Pathfinder: "PaizoCon 2013 Shot Glass" [RPG]

The image on this shot glass is cool, though it's hard to see unless you hold it up really close.  It's a King Kong-sized goblin, dogslicer raised triumphantly in the air, atop the Seattle Space Needle.  The logo "PaizoCon 2013" appears next to the image.  That's it, though I have empirical proof it otherwise functions exactly as a shot glass should!

Starfinders: "Wayfinders Faction Pin" [RPG]

 "First Into the Unknown" is the Wayfinders' motto according to the card that this pin comes attached to.  The pin itself matches the theme nicely, with a cool arrow-like ship plunging into space.  There's not a lot else to say, besides that this pin looks sturdy and high-quality, and can be used for a little bonus by Starfinder Society PCs.

Rise of the Runelords Recap # 122 [RPG]

 [13 Gozran 4708 continued]

Following the battle against the massive shemhazian demon, Kang and the angel Ayruzi work together quickly to heal Erik.  A search of the chamber shows that the twenty-foot-long sarcophagus is empty.  The adventurers turn their attention to the magical screen of golden energies that bar further progress.  Various options are considered, but sometimes the simplest is best—Jinkatsyu’s runeforged blade disrupts the force field entirely!

Beyond lies the chamber of a powerful magical artefact called the anima focus.  The slowly rotating, thirty-foot-diameter sphere of gold is the magical link between the Material Plane and the runewell in Karzoug’s personal demiplane.  Through the anima focus, soul energies from those slain bearing the Runelord’s mark are transmitted directly to him.  This chamber, crucial to Karzoug’s successful return, is not unguarded, however: standing in the air about thirty feet off the ground is a creature whose upper torso is that of a comely woman, while her lower half is that of a lion; and  flanking her are a pair of cloud giants!  The leonine creature doesn’t expect victory, but instead works to weaken the Heroes of Varisia so that her master will prevail in the battle to come.  When Jinkatsyu rushes into battle, he’s quickly overwhelmed with magic and the giants shatter as much of his equipment as they can.  But just before the foes can decapitate him, Erik saves the kitsune’s life with a perfectly placed fusillade of bullets.  As the last guardians fall, the angel Ayruzi uses more divine energies to heal Jinkatsyu while Ava prepares more spells to repair the kitsune’s broken gear.  Kang analyses the anima focus and determines how it can be used to travel to the place where its energies are being sent.

The time has come.  Having made their final preparations, the adventurers enter the portal in unison and arrive in the Eye of Avarice.  They find themselves standing on a stone platform barely a hundred feet above a sea of pure fire.  Behind them, a rippling window overlooks the city of Xin-Shalast, while before them, at the very center of the demiplane, is a circular pool of molten gold: Karzoug’s runewell, through which the power of the souls slain under his mark have collected for the past five years. It appears to be fully charged.  Mounted above the runewell on an articulated adamantine frame is a large lens of green crystal with the Thassilonian runes for transmutation and greed inscribed upon its surface: the soul lens through which the greed in souls who were marked with the Sihedron was extracted and pooled into the runewell below.  

On each of the chamber’s side balconies is a storm giant, poised for battle, while opposite the runewell and soul lens stands a gargantuan rune giant!  At the far end of the chamber is an extravagant throne, surrounded by walls with countless books and workspaces.  A blue dragon has its tail looped around the throne and is sitting before the throne’s inhabitant like a loyal pet.  And relaxing on the throne itself, casually holding a wand with a flaming glaive leaning nearby, is the ultimate target of the adventurers’ quest: Karzoug the Claimer himself.  He nods, and says matter-of-factly: “I have waited 10,000 years for this, and now the time for words has passed.  Let the current age test its mettle against the greatest wizard of Thassilon.  Victory and annihilation await—but which, to whom?”

The adventurers barely have time to blink before Karzoug is suddenly surrounded with multiple layers of magical protections, including a sphere of prismatic force.  The living relic of ancient Thassilon stopped time itself to ensure his defences would be in place!  The battle begins in earnest, with the heroes’ angelic ally engaging the closest storm giant, Jinkatsyu charging the rune giant that bars the path to Karzoug, Kang hurling bombs left and right, and Erik defending Ava as the cleric attempts to shatter some of the Runelord’s abjurations while avoiding the blue dragon that launches into the air with instructions to kill her specifically!  The adventurers withstand the Runelord’s initial onslaught of destructive magicks and strike back.  Jinkatsyu and Kang work together to topple the rune giant, and then the alchemist hurls his bombs to deadly effect, along with Erik’s pistol, to send the blue dragon plummeting to its death!

But Ayruzi finds single combat against one of the storm much harder than expected—the two trade blow after blow but surprisingly it’s the angel that falls first!  The inexplicable defeat is a sign of things to come.  Clearly, Karzoug has been watching the Heroes of Varisia, analysing their strengths and weaknesses, and has tailored a battle plan to emerge victorious.  Kang’s every-reliable bombs of magical force seem to have no effect on the Runelord, and Erik’s bullets veer away just before striking him.  When Jinkatsyu finally gets close enough to strike, a mere gesture from Karzoug teleports the runeforged-blade from the swashbuckler’s very hand!  The Runelord retreats back into his prismatic sphere with the sword, and Jinkatsyu—already badly hurt and lacking a replacement weapon—decides to follow!  For a moment the nearly-suicidal act appears like it might work, as the kitsune successfully survives the initial layers of the sphere.  But fate is not kind this day, and the heroic swordsman dies as poison wracks his body.

The Runelord draws upon his magical reserves to unleash more devastating magic with incredible speed.  Erik succumbs to a magically-created replica of the wail of the legendary banshee, and dies instantly.  Seeing her companions fall, Ava prays for a miracle and tries to disintegrate Karzoug where he stands, but the Runelord resists the spell!  Kang desperately tries to avoid the still-standing storm giants while thinking of a plan, but even his genius cannot stave off the coming defeat.  Karzoug teleports to Ava’s side, and says, almost wistfully, “Without you, the others would have fallen long before reaching Xin-Shalast.  You should feel no shame, and I take no pleasure, in this.”  And with those words, he first changes Ava into a small amphibian before locking her in a temporal stasis forever!  And then there was one.  Karzoug tells Kang that he has led the group well, and could find a place as a lieutenant in his armies—if he kneels and swear loyalty.  But Kang refuses, knowing that although the cause is lost, he still retains one thing: his freedom.  The master alchemist steps off the platform and embraces his fate as he falls into the lake of fire below.

And thus ends The Rise of the Runelords.  The Heroes of Varisia have failed.  Despite their valiant efforts, Karzoug emerges from the Eye of Avarice confident in his power.  Within months, his newly-gathered armies will take control of central Varisia.  And by year’s end, the independent city-states of Magnimar, Riddleport, and Korvosa must band together or fall to the might of the Empire of New Thassilon.  Yet the valor of the fallen heroes has not been in vain—word of their epic quest has spread, from stopping a goblin raid during Sandpoint’s Swallowtail Festival to slaying Xanesha atop a burning clocktower in Magnimar to launching a frontal attack on the Kreeg ogres at Fort Rannick to stopping a giant invasion at its source in Jorgenfist.  Others are inspired to take up the fight in their name.  The feats of the Heroes of Varisia may have passed into legend, but who can say what their shared sacrifice might bring?

Director's Commentary

Well, this was it--after 120+ sessions, three years of real-time, countless hours of preparation, a lot of highs and some real lows, the final battle with Karzoug the Claimer, Runelord of Greed.  My greatest hope was that the PCs would win but not without an epic, memorable battle.  If that didn't happen, I was hoping they would win even if it was in the almost-comical "one bad saving throw" like with Mokmurian.  I knew the most disappointing outcome for everyone at the table would be a defeat.  And that's what happened.

A post-mortem could identify a lot of things that went wrong for the group.  The angel should have been more than a match for a storm giant, but struggled a surprising amount and was defeated.  The PCs knew Karzoug had been watching and preparing for them, but they didn't adjust their favourite tactics or have good back-up plans when favored attacks didn't work.  A real chance to catch Karzoug outside his prismatic sphere and turn the tide occurred but unfortunately *just* slipped through their fingers.  It's one of those battles that you can replay in your head and see all sorts of plausible outcomes if a die roll here or there had gone a little different.  Alas, in the end, the PCs didn't really even come close.

I had had the players write out two sets of epilogues for their characters (one version if they won, and one version if they lost) and I read those out after the session.  I also read some nominated highlights from the campaign ("funniest moment" "most exciting battle", etc.) and gave out some mementoes like gaming bags, and, for the two players who had been in the campaign since the very beginning, sihedron amulets.  Still, it was a real downer and two of the players left after without saying a word.

As for me, I've now moved on to Curse of the Crimson Throne with a whole new crew (we're at the halfway point in the AP).  I've included the events from Rise of the Runelords into my campaign--Turtleback is still destroyed, Karzoug's armies of giants are taking over more and more territory, and the PCs are about to come into direct conflict with some advance scouting parties in the Cinderlands.

Overall, it was a great campaign and I'll always have a lot of great memories from it.  I do wish it had ended on a better note--but you can't have exhilarating victories without simultaneously having the risk of a disappointing defeat.

Pathfinder Module: "Doom Comes to Dustpawn" [RPG]

 

NO SPOILERS

I ran Doom Comes to Dustpawn via play-by-post for six Pathfinder Society players.  One thing I can say off the bat is that the module really would work better with just 4 (as designed), because my PCs had little real difficulty with any of the encounters.  But putting that to one side, the module has a great, original feel to it and is certainly a different adventure than the norm.  The interior artwork (and cartography) is quite strong, and there's a solid amount of role-playing (especially at the beginning) to off-set the later combat/exploration sections.  It also has a nice, epic-feeling conclusion.  Although I wish I could go back in time and run it for a group that would be challenged more by the encounters, I think this is a great module and definitely worth experiencing.

SPOILERS

The adventure has a great backstory, some of which the PCs will be able to learn: over a century ago, a cabal of elven sorcerer-astronomers from the nation of Lirgen set out in a magical ship to explore the stars.  Some years after they left, Lirgen itself was destroyed by the perpetual hurricane known as the Eye of Abendego.  But the ship, Lirgen's Glory, kept going until it encountered the mysterious creature that had been beckoning to it: the Emissary from Beyond, a vespergaunt agent of the Dominion of the Black.  The Emissary partially succeeded in enslaving the minds of the ship's crew and convinced them to lead it back to Golarion, where it plans to prepare the planet for its masters.  This is the "doom" that's now on it's way to Dustpawn--a small mining town in the foothills of eastern Isger.  The module includes a handsome map of the town and two-page description in an appendix (not enough to flesh it out as much as I would like, but enough for a GM to get by over the course of a module). 

The PCs enter the picture when they hear about (or are hired to investigate) rumors that a mysterious meteorite crashed in the hills south of Dustpawn.  No one has found the meteorite yet, but ever since it crashed, livestock and hunters in the region have disappeared and the townsfolks have started acting strangely.  The PCs' primary contact is Dalviss Crenn, a former adventurer who now runs an inn called The Mineshaft.  The module does a good job describing Crenn's personality and the layout of the Mineshaft, which will likely serve as the PCs' base of operation over the course of the adventure.  Dalviss explains that one of his own staff members--a cook named Leeara--has gone missing while looking for the meteorite, and that he suspects it may be more than a simple hunk of rock.  Additional intrigue is provided by the fact that four mysterious strangers are now staying at the Mineshaft, claiming to be prospectors but acting rather suspiciously.

One of the major strengths of the module is that it's open-ended on how the PCs pursue their investigation.  If they look into Leeara's disappearance by searching her room, they'll find clues that lead them into a cave in a nearby swamp she used to stay in while foraging for cooking ingredients.  Only, Leeara has been transformed into a feral catlike person!  If they instead start off by investigating the suspicious strangers, they might learn they're local cultists of the Dominion of the Black who have been poisoning/cursing the town's water supply with "dream crystal toxin" to pave the way for the Emissary's arrival.  Not only that, several more cultists (and their leader) are hiding out in a nearby mine.  A third option is for the PCs to just start looking for the crash site of the "meteorite"--there are some clues that can narrow down its location, but things like divination or flyovers (the PCs are ninth level, after all) can help them spot it.  But the crash site isn't from a meteorite--it's from Lirgen's Glory, broken in half from the impact!  Inside, the PCs will encounter more animalistic "id mutants" (transformed by the Emissary's magic) and learn that they're dealing with a ship that has travelled among the stars!  I especially liked the portrayal of Gelviel Zorriah, the ship's captain, who is (insanely) convinced that the PCs are his crew members and therefore orders the group to carry out various "surveys" of the "new world" the ship has landed on.

By exploring Lirgen's Glory, the PCs will learn that the Emissary's arrival is imminent.  Here, they're presenting with an interesting choice.  The Emissary is psychically connected to a minor artifact aboard the ship called the Orrery of Distant Worlds.  The orrery is a quite powerful magic item (each of its planetary spheres can be detached to cast a different spell), but destroying the orrery will significantly weaken the Emissary before it arrives.  The group I ran the module for was divided on how to proceed, which is the mark of a good dilemma.

When the PCs get back to Dustpawn, some very cinematic scenes show how the town is suffering from the madness brought by the Emissary drawing closer and closer.  Some of the NPCs transform into id mutant monsters that have to be stopped (hopefully without killing them--another good challenge).  As for The Emissary itself, it's a little underwhelming in appearance (vespergaunts are medium-sized creatures that don't look that different than an ooze) and there's no map provided for the big final battle.  I ended up using the Town Square flip-mat, which worked fine.  Again, the PCs I ran it for handled the creature with little difficulty, but I imagine it could be a more interesting fight with a different group.

Overall, I really liked Doom Comes to Dustpawn.  It's a bit of 1950s science-fiction tropes integrated smartly into Pathfinder fantasy.  It's also a different type of SF than the type presented in the Iron Gods adventure path (no robots or laser guns here!).  If you get a chance to try it out, I'd recommend it.

Pathfinder Campaign Setting: "Rival Guide" [RPG]

 

The Rival Guide is an interesting idea: the book presents ten fully-detailed adventuring groups that can serve as rivals, opponents, or perhaps allies to the PCs.  For each of the four members of each group, there's full colour art, their background/personality, and a stat block (drawn from the Core Rulebook and Advanced Player's Guide only).  Each group is covered in six pages of the book, with the first two pages of each entry devoted to a background of the group, how they act when in town or in a combat, and then some new mechanics options like spells or feats.  The inside front-cover even includes some pretty cool banners for each group along with a capsule summary.  As the book's intro explains, it's perfectly easy to mix-and-match members of different groups if a GM wants to customise things more.  What's interesting from a quick skim of the groups is just how high-level they are: the very lowest CR is 7, and there are groups with CRs of 19, 21, and even 23!  I would have appreciated some more low-level options.  Anywhere, here are the groups included:

* ARGENTATE BLADES (CR13): Named for their trademark mithral weapons, the Argentate Blades are a mercenary company operating around Brevoy, the Worldwound, and Razmiran (ALL HAIL  RAZMIR, THE LIVING GOD!).  They're not actively evil, but they're definitely not nice either!  I really like how the group has an interesting backstory and interpersonal dynamic--they're not just a random collection of NPCs thrown together.  There's a couple of new (not super exciting) spells, but I really like one of the new magic items: bivouac banners , which protect a campsite overnight by generating an illusory hound that barks loudly if anyone crosses the ward.

* CHILDREN OF STEEL (CR23!): These max-level adventurers are true mercenaries, willing to do absolutely anything for coin.  They're a well-traveled group made up of the classic fighter, cleric, wizard, thief combination.  You could pick one of them as a campaign boss if you wanted.  There's a really mean new feat I like ("Slaying Sprint"--allows you to quickly perform coup de graces without provoking AoOs) and a super powerful new 9th level spell that essentially creates an impenetrable force field/antimagic shell.

* DUST COVEN (CR19): The Dust Coven is a Shax-worshipping Drow murder cult.  I wouldn't get on the wrong side of them.  The individual NPCs are only okay.  The book introduces some new magical powders (cockatrice grit is pretty cool) and a new magic item, a marionette crux that's a very flavourful way to use dominate person.

* HANDS OF SLAUGHTER (CR11): These are cool, scary foes--one of them is an awakened dire-ape anti-paladin!  The group is based in the Mwangi Expanse and allied with the Aspis Consortium, they hate elves, and have a propensity for travelling with disposable minions.  Two new spells and two new feats are included, and all look good.

* HELLBLOOD CORSAIRS (CR21): These high-level treasure hunting pirates target Pathfinders--watch out!  The NPCs are okay, though the new gameplay mechanic needs a little work.  It's a new template called "Haunted One" that's an interesting idea but needs better flavour on what these spiritual possessors want and where they come from.

* KODAR KNEECAPPERS (CR7): I'm presently running Curse of the Crimson Throne, so when I saw this group was located in Harse (just outside of Korvosa) I knew I had to integrate them into my campaign.  The Kodar Kneecappers are a group of (mostly) dwarven giant hunters.  They use excellent teamwork, and the book includes a few new teamwork feat and a new spell--both are potentially useful.  I like how the group is good-aligned, but impetuous.  Perfect as a group that needs to be rescued, or perhaps comes to the rescue of the PCs just when it would be most dramatic.

* MARROW REAVERS (CR12): The Marrow Reavers are mercs and slavers that operate in the deserts of Katapesh and Osirion.  They love nothing better than ambushing other adventuring bands to strip shiny new magic items off of corpses.  I didn't know it came from here, but my Groetus-worshipping street preacher wears a pendant of the blood scarab, a cool, low-price magic item.  I absolutely love an intelligent bag of devouring named Chomper!  The Reavers are a very cool, well-developed and memorable group.

* NIGHT HARROWS (CR17): What do you get when a ghoul, a vampire, an evil fortune-teller, and the invisible man walk into a bar?  The Night Harrows are a group devoted to the Whispering Way, a philosophy that promotes an eventual worldwide undead apocalypse!  They are very evil, very stylish, and very cool.   I could see this group as perfect for some high-level adventuring in Ustalav, for example.  The section even introduces rules for vampiric animal companions (!).

* POISONED LODGE (CR9): The Poisoned Lodge is a great concept: a group of greedy, evil Pathfinders who have left the Society and set up their own shop.  They specialise in poison and drugs, and use secrets they took from the Society to blackmail Venture-Captains to overlook their activities! The section introduces several new poisons and drugs.  The individual NPCs are really flavourful.

* QUEEN'S HANDS (CR15): Perhaps the least interesting of the lot, the Queen's Hands are high-level inquisitors working for House Thrune in Cheliax.  One of the members is of the Jeggare family, which is a nice bit of lore to add to the canon.

The artwork in the Rival Guide is really strong and presents evocative images of the characters.  With one or two exceptions, each group has a strong backstory and inter-personal characterisation of the type that's hard to come up with on the fly.  One of the most common complaints about Pathfinder is how hard it is to come up with stats for high-level NPCs, and this book helps address that problem.  I wasn't expecting much when I bought it, but I think it's surprisingly useful and under-valued.

Rise of the Runelords Recap # 121 [RPG]

[12 Gozran 4708 continued]

As they watch the bizarre Denizens of Leng continue to perfect the strange machinery that seems to open a window to the past, the Heroes of Varisia discuss what to do.  Speculating that they’re working on behalf of Karzoug, the adventurers decide to attack.  Ava starts things off with a spell that creates total silence, creating perfect cover for Kang to hurl a bomb into the Denizens’ midst.  The adventurers are heavily outnumbered, however, and quickly surrounded.  The fighting is intense, and every time one of the Denizens is seemingly slain, their bodies liquefy and disappear—leaving only robes behind!  The humming and sparking of the machinery seems to intensify as the battle goes on until it reaches a point that Kang thinks it’s going to overload and potentially explode!  The adventurers retreat toward the rear of the chamber and Ava conjures a thin stone wall to act as shielding—but instead of an explosion, something potentially worse happens.  A terrifying thing from beyond time has emerged from the chronal energies manipulated by the Denizens.  The creature is vaguely shaped like a hound, but its feet end in large razor-sharp talons and its enormous maw is filled with weirdly transparent teeth.  It easily breaks through Ava’s conjured barrier and attacks.  But the adventurers stand firm, and destroy the abomination with little harm to themselves.

Later, the adventurers decide to try to free the angel they encountered previously from the spell that compels it to defend the chamber it is in.  But the binding spell is too strong.  After leaving the Pinnacle and setting up camp outside, the group make their final plans for battling Karzoug—for tomorrow, they plan to confront the Runelord of Greed!
 
[13 Gozran 4708]

The fateful day begins auspiciously.  Ava’s fervent prayers to Sinashakti are answered, and her new attempt to free the bound angel works!  The angel, now able to speak, gives her name as Ayruzi and vows to assist the group in defeating Karzoug.  With such a powerful ally at their side, the adventures progress quickly through the remaining chambers of the Pinnacle.  In one large chamber they find a twenty-foot-tall golden statue of Karzoug with its hands posed as if it were holding something.  The chamber also contains a golden sarcophagus, and perhaps most meaningfully, a massive pair of double doors that shimmer behind a hazy screen of magical energy.  The adventurers know they’ve found the innermost layer of Karzoug’s defences—and one of those defences takes the form of a truly enormous Shemhazian demon!  The forces of Nirvana and the Abyss come to blows as Ayruzi leaps into the fray with her flaming greatsword.  Although Erik is knocked unconscious in the fighting, the demon is finally slain.

 
With a powerful new ally at their side, the adventurers are veritably knocking at Karzoug’s door.  But the Runelord has been studying their tactics for weeks.  Which side will emerge victorious?  The answer is imminent.

Director's Commentary

The penultimate session!  The PCs are certainly as powerful as the AP expects (probably more so), as they made quick work of some crazy-tough opponents like the creature emerging from the Leng portal and a CR16 Shemhazian Demon.  Freeing the angel was another coup, as it'd offer them even more help in the big final battle the next session.  Interestingly, the players (perhaps with some foreknowledge) chose the longest route through the Pinnacle of Avarice--a different turn could have seen them at the final battle a couple of sessions ago!

Pathfinder: "Rise of the Runelords Map Folio" [RPG]

 It's ironic that during the whole three years I ran Rise of the Runelords, I was never able to obtain the Rise of the Runelords Map Folio.  Long out of print, the prices on eBay were in the hundreds of dollars.  Then, about a month ago, I found a perfectly nice copy at a double-digit price!

A lot of the people who bought the product when it first came out in 2008 absolutely hated it, and were scathing in their reviews online.  The problem in retrospect is that this was the very first Paizo "map folio" for an adventure path, and people bought it with completely the wrong expectation of what it would contain.  Buyers who expected it to contain a series of 1"-gridded tactical maps for encounters in the AP so they could just plop down minis and go (without needing hand-drawn flip-mats) quickly learned the error of their thinking.   On the other hand, it's also not like modern Paizo map folios which are four large posters showing specific geographic areas in great detail.

 Instead, the product is essentially a colle
cted reprinting of all the encounter maps that appeared in the AP at their original (half- or full-page) size.  In other words, there's about fifteen single pages of maps that work well as handouts or to use behind a GM screen without messy photocopying--but there's nothing in the folio that doesn't also appear exactly the same in the regular issues of the AP.  The only exception is what the back cover of the folio describes as "two huge poster maps."  I think it is fair to criticise Paizo for exaggerating these, as each of the poster maps is just four panels.  Still, I quite like them: one is of Sandpoint and the other is of the entire region that the AP takes place in (oddly lacking in a numerical distance scale), and both are clear and vibrant.  I would have loved to have these laminated and on the table when I actually ran the adventure.

Once you know what you're getting, the product makes more sense.  It's handy, though un-essential, for running the AP.  And I would definitely emphasize that (apart from collectors) no one should pay big bucks for it.

Rise of the Runelords Recap # 120 [RPG]

 
[12 Gozran 4708 continued]
 
As the adventurers finish a brief rest, they realise that Morgiana is missing!  Clearly affected by her recent cascade of deaths and resurrections, the young hobgoblin has slipped away back down the mountain, leaving only a note saying that the group has no chance against Karzoug’s forces and that the rest of the party should flee as well.  Jinkatsyu remains adamant however, stating that the group has come too far to turn back now.  The others agree.
 
Having secured the entrance to the Pinnacle of Avarice through multiple bloody battles, the adventurers are able to push deeper into the fortress.  One corridor leads to a dazzling chamber awash in golden light—every bit of the wall, floor, and ceiling is covered in gems and gold!  A veritable carpet of rubies forms a throne that seems to make the rest of the chamber’s extravagance pale in comparison.  However, the room is unoccupied and the adventurers decide to push on.
 
At what turns out to be a dead end, Erik’s supernaturally-enhanced senses notice a spot where the walls between the planes seems thin.  Before he can take any precautions, a slightly transparent image of Karzoug manifests and speaks!  “And so the fools have found me.  I must applaud your tenacity.  You are much more persistent than the worms I thought you to be.  You are more like hungry maggots in your endless squirming and writhing to get to the death that awaits you at the core of your fate.  Let me show you a mere taste of the power you face.”  But before the image can actually cast a spell, Jinkatsyu stabs it with his Runeforged blade and shatters the image!

Later in their search, the Heroes of Varisia find a massive room containing a pair of outrageously-sized beds—each over forty feet long!  Clearly the resting point for rune giants, though none are present during the adventurers’ search.  Other chambers clearly belong to the lamias, the Hungerers, and other foes that were dispatched during the rolling battles near the entrance.  But another part of the fortress is guarded by a completely new danger: a gaunt fiend with the face of a hideous fish and a body consisting of lanky limbs and writhing tendrils!  It seems to drain the very soul-stuff from Jinkatsyu while appearing in and out of the Material Plane so rapidly that it evades most attacks.  But Ava casts a spell to lock it in place, and Erik and Jinkatsyu are able to finally finish it off.  The adventurers decide another withdrawal and rest are in order.  As they go to leave, Karzoug cannot resist taking over Jinkatsyu’s persona one final time: “Yes, flee, worms.  Already I have broken your company.  I afford you one more sally, as I tire of this game.”

The Heroes of Varisia decide they can’t afford to tarry, and instead should press on with their explorations of the massive fortress.  One route leads them to a potential godsend: a planetar angel!  But the divinely-inspired being seems unable to communicate and, through emphatic gestures, warns the adventurers not to enter the room it is in.  Erik is able to establish a non-verbal rapport with the angel and discerns that it has been bound by Karzoug’s apprentice to guard this place and must attack all who enter.  The adventurers decide that, come morning, they’ll see if they have the magical wherewithal to free the angel from its magical bondage.
 
The group continues exploring, with Erik and Jinkatsyu scouting ahead.  The two adventurers see a pair of double doors, their faces covered with tens of thousands of tiny runes carved in an eerie, spidery script that seems to writhe and move around.  The kitsune and the aasimar find themselves somehow sucked into the door and into a nightmarish maze!  Eventually the two escape the phantasmagorical labyrinth and find themselves in an equally bizarre chamber. The plain stone walls of the long room are lined by a variety of tables, boxes, crates, and cylinders—some made of stone, but others of metal.  Strange winding cables protrude from some to connect to others, and all of the clutter seems to focus upon a large metal framework constructed at one end of the room, where strange currents of energy dance and shimmer within a ring of stone. The currents occasionally coalesce into images—such as a massive city of towers and gigantic monuments set in a mountain valley at the foot of a huge peak.  Xin-Shalast, as it would appear from above!  But the city beyond the energy curtain is different than what the Heroes of Varisia experienced: its towers and buildings are ablaze with light both magical and mundane and the great central road and surrounding streets teem with tens of thousands of giants and humanoids of all descriptions.  The sounds and even the smells of this strange metropolis waft through the image—an image that is seems more and more like a window to the past.  And surrounding the strange device are a dozen, vaguely human shaped beings wearing twitching yellow robes, turbans and veils.  They completely ignore Jinkatsyu and Erik, and instead do various tasks to manipulate the device and consoles around it.  Erik realises that this must be what the so-called “Leng spiders” were talking about!
 
Meanwhile, Kang and Ava devise a plan to communicate with their allies through a magical spell of sending.  The two decide to take the risk of entering the maze as well, and although what they see is quite confronting, they eventually escape it and emerge next to Jinkatsyu and Erik.  The four discuss what to do.  Kang is unable to make any sense of what the machines are for.  Jinkatsyu says that if these “Denizens of Leng” are doing Karzoug’s will, then he wants to stop them—and uphold the agreement with the spiders.  Ava, however, says it could be incredibly dangerous to start a battle in a room of magically-powered equipment with an unknown purpose.  The conversation continues as, all the while, the Denizens of Leng continue their mysterious work.

Director's Commentary

Morgiana's player left the game after the previous session, so I thought it made the most sense to have the character leave as well.

I really liked the Leng experiment concept.  The PCs didn't know exactly what the Denizens of Leng were doing, and whether stopping it would be a good or a bad thing.  The truth is that the Denizens were *outwardly* working on a way to bring an army of giants from ancient Thassilon into the present, but *secretly* building a trap that would ensnare Karzoug the moment he left his pocket demi-plane (in order to serve their own grand machinations).  We'll see what the PCs choose in the next session.

At this point (and putting the Denizens' trap to one side), Karzoug has the raw power to escape his pocket demi-plane whenever he wishes.  He gained a huge amount of magical power from the destruction of Turtleback Ferry whose residents were marked with the Sihedron Rune, not to mention the scores of giants the PCs had killed.  However, he knows the PCs are coming for him and he's content to watch and wait so he can fight them in his domain.

Starfinder: "Dawn of Flame Dice Set" [RPG]

I've been running the Dawn of Flame adventure path via play-by-post, but I bought the dice because . . . well, I just did, okay!  That's what collectors do.  Anyway, I've used them in several sessions of a completely different campaign to test them out.  The best thing about these yellow-and-orange dice is how clear the numbers are--the size and font make them very easy to read from a distance without confusion.  The starburst pattern that's the highest number on each die works well, and there's even a sensible way to tell the difference between a "6" and a "9" on a d12.  In sum, I have no complaints.  They fit the feel of the AP, and are a good set to use on the table.

Starfinder: "Dead Suns Pawn Collection" [RPG]

 I find it difficult in general to review pawn collections, and reviewing the Dead Suns Pawn Collection will be even more challenging because I was only a player in the AP, not the GM.  This means a "how often did I have what I needed to run encounters" standard isn't feasible.  I'll have to make do with some general impressions of the set.  First, there's a (perhaps) surprising number of starship tokens--by my count, about thirty in total.  Second, there's only a handful (5) Huge creatures.  There are a decent number of Small and Large creatures, but the vast majority are Medium.  Third, the set mostly includes Dead Suns-specific creatures, which makes sense, of course.  But if you're buying the set to supplement your collection for general Starfinder gaming, I don't see a lot of Alien Archive creatures listed.  There are a few like Patrol-Class Security Robots, elementals, ksariks, and scavenger slimes.  Last, the set matches the standard of all of Paizo's AP-specific sets--it doesn't include bases, comes in a thin cardboard sleeve (so you'll need a solution to hold the pawns once the shrink-wrap is removed), etc.  Apart from a statement that I think the cover art is cool, that's all I've got.

Rise of the Runelords Recap # 119 [RPG]

 
[11 Gozran 4708 continued]

At last, the Heroes of Varisia have arrived at the Pinnacle of Avarice.  The immense tower stands over 2,000 feet tall, topping out respectfully just below the carved face of Karzoug himself at the mountain’s peak.  The structure soars like a cavernous silo, supported by an intricate internal architectural wonder of dozens of stone flying buttresses and arches.  The adventurers proceed through one of the hundreds of 50’-tall arches around the base, and enter into a huge, circular room.  There, a 200’ diameter polished stone circle sits on the floor, surrounded by 16 immense pillars that rise up like the legs of a spider to support a central column that itself extends to the very top of the structure. 

Following a spiralling ramp that wraps around the outer circumference of the central column like an immense screw, the adventurers eventually find themselves in an oddly shaped room with a massive pair of golden double doors to the north.  Intricate carvings on the walls evoke Xin-Shalast in its heyday, while the highly polish floor consists of a checkerboard pattern of gold and black tiles.  But the chamber is not unguarded!  A quartet of cloud giants stand at the ready, all branded on the forehead with the infamous Sihedron.  The battle begins!  Jinkatsyu and Morgiana rush into the fray, with the former stabbing one of the giants in the kneecap and the latter somehow managing to disarm another!  But the giants’ response is fierce, as one smashes Jinkatsyu so hard the kitsune goes flying and slams into Morgiana!  Ava begins furiously channelling healing magic to keep her allies standing while Kang and Erik attack from the rear ranks.  But the giants survive the initial onslaught and bellow to sound the alarm that intruders have breached the fortress!

Seconds later, the massive golden doors burst open and a dreaded rune giant enters!  Erik fires a tightly-packed fusillade of bullets into the giant’s chest, but suffers a vicious slash from the foe’s truly massive greatsword in response.  Jinkatsyu darts in and manages to finish off the rune giant, but the battle is far from over. 

A ten-ton hideous mound of shuddering, pustule-encrusted flesh with a gaping maw slithers into the chamber as, with every passing second, more and more defenders arrive to repulse the attackers!  The very presence of the creature, a so-called hungerer, is enough to sicken the adventurers.  Morgiana nearly dies from its attack, but Ava manages to breathe life back into him—only to have the hungerer bite the hapless hobgoblin again and this time, she stays dead.  It’s clear the defenders have been instructed to attack the heroes’ weakest members.  And then another hungerer arrives!  In the chaotic mess, Jinkatsyu finds himself surrounded by two hungerers, a rune giant, and two cloud giants!

The adventurers start to retreat down the ramp but then decide to stand their ground. Kang’s alchemical bombs destroy the hungerers and Erik manages to down the rune giant, thus freeing the cloud giants from mental enslavement!  But the victory is short-lived as, some minutes into the battle, a final force responds to the alarm: a beautiful, expressionless woman wielding one of the legendary Seven Swords of Sin!  This could only be one of Karzoug’s foremost generals, Viorian Dekanti.  And she’s not alone, as a storm giant serves as her bodyguard!  Somehow, the adventurers draw upon the last of their strength and manage to prevail.  Taking Morgiana’s corpse with them, they retreat back down the ramp and find an empty structure nearby to rest and heal.

[12 Gozran 4708]

In the morning, Ava successfully summons Morgiana’s spirit from the Boneyards so that she can fight again.  When the party leaves their shelter, they realise they never checked on Nisk Tander after leaving him manacled outside the occlusion field.  They find the self-serving alchemist quite dead from some mix of hypothermia and oxygen deprivation.  Kang chuckles at the sight, and the adventurers agree that the world is better off with Nisk Tander dead. 

The adventurers return to the Pinnacle of Avarice.  After climbing the ramp, they discover that the bodies of the slain have been removed.  But guardians still remain--some clearly returned to life from the prior day’s slaughter!  Morgiana reaches death’s door again, but is brought back just in time by Ava.  The battle is another furious one, but this time the adventurers win handily.

 
Having secured a foothold on the Pinnacle of Avarice, the Heroes of Varisia are poised to push forward into the heart of Karzoug’s fortress.

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

Director's Commentary

Drawing a complete grid-map of the Pinnacle of Avarice ended up taking several flip-mats laid side-to-side, and took up most of my living room floor (with unexplored parts of the map strategically covered by sheets of white paper).  It was a truly massive complex, and one of the very biggest I've ever done in 25+ years of gaming.  I only barely had enough blank flip-maps to get it done.  It was also one of the most complex (series of) encounters I've ever run, as all of these high-CR monsters have long, complex stat blocks.

Just like at Fort Rannick and many other occasions, the group just went with the frontal approach here at the final dungeon, fighting off wave after wave of reinforcements as the alarm sounded.  They even did one of their trademark "kinda half retreat but stick around long enough to somehow win" maneuvers!  Crazy, but impressive.  They did pay a price with Morgiana going down repeatedly and using up some precious spells and material components to get back up.  It's clear that Karzoug's forces were willing to fight a war of attrition and knew who the most vulnerable members of the group were.

Poor Nisk!  Everyone, including me, completely forgot about him given all the action.  But I always play these things straight, and perhaps freezing to death atop one of Golarion's highest peaks was a fitting end for the character.