Does anyone know what the object near the northwest edge of Baba Yaga's Garden is? There's a trail leading up to it, but I can't find any mention in the area descriptions. If there's nothing on it, I'll just assume it is the outhouse.
Does anyone know if there is a picture of Ivoryglass floating around. I like giving my players a visual and I haven't had luck on Google.
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It seems this book in the RoW series has the least amount of posts on these forums and I'm wondering why that is? Did most people skip it, replace it with something else entirely or was it so uneventful that it's not worthy of comment?
I'm personally thinking of relocating this AP to Krynn but wondering if it's worth the effort.
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I haven't gotten to it yet, and am still waffling as to whether or not to run it. There are a number of people on the previous page that said it's a good adventure, assuming you're okay with its only hook to the adventure as a whole being "Baba Yaga wants to test the PCs some more".
I'm trying to figure out a way to bring it more in line with the plot, but my current thought process (a triaxian in Artrosa wants to go home, so swaps out the keys) is still extremely tangential to the plot as a whole.
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I'm only starting book 2 in a 3 weeks so I still have time to decide but I want to start weaving in plot elements from it now. As I mentioned above, I'm thinking of using Krynn instead and as a means of foreshadowing a bit, while the party is still in Waldsby, there will be a night attack on the village led by Rohkar (he got away at the end of Snows) with a force of Draconians (Baaz and Kapak) to level the town. Reinforcements came in late to help him at the Pale Tower...
It will be interesting to see the reaction from the players once their weapons get stuck in the "lizard mens" bodies...
My party is still in Whitethrone. I will have them learn of a secret meeting between the witches and mysterious new allies and might throw in an encounter with dragonriders somewhere along the way.
One idea I had while playing this (as written) was that it could work well enough as an attack on Whitethrone as well. Our group was pretty attached to the events there and it felt like a wasted opportunity to just abandon the city.
Basically in the alternate version the players attack Elvannas palace (mostly using the siege from the attackers perspective). They don't find her, but some messages she exchanged with a mysterious ally (Rasputin), as well as a description of the keys required to get there.
Make it so that one of the keys is guarded by some northern tribe (replaces the attack on the commander after the siege) and one guarded by a powerful dragon (you guess it).
This creates a stronger connection to the main plot, while also giving your players some more agency. I feel like directly opposing Elvannas forces would have done a lot to motivate us.
Connecting book 3 to all of this is as easy as saying the players visit the megadungeon to find a way of removing some protection magic Baba Yaga placed on the palace.
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My party didn't have enough fly to go around, so they teleported into Spurhorn, having been warned by Bescaylie and Efrixis that it was going to fail. But, the NPC pair decided that whatever happened, it was likely better if they were with the PCs.
However, I find the teleport trap to be REALLY lame. If any legionnaire is with the PCs, they know the answer. If that's the case, I really feel like this teleport trap situation would've been figured out by now. So, I'm making it harder. The lore question will remain more or less unchanged, except the specific names will be different. But on top of that, I bought a blank slide puzzle and wrote the names on the tiles, one letter per tile, and jumbled them up.
So the NPCs will still provide the names, but the players will have to solve the puzzle.
And if they get stuck or frustrated, I threw a Displacing Stone inside the golem. So if they kill it, it can move the 20000 lb stone away for a minute.
Does Spurhorn need to be so absurdly large? It's breaking my player's games when they try to load it.
It's also not an area they would really explore unless they choose to join the attackers. I'm just dropping it entirely and am using some maps from elsewhere.
Hey all! just starting this book (though we are converting to 2e for this game)
As I've found for the other modules in this AP, there is a serious lack of maps! pretty much any combat that isn't in the Hut intro or in Ivoryglass has nothing...
What are you all using for maps? Looking for some good maps to use on Roll20 for the encounters on the way to Spurhorn, during the siege fights and in the drakelands.
I did a google search for "Pathfinder winter map" "D&D winter map"... probably used "snow" instead of winter as well....
The camp, I just used a big map of an army camp I found that I liked and told the players to pretend there was snow.
That is exactly how a see it.
A long and wide vertical chimney carved by melting glacier water. At the botom lies a slab of pale stone and on top of it sits a giant carved block of ice, ivorystone.
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Hey all - I hope someone sees this soon, I know this is an old AP but my group and I are just now getting to it.
Anyway my party is in the crevasse and making their way to Ivoryglass. They are following Baknarla and all seems to be going well. But I'm having a disconnect and it's not making sense to me.
The whole point (apart from the dragon bane longspear) of taking the Crevasse is that it gives them a "back door" entrance to the Dragon's fortress. But when they arrive there it just says they make it to the southern edge of the moulin... which is a solid wall. So then what? they have to go over to the front entrance? Which solved what exactly?
What am I missing?
Hey all - I hope someone sees this soon, I know this is an old AP but my group and I are just now getting to it.
Anyway my party is in the crevasse and making their way to Ivoryglass. They are following Baknarla and all seems to be going well. But I'm having a disconnect and it's not making sense to me.
The whole point (apart from the dragon bane longspear) of taking the Crevasse is that it gives them a "back door" entrance to the Dragon's fortress. But when they arrive there it just says they make it to the southern edge of the moulin... which is a solid wall. So then what? they have to go over to the front entrance? Which solved what exactly?
What am I missing?
As I understand it Yrax has a number of armies and agents on the march and on patrol in the area. He would want to resume the siege as soon as possible afterall and the adventure makes it sound like he has a lot of resources to throw around. Taking the Crevasse is a backdoor in the sense that it avoids these patrols and the bulk of Yrax's army but does not necessarily mean they don't still have to go through the front entrance. Though it has been a while since I prepped to run this book so I may be misremembering.
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As I understand it Yrax has a number of armies and agents on the march and on patrol in the area. He would want to resume the siege as soon as possible afterall and the adventure makes it sound like he has a lot of resources to throw around. Taking the Crevasse is a backdoor in the sense that it avoids these patrols and the bulk of Yrax's army but does not necessarily mean they don't still have to go through the front entrance. Though it has been a while since I prepped to run this book so I may be misremembering.
Right, they do miss some of the patrols, but then still have to fight the creatures in the Crevasse... doesn't really seem like it helps them much.
But that's the way it looks to me too. I don't see alternative but walking right up to the front door, and either bluffing or fighting their way through.
I will read it again before everyone arrives this evening.
Going through the crevasse allows the PCs to bypass a veritable army of evil dragonkin.
They're going deep behind enemy lines and having to fight everything you come across would surely do the group in.
I have not read this entire thread yet, but I have read the adventure. I was toying with the idea of actually making this a desert world or even Mars/Barsoom. Or potentially a Dark Sun visit. I thought it would be a nice change from all the winter, and both Barsoom/Dark Sun are interesting settings.
For context, I run my games on Earth (Dying Earh-type setting, distant future) so Mars is an option as are any other planet/moons in our system.
I have not read this entire thread yet, but I have read the adventure. I was toying with the idea of actually making this a desert world or even Mars/Barsoom. Or potentially a Dark Sun visit. I thought it would be a nice change from all the winter, and both Barsoom/Dark Sun are interesting settings.
For context, I run my games on Earth (Dying Earh-type setting, distant future) so Mars is an option as are any other planet/moons in our system.
So still in book 2 but looking forward to this adventure. Here are the changes I have in mind to make it Barsoom/Mars:
- Its a Helium outpost (drakelands) being attacked by Zodanga (frost drake) (so Red Martian vs Red Martian).
- Dragons will be replaced by sapient/AI airships. Essentially reskin them as Martian air-sleds.
- Yrax is actually a shapeshifted White Martian, and will probably lean into Psionics.
- Replace hydras with white-apes.
- Cesser of Ning is a Black martian bodyguard for Yrax.
- Switch the wolfoid (adlet) creature with the green martian (thri-kreen).
- "voice of Barsoom" that allows PCs to speak the language... eventually. A type of drug.
- Equip mooks with firearms ("blaster").
Will update how it went once done (so at least 6 months from now).
My group was also lacking in 'Fly'. So, they sent Bescaylie, Efrixis, and a group member ahead to inform the defenders that the rest of the group would be teleporting in.
This allowed a delegation of defenders to be waiting at the trap when the group arrived, thus avoiding the golem fight.
One magic item (that is almost a throwaway item you might not notice) in the Hut are ointments that provide Flight.
In Room A8, Witch's Hut, can be found this:
While most of the items in this room are nonmagical, 4 doses of flying ointment (Ultimate Equipment 299) can be found on the shelves, and a habit of the winter explorer (see page 62) hangs on a hook next to the outer door
Flying Ointment: This preparation of herbs includes belladonna, mandrake, and foxglove (also known as “witch’s glove”) in a base of rendered fats. When rubbed over the skin, the ointment grants the subject the ability to fly (as the overland flight spell) for up to 9 hours.
As an aside, my group consisted of four characters, a GMPC, and a large-sized animal companion. I just upped the number of ointments that were found to six.
Hi all, my PCs just got to the garden hut and encountered the moon beast. The moon beast has charmed/dominated 3 of the party members and the party is a little frustrated as they don’t know what to do. They are no min/maxers so they don’t have a really deep knowledge of the rules. They have also come from 5e. Any advice I can provide them? At this stage as soon as the moon-beast can plane shift he is taking half the party with him as slaves.
They also found most of the plants in the garden pretty brutal. In particular their high CMD/B numbers. They just couldn’t resist or escape the grabs. Any advice here apart from buffing?
For context my PCs are under leveled but their are a lot of them - fighter 9, cleric 8, thief 8, magus 8, bard 7, fighter 5 (henchmen), and a yeti (long story but basically a henchmen to the magus).
Thanks.
Hi all, my PCs just got to the garden hut and encountered the moon beast. The moon beast has charmed/dominated 3 of the party members and the party is a little frustrated as they don’t know what to do. They are no min/maxers so they don’t have a really deep knowledge of the rules. They have also come from 5e. Any advice I can provide them? At this stage as soon as the moon-beast can plane shift he is taking half the party with him as slaves.
They also found most of the plants in the garden pretty brutal. In particular their high CMD/B numbers. They just couldn’t resist or escape the grabs. Any advice here apart from buffing?
For context my PCs are under leveled but their are a lot of them - fighter 9, cleric 8, thief 8, magus 8, bard 7, fighter 5 (henchmen), and a yeti (long story but basically a henchmen to the magus).
Thanks.
I know that this is more than a month later, but I thought that I'd share one important thing which I've learned about underlevelled characters: their saving throws are their weakest points. They should be looting/buying/crafting Cloaks of Resistance and anything else which helps them to make their saves.
In general, a larger but underlevelled party - in comparison to a typical four-person party with the correct levels - has the action economy on their side, a different distribution of hit points (the overall hit point pool is probably bigger), are less likely to complete their attacks (due to lower BAB or DCs on their abilities), and are more likely to fail their saving throws. And that last bit is the worst, particularly in "save or die" situations.