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Noted for future potential steal combat maneuver... :)
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We finished last Night! It took us a smidgen over 2 years to finish but we crossed the finish line last night when my players managed to outlast the bad guys. It was a lot of fun from start to finish, a 4 month break for quarantine and a few other messes. Yhe final party makeup.
Trixie blackblade magus 16
Therie bloodrager (black dragon bloodline) 16
Calvandar swashbuckler (inspired blade) 16
Thomas Jackson bard 16
Thirsty cleric oc Cayden Calian 16
Lost along the way an investigator whose name I can't remember.
Fun and memorable times were had by all. A great AP.
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My first thought is to have a passing Leng merchant in a small airship (like the noodle vendor in 'The 5th Element') casually dip down while on his way elsewhere.
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For my campaign I'm thinking Aevon-Vhor could have a ridiculously powerful undead creature as a shopkeeper that is blissfully unaware of their true nature, to function as a marketplace for the entirety of book 6.
Maybe a demilich that 'walks' around the shop hovering at head-level and will telekinesis a small step ladder in order to reach the top shelves.
Wasn't there that mercane trapped in the ruby?
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I think I've decided on a quirky curiosity shop in Paris that has everything - maybe run by a genie in disguise or something.
Paris doesn't have a lot going on if you bring Erich Zann with you - mostly social encounters. So a weird shop in a back alley could be cool.
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The PCs are about to face the shoggoth - and are wise to the fact that shoggoths can't fly. This is about to become very anticlimactic.
The most likely possibility is they fly and pelt it with arrows. It seeks cover because it's not stupid. The maddening cacophony ability does what it will against the PCs who fail their saves. A boring game of cat-and-mouse ensues.
If they stay out of its reach, I could see the shoggoth wandering off after a while.
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As the city is quite dense and revolves around the number 5, design it so the buildings are no more than 55 feet apart (thus allowing the shoggoth to reach them from one side or the other).
The strange architecture of the city could easily provide improved cover from anything more than 30 feet above the skyline. Perhaps the towers are wider at the top, shift horizontally as they ascend, or are draped in semi-frozen, surprisingly strong gauzy cloth that is easily mistaken for mist or haze from the ground.
Or, perhaps there are flocks of things half glimpsed in the strange boreal sky. The pink clouds are actually swarms of Vampiric Mists being herded by Egophages.
Or throw a few Larva of the Outer Gods up there to keep the players grounded.
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Meanwhile, they focused on the true enemy of the encounter -- an ancient void dragon that I added. I decided to include it for 3 reasons. It fit the space theme. One of the players was really hyped for a dragon after seeing (what he didn't know was a) shantak on the awesome cover art. Lastly, book six of a pathfinder AP didn't feel right without one. I realized during the fight I may have gone overboard with the CR here, but before the party's luck ran out (no, seriously, they were dealing with back to back prismatic sprays and suffocating breaths) the Ancient Void Dragon rolled a natural 1 on its save vs. possession and it was easy breezy from that point on.
I'm thinking about replacing the shantak fight with an actual dragon, for much the same reason that you added one. I am sure the waves of shantaks could pose a challenge, but at this stage in the campaign I'd rather throw something more memorable and iconic at the party. Has anyone else tried this?
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Updates:
The shoggoth fight (two sessions ago) went differently than I expected. The archer inquisitor failed to slip past the shoggoth effectively. The shoggoth full-attacked her and she was slain in one round (soon to be undone with a breath of life). What really ended the fight was the shoggoth failing a save against a forcecage spell. It did manage to sunder the barbarian’s magic spear when he poked it through the bars, however.
In our last session, I did wind up replacing the shantak fight with an ancient void dragon (CR 18) which was pretty epic. I played the dragon as an agent of the Pallid Mask/King in Yellow, bent on stopping them from reaching the Eiffel Tower.
Prior to that, I had Erich Zann take the party to a curiosity shoppe in Paris run by a genie proprietor who could procure anything the PCs might be willing to pay for. It was a fun and flavorful approach to the shopping quandary in this volume.
I’m really loving this adventure, and sad to see the campaign coming to an end. My plan is currently to run the remainder of the adventure as written, since it is suitably epic as it is.
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After almost two years, we finished this campaign a few weeks ago and we loved it!
As many suggested, I made the Eiffel Tower encounter the epic one, leaving the rest as a more narrative closure to the adventure.
For this, I actually built the Eiffel Tower and the bhole, added the Ghoul Gendarmes and the Pallid Mask with its undead dragon.
It was a defend the caster type of encounter where waves of shantaks came from the sky as the bigger threats tried to interrupt the ritual.
After 3 hours of battle, the PCs prevailed and activated the Star Stelae.
I would love to show pictures, but I can't embed them here, so I will shamelessly refer you to my Instagram account (@naicigam_) so you can check the big a** build and some maps that I drew for the past encounters.
I also want to thank you all for the advice. I added a lot of stuff suggested in these threads which made the adventure so much more enjoyable!
Best,
Naicigam