I'm also worried that this module will "wussify" dragons. Of course, there's more than one way to defeat a foe than fight them, but if that's how the dragon is defeated...
I would count on the author Mike Shel to deliver a satisfying conclusion.
The dragon, an aficionado of Taldan high culture, agrees to cease his depredations if the party can get him season tickets to the Oppara Opera House.
However, getting those tickets is an incredible challenge.
Wussified, indeed.
And then the difficult task of convincing the opera house manager to allow a dragon to attend, and figuring out the logistics of getting a grown dragon good seating.
Having a breath weapon means never having to worry about seating issues.
I'm also worried that this module will "wussify" dragons. Of course, there's more than one way to defeat a foe than fight them, but if that's how the dragon is defeated...
I would count on the author Mike Shel to deliver a satisfying conclusion.
The dragon, an aficionado of Taldan high culture, agrees to cease his depredations if the party can get him season tickets to the Oppara Opera House.
However, getting those tickets is an incredible challenge.
That phrase is actually spoken by the illusory Karzoug and was meant to be an evocative, if abstruse reference to some kind of underlying philosophy to which the Runelord of Lust might ascribe. My thought in designing the illusion was that it's of ancient creation and operates independently of the sinspawn sorcerer.
Really fine job on your submission, Steven. I've been watching your stuff since the Quicksand Cloak, which I thought was enormously clever. I also want to tell you that I love your traps and the name Anobaith is [iawesome.
1) I think it's important to define your terms. What ranges do you have in mind when you refer to low-, mid-, and high-level modules?
2) What about modules that end up straddling your range?
3) With the new format a higher level module can be fleshed out a great deal, but the bulk associated with high-level stat blocks and such still limits what can be covered in 64 pages. For this reason higher level adventures will cover a narrower range. For instance, Dragon's Demand may reach as high as 7th (that's in James' hands now). Patrick's Reborn Forge*, on the other hand, starts at 12th and plans on reaching 16th (I have my doubts that much can get cram into 64 pages, but he and James might prove me wrong).
* - (Let me say again that I'm super excited to see this one!)
I have to say how incredibly impressed I've been with the artwork in Paizo's products, especially the most recent ones. The artists who did the portrait and the street scene deserve medals.
Hats off to Patrick for landing this project! The new, expanded format provides an excellent opportunity to do justice to an unusual region of Golarion that likely needs that extra space. This is at the top of my list of upcoming Paizo products.
You're probably already aware of this, but The Dragon's Demand is scheduled for a May release and should take players from 1st to 6th (perhaps even 7th) level by the end. James Jacobs is doing development on it as we speak.
Re: Old Margreve, Endzeitgeist mentions it in his post above.
Dumb question time for people with the book: does it give any hints on which deities are primarily worshipped in Irrisen?
For that matter, do we get any new ones? It seems odd at times that there isn't an evil or at least amoral god of winter in Golarion.
Some of the Ulfen peasants in the rural towns still worship Pharasma and this is more-or-less tolerated by their Jadwiga rulers. However, most other religions are forbidden by the White Witches. At least one secret shrine to Desna can be found in the village of Kerad; it stands to reason that some of the peasants still worship other gods venerated before the Winter War. Take a look at those deities worshipped in the Linnorm Kingdoms and Realms of the Mammoth Lords.
What do you recommend for where the characters and/or adventure start? Reading the Taldor companion book, Wispil offers many races or will the village of Belhaim better suited? Will we see traits for Belhaim or just Taldor ones?
Unless James makes some major changes during development, we're strongly discouraging any PCs being from Belhaim--hard to "discover" a new town if you grew up there.
For the rest of it, I think James will be handling those aspects.
Anyway, only had time to breeze through the Bestiary, but where do the Ved come from. The Khala is from Bulgarian myth, but I am not having much luck identifying the origin of the Ved. Ved sounds like a name that should be something from folklore/myth.
You're absolutely right. I found this doing research on general slavic folklore. The ved has its origins in northern Croatia...
So, it's a great book. I love it. I really do. There's gonna be a 5-star review.
But, dear beloved Paizo. When you copy-paste Polish words and names into Golarion, please double check the grammar. It costs nothing, and makes one vitriolic bag of teeth (and one red dragon, O HAI DREJK!) happy. You got Czarny Las right, but Nadzieja Lato should be Nadzieja Lata. Yes, I know, our grammar can give Japanese a run for its money in complexity and obscurity, but still... ;-)
My bad for employing Google Translate. It translates Nadzieja Lato as "Hope Summer," while Nadzieja Lata translates as "Hope Years."
Forgive me, Bag o' Teeth. Your English will always be better than my Polish. ; )
Mike, I'm late to the game, but want to thank you for the "Isle of Shackles" Campaign setting -- Excellent book. I came searching for the more detailed map which is now available as PDF. Any chance that this will be available in an updated version of the Map Folio for Sk & Sh ?
Also -- can you make available your "Shanty's" -- there was one you posted, but I'd love to use them as bard/bar room material !! Thanks much !
Jim
Glad you liked the book! As always: post a review!
Alas, I didn't save the other shanties as there didn't seem to be much interest in the one that I posted (though at least that one remains available here in my list of Paizo credits.
I doubt that the very much improved PDF map of the Shackles will be included in an updated Map Folio, but the Paizo folks are the final authorities on such matters. Of course, it will always be available for download on the product page.
Hate to be a tease, but I think folks are going to be blown away by the artwork in this publication. The portraits especially are the finest stuff I've seen in Paizo's products, hands down. Hats off to the artist responsible; s/he captured concepts perfectly. Huzzah!
Can someone please tell me the "official" adjective to describe someone or something from Irrisen. I've seen "Irrisenian" on the boards, but "Irrisian" seems natural to me. I'm using Irrisen in a work of fiction and I'd like to make sure I'm using the right word.
Thanks!
The term I used in Irrisen-Land of Eternal Winter was Irriseni and I believe Rob & Adam maintained that during development.
These spoilers are so minor they're almost inconsequential, but I figured I should err on the side of caution.
The module opens up in Katapesh, in (as the mod says) "the famous Farseer tower", where "Venture-Captain Wulessa Yuul" gives players their briefing.
My problem is I cannot find any mention of this supposedly famous tower in any of my sourcebooks. In the Dark Markets sourcebook it is not found once. In fact, the Dark Markets sourcebook lists the Pathfinder Society lodge as meeting in the three-story building of Katapesh's local Explorer's Guild, which most local Pathfinders are members of.
It then goes on to give the Venture Captain's name as Aurora Steelbloom (both in Dark Markets, A Guide to Katapesh p. 41).
I have no problem altering the mod text to reflect the sourcebook, but before I did that I wanted to make sure I was not missing anything. Is the Farseer tower and Venture-Captain Yuul something that was introduced in previous adventures, or in another sourcebook? Or is this just a discrepancy that should be fixed?
Pathfinder Chronicles: Seeker of Secrets, page 10, Katapesh entry: Elsewhere in the city is Farseer Tower, home of Venture-Captain Wulessa Yuul and her retinue of blind servants.
well agreed, I'm not saying "this AP sucks" , Im just bored by the story line. Of course I haven't gotten all of them yet.
I do like them as individual modules, not saying the dungeon crawls arent cool.
I still think I'd like to see an AP all written by the same guy, choppiness and lack of continuity are commonly caused by this tag team author thing going on.
Coridan wrote:
I like the dungeons and each individual module a lot. It plays a lot like most of Shackled City (minus parts like Foundation of Flame), I just think lack of a cohesive story the PCs can really involve themselves in hurts APs.
So in my mind I am now seeing these as short APs...
That said, for use of that purpose this is great, but for my use of modules this is terrible!
Every module I have run was for PFS play, they are great for when I have a long holiday weekend and fit perfectly in that time frame.
With this new format I don't see how I can fit them in any more for how I use them.
Have thoughts come to mind of formatting these with obvious break points that would allow to run them in chunks and PFS play can be run in these chunks?
<snip>
Considering the way I'm designing Dragon's Demand it should most definitely lend itself to being split up into chunks for PFS play. Understand that when an adventure spans multiple levels, a designer needs to know at each point what level PCs are at —otherwise, how would one gage how challenging individual encounters are and if they are suitable for parties? I've actually developed a table specifically for tracking XP total from encounter to encounter in order to keep an eye on this. The module is designed so that the transition from one episode to the next coincides (roughly) with the PCs leveling up. While I can't speak for future volumes, I don't know how a designer could do things any other way.
Also, I'm sure Mark and his obseqious minions are looking at how the change in module format impacts PFS play. Unless he is engaged in some activity more evil.
I assume I'm not talking out of school here...if so, delete my post, Paizo!
I agree that the 64 page format gives much more flexibility and opens loads of doors for adventures. For The Dragon's Demand, most of those pages are going to be devoted to the adventure itself—I'm hoping PCs will be able to reach level 7 by the end, though that's gonna be pretty tough to achieve. Still, a module that moves players through six levels is pretty huge, twice as big as many single AP volumes.
The Dragon's Demand also features an isolated small Taldan town that serves as the party's base throughout the adventure. The plan is to write it up in considerable detail that should provide loads of role playing opportunities. I've already put a ridiculous number of creative hours into designing a town with over 60 unique buildings/locations and NPCs to populate them, many with backstories. This gave me a chance to create a really memorable setting like the one that drew me into D&D back in the old days: my very first taste of RPG, The Village of Hommlett. My hope is that players will be meeting lots of people and build relationships so that "Belhaim" becomes a word that conjures fond memories for all who spent time there.
The adventure itself is episodic in nature, building inexorably to a final confrontation with the BBEG.
Needless to say, I'm enormously excited about this project and want to thank James for this great opportunity.
It's true—there's a LOT of adventure plots that a 64 page adventure can do that neither an Adventure Path nor a 32 page adventure can adequately cover. The big "fight the dragon" adventure's a good example... and as it turns out, that's what our first adventure in the new format's gonna be all about!
Dragon? You didn't tell me you wanted a dragon in this one. ; )
So Curse of the Lady's Light is supposed to be themed after Lust. But except for "perfume" and doorknobs you have to, gasp, touch with your hand, it's pretty much batting .000 on the lust-meter, except for a mostly ex-relationship between Scarface and fake-Sorshen.
They Asylum Stone, on the other hand, is full of kinky-ass love triangles and various forms of bestiality. Which I heartily approve of, of course, but my main point is why is CotLL so... boring and vanilla?
Look, I know there's a variety of opinions on how salacious AP chapters should be, and there's a bunch of people still butthurt over Hook Mountain Massacre (zing!) but shouldn't the lust-themed chapter about the Runelord of Lust have... some lust in it somewhere? As a result, except for the clone gag, it's pretty boring an adventure.
Anyone else have the same reaction?
Sorry you found things boring and vanilla. However, I actually think that the Runelord of Lust is about dominating the wills of others--sex is only a means to that end. The Thassilion school of magic is enchantment-focused, after all.
Yes, a lot of the "lust" component is in the subtext, implied. Call that a cop-out if you want, but I think that's how you hit the right notes while aiming for a PG-13 rating (the target for all Paizo products).
Feel free to inject whatever salacious details into your own game you wish. There are plenty of places for you to do that.
I notice how you left out the possibility that the PCs knew what they were doing. Which helps a lot in every case like this.
Okay, since I didn't spell it out, we barely squeaked by. It was by far the hardest fight I'd had in PFS, which is good, imo. Keeps me interested.
That being said, a group of 6/7's should wipe the floor with that room as I said. Maybe you guys got unlucky.
** spoiler omitted **
There is still potentially the room to make things more challenging by making mooks more effective.
For all the lamentations about balance and the difficulty of the final boss, my turnover for In Wrath's Shadow had
Spoiler:
1) a permanent desecrate spell emanating from the altar and engulfing the entire room; and 2) tactics for the BBEG directed use of his quick channeling for two negative energy blasts right from the get-go. Adam (wisely, it seems) dialed that down in development. Also, the BBEG was an Allip/Cleric, not a Ghast/Cleric, with the nastiness that accompanies non-corporeal enemies in combat.
Thanks for the answer! That is what I love about Paizo. You care about your customers and show it.
I picked up AP #57 now and hey! All what I wanted is in there. A map of the city an a short breakdown of important places. Just too bad I had to put down that extra money.
And they're responding pretty quickly, especially in terms of publishing schedules. For instance, the upcoming Irrisen gazetteer has maps and juicy write-ups of Whitethrone, four provincial capitals, and a peasant village called Riba.
The problem with saying "X" scenario is Easy/Average/Difficult is that it varies so wildly from table to table. <snip>
Ditto this.
One of the pleasures of watching a scenario I wrote played over four days at GenCon is to witness the wide variation between tables. During the same session, I saw a table waltz through the first combat encounter in Wrath's Shadow and another get brutalized. Mark and the others developing the scenarios work hard for balance and making sure encounters are CR appropriate, regardless of what the numbers say, but there are so many variables affecting how encounters play it's impossible to know for certain what the outcome will be.
@Kyle: you left out one extremely important variable: GM EQ (Evil Quotient).
* 1 template (with 2-4 example creatures with the template applied)
* 3 other monsters (2 very different constructs, a dragon, and a giant)
* 3 sample winter witches (jadwiga Elvanna, daughters of the reigning queen)
The bestiary is shorter here than in Isles of the Shackles because we also have significant sections on Irriseni hazards and adventure hooks (ala Lands of the Linnorm Kings) as well as the large gazeteer and stat blocks for 5 cities/towns, and a sidebar on Irriseni holidays.
Bogwiggle (toad hound) - aberration
Grand Defender - Herald of Torag
Thassilonian sentinels (bronze, marble) - construct
Thanks, the Bogwid what is it? This bestiary doesn't sound that interesting to me however... ANother troll/goblin hound wannabe, a unique monster I never like that much and a construct... Too bad.
While I'm not responsible for all the bestiary entries, I think they are really cool and judgment shoudl be suspended until you actually see them.
Spoiler:
I'm particularly proud of the bogwid, in all of its disgusting, Lovecraftian horribleness.
The Thassilonian sentinels are not your average constructs, they have an alien, creepy vibe. Two forms are described (bronze and marble), but of course the door is open for many different varieties.
The bogwiggles are the "degenerate spawn of boggards," essentially boggard hatchlings that have been deliberately stunted. Two variant forms are included.
The grand defender is powerful CR 15 construct, tied into the Torag deity article.
Now be nice and copy-paste that into a 5-star review of the product...
WAY too unorganized and stream-of-consciousness-y. Reviews always feel awkward to me when they're meant to be put out for all to see, because if I put that up I'd feel like I need to put up my honest thoughts on other products that I had strong feelings on(both good and bad)*, and I really do hate being negative, especially in a venue where it feels like I'm bashing on a product from a company I really like right on the steps of their store. Just feels awkward.
Half-awake ramblings on the forums without much of a filter though, just to share thoughts on a product with other readers and the writers, comes through more naturally. Just wanted to send positive vibes, because I came into Shattered Star with a number of worries and this book really came through.
Besides, we have Dark Mistress and Endzeitgeist for that, don't we? ;)
Is half-awake now
*** spoiler omitted **
While I certainly appreciate any feedback, especially the kind of longer form feedback you provided, I think starred reviews end up drawing more attention to products. Indeed, when searching a product line I always order them by customer review scores.
Let me, then, also encourage you to post an official star-scored review and encourage others to do the same, even those who want to give it less than a stellar rating.
"Mud Sorcerers' Tomb" is originally a 2E adventure from Dungeon 37 that Paizo, as your office mates can tell you better than I or PWU, worked with the original author during 3.5 to do a redo of in Dungeon 138.
"Tomb of the Iron Medusa" is Shel's redesigned and recreated version for Paizo's Pathfinder world, as again, your colleages can say better than we.
So you and Mike Shel can crank out anything you want with "Tomb of the Iron Medusa" and a great many of Paizo's customers will know from where the ideas came / were inspired by, and appreciate it even though there is no mention of "Mud Sorcerers' Tomb."
I wrote the original Mud Sorcerer's Tomb for Dungeon #37, but the Paizo updating to 3.5 in issue #138 was done without me—James Jacobs tried to track me down to see if I was interested in the project, but he was unsuccessful ("Mike Shel" is a pen name). At any rate, MST is the property of Wizards of the Coast.
Also, Tomb of the Iron Medusa wasn't actually a "re-created" MST for the Pathfinder world, but brand spankin' new. Glad to hear from Power Word Unzip that he was scared for his PC's life—if the two modules had anything in common (other than both being tombs), I would hope it was that fear!
@Amanda, were you the person I met briefly at GenCon this year when I was on my way to lunch with the evil James Jacobs while you were on your way to lunch with the evil Wes Schneider? If so, howdy again, and welcome to the stable of Paizo freelancers!
In the boxed text for when the PCs get Maroux to a friendly status, she says:
** spoiler omitted **
Um... isn't there a bridge over the straits of Aroden? <http://pathfinder.wikia.com/wiki/Arch_of_Aroden> Though here is calls the straits the Straits of Hespereth. However, elsewhere (Council of Thieves, part 4) its referred to as the Straits of Aroden...
Anyone have an explanation?
The central third of the Arch of Aroden collapsed some time ago, making it useless as a bridge.
Alrighty. In response to the request, here are some responses to questions asked about running In Wrath's Shadow as well as some thoughts and suggestions I have for GMs. Understand that this is not an official post from Paizo, but a post from the freelancer. Adam and Mark, who did development on this scenario, may swoop in one day to give official decrees. I'm gonna spoilerize the whole thing.
Author's Notes
Spoiler:
1. I'd make the high tier haunt DC for bestow curse 18, which is appropriate for a CR 8 encounter.
2. Tholrist's domains are listed as evil and demon, but this doesn't seem to affect his spells and spell-like abilities, so no worries. My turnover gave him evil and darkness domains, so this change happened in development.
3. Trapped Statue: my turnover had no onset delay--touching either the belt or iron mask caused the statue's teeth to shatter and the blast of super-heated air engulfing the room immediately. Since the onset delay is necessary for the trap to be Pathfinder kosher, I'd make that one round delay, simply stating that some of the statue's teeth fell onto the floor, others fell into the statue's apparently hollow interior. That would likely keep at least one PC in to investigate further and catch a face full.
4. Re: the ghoul/ghast minions. My turnover had no minions (Tholrist was had a higher cleric level and was incorporeal--an allip to be exact), so I'm spitballing here. I'd say that since the spells are being cast by a caster "friendly" to the mooks, the buff spells are effective (for me the word "immune" always implies a resistance to magic or forces of hostile intent). Scott Young's rationale above for this works for me. As for Mergy's concern, the tactics imply that Tholrist casts those spells on a minion before the party can even see him. Even if they do witness him, Scott's explanation justifies the rule bending. Yes, a player may potentional waste a spell, but it makes sense that things would get weird when you're dealing with a caster from 10K years past.
As for Drogon's concern that rule bending to allow the BBEG to cast rage on a ghoul or ghast minion makes for a "not-very-fun fight," well...I'm not sure I understand how that takes the enjoyment out of the encounter. If you object that much as a GM to the rule bending, don't use the tactic.
As for the "mature" theme, yes, I wouldn't want my 10 year-oldbeing read some of those descriptions. However, I don't think anything violates the PG-13 standard Paizo espouses in its products (my beloved, rated-PG Raiders of the Lost Ark showed melting eyeballs and exploding heads, fer gawdsakes, along with other equally disturbing images).
A few suggestions for those running this scenario.
1. Provide a copy of the first level temple side view for the party
2. Watch how much you reveal to the party about harpies perched on the tops of the pillars. Using the side view as a reference, I don't think they would be able to see anything atop the easternmost pillars given the ceiling at the entryway and angles involved.
3. Pete Pollard's review complained that the party can't access the backstory info (to be fair, some is implied in the Knowledge checks). He suggested having the haunt employ bits and pieces of Tholrist's bloody sermon detailed in the intro text; that's a great idea: the haunt could be a mix of cultists verbalizing their agreement, with Tholrist's calls for sacrifice.
4. The secret door to the narrow hall leading from the BBEG encounter was supposed to be a one-way secret door (not sure if this was a change in development or an oversight). I think it works better if it's only usable as an exit, though I understand that some consider anything that sniffs of "railroading" a Crime Against Humanity.
5. The optional ooze encounter ended up being pretty unchallenging for the games I saw at GenCon because oozes have stellarly bad initiative. My turnover had PCs in the front rank knocked prone by the ooze bursting forth from its prison, anyone behind the front rank needing to make a skill check to avoid being knocked down as well. That might make this a more challenging encounter, or by giving the ooze a surprise round.
6. For those feeling the BBEG encounter wasn't sufficiently challenging, consider having the mooks hide behind pillars when the party opens the secret door and attacking only after a few have actually entered the shrine (most of the games I watched had almost all of the combat happening at the entryway itself). Tholrist hangs back from the fray, throwing his spells at the party. To beef things up, consider the following: my turnover had a permanent desecrate spell in the shrine, and Tholrist opened with two negative energy blasts at the party on the first round of combat (this is why the quick channeling feat was there). Substituting desecrate in Tholrist's stat block would be an option at the higher tier, using quick channeling for a double whammy would also toughen up the encounter.
I notice some of the other new scenarios have a bunch of "author's notes" being posted, including some more backstory and explanation... any chance of getting the same for this one?
Direct me to those threads. I'd be happy to do this, but I'd like to know what it is people are curious about and make sure Paizo doesn't mind such things being shared...
I loved this scenario and was honoured to have the author at my table 3 times. Some parts of it had the potential to be very creepy and provide a great opportunity to play up the atmosphere. Pretty sure I traumatized a kid who played at my table but it was very well received by all the groups I ran through it!
Dude! Write a review!
As for the trauma, there was one boxed text passage that Adam re-wrote during the development process that creeped me out. For the record, what's floating around in Mr Daigle's mind is far more disturbing than what's floating around mine! Paizo staff, keep a close eye on him!
Let me start by saying that I was never very enarmoured with the idea of Epic play. Being able to punch Cthulhu in the nose (or tentacle... whatever) never seemed very appealing to me. It's fun to kick butt, but I want to be mortally afraid of something, after all.
However, here's my two cents on the mythic system, based on what I heard at the GenCon seminars and what I gleaned in conversation with a couple of Paizo's resident geniuses:
1. Yes, they will have a public playtest and as always will listen to (rational) messageboard feedback.
2. IMHO this is an incredibly clever and elegant solution to the Epic problem of bad math and monstrously unwieldy stat blocks. Jason Bulmahn (and whoever helps him work out the kinks) deserves a medal for this concept.
3. Because this is an overlay system, my assumption is that those who do not want to use it can remove it with some effort, and just like mass combat, caravan rules, and other specialized systems introduced, won't appear in each and every Pathfinder product.
4. It was very obvious that the guys at Paizo are really excited about the potential of this system. This fact alone speaks volumes to me.
5. Regular PCs are already pretty awesome in terms of their power in the world, but even unnaturally talented folks are going to reach a limit as to the level of skill and power they gain. It makes sense from a storytelling perspective, however, that some extraordinarily rare few are (literally) touched by the Divine, and that's where extra-special awesomeness comes from (e.g., Hercules, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Hiawatha, etc). That is an emotionally and intellectually satisfying conceptualization in my mind: any adventurer who is lucky and works hard enough can become an 18th level whatever, but only those touched by the gods can become virtual demigods themselves.
6. As a freelancer, I am really jazzed about the kinds of stories I can tell with this kind of system. I am also excited about reading the kinds of stories others will contribute as well.
For those predicting Golarion-Shattering Cataclysm, I recommend taking a deep breath; let's see what happens. The Paizo folks have consistently demonstrated a strong commitment to maintaining the Pathfinder RPG's quality and integrity.
Thanks again to all the GMs who ran this scenario and GenCon and for letting me pop in and out to observe. Apologies to those who got murdered, hope everyone had a great time! Please take a few minutes to post your reviews. Paizo listens to feedback and so do I!
Eric must own some White Castle stock or something.
Take time to wander away from the convention for a trip to Yats at 659 Massachusetts Ave, Indianapolis and have a plate of the Chili Cheese Etouffe ($6.25 with bread) and a slice of the peanut butter pie if they've got it.
Trust me. From someone living in Indy for nearly 20 years, it's worth the side trek.
Is this the first time a second chapter has been made for PCs as high as 5th level? Interrestiiiing...
(I'm wondering if we're gonna span all 20 levels with this AP.)
Lady's Light was originally designed for a party starting at level 4. However, Greg Vaughn threw so much nastiness into the first volume that this one had to be adjusted (it's probably just as well that this happened, as I think my turnover only had a single encounter that was below CR 5 anyway). By the end of this volume players should be 8th level (providing, of course, [maniacal laughter] that they survive [/maniacal laughter])
I don't think there are plans to take this AP all the way to 20th level, but that's something the evil geniuses at Paizo would have to answer for certain.
