Runeforge—Player deaths and Arkrhyst


Rise of the Runelords


My party is currently undertaking the daunting task of exploring and surviving the Runeforge complex, and I'd like some advice regarding two things.

Several spoilers below!

1—How to deal with player deaths.

They are currently trapped in Runeforge, having no spells to get them out, nor having discovered any of the other ways out either. The party consists of a monk, blade-bound magus, skirmisher ranger, sorcerer, and a hedge witch with a cleric cohort. At the moment they have explored the Abjurant Halls, the Iron Cages of Lust, and the Shimmering Veils.

Delvahine is still alive, along with three of her alu-demon children. Delvahine finds their presence in Runeforge amusing, and she is toying with them. The PCs know they need a particular item from her, and Delvahine has made a proposition, which they haven't agreed yet on.

They've cleared the Shimmering Veils, and have recovered Vraxeris' journal. In the process however, the simulacrums have killed the ranger's animal companion, the sorcerer PC, and the cleric cohort. The witch has managed to raise his cohort and the sorcerer, but they have no diamonds to cast more raise dead spells.

I'm pretty sure there will be more PC deaths as they explore the rest of Runeforge, since they barely averted two more deaths the previous session (this time, the witch and his cleric cohort) during the mummy ambush in the necromancy wing, where they've gone next.

I like the idea of replacing fallen PCs with some of the polymorphed goldfish from the Vault of Greed, but from player banter, I've come to understand they plan to visit that wing last.

2—Arkrhyst's actions in Runeforge.

Before entering the Runeforge portal, they've failed to actually kill Arkrhyst, who followed them into the Runeforge portal invisibly. I'd like some advice on how he would act. My initial thought would be that he would be intrigued by this place, and would probably explore the Vault of Greed or the Halls of Wrath. Greed because, well, he's a dragon, and dragons love to hoard stuff, or Wrath because he had to watch the party steal his entire hoard.

I'm sure other GMs have dealt with these two things, and I'd love to know how you did it.


Answering the second question first, I ended up, after spending some time pondering it, not taking the option to have Arkrhyst follow them into Runeforge. Operating in the close quarters in there nerfs him significantly, and my group had already done a pretty good job of handling him outdoors where he can fly around, etc. Runeforge also proved to be the deadliest section of the module in general, so I don't think it would have added a lot of fun for my group to have him be in there. Instead I used him as an ambush later after they left Runeforge.

On dealing with player death, I did have a plan to use the goldfish to provide myself a way forward in case of TPK, but didn't have to use it. Note that with the Mark of Wrath gained by killing Athroxis, a character could theoretically use the planar binding effect in the Hall of Testing (last room, wrath wing) to summon something that can help bring someone back, like an akhana aeon (there might be other options if you let them get wishes out of bound creatures but I recommend not giving them a 1/day free binding for wishes for obvious reasons.)

Bargaining with the sloth wizard dude is also a definite option; my players considered him a non-risk to the rest of the world due to his overwhelming lassitude and just talked to him rather than fighting. He is capable of casting greater planar binding and as such if they cut a deal with him, he can summon various things that know raise dead, etc.

Finally - these were halls full of wizards, and diamonds are a commonly needed material component for various spells. You could pretty safely replace some of the monetary treasure with diamonds without having to really explain yourself. In the Ravenous Crypt where they just went, for example, you could consider replacing the star sapphire eyes in the tomb of Lord Mankray with a pair of 5,000 gp diamonds and just deleting a bit of money elsewhere to make up for it. Azaven's stash of fabricate components could be a 5,000 gp diamond and 2,000 gp of other miscellaneous stuff, etc.


Running the original AP, I had Arkrhyst move into the conjuration wing (which was never detailed in the first run).

The conjurers had found a way to leave runeforge (it would be them, of course), but had keyed the portal on the casting of one spell from each of the seven schools available to a conjurer -- ensuring that only they would be able to trigger it.

Since the players had no other way to escape Runeforge (in my version), the whole book ended with a climactic showdown with Arkrhyst in the Conjuration wing. It was great.

Funny how sometimes the best material is the homebrew you use to fill in the gaps. Probably because you're most able to tailor it to your players and their characters.

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