Dont forget the party gets a single raise dead scroll in book one when they rescue their friend from the down below torch.
Yep, they traded that away to a foreign merchant for a cursed item. Yeah, not the best of ideas!
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Rhino Transport linkified (you accidentally put a space in the address, by the way).
Players got this tonight... and then the Thomas the Tank Engine jokes didn't stop. They then used it to travel to Chesed and told it to kill anyone trying to access it as they had to park it outside (too big for the streets). When they came back they found two dead technic league hirelings who had tried to robojack.
They then drove it to the Knock on Wood Winery as part of a geas quest from the high priestess of the lawgiver (she traded a resurrection spell for them to take care of the demon problem). When they arrived at the winery they found it looked empty. To be sure they drove the rhino through the centre of the place and demolished what was left of the wooden structure.
In retrospect I should have given them a flying carpet instead! Less shenanigans!
This thread is AWESOME!
I already took some of Dudemeisters ideas for my Kingmaker campaign. These were just super!
Now we are playing Reign of Winter and I plan to either play Wrath of the Righteous or Iron Gods after that. If it will be Iron Gods, then consider a lot of these ideas as taken and implemented!
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4
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I'm going to be giving my players a similar vehicle to the Rhino at the end of book 2. It's going to need repairs and won't come outfitted with much for defenses, but they'll beanie to modify it. Instead of an AI, it's possessed by the spirit of an Iomedean paladin who died inside the rhino when it was attacked by Hellion's followers. He'd intended to bring the Rhino to Mendev to fight in the world wound. So it's a mix of technology and magic (haunt-like rules)!
I can post the stats if people are interested.
VERY!
VERY!
Please post the stats.
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4
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Hey! So in reviewing the write up I had I realized I can't give you all the mechanics for the haunt possessing the vehicle since it uses unpublished rules form an upcoming book. I've stripped out the haunt and everything else is of my own creation! I'll have more to say about the proverbial "ghost in the machine" later this year if folks are still interested.
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Androffan Heavy Transport
Huge technological land vehicle
Squares 12 (15ft wide x 20ft long; 10 ft high)
Cost —
AC 8; Hardness 15
hp 320 (160)
Base Save +4
Speed 60; Acceleration 30
CMB +4; CMD 14
Propulsion technological (4 squares of technological engine at rear of vehicle; hardness 15, hp 160, capacity 24)
Driving Check Acrobatics or Knowledge (engineering); +10 to the DC of all checks if the driver does not possess the Technologist feat.
Forward Facing One 15-foot side of vehicle
Driving Device Two levers and two foot pedals on opposite sides of the driver's seat; hardness 5, 20 hp
Driving Space Front-left square
Crew 2 (one driver, one gunner)
Weapon Mounts 1 hard point (turret; articulated), 1 firm point (left side; articulated), 1 firm point (right side; articulated)
An Androffan heavy transport is an armored, tracked vehicle capable of traversing nearly any terrain. The outer plating of an Androffan heavy transport is a layered glaucite shell over an adamantine frame. Entry to the heavy transport is through a hatch door in the rear that folds out into a landing platform. The androffan heavy transport's tracked wheels allow the vehicle to ignore difficult terrain and drive through water up to five feet deep.
The power source for this Androffan heavy transport was modified by a technomancer with an arcane transference capacitor designed to reduce drain from the primary technological engine, or provide propulsion after the power source is fully drained.
Mounting Weapons Some technological vehicles are capable of supporting mounted weaponry. These spots fall into three categories, relating to the type of structure they anchor to: hard points, firm points, and soft points. Hard points are durable load-bearing points on a vehicle capable of supporting a heavy technological weapon, firm points are strong enough to support up to a two-handed technological weapon, and soft points are capable of supporting a light or one-handed technological weapon. Mounting or unmounting a technological weapon requires the Craft Technological Item feat, 8 hours of uninterrupted work, a successful Craft (mechanical) or Disable Device check (DC 20). Once mounted a technological weapon is integrated to a technological vehicle's power source for purposes of charges depleted when fired, and any unspent charges on a weapon when it is mounted are lost. Mounted weapons can be targeted by attacks and sunder attempts as normal. Mounted weapons not attended by a gunner count as unattended objects.
Each weapon mount on a vehicle has a descriptor that determines how it is able to fire, detailed below.
* Fixed: A fixed mounted weapon can only fire in one direction, typically forward, and is limited to targets located in a line extending out from the square the weapon is mounted in.
* Articulated: An articulated mounted weapon is situated on a turret, arm, or other sort of mobile platform and can fire in any direction.
Technological Vehicles A technological vehicle is usually powered by a technological engine, a complex device powered by highly advanced technology. The driving DCs for a character without the Technologist feat are +10. Additionally, characters without the Technologist feat or those who choose to use a drive skill untrained (or drive with only their Wisdom modifier) risk breaking a technological vehicle. On a roll of a 1 on a drive check the technological vehicle suffers mishaps as if it were timeworn technology until it undergoes 8 hours of repairs or benefits frommake whole. While damaged this way a technological vehicle can only move at a maximum of its acceleration speed.
A technological vehicle drains one charge from its power source for every hour of operation.
Repairing a Technological Vehicle A character with Craft Technological Item who succeeds at a Craft (mechanical) or Disable Device check (DC 20) repairs 10 points of damage to a technological vehicle. Repairs of this nature require 8 hours of uninterrupted work. A failed check still repairs 5 points of damage, but failure by 5 or more instead inflicts 5 points of damage to the technological vehicle and gives it the timeworn status until the vehicle benefits from a successful repair or benefits from make whole.
Arcane Transference Capacitor
Price 230,000 gp; Slot —; CL 9th
Weight 250 lbs; Aura moderate transmutation
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Description
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Resembling a massive hourglass filled with a storm of magical energy, bristling with wires and laden with glowing circuitry, an arcane transference capacitor is part magic item and part technological wonder. An arcane transference capacitor features a spool of cables that allow it to be attached to one technological item as a full-round action. An arcane spellcaster who touches an arcane transference capacitor can expend one prepared spell slot (or spell per day if a spontaneous caster) and transfer that energy to a technological item attached to the capacitor. The technological item regains 1 charge per level of spell expended in this fashion (up to a maximum of 24 charges per day). These charges are depleted at a rate of 1 per hour if not used.
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Construction Requirements
Cost 115,000 gp; Feats Craft Technological Item, Craft Wondrous Item, permanency, recharge
Nice work Robert. Like it.
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Hi Robert, I "stole" your repair and mounting ideas. Thank you :)
My group made good use of the vehicle again today. They rammed the barn at the Winery side quest and used it as a mobile platform while raining down death on the demons. The Rhino was quite happy since it was fulfilling its purpose - destroy the Emperor's enemies. My players were a bit befuddled as they approached the barn and the Rhino's machine spirit announced that it detected warp entities and started playing choir music from its laud hailers (speakers).
I am basically revealing different abilities of the vehicle as appropriate.
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More stuff for the notepad:
The Smoking Tower
Spoilers, obviously. The smoking tower kicks off what I am thinking of as the "Fantasy Heroes vs. Aliens" arc of the campaign, but of course there isn't much alien action in the smoking tower. Now the best thing about home games is that they are not beholden to the OGL. I can totally put a mindflayer into that scenario. The other thing is book 3 easily devolves into a couple of dungeon delves.
So my plan is that a Mindflayer has infiltrated the town, it is holed up in the android factory facility. In my campaign Mindflayers are aliens, sort of an R&D caste of the Dominion of the Black. This Mindflayer named Xim has been replacing the citizens of the town of Iadenveigh with Android duplicates, susceptible to he/r suggestions. The sad part is these androids believe themselves to be the original people they are duplicating. Figuring out who the Technic League spy is will get trickier when the PCs realize that the reason the Council of Iadenveigh want her found is to keep the prying eyes of the technic league away from Xim's plans.
Xim also wants to know more about this rising "Iron God" that has been taking hold in the region, and has reason to believe such clues reside in the Smoking Tower. This has put Xim on the wrong side of the Nanite Ghost Furkas. In this version Furkas was consumed by a cloud of nanites, the hive mind of which form an imperfect replica of his consciousness.
Occult and Psychic stuff will play a big role in this adventure.
Vehicles and Dinosaurs
My Numeria is going to have a bit more focus on the journey between adventure sites than the AP assumes. Numeria is a radical landscape with a lot of cool terrain and adventure locations that I don't want to just gloss over.
I want my players to get that sense of being Road Warriors, with fewer Roads.
Traders, travellers and adventurers rarely travel alone in Numeria. The nomadic local tribes all move in large groups to maintain safety and security. When the Rain of Stars fell on Numeria, and then later nuclear and warp energy disasters further twisted the terrain, the local wildlife sort of died out. What did survive?
Alien wildlife that escaped the wreckage of their research ships, and the local dinosaur populations. While in the years since other more common animals started returning to the land, it was only those not in direct competition with the dinosauria populations that filled the ecological niches that remained.
As such, the locals travel in big groups, to defend themselves against hungry megafauna like Tyrannosaurs, Carnotaurs and Pterasaurs. Colonizers, meanwhile took to using technology, and even rebuilding some of it using a mix of magic and clockwork technology, mounting sweet ballistae and lazers to their vehicles so they could cross the terrain with some measure of protection. Horse-drawn carriages are still pretty common, but a caravan will usually have at least one tricked out vehicle to act as protector and pathfinder for the rest of the caravan.
Then of course there's the roving gangs, nobody knows how the Orcs are so good at getting their clanking contraptions to work, maybe it's just pure ignorance, they are too dumb to understand why it shouldn't work. Whatever it is, the orc raida boyz and gulz are always looking for scrap and meats. Human raiders aren't much better, bandits that harvest what they need from travellers, or demand expensive and prohibitive tolls. As long as they don't get in the way of the Black Sovereign and the Technic League, and pay their taxes they are free to do as they please.
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Hi Dudemeister, I like your ideas. One of the encounters I threw against my APC driving PCs was a T-Rex who attacked the vehicle. The characters were so scared the dinosaur would scratch the APC (I have a very expensive repair cost attached) they stopped, the melee characters exited and they engaged the dinosaur to keep away while the spellcasters/ranged characters stood atop the APC as it circled firing from the roof.
Did you encounter any problems giving the players such a big "tank"? I am playing with the thought of giving them a rhino or devilfish (the Tau transporter from Warhammer 40k), but thinking, that such a technological beast would give them too much power too early. Plus: The tech league would have a heavy focus on that thing. Additionally, they won't find a fully operational tank on a side quest, they would have to salvage and repair it, learn how to steer it, which would take months. If i give it to them after Fires of Creation, why would hellion wait for months after the energy cutoff, not doing anything?
On the other side, it is "just" a transport vehicle, with the option to let them add weapons later in the campaign, leading to some nice vehicle combat situations with the tech league
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From my experience (two iron gods groups GM, about book 4 in either case)it is wiser to give them mad-max style with potential of customization than wh40k tank like in my other group. Main problem is a)reducing potential of interesting random combat encounters by obsolete non-flying blasters.Book 1-3 is in Numeria wide and open plains, trolls and other monsters from random encounter table is shooting range for wh40k tank.After few fights I drop simulate combat and narrate result of battle to my players.
b)power generator issue and power cable form end of ACT 1.Unlimited battery before ACT 5 is very unwise due to power of technoguns
c)Fluff issue with Technic League- words of bizzare tank will spread faster than PC will be on levels to fight off special forces form starfall send to acquire this technological artifact.Divination is damn good in this game.
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Well, I'm not a big fan of random encounters while travelling. But a "tank" (more APC) doesn't prevent interesting encounters. You just have to build them to fit the situation (players having a tank..). And the tech league could start sending some lower level forces to investigate first. Also, if they manage to get Sanvil working for them, he could help obfuscating reports of a big hovering piece of technology, at least for a very limited time.
As long as there will be no problem with the main story line, I think I will give them a damaged Tau Devilfish after FoC. Maybe on a side quest while they are travelling to Scrapwall. They will have to salvage and repair it, so it will have basic functionality. A damaged solar power generator (with no ability to charge other tech gear) will let them travel in good weather conditions. With the power banks damaged, it won't be able to store any power for operation at night, and only 50% in bad weather conditions. Since I used a nice weather generator to have more or less realistic weather (with slightly more rainy days than sunny days), this would too help me letting weather play a bigger role.
It will have no weapons and travel would be slightly faster than by horse.
Upgrades (power banks, weapons) would be available later in the campaign.
I thought for sure if I came back a year later that you'd have this finished. Sad to see it isn't true. :(
My party is still in the wreckage beneath torch, so I really wonder how your campaigns went after giving the PCs a vehicle like the WH40K Rhino, and when they were able to get it.
Currently I did not read through the whole AP, just overflown it, but as the vehicle would be most for traveling, not for the actual adventures themselves, they should get it relatively early. Even more, when the plan is to upgrade it over the time.
I am playing with the idea to throw in an extra dungeon, a cave system with a wreckage of an androffan exploring ship containing a vehicle at its end. Unfortunately tech league is already excavating the site, so it would be some sort of race against them and also the first real introduction of the tech league (Sanvil as a tech league spy was the first contact, but that really didn't show off how cruel and ruthless that organisation is).
After the first book the PCs travel to Scrapwall, then to Iadenveigh / Smoking Tower, after that to the Scar, and finally to Starfall. So 5 longer travels (assuming they don't visit a place multiple times) where the vehicle comes into play
I still need some kind of idea for recovering the vehicle. I plan some sort of APC, like the Rhino. It should be powered by a solar generator but in the beginning has damaged power banks, so it can't store any power. It also has no interface to take power from (so no early repowering of technology) nor any way to give it power (so no way to power it from batteries to enable it to drive in the night). Basically it should be some kind of horse carriage with the "skin" of an APC.
But how can they get that thing out of its cave, when having no way to power it?
Well maybe it still has some power in the damaged power cells, so it can drive out, +- a few kilometers, but can't recharge the cells..
But I still have the problem how to get it from the wreck to the surface? I played with the idea of having an entrance through the cave system and then after getting into the vehicle bay of the ship, have the PCs open some big hangar doors, which are close enough to the surface, so a small cave-in occurs, creating a big enough hole to drive out.
Thoughts?
My party is still in the wreckage beneath torch, so I really wonder how your campaigns went after giving the PCs a vehicle like the WH40K Rhino, and when they were able to get it.
Currently I did not read through the whole AP, just overflown it, but as the vehicle would be most for traveling, not for the actual adventures themselves, they should get it relatively early. Even more, when the plan is to upgrade it over the time.
I am playing with the idea to throw in an extra dungeon, a cave system with a wreckage of an androffan exploring ship containing a vehicle at its end. Unfortunately tech league is already excavating the site, so it would be some sort of race against them and also the first real introduction of the tech league (Sanvil as a tech league spy was the first contact, but that really didn't show off how cruel and ruthless that organisation is).
After the first book the PCs travel to Scrapwall, then to Iadenveigh / Smoking Tower, after that to the Scar, and finally to Starfall. So 5 longer travels (assuming they don't visit a place multiple times) where the vehicle comes into play
I still need some kind of idea for recovering the vehicle. I plan some sort of APC, like the Rhino. It should be powered by a solar generator but in the beginning has damaged power banks, so it can't store any power. It also has no interface to take power from (so no early repowering of technology) nor any way to give it power (so no way to power it from batteries to enable it to drive in the night). Basically it should be some kind of horse carriage with the "skin" of an APC.
But how can they get that thing out of its cave, when having no way to power it?
Well maybe it still has some power in the damaged power cells, so it can drive out, +- a few kilometers, but can't recharge the cells..But I still have the problem how to get it from the wreck to the surface? I played with the idea of having an entrance through the cave system and then after getting into the vehicle bay of the ship, have the PCs open...
There is a side quest called Black Beacon in The Choking Tower module that has a hovercraft-like vehicle available for the PCs to scavenge.
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Yes, I know, but I like the idea of a bigger, upgradeable vehicle more. Brings much more options for interaction with the technic league, vehicle combat and some sort of a mobile base.
My thoughts go in this direction:
Androffan Explorer Vehicle
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/66/60/d4/6660d409b9601c0274ede575 fa113db9.jpg
At first without weapons, cameras and smoke launchers of course, but all upgradeable in the further progress of the campaign
Yes, I know, but I like the idea of a bigger, upgradeable vehicle more. Brings much more options for interaction with the technic league, vehicle combat and some sort of a mobile base.
My thoughts go in this direction:
Androffan Explorer Vehicle
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/66/60/d4/6660d409b9601c0274ede575 fa113db9.jpgAt first without weapons, cameras and smoke launchers of course, but all upgradeable in the further progress of the campaign
Ahh, ok. My response was more focused on what you said about writing up a new dungeon when most of the work is already done for you. You could just replace the hovercraft with the vehicle of your choice. Either way, I like your idea. :)
Yep, I would have to make up the dungeon anyways. For such a vehicle the ship is too small, it has to have a vehicle bay. Plus, I want to have an archaeological team from the tech league involved.
Two of my players have a strong connection to a tech league captain (druid: parents killed by him, sorceress: mother sold into prostitution by him, both have the trait "against the league"), and the rest of the party has a connection to him, as he is the contact of Sanvil Trett, who was recently caught while he tried to steal technology from the PCs headquarters. So that dungeon would be the perfect place to bring him to justice finally ;)
Meyanda is Casandalee's next incarnation. Hellion took perverse pleasure into turning his "sister" into his high priestess. When the PCs defeat her perhaps when she reaches 0 hp Meyanda has a bizarre seizure. Her eyes glow a strange purple and lines of data scroll across them: "Please help me. My memories are trapped in here. You're in grave danger. My designation is not this designation."
The PCs will have to try and redeem Meyanda, and again the moral quandary of whether taking all of Casandalee's memories will "overwrite" the Meyanda they come to know.
I know that the AP is designed to be a "trilogy" of sorts, but the 3 parts of it strike me as so distinct from each other that it doesn't have a strong through line for the AP as a whole. I think this is a genius way to provide that for the AP and decided to integrate it into the campaign I'm currently running.
Bad News: I just discovered this thread and our next session will be the PCs fighting Hellion in Book 2, so it's a liiiittle too late for her to glitch out on them.
Good News: The party paladin redeemed Meyanda to be a cleric of Brigh and convinced the Torch Council to send her to Hajoth Hakados to redeem herself (Khonnir Baine wouldn't allow her to stay in Torch as she had killed Val in a hostage situation gone wrong. Joram was able to rez Val, but Khonnir is unable to forgive Meyanda.)
I think the paladin rolled a crit 20 diplomacy check to convince the majority of the council not to execute her).
This is how I'm adapting it (in case anyone else runs this AP and wants an alternative way to have Meyandalee, or are unsure how to change "part 2" of the trilogy to fit this):
-Everything is as written up to Book 3
-When Casandalee went to the Aurora she "copied" some of her mind into one of the androids in stasis and released it as a decoy for Unity's forces (she also injected this android with the nanite trap that kills Xoud), then escaped.
-Xoud does not know that this Casandalee is a dupe, his story and the Q&A he had with "Casandalee" are unchanged. The PCs discover all the info originally in the book as originally intended, but it is a red herring.
-In Book 4, when the PCs recover the neurocam, it doesn't work. In Androffan it states: "DATA CORRUPTED. REINTEGRATION WITH ORIGINAL HARDWARE REQUIRED." and the screen shows an image of an android woman that looks very similar to (but has some cosmetic differences from) Meyanda. In this scenario, Meyanda looks different enough from the old images of Casandalee that Hellion never realized that he had Casandalee with him the whole time.
-PCs get a new quest between books 4 and 5 where they must meet up with Meyanda again to reintegrate the neurocam with her (Casandalee's original body). They then get the moral choice quoted above.
Now I just need to find a way to have Meyandalee travel with the PCs without getting killed and without the PCs relying on her as a combatant...