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It’s stated that the city pays the Varisian Council a cut of its businesses profits for the last 40 years. The smuggling tunnels were most likely made to smuggle goods out so they wouldn’t have to pay the Council a cut of the money. When Lonjiku’s father stopped using them, the local Sczarni eventually moved in and used them for there own purposes. They probably do a little smuggling of stolen goods, but most likely nothing on the scale that the tunnels were originally made for.

If you have issue 118 of Dungeon then I would recommend Box of Flumph. With very minor changes it would be perfect.

http://paizo.com/dungeon/products/issues/2005/118

After reading through the last batch of responses I have decided that his “weakness” to fire will not be revealed through divinations. Legend Lore and Vision will only reveal general information on him, basically expanding on the information they get from other sources.

While the characters may not know exactly what the Sphere of Annihilation will do to Kyuss, Manzorian does tell them “while the exact effects of using one against a deity are unknown, at the very least contact with a Sphere would weaken Kyuss greatly.” Once they realize that they have a free round to hit him, they will potentially unload as much firepower on him as they can. So if they get the Sphere out right before they hit the summit, then they can use it at least once if not twice if they have completed the victory conditions. If they use it in the battles before the summit, then there is a very real chance it will be destroyed or control of it stolen from them.

As to the party using Fire Seeds; while they may not know that Kyuss is “weak” to fire, it is still one of the best spells to use against him as it is a no SR, no Save, 20d6 damage spell. Given all that the players have gone through up to this point and knowing that if they fail it is ultimately the end of the world, it would make sense in character if the Druid prepares a scroll of maximized Fire Seed as a first strike weapon. The gold/xp cost to make the scroll is a pittance to 20th level characters. If it doesn’t work, you know he is protected against fire, if it does work; you just did 120 points of damage to him.

I couldn’t find it in the SRD, but you can use metamagic feats to make magic items. You use the adjusted level of the spell for determining cost. These two quotes from the FAQ demonstrate the point:

Can you use the Divine Metamagic feat to create a scroll or wand with the metamagic effect without changing the spell level? If so, how much would it cost to make?

You can use Divine Metamagic in item creation; the cost to create the item is just as if you used the regular metamagic feat. For instance, using your Divine Metamagic feat to create a scroll of empowered flame strike costs as much as a scroll of a 7th-level spell (which is what an empowered flame strike is). The act of creating the scroll or wand expends three daily uses of your turn/rebuke undead ability, just as if you had cast the empowered flame strike spell using Divine Metamagic, but you don’t have to expend a 7th-level spell slot (only the normal, 5th-level flame strike).
Can sudden metamagic feats (from Complete Arcane) be used to scribe scrolls or craft wands that include the metamagic effect? If so, how would you calculate the cost (since sudden metamagic feats don’t alter the level of the spell)?
You can use a sudden metamagic feat in item creation; the cost to create the item would be just as if you were using the
regular metamagic feat. For instance, using your Sudden Widen feat to create a scroll of widened fireball would cost as much as a scroll of a 6th-level spell (which is what a widened fireball is). The act of creating the scroll or wand would expend your daily use of Sudden Widen (since the act of creation triggers the spell, making it unavailable for casting).

The two questions I really had are how to handle divinations about Kyuss and how to handle prep time on the way up to Kyuss. The divination question has been answered, but how long is reasonable to give them as they near the top of the spire for prep?

The reason I personally like Fire Seeds is that they are no SR, no Save. The Reflex save is only for the splash damage. Couple this with a 20 die max damage and they are very nice. The balancing feature is that you cannot throw the acorns in the same round you cast the spell, thus it takes a round before you can use them. Unless you want to take a chance and cast it sometime before combat and hope the duration doesn’t expire before the encounter. However, they are excellent for an ambush scenario.

THROW SPLASH WEAPON

A splash weapon is a ranged weapon that breaks on impact, splashing or scattering its contents over its target and nearby creatures or objects. To attack with a splash weapon, make a ranged touch attack against the target. Thrown weapons require no weapon proficiency, so you don’t take the –4 nonproficiency penalty. A hit deals direct hit damage to the target, and splash damage to all creatures within 5 feet of the target.
You can instead target a specific grid intersection. Treat this as a ranged attack against AC 5. However, if you target a grid intersection, creatures in all adjacent squares are dealt the splash damage, and the direct hit damage is not dealt to any creature. (You can’t target a grid intersection occupied by a creature, such as a Large or larger creature; in this case, you’re aiming at the creature.)
If you miss the target (whether aiming at a creature or a grid intersection), roll 1d8. This determines the misdirection of the throw, with 1 being straight back at you and 2 through 8 counting clockwise around the grid intersection or target creature. Then, count a number of squares in the indicated direction equal to the range increment of the throw.
After you determine where the weapon landed, it deals splash damage to all creatures in adjacent squares.

Preparing to throw a splash weapon is indeed a full round action. And while the description of Fire Seeds does say that they are splash weapons, I am undecided though if Fire Seeds are treated as splash weapons in this matter. The RAW does seem to support this though.

As to Kyuss intercepting divinations, it begs the question just how much influence he has on the outside world while trapped in the monolith. Also if Comune is used, I don’t see Kyuss be able to intercept that communication since it “contacts your deity or agents thereof”. I also don’t see him being able to intercept a Legend Lore or Vision spell.

Thanks for the input; it has given me some things to consider. I am not too worried about it yet as we have just completed The Prince of Redhand. I think I’ll leave Kyuss as he is and see how the characters handle themselves in the later modules. It’s just that the Druid has just reached the level to cast Fire Seeds. If he starts to over use it and it becomes a signature spell of his, then Kyuss may just get a boost to his fire resistance.

The real problem is that there doesn’t seem to be a huge amount of downtime now to make magic items, thus I may need to make some one who can make magic items on commission available. That way they can have magic items being made while they are off on other parts of the adventure. One of the things I have done that has helped in the magic item department is the weapons they used to kill the Ebon Aspect in Three Faces of Evil are legacy weapons. This has helped the players greatly with having custom magic weapons that they really feel connected to.

As to divinations, I am not too worried as most of them are yes/no questions. Only Legend Lore will be an issue, and by then I will have a little bit of information written up to give the players should they use it.

If it seems that the players take an inordinate amount of buff time at the on the way to the top of the spire, I will just have the place start to shake and rattle to give them a sense of urgency.

All in all this has been a great adventure path. My players and I have greatly enjoyed it. I am looking forward to the hardback version and to AP3.

I have a few questions regarding the final battle against Kyuss.

1. Given his list of immunities, should I hint that he is not well protected against fire if the characters use divination magic?
2. How many prep rounds should the characters get as they reach the top of the spire?

The reason I ask these questions is that after reading his stat block, I came up with this quick and dirty game plan to defeat him. It does need some prep work, but does not use any extreme custom magic items. It also assumes that the characters completed all victory conditions to greatly weaken Kyuss and are only fighting him and no other minions at the same time.

The Plan:

The party’s Druid creates four scrolls of maximized Fire Seeds. These cost 2,250 gp and three days each to make. Hopefully they have the down time to make these. If not, then the Druid could also memorize the four spells and not have any 9th level spells available for the fight to the top of the spire. The Druid could also memorize regular Fire Seeds at 6th level for extras or to use instead, but with only four 6th level slots, this is not a guaranteed win. The Druid creates a single 20d6 acorn with each spell.

Party Wizard has the Talisman of the Sphere and the Sphere on Annihilation.

Before the characters reach the roof, they bring out the Sphere, and the scrolls are used with the acorns given to the Ranger. Any extra are given to other party members to use.

The characters reach the roof, and Kyuss starts to emerge.

The Wizard hits him with the Sphere, causing him to loose half his hit points. He goes from 660 to 330

The ranger throws all four acorns using a full attack action. Each acorn deals 120 points of damage with no SR and no save to avoid the damage. This is a ranged touch attack against an AC of 31. The Ranger has the Rod of Seven Parts thus is at a minimum of +40 to hit (+20 BAB and +20 insight from Rod). As long as his DEX bonus is at least +6, he will hit with all four acorns. Each acorn deals 120 points of fire damage, minus his 6 fire resistance, for a grand total of 456 points of damage. Kyuss is destroyed.

If they use the normal Fire Seeds, then the damage is 20d6 for an average of 50-70 points of damage. They would then need around seven to eight acorns, and more than one person would need to throw them. Thus with the Druid throwing three and the Ranger throwing four, and another party member throwing two to four, they can easily do the remaining 330 points of damage, if they have enough casting of Fire Seeds.

While this uses some meta-game knowledge, it is not a stretch that the characters would use Fire Seeds as it is one of the very few spells that bypasses SR and does a potential 20 die of damage. Couple that with some high level divinations to scope out a possible weakness of Kyuss, and this scenario is not that far fetched. Also when he is emerging is the perfect time to test the Sphere against him.

What are your thoughts on this? Should I bump up his fire resistance? Lesson the effect of the Sphere? Have Kyuss use his high INT score and emerge on the side of the monolith that is not facing the characters so they spend their free round using move actions to get to him? Or not do anything and see what happens?

I had a situation where a monster got a crit and then

got a 20 to confirm.
20 was not enough to hit the PCs armor class...

Maybe I am missing something, but how could the monster roll high enough to even hit the first time if a 20 is not high enough to confirm a critical hit? Did you add in all modifiers from the original attack roll to the critical hit check?

My question is why do you need Profession (Gambler) to play Dragonchess? By the rules, you cannot use the Profession skill untrained, thus only someone who actually takes ranks in Profession (Gambler) can play it. What alternative would you suggest for players who do not have ranks in Profession (Gambler)?