Tom Marlow's page

Kasoh wrote:

Rysky wrote:

"More or less" still needs to be within the vicinity of what's being stated.

For Nocticula it's very heavily implied, but we'll see for certain most likely soon when Gods and Magic is released.

I assumed that Desna meant for the chain of events to end in Arueshalae's redemption the entire time, and attributed it as such. Presuming too much on Desna's part perhaps, but that's the only way the chain of events makes sense to me.

Possibly, but Desna is also the Goddess of "Ooo what's this button do?"

I shall now forever think of Desna as Dee Dee from Dexter's Laboratory

I was under the impression that Tar-Baphon's phylactery is secreted away somewhere by Urgathoa herself, so it's probably not on this plane.

So he gets nuked, reforms wherever his phylactery is, and tries to return to the seat of his power and discovers that despite all the people who died there, the region is now utterlly inhospitable to undead.

So not only does TB have to establish a new seat of power elsewhere on the planet, but he's probably got a bunch of stuff there that he'd like to get back somehow, but no undead minions can survive the lingering positive energy.

Also, the former gravelands are now a rainforest. The postive energy is going to kill everyone and everything, but when it peters out it's going to make plants grow out of control. We're talking like 300' tall trees and stuff like that.

Neat, I really like this angle. Thanks

This is unacceptable mass murder of innocent undead and attempted assassination of a legitimate post-living political leader.

Kill the characters, raise them as undead.

If that doesn't work (or even if does); kill the players, raise them as undead.

Yes, Quite Right. They should get a sternly written letter of exploding runes at the very least

yukongil wrote:

as for the mythic lich and his artifact phylactery, does it give a specific scenario for destroying it? Cause a positive energy nuke seems like it would be fitting way to destroy such an artifact.

The idea behind artifacts is that there is a singular specific way to destroy them (proverbially, throwing it into Mount Doom); and that anything else just doesn't work.

Aside from that, TB's phylactery is explicitly immune to all non-mythic damage; and Synchrony isn't mythic.

And aside from that, why would the phylactery would be on the Isle of Terror in the first place? Tar-Baphon has an int score well above the human scale, so give him a little credit for smart planning.

My head canon for the Phylactery's destruction was Tar-Baphons own tears of regret, which (in theory) would not be an issue bringing up in the coming games.

This reminds me of a letter I saw in Dragon Magazine (or possibly Dungeon) ages ago.

A player wrote in, asking much EXP his party got because they "destroyed the planet" (I cannot recall if this was Faerun, Greyhawk, or another setting). Basically it led to people writing in saying that their own (insert absurdly powerful character here) would have stopped it. Level 40, 50, 150, whatever. Of course, the folks at TSR were dumbfounded that people thought the system let you go that high.

But yeah, the "nuke a game setting" always reminds me of that story.

Good luck, btw.

It is a good thing i do not run an EXP table, lol I need to look up that dragon mag

If they weren't Mythic before, they should be after doing that.

Hmmm True one horrific tier, maybe

You could also have the device trigger whatever is left of the trap meant for Aroden in Xin-Grafar

What trap?

Hmmm, not sure why I thought your group was mythic.

Did you have another thread asking questions about mythic? Maybe that's where my thoughts got crossed.

Edit: I double checked, and you were asking about mythic in regards to spamming miracle. I must have just seen your username and got my thoughts mixed. Sorry about that.

Different table. That one is a Planescape/kingdom heart style campaign. More middle of the road when it comes to seriousness.

My serious lore table was the one that, due to past characters played with heavy anti-Cheliax backstories, aided the Glorious Reclamation and toppled Cheliax.

I'd like to say, I think your description of "punish the stupid" is unfair. The way I view it, what I've discussed/suggested is the forces of the universe that survived this event now becoming focused on the PCs for their actions.

IMO, even many normally evil forces wont like what the PCs have done since it likely hurt their respective interests in the places that were hit.

While the characters may by mythic, they are not quite gods. But have made direct enemies of gods. I think the universe punching back is a proportional response. One that will end in the players either committing mass deicide and ascending to true deities, or being destroyed.

The players are not mythic. Just lv 18 pc's. The Ruins of Azlant is not a mythic adventure path.

Obcisidaemons. So many ****ing Obcisidaemons.

Oh, Did not know about those. Yes! Szuriel and Zyphus would be pleased.

This is the ultimate game derail. You gave your murder hobo a nuke and they used it. I'm not certain why anyone is surprised by this.

As written, yeah, they'll have catastrophic consequences and fail to even succeed at their objective.

On the other hand, is that fun? I'd find that to be fun. But not everyone does. Beer and pretzel types probably not.

Any of the suggestions that don't involve "punish the stupid" or "deus ex away the stupid" are probably better for your group as described, but you know the table better than any of us.

If it was me? I'd let it happen, and watch Golarion fall into chaos... ;)

Thank you, this group is very much sh*t's and giggles to my more story focused tables. But that is fun in its own way.

Look, I was just fishing for fun story hooks from the minds of fellow players.

So instead of (as written in the bad cannon endings) the Aboleth's Destroying Abosolm and the surrounding nations, or An Azlant General Nukeing the ocean causing Massive tsunamis on a global scale.

With no written divine intervention in either of those cases to stop it, or Tarrasque popping up.

The players used it on the whispering tyrant. They still want to play, I still want to dm them, so we are moving forward.

Probably going to have agents of Zon-Kuthon, Yaezhing, or other evil powers send agents to "help" the players. As other more good aligned agents hunt them down.

I did like Kurald Galain idea of using Tahonikeps, so i will be using them to help the players (if they choose) to go to the time plane and fix their actions.

So in all I thank you for your input

It sounds like one of your groups tried to do something original and interesting by combining various elements your setting draws from different sources, creating a novel and dramatic development. We can't be having with that.

It's time to crush those spirits. Remind these players of their station and insignificance in this fantasy world, and the foolishness of trying to change it substantially without following a proscribed path laid by higher minds. Really put some research into it. Pathfinder has a great range of powerful characters, monsters and outright deities, officially printed with abilities and resources that can easily invalidate their actions, which is obviously why they're there. You want to impress upon your group the richness of this setting, the grandness of its conflicts and the might of its major players, that the whole...

I am not mad at the players. Let me make that clear.

They had their fun,and now they are going to have an adventure to deal with the consequences. Will it be their characters? new? or old ones? we will see.

Claxon wrote:

They're far worse than Tar-Baphon at this point and didn't even succeed in doing what they want since it wouldn't have destroyed his phylactery, and even if it did he's a mythic lich so it probably still didn't work because mythic (I don't actually know his stat block to know exactly what protections he has).

It turns out Tar-Baphon has multiple layers of defense agains this.

True,for narrative purposes I was going to have it happen right after his reformation due to the event of "tyrants grasp" so he would be weakened/able to be obliterated again. Salt in the wound.

Mostly to give the pcs 10 days to figure out what to do b4 Tar-Baphon identifys them/goes after them. As his realm would not be very undead friendly atm.

Frankly I think you only need explain to the players what situation they're in and ask them what direction they plan to take, the world...

Oh They totally know what they did/where doing from a meta sense. They are a bit of a wacky group. On task enough to follow the module, but everything else is no holds bar. Very murder hobo, but they have fun. Keeps me on my toes as a DM.

Too bad they didn't pass a basic engineering check. They could have set the thing off a couple hundred miles above the center and not had as much collateral damage.

The will be kicking themselves when I bring that up lol

zza ni wrote:

The funny thing is, as a lich (and a mythical one non the less), all they did was maybe make him upset. that nuke won't finish him.

This right here is an important point.

The party in fact didn't kill Tar-Baphon, but instead killed almost every "living" thing in the area (depending on exactly which plane the thing was attuned to). They're far worse than Tar-Baphon at this point and didn't even succeed in doing what they want since it wouldn't have destroyed his phylactery, and even if it did he's a mythic lich so it probably still didn't work because mythic (I don't actually know his stat block to know exactly what protections he has).

So now, not only did the party fail to kill Tar-Baphon, they killed many nations worth of people, and probably have a lot of the Gods, both good and evil, looking to kill them/undo their actions.

The fact they killed a lot of people is not in question, the fact the Tar-Baphonis is not dead is not in question, or the fact that a lot of people are pissed off about this turn of events. I really get that.

As a dm I facilitated the story, which happened to be to story of the ruins of Azlant and Mass genocide.

Will they try and fix it? Go back in time to stop themselves? Turn super evil and be the villains of an AU universe? The next session has not happened yet.

I am now looking for story hooks/Ideas to continue to story as the party wants to do so as well.

Tom Marlow wrote:

None of the PC's workshop good gods, so that is not an issue.

What about lawful gods, or gods otherwise opposed to mass destruction?

Quote:

Who is Tahonikepsu, and what is their time travel access?

She is a Time Dragon affiliated with the country of Osirion and with the Pathfinder Society. That means that she either has the ability to time travel or will eventually develop it; and given how time travel works, it doesn't actually matter which of the two it is.

1) The only divine person worships Nethys

2) I will keep Tahonikepsu in mind.

Thanks for info!

Possible plot points,

(5) Cheliax moves to take over what's left of Molthune.
(8) Any PC receiving divine spells from any good and/or lawful deity immediately loses their spellcasting ability.

None of the PC's workshop good gods, so that is not an issue.

Who is Tahonikepsu, and what is their time travel access?

(and yeah, Shemis should have seen this one coming; that's her entire job)

Did not know she was a thing, Neat

NOBODY saw this coming?!?!

This table is very much past beer & pretzels to sh*t and Giggles play style. The temptation apparently was too great.

500 mile radius is huge. They pretty much killed every living thing in Ustalav, Lastwall, Nirmathas, Molthune, Isger, Druma, Kyonin, Five Kings Mountains, Razmiran, most of Ustalav, a decent chunk of the River Kingdoms, and bits of Galt, Andor, and Belkzen.

I think trial for killing more people than Tar-Baphon ever did is in order.

Yes, probably from Absalom. Also probablly earning the attention of Yaezhing

So one of the tables I run has used the Synchrony device at the end of Ruins of Azlant to blow up Tar-Baphon’s (whispering tyrant) Ise of Terror.

Due to the number of tables I run and the tables being connected in a group cannon, the Ruins of Azlant was run after Tyrants grasp.

As such it was relatively known that Tar-baphon the Whispering tyrant had escaped. Some of the players where refugees looking for a new life, and all the players were shades Lawful/Chaotic/Neutral Neutral aligned.

So at the end of the adventure they have this Synchrony Device Nuke and decide to stick it to the undead king.
After a lot of stupid high rolls, they reprogram it, fill it up with positive energy, and send it off to detonate in the center of the Isle of Terror. Killing all undead and possibly every one in the surrounding nations.

So I am looking for ideas for repercussions and story hooks, to continue their off canon campaign.

Tldr: Players Nuked Tar-Baphon’s (whispering tyrant) Isle of Terror and I am looking for story ideas.

We have one session left in the Reign of Winter AP and my players are talking about what they want to ask Baba Yaga for as a boon (I had baba yaga tell them she would reward them). So one of my player, knowing we are going to play Wrath of the Righteous next, is going to ask here to help Seal the World wound. Apparently he did the log con on me for this AP, He made a Paladin of Iomedae whose backstory involved family in the fourth crusade, and has been planing this from the get go.

I don’t see any problem with it, I just don’t know what or when it should occur. Thoughts?

Thank you all for all your advice.

What I think I am going to do, given how late in the game we are and what that party is capable of right now(18 Lv + party), is let him do cast his wish and have him become a very young silver dragon keeping his wizard levels.

The His con and str will get a boost, but he was rolling 1's and 2's each level so I'm not to worried.

The campaign we are running is almost over and I think it will be a fun spite of the character, but not “kill him off”.

I will just be altering the final encounters of the last part of the campaign.

I will also be having him roll fortitude saves to stay in “human” form to say or become a dragon again, with increasing difficulty depending on situational context.

It shouldn't be that hard - all you need is a time machine, a dozen trained monkey pickpockets, 3 ounces of blood from a dead god, a case of cheap white wine & a 1000 faceted ruby the size of a hen's egg. Once you've assembled the materials, the rest is obvious.

Ha yes I see, but I think you would also need two cc of mouse blood.