More of a way to vent concern rather than a particular question - feel free to let fly with commiserations or cries of "harden the #$^@% up!" as well as helpful advice!

I like sandboxes, and my players hate railroading, and I hate one-stop magic shops, and everyone likes subplots. So I've been throwing in all sorts of additional stuff to the STAP. There's Farshore's rather fraught relationship with Xiureksior, an insane recurring death knight NPC who seems to remembers the PCs from ages ago, a Sasserine aristocrat who may or may not be a vampire, the mysterious parentage of the half-orc PC and the question of why someone's sending him gifts of expensive magic items, Lirith's devil-worshipping family (who have become considerably more relevant since she got engaged to the wizard), and the wizard's ongoing quest to free his homeland from slavery under the efreeti, and everyone's desire to strengthen and expand Farshore itself. And stuff like that. Right now, for instance, they're mad keen to go hunt down a black dragon (one of Xiureksior's xorvintaal rivals, who has an item in its horde that Xiureksior has promised a nifty reward for)

Currently we're doing downtime - we've just finished a sidequest to the Lost Citadel, and basically I can embark the PCs on CoBI whenever I decide Jakara recieves Father Noltus's letter. The issue I'm seeing is that after CoBI there's very little time to take a breath or attend to recurring plots until after Into The Maw. Lavinia's kidnapping is triggered by the defeat of Khala, and then it's pretty much full steam ahead til she's rescued.

I'm sure that once Lavinia gets kidnapped, my PCs will chase her. they'll probably groan about it OOC (Lavinia IMC is brave to the point of recklessness in combat, which doesn't always make things comfortable, and she's put herself in tight spots more than once). But there's so much else happening, some of which they're far more interested in than Father Noltus, and this is going to monopolise their attention for three whole adventures.

Add to that the way that the group is heading somewhat off-theme. First of all, one of the original PCs (a dwarf dragon shaman) went mildly evil and was basically banished from the party. His player generated a new PC (while the dragon shaman 'went looking for redemption') who he seems to be happy with. But the dragon shaman a) was the captain of the Sea Wvyern and the only PC with significant seamanship skills, and b) has Azahu's tooth. Add to that the fact that the cleric (war god) has recently provoked something of a religious war-in-waiting by blithely and deliberately dumping a flame strike on Farshore's shrine to the legendarily vengeful sea god (and then talking his superiors into at least partially backing him up), and this is not a group of PCs that will be travelling ANYWHERE by sea any time soon. I assume that most parties would have travelled to Scuttlecove magically rather than by sailing, but that still leaves me in a problematic situation once the campaign moves to the Styx.

I kind of assumed that the campaign would start to go wildly off-track somewhere around Wells of Darkness (my PCs are already balking at all the alliances with evil that they've been pushed into - not a chance in hell are they going to start dickering with Orcus and Malcanthet) but it's all starting to happen a bit faster than I planned. And of course since I run so many sidetreks, my PCs are probably 1-2 levels above where the AP expects them to be, which presents its own set of problems.

I figure that Demogorgon isn't going anywhere, and that his plot to trigger the Savage Tide will happen regardless of what subplots we get tied up in. I figure that Iggwilv's suggestions regarding who to ally with are only suggestions and if they disagree (or never even approach her to ask) then they can just take on the responsibility of forming an interplanar anti-Demogorgon coalition WITHOUT her help. So the general thrust of the campaign will continue, if perhaps at a slower pace than the adventure path expects. But I very much doubt that pretty much anything after Into the Maw will be run as written. High-level PCs have ridiculous levels of freedom of action and strategic options, and any attempt to railroad is doomed to failure - particularly since I've deliberately made sure that the players know there's a bigger world out there beyond the bounds of the Sea Wyvern, Sasserine, and the Isle of Dread. I can steal setpieces (the beach assault scene, plus I really want to run some sort of visit to Malcanthet's palace even if the PCs don't want to go there...) and some ideas but that'll probably be about all.

Has anyone else had this happen? Has the campaign gotten so much bigger than the written bounds of the AP that you found yourself throwing out the rulebook and flying by the seat of your pants? How have you handled it? There's a certain necessary railroading in the nature of pre-written adventure paths - has anyone else found their PCs chafing at the bounds? And what do you do when they're finding the main plot much less interesting than building a wizards tower in Farshore, and visiting the Great Library in the City of Brass, and trying to work out the cause of the curse on the throne of Kennington, and trying to purchase back a fiance's soul from a pitfiend, and starting major religious schisms? Sure I can just drop Jakara's letter into things and give them a good whack with the plot stick to get them back on track again and into CoBI, but they're having so much fun as it is!

Anyone done anything with this place?

According to the Isle of Dread 'place guide' in Dungeon #143, it was the last retreat for those who survived the destruction of Thanaclan. Locked in time, mystic fountains, sleeping Olman princes etc.

My PCs are 13th level (between Lightless Depths and CoBI) and have decided they want to look for it.

I've decided to run with that (one player will miss the next two sessions and I don't want to start CoBI til he gets back), but I'm not really sure what to do. They just had a nice looting session at a ruined temple of Huitzilopochtli, so I don't really want to do another dungeon crawl. And I'm not sure two sessions will be enough to do something like the Lost Citadel justice anyway. And I don't want to get too distracted from the main plot, so just a sidetrek of sorts is in order.

Maybe the Citadel only exists one day in the year, sort of a Brigadoon type thing? Maybe the PCs find a place where it once was, or a place where it might one day be again?

And whay's in there? Wealth and sleeping princes, as advertised? Or are the 'sleeping' Olmans actually dormant vampires, or maybe the place got shuffled into some other plane and was taken over by the denizens, or maybe the inhabitants are dead and gone and only their magic traps and constructs remain?

Something short and sweet and a little weird. I'm just drawing a bit of a blank on this at the moment...

These guys were a bit of a walkover in lightless depths. Have boosted them up a bit here - they're still not devastating, but their ability to rapidly buff themselves up, plus the smite and their potentially high AC, means that their various disease and poison attacks might actually get a chance to take hold now. Ability Focus (stench) helps the poison/disease get through, too. They're not a speed bump any more.

TROGLODYTE LEPERS
CR 7
Male Troglodyte cleric 3/cancer mage 4
CE Medium humanoid (reptilian)

Init -1; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Blindsight, Listen +6, Spot +1
Languages Aquan, Olman
AC 23, touch 9, flat-footed 23
hp 82 (9 HD)
Fort +17, Ref +4 (Evasion), Will +5;
Spd 30 ft.

Melee 2 claws +9 (1d6+2 + disease) and bite +6 (1d4+1)
Base Atk +6; Grp +8

Special Actions sneak attack +1d6, smite 1/day (+4 to hit, +7 damage), 1/day cancer companion can cast spell in addition to regular actions

Spell-like Abilities poison DC17, contagion DC16

Cleric Spells Prepared (CL 7th)
2nd hold person DC13, shatter DC13, bull’s strength
1st bless, cause fear DC12, doom DC12, divine favour, shield of faith (+3)
0 create water, cure minor wounds, detect magic, guidance

Abilities Str 14, Dex 8, Con 20, Int 8, Wis 13, Cha 8
SQ stench (DC20 30 ft, sickened), disease host
Feats Ability Focus (stench), Great Fortitude, Multiattack, Practiced Spellcaster (+4 to cleric caster level), Improved natural attack (claw), Weapon focus (claw)

Skills Hide +8 (+12 in rocky/underground)
Possessions tatterdemalion armour, black pulp poultice (3 doses)

One of my PCs is a half-orc scout, who was discovered abandoned as an infant on Vanderboren lands outside Sasserine by the Vanderboren's gameskeeper, and was raised as his son. His true parentage remains a mystery, but we've just finished Lightless Depths, and the PCs are going to head back to Sasserine for a bit of networking, shopping, trading, etc, and it seems likely that the PC is going to want to use some of his new financial and magical resources to do a bit of research into his family.

Any ideas what I can do with this? How does a half-orc foundling end up in Sasserine? I'd kinda like to play with the stereotype and have his mother be the orc and his father human, but I'm not sure how to do this or how (if at all) I can tie it into the main plot. Could mum be one of the orcish captains of the Crimson Fleet maybe? What of dad, in that case?

Brainstorming and ideas greatly appreciated...

I may be waaaay early on this, but can I request that when it's Bestiary-writing time, Paizo takes a good hard look at monster advancement? In particular, monsters whose 'shtick' is spell-like abilities.

I'm right now trying to advance up some interesting aboleths to CR13ish for my Savage Tide game. I can advance one up to be a more effective bruiser by increasing its hit dice simply enough, but if I want to emphasise the magical abiliites then my only real option is pumping in the spellcaster levels. But these operate completely independently of the critter's natural SLAs, which gives two sets of numbers to take care of - not to mention that at the levels I'm operating, nobody's afraid of the DC17 SLAs anyway, and there's no obvious way too boost them.

Perhaps some sort of template for boosting an SLA-driven monster's natural abilities might be in order? Or some attention to this issue in the monster advancement rules?

The 'scholarly devourer' who's wandering around in Golismorga, for anyone who's forgotten.

Has anyone done anything interesting with him roleplaying-wise, or is he just a speed-bump combat encounter?

I can sorta see potential with him, though he's going to need some of his skill points reassigned into Knowledges before we can realistically call him a 'scholarly' devourer as he's referred to in the magazine. I've also put some skill points into Use Magic Device, redone some of his feats (Quicken spell-like ability is in, Combat Casting is out...) and spellstitched him (blacklight, shadow net, false life), to make him a bit more likely to survive more than one combat round (c'mon, 78hp at CR11?)

There's also his Lesser Planar Ally spell-like ability. That's got to be useful for something, though probably not much in the way of combat assistance. Can anyone think of any 6hd outsiders that might be useful to him?

This is something a couple of us have been talking about over at ENWorld for a while now. The idea of the concentration slot - it's something of an adaptation of the limited buffs rule, but more general.

Note that if inplemented this would be a BIG change to how the game plays, though it wouldn't necessarily have any back-compatibility problems...

****

First rough outline of a concentration slot system.

Number of concentration slots = caster level + 3. (As a starting point - I haven't really crunched the maths but I think this may be too generous at high levels. Perhaps 2/3 caster level + 3 might be a bit better)

A spell generally requires a number of concentration slots equal to its level divided by 3: 1st-3rd level spells require 1 slot, 4th-6th level spells require 2, 7th-9th level spells need 3. A spell must have concentration slots devoted to it over its entire duration. To cast an instantaneous spell, the caster must have enough empty concentration slots at the time of casting. Increases to spell level due to metamagic etc increase the number of slots required proportionally. So a quickened maximised scorching ray would require 3 slots. Spells that currently have a 'concentration' duration require double the normal slots. Cantrips do not require concentration.

(Alternative: casters get caster level + 3 concentration slots, and spells require level/2 slots to be cast. Again, I'd like to emphasise I haven't done the maths on this one...)

Assigning a concentration slot is a free action performed as an integral part of spellcasting. Reclaiming concentration slots happens automatically once a spell is dismissed, dispelled or has its duration expire.

Some spells are much more demanding, and require more concentration slots. This is a balancing issue, and should be used to shape play. I would personally put teleportation spells into this category. This would nerf buff-scry-teleport tactics to come degree, since the concentration slots required to perform the teleport would limit available buffs. Combat spells that use ridiculously expensive material components as a balancing factor would also be a candidate here (hi, Forcecage...), although we're still stuck with expensive material components in non-combat spells like Raise Dead, since in the situations when these are cast, concentration is less likely to be an issue.

Other possible uses for concentration slots:
- as a free action, can devote a free concentration slot to give a +2 bonus on dispel checks, either to dispel an enemy's spell or to prevent the dispelling of one of your own.
- as a free action, devote a free concentration slot to give a +2 bonus on Concentration checks to avoid fizzling a spell due to distraction (taking damage mid-casting or environmental conditions etc).
- perhaps some way of using concentration slots for the purposes of counterspelling? Shouldn't steal the thunder of Dispel Magic from the abjuration specialists, but allowing some measure of spontaneous counterspelling from all casters can only help increase the 'mageduel' feel that D&D has never done well. And making counterspelling easier and more accessible can only reduce the power of casters in general, and so improve things for non-casters at high level.

This system would also allow the restructuring of save-or-die spells from their 3.xe swinginess or their Pathfinder just-another-way-of-losing-hit-points-iness. Save or die spells would now come into effect at the end of a duration - perhaps three rounds for the lower level ones (Slay Living), or one for the higher level ones (Implosion, Destruction). The caster has to maintain concentration on the spell for the entirety of this duration, or it has no effect. This gives the target the chance to ward himself against the spell effect somehow, get the hell out of range, kill/distract the caster, compel the caster to drop the spell in order to deal with tactical developments elsewhere, etc, etc. There may be penalties accruing over the course of the spell, or there may not be - depends on the individual spell.

Of course there's scope for all sorts of new feats/spells, just like there is every time you introduce a new subsystem. Feats to get new concentration slots, or let your familar contribute. Debuff spells that tie up a casters concentration slots or make their spells more draining to maintain. Etc etc. Perhaps antimagic could be reworked to make spells *hard* to cast rather than completely impossible? Depending on the caster level of the antimagic effect, all spells could require X more concentration slots than usual, which would mess up low-level casters completely and limit high-level casters to their lesser spells.

General goal here is to limit uberbuffing as a viable tactic, and make casters less nova and more measured (thus making combat last longer and giving non-casters more chance to shine at high levels). Also to force more choices - sure you can make the whole party flying and invisible, but is it really worth tying up all that concentration and limiting your offensive capacity? Caster can still teleport in and go boom, but he's going to be a fair bit more circumspect since he'll have fewer buffs up, and be a lot more vulnerable if his big metamagicked boom doesn't do the job first time. Also, making counterspelling, dispelling etc a bigger part of the game.

Big area i'm leaving uncovered here is what to do about creatures with spell-like abilities. Do they need concentration slots, if so, how many and how are they balanced? Needs thought...

Just wondering if anyone's done any monster substitution for this module? D&D/IoD history aside, the whole flying kopru/decanter of endless water thing in Golismorga seems a bit egregiously silly, plus Laogroat, with its cr7 dimetrodon and handful of cr4 troglodyte lepers (wh'll need 20s to hit ANYONE at this level) looks like a cakewalk in the making. Not that I necessarily want Laogroat to be a meatgrinder, but right now it looks like a tedious, unthreatening bore.

I'm looking to replace the kopru in Golismorga with a mix of aberrations and underdark critters that make up a ramshackle cult of Demogorgon. I'll keep the trogs, maybe replace some of the nagas with mind flayers for variety, and instead of the kopru behemoths I'll use templated hill giants (multi-headed, reptilian, with barbarian levels, chosen mostly so I can use the Dreamblade 'Ogrol Ragelord' mini for them...) Ulioth might become a chuul rather than a kopru, with the same class levels. Perhaps stick a ythrak in there as well, just to help make life difficult for flying PCs. Liberal use of the multi-headed template and holy symbols of Demogorgon scattered around the place - with such a variety of different critter in here it's probably important to distinguish between the Lords of Dread and the other random inhabitants of Golismorga. The PCs should be able to realise that not EVERYONE here is involved in the creation of the Shadow Pearls, so they might be more inclined to talk to Rakis-Ka etc rather than just obliterating them from ambush.

As for Laogroat - hmm. I'm a bit stretched for ideas. I'd like to give the trogs a chance of being threatening without making them a genuinely powerful force - disease and green slime sling-bombs are good tries, but when the trogs are unlikely to cause any hp damage on top of that and the cleric can cast Cure Disease/Restoration and fix it all the next morning, they're a bit on the token side.

Suggestions/comments?

Hi guys

I recieved this order today, but there seems to have been a mixup somewhere along the line. Most of the order came through just fine, but instead of the Northern Crown and Northern Crown Gazetteer hardcovers I ordered, I recieved the Nyambe Ancestral Vault and Nyambe Dire Spirits instead, which I didn't order.

The shipping sheet included in the package correctly includes the Northern Crown stuff, so it seems likely this is a packing error. Can you check what happened at your end?

Regards
Greg

... and I'm sad to say it's my last until and unless Paizo finds some way of making international shipping costs even vaguely reasonable. I know that you guys are largely at the mercy of international postage companies in this department, but I simply can't justify shelling out $50 postage for half a dozen books (~$70 worth - yeah, there was a lot of cheapie clearance stuff in there). I even tried splitting the order into less-than-four-pound bits, as suggested in an earlier thread, and postage that way worked out at something like $90.

Surely there's got to be another shipping option available? Why do I have no other option but the full 6-10 day delivery USPS priority rate when I'd be just as happy with the 3 month rusty-Liberian-flagged-freighter surface mail rate? Is there *no* bargain-basement alternative shipping option that can be offered?

I'm sure that Paizo has had a look at this issue before, but I'd plead with you to try again. Especially given the current state of the Australian dollar (you Yanks think you have it bad! ;) ), ordering from Paizo is just unsustainably expensive. And that's sad, because I've had nothing but good experiences with Paizo staff, products, and customer service otherwise.

Found it. Never mind.

Just wondering how people have decided that arcane magic fit into the Olman empire?

The PC wizard in my party is the ambitious type (aren't they all?) and was only tempted away from his political ambitions in Sasserine by the prospect of being the first to sift through the lost lore and magic of the Olman empire. I'd like to give him something to sink his teeth into, and I'd like to make it distinctive enough to seem interesting and exotic when compared to 'regular' magic.

As far as magic items go, I've pretty much decide to introduce runestaves and augment crystals from the Magic Item Compendium as artifacts of Olman magic (instead of crystals the augments are more likely to be feathers, fangs, or gemstones, but the principle stands!), and Dread Necromancers are going to show up in the guise of Olman zombie masters, but I'm not sure how to handle spells. Perhaps all Olman arcane casters went into a particular prestige class or something, and their spell list will reflect that? Maybe this prestige class could be based on the deity they worship - the above Dread Necromancers for Mictlanteceutli, Rainbow Servants or Initiates of the Seven Veils for Quetzalcoatl, and so forth. And that way, the arcane casters would be tied closely to the existing religious structure, so the existing flavour of the Olman culture would be preserved.

Has anyone else given any thought to this? The feeling of the exotic and unknown is really important for the tone of the campaign once the PCs reach the Isle of Dread, and I'd really like to preserve and enhance this any way I can. I should also mention that I can't really just leave it mysterious since my PCs will actually be time-travelling to the last days of the Olman empire eventually, so I'll need to work out something before then...

So, dragons.

There doesn't really seem to be many in the AP, does there?

One of my PCs is a dragon shaman (gold) and since he seems to be one of the more survivable party members (Con 18, plus dwarven save bonuses, plus near-max rolls for hp at each level so far, plus a one-level dip into Crusader that's given him a lot of healing-related maneuvers) it's probably fair to assume he'll be around for a while. Given that (and given that the character background is that of a weird dwarven loner who was exiled for his eventually fatal fascination with dragons) I'd kinda like to have some sort of draconic presence in the AP, just to give the player some pay-off. I'd especially like to introduce a gold of some sort, though there'll probably also need to be a more powerful chromatic on the scene to balance things out. The Dragons of the Great Gamer template from MMV might come in handy, methinks - the PC has 'exarch' written all over him.

I'm not really willing to wait for another 15 levels until Enemies of my Enemy and the linnorms come around, so does anyone have any ideas as to how I can introduce (preferably recurring) dragons into the campaign? I'd thought maybe there could be one lurking in the jungles of the Isle Dread, perhaps a rival of Khala for control of the Isle? Or I suppose Tavey could be a juvenile dragon in alternate form, though having a powerful ally like that around would reduce the impact of HTBM sadly, I think. Maybe the Sea Wyvern's figurehead could be a dragon polymorphed into sculpture form by an enemy ages ago (what worse insuly could you do a dragon than making it look like a mere wyvern?) Any other ideas?

This is a document I sent to the player of the Wizard PC in my game, who is deciding whether or not to join up with the Witchwardens. Thought a few people might be interested. This is not strictly in keeping with how the Witchwardens are presented in Dungeon, but it might offer a few ideas...

***

Historically, the Witchwardens were 'Wardens of Witches' - spellcasters who, in more tumultuous times, banded together to protect their good name against those who would use magic destructively, so as to prevent stigma attaching to the profession as a whole and to preserve their own places in polite society. As they have become more of an accepted institution, particularly under the current stewardship of Witch Lux Seoni, their role has slowly evolved towards 'Wardens who ARE Witches' - an organisation or magic-users that both monitors magical activity and acts to protect Sasserine as a whole. While they do not offically answer to the Dawn Council, the two bodies tend to work toward similar ends more often than not. The Witchwardens volunteer a certain amount of time and magical power to the service of the Council, and in return, they are permitted to govern their fellow mages as they see fit, outside the laws of the city. This arrangment is ripe for exploitation on the part of the Witchwardens, but while there is a certain amount of disquiet (particularly among non-member wizards and soap-box social reformers), as yet the Witchwardens have not abused their power so heinously as to motivate the Dawn Council to confront them over it.

The three sworn duties of the Witchwardens are as follows, in order of priority:
1) Protect Sasserine from the excesses of one's own magic.
2) Protect Sasserine from the excesses of others' magic.
3) Protect the position of mages in general as respected citizens of Sasserine.

There are two levels of Witchwarden membership - signatory and guildsmage. A member may choose which level of membership they wish to adopt and may change between the two at will (but within reason).

At the basic, signatory level of Witchwarden membership, you are expected to uphold the three above duties. Basically, this means that if you commit any magic-related crimes in the city, the Witchwardens will get custody of you rather than the Watch (a rather intimidating prospect), that you are expected to intervene (in an appropriate manner) should you happen across any magic-related emergency, that you are expected to render any assistance reasonably requested by the legitimate authorities of the city (being asked to dispel a magical trap for the Watch is 'reasonable', a request to craft a +5 flaming sword for the Watch commander is not), and that you agree to be drafted to the defense of Sasserine in case of war. Also, unless you are at least a signatory member, Witchwardens are barred from selling, trading or giving magic items or spells to you.

At the guildmage level, you become subject to the chain of command of the Witchwardens (routinely, not just in emergencies). Lady Smokeheart interprets the third duty to mean that the Witchwardens should do their best to protect and benefit Sasserine so as to gain respect from the populace, and has issued orders to that effect. A guildmage is generally required to perform 2 days a week service for the city and/or the Witchwardens - accompanying guard patrols, ensuring that the city's magical defenses are up to scratch, making sure that all the enchanted light towers remain lit, enchanting items for the use of the guild or the Dawn Council, examining strange or unusual magic to see if it's dangerous, etc, etc. A guildsmage is entitled to a small room or study in Witchwarden tower for a modest fee, use the Tower's laboratories and libraries of arcane lore, and once they have proven themselves in service to the Tower, borrow magic items from the Tower's treasury for short times and specific purposes. They can also arrange for tuition under the guidance of more powerful wizards (this tuition counts as service to the tower for those wizards).

For distinguished service, signatory members can be rewarded with spells, items, or access to the libraries for set periods of time. Generally, access to books of lore is limited by the Circle a wizard has attained (ie, the highest level of spells he can cast). However, the Witch or the Wardens may remove these privileges if a member has neglected his duties or has displayed behaviour contrary to the goals of the Witchwardens.

The head of the Witchwardens is the Witch, currently Lux Seoni, Lady Smokeheart. The Witch controls the policy of the guild in most areas. Her power is balanced by that of the Wardens. There are five Wardens at any time, and they can strip the Witch of her title by a vote of four to one. When the post of Witch or Warden comes vacant (through death, removal, or resignation), a replacement is selected from the guildmages - by the Wardens if a new Witch is required, and by either the Witch or the Wardens (depending on the untamperable flip of an artifact known as the Coin of Two Faces) if a new Warden is required. Candidates are selected from among those guildsmages who have attained the highest circle of magic among the current membership. The serving Witch cannot be selected as a new Warden, and no serving or past Warden may be selected as a new Witch. A guildsmage's oath of office demands that the guildsmage must not owe allegiance or fealty to any other organisation, so no Witch or Warden may ever hold an position in the governing hierarchy of the city.

Along with the title and political power, the office of the Witch and the Wardens come with the use of certain powerful magic items - the Witchknife, and the Warden's Hands respectively. Little is publically known about these items, though it is widely believed that each of them allows the bearer to know the locations of all of the others at all times, among other, more deadly powers.

Does anyone remember an article that detailed a young noblewoman, a necromancer, who was under the delusion she was a vampire? I'm not sure what issue it was in. I seem to remember that she kept her undead parents in the basement, and her maidservant was running a thieves guild in her spare time. All very fun and dysfunctional, and itching to be relocated to Sasserine...

So, my PCs look set to be finishing TINH at 3rd level, and Gambit is designed for 4th (and the Kraken Cove bit of it is tough even at that).

I want to run Escape from Meenlock Prison from #146 to bridge the two adventures, level the PCs up, and introduce an ongoing subplot I've been planning, but I'm having trouble working out how to run the transition. The main problem is that at the end of TINH (assuming the PCs decide not to join up with Rowyn, of course...) the PCs find Vanthus's letters, in which he talks about his planned heist at Kraken's Cove. Surely the obvious thing for them to do once they find this out would be to head straight away to the Cove in order to intercept him as soon as possible.

Any suggestions as to how I can delay the beginning of Gambit a bit, so I can run Prison? Having Lavinia send them on some sort of unrelated side-quest doesn't really fit, since it'd be a bit out of character for her to see anything as a higher priority than hunting down Vanthus at this stage. Delaying Vanthus's plan (and mentioning the planned date in the letters) is a bit of a worry, since it might mean that the PCs will decide to get to Kraken Cove early to lay an ambush, and get caught in the Tide themselves. Not really sure how to make this work...

One thing that struck me about the AP was the relative scarcity of recurring NPCs. Sure, there's Lavinia, plus a few cameos from the Jade Ravens, Avner, Rowyn and Harliss, and I suppose Vanthus counts even though he only actually appears in the flesh (so to speak) a couple of times, but I'm looking for something a bit bigger.

So, currently I'm thinking in terms of Sir Hesketh the Forsaken (name negotiable!), death knight - a character heavily influenced by the death knight in Lost Temple of Demogorgon, from (I think) Dungeon 106.

Sir Hesketh was a powerful warrior who fell into the service of Demogorgon millennia in the past. He was instrumental in the detonation of the first Shadow Pearl and the subsequent destruction of the Olman Empire. But he had lived in the Empire for years in the buildup to this, and when the civilization fell into ruin he felt oddly empty at seeing beauty and achievements that he had grown to appreciate (and possibly a woman he had grown to love) destroyed. He fell into ennui, and drifted slowly from Demogorgon's sight, obeying those orders he was directly given to the letter but without enthusiasm, and otherwise spending his eternal existence in aimless wandering.

The first time the PCs encounter Sir Hesketh I haven't yet decided on. Some time in SWW is a possibility - HTBM has enough Demogorgon-related stuff already, and he doesn't really slot conveniently into the first two adventures. But he will meet them, thoroughly kick their butts for a round or two, and then say something like "I remember you" and back off. He may ask a couple of cryptic questions that the PCs don't understand, engage them in philosophical conversation, discuss honor with the samurai, etc, etc. Generally, he will know much more about the PCs than he has any right to, and will creep them out good and proper before allowing to go without killing them.

The subsequent times will follow a similar pattern. He will appear seemingly out of nowhere to share the PCs fire, converse in his sepulchral manner, or even possibly pull their fat out of the fire if they end up in a fight and TPK looms too closely.

Then comes Zotilzha. I'll modify him to be the Olman god of volcanoes and destruction. He will tell the PCs that his very nature demands destruction, that through his actions the Olman Empire the birthed him was destroyed, but that he will avenge himself by setting in motion the destruction of its destroyer before his nature turns in upon itself and he destroys himself. He will lay a mark on the PCs, some sort of mystic tattoo or brand. It may provide some minor in-game benefit (perhaps Fire Resistance 5, or a single reroll 1/day), but its true nature will not become apparent until CoBI.

When the PCs reach Taboo Island, they will find their way to the room with the sun, moon and star disk. It's always seemed to me that since the disk is such an obvious puzzle, Khala would have delegated to some skinwalker or dretch the task of methodically trying every combination in turn until he discovered the real one, and Khala could check out what was hidden. Instead, I'm going to have the Disk only activate for someone bearing the mark of an Olman god - like those of Zotilzha that the PCs bear. The disk doesn't simply cough up the Nimbus Bow - it actually transports the PCs back in time to the last days of the Olman Empire.

When they're here, they can witness the first Savage Tide, negotiate the plots and plans of the Olman nobility and priesthood, encounter the Olman Gods, be trained in Olman magic and prestige classes etc, decide whether or not to mention the horrible approaching doom, get given the Nimbus Bow, and meet Sir Hesketh, as he once was. Inevitably, they'll get involved in the conflict over the first Shadow Pearl, fight Hesketh and his minions, and somehow, through their actions, cause the Pearl to be detonated (probably by accident). They'll see the Empire go savage, see Hesketh realise that he mourns what he has destroyed, and then head back to the present before they get eaten by an entire city of savage Olmans. Khala's butt gets kicked, and we get back on track.

After this, it gets fuzzy. I'd like to see them try to redeem Hesketh - he'd know an awful lot about Demogorgon, and would be a useful source of information, but whether they do or not depends on who the surviving PCs are at the time and what attitude they have about the guy. He doesn't really fit into Scuttlecove, but perhaps he could show up as a prisoner in Divided's Ire? I can't really plan any further ahead than that until I get a look at the last three adventures,

Reasons I'm doing this: to add another recurring enemy/antagonist, to explain why Khala hasn't broken through the puzzle and snaffled the Nimbus Bow ages ago, to illustrate more vividly the backstory of the Olmans and Demogorgon, to provide a character in TLD/CoBI who can add a bit of continuity to proceedings (there's pretty much no NPC in either of these modules who will last longer than a session or two, as written), and to change the pace of things a bit during CoBI, because there's an awful lot of dungeon-delving in it and the preceding module, being thrust into the intrigue of a declining imperial court would be a nice change.

Statwise I haven't really put a lot of thought into him yet. He has to be strong enough to overpower the PCs early, but not so strong that he changes significantly the power dynamic in Into the Maw (assuming I put him there). Maybe CR16-17ish, maybe a Death Knight human knight 13, minus the undead followers and nightmare mount, perhaps spellstitched to give him a few abilities like Clairvoyance, Freedom of Movement, Dimension Door, Dispel Magic, and the like more for reasons of plot-convenience than anything else.

Any thoughts on this? Are there gaping plot holes I've missed? When and how should I have him make his first appearance? Is two death knights in the one campaign too much? And for those who have seen the next few modules in the AP, how would this sort of character fit in? We're still only very early in the campaign, but I'm almost certainly going to have to introduce him into the game before Dungeon #150 arrives and I get to see how things pan out...

How have people handled the first appearance of Rowyn Kellani?

It seems to me that in the module as written she lurks at the end of her corridor like a FPS baddie or something, and doesn't seem particularly mobile or proactive when the PCs start dismantling her guild. And perhaps more of a concern to me - how do you establish who she is? My PCs are all out-of-towners, and aren't going to be able to recognise her from any other redhead with a rapier. Unless she's dumb enough to tell them her real name (in the six seconds she has to make her offer before the PCs cover the width of her tiny study and start whacking her) or have signed any of her correspondence with her real name (unlikely, since she insists the Dragons call her 'Lady Lotus', though Vanthus' love letters might be an exception) they won't even be able to identify her or to connect her to the rest of the Kellani family at all.

Is there any not-too-intrusive way of at least introducing her and her family before the PCs run across her in the guild? A chance meeting in Castle Teraknian when Lavinia goes to open the vault, for instance (surely the Kellanis have a vault there too)? Has anyone else managed to make Rowyn's appearance in the guildhall anything other than an exercise in 'um, who are you'?