#9-18 Scourge of the Farheavens

[TriOmegaZero]

Ran this one in about 3 and 1/2 hours tonight. Only having one mandatory encounter (and one possible encounter than can be over in one round) means this can run short or offer a lot of roleplay opportunity. There is not a lot of Iobaria content to expand on, so I recommend doing research beforehand. The final fight is an interesting puzzle and can really challenge an unprepared 1-2 party. No complaints.

[GreyYeti]

I started prepping the scenario and i am a bit worried about the disease in encounter B, especially in low tier.
A DC 14 or 16 Fort save is something level 1 or 2 characters can fail and once someone is infected the Con damage/drain has a good chance of killing people.
In regards to this i would like to know how far away the village is from the next city because the PCs might need access to a healer to cure them.

edit:
Another thing in encounter B.
Th only way to solve this encounter seems to be to deal repeated fire damage to the diseaesd trees. You need 10 damage to destroy a tree.
Do you need to deal all this damage in one attack or can you deal it over multiple turns?
How is party supposed to solve this encounter if they don't have the ability to deal 50 points of fire damage? i guess most parties will have a few alchemist's fires but not enough and they will be used against the swarms.
Also what is the AC of a tree (AC 5?)?

[Quentin Coldwater]

Dotting. I'm prepping as well, and the disease worried me as well.

[jcg]

Mod - Threat merge with http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2v3la?918-Scourge-of-the-Farheavens please

I'm prepping this to run tomorrow as well, and also had concerns about the disease. Unless someone else has a better idea this is how I'm going to run it:

1) Assume Mishkar is large enough healing resources are available (I can't find much info about it)
2) I can't find any mention in the scenario of how long it takes to get from Mishkar to the Norinor Forest.
2a) Based on detailed maps of Brevoy east of the Icerime Peaks that have scale from inner sea world guide, it should certainly be > 1 day travel between Mishkar and Norinor Forest. I was estimating it at least 50 miles with some hills/mountains (based on the small map at the beginning of the scenario).
2b) Given the scenario says the PC's arrive in the afternoon at the village, I'm going to call it 2.5 days to keep it simple.
3) Remember the disease has an ONSET of 1 day. So even if they fail the save they won't get damaged for at least a day. Therefore with my time estimates at worst a PC might take 2d4 CON damage, so dangerous to CON dumpers but likely not others. The worst part would be a double fail with a drain that has to be resolved at the end of the scenario.
4) If I'm wrong on my time estimates, yea this could be deadly... Did you have another guess as to travel time?

Trees - IMHO it must be 10 total damage, and I'd assume 5AC well as it's an inanimate stump. 10 fire damage in one hit would be near impossible at 1-2. The scenario explicitly calls out non magical fire as effective ("such as by striking it with a lit torch"). If pathfinders have no way of making fire... well... bad pathfinders and cold dinners...

I have a question about the Skorvlovs - The scenario calls out they return after the PCs spend an hour in the village, then a couple paragraphs down they return after the PC go into their home. I'm assuming this is a whichever happens first type thing?

I agree with Steve in the other thread. This scenario looks to run quite short, but I'll see how it goes tomorrow.

[GinoA]

Prepping this scenario now. Not done reading it, but I found a question in the haunt. It lists a weakness of slow. First time I've seen a weakness on a haunt. Hmm. Let's look that up.

Quote:

Any weaknesses the haunt might have, such as for haunts that can be tricked by effects like hide from undead or can be damaged by effects other than positive energy, are listed here.

Um. slow hides you from the haunt?

[GreyYeti]

Gino Melone wrote:

Prepping this scenario now. Not done reading it, but I found a question in the haunt. It lists a weakness of slow. First time I've seen a weakness on a haunt. Hmm. Let's look that up.

Quote:

Any weaknesses the haunt might have, such as for haunts that can be tricked by effects like hide from undead or can be damaged by effects other than positive energy, are listed here.

Um. slow hides you from the haunt?

Slow is a special ability a haunt can have.

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/gameMasteryGuide/haunts.html

It means that it acts at initiative 0 (instead of 10) in the suprise round, so PCs get a higher chance of acting before it manifests

[Michael Sayre]

jcg wrote:

1) Assume Mishkar is large enough healing resources are available (I can't find much info about it)

Yes, Mishkar has sufficient resources to allow the PCs to recover.

Quote:

2) I can't find any mention in the scenario of how long it takes to get from Mishkar to the Norinor Forest.
2a) Based on detailed maps of Brevoy east of the Icerime Peaks that have scale from inner sea world guide, it should certainly be > 1 day travel between Mishkar and Norinor Forest. I was estimating it at least 50 miles with some hills/mountains (based on the small map at the beginning of the scenario).
2b) Given the scenario says the PC's arrive in the afternoon at the village, I'm going to call it 2.5 days to keep it simple.

Two and a half days is correct as the anticipated travel time from the primary encounter locations back to Mishkar.

Quote:

3) Remember the disease has an ONSET of 1 day. So even if they fail the save they won't get damaged for at least a day. Therefore with my time estimates at worst a PC might take 2d4 CON damage, so dangerous to CON dumpers but likely not others. The worst part would be a double fail with a drain that has to be resolved at the end of the scenario.

This is the same line of reasoning we had for the scenario. While the plagueborn can be very dangerous, the disease has a 1 day onset time and PCs should/could potentially be well on their way back to Mishkar before they find themselves in serious danger.

Quote:

Trees - IMHO it must be 10 total damage, and I'd assume 5AC well as it's an inanimate stump. 10 fire damage in one hit would be near impossible at 1-2. The scenario explicitly calls out non magical fire as effective ("such as by striking it with a lit torch"). If pathfinders have no way of making fire... well... bad pathfinders and cold dinners...

This is correct. The diseased trees should have AC 5, it is 10 damage total (not in a single attack) to set a tree ablaze, and torches were specifically called out to give characters the widest array of possible options for lighting up the trees.

Quote:

I have a question about the Skorvlovs - The scenario calls out they return after the PCs spend an hour in the village, then a couple paragraphs down they return after the PC go into their home. I'm assuming this is a whichever happens first type thing?

Correct.

[jcg]

Note to anyone else running this so you know before you put down the tiles and have a WTF moment like I just did.... map pack ruined village does not have the cards to make a complete layout as shown on page 7. You end up with a 5x10 void in the middle and two strips on the side. As some of the tiles on page 7 are vertical and some horizontal, and there is no big grass tile to fit in the middle.

You’ll want a plain grass flip mat to paste the ruins on top of or rearrange the village completely if you want a contiguous village with no gaps.

[jcg]

I’ll post a review shortly, but yes my player romped this with zero challenge in 3 hours on high tier. Skill/diplomacy/knowledge checks made easily, and only one combat encounter. And let’s just say summoned fire elemental makes quick work of the trees. The most interesting part was talking to Depressed Winnie the Poo. :)

[Quentin Coldwater]

I'll chime in and say the scenario runs very short. Barely 3 hours with a lot of banter, but I had to say, there were only three people and a pregen present. No real complaints from me, except that it's shorter than expected. The scenario works and does what it's supposed to do.

[Monkhound]

I concur with Kwinten: I ran it this afternoon in approx. 3 hours as well, because most fights can be avoided by having a minor investment in Diplomacy.

The final fight was a setup I enjoyed though, even if quite punishing for a level 1 party with the potential amount of swarms.

[Sharaya]

Two threads have been merged.

[CanisDirus]

I'm running this in a couple of days and I can definitely see how this can run short (not a complaint, though)!

Links to help with Iobarian-related research:
AP #33 (Kingmaker Book 3) where the Iobarian gazetteer appears in its entirety.
Page 205 of the Inner Sea World Guide has a great summary of Iobaria as well.
Pathfinder Wiki: Iobaria
PF Wiki: Mishkar
PF Wiki: Norinor

[Fantus1984]

I am running this at Pazio Con UK and want to make sure I get the disease done correct.

If the travel back is 2.5 days back, this means the disease will trigger twice before getting back to town.

If the party doesn't have any means to remove it before returning, this could mean 2d4 con damage or 2 con drain if a player failed twice.

If the player return to town with the drain, the player would need to get a restoration to remove the drain (2PP or 280g) and also then remove disease (1pp or 150g) to attempt the d20+5CL vs the diease DC. (390g if done by a CL13 to gurantee the remove disease, can the PP be any CL?)

What happens if the player doesn't have either enough gold / PP to pay for these services? Do I as a GM sign off the players has taken the 2 con drain and then at the start of the next session the player needs to carry it over along with the disease. I am concerned that any amount of days can take place between sessions and the player will slowly die to the disease and needing 2 cures in a row.

[Quentin Coldwater]

The disease ticks once per day, but not at a set time, I believe. You might be a generous DM and say the PCs get help before it ticks a second time. Or roll a d20 for it, to give them a 50/50 chance if they're on time or not.

Now for the parts I'm not 100% sure of, but I'll give my insight anyway:
I believe PP for casting can be any caster level, up to the gold limit imposed by the Prestige spent (150 or 750).
Players can pay for each other. This'll be tough for people for whom this'll be their first adventure, who don't have the PP or GP to spend.
Per the Field Guide, page 16, afflictions that don't cause the character to be unplayable, but still damaged, carry over. The way I read it, you need to cure the disease, but any CON drain accrued can persist over as many scenarios as necessary to remove them. Make sure you note that down on the chronicle and tell the player to keep that in mind.

The drain is particularly nasty at low level, that's a small nitpick on this scenario, but otherwise it should be fine.

[Suede]

I know it won't really help at low level, but if you run high tier there's a 5th level druid the party can likely befriend. My group correctly remembered after completing the final fight that he and his daughters were still around.

So they stopped back in the abandoned town and asked him for help with the disease. They stuck around for a day so he could memorize the spell and cleared it up for them. And while he's only minimum caster level, it's the same as paying cash or PP, but at no expense and spares them the risk of making saves on the trip home if it works.

[Fantus1984]

Ah ok, some really good suggestion there for the wrapping up. I will keep both in mind.

Looking forward to running this overall, printed mini's for the disease trees haha :)

[andreww]

Fantus1984 wrote:

If the player return to town with the drain, the player would need to get a restoration to remove the drain (2PP or 280g)

Restoration costs 380gp, there is a 100gp material component cost as well.

Quote:

and also then remove disease (1pp or 150g) to attempt the d20+5CL vs the diease DC. (390g if done by a CL13 to gurantee the remove disease, can the PP be any CL?)

Prestige purchases are at minimum caster level. They could buy a higher caster level cast with gold although they wouldn't know the DC. If they want to be sure they could spend 660gp for a Heal spell which automatically removes all diseases.

Quote:

What happens if the player doesn't have either enough gold / PP to pay for these services? Do I as a GM sign off the players has taken the 2 con drain and then at the start of the next session the player needs to carry it over along with the disease. I am concerned that any amount of days can take place between sessions and the player will slowly die to the disease and needing 2 cures in a row.

You cannot carry over the diseased condition, it must be resolved. Any stat damage will just heal naturally. You can carry over drain but you mark it on their chronicle.

[Qstor]

I'm running this now on PbP

Question on Encounter B:

Do the PCs NEED directions from Dolok to get to the diseased grove? Cause it seems like they can get here if they know Halit and have the map from Roga's house? The scenario was a bit unclear. There wasn't like a Survival check to follow directions on the map?

[Michael Sayre]

Mike McKeown wrote:

I'm running this now on PbP

** spoiler omitted **

Alternate directions on pages 11 and 14:

Page 11: If the PCs search the rest of Roga’s house, they find a crude map drawn on a piece of tanned leather and accompanied by minor notations which indicate in shaky Hallit roughly where the woodcutter found the diseased tree that first infected the Farheavens. The PCs can use this map to get to the diseased clearing (see area B).

This is the woodcutter's original map and the PCs can use it as long as they read Hallit.

Page 14: PCs who kill, dismiss, or otherwise banish Dolok Darkfur find a small scroll that falls from a delicate silver chain around his neck. While much of the writing on the scroll is illegible, it appears to detail some of the ancient history of the Farheaven Clan and will surely be of great value to the Society. Scrawled toward the end of the scroll is a rough map with some notations in Common describing a “diseased grove.” This is likely the source of the disease that ravaged the Farheavens, and the PCs can investigate the grove before returning to the Society with the scroll, if they wish.

This is Roga's map and does not require the PCs to read Hallit to be able to use it.

So, the PCs actually have three different chances to locate the clearing, depending on their actions and capabilities.