The Whisper Out of Time (GM Reference)


Strange Aeons

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So, now there's competition.

gets out tire poking knife.

It's cool, nothing wrong with competition.


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Last session the party did the entirety of the mysterium in one sitting. We had one player who couldn't make it so it ended up being a three-man-band going in. I was worried about the hounds of tindalos constantly wearing them down with their ripping gaze but hilariously enough the only party member affected by it was the bloodrager and his ludicrously high fortitude save meant he could only fail on a 1. The investigator had an echolocation extract which allowed him to close his eyes and still fight and the medium was blind from a greater madness so they both were immune. They rather quickly left the university floor and skipped exploring most of the rooms in favor of avoiding more hound patrols.
The dread wraith on the second floor consistently preyed on the blind medium who nearly died from it. However, the wraith got too cocky and when it emerged from the wall to finish the medium off the rest of the party swooped in and clobbered it before it got away. The protoshoggoths were solid foes, and managed to infect two of the party members. The investigator also has the touch of Xhamen Dor on him so that will be problematic later. Overall, however, the haunts were far from being deadly. I'm not sure if they were intended to just be flavorful additions, but he fact that they existed separate from encounters meant they just ended up being a CLW wand tax. The only haunt that had my players terrified was the arcane blast one that locked the medium inside. The party couldn't breakthrough the bars quick enough and all hope was lost. However, I reminded he medium that they could damage haunts and he used that to escape at the last second.
Out of all the encounters, the mysterium guards ended up being the most deadly, funnily enough. I don't know if it was just because the party was weakened or because they got lucky with crits, but it was almost a TPK. The investigator's sky-high AC was no match for their magic missile barrage.
When they got to the bottom, the investigator failed the puzzle check three times in a row so they ended up fighting all of the soul bound shells. The cloud kills were especially problematic and although the fights vs the shells were only 1-2 rounds, the party was nearly out of gas by the time they reached the keeper. The keeper was a short but lethal fight, with 2/3 party members going down in the first two rounds. I "wasted" a round using the wracking touch ability, rather than full attacking, and that gave the investigator enough of an edge to pull a victory out of a very dire situation.
The players were understandably bummed when they realized Lowls had already escaped and they really didn't have to had come down there and do all that fighting. They kept asking why the "mysterious figure"'s vision couldn't have told them where he was earlier. They ended up stealing the prized tomes in the mysterium's soul at the end of the session. Now I have to come up with 6-10 scary books for next session xD. I'm thinking of making some of them dangerous and/or powerful. Maybe a vacuous time thrown in for good measure...

Paizo Employee Developer

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Thanks for the recap! Sounds like an exciting time.

As for the books, if you wanted to seed in some books from Golarion, check out this list. Might be something in there that sparks some inspiration.


I note with interest that the Hollow One's have to pass a DC 25 not to go mad every year and have a +5 Will bonus. Please only create in a jurisdiction that gives favorable tax write offs for the construction cost when they file for disability.


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Whelp, book 4 has been knocked out as of last night. It ended on a good note, and was filled with more than a few laughs.

Misadventures in Okeno:
The party was not very enchanted with Okeno, and after I described the gazetteer tidbit about individuals being more likely to die to rusty nails than blades there, they made it their mission to find Biting Lash as quickly as possible. (After making the DC 25 check on gather information) One half of the group went searching at the black circus, the other half headed to the laughing fleshfair to find Princess Njano. The circus visit ended with a dead clown, a dead mastodon, and a pair of PC's running for their lives (I ended up using the circus encounter here instead of later when they gather information for Njano's request). The other two PC's were not much more tactful, and quickly drew attention to themselves at the Laughing Fleshfair. As guards closed around them to kick them out, they attempted to pacify the gnolls by telling jokes. Unfortunately, the laughing hyena trope did not work in their favor and things dissolved into combat. They managed to fight their way out and caught a glimpse of Njano being evacuated from the event. They chased her down and managed to convince her they meant no harm and just wanted information. When they met later at her palace, the party Brawler ran into Kisetz. I roleplayed her scorned lover angle as well as I could, and although the brawler's (deceptive) attempt to convince her he still loved her was admirable, she remained unconvinced. The party agreed to help Njano, and later that night, the brawler ran off to go find Kisetz. One dark alley and 3 rounds of studying later, he ended up paralyzed by her kukri and woke up the next morning face down, naked in an alleyway -- his only remaining possession being a nasty note. Because the party managed to complete Njano's request before he met up with them, they ended up running into Kisetz first, who was very pleased with herself. She overheard their goal of getting to Biting Lash so she went to tip her off. As a sidenote, I wanted to mention that I had no idea what a Doru was, so when I used the Div's summon ability, succeeded on the percentage roll, and rolled a 4 out of a possible 1d4 of them I was very excited to slam down some of my demon minis on the table. Upon actually seeing their statblocks I visibly facepalmed at how ineffective they were. Always do your research fellow GMs!

Blossoming Thorn:
While the party was 12th level at this point, their solution to breaking into Blossoming Thorn was a rather mundane and straight forward one: Bluff their way through the gates and go from there. Unfortunately, they were not aware that Kisetz had tipped Lash off to their appearances, and while the party medium was disguised as a rich gnoll, that didn't do much to conceal the fact that the other 3 PC's resembled Kisetz description. While I was surprised they didn't use the multiple alternate ways they had to get to the top of the building, it ended up being much more exciting the way they played it out.
Enchantment magic got the guards to signal to open the first portcullis, but as soon as they stepped in, it closed behind them and acid began to pour. A moment of panic occurred until the bloodrager and brawler used their combined strength scores to force the portcullis open. What followed was a bloodbath on the scale I haven't seen in quite a while as a GM. The first floor gnolls were hideously outmatched, and the Medium's high diplomacy score encouraged the slaves to stand down. The players broke in, found and freed Kaklatath and made their way up the fortress. The second floor fight was a cramped and surprisingly difficult one, with two party members dropping to the countless scorpion whip strikes and excessive amounts of gnoll warriors wearing them down. The top floor battle lasted only a few rounds. The pack lords were certainly effective at disarming most of the party, and I had a lot of fun using their teamwork feats. However, when Biting Lash showed her face the Medium took her mind over with a persistent Possession spell. Needless to say, the fight was over at that point. Kisetz high-tailed it as soon as things went south and the Brawler was pleased to retrieve his gear that she had tried to pawn off to Biting Lash (he did the entire fortress in nothing but a leather speedo). While they were deliberating whether or not to kill Biting Lash, the party investigator made a case for her life that had the entire table laughing.
"We actually don't know if she's evil."
"Dude, she runs a slave trade. Of course she is."
"Hey man, stealing in Pathfinder is neutral, okay? She's just stealing people's freedom."
They picked up on Lowls' trail and showed no mercy for Biting Lash before they left -- throwing her off the top floor to her death and savoring the sweet taste of victory.

All in all, the group had a good deal of fun over the 6 hours that we played last night. There was a few comments about how the Okeno section of this chapter was far from horrifying and kind of random, but they agreed that it was a nice change of pace to flex their level 12 muscles and cut swathes through an entire gnoll army. We discussed how A Whisper Out of Time was very combat-heavy (with its 3 'dungeons') but my group likes combat a lot so it ended up working out. Everyone is very excited to see What Grows Within. :)


Great write up, Spastic Puma. Thanks for sharing.

I've not read WOoT yet, is Okeno supposed to be horrifying? Now you've run it what would you do differently to make it more horrifying and less random (if anything)?


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If I could run Okeno again I would find a way to force the players into the sweat ways. Those are basically the tunnels they use to transport slaves under the city. Their walls are caked with blood, filth, etc. and there is a horrifying corpse orgy monster that awakens down there from time to time -- born from the awful suffering that the slaves have been subject to. Playing off of the claustrophobia and grossness of these tunnels would be very unsettling, and even encountering that creature in passing would be a memorable scene. Just picture it -- a misshapen, roiling mass of broken bodies, filling the tunnel and clawing around as they let out the tortured screams of the damned... Man, I really missed out not using this haha.


Haha, gross!

Will definitely look into that as I prep for this one.

How are you finding running it as they come out? Has doing it that way thrown any curve balls at you?

I'm waiting because a) I'm currently running Second Darkness, b) id prefer to have the whole path in hand and c) I'm waiting for my Sandy Petersens Cthulhu Mythos for Pathfinder to arrive so I can use the minis :D


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Running this as it comes out is exhilarating but issues do come up. For instance, Weiralai's background is kept under wraps until book 5 so weaving her into the story was a bit odd for me because I didn't fully understand her motives and drives. I remember one of the players saying something along the lines of "Did we miss something? She seems important." Also, I tripped up a few times when explaining to the players in-character where Lowls is going and what he is up to. Why is he going to the mysterium? To get the Necronimicon. Should they know that yet, or should I wait until they get to Munn's lab? Should they know about the Necronimicon? What about Neruzavin? When do I drop that bomb? Is the Mad Poet the plot dump I used him to be?. Also, I had trouble understanding exactly what Xhamen-Dor and Hastur were up to. Were they working together? Was one using the other? How aware of this relationship is the Count?

All of these questions probably have clear cut answers within the text but running the adventure as it came out muddled my own sense of what key plot points and reveals were supposed to be. Timing them for maximum effect and drama within the story would have been a lot easier.


Yeah, makes sense. All the APs I've run have already been out for years and I've been able to benefit from the other brilliant GMs who post on these boards. Not sure I'd be brave enough to run it in real time like you and the Amber Dice crew.

Good luck with the rest of it, and please keep posting your experiences - it's all a great help for those of us who follow in your footsteps :D


For GM reference, the next adventure (What Grows Within) features details of the Necronomicon, including a protection placed upon the book and the one who carries it against scrying. Not only do attempts to scry fail, but the caster must pass a DC 30 caster level check to avoid drawing the notice of eldritch powers. If failed, she suffers horrific visions and must make a DC 20 Will save, taking 1d8 Wis drain on a failure and 1d4 Wisdom damage on a success.

As PCs may be likely to attempt to scry Lowls at some stage in this adventure, GMs should be aware of the consequences.


I've only got the first three books so far, is there a TL:DR for what Hastur and Xhamen-Dor are up to? Really hoping to foreshadow things if possible.


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From what grows within:
Lowls is obsessed with one or more eldritch masters, whom he seeks to serve by completing a number of occult rituals. He has planned to take Xhamen-Dor into his body and journey to Carcosa to offer himself to Hastur so that the King in Yellow can gain enough power to become an Outer God.
• Much like Thrushmoor, the accursed city of Neruzavin holds three Star Stelae that the count awakened in order to perform a ritual he learned from the Necronomicon: the path to the black star occult ritual.
• Upon completing the ritual, Lowls planned to travel to the unholy domain of the King in Yellow, where he hoped to attune its Star Stelae and offer Golarion to his new master.
.
This is the plot info the party is informed when they come across notes and journal writings in that AP volume. I thought it cleared a few things up.


Thank you!


My favorite part is I'll be able to bust out my Cities Of Golarion for this adventure.

Cities Of Golarion was the very first book i got for pathfinder. :-)

Paizo Employee Developer

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Nice! I kinda regret that I didn't have the space in this book to really detail the cultural variances of spending time in these three really different cities (and only a couple of them have more than a couple of pages of supporting material in other books).


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Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Today, my group ran through most of the Mysterium (we picked up at the start of the second level). I thought I'd share some of what happened with you guys, as well as some of my thoughts.

Wall of Text:

I ended up changing a few things. I love this adventure path, but there is just a few ideas I wanted to use. The main thing that I did was introducing a new horror to the library: A Colour Out of Space. Like the other horrors, it was unleashed in Lowls' wake, and progressively made it's way through the levels from the second one, leaving it's mark everywhere. By the time the PC's entered the Mysterium, the Colour was resting in the Key to the Soul room, digesting its meals.

The great thing about the Colour is that allowed for a lot of build up. It started at the second level, where the air was tinged with the smell of ozone. Weird scorch marks could be found on the floor and the walls, and occasionally the PCs would stumble on a corpse or two that was reduced to fine, white dust. As for the enemies... I gave the mind-shattered guards in level two the colour-blighted template. Of course, this greatly decreased the actual threat they posed to the players, but I went for creepy rather than dangerous. Colour-drained, glowing guards, waiting apathetically for the alien to return to finish them off and reacting with violence to any attempt to approach them put the PCs a bit off, and they ended up leaving them alone.

I left in everything else, leaving Mun untouched because he's crazy enough as he is. The PCs captured Mun (Ice Tomb, man) and cleaned out everything else pretty handily, except for the Dread Wraith, which laid some real hurt on them. I kept building up to the confrontation with the Colour, which had crippled or killed some of the Mysterium guardians (I usually end up removing a couple of encounters and reward XP for progression instead, as I'm not a fan of very combat-heavy gameplay), culminating in a blast of stinging, choking air when the last angel gate was opened. At CR 10, the Colour wasn't a real challenge to level 11 PCs, but I played up the unknowable aspect of the creature for all that it was worth*, and it left a good impression. After a battle with the Keeper - holy smokes, that thing is brutal, killed the toughest party member - the Mysterium was saved.

My party chose to spend the full seven days they were allowed in the library. This meant that I had to improvise a lot, as the adventure has very little info on what they can actually learn there. I threw in some meager facts on the Necronomicon, and a few books on the list Adam linked. Great resource! I also improvised a book/account called "The World-Eater", which I used to explain and foreshadow things about Xhamen-Dor. I can share my notes on that book if you want!

Next stop, Okeno!

* Perhaps a bit cruelly, I ruled that the creature was immune to our Martial Artist's Exploit Weakness ability, even giving him a point of Wisdom damage "for foolishly opening his mind in an attempt to understand what cannot be understood. Fun fact: We play in Norwegian, and "Colour Out of Space" translates poorly, so I called it something like "The Colour that Does Not Exist".


Adam Daigle wrote:
Nice! I kinda regret that I didn't have the space in this book to really detail the cultural variances of spending time in these three really different cities (and only a couple of them have more than a couple of pages of supporting material in other books).

Considering I get break out a book I haven't used in years AND look up the airplane track across the map cut scenes from Indiana Jones I'd say it's a win win for me. :-)


Wight wrote:

Today, my group ran through most of the Mysterium (we picked up at the start of the second level). I thought I'd share some of what happened with you guys, as well as some of my thoughts.

** spoiler omitted **...

Thanks for the write up, and nice addition / tweaks there! Would love to hear your other ideas and additions, if you get time. Thanks!


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I just finished the Mysterium. I focused on trying to make the ending more satisfying. I had Kaklatath emphasize that they never had a chance to catch Lowls here because there are larger forces in play here. I also explained that Kaklatath can't tell them where to go next because it would cause a time-loop and it isn't in good enough shape to handle that right now; it only knows about the PCs because it looked into the future of Neruzavin, so it can't be the reason they get there. Instead, I concealed the knowledge of Lowls's next destination (Okenko) until they reached the Keeper, who, out of shame, telepathically showed Lowls's escape through a portal with Okenko obviously in the background. The Keeper rationalized killing the PCs as preventing knowledge of Xhamen-Dor from spreading further. Lastly, I let them ask three questions of Kaklatath after the fight due to the stronger presence of Xhamen-Dor and consequently stronger telepathic connection inside the Soul. Overall, I think this ended up being much more satisfying than "Whoops, Lowls got away, too bad."

I drew out the rotating-ring Soul Puzzle and the players had a lot of fun playing with it. Here are the files if anyone wants them. Put a black dot on the left (for destruction) and a white dot on the right (for creation). 1 2 3

Also, one of the PCs' dream-doubles defeated his respective PC, went around as a second personality for a while, has just been evicted from the PC's mind, became an Alter Ego, has formed his own rival party, and is trying to become Xhamen-Dor's champion himself.

I'm struggling to plan out Okenko as it doesn't seem to have any way to realistically threaten level 12 PCs and almost nothing there has a decent ranged attack or flight. I think I'll add the recurring villains in there somewhere.


Here is a thought experiment about adding (even) more Mythos elements to this AP...

Spoilers for Iron Gods AP:
One of the Mythos creatures that are not used in the Strange Aeons AP are the mi-go, one of my personal favorites. After reading the whole AP, I started thinking about adding them. There is a section of Iron Gods #4 (Valley of the Brain Collectors) that already contains mi-go, so I started thinking about how best to transplant it into Strange Aeons. The mi-go caves are in book 4, so that's why I'm writing in this thread (the CR and XP should be close).

At first, I thought the mi-go would make a good replacement for the derro : both are races of creepy, roguish kidnappers who experiment on their victims. But I kinda like the derro section as it is. Plus, it goes against the lore for mi-go to set up shop in a big city (they seem to prefer secluded areas far from civilisation.)

Then I thought about replacing the whole Okeno section. Thematically, it is the farthest from Mythos elements. Plot-wise, the trip to Okeno serves 2 purposes : 1) finding Kaklatath and 2) figuring out where Lowls went so they can track him to Neruzavin. Furthurmore, I always found it a bit too much of a coincidence that the mind-swapped slave that can contact the PCs about the ongoing plot just happens to be in the possession of the same slaver that Lowls contacted for travel arrangements...

So here's what I'm planning. Leave no clue as to where Lowls went after he disappeared from the Mysterium. The only way for the PCs to find Neruzavin is to find Kaklatath to guide them there. He is trying to contact them, but the events in the Mysterium are making interference. Once the Mysterium is completed, Kaklatath can give them his exact location, so they can rescue him. However, Kaklatath has been kidnapped by a mi-go colony, and his brain (a rare find, a yithian mind inside a human brain), now sits in a brain container.

From there, the mi-go caves can be inserted from Iron Gods as it is, replacing Therace's brain with Kaklatath's. The CR of the encounters would probably be 1 too low (the mi-go are designed for level 11, not 12 like Okeno), which could be ignored, or the encounters could be boosted by adding a few extra enemies and/or advanced templates, and an extra level on the cleric boss. The yangethes and/or the froghemoth could be added on the journey to the caves and back.

The only doubt I have is that the "fungal caves" being just before the "fungal city" of Neruzavin could lessen the impact of that particular theme, or sow unintended confusion.

Thoughts ? Comments ?

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

So, I know I'm arriving a little late to this party, but...now that I've seen the details of the Necronomicon in Book 5...how exactly did Lowls telport out of the Mysterium with it? The Necronomicon specifically says it stays behind if someone teleports with it.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Urg, never mind, found the answer over in the What Grows Within thread.

However, rather than deus exing this, I'm going with him using a Gate scroll instead.


YogoZuno wrote:

Urg, never mind, found the answer over in the What Grows Within thread.

However, rather than deus exing this, I'm going with him using a Gate scroll instead.

You don't really have to. The Necronomicon itself gives you the ability to cast greater teleport when you master pages 864 to 888. I assume this ability bypass the prohibition to teleport, because otherwise it is an absurd ability

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Sure, although that also presumes Lowls had the time to master not only that particular part of the Necronomicon, but also the opening parts of it. It sounded to me like he didn't actually have that kind of time.


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Started "Whisper" last week. Due to a mispronunciation, Ethem Baler has been renamed Effen Baller.


As i said in "dreams of the yellow king" i started part 3 and we have a long way to go till we´ll get to this one. But i felt a bit of regret learning about some background details as i´d already finished book two. So i decided to skip a litte bit ahead to get myself a sneak peak which will improve my forshadowing skills in a drastic way.

First of all i need to say: I love this AP and like the storry is unfolding. In my opionion part 2 had it´s difficulties in keeping up with part 1 cause there was a lack of story revelation, which i hope to improvise one my second group i´ll run this AP for.

As some of you are concerned about the issue that some parts of whisper seem to be skipable. This is exactly the point i like about this one. My group is not so much interested in heavy combat. Instead they role very smoothly with the creepy surroundings and the madnesses i present them. They tend to play them out very intense and you might say they´re their worst adversarys themself. At one point i needed to clense them from all of their madness to move on with the storry as they went stuck on conflict play caused by madness.

I like the idea that they can overcome biting lash without any combat at all by simply talk to this person and with the help of some money.

Sure they might not get that much XP as simply hacking their way to a whole bunch of enemies, but for that i´ll throw in some storry award XP - problem solved.


Got questions concerning the mysterium.

How did you guys run with the hounds of tindalos? Did your players just destroy the mirrow or did they kill them over and over again. In the discription it is asumed that the hounds just terrorise this floor of the libary. What´s preventing them from exploring the other levels? Is the given CR the right one?


My players destroyed the mirror as soon as they could.


I'm planning on playing them that once a group of 4 gets their scent, they will continue to teleport into corners to chase them down. If they kill those 4 on a floor that is separate from the mirror the new ones will just act as wandering monsters for the purposes of sleeping, resting, searching, etc.


Did anyone else's group opt to go to Corgunbier?
Does anyone have ideas I can use for when they get there?


So my players presented me with a bit of a conundrum and I wanted to see if any other groups had this issue.

In the final part of the 3rd adventure it says that the players receive a vision of the old woman's face (Kaklatath’s current body) along with the message that if they want to retain their freedom they need to find her.

My players decided that was more important then Mun. So they Scryed her, observed the area (which teleport lists as a meeting viable "seen once" criteria), Teleported in, grabbed her, teleported out to their inn room back in Casomir, and effectively solved the entire plot of the 4th book in less then a minute because it says that Kaklatath tells them Lowle's full plan and were to find the city.

Now obviously level 10 adventurers would get slaughtered on the next path as they are far too underpowered and under equipped. They also felt a little cut short so they decided to rewind and start the adventure path without that strategy, but for the life of me I can't figure out any reason they could not have done it, and with a message like "Find me if you want to stay free" why they would have chosen not to.

Is this just an oversight or did I miss something major?


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Maybe I'm crazy, but I'd have sworn they only got a clear vision of Kaklatath after clearing the Mysterium in Book 4. I suppose one could try to move forward from the point of an early rescue of Kaklatath by her not knowing that Lowls has already absconded with the Necronomicon, so there's an apparent opportunity to catch him in the Mysterium? And it does describe her as rationing out information carefully due to the fact that knowledge of Xhamen-Dor empowers it.


Yep, they only get a good look during book four - the 3rd book only has a vision of “a faraway desert city” with all of the clicks and beeps, followed by the visions of Lowls drowning them and leading them into the asylum, etc.


Please hive mind, need some help... im gonna start whisper out of time next monday... but i want to make all strange aeons a little smaller (20 and something sessions is just too much for a campaign in my group) and reading about This Book 4... i think i can skip part 1 and 3 from the game... XP aside (we do leveling by evolution of the history) what do you think can happen if i cut MIACKNIAN MUN lab.. beeline to Mysterium and somewhat do a short encounter to free KAKLATATH??? what encounters do you think are too cool to pass on?? thanks for the input guys!


Mun's lab is wonderfully creepy and fitting to the style of the story, definitely use it. That said, if you wanted to trim it down, you could cut the derro out and just have it populated by the alchemical construct creations, lonely and abandoned by their master. Leave the skins in the room above and maybe put a hastily scribbled note nearby saying "Skins almost done for my "silent partners", must finish when I return after helping Lowls!"

The Mysterium is likewise great (totally play up the angel and face architecture, so creepy!), but you can weed out some encounters. The mindshattered guards could be found in a tangle where their own paranoia finally got the best of them and they turned on each other, or decided that death by suicide was better than what lurks in the halls. You could even have Mun do the same, being watched over by his lonely homonculus. Definitely play up how everything and everyone is ruined in the wake of Lowls. You could skip the soulbound doll and clockwork mage encounters too, they are fun but not really "needed" to the story.

As for part 3, try to keep the encounter with Princess Njano. You could cut the Div/Tannery plotline and just have Njano decide the PCs are capable enough to give Biting Lash a hard time, and thats good enough in her book. The fortress is kind of a useful plot device in that its fairly easy, its a great way of giving players a last bit of fighting "regular" humanoids before things get really wacky in Parts 5 and 6. Still, you could cut some of the extra animal encounters, or just turn it into a role-playing encounter where Biting Lash decides one old slave isn't worth the potential damage. If they go this route, you could then still have Kisetz and Hakoor attack afterwards, for "failing to return the favor Njano did for them".

Hope that helps!


Just as a side note, my players are now terrified of hellwasp swarms. Across 5 PC's, the party took a total of 86 DEX Damage, and had to heal it with many, many lesser restorations.


So, I might be missing something, but I’m not sure: if, in Dreams of the Yellow King, the players managed to get information from Abdul Alhazred about the location of the Necronomicon in Katheer, why should the players bother to stop and try to investigate Mun’s Lab, again? Since the assumption is that Lowls is always a few days to a week ahead, they could be that maybe he’s still in Cassomir preparing for the voyage, but it seems somewhat unlikely from a player persective that he would stop and lounge around. At that point, they could reasonably surmise that they could cut Lowls off at Katheer if they find him quickly enough, and that they’re wasting time trying to find breadcrumbs in Cassomir. Am I missing some clue that should be pointing them in that direction?

Dark Archive

Your players might definitely come to that conclusion. I think the secret in books 2-4 is to recognize that there is some built in redundancy in clues and to be thoughtful in your word choice of how you present the clues. Most of the clues are not in box text and the way in which the GM paraphrases the clue can have a big impact on how the players perceive the clues. My PCs did elect to spend a bit of time trying to track down Mun for example, but I was prepped for them to teleport straight to Katheer. Using story based advancement help


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Couple of things popped up with encountering the Hounds of Tindalos in the Mysterium.
How big is the door to the meditation sphere chamber? Is it big enough to take the mirror that summons the Hounds into it? Would that be sufficient to stop the Hounds, if they don't have an angle to teleport out of the room with?
Also, is a single Hound affected by the Ripping Gaze of its fellows?
Further, if a creature saves out of the effect of the Gaze, do the Hounds getting resummoned via the mirror reset the 24 hour timer on being affected by the Ripping Gaze?


Just finished running the module. It seems like Part Three in Okeno doesn't have enough experience to hit level 13 from level 12. Adding up all the experience from every creature, including the slaves from Blossoming Thorn, it nets to only about 224,800 experience, which is only 56,200 each if it is split between party of 4 people. The party would need to be substantially above the experience threshold of hitting 12th level after the Mysterium in order to end up 13th level at the end of the adventure (12th level is 220,000 xp and 13th is 315,000). As UristmcRoleplayer pointed out above, it is quite possible the PCs will entirely skip Mun's lab after finding out the Necronomicon is in Katheer, as my PCs did, so it is likely they will be closer to the minimum XP threshold for 12th level when entering Okeno.


Sorry to double post but I thought I might as well contribute if I can help someone else.

Eisenbaer wrote:

Couple of things popped up with encountering the Hounds of Tindalos in the Mysterium.

How big is the door to the meditation sphere chamber? Is it big enough to take the mirror that summons the Hounds into it? Would that be sufficient to stop the Hounds, if they don't have an angle to teleport out of the room with?
Also, is a single Hound affected by the Ripping Gaze of its fellows?
Further, if a creature saves out of the effect of the Gaze, do the Hounds getting resummoned via the mirror reset the 24 hour timer on being affected by the Ripping Gaze?

1) B3, the concealed door to the meditation chamber, isn't given an exact size, but it is described as a door set into the ceiling with a ladder leaning against the wall leading up to it, so I assumed it to be a trapdoor taking up a single 5 foot square. It's probably plenty wide enough to lug a standing mirror up.

2) The Angled Entry of Hounds of Tindalos only restricts where they teleport to, not where they teleport from. They can only teleport into places that have fixed angles and are not outdoors. It states they can use their teleportation/plane shift powers anywhere, but their destination point must be an angle. So therefore having the mirror in the meditation chamber would not prevent the hounds from teleporting out of the chamber into the halls below.

3)

Universal Monster Rules - Gaze wrote:
A creature is immune to gaze attacks of others of its kind unless otherwise noted.

4) The description of the guardian mirror says that "when slain, the entire pack re-emerges with full hit points" (paraphrasing). This seems to be saying it is the same hounds as before, but restored to full HP, in which case any creatures would retain their immunity to the gaze attacks of whichever individual hounds they saved against. Which makes me feel bad for not realizing this when I ran the Mysterium myself, leading to the deaths of several PCs. The hounds being resummoned would not reset the 24 hour timers.

Dark Archive

For those doing story based XP I found the following strategy quite helpful. Basically the PCs having Biting Lash's name and a quick vision of the gnoll tower. At some ofthe earlier commentary, I just dispensed with the entire side-quest in the Fleshfairs. It was very easy and seamless to let them Gather Information and find out where Lash's compound was. They are on the trail and a quick storm the keep was an entertaining session, rather then getting dragged off on irrelevant details. My group rescued Kaklatath early and almost teleported out without even bothering with Lash. If you aren't tied to the XP budget I highly recommend this as an easy patch to the AP.


After reading about the puzzle which will grant you access to the soul, i decided that it would be more fun to actually use a puzzle box instead of just calling for disable device rolls.

My players like handouts and gadgets they can actually hold an manipulate at the table.

The staircase in DOTYK was a blast and everytime they would start the ritual the tension of the player holding this thing in his hand while his character spoke the words of the ritual the tension of this player went over 9000.

So here´s my question. Anyone got the same idea and or can recomment an online store for puzzleboxes?


Last sunday, my group went for muns laboratory and the place of skin.

After they defeated the hellwasp swarms, i started to play some instrumentual lullaby-songs (the album is called Lullaby´s for newborn) and told them that they hear exactly this but very faint. This was a very intense and creepy situation when they found out about the brain apperatus. I strongly suggest you use some background musik like this. I kept it running while they where talking to Number 61 which freaked out my players even more.


I've re-written this a good deal, not because I don't like pieces of it, but mostly because Okeno still feels so out of place to me. Note this is pretty personal to my game, where the players have trusted me with writing their backstories, and I've had time to prepare based on that.

I'm still using a lot of the original material, but turning the Blossoming Thorn in Okeno into the PC's old home base when they were working for Lowls - they went into Quadira, Katapesh, and Osirion often for him, so it made sense to build a fortress there. I rebuilt it as having personal rooms for each of them and direct them towards it right after the end of the third book, where Kisetz (I'm taking the "Jilted Lover" angle with her) has taken over the lower floors and looted much of the building. The upper floors have science experiments run amok that were originally created by one of the PCs, making for a (ideally) tense boss fight on top of the fort.

The fortress was built on top of an area of minor magical convergence, and can be used by a friendly NPC (my replacement for the Yithian) to teleport them to various locations on Golarion.

Lowls used this same power to teleport himself to Neruvizan, and it will take the NPC some time to replicate the ritual he used to send himself there. In the meantime, however, the NPC can send the PCs to wherever they need to go, and they each have small vignette quests to rectify or interact with things from their newly recovered memories. They also need to go and grab the Necronomicon from the Mysterium, as in my rewrite there are two versions, one of which they already recovered and gave to Lowls just before he wiped their memories (which he did in order to learn the ritual to send himself to Neruvizan). In the Mysterium here, one of the PCs was jilted by one of the elders and dropped an elder god infection in the form of a Color out of Space on the place, and it's been slowly infecting the Mysterium ever since.

So, they'll hopefully follow their individual story plot hooks, and then get teleported to Neruvizan, where they'll only be a couple of months behind Lowls because of the time it took him to ready the passage to Carcosa! It's a little convoluted, but ends up being more personalized to my PCs and should hopefully leave them more invested in their characters and making up for the awful things they've done, completing their transition from villains to heroes!


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I'm also tweaking the Okeno section but i a different direction. I saw someone had used a colour out of space and decided to give it a go.

There are 88 creatures in Blossoming Thorn, and a total of 778 Charisma available. The Colour's Aura of Lassitude prevents prey from leaving and only Biting Lash has a decent Will save. Assuming some occasional great rolls cause a sentient creature to wise up and flee, there's plenty of food for the colour to grow 5-7 HD. 6 HD makes it a CR 14 encounter, on par with the Keeper.

My timeline is >
Lowls enters the Soul of the Mysterium.

Under Weirelai's (I bumped up her role so she was the captain of the Bloodwind and is guiding Lowls. HIs first attempt at contact an entity got him Weirelai) suggestion, Lowls studies the Necronomicon while the Denizen of Leng makes for Okeno. The Keeper gets corrupted by Xhamen Dor while keeping tabs on Lowls' thoughts.

Lowls mastered the index and then mastered the teleportation section (Again Weirelai advised him on what to do). The Corrupted Keeper let's Lowls escape, THEN triggers the now corrupted wards itself to trap any who would follow.

Lowls, now in Okeno, meets with Weirelai and they talk to Biting Lash to get their expedition together. Weirelai pays Biting Lash in a pile of Leng rubies and a halfling sized ruby that that shimmers with inner light. The denizen explains that the extra large stone is payment for their silence. Actually, it's a meteorite containing a Colour. They set off the next day.

A week later, the PCs enter the Mysterium and mind shattering hilarity ensues for a couple of days. They slay the Corrupted Keeper and it reincarnates as a Lantern Archon for it's failure. The shamed archon tells the PCs what has occurred, and also tells them something it gleaned from Lowls' mind - the passphrase to safely open the Necronomicon. "Geir et necriles hyades" (the creator, the tongue, and the origin).

In Okeno, right around the time that Lowls and crew set off on their expedition, the Colour-ful ruby cracks open. Over the course of the next week it feeds and drains on the gnolls, then the animals and beasts, then the slaves.

Kisetz and Hakoor are bruisers only with no prior connection to the PCs. They slip away immediately to tip off Biting Lash for a reward, and are either killed or fed on by the Colour.

I will be running the Blossoming Thorn section with players seeing the aftermath and desperation of gnolls trying to flee the Colour or simply lying down to die (most colonies in the Aliens franchise, zombie apocalypse movies, Planet Miranda, etc). A majority of the living things in the fortress are either colour-blighted or reduced to yet another pile of drifting powdery ash.
Kaklatath's high Will saves are keeping her safe, but she's trapped in her cell.


Johnnyfive84 wrote:

I'm also tweaking the Okeno section but i a different direction. I saw someone had used a colour out of space and decided to give it a go.

There are 88 creatures in Blossoming Thorn, and a total of 778 Charisma available. The Colour's Aura of Lassitude prevents prey from leaving and only Biting Lash has a decent Will save. Assuming some occasional great rolls cause a sentient creature to wise up and flee, there's plenty of food for the colour to grow 5-7 HD. 6 HD makes it a CR 14 encounter, on par with the Keeper.

Interesting. I guess i might steal this idea for my own game :-)


Got a litte fun on our last session for myself by mixing up my two groups.

The vigilante of my second group found himself in a kind of dream or vision, joining my first group.

Cause of the wizards delusion, he was the only one who could see and interact with the vigilante.

The dreaming character was allowed to experience parts of the mysterium (his group is still in Thrushmoore, preparing for a raid on iris hill.
He was not allowed to take notes on this. If he can remember some details later he can. My intention was that his memories will feel like a real dream.

Because the second group is playing 1 time a month at it´s best, it will take at least 18 Month till the second group will catch up to book 4. He will remember the place but most likely not much details about it.

My players had a lot of fun with this and i most likly will play this thing the other way arround.

Yeah, i got my issus about spoilers and people skipping parts of the adventure entirely, but i guess i can manage that, too.


In the chamber of creation (the room in the mysterium with the clockwork mages detailed on page 35), there is a hatpin engraved with "Forever H. K.". Does anyone know if this is a reference to something that I've missed, or is it just a random set of initials?

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