This one is a big time favorite AP for me, the ruin chasing and the heat, the jungle, the camping opening, and the big bads. It’s so good. Well, the good parts of it are. I’m starting it up (again) shortly and modifying it a lot. I’ve done some thematic analysis of Indiana Jones and have done a lot of work building feel and voice for the NPCs etc. But here are a few general outlines, a bit of a skeleton, for my planning. I’d love to hear what your high points from this campaign have been, maybe there’s more stuff I need to include!
Spoilers ahead.
Levels 1-3: Smuggler’s Shiv. Doing this mostly by the book, because it’s excellent of course. I think I’ll have Godsrain happen before the intro, have a warshard-infused Shiv Dragon live with a colony of shiv dragons on the silent island, and place an ancient Azlanti crypt with a rolling boulder trap there instead of the stuff that’s there now. Probably change the dryad for a living tree creature. And I’ll have Godsrain be the actual cause of this - Yarzoth infused with a shard gains contact with crazed Ydersius and starts her journey, dominate person will be a dark archives inspired mind battle for the whole party while their bodies fight each other. Other than that no changes :)
Level 4: Anthusis. Getting some real city time, shopping, mingling with factions, probably a fund raiser gala kind of event as Gelik spreads rumors of Tazion as soon as they reach main land. Then the race, I’ll do it with chase rules. Makes it easier telling them whether others catch up or pull ahead too.
Level 5: Tazion, end of the race, finding Saveth-Yhi.
Levels 6-8: exploring this new city and the dungeons/vault underneath, at least one more rolling boulder. Successively more hints at darkness below. Level 8 they will actually get to Ilmurea, save Eando. I plan on reading parts of his story before sessions every now and then. Level 8 will show them what shit is going on, rise of the serpents.
Level 9: Making a game plan, mustering an army? Activating the spears. Starting the war.
Level 10: The major, final battles, breaking into the heart of the Serpents’ plan, the final battles.
Level 11: Campaign ends.
Looking at this, I feel like I’ll both get a race, like I’ll have plenty of space for the good stuff (the island and a city no one has visited in millennia). I’ll get an intense and big ending that won’t drag out 3+ levels, and that will be too big to properly flatten the way you sometimes just kill everything.
I also hope this will mitigate some big issues:
a) race is weird and boring and breaks with the sandbox style. I’ll have them navigate on their own over the map, we’ll roll some checks, it’s not half a year of irl sessions on a railroad track.
b) City is formulaic and empty. There will be groups to encounter, Azlanti technology to race to discover and decipher, dungeons to delve into - all this as others try to beat the group to it. I won’t stick to the word of book 3, throwing out those systems and using pf2e research subsystem.
c) So the whole story is about you racing to be first to a big discovery then you realize you weren’t first there (other pathfinder group) and you find another never found city (second there too). Not sure I’ll have pathfinders coming up into Saveth-Yhi for this particular issue. The whole Ilmurea business should be a cauldron about to boil over the very second it’s found, and then there’s ding 9 - now what about these seven spears, how do we beat the serpentfolk, ding 10 - final battle. Not much time to go exploring another city.
Any thoughts appreciated. Memorable encounters, themes, NPCs, etc? Anyone else made a rolling boulder dungeon ever? I’ve got a few plans and ideas…