Saraphia's page

Congratulations to Hideous Laughter Productions! They will make a great addition to Paizo’s partnered podcasts! So excited to see them here!

No one's died yet. I haven't started running Dreams of the Yellow King, but wanted to figure stuff out as early as possible.

What you said about phantoms does make sense though.

I'm curious to see what other GMs have done when it comes to character death in the Dreamlands.

If a character dies in the Dreamlands, they immediately awaken with a lesser madness. I'm interpreting this as the character automatically failing their will save. However, some of the madnesses have an onset greater that one day that have to be rolled for.

I admit, I'm conflicted between handwaving the onset time, and having all the madnesses take hold within one day, or rolling as normal, and having the madness take hold gradually. For example, if one of the characters were to be afflicted with fugue (dealing with a whole new party for chapter 3), I would have them forget more and more things leading up to the actual onset time.

In addition, one of my players is a spiritualist. Phantoms return to the ethereal plane when they "die." Could the phantom end up with a madness, or is the fact that they're summoned make them immune to acquiring madnesses due to the Dreamlands?

Unfortunately, due to time constraints from running a game while at school and the fact that two of my players are moving and will be leaving the campaign, I've had to skip over a lot of stuff in Iris Hill. :(

This being said, because of this, I've gotten a chance to play around with things in order to have the shortened timeline work. Instead of having Risi Nairgon outright attack the party, she played the bluff game and told them that she had broken into Iris Hill, having heard that it's occupant (Count Lowls) had left, and was surprised to discover that it wasn't as empty as she thought it was. Risi got a 28. A player rolled sense motive and got a 22, so as far as that character is concerned, Risi is telling the truth, and since the psychic has already used his detect thoughts ability for the day, they have no way to disprove that, unless another sense motive is rolled. Risi is going to betray the party after they rescue some imprisoned party members, and along with the assistance of other cultists, take them directly to Melisenn.

How deadly do you think a combination of sleeping drugs and a paralyzing agent would be?

Just wondering, could Lowls have taken the PCs with him to the Dreamlands at some point before he sacrificed their minds? The phials suggest that they were willing subjects.

My group walked in through the front door, and have been clearing out the first floor. They're going to go into the basement next session. It'll be interesting to see what they do when confronted with prisoners that are going to be in need of healing. The hope is that they take the prisoners back to New Chapel, and come back to Fort Hailcourse later. I'm most concerned about the psychic running out of spells, because once he's out, his only method of defense is telekinetic projectile.

@The Black Bard- That's really cool!

I've run into a very interesting situation.

Including two animal companions and a phantom, there are now a total of 8 pawns that the players control. After a fight with some Skum, it became apparent that some of the rooms on the maps are too small for my group.

I've come up with two solutions: Redraw the maps and make them bigger or bring out the named Skum to the battlements.

Would putting the named Skum out on the battlements of Fort Hailcourse and having a chance for the undead mercenaries to come out of their towers be problematic?

Did I miss where the MIA priestess is / met her doom? I don't recall reading it being mentioned anywhere.

Here's the official response from Adam Daigle, the developer.

I may have not made the explanation clear in the adventure (I don't have my book with me right now), but the intention was that she was abducted like many others in Thrushmoor. Sorry about that.

For the Strange Aeons game that I'm running, I'm having her be in the jail in Fort Hailcourse with Sholn. She's unconscious and dying when the PCs get there, but not so far down that the PCs can't stabilize her. I chose to not have her be dead for a few reasons, 1, to establish a sense of urgency during that fight, and 2, so if she survives, the party has access to a certain amount of healing that Winter can't provide.

I love the way that you introduced villains for this.

Ghostbane Dirge should also be helpful.

I have some stories.

My players ended up offering Daridela Cornett a deal for her life if she stopped turning animals into fungal creatures, never crossed paths with them again, and gave them all her valuable possessions. When the Druid and the Cleric left the room to come up with this deal, the Skald put her in a chokehold, and was about ready to kill her, until the Magus pried the Skald's hands off. Daridela took the deal, and fled.

In order to try and get some leads on who was taking the people of Thrushmoor, they decided to do a stakeout. The Druid dressed up as a child (he's a halfling) and walked Thrushmoor's streets at night, with the other party members close by. The cultists took the bait, and managed to get a good amount of non lethal damage on him, but the Ranger beat them in initiative. 3 out of the 4 of the cultists died, and the remaining one fled. Next session, they are going to do a chase to see if they can catch him.

I'm hoping that my players decide to make knowledge checks during the fight to identify the Revenant. I know that two of them can, assuming that they don't roll poorly, and one one of them is the designated victim. It's going to be very entertaining when the players realize what it is, because two of my players are going to know exactly what it is, but some of my other players are new to Pathfinder and may not know what a Revenant is. I'm imagining a mix of "This is very bad, run away!" and "What's going on?"

So I'm going to be running the Revenant encounter and I'm curious to see how others have run it. My plan is to give out notecards to the characters who were involved in his death and having them roll will saves to see how chaotic/traumatic the flashes of memory are. I'm also having the Revenant attack anyone who stands in the way of his intended target, but he'll just keep on moving towards the target with every round.

Just wondering, where have you had the rowboat from Briarstone Asylum dock in Thrushmoor? I'm trying to give my players a sense of location.

Just wanted opinions of this: In The Thrushmoor Terror it mentions that Trillis Mavaine has vowed to eradicate whatever haunts the Wailing House in the near future. Although it says that he House was abandoned generations ago, I'm considering having Nemira Lowls be the cause of the wailing within. Perhaps due to her unhinged state, and her ability to separate her spirit from her body, she found that was fun to scare the locals. Does this seem plausible? If not, what else do you suppose is the cause of the wailing?

Having just wrapped tTT, I figured I'd post something about a character I feel could have been... more. Here are some thoughts on Risi.

** spoiler omitted **...

That sounds like a great idea!

That does seem a bit odd. Hmm....

These Great Old one worshipers could just try to bring one of the great old ones to Golorian, but no, they have to try and summon a bunch of them.

I'm pretty sure that it's a reference to the fact that they were marked by Hastur. From what I read about Melisenn, I think she would stop at nothing to eliminate those who might be competition for what she believes is her rightful position.

"We are all worthless before the Unspeakable One! Even if he has marked you, I am the one who will open this world to him."

I'm thinking I'll allow the players to study a map of Thrushmoor and have them decide where they want to go for the most part, so most of the events mentioned in chapter one are in a random order.

Hmm....I suppose I could have it be a non-combat encounter, the party just sees a few people on the road who seem to be just ordinary people living in Thrushmoor. Cultists could even be friendly towards the party. They could always find something like the fabric when they head back from dealing with Daridela Cornett.

Lower level cultists sound like the right call to me.

You could foreshadow it by having them disguised and infiltrating as standard ruffians and merchants.

Maybe they were a band of people trying to extort money from a witch, looking for remedy or something else. Have them carry a single hint of the sign that they can use to piece things together later.

As to the CR I think that's up to you. I find it hard to judge.

Think a scrap of yellow fabric getting snagged on a tree branch would work? I had initially thought of having the PCs roll perception to notice a glint of a holy symbol, but then realized that the cultists would definitely conceal their holy symbols so they can go about undetected.

So I'm thinking about having the possibility of the party running into some cultists who have are heading back to Thrushmoor after getting resupplied by Daridela Cornett when the party heads to the Grotto of the Witch. If this were to happen, should the cultists be low level lackeys (rogue 2), or be stated more like the cultists that are found at Iris Hill? Also, is introducing the idea of the cult this early in the chapter too soon?

Saraphia wrote:

NobodysHome wrote:

Saraphia wrote:

Just wondering, how have people directed the PCs towards the Grotto of the Witch? It seems a little bit out of the way, considering that the party has arrived in Thrushmoor, and Winter will probably suggest that they accompany her when she goes to visit the Sleepless Building.

They're supposed to go straight to the Sleepless Building. Once there, Cesadia suggests the grotto as the PCs' very first course of action:

The Thrushmoor Terror, p.10 wrote:

Cesadia is eager to address the town’s problems, but knows she needs help. In order to test out the PCs and have them assist calming Thrushmoor, Cesadia asks them to follow up on Toli Remsatter’s rumors (see area A below).

So it's as simple as, "Go to the Sleepless Building, get sent to the Grotto."

But keep thinking that way -- there are indeed places in the book (Fort Hailcourse) where the PCs' approach isn't as telegraphed.

Huh. Guess I didn't see that.

Well, it's helpfully at the end of the entire section on her.

I think the whole Strange Aeons AP needs a "GM Cliff's Notes" somewhere where you can find all the stuff that's critical to PCs, but hidden across multiple books (What, exactly, was Lowl's timeline? Why SHOULD the PCs go to Fort Hailcourse? Etc...)

I would love that so much. My players would too.

Saraphia wrote:

Just wondering, how have people directed the PCs towards the Grotto of the Witch? It seems a little bit out of the way, considering that the party has arrived in Thrushmoor, and Winter will probably suggest that they accompany her when she goes to visit the Sleepless Building.

They're supposed to go straight to the Sleepless Building. Once there, Cesadia suggests the grotto as the PCs' very first course of action:

The Thrushmoor Terror, p.10 wrote:

Cesadia is eager to address the town’s problems, but knows she needs help. In order to test out the PCs and have them assist calming Thrushmoor, Cesadia asks them to follow up on Toli Remsatter’s rumors (see area A below).

So it's as simple as, "Go to the Sleepless Building, get sent to the Grotto."

But keep thinking that way -- there are indeed places in the book (Fort Hailcourse) where the PCs' approach isn't as telegraphed.

Huh. Guess I didn't see that.

Just wondering, how have people directed the PCs towards the Grotto of the Witch? It seems a little bit out of the way, considering that the party has arrived in Thrushmoor, and Winter will probably suggest that they accompany her when she goes to visit the Sleepless Building.