I ended up customising an adult D8 haunt based on a zuvembie and a backstory of two patients who'd developed a close friendship - their patient files would reveal that one of them was treated for anxiety disorders, particularly achluophobia (fear of the dark), and a later comment changed her diagnosis of mutism into selective mutism as she'd started to talk to that other patient (whose name my new D8 haunt yelled).
Most of that turned out to be a waste of time (though actually no, it was quite fun) as they didn't even dare to enter the room before the darkness was sorted out, but they did enjoy the riddle and Airwynn (their go-to contact at the chapel) telling them what she remembered of those two and pointing out their shared room on the map bit that they'd found, where "hauntie's" friend would store a lamp under her bed that could often calm hauntie's anxiety.
Any ideas on how to make the other haunts easier to solve - and thus more interesting, because otherwise they'd probably just wildly guess around and then stop bothering? I thought dream hints were a great idea and wrote some, but they've refused to sleep outside the chapel after their first night.
Another fun challenge: "Hey, what's the skin of that [nightgaunt] thing like? Must make for cool armor!", "I want the horns!", "How about making a whip out of the tail?"), sigh... :D
(Looks like they might have time for something cheap while some of the group does research at the library, but the Craft DCs plus improvised tools mean risky business unless you've put some ranks in it and/or plenty of INT (they have neither). If they are committed, maybe they'll find that one or more of the survivors or even the more reasonable cultists can teach them some skills and help crafting. Or they'll take the nightgaunt corpse/parts with them as a trophy and take care of the crafting later.)
When you say "works pretty much the same way" how do you mean? Do you want that room to be dark and have the creature crying for its lamp, which the PCs have to find and return in order to make the darkness go away? Or do you want a creature with all the same abilities, but just not a child?
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I want the room to be dark and then something unsettling to happen for a cliffhanger. I'd also like there to be enough of an obstacle to make them explore the rest of the area before moving north...
I like the halfling idea, though I just realised that I have a plausible explanation for the absence of a picture: they can't see anything :D
Yeah, I'd love to actually spook my players who are very much into horror. The problem is that I get triggered by the child stuff. Just seeing the descriptions in the AP and the bestiary makes me extremely uncomfortable, so it'd be best for me to use a different monster.
Aaand I'm looking for a replacement for the attic whisperer, preferably one that works much the same way but doesn't involve kids. I know other people loved it, but I can't DM stuff to do with a traumatised child and whatnot. Seems like that's pretty much what an attic whisperer is about, so I don't see how I could adjust it. I also routinely show my players pictures of their opponents/NPC's that I cut & paste from the AP or Bestiary, so it would be suspicious to have this one missing (they don't want to know if/where I change stuff).
Any advice?
(My library question from the previous page is still relevant btw)
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Keep up this good job and don´t hesitate to ask the swarm :-)
Thank youu! And I'm back with another question...
The library. It's supposed to be extensive and covering a lot of interesting subjects that PCs should be able to find out about. It took me a while to guess that "Due to the range of topics PCs might want to research here, multiple categories are listed among the research results" apparently just means the categories of Briarstone asylum, isle, and witch - so by default these would be the only topics that give results (and you'd then read/hand out the whole paragraph)? I'd find this quite underwhelming, especially considering that some of my players have invested in knowledge skills because they are really interested in the lore and research. Also, the first thing they mentioned that they'd like to look up in the library was memory loss...
Did I interpret that right? And has anyone here adjusted/expanded the research results/rules?
Do you tell them for minor search terms that it takes them something like half an hour to find a relevant book, another hour to skim through it provided they have a background (ranks) in a related field, and then give them a little piece of information? Maybe they could use some research to get a (one-time) bonus on knowledge checks concerning a particular subject, like the 3.5 Paragnostic Apostle? Or do you just tell them which terms they can get results with and/or that the ratlings happened to have eaten all the books that would be relevant for their questions outside of the given categories..?
Shenanigans from session #3:
Spoiler:
So last night the mood was definitely more on the silly than on the horror side...
Our Paladin (who still has no idea she used to be an anti-Paladin before Sarenrae got involved) insisted on bringing Ratch Mamby to the chapel so the survivors would take care of him and make sure he'd behave... The guards were like "...Nope.", but my player insisted on trying to persuade them, so I had them call Winter.
Winter: "EUGH, what the..?!"
players: *laughing*
Paladin: "We're going to make him a better person, he can help with chores, you can keep him in chains for now so you'll be safe..."
Paladin player: *makes a good Diplomacy roll*
me: *makes a bad counter roll*
me: *inadvertent sigh*
players: *laughing and cheering*
me: "...Fine. Ratch Mamby is sentenced to community service."
Pickled Punks encounter...
Players: (getting sidetracked in a discussion on the DEX and CHA penalty the Sorcerer got from their rash, how it makes sense that walking around with a deformed baby stuck on you won't make a good first impression...)
me (pretending to be stern): "Ok, but we're having a serious situation here"
players: *laughing*
...
Then the Paladin wanted to keep the tumor that the Pickled Punks threw at her.
me: "Seriously..?"
Skald: "Yeah, you never know what you're going to need one of those for, right?"
Paladin: "Sure, I pick it up."
me (*sighing*) "Roll another Fortitude save then."
When encountering Losandro, I realised that I had no idea how oneirogens would actually react when people show up or try to interact, and my frantic search didn't help. So I ruled that she wouldn't show any reactions to the PCs, until the Brawler had the brilliant (?) idea of stuffing her mouth with paper to stop the mists... Which provoked her to attack, and I made that a cliffhanger since thankfully it was just late enough.
My hat is off to you! This is one of the more challenging Adventure Paths to run. Sounds like you're off to a great start!
Hah thanks, I'm going to show this to my players (all of whom have DM experience) who didn't take me seriously when I was approaching a nervous breakdown two weeks before we started ;) In case any DM novice ever reads this planning to run this AP as a first one: DON'T DO IT. If I'd realised just a little bit earlier what I'd gotten myself into, I would have insisted on starting with something shorter and simpler.
Also wow, I had a look at your profile and now I'll have to somehow make our Skald use "The Tatterman Can" :D
I know a little bit of what happens from searching this forum and gathering notes on things/NPCs people thought were important to include/emphasise from later modules. I'll read/skim the whole thing as soon as I can.
-Sorry if I seemed a bit helpless facing that improvisation bit, it's my first time DM'ing and I expected an AP to be more like "this is how things are supposed to be".
Anyway, we've just had session #2 (incl. interactions with Winter and a few other survivors, their first dreams, and some exploring) and they seemed to have a good time.
Some things that worked well for them in case anyone is interested:
Spoiler:
- survival aspects: We agreed that they wouldn't have starting equipment (inspired by some posts here), so I let them find tools, lanterns and oil in a chest of drawers that seems to be shown in A1a, a handaxe and firewood (that they used to fashion clubs with a DC 12 Craft check) by the furnace, take gory uniforms from dead orderlies that worked like Padded armor (and that I knew they'd like to clean with Prestidigitation), one heavy-duty uniform equivalent to Studded leather, a broken shortbow where the hunter's clothes and dagger were stored... "I've been playing for so many years, but this is the first time I go 'Yay, level 2! I get to take the Mending cantrip, awesome!'" :D
- the dream sequence right in the beginning, amazingly enough: That was the very first thing I did as a DM (I realised too late that it was a terrible idea not to try a one-shot first at the very least) and they knew it, so I was afraid they'd think I was screwing it up. So I stole another idea from this forum and only knocked them out. I also fudged it completely so I'd have less to deal with - I just pretended to use dice and made up appropriate numbers to knock them out in two hits. I'd prepared the message in an image editing programme using bloody-looking "graffiti" on a dark brick wall, with a new file for each new word added, and had our host show it on the screen we've been using to keep track of initiative. The "wake" finale didn't come as a huge surprise, but they thought it was cool.
- amnesia stuff: Our group hadn't been actively roleplaying much, but wanted to get better at it, and it seemed to help that the players knew little about their own characters, almost nothing about the other ones, and had a lot to figure out together. One player is inexperienced with D&D/PF but loves horror, so she let me create an easy-to-play character and only give her more knowledge and control gradually so she can focus on the story. I wrote her (and a few others) notes with flashbacks / things she realises she can do etc.
- paranoia stuff: I roll some checks like Sense Motive for them. Today they were speculating a bunch about Winter being an evil doppelganger or even having started the whole thing since other survivors told them Winter appeared just a few days ago, and when they asked when the doppelgangers and ghouls appeared, the answer was also a few days ago ("Aha!!")... While talking to her later, they all shouted for Sense Motive checks. I rolled them, put on a big grin and told them that they thought she was completely trustworthy - they were still suspicious :D
- dreams: I made up some weird ones, some of them containing foreshadowing, the paladin's featured his goddess that the player didn't know about but that the PC afterwards recognised with a knowledge (religion) check. I handed them out on notes and then let the PCs recount them to each other the next morning. Despite my best hinting efforts, half of them have terrible Will saves and all of them failed the first dream save. So they'd gone to sleep because they sorely needed the healing, then woke up in worse shape than before and were shocked to discover claw and bite marks on two of them :o I didn't find any info on whether the casters would get their spell slots recovered with such unrestful dream effects, but ruled that they did because they were a sorry enough bunch already :D
- the eyeball found in the pocket of the dead prisoner that I made out of modeling clay and presented to them wrapped in a (clean) handkerchief :D
- the Syrinscape soundtrack, sponsored by a very dedicated player who has a subscription for her own DM purposes
Ok, no new memories prior to the dream killing, and then it probably makes sense that they'll just never find out how they ended up unconscious in the basement. My players have already decided how much they want their PCs to remember, and then I guess I'll have Losandro note in her journal that she inquired about their names and origins but Lowls didn't have the patience to give her much info so there'll mostly be first names the way she remembered them afterwards. I did see the timeline, but it didn't clear up these things. Thanks!
So I still don't really understand how this amnesia thing is supposed to work.
- PCs woke up in the asylum and didn't recognise each other, but they'd already been together for a few days after losing their memories so they should actually remember that they'd been together for that period and arrived at Briarstone..?
- Also, Dr. Scaen didn't expect them to wake up so soon - I interpreted that as meaning they'd been sleeping for an unnaturally long time (how long?), and/or that was intended..?
- Uhm aaalso, that revolt with Zandalus happened *after* the PCs arrived, so they shouldn't be totally clueless about what's going on (unless they were sleeping the whole time, but again, why? They surely were conscious upon committal, otherwise Losandro would have commented on it in her diary).
- They didn't remember their own names and other information, (with one exception in my group), but Losandro suppedly wrote them down - where did she get that info from? Lowls who didn't want her to keep records..?
Did I miss something here when reading through ISOS, are those things mentioned in later modules, or am I supposed to come up with explanations myself or hope that my players/characters won't notice how little sense it makes?
In case anyone finds this thread and is wondering how things went: I figured that I'd actually gotten way in over my head with this AP as my first DM project and that it'd be fair to let my players have some extra work too, rather than converting everything - which I'd learnt here was worse than we'd thought.
So we settled for PF rules with a 3.5 "accent" while we're all learning the system. We had our first session last night and it went reasonably well (I even managed to make the dream intro *not* a disaster of "Oh s%+!, you're doing things wrong this shouldn't happen", haha).
Haha yeah, I was going to find out how much of a challenge my players want before giving that one guy green light for playing an Archivist (from Heroes of Horror) with the Church Inquisitor prestige class, which would give him unlimited Detect Evil from level 3 and make him an expert at seeing through disguises and illusions and whatnot...
Going to have a closer look at the general differences then. I was just hoping to find someone who'd go "Oh yes, we've tried playing this in 3.5 and it went like this and that".
If you go beyond this module it will get more complicated for sure, so come back again if you get that far.
Oh... Big differences to 3.5 in the other modules? In what way? NPC classes?
We've talked about using PF rules, but figured it would be easier for me to adjust the adventures than for me and everyone else to adjust to yet another system (several of us are already getting confused from playing both 3.5 and 5e D&D). Any opinions?
Thanks for the heads-up on DC differences, I hadn't thought of that!
Hi there! I'm planning to DM this AP with D&D 3.5 rules and was wondering if anyone here has tried this before or has enough experience with 3.5 to say something about possible challenges, and/or can recommend classes etc. to use.
My hope is that I won't have to modify the monsters that much, and that the rest will go pretty smoothly as well. The main issue I've seen so far is that I'll have to divide Perception back into Spot/Listen/Search, bother with Grapple modifiers etc., and if someone plays a rogue type then we'll have to find out whether to reintroduce immunity to sneak attacks (probably not, it's neither fun nor very balanced).
Nobody in our group has played Pathfinder, but most of the players are very experienced with D&D. From what we've gathered, they are really similar but both PCs and NPCs/monsters are more powerful in PF - so we're thinking that five 3.5 characters instead of four PF ones will balance things out somewhat..? We do plan on using PF hit die sizes.
Class-wise, I figured Archivist would be a good fit and hopefully make the unpopular Cleric unnecessary (though probably still wise), and I'm trying to get them to have a Rogue or Scout. One of them loves necromancers, so a Dread Necromancer might make for hilarious shenanigans (I'd ask everyone if they're fine with such a character and a not-all-serious campaign). I haven't gotten around to checking out the chapters beyond the first, though. Any recommendations?
