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I could certainly see the lords of Lastwall being perfectly happy to grant a charter of exploration and conquest in Belkzen, but most other areas are either really cold, really undesirable, or already owned. Maybe Varisia or a charter from Mendev to settle parts of Sarkoris reclaimed from the Worldwound?
I can certainly see the dilution issue, but surely going from the 7 most recent APs to the 7 most recent APs and a collected hardback of an older, refurbished AP wouldn't dilute things all that much, would it?
Beholder is the biggest loss I agree wholeheartedly. Of all the monsters Paizo cannot use, beholders are the most iconic and difficult to replace.
I figured it was because silvers tarnish to black, and black dragons are immune to acid. Except blacks, silvers, whites and brasses all mess with the tarnishing bit, don't they? It's obvious that coppers would tarnish green, because they have the same breath weapons, immunities, and hey, copper does look green when tarnished. And bronze would tarnish to blue, and gold would tarnish to red, and it all works out. But that means silver -ought- to tarnish white, as they both have cold breath weapons and immunity to cold, except silver tarnishes black, leaving brass to tarnish white, and brasses breathe fire, the exact opposite of breathing cold.
I would like to add my thanks to the awesome design team, and to awesome authors like Amber E. Scott, who I am told is responsible for making the most awesome NPC since Ameiko: Anevia Tirabade! Seriously, you guys are awesome, making an incredible product that is also very inclusive.
⇒ Girtablilu
The great empires of the scorpion-like girtablilu have stood supreme for thousands of years, with giant stone edifices visible from the very horizon. Yet now the world is changing, and the mighty rivers which have fed their empires since time immemorial are drying up. Famine is spreading, and now, in their weakened state, as the empires of the girtablilu prepare to war against one another for control of the dwindling food supply, war is coming from outside. The nomadic thri-kreen of the far south, long content to herd beasts and keep to themselves, have been united under a single great leader promising them glories unimagined, a life of ease and luxury, just as soon as they claim that future by conquering the ancient cities of the girtablilu. Though they have little in the way of steel and iron arms, their spears and arrows are more than enough to threaten the girtablilu, who haven't the food to keep armies supplied, nor can they afford to spare the holy power of their priests to counter the thri-kreen shamans, when those priests devote all their efforts to creating food and water for their hungry people. Far to the north, the treants are stirring from eons of slumber, finding themselves parched, as the rains no longer fall as often as they once did, the forests they shepherd now withering away. They know they must do something, but the girtablilu to the south are too busy trying just to survive, and so the treants have sought the aid of troll oracles, hoping to divine the cause of the changes in weather. The trolls are unconcerned by the changes to the world, for they respect only strength, and those who are too weak to find sustenance are too weak to be of concern to the trolls. They oblige the treants only because of their shared strengths and fear of fire. The truth of the matter is that the vodyanoi living on islands dotting the islands in the eastern ocean are the ones responsible, diverting the storms to inundate their islands with rain and turn all the land they possess into soggy marshes and lush rainforests.
I dunno, I find that even the really random stuff can build the plot by quite a bit. The most recent random event I rolled up was a Monster Attack + Wealthy Immigrant. So, I decided that a certain lover of Elvish statuary was moving south to the players' kingdom, and had been kidnapped by a black dragon that was now lairing in a certain area from Book 1 which they had never gotten around to exploring. This introduces them to the NPC, gives them a reason to go explore that part of the region, opens up another plot point involving that area, and establishes that there are dragons in the region...
Running a mythic Kingmaker right now, and been redesigning Vordakai as a mythic graveknight: Cyclops (CR 5) + Wizard 6 (CR +3) + Graveknight (CR +2) + Mythic Tier 5 (CR +2) It involves a pretty drastic rebuild, but I'm tying Vordakai into the main story more by fleshing out the ancient cyclopean empire he hailed from as a nation of astronomers and engineers who build clockwork golems, grandiose observatories, and even portals to other worlds. Vordakai's status as a graveknight is the result of unwittingly building a portal to Eox and getting blasted to death with negative energies as a result. Unlike most graveknights, he's a wizard whose 'armour' is a black Robe of the Magi. Instead of having a 'Varnhold Vanishing', he's going to wage war against Varnhold, which was unknowingly built right atop the ancient site of the portal to Eox. How this all relates to the overarching story is that Nyrissa is searching for that very portal, planning to redirect it to point to the Plane of Shadow so she can be reunited with Count Ranalc, and then to the First World so they can return against the wishes of the other Eldest. Destroying the portal will be a task beyond the abilities of the party at that level, even as mythic characters, giving them an incentive to instead claim Varnhold for themselves and protect the portal against those who would use it.
Running Kingmaker as a mythic campaign also, but with a lot of homebrew stuff thrown in. Their most recent trial:
I rebuilt the barrow wight from Part Three of Rivers Run Red as mythic, re-envisioning him as a sort of proto-Swordlord, since the whole party used Aldori duelling swords, and similarly redesigned the Barrow itself, replacing the trap with a '300' style bottomless pit, giving the 4 heads the ability to blow wind at anyone passing in front of them as a knockback attack. Right now, I'm working on a massive rebuild of the BBEG of the third book of the AP, which will likely result in a completely different theme for that part of the AP. What I have so far: My personal vision of the ancient cyclopean empire of Casmaron is a society of astronomers and engineers, who developed great observatories, mechanical orreries the size of buildings, etc, clockwork soldiers, etc. Vordakai was an aristocratic wizard who had overseen construction of a gate that would allow the cyclopes to visit other worlds, as they had come to realize that some of the stars in the night sky were planets just like theirs. Unfortunately for Vordakai, the first planet they opened the gate to was Eox. He was blasted with terrible negative energies by the bone sages of that planet, dead instantly, only the magical robe he wore preventing his bones from turning to dust and scattering into the wind. He was interred in a mausoleum to the east, and the gate the cyclopes had built was buried, but that was not the end of Vordakai.
The negative energies that killed Vordakai imbued his magical robe, and after a long slumber in the mausoleum, he arose as a graveknight. He did not remain awake for long, however, the mighty centaur tribes which had claimed the lands in the wake of the fall of the cyclops empire banding together against the undead abomination and sealing him within his mausoleum. Now he has awakened again. My idea for all of this is that Nyrissa seeks the ancient gate Vordakai helped create, planning to redirect it first to the Plane of Shadow so she may be reunited with Count Ranalc, and then to the First World, so that they may return there without seeking the permission of the other Eldest.
I actually had a thought to make a graveknight caster which I've been working on the last couple days, as an alternative to a lich. Basically, I'm using a black Robe of the Archmagi as the graveknight's armour, and assuming that it's made of darkleaf cloth so that it's as durable as full plate would be. (Actually, possibly quite a bit more durable? I think it ends up having a hardness of 20 and 70 hp, but I'm not sure.) |
