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Pathfinder Adventure Path #76: The Midnight Isles (Wrath of the Righteous 4 of 6) (PFRPG)

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Pathfinder Adventure Path #76: The Midnight Isles (Wrath of the Righteous 4 of 6) (PFRPG)
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Chapter 4: "The Midnight Isles"
by Greg A. Vaughan and James Jacobs

After an audience with the Crusader Queen, the heroes journey to a fortress that straddles the boundary between this world and the demon-haunted realm of the Abyss. There, they must face powerful agents of the architects of the Worldwound and put a stop to the production of the powerful elixirs being used to grant demons mythic power. Beyond the fortress lies the Abyssal realm of the Midnight Isles, lair of the succubus queen Nocticula—and the source of the crystals used to create the mystical elixirs. Can the heroes navigate the intrigues of the Midnight Isles to strike a critical blow for the forces of good? And can they avoid losing their souls to darkness in the process?

This volume of Pathfinder Adventure Path continues the Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path and includes:

  • "The Midnight Isles,” a Pathfinder RPG adventure for 12th-level characters with 5 mythic tiers, by James Jacobs and Greg A. Vaughan.
  • A look into the vast horror of the Abyss and an exploration of its many corrupted realms, by Mike Shel.
  • An overview of Nocticula’s realm of the Midnight Isles in a gazetteer of her capital city, by James Jacobs.
  • A demonic siege in the Pathfinder’s Journal, by Robin D. Laws.
  • Four new monsters, by Amanda Hamon and James Jacobs.

Each monthly full-color softcover Pathfinder Adventure Path volume contains an in-depth adventure scenario, stats for several new monsters, and support articles meant to give Game Masters additional material to expand their campaign. Pathfinder Adventure Path volumes use the Open Game License and work with both the Pathfinder RPG and the world’s oldest fantasy RPG.

ISBN–13: 978-1-60125-585-3

"The Midnight Isles" is sanctioned for use in Pathfinder Society Organized Play. The rules for running this Adventure Path and Chronicle sheet are available as a free download (1.6 MB PDF).

Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop
Archives of Nethys

Note: This product is part of the Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscription.

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A partly epic, and partly disapointing, fourth leg

2/5 —

Just to get this out of the way, let me start with the following obligatory advice:

Advice on adjusting the difficulty level of this AP:
Before running this AP, I was warned that the power of mythic PCs quickly outpaced the difficulty of the encounters the AP provides. Despite taking a number of precautions to mitigate this (having players use a 10 point-buy, applying advanced templates to every mythic creature, etc), I found this to be true.

In light of our experiences, and those reported on the boards, the consensus seems to be that there are two generally viable ways to deal with these problems:

Option 1: Power-down the PCs.

(a) Don't give the PCs mythic ranks.

(b) [Optional:] Use the Hero Point system introduced in the APG, and give the PCs a number of Hero Points per day equal to the number of mythic ranks they're supposed to have. (This makes players a bit more robust.)

(c) More or less play the AP as is. (Though there are a couple of encounters in book 6 that will probably need to be made a bit easier).

Option 2: Power-up the encounters.

(a) Give the PCs mythic ranks as the AP suggests (possibly with the nerfs suggested in Mythic Solutions).

(b) Use the (vastly) upgraded stat blocks presented in Sc8rpi8n_mjd's modified stat blocks document to upgrade encounters, and then further multiply the HPs given in the stat blocks by something like (creature's mythic rank+3)/3. (For more optimized players you may need to multiply HPs even more.)

Our experience, FWIW: We played books 1-4 more or less as is, and (despite my efforts to boost and combine encounters) found books 3 and 4 to be far too easy to be fun. We then adopted something like option 2 for books 5 and 6, and found that to be much more challenging and enjoyable. But we also found that combat can take forever -- don't be surprised if you find yourself needing to spend more than one session to get through a fight.

The story of this AP was decent and a lot of this AP felt appropriately epic -- with plane-hopping, trying to survive in a demonic city in the abyss, and a face-to-face encounter with a demon lord. The last half of the AP felt a little anti-climatic, though, sending the PCs through a lengthy dungeon crawl in a... [wait for it...] mine. Not very epic.

We found all of the encounters in this AP that the PCs are intended to fight their way through to be trivial for mythic PCs. (For example, I combined the 20 or so encounters in the mine into three big encounters, and the PCs never broke a sweat.) My players seemed bored by this leg of the AP (which is rare for them), and a couple of them independently suggested quitting the AP to try something else.

--Fun of playing this leg of the AP, as written: 0/5
--Fun of the story of this leg of the AP: 4.5/5
--Total score: 2.25/5

Evil All Around Us

4/5 —

The Midnight Isles proves itself to be another interesting chapter in the Wrath of the Righteous campaign. Although I didn’t find this part to be as good as the three previous chapters in this campaign, it was still quite a lot of fun and well worth the play time.

The player characters will find themselves in a lot of ugly and dangerous places this time. Normally being surrounded by so many enemies would probably get them killed in a matter of minutes, but they’re all pretty high level at this point, so as long as they stay together they should survive.

There’s quite a bit of wandering around trying to find information about a mining operation for evil crystals. I personally didn’t find that part very engaging. It also seemed a bit awkward when good-aligned PCs have to do amusing things to entertain a succubus. Our paladin wasn’t pleased about that!

On the plus side, there are lots of scary battles to fight, and many powerful evil to destroy. Although they don’t do battle with her, PCs do get the opportunity to come face-to-face with the Succubus Queen Nocticula, which makes for a pretty fascinating encounter.

The artwork throughout the book is some of the best I’ve ever seen. Some of my favorites include the images of Mutasafen, Ursathella, Vellexia, and of course, the amazing depiction of Arueshalae on the cover.

Recommended!

Awesome!!!

5/5 —

Fell in love with this AP from the beginning and this adventure just kept it up, by far my favorite AP of them all so far

Into the abyss

4/5 —

In this fourth part of the campaign, the PCs finally leave the material plane behind and hop head first into the abyss - one of the most horrible realms in all of existence.

Of course, the PCs are not yet high enough in level to survive the more hostile locations in the abyss, but luckily for them, their mission sends them into the Nightmare Isles, realm of the Demon Lord of Juvenile Fantasies, Nocticula. In their quest to stop the production of a special kind of crystals that make demons into mythic versions of themselves, the new heroes of the crusade must brave infernal jungles, a beautiful city that hides it's terrible nature behind a fanciful yet dangerous facade, and even a meeting with the Demon Lord herself!

The mid part of the adventure is certainly the strongest. The possibilities for unique adventures in the capital city of the Midnight Isles are endless, and the players will be responsible for taking the initiative and getting things done by themselves. The later part and the early part, though, are standard dungeon crawls, albeit truly high powered ones - the PCs are quit the little menaces by this point.

All in all despite the unique setting the adventure feels rather bland, and no particular thing about it really stands up above the rest. I suspect that the fact that it was written by two different people had to do with it. It still looks like a ton of fun to play, and is perfectly serviceable as a part 4 of a campaign.

It is a bit annoying how unimportant the PCs mission turns out to be, though. They stop the production of the super crystals, and process to meet, like, 70 mythic demons in the next adventure. If there are so many, surely preventing the creation of the crystals barely matters.

Lacks that mythic feel

3/5 —

Read my full review on Of Dice and Pen.

The Midnight Isles is the first adventure in Wrath of the Righteous to lose that mythic quality and feel like just another adventure. It’s a decent adventure, sure, but it doesn’t stand out the way the other instalments in this adventure path have. In part, this is because planar adventures already have many of the qualities that make an adventure feel “mythic” and so, in order to make them stand out even more, they have to have something more than other planar adventures have—and I really don’t think this one does. In part, it’s also due to the fact that this adventure feels rather “done before”. It bears a lot of similarities to some earlier Paizo adventures, particularly parts of the Savage Tide adventure path. Of course, to a certain extent, all adventures reuse common patterns and tropes, but this one seems to do so to a greater extent. In his foreword, James Jacobs explains that the reason there are two authors on this adventure is because he and Greg A. Vaughan helped each other out due to both of them have very busy and tight schedules. It’s therefore not surprising, I suppose, that in order get it completed, they had to rely on reusing tried-and-true tropes. But alas, tried-and-true does not make for a mythic feel. The result is a planar adventure that seems rather ordinary when compared to the adventures that have led up to it.

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Wycen wrote:

Off the top of my head, there are 2 mythic powers that'll help.

Depending on your mythic tier, the mythic ability Seal of the Star Tower will keep Nocty's seductive aura and domination from functioning for 1 round or more. Irrepressible Soul will also help versus the domination, not sure about the seductive aura without rereading the text.

Hmmmm...I wonder if that is not the reason that the good guys have at least two gay male NPCS. If they're not attracted to women will they be thus immune to Noct's seductive aura.

Abyssal Lord wrote:
Hmmmm...I wonder if that is not the reason that the good guys have at least two gay male NPCS. If they're not attracted to women will they be thus immune to Noct's seductive aura.

I'm fairly certain that her seductive aura pays no attention to the orientation of the PCs/NPCs within range.

Alleran wrote:
Abyssal Lord wrote:
Hmmmm...I wonder if that is not the reason that the good guys have at least two gay male NPCS. If they're not attracted to women will they be thus immune to Noct's seductive aura.
I'm fairly certain that her seductive aura pays no attention to the orientation of the PCs/NPCs within range.

Spoiler:

Yup it cares zero about any of that. I remember a related scenario in Savage Tide where only the party warforged could talk coherently around the succubus queen. He was rather upset with the rest of the party in a way that eventually ended with him becoming the Prince of Demons and banishing everyone else home.

Plus those NPCs are assumed not to follow the party to the Abyss, IIRC
Alleran wrote:
Abyssal Lord wrote:
Hmmmm...I wonder if that is not the reason that the good guys have at least two gay male NPCS. If they're not attracted to women will they be thus immune to Noct's seductive aura.
I'm fairly certain that her seductive aura pays no attention to the orientation of the PCs/NPCs within range.

I would think gay male and heterosexual females would get a bonus to their saves vs effects that rely on physical and sexual attraction.

Dark Archive
Abyssal Lord wrote:
Alleran wrote:
Abyssal Lord wrote:
Hmmmm...I wonder if that is not the reason that the good guys have at least two gay male NPCS. If they're not attracted to women will they be thus immune to Noct's seductive aura.
I'm fairly certain that her seductive aura pays no attention to the orientation of the PCs/NPCs within range.
I would think gay male and heterosexual females would get a bonus to their saves vs effects that rely on physical and sexual attraction.

I don't see why they would as it has nothing to do with there own personal likes or dislikes. It is a supernatural ability, it overpowers the mind and normal sensibilities through pheromones and other such nonsense. Just cause I am a heterosexual male does not mean my likes would influence me to like her. Also she can change shape to be male or female.

Liberty's Edge
Wycen wrote:

Off the top of my head, there are 2 mythic powers that'll help.

Depending on your mythic tier, the mythic ability Seal of the Star Tower will keep Nocty's seductive aura and domination from functioning for 1 round or more. Irrepressible Soul will also help versus the domination, not sure about the seductive aura without rereading the text.

Seal of the Star Tower doesn't work on targets whose mythic tier exceeds your own, so that ability wouldn't work on a demigod. Even run-of-the-mill demon lords (of which Nocticula has personally destroyed a couple dozen or so) have mythic tier 10.

If it's based on mythic rank, then you could do it outside of her realm, but not in her realm. Demon lords count as rank 10, with access to mythic power, while in their realms.

In contrast, a Great Old One counts as rank 10, with access to mythic power, at all times.
Webstore Gninja Minion

Added a spoiler tag to a post above—keep in mind people are playing this, so please use the tags!
The_Hanged_Man wrote:
Wycen wrote:

Off the top of my head, there are 2 mythic powers that'll help.

Depending on your mythic tier, the mythic ability Seal of the Star Tower will keep Nocty's seductive aura and domination from functioning for 1 round or more. Irrepressible Soul will also help versus the domination, not sure about the seductive aura without rereading the text.

Seal of the Star Tower doesn't work on targets whose mythic tier exceeds your own, so that ability wouldn't work on a demigod. Even run-of-the-mill demon lords (of which Nocticula has personally destroyed a couple dozen or so) have mythic tier 10.

Also, how is a character in this campaign even going to get Seal of the Star Tower? That's one heck of a side quest.

I don't suppose someone would be kind enough to list the islands of Nocticula's realm? A list of names would do. Don't need to include descriptions. (Or even better, a list of known demon lords slain by Nocticula, if such is given...)

Please and thank you.
Dark Archive
1 person marked this as a favorite.

Islands:
1. Ilmarendus - Dry wells, ghost towns, vengeful dead
2. Luralune - Banshees, mountain valleys, songs
3. Illarenn - Bells, mirrors, vanity
4. Vaetuu - Deathtraps, gears, possessed machinery
5. Azinym - Cursed villages, violent mobs, wolves
6. Talerox - Broken bones, infections, splinters
7. Kovalarue - Broken vows, misplaced revenge, tears
8. Deluria - Frostbite, hunger, winter
9. Halvireg - Floods, hurricanes, washed-up corpses
10. Gorg - Defrocked priests, incest, twins
11. Migorg - Corrupt officials, incest, twins
12. Colyphyr - Dragons, jungles, poisoned waters
13. Alir - Carnivorous plants, scars, tainted soil
14. Marah - Defamation, scandals, shame
15. Mirogo - Lost explorers, sandstorms, vultures
16. Tharvool - Ashes, magical energy, whispers
17. Korluuraud - Bones, desecrated crypts, tombstones
18. Urvog - Misanthropes, old structures, toads
19. Uzail - Astrology, ill fortune, standing stones
20. Alinythia - Harpies, music, seduction
21. Vazglar - Jealousy, loss, ruined cities
22. Bezwarluu - Infestations, rifts, spiders
23. Vyriavaxus - Bats, shadows, sunsets
24. Azverindus - Libraries, mountain spires, secrets
25. Nahyndri - Gems, prisons, slavery
26. Melarach - Open wounds, needles, sadistic doctors
27. Raknus - Alleyways, thievery, urban decay
28. Zimhain - Messengers, slander, talking animals
29. Belatruve - Murderers, nooses, strangulation
30. Kexervix - Beetles, dead trees, severed limbs
brad2411 wrote:
** spoiler omitted **

You are AWESOME!

Thank you very much!

(^_')=b
The Exchange
Abyssal Lord wrote:
Alleran wrote:
Abyssal Lord wrote:
Hmmmm...I wonder if that is not the reason that the good guys have at least two gay male NPCS. If they're not attracted to women will they be thus immune to Noct's seductive aura.
I'm fairly certain that her seductive aura pays no attention to the orientation of the PCs/NPCs within range.
I would think gay male and heterosexual females would get a bonus to their saves vs effects that rely on physical and sexual attraction.

It's not a physical attraction, it's a magical effect - for example, even creatures that have no sex drive or even means of reproduction are still vulnerable to her aura. If you want to find an in game explanation, how about this: Nocticula is all about seduction. Sex is usually the easiest means to seduce a person, and so that is the approach she most commonly uses. However, if for some reason or another the person will never find her attractive, she will resort to other means -so a gay male, for example, might smell an extremely pleasant, intoxicating odor, maybe one that reminds him of something sentimental. A greedy person might feel a compulsion to own some of her jewelry and be so distracted by that that the seduction will work. Every entity in the universe has a crank in it's resolve somewhere, and Nocticula is all about exploiting that.

On an unrelated note, I really like Shamira. The nearly silly verbal interpretation of her "fiery passion" ability is actually very interesting crunch, and it is sure to catch some people off guard and unable to defend themselves against here. I think I am actually going to buff her a little

Spoiler:

and make the ability symmetric. That is, anyone without both immunity to fire and immunity to mind control is not protected her mind affecting effects. Seems like fun :)

I don't really like the Bestiary intro picture in this one...
Why the tiefling-wannabe got the picture and not the Lamhigyn? *Sad forever*
Paizo Employee Creative Director
3 people marked this as a favorite.
Gancanagh wrote:

I don't really like the Bestiary intro picture in this one...

Why the tiefling-wannabe got the picture and not the Lamhigyn? *Sad forever*

Because we're illustrating all of the bestiary openers for Wrath with a fight between an iconic and that volume's new demon, that's why.

Oh... and cambions were around in the game a decade or so before tieflings... and in real-world mythology for a lot longer than that. So if anything... the tiefling is a cambion-wannabe.

Now that I finally have the physical book I can look at I think the character art of Arueshalae on the cover is great, one of the best character pieces of Paizo's that have been done and the best one done by Wayne Reynolds. It's just too bad the background art to go along with that looks like Reynolds mailed in his effort for it.
Dark Archive
Drock11 wrote:
Now that I finally have the physical book I can look at I think the character art of Arueshalae on the cover is great, one of the best character pieces of Paizo's that have been done and the best one done by Wayne Reynolds. It's just too bad the background art to go along with that looks like Reynolds mailed in his effort for it.

I like the Art and the backgrounds are not suppose to out shine the focus of the cover. also it could have been a small art or just a creative choice as it looks like he was trying to add some atmospheric perspective with the light and jungle

Digital Products Assistant

Removed a couple posts. Please revisit the messageboard rules.

Enjoying this one, but is it just me, or there is a bunch of errors in this one. For instance, Melazmera an old umbral dragon should be CL 11 not 15, an abyssal harvester should have 21 HD not 20, there are also a bunch of creatures missing feats, have feats that don't meat prereqs, etc.

Don't mean to nit pick, but I am surprised by some of these. There is usually much better quality control on the adventure paths.
brad2411 wrote:
Drock11 wrote:
Now that I finally have the physical book I can look at I think the character art of Arueshalae on the cover is great, one of the best character pieces of Paizo's that have been done and the best one done by Wayne Reynolds. It's just too bad the background art to go along with that looks like Reynolds mailed in his effort for it.
I like the Art and the backgrounds are not suppose to out shine the focus of the cover. also it could have been a small art or just a creative choice as it looks like he was trying to add some atmospheric perspective with the light and jungle

After rereading my post I think I might have been unduly harsh, or at least unfair, as I don't really know the effort he put into it or the circumstances that went into it's creation. Because of that it might not even have been his fault. Even baring any outside constraints even the best people don't hit stuff out of the park all the time.

Still, I hold by my position that it's sub par work for him for whatever reason. Maybe it's just more glaring considering the quality of the character portrait in front of it.
Liberty's Edge
Frumple wrote:
For instance, Melazmera an old umbral dragon should be CL 11 not 15

Old umbral dragons are CR 17. Giving her the entropic template raises her to CR 18, which is what she's listed at. I'm not sure what you are talking about here.

Can I ask what the general impressions were of this module? I ask because, personally, I was rather disappointed. I really enjoyed the new npcs found in the previous modules - they felt fleshed out, I appreciated the roles they played in the story, and it's been fun having so many unique npcs to interact with my players. In the Midnight Isles, it feels like they've just all disappeared and - worse - there's nothing to replace them. Even Arue the redeemed succubus is strongly urged to not be present (and I was looking forward to seeing the most of her in this mod). It's just sort of a disconnect for me in terms of what's going on in the campaign itself. Does anyone else feel that, or is there something I'm missing perhaps?
Shisumo wrote:
Frumple wrote:
For instance, Melazmera an old umbral dragon should be CL 11 not 15
Old umbral dragons are CR 17. Giving her the entropic template raises her to CR 18, which is what she's listed at. I'm not sure what you are talking about here.

CL = Caster level

CR = challenge rating
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