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There are a few other threads to describe how, but it seems a major bit of advice is to bring Andrissant in at the start. Introduce him at the funeral as a friend and professional rival of the Professor, have him provide some help for the trial, book 2 (perhaps a gift of fast horses), and maybe a nice welcoming gift at the lodge, book 3. You can start getting into a "he's not actually a nice guy" at the start of book 4.
Another bit of fun, in conjunction with the above advice, is to make it so the PCs feel attached to Kendra, have her accept Andrissant's offer to stay with him in Caliphas, and that way the PCs will start to be quite worried about her safety when they figure AA is actually a bad guy. Should be good fun!
Yeah I was going to use him for sure at the funeral.
Im also going to have letters sent to them signed only A so Vrood will also be a suspect
Where would they need Fast Horses?
If the players really like Kendra then she will end up taking his offer and staying in Caliphas for sure.
When running twix Lepidstadt and outlying areas to question the witnesses, fast horses may not be bad. Really though, it would just be a set of horses with exceptional breeding not ones with much mechanical effect (though +10% speed is a reasonable thing; will help with the various trips they'll go on between books).
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Kendra Lorrimor:
Trigger: Making Kendra helpful and asking about her past
Reward: 1 trust points, If the pc’s help her she will give them an old silver box containing a Varisian charm. The box is worth 20 GP, The Varisian charm takes up the bracelet spot and automatically casts Protection from evil (CL: 3) the first time the pc is targeted by a mind-affecting spell from an evil creature, or an evil summoned creature comes within 15 feet or someone tries to posses her. After the duration ends the charm corrodes and becomes worthless. The charm is worth 300 gp.
Kendra once read a forbidden tome in her father’s library. She unleashed something that day, something she still fears. She was haunted by nightmares for days after that, but she dropped the tome into an old well in the woods. After that the wood surrounding the well has become withered and sick. She has since realized what must be done to rid the well of the curse, but she hasn’t dared to do it herself. The pc’s gain +4 circumstance bonus on further diplomacy checks to improve Kendra’s attitude towards them if they fulfill this quest.
Kendra tells the pc’s that the spirit of the tomes author haunts it, it has become an undead phantom known as an Allip and reveals all the information she knows about allip’s (assume she takes 10 on her knowledge check) and tells them about the allip’s ability to enter people’s dreams. To help battle the Allip Kendra arms the pc’s with a scroll of protection from evil and a scroll of magic weapon. She also hands them four vials of holy water and tells them how they can destroy the tome.
The cursed well: (EL 4)
The well stands in a clearing about two miles south of Ravengro near an old abandoned cottage. The area with the well is easily spotted and smelled. The well stands in the middle of a 20 foot clearing. The entire clearing is surrounded by withered trees and sickly and rotted vegetation giving of a rancid sweet odor. The entire area is desecrated as the spell. A perception check DC 12 notices several animal carcasses under the rotted vegetation. The well is a crumbling stone construction surrounding a 20 foot deep hole. The well has mostly dried up, a 2 foot deep pool of black mud covered in rotting leaves and decaying animal carcasses can be found at the bottom. The walls are smooth and slippery, but a rusty old chain leads to the bottom.
The chain is stuck and requires a DC 20 strength check to pull up. At the end of it is a rusty old bucket filled with the same black mud as below. The bottom of the well is unnaturally dark and act as if a darkness spell (CL: 4) has been cast there. With a DC 15 Perception check and 1d4 rounds of searching the pc’s can pull a mud soaked leather sack from the bottom of the pool. There is also the blackened, worm-ridden skeleton of a 13 year old child at the bottom of the well. The silver buckles of the child’s long decayed shoes can be found with him. This is Marta Avanaki’s missing son Remon and returning the corpse and the buckles to her fulfills her personal quest and if the pc’s tell about the creature they also completes Alendru’s quest since he was blamed for killing the child to cover up his supposed molestation of this young child.
When the pc’s starts the ritual to destroy the tome, they anger the spirit bound to the tome, which immediately emerges from the well and attacks.
Due to the desecrating effects of the tome the Allip has +3 channel resistance, +1 profane bonus to attacks, damage and saves, and +4 hp. This Allip also has the ability to cause its wisdom damage to one sleeping creature every night unless it makes a DC 15 will save. A creature damaged by this attack has horrible nightmares and suffers the effects of sleep deprivation. As long as the attacks persist the creature can’t regain any lost stability points. The Allip can attack anyone within one mile of the tome with this attack. This particular Allip also has the spell-like ability to cause darkness at will at CL: 4.
If the tome is protected by a consecrate, protection from evil or hallow effect the Allip can’t manifest as long as that spell remains in effect. The Allip will rejuvenate within 2d4 days (as a ghost) if the tome is not destroyed. To destroy the tome the pc’s must first cast a spell with the good descriptor on the tome then use channel positive energy or holy water and deal at least 30 points of damage to the tome with these attacks. If the pc’s are unable to do this themselves they can ask Father Grimburrow for help, but unless he’s been made helpful he will demand a task from the pc’s (or if they prefer, payment). If the tome is destroyed the Allip vanishes in a burst of dark energy, uttering a sound as if a thousand madmen were screaming at once.
If the pc’s are foolish enough to take the Tome with them the Allip will follow and start to attack everyone close to the pc’s with its dream attack, slowly driving them mad. When all of the pc’s friends are at the brink of madness it will start to attack him instead. If the pc is foolish enough to try to read the book (which is in Aklo) he will take 1d4 points of wisdom damage for every hour he reads the tome. If he is reduced to 0 wisdom from this study he will be targeted by a magic jar effect from the Allip which will be restored to its former self (a level 10 wizard, 20 Int, 5 wis, 16 cha) while the pc becomes a new Allip forced to guard the tome. The tome takes 10-int (Minimum 2 hours) modifier hours to read and contains the spells: Cause fear, Detect thoughts, See invisibility, Hideous laughter, Touch of idiocy, Darkness, Scare, Arcane sight, Tongues, Clairaudience/Clairvoyance, Rage, Suggestion, Black tentacles, Confusion, Crushing despair, Phantasmal killer, Fear, Contact other plane, Feeblemind, Mind fog, Dream, Nightmare, Sending, Blight, Magic jar, Each time the pc studies these spells (Even if copied to another book) he will lose 1 wis point per spell level he memorizes from the tome. The tome radiates a desecrate spell (CL: 10) and any plant life within the desecrate area will start to wither and rot and within a month will all be decaying and diseased. Anyone foolish enough to eat any of this vegetation or drink any water there has a chance to contract demon fever (DC 18). The book is impervious to normal damage and can only be destroyed by a dispel evil or similar high level effect, a paladin’s smite ability, any form of holy damage or as shown above. The Allip will try to kill anyone who tries to destroy the tome
This is cut from the PDF of the Encounter
What PDF is this from?
Thuv
A PDF the guy made and shared with everyone
Is the pdf in a thread somewhere, or is the above text pretty much the whole of it?
Thanks!
Thuv
There are a bunch of other things on it too
There are a bunch of other things on it too
Is it for sale? Is it no longer available? When, where, and how did he "share" it?
I'm actually quite curious, myself.
I found it on here look around in the threads I don't remember what one it was in but I just got it a few months back
Thanks. Any idea who the guy was? Avatar? Name? Something like that?
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http://www.4shared.com/folder/DJ7vAweL/_online.html
its under personalities and motives for Harrowstone or something like that.
The guy who posted it I think his name is Mortigan or something close to that
Thanks!
+1 on Thanks!
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a clarification about my doubts
does the "negative energy" attack of the Lopper (when in melee) damage a Dhampyr Player character ?
or not ?
since it's an attack it should do it, but i am a bit confused about the source of the damage and the racial ability of the dhampyr.
thanks for any clarification
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The Lopper's attack is a touch attack that deals 1d6 negative energy damage and 1d6 bleed damage.
It is an attack, but that doesn't change the damage type (negative energy).
The Dhampyr character will not be damaged by the negative energy portion of the attack (in fact he will be healed by it) but he does take the full bleed damage, and in fact will continue to take the bleed damage each round after the attack.
In an interesting twist the NEXT time he takes a hit from the lopper he automatically gets healed by the negative energy portion (which cures bleed) and then the bleed gets immediately re-applied.
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thanks nails
so the "wraith" touches it, cuts him, but the energy doesnt damage him
the cut anyway is opened as effect of his "cursed" existence
so he bleeds
it's pretty funny because if i am not damaged by a source, how i could be cut by it ?
the cut is the way the attack affect the target attacked
the force that is doing the cut is the negative energy
but if the negative energy doesnt do any harm to me, how i can be cut ?
The negative energy isn't "cutting" you. It's passing through you (thus "incorporeal touch attack"), and doing what negative energy does which is weakening your life force. That part doesn't happen with a dhampir.
However, that doesn't make them entirely immune to all of negative energy's effects. A dhampir can still die from too many negative levels, even though they ignore the effects of those negative levels until they die or the negative levels simply stop existing.
This is similar to how the bleed kicks in.
The way I describe the bleed, is that it's not that you're "cut", per se, but that the wounds manifest after the blade happens. The energy passes through him harmlessly - even healingly - but the bleeding wounds, being from an other-wordly source of malice, manifest anyway.
The difference between actual cuts v. manifesting cuts are (in some ways) similar to the difference between chiseling blocks and setting them in mortar to create a wall made of stone, and casting wall of stone. In the former case, you use brute force to create, alter, and cause an effect. In the latter case, the desired effect manifests. The end result is pretty similar, either way (you get a solid wall of stone there), but the method of arrival is very different.
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a question that probably should stay in the rules section, but i need it here for practical reasons
to hit an incorporeal monster (read the lopper or the splatter man) with a cure light wound it's necessary a 50% confirmation roll after you actually touch the monster with a melee touch attack ?
if not, can someone explain me the right procedure ?
i think it's this
- player declare the attack
- player decide if she is going with a defensive casting (roll) or
- player takes opportunity attack from the monster
if after it, it's still alive
- player roll melee touch attack
- if hits, player roll a 50/50 to see if ACTUALLY it touches it
- if yes, roll damage
(cause light wound works on the undead, inflict light wounds on the alive)
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There's no longer a 50/50 miss vs. incorporeal creatures.
Rather, attacks do half-damage unless they involve force or a ghost touch weapon.
I also allowed positive energy to do full damage to incorporeal undead, but I think that's technically a house rule.
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The relevant rules on incorporeal creatures are scattered all over. Let's see if I can piece them together...
Incorporeal: Creatures with the incorporeal condition do not have a physical body. Incorporeal creatures are immune to all nonmagical attack forms. Incorporeal creatures take half damage (50%) from magic weapons, spells, spell-like effects, and supernatural effects. Incorporeal creatures take full damage from other incorporeal creatures and effects, as well as all force effects.
Ghost Touch: A ghost touch weapon deals damage normally against incorporeal creatures, regardless of its bonus. An incorporeal creature's 50% reduction in damage from corporeal sources does not apply to attacks made against it with ghost touch weapons. The weapon can be picked up and moved by an incorporeal creature at any time. A manifesting ghost can wield the weapon against corporeal foes. Essentially, a ghost touch weapon counts as both corporeal or incorporeal.
Incorporeal (Ex) An incorporeal creature has no physical body. It can be harmed only by other incorporeal creatures, magic weapons or creatures that strike as magic weapons, and spells, spell-like abilities, or supernatural abilities. It is immune to all nonmagical attack forms. Even when hit by spells or magic weapons, it takes only half damage from a corporeal source (except for channel energy). Although it is not a magical attack, holy water can affect incorporeal undead. Corporeal spells and effects that do not cause damage only have a 50% chance of affecting an incorporeal creature. Force spells and effects, such as from a magic missile, affect an incorporeal creature normally.
An incorporeal creature has no natural armor bonus but has a deflection bonus equal to its Charisma bonus (always at least +1, even if the creature's Charisma score does not normally provide a bonus).
An incorporeal creature can enter or pass through solid objects, but must remain adjacent to the object's exterior, and so cannot pass entirely through an object whose space is larger than its own. It can sense the presence of creatures or objects within a square adjacent to its current location, but enemies have total concealment (50% miss chance) from an incorporeal creature that is inside an object. In order to see beyond the object it is in and attack normally, the incorporeal creature must emerge. An incorporeal creature inside an object has total cover, but when it attacks a creature outside the object it only has cover, so a creature outside with a readied action could strike at it as it attacks. An incorporeal creature cannot pass through a force effect.
An incorporeal creature's attacks pass through (ignore) natural armor, armor, and shields, although deflection bonuses and force effects (such as mage armor) work normally against it. Incorporeal creatures pass through and operate in water as easily as they do in air. Incorporeal creatures cannot fall or take falling damage. Incorporeal creatures cannot make trip or grapple attacks, nor can they be tripped or grappled. In fact, they cannot take any physical action that would move or manipulate an opponent or its equipment, nor are they subject to such actions. Incorporeal creatures have no weight and do not set off traps that are triggered by weight.
An incorporeal creature moves silently and cannot be heard with Perception checks if it doesn't wish to be. It has no Strength score, so its Dexterity modifier applies to its melee attacks, ranged attacks, and CMB. Nonvisual senses, such as scent and blindsight, are either ineffective or only partly effective with regard to incorporeal creatures. Incorporeal creatures have an innate sense of direction and can move at full speed even when they cannot see.
Ectoplasmic Spell (Metamagic)
Your spells breach the gulf between dimensions, sending ghostly emanations into the ether.
Benefit: An ectoplasmic spell has full effect against incorporeal or ethereal creatures. An ectoplasmic spell uses up a spell slot one level higher than the spell's actual level.
Okay, it's written in that channel energy does full damage to incorporeal creatures.
Interesting, the 50/50 miss chance IS still in there, but specifically against spells or effects that don't deal damage. So if you glitterdust a ghost, there's only a 50% of the spell tagging the ghost.
Ectoplasmic spell is how you get around that.
Huh. I could swear the rules used to say that an incorporeal creature was immune to sneak attack or critical hits, unless you had a ghost touch weapon. But I don't see that anymore.
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I will be starting this AP soon and here are the changes that I intend to make. I would love to hear opinions on these changes.
The party will consist of a Paladin, a Sorcerer, a Cleric, a Rogue, and an Inquisitor (races, gods, etc. to be finalized soon).
- To open the AP, I will be using the carriage ride described earlier in this thread with the stirge attack. That is brilliant… and stolen.
- Kendra will not be a Diviner, but an Expert-2 (sage) and a proto-Oracle with the Lore Mystery. She has extremely poor sight (precursor to Clouded Vision). She started losing her sight when she was young and that is the reason why Lorrimar retired to Ravengro and is also one of the reasons why he put the PCs in his will. The other reasons were to get his Esoteric Order book safely returned; to introduce the PCs to the Esoteric Order as potential agents (letter locked inside book); and to give the PCs an influx of cash that would get them on their feet if they hit rough times since he last saw them. He had his eye on these potentials.
- Kendra is also Haunted – Good spirits of the prison guards can sense she’s different and are trying to contact her.
- Kendra is the target of The Splatter Man, not Veriseranna. The minimum time is 30 days as written with the average being 45 days. That’s way too long. There’s no tension. Kendra will take a minimum of 15 days with an average of 27.5 days. This will also give the PCs “skin in the game” not only because her death will forfeit the Prof’s reward, but it will also be happening to someone they know, will probably like, and will want to protect given her disability.
- Kendra will be possessed by the good spirits to utter short phrases (e.g. – “Harrowstone”, “Quell The Five”) to the PCs to set the mood and give them some info that might foreshadow other events and/or make sense later. She will have no memory of this and at first deny saying anything. This will foreshadow the possession of Gibs.
- Kendra will accompany AA to Caliphas. Not sure if she will be imprisoned or not. Depends on if I decide to have Kendra receive her calling or not.
- Unknown to the PCs, the whole town is having bad dreams, seeing/hearing things, etc. This is putting them on edge and making them scared and paranoid. The only exception is Kendra who is protected by the spirits trying to contact her, so she will be pleasant to the PCs.
- At the funeral Kendra will ask the mob ”why are you being like this?” If the PCs question Kendra about this, she will relate that the town used to tolerate the presence of the Prof.
- Piper changed to Fiddler of Illmarch to tie in the Fiddler’s Lament module. Grimbald trapped in tomb by a hand axe jammed in the door.
- Prof. buried with journal. When he attacks as a part of Fiddler’s Lament, it will be found. PCs at Kendra’s for dinner, but some sent to store for something.
- At dusk, the PCs will hear someone “practicing” with a violin over a couple of days. They will first hear it at the funeral. This is the Fiddler of Illmarch attempting to possess her.
- Rhyme will be only one child – creepy 7ish old girl. Claims she made it up. Actually Fiddler’s doing. He wants to have all of the children singing when Kendra is killed. PCs might encounter this event again with 2-3 children now singing the rhyme.
- Not Flaming Skulls at Town Hall, but Ectoplasmic ones. This is the Mosswater Marauder’s doing. The skulls will come through the walls into the lanterns and explode them. There will be 4-5 skulls. The skulls in the MM encounter will also be ectoplasmic.
- When prison is cleared the PCs will feel a tension lift of which they were previously unaware.
I luke warm on the rest but undeniably it will give the PCs more skin in the game. I recommend stepping up the letter tempo some - make a letter according to 'speed of plot'. If the characters take no steps to patrol town or prevent the letters going up then they appear faster, as they will also if you feel it increases the tension.
What role does Veriseranna play? And what happens to Kendra IF the name is spelled out? What happens to Kendra with each letter? Does it get worse?
Those are excellent questions and I don't have any good answers, so that tells me to move away from using Kendra as the target in HoH as she will be in peril later in the AP. I also don't want her to be, or seem to be, extremely important to the overall plot, just to the characters themselves. So that also makes my initial idea sub par.
If I want to speed things up, I can do as you suggest or just take the easy way and rename Veriseranna. ;-) I also agree that I shouldn't hold myself hostage to the dice and have events unfold based on what's best for the story.
Thanks for your help to make my game better.
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What im doing is a d2 plus one days so it make it happen sooner and still keeping Veriseranna as Splattermans Target so that makes things go alot faster but still keeps them at a pace that the players can do things
and this is a DM thread so you dont need to spoiler things
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and this is a DM thread so you dont need to spoiler things
Agreed!
However, I'm going to spoiler parts simply because it's long, and I don't think you guys will want to read it all.
Also, I'm too late to start Kendra with the haunts, but I've heavily retooled the AP already to include mythic (and mythos) stuff, with the plan of granting the players 1 mythic rank per book (more or less). Also more or less doing away with actual XP-tracking in this game, as it's too much of a hassle, and the characters have gotten into so much trouble/good stuff so quickly, they'd be over-leveled in no time.
Similarly to the curse, I wasn't really able to smoothly transition into the Well plot above mentioned by Joey.
Because I lack the expansion, wasn't able to transition into the Well thing (the player have, in the course of a week or two, devastated the haunts of Harrowstone, forcing my to speed the timeline up to hit them with any sense of urgency at all... which is actually pretty awesome) to Haunting that others have mentioned, I created my own idea based heavily on that.
These were collected by Petros in his long attempt to gather the necessary components to defeat and thwart the Whispering Way, as well as his journeys to find and "tag" the descendants of the Whispering Tyrant - which all the PCs (very distantly) are, as is Kendra, Riff (one of the deputies) and Count Galdana, and a few others (though Kendra and Count Galdana, being Ustalavian humans, are the closest, genetic descendants); these are all notable for their heterochromalia (one blue eye, one green eye). Adivion Addrissant, despite having heterochromalia, is not a descendant of the Tyrant.
A very young Kendra Lorrimor went against her fathers expressed wishes (by letter) on a recently package of books; she was feeling rebellious and resentful of "losing" Leipidstadt. Petros had always been very careful in his own home; any dangerous artifacts were placed inside the hidden compartment and well-sealed, so even the "dark" books Kendra had read every once in a while were never truly dangerous, just mildly disturbing to a young girl. Thus she ignored her father's warning message, stole the ancient and fascinating-looking book away, and opened the book and began reading in the forest, near a local Woodsman's place.
Unsure of exactly what was happening, but realizing it was terrible, Kendra shut and bound the book and flung it into the Woodsman's well, slamming the doors and fleeing, having been caught in the maddening blasts that slowly devoured her sanity and memories. She was partially affected by an Amnesia affliction, but was otherwise healthy (she was lucky - the book can and likely will destroy the mind of those who peruse it otherwise). While the sudden change somewhat bothered her mother, Mrs. Lorrimor, Kendra mostly seemed fine, was much more obedient and no longer angry about being taken from Leipidstadt, so she wasn't too concerned, and Kendra's mother (Fay Lorrimor) was very, very ill and didn't want to stress Petros even more than she already did.
Unable to act because of the book was closed and bound, and unable to fully form due to Kendra's hasty action, the books presence still poisoned the well and local area, causing the Woodsman to first chain the well, then leave when all the foliage started dying.
Additionally, the mound will produce more (mundane) spring-heeled jacks over time, as they are reincarnated into the material world instead of the first world - drawn by the resonance of the murderers in Harrowstone with the murderous fey. There are steps the PCs can take to prevent this.
In any event, with the mythic dread allip destroyed (and possibly the corrupted water elementals), the long-withheld curses that were aimed at her finally come partially to fruition, though not fully. She gains effects similar to the clouded vision, consumed, haunted, lame, and tongues curses, as the mythic spirit, instead of entirely being destroyed, is partially lodged inside her. Add that to acquiring the effects of the undead bloodline (and losing the benefits of being a divination specialist, although retaining the penalties) and Kendra gains the curses (and is thus more frail in many ways), the characters complete several mythic trials, and Lovecraftian themes are introduced even at the beginning.
It's a long way to go just to add the curses, but I was really trying to add more mythos elements, too, and use all of the presented bestiary in the back, and this works fairly well for accomplishing all those tasks.
(The other unused creatures, including the oozes and other undead, are more or less minion-summons of the final big "bad guy" - a trickster spirit of a minor but cruel criminal who is actually hiding from Vesorianna and gaining power as each of the "five" are defeated. There are reasons this works in our game. I created him whole-cloth.)
The "method" by all this is a minor artifact I created called the "Gate of the Cenotaph". Vrood has come into possession of two - one he used near Harrowstone as part of the ritual to seal the Warden away. He erroneously believed it was consumed in creating the mythic seal he now holds Hawkran's soul within. Instead, it empowered the undead spirits there. The Gates of the Cenotaph are effectively corrupted philosopher stones that have been studded with a number of cracked and flawed ioun stones (with a curse that everything is 10 degrees F cooler around it). They empower necromantic magic, but if broken and used similar to a true philosopher stone (with inflict potions instead) it grants the user permanent mythic power - actual mythic power for those who are of Tar-Baphon's bloodline, but a template for anyone else. These were created originally in ancient Thassilon, though Tar made a few later himself as well.
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What im doing is a d2 plus one days so it make it happen sooner and still keeping Veriseranna as Splattermans Target so that makes things go alot faster but still keeps them at a pace that the players can do things
I'm definitely going to keep her as the target. I hadn't fully considered the ramifications of changing that. I might do the same as you, or I might keep the original randomness (1d4+1 days) and use a shorter name for the Warden's wife. Both bring down the overall time limit, I'm just not sure 1d2+1 would do with the tracking down of Gibs. Once I plot out the other town encounters, it should be evident as to which one will work better. And I can also just change things on the fly as it suits me. :)
and this is a DM thread so you dont need to spoiler things
Thanks. Reading the thread I wasn't sure so I opted for the tags on my first post. I'd rather be told that they weren't needed than spoil something for someone.
-Griffyn
I have a minor question about the Piper of Illmarsh. There seems to be some agreement that this 'hold person' based haunt is too weak, and I wanted to know how/if people balanced it.
I can see this encounter being a real pushover for some parties and difficult for others. I personally will have to up the encounter. My players will most likely have 3 Dispel Undead casters plus a Paladin. Also, three of my players will have a +4 or higher Will save.
The piper can only directly do 1d6 damage *and* that is only once per day (limit on his Hold Person) and only if they fail the first Hold save. The save is fairly low (DC14), the characters get a save every round, and skeletons are mindless undead and would not understand how to coup de grace. In addition, the piper only has 18hp and his flute does 1d6 damage to him per round.
I really comes down to how much of a threat the skeletons pose. The skeletons have to be a serious threat to make the Piper as written a good encounter. I will probably add some stirges to the encounter to downplay the effect of the dispels and boost the threat.
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"Mindless" creatures capable of walking and swinging a sword at the same time--skeletons, for example--are surely capable of tearing a PC's throat out, which is all they need to know to coup de grace.
Adding stirges to the encounter if it's too easy otherwise sounds like a reasonable change. Note that the Piper could easily be a group's second encounter in Harrowstone (immediately after the Headman's Scythe, ouch!) Having his flute beforehand isn't assured.
Yeah, the Piper can be very deadly in the right (or wrong) contexts.
It heavily depends on how he's run, how closely you hew to his tactics, and your party makeup. Anti-undead parties will wreck him (along with much of this Adventure). It also at least slightly depends on how much damage the person playing the flute can take and does take from the flute.
For our group, I beefed him up - not because he wasn't a challenge on his own based on their power when they faced him, but because they're ridiculously good at recruiting NPCs.
(Seriously, "No, you can only convince him to with you on a natural 20." will almost always result in a natural 20, regardless of the dice they use. Almost eerie, but very cool, too.)
As I found out (and as I more or less knew going in), Father Grimburrow will devastate the skeletons in the encounter (he would likely destroy the Piper, too, but I "adjusted" the manifest times so that he wouldn't easily get to him). And, though most groups won't be able to have Grimburrow there, a cleric can more or less do the exact same thing, as skeletons really aren't that powerful v. 1d6 or 2d6 channel.
I had great success making him target weaker will-save creatures, and increasing the number of skeletons to one per room... and adding stirges (from a hole in the roof), and by separating the party on either side of the door to the Headman's Scythe. They won, but were basically exhausted by the one epic encounter (though they had plenty of people, so it wasn't that big). They still explored a little, though and came upon Father Charlatan thereafter. Which, with effort and focus they more or less immediately got rid of.
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I had the skellies just full attack paralyzed people with their claws, instead of taking coup de graces. I had also added more skeletons, and a skull swarm reinforcement (I.e., from the skeletons who were still trapped behind bars), to the piper encounter.
My party, who entered the prison from the scythe's landing, walked right through the piper's area before he could manifest (I'd rolled a 4 on the 1d4 rounds) and fought the stirges at the other side of the floor.
The piper didn't manifest until the sorceress wandered back into his area with a detect magic up - she was looking for anything weird. The weird came for her. She lived, but it was messy.
A couple of things I didn't mention before about the mythic elements, artifacts, curses, and the like - due to hastiness on my part (and ugh, was my grammar and spelling terrible in that post) as well as distractions and forgetfulness.
1) Kendra will also be more or less forced to become the "keeper" of the book (it needs a keeper). I didn't clarify before, but, theoretically, one could gain great power from the book. Practically speaking, however, it's exceedingly dangerous to do so - lots of fortitude and will saves abound. Think a more necromantic (less planes-shattering) Codex of Infinite Planes (though with substantially less power than that book, and more a tendency to corrupt the mind with insanity and weakened mental scores than outright destruction) combined with a vacuous grimoire and a randomized tome of mental ability enhancement. If the book is untended, Very Bad Things (tm) will eventually occur, such as a plague of undead being unleashed. The players, at current time, have nowhere near the ability to destroy the book (and likely won't have the power to peruse it safely - strike that, they don't have the power to peruse it safely, and would need multiple miracles, perhaps literally, to ensure whoever attempts it didn't end up maddened, possibly in several ways, if not dead-by-mythic-allip). If there is interest, I'll re-post my creation thereof.
2) If it wasn't clear, the water elementals are also unholy water (I ad-hoc'd due to the fiendish template). The reason they can't simply undo the book and free the allip is 1) they're completely moronic [INT 4, WIS 5], and 2) the clasp has, unfortunately enough, rusted shut inside the water over the years (a neat bit of irony that, I'm sure, doesn't amuse either the elementals or the allip; also generally fitting Lovecraftian mythos themes for why the Bad Things don't just come and eat us already - minor seemingly mundane thing goes wrong for them, before the heroes or cultists make it work).
3) The mythic dread allip's goals are straightforward, but it's powers are a little more subtle than what is posted there. They have a special ability called "Tyrant's Return" that I created.
If a mythic dread allip created by the Book of Whispered Madness is able to kill the creature that spawned them (the person they are a distorted echo of), they become a corporeal version of that creature with the allip's alignment who is devoted to the cause of restoring the Whispering Tyrant. If this new creature later undergoes the rites to lichdom, they instead transform into a Clone of the Whispering Tyrant, effectively freeing him from his imprisonment, and giving him an additional body, though if this body is killed, he is still trapped as he was before.
Although not noted within the ability above, the allip could also simply dominate (via dominating trample) the WIS-0 body of one of the descendants, effectively killing them and granting the allip the creature's actual body. In fact, I might go with that - regardless of whether or not the allip dominated them before, if they die, the allip inhabits their actual corpse... making it alive again, as the insane undead spirit replaces the once-living spirit. That makes for extra creepiness factor, and again fits Mythos themes of losing yourself to madness and becoming a monster.
Additionally not noted is that the new body acts similarly to a body created by Astral Projection, though the Whispering Tyrant can leave it at any time (leaving the body insensate). If multiple creatures succumb to this curse, the Tyrant may well gain multiple bodies, so that even if he is destroyed upon being unleashed again, he could just pop up again. This would make it seem that his phylactery is working properly, and may send the forces of good on a hopeless (and doomed) quest (taking their efforts away from fighting him personally).
4) The Gate of the Cenotaph is how the players are expected to gain their more permanent mythic status. The required minimum ranks in craft (alchemy) are halved (5 instead of 10), but the DC is increased by 5. Unlike normal philosopher's stones, this has multiple "doses" that can be crafted from it (2d12, x2 on a natural 20), but each use after the first only counts as the completion of a minor mythic trial, and can only count once per tier. (In other words, they can't abuse it to just chug and gain tiers - the multiple doses are to cover accidents due to failed dice rolls and cover multiple PCs with one Gate of the Cenotaph). When the inflict potion is used, it affects the drinker as if by the inflict wounds spell it was a potion of, but also gives them 1d2 negative levels that last for 1d10 days and can't be removed earlier.
5) The PC with the Talisman of Reluctant Wishes/Monkey Paw artifact rolled a natural 20 on her secret charisma check, and now can't be rid of the thing. Heh. The player's terrified of it, but has incorporated it as a (rather gauche) part of her ensemble by tying it to a belt of hers. Heh. I wonder if she'll ever learn the truth about it.
Its just to give the players background into the town and prison so it can be skipped if you want
Just describe it to them that's all im going to do with it
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I have a question about the Skipping Song encounter, Event #2. Does anyone have any advice about how to act that out? My acting ability is... sub-par, and I'm worried that simply reading the poem at the table will be less spooky and more silly.
<snip>I found a youtube video of the skipping song. I could just describe the scenario and pull that up. I'm worried enough about proper presentation that I'm considering pulling that encounter altogether. Thoughts?EDIT:
I should also mention that I've eliminated using trust points altogether--too much balancing and bookkeeping. Without the trust reward, I also think that the encounter kind of feels... pointless? The PCs don't really have any meaningful impact on the encounter, or effect the outcome at all, it's just me reading at them. Am I being too overbearing/worried about it?
If you're not using the Trust mechanic, than mechanically, Joey is right. If, on the other hand, you aren't using the Trust mechanic as a number, but instead a vague inspiration, their befriending (or otherwise) of the girls in question could still be a valuable point of "gaining trust" in the game anyway.
At the meeting, later, say, have one of the girls (who's not supposed to be out because it's past her bedtime, or something) speak up for the PCs who befriended her (or not, or maybe even against them, depending). You could use each of the girls as a one-use good/bad modifier on social interactions around town or something else. Maybe have them be a kind of contact for the PCs.
The real trick with Carrion Crown is atmosphere and immersion, so on that note...
What did you guys do to establish atmosphere and tone at the table, for this (and other spooky events)? Aside from music, I mean. I'd love to use the soundtrack like the editors recommended, but I have enough on my plate already.
... I honestly haven't been terribly consistent at this part.
That said, mood lighting (so long as you can still read! Perhaps a pitch-black rest of the house, even if the table is well-lit...), somber tones, and careful description of unpleasant/spooky local events.
- PCs catch glimpses of themselves hanging out of the corner of their eyes
- a PC wakes up with blood dripping on them, but then it's gone... except of course for the stain on their lips
- randomly generate haunts via the random encounter tables at the bestiary at the end of Haunting of Harrowstone, only re-fluff some of them, if it seems like they might get too stale
- add subtle unsettling elements to the "large scale encounters" (such as noting the PCs hear the flaming skulls or burning skeletons or ectoplasmic creatures crying and pleading for help as they're burned alive or choking to death from smoke inhalation)
- play up how odd things are, and tell PCs (often) that they "just don't know" or "something is strange about this one - not normal"
- note that some part of their character is unnerved or has an emotional reaction; an important note if you do this, though: be quick to point out that they are not under a compulsion nor are taking penalties of any sort... you are only describing a partial and sub-conscious emotional reaction, and allow the PCs to choose to handle it or even otherwise feel (emotionally) however they like. Describing their primal and instinctive emotions this way is akin to noting what they see and how their body feels after a long day of work, but with less mechanical elements. Also, you know, don't necessarily mess with a Player's concept just to do it.
In fact, IF AND ONLY IF your group is the kind of group that's okay with this sort of thing, if one player insists that their character is fearless (and thus wouldn't have any emotional reaction of being unnerved), while another plays a more responsive emotional role, you could use this to create a mechanical advantage for the fearful one. The responsive one might get bonuses to their perception/knowledge/whatever checks to notice/interact with/whatever haunts/undead/unnatural things and the like, while the fearless one might get penalties, because "they can't feel it" or something.
Anyway, those are just a few ideas.
You can also grab my playlist if you like. I especially enjoyed playing "Hannibal" whenever we were dealing with the splatterman (there was an alchemist who had his book... she was constantly being talked-to by him in Hannibal's voice.)
Hope that helps! God bless you, and enjoy!
"Mindless" creatures capable of walking and swinging a sword at the same time--skeletons, for example--are surely capable of tearing a PC's throat out, which is all they need to know to coup de grace.
I disagree. Sure they are capable of tearing a throat out, but they would need a level of intelligence to understand that the player isn't moving due to an external force *and* know that attacking the throat is a vital location. So that goes against the mindless designation.
Adding stirges to the encounter if it's too easy otherwise sounds like a reasonable change. Note that the Piper could easily be a group's second encounter in Harrowstone (immediately after the Headman's Scythe, ouch!) Having his flute beforehand isn't assured.
Good point. I'll have to keep that in mind. Seems that many players have entered via that route.
Is it possible to add ANOTHER haunt to the piper, which simply spams a skeleton, much like the Marshwater Maurader's flying skulls? Can a haunt function as a monster-spamming trap that resets, like other haunts? That way it'd be less like a chore if they decided to tackle it piecemeal, and give a bit more challenge. I can always hand-waive extra skeletons being generated, but it'd be nice if I had rules to explain where they're coming from.
Maybe changing the skeletons to ectoplasmic creatures would be the way to go. You could add them as needed and would necessarily need to have a bag of bones for each one.
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Ectoplasmic skeletons! There's a template somewhere that you can apply to a normal skeleton. Then get rid of their skeleton DR to balance things out. Then the haunt is spawning skeletons from ghost goo, rather than random bone piles.
The ectoplasmic template is in the back of HoH (p86). Ectos get their own DR (DR 5/Slashing). I know that there was some discussion near the beginning of this thread about some issues with the printed template or how it was applied to the sample creature, so check that out.
It was updated in Bestiary 4
I disagree. Sure they are capable of tearing a throat out, but they would need a level of intelligence to understand that the player isn't moving due to an external force *and* know that attacking the throat is a vital location. So that goes against the mindless designation.
For someone who says you’re going to have to increase the difficulty of this encounter, you’re strangely resistant to ideas that would increase the difficulty of the encounter.
But hey, who doesn’t like a good argument? Mindless undead lack an intelligence score; intelligence is a creature’s ability to “learn and reason”, as the rules state. So they can’t pick up new behaviors, they can’t make deductions, they can’t master complex behaviors. No feats, no skills.
However, they do have a wisdom score. Wisdom is a measure of a creature’s “willpower, common sense, awareness, and intuition”. Perception keys off wisdom, as does Heal. Knowing something is alive and helpless, not dead? That's wisdom. Knowing how to kill a helpless creature is simple enough to be common sense, intuition or instinct. Since skeletons possess “an evil cunning” according to their Bestiary entry, denying them the ability to make a coup de grace is hard to support.
Even if your average animated skeleton is that clueless in the absense of an animator to give it commands, the ones in the cell block have been animated by the spirits of dead prisoners, which presumably can direct them as they please.
Personally, I think having a skeleton attempt a coup de grace on one of the Piper’s victims makes for a much more compelling and dramatic moment than just going for a double claw attack. When the GM announces what it’s trying to do (“the murderer’s bony remains grab on to your paralyzed friend, skeletal claws scrabbling for her exposed throat to deliver a coup de gras!”), the party will groan. The action provokes, so they can make attacks of opportunity to kill the attacker and so rescue their friend. If that fails, 6-12 points of damage and a DC 16-22 fortitude save could be survivable at 1st or 2nd level.
The important thing here is that your party learns to be afraid of being helpless, afraid of haunts, and afraid of this adventure path.
Your interpretation isn’t indefensible, but to me it looks like the less dramatic one.
Quick Question on the Lopper
So on his touch attack its does a D6 negative energy and a D6 Bleed Damage or just one total D6 of Bleed
1d6 negative energy and starts a 1d6 bleed (which ticks at the start of the victim's turn).