Having recently finished Module 1 with the suggestions in this thread I have come up with adjustments for Module 2. My group are all experienced players and work well together. As such, there have been no PC deaths (but a few close calls) so far.
I welcome any and all criticisms or suggestions.
The Thrushmoor Terror - 5 Player Encounter Adjustments
Grotto of the Witch
A1. Add one more Assassin vine
A2. Give the Phantom Fungus the advanced template
A3. Add 1 more fungal wolf
B1. Add 3 more villagers
-Increase the quest reward for a diplomatic solution to 2,000xp
Event2. change the quest reward to 2,000 xp for stopping Elgrior
C1. Add advanced template to gibbering mouther
-Increase the quest reward for finding the stashed weapons to 1,200xp
Event 4. My advice is no change. The Revenant is plenty deadly for the party at this level in addition to it's tactics of singling out a single PC. Maybe add the Advanced template or a level of fighter or something if you think your party REALLY needs the challenge.
Event 6. Increase the quest reward to to 3,000 xp for rescuing sholn.
Event 7. Add 1 more cultist kidnapper
D1. Add 1 more undead mercenary
D2. Add 1 more undead mercenary
D3. Add 1 more undead mercenary
D4. Add 1 more Dog
D9. Add 1 more Skum
D11. Add 1 deep one (re-skin as a weaker/variant skum)
D12. Add 1 skum
D13. Add the advanced Template to the Id Ooze
D14. Give tsiltari 1 more level of rogue
-Increase the quest reward to 1,500xp for seeing through Tsiltari’s ruse the first time
D15. Add 1 more undead mercenary
D16. Give Itsquaal 1 additional ranger level
D19. Add 1 deep one (re-skin as a weaker/variant skum)
D20. Add the advanced Template to the Id Ooze
D22. Add 1 deep one (re-skin as a weaker/variant skum)
D24. Again, I'm hesitant to increase Clymes as he is an already potent foe as is. My advice is no change. Maybe 2 additional expert levels or 1 rogue level if you think your party needs the challenge.
E1. Add 1 more cultist
E2. Add 1 more living topiary
E3. Give Asa 1 more level in rogue and in aristocrat
E6. Add 1 more kuru
E13. Give the Basidirond the Advanced template
E16. Add 1 kuru
F1. Give the Hound of Tindalos the Advanced Template
F2. Add 1 more cleric cultist
F3. Give the MANANANGGAL the Advanced template
F5. Give the star vampire the Advanced template
F6. Add 1 more rat swarm
F8. Add 1 cultist kidnapper
F9. Add 1 cultist kidnapper
F10. Give Rumatri 1 additional level of bard
-Increase the quest reward to 3000xp for reading the notes
F14. Give Nemira 1 additional level of sorcerer
G4. Add 2 cultist kidnappers
G5. Add 1 cultist kidnapper
G6. Change the 7 dire rats to 8 Dire rats with the Advanced template
G8. Add 1 kuru
G9. Change the 2 elder things to 3 elder things with the drunk template
-Increase the quest reward to 3,600xp for a diplomatic resolution with the creatures
G11. Add 1 byakhee
And yes, Tickleback the Tick is one of the most hardcore monsters in the whole module. :)
No kidding, I had him drop 2 players and do some serious damage to the others before he was taken down.
Later, those 2 players who were knocked unconcious both contracted very nasty cases of Red Ache from his bites. Since the party was only 2nd level they didn't have access to remove disease, and they also were unwilling to shell out any of their hard-earned gold pieces to get them cured, so the rogue and the wizard spent over 3 weeks, in game time, bedridden until their immune systems were able to fight off the disease. And this was even with the cleric helping their saving throws with consistant use of his heal skill.
Ah, I forgot one list. it's just a list of the BP cost and misc requirements for each building along with a brief flavor text description taken from the AP.
Paizo guys, let me know if i'm crossing any lines posting any of this stuff.
Building Descriptions, costs, and requirements
Spoiler:
•Academy (52 BP): An institution of higher learning that can focus on any area of knowledge or education, including magic.
•Alchemist (18 BP; must be adjacent to 1 house): The laboratory and home of a creator of potions, poisons, and alchemical items.
•Arena (40 BP, limit one per city): A large public structure for competitions, demonstrations, team sports, or bloodsports. **grants a discount on city's festival edicts.
•Barracks (12 BP): A building to house city guards, militia, and military forces.
•Black Market (50 BP; must be adjacent to 2 houses): A number of shops with secret and usually illegal or dangerous wares.
•Brewery (6 BP): A building for beermaking, winemaking, or similar use.
•Brothel (4 BP; must be adjacent to 1 house): A place to pay for companionship of any sort.
•Caster’s Tower (30 BP): The home and laboratory for a spellcaster.
•Castle (54 BP, limit one per city.): The home of the city’s leader or the heart of its defenses. Halves cost of Noble Villa or Town Hall in same city.
•Cathedral (58 BP, limit one per city.): The focal point of the city’s religion and spiritual leadership. **Decreases consumption increase penalty for promotion edicts.
•City Wall (8 BP): City walls do not occupy a city block— rather, purchasing a city wall fortifies one of a district’s four outer borders. A city wall cannot be built on a water border.
•Dump (4 BP): A centralized place to dispose of refuse.
•Exotic Craftsman (10 BP; must be adjacent to 1 house): The workshop and home of an exotic craftsman, such as a creator of magic items, a tinker, a fireworks maker, or a glassblower.
•Garrison (28 BP): A large building to house armies, train guards, and recruit militia.
•Granary (12 BP): A place to store grain and food.
•Graveyard (4 BP): A plot of land to honor and bury the dead.
•Guildhall (34 BP; must be adjacent to 1 house): A large building that serves as headquarters for a guild or similar organization.
•Herbalist (10 BP; must be adjacent to 1 house): The workshop and home of a gardener, healer, poisoner, or creator of potions.
•House (3 BP): A number of mid-sized houses for citizens. Houses serve as prerequisites for many other buildings. The first house you build during any Improvement Phase does not count against the total number of buildings you can build during the phase.
•Inn (10 BP; must be adjacent to 1 house): A place for visitors to spend the night.
•Jail (14 BP): A fortified structure for housing criminals.
•Library (6 BP): A large building containing books, often presided over by a sage or other scholar.
•Luxury Store (28 BP; must be adjacent to 1 house): A shop that specializes in expensive wares and luxuries.
•Magic Shop (68 BP; must be adjacent to 2 houses): A shop that specializes in magic items and spells.
•Mansion (10 BP): A single huge manor housing a rich family and its servants.
•Market (48 BP; must be adjacent to 2 houses): An open area for mercantile pursuits, traveling merchants, and bargain hunters.
•Mill (6 BP; must be next to a water border): A building used to cut lumber or grind grain.
•Monument (6 BP): A monument can be a statue of a city founder, a bell tower, a large tomb, or a public display of art.
•Noble Villa (24 BP): A sprawling manor with luxurious grounds that houses a noble.
•Park (4 BP): A plot of land set aside for its natural beauty.
•Piers (16 BP; must be adjacent to a water border): Warehouses and workshops for docking ships and handling cargo and passengers.
•Shop (8 BP; must be adjacent to 1 house): A general store.
•Shrine (8 BP): A small shrine or similar holy site.
•Smith (6 BP): An armor smith, blacksmith, or weapon smith.
•Stable (10 BP; must be adjacent to 1 house): A structure for housing or selling horses and other mounts.
•Tannery (6 BP; cannot be adjacent to a house): A structure that prepares hides and leather.
•Tavern (12 BP; must be adjacent to 1 house): An eatery or drinking establishment.
•Temple (32 BP): A large place of worship dedicated to a deity.
•Tenement (1 BP): A staggering number of low-rent, cheap housing units. Tenements count as houses for the purpose of fulfilling building requirements, but building too many tenements can increase a kingdom’s Unrest quickly. You can build a house over an existing tenement for 2 BP.
•Theater (24 BP): A venue for providing entertainment such as plays, operas, concerts, and the like.
•Town Hall (22 BP): A public venue for town meetings and repository for town records.
•Tradesman (10 BP; must be adjacent to 1 house): A shopfront for a tradesman, such as a baker, butcher, candle maker, cooper, or rope maker.
•Watchtower (6 BP): A tall structure that serves as a guard post and landmark.
•Waterfront (90 BP; must be adjacent to a water border, limit one per city.): A port for arrival and departure when traveling by water, facilities for building ships, and a center of commerce. **Reduces Loyalty backlash penalty for tax edicts.
There was a lot of talk a bit earlier about giving your PCs lists with only vague information on the exact benefits of how buildings influence your cities. In response, I made several lists that I intend to hand out to my PCs when they hit the 2nd volume of the AP. Here they are for use by other GMs who don't want to give away the specific minutia of the rule system.
Buildings that effect your Kingsdom's UNREST
Spoiler:
very small decreases
•House
•Monument
•Park
•Shop
•Watchtower
small decreases
•Barracks
•City Walls
•Garrison
•Jail
•Temple
large decreases
•Castle
•Cathedral
•Black Market
small increases
•Brothel
•Tenement
Buildings that increase your Kingdom's ECONOMY
Spoiler:
small increases
•Alchemist
•Brothel
•Caster's Tower
•Inn
•Library
•Luxury Store
•Magic Shop
•Mill
•Noble Villa
•Piers
•Shop
•Smith
•Stable
•Tannery
•Tavern
•Town Hall
•Tradesman
medium increases
•Academy
•Black Market
•Castle
•Guildhall
•Market
•Theatre
medium increases
•Academy
•Brothel
•Castle
•Garrison
•Guildhall
•Jail
•Temple
large increase
•Monument
very large increase
•Cathedral
Buildings that increase your Kingdom's STABILITY
Spoiler:
lesser increases
•Black Market
•Brewery
•Dump
•Exotic Craftsman
•Granary
•Herbalist
•Mansion
•Mill
•Noble Villa
•Piers
•Smith
•Tannery
•Town Hall
•Tradesman
medium increases
•Castle
•Garrison
•Jail
•Market
•Temple
•Threatre
very large increase
•Arena
Buildings that increase your CITY DEFENSE
Spoiler:
small increases
•Barracks
•Watch Tower
medium increase
•City Walls
very large increase
•Castle
Buildings that increase your Kingdom's GP VALUE
Spoiler:
small increases
•Inn
•Shop
•Stable
•Tavern
•Tradesman
medium increases
•Pier
•Guildhall
•Alchemist
large increases
•Market
•Black Market
•Luxury Store
•Magic Shop
very large increase
•Waterfront
Buildings that grant your Kingdom ADDITIONAL MAGIC ITEM SLOTS
Spoiler:
•Alchemist -> 1 minor
•Exotic Tradesman -> 1 minor
•Herbalist -> 1 minor
•Shrine -> 1 minor
•Luxury Store -> 2 minor
•Market -> 2 minor
•Temple -> 2 minor
•Academy -> 3 minor, 2 medium
•Caster's Tower -> 3 minor, 2 medium
•Cathedral -> 3 minor, 2 medium
•Black Market -> 2 minor, 1 medium, 1 major
•Waterfront -> 3 minor, 2 medium, 1 major
•Magic Shop -> 4 minor, 2 medium, 1 major
Buildings that aid in the CONSTRUCTION OF OTHER BUILDINGS (in the same city)
Spoiler:
•Academy -> aids in construction of Caster's Tower, Library AND Magic Shop
•Arena -> aids in constuction of Garrison OR Theatre
•Castle -> aids in constuction of Noble Villa OR Town Hall
•Cathedral -> aids in constuction of Temple OR Academy
•Garrison -> aids in constuction of City Wall, Granary AND Jail
•Guildhall -> aids in constuction of Pier, Stable AND Tradesman
•Market -> aids in constuction of Black Market, Inn AND Shop
•Noble Villa -> aids in constuction of Exotic Craftsman, Luxury Store, AND Mansion
•Temple -> aids in constuction of Graveyard, Monument AND Shrine
•Theatre -> aids in constuction of Brothel, Park AND Tavern
•Town Hall -> aids in constuction of Barracks, Dump AND Watchtower
•Waterfront -> aids in constuction of Guildhall AND Market
Hey GMs, I'm getting ready to run Stolen Lands very soon and had some questions as to how many of you chose to run the more breifly described encounter areas. such as:
Spoiler:
The Spider's Nest
The Frog Pond
Tusk Gutter's Lair
- my question for these encounters is, how have GMs staged these encounters? Did you have your PCs find the notable areas first, describe them, then have the creatures attempt to strike from ambush? Or did you have the encounters happen first, such as the spider leaping out at a PC, then describe the area? Or did you roll an appropriate starting distance based on the terrain type and immediately square off with no surprise of ambush whatsoever?
and the Fangberry Thicket.
- I'm curious as to how big, and what shape GMs made their thickets. Also, how did your PCs go about defeating the swarm? Fire is the usual method, but perhaps not the best idea when inside an area of dense underbrush and you risk cooking yourself alive along with the berries you were here for in the first place!
I also have a few questions about the abilities and tactic of these monsters:
Spoiler:
Garuum and his Slurk - If talking doesn't work, things get violent. But how? Does Garuum ride his slurk into battle? The illustration certainly implies so. But if this is the case, the slurk is only a medium sized creature, just like his rider, the 200 lb (as noted in the beastiary) Boggard. Can a medium creature ride a medium creature? I have it stuck in my head that a mount needs to be at lease 1 size larger than its rider, but when consulting the rules, I couldn't find anything concrete. What rules dictate what creatures can ride others without penalty?
Tatzlworms - The dragons are noted as having grab with their bites. In the beastiary, grab is noted as only working on creatures 1 size smaller than the grabbers unless noted otherwise. As medium creatures, by this ruling, Tatzlworms would only be able to grab small creatures. Looking over the creatures' stat blocks, grappling is pretty much their whole schtick and against a party of only medium ized PCs this doesn't look to be nearly as exciting of an encounter. Am I correct in assuming that the Tatzlworms don't get to use their grab against medium sized PCs?
Haven't been able to read the 2nd adventure yet, as I'm still waiting for my copy to be shipped.
but a little joke from the first adventure that I don't think anyone picked up on in page 22
Spoiler:
Gorum, the boggard hermit's pet slurk is named Ubagub. which is Bugabu backwards.
Well that doesn't make any sense. I haven't gotten my e-mail yet, but conversely I only subscribe to the AP and don't have anything else in my side-cart. Whats the deal with that?
Sounds interesting. A group of all monsterous PCs can make for a very fun and rewarding game.
I'd suggest ditching the charter from Restov hook and instead have your players link their PCs together thematically and simply telling them that this is their best opportunity to carve out their own kingdom for themselves.
Any idea what monsterous races your players would pick?
having everyone play a goblinoid character could be interesting and also wouldn't have terribly high ECLs.
also, remember that racial hit dice count towards a character's ECL. I can't tell you how many people's bubbles I've had to burst by reminding them this.
*edit*
Follow the advice here on monsterous PCs for pathfinder and you won't go to far wrong.
Do PCs ever have to dismount to travel through any kind of terrain hex?
I'm still a little confused. Can a party explore a swamp or a mountain from horseback.
I also have a new question.
When it says on the chart on page 57 that exploration takes X many days, does that mean a full 24 hours of traveling around for each day? or does it mean a full day as per the pfsrd on Overland Travel.
d20pfsrd.com wrote:
In a day of normal walking, a character walks for 8 hours. The rest of the daylight time is spent making and breaking camp, resting, and eating.
if this were the case, could the party could continue to explore at a forced march pace, incurring the appropriate penalties?
or am I just looking to make this all too complicated James?
When a party explores a hex with a hidden encounter or location the module calls for a perception check to notice it. Does every PC get a perception check, or only the PC with the best perception? If everyone gets a perception check, do familiars and animal companions get one as well? Or cohorts or hirelings?
Also, when exploring or traveling through a forest, swamp or mountain hex while mounted, does the party still get the benefit of having a speed of 50 or is it impacted in any way? Do PCs ever have to dismount to travel through any kind of terrain hex?
Are characters able to ride around on horses to explore forest, swamp and mountain hexes? or do they have to dismount and explore on foot due to the difficult nature of the terrain? Also, can characters ride a horse over a deep river and have it make the swim checks for them?
So Joey, have you given any further thought on how to expand the final encounter of the AP yet? Any templates, PRCs, additional equipment or tactics to give Karzoug to help him last against 6 PCs?
Your posts have proved invauluable to my gaming group.
If you could e-mail me your word documents and extra additions, I would be eternally grateful. e-mail is papercraft@gmail.com
Alrighty, this is what I'm thinking. Any feedback is welcome.
Citizens are roving the Midland distict in disorganized packs hoping to met out some mob justice on the man who's brutally tearing up women in back alleys. So far 5 have been killed and mutilated and folks are mad at the Korvosan Guard for not being able to catch the guy. But who can blame them, they have their hands more than full and the vigilante mobs are only making things harder.
The actualy culprit is, of course, Prestico's missing daughter. Though i'm having trouble trying to think up exactly what her motivation is. Possibly the Derro have a hand in this somehow. Maybe forshadow their presense in the city with some four fingered handprints in the dolls lair located in the sewers.
The PCs could be introduced to the quest in a number of ways. They could be approached by Commander Kroft with the problem. Or they could come across a mob clashing with hell knights in the streets of Krovosa as a "random encounter" when traveling aroud the city on some other errand. The mob shouting for the " 'ead of the brute what did them unspeakable acts to those poor girls." The mob turns violent and they start prying up stones from the street and hurling them pushing the Hell Knights into a retreat. PCs could get more information from members of the mob or even the retreating Hell Knights.
If the PCs don't bite the adventure hook at first, more murders could crop up. They might even stumble upon the grisly scene of a fresh murder.
Women have been getting violently killed at night in the midlands at night while the streets have been in chaos. The final victim, Mari Kell, has become something of a martyr despite (if the PCs follow up on information gathering) her old reputation of dubious morality.
Once they've defeated the murderous doll, theres still the problem of convincing the mob that the murders were actually committed by an animated doll! And perhaps even after convincing the mob it was the doll, the mobs will want to turn their rage against the old doll maker and his remaining creations. How will the PCs convince the mob not to string up the old, harmless man?
What i'd like is some help brainstorming the Doll's motivation and ideas on how the PCs can track the Doll back to it's lair in the Sewers. Anyone have any ideas?
I liked what i read about the soulbound dolls and Prestico's daughters in the beastiary and the guide to korvosa and I was wondering, will they be featured later on in the adventure path? I'm curious because I want to make up a short side adventure for my PCs that takes place during the riotting in Edge of Anarchy and wouldn't want to step on the adventure path's toes later on.
