Yakman's page

Hey folks-

I havnt found any solid places detailing the final battle with Tar Baphon. I'm debating whether to run it in the Sun Scarab as written or move it elsewhere. If I run it as written, does anyone have any advice on the map? It seems like a strange "camera angle." Normally, if the players are in a room, the point of perspective is an interior. In this case, the heroes are inside the building, an outer wall gets blown up, but rather than detailing the interior you can see a bit of the inside, but the camera is mostly focused on the exterior of the pyramid. A cool set piece to be sure, but what if the heroes just fall back deeper into the pyramid?

Am I missing something about this map's mechanics?

it's not a great map, imho [way too small and confusing], and i didn't use it... BUT...

from my understanding the distance / height is intended to give your PCs a round or so before getting the "full tyrant"

It's very hard to evaluate if a fight is hard as groups are different, what they do is different, and the characters and players are different.

** spoiler omitted **

they don't really have a hang-and-bang PC. best thing they have for that role is a thaumaturge.

the cleric's player is kinda getting tired of going down every fight. before he abandons the campaign, i suggested that he rebuild to a champion, so he can still do the healing function, keep his player concept, and not get smashed into a pancake when there's a strong breeze. we'll see if he takes me up on that offer.

also... are the fights in the mushroom cavern not... a bit hard? my guys got clobbered w/ the first fight, and they aren't even on the second floor now and that big toadstool... not looking great.

We are still in Sky King's Tomb Book 1, but one player chose to be a deep elf who'd spent time away from Highhelm, and I recommended that in his journeys he was most recently from Kyonin, just in case we decide to go to SW after SKT.

That being said, a custom 'campaign' of PFS modules would probably lead really well into this. You could run a few, level up the PCs in between, and in a few sessions not only have a party of high level PCs, but some exploits to brag about and bond the party together.

Did anyone else wonder how the spitty things in the mushroom worked? It seems like from the text that they only shoot on the inside, but shouldn't they be a defense from the outside as well [or instead?]

I have a player who just relishes the idea of an evil campaign. When we were ending our 1E game and I was looking at the 2E campaigns, I looked at Blood Lords and was like... well... it's Parks and Recreation in a Nightmare Before Christmas.

I like it, but BL is just not an evil campaign.

To make it one, maybe the 'bad guys' are really trying to increase the rights of the Quick and overthrow the evil necromancers? LIke they are Pharasmites and Geb is run by foul Urgathoans exclusively?

Re: Ruins of Azlant

The GM should (personally, I'd say it's almost "must") tell the players in advance that much of the AP will be underwater and make the appropriate choices (race, class/archetype, etc.). For example, if someone wants to focus on ranged combat, they should go with the bolt ace gunslinger and an underwater crossbow rather than the "normal" longbow/composite longbow; or a cavalier should take the ghost rider archetype so they can manifest and dismiss the mount as needed (probably Order of the Beast to be able to switch mount types between land and aquatic at 8th level); spellcasters should look at the psychic classes (no verbal components).

eh.

I dunno.

Like, I wouldn't allow my players' PCs in a Ruins game to be a water-breathing race. Maybe if there's a new PC in like... Book 4+ then maybe?

Part of the character growth in Ruins, and I think this is really well done, is that the PCs are progressively getting into the water. A party of locathahs and aquatic elves hopping off a boat to colonize an island is great and all, but doesn't agree with the PCs' storyline, or the plot, or anything, really.

Just looked these up, the gravesludge looks like a grat fit in particular! Looking at its Wall of Ectoplasm spell and imagining a scenario where it's walled off an area to feed or something and the PCs have to break in and kill it before it devours the civilians.

I'm gonna keep the idea in reserve because I think my party are already suffering and I don't want this last part to be too much of a slog - pressure is good here but too much and they're just gonna get into a "gods damn it, another thing to deal with" headspace. Though I might add gravesludges to book 4 maybe, if I find a good space for them. Thanks for the idea ^^.

it was a behemoth pudding. so... CR 9, something that they could handle, but were having a rough go of it, and decided to run rather than kill.

i love me an ooze.

Just looked these up, the gravesludge looks like a grat fit in particular! Looking at its Wall of Ectoplasm spell and imagining a scenario where it's walled off an area to feed or something and the PCs have to break in and kill it before it devours the civilians.

I'm gonna keep the idea in reserve because I think my party are already suffering and I don't want this last part to be too much of a slog - pressure is good here but too much and they're just gonna get into a "gods damn it, another thing to deal with" headspace. Though I might add gravesludges to book 4 maybe, if I find a good space for them. Thanks for the idea ^^.

you could also run it as a hazard. some huge ooze of bones and gore chasing them through the streets.

doesn't need to be a fight.

I ran an encounter with 3 Fallen on the way to the Cathedral and it kind of dragged on - mostly just a lot of exchanging melee attacks, all the 2d6 negative energy damage was absorbed, the Despair effect wasn't really impactful and while the cleric did get hit with a Curse of the Unburied they took a minute to perform burial rites right after the fight so that's fixed. I really like the Escaping Survivors encounter, it feels cool and different, but wave after wave of Fallen is gonna drag I think. Plus, you know, incredibly low resources right now.

So I've reworked it. Instead of fallen, it's waves of Advanced Mutated Festrogs (Deformities: Mutant Spasms, Fractured Mind - Mutations: Armored, Celerity). Note: I don't think this is strictly allowed as the mutant template can only be added to "any living, corporeal creature, but I'm reasoning that the positive energy triggered the mutations as the negative energy undeadified them.

They're really low challenge rating, but I've added more of them. It's not meant to be a challenge really, but more of a setpiece "they just keep coming" kind of fight. They're gonna go down easy, and they probably wont hit much, but that's kind of good because I think it'll empower the party a bit without detracting from the Apocalypse vibes (they'll still need to retreat after 10 rounds to get the survivors out). Plus seeing what's become of the citizens of Vigil, and having to cut them down, isn't gonna feel heroic enough to detract from The Horrors.

(Edit: I realise Fractured Mind gives the confused condition, and undead are immune to mind-affecting effects, but I'm rolling with it. Something about those mortal minds still being in there, driven insane by their sudden and horrible changes).

That sounds like a lot of fun.

I added an encounter with a... lemme look... a Carnivorous Ooze [I think? or a gravesludge? or maybe some third party thing... can't quite remember...], which attacked an NPC's house of pleasure which the PCs headed directly for after emerging from the sewers. It overwhelmed them and they escaped out the back with it rampaging through the house. Fun encounter.

Love the idea of throwing lots of low level zombie types at them as they struggle to hold or just arrive at the cathedral.

Party have reached the end of the Redoubt! Tomorrow sees them starting the final part of Last Watch. Here's a few things I've changed around the Redoubt, some because of group-specific stuff and some because I thought it worked a bit better:

** spoiler omitted **

** spoiler omitted **

** spoiler omitted **...

I also added Gildais early... but in Book 4, as he follows the party through the Hungry Mountains.

Have fun at the end of the world!

Starting to get set up for this book... I'm putting the maps together on the VTT and ... what exactly is supposed to be going on w/ Jatembe? There's this text about wards, but are those actual objects? It says in one paragraph that Camisa draws them on a paper, and on another that they are spikes?

Are the players supposed to set these up and then lure in the treedudes? Who... are... what? Attacking them from out of the trees??

Not creating 10th level pregens? Paizo does want people to play these scenarios, correct? I'd like to just pass pregens out to my players, esp. for higher level PCs.

I'm about to start running this AP, first time as a PF2e GM. None of the players bit on the player's guide backgrounds. I'm looking for suggestions on tying in one player's backstory in particular, but thoughts on any of them would be appreciated. (Players are pretty easy-going and will play even if their backstories aren't tied to the campaign, but I'd like to think of something that makes their choices not completely irrelevant.)

One of the players wants to play a human noble whose land has been taken away through unspecified evil manipulation left up to the GM. The family's broke. He has traveled to Highhelm with his father and daughter, whom he offers to the GM to use as I see fit. I think maybe his father is a scholar of some sort and so it was father who got invited to the family festival. Any thoughts on how to make Narseigus behind his family's trouble?
My other players are:
a Minotaur mercenary-maybe his minotaur village was the first to fall to Narseigus aggression? Or he is aware of the seals on the well weakening, in HH to try to get someone to listen to him?
dwarf kineticist with ancient blooded dwarf background-could have had a vague dream of taaargick.
a gnome magus played by a new player, so I'm helping feed backstory ideas, I thought maybe sister to Ria, interested in tracking down dwarven artifacts?

Narsegius could be tied up with any kind of malific force on the surface.

He's been actively evil for a long time - maybe the father and Narsegius have old scores to settle against each other. The father was part of an adventuring party which did X and impacted Narsegius with Y. Maybe they were hunting worms in the underdark and stole something that Narsegius wanted... have the player come up with some weird 'darklands' themed macguffin which was always in the family house and father always was a bit evasive about how he got it. When the house is destroyed, THE THINGIE is missing....

Personally, I'm bringing Narsegius into the AP in Book 1, as a guest of the Tolorr Festival. He's a scholar, and not everyone at the festival is exactly of sterling reputation.

Maybe the PC is there at the festival, his father's there... sees his father arguing with Narsegius... then all the STUFF happens... and when the PC & co. are done with the stuff... dad's gone. And he's found dead. And ole N's got a smile on his face and nothing connecting him to the crime.

BOOM. You gotta hook, you gotta motivated PC. You gotta balla villain.

For the other PCs what 'backgrounds' are they looking at? These are really important tools for storytelling and shouldn't be ignored/disregarded.

Has anyone created a complete list of the things that Resolve Points can be used for. I know there are some general uses and some specialized uses but has anyone consolidated a list of all the Class Features with their Class that use Resolve Points or know of someone that has done this?

Not in one place w/ every class. That wouldn't really be helpful.

A list of non-class, non-core functions, which are optional uses of the resolve points can be found in the back of Starfinder Enhanced.

Paizo has THREE of these same characters:

Arazni, Nocticula, Shorsen

Each of them is IRREDEEMABLY EVIL. One is a bloody handed tyrant manipulator and schemer, the other is a DEMON PRINCESS, the last has controlled the bodies of others for millennia to do what they want, and advocated that more of this is better than less.

They do like, one kinda altruistic thing, and BOOM. REDEEMED.

They make for fun villains. They do not make for fun patrons.

As for me, Arazni is PERMA-DED in my homegame. She ain't gonna make that transition to divinity.

In the interests of figuring out what AP to play next, I've put together a series of AP surveys.

Here is the survey for Sky King's Tomb and here are the raw results. Anyone who would be willing to fill it out who is playing or running the campaign, it would be much appreciated!

Here is the reddit thread with all the surveys / raw results for those interested.

are you only looking for people who have completed the AP? I'm GMing but we are still early on.

...and you have to keep the fun bit of Book 6. It's too much fun.

[darn... i gotta come up with a freaky wizard [oh just as I'm typing it, I have one...] who can accidentally shrink the PCs in my Sky King's Tomb book]

My party is slowly working their way towards Gallowspire. I re-jigged the encounters on the way because I wanted to end last week's session on a literal cliffhanger.

The party was halfway up the cliff next to the waterfall when they all failed their Perception checks and didn't see THE DRAGON. The session ended when it attacked.

I suspect one or party members will die in the encounter. If so, I'll include enough diamond dust in its loot pile to pay for Raise Dead spell(s).

I spent an hour building out an excel sheet to model them crawling up the side of the mountain b/c I was CERTAIN that no one had fly.

And then the darn bloodrager busted out the GRIFFIN from Book 2!

So... of course I had the dragon come out at the worst possible time, blasting the griffin out of existence, with one of the PCs on top... in midflight. We had a lot of fun.

Yakman wrote:

So... had some second thoughts about THE LADY.

She's great. But boy oh boy... them leeches.

At CR 2, w/ 2 of them, their AC, w/ cover is NINETEEN.

That's just unconscionable, esp. while the PCs are dealing w/ the crab.

As I have ruminated on this a bit, I think it would be best if the WEAK template were slapped on them, reducing their HP to 22 and reducing their AC under cover to a still very high 17.

My party had no issues at all with the encounter. They took out both leeches without making any attempt to pull them out first. I called it 'hard mode'. They made ample use of Captivate Crab action and tossed heals on the Lady to show her they were trying to help her.

I think they were at level 2 when they took her on, but might still have been at level 1.

I ended up reducing the leeches to 'weak' making them CR 1.

The Lady still brought down the cleric [everyone learned that nobody else had any healing ability, and only the spending of a hero point saved the Thaumaturge, who was in the Lady's grasp [a successful acrobatics check got her our]. The kineticist leaped on top of the Lady and pulled out the last remaining leech. The gunslinger managed to kill both leeches, and Pearlcask dragged the cleric out of the Lady's claw and to safety.

anyway, I'd recommend altering the combat as I did if your PCs enter it at level 1. I probably wouldn't recommend any changes at level 2.

Everyone complained about the Foundry dice roller, this session [only our second on Foundry]... until the Basilisk challenge, when our gunslinger could not stop crushing it. Won the game for the Hodags!

Just starting this book.

How do the PCs *not* detect that Arazni is lying to them in the initial meeting? She only has Bluff +12.

Arazni says, "I am the one person on two continents who possesses both the power to destroy Tar-Baphon and a burning desire to do so."

But Arazni knows that she can't actually destroy him...and that's not even her actual plan.

Thanks,
Allen

They might find out that she's lying about that part, sure.

But that same successful check would tell them that she's not lying about going after Tar-Baphon, and that she's confident that her plan will work. It would also tell the PCs that she's not planning to betray them or wishes them ill.

Another question:

How are the PCs expected to get from Naderi's Bastion to Castle Fanum?

That's a bit of a journey.

I didn't see anything in the text about that.

Or how did your PCs make the journey?

Thanks,
Allen

They walked. It takes awhile.

Castle Fanum's mundane warehouse was really important helping them get to Gallowspire.

I set up like... 2-3 "random encounters" each between the Bastion, the Castle, and "The House of the Servant of the Master", which was Gildais' manor, inside an abandoned Whispering Way-populated town right above the valley of Gallowspire, [which served as a resting place for the PCs (as well as other things...)]

I just used some of the encounters from the book as the basis for these.

I set the AP in the middle of winter [there's a Golarion analogue to the Day of the Dead, but it is the last day of the year, and I figured Tar Baphon would find it fun to start his plot on that day... and the next day is the anniversary of the ascension of Aroden, so he launched his plan on New Year's Eve...], so they were always encountering weather hazards.

mikeawmids wrote:

{. . .}

3 part Goblin AP that really leans into how utterly ridiculous a Goblin AP should be.

It's up to the Goblins to uncover a grand conspiracy by the Blackfingers, the Skinsaw Cult, the Gray Masters, and the Reapers of Reputation. Because even if Goblins were traditionally seen as being Evil like the divine patron of these conspirators, I just can't see Goblins getting along with Nobooger.

instead of an AP, one of those new adventure books w/ 4 seperate adventures might be more fun for this concept.

Allen Cohn wrote:

GM Cthulhu wrote:

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

I think the same.

This is pure conjecture...but when this AP was being written most of the Paizo people were deep in the development of PF2. So I suspect that this AP got substandard editing, including matching loot to level.

I'm finding errors in game mechanics, plot holes, etc. all over the place!

Allen

This is one a few APs that assume that the PCs won't have much time/opportunities to go shopping in certain parts, this AP also sort of assume the PCs won't have much time/opportunities to rest during certain parts.

This.

There's zero opportunities for shopping between midway through Books 3 until the start of Book 5. So, there's gotta be a lotta loot.

Last announcement I saw was that the APs (now published as single volumes) and standalone adventures would be rolled into a single Starfinder Adventures subscription, which would reportedly consist of 2 to 4 releases per year.

With the bi-monthly AP schedule while those were being published, we were getting 1 AP and like... 2 stand-alone adventures?... a year.

That's a pretty solid schedule for adventures, at least for my table [we finished 2 6 book APs in ~42 months...]

So... had some second thoughts about THE LADY.

She's great. But boy oh boy... them leeches.

At CR 2, w/ 2 of them, their AC, w/ cover is NINETEEN.

That's just unconscionable, esp. while the PCs are dealing w/ the crab.

As I have ruminated on this a bit, I think it would be best if the WEAK template were slapped on them, reducing their HP to 22 and reducing their AC under cover to a still very high 17.

Unfortunately we had to adjourn in the middle of a combat last night... the one with... THE LADY!!!

She's just tearing Table 4 apart. So much fun.

NerdOver9000 wrote:

Yakman wrote:

UnArcaneElection wrote:

Earlier, I wrote:

^The Runelords Strike Again!? The Infernal Empire Strikes Back? Heist of the Crown?

Here's a Runelord idea: A new generation of Runelords has arisen, but rather than staying secreted away in demiplanes or castles, these brazenly move among the public, actively moving the levers of political power and swaying the masses with crude yet glitzy demagoguery, as they seek World Domination through Political Action.

A Runelord striking north into the Linnorm Kings would be a fun Viking-based AP.

Oh I like that. A Viking AP would be a fun redux to Skulls and Shackles... instead of being a morally gray pirate AP run a morally gray Viking AP, striking south at Varisia or even further south into Ravounel or Cheliax. Scratches a very similar itch in my mind.

Actually, not even "morally gray." Within Norse culture of the time, Vikings were upstanding heroes.

Save us oh Lord, from the wrath of the North men.

My party has accepted Arazni's mission to go to Gallowspire and close the witchgates. The problem I have is that for lengthy overland travel they've decided to use the Wind Walk spell. That's a perfectly reasonable thing to do, but it will allow them to bypass all the cool encounters on the way, particularly the dragon, which I'm really looking forward to throwing at them.

So, I'm going to have to come up with some monsters that aerially attack them in gaseous form, forcing them to travel by foot. Alternatively, I can have the Wind Walk spell become unreliable in the same way Teleport spells are around the Witchgates. Either way, there need to be serious consequences to travelling that way.

Any thoughts?

Sure. The Witchgates keep that from working.

Boom. Done.

Interesting. No more Starfinder APs, just adventures.

Yeah I definitely wanna keep that sense of danger/immediacy, so after the Redoubt there'll likely be no rest. It's the time before that that I was hoping to maybe squeeze in a chance to get dailies back. But GM Cthulhu is right, the Sump Steward room looks like a good opportunity.

Unfortunately my table have been spoiled on what happens to Vigil (and some other features of the adventure) by accidentally stumbling across details on the wiki/future adventures/memes on Reddit. They don't know the specifics, but I think they know it's coming. So I guess that's gonna put them on edge a little, maybe enough to preserve some resources (though I'm sad I'm not gonna get the raw surprise reaction from them).

If it comes to it, I might engineer some sort of shorter rest to gather back some resources, a moment of refuge in the cathedral or something. It could lead to a momet of good emotional reflection before they have to run off to the next thing, but I don't want it too long to remove that sense of urgency and pressure. Also, though, looking at the encounters in the final section I think they could probably handle most of these with fewer resources, and maybe I can have Aylunna, Evni and Veena supply some consumables. Or maybe a long-duration buff from the altar at the Cathedral or something like that.

the cathedral can have scrolls, potions, whatever. i had a cameo from the Herald of Iomedae which bought them time from the evil bat monster [i had it attack them - they were about to get iced within 3 rounds before the heavens opened up (the herald, of course, got got)].

Make it fun. But KEEP THEM MOVING!!! The world is coming to an end. Nap time can come later.

Earlier, I wrote:

^The Runelords Strike Again!? The Infernal Empire Strikes Back? Heist of the Crown?

Here's a Runelord idea: A new generation of Runelords has arisen, but rather than staying secreted away in demiplanes or castles, these brazenly move among the public, actively moving the levers of political power and swaying the masses with crude yet glitzy demagoguery, as they seek World Domination through Political Action.

A Runelord striking north into the Linnorm Kings would be a fun Viking-based AP.

Linking back to what GM Cthulhu was saying, I too have some concerns about this next part. They're about to enter the Dyeworks, and I suspect they'll go straight from here to the sewers to the old temple and then into the Apocalypse. I need to reread the whole of the temple section to see if there's good rest options there at all, but if not then I'm worried they'll be taking on a lot before their next rest, and at least 3 of them are resource-intensive classes (cleric, wizard, paladin (the swashbuckler can buckle swashes for days, they're fine)).

Does any one have any tips for like "this is a good rest stop" or "here's a good item/option to give them back some resources"? Pearls of Power are already acquired. I do wanna make them feel the heat a little bit, but not that much, and I don't have a very good way of signposting "this is gonna be a long haul".

Also, are Dondun Daradun and Doeswyn Aubry written into the Sky King's Tomb adventure? Or are they cameos you added? Just want to check for future reference in case either character dies in my TG campaign and I need to replace them for SKT in the future.

There is no good spot for a rest: they are going to push through to the Sealbreakers, and when they confront the bad guy BOOM! the apocalypse happens. It's supposed to be brutal. Play it up. They CANNOT REST once the apocalypse happens or you will lose all sense of danger / immediacy.

As for SKT: they are not written in. There's a part early on when the party meets some Knights of Lastwall, and having just wrapped TG, I added them as cameos.

Am reading Roger Zelazny's LORD OF LIGHT and did my first yoga class in almost 5 years yesterday, and boy oh boy, would a Vudran adventure w/ rakshasas would be a lot of fun.

The Raven Black wrote:

magnuskn wrote:

Uh, we are talking about two hundred years of history here. The town was detailed in Towns of the Inner Sea. The town was under pretty much constant (as in very frequent) attacks by Orcs for 200 years and people created the tradition of the hopeknife since they knew that getting dragged off by orcs was a fate worse than death. That's far beyond any "Gosh, they just imagined all the orc attacks and atrocities" territory.

Ironically, Half-Orc are quite accepted in Trunau, since the residents know best that it isn't their fault how many of them came into the world.

Granted, if it was reinforced though constant Orcish behavior they witnessed, that is something else entirely.

Having just read the Trunau part in Towns of Golarion, the Giantslayer's PG and the relevant parts of the 1st book of the AP, I stand by my earlier statement.

The beliefs behind the Hopeknife tradition can easily be explained by 200 years of reciprocated hatred, violence and atrocities. Especially in a town that only has the Insular and Racially intolerant (Orcs) traits.

not to mention what happened only a few years ago...

To follow up on Mikeawmids point, at least regarding Starfinder, I understand that you can't write a 6-parter expecting everyone will pick up the six parts, but I think you're downplaying some of the jank that should have been picked up by an editor. I've encountered at least three examples:

Similarly, Attack of the Swarm 5 (Hive of Minds) felt so disconnected from the greater narrative that I skipped it entirely and went straight to part 6.

This was also my major grip with Dead Suns. That being said, be warned that mileage may vary.

I saw Books 4 and 5 of ATTACK! as being the heart of the AP, and as I had a Priest Shirren Precog in the party, everything led up to the titanic clash in Book 5. The actual boss in Book 6 turned out to be much more of an afterthought.

Every single AP which Paizo has ever done relies, for it to be successful at a table, for a DM to customize it for that table. They can only try to put together a good set of adventures with some connective tissue. But for it to be successful, it will always require a DM, working with their players, to customize the story to the table it's being played at.

So, I gotta ask, is Trunau and their hopeknifes still a thing in Belkzen? Because if that lore hasn't been quietly shuffled beneath the carpet, that stands in pretty stark contrast to these more honorable Warcraft-y orcs we have been presented with lately.

As Tyrant's Grasp started off pretty close to Trunau and I had a half-orc PC, I added some of the Trunau / hopeknife lore to the story.

One thing a DM might do is consider that the 'frontier' orc tribes [like the ones which attack Trunau in Giantslayer, and the Twisted Nails who burned down Roslar's Coffer] are the wild, savage ones. They stand in contrast to Ardax and the ones in the interior of Belkzen.

I suspect that the savage orc v. the settled orc might be a major vein through the AP.

CastleDour wrote:

I like that they have a centaur hellknight, it looks cool! Not a fan of colonizing in general, but taming the wild and savage lands of Belkzen does have a certain appeal.

Uhhh, mate, please don't take this as an insult, but that thing you just said is in fact extremely colonialist. Calling an environment where people live wild and untamed, with the implication of taming it by turning it to agricultural land that can be better exploited by state powers as an unambiguous positive is pretty much colonialism 101.

Like, if you want to play this character, absolutely sure, go have fun! But do be aware that the organisation your character serves is monstrous.

it's the "monster ancestry" AP.

hobgoblins, gholos, orcs, goblins, etc. battling undead, abominations born from a dead god's blood, and other evils (I assume) in a savage land of horrors.

man wants to be a hellknight centaur, more power to him.

I would say though that in many Paizo APs the maps are TEENY TINY. Check w/ your GM if you should play a large PC before committing to the concept.

It's I1. If you look at the map there's a sort of ... landslide / pit looking feature on the far right. That's I think supposed to be the slope of the pit that the adventurers descend to get into the dungeon.

The encounter in I1 also makes sense as being the 'outlet' for the dungeon.

My guys went from descending into the sewers (Level 7? I think?) through Book 4 and into Book 5 at level... 13? 14? without shopping.

I was using alternative bonus progression, and nobody was equipment-based, but I'm sure they were relieved when I finally told them they could buy stuff.

Before the player's guide came out, I was thinking a Human Diplomat Kineticist who was a survivor of the goblinblood wars, was raised by the church of Asmodeus, and is being sent by Isger to respond to Ardax's call. After reading the player's guide, I think I would go with a hobgoblin swashbuckler from Oprak.

This looks really fun. We just started up SKY KING'S TOMB and I was thinking we'd delay that to at least take a look at the orc game. Having a blast, but boy, I do like the concept of a buncha orky-boyz smashin' hedz and diplomasyzin.

Alas, I suspect that the opening will be yet another festival... which makes for four festivals starting the last 6 most recent APs... Wardens, Season, Sky Kings...

so... what's an appropriate fix to this?

Still not letting them rest. Last week they had the fight with Ceto, then fought their way across town to the ballista tower, then fought the Haunting Dark.

They wanted to rest but I had the Captain point out that the time was currently mid-afternoon, and they needed to evacuate the survivors before nightfall because they had no idea what manner of undead nastiness would then emerge. They got the hint.

The Haunting Dark proved challenging. It made its save vs Iomadae's Needle. The sorceress consistently failed to get over its SR. The bard failed his save vs Finger of Death and went down, saved by the cleric's Breath of Life spell, but was still out of the fight. The witch didn't have much that could affect it. I had Dondun cast Greater Invisibility on the scout who was able to get a few rounds of sneak attack.

Ultimately it went down but the party certainly felt exhausted by it. They're very low on spells/resources and I'm still not going to let them rest until they've loaded the survivors onto the boat and fought the turtle and draugr.

I'm running Sky King's Tomb, and there's a bit where the PCs meet up w/ Knights of Lastwall... and last night, guess who was there?? DONDUN DARADUN! (and Douswen Aubry)

Keep pushing them!

I was considering Kemnebi at first as well, but my main concern was if he'd be able to much more directly interfere with things because he technically had a minion of his in the party. I'd've had to come up with a way for her to resist his control, since he takes notice of the party about halfway into the adventure.

Dragonchess Player wrote:

The character can be turned into a vampire via a ritual, instead of being a spawned vampire.

Ultimately the player decided to actually start living, with plans to become a vampire later, so we'll see how that shakes out!

Just tell the player to come up w/ a reason during character creation about how they broke free from their sire's control.

That being said, relish that sweet taste of PC death!

Yakman wrote:

the question is: does SF 2E have a separate GM Core, or is it just one big tome??

It'd be strange to announce cover art for GM Core, then not make a book.

oh! fun!

Think I'll enjoy receiving that in the mail! [and nice thematic continuity w/ the Pathfinder 2E GM Core!]

the question is: does SF 2E have a separate GM Core, or is it just one big tome??

Any word on what (& when) will be the first Starfinder 2e Adventure Path is going to be?

i suspect that it'll come out with the core rulebook, and i suspect that it will be a hardcover equivalent of a traditional 3 book adventure path.

I think it's gotta be Kemnebi. That's how vampire sire stories typically work. Lean into the tropes.

Marking my calendar with a TPK for my table... say... next March?