Yakman's page

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?

Would love having more direct or indirect sequel APs. Making a 10th (or higher) level character in second edition can be an ordeal, especially for newer players. It would be much easier to be able to bring old PCs over if the higher level APs had stronger thematic or at least locational connections. If I create a rootin' tootin' gritty cowboy for Outlaws of Alkenstar I might feel a little out of place if we end up transitioning to Curtain Call, but if I'm a newer player I might not have the system knowledge to create a high-level replacement. Or, on a more basic level I might not enjoy playing a character made for one genre and transferring them to another.

honestly, i would love to run higher level stuff, but paizo should provide pregens for all their higher level adventures. it's hard to ask players to create 10th level PCs.

She’s a human that hates her family in Cheliax. So I am thinking best way to hurt them back is to free the halflings. She hates her family cause her halfling nurse maid was killed and thrown away with only her caring.

that works!

Do we have a Dominion-vs-GOO AP for 2e? It could be interesting to spend at least one book trying to either pit the two against each other so they don't squash the PCs, or trying to juggle their goals such that neither manages to start an open war front right where all the character's friends are.

honestly, I'd rather differentiate them more.

it's okay that there's confusion about where one starts and the other ends, but I'd just like to run brain-collectors and weird monster guys intent on conquering the planet, maybe?

Some of the "Continuing the Campaign" threads from 1E have great tie-ins to the Dominion that I'd like to see explored in future adventures.

It's the same with Patrick Rothfuss's The Kingkiller Chronicle by the time book 3 comes out it'll have been 14 years... That's just too long for me to care anymore.

dropped that series halfway through book 2. what a miserable slog.

bought it hard cover the day it released when i had very, very little money.

never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, going back.

Yeah! Do it! I'd love to have a direct sequel to something I haven't run [HONEST!].

If the guys want to play a high-level AP we can open it up and there'd a wealth of NPCs, themes, etc. to mine from an AP which we haven't even run.

I'll likely never play again - alas, permanent GM - but I was thinking a Skeleton [fodder] Amnesiac Witch [The Inscribed One]

Dim would be an OLD skeleton. One passed down from owner to owner since time immemorial. He's covered in inscriptions from various owners trading him back and forth. He's barely conscious.

But as he's leading the party to the farm, a famished, dead raven alights on his shoulder and... SOMETHING sparks him when the battle with the cow breaks out. He starts getting more articulate, more powerful, begins casting SPELLS?

He starts to remember, over the next 20 levels, his dark and terrible past, the vile crimes he committed, the bargain he made, and in the end, leaves the party never to return to Geb, but instead, to collect on his end of a deal struck before Earthfall...

I think these guys are great. Trying to figure out a way to put a war party of them into my SKY KINGS TOMB game.

I am going to play a Cheliaxian born champion of Calistria. She has the bellflower agent background and will be smuggling halflings from Cheliax to Andorran. I used acp to get her into the Eagle Knights as well. Having trouble coming up with a good reason for a champion of Calistria to be helping these halflings. Please help me come up with a good in world lore reason for her mission to free the halflings.

Matt

She's a bellflower agent who wants to help halflings b/c she doesn't think that their forced servitude is right.

Boom.

Don't overcomplicate things. The calistrian part can play into her being a bit tricksy with stuff.

Yakman wrote:

Make them sweat. Do not let them sleep. They are IN THE APOCALYPSE. If they ever start getting complacent, tighten the screws.

I'm doing just that. They wanted to rest up before going below the cathedral to get the Spear of Iomadae, but I had the Captain emphasise how many lives were at risk and how time was of the essence. They were fairly mauled by the fights below so I re-jigged the spells that Aylunna had to be of slightly more assistance to them.

Next week they're going to want to rest up before getting the Spear across to the Ballistae tower and taking on the Haunting Dark. Again, time will be of the essence.

And if they DO rest, I'll just have random encounters turn up.

imho, the PCs cannot rest in this part of the adventure.

They are in the middle of the end of the g'd world. Maybe the DM can take the foot off the pedal if it's looking dire, but I dunno. I pushed my guys hard and they were feeling it, but in the end they got to the boats alive if barely, and that's what I was going for.

I've started telling my guys ahead of time that certain dungeons / set pieces are not going to be areas where they can rest Like... "Sure... you can try to rest... but I'll just send a monster to attack you. And then do it again. So figure out how to get through this with the resources you have."

We had a lot of fun shooting the ballista. Especially as I changed around the monster and foreshadowed this starting in Book 1.

NoxiousMiasma wrote:

considering one is a big sleepy lizard

Wait what?

does some googling

...huh. welp, that's going to change how I approach my homebrew Sky King's Tomb continuation. Thanks for teaching me about Bokrug.

As for the topic on hand, I'd love for something that deals with the Dominion of Black. Other than that my only wish is that it is an 11-20 AP so that it can work as a sorta follow-up to Gatewalker.

Started running DEVASTATION ARK for Starfinder, and I realized that this might be the last time I get to run some fun SF1E enemies, so I started off the AP with a homebrewed attack on the PCs starship by the Dominion of the Black.

Long / short: They killed one of the PCs and the player rage quit.

So... yeah. Gimme more Dominion. They are awesome.

NoxiousMiasma wrote:

Alright, poking over the 1e list of Great Old Ones... I will confess to a soft spot for both Bokrug and Yig, but I'm not sure either of them makes for a very good center of a campaign - considering one is a big sleepy lizard and the other literally doesn't care unless you're mean to snakes. Maybe we could do something with Atlach-Nacha and Leng Spiders, poking about with webs of dreaming minds and lucid dreamers? Or go back to the Lands of Black Blood, with Orgesh (bonus points for giving a perfect excuse for a 2e version of the Black Blood Oracle, and a look at the Darklands now that they're not full of drow. Black Blood serpentfolk could be cool).

I could see Yig having a presence in the Valeshai Jungle. It’s very Saurion.

the serpentfolk are also the leading villain in the Darklands these days.

So... back to the gnome... I think I'm going to foreshadow her as described above, and then have her follow them to the ruined city in Part 2. They can then have an encounter with this mysterious stranger, and have to... rescue her? in Part 3?