Pathfinder

  • Pathfinder,  Review,  worthless shit

    Pathfinder Godsmouth Heresy Post-Mortem: Package of Double Stuf Oreos Takes 10d10 Damage

    Hi everyone,

    Great job on completing the Godsmouth Ossuary! I hope everyone had a good time despite the loooooooong length.

    First:

    These were the main complaints I got:

    – Monsters were a bit too easy

    – Length

    I’ll work on both of those for the next module. Next time we’ll put 5-6 hours as a cutoff point. Another complaint was that people kinda spent a lot of time acting OOC and getting tied in knots on combat/exploration decisions which is fine up to a point, but it tied into the length complaint.

    People really liked the challenges and not the spot XP system (get a stone for every passed skill check) so much, so I’ll definitely continue the former and discontinue the latter.

    Second:

    Here is the full list of stuff you guys found sans pure treasure/gold items (blue means it was magic, the unidentified forms are in red):

    – cloak of resistance +1 (a silky, grey cloak)
    – phylactery of faithfulness (an odd leather headband with a tiny wooden box inset in the middle)
    – bracers of armor +1 (iron bracers curiously free of rust)
    – Sihedron medallion (a seven-pointed star medallion)
    – set of masterwork banded mail
    – masterwork bastard sword
    – 2 curved daggers
    – stone tablet of Identify (a tablet that reads EVAD TNEMGDUJ)
    – stone tablet of Hold Portal (a tablet that reads DLEIFRAG)
    – stone tablet of Remove Disease (a tablet that reads AKUSA)
    – stone tablet of Shatter (a tablet that reads GOOBLE GOBBLE)
    – 2 scrolls of Delay Poison (a scroll that reads EM DAER)

    – feather token (feather) (a green feather)
    – feather token (whip) (a red feather)
    – scroll of Remove Paralysis (scroll of FOOBIE BLETCH)
    – bag of tarnished silver powder (worth 1 GP)
    – a potion of love (a pink potion that tastes like strawberries and cream)
    – a potion of Eagle’s Splendor (a clear, brown potion with white specks that tastes like old licorice)
    – masterwork ranseur
    – half-plate armor inscribed with the Rune of Wrath (cosmetic)
    – 2 potions of Hide from Undead (a milky potion that tastes of chalk)
    – wand of Disrupt Undead (a wand made of segmented animal bones)
    2 potions of Cure Light Wounds (clear green potion that tastes like lime)
    2 potions of Enlarge Person (dark red potion that has a slight fishy taste)
    wand of Command Undead  (wand made of black iron)
    – 1 flask of acid
    – 2 flasks of alchemist’s fire
    – 2 smokesticks
    – 1 tanglefoot bag
    – 1 thunderstone
    – a set of masterwork studded leather
    – a +1 spear
    – an alchemist’s kit
    – a set of masterwork embalming tools
    – an alchemist’s formula book
    – thieves’ tools
    a scroll of Ghoul Touch (a scroll of SALADBWL)
    a scroll of Mage Armor (a scroll of GUFF)

    Third:

    Here are the full lists of challenges:

    Like I said, people liked these a lot, so I’ll definitely make more next module… and I just realized that I missed a golden opportunity to have a skeleton-centric challenge called ‘Charnel Knowledge.’ Dammit!

    Fourth:

    Here are the Pharasma encounter cards. Initially, the one statue in the Cathedral was only supposed to give you an Aid spell, but I thought that was kind of boring so I changed it into more of a meeting with Pharasma to add drama to the Esme encounter.

    Fifth:

    Rather than a synopsis of the entire module, because that would take a while to write, here’s a list of the encounters you had instead:

    Encounter 11: 4 skeleton archers

    Encounter 12: 3 crawling hands

    Encounter 13: brown mold

    Encounter 14: Erdikhaan (skeletal champion of Wrath)

    Encounter 15: lemure

    Encounter 16: 2 ghouls

    Encounter 17: bloody skeleton

    Encounter 18: 2 tengus (negotiated)

    Encounter 19: lustspawn

    Encounter 20: gasburst zombie

    Encounter 21: alchemical skeleton and alchemical zombie

    Encounter 22: Svilennius Tripe, Mr. Morrow, vat zombie

    Encounter 23: Esme and her 2 skeletal handmaidens (Lulu and Fiona)

    Encounter 24: 4 alchemical skeletons

    Finally:

    Please update your DNDsheets. I’d like to see what new stuff you get and it helps me make challenges. See you all next time!

  • Pathfinder,  worthless shit

    Pathfinder Part 2: I’m Attacking the Dorkness (4/21/12)

    More spiders?

    Alright, it’s been a while everyone, but now with our respective craziness out of the way, it’s time to finish up The Godsmouth Ossuary.

    On my end, I just want to say I had a really good time the last time DM’ing, and everyone seemed to be really on the ball and enjoying themselves too, which was great. We got through a lot of encounters and secret stuff in a relatively short (for us) amount of time. Hopefully everyone will have an even better time this time, and to that end I’m trying to spice things up by making more fanciful room descriptions, think of combat descriptions, etc.

    We’re going to try to start at 5:30 and hopefully not go later than 11 or 12. Let’s try to aim for a break between 8:30 – 9. I don’t have much else to say, so here’s a rundown of some other stuff.

    Firstly, here are the challenges you’ve all completed so far. I got a lot of positive feedback from them, and I’m going to make some new ones for (hopefully) the last session in this particular part of the Ossuary. I have to think of more bad puns though! (Click to embiggenate):

    Challenge set 1

    Second, here is a down and dirty summary of the encounters and things that happened so far. I’ll go over what way you guys went when you get here:

    Intro:
    – Contracted with Church of Pharasma to find out what happened to missing bodies
    – Went into the upper portion of the Godsmouth Ossuary that is normally not open to visitors (this is where bodies are interred for a high price)
    – Church official gives you a Chime of Opening with 5 charges, along with a flask of holy water, a potion of cure light wounds, and adventuring supplies
    – She mentions that you need to save a charge for the way back, since the church has no way of knowing what happened to you if you knock on the door

    Game proper:
    – Went down stairs, reached a chamber with 3 Pharasma-symbol doors
    – ENCOUNTER 1: Darkmantle
    – Went through the middle door using 1 charge of the Chime, into a corridor of alcoves
    – ENCOUNTER 2: 4 skull spiders
    – Went through door and onto a bridge overlooking a large chamber
    – Saw various statues, 7 white and 1 black
    – Went through door at end of bridge
    – Go to a crossroads, heard a thumping noise from the east and determined it was an undead vargouille (floating head)
    – ENCOUNTER 3: Undead vargouille
    – Explored the room with the vargouille, then opened door to next room, whereupon the room went dark
    – Determined with darkvision that the culprit was a dark creeper
    – Managed to calm it down enough to realize that it was trapped in here by something in the room over and by the vargouille. The creeper leaves, leaving behind treasure for the party
    – Leaving the next room (guarded by something snake-like according to Falk), the party goes back to the crossroads and heads down the other corridor going west
    – Party finds two rooms facing each other that emanate a strong magical aura. When a pebble is tossed into one room, it comes back into the other.
    – Party finds another crossroads and heads south.
    – Party heads down corridor, finds a suit of armor and a skeleton. As the party gets close to the armor, a swarm of living cockroaches shoots out
    – ENCOUNTER 4: Cockroach swarm
    – Party heads back to the crossroads after the fight, enters a locked door nearby.
    – Party enters a library filled with stone tablets. As they look up at the various runes, a rune detaches and flies towards them
    – ENCOUNTER 5: Rune guardian
    – Party closes the door and rests. However, something manages to find them.
    – ENCOUNTER 6: Festrog
    – The group heads back down to Falk’s room and opens the other door. They encounter a goblin snake creature named Yrix who offers to explain parts of the Ossuary. It’s evident Yrix is a liar and knows some about Godsmouth, but it’s not an expert. The party pays to pass into the next room.
    – The next room has a staircase leading down, but it’s impassable.
    – Gunnar flips the table over, causing Yrix to attack.
    – ENCOUNTER 7: Yrix
    – Party heads back west, and at the crossroads heads north.
    – Party reaches another T-shaped crossroads, and heads west to the blocked Sihedron door.
    – Party goes east to the Great Pit. As they split up and travel around the pit, something from down below comes out to attack.
    – ENCOUNTER 8: Necrophidus
    – Elorin detects a draft coming from the wall, and it’s a secret room. The room is small and has a sarcophagus, but also a guardian.
    – ENCOUNTER 9: Iron cobra
    – Opening the sarcophagus, the party finds an extremely well-preserved corpse being kept preserved (presumably) by the Sihedron medallion around his neck
    – The party continues to head east into a foul kennel area.
    – ENCOUNTER 10: 2 (3?) Festrogs
    – Gunnar touches the menhir in the middle of the kennel, and is transported for a moment to the Dark Forest, whereupon he sees an Otyugh grappling with a dinosaur, a headless horseman on top a spire, and lights in the forest.
    – End.

    Third, here is a list of the treasure you’ve found so far:

    – adventuring accoutrements from the intro (holy water, cure light wounds potion, backpack, bedroll, trail rations, waterskin)
    – cloak of resistance +1
    – three freshwater pearls (10 GP a piece, known)
    – engraved ivory bracelet (24 GP, appraised)
    – 51 GP in total (24 from Yrix’s hoard, 27 from Falk’s)
    – 32 SP in total
    – phylactery of faithfulness
    – a gold chalice (*Pharasman artifact)
    – a gold bowl (*Pharasman artifact)
    – 2 gold plates (*Pharasman artifact)
    – a large gold holy symbol of Pharasma (*Pharasman artifact)
    – bracers of armor +1
    – Sihedron medallion (Special item: grants +1 resistance bonus on all saving throws, can use false life 1/day, can bestow gentle repose on a corpse)
    – set of masterwork banded mail
    – masterwork bastard sword
    – 2 curved daggers
    – stone tablet of identify
    – stone tablet of hold portal
    – stone tablet of remove disease
    – stone tablet of shatter
    – 2 scrolls of delay poison

     

  • Pathfinder,  worthless shit

    Pathfinder: Rolling Bones for Pharasma

    Alright dorklords, here comes the first ever Chesapeake Team Butts Pathfinder game! It’s planned for 1/28/12 at 5:30ish. We’re pretty much well-versed in how Pathfinder goes down already (say we’ll start at 1 PM, start at 5 PM, turn into a scene from 12 Angry Men when it comes time to decide where to eat, etc.), but this game’s going to be a bit different. In an effort to be less work for the DM for the players, we’re going to have slightly different rules. First off though:

    The Module:

    Here is the module I’ll be running. It’s a well-regarded 1st-level module. Here’s the description:

    “The priests of Pharasma in the strange city of Kaer Maga have long sold plots in their ossuary to those rich enough to afford them – a place of honor and stature for one’s bones to lie after death. Yet now, this mausoleum has become full, and it is time to break into a new and unexplored wing of the dungeons under Kaer Maga to create more room. To a band of fledgling heroes, eager to make names for themselves, this represents a singular opportunity – a chance to explore a heretofore sealed section of the Godsmouth Ossuary and perhaps make a fair amount of gold on the side. The only catch is that they’ll need to survive what strange and ancient mysteries lie within! An urban and dungeon adventure for 1st-level characters.”

    So polish up on your boner puns dammit.

    The Players:
    These are the people I have signed up as definite so far:
    Bob – Asaarnian cleric
    Enoch – Changeling summoner
    Steven – Leaning towards magus
    Eric – Some sort of tank
    Jack – Half-orc ranger
    Rules: (more may be forthcoming)
    1. Regarding Class/Race/Archetype – You can be any race/class/archetype from any of the Paizo-published books. No third party stuff. Now you can be that Tengu Druid you always wanted to be but if you pick Kitsune I swear to all the Gods in the Heavens that I will bring all my anime Ore wa baka neko yamate yo onii-chan Japanese down upon your head and play the Revolutionary Girl Utena soundtrack whenever you move. Nobody wants that.

    2. Regarding Alignment – Your alignment has to be above chaotic neutral. This is a conscious effort to promote less waffling on the DM’s part if you decide your character’s just going to start icing quest-givers and orphans better synergy and roleplaying amongst the group.
    3. Regarding stats –  You get 75 points divvied up through the 6 stats. Minimum stat must be 8, no more than 2 stats at 18. This is before racials. This puts us at the ‘Standard Fantasy’ level. When we’ve played at 85 points pre-racial we’ve noticed that our Kroxes cause monsters to burst like they’ve been hit with a cannon, our spellcasters are basically Arks of the Covenant in robes, and watching our gunslingers fight is like watching the Zapruder film: Lord of the Rings edition. Our bards remained comically inept.
    4. Regarding the first level –  You get 1 extra skill rank or 1 max HP at first level.
    5. Regarding backstories –  A backstory would be appreciated, no matter how short. At the very minimum, you have to have a reason why you’re in Kaer Maga and agreeing to do a job like this in the first place.
    6. Regarding traits –  To compensate for the lower stats, I’ll be allowing two traits at start. Try to work them into your backstory (it’s generally pretty easy).
    7. Regarding cards/skill spreadsheets –  Not required but they are very useful and they help speed things along. At least bookmark or keep track of your skills in your books or smartphones.
    8. Regarding buying stuff – Kaer Maga’s a pretty anarchic city and close to Korvosa, so you can buy what you want for starting gear with your starting wealth.
    9. Regarding carrying capacity – Adding up weight and shit and calculating encumbrance detriments is a lot of work. I get that. So to make things smoother I’ll say this: For our purposes our rule is going to be (within reason) use the speed given by your armor stats, but as long as all your junk doesn’t take you over the max med. load, assume no encumbrance detriments. That sounds like a weird rule, but again, since we’re playing with lower stats than normal I’ll allow it.
    10. Regarding character sheetsMake one on DNDsheets and send the link to me beforehand if you would. I might tinker with and add bonus checks/spot checks/rooms etc. if there are some checks that people have that the module doesn’t use. (I probably won’t subtract checks.)

    Also, if you have a snack/drink/liquor/beer preference, send a shout out and I can get some.

  • Pathfinder

    Pathfinder – How about you find your way out of this game (7/23)

    About two weeks ago we had a Pathfinder game! And people supposedly thought it was pretty fun? It’s entirely possible, nay probable, that they are a group of lying scum but since there’s no way for me to prove it yet I’ll just have to take their word at face value. I know a few people felt burned that they were asked to leave the group, but the truth is I felt this game went about ten thousand times more smoothly than the last one I ran, where we had seven players. I believe we started very close to on time, which is 2 PM, and we actually finished up what I had prepared (which was two parts of the six-part module) by around 6 or 7 iirc. Everyone wanted to keep going, and with Jack and Justin driving up from Chesapeake to play I suspected they might. So we broke for a few hours to eat and I read through the next section and then played that until 2 or 3 AM!

    Starting off, the party had just finished off their initial purpose – defeating the rat-bastard Gaedren Lann at the behest of Zelarra, a local fortune teller whose son had died. At the conclusion of that task they learned that Zelarra was actually dead and manifesting herself through her deck of Harrow cards. Armed with a powerful new ghost ally the group exited the fishery Lann had been hiding in to discover a city gone mad. Riots, fires, screaming and violence were rampant, with Hellknights invited inside the city to restore order and mounted griffin riders of the Korvosan Sable Company dropping from the sky like drunken flies shot by arrows or fireballs or whatever. The ailing King has finally died, and the foreign (and ill-thought of) Queen has ascended to the throne. A lot of people weren’t happy about this, apparently.

    After a little stop at Johnny Ikea’s House of Furniture ‘N Thangs to sell off the goodies found in Lann’s horde, a nearby blacksmith and neighboring scroll and potion shops owned by elderly twin brothers, the group discovered that one of the items taken by Lann was a brooch belonging to the Queen, who is now sitting pretty on the throne (she’s pretty and she’s also sitting pretty so you see I sdkfj;lkjeriou). After Mr. Ikea informed them about the reward the players went forth, but the riot made journeying through the beleaguered city difficult at best. After being accosted by a group of miniature devils (and saved by a nearby pack of pseudodragons), being manhandled by a grimy crazy man and diffusing an escalating confrontation between a noble and a gang of disillusioned laborers, the PCs made it to the castle and sought an audience with the Queen.

    Queen Ileosa expressed her gratitude and rewarded the party with a hefty coffer of gold, then asked if they would be willing to help out the Korvosan Guard in the city’s time of need. They accepted, and after talking to the officer in charge at the Citadel, were put up in a local inn and told to come back tomorrow. That evening, the players encountered a drunken guard, whom they dragged back to the Citadel after listening to him count his woes over several pints. After returning, they met the sell-sword Krox, a lovable guy who offered his services as a mighty warrior should the party require it (at a very reasonable rate). The PCs, who were without a strong front-line fighter, gladly accepted, and so they decided to meet over breakfast the following morning.

    The next day the same Citadel officer told the party about a silver-tongued deserter, who had taken advantage of the chaos to lure a few fellow guards into his plans. Holed up in a previously deserted butcher shop, the group was giving out meat to the poor for free. What a great bunch of fellows! But as the group discovered not all was as it seemed, and in a series of intense encounters the group snuck through the back of the shop during normal business hours and were greeted with a great deal of hostility and boars. In the course of hacking their way through jerks and traitors and thoroughly demoralizing animals, the group found the leader, one dude whose name I don’t remember. It was a tough fight, but after a hard battle he surrendered and permitted himself to be carted back to the Citadel for interrogation. The party was given a pat on the head and told to wait for further instructions. Then they went back to the meat shop and discovered the dismembered remains of humanoids in the sewers underneath. What is going on?!? I DON’T KNOW AND NEITHER DO THEY! I guess we’ll have to wait and see!

    Highlights of the Adventure:
    Darzzo telling animals exactly what he thought of them
    Alora using her claws and eliciting an audible groan from the entire table
    Kali forgetting a favorable rule for firearms and still managing to blow a head or two clean off
    Sumak helping Darzzo up over a five-foot fence and face-first into a pile of manure
    Xia stabbing a lotta dudes, like three dudes
    Krox being the best character ever created

    I hope everyone had a decent time and is prepared for the next Pathfinder game, which will take place on September 17th. Excelsior!

  • current event horizons,  Pathfinder

    Pathfinder – (2/19) Curse of the Crimson Throne

    Game time is less than a week away! Holy Moses! One last update for you before we meet up, just to make sure everyone’s on the same page.

    1) BACKSTORIES ARE IMPORTANT FOR THIS CAMPAIGN! You don’t need much, I keep saying this but I don’t think too many people have actually taken care of it yet. You can wait until the very last day if you want, but don’t expect me to work it into the story (because I won’t have the time). There is a Player’s Guide to the campaign we’re running which I will make available RIGHT HERE RIGHT HERE RIGHT HERE – download it, look it over, and at least go to the section on Character Traits so you know what we’re looking for. They give you sample stories to explain your connection to the Big Bad Guy this time around, with traits to go along with them. If you choose these stories/traits they will take up your one trait available, so if you want to have one of these stories and not choose the trait that’s fine. There are a lot of ways to tie yourself to this guy aside from what’s in the book so there’s no excuse!

    2) We are nuking the last “adventure” (I invest that word with a great deal of scorn) we had, since it bore little to no relevance to this campaign. We could fit it in, but with people dropping in, out, and starting new characters, it just makes more sense to do it this way. We’ll go over gold totals before the game, but it’s of relatively little importance so don’t worry about it.

    3) If everyone could bring around $4 for the first part of the campaign + the city guide that would be great. The guide was ~$12, the adventure was somewhere in the realm of $15-20. Anything over the cost of those two will be put towards future campaign books. If you decide you don’t want to keep playing you get your dollar back it’s that easy!

    I hope to see everyone there on Saturday, and I hope we all have a good time. Going to aim for around a 2 PM start time. Please show up and be fed by 2 PM! PARTY ON

    Downloads:

    Curse of the Crimson Throne Player’s Guide

  • Pathfinder

    Pathfinder: Heroes of Nirmathas

    This is it, guys!  This is the beginning of our campaign with our new characters and my first game as a DM.  Hopefully, this won’t be the last.  The stage is set for this Saturday afternoon (February 5th) and it probably won’t end until later in the evening.  This post will serve as a last minute FAQ for anybody who wants to participate.  I actually meant to post this up on Tuesday but I got really busy.  Oh well.

    What the hell is Pathfinder?
    Pathfinder is a pen and paper RPG that split off from Dungeons and Dragon after the 4th edition came out.  It’s essentially Dungeons and Dragons 3.75 or what 3.5 should have been.

    Wait, isn’t DnD like really nerdy?  Why should I care?
    Well, I can’t really change your mind if you think the game is too “nerdy” for you.  If you don’t want to play then that’s cool.  I will ask that you refrain from passing any judgement until you’ve actually played a game or two yourself.  Personally, I’ve always wanted to play a pen and paper RPG like this for a while.  Until recently, there wasn’t really enough interest to justify learning the rules and going through the long process of making a character.  But now, thanks to Arkham Horror and Call of Cthuhlu, we can finally play a proper pen and paper RPG.  Exciting, isn’t it?

    Okay, you’ve convinced me! I’ll meet up at your hou…
    Whoa whoa whoa!  You’re going way too fast.  First, before you can play, you need to make some preparations of your own.  These preparations are for the benefit for the whole group.  There’s nothing more tedious than stopping a game in the middle of combat because somebody didn’t understand how attacks of opportunity work.  That said, you don’t have to read EVERYTHING since it is a lot to go through in one day.  Everything you need to know are available at this website: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/

    That’s a lot of shit.  Where do I start first?
    You don’t have to go through everything but you need to at least read the combat rules.  I can’t stress this enough.  You must read the entire combat section.  Some of it might sound confusing and that’s okay.  We can clarify everything once the game starts but you must at least know the basic concepts.  Then after that, if you have time, read the additional rules.  If you’re going to be a caster, read the magic section as well.  When you think you got the basics down, then it’s time to make your class.  Read this page and follow it step by step.  Contact me if you need help.  You can even bring over a partially created character and we can finish him/her off real quick.  Just make sure you know what you want before you come.   If you want, you can even create a back story for your character.

    Hey, none of these questions applies to me!  I already know what I’m doing!  Tell me what do I need to know for this game?
    Since this is my first game DMing, we will be running a module.  Let me warn you, though, that this module isn’t very sandbox friendly.  So, please bare with me.  For this particular game, I will allow one trait if you provide a back story that explains why you have the trait.  The first game will take place in a small town called Kassen.  It’s in Nirmathas.  A long time ago, a raider (Asar) kept attacking the town for two months until the town’s founder (Ekat Kassen) stepped in and killed the raider.  Unfortunately, Kassen was mortally wounded and died two days later.  To honor his death, the townfolks built a crypt for Kassen and with an eternal flame hanging over his sarcophagus.  It has become a tradition to journey to the crypt every year, now.  Adventurers must light a lantern using the everflame and bring it back to town, where a huge festival awaits.

    Is that it?
    There’s a lot of information that I’m sure that I’m missing.  In any case, if you have any questions, feel free to IM me and I’ll help you out if I can.  Again, this game is taking place this Saturday.  Please show up on time.  Thanks.

  • current event horizons,  Pathfinder

    Pathfinder (2/19) – banishing Moon Apes since 2011

    Here’s some new information which will hopefully meet your Pathfinder needs! Also I need to make an announcement:
    If you don’t show up for the 2/19 game, you’re out of the group. No hard feelings, we just need everyone there to get started on the campaign proper. There’s always next time (or other people’s games).

    1) In addition to utilizing the Ultimate Combat playtest, we’ll also be including the Ultimate Magic playtest! That means more butterscotch for everyone, in addition to a new character class (The Magus) and a new style of play for casters (Words of Power mages). They’ll be linked below, or you can download them for free from Paizo’s website so why not!

    2) I’ve got a nice, big map of Golarion here for you, along with a link to the Gazetteer, a nice pocket-sized version of the Campaign Setting. If you’d like to check out the Campaign Setting book, which is a slightly heftier download, by all means; there is a lot more information on races and nations. Get in touch with me and I’ll send it to you!

    3) Stats are being re-balanced. In the future I’m planning to utilize a point-buy system to hit a sweet spot between players having control over their characters without making them way overpowered and difficult to balance. If people want to re-do their stats this way, that’s fine (I’ll take a vote sometime in the next week or two); if not, the rule is to take your stats BEFORE your racial modifier and add them up. The total needs to be between 80 and 85. If you currently surpass this, you’ll need to lower them suitably, and across the board. No lowering your least-used stat to 3 and keeping everything else topped off. I’ll take a look at everyone’s dudes way before playtime and make sure we’re all on the same page. I’m not too worried about it.

    Links:
    Map of Golarion
    Pathfinder Chronicles – Gazetteer
    Pathfinder Chronicles – Gods and Magic
    Ultimate Magic – Words of Power
    Ultimate Magic – Magus

  • current event horizons,  Pathfinder

    Pathfinder: Seek Your Path Down the Trail Which Led You Here to Find the Truth (February 19th is GAME TIME)


    Okay here are some changes to the game for next time:

    1) Traits are IN. Go HERE to look up what you have available. One per person so don’t get too crazy. Anything is open to you, more or less, with the caveat that you must work it into your backstory. Which reminds me,

    2) Backstories, while not mandatory, help both the DM (that’s me) and you (that’s you) understand and work with your character. It’s a lot easier to remember your character’s alignment and particulars of their personality when you have a source to draw such things from, instead of the nebulous ‘well I’m Lawful Good but not really in a high-handed douchebag way.”

    You’re free to not write a backstory if you really don’t want to, but then you won’t get a trait (and everyone else is going to make one so just make one alright). It doesn’t have to be long or really detailed; a paragraph or two will be more than sufficient. Check out the geography of the Pathfinder world HERE to start checking out countries and what have you for your chosen race. You may want to wait until I figure out where this campaign is going to be set so you can figure out how you got there, or you can jump right in and start building it now. It’s seriously not hard.

    3) Most of you already know this, but I will be allowing use of the Ultimate Combat Guide (I think that’s what it’s called) beta, which includes three new classes (Gunslinger, Ninja and Samurai) to choose from. Go HERE to check it out and see what’s what! I would think if you want to choose either Samurai or Ninja you’d have to be from Tian (basically another continent which is Asia) but I’m always open to changing or breaking rules if you can provide a good backstory and logical reasoning so there you go!

    4) Remember that, after last time, you can change essentially any part of your character you’re not happy about. Talk to me about it first so I can make sure it gels with everyone else and that it’s OK but aside from that it’s pretty much Open Season. If you’ve taken some more time to peruse the kits, or you don’t like your feats, or whatever, just tell me what you want to do and we’ll try to get it done.

    Either get in touch via the usual methods OR just comment below! My Goodness that’s so handy and easy and convenient now there’s absolutely no reason not to wait until the last minute for things!

    Handy links you may need to refer to again:

    Character Traits
    The World of Golarian
    Ultimate Combat Playtest <-- this is passworded ask me for the password if you don't already know it! or anyone else on puppyrush because they all know it!

  • Pathfinder

    Pathfinder Trip Report – Goblins Gotta Go

    Pathfinder Perspective

    The bustling trade town of Shrewsberry upon first sight seems peaceful, but on second glance their stone walls seems to be poorly fortified. Their mayor, Mayor Paul, calls upon any brave warrior to stop a goblin threat against their city. A motley crew of seven brave adventurers heed the call.

    • Godrick, the Half Orc Fighter
    • Ellannan, the Half Elf Paladin
    • Darzzo, the Halfling Bard
    • Meladriel, the Elf Rogue
    • Sumak, the Halfling Druid
    • Alora, the Half Elf Sorcerer
    • Dolgrin, the Monk Dwarf

    They meet at an inn and talk about the situation. Goblins seem to be camping in the north and south. A vote is cast, and they decide they should attack at night, to catch any goblin threat off guard. Careful planning was involved, as goblins could easily ambush our heroes as they can see in the dark.

    Another vote is cast, and the heroes decide to head north. Sumak uses his advanced survival skills to find goblin tracks that head north east. The adventurers follow in single file through the slowly dimming forest, only to come across a camp fire in the middle of a clearing.

    The clearing has six goblins, with five around a campfire, and one seemingly away from the rest of his pack, fast asleep by a tree. Meladriel, being a deadly trained rogue, uses his cat like stealth to try to plunge an arrow in the heart of the goblin dozing off. He is successful, and our party fights off the remaining goblins. They find 12 gold, some short swords, and some light shields.

    Our heroes decide to eliminate the other goblin camp down south. They return to the city of Shrewsberry to backtrack the goblin trail. The path leads them to the second goblin camp, visible in the quiet darkness.

    Before they strike, Darzzo uses his bard training to understand the goblin language. He overhears a mumbling about a “waterfall”. Unfortunately for the goblins, they mumble their last breath, as they get horrendously slaughtered by both bow and blade. Our heroes triumph once again, and loot 8 gold, some short swords and finally a map.

    The crudely drawn map shows two points, and is assumed to be the two goblin camps. After some very painful deliberation our party decides to follow the river upstream to see what lurks ahead.

    Eventually, our party arrives at the end of the river into a waterfall, the torrent of water rushing down spraying a fine mist in the air. A door is spotted beyond the waterfall, and our pathfinders trudge on. They find the door is locked, but our rogue friend Meladriel picks the lock after some careful fiddling. The door is slowly open, as creak of rusted iron hinges echoes in harmony with the pitter-patter of water dripping down the stone walls. Everyone takes a look inside the cave.

    It is pitch black, so a stone is illuminated with Light, and our heroes walk carefully inside. The faint glow of luminousness emitting from the rock flickers along the jagged cave walls. The path creeps along until it makes a sharp right, where our heroes stop and examine the turn around the corner.

    Godrick, the half-orc leading the party with his perfect night vision exclaims out-loud “Halt! I see… stairs!”. Godrick’s deep voice stirs echoes in the cave.

    Sumak the halfling, calls out right behind Godrick, “Stairs? How big?”. Sumak once had a terrible accident regarding stairs, a pack mule, and a bee hive.

    Alora, the half-elf replies sharply: “Who cares? More importantly, which way do they go, up or down?”. Alora seemed to be irritated at the prospect at stairs, as she was always pampered and never enjoyed the prospect of doing more work than she had to.

    Our adventures stare at the steps for a while, perplexed as they could not decide which way the stairs lead, even though the steps lay simply in plain sight before them. One might believe that such a notion to determine whether stairs lead up or down would be absurd, but unfortunately our heroes were literally in the dark. After some deep deliberation, they decide the stairs do in fact go down, and after even more careful planning they walk down the slippery steps.

    As everyone assembles themselves at the bottom of the stairs, they approach a door with what seems to have a terrible odor and loud rumbling snoring. The door is opened, and inside the source of both the foul smells and sounds could be faintly seen – it was an ogre. It’s faint outline was visible from the door, with the three torches lit in the room providing just enough light. The ogre itself was possibly 10 feet tall, weighed as much as four men, and slept with a large wooden club, covered in what seemed to be blood of it’s latest victims. Meladriel realizes we would stand no chance against such an enormous creature, tip toes quietly to the ogre. He unsheathes his longsword, and plunges it directly in the skull of the slumbering ogre. A howl of pain would have filled the walls of the room, had it not been for the fact the ogre’s brain scattered along the floor.

    Our party gathers themselves, cleans themselves up, and moves down the hall of where the ogre now lays dead. They come across a branching path, so two parties were formed. Meladriel, Godrick, Sumak, and Darzzo go to the left, while Alora, Ellannan and Dolgrin walk towards the right.

    Meladriel, Godrick, Sumak, and Darzzo creep along the cave until they find a small room. Unfortunately they are not alone, as they stumble upon a pack of goblins playing poker. The goblins stare as our heroes stare back, realizing the depth of their situation. The goblins, being the more nimble creatures they are, react first, throwing their playing cards up in the air and flipping their table, drawing their bows and bucklers. Our heroes call out for help, as Alora, Ellannan and Dolgrin come running back and assisting the fight.

    The goblins are slaughtered, their corpses once drawing cards are now drawing blood speckled all over the walls. Our heroes loot their earnings and then some, and move on to the other path where Alora, Ellannan and Dolgrin initially went. At the end of this hall, loud voices can be heard on the way.

    The voices seem goblin, except they sound logical, almost intelligent. The high pitched squeaks seem displeased, as hand-slapping could be heard in between foot-stomping. Our party runs in, screaming at the top of their lungs, only for two of them to be knocked down by two bugbears hiding around the corner. The remaining five stop in their footsteps, their eyes pathing through the lines of the wall, until they see the source of the squeaks – a goblin, taller than most – but just as hideous. This goblin is sitting on what looks like to be a crudely constructed wooden throne, while his legs are crossed, seemingly bored that more adventurers are willing to throw their lives to forfeit.

    Sumak’s eyes grew, “That must be the… prince of go-“.

    Alora cut in “-bolins! The prince of goblins!”.

    Uneventfully, both the two bugbears and the goblin prince were slaughtered by our heroes, their knives and spells plunging into flesh and bone till nothing but shimmering loot could be found. Sumak decides to sit in the throne, himself once being a prince (though many just believe he’s crazy because he just talks to plants all day). As he sits down and wiggles his rear in to the still warm cushion, he finds a small button, and presses it with out second thought. The button reveals a small hidden compartment in the wall, showing a burlap bag with a pound of platinum.

    This newly found loot in hand, our heroes make the journey back to the village of Shrewsberry, where they receive their reward and rest.