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So, as there have been a few mentions that The Choking Tower doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the campaign (Not that its a bad adventure by any means!), I'm taking the effort to completely rework Book 3 into something that not only features Iadenveigh more directly, as well as tying the adventure directly into Book 4, and the entire campaign to a lesser extent.
The following outline is spoilered partially to protect my players from accidentally stumbling upon it in case they are looking at my posts, and partially to keep the post tidy and organized.
Between mutilated livestock and pets, sightings of strange lights in the night sky and half-remembered nightmares of close encounters of the third kind, the entire town of Iadenveigh is panicking as they are unable to find the source of these strange phenomenon. As the players arrive seeking information of their own, they are quickly hired on by a man named Redfang to investigate the disturbances in exchange for whatever help the town can offer in searching for this 'Cassandalee'. The players are joined by a conspiracy theorist named Lorentian Kairn, who arrived one day ahead of the players and is also investigating the disturbances. In reality, this man is a Technic League Spy who not only is spying on the town, but is also genuinely interested in the ongoing disturbances.
The players investigate numerous examples of livestock mutilation, crop circles, and interrogate an eccentric local who claims to have been touched by "Those from Beyond", only to find that their trail grows cold. It isn't until later that a small mechanical bird is shot down by one of the hunters that the trail picks back up and leads towards a group of Varisians camped within the town; confronting the troupe reveals evidence that they were the ones causing the disturbances and are thusly arrested.
In thanks for their part for finding out who was causing these disturbances, the players are told about a hidden spaceship beneath the town. (Cue Part 2: Into the Aurora) At the end of the Aurora, their trail of Cassandalee goes cold. (There is no Invisible Stalker at the end of the dungeon, and no clue leading to the Choking Tower). However, as they try to leave the Aurora, they are confronted by Redfang and a number of townsfolk, who open fire on them claiming that “They have seen too much”. After the battle is over, the townsfolk that attacked them are shown to be reptilian humanoids in disguise - creatures that Lorentian dubs “Reptoids”. He claims to have been right about these aliens all along, and that the players can trust no one in the town before they can figure out who are real and who are Reptoids in disguise.
However, before they can truly figure out who is who, the next day they are charged for the murder of Redfang and numerous other citizens by Ivek Gunnette, who tells them to stand trial. If they try to prove themselves innocent, they have the chance to oust Ivek (And numerous other councilmembers) as being Reptoids in disguise in front of the entire town. However, now that their subtle efforts are blown, the aliens launch an assault against the town in order to subdue it. After defending the town from robots and alien creatures, they discover a trail that leads them to a spaceship landed a few miles outside of town. Boarding it and taking out its crew of small, gray aliens, they are rewarded by becoming stuck on the ship as it lifts off and heads into orbit to dock with its mothership.
Hilarity ensues and the players get the chance to explore and wreck things on the mothership, crewed by alien Grays, Reptoids, and other aliens, before confronting the cybernetically enhanced gray that serves as the captain. While exploring the ship, they discover information about another alien presence in Numeria (Dubbed “The Enemy” by the Grays) in a region known as the Scar of the Spider; information on these aliens is that they have discovered some sort of important artificial intelligence and that liberating this technology is next on the Gray’s list of actions. In truth, this AI is Cassandalee - exactly who the players were looking for. However, by confronting the captain and slaying him, the players are unable to control the ship *The captain was psychically linked to the navigational computer) and it finds itself performing an emergency crash landing in Numeria. As it so happens, it lands relatively near the Scar of the Spider, allowing the survivors to continue their journey, possibly after salvaging tech from the crashed ship.
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What do you guys think? I’m still working on the crunch and the minute details, but I feel that Book 3 being about aliens fits right in with Book 4’s theme, allowing the middle section of the Iron Gods’ trilogy to be all about aliens.
Plus the players get to go to space, if only for a short time. Miiiight see if I can include a space walk somewhere in there.
As far as the Choking Tower goes, I feel it would be better served as a stand-alone adventure, since it doesn’t quite mesh well with the rest of the campaign. Furkas Xoud is an awesome foe and the tower itself is a ton of fun, though.
Once finished, I fully intend to post links and maps so others can enjoy this adventure as well. Inspiration for the adventure is from X-files, general alien conspiracy theories, and of course, XCom.
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Grays: The Grays are the leaders of this cabal of aliens; it is their ship they use, they perform most of the experiments on specimens and they’re the ones who often go and collect specimens for examination and experimentation. They use a number of high-tech weaponry and technology, many of which differ from the Androffan technology found in Numeria in ways that allow it to interact with the psychic abilities of the Grays. They are lead by a cybernetically modified Gray known as a “Zeta” that is psychically connected to the ship itself and controls it; without the Zeta’s assistance, the ship cannot be controlled except by a more powerful ship. As a result, killing the Zeta forces the ship to either go on lockdown mode, making it effectively inert although most of the processes on the ship continue to function (life support, experimental facilities, etc), or perform an emergency landing (the latter happens in this case)
Brain Moles: Although not necessarily ‘alien’ per-say, Brain Moles are used by the Grays to collect psychic energy that the Grays can then extract and store. The Brain Moles are lead by a Brain Mole Monarch that has created an alliance with the Grays, providing them with psychic energy in return for not only safety, but plentiful food sources.
Emotion Ooze: A number of Emotion Oozes are held captive in the Gray’s ship in order to allow the Grays to study the effects of various psychic emotions on humans. The Grays themselves are curiously immune to the effects of the Emotion Oozes, but nevertheless have taken precaution with containing the oozes; each ooze is kept in a secure vat that can psychically block the emotion aura of the oozes, allow a limited amount of it to leak out, or to allow its aura to penetrate it fully, at the command of the Grays.
Griefgall: A small number of Griefgalls have aligned themselves with the Grays and help the aliens study emotions and psychic emanations; One such Griefgall infests a Lashunta Psychic that leads the study of the Emotion Oozes.
Reptoids: A number of Reptoids are amongst the aliens, although most of them are now amongst Iadenveigh’s population, having infiltrated and replaced numerous citizens. Unlike the Grays, who prefer to interact with the humans as little as possible or at least do so from a hidden standpoint, the Reptoids are focused on infiltration and learning more about the humans through direct interaction, as well as focused on locating suitable targets for experimentation, not to mention studying the curious fertility of the town. Although they keep what little technology they bring to the town a secret, they maintain constant contact with their allies in the ship above the village.
Thorgothrel: A single Thorgothrel accompanies the Grays, acting as biological scientist to assist in studying the humans. The Thorgothrel doesn’t much like working with the Grays or Reptoids, but nevertheless has been convinced to cooperate provided it can genetically regress a few specimens here and there, to which the Grays agreed.
Robots: A number of robots assist the Grays onboard the ship and elsewhere. These range from guardians, to medical drones, to scouts, to psychic-amplifying support robots. They differ from Androffan Robots in that they often project a psychic force-field and can store and even use psychic energy. One such type of robot is the “Robotic Mage”, a variant Clockwork Mage with the Robotic Subtype that uses psychic magic.
Other: A number of alien plants and other creatures are kept as specimens for study and research, including at least one Rhu-Chalik and a few Flumphs. Others include numerous Lashunta and Shobhad kept in stasis as trophies of sorts. Some of these captive aliens can be rescued as allies, while others might be antagonistic, even to their rescuers. One captive in particular, while not alien, is a Tyrannosaurus Rex that was taken from the Mwangi and kept in stasis.
That does sound awesome, I disagree on the Choking Tower a little personally, but that's partially because it's right up our alley.
But still, great stuff, space might be a bit distracting I guess, as it might get their hopes up, but I just skimmed it honestly, so you might have thought of that. :-)
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I intended to use the being in space as a way to terrify them; they're trapped aboard an alien vessel with no way to control it, thousands (Tens of thousands, technically, if you use Earth as an example) of miles above Golarion. The nearest living creatures all want to kill them/experiment on them and have control of the ship, not to mention are utterly alien in all possible ways.
I've already told my players that my modified book 3 will feature a short hop into space, and they're really excited. A minor spoiler to be sure, but it was used as a way to get them excited, and eventually as a way to terrify their characters :D
Excellent, then you got it all figured out. :-)
I wonder when the Aethera campaign setting comes out, seems like that might have what you're looking for. :-)
I've heard about that, but I'm not gonna use it. I'm building this one specifically for IG book 3. One of my players who was in an IG until it fell apart early on said that his old GM said he might've used it, though.
There is only one additional alien faction, else I'd agree - the Reptoids are allied with the Grays and simply work as the ones infiltrating the town. Whereas Book 4 has Mi-go contending with the Dominion, not to mention rogue aliens, this one has just one faction - one that happens to also oppose the Mi-Go and Dominion.
The problem with replacing the Mi-go with Reptoids in book 4 is that Reptoids are all about infiltrating society; that wouldn't be possible in the Scar of the Spider. Vise-versa would have it difficult to have the Mi-go allied with the Grays (and others). If the Grays and all of the aliens are outright replaced by Mi-go, then it makes the mi-go too repetative, having them be in two adventures. One is enough, and with my plan you can face a whole host of interesting and bizarre aliens working together for the worse of humankind.
While yes, there are other technologically oriented towns out there (Torch, for example, which I did look at), that could work for "We want the tech beneath your town, I feel that Iadenveigh is PERFECT due to its isolated, secular nature. With outside contact relatively rare, the Grays can have much more freedom with what they have in store for the town.
The goals of the Grays/Reptoids are as follows: A) Abduct specimens for biological research; B) Replace important individuals within the town to gain power over it, and to ensure that (A) can be done with more impunity; C) Learn and understand the humans better so as to be better at (B); and D) Gain eventual control of the town through subtle manipulations and use its resources for other ends. The Grays know there is a tech ruin beneath the town and want access to it as well - but they don't want to be the ones to brave the dangers within it. The players fit perfectly into their hands with this.
I've made some changes to the adventure since I made the original post. Redfang is no longer a Reptoid in disguise, and is in fact one of the few leaders who isn't one; he acts as an anchor to the town for the players, helping them want to help the town. He assists in delving into the Aurora as well.
Later, after faux-Ivek and the other main Reptoid infiltrators try to ambush the players as they are preparing to leave the Aurora, Redfang rallies the town. After one last attempt to regain control of the town (by trying to abducting Redfang and the players at night via a special-ops team of Gray Psychics, all Psi-Tech Disciplined), thats when they attack the town.
The main goal of the adventure is to show that 1) Aliens are seemingly drawn to Numeria due to its technology, 2) They pose a threat just as much as Unity does, though not as severe as one, and 3) To better include Iadenveigh in the story, as it barely sees any action in Book 3 normally.