Curse of the Crimson Throne Recap # 68 [RPG]

[Fireday, 31 Erastus, 4708 A.R. continued]

 

As shopkeepers begin locking their valuables in trunks and thinking of supper, the Harrowed Heroes race against time to finish their errands in Kaer Maga.  The Wheel Unbroken, a multi-story building housing the powerful Arcanist’s Circle of the city, provides Anorak access to a variety of rare spells and magical scrolls.  Back on the street, the trio of travellers are accosted repeatedly by a filthy dwarf spewing nonsense about a place where “only the dead walk, and they too are trapped”.  Ralph finds the encounter amusing and hurls some jibes at the dwarf until the ranter is dragged away by others.

 

Finding a place to spend the night in Kaer Maga proves challenging, as the travellers first try an inn “ill-suited to their station” (according to the concierge of the opulent Canary House), then stroll into a hostel that looks more like a pigsty than a place fit for human habitation, before finally reaching something more in line with their expectations.    Ralph has a conversation with a surprisingly well-mannered orc merchant and picks up a couple of tips about traversing the Hold of Belkzen.

 

Having travelled hundreds of miles before crisscrossing the disorienting, crowded, and often-gloomy passageways of Kaer Maga, the travellers enjoy a well-earned rest.

 

[Starday, 1 Arodus 4708 A.R.]

 

The last month of summer begins with the dwindling population of Korvosa still suffering under the cruel reign of Queen Ileosa Arabasti.  For the Harrowed Heroes, their quest to stop her first involves a brief teleportation to Egorian so Ralph can pick up a weapon commissioned weeks ago: a magical war-maul that disintegrates undead!  While there, Anorak spends some hours earning funds by allowing local wizards to copy some of the unusual spells he’s collected.  He also finishes crafting a new ioun stone that turns itself and his other ioun stones invisible.  Goldcape, who has stayed behind in Kaer Maga, reads her book on the Hold of Belkzen and learns about the Screaming Tree, a location near Scarwall that is so frightfully haunted it is shunned by even the bravest orcs.

 

Once Ralph and Anorak have returned to Kaer Maga, they talk with Goldcape over supper about the next day’s travel plans.  Discussion centers on whether the group should stop at Urglin or Freedom Town to buy an orc tribal crest which would ostensibly provide them free passage through the Hold of Belkzen.  Goldcape says it may not be necessary because they can wind walk high enough to avoid danger, but Ralph replies that if they have to land, having one would be good insurance.  That night, as Goldcape readies herself for bed, she receives another magical message from Yraelzin: “I can’t delay them any longer—they don’t believe you’re coming.  So we’re going in.  Wish us luck!” Goldcape sends a magical reply promising to be there soon and urging Yraelzin to wait.

 

[Sunday, 2 Arodus 4708 A.R.]

 

Another logistical problem with the group’s travel plans is revealed when they realise that the magical wind walking scroll they purchased isn’t powerful enough to carry all three adventurers and Anorak’s new familiar.  Goldcape castigates Anorak again for having delayed the group for several days just for the “dumb bird”.  An attempt is made to get Eldritch to submit to the same spell that Goldcape uses to shrink Rocky into a hand-sized figurine, but the distrustful Eldritch refuses to agree.  Finally, Anorak has to tell Eldritch to stay in Kaer Maga for now and that he’ll come back for him via teleportation magic once he and the others reach Scarwall.

 

After paying a Pharasmin to read the scroll, the three seekers of Scarwall gradually turn into insubstantial mist and begin flying at incredible speeds over the landscape.  Goldcape proves an excellent navigator especially when aided by maps and Ralph’s compass.  The trio head over the Cinderlands (seeing herds of Aurochs and occasional Shoanti) far below, and within just a couple of hours reach Urglin.  The orc settlement, built on the stone remnants of a mysterious unknown civilisation, still shows signs of the recent siege by the giant army that descended from the mountains just weeks ago.  Hurled boulders still lay atop crushed shacks and tents, leaving large swathes of destruction through the orc shanty towns.  Brief thought is given to stopping to buy a tribal crest of passage, but this time the travellers are unwilling to risk further delay and decide to continue onwards.

 

The mountains that divide the Cinderlands from the Hold of Belkzen are the next obstacle standing in the way of the travellers, but the magical spell that allows them to fly higher and faster than an eagle or hawk means the group’s journey is unhindered.  Several hours pass, but by mid-afternoon the group reach a mountain range full of dormant volcanoes, desolate barren hills, and isolated scrub trees.  Goldcape skillfully leads the trio toward a particular dormant volcano elevated almost 1,500 feet above the surrounding terrain.  There, with clouds of dark carrion birds riding the winds above it, stands an imposing collection of towers and fortifications built atop a small island in a crater lake.  A single span connects the castle to a narrow peninsula on the lake’s southern edge, where a crumbling barbican still stands.  At last:  Scarwall!

 

On the eastern side of the lake is a black tower initially reminiscent of the one left behind in Trail’s End.  But this tower is topped by a massive stone skull, and is clearly the fortress that Yraelzin spoke about!  Proof comes quickly, as the flyers see him rushing out of the tower and waving enthusiastically.  No longer wearing the iron mask of a Priest of Razmir or speaking quite so bombastically, Yraelzin seems more at peace with himself.  He teasingly berates the group for taking so long, and says they made it just in time because the others were tired of waiting.  Goldcape starts to explain her opinion on why getting to Scarwall took so long (mostly involving Eldritch), but Ralph (now as The Reckoner) pulls Yraelzin aside to ask about this ‘Brotherhood of Bones’ he’s been negotiating with.  Yraelzin corrects The Reckoner, who was under the apprehension The Brotherhood were priests of Urgathoa.  However, Yraelzin’s explanation that they’re a sect devoted to Zon-Kuthon, the so-called Midnight Lord of Pain and Shadows, doesn’t bring The Reckoner much comfort.  He’s also not happy to hear that Yraelzin bartered away the magical jade elephant the group lent him in order to get the location and magical passage from Urglin to Scarwall!

When the door to the bone house opens again, this time it brings forth a female elf with a cheerful grin that seems diametrically opposed to the spiked chain coiled at her belt.  “I’m Laori Vaus, nice to meet you!” she says with genuine enthusiasm.  She says friends of Yraelzin are friends of hers, and that they were wondering what was taking so long.  The Reckoner gets straight to the point, however, and asks what the Brotherhood of Bones wants with Scarwall and what “deal” they made with Yraelzin.  Laori is chipper as she explains that Brotherhood diviners recently became aware that a powerful threat to the faith may be about to fall into the hands of its enemies.  She says she and Shadowcount Sial have agreed with Yraelzin (“your leader”) that the Brotherhood will help sever the spiritual link that connects Ileosa to the castle (providing her with invulnerability) on the condition that the Brotherhood get possession of Serithtial if it’s found.  Yraelzin agrees that that’s the deal and explains that his final vision from The Harrower made it sound like finding Serithtial wasn’t absolutely necessary to defeating Ileosa as long the link was severed.  Laori rushes off to get Shadowcount Sial, saying he can explain everything better.

When she returns, it’s actually with a pair of figures.  The first is a fastidiously-dressed man who walks with his chin held high and an air of superiority.  Walking precisely three steps behind him is a strange figure that looks generally-human except for white, pupil-less eyes and midnight blue-tinged skin.  Her only clothing are chains wrapped around her body.  When the first figure, Shadowcount Sial, speaks, it’s with an air of disdain.  He confirms the arrangement with Yraelzin, and scoffs when asked for assurances that the Brotherhood won’t use Serithtial to harm others.  Sial says no Kuthite would use such a blasphemous creation.  When asked, he acknowledges that Serithtial could be potentially useful in fighting Ileosa, as the Crown of Fangs she wears is a relic of Kazavon, an ancient champion of Zon-Kuthon—a figure the Brotherhood does not want to see resurrected, as leadership of the faith should be Sial’s own.

 

This naturally leads to the new arrivals hoping to eat their cake and have it too—what if they could both sever the spiritual link from Scarwall to the Crown of Fangs (thus rendering Ileosa vulnerable) and find Serithtial to use against her?  Sial initially bristles at the notion of reopening the agreement already entered into with Yraelzin, but then seems to think the better of it and makes a counter-offer: the Brotherhood will lend its aid in Scarwall if both Serithtial and the Crown of Fangs are turned over to it after Ileosa is deposed.  The Harrowed Heroes step aside to talk it over.  Anorak says the deal sounds solid, but The Reckoner is worried that Sial wants to keep and use the Crown of Fangs himself.  Goldcape suggests they could lie to them—use Serithtial to destroy the Crown of Fangs, and then keep the weapon themselves!  When the foursome return and ask precisely what help the Brotherhood could provide inside Scarwall, Sial rolls his eyes, as if it should be obvious—he explains that he himself is a master arcanist, Laori is an “adequate” cleric, and his bodyguard (nodding to the silent chain-wrapped figure standing behind him) is a formidable warrior.  In addition, he says that if there are denizens of Scarwall that still worship the Midnight Lord, obstacles could be turned into allies.

 

The deal is made—or so it seems for some minutes.  For once Shadowcount Sial returns from the bone house with a magical contract to compel each side to carry out its commitments, The Reckoner flatly refuses to sign it!  Sial bristles with cold anger.  “You will regret this,” he says, turning on his heels and walking back toward the tower.  Laori looks apologetic.  Before following him, she whispers to the newcomers that if they meet again inside Scarwall, they don’t have to be enemies, even if they’re not going to be allies.

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GM Commentary

I liked the little bit about the group getting turned away from Canary House for not looking the part; social class doesn't get much attention in Pathfinder, but one has to imagine most adventurers certainly don't fit with aristocratic notions of hygiene and style.

After several sessions, the group finally gets going and reaches Scarwall this session.  Wind walk is interesting as a GM because, unlike teleport, I still have to describe the general terrain they pass by (about the same speed as driving an automobile) and, in theory, random encounters could happen--though at the same time the PCs could likely just keep going.

I wish either the individual issue or the hardcover had presented a good, clear drawing of what Scarwall looks like from a distance.  I found it really hard to conceptualise and describe how the castle fit in the crater lake, where the towers were, etc.  Fortunately, I found some 3-D artist conception videos on Youtube that allowed for a full rotational look (without any spoilers) and showed that to my players.  I think it helped a lot.

Despite both the individual issue and the hardcover version, I never did quite understand what the motivation of the Brotherhood of the Bone was in getting Serithtial.  What I put above was my best attempt to come up with an answer that seems plausible even if I'm still not 100% satisfied.

From what I can tell online (and the amount of fan art) Laori Vaus is one of the favourite NPCs of a lot of people that play through this AP.  She just was never "on stage" very much when I ran it, and I couldn't really make her personality pop as other GMs were able.  But, I don't stress about it too much.  You just never know what NPCs, plot elements, etc. different groups will latch onto.

An alliance with the Brotherhood of Bone would have made exploring Scarwall much easier (and safer), and they would have kept their word (until one of them betrays the other, as scripted in the AP).  The Reckoner's sudden opposition to the alliance took me and the rest of the table by surprise, and I'm still not really sure what it was about.  Perhaps he thought the contract was somehow a trap, but he could have had some of the magically-astute characters in the group examine it, or try to continue negotiating.  In any event, the decision had major implications for the rest of the Chapter.  I essentially came up with a random percentage each day for Sial and Laori (individually, since they argue and split up) to either get killed in Scarwall or find Serithtial and escape--thus, the longer it would take the PCs to find it, the less chance it would still be there.  Nonetheless, I didn't get much of a sense of an urgency from the players; I think some perhaps come from the video game experience where time rarely matters and nothing bad ever happens "off-screen".  We'll see the outcome of this in later sessions.

Curse of the Crimson Throne Recap # 67 [RPG]

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

 

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

 

[Fireday, 31 Erastus 4708]

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

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

 

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

 

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

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GM Commentary

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

Pathfinder Unchained [RPG]

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

NO SPOILERS

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

SPOILERS!

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

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

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

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