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If my party defeats Karzoug, I'd like to continue the adventure, perhaps introducing other Runelords.
Alaznist (Wrath) has already been mentioned in the AP, so she's a contender. Perhaps she survived the fall of Thassilon as well. Her association with demons could somehow have provided her the means. When fought by the party she can be accompanied by some high CR demons, too!
Another I'm considering is Zutha (Gluttony). He's supposedly some sort of undead capable of possessing anyone unlucky enough to assemble the scattered pieces of his lost spellbook. Undead Revisted mentions a variant ravener associated with Zutha; would make for an excellent minion.
If my party defeats Karzoug, I'd like to continue the adventure, perhaps introducing other Runelords.
Alaznist (Wrath) has already been mentioned in the AP, so she's a contender. Perhaps she survived the fall of Thassilon as well. Her association with demons could somehow have provided her the means. When fought by the party she can be accompanied by some high CR demons, too!
Another I'm considering is Zutha (Gluttony). He's supposedly some sort of undead capable of possessing anyone unlucky enough to assemble the scattered pieces of his lost spellbook. Undead Revisted mentions a variant ravener associated with Zutha; would make for an excellent minion.
Greetings,
I haven't created stats for other Runelords, but your thread intrigued me, so I clicked on it. I'm going to spoiler tag the following statement - stay tuned:
My Sunday group has only finished part one of "Burnt Offerings" as of this writing, so this idea will likely change and grow as they level, PCs die/are raised or reincarnated, or new characters come in.
Color me intrigued and curious. I'll keep you posted too.
Although it isn't mentioned in any description of him, I imagine the Runelord of Gluttony to be tremendous in size. I like the idea that he is carried atop an animated throne of skeletons.
I've decided that if I feature him, his path to undeath will have been through augmenting his living flesh with undead grafts (as per the 3.5 Libris Mortis). I'm most interested in granting him a mohrg-like tongue (the visual is striking). Not sure what other "unique" undead abilities he ought to have.
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No stats, but an brainstorm for Zutha if you're inclined.
I say Zutha is a Runewell of Gluttony. Zutha's undead form and tremendous girth are fueled by the energy of trapped gluttonous souls. Why hide all that delicious energy in a well when you could be eating it, after all?
Stats-wise, it could work similarly to the devourer's essence mechanic. Zutha could burn essence from the well for spell-like effects, a breath-weapon of gluttonous souls and negative energy, or to repair damage to his undead form (as a free action). Certain spells would effect the trapped souls instead and Zutha's not going down until the well is empty.
And, of course, what happens when you bleed in a runewell? Damaging him with a slashing or piercing weapon spills his blood, creating a twisted (leveled and/or undead) sinspawn. It also drains off a bunch of essence, making it likely the only way to defeat him before his magic and self-healing overwhelm the party.
Throw in his actual spellcasting and his undead minions and you should have a hell of a fight. A possessed "copy" of Zutha may not have his ioun stones, rings, or weapon of rule but will be trying to get them. His combination of rings and ioun stones are rumored to be a weapon in its own right.
Visibly, I see the runewell draining as physically decreasing his size, until he's completely emaciated by the time it's bottomed out.
I'd include a scene at the beginning of the fight where he rakes himself with the point of his scythe to create a sinspawn and visibly decreases in size. That should help clue people in to the mechanics.
Cheers!
Landon
I statted up Xanderghul, because one of my PCs was related to him. It was pretty scary, the PCs confronted him, but ended up coming to an accord of sorts...
Though now, in light of the Mythic Rules coming out, I would stat him differently, if I did it again.
I wonder, is Xanderghul a nepotist? And by an accord--you mean they bowed to his glory? XD
Where, by chance, did you place him? The locations of Greed, Wrath, and Lust are all documented--the others are not.
No stats, but an brainstorm for Zutha if you're inclined.
I like your idea! Fitting for a glutton, after all.
He would be nigh-unstoppable with the army he's sure to assemble after his return. Undead and sinspawn alike.
James Jacobs ranked the runelords in order of their power, which you might find handy.
Edit:
Edit, again, to cite source: mythic runelords
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Keep in mind that each of the Runelords is also a level 20 Azlanti Wizard (+2 to every stat).
We also know some of their artifacts from "Magic of Thassilon", "More Magic of Thassilon", Lost Kingdoms, and so on.
There's also quite a bit about Sorshen in Curse of the Lady's Light.
1: Krune Level 20 Male Azlanti Conjurer
2: Belimarius Level 20 Female Azlanti Abjurer
3: Alaznist Level 20 Female Azlanti Evoker
4: Karzoug Already Statted out.
5: Zutha Level 20+Mythic Male Unique Undead Necromancer
6: Sorshen Level 20+Mythic Female Azlanti Enchanter
7: Xanderghul Level 20+Mythic Male Azlanti Illusionist
Alaznist and Zutha switch places in terms of power, Karzoug is the most powerful Non-Mythic Runelord, and then there's Xin.
That's what We know for sure is a fact about their stats.
I think it's pretty funny how I picked the two Runelords closest in power to Karzoug. Granted, one is mentioned in the AP.
Seems JJ can't decide if Alaznist is "mythic" or not.
If I do feature any of the other runelords after Karzoug has been dealt with, it'll probably be her. If interest holds, Zutha will follow.
How would you go about designing an Alaznist encounter? What would her tactics be? Would she have minions? What about her artifact-level weapon (how would you stat it)?
** spoiler omitted **
@ Detect Magic,
Hey there, thanks for the nod (and additional ideas).
@ The_Minstrel_Wyrm: No problem!
The information I've managed to unearth on the Runelord of Gluttony states that he left the scattered pieces of his pseudo-phylactery amongst his three most trusted minions. I think a ravener and vampire make for two. Would need one more according to what I've read. I'm thinking of a unique ghast. Possibly his spymaster (as opposed to the vampire, his general, and the ravener, his pet).
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Keep in mind that each of the Runelords is also a level 20 Azlanti Wizard (+2 to every stat).
We also know some of their artifacts from "Magic of Thassilon", "More Magic of Thassilon", Lost Kingdoms, and so on.
There's also quite a bit about Sorshen in Curse of the Lady's Light.
1: Krune Level 20 Male Azlanti Conjurer
2: Belimarius Level 20 Female Azlanti Abjurer
3: Alaznist Level 20 Female Azlanti Evoker
4: Karzoug Already Statted out.
5: Zutha Level 20+Mythic Male Unique Undead Necromancer
6: Sorshen Level 20+Mythic Female Azlanti Enchanter
7: Xanderghul Level 20+Mythic Male Azlanti IllusionistAlaznist and Zutha switch places in terms of power, Karzoug is the most powerful Non-Mythic Runelord, and then there's Xin.
That's what We know for sure is a fact about their stats.
Actually I don't think we've had confirmed ( and possibly have had denied) the fact that they are all level 20. I'd be surprised if Krune, Belimarius & Alaznist had made the big two-0
I believe James Jacobs once said that three of them were below level 20, while three were above level 20. That has lodged in my brain, at least.
Edit: Alaznist, Sorshen, and Xanderghul are all listed as 20+ in Inner Sea Magic. Belimarius, Krune, and Zutha aren't mentioned.
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How would you go about designing an Alaznist encounter? What would her tactics be? Would she have minions? What about her artifact-level weapon (how would you stat it)?
Alaznist has a couple things about her. First off, if you wanna stat an Alaznist encounter? Dungeons of Golarion's Hollow Mountain Entry is her resting place in Golarion (she's at the top of that in a Runewell much like Karzoug) Alaznist seems to have created and perfected Fleshwarping, especially Sinspawn. So I'd Give her some Aberration Minions, Maybe some sinspawn with significant Class Levels or custom Aberrations. She'll have some Giants of course (She favored Taiga Giants mostly), but to avoid being too thematically similar I'd grab the high level aberrations.
Next up, Alaznist has a couple Artifacts associated with her:
-Alanzist Holds the Scepter of Alanzist: This scepter of iron and adamantine is a potent tool for evokers, and can maximize, empower, and expand nearly any spell its wielder casts.
-Garvok, the Sword of Wrath is, if I recall correctly, a Greatsword. It's actually covered in Artifacts and Legend, but I don't know it's powers yet. She wouldn't wield it personally though.
-Her Polearm is an artifact Adamantine Ranseur.
A couple of other miscellaneous facts that might help:
-She created the Spell Battering Blast
-She may have been the First to Craft a Ring of the Ram.
-Alanzist Created the First Sinspawn. They made up the Bulk of her Infantry.
-She also created the first Shriezyx.
-She was allied with the nacent Demon Lord Yamasoth who taught her how to create Sinspawn. Yamasoth may be the Qlippoth who became the first Demon. Also? Hollow mountain is built atop Gongorina, the highest up of the Vaults of Orv. Gongorina was Yamasoth's demense or at least connected to it, back when Alaznist was in power.
-Alaznist encouraged Underlings and subjects to worship Demons. So she may have a few Demoniac apprentices.
-Favored Giants were Taiga Giants
@ The_Minstrel_Wyrm: No problem!
** spoiler omitted **
@Detect Magic - Oooohh I like your thinking on this buddy.
Actually I don't think we've had confirmed ( and possibly have had denied) the fact that they are all level 20. I'd be surprised if Krune, Belimarius & Alaznist had made the big two-0Keep in mind that each of the Runelords is also a level 20 Azlanti Wizard (+2 to every stat).
We also know some of their artifacts from "Magic of Thassilon", "More Magic of Thassilon", Lost Kingdoms, and so on.
There's also quite a bit about Sorshen in Curse of the Lady's Light.
1: Krune Level 20 Male Azlanti Conjurer
2: Belimarius Level 20 Female Azlanti Abjurer
3: Alaznist Level 20 Female Azlanti Evoker
4: Karzoug Already Statted out.
5: Zutha Level 20+Mythic Male Unique Undead Necromancer
6: Sorshen Level 20+Mythic Female Azlanti Enchanter
7: Xanderghul Level 20+Mythic Male Azlanti IllusionistAlaznist and Zutha switch places in terms of power, Karzoug is the most powerful Non-Mythic Runelord, and then there's Xin.
That's what We know for sure is a fact about their stats.
I've also gone on the impression that Krune, Belismarius, and Zutha are all less than 20th level. Karzoug is the mid-point Runelord at 20th. Alaznist, Sorshen, and Xanderghul are all post-20th (which now means Mythic). Stratagemini has Zutha and Alaznist reversed on his list above.
Also, on the subject of Zutha, since the write-up of his Gluttonous Tome refers to it as his phylactery I've always assumed he was a unique Lich.
EDIT: Also, I just learned that Pathfinder #66 is going to have an article containing pictures for every single Runelord (the words of Adam Daigle from the GM help thread for Curse of the Lady's Light). That might help in figuring out just what Zutha is.
Pictures of every Runelord? That sounds awesome.
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I statted up Xanderghul, because one of my PCs was related to him. It was pretty scary, the PCs confronted him, but ended up coming to an accord of sorts...
Though now, in light of the Mythic Rules coming out, I would stat him differently, if I did it again.
I wonder, is Xanderghul a nepotist? And by an accord--you mean they bowed to his glory? XD
Where, by chance, did you place him? The locations of Greed, Wrath, and Lust are all documented--the others are not.
It was kind of a little bit of both. Long story short, I had geared my campaign toward the PCs being ancient "heroes" of Shalast bound by magics into long-lived bodies, their past lives long forgotten. The party monk was the daughter of Xanderghul, who had, shall we say, was Daddy's biggest disappointment. (The player had dumped Int, so you could see how a wizard might be disappointed.) Anyway, the party searched high and low, using all of their resources and knowledge of history to eventually find Xin-Cyrusian NE of Riddleport (Inner Sea World Guide has a large chunk of N/NW Varisia as Cyrusian region.)
The whole thing was set up because the monk went missing (ended up being "grounded" by daddy, with her soul trapped in a gem around his neck.) But since he had the reputation of being the greatest Diplomat of Thassilon, he managed to convince them that really, they were intruding on his home. His attitude gave them enough pause that they felt that a battle would not end well.
It didn't help matters that I had told them that this was the end of the campaign, so whether they lived or died, I was ending it. ^_^ So they live to fight another day. Perhaps I will run one shots for their characters in the future... we will see. If you are interested in hearing more about what I did with the characters, and how I handled certain things, let me know... Happy to share! :)
@ Aeshuura: Yea, I'd be interested in hearing how your campaign went along. I assume your party dealt with Big K? How'd that go? Did you feature any other runelords?
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@ Aeshuura: Yea, I'd be interested in hearing how your campaign went along. I assume your party dealt with Big K? How'd that go? Did you feature any other runelords?
Yeah, they dealt with the big K. He was the first awakening, so they had to deal with him before the others. It was kind of a romp, mostly because I misunderstood the rules on a few things, namely AoOs and casting defensively.
The monk sped in and pulled off a Ki throw, which by rights was a good roll, because his CMD was decent, and they were about a level under recommended. (To be fair, they were a large party. By the end, after losing a few players, we were pared down to 5.) After the slew of AoOs from failing his Time Stop (which, if he had used his metamagic rod could have been avoided) he had lost half of his hit points, because the barbarian, rogue, and fighter were there as well.
Then the Druid pulled his ace and summoned a T-Rex, that swooped in to swallow K whole! He blew a couple of large spells exploding the T-Rex from within, and a few rounds later, it was over.
--
As for others. There was Alaznist, and her simulacrum (Nista, which had somehow gained sentience and had levels of staff (polearm) magus instead of wizard.) Alaznist ended up heading back to Hollow Mountain and spending a majority of her time reclaiming Xin-Bakrakhan.
Xanderghul was next to rise, and he is creating a network of spies and agents throughout Northern Varisia. One of his biggest supporters is the Cyphermage Guild in Riddleport. He is also brokering absorption of a few of the Shoanti Clans. One of the PCs may have something to say about that though... :p
I love the idea that Xanderghul would infiltrate the Cyphermage Guild.
Not sure if this is straying off topic or not but how many of the runelords resting places have been hinted at and if so where?
Apparently the only ones who's locations are confirmed so far are Zutha, Karzoug, Alaznist and Sorshen.
We might get more information on the locations of Krune, Belimarius and Xanderghul later, as more material gets released.
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We also know where Xin lies.
And given that we know the locations of Cyrusian, Haruka, and Eddasseril. We probably know the Locations of Xanderghul, Krune, and Belimarius.
That said, there are a couple of places in each region which could be possible resting places of the Runelords which are NOT their Capital Cities.
Cyrusian:
-The Castle of the Green Feather was a flying castle for Knights of the order of the Green Feather (Knights of the Peacock spirit). It's now crashed somewhere, and is full of Liches and Graveknights. Xanderghul openly worshiped The Peacock Spirit, it wouldn't be an odd place to find him.
-Justnoque was a center of scholarship and metalwork,it's now underwater near Jol and populated by aquatic giants dwelling beneath the waves.
-Udeomel is another Sunken Thassilonian City. It lays in Broken Bay to the North east of Cyrusian, in the land of The Linnorm Kings.
-Thanerest mausoleum (Modern name) in Land of The Linnorm Kings has some odd Thassilonian connections. It's Now disused because of some odd and deadly phenomena.
-Blackraven Hall in Hagreach was built on a Thassilonian Pyramid similar to Castle Korvosa. And we all know who dwells in Castle Korvosa.
-Fafnheir might know where he's entombed. The Old Linnorm was actually an advisor to Xanderghul, and there are Thassilonian documents verifying such.
Haruka
-The Keening Hills seem to have some sort of Conjuration effect in place in them.
-The Pillars of Kreth probably serve as a transportation gateway to Akiton, but they might instead serve as a gateway to Krune's Resting place.
-The Sleeper, a Giant dungeon carved into a mountain in the shape of a dragon dragon might either itself serve as the resting place, or may hold a clue. Inside the Sleeper, there are pictures of the landscape that perfectly align with what is currently there, except for a mysteriously missing mountain. Given runelord predilection for carving their faces into the mountains facing their capital cities... well that could be a lead.
Edasseril:
-The ruins of Xin-Edasseril are known to lie on Chakikoth Isle in the Ironbound Archipelago, but the Temple of Desna’s First Dream is mysteriously absent from the collapsed metropolis. That temple is probably where Belimarius lies. The Temple of Desna’s First Dream was built out of glass, diamond, and pure magical force, it apparently included a storage vault for the runelords’ most stunning gemstones, as well as home to a vast dreaming chamber that made its sleeping occupants’ fantasies come to life—for better or worse. There are some rumors that the temple can be accessed through the Plane of Dreams now.
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This post talks about the Runelords as they're currently Conceived. I'm betting Lich is a shorthand catchall for Zutha since they haven't named the type of unique undead yet.
Just a few clarifications.
Alaznist:
Zutha:
Also, Generic Villain is correct. The Sleeper is within Zutha's domain, not Krune's.
As for the other Runelords, I would assume they're hibernating within their respective capital cities somewhere, just like Karzoug, Alaznist (sort of), and Sorshen. The map of Thassilon from Lost Kingdoms does show where each of the capitals was located.