Icosaheathens

Castaway Diary, Day 42.

After all the many things we got done last week, this week seemed like slow progress. Part of that is that when down the mine we’re in combat order because things are happening in particular orders. Â The other part of that is Sean nodding off between his turns and the Pu Pu Platter requiring both my computer working hands to eat: lesson learned.

Anyway on deck for this session: Dellen, Cleric of Desna, goddess of Stars, Dreams and Other Things Stevie Nicks sings about; Floki, Ranger in a Rangeland; Kona the Barbaryounger/Barbarielder, not sure; Nobody, Gunslinger is just an expression, but he is often more dangerous when he does sling his gun around; Percy, Cleric of Sarenrae; goddess of the sun, but let’s face it… kind ofÂ like that one god that’s super popular in desert places and you aren’t allowed to make images of him; Malicia, tengu Rogue, and the only proper adventurer because she brought hammer and pitons.

Okay, I said I’d go back over the first five days of the journey out of Eleder and that’s what I did – not so much retconning, as it was applying a second coat, so that the colour stuck. Day one was spent moving through the outlying plantations and shanty towns, day two into the rolling hills beyond the horizon of the city.

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Posted on April 22, 2014

Castaway Diary, Day 37 & 38.

by Desfaber

Â Jeez, we got a lot done last Thursday. I’ve been slow about updating only because I keep forgetting my notes and I have to get everyone’s spirit animal and questions to Victor right. Can’t just wing those. But we got the plot moving along at speed because 1) Everyone showed up earlier than usual, which was weird and 2) we just plowed through stuff so much so that when I saw the clock read 10.30, I was pretty much out of prepared stuff to do. And that’s including some entertaining diversions, like talking to Victor, who is dead. It was a fun session with a little bit of everything except straight up combat: Drug combat, yes, straight up combat, no.

NoÂ romance either, unless you include how popular Ilo is going to be with his wives. But otherwise: Mystery, drugs, prostitutes, oxen, disguises, conniving, exploration, a goat faced nun.

The ‘city’ part of this adventure path has been nigh on disastrous for the party, most viewpoints considered, but not in a way that prevents them from moving on: One of their chief allies (Gelik) is dead, two castaway party members bit the dust, a new guy that was trying to help out died and the internal division between Aspis-backing conspirators and blissfully unaware (but not as unaware as the Aspis folks believe) Pathfinder-backers threatens to boil over into some sort of bloodbath.

The adventure transitions at this point from the hanging around Eleder making life difficult for themselves, to trekking across Sargava and encountering the many dangers of that land.

On deck for these shenanigans:

Rolland asÂ FLOKI,Â

Jim as ORNY,

Sean as NOBODY,

Matt as PERCY,

Noe as MALICIA,

and introducing Ben Â as DELLEN,

with a special guest appearance by… Ben as VICTOR.

This episode of Pathfinder was filmed in front of a lithe studious fer-de-lance, with promotional consideration fromÂ whatever we were all drinking.

12 Comments

Posted on April 15, 2014

Castaway Diary, Days 36 & 37

by Desfaber

There are three training wheels that I put on Pathfinder when we started, two were house rules, one was to decline an optional rule:

First, character stats are better than average or at least have a better chance of being above average since we roll 7 stats and keep the top 6. That means few people have to struggle on with sub 9 stats. Orny is the closest we’ve had to a Raistlin character that has to hobble along on shitty hit points, being evil to people.

Second, we don’t use the massive damage rules, which state that losing 1/2 your hit points from one source in one round (minimum 50 hit points) you have to make a Fort DC 15 save or die. This doesn’t really hit home until 9th/10th level, but by that time you’ve probably grown to like that character a lot.

Third, that you died when you had been reduced to 0 -(your total hit points), rather than 0 -(your Con score) of the original rules.

When we started the new campaign with this third wheel left behind us in the garage to gather dust, I knew this was going to be a bigger deal past 2nd level, because by 2nd level, everyone’s hp was going to be greater than their Con score…. But Jesus, I didn’t think it would be this… impactful.

Players have mostly coasted from 2nd to 5th, with few really perilous encounters, although a lot of that has to do with good play, rather than weak opponents. All of a sudden, people are dropping like flies, but sadly not the flying kind. The very thorough exploration the group did of Smuggler’s Shiv puts them ahead of the suggested XP curve, meaning that for the first time they are slightly too powerful for the presented encounters, yet… they’re dying.

Of the original 13 Castaways, 4 are dead (Jask, Gelik, Uun, Victor), 4 of those are off doing other things (Rolifson, Ishiro, Sasha and Aerys).

Live your life one die roll at a time

Castaway Diary, Day 42.

Castaway Diary, Day 37 & 38.

Castaway Diary, Days 36 & 37

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