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I'm going to be running this scenario on Friday, and to my surprise, I couldn't find a GM thread on it. I'm sure I'll have more questions, but for now an observation and one question.
First, I noticed a couple of reviews marked it down for the early combats being too easy. After playing it then reading that, I'm of the opinion that the combats with the monks were intentionally less dangerous in order to discourage parties from killing them. We were able to non-lethal them and even with the -4 had no trouble hitting. The group I'm about to run through it has several big hitters, though, including a couple of Barbarian Alchemists. I'm afraid they'll end up murdering the monks without really meaning to. I'm curious how that first fight has gone down for other groups, and how common it is for groups to realize the confusion on the monks' part and use less lethal tactics.
The main question, though, is how has the encounter with the purple worm been handled? Should the worm get a surprise round? Should I allow them to notice a rumble of the earth before it pops up? Is its surprise round just the burrowing out of the ground? That's an encounter where who acts first can really swing things from extremely dangerous to extremely easy. If the group gets a full round of attacks before the worm can go (almost certain with its initiative modifier), it may not survive to get an attack. If the worm gets an attack in the surprise round, it will almost definitely put someone in jeopardy of being eaten.
My instinct is to run it like this... Everyone notices a rumble, but only those who make a perception check realize in time that something is imminent. If they beat the worm in initiative, they get a standard action before it appears. On its initiative, it charges using its burrow speed, rising up underneath one of the pcs and attacking with its bite (Sandworms, you hate 'em, right?) Seems cinematic and still fits into the action economy of a surprise round. Plus it gives observant PCs a chance to prepare for something, even if they don't know what.
Thoughts?
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I run the optional encounter much as you say, with the surprise round consisting of the creature(s) burrowing up into place. Then regular initiative kicks off. This prevents the beasts from being flat-footed (not a huge thing considering their AC) and can put the party in a real bind depending on where they are when the fight starts. (An alchemist ended up right next to where it burrowed up and had to figure out how to get away without being eaten.)
The one problem I see with your strategy is the charge action while burrowing. Most characters need a clear line to charge, and I don't see burrow changing that. Especially if the creature cannot detect the target due to being out of tremorsense range.
(This is a hidden gem of a scenario for me, considering the party actually gets to learn the backstory and the BBEG is a wonderful NPC to roleplay. Remember to use the quirks of her twitching as new marks and words appear on her form.)
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With 60 feet of Tremorsense and only a 20 foot burrow speed, I was figuring it would be within the tremorsense distance before it charges. I'll likely forget the charge, though, since I'm not sure about it. Tremorsense doesn't actually remove concealment, and I'm not sure something with concealment can be the target of a charge. If it could still charge, I imagine the 50% miss chance would apply.
I like the scenario a lot. It's got some great role-play potential.
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I was also very surprised to see no GM discussion when I first ran this. The lack of reviews makes me think people just don't peg this one as much of a scenario, and that makes me sad.
Fwiw it was one of the last two our VC hadn't played till we got it in a home game a few weeks ago.
I thought the idea was somewhat interesting and we had a nice tough optional encounter and last fight in low tier.
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andreww: That sounds like a good approach. I missed that DC for burrowing creatures when I glanced through the rules earlier. It's still likely a bunch of high level characters will make it, but at least it gives one round where the poor worm won't get full-attacked into oblivion. So DC25 to realize what's happening as the worm bursts out, then surprise round. Anyone who made it plus the worm get a Standard action. The worm likely grabs someone (at +25 to hit with its bite and +36 to grab, that's not a given at 10-11, but pretty likely). Now in round 1, there's some pressure to rescue the PC.
On other sections, just to confirm a few things... The trap at the top of the tree acts like Harm[/i} which means it can only take a PC to 1HP, correct? It can't actually kill them?
Influence works like [i]Dominate Monster, which works like Dominate Person, so once someone is dominated, if Jathyl orders them to attack a party member, they should get a second save, because of the "Subjects resist this control, and any subject forced to take actions against its nature receives a new saving throw with a +2 bonus." Is that correct? I supposed if it could be argued that attacking the party wouldn't be against the character's nature, there wouldn't be a second save. I think with this group, though, there are no indiscriminate killers for hire, so that won't be an issue. There is a rather selfish Wizard, but attacking anyone might be against his nature, since he's more likely to just run away.
When the PCs first encounter Jathyl in the temple, she's hiding in the floor when she speaks. So they shouldn't see her or know exactly where she is unless they make the DC59 perception check, right? Otherwise, I'll describe the voice as seemingly coming from Isa, even though she's not moving. That sound right? I'm a little unsure how to represent the wincing from pain on Jathyl's part in that situation, though, other than as a vocal tick, since the PCs wouldn't actually be able to see her.
When I played this, Jathyl attacked a round or two after the fire started, so we were fighting the fire and her at the same time. Reading through it, it's a little unclear to me whether that should happen that way or not. It made the fight against her more challenging, because one of our Oracles was relegated to casting Create Water every round to try to fight it.
I think that's all I've got for now. Thanks again everyone for the help. After I'm done running this tomorrow, I'm going to make a point of posting a review on the product page, because I really like this scenario.
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Harm: It absolutely only brings the character to 1 HP. If they are climbing, they have to make the check to avoid falling, which is the real danger. (If they can't make that climb check, I wonder why they were the one doing the climbing, of course.)
Influence: I also ran it with orders to attack the party incurring another Will save to resist. (Sadly, the bloodrager still failed and charged the gunslinger.)
Temple diplomacy: I had her rise up from below to speak with them, from the direction of the tree, to hint at the hollow below. Somehow a muffled voice coming from below the priestess doesn't seem quite right to me.
Fire fighting: I absolutely have the fire spreading while she attacks them. It gives a dynamic to the fight that would be otherwise lacking. Consider using the monks to take the heat off the party so they can focus on Jathyl instead if they are struggling, and use her influence ability on the monks if things seem too easy.
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The session went well. I ran things pretty much as decided here. The group switched up characters a little, and the only just ended up with a high enough APL to play up (8.6 with 6 players, only 1 in tier).
As I feared, one of the Barbchemist's opened up with an all out lethal attack against the Monks (Greater Cleave and Goblin Cleave to hit three of them). He did between 40 and 50 points to each of them, which was fortunately not enough to kill anyone. After that the group convinced him to switch to non-lethal. The Monks lasted longer than I thought they would.
They brought the Master back to consciousness and guessed at casting Protection from Evil on him. So he was able to give them some information and lead them to the library. They avoided the fight there, since they had the Master on their side already. They were able to research and find the history of the island, but they weren't suspecting Dryad Ghost yet, so they didn't look for the information on ghosts.
From the library, they went to the temple. Since they weren't suspecting a ghost, I had Jathyl stay hidden while she talked to them. There was a good bit of role play with her before she gave them an ultimatum about restoring her island then left them with time to think it over.
Before that, though, the topic of the carving came up. There ended up being only one Dark Archive/Cheliax character, so despite his being an 8 CHA Tiefling (the other Barbchemist), he's the one Zarta was drawing. I couldn't resist Jathyl throwing in a comment about how fortunate they were she only made Isa sculpt his face, and not the "whole drawing."
Most of the group retreated to outside the temple, fearing a fight with the dryad (who they still didn't suspect was a ghost). The Rogue, who was only 7th level, stayed in invisible and starter flying and searching the tree. When he got up to the top, he made his perception check to notice the haunt, and if have him a knowledge religion to realize what was going on. Instead of leaving, though, he buffed himself against mental control. Fortunately, he made the save against the Harm. Even making it, it knocked him down to near single digit HPs. And that was only because he had a False Life going. Otherwise he'd have been at 2 HPs.
He fled without the piece of the manuscript (being afraid of taking more damage if he grabbed it). After some debate, another party member flew up there and grabbed it, prepping himself for the trap, but it hadn't reset.
The fight with the worm followed in the courtyard. It went much as I expected. Only one character failed the perception check to notice the worm burrowing in time. The worm got a 2 for initiative. The group did a little more than a quarter of its HPs in the surprise round. Then it but the Cleric and grabbed him into its mouth. Round 2 then became a rush to kill it before it swallowed the Cleric. They managed to so so one character before it would have gotten to act.
I gave them three rounds to heal before the fire started. Then one round to try dealing with the fire before Jathyl showed back up. She opened with Ice Storm, then Lightning Bolt in the second round, as scripted in the tactics. At that point the group had reached her, so she took a 5-foot step through the wall. From there it became a cat and mouse fight. She'd pop out somewhere to attack. Readied actions would go off, then one round of attacking her before she would attack again and 5-foot into the tunnel or through a wall or whatever was convenient. She did get a Wis drain off on the Cleave build Barnchemist, but rolled a 1. She then tried to Influence him the next round. He made his save, despite having the lowest Will save except maybe for the Rogue. It took them a decent number of rounds to finally bring her down. 202 HPs on an Incorporeal is rough. She nearly killed the Cleric. I was alternating the Wis drain and Corrupting Touch per the tactics. She Crit the Cleric (who was level 9) with a Corrupting Touch. Luckily for him, he made his save. So he essentially took 13D6 instead of 26D6. The 13D6 was almost enough to drop him on its own. They fortunately finished her off the next round. The cleaving Barbchemist took her down to 1HP, so the Rogue got to finish her off.
Armed with the knowledge that she is a ghost, they then returned to the library to do more research. They figured out that burning the tree should release her, so they went that route. I have them a chance to find the pine cone in the ashes, which they did. They found a nice spot to plant the seeds, which set her free with the happier result.
I had a little bit more fun with the Dark Archive character. For one, I had Zarta's drawing of his face visible among the writing on Jathyl's skin. She also threw some verbal jabs at him during the fight. So, before they burned the tree, the character carved "Thief" into it. When Jathyl appeared and was put to rest, I made sure the word Thief was visible right next to his picture.
Overall the group seemed to enjoy it. I didn't realize that Earth Day was coming up, but one of the players pointed out how timely of a scenario it was because of that.
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Sorry for the Necro, but I'm running this in about a week and I'm not sure where else to get advice on this.
One of the encounters features a Paladin who detect evil on them when they enter a library. it says "Once Pradnyara detects no evil among
the party, her attitude becomes indifferent." So the PCs can try diplomacy on her
The issue is some of members of the party got a Ioun Stone from the Refuge of Time, which was written after this scenario. The stone gives an extra feat, but also radiates an aura of evil that her detect evil should pick up.
The scenario gives no guidance for what I should do when the Paladin does detect that evil aura. Should I allow the diplomacy check at a penalty? Or should I just have the paladin detect the evil, assume they're thieves and fight them to the death? Also, I'm pretty sure her smite evil won't work, but I'd like to double check.
DESCRIPTION This orange-colored, translucent, faceted item is an ioun stone and has the same properties. While it orbits its owner’s head, that owner gains a bonus feat. This can be any feat she meets the prerequisites for. The ocher rhomboid ioun stone radiates an evil aura at all times, and anyone who wears it (that is, causes it to orbit her head) is considered to have committed an evil act. The alignment of the one wearing the stone shifts one step toward evil.
Players who wear the stone should be given the opportunity to atone for this action before the scenario’s conclusion if such an alignment shift would result in their removal from the Pathfinder Society Organized Play campaign.
This ioun stone is cursed, and can’t be removed by its owner or anyone else except by the methods outlined on page 536 of the Core Rulebook. As with other ioun stones, the ocher rhomboid has a resonant power when placed inside a wayfinder. First, it turns the wayfinder into a cursed item that can only be removed in the way the stone itself can.
Second, the wearer gains Knowledge (arcana) as a class skill for as long as she wears the wayfinder. CONSTRUCTION Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, caster must be 12th level; Cost 15,000 gp
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If she detects evil among the party using an area effect, she doesn't become indifferent, but retains the attitude she had before. According to her tactics she will still stop attacking to parley or to accept PCs' surrender (and could choose to focus for 3 rounds on locating the evil aura). Supposing she is unfriendly, Diplomacy will work on her (DC 22) after a minute of conversation out of combat, and can improve her attitude as far as friendly. I think she could also be convinced, by the scenario text, that the PCs are not proven to be thieves, even if they're suspicious intruders to be watched closely, and would give that a DC 22 also. She will not allow specific requests until improved to at least indifferent.
A GM could of course ask pointed (less than friendly) questions and pay more attention to what the PCs actually say in this case.