| OneCrazyCanadian |
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Sky King's Tomb Review
Greetings to my fellow Pathfinders. I completed GMing Sky King's Tomb ( in person) after 2 years and I thought I would make a review of the adventure for anyone looking at, what I consider, an excellent adventure for new players who are learning PF2e.
Details:
- Party of 6 players, not all were present in each session.
- Played in person
- Frequency, sometimes many months between games but 4-6 hour sessions
- 0 character deaths
- Rule of cool GMing
- Plenty of PF1e experience in my players but new to 2nd edition.
Party Comp:
- Construct Gunslinger, changed to Dwarf Wizard, focusing on mental spells, at Clan Tolor festival in book 1.
- Dwarf Fire Elemental Instinct Barbarian, jumping build with dwarven long hammer
- Dwarf Cleric on Grunnidar, healing font
- Dwarf Monk, mountain, follower of Trudd
- Dwarf Druid, focus on spell casting related to spores, fungus, and healing rocks.
Campaign Hook:
At our session 0, I went over the two main themes that I understood from reading. Exploration in terms of Archeology, and how history changes. This was done with a history of The Quest For the Sky, and history of Highhelm.
Breaking immersion, I also informed them that we would be following the major plot points of the book and that this is not an adventure where you are not being a hero by defeating a villain. The antagonist of the book is not very present so I felt it important to tell my players, it helped shape their character building by focusing on Archeology related feats/themes
Homebrew changes:
- A rival famous archeologist that they meet before the story telling festival. They become a bit of an antagonist as they compete for fame
- Narseigus breadcrumbs are more present in book 2
- Ghost of King Taargick as a lore dump/guide. At the end of book 1 where the party researches the quest for the sky, they awaken King Taargick in Skysunder and later, the other relics. He speaks to them about his regrets and asks them to find his Tomb. Clan Tolorr sees this as a great honor and the party should follow their own divine quest to find The Sky King's hidden tomb. I choose to keep him as a NPC for the whole adventure.
Book 1
Chapter 1 Highhelm Heroes
- Went pretty much as written. Every player enjoyed the festival and the different challenges. They befriended Fazil the Kobold, Mr Pearlcask, Ria, and Mr Beetsmith. They saved Lady Shimmersnip.
- They ruined the pie eating contest saying that it was poisoned after successive nat 1s.
- They encounter the rival archeologist who boasts that he was invited by the King for a special project.
- Krohan recruits them a week before the party hosted by Clan Tolorr.
Chapter 2 Path of the Dagger
Not many details here. The party enjoyed travelling with Krohan and he was a good NPC to showcase the importance of clan culture in Highhelm.
The fungal field and tower were fun for my druid player who claimed the Fungal Tower and eventually made their own sporeborn named Toad.
Gulderge and workshop heights have some good exploration and combat. The party stalked the Xulgath camp for a few days in order to capture prisoners and get information. I took this opportunity to explain the harsh hunting and living conditions of the Darklands. Xulgath were not just monsters to be slain
They managed to convince the Mimic to eat the Xulgath cleric and scare off the rest of the tribe.
Chapter 3: A Relic Reunited
I changed the goals for Tolorr Clan Festival because many of the NPCs the party meet, do not reoccur in the book. Bulgaria Veldollow became the person responsible for excommunicating Krohan, and the party spent most of their time trying to keep Krohan’s surprise repentance a secret.
Many of the NPCs from the story telling festival were present: Fazil the Kobold, Mr Pearlcask. Ria, Etkar Beetsmith, were all there to sing the praises of the party.
The rival archeologist, Thivaldgo (borrowed from Strength of Thousands AP as a Indianna Jones type Halfing) spent most of their time talking with important looking party goers and Bulgra. Bulgra announced that Thivaldgo, who had dealings with Clan Tolorr before had been selected by the High King to work on retrieving fragments of the lost relic of Dwarven pride, The Great King’s Crown.
-At the time for the PCs to have the spotlight, each NPC they helped spoke and Thivaldgo quipped about a ruined pie eating contest hurting a local business. Krohan then revealed himself with Sky Sunder, telling the story of how the PCs, utter strangers to him, helped find and retrieve the lost Clan Dagger of King Taargick.
Krohan’s reveal upstaged the spotlight on Thivaldgo, Bulgaria was proud of the PC Monk and Cleric as they were part of Clan Tolorr. Bulgaria brought the PCs to the old archive to research the relics the party and Krohan had currently found: Adamantine Echo, Sky Sunder, Uniter of Clans
Doing the research subsystem, this is where our Construct Gunslinger switched to a Dwarven Wizard who ran the archive. Another lore dump on quest for the sky,
Constructs awakened by the angry spirits proved quite a challenge as their wild swings brought the risk of destroying research material. They enjoyed the side challenge of protecting the environment. The ritual to reconnect Sky Sunder blade with the gem was successful
King Taargick awakened in the PC’s minds, more potently in those with a relic. He gave them the quest of uncovering his tomb and finding his friend, the great Crimson Worm Zogotataru, who was in distress. He could feel there was a survivor of Guldredge in the lower levels of Highhelm. I then chose to keep King Taargick around for the rest of the adventure.
Bulgra and Clan Tolorr took this as the highest honour and would provide their financial support to the PCs on their own quest from King Taargick. This would be a detriment to the now jealous Thivaldgo.
I chose to declare this the end of book 1 to my players because it felt like the natural end of the adventure in Highhelm as a location and were given a new quest by Sky King Taargick. I stressed to them that this quest would be seen akin to “A quest from god” level of importance and belief to others. The players did get the hint of lost/forgotten truths regarding The Quest for the Sky, and I would use King Taargick to pop in and out with old reminiscing.
I put the last bit of notes on book 1 to keep this review together.
After the Clan Tolorr festival and King Targgick manifesting in the relics, the party got some supplies from Bulgra and money to buy supplies. While Bulgra is getting all their requests, the PC’s descend into Highhelm’s lower quarters to find the Drathlanar, Jirelga.
They found the jail she was kept in, and she promised to help the PCs if they could get the charges dropped. The Warden of the jail pointed them to a debt he was owed by the Tuom Molgrade, last seen at the Blacknoon Bakery.
The Cleric was also the charismatic face of the party with The Uniter of Clans so they often tried the diplomatic and de-escalation solutions. They were successful with Tuom but it revealed Ygrin Oathcarver as a monster. For sparing Tuom, she brought them to the forge and the Sparkwarden Tattoo for another relic.
Jirelga, saved from prison, tells them about the Court of Ether where a Crimson Worm appeared not too long ago and its Fey Queen defended the town.