We are fully recovered from our first marathon of Sky King’s Tomb and ready to tell the tale! If you didn’t catch the introduction to this project, we’re playing as a family of dwarves from Clan Firecask, complete with different generations to represent our players’ out-of-game ages. Each marathon of this project also features Order of the Amber Die members from decades past, and for our opening marathon we reached all the way back to the 1980s when our group first began. Before co-founding the Order with our GM, Andrew Woodworth and Adam went as Darth Vader and a stormtrooper for Halloween in 1985; they even have the same birthday and grew up as neighbors in New Jersey. Andy stayed active in the Order until the 2000s, and returned to the table for the first time in twenty years for this marathon – his debut playing Pathfinder!
Joining us as a guest for this marathon was Brandon Gillam of Runehammer, who played as Renck Firecask, a venerable scribe, tattoo artist, and keeper of clan recipes. Brandon held his own in Pathfinder 2E and lasted to share the story of his first Amber Die marathon. Having an artist along for the ride meant that many of the scenes from our playthrough were sketched out as they happened, so we’ve included our favorite piece with this blog!
- Adventure: Mantle of Gold
- Marathon Length: 59 hours
- Session Hours: 32 hours
Our journey began in the undisputed center of dwarven culture: the Sky Citadel of Highhelm. When we sat down at the table, each of us had a folder waiting for us with our character’s name on it. Inside, our GM had placed four high-quality maps printed from the Highhelm hardcover; each map depicted one level of the city: King’s Crown, King’s Heart, Stonebreach, and The Depths. For the entirety of our marathon, we never left the city and never wanted to. We toured some sites that even a family of dwarves who grew up in Highhelm hadn’t seen before, and enjoyed the massive sandbox that this adventure offers. Our goal was to build our clan’s reputation higher before an important festival, and we counted at least a dozen quests that we completed in that pursuit.
Highlights from Mantle of Gold:
□ As Highhelm is the most influential of Sky Citadels, it is connected to the rest of Golarion in ways that make languages essential, and tutors are always in demand. Disa Firecask, known to us as “Mama Disa,” volunteered to become a language instructor at a prestigious school in King’s Crown. Teaching the children of Goldhilt clans is taken seriously, and Disa was expected to submit lesson plans, a pacing guide, and closely follow the curriculum. Disa is a cleric of Folgrit, so the children loved her—yet the stern headmaster insisted on evaluating her skills in the classroom. Disa dropped THREE natural 20s across four rolls to become Teacher of the Month!
□ We were made aware of a problem at the Cloudspire Embassy, an important location that secures the connection between Avistan and Garund’s dwarves. Upon arriving, we were told that a cloud dragon brought from Garund for protection was not adjusting well to the caverns of its new home. This dragon, Mharsilekinass the Jewel, presented a challenge we were not wholly prepared for: something akin to a bored teenager. After finding pleasure in ambushing us (with initiative rolled), the dragon challenged us to a game of Elemental Stones; if we won, it agreed to behave, but if we lost, we had to amuse the dragon for a week. We stopped our session, broke out the board game, and our GM proceeded to defeat us. Renck Firecask, our bard, stepped up to entertain. A week later, Renck and “Mharzy” had something to show us: a neck tattoo worthy of a wyrm!
□ The sport of basilisk is appreciated in Highhelm in a way that the Philadelphia Eagles fans around our table can identify with. When a star player for the Highhelm Hodags had to drop from the team’s roster, our chances of winning the Avistan Championship were in jeopardy. Tryouts were held, with siblings Thorgreigir and Salthrun Firecask in attendance. While Thorgreigir clutched his rolls and made the team, he now had to perform in front of the whole city. We were down by a score for most of the contest, but with our GM blasting the dwarven version of “Seven Nation Army” and crowd noise in our favor, the championship came down to the last play. Thorgreigir executed a move the team had worked on, and went deep for an over-the-shoulder basket catch. One Hero Point later, we stormed the field as only champions could.
□ You think you might know what Sky King’s Tomb Adventure Path is like? Volume one delivered the off-guard condition to our GM, and that’s hard to do. In total, we played a bit over half of Mantle of Gold, which utilized FOUR different subsystems from the GM Core: Reputation, Influence, Victory Points, and Infiltration. One subsystem would have been interesting, two would have had us talking. With four, author John Compton delivered something that changed the flow of our gameplay in a way we’ve never experienced and are still processing—and we loved it.
□ There was a truly embarrassing scene that begs description. The forges of the dwarven city were in dire need of assistance due to a recent labor strain. We showed up in the hopes of earning reputation, but knew we were in trouble when the ifrit dwarf in charge of “Burntown” asked to see our hands. She wanted smiths and was sent a family of brewers. We failed check after check, with Torag himself turning his head away from us. Drothgyr Firecask played music for inspiration, but it only resulted in more beer breaks. The crossbow we repaired, well, it fired two feet down and to the left. The shield we crafted, we felt bad even calling it done. As for the fence we tried to build, we told ourselves it probably wasn’t for actual use, right?
The Scions
Every family, every clan, every gaming group that has lasted decades will have its own practices and traditions passed down to its scions. Order of the Amber Die is here all these years later because of what our members have passed down to each other since our inception. The first member to show up with a legal notepad and special pen was Andy; he referred to his session notes as a “log,” and while as kids we had no idea what it was for, it changed our sessions forever. The log was overly detailed, with exact damage numbers for every attack and spell. Still, we found ourselves referring back to it between sessions to keep track of locations, items, or NPCs we had met—the log helped us succeed. In future campaigns, someone would step up to keep notes based on the tradition of Andy’s logs. The log changed forms to suit the player keeping it; some preferred a scrapbook with pictures and quotes from our sessions. While this might seem commonplace today, we didn’t know any other groups in our junior high school that were keeping notes like we were back in 1990. At least a half-dozen members have kept the log since, but the record for the most detail sits with a scion who holds the torch that Andy once lit. Karee Vogrin’s notes for this marathon sit at 9,101 words, are nearly twenty-five pages, and will be posted to our Google Classroom where all players have access to them.
Character Deaths:
□ None, Folgrit watched over us.
Best Quote from Marathon 1:
(a marketing discussion stalls out around the table, ending in a squabble)
Renck Firecask: “I can see where the acumen comes from in this family.”
Zuls Firecask: “It skips a generation.”
Current Situation:
As the festival approaches, we succeeded in growing the reputation of Clan Firecask, and then some! At the basilisk championship we released our clan’s newest beer, Battle Axe, and became next year’s sponsor. We earned the key to our very own tavern, even if it was overgrown with fungi. We formed new friendships, one with a dwarf named Elbert Glassgrinder who cheered us on and often bought us breakfast. One morning, Elbert told us his name is actually Krohan, and confessed that he had both stolen AND lost the clan dagger of none other than King Taargick, the Sky King. We spit out our beer—come again? Lightly trusting Krohan for now, we are off to recover what he thinks is the lost clan dagger…
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Our table was brought to life with the help of Blue Table Painting for the miniatures, and Black Bard Studios for custom adventure-specific miniatures/terrain.
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