Pathfinder - The Godsmouth Heresy - Mon 5th May

[chris]

You are invited to the Godsmouth Cathedral in the beautiful and bizarre cliff top city of Kaer Maga. You are instructed to meet Valanthe Nerissia, cleric of Pharasma (Goddess of Life and death) at midnight in a side chapel. You must tell no one else about the meeting.

It appears that bodies are missing from the Godsmouth Ossuary - a large series of burial chambers built beneath the cathedral. The ossuary is a key source of income for the Pharamin clerics as many rich and famous families pay vast sums for their remains to be kept there. News of missing bodies cannot be allowed to become common knowledge.

You are tasked with finding out what is behind the missing bodies and putting a stop to it. A total fee of 750gp is available for the group for discovering the source of the problem and clearing the catacombs of any danger. Your group can also keep any valuables you find in the deeper sealed crypts which the priests do not normally venture into.



I believe the current players are Damon, Carl, Karl, Mike and Maurice. You'll need a new level 1 character - any class and race from the core book. 20pt stat buy. Average starting gp plus 50gp each.

Please have your character sheets written out and ready to go by 7:30pm next week! We may get through the entire adventure in one night but it might need a second session. It all depends on how long you survive.....  

Many thanks!
Chris

[chris]

Just a note to confirm this is still on tomorrow if you are still up for it?

As this is a more old fashioned dungeon crawl, I have invested in some squared a1 flipchart paper so we can lay it out and not have to reuse or redraw bits of the dungeon. We will need 2 or three sheets by the looks of it

We will therefore need more space than usual for an RPG and the small tables won't be practical as I'll need to draw on a solid surface.

Should be there for 7:30. But if anyone is there earlier could you set up two of the large plastic tables if possible?

Right, I'm off to check the monster stats and special abilities!
See you and your new level 1 heroes tomorrow!

[neuromancer]

Ok I am not working so I will try and get there shortly after 7

[mike]

Definitely up for this

Kral (human barbarian 1) all ready to go beat up some undead a**
(I don't care how cagey Chris is being on the subject - it's a tomb - there will be undead)

Actually, he's a bit of an experiment
I just wondered how many HP you can legitimately give a level 1 character
(silly question I know, but once it was in my head I just had to work it out)

The answer, if anybody is interested, is 20
   = 12 (barbarian) +1 (favoured class) +4 (con 18) +3 (toughness)

Add in an AC of 20
   = 10 (base) +4 (chain shirt) +2 (heavy wooden shield) +3 (dex 16) +1 (dodge)

and, somewhat bizarrely, you have a playable character

Basic strategy:
   charge up to Big Baddy
   tie him up in combat so he can't do anything nasty
   then let everybody else deal with the minions


(wouldn't normally run a character like this (too one-dimensional for my liking), but should work pretty well for a one-off dungeon crawl)

[chris]

Many thanks all. I enjoyed that. I thought the card exercise at the beginning worked reasonably well to give the characters a bit of history together.

I'm trying to practice and improve my gm ing as I'd like to run some convention games at some point so if you have any thoughts or feedback let me know.

Photo below showing the group attempting to fend off some tiny poisonous spiders:



One rule mistake is that the dark creeper used too many actions to escape. His darkness ability is a spell like ability which (if it doesn't say otherwise) is a standard action. The lovable little guy would not therefore have been able to cut the lead in the same turn. ( ah well he deserved to escape after his trying ordeal). 150xp each for that encounter by the way!

Other rules I need to look up which I ruled on the fly to prevent the game bogging down). Listed these here so I remember:

1) do unseeing opponents within the effect of a darkness spell, get to make attacks of opportunity against something moving that they can't see? (I ruled as no on the fly but need to check)

2) does darkness spell shut off non magical light AND prevent new non magical light from being lit within its area and duration? (I ruled yes)

3)how do multiple person grapples work? (Never dreamed this would come up!)

4) details of how detect evil works and the threshold of how powerful something has to be to register- I know there is a table with different creature types etc - I just haven't looked at it in a while!)

See you all for part 2 on Easter Monday (21st) assuming the club is open.

[steven]

Who is the Dark Creeper? Damon?

[chris]

Apr 8, 2014 6:34:06 GMT chris said:

1) do unseeing opponents within the effect of a darkness spell, get to make attacks of opportunity against something moving that they can't see? (I ruled as no on the fly but need to check)

Found the answer to this one. We were right to deny attacks of opportunity if the target has total concealment:

www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/combat#TOC-Concealment

[Damon]

Apr 8, 2014 7:08:31 GMT steven said:

Who is the Dark Creeper? Damon?

No, I'm the "Dark Crapper".....

D

[chris]

Just indulging in a spot more rules reading over lunchtime and noticed that in Pathfinder unlike 3.5, if a damage roll is reduced to less than one by modifiers, then one point of non-lethal damage is done rather than normal damage. p179 of core rulebook.

Pretty sure I played this wrong with the spiders but it may come up in our other games too

[Stephen Mawson]

Hmm. That I hadn't noticed. But then I haven't exactly read through the pathfinder rules with a fine tooth comb looking for differences.

[chris]

That's fair enough! I'm reading it in detail cos I like that sort of thing and cos I'm currently in two pathfinder games plus the society stuff at the games expo.
Sharing anything that surprises me on the forum helps cement it in my mind so hopefully people don't mind!?

On a side note I noticed today that my core rulebook (paper copy) now appears to be opening straight to the character death section of the rulebook. Should I be concerned?

[chris]

This continues tonight!

A recap of the story so far:

Your band of intrepid upstanding adventurers (umm .. ), having survived a goblin attack on the road, has been hired by the church of Pharasma in Kaer Maga to investigate a series of missing corpses seemingly taken from the churches' crypt beneath their cathedral.

Valanthe (the cleric who hired you) gave you some supplies and a magic chime of opening (now 4 charges left) and asked you to find the cause of the missing bodies, put a stop to it and also explore the extent of the level of catacombs immediately below the church's crypt, making a note of any exits and entrances that they would need to seal up should they want to make use of the area later. This whole affair must remain extremely secret.

You were then locked in behind a guarded door and warned that you would need to use one charge from the chime in order to get back out that way.

You were then attacked by a Darkmantle on the stairs who cast a magical darkness and tried to squeeze the life out of one of the party until it was bashed to death by the others.

Choosing one of three locked doors, (which you opened using the chime) you passed through a corridor lined with decaying (though remarkably preserved) corpses, in which were living some poisonous spiders. You killed them after a brief if slightly disorganised battle.

The next chamber was an exquisitely carved cavernous and multi layered stone temple room containing various statues and symbols etc. The party (I'm trying to remain tone neutral here) decided to walk straight through this room pausing only briefly to look more closely at one of the statues. (*sigh*)

After taking a right at the end of a long corridor, you encountered (and butchered) an ancient decrepit looking flying undead creature which appeared to be weakened and unwell. It occupied a room used for some sort of religious ceremony.

Subtly breaking the door down to the next room, you were plunged (yet again) into magical darkness and you encountered a foul smelling small creature covered in many layers of extremely dirty looking rags. It appeared to be afraid of light and you (and well... pretty much everything) and had been hiding here from the flying undead creature. It explained that it was on a raid for treasure for its master that lives below (beyond the 'shiny door').

It just wanted to go. You scared and intimidated it and it gave up various bits of loot including a shiny cloak (now with small dirty hand prints) and 2 scrolls. It did *not* want to go into the next room, you put a leash on it and then opened the adjoining door.

The room beyond was lit by a small candle on a shelf. A altar stands at the north end with a heavy cloth draped over it. Before you said anything else, a whispering lisping voice from underneath the cloth bade you welcome and said it would reveal mystic secrets and answer your questions ... for a price...

Kral the barbarian then immediately stepped forward, removed the cloth and pausing briefly to notice that the creature was a snake like thing with a goblin like head, then proceed to attack it.

The other members of the party leaped in to try to restrain Kral. Meanwhile the snake thing got angry and belched a foul smelling gas at the party. Kral began to throw up copiously as he was successfully restrained by the others.

Suddenly the rooms both went dark (again) and when they came back on, Brian the paladin was left holding a cut leash. A patch of darkness retreated at speed down the opposite corridor accompanied by a shrill giggle of glee of "I'm free!, I'm free!" from the traumatised Dark Creeper as he quickly disappeared round a corner you have not yet explored.

In the altar room, Kral continued to throw up and was fully restrained while the others after careful diplomacy managed to calm the goblin snake down somewhat.

This is where we pick up the story. The goblin snake is now willing to talk - provided you remove the disgusting sick and violent one from the room. What will you say or ask?

The choice is yours!

I plan to be at the club at about 7 to get going asap - see you then

[chris]

Morning all!

Well that was dramatic! Thanks for another fun session hope you enjoyed it too!

First thing I should say is that there appears to be much debate as to whether pc's should be allowed passive checks to spot bluffing rather than having to ask for them.
Looking again at the rules for bluff I'd say a passive check is probably the best solution to these situations ( ie the dm will roll a check secretly to see if you spot anything amiss). I'll do this in future!

In my defence, he did have a bluff modifier of plus 12, I didn't foresee you would all pick a statue and activate them simultaneously! And you did also have a clear clue from the overheard conversation that the snake thing might not have been entirely truthful...

Still you're all still alive!

When would you like the next session? Damon, am I right in thinking you are already booked up for deadzone on the 5th? Unless we can extend club hours on the bank holiday?

There is also opportunity to swap to a new character for the last session if anyone would like to. Also good story opportunity for you to join us Stephen if you would like?

I'll write a story so far description later so others not involved in the game can follow the evolving and eventful story!

In the meantime, here's a photo of the aftermath!

[Stephen Mawson]

I would of course like to play.

Still level one characters presumably? I'm assuming they haven't managed to level up just yet.

[mike]

Apr 22, 2014 10:50:06 GMT Stephen Mawson said:

I would of course like to play.

Still level one characters presumably? I'm assuming they haven't managed to level up just yet.

Somehow, I don't think we're going to live that long