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I've not been able to read the entirety of What Grows Within and Whisper out of Time, but I saw something that confused me.
The Necronomicon in WGW says that it cannot be teleported, at all. However, the opening to WooT says that Lowls was teleported by an ally, and that he also teleported out of the library with the Necronomicon.
The book cannot be transported by teleportation effects. If carried by someone who teleports away, the book remains behind, and the fool who attempted to teleport must succeed at a DC 30 caster level check or the attempted teleportation effect sends him somewhere singularly dangerous that is associated with elements of the Elder Mythos or, barring any appropriate such location in range, to a site where undeath or necromantic energy is strong.
Lowls snatched up the Necronomicon and teleported out of the library with it, leaving his companions alone to face the horrors there.
How do I reconcile these two things? Lowls couldn't get out of the Library except through teleportation, but he can't teleport out with the Necronomicon. Did I just happen to skim something that I missed?
Would Psychic spells such as Mind Thrust and Synaptic Overload count interacting directly with a Great Old One's thoughts for the Great Old One extraordinary ability Insanity?
Insanity (Ex) Any creature that attempts to interact directly with a Great Old One's thoughts (such as via detect thoughts or telepathy) must succeed at a Will save or be driven permanently insane. The save DC is equal to 10 + 1/2 the Great Old One's Hit Dice + the Great Old One's Charisma modifier. This duplicates the effect of the insanity spell, or the insanity rules (in which case the save DC is also the ongoing insanity DC). A Great Old One using its telepathy to communicate doesn't activate this ability unless it spends a standard action to focus its mind on one opponent. This is a mind-affecting effect.
If yes, I might have a very unhappy Psychic player towards the end of Book 5.
No, I think there needs to be some feedback where you get back there thoughts. Mind Thrust and similar are one way pushes of info that don't expose you. Something like Thoughtsense would be eligible, though. GM call, but play fair with the intent.
I've not been able to read the entirety of What Grows Within and Whisper out of Time, but I saw something that confused me.
The Necronomicon in WGW says that it cannot be teleported, at all. However, the opening to WooT says that Lowls was teleported by an ally, and that he also teleported out of the library with the Necronomicon.
The book cannot be transported by teleportation effects. If carried by someone who teleports away, the book remains behind, and the fool who attempted to teleport must succeed at a DC 30 caster level check or the attempted teleportation effect sends him somewhere singularly dangerous that is associated with elements of the Elder Mythos or, barring any appropriate such location in range, to a site where undeath or necromantic energy is strong.Lowls snatched up the Necronomicon and teleported out of the library with it, leaving his companions alone to face the horrors there.How do I reconcile these two things? Lowls couldn't get out of the Library except through teleportation, but he can't teleport out with the Necronomicon. Did I just happen to skim something that I missed?
I am also interested in this answer.
Most likely Lowls got special dispensation for being a puppet of Xhamen-Dor, but that's just a guess on my part.
Most likely Lowls got special dispensation for being a puppet of Xhamen-Dor, but that's just a guess on my part.
Maybe, but it'd be nice if it was clarified who, if anyone can teleport with it. Since it could easily become relevant in Continuing the Campaign stuff.
Would the loophole work for other high level avatars/heralds of Great Old Ones or Outer Gods? Does it also work for the demi-lich that made the book, since his essence is specifically fused with it?
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If that's what the story you want to tell needs, then by all means yes.
This bit, which I didn't clarify well enough, was essentially showing that Count Lowls is something different than what the PCs last remembered, he's a little something extra that somehow was able to break a rule that others haven't broken. Whether the PCs pick up on that is another thing, but that was my intention.
If I recall it says that the book can pass through gates. Maybe instead of teleport, he used a gate...
I ran the parchlands expedition two nights ago. I realized that the debilitating effects of the desert and its scarcity of food and water aren't very dramatic when the party is 13th level. They passed their test of strength with flying colors by possessing giant A and going to town on the remaining two opponents. When they met the girtabliliu, we couldn't even get through the conversation because I couldn't pronounce their name for the life of me. They were unceremoniously called "scorpion ladies" instead. I was expecting them to go full murder hobo when mother grim moon invited them over but they remained civil and agreed rid them of their scorpion infestation.
To keep things more interesting, I repaired Old Obsidian's claw and poison DC and then added the Agile mythic template. Two party members nearly died to 0 con by the end of it, with the barbarian having a position DC of 33 to save against at the end.
While the session was short and straightforward, it was a good time. I recommend beefing up the scorpion if you are worried about it not being challenging enough. It IS a 1v4 after all and he party should have full resources.
Check the subtype at the back of the book. :-)
I forget to check there all the time myself. :-)
If Xhamen Dor is 550 feet underwater, then starting a fight with it seems a bit awkward. Underwater combat rules aside, it just seems like it will make the fight much more difficult. Even if you pull it closer to the surface or shore, it will still have line of sight/effect from beneath the water. How does everyone else see this fight going?
Query about the ritual: "PATH TO THE BLACK STARS"
Does this create a portal as described under the Necronomicon?
"This also allows the user to examine and master the portal..."
Or is it a teleport as described under the ritual, "teleport all
of the targets to a random destination"?
Will the Necronomicon go through?
"The book can be carried safely through gates, portals, and
other freestanding teleportation effects."
Why does the Husk of Xhamen-Dor have DR/Epic and Lawful but the full powered Xhamen-Dor has DR/Epic and Slashing? Just seemed really odd that they have different types of DR.
Husk.. DR/Epic and Lawful
...full powered Xhamen-Dor has DR/Epic and Slashing...
Well at least DR/EPIC &Lawful you can get through with +4 Bane.
and don't HAVE to be doing 1/2 damage underwater, or have freedom of movement.
Gotta say, I love the idea of the otyugh tome eater. :D
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Am I missing something, or is there no map of the Parchlands at all? I was really looking forward to a glimpse off the Inner Sea border. :(
I was disappointed with that as well.
Still, there's a lot going on, I can see why it might've been cut. :-)
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Ran the second session of this last night and got to kick off the exploration of Neruzavin. It was difficult to do the weird geometry of the city justice on a battle mat with markers so I relied on the vivid details the adventure provides to make up for it. The whole 'wind coming from below' bit got a great reaction. They encountered the Otyugh and had a series of debates on whether or not to sell the chain of nights from the first volume of the AP for some extra cash. The pair of Juggernauts interrupted their discussion and I blasted some Mad Max:Fury Road OST to get them pumped. Because I designed the streets to be 20 feet wide in some places, the juggernauts were incredibly deadly and did a number of the group. Of course, other groups may have had a flier with ranged attacks and easily be able to take them out but that wasn't the case for my group so they had to deal with some gnarly overrun checks and vicious trample.
After using half of their CLW wand charges on a single encounter, they made their way to the tower (led by the echoes of Lowls party) and ran into the archons. It was a tense exchange and they managed to lie through their teeth without getting caught. However, the Archons remain suspicious of their motives and I foresee some flaming sword attacks in their future.
I wanted the inside of the tower to feel trippy and MC Escher esque. Hilariously enough, my laziness of not wanting to erase the city map on the playmat grid led me to flip it over and draw the tower map on the hex grid side. It was surprisingly effective and really added for the strangeness of the building's architecture. After all, my group has been playing on a square grid for 8 years now.
I combined the two encounters that consisted of Lowls party into one fight to up the challenge a bit. Fighting 6 level 10 characters is no joke, and it was a close battle but they managed to pull through. The Brawler locked down the Sorcerer by temporarily learning the Improved Step Up and Disruptive feats, saving the group from a constant fireball barrage. Thala the seedborne fighter stole the show with her monstrous disarm and trip build but her 140+ hp wasn't enough to withstand an optimized bloodrager.
The session ended with them finding Lowls notes and the Necronimicon(!). I dumped a bunch of plot info on them and called it a night. Overall, a pretty productive, if short, session.
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I find the lack of a Parchlands map to be, and this is putting it politely, incredibly disappointing. I can't even work out where it's supposed to be. P.25 says "The Parchlands is a broad expanse of desert that stretches hundreds of miles south of Qadira's southern border. But Qadira's southern border is an ocean.
Is the Parchlands another name for the Meraz Desert? Is there more desert beyond the Meraz? If so what separates them? Or is it actually north of the Golden Path in the direction Castrovin Sea, as hinted at by the reference that it Neruzavin lies with the former borders of Ninshabur (p.59)?
Having an entire AP set off the map somewhere really doesn't cut it for me.
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I find the lack of a Parchlands map to be, and this is putting it politely, incredibly disappointing. I can't even work out where it's supposed to be. P.25 says "The Parchlands is a broad expanse of desert that stretches hundreds of miles south of Qadira's southern border. But Qadira's southern border is an ocean.
Is the Parchlands another name for the Meraz Desert? Is there more desert beyond the Meraz? If so what separates them? Or is it actually north of the Golden Path in the direction Castrovin Sea, as hinted at by the reference that it Neruzavin lies with the former borders of Ninshabur (p.59)?
Having an entire AP set off the map somewhere really doesn't cut it for me.
I get your disappointment. I really do. I struggled with the decision to provide a map.
The Parchlands is not supposed to be another name for the Meraz Desert. It is its own place that is "off map" as far as what we've presented of the world so far. I strongly considered providing a map to show where it was in relation to the Inner Sea region, but ultimately I abandoned the idea for a few reasons. The first of which was that Neruzavin is supposed to be mysterious. If if was someplace that any scholar in the Inner Sea could point to that would deteriorate some of this mystery. Maps cost money and space that I felt words could fill better. A full page map takes up about 900 words and a half-page map takes up about 500 words. I didn't feel like adding a map from the Inner Sea region to the Parchlands added as much to the adventure as the words (and precious XP-giving encounters) that filled that space and I didn't feel like it was the best use of my art budget for this volume. The Parchlands being detailed as a setting isn't as important to the narrative as it is being a mysterious place, and adding more details to a mystery renders it mundane.
It is important though. :-)
Edit: knowing where your party is going is always worth some precious XP. Just an opinion, I don't feel that a map would diminish the mystery or would be a waste of art budget.
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Agreed, which is why it stands as one of my regrets with this adventure.
()
Re: Edit: True, but distance, terrain, and climate are already addressed in the text, so a map would only be a visual representation to a journey (that at this level might be partially skipped over depending on use of magic) so I don't see where showing a picture of the place results in any change to gaining XP. I agree that it would be kinda cool to see, though.
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As a side note, and not trying to horn in too much... (Adam, let me know if this is stepping on toes and if so I'll shut up and fix things!)
The Parchlands are another "export" from my homebrew world. In my setting, the Parchlands are the largest desert, and there's a lot of stuff going on in there. When I first came up with the idea to do Strange Aeons and built its outline, I was under the assumption that I would be the developer. But that didn't happen; I got pulled off the project very early on to instead develop the Curse of the Crimson Throne Hardcover, and Adam did an OUTSTANDING job picking up an outline that I'd built to rely on my own strengths and interests and running with it.
In my vision, the Parchlands were going to be an entire significant region in Casmaron, an area of wilderness, uncivilized, "here there be monsters" desert in the same way the Valashmai Jungle (also an export from my homebrew) is a vast dangerous jungle in Tian-Xia, or how the Worldwound is an unsettled wilderness of demon-haunted wreckage. In the very early days of my design work on outlining Strange Aeons, one of my initial ideas was that I'd write a support article for the Parchlands akin to what we did in the early days for regions like Belkzen or Kyonin.
But as I said above, I was reassigned to work on a different project, and as a result, the development task fell to Adam. Developing an adventure path that someone else outlined is a weird and tricky and frustrating and difficult thing to do, not the least of which is that since it's not something YOU outlined and came up with on your own, it can be difficult to run with certain elements of the outline.
So as a result, the 5th installment refocused, as Adam described above. I think leaving the Parchlands vague and mysterious works to the adventure's advantage, frankly, and to be honest, I respect and thank Adam for doing so, since this gives me the chance to, perhaps some day in the future, actually be able to be more directly involved in the region's creation. Which, since I wasn't going to develop that adventure, was not in the cards for this book. I've had to give up a LOT of the things from my world and lose the opportunity to develop them in the way I would have, and need to do so with increasing frequency these days as my duties have shifted more and more to supporting hardcover books like Bestiary 6 and Adventurer's Guide, and so the fact that Adam DIDN'T go forward with other authors expanding upon the Parchlands is something that I appreciate.
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As a side note, and not trying to horn in too much... (Adam, let me know if this is stepping on toes and if so I'll shut up and fix things!)
Nah. You're good. I appreciate you chiming in with your thoughts and take on the matter. It affirms that I made the right calls.
When I develop things I try my best to address the current while leaving room for the future (with as few pits to fall in as possible).
Well, with your own reasoning, and James' added background I'll agree with that.
Love the name The Parchlands, and thanks for the great adventure path so far, can't wait to see how it works out. :-)
Another thing I thought of was that it was one of those known only to the locals. For example, we may call the Sahara desert the Sahara desert, but others may refer to it as something else. I do like regions to have their own secrets. Just like how every major mountain isn't named, locals have names for them. Mount McKinley for example was known as Denali to the native americans and has been renamed to Denali officially.
So I have a question in this spoiler.
ghouls, the three ghouls warn the PCs of Xhamen-Dor’s growing power, and invite them instead to seek the Black Pharaoh.
Where is the discussion of what happens if they do seek Nyarlo out? Is that in the next book?
Also I love the picture of the Saffron Prince. Very awesome picture!
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So I have a question in this spoiler.
** spoiler omitted **
Where is the discussion of what happens if they do seek Nyarlo out? Is that in the next book?
Also I love the picture of the Saffron Prince. Very awesome picture!
Sweet! Have just the thing then seeing how I created a homebrew outer god cultist class. Thank you John!
One more session left in this book before the group jumps into book 6! I'll post a recap of what's happened so far sometime tomorrow.
Haha, yeah my group is pretty lucky in that regard. This will be our 3rd AP completely ran through (we got 4/6 of the way through serpents skull). We meet consistently every week for about 4-5 hours. On top of that, the players are very familiar with the system having played for years and blaze through turns and those daunting late-game calculations with dice apps.
I must mention that the pace at which we've been playing is unusually quick for a number of other reasons. They've been pretty minimal with the role playing this path and rarely ever take time to stop and smell the roses, so to say. I adapted by matching them with a pretty fast-paced DM style that they seem to enjoy. Some would say this defeats the purpose of playing a TTRPG but we al enjoy it and still get a sense of cooperative story telling. I would also make the case that our previous AP's would probably never had been able to go this fast because Kingmaker and Skull and Shackles have a more open-world feel that you can get lost in. Strange Aeons is more like a terrifying roller coaster ride.
I trim about one or two encounters from each dungeon to keep a more consistent theme and in order to challenge their 20-point buy optimized characters I combine a lot of the encounters. For instance, I removed the advanced template from the hunting horror and allied it with Weiralai during the under city dungeon for a much more deadly encounter. Similarly, in book 2 I combined the keeper of the yellow sign, some of the cultists, and the big bad together for a more intense final fight. I find this makes the fights for memorable but at the cost of straining the way pathfinder is balanced (5 encounters a day). Considering they lack full spellcasters, this doesn't seem to create too much of a nova problem.
All of these little changes and cuts to each book have added up to a much quicker than usual adventure experience. However, I think the fact that I have such eager and enthusiastic players who WANT to come back and play and see the next part of the story every week just shows you how exciting the adventure has been for them.
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One thing that I have found to expedite thepace, is when you ignore the XP and just level up when the book says so. It makes unnecessary to grind "pointless" encounters and random enemies just because they are needed for the XP budget. I only run encounters when I like them challenge wise or I feel they matter for the story. That ussually means I cut at least a couple of them per book, and never roll for random encounters. All in all, that makes for 1, maybe two less sessions per book.
Agreed, the XP mechanic is one thing I've ditched in almost every game I'm in.
Not I, two kids at the table means math is fun!
Otherwise, I would probably consider it. :-)
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After obtaining the Necronimicon and realizing that their Lowls was in another castle (again) the party encountered the angered spirit at the stelae. I gave the party medium the opportunity to communicate with it and they opted to go retrieve it's sword rather than slay it. They left the tower and immediately were set upon by the archons who interrogated them on whether they had found the Necronimicon. Unfortunately, their gauntlet of lie detection techniques were too much for the party's bluff checks and the conversation turned violent. They put up a good fight (considering they were a 3-person party because the investigator had to miss the session) but the archons quickly chewed through their hit points with flame strikes and fireballs, forcing the medium to teleport his two unconscious allies back to the Ash giant camp. I later remembered that the Necronimicon was supposed to prevent teleportation, but considering Lowls did the same with it in the Mysterium. I just left that particular restriction off of the artifact.
While his allies recovered, the party Medium eagerly cracked open the ancient text and opened his mind to madness. While he saved vs. the ability score drain, the sanity damage sent him over the edge and he crumbled to the floor, Catatonic. This unfortunate turn of events slowed the adventure to a halt as the party debated for about 30 real-time minutes on how to best deal with this complication. Eventually, they settled on leaving the medium under the care of Grim Mother Moon until he recovered enough sanity to participate again. The remaining members set off back towards the city. Along the way, they encountered a Lammasu paladin named Amrivast. To brighten the mood, I played the creature as an over-the-top, Lawful-Stupid crusader who was eager to kick some evil butt. This ended up working out because the Medium's player got to run this NPC rather than sit on the side and watch.
The party dodged the fog of death encounter and headed into the Snarl (or as my players affectionately titled it, "the nihil-zone"). After a depressing history lesson from aept, the broken soul, the party got to meet the area's twisted inhabitants. They appeased the Saffron King but his escalating violent demands eventually causes both sides to draw swords. The encounter with the Heresy devil didn't go much better. I role played him like a sleazy used car salesman -- obsessed with getting his hands on the Necronimicon. The party was afraid he'd betray them and steal it so they passed on his forgery offer. As written in the aventure, I had him ambush them later but even with the element of surprise, he didn't stand a chance against the Brawler's pummeling charge.
Miles away, the Archons tracked the party medium to the ash giant camp and threatened the Giants to hand over the medium and the book. The Giants resisted, but crumbled to the Archons, forcing Mother moon to take the catatonic medium with her and escape.
While they still had not activated any of the stelae, they decided to head to the under city to address Kaklatath's concerns about the polyps. There were some nasty encounters down there but the most memorable fight involved the hunting horror. I stripped it's advanced template but had Weiralai ride it into battle. She sent the bloodrager tumbling into the abyss by crushing the bridge. Luckily, he had a magical flight method and floated back up to join the fight. Quickly after, the brawler jumped up and whiffed his knock out punch. She responded with a bestow curse (50% daze curse, of course) and severely hampered his ability to contribute after that. The horror spent its turns laying the hurt on the party. I was saving it's limited wish spells for later, but that ended up being a mistake. Amrivast's charging smite pounce of holy awesomeness absolutely pulverized the hunting horror and it only got one more round before succumbing to the bloodrager. Weiralai attempted to greater dispel the bloodrager's flight source but missed the check by 2. After that, the fight turned sour, as Weiralai abused her flight to single out the party members. Amrivast was relegated to ambulance duty, and had to save the bloodrager from tumbling into the abyss again after Weiralai cut him down. Afterwards, she sent a horde of animated objects after the paladin to keep him busy and turned her attention to the investigator who had been quietly buffing in the corner this entire time. They clashed and spent the next 5-7 rounds mostly missing but occasionally getting in a hit on one another. Unfortunately for Weiralai, her damage potential without being able to utilize her sneak attack was pretty low, and she had to burn her heal to keep up. By then, Amrivast and the brawler had regrouped and closed in to seal her fate. Before dying, she managed to take the brave Lammasu with one final rapier strike and both of them dropped to their deaths on the cold, distant stones below. Amrivast's noble sacrifice was not in vain, and they cleared out the under city and sealed the polyps below with the Lightning gun. Unfortunately, the party investigator's knowledge check wasn't high enough to obtain Kaklatath's original body from the leng ghouls. They reluctantly traded the slave woman's body as food but soon realized they lacked the capability to restore the Yithian's body. Kaklathath informed them that the seeded corruption in its original body will soon overtake it's mind much like the slave woman's. They will have to find whatever remnants of Xhamen-Dor rest in Neruzavin's crater lake. Next session, they will eradicate the Inmost blot, once and for all... ... well, on Golarion anyways. They'll have to contend with it later in the next volume.
I'm making some additions to the Husk of XD fight so I'll let you know how those work out.
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I just ran an experimental one-shot session from the point of view of the doomed mercenaries Lowls hired. The players really seemed to like the change of pace and intensity even though their characters all died in various horrible ways. It also let me subtly set up a lot of later encounters and bought me time to build up the tension slowly in the next few sessions.
As for speed, I've also had to remove pointless encounters to keep things moving. I've found a good rule of thumb is to focus mostly on the illustrated encounters. Also, I try to pace out each session to have a specific sub-goal with its own climax, which really helps it feel like things are moving forward. For example, the sub-goals I've planned out for this adventure (each taking exactly one session) are:
- Reach Neruzavin
- Find Lowls's camp
- Activate the other two Star Stelae
- Explore the undercity
- Reach the Inner Seal
- Save the world twice
I just ran an experimental one-shot session from the point of view of the doomed mercenaries Lowls hired. The players really seemed to like the change of pace and intensity even though their characters all died in various horrible ways. It also let me subtly set up a lot of later encounters and bought me time to build up the tension slowly in the next few sessions.
As for speed, I've also had to remove pointless encounters to keep things moving. I've found a good rule of thumb is to focus mostly on the illustrated encounters. Also, I try to pace out each session to have a specific sub-goal with its own climax, which really helps it feel like things are moving forward. For example, the sub-goals I've planned out for this adventure (each taking exactly one session) are:
- Reach Neruzavin
- Find Lowls's camp
- Activate the other two Star Stelae
- Explore the undercity
- Reach the Inner Seal
- Save the world twice
Just out of curiosity, which encounters did you/will you cut?
So the ritual the characters use to reach Carcosa is in the Necronomicon, if I understand properly. Just to make sure I'm reading it right, that requires 'mastering' one of the sections of it, requiring that one of the characters take ability damage/drain in the process?