We just wrapped up our Blood Lords campaign with Book 3 due to scheduling issues. Here is the complete list of character obituaries from our 3 book campaign.
Name of PC: Sir Bartholomew Arkalot AKA Sir Barkalot
Class/Level: 2nd-level Thaumaturge
Ancestry/Undead: Ghost Shoony
Adventure: Zombie Feast - Graydirge Bank
Catalyst: Zombie Shambler Troop
Story: Good old Sir Barkalot was holding back the shambler troop door in an attempt to let our Reanimator (or w.e. that archetype was called) Sir Scapula attempt diplomacy with the mindless undead. It did not turn out well.
Name of PCs: Styx and Sif
Class/Level: 3rd-level Rogue and Magus
Ancestry/Undead: Living Goblin, Vampire Sprite Tiefling
Adventure: Zombie Feast - Final Boss
Catalyst: Final Boss Encounter
Story: The two got cooked by the cauldron before we were able to disable it.
Name of PC: Michael
Class/Level: 4th-level Sorcerer
Ancestry/Undead: Living Human(?)
Adventure: Graveclaw - Axan Woods
Catalyst: Cairn Wights
Story: The rest of the party being immune to the Cairn Wight's abilities made them focus-target the squishy melee-sorcerer. RIP Michael, we hardly knew ye (he was the replacement for the Goblin rogue)
Name of PCs: Bovar Hellhorn, Sherrashad al-Sairenia
Class/Level: 4th-level Champion and Sorcerer
Ancestry/Undead: Minotaur Skeleton and Elf Vampire
Adventure: Graveclaw - Iron Tavia's Hut
Catalyst: Iron Tavia's Hut
Story: After facing off against a pretty tough, but manageable encounter against Iron Tavia, her hut did immediately attempt to eat us. And eat us it did.
Name of PC: Henley Vitell
Class/Level: 5th-level Swashbuckler
Ancestry/Undead: Human(?) Dhampir
Adventure: Graveclaw - Sunken Urgathoa Temple
Catalyst: Sahni Bride-of-the-Sea
Story: I don't remember the details, but between the Axen Woods and Sallowshore a player left and we got another friend to join as a replacement, and after one-and-a-half session his Swashbuckler got killed in the fight against Sahni Bride-of-the-Sea.
Name of PC: Vashir
Class/Level: 7th-level Champion
Ancestry/Undead: Nagaji Ghoul
Adventure: Graveclaw - Yled
Catalyst: Geist and haunts
Story: During our battle in Nathelma's office Vashir the ghoul laid down his life for his creator (more on him right below) and pushed Naxxarus out of the room before being destroyed himself.
Name of PC: Naxxarus Nexxus
Class/Level: 7th-level Wizard
Ancestry/Undead: Living Elf
Adventure: Graveclaw - Yled
Catalyst: Wraith Guards
Story: So after having his creation valiantly sacrifice its life for his own, Naxxarus proceeded to eat shit in the immediate next encounter. We knocked on the door to Nathelma's home, and a bunch of wraiths came out of the house and ganged up on the only living creature in the party (thus the only one they could actually hurt). He got better. Kinda.
Name of PCs: The Mummy With No Name, Pazuzu
Class/Level: 7th-level Gunslinger and Bard
Ancestry/Undead: Human Mummy, Living Fetchling(?) Bard
Adventure: Graveclaw - Yled
Catalyst: Fireball
Story: Bursting out of the cupboard like a Left 4 Dead respawn, the Mummy With No Name joined the gang in the fight against Nathelma. Sadly the fight went sideways and a retreat was called. As it was called Pazuzu the bard was knocked unconscious, and before the Mummy With No Name could leave Scander Mord (our Skeleton Sorcerer) threw a fireball back into the room with Pazuzu, the Mummy, Nathelma, and her apprentices. This fireball then downed the Mummy, killed Nathelma, and her remaining apprentices. But this was not discovered until after the party returned. At which point Pazuzu and the Mummy had failed all their death saving throws.
Name of PCs: Sir Scapula, Naxxarus Nexxus, Scander Mord, Thyandrai Zyandanna, Maia, Morrigan Lunaria
Class/Level: 9th-level Cleric, WizardNecromancer, Sorcerer, Thamathurge, Rogue, and Barbarian
Ancestry/Undead: Compact Skeleton, Elf Wraith, Skeleton, Elf Dhampir, Fleshwarp Ghoul, Living Human Werewolf
Adventure: Field of Maidens - Field of Maidens
Catalyst: Ghast Outlaws
Story: "It's just a sidequest, how hard can it be?"
-Fameous last words of a party about to TPK.
We fought a bunch of Ghast Outlaws in the Field of Maidens. Had them down to the wire when it turned out there was an entire 2nd wave of ghouls/ghasts ready to kill us immediately after. No one survived. A new party was rolled up. I want to particularly give a shout-out to Sir Scapula who had been with us since the start of the campaign.
Name of PC: Lanfirana Sairenia
Class/Level: 10th-level Necromancer
Ancestry/Undead: Vampire Nephilim
Adventure: Field of Maidens - Field of Maidens
Catalyst: Hungry, Hungry Bullette
Story: Our new party encountered a bunch of Bullettes with a taste for undead flesh. The reborn Pazuzu fled to the skies leaving one undead to be muched upon by the Bullettes. RIP Lanfirana
And that brings us to the end of our fallen comrades. We finished Book 3 today, and though we did not win we surprisingly did not have another death. One can argue that being mind-controlled by a undead mindpire is worse, but hey, we take our wins where we can get them.
Given that the AP is (presumably) 1-10 and is called "Hellbreakers", I assume it is going to have something to do with the Hellbreaker's League in Isger that was mentioned on page 92 in War of Immortals.
Is it suppose to have a large printable map PDF? I can't speak for every AP, but the ones I have bought (EC, AoE, AV, QftFF, OoA, BL, SF, SKT, WoW, and TotT) have only ever included the adventure pdf and the interactive maps pdf documents.
For my game I just let them have Free Archetype with no restrictions other than "If uncommon/rare, ask me" and it has gone fine. No one really chose any archetypes that were "out there" so to speak, they all picked stuff that fit with either the campaign or their character's story.
Fighter went Bastion initially, focusing on his shield fighter focus and the ability to protect others (like civilians in danger). Later he picked up Barbarian due to a growing anger with the villains.
Alchemist went with inventor because she was from the Clockwork Cathedral and was a student of science.
Bard went with Edgewatch Detective to be more of a grizzled veteran. Once he exhausted the archetype he went with Loremaster for more knowledge.
Cleric went Medic, having trained with the forensic unit.
Gunslinger went Swashbuckler to lean heavier into her sword and gun theme.
Monk went Wrestler, reasoning that learning how to grab and restrain criminals would make a lot of sense for a hand-to-hand fighter. Later he branched out to Student of Perfection once we got through Book 2 and he was introduced to the captain of the Sleepless Suns
GreatGraySkwid wrote:
Witch - Spontaneous casters could be anybody!
Witches are prepared casters, not spontaneous casters.
While it was on the borderline between pre and re master, I feel it is feature complete and recent enough that it would be more appropriate to remaster an earlier, messier, AP. Gatewalkers I understand prioritizing something considered a 4 and making it a 7 is more important than taking a 9 and making it a 9.5. I'd rather touch up something that's either super well spread(Abomination vaults) or could do with a bit of repair due to being super early. (Extinction Curse)
Honestly this is how I feel about it as well. Whilst I am sure Season of Ghosts will eventually get a hardcover rerelease. I imagine it more for like an anniversary given how well-received it was. For now I'd honestly be more hyped for a Age of Ashes or Agents of Edgewatch remaster than Season of Ghosts.
After finally getting my hands on War of Immortals and reading through the lore, there was a bit in the update on Garund that caught my eye. Appearently there is a pool that gives those who bathes in its waters glimpses of memories from those whom Gorum has killed. And one of those who bathed there was a pirate captain whom says they saw the memories of a long-dead Pirate demigod, and conversely learned of the location of a great treasure. The rub is that the treasure lies somewhere amongst other planes and not on Golarion.
This plot hook speaks to me immensely, and now I really want an AP about a interplanar treasure hunt utilizing pirate ships and racing to get the treasure before anyone else can. I feel like this adventure will tick so many boxes for me. Pirates, planes, sea-creatures. Heck yeah!
As written the Adventure Path enemies are predominantly humanoids, with there being a lot of constructs and daemons sprinkled in. There are also occasionally ooze enemies. I also feel like there has been a lot of ooze enemies. Of these, humanoids don't really have a specific weakness, Daemons are weak to holy (or Good pre-remaster), oozes are immune to crits but have low AC to compensate, and the constructs are either golems (resistant to physical damage except for adamantine) or clockwork (weakness to electricity or orichalcum).
Defensively there are a lot of enemies who inflict bleed (particularly in book 2, but also later), or use poison/acid damage (particularly in book 3-4). If you feel particularly like punishing yourself, give them something which offers resistance to Unholy. I gave them a Demon Horn spellheart and ever since then the tank takes basically no damage from daemons since the resistance applies to every damage type. Lesson learned for the future.
I'm currently in chapter 1 of book 2. All my martial PCs have +1 Striking weapons and at least two of them have +1 Armour Potency runes (I have 6 PCs, 4 of which are martial). It helps that you are for the most part close to settlements, so you can buy these things. I also added a wandering Xorn merchant whom I put into my random encounter tables (read: I pull out if I feel like they really need to buy or sell some stuff).
Sorry for taking a few days, was very busy these last few days. But for what I've done with the relics in my game is I've added one relic - The Skyweave Prototypes from the Lost Dwarven Treasures section.
Skyweave Prototype Aspects metal
Forming the Bond The PCs are given the shield by the Stonefist clan.
Advancing the Bond Find and recover the remaining Skyweave Prototypes.
Minor Gifts Absorb Injury, Enhancing Circuitry, Scrap Shot
Major Gifts Precious Anodization, Spirit Blink
The first item they got was the Skyweave Prototype Shield, which is a reinforced steel shield made out of Skymetal. After much research I figured out that Skymetal is most likely Djeezet, so I made it that. I introduced an NPC from the Lost Omens: Highhelm book—Skogg Bloodhammer, the owner of the Cracked Anvil Brewery, which served as the PCs main meeting spot and drinking hole. I noticed that in the description he is always polishing a shield, so I made him be the one currently in possession of the Shield and had him grant it to the PCs after they helped him out at the end of book 1. Advancing the bond will be "as simple" as finding the remaining pieces little by little.
As for the existing relics I was going to change Kalmaug's Journal to function like a staff instead of a Grimoire, but then the player whom was playing an Oracle retired the character and rolled up a wizard, so I kept the journal as is.
Book 2 introduces 2 more relics for a total of six. So the base adventure does account for for there being bigger parties. That being said I agree that the relics may not fit the party in such a way that they all fit.
I'm heading out right now, so I can't give you a full write up on what I've done for my party of 6 PCs, but I'll see if I can't write about this tomorrow. But for the most part I looked at the "Lost Dwarven Treasures" section for inspiration.
...huh. welp, that's going to change how I approach my homebrew Sky King's Tomb continuation. Thanks for teaching me about Bokrug.
As for the topic on hand, I'd love for something that deals with the Dominion of Black. Other than that my only wish is that it is an 11-20 AP so that it can work as a sorta follow-up to Gatewalker.
But I digress, getting back to WoW and communication issues, I did notice it was kinda weird that campaign overview explains ancient history with Ghorus and such, but doesn't really explain any of the current and upcoming events of the campaign in detail besides the book summaries themselves.
I second this. The most disappointing thing for me when reading WoW as it was releasing was not knowing what the entire outline of the adventure was going to look like from book 1. I feel like Paizo has in the past been better at explaining up front the central conflict of the AP and what each subsequent book will cover. But in WoW we just got "Here is some backstory about Ghorus, and here is the back cover text we wrote on the store page... It was really not helpful in figuring out what was going on or where the adventure was headed.
The second main complaint I got is that I feel like the pre-marketing was setting the adventure up for a "Civilization vs Nature" theme with the whole "For once, the wilderness is your ally instead of a hazard to be overcome" thing. But instead the adventure ended up being "Fey/Nature civil war" which was not what I bought in for. Of course, this could have been a misinterpretation of the marketing on my part.
I'm running Skull and Shackles right now, and a Skull and Shackles 2e Remaster Remaster with Plunder and Peril bonus content would be significantly fun.
I would love either a updated PF2e version of Skull and Shackles or an entirely new high seas adventure for PF2e.
Looking through Book 2 and like... she's a guide to what should be a fairly well known location in the Darklands. And... that's it. And why isn't she at all connected to the original expedition to her destroyed home earlier in the book?
Like, you could just hire someone to take you there. So... what's the reason that she in particular is important?
Yeah, Jirelga's irrelevancy (and the handwaving of dealing with the prison warden) is bugging me as well. So inspired some stuff I read online (I forget if it was here or on reddit) I've made her extremely paranoid, jittery, and vengeful against the worm. She wants to find Zogototaru and kill her. So she isn't going to leave once they reach the Court of Ether but instead stick around as an ally of sorts for the party. I also dropped the whole prison thing and just had Jirelga be a prisoner in the Gremlin room of the bakery.
Yakman wrote:
One of the PCs has involvement with forgery and artifact dealing. I think what I'll do to tie in Jirelga is have her sell some relic - maybe something that 'fell' off the worm??? which our intrepid PC comes across and it's got some hints to Felgunn / Targick [still thinking if I should go for it being a 'relic' or just a powerless item]. That would then help with Targick pointing out the need to find her in Part 3. BUT... I dunno.
Seems kinda weak. What do you guys think?
Since I wanted to introduce the relics all a bit earlier, I made it so she had the "relic seed" of the Avernal Cape in the form of a scale belonging to Zogototaru. The relic seed will at the moment just give the fire resistance if you spend an action raising it, but it gives the PCs an indication that there will be a worm relic. Which I think is important as one of the PCs is a Created Fleshwarp who is trying to ascend into Cave Wormhood. So since everyone else has gotten relics so far I wanted to make sure they know "Yours will come as well, young worm." Jirelga and the PC have had... interesting interactions so far. The PC admires Jirelga's grit in surviving being swallowed by Zogototaru and keeps calling her "The one blessed by the worm!" and Jirelga deep down just wants to kill the abomination that reminds her of her home's destruction. But guided by the shard they now travel to the Court of Ether to find the Cave Worm.
Elemental planes. I know they don't do six book APs anymore, but I had this dump idea of having a six-book AP where each book focuses on one of the elemental planes. But even within a shorter 3-book AP I'd like some elemental plane shenanigans.
I'd also like an aquatic adventure of some kind. Be it high seas (something like Treasure Island perhaps?), or a underwater merfolk adventure, or maybe something with the Elemental Plane of water. I don't really care which setting it is in, but an excuse to pull out all the cool water monsters is something I crave.
Going to possibly have the last session of book 1 later tonight. I've decided to Ygrin to Narseigus by having him communicate with the Wormcaller through the fireplace when the party comes into the room with him. This will be how Narseigus gets introduced to the party (besides being in one of my PC's backstories) and I'll offer them a chance to talk a bit with Narseigus and Ygrin (whom hopes to either turn them over to their side or get them to lower their guard slightly before attacking them).
I've also given Ygrin pages of Kalmaug's Journal so they can start gathering it early. Changing the relic to work like a staff instead of a Grimoire since none of my PCs are prepared casters.
Also since I have 6 players I decided to add Xomar Glavit (from book 3) and Arghan Tolorr (bio from Lost Omens Highhelm) into the Clan Festival as influenceable NPCs.
My only concern though is whether the item is Foundry-compatible for 2e remaster. Does anyone know how that works, carrying over items made for Foundry 2e adventure work for a Foundry 2e remastered adventure?
AFAIK Foundry doesn't really separate Legacy and Remaster in any meaningful way. They took out a lot of the overlapping classes / spells / feats and stuff, but those are all available in a module called "PF2e Legacy" which you can install if you want to use say, the old Wizard schools. But all the old items and monsters should just be in the compendium by base. And I can confirm that the
Spoiler:
Horn of Rust
is in the compendium even without the Legacy module installed.
Yeah, the whole Gala Champion thing confused me a lot to upon reading it. I like the concept of it, but the actual mechanics of the overall scoring is very poorly explained and the book can't seem to agree with itself it is suppose to be a team thing or an individual thing.
My players are currently in the Court of ether and they are HATING this part of the adeventure. They feel the tone set by the first book is lost, the encounters aren´t interesting, the challenges are bland and they don´t care at all about the fey people (why they would?).
I was worried about this when I prepared the adventure, and I am worried about the 3erd chapter also, because I am pretty sure they are going to hate the Hryngar city too (being a party of 4 dwarf is not going to help).
Not sure if it´s just me and my group or is a feel that other tables are having.
Still playing through Book 1, so I could not say for sure. But my group has so far picked up on there being a lot of Fey related stuff coming up in the adventure so far, so I think it will go over well for my group.
Fey stuff so far:
The trouble with the House Spirit at the stable, the Fey scribbles of Skribellon, and a Skelm lurking about causing trouble (I dropped hints at the Tomb of there being a Skelm about. And when they learned that "Skelm = Male Hags?" they assumed that Skelms are feywild creatures). It also helps that they saw that Fey was a recommended language in the Player's Guide and thus I think they picked up on there going to be somewhat of a Fey presence in the adventure. One of the players even decided to play a Fey Summoner specifically due to this hunch.
9. Blocked Tunnel - MODERATE 3
The party comes across a tunnel which is partially blocked by a small boulder. There is some space above the boulder, but it is too small for a medium creature to squeeze through, requiring the party to either find a way around or dig their way through.
The boulder is actually a sleeping Living Landslide, which will stir awake once something attempts to crawl on top of it. It is not happy about being awoken, and starts the encounter as unfriendly if they were crawled upon, or hostile if they were attacked (in the instance of the party trying to dig their way through it). The party can attempt to calm the landslide down and have it move aside, but unless its attitude is changed to friendly, it demands tribute in return.
If this encounter is rolled during the night the party awakens to find their path forward being blocked by the boulder, which was not there when they went to sleep yesterday.
Just as a little heads-up, there's a very similar encounter in book 2, chapter 2, but with a Cavern Troll.
...Huh, well I'll be damned. This is what I get for skipping reading the room-by-room encounters and random encounters on my first time reading through the books. Thanks for the heads up, gonna have to change this encounter somewhat.
So as we went down into the Darklands last Saturday I had to finalize my random encounters table for the Darklands travel section in Chapter 2. Here is what I got.
During the day one member of the party rolls a d20. If it is 16+ they roll a d12 and I consult the table for the random encounter.
If they did not have a random encounter during the day they roll another d20 when they stop to rest for the night. If it is a 17+ they roll a d12 and I consult the table for the random encounter. They also roll a d6 to see who is on watch duty when the encounter happens (I got 6 players and I had them set a standard watch rotation).
PATH OF THE DAGGER RANDOM ENCOUNTERS The encounter difficulties and monsters listed here are balanced for 4 PCs.
1. Lost Munavri This going to be a recurring encounter in my Darklands table for the game.
A female munavri sailor named Ommarrin fell overboard during a battle and washed ashore in an unfamiliar cave. She has been trying to find her way back to her people for a long time, but with little luck. She has gotten incredibly, incredibly lost in the myriad of tunnels and caves of the Darklands and thus is ever so grateful for any assistance in finding her bearings. If the PCs offer her assistance in navigating the tunnels (by telling her where she is, where the nearest settlements are, or where the nearest body of water is) she offers her thanks and rewards them with some minor gift she has acquired during her journey.
I'll prolly elaborate on this encounter more as my game progresses.
Creatures: Using the Munavri Spellblade (Bestiary 3) statistics for now.
2. Harassing Scamps - TRIVIAL 3
- Daytime: The party comes across a group of Scamps who are harassing a nearby traveller (could be a merchant, a guard patrol from Highhelm, or maybe just some lost wandering Darklands denizen). The party can either engage the scamps in combat to drive them off, or try to engage them in conversation/use an appropriate skill check to scare them away.
- Night time: The Scamps try to sneak up on the sleeping party to perform some pranks of minor annoyances. Probably stealing something noteworthy like the Adamatine Echo from Krohan or an important item from the PCs. If the Scamps are successfully undetected they stick around to watch the PCs reaction for when they wake up, giving the PCs a chance to catch the thieves.
Creatures: One Mephit Swarm found in Pathfinder Society Scenario #2-16: Freedom for Wishes. I dunno what the rules are for posting official statblocks, but this one was free on Foundry but isn't on Nethys so IDK.
Alternatively just use two regular Scamp statblocks from Monster Core (or Mephits from the Bestiary). Pick whichever two you want.
3. Blindheim Hunters - LOW 3
- Daytime: The party comes across a underground river where a pair of Blindheims are hunting. They wait patiently in the water for the group to try to cross. When whichever one looks the smallest/weakest attempts to cross they leap out to strike, attempting to drag their chosen prey under the water to drown and bring back to their lair.
- Nightime: The Blindheims comes across the party's camp and attempt to sneak in, abscond with the smallest member and flee back to their lair.
Creatures: 2 Blindheims, Bestiary 2.
4. Scorpion Attack - LOW 3
- Daytime: The party comes across a group of Cave Scorpions laying in an ambush.
- Nighttime: A group of Cave Scorpions comes across the party's camp and attacks them in their sleep.
Creatures: 3 Cave Scorpions, Bestiary 2.
5. Xulgath Hunting Party - LOW 3
- Daytime: A group of Xulgaths begin stalking the party waiting for the perfect moment to strike. The party might notice them being followed due to the stench. If not noticed the Xulgath waits until the party camps for the night before striking.
- Nighttime: A group of Xulgaths attempt to sneak up on the party's campsite and kill them all in their sleep.
Creatures: 3 Xulgath Warriorsor 2 Xulgath Skulkers, both statblocks are from the Bestiary.
6. Myceloid Survivor - LOW 3
One of Scribellon's allies grew wise to the Leshys true intentions, and attempted to convince the other Myceloids that they had to kill the overzealous Leshy. They failed to convince the other Myceloids and was soon chased away from the colony. Ironically this lead to this Myceloids survival, who now prowls the tunnels of the Darklands alone, hunting for food and planning their revenge.
Once this encounter is rolled, the Myceloid has encountered the party. Sensing an opportunity, the myceloid stays hidden and attempts to stealthily follow the party so that they can observe them. The next time the party camps, the Myceloid attempts to sneak into the camp to infect them with purple pox in order to create new Myceloids. If discovered it attempts to flee or negotiate with the party, attempting to recruit them in their revenge plot against Skribellon. If the party accept, the Myceloid joins them for their journey, but continues its attempts to "accidentally" infect the party with Purple Pox.
Creatures: 1 Myceloid, Bestiary 3
7. Lurking Spider - MODERATE 3
- Daytime: The party is ambushed by an Ogre Spider who attempts to kill and eat one or more of them.
- Nighttime: The Ogre Spider sneaks up on the party's camp and attempts to kill and eat one or more of them.
Creatures: 1 Ogre Spider, Bestiary 2
8. Prowling Ankhravs - MODERATE 3
The party feels trembling under their feet. Moments later a pair of Ankhravs emerge from the ground to attack them.
Creatures: 2 Ankhravs, Bestiary or Monster Core.
9. Blocked Tunnel - MODERATE 3
The party comes across a tunnel which is partially blocked by a small boulder. There is some space above the boulder, but it is too small for a medium creature to squeeze through, requiring the party to either find a way around or dig their way through.
The boulder is actually a sleeping Living Landslide, which will stir awake once something attempts to crawl on top of it. It is not happy about being awoken, and starts the encounter as unfriendly if they were crawled upon, or hostile if they were attacked (in the instance of the party trying to dig their way through it). The party can attempt to calm the landslide down and have it move aside, but unless its attitude is changed to friendly, it demands tribute in return.
If this encounter is rolled during the night the party awakens to find their path forward being blocked by the boulder, which was not there when they went to sleep yesterday.
Creatures 1 Living Landslide, Bestiary/Monster Core
10. Approaching Bloodstorm This encounter isn't fully fleshed out yet. I'll probably create a custom hazard for this and make it a recurring thing through the adventure. I am taking inspiration from the Bloodstorm presented in Lost Omens: Highhelm.
The sound of buzzing insects verberate through the nearby tunnels. A telltale sign of the oncoming Bloodstorm. The party is nowhere near powerful enough to fight the Bloodstorm on their own, so they must escape or hide before the Bloodstorm can catch them.
11. Dero Ambush - SEVERE 3
A dero slaver party ambushes the party, attempting to subdue and capture them to bring back as slaves. They flee when reduced to 1/3rd of their health or when the strangler dies.
Creatures 3 Dero Stalkers, 1 Dero Strangler, all from Bestiary/Monster Core.
12. Crayg, Xorn Merchant This going to be a recurring encounter in my Darklands table for the game.
The party encounters Crayg, a wandering Xorn Merchant. Crayg has items to sell or trade for, and he buys any precious gemstones at a 25% mark-up (so if a gem is normally worth 10gp he buys it for 12gp and 5sp).
CreaturesXorn, Bestiary
Dunno if you already ran it as part of/alongside Abomination Vaults, but Trouble in Otari is 2nd to 4th or 5th level. And if you didn't already do the Beginner's Box you could do that for level 1-2. Of course, your players might be tired of Otari as a setting for that.
Is Hagegraf close to Highhelm? and upper the court?
According to the book, the Court of Ether is a two-weeks travel from Highhelm. Which I don't think is correct when you look at the map the book provides. By my calculations, Highhelm is 550 miles away from the Court of Ether when you draw a straight line between the two cities, which (assuming 25ft speed that most PCs have) would take 27 days of travel to complete.
The exactly length of the journey from the Court of Ether to either Hagegraf or back to Highhelm is not stated in the book, but my "straight line" estimate using a ruler puts it at 560 miles, which makes for 28 days of travel with 25ft speed creatures. Again, this is with a straight line on the map.
Finally between Hagegraf and Highhelm the straight line is about 100 miles, or 5 days of travel for a 25ft speed creature.
Of course, both the Court of Ether and Hagegraf is entirely underground, unlike Highhelm which is at the surface. But I hope this helps you.
Thank you for this write up! This is actually perfect for me to slot into our current investigation in my campaign of Edgewatch. We're at the tail end of book 3 and my players are chasing down the bomb threat posed by Franca Laurentz. As written I am suppose to give them downtime to just prepare for the Irorium being bombed, but my players like being proactive and wants to find Franca and the bomb before she gets a chance to detonate it at the Irorium. This might work perfect as a place for them to ultimately be lead to and deal with in their chase for the bomb!
Hey, thanks for posting those reviews CorvusMask! I am currently running Agents of Edgewatch (we're at the tail end of book 3) and reading your thoughts have been enlightening / inspirational when it comes to getting some perspective from the player side on things on this adventure as written. I've been homebrewing in a lot already when it comes to this story, but reading your reviews gave me a lot more thoughts for future plans / ideas. So I just wanted to say thank you!
What really struck me was you talking about how the Twilight Four's plan as written makes little to no sense, which was something that had been bothered me and which I was planning on doing something about. Here is what my plan is going forward (spoilering it because it is quite a lengthy post):
Spoiler:
Firstly let me preface this by saying that my game takes place in my own homebrew setting with my own homebrew gods. Instead of Absalom the game takes place in the Grand Duchy of Buldarin, a place ruled by an aging and ailing Grand Duke, who supports himself on a council (basically my stand in for the Grand Council of Absalom). Instead of Norgorber the Twilight Four are worshippers of the Masked One, who has always been my world's patron deity of thieves, secrets, and medicine, but for the sake of this adventure I also added the murderers aspect for the Skinsaw cult.
I've changed the membership of the Twilight Four a bit. Whilst Wrent Discapiron, Reginald Vancaskerkin, and Oleansa Terimor are still the same, Jonis Flakfatter is no longer a member. Instead Jonis Flakfatter is an honest-to-gods High Priest of the Masked One's Smiling One's aspect, the version of the Masked One worshipped by healers / alchemists, and he has been trying to use his position to keep tabs on the darker aspects of his gods' worship. This means he has some knowledge of the Twilight Four, but not enough to topple them yet. Replacing Jonis I am using the leader of the Varlokkur's (whom was introduced earlier in my campaign as one of the new PCs introduced at the tail end of book 2 is a member of the Varlokkurs), who is the Divine Spell lord of Buldarin.
The Twilight Four's plans are as follows: Steal the rulership of the city by honouring their god. Wrent Discapiron is used the same way as she was originally used, sacrificed a bunch of people to create pools of blood around the city and spread fear and unrest during the Radiant Festival. The Varlokkor leader has secretly been poisoning the duke, who is going to die during the course of book 4 (this is how Jonis Flakfatter got on their trail, more on that later). Reginald Vancakerkin is spreading misinformation and lies with his newspaper. He is also using it to weaken the position of anyone supporting the political opponents of Oleansa Terimor. Terimor for her part will "steal" the duke's daughter's heart, marry her, and make her into a puppet for her own purposes. Thus ascending her to position as "Queen" of the city. What she doesn't know is that Reginald is going to try and usurp her position by swapping his soul with that of the Duke's daughter's so that he ends up coronated to the new Grand Duchess. He might succeed on that as I want him to be the ultimate BBEG (he has so much more of a presence than Terimor in this adventure it is insane).
Now as I said earlier Jonis Flakfatter is the High Priest of the healer god of the city. So when the Grand Duke got sick he was of course called in to try and heal him. That's when Jonis Flakfatter discovered that the Duke had been poisoned. But not being a fool, Jonis did not tell this to everyone as he had no idea who was responsible. Instead he told only the duke and his daughter this, and the duke tasked him with figuring out who is responsible. Jonis has been trying to heal the duke, but the poison used is an extremely potent one he has not seen before, so he will need a lot of time to figure out how to heal it (it's resistant to the usual magical healing methods). Jonis has over the course of his investigation figured out that these Twilight Four must have:
A) A member who is on the council
B) A high-ranking member in the justice department
C) A member with great control over the underworld
D) A powerful divine spellcaster
E) A member who is kidnapping and sacrificing people
F) A member who controls the Blackfinger poisoner's cult
Jonis has mistakenly made the conclusion that Wynsal Starborn (who in my version is the Lord Justice in charge of all the guard departments) is probably one of the Twilight Four, and thus do not trust any of the guard districts at all, fearing they are all compromised by Wynsal's goons. He also believes that Radios, a former gladiator-turned-Arbiter (my version of Law Lords) is one of them. Radios is a new character I invented for the story. Taking inspiration from the description of Rubeis from Lost Omens: Absalom, they are a masked gladiator who people do not know the true identity of. Many rumours surround them, such as one saying they are a clockwork automaton and not a flesh-and-blood person. 50 years ago they were the champion in the Irorium's main annual event 7 years in a row, before stepping down and being made into an Arbiter by the Grand Duke (speculation being that the Grand Duke offered them the position in order to get them out of the arena). Radios has already been a torn in the side of my PCs and he is indeed connected to the Twilight Four, but not on the level of being one of them.
The reason I bring this all up is to explain my version of book 3-5's events. The Twilight Four (now three), knowing the city is hunting for them after Wrent Discapiron spilled the beans know they need to get the city off of their scent again. They are also aware of Jonis Flakfatter's personal investigation and his attempt at curing the Duke, so they want to get rid of him as well. So they are setting up the bombing event with Franca Laurentz having utilized Reginald Vancaskerkin's eye-monster (whom I've forgotten the name of atm) to replace her eyes into believing that she is seeing Jonis Flakfatter and that he has been convincing her to do this bombing. They've also had Radios help her in gaining access to the Irorium, at the same time setting him up to take the fall for the events that are going to transpire. Finally at the end of book 4 they setup Wynsal Starborn and his arrest, having him appear to have murdered Harlo Doleen (in fact I am planning to have the PCs come in just as they see Wynsal Starborn seemingly plunge his sword into Harlo) and having been behind the Graveraker theft (which has been stolen to be turned into a massive weapon of war as a back-up plan to wreck havoc should the Twilight Four need to resort to an actual violent take over instead of the subtle theft).
So my plan for the end of book 4 / beginning of book 5 is for the city's government to believe that the Twilight Four has been dealt with. Radios the "Clockwork Prince" (my replacement title for rumourmonger) and Jonis Flakfatter the Father Infector gets framed for not only the Irorium attack, but also for poisoning and murdering the grand duke. Wynsal Starborn the "Gray Queen" gets framed as the mastermind having conspired to take over the city. The Agents at this point will probably not believe this to be the case since I am hoping they will have had time to speak to Jonis and learn what he knows at this point (the whole section at the beginning of book 4 is going to happen as a result of Jonis believing Wynsal is going to have him killed instead of arrested), and they will probably insist on keeping up the investigation. But the higher-ups in the city will want nothing more than to close the lid on this entire case, believing the agents to have been caught up in the lies of their enemies and tell them to forget about it and go back to work. This will (I hope) lead to a more believeable beginning of book 5 where instead of being disgraced, they hand in their badges and go rogue, which would also appear more appealing to Miogimo (whom I've already started to plant the seeds of in book 3). Also I think that plays more into the cop movie trope of "loose cannon cops who don't play by the rules".
If you read all that, thank you for taking the time to do so. I am sorry for any spelling errors or bad writing on my part. And again I just want to thank CorvusMask for his reviews, as it actually played a big part in me finally putting together all the pieces of what I am going to do moving forward.
We finished chapter 1 yesterday. Well, most of it, they got a few minor quests left that they can do, but we'll see if they will do them. The PCs were interested in owning Silvercap Tavern so Dierdrali offered to sign it off to their names since it saves her the time of finding a buyer.
A thought I had yesterday is to make Skribellon have contact with Ygrin Oathcarver in Highhelm, and possibly even Narseigus' group. Skribellon is a very angry mushroom, and Skelm's love riling people up, so I am thinking of having the two having correspondances with each other. Not complete allies, but more like the Skelm realized what Skribellon is doing has been egging him on to take more drastic measures. Like using the invasive mushroom species in the sewers of Highhelm to spread his mushroom infestation faster. We'll see how that goes.
In other news I turned the Knights of Lastwall quest into a more involved VP skill challenge. Taking inspiration from Season of Ghosts which one of my player are running for us on the side, I turned spreading the reputation of the knights into a longer 6 VP required challenge. For their reward they ofc get access to the Knight dedications, but also spells, items, and feats requiring access to the Knights. Gave them a wand of Forced Mercy as an immediate reward in addition.
They haven't tried their hand a Diomira's Drop yet, but I am thinking that on the off chance that one of them actually succeed in making the full climb, they will get a minor boon from Bolka. I'll probably just use the same effect as Shelyn's minor boon, but we'll see.
I like that idea about moving Kalmaug's Journal to Chapter 2 of Mantle of Gold. Or at the very least add some of the pages there so they get the idea that "this is something you should be collecting" early on. Luckily I don't have to worry about the Relics being weird to give to non-dwarves as my players were very excited to be playing an "all dwarf party" after I told them what AP I wanted to run. Only one of them mixed it up initially and chose to be a Fleshwarp, but he choose to be a dwarf captured by Hryngar and turned into a Fleshwarp after escaping. I tied his backstory to having been Krohan's buddy and having tried to go on the adventure with him, then getting captured and turned into a Fleshwarp, which incidentally blinded him so he doesn't recognize Elbert Glassgrinder as being Krohan (although he thinks there is something familiar about his voice.
Charlatan's Gloves would probably be a good replacement. I just made it a +1 Studded Leather with Shadow (or more correctly, the Foundry module did that for me). But the players were immediately suspicious of getting a 5th level item in session 1 (Blacknoon Gauntlet was the first quest they did) and so were convinced that it was a cursed item and that they merely failed to identify it. So they sold it to Ixigia Glammertooth (from Lost Omens: Highhelm, the proprietor of Glammerous Goods) and split the money instead. I am happy with it. The fools actually failed their identify on the +1 dart and thus have transferred it (and the curse) to the ranger's bow.
As for Narseigus, I voiced a similar opinion in one of the other two threads. I thinking of maybe having some "cut-away" scenes showing him scheming in the background. I've done these in the past as either session openers or closers, basically showing a very short "cutscene" of the BBEG (or something else important) that happens away from the PCs. My players have been very fond of these scenes in the past.
I am thinking the first one will either be after the PCs recovered Skysunder from Guldrege or when they have finished the Rite of Reperation. I am thinking of having a dwarf or a Xulgath walk off into the shadows and then drop their illusory disguise to reveal themselves to be a Dero who gets out an amulet or magical doo-hickey that they contact Narseigus with. They will then say something like "Your visions were right, my master, the deplorable dwarves have recovered the traitor king's dagger!". I am planning on having Narseigus having a group of Dero "apprentices" working for him, simply because I like Dero and want to use them more. So they will be working like his spies around different places.
Good catch! I hadn't really noticed this discrepancy myself. The Foundry module doesn't actually list their levels in the encounter text like in the book does, but looking at the pdf I can see that you are indeed correct.
I had found it a bit strange that there was going to be an encounter against 3 Redcaps on mounts as a solitary redcap has instilled the fear of Pharasma into my players in a previous campaign, but I hadn't actually looked much harder at it.
I will probably just slap the weak template on them as well (or not, depends on what the math turns out to be for 6 PCs).
I noticed that there wasn't made any threads like this for any of books for this AP so I took it upon myself to make one! They've been super useful to me in the past when I've ran other APs, so hopefully this one will be too.
I haven't yet finished reading this book so I will not post any ideas I have yet. But I figured since I made the other two threads I might as well finish off the set.
I noticed that there wasn't made any threads like this for any of books for this AP so I took it upon myself to make one! They've been super useful to me in the past when I've ran other APs, so hopefully this one will be too.
Anyway, I started running this AP back around New Year's and have been doing some reading and planning for the future. Here are some of the thoughts I have about stuff I might change / adjust:
- I need to ump the ante on the Narseigus' presence throughout the story. Don't get me wrong, he has plenty of mentions and does plenty of shenanigans throughout both book 1 and 2, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed by the fact that the PCs never meet or even see him until late in book 3.
- I really like Court of Ether as a location. It's such a cool place and idea. One of the things I noticed however was the encounter where a Redcap's cap turns blue. That reminded me that there exists another folklore creature known as a Bluecap, so I thinking of having the hat colour change also end up having a much profound effect on our "good" friend Interhoof. And as a result I am going to make myself a homebrew Bluecrap statblock in case I ever need one.
- Speaking of the Fey and the Court of Ether, one of the ideas I have for fleshing out the BBEG is to have them being helped by a group of Dero Worm Callers / servants. My only reason being that I really like Dero and I want to use them now that I have the opportunity. I might even turn Narseigus into a Dero who's using magic to appear to be a Hryngar, but we'll see.
I'm also working on making random encounter tables for the Darklands travel. Will post my results here when I am done.
I noticed that there wasn't made any threads like this for any of books for this AP so I took it upon myself to make one! They've been super useful to me in the past when I've ran other APs, so hopefully this one will be too.
Anyway, I started running this AP back around New Year's. My PCs are still at 2nd level in Chapter 1, but they've done the majority of quests now. After reading through the AP books I've made myself some thoughts about stuff I might change / adjust:
-Firstly I found it really weird that as written the PCs are considered outsiders to Highhelm (and possibly dwarven culture as a whole). Whilst I get that from an introduction perspective, I couldn't help but find it an odd choice when later in the AP the PCs are given these very important Dwarven relics and are allowed to just travel out with them. Especially if none of the PCs are Dwarves themselves. Like these aren't some random relics found off of the ground, these are culturally important artifacts!
-Speaking of the Relics I also found it really odd that out of the 4 relics in book 1, 3 of them are all tied to Sky King Taargick, but then one of them is just a random sentient tattoo? Seems a bit mundane in comparison. It also has no direct ties to the adventure or its themes like the other 5 relics (as the 2 other ones in Cult of the Cave Worm are directly tied to the titular Cave Worm). So I am thinking of maybe changing and/or adding relics to the adventure.
- Finally I am kind of disappointed at how underutilized Ygrin Oathcarver & Tuom Molgrade are the adventure module as written. I get that they aren't really a big threat in the grand scheme of things, but I think Skelms are really interesting and the two of them are the closest to a BBEG for book 1. So I am currently fleshing them out some more for my own run of the campaign (starting by making Ygrin Oathcarver the culprit of releasing the protean on the Tolorr Clan Crypt).
