Broken Moon (GM Reference)


Carrion Crown

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Trinite wrote:


The porter shouldn't have detected as evil, since he has less than five Hit Dice.

As to detecting Estovion as evil: I would have gone ahead and had all of the guests detect as evil as well. That might have thrown them off. :) Or just change Estovion's alignment to Neutral. I don't really think you'd have to change his personality any to justify any of it.

About EVIL....most of Ustaslav is EVIL.

I had to make this a VERY strong point to my Paladin. Reread the definitions of Evil and then check out Rule Of Fear. Most towns are some kind of Evil. So detecting Evil and then go from the point that everyone who is evil is a BADBOY isnt working here.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Feldgrau:

As related in my obituary post, Auren Vrood dominated the party thanks to good perception and low save rolls. After retreating, they holed up with the Prince's Wolves for a night or so (while waiting for replacement party members to wander through Feldgrau).

Since the book says that the Way is getting ready to leave, I said that Auren headed out, leaving the acolytes to try to move the skeleton 'army' across the land.

And then I re-read stuff. Is it really the case that the *only* way to direct the party onto the next book is by bringing Auren's head to the ghost? My party has avoided that particular building thus far--I could easily see other parties doing the same, and destroying Auren's body before speaking with the ghost.

Am I missing another way? Anyone have any suggestions as to another way to direct them on?


cibet44 wrote:
Toadkiller Dog wrote:

I noticed something in the description of the werewolves' packs.

Quote:
Jezeldans or Demon Wolves: The smallest and most recently formed pack in the Shudderwood
Quote:
Vollensag or Primals: The smallest of the Shudderwood’s tribes
What's happening there? :D
I think one is referring to the physical size of the wolves in the tribe and one is referring to the number of wolves in the tribe. I don't know which is which off the top of my head.

I know I am late on this but the Broken ones, or Dorzhanevs are described as being physically smaller than all others. Also remember the fact that the Demon Wolves are an amalgamation of outcasts and newly turned so their wolf form size would vary from member to member. The use of "smallest" in reference to the Demon Wolves and Primals is referring to number because the descriptions of the packs have two parts, wolf form and pack organization. Fortunately number of wolves does not really come up much, but in my opinion the Demon Wolves would be the smallest in number as they are the most recently formed and have not had time to increase their numbers like the other packs.


I'm giving serious thought to scrapping the weaver worm for something more flavorful, still establishing the invitation and the rest of the tie-ins with the lodge--

Either the party finds a cabin with a few mauled corpses inside, more hints at the presence of werewolves. (I feel like I want to compress the theme here from the getgo and focus in on the werewolves. this encounter feels too much like the Feaster in Watery Shadows from book 2, just kind of random and in there for the heck of it. )

...or possible switching the weaver worm for a young Green dragon, keeping Echtmoor alive and serenading him constantly. (this is similar to the proposed idea of finding a bard using his performance to fight off the weaver worms spell.) The group is pretty new to RPGs so I feel like a fight with a dragon would be really cool and fun for them, also a first.

I think a green dragon would be revered by ettercaps, so that aspect would still fit as well. The other option was a Deathweb, but I'm worried about this being too similar to the giant spider later in the adventure.

Has anyone else swapped out the Weaver Worm? What were the results?


CorvusRed wrote:
Has anyone else swapped out the Weaver Worm?

Because I have plans for a massive spider encounter for a post-adventure path scenario in the game, I wanted to cut out the weaverworm as well. My alternative scenario for Part A and Part B is to have the PCs discover a nest of chupacabras. The Ettercaps were replaced with chupacabras, and stalk the PCs as they draw near the tower. Inside the tower, the second encounter with the weaver worm will be replaced with one advanced Chupacabra and the bodies now are amassed with a total of 3 maggot swarms (using same stats from Leech Swarm).

I hope it goes over well, especially yours with the green dragon.


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CorvusRed wrote:
Has anyone else swapped out the Weaver Worm?

Yep. I write about my RP-heavy encounter on this thread.


Just how big or small are these werewolf packs? On page 35 it says "the Primals surround the temple, keeping the other packs from leaving [...] The Mordrinacht and Dorzhanevs are holding the temple as best they can ..."

There is a total of 11 werewolves in the temple, including the two leaders. Are the packs really this small? If not, where are the rests?

Sczarni

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They're as big as you want them to be.

In my opinion, you should give your players the impression that there are *way* more werewolves out there in the woods than they ever actually encounter. They can be constantly hearing howls and answering howls from various directions. It'll increase the tension.

But no, not all of each pack is at the temple. The Mordrinacht and Dorzhanevs have enough forces there to keep the Vollensags and the Prince's Wolves at bay, but a lot of their people are still other places in the wood.


We're just about to wrap up Broken Moon and the party is definitely in an interesting place. The Alchemist has been afflicted with lycanthropy and has decided to keep the affliction to explore a new avenue for his character goal of "perfecting himself." He's also a master chymist, so that means he'll have three different personalities rattling around in his head. Good thing I read a lot of Hulk comics back in the 90s...

Our Undead-Bloodline sorceress is also getting into full-on animate dead mode, seeing as the whispering way was kind enough to give their members plenty of onyx gemstones. I tell ya, quickly applying the skeletal template to the werewolves she's animating (after undoing the hybrid and/or raging stats) is really getting interesting.


Trinite wrote:
They're as big as you want them to be.

Of course. I just wondered what the (author's) intent was. Is it a huge conflict, with lots of skirmishes and battles and deaths, and the required numbers of werewolves for that, or is it a case of a guy with five followers trying to become the packlord of a total of maybe two dozen werewolves? I'd prefer the first, but the adventure doesn't seem to be written that way.

On to another question: I'm a bit confused what the average werewolf believes happened. The WW killed Sain, Mathus wasn't involved with that but somehow managed to eat part of her heart, is that the official story?

Grand Lodge

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Steev42 wrote:

Feldgrau:

As related in my obituary post, Auren Vrood dominated the party thanks to good perception and low save rolls. After retreating, they holed up with the Prince's Wolves for a night or so (while waiting for replacement party members to wander through Feldgrau).

Since the book says that the Way is getting ready to leave, I said that Auren headed out, leaving the acolytes to try to move the skeleton 'army' across the land.

And then I re-read stuff. Is it really the case that the *only* way to direct the party onto the next book is by bringing Auren's head to the ghost? My party has avoided that particular building thus far--I could easily see other parties doing the same, and destroying Auren's body before speaking with the ghost.

Am I missing another way? Anyone have any suggestions as to another way to direct them on?

Sorry for the late reply. But, Vrood has several notes scattered around his quarters in the tower, including the Carrion Crown poem. You could have him accidentally leave one or two behind... Maybe one got stuck in a crack somewhere and was overlooked. However you want to play it off, it could contain a vague version of the instructions that the party would've received with Vrood's head, at least enough to point them in the direction of Thrushmoor.

Or, maybe one of the Prince's Wolves, possibly Rhakis himself, shows up at the end and tells the party they saw a group headed south. That could at least get them going, and then further witnesses along the way can explain that they saw Dark Riders headed to Thrushmoor.

Just some ideas. Hope they can help, and that it's not much too late. :P

Grand Lodge

Well, my players finished Auren Vrood tonight. They sweated the entire time. It was rough and brutal, but they played smart which ultimately saved them. No one died, but a few came painfully close.

I decided to run Auren as-is, despite the error about his actual caster level. I felt it made the fight more challenging and fun, and Eyebite kept them biting their nails the whole time. And when that Circle of Death dropped... oh man, their faces were priceless. But, everyone actually survived it and they all emerged victorious after a grueling 2 hours of combat.

So far, I've been pretty happy with the final encounters in these first 3 books. They've all been appropriately challenging yet engaging. Kudos.


So the party finally finished off Broken Moon last night, though it took me a little bit of adventure re-design. They had been going from house to house in Feldgrau for a while now, and were really getting tired of slogging it out. So for this session I just decided to bring everything to a head.

The session started as the characters were leaving location F10, running right into Adimarus and 4 of his Demon Wolf Marauders. At this point the party had already killed Duristan and were plenty pissed at the Demon Wolves for turning the annoying, yet endearing nobleman. The fight was on, and in the early going Adimarus' dual smites were really doing a number on the cleric. Then in round 3, five Prince's Wolves showed up to assist. Since there are five people in the party, I simply handed them each a copy of the werewolves' stats and let them run 'em.

Needless to say, the Demon Wolves quickly fell under the combined strength of the PCs and the Prince's Wolves. But before the heroes could get too much of a breather, the Whispering Way arrived. Auren Vrood, Acrietia, a Whispering Way Curate, and 20 zombies and skeletons assaulted the party and their lycanthropic allies. It was a VERY tough fight, especially when Vrood flew into the air and dropped a cloudkill on the battlefield. After several of the Prince's Wolves were killed instantly, the party REALLY got worried.

Still, they were able to overcome the odds. The undead were pretty much decimated by a holy smite from the cleric; Vrood's cloudkill took out the Curate; Acrietia was decimated by the fighter; and Vrood himself failed his will save vs the sorceress' spectral hand-delivered ghoul touch, allowing the pcs to lasso him, drag him to the ground, and get some well-earned vengeance on the man who killed Lorrimar.

Stray observations:
Tanglefoot bag + alchemist fire = extra burning rounds (why not?)

Even while grappled by a giant crawling hand, the sorceress was STILL able to make her concentration check to cast.

Giving a caster PC a melee character to control seemed to make them very happy.

The PCs got a laugh out of my "angry cloud" template I made with gaming paper for the cloudkill spell.

Dueling vampiric touches delivered by spectral hands: I love it when necromancers fight!

Sczarni

Awesome, Ian!

My players actually took down Auren pretty easily. The Bard dropped multiple copies of terrible remorse on him, plus hideous laughter. Crappy will save rolls kept him locked down. The fighter, barbarian and rogue waded in, chopped up the hands, and beat him down before he could cast anything.

It was a little anticlimactic for me, but they were all really scared and impressed, so they had fun. He did manage to circle of death the barbarian in a surprise round, but I let her use her harrow card to survive.

What was really fun for me was the Multiplying T-Rex Skeleton I inserted right before the Vrood fight. It's the first monster they've fought that can hit the fighter's crazy AC. Alas, it rolled too low on its one opportunity. :(


Multiplying T-Rex Skeleton, huh? I like it!

One thing I'm going to have to resolve by this Thursday is how the PCs are going to get the very cool information out of Vrood's head. They previously encountered the ghost in the tavern and attacked him during his suicide ritual. Apparently they thought it was a haunt. I think I'm going to have one of the Prince's Wolves suggest bringing Auren's head to the ghost, setting up that the Wolves met it during their time in Feldgrau. 'Course the PCs are going to have to try to convince a pissed-off spirit to help 'em...


Hello all! Not sure if this has been address yet, but Adimarus has improved sunder.

Since its very likely my PCs will be facing him next game, I was brushing up on the sundering rules. They almost all have alchemical silver weapons, which is great for them.

However, I was looking at the special materials rules, and Alchemical silver has Hardness 8 and 10 hp per inch of thickness.

Iron / Steel has 10 hardness and 30 hp per inch of thickness.

Does this mean that alchemical silver weapons would have harness 8 and 1/3 the hp of a normal weapon made of steel?

I.e. Normal longsword has 10 hardness and 5 hit points (1 handed blade's stats.) While one made of silver would have hardness 8 and 2 hp (rounded up?) Even further, a great sword with 10 hardness and 10 hp, vs silver great sword at 8 hardness and 3 hp (!!!!!)

Just submitting this as its for sure going to come up and if they cry foul, I would like to at least have peace of mind knowing it all happened "by the rules."

p.s.

It also seems fitting in my mind as the heroes come brazenly toward him brandishing their silver blades that he snarls something akin to "Oh how nice, too bad they break so easily." Snapping a longsword with his first swipe. Seems like it'd really up his omg bamf werewolf boss quotient from "nice horns" to "OH MY GAWD!"


Alchemical silver weapons are softer and so they have less hardness, less HP, and do 1 less damage per hit (minimum 1). Silversheen is more expensive and is the same except that it doesn't have reduced damage.

You could be a little nice and say that he takes a bit of damage when he sunders them (assuming he breaks them with his hands/claws instead of with a weapon; I haven't read through this module yet). Or maybe you give it extra hardness against him because some of his strength is sapped by the silver.

Sczarni

Dang, that's a good idea. Wish I'd had him use that on the ultra-armored fighter. Instead the fighter tanked him and the rest of the party cheese-killed him the same way they did Vrood.


Inkwell wrote:
Trinite wrote:
I do think that part of the adventure is kinda poorly put together in the book. I'm always having to flip back and forth between the NPC descriptions, the event descriptions, and the room descriptions for the Lodge. It's a little aggravating for me as a GM.
While Windspirit has his own guide (and a very helpful one at that), I broke down and organized my own (Here). I will, however, not be using it. I seek to work on an "Ascanor Lodge: Expanded" version for myself. I don't know how well this will work out but I could work around to uploading the Expanded version if anyone is interested.

The link to Windspirits guide leads to a thread about trial of the beast. Is there a GM reference PDF for Broken Moon available anywhere, because I'm dying to see it. Any help would be appriciated.

Also, Vrood's write up lists him as having Channel Negative energy 7 times a day, but I can't figure out how a necromancer wizard/agent of the grave can pick up channeling like a cleric. Any suggestions, or was this perhaps another change from an ealier version of agent of the grave.


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JOHN DICKERSON wrote:
The link to Windspirits guide leads to a thread about trial of the beast. Is there a GM reference PDF for Broken Moon available anywhere, because I'm dying to see it. Any help would be appriciated.

Windspirit's Broken Moon GM reference PDF.

Grand Lodge

JOHN,

It's the first level ability that Wizards of the Necromancy school receive. It's called "Power Over Undead."

"You receive Command Undead or Turn Undead as a bonus feat. You can channel energy a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Intelligence modifier, but only to use the selected feat. You can take other feats to add to this ability, such as Extra Channel and Improved Channel, but not feats that alter this ability, such as Elemental Channel and Alignment Channel. The DC to save against these feats is equal to 10 + 1/2 your wizard level + your Charisma modifier. At 20th level, undead cannot add their channel resistance to the save against this ability."

The channeling listed in the stat block is not like a Cleric's. It's simply for using his Command or Turn Undead feat. Notice that there's no damage listed next to his Channel Negative Energy ability.

Liberty's Edge

Here's a strange question:
How do the werewolves know that the WW stole Sain's heart, or that Malthus only ate part of it?


blashimov wrote:

Here's a strange question:

How do the werewolves know that the WW stole Sain's heart, or that Malthus only ate part of it?

Maybe Malthus doesn't smell like it. Maybe he was spied on during the exchanges. Maybe it's all a conspiracy theory that the werewolves came up with to overthrow Malthus and it just happens to be correct.

There's a few reasons you might come up with. The players don't ever need know.

Sczarni

blashimov wrote:

Here's a strange question:

How do the werewolves know that the WW stole Sain's heart, or that Malthus only ate part of it?

In my game, the Prince's Wolves have a spy in Ascanor: Madame Ivanja.


So my players are heading out to the Shudderwood on our next session. There are five of them and they just hit level 8, though are probably a touch under-geared.

Party Make-up -
* Dwarf Monk (don't recall the archetype, but it is one of the minor ones that doesn't do much to the base features)
* Gnome Bard (whip for tripping, mental magic, party's diplomatic face)
* Human Druid (cat companion, focusing on dire tiger form, focuses on wildshaping, won't be present during next session)
* Elf Wizard (summoning focused, crafter, likes latern archons)
* Elf Inquisitor (front line fighter, only one that uses metal weapons/armor, follows fire goddess, party's intimidating face)

So are there things I should worry about? I know about the issues with map sizes and the like which plagued the second book, but what about story stuff? I had a bit of trouble with motivating players to do what they needed to do because of the tenuous connection between the trial and the Whispering Way/Find the Prof's Killer plot.

Any fights that may be especially bad? I worry about the party's complete lack of traditional meat shields. The druid gets mage armor, his companion has mithral barding, but the ACs are still rather low for front-line. The monk is alright (mage armor'ed), but doesn't really pump out the damage. Wizard is more utility than combat, though I did give him a staff of fire (instead of the swarming staff from the troll-held guardhouse).

Despite many in and out of character warnings about werewolves, there has been no attempts to prepare for hurting them (really only the inquisitor has this concern) or protecting against lycanthrope.

Anyway. Thoughts? Concerns I should have? General best practices or lessons learned for running this module?

Sczarni

Actually, I had the problem with some fights being way too easy in this section. The Schloss was much more difficult, honestly.

Watch out for save-or-die spells from the casters against some of the big-shot boss monsters. They're high enough level that well-built casters can often solve encounters by themselves. Make sure they don't try to take a break for the night after every encounter.

My party's bard just roflstomped almost all the enemies with terrible remorse and hideous laughter. It was kinda lame.


My group ran the first part of the adventure with little trouble.

The monk is punching things so hard they die. He's got monk's robes, so he's dropping 2d6, and an amulet of flaming fists, so another 1d6. He's got elemental fist, so one hit is yet another 2d6. He happened to be near enough to the Big Spider-Maggot Lady to do a full round attack, hitting 4 times (level 8 monk) and doing 14d6 + 16 damage. Sigh. On the other hand, he nearly got his face eaten by the giant spider in event 5.

My party got to the Lodge, was told they were not expected, and the NG Wizard started plotting how to kill Belik and kidnap Estovion because he's obviously part of the Whispering Way and evil (just like he thought Caromarc was obviously part of the Way and evil). Sigh. Luckily the party talked him out of this path. Each of the half dozen times it came up. They also want to paralyze and lock in a trunk the werewolf hunter.

They dragged the paranoia ranking all the way up to 11 by the middle of the first full day (after the werewolf run-in... in which they attacked and the monk did 40 damage and drove the werewolves off by himself... and that's without any means around the DR).

Current Status:
So we ended Day 1 with Spider Attack (the male scullery boy died and the werewolf hunter is in a coma). Day 2 will start with the discovery of the body of Cilas. I suspect they will be done with this section in no time. They are not a trusting lot.

Sczarni

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If you want to make things a little harder, maybe think about adding in an encounter with some undead to break up the all-werewolf action of the second chapter.

I had the Whispering Way leave a little ambush party hidden in the woods, consisting of a skeletal mage, some flying heads, and some large skeleton-templated creatures (in my case owlbears). That was pretty much the only fight until Feldgrau that really gave them a run for their money.


My group went through the first part of Ascanor pretty quickly too. I had the spider attack pretty much the following night they were there since they confronted Estovion about the Halo of Dreams (and realized he was lying to them). Then the next event happened the following night. I had anticipated them spending more time at the lodge, but all and all, we still got a lot of role play interaction despite the speed.

The party before heading to the Stairs of the Moon Arcane Locked Duristan in his room after the witch put the sleep hex on him. They told Delgros about him so he wouldn't starve in the room. Apparently they didn't want the excitable werewolf hunter going with them and blowing any chance of diplomacy checks. I let the dice decide whether or not he crawled out the window to go after them (which he did make). It was certainly worth the effort- amusing as it was. (I should mention that I put Duristan in what is marked as Corvin's room and visa versa so he didn't have a balcony. This was more to do with the fact I 'tormented' my high charisma party with Markiza for the boys and Corvin for the girl. It amused me to have the female in the party share a balcony with Corvin.)


Heh, well Duristan is in a coma from the spider attack; he'll wake up shortly after the party leaves and go off to do what he does when he can't go with the party (man, I really like playing Duristan).

My players never quite asked Estovian about the Halo, but did ask to go to his library and then Estovian saw the journal was gone and that the players asked Belik about things earlier... paranoia went up like 7 points in 15 minutes of game time, heh.

I was surprised the players went along with things at the Lodge at all. I had to kick things up in time because they were planning to go off to try and summon werewolves soon anyway, so I needed them to wrap up the Estovian stuff before they split up (they never seen to realize how bad that is).


Drakli wrote:

I think this whole Feldgrau conversation just goes to show that everyone is playing a different game of D&D than everyone else. My group managed to fight the Hangman's Tree, then decided to skirt around Feldgrau, bypassing the internal encounters entirely and accidentally homing in on the end bosses (Acrietia and Vrood immediately afterwards,) while at 8th level. The Paladin has 7 negative levels out of a possible 8 after Vrood enervated him.

Also, just before they hit Feldgrau, I'd just barely managed to increase their wealth-by-level up to what 8th level should have, (Desna blessed them with gear and powered up weapons at the Stairs of the Moon,) to make up for the lackluster treasure take inherent in Trial of the Beast and the fact that they ended up missing a bunch of stuff in Harrowstone entirely. So they were lacking the kind of gear and buffs some parties seem to be managing, though their numbers are at last shored up.

So millage may vary, but Acrietia and her gang very nearly killed our paladin, and the fight with Vrood (still in progress,) is causing my players much stress.

My party is doing the same thing; skirting the outside of town and heading for the tower. I'm really worried I'm gonna end up with a tpk.


let me see if I got this right. One part of the heart was eaten by Mathus, another is in a container with Acrietia, and a third was sent away to become part of the carrion crown?

Cut it up pretty small I guess. :)


tom.zombie wrote:

let me see if I got this right. One part of the heart was eaten by Mathus, another is in a container with Acrietia, and a third was sent away to become part of the carrion crown?

Cut it up pretty small I guess. :)

Everyone gets a chamber.

Sczarni

ANebulousMistress wrote:
tom.zombie wrote:

let me see if I got this right. One part of the heart was eaten by Mathus, another is in a container with Acrietia, and a third was sent away to become part of the carrion crown?

Cut it up pretty small I guess. :)

Everyone gets a chamber.

And it's a pretty big heart.


Some thoughts / problems IMO with Broken Moon.

I'm just going to start this around Feldrau and not go back to Ascanor.

1: Duristan the wolf. There is no freaking way any party is going to be fooled by the "oh hay guyz, sup? Yeah I'm good. Hey can you follow me over here to this building for a second?" trick. My party immediately freaked seeing Duristan, tossed up a detect evil and knew something was wrong. I had to improvise on the spot. I went with a "Yeah, I've been bitten.... but I can control it. Look, if you kill me, you'll never find the secret entrance into the tower where the Whispering Way are." It didn't work, they slaughtered him on the spot trivially. Additionally, not only is he not a challenge at all he has to expend rounds to shift because he's not fully in control yet. So basically they slaughter a hunter while he's trying to shift. Just be prepared.

2: Feldrau in my reading is intended to have the players crawl through building to building. It might read like that. Then your players find that in near every building there's baddies reading to attack them (wolves, cultists, haunts in several room, ghosts trying to hang themselves) and my party saw absolutely no reason to continue that. They made a direct line for the tower. Maybe they did that because I gave away that's where the Way was hiding or maybe (as other people have mentioned in their threads on this board) they did that because it's the obvious place anyone would be holed up. So be careful because most of this content was skipped by my group and several other groups on these forums - the biggest problem being (1) not getting to talk to the ghost who can read Vrood's memories and (2) the experience they won't get - #2 is certainly less of a problem. Also (3) they might not ever encounter either of the wolf packs (prince's / demon wolves).

3: Acrietia and her wights looked devastating to me on paper. In practice my party annihilated them. The wights are CR3 with +4 to attack. Considering the fighters in my party are sporting 23+ AC right now that means we need a 19 to even hit them. This brings up another problem with the module - between the werewolves and the wights we've got a lot of low power monsters that are really 1-trick-ponies. IF they hit you, omg it's gonna be bad (lycanthropy, energy drain, etc) but in reality they don't really pose any real threat. The dread wight monk was a joke - 60hps? I upped her hit points 3 times during the fight trying to have her be SOMEWHAT useful and she just kept being worthless and I gave up and let her die. By the end of that combat I had drained exactly zero energy. Note teh energy drain is terribly low DC (15, yawn) - about the same as lycanthropy.

4: All the curates and cultists are terribly low powered. They have about nothing that is a challenge to the players. Their 2 level 4 spells are Death Ward (entirely defensive) and unholy blight (improves, slightly, undeads in an area - yawn). Their 3rd level spells are animate dead (thematic), bestow curse (lame), blindness/deafness (DC 16, easy, not bad if you can hit the one character that's doing all the damage), and dispel magic. They are just nothing to be scared of.

4.5: That fight in the town square with Eugenie and Vicenith, with all the skeletons? It is even written that all they should do is stand around reading dispel magic to counterspell. (1) these guys don't have improved counterspell (not that they need it in this case especially), and (2) so - what, they're going to just stand there defensively? I don't believe you can counterspell channel positive energy and I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that most Carrion Crown parties have a positive channeler in some form. Our cleric just ran up into the middle, channeled and nuked all the skeletons in one hit. The party thought these were necromancers, not clerics, and so were really scared. They had set up an elaborate trap and were all holding back. As it would have it, the cleric ended up standing there and soloing not only the skeletons but both Eugenie and Vicenith. Ugh... was embarrassing and left me scrambling to come up with more things to throw at them.

5: F14. Armory. At the very end of this room block it says:

Quote:
Treasure: On the ground beneath the map rests a small clay pot of marvelous pigments.

Umm.... what map? I've searched the PDF and there are no references to this map.

6: Adimarus Ionacu - it says he opens with smite good (which, btw, is an awesome spell and totally rocks the target if you can get it on someone you really want to slaughter). And then it says he:

Quote:
He uses his touch of corruption to sicken opponents who face him in combat, and tries to spread his curse of lycanthropy with his bite whenever possible.

OK so touch of corruption. Let's look that up:

Quote:

Beginning at 2nd level, an antipaladin surrounds his hand with a fiendish flame, causing terrible wounds to open on those he touches. Each day he can use this ability a number of times equal to 1/2 his antipaladin level + his Charisma modifier. As a touch attack, an antipaladin can cause 1d6 points of damage for every two antipaladin levels he possesses. Using this ability is a standard action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

Alternatively, an antipaladin can use this power to heal undead creatures, restoring 1d6 hit points for every two levels the antipaladin possesses. This ability is modified by any feat, spell, or effect that specifically works with the lay on hands paladin class feature. For example, the Extra Lay On Hands feat grants an antipaladin 2 additional uses of the touch of corruption class feature.

OK so two problems with this. The first is that it says absolutely nothing about "sickening opponents". Secondly, for every 2 antipaladin levels? OK so he's:

Quote:
Male fiendish human natural werewolf fighter 4/antipaladin of Jezelda 3

So that's 3 levels so 1d6 points of damage? 2d6 if you're rounding up (which I don't think you should here :)). I get that it's a touch attack and that's awesome.

But then also notice in his attack block:

Quote:
smite good (fiendish; 1/day, +1 attack, +7 damage)

That +7 damage is from smite good where it says +1 damage for every antipaladin level. Wait a minute, he has +3 antipaladin levels, not 7. I can't see why they are adding in his fighter levels. If he should, well then touch of corruption becomes 3d6 on a touch attack and that's not bad (but still doesn't have sickening by my reading).

7: The chandler haunt. I've said many times how I feel about haunts but this haunt does 8d6 damage when a player slams their own face into a copper kettle. I get that it's not from blunt damage, there's psychic / magical damage going on here but 8d6 is freaking huge for a haunt. The Will save is only DC14 though so it's not terrible. It does just add to the discouragement of PCs from entering these buildings.

And I haven't even gotten to Vrood yet IMC. I like the way the module reads as a story, I don't like the way it's implemented under the Pathfinder rule system.

But that's my opinion.


My group is asleep in the Lodge and Cilas is getting himself torn apart right now (and has been since we last played, poor guy, as it may be nearly 2 months between sessions)

1) Depends on how you played Duristan and how the party dealt with him. I played him as a fool that is certain he'll bag a werewolf. So when the players meet up with him again, there will be a "I led an attack and it went badly and they really hurt the Hunter; thank goodness you're here and can come help him!" Of course, paranoid players are an expected part of the game; should always plan for that.

2) This seems to be the normal problem with this area; no party wants to wander through it if they know, or guess, about the tower. I'm still contemplating how to stop my players from doing a bee-line. Maybe they just can't see the tower at first? Or the mists cause them to constantly end up coming across houses that draw them inside one way or another. Remember, your party can only reach the tower when you the GM says they reach the tower. Just because they say they go to the tower doesn't mean they can't get lost in the mists.

3) I've heard it can be bad. I suspect it is entirely up to the dice gods and not in the monsters' favor. This is the part of leveling where PC power has an edge on monster power, so fights against lower level mobs goes poorly for the monsters.

4) Sounds like they may need a different spell than death ward to make them a bit more concerning.

4.5) Hmm, my party has no channelers, so this should be interesting (though the wizard does have a staff of fire). Good times!

5) Probably an editing mistake; they pop up now and then.

6) Lots of math mistakes, thanks for the heads up. It also happens with Vrood (his prestige class isn't correctly accounted for when calculating his caster level; he should not be able to cast circle of death).

7) I'll take a look at this as well.

Thanks for the thoughts; it should help me and others make sure to account for some issues. My big fear right now is point 2; it sounds like the buildings are sometimes interesting and certainly combat-centric, but at the same time if the fights are easy then going through them isn't too interesting to anyone.

Dark Archive

The Werewolf anti-paladin has two seperate Smite good powers. One is from his anti paladin levels, one is from his fiendish template. the +7 to damage is from the fiendish template, which adds the creatures hit dice to damage against the target.

I'm pretty sure the sicken effect on the nega-lay on hands ability is a nega-mercy that they antipaladin gets at level 3.

Detect evil is a plot murdering ability, and I've house-ruled it out of my Carrion Crown game. The inquisitor in my party used detect lies and sense motive on Duristan, and Duristan somehow managed to make the will save and the bluff check, so the inquisitor managed to convince the rest of the party to trust the new werewolf, even though they were suspicious.

I increased the amount of mist in the town dramatically. My PC's can only see about 50ft in front of them, so they are pretty much forced to go building by building.

The Curates and Cultist are low powered for a reason. There are a crap ton of them. If all of them were a major threat to the PCs, then they will be completely tapped out by the time they reach vrood. The town is basically a big dungeon crawl, so resource management is going to be important. You would be surprised how low CR creatures can manage to drain the resources of a party. 12 Burning zombies did a good amount of damage to my party, and they are about to fight another 12 of them, with cleric support. Channel Negate energy is going to be wearing them down also. I'm considering giving the curates the feat that lets you channel through a weapon strike, because it seems a good combo with hand of the acolyte.

Sczarni

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One other thing that was troublesome at Feldgrau: the Whispering Way Cultists are packing wands of control undead. If the PCs get one of these wands: Bada-bing! Feldgrau is solved.

I had to ret-con those wands away.


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I dropped the heardripper blade from GameMastery Module D1: Crown of the Kobold King, to account for how Vrood removed Kavalca Sains still beating heart as loot on Vrood. It also is offers an option for PCs whom refuse or bypass help from the ghost to extract memories from Vroods mind. It is an alternative way of linking the wake of the watcher into the adventure path. As one of the PCs may accidently activated the blasphemous word activating the divination ability of the blade. It is also a ceremonial dagger used in sacrifices.

Heartripper Blade
Aura moderate conjuration, divination, and evocation; CL 10th Slot none; Price 11,302 gp; Weight 1 lb.

DESCRIPTION
This +1 dagger is granted baleful powers when used in bloody sacrifice. Whenever used to deliver a coup de grace, the Heartripper Blade pulls the victim’s still-beating heart free from his body. You may then consume the heart to gain any of the following abilities.

You may eat the heart to gain a simultaneous remove disease, restoration, and cure serious wounds effect. This consumes the heart.

You may utter a command word and cause the heart to burst into flames, after which the Blade becomes a +2 flaming burst dagger for 1 hour. This consumes the heart.

You may speak a blasphemous second command word to cause the heart to boil and smoke. Breathing in the smoke gives you glimpses of the future or far off places and objects, granting you the ability to use divination or scrying. This consumes the heart.

CONSTRUCTION REQUIREMENTS
Craft Magic Arms and Armor; flame blade, keen edge, restoration, scrying; Cost 5,802 gp.


Steev42 wrote:

Feldgrau:

As related in my obituary post, Auren Vrood dominated the party thanks to good perception and low save rolls. After retreating, they holed up with the Prince's Wolves for a night or so (while waiting for replacement party members to wander through Feldgrau).

Since the book says that the Way is getting ready to leave, I said that Auren headed out, leaving the acolytes to try to move the skeleton 'army' across the land.

And then I re-read stuff. Is it really the case that the *only* way to direct the party onto the next book is by bringing Auren's head to the ghost? My party has avoided that particular building thus far--I could easily see other parties doing the same, and destroying Auren's body before speaking with the ghost.

Am I missing another way? Anyone have any suggestions as to another way to direct them on?

Drop a fragment if Kavalca Sains heart somewhere and the heartripper(see above). Or you could use a harrowing, a blood stained parchment with the only discernable word Thrushmoor, rumours of a grotesque painting with the name of Vrood being sold in Thrushmoor (remembering Vrood is an artist) or use Carrion Hill instead sith a call for heroes sent out from the town.


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I like to have an enemy story plot as posts for my adventure log to foreshadow enemies or provide an insight into there motives so PCs get to know there enemy out of game. For Vrood I used the following;

The collapsed sections of the tower completely blocked of the farther passage creating a small aclove for Vrood and his tent. The interior of his tent lined with vivisection tables. Some holding twitching animals pinned to the tables in various grisly surgical inspection. Near each was a small easel holding a stretched canvas of which was a masterfully excuted painting of the various subject matter.

The horrific pictures would be enough to turn a sane persons stomach. The paintings themselves contained detailed notes about the operations performed upon the specimen and the reactions they had. Elsewhere on the table was some long steel pins, carving tools, a candle, paints and brushes; a tray with ash, hair, bits of cloth, and other scraps of mundane items. Working on his next specimen which jerks as the creatures still attached spinal cord is prodded. Vrood talks to the man bound to the table. The knights cloak was adorned with the Bastoi symbol of the royal guard. "Do you know why I am angry" Vrood said as he continued to prod his victims body to create the perfect model for his next work of art. "I was only eight years old when your counts troops tore through my land. Did you know Neska's troops slaughtered my family, salted my famlies fields and left death and destruction in there wake. I myself was lucky to survive, if it wasn't for me burying myself among the corpses of my brothers and neighbours, I would have also perished". Vrood continues to contort his victims ribcage in such a way that the ribs tensile strength almost began to buckle. The knight on the table could now see his own ribcage. He could also see his organs still beating, housed in alchemical recepticals. "They even made a second trip killing my friend Samantha whom luckily survived her house being burnt to the ground with her inside of it".

Vrood changed his current approached to his flesh muse. He took a step back and made a square with his hands to make sure his model was how he wanted it. Vrood used his thumb to make sure his dimensions were correct. "I only survived when the knights returned by hiding in a trench". Unhappy with his current models position Vrood moved closer to change the arrangement of the mans internal organs, like a normal painter would when assorting a fruit bowl he or she was getting ready to paint. "For years I lived as an orphan. I scavenged what little food I could from the corpses and burnt houses. I fought the rats for food, and found comfort in speaking to the corpses of my fallen friends. Even the soldiers in the trenches could be friendly when I spoke to them. I even built my own little town of bones right here in Feldgrau, the perfect backdrop for what had happened".

Vrood shifted the nights intestinal tract to the side and began to unravel it like a ribbon. "You know many people would say I went a little mad. But when the skulls of my fallen friends and family spoke back to me, I knew I could canvas the perfect vengeance for them. Although, I thought they would have been more mad at me for gnawing off the flesh from there bones in order not to starve to death". Vrood said the last line flicking blood over the knights helm."My fallen friends whispered to me. Vengeance.... vengeance....". Vrood spashed the mans blood around like that of a child with food.

"The skulls... they spoke to me in my dreams and haunted me while I was awake. Samantha told me how to survive. I learnt from her how to hide in trenches or under byroad bridges laying traps to topple passing horses. When riders fell, I took their throats so they could join my kin. Do you know how one survives a wasteland?". Vrood paused for a moment, looking to rekindle his memories. "Do you know how scarce food is in a wasteland that had been salted and burnt?". It was obvious Vrood had lost his chain of thought. He moved back to his canvas and began to paint. "Flesh can be quite an intoxicating palette to taste. You can boil it, crisp it, roast it, steam it, sauce it or season it". Vrood moved over to the knight again, his eyes full of fear. "Do you know what my favourite part is?". He let the sentence hang out for a while to track the mans reactions. "The tongue". Vrood picked up the knights raw tongue off the table and put it in his mouth. He slowly chewed it, savouring each delicious blast of meats tenderness. He began to lick his lips before he gulped down the last of the raw meat. "Now... now, how rude of me, to eat before my work is done. And I still have not told you the rest of my story. Tar-Baphon has always told me in whispers that eating while I work spoils my art". He moved back over to his canvas again.

"One day a rider came to my part of the Furrows. I lay in waiting under a bridge, ready to add her to my extensive collection of art. She stopped in front of my traps. The rider had grey skin, withered like that of a corpse. In a dry throaty whisper she told me come out of hiding." Vrood changed his voice to act out what the woman had told, clearing his throat. "Auren Vrood, she said. The spirits of this place have told me of your beautiful artwork. Worry not, for you have a greater role to play. I revealed myself to her and showed her some of my favourite pictures of artwork." Vrood measured out the knights stomach circumference with circular tubing. "She told me she could teach me how to perfect my craft". Vrood let his nostalgic memories flood back.

"She took me to Virlych, to the omnious town of Redchurch. There she taught me the art of necromancy, which allowed be to perfect my artwork by learning more about anatomy." Vrood resumed painting. "Do you know the best art comes from painting death. The best of which is watching the transition from life to death. There is nothing quite like it as I am sure you will agree. There’s no meaning to a flower unless it blooms. The same can be said about the transition of death. Life only blooms once it ends. Something that I love to capture, so it is not lost to the sands of time. Look at those fools." Vrood points at the knights fallen friends. "They have no appreciation for art. You have to feel art. And true art… is an EXPLOSION!" Vrood taps the end of his paintbrush on the mans ribcage.

"Fine art is the beauty of that single fleeting moment of the soul as it seeks semblance of its life. Yrasa Nine-Eyes, my mentor taught me to appreciate the art of this world that happens on a daily scale. Death. Beyond the pitiful and helpless artworks of those I experimented with in my youth., it has taken me years to perfect my artwork, yet there is somebody even better then me. The Carrion Crown is a piece of artwork that will eclipse all that stands before it. I am just happy I have been a part of it." Vrood adjusts his canvas so it sit more appropriately on its stand. "First was the Wardens soul. I had to crush a mans head to prevent the people of Ravensgro learning to much. Then the effigy, sent to Thrushmoor to be traded to enhance the canvas of the dark cloaks work. Finally, the heart of Kavalca Sain. Yet though my contribution to the picture is only the sketch, more wonders will come from it. The items I gathered are useless without masterful hands working them. Like many others, even Yrasa will confirm this, a true maestro will soon be soon born unto this world. His canvas will become the ultimate artform".

The knights nearly decapitated head rolls to onside. His blinking slows as the darkness of death descends upon him. "Well, it will be picturesque when it is finished. But first I must destroy the fools that seek to prevent my landscape of death. To long have they critiqued my work. And you know what happens to those whom cannot appreciate true art. They are removed from the picture...". The last thing the knight saw was the metallic glint of metal pins before they were shoved through his eye socket.


Finally got back together with my group and ran another session of Broken Moon.

Last time we ended with the giant spider attack, so we began this session with a dead ex-General. The players spent the day trying to figure it out, were attacked by the werewolf-ghost that night, and immediately stormed Estovian's tower for answers. They stopped him from burning the notes, dismissed his dire wolf, and killed him with little trouble.

Then they went off to the stairs, killed the werewolves along the way, killed the archers (including a great scene where the inquistor, with fly, charged through mid-air to bury the shapeshifter-bane dagger in the throat of an archer). They spent so much time planning, thinking the archers would be similar to the Stalkers in strength. They were almost disappointed to find the fight over so easily.

They took out the rangers with little effort as well (stupid werewolves couldn't hit anything). Then they prepped for the fight upstairs.

The wizard summoned four mobile laser platforms (I mean lantern archons) and a hound archon. Then there was some haste and aid and bardsong. The fight started with a bunch of teleporting angels and a wall-scaling monk. The monk grappled and pinned Cybrisa without trouble, while the archons and inquisitor absolutely destroyed Mathis. It wasn't even worth rolling, sigh.

We ended up calling it a night after the Desna ritual. I got rid of the UMD requirement and made it an automatic thing; seems like a fun thing to give them (especially considering the party is monk, druid, bard, inquisitor, wizard and I added INT to the list of stats that can be buffed).

I really need to figure out how to make these fights harder. They similarly destroyed the Promethean (without the Beast's help). Any fight that is 1 on 5 always turns into 1 vs 5 + archons and the bad guy can never manage the action economy to make the fight even vaguely dangerous.

Perhaps more minions? In retrospect, I should have probably had Mathis and Cybrisa come down to join the fight with the Rangers, rather than waiting with readied actions for people to come upstairs.

Sczarni

MurphysParadox wrote:

I really need to figure out how to make these fights harder. They similarly destroyed the Promethean (without the Beast's help). Any fight that is 1 on 5 always turns into 1 vs 5 + archons and the bad guy can never manage the action economy to make the fight even vaguely dangerous.

Perhaps more minions? In retrospect, I should have probably had Mathis and Cybrisa come down to join the fight with the Rangers, rather than waiting with readied actions for people to come upstairs.

I had the same problem with this section of the chapter. The werewolves just went down like chumps. I'm actually starting to wonder if the Werewolf template is underpowered for its CR adjustment.

I recommend you turn the difficulty up to 11 in Feldgrau. Throw *tons* of undead at them all at once, to soak up the action economy. And what's sauce of the goose is sauce for the gander: have enemy casters start dismissing the lantern archons (they've got crap will saves, after all).

And maybe throw in one of two of these. :)


We shall see. My problem is that the party is relatively unbalanced. Bard and Wizard are smashy, Monk and Inquisitor are Frontline but low HP and AC in the mid-20s (heavy hitters though). The druid player only makes about half the games and we don't proxy his character, so they are often down a front line character (two if you count the companion).

I find that the Lantern archons are great against things with DR because monsters with high DR have low HP, thus the ability to fire touch attacks that to d6 damage (2 per archon per round) is rather effective. Against something like the T-Rex, each archon is doing an average of 6.3 damage a round, so four do 25 damage (max of 43).

Against something with high HP or Touch AC though, they are going to be far less useful. For example, I suspect Acrietia will give the party a run for its money.

This part of the adventure also has the issue where the players know that they will be able to blow all their spells on the fight with Mathis, so they can really drop the hammer without worrying too much about resources.

That said, I'm going to actually plan Vrood's fight and work through how the party will probably approach it as to ensure it can still be a challenging and interesting fight (though I am going to mod him back to an appropriately spell-caster level and thus remove his circle of death).

Also, who decided monks can't be turned into Werewolves? Stupid immunity to diseases. He got bit like 8 times during the adventure!


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MurphysParadox wrote:
Also, who decided monks can't be turned into Werewolves? Stupid immunity to diseases. He got bit like 8 times during the adventure!

It's not a disease, it's a curse (curse of lycanthropy), which a monk's purity of body wouldn't do jack against.

just sayin ;)


I... see. It is indeed a curse. I always thought of it as a magical disease. Well that's useful in retrospect, thanks!

Sczarni

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MurphysParadox wrote:
I... see. It is indeed a curse. I always thought of it as a magical disease. Well that's useful in retrospect, thanks!

Obviously, you should now give him retroactive lycanthropy. Except eight times worse than normal. Ochocanthropy, if you will.


I think that means he'll become a wereoctopus during the full moon! Awesome!

Though he is a monk, so he passes the save 75% of the time; he failed his first bite check, thus the other seven don't matter. Then after the Dusk Moth event, I had Desna instill a sudden hunger for some wolfsbane in those who had picked up the curse. So I'll retroactively dock them one additional dose and explain how it'll work moving forward.

The Exchange

Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Help. My players just had the encounter with the Vilkacis at the lodge and are now on their way to the stairs without knowing why the Vilkacis attacked the lodge guests. They haven't got the details about what the Whispering Way were up to at the lodge, or who they saw. I'm looking for suggestions about how I can get them to go back to the lodge and keep investigating. Duristan is with them, guiding them.


So they were attacked by the werewolf spirit and immediately ran of to the temple?

It isn't too bad. The WW was only at the Lodge to meet with Mathis, then they also went to the stairs. Honestly it shouldn't be too bad. They'll find the WW body in the basement, find the map, and know where to go next.

It may be useful to have them overhear a conversation between Mathis and Cybrisa about how the WW was supposed to help, but all they did was kill the pack leader and run off to the the ghost town. It should allow you to drop all the necessary hints. Or even just have the conversation overheard from any of the werewolves at the site, really.

You should also conspire to get Duristan away from the group so he can be bitten and prepped for encounter around Feldgrau.

Also remember that if the Vilkacis was summoned, then Estovian could easily have decided to bolt into hiding at the Stairs. Or you can plant evidence of his involvement with the meeting with the WW corpse or as overheard conversation from werewolves.

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