House of the Beast (GM Reference)


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Grand Lodge

James Jacobs wrote:


It is. Although after working in the RPG industry for about a decade, I can tell you that eventually having someone catch a math error that slipped by you gets progressively less embarrassing. Just like spelling errors, such as misspelling the word "embarrassing." :-P

...sigh. To add to the embarrassment, I should probably note that I have a degree in English. (Lit, not Language, but still.) I offer in my defence the fact that it's a quarter past one in the morning over here, and my mental faculties may not be at their peak. Of course, that then begs the question of why I'm making errata posts at 1 in the morning, but there you go. I think it's mostly because I ran my first session of LoF this afternoon, and it was so much fun that I haven't been quite able to calm down since. :)

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Ninjaiguana wrote:
... and it was so much fun that I haven't been quite able to calm down since. :)

All other sins are forgiven!

Glad you're having a good time with Legacy of Fire! Now get some sleep! :-)

Sovereign Court

I can't sleep either, and my last LoF game was 10 days ago. :P

Sadly, we only play once or twice a month for four or five hours on this one... (newfound "to play more" group... not as crazy committed as the older, once a week "longstanding" group...)


Pathfinder Adventure, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Maybe I'm missing something somewhere, but there was no description to H6a on the Warrens and Middle Temple map. I'm guessing if the passage gets cleared it leads them down to I4 below. Does that sound correct?


Part of the backstory of my campaign is that they were cursed a couple hundred years ago. I'd love to have this curse actually be a wish granted by Jhavhul, but I'm having trouble figuring out the timeline. Do we know how long ago he was in the House of the Beast, or do I have wiggle room?

Has anyone come up with a good way to reveal the House's original purpose?

Sovereign Court

James: in the page 55 section which describes the land around Kelmarane and which has a random encounter table, I've been using the "Chances of Encounter Per Day" listed in the FR supplement "Silver Marches" (i.e. table includes a "per day" chance instead of having to roll for every hour... basically works out to 50% chance per day when travelling and 28% chance per day when travelling cautiously... and a lower chance for "stationary" partys... and a lower chance for a party that is in hiding...)

Are there more "Golarion-official" encounter "chance per day" guidelines out there? (i.e. within the LoF campaign or any other Pathfinder book)


Shouldn't Zayifid have a fly speed of 20 ft.?


Is there errata for this module somewhere? Ghartok's stat block is six different kinds of borked. I'm also somewhat irked of his use of a class that I don't have access to. Hrmm, perhaps I'll just redo him from scratch.


I have a question about Lesaar

spoiler:
My PCs helped Lesaar in the Set Piece, and promised to help him return to his home plane. They even used his cavern system as a home base while they raided the House of the Beast. Now they've retrieved the Scroll of Kakishon and are ready to return to Kelmarane. However, they did not find anything to send Lesaar home.

Did I miss something? Unless I'm mistaken, a Dismissal spell is what they need, but they don't have access to that spell yet.

Spoiler:
At the moment, they are casting Invisibility on him and he is going to Kelmarane with the group. They hope to find a way to help him once they reach Katapesh . . . if they can keep him hidden.

So far, he is playing along as he doesn't have much choice if he wants to return home.


Gray. I just saw this post.

Spoiler:
Invisibility is ok for now...but the heat a flamebrother gives off should cause the heroes some alarm and roleplaying opportunities...

Spoiler:

Rayhan Xobhadi could be Lesaar's salvation. Almah could talk about Rayhan's study of interplanar travel and hint that he might know how to send Lesaar home. Divination spells could also reinforce this train of thought. Rayhan has access to Dismissal and could trade information of Plane of Fire for Lesaar's ticket home. He gives Lesaar some sort of communication device so Rayhan could contact him later. This might even set up the heroes' trip to City of Brass...Im still reading Pathfinder #21, so Im not sure how they good guys get to the City yet. :)

Hopefully, you havent played too far into Katapesh that this story could still work.


drunken_nomad wrote:

Gray. I just saw this post. ** spoiler omitted **

** spoiler omitted **

Hopefully, you havent played too far into Katapesh that this story could still work.

Thanks! They still haven't made it very far beyond Pale Mountain, so this will still work.


Pygon wrote:

Question: In building A of the House map...

Spoiler:
There is mention of a buried staircase that leads to "subterranean passages", but I can't seem to find where the staircase actually leads. Does it end at an open room, or in a rough passage, etc.?

Also..

Spoiler:
It isn't entirely clear where the other three slaves are. Two are apparently watching for intruders, but I figured if two can notice intruders, the other three can notice them easily enough as well, but they aren't mentioned.

I suppose these things are easy enough to fudge, I just wanted to know the intent. Thanks.

I would like an answer to these questions as well.

Spoiler:
H17: Lazrul's Kingdom is directly below building A and is approximately the same shape as well. Are building A and H17 supposed to be connected? Are all the escaped slaves supposed to be part of one group lorded over by Lazrul? Should I just ignore the mention of the staircase in building A, or should I add the other end of that staircase somewhere in H17?


Barring an official answer to the stairs in area A, how about:

spoiler:
The slaves found in area A escaped when they were on their way to the surface. How about they escaped up H12 to area B. From there, they ran to the courtyard, a couple of their numbers were killed by attacking gargoyles, and they then fled to hide in in Area A.

So no staircase in Area A. They can tell the PCs of the staircase in Area B.

Area H17, the other possibility, was formerly "a secret meeting chamber". Doesn't make sense that there would be stairs to the surface there. If they were, they'd be behind a secret door which fleeing slaves probably wouldn't discover.


Just reporting in that yesterday my group consisting of five players and six 4th level characters killed the Carrion King himself, next to the Maggot Throne room, without any breaks after the last day of march to the House. I can't believe their luck choosing exactly the right directions and happening to find just the right secret passages. I'm quite sure they haven't spoiled themselves, and also I have a habit of rolling perceptions secret so I believe it was just pure luck.

They leveled up twice on their way (using PFRPG medium advancement track), but didn't stop for rest, so the leveling never happened before they were standing in front of the King (as fourth level characters that is!). In that battle two PCs got killed and two others went down, but the last ones managed to finish the battle, revived their unconscious fellows and without any next thoughts ran as fast as they could back to their way and retreated to the mountains before NPCs could react.

So, I gotta figure out how the story goes on after this unexpected event...


mvpfi wrote:


They leveled up twice on their way (using PFRPG medium advancement track)

When running the pre-PFRPG adventures, you should use fast advancement, since that is equal to the 3.5 advancement progression (which is what the adventures where made for).

That aside, though: Pretty lucky run of events there for your players :)

As for how the story should go on: the sidebard on page 36 pretty much tells you exactly what will happen if the PCs kill the King and then leave.

RPG Superstar 2011 Top 16

Are wrote:
mvpfi wrote:


They leveled up twice on their way (using PFRPG medium advancement track)
When running the pre-PFRPG adventures, you should use fast advancement, since that is equal to the 3.5 advancement progression (which is what the adventures where made for).

This is true, but with the caveat that PF characters are more powerful than 3.5e characters (+1 APL), and having 6 characters gives you enough extra actions, etc that you're +1 APL.

So do "fast track" with giving them a 2 level hit. Which, coincidentally, is where "medium track" is putting you right now. (Though I'm not sure that will hold up in the future.)

Grand Lodge

In room K4, it advises:

Spoiler:
These tunnels can be used to foreshadow the strange, wish-powered minions...faced in "The Final Wish."

I haven't read that far ahead in the AP but my PCs should arrive here in tonight's game. Can I get some ideas about what I should disclose? Thanks.

Grand Lodge

Why is Sunlord Thalachos included in the bestiary at the back of the book? I can't find any other mention of him throughout the book and it seems way out of place with the high CR. Thanks for any info.


Michael Brock wrote:
Why is Sunlord Thalachos included in the bestiary at the back of the book? I can't find any other mention of him throughout the book and it seems way out of place with the high CR. Thanks for any info.

IIRC (I'm at the office), I believe Sarenrae's deity article was in House of the Beast (and thus you also get her herald in the bestiary).


Michael Brock wrote:
Why is Sunlord Thalachos included in the bestiary at the back of the book? I can't find any other mention of him throughout the book and it seems way out of place with the high CR. Thanks for any info.

Many of the monsters in the Bestiary sections are not used in the adventure, just like some monsters only have statblocks within the adventure and not in the Bestiary or in any other Paizo product.

In the case of the Sunlord, specifically: Every 3 AP volumes include an article on a Golarion deity, and the bestiary section of that volume includes a writeup of the herald of that deity. Sunlord Thalacos is the herald of Sarenrae.

Grand Lodge

Thanks for the info. I was unaware of that.


A DM's Familiar dataset is now available for House of the Beast. It can be downloaded here.

DM's Familiar is a program you use at the gaming table to run your combat's faster and smoother, easily look up rules, and keep your game organized. The dataset contains the OGC creatures from the adventure so that you don't have to do any data entry!

Liberty's Edge

Running this in PF on the 'Fast' XP track was going pretty well up until the start of this book/end of the last book. Now my PCs are knocking on the door of 6th level and were a bit overpowered for the end of the last one.. I'm moving them to the medium track to hopefully make this all work.. but the set piece is tweaky (going to need to bump it up some) and it leaves them without much of an opportunity to do 'other things/personal adventures' in the year between books.

Anyone else experience these sorts of issues? (obviously almost everyone had issues with level of the set piece)

I realize that changing between 3.5 and PF makes things different.. but these two are a bit hard on the back of each other considering how the story fits together.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

It was mainly due to this adventure that I decided to use the medium XP track when I converted the campaign to PF. On the fast track, completionist PCs in this adventure can easily end up a level ahead of the curve until well into The End of Eternity.


On the off chance that anybody still looks into this forum...

Spoiler:

1. By RAW, Zayifid can't use his hat of disguise to impersonate a human or a gnoll. Even if he uses a greater hat of disguise, there is still the matter of the effect's limited duration - either hat would have to be activated over and over again, as their effects are not constant. Should I just handwave this, or are there any viable workarounds?

2. A considerably easier fix - Zayifid wields a scimitar, but seems to be using his Dexterity to hit. Is this a mistake, or were scimitars finessable in 3.5?

Liberty's Edge

Mahorfeus wrote:

On the off chance that anybody still looks into this forum...

** spoiler omitted **

Spoiler:
1. Uh...you can use Disguise to look like any creature you like. Creature type doesn't matter at all (though it qualifies as a different race and thus gives a -2). And all the Hat (or Disguise Self) does mechanically is give a +10 to Disguise checks, so it works fine for this.

As for needing to be re-activated, it's a Command Word Item. And Magic Items don't explicitly say they have any visual effect when activated. The Hat of Disguise could thus be activated by the word 'the' and reactivated many times every conversation (each time making you look however you want), maintaining the deception.

Really, I'm pretty sure this is what most GMs allow PCs to do with a Hat of Disguise (ie: not really worry about re-activating it), and is pretty balanced for the most part.

Also, he could've pretty easily 'Taken 20' on his Disguise...which gives you a 34 DC to see through his disguise even without the hat (+18 bonus, -2 penalty for different race, -2 for different age category). So you can skip the hat entirely if you really don't like it.

2. No he isn't. He has a +10 BAB, a +1 weapon, and a +2 Str. That's +13/+8 right there, he'd have +16/+11 if using Dex. Now, adding Dervish Dance is an excellent idea to update the character to Pathfinder, but he's built correctly on a mechanical level.

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