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thekwp's War of the Burning Sky Unchained
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<blockquote data-quote="thekwp" data-source="post: 6908319" data-attributes="member: 56444"><p><strong>Session 01 - Aug 24, 2016</strong></p><p></p><p><strong>Event Summary sent to Players:</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong><span style="color: #222222"><span style="font-family: 'arial'">The Scouring of Gate Pass, Act One</span></span></strong></p><p></p><p><span style="color: #222222"><span style="font-family: 'arial'">Last session, the party meet Torrent, a young member of Resistance, at the Poison Apple Pub just before </span></span><span style="color: #222222"><span style="font-family: 'arial'">midnight</span></span><span style="color: #222222"><span style="font-family: 'arial'"> on New Year's Eve. She described the current situation, with a Ragesian army on the way, the Council of Representatives split on how to respond, but with a strong faction including the current governor inclined to open the gates for the Inquisitors to look for "spellcaster who are hostile to the empire." They have sealed the city gates so no one can get out Curent details from abroad have become murky, with the loss of teleportation couriers. The Resistance is hastily organizing, intending to resist Ragesia, and also Shahalesti, who many fear will take the oppertunity gather Gate Pass into their control as part of the crisis.</span></span></p><p></p><p><span style="color: #222222"><span style="font-family: 'arial'">Torrent relayed that resistance has a contact that has stolen a case of what is believed to be vital military intelligence. The heads of the resistance wants to see it reach Lyceum, requesting that Torrent and the party recover it from the contact, smuggle it out of the city, and see that it gets there.</span></span></p><p></p><p><span style="color: #222222"><span style="font-family: 'arial'">The contact is a gnome known as Rivereye Badgerface. His contact was Peppin Tallman, a human wizard from Lyceium, who would occasionally pass information along to the resistance. Pepping Tallman was found dead a week ago, and Torrent is worried that Rivereye might spook when he sees Peppin is not at the rendezvous. The Tallman revealed via Speak with Dead that he was meeting with Riverye, as well as the time and place of the meeting. However, the identity of Tallman's killer remains unknown.</span></span></p><p></p><p><span style="color: #222222"><span style="font-family: 'arial'">The party has started speculating on how they might get out of the city, with the primary idea being to call on a city council member sympathetic to their cause, Erdan Menash. He might be able to arrange a pass of some kind for the party to exit the city.</span></span></p><p></p><p><span style="color: #222222"><span style="font-family: 'arial'">The bells rang to celebrate the start of the New Year. Torrent said that the meeting with Rivereye was a little after </span></span><span style="color: #222222"><span style="font-family: 'arial'">midnight</span></span><span style="color: #222222"><span style="font-family: 'arial'">, at a guarded Depository Tower about half a mile away. During an sudden lull in the ringing of the bells, several party members heard creaking floorboards overhead. Getting ready for intruders on the secret meeting, they party also heard muted thumps filling the air, like the sound of ripe fruit landing on the roof of the house. Moments later, a strong male voice called out "Front door: Go!" The front door shuddered as a battering ram slammed into the door.</span></span></p><p></p><p><span style="color: #222222"><span style="font-family: 'arial'">Before the fight could even break out properly, the upstairs exploded in fire, with debris and flaming oil falling from the ceiling. Two of the upstairs intruders made it down the stairs, but several others did not, and one burnt body fell down the stairs after them. The front door burst open, and the party began to deal with a mixed group of half-orcs and humans, all wielding saps. They all wore red armbands with a black horse head and strange lettering. Gath and Dom both recognized that was Ignan for "Murders."</span></span></p><p></p><p><span style="color: #222222"><span style="font-family: 'arial'">During the melee Gath held the front door and kept most of the enemies from ever being able to enter. Some came around from the side, but the attempt to flank the party and pin them in was stopped by a Color Spray from Bromsby. Shortly, the tide of battle turned in favor of the party, and the group left the burning building. Torrent dragged the unconscious foes out from the building, and other party members followed suite with the injured and bleeding foes.</span></span></p><p></p><p><span style="color: #222222"><span style="font-family: 'arial'">Watching from the street was a tall, powerfully built man dressed in heavy armor. He took no offensive action as the battle ended. The party approached him warily, and called out to him. The comment about the armbands appeared to catch him off guard, and he replied that they say "Black Horses."</span></span></p><p></p><p><span style="color: #222222"><span style="font-family: 'arial'">With the party piling out into the street and alley, we ended the session with the party's realization that it was not the Poison Apple Pub that was firebombed, but the entirety of west end of Gate Pass. As bells begin to ring urgent warning up and down the mountain pass, Torrent whispered urgently about her concern that Rivereye might flee.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #222222"><span style="font-family: 'arial'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #222222"><span style="font-family: 'arial'">[HR][/HR]</span></span></p><p><strong>Tactical notes:</strong></p><p></p><p>Gath did a great job of holding the door, alternating between fighting defensively and lashing out at whichever opponent had suffered most from attacks of opportunity while trying to get into the building. Both Bosma has the feats Combat Reflexes and Bodyguard, and made very good use of them from inside the Poison Apple Pub, as the Black Horse members tried to get into position. Torrent was not terribly effective, but did well enough to seen as useful -- I feel like this was really the right balance for an NPC in starting session, where she neither out shown anyone in the party nor flounder terribly. Bromsby's color spray when two of the Black Horse broke in from the side was very dramatic.</p><p></p><p><strong>Mechanics issues:</strong></p><p></p><p>We definitely were off to slow fight with the players learning all of the changes. The Revised Action Economy was generally very well received, and players enjoyed feeling a bit smoother in their actions even if learning things made the battle take much longer in play. Armor as Damage Reduction and the Vitality and Wounds rules made the battle last longer, but play out more smoothly than normal for first level characters. When a character who would have 9 HP takes a 6 point hit, many players start trying to pull back; with the Vitality and Wounds, losing 6 vitality, but still having 2 vitality left before your 12 Wound points gave crater confidence.</p><p></p><p>However, the Steven (playing Brosmby) is worried about the impact the additional hit points has on his low level spells and bloodline abilities, with the amount of damage that it takes to decisively remove someone from a fight being much higher at low levels, but the damage out put for his character not having changed. I believe this will balance out by 5th to 6th level or so, and then start to shift back in his favor with the progression of things, but for now he has a valid point. He has decided that a low levels he will focus more on battle field control and less on damage.</p><p></p><p>The only notable change in the mechanics for this session, other than the straight adaptation of the Black Horse members to pathfinder, was to increase their numbers by 50% so as to keep the same scale of encounter.</p><p></p><p>I adjust Torrent to be NG, instead of CG, to be a worshiper of Gozreh, with the Water and Weather domains.</p><p></p><p><strong>Props, Music, Images, Supporting handouts, etc</strong></p><p></p><p>Music for this session was included music from</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">John Carter Soundtrack by Michael Giacchino </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Soundtrack by Fernando Velazquez </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Casino Royale Soundtrack by Nicholas Dodd </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Amazing Spider-man soundtrack by James Horner </li> </ul><p></p><p>I extracted the image for Torrent and for Kathor Danava from the PDF, but did not have any additional character images. I did extract the map for the Gate Pass, and posted that for the group as well. All of these were well received, I believe.</p><p></p><p>I did use the map for the Poison Apple Pub. I extracted that, then resized it and the DPI so that the print out would have the squares at 1" in the print out. The cost for the printout at Office Depot was more than I liked, but everyone enjoyed having a good visual for the setting to start with.</p><p></p><p><strong>Notable player reactions</strong></p><p></p><p>My party really enjoyed the "Murders" vs "Black Horse" issue, and picked up entirely on the fact that the group had markings they did not understand. One player likened it to someone getting a tattoo without verifying the Chinese characters actually meant.</p><p></p><p>When the players realized that the burning of the pub was not about attacking them, but about general assault on the pass, I believe they were slightly stunned.</p><p></p><p><strong>Story Deviation & Extra Details</strong></p><p></p><p>I had Torrent explain that "Stand the Heat" is actually a spell created and from Lyceum, and she brought it to town. I have her speaking with a slight southern drawl, but with a good nature to her. I imagine that, as a worshiper of the sea, she is not natively from a mountain pass town. As such, I have her hailing from Seaquen originally. She mentioned to the group that in addition to the potions she has, some sample potions and scrolls were at Gabal's school as well.</p><p></p><p>I failed to have Kathor call for either retreat or surrender. I am going to have to work the situation carefully next session for the players to get a feel for him; I would rather they not fight him at this stage, but will certainly let that go through if they push it.</p><p></p><p>I plan to have the "Resistance" assign Bosma as the "mission and cell leader" once the party retrieves the case. Currently, the default in the group is to slightly defer to Torrent to decide on plans. As Torrent is from Seaquen in this campaign, I feel that it offers a very solid excuse for the Resistance to assign someone else to be leader of the mission in terms of requesting help from Lyceum.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="thekwp, post: 6908319, member: 56444"] [b]Session 01 - Aug 24, 2016[/b] [B]Event Summary sent to Players: [/B] [B][COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]The Scouring of Gate Pass, Act One[/FONT][/COLOR][/B] [COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]Last session, the party meet Torrent, a young member of Resistance, at the Poison Apple Pub just before [/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]midnight[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial] on New Year's Eve. She described the current situation, with a Ragesian army on the way, the Council of Representatives split on how to respond, but with a strong faction including the current governor inclined to open the gates for the Inquisitors to look for "spellcaster who are hostile to the empire." They have sealed the city gates so no one can get out Curent details from abroad have become murky, with the loss of teleportation couriers. The Resistance is hastily organizing, intending to resist Ragesia, and also Shahalesti, who many fear will take the oppertunity gather Gate Pass into their control as part of the crisis.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]Torrent relayed that resistance has a contact that has stolen a case of what is believed to be vital military intelligence. The heads of the resistance wants to see it reach Lyceum, requesting that Torrent and the party recover it from the contact, smuggle it out of the city, and see that it gets there.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]The contact is a gnome known as Rivereye Badgerface. His contact was Peppin Tallman, a human wizard from Lyceium, who would occasionally pass information along to the resistance. Pepping Tallman was found dead a week ago, and Torrent is worried that Rivereye might spook when he sees Peppin is not at the rendezvous. The Tallman revealed via Speak with Dead that he was meeting with Riverye, as well as the time and place of the meeting. However, the identity of Tallman's killer remains unknown.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]The party has started speculating on how they might get out of the city, with the primary idea being to call on a city council member sympathetic to their cause, Erdan Menash. He might be able to arrange a pass of some kind for the party to exit the city.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]The bells rang to celebrate the start of the New Year. Torrent said that the meeting with Rivereye was a little after [/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]midnight[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial], at a guarded Depository Tower about half a mile away. During an sudden lull in the ringing of the bells, several party members heard creaking floorboards overhead. Getting ready for intruders on the secret meeting, they party also heard muted thumps filling the air, like the sound of ripe fruit landing on the roof of the house. Moments later, a strong male voice called out "Front door: Go!" The front door shuddered as a battering ram slammed into the door.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]Before the fight could even break out properly, the upstairs exploded in fire, with debris and flaming oil falling from the ceiling. Two of the upstairs intruders made it down the stairs, but several others did not, and one burnt body fell down the stairs after them. The front door burst open, and the party began to deal with a mixed group of half-orcs and humans, all wielding saps. They all wore red armbands with a black horse head and strange lettering. Gath and Dom both recognized that was Ignan for "Murders."[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]During the melee Gath held the front door and kept most of the enemies from ever being able to enter. Some came around from the side, but the attempt to flank the party and pin them in was stopped by a Color Spray from Bromsby. Shortly, the tide of battle turned in favor of the party, and the group left the burning building. Torrent dragged the unconscious foes out from the building, and other party members followed suite with the injured and bleeding foes.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]Watching from the street was a tall, powerfully built man dressed in heavy armor. He took no offensive action as the battle ended. The party approached him warily, and called out to him. The comment about the armbands appeared to catch him off guard, and he replied that they say "Black Horses."[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]With the party piling out into the street and alley, we ended the session with the party's realization that it was not the Poison Apple Pub that was firebombed, but the entirety of west end of Gate Pass. As bells begin to ring urgent warning up and down the mountain pass, Torrent whispered urgently about her concern that Rivereye might flee. [HR][/HR][/FONT][/COLOR] [B]Tactical notes:[/B] Gath did a great job of holding the door, alternating between fighting defensively and lashing out at whichever opponent had suffered most from attacks of opportunity while trying to get into the building. Both Bosma has the feats Combat Reflexes and Bodyguard, and made very good use of them from inside the Poison Apple Pub, as the Black Horse members tried to get into position. Torrent was not terribly effective, but did well enough to seen as useful -- I feel like this was really the right balance for an NPC in starting session, where she neither out shown anyone in the party nor flounder terribly. Bromsby's color spray when two of the Black Horse broke in from the side was very dramatic. [B]Mechanics issues:[/B] We definitely were off to slow fight with the players learning all of the changes. The Revised Action Economy was generally very well received, and players enjoyed feeling a bit smoother in their actions even if learning things made the battle take much longer in play. Armor as Damage Reduction and the Vitality and Wounds rules made the battle last longer, but play out more smoothly than normal for first level characters. When a character who would have 9 HP takes a 6 point hit, many players start trying to pull back; with the Vitality and Wounds, losing 6 vitality, but still having 2 vitality left before your 12 Wound points gave crater confidence. However, the Steven (playing Brosmby) is worried about the impact the additional hit points has on his low level spells and bloodline abilities, with the amount of damage that it takes to decisively remove someone from a fight being much higher at low levels, but the damage out put for his character not having changed. I believe this will balance out by 5th to 6th level or so, and then start to shift back in his favor with the progression of things, but for now he has a valid point. He has decided that a low levels he will focus more on battle field control and less on damage. The only notable change in the mechanics for this session, other than the straight adaptation of the Black Horse members to pathfinder, was to increase their numbers by 50% so as to keep the same scale of encounter. I adjust Torrent to be NG, instead of CG, to be a worshiper of Gozreh, with the Water and Weather domains. [B]Props, Music, Images, Supporting handouts, etc[/B] Music for this session was included music from [LIST] [*]John Carter Soundtrack by Michael Giacchino [*]Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Soundtrack by Fernando Velazquez [*]Casino Royale Soundtrack by Nicholas Dodd [*]The Amazing Spider-man soundtrack by James Horner [/LIST] I extracted the image for Torrent and for Kathor Danava from the PDF, but did not have any additional character images. I did extract the map for the Gate Pass, and posted that for the group as well. All of these were well received, I believe. I did use the map for the Poison Apple Pub. I extracted that, then resized it and the DPI so that the print out would have the squares at 1" in the print out. The cost for the printout at Office Depot was more than I liked, but everyone enjoyed having a good visual for the setting to start with. [B]Notable player reactions[/B] My party really enjoyed the "Murders" vs "Black Horse" issue, and picked up entirely on the fact that the group had markings they did not understand. One player likened it to someone getting a tattoo without verifying the Chinese characters actually meant. When the players realized that the burning of the pub was not about attacking them, but about general assault on the pass, I believe they were slightly stunned. [B]Story Deviation & Extra Details[/B] I had Torrent explain that "Stand the Heat" is actually a spell created and from Lyceum, and she brought it to town. I have her speaking with a slight southern drawl, but with a good nature to her. I imagine that, as a worshiper of the sea, she is not natively from a mountain pass town. As such, I have her hailing from Seaquen originally. She mentioned to the group that in addition to the potions she has, some sample potions and scrolls were at Gabal's school as well. I failed to have Kathor call for either retreat or surrender. I am going to have to work the situation carefully next session for the players to get a feel for him; I would rather they not fight him at this stage, but will certainly let that go through if they push it. I plan to have the "Resistance" assign Bosma as the "mission and cell leader" once the party retrieves the case. Currently, the default in the group is to slightly defer to Torrent to decide on plans. As Torrent is from Seaquen in this campaign, I feel that it offers a very solid excuse for the Resistance to assign someone else to be leader of the mission in terms of requesting help from Lyceum. [/QUOTE]
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