DM's campaign log- Wrath Of The Righteous (PF & spoliers!)

[Eldonauran]

I definitely approve of your alterations to the material and how you tailor fit the existing material to your players. I especially love how you re-purposed the encounters using the experience so that you could challenge your players and make the encounters more meaningful. No pre-written adventure path is going to fit every character concept or player expectation and I always expect some deviation from the material. If I ever run this adventure, I'll most likely use some, if not all, of your alterations.

[Kol Korran]

Hey there folks! I'm asking for help again. Now that the party has entered the Abyss, I want to make it a really fun and cool experience! I've started to new threads, asking for soem assitance in building up the proper atmosphere, the proper "feel" of traveling to the abyss.

I'd love it if you can contribute. I'd like to make this awesome!
Abyssal exsploration music thread
Abyssal exploration themes, scenes, flavor and encoutners thread

Thanks a bunch!

[ComaVision]

Finally read the whole thread, after finding it earlier this week. You have some really good ideas, and I like how the log reads both like a story and mechanically.

I have to say I was disappointed when Andrew was retired from the main adventure though, I have a soft spot for paladins.

[Kol Korran]

Before I answer ComaVision, just one small thing: I'm working on Friday's session, and I'm thinking of turning the exploration of the initial Abyssal Isle into more interesting. But to do that, I'll need to know more of Golarion's history, mainly it's lost civilizations.
I've opened a thread about it, and would love any help you can give. The thread holds nearly no spoilers at all, if you're worried. Echoes of Lost Civilizations, Island of Vazgral.

Thanks in Advance, Kol!
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Finally read the whole thread, after finding it earlier this week. You have some really good ideas, and I like how the log reads both like a story and mechanically.

I have to say I was disappointed when Andrew was retired from the main adventure though, I have a soft spot for paladins.

Glad you like it! Its always nice to know. As to Andrew leaving, yeah, Kinda felt the same way, but the player felt quite limited in his options compared to the casters, and wanted a more interesting character mechanically. He also had the idea of exploring SOMETHING to do with a succubus, and felt that just won't work with a paladin. But true to game mechanics, the player is still sort of the unofficial leader of the party, even as Julian, though we don't take "leadership" hard... Strangely enough, this has enabled another player, the one who played Harry,to feel more comfortable in taking Mad Dog's role, which he quite likes. So in all, it ended up good.

[Kol Korran]

Heya folks! We had an excellent session yesterday (10 hours! Phew!) Which had some interesting new dynamics, pace, and sort of challenges. Something a bit new. And it ended, quite a cliff hanger... I hope you like it! Hopefully, I'll be able to post it in the coming week.

Meanwhile, the players have finally sent me their updated character sheets, so I'm posting the character table here, for those interested. (I tried to change the order of categories a bit, and make it read better. i hope this works out. )

Level 13, Mythic Tier 5

Stat	Andera	Julian	Mad dog	Sena
Race	Human	Human	Half elf	Aasimar (human scion)
Class	Ninja 13	Sorcerer 13	Barbarian 13	Cleric of Calistria 13
Mythic path	Trickster	Archmage	Champion	Hierophant
Alignment	CG	CG	CG	Beyond Morality
HP	141	159 (Due to improved Campaign trait- +3 hp/lvl	186	124
Abilities (Heroic scores)	12 25 (29 with belt) 16 13 (15 with headband) 10 16 (18 with headband)	10 (12 with belt) 14 (18 with belt) 14 (16 with belt) 12 (16 with headband) 10 (14 with headband) 26 (32 with headband)	26 14 14 (16 with belt) 10 (12 with Breastplate) 14 10 (12 With Breastplate)	16 13 10 (12 with belt) 10 (14 with headband) 24 (28 with headband) 16
Traits	Improved Chance encounter group fighter	Improved Exposed to awfulness Arcane temper	Improved Stolen Fury Demon slayer	Improved Touched by divinity eyes and ears of the city
Special class features:	Skirmisher archetype. Tricks: Vanishing trick Sacred sneak attack Wall climber Sudden disguise Bleeding attack Invisible Blade Ghost step Master disguise	Arcana Bloodline Green sting scorpion familiar	Rage powers: Superstition Intimidating glare Witch hunter Fire resistance Greater fire resistance Eater of magic	Domains: Deception Charm Good (Divine source) Liberation (Divine Source)
Path signature ability	Surprise attack	Wild arcana	Sudden attack	Inspired spell
Path ability	Defensive Move Legendary Weapon (Chandi) Mirror Dodge Menacing Whisper Minor Artifact (Chandi)	Enduring armor Eldritch Breach Arcane metamastery 1 Legendary item Divine Source Show of charisma (Extra path ability)	Flash of rage Burst through Penetrating damage Titan's rage Precision	Heathen slayer Faith's reach Enduring spell Sleepless (Extra path ability) Beyond Morality Divine Source (Extra path ability) Display of intelligence
Regular feats	Weapon finesse Two weapon fighting Shadow strike Blind fight Extra ki Step up Follow step Step up and strike Improved critical (Wakizashi)	Eschew materials Spell penetration (+ greater) Improved Counterspell Expanded arcana (X2) Metamagic- silent, still, persistent, selective, dazing, quicken	Skill focus (Survival) Power attack Cleave Finishing cleave Weapon focus (Great sword) Improved critical (Great sword) Critical focus (Great sword) Dodge Furious Focus Intimidating Prowess (Breastplate)	Combat casting Selective channeling Heavy armor proficiency Alignment channel (Vs. Chaotic evil) Demon hunter Channel Smite Divine Interference Spell Penetration
Mythic feat	Mythic weapons finesse Mythic blind fight Mythic improved critical	Spell lore x2 (Mythic spell) Extra path ability (Display of Cha)	Mythic power attack Mythic improved critical Mythic dodge	Extra mythic power (Sleepless) Extra path ability (Divine Source) Mythic heavy armor
Top skills	Stealth +31 Disable Device +28 Acrobatics +25 Escape artist +24 Climb +22	Bluff +27 Diplomacy +24 Intimidate +18 Know (Arcana) +17 Spellcraft +17	Intimidate +24 (Breastplate) Perception +21 Survival +17 Acrobatics +12	Diplomacy +18 Sense Motive +18 Perception +18 Knowledge planes +13
Signture Magic Items	Chandi- Minor Artifact (Through universal path) Int 18, Wis 14, Cha 10 Undetectable Eternal bond Wakizashi of the planes Precise Strike Ghost touch Holy (Imbued by Amulet of the Bond) Dimension door 3/day True strike 3/day	Brilliance- Legendary Item Headband Cha +6, Wis, int +4 Powerful Adroit (Diplomacy) Adroit (Sense motive)	Warlord's Breastplate +4 Int, cha +2 Gain Intimidating Prowess Heroism 3/ day (Only on others) Defiant (Evil outsiders)	Sword of Paradox- +2 transformative (One handed blade) +2 worth of abilities, changed by wielder (currently Holy) Swift action- change material and alignment Considered Epic for DR purposes.
Path signature ability	Surprise attack	Wild arcana	Sudden attack	Inspired spell
Main magic items	Belt and headband (Above) +1 spell storing cold iron wakizashi Mithral shirt +4, shadow Daredevil boots Cloak of resistance +4 Ring of protection +3 Ring of major fire resistance Amulet of the Bond (Add +2 worth abilities to weapon. Currently holy) Bag of holding II Wardstone Fragment Ambrosia Lots of wands Lots of arrows	Belt and headband (Above) White robe of the magi Amulet of natural armor +2 Ring of protection +2 Rod of Persistent spell Lesser rod of maximize Lesser rod of empower 4 spell knowledge pages Flying carpet 5x10 Handy Haversack Lexicon of Paradox Ambrosia	Belt of Dwarven kind Great sword cold iron +2 evil outsiders bane Heaven's Fall (Staunton Vhane's earthbreaker) Ring of Protection +5 Amulet of natural armor +3 Cloak of resistance +2 Helmet of the fortunate soldier Ring of magic fang Long arm braces Composite Longbow +2 Boots of Flying Ambrosia	Headband and belt (Above) Mithral Full plate +3 of speed Light wooden shield (To hold rod) Cloak of resistance +5 Rod of quicken spell Pearl of power 6th level Boots of jumping and striding Mitre of the Heirophant Malleable holy symbol Bag of holding III 2 Incense of meditation 5,000 gp worth of diamond dust 5,000 gp worth of incense Scroll of resurrection Scroll of raise dead Lots of scrolls Ambrosia

[hoverfrog]

I've been running through this game with my real life group. The introduction worked really well. I had the whole party in a tangle wondering if they were supposed to have run for it rather than stay and fight. After the session I explained that they weren't supposed to do anything other than play their characters as best they could. They took defeat by overwhelming odds quite well and spent some time recovering in the undercity and trying to find a way out.

Like your group they've elected to spare Millorn. The redemptive arc of the game has really inspired the players. Now I'd quite like to foreshadow the later parts of the game by building on Millorn's history. I'm considering having him as the younger brother of Staunton Vhane.

Spoiler: Millorn

Show

Millorn Vhane was never a warrior like the brother he worshipped as a hero. Staunton had all the drive and the skill at arms that he lacked. Nevertheless he followed his example and joined the crusades. Though his own contribution was not nearly so worthy as Staunton's he had the respect of his peers. When Staunton turned from the side of good he revealed his secret to his brother, hoping that the pair would work together. Millorn could not bear it. His hero was revealed as a traitor by his own words. He fled in horror, never telling anyone of what he had learned. It played on his mind though and whenever he assisted a crusader in battling the demonic forces of the Worldwound he held in the back of his mind that that crusader was also a traitor. After many years he could no longer bear it and retreated to the caverns beneath Kenabres to try to put his thoughts in order. Solitude and deprivation have done nothing to help him over the years and he has slipped into insanity. After all, if even his paladin brother should fall then what hope is there for someone like him.

[Kol Korran]

I've been running through this game with my real life group. The introduction worked really well. I had the whole party in a tangle wondering if they were supposed to have run for it rather than stay and fight. After the session I explained that they weren't supposed to do anything other than play their characters as best they could. They took defeat by overwhelming odds quite well and spent some time recovering in the undercity and trying to find a way out.

Like your group they've elected to spare Millorn. The redemptive arc of the game has really inspired the players. Now I'd quite like to foreshadow the later parts of the game by building on Millorn's history. I'm considering having him as the younger brother of Staunton Vhane.

Spoiler: Millorn

Show

Millorn Vhane was never a warrior like the brother he worshipped as a hero. Staunton had all the drive and the skill at arms that he lacked. Nevertheless he followed his example and joined the crusades. Though his own contribution was not nearly so worthy as Staunton's he had the respect of his peers. When Staunton turned from the side of good he revealed his secret to his brother, hoping that the pair would work together. Millorn could not bear it. His hero was revealed as a traitor by his own words. He fled in horror, never telling anyone of what he had learned. It played on his mind though and whenever he assisted a crusader in battling the demonic forces of the Worldwound he held in the back of his mind that that crusader was also a traitor. After many years he could no longer bear it and retreated to the caverns beneath Kenabres to try to put his thoughts in order. Solitude and deprivation have done nothing to help him over the years and he has slipped into insanity. After all, if even his paladin brother should fall then what hope is there for someone like him.

Heya hoverfrog! Glad to hear you've started the campaign. I rememebr your DMing style from the Savagae Tide Mythweaver game, and I do believe your players have one hell of a DM!

It's interesting that your group also decided to try and redeem Millorn. In my group I have unfortunately played to much the "crazy dwarf" angle, so that most of the group ended up not trusting him enough. It would be itnerestign to know how your group handles it.

Iended up also having Millorn be related to Staunton Vhane (I had him be his cousin). Note that the second module allready has a brother for Stauntonh- Joran Vhane, who handles the corruption forge. My group opted to leave Millorn behind in the care of Andrew, but he later came to the Drezen, after it was conquered, at the start of the thrid module, and he and Joran (Whom the party also started o nthe way of redemption), became the twon's magic blacksmiths, and operators of the purity forge.

Some things that I think are worth considering with Millorn's redemption:
1) From the point of getting Mythic tiers, most NPCs are much weaker than the PCs. This isn't much of a problem in the second module, but fro mthe third onwards, the PCs feel like they are just in their own league. few NPCs can match them- Arulashee the succubus, and possibly Queen Galfrey. If you see the characters becoming really attached to him, you might need to consider either having him be redeemed before or at the start of the third module, or find a way to add mythic to him. Otherwise he becoems a burden.

2) You need to think how you handle redemption- do you use the rules in the campaign's player's guide, roleplay, or soem other idea? Think of this in advance, and make sure the players feel if they are making progress.

3) Without risk...: There should also be opportuinities to fall back. In the second and thirdd adventure there are NPCs that can easily corrupt or make Millorn doubt himself/ stray from the path- Nurah the traitor, and Jerribeth. You might find other ambivalent situations in which Millorn's resolve may be tested, and in which the part'ys guidance may really shine.

4) In general, but esspecially if you are using Stauton as his relartive, I really really advise to read the next 2 modules. The tie of Jerrbieth- Stautnon Vhane- Arabeth, goes through the three modules. You can use Millorn to foreshadow places and events, and increase the party's awareness of these 2 major antagonists. I suggest to read the entire campaign for other reasons, but I'll get to thatlater.

5) Does the party know of Millorn's class? Cause if not,with a few changes, he might also play asa bard, or a witch. Tese classes may be more useful to your party if they mostly need a support role. Just an idea. The Withc class especially has quitea bit of flavour that can fit him.

If you want, I'd love to discuss any quesations or ideas you may have for the first mdoule/ campaign. Somewhere in the log there is a link to a thread discussing all of the major problems, (and possible solutions) that I saw for the campaign. I wrote it at the end of the second module/ start of the thrid I think, not sure (I need to update it, I have new ideas).

However, I have to go now, I will try to write some issues that I think are critical to consider i nthe first module tommorow.

Good luck to you and your group!

[Kol Korran]

Nothing like a 28 hours sift to get you going! Anyway, I'm back and rested. After playing soem of the adventure path, I'd like to make a few suggestions. Some of them are more long run, and some of them pertain to the first module:

1) Read the rest of the adventure path: I think Paizo's approach was that each module can be played on it's own, but by doing so, and by having different people write different modules, there is a problem- there isn't a very good continuity between the modules, and cross module themes and issues do not carry well. There are multiple examples: The campaign traits who are dealt with very poorly in the third module, Drezen becoming irrelevant after the second module, Arulashee (The risen succubus) becomes forgotten and doesn't join the party after the 3rd module. After the 4th module the entire plot with the Nyhadrian crystals just changes abruptly. In short quite a few problems.

Also a major problem is build up. A lot of foes met in later modules are mentioned in passing in earlier modules, but with no real build up till you meet them. This includes Staunton Vhane who is mentioned very briefly in the first module, Jerribeth and Xanthir Vang who are barely mentioned in the early modules, and two of the most major villains- Areelu Vorlesh and Minhago (I'll touch on the Minhago subject in more detail later).

So I suggest to read the module, no need to delve into statistics, but get he jist of the major story, decision points, antagonists and possible problems so that you could work them out later. Knowing what will come enables me to weave the continuity of the campaign much better. I read it all only in the fourth module, which meant I missed out on a few opportunities earlier. I'll touch on some of those.

2) The Campaign Traits: These are... quite badly done... both mechanically (My players barely used them) but also in terms of story and character development. Let me explain:

The character traits force a major event or so in the character's life, not exactly something the player envisioned for their character. Player have ton of ideas, but by using the stories in the campaign traits, it forces them to include elements that they didn't really want to incorporate. More than that, the Campaign traits tie directly to type of classes and Mythic paths, meaning that if you play a certain kind of class, you practically MUST pick one trait only (Chance encounter for sneaky types, Divinely touched for Divine casters and so on). In my group, one player (The one playing Andrew and later Julian) happen to choose a different trait than the one fitting his class, since another character (Harry) already had it. I allowed him to not tie it to the mythic path, and I think it enriched his options, and made his character much more interesting, and even made the mechanical benefits more useful, and more balanced.

Past APs if I understand used the campaign traits to tie the group together, but here belonging to the crusade and the initial events are enough of a binding factor.

More over, the campaign traits are supposed to be dealt with in the third module, but their handling is... crappy at best. Basically, each character has a certain location/ encounter in which a bit more is revealed about their campaign trait, and this counts as a mythic trial for her. The conclusions are quite badly written, unsatisfying, and feel quite like the author was told "You need to include this in the module!" and just wrote something offhandedly. Since most players didn't envision such elements in their characters to begin with, this adds little if anything to the game.

Mechanically, the improved traits are... mostly uninspiring, mostly due to them being tied to the. They strengthen the already very strong aspects of the character, and thus create one of two results- either it makes the character more extreme, and more unbalanced, or it doesn't really add anything significant to an already strong capability, and is thus useless.

Julian's player, who took the trait belonging to the guardian path, got useful abilities for a mage (Ability to reroll for incapacitating attacks, and later om +3hp/lvl), which was much more useful. Andera used his trait ONCE in the entire campaign. Sena not even that. Mad dog got a bit more overpowered by his improved campaign trait. Their benefits are for the most part- boring.

So, enough Jabber. My suggestions?
- Forgo the campaign traits altogether. Let the party have the entire selection of traits to make more varied and interesting characters. Tie the background THEY write and want to play into the story somehow.
- If you do use the traits, I'd suggest to disconnect between trait and mythic path. You'll get much more interesting characters, and much more useful traits this way. (A warrior with the Chance encounter powers, A Rogue who is divinely touched, and so on)
- If you do use the campaign traits, Work out a better story resolution for them in the third module. I've tied the campaign traits into one big story and location, as you might see through the build up in my work on the second module, and in the third module with the Lost Expedition, which also ties the story of Arulashee, Jerribeth and the Lexicon of Paradox. Find whatever suits your party, not what suits the module.

3) Pressing time: I've talked with a few people who played the first module, and the same problem arises in most groups- The initial scene, and the situation of Kenabres being invaded, and the party under the surface, brings a tremendous sense of urgency for the party. Many groups, who take roleplay a bit more seriously, will not agree to rest for 8 hours to rest while their city is being invaded. But the module gives no room for that, and being at low levels, the party may need to rest quite often. Still, it's 2 full levels of encounters before they even reach the surface!

How you deal with it is up to you, but you need to consider this, if your group show similar thinking. I turned the Terendelev scales into a sort of "fast rest" limited resource, while Some others enabled "auto resting" upon leveling. Something to consider.

4) The attack on the grey garrison: The module gives a hell of a crappy reason why none of the major demons protect the Wardstone, the KEY to turning the entire crusade army into demons. With such importance, you'd think they'd put some more defenses around it, no? It always irked me... In my campaign, in the last session when the party met Minhago briefly (And I had to remind them of her part in the protection of the Wardstone), the issue of the demon side seeming utterly incompetent ,pathetic and laughable in that scenario came up again. This single event breaks up any sense of a capable, dangerous, competent foe. They are considered fools, idiots, cartoon villains... I have realized that to a point, this has colored the rest of the campaign so far...

The module goes even further suggesting the party attack in waves, retreating, resting, attacking again and so on. Now I ask you- if you knew someone was attacking the key point to your whole super evil plan, would you leave it so poorly defended? Thankfully, this point is easier to fix, since the party by that point is quite capable of taking the entire garrison in on attempt, even though at some difficulty. I roleplayed it's encounters close to the real thing, with a bit of an added difficulty, and it went ok.

But what about the first problem? The demon side leaving no serious defense of the Wardstone feels just so... inexcusable... After this last session I gave this a great deal of thought, and if I had to do it again, I would do it as this:

Minhago, the lilitu, a CR 17+ demon (Depending on the version you use) Is the one protecting the Wardstone. She has an underling (Jaclyn) who helps in doing atrocities around the city, and raising skeletons and such. But Minhago is the definite guardian of the Wardstone.

As the party travel in the city they hear rumors of the two, mostly of Minhago, some of Jaclyn. You know- build up. Once they reach the Defender's Heart, They hear from the leaders of the rebellion of Minhago, her reputation, her superbly overpowering them and everyone here. Though an attack on the Garrison may be possible, It is impossible with Minhago there. She could obliterate them all )You can have Minhago be aware of the forces at Defender's Heart. She does not consider them a real threat, and also looks forward to the corruption of the Wardstone turning them into demons)

Now, either the NPCs suggest it, or the PCs come up with it, but the rebellion, instead of it being used as a diversion for the forces surrounding the garrison, it is used to divert Minhago's attention. Basically, the rebellion needs to create a diversion, to draw out Minhago to a different location, and enable the PCs to attack and destroy the Wardstone.

What can such a diversion be? I suggest to have some options, but let the PCs try to think up their own. There might be some locations Minhago cares for in the city, which she will protect if attacked on mass, or maybe an item she covets, or such. In general principle, I'd try to have the party research Minhago's history, story and personality, and then use part of her demonic personality characteristics to draw her out (Her greed, her devotion, her hatred, her contempt, he pride and so on). This will make her downfall all the more potent, as the party used the demonic flaws to gain their victory.

A passing thought, but it could be cool if the entire rebellion other than the PCs and accompanying NPCs will be needed for such a distraction. A suicide mission really, since they have no real hope of defeating Minhago when she appears, just to occupy her time, enough for the party to succeed. You might add that the expected results of destroying the Wardstone is releasing so much magical energy, that it will destroy everyone near, so the party is also on a sort of a suicide mission (Depending on whether you think the party will like this kind of theme). This grim but fatal effort, to save the rest of the crusade, may give a real heroic and righteous feel to the end of the module, with a twist of the Wardstone turning them to mythic instead of destroying them.

How to play it in session? One way is to just have the party run the grey garrison after someone tells them Minhago has been lured out. I think though, that if I could, I would place two grids- On one you play out the Grey Garrison, on the other you play the scene of the rebellion fighting Minhago (Each player gets to control some red shirts, which are quickly recycled as Minhago cuts a swath of destruction), You can really play out Mihago's power and cruelty here, and also her failings. You can even use the mongrelfolk as something that greatly piques her interest (She may wonder as to these strange "half demons" who all with the crusaders) It gives her much more presence, and gives the excursion a much more pressing time limit.

At the end battle, I'll have Jaclyn staying behind as the protector, not wanting to Alert Minhago to avoid her anger. But near her death or when the party gets 1-2rounds away from the Wardstone, you pull the twist! Jaclyn (Or maybe a status spell or an alarm spell around the Wardstone) alerts Minhago, who immediately teleports back to the room!

Expect an "Oh Sh*t!" moment from the group! There is no way in hell they can beat her, but thankfully there is another "win" button- destroying the Wardstone! The party acts in 1-3 crucial rounds, trying to just get close enough to the stone using superior numbers, trickery, diversion, or just glorious foolish bravery to get the to the stone and destroy it! I think this will make a bloody epic ending! Minhago is almost destroyed (or is destroyed but is brought back), and the party meets her later on, with a far more intense background between them.

(Minhago as built makes quite a fitting opponent- though at this level she is practically unbeatable, she lacks any area attacks, and most of her spell powers either require long casting, can be stopped with protection from evil, are protective in nature, or have an effect in a campaign, not just in a battle. For the most part she can function as a melee beast, but melee fighters can be maneuvered around...)

It makes the capturing of the garrison so much more rewardring, makes sense, and memorable. First tricking Minhago out, which takes some clever thinking, as well as a great deal of courage and sacrifice. It takes battling Minhago at the end, who did not just desert her post, which is a unique, memorable, and thrilling challenge, a suitable ending to the module, and a suitable challenge for a mythic ascension. And it keeps the enemies as a real powerful, competent, and not an idiotic threat.

5) Areelu Vorlesh: Again, the end of the module makes her look pathetic, incompetent, and a laughing butt. My party still makes jokes on her, even though I tried a different approach than in the module, who didn't work quite so well admittedly. I'm not fully sure how to deal with this, though if you include Minhago or some other powerful guardian, you may opt to leave the Areelu encounter out altogether. You can have her image appear before the Queen and the party, or some other threat and the like, but not be defeated as overwhelmingly as this. Not a failure of this magnitude be tied with her directly...

I got no certain solution here, but you really need to consider this. This set the tone for the rest of the campaign, and how serious the group takes the enemy.

Good luck! I'd love to hear about how your game will progress!

[hoverfrog]

I've not read that far ahead so I should get on that really. We've actually started.

[Kol Korran]

Oh, I know you've started (How would the party meet Millorn otherwise?). Good luck to you!

Suggest at least reading up to the end of the third module. The campaign sort of divides in half at that point-shirts ending all the interactions in the material plane with the main recurring NPCs, and starts traveling the planes. The scale of challenges also scales significantly.
If you can, I'd suggest to along the fourth module,mainly the interaction with Monrovia who becomes a major player in the second half.

Would love to hear how your party will do.

[Kol Korran]

Ok, I finally got a bit of free time and disposition in order to write the session's log. This session took the party into the abyss, the island of Vazgral and Allushira, the Porphyry City. There were two main challenges here:
- To portray a different plane, an alien plane, with it's demonic inhabitants and feel.
- A lot more room to improvise, and respond accordingly.
I tried preparing as such, which I'll explain as we go along. The session was a long one, about 10 hours long. I think it may take 2-3 parts to write it all. Shall we?

Session 22, Part 1- Into the Abyss, Vazgral island

(Small note: I keep mixing Vazgral and Valzgar, I just can't quite capture the name in my mind, They are both the same. Sorry for some confusion)

At the entrance

Last we stopped, the party has just closed the Midnight Fane portal, with the Queen raising her sword in triumph, just before the portal closed, leaving the party in a dark cave, on the abyssal plane of the Midnight Isles...

And they could feel it's effects already, as the evil essence of the plane seeped into their minds, their souls, oppressing them (-4 to all skills and ability checks involving mental attributes, as explained previously)
J: "Andera! What is this? What is happening?" (Julian as you may remember, is blind, and can only see auras of living beings)
Andera whispered ominously. "We seem to be at the source of evil, the abyss itself..."
Arulashee gritted her teeth and concentrated for a moment. As Sena became concerned she replied. "It has been a long while since I felt the taint so strong... Yet I am ok, I think I can withstand it."

The party then discussed whether to go on or to rest. Sena was apparently depleted of all of his high level spells, Julian and Mad dog nearly emptied their Mythic power reserves. Only Andera was fairly ready to go. So Julian used her last point of mythic power, and created a rope trick. They climbed up to the extra dimensional place to rest...

Sena's suggestion
While resting, Sena spoke: :"We are in the beginning of the endgame. We need to find a way to defeat Nocticula, or weaken her so she cannot be such a great help, or destroy her. I doubt we have such a capability, but maybe some else can. Calistria is Nocticula's rival, since they have an overlap in devotees and believers. Maybe we can convince her to lend us help, to harm or defeat the demon lord. I have... made a pact with her, on the rood of Drezen. Our pact is one of revenge, which she promised to help me gain."
Julian was suspicious. This is amongst the few times Sena';s change and worship was brought up, and never before so directly: "What exactly do you do for Calistria"?
S: "She wants me as he devotee, as her follower. Yet for something as big as I suggest, she mightcall for some price..."
J: "You made the pact with Calistira, she gave you something?"
S: "She helped me lessen the pain of those who died. I did this to reduce their suffering."
J: "This is commendable, but what did she take in return? You owe her a favor?"
S: "She wanted me to be her follower. She promised revenge, for my heart was harder, and I saw all evil outsiders as my enemies, but the tide has changed, I want to destroy all the forces that impede freedom. Mainly because of what happened with the tieflings. That is why I'm trying to find their soul stone. We need to prevent fear, and liberty. I will revenge."
J: "While I will strongly aid in your causes, but what do you think Calistria is expecting from you?"
S: "In the long run? One of her major powerful subjects- We are quasi gods, and Andera and Mad dog are similar in power as well."
J: "Indeed, I think the gods will try to pawn us into their game..."
S: "And now we have the possibility to take the game on our side, our terms. Calistria would love to destroy Nocticula. If we can bring her to our side, we may have a very powerful ally!"
J: "First things first- We are treading on a very shaky ground. We are on the home plane of Nocticula, this is her most powerful place. In here, she is too powerful, we can't kill her.
S: "Weaken her?"
Julian gave a smile: "Persuade her!"
S: "I'd like to talk with Calistria, we'll need to strike a deal."
J: "If we hurt Nocticula, we only make her side with the demons more."
Andera chimed in: "We don't need to mess with the demon lord! We just need to destroy the negotiations! Find their delegates, blame them for something or kill them. End of story!"
S: "I agree, but we need some ace in the hole! Some back up plan!"
An: "You are the only one who trusts Calistria, we do not."
S: "You misjudge me, I do not Trust her…"
J: "We know nothing about Nocticula, about her power. Before we decide, we need to gain more information."
Mad dog added his own opinion: "If we weaken her, maybe Calistria herself would come in and finish the job?"
Andera: "Maybe we could kill some demons, some servitors of Nocticula and make it look as if Nocticula killed them?
(And the game just turned into a shadow run game! Julian and Andera's players also play Shadow run from time to time. This sounds exactly like a mission from that game!)
S: "I believe those who will talk with Nocticula are very high powered demons. We are outgunned, and out matched."

The party became more solemn, not liking the odds. They decided to try and make a plan of action.
Mad dog: "Kill all demons?"
Julian: "Lets find our way to the city, and there try to learn more. Of Nocticula, of the delegation, of what we face. THEN we decide how to act!"
Arulashee raised another complication: "We need to decide how we approach the city. Coming as we are will gain great attention, both from the demons who inhabit it, but also from Nocticula herself... Porphyry City is said to be open to all visitors, but quite a few demons may not like our presence there. (Mad dog grinned widely "So?") If we go hidden we may go more easily, but also be less noticed by the greater powers..."
Julian though though of a different problem. "How do we... get to the city in the first place? Where are we?"
Aru: "I do not know. We are in a cave, I'll need to see the surroundings. Demons mostlyteleport through the isles, but one the more inhabited isles there are teleportation devices, that link to Porphyry, for the transportation of non-teleporting slaves. We may try to find such a place.
An: "Can't we just teleport there?"
J: "Alas, for that I need to see the place at least once..." (Talking about teleportation. The party seems to have forgotten their scrolls of greater teleportation? )
Se: I can try and scry it for you!
J: "But I need to actually see it, which I cannot now..." (I'll hand it to the player, he did roleplay this handicap more in this session!)
The party checked various illusion and transmutation spells to cover their appearance. They settled mostly on Veil.
S: "If we change our appearances? What is the least suspicious?"
Aru: "The most common inhabitants are cambions. There are quite a few tieflings as well, and numerous slaves. I guess... you might play as my slaves?"
Mad dog: "I can be a bodyguard"
J: "Will you be recognized Arulashee?"
Arulashee was uncertain. "It has been a long time since I've been there, a few decades... Yet demons leave a long life. Some may remember me, though I doubt it."
Andera came up with an important detail: "We better look like tieflings, since we don't have telepathy. If we look like cambions or such, some will expect us to use telepathy back."
The party settles on Sena and Mad dog looking like powerful tiefling bodyguards (They had the most impressive looking equipment) Julian as a sort of a cursed sage Arulashee keeps, and Andera as her guide.
Sena was still at unease with this plan: "We need an ace in the hole, and we need to make it before we go in there!"
But Julian put a stop to this currently: "Truthfully? We can't hope to harm Nocticula, Nor will Calistria dare confront her now. We need to understand Nocticula's strengths and weaknesses. Now let us rest..."

Spoiler: DM notes- infiltration, on Calistria

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I liked the talk about infiltration. The module deals quite poorly with this (Just saying they'll need a DC 30 disguise check in town) But this was fun. The idea to have the party pretend to be Arulashee's entrouge came at a bit of a surprise, but which later on worked nicely to portray her some more.

As to involving Calistria. Sena's player wanted this, mostly to up the ante quite a bit more, which he thinks will make things more exciting. Julian and Andera's player think the goddess is up to something, and do not trust her.

I will say it here just once- I have some plans concerning Calistria and Nocticula, though these are long term. Hopefully we will get to see those later on, though probably not soon...

Stepping into Vazgral's jungle
At the end of the rest, the party climbed down the rope, and they immediately use the Veil spells to change their appearances. Julian decided not to use her flying carpet, as that will not be fitting for a salve. They walk out of the small cave into the jungle (Note: The module has a few encounters in the caves. Why? I do not know. They fight crystals and such. Pointless, utterly pointless. I kept the XP for other things) They exited into the environs of Vazgral...

Vazgral music- Diablo II jungle music
(Thanks a lot hymer!)

As they reach the jungle, they find they are at the base of an enormous black pillar, going way high. The immediate surroundings looked like some sort of ruins. But more disturbing then that were the sky- Blackness, dotted here and there by faith points of light... sort of "stars" Nocticula made, but not real stars, and not in any known pattern. (20% Concealment)

Andera: "The darkness all around! Fake stars! An evil place!"
Arul: "I... I do not know where we are..."
MD (After a good survival roll): "There are some demonic footprints here... possibly Babaus, also some Vrocks, though they seem to fly and land here... The trail does not continue)
Sena used Display of Intelligence (We flavours it as connecting to cosmic knowledge, and thus gaining "insight") His eyes opened: "I know where we are! Island of Vazgral, made from the demon lord of ruined city, jealousy and loss..."
An: "Yeah, but how do we get out of here?"
They looked at the pillar rising above them. "Maybe there is some clue higher up?" Seeing no one close, they decided Sena and Mad Dog will fly up using the carpet, and Arulashee will accompany them. Andera stayed with Julian below...

As they flew up, they could see a lavish jungle spreading miles around, and at places huge black pillars, but no sign of a settlement. Here and there some ruins, but nothing more... But they also saw massive gigantic flying creatures all around, like tremendous eagles, with the hint of lightning around them. They could hear them howl, yet suddenly their call was like a cacophony of a moaning crowd!
(Se: "WTF?") Not watnign to waste time exploring all of the runes of the huge pillar, they started to descend.

Meanwhile, below, Andera sees... dead people! Or at least he sees the trees to suddenly be composed of remains of souls of a multitude of people, stretching ever so slowly, as if reaching, trying to hold something, in pain. Julian sees the remants of silvery threads moving agonizingly on the trees, before the image fades away.

Andera: "There was a great disturbance!" (In the force? )
Party: "We need to get the hell out of here!"
The party discusses teleportation again, but Julian still can't see. Sena suggests Windwalk, but they no not how to navigate this hostile terrain, and a lot of it is over seas. (I gave them the map shown in the module, there are a few hundred miles from Porphyry). The party is at somewhat of a loss...

Spoiler: DM design- Vazgral mystery

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The module basically skips Vasgral. The party sees the remains of aan old temple conveniently in sight, goes there, solves a small riddle, and teleports to Porphyry.

I thought that this place could make for a nice intro into the Abyss though, and help the party get a bit of a feel before entering Porphyry. So I made finding the temple, and exploring Vazgral into a small riddle.

Also, it is the island of ruined cities, jealousy and loss. I really wanted to explore the three aspects, as you will see.
Note: I quite accepted that the party would try and teleport to Porphyry. I didn't try to stop them. Surprisingly enough, it was Julian's player who showed the unexpected obstacle. (I don't know the spells well enough to have caught up on that one). It made for an interesting play though!

Jungle creepers!
As the party debated, I decided enough time was spent, and had them roll on a random table I made for Vazgral. It came up monsters! The party was distracted, but Arulashee made her perception roll, and managed to warn the party of the incoming demons- a bebilith and 2 Strige demons! (I made a few random battle maps for the exploration of the isle).

Julian saw one of the demons' auras, and was a bit pissed, and shot a disintegrate ray at it, damaging for 91 hp! (1 left! ) Arulashee kills it and hurts the other, and Sena uses confusion (From trickery) to stump the bebilith and wounded Stirge demon. The battle goes very easy, and they curbstomp the critters.

Through the jungle, and Vazgral's afflictions
Still, the party knows not what to do. Julian thinks to try finding a local to help, and decide to contact the spirits in the trees! Nice, though I haven't prepared for it. I suggest a Cha check to try and contact them, but Julian rolls abysmally and so does not make contact... (Too bad, could have been a fun conversation!)

The party is stumped. They discuss all kind of other options and idea, but do no act. I tell them to roll randomly again. I check my notes- "Loss"... I tell them to roll will saves, and Mad Dog and Andera lose. No one really knows anything has happened, but I send the two the following email:

Spoiler: Effects of Loss

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The island you are on is composed of the essence of A demon lord, and part of his theme was Loss. It has inflicted you now…
Think of something the character has lost. This could be a person, a place, an item, a relationship, part of herself, or anything you feel that was important to you, but that you have lost it, and this causes you great pain. The feeling of loss consumes you, and great depression, a feeling of "What's the point?" takes over…

You have lost something very dear to you, and it is never, ever, coming back. Roleplay to that effect.

IMPORTANT: The character does not understand that she is under an influence (Think of this like a very strong emotion spell), she feels the TRUE depth of such a loss, and this depresses you.
(I suggest starting subtle, but letting things gear up more quickly.)

How does it end? I won't tell you quite now…

Mechanical impact:
Loss- Your will and desire to live, participate, flounders… You become self absorbed, and can't get help from "Aid another" or flanking, You cannot receive any moral boosters, and you suffer -2 to will and AC.

Suggestions of Loss (You're NOT limited to these):
- Julian: All of the impacts from your past, the forces you lead in conquest of Drezen which were lost, the loss of eyesight, feeling that you have lost some of your humanity, of what you were
- Andera: The loss of most of your order, the many lives lost on conquering Drezen, Harry, losing faith in the gods/ Desna.
- Sena: Losing part of yourself in the transition, Brother John, Your former parents.
- Mad dog: Loss of family long ago, Harry, loss of people when attacking Drezen (Especially the Lions of Sarkori?), being away from the real world, now fully in the abyss.
- Arulashee: I'll keep that to myself…

Andera seems to like the idea. Mad dog who roleplays less, likes it less, but tries to think up something...
Sena has an interesting idea, of trying to use Windwalk to fly to a nearby island (Matters not which) which may be more inhabited, and use the teleportation connection there. He REALLY doesn't want to trudge through the jungle. The party thinks it's too complicated. (I started to feverishly try to think up the make up of different islands! Phew! ) They decide to try and walk and find more clues.

Vazgral music- Diablo II Hell

Mad Dog starts leading them through the jungle, but they make hard progress, what with Julian walking blind, the darkness, and deep vegetation. Sena tries to distract himself and... Arulashee, and seeks not-too-abyssal flowers, and pick them up for her! Andera just rolled his eyes. "He finds the oddest time for this... As if there is a point to it? We're lost here, look at the stars! No light, no sun... just darkness... We're lost, and it's all so hopeless!" (The party exchanged glances, but didn't react yet)

Sena and Julian, when crossing some wetter patches, notice that they are stepping in pulls of partially congealed blood. Suddenly the moisture they breath has a distinct taste to it... of fresh blood. Sena is a bit freaked out and uses magic to fly out of the pool.

Shortly after Andera and Mad Dog notices they are being followed... sort of... Some shadows seem to detach, and follow them on the branches of trees, sort of whispery shadowy threads of snakes, with white eyes, like dead stars... But whenever you look at them, they fade away. Andera found this depressing. "The shadows are coming for us... they are all around us... hope can we escape?"
Julian: "We REALLY need to get out of here!"

Not making much progress, I have them roll again. This time it's "Jealousy". Again Mad dog and Andera fail, and I sent them the following email:

Spoiler: Effects of Jealousy

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The island you are on is composed of the essence of A demon lord, and part of his theme was Jealousy. It has inflicted you now…
Choose one of the other party members, and decide on something you are jealous of him/her. This can be an item, power, relationship, past deeds, condition or more. You are jealous of this, and want either to have it as your own, or make sure the subject is not so. There is some animosity/ grudge/ minor hostility towards the character.

You're deeply jealous, roleplay to that affect.

IMPORTANT: The character does not understand that she is under an influence (Think of this like a very strong emotion spell), and you think this is just how things progressed in your relationship. But please, keep this in character!
(I suggest starting subtle, but letting things gear up more quickly. )

How does it end? I won't tell you quite now…

Mechanical impact:
Jealousy- You're distracted: you take - 3 to all skills and -2 to attacks while the character is within 100 ft. or involved in the same partaking.

Suggestions of jealousy (You're NOT limited to these):
- Julian: Her rise to divine status, her new religion, her power, her good looks, her new sight, her flying carpet, her rod of persistent spell, her headband- Brilliance.
- Andera: The ability to disappear and not be noticed, the ability to maneuver around the battlefield, Changi, the fellowship of tieflings.
-Sena: His new status that makes him impervious to alignment effects, his followers, connection to the gods, his angelic look (What he uses the spell), rod of quicken, Sword of Paradox.
- Mad dog: his great strength and endurance, his ability to kill everything, his simplistic look on life, his great sword, his armor, his boots of flying.
- Arulashee: Her good looks, "being special/ chosen", her connection to Desna, her many unique items (Starbow, boots of speed and more)

Sena also disliked being lost. "Shall we talk with Calistria?"
An: "It is hopeless! It will not help!"
Julian was a bit annoyed now. "Are you depressed?"
An: "Wouldn't you be? Going in this place in circles, having no clue where to turn?"
Sena: "Hey, he's got a point!"
J: "Enough of this, the pillars must be the answer! Sena, make us into clouds and take us to the closest pillar!"
S: "That's a powerful spell to use for just a short navigation, perhaps something else?"
Arulashee intervened: ""Look, you feel it starting to feed on you, drag you down, the Abyss, but the thing to remember, in all of your depression, is to continue on, to strive on!"
An: "And to which direction shall we continue exactly? Random path number 1? Or 2? Or 3?"
Aru: "I am confident with Mad Dod's skills..."
Mad dog interrupted "Oh be quiet you wench!" Now THIS surprised the party! (They are used to Andera being grumpy. )
Sena: "Mad Dog! You are not quite yourself!" (And in his thoughts: I cannot allow you to not be yourself... You can smash like like a rusted tin can...)
Julian decides to try and study the two, and sees an emotion effect.
Arulashee to Andera: "I have saved you, and you have saved me, and so we shall do in return. We shall find a way."
Julian casts dispel evil (From her domain) on Andera, and succeeds!
Andera: "Yes, there is a way!"
But then Mad dog reminds me that Dispel evil can't undo effects that Dispel magic can't dispel. I tell Julian that she failed.
Andera (rewrite): "No, thee is not! We are all doomed!"
Julian suspects it's a curse, and she and Sena use remove curses, and succeed. Andera: "On second thought Arulashee, I see your point!" The curses are believed to be removed, but Andera's Jealousy stays. Still ,the party decides to just play with it.

Sena does end up using Windwalk, taking the party with him above. He looks at the pillars, and tries to make some sort of an understanding, a revelation. He uses Display of Intelligence and rolls high enough, to understand the pillars are positioned as sort of way points in a... vortex... whirlpool. Understanding this he flies the party towards the center of it, a pillar just beside a fairly large ruin.

Spoiler: DM notes- exploring Vazgral

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The party could use divination, scouting from above and more, but yeah, the pillars were the key. The pillars each held around them the ruins of an empire or so. They might explore the ruin, the spirits within it, but the idea was to track to the most recent ruin. The pillars and ruins are in a sort of a vortex indeed, as Vazgral was the encompassing doom.

I made the exploration thus: If they walk the jungle, they rol lfor survival to get to another pillar. On the way I added some "abyssal sensorial weirdness", to give the place a bit more flavor, to which the party responded nicely. If they don't find a pillar, or if they delay significantly, They roll again on a sort of a random Valzgar table.

Spoiler: Abyssal sensorial weirdness

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-You hear the voices of great birds, Amplified, Sounding like a moaning crowd.
- The trees looks strange suddenly, as if they are a conglomerate of bodies, souls, trying to reach you…
- As you walk on the wet patches, you are certain they ae blood. The moisture tastes as blood, hot, moist, yet it makes you thirsty, so thirsty…
- The moon light makes you see the shadows, and they are moving on the trees, slithering, like serpents, who's eyes are cold, dead stars…
- Your footsteps sounds like gnashing of teeth. Sharp, Hard, biting.
- Your body feels odd, it is not quite your hand, it feels as if it belongs to another, like it is a glove, of something inside, trying to dig out.
- There are worms behind your eyes, looking through it, tugging at the eyeball, tring to suck it in.
- You suddenly can hear nearly nothing, just wind, strong wind, and the sound of a storm, quickly approaching. There are voices of people "Man the sails! All hands on deck!"
- Your saliva tastes sweet, very sweet, more and more sweet, till it becomes all sticky, gooey, almost unbearable!

Spoiler: Random Valzgar table

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1d12 (I just like them)
1-2: 5 CR 10 demons (Bebilith, Stirge demon, Mature nabasu, Fiendish rock
3-5: 3 CR 10 demons
6-8: Lost ruins: Force of ruins and add +4 to finding pillar
9-10: Loss: As in mail, Will DC 22. Recurrence +2 TO will save. Curse effect, DC 23 to break. If fails again under Loss, then DC rises by +2.
11-12: Jealousy: As in Loss, same rules, except as in mail.

Temple of Nocticula
On the way Jealousy strikes again, just Mad dog. He sends me a message that he decided to be envious of Julian's smarts.

Vazgral ruins music- Diablo II Kurast

In the ruins, the party goes through the wreckage of an Empire that seems fairly recent, they even notices some of the gins, the flags- The Empire of Cheliax, who fell due to inner strife, and possibly competing devil worship. Yet the players are uninterested, and quickly look for a teleportation ring or such.

As they go they get affected by the power of ruin. Each rolls 1d20, and doubles by 500. The result is the minimum value of an item that Valzgar ruins permanently... This is the first time that Mad dog's and Andera's low rolls are effective.
Mad dog rolls 1,000, but decides that the island wrecks his +2 Longbow. The bow crumbles, it's wound break, it's string snaps.
Andera rolls 2,000, and let the island destroy an arrow of slaying (Pretty much ineffective at this point). The arrows brakes, and the end seems blunts from millennia of time...
Sena rolls 8,500, and find it really difficult (Most of his equipment is quite expensive). He ends up giving up his malleable holy symbol, which turns to a lump of clay. Sena grunts, and pull his back up symbol.
Julian rolled a 20- 10,000... She too find it quite difficult, but ends up giving her lesser rod of maximize. The item cracks, and loses it's magic, as if that has passed centuries ago.
Arulashee lost her Swallow Tail braces (Campaign Item, some minor bonuses and an ability to cast dream) "It doesn't matter. It's the least of my sacrifices. Let's move on." She answered the concerned Sena.

The party curses, wanting more than ever to get out of this place. They manage to finally reach their destination, a ruined temple of Nocticula (Note: I played this nearly exactly as in the module, except for the effects of not succeeding with the ritual) The place is in ruin, as is the rest of Vazgral. They see 4 statues of Nocticula at the end, plus an altar, with what looks like a skeleton covered in heavy moth. From the looks of it it belonged to some demon. Coming close to the alter, they see an inscription on in "I tried Nocticula! I tried! I've tried to tame the island, but it ruins all, degrades all, I have failed you our lady in shadow, but I tried... I tried..." The alter seems like a sacrificl alter, with a blood drainage and chain on the side.

This was aa flavor piece, but Sena grabs unto that, believing there needs to be a blood sacrifice, he cuts himself and bleeds over the alter. Nothing happens. He then decides it must be one of the statues. As to the statues:
- Nocticula holding a heart high above. A smile on her face in Triumph.
- A seductive pose, tempting smile and posture.
- An assassination pose, aiming her hand crossbow at a target, eyes cold.
- Hidden posture, with her wings and tails all around her, hiding her, only her eyes apparent.

Now, Tell the truth I goofed here a bit. Each statue also had an inscription at it's base, which was a clue, but I mixed that up with some clues coming from a knowledge check (Later) that I missed these throughout the encounter.

Sena rushed to the Statue holding the heart, and before the party could stop it bled over it. They heard a soft rush of noise and then a resounding "Not likely!" Before the trap sprang- Shadows loomed around, and tried to grasp the party (Reflex DC 24), if caught, the shadow congealed into the form of a succubi, and tried to kiss each member, (DC 24 Fort to avoid 2d4 level drain, and DC 24 Will to avoid getting "Succubi smitten"- A curse effect that has the player be more easily affected by succubi- -5 to their saves against their powers from now on).

Fearing this strange trap, the party used their mythic surges and managed to avoid everything. Understanding they need to think it out, they sat to try and understand. Various theories came up, till I decided for another abysmal sensorial weirdness: Sena felt s if his right hand was... not his, as if it belonged to someone else, and that there was something in it, trying to dig it's way out. Julian felt something tugging at her eyes, and KNEW there were worms behind her eyes, latching on them exerting pressure. The sensations lasted for about a minute, but were unsettling enough.

J: "This is getting out of hand! We need to be away from here SOON!"
An: "Oh? What is it? Something you can't just whip a small and solve all of a sudden? Why don't you do some magic stuff, and get us out of here? You're just teasing us!" (Jealousy)
But Julian was too concerned with the situation to respond. But Sena, really disliking the feeling of his hand, tries to bleed on the covered statue. "Not likely!" as the shadows come again, this time grasping Mad Dog and Sena. As the shadows kiss them, Sena breaks off "Get away! My heart belongs to another!" But Mad dog get "smitten by succubi" (Though he did not know how to play it for the rest of the session) Arulashee is impressed by Sena "Not many can withstand the temptation of the mistress in Shadow..."

Andera jumps at him: "Will you stop acting like a fool and bleeding over stuff?!"
Sena: "It is always blood with demons!"
An: "Perhaps not always? We need to think about this!" ("Sometimes it's tongue!" Kudos to whomever gets the reference!)

The party tries to think of Nocticula's portfolio- Darkness, lust, secrets and assassinations. These seem to fit the statues, except for "secrets", which gets left with the statue holding the big heart. The party tries looking for secret buttons, leverages, invest mythic power into them. to no avail. I hint with Arulashee: This is her temple, and passage is supposed to be accessible to most demons, at least succubi. Sena again uses Display of Insight (For religion) and recalls a prayer to Nocticula- "lie in wait in hiding , present yourself to seduce , strike the killing blow when the target is enthralled , and then offer the target’s heart to the Lady in Shadow." They manage to figure out the order of the statues from this.

Sena thinks, and then casts darkness on the covered statue. The statue seems to move, and keeps a slight motion about it! The party has made progress. But they are stumped by the second statue (The temptress).
Sena: Maybe a spell of "Unnatural lust?" I have a potion for this (From the Ivory Sanctum)
An: "Maybe just a charming spell. Hey Julian! Why don't you snap your fingers and casting something, like you always do?"
Sena uses the charm power of the trickery domain, and the statue comes to life as well! But as to the third statue- the assassin, again stumped. Annoyed, Julian tries another charm person, and is responded by "Not Likely!" This time the shadows grabs her, and the kiss draw 2d4 negative energies on her! As the kiss ends, Julian collapses, of breath, looking more grey. She is pissed, but Sena rushes to her and restores her. the two statues reverts back to normal.

The party thinks again. Andera uses dust of darkness on the first statue (He carried it from the lair of evil mongrelfolk! Battle with Hossila!) Sena uses his power again, and they come up on the third statue once more. Julian thinks that it requires a death spell, and Sena casts "Slay living", and it works too! The third statue comes to life. They feel the air and surroundings around the temple becoming fuzzier, as if on the verge of moving...

But the last statue quite stumps them. They come up with different theories (Like trying to dislodge the heart and taking it to the first statue), but dare act on none. Sena and Julian have burned through quite a lot of mythic points.
Mad dog: "Oh, I trust Julian! She is smart, and cunning. She will think of a way to solve this! She always does."
Andera: "She just whips up the perfect spell, for the perfect time, Little Ms. Magic fingers, with her mojo!"
Julian's player was embarrassed "What kind of a curse is this?"

At the end they decide a wholly different approach. They have Arulashee UMD the statue with Julian and Andera helping her, which works great. The last statue moves, and from the her a great darkness emits, with a laugh of "That's more like it!" as the darkness envelops, and they feel... movement, only to appear somewhere else, in a great building. From the sounds of it, they have arrived at a massively inhabited place- Allushira, the Porphyry City.

Spoiler: DM notes- Nocticula's temple riddle

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I kind of fell into a trap here, playing it "by the book"- the riddle, though it had a few ways of solving (You could do certain acts, not just spells), still required a fairly specific way of solving. I hate using riddles like that, and prefer an open riddle, more like a situation, to which the party will respond. This kind of riddles, where you "need to get into the riddle maker's mind", are quite often very frustrating, and don't allow for more creative ideas (And the players did come up with some). I might have dealt with it better, but on the whole the player were ok with it. Oh well.

Spoiler: DM design- Valzgar

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So... The island in the module doesn't serves any purpose other than the temple riddle (Oh, and the trap by the module just sprigs up some shadow demons... Really? At this level? With their power? Utterly pathetic). I think the place can give the Midnight Isles a feeling of a bigger place than just Porphyry, and give it the sensation of a tropical, magical, weird place, Which was my main intention.

As to Jealousy and Loss. Andera played a bit with both (And he is still under he effect of Jealousy). These worked as a nice distraction and fun for the party (They quite liked it), and added some conversation difficulty, in an island on which they are the main, if not sole, talkative people.

The party totally circumnavigated exploring the different ruins (Had some of Azlanti, Thassilon, Mwangi and so on), so I can't tell how that might work out if someone tries it.

On the whole, the players found the island at times frustrating, but also quite a different experience, which they liked. The most evocative responses came from the abysmal sensorial weirdness stuff... Hmmmm....

------------------------------------------------------------------
I'll stop here for the time being. It looks like aa good stopping point. Next time Will feature the party's first foray into Porphyry, as well as some improvised but cool negotiations.

[Kol Korran]

So it happens to be that I'm sick. On the plus side, I am at home, and so I'll try to complete the session's log. I'm a bit woozy, so I hope I get everything right. Still, notes can help significantly. Now, arriving at Porphyry...

Session 22, Part 2- Getting to know Porphyry City

As the darkness dissipates, the party finds themselves in what looks like an old, partially ruined temple. They happen to surprise a hulking Thanadaemon, who lounges there. The Daemon rises up, speaking in the deep, hollow voice. "The portal was closed and unused for decades. Who comes forth?" As the party though of what to answer, Arulashee took charge, acting with confidence, disdain, as if brushing the tall daemon aside. "My purpose and concerns are mine alone! These are my slaves. Now move aside! I have business to conduct in Allushira!" And she just strode past it, with the party surprised, but sort of cow towing behind her. They left the long abandoned temple to Vazgral to the busy streets of the demon city.

Porphyry Music- Planescape Torment soundtrack!
(Thanks a lot for suggesting this Eldan!

At this point I reminded the party various key facts about Porphyry. (It's been awhile since we played). I won't go over them all here, just some key points:
- Allushira is a trade hub, mostly for demons, but Nocticula has extended commerce to all kinds. This doesn't mean it's a safe place, (Far from it!) but if you're attacked, then it's by individuals, not by the very forces of the plane.
- The place is HUGE. It can take 2-3 days fully walking to cross it length wise, or 1-2 days width wise. Most demons just teleport. For others (Such as slaves), A quick way of transportation is the skiffs of the Thanadaemons, who travel the numerous canals of Porphyry. The price can be pricey, but some Thanademons can also deal with souls.
- The thanaedaemons are also a sort of "crowd control" force. Nocticula uses them to subjugate disturbances to the city. On the whole, violence is not an issue, but you MAY NOT harm the city or how it operates.
- Nocticula is the ruler of The Midnight Isles. Porphyry is ruled by her second in command- Shamira. An immensely powerful succubus, with flaming wings (A whole fire theme), who is a much sterner, brutal, and lethal succubus, who deals with major threats to the city.
- The biggest trade is in slaves. There are hundreds of thousands of slaves here, from all kinds, for all purposes. The city has them in abundance. The city also caters for all kind of sins, temptations, desires and fetishes (Not just of the sexual kinds).
- Succubi hold a special position in Allushira, and form a sort of "higher class". That said, people can rise far above them, and succubi can become really low. It's more a matter of power- the main currency demons understand.

As they got out of the temple, they were amazed at the sheer amount of demons- Cambions aplenty, here and there dretches cleaning, some succubi, Babaus, vrocks, even a Glaberzu! Arulashee whispered. "We're in the Virgin Ribs! The slums of Porphyry. We better move somewhere else."
Sena whispered back "Where might the delegations be?"
Arulashee answered: "In the Ten Thousand Delights (Inns, entertainment and luxury district) or the Terrace of the Favored Mistresses (A nobility district, for especially powerful succubi)."
Andera hissed "We'll need to find a place to stay first. That island took a bit from us. We need a place to think." They decide to head for the Ten Thousand Delights. Only that will take them a hell of a long time to get there by foot! So they go to a canal, and see a Thanadaemon. Arulahsee motions him. They talk with the long fellow, who is disappointing they don't have souls to barter with, but agrees for gold. Which is when we find... that the party is nearly broke in terms of actual money! They pull everything together, and pay the Daemon (about 1,500 gp total) and find they have about 800 gp left... Oh my...

Arulashee sits at a reserved sit, while the rest are told to squabble near the bottom of the skiff... The Thanadaemon stirs the bot slowly, but expertly, goes under a bridge, and then mists surround the skiff, and it emerges under another bridge, but the sounds are greatly different. Within a minute the skiff navigates in a huge body of water ,with various boats and other skiffs, and stops at the side. "The Delights Mistress..." Sena clambers and offers to give her a leg up, but she kicks him in disdain, opens her wings and flies up. The "tieflings" climb up as well.

Julian is starting to have a real headache- the numerous evil auras are straining her vision, making it hard for her to think! She moans and groans, when Andera snarks at her "What's the matter? Can't just use that spell of yours to make you see? Or make us a place to stay? How come you've all of a sudden gone skimpy with your spells, hah? Stop moaning, don't be such a bother!"

Julian seeks to answer, but all of a sudden, quite artificially, total darkness descends. The fake stars in the sky blink out, and now it's total, utter darkness above. Arulashee, Sena and Mad dog can see with darkvision (Thanks to Dwarven Belt in Mad dog's case), but Julian and Andera are not so lucky. "lets find a place already" Julian says, tired.

They go searching, the place is full of taverns, inns, brothels, strip joints, pleasure houses and more (Many times all in one!) As they travel they see something odd- the darkness seems to add more depth, more texture, more details to buildings that seemed... plainer before... Even alleyways open up. The party realizes this place is different at full night than partial night...

They get fascinated enough by it all, that they don't notice the shadows emerging to attack them! (Random encounter) 8 Greater shadows, 4 from over a canal, 4 from the sides of shadow alleys, lunge at them! Mad dog, Sena and Julian are hit (Each once), but luckily roll quite low on strength damage.

Andera curses, turns invisible and releases the Ioun torch in his belt. The light coming up draws some attention from nearby demons (The city usually runs dark. And tieflings usually have dark vision). Andera hisses to Chandi "Let us act!"

Julian manages to get up some mirror images, but 4 get taken down, Sena also gets hit quite a bit, but manages to negate one attack with Divine Intervention. Still, some strength down, he cannot really suffer much more! Arulashee, seeing his strength dwindle, shouts in worry and defiance, and uses her starbow radiant cone power, to greatly damage and kills some of the shadows. This too, gets some attention... Sena is touched by her worrying though...

He activates his mythic armor proficiency to have his armor bonus apply also to touch, making him much more resilient! He then attacks using channel smite and kills two more (greater shadows have very low hp!) If the party wanted to go fully incognito, they have drawn sufficient attention here...

A vrock and a hezrou reach into a bag and pull out tiny kind of demons, basically orbs with legs and a big mouths, who run near the battle field as if sniffing the air... (Cachaodaemons) The party don't quite understand, but they are busy.

Mad Dog and Andera attack and kill. Julian looks at the shadows' aura, seeing mostly tremendous tortured hunger. She kills the few remaining with magic missiles, only to hear Andera "Sure! If I could just shoot magic arrows to do the work for me!" Julian sees the last shadow, almost in gratitude "thank you..." before it dissipates away.

The cachaodaemons go around where the shadows were, but find nothing. The Vrock and Hazrou call them back, and put them back in their place. The party realizes these are used to collect souls, for souls gems, used for trade in the city.

As the battle ends, Arulashee looks atthe paler Sena, Struggling under the weight of his armor. She caresses his cheek and helps him. "I will catch you if you fall... Strange, in this darkest of places, I feel the closest to you, the most secure with you by my side." Sena, had he any color left, would have changed it!

Spoiler: Random encounters, and being noticed

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I have upgraded the random encounter table for Porphyry a bit. Again, I find that for the most part, it seems like the designers didn't take into account the party's mythic tier's effect on their ECL when designing stuff. Oh well...

I also made a separate table for "Sights of the city", which is also for flavor, a bit like "abysmal sensorial weirdness" in Valzgar. I wanted the city to feel more then just a location of goals, but something that lives and breaths more...

About Notoriety: The module assumes the party is trying to get Nocticula's attention. The party needs to get points on a "Notoriety score", and different acts can grant them different points. One of the possibilities is "Showing your true colors", or basically- walking around like the champions of good that they are. But... this gets them more encounters, and more lethal ones. The party opted to not do that. Another way is by getting into fights, but I decided that it'll be only for fights who are CR+2 at least. No real interest in mopping a bunch of lowly cambions, is there?

But I also added another score, Which we'll just call "Getting noticed". This is to judge whether Minhago managed to locate the party. In the module, Minhago flees to Porphyry after the Midnight Fane, and she sends an assassin, and maybe conftonts the party once, before they are supposed to track her down and kill her. I... Have different plans for Minhago in my design, (If you've read some of the "help threads" you may know), but she stills seeks to learn more, and maybe kill some of the party, with a bigger teams of possible assassins (This will be quite imporant later).

For each encounter in which the party drew sufficient attention as not fitting their disguise (Such as in this encounter) I rolled a percentile die to see if this got to Minhago, (She placed lots of informants in the city, expecting the party to come) in which case she'll start tracking the party, and sending assassins. To my surprise, This single encounter sufficed! But it would take some time for Minhago. She'll come into play later...

Julian casts Darkvision on Andera.
An: "Well, about time!"
J: "Are you ok, I do not last.."
An: "I do lust!"
J:"Something is strange about you..."
An: "We're in a strange place!"
J: "We're always in strange places!"
An: "Not as this!"
J: "...Are you becoming a demon?" looked at Mad Dog "It's not like it hasn't happened before"
An: "Why, because you have spells you think you know everything? What you cast a "detect demons" spell?"
J: "And you?! Every time you have a difficult situation you just disappear!"
An: "My power is limited,not like yours, dropping spells at every corner"
J: "Why do you keep trying to disrupt the conversation?"
An: "So why don't you just cast a silence spell on me!"
J: "You're becoming as grumpy as Chandi!"
An:"So many times I have almost died, fighting at the front, while you stayed away!"
J: "You did die, at the Ivory Sanctum, remember?" (The players were having fun with this little roleplay )
An: "Yes I remember! And you didn't even enter the gates the entire battle!"
J: "I really can't tell where you were. Every battle you go "poof!" and we don't see you till it ends.
An: "I wouldn't have hid if I had an arsenal of blasting spells!"
J: "Oh, I've grown tired of this, lets just find a place to sleep!"

Rest and improvisational negotiation "The Inn and out"

(I was improvising this whole part on the fly. Oddly enough, I didn't quite prepare a place to stay for the party! )

Sena restored the party, but the party really wanted to get out of the streets. I gave various inn/brothel names ("At your pleasure", "Guilty pleasures", "Hot and heavy", "Touch of flesh", "Pleasant forgetfulness", "The longing ends", "Kiss of forever") but Andera's player cracked a joke "Why don't we go into The Inn and Out?" We liked it so much that we made that the brothel they chose.

At the entrance there was a plaque, with various prices for "items":
- Mortal woman, willing.
- Mortal woman, unwilling.
- Mortal man, willing.
....
....
- Trained Incubi
- Trained succubus
- Torture available! Prices varying on degree of abuse and dismemberment..."

Brothel music- Tantric Sexuality

Spoiler: DM notes- How extreme will we go?

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A small but important note to be made here: Porphyry City is a demonic city, and a great deal of it's content can be quite extreme, sexual, brutal, hurtful, and more. I've made a conscious decision to not go very had or very deep in how much we describe things, roleplay things, and so on. This also goes for a choice of music. You can find much harder things in Youtube if you look for them. (I spent some time looking for musics for possible brothels/ inns and other "experiences". I know my sensibilities, and my players sensibilities, and while some might be willing to explore quite hard stuff, I don't think this is the game for it, and I also think others will find it quite uncomfortable. I declared this to the group, that I'll limit how deep we go. It's enough for us to mention things in general terms (For example the "menu" at the brothel) and not delve into them.

If that's a problem to you, feel free to discuss it, but that's how my group plays. We focus on the heroics side of the campaign, not wishing to turn it into porn. I hope we'll not hurt anyone's sensibilities later on though...

The place looks like a dark, exotically furnished lounge, with a strip stage and poles in the center, what looks like a bar and eatery at the side (With some odd noises coming from a diner. The meal still alive?) and a few more secluded spaces, looking luxurious. The place' patrons ranged from cambions, low demons but also a succubus or two. At the stage a bruised and suffering looking Aasimar woman danced, with skimpy clothes, white skin and eyes. The party noted this.

An incubi, dressed in finery came towards Arulashee. "Ah Mistress! Thank you for honoring this place with your presence." We have the finest rooms for you, and the stable or pits for your possessions..." Arulashee played her part. "I require rest, but nothing too fancy at the moment. A simple place, but with enough space, and I'd like to keep my... possessions close. I may have tasks for them or would like to..." She gave a sly smile "Extract pleasure"

The incubi (Named Chulakat) bowed. "Of course, we have a few rooms on the first floor, with some cages and pens for them if need be. It is comfortable, not the best, but will surely suffice!" The room was quite expensive (about 250gp per night), but for now the party agreed.

Andera the succubus
As they went up the steps, Andera whispered. "Go ahead, I'll be right back." The party went up, but Andera used his Master's Disguise, to look like an exceptionally cruel succubus.

"She" came down, and went straight at the barman, a cambion looking bored. She looked critically at the dancing aasimar. "Is this all you have here? This pathetic show?"
The cambion looked alarmed. "We have others, if you would speak with mistress Hannet..."
But Andera waved him away. "She displeases me, send her away."
The cambion tried to apologize. "But, in the middle of... "
Andera would have none of this. "You dare argue?! Send her away!" (Successful intimidate) The cambion did as asked, but also called Chulakat to talk to... the newcomer...
Chu: "Mistress! I haven't seen you come in! What can we do to please you?"
An: "After the sorry act I've seen? Not much..."
Chu: "Would you like talking with mistress Hannet? I'm sure she'll..."
An: "No! I would like to learn of your... competition..."
Chulakat was confused: "Oh, you're taking over?" (It's not that hostile takeovers, quite literally, were uncommon after all. I thought it might actually turn out to be a fun idea!)
An: "No, I do not."
Chu: "Then why do you wish to know?"
An: (Bluff check successful) "Lets just say I have my reasons... Which place caters for mortals specifically?"
Chu: "There are many places. It all depends on the individuals. We specialize more in a specific desires or groups of sins. Surely you know this mistress?"
Andera tried to push to other ideas, trying to find a place that might harbor a delegation: "Is there anywhere that caters for demonic vermin, (Deskari) or with pleasures including swarms? How about Minotaurs?
Chulakat smiled: "Some people like to dine on various insects, of get poison treatment. I hear the intensity of some poisons can be quite mind engulfing to some. There are also rasping baths, where one goes into a bath with a swarm of vermin, biting, itching, crawling. Soem find it quite delightful... As to... Minotaurs? (Chulakat seemed more thoughtful) They re not exactly known planar travelers. Hmmm... The closest thing I can think of is "The Brass Horn", it's a bar near the arenas, where some fighting demons and gladiators go. It has a huge horn, said to be from legendary minotaur, over the door. (I was improvising fast here. I thought to perhaps use it to direct later to the Battle Bliss Arena in the module)
Andera was pleased at the information. "Good to know."
Chulakat: "What is thy name oh mistress?"
Andera: "I'm Seela. Remember that?"
Chu: "And for which high mistress do you work for?"
Andera panicked slightly, but responded well "Is it your plce to question me? I swear, minions these days!" and left...

"One soul at a time."
The aasimar caught some attention with the party. As Andera (as a succubus) was getting up, Julian came down (Having cast tongues and echolocation). She sought Chulakat.
J: "My mistress sent me. She wishes to buy the aasimar dancer."
Chu: "Really? Quite an interest the whore gets. But it's up to the mistresses to discuss. If she wishes, come and meet Mistress Hanet here in about half an hour." Julian groveled and went up.

Upstairs, the party tries to think of how to approach this. Sena and Andera object at first:
S: This puts the entire mission at risk, we cannot risk exposing ourselves.
An: She is just one slave, amongst thousands!
J: We'll save them all. One soul at a time if need be."
This convinces Sena. "Right! Right action!"
Aru: "I shall assist how I can." Sheseemed tense.

Sena suggests to come as a mortal extra planar to help, but they think it would be weird to have a mortal joining with a succubi just to buy this slave. At the end they just decide to go as they are, as slaves to Arulashee.

Meanwhile, I try to think of a good price to her, and end up deciding on 10,000. I think this can easily be a test for Arulashee (even if improvised, since she takes the main role in it), and think this is a fair price (As well as being the price of tiems she might give for a redemption trial).

They come down, and Chulakat leads them to a more secluded booth. Hannet looks like well experienced succubi, and a slightly cheap, slightly elegant hostess. She has 2 Cambion bodyguards, and an apprentice succubi. She calls for the aasimar (Named Jasmin), and order her to strip. She naked assimar shows sign of bruises, and some rough handling. She stands there, devoid of hope and care, lost. Sena almost draws his sword.

H: "So... you hav an interest in my star attraction? So many demons love the chance to spoil, hurt and use the partly divine. Almost like breaking the arms of an angel, you know?" She leaned back, smiling "Such things don't come cheaply..."
Negotiations start at 20,000. Arulashee manages to get it down to 13,000, but the party is worried about this. They just don't have the money. Julian casts a still silent message spell to Arulashee "Give me a name of someone important! Leverage! I'll happen to mention, then punish me!" Arulashee sends with telepathy the name of Imangaleht (Owner of the Battle Bliss, which I previously decided might know Arulashee).
Julian speaks "Mistress, Imangleth will never…"
Arulashee snaps and smashes Julian's face. "Be silent!"
With two good bluffs, this works! Hannet wants to get on Powerful Cambion's good graces, thinking Arulashee works for him, and negotiation reduce the price to 7,000. With no money, the party exchanges Mad Dog's long arm braces (From Soltengrebe's treasury, he used it maybe twice! ) and Julian's elven boots (Never used). The party even gets room for the week.

The party goes back to the room, with a promise Jasmin will be sent shortly after, after she's "cleaned up". In the room Arulashee hugs Julian. "Thank you, for letting me be a part of this. It is no wonder you have become what you are! A true champion of The Forgotten!" Arulashee makes her redemption save- 3/4!
Jasmin is let into the room while the hug takes place, and is in shock- A succubus hugs tiefling? Thanks her? Julian sees her confusion, and dispels the veil spell, showingthem all as they are.
Jasmin's shock intensifies, and she falls to the floor, prostrating herself. "Please! I didn't mean to see you! I'm sorry! Please don't..."
But Julian stops her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Rise child, you have nothing to fear here. Please eat, you seem to be starving."
They let her eat, heal her, and comfort her.
J: "Tell me child, how did you end up here?"
Jasmine tells a story of how she came from Ustalav (One of the only Golarion nations I know!) and came to fight in the crusades. She was an aide to a warrior group, who got caught near the Worldwound border.
Julian: "I can banish you to Golrion. We can send you to a safe place. It's a town called Drezen. We have many friends there, they will take care of you. Would you like that? (Oddly enough, the banishment and dismissal spells don't say how it is decided where you end up on the other plane. We decided it's a bit like teleport in that regard"
Jasmin is utterly besides herself, in tears, not believing. "You're toying with me? Can this be real? Home? Really home?" She burst into gratuitous cry. "You are from the gods! You are angels!
Mad dog "We ARE the gods."
They try to get some more information from her, but other than simple rumors (A bit on Shamira and such) nothing of import. The party does leanr of 5 luxurious borthels. (If they go to them they can gain a bonus on gather information rolls)

Julian asks Andera to write a letter to Brian, explaining things. The party gives her some some of their money (About 100 gp) and Sena gives him the Pin of the new vision of Drezen. Jasmin stands there crying, thankful, overwhelmed, when Julian waves at her. "Goodbye". and Sena casts Banishment on her.

I decide this was quite cool, and gives them some ad hoc XP, on top of Arulashee's redemption trial.

Spoiler: DM notes- Improvising slave negotiations

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The entire Inn and Out and the negotiations were totally improvised. I think it went quite well. The player absolutely loved this scene! (Even Mad Dog to an extent). I often tend to improvise with a strong basis of setting, but here it was more free flow. I'm quite pleased with how I did here, as improvisation is my great weak spot. The reason I prepare so much is to be able to improvise smoothly enough, due to understanding enough of the basics of the set. Here I did somewhat without it, and it worked not bad! A later improvisation in this session... less so...

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I'll stop here. We got one more part, though it is shorter. I hope to get onto it soon enough. Possibly today. Got a small errand to run. I hope you like what you're reading so far!

[Kol Korran]

Ok, lets get it done with!

Session 22, Part 3- Porphyry, Way to the Flesh Markets, Cliffhanger!

After sending Jasmin back to Drezen, the party finally rested, with the trial of Valzgar andtheir first "night" in Porphyry behind them. Sena Did not require sleep, and so he spent the time talking with Arulashee. Strangely, the conversation turned to his childhood, mischief here and there, moments with Brother John and the like. She found this charming, that he could recall the man he has been with her, despite his commitment to his path. With a remaining mythic point he brought a hero's feast, to eat with her, while the others rested. The two become closer, and hold each other, embrace each other, and for them both, for this time, it is enough... (Despite jokes from the other players! )

After the rest of the party awake, they are again faced with the same problem since entering this realm. "So, what is our strategy now?" I use this opportunity to hint by Arulashee that if they may want to seek audience with Nocticula, they need to gain her attention, by doing note worthy deeds (The Notoriety Score mechanic). She suggests the four basic approaches- Pick fights, show your true colors, seek high profiles events or accomplishments (Via Gathering information. This is the main suggestion in the module), or try to seek out Shamira. She explains that the last option should be the very last, as Shamira is known for her temper, and her "extracting payment.".

Sena wishes to find Oodkalakat, the coloxus demon that's supposed to hold the Soul stone of the tiefling host. He uses scrying and sees him in a partially rounded room, going over documents, bored. He decides to try and spook him, and uses message through the scrying. "I see you! Where are you? We need to talk!" Oodkalakat gets nervous, foes to big ornate doors, opens them and... the scrying fails. "Anti scrying area" says Julian.

Spoiler: Whereabouts of Oodkalakat

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He is the coloxus working for Vallexa, the succubus in Rapture of Rupture. I decided her room has anti scrying measures. Would make sense, no?

Commune with Calistria
At this point Sena suggested again. "Perhaps we should try and talk with Calistria now?"
This time, the party agreed. Sena used his mask (Mitre of the hierophant) to call her. Now, a small change we've made just for roleplay, is that she basically can answer in more than "Yes/ no/ maybe", but generally to that effect. Just speak like a more real person, and not an automated answering machine.

As Sena called her, he could see a ghostly mask detaching from his, turning and floating in the air. Part male, part female, part laughing, part crying, an eye closed, an eye open, and changing... all the time. "Yes? One lost to sight?"
Sena: "I have the most disturbing news about your rival Nocticula- The demonic forces see to ally with her, and bring her influence and power to Golarion!"
Cal: "I find it interesting, intriguing, amusing, and troublesome." she said, almost as if rhyming a song, not really concerned..
Se: "I know that you do not desire for it to happen- she's powerful and a rival. Do you have any contacts on her plane that I can use."
Cal: "Not anymore... Gone they are."
Se: "Do you have anything that can help us?"
Cal: "Such as?"
Sena was a bit frustrated at this. Julian whispered "Information".
Se: "What does Nocticula wants?"
Cal: "Unknown, tricky little wench! But she seeks to gain power, and searches sources of deep philosophy. To what end? It is not known."
Se: "What are her weaknesses?"
Cal: "Uncertain. Over contemplation perhaps? Plans within plans... Some say she seeks perfection in all."
Se: "Can you intervene?"
Cal: "Never directly." The mask seemed to be amused, and shying away.
Se: "Can you bring your own organizations here?"
Cal: "Unlikely in time, and none f them is as strong as you, dear, invisible champion!" The mask seemed as teasing, playful.
Se: "Do you have any weapon/ tool to use?"
Cal: "Yes, I call its Senatef Aberdeen!" The mask was amused, thankfully, Sena was amused as well.
Se: "Do you think we can deal with this demon lord?"
Cal: "It would sure be fun to see!"
Sena hardened. "If I will manage to do this, what will you give in return?"
The mask feigned ignorance: "Do this? What do you mean by that? You speak in riddles sena, usually this amuses, but not in matters such as these. These are serious matters!" but at Sena's silence she continued on. "I do not seek Noctciula's... end, she has been inactive and silent for a longtime. Better the demon you know than the one who will fill it's place, yes?"
Sena continued: "What sort of information can you provide on Nocticula?"
Cal: "She plays some sort of a larger, deeper game . She plays at politics, but also something bigger, no one knows exactly what. Makes a lot of strange explorations, questions, investigations. Quite intriguing really! And with that, I shall depart. Good luck to you my champion!"

Sena was frustrated. "Well, that was helpful!" He then tries to commune with Sarenrae, but he just hears Calistria's voice again. "I said you'd be MINE!" said in an amused tone, but also with a definite hint of harshness, and a definite manner.

Spoiler: DM notes- a frustrating commune

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Why is Calistria being so difficult? Well, first, it amuses her. Secondly, as I've tried to show, the party are amongst the most powerful tools she has, they are basically IT. There is little she can send there that'll be effective as them. And thirdly, it has something to do with the secret behind Calistria that I'm keeping, and that might be revealed later. Hopefully we'll get there...

The party though of the info they've got:
An: "Maybe we could try finding the mine first, and then destroy it for her?"
J: "She seeks perfection... that doesn't give us much. A bigger game? Too vague... We don't really have anything to offer her."
S: "What we can do is ruin the other's reputation. The mine can be good for that- if they built it under her nose? If it's a secret?"

They don't get much more than that, but decide they do need to get Nocticula's attention.
MD: "Ok, lets go pick up fights!"
J: "Maybe we could just go to Shamira's palace and make our selves known?"
S: "I'd like to go and find this Oodkalakat first! He was tallying numbers, probably in some sort of slaves. Where are the biggest markets here?"
Arulashee: "These will be the flesh markets..."

The party decides to go there, and go by foot, possibly to draw some attention or fights. I decide it's about 8 hours walk away (They do not want to use the skiffs, low on money). After a bit more banter from Andera and Mad Dog about Julian's smarts and spells, the party has enough, and after checkign them they cast additional remove curse, and take out the last effects of Valzgar. We had our fun with those...

Journey through Porphyry- Seeing the sights

Porphyry City music- Planescape Torment soundtrack
(Thanks again Eldan!)

It was again the fake sky, with points of lights...Again under Veil, the party heads out. I decide to cut the journey into 4 parts, each with it's own "scenery roll" and "random encounter roll". At the first leg of the journey the party comes upon a torture yard, with various torture devices, with many different victims on it, and a Cambion calling for all to test these on their slaves! He speaks liek a salesman as verious demons use the... imaginative... implementations there for their sick pleasures.

Julian immediately wishes to help, butthe player stops himself "Damn it! I'm thinking like a paladin!" To which we responded "Um, goddess of the forgotten?" The party discussed this quickly, and at the end retracted up to sight, and then Sena cast Project image (Trickery domain) near the yard, and then cast 2 banishments to take many of the prisoners away, to Drezen! A lot of confusion ensued, but the party just hurried away. I deemed it cool enough to award a bit more ad hoc XP.

As their random encounter they meet "an eager merchant" (as the module says). I have them meet with a small market who sells larvae of creatures of all kind. An eager merchant came to them with some wriggly stuff in his trolley. But the party just wished to hurry on, and didn't continue the interaction.

Ob the second leg, the party comes up against strange platforms, some of them raised, some sunken, with a sort of a shimmering half transparent field around them. Into one of these entered a strange shadow- caterpillar insect, through the shimmer, like a sort of a portal. It waited a bit, when a hardened dwarf, with impressive gear came from the side of the shimmer. They gave a quick fight, until the shadowy creature enveloped the dwarf, gave as sort of a crashing and reaping noise, and exuded the dwarf's bloody bones... "Some sort of... a bloody chess?" They theorized. (The players liked the idea, but wanted to move on)

Near the end of this leg the party were in a much more crowded area (Residential area), and were ambushed by 6 cambions. The battle was quick and brutal, but the party at least got some gear to sell later on. They needed the cash!

On the third leg, the party came upon one of the sources for Porphyry's waters: Multitude of slaves, and souls as well were tied to sort of entrapment, and they were tortured enough to shed tears, some real, some soul tears, which were collected and drove to the many canals. A group of Thanadaemons were standing guard there. The wailing, sobbing could be heard loud and clear...

Chandi wishes to kill the Daemons, but Andera hushes him. "They are Nocticula's force. We cannot go against them." They think of maybe trying banishments again, or maybe Andera invisible with disable device, but at the end they just accept that the horrors of the city are just too many, even for them, to fix... To my surprise this seem to have an actual affect on the players, they take it seriously. Hmmmm... With heavy hearts, they continue.

Battle of the Deraknis
As they are on the edge of the Flesh Market districts, They roll on the random roll for the aabyssal encoutners table (Which I altered a bit). There they roll for 6 Derakni. I remember that Minhago is allready supposed to be tracking them, and decide on the fly that this is one such "Assassins" group. A decision which I thought will be mostly for flavor, but turned to be quite important.

As they cross a big canal over ram shack bridges, the group of Derakni flies over them, and suddenly shout "It's her! The others must be disguised! Get them! Get them!". Battle commences!
Julian casts "chain of light" on the Derakni who spoke, and have it tumble down chained (Thankfull still on the bridge). I grunt... too many new spells which they keep on springing!
The Derakni open with quickened enervation rays, Julian, Mad Dog and Andera are all affected. Sena uses Divine Intervention to block the ray against him. The Derakni then close but manage to hit only Arulashee with their stings!
Mad dog and Sena both attack, Mad dog uses Channel smite, Mad dog just uses... Mad Dog, and kills. Andera, with his mythical improved critical, starts doing serious criticals and double criticals! Changi gets excited. "Yes! Sweet demon's blood!"
Andera Triple threat! 79 and 109. Chandi cuts it through the neck. "yes! Yes!"
Derakni uses enervation on Mad dog. Again divine intervention. Mad dog blocks sting.
Julian raises mirror images, but get hit nontheless, 7 negative levels allready...
Arulashee tries to help her, and shoots the nearby Derakni. The group lays out the offensive, and quickly kill the last of the Derakni, with one captured.
I decide that the battle was big enough, and the party was flashy enough to consider this a notoriety worthy fight. Notoriety= +1!

Should have really expected that...
Julian casts Dimension door on the chained Derakni- Akak! (Sorry, it was late night, the best I could come up with). Sena restores Julian's negative levels.
Akak: "What?! You cannot threaten me! When I die, Deskari will take me!"
Mad dog: "Oh, is death the worst you can think of? You will talk with my friend here, if not you will talk with ME!"
Julian: "You have already disgraced yourself to your master. You can decide to avoid talk, but then we will use ALL of what this city has to offer... Or you can just talk, and if we're satisfied with your answer, we'll let you go." (Not a bluff). Julian decides to use her full diplomatic power, with brilliance and a display of charisma (In hinder thought, this qualified more as an intimidation check, but it wouldn't have mattered anyway). With her stupendous bonuses (about +63 modifier?! ) She has no trouble convincing the Derakni.
Akak tells that his group has been resting a bit in Porphyry, and that Minhago has tracked them down, and offered them a job. She gve the description of Arulashee, and said she would contact them.
Mad Dog: "Wait, how did you find us in this huge city?"
Akak: "She told us where you'll be! She told us to watch over the canal, and look for you."
Mad Dog: "How long ago was that?"
Akak: "About half an hour ago..."
Sena: "She is following us!"
Julian turned to the crowd of demons, who were taking an mused interest (A bit like Ankh Morpork approach to trouble in the street- free street theatre!) "Minhago, you worthless piece of a demon! you failed time and again against us! You failed with capturing my mother! With the Wardstone! With the Midnight Fane! You are a worthless excuse for any kind of demon! if you have any shred of a true demon within you, you should have faced us yourself!" Again, Julian uses the full power of her charismatic powers (Though I deemed this as a bluff). And she did touch on the major motivational points in Minhago's character. I was dumbfounded! I have planned to use Minhago further along, and NOT have her confront the PCs for now. But, both dice and roleplay deemed it appropriate that she would interact with the PCs... somehow. In her character, I felt that this should be the case.

And so, Minhago appeared, at the far end of the street. This was show time!

Each PC's XP: 423,544!
---------------------------------------------------------------------
In session we tried a bit of banter, but The players were quite tired (10 hours session), as was I, and I was ill prepared to play Minhago as I think she deserves. (I barely read her powers till that point). So we decided to start the next session with her appearing. True, that will give me PLENTY of time to think of how she'll react, and get plenty of nasty, but the players quite like that, and a good challenge. So we ended the session here. Next time, we start with an old western shoot out!

I hope you've enjoyed reading. I've tried a few new things this session, and enough of it was made out of improvisation. The players loved the session, and told me they do get a feel of the city (If not a very detailed one), but we're getting there.

Next time will start with Minhago, possible complications from there on, hitting the 2-3 "major notoriety events" of the module, and hopefully- The negotiations, which is something I've been waiting for, and building for, a long, long, long time...

[Kol Korran]

A bit of an update between sessions:
1) I'll be going on a vacation between the 7th-24th of September. We've tried arranging a session before that, but weren't able to. So, it seems our meeting will only be at about the 26-27th of September or so. Couldn't be helped.

2) Julian's player is having some health problems with his back. He is in the process of taking care of it. He should be ok, but you can't help but worry a bit.

3) Julian's player also decided to undo Brilliance' "Adroit (Diplomacy)" power, so not to get another +20 to Cha. We talked, and She'll keep Display of Charisma, and still be quite powerful, but not overwhelmingly so and beyond measure. It was the player's suggestion, he felt the end of the session went a bit overboard.

4) Sena's player suggested an interesting idea: In battle, each player chooses a "battle theme song" for his character, that gets played when it's their turn. (We are all with laptops), while the monsters ply the general music. There is still a debate on that. Julian's player hopped in and suggested to do photo shop edited pictures for the different characters. That too, is still debated.

5) I've been having a bit more free time now, and my head has been running around thinking of lots of D&D/ PF stuff- The confrontation with Minhago, Negtiations with Nocticula, another campaign I've been wanting to run for years now (Only disjointed ideas so far), FATE core ideas and more... Oh well...

6) Thinking towards the end of the campaign (Yeah, I know it's a long way off), I've been thinking of maybe making some mementos of it:
- A huge picture, with the PCs, main NPCs, Antagonists, and maybe a bit of a scenery (Worlwound?). Could get very pricey, not sure how to get to it. But still a long time head.
- Perhaps make a CD/ Playlist with all of the tracks of the campaign? Perhaps with a short description before each track. ("Battle at the Arena, where it all began...", "Music of Paradox", "Jungles of the Midnight Isle of Valzgar"...)
- Maybe a short file/ booklet with some of the more memorable moments in the campaign- funny/ tense/ dramatic conversations/ speeches?

I've thought to do something of the sort for the "Many Facets of Darkness" campaign, but it fell out. Need to check if this is possible again. After several years of playing this, it could be nice to have something more visual/ audio to show for it, no?

So that is what's up with us currently. Mostly silent front. I imagine it will get more involved when we come close to the session. Hope you're enjoying the read,
Kol.

[Kol Korran]

A small idea that sprang in my mind, about the end of the campaign, though there is still a long time to go. (Doesn't deal with actual campaign content, rather making a memento at the end). Thinking about this for this campaign, but it's really a general topic.

Feel free to make input: End of Campaign Souvenirs

[karchev1211]

How do you keep your party moving my group has played 3 sessions albeit 3 or 4 hours at a time, but they are just now getting to Milorn. I added a single fight, but that should not make it take so much longer... I couldn't even tell you where all that time has gone.

[Kol Korran]

How do you keep your party moving my group has played 3 sessions albeit 3 or 4 hours at a time, but they are just now getting to Milorn. I added a single fight, but that should not make it take so much longer... I couldn't even tell you where all that time has gone.

Hey Karchev. Without hearing more of how your group plas I can't really tell why is you pace slower- Are they having trouble with rules? Do they take a longtime to decide on stuff? Are they heavy roleplayers, who delve deeply into interactions? (Such as with the 3 NPCs), or maybe they socialize between players much, less in the game?

Some things that help the pace in my table:
1) We come to PLAY: Usually some come a bit earlier before the meeting, and we talk until about 15-20 minutes into game time at most about RL stuff and so on. But once the game starts- we're in it! We may have a short (10 minutes or so) Humus break (A small tradition in our sessions), but even then we usually just eat while we play. We my throw OOC jokes or comments here and there, but for the most part- we PLAY! Our gaming time is rare as it is, we treasure it.

2) Keeping pressure: Nearly at all times, I try to have some sort of a pressure on the party, either from outside occurrences (The city is being invaded! You can add thumps/ shakes, or at times sounds coming down) or inside pressures (Anevia complaining about the pain, all 3 NPCs pressuring to get to their locations). Keep some pressure, and convey a feel that things are happening, it's essential!

3) DM's push: Sometime my players get into long discussions about what to do, how to do it and more. I let it play out for a bit, but then I hint at the players that it's time to make a decision. Either by an NPC (Maybe provide a clue if needed as well), or just by me saying "Ok guys, we need to move it along. So... what is it, I need a decision now". It's part of your job to keep the pace going.

I hope this helps. If you could tell me more of how your group plays, I may have more suggestions.

[karchev1211]

We have some weird dynamics we play at another players house with him and his wife which leads to a bit of tension between them that is part of the problem, but I think its mostly we don't show up to play and players are always up getting things soda or snacks when their turn rolls around trying something I saw suggested to more engage players called popcorn initiative, where the player who goes picks the next player until everyone has gone it engages people more having to be ready to act at any time the last player in the round picking who starts the next round. This has seemed to get people more in game so I am going to try adapting your having the players roll and see if that makes them feel more important even when its not their turn in initiative. thanks for the great log has helped a ton already getting my group rolling.

[Nibbens]

Hey Kol! It seems I've got a lot of reading to do! I'm only up to Session 2 with Mil... Mill... Milorn? What was his name? LOL. Regardless, great change from a fight to a roleplay encounter with an NPC. It's always fun to see that happen in a game.

That seems to be the staple for my group - taking combat scenarios, tackling the bad guy, questioning him and trying to convert him. They want a minion army. lol.

Regardless, can't wait to read more... and you have a lot of material for me! haha.

[Kol Korran]

Hey there Karchev, Nibbens!

Nibbens, my log is quite extensive. If you find it to your tastes, then cool. Many don't though, and find it too long,too extensive. That's cool as well. I don't try to appease everyone's tastes. So if it works for you, then awesome. If not, then awesome as well.

Karchev, I'm not sure it's the "players roll all of the dice" that keeps the party in tune. They were pretty much this way in a previous campaign (Ran by Andrew/ Julian's player, I never wrote a log for it... That was SOME story though!)

Our players keep most snacks near the table, for easy reach. The only times they go to the fridge is to get cool drinks. But it's done by the player who has JUST finished his turn.

I asked one of my players what kept the attention, and he commented "Well, the battles are quite fierce, and you keep on springing surprises! You need to keep your game on!" So maybe it's about making tense enough encounters (Or at least most of them) in order to keep the feeling that battles are risky, and demand the party's attention! The first battle I set for the Campaign (The Clydewell Arena battle) managed to set the tone for the entire first module. The party was quite nervous and edgy after that, so they kept focus. As I said before- keep the pressure on.

A side note: Now that we're at the fourth module, I came to rethink the end of the first module, but I wrote it quite late in this post here. Most of the advice is quite solid I think, but the one about having Minhago at the end of the first module is untested, and may be risky, though I think it would make such a more fitting end to the module! But it requires quite resourceful and creative players! If your players go just "hack and slash" it's a death sentence... be warned. ]

Good luck to you both with your games!

[karchev1211]

I asked one of my players what kept the attention, and he commented "Well, the battles are quite fierce, and you keep on springing surprises! You need to keep your game on!" So maybe it's about making tense enough encounters (Or at least most of them) in order to keep the feeling that battles are risky, and demand the party's attention! The first battle I set for the Campaign (The Clydewell Arena battle) managed to set the tone for the entire first module. The party was quite nervous and edgy after that, so they kept focus. As I said before- keep the pressure on

Thanks ill give it a shot and sewe how it turns out good luck with your campaign and hope to read more after your vacation.

[Hiro]

I love reading this "journal" as it were. but While I'd like to run the module/AP myself I can't find the final book for it to download. Any suggestions?

[Kol Korran]

I love reading this "journal" as it were. but While I'd like to run the module/AP myself I can't find the final book for it to download. Any suggestions?

I just bought the modules on the Paizo site. We all chipped in, not that expensive.

[Kol Korran]

Not a session log yet...

We had a long delay in play. I've gone to a long trip in Romania, to see my "roots" as it were, and had a paper to work on, to publish, and the rest got a few other real life matters (Sena's player's relatives died, Julian's' player got back problem, and got bitten by a snake, and so on) so we had a bit of a hiatus.

The group played without me. They did a sort of an introductory session for Shadowrun. Andera's player and myself know the game somewhat, but Julian's player really wants to GM it. But he wanted to understand mechanics and flow of the game better, so Andera's player ran an adventure for them three. They had a really good time, and loved the game. Most likely after this campaign is over 9Though that will take... some time. ) Julian player will run a small campaign for us in the futuristic magic infused Shadowrun world!

But with all of this time between sessions, I have been thinking... About the next session- Some about the negotiations with Nocticula (Which I feel will be a center piece of the campaign. Altered it quite a bit), but also quite a bit abotu where we left off- at the cliff hanger, with Minhago just appearing after being taunted by Julian's impressive charismatic skills.

And I have an idea... Note, the following will probably contain quite a few spoilers, both to how the campaign is supposed to happen, but also to my changes to it, and how it may work out next session. (Providing the players don't find some way to change things. They do that quite a bit! )

So... Minhago appears. But how should the encounter go? From my end, this depends mostly on 3 factors: Minhago's personality and perception of the party, Minhago's resources, and Minhago's desires.

I'll start with the resources first: The module have her hire a unique kind of assassin, a sort of a half shadow/ special fey-demon (Forgot it's name and exact type, away from books) Bysserius or something. The improved Scorpion's statistics make it an interesting opponent. I decided to add other encounter (mostly from the Abyss Encounter table in the book, As the Derakni merceneries were) as other possible hirelings. I wanted the party to feel harrased.

It is also quite likely that she would be able to hire various magical services and lower hirelings, such as demons/ items to coordinate the hired assassins, and such. I haven't detaield it fully though.

As a combatant though... she is quite underwhleming. She has quite good protections. (Including some fortification against Mad Dog's crits, and mythic blind sight agaisnt Andera, and superb SR). but she can't inflict much carnage on her own. The lilitu are built as manipulators, charmers, coercers, and so on. Not as direct combatant. Hmmmm...

At first I thought to have her throw everythign she has, all of her assassins at the party, trying to stall the party with talks, while an underling demon uses sending to call on the hired groups, who prepare 1-2 rounds and then teleport. But... I had a problem with this:
- First, It feels like an entirely panicked act on her side, and I want her to feel more as someone who was once arrogant and foolish, but is now savvy and smart. I'd like her to trick/ fool the party (She's supposed to be a schemer after all, right"?) throwing everyone at them just felt too much "brute force".
- Secondly, The party has engaged her in the Midnight Fane in a bit over a day. Though the party will probably not notice it, I find it a bit hard to believe she will be able to arrive, report enough to superiors, set a safe base of operations, spread enough infromants, and hireall of the groups.
- Lastly, if the party defeats all of the assassins, she'll have nothing else of import to throw at them...

Another matter, an important one, is her history with the group- they have done the impossible and destroyed the Wardstone, shamed and disgraced her in front of Baphomet, and since then, from all reports, they have done amazing things one after the other, defeated impossible foes, and Sena and Julian seemed to have becoem soemthing... far more powerful, and different. The module describes Minhago as terrified of the party, and in a way, I agree. So attacking them directly might be quite foolish, even suicidal. Minhago will need to find a leverage, a way to weaken the party, get an advantage on them.

So... maybe split them up? Maybe kidnap one? Minhago has the powerful ability to Dominate Monster, but only once a day. And Protection from Evil protects from that. But... what if Minhago could get once character away from Sena' 10ft circile of protection (Or dispel it), and then dominate them. and have the, teleport to her safe base, into a prison? (She'' send the mental image through telepathy, and the prison will be secure against scrying). A sort of 3 stages process, possibly within the same round:
- Dispel magic circle/ get character away from it.
- Dominate
- Have dominated character teleport.

And then leave minions to attack, while she goes back to her kdinapepd character. being dominated, it could easily be made to comply with charms, and have brand put upon it. Then is functions as a puppet to Minhago, and supplies a LOT of infromation abotu the group.

At first I though that she might try and get Julian- She seems to have underwent through a lot, but also- it would reveal the existence of the Lexicon of Paradox, even get it to the hands of the demons. But though this would be an AWESOME twist to the game, It may be very difficult to play out- Julian's player (presuming the plan actually works) get separated from the party, most likely made chaotic evil, and then even made to fight the party. This will leave either him or them waiting for a long time, and worse- may put them against each other lethally.

So it's problematic... Julian is a tempting character, but problematic to play. Plus- Minhago may rightfully fear to try this on her, as she seems the most powerful, and most unknown of the party.

Then an idea struck me- Arulashee! Now THAT is a perfect target! Taking her out of the party keeps the players working together, and not split. Plus, whatever transition she goes under, could be veiled as her turning back to her evil self- can the party trust her? Has she turned to the dark side? Or can she be redeemed? Also, Some of the players already shown some attachment to her, so this might get great responses (Especially from Sena, who sees himself as her romantic partner, and Andera, who always stood between liking her and not trusting her). She also has a lower will save, and might stay behind to shoot arrows while Sena charges ahead after Minhago...

The more I turned the idea in my head, the more I liked it. And when I then though of the negotiations? Well, that just made things perfect- You see, In my version, the party meets Nocticula, but not alone. The emissaries of the demons come as well, and they are non other than Minhago (providing she survives), Hephazimerah (daughter of Baphomet, head of the mine, the end boss of this module) and Areelu Vorlesh herself... Nocticula institutes a "no violence" rule while the negotiations are in effect, and so the party lives in her palace, negotiating against these leaders of the demon hosts, for the fate of their world. In order to not having all of the negotiations fall on Julian, I decided that Nocticula will rule that in each stage of negotiations, only one member of each side can talk, and they cannot repeat (unless all have spoken, they need a few successes before failures). So it will be several rounds of 1-on-1. But the party are 4 people, and the demon emissaries are 3. But what if Arulashee is made corrupt by Minhago's spells, brands and the like, and comes as their 4th emissary? (Mostly to throw them off balance, and have her hit all the most private and intimate points in the party) She would seem utterly corrupt, and turned to the party. Will they think her gone? Redeemable? When she speak against them, tries to undo their work, how will they respond? Will they try to save her? Or forsake her? And what oh what, will Nocticula think of all of this, especially since the redemption of demonic essence is a matter in which she takes a very, very, very big interest?

So, the plan for the initial encounter as of now:
- Minhago stalls for 2-3 rounds, while a minion sends a call for 2 assassin groups- Nyzzerius, and one other. Minhago's image herself is but her projected image. She is invisible, and flies above the party.
- Monsters apepar. She uses her projected image to quicken charm monster various demons in the street, and her regular actions to charm some more, all the time taunting the party, trying to get their melee guys to come after her projected image, and mostly to have Sena get some distance from Arulashee if possible. By telepathy, she calls on some demons with dispel magic (or greater dispel) to prepare to use that on Sena, and maybe counter spells the other may cast to try and save Arulashee.
- When the timing is right, and Arulashee is unprotected, Minhago Tries to dominate her. She then sends a telepathic image of the prison she is to teleport to. Then, either by a scroll, spell, or power by another minion (or herself, though that will take another round, which she'd prefer to avoid), Arulashee gets teleported.
- Minhago says a few parting taunts, and then teleports herself, leaving the party to fend off the rest of the attackers, only to meet them later at the negotiations, after having branded (under the armor, in places not easily seen) and charmed Arulashee.

What do you think? I'm not that of a great tacticalt thinker. I'd love any kind of advice on how to better Minhago's chances in pulling this off. I'm worried about the will save (Minhago's DC is about 31 after Eagle's splendour, Arulashee had a +13 or +14 to save, which makes it possible, though hard and the party might decide to use her surge).

If you have other ideas on how to whiff away the party's succubus, that could be quite... sweeeeet! I'd love some evil minds at work here!

We play next Friday, on the 16th. Should be a long session, probably the most tense one yet! I'm eagerly looking forward to it! It's time to game time!

[Red Rubber Band]

This choice to use Arulashee reminds me of my DM and something he throw at us.

It's evil. But it fits, it works, and there's nothing logical your players can say against it.
And if Sena's player likes emotional growth and turmoil as part of his characte, well... he will love this arc.

[Kol Korran]

This choice to use Arulashee reminds me of my DM and something he throw at us.

It's evil. But it fits, it works, and there's nothing logical your players can say against it.
And if Sena's player likes emotional growth and turmoil as part of his character, well... he will love this arc.

What did your DM use? Maybe I can learn a trick or two?

The party might well come up with things to do against it. They have surprised me quite a few times before. If they can think up something, then they will evade this. I do hope to succeed in this, since that will be one of the few times "team demons" succeeds, and that could set quite a tone to the negotiations... It can give them a far gloomier, more sinister feel, and add tension, which is good.

I haven't yet worked out the mechanical details (I had very little time to actually sit down and look at abilities and such, even what I wrote above is mostly from memory), but I'll have a bit of free time on Monday and Tuesday, so I hope I will be able to find something suitable.

Again, if any of the readers have any ideas how to make the kidnapping of Arulashee more successful, anything that a master mind manipulator demon like Minhago might have thought of, I'd appreciate the help. (And no worries- my players ill too! They love some twists and a good challenge! )

[Kol Korran]

Hey all! Back form a long break. We played Last Saturday, but it took me a bit of time to get the free time to write a session log. Hope you're still with us!

I planned for the encounter with Minhago (Some thoughts in the previous posts), and assumed that after that the party will get to attracting more of Nocticula's attention (The module's Notoriety Score), and get to meeting The Lady in Shadow herself, for some tense negotiations! I even prepared a few props, to make the session a bit more intriguing.

But... things turned out quite differently. The first battle took quite long (About 4 hours! ) And through the party into quite a loop. Things got... messy afterwards. This session was somewhat chaotic, and took some improvisation, but with a few really cool moments in it!. Hope you'll enjoy!

The session ended up taking about 10 hours. Hope I will get to write it fast enough. Ok, here goes...

Session 23, Part 1- Minhago's trickery!

Ok, last time we stopped, the party was nearing their journey through the city of Porphyry towards the Flesh Markets, where they wished to track down Oodkalakt, the demon which Sena learned held the Drezen tieflings' soul stone. Nearing the markets, they were attacked by a group of Derakni demons, defeated them, and upon interrogation learned that the lilitu demon Minhago was trailing them, and sending assassins after them. So Julian goaded her to appear, and the session stopped as she appeared at the far end of the street.

Mindnight Shoot out!

Start of session Notoriety score: +1! (The battle with the Derakni).

We all know where it's gonna lead, don't we?

It was at this point that I realized quite a silly mistake on my part. I planned for quite a lot of possibilities, challenges and so on, but totally forgot what Minhago was intending to say at the start of the session!

I decided between sessions (You can check the previous posts) that Minhago probably still fears the party, to engage them fully. So I decided that she'll decide to use this opportunity to try and hit them hard, where they least expect it, and maybe gain some valuable information in the process- She will try to kidnap Arulashee!

Her talk ended up with a not very convincing attempt to stall the characters, making some threats, and offering to exchange secrets. Julian however was unto her from the start. "You ran once before, and now you're stalling?" but the party played the game, mostly so they could also cast a few buffs, use some powers... Julian used still silent spells, while Sena used powers and abilities that didn't require somatic or verbal casting.

In short:
Active spells when the conversation began:
- Julian: Echolocation. (She couldn't really see Minhago at this range, but directed herself to where her voice came from).
- Sena: Circle of protection from evil, Eagle soul, Magic vestment (On his shield)
- Minhago: Told her accompanying Coloxus demon to start contacting the assassins she contacted- Nezzerius (A specific Half indiku shadow templated demon in the module), and 4 Baregara demons (Adapted from the specific abyssal encounters in the module. Sort of large savage ape like demons, with no heads but gaping mouths in their chests). She uses a telepathic suggestion spell on Hezrou in the waters of the canal to come fight for great rewards, on her mark.
Her image was a projected image. She herself was invisible about half way on a roof between the party and her image, and also hiding (This becomes important later on). She waited to seize a chance...

1st round of both side stalling:
- Julian: silent stilled Circle against evil. (The party knew from their knowledge rolls and previous encounter that she has powerful charms. Between Sena and Julian, they wanted to keep the entire party covered).
- Sena: Liberation domain power.
- Minhago: Nezzerius contacted and informed via Sending by Coloxus. Minhago makes quickened telepathic charms on the Glaberzu in the street.

2nd round of both sides stalling:
- Julian: Silent stilled protection from evil on Mad Dog. (The party REALLY feared he might fall under enemy's control. And he tends to charge away from the circle's protection)
- Sena: Elysium call domain power.
- Minhago: Abergara demons contacted and informed. Minhago makes quickened telepathic charms on the Leader of a small Vrock group in the street (About 6 Vrocks). The vrock pass it to the rest...
- Nezzerius cast invisibility, and prepares to teleport.

This was about as long as pretenses could hold up. With Mad Dog seething, Andera easing his sword, and the charade so obvious on both sides, the scene suddenly exploded!

Battling Minhago's many demons, and Nezzerius appears.

The scene was complex, as there were many combatants: Minhago and her projected image, 1 glaberzu, 2 Hezrou, 6 Vrocks, and a few cambions who just wondered about, and didn't quite get what was happening ,but tried to get in on the fun (utterly ineffective, mostly as distraction/ obstacles). To that mess Nezzerius and the Baregara demons joined in soon enough...

Titan Dune, by Two Steps from Hell
(I didn't manage to find quite a fitting music for these scene, and ended up using this again)

Julian starts by casting True Sight on Mad Dog. He sees the projected image for what it is, but he does not spot Minhago hiding herself, as his perception isn't high enough for her stealth. The party is quite worried at this, thinking she might be polymorphed into one of the demons in the street, or have access to magic that defeats true sight.

Sometimes a simple mundane skill check is enough. Magic can usually be countered some way...

Nezzerius, the sneaky shadow master crossbow user assassin teleports invisible some distance behind the party, over the canal. he has no place to hide, counting on his invisibility, yet Mad Dog sees this new threat ,alarming the party. They get a bit agitated. Julian sees the assassin with her "soul vision", seeing a twisted shadowy sharp form of a... fey? She doesn't know what to make of it. Julian grunts her teeth. "Be prepared! She will probably try to bring the whole damned city upon us!" Mad Dog hears this, grips his sword, and smiles blissfully! He rages (No titan rage), and activates his boots of lying, getting to the surprised shadow creature, yet misses it.

Sena hears this, and using his quicken metamagic rod starts laying many protective buffs over himself and the party,preparing to do this for the next few rounds. He moves a bit closer to Arulashee, with him and Julian covering the entire party with their circles of protection. "Stay close to me!" he whispers to the succubus. Minhago sees this, awaiting her chance.

With a telepathic command, she calls on the vrocks. The 6 come around the party, and unleash their stunning screams. With 6 saves, Andera and Arulashee fail, and are stunned, dropping Andera's swords, and her bow. Minhago herself tries to throw Julian int tto he canal with her telekinetic powers, but Julian resists. "Is that the best you can do?" she calls the challenge again.

The Glaberzu springs up 5 mirror images, and approach. At this point i'm surprised by the player's wariness of the demon. They remember Jerribeth, and are unsure how much weaker this one might be... The 2 Hezrou climb from the canal to the edge of the street. One manages to bite Arulashee, and tries to grapple her but fails. With vrocks blocking 3 sides, and the Hezrou from the fourth, the party is kind of surrounded...

Behind the Vrocks, the Baregara demons teleport in. The party gets more worried... but also very much more determined! It seems all of the pieces are on the board...

Shooting range, first fatality!

Now, at this point I need to emphasize something about Nezerius- I'm using the altered statistics block, (Created by Scorpion). In it Nezzerius has a unique ability- it can summon shadow doubles, which are exactly like it, except for Spell like abilities and lower hit points. He can summon them for a limited number of rounds per day, as a free action. In hindsight, I think that Scorpion must have used him as a solo encounter, and prepared this ability to make it a reasonable threat, as well as deal with action economy. In this encounter however?

Seeing Mad Dog so close, and having been informed of his deadliness by Minhago prior when she hired it, Nezzerius steps back, and summons his 4 doubles in a circle around Mad Dog. And then all 5 of them, use rapid shot to fire 4 bolts each (They are master crossbow users), with deadly aim...

Mad Dog get hit with 7 of the bolts, but two of them with a crit! The party sees their melee monster getting machine gunned, and he falls, and dies! (The party: "What the hell?! Oh ****! Oh ****!") Mad Dog's flying boots keep it suspended in the air, a bloody dead bolt punctured body... The party gets real tense about it. "Who to focus on?!" Shouts Sena. Julian calls to him "Get him alive! We'll get Minhago!"

Sena complies with Julian's plan, Activates his hastened armor, and with his Faith reach uses Breath of life and quickened Heal spell (From Rod) to bring Mad Dog back to the land of the living (184 HP). Mad Dog takes a deep breath, but He is still in deep trouble- Nezzerius and his clones are all around, grinning at him, and ready to load more bolts...

Don't split the party?

Julian, fearing the shadow assassin, and wishing to draw attention from it, teleports all of them EXCEPT for Mad Dog, () towards Minhago's illusion! The other group of demons is now behind them.

Minhago's illusion just smiles, and steps back. The real Minhago, still hidden, calls out telepathically "Engage them! Great riches and rewards from Baphomet itself!" The vrocks bring up mirror image and fly towards the party, with the Glaberzu angry at them, stepping on a building above the party and trying to grab Arulshee again, yet fails. "I will get the rewards!" It roars. The party notices the focus on Arulashee, but takes no heed of it. "They have something with her", and shrug it off. Minhago, seeing where her target ha moved to, urges her Coloxus to move closer but keep hidden and silent.

Andera comes out of the stun, and calls out to Changi, left on the floor of near the canal. "Changi! To me!" The sword copies and dimension doors itself (It can cast the spell. Pretty neat trick! ) to his hand. He then vanishes, swiftly climb up the building and stabs the surprised Glaberzu!

The hezrou approach, but not close enough, The Baregara split their efforts- 2 charge and try to grab Arulashee, while the other tow cast dispel magic on Julian and Sena. Sena has his eagle soul drop, Julian her Echolocation. She is indeed blind now, except for her soul vision...

The fight intensifies!

But she can still see Nezzerius (Atthis point the party think the clones are other who have come, and not magical creations. Still, they think it is the leader). She unleashes mythic disintegrate on it, and hits! 39d6! This wounds the fiend greatly. He sees her now as a big threat! Him and another clone goes towards them, and go int othe ethereal... The other 3? Keep on shooting Mad dog! He is hit hard, and is now bleeding.

Mad dog, Not liking the situation, also finds out that as he died (briefly) his sword fell into the water. Not wantign to leave it, and wanting some cover fro mthe 3 shooters, he dives in into the fetid canal, and grabs his sword, wondering what hell do now, alone in the waters of the demon city, bleeding, with the 3 shadowy assassins hovering above...

But he is not the only one without a weapon- Arulashee's bow was left on the canals' side as well. Without her weapon, she turns towards the Glaberzu. Her demeanor changes as she draws on her succubi powers, suggesting to the Glaberzu VERY strictly to run away, that these champions have killed far worse then it! The Glaberzu falls to her power, and turns away.

Sena, his call for revenge high in his blood, casts genie blood, and flies in a whirl wind to the midst of Vrocks, Hezrou and Bargera. He seeks to focus their attention on him, and plans a nasty surprise... Minhago however notices this, and how he moves way from Arulashee... Only Julian;s power next to her. Time to make her move...

Minhago's strike!

The vrocks and hezrou indeed gang up on Sena, who deflects them all with ease. Andera attacks on of the Bargera that attacked Arulashee, suddenly worried. The Glaberzu teleports away, but Minhago needs it no more. She mentally calls upon the Bargera "Dispell the mortal sorceress spells! All of them! Now!"

The Bargera cast 4 dispel magic on Julian. It is enough to fell her circle of protection from evil. Hoping there are no more magical protections, Minhago, (Who have slowly maneuvered herself closer) appears and direct her ring of spell storing at Arulashee, casting a quickened Ill omen on her (Forcing her to roll twice on her next save, takign the worst). She then uses her Dominate Monster ability, and manages to control Arulashee. Telepathically, she tells her" Comply with the coloxus spell, and fool the party as you have betrayed them!".

The Coloxus, who also waited till this point, comes rushing, and casts teleport on Arulashee. At the final moment she turns to the party, unwillingly playing the betraying demon. "So long suckers!" before she vanishes... Sena barely reads something is off (She has a high bluff skill, but the spell does speak that it's easier to see that the person is not himself. It was a compromise), before his loved one vanishes.

Minhago sneers at the party "I was once overconfident. Felt I was beyond harm. Invincible. I have learned my lesson, now it's time you learn yours!"

At the table, the party was quite stunned. They quite thought that Arulashee has betrayed them. Sena's player was dumbfounded, and Julian's player cursed "This was too planned from the get go!" Andera's player fumed, while Mad Dog's player just tried to think how the hell he was going to get alive out of this one!

(I'll touch on design a bit later, after the fight.)

It's not over yet! A desperate fight!

Julian, quite angry at being tricked, but seeing a clear target unleashes a chain of light spell on Minhago, who easily evade it. (The player is somewhat stunned by her high saves! )

Nezzerius, seeing Julian occupied with Minhago, and Mad Dog by his clones, goes after the closest target- Sena. He let out a prismatic spray, but it faisl to affect Sena, but... mostly damages the minions (Two vrocks turned to stone, one vrock and Garbera sent to another dimension... nice!) Sena would grin, but right now he is FURIOUS with rage!

And with that, he lets out one powerful holy word, blinding, deafening, and killing various demons around him- Vrocks, Herzou, Cambions and Nezzerius itself. The demons are terrified, and most are quite out of the figth. Yet this does not sate the holy man's anger! Yet party safety's first! He flies towards Mad Dog's position, hoping to draw attention and heal their main warrior. Nezzerius, woudned heavily and blinded, slips into the ether again...

The scene splits between two main sites: Mad Dog, Sena, 3 clones and 2 Bregara chasing, and on the other side Julian and Andera, against the last Baregara and... Minhago herself...

The battle looks bad...

Mad Dog thinks to attack the clones, as he rises from the water though he meets readied shots, and his hit points fall to 0! Thinking quickly, he deactivates his boots. which makes him fall into the water again, where he grabs a potion and drinks it.

Andera dimension doors next to Minhago and attacks her. He hits, but to his surprise her heavy fortification armor manages to block his sneak attack! More, here unholy aura sps at his strength. She turns to him, and tries to lash with her claws, not hitting, but smiling.

The Baregera next Sena keep taking down his spells. while the 3 clones see the new threat and pepper the the divine tank. But unlike Mad Dog, the bolts all go "tink! tink!" on his armor and falls off. Mad Dog from below hears the diverted attention, and gets ready.

Meanwhile the Baregara facing Julian attacks and grabs her! She tries to make it drown with Aboleth lung spells, but fails... He pushes her at the gaping mouth in his chest, which starts to gnaw on her. The player... doesn't like the image...

Minhago calls out to her assassin "Where are you? Come back Nezzerius! Finish them!" She herself tries to claw out Andera, with one claw actually hitting, but he uses mirror dodge to go to the street, to help Julian. "She is too strong for us now!" He hisses, as he slashes and chops at the big beasty demon.

Minhago turns to the party. "i have been overconfident before, I will not be again. I know why you have come, and would love to see your world's full ruination, soon to come! Now, I have to go and meet... an old friend of mine!" She smiles, and goes to where Arulashee was teleported, to make sure nothing might go wrong and endanger her capture.

Nezzerius, Not trusting his blindness, and heavily wounded state, and having witnessed both mythic disintegrate and holy words, decides to teleport away, think up a new strategy... The clones fade away, and the party is able to finish off the rest of the Baregaras, as well as the many disabled demons.
As Andera kills the Baregera holding Julian, she falls from it's grasp, bleeding (Brilliance saved her life casting cleanse on her while grappled), and coughs. Andera helps her up as the enraged Sena and Mad Dog carve a bloody path from the demons in between.

Sena looks at Julian, rage suddenly turning to grief... "Now what?"

DM's design: Minhago's trickery

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Some of the following is discussed to some degree above. But I will touch on few subjects, that might be of interest/ frustration:
- It wasn't a fair fight! Not all battles are... and demons don't play fair. Minhago is supposed to be one of the masterminds of the demons' side. An infiltrator, betrayer, charmer, and more. She plays smart. Plus, after failing Baphomet with the protection of the Wardstone, her learning of the party, their many successes and quick rise, and the new not-fully-understood transformations of both Julian and Sena, she is weary, and preferred to not take many chances. So she brought in her assassins. Yet, the battle was not as one sided as it may have seemed- The main problems were actually figuring out Minhago's goal here (Which was hidden well), Minhago herself (Hidden as well), and... Nezzerius. Which brings me to:

- The deadly Shadow assassin: He proved quite more powerful than I imagined! Mostly due to the clones ability. That sure changed the scales. Mad Dog actually managed to block the majority of the hits, but enough htis, with such a focus on ranged damage, made it pile up real fast! In retrospect, the modified Scorpion version of Nezzerius should probably be used as a single encounter. Originally that was the idea, but with the last minute change of last session, I decided Minhago would bring it here.

- Dominating Arulashee: Julian commented (In play) that it seemed quite well planned. Well, it was, but not perfect. First, the protection from evil spells could have held. When Sena flew off, it was the chance. At first when both Julian and Sena had their circles up, both covering all party members, I thought Minhago's plan wouldn't succeed. She relied on the Beragara's dispel magic powers to work. (Originally I had her hire them for this specific purpose, as Sena relies heavily on buffing, and the rest also tend to use quite a few protections). Thirdly, Arulashee was the focus of a few demons attacks before her capture. Hezrou bite, Glaberzou claw, and Baregara claw. Yet the party wasn't that worried. Lastly... there was the invisible Minhago and coloxus. While Minhago was quite hard to find, the coloxus was less so, though invisible. After putting True sight on Mad Dog, they didn't put any on the others. The plan had a few possibilities off failure.
I don't force things to happen. But if the party faced a powerful schemer and mastermind, I would play her with a decent cunning. Had the party was able to protect/ save Arulashee, or even just evade the combat (It looked fairly against them from the start, especially when Mad Dog fell), I wouldn't have pressed the matter. But it played this way...

- Arulashee's final act: 2 main questions apply here, for rules sake: First, does agreeing to a teleport from the coloxus constitutes "acting against her nature". I deemed that it wasn't, otherwise you can't much do a lot with dominate. Things in the future WILL be against her nature, but quite a few things will happen till then... Secondly, the dominate spell says it's a DC 15 sense motive check to see the person acting unnaturally. But that comes in a paragraph portraying how the dominated person focuses on one activity totally, so it takes time, and not a few seconds after the domination. Also- what if the dominated affect is to act, to bluff, to deceive? I decided that Arulashee's bluff score was 15 less for this. Sena rolled close enough to know something is a bit off, but didn't quite know what.

- Why did Minhago and Nezzerius escape? They should have pressed the advantage! Well, yeah... Minhago may have faced the party, and had a good chance of killing some, or all. But... first, SHE doesn't know that. All that she have learned so far is that the party succeeds against great odds, impossible odds even (The trap of Drezen? Jerribeth machinations? Taking out the entire Ivory Sanctum in a single battle?), and she is quite afraid of them. I am playing her VERY cautious. She has just captured Arulashee. Now she will corrupt her, break her, turn her against the party, and learn their secrets, especially the secrets to their newfound power... The second reason is that Minhago HATES the party, and seeks not to simply kill them. That won't be enough. She seeks to make them suffer, see them fall, crawl, see their world turn into ash. Break them... She is major corruption demon, with a BIG grudge against the party. She seeks to make them fully suffer! And now, with her new... "acquisition", she plans to make life very, very interesting, at a most crucial point! (More to come).
Why did Nezzerius turned away? More simple- it saw the battle turn heavily against him. The mythic disintegrate had it very wounded (About 20 hit points), it was blinded by Sena's holy word, and his clones didn't seem to make a dent in Sena's armor. Plus- Minhago just bailed, and most of the other demons were incapacitated. It was time to cut loses, retreat and think things over.

The party stood in the middle of the bloody carnage. A few more distant onlookers quickly got away, though the impressive battle has left it's mark (More notoriety). They were bloody, with many spells expended, but worst of all...

Sena walked to Arulashee's fallen bow, near the canal ,and took it in his hand slowly, closing his eyes. "What now?"

The Bright side?
Though the party hadn't defeated Minhago and Nezerius, I gave them the XP for he demons they did kill. Enough to level up to level 14! But the party was not comforted by this. "We lost big time. We do not DESERVE to level up!" was Julian's player's sentiment.

Main changes: Julian got 7th level spells, and chose the finger of death spell. Mad Dog took took the energy absorption rage power, and Andera took the Mage Bane master ninja trick (3rd party, but I allowed it).

The Party's Notoriety rose to +5 (+2 from 2 battles. +3 from impressive attention getting battle).

We stopped for a little break while the players updated their characters, and contemplated ways of action....
----------------------------------------

I will stop here. Hope to continue soon.

[Kol Korran]

Ok, second part!

Session 23, Part 2- Desperation, planning, and shadowy dealings

Arulashee's disappearance puts a big gloom on the party. Sena tries to scry her, and Minhago, but finds that he is blocked by some protection. He grunts in anger. But then depression creeps on him, and he feels shamed, sad, and falls mostly silent, deep in thought, responding laconically, with a shallow voice.

The party isn't doing that Great. Sena hs but a few spells left. Mad Dog has no more mythic power, and is quite wounded. Julian is heavily wounded as well, with about only a third of her spells slots open. Andera though is unharmed and has most resources still.

As the street starts to fill up, with many new onlookers, the party thinks they need a place to hide, and regroup. Back to The Inn and Out? Not now that they have gotten so far to the Flesh Markets. And besides- now they might be quite known... So they seek a small place, get a room and think.

A discussion immediately opens about Arulashee- has she played them as fools all of this time, just waiting for aa chance to betray them? Andera (Who surprisingly suspected her most) didn't think so- "You saw Minhago cast something on her from her ring." (They didn't bother making a spellcraft check). Also, why wait till now? And why go away, and not help Minhago against us?"

Julian thought, and agreed. "Indeed. Minhgo was there to capture her. Once she had her, she quickly disappeared. She was her target."

Sena is silent, and does not respond.

Julian thinks "We know of a few names- Minhago, Arulashee, Nezzerius, and that Oodkalakat" (Not the same coloxus). Sena burst at this "I already tried scrying! They are blocked! And you really think I care about that low life demon? What do we do NOW?!" At the end of the outburst though, he fell back into his gloomy mood.

The party is stumped. Julian though concludes. "In any way, we are in no shape to battle Minhago or her plans now. We have to rest, and think. Maybe.. .we can come up with a plan after some rest." Sena was angry, but complied. He spent the rest of his channel energy and few spells to heal the party. They then went to sleep, with Sena in his meditation keeping watch, adding a new name to his list of vengeance "Minhago!"

Andera's innovative reaching out.
It was at this point that Anders' player wanted to try something... special, outside the rules. "I have had a life time connection to Arulashee. She saved me, we saved her. Desna connected us, and we spoke from afar, in dreams. Maybe, Maybe I can contact her again?" I was intrigued, so I asked him to continue, see whee it goes.

Andera turned to Sena. "Give me her bow. It is a holy relic of Desna, and connected to Arulahsee. Lend it to me, and I will try to reach her, through dreams, as she have reached me." Sena, in his grief, handed him the moon bow mournfully. Andera pulled out the crystal arrow, which he found in the Temple of the Welcome Night (The second module, the lost Chappel. He kept one arrow as remembrance of that event). With bow in one hand, arrow in another, he laid down, and tried to concentrate, and pray to Desna...

Liking this, I allowed this, but for a price. This would drain some mythic power from him (3 points for the next day). Andera felt... Something... A divine presence?... Linking him, through the bow, through the arrow, unto...

Andera stood in total blackness. He saw Arulashee, TWO Arulashee. One was the one he knew, but she was on her knees, crying, in pain, with various arcane marks on her body, that Andera recognized as lilitu brands from Sena and Julian's explanation earlier, mainly on her torso and abdomen, places hidden by armor. (This was supposed to be a secret later on, but This was cool to warrant such a hidden discovery). Most worrying of all, the figure was nearly faded utterly, as if it was draining away...

But between her and Andera stood the other Arulashee, Seeming strong, confident. With a sly mocking grin on her face. "Oh, the savior! Have you come to say your final goodbyes?"

Andera, not knowing what can and can't be done in this realm, tries to trick her. "I don't care about old Arulashee! She walked with Sena, and left me! I despise her for that! I have seen Minhago and her power, I am more interested in what you and your masters has to offer. I don't plan on being on the losing side..." Andera surprisingly decides to use the Campaign trait, to have his bluff "roll" be a 20! With added bonuses, the evil side of Arulashee is just intrigued enough to bite. But she is no fool...

"Hmmm... you seem sincere! But you are fool of trickery. How can I trust you?" Andera replied "What do you wish of me?" She smirked. "The head of one of your companions!"

Andera is surprised by this, and tries to bluff again. "You've seen their power! If I do this, I need a quick way to get away! Where can I find you, immediately, so I can escape to safety?"

This works less well. "I cannot give you our location. I do not fully know it myself. Minhago does. Get a scroll of sending or something, and contact her once the deed is done. She will let you know!" Andera thought quickly, and tried to catch a glimpse of the fading tied Arulashee. The other one looked smug. "Soon she will be gone, and only I shall remain, after being lost all this time! Decades under her! Finally free! Send my thanks to Sena, send him... my love!" She said with a smirk.

Andera tried to think. In this dream world, he tried to make it look as if he's retreating, but then sneaking past her, to the bound fading figure. He succeeded, and came behind her. He looked down in his hands, and willed the bow, and the arrow to his hands, and then put it in hers,whispering in her ear ""You still have the bow and arrow of Desna! believe in her, in us, in yourself and we will find you again! We will find you!" He felt her hands grasping the moon bow of dreams, grasping the one sole arrow, tightly more than Mad Dog ever grasped his sword! And with that, the dream ended...

He awoke, but with no bow or arrow in hand. Sena was puzzled, as despite him keeping watch, he must have gotten distracted, and haven't seen the bw and arrow disappear! Alarmed, he went to Andera. "Tell me!" Andera told it all, word for word, with Sena looking pained at the mention of "send him my love." Sena ws silent, thanked Andera, and went to his place. he had conversation of his own to make!

DM thoughts- Andera's dream reaching

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I personally really loved it! It had all kind of beautiful touches- The bow, The arrow, The connection with her. Andera- the ultimate sneak, senaking even to dreams, even beyond one's own subconscious (Sort to speak). I thought it was really cool, really creative, and a lovely piece. So I allowed it.

In my original plans, if Arulashee was captured, later on she might appear, with a bit question of whether some of her good self is still there, or has she been corrupted utterly. This may make this question more obvious, orgive mroeincentve to the party, but still- it was cool! And they deserved it.

The last bit, with Andera sneaking and giving her her bow and arrow? Wow, I was inspired! I just rolled with it, and I intend to make it important somehow. I have no idea how yet, but I'll try to think of something.

Another talk with Calistria
Sena decided he needed all the help he could get. With what Andera told him, time was of theessence if they wish to save Arulashee. So he cast commune, and once more the mask on his face drifted off and turned in mid air, looking at him amused.
Calistria: "Well, this is becoming a habit!"
Sena was a bit rude: "I don't have the mood for chit chat. We made a pact once."
Ca:"Yes, we did. I do not forget such things. So what is it now, oh unseen one?"
S: "What do you want?"
Ca: "That is quite a broad question, but in this matter? I want to see where this will lead, I'm curious…"
Sena was getting angrier. He was hoping for soem sort of a trade of favors: "Anything specific that you want?"
Ca: "To learn… of True things." Unlike most responses of Calistria, the tone of this answer was without joking, quite serious.
S: "Well I learned something true, and it was taken from me! Where is she?"
Ca: "Beyond my power to know. Butr... not in a good place probably…" (The player laughed, Sen himself fumed)
S: "Goddes of revenge, of retribution. How can I revenge what have been done to me. What do you want?"
Ca: "I told you what I want, you don't seem in the mind to listen... But revenge is best served, unproportioned… The real question is:What do YOU want? What is important, to YOU? At this time, NOW?"
Sena was left speechless, thinking. The mask smiled a curious smile, and floated back to fit upon his face.

DM thoughts- communes with Calistria

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An agreement between me and the player is that the spell should not be abused, and that it may be used in major events. This was such a one, so we played it. Also, wediverge from the spell's descriptions of "questions and yes/no/maybe answers", as that is quite boring. We prefer some conversation, with me keeping a sort of a tally upon "answers", though most times we just come to some conclusion, and that's it.

Why is am I playing Calistria as so difficult? A few reasons: First, this is the plane of a demon lord, and so she is not expected to have all power or even be omniscient here. Secondly- Sena IS her most powerful agent here, by far. Third, she is a capricious goddess, and does seek to see what choices will Sen make. He is an unknown quantity to her, an experiment of a sort. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I have a certain plan of play with Calistira, which I have hinted about in the past, which would later on might explain her behavior.

I must say that I quite like Sena's dealing with religion. He talks more in terms of bartering, trade, deals with the goddess, than outright worship, which is... interesting. Keep tuned!

One thing to note: The last question that she posed to Sena IS important. It runs on similar lines as the question of the Vorlons and Shadows from Babylon 5, which the player takes great inspiration for. This came as a sort stroke of improvisation, but the player got the hint.

Doing some leg work
After resting, the party tried to think again what to do. Julian had an idea. "You tried Arulashee and Minhago. But what about that shadowy creature? She called it Nezzerius? Maybe you can locate him?" Sena scried, and managed to see it, in some sort of an ethereal space (Actually, a bit of my bad. I forgot he can go to the ether only a limit rounds per day! Oops!) From the vauge etails on the ether it seemed he was near some people. They thought to greater teleport there (With Julian having access to 7th level spells), but the description was not clear enough.

By this point, in all the thinking and trying to come up with a solution something weird happened. Julian and Sena's players were searching the PFSRD for any kind of spell that could solve this. They kept on looking, looking, discussing spells, while Anderas player suggested "We're near the flesh market, lets go search for info there! In this big city someone must know something!" But the two players were quite reluctant at first, still searching for that one spell. It took them a while to accept his plan, though grudingly, a bit with an attitude, like "this is so simple and lame!"

DM thougths- Over reliance on spells

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I've noticed it slightly before, but on this occasion it became far more clear. With the mythic abilities Wild Arcana and Sanctified Spell, (Or however the divine version is called), the casters have basically every spell in their spell list at their hands. This lent to a form of... well... toput it bluntly... laziness. They think less of solving things through smarts and playign the world, and more in terms of "just finding the correct spell for THIS problem." Strangely enough, this comes from quite creative players. This was a bit more with battles, but as spell levels progressed, the reliance on spells to save the day becomes more and more evident. The two players didn't even consider looking for information or solutions outside their spells. Yeah, I know this is partly why you wanna play a caster, but still- weird...

Porphyry City music- Planescape Torment full soundtrack

The party casts their long lasting buffs, and go to the Flesh Markets. This time the sights of mass auctions and sales of slaves, of nearly any kind of creature, do not really get to them. Nor the horrors, the tortures, or the various sights and sounds of suffering. They have become somewhat more jaded, and much more goal oriented. Amongst the trades of all senses, pleasures, items, sins, experiences and more, they start canvasing and gathering information.

Andera seeks any information about delegates from Deskari or Baphomet. Yet outside learning that such envoys might get to the place of Nocticula herself, he discovers nothing.
Sena seeks about Oodkalakat. The coloxus clerk is known well enough- He recently started to work for an aristocratic succubus mistresses, known as Lady Vallexia, who actually have a place in the market, called "Rapture of rupture", Which she uses to test potential artistic talents, to bring into the Terrace of Favored Mistresses (A sort of aristocratic quarter, for the elite of the city). He explores more of her, learning she is quite sophisticated, very easily bored, has powerful magic and can be quite deadly.
Julian asks about Nezzerius. With her high social skills she manages to learn that it is a unique kind of assassin, bred in the special vaults of Nocticula's elite assassins herself. He now works as an independent, but he might be contacted through a branch of the assassin's guild here in the market. (Okay, i was kind of improvising quickly)

Still trying to solve with spells, Julian tries casting Vision. First of Minhago (Spell check) and then on Nocticula, which succeeds! I am a bit stumped... I have some info I planned on the demon lord (The module comes with very very little). So they give me a mintue or two, and I come up with the following basic legends:
Notcicula was the First Succubi, made out of mortals first deep concepts of lust, manipulation and betrayal. She rose quite quickly through the ranks, proving smart, assassinating her superiors, and taking the demon lords' life blood. Then, about 350 years ago, came an era which the demons call "The silent Darkness"- Nocticula, always mysterious, seem to have withdrawn from the world completely into her palace. She was seen a handful of occasions since, and usually uses delegates to run her religion, Porphyry city, and more. She has been absent from major occurrences for that time, though it is said she watches many things, and invite those of import to her palace. Few leave. It seems she has some greater plan, some philosophical concerns and questions, as some of those she sends, go to ask existential meanings. She uses powerful demons, as a sort of supervisors and managers of Porphyry. She brought Shamira about 80 years ago. An immensely powerful Succubus, but surprisingly with no known origins. Previous "overseers" of Prohyry usually vanish when she deems it, perhaps go serve in her palace, perhaps killed when they get to be too much of a threat. In the past two centuries, Nocticula mostly communicates through The Sisters of The Last Embrace- Specially trained and blessed succubi, who acts as her mediators, servants, elite assassins and bodyguards. There is much uncertain about her, but her love of a good challenge is quite known. Despite being an assassin, she always took risky targets.

I agreed with the player that I may think of a few more things between sessions, and might add these. Though these seemed to have satisfied them somewhat.

Shady dealings- A deal with a demon

The party again is stumped. Andera suggest an interesting idea- "Lets try to contact Nezzerius. He failed in his mission, perhaps we can play on his pride? Maybe turn him against Minhago?" Sena seethes "I want her head!" Mad Dog heartily agrees, and puts his hand on Sena's shoulder. "Me too, but this may lead to her." Sena agrees, and send a Sending to Nezzerius. "You failed once. She left you there. How much to hire you? Can we meet?" I find this quite interesting, and it fits with how I see Nezzerius (The module also suggest they might turn him on her) So Nezzerius replies. "Interesting... Meet to talk. Assassins branch in meat market. 1 hour."

They manage to find the building, which was fairly unassuming, yet with a subtle and fine architecture. After explaining themselves they were brought inside, to a room with an anti magic field, a big glass in the middle, and a room beyond. An elegnat succubus sat at the corner. "Negotiation room" Julian commented. "Safety measures?" She said, feeling the anti magic field, not quite liking it.

After a bit of time, Nezzerius teleported into the other half (Which had no antimagic field). For some reason, I accented him a bit like a cliche rastaman. > . The shadowy floating assassin grinned at them "You wanted see me? Talk? Then talk." The party felt unease at the presence of the Succubus, but Nezzerius gave a shrug. "Guild practice. Till think is safe. Not much to do. Now talk."

J: "In what way can we use your talents? Eliminating/ extracting?"
Nezzerius just nodded. "Can do both."
S: "We want to find someone, and extract them." Julian added "You won't go in alone. Once you find her, let us now, and we attack in force, combined!"
Nezzerius seemed unpleased. "Me guess who you talk about. Problem. Allready employed. Bad business to not finish. Bad name. This be tricky. This be dangerous. This high pay!"
Andera intervened. "I thought you're a business man? Just an honorable business man?" (This got great laughs from the party, a reference to older character's of Sena's player. In previous logs- Killpi the murderous halflign posing as a businessman, and D*ick Mighty, a powerful, but highly... "determined", business man. Sena's player was amusely offended "What? I'm not like him!")
Nezerius shrugged, and gave a smile. "I do business. Last business, not work so well. Problems. May be way out of it, work for you? Maybe, if pay right!"
Julian looks atthe succubus, not wntign peopel hearing of them. "lets talk details. Can we have some privacy?" Nezzerius looks at her, and she promptly goes and leaves.
J: "Ok, so how much will it be to locate Arulashee, and then help us free her out of wherever she is?"
Nezzerius seemed to conemplate. "You ask go agsint former employer. Minhago strong. VERY strong. Many allies, resources. Not easy. Very Dangerous. But... first thing- If we do this, you give true oath, you no harm me, me no harm you. True?"
The party, except for Mad Dog, agreed to this. He still remembered having died to a barrel of arrows. Yet, the party sort of convinces him. Nezzerius takes their word for it, for now.".
Sena, in a strange turn of events, tries to convince Nezzerius. "We can offer you much! If you succeed, I can offer you more! You can be a great asset to my cause!" Which gets him some worried, soem funny looks from the party. Yet Nezzerius disregards. "Not like goody causes. Now, what we saying, EXACTLY."
The party hashes out some details. Basically they want him to find where Arulashee is being kept, notify them, and then they all go in (with Nezzerius), and go in to extract her. If they happen to kill Minhago, all the better, but that's not the main goal. There is disagreement in the party of whether to have Nezzerius help them. Mad Dog really doesn't trust him.
Nezzerius again emhapsizes the danger, the difficulty and such. Julian cuts to the chase. "I hear negotiation,"
Ne: "How much you pay?"
S: "How much you offer?"
The party tries to deal and negotiate, Andera even suggest "We soon go to talk with Nocticula, we can put in a good wordfor you, have you on her good side!" To this the shadowy demon finally laughs, a weird, joyless laugh. "She is on on one's sides. Just her own..."
At the end Nezzerius offers: "100,000, half in advance, half when find. If want me to fight, 70, 000 more. What you say?" (Note: By the module Minhago wants to pay him her ring of spell storing, worth 50,000. Nezzerius goes for a high base negotiation. The party sees it as it is. )
The party haggles quite a bit, with Sena keepignto try to lure the demon towork for him. Finally Julian makes the her diplomacy rolls- 47! (With both Andera And Sena failing in the "aid another" tests. By our house rules, the DC is either 10, or theoriginal DC -10, which ever is higher). The demon scoffs at Sena "You work from heart, from passion. You be dangerous. Not trustworthy!" also at Andera "You I don't trust, you speak what the other wants to hear!" but Julian's impressive charisma and roll. (47!) gets him to agree for 30K now, 30 K upon finding where Arulahsee is being kept. The party decides to forgo his actual fighting assistance. He grins at Julian. "Hear you want become a goddess, yes? So you do true bargains, like good gods, yes? You remember me, eh goddess?"
Sena grunts, and gives the demon his pearl of power of 6th level. "The first payment" and also gives hi ma scroll of sending "Inform us quickly!"
Julian adds to finish this up: "I trust on your expertise"
Nezzerius accept the payment, starting to mutter to itself: "Minhago, Minhago, where to look for her? Ah… maybe…" and then he teleports.

Sena looks back at the others, still somewhat pissed off, but relieved they've got Him working for them. "Well, that went... however that went. Now what?"

DM thoughts- Hiring Nezzerius

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I liked this idea, for this is one of the real dealings with demons, that didn;t involve killing them .I feel that had I prepared to play him better, I might have done better, but it's ok I think. He got quite mixed responses from the party.

Not sure how to deal with him yet, or his mission. I want it to pay off to some degree, not sure exactly how.

The party is becoming more and more desperate... Interesting...

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I shall stop this part here. Gotta go and sleep. One more part to go, where the party's pent up frustration leads to some... interesting results. Also, a real PC fatality! (With no Breath of Life!) Who was it? Next part! (Hopefully in the next few days).

[Kol Korran]

I got caught up with a few RL matters. But I'm back, lets finish telling the session's tale.

Session 23, Part 3- Short tempers, Rupture of Rapture, The Battle Bliss arena

After hiring Nezzerius, the party was stumped again. For some reason, some thought it would take him a minute or at most an hour or two to find where Arulahsee is held. When they realized it might take longer (At least day or two), they decided to try and focus on other stuff in the meantime, even though their minds weren't fully in it. They decided to head for Rupture of Rapture, where the succubus Vallexia was interviewing potential performers, and where they thought the coloxus Oodkalakt may be. With frustration, and a short temper, they followed the beheaded doves pointing to the place...

On the way Julian got a Sending from Queen Galifar: "Repelled siege!Marching in force to attack Raliscard, inside Worldwound! Moving fast, taking the initiative. Your situation?"
Julian didn't quite know how to answer her, or had the mood to. She answered a bit cryptically: "In Porphyry, seeking way to do this..."

DM notes- Sendings from the Queen?

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Why Sendings from the Queen? For 2 reasons: (Warning! The second one is a major spoiler!
1. I want the party to feel that the war on Golarion is still progressing. That things there won't stand still. I plan on having inter planar sendings from the queen and maybe forces in Galifar from time to time. To keep the party at least minimally connected.

Spoiler: 2.

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I mentioned a few times before, that at the end the next module, which originally focuses on the party saving Iomedae's Herald from Baphomet's domain, will be changed to save the Queen herself from there. (I changed her fluff to make her the mortal herald of Iomedae). She gets taken by Baphomet's forces while the army attacks Raliscard, near the very end of this module.
I want to keep the party remembering her, be aware of her at the war. We play so infrequently that I don't want the party forgetting about her existence. Takes a it of "relationship maintenance"

Rupture of Rapture- gaining an audience

The party made it's way into a small courtyard, filled with various hopefuls and wannabes, trying to practice, impress and perform various deeds and the like. Various music prevailed the place.

Rupture of Rapture- Arabian music- 1 hour music track
(I won't fully cal lit that, but meh, it gets the feel I was aiming for. More of what Disney or the like would call "Arabian music". Oh well...)

The party was not in the mood to chit chat. Noticing the main bluish- purple round stylized building, they headed straight for the entrance. The 4 succubi whose job is to sift through the masses of wannabes, stop them. "Hold applicant! Who wishes to come to Vallexia, the illustrious patron of finer arts?"
Sena was a bit confused, but tried to play it. "We heard she wished to see new talents? New things?"
The head succubi snorted in derision. "And YOU think you fit? Mere tieflings? Smelly tieflings? You aren't even dressed right! Pathetic! Move aside wormlings! Next!"
Sena nearly lost it there and then, ready to unleash another holy word spell, just out of anger, but Julian stopped him. She dismissed the veil on herself, and the crowd suddenly gasped and moved aside, as her impressive looks and semi goddess aura was revealed.
Julian talked severely. "We do not deal with mere... lowly servants! Move aside, before you incur my full wrath!"
The succubi seemed fearful, but tried to stood her ground "We are chosen by her, loyal to her, her offsrpings..." but then she stopped, as if hearing something, before moving aside. "Yes, the Lady Vallexia will see to you now. Please wait in the reception for 1 minute, before entering." She bowed and made way for the party, headed by Julian, to enter.

As they entered, the party found themselves in the room which they scried upon earlier, with the coloxus Oodkalakat at the table. Seeing him, Sena approached him, with great intensity. Again, he was not much in the mood for chit-chat. "I know you! You have in your possession a soul stone, of a group of tieflings!" The surprised Oodkalakt stammered, and tried to see who these people were, and why they were asking him of this, when they came to see Vallexia. He tried to talk his way out of it, saying he deals with various soul stones, having made various deals and the like. (I play him like a weaselly small minded bureaucrat, with slurping sounds as his fly tongue comes out every once in a whiel in agitation). The party tries to press him, but Vallexia summons them to enter.

"Entertaining Vallexia"

The party enters the high born succubus' interview room. She sits upon her floating chair, with her tail slaightly tapping on it's side, in a bit of impatience. She herself is dressed like a high noble, with a sophisticated look, and a book at her hand, quill at another. In the room there are also two big cages, in which two warrior like woman are imprisoned, with a defeated look upon them, and a feel that they are not exactly mortals. They were playing music for the succubus, mere broken slaves by now. "Celestials..." Sena mutters, and quickly identify them as Valkyries, of Iomedae most probably. (The original module has lilends captured here, I changed it a bit, to present a more challenging fight if they come to that).

The lady Vallexia gave them an inquiring look, but then smiled politely. "Well, you did make an entrance. You seem to be seeking me, but I know so little of you. Who are you, to seek me?"
S: "Well, it seems like you are a great lady, you seem very respected, and scholarly. (She nods), We needed to talk with you for some time now..."
Vall: "That may well be, but still doesn't answer my question, manners and form are important!"
J: (With a slightly disinterested and mocking tone. "Me Julian."
Vall: "Of which house, of which prodigy, and what is title?"
Julian seemed a bit perplexed, and Andera intervened: "I am Andera Kancher… From Numeria."
Vall: "Numaeria? Yes, I've read about it! It's on Golarion, isn't it? Quite a quaint little place, isn't it?"
Andera was surprised: "You haven't been there?"
Vallexia gave a dismissive bored waver: "I have long since stopped visiting that plane. Why go there, when everything of real interest comes to Porphyry? To me? Besides- visiting the Worldwound and all of that... Not really, fashionable this century, more of a simpletons thing..."
An: "Hnmmm... A lot of your race seem to find it quite... engaging. A lot of souls to tempt, and so on..."
Vallexia gve him a more critical look: "Well... my "race", has many variations, opinions and the like. I'm not one of your common street succubi."
Julian decided to answer her now. "I am Julian, of Drezen, freed Drezen."
Vallexia took an interest in that. "Yes... I have heard of curious changes on Golarion. Are you..." She looked at her unusual look "One of them?"
Julian answered squarely. "I am not alone in the changes in our world, I am one of them, but not the sole one."
Vallecia lifted her quill and wrote briefly in her book."We shall see..."
John watches her tail "I am John, barbarian champion of Drezen."
She looked at him with a light interest, but mostly a certain disgust/ refrain. "Yes... I can see why..."
S: "And I am Senatef, And I lead the new way."
Vallexia wrote a bit more in her book, but then confronted the party: And what is it that you seek here? I seek new talents, performances and amusement for my house, yet you seem to have your own Agenda?"
J: "Our presence here concerns a possession of one of your minions." (She quickly explains Oodkalakat and the soul stone)
Vallexia is quite displeased: "You came for that little Dretch? Is that why you bothered me?!"
The players quickly discuss an idea- they think they might be able to learn more of Nocticula from Vallexia, one of the nobles...
Sena: "Maybe you should know that the Silent Darkness is coming to a close." (A term in the previous post s a legend telling of Nocticula's withdrawn in the past few centuries)
This perked her interest: "Really, how may that be, and how would you know?"
The party a bit jumbles this up, talking about an alliance with other demon lords, about dedicating the plane's forces to the war on Golarion, dragging the Elite succubi with it, but they fare poorly...
Vallexia makes another dismissing wave, this time with some annoyance. "Always rumors, no one will know what she will do. Have you come to waste my time with such prattle?"
An: "Perhaps we can trade information?"
Vallexia laughs "With you? Rumor mongers? I come here to seek talents, skills, creativity, not to gossip with off worlders with out a clue..."
Mad dog asks: "Skills in what exactly?"
Vallexia smiles, reclining "Surprise me, amuse me, entertain me. I am open to new, innovative things..."
Sena tries to impress by casting some sort of an ethereal spell. (I forgot) She is displeased. "Many master magic, it is not something... NEW... I hope you have better?"
The party gets around to the fact that SHE also has an interest here.

Julian answers in a song, with rhymes and such, that she seems to think might fit. (The chracter even has 1 rank in perform), yet the player rolls poorly, and she is displeased. "You have a powerful presence, but you lack training, finesse, control. Maybe practice for a few years, then come back."

Andera decides to try to make a performance, along with covering an attempt to free the valkyrie. He suggests an acrobatic fear, and then makes jumps on the bars, and then jump to the other, trying to KICK the lock and disable it. I like the idea and allow it with a hefty negative modifier, yet he succeeds, before making another jump to the bars near the ceiling!. His performance does impress Vallexia, though she scolds him for the lock. "I have went to a great deal to purchase these little toys, and train them appropriately. Please do not try this again? Hmmmm?" To his surprise, at a small nod from the succubi, the Valkyrie obediently goes to the door, and locks herself in again! Andera is horrified! "What has she done to break them so?" Impressed by Andera, she talks excitedly. "Hmmmm... what form, what agility! Yes... I think you could be of great interest to the ladies in the court! You'd make a very good show. What do you say, my... Numerian Tiger?" (The party got a bit of a kick from Andera's new nickname! )

At this point, after all they have went through, Julian quite lost her patience. "Since I failed you, please allow me to try again, I have made a new spell, one that I am sure will impress you my lady!" Julain manages to intrigue her, and using metamagic mastery to cast it as a still spell (A mythic ability) she surprises her with a finger of death! The succubi is hit an fails her save, nearly dying! "No one insults my poetry!"
We roll initiative, but Julian acts first, and again casts finger of death, killing the surprised succubus, before anyone could act. Sena looks at her astonished. "I don't know what that was, but I like it!"
This "Battle" is finished so fast, and in total surprise ("Sneak attack finger of death b*tch!") that Vallexia hadn't managed to call an alarm. Andera goes quietly to the door, and as quietly he locks it.

DM thoughts- Rupture of Rapture

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This went a bit weird. First because the party was there not to gain known in the city (The Notoriety Score in the module), but due to the Soulstone side quest, and so didn't quite try to impress her. Secondly, nerves were frayed, and the tempers short.
Playing Vallexia as a snotty nose up noble didn't much help either I guess.

Finishing up in the rapture
Julian went straight to the astonished Valkyries, and opened their cges. "You poor souls have given up on hope, and I do not believe In giving up on hope!" She gives them a small arousing speech, and besseches them to go to Golarion, and then to Drezen, and join the forces there, and her Order of The Forgotten. They kneel in front of her, profusing their thanks. "Yes Goddess!" (The player: "Now THAT I like!" ) Sena sends them to Golarion, and the player is pleased. "First the Aasimar, now them. The legend spreads. We now have two celestials to our cause!"

The party then goes for the loot. Now, I haven't quite prepared for them to kill her (Yes, I know, Silly me!) and so look in the module and give the loot straight from there. She got some serious loot! Amongst other things: Belt dex +6 (Goes to Andera), Ring of telekinesis, Scroll of limited with, and... The Book of Infinite Spell?! (From what I understand it's a sort of a minor artifact?) The party doesn't quite loke the book though- for the casters it's quite pointless, and Andera and Mad Dog don't like the negative level. So they just store it for now...

Sena goes to check Valleixa's book. I made her note taking just for the feel of an educated scholar, so I improvised a bit here. The party finds their names, with little remarks, such as:
"Julian- New ascendant? Source of power? How to tempt?"
"Mad Dog- Dangerous. Can be tempted/ controlled? Potential for games?" Mad Dog was quite alarmed, as he purposefully introduced himself as John, not Mad Dog. The party realized they have some reputation, which they didn't quite like...

Sena wished to interrogate Valliexia's corpse, but failed with his "Speak with dead" Spell. They explore the back room, finding her teleportation ring, but couldn't figure it out (They thought it was for summoning demons). One thing was left- dealing with Oodkalakat.

Andera uses the Master's Disguise trick to make him look like Vallexia, and goes to sit on her thrown. Mad Dog and Julian are turned invisble, while Sena refuses. He wishes the coloxus to see him. Andera calls it in.
The edgy colocus enters, and looks atthe room confused- Only Sena from the guests, and the valkirie gone? "Only one here mistress?
An: "Close the door."
Oodkalakat does as bidden, looking around (And at the very intense Sena) quite nervously. "Were are the signers mistress?" (Julian's player: "Can I just give him THE finger allready?")
An: "I have sent the others elsewhere. "I made a deal with these people, and I need the orb of souls you have
Ood (A bit whimpering): "But... it's mine! I wanted to save it for later..." but Vallexia/ Andera brooks no argument. Whimpering, he reaches into some recesses and produces the softly glowing orb, and hand it to Sena. Brings the orb, Andera give it to Sena. .
Julian's player "NOW?" Andera's player nods. Julian appears with a anger of death, and the coloxus dies with a dying murmur of "Mistress! assassi..."

Pleased with that, Sena speaks with the demon's dead body via speak with dead:
S: "What do you know about incoming delegations?"
Ood: "Many succubi try to speak with Nocticula. I don't know who!"
S: "Where are they?"
Ood: "All around the city. How should I know?"
Sen goes more infuriated: "How to get into the palace?"
Ood: "You can't! Only Nocticula invites!"
Sena: "How do you release the souls from orb of souls?"
Ood: "Why would you want to? Good price! Maybe breaking spells? Sanctified spells? Don't know! Maybe Thanadaemons know?" (The party is pleased with this answer)
Sena tries to be more specific: "What do you know about delegations who come to persuade Nocticula to attack Golarion?"
Ood: "People talk to Nocticula? Really?" The party finally realize he is quite a small level bureaucrat.
Sena: "What is the circle at the back used for?"
Ood: "Transport slaves for entertainment, to her mansion. They don't long live. (The party pats Andera: "We saved you Numerian Tiger!" )
Sena, disgusted, finishes the interview by stepping on the coloxus dead head, squashing it under his boot, with a fetid squelch. Mad Dog however, decides to chop off Vallexia's head. "Perhaps we can use this, to intimidate others..." The yput the two demons bodies in the cages, and think about leaving a message. They end up with writing all across the wall one word- "Minhago!" In case something liek this happens again, they will do it more, and maybe get some "Unwanted attention" on her hide. (Julian thinks of leaving "She said I didn't know how to sing. No one says anything about my singing!" , but ends up deciding against it. )

Feeling they have finished here, Sena once more turns to them. Pleased they got the Soulstone, but quite troubled about the rest of their predicament. "Now What?"

The party's Notoriety Score: +10! (+5 from the previous fights, +5 for killing Vallexia. Had they all impressed her and she lived, they would have gotten +12...)

Some understandings and concerns I had at this juncture
After dealing with Vallexia, it dawned on me that I may have created a certain problem: After Arulashee was taken, the entire focus of the party got turned to rescuing her, with all other concerns pushed aside. It took me this long to understand it fully- the party didn't try, or even care about getting noticed and actively getting Nocticula's attention no more. And I didn't have Arulashee there to remind this, or focus them. Oddly enough, once more, I underestimated the party's single mindedness at times, when something really gets to them. And capturing Arulashee certainly did this in a big way. (Calistira's final question to Sena in the commune was important- "What is important to YOU?" she wished to see whether he will pursue his own personal goals, or the more world-responsible pressing goals, such as stopping the alliance between demon lords).

I was worried about the Notoriety Score. It doesn't allow for that many opportunities raise it. Basically there are having a lot of random fights in the city (Which was quite boring, and time consuming), displaying your "true colors", which the party preferred quite sensibly and smartly to avoid, and other than that a few choice accomplishments: Killing Minhago (Which they didn't), Killing Nezzerius (Which they didn't, and which was currently unlikely), Entertaining Vallexia (Which they killed), Winning at Battle Bliss, and dealing with Shamira...

Even if they won at Battle Bliss, this still wasn't enough... So... A deal with Shamira, or coming up with something else? But more than that, I was worrying about the party's interest and fun. As was evidently expressed in the Vallexia encounter, not even Julian's player (Who quite likes these sort of encounters at times), really cared, and the party was stressed, and pissed off.

I was considering throwing off the entire Notoriety Score away, and ply things as the feel right "story wise". Yet as I was thinking, I was also trying to run the session, so this got delayed. But one thing was certain- We can't play the "Gain Notoriety game" for much longer. It was losing appeal, FAST![/SPOILER]

Really... now what?
The party discuss options. Julian once more tries to take a look at objectives:
We have 3 targets:
"We need to free Arulashee. We won’t do better than the assassin probably. I suggest we focus on the other stuff" (Sena groans deeply in frustration, his mood darkens)
"We also need to prevent the delegation with Nocticula! This is urgent, but we don't know much what to do, except gaining her attention. Ideas?" The party is somewht stomped."
"And we need to put a stop to the mine. Perhaps Arulashee is even there, but we got even less of an intel about that." Julian ponders. "We need to get more high profile. Lets think."

The party gets a few ideas. One of the first one to jump, is to keep killing the city's noble succubi! (Murderis always the first option! ) The party thinks that if they will kill half a dozen or so of the nobles, this will get attention for sure. But is it the right kind of attention? The party thinks of using Vallexia's teleportation circle to get into the noble quarter (Terrace of The Favored Mistresses) but for some reason don't pursue it. (As I listened I gulped down inwardly, knowing I have nothing prepared for this, the module never tried to explore this. This involved a highly complex region, with tons of complex high level NPCs. had this happened I may have called the session to an end, since we played quite long, and this mean quite more preparation, or improvising widely but inappropriately)

Another idea that Julian had came from one of the random "city descriptions" that I made in the previous session- about small platforms in the city, which display sort of pieces of a living deadly mortal chess-like game. I was quite impressed here, and though of how to improvise that. (I never really expected them to try and elaborate on this. It never ceases to surprise me that the things they get hooked on sometimes are the ones I gave the most little consideration to! ). Julian thought they could either play in such game, or run one, and thus gain much respect amongst the nobility, a bit like celeb athletes or such.

They decide to try and follow this route, but learn on how to approach it in the Inn and Out. So Julian makes them all appear as tieflings again, and they teleport to the room there.

DM's gripe- Porphyry city

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For such a major location, in which the party is EXPECTED to search for various opportunities, the info in the module is way, way, way to scarce and thin! Ever since they came to it, despite having done quite a considerable amount of "fattening the fluff up" for the city, I am improvising left and right. Really, the info given for the city is just plain insufficient! Even for the most mildly "goes beyond the trail" kind of group. I am quite disappointed in this..

At the Inn and Out the party goes down, find the hosting incubi Chulakat, and start a chat.
Chu: "Ah! I suspect the lady is enjoying her new acquision?" (Talking about the Aasimar from previous session)
j: "She enjoys it quite a bit. She wants someone to join the games, the platforms in the city? How doe one join these?"
Chulakat shrugs his shoulders "Oh, the entrtainment of the mistresses. They find suitable... contestants and call for them. The platforms are used by the mistresses to test their new found subjects, followers, champions and slaves."
An: "What do you win?"
Chulakat smiled. "Depending on the bet. The game can be between 2-6 mistresses, and the wagers... vary greatly. It is a... "sport"... for the nobles. The crowds prefer simpler entrtainments, like the arenas. We like the fights, the blood..." (Sena whsipered: "Oh! We will give them plenty of blood allright!")
This kind of intriuged the party, finally biting a hook. "Arenas?"
Chulakat suggested the Battle Bliss Arena. The party thanked him, and went to check it out. Full night (No stars in this plane) has descended...

Enter The Battle Bliss!
The party goes looking for the arena's manager, a high level cambion bard called Irmageleth. On the way the party discusses quick strategy. "Hey, if he's a known person, we can try killing him as well? Like with Vallexia?" Julian answer "I say we give him 3 questions. If not- Finger of Death!" Talk about trigger happy!

Irmagaleht quickly comes to view the party, explains about the fights taking place in a small, yet exclusive arena. Julian is worried baout fighting slaves, but Irmagaleth agrees them to fight demons. He says that their top gladiator is non other than Galderfang!
The party gives blank stares. "Is he good?"
Irmagaleth looks atthem bewildered. "You have not heard of Galderfang? The flyign death? The killing storm of blades? The Gladiator before all fall?!"
Party: "Um no... But we understand you like him?"
The ring manager looks at them suspiciously "You're not from around Porphyry, aren't you? You don't look like any famous gladiators I know off..."

Mad Dog grins, lifting his sword: "We're VERY famous where we came from, and were going to be just as famous here…"
Irmagaleth seems suspicious. "Maybe we'll start you smaller? I don't want to get the crowd's expectations up. We provide quality fights! Not just rabble!"
Mad Dog makes a few experimentive swings with his sword. "Nah! We'll start from him, and the go higher... You know, really tough guys?"
Irmagaleth likes his approach, but asks for some demonstration. Mad Dog goes to a nearby statue, rages and titan grow, and lifts it up with incredible strength, wanting to get on with it. A successful intimidation roll, and Irmagaleth looks highly pleased. "Well well... it seem you lot might prove... intriguing. I'll arrange the battle in 2 hours. Need to get the patrons in..."

The party whittles the time near the ring, listening to all kind of rumors, such as "Did you know someone killed lady Vallexia? Cut of her head! Just like that! Some say Minhago was there, left a message! Wasn't she in some big fight the night before? What is she up to?"

Irrmagaleth finally calls for the party, and bumms Sena by notifying them all that they may not enter with any magical effects allready active, though once the battle start, all is permitted. "Just give us a good fight! Something to watch, you know? A good show! The crowd loves it! And... try not to die to soon, will ya?" Sena curses as he takes his buffs off.

The crowd enters, and Imagraleth gets to the center, giving an introduction. "Succubi and Incubi, Demons and visitors, ladies and slaves! I welcome you to another gory fight of bloodshed and violence! Welcome to the Battle Bliss! In this corner, we have the one, the only, the slayer and decapitator, the slasher and numerous killer, GALDERFANG!" (Roars of excitment and such... the party yawns...)

"And in this corner, strangers to our marvelous city. Are they brave enough? Or are they fool enough, to dare death in the Battle Bliss?! I give you..." At this point he turned to the party, not quite having gotten a stage name from them. Andera suddenly roars "WE ARE THE NUMERIAN TIGERS!" Which gets quite a lot of roars as well, though.. .confused ones... ("Numerian what?", "Who are they?", "A TIGER? In Porphyry?" )

Eeeeeeeenterrrr The Battle Bliss!

Battle Bliss arena fight- A compilation of 10 epic tracks
(I searched for something fast paced, and quickly changing, pumping up the blood a bit, eh?)

Andera acts first, and dissappeared, fast going to the middle stage and climbing it. The crowd boos greatly as he vanishes, not liking it. (It was amongst several attempts of mien to hint that a more "impressive arena battle" will be better appreciated- more notoriety. Didn't work. The party was in killing mood) Andera was surprised by the energies of the stage, improving his ability to hit! (There are 3 stages in the arena, each gives some bonuses if you're on it)

Galderfang Teleported to the middle ring as well, and used his other actions to wield his blades impressively, gettign much applause from the crowd, and calling a challenge to the party. "Numerian Tigers! Fight me openly! Not like thieving skulks in the night! THIS. IS. BATTLE BLISS!"

Mad Dog rises, flying, raging, growing! And yet as he strikes, Galderfang blocks his attack. "Brute strength, you know not how to fight! I will show you true killing skills!"

Sena uses his quicken rod and starts pumping buffs on himself, alsu using genie blood and flies high above the arena, again gettign booed by the crowd. "We will show you a fight!" He yells... from a safe distance...
Galderfang shouts back "All I see is cowards! Is this the courage of your Numeria?!"
The gladiator then turns on Mad Dog, with a devastitng full attack: Mad dog is hit by the Scizore, Critted by the gladius, hit by and trident nd get hit by a mythic Sudden attackfor another hit by the Scizore! Galderfang Slashes, stabs and chops Mad Dog brutally, gettign him down to 42 hitpoints! The incubi's power to increase pain also hits him, and MAd Dog is staggered underthe pain. The party suddenly thinks this mightbe an actual threat!

Andera tries to hit Galderfang, but his attacks are blocked by some unseen armor, despite the minimal "Gladiator clothes" shown in it's pic (Glammered armor, though it did not hve any affect other than AC) He tries menacing whisper "This is your last battle demon. We are your DEATH!"" Galderfang seems Shaken from the hidden attacks and whispers (I forgot to add the bravery bonus! ) and tries to reply "Coward Shadow! Show yourself!" The crowd again shows his dissatissfaction with the cowardly attacks!

Julian cares not though, and unleashes one highly effective spell- persisted Mystic Slow. Galderfang fails his save, and gets turned from a fast deadly full attack monstrosity, to a slow motion warrior. The crowd gasps seeing their champion so!
Andera tries scaring him again, yet fails, and fails to hit. Mad Dog though hits, and HARD! He delivers great amounts of damage, yeteven the party is suprised to see the gladiator bloodied well, but still standing!
And Galderfang won't go down without a fight! He attacks again, and adds another ttack with Sudden attack, both hit Mad Dog squarely, one of them a crit!
The slowed Gladiator, focuses his strikes, and kills Mad Dog! The Barbarian falls down, bloody gashing wounds all over his body, with a cheer from the crowd!

The party panics a bit, as they quickly check Breath of life and see it didn't quite work as they thought it did, and with the amount of negative damage Mad Dog incurred (Including the end of rage), he is just too far gone... Breath of life won't save him. (I didn't get into this ruling. The players brought it up briefly after the first battle of this session, but now rechecked it).

Imagrelath called out pleased. "First death for the Battle Bliss! This may be a short fight!" He looked at the party angrily though, having expected them to provide... More entertainment.
Sena tries to think up ideas, but can't think up something fast enough. Despaired, he putts to more buffs on himself, and descend upon Mad Dog's body, wanting to protectit from further harm, and draw Galderfang's attention. "Now face ME!" He says angrily!

Yet he doesn;t getthe chance, as Andera delivers a few quick cuts, with severe damage. The Gladiator coughs up blood, but still stands! Then Andera uses a mythic surprise attack, and finishes him! Galderfang topples bloody, with Changi through his chest, nd the crowd going silence in the middle of the cheer. Gladerfang has fallen!

Yet the party is not pleased, as next to him, lies the body of Mad Dog...
This... has not been a good day...

DM thoughts- The Battle Bliss and Galderfang

Spoiler

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The improved version of Gladerfang proved to be quite a powerful foe (I used Scorpion's file stats). Yet the Battle Bliss fight itself is kinda boring, for 3 main reasons:
- The party fight only a single opponenet. Even the player commented on this: "Wait, we're a group that fights only one demon? Aren't we supposed to be against a group of demons?" Fighting an opposing team of gladiators would indeed make it a more interesting, a more tactical one. More choices and threats, yeah?
- Galderfang is a single melee opponent. And as have happened here, he has NO way of countering debilitating battlefield control magic. So... basically, one successful spell takes him off. (Pretty much as has happened here).
- The module tries to make the arena more engaging with various terrain and magical effects of areas. But with one opponent, who is most likely to get tackled by another melee from the PCs, there is little if any real reason to move around. Plus, the DCs of the negative effects in the ring? Quite laughable...

Had I ran it again? I'd use a team of gladiators, some what similar to a group of adventurers. Also, I'd make several winning conditions- such as "capture the flags" or such, to make the movement on the battle field (And it's various effects) more interesting, engaging, and provide more choices then "Kill the rest of them.

Each PC's XP: 538,744!
Notoriety: "The Numerian Tigers!" +20 (10 from before, +10 for killing Gladerfang. They could have gotten more, had they done an "entertaining fight!")
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Final thoughts for the session:
- We ended here, for several reasons: The session took 10 hours and we were tired. The players needed to think what is their next move, and frankly- So would I! The initial battle with Minhago, and the twist of the captured Arulashee has thrown things out of hilter to big degree! I was quite surprised at how personally the group took it! Some became depressed (either cause they liked and worried for her, or because knowing of the big set back it put them in), some became angry (They did NOT like being tricked!) but they all became very engaged in the game!

- I need to think of whereto take this. The party's focus is nearly entirely on saving Arulashe, with secondary on getting to Nocticula. And they haven;t got any real clue of how to do either... Meaning, I need to think things through for next session. As it is- this ain't working. The party has Notoriety of 20, with the module putting the goal at 40. And the party have used up pretty much all of the suggested options (Though I did play Minhago as trying to evade them instead of battling them to the death), except for... Shamira... which is a serious encounter in itself. (Though from what I gather, the party has other ideas entirely, mostly revolving around killing lots of important people... Ahhh... D20 and the lessons it teaches... )

- Mad Dog's player also surprised us at the end, telling us he might wish for Mad Dog to stay dead, and try a new character! I think dying twice in a session got into him somewhat... But also, the player likes changing characters from time to time, when he grows bit bored of their mechanics. This took us by surprise, and we decided to talk about it later. (I'll discuss it in future posts. Not certain as of now).

- In short, the players came to the session feeling they are going to OWN it, but got played upon, and shocked. I did hoped that if Minhago's scheme would work it would shaken confidence a bit, and shaken things up (Especially before the negotiations with Nocticula, where overconfidence can be deadly in the extreme), but I think it went a bit too far than I expected... Have I broken them? Hopefully not... This has been a TOUGH seesion, both for them and me...

But... if I know my party, in the next session they will come up with something clever, outrageous, and will stir things up in return! They are good at doing that, those bastards! That's why I game with them, no? (That and the Humus breaks! )

-I will probably discuss a few re-planning matters over the next few posts:What about Mad Dog's player? New character or old one? What effect would Andera's dream intervention will have? Hiring Nezzerius? To stick with the Notoriety score, or go for something else? I'll try to think of these and more... Not sure when, when I have the time until the next session.

Talking about the next session- we set the next game for the 20/11, about 3 weeks from now. The party has already started planning, over emails... I hope you've enjoyed the read. Feel free to comment, question, argue, critique or whatever. All is welcomed.

[Kol Korran]

Between session 23 & 24

The next session is in about 2 weeks. Quite a few things happened in my personal life (Which may well have an affect on the game as well), but there are a lot of other planning matters. Since most of these are relevant specifically to this group, and this specific game, I won't post a lot of "external help thread links" here, but I'd really appreciate the help of any of you readers. Some of these ideas quite stomp me for now.

But first things first!
1) Big personal RL developments: I recently got engaged! And more than that- a week after my fiance and me learned that she is pregnant! We have been a bit shocked, but we're immensely happy and thrilled. The party knows we are engaged, but we haven't told about the pregnancy yet, we want to see the first ultrasound check before we do (It's tomorrow, a small superstition we have). I plan on bringing some wine and such to celebrate at the session, which will also double for a part of the negotiations.

But... this has got me thinking, about trying to incorporate family, pregnancy, and child raising along with gaming. Especially considering how time consuming my preparation seems to be. Julian's player, who has 2 kids of his own, tried GMing a few times in the past, but got very little time to prepare the game, and got burned out. ("it began with a crash" campaign). and our trial with Fate Core (Post apocalyptic campaign) didn't succeed well either. So I've put up a thread dealing with this kind of problems.

2) Changing character? Mad Dog's player has been thinking about changing characters. He came up with quite an interesting twist on how the new character will have mythic power- she will be a servant of the demons, that was transformed with an elixir, but managed to survive, and fight off the evil effect. So... A betrayer of demons? Might be cool!

I've been exchanging a few emails with him, as the change got me worried: I wanted to know why he wanted to change, but I was also worried of how this might affect the party, and story- In a previous campaign ("Facets of darkness") he played Google, a bruiser much like Mad Dog through most of the campaign, and then decided to change for a half orc archer ranger moments before one of the climaxes of the campaign (Siege battle of the Cathedral of The Silver Flame). Grum never felt quite belonging in the party, and they all missed Google, and party dynamics were damaged. Plus- it made the climactic scene somewhat lacking with his influence. He later quite regretted the switch.

This looked like a very similar situation- the party is very much invested with Mad Dog, and the Nocticula negotiations will be the most climactic scene so far in the campaign, and draws HEAVILY on past experiences, interactions and deeds of the party (I'll get to that later). Having a new character might make it all fill a bit... empty... a missed out experience.

And yet, I won't, and don't want him to play a character he doesn't like. I suggested to think about it- maybe we can make mechanical change, or story development. Or he might keep Google till the end of the negotiations (They will provide many opportunities to depart satisfyingly), and have his new character join after that?

We've talked about this a bit, but the player is thinking about it. He sent us all a message he'll keep playing Mad Dog for a while, but I want him to be sure. I'll go with whatever he wishes. It's his character after all.

3) Negotiations with Nocticula:

Spoiler: Negotiations in a spoiler due to length

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I thought the players will get to that in this session, but... well, you've read it already. But it's almost certain that in this session they will. I imagine the negotiations to take up considerable time. They are a complicated matter, and I've worked quite a bit on them, but I'll detail the main themes/ concepts here. Obviously, I am changing this ENTIRELY from the module. There is real risk here, the party will be negotiating for no less than the fate of Golarion itself! A lot of these draw from threads I previously linked to in this log, though you need not remember them, or read them. I'm adding the main problematic points in bold, as questions.
- When the party does get Nocticula, a small portal will appear, with an agent from her (A sort of servant personal guard of Nocticula. A special succubi assassin sect), which will inform them that she wishes to see them. They'll have 5 minutes to prepare/ end their business in the city, before they are to step through the portal, into Nocticula's palace.

- Once they cross to the courtyard of the palace, they find they are not alone. The emmisaries of the demons have coem as well! and they are not your simple envoys...
Deskari sends non other than Areelu Vorlesh herself, The Worldwoudn witch! And the Storm King, the balor high general of his armies in the Worldwound, and slayer of the silver dragon Terendelev (The initial scene of the campaign)
Baphomet also sends two high emissaries: Hephazimerha, his own daughter and high priestess (The end boss of this module) and Minhago! The latter may have Arulashee in tow, not as a negotiator, but as an aid (and mostly as something to vex/ distract the party, as well as one who kbnows msot about them). She will look, and sense in other magical means or such (Such as Julian's vision)m as thoroughly and utterly corrupted and evil. Gone... If the party manages to somehow save her before then than good for them, but it is quite... Unlikely...
If I know Julian's player, he will very much like to know how each of the emissaries might look through his vision. I got a few ideas, but what would you imagine their souls might look like?

I imagine both sides to be surprise, and wish to start hostilities, but the agents of Nocticula stop them, and announce them all to be her guests, and thus under her protection. No hostile actions may be taken against any other. (Though sabotage, manipulation, espionage and more is cool). The idea here is to confront all of their big opponents, in a complex social and political negotiations, for the fate of the world, with lots of juicy interactions!

- The part is being led through Nocticula's marvelous palace (It has a few potential points of interactions), before they meet Nocticula. I won't go into details of how I'm planning on playing her, but for now I'll say I'm planning to play her mostly as an enigma, and a philosophical thinker. She does not say what she is interested in, but let the negotiators face each other in debates. Unlike the module, she has not already decided to forgo join in Deskari and Baphomet, but would listen to all. But first, all must represent themselves, and who they speak for. The demons will start, each starting they speak for their demon lord, under their authority. The party will need to present themselves as well, and whom they speak for. "For ourselves" or for "The crusade", may not be sufficient. Nocticula deals with divine entities, not with mere mortals. (I fully expect the party to only then realize this. ) Nocticula may grant a one time communication with the 5 gods of the crusade, though brief. I want to impart on the party the severe gravity of the negotiations- they will speak with the authority of the gods, and of the entire crusade, even Golarion itself.
If the party does commune with the 5 gods. How to illustrate such a communion? I'd like ti to be a bit similar to the end scene of the Hall of Heroes, where the gods blessed them, yet this time in a more urgent, and desperate matter. Ideas?

Also- Julian's player would also most likely ask how the demon lord looks to her, with her "soul sight". As befitting the demon lord of darkness and secrets, who is a real enigma, I'd like to present several images, each one covering the rest, (Like Shrek's onion metaphor! ) which Julian may try to "pierce through" (Will save? Charisma roll? Something else?) but with the potential of damaging her. If she fails, or if she peels these images (I'm thinking about 5 images), she is blinded by the demon's lord's soul, losing her sight entirely. At the end of negotiations, she will gain her sight back, perhaps with a newfound understanding/ revelation. If she does pierce the images, she is still truly blinded, but she gets a glimpse of the true core of Nocticula, which should supply with a significant clue to her personality.
What sort of images? (I have currently thought of a mirror, full of mist)
What sort of test to piece the images?
What is he core, true image, of Nocticula's soul? (A demon lord who might be seeking change, godhood, and redemption)

- The negotiations themselves are complex, and are not all that obvious. I have designed the following flowing elements, though these can easily change pace, timing:
1) Direct negotiations- Nocticula's trials: As there are 4 negotiators on each side (Arulashee counts as Minhago's aid/ lover), Nocticula will have each PC face a demon emissary, in a piece of negotiation. This is done for two three main reasons: So that the negotiations will not solely depend on the character with the best social skills, so that each PC and NPC will have a say in this crucial event, and so that the negotiations feel complex, rich, and not just a "say something and roll a dice". Yes, I know some players may find this more difficult (Mad Dog's player mostly), but the NPCs aren't played to perfection either. They have inbuilt mistakes about their negotiations.
Nocticula presents each party with 4 objects, one about each element of her portfolio- Darkness, Killing, Lust/ desire and Secrets. Each PC and each NPC choose an item, and the paired "couples by items" will face each other. Each such negotiation focuses on the element chosen, but more in a metaphysical philosophical manner. First, Nocticula asks them some questions (Open ended), where the answers may add a bonus to the negotiation or not. Then each emissary may present their arguments for Ncoticula. Each NPC emissary also has some weaknesses in character/ interaction or past the party might use upon. Arulashee, if present, will mostly try to damage the party's reputation and credit, striking on mistakes and "flaws in character" from her knowing them.

2) Entertainment in Nocticula's palace: In between the negotiations, the party will be entertained by the demon lord's staff. The "entertainment" have 3 purposes: First, they give more flavor and context to the demon lord's domain, and the feeling of "high court negotiations". Secondly, they give the party and NPCs time to interact "behind the scenes", including spying, framing and other creative stuff. And last, but not least, these events are also tests of character by Nocticula, albeit hidden ones. I got 3 main "entertainment interludes":
- A feast upon some powerful creature, but not just of it's flesh, but of it's soul. Devouring it's soul will grant power that may be crucial in the negotiations, but is quite evil...
- The party is given the luxury of indulging in most kind of delights they might imagine. Nocticula's palace has many of the bet forbidden desires and wants in the cosmos.
Any ideas for some interesting and cool delights? This is mostly for the players creativity and my improvisation, but having a "sample menu" to tingle their imagination would be fun!
- A ball, with two main dances, fast paced. In the first they come to dance with the enemy NPCs, exchanging some few choice words in more privacy... The second is... The Dance Macabre! Inspired by Babylon's 5 "Night of the dead" chapter, each PC will find themselves dancing with 2 people who have passed away prior in the campaign! Friend, or enemy. I got a few in mind: Commander John, Mongrelman's chief Sul, Staunton Vhane, Nurah the spy, Jerribeth, The commander of the geriatric knights unit, Maybe even Harry? They may make simple talk, or maybe come with warnings and such...
Have you got suggestions for any memorable NPCs in the campaign, whom it might be fun to interesting to talk with here?

3) Behind the scenes Shenanigans: The party was warned not to harm the enemy emissaries with violence. But there are more ways... The emissaries will try to use Arulashee to distract/ baffle/ confuse/ enrage the party (Mostly Sena and Andera). They might try other stuff, like spying on them, maybe framing them? Risky business, and hwo knows how much Nocticula sees, and allow? She is a demon after all, chaos is expected... The party might try to spy or do other mischief as well. If they spy, I'd like the party to learn that the demons are not all that united, and maybe hints of the future project of Areelu Vorlesh, and maybe more of Arulahsee herself. (I fully expect Sena or Andera to try and find her and... do something.. .with her in between)

4) Which brings us to Arulashee herself: If she is in the negotiations, then she is the central and most important test of all. The campaign later discusses Nocticula's desire to perhaps change, and advance. I won't go into all of the details, but Arulashee's transformation, redemption, and long struggle is not a mere coincidence of the Paradox. She is in fact a sort of a... test case, of demonic redemption. For all appearances and behavior, Arulahsee will seem utterly corrupted, as with Minhago's magic, and Arulashee's basic demonic nature, she was broken. And Minhago stays very close to her, to both protect her "investment", and delight in seeing the party's anguish at their faiulre, and what it caused.
Yet, a tiny bit of Arulashee remains (Now holding her bow and arrow, thanks to Andera?!) If the party finds a way to bring her back, and redeem her, This will score BIG points with Nocticula. It's also Arulashee's last chance of redemption. If the party don't save her here (Even if they do succeed in the negotiations), The good in Arulahshee will be lost forever. Big stakes here as well. How to free Arulashee? I haven't thought of yet, though it will have to include some impressive roleplay. (I'll just note here that this wasn't a plan of mine to start with, but as the game progressed, and the secrets of Nocticula, along with the party's affection of Arulashee developed, this emerged)
I'd like to add a mechanic for finally saving Arulashee. A simple diplomacy roll? I feel it needs more... Also, I have no idea of how to use her spirit bow and arrow, given to her by Andera in this. Any ideas?

5) Final arguments: After all of these, both groups come in front of the demon lord once more, to deliver their final, closing argument/s. All of the tests before, will add some modifiers to the rolls, depending how well the party did, and how much they appeased Nocticula's... inquiring mind. The main speaker of each group (I imagine Julian vs. Areelu Vorlesh) will make the final roll, with party members potentially helping, but the main effect will be the modifiers added till now.
Though the exact result may vary, If the party wins- Nocticula secretly favors them, but plays herself impartial and neutral- She will not join the demons, but she will allow them to keep their mine, for a price. (Later on an agent of her directs them to a path to the mine itself), If the party fails though? Nocticula despairs of the efforts of the good gods, and decide to join forces with the demons. Either the party is obliterated there and then, or if by any chance they escape/ negotiate their way out, well... the entire campaign will get utterly off track, and I'll have to plan something new, against 3 demon lords now, won't I? ... )

6) If the party manages, they get escorted to a secret path, a "shadow path", which will lead them at the end to the last local- the island where the Nyhadrian mine resides. (Nocticula won't take direct action right now, but she will assist the party so). On the path though, they meet Minhago, shamed, for a final conflict with her, only augmented with a few surprises by the 3 other emissaries. She won't make it out alive, but she will try her best to take them all down!

4) How to deal with the party's creativity from the last session? The party made two cool moves, but which I don't quite know how to deal with:
- Andera gave Arulashee her bow and a single arrow, in her dreams. I want this to be important, but how? As this will probably be reflected in their attempts to restore her, and this will probably involve a lot of improvisational roleplay, it is quite hard to plan for this. But I'd love to hear any cool ideas you might have... pretty please?
- They hired Nezzerius. Most likely the negotiations will come FAST, much faster than he can track Arulashee. If so- is he wasted? I'd like to reward the party on this cool move in some other way, but how? i have two ideas: One is that he might slip into the palace in the negotiations, and deliver some key intel he learned of the enemy in his searches. A weakness, an observation, something... Another is that he comes to the final fight against the modified Minhago, and helps the party there. Any other ideas?

5) Saving Arulashee? The party has been discussing means of trying to find Arulashee. They know she is under serious protection from scrying and divination. But... Andera's palyer found a spell- Discren location, 8th level, which seems to go through it all... They plan on finding someone who can cast this in this city, and do it. In a city this size, it stands to reason they CAN find someone to do this. (Most other locatiosn I'd have said no, but in Porphyry? The main Trading hub of the entire Abyss?). But if they do find someone of such power, I'd want it/ them to demand something in return. Something BIG, something they may have real qualms/ doubts about paying, quite possibly majorly evil. I have no idea who this NPC might be, or what it may require... thoughts?

6) Legends of Nocticula: Julian cast Vision last session, and I was a bit stumped for legends of Ncoticula. I'd love to supply the party with a few more. Any ideas?
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In short, a lot to deal with, and plan for. I'd appreciate any help, as currently my fiance and me are more busy with plannign out a wedding/ union event, and doing whatever is needed for the pregnancy. All help would be great! Hope to hear from you,
Kol.