Blog Under a Wanderin' Star

Divine Domains for Golarion Gods

2009-07-27T22:31:00.002+01:00

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

2009-07-26T21:37:00.014+01:00

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

2009-07-26T11:59:00.003+01:00

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

2009-07-25T21:35:00.003+01:00

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

2009-07-25T21:13:00.002+01:00

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?!

2009-06-16T13:27:00.004+01:00

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

2009-06-09T21:43:00.008+01:00

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

2009-06-04T22:26:00.012+01:00

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

2009-05-31T16:26:00.008+01:00

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

2009-05-31T12:42:00.005+01:00

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

2009-05-26T19:52:00.005+01:00

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

2009-05-26T01:00:00.006+01:00

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Bestiary: Pugwampis

2009-05-25T00:11:00.004+01:00

The first combat scene in Legacy of Fire feature loathsome little gremlins called pugwampis. With their unluck aura, the aim in the original Pathfinder module is obviously to have an infuriating and hated creature for the players to face. In 4th Edition, making the power an aura seems a little too powerful to my mind, and so I've ruled it as a minor action (except for the minion types, who don't benefit from an unluck ability), which gives them the ability to use their move and/or standard actions in a turn to gain further use of the power. I've also given them the ability to use the power without revealing themselves in combat to fit the flavour of them hidding and watching the ill fortune that their presence brings, which will particularly come into affect in the players' first encounter with the pugwampis in the cactus patch. The shatter ability has been reserved for the pugwampi "king" in the monastery.

Pugwampi Whelp
Level 1 Minion

Pugwampi Sniveller
Level 1 Lurker

Pugwampi Jinx
Level 1 Elite Soldier

Playing Sooner Than Anticipated...

2009-05-24T22:24:00.002+01:00

As things have turned out, one of my friends campaigns (Curse of the Crimson Throne) is going to have to go on the back-burner for a short while, which means that I shall end up running Legacy of Fire sooner that I anticipated, starting next month. On the upside, it means that the work I post here will be play tested sooner and so I should be able to tweak and modify things as a result of “first contact” with my players for the benefit of anyone following this blog.

Part One: The Sultan's Claw

2009-05-21T23:15:00.007+01:00

Howl of the Carrion King kicks off with a variety of skill-based challenges, and this first post shall concern itself with the update of these scenes to the 4th Edition Skill Challenge format. I do plan on adding some conversions of material in the players guide and the bestiary at a later date, but for the moment we'll look at the adventure itself.

4th Edition's Skill Challenges have been something of a controversial introduction to D&D. This might be in part due to the errata that came out very soon after the publication of the rules, or a number of other factors, but I do think that a framing tool for non-combat events, it can work very well. I do think that the best skill challenges are those broken down into several, smaller, interrelated challenges that run concurrently or else as one part of a combat. The opening to Howl of the Carrion King is an excellent set up for interrelated challenges, with four events all happening at once, each requiring some degree of attention from the players. I have added a few more "knock on" effects between the different events so as the players work on how to balance their resources between the various crises, they hopefully see some of the interplay of how the events interlink.

To start with, introduce the scene and allow the players to introduce their characters as described in the book. With the introductions taken care of, lauch into the scene of the fire as they approach the caravan camp, briefly describing the four areas where the characters can help out.

The four skill challenges (all level 2 challenges, three at complexity 1 and one at complexity 2) are detailed below in a format fairly similar to that used in the later Wizards of the Coast books and Dungeon magazine. A slight differce in my format, the bracketted notes after most skill check DC headings genearally contain details of: how many successes toward the skill challenge a successful roll will gain; how many failures a failed roll accrues; and how many may assist with an Aid Other roll. In cases where these are ommited, default values should usually be assumed (1 success on a good roll, 1 failure on a bad one, and allowing up to four assisting uses of Aid Other mechanics) unless otherwise specified in the text.

Skill Challenge: Put Out the Fire

Setup

Almah, Garavel, and soldiers run back and forth between the burning wagon and a second, uncovered wagon loaded with a huge barrel of water.

Complexity: 1 (4 successes before 3 failures)

Level 2 (125 XP)

Victory: The fire is doused before destroying treasure parcel 9 of level 1, which can subsequently be found with a search of the cart. Victory in this challenge may automatically lead to success in the Pull Wagon Out of the Way challenge, reduces the difficulty of some checks in the Calm Frightened Animals challenge, and may help in the skill challenges to befriend some members of the caravan later.

Defeat: Treasure parcel 9 is destroyed along with the rest of the cart. On a defeat with 0 successes, it will hurt the party’s chances in future diplomacy skill challenges with the camp as they are seen as having done nothing to assist in a time of emergency.

Special: On the second failure of the challenge, if the party has not yet achieved a victory in the Pull Wagon Out of the Way challenge then the second wagon is lit by an errant spark, turning that into a skill challenge with similar conditions as to this challenge.

Skills

The Fire Unchecked – Special (1 failure).

Each round in which the party do not achieve any successes in this challenge or at least one character does not assist with the bucket line, the fire grows in intensity and the challenge accrues one failure.

Helping with the Buckets – Special (0 or 1 success).

A character may assist by grabbing a spare bucket and running to throw water onto the fire. One character doing so does not count as a success towards winning the challenge, but having at least one character assist in this manner does prevent accruing a failure if no other successes are achieved in this round. If at least three characters assist the bucket line in a round, this does garner 1 success.

Athletics DC 7 (0 successes, but assists the Helping with the Buckets check above; no assists).

A character grabs and hefts an extra bucket, counting as the contribution of two characters in the special section as detailed above.

Athletics DC 11 (0 successes, but two successful checks may lead to 4 successes; 1 failure, maximum of 2 failures; maximum of 1 assist).

A character can move the barrel with a DC 11 Athletics check. The first successful check moves the water barrel close enough that one character assisting with the bucket line in a round is enough to accrue one success in the Helping with the Buckets check, with any further characters helping with the line that round accruing a second success. If the character makes a second successful DC11 Athletics check, they can dump the entire water barrel onto the fire, gaining 4 successes (and thus, completing the challenge) but at the cost of the camps drinking water.

On the second failure when attempting to move the barrel, it slips out of the hands of the character attempting to carry it, smashes to the ground and splits open, spilling the water. The camp has also lost its drinking water in this case, but it also means that the bucket chain can no longer be maintained, which likely means the eventual failure of the challenge without some particularly clever thinking on the part of the party.

Insight DC 5 (0 successes, but hints at the possible use of a Diplomacy check; 0 failures; no assists).

If the party take a moment to take stock of the situation, they come to the realisation that the bucket line is not the most efficiently organized, with the rushing fire-fighters having several near misses, nearly colliding with one another. This suggests the possibility of using Diplomacy to organize a more efficient method.

Diplomacy DC 11 (1 success, maximum 1 success; 1 failure, maximum 2 failures; maximum 1 assist, further attempts reduce the roll by -2 each as things become too confusing).

The bucket line is rather haphazardly organized and one of the characters may decide to step forward to take charge of the situation, organising the fire-fighters in a more coherent manner. If successful, then one character assisting with the Helping with the Buckets check each round is enough to garner one success, with any further characters assisting netting a second success.

If the player has a plan for how to organise the fire-fighters more efficiently (for example, forming two chains to pass the buckets along) then grant them a +2 bonus to the Diplomacy roll.

If the Diplomacy roll fails then the attempts at organisation only serve to confuse the fire-fighters. After the second failure, Almah forcefully reminds the character that they are “supposed to be helping” and forbids them from attempting any further “harebrained schemes”.

Arcana - Trained only DC 16 (1 success; 0 failures).

Using your mystical knowledge, you attempt to extinguish the flames by drawing off heat, conjuring a frost, or some other mystical solution.

Skill Challenge – Pull Wagon Out of the Way

Setup

Mercenaries struggle to pull an enclosed wagon away from the flames before a stray spark causes the fire to spread.

Complexity: special (4 successes needed before the second failure of Putting Out the Fire challenge)

Level 2 (125 XP)

Victory: The wagon is pulled out of the way and removes the risk of the second wagon catching fire.

Automatic Victory: If the party succeed on the Putting Out the Fire challenge before they accrue two failures in that challenge, they automatically succeed in this challenge also as there is no longer any danger of the second cart catching fire.

The Fire Spreads - Special: With the second failure in the Putting Out the Fire challenge, stray embers alight on the canvas of this cart, setting it aflame. At this point, replace this challenge with one with the same set up as Putting Out the Fire, except that there is no risk of the fire spreading to a third cart.

Defeat: This cart contains food and supplies that will be lost should the party fail the second challenge.

Special: There is no requirement to track the failures for this skill challenge, unless the cart catches on fire.

Skills

Enduring the Fire – Endurance DC Variable (0 successes; 0 failures; no assists).

The cart is very close to the first fire and the smoke, heat, and flame take their toll on anyone attempting to assist with moving the second cart out of harms way. Each round, everyone assisting needs to succeed at an Endurance check at a DC of 4 + 2 for each failure accrued in the Putting Out the Fire challenge. On the first failed check, the character takes a -1 to Strength-, Dexterity-, and Constitution-based skill checks until the end of the encounter. On the second failed check, this increases to a -2 penalty. The second and each subsequent failure also causes that character to lose one healing surge. If the character has no healing surges to lose, that character falls unconscious and loses one healing surge worth of damage each round until pulled away from the flames.

Athletics DC 11 (1 success).

The party can attempt to shift the cart by brute force. The four mercenaries are available to assist with this check: if they make a DC 10 check, they add the usual +2 bonus to the roll. The mercenaries have a skill of Athletics +1.

Thievery DC 10 (1 success, maximum of 1 success).

By applying some torque and engineering knowledge you ease the turning of the wheels and make the wagon easier to move.

Hooking up the camels – DC 5 Nature or DC 10 Diplomacy (1 success, maximum of 2 successes; 1 failure).

If the party attains a victory in the Calm Frightened Animals skill challenge, they may attempt to harness up to two of the camels to help pull the cart. For each success, one camel is strapped into the harness and grants a +2 bonus on further Athletics checks to move the cart.

Skill Challenge – Heal Wounded Fire-Fighters

Setup

A white-haired old man dressed in clerical robes tends to the wounds of two severely burned figures: a man and a woman dressed in mercenary gear.

Complexity: 2 (6 successes before 3 failures)

Level 2 (250 XP)

Victory: Both Trevvis’s and Kallien’s wounds are brought under control and both will be able to recover with some rest and basic medical care.

Defeat: On a defeat with 0 success, both Trevvis and Kallien both die. Otherwise, one or the other may pull through as appropriate to the narrative flow of the skill challenge, i.e. if the party concentrate their resources on one of the mercenaries that will be the NPC who survives. However, don’t be afraid to have both die if they have a low numbers of successes in this challenge and it seems more appropriate to the situation.

Skills

Caring for the Wounded – Heal DC Variable (special; maximum 1 assist).

Both Trevvis and Kallien each need to be tended with a DC 12 Heal check at least every other round to prevent their situation from deteriorating. If either of the two mercenaries doesn’t receive a successful check for two rounds, the challenge accrues one failure and the situation of that mercenary worsens: they will now require a DC 14 Heal check every round or contribute one failure to the challenge.

Heal DC 17 (1 success; 0 or 1 failure; maximum 1 assist).

If a character wishes to be more proactive with their tending to the wounded they may make a DC 17 Heal check. The player must make the choice of whether to attempt this higher difficulty check rather than attempt a Care for the Wounded check before making their roll. Success on the roll grants one success in the challenge; failing the check by 5 or more accrues one failure. Succeeding on this check also counts as a successful Caring for the Wounded check.

Father Zastoran – Special. Father Zastoran is growing increasingly agitated as he attempts to tend to the burned mercenaries. For the first four rounds of the challenge he is able to reliably make a Heal check of 14, alternating between Kallien and Trevvis (starting with Kallien) and thus fulfilling the Caring for the Wounded check to prevent their deterioration. However, in the fifth round of the challenge, Father Zastoran’s nerves get the better of him and he needs to make Heal checks each turn with a penalty that gives a net Heal skill of +2. If the situation of either patient deteriorates at this point, Zastoran comes close to a nervous breakdown and his Heal skill decreases further to a net value of -1.

If another character takes over the task of administering to the wounded, Zastoran’s nerves are calmed slightly and he can use the Aid Other rules with a Heal skill of +4 under these circumstances.

Insight DC 5 (0 successes; 0 failures; no assists).

A successful Insight check allows a character to access the situation and realise that Father Zastoran is not coping well with the situation at hand and if he is not either calmed or relieved of his duties, he is liable to make a fatal mistake sooner or later. This check hints at the possible use of the Diplomacy skill in this challenge.

Perception DC 8 (0 successes; 0 failures; no assists).

A perceptive character may note the alchemical stains on the sleeves of Father Zastoran robes. If they enquire further, Zastoran confirms that he has alchemical supplies in his cart, but dare not leave his patients long enough to fetch the potions of healing housed there.

Diplomacy DC 11 (1 success, maximum of 2 successes; 1 failure; maximum of 1 assist, further attempts to assist add -2 penalty as Zastoran begins to feel too crowded).

A character may attempt to bolster Father Zastoran’s confidence or sooth his nerves with calming words. The first success at Diplomacy allows for Father Zastoran to reliably achieve a Heal check of 14 (or an automatic +2 if he is using Aid Other) for two more rounds. The second successful Diplomacy check settles Zastoran enough that he may continue making such checks reliably for the remainder of the challenge. Failure at the check only serves to further fluster Zastoran as he misconstrues the meaning of the words, his mind being otherwise preoccupied.

Nature DC 15 (0 successes, maximum of 1 check per character; 0 failures).

A successful Nature check identifies a plant growing nearby, the sap of which may be used as a balm for sunburn. While not perfectly apt in this situation, use of the sap does allow for a +2 bonus on a Heal check in this challenge. Enough of the plant may be gathered for two applications of the balm.

Potions and Other Healing – Special (1+ successes, maximum of 2 successes – one for each mercenary; 0 failures).

Administering a potion of healing or any other healing effect gains 1 success for each healing surge that it allows for, but each mercenary only has one surge remaining for use in such a way. If a player sacrifices a Daily power in this manner, they also receive a +2 bonus on all remaining skill checks in this challenge.

If either of the mercenaries use a healing surge, they avoid any chance of deterioration as if they had received a successful Heal check under Caring for the Wounded heading, but also have an extra round for which they will remain stable.

Father Zastoran’s Supplies – Special. A character may think to gather the potions from Father Zastoran’s cart. It will take three rounds to reach his cart, having to detour around the burning cart and the fire-fighters. If the Put Out the Fire and the Pull the Wagon Out of the Way challenges have both already resulted in victory, this time may be reduced by one round. A DC 12 Endurance, Acrobatics, or Athletics check likewise reduces the time by one round. Father Zastoran has plenty of supplies, but the character will only be able to collect three or four vials without needing to take an additional round.

Skill Challenge – Calm Frightened Animals

Setup

A number of pigs, goats, sheep, and camels have become spooked by the fire and have escaped their enclosures. They now run panicked about the campsite while a man and woman, both middle-aged, chase after the animals, attempting to shepherd them back into their pens.

Complexity: 1 (4 successes before 3 failures)

Level 2 (125 XP)

Victory: The animals are rounded up back into their pens. If the Pull the Wagon Out of the Way challenge has still to be completed and the cart has not yet caught fire, the camels may be used to assist with pulling the cart.

Defeat: The animals only panic further and almost all flee into the surrounding hills. Not only will the animals need to be rounded up later (some of which may have fallen prey to predators by such a time), but the rampant animals also disrupt other events in the camp: randomly select one of the other skill challenges still in progress and incur one failure in that challenge. On a defeat with 0 successes, inflict a second penalty on another randomly selected challenge still in progress; this may be the same skill challenge as the first failure was applied to.

Skills

Nature DC 6 (0 successes, maximum 1 check per character; 0 failures; no assists).

The character recalls some habits or knowledge of some of the animals running loose in the camp that may assist in rounding them back up. A successful check allows a +2 bonus to the next check in this challenge.

Nature DC 11 (1 success; 1 failure; maximum of 2 assists).

The character attempts to round up the animals and herd them back into their pens. If there are no longer any carts on fire in the camp (i.e. the party has succeeded in the Putting Out the Fire challenge without the second cart catching alight or else this has also been extinguished) reduce the check to a DC 9. Hadrod and Hadrah may both attempt to Aid Other with their Nature +4 skills.

Diplomacy DC 16 (1 success; 1 failure; maximum of 1 assist).

Talking animals around isn’t quite the same as talking people around, but there are a few tricks applicable in both situations. If there are no longer any carts on fire in the camp, reduce the check to a DC 14.

Bluff DC 14 (1 success; 1 failure; maximum of 1 assist).

In a battle of wits with a goat, the characters are bound to come out on top, right? If there are no longer any carts on fire in the camp, increase the check to a DC 16 as the lessened panic means the animals are slightly more aware of their surroundings.

Athletics DC 12 (1 success; 1 failure; no assist).

The character attempts to wrestle an animal physically back into the pen, but failure just panics them further.

Development

The results of these Skill Challenges will have repercussions in upcoming Challenges where the party may attempt to befriend the other members of the caravan. Some other fallout may create other concerns: if the food or drinking water has been lost, replacements are going to need to be found, and if the animals fled into the hills, they will need to be found before something else does. Something with an appetite. These events could be additional reasons to impel the party to clear out the monestary for use as a temporary base of operations in the second part of the adventure.

In any case, one of Almah's chief concern is that the fire might not have been accidental and wishes for Garavel to investigate. Whether she includes the PCs in this request depends on their successes or failures in the skill challenges: if they have lost significant resources (water, food, animals, and/or mercenaries) then she will hardly be willing to task the party with something as important as investigating the fire. Garavel will be more forgiving in such circumstances however, and will suggest to the party that the investigation would be a good way to return themselves to Almah's good graces.

If the caravan lost supplies in the fire, scouting out new resources may provide a perfect opportunity for the party to interview the NPCs without being too obvious about conducting an investigation. Feel free to work the interview skill challenges that will be posted in a future blog into part of other encounters that might occur while hunting food, water, or the lost animals.

Legacy of Fire

2009-05-21T22:52:00.002+01:00

Over at Tales from the Rusty Dragon, Scott Betts has being doing excellent work converting Paizo's Rise of the Runelords adventure path to the Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition ruleset. Unfortunately for myself, the campaign that my players are interested in having me run is the Legacy of Fire that they are currently part way through publishing. With "Rusty Dragon" having started work on the third of six books in the Rise of the Runelords campaign and with their being at least a couple of other campaigns before the Legacy of Fire, chances are that time will come for my group to play the campaign before Scott has a chance to start converting.

As such, I figured that I would have to set myself to the task for this particular Pathfinder conversion (along with the probable drop in quality that might entail) and I opted to launch this blog in order that others may learn from my mistakes. ;)

As with Tales from the Rusty Dragon this blog is not intended to serve as a replacement for Paizo's extremely well crafted adventure path, but rather as an aid to other DMs who find the 4th Edition rules a more pleasing fit while occupying the DM chair.