Humble Minion's page

That's the one! Thank you very much.

Does anyone remember an article that detailed a young noblewoman, a necromancer, who was under the delusion she was a vampire? I'm not sure what issue it was in. I seem to remember that she kept her undead parents in the basement, and her maidservant was running a thieves guild in her spare time. All very fun and dysfunctional, and itching to be relocated to Sasserine...

Well, if I've read Tides of Dread right, there's a fair chance the PCs will end up with Vanthus's intact and full-strength shadow pearl if they're a bit lucky...

StevenO wrote:

I am unfortunately thinking we will need to leave Demogoron alive provided there is any other way to stop the Savage Tide.

Perhaps the Abyss can survive his loss but with two-face out of the way Orcus and Grizzet can fight it out for control without the third party getting in the way. If one of them wins without another Demon Lord rising to match their status that could spell doom for the Devils in the Blood War followed by the rest of the multiverse.

Whatever the solution to the Demogorgon problem, it will involve allowing the lesser of two evils.

** spoiler omitted **

Good times for all!

Personally, I think the actual aim of unleashing the savage tide on the Prime Material is to

As to what that means in terms of how the plan could be foiled - well, to be honest the status quo ante would be a win, as far as the PCs are concerned. Quite aside from the fact that if the Tide occurs then most of the world devolves into acidic cannibalistic madness, a Demogorgon with his ambiguities and weaknesses purged away would be at LEAST as dangerous as the current incarnation, and probably more...

ikki wrote:

heheh, I knew it!

Suspecteed it from the moment of that "love potion prank", and "being separated" :D

I guess I didn't notice that... Where was it mentioned?

Way, way waaay back in TINH, when the PCs ask Lavinia about Vanthus.

I was thinking the same about beefing up the pirates, when my PCs get to that point. First thing I was going it do is add a wizard, since it'll probably be the last opportunity in quite a while for the PC wizard to learn any new spells other than the bonus ones he gets when he levels up. A few Stormwrack spells to protect/enhance the ship are probably in order, both because they'll make the encounter tougher, and because they'll do the PC wizard a lot of good down the track in the Abyss etc when it comes to protecting the Sea Wyvern. I'll have to make sure that there's nothing that will let them prevent the wreck, though!

As for pets - recommend against using an actual creature. Remember the pirates are near-starving, and in that case any living pet that they might have had may have met with an 'accident' and found its way into the stewpot. Perhaps a construct of some sort, which the pirates discovered on some distant island and intend to return to the Brotherhood for study? A clockwork horror or elder eidolon might be nifty - though a nimblewright is probably too tough for the party level...

Magic fails to work in the cursed tunnels.

I generally hate that as a solution. Massive blunt instrument, and always annoys the players because they know full well it's lazy. It hoses wizards horribly, it strips Krund of a lot of his power and menace, it messes with all the game system assumptions re frequency of healing etc, and it takes ages and is a complete atmosphere-killer for higher-level PCs to recalculate all their attack bonuses, ACs etc to strip out all the magic bonuses. Generally you'd do much better redesigning the thing to take PCs capabilities into account while preserving the spirit of the adventure.

You'll probably need to put a bit of thought into modifying Parrot Island. 5-7th level characters have 3-4th level spells at their disposal, and that gives them all sorts of ways to escape from the tunnels once Vanthus locks them in. Dimension Door, stone shape, gaseous form, adamantine weapons applied to the trapdoor, etc etc. And if they have the means ready at hand the may well even be able to get out so fast that they'll actually catch Vanthus on the island before he can get away...

After reading all this, I've got a bad feeling that that last Savage Tide adventures are going to be like the nightmare that was Planescape....PCs get railroaded.

There's always going to be an unavoidable amount of railroading in a prewritten campaign, but I'd hardly despair yet. While I wasn't impressed with the final few adventures in Shackled City, Paizo seems to have learned a lot since then, and the outline for Enemies of my Enemy seemed to at least imply it's relatively non-linear.

Besides, with the resources available to 19th+ level characters, they're actually REALLY HARD to railroad! Divinations, wishes, DC 40+ Gather Info and Diplomacy checks, transportation and conjuration magic all give them a vast array of options, and the players by now know how to leverage their PCs far more effectively than the GM knows his NPCs. I'm sure there'll be a simpler course of action, for the more straightforwardly-inclined groups, but more thoughtful parties will have a massive range of options open to them. One obvious gambit I can think of, for instance, is actually going to find one of the past escapees from the Wells (I'm pretty sure some of them are still alive, since they're unageing immortals) and asking them how they did it...

So, my PCs look set to be finishing TINH at 3rd level, and Gambit is designed for 4th (and the Kraken Cove bit of it is tough even at that).

I want to run Escape from Meenlock Prison from #146 to bridge the two adventures, level the PCs up, and introduce an ongoing subplot I've been planning, but I'm having trouble working out how to run the transition. The main problem is that at the end of TINH (assuming the PCs decide not to join up with Rowyn, of course...) the PCs find Vanthus's letters, in which he talks about his planned heist at Kraken's Cove. Surely the obvious thing for them to do once they find this out would be to head straight away to the Cove in order to intercept him as soon as possible.

Any suggestions as to how I can delay the beginning of Gambit a bit, so I can run Prison? Having Lavinia send them on some sort of unrelated side-quest doesn't really fit, since it'd be a bit out of character for her to see anything as a higher priority than hunting down Vanthus at this stage. Delaying Vanthus's plan (and mentioning the planned date in the letters) is a bit of a worry, since it might mean that the PCs will decide to get to Kraken Cove early to lay an ambush, and get caught in the Tide themselves. Not really sure how to make this work...

The trick might be to keep them on their toes. They're in the underdark remember - there's all sorts of nastiness down there. Mix up your random encounters - some walkovers, and some that will need running away from. A beholder might be fun - there's a few mentions of those in the obituaries thread. A beholder in the same room as an advanced black pudding could be even more fun - antimagic gets mean! Delvers are weapon-trashers par excellence. An invisible (or ethereal) gravecrawler? Advanced corrupted leechwalker? Sporebats? Don't be afraid of outgunning them as long as you're not TPKing in the first round or two - a smart party won't hang around and fight to the death when they're obviously out of their league, and there's always someone bigger and badder than you out there. Monitor their light sources/vision ranges at all times, and have deep-dwelling enemies target light sources as a priority, leaving PCs without darkvision floundering.

Mr. Slaad wrote:

How is the wells of Darkness? Is it excellent?

Heck yea it is. Allot of eye candy from the Red Shroud to the Lady of Delights (can't help but notice that as this AP goes on their is a few hot demon woman running around). The return of the Demonomicon of Iggwilv and don't forget a few gold coins for the Boatman of the River Styx and so much more.

Can we have a bit of a summary? Some of us are on the other side of the world and won't get the magazine for another month, you know... ;)

One trick that I worked out too late (ie, after subscribing!) is that you can often get your magazines quicker to Australia if you wait for them to be available as back-orders on the website, then order them that way. Subscriptions seem to be less reliable, for some weird reason...

It costs a little more that way, but it can be worth it - for instance, if, like me, you're running Savage Tide and keen to know how it ends so you know how much your on-the-fly modifications and additions have messed the plot up!

Well, I've messed around with the pantheon in my campaign, and among other changes I've made Gwynharwyf a god. Her favoured weapon is the falchion, her alignment NG, and her domains are Animal, Celerity, Good, War and Wrath. Of course, this means I'm probably going to have to do a complete rewrite of Enemy of my Enemy when that comes out, to account for her changed status when the PCs go and ask for her help, but I'm blissfully ignoring that issue at this stage...

Really great ideas here for a DM beginning this adventure path- kudos!

Lex Talinis wrote:

Now she has a knife given to her by a former friend that can only be used on one person... (kinda like Capt. Jack Sparrow's gun - one shot only meant for an old friend).

I love this- how can you not use this dagger to enhance the story?

Yeah, that's really nice. To beef up the dagger a bit, how about giving her the Item Familiar feat from Unearthed Arcana? You'll have to tweak it to allow her to take it for an item that's not maigcal to start with, but it's a really nice image, her pouring her rage into the dagger until it develops power and sentience of its own...

Where in the path are you up to now?

Towards the end of TINH. First thing next session, my PCs will be breaking into the Taxidermist's Guild in the middle of the night.

How’s it all been going (story/combats) etc any pitfalls to avoid? Anything you’d change or urge a rusty DM (such as myself) to watch out for?

Know your grapple rules. Rhagodessas are character death on a stick. Be a bit flexible when it comes to Gather Info checks when the PCs are searching for Vanthus - the continued plot requires they find him, but things can come to a grinding halt if none of the PCs have any particular social skills.

Have the alignment/class and race choices made by the players during character generation affected the campaign a lot IYO?

A cleric with decent turning ability can really make Parrot Island a walk in the park. Two PCs with healing capability are very nice to have - my group has a cleric and dragon shaman, and it's saved the group's bacon more than once.

How much time (in real life) has it taken you to get to where you are now?

One session character generation, one on the Blue Nixie, one at the vaults and doing social stuff, one looking for Vanthus, one under Parrot Island, and one spending loot and investigating the Lotus Dragons. Sessions run from 3-4 hours generally. It really depends how much time you put into roleplaying Gather Info checks, shopping for gear, etc. I'm taking a bit of a middle path on that - introducing a few interesting NPCs who can make repeated appearances as time passes. Sasserine's a pretty cool place, and game time spent fleshing it out and making it more genuine-feeling is generally a good investment.

What do you think of the advancement rate of the player characters?

It's pretty fast so far, but it's needed to be. 1st-level characters are extremely vulnerable to going down after one hit, and with all the minor healing etc going on, low-level combat can begin to resemble a game of whack-a-mole. The sooner PCs get off 1st level the better IMHO.

I have picked up three new players and have three old experienced gamers –what’s your view on new/inexperienced players and Savage Tide? (Death trap/tons of fun/both?)

Not too bad so far, but knowing about slightly more advanced combat options like Aid Another, grappling, and the like can be very handy under Parrot Island. Further along it looks like protection spells and divinations will be absolutely mandatory, so if your inexperienced players are playing casters then you might need to be a bit careful.

My players all have a back-up character (or four in one paranoid players case) and I have informed them it’s going to be a toughy. Good idea?

I've told them it'll be tough (no fatalities yet, though the samurai has been down to -9hp three times under Parrot Island and once more on the Blue Nixie), but I haven't encouraged building of back-up characters. Mostly because it takes me a while to introduce new PCs to the group anyway, and because exactly which back-up PC gets activated depends on which character(s) died and what that means for party balance.

How do you feel mixed alignment parties will fare in the ST?

Probably not too badly. The dilemmas so far seem to be decisions of loyalty rather than morality. Paladins and other LG characters might have a problem with all the temporary alliances with evil that go on further down the track though.

Do you use miniatures in the path? What is you're opinion of them? Do they add or take away from the game/roleplaying?

We use them. They're handy in combat so people can see what's happening rather than rely on the GM describing it all - it speeds things up and reduces the scope for misunderstandings.

Remember that after Sasserine the PCs won't really have the opportunity to buy magic gear of their own choosing until they hit Scuttlecove at about 16th level. If nothing else, giving them a bit of cash to play with will make it a lot easier for them to craft their own stuff - it particularly matters for fighters and the like, who might invest three or four feats in something like a glaive, and then not find a magic weapon for the best part of ten levels. In that case, letting them get a bit above the recommended wealth-per-level guidelines wouldn't bother me overly, especially with tough encounters like Kraken's Cove, the Mother of All, the hydra, and the Flotsam Ooze still to come.

Having said that, I did cut down the rewards Lavinia offered (ESPECIALLY before she regains her family treasure from the Lotus Dragons at the end of TINH!) since her finances are rather parlous and it seems a little illogical for her to be throwing thousands of GP around at that time, Wis 8 or no Wis 8. Though to balance that out, my PCs escaped from Parrot Island having found (but not used) the elemental gem, which puts them way above the power curve (despite them destroying all the potions trying to open the sea chests). The Lotus Dragons aren't going to know what hit them - a large earth elemental might as well be a tactical nuke at 2nd level...

Also, you could change the template away from Death Knight to something else, like a spirity thing or something. I totally understand why you would want to keep him as he's already statted and all, but it's an idea.

Actually, I'm going with Death Knight more as a foreshadowing thing for Vanthus later. When the PCs first encounter Hesketh, they'll probably do some research and with a decent Knowledge check I can tell them 'the first Death Knights were created by the Demon Prince Demogorgon', even if all this happens before they run across Olangru and the Lemorian Golem in HTBM. It makes it seem more logical and less handwaved when Vanthus comes back after being killed if I've already established that Demogorgon's favoured instruments come back from death as death knights in his service.

Of course, I may have to change a bunch of this, since James Jacobs posted on another thread that St Kargoth will play a part in the Savage Tide, and obviously I'll have to tie Hesketh's story and plotline in with this somehow - if only I knew how it was going to play out! I'll have to introduce him in the next month or so (leaning towards doing it in a bridging adventure between TINH and BG - perhaps Escape from Meenlock Prison, if I can think of the slightest reason for a CR17 death knight to be hanging around a winery run by a bunch of 3rd-level types!) and I'm worried about writing myself into a corner when it comes to the latter parts of the AP.

Thematically, Zotzilaha is a lot darker and existential which is kinda fun. It's just hard for me to wrap my mind around the idea that a god of destruction cares that much about the culure. Then again, I also have been identifying the Olman pantheon with the Greyhawk pantheon as a whole. For example, Quetzacouatl is an aspect of Heironeous, Zotzilaha an aspect of Pyremius or Erythnul, Xoipilli (who's not so much mentioned but I stuck him in there for a PC of...

Yeah, we probably differ fairly majorly in our view of the gods. In my (non-Greyhawk) campaign, there's local pantheons all over the place, and the power of the gods waxes and wanes with the number of their worshippers. So while the major gods (heavily inspired by the gods of Song of Ice and Fire, plus a few extra blow-ins like adaptations of Umberlee, Gwynharyf, and Baron Samedi) are pretty much untouchably powerful by reason of their widespread worship, Zotzilaha, who's clinging onto a mere couple of hundred worshippers who don't really see him as a particularly major deity even among their pantheon, has diminished enough than now he's lurking in a cave like Gollum, muttering over the past and going quietly mad. And he's only going to get weaker, as the priests settling in Farshore begin to convert the last few of his Olman believers. This ploy with the PCs is probably his last throw of the dice to get his vengeance on Demogorgon...

Hezreth is an Olman, correct? Why not make him one of the orignial tattooed demon hunter guys?

Demogorgon has tricked him into believing that the pearl will help the empire, by wiping out disease or something. But the PCs know what will happen when it activates and are sent back by Zotzilaha to stop it. This creates a much more believable situation as to why Hezreth wants to redeem himself. I don't really like the idea of Zotzilaha being the one who sent them back, though he is the only one with an avatar on the Isle. Maybe Quetzacouatl tells the couatl in the Temple of the Jaguar to give the heroes his tail feathers, one of which is from Quetzacouatl's tail, and those could be used to activate the puzzle?

I just woke up, so pardon the strange logic.

I haven't really decided whether the guy's going to be an Olman or not yet, though I'm leaning towards no. It might ruin the surprise for the PCs if they connect him with the Olman Empire before they encounter him in the past, so I'm rather tempted to make him Generic Medieval Armoured Bloke, or go with the Cortez-analogy I mentioned earlier. And I can't really make him a good guy misled by Demogorgon either - the big D makes death knights out of his faithful servants imho, not his gullible dupes! ;) I figure that at the time of the end of empire, the totem demonhunters are probably a marginalised sect or resistance cell, viewed as dangerous fanatics as demon-worship increasingly infiltrates itself into the higher echelons of Olman society. It's not Greyhawk canon afaik, but hey, my game's not set in Greyhawk, so that doesn't bother me overly...

The Zotzilaha (thanks for the correct spelling, btw!) thing is a bit trickier. It fits thematically in all sorts of ways, but (inevitably I suppose, given this is a time travel plot!) there's something of a temporal paradox involved.

The reasons i'm still leaning towards Zotzilaha:
- I like the 'feel' of Zotzilaha better than Quetzalcoatl. If Q sends them, there's something of a 'destined heroes sent on a divine mission to save the day' vibe, whereas if Z does it, it's more 'harbingers of doom who watch one of the great cataclysms of history unfold, helpless to resist its inexorable march'.
- As you say, Zotzilaha is already in the campaign, and has a role to play with the Tooth of Azahu. And from everything else written about the campaign, Quetzalcoatl is pretty much defunct. Plus, I like the idea of the god of destruction, having overseen the destruction of the empire, the civilisation, and the pantheon, being the last one left standing (even though it is mad and diminished and squatting in a cave).
- No matter what the PCs do, they can't save the Olmans. Game necessity - for the purposes of this campaign, the broad strokes of history are immutable and cannot be messed-with by magical time travellers. If the PCs do something to derail the course of events, then coincidences, side-effects and unexpected factors will intervene to make things happen properly again. It's probably a law of the universe or something. But Quetzalcoatl wouldn't send them unless they had a chance...

All of my players were laughing until Krund showed up. They stopped pretty quick then, I can tell you. (It's amazing what a bit of imaginative description of spell effects can do - if I'd have said 'he has a shield of faith going' rather than 'he is cloaked in darkness that writhes and flickers over his form like a live thing, and drips down into his withered hands to form dark, cold flames' then they wouldn't have taken him anything like as seriously...)

I love the Eagle and Jaguar Warriors (they were updated as prestige classes in a Dragon not too long ago, if I remember right - one of those issues focusing on the old TSR campaign settings). I'd definitely be giving PCs the opportunity to work toward those prestige classes, or to create new Eagle/Jaguar Warrior PCs if their regular PC died in CoBI, but for the purposes of this subplot I was going to aim for more of a conquistador-vibe, with Hesketh and his men playing the Cortez role. It gives Hesketh one more thing to regret, doing it that way...

One thing that struck me about the AP was the relative scarcity of recurring NPCs. Sure, there's Lavinia, plus a few cameos from the Jade Ravens, Avner, Rowyn and Harliss, and I suppose Vanthus counts even though he only actually appears in the flesh (so to speak) a couple of times, but I'm looking for something a bit bigger.

So, currently I'm thinking in terms of Sir Hesketh the Forsaken (name negotiable!), death knight - a character heavily influenced by the death knight in Lost Temple of Demogorgon, from (I think) Dungeon 106.

Sir Hesketh was a powerful warrior who fell into the service of Demogorgon millennia in the past. He was instrumental in the detonation of the first Shadow Pearl and the subsequent destruction of the Olman Empire. But he had lived in the Empire for years in the buildup to this, and when the civilization fell into ruin he felt oddly empty at seeing beauty and achievements that he had grown to appreciate (and possibly a woman he had grown to love) destroyed. He fell into ennui, and drifted slowly from Demogorgon's sight, obeying those orders he was directly given to the letter but without enthusiasm, and otherwise spending his eternal existence in aimless wandering.

The first time the PCs encounter Sir Hesketh I haven't yet decided on. Some time in SWW is a possibility - HTBM has enough Demogorgon-related stuff already, and he doesn't really slot conveniently into the first two adventures. But he will meet them, thoroughly kick their butts for a round or two, and then say something like "I remember you" and back off. He may ask a couple of cryptic questions that the PCs don't understand, engage them in philosophical conversation, discuss honor with the samurai, etc, etc. Generally, he will know much more about the PCs than he has any right to, and will creep them out good and proper before allowing to go without killing them.

The subsequent times will follow a similar pattern. He will appear seemingly out of nowhere to share the PCs fire, converse in his sepulchral manner, or even possibly pull their fat out of the fire if they end up in a fight and TPK looms too closely.

Then comes Zotilzha. I'll modify him to be the Olman god of volcanoes and destruction. He will tell the PCs that his very nature demands destruction, that through his actions the Olman Empire the birthed him was destroyed, but that he will avenge himself by setting in motion the destruction of its destroyer before his nature turns in upon itself and he destroys himself. He will lay a mark on the PCs, some sort of mystic tattoo or brand. It may provide some minor in-game benefit (perhaps Fire Resistance 5, or a single reroll 1/day), but its true nature will not become apparent until CoBI.

When the PCs reach Taboo Island, they will find their way to the room with the sun, moon and star disk. It's always seemed to me that since the disk is such an obvious puzzle, Khala would have delegated to some skinwalker or dretch the task of methodically trying every combination in turn until he discovered the real one, and Khala could check out what was hidden. Instead, I'm going to have the Disk only activate for someone bearing the mark of an Olman god - like those of Zotilzha that the PCs bear. The disk doesn't simply cough up the Nimbus Bow - it actually transports the PCs back in time to the last days of the Olman Empire.

When they're here, they can witness the first Savage Tide, negotiate the plots and plans of the Olman nobility and priesthood, encounter the Olman Gods, be trained in Olman magic and prestige classes etc, decide whether or not to mention the horrible approaching doom, get given the Nimbus Bow, and meet Sir Hesketh, as he once was. Inevitably, they'll get involved in the conflict over the first Shadow Pearl, fight Hesketh and his minions, and somehow, through their actions, cause the Pearl to be detonated (probably by accident). They'll see the Empire go savage, see Hesketh realise that he mourns what he has destroyed, and then head back to the present before they get eaten by an entire city of savage Olmans. Khala's butt gets kicked, and we get back on track.

After this, it gets fuzzy. I'd like to see them try to redeem Hesketh - he'd know an awful lot about Demogorgon, and would be a useful source of information, but whether they do or not depends on who the surviving PCs are at the time and what attitude they have about the guy. He doesn't really fit into Scuttlecove, but perhaps he could show up as a prisoner in Divided's Ire? I can't really plan any further ahead than that until I get a look at the last three adventures,

Reasons I'm doing this: to add another recurring enemy/antagonist, to explain why Khala hasn't broken through the puzzle and snaffled the Nimbus Bow ages ago, to illustrate more vividly the backstory of the Olmans and Demogorgon, to provide a character in TLD/CoBI who can add a bit of continuity to proceedings (there's pretty much no NPC in either of these modules who will last longer than a session or two, as written), and to change the pace of things a bit during CoBI, because there's an awful lot of dungeon-delving in it and the preceding module, being thrust into the intrigue of a declining imperial court would be a nice change.

Statwise I haven't really put a lot of thought into him yet. He has to be strong enough to overpower the PCs early, but not so strong that he changes significantly the power dynamic in Into the Maw (assuming I put him there). Maybe CR16-17ish, maybe a Death Knight human knight 13, minus the undead followers and nightmare mount, perhaps spellstitched to give him a few abilities like Clairvoyance, Freedom of Movement, Dimension Door, Dispel Magic, and the like more for reasons of plot-convenience than anything else.

Any thoughts on this? Are there gaping plot holes I've missed? When and how should I have him make his first appearance? Is two death knights in the one campaign too much? And for those who have seen the next few modules in the AP, how would this sort of character fit in? We're still only very early in the campaign, but I'm almost certainly going to have to introduce him into the game before Dungeon #150 arrives and I get to see how things pan out...

My party (in the form of the half-orc scout) also grappled Krund. Admittedly it was made easier by the fact that the cleric had rebuked him first! The rest of the PCs were busy with 5 pirate zombies (very, VERY busy, to the point where one PC went down to -9 hp no less than three times), so rather than mess around and risk the duration of the rebuke expiring, the half-orc tied up Krund, threw him in the water off the ruined jetty, piled rocks on top of him and left him there. Tied up (Use Rope check of 23!) and pinned down, and only having a strength of 10, I'm not sure he'll ever be able to escape. I'm torn between simply having him stuck there for all eternity (because it was pretty cool, and the player deserves to not have his achievement lightly discarded), or having him somehow escape to complicate the PCs lives as they try to find an exit to the tunnels...

I'm considering putting a wizard on one of the pirate ship that the PCs will face towards the end of SWW. After that, there's not much in HTBM, but the Yuan-ti who control the flesh golems in the climactic battle of ToD might be an option too. Not sure if they're sorcerers officially (don't have my books with me), but it's pretty easy to change around if necessary.

It's a fun moment, really, and one that's sure to test your PCs' alignments sooner than later. (My party outright refused Rowyn; but hey, the option's pretty tempting, in a way.)

Just a suggestion: if they don't go for joining up with Rowyn, you might want to expand the room she's stationed in within the Lotus Dragons' Guildhall. It was so cramped in there, she didn't even have space to use her Tumble in combat, let alone drink her potions without provoking.

Well, one of my PCs has a background as a gamekeeper in one of the Vanderboren's more distant undeveloped landholdings, so I expect that to tip the balance of the decision, but it'll be fun to make them sweat at least.

I did notice that Rowyn's office room was rather tight. I was either going to have her move out of there to meet the PCs in a more open space, or else merge her office and bedroom with the bath room, with a few flimsy painted screens etc to provide privacy (and cover). It's still going to be interesting to see if I can get her out alive though...

The only thing you'll have to be a bit careful of is what you're going to say when the PCs ask 'so, who is this Lady of the Lotus then, exactly?' Does Penkus know Rowyn's true identity?

I did eventually end up going with the belated-condolences thing, having her happen across Lavinia and the PCs at the clerk's desk in the Castle Teraknian vaults. The politically ambitious wizards PC is feeling very clever about having seemingly made such a useful noble contact, heh. He even went to her for info when looking for Vanthus after the vault, reasoning that since both the Kellani manor and the place where Brissa lived with Vanthus were in the district, she might have heard something. He even asked her if she'd heard of this rumoured new thieves guild called 'the Lotus Dragons'!

My main problem now is that Rowyn is the only major female character other than Lavinia I've introduced, so when the PCs read about 'the Lady of the Lotus' then it's quite likely they'll make the connection, from a metagaming point of view. Oh well, I'll deal with it. If there was a way to accept Rowyn's offer without killing Lavinia then I'm sure they'd take it. As is, it's 50-50. (They still don't know that Vanthus and Rowyn killed the senior Vanderborens, after all!)

When the wizard in my game cast detect magic on that arch, I made the assumption that the spell involved was Stone Shape, cast by someone around 10-12th level. So that's moderate-strength transmutation, if I remember right.

The rotating pillar puzzle in the next room, on the other hand, I decided was a purely mechanical combination lock.

Hallow is an instantaneous effect that can't be dispelled. A basic Hallow effect (minus any additional spells keyed in) lasts basically forever once cast, unless someone unhallows over the top to counter. Just find an old abandoned temple of good (surely there'd still be a few Olman shrines to Quetzalcoatl on the Isle of Dread) and do your healing there. Sure, it's a pain, but that's what you get for being amoral! ;)

Or else there might be a CN temple somewhere that Hallows their grounds - Oldimarra might be CN, but he probably isn't a fan of undead eating his worshippers either...

Well, the problem is with the sheer NUMBER of blasphemies that can be flying around. Just from the books I can reach now, Balors, Wastriliths, Molydeus, Klurichirs can Blasphemy at will. Hezrous have it 3/day, and blood fiends once. Basically, what that says to be is that if you're fighting demons, after about level 12 in combat you basically have to be silenced permanently (and yes, that means the casters can only ever prepare silently metamagicked spells, and can't count on their command word operated items when the chips are down) or else have a bard permanently on countersong duty. And if you get ambushed, and lose a surprise round, say goodbye. Or I suppose Spell Immunity: Blasphemy on everyone in the party is an option, but that's a rather extreme use of resources.

I haven't played Blasphemy-level 3.5e yet, but to be honest once I start getting into that sort of territory I'll put the question to my players and see what sort of house rules (if any) they want to come up with. The Blasphemy barrage just doesn't look like fun to me, have to say.

Drewgonar, dwarf dragon shaman
Zareth Darkmore, human cleric of Jako the Rat, God of Callous Bastards
Shin Zu Abe, human samurai
Grundor Bayool, half-orc scout (planning to multiclass with barbarian)
Khai, human wizard

How have people handled the first appearance of Rowyn Kellani?

It seems to me that in the module as written she lurks at the end of her corridor like a FPS baddie or something, and doesn't seem particularly mobile or proactive when the PCs start dismantling her guild. And perhaps more of a concern to me - how do you establish who she is? My PCs are all out-of-towners, and aren't going to be able to recognise her from any other redhead with a rapier. Unless she's dumb enough to tell them her real name (in the six seconds she has to make her offer before the PCs cover the width of her tiny study and start whacking her) or have signed any of her correspondence with her real name (unlikely, since she insists the Dragons call her 'Lady Lotus', though Vanthus' love letters might be an exception) they won't even be able to identify her or to connect her to the rest of the Kellani family at all.

Is there any not-too-intrusive way of at least introducing her and her family before the PCs run across her in the guild? A chance meeting in Castle Teraknian when Lavinia goes to open the vault, for instance (surely the Kellanis have a vault there too)? Has anyone else managed to make Rowyn's appearance in the guildhall anything other than an exercise in 'um, who are you'?

They would make a challenging scuplt. The Half Ithlid and Chull are both expensive rare minis I believe. No cheap way to do this?

Half-Illithid is an uncommon, and not a particularly in-demand on IIRC. Though it is from an older set. Regardless, you should be able to pick a few of them up for not too much. And it's not like you need THAT many koprus at once, either.

Chuuls are more of a problem, granted.

Can I add my name to the 'I'd like to leech off your hard work' list?

humbleminion at yahoo dot com dot au

Jeez, that rhagodessa is turning out to be an utter meatgrinder. I ran the first session of There Is No Honor tonight, and after reading through this thread I was worried about how badly it might maul my (tactically non-brilliant) group. They managed to get through Vark and all his thugs before taking it on, fortunately, but it still brought the samurai all the way down to -9hp before the dragon shaman managed to squish it...