Actual Play – Aldoria – Year 1 (12/21/2013)

PathfinderCoreCoverGM: Dennis Jordan
Players: Regina Joyner, Karen Twelves, and Sean Nittner
System: Pathfinder
Adventure Path: Kingmaker

Yay Pathfinder! Boo, Mia couldn’t make it. We adventured in her stead.

A year of Aldoria

We decided to do 10 more Kingdom turns to round off the first year in Aldoria. Man, I wish someone took a picture of me. I was buried in my notebook (to record all the turn), my laptop (to track our current kingdom stats from turn to turn), and the printout of the Kingdom Building chapter from Ultimate Campaign. It was intense.

Thankfully Karen and Regina were willing do do all the rolling, and Regina did all the cutting and gluing of buildings into The Tusk (our capitol city).

Turn by Turn

Turn 3 – Albrich’s issues

  • Kingdom is Unstable (+3 Unrest)
  • Powerful community leader Albrich raises up commoners to object as developments move urban
  • Royal Enforcer: Later he was trampled by his own Oxen (-1 Unrest)
  • Edicts: Miquela steps up as ruler (Title: Swordlord). Edward Aldori steps in as Warden.
    • Coronation Festival (-1BP, +1 Loyaly)
  • Claim Hex F7 (-1 BP)
  • Mine built on Silvertop Mine F7 (-3BP, Diplomatic negotiations with the Sootscale established based on Kobold autonomy)
  • Road F6 (-3 BP)
  • House Built (-3BP, -1 Unrest)
  • Town Hall (-11BP)
  • Income Result: (+12BP)
  • Contribution to Aldori Family (-1BP)

Turn 4 – Local Leaders Upset

  • Kingdom is Stable (-1 Unrest)
  • Low level leaders in disagreement (+2 Unrest)
  • Consumption (-1BP)
    Edicts: Promotional changed from Token to Standard (Stability +2, Consumption +2)
  • Claim Hex E5 (-1BP)
  • Road E5 (-3 BP)
  • Jail Built (-7 BP, -2 Unrest)
  • Income Result: (+14BP)
  • Contribution to Alodri Family (-1BP)
  • Beneficial Event – Good Weather (Economy, Loyalty, Productivity +2 for one turn)

Turn 5 – A Spymaster for our Spymaster

  • Kingdom is Stable (+1 BP)
  • Edicts: Leadership edict. Cobb takes the roll of Spymaster. Mik Mek secretly assigned to spy on the Spymaster)
  • Claim Hex D6 (-1BP)
  • Road D6 (-3BP)
  • Mine D6 (-6PB, Gold mine)
  • Income Result: (+19BP)
  • Contribution to Alodri Family (-2BP)
  • Beneficial Event – Political Calm (+1 Loyalty, +1 Stability)

Turn 6 – Trolls at the Gates. A visit from Mivon

  • Kingdom is Stable (+1 BP)
  • Trolls at the Gates (Ongoing event +2 Unrest/turn)
  • Consumption (-1BP)
  • Claim Hex C6 (-1BP)
  • Road C6 (-1 BP)
  • Farm C6 (-2BP)
  • House Built (-3BP, -1 Unrest)
  • Watchtower Built (-6BP, -1 Unrest)
  • Income Result: (+14BP)
  • Contribution to Alodri Family (-2BP)
  • Beneficial Event – Visiting Celebrity from Mivon (River Kingdoms): Antonio Ribissi. (+4 BP, +1 Fame) Required that
  • Aldoria abide by the six River Freedoms:

1. Freedom of Speech
2. Oathbreakers Die
3. Walk any road, ride any river (no tolls).
4. Courts are for kings (abide by local laws).
5. Slavery is an abomination.
6. You have what you hold (right to take by force).

Turn 7 – Spy found in the Castle

  • Kingdom is Unstable (+1 Unrest)
  • Trolls at the Gates (+2 Unrest)
  • Royal Enforcer (Killed a spy and cyphers found in her room. She had sent them via raven but the rooker was a dupe not an accomplice) (-1 Unrest)
  • Claim Hex B6 (Oleg’s trading post)
  • Road B6 (-1BP)
  • Watchtower B6(Free, -1 Unrest)
  • Inn (-10BP, The Advocate’s Rest)
  • Income Result: (+18BP)
  • Contribution to Alodri Family (-2BP)

Turn 8 – Unexpected Find

  • Kingdom is Stable (-1 Unrest)
  • Trolls at the Gates (+2 Unrest)
  • Consumption (-1BP)
  • Claim C5 (-1BP)
  • Road C5 (-2BP)
  • Farm B6 (-2BP)
  • Noble Villa (-12BP)
  • City Wall Built (-2BP, -2 Unrest)
  • Income Result: (+20BP)
  • Contribution to Alodri Family (-2BP)
  • Event: Unexpected Find: Belt of Tumbling

Turn 9 – Grim White Stag sighting

  • Kingdom is Stable (+1 BP)
  • Trolls at the Gates (+2 Unrest)
  • Secret society (or cult) discovered (+1 Unrest)
  • Sawmill C5 (-3 BP)
  • Built Shrine to Erastil (-8BP, -1 Unrest)
  • Built House (-3BP, -1 Unrest)
  • Income Result: (+18BP)
  • Contribution to Alodri Family (-2BP)
  • Event: Natural Blessing. Grim White Stag spotted passing through (+4 Stability until next turn)

Turn 10 – Strozzi Park

  • Kingdom is Stable (-1 Unrest)
  • Trolls at the Gates (+2 Unrest)
  • Royal Enforcer: Serial Killer discovered (-1 Unrest)
  • Wondrous Item populated at Shrine: Aegis of Recovery
  • Claim Hex D5 (-1BP)
  • Bank (-28 BP)
  • Income Result: (+20BP)
  • Contribution to Alodri Family (-2BP)
  • Event: House Strozzi Erects a park (free) in our honor. Strozzi Park. (+1 Loyalty, -1 Unrest)

Turn 11 – Giovanni stops losing his hair

  • Kingdom is Stable (+1 BP)
  • Trolls at the Gates (+2 Unrest)
  • Royal Enfrocer: Small (dead) troll paraded through the streets (-1 Unrest)
  • Consumption (-1 BP)
  • Claim Hex B7 (-1BP)
  • Road B7 (-1BP)
  • Farm B7 (-2BP)
  • Income Result: (+19BP)
  • Contribution to Alodri Family (-2BP)

Turn 12 – Fire in the Tusk!

  • Kingdom is Stable (-1 Unrest)
  • Trolls at the Gates (+2 Unrest)
  • Royal Enforcer agitates the locals (-1 Unrest, -1 Loyalty)
  • Claim Hex D4 (Temple of Erastil)
  • Built Moat (-2BP, -1 Unrest)
  • Income Result: (+21BP)
  • Contribution to Alodri Family (-2BP)
  • Event: Fire started in the Town Hall. Put out by the bucket brigade.

Aldoria, Year 1

Aldoria_Turn12_Kingdom_Stats

Aldoria – Leadership

Aldoria_Turn12_Leadership

 

Aldoria – Hexes

Aldoria_Turn12_Hexes

 

The Tusk – Year 1

Aldoria_Turn12_TuskBuildings

 

Aldoria_Turn12_TuskStats

 

Dennis, I have a lot of stats on my character sheet for stabbing things. I want to use some of them now.

After about five entertaining hours of kingdom building, our gracious GM entertained our desire to sate our bloodlust and kill some stuff. Our troubles (and stabbing opportunity) started inside our own town!

Cobb reported that one of our citizens (Saki, a woman that worked at the Advocate’s Rest) was killed last night. Ripped to pieces in the street. When we looked at the body, Elara determined the wounds were caused by an animal, a bear or wolf.

I probably jumped the gun a bit, but Merrowyn immediately blurted out “Werewolf” And a werewolf we found!

Chase Mechanics

We did some investigation and determined the werewolf had moved into the city last night, and was still there (he left a trail of bodies on his way). We closed the city gates (cause hell yeah, we built a wall) and set up guards at all the major buildings. The badgers were holding the watchtower as the castle. Merrowyn on the Inn, Elara at the park, and Miquela at the town hall.

We quickly cut the chase when Merrowyn (on watch) noticed a clawed hand suddenly on her shoulder. She nearly cut it off but then realized it was Mik Mek’s and he was alerting her to the werewolf just ahead in an alley… stalking the streets with a great axe!

Merrowyn whistled to signal an alert and then bolted to the town hall to meet the others, with a raging (yes, raging) werewolf hot on her heals. We tried out the chase deck, which involved laying down five cards (face down) and positioning our characters at different cards. Each card represented a challenge that you could overcome in one of two ways.  For example one was a spooked horse that you could either try to calm with a Handle Animal check (DC 10) or roll under with an Acrobatics check (DC 20).

The chase mechanics clearly favored someone with a variety of skills (or perhaps a group with a variety of skills) because I ended up using Climb, Intimidate, Acrobatics, and Handle Animal.  Fortunately, by virtue of being a human rogue with a 14 intelligence, Merrowyn can’t help but be a skill monkey.  She made it there, but not without being briefly tangled up with Mr. Barbarian Werewolf and eating a big piece of his Greataxe. Ouch!

Fight!

When we did make it to the town hall Miqeula and Elara were ready! We were expecting a werewolf, so all of our weapons had been coated with silver blanch. Only good for one hit, but one was enough. Elara, knowing that magical fire would burn the creature, cast a flame blade spell, but not before endowing Miquela with bull strength. Miquela swigged a potion of Aid and stepped up, armed with a stack of temporary hit points. Merrowny backed out of the fight briefly to use the Shield spell stored in her Ioun Stone. All in all, we were hella organized!

Add that to Mik Mek dropping arrows into his head from afar, and hombre Barbarian Werewolf dropped. Leaving behind loots! Oh, and the body of a Tiger Lord (barbarians from the west)

  • Hide Armor
  • 4 Javelins
  • Potion of Remove Fear
  • Greataxe +1
  • 11 GP

No to bad for a scruffy nerf herder.

LeucrottaExploration before Expansion

Realizing that we were getting close to the borders of our expansion, this was the perfect time to go exploring again.

We marched east, to the edge of the stolen lands and set about exploring the hills there. All seemed calm when one night Merrrowyn heard a woman cry out in distress. She called her sisters to her and bolted over the hill…right into the trap of a Leucrotta.

The fight went well. Again I thought we had some solid tactics. The surprise round and first round (it beat me on initiative) was a little scary. Mr. badger-face bites hard.  I was alone so I as soon as I could I went  full defense (+4AC). Having my shield spell active before I ran over the hill (+4AC) put me at AC 28, and besides one natural 20 (which thankfully wasn’t confirmed) I was holding it off until the cavalry arrived.

We held up using some decent tactics, but it didn’t live long enough for most of them to pay off. Miquela opened up with a Shield of Faith potion and Elara first healed Merrowyn and then cast Flame Blade. I tried a demoralize move (but failed the intimidate check) and then later used the brutal beating to sicken it. That would have rocked (-2 to attack and damage is a nice condition to drop on baddies) but it died before we could reap the benefits.

In his lair, we found loots!

  • Masterwork Blue Dragonhide Breastplate
  • Masterwork Blue Dragonhide Heavy Shield
  • Ivory comb (50gp)
  • 86gp

End of Game deets

We were all 1,500 XP away from leveling, so we were pretty sure that between the XP bonus for getting a kingdom to 11 hexes and a settlement to 16 lots, plus that from killing critters, and completing the quest to Bokken, we would hit level five.

Woot for 3rd level druid spells and the Natural spell feat. Woot for the Tactician fighter ability and sharing the Outflank feat! Woot for Dazzling Display, Strong Impression (rogue talent), and Scout’s Charge! Yay for 3rd level Cleric spells and 3d6 Channeling!

Also some hiccups:

Because I can’t add, can’t subtract, and twice forgot to pay Uncle Bog his build points, we were actually 12 BP lower than I had recorded (47 instead of 59). The good news is that we also forgot to roll income on our first turn. So we should add a Economy +13 roll (DC 21) in BP. Hopefully that will split the difference.

I’m not sure if Hero Labs is tracking the Fighter Tactician archetype ability correctly.

Tactician (Ex)

At 5th level, a tactician gains this ability as the cavalier class feature. He may use this ability once per day at 5th level, plus one additional time for every five levels after 5th (to a maximum of four times at 20th level). If the tactician also has cavalier levels, these levels stack for determining the number of uses per day, and he can take the better progression.

Tactician (Ex)

At 1st level, a cavalier receives a teamwork feat as a bonus feat. He must meet the prerequisites for this feat. As a standard action, the cavalier can grant this feat to all allies within 30 feet who can see and hear him. Allies retain the use of this bonus feat for 3 rounds plus 1 round for every two levels the cavalier possesses. Allies do not need to meet the prerequisites of these bonus feats. The cavalier can use this ability once per day at 1st level, plus one additional time per day at 5th level and for every 5 levels thereafter.

As I read it, that means the fighter gets a bonus Teamwork feat at 5th level, but Hero Labs doesn’t offer one up. Some more discussion on this here: http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2p3mq?Tactician#1

Thoughts on this game

So much fun, but Kingdom building takes a lot longer than I expected. I thought we’d do 10 turns in an hour or two. It took half the day! But well worth it. I really enjoyed the twists and turns we hit along the way.

Kingdom plans for turn 13

  • Special Edict: Offer to create an Embassy in Mivon and open trade with them!
  • Claim two plains hexes (-2BP)
  • Add Farms to both (-4BP, remove all our consumption)
  • Add Roads to both (-2BP)
  • Building: Pier (upgrades to Waterfront, should make Giovanni happy)
  • Building: Foundry (improves the output of our mines!)

 

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