In Hell's Bright Shadow (GM Reference)


Hell's Rebels

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Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

That was something I asked Crystal on her thread. Her response is below.

Crystal Frasier wrote:


I never actually wrote a deadname name for Rexus; he's always been Rexus in my mind, and named after his grandfather. It was probably something multisyllabic, beginning with a C and ending in an "ine" or an "ivia," giving Chelish naming traditions. I doubt he'd be incredibly embarrassed by it, but I imagine he'd still hate it as much as you'd hate an embarrassing childhood nickname; probably something he wouldn't want to bring up, but wouldn't necessarily sneak around to cover up. If any of your PCs are nobles, they probably even heard scandalous rumors about the Victocora daughter a few years back.


Thank you Misroi!
This is the kind of horse's mouth info I had hoped to get (even if I find the concept of a "dead name" less liberal than I believe a racially diverse magical world would develop).
Now I have to hunt down Crystal's thread for any other guidance on this module. :)


Slithery D wrote:
Bellona wrote:

"Lexus"? That doesn't even sound like a female name (and it brings to mind a car, to boot). How about Lexa or Alexa instead?

Lexus is in the top 1000 female US baby names for the 2000-2004 data available from the Social Security. It peaked at #671 in 2000.

I wonder if it was first a name and then became a brand or the other way around. It wouldn't be the first time a car is named after a woman.

Just on a side note: Most names in the APs sound ridiculous to me and my group. I don't know if that's because we aren't englishspeakers or if other groups experience this as well. My players for example had a good laugh at the name Rexus, as it resembles a dog name, like a german sheperd or something...


Gratz wrote:
My players for example had a good laugh at the name Rexus, as it resembles a dog name, like a german sheperd or something...

I am not a english speaker too, and during the fight at the Fair Fortune Livery, when I said "it's Rexus turn", my players assumed that it was the name of one of the dogs.

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Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I get what you're saying, Drakir - a racially diverse world where magic is as prevalent as it is on Golarion would have problems and issues that we can't even fathom at this moment. When changing genders is as simple as drinking a potion or putting on a belt, what does that mean for a society? When powerful magic can turn you from human into an elf or a dwarf or something else, what does that mean for a society? Would different human ethnic groups be more, less, or about equally divided given the fact that there are other sentient races out there that are clearly "not human"? It's an interesting thought experiment.


I must admit some curiosity and amusement...

What with the release of Ultimate Intrigue, are there going to be any suggestions on how to integrate the UI rules into Hell's Rebels? It seems to me that the rules are particularly suited for the AP... to the point that it's a shame Paizo didn't reverse the order of releases for both Hell's Vengeance to go before Rebels, and also UI before the Occult book (though UI does include multiple references to the occult book so... that would have been more problematic).

Second... how many new Hell's Rebels campaigns are going to have Magical Child squads? "For Great Justice!" :D

Seriously. I'd not at all be surprised if my Skype group ended up with three Magical Child characters (by the three female players) and an Alchemist with the male character. No doubt the MC characters would be halfings, gnomes, and other shorter races... ;)


Fallyrion Dunegrién wrote:
Gratz wrote:
My players for example had a good laugh at the name Rexus, as it resembles a dog name, like a german sheperd or something...
I am not a english speaker too, and during the fight at the Fair Fortune Livery, when I said "it's Rexus turn", my players assumed that it was the name of one of the dogs.

I take it that your native languages aren't Romance languages then. I'd assume the name wouldn't sound so strange otherwise. Where are you from?

FYI, Rex is a somewhat common pet name in the US too. It's not so common as a person's name, but I've definitely known at least one man named Rex in my life.


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"Rex" is the Latin word for "king" - for example, the work by Sophocles, Oedipus Rex, literally just means "Oedipus the King". So it actually makes sense that it would be used in names, and be considered a fairly dignified name at that. (Chelaxian naming borrows heavily from Latin.) It has become relatively popular as a dog name (or Tyrannosaurus's surname) in modern culture, but it certainly didn't start out that way, and as Shaun said, it absolutely hasn't stopped being a human name as well.


Shaun wrote:
Fallyrion Dunegrién wrote:
Gratz wrote:
My players for example had a good laugh at the name Rexus, as it resembles a dog name, like a german sheperd or something...
I am not a english speaker too, and during the fight at the Fair Fortune Livery, when I said "it's Rexus turn", my players assumed that it was the name of one of the dogs.

I take it that your native languages aren't Romance languages then. I'd assume the name wouldn't sound so strange otherwise. Where are you from?

FYI, Rex is a somewhat common pet name in the US too. It's not so common as a person's name, but I've definitely known at least one man named Rex in my life.

Luxembourg, so even if my native language isn't derived from Latin, I still know enough romance languages (French and Portuguese). I couldn't have guessed though that Chelish names are supposed to sound Latin. The only one that fits the bill for me is Sabinus, but I guess I haven't payed attention so far.


Bellona wrote:

"Lexus"? That doesn't even sound like a female name (and it brings to mind a car, to boot). How about Lexa or Alexa instead?

Slithery D wrote:

Lexus is in the top 1000 female US baby names for the 2000-2004 data available from the Social Security. It peaked at #671 in 2000.

Short, entirely subjective rant on certain types of names:

<does a quick search on-line about that "female" name, and winces when seeing that its rise and popularity coincides with the Lexus brand car>

"Lexus: Short form of ALEXUS. Its use has been influenced by the Lexus brand name (a line of luxury automobiles made by Toyota)."

"Alexus: Variant of ALEXIS."

>_<

"Alexis" is fine for a female. It's "Alexus" and "Lexus" that make me wince.

I just happen to feel strongly (negatively) about names in RL which look like they've been mis-spelled because the name-giver either wanted the name to look/sound "cool" (without considering the ramifications of naming a girl after a car) or didn't know how it was spelled in the first place.


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As someone who has worked in public education for a decade and thus dealt with thousands of children and their names let me tell you...

Alexus is TAME.


I can well believe that. Yet another reason why I'm not cut out for that particular sector ...


My uncle's name is Rex.


GM Niles wrote:

As someone who has worked in public education for a decade and thus dealt with thousands of children and their names let me tell you...

Alexus is TAME.

Uh, yeah. 17 years and counting, for me. Some parents can be brutally ignorant when naming their children.


Shaun wrote:
Fallyrion Dunegrién wrote:
Gratz wrote:
My players for example had a good laugh at the name Rexus, as it resembles a dog name, like a german sheperd or something...
I am not a english speaker too, and during the fight at the Fair Fortune Livery, when I said "it's Rexus turn", my players assumed that it was the name of one of the dogs.

I take it that your native languages aren't Romance languages then. I'd assume the name wouldn't sound so strange otherwise. Where are you from?

FYI, Rex is a somewhat common pet name in the US too. It's not so common as a person's name, but I've definitely known at least one man named Rex in my life.

I'm Brazilian, so Portuguese. I don't think most Chelish names resemble roman names.

Also, Rex is a very commun name for dogs in Brazil, but it's not a person's name here. Not even a shortcut for anything,


In my last session, the players explored the Wasp Next.

However, they didn't killed the angry Dire Corby. They are taking care of him instead. One of the players was a Halfling adopted into a noble family, so she felt connection with the adopted Dire Corby.

One question, what is the tier of the The Fushi Sister's Team. They have the action Earn Gold, and this action depends on the tier. I've said my players they were a tier 2, since they have two actions.


My party have been spamming gather information to get more rumours (to the point I'm having to make up new ones). To the extent that they've been trying to investigate every possible thing just in case there was something they could do.

They made the rather unfortunate decision to split the party so while half were talking to various Alabaster Academy teachers about what teeth could be used for (tooth fairy mission), the other half decided to wander around the salt market listening for further info on the prisoners being forced to work. Then walked into Sallix Saltworks, ran straight into Kossrani, and now one of them was knocked unconscious while the other fled.
I decided not to kill her so she can be rescued by the others, plus also play tricks on Kossrani and the guards because even when manacled, she is a Psychic.


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Drakir2010 wrote:
I am afraid I don't see any mention of Rexus being averse to his birth name. To the contrary, I infer that he would be very open about his time as a girl and his younger identity.

I'm quite open about being trans, that doesn't make it in any way okay to bring up my deadname. Most of the trans people I know who've changed their names feel similarly, regardless of how stealth they are.

There are exceptions, because there always are, but I'm basing a lot of that aspect of Rexus on my own experiences.


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Shaun wrote:

So an accuser devil is on the random encounter table. From the creature's description, I doubt it would just fly at the PCs and attack. They seem more circumspect than that. How do you think one of these creatures would interact with the PCs?

I was thinking something along the lines of follow them and spy on them, but to what end? Certainly it would report back to the Church of Asmodeus, but how would the PCs ever find it out of stop it? It can fly, teleport and turn invisible.

I ended up having this encounter on Bleak Bridge during the day. I had the PCs spot it flying around observing traffic on the bridge. They asked the Dottari what it was and they were told to ignore it. The wizard made a knowledge planes check and learned what it was and that it could give visions of what it witnessed to others. They realized it was acting as a flying security camera on the bridge.

The PCs seemed unnerved by this and also angered at Thrune's invasion of their privacy. They didn't fight it and went along their way, but I feel this ended up being more effective than just having it fly at them for a fight out of nowhere.

Silver Crusade

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Shaun wrote:
Shaun wrote:

So an accuser devil is on the random encounter table. From the creature's description, I doubt it would just fly at the PCs and attack. They seem more circumspect than that. How do you think one of these creatures would interact with the PCs?

I was thinking something along the lines of follow them and spy on them, but to what end? Certainly it would report back to the Church of Asmodeus, but how would the PCs ever find it out of stop it? It can fly, teleport and turn invisible.

I ended up having this encounter on Bleak Bridge during the day. I had the PCs spot it flying around observing traffic on the bridge. They asked the Dottari what it was and they were told to ignore it. The wizard made a knowledge planes check and learned what it was and that it could give visions of what it witnessed to others. They realized it was acting as a flying security camera on the bridge.

The PCs seemed unnerved by this and also angered at Thrune's invasion of their privacy. They didn't fight it and went along their way, but I feel this ended up being more effective than just having it fly at them for a fight out of nowhere.

I really like this idea of accuser devils as insidious security cameras. I have to remember to use it next time I run the AP.

Scarab Sages

thinksnake wrote:
Drakir2010 wrote:
I am afraid I don't see any mention of Rexus being averse to his birth name. To the contrary, I infer that he would be very open about his time as a girl and his younger identity.

I'm quite open about being trans, that doesn't make it in any way okay to bring up my deadname. Most of the trans people I know who've changed their names feel similarly, regardless of how stealth they are.

There are exceptions, because there always are, but I'm basing a lot of that aspect of Rexus on my own experiences.

Well, I'm not trans, so I'm not speaking from a position of authority, but I made two assumptions about Rexus. Either 1) Rexus isn't his birth name, and it was the name chosen afterwords, or 2), he's more 'gender fluid' than trans.

If you carefully read his backstory, it says that ze (right pronoun for gender ambiguity, I assume?) kind of got the idea from a tutor who was very gender fluid, changing genders as one 'changes clothes.' I have heard of this lifestyle in my anthropological studies, where people sometimes identify closer to one gender or the other based entirely on social contexts or how they are feeling.

IIRC, it says that this was a revelation to Rexus, and that ze changed not soon after. To me that doesn't seem like an individual that desperately wished they were in a different body, but more like a person experimenting, trying to figure out the role in life that would make them happiest. Maybe Rexus will choose to switch back after a time.

Now, to be clear, this is NOT a judgement call on anything in the community nor a political statement. This is one interpretation of a single fictional character with access to magic and super alchemy and whatnot, from a fictional world.

Believe me, I have several transgender friends, and the way they tell it, they always knew their true gender. Rexus does not seem like that, but he seems to resemble the 'gender-fluid' dynamic more to me. No greater implications meant and I don't want to insult or deman anyone here.


Or it could be that Rexus did not realize that there was an actual description for what they felt about their gender identity (they now being an acceptable gender-neutral term, btw). Upon learning "there is magic to change your gender" they decided to use that magic and become the man they didn't quite realize early on that they wanted to be when still of female physical form.

Scarab Sages

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Fair enough. Like I said, hardly an authority.

In actuality, only one of my players actually knows about his backstory. The party investigator is a Jhaltaro, and Rexus's backstory mentions that his change caused quite a stir among the nobility. Everyone else is from outside Kintargo. So when the PCs first encountered Rexus, I passed him a note describing Rexus's backstory as well as his alchemical situation. He just shrugged and agreed to help Rexus if his supplies ran low, and didn't bring it up.

We are now on book 3, and the player hasn't revealed it to the rest of the party, mostly because I don't think it registers on his radar. To the rest of the party, he's just the 'weenie nobleman that recruited him' (due to his seven con sorcerer build.)


TRDG wrote:

I put 2 of those in the burnt out ruins of the Rexus Noble house, attracted to the dead servent childrens souls that were still hanging around in ghost like form I put in there.

Granted I have a 7 PC party but was'nt to much for them to handle even at level 2, though I did not go full force on them.

They were all silvered up by this time for the most part, Acussers just scoped the party out and when one of the ghost children was going to warn them about the Devils around chasing them, they ambushed/attacked the party.

Tom

That raises an interesting question, how do devils react to undead? They want souls, can they collect still earthbound ones?


One of my players (playing an overweight N bard who makes appearances at the Opera, with an Aulamaxa noble background, who will become a cleric of Shelyn later on) is giving me a lot of problems with motivating him to join the revolution and to go down into the basements (mini-dungeons) to fight monsters. I guess this is mainly due to alignment, also to weight factor, and to the fact that this is not really a combat character.
Motivations I've introduced so far but have received little bite on the hook:
- Opera closed
- Fair Fortune livery is on Aulamaxa property
- Shelyn outlawed
- Wasp Nest is flooded Shelyn shrine
- Along with the contract, Bloodstoriette was ctually taken home to the Aulamaxa manor, where he summoned a swarm in character's sleep, built door trap, and committed arson. Then he reported suspicious activities in the house through one of the servants and dottari arrived. PC fled and became a wanted man, until he cleared his name with bribes and Aulamaxa involvement.
- Song of Silver

Any other ideas? Maybe something with cousin Eldonna? (who is worried about getting the family title transferred from the country to Kintargo...)

Unofortunately, I can't see a true neutral, hedonistic, overweight opera singer going down into dungeons either or doing any kind of commando action.

So far, the party has been using disguise and charm person, after bluff/diplomacy in almost every case.... I realize that is the style of the adventure path and that I will have to downplay combat as much as possible, which is awesome! But it requires looking at every scenario with mindcontrol considerations.

Silver Crusade

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muftiman wrote:

One of my players (playing an overweight N bard who makes appearances at the Opera, with an Aulamaxa noble background, who will become a cleric of Shelyn later on) is giving me a lot of problems with motivating him to join the revolution and to go down into the basements (mini-dungeons) to fight monsters. I guess this is mainly due to alignment, also to weight factor, and to the fact that this is not really a combat character.

Motivations I've introduced so far but have received little bite on the hook:
- Opera closed
- Fair Fortune livery is on Aulamaxa property
- Shelyn outlawed
- Wasp Nest is flooded Shelyn shrine
- Along with the contract, Bloodstoriette was ctually taken home to the Aulamaxa manor, where he summoned a swarm in character's sleep, built door trap, and committed arson. Then he reported suspicious activities in the house through one of the servants and dottari arrived. PC fled and became a wanted man, until he cleared his name with bribes and Aulamaxa involvement.
- Song of Silver

Any other ideas? Maybe something with cousin Eldonna? (who is worried about getting the family title transferred from the country to Kintargo...)

Unofortunately, I can't see a true neutral, hedonistic, overweight opera singer going down into dungeons either or doing any kind of commando action.

So far, the party has been using disguise and charm person, after bluff/diplomacy in almost every case.... I realize that is the style of the adventure path and that I will have to downplay combat as much as possible, which is awesome! But it requires looking at every scenario with mindcontrol considerations.

This sounds like a situation where you might need to have an out of character conversation with the player to see what his motivations are for participating in the AP. Because, you know, it's an intrigue Pathfinder game, but it's still a Pathfinder game. There are going to be dungeons and combats. Is his character enjoying the game and willing to participate outside of combat?


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muftiman wrote:

One of my players (playing an overweight N bard who makes appearances at the Opera, with an Aulamaxa noble background, who will become a cleric of Shelyn later on) is giving me a lot of problems with motivating him to join the revolution and to go down into the basements (mini-dungeons) to fight monsters. I guess this is mainly due to alignment, also to weight factor, and to the fact that this is not really a combat character.

Motivations I've introduced so far but have received little bite on the hook:
- Opera closed
- Fair Fortune livery is on Aulamaxa property
- Shelyn outlawed
- Wasp Nest is flooded Shelyn shrine
- Along with the contract, Bloodstoriette was ctually taken home to the Aulamaxa manor, where he summoned a swarm in character's sleep, built door trap, and committed arson. Then he reported suspicious activities in the house through one of the servants and dottari arrived. PC fled and became a wanted man, until he cleared his name with bribes and Aulamaxa involvement.
- Song of Silver

Any other ideas? Maybe something with cousin Eldonna? (who is worried about getting the family title transferred from the country to Kintargo...)

Unofortunately, I can't see a true neutral, hedonistic, overweight opera singer going down into dungeons either or doing any kind of commando action.

So far, the party has been using disguise and charm person, after bluff/diplomacy in almost every case.... I realize that is the style of the adventure path and that I will have to downplay combat as much as possible, which is awesome! But it requires looking at every scenario with mindcontrol considerations.

This may sound a little harsh...but ultimately, in all honesty, once you've made the effort to extend him appropriate story hooks (which clearly you have), the onus to figure out character motivation falls on him. If he can't figure out a reason his character would join in these adventures...then he may need to build a new character who has reasons to participate. He signed up to run this campaign, which involves joining a revolution and slogging through basements; it's his job to figure out why he'd join a revolution and slog through basements, not your job to bend over backwards to accomodate him.


Sure are a lot of changelings hanging about Kintargo. With their unusual birth circumstances it raises the question, how many hags are there in the surrounding areas?


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Assuming I'm remembering correctly, that actually gets addressed somewhat later in the AP.

Silver Crusade

Devastation Bob wrote:
Sure are a lot of changelings hanging about Kintargo. With their unusual birth circumstances it raises the question, how many hags are there in the surrounding areas?

It's an important site for Mahathallah, who seems to have many hag and changeling followers.


If I recall correctly there's at least two scripted encounters involving hags and they also show up a couple times on random encounter tables. So yes, the region is rife with hags.


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Finally figured out how to get my party to slow down on trying to EVERYTHING all at the same time.

Gave one of them a parrot as a result of a failed Recruit Supporters check. The whole party then spent most of the day casting spell after spell trying to work out the parrot's alignment, what its Intelligence was, whether it was thinking, what language it was every now and then repeating phrases from...


Eliandra Giltessan wrote:
This sounds like a situation where you might need to have an out of character conversation with the player to see what his motivations are for participating in the AP. Because, you know, it's an intrigue Pathfinder game, but it's still a Pathfinder game. There are going to be dungeons and combats. Is his character enjoying the game and willing to participate outside of...

I agree with this. Your player needs to interact with the story. Honestly, this begins to approach the player using "role-playing" to be disruptive to the game. Talk to him OOC. His PC needs to get with the plot or he needs to decide revolution isn't for him and retire so the player can roll a new, engaged PC.

After a previous experience like this, I always have my players make their PCs together in my presence and the rule is they must create a PC who wants to interact with the plot of the game and have motivating ties with each other.


muftiman wrote:

One of my players (playing an overweight N bard who makes appearances at the Opera, with an Aulamaxa noble background, who will become a cleric of Shelyn later on) is giving me a lot of problems with motivating him to join the revolution and to go down into the basements (mini-dungeons) to fight monsters. I guess this is mainly due to alignment, also to weight factor, and to the fact that this is not really a combat character.

Motivations I've introduced so far but have received little bite on the hook:
- Opera closed
- Fair Fortune livery is on Aulamaxa property
- Shelyn outlawed
- Wasp Nest is flooded Shelyn shrine
- Along with the contract, Bloodstoriette was ctually taken home to the Aulamaxa manor, where he summoned a swarm in character's sleep, built door trap, and committed arson. Then he reported suspicious activities in the house through one of the servants and dottari arrived. PC fled and became a wanted man, until he cleared his name with bribes and Aulamaxa involvement.
- Song of Silver

Any other ideas? Maybe something with cousin Eldonna? (who is worried about getting the family title transferred from the country to Kintargo...)

Unofortunately, I can't see a true neutral, hedonistic, overweight opera singer going down into dungeons either or doing any kind of commando action.

So far, the party has been using disguise and charm person, after bluff/diplomacy in almost every case.... I realize that is the style of the adventure path and that I will have to downplay combat as much as possible, which is awesome! But it requires looking at every scenario with mindcontrol considerations.

Shesen is missed. She is the biggest opera singer of Kintargo and people believe she was captured by Barzilai. If he/she is not motivated to at least descovery what happened with her, so he/she must change character.


The weeks that follow ...

The campaign's pace through Hell's Bright Shadow suggests that about 8 weeks pass from the Aria Park protest until PCs are ready and clued in to visiting Hocum's. For all that time, there's no mention of what Barzillai is doing so far as the public can tell.

There would be clear interest, given the persistent martial law held over the city but, but it seems that Thrune goes radio silent after his Aria Park proclamation. Even if the common folk don't find him too visible, surely some of the nobles must have word or direct knowledge of his activities.

What might PCs be able to extract about his current endeavors through gather info/public rumor?

Kintargo and the First World

Is there some sort of strong connection to the Fey and/or the First World around Kintargo? There are a curious number of fey encounters--the grimples, the tooth fairies, Vendalfek--for such an urbanized area. Is there a reason for their prevalence in Kintargo or within the campaign? Is it just some design decision to vary the encounters?

Scarplume and the Red Jills

In my opinion, Scarplume and the whole mission #7 is a bit of a disaster. Even ignoring the wonky map, I just find Scarplume unbelievable as a character flapping around Kintargo.

Still, I'm going to keep them but have the organization's head instead be a corrupt Dottari lieutenant who "convinces" Tieflings into the Jills, his growing criminal enterprise. Seems a better fit within the setting than a man-hating strix camping a stone's throw from the well-trafficked Temple of Asmodeus.

That said, I'm wondering if someone had an interesting angle for the Jills in their own campaign.


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I think that's around the time when he undergoes the rite that binds him to the soul anchor and starts the process that will end in his transformation into a Genus Loci.


Paladin of Baha-who? wrote:
I think that's around the time when he undergoes the rite that binds him to the soul anchor and starts the process that will end in his transformation into a Genus Loci.

I was under the impression that, during HBS, Thrune is cracking down and biding time until he feels the city is safely enough under control to begin the ritual, which he actually undertakes in Turn of the Torrent.


Midnight Anarch wrote:
Paladin of Baha-who? wrote:
I think that's around the time when he undergoes the rite that binds him to the soul anchor and starts the process that will end in his transformation into a Genus Loci.
I was under the impression that, during HBS, Thrune is cracking down and biding time until he feels the city is safely enough under control to begin the ritual, which he actually undertakes in Turn of the Torrent.

The ritual itself is definitely undertaken during Turn of the Torrent. I believe they mention that the riot/Proclamation at the start of Hell's Bright Shadow is partly to test his control of the city. So, while Barzillai is definitely playing it safe at the start, you could certainly throw out little seeds of him testing his control, tightening his grip in small but meaningful ways.


I'm looking for something fun to substitute for the Tooth Fairies, any ideas?

I'd still like to keep the feel of the encounter, just with something else.

Shadow Lodge Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 8

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captain yesterday wrote:

I'm looking for something fun to substitute for the Tooth Fairies, any ideas?

I'd still like to keep the feel of the encounter, just with something else.

Fiendish sprites maybe? Though the ensuing color spray barrage could be pretty deadly.


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I'm pretty sure after Reign of Winter they would NOT appreciate that. :-D


So far Haniver Gremlins might be the way to go. Maybe.

Shadow Lodge Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 8

I hesitated to suggest gremlins, since there are already gremlins earlier in the adventure, but those would work.

Shadow Lodge Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 8

How about a Spring-Heeled Jack?

It's not quite the mass of little fey you might have been looking for, but it would foreshadow the spree-killer plot thread through the rest of the AP quite nicely.

Alternatively, I wrote a monster called the Bagman for the latest AP (#105 The Inferno Gate). He might be a little tough for the party at that level (CR 4) but he fits the nightmarish fairy tale monster theme pretty well (he abducts people and makes potions out of their fat).


I am thinking of having Nox be a juggernaut-style threat who shows up at certain points in the volume to stalk and pursue the PCs. I am aware of her power in comparison to the low-level PCs, so I wouldn't use her to exterminate the party.

Rather, if the PCs are not careful enough in their use of rebel/guerrilla methods or are too blatant in their direct targeting of Thrune structures or institutions, Nox may show up to make their lives miserable. If Barzillai knows the PC's profile/identities and they put themselves out in the open for too long, he sends Nox to hunt them down.

I would probably have her do non-lethal attacks and roll grapple checks to pick up a PC by the neck Vader-style, in order to build her as a terrifying enemy rather then just power attacking and killing them all. The message to the PCs being, "you better run away fast, or she's going to murder you".

Indeed, Nox would start using lethal damage if the PCs fail to either surrender or retreat. Hopefully, they realize that she's more or less unstoppable and turn tail. If they actually manage to get her below 0 health, kudos. If they somehow manage to kill her, then I suppose I would have a different boss at the end of Many-Steps Monastery.

If they REALLY screw up, by blatantly revealing their rebellious affiliation in a public place and waiting there for like an hour, or if Thrune has actionable intelligence about the PC's hideouts (like the Wasp's Nest), Nox shows up with a half a dozen Dottari at her back, making a slow-mo entrance like the warchiefs from Shadow of Mordor


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Spring-Heeled Jack is a possibility. Too bad Fear Eater from Occult Bestiary is a bit tough at that level as well.

I personally love the encounter as is, but what are you gonna do.

Shadow Lodge Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 8

captain yesterday wrote:

Spring-Heeled Jack is a possibility. Too bad Fear Eater from Occult Bestiary is a bit tough at that level as well.

I personally love the encounter as is, but what are you gonna do.

I'm assuming you're cutting it for a reason then? Somebody squeamish about teeth?

Silver Crusade Contributor

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captain yesterday wrote:
So far Haniver Gremlins might be the way to go. Maybe.

As they originate in the Bestiary for The Bastards of Erebus, haniver gremlins would be very appropriate for Cheliax. ^_^

Benchak the Nightstalker wrote:

I'm assuming you're cutting it for a reason then? Somebody squeamish about teeth?

As someone who feels this way myself, I can sympathize.

Shadow Lodge Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 8

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Kalindlara wrote:
captain yesterday wrote:
So far Haniver Gremlins might be the way to go. Maybe.

As they originate in the Bestiary for The Bastards of Erebus, haniver gremlins would be very appropriate for Cheliax. ^_^

Benchak the Nightstalker wrote:

I'm assuming you're cutting it for a reason then? Somebody squeamish about teeth?

As someone who feels this way myself, I can sympathize.

Oh, yeah, no, it's totally a legit reason. I was just curious.


3 people marked this as a favorite.

Yup, kids love Rise of the Guardians and especially the Tooth Fairy, so don't want to leave negative feelings for them there, it's just easier switching things around. :-)

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