Uqbarian's page

A new player in our Jade Regent game has a murder cult as part of her background, so I'm thinking about how to fit that into Minkai. (I think this is more a setting question than a question specific to the AP plot, but apologies to the mods if this is the wrong forum for it.)

Now, Minkai (and Tian Xia more broadly) has ninja clans, obviously. But the way they're presented in Jade Regent part 4, they're not murder cults (at least, the major ones aren't). Rather, they're professional underground organisations that include murder as part of their business. The Dragon Empires Gazetteer mentions that Yaezhing is the patron of ninja and assassins (as well as executioners), but the ninja clans don't appear to be religious organisations with his worship as their primary focus. (Yaezhing doesn't even rate a mention in the 'Way of the Ninja' article'. Contrast this with the Red Mantis assassins, who are inextricably tied to the worship of Achaekek.)

So, does anyone have any thoughts on how the major ninja clans would react if they found a murder cult in their neighbourhood?

My first thought is that it would depend on whether the cult follows ninja codes, and whether they're in direct competition. There are probably a couple of minor ninja clans that are murder cults (or cults of Yaezhing); these might coexist with the major clans by following (or at least paying lip service to) established norms of ninja behaviour while also not stepping on the turf of any major clans. But if a bunch of assassins set up shop into Minkai and started killing the wrong people and/or undercutting ninja prices on the murder market, my guess is the major clans would come down on them hard.

Also, is there any published material about Yaezhing that goes into more detail than the Dragon Empires Gazetteer?

If you have a group of opponents that have the same area-effect attack or ability, do their targets have to save against each instance of the attack?

(I think the answer is 'yes', but I'm not sure if I'm missing something obvious.)

For example, say the PCs are up against eight harpies. All of the harpies open up with their captivating song (300' radius, DC 16 Will save to resist). Do the PCs have to make twelve saving throws each? It seems to me that would mean a pretty high chance of failure, even for PCs with decent Will saves.

I'm used to wizard PCs buying scrolls in towns to learn new spells, but one of my players pointed out that the corebook also mentions the option of copying from spellbooks directly (page 219). How do folks determine what spells are available in this way? My first thought is to ask what spells the PCs are looking for and apply the 75% rule as I would for scrolls and other magic items, but this seems a bit too broad somehow. (I feel it's too broad for scrolls already, but that's a separate issue.)

Alternatively, I could figure out which spellcasters are offering services in each town and generate their spellbooks. That'd be kind of fun, and it would be manageable in a campaign based in a single city, but I'm running a long-distance travel AP (Jade Regent), which makes this option less workable.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Am I overthinking this?

The AP doesn't appear to explain how the imperial succession normally works. I'm particularly wondering how the throne changes hands between houses. (I know the plot doesn't need this information, but my players will probably ask!) Have I missed something? Or does the Dragon Empires Gazetteer (which I don't yet have) happen to give an explanation?

I'm playing an 8th-level druid, so my wild shape can count as beast shape III, allowing flight at up to 90' (good). Are there any animals with that speed? I can find various outsiders with fly 90', but so far the fastest flying animal I can find is the eagle at 80' (average).

(Apologies if this should go in the advice subforum!)