Inappropriate touching


Savage Tide Adventure Path

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Troy Pacelli wrote:
Turin the Mad wrote:
Actually, two things should already be fairly clear by the time the party gets to Olangru's pad -

Now I'm picturing this big ape with a wide-lapelled shirt open to the waist and big dark glasses reclining on a bed covered in throw-pillows surrounded by three female apes wearing platform shoes and hip-hugging bell-bottoms – one of them probably has a huge afro and another has long strait-hair with a center part. Lava lamp. Disco light.

Ew, and I thought we had explored every level of Olangru creepiness! "Olangru's pad" indeed!

Don't forget the "Moto Moto" type of thang going on.

"You're ... hairy, baby, just ... hairy. And your teeth, are so ... sharp, baby, just sharp." Bucka bowrorwow ...

And he has a literal horde of squalling brood in the other room.

Lava lamps feh - he has a perfectly good fire pit, for heating, mood-setting light AND roasting adventurer/dinner in - at a variety of cooking styles and times! (Just ratchet chain with meal attached to desired height, allow to simmer while screaming until done, baste as necessary to retain proper moisture.)


Well, but if the Demogorgon temple where Olangru lives is not Olman, then I should come up with a good reason why the pyramids can still be used. The silver pyramids are definitely Olman, and my players associate them with Olman.

And if this temple is not Olman, did Demogorgon's followers build it? Or was it originally something else entirely? Perhaps built by the kopru?

And Troy, nice to hear that you consulted websites on Aztec culture. I did too. I also looked up a lot in an encyclopedia of mythology I own. I actually elaborated quite a bit on the Olman aspects of the campaign. E.g. I located a picture of a calendar stone on the internet and used it as a handout. With knowledge religion the players could get some information from the calendar stone, mostly some vague prophecies about what is to come. I also added a lot to the history of the Olman, making them fit in my own campaign world. So far this works nicely and the players like it a lot.


Turin the Mad wrote:


Lava lamps feh - he has a perfectly good fire pit, for heating, mood-setting light AND roasting adventurer/dinner in - at a variety of cooking styles and times! (Just ratchet chain with meal attached to desired height, allow to simmer while screaming until done, baste as necessary to retain proper moisture.)

Hey, a real lava lava lamp!

Turin the Mad wrote:


"You're ... hairy, baby, just ... hairy. And your teeth, are so ... sharp, baby, just sharp." Bucka bowrorwow ...

What are two sexiest animals in the barnyard? brownchickenbrowncow...

(blame Tracerbullet for that)


Luna eladrin wrote:

Well, but if the Demogorgon temple where Olangru lives is not Olman, then I should come up with a good reason why the pyramids can still be used. The silver pyramids are definitely Olman, and my players associate them with Olman.

And if this temple is not Olman, did Demogorgon's followers build it? Or was it originally something else entirely? Perhaps built by the kopru?

Part Four of The Sea Wyvern’s Wake: Tamoachan

Room 10: The Well of Death
Treasure: The golden bat idol clutched by the topmost body is a fantastic work …etc… A DC 25 Knowledge (religion) check identifies it as a representation of Camazotz, an ancient god of bats and the night. Its presence here is not unusual, since much of the iconography on the walls indicates that the builders of the crypt worshiped him, but if this Knowledge (religion) check exceeds the DC by 10, the character notices that the craftsmanship of the idol is leaner, more angular than that of the images of Camazots from the surrounding walls – almost as if whoever created the idol were from a different region entirely...

You can do treat the two silver pyramids exactly as the bat idol. Just because the party THINKS they are of Olman design, doesn’t mean they are. Or, they are of Olamn design, but they just happen to work here, too – just like sometimes, by chance, the key to one ’96 Chevy Chevalier can open the door another (It happened to me once – really. I couldn’t figure out what happened to my Pink Floyd CD or why my seat was so far forward…) Pyramids are part of Aztec and Mayan culture, but they are also part of Egyptian culture. Does the key have a magic component as well as a mechanical one? Then maybe the spell was kind of a general opening spell, and the same magic will work on this “lock” as well as the one it was initially created for. Like a master key that should have been made specific but never was.

There are tons of maybes. I’m just throwing out a whole bunch of them.


Luna eladrin wrote:

Well, but if the Demogorgon temple where Olangru lives is not Olman, then I should come up with a good reason why the pyramids can still be used. The silver pyramids are definitely Olman, and my players associate them with Olman.

And if this temple is not Olman, did Demogorgon's followers build it? Or was it originally something else entirely? Perhaps built by the kopru?

And Troy, nice to hear that you consulted websites on Aztec culture. I did too. I also looked up a lot in an encyclopedia of mythology I own. I actually elaborated quite a bit on the Olman aspects of the campaign. E.g. I located a picture of a calendar stone on the internet and used it as a handout. With knowledge religion the players could get some information from the calendar stone, mostly some vague prophecies about what is to come. I also added a lot to the history of the Olman, making them fit in my own campaign world. So far this works nicely and the players like it a lot.

Don't forget that the Outer Planes transcend / wrap around ALL Material Planes - the cult of Demogorgon could easily have filched the concept from the Egyptians of our world...

Sounds like great stuff on the fleshing out of Olman culture and mythology - kudos all!


Now I am getting Von Däniken ideas: extraterrestial (or extraplanar) beings transporting pyramids all over the multiverse and leaving behind traces of their presence in all kinds of civilizations :-)

So perhaps I should include a hidden landing plateau for a spaceship somewhere on the Isle of Dread?

Scarab Sages

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber
James Jacobs wrote:
Like all puzzles in pre-published adventures, it's best to be flexible and dynamic when presenting this encounter. If the players are getting frustrated, it's okay to have their latest attempt to solve the puzzle be the correct "solution" as long as it makes sense. Alternately, if they're frustrated, you should have them make some skill checks (perhaps Search or Spellcraft or Knowledge [arcana]) and no matter what they roll, give whoever rolls the highest some clues on what to do. And in the end, if you think that the puzzle's too difficult or nonsensical for your group and its inclusion will only cause problems... by all means simplify it.

Glad the party I'm running is not the only one having trouble in the Candle-Throne-Mirror Room in the Shrine to Demogorgon. No transformations yet, but two candle kabooms and a missummoned slaad.

The Exchange

Damn. I thought this was a sign up thread.....I was gonna sign up for some....


Fake Healer wrote:
Damn. I thought this was a sign up thread.....I was gonna sign up for some....

Sorry for misleading you, Fakey. :p


Here's how I modified the Shrine of Duplicity.

First, I removed the mirrors entirely. (I kept the one in room 8 but changed it to one of those scrying mirrors that comes in linked sets. I forget which book that's in. The mirror is a communication tool b/w Olangru and other villains, so the heroes can use the mirror to get a foreshadowing glimpse of a future location.)

Second, I made the thrones into a trap wholly unrelated to passing beyond the room. The trap I used was the Doorway to Madness (Traps and Treachery II, p162). (I did this because earlier in SWW I used a linked pair of stone thrones that provided information, and now I wanted to see if the players would assume these would function similarly. To their credit they weren't fooled.)

Finally, I changed the description of the altar to a blood-caked altar of greasy green stone, into which are set iron-rimmed holes about 1 inch across and 1 inch deep.

Candles placed in the holes on the altar were the keys to open a portal of blood. (Basically I imagined room 8 being above room 7, and the ceiling/floor between the two turns to blood.)

Search DC 15: A couple of old black stubs of candles lie discarded beneath the altar.
Place the candle stubs in the holes and light them: When you light the candles, nothing seems to happen. Wait a few seconds, before saying: Something just dripped on you. It is blood. (NOTE: Start tracking rounds at this point.)
Look up: You are shocked to discover that most of the ceiling is now a gently rippling liquid surface that is somehow suspended ten feet above you. Every few seconds a tiny droplet of blood escapes and falls to the floor.

The portal of blood remains so for 10 rounds before it becomes stone again and the candles snuff out. Anyone within/touching the blood when it reverts to stone takes d6 wounds (plus falling damage, if applicable) as they are shunted down into room 7.

Any PC who climbs up through the pool of blood (or otherwise takes an action that would reveal such) discovers that there is a space above it.
The crimson pool is actually a thin veil of the stuff, about the width of your hand. An air pocket--perhaps a whole other chamber--exists beyond the surface of the blood.
Fly/climb up: You emerge from the gruesome pool, coated in blood, and find yourself in a huge dark chamber. and proceed with description of room 8 as normal.

The pool of blood in room 8 is always liquid and anyone moving into it risks falling through the floor to room 7.


My PCs are just entering this shrine so I have been reviewing relevant threads and figured I would add my 2 cents for anyone coming upon this thread later.

The mirrors aren't marked on the map but they look like they should be attached to the walls which are north and south of the altar at an angle so that each mirror is in line of sight with the opposite respective throne.

And as for the difficulty of the trap, I am fortunate that one of the PCs is making the transition to arcane trickster soon. His Take 20 on searching for traps is going to let him find the trap and I will allow him a Spellcraft check to figure out the nature of how the trap works so as to avoid some frustration. Something like

Spellcraft 15 - The trap and the portal are linked such that you have to set off the trap in order to activate the portal.

Spellcraft 20 - Both mirrors must be activated in order to use the portal.

Spellcraft 25 - The trap itself is linked to a compulsion effect.

Spellcraft 30 - There is a secondary trap on the candles with an evocation effect.

Spellcraft 35 or 40 - You figure out the correct sequence to activate both trap and portal.

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