Hello everybody,
this is my first posting on these boards, so I first want to introduce myself: I'm a 26 years old gamer from Munich/Germany and have been playing RPGs since when I was 8.
At the moment I'm preparing to run Legacy of Fire with PFRPG rules for my group and am currently reading through the modules. Generally I really like most of the stuff presented in there although I will change some minor details.
The one adventure I wasn't all that fond of is "The Jackal's Price". While it contains good ideas and some really cool NPCs and encounters, I don't like the fact that the main objective of deciphering the Scroll of Kakishon is meant to be achieved by an NPC and the adventurers are supposed to do nothing of true relevance aside from protecting said NPC and rescuing him when railroadily gets kidnapped in the end anyway.
So to fix that for me, I came up with the following modification to the adventure (which will, in fact, be quite an extension):
The PCs travel to Katapesh as described in the adventure and meet with Rayhan who can then only identify the scroll as the old artifact it's supposed to be. Activation is another story yet, and Rayhan tells the PCs that he's not able to solve the riddle that is inscribed in the rune of Nex. Yet, he knows about a place called the Eastern Oracle which is located in a strange dimension that is very difficult to reach. This oracle is rumored to know all the glyphs in the world and be able to solve even the most intricate riddles.
The location of this oracle is a massive basalt column that juts out of the ocean of the Dimension of Dreams as described in "PFC: The Great Beyond". That dimension is very difficult to reach, but luckily there is the captain of the sunset ship in the module who hails from Leng, another dimension, that is accesible via the dimension of dreams as by the description in the above-mentioned tome. So supposedly, the sunset ship is able to reach the dimension of dreams (which makes even more sense if one knows Lovecraft's "The Dreamquest for the Unknown Kadath").
So basically, the planar route to Leng is the following:
Material Plane ==> Ethereal Plane ==> Dream bubble demiplane ==> Dimension of Dreams ==> Leng
Wow, that plane *is* hard to reach. Anyway, Knowledge (the Planes) or Rayhan may tell the PCs that he believes that the sunset ship can access the Dimension of Dreams. It's now up to the PCs to negotiate a deal with its captain to take them to the Eastern Oracle.
In order for such a deal to work, I will adjust the adventure a little, specifically by making the Scroll of Kakishon not a part of the agreement between Father Jackal and the captain, and I will also rule that, although the captain could simply take the jackalwere by force, a slave is worth much more back in Leng if he has entered servitude by an act of his own free will - in this case, failing to deliver the Rough Seed to the captain.
Unfortunately, as we all know, Father Jackal actually did manage to deliver that seed. In my version of the adventure, the sunset ship will not arrive in Katapesh earlier than one year after the PCs have first entered the city. This means, of course, that the PCs may seek out the captain before he receives the seed from Father Jackal - which results in the captain telling the PCs about the infamous jackalwere slaver who has stolen the seed from him in the past and asks the PCs to go and retrieve the item from the Jackal's Den (were he won't be present, of course).
In the end, the captain will gain both the Rough Seed and Father Jackal who will be forced to keep true to the word he has given seven years before. Should the PCs learn about this, they might very well refuse to deliver the jackalwere - villain or not - to the unspeakable fate the captain of the sunset ship. I absolutely do not plan to railroad the PCs in one direction or the other because they might just as well join forces with Father Jackal and bring the cruel captain of the sunset ship to justice and finally commandeer the powerful vessel to go and search for the Eastern Oracle themselves.
One way or another, the PCs will hopefully end up on the mysterious ship and sail out of the harbour of Katapesh. At nightfall they will sail into a bank of thick fog and suddenly they will realize that they've travelled to the ethreal plane from where they can reach a vast number of highly volatile dream bubbles, demiplanes that are spawned by the dreams of sentient beings all over the multiverse that last only as long as the dream itself. When the dreamer awakes, the bubble collapses, forcing all dreamwalkers within to a random spot in the multiverse.
So after actually finding a bubble (the sunset ship's compass always points to the nearest) the next challenge will be to identify one that is fairly stable - a task that can be easily accomplished by the routined captain of the sunset ship but is quite hard for the PCs who lack the experience required for that job. Anyway, I will place the captain's log in his cabin which will contain clues so that with Knowledge (the Planes), divination magic and Rayhan's help, the PCs should be able to find a bubble that is at least not mere minutes before popping.
When they enter this bubble, they find themselves inside a dream that is dreamt by some creature. This will be a bizarre self-contained world that is subject to change just like real dreams are. From there, the heroes can try to reach the dimension of dreams. To do so, they must find the dreamer himself and defeat him in battle. The nature of the dreamland depends on the PCs' bubble choosing fu as well as on a certain amount of randomness - I plan to come up with a table to determine who the dreamer is - a halfling farmer or an ancient red dragon - you never can tell.
The exploration of the dream will then depend on which bubble the PCs have chosen. If it's the farmer, they will probably find themselves on a lakeshore with fertile hills ahead. If it's the dragon they will emerge in a volcanic waste, the ship anchoring in a river of fire. I don't plan to make this dream quest a huge adventure on its own, but it will definitely present some challenges to overcome. Depending on the stability of the chosen bubble, there might also be a time limit (and I plan to warn the PCs about the dreamer slowly waking up by making "reality" flicker ever more often).
The final challenge in the dream bubble will be fighting the dreamer himself. After this battle, the PCs don't have much time and must quickly return to the sunset ship and set course for a clearly discernible portal that appears after the dreamer's defeat.
Beyond that portal lies the city of Celephais from where the heroes may finally set sails for the Eastern Oracle. This final journey through the dimension of dreams may contain some more encounters, perhaps with other slavers from Leng who attack the characters if they have commandeered the ship back in Katapesh or are otherwise not accompanied by the the captain and original crew.
Once the PCs arrive at the oracle, they only have to scale the enormous basalt column on top of which there is a dome-topped building where a spirit naga and a dark naga have already been waiting for them. When the PCs present the scroll of Kakishon, the serpentine creatures offer the solution on how to activate the scroll - in the form of multiple logic riddles in the form of "Once there were three brothers, Genrar, Marik and Jasyr. Genrar never married. Marik is the oldest of the three. The youngest brother's wife betrayed him with the owner of the Golden Key." (mere flavour example, presumably not solvable).
Solving those riddles will give the players the order in which to touch the islands on the Scroll of Kakishon, in order to activate the artifact and procede with "The End of Eternity".
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So that's it, thanks to anybody who actually read this kinda lengthy post. Do you see any problems with that plotline? Did I perhaps miss something? What do you think is cool about this? What's lame? Why would you (not) run the adventure this way?
Thanks for all the input I might get,
Talwyn
Wow! Okay, I'm probably stealing this. Nice work with the Lovecraft Mythos.
The best part about Pathfinder APs is that you have access to hundreds of other GMs who have run the same story as you. It's stuff like this that really sets them apart.
Thanks!
My big issue is that you need to make certain once the scroll's trigger is known, that it is opened in Katapesh. Well, I suppose they could open it anywhere and Jhavuul would still head for Pale Mountain, so maybe that's not so important.
Wow! Okay, I'm probably stealing this. Nice work with the Lovecraft Mythos.
The best part about Pathfinder APs is that you have access to hundreds of other GMs who have run the same story as you. It's stuff like this that really sets them apart.
Thanks!
My big issue is that you need to make certain once the scroll's trigger is known, that it is opened in Katapesh. Well, I suppose they could open it anywhere and Jhavuul would still head for Pale Mountain, so maybe that's not so important.
That actually is a good point. But presumably, the sunset ship will still be anchored at the base of the basalt pillar when Jhavul's army emerges from the scroll - so the efreet sail into Katapesh and assault the city from the seaside. If the ship actually isn't there, Jhavul will certainly be able to get someone to wish a planeshift for him and his allies in the same way he granted the wishes to his worhippers in the House of the Beast.
Good point anyway, players tend to ask those nasty questions ;)
...the sunset ship will not arrive in Katapesh earlier than one year after the PCs have first entered the city.
How can the PCs retain possession of the Scroll of Kakishon for an entire year in the city of Katapesh?
As the NPC cleric of Abadar in the adventure points out, one cannot dangle a prize that rich in front of the noses of Katapesh's merchants and then refuse to sell it to any of them no matter the price. You'll end up getting charged with "disrupting trade" and the Pactmasters will seize the artifact from you and sell it to the highest bidder.
Perhaps you should remove the various merchants scrabbling for the Scroll from the adventure. As the adventure points out, they only reason they learn about the Scroll is essentially by author fiat due to story necessity. This introduces a possibly interesting or possibly tedious complication for the PCs. How can they keep their possession of such a powerful artifact a secret for an entire year?
Perhaps you should remove the various merchants scrabbling for the Scroll from the adventure. As the adventure points out, they only reason they learn about the Scroll is essentially by author fiat due to story necessity. This introduces a possibly interesting or possibly tedious complication for the PCs. How can they keep their possession of such a powerful artifact a secret for an entire year?
You're right, I didn't like the whole situation at all - first the adventure tells you, that the characters are not supposed to sell the scroll. Then they are basically forced to stage that dinner party even if they want to keep the artifact (and the enforcing party is the Pactmasters who then complain afterwards that the PCs dangle around with the scroll without having the intention to sell it - well, they just asked them to dangle, didn't they?)
In my game, there will be no dinner party unless the PCs are really going to sell the scroll. If they state their intent that they're not willing to sell, they might first get fabulous offers, followed by harassment and assassination attempts. If they can deliver proof about the perpetrators of those attempts to the Pactmasters, those will step up and declare openly that the keepers of the Scroll of Kakishon are not selling the artifact. That intent is to be respected in order to retain the city's reputation because merchants don't like to go to places where they must fear be robbed and/or murdered. From that point on, no one will dare to raise a hand against the party and the scroll will be as safe as it can be.
If the PCs care to raise at least some precautions to keep the scroll secret, I will happily go without bugging them with greedy merchants.
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I haven't gotten to this point in my campaign yet, but it is the biggest question mark in my mind. My players are ultra-cautious about major magic items like the Scroll, and would be more likely to hand it over to the Church of Abadar to store in a vault for the next thousand years than to risk selling it or activating it -- even if they have no idea what happened at Pale Mountain or what is going on in Kakishon itself. I consider this the weakest link in the overall AP.
One of my tasks going forward is to try to come up with some storyline or quest objective that will compel them to travel into Kakishon, even if they are aware of the dangers and repercussions.
I haven't gotten to this point in my campaign yet, but it is the biggest question mark in my mind. My players are ultra-cautious about major magic items like the Scroll, and would be more likely to hand it over to the Church of Abadar to store in a vault for the next thousand years than to risk selling it or activating it -- even if they have no idea what happened at Pale Mountain or what is going on in Kakishon itself. I consider this the weakest link in the overall AP.
One of my tasks going forward is to try to come up with some storyline or quest objective that will compel them to travel into Kakishon, even if they are aware of the dangers and repercussions.
I agree in that it's always potentially difficult to depend the entire plotline on a single artifact because that stuff tends to get stolen, sold, destroyed, ignored, discarded, locked away or even never be found at all. Anyway, I think that this won't be a problem in my group because we have an agreement about playing and adventure path which includes some necessary railroading out of pragmatic reasons. And then, of course, I have a bunch of players who always press the big red button, labeled "DON'T PUSH! NONCOMPLIANCE MIGHT LEAD TO IMPLOSION OF THE MULTIVERSE! WIZARDS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ACTIONS OF THEIR SUMMONED CREATURES!"
Anyway, I think that this won't be a problem in my group because we have an agreement about playing and adventure path which includes some necessary railroading out of pragmatic reasons.
Useful thought that. We have it in my group too. The understanding is that the price of regular and consistent play is a little bit of compliance with the AP's expectations. To ignore that is to contribute to GM burnout, which means nobody gets to play anything for very long.
Yea, me too. I have 8 house rules, of which only one is actually a rules change (#8), but the first rule is:
# I run "Adventure Paths". You must be willing to follow the campaign premise and plot.
-- david
Papa.DRB
Useful thought that. We have it in my group too. The understanding is that the price of regular and consistent play is a little bit of compliance with the AP's expectations. To ignore that is to contribute to GM burnout, which means nobody gets to play anything for very long.
*UPDATE*
I've statted up Damayanti and Lakshimana, the two nagas that make up the fabled Eastern Oracle. While they're not meant to be killed, you never know what you're players are up to so I've created complete statblocks for them.
While I don't plan to run a combat against the nagas, statblocks like those are always useful.
The two nagas reside in a large domed temple at the top of a 3,000 ft. high basalt pillar that juts out of the shallow waters of the ocean in the dimension of dreams. Here are some ideas for that location:
- There's a dock at the bottom of the pillar, complete with a small circular temple the facade of which is surrounded by a collonade of 8 regular and 4 caryatid columns. The latter are actually not only an architectural feature but also an effective defense (caryatid column is a construct that has been published in the WotC's Fiend Folio for the last time and that I plan to convert to the PFRPG rules). In the temple is a fountain into which donations are thrown by those who have sought out the oracle for advice. Vandalizing the place (like for example picking the precious lapis lazuli and turquoise tiles from the mosaics on the floor) or stealing the donations from the fountain's basin results in the animation of the caryatid columns that then move in to attack.
- A narrow stairway spirals up to the oracle around the outer wall of the basalt pillar. Halfway up, there is a cave in the rugged wall (not easily visibile nor reachable from the stairs) in which a flock of harpies lair. They're led by an evil harpy witch (APG playtest class, CE female harpy witch 5) and attack the PCs on their way up to the oracle. The harpies try to abduct one healthy male PC in order to deliver him to their leader as a mate. Should the PCs investigate the harpies' lair, they will be able to salvage some treasure from it. The cave entry is hidden behind a patch of brush that grows on a narrow ledge on the basalt column's outer wall.
- The sea voyage from Celephais will take some time during which there may be some random encounters. I've been thinking about another ship from Leng, a sea serpent, water elementals, a storm giant, strange faceless raiders mounted on arrowhawks or pteranodons or other weird stuff like that. Not all of those encounters are meant to burst into violent martial conflict.
Thanks for the hint. The version in the bonus bestiary is only CR 3, but I think, I'll just use 8 of them.
Another update...
I've just converted the denizen of Leng PF #6 to PFRPG and found the creature to be way over the top for CR 8. Comparing to the charts in the Bestiary, the denizen of Leng is better in almost every single category such as hit points, armor class, attack bonuses, saves and so on - not to mention the no save 1d6 Dex drain on each successful bite attack.
I therefore decided to decrease the denizen's Dex and Con scores by 4 points each. Additionally disrupt flesh now allows a saving throw and drains only 1d3 points of Dexterity which is lethal enough I guess (especially if you consider that those dudes use poisoned weapons as well). I've written up a neat statblock, yet I'm not sure whether I would be allowed to post it concerning copyrights.
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Anyway, I've decided to expand the dream quest to an entire adventure that is heavily inspired by the last villain from "Exemplars of Evil" by WotC: Borak, an ancient blue dragon that rules over a ruined city in the desert and demands regular tributes from the nomad tribes in the area, backing up those claims with the powers of a bound djinni and an elite force of half-dragons called the Al Iborak or "sons of the dragon".
I've actually changed my mind concerning the mechanism of moving from the dream bubble to the actual Dimension of Dreams: The PCs won't have to kill the dreamer (which would be a nigh impossible task as an ancient blue dragon is a CR 18 monster).
Instead there is a portal in each of those dream bubbles which the PCs must find as well as a key that can also be found somewhere in the dream. I'm not entirely sure yet, but I guess that the portal will be located somewhere in the catacombs deep beneath Borak's palace. The key might be a living creatures, maybe even one of the Al Iborak.
So the task for the PCs will be quite tricky:
1.) Figure out where the portal is.
2.) Find out about the key to the portal.
3.) Bring the key to the portal.
4.) Do all of the above without waking Borak - which will happen very likely if the dragon's dream becomes an unpleasant one - so the PCs should not try to work against the dragon ruler and free the nomads or anything - instead they might work out a plan to please Borak by giving a precious present to her.
In the waking world, Borak is a very old blue dragon, by the way, who has never reached the greatness of which she is dreaming now that she is old and awaiting death in her lair somewhere in the Brazen Peaks.
In this dream quest, the PCs will likely encounter the nomads, the Al Iborak and Borak's djinni servant. I might place any number of cool monsters in the catacombs beneath the palace (giant emperor scorpion anybody?).
This is amazing stuff. I plan to brazenly steal at least part of it. I think I shall use the roleplaying encounter with the merchants. Though instead have the culture of Katapesh be something to the effect of being customary to at least allow merchants to tempt you into selling the item by making bids. A sort of symbolic gesture to give them a shot so as not to disrupt trade. If you don't intend to sell then they simply didn't aim high enough, having been given their chance they must accept that they failed to pique the PC's interest and therefor leave them alone.
I like your idea for the dream bubble though for the purpose of sticking to the xp advancement the module runs with I'd probably restrict the bubble to being little more than flavor text and a fancy encounter. Not saying you should but I more than likely will.
Good stuff,
DM Doom
P.S. I imagine this has already taken place, how did it turn out?