Curse of the Crimson Throne Recap # 67 [RPG]

[Oathday, 30 Erastus 4708 A.R. continued]

 

As if slowly rousing from a tranquil sleep, Anorak wakes up to find himself in a small cottage.  He’s still wearing his damaged armor, and quickly his last memory comes back to him: the tower!  Fortunately, Eldritch is there to fill him in on what happened (though, from the bird’s telling, Anorak has been “abandoned” by his colleagues and should seek bloody revenge).  Anorak grabs his axe from the pile of possessions heaped nearby, and heads out to find Goldcape and The Reckoner.  Realising they must have gone into the tower (as the front door stands ominously open), he goes inside and is quickly reunited with them.

 

Goldcape and The Reckoner explain what they encountered in the tower—the nightshade and banshee, as well as the strange magical pools, pedestal, and weapons.  Anorak’s awakening is most fortuitous, as his expertise in all things arcane gives him insight that the others lack.  He realises that the pools of inky liquid are in fact repositories of semi-tangible negative energy!  Falling into one would mean death for most living creatures.  But the dwarf realises that they in fact serve as the power source for the central function of the tower—travelling between planes!  By carefully manipulating the pedestal mechanism, the tower could transition between the four planes marked by sigils around its perimeter—the Material, Ethereal, Abyssal, and Shadow Planes.  But such a transition draws huge amounts of negative energy from the pools, making it possible for the Tower of Passage to function only once per day.  Unfortunately, because the box was destroyed when it was placed inside an extradimensional container, the tower is no longer mobile geographically within a plane.  On the Material Plane, it will always manifest in this precise location in Trail’s End!

 

The group discuss what to do with the tower.  Goldcape argues they should use one of his summoned mites to activate it to take it somewhere else so it will no longer menace Korvosa—and to keep it out of the Queen’s hands.  The Reckoner argues that would be a mistake, as monsters in one of those other planes could take the tower back to the Material Plane and attack!  As usual, Anorak sides with The Reckoner against Goldcape, and the matter is settled.  Plans are made to post a warning sign and a minor locking enchantment on the door.  That plus a dangerous magical trap that will soon reset, are hoped to be enough to keep intruders and stray passers-by from interfering with it.  The constant gloom projected by the tower will just have to be withstood, for now.

The group split up to put their new plan into action.  Goldcape stays behind to watch the tower while The Reckoner (now as Ralph Blackfeather) is teleported back to North Point by Anorak.  Ralph hurries to Hedge Wizardry to buy the arcane lock scroll, and finds Phaeton looking troubled.  The proprietor of all things magical explains that business has been poor lately—the lack of security on the streets, the slow-down in imports and exports, the new inspections of logs on who is buying and selling magical items, and trade disruptions caused by the giant wars—have all combined to put Phaeton in dire financial straits.  He says he’s thinking of moving to Magnimar, where business is apparently booming at Korvosa’s expense.  Ralph expresses genuine concern for Phaeton and offers to do what he can to help.  Hearing that Ralph will soon be travelling to some larger markets, Phaeton gives his trusted customer an expensive magical rod he’s been unable to sell locally in the hopes a buyer can be found abroad.

When Anorak and Ralph return to Trail’s End, Goldcape lets them keep watch on the tower as he flies on Rocky’s back to his safehouse.  He’s decided he wants to take Blackjack’s garb with him after all.  He also charges Sergeant Clenkins with a new mission: to keep an eye on the tower and shoo people away (but not to engage any Gray Maidens or other agents of the Queen).  Clenkins agrees, explaining that a concrete mission will be good for the rebel troops he’s training.  When Goldcape returns to the others, he magically repairs Anorak’s damaged armor.

 

The group decide to spend the night in an inn and then depart in the morning.  But the logistics of getting a disparate group of adventurers, their gear, and their animal allies ready to go proves surprisingly challenging!  When Anorak tries to teleport everyone to the inn (the Burnt Honey), his spell isn’t powerful enough, and he appears with just Rocky and Eldritch!  Annoyed at being left behind, Ralph starts riding his horse toward High Bridge while Goldcape magically takes on the aspect of a frog to swim across the Jeggare!  “Thank you so much!” she says sarcastically, dripping wet, when she finds Anorak at the inn.  Ralph has even more unkind words to say to Anorak.  Over dinner, the trio discuss their current problem.  They were planning on using magical wind-walking scrolls to hasten their journey to Castle Scarwall—however, upon close examination, no one in the group is certain they know how to activate them!  Ralph decides they’ll need to find a cleric in Korvosa, but that too presents challenges: the Temples of Asmodeus and Abadar cannot be trusted (as they’ve thrown their allegiance behind Ileosa), the Temple of Sarenrae is being watched, and Bishop d’Bear of the Church of Pharasma is still on board the Black Ship.  Ralph says perhaps he’ll try the nearby shrine to Shelyn (goddess of music and art) in the morning.  Meanwhile, Goldcape puzzles over Yraelzin’s earlier messages indicating he was staying at the “skull-topped tower” near the “crater lake”.  He pours over his recently-acquired book on the Hold of Belkzen and finds absolutely no mention of a skull-topped tower.

 

[Fireday, 31 Erastus 4708]

Feral dogs tussling over garbage in the alleyway outside Anorak’s room keep him tossing and turning all night.  As dawn approaches, the dwarf is so fed up with the clamour that he stomps outside and knocks them both out with freezing magic!  When he comes back in, Ralph and Goldcape (both having enjoyed a good night’s rest) tease him and nickname him “Anorak Dogslayer.”  The grumpy dwarf decides to go back to bed, and sleeps through the morning.  The other two go off on errands.  Ralph learns that the city’s small but beautiful temple to Shelyn could indeed help read the scrolls, though the price is high.  Goldcape does research at both Basha’s and Bookmaker’s, but neither has any clue about a “skull-topped tower” in Belkzen.  Costa jokes that perhaps it appeared out of nowhere, just like the tower that’s now casting a pall over Korvosa!

After lunch, the group makes a final (and ultimately successful) plan on how they’re going to leave Korvosa.  First, Ralph stables his horse indefinitely at the inn.  Second, Goldcape magically shrinks Rocky down into a small figurine.  Third, Anorak teleports everyone to Kaer Maga in the hopes that they can find someone there to read the wind walk scrolls for them.  Something goes wrong with the spell once again, this time wracking everyone with pain, but they do all appear in Kaer Maga.  Anorak had chosen the “esoterica” business run by the memorable vampire proprietor Froderic, and when they appear, he’s drinking blood from the wrist of an obviously-hypnotised young elf.  Seeing potential customers appear, Froderic sends his snack away and begins negotiating.  The group isn’t able to get the price that Phaeton wanted for the magical rod, so they decide to hold onto it for now.  Ralph is able to unload many of the magical weapons discovered in the Tower of Passage.

 

The trio spend the afternoon looking for libraries and temples.  Ralph learns that there’s a major temple to Pharasma in the city called the Godsmouth Ossuary, and the Pharasmins there could (for the usual fee) read the magical scrolls he needs.  He also gets a referral to a quality inn called Canary House.  When the group hear about what may be Varisia’s most complete archive of lore, a building called the Therassic Spire, they pay the hefty reading fee to gain access.  But there’s still no mention of a skull-topped tower in Belkzen!  Finally, Anorak realises that Yraelzin isn’t talking about a fixed location at all—it must be a reference to a bone house, a minor (and evil) artifact capable of creating an instant fortress out of a fist-sized figurine!  Ralph says it must belong to the Brotherhood of Bones, and is annoyed that Yraelzin has apparently made a deal with the group.

 

As the sun starts to slowly slip over the horizon to bring another day to a close, the Harrowed Heroes are finally on their way to Belkzen.  But with one ominous tower ahead of them, and another left behind, what does the future have in store?

--------------------------------------

GM Commentary

A few of the recurring themes I've discussed in previous commentaries are very apparent in this recap.  First, Goldcape again makes the best suggestion about what to do with a problem (in this case, the tower) but is ignored by the two adult players; a frustrating situation for Goldcape's adolescent player.  Second, the group has logistical troubles with things like the number of creatures that can be affected by spells (counting familiars, animal companions, mounts, etc.), who can activate scrolls, etc.  They figured it out in the end, even if it did cost them some time and gold.  Third, I never did find time to really prep Kaer Maga to my satisfaction--it's just too big and there's too much out there on it.  I feel like I did an okay job referencing the materials on the fly, but I would like to really make the city come alive in a future adventure.

Pathfinder Unchained [RPG]

 

Having completed a couple of adventure paths as GM and gearing up for my third, I felt I had enough experience under my belt to see about implementing some of the alternative rules systems from Pathfinder Unchained.  The book presents 254 pages of different or additional ways to do things in Pathfinder, and it’s certainly worth a look if you’re planning a new campaign—chances are there’s something for every GM.  These aren’t little things like a new feat, but major redesigns of entire classes, monster creation, magic, and more. The only caveat is that the more you stray from the Core rules, the more unresolved issues are likely to arise, so think carefully through the implications of a change and make sure players are willing to buy in to any adjustments.  Anyway, there’s a ton of material to discuss, so let’s get to it!

 

I’m not a big fan of the cover.  The golem or animated statue or whatever it is has a crazy narrow waist that really annoys me for some reason, even though I do acknowledge the whirling chains are a nice nod to the book’s title.  The introduction (2 pages long) notes that Pathfinder was released seven years earlier (at that point) and that it’s time to offer a workshop full of tools for GMs to select from to update and customise their game.  It provides a brief but useful overview of the major new changes, and is worth a skim.

 

Chapter 1 is “Classes” (36 pages) and contains the most widely adopted changes across the Pathfinder community.  The chapter presents new “Unchained” versions of the Barbarian, Monk, Rogue, and Summoner, and even PFS allows them because they are almost unanimously accepted as more playable (and better balanced) revisions.  The Unchained Barbarian has simplified calculations for rage duration (though it still lasts too long, in my opinion) and makes it easier to use rage powers.  The Unchained Monk has a simplified Flurry of Blows and new ki powers for versatility.  The Unchained Rogue gets skill unlocks (discussed later) and important abilities like debilitating injury, weapon finesse, and (eventually) Dex to damage.  The Unchained Summoner is frankly a nerf, but a much-needed one; the biggest change is to the eidolon, but it also fixes the Summoner spell list.  I’m happy with all the class revisions, and I only wish Paizo got around to making Unchained versions of some of the other problematic classes out there.  The chapter also contains a new method to compute BABs and saves to help multiclass characters, but it looks too complicated to me.  Finally, there’s a new “staggered advancement” mechanism that sort of allows a character to partially level up as they go instead of doing it all at once when they reach a new XP threshold; I think it’s more effort than its worth.

 

Chapter 2 is “Skills and Options” (44 pages).  It starts with an optional “Background” skills system, which essentially gives each PC a free rank each level to spend on a non-combat oriented skill like Craft, Perform, etc.  I tried it once in a previous campaign but found it was rarely used to flesh out a character and was instead just dumped into learning another language or another point in a Knowledge skill.  I do like the expanded skill uses for Craft, Perform, and Profession—they’re easy to integrate into a campaign because they essentially give the GM a list of uses and DCs to make those skills more valuable in ordinary gameplay (such as using Craft to determine what culture made an item, for example).  Another optional change is a consolidated skill list that cuts the number of skills in a third!  This is essentially what Starfinder did, and I’m not a fan at all because it makes for too much homogeneity within a group.  Another proposal is “grouped skills” which makes PCs more broadly skilled but less specialised; complicated but interesting.  Next, there are alternative Crafting and Profession rules.  I like the changes to Crafting (simplifies and details DCs better) but it doesn’t address magical item crafting which, frankly, is the most likely to be used and abused.  The changes to Profession are only for running a business.  Perhaps most pertinent are the “Skill Unlocks” for Unchained Rogue (or any other PC who takes a particular feat)—these allow a character who has 5, 10, 15, and 20 ranks in a skill to gain a particular ability with that skill.  These aren’t game-changers for the most part, but they do speed up their use or remove penalties, and are worth having for the most part.  Last, there’s a new way to handle multiclassing; essentially, you give up feats to get the secondary powers of another class.  I found it interesting but ultimately unsatisfactory.

 

Chapter 3 is “Gameplay” (46 pages) and is a real grab bag of options.  The first involves alignment: either making it a bigger part of the game by tracking PCs’ alignment more finely and providing bonuses accordingly, or removing it altogether (which would require a *lot* of GM legwork).  Some people like the revised action economy (a version of which was implemented in PF2), which changes the admittedly initially confusing dichotomy of Free/Swift/Immediate/Move/Standard/Full to just “Simple” and “Advanced”.  However, I’ve also heard issues with how it handles certain classes.  Another proposal is to remove iterative attacks; it looks interesting but too complicated for easy adoption.  Next are “stamina points” and “combat tricks”—basically, a pool of points to use for a bonus on an attack or to do certain tricks that improve combat feats; I could certainly see using this.  Also tempting is the idea of “wound thresholds”, which means there’s a degradation of fighting ability the more hit points are lost—this would create some new tactical considerations though it would also require some more GM tracking.  Last are Starfinder-style disease and poison progression tracks, which make them *much* deadlier (I think they’re too hard to integrate at this stage in Pathfinder, however).

 

Chapter Four is “Magic” (38 pages).  It starts with “Simplified Spellcasting”, in which a spellcaster only prepares spells for their three highest spell levels with all lesser spells grouped in a pool; this provides them even more flexibility, which is anathema to those (like me) unhappy with the caster/martial disparity at higher levels.  Next are “Spell Alterations”, and some of these are more my jam: limited magic, wild magic, spell crits and fumbles, and material components have a cost for every spell (old school!).  I know a lot of groups use the “Automatic Bonus Progression” rules, which provide a fixed bonus at each level so that the “Big Six” magic item slots can be used for more interesting and flavourful things than just stat boosting gear.  Next are magical items that scale; I think one or two of these in a campaign could be really fun (and manageable), though I wouldn’t want to overdo it just because of the complications.  Last up is a new way of handling magic item creation that involves the whole party overcoming challenges in order to add unique powers to items; it’s certainly flavourful and worth considering.

 

Chapter Five is “Monsters” (62 pages).  It presents a whole new (and allegedly much faster) way of creating monsters.  It’s the method adopted in Starfinder, and is based on arrays and grafts rather than building a creature from the “ground up”.  I’m personally not a fan of it (I like knowing monsters follow the same “rules” as everyone else), but I do sympathise with the homebrewers out there who want a faster way to stock a dungeon with custom creations.

 

And that’s Pathfinder Unchained.  If you’ve been playing or GMing for a while and have a good sense of the Core rules, it’s certainly worth a look.

Starfinder Society Scenario # 5-14: "Ghost Level Delve" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

Ghost Level Delve is a Starfinder Society scenario for Levels 1-4.  It's the first Season Five scenario I've played, and I experienced it through play-by-post at low subtier with my fun journalist character, Vitellius Korpopolis.  The scenario is well-written and makes a smart connection to the aftermath of the Drift Crisis event.  It provides some intriguing hints to some of the mysteries of Absalom Station for experienced players while being perfectly approachable for new ones.  Although the overall tone may be a bit too light for my personal taste, I can respect a quality scenario and Ghost Level Delve is certainly one of them.

SPOILERS!

The premise to Ghost Level Delve is that, after the Drift Crisis, Absalom Station has been flooded by thousands of refugees that threaten to swamp its capacity to house them.  Rather than turn them away, one possibility is to allow them to settle in the so-called "Ghost Levels", an area of the Spike that has always been barred to inhabitation (or even organised exploration) because of the dangerous, bizarre creatures and ecosystems reported to lie within.  But with the recent crisis, the Starfinder Society has pushed to be allowed to start clearing the "Ghost Levels", and the PCs (in a briefing held by Zigvigix and Harmony of Many) are assigned to the task.  The Starfinders are instructed to aid a new community called Fullbridge which is located right on the edge of a Ghost Level.  It's a strong and interesting adventure hook. (because I'm still way behind on storylines, this was my first experience with Harmony of Many and the Advocates and Manifold Host factions; I'd like to learn more)

A taste of action comes immediately, as the PCs encounter a group of lashunta refugees being menaced by the "Bulkhead Bruisers" gang.  My skittermander Steward character, Officer Swizzers, has a neat boon for fighting gang members, but alas, she wasn't present.  The gang toughs can be dealt with through old-fashioned combat or driven away through intimidation.  Fullbridge itself is led by a dragonkin named Lourvictrix, a former Knight of Golarion.  There are a variety of skill checks the PCs can make here to help the community with everyday issues that have arisen (moving supplies, getting electrical systems operating, etc.) and some brief but flavourful NPCs to interact with.  The GM will just need to supply some of the description of the tasks, as the scenario doesn't go into much detail.

The heart of the scenario starts when the PCs are approached by Lourvictrix with an urgent request: her bonded partner, a fellow former Knight of Golarion named Elymilra, has gone missing in the Ghost Levels.  Good thing there are Starfinders around!  This is the set-up that could lead to a generic dungeon crawl, but the writer did a nice job changing things up.  There are some non-combat encounters (a "hexoglin" that can be persuaded to stop chewing on power cables and a jububnan who needs help with a coming-of-age ritual), some intriguing exploration (especially a telepathic vision that a barren planet may have once occupied the place where Absalom Station does now!), and of course some hazards and foes (strange crab monsters called "vurchyras").  Elymilra is found unconscious near the latter threat, and I like how, if the PCs are forced to retreat from them and leave her behind, she dies!  Rarely will scenarios actually impose failure conditions.  Assuming all goes well, the PCs can return with Elymilra to Fullbridge and help petition for the refugee community to become fully recognised.

As I said, I enjoyed the premise to Ghost Level Delve and liked the variety of plot elements it featured.  I'd be happy to explore the Ghost Levels further, and see what else can be unveiled about the Gap!

Curse of the Crimson Throne Recap # 66 [RPG]

 [Wealday, 29 Erastus 4708 A.R.]

 

In the supernatural gloom caused by the uncanny black tower that looms over them, The Reckoner and Goldcape talk about what to do next.  The Reckoner’s sapient armor, Plate, says they have to intervene to save Korvosa from living in permanent shadow!  Goldcape is more reluctant, but is persuaded that the danger to the city warrants the tower being investigated.  She earns the concession that they’ll enter in the morning so everyone will be at full strength.  Oddly enough, during the conversation, Anorak has been completely silent.  When the invisibility he cast on himself during the vescavor swarm attack finally wears off a dozen minutes later, the others see his eyes are vacant!  Could his mind or soul have been drained away when, as “owner” of the box, he destroyed it by placing it in the bag of holding?  The others drag Anorak to safety and then, at Plate’s suggestion, heap piles of rubble in front of the tower’s lone door to make sure nothing else emerges.

 

But as the improvised barricade is being assembled, it seems the presence of a massive black tower suddenly arising in Trail’s End hasn’t gone unnoticed by those across the river!  Four Gray Maidens, mounted on hippogriffs, are streaking tower the tower from Castle Korvosa.  Eager for a fight, The Reckoner uses an array of wands to prepare himself, while Goldcape conjures an ettin out of pure magical energy!  Once the Gray Maidens get close enough, Goldcape starts summoning bolts of lightning, knocking one of the riders and her mounts into a spiral they can’t recover from.  The other Gray Maidens circle the tower once and then fly back toward the city at top-speed, obviously having been briefed that a direct confrontation with the Harrowed Heroes is sure to end in utter defeat.

 

Once the Maidens have fled the scene, Goldcape buries the slain hippogriff while The Reckoner recovers its rider’s weapons and armor.  One of the few remaining Varisians in Trail’s End, a farrier named Giorgio, gathers the courage to emerge from hiding to ask what’s going on.  Goldcape speaks with him and shares what she knows.  When the two agree that Queen Ileosa may see the tower as a challenge to her reign and that its mere presence poses a threat to Trail’s End, Giorgio agrees with Goldcape’s advice that the remaining residents of the little community should leave for their own safety.  Giorgio says his people know the ways of the road and will be gone at first light.  Goldcape gives Giorgio a letter to show to Jasan Aldern in Harse if they need a temporary place to stay.

 

In full knowledge that, come morning, she and The Reckoner will enter the tower and perhaps never come back, Goldcape leaves a note for Anorak explaining what happened and flies quickly on Rocky to drop off Blackjack’s costume at the safehouse (along with instructions to Sergeant Clenkins to forward the trunk to Vencarlo Orisini if she never returns for it).

 

[Oathday, 30 Erastus 4708 A.R.]

 

In the morning, as The Reckoner and Goldcape are getting ready for the ominous task ahead, Goldcape receives a mental message from Yraelzin: “I’m with the Brotherhood of Bone at the skull-topped tower on the shores of the crater lake.  Laori is endlessly entertaining!”  Goldcape tells The Reckoner the Brotherhood of Bone are a small sect of the faith of Zon-Kuthon (the god of pain and shadows) opposed to Kazavon, and must be the allies The Harrower told her about.  She adds that one of them will betray the other.  But The Reckoner is more interested in the present than the future, and only nods as he goes to investigate the only entrance to the black stone spire.  The tall door is located in an odd-shaped recess and emblazoned with a bas-relief of people having their skin and muscle torn out of their bodies by unknown forces.  The Reckoner’s keen eyes discern faintly glowing magical runes around the edges of the door—a magical trap!  As neither of the pair are trained in trap removal, they try a variety of things to discharge it harmlessly, but none work.  Finally, Goldcape hits on the clever idea of conjuring the magical simulacram of a mite—a small, three-foot-tall, blue-faced fey, and instructing it to touch the door.  When the mite does so, an incredibly powerful surge of foul necromantic energy completely drains the life from the creature.  But the runes no longer glow, indicating the trap is in abeyance.

The Reckoner pushes the heavy stone door inwards to reveal a vaguely diamond-shaped room with ceilings almost thirty feet high.  The dark stone walls seem to absorb light, as do two triangular pools filled with what looks like roiling ink.  In the center of the room stands a waist-high pedestal that has a round platform mounted on it; the platform has a sharp, needle-like projection pointing to one of four arcane symbols along the edges.  Before The Reckoner can venture far to explore, an enormous, bat-like creature shaped from utter darkness descends from the ceiling to attack!  With one bite, The Reckoner feels the chill of the grave and notices some of his defensive magics vanish.  But his heavily-enchanted silver battle-maul leaves deep sizzling wounds on the creature as it rages in the guttural Infernal tongue, “Trapped! Return Home!  Mortimont!”  In seconds, the creature lies dead at The Reckoner’s feet.

When it’s safe, Goldcape joins The Reckoner in the interior of the tower.  She can discern the pools of liquid and the pedestal mechanism are magical, but not how they function.  The four symbols, however, are apparently planar sigils—one for the Material Plane (where the platform is pointing), one for the Ethereal Plane, one for the Abyss, and one for the Plane of Shadow.  Empty squares indicate that perhaps other sigils could be added.  The Reckoner surmises that this entire tower could travel between planes!

 

One door stands closed across the oddly-shaped chamber.  Goldcape stays back some distance as The Reckoner carefully opens it to reveal a small chamber filled with obsidian chests etched with words in exotic tongues.  At first glance, the room seems safe, but seconds later a ghostly presence emerges from the very walls of the tower, its face and clenched fingers delivering a silent message of utter rage.  Then, the silence is broken by an unearthly wail of heartbreaking tragedy.  The Reckoner claps his forearms to his ears, staggering from the overwhelming assault to his senses, but he remains standing.  Fortunately, the potentially-fatal sound has ebbed by the time it reaches Goldcape and Rocky.  But The Reckoner’s reliable battle-maul proves far less effective against this new threat.  The banshee plunges a ghostly hand into his chest to squeeze his heart!  He collapses, dead, until Goldcape uses her most powerful magic to get his heart beating again!  And with a cry, she sends Rocky to swoop in and help The Reckoner battle the insubstantial menace.  With an enchanted talon, Rocky adds to the damage The Reckoner has already inflicted and tears away the last wisps of semi-corporeal substance that formed the undead being.  It slowly dissipates.

“I would be dead without you! That was a close-run thing!” says The Reckoner in gratitude to Goldcape.  He uses a wand to heal his wounds further, and then the two investigate the obsidian chests.  Between the two of them, they can only discern the words on one of the chests—written in Infernal, it says “Blasphemous”.  The Reckoner decides to open one of the other chests, and finds a morningstar, a longbow, and a longsword.  When the other three chests are opened, they reveal similar contents.  Goldcape can discern that all the weapons are magical, and that one of the chests contains a holy weapon.  Concerned that the others could be evil or cursed, Goldcape conjures another mite to place them all in a canvas bag for safekeeping.

 

The Tower of Passage has been explored, with near fatal results.  But now a new question arises: what should be done with it?

---------------------

GM Commentary

I think I may have adapted some of the layout and foes in the tower from one of the optional side quest adventures for Curse of the Crimson Throne presented in the Pathfinder comics.  I added all the material about the plane-shifting ability of the tower.

Anorak's player was absent this session, which is why the character was incapacitated.  (I always try to come up with semi-plausible reasons a PC can't participate)

It was a good thing they detected (and cleverly discharged with a summoned creature) the trap on the door; it was a CL13 harm spell, and 130 hit points of damage could ruin someone's day!

The first foe in the tower was a nightwing nightshade, while the second was a banshee.  Both are pretty nasty foes, especially given the PCs' levels and number.  Goldcape used heroic recovery to keep The Reckoner from becoming "dead dead"!  The rewards in the chest were pretty sweet, and I think the holy weapons were used until the very end of the campaign.

Starfinder Module: "Skitter Warp" [RPG]

 NO SPOILERS

 

Skitter Warp was Paizo’s Free RPG Day 2022 release for Starfinder.  It continues featuring the skittermander crew of the salvage vessel Clutch, with pre-gen PCs at Level 5.  I ran it live tabletop for my son’s birthday.  The adventure features some excellent artwork, the return of some familiar settings and NPCs from previous Free RPG Day offerings, and solid writing.  There’s actually a lot packed in it, which means (depending on how much role-playing occurs) a group might be harried to complete it in a normal 4-5 hour slot.  If you liked the previous adventures in the serious, you’ll like Skitter Warp too.

 

SPOILERS!

 

In some ways, Skitter Warp is a sequel to Skitter Crash, as it’s also set on the osharu planet of Varkulon 4 and features a return of the Helix Lyceum and NPCs like Ponatia.  At the same time, it’s also a tie-in to the “Drift Crisis” event.  In an interesting twist, one of the normal group of Skittermanders—Nako—isn’t a playable PC, and is instead replaced by his namesake Nakonechkin (their vesk boss).  As we’ll see, the reason for the swap is a fun one that might be a good surprise to the players.

 

Part 1 (“Into the Danger Zone”) starts with a little freeform role-playing, as each PC is aboard the Clutch and gets a chance to describe the fun little memento they picked up from Varkulon 4 during their latest salvage job (Nako is still planetside helping to gather the last of it).  But then it’s right into the action, as the Drift Crash strikes, hurtling the planet and the orbiting Clutch into a strange miasma.  The Drift Crash threatens to become a literal starship crash, and the PCs have to make some skill checks to keep their ship aloft.  If they fail too many of the checks, their ship will have reduced shields for another threat posed by the miasma: a type of ghost ship called a derelict shade.  It’s a cool foe for a starship combat, but again Paizo doesn’t have the courage of its convictions and even if the good guys lose, all it means is the PCs take some damage to stamina points (which they can promptly regain with a 10-minute rest and the trivial expenditure of a resolve point).  Having played Starfinder since its beginning, I really do think one of its weaknesses is a demonstrated reluctance to let genuinely bad things happen to PCs.  Anyway, after the battle, the PCs get a transmission from Headmaster Kiodea at the Helix Lyceum request an urgent visit.

 

Part 2 (“Golden Siege”) has the Clutch descending to the surface of Varkulon 4 and its crew realising that the effect of the strange cosmic storm has been radical!  Planar energy has surged randomly throughout, changing the landscape, building, and even inhabitants.  The area around the Helix Lyceum was struck by good-aligned planar energy, and its residents have become quasi-angelic beings!  However, those in some of the surrounding areas were struck by infernal or umbral energy and altered accordingly.  Upon landing, the PCs have to fight off an “infernal nilothera” (a good call back to Skitter Crash where they fought a normal one) before meeting with Headteacher Kiodea.  He explains that the city-university has received a threatening transmission, and plays it for the group: on screen is Ponatia, but his head now bears curled ram’s horns and his face is twisted with rage as he vows “vengeance” on the Lyceum.  Hundreds of wrath-filled foes soon surround it, and the PCs are tasked with three missions to aid in its defence.  They can do the missions in any order, with the one they choose to do last altered to be a little bit harder.  One mission involves escorting civilians to safety past some corrupted umbral-infused osharus.  I liked how stealth (instead of combat) was a legitimate option for success.  Another mission, fortifying the Lyceum’s defenses, is purely skills based.  A third mission is a straight-up fight against some undead (bone trooper) osharus.  Once the missions are over, Headteacher Kiodea say he may have a true solution to the problem: he’s identified the precise source of the planar contamination, and if the PCs douse it with a mystical cleansing oil, the corruption should abate.

 

Part 3 (“Spring of Evil”) has the PCs travelling to the source of the contamination (the Acavo River), fighting a warmonger devil and (hopefully) avoiding a sinkhole trap before the big climax.  Not only must they face “Evil Ponatia” (a fiendish mystic) their friend Nako is present as well—but she’s full of hate and immediately attacks!  I love the artwork they gave for her.  Smart PCs will have one of the group who’s trained in Mysticism immediately attempt the ritual to reverse the corruption, because otherwise they’ll have a knock-down fight on their hands.  Once the corruption is reversed, Nako and Ponatia return to normal, and the crew of the Clutch can head off to another adventure.

 

Playing these Free RPG Day adventures on my son’s birthdays over the years has been a happy and memorable experience, and I should thank Paizo and the author (Jason Keeley) for the opportunity.  With Second Edition Starfinder in the works, I’m not sure whether or not the crew of the Clutch will return.  I think they’ve got a lot of adventuring left in them, so I hope so!

Starfinder Bounty # 6: "Songbird Rescue" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

 

Songbird Rescue is the first of the Starfinder Bounties (short, 60-90 minute adventures) that I’ve been able to play in person.  I really like the premise for the story, and there’s strong artwork and clever use of one of the flip-mats.  There’s actually a fair amount packed into the Bounty, including combat, traps, lots of opportunities for skills, and some role-playing.  Given all this, and that it’s designed for Level 1 PCs, it would make an excellent adventure to introduce new players to Starfinder.

 

SPOILERS!

 

I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of dead or forgotten gods.  It’s amazing to think that there could be a time when a god has thousands or even millions of followers, but that over time, cultural shifts, and new religions, worship in that god could dwindle to the point where few if anyone remembers them.  And it’s not unrealistic, as plenty of examples can be found in the real world (there’s a memorable H.R. Mencken quote about it).  All that leads into why I find the premise behind Songbird Rescue really interesting.  The bulk of the adventure is set on Yashu-Indiri, an airless moon around Bretheda, that is littered with shrines to dead and forgotten deities.  An android named Sharaphine is part of an order of mystics that maintain some of the shrines when she suffers a terrible accident when one collapses on her.  After spending three days digging herself out, she finds herself emerging at the base of a shrine to Zyphus, the god of accidental death, disasters, and tragedy!  Epiphany strikes, and Sharaphine finds a new patron.  Immediately, she engineers “accidents” to kill the others in her order and then hatches an even crazier plan: she assembles a device (a “calamitter”) to foul the navigational landing systems of ships approaching Yashu-Indiri to create “accidental” crashes!  It’s a pretty cool backstory to the adventure.

 

The Bounty starts with the PCs aboard Songbird Station (a performance venue/school/temple to Shelyn) in the Diaspora.  There, they’re hired by a kobold cleric of Shelyn named Kivi to set out on a rescue mission to Yashu-Indiri.  It seems that a Shelynite named Nairon Shalorrh piloted her shuttle on her usual bimonthly visit to the moon, sent out a transmission when she was approaching it, and then hasn’t been heard from since!  The PCs are given a rainbow-coloured vessel named Vivacity and promised a couple of hundreds of credits each when they return.

 

Sharaphine’s “calamitter” wreaks havoc on the Vivacity’s nav systems as it approaches Yashu-Indiri, forcing a crash landing.  This takes the form of a multi-round skill challenge.  A good GM can make this pretty exciting, even if the worst consequences (failing every round of the challenge) is only a couple of dice of damage and the fatigued condition.  (Then again, at Level 1, that could be a big impact). 

 

After surviving the crash, the PCs find their way to Kivi’s nearby shuttle—a scene perfectly presented by the Crashed Starship flip-mat.  Here they encounter Sharaphine and her posse of anacite wingbots.  The artwork for Sharaphine is excellent.  After (presumably) defeating her, the PCs can begin excavating the shuttle, and that’s where they may meet the most dangerous thing in the Bounty: an electrical trap that could do 3d6 damage—it’s not likely to actually kill any PCs (Resolve Points in Starfinder make that practically impossible), but it could certainly knock one out.  The missing cleric, Kivi, is badly hurt but still alive.  The PCs need to tread carefully here, as skill check mishaps here could very well kill her.  There is where there’s a chance for some role-playing.

 

Having hopefully rescued Kivi, the PCs need to locate the “calamitter” and disable it before repairing their ship and setting off back to Songbird Station.  This only takes a couple of skill checks (that can be repeated without failure), so shouldn’t be too hard.

 

I can’t think of anything to complain about with Songbird Rescue—so that must mean it’s pretty good!

Curse of the Crimson Throne Recap # 65 [RPG]

 [Wealday, 29 Erastus 4708 A.R.]

 

For Ralph Blackfeather and Anorak, dawn brings not just a new day but the sound of screams!  Changing quickly into his guise as The Reckoner, Ralph has Plate make him invisible as he investigates.  A woman on the street is obviously the source of the screams, but she’s unable to do anything but point in the direction of the house across the street from The Reckoner’s safehouse.  Inside, a body has been torn to shreds, blood is everywhere, and the place has been thoroughly ransacked.  Anorak follows The Reckoner inside, and they realise they’re looking at the work of xills! 

 

Both come to the immediate conclusion that the xills must still be after the mysterious box given to Anorak by the unnerving “baker” Mortimont.  The Reckoner wonders aloud how the xill could have tracked the box, as his safehouse has robust protections against divination spells.  He says keeping it in the safehouse is too dangerous, even if the xill can only sense its approximate location, and that they should get rid of it by taking it somewhere with windwalk.  Anorak’s mind turns in a more devious direction, as he suggests putting it somewhere they wouldn’t mind the xill attacking—like Castle Korvosa!  But The Reckoner says that could make things worse if Ileosa got her hands on it.  The two discuss why a passage to the Ethereal Plane could be so valuable (if that is indeed what the box contains), but neither knows enough about the Ethereal Plane to say.

 

Once back outside, the two see that neighbours have come out from nearby buildings—seemingly wanting to help, but scared now that there’s little in the way of law enforcement in Korvosa.  The Reckoner offers his condolences and some money to help the woman who found the body, and Anorak tries to gently ask her some questions, but she’s in too much shock to be of any help.

The two return to the safehouse, where Anorak begins memorising spells for the day ahead and The Reckoner doffs his guise to become Ralph Blackfeather once again.  Ralph walks to the Burnt Honey Inn, just down the street, and, over breakfast, tells Goldcape what just happened.  She says they have to get rid of the box, and suggests putting it in a bag of holding and filling the bag up with rocks until it explodes.  As they’re talking, the magical silver raven she sent to Harse recently returns with a message: “Our shared friend thought it safer for me not to know where he was going. But he promised to be ready when the time comes.”  Goldcape is not satisfied with the answer—she wants to know where Vencarlo is.  She asks Ralph if he could arrange a meeting with Kroft to find out, but Ralph explains about the Black Ship and how difficult it is to reach.  Goldcape tries to send Kroft a note using the silver raven, but the raven soon returns, having been unable to deliver the message.

Anorak soon arrives.  The three spend the morning trying to find a map of the Hold of Belkzen.  First, they try Bookmaker.  The squeakily-voiced proprietor, Costa Serimus, explains that he doesn’t have a map, but he does have a rare scholarly work on the area.  Goldcape is allowed to look at the index, and sees there’s even an entry for Scarwall.  The problem is that the book is quite costly—almost a thousand gold pieces!  Goldcape and Anorak argue about whether the dwarf should contribute to buying the book (since the vanara didn’t contribute to purchasing the magical contract to bind their dandasuka spy), until Goldcape has had enough and buys the book herself.  Still without a map of the area, the trio reluctantly walk south to Eodred’s Walk and enter Basha’s, a small map shop whose proprietor Ralph believes is selling fraudulent “treasure maps.”  When he raises this suspicion with Basha, the cranky old man is (or feigns to be) outraged, and refuses to sell anything to the group until Ralph promises not to spread the “scurrilous rumor” any further.  Basha claims to have a map of the Hold of Belkzen (“made by a Pathfinder!”), and, although Ralph is dubious of its provenance, the group ends up buying it.

 

As they’re in the shop, Goldcape receives a sudden mental message from Yraelzin.  “How close are you?  Lots of orcs.  Made deal with Kuthites—we’re ready to go in when you arrive.  They’re an interesting bunch!”  Goldcape sends as long a response as the spell allows: “Leaving soon, bringing maps.  Where are you? We windwalk.  Where meet? What Kuthites? Anorak don’t want deal.  Arrive soon.”  The trio discuss their travel plans, and settle on leaving tomorrow from Trail’s End and starting with a teleport to Janderhoff.  Complications ensue regarding the power of Anorak’s magic to take only a limited number of creatures.  When Rocky, Anorak’s new familiar, and The Reckoner’s horse are factored in, the spell simply won’t work.  The solution seems to be to ferry everyone to Janderhoff (and beyond) by Anorak casting the spell multiple times, which will leave him dangerously low on his most powerful types of magic.

 

The trio split up and spend the afternoon making their final preparations for departure.  The Reckoner returns to Old Korvosa, finds Xoza, explains that he’ll be gone for several weeks, and tells the spy to spend some time investigating Trifaccia, some time on learning Glorio’s plans and weaknesses, and, if time allows, more about the Commander of the Gray Maidens.  Goldcape makes arrangements with Sergeant Clenkins to continue training the members of her resistance cell; Clenkins promises the troops will be ready when called upon.  Anorak visits The Reckoner’s safehouse, collects the mysterious box and The Reckoner’s horse, and magically travels to Trail’s End.  Soon, Goldcape and The Reckoner are there as well.  The largely-Varisian village is now nearly empty, with most of the residents having departed for more promising destinations.

It’s late afternoon when Anorak explains to the others that he thinks the best way to keep the box from being detected by the xill is to place it within a magical bag of holding.  Acknowledging it could be dangerous (since the box itself could contain an extradimensional pocket), he says he could do it himself, out of range of the others or any civilians.  The snag is that Anorak doesn’t want to use his own magical bag, deeming it too valuable.  Instead, he wants to use Goldcape’s magical bag which is less-powerfully enchanted and cheaper to replace if something goes wrong.  Goldcape initially refuses, but Anorak promises that if the box destroys the bag, he’ll lend her his own magical bag and pay for the full cost of replacing her original one.  Goldcape eventually, and reluctantly, goes along with the plan, and removes everything from her magical bag.  Anorak then removes everything he’s wearing (except his armor), chains himself to a stout tree, has the others move to a safe distance, and places the mysterious box in Goldcape’s magical bag.

The results are immediate, and cataclysmic.  The bag and the box seem to implode, and in their place stands a massive tower of purest black marble!  The tower somehow casts an uncanny shadow a full mile’s radius around it.  But of more immediate danger are the hordes of gibbering, toothy insects that pour forth, straight for Anorak!  They swarm all over the dwarf, somehow chewing holes even in his mithral armor, before Goldcape recognises what they are and how to stop them.  The vanara calls upon her mastery of nature magic to send several freezing spears of ice at the creatures, freezing them in their tracks.  Apart from his damaged armor, Anorak is largely unharmed.  Goldcape raises a curious question after recognising the insects as daemonic swarms from the Abyss—what would creatures from such a place be doing in a tower said to be linked to the Ethereal Plane?

Answers may lie past the heavy stone door located in an odd-shaped recess in the exterior of the tower.  But at what further cost will those answers come?

--------------------------

GM Commentary

We had a lot of fun with Basha and his map shop.  There's only a line or two in the Guide to Korvosa about him, but I took the reference to treasure maps and really hammed up the premise that he sold dubious and outright-forged work.  He was a memorable NPC, and makes some return appearances during Chapter Six.

As I've often mentioned, the story continues even if the PCs dawdle.  Having Yraelzin make an off-screen deal with the Brotherhood of Bone is part of this idea, and we'll soon see the group's reaction when they finally arrive in Scarwall.

That journey was fated to take longer because the PCs had a panoply of mounts, animal companions, and familiars with them.  I always enforce the limits of magic carefully, as it helps players see that the larger their ranks become, the more complications can ensue.  (In other words, getting a new familiar or a guard dog might seem cool, but if it means the group can't teleport or wind walk somewhere, the trade-offs become apparent)

Long before the campaign started, I had entertained my son with the tale of the players in Rise of the Runelords stuffing a bag of holding full of thousands and thousands of silver coins (from a dragon's hoard) until they exceeded its weight limitation and it exploded, swallowing up a good deal of the party's stored treasure!  Thus, he was very aware of the dangers of magical bags and very reluctant to let Anorak use Goldcape's bag for his experiment.  As was unfortunately too often the case, the adults in the group automatically thought their ideas were better than the kid's, and was often the case, they were wrong.  Opening the box normally would have conjured the tower (which provided a passage to the Ethereal Plane, which is why the xill were set on having it) and then closing the box would have vanished the tower.  But placing the extradimensionally-linked box into the bag of holding resulted in the destruction of both the box and the bag, with the tower now permanently fixed in Trail's End!  To this day, if players in any of my campaigns go to Korvosa, they'll see the mile-wide supernatural shadow cast by a strange black tower just outside the city . . .