oD&D Yoon-Suin Campaign Update

About a month ago, we wrapped up Session 6 of our twice-monthly game of oD&D. Our DM was running Yoon-Suin and adding modules from his vast collection as suits his whims. The DM was really feeling the urge to play Apocalypse World, so the group caved and said, "Sure, we'll give it a shot." (I'll discuss AW in another post)

Anyway, I thought it'd be fun to put up my character sheet and a little summary of our campaign. No idea when we'll get back to it. If I had to summarize Sigilis in a sound-byte, it would be this:

Despressed wizard quits dead-end job at Mages' Guild, takes up geocaching and gets a face tattoo. Now lives life of luxury and danger pursuing Neutral Evil agendas.

Art by Dreadweasel.

Sigilis the All-Knowing

Thaumaturgist of the Order of the Bloody Goat
Neutral (Evil) Human Magic-User, Level 5
Age 24, Ht. 5’11, Wt. 200

STR 8	INT 15	WIS 10
DEX 7	CON 9	CHA 9

Hit Points: 8

Armor Class: 10

XP: 10,817 (10% bonus) / 20,000
GP: 5,109

Languages: Trade Tongue (Common), Neutrality, Sauvi, Haludi, Parbati, Goblin, Dark Elven, Duergar
Home: Mages’ Guild of the Yellow City of Yoon-Suin; Bloodgoat Keep

Equipment Silvered Dagger Cobra-Skin Quarterstaff Eelskin Backpack Numerous Belt-Pouches Eelskin Waterskin Engraved Stone Lantern Flasks of Oil – 10 Flint & Steel Chalk, String Candles – 10 Black Antitoxin Tea – 9 doses Purple Opium (nootropic 1) – 190 doses – 10 on person Excessive Hats Fine Silk Robes Sturdy Rubber-Soled Boots Expert Climbing Gear Roma Wagon (a) pulled by donkeys (b) with 4 sleeping cots (c) dry good storage for travel (d) two 5’ poles and one 10’ pole (e) oak chest containing empty flasks – 10

Library Scroll: Light, Sleep Scroll: Protection from Evil, Sleep “Surviving the Interobular Aether” “Communications & Signaling the Beyond” “Flora & Fauna of Necropoli Centauri” “Growing Abyssal Crops” (scribed on a desiccated human arm) “Addictions of the Gods” (scribed on thin sheets of adamantium)

Persons of Interest Kurt Angle, Hobbit Thief Solomon, Alchemist (Will) Beludar, Half-Orc (Andrew) Lord Urine [?] Boatmurder, Dwarf Minstrel (Dave) Mān, Renodeep, & Chandra: charmed hirelings from Subarna Thermidore, Crab-Man Hero Golothab, Slug-Man Priest Jang, faithful mind-slave, deceased Bimsin & Tulsey, hapless hirelings, deceased Animals Giant Rhino Beetles – 2 Messenger Beetles – 9 Donkeys – 4 Bees – 4 crates Lightning Tattoo  (Tower of the Stargazer) (1 in 6 chance to breathe underwater for d6 hours) Sun Tattoo  (Temple of the Insect God) (1 in 6 chance to ignore blindness)

Travelogue

Names in bold represent player characters and their retainers.
Session 1: Sigilis was hired to translate a treasure map leading to duergar ruins in the highest peaks of the Mountains of the Moon. Began planning an expedition with the people who discovered the treasure map, Kurt Angle and Beludar. We’ll need duergar respirators in order to survive the extreme heights of the Mountains.

Discovered four potential sources of duergar respirators: (1) Duergar ruins near Subarna in the Hundred Kingdoms. (2) Duergar ruins on the Isles of Steam. (3) In the private collections of wealthy oligarchs. (4) In far-distant Quelong. Decided to follow up on the Subarna lead.

Original information hinted that a hobgoblin tribe in the ruined districts of the Yellow City would know more, so our group traveled for three days and met with them. Beludar convinced the Hobgoblin Regent to parlay, and made a deal wherein we would hire hobgoblin samurai on a regular basis in exchange for information. The Regent gave us directions to the duergar ruins, and we founded the martial Order of the Bloody Goat.

While traveling to the ruins, we encountered a ghost and bribed it with a donkey’s soul (making careful note not to cross paths with it again). We traveled to the Mosque of Orus, a village in revolt. Cultists of the elephant god were fighting with armored militiamen; we joined on the side of the militia and slew seventy-five cultists. The elders were grateful and gave us each three charmed slaves as payment.

Session 2: The elders requested we investigate the tower of the stargazer, [spoilers for that module incoming] a rogue member of their order. We obliged, hiring mercenaries (Sigilis hires two men-at-arms, Bimsin and Tulsey) and traveling some hours before coming across an ornate tower covered in lightning rods. Eleven men and women enter the tower, disarming traps and fighting its guardians. Nine leave with their lives (Tulsey is slain by a ghost during a chess game; another hireling is killed by a venomous rock spider).

We discover the stargazer, Calcidius, is trapped within a botched summoning circle. He is dangerously insane. Later, we confine him under a veritable mountain of salt (we're pretty sure it has magical properties... like, 90% sure). We also discover a star crystal, an eldritch idol, a library of books on Necropoli Centauri and astronomy, a telescope, and treasure chests full of copper. We return to the Yellow City to sell it.

Sigilis celebrates his new-found wealth by getting a commemorative lightning bolt tattooed on his face. The Order of the Bloody Goat begins building Bloodgoat Keep.

Session 3: Two months pass. Bloodgoat Keep is finished, and a score of our hobgoblin mercenaries seize the local topaz mines, creating unrest but establishing the Order’s presence in the region. Sigilis discovers it’s possible to travel to Necropoli Centauri, a planet apparently ruled by plant-men, but it will be very expensive and difficult.

Kurt hires an alchemist named Solomon. A slug-man priest named Golothab takes up residence near the Keep.

Eventually, the Order sets out to the duergar ruins near Subarna. Our expedition consisted of Sigilis, Beludar, Jang, Caca, Bimsin, and Paris, all riding beetles. Our trip took 9 days (18 round trip). On day three, we were attacked by a giant planarian and Bimsin was slain instantly. We killed it with fire; it was super effective. On day six, We met five celestial lions called Chinthes. We bargained for their service by giving them the star crystal. They will serve us for two months. They are VERY powerful. More on them later.

On day seven, we were ambushed by a huge scorpion-thing which Beludar killed single-handedly. We later encountered humans who worship the spider goddess Gou. They are from Subarna. Friendly, but they hate hobgoblins and their religion is really awful, so we will have to tread lightly (the spider goddess Gou ‘gives pleasure’ to the world… ugh). The Subarnans will buy our topazes for triple price. We did the math – it will cost 200 gp to send a guarded caravan to their city once a month, and anything we sell past that is pure profit.

We then found the duergar temple. It's in a sinkhole in the swamps. A ghost guarded the approach. We asked it what it wanted, and it said it wanted vengeance on its brother, the man who killed it. We agreed to find the ghost's brother and entered the what we believed to be the temple (later, we'd find out we were wrong - we went into a nearby ruin occupied by human bandits, not the temple proper). We ambushed a patrol, and the DM rolled to see if we'd found the ghost's brother. He rolled a 1 on a d30, and declared that, in fact, we had. We backtracked and gave him to the ghost to eat. We are thusly poised to investigate the rest of the temple. Because we have to rappel to get in, the chinthes can't accompany us, so they are guarding our mounts. The temple is full of humans who worship "the Insect God," and we believe they are gathering sacrifices for a potentially disastrous Dark Ritual...

Session 4: Joined by Solomon and his manservant Mandalay, the Order explores the tunnels surrounding the temple proper. We are beset by filthy, ragged bandits in close-quarter fighting, and although we ultimately prevail it is not without heavy costs: Mandalay is killed and Beludar, Caca (his henchman), and Jang are all grievously wounded. Solomon proved his worth ten times over with well-placed alchemical bombs (acid, fire, smoke – the bandits were no match).

Amusingly, the bandit leader, despite being a dirt-covered hovel-dwelling half-feral man-monster, wore enchanted armor and wielded an enchanted weapon (all of which went to Beludar). We looted their substantial horde of uncut gemstones and made for Subarna, where we spent the next two weeks recovering and resupplying.

We sent the chinthes along with a caravan (1500 lbs of chives) and detailed instructions for their further employment back to Bloodgoat Keep to be overseen by Kurt.

Additionally, we discovered a map leading to a single potion of plant control (Siglis is thrilled at the implication: We could mass manufacture these and launch an invasion of Necropoli Centauri!) and brokered a trade agreement with Subarna for monthly shipments of uncut topaz. Sigilis & Co. spent two weeks in Subarna, then, smoking opium, resting up, planning our return to the Temple of the Insect God, brewing acid, studying magic, and buying a small army. Specifically, Sigilis hired five crab-man warriors: Bisque, Thermidore, Newburg, Colorado, and Salad.

Session 5: Lord Urine Boatmurder, a dwarf minstrel of some renown, is hired on to assist us at the Temple of the Insect God under the pretense that he is a “sneaky guy.” Unfortunately, the Temple is now swarming with chint-on (ant-men) who are looting/piling bodies in a sinkhole. After a quick battle in which we dispatch a dozen warrior chint-on, an invisible Boatmurder sneaks into the Temple where he quickly discovers two horrible truths: It’s bigger on the inside, and he’s been cursed to transform into an insect. He miraculously escapes and Sigilis attempts to perform minor surgery but realizes the nature of the curse and stops while Lord Boatmurder still has a face.

We travel back to Subarna and supplicate the priests of Gou for aid – they succeed in halting Boatmurder’s transformation but warn us against further excursions. Poorly. They go on and on about treasure, and a greedy Sigilis needs to go back.

We sew beetle parts into our skin. We prepare our crab-men for war. We brew acid and drink nootropic teas. We recall two chinthes and build special rope climbing-harnesses for them and the crab-men. We return to the sinkhole and make an aggressive, focused attack on the treasure horde of the chint-on and, disastrously, we are defeated. All our crab-men except Thermidore and Mandalay Two are casualties. Beludar’s enchanted armor is ruined by acid. Even the chinthes are wounded. Despite felling over forty chint-on, we are forced to retreat back to Subarna to nurse our wounds. We tell the diarchs of the chint-on threat but are dismissed offhandedly—the fools! Thus, we prepare to find the potion of plant control, return to Bloodgoat Keep, and reassess the chint-on threat.

Session 6: We discovered the potion of plant control in the nearby temple to Taj, God of Suffering Women (Not as evil as it sounds – Taj is a god of childbirth). Acquiring it required the sacrifice of numerous reptiles in the presence of a mummified priestess. Returned to Bloodgoat Keep after a troubled journey (exploding snails; poor Jang was slain by a velvet hunting worm) and decided to conquer a nearby gold-mine.

Sigilis and Solomon traveled to the mining town of Jing Chun* with a coterie of henchmen, met with the foreman’s trade minister, and failed to charm him. Sigilis was beaten by guards and sentenced to hang, but Solomon paid his bail and we escaped. We returned to Bloodgoat Keep in time to witness a peasant uprising which, characteristically, we put down with ruthless enthusiasm, killing 2,000 peasants in a week.

Our bloodlust sated, we prepared to return to Jing Chun only to find a small battalion of hobgoblins marching on the keep, offering their services to us. Our current hobgoblins were incised by this, being of a rival clan, so Kurt thought quickly and told them he would hire them if they slew the rhino-demon haunting a nearby village – an impossible task. They left for the task with Kurt’s enchanted bone dagger, slaying an elephant along the way.

Kurt and Sigilis traveled to Jing Chun. While Kurt and his henchmen were visible, Sigilis and two chinthes were invisible. Using stealth and guile, Sigilis charmed both the trade minister and the foreman, extorting them thereafter to tithe most of the town’s income to Bloodgoat Keep. When Kurt and Sigilis returned to the Keep, fifteen of the seventy hobgoblins were waiting for us with the rhino-demon’s head. Kurt retrieved his bone dagger and inquired about the elephant meat they carried – rhino-demons can be hurt only by ivory, apparently – before ordering the Keep’s archers to fire and eliminate all survivors. A very satisfying, very profitable session.

*As a quick footnote, our DM admitted to using a random Chinese name generator to come up with Jing Chun, and I love the idea that it was, perhaps, done very poorly. I don't speak any dialect of Chinese, but I like to think maybe Jing Chun is the equivalent of an English town called Springfield Houston or London La Croix. Something about this just makes me chuckle.

Servants and Henchmen

MᾹN, Silent Samurai
STR INT WIS DEX CON CHA	10		Poison/Death Ray	12
	10	AC: 4 (Chain, Shield)	Magic Wand	13
	10	HP: 8	Turn to Stone/Paralysis	14
	14	Sword 1d8	Dragon Breath	15
	11	Longbow 1d6	Spells or Magic Staff	16
	13

Mān wears a suit of lacquered armor and walks with a limp. He dresses primarily in white and never speaks, for his tongue was cut out long ago. He wears a solid iron amulet which resembles a skull.

RENODEEP, Mutant Wretch
STR INT WIS DEX CON CHA	9		Poison/Death Ray	12
	5	AC: 5 (Chain)	Magic Wand	13
	8	HP: 7	Turn to Stone/Paralysis	14
	14	Battle-Axe 1d8	Dragon Breath	15
	11	Longbow 1d6	Spells or Magic Staff	16
	7

Renodeep was forever changed during an excursion to the Temple of the Insect God. He has mutated insectile legs which, while hideous, allow him to climb difficult surfaces with ease. He is also missing his left hand (an unrelated incident).

CHANDRA, Proud Warrior
STR INT WIS DEX CON CHA	14 [+1]		Poison/Death Ray	12
	11	AC: 2 (Plate, shield)	Magic Wand	13
	10	HP: 7	Turn to Stone/Paralysis	14
	8	Greatsword 2d6+1	Dragon Breath	15
	11	Longbow	Spells or Magic Staff	16
	10

Chandra is a proud warrior from Subarna. She dresses provocatively and wears a skull amulet identical to Mān’s.

THERMIDORE, Crab-Man Hero
STR INT WIS DEX CON CHA	14 [+1]		Poison/Death Ray	8
	9	AC: 5 (Natural Armor)	Magic Wand	9
	10	HP: 9	Turn to Stone/Paralysis	10
	15	Crab Claws 2d8+1	Dragon Breath	13
	9		Spells or Magic Staff	12
	12

Thermidore is the only surviving Crab-Man from the battle at the Temple of the Insect God. He has an insatiable appetite for reptiles, slugs, and other crab-men. Sigilis respects him and paints his shell with bright yellow designs when the mood strikes him.

Simple Firearms Rules for Pathfinder

The Pathfinder firearms rules are complex. Obviously Paizo was going for a mix of balance and realism. That said, if you don't care about realism and you want, instead, a simple way of interacting with firearms, try this:

	Damage	Critical	Range	Misfire	Capacity	Weight	Special
Revolver	1d8	x4	20	1	6	3 lb.
Rifle	1d12	x4	60	1-2	1	10 lb.
Shotgun	2d8	x2	20	1-2	2	12 lb.	Scatter

Range: Within a firearm’s first range increment, ranged attacks are made against a target’s touch armor class. Further range increments are treated normally (suffering -2 to hit for each subsequent range increment).

Misfire: Firearms misfire on a natural 1, gaining the broken condition and increasing the misfire value by 4. If a broken firearm misfires again it explodes, destroying the weapon and dealing weapon damage to everyone in a 10 foot radius. Broken firearms can be repaired with a gunsmith’s kit and a DC 10 Dexterity check over the course of 1d6 hours.

Broken: If the item is a weapon, any attacks made with the item suffer a –2 penalty on attack and damage rolls. Such weapons only score a critical hit on a natural 20 and only deal ×2 damage on a confirmed critical hit.

Scatter: This gun can shoot two different types of ammunition. It can fire normal bullets that target one creature, or it can make a scattering shot, attacking all creatures within a cone. Make a separate attack roll against each creature within the cone with a –2 penalty. Effects that grant concealment, such as fog or smoke, or the blur, invisibility, or mirror image spells, do not foil a scatter attack. If any of the attack rolls threaten a critical, confirm the critical for that attack roll alone. A firearm that makes a scatter shot misfires only if all of the attack rolls made misfire. If a scatter weapon explodes on a misfire, it deals triple its damage to all creatures within 10 feet.

Commonplace Guns: While still expensive and tricky to wield, early firearms are readily available. Instead of requiring the Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat, all firearms are martial weapons.

***

This has been copied and reworked from Pathfinder Open Gaming Content. While paring it down in just this way is my idea, I really can't claim authorship with a clean conscience, so I won't. Let's call it an open content rework or an OGL homebrew revision or something, hell, I don't know, call it Susan and feed it scones if you want.

If you've got a player who wants to run a Gunslinger, probably don't use these rules. Gunslingers want all the complex stuff and are probably unbalanced if you make things too easy on them. Otherwise, this is a way of including firearms in your Pathfinder game that doesn't require memorizing a whole new subset of rules or printing out twenty pages of reference material.

My Top 5 RPG Books

Right, so this is a collection of RPG books I recommend to everyone. No particular order. I don’t claim these books are “the best” or “essentials” or anything like that. They’re simply been highly inspirational to me over the past two decades of playing RPGs. 

Mechanically speaking, these books detail rules for AD&D and D&D 3rd Edition - the two RPGs I've played the most. And while there are other books and other systems I have liked more (I still think about you, sometimes, GURPS, and wonder at what might've been), these books remain the ones with the most long-term value. Even if I never check THAC0 again, I know I can still find a treasure trove of ideas in these books.

d20 Modern Core Rulebook (Wizard of the Coast, 2002). This book drives me nuts. It’s got OK core mechanics but it’s still somehow boring. I always want to fix it! So I do fix it. And my friends fix it. And we end up running vastly different games full of nuance and character off the same book, the same flawed rules we’re perpetually complaining about, perpetually improving, and man, it’s like magic. I have played in some amazing d20 Modern games over the years.

It's not a great book but it is a great catalyst. I honestly can't explain why.

Planescape Campaign Setting (AD&D, David Zeb Cook, 1994). I still don’t know if Planescape is better thought of as a work of fiction or as a one-of-a-kind campaign setting. Navigating the planes is difficult for players and DMs alike, but so rewarding. There is so much here to steal! Seriously, it’s an unguarded dragon’s horde and every gold piece is a brilliant idea. Even if you never play it as the Factols intended, parts of Planescape will slip into everything you do from here on out, forever.

Okay, that's blatant hyperbole, but I still highly recommend it. If, after reading, you're uninspired by Zeb Cook's weird prose and left cold by Tony DiTerlizzi's whimsical illustrations, well, I don't know what to tell you, other than you have inscrutable taste.

The Illithiad (AD&D, Bruce Cordell, 1998). Was it strictly necessary to make the scariest monsters in AD&D even scarier? No. Was it awesome? Hell yes! Back in the day, man, this book got used. We wrapped up long play-through of A Night Below around the time I purchased this book, so illithids and their society were a constant presence in our games back then. Mostly off-camera; we’d find their weapons, their slaves, and their incomprehensible treasures more often than we’d find actual mind flayers, but we lived in perpetual fear of having our brains sucked out.

This one might just be on the list for the sake of nostalgia. Even so, there are few books that go into so much detail with regard to a single antagonist. I still feel as though a dozen games could come crawling out of its pages.

The Book of Vile Darkness (D&D 3.0, Monte Cook, 2002). The perfect amount of evil. It manages to be graphic but not vomit-inducing. I have used this as a sourcebook for antagonists ever since it came out. The Blackguard spell list alone has altered the fate of several campaigns (Having both sadism and masochism active on a character with multiple attacks is a recipe for sheer terror).

Eberron (D&D 3.5, Keith Baker, 2004). I’ve only run a single campaign in Eberron proper. Without getting into details, I'll just say that the campaign was short, sweet, and very memorable. I’ve often thought about running Eberron again, and what invariably occurs is this: I open up Eberron, write a campaign synopsis, plot it out, and think, “Man, if I could just move the geography around a little, I could do this…” So I do. I change geography and monsters and villains and kingdoms. And then it’s not Eberron anymore, not really, but it’s better – it’s the seeds of my own campaign.

Some Clever Pun About Updates and Destiny

Sorry for the lack of updates. Got sucked into playing Destiny during my free time, and, well, it's really fun.

I also went on a short vacation to Washington DC with some friends.

Etc.

So yeah, I'll get back to writing RPG stuff again in the near future. As soon as the lustre of being a badass murdermachine fighting for the fate of the Traveler wears off, anyway.

Chesterwick (Part 1)

Chesterwick is a fantasy megalopolis. Its history is an unedited, unfinished novel. Its sewers are a mega-dungeon. Everything in the city is stolen from someplace else: it's pure chaos, a glorious mess, and it keeps on growing.

MEERLOCK, THE COUNTRY
Chesterwick is the capitol city of Meerlock. To appreciate that fact, one must know a thing or two about Meerlock.

Once upon a time, Meerlock was a tiny mountain kingdom (Switzerland is much bigger) with very little to recommend it. Before it could grow into the sprawling, irresponsible empire it is today, however, it had to be forged in battle and stolen from the orcs. (And also re-named Meerlock - the orcs called it Three Bloody Spikes but nobody remembers that).

Jonas Meerlock - a soldier of fortune (pronounced "12th level Neutral Evil Human Thief") - lead a rag-tag bunch of adventurers on a quest to kill the orc chieftains of Three Bloody Spikes, which he successfully completed in a year, and establish a city which would be his legacy, which he also did...  but not as successfully.

The city of Meerlock prospered thanks to fortuitous geography. The surrounding mountain slopes were covered with rare hardwood trees which could be harvested and floated downriver to Fallowmere, a wealthy city in need of quality lumber, while dwarf-clans to the east and west kept the vengeful orc-clans at bay. After all, the dwarves thought, if Meerlock prospered, it meant the dwarves could get luxury goods without traveling for weeks through poorly-mapped forests. Kill orcs and get access to cheap moustache wax? They were sold on the plan.

Two decades later, when some fool struck gold in the mountains, the population of Meerlock tripled in a year. Jonas was raking in so much money he started jokingly calling himself a king. When nobody corrected him, he kept on doing it. Then he levied taxes and made laws and everyone was like, "Sure dude. As long as we can get some of that sweet, sweet gold, you do whatever you want."

So King Jonas commissioned a map and depicted "The Kingdom of Meerlock" with generous borders and had it sent it to all the nearby principalities in a rather provocative gesture. He was shocked at the high cost of cartography, however, and never paid his cartographers - Melvin Chesterwick & Sons. Thus, Meerlock's eponymous capital city became Chesterwick, and colorful landmarks such as Mount Melvin, Cartography Island, and The Forest of Stunted Trees Which Remind the King of His Own Inadequate Member were established.

That was all ages ago, though. In the millennium since King Jonas' reign, Meerlock has grown into a vast empire with a vast capital.

THE EMPEROR
Brandon the Second is the current Emperor. He lives an enchanted life at the Imperial Palace surrounded by all sorts of treasures. He's got a young wife and a gaggle of fawning courtiers and he wears a powdered wig all the time, like the barristers, but his wig is made from unicorn hair and powdered with moon dust.

Probably, anyway. Nobody's actually important enough to see the Emperor.

Art by Natalie Kocsis.

THE DUKE
Due to an obscure custom, the Duke is actually the Mayor of Chesterwick. What was that? Tell you a long story? Well, you see, there was a Duke of Meerlock, once, who ruled Chesterwick because the Mayor died suddenly from an angry mob. He never bothered to re-appoint a Mayor, and left a mess of unanswered questions after his own death from overzealous flagellation.

Nobody cares what the Duke has to say. Well, unless you're trying to get a permit to zone a commercial business in a residential area and those twits at the City Planning Guild have denied you for a fifth time, but c'mon, that's not you.

The real powers are the Guilds.

THE GUILDS
There's a guild for everything and they'd all rather pay fines than do things properly.

THE NECROMANCER
For a span of about three months in 1306 IR, a necromancer calling himself "Bonesy" ruled Chesterwick with a ... well, actually, he was pretty fair. Much nicer than anyone expected. He annexed the neighboring country of Melinda in a day - really, the better part of an afternoon - using a team of elite shock-troopers and a teleport spell. It was a shock to everyone, especially considering that Meerlock wasn't even at war with Melinda.

Of course, nobody has ever bothered to give the country back...

Bonesy's most enduring legacies (so far discovered) have been a twenty-story granite wizard's tower build with zombie slave labor, and countless unsolved mysteries. He and his coterie disappeared - some say into the aetherial realms - shortly after his tower was completed. He left behind his tower, a horde of unemployed undead, and a bewildered nation.

THE ELITE GUARD
Some of the mercenaries who founded Chesterwick became excited at the prospect of founding royal dynasties. After all, if Jonas could declare himself royalty, why couldn't they? The Elite Guard began as a single regiment of decorated soldiers and their underlings. It has, over the years, grown as large as seventy regiments and as sparse as one, but today, seventeen regiments of Elite Guard are recognized.

The 2nd Golden Lions have been campaigning against clockwork monstrosities in Zemria on behalf of the Aurloni people. They use prototype gnomecraft weapons to ensure none of the 'brass boys' get the chance to breech the city walls.

The 4th Men-at-Arms, the King's Green Dragons, is by far the most decorated regiment, being most recently credited with defending the city from an extra-dimensional horror called a century worm in an event thereafter known as Worm Day.

The 17th, the Sewer Rats, is tasked with maintaining order beneath the city. They're only noticed when they screw up.

---

Last summer, when my PC crashed, I lost a mountain of D&D history. It was so dumb and so preventable, but I never backed up any of my game writing. It wasn't until it was irretrievable that I realized how much I'd lost.

Chesterwick has been a part of my D&D experience since 2005. There's much more to it than the preceding paragraphs, but I've wanted to write down the interesting pieces of its history for awhile and, as incomplete, unpolished, and unfinished as they may be, that's what I've finally started to do.

2015-16 Pathfinder Campaign Review

Listed below are the modules I used to create my current Pathfinder campaign, slated to wrap up with the conclusion of Crypt of the Devil Lich in three weeks. I thought it might be fitting to present a brief write-up of my opinions on each module. As I've said before, the conceit of this campaign was simple: A linear series of adventure modules, strung together with brief "town phases" so you can sell your rubies and swap out hirelings before getting right back into the dungeon-crawl.

DCC #17: Legacy of the Savage Kings
Jacob's Tower #6: The Gauntlet
DCC #5: Aerie of the Crow God
The Warlock's Vault
DCC #21: Assault on Stormbringer Castle
Pathfinder S1: Clash of the Kingslayers
The Ruby Phoenix Tournament
DCC #13: Crypt of the Devil Lich

We've been playing most weekends for the past six months. Our session lengths can vary wildly, but a median length is about five or six hours.

Beheaded by Satibalzane.

DCC #17: Legacy of the Savage Kings (3 sessions)
+ Somewhat nonlinear: Your players decide which "third" with which to engage.
+ Classic monsters (gnolls, lizardmen, etc). Everything's hostile and far from min-maxed.
+ Boss fights (ogre blacksmith, plague dragon, lizard king, witch) that yield cool treasures.
+ Good layout. If you're using a battle-mat, it's easy to draw stuff ahead of time.
+ Lots of future plot hooks. Great starting point for a campaign.
+ Several places to introduce new characters if PCs die mid-way through.
+ Stealth characters have their time in the spotlight... so to speak.
- Some treasures don't make sense (keen dire mace?)
- Some treasures are game changers. This isn't really a negative, but as a DM, you'll need to decide if you're willing to give the Fighter a sword that can cast lightning bolts. I kept it in and I'm happy I did.
- The lizardfolk shaman was an extremely weak mini-boss.
- Some better anti-Stealth mechanics in the Fortress would heighten the danger.
- Out of print
Overall: Recommended. I'd enthusiastically run this adventure again.

Jacob's Tower #6: The Gauntlet (1 session).
+ If you love Skills, puzzles, and a mixture of classic and obscure monsters, you're in for a treat.
+ Well-written, easy to play module. Requires very little prep.
+ Costs $1 for the .pdf and the designer gets all of it.
- Crushing wall mechanic isn't dangerous enough. Some of the drama wears off once they get a significant lead.
- Required a little exposition and some re-skinning to soften the edges and make it "fit" into the campaign world.
Overall: With a few minor changes, I'd happily run this adventure again.

DCC #5: Aerie of the Crow God (3 sessions)

+ Rooks are a clever re-design of Harpies. Instead of being seductive they cause fear. Fear effects stack in 3.5/Pathfinder, so your party is going to panic very quickly.

+ Very atmospheric.

+ Amusing NPCs.

- Dungeon layout is somewhat convoluted. It's unintentionally nonlinear.

- Most encounters are either very dangerous or very easy. If you don't have any way to mitigate fear, you're looking at a TPK on the first clutch of Rooks. Likewise, the 1d3 damage dealt by the juvenile scrags is laughably insignificant.

- As with DCC#17, some treasures are game changers (though even more so). I reduced the power level of "the Star Arms" and removed the adamantine punching dagger entirely. Also, the adamantine scimitar has a ridiculous "chop off your hand" ability that is just a rules headache waiting to happen.
- Out of print

Overall: I would not run this adventure again. Just browse it and use the good parts to add spice to your existing campaign.

The Warlock's Vault (1 session)

This was a homebrew death-crawl filled with gelatinous cubes, drow artifacts, and various sorts of shadow demons. Maybe I'll share it at some point.

DCC #21: Assault on Stormbringer Castle (3 sessions) I've already written a review here.

Overall: Highly recommended. A fun adventure for mid-to-high-level characters.

Pathfinder S1: Clash of the Kingslayers (2 sessions) I've reviewed this one, too.
Overall: Recommended, but you'll need to spend a lot of time prepping it to get the most out of it. So if that's a dealbreaker for you, well, now you know. I would run parts of this module again - the Living Monastery maps are also quite good and could be easily adapted to something else.

The Ruby Phoenix Tournament (3 sessions)
+ Great concept. D&D meets Mortal Kombat.
+ Cool variety of fights and opponents. A few too many "solo vs. group" fights, but whatever, throw in a couple generic mooks if it looks too easy (stats handily included in the module) and you're set.
+ Optional side-events for those PCs who really want to show off their characters.
+ Defeating a party of enemy bards is comically fun, very easy, and emotionally rewarding.
- Poor layout / needless verbosity issues common to all Pathfinder modules
- Transparent subplot. "The Golden League is bad? Really?"
- The DM needs to keep track of a lot of spell effects. It'll give you a headache quickly if you don't prep. Make some notecards and stay sober while you're running it - You'll have more fun.
- The writers assume the PCs will succeed at everything. There is very little accounting for failure. For example, my players failed to rescue the kidnapped paladin. The module doesn't even acknowledge that possibility, nor suggest how the tournament will be changed by that outcome, so I had to be rather extemporaneous. It worked out, but given that they have 2-4 paragraphs of backstory for every single fighter, you'd think they'd include some details about stuff that's, y'know, relevant.
- The end-bosses are kind of a let down.
- The writer sort of assumes you won't murder people which is all kinds of dumb. Easy to fix, but c'mon, nobody likes a teacher's pet.
Overall: If you've been DMing for any length of time, you could easily do something like this on your own. If I were to run it again, I'd use the side-events as-is, cut the tournament down to three days, and then remake all the fights. Not because they're bad or anything - in fact, some of them were quite good! But because it's my game, and I maybe want my players to fight dwarf cavalrymen in wooden armor riding rust monsters...

Power by Satibalzane.