Give Your Cleric A Healing Familiar (In Pathfinder)

Clerics are one of the most important aspects of any game. These divine casters come in all shapes and sizes, and when the party gets knocked down, it's the cleric's job to help get them back on their feet again. The task is occasionally a thankless one, but good clerics are indispensable.

They do face a difficult problem, though. Because more often than not healing your compatriots means you're putting yourself in harm's way. And that might mean you don't just lose your unwary barbarian; you'll also lose your medic. Assuming he can even reach the downed party member in time to administer aid.

At what point is it too risky to try saving a patient?

 

Now, there are some ways around this. For example, the metamagic feat Reach Spell allows you to prepare spells with an extended range, turning touch spells into close range ones. However, those spells are always going to raise the level of the spell, and that can get costly. And if you're going to eat a feat slot or two anyway, you might as well get a little more bang for your buck. Or, in this case, a familiar.

How Can You Give A Familiar To A Cleric?

It's actually pretty simple. In my post How To Power Up Your Pathfinder Characters With The Eldritch Heritage Feats, I mentioned that it was a prime way to get your hands on class features or abilities no one would expect you to have. The feats require Spell Focus in the skill associated with a given bloodline, as well as a minimum Charisma score (which shouldn't be a problem for clerics who want to make use of their Channel Energy class feature).

In this case you need to take Skill Focus (any Knowledge), and then Eldritch Heritage (Arcane). This gives you access to the 1st-level power of the Arcane bloodline, which is Arcane Bond, at level 3. This grants you either a familiar, or a bonded item, as a sorcerer of your level (which, in this case, is your character level -2). That means at level 5, you have a familiar who is capable of delivering touch spells. It also means that at level 9 you could take the Improved Familiar feat, if you were so inclined.

You know, for reasons.

 

What's the point in having a familiar? Well, you know how your compatriots are always rushing into battle, and typically spreading themselves all over the battlefield? This can be a huge pain for a cleric to keep up with. However, if you have a familiar with a high movement speed (and something like a fly or climb speed as well), then you can cast, and send your familiar out to dispense healing, buffs, or possibly dread curses if you want to use your familiar offensively. This allows your cleric much greater reach across the battlefield, especially if he's stomping around in medium armor.

But doesn't that just put your familiar in danger? A creature who is significantly more at risk than you are, with your divine gifts and scale mail?

Clearly you've never tried to take out a normal familiar, much less an advanced one. Hitting a Cassissian Angel who doesn't want to be hit, especially if it's bound to a good-aligned cleric, isn't going to be easy. Because there's the base creature's dexterity modifier, size modifiers, and natural armor, and on top of that there's the bonus to natural armor it gets from being a familiar. A bonus which will only go up as the cleric levels. Then you can stack even more bonuses onto it. A wand of Mage Armor, and another of Shield, are great boons to familiar AC. So is an amulet of protection, or of natural armor. In fact, with a minimal amount of preparation and use of resources, it's possible to give your familiar the highest AC in the party. Especially if you have access to domain spells and abilities like those granted by the Protection domain.

The House of Pain Now Delivers

It's important to remember that having a familiar comes with certain drawbacks. You're eating a minimum of two feat slots, and possibly a third for an improved familiar, and that can be an issue. It will always have half your hit points, and your saves, so it will be just as vulnerable (or strong) against certain threats as you are. And though familiars can be quite crunchy, their touch AC can be their downfall if they're being targeted by a spellcasting sniper.

I've got you now, you little bastard.

 

On the other hand, familiars can be a great boon to their masters. Improved familiars have their own spell-like abilities, and they gain their own set of actions during combat. They can share spells, and they can act as a mobile delivery system. So the next time a party member runs off before you can give them bull's strength, or someone goes down just out of your delivery range, you've got a friend who can reach out and touch someone.

Lastly, don't forget, your familiar isn't just a class feature; it's a character! As I said in Animal Companions, Cohorts, and Familiars, Oh My!, there are all kinds of ways to use these creatures to add flavor to your story, as well as a trick to your mechanical bag.

 

Also, while we're on the subject, don't forget to check out 5 Tips For Playing Better Clerics!

That's all for this week's Crunch installment. Hopefully folks enjoyed it, and at least a few of your out there are considering bringing this to bear in your game. If you'd like to help support me, and Improved Initiative, why not drop by The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page? All it takes is a pledge of at least $1 a month to get yourself some sweet swag, and to make a big difference. Lastly, if you haven't followed me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter yet, well, why not start today?

The Saga of Majenko Part 10: Down With The Queen

Today we have the final installment of the whirlwind adventure that is The Saga of Majenko (or Curse of The Crimson Throne to give it the name on the cover of the adventure path). From dingy dock wards to undead castles, to fighting dragons in the streets, to slaying devils in the throne room, our party has gone above and beyond the call of duty in protecting their city, and trying to bring down the thing Queen Ileosa has become.

Before we get started, though, make sure you're caught up on all the previous installments.

Part One: Finding The Main Character of "Curse of The Crimson Throne"
Part Two: How Much Damage Could One Pseudodragon Do?
Part Three: Scourge of The Red Mantis
Part Four: Blood Pig Champion
Part Five: Brother to The Shoanti
Part Six: The Assault on Castle Scarwall
Part Seven: The Return to Korvosa
Part Eight: Re-Taking Korvosa
Part Nine: The Assault on Castle Korvosa
Part Ten: Down With The Queen

There, all caught up? Beautiful! Because now it's time for the grand finale!

Down in The Dungeon

We realized after fighting the infernal thing living in the Ileosa's bedchamber, that the queen herself was not in the castle. She had, in fact, left quite some time ago. With the Bloat Mage's notes, and the testimony of his spirit, we confirmed that the erstwhile ruler of the city had fled to a half-sunken temple for a purpose we couldn't guess. We were all confident that it was nothing good, though.

Before we left, however, we had one last promise to fulfill. So we walk in through the front doors of the now de-populated Castle Korvosa, and take the stairs down to the dungeon below. Our party, which doesn't even have a token human in it at this point, takes in the grim, brooding atmosphere, and the claustrophobic vaults. We also completely avoid a high-level trap whose trigger is that the room is filled with light, which was unnecessary between the dwarf, the aasimar, the two tieflings, and the pseudodragon. So, we explore, and eventually find the body that had been unceremoniously walled-up.

Like ya do...

We bring the bones back to the attic room, and the ghost of the tiefling merges with the gypsy in our harrow deck, and allows each of us to draw a card from a Harrow Deck of Many Things, with the special allowance that we could re-draw one card each. So, we all decide to draw. The dwarf gains a level, loses a level, and then gains a small team of followers in Blood Pig jerseys. Majenko gains the ability to automatically confirm a critical hit, though the same ability works against him. One of Egil's enemies has a change of heart and becomes his ally, though with the sheer number of arrested NPCs the DM never got around to choosing one. The paladin becomes immune to sonic damage. Cards chosen, we receive a blessing from the ghosts, and set off southward toward the final confrontation.

One Long Series of Unfortunate Events

We travel southward, following the map we were given. We make our way down rivers, and through swamps, until we find an ancient pyramid, half-sunken into a lake. Unfortunately, there's no bridge to that lake, and no guarantee that there isn't something awful lurking beneath the waters.

Something more awful than me, I mean.

So, we take stock of our options. We quickly realize, through burning a powerful scroll, that we can't simply phase through the stone. Apparently it is protected by ancient magics, and our modern-day shortcuts aren't going to hack it. Deciding that we are not doing another underwater combat in murky liquid we can barely see through, the cleric wind walks us all across the water, and through the vents leading into the upper floor. Everything's quiet, at least until the dwarf touches a stone, and gets sucked into it. That's when the paladin has to turn corporeal again, and start smashing away with his adamantine hammer until we crack the dwarf out of his soul prison.

Which, of course, means the level's guards are well aware of our presence. Which is why we have yet another pack of Erinyes trying to turn us into pincushions. The fight is frustrating, but we've taken down enough of these particular devils by now to know what we should expect. We emerge triumphant, for the most part, and only down a few, minor resources. We also find a massive pool filled with blood, and a dead body floating in it. It looks almost like Ileosa, but clearly isn't. This is around the time we all get a bad feeling regarding the blood samples that were being taken from the citizens of Korvosa before the revolution got rolling.

We come across a shaft, and Majenko stealthily slips up to take a look. What he finds is...

The Final Encounter

At the top of the shaft, waiting for us, is Queen Ileosa. Floating regally above the ground, she's admiring a floating ball of blood. The ball is, of course, constantly shifting and pulsing, with faces and even buildings pressing against the surface before receding. Even the highly-experienced magic users have no clue what it's for, but we have an inkling that we don't want to find out.

So we roll initiative.

Which may have been our first mistake.

The first thing that comes our way is a trio of powerful wraiths. No worries, since a charge from the staff of Necromancy makes them hold still for the paladin to walk by and dust. They get a few nasty slices in, but we emerge triumphant. Before we've dealt with them, though, a line of Ileosa clones appears, and they all start singing. Which is when the wand of silence starts getting plenty of use, since there's no Will save allowed if the spell affects an area and not a person. Ileosa flies higher, and Egil locks her behind a wall of force. Which she then dimension doors herself past.

Despite the chaos of the battle, it's soon down to just us, and just her. And that is where things started to get tough. Not hard, not deadly, but tough.

You see, the queen had plenty of time to buff herself, thanks to our less-than-quiet entrance. Given the level she's at, and the horror that lives inside her skull, she's got a lot of tricks. She's flying, she has freedom of movement (as we found out), her AC is buffed to a mirror shine, and she's throwing down magic like there's no tomorrow. Very little of her magic, though, actually does damage. Most of it's just a debuff, or an obstacle, meant to hamper us for a time. She even managed to get control of the dwarf for a bit, but a smoke screen rendered him ineffective as a threat to the party.

The problem we're having is that we're actually fighting to a standstill. None of the aid the cleric is summoning hits hard enough to get through the queen's defenses, and even the paladin wielding the relic sword is only hitting once a turn or so. Spell resistance, and various deafening effects, have eaten away most of Egil's spells, and even the great and powerful Majenko is little use against her. In a battle that lasted three, full sessions, we accomplished an ignoble goal that I doubt most gamers have ever sought.

Both sides started running out of magic.

The Conclusion

The party retreats with the intention of regrouping. Which is when a line of barbarian frogmen come out of the flooded depths, and we enjoy a brief round of wiping them off the map like a greasy stain. Ileosa follows, but now she's under the effects of greater invisibility. She still can't seem to do us any real damage, but she's getting down to magic items and bard tricks.

Well, shit, we've tried everything else...

That's when the cleric pulls another friend out of her bag. She summons a creature who, while it can't penetrate the queen's defenses, does have invisibility purge as a constant aura. So, at least we can see her again. The paladin lays into her, and the rest of the party is rallying to make one, final strike. Unfortunately for us, though, her contingency spell goes off, and she vanishes. She is nowhere near the pyramid, and there's no way to tell where she went.

Not My Problem

The vanishing act Ileosa pulled seems like the worst sort of adventuring blue balls, particularly after such a knock-down, drag-out slog. However, the personalities of this particular party, and their definition of victory conditions, rendered expectations quite skewed. The ritual was stopped, for example. The citizenry was saved, and we lost no companions in the final fight. Not only that, but as far as we can tell, Ileosa fled from Varisia in its entirety, off to who knows where.

Out of my jurisdiction, that's what matters.

Egil, and by extension Majenko, have done their jobs as well as they can. With the city of Korvosa in ruins, and rebuilding taking place, that is where their duty lies. Balen has no real investment, now that the queen is overthrown, but would be just as comfortable returning to a life of drug use broken up by occasional bouts of Blood Pig. The cleric and paladin both feel that Ileosa should be pursued, in time, but as for the time being they hold a major relic of the church in their hands, and they want to know what the best use of it is. So, singed but triumphant, the party returns to the dockyards and waterfronts, sinking into the hustle and bustle to decide what they're going to do with themselves, and to try and restore what parts of the broken city, nation, and world they can.

And that, my friends, is the end of the Saga of Majenko.

If you enjoyed this story, and would like to hear some others, then leave me a comment and let me know! If you'd like to help support Improved Initiative, then consider stopping by my Patreon page to become a patron. All I ask is $1 a month to help keep the content flowing. Lastly, if you want to make sure you don't miss any of my updates, then follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter as well.

The Saga of Majenko Part 7: The Return to Korvosa!

It's been a whirlwind adventure so far! We've brought down ganglords, stopped a plague from destroying the city, earned the ire of the queen, been swallowed by a gigantic desert serpent, been made members of the Shoanti, and scaled the walls of an ancient undead castle to retrieve a relic weapon blessed by a goddess... but that, dear friends, is not all! This week we begin drawing toward the close of the Saga of Majenko, as our wayward party regroups for an assault on the corrupt rulership of Korvosa itself!

Also, in case you haven't read the previous installments, here they are in chapter order.

Part One: Finding The Main Character of "Curse of The Crimson Throne"
Part Two: How Much Damage Could One Pseudodragon Do?
Part Three: Scourge of The Red Mantis
Part Four: Blood Pig Champion
Part Five: Brother to The Shoanti
Part Six: The Assault on Castle Scarwall
Part Seven: The Return to Korvosa
Part Eight: Re-Taking Korvosa
Part Nine: The Assault on Castle Korvosa
Part Ten: Down With The Queen

There, all caught up now? Good.

Now then... where was I?

Shuffling The Party

So, pretty much as soon as we finish our raid on Castle Scarwall, our party experiences another grand reorganization. The swashbuckler developed other commitments, and decided to go stay with the Shoanti instead of going back to Korvosa. Our fighter's player moved across the country, so she, too, returned to her people to help them prepare for an upcoming fight, if one was necessary. The ranger decided that, with no more undead to slay, it was time for him to leave. This leaves us with Egil Skinner, the tiefling detective who's split his training between magus and rogue, Validia, his childhood friend who has devoted herself to the worship of Iomedae, and of course the great and powerful Majenko, defender of Korvosa, Scourge of the Red Mantis, and the deadliest pseudodragon in Varisia.

Fortunately, when we hopped the wall into the Gray District we found some familiar faces waiting for us. Kresseda Croft was there, now leading a resistance against the tyrannical rule of the queen. Vencarlo is there, along with the royal seneschal, all of whom are trying to rise up against the queen's forces. There's also an elven arcanist whom Egil knows (because with a knowledge [local] check as big as his, he has an encyclopedic knowledge of anyone who's ever committed a crime in the city), and a dwarven ranger sleeping off a bad shiver binge named Baelen. Back up to full strength, we get the low down on what's happened while we were gone.

The short version is that the queen has been putting the city to work. Citizens have been press-ganged into building statues, the Gray Maidens are out in force, and the city guard has more or less been disbanded. There's talk of a Bloat Mage being recruited from Kaer Maga, and there's rumors of a black dragon circling the city. There's even been reports of a new hero in town, giving the people hope. Clearly things have gone straight to hell since we left.

Just Going For A Walk When Adventure Finds Us

Once we've been given out status update, and our new party members, we're told to get out of the Gray District, as we'll draw attention. So we disguise ourselves as best we can, hide all of our weapons and armor to the best of our ability, and go to find rooms elsewhere. We locate an inn that's down a side street, around an alley, and which conveniently has a room to let upstairs. You know, for people in the resistance.

Nobody will look for us here!

We settle in, and start making plans. We need to get into the castle, and having just spent all that time in Scarwall, Castle Korvosa is going to be a cinch. We prepare spells, load up our gear, and wait till nightfall before skulking out into the street...when we're promptly hit with debilitating magical effects, and surrounded by a dozen thugs.

You know, like you do.

We're scrambling to find our footing, and to figure out what to do, when the city's dashing new hero shows up and runs the brigands off. All he does is look at them, and they cannot be somewhere else fast enough. Then he makes a speech about how our service to the city was great, but there are new heroes ready to keep her safe. This smells like a setup, and we are not pleased.

Besides, he's starting to draw a crowd.

Outsiders... I HATE Outsiders...

Egil smells a rat, and a simple detect magic allows him to see that the "hero" who just "rescued" us is clearly not what he appears to be. Majenko tugs the iron bands of binding off Egil's belt, and Egil casts true strike, allowing it to slide over to his familiar. Majenko hurls the bands, and the supposed savior is cut off mid-smarm.

Not quite, but close enough.

The "hero" who replaced us is revealed to be an efreeti, and he is none too pleased with his current state. Miraculously, though, he failed to escape the bonds. This allowed Egil, who'd upgraded his scimitar to a spell-storing, keen weapon he'd named Queen's Justice, to deal serious damage to the foe with a stored frigid touch, and a secondary frigid touch used as part of his spellstrike, and some sneak attack dice thrown in just to add insult to injury. Majenko used his sneak attack to put an even greater hurt on the bound outsider, who it is pretty clear has been summoned specifically to give the people a false sense of safety. The cleric and the arcanist get in several licks of their own, and within a few, short rounds, the creature has been sent back where it came from.

One challenge down. A half dozen left to go.

What Happened Next?

For the rest of how we re-took Korvosa, stop in for Part 8: Emptying the Crimson Throne!

If you like my Table Talk feature, and you'd like to share your own stories, feel free to contact me using the form on this page. I'm always happy to give the spotlight to other gamers! Also, if you want to make sure you don't miss any of my updates, make sure you follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. Lastly, if you want to help support Improved Initiative, consider stopping by The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to leave a little bread in the jar. $1 an entry, or even a month, goes a long way toward keeping the content coming.

The Saga of Majenko Part Six: The Raid on Castle Scarwall!

When last we left our intrepid entourage as they escorted the great and powerful Majenko toward his destiny, they had fled the city of Korvosa, and discovered the queen was possessed by the spirit of an ancient evil named Kasavon. They ventured into the Cinderlands to find important information from the Shoanti, but were told it was not knowledge for outsiders. So they tested their bodies, spirits, and patience to complete the rites of membership to join the Shoanti nation. Exhausted, they emerged victorious, and with a temporary pet bulette. Also, in case you're not up on everything that's happened so far, here is the chapter list for the epic saga of Majenko (referred to out of game as Curse of the Crimson Throne).

Part One: Finding The Main Character of "Curse of The Crimson Throne"
Part Two: How Much Damage Could One Pseudodragon Do?
Part Three: Scourge of The Red Mantis
Part Four: Blood Pig Champion
Part Five: Brother to The Shoanti
Part Six: The Assault on Castle Scarwall
Part Seven: The Return to Korvosa
Part Eight: Re-Taking Korvosa
Part Nine: The Assault on Castle Korvosa
Part Ten: Down With The Queen

Go on, we'll wait.

Caught up? Lovely.

Striking Out For Scarwall

Once we've officially been welcomed into the sun tribe, the shaman finally tells us the legend of Kasavon. A powerful servant of Zon Kuthon, he was laid low in a place called Castle Scarwall, an outpost in the Orc Hold of Belkzen. The body had been torn into pieces, and the evil creature's fangs had been buried beneath a ziggurat in a place that, many years later, would be the foundation of Castle Korvosa. The queen had obviously found the fangs, and the remnants of power in them had taken over her body and soul. In order to challenge that creature we would need to climb the death-haunted walls of Castle Scarwall, and seek the legendary sword blessed by Iomedae herself that had first laid the creature low.

And then we were attacked. A flock of gargoyles, a team of Red Mantis assassins, and a serial killer who'd been hunting Shoanti scalps all show up to crash our party. Fortunately we had our big, gray, peanut loving Shep with us, and we'd had time to recover from the previous day's exertions. Our assailants weren't long for this world.

Especially this guy. Fuck this guy.

With the next leg of our journey clearly in front of us, and our very presence causing our newly adopted family harm, we headed out immediately. Due to player moving plans our cleric bowed out at the city of Kaer Maga, replaced by a new, militant cleric of Iomedae named Validia; a tiefling whom Egil had known back in Egorian when they'd both been raised in a state-funded orphanage. We also ran into our old friend Leori, and an equal-but-different member of her church, Shadow Count Sial. It seems that the dread lord Zon-Kuthon has an interest in the remnants of Castle Scarwall as well, but his minions are not powerful enough to enter it alone. So we agree that, despite our mutual differences, we'll work together in this matter. We also managed to acquire a ranger, whose specialty, funnily enough, was in taking the un out of the undead.

Convenient.

Unexpected Tactics

Castle Scarwall was built on an island, and several outbuildings near the edge of the bridge were inhabited by a rough and ready gang of orc raiders. Bold enough to come within sight of Scarwall, but not stupid enough to try and cross its moat. They gave us a rough time, but when all was said and done we managed to come out of things with a trove of heavy armor, some scrolls, and a fully-armed necklace of fireballs.

We had a feeling that was going to come in handy.

Shake and bake, baby.

So, bold as brass, we decide to walk right across the bridge. A welcoming party comes to greet us; a horde of skeletons led by a champion mounted on a terrible, nightmarish charger. A web spell held back the cannon fodder, and though he charged through and dealt several, wicked blows, the champion went down hard when our fighter smashed her gauntleted fist through his mount's skull. Leori was sad that she didn't get a chance to ride the pretty pony, but we dispatched the rest of the minions in short order.

Behind them was a heavy door, arrow slits, and a lot of resistance. So, we decided to just sort of bypass all of that.

The Power of The Unexpected

We had a fairly magic-heavy party, between the magus, the cleric, the ranger, and the two NPC clerics. Slogging through heavy defenses was for lesser adventurers. So Egil popped the cork on his bottle of endless smoke, settled his fogcutter lenses onto his face, and led the way up over the walls.

Of course we all prepared some version of fly. What combat situation is not improved by your ability to do it in three dimensions?

You can't always have one of these in your bag of holding.

We fought some gargoyles, and thought we were being pretty clever... but because we'd come in aerially, it also meant we had to fight the shadow dragon. We hadn't been prepared for that, precisely, but we certainly couldn't outrun the damn thing, so it was pedal to the floor and hope we hurt it more than it hurt us.

We did. Barely, but we did. It took the biggest fireball from our necklace straight to the face, got filled full of arrows from the ranger (who was shooting at a handicap due to a lack of favored enemy), and only about half of Egil's spells were making it through the thing's thick spell resistance. However, the orc champion we'd killed happened to be carrying a dragonbane greatsword, and in the hands of our fighter, it carved a big hole through the dragon in quite a hurry.

It still nearly killed us... but we didn't have to go in through the front door.

Rinse, Lather, Repeat

The dragon was one of several guardians anchored to Castle Scarwall, which we'd had described to us in a poem from the nice Varisian ghost who'd followed us around in a possessed deck of cards. Each one of the guardians had their own schtick, and we discovered each of them was physically bound to a part of the castle. Convenient in that they couldn't all mob us, but with ancient protections laid down in blood and blasphemy, it took one of our two constantly-bickering NPCs to let us through a lot of the doors. We went toe-to-toe with a demi-lich, destroyed a skeletal commander, and in between bouts wiped out dozens of ghosts and hordes of skeletons. There was even a devil, relegated to service and trapped until we moved it along. Then, once the anchors were jerked out of the way, we fought the huge ghost in the center of Scarwall that was keeping the pile of stones and bones apart from the ravages of time.

This led us down a well. And in the well, we found a plot devil.

Story toll. That will be two evil NPCs, please.

Leori and the Shadow Count are being "promoted" by Zon Kuthon, yanked into the Midnight Lord's twilight realm. We had to go on alone... which we did. We dropped down a hole, fought several gugs (H.P. Lovecraft fans will know what I'm talking about), and just as we're catching our breaths we're confronted with a colossal abomination; the final guardian between us and the sword Syrithtiel.

Or at least it was, until Egil used vanish to make Majenko invisible, and he sped across the roiling lake to snatch the sword. He took a swipe at the guardian, failed, and then ducked and dodged his way through flailing limbs and tendrils to toss the blade to the ranger. With the relic in our possession, we go all out to end this thing's stewardship of the cursed castle.

It was a near thing... but we managed.

What happened next? Tune in next time for the seventh installment, "Return to Korvosa"! If you want to make sure you keep getting all of Improved Initiative's updates, then follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. If you'd like to help support the blog, then click right here to visit my Patreon page!

The Saga of Majenko Part Five: Brother to The Shoanti

Before we get started with the latest installment, I'd like to remind readers that if you're not caught up yet, you should check out the rest of the Saga of Majenko before reading further. Technically you don't need to, but it will eliminate confusion if you follow the story from level one.

Part One: Finding The Main Character of "Curse of The Crimson Throne"
Part Two: How Much Damage Could One Pseudodragon Do?
Part Three: Scourge of The Red Mantis
Part Four: Blood Pig Champion
Part Five: Brother to The Shoanti
Part Six: The Assault on Castle Scarwall
Part Seven: The Return to Korvosa
Part Eight: Re-Taking Korvosa
Part Nine: The Assault on Castle Korvosa
Part Ten: Down With The Queen

All caught up? Great. So, when last we left our intrepid adventurers...

Part Five: Brother to The Shoan-Ti

So, last time we met, our party had met up with a peppy priestess of Zon-Kuthon, become the undisputed champions of the new game Blood Pig, and stealthily smuggled out an artist being held captive by a madman who had dubbed himself the Emperor of Old Korvosa. Said artist, out of gratitude, tells us that the city's seneschal, Neolandis Kalapopolis, was being kept safe in the basement of the Arkona estate. The Arkonas, of course, are a major crime family that more or less runs this part of the city. So we hot foot it over there, only to find out that, while the family has indeed been keeping him down there, they don't actually know where he is. It's a labyrinth, and they sure as hell aren't going to tell a party of elite city watch the combination to their personal dungeon. If we want him back, we'll have to find him ourselves.

The screams stopped two weeks ago. He's probably fine.

With no time to lose, we head on down for the dungeon crawl. There's an angry elephant statue, a shambling plant monster, a couple of bizarre Vudran demons, a few magic symbols, and a rahshasa whose shit we have no time for. All in all, your average dungeon crawl. We find the seneschal, along with Vencarlo Oricini, the guy who is totally not Blackjack, who finally admits his secret identity to us. Once we rescue the two of them, we hop into a boat, and sail out of the Arkona's secret smuggling tunnel.

That's when Neolandis drops some solid street exposition on us. According to him, the queen is no longer the queen. The pretty young girl who slept her way to the highest position of the city was poking around in the chambers beneath the castle, and while she was there she found something she didn't understand. They were the fangs of Kasavon, and ancient servant of Zon-Kuthon. A dracolich of extreme power, his form and essence were cut into pieces and spread halfway across the globe to prevent him from returning to power. Now his soul has possessed part of the queen, and the only people who know more than that are the secretive Shoanti.

Fortunately for us, we did a favor for one of their elders a couple of levels ago. So we blow out of town to go collect.

Brotherhood and Blood

We stop at Kaer Maga to re-load, re-fuel. Our gnomish evoker decides to bugger off once he's clear of Korvosa, and we continue on with the cleric, the fighter, the duelist, and the magus all in the retinue of the great and powerful Majenko as they head off to save the world.

They're around here... somewhere...

We set off into the Cinderlands, looking for the Shoanti. We wander, and we wander, and then just for variety we wander some more. Due to great fortune, some eyes in the sky, and some pretty great survival checks, we find our way to the tribe of Thousand Bones, the elder whom we helped out when his grandson's body was stolen by a necromancer. We tell him our tale, and he agrees that the threat we face is grave. It could mean the rise of an ancient evil, a new age of darkness, and the deaths of untold thousands.

If only he could help.

I Smell A Fetch Quest!

Due to the complicated and distrusting nature of the Shoanti, us being outsiders to their tribe means that they won't share their knowledge with us. While they agree that the rise of Kasavon would be a terrible thing, if he is forcing his way back into the world it is the Shoanti's prerogative to fight him, not that of chamak (a Shoanti word for outsider that usually means those with shit for honor). So, we have a few options. We can throw up deuces, and go off to save the city our own way. We can kick down the doors, brutalize an already hunted and poorly treated native people until they give us the answers we demand, or we can start jumping through hoops to prove to them that we are serious about helping, and that we should be trusted as part of the tribe.

Being a good-aligned party with the capability of perceiving the writing on the wall, we opt for the third choice.

I still say we could take 'em.

It's at this point we find out about the legend of a man who was dead, and reborn. What happened was that he was so determined to leave behind the person he was, that he allowed himself to be eaten by a created called Cindermaw. When he emerged from inside the beast his past self was declared dead, and his new self was accepted as an official member of the Shoanti. So all we have to do is find a Truth Speaker (a position in Shoanti society whose word is accepted as fact), persuade said individual to walk out into the heart of the badlands, get eaten by a massive (and apparently immortal) creature, and then somehow survive the experience, before returning back to the Shoanti. If you're wondering what we're looking at, it's what's happening on page 84 and 85 of the Core Rulebook.

Piece of cake, right?

The Long Sleep of Cindermaw

So, after lifting a siege, defeating entirely too many monsters, an encounter with a tentacle beast in a forgotten crypt, and an ambush by four more red mantis assassins (two of which are handily dispatched by the pseudodragon's poisonous sneak attack), we manage to procure a truth speaker who agrees to watch us do something monumentally and suicidally stupid. So we truck out into the desert, until we manage to find the colossal, multi-mawed beast that may very well be the same Cindermaw from the original myth. It roars at us, and without any further discussion, we all run right into its jaws.

It's a party in your mouth!

So, we dive in, get swallowed, and are about halfway down the beast's gullet when we decide that's far enough for naturalization purposes. We start cutting a hole, trying to dig out way out like some terrible, internal Cesarean birth. The fighter is gouging with her dagger, the rogue/magus is cutting with his kukri, and Majenko is stabbing wildly with his tail. Cindermaw is not immune to poison, but its fortitude save is so ridiculous that there's only one way it will make any difference.

Hey look, foreshadowing!

Despite Majenko's intense potency, and Cindermaw's natural one, we cut out way out first. Covered in gore and ichor, the party stands triumphant. Egil promptly pours an alchemist fire over his own head to burn away the remnants of the creature, since if you're going to have fire resistance 5 you may as well use it. Cindermaw, deciding it had enough of over-eager food, sandwormed off into the distance. Once it was off camera it dug a pit, and went to sleep. For a while.

And Now We Set The Hoops On Fire!

So, we return to the tribe. The Truth Speaker tells the Shoanti what he saw, and we are inducted into the ranks. We are no longer Chamak; instead, we are members of the tribe!

But they still can't tell us what we need to know.

Are you fucking with me?

In order to get the rest of the legend, we have to become specific members of the Sun tribe, whose shaman is the one with the information we require. Exasperated, but not wanting to damage the good will we've already earned through displays of intense testicular fortitude, we ask what we have to do. Nothing big, really... just drag these three pillars up a steep slope to the top of a mountain, and put them in some rounded depressions. Then hold them up for three days and three nights.

No problem. Or, at least, there isn't a problem until we're attacked by three bullettes.

Majenko To The Rescue!

At first it seems as if we're going to do just fine, sleep-deprived as we are. Barriers hold them back for a little bit, and magic is flying from the cleric and the magus. The land sharks make it up the mountain, though, and that's when shit gets real. They're dealing on the cleric, and the tiefling goes down. In fact, if not for the troll styptic he slapped on himself, and the fast healing it gave him, he'd have been no more.

That's enough of that.

The cleric manages to charm one of the monsters, and the big gray beast now affectionately dubbed Shep starts savaging one of his previous brethren. The fighter is slashing and smashing, and Majenko curves around for a flank, stabbing it right between its plates. The beast not only fails its saving throw against his sleep venom, but falls off the top of the mountain and dies from the damage. The last remaining bullette succumbs to the assault of the rest of the party, and wonder of wonders we managed to keep the pillars relatively vertical.

So, we're alive, we have a (temporary) pet land shark, and we are now members of the tribe of the sun. Did they share the rest of the myth with us, and present the party with the next part of the journey? Find out next time on The Saga of Majenko: A Slog Through Scarwall!

If you have a gaming story of your own, whether it's an official adventure path or just something from a friend's homebrew, I'd love to put it up on Table Talk! Just send an email, and let me know. Also, don't forget to follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter to keep up on my latest posts, and if you'd like to throw a little support behind Improved Initiative then stop by my Patreon page to toss a little bread in my jar!

The Saga of Majenko Part Two: How Much Damage Could One Pseudodragon Do?

Two weeks ago I shared with you how my group discovered the true protagonist in Curse of the Crimson Throne. If you missed it the post was The Saga of Majenko Part One: Finding The Main Character in Curse of The Crimson Throne. Now I'd like to tell you what the tiny titan did with his freedom once he was released from the Spider's clutches.

Also, the Saga is now complete! Here's the full list of installments, if you want to read them in order.

Part One: Finding The Main Character of "Curse of The Crimson Throne"
Part Two: How Much Damage Could One Pseudodragon Do?
Part Three: Scourge of The Red Mantis
Part Four: Blood Pig Champion
Part Five: Brother to The Shoanti
Part Six: The Assault on Castle Scarwall
Part Seven: The Return to Korvosa
Part Eight: Re-Taking Korvosa
Part Nine: The Assault on Castle Korvosa
Part Ten: Down With The Queen

From Comic Relief to Most Dangerous Party Member

About one in every four groups I've talked to who have played Curse of the Crimson Throne decided to bust Majenko out of bondage. Most parties keep him as a fun little NPC friend; kind of like a party mascot. Pseudodragons are small, clever, and they have a taste for things sweet and buttery. They're also telepathic, and have a tail sting with a potent sleep venom. They also have a standard 15 hit points, which means that Majenko is quickly relegated to the back of the party.

Unless you play in my games, it seems.

Tell the barbarian to get out of my way.

For a couple of small quests that's what happened, too. When we had to go underground to fight a crazed necromancer in the Gray District, Majenko kept watch at the gates. When we snuck into the sewers beneath the docks to fight a wererat gang lord Majenko stuck around to let us communicate silently, but he flew to get help when we started going down.

However, the little guy got sick of playing second fiddle around the time Korvosa's plague started getting serious. When we found plague doctors experimenting on people who were already sick? Majenko put them to bed. When the gray maidens charged in to kill us for doing that, Majenko took them out. When we found one of the doctors who had been kidnapping Varisians and purposefully giving them bloodveil to try and figure out why some were naturally harder to infect, he got knocked right out. Even Doctor Nicholas Cage, her majesty's personal physician found himself at a loss as he tried to fight the tiefling and the pseudodragon with a human-bane rapier.

Your clever plan, you did not think it through.

When all was said and done Majenko was responsible for locating 2 invisible assassins, rendering a dozen plague doctors unconscious, knocking out no fewer than three gray maidens, and assisting in the capture of several surgeons and doctors performing illegal experiments on citizens of the city. Because of Majenko we had a much easier time taking down this huge, criminal enterprise, and we saved countless members of the city who would otherwise have been used like lab rats. We also did it without killing them, as all we had to do was gag and manacle them once they'd been rendered unconscious. We were also made aware of the brutal torture and horrendous scarring that all of the gray maidens went through before they were encased in their armor and turned loose on the streets of Korvosa (something most groups don't find out until later when Sabina Merrin, Captain of the Gray Maidens, joins your team).

Did I mention this little pseudodragon had 15 hit points and a +3 to his attack the whole time he was busy being awesome? While he got a lot of flanking bonuses, as well as a hefty benefit from the Eversmoking Bottle we'd found in a treasure horde (an item that is one half of a devastating combination used by every graduate of the Batman school of crime-fighting in my character conversions section), the biggest reason Majenko became the Korvosan guard's #1 enforcer was because it seemed enemies just couldn't make a simple poison save. Even CR 6 and CR 7 enemies.

When In Doubt, Max it Out

Level 7 is where things got completely and totally crazy. Egil, the straight man of the Egil and Maenko pairing, was the smartest creature in nearly any room he stepped in. With a naturally devious disposition and a knack for exploiting the rules of man and magic he and Majenko put their heads together. At level 5 I took the Improved Familiar feat, even though I didn't meet the caster level just yet. With the DM's permission I essentially reserved that slot for when my caster level was high enough for a pseudodragon. Due to the magus/rogue combination, and some other wooge on the side, that happened to be level 7. I also got a new feat for reaching an odd level, and a new magus arcana that gave me a familiar.

Why does that matter?

Well, that escalated quickly.

Level 7 is when I qualified for a feat that is typically kept under nuclear lock and key by DMs. Leadership. I checked through the books and through the errata I could find, but I saw no expressly stated rule which said you could not gain a cohort and then make that cohort a familiar (or vice versa, if you wanted to do it that way instead). Practically speaking it was a mess, but it was a mess that didn't seem to have an explicit ban to it.

The result of all this mechanical jargon? At character level 7 Majenko was my familiar, as well as a 5th-level rogue. This gave him several d6 of sneak attack, along with trapfinding, uncanny dodge, evasion, and a few rogue tricks of his own. Since character levels granted him feats he also gained a heightened DC on his poison (it was now a 16), flyby attack, and a few other goodies (you know, like real hit points). Not only that, but the condition that finally persuaded the DM was that all of my other followers granted by the Leadership feat would also be pseudodragons.

How did this madness develop? Well, tune in next time for part three of the Saga of Majenko: The Scourge of the Red Mantis!


Thanks for checking out Table Talk, and if you have a gaming story of your own you'd like to share just contact me! If you want to support Improved Initiative then stop by The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page and become a patron today! Lastly, if you want to make sure you're getting all of my updates then be sure you're following me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter as well.

The Saga of Majenko Part One: Finding The Main Character In "Curse of The Crimson Throne"

Say what you will about adventure paths, they provide an adventure that any dungeon master can run. Some DMs use them because they don't want to do all the hard work of plotting (since these noble storytellers often have day jobs and real lives), and others use them because it's just reassuring to know that a team of professionals bolted this beast together for maximum player enjoyment.

One of Paizo's older adventure paths is Curse of the Crimson Throne, and for those of you who have never heard of it, the books pre-date the Pathfinder system. They were originally written for Dungeons and Dragons 3.5. While my group is closing in on the end of the adventure I'd like to relate to you the story of Curse of the Crimson Throne's true protagonist.

His name is Majenko, and this is his story.

What's up, bitches?

Additionally, this story has now been posted in its entirety. If you want to hit all the chapters in order, here's an easy-to-navigate list.

Part One: Finding The Main Character of "Curse of The Crimson Throne"
Part Two: How Much Damage Could One Pseudodragon Do?
Part Three: Scourge of The Red Mantis
Part Four: Blood Pig Champion
Part Five: Brother to The Shoanti
Part Six: The Assault on Castle Scarwall
Part Seven: The Return to Korvosa
Part Eight: Re-Taking Korvosa
Part Nine: The Assault on Castle Korvosa
Part Ten: Down With The Queen

The Setup

For those of you who have never played Curse of the Crimson Throne, the adventure takes place in the Varisian capital city of Korvosa. It's a corrupt place, from the sky-bound ghettoes of the Shingles where men and women live in squalor among condemned towers to the floating warrens and gambling dens where ganglords and bully boys ply their trade. It's a city full of dark corners, shadowy intents, and where anything can be had for a price.

It's like Gotham City, but with magic.

Enter the party. We begin with three members of the town guard (a human of Shoan-ti descent named Karanthiira, and her more experienced colleagues a human paladin named Armitage Poe and his partner a tailed tiefling rogue named Egil Skinner), and their acquaintance a cleric of Shelyn named Durai. The first session they arrest a local slum lord named Gaedren Lamm. All of his associates are put in manacles, and he himself is beaten to within an inch of his life before being cuffed and brought in on charges, complete with evidence.

This gets our DM's attention. Not only are we choosing to go with the flow of being town guards (something we knew was going to happen anyway due to meta-knowledge), but we're pretty serious about not killing people. This focus on capturing people and proving they've committed offenses continues through two or three more opening side quests, until our group is given a sensitive assignment.

What's The Job?

Our party is tasked with going to an area of ill repute in Old Korvosa and meeting with a criminal figure known as The Spider. He has three barges moored offering illicit services, and we need to go there on the down-low to acquire politically salient information from him so we can then blackmail a foreign politician to ease up off the city's back.

Remember how I said Korvosa was a lot like Gotham, but with magic?

Pictured: a good neighborhood in Korvosa.

Our paladin has left the party, but in his place we've recruited a broad-shouldered barbarian by the name of Arum Eld (a fellow who went by "Spatters" down at the docks). We take the bribe money, leave our badges at home, and proceed to the ship looking like any other band of heavily armed thugs out to score something illicit and dangerous.

We find the ship without a problem, and we even manage an audience with The Spider. He says he'll agree to talk business if we play a game of knivesies with him. Karanthiira volunteers, and steps onto a table with a hapless underling tied to her wrist. She handily slams him off the table, winning the game and giving us our opening to talk with the lord of the floating ghetto.

Where Things Start To Go Sideways

Spoiler alert for anyone planning on playing this adventure path. When you first walk into The Spider's chamber you see a pseudodragon slumped in a hanging cage. Korvosa is rife with pseudodragons, so his presence isn't all that unusual. The little fellow is telepathic though, and begs members of the party to rescue him as he's being made to fight giant spiders to the death.

In case you forgot who the bad guy was in this scenario.

Egil had become party leader because with his partner's transfer he was now the guard with the most seniority, and he'd used his high intelligence to pick up levels of magus. Magically inclined and naturally skulky he was the most obvious choice for the pseudodragon's plea. He told Egil his name was Majenko, and that he needed help to escape. Egil waited until Durai (the face of the party) had completed the negotiations for the damning documents we'd been sent to get. The Spider's cohorts had lost interest and the rest of the party was getting ready to leave when Egil asked The Spider whether he'd be willing to part with the pseudodragon.

The answer was, of course, no.

Wrong answer.

Letting The (Pseudo)Dragon Off The Chain

Negotiations quickly fell apart when it was made clear the only way to get this pseudodragon away from The Spider was to fight him and all his men. So Egil, being chaotic good and not wearing his badge, pulled a smokestick out of his belt, tossed it under the cage, and then parkour-ed up the wall to open the lock.

Chaos, as you can imagine, ensued.

We were outnumbered two to one, and no one could roll high enough to take down the crew (we were only level 3 or 4, after all, and hadn't come loaded for bear). I get the cage open, but rather than fleeing Majenko decides to enact revenge on his captors. Our DM hands me the monster manual and says, "here, those are his stats, you run him for this fight."

So I did. Did you know that pseudodragons have a sleep venom that knocks out enemies for 1d4 minutes on a failed save?

We totally do.

All of the high numbers I'd been missing started showing up for Majenko, and because his stinger was lashing out from within the smoke cloud he had concealment. The first enemy takes a single point of damage, rolls a 1 on his save, and goes down. The next round his companion steps over the body, gets stung, and goes down. Rinse and repeat. The barbarian comes back in swinging, and crushes one of the villain's skulls in. The cleric, wielding a reach weapon, manages to trip some of his enemies who are handled by Karanthiira. Even Egil manages to get a few good licks in, though he came away bloodied.

The Spider ran below decks. At final count two or three of his men were dead, but all the others were sleeping. It appeared that instead of rescuing a tiny victim we had instead unleashed a flying, house cat-sized ball of pure, envenomed vengeance. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valor we straightened our cloaks and walked out as if nothing had happened. Majenko flitted onto Egil's shoulder, kneading the leather and chain until he was comfortable.

That would have been so much easier if you were dragons, he said, laying his head down. But you did pretty well.

Things only got stranger from there...

If you have a gaming story of your own that you'd like to share then feel free to send it to Improved Initiative and we'll give you a moment in the Table Talk spotlight! If you'd like to support Improved Initiative (and get a free book during the month of March) then stop by The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page and become a patron today. To ensure you get all of my updates make sure you're following me on Facebook and Tumblr as well.

My Familiar As A Balloon Animal

Despite being a partial shut-in who lives in a basement whose main source of socialization is a Friday-night Pathfinder game I occasionally get to meet some really interesting people. One of those people is Sandra Seymour, an amazingly talented balloon artist who was kind enough to share her art with me. She asked for a challenge, so I told her the tale of Majenko, a pseudodragon familiar that has become the main character of the Curse of the Crimson Throne game I play once a week. When the tale (which will eventually make its way onto this blog) was told she had just one question.

"Do you have a picture of him?"

This is the standard pseudodragon, illustrated by Kevin Yon. It's how I figure Majenko looks, except redder.

Sandra took a look at a similar image, pursed her lips, and started pulling out balloons. In less time than it took for me to relate this pint-size rogue's adventures she had created for me a relatively life-sized model out of nothing more than latex balloons and sheer skill.

Having been running this poisonous encounter-killer I know well what that stinger is capable of.

I was, and remain, as delighted as any child seeing a piece of my fantasy rendered real. While balloon art is by its very nature temporary I wanted to make an official post so that the Internet at large (and those who are fans of geeks and art in all forms) are aware that for a time I had the best balloon animal a player could ask for.


Thanks for stopping by Improved Initiative, and if you'd like to support this blog stop by The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page and consider becoming a patron today! Even .50 a month can make a big difference in the long run! Also if you want to make sure you don't miss any of my updates then make sure you follow me on Facebook and Tumblr.