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Now that you've finished, I have questions.

* - Who were the heroes? What backgrounds did they use? Did you suffer any player character deaths?
* - What were the "rough" spots in the AP? What did you have to change?

The heroes were:

- Twilight halfling cloistered cleric of Ashava/Cosmic Caravan (Star watcher background) with Ghost Hunter archetype

- Oathkeeper Dwarf Investigator (bibliophile background) with Eldritch Researcher archetype

- Dhampir monk with Acrobat archetype (Witchlight follower background)

- Catfolk bard with Chosen One archetype (Ruin Delver background)

- Fighter with Medic dedication (and Guard background)

The Cleric perished on the jail level (book 2) and was replaced by a Champion of Ashava (the deceased cleric's father).

We honestly did not have that many rough spots, mostly because the group was slightly overleveled during some parts of the adventure. The group missed some of the more notorious fights such as the Voidglutton and Froghemoth and I already 'nerfed' the Mr. Beak encounter.

Some memorable moments that come to mind:

- They almost TPK'ed from the Bloodsiphon (they were still only level 1)
- If I remember correctly the Cairn Wights were intense as well.
- The Urevian fight was intense as well, mainly due to Wall of Force;
- The Gibtas Bounders kicked half of the party into the lake below, awakening the Hydra. They fled from that battle as the Hydra was waking up.
- They ran into the Irlgaunt near the end. After the Irlgaunt almost one shot the bard with its AoE attack they ran away (good for them).

Last weekend my group finally finished the Abomination Vaults adventure path. What a great journey it's been!

Some stastics:
It took the group around 65 sessions of 3-5 hours to finally defeat Belcorra.
The entire campaign took us 2,5 years.
In-game only three weeks have passed.
Only one player character perished during the adventure (damn you, infernal wound!).
The final battle against Belcorra took around 7 turns and was a real nail biter.
The Whispering Reeds were used on Belcorra herself.
The final session took around 5 hours.

Everyone loved the spooky menace of Nhimbaloth. Amd much like Nhimbaloth, my life seems strangely empty now.

Thanks for the incredible stories, we had great fun! And thanks for the help and feedback on this forum - it really helped to breathe even more life into the already amazing adventure.

See you around!

I haven't read the whole AP yet but I was wondering if its possible to run the MegaDungeon without any of the Towns people alive. I know there is a Few times when Items are linked to Town members but other than that would anyone for see issues with Otari being deserted?

Thank You

I can think of the following ty-ins that would need to be adressed:

My assumption here is that they will head back to Otari to rest every day, but this could be a wrongful assumption on my end. When they still haven't gone into any of the floors, this is fine, but what happens when they have made it to the first level, second level, and so on? Do we just skip to them being at the, say, third level after a night's rest, or do we play through the previous levels again, now empty?

It's totally up to you of course. In my game, I did the following:

- With each new foray into the levels below Gauntlight, I described the route the party took and (roughly) how long it took them to get where they where. This helps to drive home the point that it is in fact a sprawling dungeon down there and that travelling to-and-from Otari becomes increasingly taxing as the party delves deeper.

- I used a small table of random encounters ('wandering monsters') and let the dice decide whether or not this would lead to an encounter as the party travels through the (cleared out) levels. This helps to keep the party on their toes and highlights how dangerous the Vaults are.
Sometimes its enough to just roll some dice in a menacing way, followed by a "everything seems to be okay" ;-)

I think you don't want the party to get complacent and overconfident, and make the dungeon feel 'alive' and dynamic.

First death in our party yesterday. Ottho, halfling Cleric of Ashava was felled by the fleshwarpguards in the Baracks of the prison level. (D15)

The party decided to ambush the guards by entering from the secret corridor (whilst carefully avoiding the trap). A bit of a gambit as the heroes were running low on resources (no high level spell slots left for the Bard, only one heal left for the Cleric) and the monk was still hurt from a previous fight (unsuccesful first aid attempt).

Bad luck ensued; the monk was unable to hit his targets due to bad rolls, needle sprays whittled down the party healthpool and the mulventok's Explosive Decay took the party by surprise.
Eventually the Bard was the last cat standing and managed to take out the last enemy, but was too late to prevent the Cleric from bleeding out...

Ik think the AP describes it pretty well tbh. Fey subsist on grubs, leftover humanoïd servants turned to cannibalism, other creatures are kept in stasis etc.

The lowest part of the dungeon had a working farm to supply the Vaults.

...teleportation circles?

I'm curious whether anyone else's party questioned why they should bother with the teleportation circles. From their perspective, the dungeon hasn't been big enough to necessitate fast travel points, and the circles could be used by Vault denizens to pursue the party or escape and attack Otari.

The in-narrative justification I offered them was that they wouldn't know where the portals went until going through them. It was entirely possible they might open a portal whose other end was active, which would open up an otherwise inaccessible part of the the dungeon. That convinced them to try it, and once they got the first XP award they were of course super motivated to do so. But I still don't entirely get why activating the portals is a relevant enough achievement to award XP.

Also depends on how 'dynamic' you let these vaults be.

So throw in some random encounters or just start ominously rolling dice whenever the party decides to take te long route through the levels ;-)

That's perfect lol, thanks! I hope you don't mind if I steal these xD

Sure, go for it! :-D

Am I missing a description somewhere for Volluk's 3 books (What The Worm

Knows, Grave Feasts, and Secrets of the Skull)? My party found the list back in his office and they're most likely gonna find the actual books next sessions, I'm pretty certain they're gonna try to read them for information but I'm not really sure what info to give for them, the book just seems to say they can sell them

The books are forshadowing the fact that Volluk has transcended his drow form. Reading the books could give the players hints as to what they might face later on.

My group wanted to study these books as well. I just gave them some flavor in vague, general terms:

- What the Worm Knows: an obscure treatise that hypothesizes that vermin, mainly insects such as worms, leeches and beetles, can retain and absorb memories from exterior sources and might even develop or host a consiousness/'hive mind' when exposed to occult magics.

- Grave Feasts: deals with several types of critters that feast on cadavers. Several passages, theorizing that these critters might absorb rudimentary knowledge of the 'host' they feed on, are underlined.

- Secrets of the Skull: en esotheric theory concerning consciousness/the soul, discussing whether counsciousness is 'tethered' to the brain or if it could be seperated from the material body.

While incredibly rare I feel that no one except maybe Wrin would own such a dark book, if they even knew what it is.

I'd go with this. Later on in the AP you might encounter items to which similar rules apply, such as

Sadly my group hasn't used the book yet, they just crammed it into their bag of holding :-(

Would be interesting to share some of the 'stories' written within.

I think they just went in, killed Belcorra and retired. No need to explore the ruins as the big bad was dead.

In the years after I think the legends of Gauntlight being a haunted ruin (?) kept most explorers away. Or maybe Tangletop/Mr Beak kept them at bay?

Nice, thanks for sharing.

I recently made a small random encounter table for my group as well (currently at level 6), as I wanted to create a more dynamic outside environment (swamps/ruins). My party cleared out the mitflits several in-game weeks ago and I want them to stay on their toes.

Rolling 1d4:

1. Boggard Hunter (CL 7) + 2 Boggard Warriors (CL 2)
2. Cultists*: Nhimbaloth Demagogue (CL 7) + 2 Nhimbaloth Cultist (CL1)
3. Absalom Agents*: Garggin Lowdelver (CL 5) + 2 Bruisers (CL 5)
4. Elite Young Black Dragon** (CL 8)

* If you haven't already, I recommend checking out the Abomination Vault's GM Guide. Lots of interesting options, including these random encounters.
** My party skipped the *entire* second level (servant's quarters), so this will probably be a reskin for the Freznelkesh-encounter.

I'm trying to figure out when and how the Menhemes family came into possession of the Cooperative Blade.

I think this part is explained in the Campaing Timeline, in the Ruins of Gauntlight book:

290 ar The last Roseguard passes away, and Otari begins to fall into decline.

4294 ar Otari is abandoned.
4300 ar Stonescale kobolds colonize Otari.
4310 ar Yarlaip seals his tribe’s fate by luring ships to their doom; the Stonescale kobolds are soon thereafter
defeated by adventurers. Maklanni Menhemes leads the resettlement of Otari.
4323 ar Construction of the Otari Mill and log flume is completed.

Maklanni found the blade in the ruins of Otari after driving out the Kobolds, at least that's what I reckon.

Not sure when the Rajani's returned, though.

The players weren't interested in talking or negociating with Urevian. One of the characters (i.e. the rogue) charged him. Urevian used his Wall of Force to cut the rogue from the rest of the group and everyone ganged up on the rogue. When the rogue was almost dead, Urevian tried to negociate again. The other characters were lucky enough bring down the wall of force, but the rogue died due to the persistent damage from the infernal wound. The rest of the group killed the barbezu and almost kill Urevian. He escaped with his dimensional door.

My question is what should I do now? I don't think trying to negociate a third time is a good idea. The characters clearly don't want to negociate, and I think it will seem like I'm trying to force them to do so.

Urevian can't quit his duty, so he's clearly somewhere in the Gauntlight. The only thing on the level that the players haven't completed, is finding / freeing Cynemi.

If you have any suggestions on how to resolve this, I'm eager to know!

Maybe a 'last stand' near area D3? Maybe he tries to summon additional forces? You could also do a dramatic scene where he tries to bargain for additional troops, only to have him be dragged back to Hell to answer to the Velstrac overlords he is indebted to.

Yeah but at same time its told that the four lenses were originally just part of larger set of lenses where others were lost.

Like I thought of that as myself as well and it would make sense as well, but nothing confirms it either way so I'm curious how people will interpret it

You are right, apparently the lenses aren't spent, strictly speaking:

(...)The lens doesn’t have any magical abilities until the possession effect ends; when it does, the essence returns to the lens.

Though I can imagine it's different with Belcorra as its Nhimabaloth herself that 'reclaims' her essence.

I think I will rule that the lenses crumble tot dust, as the eldritch energy that powered them returns to its source.

So in other words there is no official guidance on this? Where side quests are missing it's up to the GM to decide how many Make Impression PCs need to shift behavior from Unfriendly/Indifferent to Friendly/Helpful and how often can they roll?

I think it stands to reason most 'core' NPCs will quickly shift towards friendly, especially after certain events early in book 1 (chapter two).

Not sure (my group just started book 2) but the way I read it you more or less 'fire' the essence of Nhimbaloth from the lenses into the target creature (Belcorra). After all lenses have been fired, the concentrated essence of Nhimbaloth attracts te Godesses's attention.

I figured afterwards the lenses would be 'spent' as the essences are released. So the remaining lenses would be nothing more than fancy pieces of glass.

There's the fleshwarping labs, you could chuck in a room or two (or resting the whole thing) for automaton manufacture there.

This. The first half of the second book deals with laboratories and creating the perfect soldiers for Belcorra's army. You could retool some of the rooms rooms as (ultimately discarded) experiments with automaton warriors for instance.

I played him as very bitter and vindictive. One of my players actually met him in their session zero in the forest outside town, looking for wolf trails (unsuccessfully, luckily for him). I would have him be very angry about it, close his shop and go out and look for Jaul himself, since he now has evidence he's about. And probably never come back.

Yes, this was more or less my plan as well! But I'm hesitant because it seems harsh on the players as they are left without a 'merchant'. Though I guess after several days competition could take over.

So my players recently faced off with Jaul Mezmin and after a long and confusing battle (the party Monk got separated from the group while the rest of the party was pushed back to the stairs leading back up to the library, creating a huge bottleneck) they managed to defeat him (Jaul surrendered).
So he gave them Ayla's pendant and they decided to let him live; he packed his belongings and ran off.

Fast forward; one session later and the party wants to head back to Otari, notably to buy and sell stuff. They expect a huge reward from Keelano for returning the pendant.

According to the AP, Keelano demands proof that Jaul is dead and I expect that, if he asks the players if they killed Jaul, they will not lie about it (the Dwarf investigator worships Kols...).
How would Keelano react? He might be momentarily grateful for returning the pendant, but I can imagine he will become enraged once he learns his wife's killer is still at large. He might even storm off and close his shop for a few days or so? But then the players won't be able to buy stuff....

How should this impact the relationship between the party and the town merchant for the long term?

I changed all the four items from the Roseguard into actual relics. The co-operative blade was remade into a scimitar with fire powers (since I have a champion of Sarenrae in my group). It has worked fine and my players are having fun with them.

I'm very interested in this, could you link me what you made of the relics? My players are getting close and I'm still wondering what to do..

How do you plan to 'distribute' these journal entries? Just give them as hand-outs to the players when they discover the journal? Or do you read an entry every session or so?

Another suggestion, if you're up for it: you could write one or more entries about

This also ties in well with certain monsters found on the library and service quarter levels and it works well with the above mentioned Darklands-entry.

EDIT: I believe the ancient temple was there before Belcorra 'rediscovered' it. This is described in Book 3 and there is proof of an ancient, now extinct cult of Nhimbaloth.
Earlier journal entries could reflect the search for this ancient site (forshadowing).

Found something for you, from book 3. I don't think I'm allowed to quote directly but:

Nice, I like it a lot!

These forums aren't overly active, a thread usually gets around 2-3 replies over the course of several days/weeks.

Haven't had a chance to read through it as thoroughly as I'd like, so I will get back to you later!

Arodus 19th, 4239: It's a sign! A gift from the outer gods! While excavating I have found a site where once the Empty Death herself brushed against this fragile world! Oh, it is glorious! I have ordered a temple to be erected on the spot to my most glorious of patrons! Oh, it will be wonderful!

I'm not 100% sure, but I think that Belcorra always knew or suspected this ancient site would be there (from visions, I believe) from the get go.

You could change your journal entry slightly to reflect this, something along the lines of 'I finally found it! The place where my mistress once brushed against this fragile world' or something like that.
Hope this helps!

EDIT: I believe the ancient temple was there before Belcorra 'rediscovered' it. This is described in Book 3 and there is proof of an ancient, now extinct cult of Nhimbaloth.
Earlier journal entries could reflect the search for this ancient site (forshadowing).

I highly recommend reading the second and (especially) the third book in advance so you get a feel of the entire, overarching plot and details.

At the end of the description for C34 it says...

"The Statue: Note the condition the heroes leave the statue in, as the statue might cause them problems in the next adventure."

Any clue as to what that means? I've scoured book 2 but can't find anything.

Not sure where exactly, but

Hi! I posted this on reddit a few days ago, but forgot to make sure I posted it here as well for GM reference!

Levels 1-10, with a vertical slice North-South through the centre of the Gauntlight.

I did this by flipping the maps 90 degrees, and drawing "up" based on the heights I can see mentioned in the books. I've taken a few liberties to make things line up where I wasn't quite sure, but I think it's a reasonably accurate representation.

Just a quick shout-out and thank you for this very cool looking map! I included a version of this map

My players where shocked and amazed by the vast scale of Gauntlight. Also they're very scared of what's below now. So thanks :)

If he's still alive in your game, I had Boss Skrawng approach the party and ask them for assistance in retaking their kingdom from the Morlocks. They coordinated an attack - with the party fighting pretty much ALL the Morlocks in the Servants Quarters / Dining Room and then Skrawng and the remaining Mitflits breaking through the collapsed staircase.

My party were over levelled (started at lvl 5) and I thought this was a good way to tie up the Mitflit/Morlock part.

Nice, I will definitely try this!

My group has effectively bypassed the second level by immediately going from Azrinae's Workshop to the third level (library). Any thoughts on how I can make the second level interesting for my group should they later decide to explore it? I'm worried they would just steamroll over the poor morlocks. Is combining encounters from adjacent rooms an option or would that be too dangerous in your opinion?

My players just hit level two, and I was planning on giving all of them Ghost Hunter as a free archetype.

Only the wizard and witch actually meet the prerequisites, but I was thinking of just handwaving that away for the two rogues and fighter, and just seeing what they do with it.

Any issues I'm not seeing here?

Nah, I think you're good. It doesn't really impact the balance/difficulty that much, imo. And as long as you give it to all the players they're all equal in that regard.

No one knows. When Belcorra fought the Roseguard, the rogue Otari got trapped below the surface and was forced to flee ever deeper down. I believe he was the first one to discover the fact that there are 'Abomination Vaults' below Gauntlight Keep.

This is referenced somewhere on the Library level, when adventurers encounter the ghostly message left behind by Otari's ghost (C3).

I think it was left vague so you can fit it into your own version of the story. For instance, maybe the body was blown up in the final battle, or destroyed by magic.
Or perhaps the Roseguard burned the body and buried her at sea, in order to prevent her grave from becoming a shrine to devotees of Nhimbaloth.....

Or maybe human guards with aberration-traits? Or weird cultist-like humans who gladly sacrifice themselves so they can rise again as undead?

One of my player's (an alchemist) gathered some of the Blood of Belcorra from the light-house into a vial and took it back to Otari. They haven't been there at night yet so haven't seen the haunt. They brought it to Wrin, who took it for further study. I'm not sure what to do with it though. Should it be inert after leaving the lighthouse? Or perhaps Wrin can figure out something from studying it, so that when they return after dark they may come prepared to handle the haunt. Any cool ideas?

Not sure, but imo its the proximity to Gauntlight/the Empty Vault/the necromantic energy-ribbon that makes the blood 'active', so it could be inert after removing it.

I think he's asking why the dead Purple Worm hasn't been reanimated by all the necromantic energies flowing about, when other dead monsters have been reanimated.

Yes this exactly. Especially since the worm is on top of the 'channel' of necromantic energy.

Buy I like the ideas posted by Churcher!

Question regarding the dead Purple Worm in B35. In several of the adjacent rooms the necromantic energies spilling over out of Gauntlight have reanimated the dead monsters inside (the minotaur and Majordomo, for instance).
It seems unlogical that this huge dead worm (or the skeletal duergar inside it, for that matter) remains dead. Especially since it's actually on top of the 'ley line' of necromantic energy (the ribbon).

Almost had a TPK with my group (level 1) after the party recklessy bumped into the Bloodsiphon (L+4). By extreme luck they managed to take it down with only the bard left standing. Thanks to this epic fight the party was catapulted to level 2.

After a quick trip to town the party is now once again exploring the ruins (surface level). They actually have roughly 50% left to go and are now close to Boss Skrawng, even though they already are level 2. I'm looking for the right moment to start Deadtide, probably after they're done with Skrawng.

I tried to build the suspense leading up to Deadtide by having the players make random perception checks over the course of the past several sessions. These checks revealed increasing tremors/ripples surging through the ground towards Gauntlight tower, and more recently a 'static' kind of feel to indicate the increasing build up of magic energy. It's really starting to freak them out - can't wait to start Deadtide, probably next session!

I also plan to expand on the Deadtide event (if things go as planned) by having the party fend off waves of weak undead ('damaged' zombies that survived the initial impact of jumping of the cliff, bij landing on the increasing pile of other zombies/skeletons) in Otari, holding out until Longsaddle and the guard show up to relieve them.

I took your advice to heart and decided to give all the players a free archetype.

I asked them to consider how the archetype would fit their backstories and luckily they all picked one that fit rather well.

The most 'min-maxy-player' plays a Monk and he opted for the Acrobat, a good choice imo. And luckily someone picked the Ghost Hunter as well!

I'm sure I just keep missing it, but can anyone tell me the route that Boss Skrawng and the rest of the Mitflits took to get to level one? It doesn't look like any of the areas that he is familiar with have a way up.

My guess would be through area B19 (Freznelkesh's Lair). The drake appears to leave its lair often enough for food trips anyway. Maybe they were lucky when they were ousted by the Morlocks? Then again the book mentions that their 'violent eviction' diminished their group.

Great advice, thanks!

I don't intend to block certain archetype choices, as long as it makes sense from a story/background perspective. Just to avoid the min-maxing chery-picking of taking obscure archetypes just for synergy/optimizing.

Also, I'll leave out the multiclass archetypes in the Free Archetype-offer.

I gave my players in this one the Free Archetype option, then pointed out the Ghost Hunter AT, and said "This will be useful and provide some interesting opportunities."

Then they all ignored my advice and picked other things.

So, players gonna player.

Haha. I could easily see that happening here as well.

Did you limit their options (regarding what Free Archetypes) they could pick?

I would give the free archetype to players who deserve it because of their RP and let the door open for other players to later get a free archetype they want if they RP it well.

This might be a way to involve all players in more RP.

Good suggestion, thanks!

I think I'll do this. I've read ahead and

I'm DM-ing for a group that recently started with the Abomination Vaults, Ruins of Gauntlight. Everyone's very exited and we're already having great fun!
Our group consists of several players who really enjoy the story and roleplay, whilst others in the group mostly enjoy optimizing and min-maxing.

Sometime soon our party will be reachting 2nd level. Included in the AP is a special archetype, the Ghost Hunter. It would really suit the background-story of several of the players.

I've been toying with the idea of rewarding one/some of the players with the Ghost Hunter Archetype for free, because it really fits their stories and they've shown a genuine interest in the archetype. However I would not like to make the GH free for all, because then there would be no reason to not take the GH - especially for the min-maxers. The min-maxers have not shown any interest in the GH (yet), because it might be suboptimal considering their other options.

My initial plan was to drop the info about the GH in our group and ask the players to contact me if they are interested. If they contact me and are interested, I let them take it for free.

But by doing it this way it might disbalance the party in terms of 'power', because some players would get feats for free. Also (and I can't stress this enough) it is not my intention to punish the min-maxers or anything, the game should be fair and fun for everyone.

Any suggestions? Is it unfair to do it this way? Or are there other options to reward the other players and ' balance the power'? I'm open to all suggestions :-)