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Obviously there is a wardstone in Kenabres, and Castles of the Inner Sea states there is one in Icerift Castle. One can assume there is one in Nerosyan, though I'm not finding any reference to one there. I also assume that there is one in Star Keep, but since it seems to be nothing more than a marking on the map of Mendev in the Inner Sea World Guide I have no basis for that assumption.
So, are there other wardstones? Perhaps in Numeria or Ustalav? It seems illogical that the tide of the Worldwound would only be bulwarked in Mendev since the demonic hordes, like Hitler and the Maginot Line, could just go around.
Creative Director
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As mentioned on page 301 of the Inner Sea World Guide, the Wardstones create a 300 foot wide path when they're linked in a line. They don't have to be 300 feet apart at all. The line of wardstones basically runs in a large "L" shape from Icerift Castle down to Nerosyan, then west on the Moutray River to somewhere in the eastern Shudderwood. This two-sided ward is "mirrored" on the other side of the Worldwound, creating a softer border to contain the threat. If the demons were at all interested in expanding north or west as they were east and south, that'd be a problem, but as revealed in "The Worldwound" and in the Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path...
In any event, there's not scores or hundreds or thousands of them. Again, they don't need to be 300 feet apart—that's just the rules for a lone wardstone. As part of a larger network, they need only to be linked to form the fence.
There's probably dozens of them. We've not nailed down their exact locations, because by keeping that vague, we don't hedge ourselves (or GMs) out of possible storylines in the future.
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Ah, okay cool. I missed the bit about 300 feet somehow. The soft border thing makes a lot of sense and I was curious what stopped them from moving into the Crown of the World and spreading out from there. I was assuming there were far less than there are, maybe a dozen in all and that the magic worked differently than it does. Not much different, but different nonetheless.
I ask because I'm brainstorming things I can do to expand the path, most notably the war and thought the loss of other wardstones was a good way to do that. A breach in the fence would mean a massive influx of demons smashing through and into the 'civilized' lands beyond.
In another question, have other wardstones fallen aside from Kenabres? If it's mentioned in the AP volumes I have missed it, but then I haven't given a thorough read through yet. I was considering having Nerosyan fall, leaving the primary war effort concentrated in the Kenabres/Drezen area to keep the main fighting where the PCs are and thus more involved in the overall war effort.
Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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The only other mention of failing wardstones I have seen is in a PFS adventures (The Wardstone Patrol). There is one a half-day north of Nerosyan housed in a castle beside the river. It "began making a strange buzzing sound" and then demons attacked, ultimately capturing many of the defenders and dragging them away into the Worldwound.
Not sure if that is helpful or not. Also not sure if the PFS continuity is going to follow the AP continuity. But, it was a pretty cool adventure, with some good insight into the mind of a crusader, and a reasonable amount of insight into the defenses of a wardstone fortress.
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I might take a look at that PFS adventure. I am assuming that Year of the Demon will coincide with Wrath of the Righteous in the same way that Year of the Risen Rune coincided with Shattered Star. So references to other each other and dealing with similar themes but not necessarily crossing over.
When it comes to the containment fence I would assume it creates a dome since otherwise the flyers would just go over it. Now that I think of it, I wonder if it creates a sphere to prevent diggers from escaping.
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Creative Director
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As mentioned on page 301 of the Inner Sea World Guide, the Wardstones create a 300 foot wide path when they're linked in a line. They don't have to be 300 feet apart at all.Consider me intrigued. If they don't need to be 300 feet apart or even within a mile or two of each other, and only need to be in a line (without much/any range limit), why make dozens of them? (Assuming less than "scores" but more than "a dozen" I'll eyeball 36 or so.) You could have four cardinal points to form a square, one or two along each line to break it up a bit and fill the requirements of "line of wardstones" and still have a contained demon horde.
Cluster your forces at each wardstone's fortress (Demon Within mentions that the wardstones are within fortresses, synchronised to the Demonscope, though I think it was mentioned to have been destroyed as of Worldwound Incursion?), and have small roving bands of crusaders coupled to homeless collections of idiosyncracies (AKA adventurers) covering the gaps (possibly with some smaller watchtower-fortresses as needed).
Sure, the demons will probably know/guess where the wardstones are, but they probably have a good idea where they are at the moment anyway (unless everybody keeps plenty of anti-divination spells like mage's private sanctum around the wardstones), and on the plus side, it makes it harder to steal one and corrupt it (since you have fewer to guard, meaning less need to spread out and cover all bases).
And how high does the barrier reach? The same 300 feet? Or is it like a giant dome?
The barrier reaches VERY high but the higher it goes, the "softer" it gets.
And while they don't need to be 300 feet apart, the more there are, the stronger the overall "fence." There's a point of diminishing returns, though, so that if you put too many too close together they don't help and you just waste the resources used to build them.
And again... it's not so much creating a containment or cage as it is just enforcing a border and providing defense to the good guys massed at the edge. The demons can just teleport out if they want out. They don't want out. They have other plans for the moment, as revealed in the various books we've recently done on the subject.
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They don't want out. They have other plans for the moment, as revealed in the various books we've recently done on the subject.
Well now I need to hunt down some books... I'm guessing you are referring to The Worldwound and Demon's Revisited? In preparation for running Wrath of the Righteous I just ordered both plus Demon Hunter's Handbook, Worldwound Gambit, and King of Chaos this afternoon and should have the shipment by the end of the week. I'll be piggybacking more personal products for holiday gifts on the store's next order in a couple weeks so are there other books I should look into for more plot?
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Creative Director
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They don't want out. They have other plans for the moment, as revealed in the various books we've recently done on the subject.Well now I need to hunt down some books... I'm guessing you are referring to The Worldwound and Demon's Revisited? In preparation for running Wrath of the Righteous I just ordered both plus Demon Hunter's Handbook, Worldwound Gambit, and King of Chaos this afternoon and should have the shipment by the end of the week. I'll be piggybacking more personal products for holiday gifts on the store's next order in a couple weeks so are there other books I should look into for more plot?
Mostly The Worldwound, but also the six Wrath of the Righteous books. A little bit in Demons Revisited too; all of those work together quite well on purpose.
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Creative Director
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The Worldwound book seems to indicate that they can't just teleport out because it does function as containment/a cage:
"Initially, Deskari intended to have his demonic armies use teleportation and other abilities to great effect during the second attack wave, but the enemy's swift and unexpected creation of the wardstones limited his army's use of this tactic. The wardstones created a ring of holy energy around the demon-occupied lands, with the more potent arc of stones along the rivers to the east and south creating a sort of reflection along the borders to the north and west. While demons could certainly teleport within the Worldwound freely, and could, in theory, march physically out of the affected area to the north or west, other factors (the barbarian inhabitants' aggression and the simple lack of united opponents) kept the demons focused on the south and east, where the wardstones and the crusaders themselves created difficult-to-ignore targets."
The implication appears to be that they can teleport within the Worldwound, but would have to physically walk/fly/burrow across the border to pass the wardstone defenses, and that teleportation isn't a viable option now.
The note on the Second Crusade also says that it was the erection of the wardstones as a containment measure that kept the demons from pushing out past Sarkoris itself during the second wave from the Worldwound. The stuff on the Third Crusade says that "contained within Sarkoris by a combination of the wardstones, increased pressure from the Mammoth Lords and the distraction of an entire nation to plunder" the demons continued pressing after a fashion but mostly stayed behind the barrier and turned their attention (or the cult of Baphomet did, at any rate) to corrupting the crusaders instead - a backup plan.
(Apologies if this sounds hostile - I'm looking for clarification on the subject, since it does read to me like the wardstones were intended from the beginning to be a form of containment/cage, and...
That's correct. That's why it's best to go straight to the correct source for the most accurate response. I may have developed and/or written some of those books, but after doing the same for dozens of more, it's not always easy to recall the exact details.
But yes. Demons can't teleport out after all, and it is indeed something of a dome. If a demon wants to telport out, he has to tough it through the Wardstone "Fence".