As political tensions propel the Inner Sea to the edge of continental war, the elf queen of Kyonin has asked you to represent the elven nation in an important diplomatic alliance. When an unexpected act of violence threatens to sabotage the alliance before it begins, you must swiftly learn the truth—a truth that promises terror and devastation and the start of an all-out-war with the demonic armies of Tanglebriar!
Whispers in the Dirt is a Pathfinder adventure for four 11th-level characters. This adventure begins the Spore War Adventure Path, a three-part monthly campaign in which a group of adventurers fight armies of demons, corrupted fey, and fungal monsters in the defense of the elven nation of Kyonin. This adventure also includes information about the elven lands of Kyonin, several new magical items to discover and elven ancestry feats to explore, and several new monsters from the fungal to the fiendish.
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Of note the
Spoiler:
Degholau is the same level and has similar areas of concern as the Glabrezu (lies, treason, treachery) and the Eshmok is the same level and similar areas of concern (wrath, hatred) as the Vrock. I'd put money on there being valid substitutions for the Balor and Marilith in later volumes of the AP
Anyone have any thoughts about a good lead-in adventure? Not necessarily starting at level 1, but I think 6 or 7 would be a good way to get the players familiar with their PCs before jumping into the AP.
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Thematically, the Wardens of Wildwood AP (starting at 5th level) probably has a good amount of overlap. You can tweak Wardens a bit to make it an even closer lead-in (spoiler, for those that haven't read/played it):
Spoiler:
Alter the Wardens of Wildwood to make Treerazer the source of the fungus bomb (Abyssal origin, instead of a Green Man for the rest of the fungal blights as well) and basically skip the Plane of Wood (have the PCs fight a lower-level Ruzadoya during the assault on the Isle of Arenway in place of one of the other encounters). This would end the AP with the PCs at level 12; you can either remove some of the encounters at the start of Spore War to account for the PCs being one level higher than expected or just allow them to be a little stronger for the first part.
You may want to allow the PCs to use the Spore War backgrounds for Wardens, even though they won't match as well.
Any details on the "continental war" that's discussed?
In Spore War, it's a fear about...
Spoiler:
...a potential war spiking should Tar-Baphon rise up again with a new army to threaten the Encarthan nations, and then the actual war that breaks out is one instigated by Treerazer instead.
There aren't really any details on a "continental war" in Spore War. That's not the focus of this Adventure Path.
We need a way to distinguish between thematical war and mechanical war in published adventures. I take it this AP is thematic war as in pretty much every published adventure ever except Kingmaker to an extent. I’d like to see the day when the word war would only be used in the title if it’s a mechanical war, since these are games and not movies after all.