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Prepping for Pathfinder: Kingmaker (spoilers!)
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<blockquote data-quote="MerricB" data-source="post: 6061320" data-attributes="member: 3586"><p>The 17th session of our <em>Kingmaker </em>campaign did indeed go better than the previous one, with a welcome return to more traditional adventuring. We'd finished the last session with the group trapped by two porticulluses slamming down on them, and we resumed with the characters in that position.</p><p></p><p>I'm glad we're not using miniatures, as the scale of King Irovetti's palace would not accommodate all the archers and trolls that now swarmed the party. Two trolls in a 20'x20' room leading into a 10' wide corridor does not make for good play. Neither can trolls attack characters trapped behind a porticullus with the greataxes they were armed with. I instead gave them greatspears, and they poked the group as the archers ineffectually fired at the group, who were under the effect of several individual <em>greater invisibility</em> spells. Not that they would have been effectual even so; the group far outstrip the low-level threats the archers were.</p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Disintegrate</em> destroyed one of the porticulluses, and Tim's master chymist disabled the mechanism on the other, allowing him to lift it out of the way. Dave's wizard summoned twoInvisible Stalkers, and they slew all the archers whilst the trolls were dealt with with fireballs and melee attacks.</p><p></p><p>From there, the group made their way to the throne room, where, still invisible, they had a great advantage against the King and his defenders. Sure, Irovetti could see invisible, but no-one else could. An attempted dispel magic failed to affect the invisibility spells, and soon the King and his Ogre Magi general fled using dimension door, leaving low-level bards, some trolls and a high-level barbarian to deal with the group. Not surprisingly, they failed, with the trolls fleeing after the barbarian was slain, trampling a few poor heralds who tried to stop them from leaving!</p><p></p><p>The group found a servant to inform them as to the location of the King's secret chambers, and found him, his general and his concubine - a polymorphed Spirit Naga. King Irovetti met his match as Dave turned him into an elk, but the battle against the Naga was much harder - several chain lightnings got the group down to dangerously low level of hit points, and confusion spells from the general kept things interesting. (Michael was very sure to dispel the confusion on Tim before his brother could tear the group apart!)</p><p></p><p>After the King was captured and his supporters slain, the group invited representatives of neighbouring kingdoms to witness the trial of King Irovetti. I assume he was eventually convicted and executed, but his power-base was gone, and the group began to move onto more interesting matters: in particular, a magical sword they'd found in his quarters. This had been taken from a nearby ruined abbey, and his documents indicated there was more to it than met the eye, so the group went to investigate.</p><p></p><p>By this stage in the campaign, the exploration of individual hexes in the map has become boring: very few are challenging or even interesting. I glossed over a lot of those in the last adventure, and for this one I just waved my hands and detailed a few things they'd discovered, before moving onto the interesting stuff: the ruined abbey. There, the group found the ghost of an old, insane halfling monk, who had been responsible for the downfall of the abbey. On his own, it might not have been an interesting fight, but the eight advanced will-o-the-wisps made it so, especially after they killed Dave's wizard. Will'o'wisps are insane in Pathfinder: most magic doesn't work against them, they have a very, very high AC, and they have a touch attack that will only miss on a 1! So, given all floated down to attack Dave, his Wizard didn't stand much of a chance.</p><p></p><p>Tim was panicked by the ghost, and so there were four rounds when the group greatly missed him. Michael's cleric was the eventual saviour, using Mass Cure Wounds spells to heal the group, destroy the group, and he also used <em>Breath of Life</em> to restore Dave's PC. The group reclaimed an ornate water-clock at the end of all of that, which Talia (Greg's PC's wife and henchman) took for herself.</p><p></p><p>The abbey proper yielded agents of Irovetti, who weren't yet ready to forgive the group. Most of them were weak and forgettable, incapable of hurting most of the group, and I decided to run them as minions and have them die quickly. More dangerous was the wererat ranger in the rafters, who dodged the spells being cast at him and did a lot of damage to Michael in return. Lee and Tim combined to finish him off, Tim eventually dealing about 100 damage in one turn after he'd climbed up to the wererat's position. I was running the game very fast-and-loose with respect to skills at this point: far more interested in the fun that the nitty-gritty of the mechanics.</p><p></p><p>The rest of the abbey yielded little, and so it was back to the capital, Wyvern's Roost. There, Talia discovered that the clock held a nereid who had once been entrusted with the keeping of the sword, <em>Briar</em>, that the group had recovered from Pitax. Dave quickly realised that the cloth the sword was wrapped in was the nereid's shawl, and returned it, earning her friendship and loyalty. She was then able to tell them about the fey queen, Nerissa, who would soon be turning her attention to their kingdom...</p><p></p><p>We're into the home straight now with the campaign: only the final adventure to go. By this point, the kingdom-building rules have become a source of unwelcome distraction and mathematical fiddliness, so we're ignoring them for the final stage of the campaign. I'm quite happy with how Nerissa has been introduced; I also showed the players how Irovetti was her servant and how she's been responsible for quite a lot of the grief they've suffered in the past two adventures. </p><p></p><p><em>War of the River Kings</em> doesn't handle its scant material well, but we should be set for an interesting final chapter. We'll resume the campaign in the new year, and I expect it will take another 3-4 sessions to conclude, although I might be surprised.</p><p></p><p>(And that's how I spent my fortieth birthday!)</p><p></p><p>Cheers!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MerricB, post: 6061320, member: 3586"] The 17th session of our [I]Kingmaker [/I]campaign did indeed go better than the previous one, with a welcome return to more traditional adventuring. We'd finished the last session with the group trapped by two porticulluses slamming down on them, and we resumed with the characters in that position. I'm glad we're not using miniatures, as the scale of King Irovetti's palace would not accommodate all the archers and trolls that now swarmed the party. Two trolls in a 20'x20' room leading into a 10' wide corridor does not make for good play. Neither can trolls attack characters trapped behind a porticullus with the greataxes they were armed with. I instead gave them greatspears, and they poked the group as the archers ineffectually fired at the group, who were under the effect of several individual [I]greater invisibility[/I] spells. Not that they would have been effectual even so; the group far outstrip the low-level threats the archers were. [I] Disintegrate[/I] destroyed one of the porticulluses, and Tim's master chymist disabled the mechanism on the other, allowing him to lift it out of the way. Dave's wizard summoned twoInvisible Stalkers, and they slew all the archers whilst the trolls were dealt with with fireballs and melee attacks. From there, the group made their way to the throne room, where, still invisible, they had a great advantage against the King and his defenders. Sure, Irovetti could see invisible, but no-one else could. An attempted dispel magic failed to affect the invisibility spells, and soon the King and his Ogre Magi general fled using dimension door, leaving low-level bards, some trolls and a high-level barbarian to deal with the group. Not surprisingly, they failed, with the trolls fleeing after the barbarian was slain, trampling a few poor heralds who tried to stop them from leaving! The group found a servant to inform them as to the location of the King's secret chambers, and found him, his general and his concubine - a polymorphed Spirit Naga. King Irovetti met his match as Dave turned him into an elk, but the battle against the Naga was much harder - several chain lightnings got the group down to dangerously low level of hit points, and confusion spells from the general kept things interesting. (Michael was very sure to dispel the confusion on Tim before his brother could tear the group apart!) After the King was captured and his supporters slain, the group invited representatives of neighbouring kingdoms to witness the trial of King Irovetti. I assume he was eventually convicted and executed, but his power-base was gone, and the group began to move onto more interesting matters: in particular, a magical sword they'd found in his quarters. This had been taken from a nearby ruined abbey, and his documents indicated there was more to it than met the eye, so the group went to investigate. By this stage in the campaign, the exploration of individual hexes in the map has become boring: very few are challenging or even interesting. I glossed over a lot of those in the last adventure, and for this one I just waved my hands and detailed a few things they'd discovered, before moving onto the interesting stuff: the ruined abbey. There, the group found the ghost of an old, insane halfling monk, who had been responsible for the downfall of the abbey. On his own, it might not have been an interesting fight, but the eight advanced will-o-the-wisps made it so, especially after they killed Dave's wizard. Will'o'wisps are insane in Pathfinder: most magic doesn't work against them, they have a very, very high AC, and they have a touch attack that will only miss on a 1! So, given all floated down to attack Dave, his Wizard didn't stand much of a chance. Tim was panicked by the ghost, and so there were four rounds when the group greatly missed him. Michael's cleric was the eventual saviour, using Mass Cure Wounds spells to heal the group, destroy the group, and he also used [I]Breath of Life[/I] to restore Dave's PC. The group reclaimed an ornate water-clock at the end of all of that, which Talia (Greg's PC's wife and henchman) took for herself. The abbey proper yielded agents of Irovetti, who weren't yet ready to forgive the group. Most of them were weak and forgettable, incapable of hurting most of the group, and I decided to run them as minions and have them die quickly. More dangerous was the wererat ranger in the rafters, who dodged the spells being cast at him and did a lot of damage to Michael in return. Lee and Tim combined to finish him off, Tim eventually dealing about 100 damage in one turn after he'd climbed up to the wererat's position. I was running the game very fast-and-loose with respect to skills at this point: far more interested in the fun that the nitty-gritty of the mechanics. The rest of the abbey yielded little, and so it was back to the capital, Wyvern's Roost. There, Talia discovered that the clock held a nereid who had once been entrusted with the keeping of the sword, [I]Briar[/I], that the group had recovered from Pitax. Dave quickly realised that the cloth the sword was wrapped in was the nereid's shawl, and returned it, earning her friendship and loyalty. She was then able to tell them about the fey queen, Nerissa, who would soon be turning her attention to their kingdom... We're into the home straight now with the campaign: only the final adventure to go. By this point, the kingdom-building rules have become a source of unwelcome distraction and mathematical fiddliness, so we're ignoring them for the final stage of the campaign. I'm quite happy with how Nerissa has been introduced; I also showed the players how Irovetti was her servant and how she's been responsible for quite a lot of the grief they've suffered in the past two adventures. [I]War of the River Kings[/I] doesn't handle its scant material well, but we should be set for an interesting final chapter. We'll resume the campaign in the new year, and I expect it will take another 3-4 sessions to conclude, although I might be surprised. (And that's how I spent my fortieth birthday!) Cheers! [/QUOTE]
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