What gives Arlantia her fly speed? She doesn't have fly in her listed spells (not that it's on the cleric list anyway) and none of her magic items give her a fly speed.
Harbinger of the Blight (Su) "she can command the fungus to carry her aloft, granting her a fly speed of 40 feet (perfect)"
Also, my players dealt with the four moldy hobgoblins pretty easily by tagging the molds with magic missile. The molds have that ability where they can make a reflex save to dodge incoming attacks, but magic missile doesn't have an attack roll associated. It feels a little cheap to dispatch them so easily but I don't see any reason not to go with that ruling, especially since they're only CR 4. The only problem is now I have to figure out what to do with the four surviving hobgoblins. I have a feeling they'll free Taurgreth pretty quickly and he'll escape with his comrades into the forest before the PCs can pursue.
My players are rabidly anti-Ironfang and cared less about the mold than just killing the hobgoblins and are therefore very unlikely to end up with the canonical ending. If your group does end up freeing the hobgoblins then it opens up a heap of role-play options in book 6.
Also, my players dealt with the four moldy hobgoblins pretty easily by tagging the molds with magic missile. The molds have that ability where they can make a reflex save to dodge incoming attacks, but magic missile doesn't have an attack roll associated. It feels a little cheap to dispatch them so easily but I don't see any reason not to go with that ruling, especially since they're only CR 4. The only problem is now I have to figure out what to do with the four surviving hobgoblins. I have a feeling they'll free Taurgreth pretty quickly and he'll escape with his comrades into the forest before the PCs can pursue.My players are rabidly anti-Ironfang and cared less about the mold than just killing the hobgoblins and are therefore very unlikely to end up with the canonical ending. If your group does end up freeing the hobgoblins then it opens up a heap of role-play options in book 6.
The PCs in my campaign prefer to talk to Ironfang soldiers and try to make peace, so they also freed the Hobgoblin Commandos from mind control and allied with them against Arlantia.
The details differ, because I have been converting Ironfang Invasion to Pathfinder 2nd Edition rules. After converting the vemerak, Orielle, the commandos, and Taurgreth to the new system (PF2 already had Mandragora Swarm and Omox demon in its bestiary), I skimped on the hard-to-convert Darkblight Mindslavers and declared that the mindslaving darkblight was a cursed disease just like regular darkblight.
The party encountered the commando Afet alone away from room H5, Western Fastness, and talked to her despite the fuzzy green moss visibly growing on her. During the conversation, Afet stuck her hand into her belt pouch and recited, "’Til all hands bear the sin they’ve earned," in Sylvan. When asked she revealed her piece of Dryad's Song and said it was a trinket that let her think more clearly, taken from one of Arlantia's guardians that she had defeated in combat. With that, the party realized that the moss was influencing Afet's mind. The clever rogue/sorcerer in the party pulled out his piece of Dryad's Song and the player asked me if it could free Afet from her mind control. I allowed a Knowledge check and they were able to temporarily block the mind control long enough for Afet to cooperate during the 10 minutes required to remove the curse and cure the darkblight.
But that was long enough for Orielle, the other three commandos, and Taurgreth to find them (I had moved Taurgreth up to section H because my oversized party needed more foes to fight). The PCs had to kill Orielle and Taurgreth in that fight, but Afet knocked out one other commando with nonlethal damage and the party followed her example and captured the other commandos alive. With Orielle's piece of the Dryad's Song, the party reassembled the staff, removed its corruption, and used it to cure the other three commandos.
Next, they allied with the commandos against Arlantia. The commandos claimed Taurgreth's body, wrapped it in cloth and stuffed it into their bag of holding from their sturdy bronze lockbox in room H5, because the party let them keep their treasure as part of the alliance.
I added a trap to the secret tunnel under the acid lake in H2, Rancid Oasis, a dimensional conduit that led to a side quest. After the side quest the commandos did not want to return to the Blight and made their way home while the party returned to the Blight to defeat Arlantia. Because they had Taurgreth's body, I figure the Ironfang Legion will resurrect him, so the party will meet Taugreth again.
And the commandos knew that the party had the Sardonyx Shard, so they informed Azaersi and Zanathura. But the party knew that the commandos knew, so they used a shard as a magic tuning fork for Plane Shift rather than using the Sardonyx Shard directly. Zanathura was not looking for that. (They had liberated Phaendar long before the 6th module, so I was willing to skip them finding another Stone Tower to use with the Sardonyx Shard.)
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It's been a long time and I'm well into book 6, but i figured I'd give a quick recap of my Book 5 finale.
- The bandersnatch was fun to foreshadow and tease, but the actual fight was slightly underwhelming. The terrain provided by the AP was just a bit to tight for the bandersnatch to maneuver along with a huge eidolon and large-to-huge wildshaped druid clogging things up.
- I leaned into a description on the entire dungeon as akin to the organs and body of some great beast, leading up to the reveal of the beating "heart" in Arhlantu.
- My PCs entered the Deeper Reaches, they dispatch the enemies around the massive cavern one by one. There was a bit of fun roleplay with Orellie the blighted pech, before negotiations broke down and her scorpions dropped from the ceiling.
- Because the party has easy access to both tremorsense and the eidolon's spirit sense, I was able to somewhat conceal certain enemies by having the walls and ceilings of the entire dungeon full of small creatures, basically flooding their senses with signs of life.
- They recover the final ring from the blighted hobgoblins and learn that the hobgoblin commander Taurgreth is with Arlantia.
- The party has a final rest in a fairy ring retreat near the rancid oasis, before reciting the verses from the rings, the rancid waters drain out of the pool revealing a twisting passage of slick roots and vines into Arhlantu.
- Once again, negotiations are short-lived before combat breaks out. Arlantia, Taurgreth, and a single surviving handmaiden all fly into battle. The witch float up and begins hexxing the PCs to lower saves and AC, and debuffing the eidolon with enervation and ray of enfeeblement. Arlantia herself casts blade barrier, then rushes into melee with the summoner, with Taurgreth to follow for the flank. They put up a good fight, but ultimately the PCs prevail.
- There is a heartfelt reunion as the PCs free all of Arlantia's captives from the pods. In addition to Gendowyn and her fey court, the druid's parents (from Crystalhurst) and a new PC were also freed from the Darkblight's clutches. The kineticist unfortunately had to leave the game and we introduced a new player for Book 6, an inquisitor.
- Taurgreth is taken alive, and the PCs ultimately bring him to their war summit early in Book 6 to testify about Ironfang movements and goals. Ultimately, I will have Taurgreth escape his imprisonment with the PCs' allies, to make his way back to the Onyx Citadel. There he will be imprisoned again as a traitor, and escape again into the wilds of the Vault. He will return to the story as a potential unlikely ally for the PCs. I will use him to seed the idea of a diplomatic ending to the conflict.