God, I haven't been on these forums in what feels like years. Just want to thank anyone that's still getting use out of these conversions, mods, and reviews. I loved running Carrion Crown, even as the players abilities overpowered the horror aspect of the campaign. Currently I am doing the following:
-About to run the finale of Rise of the Runelords for a different group, a campaign that's been going for four years. I think it's gonna go.. badly. The players need to roll really good (17+) to save against most of Karzoug's spells. I'm gonna give them as much in game advice as possible without neutering Karzoug. This is three of the player's first D+D experience.
-Playing Reign of Winter, but over the course of the year, we've played six times. Scheduling conflicts are the real party killers. However, we are playing tomorrow, and as I remember, they are legacy characters from Kingmaker (the sons and daughters of our PCs in hat AP)
-Upon competing Runelords, will be running either Crimson Throne or Shattered Star. Still weighing support for both APs.
Nothing will stop the players from charging at Harrowstone except for your own pacing and how fast you give out information. That said, there's plenty to keep your PCs occupied before you start nudging them towards the prison; consider using the plethora of added material to flush out Ravengro and fix the Trust mechanic.
Having a PC be the son of Petros gives more motivation for discovering the truth of his death. It also could make them a target of the Whispering Way in book 6 if you're going to use the "Kendra is the Vessel" way that most people did. Having the same bloodline means he could be the one to host Tar Baphon, which could create all sorts of RP opportunities.
To match with a previously defeated NPC in the previous adventure, I turned the Worm that Walks into a cleric of equal level composed of flies to fit with the Urgathoan theme. Source severance and the WtW abilities made for a few dicey moments.
Right. Definitely an appropriate use for the haunt!
On a separate note, am I missing something or is the lich alchemist's fear aura really tough for the PCs? As I understand it, it lasts 12 rounds, and anytime the fear runs out or gets removed the PC needs to re-save upon re-entering the aura. Am I missing something?
No, it does exactly that. If they are running around with PvE, chances are that they have access to Remove Fear, which makes the aura a non-issue. But, yeah, if they've never faced a Lich before, it is a nasty ability to encounter for the first time.
I often look at the monster's typical grouping (solitary, pair, etc.), and if its solitary only, its a rare monster. I figure that anything that lives alone doesn't have a lot of lore around it that a community of such creatures would inherit.
The cultists themselves are not going to pose a credible threat as written; they were one of the few monsters in the module I had a problem with as written. I turned them into Arcanists, but if you run them as is, I recommend Mass Bull's Strength, Bless, and Magic Fang for starters, and perhaps a Communal Resist Energy. With the cenobites, I had them concentrate on buffing themselves (Bull's Strength, Bless, Prayer, Keen Edge, Divine Favor) to make their scythes more of a deadly threat, especially if they critically hit.
Magic Jar doesn't require line of effect to work, so yeah, he can be some distance away (even on the next level if you wanted to be nasty), behind a locked door, and surrounded by minions. Basically, every round (and this can be augmented with effects from the Tyrant's Whispers.. Limited Wish to lower someone's save for a turn?) Lucimar tries to possess one PC. If they fail the will save, he takes control of them, doing what he wants (even commiting suicide and moving onto the next PC) until they can get to his body or he ends the spell. It is an extremely deadly spell.
At this point in the module, the enemies are doing everything they can (to the point of meta-gaming) to stave off the PCs invasion. The remaining WW forces will most likely take the choke points (honeycomb and the room beyond that splits the dungeon into two paths). Keep in mind that if Lucimar (if he still lives) and The Grey Friar have memorized spells that can be changed to adjust for PC tactics that have been utilized by them throughout the AP. This can include having Mass 'X' spells casts on groups of minions. I had Lucimar use Magic Jar/ Possession to attack them from an extreme distance, and when they closed on his body, minions held the PCs off long enough for him to cancel the spell and retreat. Its sort of up to you as to how easy of a time you think your PCs are having.
Minions I think that would rally around choke points would be all of the Cultists and Cenobites (except the ones in the final room), the Revenants (which can be used to locate resting PCs near Renchurch regardless of most precautions), the Totenmaskes, and Lucimar. The rest would stay in their respective areas.
Hope that helps!
Anyone else notice that 'Book 2s' are always really difficult (Skinsaw Murders, Seven Days to the Grave, House of the Beast, Children of the Void, The Sixfold Trial, Rivers Run Red, Racing to Ruin, Trial of the Beast... these all have spots where parties TPKd) and then book 3 goes really easy?
Yeah, we stopped with experience points right after the Ascanor Lodge part for a few reasons:
1) We had a player leave, which made recalculating everything and what was needed for leveling a bit confusing.
2) I really wanted to include Carrion Hill between modules 3 and 4, which would throw experience points out the window- Do I adjust the last three modules because I simply wanted to add a part that fit the narrative?
3)I have never liked using experience points since I began running Pathfinder, it fosters a certain type of game-style that makes the narrative of secondary importance.
I imagine a PC could clear a 5' patch of corn every round with a scythe, but considering how much of it there is and how deep it goes, its a slightly futile gesture. If anything, it would make the approaching PCs much more visible to the farmstead's denizens, allowing them to coordinate an ambush with greater ease. I mean, clearing your own path seems like a good way to box yourself into a 5' corn tunnel, and anything capable of easily moving through the rows gains the advantage against the lined up PCs. Trust me, a single column of PCs down a narrow hallway is easy to take advantage of. Even if they try and cut down the whole farm, they don't really have time with the trial and what-not. It would take one person several days to clear the entire farm using such a method.
This music
is what I used for Herstag (its really creepy, though I had a sound editor to crop the last half).
However, as new soundtracks for games and movies come out, the choices increase. Might I recommend:
This or
This or
This as alternates if you don't have a sound editor.
Regarding V+G: Honestly, other than inciting the crowd, there's little in public that the duo can directly do to the PCs due to the superstitious nature of Ustalavic folk (even in Lepistatd) and the existence of a society with detection and divination magic available. After all, any investigation into the pair might shed light on the fact that the two are not what they claim to be ("monsters"), an offense that might get them ran out of town if such things were public knowledge, which would probably dissuade them from acting out publicly beyond the confines of what's written, even in disguise. What I would do is have them figure out a way to lure the PCs to their business where the two can murder them with impunity and not worry about any bystanders that might watch and report. If you do want to give them an additional encounter, your above suggestion is a good one; I would attack on them on the road back from Herstag. Since it's after any pre-written encounters, you can add or take away the number of mercenaries to adjust for how resource-depleted your PCs are at that point (its possible one or two might be dead if Brother Swarm gets lucky). Remember that its Ustalav, so if your PCs are having a hard time, you can have a horribly powerful wandering monster attack everyone, starting with the mercenaries.
I did just that, showing an overview map to the players and asking where they wanted to go and how the planned to walk there according to the map's geography. Its pretty easy to set up likely encounter maps based on the trajectories between the various points of interest. Keep in the mind that there's a slight problem with the encounters as written if your PCs explore during the day (who in their right mind explores an abandoned village at night?), the town's inhabitants can't actually engage the party due to their weakness. Keep in mind the following also: single traps or quicksand without anything to capitalize on it makes for irritating time consumers rather than adding anything to the narrative. They are best sprinkled in with other encounters, though I would alert the players to the presence of them before an encounter begins.
Here's a few modifications I ran for my party to address some of the issues I saw in the narrative flow of that part of the module. Hope it helps!
I'm curious as to Starfinder's treatment of Desna; being heavily associated with travel, the outer planes, and the whole star motif would put her as a highly probable catalyst of any creature's ascension into space-faring. Hopefully she's still intact in the setting?
I interpreted it to specifically just include the two spells with Teleport in the title, Teleport and Teleport w/o error. It doesn't say anything about Plane Shift, Astral Projection, Eternalness, or Shadow Walking, so I let those fly.
My PCs did two separate things to rest in and around the monastery grounds. They had cleared out everything on the first floor and decided to leave the grounds altogether, afraid (rightly so) that anything beneath might come up to investigate the noise. This was coupled with the fact that the Whispering Tyrant's haunt doesn't go away while they are within the grounds, so at first it seemed utterly impossible to rest inside. I hinted at the fact that Umbral Dragons (Spawn of Scrivinier V and maybe even that Wyrm herself) haunted the countryside around Renchurch, making it still dangerous to rest anywhere that wasn't a pocket dimension like Rope Trick. They utilized Survial and Stealth to avoid detection, and with the way that I rolled it put them on edge despite the fact that there was no encounter.
Secondly, through divinations and exploration the PCs came to realize that the tomb of St. Vesbius (spelling?) was an area of Renchurch avoided by its residents due to the long walk through the catacombs to get there as well as the room's indiscriminately dangerous haunt. I ruled that since the haunt was linked to a victory for the forces of good, the area was protected from the Tyrant's Whispers. This gave them a second place to rest, but yeah... without some sort of pocket dimension, they won't even get a minute of rest before the haunt unleashes a Summon Monster VI or something else.
As far as the Magic Circle, it works as if the entire area is covered with it, meaning that good summoned creatures (but not called) can't enter the area. I think I changed it in mine for dimensional anchor.
That depends on what edition of Monopoly you're playing. Hmm, maybe we should FAQ that for clarification? I think the designers love abstract math problems.
Oopsacas minuta look very dignified when examined with a laser, but only when they are clean shaven, like Nicholas Cage. Dr. Davalus looks like Nicholas Cage. I don't always trust doctors, but especially not ones that play as one on TV. Does anyone know his favorite drink, besides regret?
Very excited to see this coming out, especially since I helped work on it! Seriously though, having read the module, it has a feeling of Seven Swords of Sin but it's actually fair and really fun. My parts took inspiration from home brew campaigns and Age of Worms, but there's some elemental evil sprinkled in as well. Anyone looking for a solid delve experience should check this out!
Name Numerick
Race/Class Human Oracle (Battle) 7
Adventure Hook Mountain Massacre
Catalyst Crowfood going off script/Scythe Trap/Party Split
Details The party (after a lot of goading to get them to follow Kibb) arrived at the Graul farmstead and proceeded immediately towards the barn. Crowfood decided to hide in the cornfield as they approached and waited for the heroes to engage the boys inside. He then proceeded to use spring attack to jump in and out of the rows, bloodying several party memebers before being taken down to about 1/4 of his HP and fleeing back to the farmhouse. While he entered through the side entrance and hid inside, the heroes cleaned up the remaining ogre-kin and healed themselves. Then, for some reason, Numerick decides to go through the side entrance while everyone else goes through the porch entrance. While they deal with the numerous traps that riddle that way in, Numerick quickly makes his way through the kitchen and goes to open the door to the dining room. When he goes to open the door, he gets hit with the scythe trap and then finds Crowfood hiding directly behind the door. Using that awesome rogue talent Surprise Attack, he gets a full attack on Numerick, dropping him with two sneak-attack empowered swings. Everyone in the other room hears this happen, but by the time they enter the dining room and kitchen, they find only blood streaks from where Numerick's body had been dragged into the basement...
Name Toki Jorgensen
Race/Class Human Barbarian (Unchained) 7
Adventure Hook Mountain Massacre
Catalyst Failing to intimidate Mammy Graul
Details Not willing to potentially back themselves into a corner with little of the farmhouse explored, the heroes decide to clear the first floor before going into the attic or basement (where their companion had been dragged), running straight into Mammy Graul's room. Her zombies blocked the way as she lobbed spell after spell at them. Most of the party was severely injured by the time they closed upon her, with Toki taking the lead into the room. She proved really hard to hurt with Resist Energy and Shield blocking most magical attacks directed at her while Stoneskin absorbed physical damage. Thinking her not physically capable, a very injured Toki decided for some reason that rather than striking a finishing blow upon her decided to try and intimidate her into submission. I think the player's intention was to get her to command her boys inside the house to surrender to the group, but Mammy wasn't having it. She let loose a lightning bolt which finished off Toki before she dimension doored away, into the back of the barn..
Name Mammy Graul
Race/Class OgreKin Necromancer 8
Adventure Hook Mountain Massacre
Catalyst Biggun' the Spider
Details Unaware of the deaths of her boys in the barn, Mammy Graul dimension doored into the barn for help in dealing with the 'heroes' who had invaded her home. Finding her boys dead, she hid in the back of the barn on the catwalk, thinking it a safe place to heal. When the heroes (looking for a defensible place to rest) came barging in, Mammy proceeded to try and use what spells she had left to drive them out. Unfortunately, by this point, her Fly spell had expired and she found herself perched on the area above Biggun's web. Seeing the opportunity, the alchemist of the group used Grease on her area, which caused her to slip and fall... right into Biggun's web. Acting on pure predatory instinct, the massive spider immediately turned from the gnome it was attacking to the thing in its web. Biggun couldn't miss, and despite cries of "Biggun! No!!", the spider had its meal, only to be swiftly killed off by the heroes.
They've done 4+ fights of Maul vs. Kenobi throughout the various Clone Wars episodes. They've done the acrobatic, drawn-out battles. They've done anything I could think of that would have been the alternative to the duel that just happened. That duel was perfect; it was a direct callback to the Kirosawa films that Star Wars is based on. Its a more personal duel because the two of them fight out in their minds before their blades even clash. Watch the fifteen seconds or so before they close as they posture and try to guess the other person's moves. In the end, its a perfect resolution because every move means something- the stances, the sword swings, the expressions. It might just be three moves, but they all are purposeful moves. In the end, you have a swift resolution because that's what the narrative demands; Obi Wan ends the fight quickly because he has to. He doesn't do it with flourish or acrobatics, he's an old man with a purpose who isn't going to take any chances with jeopardizing Luke's future.
As someone playing an Oracle of Ancestors/Harrower with a free daily Commune, I have to say this spell is only as abusable as the DM allows it. Sure, I've done the following on lots of occasions, which seems borderline abusive:
-Is BBEG X creature type? (If no--->)
-Is BBEG Y creature type ...
-Is BBEG X class?
-Can BBEG cast resist energy?
-Does BBEG sleep at nighttime?...
...To the point that I've figured out someone's race, class, powers, magic items, sleeping habits, and typical buffs without ever having seen the person. This makes this spell potentially more abusive than scrying with one stipulation, the DM can always say "Unknown." There is a high level villain in Age of Worms who employs this very tactic against the PCs, divining the group's powers and the best time to attack them.
Great find sir! Its like the Davey Jones theme from the Pirates movie but not as immediately recognizable.
For a lot of the action in the final two chapters, I used 'Metalized" version of a lot of music from the Castlevania games.
Here's one of my favorites. (Ripe Seeds), and another REALLY good one is right here. (Cross Your Heart)
This came up in a fight against ghouls the other night, and while I ruled in the player's favor, it sparked a number of interesting questions that I couldn't find an answer to as written, so here's the example:
A ghoul moves up to a PC, strikes him, and the PC fails its fortitude save against its attack, enabling the ghoul's paralysis. As the 1d4+1 rounds is rolled, does:
A) the PC know how long to the exact round that he is paralyzed,
B) does the ghoul know the duration of its paralysis effect and,
C) does anyone else present (other ghouls or PCs) know this as well?
Obviously, this knowledge would likely affect the course of actions for both PC and the ghoul. For example, if the ghoul knew it only had 1 round before a highly dangerous combatant returned, it might be more inclined to coup-de-grace that individual than to attempt to paralyze others, where in a PC's case, he might neglect casting Remove Paralysis on his ally if he knew that he was about to un-paralyze. Also, does intelligence or any mental acuity play into the ability to deduce this? (would an iron golem 'know' that its breath is about to come back?).
Another example: A red dragon breathes on a group of PCs. Its recharge for the breath weapon is rolled, and it comes up 1 on the d4. Does either the red dragon or the PCs know the amount of time between breaths? Again, this knowledge would readily change tactics of both the PCs and the dragon.
Thoughts? I can't seem to find anything written supporting either.
The party opened the chapel doors, unleashing the flying, baying menaces from within. Half the party got split up by their fearful howling, nearly triggering two additional encounters with the tentamort and Bruzathamus. Meanwhile, the bear bravely held the chokepoint, but the yeth hounds couldn't miss, rolled nearly max damage on their bites, and even tripped the very-hard-to-trip bear, finishing him off as he rose back up from attacks of opportunity.
I had to pull a couple punches with this one; the goblin ghasts managed to paralyze four out of five PCs, including the animal companion. We had a very interesting discussion about whether or not the monsters or their victims knew how long their paralysis lasted for(in rounds)and how this knowledge would affect monster tactics (there's nothing written supporting either view). In the PCs favor, the ghasts decided to focus on the bear, being on especially strict orders not to harm Foxglove's obsession. The paralyzed bear's throat was torn, fortunately buying time for another PC to un-paralyze and form a protective unit on those still frozen. A dicey fight to be sure.
Xanesha confounded the party with her various illusions, wasting some of their resources and buying her time to put herself as close as possible to the perceived spellcasters. She finally revealed herself, making good on her vital strike, sneak attack, and high defenses to injure the druid. She utilized the medusa mask to turn the gnome sorcerer to stone (He lived, but she did this to him right next to the edge of the tower and would have killed him next if not for some really lucky hits by the parry) Marrek and his animal companion Bherstein III moved to flank Xanesha and shifted into Huge Bear form in a display of power. Seeing the biggest threat before her (that included a raging, enlarged barbarian), she focused the Impaler of Thorns on the huge druid and struck him easily, critically hitting him on the second hit, dropping him to the negatives. The Alchemist was able to bring him back to consciousness with healing, giving him a turn of actions. Marrek healed himself with a cure spell, rolling a little below average, then attempted to stand up. When he did, she took her attack of opportunity and critically hit, doing more than enough damage to impale him through the heart. He was avenged by Bherstein III, who got the finishing blow on Xanesha.
Just posted on the product page. Kalindlara, I used a lot of your suggestions for haunts created after the death of living enemies to help diversify the number of effects the party encountered (they made three forays into Renchurch). Thanks for feedback!
After about four years of playing this adventure path (we alternate with Kingmaker, which we are in Book 6 of also), we have completed Brandon Hodge's excellent module Shadows of Gallowspire and the Carrion Crown adventure path. Since I have reviewed each module individually thus far, I will do the same with this one then move onto my overall thoughts about the adventure path and how it stacks against the others I have played in or ran (Age of Worms, Savage Tide, Rise of the Runelords, Legacy of Fire, Council of Thieves, Kingmaker). It should be noted that my PCs had two Mythic Tiers at the beginning of the module but lost them right before Adorak, affecting how I built some of the encounters, haunts, and other things that I added or changed. Nonetheless, the stuff that I critique mechanically or thematically has little bearing overall on power level affected by these tiers; my biggest problem with the module in terms of power level was the presence of normal spells from the Core RuleBook.
WHAT WAS LIKED
Renchurch as a locale:
We all loved everything about Renchurch, from the history, to most of its denizens, to its various mechanical effects in the game. The numerous haunts were cool, especially for the level they are encountered; they still felt like a credible enough threat that the PCs had to treat the place with the same respect as they would any other haunted place. I absolutely loved the fact that any living creature that dies there becomes a haunt of itself; this let me get extremely creative with reflecting the manner in which my PCs killed some of the enemies. Also, getting one's soul trapped within the walls beyond the prospect of raising kept a imminent threat that kept the PCs on their toes. However, the best thing of all was the Tyrant's Whispers haunt, the ability for the DM every ten rounds to go completely creative with whatever spell or effect adds to the horror of the place. While admittedly I used the haunt to try and dispel my group's buffs numerous times, there were lot of other effects that I utilized as well that added to the ambiance of the place.
Good bad guy roster:
There's a fair amount of interesting enemies the PCs face, and for the most part, they all make sense contextually. We really loved Nathalazar, Lucimar, Marrowgarth, and some of the other named enemies; they all had cool backstory and made for some interesting fights. While there's inherent problems with Adivion due to the nature of the path and its lack of written buildup, even he can be fixed with enough foreshadowing and creative DMing. Overall, most of the written-up enemies were worth their word count. While I had problems with some of the inserted enemies due to spell interactions, this occurred less than half of the time and there weren't too many fights that felt like a waste of game time.
Some addressing of high level play:
Another thing that really worked well was the addressing of some of the tricks of high level play that PCs use. PCs cannot necessarily wind walk directly to their destinations nor can they teleport due to the nature of Virlych. The soul trapping ability of Renchurch stops attempts at raising the dead and escaping the area is a tricky proposition with the presence of the Witchgates. These are all really good ways to keep the standard tactics that high level characters employ in check.. mostly. There are a few spells that I wish had been addressed with equal measure (see below)
Flavor country:
Overall, the description of every location in Virlych including the country itself was rich, full of flavor and background. Mr. Hodge did a great job of instilling a sense of ancient dread lurking beneath the surface at all times. The descriptiveness of Adorak will be well remembered.
WHAT WAS DISLIKED
Freedom of Movement/Death Ward/Pro Evil/ Disrupting Weapon ruining the fun:
I must admit that this was due to one of the PCs being an Oracle and able to constantly spam such spells, but buying wands would achieve the same effect for most parties; the constant spamming of these spells made for some really boring fights. Other than Disrupting Weapon, all these spells have a decent duration (at 1/minute per CL, and PCs being 13-15, a minimum of 13 minutes) that can be stretched through an entire run-through of a dungeon. Each of these spells and their interactions with certain monsters are just offensive in terms of what they do to the story narrative, especially in a horror themed game. Let's examine each of them and why they're so bad.
-Death Ward: This one absolutely drives me bonkers, to the point that I changed a feature of Renchurch to at least make the final fights more memorable. Its either blanket immunity to certain monsters, or you gamble with dying from negative energy, ability damage, or other bad effects. It totally shuts down Shadows, completely hampers anyone channeling negative energy (Cenobites, Nightshades, Grey Friar) and hinders anything that utilizes that energy as an attack (Banshee, Devourers, Vampires, Marrowgarth and a host of other undead). Some of these fights might as well not be ran if the monsters don't have a way to remove the protection, and for those that can, it turns into a game of whether or not the monster can waste an action to dispel the protection or use one of its awesome abilities instead. I think there were at least 3 fights where instead of doing something cool, (especially when cinematicly appropriate), the monster was forced to dispel a PC, often to simply have the spell recast the next turn. Doing this is a death sentence for any singular foes the PCs might face.
-Freedom of Movement: While Death Ward can be maintained throughout a dungeon to some extent (healing and other activities can eat up some duration time on min/level spells), Freedom of Movement at high level is one of those spells that's always on every PC; I mean, you'd be stupid to not have this spell up at all times of adventuring since what it stops from happening is ridiculously powerful. I can't think of anything in the 5th-7th level range that even comes close to what this spell does. In a lot of ways, Freedom of Movement is ten times worse in terms of what it shuts down, turning a lot of interesting and awesome creatures into simple melee monsters incapable of achieving what they are thematically designed to do, especially in the context of horror. In terms of this module, it severely hampers, if not shutting down outright the following encounters: all mummies, mohrgs, ghouls, liches, leng spider, the omox, some of the haunts, revenants, quickwoods, the Adorak sinkholes.
Protection from Evil: While the amount of things it stops pales compared to Death Ward, it still is powerful enough (especially for a 1st-level spell) that I can't think of a reason somebody wouldn't have this on them at all times. Stopping possession and domination outright without even a check to remove said protection is pretty darned good. While we're mainly talking about the vampire and the ghosts, anything that gives blanket immunity to any effect really bugs me.
Disrupting Weapon: For not having a lot of save-or-die effects in the game system itself, this one sure wrecks that rule, even if it is against one type of creature that most PCs will never play as. Think about how powerful this is if it worked the other way; every time someone gets scratched with said weapon, they could just turn to ash. Such a spell (if it worked on the living) would be outlawed in every good-aligned community in the world. There is no other version of this spell that effects other creature types ,so why do undead get all the hate? In my opinion, this helped speed up some fights, but definitely took the threat level out of others. I think I rolled Adivion's saves in secret because having him die to the first hit from a weapon seemed super-anticlimatic. Keep in mind I'm not talking about Raven's Head but the actual spell, with the adjusted DC of our group's oracle (DC 24).
High level Bog-Down:
While not always true, high level play is just slower. More numbers, more player options, more possible actions, and more spells added together means a lot more game time per encounter. With this in mind, a DM needs to assess each and every encounter and decide "Is this worth the limited game time we have to run, and if not, should it be substituted or skipped? Does it add to the story, does it deplete resources, and does it have any actual threat level to the party?" This is absolutely true of high level play, which is why that while I hated what disrupting weapon did sometimes, it was good for speeding up boring fights. I broke down the encounters below that worked well for us and those that didn't.
Repeated Save or Die: I guess this balances out disrupting weapon, but there sure are a lot of haunts that just try and flat-out kill you, I think at least 3. I get that Renchurch and Adorak are dangerous places, but I thought that haunts rarely duplicate save-or-die effects. While PCs should have at least a scroll of Resurrection at this point, dying to a haunt and then having one's soul trapped beyond raising seems likely a really disruptive way to end a group's foray into Renchurch, especially since you can't teleport away to acquire such a scroll if you don't have it. I wish those specific haunts had done something cooler than outright kill with an effect. If you're gonna kill someone with a haunt, it should be done with as much horrible flourish as possible (Skinsaw Murders) to give their death greater impact. As it is, it just feels like random death (Roll a save! Fail? You're Dead!).
End guy
As I said above, at high level your job as a DM is encounter assessment; as I looked over Adivion's stats and compared him to my PCs' stats, I saw a fight that would last less time than some the random fights on the way to Adorak, even with the presence of Nightwings. Narratively, I wanted something more than what was provided, especially for the end fight of the campaign. Had their not been a plethora of printed material on these forums with alternate versions of Adivion, I would have devised something myself. The final fight went really well, with pretty much every spell, ability, and harrow card used to deal with Adivion and his two forms (forsaken lich, then ghost empowered by Tyrant). To make it memorable I recommend the following:
-Involve AA as much as possible in the campaign before this module so he has impact and meaning as a final enemy.
-Utilize extra monlogue as the players ascend the tower, such as what Zhangar did here.
-Work in whatever stats will provide the most climatic fight for your party. I used a version of him from the boards here that I reworked slightly to suit my group.
-GOOD ENCOUNTERS-
Linnorn: Hagmouth is a good opener to the module; he's a unqiue menace with an awesome backstory. He's also slightly unexpected, meaning he has a chance to make use of his breath weapon and formidable attack array before the heroes can buff themselves beyond the reach of such threats. Its also worth noting that his death curse can have dire repercussions on anyone going into the coming fights, especially the Witchfires at the next gate.
Banshee: This one's interesting for a few reasons. Its entirely possible that the PCs don't know that they're about to appear at Renchurch if they're teleporting (its not like there's a map showing how the Witchgates connect), meaning there's a good chance that the PCs won't have Death Ward up when the Banshee attacks. In my opinion, the banshee is a poorly designed monster (high level creature stopped by a single low-level spell commonly used with no way to remove said spell), so this setup at least gives her a chance to be effective, and death ward doesn't stop the wail, just gives a bonus against it.
Svoak and the Trees: At high level play, these are the fights that seem to work the best; a trio of opponents at a CR a few levels lower than the PCs, all with inter-meshing abilities that work together well, making the fight like a puzzle that the players have to dissect. While the DCs on the trees abilities weren't super high (and FoM again nerfed some abilities), the combination of ranged abilities with a beefy melee monster made for a good fight. It should be noted that I gave Svoac the divine guardian template and one fighter level so he could use the favored weapon of the goddess that the site he's protecting is dedicated to.
Revenants: Yeah, between their Reason to Hate, Advanced, and Shrine blessed gifts, these guys stats pile up into a very credible threat against their higher level murderers. Coupling near guaranteed attacks with the flavor of showcasing the bloody history of the PCs (I kept track as best I could of which PC had killed which Revenant) made for a really memorable fight.
Totenmaske: Its the monster's abilities that can sometimes make a fight really interesting or really boring. In this case, I used the undead creatures' fleshdrinking ability to have all sorts of decoys and confusion during the various battles, from having a fake Lucimar to a trio of attacking Kendras. It made for some interesting fights, especially when they joined an already occurring one.
Lucimar: Perfect design on this guy as far as a hit and run opponent. I think my group of PCs encountered him four times over the course of the dungeon before he was finally cornered in the room with the Urgathoan fly. Of course, I couldn't help myself and decided to tweak him into an Arcanist to give him more hit and run options, but I think the stats presented would have done just fine, provided my group wasn't Mythic.
Nathalazar: Cool flavor, good abilities, and great support to block for him. Overall, the contents of the room and the powers of the monsters made for a really good fight, especially with consideration to the unusual nature of the opponents. When opponents have multiple options for dealing with the PCs, it makes for a good battle everytime.
Urgathoan Fly: Unlike the Stone Golems (see below) this one really shines for some reason. Maybe its the flavor, the illustration, or the dual purpose as a brazen bull that makes the fly so creepily awesome. This thing got to do a lot of damage, especially when coupled with the Cenobites and the spellcasting threat they possess. A solid fight.
Marrogarth: I must admit that even though this fight lasted five rounds, it was awesome. Marrowgarth was able to use the sinkhole smash, his breath weapon, and his devastating full attack routine to put my PCS on the ropes. HPs swung back and forth, Heal was cast three times, and he even retreated to his lair to recharge his soul energy, only to be chased down and finished off.
Nightshades: Everytime one of these guys hit the table, it was a fight worth remembering. Unlike some of their undead equivalent CR, the Nightshades all possess devastating attacks, powerful summons, and the ability to dispel magic. Every nightshade is worth its salt in terms of actual challenge rating and what it brings to the table. I wish there were more...
Knights of Ozem: A solid role-playing encounter for my group, especially with a vampire PC that had to convince the paladins he wasn't dominating the other party members. There were a few tense moments here, especially when the voice of the possessing demon chimed in on the matter. I ended up swapping the daemon for a seraptis demon since my PCs possessed Mythic tiers still and I needed to up the threat level.
Lake mummies: So paralysis and mummy rot just weren't going to happen to my group (high saves and Freedom of Movement), but man, these guys hit like tanks. Since I ran the banshee fight as a continuous assault all the way up to the doors of the cathedral (incorporating the mummies, the barbed devil's substitute, and Svoac and the trees), these guys were able to pile on some damage before they could be dealt with. Their advanced statistics insure they are capable of that. I imagine that a group without Freedom of Movement might have a problem against their paralysis, but I don't know of anyone who would do that. I mean, that spell is really that good.
Witchfires: The key here is to use absolutely every ability they have, as detailed in their tactics section and then some. I had a number of charmed giants and zombie giants under their control, using veil to disguise them and the weird weather to further assault the PCs. The witchfires got pretty close to taking down one PC before they were wiped out by Disrupting Weapon. Still, a fun, flavorful fight.
Cenobites: Solid, they possess variety of spells and abilities to provide a credible threat to my players. My favorite trick was to try and take control of the PC vampire with their channeling, which one actually succeeded at before getting dusted by disrupting weapon. With a few save-or-sucks, the ability to dispel and capability of going into melee combined with the numerous immunities conferred by their templates made them worth running, despite the fact that I figured they would be speed bumps.
-ENCOUNTERS THAT WERE BORING OR FELT LIKE FILLER-
Bodaks: Death Ward turned them into melee monsters barely worth remembering.
Shadows: I mean, can they sense that the whole party has death ward and that they should just hide?? Or do they pop out, try touching the PCs, then get wiped? A prime example of a spell robbing a monster of its agency. Yet if you fight them without said spell, its a TPK waiting to happen. I love and hate shadows.
Stone Golems: Unfortunately, some of the old tricks my players are familiar with (grease, create pit) work just as well on these golems as they do on their lower -level counterparts. I ran with it because I figured it would eat up resources. It didn't; it simply ate up game time. In hindsight, I think making one of their slams x4 and slashing to reflect their scythes would make the fight a little more interesting.
Invisible Stalkers and Mummies: I get the flavor of this room, but the threat just isn't there. Between StoneSkin and Freedom of Movement, these guys could do absolutely nothing to my party. It got interesting for a moment when a Tyrant's Whispers dispelled a couple of those buffs, but the threat of the monster's DCs and attack bonuses versus the statistics of my party made it into a game of fishing for 20s or hoping the PCs roll a 1.
Ghost Teachers: This encounter needs something else to it. As it is, it just feels like you're fighting a pair of wizards who happen to be incorporeal; the two of them have very few effects that make them memorable as ghosts. Possession is pretty standard fair at this point (as is Protection from Evil); I would have liked to have seen more unique effects from them like imparting dread knowledge, attacking with spectral barrages of scrolls, or trapping PCs in desks. As it is, the two of them at best can hope to focus on a single PC with their spells and hope they get unlucky.
Gallowdead: I LOVE the flavor of these guys, but really wish they could do more. The chains of the dead ability shouldn't require a standard action for a CR 13+ creature, especially with its limited range, its reliance on negative energy (Death Ward), and its inferior damage output for its challenge rating (compared to its melee routine). I feel like these guys are a pale imitation of the Swords of Kyuss; I really wanted an awesomely unique undead specific to Adorak and Gallowspire, and while they deliver in some ways, they weren't exactly what I wanted when they actually performed. One or even two of these guys do not have the action economy to stand up to a group of 13th level PCs dedicated to killing undead.
Worm that Walks: Even swapping her stats up a bit (to reflect a previously defeated opponent), this fight was a bit of a letdown; I wanted it to be more but at the end of the day, the worm that walks is only as good as its spells. I utilized some of her damage dealing spells then went anti-magic field on the party, but even an anti-magicked fighter can get some serious damage beyond her damage reduction with two handed power attacking, forcing her to drop it in favor of healing. A singular opponent against a group of PCs is never going to do well, and this was most certainly the case.
FIGHTS THAT I CHANGED OR ALTERED AND WHY
There were a few encounters I swapped out to either fit either the flavor of my campaign or its power level. Some of those stat blocks (including mythic stat-blocks for Hagmouth and The Grey Friar) can be found here.
Barbed Devil: (Shining Child) The occupants of Renchurch know that the PCs are coming and they also have the power to at least cast Greater Planar Binding (Qlippoth). Since one of my PCs is a vampire, I thought it'd be fun to have something that could actually kill him and so replaced the Barbed Devil with a Shining Child. While the vampire had nearly been misted a couple of times, nothing really provided his character with a tangible threat up to this point. This gave the vampire pause and also informed my characters that their enemies probably knew their capabilities quite well at this point.
Ghouls/ Cultists: (Stat change) For the corpulent ghouls, I changed their rogue levels for brawler levels, giving them a bit more flexibility when dealing with my PCs and whatever buffs they may or may not possess. The monk cultists became arcanists for a better way to harry my group of PCs (increase raw damage and the capability of dispelling).
Mohrgs: (Location swap/Festering Spirit) In the Mohrg's location, I placed more cultists, then replaced another area that had cultists with Glutton Spectres (variant Festering Spirits), omitting the Mohrgs entirely. Mohrgs supposably can't control their murderous urges so I found their placement with other living allies strange. Furthermore, they are stopped handily by a readily available buff (Freedom of Movement), so I knew that a fight against them would just eat up time rather than hit points, let alone create any threat or tension.
Vampire: (Mythic Glabrezu) Again, her placement and is a bit odd; I imagine she's meant to be used as a hit and run assailant with her spells, but most of those would prove ineffective against my PCs. Instead, I had the encounter be a diplomatic one, one with a Mythic Glabrezu from Wrath of the Righteous visiting Renchurch to observe the potentially momentous events occurring. This is sort of a mirror of something that happens in that AP, where an undead emissary from Ustalav comes to observe the events taking place, not necessarily to fight the PCs. I used her as a way to drop information the PCs needed concerning their targets.
Omox and Mihstu: (Hellwasp Swarms)I looked extensively at the statistics for the Mihstu but didn't think they stood much of a chance against my group. Since Urgathoa was quite prominent in her role within Renchurch, I though a monstrous callback to her would be more appropriate. I kept the Omox intact but swapped each Mihstu for a Hellwasp Swarm, changing the makeup from wasps into black flies. Everytime one got released, I had it join with any swarms present, having the mass of flies begin to form into a face. My players inferred that if all the swarms were to join together it would have done something... which made me go "Yeah, it totally would have summoned Urgathoa's herald!" (I hadn't planned on that, but sometimes you can't ignore a really cool idea.)
Mirror of Life Trapping: (affects undead) I altered the power of the mirror slightly to allow it to capture undead as well as living creatures. This let me pull a nasty trick by having a Totenmaske that looked like Kendra inside the mirror, making the PCs more likely to shatter it. Also, I put a Glabrezu inside the mirror for added fun.
Qlippoth: (Advanced, feat swap) I altered to Qlippoth into an advanced version of itself, an Augnagur Qlippoth on the verge of apotheosis into a Thulgaunt. Besides the advanced template, I gave it dimension door 7 times per day and swapped some of its feats for the dimensional assault tree. This made for a fairly memorable fight as the thing warped around the room and was able to use the terrain to its advantage.
Leng Spider: (Nightskitters)I get that the barriers between worlds are supposed to be thin at Gallowspire, etc; Why wouldn't any and all undead within the tower just pounce upon this thing and drain its life energy? As it is, it has no protection against the numerous undead threats within the tower and isn't necessarily aligned in goals with the residents.. its just sort of there. I removed it and added two Nightskitters (Undead Revisited) to fit thematically and up the challenge rating. While this did up the number of Nightshade encounters in Gallowspire to 3, each of those fights was interesting in of itself.
Devourers: (Gallowdead) Not a fan of these guys mechanically. Some monsters got really nerfed when they crossed over to Pathfinder, and the reasons behind that nerfing make sense; but the removal of the 'save-or-die' mechanic from Devourers (and Bodaks to a lesser extent) really took the scare out of them. As it is, Death Ward nullifies too many of their abilities, turning them into sub-par spellcasters with an unimpressive slam attack. I swapped them out for Gallowdead, placing them here rather than inside the tower structure. It made more sense for them to wrestle free from their chains and launch themselves at the PCs outside the tower rather than inside.
The Grey Friar (Mythic)This guys has really solid stats, I just wanted to give him mythic to counter my PCs abilities. Oh, I also had two Forsaken Liches at his side to foreshadow Adivion's fate in the final battle.
Adivion Adrissant I utilized the Wizard/Fighter/ Arcane Duelist build of Magnuskn found here, with a couple variations to account for my party build on the first phase, and a host of completely different ghost abilities for his second phase, ending after the 'conjoined spirits of Adivion and Tar-Baphon' were destroyed. I didn't do a third phase since it took everything my PCs had left to take him down, with a couple of PCs going down during the fight. It took about 12 rounds total, which is good in the high level game of rocket tag.
OTHER CHANGES
Kendra as Tar Baphon's Vessel
As has been written about on the numerous threads within, Kendra makes a better choice as Tar Baphon's vessel, especially if the PCs can tie this thread to other story elements in the previous modules, specifically with regards to any interactions with Adivion Adrissant.
-A Vampire PC-
As per some of the suggestions in the prior module, I allowed our Dhampir PC to become a full vampire at the end of Ashes at Dawn, realizing that his power level would be about a match with the mythic tiers the PCs already possessed. I ended up removing the vampire's mythic tiers to keep him in balance with the others and for story reasons as well (Desna was the source of the PCs mythic power and the vampire could no longer dream). This made for some interesting fights and encounters (specifically the Knights of Ozem and anyone with the Command Undead feat). Furthermore, since most of the PCs usually walked around with Death Ward, his negative energy affinity didn't really make a difference in most fights. Also, the moments after the final fight were really awesome as the spirit of the Tyrant tried to get the vampire to take his power, which said vampire resisted.
-Mythic PCs- (Mindscape)
I introduced mythic during the final fight of module 4, giving the PCs one mythic tier and a second one at the end of module 5. Originally, this was done to allow me more customization with the bad guys to counter the incredible synergy possessed by my party and also to give further backstory concerning the Dhampir PC. While I kept this intact throughout most of the module, I decided that it would turn the final fights into rocket tag, and decided to remove mythic tiers right before Adorak. I did this by having the PCs mythic power used to suppress the dreams of the whispering Tyrant while they were in Adorak, which I had function as a Mindscape, the details of which can be found here . Nonetheless, I had a few mythic enemies to challenge the PCs as detailed above, which made for pretty good fights.
-Scrying and frying with liches- (Phylactery room)
To start the module off with a bang, I had Nathalazar and two other liches (including the one reforming in the phylactery room) scry and fry my group of PCs, having acquired some of the vampire PCs blood through various dealings. I changed the nature of the Phylactery room of Renchurch to empower undead rejuvenation, minimizing the number of days it would take for any undead that can rejuvenate itself if its source of essence (phylactery) was stored within that room. This let me do a couple of things; I had a solid force capable of kidnapping Kendra and I could harry the PCs every day until they could get to Renchurch and deal with them. I called this a side effect of the power of the negative energy well.
-The negative energy well (Renchurch, Age of Worms callback)
Death Ward was getting really annoying, to the point that I saw it completely destroying the mood, theme, and tension of the final fights within Renchurch. I wanted the last fight against the Grey Friar and the rescue of Kendra to be special, so I had the negative energy well within the building's last room be empowered. There is something similar in the final module of
Age of Worms:
, within Lashonna's dungeon where there is also a portal to the negative energy plane
. I had something like that where on the lowest level of Renchurch, undead got Fast Healing 20 and living creatures took double the amount of all listed effects from negative energy including level drain. Death Ward would basically be suppressed as it would reduce the amount of damage to normal but not negate it entirely. This made the final fight against the Grey Friar a lot more tense and memorable since negative energy could actually be used (and channel smite is one of the GF's main things).
-Keyboard room in Renchurch- (It's Good Enough For Me? Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah..)
I can't help putting callbacks to certain movies when thematically it absolutely fits, and in this case, it's The Goonies. I had the keyboard be one of the few ways to open the path ahead in the room, needing 3 DC 25 Perform checks to unlock the door, with a failure forcing a save against Crushing Despair. Besides this unlocking the door, I then had the keyboard reveal a secret compartment with a second musical sheet. Playing this required 2 DC 35 perform checks, with failure causing the keyboard to produce a Wail of the Banshee effect. This unlocked another secret compartment that contained a number of magical musical sheets (Scrolls for the Bard PC since there wasn't really a lot of treasure for her) as well as the phlactery of the Lich Bard that's originally in the phylactery room. I had the lich able to telepathically bargain for its life with the bard (which worked since it was able to impart knowledge about what was in the complex and weaknesses of some of their enemies) and made for interesting role-playing considering the makeup of the PC (dirgesinger bard) and the backstory of the lich himself. In the end, she kept the phylactery and moved on after the campaign to pursue forbidden music.
FINAL THOUGHTS ON MODULE:
For the word count, the writer does a good job presenting a decent high level romp within a uniquely dangerous environment that contains numerous flavorful enemies. The locations of Renchurch and Gallowspire were well detailed and a blast to run through. My only criticisms are leveled at the obvious, the lack of development of the end character and the difficulties presented by the interactions of certain spells and certain monsters.
FINAL THOUGHTS ON THE CARRION CROWN ADVENTURE PATH:
While individually the modules are strong, there is a lot of work for DMs trying to tie the adventure into one cohesive path that is something more than the monster of the week coupled with a "we go here next because.. bad guys" linear plot-line. There was no one like Vanthus Vanderborn, Lashonna, Queen Ileosa, the Skinsaw Man or any other bad guys that really struck a memorable cord. The enemies, while all well crafted with decent backstories, just sort of show up and then die rather ran having continuity through the campaign. Adventure Paths beyond this one seemed to fix this problem, but I wished that some of the enemies spanned multiple encounters, let alone modules. Even foreshadowing some of them, most of the time the bad guys wouldn't have any history with the PCs and therefore not a lot of context to make the fight as meaningful as it could be. The modules also seem to forget at times that the PCs are aware that they are in an undead heavy adventure path, so the presence of certain spells and abilities can take a lot of excitement out of it. I get that it is all supposed to be balanced for a group of four PCs with little experience, but once you figure out what works, its hard to go back to other tactics, and the spells that are mentioned in the review destroy this and the previous module. Heck, I had problems with Freedom of Movement all the way back in the fourth module, forcing me to add Mythic to at least give the monsters some agency. It is afterall, a horror path, and should be about how horrific the monster is, not how it ineffectually tries to grab you but can't because... magic.
Also, I made a lot of additions to my campaign over the time I ran it. All of my extra material can be found here
Hope this review and everything else there helps anyone else running this AP!
I just ran this fight two days ago; Mal wrecked our party. I've never seen so many blink rolls go so unfavorably, but in short, Mal couldn't miss and they couldn't hit him. There were a number of rolls that would've been critical hits by the party, only to be stopped by blink. That fight took 10 rounds, with two downed PCs. They had no idea that they could've range-attacked him to death. If not for blink, the fight would've been over in 3 rounds. It definitely shows the high variance that occurs from table to table.
I played the cultists up as dim-witted followers of traditions that they had never bothered to question, making some of them even pleasant to a degree despite the overwhelming need for them to satiate themselves on their demonic religion and sacrifice the un-believers to the drowned one. It created enough of a morally dubious quandary within the game (if a person does something evil out of ignorance, does that make them evil, etc.) that my players decided not to go the route other groups have gone (murder-fest). Its important in my opinion to make the people of Illmarsh as human as possible- that way when the wrongness of what happens to them occurs (color-bleached woman) it makes it all the more grounded in reality and thus horrifying.
No Problem!
They are going ready to fight Marrowgarth tomorrow and then its upward through Gallowspire to the final fight. I have yet to formulate what version of the BBEG I am exactly using, but it will probably incorporate the Whispering Tyrant at various stages. After 4 years of playing we're finally nearing the end...
So, I am nearing the end-game of Carrion Crown as my group has wiped out Renchurch and rescued its kidnapped prisoner to begin marching on Gallowspire. Having ran the Tyrant's Whispers haunt for nearly 7 sessions (using around 20 different effects from unwilling dimension door-ing to simple dispels), I knew I needed something different to represent the growing power and closeness of Tar-Baphon's mind as they neared Gallowspire. I had been looking heavily at Occult Adventures and was especially fascinated by the concept of a Mindscape as a projection of a powerful individual's dreams, sort of like Silvanesti in DragonLance's Dragons of Winter Twilight. I also wanted a way to get rid of my player's mythic power before they faced the very last part of the campaign.
Reasons:
I gave my players Mythic power at the end of Wake of the Watcher to help me balance the monsters that I had upgraded to combat the increasing number of blanket immunity spells my PCs employ (Death Ward, Freedom of Movement, and Protection from Evil), making the fights more interesting. Unfortunately, the higher level they got, the more the force multiplier of Mythic made each fight into rocket tag for both sides, so I wanted a reason for their Mythic power to be used up. IMC, since it was originally Desna who gave them Mythic power to combat the manifestation of Shubb-Niggurath, I decided it would ultimately be her who would take it back, ultimately to save the PCs from the waking dreams of the Tyrant (one of her profiles is dreams).
Below is the descriptions for an 8-stage dream that reflects some of the thoughts and fears of the Whispering Tyrant, slightly coupled with that of the module's main villain to represent the closeness of their minds. It follows some of the rules for mindscapes:
-Every character gains a pool of MP (manifestation points, or dream points) equal to their HD+ the average of their intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores. These points are used to affect the dream sequence that takes place.
-Every character may spend a number of MP equal either to 1/4 of their HD or their highest spell-level. Typically this will be once a 'round' within the sequence.
-Any of the following can be used to fuel additional MP at a cost of 2 points spent: arcane, grit, ki, panache, and phrenic. Treat this as an additional pool of MP for the player.
-Keep in mind that I do not have any psychic classes in my group with access to spells that can affect such things as dreamscapes, so its possible that PCs that did have access to such spells and abilities might want to play out or alter the visions differently than scripted. Let them, but remember that these dreams are being backed by someone with the ego, power, and spellcraft to annihilate anyone who tries to directly brush his mind.
The players emerge into the dreamscape as they start to close in on Adorak but before they encounter Marrowgarth. With my group, I had it happen right as they entered the outskirts of the city. After the first sequence, the PCs are wholly in the mindscape with the exception of creatures immune to mind-affecting effects (such as the vampire PC in my party). For them, they get to guard their friends' helpless bodies against ever increasing hordes of skeletons that are just drawn up by the presence of the living (Adorak is like that.). This can be drawn out or shortened to increase the dramatic tension, but I basically spaced it out like this for my group (with number of rounds between): 1 skeleton.. (4 rounds), 4 skeletons (2 rounds), 6 skeletons (2 rounds), 12 skeletons (10 rounds after all of the last ones are destroyed), 16 skeletons (1 round). I chose skeletons because of the minor threat of coup-de grace (a fortitude save of 10+2d4+4 averages about 21, which is easy for most 14th-level PCs) coupled with ease of destruction. Obviously I would run no skeletons if the group had no fail-safe while they were in the mindscape; the above is optional to keep any players not in the mindscape engaged. The sequences in order are listed below. The first one starts out with the PC's deaths. Be sure to alert any PCs not in the mindscape of what is happening and have them play along with their on-screen deaths in the first vision.
1)Orc Slaughter:
-Call for Perception checks, as if for surprise against a DC of 35. No matter the result, read the following below:
"The torn landscape somehow seems different. There might be more trees that somehow look newer and healthier, as if untouched by the supernatural ravages that plague this fell country. As you look again, you see plumes of smoke drifting above the treeline, hear the distant shouts of a brutish language (Orc- "Kill them all! etc.") and smell the scent of burning flesh. A confused murmuring behind you alerts you to the presence of a huddle of frightened, unarmed humans that stare agape at the dozens of massive orcs that burst through the treeline ahead of you, staring you down with sadistic malice."
Roll for initiative, assuming the dream has a +15 (if asked explain 'improved init, trait bonus, spell, dex bonus, magic item bonus and move on as quick as possible. since players are going to "die", this might rankle some until they figure out whats going on and numeric reasons might be asked for) The dream orcs are 'buffed' to the gills. There are 16 of them and try to systematically kill off the PCs one of by. The numbers are stacked as such a way (CR 21) that it should be possible. Assume that they are all rangers (12th level) with favored enemy, bloodrager and bardic buffs, spells,etc. to get their damage and attack:(Bow) +31/+31/+26/+21 6d6 +20 (bane+gravity+holy/unholy). The point is to have the numbers seem real enough that the 'where did all of this come from' factor is displaced by the threat of death. Even something clever done to survive (putting up a wall of force, teleporting away, burrowing as a wild-shaped elemental), results in an almost dream-like worst case scenario (wall disintegrated, teleport blocked or followed, stone to mud or move earth, etc.). Once everyone's dead, have them make will saves against a DC of 30, duplicating the spell phantasmal killer. Before announcing that anyone fails, (which some should), inform them that they feel "an inner reserve of willpower-giving strength that you feel can be used to escape the terror before you". Explain their dream pool (MP) and the number they can spend. Each one spent in this case adds +1d6 to their Will saving throw. When this is resolved read to the mindscaped PCs, " As your bodies go numb from the phantom death blows suffered, the villagers behind you are in turn slaughtered. Your attention is finally affixed to a pasty-faced boy with eyes like a faded moon, eyes that peer from beneath a bloodstained cart surrounded by bodies. As he stares out, he suddenly seems to age before you into an adolescent. Even as your bodies lay prone as all this happen, you see your view rise up from them as they being to meld into the landscape and you get a nagging sense of forgetting where they went, like the minor detail of a half-remembered conversation from a dream.." Inform any conscious PCs that their friends have dropped prone and let the skeleton party commence.
2)Classroom:
"The trees begin to grow and close in, as if everything were drawing in on itself. They thicken, becoming wooden supports for the interior of a building that encompasses you as the stumps and rocks warps into desks and chairs, their shadows forming into the adolescent occupants of a classroom. A familiar adolescent sits in one of the desks, drifting in and out of a discussion, even as the class laughs at the teacher's jokes. As glows of adoration settle over the teacher from his progeny, a sudden explosion rocks the area and a mass of wall topples onto the teacher, striking him dead . Rather than the shock and terror radiated by every other child in the room, you see the child... or yourself, its getting harder to tell which is which.. move over to the dead teacher with a mixture of curiosity and excitement. Distantly approaching voices scream over and over, "what are you doing? What Are You Doing? WHAT ARE YOU DOING??" filling your head with an inescapable urge you can't seem to shake, an urge to..."
Have the PCs a make Will Saves against a DC of 31, allowing the use of MP to augment their saves as before. This is against an Insanity effect duplicating waves of morbid ennui; PCs so effected are permanently fatigued, this only can be lifted if a PC sheds blood or sees being shed blood, which lifts the fatigue for 1 round. Additionally, the PCs alignment shifts one step towards evil.
3)Warscape:
"Beyond the blasted walls, a panorama stretches before you, one entirely filled with the clash of blades, the eruption of spells, and the screams at the realization of horrifying atrocity. The warscape before you engulfs the building, a sea of violence foaming and frothing with blood and shadow. Scores of orcs, unliving abominations, and the shades of men clash with hardened phalanxes of knights and formations of archers lead by clerics and magi. As the tide of darkness ebbs and rolls, it almost seems as if some force, a feeling of malignant intelligence is pouring its thoughts and fears into the battle itself, and where it does, the flow of evil swells. You feel the weight of this opposing force for the first time since everything around you changed, a weight so deep it feels like it eclipses all of reality, and as you feel it, it almost seems as if its attention is directed on you, as if keenly aware of your presence..."
Have the PCs make Will saving throws against a DC of 32, with failure resulting in 1d6 Charisma drain, with MP usable to augment their saves at +1d6 per point spent. Then continue,
"...but it quickly redirects itself back to the battle at hand, as if the outcome were more important than you. You feel your minds drawn to the battle as well, as if your thoughts could also influence the outcome."
This represents memories of the battles the Tyrant lead as well as the "what-if-I'd-lost" mental scenario coupled together. The Tyrant is trying to control the dream so that the tide of darkness wins and he has total control of his dream. Mechanically, this works as follows:
The first to reach 100 points in this segment, either the PCs or the mind of the tyrant, "wins". Each turn, the mind of the Tyrant spends 10 points (or 10d6) to affect the dream which can be opposed by the PCs spending up to their maximum allowed amount to add xd6 to their pool. For example two 14th-level PCs with no magical abilities could both spend up to 3 points a turn each to add up to 6d6. Continue tallying the point totals of both groups until one reaches 100. If the PCs succeed, the vision changes with no repercussions. If the Tyrant beats them, the phantom warscape rolls over the PCs, inflicting another 1d6 charisma drain, but still progressing onto the next segment. Any PC taken to 0 charisma by this drain dies, their beings consumed by the waking dream of one of the most powerful minds on the plane.
4)The Sea of Darkness:
"The battle culminates as smoke and shadow envelope you, concealing all, even the clash of steel and the screams of war. As those sounds become more and more muted, a distant rumbling of thunder begins to build and grow louder. As the smoke starts to swirl away, it joins into a massive, roiling cloudscape beneath you. As you gaze downward, you see tumultuous storm that stretches across the horizon in all directions, pierced only by jagged mountaintops. The sunlight above seems utterly absorbed the by the dark clouds beneath, only occasionally broken by the storm's own chaotic churning. As the occasional churn of the clouds breaks open, the revealing sunrays show an undead apocalypse beneath. Where the land is visible, hundreds of spectral and shadowy undead flee from the sun's blazing rays, and while some appear to be annihilated by the radiance, the majority flee to the edge of the break, joining thousands of their brethren along the its perimeter. You feel that same force of will from earlier doing everything it can to keep the storm intact, and every time a break appears, a feeling of intense fear radiates to mirror the desperate flight and subsequent annihilation of the undead beneath. As a radiance from above fills you, you feel as if your very force of will could direct the sun's strength to pierce the clouds..."
The Tyrant was never one content to rest on his laurels, his own thirst for power fueled by the fear of losing that power. This vision represents that very feeling of inability to maintain a balance in victory, that even after a Wraith apocalypse, the very sun would move to snuff out all his plans for even a far-flung fantasy victory. Every round, the Whispering Tyrant must make a DC 27 Will Save (ignoring 1's) against DC 28. PCs may add to this DC by spending MP, up to their max allowed per round to add to the DC by +1. Even if the Tyrant succeeds on a save, he must save again at the same raised DC each turn until he fails. However, each turn that the PCs spend within this nightmare, they take 1 point of Charisma drain as they feel themselves sink towards the churning mass, becoming part of it. Once the tyrant fails, the dream keeps progressing.
5)Gallowspire:
"Even as the massive breaks appear that obliterate the majority of undead host, the landscape beneath rushes up to meet you, the remains of a freshly sacked city smoking in charred rings encircling a singular central tower, a shaft of geometrical hatred. Your view rushes forward until you find yourself standing atop the tower of forsaken architecture, one born of spikes and chains. As you look further down, you see a massive barbed chain descending to one of the many jagged landings beneath, its links fastened to the cruel, spiked crenelations that guard the tower. The spiked chain wraps itself up around you to a throbbing chain in your chest. You suddenly feel unable to move and wracked with pain as the chain affixed to your chest slides forward, pulling you to the edge on its own accord. From behind, words of cruelty resound and echo downward into some sort of mass of a monstrous horde. As a dread proclamation is finally made, you feel yourself pulled forward again a final time before toppling end over end downward, until your descent is suddenly stopped by the barbed chain running through your chest, as it rips you open..."
As this part of the dream ends, PCs must make DC 33 Will saving throws or be affected as if by the spell weird. The resulting ability damage that occurs on a successful save happens when they awaken from the mindscape as resounding memories of phantom pain ache through them.
6)Revolt of the Living:
"As the feeling from your wound drives you to the fading black of oblivion, the landscape beneath you begins to fade and the pain resides to a dull numb. As you slowly descend, you see that beneath is not broken ruins full of monsters but instead a quaint village, with thatched roofs, chimneys blowing cheerful plumes of smoke, well maintained gardens and freshly landscaped yards. Your attention is immediately drawn towards the town's residents moving about, all corporeal undead, from wight smithy to lich mayor. As your vision begins moving through the town, past a mummy gardener and ghoul constable, it settles upon what appears to be a farm at the edge of town. However, inside of its outer pen are not animals but dozens of people of all races, their shoulders slumped in the eternal defeat that is their broken life. As they are bought, sold, and consumed, one of the humans suddenly grabs a scythe and rises up in revolt. His features and attire change and warp as if embodying the form of different heroic warriors, from General Arnissant with his Shield of Aroden to [insert name of fighter type PC in group] to other less recognizable figures. As he fights back the undead farmers, a feeling of desperate fear fills the vision, empowering the flesh farmers as they attempt to reign the human in.."
Representing the feeling that something will always be moving to oppose his plans, the rebellious figure represents many of the foes the tyrant has faced over the years, even now. He pours all of his energy into manifesting forces to destroy this depiction. Assume a normal combat sequence with one heroic personification against the forces of the undead farmers. The hero goes first in the initiative sequence, alternating to the undead and then back again. The hero has the following relevant stats (no feats, weapons, etc..)
Heroic Personification
AC 20 HP 80 Attack +10, Dmg 5
PCs may spend any number of MP each turn up to their maximum allowed to give the heroic personification the following effects.
1 MP: +2 AC (Up to 4 times), or +2 Attack (Up to 4 times), +5 damage (Once per turn)
2 MP: Heal 10 (Once per turn), 1 extra attack (Up to twice per turn)
The fight begins against against one undead manifestation with more joining each round with the following frequency: 2, 3, none, 3, then 3 with a more powerful manifestation. This more powerful manifestation represents the Tyrant's last effort to control the vision, pouring his energy into it. The statistics beneath are divided to show the normal undead and the more powerful manifestation:
Undead Manifestations
AC 20(25) HP 5(15) Attack +10( +15/+15), Dmg 10
If victorious, the vision drifts away from the hero and changes as described below. If the undead succeed, all PCs must make a DC 34 Will save (MP are usable to add to their roll) or be affected by a variant insanity spell duplicating a permanent crushing despair that also induces the shaken condition whenever the character is within sight of any form of undead. The vision then proceeds into the next part
7) Of Blood and Demons:
"The slaughter of the farmyard warps before you, changing the townscape into a horrifying version of itself. The bricks of the buildings are bones , the thatching stretched skin, and a nearby fountain bubbles blood instead of water, mirroring a dull red sky above. A distant fading orb of a half-shrunken sun casts its dwindling light over the demonic landscape complete with warped, eye-ball covered trees and lashing thorn growths topped with blood-drenched red roses. As a group of vampiric figures comes to slack their thirst at the fountain, a huge demonic figure suddenly appears from nowhere in the middle of the town's square. The towering multi-limbed monstrosity, for all its size and ferocity, elicits a feeling of near panic as its eyes glow. There is the beginning of a flash that is consumed like a fizzling bubble as some sort of magic projected by the demon is initiated but fails. As it does, dozens of the vampiric host swarm over the demon like ravenous ants. While a couple are cleaved asunder by the monster's massive claws and reduced to mist, more join to fill in the gaps of the fallen until the creature's struggles begin to slow. As it weakens to the point of near-paralysis, a lord among vampires, at once General Malyas, then changing into Ludvick,then becoming (our vampire PC) a host of other noble-looking vampires strides forward into view, and as he does, the vampiric throng backs away from the near-death demon. They inquire as one of their lord, "Feast or become? Feast or become??" and he hisses back with lethal clarity, "Become." As one the throng tears into the demon, ripping out flesh and essence alike until there is little but a husk that breathes its last. As it does, that breath forms around its body and pulls away its very shadow until its physical form is nothing but a hollow grey shell that disintegrates into the wind. There is a feeling of unavoidable centrification on the darkening shadowy form, as if you can't avoid looking at it as it seems to grow in size and darkness. Everything feels drawn to the form, even the muted light and sound as the black begins to envelope everything... until it draws itself in even further, this time into the shape of a giant, a giant made of pure shadow. Its eyes open and a red that pulses with the light of a dying star shines forth, a light that holds you and pulls you towards it..."
Fascinated by theories on the origin of undeath, Tar Baphon had many hypothesis on the creation of Nightshades and how their birth might be induced under certain conditions. This, if anything, represents what would constitute a happy dream for the Tyrant, his academic interest given bizarre form. PCs who witness this horribly strange vision must make a DC 35 Will Save (MP may be used, and any PC may spend 2 MP to reduce the DC by 1) or be cursed by a bizarre form of blindness that reduces vision to 10 feet away, as if affected by the blind oracle curse with a range of 10 feet. Remove Blindness suppresses this effect for an hour per caster level. This curse also makes the character more susceptible to nightmare spells and effects, imparting a -2 penalty on saving throws as the darkness beyond joins with their sleeping visions occasionally.
8)A Broken World:
"The horrible shadow swirls around you until the umbra encompasses everything. The darkness is slowly pierced by the gradual appearance of dozens of stars, the land around you lit by the faded light of what once may have been the sun, now merely a dwindling candle in a sea of darkness. You stand upon what initially appears to be a jagged cliff, but as you gaze over the edge, you see that that it is instead one side of a rocky, broken island floating among hundreds of others that encircle a dimly glowing, red orb. Beneath you, opposite the sea of orbital debris and planet core lies the other shattered half of the planet, a broken rocky husk completely absorbed in shadow. Your view swirls from floating island to island, where occasional pockets of the meager humans constantly move and hide from roving packs of beings made of shadow. As you gaze upon the hunt between predator and prey, a pack of the creatures streaks into your view, massing straight towards you. As they do, you feel your will drawn towards a flaring comet that streaks through the sky toward you, striking one of the shadows monsters and reducing it to ash."
Knowing fully what his eventual plans might bring about, The Tyrant's mind has imagined many endgame scenarios, including this one. Treating the PCs as invading viruses, the Tyrant has empowered the shadow monsters with the hope that they'll function as perfect antibodies. Fortunately for the PCs, they are given a mental anchor to use in fighting back against these entities. In this case, this anchor is given by Desna in the form of comets. The contests of wills between the PCs and the Tyrant has gained her attention, enough that she has seen certain pathways of destiny that are unfolding within reality, paths that reflect some of the visions within the dreams. Her affiliation with the heavens has allowed her to infiltrate this dream and lend the PCs aid against the mind that would have those visions realized. Inform the PCs that as the shadow horde closes in, they feel the ability to call forth fire from the heavens to stop their attackers. This sequence works as follows:
-There are 12 shadow monsters attacking the PCs. They divide themselves evenly among them. The first round, each PC is attacked by one, draining one MP. Thereafter, each monster drains one MP per PC it is engaging. The monsters go first.
-Each PC may spend up to their maximum limit of MP to try and destroy the creatures. Each creature has 10 hp. PCs may spend 1 MP to do 1d6 damage to a creature, with a roll of 6 adding an additional 1d6 to that damage roll. This appears as comets striking the monsters.
-If the PCs run out of MP completely, allow them to utilize spell slots and other abilities to fuel their MP, having such abilities being used up when the PCs awaken.
Once all foes are destroyed:
"As the sky fills with thousands of bright comets, everything fades to a state of surreal, muted tranquility. A feeling of one-ness permeates you as all of the stars above feel intensely connected to you. Harmony flows through your being, a feeling (you haven't felt since a brief moment during your fight with the manifestation of the Outer God) you've felt few times in the last months, a unifying calmness (of Desna). A voice fills your head as the stars surround you..."
Desna's Words:
"Even now you are trapped, trapped by the wandering nightmares of the most powerful sleeping mind on your world, and yet you must awaken, for those dreams cannot come to be as real as they are desired to be. Yet to waken you, I must waken him, and his power will flair for a brief time. He is trapped, thus has he dreamed for so long, long enough to desire a moment like this. Yet if you do not waken you will dream forever, until your bodies are no more. There is a choice before me.. shall I awaken a slumbering tyrant and allow him a brief chance at freedom even as the best chance of stopping him moves in opposition.. or should I leave you forever shrouded in the greatest dreams you could ever desire, content that no little chance of his stirring will happen?"
(Allow any argument)
"I am pleased to hear that. [Loss of Mythic-]( I must use the power I had bestowed upon you to keep his dreams at bay; his mind will no longer be able to affect you through dreams and nightmares, waking or otherwise. He may yet physically manifest these to try and stop you, but what has been given form can be unmade.) I will continue to watch over you by giving you some control of your own fate. May the grace of the heavens shine upon you..."
(At this point I removed my PC's mythic power, giving them one Harrow point for each unused Mythic point remaining. Other rewards such as Hero Points would be equally suitable).
"A ring of energy formed from starlight begins to pass around you, circling above. It shrinks, then rapidly expands again to reveal the real world within its center. It moves to surround you again, and as it flows downward, its passing changes reality back to where you were before the dreams began. The ring of light completes the transformation of reality and then contracts, its shape becoming an ever-shrinking butterfly that swallows the last vestiges of the dreamscape before finally winking out of existence."
Hope this gives some additional flavor and material for GMs to use for this final leg of the module. It worked really well for my group.
