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IIRC, the hex travel stuff in this book was made before the overland travel rules in the core rule book were finalized, which is why there's this weird inconsistency. I'd recommend using the campaign's rules just because I don't think a slower travel speed makes the hexcrawl very interesting.
Deriven Firelion, I would recommend you re-read the "The Ring and the Triad" section of Book 1. Specifically, the second paragraph that begins "For the moment, though, the Scarlet Triad must act cautiously. After all, the group is still under Mengkare’s (distracted) watch, and Uri realizes that any attempt to directly control or activate the portals of Alseta’s Ring before they’ve managed to complete repairs to the orb of gold dragonkind runs an increased risk of attracting the dragon’s attention." It should address your concerns as to why the Triad is not more overt with their opperations. When you add the power Mengkare hold over Uri and Emaliza via the Contract of Citizenship into the equation, it becomes very clear why the Triad feels they cannot act directly to attack the PCs. I hope this information is useful to you in adapting the rest of Age of Ashes to better serve your table.
I don't see how fighting Aadrushian doesn't turn into a disaster. The snipers are almost certain to notice and begin raining attacks on the PCs, and are likely to raise the alarm. It depends on where the PCs enter the quarry from. The quarry is *enormous* and the vantage point the snipers are using is camouflaged. Maintaining that camouflage, in combination with the choke point the snipers are looking out of, will narrow the field of view of the snipers. If the PCs approach Aadrushian from the west (or even the south), the snipers could conceivably not see. Obviously, what the snipers can or cannot see is entirely within the GM's discretion, but you have the tools you need to make a decision for your table.
I agree 100% that you should tell the story that your group wants told, and it sounds like you're doing that. Good luck! I hope your players can keep their dog safe.
I think you may be missing something. For one thing, most of the prominent Scarlet Triad operatives the party have defeated up to this point should have given them critical information. Belmazog's notes reveal that the Scarlet Triad is in need of gold infused with draconic magic. Laslunn's notes reveal that the Scarlet Triad knows about Alseta's Ring in Breachill, and Laslunn suspects that higher ups in the Triad are trying to turn it into a *weapon*. Embermead's notes are at your discretion, as best I can tell re-reading the end of Book 4, but it's an excellent opportunity to let the party know about the golden shard she got from Veshumirix. Age of Ashes is a mystery, and the hook for much of it is curiosity. Each step carries just a little bit more information that will help the party solve this mystery. Once the party knows that an international slave ring wants to turn their basement into some sort of weapon, that changes. The mystery becomes personal, and dangerous. While curiosity remains, the desire to not have the power of Dahak's essence harnessed into a weapon becomes the more prominent hook as the adventure progresses. Another more minor thing is that, while there is time pressure, it does not have to be immediate time pressure. Age of Ashes was designed as an AP that would allow the party to engage in Downtime activities between books. Players should feel comfortable engaging with the fortress building subsystem, using the crafting rules, etc. While 3 years of downtime between books might be a little too far, the amount of time the Scarlet Triad needs in order to complete their work is also entirely at your discretion. The time pressure in Book 5 is less related to the Triad completing the orb, and more related to the Triad retaliating against the guilds who side with the PCs (and later, there's the 72 hour evacuation clock). tl;dr: The book gives you plenty of hook, the party should already know the gist of the Triad's plans, and the time pressure is deliberately flexible. Make it as urgent as you think would be interesting, and tell your table the story you think they'd enjoy the most.
Now they are hunting down the mysterious ''I.E'' in Kovlar but for the next book I am thinking of having every week after the first 2 or 3 of Downtime feature some events that will eventually lead up to an armed assault from a force 200 or so large that have been teleported there by the powerful wizards and summoners of the Triad in a last ditch effort to reclaim the keys. If Mengkare is that nose-in-the-book, then the Scarlet Triad isn't aware of that, because in several places throughout the AP, there is reference to the Triad holding back for fear of Mengkare taking notice. For instance, this excerpt from Book 1: For the moment, though, the Scarlet Triad must act cautiously. After all, the group is still under Mengkare’s (distracted) watch, and Uri realizes that any attempt to directly control or activate the portals of Alseta’s Ring before they’ve managed to complete repairs to the orb of gold dragonkind runs an increased risk of attracting the dragon’s attention. So instead, Uri has taken steps to ensure a Scarlet Triad presence near all five portal sites, with cover stories to justify their presence, should Mengkare grow curious. and this excerpt from Book 3: the notes indicate that Laslunn is growing impatient with the Scarlet Triad’s plans to leave Alseta’s Ring untouched. She would rather launch an immediate attack on Breachill to secure the hub and doesn’t agree with her commanders’ fears that “doing so would alert our benefactor,” but for the moment she has been content to bide her time. So with regard to sending a force to Breachill, Uri Zandivar has already veto'd a suggestion to do so by his third in command. You can change this, and you should if you want to tell a different story, but know that it is in fact a different story.
Now they are hunting down the mysterious ''I.E'' in Kovlar but for the next book I am thinking of having every week after the first 2 or 3 of Downtime feature some events that will eventually lead up to an armed assault from a force 200 or so large that have been teleported there by the powerful wizards and summoners of the Triad in a last ditch effort to reclaim the keys. Ok, so a crucial part of why the Scarlet Triad conducts themselves in the way they do in this AP is that they are trying to avoid drawing Mengkare's notice. If you want to remove that aspect of the AP or otherwise down play it, that's fine. I'm not going to tell you not to rewrite the AP to be more in line with what you want out of it, because that's a great way to use APs. However, it is important to accept when changing the AP in this way that you are fundamentally changing the premise. The Scarlet Triad, as written, needs to act clandestinely in order to keep Mengkare from bringing their plans to a premature end. Both Emaliza and Uri Zandivar are under Mengkare's contract, so if Mengkare discovers that they have been using the Scarlet Triad for nefarious purposes, both of them are done for. If you are going to have the Triad take such overt action, I recommend that you figure out a reason why Mengkare would somehow not take notice. In my view, that is a harder job than accepting that the Triad is not in a position to act proactively, but it's also not my table so do what you want.
Did everyone assume the Animated Dragonstorms were actually Neutral Evil, instead of Neutral? They have weakness to good damage, which wouldn't affect them if they were Neutral. That's my assumption as well.
Did you let your party assault the quarry in parts? Let them rest after they attacked a few times? I don't think my players will survive the quarry AT ALL. They just finished floor 7 of Tanessen Tower and are already almost completely out of healing. I think the bard is the only one with any healing spells left. I gave my party the Gourd Home from the Bellflower network, which helped them rest in the Quarry. I'd recommend that anyone running this book do the same, the Quarry is a *lot*.
The butchers do indeed have incorrect stats. IIRC it was an editing oversight where they were unintentionally printed with Level 8 stats in some areas instead of Level 6 stats. I'd recommend setting their to hit modifier on each of their strikes to 17, the High to hit modifier for a Level 6 creature from the Monster Creation Rules. Their AC, hit points, saving throws, and damage are all in line with a Level 6 creature already.
But they do want to get an audience with the Silver Council to report the Scarlet Triad. How would I even do that? Do they meet with random people? They tried going to Halleka to have him get them an audience but with him being such a low ranking diplomat I don't even... Ravounel is a relatively new nation, so it probably wouldn't have an extensive buerocracy. And given how much they hate slavers in Kintargo, walking into an office to say "hey I'd like to report some slaver activity" could get the attention of some higher ups. This could be a good opportunity to communicate information about Ravounel's recent history, particularly about the revolution and Ravounel's secession from Cheliax.
The Soulbound Ruin is Room F1 on the Haunted Halls map, so if the party destroys the room they can still explore the rest of the building. I definitely agree with you that it would have been better to implement as a hazard. My party climbed their way to the top of the Haunted Halls straight away, so I don't have any experience actually running it.
I'm kind of confused about how to run the encounter with Barushak Il-Varashma, and summoning in general.It doesn't help that he's listed as having Summon Fiend prepared at 2nd level and 4th level when it's a 5th level spell. I don't think it's even possible to de-heighten a spell that way. The rules for Pathfinder 2e in general were in flux while Age of Ashes was being written, and a couple of NPCs tell us that how summoning spells worked were one of the things undergoing changes. For instance, in Book 2 Belmazog has a spell called "Summon Monster". That spell doesn't exist. Likewise, Barushak has Summon Fiend prepared at levels you can't prepare Summon Fiend at, presumably because at some point Summon Fiend was a lower level spell you could heighten, like Summon Animal or Summon Elemental. Fortunately, the book tells us what Barushak likes to summon with those spells: an Evangelist Velstrac at 6th level, a Bearded Devil at 5th level, a hell hound at 4th level, and an Auger Velstrac at 3rd or 2nd level. As a side note, you are correct that you are not allowed to de-heighten a spell.
Regarding the first encounter in Veshumirix's Lair, the 4 Dragonscarred Dead are listed as a "Low (14)" encounter. However, 4 level 13 creatures would be a Severe threat encounter for a 14th level party, not a Low threat encounter. Is the listed difficulty incorrect, the number of Dragonscarred dead incorrect, or did I make a mistake reading all of this?
thanks a lot for your work guys, it really pushed my AoA forward!!! I have a question, hope you can help. I'm trying to use those maps on roll20 but I can't align them properly with the grid. Any suggestion on the page settings to use? thanks again!!!! My general tips for getting a map well aligned in roll20: 1. Count the dimensions of the map's grid (eg: how many squares wide and high it is). Crop out partial grid spaces if necessary. 2. Make a map in roll20 that is the same dimensions. 3. Upload your map, put it on the map layer, right click it. Select "advanced, set dimensions". 4. Set the dimensions of your map to the dimensions you noted earlier. 5. The map should now be exactly the right size. Move it around a bit to make sure that all of it is visible, and your map's grid should be perfectly aligned with the one in roll20.
I'm deriving some of this from the lines Uri has taken steps to ensure a Scarlet Triad presence near all five portal sites, with cover stories to justify their presence, should Mengkare grow curious.and By having agents established in Ravounel and Saggorak under the pretense of securing additional mercantile interests, the Scarlet Triad can watch over Dreamgate and Jewelgate (that these interests primarily involve the slave trade remains yet another secret the Triad is keeping from Mengkare) Both lines are from the "The Ring and the Triad" section of the Adventure Path summary in Book 1. The cavern containing Dreamgate being "empty and long forgotten" is with reference to the general surrounding populace, not all people everywhere on Golarion. The Triad as an entity knows about Dreamgate. Their presence near each gate is a seeming coincidence that, upon gaining more information, becomes a grand conspiracy. That's a vital part of the AP's structure. Laslunn personally has additional motivations for being in Ravounel, which you've correctly identified. More specific information about what she knows about Alseta's Ring comes from this paragraph on page 55 of Book 3: Laslunn also keeps a small table here covered with maps and correspondence, including notes about Alseta’s Ring in Breachill. These notes reveal that Laslunn suspects other contacts in the Scarlet Triad are trying to magically convert Alseta’s Ring into a weapon somehow, but Laslunn isn’t clear how and has been attempting to gain more information about this from her contacts elsewhere in the organization. The table also contains a glittering magic gemstone—the Eye of the Wise—which Laslunn acquired from her contacts. She knows it can be used to activate Jewelgate, and her notes indicate, in particular, that she hopes to use the Eye of the Wise to leverage her influence with her direct superior, Ilssrah Embermead, who is currently working to secure the far side of that aiudara under the Five Kings Mountains. Finally, the notes indicate that Laslunn is growing impatient with the Scarlet Triad’s plans to leave Alseta’s Ring untouched. She would rather launch an immediate attack on Breachill to secure the hub and doesn’t agree with her commanders’ fears that “doing so would alert our benefactor,” but for the moment she has been content to bide her time. While what she knows about Dreamgate specifically is not covered, it would be unusual for her to know about Jewelgate without knowing about the one she's supposed to be watching. Presumably Uri clued her in to Dreamgate's location so that she can do her job, while keeping her in the dark about more specific parts of the plan.
The triad knows the locations of each gate linked to Alseta's Ring (save perhaps Lotusgate's). Part of the reason Laslunn is in Ravounel in the first place is to keep an eye on Dreamgate.
If they find Gerhard at the temple later, you could play up the *cartoonish* level of villainy inherent in his plan. Gerhard is demolishing an ancient temple, sacred to local cultures, just because it contradicts his theory about the local religion. A theory that's demonstrably incorrect, which Gerhard would know if he had bothered to ask literally any local. If your PCs have Society or Religion, you can give them checks that will let them derive this information themselves. If you need a backup plan, you could make an encounter containing local wildlife attacking Gerhard while he blows up the temple. If your party defends Gerhard, he could be grateful enough to part with his broken dragon pillar. It would be a bit out of character for Gerhard, but I don't see anything wrong with tweaking him to be more reasonable if your party has taken a liking to him. I'm speaking theoretically, because my party tied his arms and legs together and sunk him in his own boat.
It looks like the asterisks correspond to his bloodline spells. He has the bloodline powers from the Angelic sorcerer bloodline, and each spell with an asterisk is from that bloodline's list of spells. In addition, many of his spells are listed in multiple spell levels. I suspect that his signature spells are not explicitly denoted, but that instead each signature spell is listed at each spell level it could be heightened to. That would also explain why Rinnarv knows 3rd, 5th, 6th, 8th and 9th level Resist Energy.
Whether or not the Vrock is a summoned creature depends on whether or not creatures summoned with the Planar Ally ritual count as summoned, or if they are simply extraplanar creatures inhabiting the material plane. I would rule that the Vrock is a summoned creature, as a Ritual was required to summon it. I don't see why Dispel Magic wouldn't work on a summon spell, though. It's an ongoing spell effect, which is something Dispel Magic can target. Considering that the spell needs to be actively sustained, there's clearly some active magic still going on to keep the creature in the material plane, if you need an in universe reason as to why it would make sense.
I would allow a player to use Waderer's Guide with a hex as a destination. The spell doesn't specify how specific the destination has to be, and a 10 mile stretch of jungle is still a destination. Though there's a different spell of the same level called Show the Way that, as far as I can tell, does the same thing but does not require a destination. It's divine/primal instead of divine/occult, but both are such narrow spells that I would guess that their most common use case is a cleric or Druid preparing them, rather than a bard or a sorcerer knowing them. As for dispelling conjuration effects, it depends. Dispel Magic counteracts spell effects (or temporarily suppresses magic items). If the Vrock was summoned with Summon Fiend and was actively being sustained, I'd rule that dispel magic would be appropriate. However, this Vrock was summoned by a ritual, therefore there is no spell effect to dispel.
I don't believe there's any scripted things in the books that inform the party of Dreamgate's destination. The assumed motive is curiosity as far as I can tell. If you want, you could also have the Breachill Town Council ask the PCs to investigate Dreamgate, because the portals in their basement have a habit of spawning monsters and the council would very much like to be assured that this new one is safe. Alternatively, you could have Thropp have correspondence on his body implying that Dreamgate leads to Ravonnel.
As a point of order, Purple Worms are classified as normal animals RAW. They have the animal tag, rather than the beast tag. An animal that's decided to attack the party would definitely be hostile. It's motives aren't personal, but that animal has decided to make a meal out of the party. I wouldn't worry about the worm breaking the game too much longer. Make it clear that the worm won't be allowed into Kovlar, set a scene for the Druid to say their tearful goodbye, and describe to worm riding into freedom in what would certainly be a sunset if you weren't underground. You could even have the worm show up again later to save the party from a hairy situation in Saggorak or Veshumirix's lair
I really appreciate your perspective and I will give it more thought. I guess the module contemplates that the PCs can handle ANY of the non-fortress encounters at 6th OR 7th level, including the mine? Usually the modules have the encounters designated for one specific level, which helps for avoiding TPK. The system's math really helps here. An encounter is always one step more difficult when done at one level lower, and one step easier when done at one level higher. You'll notice that a lot of the jungle encounters are listed as "Severe 6". That means they'll be a Severe encounter for a level 6 party, and a Moderate encounter for a level 7 party. So those encounters are difficult but doable for a level 6 party, especially because they'll likely only be doing one per day, and they get easier once the party is level 7. The mine, you'll notice, has a lot of "Moderate 7", some "Low 7", and even a "Trivial 7" or two. As long as you follow the guidelines for keeping individual encounters in the mine separate from one another, the mine is doable at Level 6. The dragon pillar itself will be quite difficult, (it would be an Extreme encounter for a Level 6 party), but the rest of it should be fine.
It's worth noting that the most direct path to the Elephant people village misses the kobolds (by one hex, but it does miss them). When I ran this section for my players, they went directly to the Elephant people village, then made rafts and traveled along the river until they found the mine. I don't think that what you're describing are narrative problems. It can be more difficult to tell the story you want, depending on how your party tackles the jungle, but it's all still doable. Finding the kobolds after the mine still works ("Hey look, these are the kobolds Hezle was talking about!"), and IMO finding the fortress before figuring the dragon pillars out is more interesting. Looking at the multicolored shield around the fortress and figuring out that none of the remaining colors match any of the dragon pillars they've found so far is a good way to deduce the puzzle. The Gerhard situation is trickier, depending on how you want to run the whole twin thing. I just didn't bother with it. Holistically though, not every encounter needs to be story important in a meaningful way. Finding little nods to things they've already done is rewarding as a party, it makes it feel like your actions have consequences and the world you're inhabiting is alive. In the context of a TTRPG, that makes up for the looser narrative flow in my view. All that said, if you want to put the encounters in order, there's nothing wrong with that. It's certainly less stressful to prep! The order you've chosen should work well, as far as I can tell.
I think the idea is that Emaliza thinks the Orb will control Mengkare, and goes into the confrontation with that assumption. When she uses it, she discovers for the first time that her secret weapon is significantly less powerful than she thought it was, and pays the price. Thanks to the considerable efforts of the party throughout the AP, the Scarlet Triad did not have enough time or resources to perfectly recreate the Orb of Gold Dragonkind.
I haven't looked at the maps recently, but remember that Mengkare can turn into a medium sized Lamond Breachton at will.
Huntergate is both beneath the citadel and in those caves, because those caves (eventually) lead under the citadel. Malarunk's forces are trapped because the stairs between Alstea's Ring (where they are) and the rest of the Citadel have collapsed. Exiting via the caves is impractical for them because it would require climbing some shear cave walls, and they didn't bring gear for that. They got to the citadel because the stairs weren't collapsed when they got there. The Grauladons (the dragon crocodile looking creature in the citadel courtyard) were from the cult. They were heavy enough that when they went up the stairs, the stairs eventually collapsed, isolating different parts of the cult in different parts of the citadel.
The idea isn't super well explained in the flyer itself, but the premise is that you rent equipment for adventurers to use while you improve their current gear (ex: you give them a weapon to use while you use their +2 potency runestone to improve their +1 striking greatsword). If the renter doesn't come back by the end of the 30 days, the store keeps the gear they improved, essentially treating that equipment as collateral against the rental. There would need to be a restriction on what gear can be rented depending on what equipment is being left to be improved (so that unscrupulous adventurers don't leave cheap weaponry behind so they can abscond with more valuable rental equipment). EDIT: it's also worth mentioning that The War Cage also engages in more conventional commerce, so this gimmick-y rental service is not their only revenue stream The whole reason I'm making something like this is because my players tend to treat most situations as having lots of urgency, whether they actually do or not. So I'm giving them an opportunity to improve their gear without slowing down, at the cost of spending some extra cash and trusting that Chuko will keep their stuff safe.
I cooked up a flyer to give to my players advertising 'The War Cage' in Kintargo, so I figured I would post it here too.
Maybe it *does* take that long to make a dragon pillar. In addition, maybe it took several attempts for Jahsi to retake the temple. Having to fight off attacks from the Ekujae could have slowed down construction of the dragon pillar. It could simply be that the temple was the battleground for a month of skirmishes between the Cinderclaws and the Ekujae, and that it was only recently that the Ekujae were definitively victorious. Perhaps it even changed hands a few times before the Ekujae ended up with it. You're right in that it's also possible that Jahsi's wound is completely unrelated to the temple battles, and that he was injured fighting Cinderclaws somewhere else. Malarunk arriving in the Citadel is the instigating event for Book 1 of the Adventure path. His grauladons collapsed the main stairwell of the fortress, trapping himself and his compatriots on their respective floors. So I figure that Malarunk has been in the citadel basement from the beginning of the campaign, but not a moment sooner.
The timeline is not strictly laid out IIRC, so you can bend it to suit your campaign. To make it work in your case, I'd have the timeline work like this: Malarunk takes the temple, goes through the portal, and leaves a small force to defend it. This force holds the temple until a few days before the PCs enter Huntergate, when Jahsi's force retakes the temple. Jahsi gets wounded in the process. As far as explaining why the Cinderclaws didn't have the time to finish the White Dragon Pillar, we don't really know how long it would take to make one of those things. The physical structure of it, sure, but there's super powerful ritual magic involved here. Maybe it *does* take that long to make a dragon pillar. In addition, maybe it took several attempts for Jahsi to retake the temple. Having to fight off attacks from the Ekujae could have slowed down construction of the dragon pillar.
To clarify, I think you should talk to your party about this out of game, not during the session. Either after a session or before one, sit everyone down and ask your players if they're OK with this player's behavior. If they are, that's great! Nothing needs to be done. If not, talk with that player and remind everyone to consult the rest of the party before making a decision on the party's behalf. I would never recommend retaliating or punishing behavior like this in game. If the party is ok with it, there's no punishment that needs to happen. If the party is not, then the behavior should be called out and prevented out of game, rather than in game. All that said, this is your party and you know them and this situation better than I do. Use your best judgement about how severe a problem this is and whether or not it warrants addressing.
Werrt has neither a poisoned arrows nor a bow of any kind, he is an unmodified Boggard Warrior from the bestiary. As for why he has one in the art, there were some miscommunication/timing/something else issues with the art in Book 1 that don't carry over to the other books. It's the same reason why Alak Stagram is depicted in hellknight armor with a halberd, but is described as being out of uniform, wielding a silver greatsword.
Leroy Jenkins as in a trolling attack when the party isn't ready? The only player likely to do that is probably aware enough to realize the party will leave him to die... This is a sit down with your party and discuss things situation. If the party is fine with it, then there's no problem here. But if your other players are frustrated that they don't get to make choices because one player keeps making executive decisions, then you need to talk with that player about it. Make it clear that it's ok for the party to confer out of character so that everyone is on the same page before initiating an encounter. "Metagaming" gets used in a negative light, but this is the sort of metagaming that's generally positive for a table's enjoyment.
I thought the Pendergrast encounter was based on the pillar having been brought to half hit points? But going back and reading the description of the pillars does mention the pillars needing to be destroyed and not just disabled. That being said my group only specifically destroyed the blue pillar when they finally found it. Well, yes. When an object is at its broken threshold (which is half hit points for most objects, dragon pillars included) it gains the broken condition. Broken hazards can't be activated. After looking it up, they're not technically disabled when broken, but practically speaking it's the same thing. I definitely used the wrong word though.
Anything other than completely destroying the pillar will not lower the shield on the Fortress of Sorrow, which is a fact the encounter with Pendergrast at the blue dragon pillar is built on. Said pillar is already disabled, but the party needs to break it completely if they want to lower the barrier: something Gerhard is not willing to let the party do. All of the entries under the Disable portion of the Dragon Pillar's stat block (including Athletics checks, Thievery checks, and Dispel Magic to counteract) disable the pillar, they do not destroy the pillar. That said, once the pillar is no longer a threat, all you need to do is deal with whatever foes are surrounding the pillar and you can just beat on it until it breaks. Not something that needs to be played out.
Disabling the pillars doesn't destroy them, it just stops them from using their beam attack. The athletics check is to disable a pillar, not destroy it. The Blue Dragon Pillar has already been disabled, so an athletics check wouldn't do anything. The party also needs to destroy, not just disable, each dragon pillar in order to lower the barrier around the Fortress of Sorrow. As for the jungle drake encounter, how many people are in your party? I count at least 7 from what you've described (I wish you luck in managing such a large table), and assuming it's exactly 7 I think you slightly over buffed the Drake encounter. Your budget for a Severe encounter is 210 exp (120 base, 30 for each PC beyond the 4th). The base encounter is 3 party level threats (the two drakes and the pillar), which adds to 120 exp. Your encounter is 4 party level + 1 threats and one party level threat, which adds to 280 exp. That's an extreme difficulty encounter for this party (160 exp base + 40 for each party member beyond the 4th). If you had gone down an elite drake, it would have been a total of 220 exp, which is more in line with the encounter's intended difficulty. Extreme difficulty encounters threatening TPK is more or less the system working as intended. That said, you know more about your party than I do. If there's more than 7 of them, the math is different, and if they're level 7 instead of level 6, then it would be a Severe difficulty encounter instead of Extreme.
I'll second that wearing armor you don't have the strength mod for is a not a great idea. That said, Nerf him. Your players are obviously frustrated, so if no one is having fun with the encounter as designed, nerf him. Give him the weak template, or never cast any of his spells, or something. There's no shame in tweaking the encounters of an adventure path to better serve your table. From the sounds of it, your players' lack of experience with the system is hurting their ability to make combat effective characters. And that's OK! Tailor the AP to them, and as they learn and retrain you can start easing up on the nerfs and gradually put them back on the unmodified path. Alternatively, Renali is an NPC who is near by. She could be willing to assist the party in fighting Ralldar (she was willing to assist mine, with some aggressive Gorumite convincing). She won't provide a lot of firepower, but her Illusory Creature spell can tank hits. Some extra bodies to distract Ralldar might be what this party needs.
My recommendation is that they find them Book 1 spoilers: in Voz Lirayne's custody in the Goblinblood Caves. Have some of the cultists find the Goblinbloood caves while looking for a way to reunite with Malarunk. The Bloody Blades will make quick work of them, and hand the captured PCs over to Voz. Voz could have any number of uses for captives, including selling them off to the Scarlet Triad, killing them and raising them as undead minions, or keeping them for herself as living slaves. Whatever you want her plans to be, the new party can show up just in time to save them from any irreversible fate. This will also give you a chance to have some extra party members around for the Ralldar fight, if you think your party will need them.
There is a *world* of difference between killing people without their consent (traditionally referred to as murder) and leading an army of volunteers into a dangerous situation. This is the crux of the issue. If the people of Promise were capable of volunteering, then Mengkare's plan would work. They are not, because they are under the effect of what is essentially a very conditional magical domination. So Mengkare's plan will not work, because he neither respects nor fully understands the concept of free will. Killing the people of Promise is not a heroic sacrifice, it is mass murder, and the difference is consent. If you encourage your players to examine the bigger picture, I think they will draw the conclusions you need them to. Any given citizen of Promise volunteering to be sacrificed for the greater good would be fine. Every single citizen of Promise being sacrificed *against their will* is unambiguously unethical. The fact that they are under magical compulsion to follow Mengkare's orders makes the situation even less ethical. The fact that Mengkare has such a system in Promise in the first place should also be a clue that he's up to no good. The lead up to the encounter with Mengkare has a bunch of little things that will help you convey to the party how utterly messed up the Contract of Citizenship is. Rinnarv is magically compelled to serve Emiliza no matter what, which the party can discover if they confront her (which is likely, if they are inclined to trust Mengkare). Inizra can tell the party about the eugenics aspects of Promise, which should be another huge red flag. Again, obviously you know your players better that I do. I am just not seeing what makes Mengkare come across as Good other than the fact that he's a Gold Dragon, which should not be a huge factor considering Kyrion's demonstration that dragons are not restricted to their default alignments.
I think Zoomba's got it right. Add to that the fact that the Triad is only giving up that shard to the Cinderclaws temporarily. They gave Belmazog the Nul-Acrumi Vazghul, so they know it will kill Kyrion. After the ritual is complete, it's only a matter of stealing the shard back once the Scarlet Triad has accumulated enough gold to reconstruct the orb. As for utilizing the power of Dahak within Alseta's Ring, I think that's only the Triad's goal in the long, long term. An enslaved Gold Dragon is a priceless prize regardless of anything else they can have Mengkare do for them. Once Mengkare is under their control, I figure that's when the Scarlet Triad would start doing the research necessary to figure out what, if anything, they can do with Alseta's Ring (beyond its obvious utility as a portal network, which is also nothing to scoff at).
Some more ideas: 1. If they inform the people of Promise, have the response be near universal denial. There's no way their benevolent Mengkare would commit such a heinous act. If asked if they would hypothetically go along with such a plan, have the denizens of Promise explain the Golden Contract: if Mengkare commanded them, they would have no say in the matter. No matter how much they might want to refuse, they would be magically compelled to obey. I feel like that might communicate how atypical Mengkare is for a golden dragon, morality wise. Kyrion foreshadows this a little bit by being a red dragon who isn't chaotic evil, lean into that too. 2. If necessary, go hard on the 'this will absolutely positively never work' aspect of the issue. The Golden Contract prevents the citizens of Promise from exercising enough free will to meaningfully consent to the ritual, so their sacrifice will unambiguously be in vain. If you're afraid that Jonivar will be interpreted as a well meaning, but ultimately incorrect skeptic, make sure the PCs get access to Mengkare's notes on the ritual and have them draw that conclusion themselves. 3. The book contains information about what happens if Mengkare proceeds with the Anima Invocation unhindered (essentially, he merges with Dahak's aspect and sets out to wipe out humanity). You could allow the party to learn of that eventuality to fully communicate the consequences of allowing Mengkare's plan to proceed. At the end of the day, you know your table better than I do so you are the ultimate judge of what is/is not likely to work. However, I think you're overestimating how difficult it is to convince people that murdering ~6000 people is a Bad Thing.
Echoing previous sentiments that that is a very good journal handout. My players are well past book 1 and I'm still going to show it to them.
I think that this book will give you the tools to create an interesting subversion of those expectations. Lean into the fact that Mengkare's plan is a darker version of 'heroic' sacrifice, and that Mengkare most certainly sees it as ordinary hero business. If you want specific suggestions: 1. Make it clear that Mengkare is sacrificing these people against their will. If the PCs suggest that Mengkare inform the people of Promise and get their consent to be sacrificed, have him refuse. After all, when he did that in his first utopian project, he had to wipe a bunch of memories and create Breachill. 2. Make it clear that without that free will, the ritual will not just fail but backfire spectacularly. Lean into the fact that it's not the sacrifice, but the decision to make the sacrifice that truly powers the ritual. 3. Use Jonivar to communicate these ideas if you need them to come from the mouth of an NPC before the confrontation with Mengkare. This adventure path in general plays a lot with the idea of free will, so treat this as the culmination of those themes. The difference between any given heroic sacrifice and Mengkare's plan is the free will of those who will be sacrificed, and that is all the difference in the world.
The pillars are the result of an extraordinarily powerful magical ritual. If we were doing a first edition esque AC breakdown, they would likely have very high profane and deflection bonuses to AC. Honestly, the harder thing for me to explain is that they have a positive bonus to their reflex saves. Telling the party witch, "The pillar...succeeds it's reflex save against Resilient Sphere?" was a good laugh. Ultimately, my party just walked up to them and disabled them with athletics checks. Every dragon pillar met its end to the dreaded stratagem of tipping it over.
In addition, the Community Created Content thread has a bunch of existing maps in the AP recreated at a higher resolution.
Witch is not yet an available class, so I presume you must have done some sort of homebrewed version? I'm letting my party use the APG playtest classes (which are Oracle, Investigator, Witch, and Swashbuckler). We have a Human Witch (Lesson of Omens) and an Elf Swashbuckler (Fencer).
My party basically surrounded Ralldar and beat him to death, though it was still nerve wracking every time someone got hit. Having the party's Witch stick Evil Eye to keep Ralldar frightened the whole fight was really important, as was getting Renali's assistance before hand. They also went into the fight fully rested. I didn't lose any party members, but if one thing had gone wrong I definitely could have. There are some specific things the book lays out about Ralldar and how he fights that are important to keep in mind: 1. Ralldar is quite crazed. He's at the point where he's hallucinating goblin subjects that aren't really there, and the slightest thing provokes him. How to interpret this is obviously up to each GM, but I decided that Ralldar would not behave tactically, especially with his spells. 2. Ralldar reverts to hit goblin form and flees at 25 hp remaining or less. Given that he does not have any meaningful attacks in this form, if the party can cross that HP threshold, then the fight is over. Ralldar will revert back if pursued into his hide-y hole, but if things are going poorly the party won't be obligated to continue the fight. 3. Renali is nearby, and can be persuaded to fight. Her illusory creature spell provided a much needed additional target for one of Ralldar's attacks, and contributed a surprisingly meaningful amount of damage.
Looking at her stat block again, I miscounted how many first level spells she had, so your math is correct.
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