Zhyth's page

Does anyone know how long Jorgenfist has been under the effects of the time stop? My players just fixed it last session and I know the first question any sane person would ask the researchers there is "what day is it?"

Have they been frozen in time for days? weeks? months? I can't find the information anywhere.

I had initially thought that the time fracture was basically in response to the PC's presence, and so it only started when they got there, but reading through that chapter of the adventure, it seems like I was wrong.

The time fracture was created in response to Alaznist's method of obtaining the Book of Serpents, Ash, and Acorns. Alaznist used the Book to find the Scepter of Ages, and then used the Scepter of Ages to reach and kill Xanderghul, an event which corresponds to right before the first book of the AP. From the "The Runelord Legacy" section of the AP's first book, Alaznist took "only a few months" to complete Xanderghul's work in locating the Sceptre of Ages, after which she "killed" him.

With this in mind, while I don't think it's possible to work out an exact timeline, it seems as though Jorgenfist has been in temporal stasis since at least a few weeks before the entire adventure path began, meaning that it's probably been at least 1-2 months - which is a lot longer than I had expected!

While I do agree that the motivation for "helping" Thybidos after the fact is rather nebulous, one thing worth noting is that some sort of consequence is mentioned in the Concluding the Adventure section. In particular, this passage (I hope it's alright to post this):

Emphasis mine. My interpretation of this is that by going through the gauntlet, the PCs have gained some sort of protection against any attempts by Alaznist to scry on them or learn more about them. I think that if you play this up after the PCs deal with Thybidos (or, at the very least, let Sorshen inform them of this later on), then it could alleviate some of the motivation issues.

Fair enough! I enjoyed reading them, but it's hardly a deal breaker if they're not included. I thought that length might have been the reason, but you had mentioned before (in this post) that they might be present, so I was just curious. Thanks for the quick response, Mr. Jacobs!

First of all, I'd like to start by saying that I'm a huge fan of what I've seen - the campaign outline has some absolutely fantastic ideas and a whole bunch of things that I absolutely didn't expect - so bravo to everyone involved!

But what has me curious is the apparent lack of a foreword in the first volume of the AP. Correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't every installment in every other AP had a foreword to set the tone for the rest of the book? I know that I've always loved reading them, not only to set the stage but also to give some insight into the mind of the people behind the adventure, and learn a bit about why the adventure was chosen to go in the direction that it does. Is the lack of a foreword here a part of the space-saving exercises to push this AP all the way to level 20, or is it an unfortunate oversight?

Hello again, everyone! Sorry for the delay; I've been a bit caught up in my studies, and haven't been in the state of mind to update this. That being said, the maps are done, my studies are over, and my party is one session away from finishing the campaign, so there's no time like now to spread the love!

So: here are my maps for The Dead Heart of Xin! As always, all maps are made to fit Roll20's default grid resolution of 70 x 70 pixels per 5-foot square.

The Ritual of Reforging, 20x20
Heralds of Xin, 30x30
Enraged Denizen, 30x50
Crystal Palace Ground Floor, 100x70
+Xin Legionnaire 1, 1x1
+Xin Legionnaire 2, 1x1
Crystal Palace Lower Hold, 100x70
Crystal Palace Workshops, 100x70
Skymetal Vaults & Apex Part 1, 110x60
+Runelord Statues, 12x12
+Siccatite Fog, 16x14
Apex Part 2, 50x50

A couple of notes: As before, items marked with a '+' are .pngs with transparencies, and are designed to be placed and removed during play. The Xin Legionnaire 1 and Xin Legionnaire 2 are designed to act as stand-ins for the functioning Xin Legionnaires in area A3, while they're inert (you'll notice the missing Legionnaires in the line-up before the throne!). The Runelord Statues belong in area D2, and the Siccatite Fog belongs in area D6.

Additionally, I've made a few personal changes to the maps. I wasn't really happy with the idle constructs being so large, so I made most of them medium sized. I personally think that it turned out really well; not only does it look better, it also makes Xin's crafting ability more impressive! I've also combined all of the Skymetal Vaults - as well as the first two parts of the Apex - into a single map. This was done primarily to make it easier to run, since you don't have to flip between a bunch of maps to do so. Thanks for the idea, wordelo!

And there you have it! I hope these maps serve anyone who uses them as well as they've served me. All that's left for me is to run my players through their final encounter with Xin... And maybe a little bit extra after that ;)

Enjoy!

Hello again everyone!

I recently finished running the fourth book of this AP, Beyond the Doomsday Door, for my group, and I figured I may as well share the maps that I had made for that book as well. It's been a while since I made these ones, but I don't believe I had made any major modifications to the descriptions given within the AP itself.

So, once again, I present to you my maps for the fourth book of Shattered Star. As last time, all of them have been created at the Roll20 default resolution of 70 x 70 pixels for every 5-foot square.

Windsong Abbey Area, 50x50
Windsong Abbey, 95x101
Windsong Abbey Above, 70x47
Gatehouse Guardpost Floor, 4x4
Windsong Dungeon Level 1, 66x50
Windsong Dungeon Level 2, 64x48
Windsong Dungeon Level 3, 78x58
Windsong Dungeon Level 4, 77x51

The Gatehouse Guardpost Floor isn't an actual map, it's a cover in the event that your group managed to sneak in to the abbey, and not have the gatehouse collapse on them. Just throw it on top of the hole in Windsong Abbey Above! I should also note that the map for Windsong Abbey, the 95x101 tile image, is larger than 10.0 MB that a Roll20 Pro account can upload in a single image, so you'll need to crop it into a few pieces in order to use it. For the non-pro users, a couple of the other ones are larger than the 5.0 MB limit for you, so a bit more cropping will be in order.

I hope that these maps can come in handy for anyone who needs them!

There WILL be sidebars here and there that will provide aid and suggestions on how to adjust things like this if things played out differently in your game. I wouldn't be surprised to see this information end up in each volume's Foreword... so make sure not to ignore them!

I do love sidebars! I'll be sure to keep my eyes peeled for anything of the sort once these come out. Looking forward to it!

Zhyth wrote:

...

Return of the Runelords assumes Karzoug is dead at the start. In fact, him being dead is a pretty important plot point.

Hmm, that's a little unfortunate, but not at all surprising. I'm already having to change a couple of things in Shattered Star to account for it. If all goes as planned, though, they'll get their chance at revenge on Karzoug at the end of the campaign, so here's to hoping that it goes well for them this time!

As for which runelords get stats...

** spoiler omitted **

Now that's what I want to hear!

Oh man. I'm currently running Shattered Star after having run Rise of the Runelords, and I was planning on making a homebrew (quite literally titled "Return of the Rise of the Runelords") in about a year's time, but then you guys go and drop this! I can't tell if I'm ecstatic or a little disappointed.

My wonder is which of the Runelords are finally going to find themselves given stats in this adventure. With Mr. Jacobs aboard, I can't help but feel that we'll finally find out how much of a threat Sorshen really is.

Also, any chance that this will be runnable in a world where Karzoug didn't die at the end of Rise?

Hey everybody!

I've been GMing Shattered Star for my online group for the better part of a year, and I've been using the maps made by GM Bigrin up until now. I still love his maps (saved me so much work and time for the first two books of the campaign), but for The Asylum Stone, I decided to try my hand at making some maps.

I made a few changes to some of the maps (for example, changing the wyvern nest in the Black Keep down to the first floor instead of in the rafters), but for the most part, I tried to be as accurate as I could, taking the original maps and the descriptions into account.

And so, I present to you my attempts at recreating the maps for that book. All of them have been created at the default resolution for Roll20, 70 pixels by 70 pixels for every 5-foot square. I hope that they might prove useful to some of you!

Clash of the Sorebacks, 20x12
Screams in the Dark, 15x20
The Hanging Manse, 30x30
The Therassic Workshop, 54x34
The Black Keep, 58x38

To fix the "send to another plane" issue, perhaps give it something akin to the Oliphaunt of Jandelay's Guardian of Jandelay ability? Maybe...

Call of The Destroyer (Su): Birthed from the Pit of Gormuz, the Tarrasque does not stray long from its home plane. Whenever the Tarrasque is brought to a plane other than the prime material, it attempts a Will saving throw each day to return. The DC is equal to the DC of the spell that transported it, or the DC that spell would have if it allowed a saving throw. If it succeeds, it is instantly transported into the depths of the Pit of Gormuz.

There are some Rise of the Runelords spoilers ahead, as well as the obvious Shattered Star spoilers, so be warned.

I recently finished GMing Rise of the Runelords for my group, and have since moved on to GMing Shattered Star. I've been trying to spice up Shattered Star by really playing up the Pathfinder Society portion; I've been making plans to add in a bunch of Pathfinder Society scenarios as optional side-missions to be played between (and sometimes during) the main books of Shattered Star.

However, in my attempt to personalize this playthrough of Shattered Star, I had an idea: see, when my players fought Karzoug on the last session of Rise of the Runelords, they lost. I've issued forth the statement that, despite this, their characters in Shattered Star are in the same continuity as the ones in Rise of the Runelords, but what I haven't done is tell them how Karzoug was defeated so that the world could go on as normal. In fact, I believe that the only time it was brought up, I had Sheila Heidmarch state that it was "a long story."

That brings me to my idea: I'm thinking that Karzoug wasn't defeated, by either their old group of adventurers, another group, or any other means. Instead, he decided to bide his time, and to ensure that when the other Runelords decided to rouse from their slumber, he would be the most powerful one, and be able to dispatch them. How did he decide to do this? Why, by assembling the fragments of the Shattered Star, and rebuilding the Sihedron, of course.

Now, this is where the plot gets loopy. Instead of using his sheer arcane power to find the Shards, what if he decided that it wasn't worth his time to do so directly? What if, instead of searching for the Shards himself, he managed to convince a group of lowly adventurers to find them for him?

What I'm sort of planning is thus: Karzoug, undefeated by Varisia's greatest heroes, wants to ensure that his rise - and that of his empire - goes completely unchallenged. To do this, he plans on re-assembling the Sihedron, which has the added benefit of bringing back the Dead King Xin, who Karzoug would certainly love to put down once and for all. To this end, he decides to masquerade as someone who could, within reason, be able to bring on small groups of adventurers to do his bidding without any questioning. And who better than the lovely Sheila Heidmarch?

Thus, Karzoug kills / captures / whathaveyous the real Sheila Heidmarch, disguising himself as her (I know he can't use Illusion spells, but he's rich. He can afford something). He spends a couple of years establishing himself as the "real" Sheila, and searching for the location of the first Shard to kick off his little game, whereupon he brings in the PCs and the campaign starts.

What I'm asking, then, is does this sound like a good idea? If so, how should I go about alluding to it during the campaign (and should I even bother doing so)? How should I have it play out in the end? I was thinking about having "Sheila" congratulate the PCs after they put down Xin, asking for the Sihedron, and then revealing herself as Karzoug (maybe teleporting the group to the Eye of Avarice), whereupon the PCs would have to fight him, but I don't know whether or not that's a good idea.

So, comments, critiques, suggestions? Anything's appreciated!

I've been running Rise of the Runelords for the last while now, and my players are just about to get to Xin-Shalast. This community has been such a massive boon to me, what with all of the beautiful maps and handouts created by you wonderful people, that it really surprised me when I realized that nobody had taken it upon themselves to create any new maps for the Xin-Shalast areas (excluding the ones that were already given maps in the books, of course!)

Because of this, I decided to take it upon myself to use my terribly mediocre image editing skills to create maps for a variety of the named locations in Xin-Shalast. Taking some inspiration from ideas presented in the Spires of Xin-Shalast thread, I came up with some reasonable maps for the areas I decided to include in my game.

So, without further ado, I present my humble collection of s!*@ty maps (all using 70 pixel squares, as is standard for Roll20):

- Krak Naratha, 40x60
- Giant Encampment, 40x40
- Abominable Dome, 50x50
- Spolarium, 30x40
- Temple of the Sihedron, 30x30
- Shahlaria, 50x40

As I said, they're not pretty, but I whipped them up in around an hour each, and I'm decently satisfied with the results. Hopefully they'll prove even a little bit as useful to the people here as your works have for me :)