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The purpose of this thread is to clarify questions arising in this adventure. This is a SPOILER filled zone, do not venture further if you do not wish the adventure to be spoiled for you, and spoiler tags are not required when posting here.
This thread is a GM Reference thread for Part 4 of the Ruins of Azlant Adventure Path. Links for the individual threads for each part are as follows:
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So probably not new colonists here since it takes completely place underwater from what I saw ._. Gonna double check on that I guess
I do wonder, why are all of Ochamya's minions here neutral aligned even though some of them are basically working on their free will?
Also confused why book doesn't detail at all what happens if PCs try to talk to Vallik instead, book does detail BBEG interrogation, but ignores Vallik completely even though only reason they are fighting PCs is that BBEG told them they are a threat and they want to live peacefully somewhere :P Like book seems to just assume that players kill them off and they fights to the death or something, thats weird
Jurix approaching the PCs just before the events that Naqualia's agents set in motion poses a problem not handled in the text.
The PCs already see some abnormal things occurring: the jellyfish incident, the stolen property incident, being jumped by Jurix's minions, etc. and then Jurix approachea them to get them to sabotage / frame either of the two noble houses against the other.
So, when the events are set in motion by Naqualia's minions, what should happen if the PCs immediately tell the oracle about Jurix's proposition to them to sabotage and frame the two noble houses? I would think the PCs first reaction is going to assume that Jurix is also behind the blood tide, explosion, and everything else at this point in the story, but the oracle, guard's, and even Jurix's reaction to the PCs revealing this information isn't covered.
This is all easy enough to make up depending on how the GM wants to tailor the story, but I am surprised it isn't addressed since all evidence points to Jurix and a good party isn't going to go along with Jurix's plan anyway.
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I'm having some real problems with Vallik.
Much like Corvus says there are, as far as I can see, major problems with Vallik.
First of all: why did Vallik leave Auberon's lair? I never really got a reason apart from boredom - which is valid...just.
Second: How exactly does Naqualia get Vallik to talk? Sure she's got +22 bluff and +14 diplomacy - but no way of forcing the truth from him/her/it. This links in with Vallik's motivation - if the ooze hates Auberon then fine I can see why she talks, but otherwise WTF?
Third: why does Vallik fight the PC's? Naqualia "seeding lies about the PC's is not motivation - unless there's some sort of mind-control involved...
When my players get here I think I'm going to pull a full on possession of Naqualia by Ochymua - give them a taste of the really Big Bad and a veiled master using dominate monster would actually explain Vallik. It feels like Vallik was dominated but the writer just forgot to mention it, otherwise all its actions seem completely at odds with the persona that is built up throughout the book...
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So here's a shot from my perspective. I am Vallik, a shapeshifting ooze that has been hiding out in Talasantri for a long time. I was created millennia ago by an Azlanti wizard, along with many others of my kind, to act as a specialized attack and spy force (p. 5). For many years after Earthfall, I wandered the seas looking for surviving Azlanti ... my masters. Around 300 years ago I found Auberon and was delighted again to be reunited with an Azlanti wizard after so long. In the years, my excitement waned as the unease of being around the lich and his undead minions began to wear on me. He wasn't like the Azlanti I knew well, and I just wanted to get away. Would he be furious if I left with the knowledge of what he was and where his tower was, I don't know. I am going to try and leave anyway.
About 100 years ago, I took my chances and snuck away from Auberon while he was distracted with some scheme. I happened along an underwater city that was heavily damaged in some recent attack by some large sea creature. It was a perfect opportunity for me to blend in, and I take on the life of one of the residents helping to rebuild. I am more than a little paranoid that one day Auberon or his minions will come for me. Every decade or so, I take a new form and start over. I learn so much around me between my forms and I delight in collecting tons of intelligence information about this city, but sadly I will never be able to make a report to anyone who will care. I stay anyway.
Every so often I catch wind of someone looking for me; probably someone sent by Auberon [p. 54 "periodically changes his form over the years, throwing off all but the best and luckiest attempts to find him, implies others have looked for him]. That is when I know it is time to change my form again and start over.
Some time ago I took the form a merfolk and secured a job at the Lionfish gallery. There are a lot of respectable people with secrets who come through, and a lot of rumors and discussion that is to be heard. People don't see me, they see a lowly servant of the gallery. I like it that way. Things were going well until I caught wind again of some deep merfolk seeking me out. She was very determined and had a whole group of servants helping her.
One night, after closing she emerges from the shadows, "Greetings Myrddan, or perhaps Vallik is more appropriate. She says." I freeze, am I finally done for? I don't know. She oozes with confidence, power, and yet ... desperation. How could I have been so careless, As she talks, I don't get the feeling she has been sent by Auberon but I highly distrust her and am annoyed myself for being in this situation. I ready to blast her with my lightning spell, and then cast invisibility and get out of there.
She seeks Auberon she says her master is very powerful and wants to have a chat with the wizard. I try to brush her off at first, but that is when the two blades come out. But that isn't all, there is apparently another group of mercenaries seeking me out and she says they aren't going to be as "nice" as she is. I don't know what to believe, but I don't see the harm in giving her the location of the Alabaster tower. Maybe her and her master can take Auberon out.
I thought it was over and she was going to leave. Yes, she was even leaving as they came into the gallery: the four mercenaries she talked about. I didn't recognize them at the time as the heroes of Talasantri, and I am not sure it would have mattered right then anyway. Naqualia warned me they were coming and here they were.
They seemed honestly surprised when my blast of chain lightning struck them. Hah, Naqualia too. Perhaps she underestimated me. Quickly, I fled to the dark shadows of the museum and transformed into a barracuda. One of them burst through the secret door and looked confused when I wasn't to be found. They even cast a spell, presumably thinking I was invisible, but in reality I was right there just swimming around. I watched them fight Naqualia and kill her. Life is strange. Even for me. She tried so hard to find me just to find Auberon's tower and never left the museum alive with that information.
Why? Why were the heroes of Talasantri after me? I have no idea, but hope to stay as a fish for some time until I find out. I do know that they don't seem to be looking for me after all, or at least they aren't trying very hard. It seems that they are instead after something called Ochymua and have set out for Auberon's tower. Again, this is strange. What is with all of this sudden interest in Auberon. Could this Ochymua be Naqualia's master? How did it find Auberon without Naqualia telling him? I don't care enough to go back to the master's tower to find out. Perhaps, yes perhaps I will reveal myself to the heroes of the city before they leave and try and figure out what is going on.
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- Naqualia has no mind control ability
- Between diplomacy and intimidate, she could keep Vallik there talking
- Vallik may be intrigued enough about the prospect of sending someone to Auberon's tower and possibly confront him.
- As a mezlan, Vallik is breed to be a spy and could be willingly exchanging information with Naqualia. It already feels that Auberon is not really worth being an Azlanti master any longer anway.
- The text says that Vallik ultimately just wants to get away and start a new life, and so I don't see it attacking more than it takes to get away.
- Though, ultimately a mezlan is basically immortal and may be interested in a challenging fight. It will basically reform in 10 years time in the worst case. Couldn't find on Paizo PRD, but d20pfsrd had it
- I like the idea of it being confused and keeping tabs on the PCs, only to discover that they weren't after him. It could then decide to help them with information.
Thanks Justaworm - having someone else's perspective helps. I confess I'm not sold - your interpretation works well, but there's not enough in the books to support it (page counts... alas!).
I'm beginning to like the idea of Vallik as a rival to Jurix - a sort of underground spymaster, a sort of boogieman in the Talastrian underworld (so maybe add a level of vigilante...). Then he gets a better idea of who the Pc's are and what they are doing. As well as a better idea of Nuqualia. If the PC's ally with Jurix then there's genuine room for moral doubt.
Then when the final confrontation comes around there could be a nice 3 way diplomatic show-down, with the option of Nuqualia being possessed by Ochyma if she loses... if she wins then Vallik can tell everyone the info and then join Nuqualia to kill the PC's.
Extra work, but I think it offers a bit more motivation for Vallik...
(There is the question of how Naqualia finds the Alabaster Trident if Vallik sides with the PCs;
IIRC, this didn't even need to happen. As written, doesn't Ochymua find Auberon on his own without Naqualia's help? I think this is even more reason to change Naqualia's purpose in all of this.
Thanks Justaworm - having someone else's perspective helps. I confess I'm not sold - your interpretation works well, but there's not enough in the books to support it (page counts... alas!).
I'm beginning to like the idea of Vallik as a rival to Jurix - a sort of underground spymaster, a sort of boogieman in the Talastrian underworld (so maybe add a level of vigilante...). Then he gets a better idea of who the Pc's are and what they are doing. As well as a better idea of Nuqualia. If the PC's ally with Jurix then there's genuine room for moral doubt.
Then when the final confrontation comes around there could be a nice 3 way diplomatic show-down, with the option of Nuqualia being possessed by Ochyma if she loses... if she wins then Vallik can tell everyone the info and then join Nuqualia to kill the PC's.
Extra work, but I think it offers a bit more motivation for Vallik...
Something I've considered if I were to run it again is, have Naquaalia act as an agent of Auberon, sent to retrieve/kill/capture Vallik. Then he's acting as his own spymaster opposing Jurix, Naquaalia is after him, and implement some kind of beef between those two (Jurix and Naquaalia) so there's sort of an uneasy, tense standoff between all 3 factions. MAYBE even make one of the kids' mothers (Drecissa and Argnos I think are the kids names?) an agent of Vallik's, depending on which one the PCs make better friends with. Then they have an in with Vallik, a tempting offer from Jurix, and a reason for Naquaalia to be gunning for them.
Additionally, as an aside, I think the Ruinquake fight would work much better in this book as a pseudo-finale, because by the time it comes up in Chapter 6, that ship has sailed and the PCs are frustrated at the check that never got cashed (at least in my experience). It also feels rushed and inorganic in Beyond the Veiled Past.
I am having to rewrite the whole module. It is colorful and sounds interesting but when I start doing the detail work, nothing makes sense:
--hagworm races through the whole city without raising any alarms
--PCs are framed via bomb fragments for an explosion that happened outside the city while they were inside the city with scores of witnesses
--friendly NPC is kidnapped and sent to the Trident for no reason
--Vallik has no information of use to anyone as far as I can tell
--emergency happens in front of a 14th level cleric who does NOTHING about it
--cleric sends the PCs to get something critical to Talislantri's survival, then lets them keep it for themselves when they leave Talislantri
--Jurix becomes fixated on getting the PCs to do things for her for no apparent reason
--the things Jurix asks the PCs to do are things that would probably stop the adventure cold; given how much Talislantri dislikes surface dwellers, they will obviously be blamed and probably run out of town. Given that the players can see this, it's incredibly unlikely they will do any of Jurix' quests, even if the PCs are amoral or evil.
--the whole idea of doing sabotage to hide the fact that you're looking quietly for someone is deeply weird.
It would make much more sense if Naquaalia were tasked with disrupting Talislantri. She does an okay job of that. But who would want Talislantri disrupted? I am tired of NPCs that do nasty things just to be nasty; aboleth are supposed to be smarter than that.
I'm rewriting with a plot where Ochymua got one of the lesser aboleth "captured" by an element of the city guard, who are now being manipulated by it. They are poisoning Rillkimatai to make it seem that he's too ill to appear in public. The idea is to destabilize the city and having one of the aboleth's minions seize power "to restore order". This is a concrete plan with a clear goal I can work with, and makes (some of) Naquaalia's actions make sense. (They are not killing Rillkimatai because they want to hear his visions, but they can do that while he's drugged nearly senseless.)
I am attracted to the image of the aboleth imprisoned, painfully shackled (but it is a pain psychic and can work with that), apparently defeated, but actually running the show and working towards running the town. (I'd use Onthooth's stats for it.)
I don't know what Blood Lily Cay is good for here, other than giving a level and breaking up the underwater action. There's a whole thing about Dagon worship that never has any payoff. If Rillkimatai found out that enemies were going after the spear and asked the PCs to beat them to it, that might help a little--Naquaalia could send some more of her weirdly numerous and high-level minions. (The whole module suffers from world issues--people are the level they have to be in order to challenge the PCs, no matter how odd it seems. CR9 street thugs in a purportedly fairly safe city, yeesh.)
I wish I could put Ruinquake in here, but its CR is way too high, and if I drop the CR until the PCs can beat it, it's inexplicable that the NPCs (who are higher level than the PCs) cannot. (We won't ask how Wavewalker managed. Having Vallik==Wavewalker might help some with that.)
As a heads-up for anyone else prepping this, the city entry on p. 65 has Jurix as Rogue 7 but the module has her as Rogue 10; it has Guard Commander Talstran as Fighter 8 but in the module random gate guards are Fighter 9, suggesting Talstran should be at least that high. In general it looks as though it was copied from somewhere else and does not reflect the upleveling of the city due to the desire to set a 10-12 module there.
Any advice on what to do if the PCs keep the Bracelet of Friends, attune it to the missing scion, and just summon their friend back home?
Item's description doesn't suggest they have to be present to be keyed to the charm. Not sure if there are magics in Auberon's tower that would prevent teleportation magic from summoning someone out.
More questions for the hivemind... These are about light levels in Talisantri
Page 5 says that Talisantri's coral dome is only 250 feet below the surface, yet on the next page states that no sunlight penetrates as far down as Talisantri and the PCs will need to have darkvision to see down there.
This doesn't make sense to me, and my players are bound to notice and point this out. Coral needs light to grow, first off. Second, the sunlight zone (the real-life one, anyway, which Aquatic Adventures seems like it's emulating with its "zones") extends down to about 650 feet. It's gotta be lighter than darkness at just 250 feet.
According to this website, violet, blue and green light would be the wavelengths that would travel down to 250 feet (no reds, oranges, yellows). So it'd be alien and less colorful, and certainly feel dark. But does anyone dive? What would the realistic light level be at that depth for human eyes? I'm guessing "dim," but... I can't see how darkvision would actually be needed.
EDIT: I guess there is also the big coral dome over the city. But that's a lattice, so although it'd undoubtedly dim things a bit versus on the outside, it also wouldn't block out the light entirely.
Questions for the hivemind...
I’m not quite in a bind yet, but I will be when my group gets to Book 4. I need some suggestions for how to tailor Talasantri’s reactions to the party, as every single one of them is an aquatic race, and much of the conflict In Book 4 is contingent on the party being comprised of “surfacers” who are “not welcome,” looked upon with suspicion by the natives. I thought about the possibility of the city just being particularly xenophobic and untrusting of anyone who doesn’t actually live there, but I’m not sure that’s a convincing story, in consideration of the fact that Koloshkora the locathah dropped in Book 2 that her tribe regularly makes trips back and forth between Okoloro and Talasantri.
I suppose there’s the added fact that the PCs’ manner of dress (and culture) is largely that of a surface dweller, even though they’re all amphibious races, so I guess I could just have people in the city constantly calling them surfacers, even though they’re technically not. But they’re not “real” sea-people, either. Too aquatic for the land, too terrestrial for the sea.
I know I sort of maybe answered some of my own quandaries here, but I want to know if anyone has any other ideas or suggestions that might make Book 4 make more sense in light of party composition, to the players, the characters, and me.
Thanks y’all.
My party are all either aquatic races, too (okay, one is only half sea-elf and still needed a Helm of Underwater Action at this point in our campaign, until he scored a Merform Belt at the beginning of Book 5). But we made the xenophobia and outsiderness work through social class. The PCs saved Drecissa on their way into the city, and she insisted they come to her house right away, and her mother Anemora felt obligated to offer them hospitality (at least for a short while)... but Drecissa's hero worship of the adventurers and desire to emulate them grated on her snobbish mother, who, as a key figure in Talasantri society, was in a position to either open doors for the PCs or close them. Even when they have money, adventurers are still adventurers.
More questions for the hivemind... These are about light levels in Talisantri
Page 5 says that Talisantri's coral dome is only 250 feet below the surface, yet on the next page states that no sunlight penetrates as far down as Talisantri and the PCs will need to have darkvision to see down there.
This doesn't make sense to me, and my players are bound to notice and point this out. Coral needs light to grow, first off. Second, the sunlight zone (the real-life one, anyway, which Aquatic Adventures seems like it's emulating with its "zones") extends down to about 650 feet. It's gotta be lighter than darkness at just 250 feet.
According to this website, violet, blue and green light would be the wavelengths that would travel down to 250 feet (no reds, oranges, yellows). So it'd be alien and less colorful, and certainly feel dark. But does anyone dive? What would the realistic light level be at that depth for human eyes? I'm guessing "dim," but... I can't see how darkvision would actually be needed.
EDIT: I guess there is also the big coral dome over the city. But that's a lattice, so although it'd undoubtedly dim things a bit versus on the outside, it also wouldn't block out the light entirely.
While I haven't been below 130-135' myself, yes, it does get very, very dark. You need flashlights, and even then, you only see what's in the cone of light from your flashlight, or those of your party.
But, I think the description of the bioluminescent jellyfish as, for want of a better word, streetlamps, works. I spent a few summers near a bay that was full of bioluminescent microorganisms. They made the water glow blue--not dark, but a vibrant aqua--in a way that defied belief. The only difference was, they only lit up when agitated... propeller wash, or skipping a stone over the water, or swimming through them. These jellyfish are supposed to be "on" all the time as I read it.
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A funny thing I noticed when I began running this book:
The aristocratic families of Talasantri have no last names.
Did I miss something here?
First social encounter introduced is meeting Drecissa = no last name.
Then we meet the pomp guard, Argnos = no last name.
If you prefer Drecissa, you'll will next meet the matriarch of her (?) family, Anemora = still no last name. Or maybe you'll end up liking the guard instead and are taken to meet his Mommy, Koramallis = still no last name.
Can you think of a single fantasy 'blue-blood' character who doesn't have their name, clan or family defined?
How the F does this get overlooked?!
(Splitting hairs?)
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The Cecaelia Ruffian, with 6 Hitdice for the Cecaelia and 7 rogue level are much higher than a CR9, How do you deal with them?
XP 6,400
Female cecaelia rogue (thug) 7 (Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player's Guide 135, Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 3 49)
CN Medium monstrous humanoid (aquatic)
Init +11; Senses darkvision 60 ft., tentacle sense; Perception +16
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Defense
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AC 23, touch 16, flat-footed 17 (+3 armor, +6 Dex, +4 natural)
hp 123 (13 HD; 7d8+6d10+59)
Fort +8, Ref +17, Will +9
Defensive Abilities evasion, ink cloud, uncanny dodge
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft., swim 40 ft.; jet 200 ft.
Melee +1 short sword +20/+15/+10 (1d6+5/17-20), 2 tentacles +14 (1d4+2 plus grab)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks sneak attack +4d6
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Tactics
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Before Combat The cecaelia ruffians, activating their tentacle sense ability, hide using Stealth until the PCs pass by in order to take the party by surprise.
During Combat Two cecaelia ruffians try to flank the PCs nearest Oona. The other pair attempts to single out any spellcasters to attack.
Morale When three of the cecaelia ruffians are dead, the remaining one tries to flee or surrender.
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Statistics
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Str 18, Dex 24, Con 18, Int 11, Wis 10, Cha 11
Base Atk +11; CMB +15 (+19 grapple); CMD 32 (can't be tripped)
Feats Combat Reflexes, Critical Focus, Improved Critical (short sword), Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (short sword), Weapon Focus (tentacle)
Skills Acrobatics +15, Bluff +8, Disable Device +15, Intimidate +16, Knowledge (local) +5, Knowledge (nature) +5, Perception +16, Sense Motive +9, Sleight of Hand +16, Stealth +23, Survival +9, Swim +16
Languages Aquan, Elven
SQ amphibious, brutal beating, frightening, rogue talents (assault leader[APG], finesse rogue, surprise attacks)
Combat Gear elixir of hiding, potion of cure moderate wounds; Other Gear +1 leather armor, +1 short sword, thieves' tools, gems and pearls in a leather pouch (worth 180 gp)
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Special Abilities
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Amphibious (Ex) You can survive indefinitely on land.
Assault Leader (1/day) (Ex) When you miss an attack, allow an ally also flanking that target an immediate attack.
Brutal Beating (3 rounds) (Ex) Forgo 1d6 sneak attack damage to sicken the target for listed duration.
Combat Reflexes (8 AoO/round) Can make extra attacks of opportunity/rd, and even when flat-footed.
Critical Focus +4 to confirm critical hits.
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white only).
Evasion (Ex) If succeed on Reflex save for half dam, take none instead.
Frightening (Ex) Demoralize duration increases by 1 rd, if 4+ rds can frighten 1 rd instead.
Grab: Tentacle (Medium) (Ex) You can start a grapple as a free action if you hit with the designated weapon.
Ink Cloud (10 ft. radius, 1/hour) (Ex) Emit an ink cloud, which provides total concealment.
Jet (200 ft.) Move in a straight line at 200, with no attacks of opportunity.
Sneak Attack +4d6 Attacks deal extra dam if flank foe or if foe is flat-footed.
Surprise Attacks (Ex) Opponents are always flat-footed against you in the surprise round.
Swim (40 feet) You have a Swim speed.
Tentacle Sense (10 feet) (Ex) Concentrate to gain blindsight 10 ft, but can't move and lose tentacle attacks.
Uncanny Dodge (Ex) Retain DEX bonus to AC when flat-footed.
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The Cecaelia Ruffian, with 6 Hitdice for the Cecaelia and 7 rogue level are much higher than a CR9, How do you deal with them?
** spoiler omitted **...
I assume it is CR6 and 7 levels of Non role class which adds 3 CR
Further to the last two posts. The encounter as 4 CR9 creatures ambushing a 10 level party is difficult. With sneak attack Cecaelia Ruffian have a damage output way above standard for a CR9 creature.
This turns this into a potential TPK unless the party see the Cecaelia Ruffian (they have stealth +23)
GMs need to look at this very carefully.
. . .This turns this into a potential TPK unless the party see the Cecaelia Ruffian (they have stealth +23) GMs need to look at this very carefully.
So very true. Having just run this encounter a couple of weeks ago with a party of 5 lvl 10 PCs, a lvl 8 cohort and an eidolon, this was very nearly a TPK. Thanks to a moderately successful Slow spell and an extremely successful Fear effect, the PCs managed to barely survive.
I suspect Amber intended only 3 ruffians (not 4) as the text reads, "As soon as two of the ruffians are killed or incapacitated, the third attempts to surrender while the terrified Oona apologizes to the PCs."
Some suggestions: consider 1) going with 3 ruffians instead of 4, 2) have the ruffians attack from hiding on the surprise round rather than use the surprise to move into flanking position - I know, its a dumb tactical move of the part of the cecaelia, but a pair of these flanking a PC in a full-round action is 10 attacks with 4d6 sneak attack damage - these guys are lawn mowers 3) maybe set this ambush to stun rather than kill - i.e. grapple, remove coin purse, ink up and jet away.
I think its important for the story that the PCs are suitably cautious (if not fearful) when/if they meet with Jurix and this encounter can set that up quite well. Afterwards, when my group came face to face with Jurix for the first time, hoping to avoid her wrath, they felt compelled to apologize for wiping out her gang of thugs. For her part, Jurix just shrugged it off as a minor inconvenience, saying that Oona and the ruffians were the dregs of her minions and they were obviously not worthy of the task. The party was pretty much shaking in their waterlogged boots as there were at least 8 other 'ruffian-elites' floating around Jurix's throne room. They were all too eager to accept the job of sabotaging Anemora's dinner party and they felt lucky to have escaped the meeting in one piece. Now they are having second thoughts about the dinner party and are strategizing how to not go through with it after accepting the job. I won't make it easy on them.
Plenty of other people have mentioned the story for this chapter has problems.
I am removing Jurix entirely. She adds nothing useful. She asks the party to do things they will not do. Then she offers a deal re the out of water section that offers little upside to the party.
I will be changing the motivations of Naqualia. She will be destabilising the city to keep Rillkimatai's attention away from the real threats/agenda. She is also trying to find Vallik, not because he/she/it knows the location of the Trident (as her boss has already infiltrated it and left) but in case she has information re the defences of the Compass. How much of this the party sees is unclear.
My players are diverting entirely from heading to Talasantri. They've decided to check out the islands just west and to the south of Ancorato to "cover their tracks and backs."
I know the following books take place on the larger island to the south, and there isn't a lot of info about the smaller center island. I've gone with a "Skull Island" parallel monster infested island there but am not sure how to approach them landing on the southern island on their way to Talasantri.
I'm not the type of GM to put up an impassable fog or wall of monsters, so I'm looking for any advice and/or trying to find out if anyone has ran into this with their own group.
<snip> . . . but am not sure how to approach them landing on the southern island on their way to Talasantri.
I'm not the type of GM to put up an impassable fog or wall of monsters, so I'm looking for any advice and/or trying to find out if anyone has ran into this with their own group.
Could be interesting, Khelerth. My lead group of players took Koloshkora with them on the trip to Talasantri and she warned the party that the islands could be quite dangerous, so my group resisted the urge to land on any of the islands.
I would definitely consider using the island random encounter tables at the back of City in the Deep. Maybe bump up the rate of checks.
The regional info at the back of "Into the Shattered ..." lists that island as the location of an Azlanti transportation hub, now controlled by dark stalkers and creepers (two of my favorites) and at least one entrance to the Tangled Roads, which are infested by thousands of morlocks. Definitely a side-quest, and maybe more like a side-campaign. Would be totally fun to run, someday! More info on Yhidothrus can be found in "Lords of Chaos, Book of the Damned Volume 2" while "Into the Darklands" might be a good source if you are filling out details on the morlocks.
Some alternatives might be to include one of the locations found in Secrets of Azlant at the back of "Tower of the Drowned Dead" as being on the island instead of (or in addition to) the stalkers/creepers/morlocks.
Or, consider having the island(s) be incredibly boring, home to a wide variety of uninteresting birds, insects and small, harmless monkeys and reptiles. That would certainly get them back on track and headed to Talastantri, if that is what you were after.
Let us know how it all works out. Thinking about running a Skull Island adventure takes me way back to running Gygax's "Isle of the Ape" when i was in high school. Fun times....fun times. :)
My players are diverting entirely from heading to Talasantri. They've decided to check out the islands just west and to the south of Ancorato to "cover their tracks and backs."
I know the following books take place on the larger island to the south, and there isn't a lot of info about the smaller center island. I've gone with a "Skull Island" parallel monster infested island there but am not sure how to approach them landing on the southern island on their way to Talasantri.
I'm not the type of GM to put up an impassable fog or wall of monsters, so I'm looking for any advice and/or trying to find out if anyone has ran into this with their own group.
As for me, since my players wanted to treat the whole adventure as a sandbox, I was very open and honest with them. I told them I'll be giving hints for things that might interest them and that I am prepared to run. If they go in some other direction just for the sake of exploration, that's fine, but (on top of me needing a few minutes to figure things out) they may run into something that's too high level for them, so they need to be ready to run sometimes.
At this point in the adventure, the players have explored the biggest parts west of Ancorato, so it's pretty safe. You could populate some of the islands based on the various adventure seeds in the books, as Ted stated, and most of them are vague enough that you can make them level appropriate (or slightly too easy or too hard, if you want extra realism). It can make for a few fun side quests, and it's a good time to add those in, since there isn't much time pressure between chapters 3 and 4.
As for the big southern island, it's been a while since I read the later chapters, but I don't believe they have any way to get into Kalas-ti, right? And the first encounters of the module won't be there since the final boss hasn't sent them to secure the island yet. So there would be a few of the bigger monsters (like the somalcygot) players will have to run away from, and you can seed a couple smaller encounters and points of interest on the island without spoiling the last chapter. Just make sure to give warnings about where they shouldn't go (near the somalcygot, there is probably suddenly no wildlife, not even the tougher monsters the players have had to fight before, something along those lines).
Of course, that leaves the matter of getting the players "back on track". Maybe give them some extra hooks and incentives to get to Talasantri or get prepared to run lots of sidequests based on what piques their interest and find a way to get them to the Tower later. What will work for that really depends on your players, though. They might hear rumors or find a half-destroyed mural showing a point of interest or impressive magic item with hints that they are in that area, for instance. Or if they are friends with the locathah, maybe one of them tells them about some terrible trouble in Talasantri that is making trade difficult (have one or a few of the bad events in Talasantri have already happened after the players ran around doing side-quests for a while).