The Choking Tower (GM Reference)


Iron Gods

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KestlerGunner wrote:
But djezeteel is an alloy of djezet, which is so magical small doses of it can pump up spell levels. I reckon it'd definitely add an affinity for magic.

Yes, but I wouldn't say it's magical, just like acid, slat, and saltpeter can enhance spells, but they're magical. I see what you're getting at though.

Grand Lodge

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Last night I got started on a major edit/rewrite of The Choking Tower.
Basically I am cutting a huge amount of dungeon crawling from the Choking Tower itself and writing an extended investigation into the Aurora, Iadenveigh and it's residents.
The chop and change should present no difference in PC wealth or challenge rating encounters.
The aim is to remove the no complexity combats and instead have a really tense, flavourful roleplay investigation that could only happen in Numeria. There will be a small number of tough fights rather than lots of average difficulty combats. There will be sweating. There will be personal questions.

Working title for now: The Voight-Kampff Project.
I'll be posting it all up when I'm done.


Acolyte of Mushu wrote:
KestlerGunner wrote:
But djezeteel is an alloy of djezet, which is so magical small doses of it can pump up spell levels. I reckon it'd definitely add an affinity for magic.
Yes, but I wouldn't say it's magical, just like acid, slat, and saltpeter can enhance spells, but they're magical. I see what you're getting at though.

Just realized this was riddled with typos, dang mobile device, and the sit button seems to be missing. I meant to say this:

Yes, but I wouldn't say it's magical, just like acid, salt, and saltpeter can enhance spells, but they're not magical. I see what you're getting at though.


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KestlerGunner wrote:

Last night I got started on a major edit/rewrite of The Choking Tower.

Basically I am cutting a huge amount of dungeon crawling from the Choking Tower itself and writing an extended investigation into the Aurora, Iadenveigh and it's residents.
The chop and change should present no difference in PC wealth or challenge rating encounters.
The aim is to remove the no complexity combats and instead have a really tense, flavourful roleplay investigation that could only happen in Numeria. There will be a small number of tough fights rather than lots of average difficulty combats. There will be sweating. There will be personal questions.

Working title for now: The Voight-Kampff Project.
I'll be posting it all up when I'm done.

This sounds really cool, I'd like to see how this works out.


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Also looking forward to your rewrite Kestler.


If the PCs neutralize all of the toxic gas inside Aurora, does the soil of Iadenveigh stops being so rich?
If yes how long would it take for this to happen? (for the soil to lose it's super rich nutrients)


In various places of the Choking Tower it mentions modifiers to disable device checks for opening doors in the tower but it never mentions what is the disable device DC for opening doors.

What's that DC?


Directly under "Chocking Tower Features":

Doors are shaped like elongated rectangles with rounded edges, each is an airtight iron hatch opened by turning a central wheel present on both sides of the door except where indicated. Opening such a door is a full-round action. A door without a wheel can be opened only by force (hardness 10, hp 60, break DC 28). The DC of Perception checks to notice activity on the other side of one of these doors increases by 10 (rather than by 5, as for a normal door), but when a door is opened, creatures on the other side automatically notice the turning of that door’s wheel. None of these doors are locked or trapped except where indicated.


Gratz wrote:

Directly under "Chocking Tower Features":

Doors are shaped like elongated rectangles with rounded edges, each is an airtight iron hatch opened by turning a central wheel present on both sides of the door except where indicated. Opening such a door is a full-round action. A door without a wheel can be opened only by force (hardness 10, hp 60, break DC 28). The DC of Perception checks to notice activity on the other side of one of these doors increases by 10 (rather than by 5, as for a normal door), but when a door is opened, creatures on the other side automatically notice the turning of that door’s wheel. None of these doors are locked or trapped except where indicated.

And where in that text is the disable device DC?


Doors with intact wheels don't require a Disable Device and for all the others I would go with: If the PCs have the missing wheel, it can be fitted back into the hole, but unless the contraption is repaired with make whole or mending, a successful DC 30 Disable Device check is required to jury-rig repairs with the wheel to allow it to function again. Without the wheel, Disable Device checks to open the door take a –10 penalty.


Gratz wrote:
Doors with intact wheels don't require a Disable Device and for all the others I would go with: If the PCs have the missing wheel, it can be fitted back into the hole, but unless the contraption is repaired with make whole or mending, a successful DC 30 Disable Device check is required to jury-rig repairs with the wheel to allow it to function again. Without the wheel, Disable Device checks to open the door take a –10 penalty.

Bold mine.

I am asking what's that disable device DC. Also in room F7 where it's mentioned that the disable device DC to open the door increases by 10. It seems to me that there is a way to open doors with disable device but the DC isn't mentioned anywhere, maybe it's the DC 35 that is for opening a second airlock, maybe it's something else because the 35 seems kinda high.


Gratz wrote:
Doors with intact wheels don't require a Disable Device and for all the others I would go with: If the PCs have the missing wheel, it can be fitted back into the hole, but unless the contraption is repaired with make whole or mending, a successful DC 30 Disable Device check is required to jury-rig repairs with the wheel to allow it to function again. Without the wheel, Disable Device checks to open the door take a –10 penalty.

Without the wheel the DC becomes a Disable Device of 40. It's not that complicated.


The DC 30 disable device is for jury-rigging the wheel to the door (without repairing the wheel), the -10 to the disable device check is for opening the door without the wheel.
I think that it's quite a jump a jump in logic to say that the DC for opening the door is the same as the DC for jury-rigging the wheel, those are two different tasks.


leo1925 wrote:

The DC 30 disable device is for jury-rigging the wheel to the door (without repairing the wheel), the -10 to the disable device check is for opening the door without the wheel.

I think that it's quite a jump a jump in logic to say that the DC for opening the door is the same as the DC for jury-rigging the wheel, those are two different tasks.

They're not two different tasks, that's the point. Jury-riggin the wheel to open the door, not to set it in place, is what I believe Gratz means. If there is no wheel to set and jury-rig, then the DC increase by 10, meaning it would be DC 40.


Acolyte of Mushu wrote:
leo1925 wrote:

The DC 30 disable device is for jury-rigging the wheel to the door (without repairing the wheel), the -10 to the disable device check is for opening the door without the wheel.

I think that it's quite a jump a jump in logic to say that the DC for opening the door is the same as the DC for jury-rigging the wheel, those are two different tasks.
They're not two different tasks, that's the point. Jury-riggin the wheel to open the door, not to set it in place, is what I believe Gratz means. If there is no wheel to set and jury-rig, then the DC increase by 10, meaning it would be DC 40.

Ok that makes some sense, it's still a jump in logic but it's a reason-able one, and the DC 30 seems to be in line with the DC 35 from the airlock doors lower in the dungeon, since the DC for opening those airlocks should be higher than openning the "simple" airtight doors.


The Holy Moo wrote:
Why is Furkas Xouds corrupting touch only a +2 to attack? seems to me it should be +7 (ghosts use dex for their touch attacks right?)

His corrupting touch is a natural attack and his attack with his rod is an attack with a weapon, when you make both weapon attacks and natural attacks, the natural attacks are made with a -5 modifier to their attack rolls.


Is there a set of non-marked maps I can purchase somewhere? I've got the hard copy of the adventure which I can scan, but I heard mumblings of interactive/editable maps without the grids or notations on them.


EndgamerAzari wrote:
Is there a set of non-marked maps I can purchase somewhere? I've got the hard copy of the adventure which I can scan, but I heard mumblings of interactive/editable maps without the grids or notations on them.

Subscribers get them. In addition, iirc, after an AP finishes the maps are compiled and sold for anyone to buy.


KestlerGunner wrote:
Solomani if you do stat up a team of Technic League villains, can you please share? I'm doing some major alterations to Furk's base and would love to get the Technic League involved in this adventure.

Will do. Can you tell me what your doing? I am kind of tempeted to basically replace the choking tower with Maure's Castle level outright to give the players a slight change of pace to something more magic focused.

My players just finished LoR and so will start CT next session. Curious how many DMs have (or are) playing CT and how is it going?

Editor

I'm gearing up to start CT as well (we're just entering the Lords of Rust base in ch 2), and I have a question:

Is there anything that Choking Tower GMs wish they had planted/alluded to earlier? Or anything that felt too out of the blue? I'm hoping to smooth any jarring transitions by planting evidence in LoR; I want my players looking for the answers that can be found in Iadenveigh.

I am planning on running a few extracurricular missions between Scrapwall and Iadenveigh, so it should be no problem to incorporate extra foreshadowing—I'm just wondering if anyone is feeling a big plot gap that they wish they'd started sooner.

Thanks for the advice!


KestlerGunner wrote:

Last night I got started on a major edit/rewrite of The Choking Tower.... Working title for now: The Voight-Kampff Project.

I'll be posting it all up when I'm done.

Oops missed your next post when I replied with my question for more info. Sounds good! I'll be sharing all my modifications and such... when I get around to doing them. I need to stop reading these boards and actually work on the game now

Joe Homes wrote:
Is there anything that Choking Tower GMs wish they had planted/alluded to earlier? Or anything that felt too out of the blue? I'm hoping to smooth any jarring transitions by planting evidence in LoR; I want my players looking for the answers that can be found in Iadenveigh.

Good question. I'd like to know to though it's a little late for me. Though I plan on having a bunch of side missions as well since my players are traveling to Chesed to get a raise dead spell and the Hand of Abadar will require a stupid amount of gold or a give them a quest to do. And seeingg he represents the power of fair trade he won't Rez the party member until the task is done. So will ask the player to temporarily play Dinvaya for the side quest.

Out of interest what is the going rate for spells like raise dead, gentle repose and healing spells in Golarion? I am not sure what to charge for these services.

I was also planing on using one of the side missions to explain one my characters backstory since her origins were related to the crash of the Divinity (spoiler: she is an alien).


Adam Daigle wrote:

Sure thing.

The Vineyards are directly west of Hands of the Community. The Playgrounds are at the southwest intersection of the road that runs east to west from the High Home to The Perfect Map. The Bell Tower is the large U-shaped building with the round part in the center that is more or less in between Bardleigh Chippers and the Tannery Compound.

Hi Adam, DMs,

I tried cleaning up the map of Ivandeigh but I still have no idea where 15, 17 and 18 are and the other spots I just made an intelligent guess. Care to clarify? The put the map here

Silver Crusade

We just finished LOR on monday. Hellion took two sessions to battle, I used the modified hellion boss fight thread infos. My large party really enjoyed it.. and well For an Iron God.. Hellion could not roll above a 6 on any attack rolls.. and not above 2 for any saves.

Raise dead is a 10k diamond thats required. and knowing a priest that will cast it.

You can craft a burial shawl of Gentle repose for about 1000gold that has 1 use per day of gentle repose that has a variable duration (1 day per caster level)

one scroll of gentle repose would be same as a cure light.. 25gold.


Trying to add an extra challenge for my players. Last session they stole Furkas' spell books, and temporarily destroyed him. The book says that he'll stop at nothing to get them back. I have also modified the robotic apprentices to use different types of wands, and their are more of them (6 instead of 2). So, the next night, Furkas will be sending out three of the apprentices, one Transmutation, one Evocation, and one Conjuration, to ambush the PCs in their sleep. Does this seem too evil, or do you think they can handle it. (All PCs are level 8)


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Troodos wrote:
Trying to add an extra challenge for my players. Last session they stole Furkas' spell books, and temporarily destroyed him. The book says that he'll stop at nothing to get them back. I have also modified the robotic apprentices to use different types of wands, and their are more of them 96 instead of 3). So, the next night, Furkas will be sending out three of the apprentices, one Transmutation, one Evocation, and one Conjuration, to ambush the PCs in their sleep. Does this seem too evil, or do you think they can handle it. (All PCs are level 8)

96 wands or 96 apprentices, i'm all for leaving a bunch of red splashes splattered on the walls of The Choking Tower, but even that seems.... overboard:-p

edit: never mind, i get you were saying 6 with the nine being a typo from a misbegotten (

sorry for the mistake:-)


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captain yesterday wrote:
Troodos wrote:
Trying to add an extra challenge for my players. Last session they stole Furkas' spell books, and temporarily destroyed him. The book says that he'll stop at nothing to get them back. I have also modified the robotic apprentices to use different types of wands, and their are more of them 96 instead of 3). So, the next night, Furkas will be sending out three of the apprentices, one Transmutation, one Evocation, and one Conjuration, to ambush the PCs in their sleep. Does this seem too evil, or do you think they can handle it. (All PCs are level 8)

96 wands or 96 apprentices, i'm all for leaving a bunch of red splashes splattered on the walls of The Choking Tower, but even that seems.... overboard:-p

edit: never mind, i get you were saying 6 with the nine being a typo from a misbegotten (

sorry for the mistake:-)

Yeah, I meant six, though im thinking five instead

Grand Lodge

Klokk wrote:

Raise dead is a 10k diamond thats required. and knowing a priest that will cast it.

I think your priest is a gold digger... Raise Dead only requires a 5,000 gold diamond.


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I myself will keep the robot apprentices as gloriously incompetent as they are, to sort of underscore the hilarity of teaching a robot magic :-)


Wow Solomani you got a lot of stuff marked wrong on your map :-)

You might want to take another look at that :-)


KestlerGunner wrote:
Klokk wrote:

Raise dead is a 10k diamond thats required. and knowing a priest that will cast it.

I think your priest is a gold digger... Raise Dead only requires a 5,000 gold diamond.

He might've gotten the Scroll of Resurrection you get for rescuing Baine, that does require a 10,000 gp diamond:)

or you know he's been ripped off all these years, f!~*ing Abadarites!!


captain yesterday wrote:

Wow Solomani you got a lot of stuff marked wrong on your map :-)

You might want to take another look at that :-)

hmm really? You do know the key in the module doesn't match the map. So its mostly guesswork for many of the buildings.

Also, some faction rules for Banner of the Stag. Very light but if any of my PCs actually want to join will add more detail.


I'd thought other than missing a few places everything else was where it should, my apologies for coming across as rude, I was going more for flippant,


captain yesterday wrote:
I'd thought other than missing a few places everything else was where it should, my apologies for coming across as rude, I was going more for flippant,

No problem, I thought I mis-read something big time. Still not sure where 3 locations are though. Would be good if the map-maker/module writer could let us know.

Silver Crusade

Im taking into account the technic leagues Overwhelming taxes for my players.. so 5k = 10k


I dunno that doesn't sound like something an evil organization based on greed would do:D


Solomani wrote:
captain yesterday wrote:
I'd thought other than missing a few places everything else was where it should, my apologies for coming across as rude, I was going more for flippant,
No problem, I thought I mis-read something big time. Still not sure where 3 locations are though. Would be good if the map-maker/module writer could let us know.

I think i got it figured out Solomani:-)

Vineyards number 2 in the written gazetteer are the rows of plants on the north east side of the Brow.

Playgrounds number 9, is the partial circle directly west almost of number 1 on the map, looks like its seen better days from above.

Bell Tower is in the middle of the dense neighborhood right inside the south gate, its got an upside down U shape with a big tower in the middle.

i'll be shocked and very, very sad if i'm wrong:-)

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

So, how intolerant towards androids is Iadenveigh? They already eschew tech, how would they feel about a synthetic person? Would they shun them, giving them a wide berth like the Varisians? Or would they treat the android like they would a robot?


Misroi wrote:
So, how intolerant towards androids is Iadenveigh? They already eschew tech, how would they feel about a synthetic person? Would they shun them, giving them a wide berth like the Varisians? Or would they treat the android like they would a robot?

I would like to know as well. I've asked a similar question before, also about how Starfall would react to androids and aliens.


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Acolyte of Mushu wrote:
Misroi wrote:
So, how intolerant towards androids is Iadenveigh? They already eschew tech, how would they feel about a synthetic person? Would they shun them, giving them a wide berth like the Varisians? Or would they treat the android like they would a robot?
I would like to know as well. I've asked a similar question before, also about how Starfall would react to androids and aliens.

I've warned my players synthetics are not welcome so don't try and enter. Once they are out with Redfang, who is more tolerant, thats OK. Androids camp outside.

captain yesterday wrote:
Solomani wrote:
captain yesterday wrote:
I'd thought other than missing a few places everything else was where it should, my apologies for coming across as rude, I was going more for flippant,
No problem, I thought I mis-read something big time. Still not sure where 3 locations are though. Would be good if the map-maker/module writer could let us know.

I think i got it figured out Solomani:-)

Vineyards number 2 in the written gazetteer are the rows of plants on the north east side of the Brow.

Playgrounds number 9, is the partial circle directly west almost of number 1 on the map, looks like its seen better days from above.

Bell Tower is in the middle of the dense neighborhood right inside the south gate, its got an upside down U shape with a big tower in the middle.

i'll be shocked and very, very sad if i'm wrong:-)

Danke! I ended up guessing for those last three but will double check against your suggestions and update if that seems "more correct".

My players headed to Chesed tonight to get a resurrection done but they didn't have the money so the Lawgiver's High Priestess sent them to deal with a bandit issue (the Winery side mission basically updated to 5e).

Anyway, in 5e you normally can't buy/sell magic items beyond potions of healing but decided to allow Chesed to buy/sell common/uncommon magic items as its by far the biggest city in Nimmeria and a trade city. I also threw in some deity specific magic items. Some are just converted over from the Golarion campaign world, some are custom jobs from my own campaign deities. Feel free to use them!

I also ran the Cathedral of the Lightbringer has a huge bureaucracy which worked out much better than I though in terms of entertainment value.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Starfall's an easier answer, IMO. Androids are property, and aliens are live experiments. Both need to be captured and controlled by the League. The Iadenveigh problem is more interesting to me, since they're a good-aligned settlement with intolerant views towards tech. Doubly so, as I suspect Erastil wouldn't like the implications if an android said they wanted to settle in the city. "You're turning away a productive member of the community? Is that who you think I am?"


Misroi wrote:
Starfall's an easier answer, IMO. Androids are property, and aliens are live experiments. Both need to be captured and controlled by the League. The Iadenveigh problem is more interesting to me, since they're a good-aligned settlement with intolerant views towards tech. Doubly so, as I suspect Erastil wouldn't like the implications if an android said they wanted to settle in the city. "You're turning away a productive member of the community? Is that who you think I am?"

I understand that androids and aliens would be considered property and experiment subjects, but how would your run this? It'd be pretty hard to get past the gate with an android in the party, even more so if Isuma is accompanying the party.


Solomani wrote:
KestlerGunner wrote:
Solomani if you do stat up a team of Technic League villains, can you please share? I'm doing some major alterations to Furk's base and would love to get the Technic League involved in this adventure.

Will do. Can you tell me what your doing? I am kind of tempeted to basically replace the choking tower with Maure's Castle level outright to give the players a slight change of pace to something more magic focused.

My players just finished LoR and so will start CT next session. Curious how many DMs have (or are) playing CT and how is it going?

Here you go - Technic League Archeological Team.


Hi all, I am reworking the Choking Tower to be more elemental centric - in particular focusing on smoke and air and dropping the ooze/swarm portion of Furkas' studies - he IS the Smoke Wizard after all. So changing up the monsters as well to be more appropriate and focused.

I am looking at replacing the daemon with an effreet or genie/djinn. My problem is that if its a genie its kind of a straightforward "let him go" situation since my players will know he is good so no need to really negotiate as such.

An efreet would work better but they are LE which means they will keep whatever bargain is struck (and I would dread the inevitable "give us a wish and we will let you go" situation).

Both of those are not very interesting scenarios in my opinion so looking for ideas for alternative to the daemon which are elemental based or an angle on the efreeti/djinn I ain't seeing.

I could potentially have the showdown with the Technic League in this room and make it a very hard fight unless they free the djinn. Hmmm.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Acolyte of Mushu wrote:
Misroi wrote:
Starfall's an easier answer, IMO. Androids are property, and aliens are live experiments. Both need to be captured and controlled by the League. The Iadenveigh problem is more interesting to me, since they're a good-aligned settlement with intolerant views towards tech. Doubly so, as I suspect Erastil wouldn't like the implications if an android said they wanted to settle in the city. "You're turning away a productive member of the community? Is that who you think I am?"
I understand that androids and aliens would be considered property and experiment subjects, but how would your run this? It'd be pretty hard to get past the gate with an android in the party, even more so if Isuma is accompanying the party.

There's all sorts of ways to sneak an android past, from mundane sources like Disguise checks and sneaking over the walls, to magical solutions like illusions and shape changing magics. In fact, by that time, the PCs should have any number of solutions to get past the gates. I'd rather pose the question to the PCs, and see how they go about solving the problem.

Isuma's a bit harder, given her alien physiology, but the answers are largely the same.


I agree with Misroi - let the players work it out. I already warned them the town is anti-tech and tech and androids are not welcome. They can work it out from there.

If they force the issue the town mobilises its militia lead by Redfang. And perhaps there are a few more retired adventurers in town as well to teach your players a lesson about big fish, small ponds.

Silver Crusade

Acolyte of Mushu wrote:


I understand that androids and aliens would be considered property and experiment subjects, but how would your run this? It'd be pretty hard to get past the gate with an android in the party, even more so if Isuma is accompanying the party.

Had no androids in my party, but Androids can easily disguise themselves. As far as starfall, Kathsasha are known, but they're a rarity, I'd treat them as a novelty people seem to oogle at; akin to Asimars (without the superstitions).


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I don't think Kasatha ARE known, actually.

In book six there's a note about Isuma not wanting to kill the crazy kasatha because she might be the only other living kasatha on Golarion.

That doesn't sound like a "novelty race" to me, otherwise you'd think she would have heard of other kasatha in Starfall.


Bestiary 4's entry of kasatha say that small clans live in the most remote parts of the land (Numeria), and they send members on 1-year "tempering rituals", sort of like right of lass get, where they look for riches and ways back home. Other than this, which is setting neutral, there is no mention of kasatha actually existing on Golarion, but I believe it's feasible more could have survived, of Isuma, her pals, and Metweska did. Regardless, MaxAstro, they are unknown to the natives of Numeria.


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Here is some info I used to introduce Iadenveigh. Since the area is filled with mutants I retroactively (with my player) decided that her mutant sorceress is a native of Iadenveigh.


And here is one of the side quests/missions I re-did for 5e - Demons of the Sunder Horn. Dusklight I will throw in later at some point.

Solomani wrote:

I agree with Misroi - let the players work it out. I already warned them the town is anti-tech and tech and androids are not welcome. They can work it out from there.

If they force the issue the town mobilises its militia lead by Redfang. And perhaps there are a few more retired adventurers in town as well to teach your players a lesson about big fish, small ponds.

On my side the party parked their rhino a few kilometres away from the town and walked it. They either stowed their tech items in the rhino or put them all into bag of holding and the android purchased a hat of disguise. Done and done.

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