Dawn Piper

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I'm running this at the moment and my other half is playing - without spoiling it too much we both agree that acid is a good option to start with. Don't plan it out too much though, wait and see what you face, plus ask your GM for guidance (if they'll give it to you).

Two Headed Snake wrote:
How did you run Citadel Dinyar? We've got 2 2'x'2 battle mats and one 3'x'4 and even double sided I don't think that will be enough space. just looks like suuch a headache

I tend to draw out the maps on graph paper and my players stick the different bits down using blu-tac. Then if there's a room they have an encounter in they draw it out on a battle mat.

Midnight Anarch wrote:
Black_Cat wrote:
So... anyone got any ideas what Paraduke Sethic got arrested for and why he was released? I know it's deliberately vague so after ideas and suggestions to get some creative juices flowing =)

Sethic pinged so many things the Order of the Scourge despises that it could be any reason.

First, he undoubtedly formed an organized crime ring around himself which, all on its own, may have brought the Scourge's attention. And the fact that he was so successful navigating both legal and illegal activities leads to a second point ...

He was promoted to noble status by the Queen. The Scourge have a taste for corrupt nobles, especially those rising in power faster than an inspection indicates they should. After becoming a Paraduke, there would be little doubt that Sethic magnified his ambitions, bending and breaking laws as he maneuvered against competitors in ploys to gain even more power.

Third, the Scourge targets assassins and their organizations, and one of Sethic's main activities was disposing bodies via his delicious razorbacks. It seems inevitable that assassins of varied sorts would have come to Sethic for his service, but also that Sethic ran a murder business himself.

The interesting thing to consider is that the Scourge prefer treating apprehended criminals to public displays to make their message clear. Yet, Sethic was hauled off for "undisclosed crimes" and was a "guest" of the Order instead, not mention that he was eventually released. The implication is that the Order came to the end of Sethic's usefulness as an interrogated prisoner and decided that freeing him was somehow reasonable.

So, releasing him suggests a few things -- not the least of which is that he still has the Queen's ear to whatever degree, a fact that makes him prominent in the adventure. Perhaps, unwittingly or not, he's now a pawn in a larger struggle that involves a disguised tension between the Scourge and the Queen herself. The Scourge may not be done with Sethic yet.

You rock, thank you!

By the time my players got there they wanted to get into the area. I misled them a bit by drawing mini-maps of the entire building, so they climbed up to the top all cautious-like.

1) I really liked the Irrisen book and found it useful to give me some context around the country's culture and history.

2) It was alright, as much as any of them are. In my opinion there's no point playing anything icy as so many monsters have resistance to cold. It makes the Winter Witch a little pointless, but there is good loot for witches so playing a vanilla or other type could work.

As a separate point I'd suggest your party decides what the overall alignment is going to be. This AP really can lend itself to a good, neutral or evil party so they just need to decide what approach they want to take. The group I had were mostly good, so the tone was set in that direction and I made changes to some of the RP elements to reflect that.

1) They stayed longer than I intended as they walked round the whole village asking questions of people (in the "we must be missing something" way that players do sometimes). But there isn't really much reason to be there long.

2) It was my first ever experience GMing so I messed quite a lot up, so the players got an easier ride. I've heard it can be quite deadly though, so you may need to make adjustments as you go. It really depends how your group is made up (both players and PCs) I think.

You could go for a "sealed in ice" type option too, if you don't want the aasimar to be so old. If the celestial found out about BY's plans to murder her lineage then that could explain how she was able to get away.

Ok, no answers to that one then! How about this...

Does anyone have any good stories or ideas from Barleybridge? I'd like to drop in some interesting situations and wondered if this had gone particularly well for anyone?

Terrepin wrote:
MythicFox wrote:
Please correct me if I've missed something, but if the adventure assumes the PCs are taking the riverboat from Tephu to the Parched Dunes, when/how does the 'outside of town' ambush go off? Just on that embankment between the city and the docks as seen on the map, with the risk of being seen from the city? Or do the PCs have to catch the riverboat someplace not clearly indicated?
We just played this encounter. I based it on the riverboat scene from the Brendan Frasier Mummy movie, with the cultists rowing in under the cover of night and secretly boarding the boat after it had left Tephu earlier that day. The starsoul sorcerer flew upriver a short ways, hiding in the starry night sky. The charmed sphinx made several screeching flyovers to distract the party while the cultists boarded and got into place, and then they leapt to the attack to try and recover the Mask. The outdoors and nighttime setting made it particularly favorable for the sorcerer's call lightning storm ability. No one died, though it was close -- they did lose their prize racing camel in the aftermath of the inevitable fireball. Of course, because it was based on an action move, the boat caught fire, and people were diving into the river to escape the flames. Overall, it was a great capstone encounter after all of the role-playing and politicking in Tephu.

I killed one PC in this encounter and the other 3 nearly died too... I wasn't expecting it to go that way!

Do you know which book? I've got the AP but haven't read them as yet.

Mangenorn wrote:
Black_Cat wrote:
One of my players is rubbing his hands together with glee as he wants to try and take control of the portal... They've only just started to explore the Wood so there's a little time before they get there, but the idea of him getting control worries me a little!
Is he likely to read the fine print?

Probably... maybe...


Final alternative - as they start to break it up it could be a marble veneer or maybe just really well painted stone, so it looks like marble. If you don't want to give them the money for it that is...

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Just wondering if anyone changed "The Fist of Iomedae" from being another monk? I'm not sure what to change her to, but there are so many monks in APs...

I'm running this at the moment and one of my players is an Alchemist who likes to summon things. He's modelled the character on a lawyer and he's been talking about summoning devils at some point, which is fine.

Then he was talking about binding a devil and started to turn dead bodies into soul gems to use as a form of currency. He's been working behind the scenes on getting this set up and now I'm trying to work out how this can actually work for him.

It's making my head hurt a bit, so was wondering if anyone had any ideas?

As far as I understood it it's new dead as well as old.

I changed Nadya slightly and had them be the boys' aunt instead of their mother (both parents having been killed by Elvanna's forces and Nadya being the father's sister). Then when they were travelling to Whitethrone I had the party stop off at another aunt's (the mother's sister) and the boys were left there.

I expanded it slightly by almost having Nadya wanting to go out and fight/help but being "trapped" by having to look after the boys. The group showing up was a way for her to join in. It worked pretty well!

No.... they were using the character sheet from a player who couldn't make it as they didn't have enough smarts between them to do it. I didn't want them to get more frustrated.

My players took part in the chariot race today. They liked the concept, but I regret not changing the skills needed and the DCs involved. They didn't have anyone who could do handle animal and a few of the other skills needed were tricky for them. I wish I'd tweaked it a bit.

Lovely, thank you!

xrayregime wrote:

My group was also unhappy with the presence of the Shrine of the Hammer, and went to investigate it. They ended up being questioned by Kalcyra, the dwarf inquisitor and it eventually led to combat. If they've already headed to the temple and questioned its provenance, it should be a simple task for Kalcyra to return to town, and mount a public inquisition of the party. Depending on how much your party likes combat vs. roleplay, you could either have it resolved by combat, or by a social skills event. The book specifically calls out Kalcyra's no-nonsense attitude, so if her church is being questioned by some newcomers in town, I'm sure she'd have a strong and swift response to that.

What sorts of things do you think she'd say...? This particular player is so good at thinking on his feet, so I get outmatched sometimes when the characters wouldn't. I'm trying to get prepared for another good-natured run-in ;)

So things were going ok, they were keeping their heads down and doing a little digging... One of them has got into Jara's "good books", they'd found the smithy, they debated disrupting the market (and decided not to) and generally did some investigating. It was good.

Then the Cleric of Asmodeus said he wanted to visit the new temple to Torag.

Then he made me think on my feet (a lot) as he challenged their decisions and rights around repurposing the site from Asmodeus to Torag. Then he demanded to serve the religious rights of the prisoners in Hardship's Hearth. It was quite brilliant as he's scoped out the area and I couldn't think of a reason why they wouldn't let him.

Anyway, now I'm wondering how much he (and they) are going to be under suspicion. It's very early days so I don't want to hamper them and spoil the story too much. I also worked in someone else's idea of having another group running interference, so that group could do something drastic to distract Oppian...

Anyway - anyone got any ideas how I can move this forward? I'm relatively new to GMing still so these sorts of things take a while for me to work through still!

I wish I tracked our game, I really enjoyed it too. Congratulations though!

I am English so a lot of stuff is done with that accent ;)

I've just started to run the second book and so far intimidate has been used very little in a combat setting. One of my players started to use it a little more towards the end of the last session though and it got me thinking about how the fluff of the book combines with the crunch of the mechanics.

By that I mean that a lot of the encounters are made up of NPCs who have very strong beliefs. I don't feel that the more static DCs are a fair reflection of these peoples' resolve, especially as the PCs can pump all sorts of traits, feats and items into the intimidate skill. I know that would make them more terrifying, so intimidate should work, but it does make me concerned that encounters could be prematurely stopped through the constant use of intimidate.

Am I barking up the wrong tree? Am I completely alone with this? What do you think?


I've read it that this is Fex's decision, he doesn't care about the GR or the rebellion as he's on the cusp of power. When the PCs are freed up from him they get summoned right away, so don't have time to go to Senara again. Also the previous two books have been about fighting to free a town from the GR so it seems like a nice change.

Having said all that I haven't got to that book yet so my players may well disagree!

Hey Axial,

Did you run this in the end? If you did how did it go?

Gratz and zr122 - how did the Whisperwood part go with your groups in the end? Did you expand the journey out at all?

I didn't really like this encounter as the concept felt a bit forced to me. I decided to remove the Esoboks and have them attack Ajin Ra Baqa until he was satisfied that they'd proved themselves to him. Made it less about pure damage and a bit more about tactics, which seemed to work out quite well.

I'm pleased it wasn't just me who was worried about that meal! I like the idea of having Oppan drop in then send them out into the world to meet some of the people themselves. It's a little less forced and gives them the choice who to go after.

I really really liked her, so decided to expand her a bit. I made her part of the network of rebels helping Nadya's father smuggle goods in, and people out, of the city. The group met her in a tavern outside of the city the night before they went in. She asked them for a favour in exchange for the risk of getting them all into the city at once (when they did she put on a pretence for asking for a bribe because her commanding officer was there, she later returned the portion of the bribe that he'd given to her). I used that favour as a side-quest: one half of it introduced a PC to his mount he earned at the next level, the other set something up later down the line.

She took a shine to the PC wearing the pelt and in the end I used that as a little side-quest while they were in the city to allow her to wear the pelt to permanently make her human. I didn't worry too much about the cost, as no PC was going to benefit, and she ended up staying with them all the way to the end. She and that particular PC stayed together after the game finished and he's actually considering playing as one of their children in a future game.

If you're right and it gets a bit tough then maybe have Fex give them an extra reward at the end? I've not run it as yet but it would be interesting to hear if anyone else had issues.

I was wondering whether anyone had run this without the meeting of the council members at the start? Rather than a meal something else, either chance encounters or simply rumours allowing PCs to pick who they went to see?

Ran the first session yesterday and they managed to get through the whole first part of the first book. It was very RP heavy, but the Fighter seemed to enjoy it anyway! I have a faith that they won't be too heavy-handed, but it's still something in the back of my mind.

One of the characters has decided to semi-befriend the Doctor though, so that will bee interesting to see how it develops!

I'm going to start running this AP this weekend and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm still waiting for a few of my players to decide what they'd like to do, but one of them has given me a decent backstory and character build to get on with. I was wondering whether any of you had any ideas about how I could litter the AP with bits for him...?

His backstory (in brief) is:

He was brought up as an orphan in an orphanage/on the streets in a town in Cheliax. He was raised alongside his best friend who was mercilessly tormented about their relationship, as she was a girl and easier to target. At the age of 15 she took her life as a result of the torment and he has vowed to take revenge on those responsible.

I was thinking of either using existing NPCs or adding in an NPC across books 2-6 for him to take vengeance on. I was also considering making his friend a tiefling, to justify (a little more) why "good" children would be tormenting someone.

Do any of you fine people have any ideas?

That's awesome!

Brilliant, thank you!

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I can't wait to run this AP and I'm trying to be as organised as possible!

I'm just a little unclear about how the PCs can keep their activities as covert as possilbe, especially as the events progress in town (like event 7 with the dwarf). If they don't/can't - what should the result be? I think I have a tired brain, but I'm trying to figure out what's stopping the authorities from just showing up in force and arresting them?

I ran her more as a captive to her promise to protect the place. Until they proved they weren't there to attack I ran her as being unable to help them, rather than unwilling. Once they showed that they were supporters of Baba Yaga and not there to "invade" I suggested she was holding back some of the monsters, as well as answering their questions. It was only after Vsezolod was killed that she was released from her promise a little, as the threat had reduced down, so she could help them a bit more with what was left over for them to find out.

They never trusted her, but some of the PCs ended up talking more to her and built an interesting relationship. The paladin left her be, but did say he'd be back to deal with her...

GM I salute you.

Thank you very much for that! That's how I read it the first time and now I've come to do the preparation I was starting to doubt myself.

It is very flexible now I look again, it's just a little confusing. I suspect my players would rather *do* something though so I suspect I'll go with your idea. Thank you!

I need to ask something that might be a really stupid question...

Should I (as the GM) and the players be trying to increase or decrease rebellion points? The book says it's something that the PCs don't want the town to have, but everything seems to be geared to increasing the points and it even says at one point that it could be useful to insight a rebellion that's then crushed.

Help, I'm confused!

To be honest it doesn't really do much for the story as a whole. Only other thing that came to me that's worth keeping in mind is the concept that the whole of Golarion is being hit by this, so it's not just an Irrisen thing. When they get to the Pale Tower you may have to do a bit of a reveal, or possibly have the Black Rider explain what's going on so that they realise it goes beyond their home.

I managed to find a sketch of the whole tower just using Google, but now can't find it (it was a while ago!) - but if you give it a go it should come up. If you then use that alongside these awesome printable maps: http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2pred?Printable-battlemaps-and-VT-maps-for-Reig n-of then you should be able to present it right.

I agree though, it wasn't clear to me at first.

That is a very good recommendation, I'd suggest you go with Misroi's ideas. Skipping to Waldsby doesn't make a huge amount of difference to the story, but have a look at Nadya and the way she's introduced to the party. She ended up joining my group all the way to the end of the adventure, so making sure she's tied in might give you some good RP opportunities later.

You could also maybe re-skin some "normal" creatures so that they're now cold based? Or just have white-furred versions of everything instead? That then implies that not only are they invading, but they're changing the natural creatures that are there too...

I ran the first session this evening and threw the Scorched Hand into the mix with the other groups waiting for the lottery to begin. Velriana sneered at the Gnome Sorcerer who went to say hello, as he was far beneath her station and she really didn't want to talk to someone at the very start of the lottery. Azaz came over to apologise and chat a little, but Khelru was sent to fetch Azaz after not long.

They seem to now be hung up on the group (the rogue even followed them to their first location, despite Idorii spotting her twice). I'm a little worried that I've somehow set this up to fail now... Anyone got any ideas for how I could get the group to stand down, or even use it to my advantage? There are a lot of opportunities here, but I'm interested to hear if anyone has any ideas too.

I'm gathering notes together at the moment to start to run this AP on Friday. There's one experienced Pathfinder player and four others who are pretty new. They're planning:

Sorcerer (Draconic bloodline)
Oracle of the Sun
Unchained Rogue
Bard or Alchemist

First off, this thread has been really helpful so thank you.

But my main reason to post is to ask after the Scorched Hand. I debating the idea of trying to have a talky final battle, rather than one concentrated on fighting. Has anyone else done that and what did you do? I know Velriana needs to die, but I was wondering if anyone had managed to turn the others?

That's what I thought, thank you!
