Hespi's page

I am planning to run this AP in March. I saw it has some faults(like Ardax teleporting), but still it seems like a fun adventure. Give me your best tips, how did you improved the original storyline, or what extra options did you allow to your players, which improved the campaign overall?
I only have one idea so far:
- I am gonna introduce K'zaard to the party probably in the Torrentmoot.

So... had some second thoughts about THE LADY.

She's great. But boy oh boy... them leeches.

At CR 2, w/ 2 of them, their AC, w/ cover is NINETEEN.

That's just unconscionable, esp. while the PCs are dealing w/ the crab.

As I have ruminated on this a bit, I think it would be best if the WEAK template were slapped on them, reducing their HP to 22 and reducing their AC under cover to a still very high 17.

Yeah, that encounter is DEADLY. My party of 5(4 newbie with Pathfinder 2, but otherwise experienced with RPGs) started with them, and we had a skeleton PC, but because of lvl1 nobody had anything to heal him. Of course who is the bravest? The skeleton. Lady Shimmersnip almost instantly down him, and well, skeleton PC slowly dies(and the party is wounded too, like almost TPK wounded). I tried to help them, so Shimmersnip stopped attacking them after one leech was removed, and helped them actively after they removed both leeches but still, it is a hard encounter.

Skeleton player made a cleric, and the party pretty much steamroll the entire chapter one. I think it would be a good idea for introducing the Blood in the Water encounter for the team after they completed some quests and collected some equipment/gold. Also I would say that Tregellon is very wounded, just to show the party that this is a serious encounter.

This is great, thanks! I like it, probably gonna use it in my own campaign if its okay. :)

So the first book introduce us 4 relics. These are the Adamantine Echo, the Skysunder, the Sparkwarden, and the Uniter of Clans. I like these a lot, I like how they improve if the PCs do things, which are generally respected in dwarven society, although I feel like the game could use more relics, mainly because:
- some party plays with 5-7 player, not just 4
- what if there are artifacts which are not a great fit for any of the party members?
- what if the party sell, or just simply lose some of the artifacts?
- what if the party miss one of the artifacts, like decide to not accept Skysunder, because they feel like Clan Tolorr deserves it, or missing the Sparkwarden, or deciding to dodge the whole fungi part and missing the Uniter of Clans.
- if there are enough relics, one or more party member who are highly interested could have 2 or more relics.
So my plan is to create more artifacts.

So my question is basically: Did you create new artifacts? Where did you place them? How did your party like them? How did you make them unique(if its possible give their entire description and advancement)? How did you change the already existing relics, if you changed them at all?

I do have a problem. We still don't know exactly what the sky for the sky has done.

Orc, we know,

Ghoul were just under the dwarves and recuperating the abandoned territory before the hyraguars takes back the city.

But what about the caligny, the trolls?

Xulgath... Well... If the felt it was the same as the orcs but they are super evil?

Yeah, it is talked on Reddit and in my other post too, but this is one of the weaker part of the story. We get it, Taargick is sad, because he the dwarves harmed others when they come up, but we didnt get any solid evidence what exactly they did, and also 99% of the Darklands creatures are evil, doesnt matter if they are fey or orc. The only legit non-evil group are the uluk-kais, who are tricked but still ready to attack innocent people(the Cult of the Worm members are kinda the good guys), and ready to join the obviously evil hryngars. Sadly this kinda undermines the regrets of Taargick, so I am planning to add some good-alingned members for these groups, and perhaps reinforce with some encounters how some of the ancestries are savages because the dwarfs(accidentaly or not) destroyed their homes/stole some artifacts/etc. during the Quest for the Sky.

It seems that Ghouls were the one the dwarfs run against...

Actually if you follow the book there is a pretty good chance even the ghouls want to eat your party members. You know the portrayal of Darkland creatures is one sided, when after the ulat-kinis the most normal ancestries are well... ghouls who might want to eat you, if you look delicious enough.

so... these leeches on the Lady...

it says in the description that they can 'Squirm'

I can't find this in the monster statblock. What is 'Squirm' ???

I think it should be the Gnash action.

- This is a continuation of one of my Reddit posts, so its possible you already read it.
- Of course there will be spoilers
- My native language is not english, so sorry for the mistakes.

So, I liked the adventure path, but for some reason the ending doesn't feel that great. I saw that others say that Narseigus is to blame for all of this, because we only meet him at the end of the campaign, until then the players harm him but they never speak to him, and he welcomes the party as quasi "strangers" at Taargick's tomb.

I feel the problem originates from a completely different place: the message of the story itself could be strong. Imperialism and the "manifest destiny" attitude can be extremely harmful and bring destruction and suffering. My problem, however, is that while the destruction and suffering is shown, why the creatures of the Darklands don't deserve it isn't really. A very significant percentage of the creatures are evil, treacherous, or just plain brutal monsters that want to eat you inside the Darklands. The funniest thing is that I was happy when we finally found someone in Hagegraf who is an activist(Dhorri) and who tries to help the creatures against Hagegraf's laws, only to find out that she is not a hryngar, but a caligni. Later who help the party against enemies? 99% dwarves, and some nyktera (who, to the best of our knowledge, Taargick never fought).

In my opinion, the adventure path would be stronger if we got a slightly more nuanced picture of the members of the different ancestries. I understand that obviously their evilness also developed on some level because the dwarves destroyed their homes on their way, killed them, etc., but it's hard to feel sympathy for them. Also the main message of Taargick is not that strong. Yeah, he regretted killing others. And? In the end of the third book we got the information that this completely change dwarven culture, but why? Highhelm is already a pretty cosmopolitan and open-minded place. This is literally a part of the Lost Omens: Highhelm book:
"Dwarves have long since discarded the idea of predetermined gender roles,
and those in Highhelm are coming to let go of predetermined attitudes based
on ancestry or ability as well."

So my question is: how would you improve the ending of the campaign? Perhaps give some important information to the cave worm? Because I feel like currently almost nothing is added in the ending of the game what the players dont know after the crypt in book 1.

There was a small argument at our table yesterday.

We have a ratfolk cleric who believes in Torag. One of Torag's anathemas is this: "show continued mercy to the enemies of your people when such enemies prove they are undeserving".

The debate arose over who exactly "your people" refers to in this text. In the opinion of the cleric and some players, everyone who is a friend of the ratfolk or whom the ratfolk feel is part of his community is considered "your people", so his enemies are those who want to harm the team or the inhabitants of the Stolen Lands (Kingmaker campaign). He is not part of any dwarf community or city.

Player B said that he thinks "your people" refers to dwarves, since it's Torag, so it's goblinoids and orcs as enemies primarily(or anyone in general who tries to harm dwarves). Player B found this previous forum post by Sean K Reynolds: https://paizo.com/threads/rzs2q4o5?Paladin-of-Torag-LG-limits#22.

Somebody send this response from James Jacobs: https://paizo.com/threads/rzs43jz8?Dwarves-and-insetting-racism#34

Player B says: "Here James just says that there may be different dwarf-enemy, and "Your People" does not refer to Ratfolk friends/companions, it still refers to dwarfs."

What do you think?