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The trip to Hunclay's manor is pretty much a walk through an "I want this" store.
My group is likely to leave everything alone (as the Paladin would insist), but what about the Spellbooks? Did you allow your players to copy spells out of them before the auction? I mean there's a month of down time (I'll have a lot of that filled because they decided they wanted to own the tower and I've got side quest), and letting the wizard sit down and copy 224 levels (8 hours/day, 7 days/week, 4 weeks) I feel would massively upset the wealth by level (11 5th level spells is 12k gold in scrolls alone, let alone the other levels of spells).
Also anybody deal with a group of 5 in this module? It's really built for 4, the XP is pretty tight and you've got to keep up.
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We played through with 6 I think. We don't use XP; free yourself and stop using XP. ;)
We also pretty much left everything alone, and as for the spell books I can't remember but may have copied some stuff out of them with permission.
If you are worried about it you can give them something else to do or only give them limited permission to copy from the book - like 2 hrs / day of access.
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We played through with 6 I think. We don't use XP; free yourself and stop using XP. ;)
We also pretty much left everything alone, and as for the spell books I can't remember but may have copied some stuff out of them with permission.
If you are worried about it you can give them something else to do or only give them limited permission to copy from the book - like 2 hrs / day of access.
Meh, I like experience better than leveling at the random whim of the GM. Plus as a GM it gives me a nice tool to increase the strength and number of encounters.
They've got a bunch of stuff to do (they wanted to own the tower so now they have to rebuild it, I've also got some side quests that will end them up with some awesome stuff.
Eh, despite the Wizard player being smart I don't know if he'll actually try to read any of the books.
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While I am usually in the "level at milestones" camp, I did not do so when I ran Dragon's Demand. In this particular module, there are so many side quests the PCs can finish for XP which as a side effect immerses them more into the campaign world. If you take away the XP, you need players who are curious enough to follow up on those quests without any mechanical reward.
Well as a wrapup, I gave the Wizard a peek at the spellbooks for a number of hours (he had 47+ stealth check # of hours based on the fact he had to sneak in while they were inventorying the manor)then we just sat and rolled to see what all he could successfully write down.
As far as experience I've added a few encounters to pump their XP up, I'm happy with what I've added so far (a CR 5, 6, and CR7 right before the auction). Also I generally add a couple of mooks depending on how they're doing. Maffei also wrecks shop against a bunch of these monsters if they're struggling.
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Well as a wrapup, I gave the Wizard a peek at the spellbooks for a number of hours (he had 47+ stealth check # of hours based on the fact he had to sneak in while they were inventorying the manor)then we just sat and rolled to see what all he could successfully write down.
As far as experience I've added a few encounters to pump their XP up, I'm happy with what I've added so far (a CR 5, 6, and CR7 right before the auction). Also I generally add a couple of mooks depending on how they're doing. Maffei also wrecks shop against a bunch of these monsters if they're struggling.
Note that one reviewer gave the module a mediocre review because it was a "cakewalk" for his party of 6. Remember that due to action economy, bigger parties quickly overwhelm the CR. It's pretty tricky to get it right. Throwing in one or two mooks to compensate may not be enough to ramp up the challenge.
Remember to post a review!
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Note that one reviewer gave the module a mediocre review because it was a "cakewalk" for his party of 6. Remember that due to action economy, bigger parties quickly overwhelm the CR. It's pretty tricky to get it right. Throwing in one or two mooks to compensate may not be enough to ramp up the challenge.
Remember to post a review!
Oh wow, you wrote this? The module is awesome.
I don't think my players are breezing through it even with me adding encounters to make up for experience (and because I have other story stuff I want to do as our game will continue on past the module).
My players are a mixed bag, one experienced DM who is playing, a couple of guys who grew up and playing D&D and haven't played in a while (first time in Pathfinder) and a new guy who hasn't played anything.
There have been about 5 fights where someone has dropped unconscious, and at least twice as many where they have gotten really darn close. I generally don't pull punches, so I actually feel for a group with just 4 if the GM is playing it right.
I really think if the GM is playing smart a party of 6 would have a rough time in many places still and I'm only up to the auction place. As a GM some of the more deadly encounters caught me off guard (Ludo especially, he wrecked the party).
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Oh wow, you wrote this? The module is awesome.
I don't think my players are breezing through it even with me adding encounters to make up for experience (and because I have other story stuff I want to do as our game will continue on past the module).
My players are a mixed bag, one experienced DM who is playing, a couple of guys who grew up and playing D&D and haven't played in a while (first time in Pathfinder) and a new guy who hasn't played anything.
There have been about 5 fights where someone has dropped unconscious, and at least twice as many where they have gotten really darn close. I generally don't pull punches, so I actually feel for a group with just 4 if the GM is playing it right.
I really think if the GM is playing smart a party of 6 would have a rough time in many places still and I'm only up to the auction place. As a GM some of the more deadly encounters caught me off guard (Ludo especially, he wrecked the party).
That's Lodo. Just for that, Lodo...
Glad Dragon's Demand is still beating up your party. WRITE A REVIEW!
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That's Lodo. Just for that, Lodo... ** spoiler omitted **.
Glad Dragon's Demand is still beating up your party. WRITE A REVIEW!
Crud! But that wand was surprising for everyone.
And don't worry I'll write a good long review once we finish up. I have already recommended the module to at least 3 other groups.
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Hi, Mike. Awesome module and I -will- write a review when I'm done GMing it (not long now). Thanks for this and for many of my other favorites, such as Valley of the Brain Collectors, Curse of the Lady's Light and most especially for the Mud Sorcerer's Tomb.
One question. In the recent episode of the Chronicles podcast in which they interviewed you about Dragon's Demand, Rob kept referring to an item which would supposedly help against Aeteperax's frightful presence. I can't find such an item and I wonder if the GM just put it in for that game. Is there such an item in DD that I missed?
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Hi, Mike. Awesome module and I -will- write a review when I'm done GMing it (not long now). Thanks for this and for many of my other favorites, such as Valley of the Brain Collectors, Curse of the Lady's Light and most especially for the Mud Sorcerer's Tomb.
** spoiler omitted **
It's not an item. Look in the quests at the front for a description. It's more about what the players do during the monastery.
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Wow. I never noticed that. Thanks!
Why does that work? Just because?
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Wow. I never noticed that. Thanks!
Why does that work? Just because?
Because your putting level 6/7 players against a CR11 encounter. So all the additional stuff you can do (the name, recruit the druid, recruit maffei, loot the crypt of tula) is to make the combat possible.
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My players have managed to neutralize all four leaders and looted the crypt, but they haven't recruited anyone to join them. I fear that may get them killed. I think I'll have Maffei come back around.
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My players have had Maffei since they encountered her. (I'm pretty fond of her, ha, it gives me a good valve on controlling damage in the group). They also picked up the druid.
In the final fight I really don't know if maffei will help that much though.
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I've been playing RPGs since '85 and Dragon's Demand is one of my top five favorite modules. Thanks to Tarondor for naming the titles of Mike Shel's other works. I'll be tracking them down pronto!
Now I have a question- how does one write a review on this site?!? No doubt the answer is right in front of my face on the product thread but this whole site runs counterintuitive to my line of thought, it seems.
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Now I have a question- how does one write a review on this site?!? No doubt the answer is right in front of my face on the product thread but this whole site runs counterintuitive to my line of thought, it seems.
On the product page, scroll down to the Product Reviews section, and there's a Write Review link there.
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Now I have a question- how does one write a review on this site?!? No doubt the answer is right in front of my face on the product thread but this whole site runs counterintuitive to my line of thought, it seems.On the product page, scroll down to the Product Reviews section, and there's a Write Review link there.
LOL!! thanks for the direction! I still couldn't find the one-line link squished between all the boxed, bold, highlighted, and colorful text but my 16 yr old found it in two seconds because of your prompt :)
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I am prepping the module for play on Roll20.net and I can tell just by reading it this is once a again a Mike Shel homerun.
I am taking the advice of using XP instead of the milestone method because I want to encourage the group to learn the history and get to know the town.
My party size is going to be 6.
@Mike Shel by any chance do you have any advice to adjust for 6 players? I tend to throw the extra mooks but in some areas sometimes you need something more exciting ;-)
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I ran through it with 5 players. I had them start the adventure 3/4 of the way to level 2 (I threw in two encounters beforehand). Then I also added about 3 encounters in the middle as well as increasing the kobold numbers by about 15-20% in the kobold sections. But they still didn't make it to level 7 at the end.
But it didn't matter, they pretty much breezed through the final encounter (even though the three NPCs that were there didn't help too much, one popped a mirror image, the other cast airwalk on the paladin). They did have the wizard die, but the Paladin burnt through the final guy very quickly with a holy smite.
I was expecting a couple more deaths so I thought it would have been a bit harder especially since my guys aren't super optimized (the wizard and the paladin are the ones that can burn through things like cake, though the wizard doesn't make it seem that way).
What I would have done if I were to do it over again is increase some more of the minions, especially in the monastary to pump up more experience and make the fights more deadly (though they got stomped by the mummy, absolutely wrecked, they couldn't hit it for the life of them). I also would cut down the treasure a bit more (or lend more of it instead of giving it to them) that would help with my followup campaign.
But the module is excellent, I highly recommend it, absolutely fun.
It would be tougher with 6, I did like the NPCs as pressure release valves, they could do good if I needed it, and could not help if they didn't, so I would keep Maffei. But at bare minimum max out pretty much every creatures health to make fights more than 2 rounds.
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I was mean and had the local Cleric of Abadar come in with the Mayor and execute a binding contract with the party that they wouldn't take anything from the house. At the end of it I told them they would be subject to Truthtelling and anyone caught lieing would be arrested.
As far as the 4 to 5 player adjustment - just give the critters more HP or add 1-2 if they are really weak (like Grioths tend to be later on).
I had my guys sign a contract, but going through it, a whole bunch of the stuff in the Manor just flat out isn't that useful or cool to players. Though the wizard did keep one of the weird books, and I let him use his stealth skill to try to copy spells from the spellbooks during the following month (I did like 30+Stealth check number of hours he could copy spells).
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My players are about to do the Kobold lair. I have been thinking on how to execute the Manor inventory check.
I was thinking of having the appraisers follow behind the party safely to help reduce the five finger discount but my players for the most part are honest PC's.
I am hoping to get more in town role play after the Kobold lair. I got a few additional minor side quests in there that makes the party talk to other members of the town.
I have a question about the Dark Mirror: is it possible for the party to cross through that barrier? What is it like on the other side? Is there a source book for that?
The Yangethe scared the group so much they nearly ran through the mirror was just curious what the outcome would have been as a DM I was not remotely prepared for such a endeavor.
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There should be rules in the book for it. I think you take damage and then get thrown back out.
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DAGGUM we loved this module!
We, uh... we did it wrong, but it was so awesome~!
(I also mythic'd the boss up a bit for our purposes.)
She wasn't too interested in Belhaim... at first. Then she started interacting with everyone. And daggum did that change. So much so that, by the time she finished the manor-exploration, she'd resolved to purchase the place and settle there, and use her higher-than-expected wealth to literally purchase every single thing (except the stuffed bear, which she didn't care about or want) including the manor, which was the thing she wanted most.
(She was a paladin, but she was also obsessed with/linked to the Black Dark Tapestry and space.)
What's great is that, of course, the part where the manor is for sale was interrupted by the appearance of the monsters, followed by the eponymous dragon and it's demand.
She was tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiicked.
She eliminated the creatures with extreme prejudice, saved everyone's lives, and was confused by the way she missed the dragon, but then demanded that everyone in the nearby vicinity stay right there, and told the auctioneer to "Finish the auction. Sir. >:I" and stared at him until he put the manor up for auction. She made her bid, and stared hard at every single other person. The auctioneer sold it, she nodded with a "hmph" through the nose, and only then allowed everyone to leave.
SO. AWESOME.
(Also, considering she was related to a certain hero for reasons... so many cool things!)
Thank you, Mike, for a great module!
Okay, okay, okay.
A dearth of voices have cried out to me... and I have heard~!
Because no one demanded it:
(Post one)
Character was basically the dragon smiter paladin from page 120 of the NPC codex; for our purposes, she'd lost her spellcasting, taken the Oath against Wyrms, and received some continuous low-grade buffs, and some
She was named, like in the book, Telthor Grimblade.
I'd created a kind of mini-AP out of The Dragon's Demand, Guardians of Dragonfall (as I didn't know that was non-canon at the time), and Blood of Dragonscar; I'd mostly left it the same, but mythic'd a few enemies and placed a few more well-fleshed out (semi-)"random" encounters around (just in case I needed them), and a couple of scripted or non-random encounters and NPCs in a few places.
I also (for fun) required three loyalties for a Paladin: her Code, her Oath, and her Order. She got to choose each of them.
The Code was Iomedae's paladin code. She decided to go with that one, both because she liked it, and it fit the character stories from the NPC codex.
The Oath was the Oath against Wyrms. She was actually pretty settled on this before anything else, as she really wanted a kind of dragon-hunting thing, just like the story of the paladin in the 'Codex. That said, she found the original order a tad too overzealous, and mitigated the rather unflinching murderkilldeath nature a tad, juuuuuuuuuuuust in case she happened to come across non-evil dragons (as if those ever existed).
The last was the Order. This was... pretty hard. Eventually she made her own tenets (as I'd noted that she could), calling this the "Grimblade Order":
- I must destroy evil dragons if I possibly can before they destroy others
- I must do the right thing and not the wrong thing
- I must keep a memento of each defeated foe in remembrance of the battle
We established the Grimblade order as being in the Grimblade Monastery (previously "The Monastery of the Winged Sword") - it was once a monastery in southern Taldor, devoted to followers of Aroden (with acolytes of Iomedae accepted); because of Telthor's presence (see her origin story, below), it was renamed the Grimblade Monastery, and, after Aroden's death, persisted as a monastery to Iomedae. It currently sits on the border of Taldor and Andoran - technically on the Andoran side, but just as technically a legal holding of Taldor (who did not participate in or condone the rebellion of Chelliax, and thus were always just kind of on the wrong side of the river).
At the time, we were suuuuuuuuuuuuper busy. My wife (the player) was tired, distracted, and pregnant. She wanted to come up with a backstory, but couldn't... so I shot some things back and forth with her, asked her a few clarifying questions, pulled out bits of things from the three modules I'd selected to weave into a semi-coherent whole, and wrote a kind of introduction/backstory for her.
The town is Talamir, found near the south western portion of the World's Edge Mountain range in Taldor's central region (south of Maheto, but north of Oppara).
Proud of their country, and convinced of its eventual reclamation of glory (when Aroden returned his blessing to them), the citizens of Talamir painted most of their town green and blue, highlighting the colors of the flag, enameled white lions throughout. A gorgeous, wealthy, and glorious Taldan city.
And then the end came, suddenly and swiftly.
The Blackpeak Mountain erupted and the mighty dragon Horranath erupted with it, leaving nothing but devastation and destruction in her wake, and ending Talamir far too quickly for most to comprehend.
The last memories the woman who would one day become Telthor Grimblade holds of that time was of her mother, crying, but smiling, too.
=============
Noise. Too much. Screaming. Terror. Fear. Death. Fire. Everywhere there is fire.
~ "It's the stone, it has to be. Gods above, risen Iomedae-!" ~
"Sweety, look at me, right now, I need you to look at me." the older woman's voice cut through the sound of thoughts like a hot knife through warm butter. The young girl blinked a few times, snapping back to the present.
"Look only at me, okay? Keep your eyes on me. Make the world smaller. It'll be okay. You'll be okay."
The older woman holds the girl's face in her hands, looking at her steadily. The woman looks away, briefly.
~ "No! The divinations said nothing about this! I'm unprepared. So unprepared." ~ Fear, anger, frustration, regret. So much regret. Worry for... someone? Who was Mommy worried about?
The words are muttered, not aloud, but in the mind. It doesn't matter. The girl hears them anyway. She wasn't supposed to listen to peoples' minds like that, and her mommy had warned her not to, but she sometimes did it on accident anyway. Hear things in peoples' heads, that is. She didn't tell anyone anymore, though, because that didn't go so well.
Looking back at her daughter, the woman smiles again. "Okay, now, Mommy's going to do a spell. You know how you like that?" she asks. "It's going to be okay - you're going to be fine. Don't worry. I need you to let this work on you. You know, like when I show you the 'pretty show' for an hour? Like that - you need to let it work on you, okay?"
The screaming wasn't stopping. Well, some of it was. Jozhal - always so strong and sturdy - screamed, briefly, and then choked on the strange gas everywhere. Mommy kept the gas away with nice walls of wind - they were always fun to run into and fall over. It was a great game. But now it wasn't a game.
Over there, Mischa caught on fire. It looked like it hurt, considering how much she was screaming.
"NOT. AT. THEM." Mommy said. "At me. Concentrate. Can you let this affect you?"
Oh. Mischa stopped screaming now.
It was so hot. So hard to concentrate. But Mommy needed this.
A blink. A nod.
"Good. Good girl. Just like I taught you. Concentrate. Allow this to affect you. Will it to affect you. Breath the magic into you, imagine it flooding your body, running through your lungs into your veins, and to the rest of you. Can you do that?"
A rock hit the Sachito house.
No words. Words didn't come. A nod may have happened, though. Maybe.
The house collapsed. Mommy didn't seem to notice. The fragments of the house exploded, but slammed up against some sort of wall that mommy had made instead.
"Good. I need you to do that now." the woman explained.
She pulled out a large pouch.
A gasp.
That was expensive. Mommy'd said that it had cost most of the year to afford it. What was she doing with it now?
The older woman took the powder and the most beautiful glitter imaginable ran in sparkles down into the woman's hand. Glitter made of diamonds, emerald, ruby, and sapphire. Beautiful. Incomprehensible.
The girl had never had a talent like Mommy's. It just had never clicked with her, and when the lessons had come, her eyes would simply glaze over. Mommy had always laughed and insisted she was just like her father.
The older woman, tears streaming down her face, began the deep chanting, the strange, horrifying, beautiful voice that she got when casting a spell - like a deep resonance created by a giant, but soft and lilting as a fairy, musical, yet hard and unyielding, causing the entire world itself to listen and hang on the words.
The glitter fell through Mommy's fingers as she raised her hand aloft, pouring more over the eight-year-old's head.
The girl did as her mother had instructed, literally breathing in the magic, and the dust, wanting it to fill her. She didn't know what it did, but mommy said it would all be alright. Everything would be alright.
As breathing became difficult, and everything crystalized, the woman looked down, crying and smiling.
Words didn't happen. They couldn't, because there was no time. Time was slowing and stopping. The world - infinitely slowly, and far, far too rapidly - crystallized around the girl, the edges of her vision first, but also inside of her, simply stepping outside of time.
The words finished having taken forever, and not long enough. The spell was complete.
~ "You'll be alright. You'll live." ~ came Mommy's thoughts.
"You'll" live - an odd choice of words. What about Mommy?
The girl wanted to speak, to ask, but there were no words. There could be no words - she was no longer breathing. She couldn't blink, either.
The last thing she saw was an enormous dragon descending too rapidly to contemplate. Fire began gathering at the edges of its mouth, as it began to eruct forth in a tremendous storm of death.
The last thing she heard was the mind of her mother. ~ "You're going to be okay. Don't worry. I love you." ~
=============
When she was found, later, she was found alone - perfectly preserved, perfectly unharmed... and perfectly unmoving. Sealed in time, and seemingly sealed against anything else beyond, the girl was found underneath a wall of collapsed rubble by a few servitors of Iomadae as they searched for survivors. A single ruined longsword lay before her - a blade that, seemingly, had cleaved much of the wall that would have otherwise buried her in a manner she would never be found.
Believing a miracle of Iomedae had occurred, they claimed the girl frozen in time and carried her away to their distant monastery. Though none could identify the magical effects covering her, one day, at a seemingly arbitrary point, hundreds of years later, the girl simply returned to life.
Noticed first by a kind Andoran herbalist named Aroon (a pilgrim to this shrine, and praying), she collapsed, but was tended and carefully cared for, treated well and with the best alchemy available - Aroon's. The poison air had not been entirely negated before she was sealed, and deep burns inside her skin and lungs gained hundreds of years before slowly healed. Over the next few weeks, Aroon and the other priests of the temple carefully restored every part of her... except her mind.
Though she learned to be a strong right arm for the church of Iomadae, and how to hone herself to bring good to all, she did not find her true call, and for years thereafter, she suffered terrible nightmares. And then the magma dragon came.
A young but deadly creature, it had been warped and wounded by terrible magics in some distant land and was seemingly accidentally teleported into the midst of her monastery. A few knights attempted to coral the thing, as it launched attack after attack, but even as it attempted to devour a few pilgrims, the chapel caught on fire, causing some of the timbers to land on the dragon, trapping it. Taking up the nearly ruined blade (practically naught but rust by now), she charged into the temple and slew the beast - nearly her own size! - but destroying the blade that had been with her since she was found.
She had founder her calling at last. Eliminating dragons before they kill the innocent.
No nightmares have darkened her door since that day.
She was given some problems from the local monastery for a) having thawed, and b) having destroyed the old, rusty sword - both, after all, were considered sacred relics of Iomedae. But she didn't care - she'd found her calling, and became a hardcore super-awesome dragon smiting paladin of Iomedae.
She eventually set out on her own, and started taking commissions to slay dragons in order to gain more power to destroy more dragons.
She'd become famous in certain circles (while virtually unknown in others - she didn't believe in press, as she didn't care).
She was confident that most of those men would be killed.
To no one's surprise, the Galtan army was devastated by a forest dragon cavalier possessed by a shadow demon riding a half-fiend draconic elephant. Okay, well, the creatures were pretty surprising, but the complete failure of the Galtan military wasn't a surprise to anyone who wasn't the current authority's favorites.
Telthor was, after the army was basically out of the way, able to more-or-less solo the thing (though her armor and one blade were effectively ruined), decapitating the elephant, and shooting the badly wounded and fleeing dragon from across the river between Five Kings' Mountain and Galt. She swam the river (in full plate), climbed on the other side and slew the beast.
And, of course, she was arrested for treason while carrying the carcass. Given that she was on the other side of the river, literally carrying the corpse of a dragon, and had just saved the few remaining survivors' lives, she shook her head, dragged her corpse, and left. Eventually, she joined up with a caravan from Galt headed to Belthame and, eventually, Maheto who were all too eager to follow with such a great hero...
Aaaaaaaaaand that's all I've got time for right now! Later!
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Re: Kanjougas
The only other Monk Mummy I know was in a certain AP and it gave Mummy Rot on either its slam or flurry.
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Hey all,
I have been running this for my kids (8&10), and they are almost finished with the Kobolds. I allowed them to make some of the Kobolds who were waiting in Ambush sites friendly just by talking them into not fighting, and of course they befriended Nighttail and Hak. My question is about Churgri: Churgri and Nighttail both are outsiders to the Blood Vow tribe, and both want to see Roaghaz dethroned.They seem like natural allies, any reason Churgri, upon seeing the PC's and Nighttail as their ally wouldn't join them as well?
I think your idea sounds fun Diafanus and most enjoyable for your kids and a great way to reward other solutions other than sword and spell.
Agreed; it's a great idea!
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Thank you Darius and Tacticslion. Yeah, one of my adult players is not a heavy combat type, so with that in mind, I didn't want to overwhelm my kids with "your character died!". And since the story as written has Nighttail become an ally, it makes sense if they use the "Allow the Kobolds to leave" option, that they should be able to befriend as many of them (especially ranking ones) as they can!.
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Does The Baroness Devy have any relations in other cities? Anyone know?
I don't know of any, and I kind of looked.
The wiki doesn't have an actual entry for her, and searches for the last name simply loop back to Behlaim.
It was my contention that Lady Origena did, in fact, have distant relatives, but they were estranged and Chelaxian - it was one of the many reasons she was so intent on getting her son to produce heirs, as she didn't want "devil-loving cretins" to spoil her town or harm her people.
That's entirely made up, though - feel free to steal it, if you like, as I don't mind. Similarly, I made up a dwarf illusionist wizard as Mehto's "main" caster...
- 1) an elf-gate that went to Castrovel; specifically, it connected to two similar devices associated with a group of pleasure-loving lashunta another with pleasure-loving elves. He held large "pool" parties on occasion in which the two groups were invited. Due to both groups worshiping the same empyreal lord (Arshea, in our case) they generally just kind of accepted the presence of the other without complaint, though they generally didn't socialize much with the other group, and most usually ignored the host. The house servants (see below) generally ensured various dietary and similar concerns were taken care of; when he was a young adventurous sort, he managed to find it on an archeological dig, and moved it back to his house
- 2) a powerful divination-and-illusion-based item that can basically vision the adventures of certain people (specifically those the mage has heard of before), and then make recreations thereof by major image, hallucinatory terrain, and shadow conjuration - these last abilities are used in conjuction to make a "danger room" in which the wizard goes on "adventures" and tests his spells, skills, and items (sometimes even those he's been commissioned to make) against "dangers" loosely modeled off of those he's watched with his item; he does have control and can command them to stop, but he is in a bit of danger, as it could hurt him
- 3) his house; not originally his, he ended up with it when its original owner and maker chose to attempt to assassinate him - as it turns out, inviting rivals to your house to kill them there isn't really the best thing to do, especially when your invitation was shown to the mayor, first, and said mage happens to have absurd luck. Either way, the original owner was caught up in his own machinations, and it legally passed to the new wizard (in exchange for a large number of services and valuable commissions for the city). The house is fundamentally devoted to its legal owner, has a sentience of its own, and the ability to (more or less) bore out the minds and memories of creatures and possess them (as well as altering their physical features to suit). Up to three times a year, a criminal with a death sentence in Maheto is instead sent to this wizard. He allows the house to do its thing, and their memories are erased and replaced with those of the house, they are permanently thralled to/extensions of the house, and physical features changed to be beautiful generic servants for the dwarf; it has since undergone a re-affirmation loop to make the dwarf in question its "true legal master" in the sense of accepting no law other than his; it has chosen not to share this information, however, because it would make its master unhappy and uncomfortable (as the dwarf is neutral good)
The dwarf is neutral good, 13th level, and has poor wisdom and middling charisma, and an interest in cosmological and astronomical studies, as well as crafting. He has been targeted for assassination at least six times since coming to Maheto, and has eventually survived all attempts - his would-be-killers instead eventually dying. He has started none of them.
With those three things, the dwarf pretty much lives as a recluse/shut in who never sees actual guests, but takes commissions through his house servants. It's how my wife's character commissioned her armor and sword to be repaired, and how she eventually enchanted her newer, better armor, later.
I also added a not-quite-abandoned cloud giant castle in the western mountains near Maheto; there she found some vicious half-breed ogres and changeling slaves that were made to be more mentally pliable.
I added a nymph and flock of wyverns as a non-random encounter - it was an interesting combat, and healing her later proved intense as well!
I added a few more things - I can't think right now, I'm hungry.
Anyway, hope that helps for some ideas! :D
Feel free to steal any, all, or none of it!