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Hiho,
I am going to GM this module, and I have a couple of questions.
a) after the briefing the text before the knowledge check part mentions knowledge about the plane of shadow, but there is no box containing knowledge( planes ) info.
Would the following be ok for knowledge (planes)? (I am basically taking info from here: http://pathfinder.wikia.com/wiki/Shadow_Plane)
10+:
The Shadow Plane is a coexistent with the Material Plane and Ethereal Plane. It is a plane where the things born here have their colors, sounds, tastes, and all other forms of perception lessened.
15+:
The Shadow Plane is connected to the Material Plane through the Ethereal Plane, much of the Shadow Plane has similar, but distorted, features that can be found in the corresponding place within the Material Plane. Where on the Material where a city might exist, on the Plane of Shadow in it's place may be ruins or some twisted representation of that city's populous.
20+:
At the core of the Plane of Shadow resides the Negative Energy Plane which causes the creation many of undead that exist with in the Shadow.
As well, it is noted that the plane has largely been tainted by Zon-Kuthon's imprisonment here long ago. Portions of the plane show his influence more strongly than others. While he is no longer imprisoned, Zon-Kuthon still makes his home on the Plane of Shadow.
Also, how do the planes interact?
The dinosaur in area 1 is existent in both planes in the same area. It can occupy a space that is occupied by something different on the material plane.
The characters can interact with both the shadow plane and the material plane.
Could they take one of the signs, from the shadow plane, remove it from the wall, and switch it with the material plane version?
Even if the shadow plane plaque would vanish at dawn, how would the material plane version of the plaque that was connected to the shadow plane screws behave?
And finally, how do the Blakros enter the plane of shadows for their smuggle runs? In the briefing they only talk about the museum, but that cannot be the only way to enter the shadow plane, or they wouldn't have been able to smuggle stuff via the shadow plane.
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Also, why is the last room flooded with "hrsh, cold light"? The final boss isn't that much of an obstacle anyway, and this removes even the slight chance of shadow blending to work.
We played this yesterday, and it was fun, but it seems like there are some parts of the setting / plot I don't quite get.
Any help, even just speculation would be most welcome :)
Venture-Captain, California—Sacramento
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Also, how do the planes interact?
The dinosaur in area 1 is existent in both planes in the same area. It can occupy a space that is occupied by something different on the material plane.
The characters can interact with both the shadow plane and the material plane.Could they take one of the signs, from the shadow plane, remove it from the wall, and switch it with the material plane version?
Even if the shadow plane plaque would vanish at dawn, how would the material plane version of the plaque that was connected to the shadow plane screws behave?
As I understand it:
Shadow plane objects interact with the shadow plane. Material plane objects interact with the material plane. The PCs can interact with both.
So it is meaningless to "switch" the material plane and shadow plane signs. There is a material plane sign, hung on material plane screws on a material plane wall, and a shadow plane sign, hung on shadow plane screws on a shadow plane wall. If you hang try to hang the shadow plane sign from material screws, it will just fall right through it, because they don't exist on the shadow plane. If there happens to be a shadow plane screw in the exact same place, it will stay up because it is hanging on the shadow plane screw.
presumably there is some ritual (which the PCs are interrupting) that lets them bring people (and objects they want to smuggle?) into the shadow plane to stay so that when the realms once again diverge those people (and things?) go with the shadow realm instead of staying in the prime material plane. (How they get them out again is a separate question.)
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Thanks, that makes sense! :)
What about the "how did the Blakros exploit the shadow plane" stuff?
They must have means to enter the plane, and vanish from the material plane, or the whole smuggling thing wouldn't have worked. I doubt that involved the ritual that was performed on the slaves and was way more convenient than the overlay trick of the device used...
This seems to be the major plot hole.
One could argue that only the Blakros know how to do it, but since they were contacted by the Onyx Alliance (IIRC) and not vice versa, it seems unlikely that they have better methods than them.
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Venture-Captain, California—Sacramento
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What about the "how did the Blakros exploit the shadow plane" stuff?
They must have means to enter the plane, and vanish from the material plane, or the whole smuggling thing wouldn't have worked. I doubt that involved the ritual that was performed on the slaves and was way more convenient than the overlay trick of the device used...
That part I am not sure of.
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I always thought it was a magical item, like a special, limited Ring of Shadow Walk, that let the smuggler go cross-plane for a limited time, just long enough per use to get past the border, with a limited number of uses in a time frame.
Something like one hour, once per week. Strong enough to take a camel or a cart & mule with you, and just long enough to go over before coming into sight of the border guards, and coming back once out of line of sight of them on the other side of the border.
Useful when starting a smuggling career, but not very useful once the business starts growing, and an eventual anchor on your family.
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 8
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You should also note that there is potentially a very deadly error in the statblock of two creatures.
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Just ran this and somehow the most dangerous opponent ended up being the doge. Very bay. Such ioun torch. Wow no lights!
Stealth +13 in a shadowy room was a dealbreaker.
Everything else was mowed down though. Mak took a whopping 8 rounds(!) but didn't manage to do much else than skirmish around the ziggurat and take potshots with Stunning Fist.
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Played this with a group of 4, 3 of them playing non core classes. They went through the adventure in 2.5h mainly to really nice attack and damage rolls.
W/O the damage reduction of the skeleton, that fight would have ended in the 2 round.
Most interesting fight was against the spider climbing alchemist, because the melees had to come up with some new strategies.
Players had fun, I had fun, was a nice afternoon.