Pathfinder Adventure Path #184: The Ghouls Hunger (Blood Lords 4 of 6)

Geezus people, stop having bombing war in the review scores :'D I want to read other people's opinion on this x'D

Geezus people, stop having bombing war in the review scores :'D I want to read other people's opinion on this x'D

Thanks for your review and the information in it! I haven't delved into this book enough yet to have an informed opinion, but I appreciate your thoughts on what works well in the adventure.

Certainly much more useful than 1-star (or 5-star) reviews with no context as to what gave it that rating.

Geezus people, stop having bombing war in the review scores :'D I want to read other people's opinion on this x'D

IMO, Blood Lords might have been better as a three-part series. I have been following the PF AP line since Skull & Shackles, yet this is the first time I have been genuinely weary of a specific AP. I'm not even that excited for Gatewalkers, I just want Blood Lords to end already.

Honestly though, the Blood Lords seems to be pretty cleanly split between "First half that exists so you can build yourself up level and reputation wise" and "Second half where you are actually blood lords and into meat of things."

Of course depends on what book 5 and 6 will be like, but book 4 has quite different vibe from first three books.

I'm not a big fan of this AP but I knew that going in so I'm not surprised. That said, I absolutely love the supporting material so far so no complaints from me.

The Kabriri aphorisms are phenomenal. “Pick a man” as a well-worn phrase in Nemret Noktoria makes me grin.

I’m curious about the mention of a growing number of Ghouls devoted to Arazni and Nocticula… I’d love to meet some in play! Between them and Tanagaar’s Arrows, I like the surprising variety of friendly cannibals at our fingertips in 2e.

EDIT: Undertaker is one of the funniest spells I’ve ever read.

The Kabriri aphorisms are phenomenal. “Pick a man” as a well-worn phrase in Nemret Noktoria makes me grin.

I’m curious about the mention of a growing number of Ghouls devoted to Arazni and Nocticula… I’d love to meet some in play! Between them and Tanagaar’s Arrows, I like the surprising variety of friendly cannibals at our fingertips in 2e.

Yay! Glad you liked those aphorisms!

I've always felt that ghouls are one of those undead that are best suited toward being "non-evil but still creepy allies" in play, in large part due to the way Lovecraft portrayed ghouls (particularly in "The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath") and more recently in the ghoul-themed stories of Caitlin R. Kiernan. These types seem like perfect matches for faiths like Arazni and Nocticula to me. Or even to Shelyin, perhaps.

And I can also see a civil and proper ghoul noting that they're not REALLY cannibals—ghouls don't eat ghouls, after all! That more the type of gross thing you'd expect from ghasts. ;-)

and more recently in the ghoul-themed stories of Caitlin R. Kiernan.

Oooo I will have to check those out when I get the chance, I loved Alabaster.

keftiu wrote:

The Kabriri aphorisms are phenomenal. “Pick a man” as a well-worn phrase in Nemret Noktoria makes me grin.

I’m curious about the mention of a growing number of Ghouls devoted to Arazni and Nocticula… I’d love to meet some in play! Between them and Tanagaar’s Arrows, I like the surprising variety of friendly cannibals at our fingertips in 2e.

Yay! Glad you liked those aphorisms!

I've always felt that ghouls are one of those undead that are best suited toward being "non-evil but still creepy allies" in play, in large part due to the way Lovecraft portrayed ghouls (particularly in "The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath") and more recently in the ghoul-themed stories of Caitlin R. Kiernan. These types seem like perfect matches for faiths like Arazni and Nocticula to me. Or even to Shelyin, perhaps.

And I can also see a civil and proper ghoul noting that they're not REALLY cannibals—ghouls don't eat ghouls, after all! That more the type of gross thing you'd expect from ghasts. ;-)

One of my players is playing a Dhampir that was raised by a friendly Ghoul, Bugbear and Halfling as her adoptive family, so I am glad for more ideas to work with when it comes to creepy but not monstrous ghouls.

James Jacobs wrote:

and more recently in the ghoul-themed stories of Caitlin R. Kiernan.

Oooo I will have to check those out when I get the chance, I loved Alabaster.

Her recent "Houses Under the Sea" collection has several of them in there—it's a bunch of her Mythos stories and they're wonderful!

Rysky wrote:

James Jacobs wrote:

and more recently in the ghoul-themed stories of Caitlin R. Kiernan.

Oooo I will have to check those out when I get the chance, I loved Alabaster.

Her recent "Houses Under the Sea" collection has several of them in there—it's a bunch of her Mythos stories and they're wonderful!

Noice.

Rysky wrote:

James Jacobs wrote:

and more recently in the ghoul-themed stories of Caitlin R. Kiernan.

Oooo I will have to check those out when I get the chance, I loved Alabaster.

Her recent "Houses Under the Sea" collection has several of them in there—it's a bunch of her Mythos stories and they're wonderful!

Have you read “The Litany of Earth,” by Ruthanna Emrys? I know we’re straying off topic some, but it’s a really fascinating sympathetic depiction of a girl with Innsmouth heritage.

James Jacobs wrote:

Rysky wrote:

James Jacobs wrote:

and more recently in the ghoul-themed stories of Caitlin R. Kiernan.

Oooo I will have to check those out when I get the chance, I loved Alabaster.

Her recent "Houses Under the Sea" collection has several of them in there—it's a bunch of her Mythos stories and they're wonderful!

Have you read “The Litany of Earth,” by Ruthanna Emrys? I know we’re straying off topic some, but it’s a really fascinating sympathetic depiction of a girl with Innsmouth heritage.

I haven't! More for my Amazon Wishlist! Thanks for the recommendation!

I do like they avoid statting Kortash Khan since besides him being level 23 creature, 2e doesn't have mythic equivalent yet (though I know that doesn't prevent mythic npcs or monsters being adapted to 2e) and his nature as mystic theurge means he had two long spell-lists and I don't think this is right book for introducing concept of caster that casts both arcane and divine spells :D (though 2e undead bloodline is divine list instead)

I do like sneaky reference of him being "a true hierophant of his faith" though and that he is "a force against that cannot be defeated save by the most mythic and legendary of foes." xD I love sneaky nod backs like this

I don't think Kortash Khain was given a level, and it says that he has the capabilities of a wizard and cleric, not sorcerer like in 1E. It was Geb who is level 23.

CorvusMask wrote:

I do like they avoid statting Kortash Khan since besides him being level 23 creature, 2e doesn't have mythic equivalent yet (though I know that doesn't prevent mythic npcs or monsters being adapted to 2e) and his nature as mystic theurge means he had two long spell-lists and I don't think this is right book for introducing concept of caster that casts both arcane and divine spells :D (though 2e undead bloodline is divine list instead)

I do like sneaky reference of him being "a true hierophant of his faith" though and that he is "a force against that cannot be defeated save by the most mythic and legendary of foes." xD I love sneaky nod backs like this

I don't think Kortash Khain was given a level, and it says that he has the capabilities of a wizard and cleric, not sorcerer like in 1E. It was Geb who is level 23.

He was CR 23/MR 6 in 1e :p

My decision to not stat up Kortash's stats in this one is precisely because I didn't want to change what he was in 1st edition—a super-powerful divine/arcane spellcaster with extra powers beyond those normally achievable. Since 2nd edition doesn't yet have rules or guidelines for translating over what we called "mythic content" in 1st edition, I figured it'd be best to not stat up Kortash and instead present a more adventure-friendly influence block for him.

If/when we do something akin to mythic for 2nd edition, I'll be first in line championing something that presents mythic stats for characters like Kortash, but I wouldn't expect anything like that to come along anytime soon.

Page 81 error:

I've not read books 5 or 6 yet, but upon finishing 'The Ghoul's Hunger', I feel you could run a pretty satisfactory, condensed version of this AP by running books 1 > 2 > 4 and having Blood Lord Hyrune be the main antagonist of the AP.

Oh right, forgot to mention in review I think this book has another example of effects of the post no slavery policy (as in one of encounters has indentured undead servants of one guy who are noted to have about one year of debt left)

Lmao. Some "no slavery" policy.

Also, interesting fact, we named one of the characters of this AP "Nailah Villablanca". Just gave her a spanish flair for this AP on a whim.

Well, turned out that was prophetic, since the tetrahedrons surrounding the Cinerarium are called Alcazars, a name used for Muslim-built castles in southern Spain.

Starting the book off with a fight with a Fossil Golem seems...odd. You HAVE to fight one at the end of Book 3, so the party's just going to nuke it from orbit as soon as they see it.

4 Gliminals, all able to daisy chain Bond in Light together with fast healing 10 means you're really fighting a monster with 640 HP and Fast Healing 40 that can spread any save-or-suck spells around like a 5e boss with legendary resistance and can hit you with enough spells to kill 1d2 Undead per round. It's an insanely easy fight if you're a normie who hasn't taken the ritual, obviously, but a damn near impossible one if you all took the Negative Energy healing factor.

Seems slightly overtuned. Mostly the Bond in Light thing. I think ruling that they either A. can't bond to other Gliminals or B. a bonded Gliminal can't bond with another

might have been prudent

Yeah, you can use Wall of Stone or something and separate them in half, but that's pretty situational

Sumbreivas are awesome. I wish we had a lesser version of them we could use as they're just cool as Hell -- like Predators from the Negative Energy plane.

I posted a scene by scene breakdown of Part 4 if anyone's interested. 4/5.