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Hello everyone and welcome back! Today we're gonna start off by fixing a few problems and issues from the previous several updates. First off - auto level is off because the pre-built paths for companions are really, really bad. I'm not good at making builds, as you can probably tell from the previous update, but even my stuff is better than the game's defaults.
I'll correct the rest in a moment. First, let's have an overdue conversation with Chief Sull.
The locals in Neathholm are very nice.
Up the hill, a cutscene takes over.
A heavyset, aged mongrel slowly shuffles his way toward you. The hair on his head grows in limp, wispy strands, and his face has a distinctly rat-like appearance with pronounced teeth, and you hear a rattling sound in his chest with every breath he takes. One of his eyes is white, fully scarred by cataracts, while the other gleams with moisture. "Uplandersh, eh... End timesh are upon ush, indeed..."
Gained 250 Experience
(For finishing the quest objective)
"Chief Sull! We found the angel's sword! And we found the one who can wield it." Lann points at you. "She had a vision and now the angel's sword together with the Light of Heaven are somehow... inside her. Gather the tribe! Anyone who can hold a weapon. The young ones are still alive, we can go save them!"
Chief Sull: Sull raises his hand with ragged, broken fingernails. "Ah... Lann, alwaysh dreaming, alwaysh talking. You're too hashty, too hashty for your own good. It'sh going to get you in trouble." Sull eyes you up and down. "An uplander with the Light o' Heaven... That'sh too good for ush. Our kind don't have good thingsh happen — there'sh alwaysh a catch. Lann trustsh people becaush he likesh to believe. Ishn't that right, Lann? I'm the chief, I don't work on faith. Show the Light."
Wenduag stares at you intently, like a cat watching a bird, and shakes her head in warning.
"Is there someone else from the surface here?"
Chief Sull: Sull points off to the side. "There he ish. Hale and hearty and prim as a peacock. Jusht like me." Sull laughs, but quickly returns to business. "Sh'not good. Too many uplandersh — sh'not good, sh'not right. What are you up to here? You're not one of ush, we're not your kind. When the time comesh, we'll come to you. Not you to ush."
(Chaotic) "Lann is mistaken. We didn't find the sword."
Lann whips around to look at you, stunned. He clenches his fists for a moment, as if planning to shake the truth out of you, but he quickly gets a handle on himself. "I don't know why you're lying — no doubt you have your reasons. But I know it's a lie, and you know it. And Wendu knows it." Lann turns to Wenduag. "Tell him, Wendu!"
You've performed a Chaotic action
Wenduag stares blankly back at him. "I saw the Light shining between the rocks and then it went out. Lann saw what he wanted to see."
"Why are you doing this?"
"Doing what? Telling the truth?"
[say nothing]
Lann looks at you expectantly, and sighs when you don't answer. "Right... You and Wendu have worked everything out between yourselves. You've played me for a blind mole here." Lann barks a hollow laugh." "Everybody around me said that they didn't want to go anywhere or save anyone, but I didn't believe them. I always have to take things further than anybody else, isn't that right, Chief? Fine. I see how things are, I don't need any more convincing." Lann offers a crooked smile."
Chief Sull: "Peash, Lann. Miraclesh are not meant for ush. We, the tribe, we wait. If you're one of ush, you will wait. We're not going anywhere. Uplandersh — resht now. There ish a hut over there, you can resht there."
Lann is silent, his eyes shifting from you and Sull to Wenduag.
"You made the right choice. It was the lesser of two evils. And now — rest, so we can be at our best when we go into the Maze. I promised to lead you to the surface, and I will."
So a few things. First off: everyone leveled up from finishing that quest. So we'll have points to distribute in a moment. Secondly, we can see that Lann is quite bitter when Lisbeth didn't immediately live up to his ideals. She never promised she would help, only that she would think about it. And Wenduag's offer, voted by you all, made more sense. If we'd voted for Lann, Wendy's accusations would be less bitter and more hateful. It is what it is, but this is also a binding vote you all made. At the end of the upcoming dungeon, we would normally have the opportunity to make one final choice between Lann and Wendy, but Wendy's lead was so commanding that there's no point in holding a second vote.
Finally, let's talk Alignment. We've had a few options to make (Evil) choices in the past, but I'm pretty sure this was our first (Chaotic) choice. So naturally Pathfinder 1E is very heavily based on D&D3E, which means that the old faithful 3x3 grid makes a return. Everything from Lawful Good to Chaotic Evil. In Wrath in particular (I haven't played Kingmaker, so it could also be true there. I don't actually know.) if you make a decision on one particular axis, the game moves your alignment toward the purest expression of that axis. That sounds more confusing than it actually is, so let me explain using the choice we made above.
We lied to Chief Sull and performed a Chaotic action in the process. Alignment shifts like this are always very clearly marked. Making that choice pushed us closer to Chaotic Neutral. We're already there, but it pushed us further toward the extreme. If we were to make a Good choice, it would push us toward Neutral Good. So if you want to be, say, Chaotic Good, you would have to actively work to maintain it because too many decisions one way would cause an alignment shift. Toybox has a fix that I've actually enabled that makes alignment decisions affect on one axis only. So if we made a good choice, we would merely rise on the 3x3 grid instead of going toward the extreme top middle square.
Most individual choices don't budge the needle very much. So it's just something to occasionally keep your eye on rather than being worried that taking a funny, but aligned, response will suddenly make you Neutral Evil or whatever. Bioware this ain't.
Let's level everyone up. Or most everyone. We can level up Lann, but he's leaving the party in approximately 3 minutes. And while we can get him back, it legitimately will not be until mid-late act 5. The game only has 5 acts.
I'm gonna walk us through leveling up Lisbeth once, just to show it off and explain my thought process, then I'm just gonna show the end result for everyone else. With a few exceptions.
This page is asking us to distribute skill points. The options with a green V are Lisbeth's tagged skills. If she were to put points in them, she'd get a big boost for the first one. But unless you're building a character to be a skill monkey with a lot of INT, it's better to specialize. Five points at level up is pretty decent for her meager (12) INT. I'm just gonna drop the points where they already are spent - Mobility, Trickery, Perception, Persuasion, UMD.
This next page is asking us to pick a ninja trick. We can take all of these once, including a free Rogue Talent. Many tricks are contingent on having others as well. So we've got a lot to pick from across the game.
Shadow Clone is what I'm going with here. It's straight up just the arcane spell Mirror Image. This KI ability alone is going to greatly extend Lisbeth's survivability!
Mirror Image posted:
This spell creates a number of illusory doubles of you that inhabit your square. These doubles make it difficult for enemies to precisely locate and attack you.
When mirror image is cast, 1d4 images plus one image per three caster levels (maximum eight images total) are created. These images remain in your space and move with you, mimicking your movements, sounds, and actions exactly. Whenever you are attacked or are the target of a spell that requires an attack roll, there is a possibility that the attack targets one of your images instead. If the attack is a hit, roll randomly to see whether the selected target is real or a figment. If it is a figment, the figment is destroyed. If the attack misses by 5 or less, one of your figments is destroyed by the near miss. Area spells affect you normally and do not destroy any of your figments. Spells and effects that do not require an attack roll affect you normally and do not destroy any of your figments. Spells that require a touch attack are harmlessly discharged if used to destroy a figment.
An attacker must be able to see the figments to be fooled. If you are invisible or the attacker is blind, the spell has no effect (although the normal miss chances still apply).
It's been my experience playing the game that you need to exhaust all of something's mirror images before you can actually damage them. And Lisbeth's Ki pool is (Level*0.5+Cha mod) So at level 2 she has a pool of 3 Ki. So in theory she could be an extremely effective evasion offtank.
Some levels are like this, where you don't get a lot besides maybe one ability and some skillpoints. At least we can now put our Ki abilities to use in combat!
Camellia gets Evil Eye as a hex. This lets her put a debuff, including crucially -AC, on an enemy for a turn. There are ways to extend it later on.
Wendy is trading in her bow for throwing axes. The goal here is to set her up to throw a bunch of axes per round. She's gonna be a mainstay in our party because of her super high potential damage output.
Seelah is going to be going down the route of Paladin, sure. But for level 2, we want to take her down the Oracle path. You'll see why in just a minute.
She's gonna be a bitey gal.
Nature domain...
And here's why. Paladins get a free mount eventually, but it's automatically a warhorse. I want her to have a dire wolf instead. This is critical to my plans.
The rest doesn't matter. The critical part here was Nature Domain for a companion at level 2.
And he's here already! A wolf has just phased into existence and is now following Seelah like a lost puppy. And we can level him up! We'll be doing that in a minute. First let's continue with the plot...
It's this asshole from the opening!
An elderly man in expensive but not ostentatious clothes approaches you. His face is peppered with several healed cuts and bruises and twisted in an expression of extreme discontent. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Horgus Gwerm. Yes, that Gwerm — you no doubt have heard of me if you've spent any time at all in the city. I have a business proposition for you."
"Your name tells me nothing. Who are you?"
"You truly are freshly arrived in the city, then? You couldn't have picked a worse time, that's for certain. Only just arrived, and the city's been razed to rubble! You should know that you are looking at one of the richest and most distinguished men in Kenabres. I may not be as well known as certain swaggering loudmouths who spend their lives traipsing from one ball to the next... But the Gwerm trading company is one of the pillars of the city, I'll have you know! Did you see the marquees in the square? I paid for those. Tried any festival delicacies? You have Horgus Gwerm to thank for that!"
"How did you end up here?"
For a moment Horgus's eyes focus on Camellia before his gaze returns to you. "Like everyone else — down I went when that accursed beetle cleaved the ground in twain beneath our feet. I'm lucky I didn't break my neck in the fall, and I'm doubly lucky that I didn't encounter any subterranean cockroaches on my blind wanderings and instead came across hunters from this settlement. Although I must say that when I first glimpsed their physiognomies, my life flashed before my very eyes... But they turned out to be decent chaps. Frightening to look at, but able to keep a bargain."
"What kind of business proposition?"
"I don't know what is happening on the surface right now, but I am determined to find out. You have no intention of seeing out the rest of your days in this village, I suspect. We must find a route back to the surface, to the city. If there's anything left of it. You are strong, it will be no trouble to you. But I, alas, am not as fit as I once was. I can't go crawling about through caves, playing at scouts. My proposition is simple: lead me back to the city and I shall pay you a thousand gold coins."
"I suggest we help this man. It is good to have friends among the Kenabres elite."
"Deal."
"Splendid. In the meantime, I shall sit here, in the village."
"We have to go."
"Go on, go on. Don't forget our agreement: when you find the way out — be sure to tell me!"
A quick peek at our quests.
I dunno, the Mongrels seem to be pretty decent hosts if nothing else. And paying $1000 to secure safe passage out with the only people interested in leaving is just good business sense.
Around the corner, we find Horgus and Anevia sitting at a table.
"This tragedy may not have happened if you'd spent less time surveilling honest citizens and more time tracking the real spies and demon worshipers!"
"Brilliant idea. How come I didn't think of it? Now if only the cultists would tell us they were cultists... Then we wouldn't have to waste time investigating honest citizens who decide to go all cloak and dagger right under our noses!"
Let's ask a bunch of probing questions!
"What's the bad blood between you two about?"
"It's an old matter... Ms. Tirabade here had the notion of spying on me, then of rummaging through my goods. I ask you, do I look like a cultist? Hmph!"
"Cultists don't tend to look like cultists, y'know, that's kinda the whole problem. And you, Mr. Gwerm, built a whole secret operation of buying and smuggling into the city — what was it? — oh yeah, magical weapons. How was I s'posed to know that all the rigmarole with middlemen was so you could anonymously donate supplies to the crusade?"
"Don't you see? I have a reputation to uphold, one that I value most highly. Horgus Gwerm is a hard-nosed businessman, not a good fairy from a tale. Yes, I care about my city. Yes, I wished to see that its defenders — my defenders! — were well fed, healthy, and well armed. But to make those donations openly was unthinkable — I might as well hang a sign outside my door welcoming in every sponger, leech, and parasite in the city!"
"I appreciate your help for the crusade. No jokes, you're an all right bloke. But carrying on secret dealings in a city that's teeming with cultists is a huge pain in the backside for us lot whose job it is to keep an eye on that sort of thing."
"Anevia, how's the leg?"
Anevia scrunches up her nose. "Well, it hasn't fallen off yet — so that's good. They've bandaged me up all nice, and smeared some stinking stuff on the wound, so it looks like I'm gonna live! They said wait a day and I'll be right as rain. So I'm waitin'."
"What do you think is happening in the city now?"
"Perhaps the city is no more! If Deskari himself appeared, there's no telling how bad things are."
"Can you hold off on writing our obituaries just yet? The city's full of fighters. And besides that, it's barely a stone's throw from Nerosyan. I think our people will hold on long enough for reinforcements to come from the Queen. This ain't Deskari's home turf — he's gonna have to retreat or else fight off the whole Mendevian army."
"What do you think of the Mongrels?"
"I thought they were just a story — the sort of thing drunks in the taverns would come out with! Now I discover that it's true. Well, what can I possibly think of them? The poor creatures are most unfortunate, with their faces and their minds so deformed. It's a miracle they're even alive."
"The part that boggles my mind is that they're the descendants of the first crusaders. All these years they've been living beneath our feet, in caves, in the dirt... If I'd known the legends about them were true, I'd have dedicated my life to getting them out of this place."
"To what end? The people of Kenabres would have stoned them on sight, and Prelate Hulrun would have had them tossed on the pyre en masse. Whatever the ills of this place, it is their home. How long do you think they would have survived on the surface?"
"What are you going to do when you get back to the surface?"
"I'm going to go home. Last I knew, I owned a very fine mansion — I shall see if it's still standing or if I am now homeless."
"I'm going to find Irabeth. She's my wife and the leader of the Eagle Watch. As long as she lives, she won't allow Kenabres to fall."
"We have to go."
"Go on then, and don't dilly-dally. The sooner we get out of here, the likelier we are to find some people still alive up there!"
"Take care of yourself."
Next up, time to level up the pupper. We're going with bully. I can't remember if it's because wolves get innate trip, or if bully just lets them do it with their primary attack. It really doesn't matter anyway. The point is that, one way or another, bully lets wolves trip enemies. Now why would we want to do that?
Tell me, do you know what an attack of opportunity is? The short version is that it's a free attack you get on something because it did something (or moved) when you were nearby. Wizards casting spells in melee range provoke AOOs, as do anyone moving past an enemy to get somewhere else. Enemies that have been tripped provoke an AOO from anything nearby when they stand up. On top of that, prone enemies get maluses to their AC score. So a wolf animal companion can shut down difficult encounters and make them take a shitload of damage when they stand back up.
There are a lot of feats out there that make attacks of opportunity better. Or they allow multiple AOOs against a single target. Do you see where I'm going with this? This dog here is going to be the team's MVP... he just doesn't realize it yet.
Doggos are pretty well suited to taking Athletics, Mobility, and Perception as tagged skills. I take the top two because of his ability scores.
Fury's Fall lets him use his Dex bonus in addition to his Strength Bonus when using trip.
I asked the question upthread after getting Seelah her level, and I couldn't wait to record until after you all had answered. So Cookie is his temporary name, because that seems like the sort of thing Seelah would name her pet dog. I'll rename him later on with whatever you guys decide!
Cookie also gets a second level and all he gets are some skill points to spend. That's fine, he does his job well and doesn't need a lot of extras. At the next opportunity, we'll be getting Seelah a feat to make him level up with her. But that's gonna be several levels off.
I also turn off most of the cheat options I had selected. I found a better way to handle functionally unlimited inventory weight than making equipment weigh nothing. (I just multiplied the carry weight by 10 in the Toybox settings instead, which lets me fine tune it.)
Moving further past the bickering pair, we find Dyra. She's the vendor for this area.
"Who are you?"
Dyra: "The people round here call me all sorts: Dyra the Hoarder, Dyra the Coin, Dyra the City Girl... Like that's a bad thing, ha ha! I trawl the caves picking up all kinds of things from the surface that wash down here through your sewers. I trade all kinds of junk for food and clothes, but I only part with my best finds for coins. Got no coins? Forget what money is? Well then I have no use for you. If you want city goods, you need to pay for them with gold, like city folk!"
"Why are you so eager to trade with me?"
Dyra: "Because all the people here are no better than animals now!" Dyra yells with surprising anger, before being overcome with coughing. Wiping her mouth, she continues: "Our forefathers lived in the city — like you. Our people love to reminisce about armies, knights, crusades... But I couldn't care less about that. Savages with clubs can fight a war. Only civilized folk can buy and sell! They've all forgotten what trading is. They've forgotten the value of gold. They barter hides for plant roots and go on about the feats of the crusaders. Who cares about them — I don't need help remembering! I have coins and I have things to sell. Now let's trade like proper city folk!"
"Let's trade."
The trade screen is nothing special. One of the mods adds a Bulk Selling button which lets you sell junk from your inventory.
Junk is kind of a broad term, though. This early on, Masterwork stuff is better than what most of the party is carrying around. But masterwork great swords do none of us any good, so there's no point in saving them. We'll find a lot more. So sell them!
I wind up selling her most of my crap while buying a single throwing axe for Wendy.
Finally we arrive at the hut Chief Sull mentioned. Lann is gonna leave once we click this button, so get your goodbyes in now.
Time Passed: 9H 0M
Let's not be a complete dipshit and ask what Wendy is talking about.
"Lann won't get in our way? Where is he?"
"On the way to his death, if he decided to go it alone. Or maybe he's in a hole somewhere, crying about how lonely he is. I don't care either way."
"Are we just going to leave Horgus and Anevia here?"
"Getting you all out at once will be difficult. We'll let the injured woman recover. Do you think I like knowing there are uplanders sitting in our village? But trying to drag an injured person through the Maze would be suicide. And don't even get me started on the other one — he's not going to get off his backside unless we send a litter to carry him."
"Were you watching me sleep or something?"
Wenduag snorts and turns away. "You think I like looking at uplanders? I've got better things to do! Don't think you're special."
Wendy will use this line to talk about your character's race. She doesn't seem too interested in a half-elf, though. She would have been deeply interested in Pressli because halflings are tiny and to survive for so long while being so small means she has a lot of strength.
Wenduag, by the way, is powersexual. She doesn't care what gender someone is or isn't, she's just attracted to the strong.
"Let's go. It's time to get out of here."
Wenduag nods. "Right. And another thing. You could have chosen not to listen to me, but you did. That means you have real strength in you. A strong person can take the truth, even if they don't like it. And the truth was on my side. I want to say..." Wenduag averts her eyes. "Thank you. You saved the tribe from a stupid mistake. They're alive now because of you. Now let's go to the boats. We'll get there fastest by water."
I think this is a really good spot to call things now. Next time? The real first dungeon of the game. The prologue is quickly drawing to a close!
Encyclopedia Golarionnica
Nerosyan
Hulrun