Divine Domains for Golarion Gods

With Divine Power having just come out this month, I had been considering that the domain options would be a good bit of conversion work to help tailor the 4E rules to the Golarion setting. However, with only one player having anything from the divine power source, and that player leaning more towards the warlock half of the hybrid, DP didn't seem like such an essential purchase just at present. Scott at Tales from the Rusty Dragon has put in some excellent work on this very subject in his post over here; I heartily recommend checking it out if you are running 4E in the Pathfinder campaign setting.

A2. Chapel

The chapel is an excellent set up for 4E combat: a large area on two levels with a number of interesting features. There are features that I found slightly confusing, namely the positioning of the rafters in the upper works. As there are no climb skill details for access to the beams, it seems to indicate that they are the same level as the broken remains of the balcony, but it seems slightly unusual that the beams are shown over the balcony on the map. As there is some mention of the balcony having been used as seating during services, it also seems a little odd in that the beams would seem to have potentially obscured views of the pulpit.

After a little consideration, I decided to go with the beams running just under the balcony remains and remove the seating from the balcony area, but you should feel free to make adjustments as you see fit. One thing to remember if you chose to set the rafters higher than the balcony: you will be increasing the distance of any potential falls from being 2d10 to 3d10 or more.

One thing that did amuse me in the description: the skull cluster hanging from the roof is described as "boulder sized"... just what size is a boulder?

The combat is presented as two encounters: depending on how your players are faring, you may chose to blend these two encounters, or permit them a short rest to break off and gather their strength before taking on King Mokknokk and his retinue.

Going to the Chapel
Encounter Level 2 (700 XP)

Setup
1 Pugwampi Jinx
3 Pugwampi Snivellers
4 Pugwampi Whelps

A number of pugwampi spend much of their time lazing around in the chapel. Unless the party have been taking care to be stealthy (versus the pugwampi passive perception check of 13) they will be aware of the PCs approaching.

Perception Check
DC 13: The party notice movement in the "nest" as though tiny feet were making their way across the fabric.

Tactics
A few of the pugwampi may elect to stay hidden for as long as possible and utilise their unluck ability, but most will consider themselves receiving enough protection from positions on the balcony and rafters to let loose with their bows, particularly the pugwampi whelps, who have no unluck ability to use.

The pugwampi will be quick to release the boulder if any PCs enter the range of the trap provided that none of the party have climbed to the balcony. If any PCs do climb to the balcony, particularly melee focused characters, the pugwampi will scamper out on to the rafters and attempt to taunt the PC in to sliding out after them.

Features of the Area
Illumination: Plenty of light shines through the broken windows and crumbling roof during the day time.
Roof and balcony: The roof of the chapel is 30 feet high around the perimeter, rising to close to 40 feet at the center. The rafters and remainders of the balcony are all 20 feet high.
Walls: The walls of the chapel are man-made and, despite the ill-state of repair, still smooth. It requires a DC 25 Athletics check to climb the chapel walls.
Ladder: A ladder on the western side of the chapel allows access to the balcony. It does not require any check to climb the ladder, but any PC doing so notices a number of pins and nails, knots of string, and small holes adorning the two runners of the ladder. These are adjustments made by the pugwampi to allow the tiny creatures to utilise the ladder more easily.
Benches: Benches line both sides of the chapel and where whole do not impede movement parallel to their length. Attempting to move perpendicular (i.e. climbing over the rows) costs one extra square of movement. The benches can be overturned as a standard action with a DC 15 Strength check, while one can be hoisted into position (providing a ramp to access the balcony, for example) with a DC 21 Strength check and two standard actions.
Broken benches: The broken benches on the western half of the hall count as difficult terrain.
Skull boulder: A large cluster of skulls, roughly 10 feet in diameter, hangs from a rope attached at A3a. The rope has AC 10, Reflex 8, Fort 8; 5 hp or can be untied as a standard action. If the rope is cut or untied, the boulder falls, attacking as per it's stat block here.

Skull Boulder; Level 1 Lurker
Trap; XP 100
The boulder of skulls and bones crashes into the ground, sending fist sized chucks and bone shard splinters flying in all directions.
Trap: The boulder lands and attacks a burst 2 area beneath it.
Perception
No check is necessary to notice the skull boulder.
Trigger
The trap attacks when the supporting rope is untied or cut.
Attack
Immediate Reaction; Close burst 2
Targets: Creatures in the burst.
Attack: +5 vs. Reflex
Hit: 3d6 damage
Miss: Half damage

Treasure: The uncut garnet in the skull cluster is now worth 170 GP (treasure parcel 8 from level 2).

Tools of the "Trade": Asmor's Monster Maker

Recent news of Wizards of the Coast monster design tool being in development made me realise that I never properly credited Asmor for the Monster Maker application which I used for the creation of the stat blocks in the bestiary entries of this blog. With the anouncement of the D&DI application, Asmor has decided to discontinue updates to the software; we can only hope that WotC manage to craft a tool that is halfway as intuitive, well-designed, and well-implemented as this piece of software. Despite no updates being likely in future, I highly recommend the tool as it currently stands for DMs eager to create their own creatures.

Asmor's own blog, Encounter-a-Day, is also a valuable resource of ideas and mechanics, while the site Asmor.com has many other programs, scripts, and utilities that can help out with the task of DMing.

A1. Ruined Nave

One of the statues in this area has an inscription with a date on it: this is likely to prompt groups that otherwise wouldn't have given any consideration to the calendar at all to ask the question "What year is it now?" If you'd rather not overly concern yourself with such matters you may want to remove the inscription, or at least the date portion, from the statue in area A1b. Otherwise, you decide upon a date--or at the least, a year--at which the campaign starts. Suggestions over on the Paizo forums suggest setting this around 4709, but if you have run other campaigns in the setting, you may wish to adjust this accordingly to where you wish to fit the adventure path in your time-line.

As far as skill checks for this area go: -

A1a.
A DC 10 History, Nature, or Streetwise identifies Pale Mountain in the bas-relief.
A DC 15 Religion identifies the manner of depiction is similar to the depiction of saints.
A DC 22 Religion identifies Vardishal.

A1b.
A DC 16 Perception check locates the secret door to A11. Opening the door without clearing the foliage from behind it requires a DC 14 Strength check.

Part Two: The Old Monastery

Almah is eager to find a new base of operations from which to launch the liberation of Kelmarane and the old monastery seems perfectly situated. Naturally it falls to the party to check it for wildlife or other menaces before moving the caravan in.

Unlike many encounter maps in Pathfinder adventure paths, the scale of the map as presented is not too inappropriate to 4th Edition. The chapel area in particular is well suited in scale for 4E combat, and while it is advisable to merge A15, A16, and A18 into one encounter and letting them spill out into A13 is probably enough without having to use the frequent "trick" of doubling up the squares.

One thing that has been changed is the number of pugwampis present in the monastery: in addition to King Mokknock, there are 3 pugwampi jinx, 8 pugwampi snivellers, and 6 pugwampi whelps in total within the monestary.

The chapel does provide a nice "capstone" encounter for clearing out the main floor of the monastery and quite possibly the point at which the party will hit 2nd level. While not necessarily required, you may consider drawing the party's attention towards areas A15-A18 with sounds of the pugwampis in the kitchen which may well prompt the group to sweep anti-clockwise around the building, ending with the chapel.

Apologies, Play Reports, and... Disneyfication?!

First off, apologies to all following the work on this blog: partly due to work, partly due to no less than three friends getting married this month, and partly due to having started running my campaign for my group sooner than originally thought, time has been a little tight. The upside of my free time mostly going in to preparing the campaign to be run means that I have quite a lot of notes on the conversion of the adventure ready to be typed up into something more substantial for the blog; my group have reclaimed the monastery and have now moved on to their first "guerilla" run on Kelmarane, so I hope to have part two and some of part three up on the site before too long. Meanwhile, my group have opted for a theme for their party that is somewhat... unusual.

Legacy of Fire is one of Paizo's more mature adventure paths with it's darker themes (although almost all of their Pathfinder adventures have tended to be rather "grown up" in this respect) and my group decided that all their characters were going to be from Disney cartoons. Originally, they were all going to be from Aladdin due to the vague Arabian flavour to Katapesh, but the idea grew a little bit in scope, so we now have: -

• Aladdin - Human Rogue
  
• Jasmin - Human Shaman with Rajah as the spirit companion.
  
• Jaffar - half mummy Warlock-Invoker hybrid class (actually a refluffed Shadar-Kai race and lots of reflavoured powers into things like beetle swarms). The character is a little sinister in tone, which I would usually be wary of including, but I believe the player behind the character should be able to avoid the characters nature becoming an obstruction to the rest of the group.
  
• Mowgli - a Warden who in game is perfectly human, but mechanically uses the gnoll race after being raised amongst a tribe of the creatures, which could provide some interesting contrasts with Dashki later in the adventure.
  
• Rafiki - a mandrill Monk (more reflavouring, this time using the rules for the halfling race for the simian character). Thankfully, the player decided that the character can speak Common perfectly, although he doesn't always present this fact up front.

In our first session, there was a bit of settling down, questions about the characters and little bits of tweaking to account for my house rules (half level stacks with odd stat bonuses and the background traits listed in an earlier post being the only pertinent ones so far). When we got down to the actual play, the group managed to make it through the opening group of skill challenges before we had to call it a night. As two of my players had never had any experience of 4th Edition prior to this but had heard some rumours of it being "nothing but combat", I felt that this was a nice introduction showing the adaptability of the rules and also a gentle way of introducing some of the rules without the comparatively larger amount of rules involved in the combat aspect.

After the players had introduced themselves (as far as their characters were willing: Jafar, for one, had been a little reticent to fill the group in on his full background) they came to Almah's camp with the fire having fully taken hold. They needed little prompting to actually start getting involved with helping out, although Jafar kept his distance from the fire and any manual work and involved himself with bossing about the guards to form a more organised bucket chain. Aladin busied himself carrying several buckets at time, Mowgli briefly assisted with trying to push the second cart but then moved to assist Jasmin in the rounding up of animals, and Rafiki started helping out Father Zastoran with the injured mercenaries, but opted to forgo speaking any common just at present to avoid startling the rather shaken priest.

A few things became apparent as I was running these challenges, the first of which was that I could really have done with a single sheet overviewing all the skill check DCs for each challenge, as I ended up shuffling backwards and forwards through my sheaf of notes frequently moving from one player to the next. Thankfully I was very familiar with the design, which helped in this regard, but if such a thing would have been useful for me, it would obviously be very useful to anyone running the adventure who didn't have the benefit of having designed the encounters. This is obviously something that will need including when it comes time to compile all the notes in to a reference document.

The other thing was that it was very useful to have the social skill challenges for befriending members of the camp available for certain members of the party to segue into after they had dealt with the physical challenges most appropriate to their areas of expertise. With the higher complexity of the Healing the Wounded Firefighters challenge, this particular section of the encounter outlasted the extinguishing of the fire and rounding up of the animals, but only two of the party had skill training in Healing, while one had enough of a stat bonus to be able to make fairly consistant Aid Other checks. This still left two characters (Jafar and Aladin) with little to do after success in the other challenges, but thankfully they started to ask questions of the camp inhabitants, which allowed for a few early checks on the social challenges. This was little more than a happy accident in design on my part, but a valuable lesson for going forward.

With both the mercenaries in stable condition, the other members of the party started getting involved in the social and investigative side of things and the group mostly split up to interview the NPCs most appropriate to their characters: Jafar continued to try to take charge with the guards; Mowgli spoke to Dashki to assess his knowledge of things gnollish; Jasmin conferred with Hadrod and Hadrah regarding the livestock; Rafiki meanwhile shocked Zastoran by enunciating the common tongue perfectly and once the old man recovered, struck up a quick friendship.

The party was quick to point the finger at Dashki as the source of the fire, but were rather eager to bury him up to his neck without investigating his claims of little pixie like creatures. Thankfully, mention of the missing goat set Mowgli out looking for goat tracks, which he easily found along with many tracks of tiny bipedal creatures, which swayed much of the group towards believing Daski's story, although not enough that they didn't insist on him being kept under the close watch of the Pactmaster guards while they struck out into the night on a pugwampi hunt rather than have the man accompany them. And so, as party headed out into the moonlit desert, a few torches in hand, our first session came to a close.

Skill Challenge: Negotiating Payment with Almah

This skill challenge could theoretically take place later (perhaps after clearing the monastery with the party asking for a little extra coin after receiving their reward) but after returning with the pugwampi(s) is the first time that Almah will entertain the negotiations.

Skill Challenge: Negotiating Payment

Complexity: 2 (6 successes before 3 failures)
Level 2 (250 XP)

Victory
The party convince Almah to raise their initial payment of 350GP (treasure parcels 5 and 10 from level 2) by a further 180GP (treasure parcel 6 from level 1). They may also receive up to half of this in advance, should the party request it.

Defeat
The party fail to impress Almah with their negotiation skills: the reward for clearing the monastery shall be 350GP and Almah refuses to part with any of the money until the party have completed this task.

Main Skills
Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate

Other Skills
Arcana, Religion, Insight

Special - Befriending Almah
If the party have acheived a victory in the Befriending Almah skill challenge, they gain one success automatically in this challenge. If the party is at the defeat condition in that skill challenge at the time of attempting the negotiaion, the automatical accrue one failure in this challenge.

Special - Befriending Garavel
If the party have achieved a victory in the Befriending Garavel skill challenge, they gain one success automatically in this challenge due to Garavel having spoken well of the party to Almah.

Special - Using Information
Using certain topics or information in their negotiations may assist the party. For the first time any of the following subjects are raised, award one automatic success. If the same point is continually brought up, Almah wearies of it being mentioned and it accrues one automatic failure from that point on. However, if the party raise any of the subjects in a particularly disrespectful manner, you may rule against granting the automatic success.

• Being reminded that this may be Almah's last, best chance to reverse her families legacy.
• Raising the fact that Almah knows more of Kelmarane's history than she has previously revealed (if the first time mentioned).
• Respectfully pointing out that they are willing to continue despite this fact after the matter has already been broached.

Diplomacy DC 12 (1 success, maximum of 3 successes)
The party engage in the general "cut and thrust" of negotiations with Almah.

Bluff DC 12 (1 success, maximum of 2 successes)
Almah may be quite susceptable to outside counsel, but in a business negotiation she is more keenly aware of bluffs and deceits.

Intimidation DC 14 (1 success, maximum of 2 successes)
The party employ more "strong arm" tactics in their negotiations, such as pointing out the time and difficulty in finding someone else to help free Kelmarane.

Arcana or Religion DC 16 (1 success, maximum of 1 success between the two skills)
The party take advantage of Almah's interest in astrology and divination, lending strength to their negotiations. The first success at either of these skills also grants a +2 bonus to all further checks in this challenge.

Insight DC 5 (0 successes; 0 failures)
A character takes the time to study Almah for clues to her motives and thoughts during the discussion. Success at this skill grants a +2 bonus to the next skill check that the character makes during this challenge. This bonus may be conferred to another character only if they have some method of comunication that Almah is not party to. Almah speaks Common, Kelish, and Varisian.

Pugwampi Hunt

The party can find the pugwampi tracks in the hills north of the camp with a DC 10 Perception check, while a DC 15 Perception or Nature check can identify the tread of Rombard. When the party near the ravine where the pugwampis have tied up the goat, the cry that Rombard makes can be identified with a DC 12 Nature check as being from the goat.

Pugwampi Hunt
Encounter Level 1 (500 XP)

Setup
5 pugwampi snivellers (P)
Rombard (G)

Unlike the original adventure, there are five pugwampi that have kidnapped Rombard. They have secreted themselves about the cactus patch--two on the large boulder, one behind some rocks next to Rombard, and two behind some rocks at the front of the patch--and wait for someone to stumble into range of their unluck ability.

Rombard has an AC 10, Fortitude 12, Reflex 9, Will 7. He has 5 of a total 20 hp, and one healing surge. He makes Acrobatics checks at +2.

Perception Check
DC 23: You spot small creatures peering out from behind rocks and coarse brush.

Tactics
The pugwampis will remain hidden if not spotted. With their stealthy sabotage ability, they will aim to use three minor actions each turn to ensure that their unluck attack is maintained on as many foes at the same time as possible. That likely means a lot of dice (potentially up to fifteen a round), so you may just wish to rule the attacks as automatically hitting until the pugwampi are revealed, or else roll a large number of d20 checks before the session and make a note of them, crossing them off as they are used. The advantage is that it helps avoid "tipping your hand" as to the presence of the pugwampi until after a few cases of "bad luck".

The pugwampi wait patiently for the party to start attempting to rescue the goat, preferably through some ingenious scheme that will provide plenty of skill checks for the unluck penalty to affect. Any time a character suffers a mishap that causes them any damage, the pugwampis are unable to control their snickering, lowering the Perception DC to spot them by 2 each time party hit points are lost. The pugwampis will attack if they are spotted or if the party looks likely to escape with Rombard (likely if they free him).

Once combat is joined, the pugwampi prefer to stay out of melee where possible. If one does find themselves in melee, another pugwampi will attempt to use unluck where possible to reduce the chance of an opportunity attack hitting when the pugwampi moves away.

The pugwampi are still cowardly, but now they flee when bloodied. If all the pugwampi look to be set to escape, engineer some mishap to befall them, or have Dashki step in to land a final blow.

Features of the Area
Illumination: Assuming that the party headed straight off at Almah's request, it should be night and the area should be dimly lit (moonlight).
Cactus Patch: Moving full speed through the dense cactus requires a DC 17 Acrobatics check. This is reduced to a DC 10 check when moving at half speed, shifting, or being pushed, pulled, or slid through the area. It increases to a DC 24 check when running. Failure at the check results in 1d6 damage being taken from the cactus spines for each square moved through.
Spaces within the cactus patch also counts as being heavily obscured.
Ravine: The ravine is 10 ft deep and the sides require a DC 10 Athletics check to scale.
Boulders: Three large, mostly flat boulders sit on the western side of the patch. The two on the ground are roughly 10 ft high. The one on the westernmost edge of the map provides enough room for a run up, making a DC 10 Athletics check to leap the gap between it and the largest boulder on the ravine edge. The stacked boulder at the edge of the ravine is 10 ft high itself, making it 20 ft above the ground when combined with the other boulder. It takes a DC 8 Athletics check to successfully climb the boulders.
The other rocks only stand a few feet tall. They provide cover to small and medium creatures and superior cover to tiny creatures (like the pugwampis).
Rombard: Rombard is tied to a scrub bush and in his panic makes attempts to rescue him difficult. It takes a DC 12 Dexterity check to untie the rope. On a failed check, Rombard running around the character makes a +6 vs Reflex attack. A hit pushes the character 1 space towards the ravine edge.
If a character makes a DC 12 Nature check, the check to untie Rombard is reduced to a DC 5 Dexterity check.
The rope can be cut (AC 10, Reflex 8, Fort 8; 5 hp) leading to Rombard running unless someone is ready to grab him or the rope.



Developments
Returning with at least one pugwampi to camp is handled as detailed in Howl of the Carrion King, except the payment that Almah originally offers the party is 350 GP (treasure parcels 5 and 10 from level 2). The party can negotiate a further 180 GP on top of this (treasure parcel 6 from level 1) in a skill challenge that will be presented in a later post. Returning with the pugwampi also gains one success or removes one failure in the Befriending Almah skill challenge.

For solving the mystery of the fire reward the party 125 XP. If the party return Rombard alive award the party a further 100 XP, and also leads to gaining two successes in the Befriending the Camel Drivers skill challenge.

Character Traits

I think that the character trait options are a nice addition to the rules in Pathfinder, particularly the campaign traits that allow for built in plot hooks. The downside to the ones presented (and I believe it is a probable result of the writing and editing process the books go through) are that they all pretty much tie up very quickly in the first adventure. Granted, most of the time, if such a trait is the impetus for the character to go adventuring, it generally needs to be tied into the first adventure to give some immediate goal, but it would be nice if there were one or two options that had a little bit more of a long-term implication. To that end, I think it's much easier to spot potential traits after at several books are printed and you can more easily evaluate the campaign as a whole, and I have given the extra option to my player's of being Rayhan's pupil (a character from the third book, The Jackal's Price).

More on that when we get to converting the campaign traits. For now, we will look at conversions of the other traits given in the Legacy of Fire Player's Guide, for which we'll use the basis of the character backgrounds from Player's Handbook 2.


Region Traits
All region traits from Legacy of Fire's Player's Guide should be treated as having Associated Language: Kelish as an additional option to those listed below.

Desert Child
Associated Skill: Endurance
Background Benefit: Gain a +2 bonus to saving throws against fire effects.

Duskwalker Agent
Associated Skill: Diplomacy, Streetwise
Associated Language: Street cant

Freed Slave
Associated Skill: Endurance
Background Benefit: You can re-roll any Endurance check, but you must keep the second result, even if it is worse.

Merchant's Child
Associated Skill: Bluff, Diplomacy, Insight
Associated Language: Any extra language

Nightstall Urchin
Associated Skill: Perception, Streetwise, Thievery
Associated Language: Street cant
Background Benefit: Gain a +2 bonus to saving throws against fear effects.

Pesh Addict
Associated Skill: Bluff, Insight, Streetwise
Background Benefit: Reduce starting gold by 50 GP, but you gain a +2 bonus in two skills out of Bluff, Insight, and Streetwise.

Pesh Dealer
Associated Skill: Bluff, Streetwise, Thievery

Savannah Child
Associated Skill: Nature, Perception
Background Benefit: You can re-roll any Nature check, but you must keep the second result, even if it is worse.

Uwaga Highlander
Associated Skill: Perception, Stealth


Race Traits
As specified in the LoF Player's Guide, race traits should be limited to characters of the given race, although at the DM's discretion, they could also include any character that grew up amongst members of that race without specifically being that race themselves.

Animal Friend (Gnome)
Associated Skill: Nature
Background Benefit: You can re-roll any Nature check, but you must keep the second result, even if it is worse.

Child of Zolurket (Dwarf)
Associated Skill: Religion
Background Benefit: For monster knowledge checks using the Religion skill, roll a d10 and add 10 to the result in place of using a d20.

Ekujae Reflexes (Half-Elf)
Associated Skill: Acrobatics, Thievery
Background Benefit: Gain a +2 bonus to Initiative.

Forlorn (Elf)
Assocaited Skill: Endurance, Insight.
Background Benefit: Add the higher of your Intelligence score or your Constitution score to your starting hit points (instead of automatically adding your Constitution score). Your number of healing surges is still based on your Constitution score.

Freedom Fighter (Halfling)
Associated Skill: Bluff, Streetwise, Thievery
Background Benefit: You may attempt to escape a grab as a minor action, instead of a move action.

Genie Blood (Human--Keleshite)
Associated Skill: Arcana
Background Benefit: Choose one of the keywords Acid, Cold, Fire, or Lightning. You gain a +2 bonus to saving throws against effects with that keyword.

Historian (Human--Garundi)
Associated Skill: History
Background Benefit: You can re-roll any History check, but you must keep the second result, even if it is worse.

Latent Psion (Human--Vundrani)
Associated Skill: Insight
Background Benefit: Once per encounter, you can re-roll a failed saving throw against a charm effect.

Legacy of Sand (Half-Orc)
Associated Skill: History, Nature

Spirits in the Stone (Human--Mwangi)
Associated Skill: Dungeoneering, Perception

World Traveler (Human--Verisian)
Associated Skill: Diplomacy, History, Insight
Associated Language: Any


Religion Traits

Blade of Mercy
Associated Skill: Diplomacy, Heal

The City Protects
Associated Skill: Streetwise, Religion

Cleansing the Twisted
Associated Skill: Dungeoneering, Religion

Eyes and Ears of the City
Associated Skill: Perception, Streetwise

Magic is Life
Associated Skill: Arcana
Background Benefit: Once per encounter, you may re-roll a failed death saving throw.

Strength of the Sun
Associated Skill: Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate

Wisdom in the Flesh
Associated Skill: Acrobatics, Athletics, Endurance
Background Benefit: Add the higher of your Wisdom score or your Constitution score to your starting hit points (instead of automatically adding your Constitution score). Your number of healing surges is still based on your Constitution score.



Campaign Traits
Campaign traits give a good background reason for a character to be taking part in the campaign beyond simply yearning for adventure. It might be a good idea to encourage at least a few of your players to take the story elements of one of these traits if they prefer to opt in to one of the other mechanical benefits from another trait. In addition, you may want to give the party XP equal to a minor quest of their level when they attain their goal.

Earning Your Freedom
Associated Skill: Endurance
Background Benefit: Gain a +2 bonus to saving throws against charm effects.

Seeking Adventure
Associated Skill: Dungeoneering, History
Background Benefit: You gain a wayfinder (Level 1 magic item) that grants a +2 bonus on any skill check to determine direction or geographical position, and allows the use of the wizard cantrip Light, but cast on the wayfinder. You must later pay 180 GP for this item to a representative of the Pathfinders as soon as you are able.

Reclaiming Your Roots
Associated Skill: History
Background Benefit: Select any weapon or armour from the basic equipment list which you gain without having to pay the GP cost of the item. You should work with your DM to create a history for this item and to have it gain in power as you level up.

Gnoll Killer
Associated Skill: Intimidate, Nature
Background Benefit: Gain a +1 bonus to damage against gnolls.

Missionary
Associated Skill: Diplomacy, Insight, Religion

Finding Haleen
Associated Skill: Any from your classes skill list
Background Benefit: Choose one at-will power from your class that you have not already chosen. You can use that power as an encounter power.

Rayhan's Pupil
(This is a new trait of my own divising to potentially give a plot-hook that runs beyond the first adventure in the campaign. If the player takes this trait, they may very well think to take the Scroll of Kakishon to Rayhan themselves, without needing Almah to prompt the suggestion.)
You have been the student of Katapesh's foremost expert in the field of planar study, Rayhan Xobhadi, a wizard and scholar devoted to the study and cataloging of magical items dealing with the manipulation of dimensions and reality. After recently completing your studies, Rayhan has sent you on your way instructing that you should only return if you can teach him something in return.
Associated Skill: Arcana, History
Background Benefit: Gain a +5 bonus on any skill check involved in performing a ritual with the travel category.

Bestiary: Gnolls

Gnolls are something of a "starring monster" in the Legacy of Fire campaign, at least for the first few books, and there's lots of juicy fluff detailing different tribes in Howl of the Carrion King. As far as 4th Edition goes, the stats in the Monster Manual only have gnolls for level 5 and upwards, which are a perhaps a little higher than we really want to populate Kelmarane with this early in the adventure. It's certainly possible in 4E to drop the gnolls from the MM1 down to a more appropriate level using the guidelines in the Dungeon Master's Guide, but with the players coming up against the creatures repeatedly throughout the campaign, it can be worthwhile to give them a few little tweaks between the different groups that are encountered to add a little variety and potential distinguish the tribes if you use the background to further expand your campaign.

(While there are other gnolls slightly lower in level in the Compendium, I'm going to shy away from using those resources too much: while having access to at least one MM1 is a fairly safe bet for most groups playing D&D, it doesn't necessarily follow that each group will have someone who has bought an Insider subscription. Personally, I find the Compendium and Character builder largely worth the cost alone, but that doesn't mean others will feel the same way.)

So, below are a few lower level gnoll stats for those that have besieged the village of Kelmarane...

Gnoll Archer - Level 3 Skirmisher

Gnoll Predator - Level 2 Brute

Gnoll Slasher - Level 1 Brute

Gnoll Scout - Level 1 Skirmisher

Gnoll Lowbreed - Level 1 Minion

NPC changes: Father Zastoran

None of the NPCs that are a part of the camp really requires any changes to their entries in the Howl of the Carrion King adventure beyond the slightly modified DC checks as given in the skill challenges for befriending the various members of the caravan. Father Zastoran is a bit of an exception.

For a start, the rather extensive collection of healing magics that he is presented with in the book means that healing the mercenaries really should have been a trivial matter and not required the assistance of the party at all. As healing and recovery of hit points work a little differently under the 4th Edition rules, there really shouldn't be any need for Father Zastoran to use any healing abilities other than in combat, which he avoids wherever possible. As such, make the following adjustments to the NPC: -

• Father Zastoran is a cleric in name only, and not in game terms.
  
• Father Zastoran now has no healing magics beyond those of his potions and elixirs.
  
• Father Zastoran has stocks of all potions, elixirs, and alchemical items up to and including level 5 from the Player's Handbook and Adventurer's Vault and has enough on hand to fulfill the requirements of the party if you do not wish to set any hard limitations on his stock.
  
• Father Zastoran has a plentiful supply of ritual and alchemical components, with the exception of residuum, which he does not have in supply. However, Zastoran does believe he has a ritual that will reduce any magic items the party may not want to residuum. Although he may be a little unsure of whether the process will work until he first attempts if, this works as the Disenchant Magic Item ritual detailed in the Player's Handbook, except Zastoran may use the ritual without paying the component costs and may disenchant up to level 8 magic items. These are boons granted him by Nethys for his worship and if the party chose to buy the ritual from Zastoran, it should work for them exactly as detailed in the PHB. Father Zastoran gladly hands over all residuum from such a procedure back to the party, or will willingly puchase the supply from them at a rate that may be influenced by the result of the Befriending Father Zastoran skill challenge.
• While Zastoran has plentiful stock of alchemy, he only has the alchemical formula for Antivenom, Clearwater Solution, Herbal Poultice, and Alchemical Silver. He will allow the party to make copies of the formula for the listed market price in Adventurer's Vault.
  
• Zastoran has the skills Heal +4, Arcana +3, Nature +7, and Religion +7, and can be treated as having the Alchemist feat. He also has the ability to effectively "take 10" under all but the most stressful of situations for a Heal roll of 14.
  

Social Skill Challenges

Investigating the Fire

Details of the investigation are given in the adventure, with the following adjustments: a DC 15 Perception check finds no signs of struggle in the cart and, provided that the party scored a victory in the Put Out the Fire challenge, also turns up a small vial of 60 GP worth of residuum in the cart (treasure parcel 9 from level 1) which Eloais used in his divinations. A DC 11 Perception check notices the lurking Dashki.

Interviews and Befriending the Camp

Tasked with investigating the fire, the party may start interviewing the other members of the caravan. The skill challenges below may be worked into these interviews with the aim of gaining the extra information from the NPCs as detailed in the adventure book for if their attitude can be turned to friendly, but some or all of these challenges may continue to run throughout the course of Howl of the Carrion King, using them to gauge the various members of the caravan’s attitude towards the party.

Assuming that the party had at lest a modicum of success with the events of the fire, some of these challenges will already be partially on the way to victory, but bad choices at the outset of the adventure will continue to have repercussions, especially if the party directly or indirectly led to the loss of the caravan’s supplies. Unlike many skill challenges, a defeat in the ones detailed here may still be salvaged at a later time, provided that the party meet certain conditions, such as replenishing the stocks of the camp.

Skill Challenge: Befriending Almah

Complexity: 1 (4 successes before 3 failures)

Level 1 (100 XP)

Victory

Victory in this challenge means that Almah’s attitude towards the party should be treated as friendly, including divulging the extra information as detailed in the Investigating the Fire section of the adventure. Victory here will also mean that Almah will be more receptive to later negotiations of raising the reward for the party completing their mission.

Defeat

Almah is starting to wonder whether hiring the party may have been a mistake and her attitude towards the party should be treated as unfriendly. Unlike other skill challenges, this one may continue even after accruing the full 3 defeats: the party is unable to gain any further successes while at 3 failures, but certain events may reduce the total number of failures in this challenge, even after a “defeat”.

Main Skills

Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate

Other Skills

Insight, Streetwise, History

Special – Extinguishing the Fire

If the party scored a victory in the Put Out the Fire skill challenge, award them 1 success in this challenge. If they achieved this without the second cart catching fire, award them 1 further success in this challenge.

Special – Loss of Supplies

If the party had a defeat in the Pull Wagon Out of Way challenge that led to the caravan’s food supplies being lost, count that as 1 failure towards this challenge.

If the party had a defeat in the Calm Frightened Animals challenge leading to the caravan’s livestock to escape, count that as 1 failure towards this challenge.

If the party lost the caravan’s water supply through their actions in the Put Out the Fire challenge, count that as 2 failures towards this challenge. If this would lead to more than 3 failures in this skill challenge, treat the total count of failures as 3 instead.

Special – Replacing Supplies

If the party lost food supplies but manages to replace them by any means, such as magic or by extensive hunting and foraging, remove 1 failure from this challenge, even if the challenge had already reached the defeat condition.

If the party lost the animals but manages to round up the majority of them, or actually finds some method of replacing them, remove 1 failure from this challenge, even if the challenge had already reached the defeat condition.

If the party caused the loss of the caravan’s water supply, but manages to replace the water by any means, remove 1 failure from this challenge, even if the challenge had already reached the defeat condition.

Special – Offering Divination Services

If a member of the party promises any service of divination for Almah, that counts as 1 success towards this challenge, although Almah will not take them up on this offer until after they have reclaimed the monastery later in the adventure.

Special – The Secret of Kelmarane

If the party confront Almah about knowing more about the history of Kelmarane than she initially is willing to relate (see first Insight section below), she is impressed by their perceptiveness. This grants 1 success toward this challenge, but Almah refuses to say further on the subject at this juncture. If the party continue to press the matter, this counts as 1 automatic failure in this challenge.

Special – Other Missions

While it will have no affect on the interview after the fire, running missions successfully may affect later interactions with Almah. Upon discovering the pugwampis as the cause of the fire, award the party 1 success in this challenge or remove 1 failure if the challenge had already reached the defeat condition. On successfully clearing the monastery for use as a base of operation, either award the party 2 successes in this challenge or remove 1 failure if the challenge had already reached the defeat condition. Award a further 2 successes or removal of 1 failure for the liberation of Kelmarane.

Diplomacy DC Variable (1 success; 1 failure)

The DC for Diplomacy checks varies depending by the number of failures already accrued in this challenge. The base is a DC 8 check, but increase this DC by 2 for each failure the party has in this challenge.

Bluff DC Variable (1 success, maximum of 2 successes, further attempts automatically accrue a failure; 1 failure)

The party may attempt to con Almah, but pushing things two far will lead to Almah growing wise to their deceits. If Almah has less confidence in the party, this also makes bluffing her much more difficult, although she is initially receptive to the thoughts and council of these outsiders.

The base DC for Bluff checks is 5, but increase this by 5 for each failure the party have in this challenge.

Intimidate DC 10 (1 success, maximum of 1 success, further attempts automatically accrue a failure; 1 failure)

The party might claim that they will walk away if not treated with more respect. Almah appreciates strength of will in those she hires, but further pursuing this course of action only serves to irritate her.

Insight DC 10 (0 successes; 0 failures; no assists)

If used after Almah informs the party of Kelmarane’s fall, a DC 10 Insight check is sufficient to realise that she knows more than she has said about the event. Mentioning this can garner the party one automatic success, but pressing the matter is a mistake (see the Special section above). At any other time, a DC 10 check may reveal another small fact about Almah (such as her sadness at losing Eloais, but that it isn’t indicative of a romance between them, or of how far Diplomacy and Bluff checks may be taken before becoming automatic failures).

Insight, Streetwise DC 15 (0 success; 0 failures; no assists)

A DC 15 Insight check is sufficient to identify that Almah shows the very first signs of desperation and has become somewhat susceptive to the advice and counsel of outsiders. A DC 15 Streetwise check has likewise heard such rumours on the streets of Kelmarane. The first successful check in either of these skills adds a +2 bonus to all further Diplomacy and Bluff checks with Almah, including in this challenge.

History DC 15 (0 success; 0 failures; no assists)

The player is able to recall details of Almah’s family’s bad investments and dwindling fortune and realises that this is almost certainly her last chance to turn about her situation in the eyes of the Pactmasters. The first successful check in History adds a +2 bonus to all further Bluff and Intimidation checks with Almah, including in this challenge.

Skill Challenge: Befriending Garavel

Complexity: 1 (4 successes before 3 failures)

Level 1 (100 XP)

Victory

Victory in this challenge means that Garavel’s attitude towards the party should be treated as friendly, including divulging the extra information as detailed in the Investigating the Fire section of the adventure.

Defeat

Garavel’s attitude towards the party should be treated as unfriendly. Unlike other skill challenges, this one may continue even after accruing the full 3 defeats: the party is unable to gain any further successes while at 3 failures, but certain events may reduce the total number of failures in this challenge, even after a “defeat”.

Main Skills

Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate

Other Skills

Insight, Perception, Arcana, Streetwise

Special – Extinguishing the Fire

If the party scored a victory in the Put Out the Fire skill challenge, award them 2 successes in this challenge. If they achieved this without the second cart catching fire, award them 1 further success in this challenge.

Special – Loss of Supplies

If the party led to the loss of the caravan’s water supplies, it counts as 2 failures towards this challenge.

If the party led to the loss of the caravan’s food supplies, it counts as 2 failures towards this challenge.

If either of these leads to a total of more than 3 failures in this challenge, count the total failures as 3 instead.

Special – Replacing Lost Supplies

If the party replaces any water supplies that were lost, reduce the failures in this challenge by 1, even if this challenge was already at the defeat condition.

If the party replaces any lost food supplies, reduce the failures in this challenge by 1, even if this challenge was already at the defeat condition.

Diplomacy DC Variable (1 success; 1 failure)

The base difficulty for Diplomacy checks with Garavel is DC 8, but increase this DC by 2 for each failure so far in this challenge.

Bluff DC Variable (1 success; 1 failure)

The base difficulty for Bluff checks against Garavel is DC 10, but increase this DC by 5 for each failure so far in this challenge.

Intimidate DC Variable (1 success, maximum of 1 success; 1 failure)

The party may attempt to intimidate Garavel, but if they have shown what he considers signs of ineptitude so far, he is less likely to be cowed by them and he isn’t likely to be impressed by the PCs continuing to throw their weight around. The base difficulty for Intimidate checks is DC 15, but increase this DC by 5 for each failure so far in this challenge.

Insight DC 15 (0 successes; 0 failures; no assists)

The character identifies the “noble love” that Garavel holds for Almah, and by invoking these feelings, the party may gain a +2 bonus to the next Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidate check against him.

Perception DC 10 (0 successes; 0 failures; no assists)

The PC notices the bolt that Garavel hides under his kaffiyeh. This opens the ability to use Arcana or Streetwise in this challenge.

Arcana or Streetwise DC 10 (0 successes, maximum of 1 attempt per character; 0 failures)

The party must achieve a Perception check in this challenge prior to using these skills. After the bolt has been noted, a DC 10 check in either Arcana or Streetwise is enough to identify it as a Pactmaster’s favour, which grants the party +2 to Diplomacy and Bluff checks and a +5 to Insight checks against Garavel in this challenge.

Skill Challenge: Befriending Almah’s Personal Guards

Complexity: 1 (4 successes before 3 failures)

Level 1 (100 XP)

Victory

Victory in this challenge means that the guards’ attitude towards the party should be treated as friendly. Furthermore, the guards will be receptive to any suggestions and advice that the party may give with regards to plans to defend the caravan or the monastery.

Defeat

The guards’ attitude towards the party should be treated as unfriendly. Furthermore, they may hinder any attempts of the party to see Almah, provided that they feel that Almah will not become aware of this fact, and they will refuse to heed any advice or suggestions the party may make regarding the defence of the camp or the monastery.

Unlike other skill challenges, this one may continue even after accruing the full 3 defeats: the party is unable to gain any further successes while at 3 failures, but certain events may reduce the total number of failures in this challenge, even after a “defeat”.

Main Skills

Bluff, Diplomacy

Other Skills

Insight, History, Streetwise, Arcana, Religion

Special – Extinguishing the Fire

If the party achieved victory in the Put Out the Fire challenge, award them 3 successes in this challenge.

Special – Loss of Water Supply

If the party caused the water supply of the caravan to be lost, they immediately gain 3 failures in this challenge. If this would lead to having more than 3 failures in total in this challenge, they now have 3 failures in total.

Special – Replacing Water

If the party manage to replace the lost water supply through any means, reduce the total failures of this challenge by 2, even if the challenge had already reached the defeat condition.

Bluff DC 15 (1 success; 1 failure)

The guards are somewhat wise to many tricks and know when they are being buttered up, but a talented con artist may still get the better of them occasionally.

Diplomacy DC 10 (1 success; 1 failure)

The party may attempt general chat and small talk with the guards.

Intimidate (attempt automatically counts as 1 failure)

The guards serve the Pactmasters and are well trained; attempts at intimidation by the party will only serve to annoy them.

History, Insight, or Streetwise DC 5 (0 successes; 0 failures; no assists)

The PC knows enough about the guards to know that with the strength of the Pactmasters behind them, the guards will not respond to intimidation.

Arcana, Religion DC 10 (0 successes; 0 failures)

While impossible to intimidate, the guards are slightly superstitious. Characters taking advantage of this fact with a DC 10 Arcana or Religion check may play on this and grant a +2 bonus on the next Bluff or Diplomacy check.

Skill Challenge: Befriending Almah’s Mercenaries

Complexity: 1 (4 successes before 3 failures)

Level 1 (100 XP)

Victory

Victory in this challenge means that the mercenaries’ attitude towards the party should be treated as friendly, including divulging the extra information as detailed in the Investigating the Fire section of the adventure.

Defeat

The mercenaries’ attitude towards the party should be treated as unfriendly. They may also target the party for cruel practical jokes, concentrating particularly on any party member that the mercenaries feel has come across as having a superior attitude towards them.

Unlike other skill challenges, this one may continue even after accruing the full 3 defeats: the party is unable to gain any further successes while at 3 failures, but certain events may reduce the total number of failures in this challenge, even after a “defeat”.

Main Skills

Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Streetwise

Other Skills

Insight, Arcana, Religion

Special – Fate of Kallien and Trevvis

The party gain 1 success for each of the mercenaries that survived the Heal Wounded Fire-Fighters challenge. They receive 1 failure in this challenge for each of the mercenaries that died as a result of that challenge.

Special – Moving the Cart

The party gain 1 success if they achieved a victory in the Pull Wagon Out of Way challenge.

Special – Loss of Supplies

If the party are responsible for the loss of the water supply, it counts as 1 failure in this challenge. If the party let the food supplies be lost, it counts as 1 further failure in this challenge.

Special – Replacing Supplie

If the party replace any food or water supplies they caused to be lost, reduce the failures in this challenge by 1, even if this challenge had already achieved the defeat condition.

Diplomacy DC 10 (1 success; 1 failure)

The party may attempt small talk with the mercenaries, but repeatedly attempting the Diplomacy skill (two or more attempts by a single player) may lead to the mercenaries feeling that that character is talking down to them. While this does not have any impact on this challenge, the mercenaries make it a point to make jokes at the expense of any such character.

Bluff DC 10 (1 success; 1 failure)

The mercenaries are not expertly trained like the Pactmaster guards and are fairly susceptible to being tricked.

Intimidate DC 10 (1 success; 1 failure)

The mercenaries are also not particularly brave, despite any bluster and bravado they may project, and can be relatively easily cowed. However, if one character uses the Intimidate skill more than once, the mercenaries will make a point of targeting this character as the butt of their jokes in future.

Streetwise DC 10 (1 success; 1 failure)

The character attempts to communicate with the mercenaries on a level they are more acquainted with. Repeated Streetwise attempts do not cause the character to become the butt of any of the mercenary’s jokes and may in fact grant them some degree of “immunity”, provided that they don’t draw the mercenary’s ire in another manner.

Insight DC 10 (0 successes; 0 failures; no assists)

The character realises that the mercenary’s bravado is mostly a cover and that most of them are slightly unsure of themselves. This grants a +2 bonus on the next Bluff or Intimidate check.

Arcana, Religion DC 10 (1 success, maximum of 1 success; 1 failure)

The mercenaries are more superstitious than the Pactmaster soldiers and are more susceptible to Arcana and Religion being used against them. As well as scoring 1 success, the first successful roll in either of these skills grants a +2 bonus to all further skill checks that character attempts in this challenge.

Skill Challenge: Befriending the Camel Drivers

Complexity: 1 (4 successes before 3 failures)

Level 1 (100 XP)

Victory

Victory in this challenge means that the couple’s attitude towards the party should be treated as friendly, including divulging the extra information as detailed in the Investigating the Fire section of the adventure.

Defeat

The couple’s attitude towards the party should be treated as indifferent.

Unlike other skill challenges, this one may continue even after accruing the full 3 defeats: the party is unable to gain any further successes while at 3 failures, but certain events may reduce the total number of failures in this challenge, even after a “defeat”.

Main Skills

Diplomacy, Nature, Bluff

Other Skills

Intimidate, Insight

Special – Fate of the Livestock

If the party achieved victory in the Deal with Frightened Animals challenge, award them 2 successes in this challenge. If the party were defeated in that challenge, they gain 2 defeats instead.

Special – Returning the Animals

If the party manage to return at least half any animals that fled the camp, reduce the total failures so far by 1, even if the challenge had already reached the defeat condition. If the party returns the rest of the animals (excepting Rombard), remove 1 further failure.

Special – Returning Rombard

If the party retrieves or promises to do everything with their power to return Rombard, award the party 2 successes in this challenge.

Special – Camp Gossip

The couple delight in gossip and sharing any with camel drivers achieves 1 success automatically, however if the party knows that any particular gossip they share to in fact be inaccurate, it will require a DC 12 Bluff check to convince Hadrod and Hadrah of its authenticity. On the downside, anything thus shared with the couple will undoubtedly reach the ears of the whole camp within a very short space of time.

Diplomacy DC 10 (1 success; 1 failure)

Making small talk with Hadrod and Hadrah is an relatively easy task, although they will end up doing the majority of the talking.

Nature DC 10 (2 successes, maximum of 1 attempt; 1 failure)

If the party engage the couple in agricultural talk, the couple will eagerly discuss such matters at length, but overrun any further attempts with their own tales and anecdotes. The will be very quick to point out any errors in any characters lack of knowledge.

Intimidate DC 5 (0 successes, and further successful rolls also contribute 1 failure)

The couple are easy to intimidate, but this serves to do little more than stall their flow of chatter, and then only temporary. Using Intimidate on the couple more than once, while still stalling their chatter momentarily, also adds 1 failure to this challenge as the couple are insulted. Regardless, halting the chatter gains a +2 bonus to the next check in this challenge, as well as giving the party a moment’s blessed respite!

Insight DC 10 (0 successes; 0 failures; no assists)

Realising Hadrod’s distress at the loss of Rombard is an automatic success for any character, but a DC 10 Insight check makes the PC aware of the couples love for gossip.

Skill Challenge: Befriending Father Zastoran

Complexity: 1 (4 successes before 3 failures)

Level 1 (100 XP)

Victory

Victory in this challenge means that Zastoran’s attitude towards the party should be treated as friendly, including divulging the extra information as detailed in the Investigating the Fire section of the adventure. In addition, he also grants the party a 20% discount on his stock, although rather grudgingly, but also gladly purchases any alchemical reagents or materials that the party find at 120% of their listed purchase price.

Defeat

Zastoran’s attitude towards the party should be treated as unfriendly, which also means that he will charge the party full price for any potions from his stock, despite Almah’s urging (but he will sell at discount to other members of the camp, so if the party makes friends with someone else, they may be able to use them as an intermediary, at least until Zastoran grows wise to such a situation.) He will also only offer half the worth of any alchemical ingredients or materials the party attempts to sell.

Unlike other skill challenges, this one may continue even after accruing the full 3 defeats: the party is unable to gain any further successes while at 3 failures, but certain events may reduce the total number of failures in this challenge, even after a “defeat”.

Main Skills

Arcana, Diplomacy, Nature, Religion, History, Streetwise

Other Skills

Insight, Bluff

Special – Fate of the Mercenaries

For each mercenary that survived as a result of the Heal Wounded Fire-Fighters challenge award the party 2 successes in this challenge. For each mercenary that died in that challenge, apply 1 failure to this challenge.

Special – Alchemy Fascination

Zastoran is obsessed with alchemy and if the party shares any formulae, material, or offers to gather components without charging Zastoran, award 1 success for each 50GP or part thereof in the value of what the party shares.

Arcana, Nature, Religion DC 10 (1 success; 1 failure)

Engaging Zastoran in conversation regarding alchemy is a sure way to gain the priests trust.

Streetwise, History, Religion DC 15 (1 success; 1 failure)

Father Zastoran is also fond of discussing arts and theology, especially now that Eloais has passed.

Bluff DC 15 (1 success; 1 failure, and the first failure prevents further use of Bluff by that character)

A particularly suave talker may be able to bluff their way through any conversation with Zastoran in an area he wishes to discuss, whether alchemy or artistic, without truly knowing what they are talking about. As soon as the priest sees through the ruse, he disdains to discuss matters further. A failed Bluff check also applies a -2 penalty on all other Arcana, Nature, Religion, Streetwise, and History checks in this challenge, as Father Zastoran becomes more wary of the party.

Insight DC 10 (0 successes; 0 failures)

A successful Insight check reveals that Father Zastoran gets a hungry glint in his eye whenever the issue of alchemy is raised.

Skill Challenge: Befriending Dashki

Complexity: 1 (4 successes before 3 failures)

Level 1 (100 XP)

Victory

Victory in this challenge means that the Dashki’s attitude towards the party should be treated as friendly, including divulging the extra information as detailed in the Investigating the Fire section of the adventure. He is also likely to relate his story as detailed in the sidebar in Howl of the Carrion King and may even vouch for the party in the negotiations with the Three Jaws tribe later.

Defeat

Daski’s attitude towards the party continues to be unfriendly, and this may harm their negotiations with the Three Jaws tribe later in the adventure.

Unlike other skill challenges, this one may continue even after accruing the full 3 defeats: the party is unable to gain any further successes while at 3 failures, but certain events may reduce the total number of failures in this challenge, even after a “defeat”.

Main Skills

Bluff, Intimidate

Other Skills

Insight

Special – Believing in Pugwampis

If the party gives indication that they actually believe Dashki’s tales of pugwampis, it grants the party 1 success in this challenge, or removes 1 failure if this challenge has already reached the defeat condition.

Special – Attention from Almah

If the party manage to convince Almah to show an increased amount of attention to Dashki or provide advice to Dashki on attracting Almah’s attention himself, it grants the party 1 success in this challenge, or else removes 1 failure if the defeat condition in this challenge has already been reached.

However, if Almah is informed of Dashki’s obsession, she will not be inclined to encourage such behaviour (especially considering it gave Dashki motive to kill Eloais). If advice given to Dashki includes suggestions to clean himself up, it still gains the success, but Dashki will later think better of attempting any such methods.

Bluff DC 15 (1 success; 2 failures)

Dashki is actually extremely wily and tends to see through most trickery. He also is incredibly insulted if he realises the party makes any attempt to deceive him.

Intimidation DC 8 (1 success; 1 failure)

In the Three Jaws tribe, Dashki’s social status was at the bottom of the heap, and put downs and threats act to remind Dashki of this treatment.

Diplomacy (automatic failure)

He may have been the lowest member of his tribe, but Dashki has still come to regard weakness as repulsive, and he views attempts at Diplomacy as signs of such weakness.

Insight DC 10 (0 successes; 0 failures)

A successful Insight check alerts the character to the fact that Dashki reacts far better to harsh treatment and Intimidation than kindness. The character also spots that any time that Dashki is treated with a degree of friendliness or respect from anyone other than Almah, a slight sneer crosses the man’s features. This indicates that Diplomacy might not be the wisest course in reaching Dashki.