Hi all,
I'm currently running The Choking Tower with a group of friends, we're 26 sessions in since starting Iron Gods and approaching the basement of the tower.
Due to a few personal reasons (time, falling out of love with PF, wanting to play other games), I'm finding myself less enthusiastic about committing to another 30+ sessions to finish off this campaign, likely taking over a year (we only play 3 hour sessions 2-3 times a month). But, I don't want to disappointing the group, they've invested the same time and energy into the game and deserve a good send off.
What I'd like is some advice on fast tracking the campaign, basically skipping Books 4&5 and trying to wrap things up in 3-5 more sessions after finishing Choking Tower. I was thinking of setting up a single level dungeon in Silver Mount, where the PCs can confront Ozmyn Zydo, Ophelia, The Overseer Robot and then go on to doing the Godmind encounter. I was thinking of jumping them up to 16th level and then giving them a level up before the Godmind.
Any thoughts? Casandalee is the obvious link here, I might just drop the AI core into Xoud's research lab in the Tower Basement and use that to hook them into going straight for Divinity?
(Obvious spoilers...)
You could have the party find Casandalee at the end of book 3, in place of the hook that she is in the Scar of the Spider. That skips book 4. You can then have Casdandalee reveal the maps at the start of the Divinity Drive (which she knows) and have her suggest that they are ready to take on Unity herself, and that Unity is the true source of the Technic League's power and resources and by killing her, you shatter the League.
Then you can basically run book 6 as-is, lowering the CR of all the fights to match the PCs level. You probably want to drop in Ozmyn Zaidow and also Ghartone, given his personal connection to Khonnir.
You can probably remove anything Kyton based in the Divinity Drive, as the PC's won't really have had the opportunity to explore that side-plot (most of which appears in book #5). You want to focus on the "Iron Gods" element of the plot, ie, Unity achieving Divinity and Casandalee above all else.
The suggestion (posted elsewhere on these forums) of Divinity blasting into space, and the final stages of the module being fought above Golarion is def. something I'm planning on doing. Likewise you want the PC's to be involved in Casandalee's ascension (even if they choose to stop it).
If you've taken 26 sessions so far, and are approaching the basement, you're averaging about 7 sessions per book.
Given that, you'll need to chop quite a lot from the Divinity Drive if you want to complete it in 3-5 sessions, especially as you'll probably need a whole session for the final fight, end-of-campaign decisions, and PC epilogues.
The key fights are probably Ozymn, Ghartone, Deacon Hope, Bastion, Ophelia and of course Unity. Deacon Hope and Bastion are more part of the "Iron Gods" plotline than the other fights. You could keep Becrux in if you want a dragon battle, but he doesn't have much plot-connection.
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To cut the adventure path very short:
1) In The Choking Tower the party goes to Iadenveigh and the Aurora. In the Aurora, they find Casandalee's body, her neurocam, and her Compact AI. Casandalee never lost her Compact AI and Furkas Xoud never took away her body. The Compact AI explains that Casandalee was planning on using her stored memories to create a copy of herself without the Shattered Psyche. The party follows the Compact AI's instructions and starts up a android birthing that will re-create Casandalee as a living android.
2) The growth of Casandalee's new android body will take months. Declare a time skip: the party returns when Casandalee is scheduled to be decanted. Due to unseen adventures during the time skip, the party members are now 15th level.
3) They head for Starfall. Give them a quick tour courtesy of Palace of Fallen Stars but don't give any adventure hooks. Casandalee knows the secret entrance to the Divinity, so no confrontation with the Technic League is necessary.
4) After they fight their way past the annihilator robot, they will be near a turret that lets them communicate to Unity. Casandalee explains that she has returned. Unity invites them in, but asks them to get rid of the Technic League team and the ash giants first.
5) Sections B, C, and D are tours without combat because Unity is acting friendly.
6) Eventually, Unity realizes the party wants to stop his plans. Play the adventure as written after that, perhaps adding Ozmyn Zaidow. However, the party skipped several steps to erode Unity’s power, because Unity was friendly at the time. Decrease Unity's power as if they had accomplished those steps.