I'd love your help brainstorming a short series of encounters with this character, which I figure a few other DMs will be interested in having available too! My table is interested in this character, because I have a PC who's got ranks in herbalism, and a background at Alabaster Academy. I thought it would be good to have a mini-plot to give The Gardner some screen time, setting them up as a grudge match for this PC. And yours, if you've got a druid, ranger, or someone with ranks in herbalist.
What We Know
There's not much written about her. She's an outsider in the region, as a foreigner with an undead bloodline and literally toxic to the touch. Until she befriends Corinstian Grivenner. She provides urns and gravestones, and kills off undead in the Asmodean cemetery. She's done these tasks for two decades. She's described as loyal, mocking, disdainful, and imperious. She's making a statue for Barzillai, as her charisma is about insight into how to survive power politics in Cheliax.
I was thinking that there's a couple of options:
- She's behind the ghoul random encounters due to her having an undead background, animate dead, etc. Her plot line has something to do with more undead stuff. Complication: undead stuff is currently associated with the vampire cleric Aluceda Zhol. Is there a connection there?
- She's doing something plant-related. Maybe she's taken over the greenhouse for the Alabaster Academy. Maybe she's creating something or killing people to feed carnivorous plants. Complication: how do the PCs find out about this? Is this sanctioned by her friend, the high priest? Or is it a private hobby/rebellion?
- Art! Technology! She's got ranks in craft alchemy and craft sculpture, and has the craft construct feat. We don't have a ton of constructs in this AP either. But why? What is she crafting? Why do the PCs care?
- Something else?
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She's definitely a fun character, and alas, one of those many fun characters which are patiently sitting in a room waiting for PCs to show up and murder her.
I kinda REALLY like the idea of throwing some constructs into the Temple. but better yet, I like having her out of the Temple and maybe doing something else. I dunno. She's just got such badass art and is a really cool concept.
Creative Director
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She's definitely a fun character, and alas, one of those many fun characters which are patiently sitting in a room waiting for PCs to show up and murder her.
I kinda REALLY like the idea of throwing some constructs into the Temple. but better yet, I like having her out of the Temple and maybe doing something else. I dunno. She's just got such badass art and is a really cool concept.
She's only "sitting in a room waiting" if that's how you run the adventure. The inhabitants of the temple should be dynamic and they SHOULD move around and react. How much they do so depends on you, the GM, and your interest in maintaining a fully dynamic dungeon. Note also that throwing too many bad guys at the PCs at once can overwhelm them, but having neighboring encounters come to investigate combat is my favorite way to adjust difficulty. If you find the players are cakewalking through encounters, have neighboring foes come and join the battle midway through so that the PCs don't have time to recover.
And also, the main reason I like giving my NPCs in adventures I write detailed backstories is precisely TO inspire GMs to run with them and give them more of a role. You know what NPCs will work better with your group, not me, though, and customizing things like that is part of the fun of being a GM.
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She's definitely a fun character, and alas, one of those many fun characters which are patiently sitting in a room waiting for PCs to show up and murder her.
I kinda REALLY like the idea of throwing some constructs into the Temple. but better yet, I like having her out of the Temple and maybe doing something else. I dunno. She's just got such badass art and is a really cool concept.
She's only "sitting in a room waiting" if that's how you run the adventure. The inhabitants of the temple should be dynamic and they SHOULD move around and react. How much they do so depends on you, the GM, and your interest in maintaining a fully dynamic dungeon. Note also that throwing too many bad guys at the PCs at once can overwhelm them, but having neighboring encounters come to investigate combat is my favorite way to adjust difficulty. If you find the players are cakewalking through encounters, have neighboring foes come and join the battle midway through so that the PCs don't have time to recover.
And also, the main reason I like giving my NPCs in adventures I write detailed backstories is precisely TO inspire GMs to run with them and give them more of a role. You know what NPCs will work better with your group, not me, though, and customizing things like that is part of the fun of being a GM.
Query - have you considered restructuring the adventures so that these kind of fun, unique NPCs, like the Gardener, aren't so much tied to a geographic location, but are intentionally made to be more "roving"? I know that Paizo does often put in "if the PCs raise the alarm, they find X in the ballroom; if they avoid the room, X will be with Y in the throne room." Is this enough to help make the dungeons - like the Temple of Asmodeus in #100 - dynamic for maybe a less-experienced DM? Or does too much "looseness" in the dungeon present a challenge for a less-experienced DM?
It seems to me - and you are the professional - that there's a contrast between your extensive backstoried NPC and the traditional, "there's a goblin in room C, it attacks" which might seem a little out-of-date in comparison.
I dunno. I'm sure you've thought about this stuff for many years and much deeper than I have.
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Creative Director
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Query - have you considered restructuring the adventures so that these kind of fun, unique NPCs, like the Gardener, aren't so much tied to a geographic location, but are intentionally made to be more "roving"? I know that Paizo does often put in "if the PCs raise the alarm, they find X in the ballroom; if they avoid the room, X will be with Y in the throne room." Is this enough to help make the dungeons - like the Temple of Asmodeus in #100 - dynamic for maybe a less-experienced DM? Or does too much "looseness" in the dungeon present a challenge for a less-experienced DM?
It seems to me - and you are the professional - that there's a contrast between your extensive backstoried NPC and the traditional, "there's a goblin in room C, it attacks" which might seem a little out-of-date in comparison.
I dunno. I'm sure you've thought about this stuff for many years and much deeper than I have.
I have. We do this with 2–4 NPCs in every Adventure Path volume already; the ones that we put at the end of the adventure are often ones who aren't tied to one location. We can't really do more than 4 in this section though without seriously cramping the space for the adventure itself.
But also, keep in mind that not every GM is of the same skill level. It's a LOT more complicated to track multiple NPCs doing different things in an adventure, and if we set up every NPC with a name to have a complex schedule that makes it difficult to interpret where they might be at any one moment, that'd make things to complex for some GMs to run.
The way we present them now is a sort of middle-of-the-road solution—some NPCs appear in their own section, and others are tied to locations. GMs who are more experienced can adjust NPC schedules and locations just as easily wherever their stats are presented, but those who are not would be overwhelmed if they had to keep track of that much information all at once.
Furthermore, adventures should be fun to simply read. And having fun, interesting NPCs appear in locations helps to make the adventures more fun to read. Since adventures are read FAR more often than they're ever played, it's important not to sacrifice the enjoyment of reading an adventure like one would read any story, from start to end.
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Query - have you considered restructuring the adventures so that these kind of fun, unique NPCs, like the Gardener, aren't so much tied to a geographic location, but are intentionally made to be more "roving"? I know that Paizo does often put in "if the PCs raise the alarm, they find X in the ballroom; if they avoid the room, X will be with Y in the throne room." Is this enough to help make the dungeons - like the Temple of Asmodeus in #100 - dynamic for maybe a less-experienced DM? Or does too much "looseness" in the dungeon present a challenge for a less-experienced DM?
It seems to me - and you are the professional - that there's a contrast between your extensive backstoried NPC and the traditional, "there's a goblin in room C, it attacks" which might seem a little out-of-date in comparison.
I dunno. I'm sure you've thought about this stuff for many years and much deeper than I have.
I have. We do this with 2–4 NPCs in every Adventure Path volume already; the ones that we put at the end of the adventure are often ones who aren't tied to one location. We can't really do more than 4 in this section though without seriously cramping the space for the adventure itself.
But also, keep in mind that not every GM is of the same skill level. It's a LOT more complicated to track multiple NPCs doing different things in an adventure, and if we set up every NPC with a name to have a complex schedule that makes it difficult to interpret where they might be at any one moment, that'd make things to complex for some GMs to run.
The way we present them now is a sort of middle-of-the-road solution—some NPCs appear in their own section, and others are tied to locations. GMs who are more experienced can adjust NPC schedules and locations just as easily wherever their stats are presented, but those who are not would be overwhelmed if they had to keep track of that much information all at once.
Furthermore, adventures should be fun to simply read. And having fun, interesting NPCs...
thanks. this makes a lot of sense. i really like the crazy over-detailed back-storied NPC. it's fun.
also, as an aside - would you happen to know when/how did DM get shunted aside for GM? just a random question. no problem if there's no answer.
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Creative Director
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also, as an aside - would you happen to know when/how did DM get shunted aside for GM? just a random question. no problem if there's no answer.
We started using GM the instant we shifted over to doing our own products, since "Dungeon Master" and "DM" are the property of Wizards of the Coast, but "Game Master" and "GM" are public domain.
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She's only "sitting in a room waiting" if that's how you run the adventure. The inhabitants of the temple should be dynamic and they SHOULD move around and react. How much they do so depends on you, the GM, and your interest in maintaining a fully dynamic dungeon. Note also that throwing too many bad guys at the PCs at once can overwhelm them, but having neighboring encounters come to investigate combat is my favorite way to adjust difficulty. If you find the players are cakewalking through encounters, have neighboring foes come and join the battle midway through so that the PCs don't have time to recover.
And also, the main reason I like giving my NPCs in adventures I write detailed backstories is precisely TO inspire GMs to run with them and give them more of a role. You know what NPCs will work better with your group, not me, though, and customizing things like that is part of the fun of being a GM.
Can we make this a sticky in every AP Forum? I'm only sort of kidding. This is great advice and every GM would benefit from reading it. And it has a hidden charm - less work for the GM. No need to re-engineer NPC's with advanced templates or redoing class levels, etc. Simply have other nearby encounters bleed together by having the NPC's react more effectively to pc invasions/conflict. And voila! difficulty increased for minimal GM effort.
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Creative Director
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Can we make this a sticky in every AP Forum? I'm only sort of kidding. This is great advice and every GM would benefit from reading it. And it has a hidden charm - less work for the GM. No need to re-engineer NPC's with advanced templates or redoing class levels, etc. Simply have other nearby encounters bleed together by having the NPC's react more effectively to pc invasions/conflict. And voila! difficulty increased for minimal GM effort.
I'd rather make this a sticky in every GM's game room, but the logistics of that are tough to orchestrate. ;-P
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I'd love your help brainstorming a short series of encounters with this character, which I figure a few other DMs will be interested in having available too!
I'll try to assist
book 2: she could have bought off and re-opened the Hocus Fantasmagorium, remaking the museum in an interesting place full of "pro-Asmodeus" propaganda, like having a few exhibitions of the layers of hell and fate of "those who betray their countries"
book 3: she's an artist and a golem maker: she could have commissioned a few wax golem of Barzillai's most trusted minions, or possibly of the Pcs (in whatever may be their rebellious persona) and have them appear as antagonists during the Ruby Masquerade.
book 6: she could return as a wandering spirit, able to possess any of her statues as they were stone golems (with her spellcasting but without the magic immunities).
Can we make this a sticky in every AP Forum? I'm only sort of kidding. This is great advice and every GM would benefit from reading it. And it has a hidden charm - less work for the GM. No need to re-engineer NPC's with advanced templates or redoing class levels, etc. Simply have other nearby encounters bleed together by having the NPC's react more effectively to pc invasions/conflict. And voila! difficulty increased for minimal GM effort.
Just be careful - it's easy to quickly overwhelm the players - it's much better to 'wave' them and remember rounds are 6 seconds long - giving monsters several rounds to notice the fight - equip/buff/then run in.
That said - James do you ever info dump some of the cool backstory stuff - I do - I hate not letting my players get some of the cool backgrounds to the characters they encounter - especially when there is little to no path in the adventure on them ever finding out.
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My party encountered The Gardener twice and she was a pretty memorable foe – thanks in part to the good backstory helping the GM to give her motive and purpose, and in part to good art in Pathfinder #100.
I basically decided that if she's the gardener she'll usually be outside in the gardens that surround the Temple of Asmodeus.
So once when the party was Lv 10 or so, a pair of them making a "hell, let's make a random scouting run past Temple Hill while en route to other places" encountered The Gardener solo, and she cast a Phantasmal Killer and a Telekinesis and they ran ran ran back to the Lucky Bones and began dreading her.
And the second time was a prelude to their final assault on the Temple at Lv 12-13 (which can present an overwhelming number of high-level NPCs inside the temple). So I had The Gardener and the jorogumo who's also supposed to be inside (daughter of Vyre's Queen of Delights, whom the party had already picked a long-running fight with, on loan to the temple) defending the "entry" to the temple on a fun map full of topiary and fountains.
Moral of the story: you find the cool NPCs in these APs and throw them at your PCs and see which ones stick. And for ours, The Gardener stuck.
Do you have that garden map?
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Okay, what I did was have her be preparing a Greenhouse connected to the Alabaster academy. She reshaped it over the past three books--bringing in plants, learning ritual magic, and kidnapping Hetamon Haace for the last piece. I had her be a worshipper of Belial, seeking to use Hetamon to as a ritual sacrifice to transform her into a handmaiden devil and to have him birth her first child, a mandragora swarm. It expanded the Belial presence (and my table's subplot on tieflings) begun with my addition of a sire devil to the finale of Dance of the Damned. My PCs put finding Hetamon on the backburner, so the Sire Devils cleared out and she was tending her baby swarm.
I did a non-linear "maze" in the greenhouse, which was a demi-plane gifted to the Academy. Think 1970s and early 1980s text-based adventures. I also used the Ynn Memorial Greenhouse pdf purchased through RPG exchange as inspiration and some descriptions.
Lawn:>> Herb garden>> Ponds>> Mushroom beds>> Maze>> final area
Failures: Orchard, Green houses, Orchid house
Entrance: Simply draw a door in chalk on the exterior, with a traditional incantation of entrance in Sylvan. To exit? Reverse all its details anywhere within. This incantation is taught to first-year students at Alabaster Academy’s biology classes, regardless of whether they learn the language or not. Otherwise, a Knowledge: The Planes DC 30 check reveals it.
Manicured Lawn: Short, cropped grass surrounded by a low brick wall over which ivy climbs. Quiet, save for distant birdsong. You can see paths to various gardens, ornamental ponds, an orchard, several green houses, and a wall of greenery just visible over a distant hill. The Gardner’s tracks on the hard dirt paths are easy to pick up, Survival 15, but lead in many directions (from multiple visits). If players think to look for the most recent set of tracks, a Survival 25 deduces the right set of prints to follow.
Herb garden: Rows of exotic herbs in raised beds, overflowing their allotted space into the brick paths between. One can harvest herbs that, when used properly, induce vomiting, spice food, and the raw materials to create many kinds of alchemical tinctures; alchemical concoctions; balms, medicines, and tonics; and herbs and plants. Profession: Herbalist or Knowledge: nature 20 to notice the pattern in the arrangement. Leading towards the ponds are ingredients for: crystal-sweet, sphere-song, and alluring philter. Leading towards the orchards are the ingredients of brawler’s brew, dodger’s draught, and liquid courage.
Orchard: Fruit trees spaced out every few yards, coppiced so their branches start five feet above the ground. Trunks now gnarled and grizzled with age, branches extending into a tangled canopy that ends fifty feet up. Thileu bark can be harvested from some with a Knowledge: Nature or Profession Herbalist or Forrester DC 20 check, gaining 1 pound of the spice over an hour or ruining a pound with failure. Thileu bark is worth 200 gp/pound as a spice, although you may also snort it if you like burning your nasal passages horribly, making you immune to odor effects for 1 day. There are currently 15 harvestable pounds. Harvesting elicits a low ecstatic moan from the trees that eventually attracts the Gardener’s two advanced wood golems (CR 7 each) patrol looking for illicit harvesters who do not know the passcode (Alabaster Academy’s motto in Tien.) Linguistics 20 and they lead you back to Manicured Lawn. Failure or violence means you have to retrace your steps.
Ponds: Ornamental ponds, their surfaces covered in floating lilies. Huge drifting fish like bright orange and pink carp and catfish beneath the surface. Rushes and cat-tails grow here in abundance. Streams and brooks branch out to other areas of the demi-plane, providing a convenient source of water for non-caster gardeners and herbalists in many areas. Knowledge: nature 25 to deduce from following water flow and discover you’re in a shifting maze planar structure when you inexplicably come to the Orchard or retracing your steps to a greenhouse. Swim 20 to bottom through passage to ornamental pond at the mushroom beds.
Mushroom Beds: A number of beds of bare earth are found in this area with magically dim light. The mushroom beds are packed with mycelium threads under the dirt, and various exotic fruiting bodies: slightly luminous, delicate pink mushrooms (which when prepared can create writing visible only at night); wide, flabby grey toadstools; slender black Ironbloom mushrooms entwined around iron ore (a dwarven delicacy and the cure for blackscour taint); vivid yellow puffballs; dark blue fronds; tiny white clusters of mushrooms; and broad red toadstools. Harvested, these mushrooms can be sold to chefs throughout Kintargo for 2,000 gp. These beds are protected by an advanced huge mud elemental (CR 8) that naps in the wet earth by an ornamental pond. Knowledge: Planes 20: Feed it gems, crystals, or rare stones. To go to the rose garden, identify the mushrooms locally thought to be aphrodisiacs with Knowledge Local 15 AND Knowledge: nature 20 to identify them.
Greenhouses: Glass buildings that house tropical plants. Regardless of the weather outside, it’s warm, wet, and unpleasant within. They are dense with greenery seeking to get out, along with rusted tables and chairs. In one, an advanced dire flytrap (CR 7) awaits in a miniature Mwangi tropical forest, its vines capable of grabbing anyone inside, although it prefers to let its meals explore a bit towards the interior before grabbing and dragging them. Profession: Herbalist or Knowledge: nature 20 to notice a perfect environment for a carnivorous plant or Perception 25 to notice there’s a lot of flying bugs and birds. In others, Tien hibiscus or Chenille bushes can be found without interesting guardians.
A tropical jungle fills this greenhouse, complete with thick plants, loamy soil, and a large pool. The stone walls are painted to appear as more jungle. Strange, white pebbles are scattered across the soil. [Continual flame spells provide light from the ceiling, while plates enchanted with heat metal lie beneath the soil. The pond is 5’ deep. The white pebbles are shards of bones, Heal 20 or Knowledge: nature to identify the remains as the meal of the advanced giant anaconda: +2 rolls, +4 AC and CMD, +24 HP.]
Orchid House: Regardless of the weather outside, it’s hot, muggy, and unpleasant within. The delicate attention necessary to growing these flowers makes it clear that this place is visited frequently. Rare and ordinary orchids can be found within. Paths lead to a dedicated space set aside by a vine trellis (and the Blood Soaker Vine CR 9 guardian) producing the dramatic lighting and subtle shade for the Gold of Kinabalu orchid known for its imposing vertical petals. The collected plants are worth 2,600 gp in total to collectors, if transplanted without damage and cared for effectively in the meantime.
Living topiary hedge maze that changes its orientation, whose hedges function like wall of thorns. Five Survival 20 checks are necessary to navigate all the way through the maze, but allow for effects like levitation to provide bonuses. Using the humanoid statues as markers grants a +2 circumstance bonus; one looks just like the Alabaster Academy herbalism professor. (Its purchase on the black market, along with the regular purchase of feed animals, can be traced back to The Gardner with a gather information DC 30; signs of the consumed domesticated prey it stalks can be spotted with a DC 20 perception check throughout the maze.) Near the entrances are topiary rooms with living topiaries of prey animals with innocuous customizations and a peaceful demeanor, who will not attack unless harmed. Hunting intruders in the maze is a greater verdurous ooze. Guarding the exit is a Fiend-infused stone golem.
Final area of Greenhouse:
You are 600’ away from a ritual involving three sire devils, a tiefling dripping blood into an apricot rose bush, and a tall green woman at the center. She is on an island dotted with menhirs floating in the air. There are irregularly spaced floating lily pads that may permit a path towards her. [If the ritual is complete due to a delay of more than 24 hours from the kidnapping of Hetamon, simply replace the three sire devils with a mandragora swarm, have The Gardener already be a handmaiden devil, and remove the body of Hetamon, consumed in the ritual.] The lily pads and the island are not actually floating in the sky—it is a persistent illusion.
That rose bush features rare roses, the apricot-hued Juliet Rose, holy to the Milani worshipper. Prepare and eat its petals to have a magical rose tattoo, which allows the bearer to summon a single rose of any color as a free action 1/round, which may neµver be used as a weapon. Only one person per location may bear this tattoo. The rose lasts one day, after which it disappears into a puff of perfume. The bearer of the tattoo, if they are a worshipper of Milani, can brush the face of someone with this magical rose as a standard action to cast heal (CL 11) upon them.
Resurrecting this thread to share a personal anecdote on what happened to this character in the campaign I'm running for my friends, long story short one of the characters had taken Feeblemind as one of their offensive spells for dealing with enemy spellcasters, and seeing the Sorceror was too good of an opportunity to pass up. The poor Gardener barely got any time in the spotlight before getting brain blasted, and due to how I run Feebleminded characters (they cannot understand languages due to their low Int but their incredibly low Charisma also makes them extremely suggestible to social manipulation) the party was able to remove her from the Temple entirely by basically doing the Pathfinder equivalent of dangling some keys in front of her face and getting her to chase them back to their base, where she currently resides.
I don't know exactly what will come of her at this moment, the party basically just this past session "won" against 95% of the encounters and the secret encounter is the only major threat left, so I don't know exactly what they'll do with her after everything is said and done.