| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I've seen this same topic for Jade Regent and RORL, It was a great asset for both of those APs I think it would be great for this one too. I'm interested in knowing what people have changed in the AP (and why), and what things you ran as-written but now feel like you should have done differently.
I am just starting to read book one (plans on running it this summer) so I personally don't have any changes yet for this AP but when I do I plan on posting them here.
One thing I might suggest is to change the reward for returning Gerrol's body (FoC p. 17). By the time Emelia's father finishes crafting all the items, the PCs are likely to be well beyond the need for them.
I would suggest exchanging that for a small adamantine weapon. A "light hammer" could be justified as a tool (needed for working adamantine) he might have on hand, to give to the PCs right away.
While this doubles the reward value, and only goes to one hero, but it is something that the players will find very useful against the robots they will find later in the adventure (and other volumes of the AP).
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Most of my changes have been in response to my particular party's interests; thus, would not appeal to everybody. For example, my party wanted to craft skymetal items, so I switched to Making Craft Work (d20pfsrd calls it Alternative Craft Rules [3PP]).
Let's start with Fires of Creation.
Lord Fyre made his adamantine weapon suggestion to me in response to my question about crafting time for the masterwork gifts. It is a good suggestion for everyone. Light hammer is especially appropriate, not just for plausibility but also because light hammer is the sacred weapon of Brigh.
Second, I changed a few technology rules, documented at Going Wild with Technology.
Third, one of the PCs was a relative of Councilor Dolga Freddert, so I had the councilors explain why the Technic League had no presence in Torch, the third largest settlement in Numeria (larger Hajoth Hakados is just outside the border of Numeria).
Dolga explained that she had written down a conversation she had almost a century ago with the representative of the Technic League, after fine wine loosened his lips: "By the spectrum of the torch, you have a fusion reactor buried down there. And it is deteriorating or it wouldn't have turned itself on. Enjoy it while it lasts. I myself don't want to be around for the end." Dolga pointed out that the torch had lasted longer than the representative's human lifespan. She reminded everyone that the Technic League left the town alone so long as they did not go digging for lost technology. Though this fusion reactor was very, very important, they could not send down anyone who might attract the attention of the Technic League's informants in town. Elric's group was sufficiently unremarkable, had an obvious non-tech-hunting motivation to head underground to find Elric and Boffin's lost employer Khonnir Baine, and yet would be able to recognize the technology they encountered.
Fourth and final change for Fires of Creation is that Meyanda opened a conversation with the party via comset before they reached the reactor room. I added a Smiler gunslinger stolen from Lords of Rust to her party so that he could threaten to shoot the reactor instead of her, giving her more opportunity to talk to the party. A villain of her quality deserved more face time in the adventure.
Fourth and final change for Fires of Creation is that Meyanda opened a conversation with the party via comset before they reached the reactor room. I added a Smiler gunslinger stolen from Lords of Rust to her party so that he could threaten to shoot the reactor instead of her, giving her more opportunity to talk to the party. A villain of her quality deserved more face time in the adventure.
This is also, to a lesser degree, an important consideration for Hellion also.
One other thing I would do is use Meyanda as this is a early opportunity to namedrop Casandalee (Lords of Rust).
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Book 2, Lords of Rust
First, Lords of Rust begins with a page in Torch about how to presuade the party to go to Scrapwall, 105 miles away. And then suddenly, the party is 105 miles away. The module literally says, "In the end, the exact route they take to Aldronard’s Grave and Scrapwall is irrelevant." Nope, this is the first chance the players have to see Numeria outside of Torch. Don't skip it. I planned a cross-country ride on summoned horses with overnight stays at two inns, because my wife had given me The Red Dragon Inn Guide to Inns an Taverns for my birthday. Some crusaders at the second inn directed them to the fortress Aldronard’s Grave, which is such an embarrassing name I renamed it Fort Sunbury.
The trip down the Seven Tears River and up the Sellen River will be more interesting for most campaigns.
Second, Scrapwall is set up as a series of encounters in a desolate former bandit camp. That works for a hack-and-slash campaign, but any other set of players will wonder how people manage to survive there. Lords of Rust lacks a gazetter for Scrapwall, so I invented its backstory myself. I should post all the details, but for now let me give some of the best. All this is from my imagination.
About 150 years, a mining company set up shop in Scrapwall to refine all the iron scrap there. They build a few solid brick buildings and started shipping iron down the Sellen River. Most working and timeworn technology had been scavenged out of Scrapwall ages ago, but the Technic League worried about the miners uncovering technology buried deep, so the Technic League shut them down. The Steel Hawks currently live in the abandoned mining buildings. That area acts as a small impoverished village.
Bandits moved in 100 years ago. They had a generation of raiding nearby villages. When the paladins build Fort Sunbury, to help the Crusaders traveling to Mendev, they also stopped the bandit raids. Many bandits died, but many remained and had to find another way of making a living. The most successful bandits were the Rustler gang, based at Section H, Smiler's Headquarters. They went honest with the cattle they still had, protecting it from the local monsters to sell meat to the other Scrapwallers. Ten years ago, the Smiler gang moved in, killed off the Rustlers, and took over their building. The Smilers did not protect the herd, and it died off. The local darkfolk used to raid that herd, and switched to eating more people.
Dinvaya Lanalei moved in 50 years ago. As the only cleric in Scrapwall, her services were in demand. Over the decades, she traded healing for labor and her customers built her the Clockwork Chapel. The secret escape tunnel under her bed and the giant crank for winding her wall of gears are not shown in the map of Section F, but obviously she needs those. Because she often sets her golem on guard while she works in her workshop, she had developed a system of trading special whistles for materials. If the golem hears the whistle, it fetches her instead of fighting the intruder. (In the setup as described, the golem would attack injured people seeking Dinvaya's healing.)
The Lords of Rust was a loose alliance of orcs before Hellion took over. Some had trained scrapyard robots to work for them. Others raised rust monsters to seek out exotic metals.
Third, the receiving array in Section N received the power transmitted from Torch, but how did the power get from the array to the excavator? Did the Lords of Rust stretch a power cable half a mile long? I imagined acolytes changing charged batteries in the receiving array every day until the power stopped. I made many other changes in that area, but that was to customize the area for my particular party.
Fourth, I decided the haunted canyon and haunted valley, Sections O and P, are the only part of Scrapwall with good technological scrap left near the surface. The undead kept scavengers away. The paladins destroyed most of the undead when they raided Scrapwall to stop the banditry; hence, most of the haunts remaining are the kind that respawn. The paladins had not discovered the haunted wreck. One drastic change I made for my particular tech-oriented party was letting them repair the wreck and fly off with it, with the Technic League hot on their heels. I trusted my players to not abuse a working aircraft and they haven't.
In contrast, I usually find problems with the point-system and random encounter tables in Paizo modules, but they worked perfectly well in Scrapwall and I had no desire to change them. My PCs understood scrapworth as the local method of establishing rank in Scrapwall. And the wandering monsters explained why most inhabitants of Scrapwall kept themselves hidden.
One thing I maybe should have changed was all the monitor screens in the excavator. There was at least one in every room. Room R1 had six. Was the excavator manufacturer owned by a monitor-screen company? The big problem with the monitors was that I could have had fun with a few acolytes surrendering, but not while Hellion was watching. One little problem was that the party got into a routine: kill the seemingly-fanatic acolytes, disable the monitors, and search the room. That was a ton of Disable Device checks for the doors and monitors. The other little problem was that the only other place in the adventure path with similar monitors was one monitor in the Aurora in The Choking Tower. That seemed inconsistent.
The good part about the monitors is that Hellion was able to talk to the party about Unity and Casandalee through them.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Book 3, The Choking Tower
The Choking Tower adventure splits into two halves, Iadenveigh and the Smoking Tower. Almost all my changes were in the Iadenveigh part. I liked the Iadenveigh part more, which inspired me to finetune it.
Particular circumstances in my party gave them an invitation to Iadenveigh. This might apply to other parties, so let me mention them. Khonnir Baine in Torch is famous for and rich from building a water treatment plant to extract safe water from the Weeping Pond. The character Boffin in my party was Khonnir's assistant in the plant. The character Elric was another employee. The NPC party member Val Baine was Khonnir's daughter. Meanwhile, Iadenveigh had a poisonous lake of its own, Longbitter Lake. And Feltic Dozenfingers violated town law and used water from Longbitter Lake in his tannery and had discovered a profitable side effect (page 67, under "16. Tannery Compound").
In my game, Khonnir Baine had an old letter from Feltic Dozenfingers, asking him to come and investigate Longbitter Lake. Khonnir wrote a letter of introduction for the party, saying that these were his field experts, experts in water treatment, coming in response to Feltic's request. And the letter was true. The party was as interested in the water problem as in finding Casandalee.
My other change related to Casandalee. She had written some repair notes and a daily journal on the computer systems of the Aurora. I wanted the party to read her thoughts and come to like her as a person and not merely seek her as a macguffin. She had repaired the nanotech lab and was about to use it to recycle the local groundwater to remove the mutagens, when Unity's robots mortally wounded her and she instead used the nanotech lab to set a trap in her own brain.
I regret not making one other change, but I still don't know how to fix it. The party captured Ilarris Zeleshi and some deformed androids alive. A secret session of the Iadenveigh town council sentenced Ilarris to death. The androids did not even make it to court: a bigotted guard cut their throats. This was consistent with the town's prejudices and the government's fear of anyone finding the underground technology, but those actions permanently soured the party against Iadenveigh. The party lied to their friends on the council and promised to destroy the Aurora and its leaking contaminations within one week. Really, they ran Casandalee's recycling routine, dug a secret tunnel to the Aurora, and blew up the entrance that the town council knew about.
Definitely keeping tabs on your changes to Iron Gods, Mathmuse. I particulayl love your gazetteer to better explain Scrapwall's presence - the 'town' always seemed sort of out of place to me, but your write up helps keep it making sense and allows for some awesome backstory. Hopefully I can convince some players to run this campaign with me sometime!
My other change related to Casandalee. She had written some repair notes and a daily journal on the computer systems of the Aurora. I wanted the party to read her thoughts and come to like her as a person and not merely seek her as a macguffin. She had repaired the nanotech lab and was about to use it to recycle the local groundwater to remove the mutagens, when Unity's robots mortally wounded her and she instead used the nanotech lab to set a trap in her own brain.
It is kind of important to make the Casandalee hook as strong as possible, or Starfinder doesn't happen. ;)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Looking over my changes, I noticed a trend. I like leaving messages about or from people that I want the players to care about.
I overlooked one minor change I made in the haunted wreck from Lords of Rust. I decided that Captain Yurian’ Yurian Valako's final recorded message needed more elaboration.
The first paragraph from Room P5, Bridge, said:
The remains seated in the pilot’s station
are those of Captain Yurian Valako, once the captain of Divinity’s
recycling module. As fresh air fills the bridge, his remains, which
had mummified, slump and slowly crumble away until nothing
remains but a few brittle bones and a pile of dust within his
armor. As this takes place, each PC in the vicinity becomes
suddenly overwhelmed with a series of powerful visions—
flashes of emotion mixed with the sound of screaming and
explosions, sudden feelings of vertigo, and the conviction
that gravity has gone mad. Each PC must succeed at a DC
14 Will save or fall prone and be staggered for 1 round as
she experiences the hell and chaos of the crash. The vision
passes quickly, but in its wake comes something far more
dangerous—Yurian’s unquiet shade.
I changed it to:
As you step into the pilot's cabin of the wrecked spaceship you see a dead man in Androffan uniform in the pilot's chair. Suddenly a vision fills your eyes.
You see that man alive as he entered the room. He plugged a crystal into the control panel and hit switches to light up the panel and display glowing text in Androffan. A smile crossed his weary face, soon replaced by a frown. The man announced, "Ralis, clear the door. I'm launching. We can't wait for Bick."
The curved wall in front of him suddenly illuminated as a window to outside, showing the ground and clouds rush by at a thousand miles per hour from ten miles up. Above the ship hangs a complicated metal structure. He touched a device on his throat and recited as his fingers returned to the control panel.
“Final report of salvage module Chrysalis, Captain Yurian Valako reporting. Chrysalis is lost, to both the Dominion monsters and the Divinity AI Unity. The surviving crew of Chrysalis are aboard the tug Caterpillar. We will attempt an emergency landing on the unknown planet. I’ve secured an inhibitor facet to disable Unity’s security and enable us to fly free. I will append further reports after our successful landing.”
The ship lurched downward, away from the metal structure above.
Then the structure dropped and slammed into the ship. A voice called out, "Captain, what...?"
Captain Valako replied, "The Chrysalis rammed us. Unity won't let us escape easily." His fingers raced and the view outside spiun. The ship shuddered from strain as it dipped away from the metal structure. Another flick of a switch and the viewscreen image split, one revealed the metal structure above them as another spaceship the size of a mountain, and the other focussed on the approaching ground, now close beneath them but slowing down.
"Chrysalis, you maneuver like garbage skow," Captain Valako muttered as he dodged out from under the other spaceship's next attempt to smash them.
Then the Chrysalis hit the ground and exploded into a cloud of debris miles wide. "Sh-t!" the captain said. His ship spun as it intercepted the debris.
The vision ends. Captain Valako's body crumbles to dust. And from the dust arises a phantom darkness.
“Final report of salvage module Chrysalis, Captain Yurian Valako reporting. Chrysalis is lost, to both the Dominion monsters and the Divinity AI Unity. The surviving crew of Chrysalis are aboard the tug Caterpillar. We will attempt an emergency landing on the unknown planet. I’ve secured an inhibitor facet to disable Unity’s security and enable us to fly free. I will append further reports after our successful landing.”
Good early name drop for both the Dominion and Unity.
“Final report of salvage module Chrysalis, Captain Yurian Valako reporting. Chrysalis is lost, to both the Dominion monsters and the Divinity AI Unity. The surviving crew of Chrysalis are aboard the tug Caterpillar. We will attempt an emergency landing on the unknown planet. I’ve secured an inhibitor facet to disable Unity’s security and enable us to fly free. I will append further reports after our successful landing.”Good early name drop for both the Dominion and Unity.
Captain Yurian Valako had mentioned Unity in his original recording, but his statement was not clear that Unity was a hostile AI: "I’ve secured an inhibitor facet—if I can install it into the Unity interface, it should disable the AI’s security long enough for us to reclaim control and perhaps even signal for help from home."
I also gave a name to the small wrecked spaceship, the Caterpillar. My players renamed it "The Rock" after they repaired it, to make it sound like a hideout rather than a vessel in case anyone overheard.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
My changes had to do with incorporating Star Wars flavor into the Androffan tech, and allowing the Force-related bits from Star Wars Saga Edition. I've been using Star Wars minis, so the robots have all looked like various droids (for example, Gearsmen became super battle droids). The PCs encountered a "J'dai monk" shortly before entering the Choking Tower. One of the players took the Force Sensitivity feat for his Numerian Scavenger rogue after learning about how to unlock Force potential from the J'dai and his recently-found holocron. I am currently reading Star Wars Outbound Flight, which is what I am drawing inspiration from to change the backstory of the Androffans' extra-galactic voyage.
I changed a lot of things (used the adventure in a different,non-golarion world).
But one key thing I did, was foreshadowing Unity a lot more. I made Hellion, the BBEG in Lord of Rust, to be directly controlled by Unity, and made Unity gave them short speeches through the TV screens there (trying to convince them that humanity was flawed by free will, that they will end doing the wrong things, and that dreams, hope and fear were beacons for the Dominion of the Black, which is an enemy humanity can't defeat, so the only hope is to join into Unity, being "safe" without free will)
I also changed the reasons to go to book 3. I used one of the players background (was looking for his kidnapped son) to lure them there, as that part of the adventure is not strongly tied with the rest of the AP (Although I find it great as an stand-alone adventure)
Oh, I forgot... I made Casandalee ("Hope", in my game) to exist only in the datapad, instead of being an android. Or to be exact: Casandalee was an android, but "Hope" was the AI. Casandalee flee from Unity, carrying the datapad of Hope. Then the PC carried Hope (as a datapad) until we entered the Silver Mountain.
Casandalee is too human. The point of the AP is to make the players think about the boundaries between humanity, AI, and godhood. Casandalee is an android, that boundary isn't there for here (just like it's not there for the android PC)
Casandalee is too human. The point of the AP is to make the players think about the boundaries between humanity, AI, and godhood. Casandalee is an android, that boundary isn't there for here (just like it's not there for the android PC)
"Too human" or not human enough.
“Final report of salvage module Chrysalis, Captain Yurian Valako reporting. Chrysalis is lost, to both the Dominion monsters and the Divinity AI Unity. The surviving crew of Chrysalis are aboard the tug Caterpillar. We will attempt an emergency landing on the unknown planet. I’ve secured an inhibitor facet to disable Unity’s security and enable us to fly free. I will append further reports after our successful landing.”Good early name drop for both the Dominion and Unity.
Great, I will totally steal that. Have to translate it to german of course ;)
On the other hand maybe I will prepare some character sheets and let them play through the vision.. Have to think about that
“Final report of salvage module Chrysalis, Captain Yurian Valako reporting. Chrysalis is lost, to both the Dominion monsters and the Divinity AI Unity. The surviving crew of Chrysalis are aboard the tug Caterpillar. We will attempt an emergency landing on the unknown planet. I’ve secured an inhibitor facet to disable Unity’s security and enable us to fly free. I will append further reports after our successful landing.”Good early name drop for both the Dominion and Unity.Great, I will totally steal that. Have to translate it to german of course ;)
On the other hand maybe I will prepare some character sheets and let them play through the vision.. Have to think about that
That's actually dangerous. The players will then think they have some agency to change what happened. (And most PC groups are endlessly clever.)
That's actually dangerous. The players will then think they have some agency to change what happened. (And most PC groups are endlessly clever.)
“Final report of salvage module Chrysalis, Captain Yurian Valako reporting. Chrysalis is lost, to both the Dominion monsters and the Divinity AI Unity. The surviving crew of Chrysalis are aboard the tug Caterpillar. We will attempt an emergency landing on the unknown planet. I’ve secured an inhibitor facet to disable Unity’s security and enable us to fly free. I will append further reports after our successful landing.”Good early name drop for both the Dominion and Unity.Great, I will totally steal that. Have to translate it to german of course ;)
On the other hand maybe I will prepare some character sheets and let them play through the vision.. Have to think about that
Then give them agency. The module itself says,
"Creature: As his body crumbles away, Yurian’s soulrises up from his remains in a seething vortex of shadows
and crimson dust, coalescing into a vaguely humanoid
shape with long, thin fingers that wisp away into smoke.
As he manifests as an advanced wraith, Yurian cries out
in despair and pain as he drifts forward to attack."
If the PCs actually managed a different outcome in the vision, then instead of that advanced wraith attacking, the wraith crumbles away, too, and a ghost of Captain Yurian remains in its place. Yurian then explains, "I failed and crashed without your aid. I held onto my frustration and anger for millennia and it cursed this valley. You have restored my hope and I am ready to move on. Thank you." He fades out and the party gains xp for defeating the wraith. If the party partially helps Yurian, he appears as a normal wraith rather than an advanced wraith.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Great idea of an alternative way to defeat him. Why not rewarding the players if they manage to change the outcome? Seems not dangerous at all. When the vision ends, the ship is still crashed. It's a vision, not time travel.
My party has made it to the Palace of Fallen Stars determined to cure Kevoth Kul of his addiction. Despite the best efforts of the Technic League they succeeded. So to set the scene. Throne Hall at the Palace of Stars, filled with guards (gargoyle, hill giant, and human). Tek Makul and Kul-Inkit glaring at each other across the hall. Ghartone is present with a contingent from the Technic League. And the Black Seers are watching everything.
Kevoth Kul has come down from his throne after someone in the party had challenged him to partake in a dangerous entertainment -- juggling chainsaws. One party member is masquerading as the the Shade (a vigilante with really good acting and social skills to pull this off; his character even recquisitioned the brilliantly painted chainsaws for the act from the Technic League gratis). The wizard is standing in front of Kevoth Kul juggling greased chainsaws while doing his best 3 stooges impression (he's very good with the juggling, not going to describe the stooging). And the "assistant/undertaker" cleric reached out to heal the wizard, but accidently on purpose healed the distracted Kevoth (cleric cast defensively, made touch attack roll, Kevoth Kul failed Will save). So the session ended there mid performance. Kevoth Kul is surrounded by flying flaming chainsaws, suddenly lucid and sober for the first time in years (maybe decades), with a host of enemies and questionable at best allies. So what does he do? Go into a rage, call on his guards and attack?? Play it cool and continue acting the drunken barbarian king until he can get through the evening and consolidate his forces and make some plans against the Technic League??? And of course how will the Tech League, Black Seers and the party react????
Now I had thought for sure my PC's were going to do something different like provoke Kevoth Kul or challenge him to combat or somehow get in a fight. Even had this great fight scene planned out where the party would drink a toast of Numerian fluids at the start and fight cyber aurumvoraxes. Oh well, back to the drawing board. That's what I have had to change.
Now I am not sure how to handle my current situation. I have couple of weeks until we play again, so I have some time to plan things. By the module, it seems Kevoth Kul would act like a barbarian and start smashing Technic League thugs. Not sure if that is how I will handle this though, fun as it might be. Running an immense battle royale will be a headache even if I have a couple of weeks to prep. Might be useful to get a suggestion or 2.
So what does he do? Go into a rage, call on his guards and attack?? Play it cool and continue acting the drunken barbarian king until he can get through the evening and consolidate his forces and make some plans against the Technic League??? And of course how will the Tech League, Black Seers and the party react????
Now I am not sure how to handle my current situation. I have couple of weeks until we play again, so I have some time to plan things. By the module, it seems Kevoth Kul would act like a barbarian and start smashing Technic League thugs. Not sure if that is how I will handle this though, fun as it might be. Running an immense battle royale will be a headache even if I have a couple of weeks to prep. Might be useful to get a suggestion or 2.
If you feel that "an immense battle royale would be a pain, then have Kevoth Kul play it cool. He didn't get to be the leader of all Numeria tribes by being a fool (despite dumping his mental stats) - Have him realize how screwed he really is.
After considering it for a week, I think I'm going to go with your suggestion and have Kevoth-Kul play it cool. In this situation he'd probably realize he's in a very bad situation quickly and try to find a way out that doesn't get him killed. Going to let the party try to fast talk or create a diversion at this point and see what they come up with. Should be entertaining.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
I had Meyanda show up almost immediately in the Adventure Path, running into the PCs as they were leaving Silverdisk Hall. One of my PCs was playing an Android, and the two of them got to talking. She would show up every once in a while, and eventually it had become clear that her and the PCs were on opposing sides, a fact neither her nor the PC particularly liked. A minor romance ended up forming between them, which culminated in her turning to their side at the final encounter of the module.
She accompanied them to Scrapwall, but unfortinately the campaign ended up falling apart. It made for a very dramatic climax to book 1 though. I played up her desire for true independence and almost built her as this Android saviour type. The PCs all really ended up liking her, which added a huge emotional weight to the last encounter.
My Iron Gods campaign is on hold until my group finishes an older home brew campaign we started when we began playing Pathfinder. We ended with the completion of The Choking Tower. The Guardians of Numeria are planning to outfit the tower, leaving one PC behind as caretaker (the player moved out of state). Does anyone have any advice for Valley of the Brain Collectors? I have a friend who is able to print miniature scale maps for me at no cost, so that will save alot of prep time. I need to get my players and PCs motivated to continue the search for Casandalee. With Hellion's (my) lackluster performance at the end of Lords of Rust, they are not as concerned about Unity as I would like. They also see the Technic League as a bit of a joke since the only members they have met have been trounced quite handily (again by my own weakness in tactics). I hope everyone's Iron Gods games are going well!
My Iron Gods campaign is on hold until my group finishes an older home brew campaign we started when we began playing Pathfinder. We ended with the completion of The Choking Tower. The Guardians of Numeria are planning to outfit the tower, leaving one PC behind as caretaker (the player moved out of state). Does anyone have any advice for Valley of the Brain Collectors? I have a friend who is able to print miniature scale maps for me at no cost, so that will save alot of prep time. I need to get my players and PCs motivated to continue the search for Casandalee. With Hellion's (my) lackluster performance at the end of Lords of Rust, they are not as concerned about Unity as I would like. They also see the Technic League as a bit of a joke since the only members they have met have been trounced quite handily (again by my own weakness in tactics). I hope everyone's Iron Gods games are going well!
I didn't do as good of a job with Hellion as I would have liked, either. What ended up working for me is that my players ended up making a strong connection with Longdreamer (they constantly were going back to her to rest and chat) and so when they finished the choking tower she expressed grave concern about the Dominion activity in the Scar, and that was enough to motivate them to explore the place thoroughly even though they weren't so cognizant or enthusiastic about the need to find Casandalee at the time.
And then, once they found and activated Casandalee, her exposition was enough to make them as concerned about Unity as they needed to be, with the knowledge that the evil, nascent god AI has been on the verge of breaking out of Silver Mount for decades or centuries and thus could happen at any moment.
My party is roughly at the beginning of the Choking Tower, and I've made quite a bit of adjustments to the campaign to keep it more flowing and adapt it to the PCs:
-A Kellid Tinkerer/Fighter from Starfall, who stole his robot familiar while attempting to escape Technic League body harvesters who were about to cut him up
-An Inquisitor/Paladin of Iomedae, also from Starfall who left her family after her mother began wasting away of necrosis and her father became obsessed with replacing her rotten parts with cybertech to lengthen her life span (this story will become relevant later)
-An Arcanist from Absalom sent to investigate on the whereabouts of two wizards who fled the League on separate occasions (one of them turned out to be Khonnir Baine, the other he just found is Furkas Xoud)
-A Halcyon Druid whose ward (a forest in the vicinity of the Felldales) is becoming corrupted with mutant beasts, pushing her to seek help among civilized people.
-One of the first changes I made was to retcon Sanvil Trett into being a double agent from the start, with a soft spot (being horrified at the experiments Ghartone was about to perform on Val and aiding Khonnir in his escape by covering his sabotage as a freak accident) that the PCs could leverage to get him on their side completely.
-Then, Wrennie Delnorn became a bit more prominent, secretly asking them for help stop Garmen Ulreth from blackmailing her and giving them a hook for uncovering the shady deal he had struck with Meyanda. She became a temporary follower during the investigation, which ended with them apprehending Garmen, forcing him to confess he was about to skip town (since he had a vague warning from the android that the city would blow up in less than a few weeks) and shutting down the power relay. She also stuck around as backup until they found Khonnir in the ruins, and provided them with a small thank-you gift (a couple healing potions, scrolls and emergency money she kept in case she was forced to flee the town) which brought them up to par with their 2nd-level wealth as they inadvertently destroyed some loot by breaking open crates since none of them had Disable Device or a Knock scroll .
-As soon as the power relay was shut down, they decided to keep it in the city barracks. They woke up the next morning to sounds of combat in the northern part of town, with roughly half of Meyanda's forces (plus her collector robot) storming the barracks to reclaim the relay. With a few guards (Foot Soldier CR 1/3) and Captain Aaronlu Langer (Guard Officer CR3) against the orcs, ratfolk and robot (whose hardness meant the captain could barely dent it), the PCs were vital in tipping the scales and saving as many guards as they could. This handily reiterated the threat within Black Hill while also getting the invaders on their guard since their first attack had been foiled.
-Khonnir was saved, though the alchemist and inquisitor (who had known him for a long time) were angry and distrustful towards him and Val for hiding the truth about their ties to the Technic League, and only begrudgingly agreed that there were more important things to take care of.
-Skip to the Engineering Deck. After clearing the floor of the leftover orcs, the party bypassed the electric field into the room with the altar (where they failed their Perception checks to recognize the gargoyle), and Meyanda calmly demanded that they surrender the relay and leave, moving in to attack as soon as they attacked her (they successfully caught her off-guard by Bluffing, but the Gargoyle saw through it so Meyanda was the only one cut out of the surprise round). They captured her alive with two party members downed and forced her to reveal what she knew about Scrapwall and Hellion's plans. The city council promptly issued the 8000 gp bounty on the Lords of Rust.
Then, Lords of Rust started.
-With two players coming from the Kingmaker videogame and being fans of Amiri, I put in a small cameo appearance with her (At level 7, but severely outnumbered) fighting off a gang of Blood Gars, wherein they joined the battle and had a nice chitchat with her afterwards, learning she's off to Starfall to "Beat up fake coward chief", aka fight Kevoth-Kul's regime so she can prove herself mightier than a Kellid chieftain. She'll make another brief cameo in Palace of Fallen Stars.
-With the Rhu-Chalik out for their blood (and brains), I decide to make an early appearance of Longdreamer after the party gets "vivid nightmares" (the Wisdom damage from the alien's attacks) twice in a row and is frantically trying to balance fending off attacks from the Scrapwall gangs and searching for the alien. Longdreamer contacts them via Dream disguising herself as a cleric of Desna and warning them that a creature is nested in Scrapwall preying on the dreamers' minds. This gives them the idea to ambush the Rhu-Chalik the next time they sleep through the use of the Arcanist's dimensional slide and Glitterdust to stop it from escaping, and they succeed.
-Nalakai also comes after them, with a heavy escort (a half dozen orcs and acolytes) to give them a message from Hellion (a tiny hologram projector where the AI first shows them its avatar) which invites them to come prove their inferiority in the Arena. They take advantage of this to hide their allies (Sevroth's men, Dinvaya's golem and Redtooth's raiders) among the crowd of spectators and signal them to scatter Hellion's lackeys once the fight is over. They manage a pretty close fight against Helskarg (the Arcanist gets critted by her autograpnel) and the crowd falls into chaos as they go chase the members of the Lords of Rust who have bunkered down inside Chrysalis.
-I beefed up Hellion a bit, giving it not only its spell like abilities but also its domain's powers to harass the PCs throughout the excavator, and making him able to possess other robots inside the compound (like the junkyard robot in the battery room or the Observer robots in the control center. The party had a good laugh with the tiny, insect-sized Hellion throwing taunts at them and doing minimal damage (the druid had cast communal Energy Resistance against fire, so most damage from its laser torch was blocked).
Once they used the inhibitor facet and Hellion had to shut the excavator down, though, things got a lot more eerie. They had already killed every major enemy except Zagmaander and the Chuul, so they went through the dark caves without Hellion's usual mockery and taunts. The Chuul nearly killed the Alchemist by grappling and drowning him in the pond while he was paralyzed, one Dark Slayer critted the Inquisitor with Inflict Moderate Wounds and they thankfully managed to send Zagmaander back to her plane by undoing her curse, so they only had Hellion left. They mounted camp inside the control room and fought Hellion's arachnid robot. The plasma beam tore through the Inquisitor, downing her and killing her when the chassis exploded, but the Druid brought her back with the Breath of Life she had received from Sarenrae as thanks for freeing Aldonard. Meyanda was toting the EMP gun from the manticore's nest on semi-auto with Deadly Aim, so she was a good asset in the fight. She "shut down" emotionally after the battle, since she pretty much had no motivation left on doing anything after taking revenge on Hellion.
In a series of purely RP sessions inbetween them, I decided that the Facets they found were compatible with androids, with the same restrictions as AIs (1 facet could be surgically implanted per 4 HD of the android). Doing that, they left Meyanda in Torch after implanting the Ego facet in her brain, which started "awakening" her into a more fleshed out personality (which will eventually bring her to worship Brigh). They rendezvous with Longdreamer, clashing with the giants and warden robot (the giants having been duped to unearth the robot by the Will o Wisp from Scrapwall, who fled in anger after they dispelled the undead from the wreck) and taking up her offer to bring them to Iadenveigh after failing to open the gate of the Choking Tower.
They also see the Technic League as a bit of a joke since the only members they have met have been trounced quite handily (again by my own weakness in tactics). I hope everyone's Iron Gods games are going well!
Okay. Then have the Technic League hit them harder!
What does the League already know about the PCs? The Technic League is a cabal of wizards. They're smart, so think about what they could do to counter the PC's normal tactics.Use a net CR +4 encounter with a Technic League Lieutenant of CR +2 as the leader. (This would be a deliberate "hit squad," as you say they have been trouncing League Forces in the past.)
For example (presuming that the heroes are 4 PCs in the vacinity of Lvl 10):
* - Leader: Lvl 13 League Wizard (if need be use page 188 of the NPC Codex, but make a few changes to better reflect the League).
* - Remaining Forces: 3x Axe Dancers (NPC Codex, page 99).
* - Robot Back-Up: 2x Augmented Gearsmen (page 22 of The Choking Tower).
Now you just have to wait for the PCs to be traveling.
Have the flying, invisible wizard open with his maximized fireball. He would then fall back behind his monks and robots, continuing to support them as outlined in his spells.
They also see the Technic League as a bit of a joke since the only members they have met have been trounced quite handily (again by my own weakness in tactics). I hope everyone's Iron Gods games are going well!Okay. Then have the Technic League hit them harder!
What does the League already know about the PCs? The Technic League is a cabal of wizards. They're smart, so think about what they could do to counter the PC's normal tactics.
Use a net CR +4 encounter with a Technic League Lieutenant of CR +2 as the leader. (This would be a deliberate "hit squad," as you say they have been trouncing League Forces in the past.)For example (presuming that the heroes are 4 PCs in the vacinity of Lvl 10):
* - Leader: Lvl 13 League Wizard (if need be use page 188 of the NPC Codex, but make a few changes to better reflect the League).
* - Remaining Forces: 3x Axe Dancers (NPC Codex, page 99).
* - Robot Back-Up: 2x Augmented Gearsmen (page 22 of The Choking Tower).
Now you just have to wait for the PCs to be traveling.
Have the flying, invisible wizard open with his maximized fireball. He would then fall back behind his monks and robots, continuing to support them as outlined in his spells.
Thanks for the advice. I have a while before we resume, but hopefully not too long. I am itching to resume the AP.
Well with things getting semi back to normal we are at least going to start playing pathfinder again. I figured out how I want to run Pathfinder on Roll20 so we are going to start next week. Anyone else have any changes they made to the AP?
Well with things getting semi back to normal we are at least going to start playing pathfinder again. I figured out how I want to run Pathfinder on Roll20 so we are going to start next week. Anyone else have any changes they made to the AP?
The biggest change I made was converting to D&D 5e. I'm slowly converting each of the NPCs and making 5e appropriate tweaks to monsters that aren't in 5e (which is most of them by Valley of the Brain Collectors which is where we will pick up when we resume).
I'll try to condense the changes as best I can:
Since I'm running a party of 5 PCs, I added a bit of extra treasure and added a few extra enemies early on so they didn't fall behind on the level curve, while also still challenging them. I stopped doing that after Book 2.
Sanvil actually managed to crit kill the paladin with a spellstrike. Fortunately, the party was just leaving with Khonnir in tow, so they got a resurrection scroll as a reward and decided to spare Sanvil's life, but only after severing his dominant hand as punishment. Since then, he got a prosthetic arm with a built-in weapon, ditched the League after all the broken promises and disrespect they gave to him, stealing an item for the PCs as he switched alliances, wanting to side with the winning team who actually gave him a modicum of respect, even after he killed a party member (totally unexpected, even by him. He just wanted to scare the party into giving up the salvaged tech). Thus, he became CN and a bar regular at the brawler's tavern.
After the party defeated Hellion, since he was mythic, I introduced a much watered down version of the mythic rules, giving the PCs their first mythic rank.
In Act 3, I used the side adventure for the Dusklight to give the players a means of rapid transportation across Numeria, except it was heavily modified. Instead of just getting like a small skiff, they were given the ability to raise the entire ship from the bed of the river after a short adventure, except the ship is currently running on a depleted fuel rod, so it can't go into space, just hover above the ground a couple dozen feet and move about 15 mph, effectively a low-flying airship. Introduced a couple of NPC allies on that ship, a maintenance robot (Tryg, but with the personality of a benign Wheatley from Portal 2), and the emergency medical hologram, emitted from a prismatic hologram generator powered by the ship and limited to the sickbay (looks and acts exactly like Robert Picardo's Doctor from Star Trek: Voyager).
There was also a divinely infused obelisk on the ship that was picked up by the former crew of the Dusklight, made by Dou-Bral during his journey through the Dark Tapestry (before he became Zon-Kuthon), after he received visions of the future of the party fighting and losing against Unity. He created the obelisk to respond to the PCs touch and infuse them with additional mythic power, knowing that the obelisk would reach them eventually. When the PCs touched them, I gave them a fragmented vision of death and destruction like what Shepard saw when he touched the Prothean Beacon in Mass Effect. If the PCs succeeded a Will save, the vision was less fragmented and they saw silhouettes of themselves fighting a silhouette of some angelic figure with a single robotic wing. (I plan on making Unity look more like a robotic One-Winged Angel)
Made Illaris a recurring villain. During downtime between Book 3 and 4, she kidnapped Val and strapped her to a couple pounds of cylex rigged to explode on a timer while she fought the PCs with the aid of a myrmidon robot. They killed her, but I'm just gonna have her rise as an undead. Eventually she'll have mythic ranks and be a slave to Unity out of a desire for revenge against the PCs. She's a total wacko in my game.
After defeating/exorcising Furkas Xoud, I decided to give the PCs their 3rd mythic rank, and since the inquisitor went with the Impossible Domain option I offered (from Wrath of the Righteous PC game), he went with Animal domain for the animal companion, so I offered him the option to get a giant space hamster, which he immediately took.
In between Books, I gave the PCs downtime so they could pursue personal goals. They established Torch as their base of operations, build a party lodge, started a couple of businesses of their own, did some solo-adventures I devised that resulted in Technic League tax collectors and their contingency raiding party being slain, and one party member being named head of the council of Torch after uprooting a vampire (Garmen Ulreth who was turned and returned from his exile from Torch). The rest of the party were also brought on as councilors (bringing in the Kingdom building rules, made Whiskifiss an envoy from Scrapwall, since Redtooth's Raiders and the Steel Hawks now jointly govern Scrapwall).
Book 4, I gave Binox mythic ranks so when the party defeats him, they'll get rank 4. Maybe will give rank 5 when the destroy the Dominion Hive.
On the party side of things, I gave players the one-time option to retroactively overhaul their build if it wasn't working for them. They really appreciated this since a couple of the players were relatively new.