Well, in the original folklore, it was said that the father of a dhampyr was a vampire seeking the pleasures of the flesh.  And to be fair, once you have a corpse up and about and doing a lot of things corpses don't do, (like moving, let alone talking or feeding,) arguing the illogic of dhampyr conception from vampire/human reproduction seems like quibbling.

I'd suppose the aversion to the idea comes from squick factor, except lots of people think vampires are sexy and want sex with them, (ref: vampire movies and the cleavage intensive vampires in this module). So I don't know what it's about.

My party has not one a lot wit the Order of the Palantine Eye, yes they know the judge was part of it,but they kinda brushed off the secret society bit.

Advice for what to do to get them where i need at this point?

Also this party has 2 members that are devote worshipers of Sarenrae, a paladin and an inquisitor respectively. both are going into this mod comping at the bit to waste some vampires with Sarenrae's holy fire.

How do you suggest i get the the required information.

They need to do more than just identify the Moribund Key from the Dullahan. To get background on it they need to access the archives at the Haraday Theatre where they'll also find the Gargoyle statue that shows where the WW stronghold was.

Any sage knowledgable about Whispering Way would be a member of the Caliphas chapter of the Order. So no matter who they try to consult (in this case Abraun Chalest or Edjureus Modd) they would be consulting the Order.

--Vrocky Horror

I and my group really enjoyed the entire thing. The party got into the entire murder mystery and loved following the clues.

To deflect the paladin and Pharasmins (a cleric and ranger) from wholesale vampire slaughter the high cleric in Caliphas (at work so I don't have her name) informed them of a détente between the Vampires and the Church - If the church goes after the vampires they go after the citizens in a big way. She *really* didn't want to upset that balance, *yet*.

My only issue with this (and every other) installment is the maps. I mean really take the 5 seconds to do a google search for monastery floor plan then you end up with something that evokes the feeling of an abandoned monastery and go from there. So I usually find myself remapping buildings for every major encounter in an adventure path which is annoying.

Dhampir origin

Balkan mythology origins. If there was any copying then Blade copied off of the dhampir, not the other way around.

Unless you're referring to the specific dhampir NPC that appears in AaD, in which case the archetype he's representing was hardly original in either him or Blade.

"Born of both worlds, sired by a monster and now he hunts monsters, stalks the night to put them down, yadda yadda." That whole deal was done long before Wesley Snipes showed up in all black.

pheeeeww i was wondering if all of you notice how many often cames another halfsomething to hunt for his evil half:

so stop complaining about something like this... Quinley is another one who add to the list (actualy i hope it was made as a tibute for quincey morris from dracula or something).

I've come here to share two quick things:

First is Radivir. There was some talk about him as a monk and how his wand plan as a rogue doesn't actually work. So, since Ultimate Combat came out, I remade him as a tetori monk.

If you're going to respec him, why not just make him a sorcerer whose save DC is high enough that vampires might fail a save vs halt undead? Or a dirge bard who adds halt undead to their spell list? Now the party's in big trouble...

Does anything else need to be done besides the upper 30's touch AC and saves to match?

Where can I find the city stat block for Caliphas? I noticed that it is not in the Ashes at Dawn book and I can't seem to locate it on any of the pathfinder wiki sites. I can always make one up, but I figured if it already existed then I might as well use that one.

It's in "Rule of Fear."

Caliphas
LN Large City
Corruption +4; Crime -3; Economy +4; Law +6; Lore +4; Society +1
Qualities notorious, prosperous, rumormongering citizens, strategic location, superstitious
Danger 20

DEMOGRAPHICS

Government Overlord
Population 15,640 (14,950 humans, 350 dwarves, 220 elves, 120 other)
Notable NPCs
Prince Aduard Ordranti III(LN male human aristocrat 3/ fighter 8)
Countess Carmilla Caliphvaso (LE female human aristocrat 4/ rogue 11)
Diaudin (LN male human rogue 10)
Luvick Siervage (LE male vampire aristocrat 2/ fighter 15)

MARKETPLACE

Base Value 13,600 gp; Purchase Limit 100,000; Spellcasting 5th Minor Items 4d4; Medium Items 3d4; Major Items 2d4.

Does anything else need to be done besides the upper 30's touch AC and saves to match?

Not really to make him a challenge for a party, depending on the party. But since a vampire can turn gaseous to escape being grappled until (if I understand correctly a 13th level tetori) having them fail a save vs halt undead or something similar is actually an easier task. Should they save and start running away, a sorcerer could actually use antimagic field or something to really slow someone down.

Anyone have any ideas for Prince Aduard Ordranti III's security and bloodline? Ramoska mentioned him, and now I need to figure out why Ramoska thinks that; what, if anything, the PCs might learn to corroborate or refute that; and detail the Prince's security team and set up. I'm open to suggestions, as I'm leaning towards a number of guards and a somewhat resigned attitude given that he figures his only threat is the Countess who hasn't done anything yet.

In Ashes, page 38 - there are 3 nabasu demons in the warehouse. It also says there are 8 ghouls killed by the nabasu demon gaze in that warehouse.

For the stat blocks, it points to the bestiary - where you'd normally then run the nabasu demon according to the AC, HP, etc. based on the bestiary. But - if the demons killed these 8 ghouls, then they should have 8 growth points split between them and this isn't mentioned at all. This also gives them 8 gaze attacks between them a day as well as more hit points, more ac and etc..

Usually if the base stat block of a creature from the bestiary has extra added onto it (ie. growth points and stats) - so should I be running them with growth points or without growth points?

Thanks for any help/advice!!

Ice Titan wrote:

I've come here to share two quick things:

First is Radivir. There was some talk about him as a monk and how his wand plan as a rogue doesn't actually work. So, since Ultimate Combat came out, I remade him as a tetori monk.

If you're going to respec him, why not just make him a sorcerer whose save DC is high enough that vampires might fail a save vs halt undead? Or a dirge bard who adds halt undead to their spell list? Now the party's in big trouble...

I am just going to say that I ran Radivir as Ice Titan's remake, and it was a pretty cool fight. The party's reaction when Radivir intentionally dived right into the front line, ki threw them all in different directions while punching them in the face, and picked up the party's sorcerer like a ragdoll was priceless.

Well, that and when with his gloves of arrow snaring Radivir caught one of the alchemist's bombs and spiked it right back into his face.

The party took Radivir down without suffering losses, but it involved like four different people all scoring criticals against him and his 45+ AC (I'd given him the advanced template, too).

I'm hoping this is posted in the right forum. I have a question regarding Lady Evgenya Zunaida. I must be overlooking something. According the tactics notes, she is to escape "casting quickened dimension door with her metamagic adept power to escape". I don't see how this is possible since dimension door is a 4th level spell, Evgenya is a 10th level sorcerer, and quickened uses 4 spell slots higher than the spell being cast (e.g. quickened dimension door should use 8th level spell slot, which she doesnt' have). The metamagic adept only decreases the casting time of a spell when used with a metamagic feat.

What am I missing or did the designer goof?

Thanks!

In Ashes, page 38 - there are 3 nabasu demons in the warehouse. It also says there are 8 ghouls killed by the nabasu demon gaze in that warehouse.

For the stat blocks, it points to the bestiary - where you'd normally then run the nabasu demon according to the AC, HP, etc. based on the bestiary. But - if the demons killed these 8 ghouls, then they should have 8 growth points split between them and this isn't mentioned at all. This also gives them 8 gaze attacks between them a day as well as more hit points, more ac and etc..

Usually if the base stat block of a creature from the bestiary has extra added onto it (ie. growth points and stats) - so should I be running them with growth points or without growth points?

Thanks for any help/advice!!

I'm just bumping this question just once in case anyone knows the answer!

ckdragons - that's probably a goof from someone thinking that metamagic adept worked like a metamagic rod. My party didn't fight Zunaida, so I never looked at her tactics.

Orphelyne - I'm pretty sure I added the growth points to my Nabassu so that they'd have the gaze. It's really your discretion - its an easier fight if they can't do it.

Thanks, Zhangar :) I did the same thing in the end - but wanted to know if I got it right!

I'm hoping this is posted in the right forum. I have a question regarding Lady Evgenya Zunaida. I must be overlooking something. According the tactics notes, she is to escape "casting quickened dimension door with her metamagic adept power to escape". I don't see how this is possible since dimension door is a 4th level spell, Evgenya is a 10th level sorcerer, and quickened uses 4 spell slots higher than the spell being cast (e.g. quickened dimension door should use 8th level spell slot, which she doesnt' have). The metamagic adept only decreases the casting time of a spell when used with a metamagic feat....What am I missing or did the designer goof?

Evgenya Zunaida changed quite a bit from my original turnover. Originally, she was an aristocrat 2/sorcerer 13, which gave her spellcasting up to 6th level spells. The Morale section of her stat-block then included a quickened casting of invisibility to aid her escape rather than dimension door. Thus, as a 2nd level spell, she could use her metamagic adept power and Quicken Spell feat to do that. You're quite right that a quickened dimension door wouldn't be possible. Sometimes slight inconsistencies like that happen when NPCs are modified from their original design. Rob or Wes must have needed to scale her down from a CR 14 to a CR 12 and just missed that change in terms of her abilities as compared to her tactics.

In Ashes, page 38 - there are 3 nabasu demons in the warehouse. It also says there are 8 ghouls killed by the nabasu demon gaze in that warehouse....so should I be running them with growth points or without growth points?

Unfortunately, that's another casualty/change from my original turnover. In the original manuscript, I didn't include any ghouls created by the nabasu yet. That encounter just had the three demons in the rafters for the PCs to encounter. Basically, Radvir was intending to encourage the use of their death-stealing gaze to create more chaos in Caliphas on the Whispering Way's behalf, transforming its citizens into ghouls...which would ultimately create a new cadre of undead for the Whispering Tyrant upon his return. The nabasu hadn't yet been given leave to begin this activity yet. Radvir was waiting to complete his manipulation of Luvick's vampires before setting them loose.

Unfortunately, that's another casualty/change from my original turnover. In the original manuscript, I didn't include any ghouls created by the nabasu yet. That encounter just had the three demons in the rafters for the PCs to encounter. Basically, Radvir was intending to encourage the use of their death-stealing gaze to create more chaos in Caliphas on the Whispering Way's behalf, transforming its citizens into ghouls...which would ultimately create a new cadre of undead for the Whispering Tyrant upon his return. The nabasu hadn't yet been given leave to begin this activity yet. Radvir was waiting to complete his manipulation of Luvick's vampires before setting them loose.

Thanks, Neil! I appreciate the background. :) I ended up running him with the growth points just for the added challenge. It worked out well!