King of Vrock's page

I know it's a late addition but as my group is about to explore the the Isle of Xin and the Crystal Palace I try to look for movie inspiration before each session. There's no really good media examples for the aboleth encounter, but Hellboy the Golden Army 's Prologue is a good hint to the army of constructs and the assault on the Black Fortress from Krull is a spot on for the Glaive/Sihedron, but the Slayers projectiles and the fortress traps are great analogues. Hmmm, I wonder if that was some of the inspiration for the Dead Heart of Xin?

--Vrockwork Reliquary

So looking ahead to the final battle with Cadrilkasta and the Rogue Eldritch Scoundrel has learned the spell calcific touch. Clearly with a 4 touch AC and only a 6 Dexterity the wyrm is a sitting duck if we stick the tactics as written and it will only take at most 3 attacks to petrify her.

Displacement and her spell resistance may provide some protection, but just sitting there feels super anticlimactic. The contingency to turn invisible is also not very optimum as all the PCs have access to see invisibility.

If they have not allied with Xaivanshee Rasivrein, perhaps the dark elf will have a break enchantment to restore the dragon and make her deal to recover the shard? Lots to ponder.

--Vrock to mud

The statblock for the caryatid columns on page 33-34 lists "rapid attacks" for Special Attacks. But there's no explanation for what this means. Is this a misprint?

I know this is way past due to explain, rapid attacks should be rapid actions from the quickling creature template. It's gives them 1 extra attack or move action each round (does not stack with haste).

--Tick Tock Vrock

So looking at the Shattered Star Treasures article, where in the Abbey is the crystalline starknife? Does Casamir Azmeren have it and reward the PCs with it at the end?

--Vrock, Vrock, Vrockin' on Doomsday's Door...

Nearly had a half party kill in the Black Keep tonight. When we left off last session the party tried sneaking through the great hall invisibly but were heard by the manananggal who called out the hungry fogs. The Keep itself kept the doors to the dining hall stuck (DC 23) and the prying and kicking at the door drew the attention of the pukwudgie and his wraiths.

The eldritch scoundrel & slayer failed their saves vs the manananggal's fear spell causing them to flee in a panick. That left the wind oracle and half orc arcane bloodrager to deal with both encounters. The oracle was already under a freedom of movement and got a scroll of death ward up messaging the main stacks of the wraiths and hungry fogs but couldn't make enough saves against the wraith's Con drain even using all get hero points getting drained to 1 Con before she got knocked unconscious and fell 25 feet while flying reducing her below -1 hp. The bloodrager nearly didn't make it either even having destroyed 3 of the 4 wraiths as his low touch AC meant the hungry fogs could hit him nearly at will. He managed to grab the oracle's body and he retreated back to the menhir to follow the panicked members of his group before dropping to -1 when his rage ended.

It will be interesting to see if the Oracle decides to get raised using their prestige points (Pathfinder society) or wants to build another new character.

--save vs system Vrock

The 734PathfinderLodge have infiltrated the Black Keep, home of the dreaded headless Dark Rider, but the haunted castle itself has no intentions of letting them skulk about it's halls without challenge. The semi aware structure (treat as a haunt/genius loci that uses abjuration, conjuration teleportation, and illusion effects) diverts their dimension door from the Master's chamber (Naming Pool) to the Great Hall (CL check vs DC 23, roll 2d8 -room number they appear in- if successful) where they are noticed by the keen eared manananggal laundress who calls out the pair of hungry fogs to seek the invisible invaders. All the while the Black Keep plays on the senses of the Pathfinders building fear and tension as they are not sure they can trust what they see or hear(spooked condition).

As they struggle to batter down the stuck doors to the banquet hall, the seneschal, an irksome pukwudgie & his wraith porters emerge to see what the racket is and catch the adventurers against the stuck doors. Having triggered two encounters without engaging we leave on a cliffhanger until next session.

-- Vrocky Horror

Even with significant magic resources and a tendency to go straight to the end of a dungeon, my players like to work at things backwards. As I'm running the Black Keep as a sort of corrupted genius loci and it can draw creatures from across the planes into itself, it can also stop others from entering freely via teleportation magics.

So not only will the Keep itself open and close doors or window shutters outside at inopportune times, looking into the windows only shows empty rooms (screen)to increase the creep factor it will also shunt planar travelers randomly within the Keep. The caster must make a caster level check vs DC 23, failure means the effect does not work and is expended, success means they roll 2d8 and that's the room they appear in.

--Vrock blocked

So part three has turned out to be a little more challenging for my party of Pathfinders. The Eldritch Scoundrel got hit for 9 points of strength but the research assistant before he disabled that trap and the wind Oracle lost 6 points of intelligence to the brain ooze and none of them were equipped to defeat the hellwasp swarm. They managed to take Ashari and Luonim alive and returned them and Perotus to the Therassic Spire. They're taking a few days off to craft a swarmbane clasp and recover ability points. They left the moon and sun room unexplored and the hellwasp are currently inhabiting the corpse of a kyton so they can open doors.

They also did not activate the orrery so I'm going to have the lurkers in light exploring that room having trapped the swarm in the hive room again. They'll be invisible and activate the orrery via mage hand and use ghost sound and dancing lights to entice the party into the room to trigger the hounds of tindalos. If they're spotted (party regularly uses see invisible) they'll unleash the swarm, the hounds, and daylight door back to the sun room. I think the swarm also would have left the moon room door open allowing it's occupant to reach out into the corridor.

--Third Vrock from the Sun

If you're combining the Shattered Star AP and PFS season 4 Year of the Risen Rune then an ideal rival organization could be the cult of Lissala. As you start to thwart their plans to

--Vrock, Paper, Scissors

I think the spiral stairs on the map are not what the writer was envisioning and were added by the cartographer as say a metal spiral staircase (opposite mistake as the Hanging Manse stairs to Berkanin's lab from the bedroom which should have been a spiral) rather than stone stairs built against the wall of the tower ascending counter clockwise. If they start at the South end and climb Eastward they would line up to the door to C8 correctly.

--Vrocky Mountain High

In my take on the Luonim fight, I had the lurkers in light from one room over move in with him. He thought they were angels, they wanted to gauge how easy it would be to murder him to fuel their escape back to their home plane. They kept him alive a bit longer due to splitting up actions, and helped the players feel like badasses when all went down pretty quickly anyway.

This is a fantastic idea, especially since the sun room is so small, even for 3 small creatures.

It works out pretty well considering they can fly if the centrifuge is spinning and they're fey which is Luonim's bloodline. A daylight SLA on the control mechanism renders the lurkers invisible and allows them to teleport back to the sun room is necessary. Against my party (a slayer about to take shadowdancer and a fetchling wind oracle) the lurkers will have no love for them.

--Third Vrock from the Sun

Well, who else has a party that is adept at running the train off the tracks? After surviving the half light path and runewarped Cloakers, the Pathfinders completed PFS 4-10 Feast of Sigils where once again, like in The Cultist's Kiss, they enter the main structures through the back doors.

So it was with the Hanging Manse. The Eldritch scoundrel rogue, Slayer, and Wind oracle use invisibility, spider climb, and fly to enter the manse bypassing the stairs and elevator platform. They enter the garden with stealth scores already between 17 and 22, and +20 for invisibility. Now the tendriculoses notice them when the Eldritch Scoundrel casts a few more spells from the undergrowth but can't see them so they move towards the sound. The Slayer moves by them with no issue, but the Wind Oracle flies by the gazebo triggering the Lurker Above who has blindsense. She gets grappled but has a fantastic escape artist check and escapes. This now draws the tendriculoses to the gazebo and the Lurker (who proceeds to bludgeon and smother them to death).

The Slayer spider climbs up the NW Tower past the master bedroom window and up to the lab seeing Kanya and Berkanin. The rest of the party follows him up as they're communicating with message. The scoundrel dimension doors into the lab on top of augustille and the device still invisible, but the Ardoc wizard recognizes the DD spell and activates his wings of flying lesser and flies to the opposite side of the room just over the wall planning on dropping either web or black tentacles in the room. Before he can do that the Slayer under haste, spider climb, and invisibilitu moves over to him and sunders the harness of the wings with an adamantine dagger. The wings end up gyrating out of control into the trash heap near the alchemical golem and Berkanin feather falls down to the melee in the garden. The wind Oracle begins disabling device to remove the troll while the scoundrel and slayer attend to the clockwork soldiers and Kanya who ascends to the lab. Herifax also flies up and begins firing into the room. They defeat the wizard's lieutenants by the time he makes it up to the upper level with the terra cotta soldiers and buffed up. Even after webbing the room and following up with a fireball his lack of mobility and some good saves by the party leave him defeated.

We left off with 2 clockwork soldiers waiting to attack anyone they can see in the lab, the Oracle trying to remove the troll but failing to keep him calm and rational and the rest of the party making their way back into the room. They still have 2 more clockwork soldiers downstairs, the tupilaq, the construct swarm, the trapped oven, and the alchemical golem left for next session as they actually take the time to explore the location fully.

--Vrock, vrock. Who's there? <combat ensues>

A little thread necro...

My take on the Seugathi issue is why not turn the aura of Madness into a gaze attack instead of a continuous aura.

My party faced the fiendish Seugathi in the Lady's Light after completing the adventure and exploring the Western end of the upper dungeon level they bypassed. There were only three 7th level PCs and they had a heck of a time against an advanced fiendish version.

So in lieu of repeating the theme of confusion and enchantment from book two I'm replacing the Seugathi with 3 sinwarped Cloakers (advanced runewarped (lust) Cloakers, CR 7) seeking Thassilonian magic underneath the city. With THREE artifacts in the party's possession they're a beacon to the magic-scent of sin/runewarped creatures.

So the cloakers will be waiting at the 3 archways along the half light path where they will use shadow shift to disguise themselves as heavy curtains over the bricked up openings using silent image. Two will be at the closer end of the tunnel and one will be 60 feet down the path.

If they investigate the reliefs along the wall and the arches or Abra mentions the oddity of the walls the 3rd cloaker will begin it's unnerving moan to draw their attention. When they move up, the other two will drop the illusions and switch to mirror image and use their fear and nausea moans against the merchants and the non-martial PCs in the rear. Once the NPCs are incapacitated they will engulf the 3 PCs with shards and attempt to consume their magic. The one PC without a shard will have to attack the grappled foes and deal with the tail attacks.

--We will, we will Vrock you!

L13. Replace improved bull rush (which doesn't work as written here) with the teamwork feat Scarred Legion. This gives the Gray Maidens an additional +2 to intimidate and a + 2 morale bonus to will saves when adjacent to their sisters. That's +7 total, or roughly 50% chance to demoralize a 7th level PC.

--Between a Vrock & a hard place

So far in Curse of the Lady's Light the changes I've made in encounters

L2. one lacedon per PC + 1 brykolakas for a true CR 7 encounter.

L8 & 10. The Fuaths are utterly useless as written. Add simple advanced template and change congeal water special attack to apply entangled condition on a save and add the drowning/ suffocation effect on a failure.

--Vrock Lobster

I'm also combining s4 scenarios of the Risen Rune to my SSAP. Started with PS401 Rise of the Goblin Guild to establish Pathfinder team, SS01 Shards of Sin, PS402 In Wrath's Shadow, then return for the Free RPG day module Dawn of the Scarlet Son, before sending the PCs off to SS02 Curse of the Lady's Light (using the web enhancement) which is where we currently are. I've dropped hints about the cult of Lissala as rumors buzzing about Heidmarch Manor between missions.

The wizard that hired the dhampir Gnaeus Gnaru was a Lissalan cult member from the Palin's Cove cell sent by it's leader the vampire priest Ilan Costa with detailed notes on the Lady's Light seeking the Shard of Lust.

-Vrocky Horror

I find that if you use a 20 point buy or have more than 5 characters and your players are more experienced then it's easy to adjust difficulty without too much work. In any given encounter I either add +50% more of the weakest creature in a mixed group or I add the advanced simple template to a single monster encounter. I also give all named NPCs & monsters Max hp.

-Schoolhouse Vrock

Did anyone swap out the Alchemist build of Magister Khrysm for the actual derro magister from Bestiary 6? Maybe with the advanced template?

--Mental Vrock

So I'm running both the Shattered Star AP and the year of the Risen Rune scenarios involving the cult of Lissala. Our session zero was running Rise of the Goblin Guild, but due to the Oracle starting off with a level of barbarian that lacked the healing to finish the scenario causing the bugbear Inoklar to run off into the sewers... Where she's later captured by the derro Atlatia via charm person (tier 4-5 version now). Fenster ends up in the prisoner's pen instead.

--Vrock Star

Blue Coat Adventurers? Oh, Adam. The Order missed a golden opportunity to drop an epic The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension reference by calling themselves the Blue Blazer Irregulars. 50dkp minus.

As for the maps, you know I am a huge fan of hand-drawn maps, something I haven't done in almost 3 years playing digitally. I know you don't reveal a section until the players enter the space, but how do you handle players seeing the Secret Door notations (from your IG post Level 3 Library Level)?

--Vrock, Stock, & Two Smoking' Barrels

Just curious, which NPC did you use to give the quest to your group? I'm thinking of using Almya Gorangal (LE female wizard 4) at Heidmarch Manor (from Magnimar, City of Monuments) as the party's eldritch scoundrel rogue is looking to scribe some more spells from a friendly source.

--on the chopping Vrock

Anyone figure out the room layout for B25?

A) does the balcony overlook the passage to the south or the bath to the north?
B) does the crevice in the east wall lead to b26 the cistern or b27 the dressing room where the bat swarm resides.

--We will Vrock you

Having finished Tyrant's Grasp and having played through Wrath of the Righteous one of my players decided to play a Shoanti raised changeling Barbarian/Herald Caller cleric of Nocticula. As the AP is taking place in 4712AR before both WotR & TG she is called to the Cult of Redeemer Queen in Magnimar under the tiefling Ayavah. The player didn't know about Sorshen's connection to Nocticula ask I'm going to sprinkle some of that in especially seeking the Shard of Lust.

--Vrock of Ages

This is my group's 3rd mythic campaign and I definitely learned the lessons of book 6 of APs from Wrath. Lots of encounters for XP sake. Since I use a step system of advancing (like unchained staggered advancement) I can forgo the CR budget of encounters. Early on the Advanced simple template is great for boosting monsters and in the last few books the Mighty template is even better!

Still deciding if I want to drag my players through Hammer Rock or take them at Level 16/tier 4 straight to the Cairnlands as the 2 level deficit balances out the 4 mythic tiers for the final ending. Even so, I need to bolster the Tyrant as well. The warpriest /guardian dropped a 700+ point critical mythic vital strike w/power attack and the paladin's shared smite on Istravek basically one shotting my CR 20/MR 5 Ravener.

I'd have to repurpose Ceto Malderra and Gildais to be relevant commanders of the WT forces outside Absalom.

Perhaps this will work:

Gallowspire is too little life to level up their Obol
Renchurch's mythic pop all gets sucked up by Aranzi's ritual
Hammer Rock gives the bump in book 5

That pulls its five uses down to three mythic tiers at
Roslar's Coffer
Vigil
Hammer Rock

In my campaign, we will be going to Mythic tier 4. The break down of when is as follows. Receiving the obols in the initial blast in Roslar's Coffer awakens the PCs mythic potential. After returning to Roslar's Coffer they need to be exposed to a significant amount of energy tied to the Whispering Tyrant and the destruction of the Fetoring Maw provides that for Tier 1.

Tier 2 comes when the PCs defeat Yosiduin as their Mythic Trial and the Radiant Fire goes off in the city above. I gave the elf the Incinvible mythic template.

Tier 3 comes at the end of Book 4 when the Tyrant and Arazni fight and he uses the Radiant Fire on her. The PCs have at this point defeated 2 mythic trials, Ameratos Manslayer with the Agile simple template and a much more difficult encounter with Ulthun and the Knights of Ozem using the Ultimate Intrigue rules for a Social Event with the DC around 40 before Aid another, influence and discovery checks on the Watcher Lords aides, and the boons granted in the adventure.

Tier 4 comes from the simultaneous events of Hammer Rock being destroyed at the same time Miraina reverses the Obols and the Kumaru seedlings taking root. The PCs will have defeated 3 mythic trials, a Savage template Ypotryll, an MR 5 Istravek, and an MR 8 nightwalker (using the stats from Khorramzedeh reborn from WotR).

Finally if the PCs sacrifice themselves against the WT at the end and forgo their mythic tiers they can save their souls in the Kumaru tree for later reincarnation instead of being wiped from existence.

--Vrocky Horror

So my group used stealth to move around the Blue Gardens of Till, invisible avoiding the wyrwood patrol to sneak in an upper floor window. They avoided the warden patrol, spent an hour in the library finding Miraina's notes. They them beelined the the Arcane Nexus, bypassed the locks by using passwall, and headed into the underlevel. Here they faced Palderren, the ximtal Sahkil.

As my players are 14/ 3 mythic tiers (APL 16) this fight was augmented by adding 2 Pakalchi Sahkils with the Mighty(Cr+5) template from super genius games. Damn does that template make minion level monsters juicy! Even with heroes feast, the improved Look Of Fear save DCs took the Steelhound graveslinger into the scared condition (advanced fear rules from Horror adventures) and staggered him a few rounds while the Paladin was mazed, his Calaca cohort panicked & greater teleported back to Jolizpan. The Pakalchi chased the Phoenix sorcerer back up to the Arcane Nexus. Never managed to land the ximtal's isolate or the Pakalchi poison to deny ally benefits. Not badly balanced for a non-mythic encounter (CR 18 vs APL 16), took 5 rounds of combat. Most non mythic creatures have been getting roflstomped.

--Vrocky Horror

I'm converting a lot of the Arcadia material from 2e Gears & Guns, especially beast gunners. I have a steelhound investigator/ graveslinger so having some more firearm wielding opponents is nice. My players are also Mythic so they quickly start being called Yan/Yanti by the denizens of Jolizpan as they interact with the encounters during the Festival of Flowers. I'm adding beast guns to the monster hunters that are said to live on the outskirts of the city across the canal. They're asking for more and more payment from the city and they find someone willing to pay their fees (The Children of Kamaru).

--FlintVrock Muskets

I feel like not including some Jitterbone mortics in book 2 was a missed opportunity. If I were to do it again I'd put them in K8 or as experiments of either the fearless researchers, the twins, or even Kalamuk.

Adding the Savage mythic template to the Ypotryll in Jolizpan for the first mythic trial they'll face. The sakhil and Istravek will also end up as some manner of mythic creatures.

Think I'll steal the breaking and archery contests from the Ruby Phoenix tournament module for our sunder build warpriest and the graveslinger/steelhound investigator.

I love the idea of the Clash of Saints, but only a single PC participating leaves the others with nothing to do (other than perhaps making a wager?). I'll have to figure something else to involve them with.

So far after one day in Jolizpan selling all their gear, buying what they could, and commissioning enhancements to be done, they encounter the wyrwood skulks. The investigator and warpriest managed to notice them robbing a merchant stand. The warpriest of Milani shrugged saying, "there's crime in every city. It's not always on us to do something about it." They did note a lack of the city guard in the market. The investigator decided to at least point out to the vendor he had been robbed. The skulks saw this and decided any one canny enough to spot their deeds was a threat. Fireball beads were hurled and the skulks were defeated.

I'm going to have the Lady of the Divine Blade visit the Survivors either at Miraina's home or out and about in the city on day 2 (day before Clash, 2 before Blossom parade) as a thanks for helping defend the peace as her guard is thinned due to the Golden Claws MIA status.

I'm going to run the viper vine encounter in either the park or the gardens depending on the PCs location. To draw their interest to the viper vines I'm going to have their obols react to the surge of energy that animates the vines in a reflection of the Kumaru tree reacting to their arrival.

The Jolizpan streets encounter I'm going to repeat at least once as they explore the city, I'll treat it like a true random encounter, 30% chance every 4 hours they explore. I'll have them attacking the guard once and the second time they're after the PCs as a threat.

On the evening of the Blossom Parade the procession will arrive in Umbarez square where the Ypotryll (with the mythic savage template) will face the Survivors. The mages I'll save for the final day of the festival (the first full moon after the equinox) when the town is gathering near the river to float their glowing flowers in memorial.

Hopefully by this time the Survivors will understand the threat is coming from the Blue Gardens and/or Miraina will elaborate on her exile from the place and ask them to retrieve her gear and lab notes so she can continue to examine their obols.

I am going to start running this book in 2 weeks. Any tips, hints, gripes from those who have DM'd it would be appreciated.

I would definitely plan on adjusting exploration in the Gallowgarden. If you're in no hurry and you want to extend the timeline between Vigil's destruction and the when the knights of Ozem have enough time to muster and reach Renchurch, you might want to run Gallowgarden using the exploration rules from ultimate campaign.

Likewise, the DCs for negotiating with the Watcher Lord are laughably easy using the standard Diplomacy skill (18 or 28), even with the penalties from his honor guard. I used the social encounter rules frum ultimate intrigue. Let the PCs figure out to make any influence check on Ulthun, they need to A. improve the honor guard and his attitude (easy, esp if they complete the success condition with Krobdak) B. Learn who is friendly, indifferent, or unfriendly with a Discovery check (say DC 18, and they gain more information-influence skills-for every 2 they beat the DC), then make influence checks using those skills (easier DC) or diplomacy (harder DC). Once they convince enough of the honor guard they can C. attempt to make the 2 requests of Ulthun (1. Wait for Arazni to engage WT, 2. Withdraw from the field entirely). These should be between DC 30 or 40 to begin with and modified by how successful they are at influencer the honor guard.

Our paladin player made most of the diplomacy checks (DC 35) with the +5 bonus from the Durgao success condition with aid from the other 2 players present and good roles. It was a tense negotiation.

--Between a Vrock and a hard place

In Book 4 Amaretos has the Agile simple mythic template to make for a good mythic trial before surviving the encounter between Arazni and WT for the PCs 3rd tier.

For the Amaretos encounter, I will be adding the Agile mythic simple template, swapping out hasted assault for ghost blade (for brilliant energy), as well as giving him bladed dash and bullet ward (as Gebbites are familiar with gunslingers from Alkenstar). Dual initiative and an extra 30 feet of movement will more than make up for Haste for a single round per arcane pool spent.

The real threat from the Necrosages besides some defensive spells like wind wall and protection from energy is their soul siphon revelation, a 30ft. ranged touch negative level for 5 minutes. You stack a few of them on one PC it's a potent debuff, especially if you stack with further energy drain slams.

--Vrocky Horror

Tycha + Fleshhunters: Really would have liked even a modicum of equipment on the Fleshhunters to give them survivability. Not asking for much here, just like...studded leather. Not even masterwork. I didn't add it, but I strongly considered it. Tycha's tactics make sense for an assassin, but do not make sense given his lack of preparation to use them. Decent enough stealth was helping, but the lack of Invisibility and/or Silence was what got him. He was easily noticed because he couldn't close in on any PCs without getting pinged by Echolocation. The Fleshhunters all fell relatively easy, having only succeeded in damaging animal companions, while Tycha took a couple extra attacks due to his high AC and HP.

As my PCs are Mythic tier 2 I added another level of Assassin to Tycha to give him Hide in Plain Sight, allowing him to work on that death attack. As for the Flesh Hunters, I swapped out 2 Alchemist fires for 2 tanglefoot bags. I managed to drink see invisibility, shield, displacement, and true strike extracts before breaking stealth for all but one. I managed to set the phoenix sorcerer and paladin on fire, and entangled the warpriest until he cast freedom of movement with a fervor. I got the vital strike, death attack, smite good off on the paladin, but he saved vs the attack and poison. Unfortunately, even with max hp he did not survive long after the paladin's critical smite attack with the falcata, doing over 100 points of damage, as well as a critical from the Steelhound graveslinger, both x4.

Are there any additional resources for the town of Roslar's Coffer in any splat book or hardback? I want to do an extended Session 0 type thing to get my players invested much like Find The Path did with the Remembrance Moon festival, but want to make sure I'm being as lore specific as possible.

Thanks.

Check out PFS 10-04 Reaver's Roar, it fleshes out Roslar's Coffer a bit.

So concerning both the overland portions of traveling through Virlych and Gallowgarden, there's really nothing more than the lightning elementals in the former and almost nothing in the latter that dissuades the party from not just flying over the jungle to find the pit.

--Vrocktober

Nevermind, I found the passage saying the canopy is so thick it obscures the pit requiring the PCs to explore the area. I might have to draw it up in a series of hexes to explore Kingmaker style. Maybe take the old map of Adorak from Carrion Crown and add random bits of jungle terrain over top in a staggered fashion to make an area map. If they try using flight magic it'll just reduce their resources.

--Vrocky Horror

So concerning both the overland portions of traveling through Virlych and Gallowgarden, there's really nothing more than the lightning elementals in the former and almost nothing in the latter that dissuades the party from not just flying over the jungle to find the pit.

This is a design flaw I've found common in encounter design in book 4 of several APs. Most parties have access to either fly, overland flight, or wind walk by 11th level. The jungle on the Midnight Isles in WotR comes to mind, vrocks or no vrocks

--Vrocktober

So far my players have not had any full on character deaths, but they've come really close.
An ostovite nearly killed the sorcerer on the first night.
The tooth fairy rogue dropped the cleric to -7 in the Palace of Teeth.
The warpriest was mauled badly by the traps and tricks of the nightmare ettercap.
The yaoguai absolutely battered our paladin, who also got swallowed by the Crypt Flower.
I had Kilibrandt lace her letter with not only poison, but pest drake pheromones then released a swarm of them during the alley ambush.
Spectres nearly energy drained the warpriest and investigator to death.
Old leatherback swallowed the investigator whole.
And Snapper enveloped the warpriest (which saved him from the Sump Steward's cloudkill & the mythic fireball the sorcerer dropped).

As you get to part 2 of Last Watch I highly recommend the Chronicles of Riddick. The necromongers draw a good comparison to the Seal Breakers.

--Vrocky Horror

I wasn't as bothered by the esobok myself. Also to the masses of live birds at multiple points--why is the Boneyard full of live birds?)

Not the Boneyard, the Dead Roads were full off birds because it's Barzakh's realm. It's a giant bird and when slain they rejuvenate from one of the many birds that make the realm home.

--CuckooVrock

So I noticed no one has made a post about using the pest drake swarm in an encounter. So as the Whiteblade festival is happening it makes sense there would be some sort of citywide entertainment. Cities of Golarion mentioned Sophronia's Steeplechase during midsummer, so why not a Rainbow Race in the spring when pest drakes are about to mate, and what better display for mates than a race!

So the players can watch this event happen on day 2 of the festival, probably at noon. Cool bit of colorful fluff. But the roughly dozen to a score of drake keepers are being housed in the area around the Hounds Glory, it is closed after all.

So I'm using this to add the swarm to my part D. Alley Ambush encounter as my players are mythic tier 1 and need the challenge. Kilibrandt sends the forged letter from Evni Zongnoss to them written in ink made from a lasting dose of terinav root poison. A great way to use the long onset time and long duration to possibly weaken up to 2 party members. The tube the message comes in is dosed with pest drake pheromones.

When the fight in the alley occurs, Kilibrandt uses her mage hand SLA to open the cages of pest drakes lining the alley (the green covered stalls).

--Vrockroach swarm

What's the frequency of checks for the Gallowgarden miasma, once per day? I assumed since the onset is 24 hours, they only need to roll for the poison save once per day.

--Toxic Vrock Syndrome

As for mythic enemies, in book 2 I'm giving Yosiduin the invincible mythic template considering his single minded devotion to the cause of the Seal Breakers all these years. I'll have him speak to the PCs of his dreams about them sent by Groetus who of course watched them traverse the Dead Roads. This gives me an excuse to use metagame knowledge off how they fight and have him counter them.

Has anyone had any insight on how the living NPCs at the end of the book (as well as the few dozen nameless survivors) managed to survive the Radiant Fire? I know in the end it doesn’t really matter, but if any PCs do ask them how they survived, it would be nice if I could at least give consistent answers. They likely don’t have enough info to say exactly how, but if the PCs really wanted to try to find a common link based on everyone’s responses, I’d like to be able to give them something with confidence.

Did all the survivors happen to be inside of heavily-fortified structures? Were they near objects of potently holy energy? Is it really just a random occurrence that one in every 500 people manages to be in a chance pocket of diminished effect?

I'd chalk it up to the Three Little Pigs. Roslar's Coffer was only straw and sticks, Vigil is bricks and stone!

--Schoolhouse Vrock

A little late to the party, but my group is admit to finish book 2 and I will use the destruction of the Fetoring Maw as their apotheosis. The Obol's were implanted in their hearts by the initial Radiant Fire and spent the energy rebuilding their bodies. Destroying a minor artifact crafted by the WT himself is enough to connect them to his magic as well, not to the same extent as Arazni, but enough for it to allow her to notice them.

2nd tier will be after Vigil is destroyed.

Need to read ahead again to see if I want them to gain one at Gallowspire or if I'll wait till they discover what they are in Arcadia for tier 3.

--Vrocket Launcher Tag

A little late to the party, but my group is admit to finish book 2 and I will use the destruction of the Fetoring Maw as their apotheosis. The Obol's were implanted in their hearts by the initial Radiant Fire and spent the energy rebuilding their bodies. Destroying a minor artifact crafted by the WT himself is enough to connect them to his magic as well, not to the same extent as Arazni, but enough for it to allow her to notice them.

2nd tier will be after Vigil is destroyed.

Need to read ahead again to see if I want them to gain one at Gallowspire or if I'll wait till they discover what they are in Arcadia for tier 3.

--Vrocky Launcher Tag

King of Vrock wrote:

Yakman wrote:

umm... so i'm filling out my map for this... and how exactly do CR 4 Advanced Wights have 89 HP each? They should be 4d8+16, no?

Far less important Usundra's HP IS the HP of a Death Priest from the books, but that also appears to be calculated too high.

The Death Priest has maxed 1st HD, plus favored class bonus hp. Looks like almost all the NPC codex uses FCB hp or skills depending on the npc.

--Schoolhouse Vrock

ah.

I've been using the rolled HP for all the monsters, and it kept coming up short.

Maybe that's why for the NPCs... but for the wights? The listed HP for them, (wight + advanced template), as I said, 4d8+16

Yeah the wights are definitely a typo, should be 34.

umm... so i'm filling out my map for this... and how exactly do CR 4 Advanced Wights have 89 HP each? They should be 4d8+16, no?

Far less important Usundra's HP IS the HP of a Death Priest from the books, but that also appears to be calculated too high.

The Death Priest has maxed 1st HD, plus favored class bonus hp. Looks like almost all the NPC codex uses FCB hp or skills depending on the npc.

--Schoolhouse Vrock

I'm thinking about opening up the fight in the second floor of the Bastion. After the chaos on the first floor, the idea that the bad guys are just sitting in their rooms is kinda silly.

But really, there's just 4 of them, plus some help, which shouldn't endanger the PCs unless they get in a tough position. I think it might be interesting to use the traps and the jujus to distract the PCs while the bad guys move through the various rooms, making them chase them and trying to outflank them, or pin them so the pudwudgie or valthazar can really lay into them with some damage.

Thoughts?

I'm probably a little late to answer this, but I'm about to run the same stretch. My group cleared out the ground floor last session, then took the tunnel back to the cemetery in Roslar's Coffer to rest and perform the loci spirit's ceremony for the greater heroism boon.

Now I've already determined there'll be a random encounter for the long rest, but I'll hit them in the morning as they prepare to head back to the Bastion of Light. This way they'll have expended some resources before they get up top. The sisters also wear two robes of bones so they could easily have some extra help there, fast goblin zombie and plague ogre zombie sound fun.

I don't know how effective the nekomata's kitten ruse will work as I did the same thing with the esipil sahkil in Nine Eaves.

--Vrocky Horror