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I have run this baby with 2 groups. The first time i played it by the book which was a little bit dull. The players startet to get a little frustrated and i had to speed things up. For the second group i decided that it is not necessary to kill all your players. As it was clear they could not defeat the tatermann, our paladin charged him and they both disapered in the mist, leaving the rest of the party with cries of pain and horror just before they woke up
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What is the Red Destiny (and it's cardinal handle) a reference to? Whose blade was it before it ended up in Losandro's secret alcove? Is there an out-of-game reference here as well?
The closest out-game reference I can conjure up is August Derleth's "The Adventure of the Black Cardinal," which seems tangentially related as the story is part of his Sherlockian series of tales and PCs discover the Red Destiny at the same time as they receive a reference to the Sleepless Detective Agency in game. That made me suspect it may have somehow been Cesadia's sword, but I haven't encountered anything to suggest more.
Am I missing something with the unusually early appearance of this +2 shortsword?
I made it one of my PC's old gear, personally. The magus used to be an eldritch knight, and red destiny was his bonded item (this was decided after the magus was the one who decided to use it, though). Of course, he decided to sell it very early into the game for a side-graded +1 Agile shortsword, but at least it was after he figured out it had always been his.
I made it one of my PC's old gear, personally. The magus used to be an eldritch knight, and red destiny was his bonded item (this was decided after the magus was the one who decided to use it, though).
I had similar thoughts but wondered if this was another "viol" with connections to an NPC later in the campaign, or was otherwise a tie-in to some Lovecraft-related tale.
Ran the first session of this wil my group, using the syrinscape soundboard. cut the lights for the dream sequence.
It went fantastic, but i have 6 players in my group, I am a bit concerned that just maxing HP may not be a sufficient adjustment to compensate for the extra players. We are also using the sanity rules, and i am a bit concerned that there is very little in the way of curing sanity damage and ending up with a bunch of characters completely debilitated by madnesses before we reach the end of this book. Overall a very positive start.
Ran the first session of this wil my group, using the syrinscape soundboard. cut the lights for the dream sequence.
It went fantastic, but i have 6 players in my group, I am a bit concerned that just maxing HP may not be a sufficient adjustment to compensate for the extra players. We are also using the sanity rules, and i am a bit concerned that there is very little in the way of curing sanity damage and ending up with a bunch of characters completely debilitated by madnesses before we reach the end of this book. Overall a very positive start.
Don't have much to say about the 6-player adjustment, but if you're looking for other ways to enhance the mood... I got together a whole bunch of flameless candles and my group has been playing the whole campaign by their light with the room lights off. It's been pretty awesome, and I'd highly recommend it!
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I have a 5 man group, and the action economy difference is notable there, with 6, you will definitely need to adjust things, unless they are running 10 point buy with other handicaps. At level 9, the two monks in my party were dishing out about 160 damage a round together, which makes most solo monster encounters trivial.
I would reccomend giving each creature the advanced template. The extra boost to AC from it (dex up plus nat armor) might be a bit much, so just go with a mental "+2 to everything". Simple, and should hold up. Otherwise, don't be afraid to increase the number of monsters; they have a 50% numbers advantage, so its fair if the monsters get that too!
Definitely reward players who have the stuff together and can spin their math out ahead of time. One of my monks routinely makes 9-10 attacks a round, and has a full on flowchart of how her attack progression works. I give her monster AC and CMD, she pays attention during the round for anything that changes it (witch hex), and then when her turn comes up, she can give me the results of her attacks (with the die rolls visible on her rolling app). A wonderful courtesy to me and the rest of the group.
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Edited the wand of bless found in room C10 for my game to make it more contraband-y and tie into Klades later on. Thought others might enjoy:
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This is a wand made of black stone. On its base is a skull whose eye sockets are threaded through with barbed chains [the holy symbol of Zon-Kuthon]. It is a wand of bless, with 18 charges remaining.
A note is attached:
"Warned Klades again (Sar 28) regarding contraband items. Claims wand isn't his but was found under a loose stone in his room."
Ran the first session of this wil my group, using the syrinscape soundboard. cut the lights for the dream sequence.
It went fantastic, but i have 6 players in my group, I am a bit concerned that just maxing HP may not be a sufficient adjustment to compensate for the extra players. We are also using the sanity rules, and i am a bit concerned that there is very little in the way of curing sanity damage and ending up with a bunch of characters completely debilitated by madnesses before we reach the end of this book. Overall a very positive start.
As long as the game keeps running smoothly don´t be afraid to hit them with that sanity damage and those madnesses. This is a great roleplaying opportunity for your players. If the amount of madnesses is slowing your game done, there are a few tricks you can pull of.
In my game my players used the insense they found to link minds and looking at each others minds carefully. I decided to grand them some sanity healing after they roleplayed this out quite nice.
Sanity can be a pain in the ass - especially on a certain dream quest in "Dream of the yellow king" later on.
My players went insane after this quest, leaving me with the delicate decision how "to safe the day". I created a post about this topic in the "Dream of the yellow kind-Tread"
I've read ahead a bit here and i recall your retelling of the incident in Dream in yellow. SO far i've been hand selecting madnesses since it is only the first session and they are only first level> I've been leaning more on the interesting vs mechanically cripling. Phobia and halucinations so far. I've marked Fugue and night terrors right off the list since everyone essentially suffers from those already.
I also had a player who had a run of bad luck with the centipedes, their rogue, who failed every single fort save for all 6 poison rounds. Hes not dead, but he won't be dexing anything anytime soon. SO I'm hesitant to pile on too much insanity after that pretty demoralizing incident.
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If I recall, there are a couple of Lesser Restoration items available in the Chapel, if searched. Also, I hope someone trained the Heal skill...
As parties are prone to having psychic casters in this AP, it's worth reminding about the occult skill unlocks.
Faith healing (heal) can suppress ability damage and afflictions, even potentially removing something with a really strong check.
Read Aura can learn if someone is poisoned or diseased. It won't tell more than that, but it's at least a start for some groups.
I'm curious how others handled the Debis Lieklan encounter. The room he's in is saturated in a deeper darkness that presumably doesn't extend beyond the room's dimensions.
At the same time, Debis, as an attic whisperer, has darkvision. This isn't enough to perceive anything within or through the room's deeper darkness, however, which creates something of a tactical issue for the encounter.
How did you run this? Did you use perception checks by Debis (and presumably by the PCs) to locate targets for initiating attacks? Did you have Debis exit the darkness to attack PCs in the blood river room? Did you do something else entirely?
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In my case, it didn't matter much, but I treated Debis as being able to see normally (since it was his darkness, and this would foster the most fear in the players). And in the first round of the combat, our Monk grappled Debis, and then dragged him out into the light next round.
I've run it twice and neither party had a problem. First party had 2 light spells and enough characters with darkvision where the attic whisperer didn't stand a chance.
Second party channeled the hell out of the room. (and I think tossed in an improvised molotov?) Either way, a very anti-climatic encounter.
I agree with YogoZuno; allowing Debis to see through the darkness effect is a way to make the room extraordinarily creepy. As Daeryon notes, ignoring the Deeper Darkness effect makes the fight a cake walk, so definitely make sure the PCs are affected normally.
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I´ve run this twice, too. Both of my groups decided to go to fetch the shadow lamp to dispel the deeper darkness. As soon as the darkness faded, the attic whisperer crumbled to dust. As mentioned before, my players got more taste for the creepy mood than for combat. This heartbreaking moment of realisation will be more memorable for them instead of another monster killed on the way along.
SO my party completely bypassed section C and went rigfht ot D and seem dedicated to pushing all the way to E. How concerned should I be about this? any suggestions on how to nudge them subtly back to the middle section of the building?
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SO my party completely bypassed section C and went rigfht ot D and seem dedicated to pushing all the way to E. How concerned should I be about this? any suggestions on how to nudge them subtly back to the middle section of the building?
I made Debis an insurmountable barrier until they finished the rest of the building. But if it's too late for that, there's no reason they can't finish off E and then have Winter ask them to please look for any additional evidence as to why this all happened, since a lot of that information is in C.
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Alternatively, have some of the denizens of area C start making trouble, to encourage the players to clear it out. Ratch and the Ratlings could attack the shelter while the PCs were away, or attack the PCs while they walk past the library, then scamper away.
I like both those ideas. Thay haven't made it to Debis yet. I think I will lean into the freaky dream space and make it so there isn't an exit from the darkness except to the south until the darkness is dispelled, make it more of a haunt. If they go back to the shelter to rest I can try to hook them with ratlings. playing this sunday so we shall see.
I think i'm just going to have to let my party wipe itself. I've done everything short of throwing up a blinking neon sign to direct them back toward the center of the map, including having Winter directly ask them to find Dr Losondro in her office in the heart of the facility, and they are just completely dedicated to "clearing the perimeter before moving toward the center" because "thats how we like to clear a map"
On the plus side they were really creative with solving both the blood river haunt (they made themselves a planchet to communicate with her, then had one party member brave to rivber of blood to get drugs from the pharmacy) and connecting Debis to his brother in the sanctuary and really enjoyed those encounters.
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I'd probably just let them do it their way. The middle portion isn't a big part of the plot anyways, aside from providing backstory that can be mostly explained by talking to cultist NPCs. I'd be tempted to punish them a bit for leaving enemies at their rear, by having them run into an ambush or booby trap from the cultists or ratlings while backtracking through a "cleared" area. Preferably while beat up, out of spells, and looking forwards to a chance to rest.
After all, the rats are going to get hungry eventually, and the cultists aren't going to sit around in the records room forever.
My players made a couple decisions I was really not expecting and so far it’s a delight. First, in the dream in part 1, the Investigator used a potion of Expeditious Retreat and ran first straight into the fog trying to escape whatever was following them. The others followed him but were more careful and didn’t ran, leaving the investigator alone pretty far from them. Whack!! The Investigator is unconscious. Now the others are really scared.
After fighting “DOCTOR” ILESI SCAEN, the players spared her, knowing she was a doppleganger and saved the man on the table. When the doppleganger ran away when entering the asylum from B1, the survivors attacked her instinctively assuming she was bad since she was running away and the players defused the situation by finishing the doppleganger. They didn’t wanted to kill the dopplegangers in the area and almost started a serious fight with the survivors, but in the end they accepted. Oh the Chaos!
The paladin bought a portable ram for his starter gear. They are rarely unlocking doors, instead they bash through them.
It was inevitable, the paladin broke the door in C15 to D6 even with the scary blood clues unleashing the wall of blood on himself. The others were hiding in the storage room in C16. No one wanted to go through the blood. The Paladin, once again, showed his portable ram and destroyed a wall, with the assistance of the Investigator who made an engineering check to make sure nothing collapses. They enter Lieklan room through the wall.
While fighting Lieklan, the sorcerer got hit by the silencing thing and Lieklan started confusing the other players with the sorcerer voice. The sorcerer had the ingenious idea of using the incense of open thoughts to keep communicating with the players.
The Paladin was the only one who interacted with Brenton in the chapel. He knew his name but didn’t remembered that. I made him roll a d20 int to remember Brenton, he rolled a 1. So they left the room with no idea who brenton was found out when entering their old room with their name written on the door.
They got reckless in the whole E area. They used all their buffs before entering E1, thinking it was a boss fight. Elbourne had to prevent them from murdering the cult and the players rush the plot points in E1 and skipped E2 and E3 to keep their buffs. They ran through E5 and E6, triggering the wall trap, murdering everything in their path to go straight to the oneirogen in the tower killing it with their last seconds of buffs. That was insane!
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I'd probably just let them do it their way. The middle portion isn't a big part of the plot anyways, aside from providing backstory that can be mostly explained by talking to cultist NPCs. I'd be tempted to punish them a bit for leaving enemies at their rear, by having them run into an ambush or booby trap from the cultists or ratlings while backtracking through a "cleared" area. Preferably while beat up, out of spells, and looking forwards to a chance to rest.
After all, the rats are going to get hungry eventually, and the cultists aren't going to sit around in the records room forever.
I don;t really see how they can have even a basic understanding of whats going on without Losondro's diary. There no reasonable way for the cultists to have that information, and I don't really want Zandalus or The Tatterman to have to start monologueing.
Doppleman: Sounds like a great session(s)! One of my players is a bloodrager and she completely brute forced the fungus door puzzle. Shes also been responsible for killing every ghoul and all but one cultist on sight before they can even get a word out.
Sounds like they don't care what happened. They know where the information is, and they've made a choice not to look for it. Wren and the like can tell them what they do care about: "Zandalus bad guy. Bad fog block Zandalus, fog from man in ghoul tower. Make fog man go boom, then make Zandalus go boom."
Sarcasm aside, trying to shove a plot hook in players' faces after they've chosen to ignore it just makes them more invested in ignoring it. Same thing sorta happened at that point in my game, except clearing the middle just happened to fall earlier in the party's schedule. They still found the current situation a lot more interesting than the backstory, and only started to care what was going on in the more socially-oriented 2nd book.
Worst-case scenario, they go to the office after killing the tatter man, while looking for any loot they might have missed. Or Winter does it, and on the boat ride back, she tells the players "Oh, by the way, Count Lowls bad guy."
Concur with Zandalus Sees!
You can lead a party to plot details, but you can't make them care if they just want to smash things.
You can always do an end-of-adventure detail rehash/summary:
And that's a wrap! So to sum, you are stuck on the island for a week or so helping herd mental patients and OH! Winter says: "WE FOUND THIS STUFF, YOU CAN READ IT, OR NOT". (Drop papers on table, and walk).
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For my part, I decided that Debis could see in the darkness and added an additional effect: the darkness spreads as if it were some sort of inky, entwining substance that fills the area beyond the initial chamber. This allowed Debis to threaten the space beyond and created a pressure to the situation that forced the players to make quick decisions.
As might be expected, this slow spreading terrified most of the group, especially since they hadn't resolved the "hemorrhagic road" and they knew exactly what happened if someone tried to cross it. One of the PCs entered the darkness hoping to do battle or learn more and soon discovered that she got more than she bargained for with Debis.
As things went poorly, the prospect of battling some unknown specterfrom within the darkness rattled all of them, and they sprinted around the growing cloud seeking the relative safety of the southern hall.
This retreat soon led them back to the asylum's central section and Administrator Losandro's office.
In her office I added the two chess knights (rather than having them in the brothers' former room) along with notes of a junior doctor that detailed the pair's history, their medical journey, as well as the shadow lamp gift.
Having let the players see Brenton playing with the lamp much earlier made this discovery profound for them. After finishing their exploration of the central segment (and realizing the danger of the blood-dripped door), they returned to trade with Brenton.
When they return in an upcoming session, the doors to Debis's chamber will be closed again and the dayroom will be much as they encountered it before discovering Debis, though I've got a little more of a surprise waiting for them when they do.
Nonetheless, using Debis's Nightmare room as a gate feels like an ideal approach, even if it has to be played up beyond the initial limits in order to nudge PCs back to other areas. It should be dangerous and terrifying but also demonstrates that these otherwise horrible situations can be resolved with investigation and research rather than brute force in the more typical adventure fashion.
I'm looking forward to watching them deal with the northern sections!
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I don;t really see how they can have even a basic understanding of whats going on without Losondro's diary. There no reasonable way for the cultists to have that information, and I don't really want Zandalus or The Tatterman to have to start monologueing.Doppleman: Sounds like a great session(s)! One of my players is a bloodrager and she completely brute forced the fungus door puzzle. Shes also been responsible for killing every ghoul and all but one cultist on sight before they can even get a word out.
Maybe this is the time you need to hit them hard in the head. If your players keep ignoring hints and directions you throw at them they need to suffer the consequences.
You also need to talk to you people which type of game they like to play. If they like confrotation first and the storry is not so important, maybe this AP is not the right choice for them. If the will keep charging in, guns blazing, they won´t come far. They will get their asses kicked very very hard. Maybe you should let this happen, leaving them a last minute chance to escape. After that they might get more carefull in their approach.
This AP has a fantastic plot - it would be a shame when your player would miss it.
I don;t really see how they can have even a basic understanding of whats going on without Losondro's diary. There no reasonable way for the cultists to have that information, and I don't really want Zandalus or The Tatterman to have to start monologueing.Doppleman: Sounds like a great session(s)! One of my players is a bloodrager and she completely brute forced the fungus door puzzle. Shes also been responsible for killing every ghoul and all but one cultist on sight before they can even get a word out.
Maybe this is the time you need to hit them hard in the head. If your players keep ignoring hints and directions you throw at them they need to suffer the consequences.
You also need to talk to you people which type of game they like to play. If they like confrotation first and the storry is not so important, maybe this AP is not the right choice for them. If the will keep charging in, guns blazing, they won´t come far. They will get their asses kicked very very hard. Maybe you should let this happen, leaving them a last minute chance to escape. After that they might get more carefull in their approach.
This AP has a fantastic plot - it would be a shame when your player would miss it.
It;s not so much that they aren't interested in the story. The incidents Im referring to with the ghouls are the one chained up ahead of the laundry room who is scripted to be actively eating a dead body, and the guy who dies in his dream and then ghouls up in front of them while they are examining the body. Conversely, both Dr Oathsday and Dr Latchkey got free shots on the cleric kindly talking to them, oathsday when another character Detected the magical dagger she had conceiled and latchkey as the cleric was human-crutching the poor injured old lady down the hall toward sanctuary.
so I don't feel like it's that the players aren't into RPing out some story. They are way into that, they just stuck in some rigid thinking when it comes to how to clear a map and i'm stressing over how to dissuade them of it without just killing them all. We will see, next session is sunday, I've got a few thoughts on what to do if they just refuse to explore the center of the map.
Maybe Winter could ask directly about Dr. Losandro. She might suggest that she could be hiding in her office. Since Zandalus was her her special patient, Losandro could also be a valuable asset dealing with him and his crazed followers. One of the nurses could mention the archive where the players could find more information about Zandalus, since Dr. Losandro is known for taking notes on the patients and their treatments.
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Maybe Winter could ask directly about Dr. Losandro. She might suggest that she could be hiding in her office. Since Zandalus was her her special patient, Losandro could also be a valuable asset dealing with him and his crazed followers. One of the nurses could mention the archive where the players could find more information about Zandalus, since Dr. Losandro is known for taking notes on the patients and their treatments.
Crisis averted. The players dispelled the Devlin haunt/monster, then having solved the old lady haunt last session backtracked through the now cleared blood hallway and searched the archives (they are utterly convinced Red Destiny is cursed) and spent a lot of time mulling over the files for Zanadalus, themselve,s and the other ones i cribbed from further up this thread. They were a big hit. They then proceeded Losandro's office the back way, the rest of the session was trying to figure out what to do about this strange woman who appears to be belching fog. They eventually decided to spend a use of the incense of open mind to try to communicate with her since she wasn't able/willing to communicate otherwise. After a lot more inter-party discussion and arguing, they decided to put her out of her misery and we ended the session there.
They were still talking it over this morning on the group chat, so i think i'll mark that down as a success.
Maybe Winter could ask directly about Dr. Losandro. She might suggest that she could be hiding in her office. Since Zandalus was her her special patient, Losandro could also be a valuable asset dealing with him and his crazed followers. One of the nurses could mention the archive where the players could find more information about Zandalus, since Dr. Losandro is known for taking notes on the patients and their treatments.Crisis averted. The players dispelled the Devlin haunt/monster, then having solved the old lady haunt last session backtracked through the now cleared blood hallway and searched the archives (they are utterly convinced Red Destiny is cursed) and spent a lot of time mulling over the files for Zanadalus, themselve,s and the other ones i cribbed from further up this thread. They were a big hit. They then proceeded Losandro's office the back way, the rest of the session was trying to figure out what to do about this strange woman who appears to be belching fog. They eventually decided to spend a use of the incense of open mind to try to communicate with her since she wasn't able/willing to communicate otherwise. After a lot more inter-party discussion and arguing, they decided to put her out of her misery and we ended the session there.
They were still talking it over this morning on the group chat, so i think i'll mark that down as a success.
For my taste the encounter in Losandros office and with the attic whisperer was one of the most memorabel for me and my players. Glad this worked out for you. Using the incense was a lot of fun, too (as i mentioned, my second group got this idea)
Keep posting updates pls. I like to know how your adventure is proceeding :-)
Keep posting updates pls. I like to know how your adventure is proceeding :-)
I definitely intend to. we generally play every other weekend.
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Had our next session. Nothing too exciting going on this time, working their way through the hallways with the doctors offices. They twigged to the creepy babies pretty quickly from the slime trail, and handled the ratlings with diplomacy, having met Ratch first and using their relationship with him to talk down the other. They settled on the idea of coaxing them into Losondros office to eat her books while they used the library.
Hi, I would like some suggestions from you guys.
My party managed to dismantle the apostles in orpiment and they captured Zandalus(permanently blinded). Zandalus is restrained in the cell the players started the game, there is always 2 people watching him and they did their best to fortify the survivor camp.
Now, I'm wondering if I should make some kind of attack on the cells before the players decide to kill Zandalus. He's been sitting in the cell for two days, while the players were trying to get informations from him.
What do you think? Should I let my players end Zandalus and proceed to the next fight? I'm also thinking the Tatterman could have prepared an escape plan by speaking to people in their dreams, but I'm not sure what is best for this situation.
Hmmmm... how about opening a crack in the earth through which a swarm of ghouls erupts, seeking the pile of corpses?
If the ghouls take out Zandalus in his cell, the Tatterman still activates, and the party learns a valuable lesson in not splitting up.
I just picked up Silence from Sommerisk, the all levels module developed for Cthulhu Mythos for Pathfinder. I'm going to use that adventure to serve as the background for the mission that the PCs were involved in before they were mind wiped and wound up in the asylum. It might serve to confuse things, but I am hoping it will give them a better idea of their life before their current predicament.
As long as Zandalus lives, so does the Tatterman. While in the chapel, the PCs are protected by Desna, that doesn't mean that there still couldn't be a doppleganger wandering around the camp, especially now that the apostles are disbanded, it wouldn't want to reveal itself. It could be looking for some way to weaken the survivors and eventually stumble upon the Desnan statue and destroy it, removing their protections - then there's nothing to stop the Tatterman from invading the camp's dreams and wreaking havoc, and make the PCs think twice in the future about wasting time... as well, shouldn't the asylum be collapsing at this point?
That's all if you actually want to push your players, though. Otherwise you could just let the situation play out - the PCs can't push through the fog, weak as it may be if they killed the oneirogens, until the Tatterman is put down, and that just gives Lowls more time, the cult in Thrushmoor more time, etc.
mmm, yes yes yes!
Now that the tatterman is so close to the camp, he must have a better idea of why the survivors are immune to the nightmares.
There are a couple non-hostile apostles next to the survivors camp. The players talked to Winter to let them enter the chapel but no one there wants apostles in. They agreed to a non aggression pact. So, the Tatterman might influence the ex-apostles in their dreams to thrash the chapel. Maybe add in a doppleganger or a haunt in the chaos.
YES! I think I got it. The timing, my players strenght and flaws, they will need to choose carefully what to do and all might end well. I will keep the details secret until they face it.
Thanks Isthill, that helped.
Kadance: Funny story about that pile of corpses... My players actually burnt them all in the furnace(because Paladin). They took a whole day to clean up the place and catched filth fever. One of the players is still affected XD. They now use a rope to get in and out of there.
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I ran the first session of "In Search of Sanity" last week. The players had a lot of fun with it and said it was their favorite adventure so far. I'm using the Dread/Insanity rules from Cthulhu Mythos for Pathfinder. I only have three players due to one regular being out due to school for this module, so I decided to give them a little help in the form of corruptions.
I matched up corruptions to each of their backgrounds, resulting in the investigator getting the Psychometabolic corruption, the bloodrager has lycanthropy and the tiefling occultist is hellbound. They were unaware of these additions, so I printed out character sheets for each with this information.
For the opening scene, I decided to set out the City Streets Flip Mat but did not place the PCs pawns on the map until the moment before the Tatterman appears. I knew that if they did not see a battlemat, that they would immediately start to suspect the dreamlike nature of the encounter. Otherwise, I ran this scene as close to the book suggestions as possible. I used mood music, in this case the soundtrack to Gothic and I rushed the players during the encounter.
As each one died, I asked them to turn over their character sheet and leave the table with instructions to not discuss anything happening at the table unless they were at the table playing.
By the time the Tatterman had slain all but the Investigator, he pretty much figured it was a dream or something similar, but they were all concerned when the first death happened.
I used the scene with Doctor Scaen to start dropping hints about the nature of their corruptions. For example, the investigator started hearing his teammates' thoughts, the bloodrager could smell the pile of bodies in the next room and the teifling found the unnatural mark on the back of his neck. All of this information was communicated to them privately.
I had the Doctor continue attacking the PCs until they finally killed her as I wanted them to have some time alone in this lower level to talk and think about what was going on. Once she was dead and Campre on the table was long dead, I handed them their new sheets with the corruption information and let them read about it from there.
They made their way up the furnace pipes to the boiler room above. After making their way into the hall, they immediately approached the barricade and were warned away by threat of crossbow bolt. Of course, they went straight up the hall to the old laundry with the three prisoners and then walked in on Doctor Oathday, who used the hiding tactics described.
They escorted "Iza Weeds" to the barricade and ended the encounter heading back up the hall to find more doppelgangers to kill. They were pretty banged up and hurt, as no one was playing a cleric, and only the investigator had cure light wounds extracts.
I couldn't find descriptions for lighting conditions in the book, so I just told them low light conditions for now. I plan on following the suggestions upthread on which areas are lighted due to the windows and which should remain darkened.
All in all, I thought it went well. I am definitely worried about their survivability, as Oathday probably could have killed them if she hadn't tried subterfuge instead.
PCs cleared the west wing during the last session. They pretty much hovered around 1 to 3 hit points the entire session. The adventure definitely has that deadly Call of Cthulhu feel to it so far. I've made a few mistakes due to misreading the map, but I was able to catch my mistake and make up for it, so the players didn't miss anything.
They ended the session by taking their three doppelganger bodies to the barrier and were allowed to pass through to the chapel. They still have Doctor Oathday in tow, so I am working out the various sorts of trouble she can cause. I probably just have her disappear and take the statue of Desna with her. I might have Winter drop some hints about doppelgangers and then they'll realize Iza Weeds is gone.
I'd like to have her kidnap somebody, but I don't see a way for her to get another person past the guards.
Sounds like a great opening to the campaign, Brother Fen! we also started last week, and I also feel (from a player's perspective this time) a certain Cthulu-esque feel to things! :)
In his previous very distant and long ago human life, Akurian was a simple commoner albeit one with a great awareness of his surroundings and mastery of common sense so to speak.
He was a farmer, family man and a generalist who could take care of shoeing horses, deliver calves, harvest crop and if time allowed, go fishing.
His low-born status meant he was nearly illiterate though, and throughout his life, was ever curious of books, libraries, universities, schools, etc.
He never got the opportunity to explore this desire to learn due to farm and family responsibilities.
When he died, he rose steadily in the ranks of Pharasma's servants. He became a psycopomp noisoi, roaming the eternal libraries for ages, and in the end became a yamaraj, serving as one of the judges of the dead and lords of the Boneyard.
For his eons of service to the Boneyard he was offered a rare chance as a second life.
He took it, eager to learn more and pethaps also CREATE new knowledge and uncover new mysteries.
When he incarnated on the mortal plane in his new duskwalker body, something went wrong.
While he was not expecting to retain memories, he realized that he did in fact retain most of his eons of knowledge... and immediately found himself deprived of his newly created vessel...
His body and mind were overtaken by a distant, remote, unknown being.
Everything went blank for what seems an eternity. Only flashes of some alien distant world remain. He doesn't even know his name: when he came back in his body... he was a blank slate.
He is an 8-year old duskwalker boy with no memories. The only thing he found was three weird letters sewn inside his sleeve: Aku.
Concept: neutral shaman (visionary) with lore spirit; whippoorwill familiar (thrush stats ) but doesn't know of it yet (whipporwill appointed to him by the Boneyard but since his mind was overtaken for centuries, the familiar drifted off and reverted to a more survivalist, animal status... but somehow became an immortal bird).
The familiar has the sage archetype and has accumulated knowledge for centuries in the mortal world since Aku's incarnation. Now that Aku awakens in his own body again- the alien presence has departed after a horrible bad dream about a man in tatters and some yellow fog- Mak-Ta (the familiar) receives a mental ping as his empathic link is restored. The familiar quickly finds Aku's location, his internal compass pointing true for the first time in centuries...
From this moment on, Aku grows at an exponential rate, his body going from the physical appearance of an 8-year old to a full-grown adult in the span of one week. Each night the boy, teenager, and finally young man grows through severe nightmares and seizures, his body catching up for months, years, decades (centuries?) of being cut-off from his soul.
Feedback: after the first game I must say I had a blast, and it is fun to see the interaction of an epic-wisdom boy who still has the emotional volatility and vulnerability of a 3rd-grader mind you, punctuated with momentary flashes of a nigh immortal being's life, where he goes dead calm and offers philosophical advice... :)
Regarding The Chain of Nights, it states that "the tome contains the spells ... " and lists several dream related spells. What form do these appear within the tome? Presumably the intent is that it functions as an arcane spellbook.
That brings into question Dream Travel which is a mesmerist/psychic spell, making it defunct for a spellbook listing. Are these listed spells instead considered scrolls? Should Dream Travel just be delisted? Is there something I'm missing with all this?
Beyond that, using Dream Travel could have "tricky" results in this AP. I'm imagining players who aren't risk averse attempting to use it on Lowls, or as another target, Miacknian Munn, thereby dream traveling to exit near one or the other on the material plane. Like I said, tricky. It could make sense to rule that it simply fails against Lowls, whose mind may already be transforming and out of reach of such spells. Other beings, not so much. Something to be aware about, at least.
So i forgot to update this after the last session. My party is all the way up to the end of the module. They ran int oa bit of troubler with the ghouls, have picked up Jenny Two-Tails and a "Puppy" as backpack companions. They decided to push on and they had minor trouble dealing w The Bag Lady (they got a nasty surprise when a harmless crazy lady got a crit and some lucky damage rolls and punched their warpriest unconscious) no trouble whatsoever with the fog-machines...
They hurried forward and after a bit of a battle defeated Zandalaus. and then the Tatter man appeared and sent 4/5 running in panic (well two running, two trapped in a corner) and began slowly taking apart the bloodrager. it was late so we pasued in mid-combat.
This might go real bad. I'm having a hard time justifying not just killing the party when we play again on sunday. I do have the benefit of a player that was out last time being in this week, a cleric, so i will have him come up from the rear to join the encounter.
Any suggestions?
One on one, the Tatterman is probably more than a match for any of them. Maybe remind your cleric to prep Soothing Word to deal with those conditions, if he hasn't already. Unless they come back together, they are probably toast.
Rough place to stop.
Rough place to stop.
It was, but it was also past bedtime for my group of 30-something gamers... and pausing there to let them think about their resources and options (and give the cleric a chance to come in) was my alternative to ending the campaign on a TPK.
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You might be surprised how they do...the Tatterman is tough, but actually doesn't hand out a huge amount of damage per hit. So, he will likely take a while to chew through a level 4 PC. You can also slow down his rate of damage by having him use some of his various spell-like abilities, such as the Nightmare touch.
As I recall, the Fear only has a limited duration as well, and it only applies while the victim can see the thing they fear. So, most running PCs are actually going to at least stop running in the Bag Lady's room, and not be super far away.
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Honestly still surprised book doesn't mention what happens to Ilesi if she escapes or what happens to Campre if players interrupt Ilesi before she kills him <_< Like, yeah, its very much likely he dies, but there is decent chance of them stealing key and opening sell before she goes for 1d4 rounds of stabbing spree