PFS #3-13 The Quest for Perfection, Part III: Defenders of Nesting Swallow, Jan 2015

[cmdisc]

A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for Levels 1–5.

As the Pathfinders approach the village of Nesting Swallow in the Tian nation of Shokuro, they find it besieged by a gang of tengu bandits. Before their contact in the village will aid them in restoring the Iroran relic that brought them hundreds of miles to the isolated town, the PCs must repulse the attackers, using every ounce of tactical mettle and military strategy they possess to train the villagers, augment their defenses, and ultimately face off against the bandits' charge.

"Defenders of Nesting Swallow" is the final scenario in the three-part The Quest for Perfection campaign arc. It follows Pathfinder Society Scenario #3–09: The Quest for Perfection—Part I: The Edge of Heaven and Pathfinder Society Scenario #3–11: The Quest for Perfection—Part II: On Hostile Waters. All three chapters are intended to be played in order.

Written by Sean McGowan, RPG Superstar 2011 runner up.

This is the fun one out of the 3, imho. It also has the most potential for danger.

Calendar is updated here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/calendar/index.xcp?id=1300

Date suggested right now is January 2nd. Let me know if that works for you. Other options are the 3rd, 9th, or 10th (although there is a chance I will find either the 9th or 10th is not an option for me as we get closer to it).

[xazil]

Date proposed is a good one for me.

[Farnaby]

Danger is my middle name.
My first name is Run From. :ninja:

Date is also good for me.

[xazil]

Its ok, Farnaby, just teach them all to ninja-vanish the whole village!

[kwarner1986]

Diana is ready to go.

[HoloGnome]

Sounds good. Thx for running these!

[Blackfoot]

Here is Garbunkle's updated sheet.

[cmdisc]

By the way, guys, Merry Christmas! :)

Tom, any word on the results of that interview?

[HoloGnome]

Happy Holidays - see you in January!

[Farnaby]

Tom, any word on the results of that interview?

Yeah, it got pushed to end of January because of illness of the line manager. :cry:

[cmdisc]

Ouch. Not good, but at least you still have a shot at it (albeit later than you wanted). Good luck with the interview, bud. Praying for a Nat 20 on your Diplomacy check (or would that be Bluff?) :p

[cmdisc]

Happy New Year, guys! :)

If your characters have changed since Part II, get me an updated xml as soon as you're able. If they haven't, just let me know and I'll pull them from that session.

[Victor]

Happy New Year back at ya!
Here are Belte's current files:

[xazil]

Here are Janek's files. Sorry for the delay.

[kwarner1986]

Well I'm going to pull Diana from this mission in order to get Rebecca to level 5, so she can do Holognome's mission.

Rebecca manage to get out of the hospital, they were lucky to be able to reattach all her limbs again.

Too bad Coburn is so far behind. I would love to see his reaction to seeing Rebecca for the first time. Aasimar Cleric of Shelyn. Of course you might have seen her play the Violin, she's quite talented at it.

[cmdisc]

I updated Rebecca's and Belty's XP totals on their character sheets to reflect their Chronicles. So far it looks like everyone is going to be Lvls 5 and 6 at the end of this. I don't have Meredith's updated info yet, so we'll see how she's doing.

[Farnaby]

Here we go:

Inventory Sheet (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1yRu8Ljw0l6_Glx1YwWjeRXklCYK3hH9FhVLU7yKdW Tk&authuser=0)

Please note that I added a wand of shield for 2 pp and an amulet of natural armor +1 for 2000 gp.

[cmdisc]

I see a number of other games are being offered shortly after this one that characters are jumping into. Who will need a Chronicle from it ASAP for another game? If you can't wait until late Saturday morning CET for it, let me know and I can get the basics prepped now so that I can get it to you right after the session.

[HoloGnome]

I'll need one by Sunday for Way of the Kirin - thx!

[cmdisc]

Server is up.

[kwarner1986]

Pre-Chronicle Below

[cmdisc]

First 3 done that needed them early. Will pull them down later in a few days.

Edit: Needed to fix Rebecca's sheet to reflect purchases.

Edit (again): Just noticed that the previous GM had Rebecca's last name as "Warner". I just copied it over, but can fix it if important. It will be reported as "Mercer" so no major issue there.

Meredith's Chronicle updated.

[cmdisc]

Actually am awake enough to knock these out as well. On these and the previous 3, let me know if anything needs changing.

I will be pulling down the calendar in a few days.

Edit: updated Zan's sheet with purchases.

[cmdisc]

One last note: Skellan and d1wright (and maybe a few others) have completed some of these sessions, but not all of them. I was thinking of rerunning Part III to give them a chance for credit (subtier 4-5) and was eyeing the 23rd or 30th of this month. However, if any of you want to GM this set, I'll forego it. You'll have 2+ interested players right out of the gate. :)

[Farnaby]

I purchased a Wand of Shield for 2pp and an amulet of natural armor +1 for 2000 gp
I believe |I mentioned that and due to a screw up in the last 2 chronicles, I have a starting Gold of 196 gp, not 3718 gp.

Otherwise, just wanted to say thanks, that was a great run of 3 chronicles.
I had a great time.

[cmdisc]

Glad you enjoyed it. It was fun running through all 3 with the same players.

Regarding the purchases, I can make the changes. Thanks for being honest concerning the current gold values. Maybe you were AFK when I mentioned it, but I asked everyone to note their purchases either on the Notes tab of the character sheet or in the Notes section on the right of the screen. I didn't see anything for Meredith so didn't put anything on the Chronicle. I'll update that soon and get it to you. Sorry about that.

Also, did you want to keep the Nat Armor ammy? Or would you prefer a Deflection ring? Deflection adds to CMD and Touch AC where Natural doesn't. Plus that leaves your amulet slot free if you wanted that 100 Master Braid or something else.

[HoloGnome]

Great job...and thanks. This scenario was very unique and fun!

There are a few subtle things about the Braid of 100 Masters.

1. I was really hoping that it might confer the Lvl3 extra 1d6 damage with Cestus (especially for extra crit dice vs. sneak damage for my rogue), but it looks like monk unarmed damage with brass knuckles and cestus has been removed as of Ultimate Equipment and discussed in the paizo forum (https://paizo.com/threads/rzs2r4ky&page=1?Monks-unarmed-strike-damage-and-Brass). So, that's out. Maybe there's an FAQ entry somewhere, but with the publication of Ultimate Equipment and SKR thread comments, the answer seems clear ( as mud :D ).

2. Given that the Braid confers the unarmed strike ability of a monk, the implication would be that it would also treat the wearer's unarmed strikes as manufactured or natural weapons, which potentially opens up feats and spells that have a manufactured or natural weapon prerequisite. For example, a druid with the braid could cast Magic Fang and get +1 on unarmed strikes and 1d6+1 damage. There are some creative options here, but there are also other ways to get natural/manufactured weapons.

3. Regarding the extra movement, it's very nice to have the constant extra 10' and not have to cast it in terms of action economy, but it doesn't stack and expeditious retreat gives 30' @ 2PP for the wand, assuming UMD or arcane class (but only lasts for 10 rounds w/ Lvl 1 wand). Also, it would be good to compare movement with other items like Boots of Speed, Swift Fury, Striding & Springing, etc., since the other abilities of the Braid for non-Monks might not be as useful. (and it takes up the neck slot)

4. For monks, it's obviously a nice item with +3 Lvl and Flurry benefits.

[Farnaby]

Glad you enjoyed it. It was fun running through all 3 with the same players.

Regarding the purchases, I can make the changes. Thanks for being honest concerning the current gold values. Maybe you were AFK when I mentioned it, but I asked everyone to note their purchases either on the Notes tab of the character sheet or in the Notes section on the right of the screen. I didn't see anything for Meredith so didn't put anything on the Chronicle. I'll update that soon and get it to you. Sorry about that.

Also, did you want to keep the Nat Armor ammy? Or would you prefer a Deflection ring? Deflection adds to CMD and Touch AC where Natural doesn't. Plus that leaves your amulet slot free if you wanted that 100 Master Braid or something else.

You're right, I'll take the Ring of Protection. It costs the same.
I think Protection, because Deflection deflects spells.
Slightly confused here.

[cmdisc]

Yes, I meant the Ring of Protection that gives the Deflection bonus to AC. :)

Meredith's Chronicle is updated above. Let me know if there's anything else.

[cmdisc]

One last thing. I was pleased that the session was completed in 4.5 hours. I know there were several that had run long, but you guys did great in moving things along. I dumped the optional encounter for the sake of time, but almost half of the session was spent doing the number crunching. So that aside, you guys knocked through the RPing and combat in 2.5 hours. And I don't know about you, but I wasn't seeing it as a rush-job either (well, too much of one anyway...we did have a few spots here or there). So congrats with the excellent time management! :D

See you around the boards.