I'll pose the first question here...in the true tomb it states that when the Seal of Law is placed into the niche on pillar F, the pillar begins rising until it reaches a point ten feet below the ceiling, at which point anyone atop the pillar is lifted thru an illusory wall. Is this confusing to anyone else? Is the illusory wall there already, or does it not appear until the Seal is placed? Why does the pillar stop ten feet below this wall?
the illusory wall hides a hole in the cealing, is my understanding.
I don't see anything particularly wrong with the description or placement of the illusory wall . It all seems pretty clear to me and does not need any adjustment. There are a few other things that I would like explained, though:
SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!
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1. Ilthane is gifted alchemist, but has no ranks in Craft (alchemy). This is one small error that needs to be fixed.
2. Why doesn't a black dragon of Ilthane's standing have any magic items? Surely he would have at least a few items at his disposal? In the context of the adventure the battle with Ilthane is a bit of a non-event.
3. What alchemical substances have given Ilthane such nifty abilities? Are these substances going to be available to players when they explore Ilthane's lair? What is the DC for creating an alchemical substance that gives you immunity to poison?
4. How did Allustan get past the belkers in area 2, the traps in area 3, and Flycatcher in area 9 after being wounded by Ilthane? If the PCs find any of these encounter areas difficult they might want to know how a lower level wizard got past these areas by himself.
5. The text seems to indicate that this tomb was prepared in advance by Icosiol's followers should he fall in battle. The description of Sionsiar's tomb seems to support this, but am I reading too much into it?
6. Why has a creature of chaos been bound to guard the true tomb? It just seems a bit odd from a design standpoint. I'd like to get the rationale behind it.
Comments?
Creative Director
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All of the questions about Ilthane's ability to craft crazy powerful elixirs will be answered in an upcoming adventure, including why she doesn't have ranks in Craft (alchemy) and where her magic items are and how her alcemical substances work. (This is one of the few angles of the adventure path that snuck up on us, so it's taking a bit to reverse-engineer things in...)
As for how Allustan got by the guardians of the tomb... it's easiest enough just to say he did by using his magic, his spells, and his prodigious weeks of researching the tomb before investigating it.
The tomb was indeed prepared in advance, similarly to how Egyptian pharoahs prepared their tombs in advance.
The oculus demon was bound into the tomb to guard it as a way to punish the demon. Death is far more merciful for an immortal enemy than binding it into eternal servitude.
Its interesting that Ilthane's lair will be more interesting than the dragon herself seemed to be. In my campaign I think I'll make Ilthane prepare a clone of herself should she be slain (the clone will be an alchemically created one). Then when the heroes arrive at her lair they'll find a very angry dragon who is prepared for them and has access to all her magic items and stuff. Of course, if her lair doesn't support this move I'll have to do a bit of nifty footwork to make it happen.
The rest of your explanations seem fine, though the Allustan issue stills bugs me somewhat. I also think the tempest chamber is major nasty, and would like to know whether the slope in the chamber is counted as a gentle slope or a steep slope for movement purposes?
...though the Allustan issue stills bugs me somewhat. I also think the tempest chamber is major nasty, and would like to know whether the slope in the chamber is counted as a gentle slope or a steep slope for movement purposes?
Perhaps Allustan had a small cache of spell scrolls, just for adventuring purposes?
I'm most curious why Ilthane would fight to the death. Anger over the disruption of her plans, and being hired to kill Allustan and the PCs goes far, but would she really fight to the bitter end? Any thoughts on this...? Maybe one of the elixirs she's imbibed has affected her mind? Should I play her in a psychotic way? :-)
I'm most curious why Ilthane would fight to the death. Anger over the disruption of her plans, and being hired to kill Allustan and the PCs goes far, but would she really fight to the bitter end? Any thoughts on this...? Maybe one of the elixirs she's imbibed has affected her mind? Should I play her in a psychotic way? :-)
I've had issues with this sort of write-up since way back in 3FoE, in which EVERYONE was a crazed fanatic and wanted to fight to the death. I maintain that it is a space/effort saver and would prefer that it not even be mentioned by the adventure writer.
One of my main complaints is that it destroys the verissimilitude of setting when everyone the PCs come up against has no grasp of his/her own mortality and has no self-preservatin instinct. It is especially noticable when the PCs fight large groups of reasonable weak opponents, and they fight to the last man, instead of surrendering when they've lost half their number, and the PCs are all still standing.Sorry about the rant. I guess I would sum up by saying, If there's a reason for a villain to fight to the death, let us know what it is. Otherwise, provide a reasonable surrender/flee point or don't mention it at all and let reasonable DMs come up with a realistic description.
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I've already answered why Ilthane would fight to the death in my campaign. Since she has cloned herself she does not fear death, as she knows she will simply return when her original body is destroyed. Also, there is the possibility that Ilthane might return as an undead monster (possibly a type of Kyuss spawn), though I'd make Dragotha the only undead dragon.
All of the questions about Ilthane's ability to craft crazy powerful elixirs will be answered in an upcoming adventure, including why she doesn't have ranks in Craft (alchemy)
This is appreciated, as I was mighty confused when I saw the statement about Ilthane and alchemy, and then absolutely nothing in her stats to back it up...
Concerning Ilthane's desire to fight to the death, she has a great need for vengence. The PC's destroyed her plans of creating an undead army for Dargotha, thus carving herself a place within the decayed world. The PCs are not stopping minor politcal take overs of small villagers. These are world shaping plans the PCs are foiling, and if the end of the plans are near, then a evil-doer will, in movie style fasion atleast, try to take out at PC with him.
I just looked over the overload, and they initially planned to have the show down in the city. I've modified the plans to try to increase the impact the encounter with Ilthane will have on the PCs. What I plan on doing is first, foreshadow the show down by increasing the agents of Ilthane's attacks against the party. They've fought two already.
Second, the destruction of Ilthane will be in two parts. First she stands and fights them within Diamond lake. Whole buildings being destroyed in the process. The PCs will be targeted by the local's anger after Ilthane's attack.
She will then try to finish them off at the Cairn's entrance, after stopping at a cache of healing potions. The PCs will notice during or after the battle that Allustan was not fighting and will be informed of the mage's location by one of the villagers. Allustan will be in the tomb during the whole encounter. He'll have a few hiringlings with him initially, but by the time the Pcs find him, most will be killed off.
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Flycatcher
- While his statblock lists the DC as 20, the save DC for Flycatcher's silk slick should be 18 (10 + 1/2 HD + Dex), possibly 13 (10 + spell level + Cha) if the ability is treated like the grease spell, or 21 according to the Monster Manual II. But the MM2 hails back to 3.0 days and I'm not certain save DC's were calculated the same back then. Nothing is mentioned about shadow spiders in the MM2 errata.
- The DC for Flycatcher's paralysis attack is listed as 24, but should be changed to 22 (10 + 1/2 HD + Con).
The Noble Salamander's longspear should deal 2d6 base damage, not 1d8 (since it's a Large creature, the spear damage should be upsized one step).
This was confirmed in Cooper's Compendium of Corrected Creatures.
Under the Tactics for Moreto (p.58) it states that he relies on his mohrgs and summoned undead to defend him.
Summoned undead? What summoned undead? He doesn't have any summoning spells, special abilities, or magic items that summon undead.
Was something omitted?
Hagen's math (above) is off.
For Flycatcher, if you use the default special ability formula, the save DC against paralysis should be 24 (1/2 HD = 8, +10 = 18, +6 Con = 24).
For the silk slick, the adventure is correct with the DC listed at 20 (1/2 HD = 8, +10 = 18, +2 Dex = 20).
EDIT: Ahh, my bad. You don't add his 3 sorcerer levels when calculating the save DC. So the paralysis DC should be 22 and the silk slick DC should be 18.