1 - Hellknight Hill (GM Reference)

[Ed Reppert]

The fun part will be retro-fitting settlement stat blocks to adventures that don't have them. l doubt Paizo will do that, so unless a 3PP does it every GM will end up with his own version.

[Colette Brunel]

What makes an entire order of Hellknights less qualified at identifying magic than 4th-level PCs? Do Hellknights not have signifers for this exact subject: handling magical matters?

This entire adventure also hinges on a lictor, that is, the leader, of a Hellknight order being described as "mercurial and whimsical." You know, the Hellknights of law, order, and discipline.

[Kasoh]

Colette Brunel wrote:

What makes an entire order of Hellknights less qualified at identifying magic than 4th-level PCs? Do Hellknights not have signifers for this exact subject: handling magical matters?

This entire adventure also hinges on a lictor, that is, the leader, of a Hellknight order being described as "mercurial and whimsical." You know, the Hellknights of law, order, and discipline.

Because if the Hellknights identified the gate, it would be a different story. Since it isn't that story, they did not identify them.

When the PCs ask why the Hellknights never did what they could do, all you can do is shrug, the PCs have no way of ever knowing why it happened.

[Mechalibur]

I'll probably nix the deed to the Citadel in my game - the Hellknights completely abandoned the location, so I see no reason the players would be preoccupied by the legal ramifications. After all, the goblins had been occupying the Citadel without legal ownership, and no one seems to care.

[Ed Reppert]

The Hellknight orders are lawful. If they were to come back, and find the PCs in possession of "their" castle, they might not work to evict them if they had the deed, however they obtained it. I suppose it depends on how the deed is worded.

[dharkus]

Mechalibur wrote:

I'll probably nix the deed to the Citadel in my game - the Hellknights completely abandoned the location, so I see no reason the players would be preoccupied by the legal ramifications. After all, the goblins had been occupying the Citadel without legal ownership, and no one seems to care.

pg 21, Alak wrote:

“Oh my no. My order has pretty much washed its hands of this place—most of them think of Isger as a backwater, in fact. It’s a shame seeing this place left to rot, though. In fact, there’s a story that when my order left this place, they hid the deed to the Citadel somewhere inside, and anyone brave enough and strong enough to find it would be rewarded with ownership of the place.”

bigger quote:

pg61, location of the deed wrote:

The lictor at the time had no interest in retaining a presence in Isger, but he had a mercurial and whimsical streak in him that compelled him to leave the deed behind, so that anyone brave and resourceful enough to find their way to this deepest part of the fortress would be rewarded.

A successful DC 15 Society check (or automatic confirmation from Alak, if he is asked) confirms that possession of this deed grants legal rights and ownership of the citadel to the deed’s possessor, by local, national, and Hellknight law. Technically, the Order of the Nail could contest this ownership, but if Alak is consulted, he can confirm that his order has little interest in Citadel Altaerein or Isger today, and that it is unlikely to contest the PCs’ claim to the ruined castle. After all, the cost for repairing Citadel Altaerein and maintaining it is not something the Order of the Nail is eager to front—whether or not the PCs themselves are prepared to foot this bill is something that they’ll have to decide for themselves. The next volume of Age of Ashes has additional information for how the PCs can use downtime to rebuild and repair Citadel Altaerein, and eventually use it as their own base of operations.
In addition to approving of the PCs taking possession of the keep, Alak offers to inform the Order’s leaders of this development and speak to them on the PCs’ behalf, assuring them that the PCs are responsible and trustworthy owners, should they wish to take possession of Citadel Altaerein. “It’s best for the citadel to fall into hands capable of restoring and respecting it,” he says. “Far better you own Altaerein than for it to persist in its role as home to monsters and hooligans, I’d say.”
If the PCs wish to use Citadel Altaerein as their base of operations, they can show this writ of ownership to any artisan, builder, or similar contractor in Breachill. Those professionals will gladly complete paid work to help fix up the keep to the PCs’ liking. For more information about how the repair and rebuilding of Citadel Altaerein works, see Pathfinder Adventure Path #146: Cult of Cinders.

[Mechalibur]

Yeah that just seems way too convenient of a solution for something that's not really a problem in the first place.

[Kiniticyst]

Don't have the PDF yet and wanted to check something.

I'm currently running Return of The Runelords and one of my players is considering starting up a 2nd weekly game of 2e running Age of Ashes but I'm worried they might stumble across some spoilers.

If they read this adventure path, will the world changing events that happen in RotRL be talked about in Age of Ashes? I don't want to get too specific and spoil RotRL for anyone, but I'm talking about the changes in Varisia.

[3Doubloons]

Kiniticyst wrote:

Don't have the PDF yet and wanted to check something.

I'm currently running Return of The Runelords and one of my players is considering starting up a 2nd weekly game of 2e running Age of Ashes but I'm worried they might stumble across some spoilers.

If they read this adventure path, will the world changing events that happen in RotRL be talked about in Age of Ashes? I don't want to get too specific and spoil RotRL for anyone, but I'm talking about the changes in Varisia.

According to the AP outline, Age of Ashes doesn't touch on Varisia

Locations visited:

Isger

Mwangi

Ravounel

Darklands under the Five Kings' Mountain

Katapesh

Hermea

[3Doubloons]

I noticed that, when hiring the party after the fire, Mrs Gardenia Tells them to bring Calmont back alive for questioning "if at all possible". When they return, if Calmont was killed, she "considers this job incomplete and declines to pay what she offered for this task." I'm planning on emphasising that she wants him brought alive as much as possible as mentioned in the adventure, but given the "if at all possible" phrasing, it seems harsh to withhold payment. I'm thinking a Diplomacy check would be appropriate to convince her that Calmont's death was unavoidable, but I'm not sure what the DC should be (20 would be my gut instinct)

[Maelorn7]

3Doubloons wrote:

I noticed that, when hiring the party after the fire, Mrs Gardenia Tells them to bring Calmont back alive for questioning "if at all possible". When they return, if Calmont was killed, she "considers this job incomplete and declines to pay what she offered for this task." I'm planning on emphasising that she wants him brought alive as much as possible as mentioned in the adventure, but given the "if at all possible" phrasing, it seems harsh to withhold payment. I'm thinking a Diplomacy check would be appropriate to convince her that Calmont's death was unavoidable, but I'm not sure what the DC should be (20 would be my gut instinct)

Just played this situation on Sunday, Calmont was killed by Dmiri so he can't tell to much about her employer - Voz.

When party described the situation to Gretta she told that 10 gp was promised for Calmont if he is alive and with a successful DC 15 Diplomacy they convinced her to pay 5 gp for their troubles.

I suppose convincing her should not be hard and used Simple DCs "trained" difficulty for that.

[3Doubloons]

Maelorn7 wrote:

I suppose convincing her should not be hard and used Simple DCs "trained" difficulty for that.

That's my dilemma; should it be the simple Trained DC since the PCs are still first level, or the simple Expert DC to reflect that the adventure had her categorically reject to pay the adventurers.

I'm hoping my players catch the obvious clue by four, but it's nice to be prepared

[Ed Reppert]

Personally, my feeling is that if you're going to make "bring him back alive" a condition of payment, you should make that clear up front. Saying "bring him back if possible" and then later denying payment is tantamount to fraud.

OTOH, a properly paranoid adventurer should make sure what the deal is before accepting it.

[Asgetrion]

Mhuirich wrote:

TheWanderingM wrote:

jadony wrote:

1. The group felt it was a little ridiculous (in character and out) that a citadel crammed with baddies is only a mile outside of town. It made them feel as though the town should by rights have been facing a lot more danger, as well as that the town leadership was kind of crazy to wait to go investigate the source of the goblin distress signal when it can practically be seen out the window.

I agree. That's why I placed the citadel 6 miles away. Anyhow the info didn't seem consistent to me.

My main sticking point with this adjustment is that it's even more unrealistic to have a secret tunnel dug six miles (or ten, if you follow the gazetteer) underground from the citadel to the town. Even one mile pushes credibility a bit, but it's consistent in most of the text: pages 6, 12, 43, and 44 all agree on the 1 mile distance. Only the gazetteer is out of sync.

The reasons that the town isn't facing immediate danger is that the "baddies'" presence there is a recent development, and they are trapped where they are. Even if they all were free, without Huntersgate being opened they are at best a small bandit camp, a threat to travelers eventually, but in the month at most they've been there, there would have barely been time for the town to realize who had moved in.

As for the signal fires, I'm going with the idea that the keep is well known landmark, but that doesn't mean it's either a destination, or particularly convenient to get to. If it's a mile in the wrong direction to anywhere, Warbal may be the only one with a reason to get close enough to see the signal. With the goblins stuck on the battlements the whole time, it might have taken most of their time up there to scrounge enough wood to light the fires, or they may have waited until the scheduled meeting day to light them, so as to not run out of fuel.

These are really good ideas that add more details and "realism" to the background and the premise of this adventure. If I'll ever run this AP, I'm definitely going to use these! :)

[Porridge]

--Question: On p49, under the description of encounter C2, it mentions that the party can make one Diplomacy or Intimidation check to get the guard to call Dmiri out to speak with the PCs. But I can't find any further guidance about this in the AP. How is this conversation supposed to go?

Two other minor omissions/typos in Chapter 4:

--On p43, it says that once the PCs begin Chapter 4, Alak will take off. But later in Chapter 4 it says some things which suggest Alak may still be traveling with the party (e.g., on p49 it talks about what Alak can tell the party about the Bloody Blades, on p53 it says that Alak will volunteer to take Voz into custody).

--On p55 it says that Renali "prefers to avoid the PCs entirely until she hears them fighting the barghest in area D3, in which case she comes to their aid as detailed there." But the description of encounter D3 doesn't mention Renali.

[Ed Reppert]

Interesting town, Breachill. How does its economy work? Where are the farms/farmers that supply food? Where does all the wealth come from? Where is the quarry from which the Hellknights got the stone for their castle? Where in town will an alchemist find the reagents he needs? Is the town on a major trade route?

My "willing suspension of disbelief" is getting a bit strained. :-)

[Rysky]

Ed Reppert wrote:

How does its economy work?

Like every other fantasy town.

[James Jacobs]

Ed Reppert wrote:

Interesting town, Breachill. How does its economy work? Where are the farms/farmers that supply food? Where does all the wealth come from? Where is the quarry from which the Hellknights got the stone for their castle? Where in town will an alchemist find the reagents he needs? Is the town on a major trade route?

My "willing suspension of disbelief" is getting a bit strained. :-)

We're writing an adventure game, not an economics simulation game. As such, we need to give priority to what we feel best supports the adventure side of things, and that means that often, these nitty gritty details get left out. If they're important for your table's verisimilitude, it's easy to say that there's farms and a quarry a few miles outside of town, or to add in new shops and locations. The point of Breachill itself is that it's self-sustaining and isn't on a major trade route so feel free to add in things life farms and the like as you see fit. The town is background material for the bulk of the rest of the Adventure Path so you can expand Breachill with little worry that what you add might get negated by future installments.

[Ed Reppert]

Okay, thanks, James.

[wrmusall]

Hoping to get a Age Of Ashes AP logo. I know Paizo has made logos available before for Community Use. Any chance this is available yet, and where I might find it?

[Colette Brunel]

"The family is notoriously tight- lipped about its business practices, and for good reason: the Posandis have been secret Asmodeus worshippers for generations. They often seek the guidance and aid of devils when they feel it’s necessary, sometimes even summoning them in their secret diabolic underground chambers."

Planar binding is a 6th-level ritual. Does that mean that one of the Posandis or their associates is at least 11th level?

What happens if a PC uses Befriend a Local to make friends with the Posandis or one of their associates, and becomes trusted enough to learn such a ritual? Are they eligible to learn planar binding, a 6th-level ritual usable only by creatures of 11th level and above?

On another note, I can find no mentions whatsoever of how this town relates to the greater Isgeri government. Does it even pay taxes to Elidir, the capital? Given that James Jacob has clarified that Breachill is not, in fact, on a major trade route, it seems to be an entirely self-sufficient city-state providing its own sustenance and materials.

Supposedly, the town has an elected council of five, led by a president, whoever receives the most votes. Terms are only two years. However, the five councilors come across as the most competent and qualified statespeople in town anyway, and they have some actual pedigree: the president is a direct descendant of a town founder, one councilor is a retired adventure, another is a capitalist overlord, a fourth is a scion of a pre-Thrune Chelish noble house, and the fifth is a first-generation gnome resident.

Is there no limit on how many terms someone can serve? It seems to me like people would get complacent and vote for the competent and seasoned statespersons anyway. Also, that first-generation gnome councilor cannot possibly have ran for office only recently; for all we know, she has been a councilor for nearly 200 years by this point. Has the current council been an eternally-voted clique for the past few decades?

Additionally, since a single halfling merchant runs the general store and also the weapons and armor store, the Befriend a Local downtime activity is so heavily stacked towards the entire party befriending that one halfling lad and earning a discount from him.

[Rysky]

Learn yes, use no.

And NPCs don’t need to match a PCs levels in things to do stuff in 2e.

As for Quartering and Bits, it’s the general store, not a magic item shop.

[Colette Brunel]

Page 408 of the core rulebook says, "the ritual’s spell level can be no higher than half your level rounded up." Bestiary monsters obey this limitation.

If the general/armor/weapon store is not the magic item shop, then what is? "Ctrl+F" pulls up nothing on "magic" aside from the mentions of the town's wizardly founder.

[Benjamin Tait]

Colette Brunel wrote:

On another note, I can find no mentions whatsoever of how this town relates to the greater Isgeri government. Does it even pay taxes to Elidir, the capital? Given that James Jacob has clarified that Breachill is not, in fact, on a major trade route, it seems to be an entirely self-sufficient city-state providing its own sustenance and materials.

In all fairness, the town was set up by Mengkare after he wiped the first settler's memories, I'd think a eugenics obsessed Ancient Gold Dragon's standards would be high enough that "Just enough to survive and clear his conscience" would put most settlements to shame.

I do agree that the lack of mention about how Breachill interacts with Isgeri is bothersome, but I think it can be inferred that Cheliax and Isger leave it to it's own devices, since it was deemed a fittingly ideal place for the Order of the Nail to set up shop once upon a time and I'd say they give it plenty of leeway.

Plus, an entire self-sufficient town appearing seemingly out of nowhere thanks to a powerful wizard of dubious origin? I wouldn't want to risk kicking that hornet's nest.

[Rysky]

Colette Brunel wrote:

Page 408 of the core rulebook says, "the ritual’s spell level can be no higher than half your level rounded up." Bestiary monsters obey this limitation.

If the general/armor/weapon store is not the magic item shop, then what is? "Ctrl+F" pulls up nothing on "magic" aside from the mentions of the town's wizardly founder.

What level Ritual spell slot are the monsters using? Rituals don’t function like other spells, there as much items that you “have” as they are spells. The monsters in the Bestiary can use it cause it wouldn’t make sense for them not to. Which still doesn't dissuade that NPCs can do things differently than PCs.

In all Paizo Adventures they specifically call out who sells magic items and what kind in towns. Just because a place is a store or shop doesn’t mean they’re buying and selling magic items.

[Lost In Limbo]

Colette Brunel wrote:

"The family is notoriously tight- lipped about its business practices, and for good reason: the Posandis have been secret Asmodeus worshippers for generations. They often seek the guidance and aid of devils when they feel it’s necessary, sometimes even summoning them in their secret diabolic underground chambers."

Planar binding is a 6th-level ritual. Does that mean that one of the Posandis or their associates is at least 11th level?

This assumes that the only way to contact a devil is through the planar binding ritual. The fact that the Posandis "seek the guidance and aid .. sometimes even summoning them" suggests that the actual summoning of a devil is not the standard way that they seek diabolic assistance.

Feel free to come up with your own, lower-leveled ritual that you feel is appropriate to represent this. I'm assuming as more books are published we will get more official material to fill in this niche. I'm expecting we'll get some sort of Book of the Damned, or Codex of Villains, or Champions of Corruption eventually to sate our hunger for fiendish blood rituals.

[Dalvyn]

I have a question about the name of the goblin tribe, the Bumblebrashers.

With English not being my native tongue, I have a hard time making sense of it (then again, it's fine if a goblin tribe has a slightly nonsensical name, but I want to be sure I'm not missing anything).

Bumble as in speaking/moving in a confused way, or as in a bumble bee? Brasher as in very brash/arrogant/self-confident/energetic, more than the average goblin?

I'm also wondering where the name comes from. Were they at some point very brash and brave and did they attack a group of giant bumble bees that had invaded the Citadel... or was this name given by the first humans of Breachill they met, who thought that the goblins who came to them bumbling peaceful words were very brash to approach them, especially after the Goblinblood wars?

I couldn't find any official explanation for the name in the book, but I might have missed it?

[Rysky]

Probably something slightly nonsensical that sounded fittingly goblinish. But yeah going off the definitions to bumble about in a brave/brash way is fitting.

Though now I will be giving them bee outfits and turning them into bee keepers. Maybe they end up being followers of Cayden Cailean, hmm, goblin mead...

[Ed Reppert]

Rysky wrote:

In all Paizo Adventures they specifically call out who sells magic items and what kind in towns. Just because a place is a store or shop doesn’t mean they’re buying and selling magic items.

Apparently, no one in Breachill sells magic items.

[Rysky]

Ed Reppert wrote:

Rysky wrote:

In all Paizo Adventures they specifically call out who sells magic items and what kind in towns. Just because a place is a store or shop doesn’t mean they’re buying and selling magic items.

Apparently, no one in Breachill sells magic items.

Wouldn't doubt it, it is a starting town.

[Ed Reppert]

Rysky wrote:

Wouldn't doubt it, it is a starting town.

I take it by that you mean "a town where first level characters start out"? Yeah, it's that. But so is Sandpoint, and it has a magic shop.

[Sir NotAppearingInThisFilm]

So Voz has been instructed by the Scarlet Triad to investigate the gates and activate as many as possible, which she apparently has been unable to do. The Cinderclaws have activated Huntergate - was this on their own? Or were they being instructed to do so by the Scarlet Triad? Or an accident? Is Voz working with the Cinderclaws or is their appearance unexpected & and a problem she's seeking to address?

[James Jacobs]

Sir NotAppearingInThisFilm wrote:

So Voz has been instructed by the Scarlet Triad to investigate the gates and activate as many as possible, which she apparently has been unable to do. The Cinderclaws have activated Huntergate - was this on their own? Or were they being instructed to do so by the Scarlet Triad? Or an accident? Is Voz working with the Cinderclaws or is their appearance unexpected & and a problem she's seeking to address?

The Cinderclaws did it on their own, but with some Scarlet Triad manipulation.

[James Jacobs]

Ed Reppert wrote:

Rysky wrote:

Wouldn't doubt it, it is a starting town.

I take it by that you mean "a town where first level characters start out"? Yeah, it's that. But so is Sandpoint, and it has a magic shop.

Sandpoint had the advantage of being created/written for a system with an established magic item economy model to work with.

At the time we were creating Hellknight Hill... that economy did not exist yet. It's something of an unfortunate but necessary evil that rose from the fact that the design and development of this adventure had to happen at the same time the game itself was doing the same—and when we were pushing out more product than ever.

You can certainly allow PCs to buy magic items if you wish, but for the first few adventures at least the anticipation is that most magic items will be discovered in the course of play.

Once we get later into the Adventure Path, this starts being less of a thing, and by the time we're into the next one, Extinction Curse, I suspect/hope we'll be able to support this element more robustly in play.

[Sir NotAppearingInThisFilm]

James Jacobs wrote:

The Cinderclaws did it on their own, but with some Scarlet Triad manipulation.

Thank you very much!

[Colette Brunel]

James Jacobs wrote:

You can certainly allow PCs to buy magic items if you wish, but for the first few adventures at least the anticipation is that most magic items will be discovered in the course of play.

This means that in the "first few adventures" of Age of Ashes, the default assumption is that PCs cannot actually purchase magic items. That sounds on the rougher side. What was the point of item rarity if common items are not actually common? I do not see what is stopping the PCs from traveling to Elidir and buying magic items there. One would think that a town founded by an archmage would have more of a magical infrastructure.

[James Jacobs]

Colette Brunel wrote:

James Jacobs wrote:

You can certainly allow PCs to buy magic items if you wish, but for the first few adventures at least the anticipation is that most magic items will be discovered in the course of play.

This means that in the "first few adventures" of Age of Ashes, the default assumption is that PCs cannot actually purchase magic items. That sounds on the rougher side. What was the point of item rarity if common items are not actually common? I do not see what is stopping the PCs from traveling to Elidir and buying magic items there. One would think that a town founded by an archmage would have more of a magical infrastructure.

That's not what it means at all. It means that we don't give you, the GM, advice in the adventure itself for how the PCs can purchase magic items, but that advice does exist in the Core Rulebook now. It didn't exist when we were finishing up the adventure path itself though.

Breachill remains a small town with not a huge amount of things to buy, so your PCs won't be able to do lots of shopping there... but as the campaign progresses you'll be visiting plenty of places that have even more stores.

In the meantime... you GMs shouldn't feel like you're breaking the rules by allowing PCs to buy magic items in Breachill. Because you're not.

It only means there's some rough edges in those first few adveunters. We had them back in the first few Council of Thieves adventures too when we switched editions and had to build an adventure for a rule set that wasn't 100% finished at the time. At that time, the switch from 3.5 to Pathfinder was a LOT easier than what we did this time, but I'm pretty satisfied we got it within 90% of usability.

Sorry for the 10% of those snags.

THAT ALL SAID... One thing we're trying to move toward with Pathifnder is to shift the experience away from "Adventurers get most of their gear at the store" to a more exciting "Adventurers get most of their gear on adventures." This does mean that a GM should absolutely make adjustments to treasure in adventures now and then... it's okay to change the magic longsword in the treasure to a magic battleaxe if the fighter in your group uses a battleaxe, for example. We'll see in the long run if we can live in this world, I guess, or if we can change the way we play.

(It would have been great to have the Gamemastery Guide out at Gen Con, to be honest, since that book has a lot of the "How to run your game" and "how to create your adventures" in there, but that wasn't possible. By this time next year, hopefully all of these growing pains will be things of the past and largely forgotten.)

[Rysky]

Colette Brunel wrote:

I do not see what is stopping the PCs from traveling to Elidir and buying magic items there.

Nothing.

Just because something is common though doesn't mean you have access to it or a vendor for it at all times. Not all towns have magic shops, just like not all towns has a blacksmith with every single weapon or armor.

[ograx]

Is there supposed to be an XP reward for bringing Calmont back alive and for dealing with the
Bumblebrashers?

Sorry if this has been answered I looked through pages but couldn’t find an answer.

The other thing I’m wondering is why Alak as written is ok with the PCs basically looting the graves of his fallen comrades? ( I’m changing this to him not allowing it)

Other than those things and a few typos and stuff I’m very happy with this an intro adventure to the new APs.

Great job James Jacobs and team!

My group is loving PF2 and you can count on us supporting this game fully.

[Maelorn7]

Regarding magic Items I just housruled that the max lvl of mag items available in town = lvl of the town (i.e. 4 for Breachill). Seems nice to me.

So if PCs go to Quarters & Bits they can find or order, say, weapon potency rune (lvl 2), but they hardly find armor +1 (lvl 5).
I will definitely lure the travelling lvl 6 merchant with cooler items, though.

This whole system with item LVLs just made the whole thing much easier to me than, say, the system with only (uncommon/rare/very rare) item division, so thanks for that.

[Fumarole]

James Jacobs wrote:

One thing we're trying to move toward with Pathifnder is to shift the experience away from "Adventurers get most of their gear at the store" to a more exciting "Adventurers get most of their gear on adventures."

Amen to that.

[Roswynn]

James Jacobs wrote:

Her age (NdR: he's talking about Greta) is irrelevant to the metaplot of the Adventure Path as she doesn't really have a role to play in events to come; this is true for almost all of the townsfolk, in fact.

I have a related question - should we expect more character art pertaining to Breachill's inhabitants in future installments of AoA, or will it shift its focus to the new locations visited (since almost all of the townsfolk will have no role to play in events to come, like Greta)?

I ask because when my players meet an npc (or a monster, or a particularly interesting item or landscape...) I show them the related art from the AP (or from another product, if needed). If there won't be any more art depicting the locals, I'll find some cool pics on the interwebz and call it a day, but if you fine folks plan to show us someone else's physical appearance, I'll try and avoid having to tell my players, "Hey, by the way, Rorsk Axebane actually looks like this...".

Another art-related question I'm having concerns the greater barghest, Ralldar - I love his art, but it seems inconsistent with his stat block and listed treasure... do I replace the art or give him a couple (possibly magic) items?

(And would a barghest in their true form even be able to stand on their hindlegs as he does in the pic, actually?).

[Tangent101]

To be honest, I kind of like the idea of moving away from magic shops and instead finding leveled magic items in the field. It is rare to find good-quality magical loot instead of vendor trash in older APs. Hell, it's one of the reasons I moved away from the old loot system and used the Unchained Automatic Bonus Progression so that ANY 4th level foe would have the equivalence to a +1 weapon and +1 armor. And that way, when you DO have a magic item appear, it's something memorable, like a flaming sword or the like, rather than just a dozen +1 swords to get sold off.

[Ed Reppert]

Breachill is "a level 4 town" because, iirc, the adventure says so. But it doesn't say what that means. I suppose an interpretation that it means that level 4 items are available there (how and where?) is as good an interpretation as any, but I wonder if it will turn out, someday, to mean something else.

[Sir NotAppearingInThisFilm]

I'm hoping it means that if Breachill defeats a level 5 town, every citizen gets 60 xp :)

[James Jacobs]

Roswynn wrote:

James Jacobs wrote:

Her age (NdR: he's talking about Greta) is irrelevant to the metaplot of the Adventure Path as she doesn't really have a role to play in events to come; this is true for almost all of the townsfolk, in fact.

I have a related question - should we expect more character art pertaining to Breachill's inhabitants in future installments of AoA, or will it shift its focus to the new locations visited (since almost all of the townsfolk will have no role to play in events to come, like Greta)?

I ask because when my players meet an npc (or a monster, or a particularly interesting item or landscape...) I show them the related art from the AP (or from another product, if needed). If there won't be any more art depicting the locals, I'll find some cool pics on the interwebz and call it a day, but if you fine folks plan to show us someone else's physical appearance, I'll try and avoid having to tell my players, "Hey, by the way, Rorsk Axebane actually looks like this...".

Another art-related question I'm having concerns the greater barghest, Ralldar - I love his art, but it seems inconsistent with his stat block and listed treasure... do I replace the art or give him a couple (possibly magic) items?

(And would a barghest in their true form even be able to stand on their hindlegs as he does in the pic, actually?).

Adventures 3 and 6 have a little bit more going on in Breachill, but it's the back covers of every volume you'll be wanting to check out. We're putting 2 more portraits of Breechill citizens (or in a few cases, others the PCs meet elsewhere) on the inside back cover along with a little bit more character info for GMs who want to have those NPCs play larger roles in their game.

As for Ralldar... do what feels right for your game. And barghests can absolutely stand on their hind legs like that, and do so often.

[James Jacobs]

Ed Reppert wrote:

Breachill is "a level 4 town" because, iirc, the adventure says so. But it doesn't say what that means. I suppose an interpretation that it means that level 4 items are available there (how and where?) is as good an interpretation as any, but I wonder if it will turn out, someday, to mean something else.

The information on settlement levels is in the Core Rulebook... but it's kinda hidden away in a spot I almost missed until a few days before we shipped this adventure.

At this point, a settlement's level is pretty much only used to determine the level of jobs you can perform there when you take the Earn Income activity. This info lives on page 504 of the Core Rulebook, under the heading for Earn Income... it's sort of a non-intuitive place to put this info, and again, there's not much more to it... but I suspect that settlement level will play a key role in whatever we end up doing for settlement stat blocks (including how you buy magic items at settlements) going forward, which I hope/suspect will be covered in the Gamemastery Guide.

[Ed Reppert]

Ah. Thanks, James. :-)

[Tangent101]

I do find it funny that this is an "adventurers town" and yet there isn't a huge industry involved in keeping adventurers here. It's more akin to the MMORPG starting towns.