Excellent inspiration indeed! Thanks for the journal which I've used and tweaked for my campaign as well. Here's my humble contribution for the followup journal found in room I58 Vault of Secrets. You may need to adjust the dates to flow from your version of C35's journal. In the last entry I added a small homebrew twist to foreshadow a traitor in the Roseguard, which is meant to be the real BBEG once they defeat Belcorra. I may have gotten the inspiration from another thread somewhere.
Neth 4, 4239: My visions have grown clearer. What I once took for fevered dreams was merely a prelude to revelation. The Haruvex were more than mere exiled scholars. My ancestors came into possession of four fulcrum lenses—remnants of a far greater set, forged in forgotten ages to manipulate, perhaps even bind, the Empty Death itself. Most of these crystals have vanished, destroyed or lost to time. But four endured. Four shards, each containing a sliver of Nhimbaloth’s essence.
Crimson. Ebony. Emerald. Ochre.
They already knew that bringing them close together focused the Entity’s attention in an unprecedented… and dangerous way. Too dangerous for them to dare proceed further. I do not share their timidity.
Kuthona 21, 4239: I confess an unusual caution. The lenses whisper. Each vibrates with a distinct hunger. Holding them near one another creates a tension in the air—a distortion that makes candle flames waver. Should a single being be imbued with all four shards at once, the Entity’s full gaze would fall upon them. Not mere punishment. Total annihilation. The irreversible embrace of the void. I am not certain even I could control the outcome.
Abadius 6, 4240: As a precaution, I ordered Volluk Azrinae to craft ordinary, profane lenses to power the Gauntlight at reduced strength. He proved acceptably efficient—though I suspect he takes some pleasure in knowing his craftsmanship is necessary to my work. These false lenses allow the lighthouse to project a destructive beam, certainly impressive, yet still far short of the true cataclysm. They are but a prelude. While my lieutenants complete the vaults, I can at last devote myself fully to my magnum opus: the Fulcrum Lattice. An arcane receptacle designed to house the four lenses and concentrate their power into a single coherent beam. A structure of balance and tension, allowing these crystals to be manipulated with ease despite their weight and peril. Without the Lattice, bringing the lenses together would be an act of suicide.
Pharast 12, 4240: A band of adventurers newly arrived from Absalom has decided to meddle in my affairs. The Roseguard—what a pompous and generic name! At least, so whisper my informants within the thieves’ guild. That said, I would not be surprised if those very spies were also responsible for the leak that spread word of my plans and drew their attention. Those vermin play all sides. This city never ceases to poison my existence. The source of all my troubles, certainly — but one that will soon vanish along with them… What delicious irony.
Gozran 25, 4240: To prevent them from prematurely drawing Nhimbaloth’s annihilating gaze, I have dispersed the lenses throughout the deepest levels of the vaults.
The emerald to the urdefhans—their natural nihilism makes them well suited to guard such an artifact.
The ochre to the drow—their ambition and paranoia ensure they will never cooperate with anyone.
The crimson I entrusted to my deep gnome gardeners, concealed within a sanctuary only my faithful can reach.
I am convinced none of these groups will ever cooperate. Their mutual distrust is my greatest safeguard.
I keep the Ebony. The most powerful.
Sarenith 17, 4240: It is a race against time to complete the vaults and the Fulcrum Lattice before these pathetic self-proclaimed do-gooders — roses between their teeth — become a genuine nuisance. I believe I have significantly slowed their momentum by pushing one of them into betrayal. Thanks to his information, Siora Fallowglade was able to intervene with surgical precision—both literally and figuratively. Her obsession — off-putting to some — with collecting the left hands of her victims amuses me. It is well known that an elite at the height of her craft requires some outlet to relieve the pressure. So long as the results are satisfactory, I could not be more pleased with her employment. Ah, I am becoming sentimental! Another moment and I shall be sending myself roses as well…
In room E17, it is said that Chafkhem is "quickened while within the circle but can use the additional action only to Sustain a Spell".
I was wondering what was the designer's intent here? The only combat-oriented spell in his repertoire that seems sustainable is Hideous Laugther. Seems meh compared to his other options. Did I miss something?
My party is on the verge of crossing the Spectral Seal which I believe is the choke point between books 1 and 2 of the trilogy.
Spoiler:
There is a lot of roleplay involved in gathering the Roseguard Icons, and the adventure makes it sound like a big milestone (foreshadowed by Otari's ghost, etc.) But I was kind of let down that once the PCs show up with the icons in front of the Spectral Seal, is simply vanishes. That didn't feel epic to me.
Since my players have been steamrolling most of the combats so far (party of 5), I wanted to beef up this encounter to hopefully make it more satisfying.
My idea was to turn the Spectral Seal into a Hazard. Spirits have built up against the Spectral Seal, and once the Roseguard Icons breach it, a vortex of spirits forms as it unclogs, beaming into a straight line. As a side effect, I made it so it would rejuvenate and summon any spirit the party hadn't put to rest yet, in an attempt to generate closure for levels 1 to 4 of the dungeon, and show some consequences for prior unfinished business.
I've made it so the party must hold the Roseguard Icons to gradually destroy the beam. The hazard's 12 HP act as a sort of countdown. In theory if the 4 icons are held continuously by living creatures within 10ft of the seal, the hazard will be permanently disabled after 3 rounds, leaving behind maybe a few spirit creatures to finish off. I am looking for some kind of "King of the Hill" or "Tower Defense" feeling to the encounter. The PCs must stand strong amidst the chaos, possibly having to make difficult tactical choices. For example: "My fellow party member was downed and dropped his Roseguard icon inside the beam. Should I prioritise shoving his body out of danger, or picking up the icon to quicken the Spirit Vortex's extinguishment?"
Small follow-up in case some GM has a similar need. I decided the Morlock Engineers in B22 used their extra 24h to prepare for the encounter with the PCs. Namely, they were able to setup 2 trip-wires in B21 that upon trigger drop a pair of handcrafted openwork portculis made out of the old bedframes found in B8. Their idea was to trap some of the PCs in the corridor long enough to push out the ballista from B22, and start showering them through the portculis bars.
The portculis themselves are not very solid, and more intended as a way to slow down the PCs, not trap them indefinetly. I halved the stats of a wood portculis (Page 515 of Core Rulebook) to account for the rushed nature of the trap and the poor quality of the base materials.
For the ballista stats I used (https://2e.aonprd.com/SiegeWeapons.aspx?ID=2) although I debuffed it to 4d10 dmg because it was rushed out of scrap parts. Be aware it needs 2 to crew so both Morlock Engineers need to operate it.
How it went in my game? I'd say pretty fun. First, our Ranger spotted the trap easily coming from the north, and the Fighter decided he'd trigger it intentionally, carefully staying outside the trapped zone it would delimitate. The Morlocks, hearing the trap activate, went on to push their pre-loaded Ballista from B22 to B21, and started aiming and firing through the portculis. Our brave Cleric decided to stand his ground, taking cover behind a tower shield and attracking aggro, while the rest of the party went on to surprise the Morlocks from behind, going all the way around B33, B35, B15, B14 and B8 which they'd already explored. However, this gave enough time for the Morlocks to slowly reload (2 load actions needed, so one each), aim and shoot again. Despite greater cover, the second bolt took the Cleric down, just as our fastest moving PC got to witness the situation coming from B8. One PC ended up circling back to stabilize the Cleric, while the rest of the party surprised the Morlocks from behind, clearly outranking them in melee combat.
All in all, it felt different and refreshing from your typical "open the door, kill the monsters" type of encounter which seems the norm in this adventure path. Don't expect the Morlocks to be able to fire more than 1 or 2 bolts though, and that's fine. Dealing 4d10 damage can possibly take down a single squishy Level 3 PC. Two bolts could take down the beefest.
From a storytelling aspect, I think the modified encounter did deliver. PCs got to detect and partially outsmart the bad guy's plan, then complications happen (ballista shows up and downs a PC: huge downbeat), and finally the PCs reverse the odds coming from behind and disband the ballista crew (upbeat).
Now that I think about it, there's the remnants of a purple worm in B35 that begs to come back an undead through the tunnel in C32, causing great turmoil in Otari!
Also keep in mind that if the heroes rescue the living anchor in area D9, this effectively neuters the Gauntlight beam for the time being. There's also 2 Scalathraxes available there for beaming, if you don't mind the repetitiveness of the 1st encounter. As the PCs level up the Scalathraxes may not represent a meaningful threat anymore. Maybe as an extra minion?
I was pondering the same myself as I've been tracking days since the graveyard encounter and let's just say my players tend to take a lot of downtime in town. Which is fine, but I wish the book was more detailed as to how we can as a GM convey some sense of urgency. Like you I've made the Gauntlight a little brighter every night fortelling some bad stuff about to happen.
In case my players reach day 30 before Chapter 5 (which adds it's own element of time pressure with Dorianna's curse), I plan the beam to strike Otari again.
Here's what I've imagined so far for such an encounter:
In the spirit of the 1st graveyard encounter, I want lots of undead minions rising from dead bodies. That's why I chose the Ruins of the Thirsty Alpaca as the beam's target. 400 years ago Otari was invaded by Stonescale Kobolds whom made a huge network of caves and tunnels under town. When Otari got liberated, the bodies of the defeated Kobolds were piled up in the tunnels, in the fashion of Paris' Catacombs IRL. What I like of this idea is it could potentially endanger some NPCs like Tamily Tanderveil (her fishery is somewhat connected to the underground tunnels, see description of area C2). Also the Osprey Club thieves are know users of the tunnels, so I imagine Crook's Nook basement somewhat connected. Maybe more but that's the gist.
The 2nd element needed is some sort of big baddy beemed into the ground like the Scalathrax. For this I'm still unsure, but my initial idea was to have some unfinished business the PCs left behind bite them back. In area C27 there was a Lurker in the Light that tries to dimension door into bright light if he drops below 20hp. Unfortunately for him, the torch in C26 had been looted and thus I imagined his only hope was to teleport close to the ribbon of light in C15. The poor Lurker got too close and got zapped like a moth. The players think it's dead because they've found burnt pieces of the Lurkers' wings. Maybe it's not dead and just got absorbed by the beam to be used as a beefed up (fleshwarped or undead) version of the Lurker?
That's my thinking so far. Unfinished business in your campaing may differ, but I'm sure there's something to latch on with a bit of imagination. I'm also curious what others thoughts are.
My players (level 2 party of four) steamrolled past the regular Morlocks and the Morlock Scavengers, exhausting most of their spell slots and triggering a level-up to level 3.
Despite their knowledge of the disappearance of FOUR Osprey Club employees, and witnessing a SINGLE sacrificed corpse in B14, they decided to head back to Otari midway through the chapter for a 24h downtime. I'm usually a lenient GM when it comes to letting my players take as much rest/downtime as they wish without too many hassles or random encounters, unless there is an explicit time pressure element within the adventure. In this specific case, I think a little 'punishment' would be justified. Knowingly turning back when 3 Otari citizen lives are on the line, for selfish considerations like selling stuff and levelling up, doesn't hit me as 'heroic' behavior.
The Morlock Engineers encounter was initially marked as Severe 2. Now that they'll be coming back as Level 3 party, any advice on how to spice up the encounter (e.g. crank it up to Severe 3)? My first thought was that the Morlock Engineers would use that extra 24h to fix their ballista and operate it from a distance in the B21 corridor. Would that be over- or under-powered? How to prevent martial characters from rushing, rendering the ballista useless in melee (remember they steamrolled the previous Morlocks)? Also, I'm not sure how to evaluate how much extra XP the ballista would grant the encounter? (my extra budget is 40 xp).
