Last night, while preparing to run the Well of Triptych Knowledge event in PoR, I noticed a continuity error in regards to the overall AP. Apologies if this has already been addressed.
Bucknard left the hangman golem in the Well on his final trip to Alhaster (579 CY in Greyhawk time--current time is 595 or 596), over 15 years ago. This, & the fact that the adventure states that the Ebon Triad hasn't returned now that it's "established in the world," leads one to think that Bucknard was the last person to enter the well.
However, the ledger found in the treasure vault lists a number of cultists, such as Theldrick, the Faceless One, Loris Raknian, & Ilthane. The "Whispering Cairn" has the Faceless one arriving in Diamond Lake 2 years ago (& Theldrick after that), while the Champion's Belt has Loris Raknian getting involved with the cult sometime after he retired from the arena (12 years ago). On top of this, all of the four mentioned have lines struck through their names (assuming the party has killed them all), which happened rather recently in game time.
So how did this book get there if no ones been in the place since Bucknard? Not that the PCs would know, but certain DMs do.
My solution is to assume that Lashonna still visits the Well, teleporting in to make entries in the journal, as the vault's probably the safest place in Ahaster to keep it. She's likely even aware of the hangman golem, but lets it remain to keep nosy adventurers away.
Any other ideas?
I'd agree with your idea, makes most sense. Except maybe Mother Maggot, not Lashonna.
In my game, the PC's always by-passed the golem too (mage flew in invisible, not seeing it, and it didn't animate before she went down the well, then she always used dimension door to go to and from, by herself as well as with the other PC's). To me, it seemed that the Ebon Triad was dying out in general (and my group's activities in the prior adventures certainly re-enforced that!), so the journal was Mother Maggot's (not Lashonna's) work, and she was about the only one still going to visit the Aspect by the end. I had notes in the journal about the ebon triad cultists, where they were from, their plans, and their ultimate demise at the hands of the PC's - kind of a short running summary of some of the PC's exploits from the bad-guys' perspective, leaving my players with the knowledge that someone has cottoned on to the fact that their group has shut down all the cult cells (I didn't want any more loose ends any more, from here the campaign shofts focus from Ebon Triad etc to just stopping Kyuss' age of worms).
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Honestly? I'd actaully say get rid of the hangman golem. He's kind of in the adventure only really so that there's something to fight... it's a combat light adventure, which at the time was a worry but judging by the reader reaction it shouldn't have been. So yah, I'd say just drop the hangman golem all the way to clear up the continuity error.
Honestly? I'd actaully say get rid of the hangman golem. He's kind of in the adventure only really so that there's something to fight... it's a combat light adventure, which at the time was a worry but judging by the reader reaction it shouldn't have been. So yah, I'd say just drop the hangman golem all the way to clear up the continuity error.
Actually, if the party likes a good fight, throw in some avolakias here. Since the only other avolakias that show up are already given to class levels, this would give the PCs a chance to see them in their earlier stages. Of course, I like the hangman golem, myself, so I kept it, but hey...
I dropped the hangman Golem both because I felt it was unnecessary combat and because of continuity issues. I felt the Prince of Redhand was an awesome adventure (in fact after reading it, it was the main reason I ended up running AoW)and needed no additional combat fluff to help it out.
The whole Ebon triad complex story has been especially fun because my one player, a Paladin of Hextor, thinks that Prince Zeech is a Ebon Triad Heretic, even though all evidence points otherwise, mainly because he found out the sick house was built by Zeech.