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Has anyone created mythic statblocks for the Avatar of Ydersius, Emperor of Scales, Sargogen or any of the other foes detailed in the final book of Serpent's Skull? If so, would you mind sharing?

My players just defeated the Avatar of Ydersius and are trying to figure out what to do about the skull. Assuming we continue now that the AP is over, it occurs to me that defeating an avatar of a god should qualify one to pick up at least one mythic tier. That might lead to a planar rematch as they try to destroy the skull once and for all and I'll need stats for it. If someone has already done the work to upgrade some of those statblocks for mythic, I may as well see if they want to share. :)

Thanks!

The PCs have just cut through all of M'deggog's most powerful defenders like a hot knife through butter. I have a couple of rules related questions about the final encounter I would like to ask. One of my players reads the boards so I thought I'd ask questions here instead (he will know its a spoiler if I post in this forum).

1. The PCs have not opened the secret door yet. Would clairaudience allow M'deggog's to target spells and abilities in the bush devil's room from inside the secret room? I'm thinking about having him drop black tentacles in the other room then start trying to dominate and feeblemind PCs before they can get in and start targeting him.

2. Assuming M'deggog survives long enough, if he uses his body thief ability to inhabit the corpse of the bush devil the PCs just killed and use it against the PCs, does it regain its full hit points or would he have to arrange for healing before he could use it effectively?

3. If M'deggog casts black tentacles just inside his secret room such that half the area should be in the bush devils room, is there any rule that says those tentacles shouldn't appear?

I ask 1 and 3 because it seems obvious to me that the smartest thing for him to do (short of packing up his lab and leaving) is to keep the PCs from being able to make contact with him. He's seen several of the previous fights in the dungeon and knows how quickly the PCs were able to put down some very tough defenders. Once they do get in and kill his vessel, if he survives the daze round, he can dimension door out and use one of the other corpses to carry on the fight -- hence question 2.

If he waits for the PCs to get into the room and they can act without disruptions, I expect him to go down extremely fast.

Has anyone done any of the encounters for Racing to Ruin in Hero Lab? If so, could I beg a copy? :)

Has there been any official ruling on how experience should be handled when the PCs have NPC allies in the party? Specifically, I'm running Serpent's Skull and the PCs are running around with several NPCs helping them (about all I feel I can say without spoilers). Should I divide the XP among the PCs only or give each NPC a share?

In 3.0, I remember giving the NPCs a share (and included them in the average party level) but the current rules don't seem to mention NPC allies in terms of experience.

I suppose I should add that my reading of the rules is that I should only divide between the PCs but I'm wondering if that's wrong.

I apologize if this isn't the right spot for this.

I've grown curious about the Vancaskerkins lately. This post is going to contain disparate information about them gathered from multiple APs and a forum post followed by idle thougths and speculation. Some might consider these spoilers for RotRL, CotCT or SD so view appropriately.

Has anyone come up with random tables for what equipment can be found in the shipwrecks on Smuggler's Shiv?

I'm curious what other people do to prepare to run a module in an adventure path.

When I look at the list of factions that might sponsor an expedition, I suspect my players might not want to work with any of them for various reasons. Has anyone had this happen and how did you handle it?

I've been considering adding a couple of extra castaways to the first module who have connections that can help provide alternate sponsorship if the PCs reject all of the "standard" factions. Has anyone tried something like that and, if so, how did it work out?

What kind of play aids people have found useful for running Souls for Smuggler's Shiv and the other modules in the AP.

By play aids, I mean miniatures, flip-mats and things like that. I have the jungle map pack and two different ship flip-mats (the Paizo one and one made by another company that shows the same ship both floating and sunken).

Thanks.

I've been considering running the Serpent's Skull AP, but I must admit I'm getting a bit discouraged reading some of the threads here. Other than the first module, it sounds like the rest of the AP has a fairly bad reputation. It sounds like it is a railroaded hack and slash "grindy" affair for a lot of the AP. I get the impression that the AP may not be "bad", but it's not really all that great either. Furthermore, it sounds like it will take a lot of work by the DM to fix things.

Is this an accurate assessment?

Edit: please don't think I'm trying to insult any of the authors or anything like that. I'm not. I'm just trying to see if my "read" of what others who have actually run the AP and commented on it is accurate.

I'm looking for art I can use for NPCs in fantasy games. It isn't that hard to find stuff you can use for PCs, but that tends toward thin, healthy, attractive young people. I'm looking for pictures that don't fit the "type" and those seem to be pretty rate. I know there are some in the GMG. Any recommendations where I can find more?

A question related to a possible future campaign:

If you were a slaver with a load of slaves acquired in a manner that is, uh, let's say "less than legal" in the place where they were acquired, where would you sell them?

I expect Okeno and Katapesh are the obvious answers in the eastern part of the map, but what about the west? Say with slaves, er, acquired, in Varisia (as an example, it could just as easily be elsewhere)?

(The idea here is that there is an operation -- I have not decided where yet -- that occasionally kidnaps travelers and sells them to a slaver who hauls them off somewhere they can be sold without a lot of awkward questions being asked and without anyone caring if the slaves protest that they were captured illegally. Preferably somewhere that none of these slaves are likely to ever show back up to make trouble for the operation, yet close enough that transportation won't eat all the profits and safe enough that some "meddlers" or even local authorities won't make a nuisance of themselves. I'm expecting this to be by sea, but I suppose it doesn't absolutely have to be. I'm also assuming that such a slaver won't want to pass too close to Andoran for obvious reasons and that makes a trip to Okeno and Katapesh awkward.)

I should add that I'm a player in a RotRL campaign right now (finishing book 2 tomorrow, I expect) so I'm trying to avoid spoilers for that AP if I can.

Has anything been published about those two big islands off the west coast of Cheliax? Have they shown up in an adventure path or anything like that?

I assume they're part of Cheliax and that they're probably rather rebellious like the rest of the area, but I was wondering if they'd actually shown up somewhere.

Thanks.

It has recently come to my attention that the adventure path books include a section that sometimes includes new rules and setting information of a more general interest. Is there an index listing the contents of the various AP books?