1 - Hellknight Hill (GM Reference)

[Demonknight]

BeardedTree wrote:

Then they snuck into the cave to fight Dmiri, Voz, and two Elite Bloody Skeletal Champions. With how much damage they put out I didn't think it would be a problem. But they got bottle necked and Voz managed to put the fighter, barbarian, and alchemist to sleep in the first round.

How did she did that? Sleep has the incapacitation trait, if it is in the scrool it is a first level spell.

By then the players should be 3rd level already.

[Fumarole]

GM oversight, I suspect. When I learned about this trait, it had me so concerned I'd forget it that I went through my CRB and Bestiary PDFs, did a CTRL-F for incapacitation and highlighted every instance of it.

[Ruzza]

Yeah, I made that mistake, too. Two of my PCs dropped to sleep when they fought Voz, but since combat was happening around them, it only cost them a round and an action standing up from prone. My players enjoyed the fight, but I feel pretty silly for not having as firm a grasp of the rules as I thought I did when I started.

[Kennethray]

Ruzza wrote:

Yeah, I made that mistake, too. Two of my PCs dropped to sleep when they fought Voz, but since combat was happening around them, it only cost them a round and an action standing up from prone. My players enjoyed the fight, but I feel pretty silly for not having as firm a grasp of the rules as I thought I did when I started.

Dosen't level 1 sleep leave them standing?

[Sporkedup]

Demonknight wrote:

BeardedTree wrote:

Then they snuck into the cave to fight Dmiri, Voz, and two Elite Bloody Skeletal Champions. With how much damage they put out I didn't think it would be a problem. But they got bottle necked and Voz managed to put the fighter, barbarian, and alchemist to sleep in the first round.

How did she did that? Sleep has the incapacitation trait, if it is in the scrool it is a first level spell.

By then the players should be 3rd level already.

On a failure, the creature goes unconscious for a minute still. So if they crit failed (got a 12 or lower on the will save, not out of the question), they'd still be unconscious. It's entirely possible that this was accidentally run correctly! Minus the falling over part, as they should have been asleep standing up.

[Ruzza]

Kennethray wrote:

Ruzza wrote:

Yeah, I made that mistake, too. Two of my PCs dropped to sleep when they fought Voz, but since combat was happening around them, it only cost them a round and an action standing up from prone. My players enjoyed the fight, but I feel pretty silly for not having as firm a grasp of the rules as I thought I did when I started.

Dosen't level 1 sleep leave them standing?

Look, as long as none of you squeal on me to my players, we can just forget this whole thing ever happened.

[Kennethray]

Ruzza wrote:

Kennethray wrote:

Ruzza wrote:

Yeah, I made that mistake, too. Two of my PCs dropped to sleep when they fought Voz, but since combat was happening around them, it only cost them a round and an action standing up from prone. My players enjoyed the fight, but I feel pretty silly for not having as firm a grasp of the rules as I thought I did when I started.

Dosen't level 1 sleep leave them standing?

Look, as long as none of you squeal on me to my players, we can just forget this whole thing ever happened.

I don't know. That's a big ask. Maybe I will sleep on it. :)

[Demonknight]

Sporkedup wrote:

Demonknight wrote:

BeardedTree wrote:

Then they snuck into the cave to fight Dmiri, Voz, and two Elite Bloody Skeletal Champions. With how much damage they put out I didn't think it would be a problem. But they got bottle necked and Voz managed to put the fighter, barbarian, and alchemist to sleep in the first round.

How did she did that? Sleep has the incapacitation trait, if it is in the scrool it is a first level spell.

By then the players should be 3rd level already.

On a failure, the creature goes unconscious for a minute still. So if they crit failed (got a 12 or lower on the will save, not out of the question), they'd still be unconscious. It's entirely possible that this was accidentally run correctly! Minus the falling over part, as they should have been asleep standing up.

Of course it will need the three of them to all get critical failures....

[Ageron]

Now that all six parts are out I started running this. I was kinda critical of some of the story elements earlier in the thread, which I feel bad about since this is a GM resource thread. I also feel bad about that criticism because it played very smoothly with minor modifications. I added some other attendees to the Call of Heroes, made Voz an actual Scarlet Triad agent investigating the ring and The town’s secret past, and altered some of the encounters to fit the map a little better. In a four and a half hour session my players actually made it to the Bumblebrashers, although the dragon nearly killed two of them before it was lured back to the gate. There’s still more than half the first floor to explore, but I was very impressed with the number of RP opportunities.

In addition to changing Voz’s backstory I’ve made it so that the Hellknights actually abandoned the citadel a long time ago (they didn’t leave a detachment), the Bumblebrashers found their way into the citadel via the Goblinblood tunnels, where they lived before the spiders and barghest came, and the Bloody Blades tried to pass themselves off as heroes to the council by secretly committing crimes and then ‘solving’ them. After they were rejected at the Call for Heroes Voz will recruit them for her expedition. Also, she deliberately caused the undead to animate on the lower floor in an effort to force the goblins out prior to the stairwell collapsing.

I love how fast PF2 plays, and appreciate the amount of material Paizo has already put out for it.

[MagicJMS]

Hey everyone! My playgroup recently ported over from 5E to PF2, and I'm GMing us through Age of Ashes as our first foray. I've really been enjoying and appreciating this thread and all of the ideas therein. We are loving the system and story, though I generally agree with others that Book 1 is the weakest of the 6 books having read all of them.

We have 5 players: 1) Human/Haunting Visions/Cleric of Sarenrae (the leader & healer), 2) Human/Bounty Hunter/Champion of Sarenrae (his sidekick & muscle), 3) Human-Half-Orc/Emancipated/Barbarian (the raging brute), 4) Goblin/Entertainer/Bard (banjo-playing!), and 5) Goblin/Martial Disciple/Rogue w/ Monk Archetype (basically a gentrified goblin raised by humans).

We're through 7 sessions and the party is currently in the citadel vaults (Chapter 3 of Book 1). We're going slowly to learn the rules, and we also do a fair amount of role-playing. Here's a summary of the changes I've made so far:
- In the town hall fire, the group had a bucket brigade going but were still basically only able to keep the fire at a standstill, so after a bit I had the town guard rush in to help and put out the fire. Tactically, they played this encounter perfectly and had no casualties.
- As with seemingly everyone else here, the party went first to Voz's bookshop to investigate Calmont before heading to Hellknight Hill. We roleplayed the encounter, and she rolled a 30 on Deception, so they left feeling convinced Calmont was a rogue agent that had been fired days before. (she then hurriedly fled for Guardian's Way once they'd left)
- Because two of the party are Goblins, the Bumblebrashers and Helba specifically turned out to be more significant NPCs (I also enjoy doing goblin voices, so this has been a lot of fun). I'm doing milestone leveling, and the party made a beeline for ramparts after entering through the Giant Rats room of the citadel, so had encountered very little by the time they took Calmont captive (just the Rats and Grauladon). I needed them to get more XP, so Helba said she would only give them the location of the secret entrance if the party cleared out the first level of the citadel so they would have a place to live in case they didn't survive the cultists. This turned out to work great, and gave them a solid reason to explore the rest of Chapter 2.
- Thanks to the Haunting Visions background, I'm slowly and steadily feeding the group cut-scenes that portend of Chapter 1 of Book 6. A long way away, yes, but it's definitely painting a picture of "doom coming to Breachill" and a sense of unease about what's happening.
- I made Roxie have two unruly kids, who first appear in one of the above cut-scenes. These kids (Anso & Erika) are who the party has taking care of the warg puppies while they're away, all of which has been great comic relief. But when they find their way back to the Pickled Ear through the tunnel later, they'll have an established relationship with Roxie.
- It's my full intention to bring the warg mother back later--possibly much later--sometime when the group has fully bonded with the pups.
- The skeletons in Chapter 2 felt out of place to me, so I made them part of the necromantic ward triggering below. I gave them each a flail instead of normal weapons, and flavor-wise this was the manacles and chains from their imprisonment. Every undead creature animated by the ward has glowing purple eyes, and I have a cut-scene ready which will make this link clear. (they were all also exploding skeletons, which made for a great fight in the small space)
- The biggest change so far has been to Alak. The party had been crushing combats (it didn't take me long to start making Elite versions of enemies or sprinkling in higher numbers to each encounter), and I was genuinely worried about adding another front-line fighter to the mix. Thankfully, they a) met him at the very end of clearing out the first level, and b) didn't like him much, creating tension between Alak and the group. So while they all went back to Breachill to rest for the vaults, Alak stayed behind, got the location of the secret entrance himself from Helba, and proceeded ahead into the vaults. They party waited around the next morning and he never showed. By the time they went to the crypts, Alak will have been killed and raised as a second undead Hellknight to fight. I added a third Emperor Bird, dead by slashing wounds, into B1 as a clue.
- My sense of Level 1 of the citadel is that it's a bunch of small ecosystems without a lot of interesting movement potential. The cultists are different. The first time the party takes 20 minutes to heal and rest in the vaults, the cultists have gotten organized and have made for a very scary/dangerous encounter ready for the next session. Assuming they survive, I am expecting this to be a lesson of the trade-off of spending time resting in a dungeon while critters roam and have been alerted to their presence.

Whew. Sorry for the long post. Reading what I wrote, it occurs to me that I haven't structurally had to change much of Book 1 yet. If I end up doing so, I'll circle back here and post the changes.

[Ageron]

ofMars wrote:

I've decided a solo bugbear is really too easy of a combat encounter and doesn't really fit their ambush tactics, so I decided Yoletcha was just a cranky hermit hiding out in her furniture fort. When the players notice that something is hiding in the pile of bed frames, she growls and tells them to get out of her fort, and if they succeed at any sort of diplomacy, she gives them a little information about what's been happening in the citadel and asks for more blankets for her fort. It's gone pretty well with the two groups I've been running for

I had the bugbear equipped with a dagger (per the art) rather than a bastard sword, and she STILL opened with a 16 damage crit against the person disturbing her pillow fort. I had foreshadowed her a bit by having Warbal tell the party she’d tried to investigate the citadel but a mean bugbear chased her off.

[MaxAstro]

Yeah, don't underestimate that bugbear... She nearly killed the party goblin and they were even level 2 by the time they found her.

[Gothhog]

Soo my group ran into Voz in Guardians way but with the attrition from the fight with the Bloody blades and her undead creations she was able to escape into the Goblinblood caves.
When the characters was able to catch up with her she was able to speak with the characters for the first time and it went something like this:

“You killed my lackeys and destroyed my creations, who are you? And what have I done to deserve this?”

Ehh.. you are under arrest!
“Arrest… For what exactly? Dark magics… Is this a witch hunt?”

No for the City hall arson and killing!
“That was my idiot employee Calmont, what he did and why has nothing to do with me!
He stole… some books ... from me and dabbled in magics beyond his ability. The imbecile burned the City hall and I knew I where to be blamed by mere association.”

What are you doing here?
“Currently exploring… Say are you doing this "heroic stuff" for money?”

Yes
“Excellent, I have big plans, deep pockets and friends in high places. You could do better than working for those fools in Breachill and as luck would have it... I’m currently looking for new employees, would you want the opportunity?”

Sure sounds fine by us…

So now they work for Voz… time to make some adjustments.

[krazmuze]

The party was so proud of themselves for capturing the Bloody Blades that they went back to town despite the intel on where Voz was. The dwarf monk wanted to buy a tower shield with Dmiri's coin. Despite mountain stance Dmiri sliced thru him like butter without having Alak to tank, also had not realized unarmoured defense is expert so overall was down AC-6. Also Dmiri had some +1 gear that they wanted to transfer runes for.

Overall between meeting the authorities, crafting, and shopping two nights are wasted..

So I have to let Voz escape, as why would she wait when escape is already written as possible combat tactic? I think depriving the end boss entirely would be bad though, otherwise party would not know who she is when they meet her later.

So instead that spider eaten gnome corpse treasure with the +1 splint mail, and +1 returning striking starknife? Now it is an undead bloody skull and knife throwing elite skeletal champion with that gear, lets just assume Voz had time and success using her existing skeletal minions in the create undead ritual to raise that gnome because the idea is too good to pass up.

The party knows where Voz is so should skip the Tixitog lair. Voz will be hiding in the north tunnel to get the fight started, then will loop back around throwing the new gnome skelly into the fight trapping the party in the south chamber while she escapes (possibly up a tower to fight if being chased)

That means not getting Voz journal intel (60XP) which they would not be able to read anyways.

It makes it an extreme encounter, but the plan is to get Voz to escape ASAP and not go for the TPK, so it will only be awarded as moderate encounter and saving her XP for a future level when they meet again. Party needs to defeat the Tixitog afterwards to get enough XP to level, or I could just give quest XP to go with the Bloody Blades bounty.

Sound like a plan?

[krazmuze]

So maybe elite on top of that gnomes weapon is a bit much, these are the stats I gave it.

+1 Returning Striking Starknife +13 (agile, deadly d6, evocation, finesse, magical, thrown 20 ft. versatile S), Damage 2d4+7 piercing

That is 36 max damage on a crit which is a lot at lvl3, to be fair I rolled for targets, still triple hit several times, as skellies are not smart enough to focus fire or use other tactics, and that was enough to PK if not for hero points. Even with that the cleric kept bleeding out because of a gusher from the critical hit deck.

Since that was going so bad for the party, Vox skittered out of there on the ceiling, putting the one PC that followed to sleep. So she is now deep in the caverns for another go at lvl4. Unlike the prior poster, the cleric is a Pharasma so no way will they work with an obvious necromancer. I doubt the party is going after Voz as Heal emanations are blown on the skellies, and sleeping there with Voz on the loose is a bad idea.

[Kennethray]

I may be reading into it, but dont forget the aoe heal spell heals living and damages undead at the same time, not a either or thing.

[ToiletSloth]

My party just finished Book 1, so here's an after-action report:

The Party:
-Half Orc Warpriest of Gorum
-Elf Fencer Swashbuckler
-Human Aberrant Bloodline Sorcerer
-Human Witch of the Lesson of Curses
-A Gnome Gmonk who was unfortunately absent for this session.

The party's Warpriest of Gorum was not a fan of sneaking up on the Bloody Blades, but he also wasn't going to stop the rest of the party from doing it, so he hung back. The party was spotted and aggro'd the whole camp, so they were down a player for the first round of combat. Everyone but the Warpriest went down at least once, and he had to use Orc Ferocity to stay up. Miraculously, no one died. They rested in Dmiri's shack and took turns watching the mouth of the cave to make sure that Voz didn't try to sneak off into the night.

The Voz fight was something else. First turn, she crits the Witch with Acid Arrow, they go down to dying 2. Warpriest uses a 1st level heal to bring them back up, they get a turn, and then the persistent acid damage brings them back down to dying 3. Meanwhile, the Swashbuckler is fending off the Skeletal Champion while the Aberrant blood Sorcerer uses his noodle arms to hit Voz with a Stupefying Touch. She successfully casts one spell for the rest of the combat. The fight was essentially over, and fortunately the sorcerer had also thought to wipe the acid off of the witch's face. Once again, the party scrapes by with no deaths.

The party found Renali, and the Warpriest was able to convince her to help them fight. This will end up being important.

You can understand that I was worried about the Ralldar fight. As it happens, he was the easiest fight all day. Ralldar managed to down a party member, but between the Warpriest using True Strike + Weapon Surge + Magical Greatsword and the Swashbuckler criting their finisher, Ralldar hit that 35 hp flee threshold pretty quickly. No one was in any real danger.

Renali showed her true form in that fight, and pretty much every party member was complementary of it. The Gorumite was just happy that she fought, and the witch even said "This form is far more beautiful. Look how shiny your carapace is!"

Malarunk was a lot more of a threat than I thought he would be. One Channel Smite forced the Warpriest to use Orc Ferocity, and if he hadn't kept healing himself he definitely would have gone down to AoE damage at some point. The poor Witch went down again, this time to a critically failed save against a 3 action Harm spell. This is where Renali gets important. She's out of spells and has no way to get to Malarunk, so she grabbed the downed Witch and carried him to safety. A round or so later, Malarunk casts fireball and hits everyone...except Renali and the Witch, who would have definitely died in the blast. Malarunk is slain within the round, and the party makes it through the 3 hardest fights in the book with no deaths.

But most importantly, after they found the deed and acquired the Citadel, they needed to deal with the bear they set loose in the vaults. They came to the conclusion that the only way to take the bear out was through the tunnel and out the Pickled Ear, a conclusion I did not correct. Through a combination of Calm Emotions and a pig carcass or 3, they lead Big Bumble through the tunnel and to the ladder. The Warpriest enlarges himself, crit succeeds an Athletics check and lifts the magically calmed bear up to the Pickled Ear's basement. Cut to the party entering the bar, saying "Everyone out. Bear's coming through." Roxie Denn did not take this news well. Long story short, some very good diplomacy later and the Pickled Ear is now the "Pickled Bear". Big Bumble lives happily in the wilds near Breachill.

[Captain Morgan]

Amazing. That Big Bumble story though.

[krazmuze]

Kennethray wrote:

I may be reading into it, but dont forget the aoe heal spell heals living and damages undead at the same time, not a either or thing.

That was with all the aoe heal/dmg at same time but it kept saving for half and had bloody fast healing, and critting with +3 atk/dmg over the normal champion (elite and striking weapon)

They decided to risk it and chase her down without a break. Voz was trying to dig up an old goblin skeleton in the old goblin town thinking she would have time to create more undead before they came back if it all (though that plan should have failed, I assume NPC need support casters for rituals too?)

The Monk started off great tripped and grabbed her to nerf her attack and spells a bit, but then learned to never touch a necromancer again as her vampire touch left him with few HP as he did not get any potion healing on the way. Next he ended up knocking himself out with a weak fumble (luckily not lethal fists as they wanted to arrest her).

But it was the bard using that found idiocy scroll that saved the day, Voz wasted a round prone and not able to roll a spell, while facing a druid cat that disemboweled her for 3x dmg and then ate her shoulder (clumsy:1 and enfeebled:2) which made her dagger useless. Voz got backed into a bad corner, as spider climb and mirror image was already used at her camp, and tumble thru with a bad shoulder just to get flanked was too much of a gamble.

The tapped cleric who was smart enough to save one potion and risk being wounded herself got the monk back up to knock Voz out before the druid ate her.

Sometimes upgrading a fight from severe to extreme (two moderates no break) is the right story to tell! I just love it when a fight is full of critical hit/fumble deck adding to the narrative.

Anyone want to try this change I used D&D Tactical Maps Reincarnated Mystical Cave (I do not have any Paizo maps) for the old goblin area since there was no map in the adventure. The extra goblin skeleton champion was just elite, bloody fast healing, wearing the spider treasure as gear. Voz escaping to the other area is key to giving them a chance, but without party potions or if she stays it surely would have been a TPK. The smarter play would be Voz in stealth assassin mode, except she had no darkvision spell/potion, something to consider adding.

[Demonknight]

Ended Hellknight Hill with my party in the last Saturday, so far they are having a blast and loving the Adventure Path and 2ed Edition.

And the timing was perfect, i'm going to have Herniated Disc Surgery in the next Friday, and so don't know when i will back in the sadlle.

But gonna have plenty of time for read indeed!

[Captain Morgan]

Demonknight wrote:

Ended Hellknight Hill with my party in the last Saturday, so far they are having a blast and loving the Adventure Path and 2ed Edition.

And the timing was perfect, i'm going to have Herniated Disc Surgery in the next Friday, and so don't know when i will back in the sadlle.

But gonna have plenty of time for read indeed!

Best of luck with the surgery. One of my players just got back in after the same surgery. He was only gone a couple weeks, and recovered much better than from his appendix removal earlier in the year.

[Saldiven]

My play group took a break over most of the holidays, so we're back working our way through Hellknight Hill.

I'm curious for the other DM's, how many of you had a player walk into the Gelatinous Cube on the second section?

In our group, the players had decided to focus on killing any enemies in the dungeon before searching the place. After defeating the creepy doll and befriending the two dragons (lol), the party door-opener looked into the room with the Cube, and didn't see anything. It was stationary, and his secret check was insufficient to notice the DC 23 to see it. So, they assumed it was empty.

After clearing the rest of the dungeon level, they came back to this room. The bulk of the party was in the creepy doll room doing some healing after the fight with the two wights, and Mr. Door-Opener goes into the Cube room and begins to walk to the other door, again failing the DC 23 perception to notice the unmoving Cube.

So, *bloop* right into the Cube, instantly engulfed as stated by the Bestiary, and promptly failing the Paralysis save.

It was pretty dicey, but I gave the rest of the party in the other room a chance to hear something odd going on, and one of the secret checks turned up a nat-20, so they came to investigate and saved their comrade with some clever actions.

Anyone else have anything interesting with the Cube?

[Fumarole]

My party took an extra day to get to the battlements, so I played it that Calmont had already gotten the info about the secret door from Helba after killing one of the tribe and headed down the before the PCs. When the party eventually got the the vaults Calmont was dead and being consumed by the cube, so the cube wasn't hidden from them when they entered the room. They still had a tough time fighting it though, with the rogue being paralyzed (for the entire fight no less) and the fighter and druid alternating being engulfed and escaping. Eventually Big Bumble came to assist (he was freed earlier after being befriended by the druid), was engulfed but killed the cube from within.

[Sir NotAppearingInThisFilm]

My favorite moment of the campaign so far:

The party captured one of the bandits at Guardians Way, and the group's very lawful fighter decided to question him:

PC: So what will you do with your life if we let you go?
Bandit: (long pause) ...I've always had a deep interest in agriculture.
PC: (menacingly) Then give us some useful information!
Bandit: (terrified pause) ... you should always use contour plowing around hillsides to minimize topsoil erosion... you should rotate crops every season to replenish nutrients in the soil...
PC: Right then. Off you go.

[CloudRDS]

How much Downtime did you give your players after Hellknight Hill? I'm thinking 30 days to get a start on the repair rules from the next book and to transfer some runes to their preferred equipment.

[ToiletSloth]

I'm giving them as much downtime as they want to take, with some scheduled nudging towards the plot every month with the Call for Heroes. So assuming they don't look into it before then, in a month my party will be getting a request from the council to look into the magic monster spewing portal in their basement.

[Silbeg]

So, for those of you in the early stages... I have to admit I complete missed that the southern part of the vaults switched to level 3... luckily they had the regalia and did not engage the skellies, though the hellcrowns gave them quite the fight.

Since they waited several days before heading back (due to 3 of the 5 being sick with goblin pox...), Alak left on his own, and the party is about to catch up to him.

[Ruzza]

CloudRDS wrote:

How much Downtime did you give your players after Hellknight Hill? I'm thinking 30 days to get a start on the repair rules from the next book and to transfer some runes to their preferred equipment.

I gave my players about 20 - 25 days of downtime. Only half of the group worked on the citadel, with the other half earning income or befriending people in town. I used the next month Call to Heroes to intro Book 2.

[Timingila]

CloudRDS wrote:

How much Downtime did you give your players after Hellknight Hill? I'm thinking 30 days to get a start on the repair rules from the next book and to transfer some runes to their preferred equipment.

My group went through Huntergate in our most recent session. It was the 13th day after finding the deed to the Citadel.

[MagicJMS]

Saldiven wrote:

I'm curious for the other DM's, how many of you had a player walk into the Gelatinous Cube on the second section?

We played through this encounter (and the kobolds) last night and it was a lot more interesting than I thought it would be. For context, I almost always use the Elite mod for single creatures since I've got a 5-person party, so they were facing an Elite Gelatinous Cube with higher DCs at Level 3.

Miraculously, they all rolled low when searching the room and none of them made the Perception DC to see the Cube, so it auto-Engulfed the Champion, and he failed the Fort save so was paralyzed. Round 1, it Engulfed the Bard, and she also became paralyzed. The other three are wailing on it, but the Rogue can't do precision damage and the Cleric was mostly out of offensive spells so the only one really doing damage (albeit a lot of it) was the Barbarian.

Welp, Round 2 the Cube Engulfs the Barbarian, but he makes his Fortitude save. The Champion goes to Dying 1 and immediately begins suffocating, with the Bard at 3 hit points. On the Barbarian's turn he's able to do lethal damage from within the Cube so everyone survives.

The Champion still had a Hero Point, so we all agree that death was unlikely. But if the Barbarian had become paralyzed it might very well have been a character death--or even two--in there.

[Shadowfoot]

Finally played the fire in the town hall. The hall burned down. The fire spread too fast for the players to contain it. The evacuation went quickly. The bucket brigade started quickly but it took too long getting from the door to the fire. Crink Twiddleton was one of the panicked townsfolk in the hall, terrified of the fire. He spotted the "fire demon". The mephit discouraged the PCs getting close to the fire early, though it stayed within the fire.
Looks like there will be some other demands on stonemasons and carpenters.

[Demonknight]

Captain Morgan wrote:

Demonknight wrote:

Ended Hellknight Hill with my party in the last Saturday, so far they are having a blast and loving the Adventure Path and 2ed Edition.

And the timing was perfect, i'm going to have Herniated Disc Surgery in the next Friday, and so don't know when i will back in the sadlle.

But gonna have plenty of time for read indeed!

Best of luck with the surgery. One of my players just got back in after the same surgery. He was only gone a couple weeks, and recovered much better than from his appendix removal earlier in the year.

Had the surgery last Friday, gonna do a session this Saturday, the beginning of book two is ideal for a recovering GM!

[Curgyr]

Saldiven wrote:

I'm curious for the other DM's, how many of you had a player walk into the Gelatinous Cube on the second section?

*raises hands*

So, one of my players took the "Hellknight Historian" background - she's playing a middle aged Arctic Elf Alchemist who goes by "John" and got really interested in the Hellknights and their architecture during his midlife crisis in the same way you get the trope of "WW2 Dads". John arrived pretty much entirely to see the citadel, and took the job just to get to go see it, so he's been leading a guided tour for the rest of the party that the other three are somehow really invested in.

Anyway, naturally, John was leading. And John got absorbed by the cube.

I was going to give him a roll, but I asked his player, "Realistically, is John actually paying attention to where he's walking right now?" And, bless her, she roleplayed her character to a T and informed me that John was hyperfixated on playing tour guide. So into the cube John went!

That was actually a really fun fight. I tried my best to give John some company in the cube but they rolled extremely well and just got backed into a corner by it for the most part. It's been over a month now and my wife still shudders when she hears the word "cube", but we all had a great time!

Did anyone get to vore their party with the Warg? The gnome in my party - and his player - had such a hilarious and visceral reaction to the entire encounter (I had the Warg ambush them after they made a bunch of noise fighting the Graveshells, assuming they'd be weakened, and he entered the scene by bursting through a door and yelling "GOT YOU!"). I considered doing it again with the Tixitog, but that just seemed mean. ;P

[Ice Titan]

Curgyr wrote:

Did anyone get to vore their party with the Warg?

He got the druid's small animal companion, swallowed whole and ran. The party caught him before he escaped into the forest though, which was good! Animal companion live, well, and large sized now.

[Githzilla]

For those of you that have completed this book - how was the pace of leveling up? It looks pretty quick between Chapter 3 and 4 to go from 2nd to 5th.

[Ageron]

My players should run into the cube this coming session. I think I’m going to switch its location with the doll, though. It kind of doesn’t make sense to me it would go through all those doors and rooms full of furniture into a dead-end room. Seems like it would prefer to be in a place where people might pass through.

Yea, I know I’m ascribing it too much smarts.

It would explain why the kobolds aren't leaving that section and the cultists aren’t going in. I know the doll currently explains this, but seems like a couple cultists could maul it whereas with the cube they just know when people walk into the room they mysteriously die.

Anyway, just some musings. I may opt to leave it as is.

[Curgyr]

Speaking of the kobolds... my party spared them when they surrendered and I think are planning to let them live in the citadel after they fix it up. What should I do about this? Unlike the goblins, which are stated as being interested in coexisting with Breachill society, the kobolds strike me as the kind of creatures who would refuse to let the party touch "their rooms" and demand tribute and fealty from anyone who came to visit or work in the citadel.

My players are a counselor, a psychologist, and a speech language pathologist, and the SLP is playing a dad-trope character, so their idea is to "set firm boundaries" and "put the kobolds on a behavior management system," which is hilarious. New treasure in return for being polite to guests, maybe? I'm curious to see what they're going to do. But I'm also curious what you all think, and what states your players have left the citadel in, in prep for fixing it up in the next book?

[Shisumo]

Githzilla wrote:

For those of you that have completed this book - how was the pace of leveling up? It looks pretty quick between Chapter 3 and 4 to go from 2nd to 5th.

My players spent two sessions at level 2 and one session at level 3. (Our sessions are 5ish hours.) It wouldn't surprise me if they wind up finishing the book at level 5 after the next session either, judging by the speed they have been progressing - they just confronted Voz, so they only have the Goblinblood Caves left.

My impression overall is that PF2 plays noticeably faster than PF1 does, though I'm not sure why. Someone on another forum suggested that PF2 demands a higher level of player engagement, which can mean people are ready to take their turns faster; it seems as reasonable a theory as any others I've had.

[Demonknight]

Curgyr wrote:

Speaking of the kobolds... my party spared them when they surrendered and I think are planning to let them live in the citadel after they fix it up. What should I do about this? Unlike the goblins, which are stated as being interested in coexisting with Breachill society, the kobolds strike me as the kind of creatures who would refuse to let the party touch "their rooms" and demand tribute and fealty from anyone who came to visit or work in the citadel.

My players are a counselor, a psychologist, and a speech language pathologist, and the SLP is playing a dad-trope character, so their idea is to "set firm boundaries" and "put the kobolds on a behavior management system," which is hilarious. New treasure in return for being polite to guests, maybe? I'm curious to see what they're going to do. But I'm also curious what you all think, and what states your players have left the citadel in, in prep for fixing it up in the next book?

My party also spared the Kobolds and one member of the party (a Goblin Rogue) bonded with them (many screams of Mitey Dragons all around).

They had a meeting in the Citadel in the beggining of the last session before going into Huntergate, the Goblins and the Kobolds would be in the catacombs, same spot they were before the Cinderclaws arrived, the Crypt is a no go area, Warbal would be administrating the Citadel while the party is away, oh, and the goblins are taking care of the two warg puppies while the party is away.
Goblins and Kobolds are happy for having a place to stay, strong protectors for them also.

My party is thrilled for the chances of dialogue and interaction in this AP, no wonder they then loved the first chapter of the second book and passed with flying colors (rolling several 20's during the session did helped them, first one? A Disable divice vs the Dahak Hazard in Huntergate....

[Sir NotAppearingInThisFilm]

The first thing in PF1 I ever ran was Crown of the Kobold King, and the pair of kobold slave’s - Kibbo and Jarrgdreg rapidly became the party’s favorite NPC’s. By the end of the module they were left as co-rulers of the remaining kobold tribe. It only made sense, years later, to replace the two kobolds in the AP with Kibbo and Jarrgdreg.

In the lower level of the citadel, the party came across the door marked “Mitey Dragonz. Stoopid Frog Peeple Keeep Owt” and politely knocked. The kobolds responded with “Go away stupid frog people! Can’t you read our informative yet adorably misspelled sign?!” (in my campaigns, the kobold speech pattern is to always use at least 2 adjectives separated by ‘yet.’) Even after entering the room, it took a couple of minutes to convince the kobolds that the party was not in fact stupid frog people in an alternate form, and the mitey dragonz threatened to immediately Burning Hands anyone who looked like they might climb up on the ceiling and begin spinning a cocoon. Eventually the party won their trust. Kibbo and Jarrgdreg explained to the party that after many “glorious yet fiscally irresponsible years” as rulers in Droskar's Crag they were politely asked to leave on the “best yet friendliest terms” - certainly that’s what “exile” means. The other kobolds shouted and shook their weapons in encouragement as the pair left.

Currently the pair guard the upper level of the citadel for the party as they go off to the goblin caves. They hope that given enough room they will grow to be full-size dragons, sort of like how goldfish grow to the size of their environment.

[xcmt]

Curgyr wrote:

Did anyone get to vore their party with the Warg?

YES. The Warg was alerted to the party thanks to the Graveshell fight and some very loud strategizing afterwards, waiting by the eastern door to strike. He led the initiative rolls after the goblin rogue opened the doorway, got a first hit max-damage crit which was more than enough to send the rogue to Dying, and then immediately gulped him down and retreated back into the study. (The rogue lived.)

My party also chose to kill the warg puppies so I'm trying to figure out where in the AP to introduce a vengeful mother. Maybe she starts attacking the farmsteads surrounding Breachill and becomes a Call for Heroes side quest in a month. Maybe she's lurking in the woods outside of Guardian's Way (though that could imbalance an already challenging encounter). Maybe she becomes a long term pest for the citadel? Something for the MITEY DRAGONS to get in trouble with down the road?

Reintroducing old foes appears to be a developing theme in my campaign. My party also found the quickest route to Calmont after entering the citadel for the first time and trapped him in a small battlement storage area while he held Helba hostage. After they failed their intimidation rolls the party attacked and then also failed every single attack roll, while Calmont sliced up the ranger within two rounds and then threatened to finish the job unless allowed free passage out, which they granted.

Rather than stuff him in the crypts as a corpse I elected to make Calmont retreat back to town to sneak into the bookstore to resupply. One party member did track him back into town but lost the trail on the main roads, and they haven't bothered peeking inside the Reliant storefront yet. I think it'd make sense for him to have broken into Voz's rooms and be the cause of its dishevelment, to have learned about Guardian's Way, sneak past the Bloody Blades, confront Voz and have been ganked to become her latest undead minion.

[Curgyr]

OH, fun!

The warg was really fun. And, obviously, the gnome who was just recently freed from the belly of the beast was not in favor of keeping the warg puppies. He even rolled an attack to bat at one with his staff, but did zero damage (we hadn't yet read the errata / rule that attacks do 1 damage minimum regardless of modifies) so ruled he just poked at them suspiciously. :P

I'm very transparent as a DM. Like, probably too transparent, and that might perhaps ruin some things but has so far helped keep everything on track, cohesive, and mutually enjoyable. As part of this policy - and seeing the attachment the rest of them already had to the warg puppies - I informed them ahead of time about the moral dilemma and we reached a group decision on how they wanted to handle it. Some of them agreed the decision complicated the idea of keeping the warg puppies and put them in a spot they didn't want to explore in real time in person, and we agreed that the easiest solution for our table was that, once driven off, the warg mother - injured in her argument with the father - met her death in the forest.

Using the warg mother even after the pups were slain is an interesting turn, though! The idea of her coming back would be very fun. If it were me, I'd not use her outside the Guardian's Way encounters. That can be a very difficult series of encounters. Granted, my group approached them in broad daylight AND coaxed their leader out before starting a fight, so it was rather front-loaded. And one of them was accidentally still playing at 2nd level, rather than third. Whooops. But it was definitely a tricky fight. The hobgoblin herself one-shot the cleric into Dying. Of course, he was the one running level 2 AC and HP, but... :P

Also... undead Calmont sounds fantastic.

[Githzilla]

xcmt wrote:

Maybe she starts attacking the farmsteads surrounding Breachill and becomes a Call for Heroes side quest in a month.

I love the idea of side quests being brought in via the monthly Call for Heroes.

[Shadowfoot]

What are the likely Isgari/Breachill punishments for each of the following:
1) arson,
2) attempted murder by fire,
3) destruction of city property (the town hall) by fire,
4) theft as a servant

For theft, I would expect the removal of a hand would fit given Isger is a vassal state of Cheliax. In Cheliax I would expect arson would incur maiming by burning brand and enslavement and the other two to be immolation. I also expect that in Breachill these punishments are not as extreme. What would they be?

[Captain Morgan]

Shadowfoot wrote:

What are the likely Isgari/Breachill punishments for each of the following:

1) arson,
2) attempted murder by fire,
3) destruction of city property (the town hall) by fire,
4) theft as a servant

For theft, I would expect the removal of a hand would fit given Isger is a vassal state of Cheliax. In Cheliax I would expect arson would incur maiming by burning brand and enslavement and the other two to be immolation. I also expect that in Breachill these punishments are not as extreme. What would they be?

Breachill sort of isn't part of Isger. Like, it is, technically, but it doesn't actually have any Chelaxian roots since it was established by amnesiacs, and its remote location would keep it away from the grasp of the ruling powers.

So I'd definitely focus on what makes sense for the town in isolation. Given the town seems pretty compassionate, I think amputation seems out of the question. But I'd say some sort of multi-year prison sentence wouldn't be out of the question.

Of course, I'm not sure Breachhill is equipped for longterm jailing, especially since the townguard facilities and courts were in the town hall. So it might be that Calmont gets shipped off to be jailed somewhere else, which could make Isger or Chelaxian sentencing very relevant indeed. One solution would be to have Alak take Calmont with him-- I'm sure the Order of the Nail has protocols in place for guys like him. I reckon just hinting darkly at Calmont facing Hell's justice will probably be enough to satisfy most people on his fate.

[Aswaarg]

Shadowfoot wrote:

What are the likely Isgari/Breachill punishments for each of the following:

1) arson,
2) attempted murder by fire,
3) destruction of city property (the town hall) by fire,
4) theft as a servant

For theft, I would expect the removal of a hand would fit given Isger is a vassal state of Cheliax. In Cheliax I would expect arson would incur maiming by burning brand and enslavement and the other two to be immolation. I also expect that in Breachill these punishments are not as extreme. What would they be?

I would say he is judged by the town council and then is sent to Elidir with a visiting judge (the same figure is used in Plaguestone adventure). Then in Elidir he should be condemned to death sentence/forced labor

[Hawkwing]

My players having defeated Voz are now desperately looking for her spellbook, after all she cast arcane wizards spells yet there is no spell book i can find in the adventure....

[ToiletSloth]

Hawkwing wrote:

My players having defeated Voz are now desperately looking for her spellbook, after all she cast arcane wizards spells yet there is no spell book i can find in the adventure....

I remember reading that she has her spellbook on her person, but I can't seem to find that anywhere. I don't think it would be unreasonable for her to just keep it with her. Her profile does list all the spells she has prepared, so you can give those to your party. An Animate Dead ritual would also be appropriate, I think.

[Captain Morgan]

10 points if you can translate this into what actually happened for my party last session.

So to boil down before in brief, the boys busted into the bounds of the buried bones of the band of bureaucratic brutes, believing they’d boast bewitched battle-axes, bayonets, bows, batons, billy clubs, bowie knives, brass knuckles, bats, bastard swords, blackjacks, blowguns, or other blades and bludgeoning boosters.

But the boys’ bubble was burst when the buried bodies blitzed them. Their beautiful bay was battered down and bit the dust, breathing his last breath before becoming a beast of the breed that brought him down. The boys were bound to begrudgingly butcher their bestie, and buried him with his birthrights and black bulletproof bedclothes while bawling, blubbering, or otherwise bewailing the blues that had buffeted them.

The boys bedded down with their bereavement before beginning their beat down the burrow back to Breachill, leading to the basement of a bar where they burgled some beets. Bewildered by this, the bunch of brain-dead beauties bought beers and became aware that the boss whose employee burnt the building beginning this bonanza had bluffed them and burrowed into the bunker. Breaking into her bookshop with the blessing of the Breachill board, they brought to light that the benevolent builder of the town, Lamont Breachton, was a bastardly bilker who brainwashed the Breachill forefathers when they badly blundered in doing his bidding.

[Captain Morgan]

Porridge wrote:

--Question: On p49, under the description of encounter C2, it mentions that the party can make one Diplomacy or Intimidation check to get the guard to call Dmiri out to speak with the PCs. But I can't find any further guidance about this in the AP. How is this conversation supposed to go?

.

Anybody got thoughts on this question? I am coming up on this moment myself and am not sure what to do yet. She seems fairly loyal to Voz and is expecting do gooders. Conflict seems somewhat inevitable, but I'm not sure why it would include the bit about attempting the single check against her subordinate.