The group planned for a big day of gaming yesterday as we moved into the second module of this iconic adventure path. The Skinsaw Murders (I am very glad to say) has offered me much more scope to play Coltyn and Grellyk as I had intended. We are currently in the middle of school holidays so being a teacher that means I have some spare time and the other players all work a business (service station) which means we can play during a shift and we all help out. So we planned to game from 1 to 10 last night.
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| The Adventure Path |
The game went OK but we had a bunch of interruptions and I am ashamed to say that I was the cause of a few of them. Firstly, I had an internet install yesterday for Fixed Wireless. It got done by the expected time but about an hour or so into game I got an email telling me the service was active. This perplexed me as I had been told it may take a week or so. As the driveway of the servo got busy I decided to make a quick call… My mistake really as the driveway emptied as quickly as it filled and I was caught in the call with someone who obviously did not know much about what they were talking about and my absence caused the game to stall for about ten minutes.
I had to pick up my daughter (who plays with us) around 3 which caused a further disruption and then (around 5) I got a message from my wife. She did not think we were playing all day and had a problem that she could not fix so I had to then break from the game for about another 40 minutes (although I did grab everyone tea while gone). So I do feel bad about breaking the games flow but I could not help it.
Still I thoroughly enjoyed the game last night although it was hard to concentrate at times. One of the players at times insisted on talking to me while the GM was talking making it a little hard to follow what was going on. But other than this it flowed pretty well. This module is an investigation style game (which I love) and it is themed around a series of murders. The murders are based on the seven sins and they also give opportunity for me to bring out the darker side of Coltyn.
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| The GM |
In the first module I felt that it was paced so that there was very little scope to play Coltyn in a balanced way. He is true neutral in alignment and I like to play that as it should be. He does good and bad with little care for how it serves the greater cosmos. In the first module all it seemed was one thing led to another and it was all “helping” everyone out. Already in the Skinsaw Murders I have been able to flex my characters darker side. We went to the sanatorium and came across the doctor who had been questionably experimenting on the patients. he was not evil, just saw his experiments as a necessary exploration of how to “help” his patients.
We captured him and he refused to admit the darkness in his actions so a couple of the players wanted to take him back to the sheriff to face trial. I convinced them that if we did that he would likely get off the charges and be back in control of the helpless patients in no time. Initially I did not intend to kill him but have the were-rat patient turn him. But it seemed the were-rat may have been lobotomised and the good Doctor seemed a little too happy about it. So Coltyn got Grell to carry the good Doctor into his experimental operating theatre and made him look like one of the victims of the Skinsaw murderer. While I was “operating” the rest of the group found some conclusive proof of the Doctor’s guilt and when I was done I got the “See he would have been put away” speech although they all agreed to shut up about what happened.
It is all about secrets with my character. He has got the players keeping a big one for him and that makes me quite happy. I got to stretch the darkest side of Coltyn and it served the story well!
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| Loving these games! |
The flip side to this was I got a great test of Grell and his new configuration! I once swore that summoners were a pointless class but wow! Grellyk is in a great configuration. Last level I gave teh Eidolon an overhaul of powers. He lost his horns and extended reach bit, grew a set of wings and an extra set of arms. He maintains an excellent perception, claws and now also has a slam attack. He capably manages 4 attacks a round and it is Coltyn’s main action to give Grell an Evolution Surge spell to empower all of these with a typ of energy damage (last night was electricity).
Grellyk proved his weight in gold last night. He is a ferocious foe but has a gentle nature. My daughter’s character ignores everything my main character says (Coltyn) but listens to Grell all the time. Coltyn treats Grell poorly in public and so she disapproves as Grell is a colourful being with a slightly dumb but gentle outlook on life!
So all in all a great game yesterday. I am looking forward to quite a few things in this adventure path, and definitely exploring the different combinations of Grell as I head through the levels. I am absolutely dying for the level where Coltyn can get his hands on the Transmogrify spell so I can alter Grell far more often than once a level too. Keep on rolling!