Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area North & East
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A bit confused on the last map. At first I thought the blue markings were the completed rune, and there are various cuts in it. But there's also supposed to be patches of blackfrost dust scattered around. Maybe the blue markings are the dust?
I get that the set of dashed lines around Pit A are where the zombies climb up from. But what are the other dashed lines?
Where does the Tupilaq start?
It says that Ainamuuren can restore a rune, but that he won't fight. But the next line says the zombies attack anyone who fixes a rune, so how much is he willing to do to defend himself?
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Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area North & East
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Um, also... there's no map for the harbor. I know it's better if they don't fight the Orcas, but someone's going to.
I would just use open water I guess, except there's supposed to be narrow ice channels, which is why they're using canoes instead of taking the big ship in.
Organized Play Developer
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A bit confused on the last map. At first I thought the blue markings were the completed rune, and there are various cuts in it. But there's also supposed to be patches of blackfrost dust scattered around. Maybe the blue markings are the dust?
I get that the set of dashed lines around Pit A are where the zombies climb up from. But what are the other dashed lines?
The blackfrost is essentially oozing up from the "wounds" in the ice rune, which is what the other dotted areas represent.
Where does the Tupilaq start?
You have some flexibility based on when and how the party engages the mummies since the tupilaq is lurking invisibly, but my recommendation would be to place the tupilaq in the upper northeast corner of the actual dig area, behind the table of random archaeological supplies on the map.
It says that Ainamuuren can restore a rune, but that he won't fight. But the next line says the zombies attack anyone who fixes a rune, so how much is he willing to do to defend himself?
Ainamuuren will defend himself, up to and including destroying a mummy attacking him, but will not otherwise seek out or engage in combat.
Um, also... there's no map for the harbor. I know it's better if they don't fight the Orcas, but someone's going to.
I would just use open water I guess, except there's supposed to be narrow ice channels, which is why they're using canoes instead of taking the big ship in.
The harbor map was intentionally removed because of issues related to the size of the orcas and other variables that could change drastically based on party composition. If you do find you need a proper encounter map or would like to prepare one just in case, we recommend using a standard battle map and apply some ice structures as appropriate for the conditions at the time combat occurs (or is likely to occur).
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Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area North & East
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Ok, ran this 3 times so far, and talked to two other groups. Every group has gone to the woods to get help from the Winters Favored. I don't know how the last combat worked for the other two games, but I ran into a weird problem in the 3 I ran.
The first round and a half are brutal fighting, as the big guy moves up and then fixes one hole. And then every mummy turns their attention on him, and the combat ceases to be an issue. He is such a pile of hp and is immune to their cold damage, so the mummies take forever to chip away at him. Meanwhile, the pcs are free to do anything they want without retaliation. So they just hit on the enemies while the big guy continues to fill holes and draw all the agro.
Maybe this is intentional, as the mummies (8 of them in high tier if you brought the guy) are fairly potent otherwise. But something feels off
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Hooray, scenario drop!
I've only scanned this quickly so far--a lot of other scenarios to prep for--and the first thing that comes to mind is the question of Ice Shape on the chronicle sheet. There's no note about availability or anything--this spell is intended to only be accessible through the wand that appears on the chronicle sheet, is that correct?
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This is supposed to take place during the winter and at very high latitudes. The suggested temperatures seem to be anything but "bitter," 30 F during the day and 20 F at night.
Here's what I got playing around with information from comparable locations in Canada.
Light and Weather
Aaminut in late Calistril (February) (75 N latitude)
Light
10-11 am – twilight
11 am – 2 pm – full light
2-3 pm – twilight
Temperature
Average low: -30 F
Average high: -20 F
Shrine and Dig Site in mid-Pharast (March) (80 N latitute)
Light
7-8 am – twilight
8 am – 4 pm – full light
4-5 pm – twilight
Temperature
Average low: -30 F
Average high: -15 F
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It's not in the scenario proper, but the runoff from the region northeast of town has some geothermal activity that makes it warmer than it should be. I think it was covered in Jade Regent 3.
Thanks, this is useful for understanding the environment in and around Aaminut, and I'll revise my figures accordingly.
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Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area North & East
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Ah, found it. Jade Regent book 3 (Hungry Storm) is where everything gets covered.
The Hazalin March, just north of Aaminiut, is fed by a lot of hot springs. Also, the Hellrung Mountains west of Whitefang Peninsula, are volcanic. The Taraska river that emptys near Aaminiut has a large flow-rate that helps against freezing, but sometimes still does. But the wetlands nearby then get lots of rotting vegetation, which makes heat, that also limits the ice.
There's an interesting website database on maping out golarion stuff. I don't know how it does it's calculations, but it puts Aaminiut at about 75deg north.
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That’s the website that I used to get my latitude figures. The comparable Canadian locations that I found are Resolute, Nunavut at 75 N and Alert, Nunavut at 80 N.
Also, I put together some dugout, ice floe, and sled paper "minis" and uploaded them to pfsprep.
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So, here's a question that's both specific to this scenario but which also has some general applicability.
Under Table Variation, the season 10 guide says:
"Additionally, the GM may consider utilizing terrain and environmental conditions when those effects have been written into the flavor of a scenario but the mechanics that are normally associated with them by the Core Rulebook have not been added to the encounters."
and in the next paragraph
"Additionally, if an encounter already includes mechanical effects of terrain, weather, or hazards, please be aware that these things are also considered mechanics that may not be altered."
Death on the Ice uses explicitly refers to and uses the cold rules from the CRB. However, there is no use or mention of some other winter-related rules from the CRB such as Ice Effects (p. 442) and those in the Weather Rules (pp. 437-440).
To what degree is it OK to use some of these rules? Could I say that Ice Effects are present in one or more of the encounters? Could I throw a blizzard at the players?
I want to make the scenario as challenging as possible but I don't want to go overboard or do anything that violates the letter or spirit of PFS gaming.
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Organized Play Developer
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One more thing, the Excavation Site encounter lists patches of blackfrost poison as a hazard. The four areas enclosed by dotted lines which are not Pit A are the patches of blackfrost poison, correct?
Correct.
Is there any way that these patches can be removed by the PCs?
Not specifically, though there may be applicable spells that can temporarily neutralize the patches. The blackfrost itself is seeping out through the cracks in the seal and will continue to do so until the seal is rebuilt.
Venture-Captain, Texas—Austin
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Question about the following texts from the scenario.
Other creative solutions may work, but these should take
more time (often a minute or more), include a similar check
to repair the rune, and require the PCs to complete the initial
combat first
Beginning at the end of the third round of combat, and
continuing every five rounds thereafter, a new blackfrost
mummy begins to claw its way free of the permafrost within
10 feet of the dig pit marked A on the map.
There are more than two-hundred
blackfrost mummies buried under the ice rune, and they
continue to emerge until the ice rune is repaired
So should more mummies keep coming out until there are no more, or do the PC's need to kill 200+ mummies before they can take their time with the rune?
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Organized Play Developer
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The mummies will continue to spawn, so typically the party is going to want to put some of their members on the task of repairing the rune while the others focus on keeping the mummies busy. The "initial combat" only refers to the active creatures that are encountered at the start of combat, so the party can take their time once they've whittled through the initial group, though they'll want to keep the spawning mummies off of whomever is leading the repair efforts.
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Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area North & East
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I had fun with that little guy. Randomly lock onto someone, then chase them down. Most fun was when it locked onto the Lem bard pregen. Went invisible to hide from it, but was still keeping up the music for bardic performance. So it was pretty easy to still find the square they went to. A merry chase ensued.
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Just to double check here: the total "wounds" in the ice rune on the map (the dotted lines) consist of 32 5'x5' squares total.
The wand the PCs are given has 22 charges. It can repair 10 cubic feet+1/CL (or, 13 cubic feet of ice at CL 3) per charge.
So the question here is: exactly how thick does the ice need to be to repair part of the wound? This will greatly affect the time it takes to complete the mission here as "replacing missing sections of ice" could mean anything from fractions of an inch of thickness to a foot+.
I am probably going to roll with 1/2", or 1 cubic foot per square rounded down, for simplicity. This means they can repair all the "wounds" in 1 round except for the largest, which would take 2 rounds (6 rounds total).
I might have missed where it says in the scenario exactly how much of the wound you can repair with each attempt; I would like to make the fight realistic and engaging without making it feel like a slog.
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Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area North & East
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Ah, not exactly. The blue design is the rune. The dotted lines are the dust coming up from each wound in it. The wounds themselves (good metaphor) are the parts of the blue that have gaps in them. Which is five places. The size of the dust patch doesn't matter for healing the wounds.
So, each of the gaps in the blue, it's:
1. Get next to it
2. Cast the spell
3. Make the skill check. If succeed, then that wound's closed.
It's unclear on HOW the giant closes them, but basically I had him move adjacent, then next round he spends his turn and it's healed the wound without needing a check or a spell expended.
Problem I had at several games was that the person who could cast the spell wasn't the person who was good at the skill check, which meant others needed to aid a lot.
I saw a few games getting run at a local con that had some things off for the big fight.
1. The party starts at the opposite end from the barricade. Typically one PC would run around to rescue the barricade while the rest worked their way in to clear out zombies.
2. If a zombie goes through a dust area on its turn, it gains haste and a 10' aura of dust that moves with it for the turn. So charge them into groups.
3. The DC of the poison goes up for EVERY EXPOSURE, whether they make their save or not. I had players track their exposures without telling them exactly why.
4. Getting to the wounds to heal them often requires going into a dust patch, which is another exposure.
5. The poison has an onset time of 1 minute, but if delivered directly by a zombie the onset goes away.
6. The poison doesn't actually do that much damage.
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Ah, not exactly. The blue design is the rune. The dotted lines are the dust coming up from each wound in it. The wounds themselves (good metaphor) are the parts of the blue that have gaps in them. Which is five places. The size of the dust patch doesn't matter for healing the wounds.
Thanks, James. Unfortunately I ran this the other way last night; luckily, the players made it and had fun. I'm running it again on Monday so this clarification is a big help.
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I also thought mere exposure increases the DC, as the scenario says "Every additional exposure beyond the first increases the save DC by 2 and the duration by 50%" on page 19.
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Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area North & East
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3. The DC of the poison goes up for EVERY EXPOSURE, whether they make their save or not. I had players track their exposures without telling them exactly why.This isn't right as per the poison Blog
2. The saving throw DC is increased by +2 for every active dose currently affecting the character. Poisons that were cured, have run through their entire frequency, or were negated with a successful initial saving throw do not increase the DC
The scenario has specific text on page 19, right after the stat block, that overrules the blog.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Canada—Manitoba
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Hi folks,
Thanks for all the feedback and comments on this! I've been watching from the sidelines.
I'll throw out a few comments that may help explain some things - there is a lot going on in this scenario, and the word limit did come back to bite me in terms of making everything as clear as it could be. These are just my thoughts, though - developer Michael Sayre and Paizo are the final arbiters!
* poison: the specific rules were intentional, although I agree they could have been called out more clearly as a change. However, here's the reasoning: the blackfrost is basically an airborne toxin, and it's all over the place. The creatures are covered with it, there's piles of it everywhere, it gets kicked up into clouds... it seemed like staying in such a toxic environment should become progressively harder over time. (Besides, if you get hit by a contact poison that coats your arm (say), why doesn't it pose any risk after that first successful save? Aren't you still in "contact" with the poison on round 2?) These rules were a way to make the poison something to be reckoned with even at the higher subtier.
* the final map: I tried to make this like an archaeologist's dig. So, there is a set of test pits and trenches that they dug first, which dug all the way through the rune in several places. Then, they dug the rest of the pit to uncover the rest of the rune, being careful not to damage it further and expanding it to fully uncover the rune. So, the areas of the rune to be repaired are the ones where a pit or trench has broken it. I intended the pit to be about 10' deep, with steps along the edges to allow for fairly easy access.
* ice shape spell: since this spell is listed on the Chronicle sheet, I *think* it should be available as a spell and not just the wand... but Michael should make that call.
* weather and wind: I really wanted to showcase the dangers of the environment in the Crown of the World. The scenario is pretty much set to start in winter and end near the beginning of spring, and so the temperatures and effects were chosen with that in mind. We used the blizzard on the shipboard journey because it was iconic of the north, but also easily survivable, and early enough in the scenario that PCs who didn't bother preparing could rectify that before getting stuck on the ice for a month. Every time I've run it, the PCs have used endure elements, and so I've only worried about cold when someone gets wet (usually by swimming with the whales, but sometimes with the qallupiluk).
I did use the long winter nights for effect, but didn't impose any conditions based on it (see Ultimate Wilderness for what happens to people who spend too long in the polar regions). I wouldn't add in any other winter effects like blizzards, since the PCs are already facing enough travel and a blizzard slows them down and makes you worry about staration.
* Travel time: Loren Sieg just did a great blog over on Know Direction about making travel time more than just the Indiana Jones "dotted red line", and it basically explains one of my goalsfor this scenario. The journey is as important as the destination, especially when you're in a unique environment. Use the travel time to show players the weather, wildlife, and unusual conditions of the polar regions of Golarion. I threw in penguins, walrus, and seals throughout the trip to Aaminiut. Aboard ship, they can see orcas from farther off, foreshadowing the encounter in Aaminiut harbor. The Ulfen crew of the ship, the hunters and elders of Aaminiut, the Saumen Kar if the party goes that way... lots of opportunity to showcase the cultures and locations that Golarion such an awesome setting.
* final encounter - the mummies: yes, those blackfrost mummies keep coming, forcing the PCs to put a couple of folks on mummy duty while the others repair the rune. Technically, if the PCs just waited and ran away from everything and let all 200 mummies come out, they're have an insurmountable CR20 encounter to deal with (yes, 200 mummies is only CR20.) I wanted there to be a ticking clock for the PCs, but not one that would overly strain resources. Given that they take a while to pull themselves out of the ground, most parties can dispatch them fairly quickly.
* final encounter - the tupliq: these carved ivory constructs are so iconic to the far north that I just had to include them, especially since the Varki are renowned for their scrimshaw carvings. The invisibility usually gives them the advantage of surprise, but at middle levels parties should be able to deal with invisible opponents.
* "the evil" - the source of evil that corrupted the village in the first place is kept intentionally vague. The blackfrost is a part of it, although that does appear in other locales without causing this sort of effect. What else lies buried under the Whitefang Peninsula that we don't know about?
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Venture-Lieutenant, Canada—Manitoba
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Um, also... there's no map for the harbor. I know it's better if they don't fight the Orcas, but someone's going to.
I would just use open water I guess, except there's supposed to be narrow ice channels, which is why they're using canoes instead of taking the big ship in.
The custom map got dropped in development. I will post the map I use over at pfsprep.com - just have to slice it up for printing on letter-sized paper.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Canada—Manitoba
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One thing I did notice, depsite apparently being "adapted to the cold envoronment" the enemies at the end hav pretty much nothing to help them against cold damage or terrain issues.
The blackfrost mummies are immune to cold damage from the environment, since as undead they're immune to both nonlethal damage and anything that requires a Fortitude save.
I'd say if you're using ice and snow movement rules for the PCs, they should affect the undead as well, but that's just me. There's nothing that really would make them immune to a lack of friction.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Canada—Manitoba
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One other issue cropped up when I ran this recently.
If the group goes directly to the site they encounter the fey. At high tier she comes with 3 allies. The map assumes these allies are large, they are not. The stat blocks, both in the scenario and on the PRD show them as huge. That both makes the map a bit cramped and makes them far more dangerous.
Saltwater merrow are Huge sized (all the better to grapple you with, dearie!) The map is small, but really it's there to set up the initial interaction/ambush. Once combat begins, you should feel free to extend the map in any direction as needed. The ice sheet goes for miles in all directions, with basically no features nearby. I used the blank side of the Mountain Pass flip map for extending this fight.
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Yep, I had to play a GM Iconic to make up for a short table, and poor Valeros was exposed 12 times to the poison and probably would have died (I didn't both rolling after the combat was over and the scenario finished, but since the save DC and duration increases with each exposure, and Con damage is the only type of ability damage that can kill a character, he was in for a world of hurt!).
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Contributor
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The change to the poison rule is too much. You can quickly end up with a roll-a-20 DC on the initial save, and that's just unreasonable, especially since they don't necessarily know it's happening.
Because the poison is mentioned early in the scenario, both of the times I ran this I let players roll checks to see if they knew what it was before leaving Iceferry/Kalsgard. If they beat the DC by more than 5-10 hinted that this poison might be more "clingy" than other ones they've encountered.
Cue the purchasing of many antitoxins and also PCs liberally using abilities like charmed life and "roll twice take the better" and so on.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Canada—Manitoba
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Yeah, that's one of the common feedback issues I get on this one. I wanted to invoke the different culture of the Erutaki, and one of the simplest ways to do that is with names.
If it helps, here's how I pronounced the various names:
Aaminiut - "Ah-ah-MIN-ee-oot"
Ulumamuktu - "Oo-loo-ma-Mook-too"
Aanemurran - "Aye-na-MOOR-in"
Pilungak - "Pee-LUN-gak"
Tikasak - TEEK-a-sak
Malu Aninuk - "ma-LOO ah-NIN-ook"
Qallupiluk - "KAA-loo-PEE-look"
Also, I've starting Freudian slipping, calling this one "Death UNDER the Ice" since that's the place where most of the near-deaths have occurred.
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Vis the poison; after the warnings our party cleric stocked up on Delay Poison. The party stopped about 5 minutes out from the site and the cleric cast them all, including an extra from a pearl of power. While this didn't cover the whole group, it covered most of them. Even clingy, the poison didn't last 1 hour/level...
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Venture-Lieutenant, Canada—Manitoba
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Vis the poison; after the warnings our party cleric stocked up on Delay Poison. The party stopped about 5 minutes out from the site and the cleric cast them all, including an extra from a pearl of power. While this didn't cover the whole group, it covered most of them. Even clingy, the poison didn't last 1 hour/level...
Nice way to handle this! A prepared party can basically avoid the threat. (I like parties who prepare. :)