Hello fellow roleplayers
I am about to join you in this campaign. I will be the GM for my group and I have only read the first two scenarioes so far.
And I would like to hear words from you experienced men and women.
What is good? What was really good when you played?
And of course... What.. Was bad? And why?
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The pace of leveling is uneven in the first bit. It feels rapid in book 1, then much slower in book 2.
In book 1, one of the players will take the role of the "moldspeaker" and becomes a bit of a special PC throughout the campaign. If he dies, the campaign loses a little something. Figure out ahead of time if you want the mold to be transferable on death, or if you'll follow canon, and have death be the end of that boon.
The expansion articles in books 1 and 2 should be used to flesh out exploring in and around the region. Use this material to transition gradually from book 1 to 2: don't just start book 2 after book 1 finishes. You'll have to write some of your own stuff though.
The Carrion King hits like a Mac Truck. If your party doesn't optimize, expect a TPK. If your party does optimize, expect a couple deaths anyway.
There is a way to go straight from the outside of the House of the Beast right into the Carrion King's throne room. (Through a chimney.) This bypasses most of the dungeon. Some call this a glitch, others call this awesome. Think about whether or not you want it to be possible before you get surprised be it.
Book 3 is a little underpowered. Enemies die a bit easier. Consider boosting the Jackel.
If you want to do any urban side-treks, do them during book 3. The format is loose enough to absorb them. Besides, it helps spend time while you're waiting for an opening to transition to book 4.
The transition between books 3 and 4 is rough. Very rough. Very, very rough. Plan ahead how you're going to handle this. Figure it out before your PCs even finish book 2. You want it to be organic. (Hence the suggestion of sidequests.)
Book 4 is great. Enjoy it.
Book 5 is a slog. First: it's a high-level dungeon crawl filled with many enemies that have no purpose other than to grind though. Second: your players will resent going from one prison to the next. Third: the plot is telling you to "HURRY UP" (after all, an army of Efreeti are trashing your hometown while you're here) and you can't do much about it. All this leads to player frustration. I would cut 2/3rds of the material. Figure out the few bits that let you know about Javhul's backstory, and leave the rest.
Note that there are no "towns" or access to markets throughout all of books 4 and 5. For old-school players who like using the treasure they find, this is fine. For new-school players, who tend to expect to be able to always sell their magic items and buy better stuff from the magimart: they will be very frustrated. Either way, consider modifying treasure to match what the PCs are specialized in, so as to mitigate.
Book 6 is neat. Figure out ahead of time how you want to handle the fact that Nefeshti is giving away Wishes to the party.
There's a few ways to "break" things in book 6. Let them. It's not that important anyways.
Erik Freund!
Thank. you. so. much.
This is pure gold
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Mostly what Erik said, though the degree to which players enjoy Dungeon Crawls for their own sake and will thus enjoy part 5 is gonna vary a lot between groups, and thus so should the degree to which you cut it short.
A few other notes:
As Erik mentioned, you don't get a lot of shopping time in this one. You can shop after Book 1, in mid to late Book 3, and at the beginning of Book 6...and that's basically it. Having a spelcaster PC pick up Craft Wondrous Item helps this a lot and might thus be worth suggesting to your players. You should also probably have a PC who uses Great Axes, and another who uses Scimitars, both for flavor and because those crop up a lot (almost to the exclusion of others). Maneuvering one who uses some other weapon into taking on the role of moldspeaker is probably worth doing if you think the player can pull it off.
Due to the same circumstances, those times plus the majority of Book 1 are the only times you have access to healing from outside the party (Wands of Cure Light Wounds, Raise Dead spells, etc.) so it might behoove you to have a character in the party who can do that stuff when needed. They don't need to be really focused on it (any Druid or Cleric, or any Oracle willing to put a little effort in, as well as most truly focused healers of other classes), but having them around will make PC deaths a lot less likely, and, frankly, this is an AP where replacement PCs are a bit hard to introduce in volumes 4 and 5, so that's something you want to avoid to some degree.
In Book 2, the PCs can very easily wind up fighting the Carrion King very quickly in the adventure, due to the way it's set up. Be aware of this, and that they'll probably try to leave thereafter if they win (since as far as they know, killing him is all they're there for).
Additionally, don't buy too far into the idea of the Carrion King being an unstoppable monster. He's very dangerous (he took out the party Barbarian in a round when I ran LoF)...but by no means unbeatable. I mention this only because the players I ran this for took him down really fast and, having heard how terrifying he was (repeatedly) I was somewhat at a loss as to what to do afterwards (the Djinn-blooded Sorcerer burned all his 2nd level spells to make everyone invisible and they ambushed the poor bastard en masse...it lasted about a round after the surprise round and the Barbarian he took out was the only PC to take damage). I'm aware my experience was atypical, but it's still good to be aware that it can happen.
I ran a single session of Howl of the Carrion King, so I'm not sure how much weight my opinion carries...
I definately agree with Deadmanwalking on the weapons, but it's easy to convert these to suit your PCs (the art, not so much, but my players tend to be an understanding bunch.)
I also think there's a lot of room for expanding the "Moldspeaker" plot. Being posessed by an ancient powerful genie is a TOTALLY BADASS subplot for any sorcerer, summoner, wizard, monk or any PC. Posessing them through mildew? Not so much. There's definately room to make this a LOT cooler. Write up some dreams, visions and whathaveyou and make something a bit more epic.
Finally, NPC variety. This is the reason I haven't picked up this campaign again. I happen to have one and only one "arabic" voice. Every one of my humanoid NPCs sounded exactly the damn same, and given that I ran HotCK as an impromptu, late night session nobody had ANY f*@%ing idea what was going on. :P
It mightn't be a huge issue, but if you pride yourself on your voice work like I do, you might want to make a few changes in this regard.
The Carrion King is by no means unstoppable. From a defenses and durability point of view, he's pretty standard for a boss.
It's his damage output that's out of this world.
And good call on the "scimitars and greataxes" angle. There's a few too many of those. Not to mention you end up getting three outsider [fire] bane weapons by the end. Yea, I know, you're up against efreets, but it seems a bit much.
Another question.
When Kelmarane is retaken and Almah is in control. She gives the PC's that mansion as a stronghold. Did this provide your groups with anything productive?
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I had a lot of trouble running The End of Eternity. It's very free form; the PCs can ally with one of two (?) different factions and still escape Kakishon; however, the text about this process is confusing in the extreme, essentially indicating that the PCs have to go around killing every sentient in Kakishon who is unwilling to leave (which is only true of creatures not native to Kakishon) -- it also strongly suggests that when Kakishon collapses, all the nonnatives will be ejected at the location of the scroll in the dungeon on the Plane of Fire, with the PCs.
A lot of the confusion was addressed on the messageboards, if your Search-Fu is strong, but the text as written is very confusing.
To reiterate and combine some things said by others:
1) From the moment the PCs kill the Carrion King in book 2, until they arrive in Kakishon in book 4, it is very easy for them to wander away from the plot; the assumed motivations are not necessarily realistic, and it can start to feel railroady. ("Alright, big bad killed, let's search the basement for treasure!" "Well, that worked great, we just recovered an artifact that's been sealed away in an evil temple for centuries! Quick, let's sell it to the highest bidder!" WTF?) It would be best to read through this part before your players make their backstories, so you can start working on what angles to use to motivate them through this. On the other hand...
2) You can skip books 3 and 5 without badly damaging the plot. If you go this route, you will need to add side-quests to keep the party at the appropriate level, rewrite encounters to be easier, or throw out the XP tables and do levels by DM fiat.
3) It's unlikely that players will stumble on it without a huge amount of luck (or divination), but Book 5, like Book 2, can be finished in about 3 fights; less with Dimension Door or Teleport, but that's standard. If your group likes the clever solution more than they like dungeon crawls, you can help them out with more explicit clues from Ezer, or by making it a little easier for them to pick up that random Easter egg in the Katapesh marketplace back in book 3.
4) In addition to the scimitar and greataxe, you should also encourage some sort of religious/divine character devoted to Sarenrae. This tends to happen anyway given the setting, but it was kind of awkward in my campaign where the party cleric was a follower of Besmara instead.
5) There is a lot of cool backstory that the PCs will never know if you don't go out of your way to tell them. There's a really obvious way to do this in book 5, but you might want to be sure to throw them some bones before them, or they'll be confused. On the other hand, keeping with the plot in book 3 requires some PC ignorance, so don't give too much away unless you've come up with a totally different angle.
Another question.
When Kelmarane is retaken and Almah is in control. She gives the PC's that mansion as a stronghold. Did this provide your groups with anything productive?
The primary purpose is to make them more attached to Kelmarane, so they will feel more personally involved when it is getting trashed a few books down the line. It's not just a village full of helpless innocents... It's also OUR SWEET MANSION!
Great posts you guys.
My group is the following:
Katapeshi Paladin of Sarenrae - missionary
Katapeshi Ranger of Irori - Gnoll killer
Katapeshi Cleric of Saranrae - Finding Haleen & missionary
Katapeshi Cavalier of Saranrae - Recalming your roots (The Mansion will be his former home and his family former nobels who served Order of The Shield)
Catfolk Rogue of Irori - Earning your freedom (send with the group as bodyguard for the paladin and cleric)
The cleric wants to go wizard and then mystic theurge.
And the Catfolk wants to go wizard and then Arcane Trickster.
For the multi-classing wizard I will make a wizards guild travel to Kelmarane and open a guildhouse for selling scrolls, spellbooks, rods and magic items alike. This will also be combined with the Refuge of Nethys quest from Book 1.
I would love to make my group stay in Kelmarane for quite a time and do some questing around the place. Do any of you guys have idears?
There are a number of additions to the campaign here in this forum. Check out John Mangrum's conversions thread, he's got some great ideas in there beyond straight conversions. I think there's also a thread around about people's ideas for how to add Pazhvann, and at least one for what to do with Zayifid. Be sure to check out the "Director's Cut" of End of Eternity; there are instructions on how to get it in the End of Eternity GM thread.
Specifically for the year of downtime in Kelmarane, I know people have fleshed out a few of the locations given as adventure hooks in the books; including the abandoned watchtower and the waterfall on the Pale river. There are also several people's attempts to make the Kingmaker kingdom building rules apply to Kelmarane, which would surely give the PCs a huge sense of connection to the town.
I'd post links to all these, but I bet you can find them as fast as me.
I think I still have a copy of these. PM me.
Thanks for the new posts! It's so usefull.
My group has suggested writing a diary and journals. Do any of you guys know a forum, where interested people would like to follow us on our campaign?
You mean like this one?
Perfect.
Hope that I can help back someday :)
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My PbP is nearly on chapter 3 and I was going to post some detailed thoughts when I got there.
Some short ones (many good tips already stated above):
1. Many APs are criticized for not revealing the BBEG until late. I think the opposite applies to this AP. The existence of the BBEG is revealed too early and that actually helps to derail the plot (or at least make things much more difficult). The group should have a strong incentive to activate the scroll rather than a disincentive. You may want to work in some subtle clues that something is not quite right with it though.
2. The Templars are one of the coolest part of the AP but badly underutilised due to them being slapped in at the last minute. I think its a lot more fun to have them do more. There are good ideas how to add the dead one on this forum. Plus Zayifid surviving chapter 2 is capable of solving many plot problems in chapter 3 (and he should, most parties will really struggle to end him prior to dimensional anchor). I want the monk to appear as early as chapter 3 as well *evil grin*.
3. Tell the party in advance that shopping opportunities will be limited at times and crafting won't be practical either. You will need to do some loot tailoring and party wizards don't get much love in the spell book department.
4. Difficulty does seem really uneven from chapter 2 (hard) to chapter 3 and 4 (easy). I have to substantially beef up enemies for my 6 player 20 point group in any event. The Carrion King will brutalise some parties and fall easily to others (his will save isn't great and his reflex save horrendous). Simple things like grease and create pit will give him fits. Have a think about how your party will go against him and adjust as appropriate (how they go against Kardswann isn't a bad indication he's another high offense, medium defense melee boss). I think the main thing is not to throw other gnolls in as well if you think they will struggle (by himself my group would have thrashed him without breaking a sweat).
5. The writer of chapter 4 can be emailed to provide his uncut version of the chaper (see that forum for details). It is much awesomer than the printed version I think.
6. So many many high strength enemies with greataxes. All in theme but chances are someone is going to die to a x3 crit eventually.
7. I plan to cut most of chapter 5 as suggested above. Its a largely boring dungeon crawl right where a fun adventure in the City of Brass should be. You could add some extra-planar fun or amp up the first part of chapter 6 instead. Few campaigns go full circle and end up where you started. I think its a great feature and deserves more focus.
8 The ability to wish arrives in chapter 6. Think about how your going to deal with this in advance. The AP doesn't really help out much in that department.
9 The final fight looks like it needs a lot of work (scorching rays and walls of fire, seriously do you think they may not have resist fire at that point?!)
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Awesome post DM Dan #.
Thank you.
My own group is also really really good players. They know how to play together and become extremely powerfull.
I am wondering about two things.
How did your partys attitude turn out to be with Almah? When I read about her I sometimes see her as a douche. She is quite selfish and is most concerned about herself and her family.
Secondly. In the Monastary of St. Vardishal. They find the inscription with Theodephus Estrovan purging a ghost. Did any of you make something more out of this? And if yes, what - and how did it go?
I like to play Almah as an arrogant, demanding, out-of-touch princess. Yet, she is the one handing out the treasure and adventure hooks, so the players like her alright. They are a pretty mercenary bunch.
I didn't do anything more with the stele, but I believe the point is that Theodephus, a non-paladin of Aroden (Aroden being dead at the time) presumably lacked normal paladin powers like detect evil, and "killed" the spirit of Vardishal which had previously been able to manifest normally in the monastery, reducing him to possessing the mold in the basement.
I played Almah as gutsy and supportive of the heroes (so long as they weren't acting like actual jerks toward her). In addition, I have her as a devout Sarenrae worshiper. End result, the PCs are generally quite fond of her, and the PC cleric of Sarenrae has delved into a slow-burn romance with her. Remember that she's essentially the face of Kelmarane, and since protecting Kelmarane is a major element of the AP, driving a wedge between Almah and the PCs may well discourage them from forging a bond with the community.
The ghost Estrovan purged was Vardishal--it's what forced the final tatters of his spirit to cling to existence within the monastery's mold. Unfortunately, it's also an example of how the backstory of the AP sometimes needs to be gleaned piecemeal from the text. I sometimes ponder whether it would be useful to post a complete account of the events that lead up to the AP.
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I'm just a little afraid, that my players find Almah stupid and wants to go alone - and that could screw up the AP.
And also. When it comes to cleansing out the Monastary and Kelmarane. I know my players and they will wonder why she doesn't come along. Also Garavel and the rest of the mercenaries and soldiers.
My players is always thinking about plot twists and backstapping NPC's. So they will questing those things.
"The ghost Estrovan purged was Vardishal" .. I didn't catch that point when reading the AP. Thanks John.
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I tried to make it clear that Garavel had hired the PCs for their "special talents" to act as the vanguard for the Kelmarane Expedition. Dashki's job is to scout around and gather info on the town's occupiers, Zastoran's job is camp medic (and he's quick to complain that he's too old to go adventuring, whether or not that's true). Almah's a merchant princess, not an adventurer, though likewise she's no wallflower. Garavel and the Pactmaster guards are there specifically to safeguard Almah's personal safety, and the mercenaries are additional security for the camp.
My players didn't have any trouble accepting that the PCs were being sent off to do this stuff alone, since I had the NPCs keep stressing (each in their own way) that doing so was the PCs' specific purpose in the expedition; the heroes were the elite strike team, with everyone else acting as their backup support. My alchemist version of Zastoran did provide the PCs with free extracts each day, and the PCs had a deal wherein if they used all of their extract (and kept the camp up to date on where they were going), Zastoran would take that as a sign that the PCs were in trouble (since he'd know when his extracts slots were available to him again) and the mercenaries would be dispatched as a rescue party.
But they were also okay with it due to the basic adventurer logic that splitting XP and treasure four ways is better than splitting it ten ways. By the end of the adventure, they did still spend chunks of their time with Haleen, Oxvard, and a reluctant Dashki tagging along with them. (Though they actually turned down an offer to have the mercenaries accompany them on the Battle Market raid.)
On another note, it came out too late to play any role in my campaign, but you may also want to check out Pathfinder Adventure Path #37 (Souls for Smuggler's Shiv, part 1 of Serpent's Skull), which includes a rules subset for establishing semi-permanent camps in the wilderness. It looks like it would port over to HotCK rather smoothly, and allows you to assign specific roles to each of the NPCs present, be it adding to the camp's defenses or medical needs or boosting morale. Might help soothe players worried about "do-nothing" NPCs.
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What a great post. This is pure gold. My first session is monday. And I am preparing as a maniac.
I read your whole conversion and the two extra scenarios with the Ghoul Fortress and Beshvi. Thanks for your work! It's really good.
Well, my players are always thinking. And they write nearly everything down. And makes notes about which NPC likes who - and why. And that way the have total control of everything that has happened - and might happend in the furture.
That is why I am worried about "do-notihng" NPCs, Almah being a douche and the soldiers + guards do nothing while the players risk their lives.
I'm gonna check out the Path #37 - thanks!
Garavels bolt from the Pactmasters - did your players find it and what did happend about it?
My players could easily come up with a complete conspiracy theory in a few hours.
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As for the Jhavhul/Scroll spoiler (which can potentially derail the AP), I've gone with the information as presented, but I'm careful to shape it just so. The PCs learn a lot about the Templars right away, but the Templars don't trust the PCs and share as little information with them as possible. The Templars are the only beings who know what exactly happened on the slopes of Pale Mountain (who haven't been utterly scoured out of the multiverse).
From the accounts the PCs have uncovered, Nefeshti and the Templars didn't simply defeat Jhavhul and his army, they "tore reality apart" and "annihilated" them. The PCs know that the Scroll was discovered in the wake of the battle, but what is was doing there is unclear. As we draw closer to the pivotal event, I'll have Rayhan make some correct and some incorrect speculations about the Scroll of Kakishon.
Ancient depictions of the Scroll of Kakishon make no mention of the damage it seems to have suffered. Since the Scroll is otherwise impervious to harm, Rayhan concludes (correctly) that the Scroll may have suffered this damage when the Templars used their genie wishcraft to literally unweave reality around Jhavhul's army, tearing them out of existence. What but a major artifact could even hope to survive the large-scale rending of the planar fabric all around it? In fact, Rayhan (incorrectly) then thinks that the Scroll may in fact be the very prize that Jhavhul and Nefeshti's armies were warring over. Even genies would covet the gates to paradise!
In fact, while my players know they'll be running into trouble with genies at some point in the future, they're not certain who the ultimate big bad is going to be. They're half-certain that it'll turn out to be Nefeshti, driven mad by whatever happened in the cataclysmic final battle of the Genie War.
While thinking about it, I also realized that there's a slight plot hole attached to the end of The Jackal's Price. Up to that point in the AP, Vardishal's spirit has been singularly obsessed with ensuring that the Scroll doesn't fall into the wrong hands and that Jhavhul stays down. But at the moment the PCs actually open the scroll themselves, the little whisper in the moldspeaker's head remains suspiciously silent.
Why? I have an answer, which also explains Vardishal's original falling out with the Templars.
Vardishal was the general of Nefeshti's armies. He never liked the idea of "bottling" Jhavhul and his minions within Kakishon. No, the threat of Jhavhul completing his rite was too severe. He wanted to fight Jhavhul to the bitter end, to not rest until the efreeti was finally destroyed. As far as Vardishal was concerned, using the Scroll of Kakishon was nothing but a risky delaying tactic. However, he went along with the plan out of deference to Nefeshti and a certain tactical desperation. He agreed on the stipulation that Jhavhul would be contained only until the Templars had rebuilt their strength and numbers. Once the Templars were strong enough to face Jhavhul once more, they would free the efreeti and destroy him.
Didn't work out that way.
After the Scroll wiped Jhavhul off the face of creation and Nefeshti collapsed into despair, Vardishal refused to surrender his search for the missing Scroll. This resulted in his parting ways with the Templars; he was more loyal to his leader's cause than he was to his leader.
Cut to 400 years later, and Vardishal is a tattered, formless spirit tagging along in the back of the moldspeaker's mind. Vardishal sees the potential of the moldspeaker and his or her allies, and through his subtle cues, he guides the moldspeaker toward greater and greater glories.
Like Zayifid, Vardishal actually wants Jhavhul freed, but for completely different reasons. Zayifid wants to help Jhavhul for the sake of his own power and glory. Vardishal, on the other hand, wants to fling Jhavhul back into the world, at the feet of a new band of Templars, heroes he'd helped guide and shape. He wants the PCs (but only the PCs) to free Jhavhul, so they can kill him once and for all.
An incredibly risky and dangerous plan, but then, it is coming from someone whose decisions and loyalty to the end goal had already whittled him down to the level of fungus. :)
Garavels bolt from the Pactmasters - did your players find it and what did happened about it?
My players could easily come up with a complete conspiracy theory in a few hours.
My group's PCs noticed it and knew what it was (with successful skill checks), but simply accepted it as the first of many quirky details about life in Katapesh. (The players' comprehension that the Pactmasters weren't human came much later and caused a few gasps, and the PCs still haven't learned the full story of Garavel's bolt; all they know is that Garavel and the PC wooing Almah seem to keep stepping on each other's toes.)
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Another comment from a fellow DM, work out how you wish to treat the attitude of the players to slavery...both the Paladin and the Cleric of Sarenrae in my group are natives to the area and are treating slavery as completely ok. It completely threw me as I had some replacement characters come in as slaves given to the party, thinking they would free them and we would all go our merry way. Instead half the party are now beholden to the other half...it has created some very strange dynamics.
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I have completed 5 AP's now and LoF is my favourite.
The thing about this AP is that there are a few of what I call "break points" i.e. points in the plot where if the players do not do what the plot expects the entire thing derails.
The two obvious ones are the Moldspeaker and the Scroll. As written the Moldspeaker has to be hit by the mold and then the PC has to fail a save to become the Moldspeaker. If this doesn't happen then the scroll is highly unlikely to be found. Also once the players have the scroll you have to be careful that they don't just go straight to Katapesh and sell it to the first huckster on the street.
Luckily neither of these happened in my game. My Moldspeaker got hit and failed the save and my players were all for finding out what the scroll was all about. Mind you I had contingencies.
Still by far and away my favourite AP though.
I have completed 5 AP's now and LoF is my favourite.
The thing about this AP is that there are a few of what I call "break points" i.e. points in the plot where if the players do not do what the plot expects the entire thing derails.
The two obvious ones are the Moldspeaker and the Scroll. As written the Moldspeaker has to be hit by the mold and then the PC has to fail a save to become the Moldspeaker. If this doesn't happen then the scroll is highly unlikely to be found. Also once the players have the scroll you have to be careful that they don't just go straight to Katapesh and sell it to the first huckster on the street.
Luckily neither of these happened in my game. My Moldspeaker got hit and failed the save and my players were all for finding out what the scroll was all about. Mind you I had contingencies.
Still by far and away my favourite AP though.
As the Moldspeaker is pretty harmless and easily removed I just treated the DC as infinite.
You also have further opportunities to infect someone if Father Zastoran has them lie down on the slab in the laboratory for healing. That was what did it in my game. If the first one makes their save... Next.
It is a little weird that it is tied to an effect which targets Fort, when the classes which make the most use of Tempest have high Fort saves. I get why that's what it is, because it's tied to the mold's disease, but the actual effect seems much more like something that would require a will save.
I also do agree that this is a situation where it is reasonable for the GM to ignore the save. It's an important plot point, it's basically harmless, it isn't a situation which is really covered by the normal rules, and there is at least one wish in play.
Where in the Serpent skull book 1 is the rules for camping? I dont want to read any spoilers.
It's a small section of the "Shipwrecked!" article following the adventure. ("Establishing a Base Camp" through "Morale," pp. 57-58.)
I played Almah as gutsy and supportive of the heroes (so long as they weren't acting like actual jerks toward her). In addition, I have her as a devout Sarenrae worshiper. End result, the PCs are generally quite fond of her, and the PC cleric of Sarenrae has delved into a slow-burn romance with her. Remember that she's essentially the face of Kelmarane, and since protecting Kelmarane is a major element of the AP, driving a wedge between Almah and the PCs may well discourage them from forging a bond with the community.
The ghost Estrovan purged was Vardishal--it's what forced the final tatters of his spirit to cling to existence within the monastery's mold. Unfortunately, it's also an example of how the backstory of the AP sometimes needs to be gleaned piecemeal from the text. I sometimes ponder whether it would be useful to post a complete account of the events that lead up to the AP.
My approach was very similar to John's (down to the Father being an alchemist to get around the "why can't he just heal the guard at the camp fire" initial encounter).
As above its very important for the plot for the PCs to care about Kelmarane's fate and a big part of that I think is that they have good feelings about Almah. I've tried to play her as decent and brave, caring about her people including the PCs and a little out of her depth. That allows you to present her holding back the interdict key (and her knowledge of the existence of the demon) as well-intentioned rather than calculating (indeed in my game I had a replacement PC, Rayhan's apprentice, teleported in with the key so she didn't even have it at the start). When my group set out for the Temple of the Beast in chapter 2 she initially opposed it on the basis she didn't want the group throwing their lives away.
As for the rest of her guards she and Garavel were totally upfront to my PCs about their role. The pactmaster guards are there to protect Almah and protect her only. Garavel also spent most of his time trying to prevent her from getting near risky situations so that handles them. Garavel told my PCs that ultimately the mercenaries could be used at their discretion but generally it was a good idea for them to guard the monastery and all of the noncombatants (I had a lot more servants/workers) while the PCs did their thing. If your playing things right the PCs should be pretty worried about a gnoll attack while they're away so that works easily as well.
When it came time for the final battle at the market I had Almah, Garavel the other NPCs and all of the guards/mercenaries have an off-stage battle with gnolls at the front of the market while the PCs snuck in the side using Undrella's key.
As for the bolt I took over my game from another DM. Very early but after Garavel was described as having no bolt so I just went with that. It doesn't impact on the plot in any way.
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While thinking about it, I also realized that there's a slight plot hole attached to the end of The Jackal's Price. Up to that point in the AP, Vardishal's spirit has been singularly obsessed with ensuring that the...
Yep although I'd call it an enormous plot hole :) Another sign that the Templar / moldspeaker sub-plot got thrown in without thinking through the implications for the main plot.
My take was that if Vardishal knows that the efreet is trapped then he'd do everything possible to have his PC not activate the scroll.
My solution therefore was that he didn't know (that the efreet is trapped although he knows about the scroll itself). He died first, before the final battle with the efreet. This in my mind also helps with the "why exactly did all the Templars break up" and "how exactly did Vardishal die" plot uncertainties. In my game Nefeshti essentially sacrificed Vardishal to slow down the efreet's forces enough to allow the scroll plan to work. That in turn was the catalyst for Kardswann and Zayifid to leave the Templars, they loved Vardishal and were angry at Nefeshti. This allows you to be a bit more dimensional with them as well I think. I saw Kardswann as never quite getting over it while Zayifid's focus turned to finding a new patron once he started losing his powers (and aging, I linked his immortality to his Templar oath).
The monk left later (in my game finding a patron among the div who want the efreet to succeed), leaving a single loyal Templar able to interact with the group in chapter 3.
I do like the slightly irrational Vardishal manipulating the PCs plan as well though.
Ha ha. I am running a couple introduction adventures in Solku and am having the PC's going up against cultists of Jarvul, Jaavel, and so on. Basically, corruptions Jhavhul's name from his earlier attempt at godhood centuries (or millinia) ago.
1. Many APs are criticized for not revealing the BBEG until late. I think the opposite applies to this AP. The existence of the BBEG is revealed too early and that actually helps to derail the plot (or at least make things much more difficult). The group should have a strong incentive to activate the scroll rather than a disincentive. You may want to work in some subtle clues that something is not quite right with it though.
I like this one. A teasing as to what is to follow.
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So, still on the Scroll spoiler topic, I recently started running The Jackal's Price and so sat down and closely read it again for the first time in a couple of years. And now I'm fairly confident that, somehow, I completely missed or blanked out on that one short line in Rayhan's boxed text where he just completely, straight out, tells the PCs the very secret that by all rights should logistically end the campaign if learned too soon.
Yeah, the...
"We should totally go into Kakishon and explore its wonders! The Pleasure Palace, the vaults of Nex's treasures, that incredibly evil and powerful efreeti and his wish-twisted cult-army the Templars desperately locked out of the multiverse because their entire army couldn't defeat him... the white sand beaches... Come on, it'll be fun!"
...secret.
So, um, yeah. Rayhan shouldn't do that. Shouldn't know it, shouldn't say it. Just... no.
I put the Tower of the Last Baron, (modified) in as a side quest a little while after the finished liberating the town. The party was helping Almah establish herself as being both faithful and useful to the powers of Katapesh.
Add a couple of Gnoll encounters and the quest to take out the Carrion King doesn't seem out of the ordinary when it occurs.
Do not leave the pugwumpi's by the wayside after book 1. My players absolutely hated the little critters and having them encounter one later in the campaign would instantly put them on edge.
The player group being discussed has a lot of Sarenrae influence. During the second module the more holy characters my sense the menace that lurks as a vague uneasiness, realizing that it weighs on the future and is a concern of their diety. Finding the map provides lifts that feeling for a short time but it slowly returns.
Give the character that is planning to be the Mystic Theurge something nifty that used to belong to the ancient wizard guy (can't remember his name) such as a scroll case that automatically gives you the scroll you want as a free action. Have whoever the get it from talk it up and mention the wizard and his history. (Perhaps have it decorated with an islands motif)
More great posts!
I have been making up groups of NPC's that will join Kelmarane as it is cleared and conquered.
It made me wonder. What kind of NPC groups have you used for your game? I'll go into deep detail about everything in the city. What have you guys done here?
I just happened to mention over in this thread that I added an encounter with Amwyr Yuseifah on his way to Pale Mountain. Two of the heroes scrambled and managed to free nine of his twelve concubines, which sort of threw me for a loop. But the good kind, fortunately. I originally planned the encounter as a one-off to foreshadow the Carrion King and the House of the Beast, but the players really took a shine to the ladies and in various ways they've added a lot to the story.
Starting with a base "chassis" of female human expert 1/rogue (spy) 1, I then individualized each woman slightly.
Of the nine, Laetitia gets the most "screen time." She's a cynical seductress who's developed into a master of social manipulation. The party sorcerer's a kobold who doesn't really "get" mammalian behavior, so he took her on as his cohort to act as his rep and right-hand woman.
Asta was a sort of simple woman-child and Ulfen amazon; her introduction led the same sorcerer to spend his "year in Kelmarane" mostly off on a nine-month trip to the Lands of the Linnorm Kings. After some off-screen adventuring with the sorcerer and Laetitia, Asta stayed behind in her homeland at the end of that trip and so is the only one of the nine to "officially" leave the campaign.
Lalitya and Ziyi are currently servants at the PCs' home at the Wharfmaster's Manor. (Since I run a virtual tabletop, I also completely mapped the WM, by the by.) Lalitya's painfully shy, while Ziyi is dignified and discreet but, well, more or less what you would expect to get when you hire an exotic concubine as a housekeeper. They've now both become some of the sorcerer's followers, which doesn't actually change their day-to-day lives.)
Amestri and Shikaba now work at the Infusium. Amestri is fiercely independent and resents all reminders of her past, and with good cause. Zastoran's taken her in as an apprentice of sorts, and she'll be replacing Qura in The Final Wish. Shikaba, on the other hand, sidelines as a call girl and a "little bird" (informant) for Undrella (who's been made the spymaster under our take on the Kingmaker rules). Shikaba, sadly, walks on the dark side and is fated to put a tragically familiar face on Jhavhul's erinyes harem in the end.
Viraji is a gifted storyteller and, when the town rebuilt the temple of Sarenrae, she joined the clergy and is still training as an acolyte. She'll be one of the surviving acolytes in The Final Wish.
Zeldana and the half-elf Cathran both became handmaidens for Lady Almah. Not a lot more to say about them, really.
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Awesome John.
I'm going to make a side quest which will make the group ally with a pack of dwarves, which will serve as an outpost in the mountains.
And also a group of Osiroin and Katapeshi goblin merchants to join the city. The rogue is very happy with traps. So the goblins will be quite engineering inspired and technical.
The ranger has a big hate for gnolls and has automatically attacked ALL gnolls encountered so far. I'm going to let Ratsheek from the Pathfinder journal: Double dealings join the city as a slave-merchant. And she will of course be under the law - and killing her will be punished.