Completed Modded Pathfinder Kingmaker Ironman run

[Bloodeyes]

Last Episode

Spoiler

We killed lots of things around the Old Sycamore

Episode 3 - Into the bowels

Spoiler

So mopping up the last of the trash mobs at surface level got the party to level 3. Except Brogan because he's a mercenary and thus slightly behind in XP.

This mod adds a lot of cool new feats. I'm glad I'm just picking what I feel like instead of doing planned builds. This would be overwhelming otherwise. Even classes I know well have a ton of new stuff. I went with this for Duncan. It sounds pretty damn awesome.

I gave Valerie fouchard proficiency. We'll need to get her one of those. For now she's using a longspear. With all these cool new tank feats, maybe I could have kept her front line... is what I thought after I chose fouchard proficiency. No saves so no take backs. I'm not using respecs this time. Gonna keep it pure. Plus, fouchards are cool.

She got a bonus teamwork feat. A class feature lets her activate solo tactics like an inquisitor for a few rounds per day. Outflank isn't available yet, and she hasn't the DEX for precise strike. So I got this. Sounds useful. So I activate her solo tactics, have Duncan charge, then have her charge, she's at +2 to hit... actually now that I'm typing it that's a lot of management for +2. Oh well, it may end up being good and nothing amazing was available yet. I'll have everyone take bonded mind if the mod has done something horrible to Jubilost. That's another way for the party to get access to the shield spell.

Harrim got Dodge. He'll get crane style later I think, so I'd better remember to give him some mobility. Harrim has been an asset in his new class. I sort of wish he had the fast cleric spell progression, but his buff (forget what it's called, the one with the hammer icon) has actually helped out a lot. Him and Amiri hit pretty consistently compared to the others (who thus far can't hit jack shit most of the time). Having people who deal damage is pretty important. Sure you need support classes buffing and tanks protecting, but who are they buffing and protecting?

Your damage dealers! The second line reach users, the blindsiding sneak attackers. They're what the whole system is there to support.

Anyway /autism. Lets go into the cave and get some loot. We need supplies like a motherfucker, but we also need loot to sell in order to get those supplies. We won't go too far. We're still pretty green.

First fight in the cave goes pretty easy. They're just kobolds.

Our dwarven rogue is either showing my folly for making a dwarven rogue, or he's in the midst of a dice curse. Because he sets of more than half the traps he tries to disarm. I think he passed the one in the screen, but we ate quite a few burning hands spells going down this corridor.

At the end of the corridor we come across a rickety trap doo blocking our path...

Huh. Guess it's not a dice curse then. Good, those can be brutal. We kill some giant spiders.

Bumbling Brogan Bloodgrace sets off a web trap. At least I had the foresight to move the party away while he disarmed it. Being a rogue with high DEX he easily makes his saves to escape the webs. It's between us and the exit (and it won't despawn until we rest), but we have enough people who can make those saves that we'll be able to leave when we need to.

Unfortunately next fight Val take 5 goddamn STR damage from one hit from a spider. That's inconvenient. Curable, but we'll need to use a potion seeing as Harrim isn't a cleric in this mod and doesn't have level 2 spells yet. We only have 2 of them, and lots of things in these caves do stat damage.

Anyway we kill trash mobs and look around for a bit more, and Brogan levels up. I give him precise shot, finesse training dagger, and this interesting new spell. Could he be a reach rogue? Sounds like it. If this ends up being as good as it sounds I'm going to focus on his daggers and go for 2 weapon fighting. A secondary crossbow will still be handy for attacking into AOE effects. Plus his picture has a dagger and a crossbow.

We make a decent dent in the first level of the caves, and find enough loot to buy what we need. This is the smart time to leave. Quit while we're ahead. Except...

My bloodlust gets the better of me. I've fought through this cave a lot of times. I'm incredibly indecisive when it comes to builds and choices, so I've restarted this game many dozens of times and never finished it. I know the early game like the back of my hand. I can do this. They're only kobolds for fucks sake. I'm not going to die to kobolds. That's what I tell myself as I press on further into the caves... I don't know why I made this decision, given how the last season ended. Honestly I don't... guy's I'm sorry...

I'm sorry to report that nothing much happened this episode. I did a couple more fights then quit while I was ahead, heading back to Oleg's without incident to restock.

Not really any exciting choices for the comments after this one. Next episode we're going to explore around a little on our way back, and see about that nightmare Duncan had.

 

[Bloodeyes]

~ Intermission ~

Fixing errors in the timeline

Spoiler

So I was going to do a little trading between episodes, without taking screens. It started fine. I bought Duncan some heavy armor +1 and gave his half plate to Valerie (who also got a masterwork fouchard). Then I went to buy a couple very important consumables from that cleric Jhod who we rescued from the bandits... except that was the last run. He wasn't rescued yet.

So I did a wee circuit, redoing all the stuff we did in the first attempt.

I killed the scary boggards (and remembered remove fear this time).

I rescued Jhod. This time we passed our lore nature check and poisoned the Stag Lord's wine. Cool.

I discovered the Stag Lord's tragic backstory.

I didn't fight Oak That Strayed while under-levelled and get the whole party killed.

I did run into the Technic League though. This time Valerie volunteered. She's been kicking ass with that fouchard I gave her though, so I can't oblige. Later Harrim lol

Then I went back to the trading post to finish my shopping.

Consumables!

Yeah that's a lot of gold and hassle for 5 scrolls. They're worth it. Matter of fact I'll probably nip back off screen to grab a protection from acid communal as well, next time I pick up something valuable.

The problem is we have nobody who can read them now that Harrim has been kidnapped. We'll be needing someone who can do that, and I have just the girl in mind.

 

[Bloodeyes]

Last episode

Spoiler

We killed more trash mobs around the Old Sycamore. We then went into the Old Sycamore caves and killed some more trash mobs. We then went back to Oleg's trading post. I gave Bokken his radishes (off camera) and got another quest from Oleg (also off screen) to kill tuskgutter, a vicious boar. Amiri is very excited to do this. We eventually will. I also did some shopping. Oh and Harrim is gone. He got kidnapped by slavers.

Episode 4 Working my way back to you

Spoiler

We need more loot and XP. So on our way back we're exploring a bit. We head out of Oleg's and go to a nearby area, the Endless Plains.

We kill the world's weakest manticore and pick up a +2 DEX belt which I give to Brogan.

Then we head to the infamous Fangberry Cave. Killer of noobs and casuals alike! Let me spoil this bit for you. I beat this place on my first playthrough and today will be no different (admittedly I took a bit of stat damage first try).

Those with DEX get the alchemist's fire.

Those with STR carry torches in case we run out of alchemists fire (unlikely). Their main job will be to kill the big ones while the throwers kill the swarms.

Hmm... I'll let you live actually.

Linzi uses a scroll of delay poison communal. 700 GP down the toilet from not having a cleric.

Inside the cave we kill some big spiders.

Then we grab the fangberries for Bokken. That's not the cunty part though.

It's these little spider swarms. You need fire to damage them, and they will make you sickened and unable to attack without delay poison or delay poison communal. Which we have.

So we kill them no trouble. Everyone gets poisoned but it doesn't hurt or disable them because of the spell.

And Bokken gets his fangberries. I also do sell some crap and buy a scroll of protection from acid communal off Jhod.

I clear out Two-Rivers Field. It's just a field full of trash mobs. Not worthy of taking screens. Things are going well for the party except...

Duncan isn't sleeping. He's had that nightmare again about the burning house, the cut rope bridge and the living corpse. He's getting fatigued. That means he can't charge, which is a pain in the ass. So let's go figure out what that's about.

As we arrive we are greeted by the sight of a burned out house... the one from Duncan's dream.

And here's the rope bridge. So that means there's a living corpse around here too right?

Yup, there he is. Time to get to the bottom of this nonsense.

Let's talk to him and find out what his deal is...

So.. he wants us to kill the Stag Lord. Linzi is right about this. We already have that quest. This isn't optional either. If you ignore the dream you're fatigued until you come and talk to him. Not you if you can just put up with that and run through the prologue tired. Never tried. Why railroad me here just to give me a quest I'm already doing?

Anyway with that bullshit out of the way, we head back to the Old Sycamore caves to pick up where we left off.

And that will have to wait for next time. The next fight can be either easy or perilous, depending on the dice. It should be fine, but there's a non-zero chance of something going wrong. Still it's unavoidable if we want those scrolls of protection from fire and acid read, and we're really going to want that death ward on Duncan for a certain fight in the future.

 

[Bloodeyes]

Last Episode

Spoiler

We got fangberries for Bokken (side quest) and investigated the cause of Duncan's nightmares, before heading back to the Old Sycamore Caves to continue dungeon crawling.

Episode 5 - Trudging through the depths

Spoiler

We begin the episode with the fight I teased at the end of the last one. We're fighting the Kobold chief, Chief Sootscale. It's actually a cakewalk. We're stronger that I gave us credit for. The only thing is we're still having trouble hitting stuff and it's making fights take an annoying amount of rounds to resolve.

Anyway, with the chief dies the last of the Sootscale tribe. Aw. We take the mites' holy relic (the one the kobolds stole from them). We also get a DEX belt and give it to...

Jaethal! Jaethal is back. The kobolds were keeping her prisoner. Tartucchio betrayed her, surprisingly enough. So now we're back to full party strength, and we have someone to act as our "cleric". She's pretty strong too. The mod starts her out with 21 DEX, and the belt gives her a further +2. She's only got 10 CHA and 14 STR though, so it's not really wise to try and switch her to melee. Oh well, she's an archer then. That's fine for a support caster. But I liked her scythe...

So I give her archer type stuff when I level her up. I choose this teamwork feat. It sounds good (remember she's got solo tactics, she doesn't need anyone else to have the feat for this to work).

We go deeper.

Before we head into battle our new "cleric" blesses us... That's the blessing of Urgathoa, the godess of undeath, gluttony, selfishness and general degeneracy. Yuck. We need it though. To hit things.

We kill a boss spider and get a good item. It's a wand of true strike (full round action to cast, gives +20 to hit to one attack next turn). Brogan gets it. That will save us one day, I can almost guarantee it.

We kills some skeletons. Easy fight.

We find a mite hermit living in the depths. We murder him for XP.

We kill more trash mobs and hit level 4! I give Duncan a point of STR, brining him to a respectable 18. I also give him estoc proficiency. Sure a bastard sword would match his picture more, but I can't resist crits. They're just too good. At least it is a sword. He won't be finessing it, we're going all in on STR for him.

Amiri gets a point of STR, bringing her to 20. Handy. I give her animal fury for her rage power (adds a bite attack). There's another power (added by the mod) that adds extra damage to her bite attack, as well as a cloak that adds I think 2d6 to it that you can get in the next act. I'll probably give her an amulet of mighty fists too for +1 to attacks with natural weapons (that should include a bite attack right?). Aside from that the plan is just to give her as much DR as possible. I've already given her toughness and a +1 greatsword. She's been hanging on the front line with Duncan and doing good work.

Linzi gets a point of DEX (her last, it's all CHA from now on). She also gets a cool spell. Interesting. If the mod has added more evocation spells to her list I may consider focusing her in that instead of mind effecting. Mind effecting can be nice, but it's save or suck and enemies usually save (or have immunities). You can get over that with gear, feats and by putting all her points in CHA. But it takes a while and we'll probably all be dead before that happens to be honest.

Jaethal gets a point of DEX, bringing her up to a whopping 24. I love the new inquisitor spell list. It makes me want to play an inquisitor main with this mod. If Duncan dies I'm going to put it to a vote whether I roll one or make Brogan like I said I would. Unfortunately we need a cleric in the party. We've lost our warpriest, and I don't know what this mod has done to Tristian. If he's good, we'll probably use him. But that's next act anyway. That's assuming we make it (at this point it's likely we will, but by no means a given). We need a cleric now. So Jaethal doesn't get the cool new spells. She gets utility spells to save us money on scrolls and potions.

I also gave Valeria a point of CHA, bringing her up to 16. She's going to get Dazzling Display once I give her fouchard focus. Well... that's level 7. Assuming she makes level 7 that's what I'll do. I forgot to screencap her character sheet. It doesn't matter. She didn't get a feat or bonus feat.

We press on and encounter forshadowing.

It's a tremendous centipede! We burn 1400 GP worth of scrolls to become immune to poison and acid, then we kill it easily.

Actually, we kill everything down here pretty easily. Those buffs last a long time and the main danger down here is poison. These frogs were mad I stole their golden statuette.

Not much they could do about it though with our fancy buffs.

Looks pretty clear right? Well... there's one more fight down here, and it's time for me to come clean about something. I don't usually play on true challenging difficulty. I don't have the patience for all the misses, so I generally select challenging difficulty, then turn enemy stat adjustments down to "normal enemies". These two runs have actually been the first time (outside of Beneath the Stolen Lands) where I've played for any length of time with "somewhat tougher enemies" enabled.

Basically what I've noticed is that it's like being a level or two behind when it comes to hitting things. Everything else is the same. But hitting things is pretty important. So I'm kind of nervous about this next fight.

I head outside and rest, letting my fancy expensive buffs wear off. They did their job.

Then I buff the party up and put them all in position. This isn't the hardest fight by any means, but it's no cakewalk at level 3 with normal enemies. We're level 4 with somewhat tougher enemies. This will be something a minor acid test for the combat efficacy of our party, and my ability to play this difficulty. I'm really tense going into this one. I almost leave it for next time.

So tense I forget to take even 1 screen because I'm too focused on the fight. I forget I'm doing an LP and just focus on the game. It was easy BTW. Our party is getting strong. They were 3, reasonably tanky undead. They could hit Duncan on an 18, and did a couple of times but he's got the CON to take it. We could hit them with no trouble, and even little Linzi got into the melee casting cure light wounds on them for big damage against their touch AC.

Brogan levelled up. I gave him mirror image and this interesting new buff. I love the changes to the spell lists with this mod. I don't think I'd go back to vanilla. I'm having a great time.

Edit: I just noticed it says unarmed strikes. Yeah, he's not going to be doing those. Bugger. Oh well, looks like he and Harrim are getting those teamwork feats that let them share personal buffs. May as well give that to the whole party. How OP would Duncan be with mirror image? Very, very OP.

Edit 2: Natural attacks or unarmed strikes. Like Amiri's new bite attack. Well, we know what feats her, Harrim, Duncan and Brogan will have to get next level then.

Next time we're going to finally finish this damn dungeon and move on with the story.

 

[Bloodeyes]

Last episode

Spoiler

We continued clearing the Old Sycamore

Episode 6 - All good dungeons come to an end

Spoiler

We take a break from dungeon crawling to kill the wolf. It turns out he's not a wolf, but a Warg (intelligent, evil wolf)

We kill him. He drops an amulet of mighty fists for Amiri. I'll have to remember to check the combat log to see if that's giving her the bonus to her bite.

We hand in the quest to the friendly mite and kobold hunters. Then we kill them. I'm starting to think Duncan is chaotic neutral, not lawful neutral.

We head back inside the caves. This time on the mites' side. The fights are nothing worth talking about.

I switch to real time and clear the rest of the place out, except the last couple of boss fights.

I pause here and buff up with all our consumables. I meant to put death ward on Duncan as an insurance policy against the negative energy damage (I'm assuming that works, I've never bothered with death ward just for channeling before) but I forgot to have Jaethal cast it.

In the end it doesn't matter. I get Jaethal to cast in on him mid-combat, but nobody ends up using channel negative energy. Which is weird. Does this mod change enemies too? I've not see any differences in enemies yet.

Anyway, the fight isn't too bad. It got tense for a bit when Duncan failed a hold person save, leaving Val on the front line. She went down of course. Nonetheless we killed them.

Then we use another of those expensive scrolls. Protection from fire, communal.

The mites' treasure we took from Chief Sootscale is the key to their sacred inner sanctum. We use it and go in to find Tartucchio, still in the guise of a kobold, putting something into a portal.

The portal closes. We don't find out what he was up to. He's not stupid enough to tell us. Instead we get to fighting and he nukes most of his own dudes with a fireball. We're fine though.

Amiri turns him into paste and Tartucchio is no more. That's the last we'll hear of that evil, insufferable little blighter.

We need to sell our loot again. We're at medium encumbrance. On the way back to the trading post we stop off to have a text adventure.

We make our way though the lowland, avoiding carnivorous plants and quicksand, and discover a strange, evil idol at it's centre. I... don't think Duncan is lawful guys.

Then again this is pretty consistent with his having 7 INT so maybe I shouldn't read to much into it...

After that we head back. We sell our loot, and buy more potions of cure moderate wounds. I don't like wasting money on them, but they've saved us a lot of times so I'll keep buying them until we stop needing them.

There's money left over though. We get two lesser metamagic rods - extend and reach, which both go to Jaethal for the time being. Having these in the party inventory increases our capability. Now, for example, Linzi could heal without running into melee. Or Jaethal could cast a necromancy touch spell as a ranged touched attack. Extend makes our buffs last longer, which is very nice to have as well. I also buy Amiri a belt of giant strength +2.

Now the world is our oyster... well the prologue part of the world anyway.

Where to next? Don't say the wererats or tranquil river bend, too dangerous. Should we rescue Harrim from the technic league? Find the temple of the elk?

Thanks to those who have continued reading this far. I realize this is getting kind of long. If we clear the prologue (which looks likely), and I don't do anything too stupid, this may go on for quite a bit longer. If it goes beyond killing the troll king I'm not restarting if I die.

 

[Kalarion]

Let's just lawnmow the map for now. This is the best time to do it for this region since we have no time limits yet. We've got the meta knowledge to know which encounters are too dangerous for us, but we can get the nodes and travel routes revealed for everything.

PS: Death Ward doesn't protect against Negative Energy damage, only effects related to use of negative energy: mainly Instant Death effects like Finger of Death, and level drain from, say, Enervation or enervating auras.

 

[Bloodeyes]

Let's just lawnmow the map for now. This is the best time to do it for this region since we have no time limits yet. We've got the meta knowledge to know which encounters are too dangerous for us, but we can get the nodes and travel routes revealed for everything.

PS: Death Ward doesn't protect against Negative Energy damage, only effects related to use of negative energy: mainly Instant Death effects like Finger of Death, and level drain from, say, Enervation or ennervating auras.

Dang, that was a bit of a waste. At least I was too cheap to buy it for the whole party.

 

[baud]

Free Harrim, he looks like a cheerful fellow

 

[Bloodeyes]

Last time...

Spoiler

We finished clearing the Old Sycamore and killed Tartucchio at last. We headed back to the trading post, and Duncan the idiot ate a bug. He's fine though. I also talked to Jaethal about her backstory off screen so here you go...

Jaethal:

Jaethal was a judge in her life among the elves. She was ancient, and grew bored of her long life. Nothing excited her any more. Eventually she started worshipping Urgathoa, goddess of gluttony, selfishness, disease and undeath. She murdered four of her family members in blood rituals for Ugathoa (based on Urgathoa's wiki page this likely means she cannibalized them). She claims doing this invigorated her, making her feel emotion again.

Her crimes were discovered, and she was exiled as punishment (elves are liberals, no death penalty). Soon afterwards, she herself was killed, but she has no memory of how or by who. Urgathoa raised her as an udead Inquisitor (basically a divine warlock) of her faith.

Jaethal has joined our party for protection from whoever killed her and help in solving her murder.

Episode 7 - It's like mowing the lawn

Spoiler

We start the day by introducing a couple old friends to each other. Insane Dryad...

Meet death you fucking bitch!

I love how the camping dialogue is often topical to story events. Details like that really add a feeling of depth to the game.

Next up we take on a troll...

He hits hard, but Linzi's hideous laughter hits harder.

We explore around a bit more, cleaning up the prologue area. I'm loving Brogan as a reach rogue BTW. That long arm buff makes him really effective. Because he attacks from behind Duncan it always counts as a sneak attack! Plus mirror image, mage armor and shield mean he can hang when he does end up fighting 1v1.

These wolves took some killing. We don't yet have an answer for trip attacks except to stay down until the others kill enough for you to risk standing back up. But we killed them.

This leopard messed up Duncan quite badly. It could hit him on a 17 I think, and it rolled really well the first couple of rounds. I was glad I bought those healing potions. They saved his life.

This werewolf had DR, but I turned Amiri's power attack on and she hit him hard enough that it didn't matter.

Having cleared most of the map, we then went to rescue our buddy Harrim from the technic league. We buffed up first. I've had this fight be quite hairy for me before.

We started strong. Amiri charged and one-shot Kalanah in round 1.

Then (still in round 1) giant Valerie one shotted another mage.

In round 2 Amiri one shots the third and final mage. All the archers and infantrymen targeted Duncan, so they were hitting on 20s. They didn't roll any 20s and we won the fight without getting hit once.

Kalanah begs for mercy.

Fuck you bitch, you kidnapped Harrim!

We get Harrim back! A couple of Kalanah's other slaves also join our party. I'll do a bio on them before next episode.

I head back to the trading post to sort gear and level people up. Regongar (one of the slaves) has a different subclass. Hmm. It seems fine.

I give him blade lash, and a magus arcana that lets him use his magus level instead of his BAB for trip attempts. Or something like that anyway. It makes his tripping better, and this spell trips people. I also buy him a +2 CHA hat because the mod took him down to 14 CHA.

Octavia (Regongar's slutty but nice half-elf GF) also has her class changed. She doesn't come multiclassed out of the box. I approve, that should be up to the player. I choose to multiclass her anyway, giving her a level of Swashbuckler (new rogue subclass). I just give her one rogue level (and accomplished sneak attacker), and then give her two more wizard levels. She's ready to go into arcane trickster at level 5.

Harrim levels up too and gets channel energy. That's really useful for heals when we rest, as we're still taking a bit of damage most fights. I'm still hopeful I'll be able to sort a strategy to fix that.

Anyway, there are too many chicks in the party. Valerie and Jaethal get put on the bench. I take the new party out to test them in a fairly easy fight.

They do fine.

Anyway, that's most of the prologue done. All that remains is Tuskgutter, the Temple of the Elk and then the Stag Lord's fort. We'll do all three next episode, and unless I have a stroke while playing or something that means we'll have finished the prologue. There's a couple areas I'm not doing until higher level. I could (when playing normally I always do), but I don't need to and I'd feel stupid if I died taking an unnecessary risk.

So that's that. Next time (all going well), Duncan becomes a baron!

 

[baud]

do the fact that group members have different alignements have some gameplay impact or it's just how they'll react to your choices?

 

[Bloodeyes]

do the fact that group members have different alignements have some gameplay impact or it's just how they'll react to your choices?

It comes into play in the kingdom management. You assign your party members as advisors and they will occasionally come to you with decisions to make. Their alignment affects what options they prefer you take. Piss them off too many times and they quit. Holding court is pretty cool. I wish that was all there was to kingdom management...

They also react to some decisions you make when questing. They can leave the party if you go too far against their beliefs.

 

[Bloodeyes]

Last episode...

Spoiler

We cleared out most of the caves and dungeons, and discovered all the roads we could in preparation for beating the prologue and starting the game proper. We then got Harrim back and had two new people join our party, Regongar and his girlfriend Octavia.

Regongar and Octavia

Two lovers who grew up together in slavery in Numeria, as property of the technic league (they sound sort of like a wizard/scientist mafia). Regongar is from a barbarian tribe and remembers his mother vaguely. Octavia remembers almost nothing of her childhood. They were both trained in magic, to make them more useful slaves. They tried to escape their servitude many times, but were always tracked and recaptured.

Regongar didn't need much magical training, he's got dragon blood in him and is a spontaneous caster and warrior. Octavia is a wizard who I have multiclassed with rogue.

They worship Calistria, the elven goddess of lust and vengeance. So they are swingers, and they will fuck anything on two legs or four. Regongar is really into the vengeance part as well as the lust... Octavia not so much. Octavia is portrayed as a bit slutty, but kind and friendly. Regongar is a sadist and a sleazeball. His original alignment was chaotic evil, but the mod author thought they knew better and changed it to chaotic neutral.

Regongar's frequently tries to bang other party members of both genders, including the PC. Octavia is just flirty. Their relationship, while formed through shared adversity, isn't the strongest. Octavia doesn't like how possessive Regongar is, doesn't like being called "his". She also worries about his cruel side.

Episode 8 (Season finale) - This one's a two parter

Spoiler

I've got too many screens to put in one post. So this one's a two parter. Fitting for what I'm calling the season finale! Let's get straight into the action.

We start off in Tuskgutter's lair, the man-killing boar that Oleg wanted us to kill. Amiri wants to fight it alone, she's got to prove she's as good as any man.

She's not. Her class doesn't have the AC to do something like that. She almost dies and the party kill tuskgutter for her.

We humor her and let her take the credit.

Next up, we travel to the Temple of the Elk to find the source of the magical fog. The nymph is there to greet us.

We find the source of the fog, a corrupted sacred pool in the center of the temple's courtyard.

We kill a bunch of magical beasts. They're no match for a party of our level.

We meet a priest of Sarenrae, goddess of healing and mercy. He wants to join the party to thank us for saving him, but he's too wounded so he goes back to Oleg's. He'll join next act and we'll get to see what has changed in his build. Hopefully everything because I hate his build.

Level up time! I make a minor fuck up with this new feat. I take it for Duncan, thinking I'll give Linzi and Brogan the feat that lets him use their personal buffs.

Turns out they need to have bonded mind first as a prerequisite to take that feat. So Duncan has a feat that won't benefit him until level 7. Whoops. But yeah, Linzi takes bonded mind.

Harrim gets Crane Style.

Regongar gets extra arcane pool and metamagic empower spell. He can't empower anything yet doesn't have level 3 spell slots. I probably should have taken this later. I may sit down and plan their builds at some point, but I don't really want to. I'm having fun just picking on the fly, even though I'm making mistakes.

It's a great feat for a magus, he'll definitely end up using it a lot. You can buy a maximise metamagic rod and use it on shocking grasp empowered spellstrike 3 times per day. When that crits... well it's not the most damage you can do in this game, but it's as much damage as any reasonable person needs to do. Very few things are immune to it too, and it doesn't get a save.

Amiri gets one of the new feats. This should help her hit things more consistently.

I head back to Oleg's. The nymph is there to wish me luck against the Stag Lord. She gives Duncan a present, a pendant that gives +3 deflection bonus (I think it's deflection) against arrows. Isn't she nice? He re-gifts it to Harrim because he likes his +1 natural armor pendant better.

I level up the reserves. Octavia gets her prestige class and precise shot. She'll be getting weapon focus ray later on, and improved critical ray. Guess what she'll be doing? Yes. Casting ray spells. You have to specialize in this game.

Now that we have other options for a cleric, Jaethal can take an offensive spell. I give her castigate. I love castigate. It works on so many things it shouldn't work on. If you think that castigate means to give them a stern telling off, then from now on imagine Jaethal telling off various monsters and magical beasts, and them stopping the fight to beg for forgiveness. Well, it makes me laugh.

Valerie gets fouchard focus. She'll take dazzling display later.

Stag Lord time in part two.

Which I will post presently

 

[Bloodeyes]

Episode 8 (Season finale) - Part 2

Spoiler

Time to face the stag lord. Regongar is pumped.

A little too pumped. Take a look at Duncan. Remember that Duncan is Scottish. This isn't just my head canon, he's got a Scottish accent. Where does your head have to be at to think "Hmm, he seems like he'd be down for a bit of a gay romp right now."

Duncan isn't down. He's not given to fucking around or suffering fools. He tells Regongar what's up.

Regongar backs off but doesn't apologize. That boy is on thin ice with Duncan right now.

Anyway. Punch the Stag Lord. Sure we can do that. But we'll want to take it slow and careful. We start by clearing the area around the fort. We kill a few zombies.

Then we sneak in a convenient hole in the fence, using Linzi's inspire competence to make the check with ease.

We talk to the first bandit we see and convince him to leave.

Then we make our way around the camp killing the groups of bandits one by one, without letting any run to alert the others.

There's a technique to doing this reliably. What you want to do is kill the ones with HP or AC first, leaving a couple archers or something for last. The last guy runs when the second to last guy dies. So disable the last guy, or at least have him surrounded and down to one hit before you kill the second to last.

We keep using Linzi's inspire competence. When she starts getting low on bardsongs, or our buffs start to wear off, we go outside, exit to the map, and camp. Just assume I'm doing that in every large dungeon, because I am.

We press in further. Killing quietly as we go. I mean we're screaming battle cries and singing but we're doing that quietly.

We find a captured owlbear and make friends with it somehow. It will help us fight the Stag Lord.

Then we take out a couple of the Stag Lord's generals. So far this is pretty close to textbook. If we'd managed to convince the other general to join us I'd call it perfect.

Just the boss fight left. One more rest. We've got nearly a month left to do this so we can afford to be careful.

Buffs on let's go!

If you noticed that bit in the intermission where we poisoned the Stag Lord's wine, well, he drank it.

My plan was to have Amiri one shot him. His cleric puts paid to that idea by casting hold person on her.

I can't recall the Stag Lord's class. Could be a low level ranger. He casts but I think he's just a dude with items, not a proper caster. Anyway his will saves aren't too good. Linzi demonstrates this.

Harrim and Brogan take out the cleric. Brogan is fucking great. He's been an MVP right from when I hired him. Great utility and strong in fights. Can't ask for more than that.

Soon the Stag Lord is alone and disabled. Things aren't looking too good for him.

He doesn't ask for mercy. Duncan isn't very mature about this to be honest...

We head inside and kill his dad too...

Before heading back to Oleg's. Time to say adieu to the Stolen Lands. The next time we return to this land will be as its ruler.

Which gives me a couple interesting questions to pose for the comments. We'll have a couple choices to make at the start of next episode that will effect us for the entire game. We'll need to choose who we take on as our emissary.

We could take the representative of House Aldori, our benefactor Jamandi Aldori's adoptive son and heir, Kassil. That's the loyal thing to do. Not doing so would be to bite the hand that feeds us, but it's quite obvious we're being used here. We don't have to play along.

Or we could take a representative from house Surtova, the Aldori's enemies. She's an experienced politician and well qualified for the job. I've never picked this option.

We could also hire some random charismatic teenager who is totally unqualified for the role. After all who needs skills and experience when you're young and trendy, and have a good line of bullshit?

Another decision we have to make is what we name our barony. This decision is permanent. If someone has a suggestion (not codexia) that is at least reasonably lore friendly (not wankerville or something) then I'll use it.

 

[Kalarion]

Take on Kassil. Lawful neutral pays his debts. After this, we're partners and equals, not juniors to a sponsor. Anything goes.

For Kingdom name, Obnatus Arx. The Stolen Lands will be reclaimed and tamed, with our hand to guide them.

 

[baud]

Now that we have other options for a cleric, Jaethal can take an offensive spell. I give her castigate. I love castigate. It works on so many things it shouldn't work on. If you think that castigate means to give them a stern telling off, then from now on imagine Jaethal telling off various monsters and magical beasts, and them stopping the fight to beg for forgiveness. Well, it makes me laugh.

me too

For the advisor, I'd say the representative from house Surtova, just so you get something new story-wise this time around

For the barony, how about Duncan's Barony? Not too complicated, but tell everyone who's the boss

 

[Bloodeyes]

Further updates may be delayed. I have developed very severe neck pain over the last couple of days to where I can no longer roll over in bed or get myself to the toilet. I'm currently trying to deal with the shitty public healthcare to get myself taken to hospital to find out what has gone wrong. If I am successful, no more Kingmaker until I get discharged. If I need surgery that could be a while

 

[baud]

get well bro

 

[Bloodeyes]

I've had a really rough couple of days. I've been in immense pain from my neck. I tried to get seen in hospital when it got to the point where I couldn't roll over in bed or take myself to the toilet, but the ambulance just dumped me in a medical center waiting room with a flat cell phone and went on their merry way. It was agonizing hell. This country isn't going down the toilet. It's gone.

I couldn't talk the doctor into giving me an x-ray, but he prescribed me some muscle relaxants that actually seem to be helping. The upside of me not being admitted to hospital is I can play more Kingmaker and continue the LP. There's no combat in this one, it's all RP sorry. There's a bit of story to get through before we can go dungeon crawling again.


Last time...

Spoiler

We killed the Stag Lord, and in doing so earned the right to claim the Stolen Lands as our barony.

Season 3 Episode 1 - Duncan's Barony

Spoiler

Having defeated the Stag Lord, Duncan returns to report his success to Lady Jamandi Aldori. She looks too white for a Jamandi, doesn't she?

Aldori fills Duncan in on the politics behind her decision to back him in establishing a barony. It's kind of long but the short version is as I summarized in an earlier post - her nation is ruled by her family's enemies, the Surtovas. The Aldori wish to secede, but they need allies to do it. We're meant to build our barony, then be that ally when the time comes.

There is a banquet held in our honor.

Duncan mingles with the guests. The first person he talks to is a young lad, obviously from a noble house, who wants to be his envoy... only he won't say why or what house he's from. Duncan is irritated by this. We won't be picking him.

Next Duncan meets Hannis Drelev, another noble who is being given a barony today. The guy is a total prick, and quite rude to Duncan. Duncan has killed dozens, probably hundreds of people and monsters at this point. Don't talk to him like that, he'll kill you too. Maybe not here in the middle of the banquet hall, but you're on borrowed time now, Drelev.

Next, Duncan talks to Ezvanki Keeg (what a name!), a priest (or bishop or something) of the stag God, Erastil. Erastil is the main deity worshipped in the region. Duncan asks for any support from the priest can give him in establishing his barony, but he's a warrior, not a diplomat.

That's because I dumped his CHA. I'm levelling persuade anyway, as it's helpful to have on your main, but it's never going to be his strongest skill. Think of him as a rough old soldier doing his best to learn social skills in order to meet the requirements of his new role.

While making his way over to speak with Surtova, Duncan is approached by a Tiefling girl. He's met her before. She was to be one of the adventurers who set out for the stolen lands with him, but after the attack and Tartuccio's accusations she opted to remain here, unsure who to side with. She asks him for help with a treasure hunt, and Duncan says he'll consider it.

She tells him she'll travel to his capital and buy a house there, and he can visit her when he's ready to discuss their expedition.

Next Duncan meets with Natala Surtova. Surtova confirms what Duncan suspected, that he is being used as a pawn. She explains that in the event of civil war his barony would act as a buffer between the Surtovas and the Aldori, and likely fall. Basically he's being sacrificed to buy their freedom. Surtova suggests he ally with her instead of with the rebel Aldori, taking her representative as his envoy instead of the half-orc Kassil Aldori.

Duncan might have 7 INT but he's got 10 WIS. He's no philosopher king, but he wasn't born yesterday either. He knows enough of the world to look a gift horse in the mouth, every time. What Surtova says makes sense to him.

Duncan heads over to Aldori's group. There he meets Joseph Sellemius, Lord Mayor of the independent city of Restov and an ally of Jamandi Aldori. Joseph offers him a loan to help him start his barony, but even with 7 INT (which I'm treating more as education than IQ for roleplaying purposes, as that's how the stat functions in this game) he's not ignorant enough to take a deal like that.

No more obligations, no more benefactors. He'll fund the barony himself. Coin isn't a problem for him, killing and looting as much as he does.

Duncan informs Aldori that he intends to take Shandra Mervey , the Surtova representative, as his envoy. If she's shocked by this she doesn't show it.

And then Duncan's big moment comes.

Linzi takes a little... artistic license in her rendering of events. Particularly in relation to Duncan's appearance.

Having officially received his title, Baron Duncan I returns to the Stolen Lands as its lawful ruler. There he is greeted by Keston Garess, who Jamandi has sent to serve him. Keston shows him around his new capital.

What was the Stag Lord's fortress is now Tuskdale, capital of his barony. It's not much to see yet. But in time it will become a grand city.

After being shown to his new throne room, he meets with Shandra Mervey, who gives him a run down on his responsibilities as baron.

He also meets with Jhod Kaven (the cleric of Erastil we saved) and Tristian, who now act as spiritual advisors to the new baron (self appointed, but they seem to know what they're doing).

They inform him that there is a curse on his new barony, they sense the dark energy about to be unleashed from a place called the bald hilltop. He's got a month until that happens, at which time he should travel there to face whatever threat emerges.

And finally, the day's meeting over, Duncan can get to work running his barony. I won't be showing much of that here. It's too involved and documenting everything in the Kindom management would be boring to read and increase the length of these posts too much.

But there is one thing I'll show you, the name of Duncan's new barony. Henceforth the region known as the Stolen Lands shall be called...

 

[baud]

Nice

 

[Bloodeyes]

Last time...

Spoiler

Duncan was crowned as Baron of the Stolen Lands. He chose the emissary from house Surtova as his envoy, Shandra Mervey. She's... very professional. He named his new barony Arx Duncanis.

Offscreen, he appointed advisors:

- Valerie is his regent (the link between the baron and his people, responsible for the community stat).

- Shandra Mervey is his councilor (solves the problems of the common people, responsible for the loyalty stat).

- Amiri is his general (Watches the borders and protects the realm, responsible for the military stat.

- Brogan is his treasurer (Economy stat, but as a mercenary Brogan takes -5 to problem solving. We'll need to find someone better).

- Jhod Kaven is his high priest (solves matters relating to religion. Divine stat).

He also annexed the outskirts region, where Oleg's trading post is located and built a village there, called Tradeguard. Because he spent so freely on potions and items, there wasn't much money to put into the barony starting out. I usually end up with over 30k to invest in the barony after the prologue, but this time it was only 16k. Most of that money came from selling collectables to the storyteller, a blind elf who hangs out in your court.

Duncan spent half his gold on a new tower shield, and put the rest in his barony (purchased BP). He built a few things in his capital, and set Jhod to rebuilding the Temple of the Elk, something he'll be doing for the next 60 days. He also had a visit from the nymph, who asked him to visit her alone in her verdant chambers. Is Duncan going to get some fey pussy? Maybe...

Duncan and the party made a quick trip to Oleg's to recruit Bokken as his court alchemist. Bokken agreed, but he needs a lab. When we've got the money to buy more BP we'll build him one.

Back at the capital he paid a visit to that tiefling girl, Kaessi, and that's where we'll join him for today's episode...

Episode 2 - A brush with death

Spoiler

After a couple days of tedious administrative tasks, Duncan is fed up. He's been appointing advisors, ordering construction projects and holding court. Being a baron is hard work! Already he craves escape, to return to what he loves best, battle and adventure!

He remembers the tiefling girl he spoke with at the banquet, Kaessi. She has a house here in town, and wanted him to stop by to discuss a treasure hunt. So he goes to see her, but when he arrives she seems troubled...

Suddenly Duncan hears a tearing sound that makes his stomach lurch. A portal opens behind the girl and she is sucked into it. There is a blinding flash and standing in her place is another tiefling, identical in appearance, save for her eyes being blue rather than orange. But this is obviously not the same girl. Her manner is softer somehow. Less vampish.

Duncan asks the new tiefling girl what is going on. She gives him a very longwinded explanation of her convoluted and largely irrelevant backstory, but the short version is that the two are sisters. Twins. The one with red eyes is Kanerah, the blue eyed one is Kalikke.

Kanerah died, and Kalikke made a deal with Nethys, the god of magic, to bring her back to life. The deal has a price, they must live in turns. One may exist in this realm, while another sleeps in another dimension, and they cannot meet or control when they switch places. They are forbidden from revealing this arrangement to anyone, hence why they live as Kaessi. They communicate with each other by keeping a diary, and are looking for a relic, the disc of the eclipse, that they believe may help them with their situation somehow.

Baron Duncan agrees to help them find it.

And so Duncan heads to Sorrowflow to meet Kalikke. Travelling in this region is a bit dangerous for a level 5 party. The random encounters on this side of the river can kill the unprepared, unwary or under-levelled. But they make it to Sorrowflow without incident.

There they meet with Kalikke. This girl really likes to talk. She gives Duncan a longwinded and wholly irrelevant lecture on the history of this ruin. Duncan tunes out. He's a warrior, not an academic and he doesn't give a fuck.

Kalikke wants to search for the disc alone, just her and Duncan, to avoid revealing her secret to any more people as to do so violates her agreement with Nethys. Duncan agrees and sends his companions away.

Kalikke and Kanerah are kineticists, a class I never play and don't know how to build effectively. I give her a pet chicken because it amuses me.

Duncan, Kalikke and the chicken then venture into the ruins of Sorrowflow. Despite tuning out whenever Kalikke opens her mouth (seriously, her dialogue is way too much. She never gives an answer of less than two paragraphs to even the simplest question), Duncan is loving being away from court. He's got a pack on his back and his sword in his hand. He lives for this.

The pair encounter some slurks (big, smelly frogs that spit slime at them). They're no challenge. They can only hit Duncan on a nat 20, and Kalikke is one shotting them.

After killing the slurks, they find some small water elementals trapped in a binding circle. Kalikke frees them and they seem grateful. Who trapped them there or why is unknowable, the creatures cannot speak.

After freeing the elementals, the duo are met with a sheer cliff face which they must climb in order to progress. Duncan is pretty spry for a guy in his 50s, but he's carrying a tower shield, a backpack full of camping rations and potions, and his weapons.

He slips and nearly falls to his death, but Kalikke catches him. The climb fatigues Duncan, but Kalikke is unfazed. At the top of the cliff she stops to admire the view.

Duncan has other things on his mind. He spots the entrance to a cave behind the waterfall. Caves mean monsters and loot. After camping briefly to recover his strength, he can't resist checking it out.

Entering the cave they do indeed find monsters. An entire nest of giant centipedes! Kalikke is poisoned and takes minor DEX damage, but between Duncan's AC and Kalikke's big damage they easily dispatch the foul beasts.

The pair leave the cave and move deeper into the ruins before coming to another cliff face, all of a sudden Duncan hears the awful tearing sound again, and Kanerah is beside him.

She tries to play it off, but Duncan explains to her that he know what's going on.

They spy their goal at the bottom of the cliff. The problem is, there's a rather large monster down there. They decide to let the water elementals fight it first, to soften it up. So they sit together at the top of the cliff, chatting while watching the battle unfold below them.

When the last of the elementals fall, they go down and finish the beast. Duncan blocks it and Kanerah one shots it.

They find the object of their search on the ground nearby. The disc of the eclipse. On touching the disc it merges with Kanerah, giving her and Kalikke the power to switch places at will instead of randomly. They then join Duncan's party as reserves (we'll probably never use them. They do nice damage but don't fill any particular niche we require).

So it's time to go home, but the party are all tired. They camp for the night aiming to set off for the capital the following morning.

But then disaster strikes! The party are ambushed in camp by three dire venomwolves!

This is bad. They're unbuffed and unprepared. Amiri gets poisoned and Duncan gets tripped. They can hit Duncan, and he needs a 17 or higher to hit them back.

This got really close. If Linzi didn't have cure moderate wounds and a reach metamagic rod it might have been game over.

They survived though. After a tense few rounds they get a couple of buffs on and get their tactics together. Surprisingly it's little Linzi with her crossbow who hits most consistently (I bought her the flaming one from Oleg's between episodes).

After their brush with death they return to the capital. Duncan meets with Harrim at court to hear a request. Harrim wants to visit some dwarven ruins with Duncan. No problem buddy.

Having finished with work for the day, Duncan has a bit of time on his hands. So he heads to the market to sell a bit of loot. He runs into Kanerah, who is enjoying haggling with a merchant. Duncan asks her if she'd like to hang out.

Kanerah isn't down for taking a walk, but she is down to fuck. Duncan figures, why not? A man of his age can't be too choosy. Time to get some demonic poontang!

Kanerah wants to keep it on the DL. Duncan's like whatever doll, no commitments is no problem. He's actually kind of glad. It's not like he'd want to advertise that he's fucking a red chick with horns and a tail after all. Pussy is pussy but people will judge you for shit like that.

Bow-chika-wow-wow

Duncan makes his new mistress the treasurer. This isn't nepotism, she's genuinely more capable in the role than Brogan.

That's enough bumming around town. The mod I'm using makes ruler managed events take one day instead of two weeks. So we've got a full month until the story actually starts and nothing level appropriate to do with it. I'm just going to repeatedly click the "skip day" button until the bald hilltop pops off and the troll king questline starts.

 

[Bloodeyes]

Last time...

Spoiler

Fed up with the tedium of political life, Duncan went out adventuring. He travelled to Sorrowflow, a ruin to the northeast of Tuskdale, to retrieve an artifact with the tiefling girl Kalikke. He was successful in this, and upon touching the artifact it merged with the sisters, allowing them to switch places with each other at will.

On their way home the party were attacked in camp by dire venomwolves and Duncan came close to death. His story may have ended that day, were it not for Linzi and her reach metamagic rod.

Back in town, Duncan went shopping. He ran into Kanerah and ended up getting some poontang!

Episode 3 - On the road again

Spoiler

Duncan is bored. He's been lounging around his throne room, attending to affairs of state. There's a lot that goes into founding a barony. Buildings must be constructed, advisors must be assigned to tasks. It's necessary work, but painfully dull.

He's taken to drinking wine during his now nightly visits to his mistress Kanerah. It helps some with the boredom, but it's aging him. One morning, as his servants are dressing him in his armor, he notices his cuirass doesn't want to buckle closed. Somehow he's grown a pot belly.

As foolish as it sounds, this frightens Duncan more than a whole pack of dire venomwolves. He's becoming an old man.

So when Kesten Garess visits him in court, warning him of a threat to his barony, Duncan is quietly elated. Trolls are eating his citizens, and there are reports that they no longer fear fire.

The road calls, and Duncan takes the bait. He'll deal with this matter personally, without delay. A quest!

Duncan and his party head West of Tuskdale, into the woods, in search of trolls. Duncan maintains his stoic exterior, but inside he is smiling. It feels good to be on the road again.

Not a day into their journey, the party come across a brawl at a river ford. A cart has become stuck during the crossing, and is now under attack from a band of kobolds!

The baron and his entourage rush to save the beleaguered travelers!

The battle is brief and utterly one sided. They cut through the tiny brigands like a scythe through grain. But then a familiar voice calls out from the cliffs above... Surely Duncan's ears deceive him!

Tartucchio! Alive and still disguised as a kobold! But this is impossible! Amiri turned him into paste beneath that monster of a sword she carries! Even a scroll of raise dead couldn't bring that mess back to life! But there's no mistaking it. Tartucchio. The little bastard yet lives.

Tartuchhio, true to form, has more of his kobolds sacrifice themselves and then flees. Duncan's attention is then drawn to the travelers he rescued. It's a rather posh looking gnome and his guards.

The group are struggling to free their cart. Duncan and party lend a hand, and successfully un-stick the wagon, using a crowbar, a rope, and Duncan's old man strength. He can already feel that damn potbelly melting off of him.

The cart secured, Duncan greets the gnome. His name is Jubilost Narthropple, and he claims to be a famous author. Duncan wouldn't know. He's not big on reading. He can read... sort of... but he's always preferred weapons and armor to books. Linzi has heard of him, and seems quite star struck.

Jubilost is in the barony to write an article on it for a periodical. He's also searching for dwarven ruins. Duncan suggests that Jubilost join with the party, as the ruins may house the trolls he's looking for, and Jubilost accepts.

Thank god he's still an alchemist, but he's got a new subclass. It sounds fine. I heard on YouTube that this mod nerfs create undead. That's a much needed nerf, but it means we'll need another way of getting meatshields between us and anything ridiculously above our level we should stumble upon. I'd already decided that it was going to be summoning, so Jubilost having summons is actually really handy.

We'll still need something to hold the nasties back for the three rounds it takes summoned creatures to get into the fight. I'm thinking we'll need an animal companion in the party at some point. Maybe we'll meet someone with a pet...

The rest of the party levels up also.

Linzi gets light crossbow focus as a bonus feat.

Harrim gets a style feat. I choose crane wing.

Amiri gets a rage power.

And Duncan, having now lost the -2 to hit from his tower shield, gets power attack. Time for him to start dealing damage as well as tanking.

Duncan pops back to town to do some kingdom management. On his way back he heads to the Bald Hilltop. The curse has manifested itself! Hordes of spiders are spewing from an open portal.

They're nothing. The party decimates them, and the dryad that's calling them. The portal closes.

With the curse beaten back for now, Duncan returns to his troll hunt. Journeying deeper into the forest he comes upon some woodsmen who've got themselves in a spot of bother. A nixie, angry that they are cutting down "her trees" has dominated two of them, and is threatening to kill them unless the woodsmen make the trees grow back.

Duncan tells her to "Get tae fuck ye stupid slag, for I give ye a Glasgow kiss!" The nixie doesn't know what Glasgow is, but Duncan's demeanor tells her she doesn't want to know. She releases the woodsmen and leaves.

The party travel on, and come to the ruins of an old Dwarven road. As they walk down it, they spot an agitated looking wolf. It doesn't seem aggressive, in fact it looks intelligent. The wolf turns away, trots a few paces and stops, looking back at them. It's as if the creature wants them to follow it. Curious, the party follows the wolf (yes I know it's name is Dog. It's a wolf).

The wolf leads them to a wounded man atop a nearby hillock.

Duncan greets the man, and enquires as to what his story is. The man is enigmatic and vague, refusing to answer Duncan's questions. Duncan's having none of it, and puts the uppity ranger in his place.

It turns out Ekundayo's family were eaten by trolls in front of him, and now he's hunting them. Seeing as they have a common purpose, Duncan invites him to join his party. Ekundayo accepts. So now they have a ranger in the group, as well as his "dog". That should come in handy. The wolf isn't as good as the leopard IMO, but any pet is a huge asset in this game. It's something to put between you and death, and all it needs to do is stay standing for a couple rounds while the casters summon more things.

I can't tell much difference in Ekun's build. His stats seem better maybe, but they were really good originally.

So Duncan and party are back adventuring again. The hunt for the trolls' lair continues next time.

 

[Bloodeyes]

Last time...

Spoiler

Duncan received word that trolls were eating his citizens, and that these trolls did not fear fire as trolls normally do. To protect his citizens, and to push back the rising tide of his old age, Duncan ventured into the forest, west of his capital, hunting for trolls.

There he met Jubilost Narthropple, a gnome explorer and renowned author, who joined his party. He also met Ekundayo, a black skinned ranger from a far off land, who also joined the party (along with his pet "dog"). The curse of the Bald Hilltop also manifested itself at last. It was spiders, and they were easily dealt with.

Episode 4 - The hammer and thorns

Spoiler

After recruiting Ekundayo, Duncan and posse explore the area surrounding the old dwarven road. They kill a lot of trolls, bandits and other monsters.

Something's off though, the dog keeps getting one-shotted. I check its character sheet and it's level 1! It takes me longer than it should to realize the mod has made it so you manually level up animal companions. They can wear gear too now, which is stupid. As if they weren't OP enough before.

The only notable fight in this area was against a group of Worgs, and the only thing notable about that fight was how annoying it was not being able to get most of the party through this gap to attack them. Harrim went down, but he lived.

We found some sweet loot in the ruins of a dwarven tower. We can't identify it yet, because Linzi isn't with us. But I'll tell you. It's a belt of physical perfection +2 (+2 to STR, DEX and CON), and Trollreaper, a greataxe that does acid damage. This axe actually does more damage than Amiri's ginormous sword, without the -2 to hit. So it's her main weapon for the time being. She's not getting a weapon focus, she's just going to use the best two-handers we find.

Having killed and looted everything in the vicinity of the old dwarven road, the party moves on, deeper into the swampy, forested region known as the Narlmarches.

There they come across a merchant and his guard being attacked by trolls, and they rescue him.

After the fight, Duncan talks to the man. He learns that there's a wizard living nearby in a hermit's cabin. The trader thinks he may know something about the trolls. Duncan also gets him to agree to set up shop in his barony. His diplomatic skills are improving, it seems.

Duncan makes for the wizard's cabin, but on his way he spots a bandit camp. Sword in hand, he approaches them

The bandits offer to work for Duncan. Duncan feels disrespected by the mere suggestion he would employ bandits. Duncan, in spite of his temper and the sometimes callous decisions he makes, is a man of honor. People who disrespect him tend to die violently. These fools are no exception.

Moving on, the party arrive at the wizard's cabin in the Narlmarches.

The woods around the cabin are littered with fire traps. They find a hapless merchant cowering beside a tree, too afraid of the traps to move. Duncan is ruthless, but he's not a sadistic bully. He can feel pity for people. He calms the merchant down and guides him back to the road.

They find the wizard's house and introduce themselves. Bartholomew Delgado is quite the expert on trolls it seems. He hadn't heard about them gaining immunity to fire, but he agrees to help find out what's going on.

As if on cue, a troll triggers one of Delgado's traps. The party kill it. Delgado observes that acid still works to kill these new, fire resistant trolls.

Examining the corpse, Delgado discovers a brand on it's skin which is the source of its fire resistance. It's a curious thing, a hammer of the dwarven god Torag, only surrounded with thorns.

Delgado invites them to his laboratory to discuss this further. But when they enter they are greeted with an horrific sight. Delgado has a troll prisoner, and he has been torturing it. The agonized monster begs Duncan for death.

Bartholomew Delgado enters, seemingly oblivious to his guests' looks of horror and revulsion. He tells them the brand is a novel method of applying a simple fire resistance spell.

Frankly I don't like any of these dialogue choices for Duncan. He's stoic and practical, not an unfeeling monster. He's lawful, but not a fanatic. I chose the lawful neutral option because it seemed the least emotionally driven, but I think we'll just come back and kill this bastard anyway. The man is a psychopath and that makes him dangerous. You're on the list, Delgado.

The party leave Delgado's house of horrors and continue their journey. They walk in silence, disturbed by what they have witnessed. After a few hours they see something ahead of them. Trolls... and kobolds. Together. What's going on here? They had better check this out.

(I realize there's a continuity error here. I went back to get Linzi in between visiting Delgado and doing this next encounter. Was sick of not hitting things and failing to pick locks so I swapped Tristian out for her. I'm leaving a lot of stuff like that out to try and have some kind of a narrative structure to these episodes).

The battle was brief, decisive and exactly what the party needed to shake themselves out of the funk they had gotten into. Their spirits suitably bolstered by their victory, they journeyed on.

Further along the trail they found a curious sight...

What they found was as wondrous as it was macabre. A shrine made of polished kobold bones! Duncan, not knowing how to process this, thought it prudent to simple pay his respects and leave.

And so they continued their hunt. They learned a few things today; The trolls fire resistance is magical in nature, and the baron's intuition that they may be hiding in the dwarven ruins seems plausible, for it is the mark of a dwarven god that gives them this power. They've learned that trolls and kobolds are cooperating, but not how or why this is occurring.

They've also learned the name of their enemy... Hargrulka.

 

[baud]

upon touching the artifact it merged with the sisters, allowing them to switch places with each other at will.

How do the sisters work? Like it's two different characters that you can swap by talking to the one that's present? Including when you got one in your party?

 

[Bloodeyes]

upon touching the artifact it merged with the sisters, allowing them to switch places with each other at will.

How do the sisters work? Like it's two different characters that you can swap by talking to the one that's present? Including when you got one in your party?

When they're in your party you can swap them by using their switch ability. I can't recall if that's a standard action or full round action. Outside of combat you talk to them and say you'd like to speak to her sister and she'll switch for you. As far as their class goes, they deal damage through an energy blast. Kalikke, the good aligned sister with blue eyes, deals cold damage (unmodded she deals water damage). Kanerah, the evil twin, deals fire damage. They have to power up before doing their kinetic blast or they take what's called "burn". Burn is temporary HP damage that lasts until they rest. So they're like casters, only their casting stat is CON. But their kinetic blast is technically not magical in nature, so they don't have spellbooks.

Kineticist seems like a stong class, potentially, but I find it irritating to use. They deal good damage, but the need to power up all the time means it can be fiddly getting that damage to happen. Other characters, like Ekundayo the ranger, can deal similar damage per round (when appropriately geared and buffed) and it's just simpler to make him do it. He doesn't need to spend a full round powering up Dragonball Z style, he just shoots his bow.

 

[gurugeorge]

upon touching the artifact it merged with the sisters, allowing them to switch places with each other at will.

How do the sisters work? Like it's two different characters that you can swap by talking to the one that's present? Including when you got one in your party?

When they're in your party you can swap them by using their switch ability. I can't recall if that's a standard action or full round action. Outside of combat you talk to them and say you'd like to speak to her sister and she'll switch for you. As far as their class goes, they deal damage through an energy blast. Kalikke, the good aligned sister with blue eyes, deals cold damage (unmodded she deals water damage). Kanerah, the evil twin, deals fire damage. They have to power up before doing their kinetic blast or they take what's called "burn". Burn is temporary HP damage that lasts until they rest. So they're like casters, only their casting stat is CON. But their kinetic blast is technically not magical in nature, so they don't have spellbooks.

Kineticist seems like a stong class, potentially, but I find it irritating to use. They deal good damage, but the need to power up all the time means it can be fiddly getting that damage to happen. Other characters, like Ekundayo the ranger, can deal similar damage per round (when appropriately geared and buffed) and it's just simpler to make him do it. He doesn't need to spend a full round powering up Dragonball Z style, he just shoots his bow.

Yeah I find that about Kineticists too, just too goddamn fiddly to use. I think if I had one as a main I might be invested in it, but it's too much micromanagement for ancillary characters.

It's always a fine balance in these games between fiddly classes and classes that just do stuff without too much micromanaging. A little bit of fiddliness is ok, but unless you're going to play fully in TB all the time you want a fair proportion of your team to be able to just wail away without too much supervision.