Encounter Advice


Wrath of the Righteous


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

I'm heavily modifying this AP's story for Book 3. The group's Paladin was informed of the lost Sky Citadel Jormundur's location and they've decided to go and reclaim it for the crusades. They cannot bring an army with them thanks to the distance, terrain, and host of demonic creatures on the way - besides that, Drezen still needs to be protected.

This journey will take them across the Lake Lost to the Sun, which they will avoid crossing by boat at any means necessary since even the demons don't come near the lake. I wanted a couple aerial combats and I've got one down, but with all this talk of corrupted creatures I was thinking of some kinda flying dinosaur... but there aren't any. At all. And apparently the list of flying animals is both pretty small and not very thematic for the area.

Does anyone have an idea? The game is tomorrow night, the party is Level 9 / Tier 3 with an average encounter difficulty of CR 14 (they're really good at combat). The group is traveling with the barbarian Jestak and a druid NPC who won't be able to participate (he has to keep the weather from destroying everyone). We're using the Spheres of Power system, so any spellcasting creatures would have to be rebuilt.

The Exchange

long way to go, through a lot of enemy's. stonewilds have lots of undead druids. windego from the north works


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Jeff Morse wrote:
long way to go, through a lot of enemy's. stonewilds have lots of undead druids. windego from the north works

I've already got plans for the siabrae, and I do have a White Wraith encounter planned. Unfortunately I'm drawing a blank on flying monsters. I'm trying to give the lake an off-putting tone - undead, elemental fiends, corrupted Water Ohrms, and a special surprise should they for whatever reason disturb the lake's surface itself.


Book 3 mentions encounters with mounted Rift Drakes - you could have flights of wild ones harass your PCs instead, as they are supposed to be native to the region. They're not dinosaurs, but in numbers they could be challenging.

If you don't mind building your own dino-terror, you could also take a terrestrial dinosaur and give it the half-fiend template to grant it wings and a decent fly speed to have something flavored for/tainted by the Worldwound. A flight of half-fiend megaraptors or deinonychus hunting the party while they try to make it to the citadel could be fun ;P

Hope those provide some inspiration!

Your Friendly Neighborhood Dalesman
"Bringing Big D**n Justice to the Bad Guys Since 1369 DR"

The Exchange

why dont they just go south around it? explore some of the area while at it.


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Jeff Morse wrote:
why dont they just go south around it? explore some of the area while at it.

This part sounds right, are you sure your PCs are going over the lake?

In my campaign I described the lake as moving unnaturally like some sort of giant ooze. That kept them away from the lake.

So my suggestion would be to have the lake attack them, that's why everything avoids it.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Seannoss wrote:
Jeff Morse wrote:
why dont they just go south around it? explore some of the area while at it.

This part sounds right, are you sure your PCs are going over the lake?

In my campaign I described the lake as moving unnaturally like some sort of giant ooze. That kept them away from the lake.

So my suggestion would be to have the lake attack them, that's why everything avoids it.

The party travels with a Green Faith druid who is their guide, survivalist, and weather dampener (he can pass checks to Control Weather on a 15 and has on multiple occasions prevented some nasty environmental conditions). He suggested that they fly over the lake instead of flying around it for multiple reasons. First, demons don't go near the lake, meaning they won't risk giving away their position to any scouts or getting into fights they can't handle. Second, the further south you go around the lake the closer you get to the most heavily populated demon-controlled area in the Worldwound, which is not advised. Third, their guide is much more familiar with the Stonewilds and knows of many safe resting locations along the way, which will make the journey both easier and safer. Fourth, because fighting demons and cultists for two books has started to get too repetitive and I wanted an opportunity to use different creature types. Finally, there are so many amazing locations and sights in the Worldwound Campaign Setting that I wanted to show off as many of them as I can, and this is one location that really caught my interest.

I ran the encounters last night and ended up using a few Water Elementals (plus an Elemental Fiend from the Tome of Horrors) for one encounter and a Mythic Aboleth, some Aatheriexa, and a couple Water Orms. I figured that if I couldn't find a flying monster I'd find a way to force them to descend towards the lake, and a well-placed Mass Suggestion which affected an NPC one of the players was personally invested in did exactly what I wanted it to. The players finished the fight in about 4 rounds and lost a few men to the Orms after they "decided" to take a swim. That's when I sprung the truth about the lake on them, having something override the druid's control over the storm and rise out of the lake as the group fled as fast as possible.

The lake's denizen was an unidentified eldritch abomination. Now they know why the demons don't bother going near it.


That giant ooze idea is amazing! I will totally use that.

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