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1. I had the BBEG be the one who sends the carriage to get the players to start off the game, have him at the funeral leaving in that same carriage, and also have him be in Lepidstadt during the trial and talk to the players about how impressed he was with their efforts (after day 1). He then gave each of them a fine horse to use. Of course the saddles have a rune in them so that he can scry them easily. After that, I had him fade into the background and just interact with the letters. However, I only signed the letters with one A. The players were sure that A was Vroon until they found a letter on his body. :) 2. Didn't use insanity, but I may look into it as they just completed Carrion Hill and are off to book 4. I may foreshadow the start of using insanity based on horrid dreams after defeating the BBEG from Carrion Hill. 3. I agree with Kalindlara. As an aside, I made Kendra blind. This made her much more sympathetic to the players and I used it as the reason why Lorrimar put the players in his will. She is actually an Oracle but only came into her power after the prison became unguarded. The spirits of the dead guards come to her after Lorrimar's death and granted her some ability to speak with spirits. Clouded Vision curse and Lore mystery. She sees through the eyes of spirits around her and they tell her things. This enabled me to play up the weirdness. At one point I had her talking to the players and mid-sentence shout QUELL THE FIVE! and then complete her sentence without any memory of the incident. When the party was looking over some looted potions (early loot), I had her enter the room, stop, and ask if there were potions on the table. When they said yes guardedly, she asked if one was a Cure Light Wounds? (She identified it for them). It really played up the creep factor. Also, her knowing things that she shouldn't is the reason why the BBEG decided that she needed to be under "protection" and brought her to Caliphas under the auspices of learning more about her condition. She is going to be the sacrifice for the end game. I may use the reason as given or I might link it to her spirit talking ability. 4. I did the fountain and it was okay. I linked the villain to the 4th book, but the party was confused with the diversion. I also used Fiddler's Lament. I changed the Piper to a Fiddler. This worked very well because of the Piper encounter in the prison. When they heard the ghostly fiddle start the first time, they panicked and ran. :) 5. I think that it was mentioned in a thread somewhere. I had the carriage meet the players at a village and during the ride I explained the countryside to them. Once they go the feel of the setting, I had them attacked by stirges. When they found them in the prison, they got concerned.
Great advice already given. Don't forget to really read up on haunts as they play a significant role in the early stages. Also, read up a bit on Ustalav so that you can set the general tone of the people that they meet. Most will be suspicious of outsiders (hence the trust mechanic). Read the entire GM thread for each module well in advance of running it. Lots of great advice can be found there. Also read up on foreshadowing the big bad earlier in the AP. It's either in the GM thread or a separate thread.
Spoiler: They don't need to find Brother Swarm's lair or the bodies. That is just another clue. Check the Deductions section on page 16 for the clues that are helpful for the trial.
If they do not deliver all of the books, then they will forfeit their 100pp each. "... I have also willed to each of you a sum of one hundred platinum coins. For safekeeping, I have left these funds with Embreth Daramid, one of my most trusted friends in Lepidstadt—she has been instructed to issue this payment upon the safe delivery of the borrowed tomes..." Also, the professor is known to the players so his having these types of books should not be a surprise to any of them even if they personally find it distasteful.
I had him show up at the funeral and be introduced as an ex-apprentice of the professor. At the end of their stay in Ravengro, he sent one of his personal carriages to convey the characters and Kendra to Lepidstadt. During book two he gave the characters horses so that they had "no impediments during the trial", but in reality the saddles are the focal point of divination spells. I am using the letters idea linked above, but I sign the letters with only "A". At first they were sure it was Auren Vrood, but when they found another letter on his body they discovered to their dismay that they were wrong. They will find another letter on the assassin in the following book. I like the idea that someone presented with having a Feather Token: Bird deliver some of the letters. The 300gp cost is chump-change for him. In addition, I made Kendra blind to give the characters more of a reason to help her out. I also made her a budding Oracle who can communicate with spirits. When the spirits were released from the prison, her power started to kick in. The BBEG saw this as a threat and whisked her away to Caliphas after book 2 so that Kendra "could learn more about her condition". I am going to make her the sacrifice in the final chapter. Too often players are given the name and/or face of their nemesis. I am enjoying the mystery of how I am running this. It is driving my players mad that there is someone who is watching them and they have no idea who it could be.
As a side note, the dagger that the Crooked Kin give to the PC's really should be silver, or mithral. After all, it's intended to slay werewolves! It doesn't need to be. As a bane weapon, it acts as a +3 weapon against shapeshifters. A +3 weapon will bypass Silver and Cold Iron DR.
Also, just because they are primarily a melee combatant doesn't mean that they can't use arrows or bolts. Arrows and bolts are nice cheap expendable resources to give the party. A ghost touch weapon is really expensive and durable. Don't forget that anything that you give the party can be sold. Albeit for only 50%, but it can add up quickly. For example, a ghost touch weapon costs 8,000gp so it can be sold for 4,000gp which is the same as two +1 weapons. Whereas, 5 +1 Ghost Touch Arrows cost 800gp. The PCs are not supposed to have all that much magic to start. At 4th level they are only expected to have a total of 6,000gp which includes all magic and coins.
It really doesn't make sense to give the discount on an ongoing basis. The PCs will be all over Ustalav as Damon mentioned. You will definitely have to increase the treasure a bit, but it will be a balancing act. The module is written for 4 players. With 6 you might be okay if the amount of gear isn't up to normal levels if you don't increase the difficulty of the encounters. You can always add some disposable items on the fly during adventures if the players are lagging and the encounters are roughing them up too much. But you will need to be careful that the CR gap doesn't become too great as that can be deadly. What I am doing is tracking the non-single use magic items and gold value that the players have and comparing it to the Wealth by Level guidelines. However, this means that I need to take a look at each encounter and buff it up a bit. Mainly I'm doing that with just applying the Advanced Template and using a higher average number for the hit dice for HP. It mainly works. I've gotten a number of PCs close to death although I haven't killed anyone... yet. :) I also did two things which helped them out a lot. First, I delayed giving them the information that kicks off book 3. This game them some downtime in a city to sell and also to either find or have items created for them. If the PCs have played their cards right, they will have at least one contact in that city that can help them making all of the right connections quickly. Second, I included the Carrion Hill module into the AP upgraded based on a thread here. I also plan on a little downtime for them in this city but not nearly as much. They will at least be able to dump items on the market and look for items that may be already available (which is why I created and posted the stat block for that city). I may make changes to the plot for before and after for book 5 when I get there. You could also do it old school and change treasures to seed items that are used by your PCs. Of course when the players find the magic gnomish hook hammer they will know that it was you...
One typical scale-up mistake that I've often seen is that the DM just increases the opponents' CR either by selecting a different creature or adding levels. This can cause big issues because the PCs might not have the AC, HP, Saves, DCs, to survive those encounters. You can run nasty encounters (my players are in the middle of one right now), but you have to do it mindfully. For example, I gave an additional harrow card to all of the players at one point because of good role-play and they will get another they complete Carrion Hill. Also, I've had to pay close attention to the magic items of my PCs in this AP. With all the running around it is hard converting unusable magic items into the wealth that the PCs are expected to have at a given level. I changed the end of one of the books and instead of giving them the info right away, I gave them some downtime in a city to kit up a bit.
Aklo is also good if you decide to include the Carrion Hill module in the AP between books 3 & 4.
My players did something similar. They talked to Estovion right away, said all the wrong things, and spiked his paranoia from day 1. Luckily, unlike your players, they didn't do anything overt so I was able to just accelerate the normal events in the module. You aren't that lucky, but at least they keep you on your toes. :)
I would proceed with the spider that evening followed immediately by the using the Vilkacis to attempt to kill the PCs that evening/night. Estovion would then flee to the Stairs. If asked for another meeting, the party would be told that he is unavailable. They can do research and eventually they will get curious and break into his office which will lead them to the stairs.
Arise!!! Sorry for the thread necro, but I had the same question and could not find the answer. So here is my pass at a stat block for Carrion Hill. I used non-RAW qualities pulled from the d20pfsrd.com site. I picked Magically Attuned because I am using Rakshaka's idea about magical ley lines. Comments welcome! Carrion Hill
Corruption +1; Crime -3; Economy +2; Law +3; Lore +6; Society +3 Qualities Magically Attuned, Resettled Ruins, Superstitious, Under City Danger +25 Demographics
Population 9,200 (82% human, 5% halfling, 4% half-orc, 4% gnome, 3% dwarf, 2% other) Notable NPCs
Law Enforcement
Marketplace
Minor Items 4d4+1d3; Medium Items 3d4+1d3; Major Items 1d6+1d3
Glad to help. I took advantage of many ideas here, so I'm just paying it back. :)
Could you link me to those fixes to the Trust mechanic? Thanks, tbug! Also, I have been told that the BBEG is too obscure when run as written. Yes, the BBEG as written is too obscure. When the players discover the mastermind, it is the first time they have ever heard the name. That works for some groups, but not for most. Spoiler: I introduced him at the funeral as an old apprentice of Lorrimor's. He met them again in book 2 and have them horses to help them gather the evidence for the trial. He then left for Caliphas along with Kendra under the guise of helping her find out more about her condition (She was blind but proximity to the ghosts of Harrowstone ignited a latent ability to converse with spirits - Oracle (Knowledge) with Cloudy Vision.
Kendra will be the kidnap victim in books 5/6 which will give the party a real incentive to go after the BBEG.
First, read the DM thread for the first book at the very least if not all of them. Many of the questions that you have are already covered there. Examples:
Spoiler:
My players thought that AV was the signature of the letters until they found that letter on his body. They will definitely want to kill him especially since I set it up that Kendra will be one kidnapped later in the AP. I hadn't thought about using Roll20 at the table for the overall map. That's a really good idea. Seems that it would make mapping during game a lot smoother and give us more play time. I'll have to look into that. Thanks for the idea.
Yes, the letters from the BBEG are great! I highly recommend them as well. I changed the signature to just one letter to throw the players off. They just finished Broken Moon and found a letter for them in AV's pocket. :) I agree with Ben: introduce the BBEG as soon as possible. It'll make it more personal later.
1. I use a combination of describing what they see coupled with a map on graph paper (8.5x11). When combat starts, I draw out the room on the battlemat and place the minis where the characters were. 2. I use the planchette differently than written. The further the distance to the spirit with the answer and it's general temperament, the higher the Will Save DC. If they fail, they get no reply. If they roll a 1, bad things will happen. 3. I would let them die if they decided to bum rush the entire prison. However, they should realize they are well over their heads in the first room below. Also, the fact that they have to climb down might convince them to clear out the first floor (at least) before heading down. 4. I did the same thing as Jeremy. 5. The Trust system is broken. You can either just wing it depending on the actions of your players, or there are two third party modules that fit in nicely to boost trust (The Murmuring Fountain and Fiddler's Lament). Before you go much further, I would read the entire GM thread for the module. There are always lots of good ideas in those threads as well as identifying issues with the modules such as Trust and when to introduce the BBEG behind the whole affair.
I always assumed that there were multiple *nasty* spells guarding the statue. Deadly for anyone except for a creature who is almost completely immune to magic. Also, it is possible that the statue was inert until it was reconsecrated, brought within range of an altar and/or believers, etc.
If you think that they will decide on something more like a stake-out, prepare to give them something that they can't resist going in after. Something like some henchmen carrying a body-size canvas. The thing inside could be struggling if they need obvious signs. Or if already dead, they could find a set of blood drops coming from it. I like that idea. The body struggling in the bag could be Gustav! Vorkstag might need to interrogate him so that he can pass as him the next day in the trial.
Well the judge did say that she needed to distance herself from the investigation, so that might be why they are reluctant to contact her. My players were very much the same. Luckily, the rogue wanted to try and take a peek inside and climbed over the wall. Once the golem attacked, they were committed. :) If they confided in Kendra, she could raise the question about asking the judge. She could even act as the courier so that they keep their distance from the judge. Even though she is connected with the party, she is less conspicuous than Caleb, and her father knew the judge so there is a personal connection. What are the laws of Ustalav regarding evidence? Would kicking down the doors of the Chymic Works be a crime if they were right? Would it poison the evidence? Search warrants are not universal and you have to decide if they are needed. Given Ustalav's nature, I personally decided that a person's position was the most important factor in what they could get away with. Since the party were accepted as defenders of The Beast, I gave them some limited authority in that regard. It also didn't hurt that the party had a Paladin and it was they who summoned the town guard as soon as the fight was over (no one in the vicinity wanted any part of what was going on inside the building). While there might not be search warrants the Judge might give them a green light and work through her agents in the Palantine Eye to ensure that the party has no legal issues. For example, she might send and officer from the guard to the Chymic Works to loiter by the building. When the party arrives he just says "The judge sends her regards". He will say that he requested that the character enter the building.
As long as the trouble is coming from Vorkstag, you should be okay. Keep in mind that AV needed the beast, so framing him would be counterproductive.
Also, having Kendra as a PC will definitely drive the story forward as she should be motivated to track down the responsible party(ies). You can always adjust her level or even her class as it suits you. There's no plot reason for her class that I saw. I modified her to make more of a sympathetic draw for the players and to provide a potential replacement. I made her a blind Oracle just coming into her powers along with spirit sight as a result of recent events. As an NPC, I will use her instead of the kidnap victim in book 5/6.
My players have just started the back half of book 3. Kyndja - Half Elf Paladin of Iomedae
No deaths yet, but a number of close calls. The dhampir was just one point away from death when he was stabilized. The next chance he got, he invested in an Inflict Light Wounds wand with Reach and gave it to the Cleric. :)
The link to Windspirits guide leads to a thread about trial of the beast. Is there a GM reference PDF for Broken Moon available anywhere, because I'm dying to see it. Any help would be appriciated.Windspirit's Broken Moon GM reference PDF. My group just started this book as well and I was looking for that last week. I found a post by Windspirit saying that it is no longer available because Paizo had concerns about the IP, so it was taken down.
Thanks to everyone who helped me out. Now I think that it'll be a fun and memorable encounter for the players. I'm really glad that I reached out for help. I just wanted to report that my players got to the final battle in our last session and it worked out very well. I let the player running the Bondslave run The Beast and had the AP focus on killing his brother first. So as I was calling out the damage inflicted on The Beast, the players were very uneasy. It was over in just a few rounds. The Paladin activated the Goat of Terror and attacked with the +5 Longsword. She hit three times in two rounds, confirmed a critical twice, and then rolled near max damage. Add to that The Beast with his Power Attack... So, thanks again for the help. It was truly a memorable fight.
For reference, the five PCs were hasted, one was a druid in tiger form, the wizard had six augmented lantern archons (mobile laser batteries that ignore DR and hit touch-ac) and the inquisitor liked fire spells... and everyone was getting the bard's song. It went somewhat quickly. With the low touch AC of the AP (8), the Lantern Archons would be enough on their own. With no other buffs, that's 9-10d6 per round! Yeah, I'd say the Beast's job here is to bring a (supposedly) superpowered monster down to a more APL appropriate challenge, not to just solve the fight for the PCs. When you add in Power Attack, it ends up pretty even between The Beast and the AP. The players tip it well in The Beast's favor and most player groups would not be able to handle the AP on their own. It works out really well. Thanks to everyone who helped me out. Now I think that it'll be a fun and memorable encounter for the players. I'm really glad that I reached out for help.
While grappled (-2 to hit), The Beast would only do an average of 13.5 points per round with his Ogre Hook.The Beast power attacks with his ogre hook for an average of 31 points each hit, reduced to 21 by the AP’s DR. Duh! I totally forgot about the Power Attack. That makes a huge difference as you pointed out especially with a 2-handed weapon. Plus the other areas that I missed (grapple penalties cancelling out, AoOs, etc.) Given the above, The Beast will be able to take down a lot more than half before the AP kills him (if it even does). I'm much more confident that it'll be a good fight. Thanks!
you do realize i said i got rid of all those right? the beast, constrict, tentacles the whole shebang Yup. That's not a bad idea, but I think I'm leaning towards keeping all of that. It'll be nice to have the PCs not be able to defeat everything in their path. It's also nice that The Beast couldn't just win on its own making the PCs irrelevant. I just had a thought that if the PCs decide to have the Rogue run the Bondslave giving it Sneak Attack and they flank the AP, it'll be a slaughter...
i dropped 30 hit points, got rid of the stupid tentacles and constrict abilities and didn't even need the beast (rolled stats, but everyone was 10 years old so sub-optimal group tactics so it evened out) The tentacles may be a boon if my party thinks. They do less damage, so if The Beast is transferred there he'll last longer and he's immune to the poison. As long as the only other target is a player with Freedom of Movement cast on them, they should do well. If not, the constrict damage will kill any of my players in the round after the grapple. Crunch... next!
Sure, The Beast can still full-attack, but if the grapple is not broken the AP will Constrict (RAW: "A creature with this special attack can crush an opponent, dealing bludgeoning damage, when it makes a successful grapple check (in addition to any other effects caused by a successful check, including additional damage)."). So that's 4d6+9 for the Slam plus 4d6+9 for the Constrict. That's an average of 46 points per round. Even if I declare each a separate attack and apply DR twice, that's still 36 points per round. That'll kill The Beast in under 4 rounds.The beast will be doing almost as much damage to the Promethean. If the rest of the party can help out a just little, like doing ten points of damage total per round between them, the Beast should win. While grappled (-2 to hit), The Beast would only do an average of 13.5 points per round with his Ogre Hook. I ran the numbers and without the party assisting, The Beast is dead in round 5 while the AP would last until round 8. My party should be able to close the gap. That makes me feel better because it looks to be an epic fight that could not be won without The Beast, but The Beast couldn't win it on his own either.
Thanks for all of the replies. Although not RAW, are you including the RAI of the Beast's stat increases due to rage? (I don't have my books in front of me at present.) Yes, those are the numbers with the rage increases. Would the Beast need to break free? Surely he can full-attack while grappled? Sure, The Beast can still full-attack, but if the grapple is not broken the AP will Constrict (RAW: "A creature with this special attack can crush an opponent, dealing bludgeoning damage, when it makes a successful grapple check (in addition to any other effects caused by a successful check, including additional damage)."). So that's 4d6+9 for the Slam plus 4d6+9 for the Constrict. That's an average of 46 points per round. Even if I declare each a separate attack and apply DR twice, that's still 36 points per round. That'll kill The Beast in under 4 rounds.
The only buffs the players could offer would be spells and that is a problem with the Immunity to Magic. I could rule that the Immunity could be dropped while The Beast is being controlled so that the Cleric can hit him with a Freedom of Movement, but that leaves a flat taste in my mouth. I was hoping to hand a character sheet for The Beast to the player using the Bondslave Thrall, but it is starting to sound like I'm going to have to make the final confrontation an extended cinematic. <sigh>
I'm getting ready to run the final fight of the module and I want to make sure that I am reading this correctly as this is the first Pathfinder AP that I'm running. Spoiler:
Aberant Promethean: Attack +21; CMB +29 (grapple); CMD 35 The Beast: AC 24; CMD 30; CMB 23 The AP will hit The Beast on a 3+ and automatically grapple. The Beast can then only break free on a 12+. Even if the arcanist is running The Beast with a +7 AC, it seems that the main purpose of The Beast is going to be trying up the Paralytic Tentacles. Correct, or am I getting something wrong?
Thanks!
The ectoplasmic template is in the back of HoH (p86). Ectos get their own DR (DR 5/Slashing). I know that there was some discussion near the beginning of this thread about some issues with the printed template or how it was applied to the sample creature, so check that out.
Is it possible to add ANOTHER haunt to the piper, which simply spams a skeleton, much like the Marshwater Maurader's flying skulls? Can a haunt function as a monster-spamming trap that resets, like other haunts? That way it'd be less like a chore if they decided to tackle it piecemeal, and give a bit more challenge. I can always hand-waive extra skeletons being generated, but it'd be nice if I had rules to explain where they're coming from. Maybe changing the skeletons to ectoplasmic creatures would be the way to go. You could add them as needed and would necessarily need to have a bag of bones for each one.
"Mindless" creatures capable of walking and swinging a sword at the same time--skeletons, for example--are surely capable of tearing a PC's throat out, which is all they need to know to coup de grace. I disagree. Sure they are capable of tearing a throat out, but they would need a level of intelligence to understand that the player isn't moving due to an external force *and* know that attacking the throat is a vital location. So that goes against the mindless designation. Adding stirges to the encounter if it's too easy otherwise sounds like a reasonable change. Note that the Piper could easily be a group's second encounter in Harrowstone (immediately after the Headman's Scythe, ouch!) Having his flute beforehand isn't assured. Good point. I'll have to keep that in mind. Seems that many players have entered via that route.
I have a minor question about the Piper of Illmarsh. There seems to be some agreement that this 'hold person' based haunt is too weak, and I wanted to know how/if people balanced it. I can see this encounter being a real pushover for some parties and difficult for others. I personally will have to up the encounter. My players will most likely have 3 Dispel Undead casters plus a Paladin. Also, three of my players will have a +4 or higher Will save. The piper can only directly do 1d6 damage *and* that is only once per day (limit on his Hold Person) and only if they fail the first Hold save. The save is fairly low (DC14), the characters get a save every round, and skeletons are mindless undead and would not understand how to coup de grace. In addition, the piper only has 18hp and his flute does 1d6 damage to him per round. I really comes down to how much of a threat the skeletons pose. The skeletons have to be a serious threat to make the Piper as written a good encounter. I will probably add some stirges to the encounter to downplay the effect of the dispels and boost the threat.
What im doing is a d2 plus one days so it make it happen sooner and still keeping Veriseranna as Splattermans Target so that makes things go alot faster but still keeps them at a pace that the players can do things I'm definitely going to keep her as the target. I hadn't fully considered the ramifications of changing that. I might do the same as you, or I might keep the original randomness (1d4+1 days) and use a shorter name for the Warden's wife. Both bring down the overall time limit, I'm just not sure 1d2+1 would do with the tracking down of Gibs. Once I plot out the other town encounters, it should be evident as to which one will work better. And I can also just change things on the fly as it suits me. :) and this is a DM thread so you dont need to spoiler things Thanks. Reading the thread I wasn't sure so I opted for the tags on my first post. I'd rather be told that they weren't needed than spoil something for someone. -Griffyn
I plan to use the idea from these forums and have the diary on Lorrimor (initially overlooked) to be discovered when he comes a-knockin a few days later. I haven't checked yet, but the entries might need to be tweaked. While I don't want the diary to be found right away, I personally don't like the idea of Kendra holding this info from the players. If I were to play it like this, rather than having Kendra hold it back, I would have her discover it a few days later and then alert the players immediately.
Spoiler:
Those are excellent questions and I don't have any good answers, so that tells me to move away from using Kendra as the target in HoH as she will be in peril later in the AP. I also don't want her to be, or seem to be, extremely important to the overall plot, just to the characters themselves. So that also makes my initial idea sub par. If I want to speed things up, I can do as you suggest or just take the easy way and rename Veriseranna. ;-) I also agree that I shouldn't hold myself hostage to the dice and have events unfold based on what's best for the story. Thanks for your help to make my game better.
I will be starting this AP soon and here are the changes that I intend to make. I would love to hear opinions on these changes. The party will consist of a Paladin, a Sorcerer, a Cleric, a Rogue, and an Inquisitor (races, gods, etc. to be finalized soon).
Spoiler:
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