Curse of the Crimson Throne Recap # 12 [RPG]

 [28 Gozran, 4708 A.R. continued]

After defeating their vicious ogre-kin jailor, the Harrowed Heroes are able to set free six prisoners held in the disgusting pits.  Whether through luck or fate, one of the prisoners is Phaeton Skoda’s cousin, Tiora!  She testifies that her ship was intercepted at sea, and she and many of the passengers were held in captivity aboard another vessel called only the Black Ship before someone came to buy them.  Another prisoner, who had been in captivity in the pits even longer, says the derro kidnapped him from an alleyway near a sewer entrance, and that a man seemed to be their leader in the catacombs.  The old man says the prisoners were used as experiments in necromancy and disease, and that he was lucky he was deemed too old to be a good test subject.  The Reckoner gives each prisoner some gold and leads them to the surface and safety.

However, Yraelzin, Goldcape, and The Reckoner know that they’ve only recovered a portion of Gaekhen’s remains.  They continue exploring the subterranean warrens and come across a chamber that can only be a dumping ground for body parts the derro were no longer interested in.  Wallowing in the reeking mud is a sewer beast, and it slobbers “Warm food!” as it lumbers forward to attack.  Goldcape sends Rocky in to attack and sinks an arrow into the monster’s side, while The Reckoner charges forward with his battle maul.  The battle is over quickly, but both Rocky and The Reckoner display open wounds where the sewer beast’s disease-filled maw bit into them.  Fortunately, it was worth the effort, as the last remnants of Gaekhen’s body are found.

Although Goldcape urges the group to leave and Yraelzin is ill from the grisly scenes, The Reckoner is determined to clear the warrens.  He leads the group down an unexplored tunnel and into what must be the derros’ sleeping quarters, but here the pale cavern-dwellers have readied themselves against attack and shoot poisoned crossbow bolts the instant they see an intruder!  There’s a brief archery duel before the attackers close in, and Yraelzin performs heroically by spreading healing magicks (and the word of Razmir) while under fire.  The derro, although hardy, are eventually overpowered and slain.  The Reckoner follows a narrow tunnel some distance until it intersects with Korvosa’s sewer line before returning to the others.  A thorough search of the warrens show no signs of further inhabitants.
The group exit.  Goldcape takes Gaekhen’s remains to Skaldwood, where the Shoanti are preparing their departure.  Thousand Bones expresses his deep gratitude for being able to put his grandson’s spirit to rest, and promises that he owes Goldcape and her friends a debt of honour that will be repaid.  He prophesises they will meet again during another time of great turmoil.

Later, Goldcape joins Ralph at Citadel Volshyanek.  They learn distressing news—the trial of Trinia lasted only two hours before she was convicted and her sentence pronounced: she will be executed, tomorrow!  Field Marshal Kroft is distraught at having erred so grievously, and admits she may have misjudged Queen Ileosa’s commitment to justice.  She asks the group to attend the execution, as Trinia deserves to see some sympathetic faces in the crowd amidst all the hate.  Outside, Ralph asks Goldcape if they could use Rocky to rescue Trinia—perhaps taking advantage of rioting.  However, Goldcape says it would be far too dangerous for everyone involved.

Ralph walks over to Hedge Wizardry and sees that Phaeton is overjoyed at his cousin’s safe return.  Goldcape visits with Old Lady Cloggins and warns her about the “friend” who tried to visit previously.  Old Lady Cloggins says there’s been some good news as well—it seems like the Hellknights are leaving her house, and may soon be withdrawing from the city altogether!

[29 Gozran, 4708 A.R.]
In the morning, Ralph mingles with the crowds heading toward the palace courtyard where the execution is set to take place, while Goldcape circles overhead, flying on Rocky’s back.  Ralph gives Majenko some hand-written anti-Ileosa pamphlets to drop at a pre-arranged signal in the hopes that if there’s a sufficient distraction, he might be able to rescue Trinia.

It’s clear the impending execution is not an affair to be missed, as the toast of Korvosa is in attendance in garish gowns, fine capes, and enough jewels to blind the common citizen.  Queen Ileosa emerges amid a great flourish and pomp as heralds announce her arrival with a fanfare of music and drums; she wears a green and white silk dress attended by a small army of guards, including one in a striking brand-new suit of grey full-plate armor with a closed helm sporting a flowing crimson plume.  Ileosa takes her seat in a high throne-like chair at one end of the public courtyard, while at the other end is a towering, muscular man wearing an executioner’s hood and idly holding an immense axe.

An ominous drum begins beating, and the gawkers fall silent; the drum sets the pace for a hooded prisoner’s procession to the executioner’s block.  As they reach the block, a guard removes the prisoner’s shackles and hood, revealing a very frightened Trinia who is trying to hold back tears.  The portion of the crowd sympathetic to the young artist cry out in anger, and Ralph gives Majenko the signal to drop the polemics to inflame them further.

Queen Ileosa addresses the crowd:  “Fellow Korvosans!  You have suffered greatly these past few weeks.  Homes have burned, family members have died, and fortunes have been lost.  I feel your suffering, for not only have I lost a beloved husband, but with each act of anarchy that followed, my heart bled more.  This has been a trying time for us, yet the torment is at an end.  Before you is the source of your anguish and pain.  Do not be deceived by this murderer’s timid nature—she is a black-hearted assassin.  I offer you her death as a salve against the hatred and hurt you have suffered.  And so, without further delay, let us usher in this new dawn with justice.  OFF WITH HER HEAD!”

But just before the executioner can lower her head into the block, he cries out in pain as a hurled dagger embeds itself in the back of his hand! A cry echoes through the crowded courtyard: “By the gods!  It’s Blackjack!”  An instant later, a man dressed in a hooded cloak and black mask springs up to Trinia’s side; using a dagger, he cuts the bonds on Trinia’s wrists and then throws the same dagger down to pin the executioner’s left foot to the wood platform.  He then turns to address the shocked crowd.  “Yes indeed, my queen!  Let us usher in justice, but let that be justice for Korvosa, not this shambles you call a monarchy!  Long live Korvosa!  Down with the queen!”

The crowd erupts, some demanding he release the assassin, while others call for the queen’s resignation!  Ileosa seems stunned before whispering something to her armored bodyguard and then quickly fleeing back into the castle, with her entourage guarding her retreat.  The remaining guards in the courtyard move to apprehend Blackjack, but the crowd makes it difficult to move.

Yet in his apparent delight in having forced the queen to flee, Blackjack has momentarily forgotten the executioner behind him!  The shadow of a heavy axe falls over the vigilante, his doom assured, but then Ralph intervenes!  He smashes the executioner in the legs, throwing him off-balance so the axe thunks harmlessly into the wooden stage.  Blackjack and Trinia clamber up a hanging banner to a nearby wall, and he salutes Ralph with his rapier before the pair leap down and disappear into the safety of the city’s alleys and sewers.  Fortunately, in all the chaos of the crowd rioting, Ralph’s actions were unnoticed and he’s able to slip away safely as well.

In the days that follow, the city returns to a semblance of order and normalcy.  But just below the surface, raging undercurrents of pro- and anti- Ileosa sentiment surge, with both sides asking the same question:  What will the next chapter in her reign bring to the city?
--------------------------------------------------
GM's Commentary

The reference to the "Black Ship" in the first paragraph is to something I had prepared in case the PCs wanted to use the black market to purchase items that were illegal or beyond the city's purchase limits.  I had a fun idea for a creepy ship that was always anchored in a different place somewhere off the coast, but have never had the opportunity to actually show it in game.

I really liked how the AP handled the Trinia execution/Blackjack rescue scene.  Doing it as a purely cinematic, rules-free event kept it fast, tense, and exciting, while still allowing the PCs to influence the outcome.  It worked out great at my table, and was a fantastic way to end Chapter 1.

Pathfinder Adventure Path: Curse of the Crimson Throne, Chapter Two: "Seven Days to the Grave" [RPG]

 

NO SPOILERS

I had a blast running "Seven Days to the Grave."  It's a well-written, memorable adventure that is definitely something different from the norm.  It does an excellent job continuing the overall AP storyline while simultaneously giving the PCs the chance to see how their efforts are making a difference.  I'll have a lot more to say below, but for now, we'll just cover the non-spoilerly back matter.

The back matter consists of five parts:

* "Plague and Pestilence: Diseases of Fantasy and Reality" (6 pages): This section contains a discussion of how diseases operate in Golarion and similar quasi-medieval fantasy worlds.  Much of it is fairly general, but it's well-written and interesting.  On the crunchier side of things, there are rules for how common "plague doctor" equipment functions and descriptions & stats for several diseases (both real ones and completely fictional ones).  

* "Abadar: Master of the First Vault" (8 pages): We get a thorough overview here of the Church of Abadar--including its tenets, temples, myths, holidays, the role of clerics and paladins, and even a sample temple layout.  I like the idea of the First Vault (it reminds me of the concept of Platonic forms).  A new prestige class is introduced, the Justiciar, but, oddly, it only has three levels to it (some cool features though!)  Although I'm sure a lot of material in this entry makes its ways to books like Inner Sea Faiths, there would be some parts that doesn't for space reasons--so these original overviews are still valuable.

* "Pathfinder's Journal: The Bloodworks Incident" (6 pages): Pathfinder Eando Kline's quest to see where his mysterious magical compass is leading him continues.  In this installment, Eando finds himself in the anarchic orc city of Urglin because he wants to find a guide to help him safely traverse the Hold of Belkzen.  The story features the Bloodworks arena and is really exciting, as the action scenes come alive and are suitably brutal.  Beyond that, the story does a great job describing Urglin and providing a feel for the city--a valuable resource for a GM.

* "Bestiary" (12 pages): This issue's bestiary starts with a random encounter table for Korvosa's crypts.  It then introduces five new monsters, each of which receives a two-page spread.  The first (and my favourite) is the leukodaemon, a daemonic harbinger of disease.  The artwork is awesome, and the creature serves a clear role in the setting and has some cool abilities (like the "breath of flies").  Next up is the Daughter of Urgathoa--a solid concept, but the anime-style artwork lets it down.  Third, we have Giant Flies & Giant Maggots; pretty simplistic, but I'd guess they'd be useful for something like a visit to the Worldwound or Abaddon.  Fourth, we meet the Herald of Abadar, the Lawgiver; Golarion doesn't seem to do much with heralds compared to the Forgotten Realms, so this is of limited usefulness.  Last, we get nosferatu--ancient, less "civilized" vampires--a good addition to the game.

* "Characters" (2 pages): Here we see Level 4 versions of the four Iconics in CotCT: Ezren, Seelah, Lem, and Harsk.

It's a strong collection of back matter, with a lot that's useful in and beyond the adventure itself.

SPOILERS!

Did you know the entire genesis of Curse of the Crimson Throne started with a pitch about doing a module centered around disease?  I had no idea until I read James Jacobs' fascinating foreword.  He writes about how disease often isn't a major factor in D&D stories because of how slow it spreads and the presence of magic that can easily cure it.  So the challenge facing Wes Schneider was how to make a disease-themed adventure viable, and that then inspired everything else around it.

The in-game background to "Seven Days to the Grave" involves Vorel's Phage--the supernatural toxin that plays a minor part in Chapter Two of Rise of the Runelords (I love subtle interconnections like this).  It turns out that after buying the poison that killed her husband from the Red Mantis, Ileosa has hired them again to help "cleanse the city of undesirables".  The Red Mantis have had one of their disease specialists, Reinder Davaulus, work with the Cult of Urgathoa (the deity of pestilence) to modify Vorel's Phage into a virulent disease called "blood veil."  In this chapter of the adventure, blood veil is released in Korvosa, and it's up to the PCs to try to discover a cure as more and more bodies rack up every day around them.  Was it a bit weird to run this adventure in the midst of a real-life pandemic?  Honestly, I never really thought about it at the time . . .

In Part One ("Infection"), the PCs are expected to enjoy some downtime after the events of Chapter One and continue to build their own connections with residents--a great idea to help make them care about Korvosa.  The adventure proper starts with a ship being sunk in the harbor because it arrived at night and ignored signals to stop.  Soon after, the PCs are contacted by Grau Soldado with an urgent request for help because his niece has become sick with a mysterious disease and the family can't afford to buy a magical cure.  Assuming they're willing to try to help, they'll meet a cleric of Abadar who has become worried because additional cases of the same illness are popping up around the city.

Part Two ("A Damsel in Distress") has Vencarlo Orisini contact the PCs for help in smuggling Trinia Sabor out of Korvosa.  I guess the idea here is to keep Vencarlo in the group's mind, but there's no real risk or drama with smuggling her to safety, so it's a relatively minor part of the adventure.

Part Three ("Outbreak") shows blood veil becoming a major threat across the city.  There are crazy rumors about how the disease spreads and how it started, people turning on each other, quarantines, quack cures, doctors getting sick themselves, hospitals overrun, supplies exhausted--oh, and all that happens in the adventure, too!  The PCs meet, for the first time, the "Queen's Physicians" (suitably creepy in proboscis-like plague masks) and Ileosa's personal army, the Gray Maidens.  It should be noted that the risk of the PCs themselves catching blood veil is very real, and this isn't a disease that's easy to cure.

Part Four ("Pestilence") has the disease intensifying.  This section is my favourite because it contains five different encounters that can be run in whatever order the GM wishes, and with hooks that are easy to personalise to the group.  There's an encounter against vampires taking advantage of all the bodies in the streets to mask their own feeding, a perfumery selling fake cures, wererats planning reprisals after being blamed for the plague, a fun little "zombie movie" set piece in a fancy manor, and an underwater exploration of the sunken ship (I'm still a bit fuzzy about the bad guys' plan here, but it made for an interesting challenge for the PCs).  Having multiple potential adventure hooks active in a dynamic environment around them means there's absolutely no concern about "railroading" while still giving the GM some structure to work with.

Part Five ("Epidemic") contains the big climax of the chapter.  The PCs will have suspected that the Queen's Physicians are actually spreading the disease, not trying to contain it, and will have learned their headquarters is the "Hospice of the Blessed Maiden".  But they have a lot more than fake doctors to contend with, as underneath the building, a Temple to Urgathoa has been secretly constructed!  This is definitely one of those situations where, if the PCs just kinda bust in, they'll alert various scattered defenders and turn a series of small encounters into a few very large and more dangerous ones.  One encounter I particularly liked was with a nosferatu who isn't actually interested in fighting, and very willing to make a deal with the PCs to leave peacefully--but if the PCs insist on fighting him, they'll be very unpleasantly surprised by how tough he is; it's a good reminder that sometimes non-violent ways to resolve encounters are smart.  The big boss battle, against the head priestess of the temple, has one of those sequences common in video games but very rare in tabletop RPGs: when the priestess is killed, she's reborn, a round later, as a "Daughter of Urgathoa" that's even more dangerous!  It's not a trope I would want to see often, but it was a fun surprise here.  Interestingly, Rolth (the necromancer) is present here, but this is before the hardcover collected edition turned him into "Rolth Lamm" and gave him a link to Gaedren Lamm.

The Conclusion gauges how many citizens the PCs saved by their efforts through a sort of success chart, and provides them with rewards accordingly.

All in all, an excellent adventure that feeds organically into Chapter Three.

Pathfinder Module: "We Be Goblins Free!" [RPG]

 NO SPOILERS

We Be Goblins Free! is, as the pun-ishing title indicates, the third Free RPG Day module featuring the famous goblin "heroes" of Reta Bigbad, Chuffy Lickwound, Poog, and Mogmurch.  I played Mogmurch (the alchemist) in a play-by-post game and while it was fun, I think the silly antics of goblins really come across better in a more immediate setting.  Anyway, this fourteen page adventure (plus a table of contents and ads) is handsomely illustrated and in full colour.  It's a solid experience, but I think the writer over-estimates the damage output of these little goblins which leads to some surprisingly tough encounters (especially if players are trying to get into the spirit and not taking optimum actions every round).

SPOILERS!

Since they last appeared in We Be Goblins Too!, our famous band of goblins have becomes chieftains of the Birdcruncher tribe!  (and the famous Squealy Nord is an animal companion)  But being the boss gets a bit boring after a while, so the rank-and-file have put together a series of amusements to keep their new leaders occupied.  The scenario starts with some low-risk, low-reward games, like an obstacle course, a firework-shooting competition, a bizarre head-chopping-off, and the classic "killgull" (played with a vulture, naturally, because the seagulls were accidentally eaten).  It's all rather silly (especially the decapitation!), but a good way to get players into the spirit of being goblins.  In the game I played in, each of us insisted we were *the* chieftain and it was pretty fun. 

The middle part of the adventure has the first real encounters.  The goblin chieftains are on the hunt for truffles, but a wagon of Scarzni (Varisian bandits) are in the way.  The PCs have the advantage of surprise and the four bandits are only CR 1/2 each, so there's an opportunity to do some goblinesque things like setting fire to their wagons, attacking their dogs and horses, and so forth.  It was good.

Next up are two more battles over truffles against an assassin vine and a harpy named Isidra.  This is where the difficulty of the module ramps up significantly, as assassin vines can easily grapple and do constant damage to a character, while the harpy can captivate targets or do flying hit and run attacks that are hard to counter.  The goblin PCs just don't do much damage (even Reta, the fighter, does only 1d4+3 in melee) so it takes a *long* time to wear down opponents with hp in the 30s (assuming the attacks even hit in the first place).  For an adventure that's supposed to be kinda relaxing and humorous, easier encounters would better foster the mood and encourage more creativity by players.

The last part of the module has the PCs return to their village after gathering truffles only to find that an effigy made in their honour has suddenly become animate and is attacking!  I like the explanation that the skull of Vorka (the cannibal goblin druid from We Be Goblins!) was used in the effigy and that's where its dark power has come from.  This thing has 52 hit points and hardness 5, meaning that really only the alchemist's bombs (if he saved them) or Poog's channeled energy (if he figures out they'll work on the effigy despite it being a construct) can harm the creature.  Again, a really fun, cinematic idea brought down by an unrealistic expectation of what the goblins can handle.  Hopefully, GMs will be flexible and get into the spirit of the adventure by allowing some alternative solutions to the problem--otherwise, a TPK is very possible.

Curse of the Crimson Throne Recap # 11 [RPG]

[28 Gozran, 4708 A.R. continued]

The Reckoner, Yraelzin, and Goldcape enter another chamber to find wooden tables stacked with vials, beakers, funnels, cauldrons, and everything else necessary for a working alchemical laboratory.  A lone derro, cleaning up a spill, reacts in confusion at first but then calls upon his race’s innate magic to create an ear-ringing sonic burst in the room.  But The Reckoner and Rocky are undeterred, and they make short work of the pale blue humanoid.  A thorough search of the room turns up a veritable treasure trove of potions, poisons, alchemical salves, and more. It is obvious experiments in alchemy and dark necromancy have been practiced in this underground labyrinth for quite some time.

Adjacent to the alchemical laboratory is a door that has been boarded over—quite recently, by the looks of it.  The Reckoner suggests leaving it alone, as anything the derros wanted to lock away is probably quite dangerous.  But Goldcape is intent on exploration, and her lithe frame masks surprising strength—she puts her shoulder to the door and breaks it down.  On the other side is a room that was obviously once a pantry, but is now prison to a lurching mash-up of rotting flesh, jagged bone, and coarse hair reeking of death and decay.  In one of its hands it clutches a severed arm marked with distinctive Shoanti tattoos!  The smell is nauseating, but the repulsive creature is no match for The Reckoner’s battle-maul.  The search to recover the scattered parts of Gaekhen’s body has met with another gruesome success.

Further exploration finds another grisly reminder of the work conducted in these halls of horror.  One chamber contains a large table supporting a massive, seven-foot tall humanoid-shaped thing stitched together from a patchwork of different bodies.  Apparently, an attempt to build a flesh golem!  The inert creature’s head is crowned with brown hair and bears a distinctive scar up on its left cheek—poor Gaekhen’s head.  Just as Goldcape realises this, The Reckoner has already moved to destroy the creature, fearing it will rise.  An inadvertent mutilation of Gaekhen’s corpse is added to the terrible blasphemies already done to it.

Another chamber is a library of books and scrolls—mostly treatises on necromancy or the art of crafting golems, but also a surprisingly large number of books about diseases and plagues.  There’s some disagreement within the group about what to do with the collection, leading to an eventual decision to take some of the books while burning the ones on necromancy.

The search through the sprawling underground complex continues, with the way fortunately lit through phosphorescent moss.  One chamber holds a large four-poster bed and a simple writing desk, with a full-length mirror propped up against one earthen wall.  But the group’s lack of stealth has given early warning to an adjacent chamber’s occupant: a derro necromancer with fearsome arcane power!  The derro launches an array of magical attacks while shouting epithets inspired by a lunatic’s rage.  The Reckoner is temporarily weakened by one attack, Rocky is struck with magical fear, and Yraelzin’s and Goldcape’s archery proves largely ineffective against the flying foe that is fully prepared for battle.  The battle turns on a knife's edge as The Reckoner finds his muscles completely locked up to the point he can only stand and watch helplessly as the derro conjures a zombie from thin air!  Yraelzin turns from futile attacks with his crossbow to healing The Reckoner to keep him in the fight.  But if anyone is the hero of the hour, it’s Rocky—the roc returns when the magical fear wears off and slashes zombie and derro alike until, finally, the necromancer is unconscious and floating in mid-air.  Both The Reckoner and Goldcape take out their anger on the derro in a lethal way.  It’s the closest the party has ever come to utter defeat, and a startling reminder of the dangerousness of their efforts to aid Korvosa and its inhabitants.

In the aftermath of the battle, two important discoveries are made.  In the derro’s chamber is the result of his latest experiment—the torso and right arm of Gaekhen, animated in a sad mockery of life.  In the chamber with the four-poster bed, the desk contains a curious, broken knife with a key-shaped blade.  The Harrowed Heroes immediately link the blade to the one found in Gaedren Lamm’s hideout, and suspect this could be a sign his son has been here!

Weary and battered, the brave explorers continue their search for Gaekhen’s lower body.  They enter a cavern boarded on three sides by ten-foot-deep pits, from which waft the rancid smell of excrement and decay.  But the room is guarded by a hideously deformed brute who yells “You go in pit now!  Me feed you later.  Maybe!”  The Reckoner charges into battle and gets punched hard in the face for his troubles, but Goldcape cleverly conjures a trio of dogs to nip at the brute’s heels, distracting it enough for The Reckoner to land a powerful series of blows.  When the dust has cleared, a look around the room reveals something important—there are prisoners, still alive, in the pits!

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

GM's Commentary

In the sessions I've been running recently (near the end of Chapter Four), Goldcape is the cautious one and The Reckoner is always pushing to explore further--but in this session, it's the exact opposite!

I've put in my review of Chapter One that I think the "body part scavenger hunt" is a bit too video  gamey, but apart from that I think this sequence is well-designed.  This session has the battle against the closest thing to a "boss" enemy for the chapter, the derro sorcerer.  That battle came surprisingly closes to a TPK.

Doctor Fate # 31-41 (DC Comics) (1988) [COMICS]

Alright, the final stretch of the 1988-1992 Doctor Fate.  Bill Messner-Loebs finishes out the series as writer, continuing to take the book in a very different direction than it had been under DeMatteis.

Issue # 31 is fantastic--probably the best of the run.  Inza has a talk with a woman she saved, and the conversation centers around how super heroes never seem to use their powers to make enduring societal improvements.  It's a powerful critique of inequality and corporatism, and casts super heroes as maintaining the status quo and never really being agents of change or progress.  Inza decides to respond by transforming a huge skyscraper into public housing, and (by altering his memories) a real estate tycoon into a homeless man.  But is she exercising too much power?  Much more interesting than the vapid spirituality of DeMatteis' run!  

Issue # 32 has kind of a goofy cover, and is a War of the Gods tie-in.  Wonder Woman comes to the neighborhood looking for Fate, and together the two battle an Egyptian god and defeat it.  Meanwhile, Kent, frustrated, by what Inza has been doing to the neighborhood, heads off on a dig.  A note on the letters page emphasises that issues # 1-24 were DeMatteis' story, and the series is off in a new direction and won't likely revisit the characters and themes from it.

More War of the Gods hits Issue # 33.  In a surprisingly fun take, the gods of Egypt band together to take on Fate.  It turns out that it's their collective doing that has kept Kent from becoming Fate, on the theory that Inza-Fate would be easier to defeat.  But they're wrong, and she manages to bind them mystically.  In a continuing subplot, the tycoon from Issue # 31 (Tommy Bridge) gets his memories back, and boy is he peeved!

A cool cover to Issue # 34.  An evil goddess named T'Giiaan tries to kill Fate.  This is an issue full of surprises, and really enjoyable.  There's a tragic moment as a jobless man that Fate was too busy to help commits a murder-suicide, really hitting home the idea that even super heroes can't solve everything.

Issue # 35 sees Kent getting back to New York and seeing just how widespread Inza's magic has reshaped the neighborhood.  In her efforts to make a veritable utopia, has she started suppressing free will?  And then . . . the helmet swallows Inza?

With Inza gone, there's panic in the streets in Issue # 36.  Kent becomes the classic (?) Fate.  There's some good humor in this one.

Issue # 37 has Inza break free from both the Lords of Order and the Lords of Chaos, drawing power from the people of earth to fuel her independence.  It's a bit cheesy, but a nice resolution.

We get a fill-in issue in Issue # 38 by a different creative team.  It's a flashback story involving ghosts assaulting the residents of Salem.  Fate is drawn to 1910 by a psychic medium who is his mother!?  It's a weird tale, but okay.

Issue # 39 is sadly realistic, as Congressional hearings into everything Inza accomplished for her neighborhood is twisted and distorted to sound bad.  Fed up, she delivers a stirring rebuttal.  When the President asks her to sign a sort of loyalty oath, she refuses.  It's really good, original stuff for comics!

Issue # 40 has Kent and Inza working together as Fate.  They decide to test their powers by cleaning up a lake, only to uncover a sea monster.  Wonder Woman comes by just to chat, which is cool.  Inza is thinking of having a baby, but in a refreshing twist, decides not to.

As the final issue for the series, Issue # 41 has to wrap up some subplots.  There's sort of a new cosmic beginning for Fate which is hard to describe, and I'd rank the issue as okay, but not great.  I do like how the neighborhood is better off, and continues to improve even without Fate's active involvement--an optimistic view of humanity.  There's a nice farewell in the letter column.

Overall, the series can be neatly split into the DeMatteis run (# 1-24) and the Messner-Loebs run (# 25-41).  For some reason, comics fans seem to fondly remember the first one, but in my opinion, it's really the second one that deserves acclaim.

Pathfinder (GameMastery) Compleat Encounters: "Dark Elf Sanctum" [RPG]

 SPOILERS

Dark Elf Sanctum was the first of Paizo's "Compleat Encounters" line of products, each of which includes three miniatures, four gridded cards that form an encounter map, an encounter key, and artwork and stats for some new NPCs, monsters, and magical items.  From a name like Dark Elf Sanctum, you have a pretty good idea of what to expect with this one: drow!  More specifically, the idea here is that the sanctum is that of a drow cleric named Sarthessa Zyltaris--she's pretty much a stock drow with cliched goals.  Her sanctum is guarded by a much cooler monster called a Horned Demon that wears a special belt made from human faces that can cast spells separately while it's fighting.   The set also features a new artifact called the Dread Portal of the Maw, but it's pretty much a plot device only as, once a year, it can send 500 evil outsiders someplace for an hour!

There's not much of a story here.  Sarthessa plans to use the artifact to invade the surface world somehow, but her plan doesn't really make sense.  I did use this adventure in a campaign.  A few vague adventure hooks are included to lure the PCs to attacking her sanctum, but the encounters within are pretty basic, and the whole thing is forgettable.  To me, the best part of the set is the artwork by Wayne Reynolds.  My set didn't come with the actual miniatures, but the Horned Demon one looks great in the pictures.  As for the map tiles, I couldn't really figure out how they were supposed to go together, and everything is too cramped to really have separate encounters.  Overall, I'd have to call this one a miss.

Curse of the Crimson Throne Recap # 10 [RPG]

 [27 Gozran, 4708 A.R. continued]

Outside Citadel Volshyanek, Goldcape and Ralph Blackfeather continue to discuss what to do with the fugitive Trinia Sabor.  Goldcape has put together a plan to smuggle her out of the city by boat, but Ralph says they need to turn her over to Field Marshal Kroft or risk getting in trouble themselves.  When they return to the safe-house, they persuade Trinia that the Korvosan Guard will ensure she gets a fair trial and that the Hellknights won’t get hold of her.  Ralph uses some make-up and hair dye to make Trinia look several years older and they escort her the short distance between the safe-house and the citadel.  But Trinia’s disguise doesn’t hold up against the casual glance of a farmer who had seen a sketch of the fugitive, and he shouts and starts drawing attention.  Ralph decks the man and hurries Trinia inside.  Although she’s safely turned over to the Korvosan Guard, it won’t be long before everyone in the city knows her new location.

Thousand Bones

From there, the Harrowed Heroes split up.  Ralph visits Hedge Wizardry and tells Phaeton the information he’s gathered about the Scrag Fisher—that it hasn’t arrived.  Phaeton expresses his hope it’s simply mundane sailing delays.  Meanwhile, Goldcape flies on Rocky to the Shoanti campsites in Skaldwood to talk with Takota.  But bad news awaits—Takota has been seriously injured and is unconscious!  Apparently, he and a Shoanti brave named Gaekhen were in the city when rumors spread that Shoanti were harbouring Trinia.  They were chased by a mob and badly beaten, and Gaekhen was killed!  Takota is now under the care of Thousand Bones, a newly-arrived Shoanti shaman who is also Gaekhen’s grandfather.  Thousand Bones says that Takota will recover in time, but the Shoanti have decided to leave Skaldwood.  The nomadic people have decided the risk of remaining while the city is in such turmoil is simply too high.  But Thousand Bones has a request of Takota’s friends.  The elder explains that his grandson’s body has not been recovered, and that until given a proper ritual burial, the young warrior’s spirit will not be at peace.  Thousand Bones says his auguries have given him a vision of the body laying somewhere within a vast field of the dead, under a stone house with a shattered stone demon nearby.  Goldcape promises that she and Takota’s other allies will assist.

Goldcape leaps onto Rocky and flies back toward the safe-house.  On the way, she has the good fortune to spot Ralph on the street below—his figure distinctive because of the house drake that always seems to be flying some distance above him.  When Goldcape lands nearby, Ralph explains that the drake is a freed prisoner from Eel’s End named Majenko who has, from a sense of honour, vowed to assist him for one year.  Goldcape shares what Thousand Bones told her, and the pair immediately reverse course and head back south toward the Gray (Korvosa’s cemetery district).  Ralph asks Majenko to keep an eye on the city for signs that the Hellknights are marching toward Citadel Korvosa or in any other way displacing the Korvosan Guard.

The Gray District is a mournful place even by day—one of the few areas of the city that is quiet and calm amidst all the recent civil unrest.  And nowhere is this stillness more evident than in Potter’s Ward, the final resting ground for Korvosa’s poor and homeless.  Mounds of unmarked dirt stretch far and wide, indicating sites of mass graves, while crumbling mausoleums from years ago dot the bleak landscape, forgotten and empty; there are no mourners here, and it’s clear that those buried in Potter’s Ward leave behind few who regret their passing.  Scouting from the sky, Goldcape spots a small mausoleum that has a broken gargoyle statue on the ground nearby—surely the “shattered stone demon” that Thousand Bones saw in his vision.  When the vanara sets down nearby, she notices a man’s tracks and a wheelbarrow trail leading into the mausoleum, as well as several smaller humanoid tracks—derro!  Many in the city have heard urban legends of sunless, insane, gnome-sized beings that live under the city and kidnap residents for strange experiments.  Realising they could be in for more than they bargained for, Goldcape and Ralph decide to return in the morning with Yraelzin in tow—although the cleric of Razmir can be annoying, there is strength in numbers.

Ralph and Goldcape split up again.  Ralph hurries to North Point before the dusk curfew and into a local armorsmith’s named the Stalwart Shield.  A trio of near lookalike brothers are inside, hammering away.  Ralph lays down several thousand gold pieces for a suit of custom armor made from mithral!  He’s told it will take five to six days, as the palace has put in an order for several suits of gray full-plate armor in a feminine cut.  Afterwards, Ralph walks over to the Burnt Honey Inn only to find a very drunk Grau Soldado apparently waiting for him.  It takes some time for the guard to make sense, but eventually his slurred speech is intelligible: he’s come to warn Ralph that someone is spreading around a lot of coin for information on who The Reckoner is.  Grau says he knows Ralph and The Reckoner must be friends, so he’s hoping the man can deliver a message to the masked vigilante.  Ralph promises to do so and arranges for Grau to sleep off his relapse in his room upstairs.  Meanwhile, all the way across town, Goldcape returns to Old Lady Cloggins’ house.  When her landlady explains that a friend came by looking for Goldcape while she was away saying that Goldcape “knew his father”, a chill suddenly runs down the vanara’s spine.  Did Gaedren Lamm’s son visit and deliver an implicit threat?!?  Goldcape tosses and turns that night.

[28 Gozran, 4708 A.R.]

In the morning, Ralph gets further information from a sober (but abashed) Grau.  Whoever’s interested in The Reckoner has asked around at the Longacre Building (where accused criminals are tried before the city’s arbiters), at Eel’s End (where a cross-section of the city comes to engage in vice), and, rumor has it, at an information broker named Gribbet.  Grau says that after taking part in raids on Lamm’s Old Fishery, the Cow Hammer Boys’ slaughterhouse, and the King of Spider’s ship in Eel’s End, The Reckoner is making quite a name for himself among the criminal element and needs to be careful.  After Grau leaves, Ralph heads down to Old Lady Cloggins’ house, keeping a close eye out to see if he is being tailed.  Once there, he and Goldcape exchange news and agree they need to figure out a plan to trap whoever is looking for them.  Ralph calls Majenko down and asks him to keep an eye out for ambushes.  Majenko reports that Trinia Sabor’s trial is set to begin today—a startling fast process given her recent apprehension.

With Yraelzin in tow, Goldcape and Ralph set out for the Gray District again.  They follow the trail into the mausoleum, but the place looks completely empty.  However, the outline of a poorly hidden trapdoor is easily spotted.  When opened, steps lead down into darkness.  Ralph changes into The Reckoner, and Goldcape enchants his battle-maul with light so he can see better.  The stairs lead to an ossuary, where pits of bones lie under a domed ceiling.  Goldcape heads towards the bone pits to see if Gaekhen’s body is among them, when suddenly the piles of bones begin to shift and sway.  Skeletal figures burst out of one, while a clearly dead owlbear bursts out of another!  Goldcape’s arrows and sap prove almost completely ineffective against the chilling undead foes, but Rocky’s hard beak and especially The Reckoner’s battle-maul smash them into pieces.  Yraelzin, who had little to add during the combat, heals some of his ally’s wounds, but Goldcape notices something strange—it looks like the cleric is secretly using a wand.  When confronted, Yraelzin denies the matter entirely, and even invites Goldcape to search him; the suspicious vanara does so, and finds no wand.  Goldcape starts to pursue the matter further, but The Reckoner reminds her that they’re on a mission and this catacomb could be dangerous.

Tunnels smashed and carved out of the walls of the ossuary lead further into darkness.  Following one of them leads the Harrowed Heroes to a gruesome site—the fresh body of a vagrant is being drained of its blood by a pair of stirges, while a lone little humanoid that can only be a derro toils nearby!  The derro shrieks and rushes into a narrow tunnel to escape, but not before opening a wicker cage and freeing two more stirges.  One of them swoops down and plunges its proboscis into Goldcape’s arm before the cat-sized mosquito-like creatures are dispatched.  The Reckoner gives thought to chasing the derro, but the tunnel it fled down would be difficult to squeeze through.

Necrophidius

Another tunnel leads to a corridor encrusted with dozens of yawning skulls, their mouths opening into dark holes in the walls.  Goldcape realises two of the skulls are part of some kind of trap, and destroys them with arrows fired from a distance.  But whoever placed the trap had a second layer of defense in mind, for when the trio enter the hallway, the sinuous skeletons of what first appear to be large snakes emerge from holes in the walls and attack!  Yraelzin shouts that they’re necrophidiuses and have paralysing bites!  The battle that follows is a long and difficult one, but once again The Reckoner’s battle-maul proves most effective and the skeletal constructs are destroyed.

It’s clear that what once seemed like the trivial matter of retrieving a corpse from a graveyard has turned into something far different—why are the derro here, and what’s become of Gaekhen’s body?

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GM's Commentary

Goldcape was 100% right that it would have been better to smuggle Trinia out of the city than turn her over to the authorities.  Because Goldcape's player is a kid, the adults in the group often don't take his suggestions as serious as they should.

There's the introduction to Thousand Bones in this session, an NPC who will become very important in Chapter 4.  I'm glad I was able to tie in the Shoanti abandoning Korvosa.

The search for Gaekhen's body in the Dead Warrens is the last major part of Chapter 1 (apart from a more scripted climax).

Why would a cleric of the Living God need magic wands?  Goldcape must have been mistaken.