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<blockquote data-quote="MerricB" data-source="post: 5959253" data-attributes="member: 3586"><p>We concluded <em>Mother of Flies</em> on the weekend; another two-session adventure in this AP from Paizo. Dave missed this session, so we had a Rogue, Cleric, Sorcerer and Ranger (archer) playing.</p><p></p><p>The group continued down the 5 foot corridors in the thieves’ den to a room I completely misunderstood from the map (C16). There are actually stairs up to the upper level of the house there, but it looked a lot more like a split-level room to me. So, we played it as such and the group had to find the secret way to the upper level. (The maps are pretty in this AP, but not always functional). In any case, the room had four dark creepers and a dark stalker. As it was only 15’ wide, it also wasn’t particularly easy for sneak attacks to me made – especially as only Michael’s rogue made his way into the chamber and he could use Uncanny Dodge to avoid being flanked. Greg used his bow, and the Morrowfall dispelled the attempts the dark folk had to make the chamber dark.</p><p></p><p>More empty chambers – and a pit trap – beckoned, but the party were now alert to the traps in the building and easily avoided them. Another room of thieves was basically handwaved away: Greg was killing two a round with his Deadly Aim, and they couldn’t flank Michael. Neither Tim nor Lee were actually getting actions before all the thieves were dead. Level 4 rogues? Not so much a threat for level 10 characters.</p><p></p><p>The group ran into a shadow rat swarm (CR 4, dead in one round) and found the old undead guildmaster (CR 8, dead in two rounds). Greg has become familiar enough with Pathfinder that his ranger/fighter is doing a lot of damage to creatures that don’t have damage reduction: 1d8+11 with each of up to four shots (rapid shot + many shot). And against undead? 1d8+15, due to ranger bonuses. This is a big change from the early version of his archer who was hopeless against all DR 5 monsters. It did mean death for a lot of 29 hp rogues, though.</p><p></p><p>With the group having explored the bottom level, they found the secret path to the upper level, and Michael was turned invisible and used his incredible ability to sneak to ambush the two rogues on the upper level. With surprise he killed one, and then won initiative and killed the other before he could react. It was a lovely moment of supreme competence from Michael’s character.</p><p></p><p>More rogues waited in a side chamber, but they were surprised and slaughtered. A group of dark ones likewise didn’t survive the party attacking. I had more hopes for the Council of Thieves’ wizard, Sandor the Strange, but Lee cast <em>invisibility purge</em>, and that was pretty much that. Lee’s spell selection has been exemplary this adventure; he doesn’t get to attack much, but he is very good at overcoming the threats.</p><p></p><p>From there, it was down into the depths (the entrance was on the upper level and bypassed the ground level altogether) and an underground cavern with a lake. I felt like I was playing the original version of <em>Betrayal at House on the Hill</em>. Two chuuls attempted to kill the party, and proved one of the bigger threats of the adventure, at least until Lee used <em>freedom of movement</em> to make sure Michael and Greg could attack without being grabbed. The chuuls did quite a bit of damage, but not enough to take anyone down.</p><p></p><p>The shadow mastiffs on the dock gave themselves away by baying and alerting the vampires deeper in the cellar, and paid the price as Tim fireballed them from the safety of the water.</p><p></p><p>The group then successfully avoided most of the threats on this level, instead moving directly to engage Silana, a vampire sorcerer. She also didn’t survive long (Greg has silver arrows) and her fleeing gaseous form alerted them to the location of the secret door to the greater lair below. It took a few rounds, but Tim’s sorcerer was able to trick the door into letting them through. </p><p></p><p>This led to a dry well, and an encounter against a Calikang (a six-armed giant), who guarded a great host of treasure. This encounter lasted a massive five rounds, and ended up with Lee engaging the Calikang in melee as Michael used spring attack and Greg arched it from range. The treasure was ignored as the group unerringly made their way to the final encounter against Ilnerik, once of the Pathfinder Society, now a vampire – and the lord of the shadowbeasts. I thought this battle would be an anticlimax – I was quite wrong about that!</p><p></p><p>Mind you, the major reason it wasn’t an anticlimax was because Greg used the Morrowfall against Ilnerik in the first round of the battle which blinded Greg and left Ilnerik (thanks to his evasion and high Reflex save) quite unharmed. Lee took the Morrowfall from Greg and – apart from using Death Ward and Restoration to help the group – fired a lot of sunbeams at Ilnerik that did absolutely nothing. Ilnerik needed a 1 to fail those Reflex saving throws!</p><p></p><p>Ilnerik, meanwhile, cast <em>haste</em> on himself and engaged (mostly) Michael and Tim. Lee eventually moved to flank with Michael and the sneak attack damage kicked in – which was really needed. Greg, blinded, just used his <em>wand of cure light wounds</em> to help Michael. Greg’s blindness probably prolonged the combat three rounds – I can’t see that Ilnerik would have survived long under Greg’s withering bow attacks. (Nor would have Ilnerik done well against Dave’s fighter who has specialised in trip attacks – just as well Dave wasn’t here!) Once Michael could finally sneak attack, the combat didn’t last much longer.</p><p></p><p>And, with that, the penultimate adventure of the <em>Council of Thieves</em> adventure path was over. This particular adventure was terribly underwhelming: there were way too many boring combats, the exploration of the thieves’ guild was mostly dull, and lacked interesting tricks and traps. The group picked up a lot of treasure, rescued some NPCs and discovered a copy of the contract they needed to separate the Drovenge siblings in the final act, not to mention finally getting rid of the shadow beasts that had been plaguing the city, but I really would have liked it to be a more interesting journey there.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MerricB, post: 5959253, member: 3586"] We concluded [i]Mother of Flies[/i] on the weekend; another two-session adventure in this AP from Paizo. Dave missed this session, so we had a Rogue, Cleric, Sorcerer and Ranger (archer) playing. The group continued down the 5 foot corridors in the thieves’ den to a room I completely misunderstood from the map (C16). There are actually stairs up to the upper level of the house there, but it looked a lot more like a split-level room to me. So, we played it as such and the group had to find the secret way to the upper level. (The maps are pretty in this AP, but not always functional). In any case, the room had four dark creepers and a dark stalker. As it was only 15’ wide, it also wasn’t particularly easy for sneak attacks to me made – especially as only Michael’s rogue made his way into the chamber and he could use Uncanny Dodge to avoid being flanked. Greg used his bow, and the Morrowfall dispelled the attempts the dark folk had to make the chamber dark. More empty chambers – and a pit trap – beckoned, but the party were now alert to the traps in the building and easily avoided them. Another room of thieves was basically handwaved away: Greg was killing two a round with his Deadly Aim, and they couldn’t flank Michael. Neither Tim nor Lee were actually getting actions before all the thieves were dead. Level 4 rogues? Not so much a threat for level 10 characters. The group ran into a shadow rat swarm (CR 4, dead in one round) and found the old undead guildmaster (CR 8, dead in two rounds). Greg has become familiar enough with Pathfinder that his ranger/fighter is doing a lot of damage to creatures that don’t have damage reduction: 1d8+11 with each of up to four shots (rapid shot + many shot). And against undead? 1d8+15, due to ranger bonuses. This is a big change from the early version of his archer who was hopeless against all DR 5 monsters. It did mean death for a lot of 29 hp rogues, though. With the group having explored the bottom level, they found the secret path to the upper level, and Michael was turned invisible and used his incredible ability to sneak to ambush the two rogues on the upper level. With surprise he killed one, and then won initiative and killed the other before he could react. It was a lovely moment of supreme competence from Michael’s character. More rogues waited in a side chamber, but they were surprised and slaughtered. A group of dark ones likewise didn’t survive the party attacking. I had more hopes for the Council of Thieves’ wizard, Sandor the Strange, but Lee cast [i]invisibility purge[/i], and that was pretty much that. Lee’s spell selection has been exemplary this adventure; he doesn’t get to attack much, but he is very good at overcoming the threats. From there, it was down into the depths (the entrance was on the upper level and bypassed the ground level altogether) and an underground cavern with a lake. I felt like I was playing the original version of [i]Betrayal at House on the Hill[/i]. Two chuuls attempted to kill the party, and proved one of the bigger threats of the adventure, at least until Lee used [i]freedom of movement[/i] to make sure Michael and Greg could attack without being grabbed. The chuuls did quite a bit of damage, but not enough to take anyone down. The shadow mastiffs on the dock gave themselves away by baying and alerting the vampires deeper in the cellar, and paid the price as Tim fireballed them from the safety of the water. The group then successfully avoided most of the threats on this level, instead moving directly to engage Silana, a vampire sorcerer. She also didn’t survive long (Greg has silver arrows) and her fleeing gaseous form alerted them to the location of the secret door to the greater lair below. It took a few rounds, but Tim’s sorcerer was able to trick the door into letting them through. This led to a dry well, and an encounter against a Calikang (a six-armed giant), who guarded a great host of treasure. This encounter lasted a massive five rounds, and ended up with Lee engaging the Calikang in melee as Michael used spring attack and Greg arched it from range. The treasure was ignored as the group unerringly made their way to the final encounter against Ilnerik, once of the Pathfinder Society, now a vampire – and the lord of the shadowbeasts. I thought this battle would be an anticlimax – I was quite wrong about that! Mind you, the major reason it wasn’t an anticlimax was because Greg used the Morrowfall against Ilnerik in the first round of the battle which blinded Greg and left Ilnerik (thanks to his evasion and high Reflex save) quite unharmed. Lee took the Morrowfall from Greg and – apart from using Death Ward and Restoration to help the group – fired a lot of sunbeams at Ilnerik that did absolutely nothing. Ilnerik needed a 1 to fail those Reflex saving throws! Ilnerik, meanwhile, cast [i]haste[/i] on himself and engaged (mostly) Michael and Tim. Lee eventually moved to flank with Michael and the sneak attack damage kicked in – which was really needed. Greg, blinded, just used his [i]wand of cure light wounds[/i] to help Michael. Greg’s blindness probably prolonged the combat three rounds – I can’t see that Ilnerik would have survived long under Greg’s withering bow attacks. (Nor would have Ilnerik done well against Dave’s fighter who has specialised in trip attacks – just as well Dave wasn’t here!) Once Michael could finally sneak attack, the combat didn’t last much longer. And, with that, the penultimate adventure of the [i]Council of Thieves[/i] adventure path was over. This particular adventure was terribly underwhelming: there were way too many boring combats, the exploration of the thieves’ guild was mostly dull, and lacked interesting tricks and traps. The group picked up a lot of treasure, rescued some NPCs and discovered a copy of the contract they needed to separate the Drovenge siblings in the final act, not to mention finally getting rid of the shadow beasts that had been plaguing the city, but I really would have liked it to be a more interesting journey there. [/QUOTE]
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