Name: Issong "Brokenbrow" of Heldren
Race: Human (Erutaki)
Classes/levels: Slayer (4)
Adventure: The Snows of Summer
Location: Pale Tower
Catalyst: A burning hatred for mages, single-person teleporters, and Radosek escaping.
The Gory Details:
Issong has harboured a hatred for mages ever since he returned home to find his family murdered and arcane sigils written in blood throughout his abode. He was more than eager to join the party and track down the witches responsible for bringing the eternal winter to his hometown.
The party did a great job of making allies and bluffing their way into the Pale Tower. They cleared the first level, then realized that the teleporters would result in some issues as they made their way up. They did fine until they got Jairess' key and Issong insisted on being the first into the ritual chamber. He quickly found himself surrounded by a guard and 4 ice elementals, while Radosek began peppering him with ice spears. Luckily, the party managed to make it up to the chamber slowly, but Issong was rendered unconscious, and Radosek escaped out the teleporter in Nazhena's bed chamber, clogging the hallway with another ice spear. Issong chugged a couple potions, which didn't provide as much healing as he hoped (and the shaman was out of healing spells and the party had depleted all their other healing resources - which I have been a bit more generous about giving). The other characters tried to provide wise council and insist that they should take a moment to regroup and make their way down different teleporters or out windows to follow after Radosek. However, Issong would rather die than let a mage escape, so he jumped in the teleporter first, immediately becoming pummeled into unconsciousness by the ice sculpture upon his appearance in the courtyard. Unfortunately, his companions could not make it down in time to save him, and he ended up bleeding out on the dais.
My group and I have just finished Book 1 Snows of Summer, and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. I've enacted several of the changes suggested here and my players have loved them (e.g., making the Black Rider a badass, skill challenge in the Pale Tower, lockdown/key changes to the Pale Tower, "phone call" between Radosek and Nazhena, changing the winter/blizzard rules, attack on Heldren when they return Lady Argentea, etc.) so thank you all!
I also added a few of my own concoctions that I thought I would share.
Spoilers:
To start off, I had my characters either be from or in Heldren during the Arodus festival of Armasse (to help foreshadow devotion to Milani and the Heralds of Summer's Return in Book 2). I tweaked the 2E (we play 1E) Paizo bounty Witch's Winter Holiday to include the NPCs from Heldren and bring the PCs together to help Old Mother Theodora and her trusty golden retriever Darb provide a fabulous Armasse feast for the town. I used the holiday to foreshadow some of the rumours provided in Book 1 (though I toned some of them down as I felt like they were too heavy-handed) and give the PCs time to fall in love with quaint and friendly town.
I think this was a lot more impactful once they returned to Heldren after rescuing Lady Argentea, only to find the town under siege from an army of cold goblins, a few white-furred wolves, and ultimately a showdown with a winter witch and her polar bear companion at the tower where most of the townsfolk had sheltered.
Flashforward to crossing the portal into Heldren, I took inspiration from another Reign of Winter campaign that provided some backstory and names to Nadya's companions. D20 Diaries. In our campaign, Nadya was joined by her business partner Laszlo (who worked with (and was best friends with) Hjalnek previously), his 16-year old son Andrej, another 17-year old boy Nickolaj (Andrej's friend), Mikhail (neighbour and guard for the sleds), and Anton (neighbour and guard for the sleds). Anton died at the hands of the mantis, but Mikhail and Andrej could certainly have been next had the PCs not interceded.
I had Meirul carrying a letter that the PCs found after they tricked and killed her.
My humblest servant,
I hope Svoboda finds you well during these rapturous times. Make your way to the Pale Tower near Waldsby where my great-granddaughter makes her roost… Despite being such a promising witch, I believe the child bit off more responsibility than she can delicately chew. I question the accuracy of her second-hand accounts of their progress hunting the Black Rider. Use your talents to gather what information you can, and alert me as to the true nature of my relation’s failings.
He must be found and eradicated, immediately. A squad of Queen’s Storm is awaiting immediate dispatch.
The punishment for the Rider’s escape will be… excruciating. I will not hesitate to prune this withering familial offshoot, or any others that fail in these pivotal tasks.
[Signed with a large, intricate snowflake made of real ice]
I had Nadya deliver Anton's body to Rolf where it was obvious the man had been beaten and the fence surrounding the graveyard vandalized. It then slowly dawned on the PCs/players that Heldren was VERY similar to Waldsby, and they all grappled with this while trying to sell some goods and figure out their next move. I encouraged the players to move around and visit some of the places to get to know the people/see the differences and give a feel for the far less welcoming citizens.
I gave a description of Nadya's house when they are invited to stay there that made my characters more sympathetic and upset for her plight:
You enter the small but comfortable log cabin where Nadya Petska makes her home. A small entryway supports heavy fur coats, pants, and boots. The home then opens up onto a small sitting room with a rocking chair and table surrounding the hearth. A bunk bed lines the wall near the hearth, a washtub and chamber pot stored nearby. Another doorway appears to lead out the back of the house to the kennels, while the only other door in the home appears to lead to what must be Nadya’s bedroom.
An old woman sits on the rocker, watching two small boys babble to each other as they play on the hard floor with some carved wooden toys near the lit fire. They rocket up from the floor at the sound of the door opening and voices.
“Mommy!”
Nadya kneels down to catch them in her arms and squeezes them tightly, quickly dissolving into quiet sobs.
DC 15 perception check - The home is exceptionally empty. The woodstack near the hearth only has a couple logs remaining. A couple shelves near the hearth must have supported more porcelain dishware for such a large family, but only a few cups and bowls remain. A place of honour over the hearth sits empty where a wall-mounted support must’ve held a blade of some repute. You also note some discoloration on the wall where perhaps a couple of taxidermied animal heads must’ve hung. A couple chairs appear to be missing from the table, and it’s highly likely that the floor once held a rug or two of some well-skinned animal fur to maintain warmth in the abode.
You also note that the doorframe on the inside of the abode sports artistic Ulfen rune wood carving. You easily pick out the runes for happiness, wealth, good harvest, union, fertility, and new life. Among the well-wishing runes, you see the names Hjalnek, Nadya, Thora, Orm, and Mjoli have been carefully carved.
I fleshed out Hestrig and Jairess' backstories as I made them the most sympathetic and doubtful as to their positions in the Pale Tower.
Hestrig Orlov
- Neutral evil - driven by a sense of self-preservation and advancement. Due to the dragon blood running in her veins, is also driven to dragon tendencies. Greedy, hoards food and trinkets under her bed like a dragon. Uses her intimidating abilities to demand more taxes from the peasant and other goods from Brigit. Has bullied Nadya too into providing more than the tower actually needs.
- Has a thin line of white scales running down her back near her spine.
- Family lived on the outskirts of Waldsby - parents were hunters who preferred to work together and not really integrate with the village. Hestrig’s abilities manifested and are visible. Presentation of the children to Lady Arina put the child on her radar for potential induction into the guard.
- When hunting with her parents, they stumbled upon the area where Auberphex used to lair and something spoke to her and awoke the latent power in her blood.
- Hunting became more difficult and when Arina came to check in on Hestrig’s progress, Hestrig’s parents agreed to trade her for a decent bit of coin so they could move to more fertile lands. Arina used to call her “my pet”, in a comforting and motherly sort of way. Brought her books and some other training to gain control of her abilities. [Hestrig believes that her parents are being held captive in Whitethrone - but this is more a lie she’s told herself over the years that she believes as truth.]
- Returned to Auberphex’s lair and scrounged up some of the coin that had been left behind that Arina had not taken. Started feeding her need for more coin so she would either beat it out of her subordinates through game or simple interrogation and would take more than owed when in town.
Proved herself with magic and defended the Pale Tower from strange creatures in and around Waldsby. Her naturally intimidating nature kept the other guards in line, despite her being a woman, and she was elevated in ranks because she ran a tight ship and got what needed to be done.
- Started wanting to understand where her powers really came from (people also whisper about her and don’t want to get too near due to her more beastial nature).
- Her job and station has kept her safe, fed, and warm. Does not really care for other people.
- Enjoys bossing people around. Hasn’t had an actual lover before. Jealous of Jairess because a couple guards and Radosek were fawning over her. She’s never had anyone fawn over her. “What does she have that I don’t?"
Jairess Sonn
- Very easily distracted and interested in new things. Has a hard time sitting still. Has never seen a deciduous tree or grass before.
- Grew up in Chillblight. Born to human/Ulfen parents who work at the fish docks in town. Parents pray to Gozreh as they require the seas to not be stormy but the waves bring new schools of fish.
- When she was old enough to start accompanying her parents to work to help, she had a hard time sitting still for hours and fishing or shucking oysters. She would wander/dance around the boats and docks, listening to the wind, watching the waves and getting mesmerized by them. She would claim she could hear Gozreh speaking in his/her many forms and thus was very distracted/quite the chatterbox.
- Realized she had an affinity for ravens when she was helping shuck oysters and some came to land on the meat. They were rather stubborn and wouldn’t be chased off but Jairess found a way to communicate and barter with them so that they wouldn’t eat all the good meat.
- Has a pearl that her father let her keep to pray upon.
- Has been at the mercy of Helfrid the Howler (evil outsider) a couple of times (bears deep scars from whip across her back. Her mom had to pluck several quills deeply embedded in her back. They make you feel very ill until you get them removed). As a teen she wandered off from work as she did, following the whim of the wind and the foreman accused her of skipping work/running out of town so Helfrid was called in to track her down and whip her. Also blamed for a low harvest year (raven’s supposedly ate too much), but it was just a bad year for oysters.
- Magical affinity and belief in Gozreh earned her some training from a small church in Chillblight.
- Ability to speak with ravens meant she would get dragged in to interpret what one saw for some of the Jadwiga or Guard.
- Was put in charge of a patrol of ravens and was added as a scout for Trezira patrolling the Frozen Road for ice floes that might block trade and to communicate with the barges to break up problematic floes.
- Young adult - 70ish? Has already outlived her parents.
- Queen Elvanna “requisitioned” the raven expert for her great-granddaughter Nazhena for a top secret mission. “Patrol for outsiders,” and keep outsiders away from this portal (doesn’t know where it goes and only authorized Jadwiga and allies are allowed to approach it).[/list]
Once the players defeat Radosek and have time to search the laboratory, they discover several journals and notes that provide some clarification on what is happening and why (and I gave a general timeline in years throughout the last century for the enaction of this plan). I think these help fill some plot holes that others have complained about and demonstrates that the White Witches are not infallible:
(through various letters and other odd notes you learn that) Taxes have been fed into a fey breeding and training program to increase the size of the army and Queen’s Storm by the time of the centennial.
(as if someone has been summarizing notes from a meeting) Queen Elvanna has spent years researching a ritual to spread Irrisen’s eternal winter throughout Golarion. Despite the Queen’s vast magical abilities, she requires a magical boost to enhance the ritual and increase its permanency.
Ley lines - manifestations of magical and psychic energy - cross Golarion and could provide the needed boost required to meet Elvanna’s demands. However, the magic won’t create “accurate” portals, such as was originally intended. The ritual will be more akin to a plane shift rather than a greater teleportation spell. Will need to choose coordinates for ‘destination portals’ with an appropriate buffer (500 miles).
Trials demonstrate that “local control” points can anchor ‘entry’ portals from a relatively short distance (i.e., Pale Tower) and reduce required buffer area for destination portals to 100 miles.
Trials demonstrate that blood sacrifice rituals conducted at coordinates of the intended portal reduce buffer requirement to 10 miles. Queen agrees this is an acceptable margin for error. Plan is to Initiate portals during winter months of destination when they would be less noticeable.
Another bound notebook further details the trial and error experimentation required to find the appropriate amount of blood needed to open a portal. Tests rituals began with small animals, then larger animals and mammoths before it was determined that human sacrifice was required for desired effect. [I provided detail on the ritual to get a reaction out of my players as one character's backstory involved their family being killed in Heldren for unknown reasons with only arcane sigils left behind.] Queen Elvanna will be able to sense the imprint along the ley line and can then enact her ritual to open the portal when timing is appropriate.
Operation Ground Zero - “prime target” is Heldren, a small town far enough away from the major cities of Taldor as to not draw attention. The hope is that the explosion from opening the portal will decimate the hamlet and its population, leaving no resistance. Defenses can then be set up before the next phase of the operation is enacted (freezing/starving out Zimar and decimating the military before turning attentions to Oppara. Goal is to cow Taldor, bring its army into submission and use its farmland to serve the new world order)
The notes further detail the permits, permissions, and contingencies required for Nazhena and her apprentice Radosek to infiltrate Taldor and reach Heldren to conduct the necessary blood sacrifices to help anchor the portal. It is noted that the Phalanx or Taldan Horse don’t take much notice of Heldren. There are notes about several potential targets (notable NPCs in Heldren).
Discussions surrounding tactical foci:
- Taldor has large military and vast resources that could prove useful and open the doorway to expansion into Casmoran. Bring Oppara and Zimar to heel, redirect grain and other resources to Whitethrone’s armies. Will have to play this invasion extremely cautiously. Need to delay the response from the Taldan government and hope that their convoluted politics and red tape take care of the rest.
- Grungir Forest in the Land of the linnorm Kings. Finally bring the remaining Ulfen to heel. Provides tactical advantage to surround Ulfen cities and wipe them out from two fronts (most recent). Likely able to treat with the denizens and grow armies. Possibly gain access to further resources in the First World. Potential location to bring the Decimated?
- Hold of Belkzen could prove useful for subjugating the orcs and forcing them to accept a sliver of ice could provide valuable army fodder or set up new farms. Discussion surrounding whether orcs are smart enough to know how to farm or have the patience for it.
- Create temporary portals in Galt, River Kingdoms, Nirmathas, and Molthune. Guerilla style tactics to raid food and other supplies needed for campaigns. Each country is embroiled in rebellion or other mayhem that will make guerrilla tactics more effective.
- Avoid Varisia for time being - do not want to risk drawing the attention of the heroes that overthrew Queen Ileosa. [My players and I had just finished Curse of the Crimson Throne so I threw in a reference as to why the level 20+ heroes from that story would not somehow get involved in solving the eternal winter spreading across Golarion]
Reminder from the General that we don’t want to open up too many fronts at once.
Issues maintaining the boundary of winter creep. Need to provide enough winter cover to allow armies, portals, and magic to function, but allow slaves to continue farming.
Riders have been spotted, Operation Winter enacted earlier than desired.
So we're officially finishing this campaign tomorrow. My group loved it overall and I took some of the constructive suggestions from the forums and made sure to foreshadow the Immaculate Circle and massage in Pythareus' revelations about the Stavian's heritage. With a little extra work a GM can easily make sure there are smooth transitions between Books to make sure any loose ends are accounted for.
Campaign ending:
Going into Book 6, the party was devastated by Eutropia's death, attempted to resurrect her only to feel the spell fail. My players found enough evidence during the investigation that they went and asked for a scrying and saw the Masked Marquis as he was walking into the Shadowed Halls. (The helpful cleric they'd hired pointed out that Antios' crown was visible in the background of the scrying to help them pinpoint the location). The party then went and tracked down this threat to end it; however, they hadn't realized that the Masked Marquis was working so closely with the Immaculate Circle and after killing the famous shadow dancer, returned to their loved ones in Oppara to rest. When they returned to the shadowed halls the next day, they found the defences increased and Panivar had sent a sahkil to deal with the party (the creature ended up attacking their loved ones instead in their absence). At this moment is when Carrius managed to slip hold of Panivar's control and began enacting his own plans to gain control of Taldor.
Flash forward, the party defeats the IC and after some personal revelations, find Eutropia's soul in the necklace they've been carrying with them and resurrect her in the Crucible. They attempt to contact their loved ones only to get no response in return and begin to panic (rightfully so). They return to Oppara to find it under martial law as Carrius hunts them down for the supposed assassination of Princess Eutropia. The party hides out and successfully influences the perception of the magi, the public, the investigators, and the palace servants with various tactics (including risking revealing Eutropia to prove she's alive and gain people back on their side). They then storm the castle with a riot of peasantry to prove to Carrius that Eutropia is the real deal and the party is innocent (they also make subtle remarks that they believe the young prince is not of his own mind and manage to convince a guard captain to help). After a heroic battle through the palace grounds (and some personal loses) they managed to get to the throne room. Carrius had captured several of the party's relatives, fiancees, etc., and held them captive in teh basement. He'd manipulated the paladin's dhampir fiancee into killing the investigator's sister, but luckily the paladin interceded and accepted the killing blow instead, which wasn't nearly enough damage to kill him. Big fight ensued which turned Carrius and friends/lovers against the party, but ultimately they came out victorious with Ulfen Guard being the only fatalities. Eutropia and Martella swooped in to help with damage control and the party immediately entered the young prince's mind to try and break the mental control. Party managed to survive all six encounters and convinced the spirit of Taldaris to stick around and bolster the boy's spirit (I'm allowing Carrius to live until he's about 30 years old, but the one legend isn't enough to sustain him for a full life).
So, woot, the party saves the young prince who is now a social pariah and Eutropia is crowned and they get their spoils of war (money and titles) at the next Exaltation Gala. Everything isn't butterflies and rainbows - there's a lot of discontent from the older generation and traditionalists, but life is sure to get better in Taldor, right?
Wrong. In comes Tears at Bitter Manor. Party goes to Cassomir to celebrate the cavalier's wedding, whereupon they stumble into the husband-to-be's relatives (Verus and Branda). Their good natures lend them towards helping the old couple find their friend and try to solve the problems plagueing Cassomir. They slowly learn that a lot of the bad things happening in Cassomir and across Taldor are due to sahkils and daemons working together in the Ethereal/Material Plane to bring the world to ruin. They bring the erodaemon Anobaith to justice but learn in the process that she was working for Thassritoum in order to "thin the veil". Concerned, the party continue on warily to their next appointment which is to continue their duties to the Isle of Arenway as emissaries. While there, the dhampir feels a pull towards the stone circles at teh centre of the island that whisper of blood, death, and destruction. The party is attacked by druids of the Goroth Lodge for their meddling, their spilled blood breaking the seal on the portal to Thassritoum's demiplane in the process. The party then travels through the portal and faces several horrors while attempting to find Thassritoum. They face off with the sahkil, and after a few almost deaths, manage to emerge victorious as the demiplane crumbles around them without Thass to support the plane anymore.
Party goes back home and move on with their lives, settling down and having families and slowly watching as Taldor turns for the better. Their actions and deeds brought about Eutropia the Kind's ending, although a lot of their personal decisions about how they wanted to spend the rest of their lives and their fortunes actually matched more with some of the things in the Balanced/Builder outcome. So in the end I'm doing a mix between Eutropia the Kind and Eutropia the Balanced. The cavalier retires from adventuring to take on being General of the Taldan Horse, which means she can whip the military into shape (with some backlash from the traditionalists)
Overall though, my party was a bunch of LGs who had Taldor's best interests at heart, and "efficient" actions were definitely not a priority. The group was compassionate and used their words to sway battles when they could, rather than bring more bloodshed to Taldor, and their influences in the senate for years to come will ensure the Princess' rule remains swayed by those principles.
... So did the PC actually die, or was it just a terrifying near-miss?
Terrifying near miss. I just didn't feel like it was a fitting death for a PC. If they'd forgotten about the delay poison and hadn't removed it in time, I would've had no qualms about killing him in the middle of the night when it wore off.
Watching his friend wither away and nearly die in front of him without anything to be done gave the paladin a complex though, so the scare served its purpose.
Name: Esdras Sellenson
Race: Human
Classes/levels: 14/Court Bard
Adventure: The Reaper's Right Hand
Location: The Hall of Final Deeds, Axis
Catalyst: Brutal, con draining catoblepas breath
The Gory Details:
The party gallantly agreed to help Lieutenant Fanalyx figure out where the corruption was coming from in the Hall of Deeds. After fighting the first two waves in the Hall, the party encountered the catoblepas. Esdras usually hangs in the back, being the bard, in order to keep his squishy squishy self out of battle and buff his companions with his amazing voice. However, the catoblepas trampled past the party to get behind them, putting Esdras on the frontline as the beast opened its mouth and breathed out, engulfing the whole party.
An investigator (now immune to poison) and a paladin were unaffected. Our cavalier failed the save, but managed to make the three required saves round 3-5 of the poison. However, our poor poor bard kept failing and failing his saves, reducing his constitution severely (I was rolling rocks). Bard just couldn't make the save. He was sitting at 1 con before someone managed to shove a delay poison down his throat.
My group and I are absolutely loving the AP. The story is very imaginative and captivating, and my group has had some of the best roleplay sessions because of it.
My group and I are starting Part 3 of Book 5 (Into Duskfathom) tomorrow. So they're all super nervous and I'm waiting to drop the bomb at the end of the dungeon crawl... All the players are very attached to the NPCs, I've worked pretty hard to make sure they have a connection to Eutropia and everyone else, so I expect there are gonna be some pretty upset players when they reach the end of the dungeon. It'll be great.
So far the party's actions are leading Eutropia to the balanced ending, or at least balanced between compassion and practicality. All that is still far enough away I haven't quite decided how end game will work, but I know I'm adding in the modul Tears at Bitter Manor to lead to a face-off with Thrassitoum to end the AP.
I had a paladin in my group who easily identified it as an attic whisperer. When the thing started to try and suck out their voices the party was attacked by the Duchess at the same time. Needless to say, both creatures didn't make it out alive, but my party at least knew what it was.
I only revealed later (Book 5) that Carr was an amalgamation of souls and a first attempt at raising Carrius. Long-story short, paladin met his long-lost mother who was a lesser angel and learned that the gods had been concerned about souls being diverted from the River. They pointed out Carr as an amalgamation of those stolen children souls. I had other people in the party have someone they knew have lost a child or miscarried, but in reality those souls had been stolen to feed this early, early attempt of the Immaculate Circle to raise Carrius.
Does anyone have a good map for the court of filth and Honey Kunefee?
I've been writing up session summaries for my players:
- https://wordpress.com/post/d20tabletalk.wordpress.com/294 - half way through is a picture of a map I created for Honey Kunefe when they fight Milon.
- https://wordpress.com/post/d20tabletalk.wordpress.com/342 - 3/4 of the way down is a picture of my party talking to Gulreesh and I drew a map. I liked this one because I had different heights for the water so the party didn't have to swim, but they were 3 feet deep in muck at the very least. Gotta see if I can give someone a disease, although catching filth fever was nigh impossible for them at that point.
Getting ready to start Book 3, and I was wondering how other GM's first few games in book 3 went? Any unusual detours that the PC's took or rabbit holes you didn't expect? Did they immediately go after the plot hook with the Twilight Child, or did they work against Yandass and the Imperialist's plot/issues?
Just asking on how it went for others, as I know my group loves the open-endedness of this AP so far...and I have this bad feeling they will find a rabbit hole I didn't expect. This way I can hopefully see how it went for others, and maybe won't be blind sighted (as bad) by my group.
My group has almost finished Book 3 (they're just about to head to the Encircling Bower to free 'Carrius'). I also had similar worries when we started. I thought they would immediately go after Carrius, but they have actually ended up following all the Parts in the right order. I have a paladin in my group and I think if I had told them about Carrius when Martella gave them the mission that he would have charged off after this potential 'undead'. I decided that Martella/Sir Meir didn't know about Carrius being the centre of the cult, and they slowly found that out instead once they got to Yanmass and started investigating. When I roleplayed the councillors I also had them make fun of Abrun for being so concerned about the cult and really made the other four concerned about the other issues plagueing Yanmass. My group of heroes made a 'priority list' or problems to tackle and the cult ended up falling to the bottom since it just didn't seem the most pressing (this is also after they attended a ceremony to check in out and met Xan). However, I would suggest that you have a backup plan IF they do decide to go off the rails and charge to Part 4 at level 8.
Also, the nightmares are a huge issue. You should definitely make your players (or all of them) have nightmares and spend the day fatigued. That will kick their butts into gear to find the pairakas and start them along the right path. I just made all the other problems seem more urgent whereas the cult is "benign" as the book says. They're only helping people feel safe in these uncertain times, after all.
I've written summaries of our sessions if you want to give them a read through to see how it played out for us: https://wordpress.com/post/d20tabletalk.wordpress.com/158
The Imistos fight at the end of the entire underlevels is brutal as is. Not surprised people have died. My party made it out with single digit hit-points and all spells and abilities spent for the day. Made great suspense for what they might face when they got above ground and saw the bloodshed and were completely spent.
Oh, I fully 100% agree...the group (remember 6 players) basically walked through ALL fights up to and including the rat...and had basically hogtied/ripped off/persuaded Mimips to help...so effectively it was a party of 7 (almost 8, as the 1st level cleric that they saved in the main escape room was channeling to heal). Though they had almost no consumable (spells/abilities) left, just basic hack and slash at that point.
If I hadn't upgraded Imistos at all...that fight would have hardly been a speed bump to them. Now it is one of those stories the group often talks about (more so than a certain halfling end boss..which was just a slight speed bump (and I did add 2 war priest levels to her...sigh).
Also...has anybody else noticed their group having a chant of "I HATE halflings" and "Kill all the halflings", no matter if they are good or evil? ;-P
Yeah my group is LG, LG, NG, and CN (basically nothing fun happens, jk), but yes every time I introduce a character now they all shudder if I say the person is a halfling. I think equal to the "I hate halflings" chant is "I hate spiders." I didn't realize how much of an arachnid theme there was in book 2. One character developed arachnaphobia after nearly dying to the fantionette in book 1, then in book 2 you come across Opilio, the entire Telus barony + Baron Telus, then when Jambis gets back on its feet there are still spiders around because apparently they make for good animal husbandry, then Ehlers in the tower is gross and spider-like. My player intentionally put the frightened condition on himself during that fight due to arachnaphobia and was entirely out of combat for four rounds allowing his companions to take most of the damage lol.
I am looking at the info in Concluding the Adventure and am curious how others interpreted the "If PCs resisted the urge to loot royal property" requirement for the bonus cloaks. There are the three specific instances, but "such as" implies these are only examples. That being the case, which things are "royal property" here? I get the idea that it would be ridiculous for them to be prying pearls off of the walls and looting library books, but are they really supposed to put forth all this effort and then get to the vault only to look at 10k in gold and just walk away? What about the fancy billiard balls? When are they looting Panivar/Bartleby and when are they looting what belongs to Martella?
I'm tempted to keep it simple or just make executive decisions on it but I'm curious if anyone else decided differently.
Hey! I just finished running my group through this part. My players were a little tentative about what they could take, but I reiterated what Martella had told them when she first gives them the mission in Meratt: the furniture, books, portraits, etc. belong to the royal family. Everything else I tried to make clear that it belonged to the Lotheeds and was fair game. If someone was unsure, I let them roll a knowledge nobility check or something that made sense to determine who they thought it belonged to. Worked out alright in the end, but I also am pretty nice about pointing things out for my players.
Does anyone know where I can find more information about Thassritoum and the Palace of Nightmares? I feel like this is an avenue I would really like to explore to take my campaign up to level 20, but all I can find is the one PathfinderWiki entry under the Palace of Nightmares title.
I would have posted earlier, but I didn't know this existed....
Before going into name and gory details....just a note that I am running a 6 player game,so I am often adding advanced templates or 1 or 2 character levels to NPC's (or adding more mooks).
Name: Orlen Drungal
Race: Aasimar
Classes/levels: Swashbuckler 3
Adventure: Crownfall
Location: Forgotten Archives
Catalyst: Imistos Gulbend
** spoiler omitted **
The Gory Details: The group set of the trap right before....which told the 2 halflings in the next room to prepare, and gave Imistos knowledge that his backup was there. Though I missed on all the daggers--I think out of the 2 people affected by the trap, I rolled 2 daggers on one person and 1 dagger on the other, the highest roll was a 4 (I was thinking this was going to be one of those bad nights for dice rolling).
The group opened the next door semi prepared for a fight. Because of initiative order, all were able to get in to fight the 2 halflings in the room....except for Orlen. He rolled poorly on initiative and...
The Imistos fight at the end of the entire underlevels is brutal as is. Not surprised people have died. My party made it out with single digit hit-points and all spells and abilities spent for the day. Made great suspense for what they might face when they got above ground and saw the bloodshed and were completely spent.
Name: Gabriel (son of Gabriel) of House Sanctus
Race: Aasimar
Classes/levels: Oracle (4)/Paladin of Vildeis (1)
Adventure: Songbird, Scion, Saboteur
Location: The Pumphouse of Stachys
Catalyst: Going against six ghouls at once
Name: Knight Aurella Hadris
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Cavalier (5)
Adventure: Songbird, Scion, Saboteur
Location: The Pumphouse of Stachys
Catalyst: Going against six ghouls at once
The Gory Details: Two days after arriving in Meratt, the party decided that they should check out the pumphouse. Onora had told them that the townsfolk were talking about "The Lurker" that lived near there and was eating people. The party also thought that getting the pump working again should be top priority because draining the swamp would allow all that fertile land to be utilized for more productive farming...
So off they went. No boat because the citizens were unfriendly and didn't want to loan them their barges to make the trip easier. And they went during the day. Cue fighting the Lurker, followed by them thinking they had cleared the entire area. Our party also doesn't have any stealthy scouts. So the clunky new paladin and loud bard trundle through the front doors and wake up the six ghouls that were slumbering heavily. The party was quickly swarmed... They managed to take down three ghouls and pop a channel to do damage to the others before FINALLY someone started failing the paralysis checks. Down went the cavalier. Down went the paladin leaving squishy bard and investigator in the back row.
I didn't quite realize what a coup de grace at that moment (with players still at half health but totally helpless) meant, so luckily my partner pointed it out (being a new GM) before I rolled the dice and condemned them all. Cue twenty seconds of me solidly panicking about leading them all into a possible TPK (but to be fair they didn't do their scouting). I figured that the ghouls were too feral to stop attacking the paralzed people and at least go after the still moving creatures, so I kind of deus exed it using Marjorine and her fantastic backstory.
Considering she was in the next room and was supposed to come in within a few rounds, I had her come in and exert some sort of control over the ghouls, so that the bard and the investigator could pull their friends out of the room and around the corner to safety. 3/4 of the party wanted to run back to Stachys to figure out how to tackle what was going on at the pumphouse, but the freshly minted paladin of Vildeis couldn't allow undead to live. Intra-party debate about tactics ensued and proper use of consummables happened, and the party decided to charge back in and finish off the beasts. I was nervous as all hell. I intervened once, but I wouldn't do it again if one of them was going to die in this second round. Luckily their logic and planning was sound and they took out the ghouls with only Aurella getting paralyzed again, which wore off by the time Marjorine had finished telling her sob story to the party and asked to be put to the paladin's sword. Of course she couldn't hold back her instincts the entire time and she eventually attacked. They still managed to kill her, but again the two heavy hitters were paralyzed and the investigator was able to finish her off before she was able to pounce on anyone else.
They managed to live to tell the tale, but 3 out of 4 contracted ghoul fever... So... to be continued?
(PS I didn't realize how awful ghouls were. Paralysis sucks and I rolled high.)
I'm trying to figure out how the PCs pay for things in this adventure.
When they arrive in Merrit County, they (likely) have less than 400gp between them from Book 1. There are a few opportunities to "win" some fancy jewelry during the Jubileee, but not much.
The Manor and especially the town of Stachys require thousands of GP to fix, something level 4-5 PCs don't have. Am I missing something?
It feels weird the PCs are expected to take over a run-down manor house, and turn things around with zero funding. Do the PCs have an income source from the land? Although I can't imagine local peasants contributing more than a few silver pieces a month.
Also, how do they sell things? If they do find some 3000gp item, where would they sell it? They'd have to head back to Oppara. Lotheedar has a purchase limit of 5000gp, but even that seems weird (the Count sees the PCs constantly pawning random treasures, maybe even gifts from him, in his backyard)
Any thoughts?
I had my players figure out what their wealth was to compare it to wealth by level after book 1 and they were already over it by a couple thousand each (not to mention the priceless relics a few of them are carrying). Overall the adventure seems to be throwing more than enough money their way in terms of items, ie: platinum and diamond necklace in the lurker's cave (850g).
I'm currently running them through book 2 and they just got to Stachys and are making a list of the cost to repair Stachys and their estate. They're a little overwhelmed at how much money it is going to take, but they still had a decent amount in their pockets since one character didn't spend it on armour upgrades. They also just made friends with the domovoi, so that freed up some assets. Looking through the rest of part two, there are plenty of opportunities for them to make friends or do deeds that get them extra resources. I've actually worried that they might end up with too much money, so I increased the cost of fixing up the manor by 1000g (even with domovoi help). I think the town and the estate are a good way to use this item rich campaign to get rid of excess wealth.
Maybe I'll run into trouble, but we'll see how it goes.
