Yakman's page

So... I'm thinking of creating a culprit for the murder [should my group decided to run this AP] - "The First Ghoran" some kind of Wood Elemental who Ghorus summoned and based his later projects on.

It's returned (and allied with the Blackwood Moot?)... and our intrepid heroes did SOMETHING when they were getting to 5th level which sort of sets the plot in motion.

Ideas on what that SOMETHING might be?

I had a thought: Make the "random act of terrorism" be one of several instigated by Treerazer (to sow discord on Tanglebriar's southern border); this can help foreshadow the upcoming Spore War AP (and possibly provide a link if one or more of the Spore War PCs is sent by the Rootweft Lodge).

The exploding seedbag won't be a central element of the Wardens of Wildwood AP (other than the initiating event), but can be used to tie two APs into a broader "story."

then the party is gonna wanna go fight treerazer.

this looks promising...

Narcolepta wrote:

To be honest, I'm agog that this piece of information was cut for space. This is a detail that the PCs will absolutely obsess over; "who killed Valenar and what is their plot" is something they as players need to find out at some point, even if it is just a random grudge. And as a DM, I needed to know if this dangling plot thread is something I need to hold onto because it would come back in book 3.

I still very much enjoy the campaign, but I hope editors make different value judgements in the future. Prismati or Flyting could have been greatly simplified or cut entirely to make space for this kind of important information.

Still also feels weird to have a canonically level 15 druid get oneshot by a level 8 monster? I fully thought that there HAD to be a bigger plot because of that. Like maybe Valenar had been brainwhammied by Ayrzul or something? I love the idea of this being random pettiness, but the execution was fumbled here.

I agree with all of this.

In regards to Ayrzul. I am 100% using tying that into the death. As I want the whole blighted corruption thing of Ayrzul to play a more dramatic role for I am changing Ruzadoya from a graveknight(aka an Undead being that most druids should logically not follow) to a champion of Zibik that has been infected and corrupted by Ayrzul's blight.

As for who did this I am not sure. Who do you think would make good candidates? Someone from the Blackwood Moot? Lumber Consortium? Zibik cultist? something else?

I like making her a champion, thinking a desecrator?, rather than a graveknight. Dunno if I'd run it that way, but it's a good idea.

The Blackwood Moot, is, I don't think, hardly mentioned in the AP, and it's a strong candidate to have orchestrated the assassination. Another thought is maybe "the First Ghoran" ... like, some ancient creation of Ghorus who returns to the forest to resume the war?

To be honest, I'm agog that this piece of information was cut for space. This is a detail that the PCs will absolutely obsess over; "who killed Valenar and what is their plot" is something they as players need to find out at some point, even if it is just a random grudge. And as a DM, I needed to know if this dangling plot thread is something I need to hold onto because it would come back in book 3.

I still very much enjoy the campaign, but I hope editors make different value judgements in the future. Prismati or Flyting could have been greatly simplified or cut entirely to make space for this kind of important information.

Still also feels weird to have a canonically level 15 druid get oneshot by a level 8 monster? I fully thought that there HAD to be a bigger plot because of that. Like maybe Valenar had been brainwhammied by Ayrzul or something? I love the idea of this being random pettiness, but the execution was fumbled here.

totally concur.

there's a few data points that an intrepid DM can build on [add any that I missed]:

1 - his soul doesn't want to be resurrected
2 - the Taldans skeedaddled immediately [except for the ones who remained on the island for whatever reason in Book 3???]
3 - a bipedal humanoid presumably took the weapon
4 - same bipedal humanoid knew where / what it was
5 - somehow a map to the bunker falls into the possession of an ally

This is the central THING that happens. It propels not only book 1, but b/c it creates the BBEG [was this intentional???] it moves the whole AP forward.

There isn't even a mention of resolving the plotline in the 'continuing the campaign' section.

I'd really like to run this AP, but cutting this out is just... I know my players won't ignore it like the AP itself seems to do.

Well, if we want to draw from the full canon... The Burning Archipelago might already be there. In the Starfinder games, there is a city in the sun, held multiple bubbles created by unknown hands. The followers of Sarenrae set up worship there and it is now populated, but it was very much discovered, not built by any known hands.

Theoretically, it could be there already in your world, either populated by it's creators, or already long abandoned save for the (for example someone said above) Solar dragon the party is there to fight/bargain with. A number of spells could get the party there, and as the saying goes, any sufficiently advanced technology...

Or it's been recently abandoned... and the cycle begins again....

it might be interesting to have the PCs infiltrate the Lumber Consortium's HQ in Oregent, where they are fish-out-of-water in a big human city.

I do find it wild its never mentioned directly in any of the books what was up with inciting event, but not surprised to hear it was random act of violence that was going to be cleared up in quest that got cut because it was pacing wise out of place :O

It's suggested in

was wondering if the potential culprit might be able to lead the party into NIGHT OF THE GREY DEATH?

Souls At War wrote:

I would suggest reading the whole module, and the beginning of the next one, there is usually a reason for increased loot.

That makes sense. I have actually read the entire adventure path, but to get an idea of themes, plots etc, I didn't pay particular attention to individual encounters or treasure.

BTW for those who've GM'd it, how deep did you make the lake? The module doesn't give a depth and it's likely Cleverquill will use his Awesome Blow to knock a PC off the bridge. And my party's frontline fighter is now wearing full plate and has a tower shield strapped to his arm...

then i'd definitely make it deep enough to drown in. ;-)

Yes, a rope bridge was found broken at the beginning of A Fistful of Flowers. But that broken bridge was not the inciting incident for the story nor was the place named after the broken bridge. The inciting incident was missing leshies. My players repaired that bridge before they left the area, since the lotus leshy Monet could walk on the river to pull the pieces together for splicing.

A Fistful of Flowers, The River Crossing, page 3 wrote:

... [Years ago] Popcorn returned the next morning and used vines and fallen branches to build a leshy-sized rope bridge strung between a pair of trees on opposite banks. In the years since, many local leshys have learned of the rope bridge and come to appreciate its convenience, and particularly enjoyed using the bridge as a sort of swing to sit on and sway back and forth over the river. When the PCs arrive, Popcorn’s carefully crafted handiwork lies in ruins. All that remains of the rope bridge are fragments of vines hanging from the trees on both banks.

The module named that section "The River Crossing" rather than "The Broken Bridge."

There is a famous broken bridge on the edges of the Verduran Forest, Broken Bridge.

PathfinderWiki, Broken Bridge wrote:

Broken Bridge is a massive ruined causeway that once crossed its namesake Brokenbridge River. Located halfway between the city of Yanmass and the start of the Verduran Fork, it was destroyed by a silver dragon sometime during the Dragon Plague between 3660 and 3672 AR. Rather than rebuild the bridge, locals left it as a memorial to the destruction and horrors of dragonkind's decade-long rampage across the country. Instead, the locals built a smaller wooden bridge next to the original Broken Bridge, along with a small stone fort made from some of the remnants of the destroyed bridge. The fort now houses members of the River Guard.

All that remains of the original Broken Bridge are the pilings and a few spans. Local

...

It's certainly possible that Fistful is the intended 'Broken Bridge Incident'

It might not be, but it's a Taldan intrusion on the forest in violation of, what I would assume, are the terms of the treaty. Plus, you can play in it, so that's better for a table than something you can't.

Headcanon-wise, I think it makes sense.

Yakman wrote:

Ah... I think they refer to the FREE RPG DAY scenarios...

If you mean the two Free RPG Day modules set in the Verduran Forest, 2022's A Fistful of Flowers and 2023's A Few Flowers More, no, those incidents did not happen in those modules. I played those two modules, chronicled at Playtesting in A Fistful of Flowers with 7 Leshies.

A Fistful of Flowers starts in an unnamed section of the Verduran Forest in Taldor near a small river. The leshies later walk to the human village of Petalbrook.

just ran Fistful of Flowers on Tuesday.

It starts out with a broken bridge.

Kinda wish they just established the fact that it was a random act of terrorism tho.

I really like this AP despite it's many inconsistencies... I might add something to build on this.

Thinking about running an 'evil' party alongside the main party which might be able to resolve some of these 'concerns' worried that the guys would be more excited about their evil pcs than their good ones.

I was wondering if I'd missed the reveal in the first read through. Huh.

It's also said that there's a single "champion" whereas in the system, the party as a whole earns the points...

It's a bit confusing.

Yakman wrote:

blashimov wrote:

I'm actually kind of tempted to make some mass combat hand wave background rolls or narrative telling for a giant blob of rag tag NPCs to follow the main characters around. I can certainly RP how may people there are to fight on Varos, and then they can stay on the Voidcrier as the adventure continues, instead of all just dying from an attack of the plot. Once in book one seems enough?

all the fun NPCs in Book 2 died as well ;-)

one thing which kinda stuck w/ me is the approach on the 2nd base. maybe use that handwaving as the mercenaries attacking the outside of the base while your heroes charge into it? similar excuses can be made up for the encounters along the way to the 2nd base.

the PCs and the Perytons can then leave the moon and part ways at the start of Book 4. maybe have one or two of them come back in book 6 or the epilogue if it works for the narrative.

I might do that, of course poor rolls or strange PC plans might see them all die anyway.

Speaking of book 2, I think you can save Vrexi as written, and of course could just make Hrog not suicidal if wanted.

part of the 'fun' of books 1 and 2 is that the PCs are the only witnesses and only survivors, of the gray base shenanigans. I wouldn't have anyone else make it out.

and if you do go w/ the perytons surviving, hint that one of them is like a terminator robot or something right as they part ways. or they meet someone who looks JUST LIKE one of them in a later book...

gotta keep the PCs on their toes.

Random other reflavor notes I should put in a google doc - why is Orgot the half orc given the devastator mystic connection with the big chomp if they worship Pharasma??

I think the list of deities on the connections is a suggestion.

I'm actually kind of tempted to make some mass combat hand wave background rolls or narrative telling for a giant blob of rag tag NPCs to follow the main characters around. I can certainly RP how may people there are to fight on Varos, and then they can stay on the Voidcrier as the adventure continues, instead of all just dying from an attack of the plot. Once in book one seems enough?

all the fun NPCs in Book 2 died as well ;-)

one thing which kinda stuck w/ me is the approach on the 2nd base. maybe use that handwaving as the mercenaries attacking the outside of the base while your heroes charge into it? similar excuses can be made up for the encounters along the way to the 2nd base.

the PCs and the Perytons can then leave the moon and part ways at the start of Book 4. maybe have one or two of them come back in book 6 or the epilogue if it works for the narrative.

a) I can't even find the reptoid prisoner at first glance

b) Anyone come up with ways to save the Peryton's? Maybe I need to read more but if every couple books everyone they get to know dies it might be a real drag.
c) Who did y'all pick as "the Tyrkalis reptoid?"
d) anyone make minor changes like "Orivir's" armor, because it doesn't really look like "inheritor's grace" armor?
e) anyone know why this is the least commented GM thread I've ever seen??

i've deleted my pdfs, so i'm going by memory:

a) he's in the 2nd base.

b) You'd have to change the scenario. Maybe they are able to flee, but like, they are GONZO. Then you'd probably have the PCs waiting around for them to come back.

c) can't remember

d) eh. just ran it as written, or at least tried to. it worked out pretty well.

e) look around bud, lots more emptiness out there!

Clear Eyes
Full Hearts
Can't Lose

Is it just me or is this module too top heavy with magic loot?

Last session the party beat up three sealbreaker knights, all of whom had +1 full plate, a +1 heavy steel shield and a +1 longsword. That's over 6,000gp of loot per knight. Then the otyughs gave them glove of storing, which contained a scabbard of keen edges, a further 16,000gp worth.

Earlier they were gifted a +2 halberd by Ranton Gandry, Brunna gave them a +2 shield. They beat Kilibrandt and got her +1 shadow studded leather, +1 composite bow, belt of dex +4, and cloak of resistance +2, along with the gear from her hirelings.

And that's not even mentioning the multitude of potions, wands, talismans, etc they keep picking up.

I ran it with Alternative Bonus Progression. Didn't even notice.

Dunno. Started reading PACTBREAKER last week, and it seems really fun. hadn't been thinking of running it, but I really like it so far.

I have been working Tar-Baphon's starstone angle as less "wants divinity" and more "wants power"

After all, the dude's immortal. With the starstone, he can control existence. That's more powerful than being a god, shuffled off to some outer plane.

Anyway, for 2E, he's on the Isle of Terror, hanging out and brooding.

I really should have prepped more of this sooner but I'm gonna be doing some pretty sizeable reworking to this book - mostly to connect it better to my players and how we like to play. I'll outline some of these later maybe, but at least partly it involved an infernal cult in Vigil and putting the Redoubt outside of the city rather than under it.

But one of the things I'm kinda stumped over is how best to run the waystation stuff in a not-so-clumsy way. It's a very small space, especially inside, and we've got tight corners and staircases blocking line of sight for spellcasters and like minimum 6 people in combat at once (4 PCs, Okagu, Usundra) and that's if the wights dont get involved early. I feel like its pretty cramped in here. I have a very buff Paladin and a Swashbuckler that crits with 9/10 attacks so it's not going to be a very impactful fight if I don't get creative with this.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to use these pieces more efficiently? I'm also trying to redesign the map to make it just a bit bigger but Dungeon Alchemist is fighting me on this one, so ways to use the existing space would be appreciated!

It's a bad dungeon, imho, and completely out of place in the story.

I put a revived Mictena (transformed into a sakhil) in it instead. The players lost the fight [ran away, no deaths], but it was fun to run.

It's skippable, methinks.

There is fancy +3 armor in room B4. Officer’s Quarters that obviously belongs to Doeswen Aubry. I wonder if the author intended for the PCs to keep them...even though they will rescue her later from room E5. The Barn.

My PCs just cleared out B4. I am wondering if they will they try to keep or sell the armor (and coins and gems)?

(And I think that if they try to sell the armor there is a very good chance it will be recognized as belonging to her. I mean, there is no mass manufacturing in this world. I imagine that it would be easy for a reputable dealer to track the provenance of a set of fancy +3 armor decorated with the flag of Lastwall.)

Allen

She'd notice it, no?

Ah... I think they refer to the FREE RPG DAY scenarios...

Amanitus muscarius wrote:

I‘d really like to play this. Although the nearest Store is a little far to get there only for a pdf…

How does this work with the pdfs? I called the store and they said I can name them the associated Store to download the pdf. But where?

Stores participating (with can be found on Free RPG Day's website) will have physical copies of the products to give out. One month after Free RPG Day (July 22nd), Paizo will offer the pdf for free and physical copies for a small change here in their store. This month of exclusivity is because of their contract with Free RPG Day, and its intent to draw players into the physical stores.

ah... darnit. I'll drop into my local store, but one of my players can't make the virtual session on 2 July and was thinking we might want to run the poppet module instead of BLADES IN THE DARK...

oh well... off to Duskvol again...

Maybe something in the PFS scenarios?

I just told my guys what the obol rules were right after they received them in the 1st session.

Why kill Treerazer when you can join him? Wouldn't that be a lot more fun? And isn't that Rule 0?

Warped Savant wrote:

That being said, I think Hell's Rebels does the same type of story much better, but can be a lot more nuanced and more role-play heavy than some groups would like / it might not be what new players or groups expect, especially if they're more into fighting.

Curse benefits from its authors having a rather better sense of the society they were creating and its implications for what an overthrow and replacement of tyrannical power would look like in its context than Rebels does. You have to do quite a bit more detective work into Ravounel's society than you do Korvosa's to get a good sense of it (or rely on these forums to do it for you which, to be fair, we have). This is a problem not just for verisimilitude, but because it leaves internal faction management -- what should be a high priority for leaders of a mass party uniting everyone from the despised and otherized proletarians of Devil's Nursery to the most august if liberal personages of the Court of Coin on the basis of lowest-common-denominator politics -- completely unexplored.

I dunno... I really think Hell's Rebels does a fantastic job of getting you into Ravounel really quickly. The mechanics and the Player's Guide and a good DM should pull you in immediately.

And b/c it doesn't do a 2 book excursion from the city in the way that Curse does, you are right there in the thick of it the whole time. I like Curse, but honestly, Hell's Rebels seems to me like the superior AP (that vol. 100 is something else (admittedly, I've only read it, the group I was playing in broke apart early in Book 2).

I'm glad to hear the six part APs aren't gone for good because I really enjoy that length and being able to tell such a sweeping story, but it definitely requires a story that actually fits that length and sometimes that just isn't appropriate.

Shorter stories are nice to start and end things more often, but we play every week and can do a 6 part AP in under a year and a half, so that makes the 3 part ones feel relatively short and like you're just getting to know a character before its gone. Especially with how many of them are low level, and dear god after 30 years in the hobby am I sick of always starting at level 1.

Ruby Phoenix was such a breath of fresh air because of the "sure, bring whatever crazy backstory you want" nature of it.

I do like that Wardens of Wildwood and Triumph of the Tusk start at 5th and 3rd levels respectively.

KoolKobold wrote:

I’m surprised Giantslayer is that lowly ranked. I heard it got repetitive but is it that bad?

I have not played Giantslayer, but I heard that some people were disappointed that after they grew attached to protecting a town from orcs in the 1st module, they abandoned the town to battle giants in the 2nd module.

In a recent post in No more 6-parts APs? comment #80 Creative Director James Jacobs said,

James Jacobs wrote:

Souls At War wrote:

Kinda highlight one of the issues with 6 parts APs, filling 6 volumes with contents can be difficult.

Especially if that idea doesn't really lend itself well to six volumes. One that immediately comes to mind is Giantslayer—that one would have probably done better as a high-level 3 part Adventure Path, because at low levels, giants are simply things you shouldn't be fighting at all, let alone in numbers.

I think that means that since Giantslayer could not start with low-level characters fighting giants, the 1st module had the wrong foes for the theme of the adventure path. In retrospect, it should have been a shorter adventure path starting with higher-level characters who could fight giants immediately.

the first volume of the Giantslayer AP is the best one.

dunno what the linking rules are, but a pretty good breakdown of the APs can be found by websearching "Tarondor's Guide to Pathfinder Adventure Paths"

I recognize your intention. and that was why I deleted my original post.

Yeah, it's hard dude.

Players want to go do something and it's just... not going to be good for anyone.

Is there a version of the Players Guide that can be shown to arachnaphobes, one that doesn't have spiders crawling all over the border of every single page?

Also, is this AP going to be a huge problem for someone who would rather not have their phobias thrown at them in their gaming time?

this is not the right AP for someone whose arachnophobia would be triggered by a TTRPG.

Thank you for calling me a failure. That feels really good. And I'm sure you know the answers to these questions.

1. How many times and in what ways prior to starting the game did I ask my players to consult me if they used variant abilities?

2. How many times and in what ways prior to starting the game did I ask my players to discuss their new characters among themselves so they wouldn't have overlap?

3. How many times did I offer to do a Session Zero to go over characters before we started?

4. How many times did I say, both in character as various NPCs and out of character as me, prior to them starting the Scriptorium, "Guys, this is the wrong way to do this?"

5. How many times was I shouted at at the table "NO! WE ARE GOING TO DO THIS!"?

6. How many times after the first session in the Scriptorium, when the difficulty of the location was abundantly clear, did I say in character and as myself "Guys, there are two other locations you can attempt to explore and this is not time-bound"?

Since you know the answers to all those things, I'm sure you are justified in calling me a failure. Thank you again, it in no way makes me feel like complete s%&&. And I know you hated doing it, especially since you had full context and insight into the situation.

Sorry if you took it the wrong way. I mess up as a DM CONSTANTLY.

I was just extending a bit of empathy with the situation.

Apologies.

I recently started this path. And ended it three sessions later, owing to the players.

It provided a good object lesson in why you shouldn't try to game the system. 2/3rds of the party picked aasimar with the alternate racial option that got rid of their elemental resistance and replaced it with negative energy resistance 5. I could practically hear them all thinking "Haha! This path involves the undead so we'll be so cunning and smart we'll give ourselves negative energy resistance..."

Meanwhile, behind the screen, looking at the obol rules, I'm thinking: "You all just traded away a core racial benefit for... nothing."

At least no one tried to bring a dhampir to be extra s-m-r-t.

*facepalm*

EPILOGUE: Despite my warning them, the party decided to take on the Scriptorium first on the Dead Roads. Then, after losing one member almost immediately, they got stubborn and decided to keep trying to win it. They lost another PC. Kept going. Eventually, Mrs. Pedipalp had them all tied up, no one had the capacity to break the bonds, and they decided to quit the campaign instead of trying a last-ditch Diplomacy effort with Mictena (which, no one had brought Diplomacy so it was literally roll a 20 and hope with all the aid anothers and circumstance bonuses it would work out).

I only say this for two reasons:

1. Venting is therapeutic. Some players are Sun f$$!ing Tzu when it comes to getting themselves and the rest of the party killed.

2. If your players are thinking "Hey, I'll take negative energy resistance/immunity" or "let's go to the CR 5 dungeon first" AND you want to continue this campaign beyond the first book, be more forceful in insisting they stop.

i hate to say this, but i think this is a case of DM fail. You really could have been more forceful with circumscribing racial options, esp. if you were aware that they would get bent into a snoot about the double-dip from the obol you knew would happen and were going to 'drop' on them. if they want to be aasimars still, okay, but after learning about the obol and they start whining, you could have let them change their build.

Then, you let them take on the most dangerous dungeon first, when you could have just 'let the fogs of the dead roads' lead them to one of the easier options. I've been TPK'd when the DM let us go right instead of left, and we got gobble-stomped. It would have been easy enough for you to shift the dungeons in the background.

DMing is hard, and I sympathize. I DM fail ALL THE TIME.

One of my players for TG built a undead slaying oracle. Absolute beast against undead. He was next to useless in combat in

Monsters killed someone's PC a few sessions ago and he dropped the game. Sucked.

Oh well, c'est la'vie. There's always the next game to make fresh mistakes!

-expect that mechanic and technomancer get combined.
-witchwarper and precog appear to have already kinda gotten folded into each other.
-there's some kind of battle caster like a kineticist as a new option, maybe w/ a nanocyte flair?

good find necromancer, good find.

My party successfully survived the ambush by Kilibrandt Erstwhile, interrogated the survivors for more information, and headed off to the dyeworks. Then they met the spectres and ran away when the negative levels started piling up. They plan on resting up and coming back with death ward spells and the like.

One thing I wasn't initially sure about was whether the obols would protect the party from the spectres. Their damage is untyped although, logically, it should probably be negative energy damage. Also, the obols don't provide any protection against energy drain. In the end I decided to stick with RAW and no obol protection.

I'm finding the plotline of the module a little weak. The PCs were given a mission by Arazni to tell the Knights of Ozem about the disaster at Roslar's Coffer and warn them Vigil might be next. Technically they fulfilled their mission when the met the Chief Knight at the festival and told her the required message/warning, which she totally ignored. I'd have understood if the PCs had, at that point, just shrugged their shoulders, said 'mission accomplished' and moved on.

Then there's the next phase of evidence gathering. So far they've found plenty of evidence of the thievery of an artifact in Vigil. To them, the link to Roslar's Coffer is tenuous at best.

Fortunately (for me) the party is content to follow the railroad and pick up the plot tokens.

i portrayed the knightly council as pretty much unredeemably arrogant, and when added to the threat of an orcish invasion (which I created - Tar Baphon laying the groundwork with some of his old allies), the knights, secure in their fortress, have little reason to listen to the PCs. But they certainly are worried about a sequel to Roslar's Coffer.

Ceto Malderra took over the knights in Vigil after the Watcher Lord takes the army to Belkzen, and she was... distinctly unpleasant. Even after the PCs had figured out that there's a plot against the Shield, they didn't even want to tell the authorities and just went into the sewers on their own...

they work well

Perfect, thank you friends! I'm fighting the urge not to divert the party to Trunau (I ran Giantslayer several years back so there's some powerful allies there rn) but I'm doing a lil GS cameo thing on the way up. Thinking of having an inn on the road up with a merchant caravan stopping by after hearing of trouble on the roads (cue side quest!) A week is good though, the party need a break from the constant onslaught of Big Oof Energy.

i made one PC's mother be from Trunau.

she gave him her hopeknife (i gave it Brinya's love properties). it's come in handy.

AS a DM, I would really like to see the Alien Archive have a super-CHONKY monster creation system. Tons of options.

Are there going to be premades? High level PC creation is a lot of work, even in 2E.

This is advanced Advanced...

And yeah I can see my party getting kind of annoyed at people being hard to convince, so I'm still thinking on different ways to make that a more interesting social encounter.

Question for people: Does anyone know how long it takes, roughly, to get from Roslar's Coffer to Vigil? I'm not sure if it's in the books but I couldn't find a number. Even if not, what did you estimate the time around? I'm gonna have a couple things happen on the road before the start of this book (including a small settlement) and just wanted to sort of measure out the travel segment in my mind.

I figured it was about a week or so. My PCs stopped at Castle Everstand (just in time to beat off an orc invasion!) but I think we did about 8 days total.

Finally ran this! It was a lot of fun!

My team finally finished off this module last weekend. They're looking forward to finally getting back to civilisation, doing some shopping, etc.

One criticism of the module: the boss fight was pretty lame. Valthazar wasn't much of an opponent, particularly with the PC's obols protecting them against his necrospells, and his henchzombies were next to useless. The party trapped most of them with Black Tentacles and picked them off one by one as they escaped being grappled. Valthazar dimension doored out and then had to fight on his own. He went down pretty rapidly.

He DID scare the party with his two save-or-die spells, Suffocation and Phantasmal Killer, but both party members saved (although the Suffocation one was close), and he got off a Bestow Curse on someone else. But even if all those had worked, he'd still have gone down easily.

I had planned on having Arazni raise any PCs who were killed, but it wasn't necessary.

Next week: off to Vigil.

I had a player who wanted to change PCs at this time (next time, I told him, read the player's handbook, and when it suggests not running a gunslinger or an alchemist, don't run a gunslinger/alchemist). He wanted the PC dead, not walking off somewhere while the apocalypse happens.

I figured out that the best way to kill him was to use phantasmal killer. But I was like... ergh... that Will save is TOUGH... so I boosted Valthazar's familiar, so it could cast greater evil eye. Valthazar (whose parents had been murdered by said PC) cast phantasmal killer, and *boom*, it's a three player party.

Valthazar and the familiar escaped, to be found in Book 4, but yeah, he needs buffing. Those zombies aren't doing anything other than soaking up HP - can't hit anything - and the porcupine thing isn't enough on its own. I did have the advantage that my guys were ON THE EDGE, having not rested through the [abridged] tomb or the first level of the cathedral. I made maximum use of the cultists' cloaks, sending waves of low level undead at them to keep them off balance - they were quaking at facing CR 1 zombies at this point, terrified that something else was coming after Valthazar had skeedaddled, and down one PC.

If you aren't planning for Valthazar to come back, he's just SAWFT. The porcupine thing should be in the room with him at the very least, and he should have something ready to hit the PCs from behind - maybe the cultists, maybe something else. Any melee character gets next to him, and he's just nothing salad.

So after running this, do I have any particular notes on how to run this thing in hindsight?

Well I do have one thing to say: when players go to Hibbs, make point of playing up how bantrids are in constant movements. All the time, in transportation, in city, how Uso keeps spinning circles around them. Play that up so its much more obvious and weirder in comparison how stationary Izu is xD

Something I plan to do is dive into how HORRIFYING Hibb is. The bantrids aren't exactly pleasant creatures, the whole planet reeks, and that's not even getting into the cause for the adventure.

Like, the bantrids have a pretty widespread cult which a) kidnaps people, and b) locks their own children into cryostasis because there's SOMETHING TRAPPED IN THE ICE THAT SPEAKS TO THEIR MINDS. The competing political ideologies are unfettered capitalism and straight up genocide, with this narrow moderate minority kinda keeping the peace (for now). Oh, and there's roving robots with supercannons.

Yeah, and they roll around. So you can't keep your eye on them. They are tiny too, so they are getting underfoot, spinning around you, and there's lots of them, and many of them do not have good intentions for our PCs...

[in short... I really like Hibb as a DM]

Well... the inciting incident is that THINGS are happening on the planet. Like, it doesn't quite make sense that it's just the team. Vorsen's talking about a Yeti Uprising... so whatever he heard, isn't just a team going missing. I plan on making Jedarat a little weirder and a little wilder than that.

[Had session 0 last night. very excited]

10 years later, opening up my map file and I can't erase the map tags from page 4. Not the end of the world, but still.