Feng Taldis's page

This is a long time coming! I look forward to it. I spent over a decade compiling an offline encyclopedia about Kyonin. But there's just one thing still missing.....Lethaquel. Will we finally get to know what lies there?

The Greengold map is sincerely appreciated.

The takeaway really should be that Kyonin's national policies and national tenor should not be taken as typical of elvendom, because it is supposed to play a geopolitical role (a march or military frontier for Sovyrian, protecting the Sovyrian Stone from Treerazer) that no other elven polity is supposed to play, and its policy and culture will reflect this. Other elves on Golarion should behave more like the elves you'd like to see, and should see the aiudeen as unreasonably paranoid, stand-offish, materialistic, and militarized.

Agreed. Kyonin was insular and treated outsiders poorly because of the Sovyrian Stone, probably one of the most powerful artifacts in the galaxy. I've felt that this is the same reason that half-elves were shunted off to Erages. Mistrust of human ancestry.

Any AP involving Kyonin should seriously threaten the Sovyrian Stone.

My questions:
Why are the Treants stirring?
Why is there a wooden Guthallath heading towards Erages?
What is Lethaquel?

I've been working on a sandbox Kyonin/Treerazer AP for like....a decade now. Getting somewhere...(laughs nervously like Ralph Wiggum). I aspire to release it on Infinite at some point.

Main Villains are Treerazer, Whispering Way, and Aspis Consortium. Winter Council is gone, replaced by a progressive (but still corrupt) Evergreen Council. Plenty of Lantern Bearers, Fierani Demon hunters, and Wasp Queens...

Adventuring party begins as Pathfinder Initiates on their first test.

Part I, the PCs are racing against time to find Candlaron's key, before the Aspis Consortium. Created from the same tech as aiudara, it is effectively a Sovyrian Wayfinder that can send you anywhere in space and time.

Part II, the PCs uncover a plot by a foul necromancer of the Whispering Way to link the Sovyrian stone to the undead planet Eox, to muster a planetary scale invasion of undead.

Part III, is razing the Witchbole and confronting Treerazer.

As for his defeat? Don't worry. There's a Sphere of Annihilation in Arabrecht. The only question is: where is the GM hiding the Talisman of the Sphere?

Greetings James.
I'm building a Treerazer campaign that also serves as a "spiritual sequel" to the Second Darkness AP. It's a wee bit heavily researched at this point, but no bother. I wish to respect the lore. With the newly established Tar-Baphon concerns, open-borders policy, and marriage proposal/negotiations, the Lord of the Blasted Tarn has an opportunity to finish what he started.

What are your thoughts:

+ Has the Dark Fate been publicly disclosed?

+ Is the Witchbole a twelve-story dungeon? If this is the case, and Treerazer can fit comfortably inside of this thing, then it has to be massive and visible for miles and miles, right?

+ Have you folks defined Lethaquel, yet?

As it turns out, we've never said what Lethaquel is in public! It was described in my original writeup of Kyonin way back in Pathfinder 17, but the description got cut for space, we just forgot to remove it from the map. Which we didn't realize until just now. :)

I'm sure we'll detail it at some point--perhaps with my original concept, perhaps with something else entirely--but for the time being, it's left up to GMs. Which actually makes me really happy--I like knowing there's some mystery left in even the most detailed sections of our world!

For now, I'm going to write it as a gargantuan black monolith (with puzzle dungeon) that predates elven historical records and contains entrances to the Land of Black Blood, as well as an artifact described in the Book of Serpents, Ash, and Acorns. Sort of an easter-egg seed for a "Lost God Paradox" campaign involving Aroden. Aroden Lives!

Feng Taldis wrote:

P.S.

Off-topic, but James Jacobs, I have two questions:
+ Is the Witchbole a twelve-story...

Might wanna head over to the James Jacobs' Ask Me Anything thread in the Off-Topic Discussions section and ask him there. He's much more likely to answer there than in here.

Thanks, I appreciate the tip!

BUT MAINLY FOR THIS POST: I want to add that a Pathfinder Equivalent of the Galaxy Exploration Manual in Pathfinder, you know, with a lot of support for homebrew adventures and sandboxes, it would be absolutely magnificent at some point. Pathfinder 2e is shockingly good for sandbox play, OSR-esque dungeon crawls, and such.

I'm just getting back into Pathfinder again after an eight year hiatus (Thanks, PF2e!) and I believe you hit the bullseye with this comment.

In preparation for re-booting an idea for an epic, 20-level sandbox campaign involving Kyonin and Treerazer, I went back and re-read all the DM/GM Guides from the previous systems: Dnd 1-5, Pathfinder 1-2, and not to mention all of the awesome AD&D2e DM guides like Creative Campaigning, Castles, and DnD3 guides like Cityscape, Dungeonscape, etc.

The biggest deficit in these mountains of fantasy RPG tomes are these two topics:
+ Sandbox Campaigns (Player-driven stories)
+ Narrative and Rhetorical Devices: Tropes, Plots, & Genres

You can find this stuff scattered about all over, but never given the "Ultimate" or "Complete" treatment. Because of this, I'm in the process of building a system/method for sandbox approach and your recommendation of the Galaxy Exploration Manual was a nice push in the right direction, thank you! Brief looky-see has me excited.

My biggest criticism of publishers is the railroad-style APs. But to be fair, this is the way it's always been. I'm hoping that the Absalom book opens up their portfolio to more 300-400 pg source books, and a Sandbox/Narrative System book to describe how to effectively use those books. After reading through the PF2e ruleset, I completely agree with you: these rules make sandbox easier. Think about it. Legends book has zero stats. You can create encounters thematically/tactically, and just scale them up to level just before the PCs arrive. It's brilliant.

P.S.
Off-topic, but James Jacobs, I have two questions:
+ Is the Witchbole a twelve-story dungeon?
+ What is Lethaquel? Because I'm going to just write it as a gargantuan black monolith that predates elven historical records and contains missing pages from the Book of Serpents, Ash, and Acorns. You can't seed a "Lost God" campaign without some planar-hijinks hooks.

I'm looking for some players too. I live in Sidney. Let me know if you find anyone.

I'm running a campaign in Kyonin (obviously) and it will feature the Lantern Bearers extensively (lots of Treerazer worshiping Drow in store)I just wanted to throw something else in their for chaotic players. Might have to rethink their role in this campaign as purely npc.

As it turns out, we've never said what Lethaquel is in public! It was described in my original writeup of Kyonin way back in Pathfinder 17, but the description got cut for space, we just forgot to remove it from the map. Which we didn't realize until just now. :)

I'm sure we'll detail it at some point--perhaps with my original concept, perhaps with something else entirely--but for the time being, it's left up to GMs. Which actually makes me really happy--I like knowing there's some mystery left in even the most detailed sections of our world!

Thanks James! I thought that was the case. Now time to homebrew some amazing stuff for Lethaquel!

I don't know what is more confusing: the question posed by the original post with absolutely zero information as if we'd all just know what a "Wasp Queen" was, or the fact that at least one poster actually did seem to know.

From PZO9418 Faiths of Balance:

The Wasp Queens
Few of the groups that gather under the banner of a god do
so with less organization or order than those who come to
Calistria. The Wasp Queens are an elite society of female
thieves—exclusively elves and half-elves—who follow the
teachings of Calistria, particularly those related to trickery
and revenge. They are for hire for any number of activities,
but the ones that excite them the most are the jobs that
people say are impossible. They have broken into the most
secure vaults of Abadar’s temples, have lifted enormous
amounts of coin from the banks of Absalom, and are
even said to have stolen the scepter of Queen Abrogail of
Cheliax herself and sold it back to her for an exorbitant
sum (though this last may be one of the many grandiose
fictions surrounding the group). They are enormous
braggarts, exaggerating their trophies and their conquests,
and always willing to lend a perfectly shaped ear to a good
pitch for a job or a potentially lucrative sob story. They
travel all across Avistan, always eventually returning to
Kyonin with their ill-gotten gains—though it’s said they
spend most before they ever reach home. They’re currently
under the command of Arala Insifaal, a sultry half-elf
who nurses a grudge visible from across the room. It is to
this mysterious figure that hopeful members must apply,
knowing that to fail the nigh-impossible admissions tests
is inevitably fatal. The group is constantly torn by petty
rivalries, past slights, and plots against each other, but
they unify against outside threats—which is to say, anyone
outside their group.

I can't wait for Advanced Class Guide, but any ideas on how to construct a prestige Class for this?

Hey folks, I have mined every pathfinder product for fluff (including Pathfinder Tales Queen of Thorns) but for the life of me I cannot find anything on a landmark on Kyonin maps listed as Lethaquel (in Inner Sea World Guide and A Memory of Darkness it is marked as a location but not as a city). Any ideas? I'm not afraid of homebrewing it up, but this location was clearly passed over in the map descriptions, and I'm curious if it was a minor oversight or if they were waiting to publish something else.
*Haven't seen Demon Hunter's Handbook yet.

I can't seem to find any info on this location in Kyonin, and it's the only one without any fluff, that I can find. Planning on an epic fantasy campaign in Kyonin surrounding Treerazer, and I'd like to not controvert canon.

For my two cents: Ultimate Cosmology. I know they've already published "Gods and Magic" and "The Great Beyond", but I really enjoy the extended entries they've been pinning into the adventure paths. Gods in G&M have two pages average and in the adventure paths they get 4-6 pages. Most of the writing is already done for such a project. More of a compendium really, with additions.

The original soundtracks to Fallout 1 and 2 are amazing. Project Blue and a few other songs from The Stand soundtrack are good evocative tracks, not jazzy though.