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Prepping for Pathfinder: Council of Thieves (spoilers!)
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<blockquote data-quote="MerricB" data-source="post: 5976862" data-attributes="member: 3586"><p>As the characters returned from defeating Ilnerik, the Council of Thieves (or, more correctly, the siblings Ecarrdian and Chammady) set their plan into motion for taking over the city. I'm still not sure what the plan is, but it involves a lot of smaller things that the PCs can stop.</p><p></p><p>Before going any further, I'm going to demonstrate the biggest problem this adventure has: your standard 'tough guy' in the Council of Thieves, the Council Captain, is a Rogue 8/Assassin 3 with a shortsword attack of +11/+6 and a shortbow attack of +14/+9. Very rarely were they encountered in an area that allowed them to use their shortbows, and so the +11/+6 was trying to hit the PCs with an AC of about 30. (Of course, even with ranged attacks they'd have to deal with cover bonuses to AC most of the time... so scarcely better). </p><p></p><p>The standard attack of a CR 10 monster is about +20.</p><p></p><p><strong>The Nightmare Begins</strong></p><p>The first indication the characters had of something being wrong were the fires. Shortly thereafter, they were attacked by a pride of Hellcats, so they knew something was wrong. Alas, for the Hellcats, Greg's archer ignored anything less than full concealment (they had partial) and Dave just ran in and happily tripped them. A couple of rounds later they were all slain, and the group returned to the Rebel Alliance Safehouse to discover what was going wrong.</p><p></p><p>Janiven and Arael were up to date with the news - of course; it's their primary function in the AP - and it seemed that Ecarrdian had set in motion his final game plan. Oh, and the ruling house of Cheliax had finally started paying attention to the chaos in Westcrown and were sending in General Vorune to sort things out. If the PCs could settle things down first, he probably wouldn't be so harsh on everyone.</p><p></p><p><strong>Getting the Support of the Nobles</strong></p><p>The Rebel Alliance leaders suggested that if the players could gain the support of some prominent Noble houses, that might help them convince General Vorune that Westcrown could actually govern itself. Luckily, two of the noble houses - living in the same building! - were ripe for the plucking. At least Eccardian thought so: that explained the doppleganger terrorising one family, and the Council Thieves terrorizing the other.</p><p></p><p>Actually, it didn't: the doppleganger has nothing to do with Eccardian. It's like the manor they live in is cursed or something! Not to worry - the players were on their way!</p><p></p><p>The manor is split in two (some hasty brickwork, one feels) so that one of the noble houses can rent one side out to the other family. The party entered using the sewers, and in a very lucky coincidence, discovered the body of Delilee Ciucci, the daughter of the Ciucci family above, who'd been murdered and replaced by the doppleganger. Thus, when they bluffed their way past the butler upstairs and saw "Delilee", it was fairly simple for them to expose her for the fraud she was, and gain the trust of the Ciucci patriarch.</p><p></p><p>Then it was on to the other household, where the group saw through the fake Council of Thieves guards fairly easily, then forced a confrontation. One Council Captains (see above) and four CR 3 thieves and 12 CR 1 cutpurses were not a threat. "Hit and run" tactics require the thieves to be able to hit, and that wasn't going to happen.</p><p></p><p>With the thieves killed, the group gained the support of the Mhartis family as well.</p><p></p><p><strong>And now, a Horned Devil!</strong></p><p>For more amusement, I rolled upon the random encounters in the bestiary for this instalment and generated a Horned Devil. It's been a long time since I was running 3.5E, and it didn't immediately click that this could be a problem for my party. CR16 isn't too tough, is it?</p><p></p><p>Well, this was the most dangerous fight we had in the last two adventures. The players were eventually successful - helped along by the evasion ability of Michael, who could avoid the fireballs the Devil threw at them. Tim already had his fire resistance up, so eventually the Devil just went toe-to-toe with Dave.</p><p></p><p><strong>The Hellknights</strong></p><p>"After the PCs have successfully made 5 Fame checks for whatever reason, they are contacted by a messenger and informed that Paralictor Chard wishes to speak to them at Taranik House immediately."</p><p></p><p>I'd like to point out this paragraph from <em>The Twice-Damned Prince</em> because it shows some of the dreadful editing of the adventure. Guess how many Fame checks are made in this adventure. Yes, that's right: five (not counting those in this section), some of them are optional, and one of them should come towards the climax of the adventure. This encounter never triggers as written.</p><p></p><p>Instead, the group decided (probably with some prodding from Janiven) to find out why the Hellknights were being so quiet. It probably had something to do with the false accusations of murdering nobles and the schism within their ranks; the Paralictor was actually quite forthcoming, as (as part of his crisis of faith) he thought the players would probably help restore order to the city.</p><p></p><p>A little later, the Hellknights would come under siege from their own Council of Thieves, and the PCs were called in to help. The biggest threat were the three Council Captains - one of whom actually managed to shoot Dave with a human-slaying arrow. (Dave was the one human in the group). Unfortunately for the Captains, Dave also had a good Fortitude save, and that was it for the attempt to destroy the Hellknights.</p><p></p><p><strong>The Blacknapes</strong></p><p>Kidnappers were terrorising the folk of the poorer quarters! Could the group save them? Well, considering that the kidnappers were fighter 4/rogue 2 with AC 18, hp 53 and unarmed strike +9 (1d3+5), the answer was "yes!" Michael's thief hung around the area enough to trail them back to their base, and the result from there was predictable.</p><p></p><p><strong>The Nobles Pitch In</strong></p><p>The Council, getting worried with the heroes' progress, tried to lure them into a trap. They forged a note from a noble and sent it to the safe house. This led to the group entering an inn frequented by nobles and... noticing the ambush laid for them because the group has really good Perception checks. Poor Council Captains - not only were they attacked by the heroes, but the nobles joined in as well. Hilarious.</p><p></p><p><strong>The Undead Rise</strong></p><p>Although Ilnerik had been destroyed, the Drovenges still held a few undead creatures amongst their allies, and some of them (indeed, the animated "Bastards of Erebus" from the first adventure) had kidnapped and killed a number of people - including the father of Calseinica, the young actress from "The Sixfold Trial". She came to the heroes desperate for them to do something about it. They were easily able to find the lair of the Bastards - now mohrgs, and attacked. </p><p></p><p>It was a somewhat tricky challenge, but fireballs, channel positive energy and Dave's incredible attacking ability counted in the party's favour.</p><p></p><p>However, they weren't the only undead around! The devourer Irimeian was the major threat in this part of the city, and the group next went to confront her. This looked more dangerous than it ended up being, mainly because Greg and Dave can do an insane amount of damage - Irimeian's 133 hit points weren't that much of a barrier to their determined attacks.</p><p></p><p>The last major undead creature they were to fight was a ghost: the ghost of a Hellknight heretic. The group actually went to her lair to find the living Hellknight on the request of the Paralictor, but instead they discovered that she'd killed herself and become a ghost. Funnily enough, for most of the combat that ensued they didn't realise she was a ghost! She did get to dominate Dave though, which was fun. Until he broke free of her control and slaughtered her. Which was after the first command to attack Lee.</p><p></p><p>That was all we had time for this session; I rather enjoyed it (despite the horribleness of the Council Thieves), and only one session was left in the campaign: as the group finally ended the threat posed by Ecarrdian Drovenge!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MerricB, post: 5976862, member: 3586"] As the characters returned from defeating Ilnerik, the Council of Thieves (or, more correctly, the siblings Ecarrdian and Chammady) set their plan into motion for taking over the city. I'm still not sure what the plan is, but it involves a lot of smaller things that the PCs can stop. Before going any further, I'm going to demonstrate the biggest problem this adventure has: your standard 'tough guy' in the Council of Thieves, the Council Captain, is a Rogue 8/Assassin 3 with a shortsword attack of +11/+6 and a shortbow attack of +14/+9. Very rarely were they encountered in an area that allowed them to use their shortbows, and so the +11/+6 was trying to hit the PCs with an AC of about 30. (Of course, even with ranged attacks they'd have to deal with cover bonuses to AC most of the time... so scarcely better). The standard attack of a CR 10 monster is about +20. [b]The Nightmare Begins[/b] The first indication the characters had of something being wrong were the fires. Shortly thereafter, they were attacked by a pride of Hellcats, so they knew something was wrong. Alas, for the Hellcats, Greg's archer ignored anything less than full concealment (they had partial) and Dave just ran in and happily tripped them. A couple of rounds later they were all slain, and the group returned to the Rebel Alliance Safehouse to discover what was going wrong. Janiven and Arael were up to date with the news - of course; it's their primary function in the AP - and it seemed that Ecarrdian had set in motion his final game plan. Oh, and the ruling house of Cheliax had finally started paying attention to the chaos in Westcrown and were sending in General Vorune to sort things out. If the PCs could settle things down first, he probably wouldn't be so harsh on everyone. [b]Getting the Support of the Nobles[/b] The Rebel Alliance leaders suggested that if the players could gain the support of some prominent Noble houses, that might help them convince General Vorune that Westcrown could actually govern itself. Luckily, two of the noble houses - living in the same building! - were ripe for the plucking. At least Eccardian thought so: that explained the doppleganger terrorising one family, and the Council Thieves terrorizing the other. Actually, it didn't: the doppleganger has nothing to do with Eccardian. It's like the manor they live in is cursed or something! Not to worry - the players were on their way! The manor is split in two (some hasty brickwork, one feels) so that one of the noble houses can rent one side out to the other family. The party entered using the sewers, and in a very lucky coincidence, discovered the body of Delilee Ciucci, the daughter of the Ciucci family above, who'd been murdered and replaced by the doppleganger. Thus, when they bluffed their way past the butler upstairs and saw "Delilee", it was fairly simple for them to expose her for the fraud she was, and gain the trust of the Ciucci patriarch. Then it was on to the other household, where the group saw through the fake Council of Thieves guards fairly easily, then forced a confrontation. One Council Captains (see above) and four CR 3 thieves and 12 CR 1 cutpurses were not a threat. "Hit and run" tactics require the thieves to be able to hit, and that wasn't going to happen. With the thieves killed, the group gained the support of the Mhartis family as well. [b]And now, a Horned Devil![/b] For more amusement, I rolled upon the random encounters in the bestiary for this instalment and generated a Horned Devil. It's been a long time since I was running 3.5E, and it didn't immediately click that this could be a problem for my party. CR16 isn't too tough, is it? Well, this was the most dangerous fight we had in the last two adventures. The players were eventually successful - helped along by the evasion ability of Michael, who could avoid the fireballs the Devil threw at them. Tim already had his fire resistance up, so eventually the Devil just went toe-to-toe with Dave. [b]The Hellknights[/b] "After the PCs have successfully made 5 Fame checks for whatever reason, they are contacted by a messenger and informed that Paralictor Chard wishes to speak to them at Taranik House immediately." I'd like to point out this paragraph from [i]The Twice-Damned Prince[/i] because it shows some of the dreadful editing of the adventure. Guess how many Fame checks are made in this adventure. Yes, that's right: five (not counting those in this section), some of them are optional, and one of them should come towards the climax of the adventure. This encounter never triggers as written. Instead, the group decided (probably with some prodding from Janiven) to find out why the Hellknights were being so quiet. It probably had something to do with the false accusations of murdering nobles and the schism within their ranks; the Paralictor was actually quite forthcoming, as (as part of his crisis of faith) he thought the players would probably help restore order to the city. A little later, the Hellknights would come under siege from their own Council of Thieves, and the PCs were called in to help. The biggest threat were the three Council Captains - one of whom actually managed to shoot Dave with a human-slaying arrow. (Dave was the one human in the group). Unfortunately for the Captains, Dave also had a good Fortitude save, and that was it for the attempt to destroy the Hellknights. [b]The Blacknapes[/b] Kidnappers were terrorising the folk of the poorer quarters! Could the group save them? Well, considering that the kidnappers were fighter 4/rogue 2 with AC 18, hp 53 and unarmed strike +9 (1d3+5), the answer was "yes!" Michael's thief hung around the area enough to trail them back to their base, and the result from there was predictable. [b]The Nobles Pitch In[/b] The Council, getting worried with the heroes' progress, tried to lure them into a trap. They forged a note from a noble and sent it to the safe house. This led to the group entering an inn frequented by nobles and... noticing the ambush laid for them because the group has really good Perception checks. Poor Council Captains - not only were they attacked by the heroes, but the nobles joined in as well. Hilarious. [b]The Undead Rise[/b] Although Ilnerik had been destroyed, the Drovenges still held a few undead creatures amongst their allies, and some of them (indeed, the animated "Bastards of Erebus" from the first adventure) had kidnapped and killed a number of people - including the father of Calseinica, the young actress from "The Sixfold Trial". She came to the heroes desperate for them to do something about it. They were easily able to find the lair of the Bastards - now mohrgs, and attacked. It was a somewhat tricky challenge, but fireballs, channel positive energy and Dave's incredible attacking ability counted in the party's favour. However, they weren't the only undead around! The devourer Irimeian was the major threat in this part of the city, and the group next went to confront her. This looked more dangerous than it ended up being, mainly because Greg and Dave can do an insane amount of damage - Irimeian's 133 hit points weren't that much of a barrier to their determined attacks. The last major undead creature they were to fight was a ghost: the ghost of a Hellknight heretic. The group actually went to her lair to find the living Hellknight on the request of the Paralictor, but instead they discovered that she'd killed herself and become a ghost. Funnily enough, for most of the combat that ensued they didn't realise she was a ghost! She did get to dominate Dave though, which was fun. Until he broke free of her control and slaughtered her. Which was after the first command to attack Lee. That was all we had time for this session; I rather enjoyed it (despite the horribleness of the Council Thieves), and only one session was left in the campaign: as the group finally ended the threat posed by Ecarrdian Drovenge! [/QUOTE]
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