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Dear players,

The Therassic Monastery massacre.

As you know, I like to run challenging games, games that provide satisfaction (hopefully!) to the players when the encounter is over, but do not like killing PCs even when you play badly. Last night you did not play badly. In fact on a tactical basis the party did the right thing, namely by getting your Protection from evil up. Some of you may have forgotten that their PCs were flying, It certainly felt that way because apart from Paul asking about a volumetric fireball, everybody else acted as if on the floor.

As I discussed with Adam at the bus stop, the party paid dearly for their ongoing strategic mistake of not having a healer and/or user of positive energy. Undead CRs are calculated for the standard party of four including a Priest. With the right weapons (positive energy, fire) the Black Monk was not really a threat, even with the 50% HP boost I gave him. Basically his abilities were kick-ass, but with his facing a standard party he would normally not have been able to use them all, I would have needed to make choices between using the gaze, the breath or a melee attack because the HP total would have been dwindling pretty quickly. With only one "fire guy" who represented the only credible threat to the Black Monk it was quite logical for him to concentrate on Nagri, first by disabling him, then attempting to finish him off after swatting the others.

As pointed out in the earlier post by Andrew, the party is unprepared for poison/disease/curse and Undead. These sadly are going to be recurring problems considering the level we are currently playing at. The undead issue is always an issue whatever the level: Looting the Tomb of the Dark Lord in the Iron Hills at first level without a Cleric means getting whacked by Skeletons with annoying DR, at LV4-5 in the same context, Shadows pump strength from the Fighter who may lack a friendly Magic weapon spell but surely would prefer a Priest burning the things away with positive energy. At high level, Undead have a lot of DR and DR-like abilities that protect them from melee and ranged combat. Last night you were even lucky that the spell-like abilities were not relevant, in fact they were contrary to the role of the Black Monk as the guardian of the place. Had they been aligned more along the "despair" line or of the "mental command" variety, you would have been even more toast than you were.

Therefore, although I do not like imposing a party composition, I must tell you in the end: "Get a healer or holy warrior or something!" Granted, RotRL is not an Undead heavy campaign, but it has some; you can no longer ignore this type of monster and hope for the best.

The mummy rot problem.

I got one scalp yesterday and potentially two more unless a 5th level cleric, 7th level Wizard or 8th level Sorcerer with the right collection of spells can be found then paid to cast Remove curse and Remove disease on the other two individuals who are losing 1D6 CON and 1D6 CHA damage a day. Yep, I forgot to mention the CHA damage, you may check mummy rot on the PRPG Reference Document. Also note that the two spells must be cast within one minute of each other. You may stock-up on potions and scrolls of lesser restoration for the sake of countering the ability damage.

I made a mistake in the past about Ilsurian this is not a big city, only a village. The only big cities around are Korvosa and Magnimar, where you can find NPCs with enough levels to assist you at LV10 with restorative or support spells. You may still consider Ilsurian as a gateway to Korvosa for trade purposes as the village has been established thirty one years earlier than Turtleback Ferry, thus should be slightly bigger.

Unless the new PC is a Cleric or Paladin with access to Remove curse and Remove disease and comes with open or unprepared spell slots, thus requiring only one hour or prayers, you will need to buy the arcane versions of the scrolls and get Nagri or Marcus to cast them; bearing in mind that Nagri would have lost 1D6 CHA for his Use magic device roll. If cast from a scroll or wand, the CL is that of the scroll or wand, not Nagri's by the way, so the DC17 could still be a problem.

In Pathfinder RPG, more than in Third Edition, DISEASES AND POISONS CAN AND WILL KILL.

Let's randomise things:

You will have 30% chance of finding a visiting Cleric/Paladin/etc of level high enough to help you in Turtleback Ferry on the day of arrival. The Therassic Monastery fight happened at night, so you get a "free" day off for your disease checks. Next check is in the morning after the night rest to keep things simple. There will be 50% chance for the NPC to have 1D3 unprepared, thus free, spell slots of the required level. The NPC level will have 30% chance to be higher than minimum with 1D4 level above that minimum if this is the case.

The chance of finding the right NPC would be 40% in Ilsurian, but a day later due to the need to travel there.

Magnimar is a week away and Korvosa four days (I think) from Turtleback Ferry. The trip to Korvosa would not have any dangerous random encounter as the region is pacified., the usual 10% a day for the Magnimar trip. Magnimar would give 40% off for healing due to your patronage from the mayor.

Reforming the party.

Unless a significant amount of cash, some luck with percentile rolls or a very well timed introduction of a healer PC happens soon the Mummy rot problem may kill Nagri and Sharax. Cash can the short term solution for restoration and lesser restoration (scrolls, wands, potions) to fight those two separate 1D6 ability damage.

Because you will be "in town" or "out of the dungeon" for at least a week of game time, anybody can change their PC. Technically Gideon could be brought back from the dead too. For campaign continuity I would advise that Marcus remains and carries on with leading the party, unless the new arrival(s) for some reason can show a link to a former party member, thus be aware of the Rise of the Runelords storyline.

Also those who have access to the Advanced Player's Guide can amend their PC built within the "behavioural limits" mentioned earlier.

The gate spell.

Consider this a talisman or token that the coven of Hags would have given to Sharax when he made the deal with them and gave away the remains of his "could-have-been-best-friend-ever" Pit Fiend. This is obviously a one-off and indeed a plot twist as the cards are intended to be.

You have arrived in the courtyard of Fort Rannick. Gideon's remains will most likely be stored in the crypt with those of Elswyn the Mad and Eigan.

I will update the game page and post a calendar event for next week later.

Edit: The Rise of the Runelords game page has been updated. I have also posted the event for next week and those for the first two weeks of January.

Laurent,