7madisonc7691yM2's page

Anyone change the map for Talmandor's Bounty to account for more buildings and infrastructure over the course of the AP?
And are willing to share what you came up with?

got the remaster Player and GM Core hardcovers before Christmas. Yay!

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I have pretty much all of book 3 prepped, except for the last battle, because I don't know what they will negate before hand, and also because it confuses the heck out of me.

The one combat round per turn thing seems really brutal, because they could potentially get bogged down in a combat slog due to some poor rolls and then have a bunch of the events go down without them interfering. Did everyone basically run this exactly as written?
...

yeah - pretty much.

late, but for the Shellcracker caves I handwaved it as the bottom of the passage being rock filled rather than just sand. Wasn't 100% believable but reckon I succeeded my bluff check. Fortunately, I got to the quicksand rescue map and managed to edit that before it had to be used.
My group is already used to map mistakes from the last AP.

I had a replacement occur in Ristin as well.

Brother Fen wrote:

Page 18 descirbes Area J3. Prisoner Cages as being "along an abrupt cliff which drops 80 feet below".

The map alone is very confusing, but I used this bit of description to help layout the area by placing the cages up high on a cliff meaning the area leading to it is an incline with the rest of the camp being in the valley below it.

If anyone else is having difficulties, here's a version I did that might make it slightly clearer, though perhaps not entirely accurate - I essentially had the entire map sloping from left to right, with the left part of the map being too steep / inaccessible, and the right side sloping down to ground level:

Ridgeline Camp 52 x 62

However, it's probably supposed to be sloping down on both sides - which I might fix before running it.

Can't access your maps, but yes it is supposed to be sloping down on both sides rather than the left side being higher than the camp.

"The camp is visible from afar" and the sentry towers are keeping an eye out on both sides.
I had the slope on the left side a lot less steep than the right side (which is basically a cliff where the cages are, and a bit to the north). PCs can either follow the ridgeline to come at the camp from north or south, have a gentle climb up the left side, or a very steep climb up the right side.
If the party can get to the base of the cliff on the right hand side unseen and can get up the cliff, then they have a good chance of being able to attack before the sentries see them.

finally got the shipping notice and access to the PDFs.
Now to see if the physical copies arrive before Christmas.

N9ne of mine has shipped, no pdfs, no response from CS. No updates here.

same - emailed 4 days ago and <crickets chirping>.

Glad to hear that others (especially in Straya) have received books. Still waiting on PDFs here after emailing last week. :-(

...

Anyway, my question is, how were you managing the river crossing by the PC's getting to the munitions camp? Using the ferry or were they relying on other magics, Walk on Water and such?

Thanks.

Mine took the ferry. Keeps the locals involved. Wizard could cast mount so easy to travel fast overland (faster than a boat can go upriver).

erucsbo wrote:

we have completed the Ironfang Invasion Adventure Path

Congrats! Sounded like a pretty great last battle, where it wasn't an automatic win for the PCs! That's about all you can hope for!

Did you do any kind of thing like an epilogue to what happened to the region, the PCs, et cetera? Anyone stay and make their home or kingdom there? What happened to ownership of the Onyx Citadel and it's magics?

Not really. I gave the players the opportunity to do so and there were some general comments by some on what their character was planning on doing but I think they were more keen to get started on Ruins of Azlant with new characters.

Avoiding any spoilers:
You are better off reacting to the AP rather than trying to metagame it.
The Player's Guide gives you enough information to avoid nerfing yourself later.

Couple map questions:

The western wall of H18 looks like it's made of bars. Is it actually or is that just a mistake due to the jail cells in H17?

H34 has two stairways leading into/out of it, L and R. L clearly corresponds to the L on H35, but I can't find another R. I'm assuming it's a mistype and it corresponds to K just north of H27, but swapping R for K seems like an odd typo (not anywhere near each other on the keyboard).

Quality control on this book is a step down from the last 2 which were a step down from the first 3. They even issued an update for the map pack and still left in errors (door colours, staircase D, etc.).

we have completed the Ironfang Invasion Adventure Path

I used Opportune Parry and Riposte and Dodging Dance and at the end Azaersi got another go with Cheat Death.
Killed the Trickster and Fighter and sent the eidolon away as well as a last gasp attack.
Party managed to trap one of the obsidian golems in Create Pit.
I gave Azaersi displacement and a ring of spell turning and bumped up her equipment as well. Also had Azaersi and Zanathura with True Seeing.

They had watched the party and had prepared, casting the longer duration spells as soon as the mana battery was discharged.
Also had energy resistance to fire and cold.

Rolled really well for Azaersi and with auto crit x4 on 17-20 she did significant damage and taking out the Trickster (party healer) early certainly slowed the fighter being able to keep getting filled up after taking damage. Resorted to begging the Enthroned King for temp hit points before going down after another couple of critical hits from Azaersi.

Ended up being the eidolon using blind sight that landed enough hits on Azaersi to force her to use Cheat Death.
A bit of extra summoning went on with 3 ice elementals, 3 angels, 3 centipede swarms all joining the fight.
Spell turning never got used - was hoping the Summoner would try a Dismissal but only spells used were area of effect or ray (disintegrate).

Could have been more casualties if Zanathura had lasted another round but the Fighter was extra keen to make sure she was paste before engaging Azaersi.

On to Ruins of Azlant next but will lurk here to see how others go, so please post your campaign updates.

... However, my player characters decided to fly in invisibly to H28, Upper Terrace, so they never had a battle on the bridge ...

And mine teleported invisibly on to the balcony below that.

IMHO it is very poorly designed for any party with at least a smidgeon of intelligence.

The Ironfang are lawful and unlikely to just send waves of mooks. They would more likely pepper the party with arrows and javelins and rely on those already stationed in the citadel and other citadel defenses to deal with anyone trying to get in.

If the party are stupid enough to try a frontal assault then have them deal with a hail of troop missile fire until they get under cover.
Alarm is raised and expect any defenses inside the citadel to be alert and prepared.

almost but not quite finished.

Party headed up to the mana battery where the trickster (with permanent detect magic) peeked around the corner. I gave her a will save to pull back from the blinding display but she failed, so developed colourblindness. I said the room was blazing with octarine. Most of the players got the reference.
As far as I can find there is nothing about the effects of colourblindness, so I've ruled at our table that it washed out the colours making perception harder for things that required seeing variations in colour, and that while detect magic could still pick up auras, it was impossible to distinguish between schools of magic - kinda like having darkvision for magic.
Rogue had a couple of potions of remove blindness so casually tossed one to the trickster to set her right.
There was discussion about how to discharge the battery and ended up just letting the rogue do it. With her evasion and high reflex, plus a feat that allowed rerolling a 1 on saving throw, there was really no chance for her to fail. The rest of the party hid on the staircase.
Afterwards I changed the room description to say that small arcs of magical lightning were slowly travelling down from the ceiling to the metallic diagrams.
Party searched some more in the level below and found Zanathura's journal scrap and the switch in the armoire.
By then the alarm had been raised and the faerie dragon (still back where the party entered and maintaining the illusion of hobgoblins) informed the party that troops were starting to mobilize from below the citadel and make their way through the gatehouse into the citadel proper.
The rogue offered to create a mess and distraction and rescue her familiar (who couldn't get through the doors back into the citadel) while the party headed through the secret door. (Rogue is an NPC - so this was a way of getting her sneak attack damage and insta-kills away from future encounters and letting the PCs have more spotlight)
Wizard cast wall of stone to block off the dueling academy from the rest of the citadel after the rogue left (but not before making sure she was attuned to the bracelet of friends held by the wizard).
Party headed down and triggered the golem in the false ritual room. Some major damage dealt both to and by the fighter. Wizard also cast shapechange on her familiar (bat) and both of them changed into brass dragons and breathed on the golem. Fighter hit the golem with a critical hit (auto-confirmed and multiplier one better due to fighter capstone) doing more than 200 points of damage (when the golem had about 50 left).
I described the hammer blow as acting like Newton's cradle where parts of the golem on the other side flew off before other bits popped apart and it eventually crumbed in a heap.
Felt that the indestructible nature of the golem was a bit much and didn't add to the story at this point. Fighter wanted to scoop all of the bits of the shattered golem into his bags of holding (due to the value of the metal) but when informed that the bags wouldn't hold that much (4000 pounds!) the summoner opened a gate back to Longshadow and it was shovelled through.
Down again and to the transposition engine - Zanathura got off an acid fog but failed to trap the fighter in a force cage. The wizard managed to trap Azaersi in a maze for a round. Obsidian golems came out and were spraying damage.
Zanathura tried polymorph any object on the wizard, but as she still had shapechange going it was ineffective.
So far Zanathura has been knocked down, and one of the golems has been destroyed, but Azaersi is still up as well as 3 other golems.
I have a bit of time to brush up on swashbuckler tactics before we conclude the AP in the next session.

If you decide to advance things so that the PCs get to have 20th level characters before the end of the AP - just know that the rogue capstone is wicked. Of the 4 Ironfang Shadows, Azlowe and 3 Witcheater Cultists, and Henra with 4 Ironfang Honor Guards encountered so far in the assault on the Citadel, only 1 Shadow, 1 Cultist, and 1 Honor Guard have survived being one-shotted by the rogue.
Actually one of the Honor Guards was baleful polymorphed before the rogue had her action (full round of sneak attack with bow).
Greater Invisibility (on the rogue) plus sniper goggles = sneak attack at any distance. And with skill unlock on Sense Motive to give bonus to initiative she clears most of the field before they get a chance to act.

...

It used the magic sandbox to create a 3d model of the Onyx Citadel and explained its floorplan to the party. ...

Thankfully my players didn't think to ask that, as I might have come up with bogus maps if they did as the citadel (and towers) can be rearranged.

p34 "It can display a detailed model of the Onyx Citadel, reflecting the castle as it was long before the Ironfang Legion overran it."

GM prep really ramps up in this one with some totally ineffective enemy tactics.
Azlowe uses Dispel Magic? If the PCs haven't multiclassed then caster level is likely to be 17. Mine are 20. DC for Dispel Magic is 11+Caster level, so likely at least 28, and for mine 31. Azlowe is CL10. That means he'd need to roll an 18 to affect by the book PC spells and has no chance working on mine. I think Debilitating Portent, with Firewalker's Meditation from the day before might be on the cards instead.
Witcheater cultists cast Blasphemy? "Creatures whose Hit Dice exceed your caster level are unaffected by blasphemy." Totally ineffective unless the cultists are bumped up 3 levels (or 6 in my case).
Comments have already been made on other named enemy builds.
Was this never playtested or did the development team just think it was a good idea to give freebies to the PCs?

Wizard cast Polymorph Any Object on the fighter to turn him into a duplicate - sneaky way to get a permanent +2 strength, but we'll see if Dispel Magic ends up knocking it off.
Party wind walked across Argent Lake then spied out the Citadel (rogue with skill unlock on perception and a spyglass can essentially see forever), before deciding to teleport behind the hobgoblins in H23.
It was over before the hobgoblins got a chance to react and the fighter stuffed the bodies in a spare type IV bag of holding as the rogue's familiar (faerie dragon) cast silent image to make it look to the patrolling gargoyles like the hobgoblins were still there.
Bypassed the alarm in H24 and combat is about to start in H25.
If they are quick and go in the right direction they could get to the encounter with Azaersi while 3/4 of the citadel are unaware of the incursion.

Aubrin gets hit by a ballista.
Your choice on what to do with your campaign, but IMHO a crippling blow rather than death is more representative of what the campaign is about.
Ironfang Invasion is actually more about finding your place in the world, and how do you do that when others think your place should belong to them.
The Ironfang are just doing to Nirmathas what Nirmathas did to Molthune and what Molthune did to Cheliax.
The canonical ending actually breaks that cycle.
It ain't going to happen in my campaign which turned very much to revenge, but at least the players have been having fun all the way through.

...

I am also trying to mentally untangle the 35 rooms in the Onyx Citadel in preparation for the party arriving there. It is quite a maze. ...

And there is no guarantee that the PCs will enter via the main entrance, especially given flight and dimensional travel are commonplace.

I'm having to add extra defenses to every opening - since the PCs have been watched in previous encounters (either by reports from those involved or by the crystal ball - which I changed to have True Sight instead of Telepathy).

Phantom chariot to Molten Nexus and trickster rolled high on Diplomacy to get Irigibel to agree to the nexus realignment. Sense Motive from the rogue (skill unlock as well) sending messages telepathically via faerie dragon familiar to the trickster to keep up the praise of the dragon plus an offer to come back to regenerate her scales. Roleplayed well and dragon gave up some scales to assist in the party's planned attack on the Ironfang.
Chariot again to Shard Nexus and again good diplomacy (plus crystal statues from the archive) before fighter had a wrestle with Cragcrusher - just failing to push him out of the ring.
Chariot to Flow Nexus and zarxorin caught them by surprise with it's energy blast destroying the chariot, but a very lucky baleful polymorph by the wizard ended that fight fairly quickly.
3 nexus in one session and trickster remembered that they have air walk so resting and then onto the Onyx Citadel.
Also bumped the PCs to 20th level so they have a chance to play at that level.

Up to your players. There is a certain amount of bookkeeping and you really want to delegate this to your players as much as possible.
Mine weren't that interested so I did most of it narratively. They found the overhead of the survival rules a bit too much like work so when the time came to delegate them to the now settled refugees they did so. We had some of the PCs spend time training NPCs while others were crafting, but nothing more than that.
There are other simplistic rules in later books if you don't implement the militia system.
If you do then book 2 ramps it up and book 3 expands on it more - so you can start now if you want and have it build up over time.
Book 4 and 5 are essentially not using the militia for any on-camera action, and book 6 only has it as an aside if you want for the first part.

...

The PCs would love safe and boring battles, but the players themselves want excitement. Thus, we end up with what my players did: the PCs trained the NPCs, the NPCs demonstrated their good training to make the players proud, and then the party left the NPCs behind (to protect the town or some other excuse) to avoid slowing down the game.

Similar here though I think my players just want to kill and loot so will take any opportunity to have their characters do it (though surprisingly they have managed a few encounters recently through diplomacy - not with the Ironfang though).

...

These aren't described in the text of the adventures as helpless refugees who need protecting.
...

Don't get me wrong, they aren't helpless nor need protecting. Nirmathi pride themselves on being self-sufficient and capable of defending themselves, but there is a difference between guerilla tactics that they are used to using against Molthuni - cutting supply lines and generally making things uncomfortable to invaders until they leave - versus acting as an organised force against superior defences set up by invaders who are intent on staying.

erucsbo wrote:

pi4t wrote:

I'm confused about what the militia is supposed to be doing during this book. Whether or not you're using the subsystem, the PCs are still working with a group of warriors wanting to defend their homeland. Wouldn't it make more sense for them to bring their militia to attack the keeps, rather than doing everything themselves?

They aren't warriors wanting to defend their homeland. They are displaced villagers trying to stay alive and make a living (which sometimes means taking up arms to defend / protect themselves or harry an enemy in the hope that they go away).

Sigh, I was confused by three possible meanings of "militia," and erucsbo finds a fourth meaning, that pi4t might think that the refugees evacuated from Phaendar are a militia. ...

<grin>

I'm confused about what the militia is supposed to be doing during this book. Whether or not you're using the subsystem, the PCs are still working with a group of warriors wanting to defend their homeland. Wouldn't it make more sense for them to bring their militia to attack the keeps, rather than doing everything themselves?

They aren't warriors wanting to defend their homeland. They are displaced villagers trying to stay alive and make a living (which sometimes means taking up arms to defend / protect themselves or harry an enemy in the hope that they go away).

Bringing the refugees along to fights that aren't directly involving them will likely get many of them killed - which wouldn't help the PCs' reputation.

If you want to keep them involved then use them as scouts and messengers.

But, it's your game, so if the players want to build their own army rather than be the strikeforce themselves then go ahead.

Couple of sessions since last update

Encounter with Oktar went predictably with the eidolon rushing in and saying "surrender or die" then proceeding to attack without waiting for a reply. This was while half the party (including fighter and wizard) were still in the southern exhibition room. He only got a to down an extract of greater invisibility and say that they were fighting without honour and that they might be better to work against a common enemy first before he was cut down.

Trickster decided to disintegrate the front of the vat holding the invisible goblin and coup de grace it as the rest moved on.

Amazingly there was compliance with the clockwork angel's demands and the group successfully moved past it and the sandmen before meeting Ziguch.
Everyone saved vs the mind fog (in fact there wasn't a single failed save on either side in the first couple of rounds).
The party noticed the immortal ichor in round 2 and the wizard shapechanged into a gorgon and breathed on it - first failed save - petrified ichor.
The ichor failed its second save to get out of it, and while not breathed on again - enough damage was done by the fighter and spellcasters to shatter the petrified ichor and free Ziguch.

Sandbox was used and Ziguch dismissed the party saying that they could take what they wanted except for the rod (powering the lights) and not to interrupt the experiments.

On leaving the archive Kraelos was outside stonehome making demands (I added an extra troop as well).
Once again the party decided that as it was Ironfang hobgoblins the appropriate response was to enter into "extreme negotiations" - meaning kill them all quickly.

Buffing the rogue with greater invisibility and letting her fire off goblin-bane arrows at Kraelos (and her faerie dragon familiar dropping the largest bead from the newly acquired necklace) left Kraelos one small hit from death before he even got a chance to act.
The fighter charged in and missed with a 1, but the eidolon got in a swing and off flew the hobgoblin's head. The troops put up a bit more of a fight and did some damage with their volleys, but when the wizard shapechanged (it was still active) into a dragon and breathed a couple of times (coupled with the damage output from the fighter and rogue and another couple of beads from the necklace) it was game over.

How exactly does the system for the war council work? I found the description to be pretty vague.

My take was that there are a couple of paths to Influence.

in addition they can attempt discovery
C -> Interests DC -> info to give +4 competence bonus on path A or B

Note that it is a competence bonus, so if the PC is wearing a circlet of persuasion or has something else providing a competence bonus to the skill being used to influence (Diplomacy, Bluff, other) then it doesn't stack.

You can let them know the Interests skills to use - if successful this reveals the text under Discovery which they have to work into roleplay for the Influence check in order to get the +4 bonus.

Here's a reminder. When you get to the Kraelos encounter (event-2) don't forget to include the key to H24 in his gear. Also if they encounter Azlowe, he should have a key also. They forgot to put it in their statblocks, but only tell you who has keys in the H24 description.

excellent timing! might be encountering Kraelos next session! thanks for the tip

What gives Arlantia her fly speed? She doesn't have fly in her listed spells (not that it's on the cleric list anyway) and none of her magic items give her a fly speed.

Harbinger of the Blight (Su) "she can command the fungus to carry her aloft, granting her a fly speed of 40 feet (perfect)"

Also, my players dealt with the four moldy hobgoblins pretty easily by tagging the molds with magic missile. The molds have that ability where they can make a reflex save to dodge incoming attacks, but magic missile doesn't have an attack roll associated. It feels a little cheap to dispatch them so easily but I don't see any reason not to go with that ruling, especially since they're only CR 4. The only problem is now I have to figure out what to do with the four surviving hobgoblins. I have a feeling they'll free Taurgreth pretty quickly and he'll escape with his comrades into the forest before the PCs can pursue.

My players are rabidly anti-Ironfang and cared less about the mold than just killing the hobgoblins and are therefore very unlikely to end up with the canonical ending. If your group does end up freeing the hobgoblins then it opens up a heap of role-play options in book 6.

Reverse Gravity by the wizard on Shaakhib and the golem. I had the genie sink his foot into the earth to stay grounded and the golem punched the ground and held on before they both managed to move themselves out of the area of effect.
Attacks on Shaakhib revealed the Shield Other effect.
Wizard caught Shaakhib in an Icy Prison and the fighter pushed it back into the reverse gravity area but Shaakhib Plane Shifted away.
[There was a bit of table discussion about whether or not the icy prison would go as well. In the end we had it shift with the genie though I originally had it stay, and after doing a bit more research probably would have it stay behind.]
Golem got a breath of gas on the eidolon but didn't really stand a chance.
Archive next and the sandmen. Everyone passed the sleep effect (multiple times) so didn't take too long for them to get whacked as well.

bump to L19.
Stone Road to the Vault has been taken and pech encountered. The fighter offered booze as a welcome.
Since we were playing on St Patrick's Day, pech now talk with an Irish accent.
Picnic in front of Stonehome was interrupted with the arrival of Shaakhib. Party managed to make themselves hidden before the shaitan gave his ultimatum. Scrying sensor was detected and pech refused the ultimatum.
We stopped at the initiative roll.

We played the final session a couple days ago.

The party was victorious and let's just say the country of Oprak isn't going to exist in this version of Golarion.

Things I changed:...

thanks for the tips.

Was thinking the same though worried that adding a heal or 2 for A is just going to extend the final slight into a slog (hit, hit, heal, rinse, repeat).

The interactive maps still have a glitch in that a lot of the doors are solid brown rectangles on top of the white doors.

(see doors from room b2-b3, b6-b7 and the majority of doors on the citadel itself.) Its as if the Onyx walls of the towers/citadel have begun to grow and absorb the doors.

very true, and indicative of the drop in quality especially on maps and for the last 3 books.

I'll keep the idea of the doors turning to onyx up my sleeve just in case the players notice and comment on it. :-)

Just noticed that the digital download for Book 6 was updated last year (Feb 2022). The toggle tags on the maps weren't working on the older version but are fixed now. Not sure if there were other changes.

Level 17 for the war council at the beginning of book 6.
Level 18 for the attack on Fort Phaendar.
Now level 19 for the journey to the vault.
and I'll let them get to 20 before the final battle.

Yes it has meant that encounters need beefing up (added hps for some, better AC and to hit), but also allowed me to slip in some extra feats to make life a little trickier - Greater Feint for Scabvistin worked well.

4 level 18 PCs, eidolon, L18 NPC rogue, and 2 summoned angels were always going to be more than a match for Scabvistin and his honour guard, but the honour guard managed to stun the eidolon and with Scanbvistin did enough damage to get the summoner to dismiss the eidolon before it died.
I gave Scabvistin Improved and Greater feint and added longarm to his duelist vambraces.
Feinting on the fighter enabled sneak attack damage for all of the bugbear's attacks (though some were mitigated by the fighter's light fortification armour).
The summoner (invisible) started to summon again but Scabvistin heard her and told the Honour Guard to 'get the spellcaster' so it used abundant step and quivering palm (beat the total concealment and made the hit). Summoner failed the save, but still had Groger's 'gift'.
Gave the summoner's player the choice of going with a random roll for race or one I had chosen. She trusted me enough to go with my call so I privately showed her.
Trickster tried Breath of Life but Summoner made the save to resist it and reincarnated as catfolk.
Wizard tried baleful polymorph on Scabvistin and bounced to the honour guard but both made their saves.
Rogue managed to kill the honour guard, and after Scabvistin was blinded (courtesy of Holy Aura from one of the angels) the fighter managed to kill him (but not before he had almost been knocked down himself (trickster got a heal on him to keep him up)).

PCs now have control of Fort Phaendar.

tip for anyone following after me who uses the maps for players.
I print out the maps at scale (hiding secret doors etc.) and put them on the gaming map so I'm not spending time drawing.
Normally works quite well.
Map for the Onyx Tower, Level 1, room B3 shows a large space with blurred walls for the stone road. This should NOT be there before the stone road is opened.
I forgot to digitally alter this before printing out so the players were thinking of gunning straight for the stone road after popping the Sardonyx Shard in the gap.
A bit of time was spent after making wisdom checks on why this would be a bad idea, but it should have been unnecessary as the room description has it as a blank wall.
Fortunately no harm at the moment, but I'm going to have to do some retroactive narrative at the start of my next session.

My players have been steamrolling the Onyx Citadel.

...
I doubt it will be challenging. Maybe I'll throw in a couple ruby-wings.

Mine streamroll a lot as well. The Arlantia fight was tougher because she had seen their tactics and could prepare for them. I'm going to amp that up for Azaersi. She has had ample time to prepare and unless my players come up with new tricks the final fight could be a slog (unless they go down the diplomatic route - which I very highly doubt).

Golems went down quicker than expected and Maltagra had summoned a couple of barbed devils to join the fight but both of the devils SLAs were interrupted by attacks of opportunity (invisible PC and one with reach).
Forgot to do the golem swift action attack as well but enough damage was dealt around to require a heal on the fighter and several mass cure serious wounds.
Wizard dimension doored fighter outside to fight Maltagra, but she hit the fighter with her chain and stunned him. Didn't last as another heal got him back in the fight, otherwise he could have gone down.
Off camera had the battle at the gate between summoned devas and guards continue, plus faerie dragon released slaves from pen and they piled on Ettoran.
Wizard saw one of the honour guards dimension step to hit one of the devas with quivering palm before the wizard cast icy prison on the guard and the fighter shot it to pieces after Maltagra had been killed.

Next step is up to the tower's second level (they realise they are on the clock and haven't checked the other rooms on bottom level).
Rogue spotted the disintegrate trap and the summoner sent a summoned angel in to trigger it (made the save so didn't die).

Is it just me, or is the final fight of this book vs Elacinda AND 2 elder earth elementals extremely deadly?

It's a DC 28 Fortitude save or die. You have to make it every round. Being a ghost Elacinda is at half damage at best to most things and then there's 2 heavy hitters. This seems like a TPK in the making to me.

It can be. Depends on whether the party just tries going toe-to-toe.

had a couple of sessions.
Party sent the rogue in to scout the fort - she has +45 stealth, so even without being invisible is next to impossible to spot - and carried the gem from the wizard's cat's eye crown.
She thought the intelligence office was empty so the rest of the party teleported in (using clairvoyance via the gem to get the location right).
Rawheads had been hiding in the shadows so a quick battle happened. I asked the fighter's player what he was most afraid of and he blurted out "myself, naked", so that's what he saw 2 of heading his way. Lots of jokes about how the temperature must be cold, but he made both saves so no lasting scars.
Party found the extra intelligence and used the ring gate to get it back to Longshadow, then wizard summoned some dinosaurs to attack the river gate as a distraction.
Guards and giant made fairly light work of the dinos, but it did attract the troop there.
Party tried to sneak across to the Onyx Tower while the battle was going on and all did well on sneak except for the summoner.
Maltagra spotted her and dropped a fireball on her.
Faerie dragon fired a fireball (from wand) back at the "raven" but it was unaffected.
Trickster dimension doored herself and the fighter past the tower portcullis to take out the Ironfang Shadows. Rogue bowshot to death one of the guards by the slave pen (using 4 of the +3 goblinoid bane arrows) while her faerie dragon familiar used a wand of stinking cloud to catch Ettoran and the other guard.
Wizard summoned some movanic devas to attack the river gate guards again and dropped an empowered fireball - which wiped out the troop and knocked out the giant (who had taken some damage from the dinos). Angel finished it off.
Summoner eventually made it to the tower and wizard dimension doored rogue, summoner, and herself into the main chamber just after the trickster had opened the doors.
That activated the golems. Maltagra landed on the other side of the still shut tower porticulis and called out that the tower had been breached.
Sickly green glow appears within the tower walls and battle with the golems is about to start.

Not much to report in the last few sessions.
PCs easily made the DCs to influence the war council members.
Obsik dimension doored away during Gossamer's blow up but was chased with a Discern Location after quickly discovering the programmed illusion.
Euphoric Tranquility was used to question him but didn't get much info, so after finding out he was persona non grata at Kraggodan he was handed over to Gossamer for Accressial Court justice.
Wizard and summoner tried out some big bang long range spells from Kraggodan on the Ironfang troops on the plains below the mountain while the other groups that are attacking the other onyx towers moved in to position.
Expecting the incursion on Fort Phaendar to start next session.

My players are killing the influence checks.
With +30 Diplomacy for one and another with +30 Bluff (and others with knowledge skills at that level too), they can knock off all 3 required influence successes with a single check. Admittedly high dice rolls, but with assists and the "earns an additional success for every 5 by which the result of her influence check exceeds the listed DC" it becomes a flood of home-runs with 3 NPCs being convinced on day 1 of the council.

Well friends, I believe that yes, I've finished my time with Ironfang Invasion....

Congrats.

If there are any major debriefing callouts - things you would change if running again or advice for others running it - then please let us (and future GMs) know.

I currently only have a party of three (swashbuckler, hunter, and sorcerer) so I like having a DMPC to follow them around just in case they need a little extra firepower, some healing, or a knowledge they don't have. ...

Wendel comes in fairly early in Book 5. You could give him some extra buffing to cover the things that you need. He was very underutilized by my party and I used him mostly for story effect, but there is no reason why he couldn't be a bit braver and stronger in your game and even stay with the party for the final encounter rather than bugging out with Meril.

finished book 5
Arlantia got a blade barrier off that extended far enough to also block the chamber entrance.
Arlantia failed to make them worship her with overwhelming presence, and after taking some cone of cold damage from the wizard dropped a greater dispel magic on him. She doubleteamed with Taurgreth to kill the fighter (who regenerated into a gillman thanks to Groger).
Rogue used wand of stinking cloud to make one appear inside of Arlantia's fickle winds barrier, the concealment meant she avoided a couple of blows from the eidolon and reincarnated fighter and could cast heal and dismiss particulate form to get her almost back up to full hp (I bumped her to 299), but the rogue fired from directly above (so bypassing the fickle winds barrier) with a seeking bow and started racking up the sneak attack damage.
Arlantia dismissed the fickle winds allowing the stinking cloud to engulf the party members while she went to find the rogue.
Trickster cast haste and overland flight on fighter so he and eidolon could fly up to attack Arlantia after she had dropped a flamestrike on the eidolon and summoner (and catching Taurgreth as well).
Rogue finally dropped Arlantia with more than 100hp damage (after DR) in one round and the wizard realized he could use his bat familiar to search for Taurgreth, finding him just before the dust of disappearance wore off.
Taurgreth tried a final escape but failed his save when diving through the blade barrier and I rolled really high on the damage - enough to drop him, with the Trickster finishing him off with a lightning bolt.
Party will be starting book 6 at level 17 and I plan to have them L20 for the final assault on the Onyx Citidal.

acid fog didn't slow things down much but the handmaiden managed to escape through a blighted tree (but won't get blighted again for a day). All omoxes dealt with and the party headed straight for Arhlantu.
Of course Arlantia knew they were coming and from her spying on the party was well prepared. Had swapped out a number of the spells (thanks Grumpus for the idea) and bumping her cleric level up to 17 (party are 16th).
A sunburst from the wizard unexpectedly destroyed the mindslaver mold but Arlantia charmed Taurgreth and he has used dust of disappearance to defeat the party's see invisible and true seeing.
Particulate Form removes the threat of critical hits and sneak attack, and fickle winds stopped the rogue's arrow attacks. Arlantia's high spell resistance has also stopped several spells.
I might get to enact Groger's gift ;-)
Fight tbc next session.