Pathfinder Legends: "Curse of the Crimson Throne: A History of Ages" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

There's a lot to like about the fourth instalment of the audio play version of Curse of the Crimson Throne.  The interaction (often bickering) between the party members is great and leads to some laugh-out-loud moments; the music and sound effects are top-notch; and the script is scrupulous about accurately representing Golarion lore.  As with all of the Pathfinder Legends audio plays, a lot has to be cut or condensed from the written adventure in order to fit within 120 minutes.  I also found the final segment a bit dry and exposition-heavy, but I guess it had to be to properly set up Chapter 5.  Overall, if you enjoyed the previous instalments, I'm sure you'll like this one too.

SPOILERS

The adventure starts in Kaer Maga, as the Iconics arrive at the Blue Hyacinth Inn to meet a guide that Vencarlo Orisini arranged for them: it's Trinia Sabor!  Apparently, she's spent her time after escaping Korvosa in travelling and exploring the Cinderlands, which is exactly where the Iconics need to go.  The party has left Kyra back in Korvosa to magically update them on events in the city, and Merisiel's distress about being separated from her is portrayed well.  

One of the interesting parts of the audio play is the attention given to Cinnabar, the leader of the Red Mantis assassins that follow the group into the Cinderlands.  She gets extensive dialogue with references to the Vernai, Mediogalti Island, etc.  When my group encountered her in the game, the battles precluded much in the way of character development, so it's nice to get a sense of her (shallow) personality here.

I think the portrayal of the Cinderlands is done reasonably well.  There's incorporation of things like emberstorms, basilisk barrels, and that the Shoanti guard their ancestral lands from trespassers.  I would have liked more on the constant heat, lack of water, etc., because I really hammered that home with my group.  I did appreciate the references to Harsk's wilderness skills, as rangers often get overlooked.

In this version, the various quests and steps the group needs to impress the Sklar-Quah to gain access to tribal stories about Kazavon are reduced to just one.  However, it's the most memorable one, being swallowed by a giant worm named Cindermaw and cutting their way out.  I loved Valeros' line to Merisiel when the pair end up in the belly of the beast: "I wasn't screaming, that was a battle cry!"  Because the story is condensed, elements like the lyrune-quah, the challenge of the pillars, and the Cinderlander have been excised.  Krojun is still present, and given decent character development, though he's more Vulcan than edge-of-rage as I imagined (and, oddly, Thousand Bones is surprisingly bitter).

The exposition the group receives at the end sets up Scarwall well.  As I said, it's pretty talky, but I really liked how Thousand Bones commented on the spirits drawn to each PC (from their past) before settling on talking with Zellara.  Speaking of whom, she gets a nice farewell here.

In my campaign, the group finished Scarwall recently after a *long* slog, so I'm keen to see what it looks like in the audio version.

Curse of the Crimson Throne Recap # 33 [RPG]

[Starday, 30 Desnus, 4708 A.R. continued]

Deep under Arkona Palace, the Harrowed Heroes face a dilemma: one of their number has fallen under a magical slumber and can’t be awakened!  Yraelzin makes several attempts to remove the enchantment, but meets with no success before proclaiming that his “nearly inexhaustible” reserve of magical energies are running low.  With Anorak still wracked by pain from another magical trap, The Reckoner says the group needs to retreat.  Goldcape is bundled onto Rocky’s back.  The explorers backtrack to the original chamber where they pulled the lever, and pull it again.  But although the room slowly spins as before, it doesn’t return to its original position!  Instead, it rotates only 90 degrees to reveal a new series of chambers.  The Reckoner quickly tries to pull the lever again, but the mechanism must have a built-in delay!  He tries to force it nonetheless, but the gearwork behind the lever is too complicated for him to adjust.

Mere seconds later, the danger of being stuck in the Vivified Labyrinth in its current configuration becomes apparent: the darksphinx has been set free!  The dangerous foe has the body of a lion, wings of an eagle, and the upper body of a comely woman.  She smiles at having found her prey so easily, and conjures forth a cloying gray miasma of dark energies that roils through the group, and even the unconscious Goldcape and his companion Rocky are harmed by it.  The darksphinx then retreats the way she came, and when Anorak rushes to follow, he sets off another magical symbol trap!  Fortunately, his innate dwarven resistance to magic sees him through the danger.  Thanks to Glorio Arkona’s earlier warning and The Reckoner’s foresight, the group has come prepared with vials of magical oils to coat their weapons with.  The darksphinx lands one deep cut on The Reckoner, but his battle-maul proves devastatingly effective and Anorak finishes the battle with a powerful swing of his dwarven waraxe.

The group pushes forward into the darksphinx’s throne room.  Manacled to a tiger-headed statute is an unconscious man covered in bruises, barely-healed cuts, and tattered rags:  Vencarlo Orisini!  The Reckoner smashes the manacles to free the man, and the judicious application of a magical healing wand brings the fencing instructor (and noted critic of the monarchy) to consciousness.  Despite the obvious pain he’s in, Vencarlo manages a smile when he recognises fellow allies of Field Marshal Kroft.  But he also realises that the labyrinth is no place to linger, and asks the group if they’ve found Neolandus Kalepopolis yet.  When he hears that they haven’t, he explains that there’s an illusory wall near the entrance to the labyrinth—and he saw Neolandus being dragged through it.  The Reckoner lends Vencarlo a pair of short swords so that he can contribute should there be a need for more bloodshed.

This time, when the lever is pulled, the room rotates—but to a configuration that sees the chamber’s only exit completely blocked by solid rock!  The Reckoner spends the following minute trying furiously to speed up the built-in delay mechanism, knowing that the group’s magical defences are ebbing with each passing moment.  When the gearwork finally resets on its own, another pull of the lever appears to have restored the labyrinth to the configuration that the group first found it.  Vencarlo shows The Reckoner where the illusory wall is—it leads to a tunnel and a set of stairs that descend to a door.  Sobbing—and gentle murmuring--can be heard coming from the other side of it.  When the door is opened, the relief of finding Neolandus is tempered by the realisation that he’s stretched out on a torture rack!  The entire room has been furnished with torture devices, and its stranger master is present: a six-armed woman whose head has three fanged faces!  A whispered spell temporarily paralyses Anorak, but his willpower is strong enough that he’s able to break free seconds later.  Meanwhile, The Reckoner and Vencarlo rush in to surround her.  But the torturer is too wily to be surrounded so easily and dashes away, leaving a bloody gash in The Reckoner’s jerkin from a sharp-edged kukri.  The room is small enough that she’s quickly cornered—but it’s Yraelzin who wins the battle.  With his most common enchantments depleted, he recalls a necromantic spell he had almost forgotten about.  Overcoming his foe’s resistance to magic, Yraelzin forces her bones to shatter!  But when the sagging corpse falls to the ground, the group is horrified to realise that the flesh is slowly knitting together!  Nothing seems to work to stop it until another vial of blessed oil is applied to The Reckoner’s hammer.

As the group is freeing and rousing Neolandus, rumbling can be heard from the north and from above, and the ground itself seems to shake.  The group race up the stairs and towards the illusory wall, but then they hear a voice on the other side of it pleading for help—Vencarlo Orisini’s voice!  The Reckoner peers through and sees a second Vencarlo who looks almost exactly like the one that is with them.  The “new” Vencarlo and the “old” Vencarlo argue and are questioned, and both give plausible accounts.  The Reckoner is torn on what to do until he notices some of the “new” Vencarlo’s skin looks like it’s flaking, and that the figure’s voice is higher in tone than the “old” one.  But before he can confront the newcomer, Yraelzin’s voice calls out from the tunnel saying that there’s been a betrayal!  The others rush back to see that the silver dagger Goldcape took from Verik Vancaskerkin’s office weeks ago has somehow turned into a snake—and it’s poised to sink its teeth into Yraelzin’s neck!

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

GM Commentary

In-game, the group is rushing from place to place so that their short-lived buffs don't expire.  This has become one of the most notable features of the group that I'd never seen before: at points, they might each have literally a dozen low-level buffs (from wands, potions, and spellcasting) going.  Keeping track of all of these bonuses and their durations is a logistical pain in the butt.

What became the group's favourite spell for Yraelzin, boneshaker, made its debut this session.  Whenever there's indecision about what the character should do during an encounter, the chant "boneshaker!" starts up pretty quickly.

The "two Vencarlos" worked pretty well!  I might have even carried it further, except The Reckoner has a pretty high Perception score.  I was also thrilled to reveal that the "silver dagger" Goldcape has been carrying since mid-way through Chapter 1 is a shapechanging monster that has been spying on the group for House Arkona.

Angel & the Ape # 1-4 (Ltd. 2001) (DC Comics/Vertigo) [COMICS]

 The 2001 Angel & the Ape limited series really leans into the T&A, with plenty of gratuitous bikini/lingerie shots.  It reminds me a lot in tone of Codename: Knockout, a short-lived Vertigo series that was published at exactly the same time.  In this version, Angel & the Ape are still private detectives, but instead of dealing with a super-villain like Gorilla Grodd, they get wrapped up in a pulp-style murder mystery.  It's incredibly crass but sometimes still funny.

In Issue # 1, the pair are hired by a lingerie designer named Torso von Morso to find his missing model, Bambi Dextrous.  Yes, that's the type of comic this is.  As in all private detective tales, there needs to be a professional rival in the police department whose own investigation intersects theirs so he can tell them to butt out.  In this case, it's *groan* Detective Komicz.  He's in love with Angel.  But alas, a missing person case turns into a murder investigation when Bambi is discovered dead, encased in concrete.

Issue # 2 starts with Bambi's funeral, proceeds to a strip club where she worked, and then a night club named Erection where there's a big shoot-out.  Detective Komicz makes an arrest (Bambi's ex-husband), but it's clearly the wrong man.

Issue # 3 has Angel and the Ape continuing to chase down leads.  My notes got wet and blurred, so that's all I can tell you.  Hey, if you really want to know what happens, buy a copy!

I like the tagline to Issue # 4: "Who done it? Who cares?"  At this point, I wasn't really following which clues linked which suspects, and it's the type of story that doesn't exactly repay close attention.  Angel and the Ape assemble all the suspects for a classic one-by-one "Here's why you could be the killer . . . but you're not because of X" sort-of-thing.  The real culprit: one Dr. Destrowicz, a plastic surgeon who was both Bambi's brother and her lover!  I did not see that twist coming.

I can't claim any particular redeeming social value for the issues, but they do they fit the "dumb funny" niche that can still bring chuckles if you're in the right mood.

Curse of the Crimson Throne Recap # 32 [RPG]

[Starday, 30 Desnus, 4708 A.R.]

After spending hours barricaded inside a small room to recover from injuries sustained in battle, the Harrowed Heroes awaken feeling fully refreshed.  But as they’re gathering their things in preparation to renew their search for Vencarlo Orisini and Neolandus Kalepopolis (and while Yraelzin is pacing with worry about the possibility a Razmiran inquisitor has come to Korvosa), the sound of shouting can be heard outside the room, just over the sloshing waters of the sea cave.  “Avidexu!” the voice calls.  “Where are you?  We’ve got another one for the labyrinth!”  Goldcape shouts back pretending to be whoever Avidexu is, hoping to lure potential foes into an ambush.  But her voice doesn’t match at all, and, when the Reckoner peeks out, he sees two figures armed with crossbows standing on the pier.  Next to it is a small rowboat containing the bound figure of a dwarf who is just starting to wake up.

Willing to attack first and ask questions later, The Reckoner shoots an arrow from a ledge high above the newcomers, and Goldcape joins in with her crossbow.  Yraelzin strikes a dramatic pose and shouts warnings of his vast arcane might, but (apart from conjuring a shimmering suit of magical armor) also relies on a crossbow to attack.  The short-lived archery duel is inconclusive, and is brought to end when the dwarf rouses himself enough to push the boat away from the pier, burst his bounds, and conjure magical attacks of light and fire at his kidnappers!  The spells go awry, but The Reckoner leaps dramatically from the ledge to the pier and shatters one of the crossbowmen’s skull with his war-maul!  The other quickly surrenders, but The Reckoner won’t allow him to leave until he explains what’s going on.  The kidnapper, who gives his name as Hal Fivecoins, says he’s a member of the Cerulean Society (Korvosa’s only—and semi-legitimate—thieves’ guild) and he was bringing another prisoner to Avidexu for the labyrinth.  After being forced to reveal the location of the secret door to the labyrinth, the kidnapper is allowed to take the rowboat and paddle away.

For his part, the dwarf introduces himself as Anorak and explains he was attacked on the streets above.  The Reckoner and Goldcape are focussed on opening the secret door and searching for traps, leaving the dwarf to Yraelzin’s not-so-subtle proselytization.  With nowhere else to go and sensing safety in numbers, Anorak joins the others as they walk down a long, winding tunnel that’s lit only by the glow Yraelzin enchants his mask with.  The tunnel curves sharply and then ends at a set of large bronze doors, each carved with images of tigers chasing other tigers in four adjacent circles.  The doors open silently with the merest touch, revealing a small chamber containing a pair of statues of tiger-headed men, their arms wide as if to usher visitors in.  Curiously, a small seam—barely an inch wide—is noticeable in the floor, walls, and ceiling between where the statues stand and the smaller chamber beyond from which a long lever with an ebony handle protrudes from the wall.

After carefully ushering everyone in past the seam, The Reckoner pulls the lever.  A loud rumbling begins from somewhere below, and then the room starts to slowly spin!  Goldcape tells the others to remember the plan: get Vencarlo and Neolandus, and then get out quick.  But The Reckoner says there may be some interesting things to find in the labyrinth, and they shouldn’t necessarily be in a hurry to leave.  In a matter of seconds, the spinning stops: the previous entrance has disappeared completely behind a solid wall, but a new exit is visible. The passageway leads in one direction to a new lever, and in the other direction, a mystical symbol on the floor that flashes suddenly before disappearing—a magical trap!  Anorak grunts as his body is wreaked with constant pain.  The Reckoner realises the group is being scried upon by an almost-invisible magical sensor and alerts Anorak, who is able to dispel it.

Through an oddly-shaped hallway decorated with complex murals of a hot, steaming jungle full of predators, the group open a door into a room that is clearly a test or trap of some sort.   Three large wooden chests, their lid decorated with carvings of cavorting tigers, sit against one wall, each with a message in Vudrani carved on the lid.  The group hasn’t come prepared for an exercise in translation, but still proceeds cautiously at first.  Anorak uses a minor spell to open one of the chests from a distance, revealing a mass of slithering, venomous snakes!  The snakes quickly swarm over the explorers, and this is one danger The Reckoner’s hammer can’t solve!  But Goldcape saves the day by conjuring spears of ice that impale and freeze the snakes, leaving only a few left to destroy with careful application of alchemist’s fire.  The opened chest does yield some minor magical potions, showing that whoever put the trap together had a sense of humor.  Goldcape impetuously opens the last two chests despite frantic attempts by the others to dissuade her.  One of the chests releases a poisonous gas, while the other is covered in a sticky poison!  Both are otherwise completely empty, and only luck (and a strong constitution) keep Goldcape from getting sick.

But luck can’t last forever.  As the group explore a side passage, another magical symbol on the floor flashes.  Goldcape drops to the ground in a heap, snoring deeply—and this is a slumber she can’t be awakened from!

Tricks and traps pervade the Vivified Labyrinth, and some are obviously quite dangerous.  Will the Harrowed Heroes find what they’re looking for before it’s too late?

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

GM Commentary

This session is most notable for the first appearance of Anorak, a new PC by a player experiencing Pathfinder and RPGs for the very first time.  And unlike some of the early players, this one stuck around!  Anorak was a dwarven magus and adventured with the group for quite sometime before meeting an unfortunate end in Scarwall--but more on that later.  It took me a bit to come up with explanation for his appearance here, and ended up having to go with the admittedly cliched "prisoner of the bad guys in need of rescue, whose gear just happens to be stashed nearby."  But at least I was able to add a bit about the Cerulean Society and the secret door.  This session revealed that no one in the party is particularly good at ranged combat, and Anorak learned the hard way that fireball spells don't work so well against rogues that have evasion.

The Vivified Labyrinth (the dungeon) has a really interesting set-up because every time a lever is pulled, four parts of it rotate on their axis, meaning that there are multiple configurations and times where exits are blocked or suddenly open up.  I represented it by drawing those areas on then cardboard, cutting them out, and then using blu-tak to hold them in place after each spin.  It seemed to work pretty well, though I think I was more impressed with the concept than the players were.

Pathfinder: "Lanyard" [RPG]

 I got this little lanyard because . . . well, I buy Pathfinder stuff.  It sat in my display case for a long time before I found the perfect use for it when making an "ID Badge" for my son when he became "Assistant GM" for a chapter of an adventure path I'm running.  It's your usual ribbon-style lanyard with a brown background and the Pathfinder logo repeated every couple of inches.  And I can testify the metal clip works.  So go show off your Pathfinder pride!

Pathfinder Adventure Path: "Curse of the Crimson Throne, Chapter 3: Escape from Old Korvosa" [RPG]

 NO SPOILERS

Escape from Korvosa continues the great storyline established in previous chapters, and features some fantastic NPCs and unforgettable scenes.  There's plenty of room for role-playing and different ways the players can get from Point A to Point B as the overall AP plot really heats up.  It's maybe a touch below Chapter Two in my personal rankings, but still a great adventure.  But for now, lets get on to the non-spoilery back matter--there's lots of good stuff in this one!

* "Faces of the Earthbound Evils: A Pathfinder's Guide to Rakshasas" (6 pages) is a really interesting, well-written overview of rakshasas.  It covers their (in-game) history, anatomy, society, and weaknesses, along with some great art and a few adventure hooks.  Rakshasas are essentially "earthbound fiends", the reincarnation of evil souls in mortal bodies, and their connection to real-world myth allows for some great lore to develop.  I've never done much with rakshasas in prior campaigns, but I can certainly imagine doing more now.

* "The Red Mantis: Those Who Walk in Blood" (6 pages) covers Golarion's most notorious assassin cult.  The "cult" part is important, as the Red Mantis aren't simply hired killers--they have a strict (evil) ethos, killing in the name of their god but refusing to harm reigning monarchs.  I like their guarantee that when they kill someone, that person stays dead.  The entry covers their philosophy, headquarters, and has a little on their leaders.  It introduces a new (overpowered for the price) magic item, the mask of the mantis--one of the few "loot items" in the game that the PCs in my game actually used rather than sell.  Importantly, there's also a Red Mantis Assassin prestige class that I quite like ( and that I think is followed pretty closely when later adopted for the Pathfinder rules in the poorly-named Adventurer's Guide).

* "Thin Air" (6 pages) is the next entry in the adventures of Eando Kline.  Still with his guide Joskan, Kline is travelling through the Hold of Belkzen.  The geography is well-described and useful to a GM setting an adventure in the locale (and there's a sidebar on Belkzen flora and fauna).  The story here involves Kline and Joskan fleeing from predatory orcs and into the mouth of a bizarre stone dragon carved around the side of a mountain.  The story is good, but the lack of a real overall plotline (Kline is just following this mysterious wayfinder) means it doesn't feel like it's really going anywhere.

* "Bestiary" (12 pages) starts with a random encounter table for Old Korvosa suitable for the range of PCs in the main adventure.  We then get five two-page-long entries on new creatures.  "Achaekek" is the mantis god that the Red Mantis worship, and I for one would not mess with this CR 30 creature that's immune to lethal damage and has unstoppable regeneration!  I also like the role Achaekek plays in the pantheon of Pathfinder deities.  A "beatific one" is a type of asura--a class of beings from Indian legend.  The entry has a big sidebar on Vudrani weapons, which is something I don't think I've seen elsewhere in Pathfinder books.  "Rajput Ambari" are essentially undead elephants--fine, but unremarkable.  "Rakshasa maharajahs" are like the highest tier of rakshasa--CR 18 creatures, with extensive spell-like abilities and a very cool ability that allows them to act on two initiative counts each round.  Probably my favourite entry is the "sikari macaque swarm", a horde of tiny monkeys infected with a disease that turns them into an unstoppable wave of killing machines!  Even the picture creeps me out, and the idea of PCs catching the disease (rage + confusion) is delightful.

* "Characters" (2 pages)--Level 7 versions of Ezren, Seelah, Harsk, and Lem.

SPOILERS!

Into the adventure!  Off-screen between last chapter and this one, some really significant events occurred in Korvosa.  The Queen survived a point-blank crossbow bolt to the face during an assassination attempt, thus displaying some type of magical invulnerability.  Old Korvosa is no longer plagued with blood veil, but has been effectively abandoned by the rest of the city.  And the Queen's Gray Maidens are now everywhere (except, ironically, Old Korvosa).  A good GM will help the PCs experience these changes organically before launching into the heart of the adventure in Chapter Three.

Part One is "Into the Dying City".  The premise is that Cressida Kroft sends the PCs to sneak into still-quarantined Old Korvosa to find Vencarlo Orisini because, before his recent disappearance, he had sent her secret messages implying he knew something about Queen Ileosa's newfound invulnerability.  Old Korvosa is the slum area of the city, and after blood veil, has become a completely lawless and anarchic place--perfect for adventuring!  When the PCs find Vencarlo's home, they're ambushed by Red Mantis assassins (also looking for him, at the Queen's behest) that probably end up burning the house down.  A lead will probably see the PCs head toward the home of an artist named Salvator Scream; Scream isn't there, but the PCs will meet a lot of players' favourite NPC, a surprisingly-cheerful cleric of Zon-Kuthon named Laori Vaus (her artwork gets much improved in the hardcover collection).  My players didn't actually meet her then (and wouldn't until Chapter Five) because they bypassed Scream's house after learning his location through some other information gathering.

Part Two is "The Emperor of Old Korvosa", and it may just have one of the campaign's most memorable sequences.  In this part of the adventure, the PCs should figure out (through one of various means; I always appreciate the open-ended way these early APs are written) that Salvator Scream has been taken by someone calling himself The Emperor of Old Korvosa.  Getting to the guy isn't easy, as he's got a devoted mob of thugs and ruffians, but there are both violent and non-violent ways to gain access to his "palace"--a set of abandoned tenements with rickety rope-bridges connecting the roofs.  The Emperor himself is a delight.  A former playwright of hideous and grotesque tastes, he's disgusting, insane, and dangerous, and yet it's easy to see why the mobs love him (love the artwork, too).  Now, the PCs could choose the boring route and launch an attack to free Salvator Scream, or they could be cool and participate in the The Emperor's favourite sport: "blood pig."  As the ominous name suggests, a live pig is used as the "ball" in this sport as two teams try to get it in their opponent's goal--where a wolverine waits to devour it!  I know it's cruel in concept (hey, vegetarian here!) but the description of the "rules" of the game and the various random things that can happen make it obvious just how hilarious it would be at the gaming table.  Unfortunately, my group chose the boring option--their loss!

In Part Three, "Wrath of the Arkonas", a rescued Salvator Scream explains that Vencarlo did visit him, but went looking for the seneschal of Castle Korvosa at the palace of an aristocratic family, House Arkona, and never emerged.  Assuming the PCs follow up, this is another example where the adventure supports a variety a ways the group can approach things.  The patron of House Arkona, Glorio Arkona, is one of my favourite PCs to role-play in the campaign.  The Arkonas are from Vudra (the Indian-themed area of Golarion) and the distinctive decor of the palace is presented really well.  The twin secrets of the Arkona family is that 1) they're the patrons of the city's thieves guild; and 2) they're rakshasas!  The seneschal (and Vencarlo Orisini) are being held captive in a high-concept dungeon under the palace.  Named the Vivified Labyrinth, the conceit of the dungeon is that it's made of four separate disks each of which can be rotated independently through levers hidden throughout.  That means there's sixteen possible configurations for the dungeon, and not all of the disks are accessible in each configuration.  It's a really cool idea, though it took me some planning to make work on the tabletop (I went with cardboard disks held down by blu-tak).  What makes this part of the adventure most interesting is that Glorio Arkona is locked in a rivalry with his sister, Meliya Arkona, and each is more than willing to use the PCs against the other.  In my game, the PCs started by supporting Meliya in a battle against Glorio and then changed sides in the middle of the encounter (a fun surprise for me, but I got revenge by revealing the "silver dagger" they'd been carrying around since Chapter 1 was really a raktavarna!; and with Meliya fled, Glorio has become a *major* NPC in the campaign and might just win the throne!)  Anyway, it is a dungeon-crawling part of the adventure, but I thought it was handled really well.  The rescue of Vencarlo, and more important the seneschal, sets up Chapter Four.

I really enjoyed running Chapter Three.  It's not as thematically strong as Chapter Two, but it still had plenty of opportunities for player creativity.  It also features some great set-piece encounters and memorable NPCs.  Combined with the excellent back matter, the result is an excellent package.