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."
You know the drill!
Please clear some points.
2. I got impression that Kakishon is a less populated place. But Set Piece enables PCs to get information by Knowledge(local) or Gather Information. Check result chart even mentions “some sailors”. Who are they? Gnoll outrigger riders?
And some nitpickings.
2. Less important, in Page 20 again, “Dilix was left behind by Jhavhul after being told by the warlord that she would not suffer…” should be read as “Dilix was left behind by Jhavhul after being told by the warlord that he would not suffer…”.
Creative Director
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So what level was Nex when he created Kakishon? The Scroll of Kakishon artifact in Jackal's Price has a caster level of 23rd, and suggests that Nex was epic-level when he made it ("after transcending the typical mortal ken of magic and passing into the workings of the quasi-divine"). Yet in this adventure, all spells aparently used by Nex (mostly encountered on the Isle of the Dead) are at caster level 20th.
What's with the disparity?
Nex is/was one of the few epic level casters in the world, but just because he was an epic level caster (of at least 23rd level; we haven't and won't nail down his exact level for a while), that doesn't mean that all of the effects in Kakishon were created by him. Some were created by minions and agents (many of them actually by the proteans he enslaved), while others might have been deliberately generated at a lower caster level in order to reduce the cost on resources to create the effect.
So what level was Nex when he created Kakishon? The Scroll of Kakishon artifact in Jackal's Price has a caster level of 23rd, and suggests that Nex was epic-level when he made it ("after transcending the typical mortal ken of magic and passing into the workings of the quasi-divine"). Yet in this adventure, all spells aparently used by Nex (mostly encountered on the Isle of the Dead) are at caster level 20th.
What's with the disparity?
I think even 23rd Level is not enough to create a world, or enslave some proteans in Maelstrom for that matter. So it would be safe to consider the items were made at lower levels intentionally(to lower the costs, perhaps?). Then the disparity might not be a problem.
EDIT: Ouch! Too late!
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Creative Director
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Answers beyond the button...
In Page 26 (and other places as well), it is stated that proteans can’t activate their plans while non-natives are still in Kakishon. Are “non-natives” limited to genies and PCs only? How about other denizens of Kakishon like azer smith Artel, Bloodhunter gnolls, hydras, xorns for example? Do they have to be removed as well? Nex seems to have brought or bound some creatures. Azer, hydra, xorns would be in this category. Gnolls are described as “feral remnant of Jhavul’s gnoll armies” in page17, so they seem to be non-natives. Or are they different generation from originals Nex or Jhavul brought with(with shorter lifespan than Genies perhaps, they might be), and to be considered as natives of Kakishon?
Non-natives basically includes all the shaitans and the PCs. The other denizens of Kakishon, including the azer, hydras, and xorns have been living on Kakishon long enough that they're natives (in some cases, some of them were probably created by the proteans). The gnolls are not natives, but they're small in number and easy for the proteans to wipe out that they're a non-issue; the proteans aren't worried about sending a few in to clean up the gnolls. Shaitan genies are a bit tougher to clean up, though.
I got impression that Kakishon is a less populated place. But Set Piece enables PCs to get information by Knowledge(local) or Gather Information. Check result chart even mentions “some sailors”. Who are they? Gnoll outrigger riders?
The Set Piece was written by an author who didn't have "The End of Eternity" to consult, and developed in parallel with the Adventure, and while Wes and I tried our best to make the two sync up, we couldn't (obviously) make everything fit smoothly. I would therefore count the "sailors" mentioned in the Set Piece as gnolls... IF you use the set piece in Kakishon. You can use the set piece anywhere else as well if you want; the dragon turtle's lair works fine anywhere you have an ocean, and in that case, the "sailors" are just that. What you're basically seeing in that word, "sailors," is a result of us trying to make the set piece usable both as part of Kakishon and as a generic adventure you can place in any campaign.
In Page 20, “Of course, allying with Dilix is only one route to escaping Kakishon” should be read as “Of course, allying with Dilix is not only one route to escaping Kakishon”, perhaps.
Correct; there are multiple ways to escape Kakishon.
2. Less important, in Page 20 again, “Dilix was left behind by Jhavhul after being told by the warlord that she would not suffer…” should be read as “Dilix was left behind by Jhavhul after being told by the warlord that he would not suffer…”.
Also correct. We had to change Dilix's gender at the 11th hour from male to female when the art we got in for Dilix as a guy was not only NOT that of a shaitan, but also pretty ugly; faced with not having any art at all for this important NPC, I decided that the shaitan we had pictured on the cover (who, up to this point, was NOT part of the adventure) would make for a perfect Dilix. We just needed to change all of the gender-specific pronouns to read right. And since this change happened, literally, only hours before we sent it to the printer, we had to be kind of quick about it. Looks like we got all of them but plus one, accidentally using the wrong pronoun once for one that was refering to Jhavhul.
Thank you for your quick(!!) answers and hard works at nights(and days, of course).
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Creative Director
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Answer to the spoiler button question above...
Not if I can help it!
The art that we got for the male version of Dilix was pretty bad. Bad enough for us to decide at the final hour to risk pronoun problems by swapping the NPC's gender. Killing a piece of art in this manner happens now and then; not all art we get in is usable, unfortunately, but usually we end up buying the artwork anyway since it's not cool to ask an artist to paint something and then decide not to pay him because we don't like the artwork. We just don't ask that artist to work for us again if he's a new artist, or let it be water under the bridge if it's an established artist who just had a bad art day.
Sometimes, artwork that we kill and don't intend to be published gets turned into avatars for use on these boards, actually. Unfortunately for the unknowing messageboard patrons who select art like this, their messageboard posts get tainted in the fickle picky eyes of the editorial and art staff here at Paizo by the bad art.
And no, I'm not going to point out which pieces of art fall into this category. :-P
OT Self-Absorption
Answer to the spoiler button question above...
** spoiler omitted **
Yeah, there is something we shouldn’t know.
Anyway, thank you for letting us know some editing process of yours. It is something worth to know.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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I remember someone asking if the purple hottie on the cover was a shaitan, and this was after the cover art had gone up but before I had seen the final manuscript, so all I could offer was "ummm... it could be... those shaitans are tricky, but it does look like one." I hadn't remembered putting any purple chicks in there (though there was a gold colored female shaitan in a... revealing piece of armor... with a criosphinx lover). But suffice to say there were a few editorial revisions and Dilix Mahad changed from dude to dudette and now Zulfiqar is a gynosphinx and she and Iqilma are just good friends! :)
I have to conclude that any adventure can be made better by the addition of a purple chick.
Alright, so here's my question; why is the wyrmskull's special ability to summon skeletons warriors called "speiro"? What they heck is a Speiro? I seem to recall some mythological referance of using dragon's teeth to "grow warriors" (Jason and the Argonauts maybe?), but Google, dictionary.com, and Wikipedia haven't been able to answer this burning question.
Also, regarding the skeletons summoned by speiro; are they *really* meant to have the same Hit Dice as the summoning wyrmskull? Because that, coupled with the boost to their attack/damage/AC/saving throws, makes them a very serious threat.
Thanks for any enlightment anyone can provide.
Hmmm ... Google found the answer for me :) Maybe I was just lucky ::chuckle::
speiro: Greek word meaning to sow, scatter, seed
And yes, while it is powerful, it's usable only once a week, for one hour. If the players are smart to run, and return more buffed up, they are likely to return before the poor wyrmskull has regrown those precious teeth :)
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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Alright, so here's my question; why is the wyrmskull's special ability to summon skeletons warriors called "speiro"? What they heck is a Speiro? I seem to recall some mythological referance of using dragon's teeth to "grow warriors" (Jason and the Argonauts maybe?), but Google, dictionary.com, and Wikipedia haven't been able to answer this burning question.
I was at first mystified by the word change (I think I had called it "Sow the Dragon's Teeth" or something like that), but the original Greek meaning for the word has been described and I think that works fine.
The original dragon's teeth growing into soldiers event was from Cadmus, first king of Thebes, but it does occur in the Jason story as well. In the traditional myth, he has to plow King Aeetes' fields with his fire-breathing bronze bulls, then sow the field with the dragon's teeth which grew into soldiers (in each case, the hero bested them with guile).
The notion of the teeth growing into skeletons is drawn from the famous "Jason and the Argonauts" movie with Ray Harryhausen's marvelous stop-motion skeletons; in that movie, the teeth are actually taken from the slain hydra that had guarded the fleece (in the myth, it was a dragon that Medea sang/charmed to sleep and then Jason killed it) by Aeetes, and then he plants them and sends the deathless warriors after Jason & Co.
It's such a great visual and a bit of a classic mythological trope, I thought it was a fun concept for a monster ability.
Also, regarding the skeletons summoned by speiro; are they *really* meant to have the same Hit Dice as the summoning wyrmskull? Because that, coupled with the boost to their attack/damage/AC/saving throws, makes them a very serious threat.
Thanks for any enlightment anyone can provide.
That is either an error in editing or an omission in my original. The sentence is supposed to read:
"These skeletal warriors are treated as human warrior skeletons (MM 226) but have a number of Hit Dice equal to the wyrmskull's age category and have fast healing 5."
Hence, Venema should create 7 skeletons, each of which has 7 HD and a +7 bonus to attack and damage rolls, natural armor bonus, and saving throws. They would also inflict 1d6 fire damage (plus a 1-minute brass/golden faerie fire) on a hit.
In other words, buff enough to be relevant in an encounter with a CR10 boss monster (Venema herself), but not so buff as to be entirely insane.
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Creative Director
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The change from "Sow the Dragon's Teeth" to "Speiro" was made for two reasons.
1) "Speiro" has some cool historical flavor.
2) "Sow the Dragon's Teeth" is WAY too long a name for a special ability. When we detail special abilities, they often repeat the name of the ability multiple times, and when you have a long multiple-word name for the special ability, the stat block not only grows overly long, but overly awkward to read.
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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The change from "Sow the Dragon's Teeth" to "Speiro" was made for two reasons.
1) "Speiro" has some cool historical flavor.
2) "Sow the Dragon's Teeth" is WAY too long a name for a special ability. When we detail special abilities, they often repeat the name of the ability multiple times, and when you have a long multiple-word name for the special ability, the stat block not only grows overly long, but overly awkward to read.
No argument from me on either count. While I may fuss at the cruel, cruel editors sometimes, this is certainly true.
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Creative Director
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No argument from me on either count. While I may fuss at the cruel, cruel editors sometimes, this is certainly true.The change from "Sow the Dragon's Teeth" to "Speiro" was made for two reasons.
1) "Speiro" has some cool historical flavor.
2) "Sow the Dragon's Teeth" is WAY too long a name for a special ability. When we detail special abilities, they often repeat the name of the ability multiple times, and when you have a long multiple-word name for the special ability, the stat block not only grows overly long, but overly awkward to read.
Being cruel is part of my job, after all! But I'm not ALWAYS mean to you! Remember, just yesterday, how I cast that cure moderate wounds spell on your mule? I wasn't the one who sent the girralons after it! I tried to save... umm... what's-his-name the mule! Or was it a pony? Or a donkey? Or a horse? Hard to keep track of them all.
Anyway, Wes made those changes anyway, so it was cruelty by proxy AT BEST. :-P
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Another day, another Paizo shipment arriving (yay!), and another small errata post. :)
Shaitan Genie (p12): The genies' attacks look a little off. The numbers would suggest that they're using 4-pt. Power Attack, but that isn't mentioned in their During Combat section.
The Golden Ram (p18): The specifics of the Golden Ram's breath weapon aren't outlined anywhere in its stat block. Since the Ram's a MM monster, I don't know if this one's an omission or not.
Dilix Mahad (p22): Dilix has Two-Weapon Fighting printed twice in her feats section. Deleting one of them gets the correct number of feats, so it is just a duplication rather than a substitution. As such, no worries here.
Obherak (p45): There are a couple of issues with Obherak's feats. He has 10 feats listed, but unless some of them are somehow bonus feats from being a shaitan, he should only have 8 feats; 5 from levels, plus 3 from his fighter bonus feats.
Furthermore, the effects of his Improved Critical (falchion) feat are not factored into his attacks, leading me to suspect that feat was cut and should not be in his feats section. I don't know which other feat he should be missing; I can say for certain that his stat block makes use of Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Quicken Spell-Like Ability (glitterdust), Weapon Focus (falchion) and Weapon Specialization (falchion).
That means the cut feat should come from this list: Cleave, Great Cleave, Improved Bull Rush and Power Attack. Feat pre-requisites mean that it can't be Cleave or Power Attack. As such, my personal thought would be to delete Great Cleave, but I'd like to hear an official opinion. :)
Venema Shodair (p89): Venema's a bit interesting to try and spot mistakes with, since I'm not sure I 100% understand the wyrmskull creation process. If I've got this right, Venema's AC is wrong. It should be AC 22, touch 12, flat-footed 20 (+2 Dex, +10 natural).
The Golden Ram (p18): The specifics of the Golden Ram's breath weapon aren't outlined anywhere in its stat block. Since the Ram's a MM monster, I don't know if this one's an omission or not.
I believe they state that the golden ram is a gold plated gorgon.
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I believe they state that the golden ram is a gold plated gorgon.
Yeah, that's what I mean. Since it's out of the Monster Manual, I don't know if they decided not to detail its breath weapon to save space (since all the details are right there in one of the core books) or whether it was an omission. I only mentioned it in the first place because I like how the Paizo statblocks helpfully condense all the information on a monster into them so you don't have to go looking it up, and that's not totally the case with the gorgon.
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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I believe they state that the golden ram is a gold plated gorgon.Yeah, that's what I mean. Since it's out of the Monster Manual, I don't know if they decided not to detail its breath weapon to save space (since all the details are right there in one of the core books) or whether it was an omission. I only mentioned it in the first place because I like how the Paizo statblocks helpfully condense all the information on a monster into them so you don't have to go looking it up, and that's not totally the case with the gorgon.
Yup. Since it's a gorgon, the breath weapon works like a gorgon's, except that it is also stated in the adventure that it doesn't permanently turn you into stone; it turns you into gold/brass for 24 hours and then you get better.
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Yup. Since it's a gorgon, the breath weapon works like a gorgon's, except that it is also stated in the adventure that it doesn't permanently turn you into stone; it turns you into gold/brass for 24 hours and then you get better.
That brings up another point I keep intending to mention, actually. I definitely approve of a noticeable trend in Paizo Adventure Paths to put durations on a good number of the flesh to stone-style effects, rather than leaving them as their core rules version. I mean, sure, as written there are spells to undo their effects, but it really sucks when the spellcasters are the ones that get affected, and your party's left totally screwed. Doubly so in a place like Kakishon, where there's no option to haul ass to Absalom to pick up some scrolls or a helpful cleric. In short, I think the level of consideration shown in the Eye of Eternity and other Pathfinder adventures of the issue is worth noting, so great work there. :)
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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Another day, another Paizo shipment arriving (yay!), and another small errata post. :)
Shaitan Genie (p12): The genies' attacks look a little off. The numbers would suggest that they're using 4-pt. Power Attack, but that isn't mentioned in their During Combat section.
I think that's an omission in the "during combat" section, or it should be indicated someplace in there, but I'd have to go to my laptop and look up the PDF to see the final version to check the numbers.
The Golden Ram (p18): The specifics of the Golden Ram's breath weapon aren't outlined anywhere in its stat block. Since the Ram's a MM monster, I don't know if this one's an omission or not.
See the other post - it's just like gorgon breath but turns you gold for 24 hours, not stone permanently.
Dilix Mahad (p22): Dilix has Two-Weapon Fighting printed twice in her feats section. Deleting one of them gets the correct number of feats, so it is just a duplication rather than a substitution. As such, no worries here.
Amusing, since I looked at my initial manuscript and he (used to be a guy) didn't have TWF at all! As you said, just an accidental double-add.
Obherak (p45): There are a couple of issues with Obherak's feats. He has 10 feats listed, but unless some of them are somehow bonus feats from being a shaitan, he should only have 8 feats; 5 from levels, plus 3 from his fighter bonus feats.
Furthermore, the effects of his Improved Critical (falchion) feat are not factored into his attacks, leading me to suspect that feat was cut and should not be in his feats section. I don't know which other feat he should be missing; I can say for certain that his stat block makes use of Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Quicken Spell-Like Ability (glitterdust), Weapon Focus (falchion) and Weapon Specialization (falchion).
That means the cut feat should come from this list: Cleave, Great Cleave, Improved Bull Rush and Power Attack. Feat pre-requisites mean that it can't be Cleave or Power Attack. As such, my personal thought would be to delete Great Cleave, but I'd like to hear an official opinion. :)
Improved Initiative is a bonus feat for all genies (don't ask me why, but they all have it, so I gave it to shaitans as well), so that one is actually a freebie so that leaves us with 9 feats for 8 slots.
Obherak's feats got changed around a bit as well, as originally he was a cleric and got turned into a fighter later. If you want my take I'd say dump Great Cleave from that list.
Venema Shodair (p89): Venema's a bit interesting to try and spot mistakes with, since I'm not sure I 100% understand the wyrmskull creation process. If I've got this right, Venema's AC is wrong. It should be AC 22, touch 12, flat-footed 20 (+2 Dex, +10 natural).
Here's the trick of it, under the wyrmskull template Armor Class entry. "Natural AC bonus is halved (after adjustment for size decrease)."
Per Table 4-2 in the MM (p. 291), down-sizing a monster from Huge to Medium results in a loss of 5 points of natural armor (taking a mature adult brass dragon's base of +21 down to +16). This total is then halved to +8 for her final wyrmskull natural AC bonus. On the other hand, she picks up 4 points of DEX (+2 to AC) and the 2-level size decreases eliminates her -2 size penalty to AC for being Huge, leaving her AC at 20 (T 12, FF 18).
Hope this helps!
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Dilix Mahad (p22): Dilix has Two-Weapon Fighting printed twice in her feats section. Deleting one of them gets the correct number of feats, so it is just a duplication rather than a substitution. As such, no worries here.Amusing, since I looked at my initial manuscript and he (used to be a guy) didn't have TWF at all! As you said, just an accidental double-add.
Ah. If Improved Initiative is a bonus feat for all shaitan, then Dilix is actually short one feat, and the second instance of Two-Weapon Fighting *was* a substitution. She can't qualify for Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, so maybe it should be Dodge or Lightning Reflexes?
Improved Initiative is a bonus feat for all genies (don't ask me why, but they all have it, so I gave it to shaitans as well), so that one is actually a freebie so that leaves us with 9 feats for 8 slots.
Obherak's feats got changed around a bit as well, as originally he was a cleric and got turned into a fighter later. If you want my take I'd say dump Great Cleave from that list.
That being the case, it seems Improved Critical was already removed from his combat stats, just not his feats section, so the only fix necessary is to delete Improved Critical.
Here's the trick of it, under the wyrmskull template Armor Class entry. "Natural AC bonus is halved (after adjustment for size decrease)."
Per Table 4-2 in the MM (p. 291), down-sizing a monster from Huge to Medium results in a loss of 5 points of natural armor (taking a mature adult brass dragon's base of +21 down to +16). This total is then halved to +8 for her final wyrmskull natural AC bonus. On the other hand, she picks up 4 points of DEX (+2 to AC) and the 2-level size decreases eliminates her -2 size penalty to AC for being Huge, leaving her AC at 20 (T 12, FF 18).
Aha! That's about one step more complicated than I generally check for, but as you say, it makes perfect sense. That being the case, her AC in the book is still wrong, as it is listed as AC 21, touch 10, flat-footed 19, which makes very little sense any way you slice it. I'll just update this post to reflect the updated corrections where necessary.
1) Dilix Mahad (p22) has Two-Weapon Fighting listed twice. One instance of Two-Weapon Fighting should be replaced by an appropriate feat.
2) Obherak (p45) has one too many feats, but Improved Critical has not been factored into his combat stats. It should probably be removed from his feats section, fixing the problem.
3) Venemir Shodair (p89) should have: AC 20, touch 12, flat-footed 18 (+2 Dex, +8 natural)
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My final bit of errata for this book, I promise!
I don't normally check the bestiary monsters that don't show up in the adventure themselves for errors, but I happened to be looking at the Miengu and noticed one. It looks like at some point during its development, the Miengu had a +7 Dex mod, rather than a +4. Its touch AC is listed as 17 when it should be 14, and its ranged attacks are listed as 3 points higher than its melee attacks, when they should be at the same bonus. In all other places where the creature's Dexterity modifier is used, it is correct.
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Creative Director
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Yup. Since it's a gorgon, the breath weapon works like a gorgon's, except that it is also stated in the adventure that it doesn't permanently turn you into stone; it turns you into gold/brass for 24 hours and then you get better.That brings up another point I keep intending to mention, actually. I definitely approve of a noticeable trend in Paizo Adventure Paths to put durations on a good number of the flesh to stone-style effects, rather than leaving them as their core rules version. I mean, sure, as written there are spells to undo their effects, but it really sucks when the spellcasters are the ones that get affected, and your party's left totally screwed. Doubly so in a place like Kakishon, where there's no option to haul ass to Absalom to pick up some scrolls or a helpful cleric. In short, I think the level of consideration shown in the Eye of Eternity and other Pathfinder adventures of the issue is worth noting, so great work there. :)
The real reason we put a duration on this effect is not to be nice to PCs, of course, but to prevent the PCs from selling goldified allies or other creatures and becoming super rich. That it has the nice side effect of not screwing a character forever is nice too, though! :)
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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The real reason we put a duration on this effect is not to be nice to PCs, of course, but to prevent the PCs from selling goldified allies or other creatures and becoming super rich. That it has the nice side effect of not screwing a character forever is nice too, though! :)Yup. Since it's a gorgon, the breath weapon works like a gorgon's, except that it is also stated in the adventure that it doesn't permanently turn you into stone; it turns you into gold/brass for 24 hours and then you get better.That brings up another point I keep intending to mention, actually. I definitely approve of a noticeable trend in Paizo Adventure Paths to put durations on a good number of the flesh to stone-style effects, rather than leaving them as their core rules version. I mean, sure, as written there are spells to undo their effects, but it really sucks when the spellcasters are the ones that get affected, and your party's left totally screwed. Doubly so in a place like Kakishon, where there's no option to haul ass to Absalom to pick up some scrolls or a helpful cleric. In short, I think the level of consideration shown in the Eye of Eternity and other Pathfinder adventures of the issue is worth noting, so great work there. :)
Trust me, there is ample precedent for this. The 1st Ed. version of the retriever turned you into gold, and I was in a campaign where somebody got goldified and we cut him up and sold him.
Of course, *SOME* of the money went to get him brought back to life. Some of it... :)
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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My final bit of errata for this book, I promise!
I don't normally check the bestiary monsters that don't show up in the adventure themselves for errors, but I happened to be looking at the Miengu and noticed one. It looks like at some point during its development, the Miengu had a +7 Dex mod, rather than a +4. Its touch AC is listed as 17 when it should be 14, and its ranged attacks are listed as 3 points higher than its melee attacks, when they should be at the same bonus. In all other places where the creature's Dexterity modifier is used, it is correct.
I'd have to look at the PDF (which is not on this computer) as I don't have a hard copy yet to check this. The info I gave you was from my original manuscript, which I have on email. In the original monster writeup the DEX bonus was +4, so I'm not sure where the +3 to touch AC and ranged attacks would come from.
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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Ah. If Improved Initiative is a bonus feat for all shaitan, then Dilix is actually short one feat, and the second instance of Two-Weapon Fighting *was* a substitution. She can't qualify for Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, so maybe it should be Dodge or Lightning Reflexes?
Dilix Mahad (p22): Dilix has Two-Weapon Fighting printed twice in her feats section. Deleting one of them gets the correct number of feats, so it is just a duplication rather than a substitution. As such, no worries here.Amusing, since I looked at my initial manuscript and he (used to be a guy) didn't have TWF at all! As you said, just an accidental double-add.
Maybe it was supposed to be Two-Weapon Defense.
As for the wyrmskull's AC, I'd have to look at the final version to see about the discrepancy.
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The real reason we put a duration on this effect is not to be nice to PCs, of course, but to prevent the PCs from selling goldified allies or other creatures and becoming super rich. That it has the nice side effect of not screwing a character forever is nice too, though! :)
Trust me, there is ample precedent for this. The 1st Ed. version of the retriever turned you into gold, and I was in a campaign where somebody got goldified and we cut him up and sold him.
Of course, *SOME* of the money went to get him brought back to life. Some of it... :)
It's obvious I'm not trying hard enough to think of ways to profit off my fellow party members' suffering - that didn't even occur to me!
Oh, another tiny errata. This is the last one, I swear!
The AC of the Spikestone Guardians (p43) doesn't take their size into account. It's correctly applied to their attacks, but their AC should be 1 lower on all counts.
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Creative Director
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That 'several hundred years ago', given that the current year is 4708 according to the Campaign Setting, creates problems. The last known sighting of Nex was several millenia ago, not several hundred years (Golarion time) and if Nex has been about and using his scroll since he 'officially disappeared from view', then why hasn't he done something about:
1) the Proteans who have been wrecking Kakishon?
2) Jhavul's trapped army?If it was in fact 'several hundred years ago because time passes differently inside the scroll', why was this [the time passing differently inside the scroll] not mentioned in the scroll's description in 'The Jackal's Price' and how will Jhavul have had the opportunity to get anything done by the time that the PCs emerge given that (unless they decide to raise families in Kakishon and take a couple of decades of 'downtime') they will emerge practically on his heels without his having even had the chance to send it to his treasury yet.
If the several hundred years is an error, and should be 'several thousand years' I would like some explanation with regard to the lifespan of a dragon-turtle?...
This is a great example of why we're no longer doing set-pieces as of Council of Thieves. Getting all of the parts of an adventure path to sync up, with its six different authors and huge amounts of back-story, is fantastically complicated. When you double the number of associated authors, it frankly becomes almost (if not fully) unmanageable, and as a result you see continuity errors like this more often in the set pieces, alas. The easiest solution is to simply change "several hundred" to "several thousand" and presto, it works. That DOES mean that the dragon turtle would have to be super ancient and long-lived, which stretches credulity, and as a result I'm almost tempted to say the best bet is to completely disregard the backstory and just say that the dragon turtle's just a native of Kakishon who had nothing to do with Nex. And beyond that, the best bet might just to simply ignore the set-piece, but that might just be my frustration showing.
Edit:
And as a humorous minor quibble was it correct that the comma immediately following Scroll of Kakishon in the text which I quoted from Page 65 was also italicised?
Technically, a comma after an italicized word shouldn't be italicized. It's an error, but not one that really matters.
This is a great example of why we're no longer doing set-pieces as of Council of Thieves. Getting all of the parts of an adventure path to sync up, with its six different authors and huge amounts of back-story, is fantastically complicated. When you double the number of associated authors, it frankly becomes almost (if not fully) unmanageable, and as a result you see continuity errors like this more often in the set pieces, alas.
Set Pieces have been officially dropped? You have no idea how happy that makes me.
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Dr. Jacobs, Charles:
I have not read that far into this adventure path because I plan to play in it so this 'solution' may not be a proper fix; all I have to go on is what you have written on this post.
If the dragon turtle is directly tied in with Nex from several several millenia ago, would it be an unreasonable assumption to say Nex himself came up with a high level spell (9th level or even Epic) to explain the longevity of the dragon turtle ?
Even a properly worded Wish could do that I suspect.
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That DOES mean that the dragon turtle would have to be super ancient and long-lived, which stretches credulity, and as a result I'm almost tempted to say the best bet is to completely disregard the backstory and just say that the dragon turtle's just a native of Kakishon who had nothing to do with Nex. And beyond that,...
Dragon Turtles are not completely stupid either (Int 12, Wis 13, Cha 12). Could this be more simply explained by having the original DT passing down its original mission/duty from generation to generation? beings that are that smart and wise should at least have some kind of oral tradition, if they don't have the opposable thumbs required to handle quill and paper... (or stone shape to inscribe their history along an underwater cliff face)
I think even 23rd Level is not enough to create a world . . .
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This is a great example of why we're no longer doing set-pieces as of Council of Thieves. Getting all of the parts of an adventure path to sync up, with its six different authors and huge amounts of back-story, is fantastically complicated. When you double the number of associated authors, it frankly becomes almost (if not fully) unmanageable, and as a result you see continuity errors like this more often in the set pieces, alas. The easiest solution is to simply change "several hundred" to "several thousand" and presto, it works. That DOES mean that the dragon turtle would have to be super ancient and long-lived, which stretches credulity, and as a result I'm almost tempted to say the best bet is to completely disregard the backstory and just say that the dragon turtle's just a native of Kakishon who had nothing to do with Nex. And beyond that,...
No more set pieces? Am I the only one disappointed? I actually find them very helpful for downtime and level boosts. Plus they provide great fodder for spinoff ideas and can be easily deconstructed for one-off adventures. What's going to replace them in the coming months?
I think even 23rd Level is not enough to create a world . . .The SRD disagrees. :)
Thank you for pointing out! I missed to check a non-epic spell in Epic Book.
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Creative Director
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So does use of the Earth Seed in area D2 to leave Kakishon automatically send anyone so using it to the Scroll of Kakishon (whilst the scroll exists) and if so, then surely that means that the proteans leaving by that means (if the PCs successfully make diplomacy checks to convince the shaitans to help 'see them off the premises') end up in the treasury area of The Impossible Eye, along with the PCs?
(Interesting situation of course, having the PCs and proteans find that they have swapped one prison for another, and it alters the dynamics of The Impossible Eye, perhaps, if the PCs have a small army of protean allies accompanying them... :D )
That's up to the GM, honestly. Having a LOT of extra NPCs muddling up the game table is not something every GM likes, which is why we basically assume that only the PCs and perhaps any NPCs that they brought with them into the world escape with them. If a GM doesn't WANT that many NPCs flooding the fifth adventure, I'd say that the PCs end up appearing where the Scroll actually is because they're "keyed" to that locaiton, having entered Kakishon via that same route. An NPC who was born in Kakishon or who came into Kakishon long ago or helped create the world might end up just going to their home planes or something like that.
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Creative Director
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No more set pieces? Am I the only one disappointed? I actually find them very helpful for downtime and level boosts. Plus they provide great fodder for spinoff ideas and can be easily deconstructed for one-off adventures. What's going to replace them in the coming months?
You're not; there's been other disappointment expressed elsewhere, but in the end this is the best move for Pathfinder. The space freed up by the removal of the set pieces will be absorbed by the other contents. This means in some cases the adventure will be longer than 40 pages, or perhaps that a support article will be longer, or maybe there'll be more monsters than normal in the Bestiary; it'll change every volume, depending upon which articles and sections need the extra room.
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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No more set pieces? Am I the only one disappointed? I actually find them very helpful for downtime and level boosts. Plus they provide great fodder for spinoff ideas and can be easily deconstructed for one-off adventures. What's going to replace them in the coming months?You're not; there's been other disappointment expressed elsewhere, but in the end this is the best move for Pathfinder. The space freed up by the removal of the set pieces will be absorbed by the other contents. This means in some cases the adventure will be longer than 40 pages, or perhaps that a support article will be longer, or maybe there'll be more monsters than normal in the Bestiary; it'll change every volume, depending upon which articles and sections need the extra room.
I vote for extra word count for the adventure!!! :)