Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Flashpoint: Oh, to be or not to be an actor

Our intrepid heroes return to Westcrown – the very place they fled at the start of the campaign – and seek out a few options to fulfil their quest.  Proteus hears rumours of the nobility hunting paupers in the ruined side of town as well as a bounty on the heads of Shadow Beasts from a shadowy figure.  He finds that the Delvehaven Lodge has been locked down and warded by House Thrune’s officials.  Alyssa, their tiefling rogue, suggests that they don’t enter just yet until they learn more of these wards.

Proteus also hears of a murderplay in production which is seeking actor-adventurers and which would likely provide access to an important gathering of nobles as well as  attend the casting call for the Six Trials of Larazod in order to get access to the Mayor’s home – which would doubtless provide access to information on Delvehaven and which might even grant them a lead on the pauper hunts.

After all, in a much earlier session they gain the flags and insignia of a minor Chelish noble adventuring family that died out in Taldor but which few know about their destruction.

So they all disguise themselves as Chelish people and gratefully look about their ship which is crewed by people from all around the Inner Seas and has quite a small proportion of Andoren people.  They then go and front up to the theatre to try out for their roles.  All my players rolled Perform (acting) – except for Proteus whom I allowed to use Perform (oratory) – and had to roleplay reading out Larazod’s lines according to their role.

Lhye rolled a 12 and did a reasonable job though he was still a ham actor.  Lunjun rolled a 4 and simply read it out in a monotone that caused Proteus to rip the script out of his hands.  The director, however, demanded that Proteus – due to his impatience – read last and thus Archer had to read it next.

Archer did it with gusto but with a distinctive whine to his voice (another low role) yet thought he was brilliant and accused Proteus (who again ripped the script away) of not knowing anything about art.  When the director insulted him, Archer became churlish and rude though the poor director was at his wit’s hand and couldn’t throw him out.

And thus the various characters were cast through the selection process (detailed in the Adventure Path: The Sixfold Trial) with Lhye as Dentris, Proteus as Larazod, Archer as Drovalid and Lunjun as the paladin whose name I have forgotten.  I offered the players an extra 3000xp if they actually spoke out the lines and they did so with relish.  There was much laughter at some of the absurdities of the plot – such as the main character, Larazod, being such a Gary Stu that everyone quickly came to adore him.

The line the paladin made about how his own God’s goals were doomed if Asmodeus’ followers were more like Larazod especially cracked me up as such a Gary Stu line.  Still it was all in good fun.

As my characters are all Level 7 there wasn’t much risk with the actual monsters though the troll skeletons still gave them a whirl since the wizard could only cast spells shared on the paladin list and the gunslinger had to use a sword and the witch couldn’t heal.  It was mostly the traps – flukes, acid baths, etc. – that whittled away their health levels.

All in all a fun game from a fun adventure.  I very much recommend looking it up for all those Pathfinder fans out there.

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