My party, too, recently finished The Haunting of Harrowstone. They found their first letter from A sitting in the middle of the desk in Petros Lorrimor's study. I actually printed up the letter (using a script font), rolled it up, and sealed it with wax. I handed this prop to them "in the morning," noting that Kendra found it addressed to them when she went into the study.
I'm about to run the Carrion Hill module as an interlude before the second book, and also because one of our players has dropped out and been replaced. I've been running the missing player's character as a GMPC, but it's a lot of work, so I intend to kill them off during the events to Carrion Hill. At the conclusion of that module, they will receive another letter from A:
Carrion Hill success letter:
My friends:
I feel it important that I extend to you some thanks, given your recent activities. Crowe has always been a bit of a rogue element within my organization, and I was saddened to see that he had influence enough over others to draw them into his ill-conceived plans. I must apologize for the grief that he has caused you, and once again aver that it was not my intention to bring those events upon you, but that of a disobedient underling defying orders. While I lament the loss of a skilled minion, it is with relief that I note I no longer need devote any resources to containing his misguided exuberance.
I must applaud you on your skill in dealing with the Spawn of Yog-Sothoth, even with the losses that your tribulations caused you. While Crowe was indubitably correct in his conclusions that the Outer Gods can confer immense power, their ultimate goal is, sadly, distinctly incompatible with my own. Consequently, I must express my appreciation that you have disposed of this aberrant monstrosity, obviating my involvement.
How strange, I find, that your paths should cross mine again so soon after your adventures in Ravengro. Though, given the magnitude and extensiveness of my machinations, I suppose my mystification is somewhat gratuitous. It is said that coincidences are spiritual puns, so I respond with good humour to this one. At any rate, I again conclude that you are not working at cross-purposes to my plans, so I hear of your exploits with amusement, rather than wrath.
Please, extend my greetings to the lovely Ms. Lorrimor as well. I am inordinately pleased that she has chosen to pursue a life of knowledge, especially given the tragic ending to her father’s tale. I hope that the font which is the University of Lepidstat can slake her thirst, but should she desire to explore topics of less sanction than can be found in those musty tomes, inform her that she need only inquire, and I can provide many fascinating avenues of research. There is always room for skilled and intelligent operatives within my organization.
I’m afraid that I have other pressing matters to attend to, so I must cut this missive short. Thus, until I hear more of your escapades, I remain yours,
If you're playing a straight-up game of Carrion Crown, all of the settlements that the players will visit are listed in the AP, with the stats for each settlement listed. If you want to play by RAW, this is what you need to know:
Each settlement has a "Base Value." Any magic item that costs less than this has a 75% chance of being available for sale. If it's not, you could check again in a week's time. You might house-rule in a mechanism for ordering something of this value or less, and having it guaranteed to be there in 1 week.
Each settlement also has a number of minor, medium, and major magic items available over and above the base value. A lot of the time in the AP books, these specific items are listed. If they are not, or if the PC's leave the settlement and come back at a later date, you can roll up new items just like you would for loot from killing a monster.
This kind of work can be done by you before you host each session. Keep the information handy for when your players want to go shopping.
I'm not sure I completely get this item, as well written as it is.
So once per day you touch written text with the leng spider-leg and it turns the text into symbol-gibberish. If the writing was the requisite magical-text it turns into a living symbol-spider swarm, which can also insert magical-symbol-gibberish into a victim's brain to make them confused.
Well, it's pretty, but not exactly more than some spells in a can that need some interesting activation. And an amazingly expensive can at that.
Thinking more of other utility, I guess you could use it to turn missives into gibberish, but why you would do that when there are other ways of disposing of messages...
Vadims, an intriguing, evocative item.
If I were a GM, I'd give this to a sneaky rogue, who would turn the party wizard's spellbook into spider swarms.
Is there any item that produces an antimagic field or forces a creature to suffer an antimagic effect? Something that doesn't require spell casting or UMD. Something non casters can take advantage of
A Rod of Cancellation will make magic items into mundane items. It's a pricey (11,000gp) single-use item.
Another potential option is a rogue's Dispelling Attack. Every time the rogue does sneak attack damage to a target, a Dispel Magic-like effect is cast on the target. With a high-level rogue that uses TWF, that can be a lot of dispel magics per round. Of course, this means a minimum of 10 class levels for your BBEG. Dispelling Attack does not work particularly well against magic items.
Or even just, you know, they and its close relatives.
*shrugs* A lot of PF SRD text explicitly assumes a gender, and it tends to be random. Read the class descriptions. Barbarian and Paladin use female pronouns, Ranger and Rogue use male. I actually like it this way, rather than using "they." To each their own.
Why would you think they are shooting themselves in the foot?
Just because they're building a party that is predominantly focused on fighting undead, so they may be sub-optimal for other challenges.
Things looked okay for knowledge/diplomacy/intimidate coverage, but they'll probably be missing bluff. The party will likely have no non-magical stealth abilities. The sorc can be a blaster or a support caster, but usually can't do both well due to limited spells known.
Merely a case of optimizing for one purpose, and potentially being terrible at everything else.
I actually suggested the seeker variant of the sorcerer, so that the group can get the trapfinding and DD skills without having to "waste" a character on a rogue.
I'm planning on GM'ing a run through the Carrion Crown adventure path for a group of four PCs. So far, I have read Haunting of Harrowstone, but none of the other books. I told my players that the first adventure is undead-heavy, which the players guide also hints at. In response, they proposed the following party:
1. Paladin (race and archetype not decided yet)
2. Dhampir Kinslayer Inquisitor of Pharasma (Repose)
3. Oracle of Life
4. Seeker/Sage Sorcerer (nobody wants to be a straight rogue)
My opinion is that this group will do fantastically for the first book, but I'm looking for advice as to whether or not they'll be shooting themselves in the foot for the rest of the adventure path.
