The_Mothman's page

That's not how I read it. In Soraya the paraika's chamber:

Page 28 wrote:

...correspondence from Earl Yander Merkondus to unnamed recipients, in which he identifies himself as "the Gray Kingmaker" several times. The correspondence doesn't include anything incriminating--Yander is too clever for that--but it's damning in connection with the materials in Jaliessa's chambers at Tallgrasses

In Jaliessa's chambers:

page 39 wrote:

...correspondence to the traitors signed by someone called the "Gray Kingmaker". Although these notes don't indicate who the Gray Kingmaker is, when connected with the notes in Soraya's chambers... they prove that Earl Merkondus is behind both schemes.

So.

In the set of letters to unnamed people in Soraya's chambers, Earl Merkondus (who is "too clever" to incriminate himself) identifies himself as "the Gray Kingmaker" several times.

Then, being too clever to incriminate himself, he sends a bunch of letters to treasonous Taldan Horse guards, signed with the alias that he told the aforementioned "unnamed people" he was going to use.

I think maybe the best way to deal with this is to swap the locations of the letters and just ignore what the AP says. Letters at Tallgrasses identifying himself can be explained away far easier than correspondence with actual hell demons. Yander could argue that the Tallgrasses letters were for the former inhabitants, or written to the traitors before their treachery was unknown. But I don't see a logical scenario where someone gets caught consorting with Divs and receives no consequences.

The Land of the Linnorm Kings has never properly hosted an AP unto itself, and it's got me curious - what Viking-adjacent stories do people want to spend 3 or 6 books with?

I think it could be cool to have an AP dealing with the White Estrid/Belimarius conflict going on up there. Maybe the PCs could be viking warriors defending their homes from whatever ancient monsters the Runelord has unleashed. Though I don't know if I'd want to see the end of Belimarius so soon.

I'm struggling to figure out what ot do with Duchess Veleto. Tragically the PC she was interested in died before she had a chance to track him down, so she's just sort of hanging out at the manor. As written she doesn't seem to have much to contribute plot-wise, she doesn't become a threat unless the PCs try to turn her in (why would they), she doesn't have any information to share with them, she just seems like an unnecessary wrinkle that I don't really have an idea what to do with, and the players haven't latched onto.

How have you guys used her in your games? Was she a thorn in the party's side, an unlikely ally, or was she just kinda there?

I like the idea actually. In the current system 1-10 seems too low and 10-20 seems too high, but a 6-15 campaign kind hits the sweet spot for a shorter AP imo. It allows the adventure to span a broader range of challenges and maintaining a smaller scope without flying off into the zaniness of high level play. I also feel like it would help the APs feel more complete without having to combine two disparate campaigns into one.

VORT: This is a weird one. House Vort are present as a fairly prominent player close to the epicenter of Eutropia's faction throughout the War for the Crown. Along with House Nazezi, they're one of only a few factions who haven't been folded into either the Loyalist or Imperialist camps by the events of Book Four, City in the Lion's Eye. So they must be one of the stronger independent contenders for the throne.

But we do see a character from Vort in Book Two. It's Calphidius Vort, who is a part of the Baron Telus storyline. And the thing is: there's never any mention of his being from a family that's making a bid for the throne. It never comes up. I don't know if that's an oversight, if he's just from a different Vort family, or what. Maybe the Vorts aren't that prominent at all: maybe they're in too much of a backwater part of Tandak Prefecture for anybody to care what they're laying claim to and come after them. Shrug.

My players were obsessed with Vort from the moment they heard his goofy name, so naturally I had to expand his role a little bit. I decided to basically play Vort as a bit of a kook, his claim to the throne comes from being Stavian's Great Great Great Grandnephew 4 times removed as well as his popularity among the peasantry after the fall of Jambis. I'm playing him as kinda a Vermin Supreme type figure, someone with no real chance of winning, has a lot of weird ideas, and has no clue when to throw in the towel. Of course the PCs are not harboring him in Stachys, and there's already talk of "removing the competition" so who knows how it's going to develop from here.

I love this. My group killed the Baron and arrested the bandits guarding him and feeding him people.

This is what I expected them to do, but the bard is more interested in not fighting anything than actually bringing anyone to justice. So I guess they have a spare baron running around the place now.

No updates on the Pump House Propaganda, one of the PCs was eaten by a fish so most scheming was put on hold for a couple sessions. However, I definitely wanted to let everyone know how the party delt with the Telus situation.

After learning that Mosle had stayed with his friend and keeping him alive all these years the party concluded that Mosle was Telus' true love. So they created a scheme to draw the Baron out so Mosle could plant a kiss on him. The hunter used his Boots of Spider Climbing to rush to the Baron's location, grapple him, and drop him to the floor, all so that Mosle could barge in and plant the kiss. It was a tough fight, and the hunter nearly died, but eventually they succeeded. The power of gay love won out!

I thought this was a fun solution, anyone else's players have a creative solution for Telus?

You could definitely retool Pilts Swastel and his mob in book 3 into a more traditional gang. Play up the power and influence this gang has in old Korvosa, make them feel like a real untouchable threat and difficult rival now so that when they end up stuck in Old Korvosa in book 3 they're going to feel some real pressure.

After Book 3 you the AP kinda loses focus on Korvosa, and the party doesn't properly return to the city until book 6, at which point there are bigger things happening. That being said, it may be hard to maintain a gang properly while cut off from the city, so perhaps another group has usurped the PCs territory in their absence. Possibly Yzahnum or another agent of the Queen has turned some of the PCs gang against them. Or maybe the gang has folded in with the Korvosan rebellion.

I would make Book 3 the culmination of the gang story, when the PCs leave the city their gang should be pretty powerful and influential, having taken out their rivals. But when they return in book 6, they should be a shadow of that power, forced into hiding or worse as Ileosa's tyranny has grown, have the state of the gang reflect the state of Korvosa as a whole.

Hope some of that was helpful at least.

Phntm888 wrote:

Page 40, in the handout for the exploration charter, states that the charter is witnessed on the 24th of Calistril (February, in Earth months). Assuming the charter is witnessed on the same day it's issued, the Feast is on the 23rd of Calistril.

Thanks! You wouldn’t happen to know what year on Golarion it takes place?

The original took place in 4710, but I'm not sure if they updated it for the rerelease.

Oppara is rife with chaos and intrigue in the wake of the Exaltation Massacre. Martella is likely not the only noble who was kidnapped or lost in the chaos. This could be a good moment to bring in any of the "Faces of the Senate" if you used them in your campaign, have them run into some trouble that the PCs can save them from. Maybe have some of them try to recruit the PCs as their own agents after hearing about their actions at the Exaltation Gala, paying them for missions around the city.

You could also use the upcoming Persona Phases at the start of book 2 (if you're using the system) encourage the PCs to describe how they develop their persona, and integrate it into Opparan locations. A PC who's organizing a protest might head to The Narrows to talk to the city's downtrodden, another might organize a secret meeting with the corsairs in the Gray Market, another might perform acts of charity with the Sarenite priests at the House of Dawn's Redemption. Even if you don't plan to use the system, it might be a good idea to keep some of the roleplay elements, give the PCs the sense that they're building their own networks and reputations among the elites.

So I've run this twice, once with Persona and once without. I'd recommend without, but that's not what you're asking and I don't want to be That Guy :)

Interesting that you removed it entirely. I considered it, but it seems like my players are actually enjoying it, and it seems to become important by book 5. Did you edit those portions of the adventure when you ran it or skip them entirely?

Your advice seems helpful, and makes a lot of sense. I'll definitely try to push my player towards playing another of Martella's agents.

Mwangi Expanse:

"The Magic Warriors will return!"

(is that an avengers reference or foreshadowing?)

This was probably a reference to (or foreshadowing of) Strength of Thousands since the Mwangi book came out before that AP

Our campaign just had our first PC death and I was wondering how adding the replacement PC factors into the Persona system. I'm thinking that since the new PC isn't necessarily a political figure or already a member of a spy network they should probably start without any points, but I am concerned that might put them too far behind their fellow players. How have other DMs handled this in the past?

Name: Sir Vesper Barbastelle
Race: Rakshasa-Spawn Tiefling
Classes/levels:Swashbuckler 1/Intrigue Mystery Oracle 4
Adventure: Songbird, Scion, Saboteur
Location: Lake Pensaris
Catalyst: The General
The Gory Details: What was supposed to be a "fishing minigame" turned tragic last session, leading to the death of a party member.

After The Night Swan attacked their festival, Baron Okerra invited the party to visit Pensaris to convince the party to help track down and bring the vigilante to justice. After a brief trip to Oppara to deal with some personal issues, the party decided to take the Baron up on the offer, and he offered to take them fishing in the nearby lake. Upon hearing legends of The General, a man-eating, barge destroying catfish, the party decided that they would try their hand at landing it.

After hours of searching, and the bleaching bard interrogating the local fish, they finally found the creature's lair. It wasn't long after that the chattering of fish went quiet, and Vesper felt a pull on his line. With the aid of the party hunter they pulled their catch towards them... what they didn't know is that The General was hunting them.

Initiative is rolled, Vesper goes first and readies and action to hit the fish as he came near, the Hunter fired Dignity's Barb but it disappeared into the murky waters. The General darted towards the little Tiefling who dared to hook him, opened his mouth and grabbed Vesper. The monk punches the fish, but can't free Vesper, the Bard blinds the fish with a well placed glitterdust, and the sorcerer throws some meteors. None of this is enough to free Vesper from the beast's mouth and with a final gulp our oracle goes down the creature's gullet.

While the beast is taking a lot of damage from the outside, Koriana's Blade is not enough to slice through its belly, leaving Vesper stuck inside. If the party can just hit the fish one more time he might just live. It all comes down to the monk, one hit will save his friend. He goes to flurry and... natural one. The monk falls into the water, and Vesper is consigned to his fate.

In the aftermath, the party decides to perform a harrow reading to decide if they should resurrect their fallen comrade, and proceeded to pull the worst spread I've ever seen. Not a single card represented a good outcome. The party deemed that a doom would befall themselves and Taldor if they brought him back, and so they thought that they should leave him for the good of the realm.

I don't remember if this is based off of the book or not, but my calculations based on travel time and timing of events worked out like this:

Day 1: Event 1
Day 2: Event 2?
Day 3: (Late afternoon) A. The Wood-Wife's Plight
Day 4: (Evening) Event 3
Day 5: B. Pocket of Summer
Day 6: C. Haunted Village
Day 7: D. Elsprin
Day 8: Event 4
Day 9: E. Troll Bridge
Day 9: F. Fishcamps

Thank you!

Hoping this hasn't been asked on this thread before, though it's possible I missed something in this 500+ post thread. Has anyone compiled a calendar or timeline for the party's travels to Whitethrone? Some events and locations mention the time and place they're supposed to occur, but others don't have that information. I will probably put together a timeline myself, but I thought I would ask here to see if anyone has already done the work for me.

Reign of Winter sounds pretty perfect for what you're trying to do railroad-wise. Unless they somehow get off track early in Book 1 they're probably going to feel compelled to follow the adventure to its completion. The adventure also mostly takes place in the wilderness, with a brief diversion to a hostile city. There also aren't any subsystems like in Ironfang Invasion that can be difficult for a new GM.

1) My party has an Investigator (we're playing a 2E adaptation and she's formidable) and the party immediately suspected Lucretzia Marthane after the events of the Tanager Jubilee...

I'm having this problem now too, they're torn between Lucretzia and Gul Gusairne as their main suspects but pretty confident that it's her. And I pretty much used some of your solutions. This is of course made all the more complicated given that in my campaign Lucretzia is one of my party's long lost cousin.

I also made Selli into a Night Swan suspect for the reasons you listed but I aged her up a little because I feel like it's too obvious that a 15 year old girl is not the Night Swan.

I have also made Night Swan sightings become more widespread in the region with other characters taking on the mantle for their own purposes. I've had Gurta Thresh in the Beggarwood pretend to be her, using the idea of the Night Swan to further her antiauthoritarian philosophy and act as a symbol of hope for others in the Beggarwood. And Atratus is already included in the book as a sort of red herring too, and is located near where the Night Swan is based, so there's a chance they'll look into her too.

I plan on having Okerra be extremely paranoid of the Night Swan, blaming pretty much everything that's gone wrong in the county on her. Since he's already helpful after Crownfall, I'm having him recruit the PCs to go investigate what he thinks are Night Swan sightings. Since my PCs have mostly been focused on Stachys and don't seem too interested in exploring unprompted, so this should help them make the most out of the adventure.

Once the party have helped out a bit the Night Swan is probably going to approach either the most radical party member or her cousin to try and figure out what their deal is. After that it's really up to the party how they handle her.

My players have decided that they want to turn the Stachys Pump House into a propaganda mill for Eutropia. Their plan is to bring in a bunch of printing presses into the Pump House and start distributing anti-Bartleby and anti-Pythareus literature. This attempt is ultimately doomed, of course, when Gul Gusairne inevitably discovers it. Thus far the PCs have not made an attempt to be subtle about their plan and unless something about their approach changes it will lead back to them.

What I'm concerned about is what Gul will do when he does find out. Would this be enough for him to attempt to arrest the PCs or should it just call for a visit as per Event 4? I am concerned that they have not done enough in Meratt to warrant the assault on Birdsong, (they only have 12 loyalty points) but I doubt someone like Gul would just let this lie. I am currently thinking that every couple days they should roll a percentile to determine if Gul comes to visit, at which point he will attempt an arrest. This will (hopefully) give them some time to build up loyalty points before their confrontation and won't make them skip most of the book.

I am open to other suggestions for Gul's actions, however.

Oh, nice. It's little details like this that I'm looking for. Thanks. Does he play a part in Return by default, or was that something you wanted to base on previous decisions?

By default no, we just wanted to base it on previous decisions. I thought it would be fun to

Most of them have already been listed here, but my girlfriend and I made sure to play through Wrath of the Righteous before playing Return of the Runelords because

This might work better as an adventure or just one part of an adventure path, but I think a Dead Space like horror thing on a Dwarven Sky Citadel ship would be really cool. I know we already had Dead Suns as a horror AP, but that was more Event Horizon than Dead Space.

Essentially the party would be trapped on this citadel during the outbreak and have to open up different areas of the citadel to escape/stop whatever's causing the outbreak. Each major region of the ship could be their own adventure volumes, or this could be a smaller part of another AP.

All Skeleton all the time, baby! If I ever play anything other than skeleton from this point forward then something's gone horribly wrong. Beyond that I'm not sure, I guess I'll wait for the player's guide.

More Hongal! I know we went there in Jade Regent, so it's probably pretty far down the list compared to nations we've not been to yet. Also from what I remember Ordu-Aganhei was more like a Minkaian city than a Hongali one, so I don't necessarily think that we've got all we can from the region. We barely know anything about Hongali culture (though the same could be said for most of Tian Xia) and it would be a great opportunity to get more info about General Susumu, because right now there's next to none. I also kinda want to know more about how the Hongal economy actually works, they're clearly inspired by the Mongols and other steppe tribes who often relied on raiding China and other wealthy lands, but Hongal only really has Chu Ye as a potential target and fighting a bunch of Oni seems like it would be difficult.

The AP could be something akin to Frozen Flame, a 1-10 about the PCs leading their own khanate to greatness, or even a higher level one where the PCs take the fight to Chu-Ye and Shogun Tsuneni. The AP would also be a cool chance to showcase what Hongalis who aren't pure martial classes are like, show me Hongali wizards who fire off spells from horseback, or Hongali druids who ensure that the animals can graze regardless of where the clan travels.

I agree with The Raven Black that Tobyn being a failed priest of Desna is an important aspect of the character, it emphasizes how even the servants of the good deities can commit heinous acts in private. However, if you feel the need to change it such a radical change seems unnecessary. Tobyn is supposed to be something of a local legend, a wise old priest respected by a townspeople who largely worship good and neutral deities, making him (and thus much the town) devil-worshippers changes too much about the base setting and might turn the players off from wanting to protect them. Perhaps he could be a priest of Erastil or Abadar instead? Both are worshipped in town and have shrines in the temple, and being lawful deities they lend themselves better to Tobyn's let's say... stricter style of parenting.

But it's your game so if you think he would fit better as an Asmodean then more power to you

I gave them only one mythic rank and it was when they entered Alaznist's demesne. Even just one made the encounters easier than they should have been imo. I wouldn't give them more unless you want Alaznist to be an easy fight.

Can anyone tell me what happend to the Taldor law of whos permitted to grow beards in this AP?

Currently running this campaign with a PC who wants to repeal the beard laws. As far as I can tell the beard laws are still in place at the time of the AP, meaning that only members of the nobility are allowed to grow beards. At least there's nothing in the text which says anything otherwise.

On page 11 the reward the PCs are given for successfully making Dame Crabbe helpful has no price attached, other than the fact that it loses 150gp in value for every failed check against it. The item is a "gilded black marble bust" how much should the intact bust be worth?

Thank you both for the ideas, I ended up picking Micheaux because I think he's exactly the sort of emperor who would want to meddle in politics form beyond the grave. So far I've had the spirit help the oracle win a debate using obscure legal knowledge and had him forewarn about the cloaked figures in the senate. I was hoping to use Senator Nicodemus and her occult knowledge to drop a couple hints but the players didn't seem to interested in talking to her.

I really like the idea of creating a new relic for the PC but I'll probably wait to see what sort of magic items the oracle is drawn to before designing it.

Thank you so much for all the advice!

In my current campaign I have a player who is playing an oracle with the possessed curse and Intrigue mystery, the idea being that the character is possessed by a spirit which is helping him navigate Taldan politics by whispering secrets and rumors in his ear. The PC is also a Rakshasa-Spawn tiefling, so I decided to make him the secret son of

Gotta get some throat singing once they reach book 4 for sure. I've had
Yuve Yuve Yu stuck in my head for weeks since starting this campaign: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4xZUr0BEfE

What prevents Xanderghul being resurrected via True Resurrection or other powerful magic like Krune was supposed to be in the last book? If Clegg Zincher can get his hands on some scrolls surely the relatively well-off cult of the Peacock Spirit would be more than eager to resurrect their god.

Now of course the meta answer is because that would lessen the player's agency, but is there anything more explicit than that?

Hey James, I don't know if this has been answered before but I wasn't able to find the answer through google. I am running Return of the Runelords right now and I was curious as to why the Runelord's reigns are so long? Obviously some of them are Mythic or liches which explains the longevity but others such as Angothane just seem to be regular humans.

The obvious answer is magic, but I was wondering if there was a specific type of magic you had in mind to explain it?

Part of me does kind of wonder if people are playing with groups that will relieve themself on a gods shoes for the Yuks how they have managed to have there group get to part 5 for the party members to do that to begin with (Since I assume most parties wont suddenly have there players go from sensible to jerk just because the NPC is a god.)

Right? If groups are out here pissing off Iomedae how did they manage to survive their little chat with Nocticula last book?

There are no NPC artists depicted that doesn't appear in the actual adventure. All of them are mentioned somewhere, somehow (at least up til installment 4#, haven't yet checked out the remaining two in any detail).

However, an NPC performer might both have a common name and an artist name. My suggestion on how to most easily find them is to simply do a text search in the PDF, on your computer.

Search for a word in the listed name (inside covers depiction) and you will find the paragraph that discusses how and where they join (or fail to join) the circus.

Feel free to ask for any particular artist, and we can give you page numbers.

This was actually why I made the post, because I couldn't find the aquakineticist when termsearching "gillman" and "aquakineticist" and combined with the vagueness of the card on the inner cover I thought it was just supposed to be an example NPC rather than an actual one. Turns out gillmen are renamed in 2e and searching the word "water" eventually helped me find it.

Thanks for the information!

I want my players to get traits that fit their tricks better and the way to do that is through NPCs.

So, I am interested in knowing when other GMs added new NPCs to the circus. I know that there are certain encounters that allow the PCs to recruit people as part of the plot, but the inside covers have NPC acts that don't appear in the actual adventure. I was wondering how you incorporated them into your campaigns, or whether you just replaced them with NPCs of your own creation. And if you used them, how did you incorporate them, bonus encounters? People just looking for circus work and approaching? A job fair?

Any advice would be appreciated, the last thing I want is to mess up the adventure balance by adding too many traits/NPCs too early.

What if the PCs never encounter the Drow?

It seems like the most logical progression for the players would be to explore the islands in the lake first and find the shaft to the next layer in the process, pretty much bypassing the drow entirely. What should happen if they do this? Should the drow follow them so that the party runs into them on the way back, or is that just it for the drow in this adventure?

What if the PC's never encounter the Drow?

It seems like the most logical progression for the players would be to explore the islands in the lake first and find the shaft to the next layer in the process, pretty much bypassing the drow entirely. What should happen if they do this? Should the drow follow them so that the party runs into them on the way back, or is that just it for the drow in this adventure?

Name: Thea Vanderale
Race: Human
Classes/Levels: Kineticist 12
Adventure: Beyond the Doomsday Door
Location: E13: Temple of Doomsday
Catalyst: Dragged into the abyss by a Qlippoth Lord

The Gory Details: The party was really out of their league when it came to this fight, as 3 of them (and Koriah) died during it. Thea was the only one to stay dead though. From the beginning of the fight Ardathanatus put himself in a very defensive position, the repulsion effect stopped the Oradin and the druid's animal companion from entering the room, the blade barrier caused damage to anyone wanting to approach from land, and the sorcerer was transformed into a crab thanks to a baleful polymorph from one of the qlippoths. This pretty much left Thea as the only person left with a clear shot at Ardathanatus. A few thunderstom blasts and some repositioning later and Thea had taken the elf down. Unfortunately after being chased by the qlippoths she had wound up in front of the doomsday door as Ardathanatus' magic failed.

An instant after her last blast the doors swung open revealing Yamasoth, the Polymorph Plague himself. After failing her save against his horrific appearance Thea accepted chaos into her heart and became a willing servant of Yamasoth. With that she accepted the cold embrace of his tentacles as he retreated into the Abyss with a new plaything.

So while she's not technically dead (and may come back as some product of demonic experimentation in the future) she's as good as dead to the party.

How did you guys handle the dream research? My party just got to that part last session and I could tell they were bored to tears, especially the martial characters. They just weren't all that into rolling, passing and learning nothing from their attempts so I'm really interested in hearing how others made it more engaging.

I am in the process of making a character for Carrion Crown and I was thinking about making them a member of the Esoteric Order of the Palatine Eye. I know that they have some role to play in the AP but I was wondering if having a character be a member would mess with the campaign in some way?

Apologies if this has been asked before on this thread, but I have a question about what the cultists actually do all day. One of my players has infiltrated the cult of Hastur in Iris Hill by luring out the gate guard and casting Assume Appearance on the body. So now I need to know how the cultists spend their time throughout the day other than hanging out in the dining room waiting for the PCs to arrive.

Hey James,

What do you know/what can you tell me about Kaladurnae, first Runelord of Greed? My girlfriend decided to play a Shabti version of him for our Rise of the Runelords campaign so naturally I want him to appear in Shattered Star and Return of the Runelords. The only problem is that the information in the APs is contradictory.

In Shattered Star there are a lot of references to how the original Runelords

Even if you can't answer my specific question any information you can give about Kaladurnae would likely make her day!

Thank you in advance!

There's also the possibility of confusion with dragons (the one on beginner box in particular). Did anybody use that?

I always assumed that the Devil was supposed to be the dragon from the Beginner's Box. They have very similar descriptions and the idea that it is just a misinterpreted dragon makes more sense than the idea that this is some previously unknown creature that just happens to live in Sandpoint.