Luther's page

So, my players beat Vordakai and got his Oculus of Abaddon. I made it clear to them that it's pretty dang powerful, completely evil, and has a malign intelligence.

Immediate low-effort attempts to destroy it obviously fail. One resisted the urge to play amateur eye surgeon on himself. Without even bothering to find out how to destroy it, they decided to just encase the thing in molten iron and dump it in the lake. Problem totally solved.

But let's be real. It wants to be found, forces that serve Abaddon know about it, and it isn't even in enough iron to block detect magic. Another year passes in kingdom building and they aren't keeping tabs on it.

So here's my question to the community: what do you think should happen here? Who might find it? Would it be taken elsewhere to sow misery or turned on the PCs again? Would it affect the environment/land over the year? How should this come back on them, if it does at all? I don't wish to be cruel but it does seem they've taken the lazy way out with no safeguards.

If it helps: the party is an occultist, paladin, sorcerer, and a skald. Thanks kindly.

In the Beginner's Box Bash: Relics PDF I've noticed something about the picture on page 3. Has anyone else noticed that the "runes" atop each column are just characters from the Daedric alphabet from the Elder Scrolls games?

Check it.

I know this is tiny and I don't like to nit-pick but I'm just curious, what's the legal department say on this? I know companies can be really strict on their intellectual property.

Right, so this fellow Estovian has been operating the lodge for some time. The lodge is essentially a bastion of civilization in the middle of the woods.

Here is my question: what explanation would Estovian give as to why the lodge has not been attacked and everyone inside slaughtered?

I will have him point out the walls, the guards, Delgros' skill, and the fact that there are many people here in one place so werewolves would not risk it. However, I know my PCs aren't going to believe that. I will either have to come up with a better explanation or risk down-selling the menace of the werewolves. Why should they fear them if a bunch of NPC guards can keep them in check? I suspect that to be their line of thinking in that case.

I'm sure one of my PCs will try to counter that by stating that if the lodge has been here that long that -eventually- the werebeasts would get bold and make a focused attempt to remove this insult/threat inside their territory.

Estovian has been doing this for a long time, enough to think of plenty of ways to answer what is a very obvious question for guests to ask. Now we know the reason why the lodge isn't attacked but the module even says that if it were not for the vilkacis the tribes would line up to tear him apart. I can't just have him say that. Any thoughts or ideas as to how he would reassure the PCs?

I would like to say that I love the little tidbits included on the front and back inside cover. They make for excellent little ideas to throw in or even seeds for smaller quests. I'm considering using them in my games but I have a question or two.

First is Saffron House. I like the idea of it but I need to know if it will be featured later in the AP. I'm not asking for spoilers but only to know if I should avoid taking the initiative to avoid fleshing out the location on my own when if is done so later in the AP. I don't want to end up regretting it. It seems like a semi-important location and I wouldn't want to tread on already established material that might come up later.

Also, I like the idea of the the starving spectre, really cool idea. However I know exactly what my players will ask me if I try and reveal his backstory. Wouldn't he have suffocated in his cheap coffin long before slowly starving to death? In that case he wouldn't be so starving, would he? More like the gasping ghost. The asphyxiated apparition?

So I was talking to a friend who recently finished running Legacy of Fire and he told me that at the end of the final session he presented each player with a neat copy mock-up of the Songs of Shazathared (sp?). I had also recieved a copy of the songs from my DM who is running it and I felt like it was a great gesture. I thought this was a neat idea: give the players a nice little gift at the end so they have something to remember the campaign by, a momento.

So I just finished Council of Thieves and was thinking of doing something similar but I'm short on ideas of what to do. A half melted gold(ish) coin with a leering face on it would be neat, but hard to reproduce. I would like something a little more clever than a "I survived the Council of Thieves Adventure Path" T-shirt, something that is evokative of major events in the AP.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Under the entry for the ranger's Favored Terrain ability it says that: "A ranger traveling through his favored terrain normally leaves no trail and cannot be tracked (though he may leave a trail if he so chooses)."

Does the 'cannot be tracked' part of it extend to creatures who track by scent or other non-visual means? Does he suddenly stop having a smell? Also, what does it mean by 'traveling normally'? I assume this means on foot as opposed to, say, on a wagon where he would realistically be unable to hide the deep ruts it would leave.

Thanks in advance.