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umm... so i'm filling out my map for this... and how exactly do CR 4 Advanced Wights have 89 HP each? They should be 4d8+16, no?
Far less important Usundra's HP IS the HP of a Death Priest from the books, but that also appears to be calculated too high.
The Death Priest has maxed 1st HD, plus favored class bonus hp. Looks like almost all the NPC codex uses FCB hp or skills depending on the npc.
--Schoolhouse Vrock
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umm... so i'm filling out my map for this... and how exactly do CR 4 Advanced Wights have 89 HP each? They should be 4d8+16, no?
Far less important Usundra's HP IS the HP of a Death Priest from the books, but that also appears to be calculated too high.
The Death Priest has maxed 1st HD, plus favored class bonus hp. Looks like almost all the NPC codex uses FCB hp or skills depending on the npc.
--Schoolhouse Vrock
ah.
I've been using the rolled HP for all the monsters, and it kept coming up short.
Maybe that's why for the NPCs... but for the wights? The listed HP for them, (wight + advanced template), as I said, 4d8+16
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umm... so i'm filling out my map for this... and how exactly do CR 4 Advanced Wights have 89 HP each? They should be 4d8+16, no?
Far less important Usundra's HP IS the HP of a Death Priest from the books, but that also appears to be calculated too high.
The Death Priest has maxed 1st HD, plus favored class bonus hp. Looks like almost all the NPC codex uses FCB hp or skills depending on the npc.
--Schoolhouse Vrock
ah.
I've been using the rolled HP for all the monsters, and it kept coming up short.
Maybe that's why for the NPCs... but for the wights? The listed HP for them, (wight + advanced template), as I said, 4d8+16
Yeah the wights are definitely a typo, should be 34.
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Has anyone had any insight on how the living NPCs at the end of the book (as well as the few dozen nameless survivors) managed to survive the Radiant Fire? I know in the end it doesn’t really matter, but if any PCs do ask them how they survived, it would be nice if I could at least give consistent answers. They likely don’t have enough info to say exactly how, but if the PCs really wanted to try to find a common link based on everyone’s responses, I’d like to be able to give them something with confidence.
Did all the survivors happen to be inside of heavily-fortified structures? Were they near objects of potently holy energy? Is it really just a random occurrence that one in every 500 people manages to be in a chance pocket of diminished effect?
Thanks for the insight! As long as I know I didn’t miss an official reason, I’m perfectly happy using any combination of otherwise plausible answers.
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Has anyone had any insight on how the living NPCs at the end of the book (as well as the few dozen nameless survivors) managed to survive the Radiant Fire? I know in the end it doesn’t really matter, but if any PCs do ask them how they survived, it would be nice if I could at least give consistent answers. They likely don’t have enough info to say exactly how, but if the PCs really wanted to try to find a common link based on everyone’s responses, I’d like to be able to give them something with confidence.
Did all the survivors happen to be inside of heavily-fortified structures? Were they near objects of potently holy energy? Is it really just a random occurrence that one in every 500 people manages to be in a chance pocket of diminished effect?
I'd chalk it up to the Three Little Pigs. Roslar's Coffer was only straw and sticks, Vigil is bricks and stone!
--Schoolhouse Vrock
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So I noticed no one has made a post about using the pest drake swarm in an encounter. So as the Whiteblade festival is happening it makes sense there would be some sort of citywide entertainment. Cities of Golarion mentioned Sophronia's Steeplechase during midsummer, so why not a Rainbow Race in the spring when pest drakes are about to mate, and what better display for mates than a race!
So the players can watch this event happen on day 2 of the festival, probably at noon. Cool bit of colorful fluff. But the roughly dozen to a score of drake keepers are being housed in the area around the Hounds Glory, it is closed after all.
So I'm using this to add the swarm to my part D. Alley Ambush encounter as my players are mythic tier 1 and need the challenge. Kilibrandt sends the forged letter from Evni Zongnoss to them written in ink made from a lasting dose of terinav root poison. A great way to use the long onset time and long duration to possibly weaken up to 2 party members. The tube the message comes in is dosed with pest drake pheromones.
When the fight in the alley occurs, Kilibrandt uses her mage hand SLA to open the cages of pest drakes lining the alley (the green covered stalls).
--Vrockroach swarm
I have a nice idea how to portray KILIBRANDT.
She will be a semi-famous impersonator, so basically a cosplayer :)
That will give her some good alibi why should she wanted to craft a replica of the Shattered Shield. She could have said to the blacksmith that she is making a costume of general Arnissant and that is why she needs it. Smith might even crafted some other replica for her costumes before, so it was not suspicious to her and thus no need to alert the autorities.
Later when Kili goes after PCs she will be wearing a costume of Evni and will use this disguise cleverly. This aspect and hobby will give her character some depth and personality which she is lacking as written in the module.
I like Ceto's twist to evil. Then there is Yosudin playing "me evil, me bad" role and I feel that Kili could be an interesting character and does not have to be irredeemably evil. She is a gnome, so why not to have also some fun? :)
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I am finding this one hard to run.
There is either too much or too little interaction with the Vigil hierarchy: too much, for how little we are told about it; too little, for the gravity of the situation. (If someone convinces me that my city is about to be destroyed, I think a bigger response than "Okay, I'll give you a present and ask you to work on it" is required.)
Yosiduin's group have succeeded where no previous Seal-breakers have, by successfully infiltrating Vigil. They are there to covertly figure out how their enemies are hiding and protecting the final Seal. So, um, perhaps they should NOT be wearing blatant Seal-breaker insignia all over their armor?
It is assumed that Killibrandt can find the PCs. This turned out not to be the case in my game, and I think it often won't be. (The PCs have hats of disguise, and never used the same faces twice for any two steps of their investigation. None of the people Killibrandt could have heard of or seen actually exist, so good luck locating them.)
It is really easy for the PCs to hear about the Erstwhile Dyeworks early--the old soldier tells them Killibrandt's name and lots of people can connect her with the Dyeworks. Then they go straight there, find that apparent bad guys went into the sewer, and chase them. You've now lost the fort, Killibrandt's ambush, and the burning smithy, and short-circuited about 25% of the adventure. (This is what happened in my game.)
The GM should be aware that a sufficiently smart and aggressive PC group may be able to save Vigil--once they know that the shards are mostly counterfeit but one is real, and reason out what that implies, they can emulate Killibrandt and steal them and run! They may well die when the Radiant Fire goes off, but it's an honorable death, saving tens of thousands of lives.
I'll give a possible revision in my next post.
I am currently about to run the sewers and the Redoubt. We missed about 25% of the adventure due to a short-circuit, and I am not comfortable about setting off the Radiant Fire quite yet. I have a rough plan:
(1) Move the Killibrandt/thugs group to the sewers; she found her Crows dead and went after their killers. She might ally with the PCs or attack them, depending on how things go. I put her just before the three Seal-breakers in the sewers.
(2) Don't set off the Radiant Fire when the PCs defeat Yosiduin. Give them their chance to actually stop it (by stealing the shard or persuading the leadership)--but they will have to be quick about it. If not, it just goes off and kills them: I will write another Boneyard segment where Barzakh points out that this thing with body and soul being nailed together by the obols is not going to end well. I'll work out some subtle but worrying consequences. I think the tomb, this time, will be Arazni's tomb in Lastwall. Then they come back, either to a city under seige from the undead created where the blast actually went off, or a destroyed city if they didn't get the shard away in time.
My player made it clear that "survival horror" does not work for him for this plot, so I don't care that this destroys the survival horror aspect.
(3) Work out a bigger role for Gildais. He just sort of vanishes from the narrative. If they somehow stop the first blast he will have to try again; I will look for some way the PCs could become aware of this.
I am finding this one hard to run...
Well the APs are written in a very straightforward way, so people can play their 'beer and pretzels - kill stuff, get loot' kind of games just by following the book to the letter. That is understandable. But of course if you want to create more believable experience for your groups taste, there is a lot of work to do.
Some folks like to know who the bad guys are just by looking at them. But for me this:'Bad guys in a city full of paladins wearing black armor with skulls' is really immersion breaking, too. The way Vigil officials are presented in the book makes whole Lastwall look blatantly incompetent.
So I was thinking about this and made couple of points.
1) Economics. Lastwall is a military state with extreme defense budget spending and without much income of its own. It is dependent on donations and support from Taldor and church of Iomedae. But all that money went to the Worldwound Crusade and Vigil is broke.
Guards are underpaid, understaffed, overworked. And so are the officials. They have to solve a lot of problems every day.
The tribune of trade has the hardest job in Vigil of maintaining the funds.
2) Moral Principles. They are people of noble principles which leads to their downfall. The solutions are there (mass conscription to the army, confiscation of property for the state). But this would make Lastwall tyrany - the very thing they stand against. And thus this is unacceptable.
3) Festival. Get rid of it. I mean, PCs will come to the city with the warning about the Whispering Way and destruction of the whole town and officials don't do anything, because they are having a party? C'mon. Instead emphasise how overworked everybody is.
That way it would make sense why they are not helping more and how it is possible that Seal Breakers have a comfy base under the city.
4) Gossip. Folks talk all kind of nonsense and doomsayers are common in a city such as Vigil. That way the things which PCs say might seem to the officials like some tall story as well.
5) Orcs. Instead of peacefull festival make some skirmish attacks by orcs happen. Arson attempts might be common as well. This way the fire in the smithy and attack on Doeswyn is not seen like something extraordinary that would alert everybody. You can also make orcs do some air strike with alchemist fire (on wyverns or similar creatures) so you can show-off the balistae in action. The PCs does not need to fight them, it can be just a cinematic scene in which knights of Vigil defeat the orcs (and to show to the players that they can do something and are not absolutely useless - yes the PCs are heroes, but it is important that their allies do not seem pathetic, otherwise they won't care about them).
(edit) The dead orc bodies can be the thrown to the moat to 'feed the othyughs'. This way you are foreshadowing them. They make corpses biodegradable and thus not source of undead, so it make sense why othyughs were not vanquished from the city.
6) Spies. This last point is for players who does not like to play in a world which is only black and white where bad guys have huge screaming 'KILL ME' signs above their heads. If you want some intrigue present Seal-Breakers more like a professional spies and agents rather then blunt force knights. Make them blend in and wear the same armor as watchknights. Let them use the Rapier (Quill) to wear false Marks of Justice. They can use Dondun for that for example. You can also give the false Mark of Justice to Yosudin and introduce him earlier when he is disguised as some unknown paladin.
I hope this will help someone to make this lovely adventure more immersive.
(3) Work out a bigger role for Gildais. He just sort of vanishes from the narrative. If they somehow stop the first blast he will have to try again; I will look for some way the PCs could become aware of this.
Well this is more complicated because in our game it ties this AP with the Carrion Crown.
But in short what I am planning to do is to introduce Gildais in the Redoubt. Yosudin won't have to have there a piece of paper with his plot because that to mee feels kind of lame (I know that he is not a Whispering Way so he can technically use writing but still...).Gildais have possessed one member of the Wise Crows and will be in the battle alongside Yosudin (he will just use the mook stats, not his CR20 +). He was kind of imprisoned in the mooks body (it was one of the things he thought would restore his lost humanity, but instead he was directly controlled by Tyrant Geas/Quest or similar magic).
By killing the mook PCs will give Gildais freedom. After the battle is over, he will rise from the dead body, everything around would freeze and he will thank PCs for his freedom. He can tell them the things they would know from the notes of Yosudin. Then ominously say that one piece of the shield was genuine. After that he vanishes in the wall.
Now he plays some active role in the story. PCs know that he is not their direct enemy but also that he can be controlled by the Tyrant. It will be an interesting decision for PC what to do with him. He can even serve in the story as an alternative to Arazni if PCs would not trust her.
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3) Festival. Get rid of it. I mean, PCs will come to the city with the warning about the Whispering Way and destruction of the whole town and officials don't do anything, because they are having a party? C'mon. Instead emphasise how overworked everybody is.
That way it would make sense why they are not helping more and how it is possible that Seal Breakers have a comfy base under the city.
while not going too much into depth, the festival is easily skippable.
Heck, there was a MASSIVE EXPLOSION on the orc border. Things are moving in Virlych and likely Belkzen as well.
I'm going to have the Watcher-Lord mobilizing the army of Lastwall... since there's a mobilization, you can have all sorts of weird fun things in the town going on which are perfectly mundane, but also it would make sense that strangers would be walking around town with weapons...
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Any of the things you claim could be the case. Perhaps all of them are, so there isn't a single thing that's common among the survivors. The important point is that there *are* survivors, and they need help, which gives heroes a time to shine.Has anyone had any insight on how the living NPCs at the end of the book (as well as the few dozen nameless survivors) managed to survive the Radiant Fire? I know in the end it doesn’t really matter, but if any PCs do ask them how they survived, it would be nice if I could at least give consistent answers. They likely don’t have enough info to say exactly how, but if the PCs really wanted to try to find a common link based on everyone’s responses, I’d like to be able to give them something with confidence.
Did all the survivors happen to be inside of heavily-fortified structures? Were they near objects of potently holy energy? Is it really just a random occurrence that one in every 500 people manages to be in a chance pocket of diminished effect?
right.
the other thing to remember is that the Radiant Fire isn't a modern nuclear weapon or even a modern bomb. It's magic. It doesn't work according to physics.
So yeah, it blasted everything into smithereens around the Cathedral, but the Cathedral itself stands up [a bit worse for wear, but still there]. Because yeah, magic.
Heck, all of Book 2 you are fighting the scientists and researchers and surveyors that the Whispering Way sent to figure out how this weapon works.
I'm going to have the Watcher-Lord mobilizing the army of Lastwall... since there's a mobilization, you can have all sorts of weird fun things in the town going on which are perfectly mundane, but also it would make sense that strangers would be walking around town with weapons...
That is a splendid idea. I have recently watched a historical video about mobilization in the middle ages, so I am thrilled to do it in our game as well!
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I'm going to have the Watcher-Lord mobilizing the army of Lastwall... since there's a mobilization, you can have all sorts of weird fun things in the town going on which are perfectly mundane, but also it would make sense that strangers would be walking around town with weapons...That is a splendid idea. I have recently watched a historical video about mobilization in the middle ages, so I am thrilled to do it in our game as well!
it also lets you write out Ulthun from Vigil. Rather than 'he's busy elsewhere' as described in the book, he can be there when the PCs arrive, and then set off with the army to the border.
Then when he shows up in Book 4, you know him, he knows you, and the penultimate scene makes a lot more sense.
How this went down in our game:
I should note that our PCs are soldiers of Vigil, part of the Rangers under Keyron Seiville. This changed the dynamic in two ways: on the one hand they had to take orders, but on the other hand the leadership had more reason to believe them.
The PCs worked out what it implied that one shard was real, and told key NPCs their reasoning. The NPCs did not fully trust the PCs, but the threat was pretty darned convincing: so, without telling the PCs their plans, they sent the real shard out of town with some unhappy volunteers. They then started a general evacuation, most vulnerable first.
The PCs were assigned to help protect groups of evacuees; I put in some fights against orcs (particularly, the mortic's tribe, which the player was finding to be an annoying loose end) and a vampire ex-knight.
The Tyrant blew up the real shard. Now the NPCs *knew* the Radiant Fire is real, so they stepped up the evacuation; and a good thing, because no one had found Gildais, so he went in and placed a new shard, and 18 hours later Vigil blew up. (The player had seen this coming, but there was nothing to be done: keeping a palm-sized shard out of a city seems infeasible. This did a nice job establishing how much of a threat the Radiant Fire really is.)
The surviving leadership called the PCs back to town to lift an undead seige and let them get survivors out. But much of the city had already been evacuated, so the PCs saved thousands of lives. I found this a nice middle ground: the PCs' actions really mattered, but Vigil is still gone. Also the Vigil government is not depicted as useless. My player *really* does not like fighting to save people who are too feckless to cooperate (Second Darkness, anyone?)
Yosiduin's backstory reworked:
[CONTENT WARNING - sensitive topic for war veterans]
One of my PC's showed great interest in taking part in some knightly tournament in Vigil. So obviously Ceto will be there as a final boss (yeah she will be a huge favourite in 1 on 1, but that's okay, it's just a tournament not a fight to the death. And more beef with her and PC'S = better).
But I also think it is a great oportunity to introduce Yosiduin. But in that case there is a need to rework his backstory. So instead of being 'evil which no one has seen, haha' I made a bit deeper personality for him.
1) Backstory:
His gradnfather was a knight of Ozem and a paladin of Aroden. This part stays. And Yosiduin was as well, until Aroden's death.
Yosiduin joined the coup in the Whiteblade War and did some bad things there. He was on the losing side of the conflict, though. But because of his grandfather's legacy, he was given mercy and a second chance.
(I was watching Creed last night, so this is where this idea comes from. He was only given a chance because of his ancestor's legacy, not because of who he was himself. So naturaly, he hated that and he wieved this mercy as an insult).
Yosiduin lost the title of a knight, but was still allowed to serve in Lastwall's military as a heavy cavalry, because he already had all the pricy equipment and training needed for this prestigeous role.
And he did okay. For the most part. He had some misconduct during his service, but it was not serious enough to fire him from the army (which is understaffed).
In 4691 he fell to the hands of the orcs during one of his missions for the army. But he was 'lucky' to survive. Orcs are not keen on taking prisoners. As a matter of fact it might even be seen as an anathema to servants of Rovagug (this is a hint for the players).
But Yosiduin was taken captive by the Defiled Corpse tribe - servants of Zon-Kuthon. And he was tortured. A lot. And he had shown great endurance and great potential and even greater hatred.
There he was introduced to the Seal Breakers and fully indoctrinated. Being a former knight and soldier he made for a perfect double agent. So after four years of imprisonment (here is your Rambo reference) in 4695 he was released (like a Gollum was) and sent to Vigil with a mission of finding the Seal.
Oficially he was repatriated as a POW after the collosal defeat of orc Warlord Graukrad (from the history of Lastwall: ‘The last such decisive battle took place in 4695 AR, when a force of 173 mounted knights rode down a force of over 2,000 infantry under the command of the orc Warlord Graukrad’). So after this defeat, there was some negotiation between Lastwall and the orc tribes. Lastwall wanted their POWs back. This was a perfect oportunity for Seal Breakers to release Yosiduin without raising suspicion.
Back in Vigil they realised that there is something wrong with Yosiduin (not only physically, but also mentally), but that was not a surprise because he was held as a prisoner in the worst of the tribes. And he played the role of a victim perfectly (which in his defence he also was, so he was not technically even lying and because of that paladins did not reveal his deception; For his role and fake personality he shows you can take inspiration from Rambo - 1st movie).
Yosiduin was diagnosed with PTSD, dischargeed from the army and given veteran rent. Despite his bitter demeanor he was given help and viewed as a true martyr by the public. PC's might feel pity and sympathy for him as well. But in the end he is an iredeemable character which was given many chances to redeem themselves, but chose to stay on the side of evil.
Yosiduin was given a helping hand by The Mourners of Arazni, who specialise in therapy. To him this help and mercy for the 'mental cripple' (his words) is an insult and every positive motivation and selfless help he is recieving is paradoxically only feeding his desire to see Vigil burn. But it is a great cover for him. He does not need to hide that his heart is full of pain and he suffers from depression. That doesn't make him a villain, does it? A lot of veterans have these problems.
(In the metric of our world - The state knows that there is something wrong with him, but he is viewed as a victim of a torture who is on therapy and a suicide watch instead of being monitored as a potential terrorist by the military. But he is a terrorist - with a magical nuke).
His connection to the Mourners of Arazni also connects him with the lost temple of Arazni beneath Vigil (so it is another good clue for the PC's). He might have learned about it from them (another possible clue). But he does not need to hide there all the time, he can be a public person.
2) His role in the tournament:
He is a former knight and a veteran. I will use a simple introduction, so he will appear as one of the random NPC participants of the tournament. But if the PCs will dig their knowledge skills and ask around, they can learn a lot about him.
He will be the quarterfinal opponent for my PC. If he wins he will be paired with Ceto in the finals, but he will resign from the tournament (he has no time for that because of his role in the plot - he will be busy murdering the Wise crows). He will use his diagnosis as an excuse to resign. So instead of him my PC will have a chance to repleace him in the final (it will be his choice to either take the fight or let Ceto be declared the winner of the tournament). PC might not take the fight for fear of losing another fight in public and that is okay.
3) Why Yosiduin even fights in the tournament when he is a double agent?
Well he certainly won't in the past. But now, when he knows that the 'END IS NEAR!' he takes the risk. He was a knight after all. He used to love tournaments. So for once he allows himself that as a treat before the inevitable end. He tells his therapist that even though he is retired he would love to take part in the tournament, that it will help his mood tremendously.
The command won't send him to the battle with his diagnosis but they allow him to participate in the tournament. A bit of sport can't hurt, can it?
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it is more than a little annoying that the Shield is not described in the text of the AP. I spent like 10 minutes describing it, saying it had powerful magic, etc., and then found it in the Inner Sea World guide which mentions that it's just wood. How hard would it have been to describe the shield's present state in the AP itself?
I have made a ritual for the Bloodstone (2E but can be easily converted to 1E):
The bearer of the Lung Bloodstone of Arazni may perform a ritual sacrifice of one of their lungs to gain a Moderate Boon of Arazni. They do not have to learn the ritual. As long as they possess the bloodstone, they may cast it once.
Secret: If the same character performs this ritual for the second time (regardless of the previous result), they gain a Moderate Curse of Arazni instead.
Rare Divination Ritual 6
Cast 4 hours; Cost one of your own lungs;
Secondary Casters 1
Primary Check Occultism (master) or Religion (master); Secondary Check Medicine to help to remove one of the lungs
Effect: You are drained 4 (or 3 on critical success). This value won’t decrease by any means until you regrow your lung (by regenerate spell or similar effect). You also take 14d6 slashing damage.
Critical Success: Blood from your wounds forms into armor or a piece of equipment (of up to your level+2) you need. If what you need the most is information, the blood forms letters spelling out up to three sentences of that information.
Success: Blood from your wounds forms into armor or a piece of equipment (of your level or lower) you need. If what you need the most is information, the blood forms letters spelling out one sentence of that information.
Failure: You fail the ritual and ruin the offered lung.
Critical Failure: You gain a Moderate Curse of Arazni instead of a Boon.
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Just gotta say, we are having a blast [pun intended] in the back part of LAST WATCH.
When I was prepping, I was thinking this would be a weaker book, but it's got a ton of RP, some really fun combats [which I've spiced up w/ homebrew stuff that is more relative to our campaign] and ends with the party running through an active apocalypse. We are pretty close to finishing [probably 2 more sessions] after starting this summer [it will probably be the longest book we'll run (and I added three sessions between books 2 & 3)] but such good bones to really build your campaign's personalities on.
As a note, I told all my players that they had to either be from [or have deep ties in] either Roslar's Coffer or Vigil. As such, we've been able to really build on those connections during RP sessions [we did a whole session where I don't think we rolled any dice, just RP after the PCs arrived].
Good stuff.
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I love how Vigil gets nuked half-way through the book.
What are some suggestions for nudging the party to rest up in the Seal-Breaker's dungeon instead of returning to town after they defeat everyone down there?
the way that i ran it, my PCs entered the dungeon towards evening, and they spent all night down there, only emerging at dawn... after the fire goes off. that way it's a new day, and they received all their powers back.
we are probably going to finish LAST WATCH next session, and it's been a brutal day...
umm... so i'm filling out my map for this... and how exactly do CR 4 Advanced Wights have 89 HP each? They should be 4d8+16, no?
I'm glad I noticed this too! Four wights with that hp plus Usundra and her hench-orc would have been a TPK for sure.
I almost got my first player kill after the cleric failed a save against Usundra's Slay Living spell. It took him to -8hp, 2 off death.
The players found the discussions with the town leaders frustrating. They didn't like being asked for evidence and went so far as to suggest that Veena Heliu use her magic to scry Roslar's Coffer to see for herself the devastation of the Radiant Fire. And because it's a perfectly reasonable suggestion, I'm going to have her do just that.
This is advanced Advanced...
And yeah I can see my party getting kind of annoyed at people being hard to convince, so I'm still thinking on different ways to make that a more interesting social encounter.
Question for people: Does anyone know how long it takes, roughly, to get from Roslar's Coffer to Vigil? I'm not sure if it's in the books but I couldn't find a number. Even if not, what did you estimate the time around? I'm gonna have a couple things happen on the road before the start of this book (including a small settlement) and just wanted to sort of measure out the travel segment in my mind.
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This is advanced Advanced...
And yeah I can see my party getting kind of annoyed at people being hard to convince, so I'm still thinking on different ways to make that a more interesting social encounter.
Question for people: Does anyone know how long it takes, roughly, to get from Roslar's Coffer to Vigil? I'm not sure if it's in the books but I couldn't find a number. Even if not, what did you estimate the time around? I'm gonna have a couple things happen on the road before the start of this book (including a small settlement) and just wanted to sort of measure out the travel segment in my mind.
I figured it was about a week or so. My PCs stopped at Castle Everstand (just in time to beat off an orc invasion!) but I think we did about 8 days total.
Question for people: Does anyone know how long it takes, roughly, to get from Roslar's Coffer to Vigil? I'm not sure if it's in the books but I couldn't find a number. Even if not, what did you estimate the time around? I'm gonna have a couple things happen on the road before the start of this book (including a small settlement) and just wanted to sort of measure out the travel segment in my mind.
As the crow flies, looks about 180 miles, so I figured about 200 by road. Core rulebook says a wagon can do 16 miles/day, but a walker can do 24. So my party sold the donkey and cart that Arazni gave them and did the journey in a little over a week.
Perfect, thank you friends! I'm fighting the urge not to divert the party to Trunau (I ran Giantslayer several years back so there's some powerful allies there rn) but I'm doing a lil GS cameo thing on the way up. Thinking of having an inn on the road up with a merchant caravan stopping by after hearing of trouble on the roads (cue side quest!) A week is good though, the party need a break from the constant onslaught of Big Oof Energy.
Most of my last session consisted of the party doing some long overdue shopping. Not being able to buy stuff the entire first two modules was stretching the friendship. I've also hinted that they might want to do finish shopping now, rather than wait...
Apart from that, investigations are continuing. They found the dossier at the waystation and then investigated the Shield Emporium. The fire elemental wasn't that much of a challenge as the Sorceress had Cone of Cold, although a few of them took damage along the way.
They didn't question the note they received from EZ, just went along with it. We ended the session with the start of the ambush.
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Perfect, thank you friends! I'm fighting the urge not to divert the party to Trunau (I ran Giantslayer several years back so there's some powerful allies there rn) but I'm doing a lil GS cameo thing on the way up. Thinking of having an inn on the road up with a merchant caravan stopping by after hearing of trouble on the roads (cue side quest!) A week is good though, the party need a break from the constant onslaught of Big Oof Energy.
i made one PC's mother be from Trunau.
she gave him her hopeknife (i gave it Brinya's love properties). it's come in handy.
My party successfully survived the ambush by Kilibrandt Erstwhile, interrogated the survivors for more information, and headed off to the dyeworks. Then they met the spectres and ran away when the negative levels started piling up. They plan on resting up and coming back with death ward spells and the like.
One thing I wasn't initially sure about was whether the obols would protect the party from the spectres. Their damage is untyped although, logically, it should probably be negative energy damage. Also, the obols don't provide any protection against energy drain. In the end I decided to stick with RAW and no obol protection.
I'm finding the plotline of the module a little weak. The PCs were given a mission by Arazni to tell the Knights of Ozem about the disaster at Roslar's Coffer and warn them Vigil might be next. Technically they fulfilled their mission when the met the Chief Knight at the festival and told her the required message/warning, which she totally ignored. I'd have understood if the PCs had, at that point, just shrugged their shoulders, said 'mission accomplished' and moved on.
Then there's the next phase of evidence gathering. So far they've found plenty of evidence of the thievery of an artifact in Vigil. To them, the link to Roslar's Coffer is tenuous at best.
Fortunately (for me) the party is content to follow the railroad and pick up the plot tokens.
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My party successfully survived the ambush by Kilibrandt Erstwhile, interrogated the survivors for more information, and headed off to the dyeworks. Then they met the spectres and ran away when the negative levels started piling up. They plan on resting up and coming back with death ward spells and the like.
One thing I wasn't initially sure about was whether the obols would protect the party from the spectres. Their damage is untyped although, logically, it should probably be negative energy damage. Also, the obols don't provide any protection against energy drain. In the end I decided to stick with RAW and no obol protection.
I'm finding the plotline of the module a little weak. The PCs were given a mission by Arazni to tell the Knights of Ozem about the disaster at Roslar's Coffer and warn them Vigil might be next. Technically they fulfilled their mission when the met the Chief Knight at the festival and told her the required message/warning, which she totally ignored. I'd have understood if the PCs had, at that point, just shrugged their shoulders, said 'mission accomplished' and moved on.
Then there's the next phase of evidence gathering. So far they've found plenty of evidence of the thievery of an artifact in Vigil. To them, the link to Roslar's Coffer is tenuous at best.
Fortunately (for me) the party is content to follow the railroad and pick up the plot tokens.
i portrayed the knightly council as pretty much unredeemably arrogant, and when added to the threat of an orcish invasion (which I created - Tar Baphon laying the groundwork with some of his old allies), the knights, secure in their fortress, have little reason to listen to the PCs. But they certainly are worried about a sequel to Roslar's Coffer.
Ceto Malderra took over the knights in Vigil after the Watcher Lord takes the army to Belkzen, and she was... distinctly unpleasant. Even after the PCs had figured out that there's a plot against the Shield, they didn't even want to tell the authorities and just went into the sewers on their own...
I've got my next session coming up this weekend, and it's the first time the party will realise they've got some sort of resistance to necromancy spells.
Their plan is to learn Death Ward spells, cast them on key party members, and have those PCs go up against the spectres in the dyeworks. (They got mauled by negative levels last time, so want to avoid that again).
The SR the obols give them has been utilised before but they don't know it at the time. A spell or two cast at them by Quietus Valthazar didn't work as he'd planned but the party was too busy to notice.
THIS time, it's going to be the Cleric casting Death Ward on other party members. So, should the Cleric notice the SR straight away? Or should I just have him roll a d20, not tell what it's for, and only give him some idea of what's there if he fails?
My gut feeling is that he should realise the players have SR as soon as he attempts to cast.
I'd go with a mix. I'd have him roll a d20 without knowing what it's for (for suspense) and then regardless of the outcome, tell him about the SR. If he succeeds, then describe how it wasn't just the simple "cast a spell and it lands" he is used to. If he fails, describe how something seems to consume the spell energy, forbidding it's effect. Then, after the dramatic description, inform the player that it was SR--and that SR hadn't applied to other spells he'd cast on the party members thus far... that leaves a little mystery about the exact nature of the SR, but also lets him know mechanically what's going on.
I just like doing that because I'm a theatrical GM.
Yeah I think it'd be good for the party to know what's going on to a degree, like they feel some sort of resistance as they cast the spell, feel it cancelled out by the obol or sucked into the mote of energy at their chest or something. Knowing about the SR will allow them to prepare around it in the future too - I wouldn't want my wizard to keep prepping false life and wondering why it's not working, for example.
My party have taken some negative energy damage in the past and felt it be reduced but they've not seen the SR side of things yet either so that's something I've had in the back of my mind for a while. Let us know how you decide to address it when it comes up? ^^
I really should have prepped more of this sooner but I'm gonna be doing some pretty sizeable reworking to this book - mostly to connect it better to my players and how we like to play. I'll outline some of these later maybe, but at least partly it involved an infernal cult in Vigil and putting the Redoubt outside of the city rather than under it.
But one of the things I'm kinda stumped over is how best to run the waystation stuff in a not-so-clumsy way. It's a very small space, especially inside, and we've got tight corners and staircases blocking line of sight for spellcasters and like minimum 6 people in combat at once (4 PCs, Okagu, Usundra) and that's if the wights dont get involved early. I feel like its pretty cramped in here. I have a very buff Paladin and a Swashbuckler that crits with 9/10 attacks so it's not going to be a very impactful fight if I don't get creative with this.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to use these pieces more efficiently? I'm also trying to redesign the map to make it just a bit bigger but Dungeon Alchemist is fighting me on this one, so ways to use the existing space would be appreciated!
There is fancy +3 armor in room B4. Officer’s Quarters that obviously belongs to Doeswen Aubry. I wonder if the author intended for the PCs to keep them...even though they will rescue her later from room E5. The Barn.
My PCs just cleared out B4. I am wondering if they will they try to keep or sell the armor (and coins and gems)?
(And I think that if they try to sell the armor there is a very good chance it will be recognized as belonging to her. I mean, there is no mass manufacturing in this world. I imagine that it would be easy for a reputable dealer to track the provenance of a set of fancy +3 armor decorated with the flag of Lastwall.)
Allen
Funny you should ask. My party tank - LN Fighter (Tower Shield Specialist) - helped himself to the +3 plate. Last session they rescued Doeswen Aubry. That player couldn't play that day so I refrained from having Aubry ask for it back. I wanted him to make the decision so she'll do so next week when he's present.
My party wasn't exactly shocked to find out they have SR against necro spells. I played it the way quibblemuch suggested, had the cleric roll a d20 without telling him what it was for, described what he felt and then just told him it was SR.
Once he'd cast Death Ward at one party member, one of the team had the bright idea of seeing if they could voluntarily lower the SR, the way you normally can. Again, they weren't surprised to find out they couldn't.
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There is fancy +3 armor in room B4. Officer’s Quarters that obviously belongs to Doeswen Aubry. I wonder if the author intended for the PCs to keep them...even though they will rescue her later from room E5. The Barn.
My PCs just cleared out B4. I am wondering if they will they try to keep or sell the armor (and coins and gems)?
(And I think that if they try to sell the armor there is a very good chance it will be recognized as belonging to her. I mean, there is no mass manufacturing in this world. I imagine that it would be easy for a reputable dealer to track the provenance of a set of fancy +3 armor decorated with the flag of Lastwall.)
Allen
She'd notice it, no?
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I really should have prepped more of this sooner but I'm gonna be doing some pretty sizeable reworking to this book - mostly to connect it better to my players and how we like to play. I'll outline some of these later maybe, but at least partly it involved an infernal cult in Vigil and putting the Redoubt outside of the city rather than under it.
But one of the things I'm kinda stumped over is how best to run the waystation stuff in a not-so-clumsy way. It's a very small space, especially inside, and we've got tight corners and staircases blocking line of sight for spellcasters and like minimum 6 people in combat at once (4 PCs, Okagu, Usundra) and that's if the wights dont get involved early. I feel like its pretty cramped in here. I have a very buff Paladin and a Swashbuckler that crits with 9/10 attacks so it's not going to be a very impactful fight if I don't get creative with this.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to use these pieces more efficiently? I'm also trying to redesign the map to make it just a bit bigger but Dungeon Alchemist is fighting me on this one, so ways to use the existing space would be appreciated!
It's a bad dungeon, imho, and completely out of place in the story.
I put a revived Mictena (transformed into a sakhil) in it instead. The players lost the fight [ran away, no deaths], but it was fun to run.
It's skippable, methinks.
I really should have prepped more of this sooner but I'm gonna be doing some pretty sizeable reworking to this book - mostly to connect it better to my players and how we like to play. I'll outline some of these later maybe, but at least partly it involved an infernal cult in Vigil and putting the Redoubt outside of the city rather than under it.
But one of the things I'm kinda stumped over is how best to run the waystation stuff in a not-so-clumsy way. It's a very small space, especially inside, and we've got tight corners and staircases blocking line of sight for spellcasters and like minimum 6 people in combat at once (4 PCs, Okagu, Usundra) and that's if the wights dont get involved early. I feel like its pretty cramped in here. I have a very buff Paladin and a Swashbuckler that crits with 9/10 attacks so it's not going to be a very impactful fight if I don't get creative with this.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to use these pieces more efficiently? I'm also trying to redesign the map to make it just a bit bigger but Dungeon Alchemist is fighting me on this one, so ways to use the existing space would be appreciated!
It's a bad dungeon, imho, and completely out of place in the story.
I put a revived Mictena (transformed into a sakhil) in it instead. The players lost the fight [ran away, no deaths], but it was fun to run.
It's skippable, methinks.
If you skip it you then have to come up with another way for Aubry to be kidnapped by the Wise Crows and plant another piece of evidence that points to the Shield Emporium.
I presented the waystation as is even though, as someone pointed out above, the fort should be on the other side of the portcullis.
The party noticed the hanged guard was still alive so one of them spider climbed up to rescue him, which drew the attention of the orc-wights and started the fight. Usandra and her hench-orc heard the commotion and rushed out to join in the fray. It was then spells at ten paces until the tank could batter down the portcullis.
So, I never had the issues @AvarielGray has with the tight corners and staircases etc.
Is it just me or is this module too top heavy with magic loot?
Last session the party beat up three sealbreaker knights, all of whom had +1 full plate, a +1 heavy steel shield and a +1 longsword. That's over 6,000gp of loot per knight. Then the otyughs gave them glove of storing, which contained a scabbard of keen edges, a further 16,000gp worth.
Earlier they were gifted a +2 halberd by Ranton Gandry, Brunna gave them a +2 shield. They beat Kilibrandt and got her +1 shadow studded leather, +1 composite bow, belt of dex +4, and cloak of resistance +2, along with the gear from her hirelings.
And that's not even mentioning the multitude of potions, wands, talismans, etc they keep picking up.