Billy Buckman's page

My Gobstoppers have just reconquered Fort Phaendar and entered the Vault. The Battle of Phaendar was a grueling gauntlet that took the better part of a full day. The Gobstoppers arrive fresh off their latest shopping spree in Kraggodan, and one last night of R&R at the Canary in Longshadow. Then, they teleport to the woods, in fact the very location of their first pitful campsite after fleeing Phaendar back in Book 1.

The druid goes into hawk form and goes for a scout. While making note of the layout and troop distributions in the fort, the druid is attacked by none other than Maltagra the horned devil in her giant raven form. There ensues a brief, but harrowing chase as the devil fails to slow or capture the druid. Maltagra turns back to patrol the skies after giving chase for several hundred feet.

With the knowledge they've gleaned, the Gobstoppers move to make their attack. Their militia forces are standing by in the treeline to join in after the PCs punch a hole through the defenses. The party teleports to the far side of the bridge and launches their assault. The munitions officers (alchemists) are giving the most trouble with their touch attacks and debuffs, while the storm giants are mainly HP sponges. Maltagra joins the fray in the second round, but falls victim to an icy tomb hex. I had the alchemists running all around the sides of the gatehouse using spider climb to get some sort of cover from the eidolon's reach. Nevertheless, the PCs manage to punch through the gatehouse defenders, and make it into the fort proper. After being released from the ice tomb, Maltagra succeeds on a defensive concentration check and teleports away (to the Onyx Tower to heal and summon in some barbed devils for the inevitable rematch).

It's in the open parade grounds between the buildings where I had the hobgoblin commanders lead several troops to attack head on (I brought the Legion Patrol encounter into the fort, since as written the defenses felt a bit weak). I also threw in a couple of the lowest CR hobgoblin troops just to act as cannon fodder and make it feel like wading into a true battlefield. As the fight went on, I had Ettoran the vishkanya bard and his bodyguard monks emerge from the Taproot Inn to join the fray. Ettoran summons a giant anaconda, and the monks close the distance on the party's backline. However, between the druid's sirocco and the summoner's walls of fire, the movement and attack capability of the enemy is seriously hindered. It was a combat that spanned across 3 sessions, but eventually they took out the "main" force in the Fort.

From here I described another column of hobgoblin troops and commanders making their way to intercept the party from the barracks area, but they themselves are intercepted by the entrance of the Gobstopper militia. Karburtin hems them in with a wall of stone while Navah flies in and turns one of the Commanders into a lizard with a baleful polymorph. The militia has things handled at this location now, so the party is now free to make their way systematically around the Fort, dismantling defenses.

When they free the slaves from their pens, our witch player is reunited with his adoptive father, Speaker of the Leaves Mayslen Torgun from Tamran. After the sack of Tamran a few weeks ago, many of the captives were brought here to Phaendar (and some, taken through to the Onyx Citadel). Speaker Torgun finds himself a de facto leader of the enslaved Nirmathi here, along with Friar Damerto.

Neutralizing the remaining locations was fairly straightforward, though the entire time the party is using resources and healing, none of the enemies have presented a serious threat. It's late autumn in our game, so i describe the weather growing progressively worse, overcast becoming mist and rain, becoming freezing rain and sleet as the day dragged on. As they clear the final location in the Fort, and turn their attention to the Tower, they decide to rest and breach the tower tomorrow... But Scabvistin has other plans...

After realizing the Fort has fallen, he enacts the self destruct countdown giving the Gobstoppers no more than a couple hours to assault the tower! I described the tower lighting up with lines of glowing neon colors that starkly contrast against the dark stone and heavy clouds. The dwarven runes that cover the stone tower light up as the magic activates. I describe a kind of visual "countdown" as the time between "pulses" of light grows shorter and shorter. The Gobstoppers realize they dont have the luxury of resting, as their only chance of getting through the Stone Road to their final enemy is inside the tower.

It's been a long time and I'm well into book 6, but i figured I'd give a quick recap of my Book 5 finale.

- The bandersnatch was fun to foreshadow and tease, but the actual fight was slightly underwhelming. The terrain provided by the AP was just a bit to tight for the bandersnatch to maneuver along with a huge eidolon and large-to-huge wildshaped druid clogging things up.

- I leaned into a description on the entire dungeon as akin to the organs and body of some great beast, leading up to the reveal of the beating "heart" in Arhlantu.

- My PCs entered the Deeper Reaches, they dispatch the enemies around the massive cavern one by one. There was a bit of fun roleplay with Orellie the blighted pech, before negotiations broke down and her scorpions dropped from the ceiling.

- Because the party has easy access to both tremorsense and the eidolon's spirit sense, I was able to somewhat conceal certain enemies by having the walls and ceilings of the entire dungeon full of small creatures, basically flooding their senses with signs of life.

- They recover the final ring from the blighted hobgoblins and learn that the hobgoblin commander Taurgreth is with Arlantia.

- The party has a final rest in a fairy ring retreat near the rancid oasis, before reciting the verses from the rings, the rancid waters drain out of the pool revealing a twisting passage of slick roots and vines into Arhlantu.

- Once again, negotiations are short-lived before combat breaks out. Arlantia, Taurgreth, and a single surviving handmaiden all fly into battle. The witch float up and begins hexxing the PCs to lower saves and AC, and debuffing the eidolon with enervation and ray of enfeeblement. Arlantia herself casts blade barrier, then rushes into melee with the summoner, with Taurgreth to follow for the flank. They put up a good fight, but ultimately the PCs prevail.

- There is a heartfelt reunion as the PCs free all of Arlantia's captives from the pods. In addition to Gendowyn and her fey court, the druid's parents (from Crystalhurst) and a new PC were also freed from the Darkblight's clutches. The kineticist unfortunately had to leave the game and we introduced a new player for Book 6, an inquisitor.

- Taurgreth is taken alive, and the PCs ultimately bring him to their war summit early in Book 6 to testify about Ironfang movements and goals. Ultimately, I will have Taurgreth escape his imprisonment with the PCs' allies, to make his way back to the Onyx Citadel. There he will be imprisoned again as a traitor, and escape again into the wilds of the Vault. He will return to the story as a potential unlikely ally for the PCs. I will use him to seed the idea of a diplomatic ending to the conflict.

Tonight there's gonna be a jailbreak, somewhere in this town! The Silver Ravens successfully spring the Torrent Armigers from the Holding House. Morgar Manthai was instrumental in getting the Ravens set up with Dottari uniforms and a paddy-wagon. It was a tense bit of roleplay speaking with Sabo (who leered at the rogue and asked him to return when his shift was over so they could become more... acquainted). They get 3 of the armigers to the cart before returning to "negotiate" with the kyton torturer. Their main diplomacy check wasn't quite enough to convince the strange creature, and she attacks. It's a tough battle, but the SRs take her down and free Hortense from the torture room. They shut the door behind them and leave the Holding House. It will be at least until tomorrow before the guard discovers Ghenemahl has been defeated and raise an alarm.

After pulling away from the Holding House, the SRs cross the city to one of the first locations they visited in this AP: the Fair Fortune Livery. Here they are lying low, getting the armigers some much needed healing and R&R.

Have any other GMs brought Sabo the Spider back as an antagonist? I'd hate to have yet another statblock I cant use against my SRs in combat! I want to find some way for the Holding House incident to follow them around. Per the book, the SRs got out without any notoriety increase, so if Sabo is to stalk them, it would probably be on her own. MY headcanon is she was a "classmate" of Barzillai in inquisitor school. She's a consummate fangirl, and HATES Nox for being selected as Thrune's personal bodyguard (she doesn't even have divine magic!).

They made it through the 3 Nexus. Bargained with the Dragon, Fought the Xorn when they scoffed at their paltry offering, and barely defeated the Zarxorin.

Players pretty much un-interested with getting any answers from the sandbox, so they don't even know about the Transposition. Dropped clues about the "snaky-lass" being the one who aligned the Nexus, but players didn't care. I guess they probably forgot that they supposedly killed Zanathura back in the morlock caves.
Next session they'll have one last chance for information from the sandbox then the assault on the citadel will begin.

If your players are anything like mine, you'll spend the first 5 minutes or so of every session spelling out exactly why they are here and what are the immediate and long-term goals, along with important allies and enemy characters involved in the narrative.

We play once a week ideally, but will often miss a few weeks at a time (life happens). We also drink and goof off a fair mount most sessions. Unless your players are among the most hardcore pathfinder lore nerds or diligent note-takers, then remembering all the twists and turns of the story is going to be near impossible. Even the best groups sometimes need help putting 2+2 together. My players are very much the type that want to run to the next room to roll dice and smash stuff. I usually try to do this in my "Previously on..." style recaps.

Part of it is definitely the stage of the AP we are in (Book 5), what I'd say is most disconnected "diversion" from the main quest so far. I have to remind them every time we start, "okay, so you guys are in the Pestilent Palace to recover the Sardonyx shard. You need that to realign the Stone Road towers and get to Azaersi's seat of power at the 'hub'. Your buddy Karburtin's divinations revealed it had apparently disappeared into the Darkblight, where divinations and planar magic won't work. "

My players didn't really pull at any of the threads presented in the Kraggodan gazetteer. The big one being the King and his firstborn son trapped in a crystalline prison. But yeah, my players don't do much meandering and are usually pretty keen to advance the main plot.

We did some shopping in the city. I described them visiting Runesmith Alley and browsing some of the various weapon and magic shops. I rolled up some items to have on display even though they didn't purchase any (they mainly just traded in loot for "Big 6" items and upgrades. Additionally, after the Long Walk and the Reliquary of Ascension, it had been about a month since my PCs had seen the sky, so I made a big deal out of them taking the elevators up to the Upper Fastness, meeting the oread general Rhenso, and observing the Molthuni troops encamped outside the citadel's gates.

I did put a little time and effort into fleshing out the Greathammer Bastion, since the PCs would end up spending the most time there while in Kraggodan. The dwarves provided lodging and food, and it's where the Even-Handed Synod takes place. I described everything as very rich and opulent. Like a perpetual glamorous night. The light is dim and sultry, an orange glow pervades over all from the lava chamber below the city. Braziers and lamps provide extra illumination which glints and glitters off of accents of precious metals and inset gemstones on the buildings.

Personally, my group got way more out of the Longshadow gazetteer than the Kraggodan one. Mainly because they spent more time in town back in Book 3.

My Silver Ravens return to the Tooth & Nail after securing the aid of Octavio Sabinus at the Shrine of Saint Senex. Before heading home, Setrona convinces the PCs to join her in a game of Devilpin. They get a few round in before I realize this game is not balanced for average 4th level PCs and everyone including Setrona with her +4 bonus are racking up Hell-debt. I'd amend the rules in the future to be 10-15-20 instead of 15-20-25, which would probably make a bit more sense for a game typically played by drunk people.

Either way, several turns into their Devilpin game, I had a handful of Logrunners approach and stick them up for the apparent money they had staked on this game. The PCs ultimately manhandle the Logrunners, then learn about the drug-dealing gang and a bit about the Old Kintargo gangland in general.

We end with the SRs leaving the T&N. In their absence, Tayacet Tiora will visit the T&N and forcefully ask to investigate the scuffle.

Proceeding deeper into the Pestilent Palace, the Gobstoppers have dispatched the tooth fairy swarm and the pair of ropers. I managed to paralyze and extract 5 teeth from the witch before the kineticist obliterated the swarm with +50% damage from his aoe blasts. It was a disturbing scene and I got a satisfying reaction from the players describing the little fairies working together to pry his mouth open and wrench out his teeth.

The also explored G8. The Spider's Nest, but per the text, I had the leng spiders away from the palace at this time. They did however discover and loot the treasure, so the spider twins will be very upset upon their return.

We ended mid-combat with the baregaras. I had them start out by hurling the smashed stalagmites with Throw Anything, then they retreated to the far side of the big pit. Next time, I'll have them begin by summoning dire apes in the midst of the PCs, and they will attempt to grapple anyone who approaches the pit. My goal is to get one of the PCs in a grapple. The baregaras have good DR and a climb speed of 40 ft, so the idea is to simply have the creatures grab one of my players and dive into the pit with them. The savage fiends should have an unsettling disregard for their own safety. If they succeed, they'll use their climb speed to scale the sides of the pit and try to take another victim down with them.

Sabo the Spider is definitely Portia de Rossi, specifically her role in Better Off Ted.

Based off her art and vibe, I see her as Tilda Swinton.

Here's a few more casting rumors for Book 2:

Setrona Sabinus - Carrie Coon

Octavio Sabinus - Chris Evans

Luculla Gens - Lauren Graham

Tayacet Tiora - Awkwafina

Varl Wex - Tony Dalton

Cassius Sargaeta - Finn Jones

I also had the rift drake encounter at the ruined excavation. The open territory gave the drakes plenty of room to maneuver for their breath weapons and flyby attacks, and were actually pretty vicious foe for my party.

I believe I actually combined the ogre encounters. The PCs arrive at Kosseruk's abandoned encampment and engage the 6 brutes. Several round into combat, Origa and the two hunters arrive on scene and join the fray. Origa pops off some of her abilities, but I had her flee when it became clear the ogres were done for. The PCs nearly killed her as well, but I had her fly off and join up with hobgoblin bounty hunters from the back of Book 2, which I developed into a subplot throughout Book 3 and the beginning of Book 4.

Their final confrontation with Gaugagh, Qa'al, and Origa goes down in the atmospheric water hall in the dwarven ruins where the PCs face the cephalophores.

Random thought: but it occurs to me that the Arhlantu - and the greater Pestilent Palace as a whole - give the vibe less of natural cavern, and more of the chambers and organs of some living thing, with a living heart at the center.

What if, unbenownst even to Arlantia herself, the entire Darkblight - with Arhlantu at it's center - is being prepared as a quite literal, physical body for Cyth-V'sug himself? Like once the entire Fangwood succumbs to the Darkblight, the demon lord would emerge in a catastrophic "birth".

I am neck and neck with erucsbo it seems. Maybe a session or two behind.

We left off in the middle of a joint encounter with the faun chirurgeons and the blighted handmaidens from the Stitching Lab and the Infested Parlor respectively. The Jimenju tree immediately took out my heavy DPS characters (the kineticist and the eidolon) with it's intoxicating stench ability, which turns any fight into a bit of a slog. Without their main damage output, the party is forced to weather the magical attacks of the alchemists and witches (looots of abilities and buffs to keep track of in this fight, gee whiz). Several of the party members have been shaken, enervated, evil eyed, and enfeebled. The single blightguard as well as a couple of the chirurgeons and handmaidens had fallen, but the tree still stands as we left off last session.

The tooth fairy swarm lurks in the room ahead, which I have been excited to run since I first read about it before the campaign started. The party is also about due for a rest, and since the witch and druid can cast fairy ring retreat, resting should be trivial even in this hostile environment. So to add a little interest to things, I'll have obvious blightguard and bandersnatch tracks all over the place when they emerge in the morning.

By this point, the blighted unity ability of the fey means the element of surprise is gone. How have other GMs dealt with this? There appear to be some contradictions in the text, such as Orielle the blighted pech supposedly unaware of the intrusion before the PCs arrive at her chamber, despite her blighted unity ability.

Reporting in with an update on the Gobstoppers. We are deep into Book 5, having just entered Arlantia's Pestilent Palace. This section of the adventure has been a gauntlet of brutal encounters. The advanced Jubjub bird following directly after the blighted dragon. However, my party has mostly handled the fights, though they are blowing through a ton of healing. Of all the encounters, it was actually the froghemoths in the Blighted Depths that actually struck a killing blow on the party's druid. A raise dead scroll brought her back, but they were only able to heal one of the permanent negative levels, so she is fighting with a bit of a handicap until the party can find some restoration magic.

Speaking of the druid, her parents from Crystalhurst will be among the captives being held in Arhlantu. The dwarf kineticist has some incentive to restore Gendowyn and avenge the dwarven armies that fell in the Darkblight. And of course Gendowyn herself has kineticist abilities.

Reporting in just to say, I'm replacing Quicken Spell-like Ability (deep slumber) with Weapon Focus (spell touch) on Kusana.

The amended tactics will be to get her in flight, use her movement to stay out of range to cast spells, first mirror image, followed by suffocation, then her touch spells, casting out of range, then on the following turn, swoop in using spring attack to deliver the spell and get back out of range. If she manages to pull this off with a bestow curse or poison spell, she'll enter firey form and try to detonate on as many PCs as possible. Then, she'll attempt to grapple her grandson the witch for a little blood drain. She doesnt want to kill him just yet. She's fine with dispatching his friends, but she wants to subdue the witch and extract the spells from his familiar.

Well, in my group, Kusana is the party witch's grandmother (Navah is his mother), so hopefully there will be some opportunity there. Since he is a male witch, and thus not qualified for hag-ification, she instead wants to capture him and extract all the magic from his familiar. I'll have her use her disguise hex to appear as a sweet old lady with a picturesque little cottage.

I'll give some incentive to resolve the encounter non-lethally since the witch is likely to be interested in Kusana's spell list.

As for the tactics, yeah that does seem a bit sloppy. It's likely that Spring Attack is meant to be used in conjunction with the touch spells, but I see no way around the deep slumber oversight. PCs and companions will all be over 10HD at this stage. I'll likely just replace that feat.

My interpretation is that "takes to the air" probably means staying pretty close - maybe 10-15 ft up - using Spring Attack to dive in to deliver touch spells and claw attacks then retreat back out of melee range.

About to run the Even-Handed Synod. Very stoked on the aesthetic of Kraggodan, and I have a good idea for the character of the dwarves.

Has anyone done anything with the especially tantalizing hook of the actual king and heir being down in the final vault. Have anyone's parties asked to go down and meet with King Borom or tried to release Darund from his crystalline prison? The way it's described in the book, it's hard to imagine a party not wanting to investigate this strange mystery, it almost comes across as the main plot.

The party has arrived in Kraggodan. New casting leaks are as follows:

Prince Gorm Greathammer - Kumail Nanjiani

Exemplar Thramirra Greathammer - Mindy Kaling

Hikal Balatum - Erin Kellyman

Royal Archivist Karburtin Lightbrand - Jemaine Clement

Colga of Trudd - Michelle Rodriguez

Greetings,

I have been waiting to run this AP since it came out and finally after numerous delays, I have finally begun. It's been the first one that I could really sink my teeth into.

Someone earlier in the thread commented that they had 6 players, I am currently running with 8 players and me...

I concur that the nature of this part of the adventure means a party of 8 is going to find the encounters less than trivial. And I mean many of them might find themselves rarely even getting a turn in combat. Until the trog caves, it's wilderness adventure with only one or two encounters each day. My own party of 5 at the time, absolutely demolished these without breaking a sweat. With a party of 8, adventuring days with a handful of encounters will barely scratch their daily resources.

A couple recommendations: First, max out your monster HP for the rest of the adventure. Don't take the recommended average or roll it, just max it. I did this shortly into my run and haven't looked back. My party still mostly crushes encounters, but I at least can get an extra turn in here or there to add a little drama.

Second, use the back of the book bestiary table or even dip into the generic forest ones in the GM tables and bestiaries (can't remember where these are all located). Pad out the adventuring day and tax their resources a bit with 'random' encounters. I pre-roll mine, so I can weave them into the narrative a bit better, so not really random I guess. I used a couple as narrative encounters with skill checks and RP instead of combat. The sunflower leshies and Molthuni scouts in particular.

Final hail mary suggestion: Split them up and run two parties of 4 as god intended. XD

De-imp-ified in what way? Like turned back into a halfling from her life? Probably some very high level magic like greater wish, miracle, or true resurrection. It's been decades at least since her mortal form perished, so the latter is a stretch. Even then, I'm not sure she'd retain her imp memories, plus the sticky situation that she was an evil halfling in life, which is how she ended up in Hell to begin with. I'd buy it, but only with a sufficient redemption arc of some kind.

Short answer: maybe? And if so, it'd be extraordinarily expensive high level magic, so late game stuff.

A few more days pass after discovering Blosodriette. Turns out the half-elf street urchin character has a Sarnini somewhere back in his family tree.

To my surprise, the party didn't balk at all at bringing the tiny imp into the fold. I had Rexus and Morgar Manthai act as a foils in the conversation, expressing their extreme reservations at having an actual devil in their midst.

Rexus wonders whether this will send the wrong message to their supporters. However, the Silver Ravens had made their decision, and given the alternatives, it might be for the best. Sure, they could send Blosodriette back to Hell... along with all their secrets. Whether it gets back to Thrune and the Asmodeans is a long shot, but it's still a scary loose end.

The rogue decides to take his chances and attempts to control the imp using the power of the blood contract. For the moment, the imp has agreed to remain in the hideout and has been sworn to silence regarding all she's seen down there.

Moving on, the rogue had also taken some extra ranks in linguistics and is now helping Rexus with the decoding work. So this week they learn the 4th fact about the old Silver Ravens: Jackdaw and her friends had repelled no less than a dozen attempted conquests of the city. So now, it's 2-3 weeks depending on linguistics checks until the docs are fully decoded.

Finally, after another day or two of laying low and doing a bit of shopping, the party recieves some alarming news. One of their tiefling supporters appears at Longroads and informs them that the Chelish Citizens have captured none other than Zea for an unsanctioned doghousing. After the party's exploits at the Sallix Salt Works (they dumped all the bodies in the salt pit), Thrune is hoping for some unofficial retribution against these upstart criminals. The thugs at Aria Park will have limited descriptions of the PCs based on the injuries seen on others.

Huh. I thought it was great if for no other reason that the party gets a talking dinosaur as a reward. It also involves several important NPCs. Hetamon Haace, Shensen, and Strea Vestori all have important character beats in this mission. Meeting and rescuing Strea is something a party invested in Kintargo intrigues should find rewarding. She should have been talked up by other NPCs like Zea and Hetamon up to this point, and any of the NPCs who knew her should be ecstatic to find her alive.

Octavio's detection spell to locate Hetamon, and Shensen's eagerness to find clues about Guttugger should be enough of a hook to get players interested. Getting to the bottom of what happened at the Silver Star is payoff for stuff set up back in book 1.

The party just discovered Blosodriette. It was about a week after the Dottari showed up at Longroads, and the team still had no leads. On a whim the party's time-mystery oracle casts detect evil in the Stormwater Shine and sure enough, there is a presence that the oracle pinpoints hiding behind Calistria's head. A successful command spell brings the presence to the dock. The orphaned, street-urchin half-elf rogue demands that the creature reveal itself. The tiny devil appears and turns to face the rogue, she bows deeply and pleads "Please, don't harm me. All I've done has been to aid you, Lord Sarini.."

Just as some more general character notes:

-Rexus is not hopeful for his parents survival, but the lack of closure does give him a glimmer of hope. But he isn't delusional, people who get disappeared by the Thrunes don't usually have good things happen to them.

-I play him as a bit hapless and absent-minded professor, but in a very endearing, self-aware kind of way. This is how I interpreted his higher charisma score, while keeping him out of the direct spotlight within the rebellion.

-He spends most of his time plopped in front of a mountain of papers in the hideout, with a giant coffee and plate of pastries from upstairs. Treep Fushi has become his unofficial office assistant.

-Rexus's gender identity is totally matter of fact. It's not something he shoehorns into conversations, but he doesn't hide it either. It's not any kind of secret, though people outside of the Greens (my PCs) would have little reason to know or care about such scandals among the nobles. Laria has known for years of course, and probably even helped connect Rexus with his alchemical needs via the Newt.

-I really love the idea of connecting the proclamation against mint to the existence of the Mulibrous Tincture and Anderos Salve. An underhanded way for the Thrunes to indirectly cause harm to "aberrant" segments of the population.

When my party went to investigate the ruins of the Victocora estate, I had them discover a dented lockbox that survived the collapse in a small alcove under a staircase. Inside they found a worn, simple wooden amulet bearing the holy symbol of Irori (a memento from Porcia's days as an Iroran monk), and a hand painted portrait of the family. The portrait showed Rexus's parents and between them a little girl with the same expressive brown eyes and curly brown hair. The party assumed the little girl was a sister or even his mother.

When they returned to the Wasp's Nest, they show Rexus the portrait and he lovingly traces his fingers over his parents' likenesses. He reveals matter of factly that the little girl in the portrait was him. He reveals that he was raised for the first decade of his life as a girl, but his parents accepted his male identity without hesitation despite the social blowback. He reminisces briefly about the Shelynite priest who aided his transition. Unless there's some direct contradtiction of this in the story (haven't read all the books yet), I'll likely have that priest be none other than Zachrin Vhast, current high priest at Songbird Hall. Described as "androgynous" in his little blurb on the back cover, and the book briefly mentions his "performing illegal marriages in Nidal". I think that's a good enough foothold to build out that connection.

I imagine that the Victocoras could have afforded the Elixir of Sex Shifting, though it would have come quite dear for them. Something like that Elixir might not be common knowledge outside of certain circles. The NPC background states that Rexus had coveted that life, but never pursued it until meeting the Shelynite tutor, so maybe neither Rexus nor his parents realized that it was a true possibility until then.

Rolled a purple worm on the random encounter table. It's their first fight after leaving the Long Walk, and it's quite a doozy. We ended with a cliffhanger on the top of the second round of combat. By then, the worm had grabbed and swallowed the party's eidolon. It still has more than 130 hp left. Should foreshadow well the dangers that lie ahead on the route to Kraggodan.

Yep, I have her minutes-per-level and longer buffs and spells already running. We did a cliffhanger after some intense negotiations. They refuse her bounty to bring back the trox slaves out of hand (they HATE slavers). Kisegar tries to play diplomat, but once Rovalda sees the dwarf in the party, all negotiations are off. She hovers up from her beetle's saddle and imperiously calls down that she will not suffer upworld weaklings to walk the sacred stones of the Long Walk while she draws breath.

My party has arrived at the Five-Eyed Matron. Any tips on running Rovalda? I've never run a psychic before. Just been reading and re-reading about how these phrenic amplifications all work. My plan is to separate the healer with an ectoplasmic wall. He's usually flying, so I'll put the wall as a sort of "trough" underneath him, then attempt a targeted dispel on the fly spell, with a dispelling pulse via telekinesis.

The duergar guards will enact their enlarge person ability to form a bulwark of protection and go toe to toe with the enlarged eidolon, while the chapel beetle will attempt to trample several PCs if the opportunity arises. The eidolon usually makes quick work of the front-liners, so I'll have limited rounds for Rovalda to put out her spells.

By serendipty, my players happened to mention their old svirfneblin friend from Book 1 on the day they were set to encounter Novvi's trading party. So it was a fortuitous reunion. I tried to play up the alien weirdness of the various dark folk, and it was fun teasing out the reveal of Novvi, as she slowly unravels the filthy rags and removes the false nose (a pitted gray mushroom) of her dark creeper disguise.

The Gobstoppers, plus Kisegar and Chen, have arrived at the Five-Eyed Matron, and officially reach the end of their journey on the Long Walk. Kisegar faces a tough dilemma as she must choose between her employers and clients whom she correctly sees as a source of great wealth, and her people and god in the form of Rovalda's party. Of course one of the tenets of Droskarites is their willingness to get one over on their fellow duergar, so it probably won't be too much of a dilemma. The Gobstoppers' open revulsion for slavery is fascinating to Kisegar.

Rovalda confronts the party in the shadow of the giant five-eyed statue. She barely gets her offer out before the party aggressively refuses. The tidy sum she offers is meaningless to them now. Their refusal, plus the presence of the dwarf kineticist sends her into a rage and she flies up from the saddle of her chapel beetle. We ended on the cliffhanger as she and her party move to attack.

In the middle of book 1 at the moment. My players are halfway through clearing the Sallix Salt Works. My plan is to have Forvian Crowe suggest the Tooth & Nail as a temporary safe house, since they are out after curfew, and crossing the city and Bleakbridge to get back to Longroads is a bit out of the question.

Kisegar is a lot of fun. I keep having Chen buzz lazily through the air and bump off the eidolon and flip on his back. Every party of duergar or other random encounter on the Long Walk, Kisegar explains that she is escorting very important surface dwellers, and that she is the premiere guide for any traveler on the Long Walk. She explains proudly to anyone who will listen how she was a slave only a couple days ago. I had the drow encounter last session, a slaver party for house Vexidyre, and tried to hype it up by having Kisegar wanting the party to run. They would have none of it, and confronted the twisted elves and put a very final stop to their quest for slaves from the surface.

Venturing into Ironfang Invasion Season 4, we have some great new actors and some returning familiar faces as well.

Origa (Michelle Yeoh)

Iuwlas (Fred Armisen)

Zanathura simalcrum (Angelina Jolie)

Flendak Derth (Jonathan Banks)

Kisegar (Emma Stone)

Novvi (Kate Micucci, met the party back in Season 1)

Continuing the campaign, the Gobstoppers teleport back to Longshadow for some much needed R&R. They pick up a few scrolls and wands, and Navah delivers a handsom gift to the party's summoner. The Breastplate of Command (reskinned as studded leather) embossed with the twin likenesses of Hillmer's owl and bear heads on the pectorals.

After this they teleport back to the silent and empty morlock warrens. They take the passageway to the Long Walk, and after a couple hours on the road, they are ambushed by the slaver party. Flendak Derth opens combat with a surprise round (the duergar are hiding behind a large chunk of rubble) by casting a shadow conjured spiked pit. However the DC is pitfully low and the eidolon and lynx companion easily pass the saves and engage the duergar warriors.

The party easily handles the rest of the encounter, and after some fun negotiations, Kisegar joins the party as a guide. With a successful diplomacy check, they convince her to take a handful of magic items looted from her erstwhile captors as part of her eventual full payment. She jacks up the price due to the presence of a dwarf in the party, but eventually relents and they settle the deal at 7500gp, upfront payment in the form of protective magic items, and a cash sum upon completion of services.

Kisegar has been a real treat to play as GM, and having a dwarf in the party to berate is such a sick pleasure. She even successfully cajoled him into approaching the twilight mushroom hazard with her, and I was able to deploy her "pitiful weakness" dialogue. If the party is sufficiently heroic and impressive over the course of their journey together, Kisegar may even have a change of heart and start to see surface dwellers in a new light.

Zanathura the Second falls and the party advances to 12th level! Iuwlas is tentatively helping the party, but now that the simalcrum is destroyed, their usefulness to the morlock is running thin. He's planning to have Grax and the other morlocks below ambush the PCs and tie off this loose end. Iuwlas hopes the party will dispatch Grax for him and he can take over, leading the remaining morlocks deep into the Darklands to await the return of the "true goddess".

Revisiting this adventure. Was wondering if anyone has run with a sorcerer in the party and if so, did you use Moltus Vargidan as the sorcerer mentor?

I'm curious about his intended backstory. There's nothing listed beyond "sorcerer mentor". What does everyone think his bloodline might be? The flavor text describes the old man wandering around his estate muttering to nobody, which suggests to me some otherworldly intelligence. Also something kinda creepy and evil given his apparent obsession with propagating the bloodline. Also meta-wise, we're probably pulling only from the CRB. That makes me think, abyssal, undead, infernal. Something along those lines.

Okay, so reading through Book 4, I found something curious.

In addition to these treasures, Zanathura’s notes detail an obsidian troglodyte sword she recovered in the Darklands and awarded to Chief Grax when she made the hulking mutant her champion. The same notes also detail the ritual she used to enlarge the weapon to suit the hulking woman’s frame, and with these same notes the PCs can reverse the ritual, transforming the Large-size nine-ring broadsword into a Medium-sized one suitable for their own use—if they can recover it from Chief Grax, of course. The reversing ritual takes 2 hours to perform, requires either a potion of enlarge person or a potion of reduce person as a material component, and only works on obsidian weapons.

Now to me, this looks a lot like a way to bypass the typical restrictions on resizing weapons. My party has an eidolon that shifts size often, and is the party's main weapon user. With access to this esoteric ritual, I'm tempted to allow my party to resize more stuff. I think after making an appropriate arcana or spellcraft check. Gating the ritual behind a crafting feat might make sense too.

Of course one interpretation of the text implies that this will only re-shrink Grax's sword to its original medium size, and shouldn't be used to resize gear at will or at all.

Edit: just read the part about obsidian only. Duh. Still, seems like something an accomplished caster/crafter may be able to adapt to their own purposes.

How divination heavy are your parties? Mine got hella into it, and a lot of creative energy was spent on omens.

We have a witch and a druid, so mainly just scrying an area, studying it for several minutes, then teleporting. In total, they spied on Gaugagh three times using her bastard sword to lower the DC. It was a fun way to give the players some tidbits and background info on these NPCs, as well as the Legion and the adventure in general. It was their first glimpse of Aloi, although they didn't realize it. They got a look at the size and composition of the army camped there. They saw the onyx tower at the center of camp. They saw that Gaugagh was shunned by the rank and file hobgoblins. They overhear Qa'al cautioning Gaugagh that she needs to stay in control and disciplined. Gaugagh paces nervously and mentions that "this dwarf in my head won't shut the hell up!" referring to the pyrokineticist's mother/Gaugagh's medium champion spirit.

I actually haven't experienced a game where players really made a lot out of the divination spells.

There is a massive showdown in the Water Hall. This has been a long time coming.

Qa'al the gunslinger and Gaugagh the medium had first ambushed the party all the way back at the ruins of Redburrow in early Book 3. They harried the party briefly while they were busy with the trench mist, before escaping on their wyvern mounts. However, since the witch managed to sleep hex the medium, she dropped her +1 bastard sword, and using this the party would scry on her a handful of times over the coming weeks.

This was a great way to show the Ironfang camp in the Valley of Aloi, and foreshadow the size of the invading force coming to Longshadow. During these scrying sessions, the PC's learn a few more tidbits of lore. They see the neat and orderly rows of tents teeming with hobgoblins, minotaurs, and morlocks. At thh center, a handful of wooden barracks and the Stone Road tower, standing tall.

The two unusual hobgoblins are bounty hunters are encamped a fair distance away from the main force, not official members of the Legion. Qa'al is cool and collected, focused on the mission and the money. He cleans his guns, inspects and organizes his ammunition. Gaugagh is slowly descending into madness (RP of the spirit influence class mechanic). She has been channeling the spirit of a party member's mother (champion spirit), who she had killed some 20 years ago during a raid on this PC's village (Palette Falls) giving him his Unbreakable Survivor campaign trait. The unquiet spirit of this PC's mother is straining at her captivity just as Gaugagh channels the spirit's power to enhance her own abilities. She also completely freaks out all the superstitious hobgoblins. Just one reason why she isn't at the Battle of Longshadow.

Qa'al and Gaugagh remain in the Valley during the invasion, their orders come from higher up and they don't answer to Kosseruk. When it becomes clear the invading force has been defeated against all odds in Longshadow, the bounty hunters take to their wyvern mounts, and with a grenadier troop at their command, they camp in the heights of the valley, waiting for the PCs to inevitably arrive. I leveled Gaugagh up a few times (8->11) to keep her viable in the combat vs my 11th level PCs.

Flash over to the PCs who have made their way through the valley recovering the treasure and intel from the abandoned encampment. They face down Origa and her ogre minions. They almost kill her as well, but she uses everything she has to flee. She recognizes the PCs for who they are, and as a specialist of sorts herself, knows of the 15,000gp bounty on each of their heads. Thus, she resolves to go find the bounty hunters and throw in with them.

Fast forward to the Water Hall, the PCs have dropped the final of the four cephalophores, but before they can figure out their next step, a challenge rings out. Gaugagh is stepping onto the scene. She speaks an incantation, lifting up a handful of iron powder. She snorts it and grows to immense proportions. Qa'al pops from around a chunk of rubble with his loaded musket and takes a shot. Meanwhile an invisible Origa, flies into position to flank the party's squishy casters, nocking two arrows in her +1 shock longbow.

What followed was an intense battle in the atmospheric water hall with the summoner's wall of flame and the druid's ice storm in play. The grenadier troop joins the fray in the 2nd round. The NPCs use everything they have. Gaugagh's array of buffs (mirror image, displacement, haste, heroism, protection from good, and enlarge person) keep her standing way longer than most foes.

After finally dropping Qa'al to negative hit points, the battle is over. In this holy site of Grundinnar, the PC's mother (a dwarf) miraculously manifests for a brief moment, and our pyrokineticist gets some closure, as his mother's spirit is finally put to rest.

Making our way through Book 1, the party has just dealt with the tooth fairies, after staying the night at the Cloven Hoof Society, they return to Longroads the next morning. There they touch base with Rexus, but they are interrupted by a commotion. Morgar Manthai barges in with the faerie dragon Vendalfek gripped tightly in his fists, claiming he found "the saboteur" skulking around in the Stormwater Shrine. The PCs mediate the situation, informing Morgar that Vendalfek is an ally. As a former Dottari, Morgar has a difficult time accepting the chaotic little creature, but eventually they smooth things over. Turns out, Morgar used to take his beat in eastern Villegre, near the White Gate. Fortunate, as the party has expressed interest in entering the Greens to investigate the ruins of the Victocora Estate.

My VTT of the scene.

The party entered the morlock warrens. They are making their way through the first level. Sadly no one has failed a poison save yet, and so far the creepers are a bit underwhelming. It was funny to have a few of the advanced morlock mooks use their leap attacks on hovering party members just outside the cave entrance. Unfortunately, none made their grapple checks and immediately fell to their deaths, but it was entertaining and perhaps a bit unsettling for the players.

On Roll20, I just a made a medium sized token for my hobgoblin troops. Gave them initiative and hp, then just copy + paste until I have filled out the space of the troop (for the basic troop, 16 individual tokens arranged in 20x20 space). For the minotaur troop, it was 4 large tokens grouped together.

Here's how it looks on my VTT.

I found that the troops make great additions to battles to raise the stakes and give the party a wall of nameless mooks to tear through. It's a way to streamline the process instead of adding dozens of individual low CR creatures. They also have a fair amount of guaranteed damage since they don't actually make attack rolls, so a decent way to soften up a party, and give your more unique monsters and bosses some room to use their more interesting abilities.

Functionally, they attack like a massive swarm, share a large health pool, but take damage as medium-sized creatures, so not as frustrating to kill as an actual swarm. I described them losing HP as individuals within the troop falling and dying, but more troopers simply step into their place and close ranks. The phalanx troopers in particular were fun to pit against my party with their Close Ranks and Tripping Spears abilities. The morlock swarmer troop has terrifying potential in the Battle of Longshadow. Their Expert Climber and Leap Attack abilities mean the entire troop can run up walls and leap through the air, crashing over your party like a tidal wave, doing automatic troop damage all along the way.

About halfway through book 1, here's what our cast looks like so far.

Barzillai Thrune - Mark Strong
Rexus Victocora - Elliot Fletcher
Laria Longroads - Sinead Cusack
Zea - Zendaya
Nox - Sarah Jessica Parker
Hetamon Haace - Lee Pace
Morgar Manthai - Josh Hartnett

Book 1 hints early on that the Chernasardo Rangers are preoccupied. I believe there is some clue at All-Eye's Wood or one of the other woodland locations. So I assume the takeover came very close to the Night of Iron Fangs, if it wasn't the very same date.

I don't think it's ever stated whether the onyx key is used to capture the Chernasardo forts, but I had it that way in my campaign. Specifically, the key was used to open a passage to the forest about a mile from Trevalay. This is how Eygara, Salokut, and the Ironfang rank and file get there. From that point, troops are sent to Ristin (who are subsequently clubbed to death by korreds), and the alliance with the trolls secures Nunder.Of course, Ibziariak, Jang, and Parthuk are native inhabitants of the Fangwood, and are the ones who help facilitate the takeover.

After recapturing the fort, my party found the tumbled down slag remnants of an onyx tower near Trevalay, though they wouldn't confirm what it was until they see a tower collapse firsthand at Longshadow.

I also set mine at the summer solstice. Wealday, 21 Sarenith, 4717 to be precise. Important milestones:
-Camp Red Jaw: Moonday, 17 Erastus.
-Red Rock Revel: Fireday, 4 Arodus
-Battle of Trevalay: Moonday, 28 Arodus
-Arrive at Longshadow: Moonday 18 Rova
-Battle of Longshadow: 26-28 Rova
-Enter Valley of Aloi: Toilday, 10 Lamashan

In retrospect, I might have set it on the spring equinox to keep it more in line with the 'official' canon, which would put the Market Festival/Night of Ashes on Moonday, 20 Pharast, 4717.

Trudging through the Valley of Aloi. The rocket tag portion of the adventure begins in earnest. Initiative rolls are really telling now, the rocs rolled low and got dumpstered in 2 rounds, but the rift drakes rolled high and put a PC down in the first round. Left on a mid-combat cliffhanger with only one of the drakes having taken any damage. Flyby attack, power attack, bleed, and the breath weapon are brutal, and blow through 11th level HP pools.

The PCs handled the ogres at the abandoned encampment. After sorting through the treasure left behind, I had Origa and her hunters arrive on scene to confront the PCs. The oni recognized the mark of the kami on our pyrokineticist, and reveals the 15,000gp bounty on the PCs' heads. After a couple rounds of combat, Origa uses her fly and invisibility to escape with a handful of HPs, resolving to go find and throw in her lot with the hobgoblin bounty hunters: Qa'al and Gaugagh. The party knows they are also in the valley somewhere after scrying them.

The plan is to have Qa'al, Gaugagh, and Origa ambush the party just as they defeat the cephalophores at the Water Hall ruins. That scene with the dwarven ruins and the aqueduct in the shadow of the mountain is too damn dramatic and atmospheric not to have a higher stakes mini-boss fight there. A nice set piece battle for the PCs to say goodbye to the surface world and sky for a good bit of time.

My party used the Gather Information action during their militia turn to scout the Valley of Aloi. Many old miners and prospectors in the Hollow Hills will repeat legends about the riches tucked away in hidden Aloi, though few know it's location and fewer still have laid eyes upon it. Their conspirator team hiked out from Longshadow and managed to discover the high pass into the valley along the old dwarven highway. From saddleback pass, they spotted some large aerial predators (drakes or rocs, they couldn't tell at a distance), and weren't equipped to fend them off. They did note for the PCs that there was a thick bank of fog shrouding the valley for all but a couple hours before dusk.

Soon the PCs will venture to the valley themselves. Hopefully the breadcrumbs from Kosseruk's encampment and the morlock warrens will be enough to take them through the Long Road to Kraggodan.

I've been contemplating this too. I'm almost to my first 10'x10'square maps in Book 4, so I haven't quite crossed that bridge yet (and blown it up behind me).

For the really big ones, I'll probably do exploration and reveal areas on the 30' map normally, but switch to a localized battle map for combats.

In my game, I just jumped right into the action. I let the players give a short introduction or tell a story in the pub, then I shot Aubrin with the ballista bolt!

I really like what you've done. These games are clever, and show a lot of character for the NPCs and the setting.

If you make it all the way to the end, you have to have a festival in the reconquered Phaendar and replay all the games.

After the end of Book 3, there's been a bit of a break in the action. First a militia turn:

Spread Propaganda raised Fort Phaendar from Hostile to Unfriendly. The way I spun it was their new Longshadow Irregulars crew managed to infiltrate and make contact with the slaves kept in the complex, so next time maybe a latch will be left open here, a door left ajar there, etc. Also a way to do a bit of foreshadowing - they learn the bridge has been completely rebuilt, walls have gone up around the place, and it's patrolled night and day by elite soldiers and specialists on the ground and in the air.

Gather Information sent their conspirator team out to the Valley of Aloi, where they scouted the old dwarven highway and the mountain pass. They report back that the place was totally shrouded in fog except for around 2 hours at dusk, and that some kind of fearsome flying beasts lived up in the mountain aeries surrounding the valley, but they weren't sure if they were drakes, wyverns, or something else.

Lastly, since they've kept their notoriety low, events have been rare, but this time we got one, and as luck would have it they got 'Festival' the day after winning the Battle of Longshadow. Okay then!

After dealing with their militia, they went on a shopping spree with a dose of character backstory. First to Korvosa, where our Acadamae dropout witch ran into some old classmates and the party got to see some of what had happened since our last campaign (CotCT). Next, they teleport back to Trevalay, where they reunited with some old NPCs from previous books, though their destination is Crystalhurst. The druid wants to return home and touch base, and is upset to learn that her parents along with several other druids and animals from the village have gone missing, this has coincided with a renewed advancement of the dreaded Darkblight. More foreshadowing for Book 5, I'll try and impress that they aren't quite ready for the challenges there yet, perhaps even give them a taste of the disease/curse thingy.

Eventually, they will hopefully make their way to Aloi and the breadcrumbs there will take them through to the Darklands and Kraggodan.

Okay, my group finally finished this book and overall I think it went pretty well. The battle felt epic, and although no one died or even went down during the siege, they burned through an incredible amount of healing magic. Druid + witch in the same party = pretty powerful healing. Here are some random notes about the Book 3 climax:

* The Dreamstalker sisters attack 2 nights after their failed nightmares. Ambushing the party + mayor in some back alleys. They kill one and captures the other. This comes back later.

* They recover 2 of the big charges from Ecru, and use the rest to blow the place to hell. Vane Oreld (who showed up with a group of C. Rangers) relishes the prospect of blowing the largest stump-remover in the books.

* Minor side quest where the party recovers the Swift Obsidian Axe for Maldeen Kulcher. They uncover a series of tunnels in Warehouse Row using tremorsense, and capture Neele Wittich, a Molthuni spy, interrogate her for a bit and throw her in jail. They discover a cache of weapons including the magic axe, and gain a few Defense Points.

* They gain a few last minute Defense Points when the kineticist and druid sweep the perimeter looking for tunnels to seal up. They find a handful. One leads to the warehouse tunnels. One leads from the old Cerisum manor currently occupied by Razmirans. They get invited to a potluck. And finally, one leading from the southern sewers of the city to a mausoleum in the Last Shift graveyard. This was their idea and I thought it was clever and a good way to throw in a little more flavor for the city.

* Day 1 goes off without too much trouble. They handle the atchach with ease, and they are able to cut off reinforcements at the docks before more troops arrived. The witch is heal hexing everyone he sees, so I reduced the DP attrition somewhat. Grenta Irontusk joins the fight against the fire elementals, but not before they burn down the jail, and release the surviving Dreamstalker sister.

* My group pretty much mopped up the various missions around the Hollow Hills, the timing really couldn't have been better, and I stayed true to the book's recommended countdown. I think they spent just the right amount of time in Longshadow getting to know the city, but never really getting a chance to relax. Because of this, there were a lot of empty turns during the battle. So I had Kosseruk deploy some of the back of the book encounters, mainly the Burl ogres joined the battle. Though the hobgoblins find them distasteful as anyone, they desperately needed the shock troops. I beefed up the Warmaze Masters with a few more advanced minotarus to replace the gorgons.

* Day 2, they are still handling the encounters fairly well, although they usually have some help from various NPCs, the mayor, Aubrin the Green and a couple others are at the south gate. Navah, Maldeen, and Hillmer are at the main gates. Cirieo and Meriam Kems are at the north gate. I think the morlock swarmer troops sufficiently foreshadowed how awful the beginning of Book 4 will be. I had them swarming up building to collectively leap off onto PCs.

* As the DP total falls on the second day, I describe teams of hobgoblin sappers deployed to the walls in multiple locations. They tunnel underneath and start to weaken them and I try to impress that the defenders are running out of time.

* I have the Dreamstalker sister attack the mayor from invisibility during the second round of the giant ankheg encounter. She sees an opening to decapitate the leadership, but the mayor tanks the blow and the party dispatches the bugbear along with the Earthshaker and the cavaliers. They see the clear opportunity and take the tunnnel to Kosseruk's encampment.

* The encampment becomes a 3-hour rolling encounter leap-frogging from the behir, to minotaur troop, to phalanx troop, with Kosseruk hurling threats as she descended the tower with her bodyguards. The party handles things quite well all things considered. They take some considerable damage, but no one goes down. A clutch Wall of Fire does significant damage to the phalanx troop while the eidolon made his save to avoid banishment by the Dismissal scroll. The image of the druid, in earth elemental form, wielding a whip of centipedes as she was surrounded by the burning phalanx troop is seared into my mind.

* Kosseruk goes toe to toe with the hyper-buffed, huge-sized eidolon with 7 attacks (w/haste), and just can't take the heat. Even with her bodyguards boosting her AC and healing, the eidolon and kineticist carve through her HP in a few rounds.

* We end with the party collapsing the archway and collapsing the tower, but not before stuffing all the intel and treasure from up top into their bag of holding.

Gosh, the alchemical golems are absolutely brutal. They are crushing my party. The phalanx troop softened up the eidolon, but the bombs targeting touch AC was too much and a few solid hits puts the eidolon out of commission, even with the summoner siphoning his own HP to the creature. The DR and magic immunity is making it very hard to do damage, with the eidolon as the main source of physical damage, still getting DRed. The druid's pet goes down and suddenly the party is seriously on the backfoot. More golem bombs bring the witch and kineticist down quite low as well and only one golem has taken damage. We ended on a cliffhanger where the party was deciding how to best make a retreat.

Thank goodness I didn't deploy my clockwork excavator. One of the bombardiers ran over to activate it, but the party intercepted, and a timely Hold Person spell kept the excavator out of the fight. It will be just perfect if the party manages to take down the golems only to realize that the hobgoblin was just a few feet away from unleashing something worse. Also, would be a cool reward for them to somehow capture the excavator to use in the battle (though bringing it back to the city could be problematic).

Or you could have him go with Novvi. He should know the punishment that waits for him back in the Legion and may decide that the most expedient action is to help her carry equipment and act as bodyguard as she returns to the Underdark.

You could even have him reappear down the line in book 4 when Novvi pops up again.

I like this. Just punish Farhrak by forcing him to be Novvi's pack mule and assistant through her Darklands adventures. They can even meet him again in Book 4 when they take the Long Road. They can see it eating him up inside giving his direct enemy the very tools they will use to take down the Legion. If they get magic armor from Novvi, make sure she orders Fahrak to help the PC don it.