Foul Machinations Archives

Posted on November 19, 2015January 24, 2023 by Jonathan G. Nelson — Leave a comment

AaWBlog Closing, New Adventurer’s Chronicle magazine coming Spring 2016

We regret to inform our avid readers that the AaWBlog is being retired (sans Tales from the Tabletop). We would like to take this opportunity to recognize the entire AaWBlog team: Mike Myler, Justin Andrew Mason, Rory Toma, Lance Kepner, Tim Snow, Stefanos Patelis, Brian Wiborg, Jonathan Ely, and the rest of our fantastic contributors.

AAW Games would like to thank Mike Myler for all his hard work managing the AaWBlog and contributing to many Adventureaweek.com projects including the Aventyr Campaign Setting. Going forward Mike Myler will no longer be working with AAW Games but will continue to be a driving force in the roleplaying game industry, AAW Games wishes him well in his future ventures.

Fret not! Our brand new Adventurer’s Chronicle magazine will release its first issue in Spring 2016. This magazine will be free and have a plethora of content for both the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and 5th Edition. In issue #1 we will have a fantastic guest article by Wolfgang Baur (Kobold Press, Tyranny of Dragons) and an in-person candid interview with actress and fellow gamer Jen Page!
Read more about the brand new FREE Adventurer’s Chronicle magazine below and make sure you sign up for our newsletter so you can be notified when it has been released (don’t worry, we won’t spam you).

Posted on October 30, 2015October 29, 2015 by Mike Myler — Leave a comment

Wandering Wasteland: Part 2

After landing in the Scorched Lands, the PCs pick up on the trail of the nefarious P.R.A.N.K.S.T.E.R. cabal. Heading off into the desert they find the Canyon March, a network of smugglers that help escaped slaves reach freedom. Unfortunately they aren’t the only ones traveling into the sand and the PCs are soon forced to either help defend or kill a mutant named Scowl Carver. Either way they garner a few pairs of striding boots and some valuable information on where the nefarious faction was operating in the wastelands.

Heading back to Ravine and canvassing the city doesn’t drum up any new information and though at first it seems like the criminal group has given the party the slip, that very night a host of P.R.A.N.K.S.T.E.R.S. fall upon the PCs while they sleep! Fortunately some evidence on their boots lead the adventurers to one conclusion: whatever the nefarious cabal is up to, they are active in the dreaded Grave Morass on the southern reaches of the Scorched Lands.

More dangers of the desert threaten the PCs as they travel—lethal respite offered by corpse cactii, devious merchants with equally fell gifts, the scorching Transgression [the final reveal of its full effects! —MM], magically aggressive tar changed by the passing of the Shard of the Sun, and the restless spirits of those creatures claimed by the ash, oil, and sand pit long ago—but nothing as deadly as what awaits them in the Grave Morass.

Tune in tomorrow to see how Bleirvar the Biomancer fits into Wandering Wasteland and why the PCs need to collect as many contraband cyphers as they possibly can!

Posted on October 16, 2015October 14, 2015 by Mike Myler — Leave a comment

Foul Machinations: Wandering Wasteland

A metallic puddle takes the PCs from Alucinar and into the Scorched Lands at the encouragement of an old friend: Jesker the Great. The old mage equips the party with some magical aid and sends them into Ravine, the nearest settlement in the unforgiving sands, to track down the P.R.A.N.K.S.T.E.R.S. with the help of Kara the Sun Flea. At the Parched Pilgrim tavern they are tasked with earning the Sun Flea’s trust by acting as couriers and waylaid by one of the cabal’s agents, but with her trust they are also given goggles of revealing and find clues that lead to the Sandy Gate of the Sea of Shards.

The Sun Flea gives them her best wishes and an old Pilgrim’s Journal to warn of the dangers of the Scorched Lands: the Transgression [this Thursday has the last article for it, Ashen Death! —MM], the fiery apparition haunt, the ashen corpse haunt, and a smattering of other useful tips for surviving the wandering wasteland. When they track down the P.R.A.N.K.S.T.E.R.S. at the Sandy Gate the PCs find several gregaria sphinx killing off the criminals (and a lens shard on one of the corpses), but to reveal the cabal’s full plan the adventurers must travel all the way to the Fissures—possibly contending with any of the mutated clans they come across before finding the Canyon March.

Stay tuned throughout October as the P.R.A.N.K.S.T.E.R.S. devious scheme is revealed in the rest of Wandering Wasteland in preparation for the adventure path finale next month!

Posted on September 25, 2015September 24, 2015 by Mike Myler — Leave a comment

Foul Machinations: Awake in Alucinar (part 2)

After finding their way to the Plane of Dreams via somnambular skurgxon swarms and meeting the ameslari, the adventurers near and are compelled to enter the city of Ullast. In order to end the settlement’s plight on the dreaming island the party must vanquish the dreamghost manticore at its gates and recover the trinkets of a sleeping refugee (finding a primal magic arrow along the way).

The natives that the PCs met earlier in Alucinar reveal that the P.R.A.N.K.S.T.E.R.S. disruptions have caused the unsettling of Sleepless Sonuvanje, prompting the dream dragon to have terrible nightmares during inopportune slumbers, horrors that become all too real in the Plane of Dreams. Several ameslari have fallen prey to these apparitions and the locals inform the adventurers that in order to escape the dreaming island, they’ll have to overcome the draconic night terrors in the decaying mind of a dead god that’s inadvertently invaded Alucinar.

Along the way to finding its abode the PCs come across a limbo trap, the sea of chaos haunt, and a shadow overlap before being drawn by the sea of nightmares and made to traverse dead dreams, fighting a galate before they can penetrate the perished deity’s psyche. Before leaving the lair of the nightmare creature they find a cloak of shadow dancing, but after leaving its cave they are likely to run across a shadow bomb trap or if they are particularly unlucky, fall prey to the suicidal shadow haunt.

Stay tuned for the rest of September as we finish up Awake in Alucinar and continue this year’s AaWBlog Adventure Path in the Scorched Lands this October!

Posted on September 11, 2015September 13, 2015 by Mike Myler — Leave a comment

Foul Machinations: Awake in Alucinar

Somnambular skurgxon swarms introduced the party to the Plane of Dreams, though those unwilling to step through the portal onto the Dreaming Island can make due with the Dreaming Fields’ bounty. Once there the PCs encounter Sleepless Sonuvanje, a dreaming dragon that escorts the adventurers into the custody of ameslari (a new player race native to Alucinar) that regale the party with their love for storytelling. In turn the adventurers tell their own stories, earning the trust and companionship of a dreamwalker named Dag. The ameslari is so inspired he offers to transform into a dreamblade to aid one of the PCs until the end of their days.

There’s recently been a huge influx of activity in the Plane of Dreams and the ameslari are on their way to find out more about what’s been doing on. Traveling alongside the natives the PCs encounter both astral overlaps and limbo overlaps, learn (perhaps painfully) of the newfound alu boundary traps and the resurgent cinar boundary, possibly becoming lost due to the astral cord trap or Doohan’s doom, before finally reaching the destination of both their aim and their guides: Ullast. Nearly the entire town’s population ended up Awake in Alucinar, but relating to them will require much more than a well told story…

Posted on August 28, 2015August 23, 2015 by Mike Myler — Leave a comment

Foul Machinations: Bogs of Bane (part 2!)

The PCs have met the Bloodclaw tribe of the Vast Swamp, earning the trust of the demon hunters through an alliance inspired by Varssadd, their impromptu guide through the marshlands. Local rumors place the P.R.A.N.K.S.T.E.R.S. in an area called the Dreaming Fields, but to reach it the adventurers have to travel through the Muddy Mangroves, into the center of the Mangrove Maze. Shortly before entering the labyrinth the party are attacked by a pack of minotoyles and throughout the dangerous journey they are assailed by creations of the demonic Mud King intended to throw them astray or turn allies upon one another (bewilderment traps, sleep envy traps, dreaming terror haunts, and the lost soul haunt).

Despite the challenges before them the PCs reach their destination: the Dreaming Fields. However as they approach the strange territory, the chanting of an otherworldly tongue sounds across the Bogs of Bane. The adventurers have stepped upon a ritual of the clergy of the Current, just outside of a temple devoted to the Maddening God. Battle erupts and when the muck settles, the party finds one a whim of the current and mask of gaseous reprieve, but what lay ahead will test them more than any challenge yet…