PC Deaths This Session: 0
PC Deaths In Total: 3

- The Game Proper -

The session began with the party gazing down a tunnel that they’d just dug into. Little time was spent determining what they were going to do and the party promptly began its way down the passage. After a brief walk, they came to a huge cavern (3A-7) whose length was bisected by a raging stream that opened into a stone-hewn pool of water. On the other side of a pool the members of the group possessing dark vision noted a pair of stone platforms that were each home to a dessicated corpse. After tossing a pair of torches into the room to get a better grasp of what it looked like, the party entered.

As they walked into the cavern, a black cloud issued forth from the mouth of each of the corpses upon the platforms. The clouds formed into roughly humanoid shapes and moved to attack the unsuspecting party. The ensuing battle weighed heavily on the party (nearly killing Cassivellaunos) and, had aid not arrived at the last moment, it would have likely been a TPK (total party kill).

What aid you ask? Well, as a final kindness to the group (my last, at this point) I offered them a way out if they wanted one. I’d been sitting on a few NPCs that I’d wanted to introduce so that access to the Knight of the Raven (from Castle Ravenloft but updated to Pathfinder RPG rules) prestige class could be gained. The party accepted and, at the beginning of the next round a duo (well, a trio, but the third member didn’t reveal himself) of powerful knights presented themselves by easily defeating the wraiths. Pleasantries were exchanged after the fight and the NPCs pretty much told the party that they were WAY out of their league at this part of the dungeon. Heeding their advice (and the majority of the group accepting membership to the order) the party made its way out of the dungeon and headed back to town to recuperate.

On their way back to town, whilst camping, the party was ambushed by a large number of bugbears lead by an ogre. Careful strategy on the parties’ part (and a bit of luck after the watchmen was rendered unconscious) saw the fight won without any casualties (even the pack animals lived!) and the party made a forced march back to town.

Upon their return to town the PCs were made members of the Knighthood of the Raven and with it came eligibility for the prestige class (should they manage to meet its prerequisites) as well as a 500 gold piece bump in the maximum value of gear that they could buy (the current formula I’m running is: (500 x level – 1) + 500 gp). The Knighthood’s history is as follows (modified for Rappan Athuk):

Before evil descended on the land of Barovia, it was home to an order of virtuous champions, the Knights of the Raven. United under the symbol of the raven, they set aside differences in religion and political allegiance in their quest to fight evil wherever it appeared.

They prospered for centuries before the appearance of a powerful vampire lord known as Strahd in their land. Many knights met their death at Strahd’s life-sapping hands and the order very nearly fell into obscurity if not for a single knight who stood against the encroaching darkness.

Then came the fateful day when a group of adventurers entered the land of Barovia on a mission to exterminate Strahd and bring his terrible reign to an end. Amongst them was a powerful warpriest who, by chance, met with the aging knight of the raven. The two became quick friends and the cleric pledged to spread the word of the knights of the raven. Sadly the aging knight did not live long enough to see Strahd’s eventual fall and the order’s rebirth.

To this day, the Order of the Raven patrols the land of Barovia and its neighboring countries to do battle with the foul forces of the unliving. After hearing of the evils within Rappan Athuk, a small group comprised of various members of the order has secretly moved into a nearby town to lend whatever aid they can against Orcus’ amassing army.

After spending nearly a week in town recuperating (that Constitution drain is nasty stuff; even with lesser restoration spells) the party resupplied, paid their mercenaries, and headed out to the dungeon once again. Upon their return to the dungeon the PCs once again faced off against the green gargoyles, though they easily defeated them (I hand waved it; neither I nor the group wanted to waste the time on a fight we both knew they could win — so I dealt a bit of damage to everyone and said they were done with the fight). Upon re-entering the dungeon the party decided to head eastwards into a room that they’d only looked into (1-1) and after a bit of snooping around Vasylko managed to come into contact with some green slime which quickly dealt a boat-load of Constitution damage to him before he scraped it off. All for a handful of copper coins. Things like that make my Evil DM side cackle with glee.

After determining there was nothing of value in the room, the party proceeded through the door to the east and then down a short hallway (didn’t even bother looking for traps; that’ll come back to bite ‘em later in if they’re not careful) only to come to another door which they opened. Before them was a large room (1-4) that was home to a large carpet and an empty coffin. The party, now deciding to be careful, burned the carpet before entering the room. A quick search turned up nothing of interest so the party proceeded down a flight of stairs at the eastern end of the room. As they were descending the stairs, the group managed to avoid a rather nasty trap (curse paladins and their good saving throws!) before entering the next room.

The next room (1-6) was nearly as strange as the previous. The only things of note in the room (beyond piles of garbage) was a lone table atop which sat a deck of cards; next to the table was a stool atop which sat a decayed skeleton covered in a massive swarm of ants. The party, once again deciding to be careful, employed alchemist’s fire against the ants and diffused that situation. Then Vasylko decided to pick up the cards (*Evil DM grin*). Okay, I thought, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, he grabbed ‘em by the sides. Then he decided to flip through the deck (*facepalm*) doing so put him in contact with the poison on the topmost card (an ace of spades). Luckily he made his save. After that encounter, the PCs continued onward… and right into a pit trap. This time I got one! Cassie (the paladin — we call him that because nobody can remember his full name) fell into the pit and suffered some minor damage, but was quickly retrieved and the pit cross. The party now stood in a long hall extending both north and west.

Deciding to head north, the party came to a large room (1-8) that looked to have been a battleground. Debris lay all over the place and the door appeared to have been battered in. A secret door was obvious at the northern end of the room because someone had apparently left it ajar. The party didn’t enter the room as I mentioned a familiar stink to them (pooooooooo monstaaaaaa!) which gave them more than enough reason to move the other direction. Shame.

Heading south turned up a bit more; the passage continued on for a good number of feet and the party eventually discovered a secret door. Opening the door, the party was accosted by a ghast who was pleasantly surprised to have finally been found; that did not keep him from attacking the group and summarily being put down. Exploring the secret passageway, the party discovered a small room (1-10) that was home to a small chest. Upon opening the chest, the party found their first bit of treasure of the night. Sadly, the coins were all lead.

The party returned to the hallway and headed south once more. The group came to another massive cavern (1-11) whereupon the group saw a woman being attacked by swarms of rats across an underground river. Moving for the to aid her, the group slew the rats with ranged attacks before striking up a conversation with the poor woman. After finding that she was a wizard that was part of an adventuring group that was exploring the deeper regions of the dungeon, the party decided to aid her. But then Cassie decided to detect evil (which led to a rather long argument between the players and I about why I hate DMing for Paladins — mostly due to metagame reasons, for those curious) which revealed her to be evil. To the player’s credit, he didn’t decide to immediately smite her and instead decided (along with the group) to aid her in her escape from the dungeon. After reeling her across the stream with a length of rope and moving to leave, the party was attacked by a group of wererats.

The fight with the wererats wasn’t particularly nasty. Their leader was supposed to hurl a pouch of Dust of Sneezing and Choking at the party, but after looking up the info for it, I decided against it. I like killing my PCs fairly, thank-you-very-much! The battle itself was fairly brief with the meleeists of the party rushing forth and walling in the wererats which were quickly cut down. After the battle the party did a little looting but found nothing of particular interest to them aside from some vials of poison and poisoned arrows. After the battle concluded, the party headed back for town to return the woman.

The return to town was uneventful and the party saw the woman off before resting for a time to recover from their wounds (and ability drain). The party quickly returned to the dungeon once more (avoiding any encounters along the way… *grumble grumble*). At this point I said that the green gargoyles were destroyed. Neither the party or I wanted to deal with their obnoxious presence.

Upon their return to the dungeon, the party cleared out the area where the wererats had been nesting (finding a scroll, a pair of magical goggles, and a large number of coins) and then proceeded to cross the river to clear out a small nest of dire rats. That done, the party descended to level two of Rappan Athuk.

Entering level two, the party found itself in a large-ish corridor (2-1) with a series of doors leading out of it. After checking each door the party found a key in one of the locks and a handaxe imbedded in the northern door (arm-bones still attached!). Vasylko also discovered a grisly pit filled with brackish water and body parts under one of the floor stones within the corridor. After a bit of discussion, the party decided to unlock and enter the northernmost of the doors along the western side of the corridor.

Before them another corridor stretched onwards and the party strode bravely forth. A short while later they came to another door and promptly opened it, entering yet another room (2-3). This time they were greeted by a pair of small chambers divided by a short hall that was home to a large, endlessly rolling, spiked ball. The party investigated briefly before deciding that it was a trap best left untested. As the group turned to leave they came face to face with a small throng of black-boned skeletons (who had snuck up on them from the secret entrance to room 2-2), one of which radiated an aura of darkness.

The ensuing battle was long and brutal; the skeleton’s insane screeching sent Havokk fleeing in terror (through the spiked ball o’ doom; sadly it didn’t kill him — curse his lucky rolls!) and other members of the party quickly moved forth to hold the doorway so that only two skeletons could be engaged at a time. The battle was fairly long, though the party held its own well enough. Until, that is, one of the skeletons scored a lucky critical hit (I use the critical hit and fumble decks put out by Paizo) and dealt a whopping 16 points of Dexterity damage to Hak. The barbarian went down. Hard.

The party quickly moved to pull Hak out of harm’s way (and did so successfully) before once again making a push against the skeletons. After several tense rounds of combat, the skeletons were destroyed. Picking up Hak’s paralyzed form and gathering what goods they could (including Havokk, who had made his way back to the party by this point) the group decided to head back to town to rest, recuperate, and sell off what treasures they had acquired.

The journey back to town was tense, but uneventful. After their return the group spent nearly a week lounging around while Hak’s ability damage was restored. After paying their mercenaries for an additional two weeks’ service, the group prepared to head once more into the fabled dungeon. That, however, is a tale for another time.

PC Deaths This Session: 0
PC Deaths In Total: 3

- The Game Proper -

This session began with the surviving PCs bumping into another trio of adventurers looking to get their hands dirty in Rappan Athuk. Pleasantries were extended and the party was once again six strong.

On their way back to Rappan Athuk, the party was once more accosted by the large pack of wolves led by wargs that they encountered in their haste towards the city. Instead of paying them, however, the group managed to work out a deal with them that amounted to them paying one half of any coins or gems the party found in exchange for protection when traveling to and from the dungeon. An interesting deal to be sure and one that I was surprised the party accepted instead of just trying to kill the beasts.

Upon arriving back at the graveyard built atop Rappan Athuk, the party did something I did not expect. They went down the well. Much fanfare was made of what the well (G-4) looked like (demonic carvings and massive claw marks included) but the party was not dissuaded in the least. They even managed to lower the cavalier’s horse down with them (don’t even ask…). Most interesting (*insert obligatory evil DM grin*).

Once they found themselves at the bottom of the well (3A-1), the party found themselves in a rather small room with water up to their knees (what floated in the water was better left unsaid). The group quickly realized that bringing the horse down was a bad idea. Two paths stretched out before the group, one to the north and one to the south, and both were tight fits for the medium-sized party members, the horse was just not going to fit at all. Deciding to leave the horse behind temporarily (after attaching its ever full feedbag), the party decided to head north.

After squeezing through a tight passageway for thirty feet or so, the party came to a branch leading both north and west. The party decided to travel westward and shortly came to a massive room (3A-3) that, due to his knowledge of geography, Vasylko knew was the result of a fault shifting and rotating the room’s features in an odd way. The group decided to pull back and explore to the north. Heading northward the group came to another room (3A-2), that looked to be fairly uninteresting; after quickly glancing into the room they left and returned to the other room that they had discovered moments earlier.

Heading out of a south entrance in the shifted room, the party walked for nearly one-hundred and fifty feet before coming to another room (3A-5) that played home to a massive pool of water. Upon entering the room, the party was quickly accosted by a massive swarm of stirges. The battle was prolonged and Hak was reduced to a sub-10 Constitution score while other party members were equally drained by the little terrors. In the end, though, the party emerged victorious and managed to obtain some loot from the corpses of previous victims before once again heading back to town to lick their wounds.

After spending some time in town recuperating and procuring things to make their travel easier (cart/wagon, additional supplies, and four mercenaries to guard them) the party immediately set out once more for the fabled dungeon. Upon arriving back at the complex (and leaving the horse topside this time, under the guard of their newly hired mercenaries), the party immediately dived back into the dungeon. Moving back through previously explored areas, the group moved into a new area (3A-6) and was quickly accosted by a swarm of skeletons. The party made quick work of them before moving on.

After exploring a winding series of tunnels the party found their way back to the entrance shaft as well as to a collapsed tunnel. The group decided to dig their way through the cave in. After spending half the required time, the group was attacked by a trio of juju zombies (ninja zombies goooo!) which got the drop on them. After a somewhat prolonged battle, the group managed to eke out a victory and finish digging through the cave in. Before them stretched further caverns leading into an unexplored portion of the dungeon.

And that would be where session three ended; the party stands before the encroaching darkness with naught but their wits and skill about them. Next session’s going to be a good one (*evil DM grin*)!

PC Deaths This Session: 3
PC Deaths In Total: 3

- The Game Proper -

This session picked up right where the last one left off. The PCs found themselves trapped in a mausoleum (G-7) with nowhere to go but down. After assessing their current situation (ex. re-familiarizing themselves with what resources they expended last session), the part decided to carefully make their way down the shaft located at the southern end of the mausoleum.

After reaching the bottom of the shaft, the party found themselves in a dirt-floored tunnel (G-8) leading to the north-east. Following it for a short while, they came to a dead-end. The dwarf, with his great knowledge of stonework, immediately found a hidden door at the end of the tunnel; moments later, so did the majority of the party. The group spent a time puzzling about whether or not to bash the door down before they came upon the bright idea of just trying to open it (it wasn’t locked).

Upon opening the door, the party was assailed by a blast of disgusting smells, thankfully, they were strong enough of fortitude to avoid the nauseating effects of the place. The party’s light spells revealed that beyond the hidden door was a tunnel that, after a short distance, branched out to both the north-west and north-east. The party carefully crept up to the intersection and got a look of what was down each branch: to the north-west the passage branched once more (again to the north-east) and also continue along northward, while, to the north-east, the passage seemed to open up into a room of some sort.

After electing to head to the north-east, the party came to the entrance to a small-ish (about 25×25 ft.) room (1-1). Looking inside they saw nothing of interest beyond scraps of bones likely taken from the graveyard above, so they decided to pull back and check out the other branch in the tunnel. This proved, in a round about way, to be their undoing.

After falling back, the party decided to look into the branch within a branch (that’d be the second branch leading to the north-west). They found that it lead to a dead end and decided it would be a good place to hole up for a rest (*insert evil DM laugh here*). Not only that, but they decided on resting for twelve hours instead of eight so that all of the casters in the party could regain their spells.

Kharron Vernn had first watch, and he hardly had time to get comfortable before he was assailed by a pack (well, five) ravenous ghouls! Rolling well on initiative, and hearing them sneaking up on him, he shouted for his companions to wake (which they did), he readied himself for battle. Moments later the ghouls were upon him. The first rounds of combat were tense as Kharron held off the ghoul swarm on his own while his companions gathered their weapons and prepared for battle. Once battle was joined, however, it was all over for the ghouls. Sir Lemmington opened up with his first kill by firing a bolt directly in the the brain matter of one of the already injured ghouls while Hak single-handedly slew two of the beasts (crushing one’s throat with his bare hands whilst splitting its skull a moment later with his axe). Kharron then impaled one upon his trident and Darerim’s flail reduced the head of the last ghoul to mound of reeking gore.

After combat concluded, the party decided to return to rest once more. Dear gods did this turn out to be a bad idea. An hour or two passed before the next encounter occurred; Kharron Vernn was still on watch when, all of a sudden, he smelled something utterly terrible approaching (*evil DM grin*). I gave the party enough time to rouse and equip themselves before the ferocious dung monster rounded the corner.

Initiative was rolled.

Luckily for the party I rolled terribly for the dung beast’s initiative (something like a five, I think) so it went last in the round. Kharron Vernn went first. Lunging forth with the trident he struck the beast only to find that not only did he not hurt it, but his weapon was in fact quite stuck to the beast! What followed was a delightful (to me) exercise in the PCs learning that ‘just because it has stats’ doesn’t in fact mean it can be killed.

Initial group morale was good, they figured it was just a particularly tough ooze of some sort and pressed the attack. Only after the monster ignored all of their attacks (literally, they didn’t deal a point of damage to the thing) did the party realize they were in trouble. Half the party decided to flee towards the north with Arcturus the Blue stumbling through the darkness while under the effects of invisibility, Darerim, Sir Lemmington, and Hak followed along as Carl and Kharron stayed behind an to hold the beast while the party escaped. Somehow in the scuffle Kharron managed to grapple the thing and did indeed hold it at bay for a few moments before it decided to move after the party members fleeing to the north.

Rushing through the darkness aided by darkvision (and, in Sir Lemmington’s case) dancing lights the party came to a large empty room whose only distinguishing feature was an empty coffin and a collapsed tunnel to the east. (1-2) Dead end. A few moments passed and all of the north-bound survivers were the now hiding — except for Darerim who was making as much noise as possible in an attempt to draw the creature away from the others — in the recesses of the room. The silence of the dungeon was rent asunder by a scream of pain followed by a wet snap and crunching sound as Kharron was slain (messily snapped in half by the beast’s ‘engulf’ ability) by the dung monster. Carl immediately backed away from the beast and began to heal himself after also nearly being slain as well(only being saved by his ability to Lay On Hands as a swift action).

The beast seemed most interested in the survivors that fled to the north and decided to pursue them. Carl did not follow the beast as he was grievously wounded and instead deigned to begin healing himself. Several tense rounds after the beast slithered down the northern passage, Arcturus moved past it (he hid in an offshoot tunnel) and met up with Carl once more; the two of them decided to get Carl back into his armor as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, Darerim continued to make as much noise as possible and succeeded in attracting the beast’s immediate attention. The other members of the party managed to slide out of the room behind the thing’s substantial reach (after Hak provoked an attack of opportunity but luckily escaped the beast’s grasp). Darerim, however, did not fare so well and was slain by the creature.

With everyone away from the beast (who was busily digesting its two meals) they quickly grabbed what they could from their camp and decided it would be best to get the hell out of the dungeon. Moving back along the path that they followed in (making sure to seal the door behind them) the party arrived once more in the mausoleum. Spirits were low after the day’s losses but they decided to try to get some sleep (which they did) before attempting to escape the halls of Rappan Athuk. It wouldn’t be easy, though.

After a night of rest, the party decided they were going to fight their way through the gargoyles; having a suitable choke point would make the fight easier. Or so they though. Early on the battle against the beasts went well with both Hak and Arcturus holding the door against their assault. However, that did not last. Midway through the fight Arcturus was unlucky enough to be struck by both of the claws of one of the gargoyles (which causes paralysis as a hold person spell) and promptly failed his save against the effect. Several rounds later and he was borne aloft and summarily dropped 170 feet to his (rather messy) death.

The fight became particularly tense when, due to a spree of odd luck on my part the gargoyles managed to score (and confirm) five critical hits against Hak. All told he had a finger (left hand, middle finger — he rolled it) bitten off and faced a blinding cut to his forehead (blood does that y’know); however his wounds were quickly healed by his companions and he fought on. A number of additional rounds were spent fighting the beasts (and keeping Hak healed as best as possible while he held the line) before the PCs hatched a genius plan. Sir Lemmington fired a screaming bolt (these cause enemies nearby to become shaken) while Hak employed a dazzling display to disperse the crowd (I ruled that shaken and shaken stacked to make the enemies frightened) long enough for the party to flee. And flee they did.

Moving without ceasing towards town the party made it roughly three-quarters of the way before they were waylaid by a dozen wolves and a trio of wargs. Instead of making this a combat encounter (which the PCs would have lost as they were exhausted from a forced march and had next to nothing in reserves spell-/item-wise) I instead had one of the wargs demand a toll for passage (basically ‘your money or your life’). With an excellent Diplomacy check (seriously, the total was like a thirty; for what he was going for I’d have set it at something like DC 25 so I figured I’d let him have it), Carl instead got away with only giving them the armor and shield of one of his slain compatriots. The party then limped the rest of the way back towards Town, shadowed by someone that, in their haste, they did not realize was even there.

And so ends session two.

A fairly standard initial party for this group, only one non-core class and fairly standard (barring the warforged, of course) races. I’m sure you’ll notice each player is running two characters; this is more due to the spontaneity of this session than anything.

Character creation took a long while to get finished but we did it while I was working (or attempting to work on, rather) Shawn’s evil (Devil-possessed, soul-devouring, Gateway) laptop. After we got everything set up we got a short amount of gaming in.

- An Exercise in Futility -

The session started off plainly enough, Howard and Shawn’s characters were sitting separately in the tavern nearest to the Dungeon entrance and going about their own business. As they were conversing amongst themselves, an ogre charged into the bar and quickly began its attack.

The party was quick to react to the beast’s intrusion, so quick in fact that they caught the beast totally off guard and got to all act before it did. The warforged and monk both charged it (though the monk’s attempted leap over the bar was met with failure) as the elf and polearm fighter moved around the beast to flank as best they were able.

Several rounds (and a lucky tripping critical) later and the beast was slain with no harm come to the party. The tavern owner thanked them profusely and recommended them to enter the Dungeon and try to make a name for themselves.

After a brief introduction and joining of forces, the now-formed party entered the dungeon. The first room the party entered was empty, though it carried with it the remnants of a camp (several bedrolls and a burnt-out campfire) that had been long since deserted. The second room shared similar results, it was empty, but instead of a campsite it held a large well that descended all the way to the level below (though several layers of iron grates barred the way). After looking it over and deciding not to descend, the party continued on to the third room.

And the trap.

As the scout looked over the door for traps, she inadvertently tripped a thin wire that released the catch on a large pit at the foot of the door. The scout and warforged plummeted twenty feet to the hard stone ground below. After hauling themselves out of the hole and back to town for a rest, the party returned and bypassed the locked door on the room (ex. they hit the door until it was broken down). Facing them was a group of angry (and likely somewhat hungry) gnolls.

Battle was quickly joined (with the party winning initiative) and combat was on! The first round amounted to everyone getting into the room to fight the beasts as best they were able, and the scout plugging a gnoll in the head with an arrow (a solid kill, by my measure). The gnolls retaliated poorly; several pulled back to fire their bows (missing) and the pair that decided to fight in melee were easily outclassed (they missed too). Round two began and the slaughter followed it, Howard’s characters would soften up the gnolls and Shawn’s PCs would finish them off. At this point the battle became pretty one-sided and the PCs easily mopped up the remaining (weaponless) gnolls.

A quick search turned up a small amount of valuables (and a gem or two).

The party returned to town and that’s where we called it a game for the evening.

Party Composition at the Beginning of the Session:
Ian – Tuomac (Hardcore Half-orc Druid 1)
Jake F. – Tahlrenki the Void (Elf Scout 1)
Jimmy – Mars the Mage (Hardcore Gray Elf Warmage 1)
Matt – Othiogauov Kaveth’uthan’uvagoa (Hardcore Goliath Warblade 1)
Tom – Ragnar the Wise (Hardcore Human Swordsage 1)

Party Composition at the End of the Session:
Ian – Tuomac (Hardcore Half-orc Druid 1)
Jake F. – Tahlrenki the Void (Elf Scout 1)
Jimmy – Mars the Mage (Hardcore Gray Elf Warmage 2)
Matt – Starilaskur (Hardcore Crane Samurai 1)
Tom – Edward (Hardcore Human Cleric 1)

Deaths:
Othiogauov Kaveth’uthan’uvagoa (Permadeath)
Ragnar the Wise (Permadeath)
Tahlrenki the Void (Non-permadeath; 500 XP lost along with 5,500 GP)

It was definitely a bloody session, that’s to be sure. I actually made the dungeon more dangerous (mainly by adding traps and beefing up the number of monsters that can be encountered) and I actually scored a pair of kills (one was stolen from me and not the one you’d think – I’ll elaborate later) this session!

I was honestly surprised that it was the two Tome of Battle characters that were slain (and the Scout, but his death isn’t permanent) and, surprisingly, the mage is still alive and kicking!

- A New Face -

Since the party pretty much lives in a local tavern/inn (they haven’t bought any property; though I doubt they can afford it yet) they’ve gotten to know a few locals and recognize the regular faces to their hangout. Today there was a new face, a half-orc wearing druidic garb and sporting some wicked dreadlocks. As Mars was performing (for his one adoring fan – a heavy woman who would just as soon eat him as bear his children) and the rest of the party was lounging about, a pair of strange creatures burst into the bar apparently hell-bent on killing anyone who got in their way.

Combat began with one of the creatures croaking the words ’stay seated’ to Kaveth, who promptly gave the beast his form of a "no" which, to his surprise, didn’t kill it in one shot. The battle carried on for several rounds and Ragnar was nearly killed (but got VERY lucky on his stabilization roll) and the "new guy" assisted the party as well as he was able in the brief amount of time the combat lasted. Eventually the party was able to dispatch the two creatures and had gained a new ally (one capable of curative magic) in their fights in the dungeon.

- The Dungeon -

After introducing themselves to their new ally, the party quickly determined they’d head back into the dungeon and try to earn some more experience and loots. They earned something alright.

The party’s first encounter in the dungeon was with a trio of blackscale lizardfolk; they’re larger and much nastier than the typical breed. Ragnar lead the charge and was struck down and Kaveth took his place and began cutting down the beasts in earnest (dropping two in one round and then the third on his next move). Tahlrenki was also knocked unconscious during this fight but Tuomac was able to raise him back to health with a timely cure light wounds spell. After the battle ended the party burned Ragnar’s corpse and said a few words as Tom began rerolling another character (hardcore human cleric).

The party then carried onwards to more battle.The second encounter of the night was with a pair of werewolves which the party (surprisingly) dispatched with relative ease.

After a bit more spelunking the party came to another door. Ah the third encounter. Kobold Zombies; six of ’em, probably the easiest encounter of the night, right? Wrong. This encounter almost caused two PC deaths.

Kobold zombies. *sigh*

The battle started off well enough, the kobolds were dying fairly quickly, then all hell broke loose, first Mars went to cast an orb of sound but fumbled it and almost killed himself (dropping into negatives but he stabilized – Jimmy’s description of his warmage blowing his own head off drew a good deal of laughter). Then the kill that was stolen from me occurred. Kaveth, the mighty warblade, was going to strike down a kobold zombie, but instead…

Critical fumble.

Critical fumble confirmed (yes, I require critical fumble confirmation from the players and they’re only allowed to critical fumble once a round (enemies don’t get confirmation, they automatically critical fumble and they can critical fumble more than once per round) — bit fairer to the players that way).

I drew a card (card: you deal damage to yourself).

Kaveth one-shotted himself.

I can only imagine the one thing going through his mind (beyond his sword) was "pah, kobolds, pathetic creatu–" Laughs were had by all and a new story to tell when we hang out was quickly penned. Matt began rolling up a new character (hardcore kenku samurai (Oriental Adventures version)) and the party returned to town after finishing off the remaining kobolds. While in town a cleric (Tom) joined the party and they rested for a bit before continuing their adventures.

Several more fairly inconsequential fights later the party trekked back to town once more and met another stalwart companion, a kenku samurai. After a brief greeting and a night spent resting, the group ventured forth once more. After a bit of walking the party came to the entrance of another room and promptly triggered a trap (which, to my entertainment, targeted Matt’s samurai) but managed to avoid it handily. A quick battle was had involving five characters and a single lowly gnoll (yeah, it lasted probably half a round).

Onto the final encounter of the night.

A trio of Ibixians (goatfolk), probably one of my favorite monsters from Monster Manual III, was encountered in a fairly small room and Matt nearly lost another character (I went so far as to have one of the goatfolk throw its greataxe (epic kills happen…) just to see if I could kill him with it – but alas, no more kills for Gene) in an attempt to drop the samurai. All was not lost, however, as I did manage to kill Jake’s scout (though he just "respawned" in town a couple XP short and totally broke) which counts for something I suppose. After the battle the party also got its first treasure drop of the night, roughly two-hundred gold pieces and a wakizashi. After grumbles about lack of treasure (not my fault; the random number generator is a cruel mistress this day) the party returned to town once more and we hung it up for the night.

And thus, session two ended.

Ah Tome of Battle, two BoNS characters in one party. Typically I ban the BoNS as I dislike how it made melee characters better (they need to be better, I just don’t think making them casters is the way to go about it) and due to the fact that it makes anyone playing a non-BoNS character feel inadequate. Thus far it hasn’t been a problem but we’ll see how it turns out in the future (I may well end up banning it – we’ll see).

Character creation took a bit longer than I’d expected it would, but I attribute to this being the first meet that the group has had for the better part of a month. The final party yield is as noted above (a Scout, Swordsage, Warblade, and a Warmage); all current and future characters must be within 1 step of the neutral good alignment on the alignment axis.

- Introduction -

Play began with the characters located in various parts of a massive city known as Town (it once had a name but since the dungeon’s appearance adventurers ceased calling it by its real name and simply referred to it as town for ease of reference), some had been here longer than others while one was a new arrival. We zoom to the tavern nearest to the dungeon’s entrance where Mars the Magician is trying to appease a crowd of tavern-goers with parlor tricks (ex. sleight of hand checks) while a quiet Tahlrenki sits at the bar drinking a glass of wine (and taking up several seats with his legs). Ragnar skips past the tavern as Kaveth enters and promptly notices the magician attempting magic. After a display of putting wealth (a slip of paper with the word "wealth" written on) in Kaveth’s pocket, the three slink out of the tavern (Tahlrenki attempting to avoid his tab by laying it onto Mars who only exacerbates the problem by purchasing a beer for 5 gold pieces) and into the streets. Ragnar stops at the trio standing in the street and begins twiddling his thumbs, much to Tahlrenki’s chagrin. A few minutes later a party is formed and an adventure begins.

- Into the Dungeon -

The party’s entrance into the dungeon gave them an immediate example of what the environs would be like: dark. After Mars placed a light spell upon Kaveth the party made its way to the first room of the night, a long, albeit empty, room with only a set of old bedrolls and a dead campfire for decor (and a stool at the opposite side of the room). The party quickly proceeded onwards after finding nothing of value (though Kaveth took a bedroll with him) heading to a second doorway just down the hall from the current room. Kaveth listened at the door and after hearing pair of creatures on the other side he bashed the door down and quickly stepped aside at the same time that Mars stepped forward to blanket the pair of (quite surprised) orcs in magical flames with a well-placed burning hands spell. They never had a chance to draw their weapons.

After looting what valuables they could from the orc corpses the party quickly searched the room and found nothing of any particular value. They moved on.

The second room the party encountered was inhabited by a pair of zombies and a skeleton that were handily dispatched by Mars’ disrupt undead spells and the party meleeists (everyone except Mars) wading in. The fight in total took roughly three rounds to end. A quick once over turned up nothing of value beyond the shield and sword the skeleton had (Mars took the heavy steel shield and Ragnar took the scimitar).

The party moved onto the fourth room, a very large room that featured two garganuan statues of unidentifiable demons, a large pool filled with an onyx liquid (despite my suggestions to drink the liquid the party refused to do so) that they all avoided, and several long wooden benches. The room had no noticable occupants (at least that the characters noticed).

The adventure continued.

On its way to the fifth room the party was ambushed by a pair of wolves; while our heroes easily slew the beasts, Tahlrenki suffered from rather serious injury. The party returned to town to sell off what little loot that they had acquired and to hole up for a bit and lick their wounds. Ragnar was thrown into prison for the night after he dazzled several patrons of an inn with one of his maneuvers.

The next morning…

After an uneventful nights rest the party reassembled (after Ragnar was released) and re-entered the dungeon.

Onto room five. As usual, Kaveth listened at the door but was surprised to hear a sharp intake of breath on the other side. His reflexes saved his life – he dived out of the way as the door exploded outwards and an ogre lumbered forward hellbent upon smashing the goliath into the dirt with its club. Combat erupted (surprise round) with the ogre narrowly missing (ex. I rolled a natural one… *tear* so close to a kill…) Kaveth who likewise attempted an attack only to miss his foe. Once the party realized what was happening Kaveth had gained an upper hand and struck a solid blow against the lumbering brute (dealing 25 of its 26 hit points in damage with one attack) and a moment later Tahlrenki fired a single arrow into the beast’s throat, ending its existence. Sadly the beast had nothing of any particular value on it and the room it was inhabiting was filled with crates containing old rations (and no forks, much to Ragnar’s irritation).

Onward the march continued.

Heading further south into the dungeon the characters found yet another door. As per usual Kaveth listened at it but heard nothing. He promptly smashed the door open only to find himself face-to-face with a pair of lizardmen that looked quite hungry – the room was oddly empty, though. Combat was both brief and brutal, the party meleeists charged forward and began hacking the lizardmen apart while Mars sat back and threw magic missiles into the fray to soften up the opposition. It was over in moments. Upon the corpses of the lizardfolk the party found a fair bit of gold but not much else of worth.

They carried on.

After a bit of backtracking to make sure a corridor connected as they’d assumed it would (it did) the party continued to the southeast to the next room. Listening at the door Kaveth heard something on the other side that resembled chanting of some sort. After formulating a basic plan he smashed the door down (I must remember to place some sort of traps on these doors in the future to dissuade such recklessness *evil*) and was greeted by barricades and a mad screech of "Kill them my minions!" Apparently the party faced a necromancer of some sort. Combat begin with Kaveth entering the room and briefly thinking about climbing the barricades (at my noting that they had "pointies" on them he changed his mind) before taking a defensive stance and waiting. It was now the necromancer’s move, he opened with a bane spell to weaken his foes; only Kaveth and Mars failed their saves (I was going to have him throw a cause fear spell next round but he didn’t live that long). The rest of the party (except Mars), rushed into the room to combat the necromancer and its now visible skeletal minions (one of which threw itself from the barricades only to land on Kaveth) while Mars stood back and took aim with a magic missile which promptly slew the necromancer. The skeletons were easily mopped up thereafter. Looting the bodies turned up nothing of particular value beyond the necromancer’s gear (a morning star, shield, and chain shirt) which was promptly doled out. Kaveth began to equip the chain shirt and about halfway through doing so, the party was attacked by another pair of wolves (who had Mars alone in the hallway). Instead of doing anything useful Kaveth took it upon himself to continue equipping the chain shirt for the rest of the battle while the wounded Tahlrenki backed into the room to avoid injury. Mars stood in the hall blasting the wolves with spells while trusting in his shield (and 21 AC – FOR A CASTER!) to protect him from their fangs; a few moments later the wolves were promptly slain.

The party decided to return to return to town afterwards and that is where the first session ends.

PC Deaths This Session: 0
PC Deaths In Total: 0

This game is being played with the Pathfinder RPG rules as opposed to 3.5. I figure I should learn more about the system and I find the best way to go about that is via DMing. I’m not converting monsters over to Pathfinder RPG (barring finding CMB/CMD and whatnot for them) so the party will likely have a somewhat easier time at certain points of the game, but it should still be rough on them. Additionally, I’m running Rappan Athuk Reloaded which, as far as I am aware, is a compilation of all the 3.0/3.5 releases for Rappan Athuk. I’ll be including area labels as best I can for those following along in their copies of the module.

I had each player roll up two characters at fourth level as Rappan Athuk is supposed to be quite brutal. This also gives them each the ability to continue play should one character die. I was planning on having them roll up four characters each and then play two; but we wanted to get some play in this session so they only did half that.

Looking at it, this is a fairly well-rounded party setup. The majority of the party is composed of competent front-line fighters (pretty much everyone except the witch) and has both arcane (the witch; in a somewhat limited sense) and divine (the cleric, inquisitor, and paladin) magic covered. The only thing they’re really lacking is a proper skill-monkey who can disarm traps (alas, the inquisitor, while having the skill points is not specialized towards the lock/trap-springing end of the spectrum); this might hurt them later in.

- The Game Proper -

Before play began I mentioned to the players that this was a module known for its unrelenting brutality and that, if they wanted, I could handwave bits and pieces of it to make things a bit easier on them. They said they wanted the genuine experience and to not change anything. I told them this was a one-time offer. Their decision stood. This makes me happy in the I’m-an-Evil-with-a-capital-E DM kind of way; there will be PC deaths, oh yes!.

As play began the party immediately made for Rappan Athuk (alas, no random ambushes along the way) and arrived at the northern portion of the graveyard (that would be Area 9 for those following along in the books) surrounding the massive complex. The party made its way straight towards the main mausoleum (G-7) in the area, and along the way came across a life-sized statue of a Dwarven warrior (G-1). Pausing a moment to examine the statue they found Dwarven runes etched along the base of the statue warning against grave robbing. They also found a compartment containing a magical key (which, for the time being, they left sit due to the warnings presented by the runes — this almost made me cackle with malevolent glee).

Proceeding onward, the party came across a set of freshly filled in graves (G-2). One was, as of yet, unfilled, and bore the name Carl. The party was somewhat disconcerted by this, but carried onward nonetheless. Upon their approach to the main mausoleum (G-6) the PCs were greeted by a grim sight; a massive pair of iron doors blocked their way and the stone of the structure had been carved in such a way as to depict the leering faces of all manner of hellish creatures. Rimming the top of the structure was a number of gargoyles made of some strange green stone. Upon attempting to open the door, they found it locked (along with a relatively obvious key-hole built into the front of it.

The PCs decided to send the witch’s familiar back to fetch the key (which it did) and promptly proceeded to unlock the door with it. This was a bad move. As the lock clicked open, the key vanished and the gargoyles atop the mausoleum sprang to life and swooped down to attack. The party, at this point, was in a VERY bad place; they were closely clumped together and the gargoyles swarmed down upon them.

Combat was long and brutal (easily lasting more than ten rounds in total); while half the party attempted to fight off the gargoyles, (which they found were MUCH tougher than anticipated due to both a sizable number of hit points and a decent bit of damage reduction) the other half of the group attempted (in vain) to push open the iron doors to the mausoleum (which I ruled were on springs so they would stay closed (there’s a reason!); I had the PCs roll Strength checks to attempt to open them). Combat drew ever onward and the PCs were getting quite haggard and had yet to fell even a single gargoyle, when at last they got a break! By employing his crazy eyes (intimidating glare) and a truly terror-inspiring display with his weaponry (dazzling display), Hak managed to cause the gargoyles to flee momentarily. The doors were quickly forced open and the PCs manage to shuffle inside the complex (G-7). Alas, they were not alone; two of the gargoyles managed to follow them inside as the doors slammed shut once more. Having whittled the opposition down to only two foes, the party made quick work of them.

After combat ended the party pried loose the gargoyles’ eyes, which they appraised to be worth a bit of coin. However, now, they are trapped within the entrance to a dungeon whose name means only death with no way to go but forward. What horrors await them? Only time will tell.

From the Back Cover:
Explore new and uncharted depths of roleplaying with the Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player’s Guide! Empower your existing characters with expanded rules for all 11 Pathfinder Roleplaying Game core classes and seven core races, or build a new one from the ground up with one of six brand-new, 20-level base classes. Whether you’re designing your own monstrous helpers as an enigmatic summoner, brewing up trouble with a grimy urban alchemist, or simply teaching an old rogue a new trick, this book has everyting you need to make your heroes more heroic.

The Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player’s Guide is a must-have companion volume to the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. This imaginative tabletop game builds upon more than 10 years of system deevelopment and an Open Playtest featuring more than 50,000 gamers trying to create a cutting-edge RPG experience that brings the all-time best selling set of fantasy rules into the new millennium.

The Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player’s Guide includes:

• Six new base classes: the monster-hunting inquisitor, the explosive alchemist, the noble cavalier, the prophecy-haunted oracle, the monster-crafting summoner, and the hex-weaving witch
• More than a hundred innovative new feats and combat abilities for characters of all classes, including Steal, Point-Blank Master, and Bouncing Spell
• Variant class abilities, rules subsystems, and thematic archetypes for all 11 core classes, such as the antipaladin, the hungry ghost monk, and the urban ranger
• Hundreds of new spells and magic items, from phantasmal revenge to the Storm King’s Cloud Castle
• A wealth of fantastic equipment, such as fireblast rods and fortune-tellers’ cards
• New prestige classes like the Master Chymist and the Battle Herald
• AND MUCH, MUCH MORE!

Preface:
A bad habit that I got when I first started buying books for roleplaying games was reading the credits page. While most books are pretty straight forward in these, Paizo manages to differentiate themselves. Sure, there are the credits and other information pertaining to the OGL and product identity, there is also something else. First, is a dedication to Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson; as far as I know, Paizo has been including this dedication in every book they release, I can imagine some people think nothing of this, but I appreciate the nod towards the game’s founding fathers. The second thing I notice (again, I’ve noticed it in every Pathfinder book I’ve perused) is the thank you given to the fans who spent time playtesting the game, again, something Paizo doesn’t have to do, but does anyways. Classy!

Chapter 1: Races
Overall: I really liked some of the options presented here; others, I felt to be mediocre with some being flat-out bad choices.

Bit By Bit: This portion of the book is dedicated to expanding the seven core races. Presented are alternate racial traits for each race, as well as favored class options.

I like the alternate racial traits; I think that they expand upon the flavor of each race in a unique way (come on, show of hands, who else wanted a half-orc that could actually use those tusks in a fight?!) and are, for the most part, worth what you trade them off for.

I don’t much care for the racial favored class options. When Pathfinder was released there was a great deal of contention between people on the Paizo boards about whether favored class bonuses (either a hit point or a skill point at each level) were going too far towards forcing races into specific classes. While I, personally, didn’t have a problem with it, many, many people did. Now we have this. While most bonuses are fairly benign, some are, what I feel, over the top; the primary example I have of this is the human sorcerer favored class option (gain a bonus spell as a favored class bonus; the spell has to be 1 level lower than the highest level you can cast) which, I feel, removes one of the sorcerer’s greatest weaknesses: his limited spell selection. Why play a sorcerer of any other race?

It doesn’t help that some bonuses really aren’t that powerful compared to others. The half-orc sorcerer bonus (boy am I stuck on sorcerers), for example, on gives 1/2 a point of fire damage per level in the favored class, this is not worth it, methinks. 20 points of extra damage at 20th level (or 5 at 5th, or 10 at 10th, or 15 at 15th) isn’t going to be game breaking, monsters at that point have boatloads of hitpoints to cut through, not to mention that fire is one of the most common of the energy resistances. Now, compare that to a half-elf’s bard favored class option which gives him an extra round of bardic music per level per day (which, by comparison, is a huge boost).

Chapter 2: Classes
Overall: I like almost all of the new classes (don’t like the cavalier; while a solid class, I think it should have been a fighter archetype) and I totally dig the archetypes as an idea, they remind me of kits from 2nd edition. I found most material presented here to be quite solid and there isn’t anything I’d recommend a player avoid.

Bit By Bit:We are presented with six new base classes (not referred to as core classes as Paizo is being fairly strict in what they consider "core" material); they are the alchemist, the cavalier, the inquisitor, the oracle, the summoner, and the witch. We shall poke at each to see what it has in store for us:

The Alchemist: I find the alchemist to be an interesting class; part drug addict (boy are those mutagens tasty) and part demolitions expert ("See this flask I’ve got in me hands, guv? It goes boom if I toss it just so!"). The class is based almost entirely around alchemy which, for the most part, functions similarly to spell casting. Alchemists pick up the ability to brew potions as a perk at first level, as well as the ability to concoct mutagens (imagine a monstrous transformation in a bottle and you’re about spot on as to what these do). They also begin play with the ability to throw bombs (albeit a small number of times per day, initially). As they gain levels their abilities all improve, and the start learning discoveries which let them do various things with their bombs, mutagens, and potions. A very cool class!

The Cavalier: The cavalier is a mounted warrior that has abilities allowing him to challenge foes (once a day initially) to single combat, and boss his allies around (in a good way, through tactical feats). Each cavalier belongs to an order (of which only six are presented; though each is different enough from the others to be quite interesting in its own right) which grants him additional abilities as he gains levels in addition to the other class abilities gained. If you like mounted warriors, or enjoy granting your allies boons while wading into combat yourself, you’ll enjoy this class; I, on the other hand, really don’t like this class. I like the idea of the class, but I think it would have been better off as a fighter archetype (more on those in a bit) than a full 20-level class. Still, it isn’t a bad class; I just don’t particularly like it (though I do think they could have thrown in a couple more orders to mess around with, six seems like too few).

The Inquisitor: The inquisitor is his god’s weapon in the world; trained to hunt his religions enemies and bring them to justice. This class is interesting; imagine a cleric that traded the ability to cast high level spells for the ability to call down fierce judgment upon his enemies, hunt them down wherever they may hide, fight slyly, yet well enough to employ his allies should they be there, and viciously exploit any weakness that his enemies present and you have an inquisitor. This classes’ primary ability is called judgment; when used (once a day at 1st low levels) you get to pick from a large list of abilities to grant yourself as a boon until the end of combat, cool! In addition, as you gain levels you gain the ability to masterfully identify your opponents, act without a moment’s notice, and hunt down those who have wronged your faith. Anyone who would want to play a more combat-oriented rogue with a religious bent will most likely enjoy this class a good deal. After being cooled a bit by the cavalier, I have to say that I love this class! Take a paladin, a ranger, and a rogue and smash them all together into one class and this is what you get. Totally awesome!

The Oracle: This class is pretty straight forward; take a sorcerer, make it a divine caster (drawing from the cleric spell list), give it a mystery instead of a bloodline, and strike it with a curse and voila, you have an oracle. That’s not to say this is a bad class, mind you, I find it to be a really cool class; the mysteries are all interesting (though the heavens mystery looks to be a bit close to the "too awesome" line) and the curses add a bit of flare to what would otherwise be a divine sorcerer. I like this class and I think fans of the sorcerer who want a more divine bent will like it as well.

The Summoner: An interesting class to be sure; part arcane caster, part conjurer of nameless horrors from beyond space and time. The class is based almost entirely around the eidolon that it is capable of summoning from first level onward; the eidolon itself is more an amalgamation of parts than anything. The summoner is given a number of points to spend towards augmenting his eidolon that can result in an incredible number of aforementioned nameless horrors; very cool! In addition, the summoner gains the ability to summon monsters (as the spell) should his eidolon be slain and he not have the time to revive it. At higher levels the summoner can tap into his eidolon to use some of its abilities for himself, a very cool feature, that, sadly, doesn’t come into play until 10th level. This is an interesting class; looking at it, I don’t see anything blatantly crazy on the power scale, though I can think of a couple ways to get an eidolon that would be VERY nasty in a fight; I don’t think it would be as nasty as a fighter, though (but then the fighter doesn’t have a caster tagging along with him everywhere, does he).

The Witch: The witch is an interesting class; they’re arcane casters with full spell progression at a normal rate (which is to say, they get 9th level spells at 17th level), but as they gain levels (and at 1st level) they gain a number of abilities called hexes (with a major hex at 10th level and a grand hex at 18th) which allow them to do a multitude of cool things (the cackle hex is a really cool example of this, flavor-wise; you basically laugh madly and it makes your other hexes last longer, awesome!). This class looks straightforward at a glance, but if you take the time to dig in, it’s very deep and I think I would enjoy playing it more than a wizard any day!

The Archetypes: Presented in addition to the new base classes, are a multitude of alternate class features that the Paizo developers are calling archetypes. While I won’t go in depth into them (there are a LOT of them), they are an excellent idea that I hope to see more of in the future. Some of them are fairly minor in what they do, while others can change the way a class functions entirely. Also, presented is the antipaladin, which, as you likely guessed, is the opposite of a paladin (that being chaotic evil and not a very nice fellow); the class itself is well put together and I wouldn’t want to fight one as a player, but I don’t find it particularly neccesary. It’s nice to have a 20-level class that fills the "Unholy Warrior" slot without having to go outside of the Paizo material, however.

Chapter 3: Feats
Overall: I like feats, a lot. There are a lot of feats presented here. Ergo, I am most happy. Nothing presented here seems like it would be useless in a game (there’s no Alertness here!), and I could see myself taking almost every feat presented were the character to call for it. There are no feats that immediately set of my "uh oh, overpowered" alarm, though, the Selective Spell feat would do so if Paizo hadn’t clarified that it was intended to only affect spells with an instantaneous effect (so it works on a fireball, but not on a cloudkill, for example), and I totally dig the idea of a Bouncing Spell pinging off of an enemy that resisted it and slamming into one of his buddies! Also, the Razortusk feat (gives half-orcs a bite attack) is awesome. Just had to get that out there.

Chapter 4: Equipment
Overall: Most of the new equipment is pretty tame; I’m glad that we’ve finally got a reach weapon that deals bludgeoning damage (the lucerne hammer), though I’m surprised it took this long to get one out there. Overall, I enjoyed this chapter, short though it was (only 11 pages).

Bit By Bit: Oooooh boy do I love me some equipment; I’m always looking for cool new things to carry around on my characters or to beat my enemies to death with. We’re presented with all kinds of goodies here!

Weapons: The weapons portion of the chapter adds twenty-six new objects to end lives with to the game. Of particular note are the bec de corbin and lucerne hammer which are awesome (both reach weapons that deal bludgeoning damage, yes!) and the double crossbow which sets the record as the worst weapon I’ll never spend a feat on (an exotic weapon no less; that forces a -4 penalty to hit onto you if you’re proficient with it, a -8 penalty if you’re not; ouch!).

Armor: Nothing particularly interesting here; the quickdraw shields are a cool idea (shields made so that you can equip or stow them as a swift action made as part of movement) but the armor is fairly so-so.

Goods and Services: Lots of new stuff here, most of which I’ll probably carry around on one character or another (I’m determined to have a character who carries a butterfly net, now!), and the new alchemical substances are all likely to get used a time or two as well (except the weapon blanches, those won’t, they’re too expensive for only lasting for one successful attack; if they lasted an encounter I’d use ‘em, though!).

Chapter 5: Spells
Overall: Oh boy did Paizo go wild with the new spells (almost 70 pages worth of them!). While I’m not going to go indepth with all of them, there were a few that instantly drew a grin from my inner evil DM. Based on the back cover of the book, the first one I looked for was what I found to be named snake staff; this spell functions similarly to the sticks to snakes spell in 2nd Edition D&D (which is to say, it’s not something you want cast in your general vicinity unless you’re the one casting it!). Other cool spells included (in alphabetical order): aqueous orb (think flaming sphere, but instead of fire it’s nonlethal damage and can engulf enemies), burning gaze (you look at things and they catch fire), cacophonous call (nauseates your enemies; I like this mostly for the hilarious illustration provided), feaster (healing spells cast on the target creature have to bypass SR), king’s castle (switch places with an ally; I like it ’cause it’s a chess reference, too), and xyz pit (a line of spells, actually, they range from simple spells like create pit, to acid pit; very mean! I love them!) just to name a few.

Chapter 6: Prestige Classes
Overall: None of the material presented here here really popped to me, though I like the battle herald and the rage prophetThe stalwart defender, while an improvement over the dwarven defender, is still pretty plain; they need something to either force enemies to attack them or the ability to keep enemies from attacking their allies.

Bit By Bit: In total we’re presented with eight new prestige classes, the battle herald, holy vindicator, horizon walker, master chymist, master spy, nature warden, rage prophet, and stalwart defender. Of these, the horizon walker and stalwart defender (a dwarven defender with the serial numbers filed off) are rewrites of prestige classes available in 3.5 that weren’t initially available in Pathfinder RPG. We’re going to go over each, so here we go!

The Battle Herald: The battle herald is a bard/cavalier hybrid that focuses more on direct combat and empowering his allies through inspiration than on spells. The main point of the class is the inspiring command ability which grants up to five abilities from a long list; also presented is a bonus for those who invest in leadership and a small boost to diplomacy and intimidate checks. As additional levels are gained the battle herald gains additional bardic and cavalier abilities that make it a solid choice for those who wish to have a bard with more melee presence or a cavalier with a slight bent towards empowering his allies even more.

The Holy Vindicator: The holy vindicator is an interesting class; paladins are likely to enter it earlier than clerics, but clerics will probably get more out of it. This prestige class starts off a bit slow, only granting channel energy (which you require to take levels in it; so it’s purely for stacking purposes) and vindicator’s shield (spend a channel energy attempt to grant you an improved shield bonus to AC until you are struck in battle) as 1st-level abilities. Over the 10 levels of the class you pick up 7 levels of spellcasting (so clerics won’t miss out on their 9th level spells), and a number of abilities that improve the channel energy and healing abilities of characters that take levels in the class. Also gained (early on; at 2nd level) is an ability called stigmata which allows the holy vindicator to suffer bleed damage to grant himself profane or sacred (depending upon the type of energy the vindicator channels) bonuses to various things. Overall this is a solid class that I could definitely see myself taking levels of were I a cleric.

The Horizon Walker: A rewrite of the 3.5 class of the same name; this class begins with the favored terrain ability which functions identically to the ranger ability of the same name. As the class gains levels it gains additional favored terrains, mastery over a number of terrains as well (each of which grants a different bonus; some of which are quite nice), dominance over yet more terrains (which, again, each grant bonuses; the majority of which are also nice), and finally at 10th-level, the class mastery over all lands, which is a fairly minor capstone ability, but still nice to have. I think this class is a solid choice for rangers who don’t mind losing caster levels and instead want to focus on mastery over whatever terrain they happen to reside in most of the time.

The Master Chymist: The alchemist prestige class. This class is interesting, really; it basically lets you trade your alchemist abilities for the greater combat prowess (picking up ten levels of full base attack bonus and d10 hit die) and the ability to go Mister Hyde several times a day. At first level you gain an ability that lets you add your master chymist level to your alchemist level to determine the damage dealt by your bombs. Additionally you gain the mutagenic form ability which drastically alters your personality (to the point of essentially being a different character (with a different alignment and everything) when mutated). You also gain the ability to mutate twice a day, which essentially allows you to employ your mutagen alchemist ability without needing to imbibe the mutagen. As levels are attained, you gain advanced mutagens which allow you to alter the effects of your mutagen in various ways; also gained is the brutality ability which gives you damage bonuses when wielding simple or natural weapons. I’ll be honest; I really like this class; if you’ve ever wanted to play a character ala Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde, this is your class.

The Master Spy: The master spy has rogue written all over it; their abilities all increase their survivability in situations where they must infiltrate a group of enemies. Initially the master spy is graced with a bonus to his bluff, disguise, and sense motive skills (+1 at 1st-level but it scales at a rate of +1 per class level, so it gets pretty good), the ability to disguise himself quickly and efficiently, and a bonus to sneak attack damage. As the levels pile on, the master spy eventually learns to hide various aspects of himself from prying eyes (magical or not) and becomes quite good at evading even magical scrying. Overall I think this class is pretty decent; it has a fairly narrow focus but, that’s basically what prestige classes were designed to be, so I’m fine with it; I could see a character taking levels in both this and assassin and making either an undetectable killing machine (rogue 5/assassin 10/master spy 5) or a suave killer that will make you trust him right up to the point where he puts a dagger into your heart (rogue 5/assassin 5/master spy 10). Very nice!

The Nature Warden: Another interesting class that also happens to be ranger-focused (I could also see a druid taking levels in this if he had access to the favored terrain ability (through either ranger levels or a level in horizon walker). The nature warden is a class more focused on communing with nature than warring for it; a ranger taking levels in this would be sacrificing base attack bonus and hit points, but would be picking up a more powerful animal companion and various abilities that allow him to commune with nature. Initially the nature warden gains an ability that allows him to stack nature warden levels with class levels that grant animal companions (a nice thing, to be sure), and natural empathy which allows the nature warden to stack his levels for determining the effects of wild empathy. As the levels build, the nature warden gains various abilities that empower his animal companion, the ability to better fight in favored terrain (which is another class ability they get as they level), the ability to speak with animals at will, and a number of other useful abilities. A druid would be better served by this class than a ranger, I think; it’s just a shame that it requires favored terrain as a prerequisite which puts some hurt on druids who want to get in on the bonuses granted without having to multiclass before the fact. Overall the class is "okay," I could see myself taking levels in it if I were playing a specific type of ranger, but otherwise I’d probably take horizon walker levels before I took levels in this.

The Rage Prophet: I’m going to begin by saying that I really like this class. This is basically for anyone who wants to play an oracle that, not only casts spells, but kicks copious amounts of butt whilst doing so. The class itself is odd in that it has a d10 hit die but average base attack bonus (I thought Paizo said this was a no-no outside of the barbarian; shame Paizo, shame!), though it does gain seven levels of spellcasting over 10 levels which is nice (though an oracle, with their delayed spellcasting progression, will not gain ninth level spells if they take more than 7 levels in this class, ouch!) and the abilities gained as they level are all quite good as well. Initially, rage prophets begin with an ability that lets rage prophet levels stack with barbarian levels for determining the length of rage (odd that the class doesn’t require barbarian rage as a class feature to take levels), and another ability that grants them a spirit guide. As the rage prophet gains levels he gains additional abilities that let him do things while raging that he normally wouldn’t be able to do (such as casting cure and eventually any spell with the personal range on himself while raging). Overall I view this class as fairly plain; I think it should require barbarian rage to take levels in, as most of its abilities focus on rage. I don’t see myself ever taking levels in this class, personally.

The Stalwart Defender: Take the dwarven defender from 3.5, now remove the dwarven, and give it more class abilities, and bam, you’ve got the stalwart defender. Upon reading, I noticed that this is another class with odd hitdie to baseattack bonus ratio (d12 hit die with full base attack bonus; again, I thought this was supposed to be the province of only the barbarian, Paizo?). The class itself is fairly solid if you can wedge yourself in somewhere in such a way that enemies have to get past you to get to your allies; in other situtations, however, enemies can just walk around you (this was my problem with the original class, as well). This class is focused around its defensive stance which allows the defender to basically hunker down and turn into a wall with pointy things coming off of it. As the defender gains levels he gains defensive powers (he gains 5 of them over 10 levels and he picks them from a fair-sized list) that improve his defensive stance in one way or another (intercept is a good one; it lets the defender take a hit in place of one of his allies). Sadly, the defender doesn’t get the ability to move in his stance until 9th level, and even then it’s only 5-foot steps (I’d have made this a defensive power that can be taken multiple times to allow more movement, personally). Overall, this class suffers from the same problems as the dwarven defender, but if you can get in the proper location (dungeons, for example), I can see this class shining.

Chapter 7: Magic Items
Overall: The magic items portions of books are often my favorite as a DM and the Magic Item Compendium is a book that gets heavy use in most home games I DM. Luckily, I was not disappointed here; I was a bit cooled by early portions of the chapter, but the farther I read the more I enjoyed myself.

Bit By Bit: This chapter is filled to the brim with new goodies for both PCs and DMs wishing to spice up their games a bit. Much of the content is new, and there is very little rehashed material presented (though there is some, it is minor enough that I don’t find it worth complaining overmuch about). Anyways, lets dig in!

Armor: The first section presented is that of magical armor. The armor and shield abilities presented disappointed me; four of the six presented abilities are essentially the same ability switched out for different alignments (think the anarchic/axiomatic weapon enhancements and you’re on the right track), while of the other two, only mounted characters will get much use from it (jousting armor), finally, the determination enhancement is quite good actually; it basically waits until a character is reduced to 0 or fewer hit points and then casts breath of life on him. To top it all off, the enhancement is a flat price cost, too, which is nice at higher levels! The specific types of armor offered are all quite neat (such as the boneless leather; which basically lets your character wildly contort himself and grants some DR as well) and I found them much more appreciable than the enhancements.

Weapons: Moving onto weapons we’re granted a look at 12 new enhancements (six for melee weapons, six for ranged weapons) all of which are fairly interesting (barring the compulsory acid damage enhancements (which really should do a d4 damage as opposed to a d6; at a d6 they’re pretty much superior to the other energy damage enhancements, very few things have acid resistance compared to other energy resistances)) and the specific weapons presented are all quite interesting as well (I’m in love with the ricochet hammer). Overall I was pleased with this portion of the chapter.

Rings: Overall I found the rings pretty mediocre; some were quite cool, though (I liked the ring of maniacal devices, the ring of retribution, and I could most definitely see myself using a ring of delayed doom). I didn’t find any of them uninteresting, per se, I just probably wouldn’t use the majority of them if I came across them and had something more standard ( I wouldn’t use a ring of arcane signets over a ring of protection +1, for example).

Rods: These were disappointing. All of the rods presented are simply metamagic rods of the new metamagic feats added in chapter 3. I was hoping for some new rods that actually did things besides snap metamagic feats onto spells for free.

Staves: The new staves presented were fairly plain as well. Nothing special, just spell batteries.

Wondrous Items: After being disappointed by the rods and staves this portion of the chapter made incredibly happy. There are a lot of really cool items presented here (including the apple of eternal sleep (that’s totally not a reference or anything *shifty eyes*)). A lot of the items presented here I could actually see myself using as a player if I found them in a treasure horde as opposed to just selling them off for additional coin to spend on whatever plain item is next up on the "must buy to survive" chart. There are a few items that drew chuckles out of me as well, among them are the annihilating spectacles (totally awesome, by the way) and the soal soap.

Cursed Items: The evil DM in my laughs insanely at this portion of the chapter whilst my inner player cries himself to sleep in a corner; I love me some cursed items and I’m not going to go too deep into them as I don’t want to spoil anything for players. Suffice to say: players, watch out!

Minor Artifacts: Some interesting items are presented here. The only one that really stuck out to me was the knucklebone of fickle fortune, which is basically a deck of many things in die form. Oh the evil!

Major Artifacts: Awesome; simply awesome. I absolutely love the artifacts presented; they’re all incredibly cool in their own rights and I doubly appreciative that Paizo is so kind as to provide methods of destruction for them (no matter how crazy that they may be). Of all of them, my favorite is probably the Cloud Castle of the Storm Kind.

Chapter 8: New Rules
Overall: I like this chapter; it’s like a miniature Unearthed Arcana full of rules that are both cool and useful!

Bit By Bit: There are a number of sections presented in this chapter so we’ll tackle each one of them separately.

Combat Maneuvers: Presented are four new combat maneuvers, dirty drick, drag, reposition, and steal. Dirty trick is basically a group of maneuvers rolled into one, throw dirt into an enemy’s eyes, kick a poor fellow in the nethers; if you can see a rogue doing it to some poor sap in an alley, it’s covered here. Drag is self explanatory, you grab somebody and pull them along with you (seen this one used in game where a trapdoor spider pulled a PC into its hole; very nice, and totally unexpected!). Reposition lets you move an enemy around without provoking attacks of opportunity; this could be useful to keep certain enemies away from some characters (and I could see it being put to good use by a stalwart defender). Steal is, likewise, self explanatory, you take something off of an enemy; as a player, this is cool, but I could see it getting abused (snatching spell component pouches off of casters, for example); still like it, though.

Hero Points: If you played much 3.5 you’ve probably heard of action points. Well, hero points are action points cranked up to 11. They let you do all kinds of cool stuff, but you’re fairly limited in the number you have (1 per level with a max of three), though a benevolent DM is encouraged to award them for PCs doing awesome things. Also presented is a rule for antiheroes, which, instead of hero points gain a bonus feat at 1st level. Personally, I think antiheroes get screwed a bit; hero points are worth much more than a single feat. I could see it being a feat at 1st level, 1 at 5th, and an additional feat every 5 levels thereafter. You are also given rules for spells, a few feats, and a number of items that deal with action points; the feats are okay, I don’t much care for the spells, and the items are all so-so in their usefulness (meaning, I’d take them if given to me, but I’d never buy them.

Traits: I’m really not sure where I stand on traits. I like the concept, but I don’t like feeling like I have to pay off players to roleplay their characters. As a player I don’t feel I should get a bonus for being an anatomist (if I were an anatomist I’d probably have a rank or three in heal and that’s all I need), but I won’t complain for being given one. Overall I can take or leave traits; they’re okay.

In Closing
I liked this book. A lot. I would recommend it to my friends, and really, anyone who plays or even has a passing interest in Pathfinder RPG. I’d also recommend it to anyone looking for some material with which to spice up their 3.5 game and doesn’t mind having to do a bit of conversion work.

To be completely honest, the reason the site has been lacking in updates for the past six months or so (!!!) was due to my distaste for the old site-design. I liked how it looked, but adding pages was a major pain in the behind. As such, I’ve moved back to WordPress. However, since I’m hosting it on my own servers I’ll have much more control over the look of the site, as such, things should work out for the better.

That said; the site’s going to be deader than normal for a bit. I’ve got a LOT of work ahead of me. Not only do I have to relink all of the materials I previously had on the site (again!), but I’m also going through all of the old monsters and bringing up to a baseline for how I want their statblocks to read. All in all, this is a good thing; just very time consuming.

I apologize for any inconvenience I’ve caused with this; however, if you’re interested in the monsters (as I assume most are), I recommend you go to THIS THREAD and find my most recent post. It should have links to all of the monsters I’ve stated up to this point in time.

I’ll be editing this post as the updates progress to keep you folks in the loop as to where we stand in regards to the site being up and running again. Once I get to adding content again this page will automatically populate itself with the content as I add it.

UPDATE: All of the extraneous content (ex. anything not .pdf related) is up on-site now.

UPDATE THE SECOND: All critters are going to be arriving in two forms. A good while back I ran a poll and decided that this site was going to support Pathfinder RPG materials in addition to 3.5 stuff. As such, I’m going to be porting the stats for all of my monsters over to PFRPG as I post them. New content (kinda) ahoy!