Am I correct that there is no map for Tunuak's Bore? I see the map markers on the village map, but no detail (just ice). Seems simple enough based on the descriptions but I just wanted to make sure I wasn't having a brain fart before I run this tomorrow.
(Of course, knowing my players, the gunslinger may very well just try to put a bullet in Tunuak's head at the initial confrontation in the village.)
Also, anyone have some suggestions about a semi-random mook fight to toss in? My players have been having a rough time of it and need a morale and confidence building fight, but I don't want to just toss in some arctic goblins and say "Roll initiative."
There is a map of it on page 28 on the same page as the map of Iqualiat.
As for your mooks, I would try to stick with something like the hoarfrost spirits or frost wights. A small pack of them would probably not cause your group too much trouble I don't imagine and they allow you to point out some of the bad stuff going on in the region.
I wanted my players to have seen at least one encounter with the Sithuud marked dead/undead before making it to Iqualiat so they would have an idea that something is going on in the region.
Hmm. Maybe something happened in moving the PDF to my iPad, but it's not there. I mean, the map is... I see the map details of the village, and on the left side I see K2, K3 and K4 but it's just ice (no caves drawn, grids ,etc.) -- so the map legend markers are there, but there are no details on the map itself, just the background texture. I'll check my hard copy once I get home.
I was thinking hoarfrost spirits or frost wraiths, but with a few bad rolls (and they've been quite unlucky lately) that could turn bad. I was also thinking of having Wodes (the sole survivor of Ravenscraeg) round up some starving winter wolves (fatigued or -25% non lethal damage).
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4; Contributor; Publisher, Legendary Games
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Hmm. Maybe something happened in moving the PDF to my iPad, but it's not there. I mean, the map is... I see the map details of the village, and on the left side I see K2, K3 and K4 but it's just ice (no caves drawn, grids ,etc.) -- so the map legend markers are there, but there are no details on the map itself, just the background texture. I'll check my hard copy once I get home.
I was thinking hoarfrost spirits or frost wraiths, but with a few bad rolls (and they've been quite unlucky lately) that could turn bad. I was also thinking of having Wodes (the sole survivor of Ravenscraeg) round up some starving winter wolves (fatigued or -25% non lethal damage).
It should be there in the inset map on the Iqaliat map. It's basically a secret passage (K2) leading through a secret door, opening out into a vertical shaft with an icy ramp (K3) spiraling down around the shaft until it reaches the bottom (K4).
BTW, can I say just how pretty the maps are in this adventure? I take no particular credit, since my turnovers are just pencil on graph paper, inked and scanned, but the final cartography in this book is amazing. I think the overall art, layout, and maps in JR are my favorite of any AP.
BTW, can I say just how pretty the maps are in this adventure? I take no particular credit, since my turnovers are just pencil on graph paper, inked and scanned, but the final cartography in this book is amazing. I think the overall art, layout, and maps in JR are my favorite of any AP.
Agreed. :-)
Okay, found it in my hard copy. No sure why it wasn't on the PDF on my iPad. Thanks.
Just wanted to share a funny, off-the-rails development from our game last night involving Tunuak and "The Sacrifice" event at the village.
One of them (the alchemist) began sneaking around, played a plot twist card that allowed for an elaborate development in terms of stealth and espionage, and made a decent perception check. So, I had him overhear Tunuak muttering to himself about praising Sithhud and promising the death of the entire village. I *thought* I was sending a message that Tunuak was trying to incite a confrontation and the party should avoid falling for his trap... Oh, how I underestimated them.
When the oracle and hearthmistress emerged, Tunuak immediately launched into his diatribe while the gunslinger drank a potion of invisibility and crept up next to Tunuak (using acrobatics to navigate the crowd). We began the social skill roll-off. The party lost diplomacy but won on the intimidate check. Next, the alchemist yells out his bluff, saying that Tunuak is controlling the dragon and will have it attack the village. (Note: This is absolutely not the information I gave to him... he pulled this from thin air.) He rolls very high on his bluff, the gunslinger decides to roll sense motive and fails... Believing every word from the alchemist's mouth, the gunslinger immediately shoots Tunuak. Natural 20. Confirmed. 67 points of damage.
Initiative. Gunslinger at the top of the round. Shoots again. Drops Tunuak to -4.
And that's where we ended the session. We were all completely shocked but found it rather hysterical, yet entirely in-keeping with the gunslinger's shoot-first personality. Moving forward, I think what I'm going to do is...
Never underestimate a player's ability to throw a curveball.
Just wanted to share a funny, off-the-rails development from our game last night involving Tunuak and "The Sacrifice" event at the village.
** spoiler omitted **
And that's where...
Thanks for sharing, SnowHeart. I'll be starting up The Hungry Storm in a few weeks. It's great reading how different groups have been going through this one.
I've had some confusion about the caravan traveling over the Crown of the World as well. But first, the Jade Regent Player's Guide specifies the base speed of the caravan as 32 miles per day. On page 24 under "Travel" Table 7-8 on page 172 of the Core Rulebook is referenced, but proceeded by the statement that "speed assumes travel on a road over clear terrain." What is the Path of Aganhei considered? It's hard to believe that the caravan's speed wouldn't be reduced by tundra, snow, ice, blizzards, whiteout (page 66 of The Hungry Storm) and any other number of things. At this moment, once the Rimethirst Mountains are passed I have a hard time believing that the caravan could actually maintain 32 miles per day. When you add tracking time of year, especially because I don't believe it was established previously, there are a lot of variables to track that have to be presented just right to avoid bogging the game down in a non-fun way.
Anyway, there are a lot of loose variables that I'm trying to account for and I'm certain that a consensus can be reached between conversation and citing specifics. Just in writing this I've discovered more information regarding caravan "speed" later in The Hungry Storm PDF. If I feel like I can bring clarity I'll be sure to post later.
Oh, and how are caravan horses supposed to survive a trek across the north pole?
Jason, maybe you could say something about this question? I was wondering the same thing, because travel speed is quite an important factor in how long the whole journey over the Crown will last ( and how many encounters will be triggered ).
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As far as cold protection goes, Suishen should already have unlocked its first power ( after defeating Kimandatsu ), so there's a readily available Protection from Cold ( CL20 ) with unlimited charges around.
I took Suishen's protection from cold to be wielder-only. Even if it's not wielder-only, it should be scion-only, I would think. Why would Suishen grant its power to lowly caravan drivers?
I see where you're going from a gameplay perspective, but to answer your literal question, I would say, "Because it costs the sword nothing and it has a good-aligned personality. Protecting the scions is a way to protect the weak of Minkai, which could be a rationalization for not expending limited resources, but for an at-will ability I have trouble seeing the justification."
That. Also, we had that discussions a few months ago and James ( or was it Jason? ) already said that Suishens Protection from Cold power is a reason why people who stay with the caravan are assumed to be protected from extreme weather.
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Also, we had that discussions a few months ago and James ( or was it Jason? ) already said that Suishens Protection from Cold power is a reason why people who stay with the caravan are assumed to be protected from extreme weather.
I hope that's not the only reason, because my group didn't find Suishen until after Kimandatsu was slain. (Also, there are rules about the number of endure element spells that are needed to get that assumption. I think it's one endure elements per point of Consumption per week.)
All that said, I don't think there's any reason to assume protection from cold at will (or any of the other powers that would otherwise work on any target) would be limited to the wielder or to scions. I could see that Suishen might withhold it from individuals on a case-by-case basis, but that's a different issue.
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That would completely change how I was going to handle the Crown Run. Is there any reason not to make all of Suishen's powers "wielder-only?" If it's an inherent limitation of the artifact (which some people have argued is too powerful, anyway), then it's consistent. That's a change I'm comfortable making, to give my players a little more challenge over the Crown.
They went to the trouble to get a crafter, and making wands will keep her busy enough that the trip won't be too item-heavy.
... James ( or was it Jason? ) already said that Suishens Protection from Cold power is ...
I remember that discussion, actually (or one similar to it). My specific recollection varies a bit on the details, but the fundamental takeaway was the statement that, yes, they had considered Suishen could be passed around and, yes, they intentionally left the powers this way (which is to say, not wielder-specific). That said...
@ Doram -- I don't think what you're thinking of would "break" the AP. I don't remember, off the top of my head, any incident where a challenge can only be circumvented by "passing around the sword". If you think it's too powerful as written, then go ahead and change it (especially because you know your players better than anyone else on this board). (JMO.)
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That would completely change how I was going to handle the Crown Run. Is there any reason not to make all of Suishen's powers "wielder-only?"
I can't answer from experience, because I'm only one (very fun) session into Hungry Storm, but my feeling is that I don't think making this change would negatively impact the adventure. Suishen is incredibly powerful -- so much so that someone in my group, and my group is pretty shrug-and-roll-with-it, actually asked aloud why the samurai/rogue got to carry it, while still being entitled to a full share of treasure -- and lessening the power might be a good thing.
On the other hand, if the powers are wielder-only, then my objecting player has a much better case than if Suishen can and will help everyone.
(BTW, remember that Suishen, as an intelligent weapon, gets to use its abilities outside the normal action economy. That's easy to overlook, and a really big bump to power and utility. On the other hand, it again makes it easier for the benefits of the sword to affect the whole party.)
I haven't actually decided if I'll play it wielder-only or not, but I need to decide soon. (I'm leaning toward playing as-written. I did remove Suishen's speech ability, but that's just because of my feeling that a talking sword is ridiculously cheesy. Speech doesn't exist as an option for (most) intelligent items in games I run.)
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I just realized why I thought it would be wielder-only:
"If a new person wields Suishen, that person must learn the sword's additional powers all over again."
I take this to mean that if the ninja had possession when Kimandatsu was killed, the ninja can access the protection from cold, but as soon as it is handed off, the power goes away, unless the samurai then uses it to kill an oni, in which case both can use the protection, but neither gets the next ability.
An argument could be made that the wielder could cast it on others, using the sword. I think that would have to take the form of kneeling in front of the wielder and swearing fealty, as though being knighted. Every day. The sword is the soul of an emperor, after all. NG or not, no Ego 25 artifact is going to be the party's cold-protection machine for nothing.
The 3/day spells can be cast on anyone, as a spell caster, I guess. I'm with you, Jeff, about the speech. I play it as telepathic by contact, just like Helgarval.
Why would Suishen, who wants to see Ameiko ascend the throne and the Oni be vanquished, sabotage the journey over the Crown? Ask yourself that question, because I see that your opinion is mostly formed by your wish to make it hard on the characters.
And I know why you are thinking this way, I am quite ambivalent about negating much of the cold weather dangers myself. But if the writer and the editors decided that this was acceptable and even desirable, then who am I to disagree? There are enough dangers on the Crown of the World to make the journey hazardous. Also, whenever the party is not with the caravan, the Protection from Cold lasts exactly 200 minutes, no more. During that time, the caravan also needs to be protected from the cold somehow.
I'm actually playing this, or rather just finished playing it, and there's a major problem we had with this encounter. My character is a diplomancer summoner. I've got Charisma to burn, enhancements to it, feats and traits to buff it also, and a hilarity streak. The trouble is this:
I like women. I like them quite a bit, so when we came upon a female dragon, Vegsundvaag I believe is the name, I met her, and I diplomacized her. (Dimension Door to meet her without the rest of the party)
My party, save myself, is evil. We got to the town, and when we met the cleric or shaman or whatever, our cleric's familiar (hellknight signifier) detected good and found none on him, so we slaughtered him. And I saved Sonavuut.
Then we get to the Storm Tower. Our blindsighted druid detects the wights, and we glitterdust them for the win. Second level, we sleep the Remorhaz, cast protection from elements, and CDG for the win. So then I go up to the 3rd floor while the rest of my group patrols the 2nd floor. They deal with the Crysmals while I talk to Katiyana. Extensively. Then I diplomacize. Now it could just be that my DM should've had her try to kill me, but well... I succeeded at diplomacy. A natural 20, with all my various skills and accoutrement, made it over a 40. So she's alive. And with her alive, and us with an agreement in place with a certain deity, we are going to be teleported to our destination, since we (I) ruined the whole last third of the AP. So... yeah.
With an evil party, which may not have been the intent of the publishers, we have had many solutions to problems which fall outside the general scope of normal thought.
You can't teleport the Seal.
Yeah, we actually destroyed the caravan too. The seal and Ameiko are tucked away under murderous guard, as is Shaleilu.
Sounds like an assortment of really wonderful people who Ameiko is being victimized by. Oh, well, different groups, different playstyles.
Doesn't change the fact that the Seal can't be teleported, btw.
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They actually have a loophole that works: the seal can be taken from the Material Plane via special portals blessed by the gods, and they just secured an agreement with some deity or another. Please tell me it's Sithhud, restored to power by Katiyana destroying the entire Crown of the World, because I've never dreamed this adventure could end so hilariously.
Well, I admit that would be hilarious. Although Sithhud is only a demon lord, so I think giving him the same power level as true gods would be a bit overkill.
How did you Sleep the remorhaz? Sleep doesn't affect creatures with more than 4HD.
I will say, that is an extremely interesting choice of actions that seem like they would have some seriously lasting implications for Golarion! Sithuud's mighty storms coming down and slowly consuming all of the world. Interesting times for sure.
And I know why you are thinking this way, I am quite ambivalent about negating much of the cold weather dangers myself
I felt similarly Mag, for reasons I've suggested in another thread, I recommend making Suishen's powers limited to Scions only, not so much to make it harder, but to keep to the theme I want to convey in the book. Regardless of 'developers intent' I feel this keeps module's feel of an extreme Arctic crossing. I wanted it to feel like it was a grueling trek for my groups, so taking the danger of the cold out of the way seems unrewarding to me.
I haven't actually decided if I'll play it wielder-only or not, but I need to decide soon.
I decided to make Suishen's powers limited to the Amatatsu's Scion's, its easy enough to explain from a story standpoint. This didn't seem too out of line for me as there are plenty of fantasy stories out there with magical weapons with limitations on their powers. My personal choice was that it was a limitation put on Suishen to ensure that he was never turned against his charges(The Amatatsu Family).
Think of any Excalibur-esque sword in the stone reason and roll with it. Players should appreciate the added flavor I would think and it allows the third book to keep all the nice arctic themes without making everyone all warm and cozy all the time.
Yeah, well, I completely cancelled the Protection from Cold power-up, due to the same reasons Asurasan mentioned. Instead I left the Resist Energy 3/day as it is and simply immediately moved to the Flaming Burst power.
And then, just two days ago, the Samurai wielding Suishen died against a Frost Giant On Speed (tm) in a random encounter and now it seems Suishen is going to Sandru for the rest of the campaign. Hm. ^^
We have a cleric of Asmodeus, Hellknight Signifier, and we bargained with Asmodeus, in return for defiling Sithhud's obelisks. We destroyed many of the Southern ones, and as I said we stole her from the other, so the hungry storms will lose direction.
Asmodeus: Devil Deity.
Woot special portals.
Thanks for the kind words, Joseph. The city at the top of the world was something I thought would be neat to explore on a journey like this, but there really wasn't room in the AP adventure itself so I didn't pursue the idea at the time. Covering 4,000 frozen miles in 40-something pages was challenge enough as it was!
That said, last year when we were looking ahead at APs to support with Legendary Games and brainstorming product ideas, this idea came quickly to mind as a natural place to develop a supporting adventure, both to connect the flow of this adventure a bit better into the overall campaign but also just to satisfy what seemed to me like a very natural curiosity. You've got your PCs on this months-long journey over the pole, and you've discovered this legendary ancient place where almost no one has ever been and come back to tell the tale... and you assume they'll just walk on by like it's nothing? Have your players no sense of adventure? Shoot, have they no GREED? Surely if it's going to take months to get where you're going, you can spare a few days to at least poke around the edges and find a few souvenirs, whether to keep or to sell. Who knows what you might find? Maybe it's just me, but it seems like the thing my players would be excited to discover (especially if they'd been getting bored with a long string of disconnected events).
Check it out for yourself at our product page here on Paizo. If you liked "The Hungry Storm," and especially if you liked the adventure's themes but felt like it could use a little something extra, I think you'll really enjoy it.
Hi Jason,
My players are just about to finish the encounters in the Storm Tower, and from there head to the Nameless Spires (and straight into Under Frozen Stars) :)
With the release of then Inner Sea Bestiary, do you think there would be any sense in (spoilered to protect the innocent):
Thanks in advance for your thoughts on this sir.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Dalesman
"Bringing Big D**n Justice to the Bad Guys Since 1369 DR"
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RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4; Contributor; Publisher, Legendary Games
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Thanks for the kind words, Joseph. The city at the top of the world was something I thought would be neat to explore on a journey like this, but there really wasn't room in the AP adventure itself so I didn't pursue the idea at the time. Covering 4,000 frozen miles in 40-something pages was challenge enough as it was!
That said, last year when we were looking ahead at APs to support with Legendary Games and brainstorming product ideas, this idea came quickly to mind as a natural place to develop a supporting adventure, both to connect the flow of this adventure a bit better into the overall campaign but also just to satisfy what seemed to me like a very natural curiosity. You've got your PCs on this months-long journey over the pole, and you've discovered this legendary ancient place where almost no one has ever been and come back to tell the tale... and you assume they'll just walk on by like it's nothing? Have your players no sense of adventure? Shoot, have they no GREED? Surely if it's going to take months to get where you're going, you can spare a few days to at least poke around the edges and find a few souvenirs, whether to keep or to sell. Who knows what you might find? Maybe it's just me, but it seems like the thing my players would be excited to discover (especially if they'd been getting bored with a long string of disconnected events).
Check it out for yourself at our product page here on Paizo. If you liked "The Hungry Storm," and especially if you liked the adventure's themes but felt like it could use a little something extra, I think you'll really enjoy it.
Hi Jason,
My players are just about to finish the encounters in the Storm Tower, and from there head to the Nameless Spires (and straight into Under Frozen Stars) :)
With the release of then Inner Sea Bestiary, do you think there would be any sense in (spoilered to protect the innocent):
** spoiler omitted **...
I think your idea has merit, and if you'd like to pencil them out feel free. Thematically it makes plenty of sense. I didn't write that section of the ISB (and in any event the product came out after UFS, so I couldn't have included that even if I had written it), and to be honest I haven't really studied up on those sections of the ISB to be able to comment one way or the other on their relative power level relative to the creatures in the module as written.
Given the complexity of some of the creatures in the adventure, I think there's a good justification for sticking with (mostly) straight Bestiary monsters some of the time vs. everything being custom or templated.
I think your idea has merit, and if you'd like to pencil them out feel free. Thematically it makes plenty of sense. I didn't write that section of the ISB (and in any event the product came out after UFS, so I couldn't have included that even if I had written it), and to be honest I haven't really studied up on those sections of the ISB to be able to comment one way or the other on their relative power level relative to the creatures in the module as written.
Given the complexity of some of the creatures in the adventure, I think there's a good justification for sticking with (mostly) straight Bestiary monsters some of the time vs. everything being custom or templated.
Many thanks for the advice, Jason. I think...
(Though after some thought, I might actually try taking bits from both templates to make my own 'drone template' - no sentience, but still 'high tech' in origin, and fast).
Your Friendly Neighborhood Dalesman
"Bringing Big D**n Justice to the Bad Guys Since 1369 DR"
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Hoping for quick help:
On the Storm Tower maps, several rooms have a square designated with "a" and I can't find in the keyed descriptions what those signify. (M2, M5, and M7 all have an "a" in those areas.)
I'm sure I'm just missing something. Can someone point out where?
EDIT: Never mind. Found it; they're control panels for the forcelevator.
Ok so I'm running 6 players through Jade Regent and I have been using side trek adventures to cover the XP gap. I know they will be behind the curve by the end of book 2. So my plan was
- kobolds
- Gnolls
if you have any suggestions that would be great.
Well, you could always modify the old 3.5 arctic kobolds to fall in line with pathfinder. Reskinning gnolls as werewolves probably fits a more arctic theme too.
The Advanced race guide has an alternative racial ability which grants them certain elemental resistances depending upon the color of their scales (related to their draconic heritage). White scaled kobolds gains cold resistance 5 which would make them suitable as an arctic race. This ability replaces the kobolds natural armor bonus though.
As for the Gnolls you could just play them as is but re-skin them as something more appropriate for an arctic environment say white furred wolf headed humanoids f.ex.
You could also look at the FROST MAN (CR 2), The YETI (CR 4), The ICE TROLL (CR 4), NEANDERTHAL's (CR 1), or a TAER (CR 2).
If you want to reduce the CR to match that of a gnoll you could add the young template or reduce the number of creatures for an appropriate ecl.
The Advanced race guide has an alternative racial ability which grants them certain elemental resistances depending upon the color of their scales (related to their draconic heritage). White scaled kobolds gains cold resistance 5 which would make them suitable as an arctic race. This ability replaces the kobolds natural armor bonus though.
I'm liking this idea and I found some
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Uthak, there are a couple of Adventure Path - "plug-ins" by Legendary Games designed for the Jade Regent AP, I highly recommend them. One comes between book 2 and 3 (The Baleful Coven), and another is in the middle of book 3 (Under Frozen Stars). I've just run my group through Under Frozen Stars and it was great. Baleful coven didn't come out in time for my group to play it after book 2 but I'm going to scale it up for after book 3.
http://paizo.com/store/games/roleplayingGames/p/pathfinderRPG/legendaryGame s
@ chernobly thanks for the tips they look cool....might just have to pick them up and give them a looksy.
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@ chernobly thanks for the tips they look cool....might just have to pick them up and give them a looksy.
They have a good production value, and also got me to pick up the Advanced Bestiary pdf, which I'm really liking. I often template monsters for my 6 person party and the Advanced Bestiary has loads of cool templates in it.
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RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4; Contributor; Publisher, Legendary Games
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Thanks for the plug! Under Frozen Stars was based on an idea I had while writing the published adventure, and people have responded well in terms of sales as well as reviews and word of mouth. Matt Goodall wrote up a great road trip adventure that fits perfectly between 2 and 3, but as Chernobyl suggests it's not too hard to advance it a bit and drop it on the other side of the north pole instead.
We are also in the finishing stages on a third Far East AP Plug-In adventure, Jim Groves' Road to Destiny, which should be out by the end of the month. Unfortunately for folks at this stage, it's much more focused on the early stages of the grand caravan journey and not as easy to adapt, but still might be well worth a look for people who have enjoyed the AP or might be running it again.
... Legendary Games designed for the Jade Regent AP,...
Thanx for the hint.
Anyone else got any tips for spicing up the yeti caves? I don't want to do multiple encounters against identical groups of five yeti / two yeti savages. Should I give them pets? Class levels? Skip them entirely?
Just drop encounters before the final battle. I did that and it worked well. Encounters with the undead in the yeti caves were challenging enough for my PCs. Worked pretty well. In final battle you can use different yeti as much as you want without boring your players. If you are worried about XP just add some story XP to get your PCs to next level.
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I'm having some trouble deciphering the "Fording the Taraksa" event. The first paragraph says that if the caravan follows the Kluani "they automatically locate the ford," but that if they try to find it they have to "try to find an alternate ford," which requires one Security check. Then the next paragraph describes how to find the ford, which takes four security checks.
It seems to me that the four Security check paragraph is a clarification of the "strike out to find their own," since "automatically finding the ford" implies that no Security checks are necessary.
If that's true, that Security checks are not necessary to cross the Taraksa ford, then there's no advice on how long that should take.
As an added bonus, I rolled a Heatwave for that day, after days and days of freezing weather, which should melt the ice just enough to make crossing potentially deadly.
I'm not sure what to do, though. Four Security checks? One, but at a higher difficulty? Greater penalties for failure (including potentially losing wagons)? Fight the glacier toads, with a 50% chance to break the ice and trigger the giant pikes?
Am I misreading the second paragraph? What have others done, here?