So my party will be wrapping up the Howl of the Carrion King shortly, and I'd like some ideas for side-trek type adventures for the journey to the House of the Beast. A lot depends on which route they chose to go, which I'll be leaving up to them, so suggestions for all the different stuff they could cross by would be fantastic.
So anyone have any decent medusa (Lithia Vale) ideas? How about for Onyx Hall or those terrifying intelligent lions at Marudshar? Throw them at me folks. I have to be prepared for a party that tends to do the unexpected. I'll take published or ideas or even nuggets of some to chew on.
Paizo Brainstorming... GO!
So my party will be wrapping up the Howl of the Carrion King shortly, and I'd like some ideas for side-trek type adventures for the journey to the House of the Beast. A lot depends on which route they chose to go, which I'll be leaving up to them, so suggestions for all the different stuff they could cross by would be fantastic.
So anyone have any decent medusa (Lithia Vale) ideas? How about for Onyx Hall or those terrifying intelligent lions at Marudshar? Throw them at me folks. I have to be prepared for a party that tends to do the unexpected. I'll take published or ideas or even nuggets of some to chew on.
Paizo Brainstorming... GO!
How about they get caught in a sudden rainstorm and have to take a shelter in a cave where in the back is a concealed door leading to a warren of goblins and at the bottom is a sad little creature who is looking for some scrap piece of jewlery.
Oh, wait, that's been done before hasn't it?
Ok, seriously now, they could encounter a small cave complex with Ghouls, Ghasts, Eddimu, and a Great Ghul leader with the advanced template(from the Guide to Katapesh)?
Or pull out some of the Divs from the back of the books and create
I would crack open the book "Sandstorm" by WotC. Find the "touchstones" chapter. About a dozen desert-themed site-based mini-adventures, with flavorful treasure.
I snagged an idea from the guide to Katapesh, after rolling a 00 on the random encounter chart. A red dragon (adult I think. Too hardcore to be fought effectively) swoops down on the PCs. He offers a deal: take care of a problem for him, and he wont kill and eat them all. Some pugwumpis stole a small piece of his hoard, then took refuge in a very small cavern the dragon couldn't get to. Kill them all and get back the treasure.
When the PCs get into the hole the Pugs are terrified and pathetic. I really played on the heartstrings of the mostly good aligned party. In the end they really had to murder the lot to save themselves from destruction by the dragon. I thought it was pretty neat.
Uh, the salamander sidetrek that is in House of the Beast?
Uh, the salamander sidetrek that is in House of the Beast?
heh. Yeah, I thought of that. I was looking more for encounters to speckle in during the journey there. My players tend to go off the map doing the unexpected very frequently and I'd like to be prepared.
Plus, although the adventure is cool, I'm not sure if I like the party sneaking in the back door of the House that way. I may still run it if XP is low, but I'll have to see what my players give me first.
Do you know about the Fortress of the Ghouls sidetrek posted on the board? It's an expansion of a briefly-described site in Howl of the Carrion King. Unless my PCs head up there on their own, I plan on sending them to take care of it...
But it would work just as well at any point between HotCK and HotB (and could be moved anywhere).
Do you know about the Fortress of the Ghouls sidetrek posted on the board?
I've heard of it, but I can't seem to find it. Help?
Do you know about the Fortress of the Ghouls sidetrek posted on the board? It's an expansion of a briefly-described site in Howl of the Carrion King. Unless my PCs head up there on their own, I plan on sending them to take care of it...
Coincidentally, I'm running it right now. The PC's needed some extra XP to get them to 5th before taking on the Big Bad at the end of HotCK. So far the one rogue conned the beguiler into leaving and the party is all at each other's throats.
Do you know about the Fortress of the Ghouls sidetrek posted on the board?I've heard of it, but I can't seem to find it. Help?
Here you go!
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Do you know about the Fortress of the Ghouls sidetrek posted on the board?I've heard of it, but I can't seem to find it. Help?Here you go!
In my game, I wanted to make Dahski a bad guy. The foul stench was actually from an advanced ghul state. He had magic to help conceal his appearance but none to help with his stench. He fled to the Fortress of Ghouls once being found out and the PCs are currently scared to death of PCs to track him there.
Please pardon the thread necromancy. I'm running Legacy of Fire for the second time, and this time I'd also like to add in some mini adventures during the year or so of downtime between Howl of the Carrion King and House of the Beast.
I'd like to showcase some of the wish-altered weirdness of the region, to let the PCs experience some of the consequences of wishes that Jhavhul granted during his quest to become the Firebleeder 400 years prior. To that end, I'm changing some of the background to the locales and adventure seeds mentioned in "In the Shadow of Pale Mountain" in House of the Beast so that they're the results of wishes granted by Jhavhul.
Litha Vale seems the easiest. When the vale under her protection was threatened by Jhavhul's army, Orlass journeyed to the House of the Beast to wish for "the power to prevent Litha Vale from ever burning, no matter what may assail it." Jhavhul granted her wish by transforming her into a nigh-immortal medusa with the power to petrify the entire vale, for stone may melt, but it won't burn.
Similarly, the curse on Onyx Hall will have come from a wish granted by Jhavhul. The PCs will have to venture there and find out just what "dwell in bondage until the stones themselves burn like a pyre" means.
I could use some help brainstorming ideas for other locales though, the Hammerfalls, for instance. What did some foolish, ambitious, or greedy dwarves wish for that doomed their community? What will be left for the PCs to find?
What about Marudshar? What twisted wish (or wishes) could have resulted in that forsaken temple complex and those unnatural lions that guard it?
Keep in mind that whatever we come up with, it's got to be something that a party of 5th-level PCs could experience the aftermath of and 1) have a better than decent chance of surviving, 2) give them a hint that strange and powerful magics were at work in the region hundreds of years ago, 3) but not give them so much information that it gives away Jhavhul's wish scheme early, and 4) doesn't give them so much treasure or such powerful treasure that it throws off the difficulty curve for the rest of the adventure path.
Anyone have some ideas?
Litha Vale seems the easiest. When the vale under her protection was threatened by Jhavhul's army, Orlass journeyed to the House of the Beast to wish for "the power to prevent Litha Vale from ever burning, no matter what may assail it." Jhavhul granted her wish by transforming her into a nigh-immortal medusa with the power to petrify the entire vale, for stone may melt, but it won't burn.
I like that, and might steal it for an interlude between modules 2 and 3.
Similarly, the curse on Onyx Hall will have come from a wish granted by Jhavhul. The PCs will have to venture there and find out just what "dwell in bondage until the stones themselves burn like a pyre" means.
For very similar thematic reasons, I used Onyx Hall as an interlude between installments 1 and 2 in my game. Check out the thread I posted about it here, since the game went REALLY well, and I used the cursed manor to introduce the concept to the players of genies bullying mortals into making wishes on their behalf.
I spent a lot of time digging around on the boards here looking for examples of what other people did with Onyx Hall. I found one campaign where the players were undead based there, which was a great concept, but not relevant to what I was looking for. I didn't find another anecdote or adventure idea for the setting. I'm curious what other people did with it if they used it at all.
I saw your excellent Onyx Hall interlude right after I posted my request. It's exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for.