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Here's another thread, this time for Part II.
Guide to Pale Mountain
Mission briefing
The RPing is frontloaded so focus on progress of story and the efforts taking place. Be generous w/ info, assuming some of your players connect better with a larger, more personal story.
Kamisora is from Ustalav, Golarion's Transylvania, the location of the next adventure if you want to make an accent for both.
Explicitly mention camels provided, and review mount rules before proceeding. Do you want them to be static platforms, active non-combatants, or full participants?
Each extra step requires a larger investment of study, as Handle Animal, Ride, & controlling in battle are awkward rules.
The +1 Weapon should likely go to a martial melee person w/ low weapon dice, as the tough battles will be toughest for them.
The scenario balances:
Outdoor expertise: Gives more time for other two
Combat skills: Lowers rest time, aids w/ getting clue McGuffins
Research/Magic skills: Gives final payoff (though w/ time & clue McGuffins, becomes much easier).
There's supposed to be a sense of urgency, but the PCs don't really have a way to determine this. I let a Society check determine that they heard the Night Heralds should reach Pale Mountain in about a week, to give PCs a countdown.
The hidden factor re: outdoor skills is that at these low levels (pre-Mastery), Wisdom (and a willingness to put some ranks in Survival and maybe Nature) is more important than what class you are. And the same for the magic skills w/ Wis & Int.
Traveling:
The basics are PCs can cover 4 miles per day per 5' movement.
Camels move at 35', so should at least be ridden through the longest, safest leg of the journey. As the scenario mentions, it should only take about 5 days, even doing poorly.
Then we hit the difficult terrain.
2 miles of brush, B1
2 miles of desert, B2 & B3
4 miles of mountains, B4 & B5
Unless the party really chokes going over the mountains this should take a day, though they may rest again before entering the tomb.
Advancing monsters: A lot of the encounters have a superior creature who likely shouldn't be advanced (except the Manticore, who's alone), so I'd advise adding elite templates to lesser creatures or adding more minions if there are several and there's space to handle them.
Tactics
B1. Hyenas: Focus fire on one PC for a proper scare as they probably get pulled off their camel & dragged behind another hyena. Only the last hyena should trigger Pack Attack, which hopefully scares PCs more. With the three action system, a PC can stand & stride behind allies to safety, so it's not as dangerous as it sounds (barring crits!).
B2. Figure out how you want to handle a mount taking itself & its rider into quicksand. Since the encounter is perhaps too easy without quicksand, maybe have the PC fall off the mount. (A camel has +6 Athletics, so should be able to exit.)
Inform players of the Hold Breath action, as it makes a huge difference. Also figure out how you want to address rope & camels pulling said rope.
The Ankhrav will likely die fast, so get that acid spray out there so the players are torn between rescuing & dousing acid.
(The camels have 30 h.p., so should be able to weather the acid until the players can help, especially if the camels roll around to get it off.)
B3. The gnolls make poor archers, but if using the tents & Take Cover, should draw in PCs close enough that they can run out and jump them w/ the scorpion. All three can reliably leap for distance then swim the river really fast!
The PCs likely should leave their mounts here if they haven't left them already, as the climbing soon begins.
B4. Manticores make awesome archers and can unload a ton of damage. Remember it needs to take a fly action every round to stay aloft, and likely wants to stay between 35' to 50' away.
(And yes, using Stealth to approach in a wide-open sky is silly, so maybe switch to Perception.)
B5. The tight 10' or so trail makes it hard to use Pack Attack, but with Zakfah's longspear he can help. Without stats, the longspear, though low damage for his level, only gets a mediocre attack bonus by default since the low damage/high attack rules for NPCs are invisible at this time. It's +8 attack, 1d8+4 damage, so drop when it's not aiding Pack Attack. Bark Orders can help switch out an injured Gnoll in the front, and archery from the back might get the Pack Attack bonus.
That said, I doubt they want to fight anyway.
C1. Straightforward
C2. It's doubtful the PCs want to enter here (even more C3!), but if the PCs require light the elementals can simply wait off in the darkness until the super fast Water Elemental can swoop in on a split party member or swimmer. Meanwhile the Earth Elemental should burrow under them to be ready. Crumble is fun, BTW.
C3. Since the elementals immediately attack, the lava is unlikely to come into play, but the Air Elemental should try to push people in it or just off the edge if possible. It usually benefits the Air Elemental to reform out of reach since it can close and Strike twice easily enough.
C4. Don't let the labyrinth portion distract you since it shouldn't come into play. This puzzle is of course, the key & clock which all the other events feed into.
C5. Mummies! Yes, minor mummies, but most PF1 players know of no such thing. And there's the great cover picture too. Sadly, "corners" in a room shaped like that isn't a clear descriptor, but you can put mummies in the back area's corners for after they've braved past the dead in the other room, or one in each wing for less focused fire.
The description of Mabar might suggest rescue or "don't waken!", so there's that. If rescued, use the opportunity to feed in some of the background the other sections of Doomsday Dawn don't provide.
C6. Here we have the classic dilemma of what to do when there's a trap to deactivate, but which activates upon being seen, so how does one know of it to approach safely? I suggest erring on the side of where the players invested. If they took an ability to sense traps beforehand, let it function.
There's a lot of Bulk in this room, which might justify the Night Heralds catching up (despite Henah's speed...)
C7. Practically irrelevant.
Night Heralds:
Unless the party really gets jammed up somewhere (or you just want them to fight like I did) this encounter is unlikely. Also unless the party made off with several gems & the strong items in C6 (and ID'd them/can use them), you might want to let them rest beforehand unless it does hit the 9th day.
Tactics: Depends on location, right? Despite Henah being a melee powerhouse, this group works quite well at range.
Henah: Stand in front and smash. Note how slow she is, so she may wish to start w/ bow out in open territory.
Libar/Scout: Should prefer ranged, shooting whoever Henah hurts worst, but a decent flanker if pressed.
Motek/Gorum Cleric: With Spiritual Weapon, Sound Burst, & Harm, he can do reliable damage that draws a PC to him for a surprise that he likes melee too. Then drop SW concentration because attack penalties come from both, and find a flank buddy.
Randwik/Necromancer: Start w/ Web scroll in hand. Main influence is through terrain control, maybe after Henah has engaged a PC, try to slow down the others w/ Web. Use Grease to make people prone next to her or Motek while also helping them not get surrounded. Magic Missile to finish off weakened enemies. Will likely be the target of PCs, so keep back & behind cover & allies if possible (especially since it's so easy to close & skirmish in PF2).
That's about it. Hope that was of help for some of y'all.
Cheers.
"There is something odd in the description. They say the Air Elemental stay in the middle of the room and away from the wall, but if he does so he won't be able to attack the PCs (unless they came really far inside, which I don't anyone would do willingly)"
The A.E. has reach, so can attack if the party's out on the ledge w/o nearing a wall. Also, it only tries to avoid the walls if possible (and the lava always), so it's a preference, not a requirement if people are killing it.
My party looked for traps before entering, being a secret area after guardian & a puzzle, right? W/ a success I gave them a vibe. The Thievery check then determined if they figured it out well enough before triggering it, which they did so they whipped out a bedroll to approach & cover.
Sort of ad hoc, but they were doing everything right so it'd be odd to say "Ha ha! Your precautions were futile! Now suffer this rather minor setback from my trap!"
I'm looking at the electric latch rune. How do you have a dispel magic effect at 2nd level? As a DC is given for dispeling the rune.
