Hopefully others can use this thread to clarify questions arising in this adventure. If you happen to see another thread, please link post a link in this one to try and keep things tied together.
Chapter 1: Howl of the Carrion King
Chapter 2: House of the Beast
Chapter 3: The Jackal's Price
Chapter 4: The End of Eternity
Chapter 5: The Impossible Eye
Chapter 6: The Final Wish
"In the next week or so, we're expecting to ship the next volume of your subscription."
As always, if you see something, link it back!
The tophet's trample damage is not actually listed.
Excellent mixture of journey and city adventures, and nice change of atmosphere from (equally excellent) dungeon crawling in previous adventure.
But...
I love the way Mr. Drader trusts his GMs in this chapter.
"Okay, so this guy needs to join the PCs on their journey. Here are some suggestions, but just make it fit your group."
"So now the guy is going to try to take the scroll, and screw up. It doesn't matter how, specifically, as long as the PCs learn the following few points."
Thanks for having confidence in us, sir. :)
Creative Director
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Excellent mixture of journey and city adventures, and nice change of atmosphere from (equally excellent) dungeon crawling in previous adventure.
But...
** spoiler omitted **
Answer:
The Templar story is now much stronger throughout the AP, and builds to a great climax in the last adventure, but that meant their meager and outdated presence in "The Jackal's Price" had to either be re-written to such a huge extent that the adventure would have had to be re-built from the ground up, or they had to be cut out of all but the background. Since we'd already ordered art for an adventure in which the Templars don't play a huge role, and since we only had a few weeks to get the adventure ready for print at that point, we had to go for cutting the Templars down to background in favor of a much stronger and more interesting role in the last adventure, "The Final Wish," where Davashuum is a key NPC antagonist.
I'd just like to say that my adventure got the best piece of art (IMHO of course) that has appeared in any Pathfinder scenario (page 31).
Excellent mixture of journey and city adventures, and nice change of atmosphere from (equally excellent) dungeon crawling in previous adventure.
But...
** spoiler omitted **Answer: ** spoiler omitted **
Thank you for your answer.
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Creative Director
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I'm a little confused about the emkrah's lifecycle. Let's see if I have this right...
It begins as a Rough Seed, produced by Rovagug himself. A rare few Rough Seeds survive to reach the surface, where most whither and die. Some, however, attract a destructive aberration/vermin/outsider, which causes the Rough Seed to "germinate", eventually hathching as the emkrah itself. Then, the emkrah begins devouring certain kinds of food, eventually feeding enough that it increases its size category.
Assuming I'm right so far (...), this all pretty much makes sense. "The Eye and the Seed" sidebar on page 41 confuses things for me. It says that, eventually, the "eye of the deep's soul will serve as the spawn's chrysallis". Does this mean that, when the emkrah grows large enough via binge eating, the eye of the deep will become a new Spawn of Rovagug? Furthermore, this sidebar also says that the emkrah gains 2 negative levels if the eye of the deep dies. Does this rule apply to all emkrahs if their "parent" dies?
If I'm still right (...), this makes the emkrah's/Spawn of Rovagug's lifecycle *really* dubious. The emkrah is occasionally hostile towards its "parent", and if that parent dies, no Spawn of Rovagug. Anyone else confused - or care about this at all?
The Emkrah is a pretty strange creature, and not one that follows biology... that is reflected in its monster type: Aberration. Aberrations aren't only just weirdly-shaped monsters; they often have aberrant and weird life cycles, physiologies, societies, and everything else—they're totally weird and "wrong" when compared to "regular" life.
You're pretty much totally right on its life cycle, but the eye of the deep isn't the one that might "grow up." It eventually gets used by the emkrah to continue its growth. An emkrah is like a caterpillar, but whereas a caterpillar spins its coccoon out of silk, the emkrah spins its coccoon out of its associated monster's soul and life force. This pretty much kills of the eye of the deep (or whatever host the emkrah has attached to). The rule for emkrah parents dying and granting negative levels does indeed apply to all emkrahs. As the offspring of the god of destruction, their own self-destructive natures make the emkrah VERY unlikely to ever fully grow up.
I have a few questions after reading this.
1. Who is the big genie on the cover? Did I miss his scene?
2. The genie article mentions that Marids sometime ally with brine dragons. Where can I find more info on brine dragons?
3. In the Katapesh Market article, the Seer is studying one of the Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan. Is that an artifact, magic item, or just a unique set of books? Where can I find more on that?
I have a few questions after reading this.
1. Who is the big genie on the cover? Did I miss his scene?
2. The genie article mentions that Marids sometime ally with brine dragons. Where can I find more info on brine dragons?
3. In the Katapesh Market article, the Seer is studying one of the Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan. Is that an artifact, magic item, or just a unique set of books? Where can I find more on that?
May be I can help you a little.
1. The illustration is mentioned in Paizo Blog of March 2 as “a series of four cover characters who, while not necessarily specific personalities in the Adventure Path, epitomize the genies featuring prominently in each.”2. I too want to know about it. And about sandmen who are mentioned in Shaitans column. Are they to appear in Pathfinder Bestiary? I think sandmen first appeared in 1st edition Fiend Folio.
3. The Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan is a Cthulhu Mythos artifact, which is mentioned in "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" by H.P.Lovecraft. What power the PFRPG version of the book has, is unknown to me.
2. The genie article mentions that Marids sometime ally with brine dragons. Where can I find more info on brine dragons?2. I too want to know about it. And about sandmen who are mentioned in Shaitans column. Are they to appear in Pathfinder Bestiary? I think sandmen first appeared in 1st edition Fiend Folio.
Sandman is found in the Tome of Horrors, Revised.
Brine Dragons are proving elusive, but I think you could use the Mist Dragon from ToHR.
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Creative Director
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A few additional answers and notes...
1. Who is the big genie on the cover? Did I miss his scene?
Yeah; he's not any one genie in particular. He's a djinn, and that's about it. We'll have a shaitan, a marid, and an efreeti on the next three covers, and they're actually going to be specific genies that appear in those adventures, but for "The Jackal's Price" the author didn't work a major djinni character into the adventure (originally, the female Nefeshti, a djinni, was going to appear, but she was cut when we realized her story would be more dramatic and interesting to conclude in the last adventure), so the djinni on the cover is just a generic one. Sort of like how the elf on the cover of Pathfinder #17 became a generic elf.
2. The genie article mentions that Marids sometime ally with brine dragons. Where can I find more info on brine dragons?
Brine dragons are nothing more than name drops for now. They won't be in the Bestiary (which is focusing on converting extant monsters into the PFRPG rather than lots of new monsters... although there are a few new monsters in there...); we'll stat up brine dragons some day, though!
3. In the Katapesh Market article, the Seer is studying one of the Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan. Is that an artifact, magic item, or just a unique set of books? Where can I find more on that?
Yeah; this is a Lovecraft easter egg. It's basically a creepy evil spellbook and text about magic, similar to the Necronomicon. It probably has some additional powers and unique spells in it, but we don't detail those; anyone curious to know more should read some Lovecraft stories! :-)
Sandman is found in the Tome of Horrors, Revised.
Brine Dragons are proving elusive, but I think you could use the Mist Dragon from ToHR.
Thank you, Gamer Girrl. I should have checked that one. Sometimes I forget which book I have.
Thanks everyone!
I should have caught the Lovecraft reference. And I'm glad I didn't sift through too many books looking for stats on a brine dragon.
A few additional answers and notes...
Yeah; this is a Lovecraft easter egg. It's basically a creepy evil spellbook and text about magic, similar to the Necronomicon. It probably has some additional powers and unique spells in it, but we don't detail those; anyone curious to know more should read some Lovecraft stories! :-)
You folks need to add some sanity rules! I don't know if any sanity rules exist for d20 or not.
You folks need to add some sanity rules! I don't know if any sanity rules exist for d20 or not.A few additional answers and notes...
Yeah; this is a Lovecraft easter egg. It's basically a creepy evil spellbook and text about magic, similar to the Necronomicon. It probably has some additional powers and unique spells in it, but we don't detail those; anyone curious to know more should read some Lovecraft stories! :-)
Yes, in Unearthed Arcana (not to mention d20 Call of Cthulhu).
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Just glancing through this adventure, and I spotted a couple of small errors.
Firstly, a very minor errata; Rayhan (pg 21) is listed as being old, but his stat modifiers are those of somebody who is middle-aged. As a allied non-combat NPC it doesn't really matter, but it briefly confused me on my first look through.
Secondly, and a little more pertinantly, Khair al Din (pgs 38-39) has Weapon Specialization, despite lacking the 4 levels of fighter required to qualify for the feat. Since he also has one too many feats for his level, Weapon Specialization should be deleted.
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Creative Director
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Firstly, a very minor errata; Rayhan (pg 21) is listed as being old, but his stat modifiers are those of somebody who is middle-aged. As a allied non-combat NPC it doesn't really matter, but it briefly confused me on my first look through.
Although we do use the elite array (or the standard array) for most NPCs, that's not a hard and fast rule. In some cases, we adjust ability score points here and there to fit a particular NPC's needs. Sometimes, when we do, we call it out (especially in the case of a BBEG who uses, say, a 32-point array of stats that helps to bump that NPC's CR up). Other times, when the changes are relatively minor (as in the case of Rayhan), we just don't bother. I wouldn't call this "errata" as a result.
Secondly, and a little more pertinantly, Khair al Din (pgs 38-39) has Weapon Specialization, despite lacking the 4 levels of fighter required to qualify for the feat. Since he also has one too many feats for his level, Weapon Specialization should be deleted.
Deleting Weapon Specialization is a good choice to fix this one. This NPC was originally set up as a fighter—at one point, I had ramped back the Rovagug presence in this adventure since its original draft had too much parallel design with the previous adventure (which also had an awful lot of Rovagug clerics), but when I relented and switched him back to a fighter cleric, his pesky Weapon Specialization feat stuck.
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Although we do use the elite array (or the standard array) for most NPCs, that's not a hard and fast rule. In some cases, we adjust ability score points here and there to fit a particular NPC's needs. Sometimes, when we do, we call it out (especially in the case of a BBEG who uses, say, a 32-point array of stats that helps to bump that NPC's CR up). Other times, when the changes are relatively minor (as in the case of Rayhan), we just don't bother. I wouldn't call this "errata" as a result.
Even if it had been an error rather than a design choice, I still shouldn't have called it errata, but my brain was refusing to align on a proper word for it. I suspect 'nitpick' would have been better. ;)
Deleting Weapon Specialization is a good choice to fix this one. This NPC was originally set up as a fighter—at one point, I had ramped back the Rovagug presence in this adventure since its original draft had too much parallel design with the previous adventure (which also had an awful lot of Rovagug clerics), but when I relented and switched him back to a fighter cleric, his pesky Weapon Specialization feat stuck.
I feel that I must say here that, despite having just thrown up several errata posts on this adventure path, that I've been seriously impressed by the comparative lack of errors in Legacy of Fire, even minor ones. I'm not saying that errors in Pathfinder are common, far from it, but comparing the first three books of LoF to the first three books of any of the previous adventure paths, I'm reading about (and discovering) considerably fewer errors in Legacy of Fire. This is doubly impressive when I consider that you've been working to finish the PFRPG alongside handling LoF!
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Creative Director
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I feel that I must say here that, despite having just thrown up several errata posts on this adventure path, that I've been seriously impressed by the comparative lack of errors in Legacy of Fire, even minor ones. I'm not saying that errors in Pathfinder are common, far from it, but comparing the first three books of LoF to the first three books of any of the previous adventure paths, I'm reading about (and discovering) considerably fewer errors in Legacy of Fire. This is doubly impressive when I consider that you've been working to finish the PFRPG alongside handling LoF!
That's great to hear! I suspect that most folk who post errors and the like here have the same attitude, and I try to face the revelation of actual errors as stoically as I can since in the end the majority of the products are pretty solid. Yet still, seeing errors creep through to the final book in print is really frustrating and depressing, so it's nice to hear that you're having fun with the book as a whole, even with the occasional typo and goof! :-)
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Creative Director
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Hmm. I picked up my copy of #21 today, and I'm sad to say, leafing through it, one of my early reactions was 'six pages of adverts/promotional material now?!?!?'
I appreciate that the price increase here in the UK is not for the reduced content, but a result purely of the pound to dollar exchange rate, and I gather that the increased adverts have already been discussed ad nauseam in another thread so I will try not to comment further on it here.I love the Rough Seed/Emrakh concepts, however, and I am pleased to see that concerns which were expressed in the 'PCs do What?' thread seem to have been taken into account by the writer. :)
I've been waiting for someone to notice this, and I have my answer all ready!
Six pages of ads is not normal. That's what happens when, at the last minute, we realize we can't add and we're 2 pages short of content about 30 minutes before we have to ship the book to the printer.
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I've been waiting for someone to notice this, and I have my answer all ready!
Six pages of ads is not normal. That's what happens when, at the last minute, we realize we can't add and we're 2 pages short of content about 30 minutes before we have to ship the book to the printer.
Aww, you should have contacted WotC and asked if they want a 4e ad in Pathfinder. ;)
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Creative Director
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Pathfinder #19 (page 54) also promised that a PC who throws themself into administration of Kelmarane would gain 'the personal notice of the Pactmasters of Katapesh, a boon that will come into play in a later adventure.'
Well Pathfinder #21 sees the PCs in Katapesh, but I see no mention of how the boon can be cashed in, when it seems like it might be a good time to feature that.
This got dropped, alas, from the adventure. The promised boon manifests in "The Final Wish," along with additional benefits for ALL of the tasks the PCs undertake between the 1st and second adventures.
(See below for a longer explanation why this got dropped from the adventure.)
If you're going to ask Erik Mona to write an adventure, and he sets up a lot of interesting hooks, would it be asking too much that the editors/writers for the rest of the path are properly briefed on those hooks?
Erik finished his adventure at the last minute (partially because he got the assignment at the last minute), which left us very little time to incorporate his adventure's changes to the expected campaign into the rest of the adventure path. The next two adventures were done before Erik's was done, and as a result the authors of the later adventures didn't have his work to build off of, which was unfortunate; pretty much ALL of the links between "Howl of the Carrion King" and the later adventures you see are in there (Zayfid from "House of the Beast" is a great example, as is pretty much any time you see the Moldspeaker mentioned) because of changes and additions I made to those adventures during development.
Originally, the Templars of the Five Winds were a relatively small part of the overall adventure. In "The jackal's Price," the PCs were originally going to come into a conflict with the surviving templars and that was to have been the end of it. When Erik came up with such an interesting story for the Templars, I realized that their role in the AP was much larger and therefore intended to have them have larger roles throughout the entire thing, climaxing in the last adventure, "The Final Wish."
Unfortunately, the way they were handled in "The Jackal's Price" was underwhelming and anticlimactic; bolstering their presence in that adventure would have meant cutting something in the order of 4–6 pages of content from elsewhere in the adventure (which would have meant writing that content at a point in the cycle where there was really no time to do so), so rather than have an underwhelming and anticlimactic encounter with the templars that took up all of half a page, I just cut them out entirely from the adventure. Trust me, the campaign's better for it; the Templars' story comes to a pretty satisfying conclusion in the last adventure, which returns to Kelmarane and makes for some pretty cool "bookends" to several themes in the campaign (Templars included).
But yeah; you're basically seeing here how the authors of an AP can change its development drastically from its initial conception. That usually ends up with a stronger campaign in the end, but it can cause other problems along the way.
EDIT: There's also a certain element of "Paizo trying to do an additional 900 or so pages of content on top of everything else they're doing and that means that there's gonna be some sponges left in the patient after we sew him up and send him home to recover" going on as well.
Either that or that Erik Mona writes the whole path for you?
As awesome as I suspect that adventure path would be, Erik would be the first to admit that an AP written entirely by him would probably never see full publication. At least, not in the scope of six consecutive months in a row. He's a busy guy, is what I'm saying!
Edit:
Okay, I see the Davashuum was covered in an earlier post on this thread, but what about Pazhvenn?
It was answered here. Please look for James's post.
hi, i got a problem with : "Pactmaster's favor" own by garavel(in his equipement), it's said in Pathfinder - legacy of fire III - "The jackal's price" that i've to see in Pathfinder Chronicle : "Dark market to Katapesh", but i didn't where it is, so if someone could give me the page or what is it, it will good, in fact i just need to know what it do exactly, i don't know if it's useful or not. So thanks a lot for your answer.
hi, i got a problem with : "Pactmaster's favor" own by garavel(in his equipement), it's said in Pathfinder - legacy of fire III - "The jackal's price" that i've to see in Pathfinder Chronicle : "Dark market to Katapesh", but i didn't where it is, so if someone could give me the page or what is it, it will good, in fact i just need to know what it do exactly, i don't know if it's useful or not. So thanks a lot for your answer.
Take a look here my friend
Also you there is a search feature on the left hand side, I used this and this link was the first one on the list. It can be a time saver :)
hi, i got a problem with : "Pactmaster's favor" own by garavel(in his equipement), it's said in Pathfinder - legacy of fire III - "The jackal's price" that i've to see in Pathfinder Chronicle : "Dark market to Katapesh", but i didn't where it is, so if someone could give me the page or what is it, it will good, in fact i just need to know what it do exactly, i don't know if it's useful or not. So thanks a lot for your answer.Take a look here my friend
Also you there is a search feature on the left hand side, I used this and this link was the first one on the list. It can be a time saver :)
Thanks a lot i'm happy to see what it is.
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Also, the Jackal's Lair, is it meant to be 10 foot squares on the map? It seems quite large in a number of spots. The guard's rooms would be 30 feet by 30 feet, the sarcophagus would be 20 feet long, all the doors 10 feet wide...
I know the map is not really meant as an accurate depiction in all, but it just does not seem to fit with 10 foot squares. I could be wrong, can someone help me out?
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Also, the Jackal's Lair, is it meant to be 10 foot squares on the map? It seems quite large in a number of spots. The guard's rooms would be 30 feet by 30 feet, the sarcophagus would be 20 feet long, all the doors 10 feet wide...
I know the map is not really meant as an accurate depiction in all, but it just does not seem to fit with 10 foot squares. I could be wrong, can someone help me out?
Objects on map may be smaller than they appear?
The Death Worm is BAB 15 with a 28 STR. Shouldn't the bite attack be +22, not +18? Or is it's STR supposed to be lower due to the poison?
The Death Worm is BAB 15 with a 28 STR. Shouldn't the bite attack be +22, not +18? Or is it's STR supposed to be lower due to the poison?
The worm's Power Attack is built into the stat block.
Do Maysam Fajr or Khair al Din know the password for the door at area B15? Do either of them know the layout of the rooms past area 15? If they don't, how do they contact Father Jackal when they need to? Do they know about the Sunset Captain? Emabier?
Firstly, a very minor errata; Rayhan (pg 21) is listed as being old, but his stat modifiers are those of somebody who is middle-aged. As a allied non-combat NPC it doesn't really matter, but it briefly confused me on my first look through.Although we do use the elite array (or the standard array) for most NPCs, that's not a hard and fast rule. In some cases, we adjust ability score points here and there to fit a particular NPC's needs. Sometimes, when we do, we call it out (especially in the case of a BBEG who uses, say, a 32-point array of stats that helps to bump that NPC's CR up). Other times, when the changes are relatively minor (as in the case of Rayhan), we just don't bother. I wouldn't call this "errata" as a result.
Sorry to pick on such an old post, but I just encountered this in preparing for my "Legacy of Fire" game as well. However it's not that Rayhan's stats are off, what is actually wrong is that Rayhan is indeed middle-aged, not old, as the text clearly states that he just turned 50. "Old" only starts at 53. :)
A DM's Familiar dataset is now available for The Jackal's Price. It can be downloaded here.
DM's Familiar is a program you use at the gaming table to run your combat's faster and smoother, easily look up rules, and keep your game organized. The dataset contains the OGC creatures from the adventure so that you don't have to do any data entry!
I just picked up the Inner Sea Poster Map Folio, and one added detail in particular has me pondering: Why in the world shouldn't the PCs simply charter a boat to take the Scroll of Kakishon to Katapesh? We know the Pale River is navigable all the way to Kelmarane, and a river voyage down the Pale and Scorpius is literally the fastest, most direct, and for that matter most comfortable route for the PCs to take. They literally have to go out of their way to not follow the river.
While I ponder this, any other Legacy of Fire GMs have ideas on how to avoid simply bypassing the opening section of The Jackal's Price?
Just put Hell of Eternal Thirst in their way, whichever route they take.
Just put Hell of Eternal Thirst in their way, whichever route they take.
Well that's the question, really: how to put Hell of Eternal Thirst (or the Sons of Carrion) in their way if the PCs are cruising down what's described as a swift, deep, oft-used river. The PCs are respected founders of Kelmarane, on an official mission to transport what's believed to be a priceless artifact to the city of Katapesh, and they're in no particular rush to get started. By all rights, they have the opportunity and the motivation to hire a boat at the Kelmarane docks and sail straight downriver to the sea.