|
Ran this in my home game recently, when some of my players ended up attacking the bartender of the Rosy Fingers, the ensuing hue and cry gave them the diversion they needed to assault the warehouse.
Best part: minotaur barbarian / fighter going up to the mezzanine floor but getting caught at the top of the stairs between Bengeirr and one of his warriors. He had taken a fair bit of damage so tumbled away to where the lantern was, picked it up, and spent a hero point for an extra action to drop over the side. They chased him but he was able to jump in the water and swim away.
Bengeirr did kill the half-orc ranger however.
Venture-Captain, Croatia & Slovenia
|
several quick questions!
- mechanical one: in the PFRPG revamp it says that Bengeirr has Aura of Chaos. Isn't that a level 8 ability? how does it work?
- story question:
Sounds like he had the revenge coming to him and I wonder what will happen if PCs start asking those questions
|
several quick questions!
- mechanical one: in the PFRPG revamp it says that Bengeirr has Aura of Chaos. Isn't that a level 8 ability? how does it work?
- story question: ** spoiler omitted **
Shadowcat, all cleric radiate their deity's alignment in 3.5, that's all the SQ entry means. Frozen Fingers has not been revamped. The only Season 0 scenario to be converted was Mists of Mwangi (so far).
As for Skelg, the story that I tell is he attacked Haldir's (the father of Bengeirr) funeral ceremony after the ship had been launched but before it could be set aflame per custom. He looted his enemy's vessel but spurned Natalya (she was supposed to die aboard the ship to go with her husband into the afterlife) and left her in the drifting ship. Then he fled to Absalom to avoid retribution and joined the Long Axes. Clearly he got what was coming to him, but the PCs won't learn that until they talk to Natalya.
|
I played this one a few weeks ago, and now I'm signed up to GM it in two weeks. Haven't started reading it yet.
Since I don't know anything about 3.5, I was hoping to find a conversion somewhere for all the monster/NPC stats, which is why I tracked down this thread. But the link earlier in the thread for a conversion no longer works.
Does anyone still have that saved somewhere? That would be good to add to the GM Shared Prep Google Docs site.
|
|
I played this one a few weeks ago, and now I'm signed up to GM it in two weeks. Haven't started reading it yet.
Since I don't know anything about 3.5, I was hoping to find a conversion somewhere for all the monster/NPC stats, which is why I tracked down this thread. But the link earlier in the thread for a conversion no longer works.
Does anyone still have that saved somewhere? That would be good to add to the GM Shared Prep Google Docs site.
Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
|
|
I'm still a little confused by this, but I've finished reading this scenario and looked over the monsters vs what's in the Pathfinder Bestiary. They're the same CR as the Bestiary entries, so I'll just use the Pathfinder versions, with the minor changes mentioned in the scenario, which seem to be changes even in the 3.5 version over a standard monster of the type.
The NPCs are a little tougher. There's at least one instance that I've noticed so far of an NPC with a power that isn't in Pathfinder, and I don't know how it works. And he's missing one of the defining abilities of his class, by Pathfinder standards. But apparently, I'm not allowed to just convert him to Pathfinder rules, so I just have to play him gimped.
The other NPCs don't have any discrepancies that jump out at me, but I haven't looked through all the details yet, either.
This is why I've been avoiding GMing season 0 scenarios. I doubt if I'll ever GM another one after this confirmed my fears about the extra work of figuring out conversions without having the original material.
Venture-Captain, Oregon—Portland
|
The abilities come from 3.5, and I think they're on d20 somewhere if you really want to know. Otherwise I agree, it does kinda gimp the NPCs, though when I ran this for a group of 1-2 they still had a lot of troubles. Even when I played it later there were still hardships, so it really comes down to your players.
|
Venture-Captain, California—Sacramento
|
That and the fact that it was written before Witch was a class, let alone cold themed witch archtypes.
Played this recently with a party who's highest diplomacy skill bonus was +0. The horse trading at the end was just plain frustrating. We knew what we needed to do, we just had no way to make it happen.
Venture-Agent, Georgia—Atlanta
|
If I remember right Mark Mooreland made that ruling some time ago, I'll have to dig it up again to link it.
Edit: I was wrong, it was Josh Frost in the beginning of this thread, his first post.
So, Josh Frost is one of the people who can be counted on to make rulings for PFS? I am not familiar with him, only Mike Brock and John Compton. Also, his post does not have anything to suggest that he would be an authority on this. I am not arguing, just not familiar with him and what he is responsible for.
|
Venture-Captain, California—Sacramento
|
At the time this scenario was published, Josh was. I believe he has since left Paizo.
Basically, if I recall correctly, he used to have Mike Brock's job.
(from his bio)
Joshua J. Frost is a freelance writer, game designer, and photographer. After a series of soul-sucking corporate jobs, Frost joined Paizo Publishing in 2005 as the Advertising Sales Director for Dragon and Dungeon magazines and worked his way sideways to managing Pathfinder Society Organized Play, Paizo’s world-wide RPG organized play system. He was released from Paizo's control in late 2010. He has 38 design and author credits for companies such as Paizo, WotC, and Green Ronin. His RPG industry work has garnered him six ENnie awards, three additional ENnie award nominations, and one Origins Award nomination---all for RPG writing and design.
|
|
I agree, now that I know that post is an official response. However, how am I to tell exactly what is an official response in other threads? Especially older ones?
I think the only former Paizo employees that would have posted official responses (and therefore no longer have the golem icon by their avatar), is Joshua Frost, as you know now, and Hyrum Savage (he posted as a purple monkey IIRC). Both are previous campaign coordinators, and their word would hold the same as Mike's does now realistically.
Outside of those two, I believe all the other employees who would have posted in an "official" capacity are still current employees and have their golem icon visible. I remember reading a post awhile back that system admin was looking into code to freeze such identifiers on a post at the time of posting to make things like this less confusing in the future (i.e. the icon and titles would have remained on the posts).
Hope that helps.
|
Dredging up an old thread but I have a couple questions regarding running this scenario.
Q: Effects of the Beacon of the North do cold environmental damage (severity depending on duration) to the target. The damage is applied only once per day and once per round the light is directed on the target. Does this mean if the target is hit for three rounds they take three rounds of damage each day? Or three times as its happening and once each day after?
Q: Since taking any cold environmental damage causes the target to gain the fatigued negative quality (pg 442), does this mean anyone failing their save is going to remain fatigued the rest of the scenario?
Q: The first two failed saves are just nonlethal damage and the third becomes lethal damage. Can this damage be healed normally? The "curse" for Skelg seems to make it unhealable.
|
|
The mechanics for the lantern were never clearly spelled out. The whole "curse" thing is vague as heck. Any advice here is just that: advice. Use your judgment understanding that 1) it isn't likely that Bengeiir will actually hit anyone with the lantern's beam before the PC's corner him on the balcony and he's forced to switch to melee, and 2) the Fort save is very low, old Skelg probably got a nat 1 in order to fail it.
|
|
I've run this three times. Each time, Bengeirr managed to hit one PC before they got upstairs and took him out, but each time he only managed to target the lantern for one round.
The non-lethal damage is not a big deal, and the PCs always got the scenario wrapped up within 24 hours, so the once/day saves never cam into play.
What it does do, however, is set up some awesome roleplay and "impending doom" feeling for the poor player who got hit. I described a lot of non-mechanical physical effects, told them that they could feel it getting worse after a number of hours, and made them very aware that over the next several days, it was going to get really, really bad. Oh, and then they'll rise as a zombie.
The main benefit of that bit, though, is that the PCs know whether they've broken the curse or not without having to get back to Absalom. "When the big portal opens, you feel a whole lot better." I honestly think that's one of the main reasons it's in there.
|
|
I ran this recently on tier 1-2 and had fun, as did the team. The greatest challenge was the warehouse.
@ Miles, he managed to open a mini portal on the swashbuckler, which was the best dex character so it can happen, go figure :). 3 of the PCs went KO, 2 at Bengeirr's hands. 1 confirmed crit of course on his behalf.
@ Corey on the cold dmg, i took the nl cold as giving fatigue until they sleep it off. Fatigue is no biggie opposed to death.
|
|
I ran this recently on tier 1-2 and had fun, as did the team. The greatest challenge was the warehouse.
@ Miles, he managed to open a mini portal on the swashbuckler, which was the best dex character so it can happen, go figure :). 3 of the PCs went KO, 2 at Bengeirr's hands. 1 confirmed crit of course on his behalf.
@ Corey on the cold dmg, i took the nl cold as giving fatigue until they sleep it off. Fatigue is no biggie opposed to death.
The barbarian managed to barely make his saving throw against the cold damage and hence the fatigue--he was soooooo relieved. Fatigue ruins a barbarian's day.
|
|
They survived though.
I was rather surprised by a player disregarding safety and go down to the hold on his own and ask me 'is it coming towards me?' (Haldyr), while i read that already ^^.
'I crawl under the bench'....Haldyr hits and paralyzes him for 5 rounds.
Fortunately half the group had been smart enough to shop for cold weather outfits, the others passed their saves. Plus...two zombies rolled their reflex (16 & 20) vs the alchemist's tanglefoot bomb ^^. Pretty sweet.
|
Venture-Captain, North Carolina—Asheville
|
That sounds awesome. I think the kids distraction is more amusing than the prostitute, hands down, and certainly more appropriate for a younger audience.
I wasn't thinking about the desecrate not affecting rebuke. Good point!
My original concept was that The undead don't attack Natalya, and to a limited degree, they are her minions. She gets a kick out of her husband's undead state.
However, I'm happy to have different DMs interpret things differently, and I particularly like your version. The kiss is perfect, and that would make me worry as a PC. Good show!
This is the first time I've got to see such a variety of outcomes for an adventure I wrote. It's really neat how different groups and different DMs approach it.
Apologies for the thread necro, but I just ran this scenario tonight, and our group came up with a distraction for the warehouse guard almost as good as the street urchin swarm. One PC had a harrow deck and offered to tell the guard's fortune, setting up on the crate opposite everyone else. A cleric then cast pilfering hand to snatch the keys from his waist. If only everyone in the warehouse didn't start shouting right afterwards . . .
|
Venture-Captain, California—Sacramento
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Apologies for the thread necro, but I just ran this scenario tonight, and our group came up with a distraction for the warehouse guard almost as good as the street urchin swarm. One PC had a harrow deck and offered to tell the guard's fortune, setting up on the crate opposite everyone else. A cleric then cast pilfering hand to snatch the keys from his waist. If only everyone in the warehouse didn't start shouting right afterwards . . .That sounds awesome. I think the kids distraction is more amusing than the prostitute, hands down, and certainly more appropriate for a younger audience.
I wasn't thinking about the desecrate not affecting rebuke. Good point!
My original concept was that The undead don't attack Natalya, and to a limited degree, they are her minions. She gets a kick out of her husband's undead state.
However, I'm happy to have different DMs interpret things differently, and I particularly like your version. The kiss is perfect, and that would make me worry as a PC. Good show!
This is the first time I've got to see such a variety of outcomes for an adventure I wrote. It's really neat how different groups and different DMs approach it.
A good enough fortune teller could work that in.
"I see grave misfortune for your employer, and any who are with him tonight. Demons, murder, terror of all variety. But you, you I see living a long life, far from here... Perhaps in Absolom... (Shouting start) ...Perhaps you should leave for your new life now."
|
I am preparing this scenario for the future & I see some comments implying the desecrate spell is an area effect, as if the spell was normally cast. Counter to this, I see the stats in the DM Shared Prep folder implies that the Desecrate effect only affects the undead wearing the mask. Which of these two cases is it.
Also, I see talk of a bonus to the undead's turn resistance. I had to look this up. Going by the 3.5 rules, that is the case, but the wording of the Pathfinder version of the spell instead improves the DC of an Negative energy Effects. I presume we go with the effect as per the 3.5 rules?