet, his CR is going down about 4 points because I also miscalculated CR when I made him the first time.
Oh well, I hope to have the ratling oracle fully updated by Saturday, as he's already been introduced to the players. (He's presently using magic to appear as a halfling, which is one size category larger than he is.) He works for the vampire librarian and has mentioned her name, but denies that she's a vampire. (He's not her familiar, btw. Familiars don't get class levels. Her familiar is a relative of his though.)
I might have the green hag done too. I'm trying to work backwards from the existing modified stats for the ratling and work forwards from the base creature on the hag.
Then I just have to assign them loot. Equipping NPCs is probably my least fun part, especially once they've got their main magic items. I've still got 3,000 gp (out of 12,750) to spend equipping the berbalang. Other than that he's finished.
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Post by Munroe on Jun 29, 2013 1:19:15 GMT -5
I decided to change the as-yet-unintroduced human mastermind vampire librarian from Expert 6 to Witch 8, which is going to basically mean a full rebuild for her. I haven't started it yet. She's still going to be a human mastermind vampire librarian, but now she'll have spells, hexes, and the improved familiar feat to gain a ratling as a familiar. (Ratlings are based on the human-faced rat-monster witch's familiar in one of Lovecraft's stories. A mastermind vampire is just a variant vampire that can control 2x as many vampire spawn, and can share a mental link with any single spawn on the same plane.) I've almost completed the human mastermind vampire witch 8 (CR 9). I've assigned her skills and decided on her known spells. I've even equipped her. (I diverged from the rules for equipping her because I looked at the sample vampire in the Bestiary that is the same level, and its gear value is way-off. I went ahead and gave my vamp comparable value of gear.) All that's left to do really is figure out her feats. I gave her Improved Familiar feat so she could have a ratling familiar but the more I got to thinking about it, as a witch the last thing she wants to do is put her familiar in danger (ratling has sneak attack, but familiars function like spellbooks for witches). So I got to thinking about it, and I think she's going to take a clockwork familiar (it appears in the Shattered Star Adventure Path as her familiar. It requires Improved Familiar feat and Caster Level 7. I decided on it because it's a construct, for one thing, so it won't die of old-age--which could be useful for a vampire's familiar. And it has DR 5/adamantine, and can expend a spell-level from a scroll stored in it to self-heal, so it's less likely to get killed casually. The only thing I really have left to do with it is decide what it looks like. Depending on on what kind of creature it resembles, it gets an additional mode of movement. The default clockwork familiar is a raven, but I can't decide to make her clockwork familiar a bat or a ratling. Both fit her theme. The bat would be functionally identical to the raven, while the ratling would get a climb speed instead of a fly speed. She's got some awesome spells though. She's got a spell she can cast (Project Weakness, spell from Blood of the Night that's only useful when cast by a vampire) that permanently curses the target to gain all the aversions of her vampire type. The character gets repelled by holy symbols and mirrors, and becomes helpless in sunlight (but isn't actually harmed by it). She's got another spell (Cup of Dust, a standard spell from Advanced Player's Guide) that curses a character with intense thirst that can't be alleviated. The character eventually has to start making checks versus thirst and taking nonlethal damage, until they literally die of thirst. I think those two will make a nice 1+2 combo. The character becomes very thirsty and gains vampire aversions. The character might even think he or she has become a vampire and that unfulfillable thirst is a thirst for blood. Both curses can be removed with a single Remove Curse spell, or other curse-removing spell or effect. Of course both of those spells assume the victim survives the combat. She's got other stuff like enervation, lightning bolt, ice storm, and so-on for actually killing in combat. Annoyingly a standard witch doesn't get any of the standard ability mod spells like Cat's Grace or Eagle's Splendor. Some of the witch patrons do grant one of them, but not the patron she has. She has the plague patron, which grants animate dead, so she can make skeleton minions in addition to her vampire spawn. I picked a lot of spells from Advanced Player's Guide and Ultimate Magic, so I'm going to have to print them out so I can take them to the game session with me, since I only take the Core Rulebook and a three-ring binder of creatures and notes, and maps and minis. I still haven't equipped the green hag witch 5 (CR 7) yet. She'll be completely finished when I equip her. Last session, this past Saturday, the party ended-up fighting the vilkacis, a kind of werewolf ghost. It's a CR 7 possession spirit. The party is only level 3, but there were six of them, which takes the adjusted party level to 4, so a CR 7 encounter is considered an epic challenge. They could barely harm it though--it is both incorporeal and has damage reduction. Luckily it was far more interested in trying to possess them than in trying to kill them. Most of the characters managed to get Protection from Evil up fast enough that it couldn't possess them, and the one guy it tried to possess who didn't have PfE just made his Will save against possession, which protects him for 24 hours. It ended up possessing one of the convicts in the pillory, so the party, having no idea what to do with it yet, just left it possessing him. They consulted the town priest, who said that the next day the pillory would be moved into the local temple, which is hallowed ground (and thus under a constant Protection from Evil effect), so the convicts wouldn't be possessed by it again. The party members made some engineering checks to determine that the pillory would hold the possessed convict for the evening. (I think I actually forgot to roll the convict's Will save. But if he had made it, there were two other convicts in the pillory.) I think next session they may end-up facing a brimorak, a lone CR 4 small demon that was actually called to the Material Plane session-before-last in a dark ritual that went awry. (The party saw the room full of dead cultists left after the creature got loose.) I need to remember to pack two appropriate minis, since a brimorak has a 50% chance of summoning another brimorak to its aid. Brimoraks are goat-horned goat-legged small demons with swords and burning hooves. I'll be using D&D Miniatures dark folk miniatures. They're small minis with goat-legs and wearing cloaks and holding daggers. Since their heads are covered, they could have goat horns under there. I decided to write two of my vampires out of the narrative, a pair of female human swarmshifter vampire ranger 5 twins that were to serve as vampire brides for the nosferatu along with the vampire witch. The female human mastermind vampire witch 8 was simply too well developed to share the spotlight with a pair of undeveloped grunt vampires. So I've decided she might have a couple minions with similar stats. As a mastermind vampire she can control 4x her HD in vampire spawn (as opposed to the normal 2x), so a total of 32 HD of miscellaneous spawn. She has a 10 HD vampire in her service, so that still leaves her with 22 HD to fill with miscellaneous vampires. Her 10 HD spawn is also a mastermind vampire so he has another 40 HD of spawn in his service, but most of those are 8 HD feral vampire spawn (from Necromancer Games' Slumbering Tsar Saga), and probably a pair of regular 4 HD vampire spawn rounding out his spawn. At this point I'm not even sure if the nosferatu (Viscount Oilic Galdyce, nosferatu aristocrat 3/rogue 9) is awake. It might still be staked in its coffin, or perhaps just too weak to rise because it hasn't fed for almost 30 years. (In canon the viscount was "supposedly" destroyed in 4685 AR, but there's some doubt as to the success of that effort. The current game year of my campaign is 4712 AR.) At the end of last session, the party's sylph cleric of Pharasma, who is presently afflicted with zombie rot (from session-before last), left the group to journey to Kavapesta, the countyseat and the seat of the local Pharasmin diocese, in search of a means to rid herself of the rot before she becomes a zombie. The player is bringing in a new character next session. He's indicated it will either be a dhampir, a human, or a halfling. He initially said a dhampir, but then he felt dhampir didn't fit in the campaign, which I find very weird. I have all kinds of dhampir NPCs in the pipeline. (At least two, but probably closer to five.) I had a new player join last session playing a half-elf bard. The girlfriend of the cleric also played. She had talked about it before, but had never got around to it. The party last session was: CN female sylph cleric of Pharasma 3 (long running character and player in campaign) N? male human fighter 3 (second session for player and character) N male orc barbarian 3 (long running player of the human alchemist who is away for the summer but he was only in town for that session and didn't want to bring his alchemist back only to have him leave again) CG/CN male kitsune "specialist" (ninja) 3 (long running character and player who missed the last few sessions) ?? female [unknown race] summoner (first session, girlfriend of the cleric's player, she jumped in and I didn't get a lot of information on her character but I know her eidolon is a quadraped and looks like a dog) NG male half-elf bard (first session, new player who seemed very interested and has previous 3.5e experience) Oh, the party also, at the beginning of last session, finished up with the ratling oracle that had been disguised as a halfling and asked for their help destroying a zombie it had "accidentally" created. He told them before his polymorph effect wore off that he was a ratling because he knew he wasn't going to have time to excuse himself, so, presumably because he was honest with them, they let him go. In fact, they were more friendly to him once they found out he was a ratling. The cleric even offered to let him ride on her shoulder. He reminded her that he was still an oracle. (She had expressed a concern over touch-ranged oracle powers previously.) I think they got 535 xp for the encounter with the vilkacis. I didn't aware any other XP last session that I can remember, though I should have awarded some RP XP. The player of the alchemist indicated that he wasn't worried about XP since I bring new characters in at the same level as the average party level, he'd just come back at that level when he rejoins in the autumn with his alchemist. I've toyed with the idea of doing away with XP altogether and just deciding they level-up whenever, but I actually like handing out XP. I usually throw stuff at them that's actually at a higher CR than their party level, so they level-up pretty quickly anyway. I haven't figured out how to introduce the twins that are their neighbors, or their evil "step-mother" yet, but the party are getting to be in the right CR range. A few sessions ago the party managed to gain a pair of vishkanya twins that are now working around their base of operations (The Silver Dagger Inn), but the party actually fear the twins a bit because they have the bardic fascinate ability, and poisonous bodily fluids. I don't know how I'm going to wrap-up the worg sub-plot yet either. Some of the worgs have rabies, but not all of them. The party are oddly friendly with the non-rabid worgs.
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Post by Munroe on Jun 29, 2013 1:22:28 GMT -5
Oh, by the way, the other campaign where I was playing the LG ratfolk rogue fell apart. Basically the GM canceled the game after one session. He also dropped out of my game as a player. He might be back later, but I don't know what his ultimate plans are. I think he was frustrated with scheduling conflicts and other stuff going on, as well as annoyed with one of the other players that's in both our games.
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Post by Munroe on Oct 3, 2013 15:17:21 GMT -5
I'm upgrading Rukalla again and I noticed his DC for his paralysis and ghoul fever were incorrect in the previous version posted above. That DC for level 5 Rukalla should be DC 16 [10 base + 2 (0.5*HD) + 4 (CHA mod)]. His HP is also incorrect if I calculated it correctly this time. It should be 54. I reverse-figured his skillpoints and calculated 62 total skill points when he should have had 60. I can't figure out where those 2 skillpoints came from so I deducted 2 of his favored class hitpoints and I'm assuming they're favored class skillpoints. But then I decided to check his hitpoint total and I realized I forgot to give him his full 8 hitpoints at level 1, so he actually ended up gaining 2 hp overall when I made that adjustment. 54=[8+(4*4.5)+(5*4)+(5*1)+3] (The +3 at the end is hp from favored class after deducting 2 for those two skillpoints I couldn't account for.) I also gave CR 5 Rukalla another languages (Abyssal) because I realized he was shorted one.
Anyway, CR 7 Rukalla is below. His BAB went up +2 (affecting his weapon and natural attacks, as well as CMB/CMD), his saves went up +1, his sneak attack went up +1d6, he gained a rogue talent (fast stealth) and a feat (improved initiative). He gained 24 skillpoints. The DCs for his paralysis and ghoul fever increased from 16 to 17 [10+(0.5*HD)+4 (CHA mod)].
I also gave him a pallid crystal, a magic item for Urgathoa worshipers (goddess of undeath) that converts positive energy from Cure spells into negative energy to heal her undead faithful. (He's still vulnerable to channeled positive energy though.) He's also wearing a +2 deathless leather armor, which absorbs the first 10 points of harmful positive or negative energy a creature is hit with, and has some added benefits against energy drain he doesn't get because he's undead. Between these two items his treasure value is significantly above suggested for his CR, but I don't award a lot of treasure to my players so it balances out.
Rukalla the Quiet CR 7 XP 3200 Variant male human dread ghoul rogue 7 (Advanced Bestiary 76) CE Medium undead (augmented humanoid) Init +7; Senses darkvision 60 ft., scent; Perception +12 =================================================================== DEFENSE =================================================================== AC 19, touch 13, flat-footed 16 (+4 armor, +3 Dex, +2 natural) hp 75 (7d8+40) Fort +5, Ref +8, Will +4 (+8 vs. channel) Defensive Abilities channel resistance +4, evasion, trap sense +2, uncanny dodge; Immune undead traits =================================================================== OFFENSE =================================================================== Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft. Melee +1 alchemical silver rapier +9 (1d6+1/18–20) and bite +3 (1d6+1 plus disease and paralysis) and claw +3 (1d6+1 plus paralysis) bite +8 (1d6+1 plus disease and paralysis) and 2 claws +8 (1d6+1 plus paralysis) Ranged mwk shortbow +9 (1d6/x3) Special Attacks command ghouls, create spawn, paralysis (1d4+1 rounds, DC 17, elves are immune to this effect), sneak attack +4d6 plus 4 bleed =================================================================== STATISTICS =================================================================== Str 12, Dex 16, Con —, Int 16, Wis 14, Cha 18 Base Atk +5; CMB +6; CMD 19 Feats Civilized Ghoulishness (Classic Horrors Revisited 32), Combat Reflexes, Deceitful, Improved Initiative, Toughness, Weapon FinesseRT Skills Acrobatics +10, Appraise +8, Bluff +16, Climb +14, Craft (traps) +10, Diplomacy +10, Disable Device +12, Disguise +16 (+26 to appear human), Escape Artist +12, Handle Animal +6, Intimidate +10, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +8, Knowledge (history) +4, Knowledge (local) +8, Knowledge (religion) +8, Linguistics +8, Perception +12, Perform (Dance) +10, Sense Motive +8, Sleight of Hand +8, Stealth +13, Survival +12, Swim +8; Racial modifiers +8 Climb, +10 Disguise to appear human, +8 Survival Languages Abyssal, Aklo, Common (Taldane), Goblin, Necril, Varisian SQ rogue talents (bleeding attack, fast stealth, finesse rogue), trapfinding +2 Combat Gear potion of inflict moderate wounds, potions of invisibility (2); Other Gear +1 alchemical silver rapier, +2 deathless leather armor, masterwork shortbow with 20 arrows, smoke arrows (20), hammer, pallid crystal, ring of mind shielding, thieves’ tools, traveler’s outfit, wires (4), wooden stakes (4), 8 pp, 531 gp =================================================================== SPECIAL ABILITIES =================================================================== Command Ghouls (Su) A dread ghoul can automatically command all normal ghouls within 30 feet as a free action. Normal ghouls never attack a dread ghoul unless compelled. Create Spawn (Su) Any creature killed by a dread ghoul that lies undisturbed and uneaten until the next midnight rises as a dread ghoul at that time. The new dread ghoul is not under the control of its creator. A protection from evil or gentle repose spell cast on the corpse prevents this. Disease (Su) Ghoul Fever: Bite—injury; save Fort DC 17; onset 1 day; frequency 1/day; effect 1d3 Con and 1d3 Dex damage; cure 2 consecutive saves. The save DC is Charisma-based. A humanoid who dies of ghoul fever rises as a ghoul at the next midnight. A humanoid who becomes a ghoul in this way retains none of the abilities it possessed in life. It is not under the control of any other ghouls, but it hungers for the flesh of the living and behaves like a normal ghoul in all respects. A humanoid of 4 Hit Dice or more rises as a ghast. [/b]
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Post by Munroe on Nov 15, 2013 5:17:04 GMT -5
I changed Rukalla again shortly after posting him here. I gave Rukalla a significant bump because I increased him two levels and I actually changed his template from dread ghoul to dread ghast (another template in Green Ronin Advanced Bestiary), which has the exactly same CR adjustment. Civilized Ghoulishness allows for a ghast to suppress its Stench ability at-will, so I'm also allowing it to suppress the dread ghast's Unnatural Aura at-will. Dread ghast normally doesn't get the Scent ability, but I let him keep it because I think ghouls/ghasts with Scent are just that much scarier. Also modded the dread ghast so it can control normal ghasts and normal ghouls (it normally only allows controlling ghasts), and carries ghoul fever. Dread ghoul and dread ghast in Advanced Bestiary just have the Create Spawn ability to raise creatures as ghoul/ghast without need of ghoul fever, but to me a ghoul without ghoul fever isn't so much a ghoul. I kept the CR 7 dread ghoul rogue 7 but stripped out some of its gear to make it a more generic monster for the party to encounter. Rukalla the Quiet CR 9XP 6400Variant male human dread ghast rogue 9 ( Advanced Bestiary 76) CE Medium undead (augmented humanoid) Init +8; Senses darkvision 60 ft., scent; Perception +16 (+24 to detect a scent) Aura stench (20 ft., DC 20, 1d6+4 minutes), unnatural aura (30 ft.) DEFENSEAC 23 (25 vs. bows), touch 14, flat-footed 19 (+5 armor, +4 Dex, +4 natural) hp 115 (9d8+70) Fort +9, Ref +10, Will +7 (+13 vs. channel) Defensive Abilities channel resistance +6, evasion, improved uncanny dodge trap sense +3; Immune undead traits OFFENSESpeed 30 ft., climb 30 ft. Melee +1 alchemical silver rapier +11/+6 (1d6+2/18–20) and bite +5 (1d6+2 plus disease and paralysis) and claw +5 (1d6+2 plus paralysis) or bite +10 (1d6+2 plus disease and paralysis) and 2 claws +10 (1d6+2 plus paralysis) Ranged +1 shortbow +11 (1d6+1/x3) Special Attacks command ghasts and ghouls, create spawn, paralysis (1d4+1 rounds, DC 20), sneak attack +5d6 plus 5 bleed Patron Urgathoa STATISTICSStr 14, Dex 18, Con —, Int 16, Wis 18, Cha 22 Base Atk +6; CMB +8; CMD 22 Feats Civilized Ghoulishness ( Classic Horrors Revisited 32), Combat Reflexes, Deceitful, Defensive Weapon Training (bows) ( Ultimate Combat 95), Improved Initiative, Toughness, Weapon Finesse RTSkills Acrobatics +14 (+24 jumping), Appraise +8, Bluff +20, Climb +16, Craft (traps) +10, Diplomacy +12, Disable Device +14, Disguise +20 (+30 to appear human), Escape Artist +14, Handle Animal +8, Intimidate +12, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +8, Knowledge (history) +4, Knowledge (local) +8, Knowledge (religion) +10, Linguistics +8, Perception +16 (+24 to detect a scent), Perform (Dance) +12, Sense Motive +14, Sleight of Hand +10, Stealth +21, Survival +16, Swim +10; Racial modifiers +10 Acrobatics when jumping, +8 Climb, +10 Disguise to appear human, +8 Perception to detect a scent, +8 Survival Languages Abyssal, Aklo, Common (Taldane), Goblin, Necril, Varisian SQ dread ghast aura suppression (Civilized Ghoulishness), rogue talents (bleeding attack, fast stealth, finesse rogue, rogue crawl), trapfinding +4 Combat Gear potion of inflict critical wounds, potions of invisibility (2); Other Gear +1 alchemical silver rapier, +3 deathless shadow leather armor, +1 shortbow with 20 arrows, smoke arrows (20), hammer, pallid crystal, ring of mind shielding, thieves’ tools, traveler’s outfit, wires (3), wooden stakes (6), 18 pp, 531 gp SPECIAL ABILITIESCommand Ghasts and Ghouls (Su) A dread ghast can automatically command all normal ghasts and ghouls within 30 feet as a free action. Normal ghouls and ghasts never attack a dread ghast unless compelled. Create Spawn (Su) Any creature killed by a dread ghast that lies undisturbed and uneaten until the next midnight rises as a dread ghast (or dread ghoul if under 4 hitdice) at that time. The new undead is not under the control of its creator. A protection from evil or gentle repose spell cast on the corpse prevents this. Disease (Su) Ghoul Fever: Bite—injury; save Fort DC 20; onset 1 day; frequency 1/day; effect 1d3 Con and 1d3 Dex damage; cure 2 consecutive saves. The save DC is Charisma-based. Stench (Ex) The stink of death and corruption surrounding a dread ghast is overwhelming. All living creatures (except those with the stench special ability) within 20 feet must succeed on a Fortitude save (DC 20) or be sickened for 1d6+4 minutes. Creatures that make their save cannot be affected by the same dread ghast’s stench for 24 hours. A delay poison or neutralize poison spell removes the effect from the sickened creature. Creatures with immunity to poison are unaffected, and creatures resistant to poison receive their normal bonus on their saving throws. Unnatural Aura (Su) Animals do not willingly approach the creature unless the animal's master makes a DC 25 Handle Animal, Ride, or wild empathy check. DEATH FROM GHOUL FEVER A humanoid who dies of ghoul fever rises as a ghoul at the next midnight. A humanoid who becomes a ghoul in this way retains none of the abilities it possessed in life. It is not under the control of any other ghouls, but it hungers for the flesh of the living and behaves like a normal ghoul in all respects. A humanoid of 4 Hit Dice or more rises as a ghast.
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Green Ronin Advanced Bestiary, which has the Dread Ghoul and Dread Ghast templates (it's a big book of templates) has a new Kickstarter up to make a Pathfinder edition. The one I'm using is the 3.5e edition, which is also the one Paizo frequently uses in their published materials. I also made a variant dread shadow rogue that also has some simple shadow variants from Undead Revisited added on top, and some of his minions, which are basic shadows with the same variants. My party met the dread shadow rogue last session. He is a servant for the vampires and they spoke to one of the vampires, so he didn't attack them. They still don't know Rukalla is undead yet. They've made short work of the other ghouls and ghasts they've dealt with. I want to make sure when they do actually have to deal with Rukalla, he's a suitable challenge for them. Right now they're just about to hit level 5. I expect they'll probably find out he's a ghoul around the middle of level 6, unless they suddenly start using Detect Undead a whole lot more than they have been. If they fight him at level 6, he'll be an epic-level encounter for them at CR 9. They're an over-sized party though, usually about 6 players, so he might only classify as Overwhelming, because larger parties are calculated as average party-level plus one. The party's dhampir ranger really hates ghouls as part of his back-story, so once he finds out Rukalla is a ghoul (dread ghast actually, but same thing), I doubt he'll reconcile with him. Right now it looks like they're going to switch gears away from hunting the vampires and focus more on dealing with the skeleton army. The vampire they spoke to assured them she will direct her minions not to feed on townfolk at least until the end of the year. I'm looking forward to when they do get to fight the dread shadow rogue and his variant shadows though. The "basic" shadows under his command started as standard CR 3 shadows but then have two variants applied that are each CR +1, to bring them to CR 5. The variants are the "distorted shadow" variant that grants them the features of the Advanced Simple Temple (normally +1 CR itself) but instead of gaining that template's natural armor their incorporeal touch has a 15 ft reach, and the Hidden One variant, which grants partial or total concealment (and therefore miss chance) in any dim light or darker. The dread shadow rogue also has these variants, plus another that grants him claw attacks that do physical damage in addition to STR damage. What I need to be doing is upgrading the burning skeletal champion undead lord antipaladin 4 that is the main boss of the skeleton army though. He's currently CR 7, but by the time they fight through his army of burning skeletons, burning skulls, burning skeletal champions, and so on, CR 7 should be a cake-walk for them. I'd like to give him a couple more antipaladin levels, maybe bump his CR up to 8 or 9.
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Post by Munroe on Nov 17, 2013 2:03:32 GMT -5
The two things I need to do this week are:
1.) Add more levels to my burning skeletal champion undead lord antipaladin 4. He's CR 7 now. I'd like to bump him to CR 9 before the party gets anywhere near meeting him. 2.) Stat-up a burning skeletal champion cyclops NPC to use as a "heavy" for the skeletal army. Maybe a burning skeleton cyclops too. Skeletons are mindless while skeletal champions have an INT score, so one of each could be handy. Of course I only actually have one cyclops skeleton mini so it's not like they'll be occurring together.
My main campaign boss is CR 13, and he's from canon so he's a fixed point in difficulty. Since he's the main boss, he's also basically my ceiling point for how hard monsters can be in my campaign.
He's actually built with a template from one of the 3.5e Pathfinder Adventure Path books. That template was recently updated in Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 4, which I don't have yet, so I'll be updating him with that revised (Pathfinderized) template as soon as I have access to it.
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Post by Munroe on Dec 21, 2013 4:32:58 GMT -5
I'm statting up an awakened shield guardian electrified flesh golem fighter 2 (CR 12) for my campaign right now.
The party found him last session trapped in blood crystal and for some reason thought they should dig him out. (I just had him there for flavor, really, but since they're digging him out, he gets stats.) Unworked blood crystal is worth 500 gp a pound, so they can probably sell it for at least 250 gp a pound. Mining the stuff is quite worthwhile.
I'll post him when I'm done. Right now he's done except for his fighter levels and skill points.
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Post by Munroe on Dec 23, 2013 12:19:24 GMT -5
I'm statting up an awakened shield guardian electrified flesh golem fighter 2 (CR 12) for my campaign right now. The party found him last session trapped in blood crystal and for some reason thought they should dig him out. (I just had him there for flavor, really, but since they're digging him out, he gets stats.) Unworked blood crystal is worth 500 gp a pound, so they can probably sell it for at least 250 gp a pound. Mining the stuff is quite worthwhile. I'll post him when I'm done. Right now he's done except for his fighter levels and skill points. I decided to make him a barbarian instead of a fighter. I also toyed with the idea of making him a cavalier but I couldn't decide which order he'd take. Prisoner in Stitched Flesh CR 12XP 19200Variant awakened electrified shield guardian flesh golem barbarian 2 N Large construct Init +1; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +14 ====================================================== DEFENSE ====================================================== AC 24, touch 10, flat-footed 23 (+1 Dex, +12 natural, +2 shield, –1 size) hp 103 (9d10+2d12+41); fast healing 5 Fort +6, Ref +4, Will +6 Defensive Abilities uncanny dodge; DR 5/adamantine; Immune construct traits, magic Weaknesses open mind ====================================================== OFFENSE ====================================================== Speed 40 ft. Melee +1 large called impervious keen blood crystal longsword +18/+13/+8 (2d6+8/17-20) and slam +12 (3d8+7 plus 1d6 electricity) or 2 slams +17 (3d8+7 plus 1d6 electricity) Ranged electrical blast +11 touch (4d6 electricity) Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. Special Attacks berserk, electrical blast (60-ft. ranged touch, 4d6 electrical damage, usable every 1d6 rounds), guard, rage (6 rounds/day), rage powers (scent) ====================================================== STATISTICS ====================================================== Str 24, Dex 13, Con —, Int 18, Wis 13, Cha 13 Base Atk +11; CMB +19; CMD 30 Feats Eldritch Claws, Improved Natural Attack, Improved Drag, Iron Will, , Toughness Skills Acrobatics +6, Climb +12, Craft (alchemy) +12, Intimidate +12, Knowledge (arcana) +14, Knowledge (nature) +8, Knowledge religion +6, Perception +14, Sense Motive +10, Spellcraft +6, Stealth +8, Survival +12; Racial Modifiers –4 Stealth as a large creature Languages Common (Taldane), Hallit, Necril, Varisian, Skald SQ controlled, fast movement, find master, lightning speed, shield other, slave to none, spell storing Gear +1 large called impervious keen blood crystal longsword, ring of force shield, steelhand circle====================================================== SPECIAL ABILITIES ====================================================== Berserk (Ex) When an awakened flesh golem enters combat, there is a cumulative 5% chance each round that its elemental spirit breaks free and the golem goes berserk. The uncontrolled golem goes on a rampage, attacking the nearest living creature or smashing some object smaller than itself if no creature is within reach, then moving on to spread more destruction. The golem's creator, if within 60 feet, can try to regain control of the awakened golem, which requires a successful Intimidate check, but the golem gets a Will save (DC equal to creator's Intimidate result) to resist. It takes 1 minute of inactivity by the golem to reset the golem's berserk chance to 0%. Controlled (Ex) A shield guardian that has the berserk special attack cannot go berserk as long as the wearer of its amulet is within 30 feet. Electrified (Ex) Electrified golems are able to channel electricity into their attacks, as well as absorb electrical attacks to increase their speed. An electrified flesh golem's melee attacks deal 1d6 points of electricity damage in addition to their normal damage, and it gains the electrical blast supernatural ability. Electrical Blast (Su) An electrified golem can generate a blast of electricity that strikes one creature within 60 feet. The golem must make a ranged touch attack; if it hits, the bolt deals 4d6 points of electricity damage. The golem can use this ability once every 1d6 rounds. It cannot use this attack on itself. Find Master (Su) As long as a shield guardian and its amulet are on the same plane, the shield guardian can locate the amulet's wearer (or just the amulet, if it is removed after the guardian is called). Guard (Ex) If ordered to do so, a shield guardian moves to defend the wearer of its amulet. All attacks against the amulet wearer take a –2 penalty when the shield guardian is adjacent to its master. Immunity to Magic (Ex) A flesh golem is immune to any spell or spell-like ability that allows spell resistance. In addition, certain spells and effects function differently against the creature, as noted below. • A magical attack that deals cold or fire damage slows a flesh golem (as the slow spell) for 2d6 rounds (no save). • A magical attack that deals electricity damage breaks any slow effect on the golem and heals 1 point of damage for every 3 points of damage the attack would otherwise deal. If the amount of healing would cause the golem to exceed its full normal hit points, it gains any excess as temporary hit points. A flesh golem gets no saving throw against attacks that deal electricity damage. Lightning Speed (Ex) Electrical attacks against an electrified flesh golem heal it just like a normal flesh golem and also haste it (as the spell) for 1 round per die of damage the attack normally deals. Open Mind (Ex) An awakened flesh golem is susceptible to mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects). Rage (Ex) The Prisoner in Stitched Flesh can rage for 6 rounds per day at level 2. A barbarian can rage as a free action. The total number of rounds of rage per day is renewed after resting for 8 hours, although these hours do not need to be consecutive. While in rage, the flesh golem barbarian gains a +4 morale bonus to his Strength and a +2 morale bonus on Will saves. In addition, he takes a –2 penalty to Armor Class. While in rage, a barbarian cannot use any Charisma-, Dexterity-, or Intelligence-based skills (except Acrobatics, Fly, Intimidate, and Ride) or any ability that requires patience or concentration. The flesh golem barbarian can end his rage as a free action and is immune to the subsequent fatigue condition. A barbarian can enter rage multiple times during a single encounter or combat. If a barbarian falls unconscious, his rage immediately ends, placing him in peril of death. Scent (Ex) The barbarian gains the scent ability while raging and can use this ability to locate unseen foes. Shield Other (Sp) The wearer of a shield guardian's amulet can activate this defensive ability as a standard action if within 100 feet of the shield guardian. Just as the spell of the same name, this ability transfers to the shield guardian half the damage that would be dealt to the amulet wearer (note that this ability does not provide the spell's AC or save bonuses). Damage transferred in this manner bypasses any defensive abilities (such as immunity or damage reduction) the golem possesses. Slave to None (Ex) The Prisoner in Stitched Flesh long ago acquired its shield guardian amulet and embedded it within its own flesh so that the amulet can't be easily gained to control it. It can activate its own shield guardian abilities, designating an individual of its choice to receive the benefits of its protection. It counts as controlled only while protecting another creature with shield guardian abilities. It cannot use these effects on itself. Spell Storing (Sp) A shield guardian can store one spell of 4th level or lower that is cast into it by another creature. It “casts” this spell when commanded to do so or when a predefined situation arises. Once this spell is used, the shield guardian can store another spell (or the same spell again). The "Slave to None" ability I made-up so it could actually use most of its shield guardian abilities and yet be an awakened and independent flesh golem.
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Post by Munroe on Feb 14, 2014 12:29:54 GMT -5
The two things I need to do this week are: 1.) Add more levels to my burning skeletal champion undead lord antipaladin 4. He's CR 7 now. I'd like to bump him to CR 9 before the party gets anywhere near meeting him. 2.) Stat-up a burning skeletal champion cyclops NPC to use as a "heavy" for the skeletal army. Maybe a burning skeleton cyclops too. Skeletons are mindless while skeletal champions have an INT score, so one of each could be handy. Of course I only actually have one cyclops skeleton mini so it's not like they'll be occurring together. My main campaign boss is CR 13, and he's from canon so he's a fixed point in difficulty. Since he's the main boss, he's also basically my ceiling point for how hard monsters can be in my campaign. He's actually built with a template from one of the 3.5e Pathfinder Adventure Path books. That template was recently updated in Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 4, which I don't have yet, so I'll be updating him with that revised (Pathfinderized) template as soon as I have access to it. I upgraded my burning skeletal champion undead lord awhile back but I finally got around to making my burning skeleton cyclops just now, a far easier task. I decided not to make him a burning skeletal champion cyclops, mainly because I'm lazy and converting to a skeletal champion would take longer. Arguably it wouldn't take much longer since I wouldn't need to give him class levels like my other skeletal champions, but still. Fire Skeleton Brute CR 6XP 2,400Burning skeleton cyclops NE Large undead Init +5; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +11 Aura fiery aura (5 ft., 1d6 fire) ====================================================== Defense====================================================== AC 15, touch 9, flat-footed 15 (+4 armor, +2 natural, –1 size) hp 55 (10 HD; 10d8+10) Fort +4, Ref +3, Will +7 DR 5/bludgeoning; Immune fire, undead traits Weaknesses vulnerability to cold ====================================================== Offense====================================================== Speed 40 ft. Melee greataxe +11 (3d6+7/x3 plus 1d6 fire) or 2 claws +11 (1d6+5 plus 1d6 fire) Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. ====================================================== Statistics====================================================== Str 21, Dex 10, Con —, Int —, Wis 10, Cha 12 Base Atk +7; CMB +13; CMD 23 Feats Improved Initiative BGear large chainshirt, large greataxe ====================================================== Special Abilities====================================================== Fiery Aura (Ex) Creatures adjacent to a burning skeleton take 1d6 points of fire damage at the start of their turn. Anyone striking a burning skeleton with an unarmed strike or natural attack takes 1d6 points of fire damage. Fiery Death (Su) A burning skeleton explodes into a burst of flame when it dies. Anyone adjacent to the skeleton when it is destroyed takes 1d6 points of fire damage per 2 Hit Dice that skeleton possessed (minimum 1d6). A Reflex save (DC 16) halves this damage. The save DC is Charisma-based. I'll probably try to bring him out into play this weekend since he's just a goon character to bolster the fire skeleton army. The standard cyclops has on a hide armor but I gave the fire skeleton cyclops a chainshirt armor (same AC) since it's metal and he's on fire. It has the secondary benefit of increasing his movement speed from 30 to 40 since hide reduces movement speed but chainshirt doesn't. A cyclops has +7 natural armor, but skeletons have natural armor by size and a large skeleton only has +2 natural armor. He's be a lot scarier if that +2 were an addition rather than a replacement.
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Post by Munroe on Feb 15, 2014 19:35:46 GMT -5
Well, the guy I've been bumming a ride with to my Pathfinder session canceled because it's his daughter's birthday. I can't fault him that, but I wish he'd given me more notice.
The other guy who gave me a ride before, I've been trying to get in touch with him, but so far we're playing phone tag. It's after 7:30p now so it's unlikely I'm going to get to play this evening.
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Post by Munroe on Feb 18, 2014 0:22:19 GMT -5
Well, the guy I've been bumming a ride with to my Pathfinder session canceled because it's his daughter's birthday. I can't fault him that, but I wish he'd given me more notice. The other guy who gave me a ride before, I've been trying to get in touch with him, but so far we're playing phone tag. It's after 7:30p now so it's unlikely I'm going to get to play this evening. I did in fact get to play. Right after I posted that, the other guy showed up at my house. I guess he gave up on trying to get me on the phone. He gave me a ride up, and I got a ride home with one of the other players. Our game started late, but it also ran a bit later as well. We didn't accomplish as much as I had planned, in part because three new characters joined the campaign--an elven ranger, a kitsune druid, and an elven fighter. The elven ranger had already made a character, mostly, with the help of the guy who gave me a ride (who plays the dhampir ranger), but the kitsune druid and the elven fighter may have only played because the guy playing the dhampir ranger brought pizza for the group. The player of the dhampir has HeroLab though, so it doesn't take TOO long to make characters. It wasn't until after the session that the players suggested to me those guys only stuck around for the pizza and left once it was gone. The guy playing the elven fighter was a dumbnuts who kept suggesting off-the-wall stuff, and I wasn't the only one that was happy when the two guys left before the party even got into combat. Well, I take that back, the two guys left when the party got into combat. Which means the group of enemies I put down was more appropriate for the party of six than the party of four I was left with. The parting kitsune druid did cast a summon spell on his way out though, and have it cover his character's in-character departure, so I allowed it to last two rounds. He didn't specify which summon nature's ally spell he cast, so I assumed summon nature's ally III and had a dire bat in the battle for two rounds. The party fought a pair of fire skeleton champions (each warrior 3, I think), a fire skeleton brute (see above), a swarm of burning bones (burning skull swarm), an ash wight (variant mist dust cairn wight), and an ash wight spawn (variant mist dust wight). A cairn wight has the advanced simple template (+2 natural armor, +4 to all abilities), and can channel its energy drain through its weapon. A wight spawn is usually a wight with -2 to attack, damage, ability checks, skill checks, and saves, so the spawn of the ash wight is just lacking the cairn wight effects, including the +2 to everything granted by the advanced template. After the fire skeleton brute was defeated, the remaining fire skeleton champion tried to make a run for it to report in to his commander, and took a full-round run action to get away, but even then the dhampir ranger took him out with a shot made at -8 for two range increments and the fact that it was snowing. The ash wight, being the last guy standing, coughed up a 10-foot cloud of ash (same effect as obscuring mist, except immune to fire effects) and tried to stay in the ash cloud as it made its escape. The elven ranger tried to pick a square in the cloud and attack it, but didn't hit anything, so the dhampir ranger bullrushed into the ash cloud and pushed the ash wight to the edge. The sylph cleric of Calistria cast Searing Light at the ash wight and actually critical fumbled her ranged touch attack roll with a natural 1. She rolled to confirm the critical fumble and rolled another natural 1. So I drew a crit fumble card for her and it said she actually still hit, but also lost a spell of her highest level. So I had her roll miss chance (20% for partial concealment because she was attacking adjacent) and she did in fact hit for 5d6 damage, destroying the wight. The party made 2,300 XP for the fight. Before the fight the party also spoke to Lorekeeper Gray, the ratling oracle that lives at the vampire's castle, and he told them where he believes the leader of the fire skeleton army may be hidden, and gave the dhampir ranger a map to get there. So they have a possible destination to check out that will get them away from the village and perhaps into some weirder creature encounters than my usual armies of undead. (Though they are going to fight an army of undead, so that's to be expected too.) I'm thinking the party may encounter some malicious fey en-route to the lair of Ludovic Teodorescu, the Lord of Burnt Bones.
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Post by Munroe on Feb 20, 2014 14:05:34 GMT -5
So I looked at the Pathfinder nosferatu template finally, posted on d20pfsrd.com, and compared it to the nosferatu I had adapted from the Pathfinder OGL 3.5e template. They changed very little from the previous version that wasn't changed simply by virtue of the Pathfinder changes to the Undead Type (which I accounted for in my conversion). The nosferatu's blood drain does CON and WIS damage now, and the nosferatu template has a different allotted time/distance maximum to reach its coffin when reduced to 0 hp than the standard vampire template.
While I could run my statted nosferatu with only those minor tweaks, the NPC base creature I used to make him was a modified pre-fab and I'd kind of like to go back and build him over from scratch, with my additional experience of having been making and modifying Pathfinder NPC monsters for two more years, and the additional knowledge of the party's weaknesses and strengths. The nosferatu in my campaign is the ONLY hostile NPC I'm using that is named in source materials, so he'll still be the same class breakdown of aristocrat 4/rogue 11. (I think that's what it is, anyway. I'll have to look.) That much isn't changing. But I have a better idea of the party capabilities now and of my own DMing combat-style, so I'll be more likely to pick useful feats and rogue talents. I also want to equip him as a PC instead of an "Heroic-grade" (high-end) NPC, which should increase his CR by one, but also make him much more formidable. Since he's the long-planned end-game boss, the extra-loot doesn't put the game at risk.
I already front-loaded my party wealth a bit with one very big haul of valuable rare crafting material, but I have no plans to turn it into a Monty-Haul game. Right now the party are facing wights with cursed gear that bestow negative levels when claimed as treasure, so if they do take the wights' gear, it just ends up playing for their restoration spells. They already have more than enough gold to get them through the next level though, and I expect the wights to be out of their hair in no more than two levels.
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Post by Munroe on Mar 1, 2014 5:57:56 GMT -5
There are some thing I could have been doing for my campaign tomorrow, I suppose, but I don't know what my players are going to do yet, so it would have been guessing.
However, I do know they've interacted with Midnight Terror before. She's the large worg that is the alpha female of the local worg pack. They've fled from Rime Ghost before when they saw him. He's the huge winter wolf that is the alpha male of the local worg pack. (In Pathfinder Bestiary it is noted that winter wolves are a kind of worg.)
I decided a few weeks ago that I hate the Giant Simple Template. Well, Midnight Terror was a Giant Advanced CR 4 large worg, and Rime Ghost was a Giant Advanced CR 7 huge winter wolf. So I decided to re-make them.
I started from basic medium worg and basic large winter wolf, advanced them each a size category (+8 STR, -2 DEX, +4 CON, -1 attack/AC, +1 CMB/CMD, and a natural armor bonus), doubled their hitdice, applied the advanced simple template (+4 to all abilities, +2 natural armor), and gave them each 2 barbarian levels, which also included adjusting their abilities again (+4, +4, +2, +2, 0, -2). Then I arbitrarily decided that Midnight Terror also has some winter wolf ancestry so gave her cold resist 10. (Winter wolves are immune to cold.)
I compared them to the CR tables in the Bestiary and their HP was high, their AC was about right, and their damage was low, in both cases, for the CR I assigned to them. (The book notes that it's a guideline only, of course.)
Midnight Terror is now an 8 HD advanced large worg with 2 barbarian levels, for 10 total hitdice, and clocks in at CR 7. Rime Ghost is now a 12 HD advanced huge winter wolf with 2 barbarian levels, for a total of 14 hitdice, and clocks in at CR 11.
I also made a Terror Worg pack beta, a 6 HD worg with 2 barbarian levels, for 8 total hitdice, that I clocked in at CR 5, and a "basic" Terror Worg, a 6 HD worg that I put at CR 3.
Midnight Terror and Rime Ghost are the parents of the so-called "Terror Worgs," so I gave them cold resist 10 as well.
For reference, a standard worg is 4 HD and CR 2.
Here they are. Note that the detail text is partially copied from the Bestiary. This is the text that's actually on my print-outs I use at the table, and I like that information handy.
What I should really be working on is a burning skeletal champion spellcaster to go with my burning skeleton army.
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Post by Munroe on Mar 15, 2014 8:25:47 GMT -5
I've been working on some NPCs the last few days. - Finished upgrading Tarabitha Czelnai, my Jezelda (demon lord of werewolves) cultist from human cleric 3 to witchwolf cleric 10.
(I repurposed her old human cleric 3 stats as a generic cultist of Jezelda that can serve as her minions.) - Upgraded the Lord of Burnt bones to CR 9 antipaladin 9. (Variant burning skeletal champion undead lord antipaladin 9.)
- Upgraded my burning skeletal champion warrior 3 to burning skeletal champion fighter 5.
(I upgraded him from warrior 3 to warrior 5 at first, but then decided I would make him a fighter 5 instead, which just meant giving him three fighter bonus feats and fighter weapon and armor training and making one skill favored class that wasn't before.) - Statted up a variant burning skeletal mage necromancer 5. Skeletal mage is a skeletal champion variant that appears in the Carrion Crown Adventure Path. It gets Silent Spell as a bonus feat in addition to improved initiative.
As far as I can tell, the only difference between skeletal mage and skeletal champion is the addition of the Silent Spell bonus feat, so I modded the Lord of Burnt Bones so his Create Spawn ability indicates that skeletal champions he creates that have spellcasting ability gain Silent Spell as a bonus feat, and also granted it to him as a bonus feat since he has spellcasting ability as an antipaladin. The party is going to set-out for the lair of the Lord of Burnt Bones soon, I think. They're presently level 6 and level 5, but I expect them to hit level 7 or be close to 7 before they reach him. I plan to mix things up with some fire elementals on their way to fight the Lord of Burnt Bones. He's lairing in a volcanically active region (he and his fire skeletons are immune to fire damage), so I can use all manner of fire-themed creatures. It also will get the party away from the village for awhile so I can have them move into different ecologies in the Hungry Mountains on their way to face Ludovic Teodorescu. The new fighter bonus feats that I have my skeletal champion fighter 5 are Combat Reflexes, Stand Still, and Step Up. So he gets four attacks-of-opportunity per round and can make attacks-of-opportunity while flat-footed (Combat Reflexes), and can make a combat maneuver check when someone threatens an attack of opportunity by moving out of one of his adjacent squares. If he succeeds the check, the target loses their movement until their next turn (Stand Still). Step Up allows him to take an immediate 5-foot-step to follow anyone taking a 5-foot-step away from him (this counts as 5 feet of his potential movement on his next turn and prevents him from taking a 5 foot step on his turn). I'm looking forward to trying him in combat. He also has the Fleet feet twice, which increases his movement speed to 40.
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Post by Munroe on Mar 22, 2014 7:57:19 GMT -5
So last session (last Saturday), the party consisted of: - Orazio the NE male dhampir archer ranger (trapper archetype, no spells).
- Maeve the CN female sylph (djinn-blooded planetouched) cleric of Calistria (goddess of lust, trickery, and revenge).
- Crane the C? male plumekith (garuda-blooded aasimar) greatsword fighter.
(The player insists he didn't realize he was making a bird-themed aasimar with the name of a bird.) - Ardarious the C? elf two-weapon ranger, who is the newest character in the party.
I got a ride to the game with the guy who plays Shelbie the CE beastbrood (rakshasa-blooded tiefling) sorcerer, but his daughter got sick when we stopped to eat on the way there, so he dropped me off and took her home. The session began with the party going to bed on the evening of Fireday 21 Kuthona 4712 AR. They made some Perception checks to see if anything disturbed their sleep in the night. Nothing did. In the morning of Starday 22 Kuthona 4712 AR, while Maeve and Ardarious were eating breakfast, the inn was approached by Midnight Terror, the large-sized alpha-female of the local worg pack. She confronted the party about upholding their end of the bargain regarding killing some of her rabid offspring in exchange for her information on the fire skeleton army movements in the wilderness and her pack not attacking people around the inn. She led them into the woods and had them fight a quartet of rabid worgs for her. It was two hours into the woods from the inn. Maeve had two instances of Remove Disease prepared, and she cast it and held the charge in an attempt to actually cure one of the worgs of rabies, but the rest of the party killed the worgs before she could succeed at a touch attack to deliver the spell. Midnight Terror left the group to find their own way back to their camp and wandered off into the snowstorm. It took them less time to get back to the inn because they weren't tracking rabid worgs on the way back. At about this time I ruled that 24-hours had passed since Orazio's last two level drains so he automatically shrugged them off. (Dhampirs auto-succeed at losing level drains after 24 hours instead of having to roll for it.) He still has one level drain from his ongoing possession of cursed wight treasure, but dhampirs don't suffer the mechanical penalties of level drains while they have them, so he's not pressed to get rid of that one level. (Dhampirs suffer no mechanical effects but the level drains can still kill them if they drain all levels.) Around noon the party decided to set-out for Kavapesta, the county-seat of Amaans, mainly because Ardarious had low-level starting gear and wanted to do some shopping. The trip, which was normally an 8 hour (day-long) trip by horseback, was estimated at approximately 20 hours (minimum) because of the snow conditions, and then only because I did the math wrong. It should have been half heavy snowfall and half standard snowfall for 24 hours of total travel time, but I forgot that the horses make it an 8 hour trip normally, so I trimmed some time off on the assumption that the 8 hours was based on the party movement speed without horses. Anyway, we rolled "random" encounters for each hour of travel time. 1st hour 5% chance, 2nd hour 10% chance, 3rd hour 15% chance, and so on. They got an encounter in hour 6 with a 30% chance. I rolled on the encounter table by terrain for an "idea" of what they got. It said they got 1d6 ogres. Since I didn't have 1d6 ogres, and I had recently statted an ash wight ogre, I gave them an ash wight ogre and two ash wightspawn instead. (Wight giants can't create spawn, but it was just another spawn of the same master ash wight, who wasn't present.) The wights managed to kill one of the horses by level-drain, and Orazio also got level-drained by the ash wight ogre. The fight might have gone a little differently if I had remembered at the time that Orazio, who is the main damage dealer, couldn't use his composite longbow while mounted. I'll put it in my notes for next time. The reason the wight was attacking the horse was because the guy was on it. The horse being dead does mean I'll get to recalculate travel time though. When we were almost finished with the battle, the girlfriend of the player of Andarious asked if she could play--she was there the whole time, and it was her second session sitting through, but hadn't previously shown an interest in actually playing--so I had her look through the Core Rulebook and the Advanced Race Guide to decide what to play. She decided to play an elf druid, based mostly on the illustration of one in Advanced Race Guide, and also the party suggesting she should play a druid. They also suggested she should be Chaotic Neutral, which she went along with. Orazio's player uses HeroLab as his character builder/character sheet, so he rolled her up a character in HeroLab while it wasn't his turn. Her elf druid took the monkey domain, which apparently grants a monkey companion as its domain ability. I allowed her to take a monkey companion even though it is a somewhat exotic animal for our setting because I figure at least organ-grinders and circuses had monkeys in the region, and maybe she stole it from a circus or something. ============================================================================================== So my player-characters in my campaign mostly fall in the CN, CE, NE range of the alignment spectrum. One is a demon-worshiper working toward lichdom and another worships the god of murder and plans to take the dhampir-only feat to drink blood next level. They're allied with worgs for mutual benefit, they're renting a room at their headquarters to a known demon-worshipping werewolf sympathizer, and they've had several non-combat meetings with the vampire viscountess. So that means I need to start making more "helping evil out" things for the party to do. One of my major upcoming/slightly mentioned plots is that Viscountess Emera Galdyce the moroi (standard-vampire human witch 7) is trying to figure out a way to revive her staked husband Viscount Oilic Galdyce the nosferatu (nosferatu-vampire human aristocrat 4/rogue 9) without him going into an insane feeding frenzy from 27 years of lack of blood consumption. (Flavor text on vampires in the setting is that they can lose their minds from blood starvation.) I'm thinking one of the things Emera is going to need is help completing a ritual to "contain" the Viscount when he awakens, just in case he rampages. The party will have to bind the nosferatu to the land by activating wardstones/fanes/nature shrines in the wilderness around the adventure region, and to activate those shrines they will have to 1.) recover their activation relics and 2.) defeat their fey guardians. The unforseen (hopefully) side effect of binding the nosferatu to the land with these wardstones will be that the whole region between the wardstones is essentially locked in with him. That will mean that the party, the vampire castle, the local village, the party HQ, the worg pack, and all the other baddies still around will basically be locked in the nosferatu's prison, and he's not the only one getting hungry. It's based on Ravenloft domain borders, and how Darklords in Ravenloft can never leave their own domains, like how Count Strahd is trapped in Barovia. Except in Ravenloft the Darklord can open the borders to travel by others and he's the one trapping the party in the domain and in this case the party are acting to trap the nosferatu "until he can get under control," and hopefully won't know they're trapping themselves in with him. I'll have to plan for the contingency that they figure it out before they activate all the wardstones. I want to conclude the Burning Legion plot before getting too heavily into the Rat in a Cage plot. For the Burning Legion plot (the one about the fire skeleton army), the party will be going to find Ludovic Teodorescu (aka Theodore Pyreborn, The Lord of Burnt Bones) soon. He'll be supported by fire skeleton champions, fire skeleton necromancers, fire skull swarms, fire skeleton cyclops, and wild fire elementals. He'll also be in the company of the (unnamed as-yet) Ash Wight Lord, ash wights, ash wightspawn, and ash wight ogres. I should probably add something else that's more fire, less undead. The Burning Legion is basically stationed near live lava vents of an active volcano, so I can insert a fair variety of fire monsters. Maybe a salamander, or an efreet? I've got minis for both of those.
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Post by Munroe on Mar 24, 2014 2:57:16 GMT -5
Things to do on my list right now: - stat a ranger 2/expert 2 (who is an bowyer and archery merchant)
- stat a human rogue 7 natural werewolf (who is a bandit leader)
- assign gear to a green hag witch -- I really just keep putting it off
- restat my aristocrat/rogue nosferatu, who was originally built with the Pathfinder 3.5e nosferatu template (from Pathfinder AP #7), and used a published NPC as a base character. They upgraded their nosferatu template to Pathfinder RPG in Bestiary 4.
- Work on painting my skeleton-in-full-plate-with-greatsword to be the Lord of Burnt Bones. I have a fall-back prepainted mini in case I don't finish the paint job though.
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Post by Munroe on Mar 25, 2014 1:11:52 GMT -5
Things to do on my list right now: - stat a ranger 2/expert 2 (who is an bowyer and archery merchant)
- stat a human rogue 7 natural werewolf (who is a bandit leader)
- assign gear to a green hag witch -- I really just keep putting it off
- restat my aristocrat/rogue nosferatu, who was originally built with the Pathfinder 3.5e nosferatu template (from Pathfinder AP #7), and used a published NPC as a base character. They upgraded their nosferatu template to Pathfinder RPG in Bestiary 4.
- Work on painting my skeleton-in-full-plate-with-greatsword to be the Lord of Burnt Bones. I have a fall-back prepainted mini in case I don't finish the paint job though.
Finished that bowyer/archery merchant. I made him a ranger 2/rogue 2 instead of a ranger 2/expert 2. Next is the human rogue 7 natural werewolf. I'm also intermittently painting on the skeleton-in-full-plate-with-greatsword but I don't know if he'll be finished by time for his appearance in-game. It really shouldn't be hard to assign gear to the green hag witch. I could do that "whenever," I guess. At least now I have a pretty good idea of the main thing she needs. May party's archer is the biggest threat, so she needs AC gear. The nosferatu isn't a priority because the party isn't likely to encounter him for at least four sessions (8 weeks).
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Post by Munroe on Mar 26, 2014 15:18:42 GMT -5
Finished that bowyer/archery merchant. I made him a ranger 2/rogue 2 instead of a ranger 2/expert 2. Next is the human rogue 7 natural werewolf. I'm also intermittently painting on the skeleton-in-full-plate-with-greatsword but I don't know if he'll be finished by time for his appearance in-game. It really shouldn't be hard to assign gear to the green hag witch. I could do that "whenever," I guess. At least now I have a pretty good idea of the main thing she needs. May party's archer is the biggest threat, so she needs AC gear. The nosferatu isn't a priority because the party isn't likely to encounter him for at least four sessions (8 weeks). OK, so I'm working on my human rogue 7 natural werewolf. As always happens when I start working on an NPC, he changed. He's now a human rogue 9 natural dire werewolf. I've got everything done but his skills and his gear. I don't know what kind of gear to give him because, as a dire werewolf, he changes size categories when he shapeshifts into hybrid form and animal form. In animal form his gear merges with his body, so it's a non-issue, but in hybrid form anything worn remains worn, and he's changing size categories. So, yeah, trying to make sure his gear doesn't get destroyed when he shapeshifts.
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Post by Munroe on Mar 27, 2014 5:18:57 GMT -5
I've got everything done but his skills and his gear. I don't know what kind of gear to give him because, as a dire werewolf, he changes size categories when he shapeshifts into hybrid form and animal form. In animal form his gear merges with his body, so it's a non-issue, but in hybrid form anything worn remains worn, and he's changing size categories. So, yeah, trying to make sure his gear doesn't get destroyed when he shapeshifts. Turns out that's a non-issue. The polymorph subschool write-up explains that gear not merged with a creature resizes to fit a new size. So his armor will just change sizes with him. And his weapons too. I equipped him with a player budget instead of as an NPC since he's a boss character. He has a +1 adaptive frost composite shortbow (adaptive property on a composite bow means its draw strength adjusts to fit the user) and a +1 bladed belt. I gave him a +1 bladed belt because in human form his DEX is higher so he benefits from his Weapon Finesse, while in hybrid form is STR is higher. A bladed belt magically transforms into any melee piercing or slashing weapon, so in human form he can use it as a +1 short sword for weapon finesse and in hybrid form he can use it as a two-handed weapon. (He doesn't have martial weapon proficiency so he'll be using it as a large +1 spear.) He also has a +3 glamered shadow mithral shirt and a belt of physical might (+2 DEX and +2 CON). He also has 5 arrow magnets, which are single-use items that can be thrown out onto a battle field and draw arrows to themselves (they have 5 hitpoints and 8 hardness each, and are also destroyed if touched once thrown out). Since the main damage dealer in the party is an archery-focused ranger (presently), the dire werewolf rogue has Improved Unarmed Strike and Deflect Arrows as feats. It looks like Deflect Arrows feat in Pathfinder doesn't require a Reflex save, it just negates one ranged attack per round. The Improved Unarmed Strike is also useful because lycanthropes in Pathfinder don't get claw attacks, they have the same natural attacks in hybrid form as they have in animal form.
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Post by Munroe on Apr 2, 2014 12:06:00 GMT -5
Last session I had a fun experience. We ran two combats simultaneously even though they occurred hours apart in-game. Usually I try to only run two combats at the same time if they're also occurring in-game at the same time, but in this case the party was split and one branch of the party had some elapsed time that the other branch lacked, so the two fights resolved at the same time. They did all get caught-up together by the end of the session though. So last session (last Saturday), the party consisted of: - Shelbie the CE beastbrood (rakshasa-blooded tiefling) sorcerer
- Orazio the NE male dhampir archer ranger (trapper archetype, no spells)
- Maeve the CN female sylph (djinn-blooded planetouched) cleric of Calistria (goddess of lust, trickery, and revenge)
- Crane the C? male plumekith (garuda-blooded aasimar) greatsword fighter
(The player insists he didn't realize he was making a bird-themed aasimar with the name of a bird.) - Ardarious the C? elf two-weapon ranger
- Ginger the CN elf druid, who is the newest member of the party
- Geshon the C? orc "barbarian," who is played by a guy the rage-quit back in November and has returned twice since then
I put barbarian in quotation marks there because he's supposed to be a barbarian with the mad dog archetype but last session he didn't have his sheet and Orazio's player remade him in HeroLab so he'd have a guy to play, but the player didn't know Mad Dog was a barbarian archetype and built him as a fighter instead. We used the fighter stats last session, but hopefully he'll get rebuilt as a barbarian mad dog before he plays again (if he plays again). When we were almost finished with the battle, the girlfriend of the player of Andarious asked if she could play--she was there the whole time, and it was her second session sitting through, but hadn't previously shown an interest in actually playing--so I had her look through the Core Rulebook and the Advanced Race Guide to decide what to play. She decided to play an elf druid, based mostly on the illustration of one in Advanced Race Guide, and also the party suggesting she should play a druid. They also suggested she should be Chaotic Neutral, which she went along with. Orazio's player uses HeroLab as his character builder/character sheet, so he rolled her up a character in HeroLab while it wasn't his turn. Her elf druid took the monkey domain, which apparently grants a monkey companion as its domain ability. I allowed her to take a monkey companion even though it is a somewhat exotic animal for our setting because I figure at least organ-grinders and circuses had monkeys in the region, and maybe she stole it from a circus or something. The newest player is the player of Ginger the elf druid. She has the monkey domain instead of an animal companion. The monkey domain grants monkey-themed spells as well as a monkey familiar. She's the girlfriend of the guy playing Ardarious and I was worried at first that she might participate half-heartedly, but she seemed very eager last session to get into the game and get started. Once she had her character sheet in-hand, she was asking about how to read it, and she was very excited to have a monkey, though we've yet to figure out what benefit it will be to her in combat. (Familiars usually are more of a liability than a benefit as I understand it.) She's using a shortbow (I can't remember if it's composite or not) and a longsword, since she gains proficiency with those weapons as an elf. I'm looking forward to seeing if she sticks with the game. Anyway, I'll post more later. I've got to run.
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Post by Munroe on Apr 29, 2014 12:01:46 GMT -5
Ok, I've had two more sessions since the last update.
The session before last was really weird because the players went to the county seat again and did some stuff, but what was weird about it was the Chaotic Evil tiefling spent part of his time in town finding someone to sell him slaves on the black market. I had no idea why he wanted the slaves, but he found a shady black-marketeer who was willing to get into slavery for the right price. He paid for 4 healthy slaves in early adulthood to be delivered in one week. Other members of the party were aware of this transaction.
I had no idea why he was buying them.
That session consisted of: Shelbie (buying slaves) Geshon (in the room with Shelbie, acting like his bodyguard, along with Samson, his white tiger companion) Orazio (guarding the door outside and listening) Ardarious (guarding the door outside and listening) Maeve (in the tavern getting drunk, not aware of the slaving) Crane (also in the tavern, but not drinking and not really involved in the slaving). Zu (new player to campaign, evil kitsune rogue, hadn't met the party yet and mostly dicked-around playing card games at other tables)
I feel like I'm forgetting somebody. I remember there being eight players. Ginger wasn't there because her player is grounded from seeing Ardarious's player (they're in high school and dating) for awhile.
After Shelbie completed his evil slave transaction, Geshon had a "minor" altercation with a drunk in the tavern. The drunk insulted him and took a swing at him, so Geshon slashed him with his falchion and dropped him to negative hitpoints in one swing. Shelbie cast Infernal Healing on the man, an evil arcane healing spell that grants fast healing 1 for 1 round/caster level. The man came around and was told he had fallen down. He was drunk and disoriented enough that he didn't argue. The party went to the inn they've stayed at before. (The Broken Book.)
The party headed back to Sen's Pass in the morning. The snow had let-up some and it was only estimated as a 16 hour trip. (It's an 8 hour trip in good weather.) The party elected to make a forced march and try to make the entire trip in one day. (They all rolled saves each hour beyond 8 to avoid fatigue.)
Four hours into the trip, at noon, the party encountered a nabasu demon as a "random" encounter. (I rolled for random encounters on the trip and it suggested a CR 7 encounter. I went ahead with the nabasu, which was CR 8 but more plot-related.) Geshon shot a crossbow bolt at the demon as it flew up, but he had to leave (it was past when he had been leaving, actually). Shelbie cast lightning bolt at the demon as it flew up but it was still too far away for him to see that lightning bolt had no effect. (Nabasu are immune to electrical damage, but I made him roll a caster level check as if he were trying to overcome spell resistance.) The demon opened its attacks with its death-stealing gaze, and dealt 1 negative level each to Orazio the dhampir and Ardarious the elf. It landed beside of Crane and attacked him in melee, then Zu showed up and started sneak attacking it. Zu the rogue, who had been following the party, finally joined the party when the demon attacked them, and he got into a good flanking position. (The player was actually surprised to learn that he got sneak attacks for flanking. He didn't know that. His player kept playing cards at other tables between his turns though. Super-annoying.) Once the demon was close enough, Maeve used her Knowledge domain power to touch the creature with a melee touch attack and make a Lore check with an assumed Natural 15. She determined it was a nabasu demon that steals life with its gaze, and is immune to electricity and resistant to a lot of elements and has spell resistance and damage reduction. Shelbie cast magic missile at it, but its spell resistance absorbed the magic missile. He tried again the next round with magic missile and it actually went through that time. Crane beat on it with his greatsword. He's good at that. Ardarious and Orazio shot it it with bows until it tried to take flight again and the rogue got a crit on an AoO for it leaving a threatened square. I use critical hit cards so he drew a card that gave double damage and the creature knocked prone. Once it was knocked prone the archers moved to melee range because they were taking -4 for attacking a prone creature. It tried to stand and everyone took their Attacks of Opportunity. Once it stood, since they had already used their attacks of opportunity for that round, and it was down to about 25% health, it teleported away.
The session ended there.
The next session, last Saturday, the party consisted of: Shelbie the CE beastbrood tiefling sorcerer Geshon the C? orc (mad dog) barbarian (Mad dog archetype gains an animal companion as a druid at level 1 but doesn't get rage until level 4) Maeve the CN slyph cleric of Calistria Crane the CN plumekith aasimar fighter Ardarious the CN elf ranger Samson, Geshon's medium white tiger animal companion
The session started a bit earlier than normal because Shelbie's player and I got there early and I got set-up, then Orazio's player didn't show-up so Maeve's player texted him and he said he couldn't make it. (He frequently builds people characters and/or goes to get food before we start, so pushes back our start-time.)
So the party was still at noon and had just defeated a demon, at least to the point it teleported away. Geshon wandered back to the party, but nobody saw where Orazio went. I gave Geshon partial XP for the encounter since he did technically fire at the nabasu in the first round of combat before he had to leave.
I rolled for random encounters as the group continued on their way and they had another "random" encounter at 7 PM game-time. This time I had them attacked by two wraiths--actually wraithspawn, aka wraiths with penalties for being spawn of other wraiths. Some undead-spawn have penalties in Pathfinder while enslaved--that appeared to be pursuing them from the way they had just come. They had to deal with the incorporeal creatures but did manage to do so. Geshon's player did complain about them some because undead aren't immune to crits in Pathfinder, but incorporeal creatures are, so he couldn't crit with his falchion. Ardarious struggled to hit them because of his -1 to attack from level-drain and the -4 to attack for firing into melee without Precise Shot, but he did get to hit one finally. It only did 3 damage, but it was enough to destroy the wraith. Nobody succeeded on their Knowledge (religion) checks to know what kind of undead they were fighting, but Maeve was just 1 point shy so I gave her some relatively obvious details anyway (but not their creature name), and Shelbie succeeded a Spellcraft check to know that force effects could deal full damage to incorporeal creatures, so he blasted them with magic missiles. They were eventually both destroyed. One of them did say something about "just being a messenger" before it was destroyed, but they never heard the message.
I kept rolling for random encounters for the rest of the trip and at 11 PM (hour 15 of their whole trip), they got a 97 on the random encounter table. The higher the roll, the higher the CR of creature. I looked and it was a CR 11 cloud giant. I said out-loud "Oh, no, you don't want to fight that." They asked what it was and I said it was a cloud giant. I looked it up and saw they can be NG or NE so I decided it was an NG one. Then I went ahead and told them they saw a female cloud giant among the trees 60 feet away. I didn't have a mini for it so I didn't put anything on the board yet. They declared they were running away, except Shelbie, who used his daily flight power (granted because of his worship of the demon lord Pazuzu and an item he has), who flew up into the air and toward the giant. He cast magic missile at the giant, who responded immediately by saying "What the Hell?!" and hurling a rock at him. Had it hit, it might have killed him, but I rolled really low on its attack roll. Then Shelbie took off in the opposite direction from the party and the giant chased him about 60 feet before giving up and yelling after him, "You ass!"
Shelbie circled back around and rejoined the party.
They arrived in Sen's Pass at about midnight, and spent an hour in the Taproot Tavern. After that, Sumac Sarzini, the halfing tavernmaster and proprietor, told them it was closing time and they have to leave. He told them the rooms at the tavern were all occupied that night. (It has a few rooms so it's really a small inn but he mostly puts up drunks too drunk to go home.) It took a bit of coaxing to get the orc to leave without a fight.
After putting the party out on the street they were attacked by five fire skeletons. (Actually three fire skeletons, a fire skeleton champion fighter, and a fire skeleton champion-mage necromancer, but the party can't tell them apart unless they talk or start doing something smart, or don't die in one hit.) The three mindless fire skeletons were taken out quickly by Maeve channeling positive energy, and the warrior was defeated before the mage could actually attack, so, having been attacked some itself, it used its wand of invisibility and fled. Shelbie tried to hit it with Stone Call (and he succeeded) but it got away.
The party went back to the Silver Dagger Inn relatively peacefully. They got there crazy late and slept until about 11 am on 25 Kuthona 4712 AR. (I run a very time-and-date oriented game since werewolves depend on the date and the moon phase.) The vishkanya twins had made breakfast but it was cold by the time the party got up.
Shelbie declared that he was going to the vampire's castle. The rest of the party declared they were going with him.
They went to town and spent awhile there. Shelbie checked with the hedge witch about getting hired help (he had asked about it before) and she said she had someone in mind but hadn't spoken to him yet, but Shelbie would know by tomorrow.
Around 3-ish the party reached the vampire's castle. They went in the front door, but circumvented the negative energy hazard (a rift leaking negative energy into a room that has an effect like Harm plus a random minor spell-blight, that the vampires use to create their festrog minions) by using a rope up the building they had put there previously. The chamber at the top of the stairs was empty this time (they killed the dhampir guards before) except for the Hidden Master (variant male distorted hidden one shadetouch dread shadow fetchling rogue 4), who responded eventually when they knocked. He showed them that the entrance they had made previously (by removing a stone in the floor) had been repaired, and suggested they go around to the back door. He'd let others know they were coming. He sank through the floor to inform the vampires of their guests.
A little while later the party reached the back door. Ardarious's player informed us that he had to leave as he had a long drive the next day. The players of Maeve and Crane also indicated they were leaving. Geshon's player, who had indicated he could actually play to midnight that session, asked if we were closing up shop. I said no, not if he and Shelbie wanted to continue. Shelbie's player indicated he just planned to talk to the vampire, so Geshon's player, who generally only plays for the combat, indicated he would go ahead and take off. I told the others they could wait somewhere at the castle entrance while Shelbie went to talk to the vampire (since they weren't going to be there anyway). Geshon's player insisted Geshon would stay with Shelbie, so I said OK.
After they left, Shelbie cast invisibility and slipped away from Geshon. He met up with the vampire's dhampir son (or so he says), who led him somewhere to wait on the vampire. Her plot involves trying to solve the problem of preventing her staked husband from going berserk from blood frenzy when she finally removes his take, so Shelbie told her that he thought she could soak her husband in blood, then, even though he couldn't feed, he might absorb some of the blood through his skin. And to that end, Shelbie had purchased some healthy sacrifices to be delivered on the day of 28 Kuthona, which was also the night of the full moon. Shelbie told the vampire that he would get his people out of the inn on the night of 28 Kuthona, hunting for werewolves, and the vampire could have her people abduct the humans from the inn then. He wanted it to look like an attack on the inn so the party wouldn't know he actually bought the slaves to be butchered for the vampire's goal. She spoke to him at length about it, and asked if there was anyone at the inn he preferred unharmed. He told her he'd prefer the vishkanya were left alive as they're useful. He gave her permission to enter the private quarters attached to the inn only on 28 Kuthona and a couple subsequent days. They also talked about his desire to become a lich and the vampire proposed that he might consider pursuing full fiendhood instead, as it might be easier with his tiefling nature. The vampire is quite evil, but she finds Shelbie to be even more evil than she considers herself.
So those slaves from the first session were purchased to soak the staked nosferatu in blood. That had been a plot-hook I was going to give the players later. The vampire was going to ask the party to bring her victims to feed to her husband and present them with moral concerns, but Shelbie jumped right to bringing her victims, as a show of good-will. Man, he's evil.
The session wrapped up after his talk with the Emera. I haven't decided how much XP he'll get for that yet, but it should be a lot. He's actively working for the vampire's goals without being pushed.
The player actually complained to me on the ride home (he gives me a ride since he lives near me) that he had been trying to ditch the party to speak to the vampire for several sessions but they just keep following him around like he's the leader. (He does have 22 effective charisma.) The other characters don't have a lot of their own motivations, so I guess we need to work on that. They all just seem to follow him around because he seems to know what he's going.
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Post by Munroe on May 11, 2014 8:11:12 GMT -5
Had another session of Pathfinder last night.
It picked up where the last one left off.
This time the characters where: Shelbie the CE beastbrood tiefling sorcerer Geshon the C? orc (mad dog) barbarian (Mad dog archetype gains an animal companion as a druid at level 1 but doesn't get rage until level 4) ... with Samson, Geshon's medium white tiger animal companion Maeve the CN slyph cleric of Calistria Crane the CN plumekith aasimar fighter Ardarious the CN elf ranger Ginger the CN (might be TN, actually) elf druid ... with a monkey familiar granted by the monkey domain, taken in place of an animal companion. I don't know the monkey's name. Rowley the ?? human fighter, a new character this session created by a new player. Zu the CE kitsune rogue.
Session started at approximately on 25 Kuthona 4712 AR (Toilday) at 4:30p game-time. Party regrouped at the vampire's castle after Shelbie talked to the vampire. Ginger tracked the party there and met-up with them. Zu, who never formally joined the party, also reemerged at the vampire's castle and wanted to rob the place so went into the castle but since everyone was leaving, he followed them to town. I let him steal some iron torch brackets before he left. They were nailed down, but he got them loose with a bit of effort.
On the way out the party met Rowley, a human fighter created by a new guy joining the campaign. They confronted him about what he was doing there. Since his background puts him from a lesser noble house of the county, he indicated he serves Count Galdana and patrols the countryside for dangers. Since the party technically work for Count Galdana (through a proxy), they allowed him along. Before they left the castle, a dhampir emerged and asked them to wait so Lorekeeper Gray could have a word. Gray came out shortly after disguised as a halfling and requested of them that they should try to find out information on a fey-lord named Caradoc Brac Caerwyn, who might have information on wardstones that could be used to capture undead.
The party walked to Sen's Pass, the central village of my campaign, and that took about an hour. They got there a little after 5:30p.
Shelbie, who is the de facto party leader with his 24 effective Charisma, delegated that someone should go talk to the hedge witch and ask her what she knows about Caradoc Brac Caerwyn. Ginger the elf and Ardarious the elf, along with Maeve the sylph went to the hedge witch's storefront and asked her what she knew of the fey-lord Caradoc Brac Caerwyn. Because fey are feared in the Hungry Mountains, and assumed to pose as strangers, and because Katla Maleva (the hedge witch) had never met any of the three characters who came to question her about a fey-lord, she was less than helpful. She suggested offering fairies milk. She was about to try to get the elves and sylph to touch some hex nails when they decided she was useless and left. (Hex nails might be something the party would like to have though, they give a one-time benefit against hexes from witches, and the spell-like abilities of hags and fey.) When Shelbie heard of the poor luck that Ardarious, Ginger, and Maeve (two elves and a sylph) had with Katla Maleva, he remembered that the villagers fear fey, and mentioned that to them.
Shelbie started yelling for Racivado, who is the guard bailiff in town (serving as both guard captain and tax collector) and Everett Racivado came out of Marcus Ogden's smithy, which still showed signs of being hit by the stonecall spell the previous night. Shelbie was about to talk to Racivado when he decided that he should deal with Zu instead.
Zu's player had been playing cards at another table and only intermittently wandering back over and demanding that the party should fight something soon. He also had expressed interest to me that he'd like to wait until the Shelbie character was asleep and kill him in his sleep. Shelbie's player, along with almost everyone playing, was annoyed with Zu's player and how he was barely involved in the game, so Shelbie took in-character action. He cast invisibility and I went over and tapped Zu's player to let him know combat had started. He wanted to know against what and I told him the party was attacking his character.
They didn't actually attack right away. Shelbie demanded answers from Zu while invisible, mostly concerning questions of why Zu was following the party. Zu had, of course, aided them in the fight with the nabasu demon the previous day, but had never actually spoken to the party or made any other friendly action toward them. Shelbie demanded that Zu provide some assurance that he wasn't a threat to the group. Zu's player blamed me at that time for "failure to introduce him to the group," and I accepted the blame rather than have the other players argue with him (and it seamed like they were about to).
Zu tried to give assurance that he wouldn't harm the party, but his assurance sounded a little like a veiled threat, so Shelbie cast lightning bolt at Zu. Zu, being a rogue with a nice Reflex modifier, succeeded his Reflex saving throw, and, thanks to evasion, took no damage from the successful save. Since the lightning missed, Geshon had his tiger run in and attack Zu, attempting to grapple him. The grapple succeeded and Zu was grappled by a (juvenile) white tiger. Ardarious also attempted to grapple Zu but his grapple-check failed. Most of the other players delayed their actions to see what would happen. Geshon moved closer to the grapple but wasn't within reach to join the grapple. Zu also failed his attempt to escape the grapple--he rolled a natural 1 on his Escape Artist check. While a natural 1 isn't an auto-fail on skill-checks, it did mean he only got a total of 15 on his attempt, and that was a failure. Shelbie, now visible after casting lightning bolt, moved around behind the hedge on the far side of Zu so that Zu couldn't jump over the bushes and hide if he got free. After moving, Shelbie unloaded a magic missile spell on the grappled Zu.
Zu's player, feeling somewhat powerless (an obvious effect of being grappled) and obviously feeling as though there was no escape, asked me if he could have his character attempt a coup de grace on himself. I told him it wouldn't be possible as a coup de grace is a full-round action and his actions were limited in the grapple, but he should make a Wisdom check. He did so, and his roll was kind of poor (a 10 after modifiers), but I didn't think it would take a lot of Wisdom to realize he could surrender, so I suggested that to him as an option.
While being pinched in tiger jaws, and with an elf and a dwarf both either trying to grab him, or moving to grab, Zu yelled out that he surrendered. Shelbie accepted his surrender and put him in the pillory by the village-square guard shack. Racivado pulled Shelbie aside, out of earshot of Zu, and told Shelbie that he could only keep Zu there for a couple days tops, and he absolutely would be released before the night of the full moon on 28 Kuthona. Racivado didn't particularly agree with the assault on Zu, but he understood it somewhat, with the way Shelbie explained it to him as Zu stalking the party.
The session ended there, with the in-game time being approximately 6:00p.
I don't know if Zu's player will be back or not after this session. I don't like that the party attacked him, but he was really annoying so I try not to feel too bad for him either.
In spite of it all, I think Rowley's player may play again. He has a friend interested in playing too, and I warned both of them that sometimes the size of our group gets annoyingly big. His friend indicated he's a big Pathfinder product buyer but hasn't actually played the game, so he's initially interested in observing, just to see how it's actually played. So of course he's welcome to do that, and probably play as well, but if he does want to play, I will request he make his character a session in advance, because we're spending way too much time at the start of each session making characters. They both seemed like nice guys with reasonable personalities.
Somewhere in the middle of this hot mess, Crane's player proposed to Maeve's player. I'm not sure exactly when as I only noticed he was proposing when I mentioned it was Maeve's turn, then realized it was actually Crane's turn so corrected myself only to be told they were preoccupied. Maeve's player said yes. While I think it's great that they enjoy the game enough to share that life-event with us, I don't think the session was one of our better ones and I regret that I couldn't have given them a better session as a backdrop for the proposal.
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Post by Munroe on May 16, 2014 3:39:29 GMT -5
So one thing I'd like to do before next session is establish a series of ground-rules and disclaimers that I expect players in the game to employ.
I'd like to establish a hard-cap on the number of players. Right now my regular characters are Shelbie, Ardarious, Crane, Maeve, Geshon, and Orazio, but I think Orazio may drop-out. He's missed the last two sessions. Last session Ginger was in game again, but the session was bad (see previous post above) so I'm not sure if her player will make a habit of playing. Ginger's player is the girlfriend of Ardarious's player so I expect they'll largely decide how they spend their weekend time together. But if just those players play then we've got seven people. I should set the session cap at eight, I think. That way there's still that extra space for someone to join. Running a party of eight takes forever though, and it means I need to prep as though the party were higher level than the actual party level. The rules say a party of 6 or more characters should count as a level higher for determining challenges but with eight characters I might treat them as two levels higher.
OK, so first thing is done: Maximum party size of 8, while 6 or fewer is desirable.
Second thing I need to do is establish some kind of guideline for expected attention on the game. I think that guideline will be:
Players are responsible for developing their characters' interpersonal relationships with other players' characters. Failure to interact with the party outside of combat may put your character in an awkward position later. Playing an alignment that meshes with the party isn't required, but I'd encourage it anyway, because the party may kill your character. I as GM will not force your character to socialize with the party, nor be held responsible for how the party responds to your character socially. Interaction with the game outside of combat is expected.
By the same token, if you are involved in combat, and are not available when it is your turn, because you've engaged yourself in some other major activity, such as playing a card game or watching a movie or playing a video game on your laptop, it is your responsibility to continue to participate in the game. Your default action in such cases will be that your character delays. If your character delays through the whole combat, you won't get XP for the combat. It's really preferred that you're actually playing the game with us when you're playing the game with us, and we shouldn't be expected to tell you everything you missed since your last action when you decide to take your next action. It's my intention to get small hour-glass (3-minute or 5-minute) to limit decision-paralysis as well. Such a time limitation would not apply to rules-resolution issues, which may still take time to resolve. (But I'll try to be quick about that too, to keep things moving.)
===== This is a rough draft, but those are the kinds of things I need to spell-out.
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Post by Munroe on Jun 20, 2014 20:49:15 GMT -5
Ended up that we didn't have a session on the 24th. Some of my players graduated high school that weekend so they had other celebratory plans. The last session was on the 7th of June. In game time, as of the end of last session, it's now the 26th of Kuthona (December-equivalent) and approximately noon. Last session consisted of: - Shelbie the CE beastbrood sorcerer (beastbrood are rakshasa-blooded tieflings with CHA bonus instead of tiefling CHA penalty)
- Geshon the C? (probably CE) orc barbarian (mad dog archetype, trades some rage benefits for an animal companion) and his animal companion medium white tiger Samson (tiger increases to large next level)
- Crane the CN plumekith greatsword fighter (plumekith are garuda-blooded aasimar with feathery hair)
- Maeve the CN sylph cleric of Calistria (sylph is the Pathfinder equivalent of air genasi)
- Ardarious the CN elf two-weapon ranger (trapper archetype, gives up ranger spellcasting for ability to make specialty traps)
- Ginger the CN?/TN? elf druid (took monkey domain instead of an animal companion, so has a monkey familiar and monkey spells)
The session begain on 25 Kuthona 4712 AR (Toilday) at 6 PM. Ardarious and Ginger were at the Taproot Tavern in Sen's Pass. They ate some food and Sumac, the halfling tavernmaster, asked if they had any news of Cavena, his missing barmaid. They didn't. Shelbie talked to Guard Bailiff Everett Racivado (bailiff in this case meaning local tax collector) and informed him that the group would be in town on the upcoming full moon (Fireday, 28 Kuthona). He also talked to Racivado about some damages done to one of the buildings in the fight the previous night with some of the Burning Legion, and asked where the town guards were. Racivado hadn't heard about undead in town and indicated he'd have to have a talk with his guards. Geshon was abusing Zu in the pillory and Racivado asked him to stop. (The player of Geshon was also going too far with the abuse he wanted to RP with Zu, and I had to tell him to dial it back a few notches.)Crane and Maeve weren't present yet because their players hadn't arrived yet. The quartet set-out for the Silver Dagger Inn, their usual base of operations. The Silver Dagger Inn, now owned by Guard Bailiff Everett Racivado, and formerly co-owned by Guard Captain Everett Racivado and his brother, the late Guard Bailiff Dermot Racivado, is about an hour south of town by foot. The party (minus Crane and Maeve, who weren't there yet) ran into a fire skeleton champion swordsman, fire skeleton champion necromancer, fire skeleton brute (flaming large giant skeleton), and two fire skeletons. I have given my fire skeleton champions the ability to suppress or resume their fire as a free action, so the two champions were not on fire at the start of the encounter. They managed to defeat the two basic fire skeletons before Crane and Maeve arrived. The four did all get hit by a fireball cast by the necromancer though, and it ordered the mindless brute to attack Shelbie, the party's main caster. It couldn't get to Shelbie because Geshon was in the way, so Geshon took a lot of fire damage from its flaming aura and from the explosion when it died. Geshon took the brunt of the damage that encounter, and he was getting a little grumpy, talking about how his character was going to die again. I did make the player reroll a Reflex save because I didn't see it rolled, mainly because other players have told me before that he lies about his rolls. He failed that save but he ended the fight with about 14 hp, I believe, and lived to fight another day. Ginger did very little damage in the fight, mainly because she was attacking with a bow with basically no extra damage from anything, and the skeletons have DR 5/bludgeoning, but she got lucky and did the last 3 hp of damage to one of the skeletal champions, so she got to feel like she contributed when it died from her arrow. (And I don't tell them how much or how little damage they're doing against DR unless they're doing no apparent damage, though I will suggest something isn't taking as much damage as they might expect as a way to suggest it has DR.) The party looted the skeletons (including the necromancer's spellbook) and went on their way. They reached the Silver Dagger Inn at about 7:15 in the evening. Shelbie took a bath in the residential wing of the inn by the hearth The Argent Chamberlain haunts. The Argent Chamberlain is a lar, a house deity (LG invisible incorporeal outsider), bound to the family hearth of the Silver Dagger Inn. Shelbie, being Chaotic Evil and a tiefling, doesn't get along with The Argent Chamberlain (lares can detect alignment at-will), who has hidden The Racivado Dagger that was used to kill the werewolf ( Dermot Racivado) months ago, in the session that opened the campaign (back in 2012). While readying for a bath, Shelbie cast detect magic and tried to use it to detect The Racivado Dagger in or around the hearth. (This was not successful due to a property of the dagger, actually. It's a +2 glamered holy silver dagger, and the glamered weapon property makes it detect as non-magical to detect magic and similar effects.) While Shelbie was taking a bath, Ari Russov, the party's employer and an inquisitor of Pharasma (N goddess of birth, death, and prophecy), came in and took a bath in the tub opposite Shelbie. The two of them talked to each other about finances and Shelbie requested that he should be the one to handle party payroll since he's been with the group since the beginning and several members have joined the group who have taken their initial payment then took off. Ari was uncertain of the idea and said he would have to consider it. He also pointed out that he hadn't even agreed to pay some of the current party members and they aren't technically on payroll. Shelbie and Ari got into a minor confrontation and began messing with each-other with level-0 spells. (Pathfinder allows casting level-0 spells an unlimited number of times per day.) Geshon, who was standing in the doorway to the bathes, stepped up and slapped Ari in the back of the head for messing with Shelbie, even though Shelbie started it. ( Ari, at this point, likely thinks Shelbie may be getting too big for his own britches.) Meanwhile, the two elves ( Ardarious and Ginger) were off doing "their own thing" begin closed doors. (I think they're a couple in-game as well as IRL. I've talked to them some to establish that their characters did know each other prior to joining the campaign.) Maeve was praying by herself (however a cleric of the goddess of lust, trickery, and revenge prays), and it was suggested that Crane (played by her RL fiancee) might help her "pray," but she clarified that their characters are not involved intimately. Crane ate some food cooked by the vishkanya twins and went to bed. (Left-over stew, since the party missed dinner-time at the inn.) Ardarious still has a negative level bestowed by the nabasu demon several sessions ago (which I forgot to take into consideration in the battle last session), but I think he's just waiting until the party hits level 7 at this point, so Maeve can cast restoration. His player talked about going somewhere to have it removed, but that would require another trip to Kavapesta since nobody in Sen's Pass can cast restoration. (Technically Tarabitha Czelnai can, but the party doesn't know she's that high-level.) The party is in the middle of level 6 right now though, so it will only be a couple more sessions before Maeve can remove it. The night passed uneventfully, and most of the players left for the evening. Shelbie had some RP stuff his player wanted to take care of the following morning though, so he stuck around to interact with some NPCs. The next day, 26 Kuthona 4712 AR (Wealday): Iago St.Kavapesta showed up just before noon. He was directed to Shelbie by the hedge witch Katla Maleva. Shelbie had previously asked her about hiring someone to do some work who could read and write. Iago talked to Shelbie briefly and Shelbie accessed his magical aptitude. (He doesn't have any.) He did indicate he can read and write Varisian (the regional language) and Taldane (Common), and he can copy texts even if can't read them. He also suggested he could do charcoal rubbings of carvings and such in cleared dungeons, since Shelbie asked about that kind of thing. The player of Shelbie indicated to me earlier that week that he plans to take the Leadership feat at level 7, and wants to gain a magus NPC as his cohort. The player was hoping that the person referred to him by the hedge witch would become his new cohort, but I told him in advance that he hadn't been that specific to the hedge witch and she wasn't sending someone capable of being his cohort, but that I will figure out how to introduce his cohort when he hits level 7. Tiny the Troll arrived just after noon looking for Orazio the NE dhampir archery ranger (trapper archetype). He was there on behalf of the blackmarketeer Davros Czelnai, who had previously agreed with Orazio to buy 100 lbs of blood crystal (at a rate of 185 gp/lb). Shelbie directed Tiny toward Orazio (who seems to have dropped out of the game) for the material. Tiny also questioned Shelbie about his upcoming exchange on Fireday (28 Kuthona), when Tiny is to be the one bringing Shelbie his slaves. Shelbie bluffed about the things he would do to Tiny if the slaves were harmed or in poor condition and Tiny assured him in his troll-fashion that they would arrive as promised. The player of Shelbie also told me that he's holding onto his own blood crystal so he can use it to satisfy some of the material costs of making magic items, since he can't sell it for nearly what it's actually worth. We discussed the ramifications of using it to make clothing since one of its limitations is that it can't be used to make armor. (It's basically vampiric quartz. Good for weapons, bad for armor.) So the session finally concluded when Shelbie and Tiny the Troll completed their conversation and it's between noon and 1 PM in-game on the day of 26 Kuthona 4712 AR (Wealday), two days before the full moon. ================================== It's my hope that, after the Burning Legion (fire skeleton) plot is wrapped up, I may be able to advance the timeline some rather than going day-to-day. It's hard for the party to deal with the vilkacis (werewolf possession spirit) when it only comes out part of the month and the games runs day-to-day. Rather than only having it active on the full moon, I do allow for it to be progressively more active during various cycles of the moon. (I think new moon to full moon, but I'd have to check my notes.) I'd like to advance the timeline a few months, but I want to have the RP with the fey lord Caradoc Brac Caerwyn first, as I plan to have him be tied to seasons so he's going to appear as an ice elemental or frost giant when they first meet him. I thought about having him take a different form each season. There's also a snow maiden (yuki-onna, but not in name) to be dealt with before the seasons change, but there's still plenty of winter for that to be dealt with.
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