I pronounce it as Undeeohmehdeh, but it could also be like unDiomede(s) from Greek mythology.
A few notes on realism:
When using the submersible it should be stopped every 3-5 feet on the way down to pump more air in, if both cannot be done simultaneously. If it is lowered to 400 feet in one go the air should be about 1/15th the size or so (not taking into account getting the correct mix of oxygen and nitrogen).
The deep water should probably take cold instead of pressure damage, but that's an easy switch of damage type while there. Perhaps changing to allow endure elements prevent such damage instead of freedom of movement.
Re plot:
Besides solving the disappearances, is there any reason for the PCs to continue exploring the caves after they get a hold of the Raven's Head? Should they not witness the Dark Young appear, then they might be well on their way back when it happens, which should make an interesting cause of events.
Also, given that the Illmarsh citizens are a generally despicable lot my players suggested burning down the town to drive the citizens away from their current fostering practice. Which might be for the better. :)
My players and I are having a great time though, but they are struggling a bit with finding a reason to stay further now that they've found the mace.
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RE plot:
After reading the adventure ahead of time I anticipated the problem of the Raven's Head being the end of their adventure. So I invented a series of circumstances that led the party's smarties to realize that the fabric of reality was breaking down. The adventure does establish that the Watcher in the Bay is the manifestations of ShubNiggurath entering Golarion; in essence, at the moment they retrieve the Raven's Head (or a little before), you can begin having other horrifying things occur that lead them to realize that something terrible is going to happen if they don't try to stop it. Something they cannot escape.
I had some of my PCs make a Perception check to notice that they were being watched. All of them made the DC to notice they were being watched. One of them made the DC to notice that the entire wall behind them had turned into a single, glaring, alien eyeball staring hatefully at them. When he saw it, he freaked and pointed it out and the rest saw it. Then it closed and they saw a wall again.
Other things happened, like seaweed that was hanging from the ceiling beginning to writhe and ooze to the ground like caramel. Or cold winds from outer space blowing through an underwater cavern where they shouldn't be. Or odd sounds and echoes that didn't make sense.
All were precursor signs to the fact that SN was about to be called forth and unleashed, so they made a desperate run to the source of the screams they were hearing (the Rider's) and found him there...and thus began the end encounter.
My party debated killing everyone in Illmarsh, too, but they weren't a totally evil party. The job was done for them anyway; I ruled that all of the townsfolk saw SN as she rose from the Bay and approached Illmarsh, but was "defeated" before she reached the shore. When the PCs got back above, Horace could not remember anything he had seen (his sanity forced him to block it all out), but most of the rest of the Illmarshers were not as lucky. Some people had torn their eyes out, or tongues, bashed their brains out, murdered one another, run off screaming into the marshes, or were babbling incoherently. Illmarsh was effectively decimated, but the PCs got what they wanted. (It wasn't a downer for this party, because they kinda wanted the Illmarshers to suffer for their generations of Fostering.)
Great post, thanks! I'll be trying the method you used (although screams might drive them away so I might tone down that a bit).
My party didn't want to kill the townspeople, just drive them away from the place. They're more selfish and self preserving than outright evil.
Sorry, double post.
Did anyone else's players set out to destroy the Raven's Head? How did you deal with that? (Other than the as written destroyed if used to create a lich) The obvious attempt would be to try to find something incredibly hot like an active volcano or similar and try to melt it.
My players wouldn't even think of bringing it closer to WW given that from what they know, it is a part of the Carrion Crown formula. If they can't destroy it they are likely to try and take it as far away from WW as possible, or hand it over to a group that are strong and very much against the WW.
I had mine contemplate destroying it, but I had the person who made the history or religion checks know that trying to destroy it would likely end very badly for them. Ala high magic backlash. It also helped that one of them was partial to Pharasma and couldn't bear to have it destroyed.
They are also very paranoid and wouldn't give the mace to anyone. They did think about leaving it but decided that the WW would just come in behind them and take it. So they think its safest with them in a bag of holding but are very worried that it could still turn up missing. It's great fun to play on their paranoia. Particularly when Barliss in the next book indicated he knew they had it.
As with most things, artifact level stuff like the Raven's Head requires ritual magic (many magicians with similar paradigms working in tandem) to raise their caster level to a point that would successfully destroy the artifact. Since those often requires such an expenditure of resources by the party and a departure from the story itself, I find the players often find more sensible solutions to their problems. My players debated handing it over to the Choir in Caliphas (truth be told, they were going to extort them for hundreds of thousands in gold, which they would have gotten), but instead relied upon their strength and decided to carry it into battle against the undead with them. I cheered inwardly, even knowing that they were doomed to face a bazillion haunts.
Thanks for the replies.
My players debated selling it to WW for 120k gp (phylactery cost), sell it to someone who wanted to become a lich, or throw it in a Golarion equivalent of Mount Doom.
After much discussin of what was possible we ended up with the following solution: Use a scroll of polymorph any object to change it to a sledgehammer (similar size and materials), but not letting the duration be permanent. I did allow multiple castings to extend the 1 week duration however, so they spent about 12k gp on four scrolls (teleport to Absalom: Magic shop #1^^) so it would last about a month. Then they bought about a dozen similar sledges and hid them around Absalom and one of my players hid about half on various ships heading to far away places.
It should make it nigh impossible for the WW to find it in due time, and my players had a lot of fun hiding the sledges taking care to not know which was the real mace.
Probably not RAW, but definitely fun and a solution my players and I were happy with.
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Am I blind, or are there no traps in this entire book? My Rogue player is gonna have to get some new hobbies, apparently.
I'll find places to add some in, but this is a pretty frustrating adventure design choice. I get that some people don't like the usual trap mechanics, but the solution ought to be to write interesting traps, not to take them out completely.
@Trinite. You know, I never noticed that. My group doesn't have any full rogues, just a bard and a witch who multiclassed some rogue so they weren't totally useless in the trap department. I personally thought it was fine since there was so much else going on, (but again, I didn't have a trap-centric rogue either to work with), and many of the locations didn't necessarily make sense to have traps. The tunnels were likely not trapped due to the hidden gate to get inside them, the house because it was abandoned and so forth. But I could see where people could easily add a few traps here and there to tailor to their party.
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Not a bad idea. However, if your party finds the Helmet of Underwater Action just prior to that, there's a strong chance that one of them will want to stay outside of the submersible during its descent. That's what happened in my game, and so that led to an actual fight with the devilfish.
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The church fight was pretty gnarly for my players, because I threw EVERYTHING at them. That area is pretty small, and the cultists' tactics are to come running if they suspect trouble. If fighting breaks out in the church, they're all going to hear it and respond.
It wasn't TERRIBLY difficult, but it was exhausting and draining for them since they had to deal with so many enemies at once... In a good way. :)
My first game with WotW will start at the end of the month. I'm planning to add an additional enemy (a "food vendor" that works with the stable guy) to the assassin encounter in order to allow the stable owner the necessary three rounds of watching and some distraction to the party members not involved in the wagon fixing. I would use the paralyzing aspect of the assassin's strike, rather than death, because save-or-die one shots are annoying. This way it will require two actions to kill the player (paralyze then coup de grace).
I was thinking on the sanity issues and while I like the idea of breaking reality... I worry my party will not understand. Two of my players will get all confused and then ask to start rolling knowledge and perception and asking me to describe what they see. Over and over again. Then the other players will roll their eyes, collectively, and a fight will start between them all.
I'll read through other WotW references on the forums to get good ideas. Overall, I like how this book seems to move more quickly than previous ones. I'm also interested in what my characters are going to do about the villagers and their odd practices. I don't think burning the town down will come up, but likewise they aren't going to think too kindly on the actions of the townsfolk.
I was thinking on the sanity issues and while I like the idea of breaking reality... I worry my party will not understand. Two of my players will get all confused and then ask to start rolling knowledge and perception and asking me to describe what they see. Over and over again. Then the other players will roll their eyes, collectively, and a fight will start between them all.
The solution might be to sit your players down and tell them about the mechanic. Get their opinion. Tell them this is a thing and they'll be less confused.
Remember it is an optional rule though. While it was 100% fun and useful for my group there is zero guarantee it will be for yours.
Wouldn't the Spawning Canker that pops out of the High Priest be an incredibly difficult foe? It is technically inhabiting a body wearing magic vestment enhanced chain mail, a ring of force shield, and a casting of shield of faith.
Even taking into account armor check penalties (the canker is non-proficient, so suffers the penalty on attack rolls as well), max dex limits, and even being generous enough to say that just because it is the same body it isn't the same creature so the shield of faith doesn't apply, you end up with an AC of 30, 7 points above the bestiary entry. At only a -4 to a quite good attack spread. Its also int 7, which means it can easily use the ring of force shield (to say nothing of possibly understanding all of the host body's gear by virtue of being wrapped around his brain.)
My wonderfully honest players brought this up when an attack that previous didnt hit the AC 25 cleric hit the AC 23 standard canker. In all fairness, I couldn't not adjust the stats to account for the worn armor and such.
Anyone else have thoughts or comments? I think it extends past this example: bodaks, ghuls, morghs, all of these can create a new creature out of one that might be wearing armor or having spell effects running. What happens in those cases?
Yeah, I think I'll explain to my party a bit about the insanity stuff. I just don't know how I should handle questions like "can I study this?" and "what do I roll to learn if I'm crazy and if what I'm seeing is real or fake?"
A good point about the priest. I can see the head-exploding situation could also damage the armor's straps enough that it falls off his shoulders (yeah... that's the ticket... sure... and if the players comment on how that is unlikely, I can ask if they'd rather the creature keep the armor on). The spells cast by the high priest should drop when his head blows up. Again, not exactly normal (buffs don't drop when the caster dies) but, uhm, yeah. We can pretend! The ring though; yeah, the canker can certainly use it.
I actually ran the canker as having a 30+ AC. Your PCs are like 10th level at point; they'll manage.
Yeah, I think I'll explain to my party a bit about the insanity stuff. I just don't know how I should handle questions like "can I study this?" and "what do I roll to learn if I'm crazy and if what I'm seeing is real or fake?"
Two easy ways to deal with this.
Question: "can I study this?"
Answer: "Yes you may. After you roll initiative. Or I can just let it eat you now."
The sanity-blasting items that the PCs can study are obviously things they can study. They're carvings or items or just sitting there against the wall. The ones that they can't study will try to eat their faces if they try. Or worse.
Question: "what do I roll to learn if I'm crazy and if what I'm seeing is real or fake?"
Two part answer.
Answer: "The heal skill and no."
Heal probably works. Or a wisdom check. And no. Or you want to feel mean you can tell them to roll to disbelieve (will save if they ask further) and no matter what they roll you just give them a deadpanned look and say "it's real" and ignore protests.
Yeah, I think that I will need to explain some stuff up front and then just laugh at requests to see if their character is crazy ("do you think crazy people think they are crazy?")
As for the thread's earlier comments about "why insanity now? we see crazy stuff all the time". It is important to note that what the players see here isn't normal crazy. It is manifestation of things from Outside pushing their way in. The purely visual effect is but part of what their brain is doing to try and fit understanding to something that lacks a normal analog in this reality.
The madness and insanity is bleed-over from your brain failing to handle the sensory and information overload from these extra-dimensional issues. This is much in line with the reason that seeing Cthulu drives investigators mad; it is not just that he's a monster in a world of science, but his presence is so heavy and crushing that the brain snaps trying to encompass it all.
There is so much more to Cthulu than what our three dimensions/five senses can manage that the energy overspill just smashes the brain to jelly.
Likewise here, it isn't just that the tentacles coming out of the priests head is weird; sure it is but so is that nasty singing spider lady from the start of book 3. It is that the players are hit with some reality-incursion from the power behind the monster; some bleed-over of energy that hits with a psychic punch to the brain.
Or at least that is how I'll be explaining it.
Had our first game of WotW and it went rather well for the players.
They started by splitting the party (siiiigh). Druid and Wizard went to Lepidstadt to do shopping and crafting while the rest of the party (inquisitor, bard, monk, and druid's cat companion) traveled south to Thrushmoor. As they had 2 days to kill, the Thrushmoor group decided to poke around town and learn what they could.
For some reason, they got it into their head that they would go interrogate the mayor instead of actually following the leads involving the stable (ok, the monk suggested going to the stables by himself while others hit taverns or docks; I conveniently didn't hear him). They intimidate their way past the mercenaries and interrupted the mayor of Thrushmoor while he was busy. I got to play a very angry NPC that didn't care a damn about the PCs and their 'quest' and the 'great evil' and how dare they barge into his office anyway!
Then the players cast charm person. He passed his save. He screamed for guards. Previously intimidated guard captain comes in with 15 men as back up (intimidate may make the current encounter easier, but it will definitely hurt the next one). The players are arrested because the inquisitor of Saranae decides his goddess may not enjoy wanton murdering of mercenaries doing their job (good choice, that).
Stablemaster/Assassin bribes the prison guard to get the players out, leads them to his stable, and plays as if he has information for them about the WW (which, technically, he does). As he leads them past the wagon, he attacks the inquisitor (who passes his surprise attack save-or-die check) and the ghouls jump out. The three players + cat companion survive the fight without issue (sigh).
The players go to Illmarsh, meet with people, talk to the mayor, and invade the Temple. The bard manages to fascinate/suggest that two of the cultists go get lunch (we'll call them the lucky ones). It turns into an all-out brawl with 10 cultists (there are 5 PCs, so I gave them a bit more to kill), Caleb, and the Chuul.
The monk grapples, pins, and ties up Caleb before I can cast a single spell. I need to figure out something to do about this tactic. The minions are of little real use against the party. The Chuul however... He dimension doors in behind the wizard and grapples him (I allow him to act after DD given that it is a sanctum guardian special ability) easily. Cultists then sneak attack the wizard and get him down to 7 HP. The wizard (a conjurer) DDs out of the grapple, so the Chuul decides to go deal with the inquisitor, DDing over and grappling him.
Then the Hasted Fiendish Dire Tiger-shaped Druid with a Holy AMF pounces on the chuul. He does 6 attacks, all hit, each doing 4d6 + 9 or so. He does something around 100 damage in the pounce, all of which counts as good. The Chuul explodes into fragments of lobster shell and GM's tears.
Then they kill everyone else, question Caleb, smash the slugs without figuring out what they are, find Caleb dead from an unlikely event involving an exploding stone altar, and tell the mayor that they did what he wanted before getting out of Dodge.
So far a lot of fun! The players really enjoyed the large brawl and actually felt true fear when the Chuul popped in behind enemy lines to eat a wizard. I guess "don't give the druid clear line to charge" is another item of the list of tactical considerations if I want fights to last more than 2 rounds.
Also - Why did I suggest the Druid get a Holy AMF? That was a bad idea. The monk also is looking to get his Flaming AMF upgraded to Holy (allowing him to do 8d6 + 8 per elemental fist punch, which he gets quite a few times a day). Poor evil creatures aren't going to do so well in the future.
Now that's a good idea... thanks!
My players took a full game session to complete the manse (aka This Old House). I decided to mix things up a bit and introduce a modified insanity mechanic.
Whenever the players entered the house or moved between rooms, there was a secret d20 roll. Based on the results, they may hop between various points in the house's history. Each hop caused a point of sanity damage. It confused some of them quite a bit (the wizard player was dumbfounded by the situation and kept trying to detect magic to no effect). When creatures or events popped up, I had the players roll openly.
I described it as a headache that got worse and worse. At 5 points, they were at -1 mental stuff (skills, will saves); at 7 they would fall down, at 10 it will be -2, 5 damage, and staggered for a turn. At 15 who knows... we'll see how far it goes.
This let me show things such as the first meeting with the skum (a cloaked definitely-not-human creature), the medallion they needed to find for the phase door, and such things. Also made some combats a bit rough as they occur with less than a full party.
I came close to killing both the wizard and inquisitor with the tick swarm. It was the most dangerous encounter in the entire Carrion Crown game thus far. The fight against the Vizier was trivial; the bard succeeded in blinding him and then the other characters beat the crap out of him (after dispelling his blade barrier). Didn't get a single Harm or Slay Living spell, sigh.
Word of warning: Figure out a way to have the fight against the Vizier somewhere other than a 3x3 square room; it doesn't give you much chance to do anything interesting before melee characters corner them and prevent all spell casting.
The slugspawn canker was entirely ineffectual and the players were in no way concerned or surprised by it. They had figured out something horrible was blowing up the heads of people from inside after finding the bodies in the temple.
The Shantak was cool but taken down by a pouncing flying dire tiger-shaped druid. I'd recommend combining this guy with the hounds of tindalos fight to make things vaguely difficult for a party.
Next session determines if my players remember that there's a baby in the house somewhere or if they forget about it and the baby dies of exposure (awkward). They managed to kill the vicar in the stair way (or rather the druid-as-air-elemental popped into the stairway and turned into a literal whirlwind of death).
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I've been meaning to post this for a while, but kept forgetting to.
In keeping with the scale of the threat posed by the Dark Young and Shubby's attempt to break through, back when I ran that encounter I decided to also use it for messing with the mythic rules.
I wrote this up back on December 10, 2012; the mythic playtest rules have changed a bit since then.
Advanced Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath /Mythic Tier 6 CR 15
Mythic Power – 6 times (1d8)
XP 51,200
CE Huge aberration
Init +29 (dual initiative); Senses darkvision 60 ft., tremorsense 30 ft.; Perception +23
Aura frightful presence (30 ft., DC 26)
DEFENSE
AC 37, touch 13, flat-footed 26 (+5 Dex, +24 natural, –2 size)
hp 286 (14d8+126 +48) x2 boss = 572
Fort +16, Ref +14, Will +18
DR 15/slashing, 10/epic; Immune acid, electricity, fire, poison
OFFENSE
Speed 60 ft.
Melee 4 tentacles +23 (1d8+14/19–20 plus grab) PA - +20 1d8+23
Space 15 ft.; Reach 15 ft.
Special Attacks constrict (1d8+14), sucking maws, trample (1d8+21, DC 29)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 12th; concentration +21)
Constant—freedom of movement
At will—air walk, tree shape
3/day— quickened entangle (DC 19), command plants (DC 22)
1/day—insanity (DC 25), tree stride
STATISTICS
Str 38, Dex 21, Con 28, Int 20, Wis 23, Cha 27
Base Atk +10; CMB +26 (+30 grapple); CMD 41 (can’t be tripped)
Feats Combat Reflexes, Improved Critical (tentacles), Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Power Attack, Vital Strike, Weapon Focus (tentacles)
Skills Diplomacy +21, Knowledge (arcana) +19, Knowledge (nature) +19, Knowledge (religion) +19, Intimidate +29, Perception +23, Sense Motive +20, Spellcraft +22, Stealth +14 (+22 in forests); Racial Modifiers +8 Stealth in forests,
Languages Aklo, True Speech
Mythic Feats – Mythic Power Attack, Mythic Combat Reflexes, Mythic Vital Strike (+20 2d8+46);
Mythic Abilities
Dual-initiative - +20 init, get second term at 20 points lower
Spawn Adds - 1d3 Corrupted Treants w/ +2 HP her hit die –; swift action that takes mythic power
Divine Wrath – Can cast Heal, Divine Power, Righteous Might, each 1/day; these spells are quickened.
Comptetant Caster – it auto-passes concentration checks to use any spell or spell-likea ability other than Heal
Swift Casting – can expend mythic power to cast anything but heal as a swift action
JUICES! - the Dark Young recovers 8d8+24 when it drains strength
Kick-ass at Grappling – can still move and act normally while tentacles are occupied with victims; maintaining grapples is a free action instead of a standard action.
As the Dark Young came forth from the corpse of the Dark Young, the party could feel massive energy being dumped into the creature, which spawned minions, buffed up, and then beat the tar out of the party for one very, very rough round.
At the bottom of the round the party felt time come to a stand still as they noticed a purple butterfly somehow inside the dome with them. A familiar voice commented "She's cheating again. She should've learned by now that I'm better at it than she is. Would you like some help?"
After a resounding "YES" I handed out the following...
Heirophant Tier 3 – relevant abilities
Hard to Kill - +12 bonus HP, auto stabilize at 0, add Con again to death threshold
Mythic power – Wisdom – 11/day – 1d6
Mythic Flaw – Material Weakness – Cold Iron
Stat - +2 wisdom
Amazing Initiative (+20 init; can spend use of mythic power to get second turn)
Mythic Feat (s) – Mythic Paragon – you’re treated as tier 5 for feats, abilities, etc.;
Mythic Spells – you gain additional 5 mythic spells
Mythic Spell(s) – Bless (+1 morale to attack, saves, damages, and everyone can reroll a d20 roll once during the duration); Divine Favor (gain luck bonus to saves, or can cast it as a touch range spell on other people); Dimension Door (creates a portal for 5 rounds; you designate who can go through it; normal Dim Door rules still apply once people step through); Cure Critical Wounds (8d8+22 healing, cures 4 ability damage); Cure Moderate Wounds (4d8+20 healing, cures 2 ability damage); Cure Serious Wounds (6d8+20 healing, cures 3 ability damage))
Divine Surge – Recalled Blessing – can use mythic power to cast any spell you’ve prepared (even if you’ve already cast it); if the spells heals damage or cure conditions, roll twice and take the better result; if the spell requires a save, nonmythic enemies roll twice and take the worst.
Mythic Path Abilities:
Faith’s Reach – all touch range spells now have a range of 30 feat.
Sacred Boons – add 2 times mythic tier (10) to level to determine strength of domain powers; 1/day may spend a use of mythic power to recharge all domain powers
Sustained by Faith – Can substitute an hour of mediation for 24 hours worth of food, water, and sleep. Can combine that with getting spells. 1/day may spend a use of mythic power to recover hit points and spells as though having rested 8 hours.
For Leda
Archmage Tier 3 – relevant abilities
Hard to Kill - +9 bonus HP, auto stabilize at 0, add Con again to death threshold
Mythic power – Intelligence – 13/day – 1d6
Mythic Flaw – “Weapon” Weakness – Tentacles
Stat - +2 Intelligence
Amazing Initiative (+20 init; can spend use of mythic power to get second turn)
Mythic Feat (s) – Mythic Paragon – you’re treated as tier 5 for feats, abilities, etc.;
Mythic Spells – you gain additional 5 mythic spells
Mythic Spell(s) – Fireball – your fireball deals 10d10 damage and inflicts 2d6 burning; Dispel Magic – can knock out two spells and you heal xd4 damage; Mage Armor - +6 armor bonus and 50% fortification; Magic Missile – each missile deals 2d4+1; Scorching Ray – each rays 6d6 fire damage; Dimension Door (creates a portal for 5 rounds; you designate who can go through it; normal Dim Door rules still apply once people step through)
Archmage Arcana – Arcane Surge – can use mythic power to cast any spell you know; nonmythic enemies roll twice and take worst on save; you roll twice and take best vs SR
Mythic Path Abilities:
Competant Caster – you automatically pass concentration checks to cast 4th level or lower spells
Abundant Power – +3 targets to spells that affect multiple targets; can use mythic power to change single-targets spells to effect two targets
Endless Power – You have unlimited use of 1st level spells.
For Kendra
Archmage Tier 3 – relevant abilities
Hard to Kill - +9 bonus HP, auto stabilize at 0, add Con again to death threshold
Mythic power – Intelligence – 12/day – 1d6
Mythic Flaw – School Aversion – Necromancy
Stat - +2 Intelligence
Amazing Initiative (+20 init; can spend use of mythic power to get second turn)
Mythic Feat (s) – Marked for Glory – +1 mythic power;
Mythic Spells – you gain additional 3 mythic spells
Mythic Spell(s) – Suggestion – burst 10ft, works on anything; Dispel Magic – can knock out two spells and you heal xd4 damage; Mage Armor - +6 armor bonus and 50% fortification; Invisibility (can’t be seen by 2nd level or lower effects; for +2 mythic power also invisible to blindsense, etc.)
Archmage Arcana – Wild Arcana – can use mythic power to cast any spell on the wizard spell list with +2 caster level, up to 5th level.
Mythic Path Abilities:
Competant Caster – you automatically pass concentration checks to cast 4th level or lower spells
Abundant Power – +3 targets to spells that affect multiple targets; can use mythic power to change single-targets spells to effect two targets
Component Power – Ignore component costs of 300 gp or lower.
For Oz!
Guardian Tier 3 – relevant abilities
Hard to Kill - +15 bonus HP, auto stabilize at 0, add Con again to death threshold
Mythic power – Strength – 11/day – 1d6
Mythic Flaw – Material Weakness – Wood
Stat - +2 Strength
Amazing Initiative (+20 init; can spend use of mythic power to get second turn)
Mythic Feat (s) – Mythic (Power Attack) – gain +3 damage when power attacking; Mythic Paragon (treated as 2 tiers higher for most effects) ---
Guardian’s Call – Sudden Block – immediate action; spend 1 mythic power; enemy meele attack must be rolled twice and take the worst and you gain +5 AC against this attack. After the enemy attack is resolved, you may make a counterattack that beats epic DR.
Mythic Path Abilities:
Ally Defense – immediate action; an attack against an adjacent ally must roll twice and take the worst; ally gains +5 insight to AC until start of their next turn
Additional Call – Absorb blow - immediate action – spend 1 mythic power; take up to 50 less damage from an attack and gain up to DR 10/Epic and Energy Resist 25 (fire, acid, sonic, electricity, cold) for 1 minute (gain 5 points for every 10 prevented)
Cage Enemy – Enemies you charge and hit cannot move for 1 round. You can take an attack of opportunity on enemies who 5ft step or otherwise to stop their movement.
For Aelthy!
Champion Tier 3 – relevant abilities
Hard to Kill - +15 bonus HP, auto stabilize at 0, add Con twice to death threshold
Mythic power – Dexterity – 15/day – 1d6
Mythic Flaw – Furious Rage – begin raging if critted, losing 2 to AC
Stat - +2 Dexterity
Amazing Initiative (+20 init; can spend use of mythic power to get second turn)
Mythic Feat (s) – Mythic Weapon Finesse (substitute Dex for Strength for damage rolls) ; Dual Focus (add str mod to Mythic Power uses)---
Champion’s Strike – Sudden Attack – Swift action; spend 1 mythic power, gain an extra attack at top attack bonus; this attack rolls twice and takes best and beats all DR.
Mythic Path Abilities:
Always a Chance – Natural 1s are not necessarily misses. Treat 1s as simply 1s.
Precision – reduce the penalty on iterative attacks by 5 points.
To the Death – When below 0, while still staggered, you can keep fighting and don’t take damage from taking additional damage. You’re not down until you’re actually killed.
For Gibs!
Champion Tier 3 – relevant abilities
Hard to Kill - +15 bonus HP, auto stabilize at 0, add Con twice to death threshold
Mythic power – Strength – 11/day – 1d6
Mythic Flaw – Furious Rage – begin raging if critted, losing 2 to AC
Stat - +2 Strength
Amazing Initiative (+20 init; can spend use of mythic power to get second turn)
Mythic Feat (s) – Mythic Power Attack (+3 to Power Attack damage) ; Dual Path (Guardian)
Champion’s Strike – Fleet Charge – Swift action; spend 1 mythic power, can move up to speed and take a melee tattack that ignores DR.
Guardian’s Call - Absorb blow - immediate action – spend 1 mythic power; take up to 30 less damage from an attack and gain up to DR 15/Epic and Energy Resist 15 (fire, acid, sonic, electricity, cold) for 1 minute (gain 5 points for every 10 prevented)
Mythic Path Abilities:
Ally Defense – immediate action; an attack against an adjacent ally must roll twice and take the worst; ally gains +5 insight to AC until start of their next turn
Precision – reduce the penalty on iterative attacks by 5 points.
To the Death – When below 0, while still staggered, you can keep fighting and don’t take damage from taking additional damage. You’re not down until you’re actually killed.
For Cael!
Trickster Tier 3 – relevant abilities
Hard to Kill - +12 bonus HP, auto stabilize at 0, add Con twice to death threshold
Mythic power – Intelligence – 16/day – 1d6
Mythic Flaw – Dependency - Alcohol
Stat - +2 Intelligence
Amazing Initiative (+20 init; can spend use of mythic power to get second turn)
Mythic Feat (s) – Mythic Rapid Shot (can do normal rapid shot with no penalties, or take the -2 and gain an additional bonus attack) ; Dual Focus (Dexterity)
Trickster Attack – Deadly Throw – spend 1 mythic power; make a swift action ranged thrown item attack; roll twice and take better with +3 insight on attack roll; misses still land adjacent to target
Mythic Path Abilities:
Assured Drinker – gain +6 insight bonus to attacks caused by using extracts or potions. Can spend 1 mythic power to use a potion or extract as a swift action.
Fickle Attack – when you roll 1s on your damage, you can reroll them once.
Of course I’ve got more – 1/day, can spend a use of mythic power to recover all bombs.
The above were all printed handouts I'd prepared for the individual characters that did most of the mythic math ahead of time. That made it pretty simple to just drop on them.
A few very hectic rounds later, the battle was won, Shubby was banished, and most of the party converted to Desna on the spot.
I must say Zhangar, that is brilliant! Me and my co-DM will certainly be doing something very similar to that, if not outright copy the whole thing. We might chance the giver of the mythic powers to the Raven's Head, and have the battle occuring on the surface near Illmarsh.
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So is there any player make aids for this adventure path that can be shared? A flow chart? Anything?
I do hope that Paizo allows player made aids to their products. If people are coming up with this stuff to help make your products work better than there must be a need. (I feel that I need it at this point.) And that need can either be filled by Paizo or the fans. I don't really care which at this point, but a flow chart for this adventure like the one I have for the last book of Carrion Crown would be grand. The plot in this one is way too convoluted to navigate without visual aids. Also in the end I am not sure that my players will care which evil is in charge or who is taking over who so it may not matter.
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I don't know of any player-made aids for Wake of the Watcher.
Quick timeline of what happened before the book starts:
1) Centuries ago - the Ulat-kini find Raven's Head at the bottom of Lake Encarthan
2) 200+ years ago - the Fostering Pact was made between House Undiomede and the Ulat-Kini.
3) 70 years ago - House Undiomede collapses, but the Voltario family converts to Dagon and keeps the Fostering going, spreading the worship of Dagon to the rest of the town.
4) A few weeks ago - Whispering Way agent Gastor Lucas comes to town and negotiates with the Ulat-kini to receive Raven's Head. The Ulat-kini agree to turn it over for the Seasage Effigy.
5) A week or two ago - the mi-go arrive and subjugate the Ulat-Kini. The slug spawn get released by desperate Ulat-kini trying to find a way to fight back, and some make it to Illmarsh and start infecting people, like Father Voltario and Gastor Lucas. The temple of Dagon covers up the deaths by hiding the infected.
6) A few days ago - the Dark Rider arrives looking for Gastor Lucas. He goes to Undiomede house, is defeated by the mi-go, and taken to the tunnels in the depths.
Book 4 starts:
1) PCs go to Thrushmoor, where they meet a Whispering Way assassin and learn that the Dark Rider went east to Illmarsh.
2) PCs meet Horace Croon on the way to Illmarsh.
3) PCs arrive in Illmarsh, where the relatively recently appointed mayor, an outsider, hires them to investigate the disappearances and points them towards the temple.
4) The PCs check out the temple, fight a bunch of Dagon cultists and the temple guardian, find the bodies of Gastor Lucas and others, and find out Father Voltario went north to Undiomede House. They may or may not discuss torching the town.
5) The party explores Undiomede House, putting down Father Voltario and dealing with various critters. The optional Sanity mechanic starts kicking in around now if you're using it.
6) The party explores the skum tunnels under Undiomede House, putting down an insane skum chieftain, and a color out of space. They can potentially learn of the mi-go invasion, and will learn of the Fostering Pact. They may or may not discuss torching the town when they get back.
7) The party returns to town, where the mayor is missing and Croon drops in to let them know his submersible is ready.
8) The party takes the submersible down to the main skum habitat, fighting an evil squid on the way down.
9) The party enters the skum tunnels, purging both skum and mi-go.
10) The party recovers Raven's Head.
11) The party pushes to the end of the complex, where a mi-go experiment converts the Dark Rider into a Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath, which is acting as a breach that Shubby can enter the world through.
12) Party kills the Dark Young and saves Lake Encartan and the surrounding nations, if not the world at large. They may or may not decide to torch Illmarsh.
I hope that helps.
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He has a +13 will save, that's nothing to scoff at.
Or fudge the rolls.
Well, if I'm going to fudge rolls, I might as well just decide it doesn't work ahead of time.
I have a player who's running a telepath psion. He has Mind Crush, which can reach a DC of 22 with the right amount of power points and reduces creatures to -1 and dying on a failed save.
Major Mythos monsters like the Dark Young are supposed to crush mortal minds, not the other way around.
I hope you Psion tried this on the weird crazy plant thing, libel to push the psion over the edge.
So my party finished last session by clearing out the penultimate room (the one with the chipper shredder). The only real trouble so far this adventure was Ogg'gggol's room where in I killed the wizard very very dead (Gug did about 40 damage more than the character had HP) but he was reincarnated as a boring half-elf.
Now I'm thinking about the final fight. Any suggestions, stories, words of wisdom, wish-I-had-dones, or other comments for that last room? It looks like a pretty boring and difficult fight where the Dark Young will just grab people, dissolve them, and smash around the place while the players scream for mercy.
Added difficulty - we won't have the top damage dealer (four winds efreeti style monk), so it'll just be the bard, druid (wildshaper), inquisitor, and wizard (summoner). I worry about them as most have really terrible CMDs.
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So my party finished last session by clearing out the penultimate room (the one with the chipper shredder). The only real trouble so far this adventure was Ogg'gggol's room where in I killed the wizard very very dead (Gug did about 40 damage more than the character had HP) but he was reincarnated as a boring half-elf.
Now I'm thinking about the final fight. Any suggestions, stories, words of wisdom, wish-I-had-dones, or other comments for that last room? It looks like a pretty boring and difficult fight where the Dark Young will just grab people, dissolve them, and smash around the place while the players scream for mercy.
Added difficulty - we won't have the top damage dealer (four winds efreeti style monk), so it'll just be the bard, druid (wildshaper), inquisitor, and wizard (summoner). I worry about them as most have really terrible CMDs.
Trample more, it isn't necessarily the best tactic, but it spreads the terror.
How did some of you run the Mi-go? That evisceration is harsh. The way I read it works much like Constrict. If the Mi-go hits with a claw attack and makes a grapple check, it can do 1d4 ability damage. It can do this up to four times a round if it releases each grapple to attack again. Did they swarm any of your players and rip them apart? How did the Mi-go do in your campaigns?
The migo don't have great to-hit numbers and the tunnels are relatively narrow, so if you have people with high AC (and perhaps Enlarge Spells spells; those helped my players) you can bottle-neck the Mi-go and keep them under control. I remember my mi-go mostly getting stuck fighting people that they needed 20s to hit, between the choke points, the enlarge spells, and the sorceress using Wall of Force spells to further restrict movements.
At one point a mi-go did make it to the sorceress and started taking her apart very quickly. I think it only got one hit on her before it got swarmed and torn to pieces, but they demonstrated that they could take a person down very quickly if given the opportunity..
The Mi-Go swarmed the party's druid (who was standing next to their rooms) and while they did hit and sneak attack him something fierce (70 damage in the fight with the brain fungus and five mi-go, plus a bit of cave-in from the Gug's stone-to-mud) they never could grapple him in his dire tiger form. We'll see how it goes in the final fight as I'll have more Mi-Go (the five earlier were in waves of 2 then 3). I suspect they will do a number on the gnome bard.
For our group, the Gug was the serious contender. Have it go invisible and sneak out as soon as the fight with the brain fungus starts. Just be careful with how hard it hits (which is very very hard).
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The players in my party were a little leery of mythos in the campaign being treated with appropriate world-shatteringness, so I introduced a few additional elements to the final confrontation with the Dark Young.
All through the halls leading up to the final chamber (the Mi-Go experimentation room), they could hear the Dark Rider's screams as they plugged his body full of tubes loaded with foreign chemicals and substances intended to hypergestate the dark young seeds. Shub-Niggurath is sensitive to the approaching breach into Golarion, and so she begins to "manifest" in the Material Plane as the minutes go by leading up to the moment of her Dark Young's birth (thus creating strange atmospheric changes like abnormal cold spots, seaweed tentacles made of oily substances that grow and distend from the ceiling, a giant eyeball in the wall, bubbles in mid-air with impossible rivulets, etc.). When the PCs arrived in the final confrontation room, there were some Mi-Go present performing their work on the Dark Rider. I intentionally had them react with a surprising scientific disinterest in the "heroes"...the Mi-Go looked at them but didn't appear to consider them a threat and so continued on with their work until they were attacked. I was going to give them a couple of rounds to clear out the Mi-Go before the Dark Young appeared, but in the first round of combat, they saw the Dark Rider, splayed open and sustained by this alien machinery. With a trail of black ichor draining from the corner of his mouth, he burbled a desperate plea to the party's fighter (a man verging on a good alignment).
"Kill me."
So the fighter did. And in so doing, the man erupted like an overripe melon full of black radioactive foam that splattered against the ceiling and then solidified, forming the giant tree monster, the Dark Young of SN.
During the combat itself, the Mi-Go were still around. I invented pieces of their machinery that the PCs could manipulate in order to affect the environment with the appopriate UMD roll (allowing them a handful of options), or just randomly pushing buttons (creating random effects).
They found a swith that released an airborne coolant somewhat like liquid nitrogen, similar to the freeze ray they find earlier in the adventure. Something that operated a hook that could grapple and hold anything Mi-Go size and lower. Blinding and searing lights that did a bit of damage and imposed temporary blindness penalties. Just like they could use these against the Mi-Go and the DY, the Mi-Go could use this stuff against the PCs, too. (This was almost necessary because the DY takes up so much space in that area that it can be difficult for PCs to engage with the Mi-Go while the DY is smashing them and everyone else to pieces.)
So yeah, you could invent your own "Mi-Go random lab effects" environmental feature for that combat to spice it up and potentially make things a bit easier for the PCs if they're having trouble with the DY. Mine had no trouble with it, but they're hardcore optimizers. Not every gamer at the table will be like that.
In addition, I added something else to an encounter that I thought was fun, during the fight with the skum chieftan. The PCs entered this room and saw a bunch of skum wandering around, somewhat like the ones they saw before, only with wings and brains that still pulsated. They were not as concerned about these skum as they were about the Mi-Go they had encountered previously (because their grappling and ability damage attacks were pretty brutal), and so charged them cavalierly.
Only to find that the first skum's arms fell off as Mi-Go pincers grappled the PC. The skum's chest exploded, and Mi-Go scalpel fingers shot out and started scissoring away at bodily features they found interesting. The pulsating brain warped out of shape and was revealed to be a Mi-Go head, blaring colors in alternating red and green across the front.
On entering, the PCs rolled a Perception against the Mi-Go's disguise skill. Just look at their bonus. It's crazy. I reasoned that they like to try to impersonate "natives" of an area they go to in an attempt to control and surprise. The chieftan knows, of course, that his own skum have been decimated, and these Mi-Go wearing skum skin are both his captors and the social scientists observing his activities.
Of course, their ruse doesn't last for long, but it lasts just long enough to lull the players into a false sense of security if they can't process the details of why the skum have wings. It also just freaked them out in general, so that made it all worth it in my book.
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Nice to hear some info on the Mi-go.
My party has treasure from the module. They don't have too many items that make their AC too insanely high. Though the Magus can jack his AC up real high with spells.
I plan to have the Mi-go swarm when they party meets the Cerebric Fungus. I'm making it so the Mi-go listen to the insane thoughts of the Fungus while they meditate. When the party meets the Fungus, the Mi-go will be aware of their presence.
I'm also making the Mi-go in the Shredder room take the mist projector into the main Dark Young area. They will use the Mist Projector to cover the room in fog clouds, then take advantage of their blindsight to eviscerate the party.
How about the slugspawn? Any of your party get infested? The DC 31 Perception check in the Shrine is pretty damn high. I'm fairly certain not all my players will make that check and that will lead to infestation. They'll have some slugs growing up in them. I hope at least a couple of them see the slugs so they can get them taken care of before they hatch.
I've spent some time prepping this module. I'm looking forward to it. I redid the insanity rules. I didn't like the insanity points. I used the madness rules and came up with some DCs I think are reasonable. The three insanities I'm using are:
1. Slug-Phobia: Party member develops a phobia of slimy crawling tentacle creatures. They will save when they meet the slugspawn and spawning cankers.
2. "This is not Real" Schizophrenia: I'll have them make this save when the meet the colorless woman in the pit with the drained child. Then when they meet the Colour out of Space. They'll be so shaken they'll have problems determining the reality around them. They'll see the world as a colorless place with figments of the drained woman appearing in their mind.
3. Psychosis of the Elder Gods: When they see the image of Shub-Niggurath and hear its speech, they'll develop a desire to destroy and consume the world. I figure the whispers will resonate in their minds causing them to do all manner of evil acts.
Should be fun. To me this is the most horrifying of the modules. Almost every adventuring party has dealt with undead or lycanthropes. Very few have dealt with creatures of this kind.
The fight with the fungus can be very bad. I had five mi-go; 2 in the third room and 3 in the fourth. The players started with an attack on the fungus; his scream took the inquisitor out for four rounds of nauseated sadness. It then called the invisible Gug out and took out the druid with touch of madness for four rounds of daze.
Granted, neither of them can roll very well (inquisitor got a 1 on his save, poor guy) and I did roll maximum rounds of inability to act, but the fungus can incapacitate members of the party pretty well.
The Gug and his +17 to hit will eat people in your party. He did 80+ damage to our wizard and crushed him to bits. Evidently (according to the obits) he did the same to another group's wizard. The 15' reach helps him do this rather well.
I had the fight in waves. There were 2-3 rounds between the introduction of each monster set. First the fungus. Then the Gug attacked the turn the fungus was killed. Then the first set of Mi-Go popped out when the Gug was going down (but after it ate the wizard). The second set of Mi-Go came right after the first two were slain.
The Mi-Go can do some serious damage if they can get some flanking in place (four attacks doing 2d6 sneak) and take a few hits to fell. They aren't too bad if there's nothing else to occupy the players, but if the Gug is out or they can get someone down in the close confines of the lower right section of the room, they can do some messy business.
This was the hardest fight my party has had in awhile and it was the first time a PC died. Overall, we all had a great time with it (except the Wizard, but whatever, he got reincarnated as a half-elf so he can't complain about losing his -2 CON elf penalty).
If you were to swamp the players with everything, there's a good chance of a few deaths. Obviously, your players may be more combat and tactics minded than mine, and you may not be able to knock half the group out of the fight for a handful of turns.
My players are pretty good about tactics. I have a rogue and magus that do pretty nutty damage. I'm still looking forward to the fight. Should be fun.
I have a few questions about the ambush at the stables that starts the adventure:
(1) A half-orc fighter-rogue in the party has scent. I think this means the ambush has no chance of success. When the half-orc enters the barn it will smell the ghouls in the hay wagon and know something is up. Am I missing something?
(2) Did you players not make the perception and sense motive rolls to sniff out the ambush? The aforementioned half-orc has crazy high perception and sense motive -- it seems unlikely she will miss the DCs.
(3) How does the ambush work mechanically?
(a) Even with quick draw feat technically the assassin needs to use a move action to pull out his hidden dagger, so he can't get an attack in during the surprise round. I'm going to give him a spring loaded arm brace that reduces the draw to a free action, but I'm wondering how others resolved this.
(b) Don't the ghouls need to take a move action to get out of the straw, thus blowing the opportunity for an attack in the surprise round?
(c) Shouldn't the ghouls get a big bonus on their stealth for hiding under straw? I don't get why they would have the same stealth chance hiding in shadows as they would buried in straw. What am I missing?
THANKS for your thoughts!
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1. Scent is a move action to sniff out bad guys. If he's constantly walking around at half speed (taking a move action to scent instead of just normally walking down the street) smelling everything then sure, let him sniff out the ambush.
2. I haven't run the ambush yet, but even if the party isn't surprised, it's just supposed to let them know the WW has their eyes on *them* (and to steer the PCs towards Illmarsh) So I wouldn't sweat it if the PCs are sharp enough not to be surprised. It's just to keep them on their guard.
3a. I uh... actually missed where the dagger is hidden and thus a move action. I was thinking it was still a free. Thanks for pointing that out to me! But the spring loaded sheath seems like a great fix.
3b. I don't have the book in front of me, but I remember something like that as well and how all the ghouls could do was use the surprise round to get in position.
3c. If you think being buried under straw is at least as good as being behind an arrow slit, give the ghouls Improved Cover. Improved Cover gives +10 to stealth checks.
Hope that helps some!
Voomer,
I had the assassin attack the party when they were separate. I gave the rogue/assassin the Deft Palm rogue talent where he could conceal a weapon using Sleight of Hand in plain sight. I made him a Blademaster as well. He tried to assassinate the paladin when he was walking about town. Then he lured the paladin and monk into an alley where the ghouls were hiding. Unfortunately the monk sniffed out the ghouls. The rogue and his ghouls were little match for the paladin and monk.
I would have the assassin act like an assassin and attack the party when they're weak. If they don't stick together in town, they should be attacked in their rooms or while a few of them are gathering information. Have the assassin shadow one of the members as they are walking about town. Even if they spot him, they may not be willing to start a fight in the middle of town in broad daylight. He can still get his death attack off.
That's how I handled it. I didn't like the set up in the module. I modified it to make it more difficult.
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1) Sounds reasonable to me. Though you'd want to determine whether you treat Scent as a passive ability as well as active.
2) Surprisingly, no, they didn't. Best thing is that they didn't even try. I like to think I narrated the scene in just such a way as to make it not suspicious, to make it seem like it was just window dressing. They stableman trying to fix the cart was presented more or less like a simple commoner whom the players knew they would need to interrogate for information about the Dark Rider, and so helping him with the wheel seemed a great way to get on his good side and make him more pliable.
3) He made a Sleight of Hand check versus their Perception. I applied a minor penalty to Perception on the two PCs working to fix the cart, but everyone failed it, both for his SoH and their bonus from concealment. As far as the ghouls moving, yeah, their surprise round was popping out of the hay and saying surprise. It counts as action, though, so on the next round the assassin was able to flank for deadliness.
All in all, I decided this encounter is not necessarily intended to fully challenge the party. It almost seems geared to murder at least one of the PCs outright with the assassin's attack. "To send a message", as it were: "Stop following me!"
Unfortunately, my assassin's target saved and didn't die. But you can't win them all.
It really isn't a very tough encounter. Paladin and monk mowed the three of them down. The assassin couldn't get away because the monk ran him down easily. I thought it would be a much tougher encounter. It would have been even easier had the entire party been together.