Haydriel's page

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!

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...

...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.

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.

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.

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 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.....

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.