I am thinking about not giving out experience for the visions experienced during the 'Spire of Long Shadows' and instead supplementing the module with more jungle and ruin encounters. I have ran the adventure previously with a different group of people and thought that the free experience for seeing the visions in addition to the fate point was a bit much and made the adventure seems too short. I was wondering if other DMs had dropped the free experience and added additional encounters in their game, and if so, what did you run? I used the Beholder/ multiple troll encounter the last time, and that proved pretty fun, but now there's a few more options...
I'm thinking the Ruin Chanter from MM V, the Manitou Demon from Dragon 359,or even a nearby cult of natives bewitched by three avolakia on a pilgrimage might prove interesting.
Besides this, I wanted to give meaning to the name "The Spire of Long shadows". I am going to have it so that two hours before sunset in a mile radius around the spire, the shadows themselves become infused with negative energy, recalling the time of day when Kyuss performed his rite. The party will have plenty of warning by the lack of wildlife an hour before this occurs (or a DC 30 Knowledge Geography check) and can make a DC 25 survival check to find a safe place until the sun sets. Otherwise they'll have to make a DC 15 Fort save every 15 minutes or take 1 pt of str dmg, fading into shadows if they reach 0. Finally, I'll probably have undead exclusively be active at night, with all wandering monsters being from a table of wandering undead, the worst (01-02) being a Nightwalker {EL 16), the least (97-100) being a pack of wraiths (EL 10). That way, the jungle ecology reacts and changes according to the time of day and proximity to the spire. Any other suggestions or ideas others have used?
I converted the XP into a bank of Kyuss monsters which I used as "reinforcements" whenever the PCs left the place. They hated Swords of Kyuss so much by the end of this that they all bought Soul Fire Armor.
I'm doing away with the teleportation paintings in Tenser's Castle and making the PCs go through a lengthy side quest just to find where the Spire is and get there. I'm also going to locate it much deeper in the jungle than Paizo-Greyhawk canon indicates. I.e., it's not just a couple of days into the jungle from Cauldron--but will require a sea journey to the mouth of a river far down the Amedio coast, and a harrowing upriver trek (think Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now). If they are still short of 15th level at the end, I'll give them bonus XP for the last vision before they teleport home.
Has anyone used the ruins near the Spire of Long Shadows from the map of the Amedio Jungle in 'Dragon 349'? I really like the descriptions of Chekitewan and Beroarak's Maw in that issue, and their undead fueled backgrounds combined with their proxmity to the Spire seem like a good gateway to lead into the adventure. I like the whole idea of Chekitewan, of a massive tomb filled with undead that always lurks silently but isn't dangerous except during a lunar eclispe. I'm considering a sidequest to set up a base camp near one of these locations since my party is lacking a straight arcane caster, and therefore, teleport...