Empty Graves (GM Reference)


Mummy's Mask

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Liberty's Edge

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I quite liked the panic point system, and I felt it really did its job motivating the party not to rest between every encounter. They tried to squeeze out "just...one...more...encounter" before resting.

I'd like to hear some opinions on the Sehhosep encounter:
Obviously if you make all Diplo checks you can resolve it diplomatically, and another way of resolving the encounter is just kill everyone (or send the locals fleeing upon damage and knock out the sorcerer, which is effectively the same thing). But my party aced the Diplo with the crowd, yet flubbed the Diplo with Sehhosep, so I ruled that they needed to take the sorcerer down violently, but the mob (which stayed out of the battle) was dispersed "without violence or threads", thus giving them the full -2 Panic award.

Anybody else who ended up with some sort of compromise solution between "Diplo everything" and "kill everything"?

I'm about to head into the Eye-Taker encounter:
I know my party really loves roleplaying sort of scenes and would be much more satisfied by talking the undead to death than by swording them to death. Could anybody share any inspiration for what sort of crimes they could be accused of, and how the different skills might come into play in the defense?

Also, it's stated that the trial is a series of opposed skill checks, and the valid skills listed are the same ones as Sotenre has in his statblock. Bluff is explicitly in the rules opposed by Sense Motive, but what about the other skills? Is it Intimidate vs Intimidate, Diplomacy vs Diplomacy, Know (local) vs Know (local)? But when the players use Sense Motive, Sotenre uses Bluff and vice versa?

Liberty's Edge

Alright, I have some complaining to do about this Volume of Mummy's Mask.

Despite the reasonable text that leads us all through the adventure areas with logical Letter Keys, it's pretty clear that there are "missing" maps.

I cannot help but feel that the Osirion Gods piece later in the volume wiped out one or two pages of maps we were supposed to have.

Is this just me?


and what maps do you feel are missing?

Scarab Sages

The bullies/wight and the grieving crazy widow both take place on esoteric 'in the streets' areas and aren't given a map, nor is the shadow at the gates encounter. Maps really aren't needed, though, for these set pieces, and I think they could have even forgone a map for the corpse wagon and the eye taker's tiny single room courthouse. Not sure about part 2 locations in the necropolis off the top of my head.

Liberty's Edge

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I have to say I'm a little concerned with the opening scene carrying a risk of mummy rot, considering that the players don't have access to Remove Curse at 4th level yet, and the city's spellcasting is reduced to only 1st level spells. Essentially the only ways of getting rid of mummy rot, unless I'm mistaken, are:

1) your party must have a cleric, oracle or witch *and* you must wait until they level up
2) fight the panic level down to 14 Panic, when 3rd level spellcasting becomes available in the city

I'm not saying this should necessarily be changed, but I do think a DM should definitely be aware of the risk before embarking on the point of no return that the Canny Jackal is. Make sure that your party has a caster who will haev Remove Curse (and Disease) on their spell lists, *or* be prepared to rush them through a bunch of encounters to rapidly knock down the panic level.


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Samy wrote:

I have to say I'm a little concerned with the opening scene carrying a risk of mummy rot, considering that the players don't have access to Remove Curse at 4th level yet, and the city's spellcasting is reduced to only 1st level spells. Essentially the only ways of getting rid of mummy rot, unless I'm mistaken, are:

The other solution is, that IF they get MummyRot, that they find a scroll or a spellccaster (mini mission) that can help.

OR

you can fudge the Con and Cha damage rolls and just have them REALLY motivated to drop the Panic level

Dark Archive

One of my PC's contracted Mummy Rot, and in return for them agreeing to act as the agents of the Pharasmin Church in clearing out the infestation I provided them with the spell casting services required, I also gave them free divine casting (of restricted levels) as their reward for agreeing to continue purging the city of the undead abominations.

Interestingly they did not tend to abuse this as the church is far enough away that they tended to deal with their hp damage before getting a few Lesser restorations or a remove curse every now and then.

Scarab Sages

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One of my PC's had previously needed some healing or something back in book 1 (oh yeah, got diseased from the Ubashki swarm), and being a fire oriented caster, she sought out the church of Sarenrae. Part of the payment they required for removing disease was that she spend the next day feeding the poor in Bargetown with their charity missionaries. Ever since, on any spare day she has been joining up with the charity missionaries building rapport with the church.

Needless to say, they sought out the Sarenites when a couple of them got mummy rot. After some haggling, the relationship that Blaze had with the church allowed them to get their remove curse and remove disease castings (albeit at a +400gp surcharge), on the condition that every day until the undead sorts itself out, that they come to the church and help manage all the crowd that has sought refuge in the temple (Panic <10). Neutral aligned party wasn't big on doing good deeds for healing, but mummy rot vs Sarenrae's goodness for goodness sake modus operandi has mummy rot lose every time.


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Crystal Frasier wrote:


Every group is a little different. If you're group likes knowing all the mechanics they're working with up front, there's no harm in sharing it with them. I personally like things to be a bit of description and a bit of mechanics when I GM, because I tend to have a spread of player types. Initially I might say "The city is in a complete panic, and nearly every business has barricaded its doors," and describe the rules bits of each tier as they reach it. But I could also see how knowing the rules might ruin the immersion for some people. You know your group best.

I was just thinking about this very thing and saw this helpful thread. As my players are still early on in half dead city I think I'm going to try planting a series of scrolls in the house of pentheru for the adventurers to find. These will contain academic research written by a member of the pentheru family who has been studying the levels of panic caused by the plague of madness and the effect on the city at each stage.

The research will present a model for tracking the levels of panic in the city. Later on in book two I can refer them back to this research they found and I have an excuse to tell them the rules for the current situation as if their characters were simply applying the sociological research they had found. A bit contrived but provides a reason for the panic level system to be in game.

What do people think?

Scarab Sages

That's a great idea, and probably would hit home that this place was overrun by crazies during the plague just as much as the haunts there did.

Liberty's Edge

Folkish Elm wrote:


I was just thinking about this very thing and saw this helpful thread. As my players are still early on in half dead city I think I'm going to try planting a series of scrolls in the house of pentheru for the adventurers to find. These will contain academic research written by a member of the pentheru family who has been studying the levels of panic caused by the plague of madness and the effect on the city at each stage.

The research will present a model for tracking the levels of panic in the city. Later on in book two I can refer them back to this research they found and I have an excuse to tell them the rules for the current situation as if their characters were simply applying the sociological research they had found. A bit contrived but provides a reason for the panic level system to be in game.

What do people think?

Excellent idea. I will mention this one on the podcast. Great stuff.


Pathfinder Maps Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

In the Red Herrings sidebar on page 30, two locations are listed in the Star Chart section that don't appear to be in either of the first two chapters. Mahhept's Marvelous Maps, and Pahak's Prognostications.

Am I just failing my Perception test here (in which case, can someone tell me where to look)?

Or were these cut from the adventure? (In which case, would the author be interested in sharing anything with us for these locations?)

Scarab Sages

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Got to the Bright River Brickworks last night. The party had tons of *fun* in the abandoned laboratory.

They pried the western of the two doors off, everybody within range of the doors made the perception but not the id. Two of the guys waded in carefree. Both failed fort saves.

Next round, the oracle gets close enough to make checks and ID's it as poison gas. PC #3 goes in to pull out ally, fails fort save.

Oracle moves away, PC#1 saves and runs. PC #2 and #3 start taking damage.

PC #2 gets act normally, leaves the room, then saves for continuing effects. PC #3 proceeds to get the following:
1 - 3 WIS, poisoned
2 - Babble Incoherently, 1 WIS, Fails more saves
3 - Attacks Ally, 1 WIS, Fails more saves
4 - Punches self in Face repeatedly, 3 WIS, fails more saves
5 - Attacks Ally (outside of the gas chamber now), 2 WIS, fails ongoing save
6 - 2 WIS, falls unconscious from 0 WIS

It was quite fun.

Sovereign Court Senior Developer

Cintra Bristol wrote:

In the Red Herrings sidebar on page 30, two locations are listed in the Star Chart section that don't appear to be in either of the first two chapters. Mahhept's Marvelous Maps, and Pahak's Prognostications.

Am I just failing my Perception test here (in which case, can someone tell me where to look)?

Or were these cut from the adventure? (In which case, would the author be interested in sharing anything with us for these locations?)

As it says in the first paragraph of the sidebar, "Some of these locations are merely red herrings and aren't detailed in this adventure." There's just not room in an adventure to detail minor locations that are not part of the plot at all.

If your PCs decide to investigate these locations, they can be put anywhere in the necropolis. Again, the sidebar provides guidance about how long investigating one of these location will take, and recommends rolling up a random encounter for each location.


Pathfinder Maps Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Rob McCreary wrote:
As it says in the first paragraph of the sidebar...

Oops, you're right. I think I saw that on my first read-through, then forgot when I was skimming back through to load data into RealmWorks. (So - I did fail my perception check!) But that makes perfect sense - Thanks!


Caderyn wrote:
I have some questions about the ghast barbarian, undead are immune to morale effects and rage bonuses are morale ones, however you have given him a +4 ST and a +4 Cha while raging, I wont be able to justify using these bonuses on the barbarian would it be a good idea to switch his class to something like fighter (which does not have morale bonuses?)

I wish for an answer to that as well.


Guy St-Amant wrote:
Caderyn wrote:
I have some questions about the ghast barbarian, undead are immune to morale effects and rage bonuses are morale ones, however you have given him a +4 ST and a +4 Cha while raging, I wont be able to justify using these bonuses on the barbarian would it be a good idea to switch his class to something like fighter (which does not have morale bonuses?)

I wish for an answer to that as well.

i read the PRD and checked my book, it doesn't say any where in the undead type in the bestiary that undead don't get rage or morale bonus so i would run it as is:)

Dark Archive

You should check it again

the 3rd trait of the Undead type is the following

Immunity to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, morale effects, patterns, and phantasms).

A morale bonus is a morale effect and thus as an undead you are immune to it, personally I have no problem with undead barbarians as long as they are not listed with raged statistics as they cannot use this unless you negate their immunity to mind-affecting effects.

Liberty's Edge

If they're immune to compulsions, how can evil clerics control them?


Rob McCreary is a smart guy, hes not gonna put a broken monster in the adventure.

Scarab Sages

Samy wrote:
If they're immune to compulsions, how can evil clerics control them?

The Command Undead spell is a plain necromancy without mind-affecting or compulsion descriptors. Extending the same idea to the feat and the class abilities would be a similar idea. Pure necromantic control overtaking the programmed (mindless) or freeish will (non-mindless) undead.


The only thing i see that would prevent undead from raging is this:

Quote:


Bonus (Morale)

A morale bonus represents the effects of greater hope, courage, and determination (or hopelessness, cowardice, and despair in the case of a morale penalty). Multiple morale bonuses on the same character do not stack. Only the highest morale bonus applies. Non-intelligent creatures (creatures with an Intelligence of 0 or no Intelligence at all) cannot benefit from morale bonuses.

Otherwise, the same way they can be boosted by necromantic effects, or forced to roll will vs fear (turn undead), they should benefit from morale bonuses if they have an INT score, as Rage isnt a mind-affecting ability.

Again, androids are immune to morale bonus from barbarian rage and dont get any benefits from the rage.

So it sounds like a conflict in the rules here.
IMO: ditch the barbarian class from undeads or simply say its a "Profane Rage" or something that grants profane bonuses instead.

Sovereign Court Senior Developer

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We've done undead barbarians in several APs up to this point. Basically, they work the same as a living barbarian, except that everything related to Con instead relates to Charisma. To my mind, the undead's immunity to morale effects does not apply to a barbarian's rage. Rage does provide morale bonuses, but the undead's immunity to morale effects is a parenthetical example of its immunity to mind-affecting effects, and rage is not a min-affecting effect.

In any case, this has been addressed in the forthcoming Monster Codex, with a special ability called undead barbarian.

Monster Codex wrote:
Undead Barbarian: An undead creature with the ability to enter a rage gains the morale bonuses from rage despite being immune to morale effects. The bonus to Constitution from the rage applies to an undead creature's Charisma instead.

Going forward, we'll probably include that ability with undead barbarians in future APs, but for the purposes of Empty Graves, the ghast barbarian should function like any other barbarian.

Silver Crusade

Rob is there a reason in book 2 why you force the PC's to be 2000gp under wpl and not allow them to buy magic items? Are you trying to TPK the party? we went thru the auction we were only allow to bid on three items before the attack started. We were not allow to by any thing after the attack on the auction even though we saved the church's butt. That to me is railroading the PC's and putting them in a grossly under powered situation fighting undead with mundane weapons.

The story would be good if you allowed the PC's to spend their loot
before sending them aginist the undead hoard with very limited healing
then tossing them against a cr+5 creature and not giving any treasure of note. Just some junk items that we cannot sell because of the events going on in the town. very poor design IMO. Treasure should be placed to benefit the PC's not shaft them. Why no potions or a wand of some sort or a magic weapon after that encounter?

The AP's story is good the monster selection is good but the rewards for PC's is horrible but that is the Norm that I have seen from Pazio. It seems to me that Pazio is terrified of actually giving treasure, like it is coming out of Pazio's piggy bank. I think that this comes form the fact the WBL and Costs for Magic items were not designed by the same people at WOTC and were not corrected by Pazio and the developers refuse to fix this.

Scarab Sages

i totally tossed out the economy failure after the macguffin of the auction to start book 2. too much hand waving needed to say that they couldn't ferry across either of the two nearby rivers to An or Tephu to go shopping and be back the next day.

Sovereign Court Senior Developer

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Lou Diamond wrote:

Rob is there a reason in book 2 why you force the PC's to be 2000gp under wpl and not allow them to buy magic items? Are you trying to TPK the party? we went thru the auction we were only allow to bid on three items before the attack started. We were not allow to by any thing after the attack on the auction even though we saved the church's butt. That to me is railroading the PC's and putting them in a grossly under powered situation fighting undead with mundane weapons.

The story would be good if you allowed the PC's to spend their loot
before sending them aginist the undead hoard with very limited healing
then tossing them against a cr+5 creature and not giving any treasure of note. Just some junk items that we cannot sell because of the events going on in the town. very poor design IMO. Treasure should be placed to benefit the PC's not shaft them. Why no potions or a wand of some sort or a magic weapon after that encounter?

The AP's story is good the monster selection is good but the rewards for PC's is horrible but that is the Norm that I have seen from Pazio. It seems to me that Pazio is terrified of actually giving treasure, like it is coming out of Pazio's piggy bank. I think that this comes form the fact the WBL and Costs for Magic items were not designed by the same people at WOTC and were not corrected by Pazio and the developers refuse to fix this.

I'm afraid I have to disagree with this. There is nothing in the adventure about how many times the PCs are allowed to bid during the auction,and in fact, following the attack, there are several rewards of magic items from people whom the PCs might have saved during the auction attack.

During the undead uprising, there is again nothing preventing the PCs from buying or selling magic items. The Panic Level in the city does increase the price of buying items, but they are still available - the adventure was most certainly not written to force the PCs not to have magic items at their disposal.

I'm also not sure where a CR+5 (I assume you mean APL+5) encounter. For the most part, the highest APL we do in APs is APL+3, what's considered an "epic" encounter, and these are usually end-of-adventure boss fights. "Empty Graves" follows this same structure,and nothing in the adventure as written has an encounter with a CR 5 higher than the PCs' Average Party Level.

Regarding treasure distribution in AP in general, and in "Empty Graves" in particular, we generally put up to twice the normal amounts of treasure by encounter in the adventure, since we assume that not all groups will find all of the treasure, and/or will sell some of it for lesser value. The encounters in Part 1 of "Empty Graves" alone (up through the hideout of the Silver Chain gang), should give out approximately 27,000 gp worth of treasure. As written, the PCs have the opportunity to earn nearly 59,000 gp of treasure in those same encounters, more than twice the amount of treasure expected. Even if all of that 59,000 gp is sold for half value and divided by four among the four members of an average adventuring group, each PC would get 7,375 gp by the time they're 5th level at the end of Part 1. That's only about 3,000 gp less than a 5th-level character should have by WBL (which is 10,500 gp), and they should certainly have gotten that much treasure to make up the difference in the first adventure.

In short, as written, the adventure gives the PCs the opportunity to buy, sell, and acquire treasure; the encounters are designed for the PCs' APL; and it provides enough treasure for the PCs at their level. I'd suggest talking to your GM about your concerns - there may be reasons he or she modified the adventure and the treasure available, but in no way does the adventure suggest the sorts of things you are describing.

Dark Archive

Lou was complaining about a random encounter, although that table does specifically say that because it is for a large range of character levels and as a GM you should be careful about which ones you throw at your party, the Deathweb however is a random encounter and should be only used against PC's towards the higher end of the level spectrum for the book (with Vital Strike and PA running its Bite +12/4d8+21 which against 4th level PCs can autokill on a crit)


Rob, the Final boss of Shattered Star kinda crap on this (CR 21, estimated APL 17, notes suggesting the encounter be upped to CR 22-23)...

But yeah, non random encounters above APL +3 are rare (usually either "run away" scenario, or "oops, you weren't supposed to fight it yet" ones).

As said above, the random encounters section does say to fudge the result if needed. Also, APs assume the PCs will be at certain level in x part, have WBL gears, and are usually made with a party of four (Full BaB martial, a skill monkey, a Divine caster and an arcane caster), deviating from this might require adjustments)

Scarab Sages

Question about the NPCs found on page 8

Djat Masakhet (N male human cleric of Nethys 2)
and Intef Karam (LN female human cleric of Nethys 3):
Representatives of Wati’s temple of Nethys, the Sanctum of
Silver and Gold, looking for unique magic items and lost
temple records.

When I look at the Wati tourist guide I see the Sanctum of Silver and Gold was Abadar and not Nethys.

Sanctum of Silver and Gold: This small, comfortable temple of Abadar has held sway over Wati’s economy for thousands of years, and has been rebuilt and remodeled dozens of times to accommodate the waning and waxing of Abadar’s appeal in the region.

So is it correct to assume a change in god in that write up or is there a temple to Nethys (aside from the Eurdite Eye) that was missed in the tourist guide?

Sovereign Court Senior Developer

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Nathan Reed wrote:

Question about the NPCs found on page 8

Djat Masakhet (N male human cleric of Nethys 2)
and Intef Karam (LN female human cleric of Nethys 3):
Representatives of Wati’s temple of Nethys, the Sanctum of
Silver and Gold, looking for unique magic items and lost
temple records.

When I look at the Wati tourist guide I see the Sanctum of Silver and Gold was Abadar and not Nethys.

Sanctum of Silver and Gold: This small, comfortable temple of Abadar has held sway over Wati’s economy for thousands of years, and has been rebuilt and remodeled dozens of times to accommodate the waning and waxing of Abadar’s appeal in the region.

So is it correct to assume a change in god in that write up or is there a temple to Nethys (aside from the Eurdite Eye) that was missed in the tourist guide?

It should be Abadar, for both the priests and the temple. The only temple of Nethys in Wati was the Sanctum of the Erudite Eye; since that was abandoned, there has been no temple of Nethys in the city.

Scarab Sages

So my next question is what would some of the auction attendees do in the ensuing chaos of the pulse.
Mainly I am looking at the un-statted Four Lanterns and the two priests of Abadar?
I was thinking the Clerics could help usher out Basif, Khammayid, Manaat, and Baketra (so basically anyone who is not put in specific danger).
The Four Lanterns could stay and help in the fight, freeing the PCs to save some of the others imperiled.

But I wasn't sure if there was a better approach to dealing with these potential allies.

Scarab Sages

I had them all cower in the corners and run out the main door behind the zombies (those that didn't die).

Scarab Sages

Next question (as I continue to prep I will find more I am sure). Does the defeat of a Random Encounter reduce Panic in the city? Some of those are quite tough and I can see that being helpful. But nothing is noted on pages 13 or 83 saying one way or another. I am planning on a Yes Answer, but I wanted to see if I missed something.

RPG Superstar 2014 Top 32

Crystal Frasier wrote:
Also keep in mind that defeating random encounters can lower the panic level as well.

Crystal the Author wrote this earlier in the thread.

Scarab Sages

@Grumpus. Ahh, I did not connect the writer of that post to the author of the book. Mea Culpa and thank you for establishing the mental link, I am going with the assumption that at a minimum each Random Encounter dealt with is a -1.

Silver Crusade

I am not quite getting the red herring bit. How do I implement this? Is it simply the party explores the buildings where thing the maggufin is, and so you break out a red herring site as filler? As far as I know none of the people in the necropolis will specifically suggest a red herring or will they? Who will suggest what? I think the dark folk will have the best knowledge of the area, so they could possibly name a few red herrings right?

Scarab Sages

Talos the Talon! wrote:
I am not quite getting the red herring bit. How do I implement this? Is it simply the party explores the buildings where thing the maggufin is, and so you break out a red herring site as filler? As far as I know none of the people in the necropolis will specifically suggest a red herring or will they? Who will suggest what? I think the dark folk will have the best knowledge of the area, so they could possibly name a few red herrings right?

So the red-herrings come from several sources (see page 29 and 30 for details).

The Magic Compass it points along a line- along that line are many sites (as noted in the red herring side bar on page 30), so if they follow the compass line they will pass through a whole host of trouble - definitely look at the writeups of some of these locations in the Wati guide in the previous module.

Many Denizens - if asked if they have seen someone with a mask they will say they saw people with masks in all sorts of locations, so the list of those places they will suggest is again in the red-herring side bar section for "Mysterious Stranger." The good news is none of the locations listed in that heading lack a map entry.

Lastly if they work with the Dark Folk or rescue the one captured by Dark Cadaver the clue about the torn section of the Star Chart means if they ponder where such a thing could come from then that list of places is the Star chart subheading in the sidebar. I would say the Dark Folk would be the ones to list off all the places here where it could come from (and thus the greatest source of red-herrings)

So now you have a whole bunch of different locations, some with Letters (indicating a place with a write up) and a bunch without a Letter. Those without Letters (ex. Mahhept's Marvelous Maps) you now get to do the following
1) Cost the PCs 1d6 hours as they explore the site.
2) Roll up a Random Encounter that just "happens" to be at their site of choice.
3) Have a map of a ruin for them to deal with the Random Encounter in.
4) Assuming they defeat the Random Encounter -1 from the Panic Level.

The total of Red-Herrings where you have to do something is pretty small (6) of which some have been written about in the Wati write up (2 of them) - so really you have 4 that you will have to make whole from cloth.

Silver Crusade

Ekram in area F9 carries a key to area F2. What does this key open? The only thing in area F2 is a few kegs of saffron.

RPG Superstar 2014 Top 32

yosemitemike wrote:
Ekram in area F9 carries a key to area F2. What does this key open? The only thing in area F2 is a few kegs of saffron.

It opens the door leading from F1 (outside) into F2.

the description of F1 reads :The door is locked during the
day (hardness 5, hp 20, break DC 25, Disable Device DC 25),
but is generally unlocked after sunset. One of the guards
always on duty here carries a key, as does Ekram Iffek.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber

Is it possible for the PC's to narrow down the location of Nefra with two operating elegiac compasses? I am looking at the map of the Necropolis and it would seem that the small area two of the compasses would easily bisect right over the Temple.


Pathfinder Maps Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
john wood wrote:
Is it possible for the PC's to narrow down the location of Nefra with two operating elegiac compasses? I am looking at the map of the Necropolis and it would seem that the small area two of the compasses would easily bisect right over the Temple.

Yes, I think this would work. However, if I remember correctly, there is only one elegiac compass that is possibly repairable, so the PCs will need to locate and obtain that one, and then fix it, to be able to do this.


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I found the multiple encounters listed sequentially (by necessity) but playing out in a non-sequential manner to be a bit confusing.

Add to this the red herrings, and I began to lose track of what the paths the PCs could take.

To make things a bit easier for myself, I created a visual map of the encounters. It's not super accurate and not always clear, but I know it's helping me understand connections between sites and encounters at a glance, rather than flipping around through the book, or scrolling through the pdf.

I've published the google docs Wati First Events, and Wati Second Events, in case others would like to use them or are interested in making something similar (since deciphering my own map could be tough if you didn't build it).

For me, it allows the PCs to have a non-linear approach to the problem, while allowing me to have a connected sequence of events quickly at hand!

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber
Cintra Bristol wrote:
john wood wrote:
Is it possible for the PC's to narrow down the location of Nefra with two operating elegiac compasses? I am looking at the map of the Necropolis and it would seem that the small area two of the compasses would easily bisect right over the Temple.
Yes, I think this would work. However, if I remember correctly, there is only one elegiac compass that is possibly repairable, so the PCs will need to locate and obtain that one, and then fix it, to be able to do this.

You are right Cintra, my objective was to allow the party to follow their own path in the Necropolis. In the notes that lead up to Part 2 it is suggested "Don't be afraid to go off the beaten track, changing [things] to alternative strategies. Perhaps the PC's decide to repair enough elegiac compasses to triangulate the location, in which case the parts they need may be in the hands of the dark slayer, concealed in the Pyramid of Arithmetic Bliss or possessed by the undead revenant. Or they make a deal with the ghouls of Acrid Street, (etc.)"

Knowing my group I was prepared for them to go after all options in regards to the compasses, and they did. They have repaired one and are about to set out tonight on repairing the one at The Shiny Bauble. Once they get that up I am assuming it will be a b-line to the Sepulcher.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber
PhineasGage wrote:

I found the multiple encounters listed sequentially (by necessity) but playing out in a non-sequential manner to be a bit confusing.

Add to this the red herrings, and I began to lose track of what the paths the PCs could take.

To make things a bit easier for myself, I created a visual map of the encounters. It's not super accurate and not always clear, but I know it's helping me understand connections between sites and encounters at a glance, rather than flipping around through the book, or scrolling through the pdf.

I've published the google docs Wati First Events, and Wati Second Events, in case others would like to use them or are interested in making something similar (since deciphering my own map could be tough if you didn't build it).

For me, it allows the PCs to have a non-linear approach to the problem, while allowing me to have a connected sequence of events quickly at hand!

Great charts Phin, thank-you for sharing!

Silver Crusade

I have a question for the designer of Mummies Mask. Was it intended by you to force the players to sell back magic items at 50% of there base value? IF so why did you not put in items that when sold would not put characters under their wbl? Does Pazio dislike martials so much that they are unwilling to put +2 weapons that martials would use like a great sword or a long bow. You put in a +1 keen flail that violates the rules
keen can normally be put [Talk to the developers and get them to put in the orginial impact enchantment back in game WOTC would give you permission if asked for something simple like Impact.} and on S/P weapon not blunt weapons. the sheeet also does not say if the flail is heavy or light.

Would it hurt to put a fully charged 2nd level arcane wand in a 4-6 module? Either put in a fully charged wand with a good spell on it or give the players enough gold to buy one w/o spending 100% of his or her gold on it. We are playing in osrion wold it kill the design team to put in a suit of chain or plate that had the comfort enchantment on it?


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Would it hurt You to change the flail (which was most likely an editing error) or add a scroll or item here or there, you are the GM after all:)

insulting people and being rude about your questions isnt going to get them answered any faster:)


And as a GM, you are supposed to adapt to the players/PCs:

- Builds
- Tactics/Strategies (or lack thereof)
- Average dice rolls quality
- Number of PCs
- Etc


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I think the module is written to make realistic sense. The items adventurers find typically won't fit with what weapons and armor they specifically use. Further, if there's a ton of recovered gear flooding the market, it makes sense that the selling price would decrease based on simple economics.

Now if you'd rather pursue fun over realism, then I think you make alterations.

Personally, I upped the value of the loot and threw extra in (because 5 player party, and resale issues). I also hand selected items they can acquire at the auction, for a below market value cost if they do some successful information gathering and diplomacy/intimidating.

Sovereign Court Senior Developer

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Lou Diamond wrote:

I have a question for the designer of Mummies Mask. Was it intended by you to force the players to sell back magic items at 50% of there base value? IF so why did you not put in items that when sold would not put characters under their wbl? Does Pazio dislike martials so much that they are unwilling to put +2 weapons that martials would use like a great sword or a long bow. You put in a +1 keen flail that violates the rules

keen can normally be put [Talk to the developers and get them to put in the orginial impact enchantment back in game WOTC would give you permission if asked for something simple like Impact.} and on S/P weapon not blunt weapons. the sheeet also does not say if the flail is heavy or light.

Would it hurt to put a fully charged 2nd level arcane wand in a 4-6 module? Either put in a fully charged wand with a good spell on it or give the players enough gold to buy one w/o spending 100% of his or her gold on it. We are playing in osrion wold it kill the design team to put in a suit of chain or plate that had the comfort enchantment on it?

Players are not forced to sell back magic items. If they don't want to use them, they can sell them, but they're going to get less value for them. That's the rules. And this adventure gives out more that 1.5 times the amount of treasure the PCs should earn from the encounters they face - in part because of the assumption that they will sell some of the treasure (we also assume that they will keep some of the treasure).

As others have said, if you want specific magic items in your adventure, it's up to the GM to add them in. There's no way that we can put in magic items that will be equally useful to every party or character playing in the AP. In the case of fully-charged wands, these are usually wielded by NPCs, who have their own wealth restrictions based on their levels. As such, it is often very difficult to give an NPC a fully-charged wand without using up all of their wealth, which means they wouldn't have other, more useful magic items.

Regarding the +1 keen flail, that weapon special ability is granted by the monster itself, the graven guardian (see page 140 of Bestiary 3). This is called out as a specific exception to the normal keen weapon rules (also note that it is only a +1 keen flail in the hands of the graven guardian; once the PCs destroy the construct, the weapon reverts to a masterwork flail). As for whether it is a light or heavy flail, it is neither. There is no light flail. It is a flail.

Silver Crusade

Rob, other than the treasure Mummies Mask is great. The Chariot race was epic though our two teams lost the crowd loved the entertainment.
My character literally loved Muminafra, she liked the Wayang to but my Assamair was her favorite.

Muminafra refered to the Wayang as her dark talking monkey.
Denka hates our party for going around her to Muminafra so we can get what we need done.
The story is beyond good. Our party is having a great time.

Our party includes a ½ elf mystic thurge, a human shield fighter, a Wayang sorcerer and an assamir bloodrager and a ½ elf ninja. The story so far has given us all good challenges.

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