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After some bizarre hijinks at a combination Calistria / Cayden 'temple' and a visit to the Ascendant Court in Absalom the group made good with the teleporting back to the first teleportation trap.
Bouncing from gate to gate they finally returned to Renchurch. The group sprung the bog mummy encounter allowing the wizard to use one of his free high level spells (whirlpool) and defeat the encounter easily.
From there it was a manner of besting some and nullifying some still existent haunts before reaching my 'super trap'. The rogue/shadowdancer activated it and pulled the group once again into the 'Reliquary of Urgathoa'.
After brief preparation the group headed south where the scouts reported that Lucimar and the Bodaks that they had not yet encountered were laying in wait for them. After a few rounds to apply death ward from their wand the group ran in to face the oft-elusive necromancer.
Crowd-control and cloud spells all but neutralized the Bodak's most powerful effect. Just as he was about to be surrounded Lucimar dimension doored away again.
The group agreed to head down the western tunnel and investigate the rooms they had not yet searched. Several empty rooms were searched and a pair of ghostly lecturers were bested after a particularly harrowing moment when the alchemist was possessed and dangerously close to chopping up the wizard.
Heading south from there they infiltrated the library and after some deep thought and discussion discerned how to activate it without setting off the haunt. A very long series of questions about the Whispering Way commenced. I thoroughly regret not confining them to just six questions but overall the group was just given insight into the early days of the Reliquary.
They learned more about Lucimar and a strange but powerful member of the Whispering Way who tried to rebel and was killed for his trouble. His punishment was eternal 'life' (The Worm that Walks). After gleaning all I would give them the group set their sights on the next room.
Noting the piles of corpses and swarms of flies from a distance the group tossed a freezing sphere, aqueous orb, and wall of stone (to provide a walk way) into the room to make it more palatable.
The last session ended with the group being attacked by the Qlippoth. We continue this Sunday and hopefully I can report that the group has saved Kendra and defeated the Gray Friar.
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Credit goes to Keep Calm and Carrion for his Bloodsucking Fiend vampire which gave me the idea to make these guys more viable. Yes, I know there are 16 of them.
Their primary attack form is grapple, and aiding each other in getting grapple. Take note of coordinated maneuvers feat. If you use this build remember to give your guys an additional +2 to grapple when beside a comrade and a +4 to their CMD.
In my game these will be some deceptively mean Kendras.
Human juju zombie brawler (strangler) 3
NE Medium undead (augmented human)
Init +8 ; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception
DEFENSE
AC 20, touch 15 , flat-footed 15 (+1 Dodge, +2 Armor, +3 Natural, +4 Dex) (+2 v.s. Good)
hp 45
Fort +5, Ref +9, Will +4 (+2 v.s. good creatures)
Defensive Abilities channel resistance +4; DR 5/magic and slashing; Immune cold, electricity, magic missile, undead traits; Resist fire 10
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee mwk kukri +11 (1d4+7/18-20)
Special Attacks sneak attack while grappling +2d6
STATISTICS
Str 18, Dex 19, Con —, Int 8, Wis 13, Cha 10
Base Atk +3; CMB +10 (+13 Grapple) (+2 while adjacent to others); CMD 24 (28 v.s. Grapple While Around Others)
Note: Does NOT lose Dex Bonus while grappling.
+6 to Resist Channeled Negative Energy
Feats , Improved InitiativeB, ToughnessB, Improved GrappleB, Dodge, Weapon Focus (Grapple), Coordinated Maneuvers
Skills Acrobatics +8, Climb +16, Disable Device +8, Intimidate +5, Perception +6, Sleight of Hand +9, Stealth +8, Survival +3, Swim +8, Use Magic Device +5; Racial Modifiers +8 Climb
Languages Common
SQ strangle, practiced strangler, martial flexibility, martial training
ECOLOGY
Environment any land
Organization solitary
Treasure NPC gear (amulet of mighty fists +1 (symbol of urgathoa), mwk kukri, mwk leather armor)
Strangle (Ex): At 1st level, a strangler deals +1d6 sneak attack damage whenever she succeeds at a grapple check to damage or pin an opponent. The strangler is always considered flanking her target for the purpose of using this ability. This damage increases by +1d6 at 2nd, 8th and 15th levels. This ability replaces unarmed strike and brawler's flurry.
Practiced Strangler (Ex): At 2nd level, when a strangler has the grappled condition, she does not take a –4 penalty to Dexterity and does not lose her Dexterity bonus to AC. At 9th level, a grappling or grappled strangler still threatens an area and is still able to make attacks of opportunity while grappling or grappled; when pinned, she is not denied her Dexterity bonus and does not take a –4 penalty to Armor Class. This ability replaces AC bonus.
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I am about to wrap up part 1 of this adventure, and reading these has given me some good ideas on how to customize part 2 and make it a bit more personal than part 1 which I ran almost exactly by the book apart from the trust system, which I changed a bit so the town wouldnt run the PCs out on day 3 XD.
Thanks for posting and keep it up!
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The journey of the Riders of the Spiral, the majority of whom it seems have little to no idea at this point why they are trying to save the world, continued with their brawl with the Qlippoth. The fight was largely a bash, slash, and bleed fest. The only time I truly surprised frightened them with the encounter was when the wizard tried to cast within 30 feet and learned about the creature’s reach. They killed it and immediately started to discuss whether they should rest.
Meanwhile the rogue hovered near the door and used her gloves of recon to spy on the next room. With her VERY high perception she devised the fate of the man inside the Iron Fly . The immediacy of that situation drove them to continue on and into the room with the cenobites. I wish that the fight two rooms later would have gone as well as this one. Here are the elements at play:
1.) Three Cenobites: I only changed their spell list a small amount, giving them wind wall.
2.) The Burning Skeletons: As suspected they didn’t last long. They were dropped by a cone of cold in the second round.
3.) The Iron Fly: Managed two hits, including a crit before it was bashed to pieces freeing it’s occupant in his last moments.
4.) Lucimar: I decided that whenever Lucimar ran away from the group he would go back to the necrotic well and heal. This way he kept the Gray Friar up to date and didn’t have to heal himself.
With a well placed wind wall the paladin was effectively taken out of the fight for MANY rounds. As mentioned the wizard jumped into the room to cast his cone of cold. Lucimar used this opportunity to silent/still dispel his ice body and make him vulnerable. Meanwhile the cenobites started channeling, over and over and over again.
In the process of the fight the very low will save front line took everywhere from 60 to 200 points of damage from channels. The fighter was knocked into negatives, healed, forced to use her cards to save herself (from a cone of cold from Lucimar that also killed the barely breathing captive from the Iron Fly), and then finger of death’d by the mad wolf into total death.
The rogue then used invisibility purge from a scroll and surrounded the undead werewolf with the rest of the party. Fighting to keep himself standing he finally succumbed and was hacked to pieces by the group. He was largely considered the MVP villain of the path.
The alchemist then exclaimed that he only had nine minutes on his shield spell left and they had that long to save Kendra. It was lucky then that the fight with the Worm that Walks went to well for them… until it was over.
Of course, when they entered the room they knew that something was wrong and the wizard moved in (alone) to use one of his more powerful spells to try and deal with them. It was then that the Worm’s projected image emerged from the maggots and then cast black tentacles on the group to prevent their escape.
They spent somewhere in the area of two rounds flailing around and one by one discovering that the image was in fact an illusion. I allowed they a very high perception check to notice where the largest concentration of maggots was and when they discovered him it was largely over. The single saving grace of the encounter was the fighter, who spent the majority of it wading through maggots and getting infested with rot grubs.
More damage was taken from trying to excise the grubs then was in the actual battle first by the fighter gouging her leg with a rusty dagger and then by the alchemist carefully extracting them.
I think that my brawler Kendras worked fairly well in the fight with the Gray Friar. He spent most of the fight making poor tactical decisions because he was trying to get her back. The party used a huge amount of resources to prevent the alchemist and fighter from being dragged into the necrotic well. The paladin got hit by (and of course saved) from destruction. Flame Strike happened. In the end it was a ‘pretty good’ fight. Despite wind wall and entropic shield the flying paladin largely trivialized the Friar, although hop scotching between side of the wind wall to keep him firing one attack at a time helped.
Next Session my group buys and sells for the last time, gets some exposition from Kendra, and then heads for Gallowspire.
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My group's last session was a lesson, perhaps on the pains of trying to rewrite elements of the campaign to suit myself.
First off, things have slowed down considerably since we began the sixth book. It might have started in the latter part of book five but my obsession with being prepared has me working to keep track with every aura, spell, and special ability that might affect the PC's. This slows things down.
Deciding that the Villains have pre-knowledge of the group (namely the paladin's smiting bow) and have taken steps to all memorize wind wall has slowed things down.
Changing the death effects of Renchurch that required smiting a haunt and then taking the character's soul out of the cathedral for raising to the appearance of a minor reaper when a character goes into negatives. This slows things down.
The fact that I'm going kind of hard on a group that is predominately made of fairly new players kind of slows things down.
There's probably more.
Dreaming
After the events of last session where the group saved Kendra and killed the Gray Friar they were all eager to get out of my demiplane and back to Golarion. I gave them a one use item that would plane shift / greater teleport them anywhere they want. They used it and returned to Absalom.
The group spent a large chunk of the session doing their final bout of buying and selling. They received some exposition from Kendra who informed them of her story of being carted around and abused since the beginning of the game.
A few tid-bits:
1.) Lucimar used to sit around and chat with her about all of the things he could no longer experience since joining the way and becoming undead. He also grilled her (although kindly) about the group and what little she could tell him. He was, overall, kind to her.
2.) She revealed a (my) massive plot twist that Adivion had spent years and years lying to the Whispering Way so that he could get the ingredients he needed and drink the Carrion Crown formula himself. He intends to use his new found power (which he is certain he can control) to return the monarchy to full control in Ustalav and then expand his beloved nation. He had abducted Kendra with no intention of ever actually sacrificing her.
3.) Adivion is waiting for a sizable army to gather at Gallowspire before drinking the Elixir and taking control of it. This gave the group 10 days to prepare.
After the ten days (and completing what was likely their last bout of buying and selling Avram, the archer paladin of Abadar, payed a 1000 gold for a huge feast and celebration giving the group a last hurrah before their possible deaths.
After the dinner they retired to their inn's rooms. During the night they awoke in different environs. They were in the rooms of Kendra's house back in Ravengro. Going downstairs they exited to the porch to find Tar-Baphon himself waiting for them.
Witty banter was exchanged. He made it clear that they should just give up and that there was no way that the 'idiotic child' Adivion would succeed in a battle of wills with him. He was coming back. Just wait and see.
Finally he revealed that they were in fact dreaming. He ended it with the line, "If sleeping for nearly five hundred years has allowed me to so casually slip into your dreams... Imagine what it has allowed me to do with my own."
They awoke to screams downstairs and ran down to find the tavern under attack by various incorporeal forms of Tar-Baphon at different stages of his life. As the wizard descended the stairs the animate dreams turned their most powerful ability on him and killed him where he stood. This immediately summoned a Minor Reaper that intended to get the wizard's soul before he could be raised back to life.
What followed was a very long fight, predominately on the stairwell of an Absalom inn with characters who had no time to armor themselves (another mistake I think). The group was victorious although they suffered HEAVY losses. After three minor reapers had been summoned, one of whom had been killed the remaining two departed with the sunrise.
After defending her door through most of the fight, the rogue discovered Kendra still sleeping. When the last of the animate dreams were killed she sat up in shock, and revealed that she had had a dream where she had tried to murder the group.
Yeah, if they had woken her up it would have ended the encounter. Of course if they had tried I would have had at least one of the dreams float up there to guard the sleeping Kendra.
The group left the inn with all haste to avoid questioning by the local authorities and went to a local druid. They hired him to reincarnate the wizard who emerged a female grippli (much confused).
Next session the group intends to teleport to Lastwall (Vigil I suppose) to drop off Kendra in the safe hands of the Knights of Ozem, before going on to Gallowspire.
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So I was hoping to get some feedback from any of this forum’s regulars, or other DM’s who are running the path about my plans for the final fight with Adivion. I suspect that one of my players plans to ‘One Round’ him. He is an ‘Archerdin’, so it’s possible. They have been getting the party cards during the various books and he has pretty much vetoed every single use. That means that a majority of them will be used in the last fight.
So I guess the question is... Is this too much?
Current Party
Aasimar Archerdin of Abadar
Human Rogue Shadowdancer
Orc Vivisectionist
Grippli Elemental (Ice) Wizard
Halfling Fighter
Goblin Fighter / Rogue (NPC)
Stage 1: Approach
Adivion will cast wind wall on the edge of the tower where he chooses to rain ranged spells down on the party. Including the buffs already mentioned in the stat block he will also have already cast Entropic Shield, and Corruption Resistance on himself. The Archerdin has spent a considerable amount of feats and money making sure I can’t use cover against him. The BBEG would be a pin cushion the first time he peaked over.
Stage 2: Living Adivion
Yup, Adivion pre-elixir will likely short part of the fight. He only has hp in 150 range. I did make some crucial changes.
- Cheesy Dervish Dance build with +4 Ominous Wounding Scimitar? Yes… yes I did do that. Do I feel bad about it? No.
- More castings of various spells that have an effect even if the caster makes their save? Yes. Frostbite and Frigid Touch are the prime choices here. I will likely use my frigid touches in this first phase to attempt to Crit/Stagger the paladin for 1 minute. He does likely have the mercy to remove it.
- When Adivion dies in this phase there will be an explosion of force in a 20 ft radius. Everyone will be subjected to a bull rush attempt potentially being thrown off the tower.
- I did also slip in a few dash spells (bladed dash, greater bladed dash, and burst of speed) to get out of the horrifying grinder of death that is the shadowdancer, vivisectionist, and his cohort.
Stage 3: Adivion in Control
- Regains hit points up to 220 and resumes the fight with the Foresaken Lich template. All uses of the Soul Lash will be reserved for the paladin in hopes of paralyzing him.
- The problem with the soul lash is that it uses a swift action, which is also tied to a lot of the magus arcanas. It seems likely that many rounds that Adivion will be taking damage from himself.
- I’m hoping that Fast Healing, Soul Shield (50% Miss Chance) and his spell turning ability will keep this phase going for a few rounds.
Stage 4: Uh.. oh
- HP loss in stage 3 stops at 120 regardless of how much damage is done. It is at this point that Tar-Baphon takes the reigns. Adivion’s body receives the benefit of a 5d6 negative energy channel.
- Adivion gains the Mythic Template: Agile, which gives him dual initiative, a +2 to AC, +20 to Init etc. Regardless of his two initiative status he only fast heals once per round.
- He also gains Tar-Baphon’s mental stats. This means that passing saves from his spells has become largely impossible. (Int 36 / Wis 14 / Cha 28)
- The Whispering Tyrant is in control of this body now. If he manages to heal back to full HP (which is now considerably higher due to his bump in charisma) then Tar-Baphon is recovered enough to dimension door away in Adivion’s body. Game Over.
Additional Notes:
- I remember one of the DM’s on these boards mentioned the possibility of having various souls from different parts of the elixir jump in and join the fight if things are going side-ways. I am considering having ghost template versions of the Warden from Harrowstone, and Kvalca Sain on hand. These can either pull the party out of the fire or work as replacement characters for those who fall mid fight to jump in and help.
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THE END
After nearly two years of struggle the Riders of the Spiral finished the Carrion Crown Adventure Path today. The final encounter went over fairly well. I 'sort of' tailored the encounter to them. I can't help that think that had I remembered certain elements of my build (like the scimitar's wounding ability) things could have been different but below in the spoilers I will provide a run down of how I ran the encounter. Before that some mention of the characters involved.
Avram - Aasimar Paladin of Abadar
Fabia - Human Rogue / Shadowdancer / Inquisitor
Anton - Orc Alchemist (Vivisectionist)
Si - Grippli Elemental Wizard (Water)
Hale - Halfling Fighter
Federico - Shadow Companion Rogue 2 (NPC)
Quinley - Goblin Fighter / Rogue (NPC)
Nightwing
Greater Shadows x 2
Adivion Version 1 and 2
The Whispering Tyrant
The Warden
Human paladin 8
LG ghost medium humanoid (human)
Init +3; Senses Perception +8
Aura courage (10 ft.), resolve (10 ft.)
DEFENSE
AC 15, touch 10, flat-footed 15 ( +3 deflection, +2 Dex)
hp 80 (8d10+40)
Fort +10, Ref +4, Will +11
Immune charm, disease, fear
Incorporeal
OFFENSE
Speed 50 ft. (fly)
Melee: corrupting touch +10 (9d6 DC 17 for Half)
Special Attacks channel positive energy (DC 16, 4d6), smite evil 3/day (+2 attack and AC, +8 damage)
Paladin Spell-Like Abilities (CL 8th; concentration +10)
At will—detect evil
Paladin Spells Prepared (CL 5th; concentration +7)
2nd—shield other, paladin's sacrifice
1st—bless, lesser restoration
STATISTICS
Str -, Dex 14, Con -, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 20
Base Atk +8; CMB +; CMD
Feats Cleave, Improved Initiative, weapon focus: rapier, Toughness, Weapon Finesse
Skills Diplomacy +10, Heal +8, Knowledge (religion) +11, Perception +8, Sense Motive +13, Survival +4
Languages Common
SQ aura, code of conduct, divine bond (weapon +2, 1/day), lay on hands (4d6, 6/day), mercies (diseased, sickened)
Notes: The point of this guy is to obviously either buff or shield the party from damage. He is a representation of the warden from Harrowstone Prison. I intended to have him detach from Adivion and take his reflecting spell shield with him if things got to hairy. Not needed.
The Packlord
A spirit of Kvalca Sain would have detached herself from Adivion and exploded with rage. This would have given the party the benefits of a double strength Rage spell for 5 rounds. Also not required.
Nightwings
Don't forget the notation in the adventure. If they are beating the fight too easily I fully intended for two more Nightwings to fly in and join the fight. This was also not needed.
Adivion Buffing Schedule
Rd 1 - Stoneskin
Rd 2 - Potion of Shield
Rd 3 - Mirror Image
Rd 4 - Corruption Resistance (scroll)
Rd 5 - Fly
Rd 6 - Entropic Shield (scroll)
Rd 7 - Wind Wall (scroll)
Stage 1 - This part of the fight involved the initial slugging it out with the Nightwing down on the lower level. This fight was mainly focused on giving Adivion the 7 rounds of buffing he needed to be viable when the party reached him. When it detected the party it immediately used it's ability to summon two greater shadows.
The group easily dispatched them and then slugged it out for five rounds with the Nightwing. Deeper Darkness was crucial to cutting down on the party's number of attacks. Meanwhile I let those with really high perception rolls notice the sounds of spellcasting from above.
Stage 2 - While the majority of the party made their way around the stairs to face Adivion the Alchemist (who had been the only one who heard spellcasting) flew up over the course of two rounds to face him alone. The paladin did cast blessing of fervor which sped up the group's ascent. Otherwise I have no doubt Anton would have died. Here is a link to my altered Version 1 Adivion:
If you have no experience playing a magus I recommend doing a few practice fights before this encounter. Also, I would note that he goes on to Version 2 if incapacitated in any way or give him the reflecting spell aura as a sign of his ultimate fate... or something. Don't let your group kill this guy with some cheesy spell (flesh to stone) and call it over.
I recommend getting as many uses of magus arcana as you can before this stage is over. Use those swift actions while you got'm. I would save Maximize and Quicken Arcana until Stage 4.
I also used my Hasted Assault arcana in my first exchange to speed him up. Don't forget to use critical strike arcana to hit him with touch spells when you inevitably crit. Don't forget flaming/shocking burst and wounding.
When this stage ended I had Adivion explode with a +26 Bull Rush against all creatures in a 20 ft radius.
Adivion, regardless of the damage he took in Stage 2 went into Stage 3 with 220 hp.
Stage 3 - This is Adivion as we know and love him (sort of). Essentially he is the above character with the added Foresaken Lich template.
Ultimately my fight reached this stage right when the rest of the party crested the stairs and fully joined the fight.
I used a maximize arcana chain lightning immediately and distanced myself from the party to cast cloudkill which had little effect. Due to fast healing and a VERY high AC I last a few rounds before a few good hits knocked me down to half health and I entered Stage 4. During this exchange the Alchemist went into Resurgent Transformation and had to use three cards to avoid dying.
Damage from Stage 3 didn't overlap into Stage 4. No matter how much damage ended the stage he began the 4th with exactly 110 hp.
Stage 4 - The Whispering Tyrant takes over Adivion's body at half health. He gains his mentals which can be found in Mythic Realms. This ups the saves of his spells considerably. He also gained the AGILE mythic template which upped his ac to an overall 41 (with Haste) and gave him two actions in a round. If fast healing would have gotten him back to 300 hp then he would have been able to escape the tower and the game would have been over.
Ultimately this part of the fight was brief but deadly. I used greater bladed dash and regular bladed dash while the party tore into me. The fight ended when I full attacked the group, got my second initiative and then bladed dashed through the alchemist KILLED him and then used my quicken spell arcana to cast a cone of cold (which killed the wizard).
The paladin then unloaded on my 44 health with a 114 barrage of arrows to end the Carrion Crown campaign.
After the fight was over the group woke up in Ravengro (the alchemist and wizard returned to life) and with a similarly recovered Adivion.
Epilogue
A woman claiming to be the Arch Lector of the Church of Pharasma arrived along with a few face masked doctors and tended the party. She then took Adivion's life while he screamed in terror. Federico (as much of a party member as anyone) walked out with her to his final reward.
The heavy hint was that Pharasma was making a brief appearance to claim the soul of a particularly troublesome villain and afforded the party brief very cold stares.
Each party member received a few pages of written closing info about the fates of their characters from me.
Hale was resurrected five hundred years later to fight the Whispering Tyrant again.
Fabia ran off to live in the swamps of Dipplemere with the Beast and her new shade Duristan. Not to mention the polymorphed Hetna Dublesse (a cat).
Avram lived into venerable age as a lord of Ustalav. He was investigating a sinkhole at Rakshaka's Undead Cow Farm when he fell in and found himself on another world fighting Shub Niggurath's army of horrors.
Anton succumbed to madness and was taken over by the Splatter Man persona. Quinley essentially became 'Batman' hunting him and his followers in Caliphas to try and save his brother's soul.
Si went on to a long life as a court wizard for the noble rulers of Caliphas. He was eventually killed defending the keep during a revolution that completely removed the nobility and placed a full democracy in the nation.
Some Important Notes
Don't forget Soul Lash
50% Miss Chance for Being in Dim Light
Don't forget Your Reflective Spell Barrier
Use your swift actions effectively
Act fast and early to bring in balancing elements if it seems to easy or too hard.
I thank everyone on these boards for their help. I really appreciate all the authors and Paizo for making a great path.
Now I'm on to Reign of Winter. Thank you all again.
Thanks for posting all of what you have, especially for module 6. Its helping me to formulate ideas for that module. Out of curiousity, how many rounds did your fight with AA take?
I haven't gotten a chance to read through everything here, but I really like how you spiced up the haunts in Renchurch. I'm hoping to borrow them for my own game. Where did you insert the Fallen Crusader haunt?