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doctorfabius wrote:

Hello guys, on page 27-28 are described the stats of the remnants of Barzillai. No AC or HP is provided so it appers that the only way to get rid of them is disable through expert religion check or counterperform. How should I manage that in a group where there isn't an expert in religion or performance?

You mean the Hellhound and Phantom Bells haunts? If none of your players are expert in Religion then they'll have to do what my players had to do, which was run away. No one was expert in religion at that point and they couldn't continue. I don't know if anyone else's players had trouble with that stuff but mine did. The Gelugon almost killed them but they thought "we have to check out everything right now!" And went to Lady Docur's and then the coffeehouse without resting. It was almost a TPK but they managed to escape. They came back the next day and missed all the other encounters inside the coffeehouse because the local police had shown up.

yes, I meant the haunts. thanks for advising, I think I will homebrew something to allow players to defeat the haunts even if not expert in religion

Hello guys, on page 27-28 are described the stats of the remnants of Barzillai. No AC or HP is provided so it appers that the only way to get rid of them is disable through expert religion check or counterperform. How should I manage that in a group where there isn't an expert in religion or performance?

I feel like the belmazog fight revovles around the ability to free Kyrion.

If Kyrion is free he will DEVASTATE Belmazog and her ilk, even with all the debuffs he's incredibly powerful.

In my game with 6 PC's I added the chimera's to Belmazog and the fight was going heavily agaisnt them, but then the rogue with his cloak of elvenkind managed to disarm the traps and free kyrion and he promptly DESTROYED belmazog's team in one breath and then chomped her down with 2 crits.

very interesting, my group with 4 PC's lacks of rogues so it was almost impossible to free Kyrion smashing the chains due to the very high hardness. The funny part was when, after Belmazog was defeated, the group started an argument about freeing or killing the still imprisoned Kyrion. In fact, red dragons are the pure essence of evil and the cleric was concerned with the possibility of future destruction that Kyrion would cause when he will grow to great wyrm. At the end the wizard and the redeemer set up a touching speech about giving a chance of redemption and the group decided to spare the dragon

Well, yesterday we started the assault to the fortress of Sorrow, I decided to play it this way:

after the distruction of the last pillare the Ekujaes are taking back their control of the jungle. So they meet the group outside the fortress. They planned together the assault and decided to have the Ekujae contingent split in two groups (east and west of the fortress) and attack with arrows. The Racharaks and the militia in the restroom exit from the front gate to confront the Ekujae and the player slip in

this way I managed to eliminate boring (imho!!!) minion combat while keeping consistence with the dimension of an army in their very HQ

the group confronted the golem and then I decided to overpower the door trap raising the DC and making the player failing the ST unconscious. Only the cleric passed the check and he surrendered to the chimera and the dragon priests coming out from Kyrion room. Belmazog comes out from the last room to have some RP conversation. We stopped here, next time they will have to find a way to free themselves and confront Belmazog

I have some embryonic idea, such as having Nketiah, invisible due to the Elvenkind cape, free the group. Maybe I will have her pass them the Gourd home from book 3, to allow some rest without having them retreat. Maybe Jahsi (or Akosa) will be died during the distraction fight, to add some drama. Belmazog will take the animal companion of the druid (a bear) and put him near Kyrion to take his fey power for the ritual. This will give the poor animal some draconic traits and maybe the breath weapon ability

Hi duxfemina, we share lot of ideas about this module. I also made lot of changes to my hellkinight hill (and to the second too, my group is about to face the final boss there), something very similar to your story

you can find my ideas here https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/comments/j9zhwv/fixing_age_of_ashes_h ellknight_hill/

I also made a landing page for Foundry, I shared it here, but yours is better :)

thanks

Hey guys, thanks a lot for your suggestions, I really appreciate it. I'm using milestone leveling too. My group also had conversation with all NPC. Maybe I just grow tired with the old-fashioned dungeon craving (we've been playing RPG from 20 years), where you go from a combat to another, and I would like to find a way to make encounters more interesting. I tried a lot to implement this idea during the module, in particular I made those changes (spoiler, wall of text):

- Akrivel leaders were spread in two more encampments through the jungle. I eliminated the influence point minigame (sounds too videogamey to me) and distributed the events in the three spots

- Jahsi was in the south of the jungle. Some murders were happening around his camp, he claim it was from the cult but after some investigation it turns out it was a redcap summoned by the atrocity made by the cult to the kobold women and child after taking males to the mine (credit for the encounter idea here https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder_RPG/comments/i1b60a/tactics_for_pf2_cri tters_redcaps/)

- Ifiok was not chasing the kishi (my group encountered the beast very early). Instead, I used him to create a "moral dilemma" situation: a couple of human merchants from a taldan small colony in Garund was travelling in the jungle when they encountered the orcs hunting. They saw an orc children, his axe bloodied (he was being initiated to the hunt) and shot him down with an arrow. Now Ifiok is chasing them for revenge and the human ask the group for protection

- Akosa was in the east of the jungle. Three ekujae were kidnapped and he received a letter from the bida asking to leave the area. They obviously go to slain the dragon but the bida meet them in human form along the way, asks about their purposes and misdirect them about his nature, so they prepare to fight a black dragon. When they enter the ruined temple the dragon explain he did not kidnap the elves. It was Albestia (from book 3, in my story she did not die but she was betrayed from Rusty Mae that throw her away from the waystation to lead the coven) that is looking for a way to go back and is interested in studying the pillar magic so is trying to turn the elves again the bida. The dragon promise to leave the area and to reveal albestia location but he wants to infiltrate a settlement (the taldans or the orc, according to how the previous encounter went)

the rest is more or less as written. returing back to the fortress topic I was thinking of a massive combined attack with the ekuaje OR to have them captured and THEN freed thanks to the Ekujae attack.

thanks again :)

Hi guys, my group is approaching the fortress of sorrow and is about to break in. They just levelled up to 8° after the last fight in the gold mine, and they are a little tired of the very frequent fight encounters in the jungle….this module really goes from one pillar fight to the next with really little roleplay interaction. So I don't want them to have 6 more consecutive fights (sweettoth, golem, dormitory, kitchen, dragon priests, chimeras) before the final boss battle. On the other hand I don't want to just eliminate encounters having them pass level 8 in two sessions. Any suggestion?

Hi everybody, here is my fix to AoA

first of all have a read to this thread https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/comments/coqcwm/hacking_hellknight_hi ll_book_1_of_age_of_ashes/ because there are a LOT of plot hole you can fix from there (the thread is closed so i cannot comment there)

this is MY thread on reddit with some valuable comments coming:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/comments/j9zhwv/fixing_age_of_ashes_h ellknight_hill/

I adopted a bunch of ideas from the linked thread and went on from there:

- breachill is a city full of magic, legacy from Lamond

- There is a group of young adventures (the regulars from the post, which I called "sons of Lamond")

- Voz and Calmont are allies (he is sort of a minion). Calmont shares with Voz the will to found a guild. He doesn't know Voz is just manipulating him and plans to betray him when needed

Alak came in Breachill two nights before the Call. He meeted with the Sons of Lamond in the Pickled Ear, where they insisted in going to the Citadel with him. Thonira Axebane, daughter of Rorsk and Jorella Axebane was with them as a groupie and has an infatuation for Alak. Roxie Denn overheared the conversation and sold it to Voz, who is already paying her for silence about the secret passage. Voz and Calmont ambush the group in the Citadel. Voz uses sleep on Alak and kills the sons of lamond to avoid them ruining her plans and turns them to undead. Alak awakes and Calmont runs away (Alak can recognize him). Voz was very careful to avoid being seen. Recognizing Thonira as a valuable person she plans to ask for ransom

At the call of heroes there are two petitions: the one from Warbal and a second from Jorella Axebane about her daughter. PCs will follow the track either searching in Thonira's room where they find a secret diary (prepared an handout) and/or asking Roxie who tells they meeted a person wearing a simbol of Asmodeus (Alak become suspected to be the villain).

The fire is an idea of Voz to stop Heroes from coming to investigate in the Citadel. She gave the parchment to Calmont to avoid being recognized and went inside to have an alibi. After the resolution of the fire, when the guards accuse Calmont, Voz decides to betray him: she apologize for having such a trouble in his shop, she confess about the stolen parchment and gave a magic object to help the heroes

In the Citadel Alak meet the PCs and they realize he is innocent (he is almonst an Hellknight after all). He points on Calmont and is happy to go with them for revenge. PCs find Thonira tied up in the secret area A12 with a proof of a ransom letter (they become friends with Tuskhead and this will be helpful in reconstructing the Citadel)

When the PCs find Calmont he tells them about Alseta's ring but he cannot tell more. Voz was following, black dressed, hooded and with heavy clothes to appear larger in build, she prepared with spider climb and she cast an acid arrow to Calmont's throat. After that she quicly runs down the battlement and disappear in the forest (unlikely PCs will make better at 1st level and after two consecutive fights)

the rest of the story is the same of the book except that Roxie confess her guilt when PCs discover the tunnel and she is imprisoned for complicity (PCs can take over the tavern if they want)

I will be happy to hear your feedback to further improve the story!

Hello everyone! my group is about to challenge Voz in the next session and my campaign got a real boost with your ideas and materials so, again, BIG thanks to everyone.

I was wondering if someone prepared an handout to use as Gerhard Pendergrast Journal (encounter A7 - Blue Pillar)

And, finally, does anyone prepared a map for the fortress of sorrow? (i downloaded the one from MSAbaddon -which I thank - but I'm using a different style)

thanks!!!

Hi guys, I know it's a really miserable work compared with others here, but I want to share my idea of landing page:

- I put a B&W map of the inner sea region which I want to color as long as PCs explore the world (very easy with GIMP, if someone interested I will explain)

- below the map are the portraits of my PCs

- on the right a "remind parchment" with the open questions on my campaign (in Italian)

- below an element of the last session (actually warg puppies stuff from our last one, with time I will update the file in this folder as my Pcs progress on the AP)

Here is a link to the google drive folder with all the stuff inside:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1pCIIXXqKDv6_2bv6NxVbxve0tWbTfgph?us p=sharing

there is png file that I finally upload to foundry vtt as a scene. there is also a "candela.webm" that I add as a tile on foundry with a source of light (is an animated GIF of a candle")

you can open xcf files with GIMP (free software) and modify them according to your needs

hope it will be of help to someone!!!

doctorfabius wrote:

GimmeYourShoes wrote:

I've updated, embiggened and prettied up my maps.

https://imgur.com/a/XtTkXSd9 <---- Tomorrow Must Burn

https://imgur.com/a/sKLp7sy <---- Cult of Cinders

https://imgur.com/a/MJCNSi9 <---- Hellknight Hill (only 2 maps)

Made in Dungeondraft - mostly 200px grids unless otherwise specified. I'll keep adding maps to these Imgur posts

thanks a lot for your work guys, it really pushed my AoA forward!!! I have a question, hope you can help. I'm trying to use those maps on roll20 but I can't align them properly with the grid. Any suggestion on the page settings to use? thanks again!!!!

My general tips for getting a map well aligned in roll20:

1. Count the dimensions of the map's grid (eg: how many squares wide and high it is). Crop out partial grid spaces if necessary.

2. Make a map in roll20 that is the same dimensions.

3. Upload your map, put it on the map layer, right click it. Select "advanced, set dimensions".

4. Set the dimensions of your map to the dimensions you noted earlier.

5. The map should now be exactly the right size. Move it around a bit to make sure that all of it is visible, and your map's grid should be perfectly aligned with the one in roll20.

Thanks Tochmy and ToiletSloth, it helped a lot! I also realized there is a "align to grid" feature in advanced submenu. It doesn't works perfectly but it helps.

Thanks MSAbaddon for your maps (which I am using) and for your suggestion. We are veteran in-person players but we are new to VTTs so we are experiencing the free version of Roll20. But I'll take your suggestion on Foundry.

ENJOY THE GAME ;)

I've updated, embiggened and prettied up my maps.

https://imgur.com/a/XtTkXSd9 <---- Tomorrow Must Burn

https://imgur.com/a/sKLp7sy <---- Cult of Cinders

https://imgur.com/a/MJCNSi9 <---- Hellknight Hill (only 2 maps)

Made in Dungeondraft - mostly 200px grids unless otherwise specified. I'll keep adding maps to these Imgur posts

thanks a lot for your work guys, it really pushed my AoA forward!!! I have a question, hope you can help. I'm trying to use those maps on roll20 but I can't align them properly with the grid. Any suggestion on the page settings to use? thanks again!!!!