I'm using that angle (with Winter as the one tgat points it out) to express the alien nature of outer gods. Those slain by XD disease, or,sacrificed to Star Stelae, rtc, are melded with Carcosa, bypassing the regular natural cycle
| 9 people marked this as a favorite. |
So my group finished this on Friday!
I made some changes to the final section. For one, I moved the Shrike Worms into the mist around the asylum. Which is good that I planned that, because as the party was moving through the mist TO the asylum, one of the party asked "Wait, weren't there horrible things in this mist?" Yes, yes there were.
The party actually really enjoyed moving through the asylum as it existed before they altered it. When they realized the state it was in they commented "We can fix all our past mistakes! Don't help the doppelgangers! Don't heal the enemy. DON'T TRUST THE DOG!" They also joked that the weird eye, which they found as loot in the first book and the party witch STILL had, would transform into the final boss.
Next I reskinned the Bythos Archon to being The Tatterman. Renamed its abilities to something Tatterman appropriate, but didn't actually change them at all. The group seemed to like facing it down. After he was defeated, he collapsed into a mist that started to enter their sleeping alternate selves. The party slayer immediately went to wake himself up, and then the party got to witness themselves starting their adventure.
At the tower I had moved the Brairstone Witch down to the second level, and moved the level 14 cleric to the top with Lowls. Then I changed the cleric into Weiralei, the Denizen of Leng that has been plaguing the party, though kept her a level 14 cleric. I figured it would be more thematic for the last fight to include someone they knew rather than a witch they'd never really interacted with.
I though they'd fight the witch-lich and the cultist rogues as they went up the tower. They did not.
As soon as I finished the initial box text for the tower, the group decided to just fly up to the roof ><. Just in case this happened, I prepared two hand outs. One that showed the entire map that the party would see as they flew. The other was that map superimposed over a complete Yellow Sign. I was thrilled that as I showed the group the first handout followed by the second the group witch said "Hey, that kinda looks like a... DAMMIT!" The witch and the bard then proceeded to miserably fail their saves.
So the group lands of the roof, I read the description, show them the enemies, start playing "The Final Countdown" on the Roll20 music player, and the fight starts. The party witch blasts her own party with Storm Bolts, and the Bard starts buffing the bad guys. The Cleric gets the dominate off the Witch, and the Slayer shoots the bard down. Then Lowls finished the bard off (and I send the bard a handout with the Seeded Creature template and tell her she gets up in 6 rounds.) A few rounds later, the cultist rogues and the Briarstone Witch join the party.
It was really touch and go, and a few more party members almost died, their cleric barely keeping everyone up. But at the end the party prevailed! And the bard stood up just as the fight ended. She used her insanely high bard bluff to convince the party that it was totally her Vampire Corruption that was the reason she wasn't dead.
Then they summoned some angels to hand over the Necronomicon, which surprised me, since the party witch had already fallen to Chaotic Evil through her Accused Corruption and I thought there was no way she'd give that book up. But it was actually her idea, she didn't trust herself with it.
So the party Interplanetary Teleported back to Golarion and went their separate ways. The cleric sold off all his gear and built a temple to Shelyn in Thrushmoor where he stayed for the rest of his life. The Fighter went home to his 3 wives and 9 kids in Absolam. The changeling witch went to hunt down and kill her mother, then fell to her corruption and became a hag herself. The bard eventually became the new host for Xhamen-Dor. And the Slayer, possessed by the ghost of Upianshe, dedicated the rest of his life to hunting down and slaying the bard.
It was a wild ride and a great adventure! Much appreciating to the writers and to other people on this board for great ideas in running it! Everyone had a blast! Though as exhausting as running campaigns can be leaves me glad its over, I'm also sad that it's over.
After a GREAT roleplaying interaction with the Pallid Mask, I altered the order of tge adventure, sending them instantly to Thrushmoor and erasing them from existence after they refused to «bend the knee».
Btw, this is one of the best scenes I've ever played in an RPG, the shock value was incredible, my players were in awe.
So... after they started FEARING the Pallid Mask and his Reality Altering powers, I have decided that the Pallid Mask deserves to be the final fight, and thus, need extra oomph and shock effect, because the CR17 won't work as a final boss of an AP, specially vs a well rounded team of 6 lvl 16 characters.
I'm thinking about giving him a mythical level (to get two actions), but not sure which else could he have.
Things like Maze, Greater Mindscape, Vision of hell, or Weird, are good powers to represent his alien nature and reality warping ability. Not sure what else I can give him. Adding Weirelai might work, as henchmen always help «solo» type bosses. Using Hastur as a template, I could give him a few extra SLA, such as Quickened Feeblemind.
Anyone has any good suggestions?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Play up the reality warping by jacking 5Es lair actions that boss monsters have. Basically a free action at Initiative 10 from a small list that's premade and changes the board and terrain state.
Let him shift the board, warp them to corrupt versions of places they've been, illusions and mirage arcana, make the players guess what is real and what isn't. Have the ritual call in Byakees each round and have him call up simulacrae of your NPC allies over the adventure (Winter, the Sages from your boat ride, The Yellow King, the Nethyians, Mother Grimmoon, Erich, etc).
I already have the plan that the final encounter has a yellow mist about up to ankle height and his (in my case Ariadnahs) first action if to majestically sweep it away, revealing a Yellow Sign on the entire floor.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I have been thinking about this. I think the Stranger needs to get at least +3 to CR as a boss to become a threat vs a decently (but not extreme) optimized group of 6 lvl 16 characters. I'm going to give him the Agile Simple Mythic template, and Advanced Template, at the very least. Probably will need to raise his AC, and touch AC, or otherwise he'll go down in one full round action. I have an an alchemist in my group that do a lot of damage vs touch AC, and the magus and inquisitor can also attack vs touch AC in a given round, with the magus being able to dimension door-full attack. 270 hp with touch AC 16 won't cut it. Also, he lacks any way to avoid improved invisibility, which makes him mostly a sitting duck at this levels. I thought about adding Worm that Walks template (or a modified version, based on those stats) to reflect the fact that, under the robes, he's of alien nature. However, Worm that Walks takes x1.5 damage from alchemist bombs, and that's not good for a BBEG in my campaign. Maybe I could just swap his stats with Cassilda's, to make him last longer, as a final boss should do.
I think I'm going to give him Greater Create Mindscape, which will work well as the Reality Warped lair. He'll trap them in some kind of "mirror dimension" or similar weird dimension, like endless stairs, or a cube cell with gravity toward each wall or such. Maybe making it change between mindscapes whenever you reach certain milestone, such as a number of rounds. He can make the dreamscape harmless, so no physical damage can be transferred back to reality (this helps him, since he can do charisma drain and other mental damage), while making the PC to spend resources trying to beat him, not knowing (probably) that it's a mindscape. As a bonus track, if I make him change the mindscape 2-3 times, at least one of those mindscapes could have Dead Magic, which WILL be something my players will fear. Normally Dead Magic zones aren't a great idea in my opinion because it frustrates wizards and other full casters without anything they can do about it. But here, with a turn limit, in a certain "stage" of a bigger fight, within a mindscape, might work. It will certainly crush my wizard's hope, making him (briefly) realize that the Pallid Mask is right, and there's nothing he can do to avoid defeat, because the Herald of Hastur works on a higher level, warping reality. This works well with the nihilism of Hastur, the inevitability of lovecraftian horror, and the feeling of "this is not how the Universe is supposed to work" that this genre should inspire.
I still have a few weeks to prepare for this, probably won't end until after christmas. But I want to make this an epic, memorable fight that honors the great roleplaying encounter we had with The Phantom of Truth.
Thoughts on if Ariadnah (plus her Ratling), The Pallid Mask, and Lowls all together would be too much for an at least average optimized party and possibly more optimized?
Thinking about it, maybe giving the Pallid Mask some of the traits that Hooded Harbinger have (making him, basically, the quintaessential Hooded Harbinger) could work well, better than Worm that Walks or other templates.
There are already lots of similar things, as Hooded Harbingers have:
Prophetic Utterance (which thematically works similar to Horrific Revelance, even if the in-game effect is different)
Manifest Yellow Sign (the Pallid Mask can actually cast Yellow Sign as SLA)
Thematically, Terrible Visage (although the Pallid Mask doesn't have this, in the original story, knowing that his face wasn't a mask produced a similar insanity effect)
Things that Hooded Harbinger have, and can help The Phantom of Truth, are:
Constant See Invisibility
Profane Reek (CHA to AC as deflection bonus, plus mind fog aura)
Freedom of movement.
This, plus Advanced Template and Agile Mythic template, plus 2 or 3 spells like abilities such as Greater Create Mindscape, Frightful Aspect, and Prediction of Failure, might give him enough to give them a difficult evening, without becoming Rocket Tag. He can mess with them without being overpowering.
Thoughts on if Ariadnah (plus her Ratling), The Pallid Mask, and Lowls all together would be too much for an at least average optimized party and possibly more optimized?
Probably not, if they are played as they come in the adventure. However, I think Hastur (or "this is just like Hastur but we can't use Hastur or we'll kill everybody") is the quintaessential "Solo boss" fight. I know this kind of fights are hard to pull off in PF because of action economy, but I want to try.
I'm going to put Ariadnah, the Star Seed and Weirelai again all together, I think.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 8
|
IIRC, I gave the Pallid mask full spellcasting as a wizard based on his hit dice, and piled a couple mythic tiers on to give him the archmage “swift action cast whatever spell you want” power.
Of course, I also kept Xhamen-Lowls in the fight to take some of the heat off him. If I were building him as a solo monster, I like Hubaris’ suggestion of using something like Lair actions.
How does XD's Fungal Snare ability work?
It's a ranged attack (with 3 shots), that makes the target subject to Dread Decay and Grab.
Grab produces the grappled condition. Is XD also grappled? does he has to spend standard actions to keep the target/s grappled? If not... do the grappled target get free? Or is he forced to make a grapple check to get free? If so, vs what? XD CMD?
There's a thread in the main Strange Aeons thread called "What if the PCs dies?" I have a question I'd love the community's input on...
How have people dealt with the time loop end to the AP where some or all (TPK) the original PCs from the asylum have died?
Seems like a really cool scene and would hate to have to ditch it.
For info, I've not had a TPK yet, but have lost one PC and definitely see the potential for more given how deadly the first few books can be and the nature of the AP in general.
I only had a permanent casualty, a player died right in the Assylum. Was replaced by the guy being tortured by the doppleganger doctor, so we simply assumed this new character was also part of the story, his mind drowned in Mad Poet's Oasis and all of that.
Beyond that, est way to deal with ot is to use Raise Dead. Winter is a good source for it if no PC has the spell.
The Dream Journal of The Pallid Seer is a very good and thematic magic item too.
There's a thread in the main Strange Aeons thread called "What if the PCs dies?" I have a question I'd love the community's input on...
** spoiler omitted **
The first thing that came to my mind: What if you picture the original party in the cells and while the fight is moving on slowly let fade away the characters who are not among the suvivors of this AP switching them with the new ones. The more the perished ones fade away, their successors come into existence.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
We finished this wonderful AP last week.
Last book was pretty good. I made a few changes to fit my group better, but I liked it, specially the vampire ball.
One change I did was moving the time travel to the begining of the book. That made The Phantom of Truth a recurring villain, and a fearful one. Players didn't know what else could he do (time travel without a Save is pretty scary). The Phantom also made an appearence in Avaric's Manor, and I made him dissapear one hour (so the midnight was closer)
After Thrushmoor Nexus (where Weirelai replaced the random Cleric because recurring villains are cool) I made them fight the Phantom of truth, beefed up with a Mythical level and making him advanced abd making the truth whispering ability work like prediction of failure.
After an epic fight, with everybody insane except the Magus (who had Talons of Leng), the last standing PC managed to kill the Harbinger of Hastur, with only a couple of Cha points remaining.
However, in an unexpected turn of events, Hastur himself appeared into the scene, and told them everything that happened was just a test to find a new Harbinger. He told them that their souls where already his property, because all of them weared the yellow sign (back in the Assylum, to decieve cultists), and all of them took his money, wore his robes (specially the players who used the Unspeakable's Vestment and Weirelai's armor), and dinned at his table (im Avaric's manor). More importantly, they _wanted_ to be his Herald. This was a bluff from my part, as I wasn't sure if any player would accept. However, Hastur told each of them a reason to be part of Carcosa in exchange of saving thrushmoor snd the life of everyone else in the group, based on character's flaws and campaign traits. The power hungry wizard, the faith shakened inquisitor, the avid of knowledge magus, even the paladin of Torag, always looking to sacrifice himself for the grater hood of others. All of them could have reasobs to stay. Abd in fact, several decided to (Winter was my backup plan). The magus was shocked when, after he said «we don't want your gifts» Hastur replied «ah...but you di» and the Inquisitor said «he is right».
Later, in Thrushmoor, a year after the adventure, the group is cheering for the bictory abd mourning the fallen, when they overhear a conversation. Two studebts of Lepdist University are talkibg about sonething they found in a book. A name. Xhamen Dor.
And thus the heroes understand the undeniavle truth that mete mortals cannot stop the unstoppable force of oblivion, working to end the universe since the begining of universe itself.
Because you cannot kill them, as it is not dead what can eternal lie. Yet with Strange Aeons, even Death may die.
I was wondering, liches need to use Craft Wondrous Item to create their phylactery according to the template, but Ariadnah doesn't seem to have that feat listed. I could just hand-wave it, but I was curious if CWI was actually necessary or if I was missing something?
Interesting Thought.
My first but was that the briarstone witch is no hag, but she could defenitly be in cohort with her. Maybe the ambassador hag from their dreamquest has a connection to their mother. How did they got the Soulstone? If the stone was stolen, the ambassador might be out for revenge. And another maybe could be that your changelings caught the attention of their mother during that event.
She could have struck a deal with mother Ariadna to get hold of her offspring again.
This might be a very great and wonderfull roleplay experience. The ultimate showdown with your creator.
They fought for the Soulstone, though they definitely had some fun moments trying to figure out if she was their mother. It is definitely possible for the Briarstone Witch to have manipulated events to lead to their birth. I think the trick is how to get some of that reveal in, or at least hint at it before the final encounter. Maybe I can drop some hints in the Necronomicon the party Wizard has been studying that thing like crazy...
What about nightmares) The night hag could haunt their dreams. The delusion madness could work in your favour as well.
There could be another epic campain following this one. If you would like to have your PC´s equipment instead feel free to change things arround. It´s your game after all :-)
I'm way back in book three but had this thought when skimming so I thought I'd ask. I'm using milestone leveling instead of XP. When should the party reach 17th level? The wording makes it seem like after the final fight, but that's no fun for the party. Just quickly glancing at the CRs of encounters, I was thinking maybe at the end of part 4? That way they go through all of the final fights at their strongest.
That is what I ended up doing and it worked fairly well.
Coolio thanks
As succeeding on a saving throw against this aura does NOT grant immunity, while within the aura, you continue to make saves every round.
Since the effects stem from the same source, their duration overlaps rather than stacks. Each time a save is failed, use the higher of the remaining duration or the newly rolled duration for each individual effect.
What I'm having trouble with is figuring out exactly what Avaric is doing with Erich Zann. He's keeping him in a weakened state... why? What's his plan??
That´s exactly what i was wondering. Nearly much everythingin this AP is described in detail with fantastic background notes - exept of the Avaric Manor. I was a little bit dissapointed that there was no section with a little background on this guy and his plans instead of "He´s Dr. Evil and took Zan prisoner because.... reasons"
Also it´s off topic there is another small complaining to do from my side. Some weeks ago friends of mine gifted me the Strange Aons pawn collection, which is an amazing little tool for this AP. But I noticed that there are some creatures not accounted for which i could understand because of production costs etc. But the one thing nagging me is that there is only 1 Pawn for a leng spider when the actuall encounter features 2 of them.
I'm way back in book three but had this thought when skimming so I thought I'd ask. I'm using milestone leveling instead of XP. When should the party reach 17th level? The wording makes it seem like after the final fight, but that's no fun for the party. Just quickly glancing at the CRs of encounters, I was thinking maybe at the end of part 4? That way they go through all of the final fights at their strongest.
That´s my go for this, too. I guess it would be sad for my players not be able to hurl a Level 9 spell at the BBEG.
Erich's situation is simply one of revenge. His reputation for "circumventing many of Carcosa’s worst degradations with his unique magical masterpieces" brought him to Eldarius's attention. Eldarius tried to use Erich's magic to restore his family, but it went... poorly. So, Eldarius had Erich imprisoned by Avaric as punishment: keeping him alone, stealing his memories, robbing him of his music, and denying him the chance to return home.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
So here’s something interesting that I ran into during book 1 (but am posting it in this thread because it’s more readily explored in this book): in Lovecraft’s The Music of Erich Zann, the titular character is described as playing a viol (and Paizo likewise used this terminology to describe both Zann’s instrument and the random one that was in Briarstone Asylum). However, the viol of potent summoning and Erich Zann’s art both depict a violin (based on the chin brace as well as how Erich is playing it), which is actually incorrect. A “viol” is short for “viola da gamba,” which is, in short, a pegless cello, and in an interview or something (important thing is that it’s not said in the story itself), Lovecraft actually described Erich as being a cellist. However, most artists’ depictions of anything related to The Music of Erich Zann (including depictions of Zann) show him as playing a violin rather than a true viol, so that’s actually an understandable mistake on the AP authors’ part.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
So here’s something interesting that I ran into during book 1 (but am posting it in this thread because it’s more readily explored in this book): in Lovecraft’s The Music of Erich Zann, the titular character is described as playing a viol (and Paizo likewise used this terminology to describe both Zann’s instrument and the random one that was in Briarstone Asylum). However, the viol of potent summoning and Erich Zann’s art both depict a violin (based on the chin brace as well as how Erich is playing it), which is actually incorrect. A “viol” is short for “viola da gamba,” which is, in short, a pegless cello, and in an interview or something (important thing is that it’s not said in the story itself), Lovecraft actually described Erich as being a cellist. However, most artists’ depictions of anything related to The Music of Erich Zann (including depictions of Zann) show him as playing a violin rather than a true viol, so that’s actually an understandable mistake on the AP authors’ part.
I feel like it's probably a confusion between Viol, a variant cello, and viola, a slightly large deeper violin. People read Viol and picture viola.
So I have a question for those who have run the final fight. Ariadnah's stat block lists that on her second turn she uses Greater Possession. I'm wondering how it was for anyone that ran the game that way SPECIFICALLY for the player who was possessed. In my mind, she'll target our sorcerer (as it says she targets the one wearing the least amount of armor) He's got a +14 against a DC 27, but we all know how dice like to act.
The big thing that I'm worried about, is that she possesses him, and suddenly he just sits out the rest of the fight. I don't find that fun in the slightest for him. Yes I can twirl my evil DM mustache that I now have to make the party kill one of their own, but I'd rather my party have at least some fun, ok not fun, but actually feel like they're doing something, in the final battle. Any recommendations for maybe a spell to replace that with? Or a reassurance that it'll probably be ok?
Honestly same with the maze spell as well. Our poor Paladin will get the brunt of it as the only divine caster, and he's got a sad -1 int which would also just take him out of the fight.
So I have a question for those who have run the final fight. Ariadnah's stat block lists that on her second turn she uses Greater Possession. I'm wondering how it was for anyone that ran the game that way SPECIFICALLY for the player who was possessed. In my mind, she'll target our sorcerer (as it says she targets the one wearing the least amount of armor) He's got a +14 against a DC 27, but we all know how dice like to act.
The big thing that I'm worried about, is that she possesses him, and suddenly he just sits out the rest of the fight. I don't find that fun in the slightest for him. Yes I can twirl my evil DM mustache that I now have to make the party kill one of their own, but I'd rather my party have at least some fun, ok not fun, but actually feel like they're doing something, in the final battle. Any recommendations for maybe a spell to replace that with? Or a reassurance that it'll probably be ok?
Honestly same with the maze spell as well. Our poor Paladin will get the brunt of it as the only divine caster, and he's got a sad -1 int which would also just take him out of the fight.
I agree with you that it is no fun for a player who is stuck and can do nothing for an entire fight. But there is something in the spell that might Ariadna consider to drop it early
"If your body is slain, when the spell expires or the host’s body is killed, you are slain"
So, if one of the other players are going to coup de grace her body, she will certainly end the spell to prevent this.
If your players are not getting the idea by themself you can hint it at them that Ariadnas Body is lying motionless where she dropped after casting the spell. So you can have 2-3 rounds of body horror before your players comes to it senses again.
So I have a question for those who have run the final fight. Ariadnah's stat block lists that on her second turn she uses Greater Possession. I'm wondering how it was for anyone that ran the game that way SPECIFICALLY for the player who was possessed. In my mind, she'll target our sorcerer (as it says she targets the one wearing the least amount of armor) He's got a +14 against a DC 27, but we all know how dice like to act.
The big thing that I'm worried about, is that she possesses him, and suddenly he just sits out the rest of the fight. I don't find that fun in the slightest for him. Yes I can twirl my evil DM mustache that I now have to make the party kill one of their own, but I'd rather my party have at least some fun, ok not fun, but actually feel like they're doing something, in the final battle. Any recommendations for maybe a spell to replace that with? Or a reassurance that it'll probably be ok?
Honestly same with the maze spell as well. Our poor Paladin will get the brunt of it as the only divine caster, and he's got a sad -1 int which would also just take him out of the fight.
I agree with you that it is no fun for a player who is stuck and can do nothing for an entire fight. But there is something in the spell that might Ariadna consider to drop it early
"If your body is slain, when the spell expires or the host’s body is killed, you are slain"So, if one of the other players are going to coup de grace her body, she will certainly end the spell to prevent this.
If your players are not getting the idea by themself you can hint it at them that Ariadnas Body is lying motionless where she dropped after casting the spell. So you can have 2-3 rounds of body horror before your players comes to it senses again.
Yes but the problem comes from the fact that she's using Greater Possession, which gets rid of her body
This spell functions as possession, but when you possess a host, You enter the host’s body and your physical body vanishes. You are ejected to the closest empty square upon expiration of the spell or upon the host’s death.
I'm probably just gonna look for another spell to use in it's place, as at the end of the day, we're all in this to have fun, and sitting out for the final combat is just a little anticlimactic. They'll all probably die anyway, so oh well.
EDIT: Quickly looking down the witch spell list, I think Power Word Stun might be a good replacement. No save, so it's actually just guaranteed to happen for at least 1 round, and the individual is still actually there, which could lead to honestly even more danger (especially since my party flew right up to the top of the tower and saved against the Yellow Sign completely, meaning the cultists on the second floor will be in the fight as well), but at least the party member still feels like they're part of the fight.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
So, we just finished up the final fight and I wanted to share my thoughts and experiences.
The final fight was... rough.
The party bipassed the tower and just flew to the top, meaning that the cultists all joine din the for fight, making it extra hard.
Ariadnah has so many save-or-suck spells that they were bound to fail one. Our paladin got grappled by the Star Seed's projectile right off the bat, and was basically out for the fight as he could never break the grapple. Our sorcerer got turned to stone, Hilda (who i just reskinned to Weiralai) used destruction on our swashbuckler and killed him outright, and our rogue and paladin survived by the edge of their teeth thanks to the sorcerer's prismatic wall
Once the rogue realized that this was a losing fight, he and the Paladin decided to hope for the best with the wall. They allowed themselves to be hit by the wall, saved against a lot of the damage (though the paladin died in the process) and used the final bit of the wall to transfer planes, dragging the stone sorcerer with. I randomly rolled and they ended up in the Plane of Water, with the Rogue I ruled (as they had already lost so I let em have their small victory) eventually found land, was able to eventually get the dead paladin and the stone sorcerer back, raised them, and using wish were able to get the swashbuckler back.
Though the final fight was a loss, they just said they lived out the remainder of their days on the Plane of Water, just vibin.
MY thoughts on the final fight and campaign as a whole:
First of all, save or suck spells suck. I hated casting flesh to stone on the sorcerer, but that's what she'd do in that case, it makes sense. He was a big threat. But alas, that's part of the game.
I do wish Ariadnah was teased throughout the game more. I know Lowls is still really the "BBEG," but she's not mentioned at all aside from in Book 2, (and the tiniest bit of a retcon from the Pallid Mask in 6) when they think the woman they killed back then WAS the witch. Maybe have the party receive visions when approaching Star Stelea of Ariadnah and the Thrushmoore Vanishing, among other things important to her.
*REALLY* push harder than the book suggests to get the party to go through the tower. The book does its best, but a fly spell and some damn good rolls for the Yellow Sign meant that the party now had two incredibly hard fights going on at the same time.
There's a LOT of grapple in this adventure. Make sure you're familiar with the grapple rules (as familiar as anyone can be) or have a flowchart open.
I think the tone of the campaign was on point, lots of moments where our players would be uncomfortable (in an acceptable, appropriate way) with the descriptions of creatures or events. Book 4 fell a little short, and was my least favorite overall, but it was fine.
All in all, one of my best gaming experiences of all time. The year and a half campaign was a little sad on ending in a loss, but that's just how the dice decided to fall.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Our grouped finished the campaign last weekend after more than three and a half years of play. We were using 25-point buy, the disease and poison rules from Unchained and the expanded fear and sanity rules from Horror Adventures.
The party were lvl 16 for the climax and consisted of the following: a dwarf mutagen warrior fighter, the only original surviving party member, a human abomination psychic (played by me) who joined the party after an ill-planned raid on the fort in Thrushmoor in book 2 and had absorbed the memories of an original PC at the oasis in the Dreamlands at the end of book 3, a human mesmerist and a half-elf cleric/rogue of Calistria. The party was well aware of the importance of good will saves with even the dwarf having a will save in the low 20s.
The first two encounters went pretty much as written thought the party fully expected to face a powered up Tatterman and were kind of disappointed when it didn’t happen.
As the party approached the hedge surrounding the tower the psychic cast a LOT of buffs, as it was obvious that the end was nigh. The party attempted to fly to the top of the tower, making all the saves from triggering the Yellow Sign. The fight against the shrike worms stretched out as the fighter was quickly fascinated and sat out the fight, the worms eventually falling to de-buffs and were slowly hacked to pieces.
The party prepared to dimension door to the roof, but the DM refused to let us and informed us we had to enter through the tower. Knowing the party would have steamrolled the cultists, he replaced them with three gold golems which drained a lot of party resources before the were destroyed and the party prepared for the last showdown.
The party charged up to the roof, not really knowing what to expect. Like other parties, we didn’t really know who the witch was. A couple of players assumed she was the “Bag Lady’ Loomis who had fallen to a one shot crit from the dwarf so long ago.
Everyone made the DC 34 will save sanity check for encountering XD/Lowls and the fight started. The DM had boosted Ariadnah to lvl 17, so she sent the cleric/rogue off to a Maze of Madness and Suffering. Not a great way to spend the ultimate encounter. The Mesmerist hit XD/Lowls with a Euphoric Tranquillity which managed to shut it down for a round. The party decided they couldn’t repel spell power of the witch’s magnitude, so moved to concentrate on her. She survived a round by casting Harm, but against the hasted party with even the psychic going for physical damage with a Form of the Nightmare Dragon and Glimpse of the Akashic, she was soon down. The party turned back to XD/Lowls who attempted a Greater Dispel Magic against the fighter, but rolled poorly, failing to dispel the Mind Blank, the encouraging Greater Heroism, or even the Freedom of Movement which pretty much doomed it. The Mesmerist took some aflection damage from the Star Seed's Dread Decay but mostly the paper kept rolling their fort and will saves. The Star Seed soon fell to a bite attack from the psychic/dragon who is still trying to get the taste out of her mouth, though as always the vast amount of damage was down by the axe of the fighter. The cleric/rogue eventually returned after about 30 rounds, on 0 sanity and with about 5 greater insanities.
We all agreed this was one of the best campaigns we had played in any system over many decades of gaming.
I pitched a continuing the campaign proposal to the group, which was accepted, so we changed DMs and the party levelled up and gained a mythic tier. I hope to post in the future how this turns out.
So... anyone have any thoughts on PCs using greater teleport to come and go from Carcosa whenever they want?
It seems a little anti-climactic to go to all this trouble to reach a mythical, mystical city on a far-off planet, only to be able to pop in and out at will. Plus, the peril of Carcosa is greatly diminished if they can just nip back to Katheer for supplies and a good night's rest whenever they want...
I may just fiat this as not working, with some flavor text about the tendrils of Xhamen-Dor keeping them bound to Carcosa now that they're there...
The adventure assumes that you need interplanetary teleport to travel to/from Carcosa, see the discussion on ways of getting home on p.57.
Our party discussed using plane shift and greater teleport to get around that, but the players decided this was against the spirit of things and went with the flow.
If the party still has the Necronomicon it can't be teleported. Our party left it with Kaklatath in Neruzavin.
We did use greater teleport to regularly return to Aevan-Vhor as it seemed a nicer place that the other nexuses.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
On page 10 it says "Once the PCs have felled the Pallid Mask, Cassilda is able to safely provide healing for them."
How does she do that?
None of her spells or SLAs do that.
My party does not have a cleric (they had a cohort cleric who died for the second time fighting the Husk of Xhamen-Dor and they elected NOT to bring him back). They could use healing.
How did people handle Cassilda's assistance?
I'd be interested in where Cassilda's healing is supposed to come from as well.
My plan, in the absence of better suggestions, is to have her offer a number of expendable resources (potions, scrolls, wands) and let the party use them as they need to for healing.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The Leng Ghoul Gendarmes should not have Gun Training. They are 3rd level gunslingers; Gun Training is a 5th level class feature.
Good catch! That is a *significant* damage difference.
I'd be interested in where Cassilda's healing is supposed to come from as well.
I noticed that she has a Use Magic Device of +29. That is more than enough to use any necessary healing items pretty reliably. So I just had her be in possession of the needed items, as they were needed. Makes sense--she is a powerful person, why wouldn't she be able to get powerful scrolls and wands?
| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
My group finished this today. When I first read through the path, I decided the ending was a bit too up-beat. So I decided to modify it, seeding foreshadowing through the whole campaign from day one. This may be of interest, it may work for your group or not. YMMV.
ALTERNATE STRANGE AEONS ENDING
THEME: Eternal recurrence; I had foreshadowed this again and again and again, having NPCs say things like "time is a flat circle" or "you've done this before, you will do this again". I also played up things in the AP that appeared multiple times (e.g., the rod of lordly might from the Dreamlands or Erich Zann's viol).
Inspired by the return to Briarstone, I decided to pick three locations from earlier in the path and create three distorted mad versions of those places, with upgraded creatures to battle.
Once the party completed the final Star Stela de-attunement, sick yellow fog descended around them. Before it could swallow them up, Cassilda appeared. She used her glowy dark sphere to shield them for the equivalent of a night's rest (though the actual time passed was disorienting). As that finished, the shield gave way, leaving them in yellow fog.
DISORDER
They stumbled out of that to the front doors of a very different Briarstone Asylum. Much of the building was swathed in yellow fog. It appeared to be constantly crumbling, yet constantly renewed. They entered. I brought back a couple older foes from the first chapter, suitably altered (Aggra had nearly killed the party's psychic and Ratch Mamby had escaped them vowing revenge--I brought Aggra back as a dybbuk with brawler levels and Ratch as a custom animate dream with a Large swarm of books/scrolls surrounding him.
I shifted the internal layout of the Asylum so they passed from library to Zandalus's chambers via a branched up/down staircase labeled 'The Illusion of Choice.' Zandalus taunted them with some more foreshadowing before turning into the Pallid Mask.
After defeating the Pallid Mask, a hitherto unseen door manifested. They walked through it. I described the effect as a kind of depersonalization--as if their bodies were mere puppets walking through a disorienting door.
DECADENCE
They found themselves at a dream-distorted version of Iris Hill's gatehouse. Descending from the main steps, Weireilai, Captain Vadrak, and the zombie moonbeast attacked.
After that fight, they passed through the main door of Iris Hill. A similar disorienting effect overtook them.
NIHILISM
They found themselves in a vast dark space, illuminated by countless books hung on chains, glowing with the sickly yellow glow by now so familiar. The Soul of the Mysterium.
An exscinder archon appeared at one corner of the map, the heresy devil at the other. I explained that both had seen the Yellow Sign and forsaken the strictures of good and evil, law and chaos, recognizing the supposedly inherent moral fabric of their respective planes to be nothing but a lie. The nihilistic planars attacked.
After that fight, the PCs spotted a single chain without a book--the place where the Necronomicon once had hung. Following that chain upwards (or downwards, it was unclear in the referenceless expanse), they reached a hatch.
THE FINAL SHOWDOWN
They emerged into the Mad Poet's oasis. There, Abdul Alhazred stood with the Star Seed/Lowls. The Mad Poet taunted them for coming back again (which they originally interpreted as this being the third time--only afterwards realizing there might be more).
Abdul did not play much role in the fight that ensued--all he did was banish a few summoned creatures, to keep the fight interesting. The remaining PCs fought Lowls/Star Seed for a long and brutal fight, until finally they defeated him.
At this point, they noted that Alhazred had disappeared at some point during the fight.
As they were pausing in the realization that, after many months of a campaign, they had won, Cassilda and Erich Zann arrived.
"There is but one more task ahead of you. For you bear the taint of Xhamen-Dor. The line of the story must fold back on itself, or the infestation from Carcosa will surely spread. You know this, as you have known this countless times before. Those times, you chose to accept the sacrifice and return to your beginnings. Will you make the same choice now?"
Erich Zann began to play a self-devouring fugue.
The players, unsure of what they were being asked, consented.
The fog collapsed on them.
WAKE
They found themselves fleeing through a strange, yet familiar city.
UP
The Tatterman's lashes ripped them apart one by one.
HELP
The words spattered in blood on the walls, as the last PC realized with dawning horror the cost of containing Xhamen-Dor.
ME
They woke, not knowing who they were, without memories or abilities, yet knowing somehow they knew each other, to see a doppelganger eviscerating a man just outside their basement jail cells...