I was surprised when I saw Sorshen's Charisma was 40, considering that Nocticula's Charisma in WotR was the same, and I imagine her being more charismatic than Sorshen. Was this a reference to the fact that Nocticula effectively now has an infinite Charisma as a full deity?
Hey, they just get along fabulously. ^^
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I was surprised when I saw Sorshen's Charisma was 40, considering that Nocticula's Charisma in WotR was the same, and I imagine her being more charismatic than Sorshen. Was this a reference to the fact that Nocticula effectively now has an infinite Charisma as a full deity?
It's not a reference to that, but you can certainly take it that way, since now that she's a deity, Nocticula is beyond Charisma and any other rule that Sorshen and the rest have to follow and obey.
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So come to think about it, does anyone have idea what happens if PCs defeat the rune giant before he can strike at Xin?
I mean, besides creating new timeline, they would still heal the wound since they prevent the siphoning, yeaaaah, what are ramifications if they happen to do that? Do they have to undo their own alteration of the events or does historically drastically change?
(I guess it could be one of those "Xin explosions happens anyway, but differently", but I think without the rune giant, he would have finished the thing that first runelords took advantage of him being distracted with)
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I just read through her stat block, and what's up with the Steward? She knows Tien & Minkaian? With that and her garb, is she a relative of Ameiko's?
She's not a relative of Ameiko's, no. But she was born and grew up in Minkai before she became the Steward. Her mysterious past is something that we might explore more in a future story.
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The whole reason Thassilon had a "gap" in its border there was precisely because they never managed to conquer Mierani back in the day.
Thinking about it more (and having actually bought and read the book), I wonder how strong Edasseril's hold over Mierani is. It's described like this:
Edasseril is the smaller but more aggressive of the two regions. Initially, Belimarius's realm extends no further than Peridot Isle, but as she rebuilds her armies, she swiftly expands her holdings to include the Mierani Forest and declares rule over two of the relatively deserted Ironbound Islands: Antler Rock and Flintyreach. . . The few elves who dwell in the Mierani Forest oppose this part of Edasseril's expansion. . .
This reads to me like Belimarius landed forces in and either occupied or razed Arsmeril, and declared her sovereignty over the whole area, but that her actual authority doesn't extend into the interior, wherein a guerrilla campaign is being waged. So not too much different from how Mierani has been throughout the Age.
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Different, related question: where is New Eurythnia's southern frontier? As written, it hugs the "foothills of the Kodar Mountains," but that is quite vague.
Eurythnia's southern frontier in the west is actually well-defined by the geography. It hugs the water divide of the Red Mountains up to the Right of Niltak. This takes in the entire drainage basin of the Steam River and makes a whole bunch of sense. A portion of the Nolands along the coast is contested by New Edasseril, but put that aside.
Going east from the Rift of Niltak it becomes hard to avoid patchworking, where the realm is divided up into highland valleys and intervening mountain peaks. The frontier probably follows the northern edge of the Lurkwood until it intersects the water divide of the Stony Mountains. From there, I think it makes most geographic sense to have the frontier follow the water line of the Stony Mountains to the Storval Rise, then follow the Storval Rise to the Storval Deep, then follow the Kazaron River to the place where it jukes north, then a line east to the frontier of the Hold of Belkzen.
The problem with this geographical line is that it takes in the lands of several Shoanti Quahs, primarily the Shundar Quah. I'm not sure they'd mind the return of Thassilon that much, since they're described as "rever[ing] and dwell[ing] among the Thassilonian ruins on the Storval Plateau and western Belkzen," but it's a problem nevertheless.
Is Sorshen's backstory written out anywhere?
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Come to think about it, if things go for certain time, you can encounter Thuskchoon while time traveling and killing it does heal the temporal wound successfully.
But Qlippoth Lord's rejunevation only works inside their sanctum so Thuskchoon would perma die in that scenario. Does that mean Thuskchoon did nothing of particularly note in 10,000 years so its death doesn't create new temporal wounds? :D
Runelord's backstories are written in Shattered Star's final volume I think? Returns only touches on backstory of Belimarius, it doesn't go through any of the other ones in detail.
That said I think Sorshen's backstory was even more ambigious than Xanderghul's and others iirc?
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So while I still want to still know about Thuskchoon, I just noticed that random encounter merchant listhas expert 6/magus 18 character. So level 24 character.
That is only character I've ever seen in pathfinder that goes canonically over 20 levels so uh, yeah, is this a typo or what the heck? :D
Absolutely a typo. I'd say expert 2/magus 18 is more accurate... or might even suggest dropping the expert levels entirely.
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Is Sorshen's backstory written out anywhere?
I've been writing up a backstory for her for my own game, which I may put somewhere eventually. The basic story is that she was born into a wealthy Azlanti merchant family who were worshippers of Ulon (the Deity of Secrets from Ruins of Azlant). When the Veiled Masters came to exterminate the cult, Sorshen escaped and buddied up with Xin to acquire his protection.
Hello
At the end of the book, there are a text about blood engines of Eurythnia.
Are there other detailed information about this elsewhere ? Other books ?
Thanks for your future answer.
Also mythic tiers were undervalued in their original calculation.
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Why couldn't a player use mage's disjunction to sever the conduits in D2 Cataclysm Refocused?
Since mage's disjunction is basically a more powerful dispel magic (which is the assumption, since that spell is MUCH more readily available and commonly used), there's no reason that wouldn't work.
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Here's hoping Tawil at'Umr felt magnanimous toward those violent PCs and didn't use his immortality to reappear immediately to continue the fight fresh on the very next round! :-P
To be fair, its tactics say that once defeated, Tawil at'Umr reappears instantly and notes that its defeat has open path for PCs without sacrifice before vanishing again.
I'm not sure if that counts as impressing Great Old One, but as its morale says, "The Great Old One does not hold grudges, and its greatest reward for those capable of defeating it once is to allow them to proceed without further harm."
I'm honestly just as surprised writer included option for what happens if Great Old One was actually defeated :D
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Here's hoping Tawil at'Umr felt magnanimous toward those violent PCs and didn't use his immortality to reappear immediately to continue the fight fresh on the very next round! :-PTo be fair, its tactics say that once defeated, Tawil at'Umr reappears instantly and notes that its defeat has open path for PCs without sacrifice before vanishing again.
I'm not sure if that counts as impressing Great Old One, but as its morale says, "The Great Old One does not hold grudges, and its greatest reward for those capable of defeating it once is to allow them to proceed without further harm."
I'm honestly just as surprised writer included option for what happens if Great Old One was actually defeated :D
We included that option specifically because I suspected that some groups would want to go this route. And if a GM allowed the group to become mythic, which is an option.
Frankly, all snark aside, it kinda sounds like the group of 5 level 18/MR 3 characters fared about as well as they perhaps should have in the fight. They succeeded, but it wasn't a cakewalk.
Oh, come on. If it has stats, they will kill it. That's basically rule number two of D20 roleplaying games (rule number one of course being "Don't piss off your GM too much" :p). Developers recognizing that fact and writing accordingly is just smart work.
Is there a list anywhere of what the locations are illustrated by icons on the beautiful map of Thassilon in this volume? I know some are new, but many of them must be known, or named, at least.
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Is there a list anywhere of what the locations are illustrated by icons on the beautiful map of Thassilon in this volume? I know some are new, but many of them must be known, or named, at least.
Nope. That list was gathered from all the locations I could find that we've ever mentioned over the course of everything we've done. Many of them were name dropped only once in the very first printing of "Burnt Offerings" for Rise of the Runelords, in fact, and I had to decide based on the name's "mouth feel" and where we hadn't put anything else where the location would go. And I think a few of the locations I made up brand new for the spot.
So... the only place that really has a complete list of all of the locations on that map is the map itself.
At this time... that is...
Why wouldn't they? The adventure explains that the PC's are able to withstand the effects of Alaznist's manipulations (except some alterations in their memories), which is why the Herald visits them from time to time.
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Even then, I don't know if it's necessarily alterations to their memories, so much as their memories being of what happened before Alaznist started meddling with the timeline. That's how I viewed the penalty to history checks - they remembered what actually happened, but that was no longer accurate because of Alaznist's actions.
This is spot on. The PCs are in large part immune to having their memories and legacies being changed by the time wounds; that's a big thematic part of why these particular PCs are the ones on this adventure and not others. What they remember remains true and accurate; it's how the rest of the world's history altered that causes the penalties.
Likewise, it wouldn't adjust their appearances. Even if Alaznist had, for example, helped the orcs win the Quest for Sky and killed off all the dwarves, a dwarf PC would remain (although would be disturbed by the fact that an increasing number of people don't know what they are).
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One more question. The party has reached Karzoug's soul. They destroyed the skull in front of him to convince him to help them with the ritual and they seemed quite sympathetic with what he went through with Zinlun. I believe they will free his soul, but, the thing is... they didn't destroy the fresh clone back with Zinlun. The just retrieved the treasure, gold, skull and left. If they release him now, his soul should theoretically go and wake the clone just like Zinlun originally hoped, right? He was wondering why the clone wasn't activating if Karzoug was already dead...
I had described the clone was shackled/gagged/bound to avoid spellcasting when he returned.
So I'm wondering if he would actually have any chance of escaping his shackles and the tomb with some of the spells he had when he died. I don't see any still/silent spells feats. Any ideas on how he could escape?
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That's up to you, but letting his soul go into the clone is a pretty neat plot twist, I think. After all he's gone though, I could see this being a point where Karzoug decides to turn over a new leaf, but also, this could set up a compelling new villain for your the next game you run! In that case, how he escapes is left to you to decide; don't let rules get in the way of an NPC in a case like this setting up for a cool role in an upcoming campaign—whether he's the bad guy or a redeemed ally.
Hello! My party is finishing healing the time wounds. I'm preparing for what comes next, but I'm having a bit of trouble for after the finale on how to handle the timelines.
The party took more than a few weeks when they returned from Xin-Edasseril to get themselves equipped in Absalom and investigate Zinlun. Afterwards they also took a couple of weeks before they went to the Astral plane to talk with Karzoug and then just before the Cyphergate to "get things in order". They even went on some small but important side quests and made some personal deals with people around Varisia and outside of it. They were even evacuating people/friends/family from Riddleport.
When they return and the timeline is fixed... no one will remember anything at all? Other than the party themselves? Even Sorshen wouldn't notice?
I was going to tell them that people killed and things destroyed by Alaznist would pop back where they were as if nothing happened and don't remember anything, but the rest of people around would remember there events. Things just returned to normal suddenly. They would have experienced "lost time".
The party invested a lot of time and resources on helping people around and I would hate to tell them it never happened.
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Hey! It's been a while! My party defeated Alaznist and convinced Belimarius to "not waste her time and resources with the elves on the Mierani Forest" and rather work on her influence by trading with the southern cities.
They now want to seek the rest of the Sword of Sins (other than Envy and Lust) and are looking for any other way to avoid the swords' dominance (example: item with continuous protection from evil) as they only have one pair of gauntlets for Baraket. They actually don't need it for Baraket itself. The sword recognized her new wielder as it's rightful owner after defeating Xandergul, but they would certainly like to be prepared as their Will saves SUCK.
The party is besties with Sorshen, have a business relationship with Belimarius... and Karzoug is alive, changed his ways and has become their ally. He remains hidden from the other Runelords, but especially from Belimarius. He knows she will try to hunt him down after his little "joke" with the Crystilan if she learns he's alive.
Ironically, last session, the party needed to move closer to where Xin-Cyrusian used to be to start looking for the remnants of the Castle of the Green Feather (thanks for the tip, Baraket!) and the closest reference on the map was Rimeskull. They asked Sorshen if she knew that place to help them get there with a teleport so now they know the entrance to the Runeforge... and they technically have one of the highest Caster Level crafters currently in Varisia as an ally. So that got me thinking...
Could Karzoug technically craft a new set of Gauntlets (or an equivalent) if he had access to the Runeforge? It's going to cost a fortune but the players are LOADED and willing to pay.
Could Karzoug technically craft a new set of Gauntlets (or an equivalent) if he had access to the Runeforge? It's going to cost a fortune but the players are LOADED and willing to pay.
I mean, I'm not looking at any books here, but isn't magical crafting just a question of spending enough time and money? Karzoug and Runeforge and an item to mimic seem very doable, just make the players jump through hoops as you see fit, or put something at risk by waiting long enough for the crafting :)