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I am neck and neck with erucsbo it seems. Maybe a session or two behind.
We left off in the middle of a joint encounter with the faun chirurgeons and the blighted handmaidens from the Stitching Lab and the Infested Parlor respectively. The Jimenju tree immediately took out my heavy DPS characters (the kineticist and the eidolon) with it's intoxicating stench ability, which turns any fight into a bit of a slog. Without their main damage output, the party is forced to weather the magical attacks of the alchemists and witches (looots of abilities and buffs to keep track of in this fight, gee whiz). Several of the party members have been shaken, enervated, evil eyed, and enfeebled. The single blightguard as well as a couple of the chirurgeons and handmaidens had fallen, but the tree still stands as we left off last session.
The tooth fairy swarm lurks in the room ahead, which I have been excited to run since I first read about it before the campaign started. The party is also about due for a rest, and since the witch and druid can cast fairy ring retreat, resting should be trivial even in this hostile environment. So to add a little interest to things, I'll have obvious blightguard and bandersnatch tracks all over the place when they emerge in the morning.
By this point, the blighted unity ability of the fey means the element of surprise is gone. How have other GMs dealt with this? There appear to be some contradictions in the text, such as Orielle the blighted pech supposedly unaware of the intrusion before the PCs arrive at her chamber, despite her blighted unity ability.
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... By this point, the blighted unity ability of the fey means the element of surprise is gone. How have other GMs dealt with this? ...
This will start impacting my group now.
Previously they took a break after the rusalkas (not blighted) and the entire battle was underwater / inside fog, so no evidence of the result for anyone else.They haven't rested since the last battle but there has been gap due to them waiting for the resilient sphere to drop to finish off the swarm, so the next blighted group will be the blightguards before heading down to the lower levels.
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I suppose I should update my game.
For Book-6 I skipped most of the events and intrigue of the first part. I figured that everyone would be willing to help when shown proof and didn't bother using influence rules. Even the evil dwarf guy helped out (he wasn't evil in my campaign, but an ally).The players got the letter from Forest marshall dude, and then teleported around the land and met up with all the potential groups of allies, and then arranged the meeting to take place at Fort Ristin in a couple weeks (where the phaendar refugees have been chilling since book-2). Meanwhile they rested in Kraggodan and did some crafting and relaxing.
They basically came up with a plan of distractions around the land to draw out the forces at Phaendar. Some of the allies drew forces out into the lands near Phaendar. While the dwarves and Molthuni harried the tower in Molthune so some forces at Phaendar would be moved there via the stone roads.
So far they have defeated all the enemies around the tower in Phaendar and successfully got the prisoners across the bridge and into the woods. I basically kind of staggered the enemies outside the tower coming at the PCs and over the course of like 15 rounds took care of the foes.
Next session they will enter the Onyx Tower with the Sardonyx shard and deal with the guardians inside.
And after that they will be level-16 and into the Vault.
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double unholy blight by the baregaras but failed to knock off the 4 angels (movanic devas) that had been summoned against the ropers.
holy smites then in return.
I did get to dispel overland flight on the fighter (landing him on the "broken ground") plus successfully intimidate him, but a critical hit from his hammer in addition to the smites were more than enough to see off the baregaras.
The eidolon went in to check the bandersnatch's room and got ambushed, taking enough damage for the summoner to dismiss her.
Trickster entered the room as well with the rest of the party just outside - so blightguards will be moving up next round due to the noise.
Party will be due a rest after this (they were considering it before checking the bandersnatch den).
Devas have cure serious wounds 7/day so keeping everyone topped up hasn't been that hard for them (though some of the other spells are starting to run out).
This is great! I loved getting caught up on so many adventures! Nice gaming everyone!!
It's been a while for me since posting. A MAJOR career change, and training and, well, things fell aside!
BUT I didn't stop my nightly Sunday games! And I'm in book 6 and in the Onyx Citadel myself!
How did I get there? Well I'd like to share-tomorrow at my computer !!
...
How did I get there? Well I'd like to share-tomorrow at my computer !!
tease!
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Let’s see….how did I change things…
I for one never cared for the war council , and find the traitor in the beginning of Book 6. What changed for me was that….well, my merged campaign of events with Giantslayer saw that initial town of Trunau as the mountain city to retreat to if things went back in Phaendar. Which they did!
Seeing as the Heroes were known by Scarvinious, and then again later between the groups searching for them in the woods, the biggest revenge motivator that Scabvistin could have would be to take over Phaendar a secon time. (In my campaign, that event didn’t happen). So, after all the things the Heroes did in the Fangwood with the 3 forts, and then at Longshadow, that really put the I.F. on its heels. So, they went back to damaged Phaendar, and set up the combat events of Book 6.
My group’s time line was deep winter trying to retake Phaendar. The druid of the group brought forth a Blizzard, and just shut things down. At 13th level, what’s weather and cold? The group made the SE door, and fought the giants there. Visibility was poor for all, miss chances galore, but they gained the door and the lower part of the town. Druid tried flying around for a while, to spy on the other gates, the other giants, and noticed one large very black raven trying to catch him in his snowy owl form. But the Owl Druid lost sight of the raven.
At this point, a patrol Troop came by, battle ensued! Most visibility issues, PCs running around and UTTERLY losing sight of each other (thanks Roll20! I screw with visibility a lot). That fight ended as another troop came forward-this time the raven from above flying before them before Maltagra the horned devil revealed itself!
This battle was fun. Lots of Fear, Confusion with spells, and Dimension Door from the devil to get away from the fighters and land amidst the casters staying away. And again, miss chances with EVERY SINGLE ATTACK.
( I eventually skipped the Rawhead fight. Didn’t seem worth it at this point).
I should say the first thing that the group did was actually save the trapped humans here. By this point in my campaign, they have 2 onyx shards, raised a smal tower here, and sent the other people to tower set up with Longshadow).
Gaining the Tower was easy, the fight with the Obsidian Golems was nasty! A favorite combo of stone shaped stairs, grease, and hungry pit spells with kiting some guardsmen down was fun. I ran the Tower pretty much by the book. Added a few more honor guards in the tower simply for numbers in my group. The disintegration trap did land! That was a healing resource burn!
Final battle with scabvistin made a lot of my PCs scratch their heads until they realized it was a callback to Book 1; that’s why my Scabvistin decided to retake and destroy Phaendar!
Good fight. The Bard Ettoran Phaerk ended up here instead. I concretely and demonstratively made mention of his playing, and it was round 8 before one my PCs shouted “is there a bard hiding in here?!!!” and I said the music became a mocking trill. I shook my head at my PCs…and kept debuffing them. :D
In the end , they won. Kept Phaerk alive after capturing him and actually talked to a prisoner to get info. I forgot my group knew how to do that. But in the end, it became time to head to the Vault of the Onyx Citadel!!!
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Within the Vault, I pretty much kept things as the book suggested. With some tweaks.
They came through, met the pechs, had the fight right away with Shakhib and his golem. Good little fight. Came into Stone Home, went to fight their way through to Ziguch of the Seventh Facet…and annihilated him. The immortal ooze took longer. BUT my group put Ziguch into the regen tank (I removed the Hob Alchemist here. I couldn’t fathom how this guy was getting in and out as much as he would, operate here, and Ziguch/Ooze be okay with that. So I stopped that).
From there, it was on to the 3 Nexus points. My character change to this was that one my PCs was from Longshadow, and his family was taken to the Vault to run the mines at the Nexus point.
So, instead of going against the dragon and the Molten nexus that was closest, and I was most prepared for…they took the treasure from Ziguch, and went to the Shard Nexus to buy off the xorn. Which, worked, and surprised the group actually. The one fighter took up the offer to wrestle Cragcrusher, but eventually lost. The Shield Champion Brawler? Made some pretty quick work of him and won the belt!
They next pressed on to Flow Nexus. It was here that Kraelos and his Troop was. First off, my PCs took the bridge and guardhouse I created here, and then freed up the people farming and mining, got them moved back, then set a trap for Kraelos and his Troop. That didn’t last long, won handily. When they went up to set the nexus, bwahahaha the GM laughs and smiles as the zarxorin rumbles to life. I did stone one PC in it’s stomach, kept knocking the other fighters off the pinnacle, causing them to climb back up and using the AoE spell effects. It got a little close at one point where I thought I was going to a TPK, until 2 rounds of Heal, and
OH, get this! The arcanist narrowly beat the SR, and then I rolled a Nat 1 for the saving throw. The arcanist shared half of all damage down to her with the the zarxorin. And then other party members, and herself, started to harm her. I made a ruling up on the spot of she would have to pass a Will save to cast disintegrate on herself!!
Then, they went to the Molten Nexus, because, high level adventurers can teleport all over. They barely made the diplomacy checks, even as I pushed them with the checks. What I did lastly was to have the group pay in tribute was $50K in gold, and the arcanist Staff of Power. Which…they did! Encounter passed.
They headed to the Citadel next. Decided to waterbreath and swim there. Fought 2 targothas in the water. NO freedom of movements cast, so the battle was a little bit more edged to the spiked eel snakes for a while, but they eventually won over.
With that, the group landed on the Citadel, on the back beach, avoiding the Warwonger of the bridge and the direct door in.
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It’s been much easier to just play things by the book at this point still. Fight some jotund trolls, head over to the barbican on the easter, fight some munitions officers, who call upwards to the minotaur to release the gallow dead.
(which I found odd that they were 2 rooms apart, cuz no way would I want to be near those dead!)
I changed the gallowdead to be dwarven heroes known to the 3 dwarves that fought at Khundrakur and Kraggodan (additions to my campaign), who were all taken/missing on the StormNight (the night that heralded the attack on Trunaue and Phaendar).
The gallowdead wrapped up the fighters who couldn’t escape, and then the druid/rogue/oracle/arcanist had to deal with them. The best was when the arcanist teleported in front of the door to the bolt ace gunslinger grim horn, who on their initiative, kicked the door open and let loose shooting!!
So, they shot from the door to their north, and the gallowdead, who were on their way out anyways, until both groups gathered around the doorway, challenging each other to run in/out at them. The PCs, who have a fighter with an Intimidate Build (I’m outlawing that Cornugon smash feat next time) hit the room, with Stone skin and spirit link to the oracle, and then the fight went on.
I made Grimhorn fight with all Mazemaster minotaurs, because why woudn’t a group be here as well? I used some third party minotaur trais/feets to make the battle a bit more interesting, because at this point, nearly everything is a slug fest. Since hobs don’t care for magicians, it’s only alchemists and clerics, and that’s been few and far between for a while.
Fights over, they manipulate the Citadel so it can’t send any more troops around, and the group makes it’s way to the main citadel entrance.
And here’s where I go…this map design is so video-gamey. There’s only one way to get to the barracks on the second floor; because there is one entrance to the Citadel. That’s…annoying. So, I thematically changed up some ideas of the rooms being where they are.
Also, I can’t help but make mention; the floors, the walls, the ceiling are so BLACK that light only reflects or shines off its surface as white. The natural lights set up in here shine awkwardly around. IT’s goofy and weird! Unsettling!!
But, as the group climbed up from the stables to the war room where Noxil the bugbear is trying to set off a coup, I read A BOOK to my hidden PCs about how this group is nearly pushed over to taking Azaersi out, and stopping this campaign. They’ve suffered so much, lost so much on Golarion (the Realms for me), let’s just keep this home as ours.
Would my PCs entreat into talking with them? No…everyone has been an enemy for far too long. Family and close friends have been killed, lost and taken for 181 days (I kept track in my game time). BUT, the invisible arcanist, did do a Mass Suggestion, hitting Noxil and his crew, as wll as some hobs, to go find the General and take her out!
So, they cut the numbers down in the room, and attacked. I had to end early that night, and I made the room that the book suggests as a safe place to sleep as a room for the wounded-and NO ONE had ever found the room yet! Only stone cunning dwarves did. So, they entered the hidden medic room, healed, and rested.
The last fight was making the way through the halls, and a new guardian was entered into the fight, because I’m getting tired of hobs…and that was inevitable maruts. Onyx stone skinned guardians of the Citadel? YOu betcha! Interesting fight, dividing the group with wall of forces, blinding enemies, dimension dooring around, Awesome blow knocking others around and down, I had fun!
Next up, is climbing up the Citadel some more, and finding a siege troop with the firedrake siege weapons to have them turned on the group. And the PC rogue thought he made it up there and back without being detected…heh heh heh….
spring attacks by the blightguards but only 1 managed to get damage on the fighter (only visible party member).
After 2 goes (and getting sneak attacked by the rogue) they switched to thorns and 1 got a parasitic bond on the fighter.
Meanwhile the bandersnatch had managed to grab the trickster with its bite and confuse her as well.
Summoner used bracelet of friends to get the trickster away from the bandersnatch.
Bandersnatch came out and hit the summoned devas (grabbing one, confusing another, and inflicting heavy damage on a third) after the devas had been bombarding the blightguard barracks with holy smites.
Blightguards ended up being finished off by fighter and rogue - though the fighter did go unconscious from the parasitic bond.
Bandersnatch tried to escape with a deva in its mouth after getting smashed by a summoned elder lightning elemental, summoner's storm fury attach of lightning bolts, and wizard's mage sword spell but didn't quite make it.
Wendel and Meril jumped in when it was down and stabbed it to make sure it was dead.
I've let everyone bump up to L16 (so that they can finish the AP at 20 instead of 18), with the descent to the deeper reaches to come next.
I'll probably have the rogue do high level recon as she has See in Darkness plus sniper goggles, but limit her ability to see what is happening at ground level. Also reduces the damage output of the party a bit for fighting beneath the canopy to hopefully ramp up the tension a bit.
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Let’s see….how did I change things…
Nice, and you have certainly skipped ahead a fair way.
I'm keeping tweaks to a minimum to lessen the work I need to do.
Players are more about combat than story anyway (had to remind them that their goal was actually to get the sardonyx shard rather than defeating Arlantia).
Will be interesting to see what they do with the sandbox of the Vault instead of the more linear paths that have been traveled in the last book and a half.
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the sandbox of the Vault.
We just played the first session in the vault.
They were escorted to Stonehome and were getting some info there and Shaakhib showed up and his iron golem was utterly destroyed before it could act (along with a third of Shaakhibs HP). So Shaakhib just fled out of there without even getting to act.The party was able to fairly easily navigate the their way to Ziguch's room. They made a temporary ally of Oktar. I played him as if he was missing a bunch of memories but had vaugue notions of what happened before the vat. But he wanted to be sure the evil of the immortal ichor is destroyed. So our session ended with them just about to face off against Ziguch, and perhaps play in the sandbox in that room (was this the sandbox your quote referenced? haha)
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... and perhaps play in the sandbox in that room (was this the sandbox your quote referenced? haha)
LOL - had forgotten there was a literal sandbox there. Sandbox in a linear dungeon in a sandbox!
As my group ascends the Onyx Citadel, and especially after they had spent over half a day murderating everything through 2 floors, I just didn't feel that the book really gave me the thought that this place was on high alert.
I think considering everything that the PCs did back on Golarion, wiping out so many army portions of the Ironfangs, that the leadership would really be on edge. That's why I liked the Captain's council that seemed a bit open to removing Azaersi from control. But my group would no longer side with any of them, considering what war had done to their families and their cities.
But...you can't go through the Citadel in one day. The one room is built in there to give you a place to rest. So...after killing all the trolls and Grimhorn and gallowed dead and ruby gargoyles and the Captain's room assembly, what would the Citadel do?!!
That's my thinking, and that's why I used an idea from the back of the book to bring in the inevitable maruts.
And that's why this week, when the group went up to the third level by the siege engines, there was a Siege Alchemist Troop there-who knew they were coming!!
Nothing like 20d6 coming from those firedrakes at the group!
A pretty decent combat, as the Troop was ready for them (caught the dwarf rogue sneaking; one of the alchemist had to be on lookout for the stairs; there was invaders just yesterday, dontcha know?!)
As the group advanced past that, the door with the Alarm spell wasn't cancelled, and that set up the next fight in the dueling academy in H29.
NOPE.
A bunch of hobs practicing Karate Kid stuff here is NOT what I figure is going on, especially a day after invaders killed half those stationed here!
Nope, here is gathered the most fervent of Azaersi supporters; ready to defend her to the death for her goal of taking the Citadel to Golarion!
I didn't get to use Noxil, so a quick changing of labels, and now there's a Anti Paladin Hob in this room. But he's not leading the way, oh no. I went o d20pfsrd, and villains codex and such, and I got a Brutal Warlord, high level Fire Cleric, a Slayer versus humans and dwarves, and another dozen mook hob fighters to be ready and waiting in this room!
Which is good (remember I got 7 PCs), as they decided to summon 3 Triceratops...and include them in a casting of Particulate Form. NERTZ!!
But it's good and fun, but oh the prep and readiness I've had to do!
I have also decided in my prep here, that there won't be the adamantine golem. This big battle ought to drain enough resources before eventually facing Azlowe and his cultist group. The PCs haven't even found the witcheaters and the dwarf kinetic knights at their forges either! Gonna depend if they end up finding the most direct route to Azaersi or not! Also, I've doubling the amount of Obsidian golems there, and they all appear in the first round.
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party bumped to level 16 (as part of my plan to have them finish at level 20 instead of 18).
Easily disabled the malevolent earth trap (rogue has +37 Disable Device, and that is when not wearing the ring of maniacal devices).
Mandragloires got poison on the fighter and trickster as the rogue went aloft to see how big the cavern is (she has See in Darkness), but trickster made the save and fighter only took -1 Con (so no real effect).
As the mandragloires spammed unholy blight (blasphemy has no effect due to their low CL), the trickster and wizard bombed the area with fireballs and the summoner blasted it with lightning.
I had bumped up the number of mandragloires to 4 but it was no real contest, and as they tried to dash to other mushrooms the rogue and fighter picked them off.
However now the rest of the Deeper Depths knows that the party is there. The blighted handmaiden, Orellie, and a hobgoblin all saw the display of flashes of fire and lightning. The party all has darkvision now and isn't using a light source, so nothing else was visible, but the rogue saw all the onlookers from her position near the cavern ceiling.
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well, the hobgoblins tried to parley but to no avail.
Wizard gave the rogue the cat's eye gem from the Cat's Eye Crown and could therefore see the entire length of the deeper reaches and dimension door the party to the western end.
Afet called out to parley after being charged by the eidolon, and the trickster stepped up to negotiate - with a fireball.
Three successful dominate effects were overcome by the fighter using a cap of the free thinker, and emancipation hammer (both items I had subbed in as more appropriate for the bodies of previous palace intruders).
Third attempt took for a round with the fighter almost halving the eidolon's hitpoints but soon ended by the trickster casting protection from evil on the fighter.
The mold was discovered, but the hate for the Ironfang runs very strong in my group (and the little possibility of the canonical end of this AP seems even less likely now).
Their ability to get past the deeper reaches might be made a fair bit more difficult if they continue to kill first and wonder later.
So, my group has somehow gained laser focus to go right to Azaersi's room deep within the Citadel. Explored the naga's room, got some more lore and updated knowledge of what is going on, went to the next room, found the secret door (only by 1!!), and just went right downstairs. Didn't check the stairs going up the tower, didn't hexcrawl around this floor to maybe go find Azlowe and cultists, or descend the other stairs to find the tarnished smiths; nope, beeline to the boss!
Well, I had a player down this night due to storms knocking out power....so the adamantine golem was back on the table!! Maybe not suprisingly, 6 PCs of 15th level, who have spent a lot of resources against the prior fight, and with a druid willing to spend 2 7th level spells to really weaken the golem, the fight only hit the top of the 4th round before it was destroyed. Oh, when it hit, it hit BIG, but with particulate form again, my huge open crit range was for naught. And so were the 3 crit chances I rolled!! OH well.
The group headed down, heard Azaersi through the door, and when the next week rolled around-ENTERED THE BOSS ZONE!
So, for this group size, I scaled up some more. After the opening cut scene monologue, 6 obsidian golems step out from the walls. Zanuthura is here, Azaersi, and I brought the uber monk down here, and made her into Azaersi's oldest and truest friend-the one person who trained alongside her from the very beginning, and her biggest supporter. Besties! And she's a sensei, and her ki uses for battlefield improvement make this into a wicked fight.
If you've seen the map, it's like 135ft across. the PCs start up on the balcony. Yes, their NPC fighter rogue dwarf goes before most and asks 'left or right?!' and one PC goes right. So, the acrobatic, enlarged dwarf saves some movement (although he is hasted) by moving down the stairs and vaults the side, where he should be able to move into position and help the PC fighter.
The shield champion? He goes LEFT down the stairs, in the worst kind of pincer move, considering the space and enemies between them!!!
But that was all after Zanuthura blasted a chain lightning at everyone to start it.
Azaersi and Monkfriend activate abilities and take a potion to help buff/boost some more.
PC Druid takes to the left to follow and aide the Sheild Champion.
On the balcony, the oracle, rogue, and arcanist stay up to do their stuff. Arcanist gives Greater invisibility to the rogue, rogue shoots at Zanuthura, and that sneak damage is AWFUL to the naga!! Oracle casts a spell for some damage and spell turning.
Next round, Zanuthura puts a Grasping hand on the dwarf to try and keep him pinned from combat. Fighter, Shield Champion, and NPC dwarf begin battling the obisidian golems...who, oh yeah, had done shard blast the round before, so now everyone is just about fighting bleed.
The golems and Azaersi press forward with the Monk. The NPC dwarf? Killed by azaersi.
The druid throws up a stone wall to limit the golems coming at him and the shield champion, so they can try and tear through the 1 golem by them. The other 2 fight the wall to get to them.
The monk with some great speed and climb, makes it up onto the balcony by the 3 possible weakest characters!
The fight continues, the rogue keeps getting released by the arcanist to shoot the levitating naga, who keeps trying to pin and keep the only ranged character out of the fight.
the monk comes ranging in to fight the ranged rogue and arcanist. Forces a dimension door down to the battlefield corner. The stone oracle moves through the flooring to get to, and raise, the NPC dwarf.
The druid and shield champion have been stone walled by their own actions, and spend way too much time fighting 2 golems, while the PC fighter ends up getting skewered by a golem, and again, Azaersi moving over to run him through! A breath of life from the arcanist (who is playing a white mage role), saves his life.
Eventually, Zanuthura says 'enough of this!' after again being hurt so bad she flees combat.
The arcanist managed to save by 1 from a quivering palm strike from the monk!! Everyone is back down on the floor, and melee is thick and awful! No one is flanked for any precision damage, the arcanist is about to get hit by Azaersi, and the golems are ready for more shard explosions, and everyone keeps bleeding!
AND
we had to take a 2 week break due to a vacation, so part 2 is this Sunday night!!!!
Next round,
Nice to see folks still running this campaign. I am 36 sessions in and the group just reached Fort Nunder last night. Had a nice discussion afterwards with a couple of the players and they are still enjoying the campaign which is great. Couple of quick notes, we are using the Militia system and that is slowly increasing as they haven't picked up a lot of allies yet. I have a very large group and even with upgrading the monsters they pretty much walked through Fort Ristin. Be that as it may, they still had a great time with it.
With using the Militia rules, they had an event last night at Misthome. The main party was almost all the way to Fort Nunder and the event that came up was Invasion. It dovetailed nicely into the whole Longfrond and the owlbears incident which I was planning anyway. The group got to play as some of the NPC's repelling the attack, and made them realize they needed to invest in the NPC's a bit more. They are taking a modified from of Leadership, so working that in. They also enjoyed playing as the NPC's and they want to periodically follow them as short one-offs when the Teams start venturing out. So I am working on incorporating that into the game.
The question is, I have now sent all of the owlbears from Longfrond up against Misthome. The PC's started to follow tracks back after 2nd encounter with them but got side tracked on another quest that led them to Fort Ristin. this is now the third encounter with the owlbears, which the book says there are a total of 8 that Longfrond sends against Misthome. So my question is, and I'm looking for suggestions, should I continue to have Longfrond send attacks against Misthome and if so what should I use as the creatures to send against them until they follow up on the plot point?
Thanks and look forward to input.
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Party found Orellie and tried to convince her to become unblighted while she tried to encourage them to embrace the blight. Upshot was a nice afternoon tea (purify food cast of course) and swapping a ring protection +3 for the Dryad's Song ring and information that the way to Arlantia lay within the larger cavern. A negotiated encounter! Wonders will never cease.
Of course, with the now completed Dryad's Song they unblighted the handmaiden and inadvertently opened the way to Arhlantu.
I bumped the number of omoxes to four and while they got caught in a reverse gravity and spammed with holy smite, they quickly teleported out and we are still in the middle of combat while the newly unblighted handmaiden bewails her loss and is seeing refuge in the blighted trees and mushrooms.
The question is, I have now sent all of the owlbears from Longfrond up against Misthome. The PC's started to follow tracks back after 2nd encounter with them but got side tracked on another quest that led them to Fort Ristin. this is now the third encounter with the owlbears, which the book says there are a total of 8 that Longfrond sends against Misthome. So my question is, and I'm looking for suggestions, should I continue to have Longfrond send attacks against Misthome and if so what should I use as the creatures to send against them until they follow up on the plot point?
I went really outside the book with all the encounters given. This part would be just a random encounter to me, but it sounds like you are really leaning into it.
You could have some animated trees REALLY wandering far and wide to attack the encrouching PC Band of refugees, and maybe hurt some npcs that are out foraging-or even hurt someone who doesn't return (wouldn't kill the npc, because yah, I doubt then your group would try diplomacy with Longfrond). Then, the PCs respond, track down the lost refugee(s), find out about walking trees, then end up scouting to find Longfrond.
I wouldn't do another owlbear encounter. The poorest rating I would give this whole AP is that you are just fighting the same militia like hobgoblins nearly the entire time. Multiple fights of the same thing again and again are boring to run and play, I think.
Just wait til book 3...I LOVED that book.
Next round,
I...I was pretty sure I was going to TPK this group. I really didn't jack Azaersi up from the book stats at all. Little did I know that with the Sensei monk there giving some battlefield boosts, Azaersi having that reach/lunge/threaten 10ft ability, and haste,....I WRECKED my party.
The main fighter got dropped TWICE more to death. The arcanist spent her life to bring him back the second time, before she was killed (okay dropped REALLY far negative). The oracle etherel stepped over to the downed arcanist while...
the sensei monk, alongside the golems, were wrecking the oracle who just left, the NPC dwarf fighter/rogue, shapechanged druid in sandform (saved.his.LIFE. with that spell!), and the shield champion brawler.
However...a failed save by the monk, and down she went by knockout! The dwarf npc, asking for permission, coup de drace on her. Did I mention fighter/rogue? And his crit? ROLL20 ROLLED CRIT MAX DAMAGE! He dropped over 145 dmg on her!
This enraged Azaersi so at the other battle; she left the playing dead fighter and the not playing dead arcanist (who then got a heal from the oracle next round), to go deliver a 19th level swashbuckler killing blow to the dwarf npc. All he has to do is make a Fort save...26 in my campaign build...and roll209 giveth, and taketh.
Natural 1. Dwarf NPC has just been slain for killing Azaersi's best friend.
Things have not turned the PCs way yet. The shield champion is going after Azaersi, but she's using her reach, getting attacks of opportunity on those closing in on her, using her parry and riposte, and I'm critting like a fool. Precise strike drivng up that ridic precision damage, it's crazy!
Obsidian golems gets their shard spray back, and start tossing at the rogue (he dodges all! Dammit!), and the arcanist and oracle get this too! Rounds of healing, and fighting the golems.
Slowly, the golems begin to weaken, fall, break, shatter, and drive some heroes back to the ground. The shield champion gets killed in this, but a breath of life for him from the arcanist brings him back.
The twice slain fighter gets back onto his feat, gets going to Azaersi, they have dual attacks, hitting each other; thrice slain he is now!
She's hurting, being defended by a line of 3 obsidian golems at this point. Yup, I'm gonna tpk I think!
But she's been hurt a lot at this point. Used a potion even! Used an effect to stave off death! Rogue has hit her with ranged, got some bleed now too-and then
-from ranged the shield champion hurls his mighty shield!
-and Crits.
and confirms.
She hits -1 from the damage.
The fight is over. The PCs are all back on their feet, barely alive at all. The NPC who has traveled with them since they were 7th level is dead.
and now it's been 2 weeks, and then another 1 more until we play again.
... what should I use as the creatures to send against them until they follow up on the plot point?
Thanks and look forward to input.
Remember that Longfrond is attacking the refugees and Misthome due to lumping them in with the Ironfang Legion.
Having some Ironfang bodies and maybe a favourite refugee or two strung up in some tress on a well-defined forest path might prompt the PCs to not side-trek.The main theme running through books 3-6 is to find other allies that can help fight the Ironfang, and hopefully discovering allies in unexpected places and differing motivations within the Ironfang. Ultimately the story is about having your own home and what happens when that is threatened.
I'd look at more than just a steady stream of enemies to fight.
They made it through the 3 Nexus. Bargained with the Dragon, Fought the Xorn when they scoffed at their paltry offering, and barely defeated the Zarxorin.
Players pretty much un-interested with getting any answers from the sandbox, so they don't even know about the Transposition. Dropped clues about the "snaky-lass" being the one who aligned the Nexus, but players didn't care. I guess they probably forgot that they supposedly killed Zanathura back in the morlock caves.
Next session they'll have one last chance for information from the sandbox then the assault on the citadel will begin.
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They made it through the 3 Nexus. Bargained with the Dragon, Fought the Xorn when they scoffed at their paltry offering, and barely defeated the Zarxorin.
Players pretty much un-interested with getting any answers from the sandbox, so they don't even know about the Transposition. Dropped clues about the "snaky-lass" being the one who aligned the Nexus, but players didn't care. I guess they probably forgot that they supposedly killed Zanathura back in the morlock caves.
Next session they'll have one last chance for information from the sandbox then the assault on the citadel will begin.
If your players are anything like mine, you'll spend the first 5 minutes or so of every session spelling out exactly why they are here and what are the immediate and long-term goals, along with important allies and enemy characters involved in the narrative.
We play once a week ideally, but will often miss a few weeks at a time (life happens). We also drink and goof off a fair mount most sessions. Unless your players are among the most hardcore pathfinder lore nerds or diligent note-takers, then remembering all the twists and turns of the story is going to be near impossible. Even the best groups sometimes need help putting 2+2 together. My players are very much the type that want to run to the next room to roll dice and smash stuff. I usually try to do this in my "Previously on..." style recaps.
Part of it is definitely the stage of the AP we are in (Book 5), what I'd say is most disconnected "diversion" from the main quest so far. I have to remind them every time we start, "okay, so you guys are in the Pestilent Palace to recover the Sardonyx shard. You need that to realign the Stone Road towers and get to Azaersi's seat of power at the 'hub'. Your buddy Karburtin's divinations revealed it had apparently disappeared into the Darkblight, where divinations and planar magic won't work. "
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Yeah I do all that, I have recaps of every single session on a shared google drive. I always encourage them to please ask questions if you are unsure about any plot stuff at the start of each session, but it's mostly crickets. I suppose they are having fun so that's what matters, but I wish they engaged with the plot a little bit more.
and haha, I gave the sardonyx speech so many times during book-5.
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Preach.
I think my best friend started it out as a joke, but I can't even tell anymore when he chimes in with 'I don't know what we're doing here.' 'Why are we here again?' "and we want to fight this tower because...why?'
He's a college professor, with 6 children, 1 who is very needs dependent. I just ask that you...give a little respect, or silence, if you are just going to be annoying about the adventure.
That's why I cut book 5. That was too side tracked for me and my players.
We play weekly. For...109 sessions now. And I still have to remind them of plot.
I got on another guy a different time; if he's tired, he hangs out quietly on discord audio-and kinda phase out. He'll apologize the next day he realy wasn't with it; well I DON'T get to not be with it. Give me some energy back; you only have yourself to worry about, I'm running for 6 PCs and then doing the adventure; quit making me drag you into the game.
wooooooo! GM rant, out and done! LOL
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My players raided Fort Phaendar (Sections A and B in Vault of the Onyx Citadel) right after Assault on Longshadow in order to free their former neighbors from captivity. I let them find Zanathura’s letter in B4. Records Storage. Four of the seven players are zealous players of Elder Scrolls Online, so once I described the Transposition as a Planemeld they knew what was going on and wanted to stop it. The main quest of ESO is stopping the Planemeld. They view Zanathura as a bigger threat than Azaersi.
Some of my players need a reminder of the previous week's game session and other players track every detail. Currently in Prisoners of the Blight they want to rescue Wendel's sister Meril, assemble the pieces of the Dryad's Song and restore it to original form, free Gendowyn, and acquire the Sardonyx Shard. Immediately on their mind is that when they saw the jubjub bird guarding Section F, Arlantia's Glen, the gnome rogue asked, "Can I tame it as an animal companion?" They leveled up that session due to the experience points from stealing the first piece of Dryad's Song from Naphexi (they deceived her rather than fighting her as a favor to their ally Izbariak), so I told the player that her rogue can take an archetype that gains a young animal companion and gain the jubjub bird as an animal companion instead. We play a mixture of serious and silly.
I do a write-up after every session and we have been going fortnightly since beginning of 2019 - so heading towards 200 sessions.
I did ask questions on whether they remembered why they were in the Pestilent Palace a few sessions back and they eventually remembered that they were after the Sardonyx Shard rather than rescuing Gendowyn. I'll reset things again when they start book 6 (which should be very soon now). They are normally hit first and forget to ask questions, so was rather pleasing to see them negotiate with Orellie and leave her alive.
I let them find Zanathura’s letter in B4. Records Storage.
Haha, I forgot about this, my players did grab all the notes and records before they went through to the Onyx Vault (which was the climax of session 70). But they didn't have a chance to read them at the time. Now after session-73 they have yet to inquire about what any of those notes contained.
I mentioned in my recap that they still need to look them over, but so far no one has asked about them. I could remind them, but sometimes it gets annoying to remind them of everything, it feels like I am playing the game for them.| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
acid fog didn't slow things down much but the handmaiden managed to escape through a blighted tree (but won't get blighted again for a day). All omoxes dealt with and the party headed straight for Arhlantu.
Of course Arlantia knew they were coming and from her spying on the party was well prepared. Had swapped out a number of the spells (thanks Grumpus for the idea) and bumping her cleric level up to 17 (party are 16th).
A sunburst from the wizard unexpectedly destroyed the mindslaver mold but Arlantia charmed Taurgreth and he has used dust of disappearance to defeat the party's see invisible and true seeing.
Particulate Form removes the threat of critical hits and sneak attack, and fickle winds stopped the rogue's arrow attacks. Arlantia's high spell resistance has also stopped several spells.
I might get to enact Groger's gift ;-)
Fight tbc next session.
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finished book 5
Arlantia got a blade barrier off that extended far enough to also block the chamber entrance.
Arlantia failed to make them worship her with overwhelming presence, and after taking some cone of cold damage from the wizard dropped a greater dispel magic on him. She doubleteamed with Taurgreth to kill the fighter (who regenerated into a gillman thanks to Groger).
Rogue used wand of stinking cloud to make one appear inside of Arlantia's fickle winds barrier, the concealment meant she avoided a couple of blows from the eidolon and reincarnated fighter and could cast heal and dismiss particulate form to get her almost back up to full hp (I bumped her to 299), but the rogue fired from directly above (so bypassing the fickle winds barrier) with a seeking bow and started racking up the sneak attack damage.
Arlantia dismissed the fickle winds allowing the stinking cloud to engulf the party members while she went to find the rogue.
Trickster cast haste and overland flight on fighter so he and eidolon could fly up to attack Arlantia after she had dropped a flamestrike on the eidolon and summoner (and catching Taurgreth as well).
Rogue finally dropped Arlantia with more than 100hp damage (after DR) in one round and the wizard realized he could use his bat familiar to search for Taurgreth, finding him just before the dust of disappearance wore off.
Taurgreth tried a final escape but failed his save when diving through the blade barrier and I rolled really high on the damage - enough to drop him, with the Trickster finishing him off with a lightning bolt.
Party will be starting book 6 at level 17 and I plan to have them L20 for the final assault on the Onyx Citidal.
Well friends, I believe that yes, I've finished my time with Ironfang Invasion.
My group recovers from the fight, going back upstairs to find the one hidden room that is recommended to stay in to rest.
HOWEVER, they never searched or fought Azlowe and his cultists. With the Citadel becoming repaired in the basement (I was having the group see flashes of the homelands, as the Citadel was getting ready to transport over and wreck stuff), I had the Citadel discharge all the energy in the Mana battery since it was fixed.
This led to Azlowe searching them out. The PCs were found, and with some teleports, Wall of force, and forcing Azlowe to go back for his cultists with his dimension door, my group bamfed into the hidden room, and rested.
Now, I cheated a bit. I had Azlowe and his cultists girlfriends do a ritual to summon in a Purradaemon. Because my group rested, and because of the order of the searching the Citadel, I always made the next day encounter harder, because, well, people see danger and prepare more~!
(I also made up more powers to a Prime Shard. That you had to attune to it after 8 hours of study, and if no controller, then the Citadel locks up tight, hence why Azlowe couldn't go out and get the Ironfang out there to take the Citadel back over and fill it with another 4 Legions).
So, the group went searching for Azlowe...and like dummies...they knew Azlowe and his girlfriends were in the chamber...and just charged in. No pre-buffs, no plans, nothing; 'we go this!'
I killed 2 more PCs who needed Breath of Life to survive. they really played this stupid, and almost lost another PC permanently.
But, they won out.
They eventually met an envoy and acting First Captain character I made from the IF Legion sitting outside the door. They parlayed, and discussed options.
One lead PC offered them the ability to stay here and live, but the Citadel would stay under PC control. Other PCs, in a sidebar, asked about reparations for Phaendar, or LongShadow, where another PC was from. On what authority do we speak for? 'We'll solve that when we get there.'
So the IF Legion began moving off Citadel Island, but not before the envoy meeting, where it was said 'you and what army? I recognize known of you have heraldry of any of these cities. No other guards manned these walls or gates. You may possess the magic of the Citadel; but can you hold? May haps we will come back for the Citadel, but not this day" and they seperated.
So, I go to continue on with my gestalt campaing of IF and Giantslayer. There is certainly a lot of talking to come, about checking to see what has happened on the home plane in the almost 4 weeks spend in the Vault!! One dwarf, and another PC or two, wants to turn the Citadel over to Kraggodan again. The Longshadow man wants his home included. The Phaendar people have been hurt so much by the Towers and IF, what will they think? What if the Chernasardo Rangers bump into this?
We shall see!
But I will be done with the AP. I intend to continue to follow all your exploits and read how your campaigns go, because I've enjoyed this thread immensely, and to see this AP still played and shared; that's great!
So, keeping playing guys! I'll always be reading.
I went really outside the book with all the encounters given. This part would be just a random encounter to me, but it sounds like you are really leaning into it.
You could have some animated trees REALLY wandering far and wide to attack the encrouching PC Band of refugees, and maybe hurt some npcs that are out foraging-or even hurt someone who doesn't return (wouldn't kill the npc, because yah, I doubt then your group would try diplomacy with Longfrond). Then, the PCs respond, track down the lost refugee(s), find out about walking trees, then end up scouting to find Longfrond.
I wouldn't do another owlbear encounter. The poorest rating I would give this whole AP is that you are just fighting the same militia like hobgoblins nearly the entire time. Multiple fights of the same thing again and again are boring to run and play, I think.
Just wait til book 3...I LOVED that book.
Thanks Erpa for the input. I actually do have a couple of players that are leaning pretty hard into the whole diplomacy thing, so I expect that they will work on negotiating with Longfrond. Just want to keep it fresh in their minds. The last attack occurred when the PC's were away from camp and was both planned and also coincidentally tied to a Militia Event - Assault I think it was. NPC's took some heavy damage. Players actually enjoyed running the NPC Military Militia team to see how the "other half" lives. The suggestions you gave are good ones and I will spend some more time thinking about your ideas.
In the interim, they used Diplomacy in a big way for Fort Ristin and came out of that relatively unscathed. Fort Nunder proved to be a bit more of a challenge, where the trolls pushed the players to the limits of their health and pushed two to within a couple of hit points of dying and death. They just found Fort Trevelay during last night's session and realized that assaulting it in their current condition after the fight at Nunder was a bit of a suicide mission until they more fully recovered. I've tweaked the rules a bit and healing and recovery take longer, so they just started scouting. In the interim I have two weeks to more fully flesh out preparations for their assault on the Fort as we are taking a break for Thanksgiving holiday here.
I've also begun prepping Book 3 and am looking forward to it. And general feedback on the campaign from the players is that they are really enjoying it, both story line and the modifications I have made for the game as a whole.
Thanks again.
... what should I use as the creatures to send against them until they follow up on the plot point?
Thanks and look forward to input.
Remember that Longfrond is attacking the refugees and Misthome due to lumping them in with the Ironfang Legion.
Having some Ironfang bodies and maybe a favourite refugee or two strung up in some tress on a well-defined forest path might prompt the PCs to not side-trek.
The main theme running through books 3-6 is to find other allies that can help fight the Ironfang, and hopefully discovering allies in unexpected places and differing motivations within the Ironfang. Ultimately the story is about having your own home and what happens when that is threatened.
I'd look at more than just a steady stream of enemies to fight.
They have been making allies and are serious about defending Mist Home and are starting to see the different motivations of the Ironfang. I like the strung up bodies idea. The last attack was against the NPC's as I mentioned to Erpa's notes, and nearly went south for the NPC's. So it may be enough for them upon their return to Mist Home as the PC's are out raiding the forts. Thanks for the input as well. It is appreciated.
After asking my players 'are you sure there's nothing else you want to ask the sandbox' about 5 times, one of the players finally brought up the tremors and earthquakes, so at least now they know the stakes of the adventure.
To begin their assault they teleported to H7, hoping to make the control panel inoperable, so they took the rods. They beatdown the gallowdead quickly, and when they were ambushed by Grimhorn and the shadows, a casting of fickle winds pretty much ended that threat.
They moved down to H4 and fought the munitions dudes. I had already adjusted their statblock when they faced them back in Phaendar to include force bombs and dispelling bombs. So these guys at least were able to dispel some of the wind effects and other buffs. But I am sure the oracle can just re-cast it.
Anyhow they made a decent start to their assault and haven't raised any other alarms yet.
I always GM with the threat of the rolling encounters if you do much big booms or don't take care of business quick enough.
The Citadel exploration was really fun.
Well friends, I believe that yes, I've finished my time with Ironfang Invasion....
Congrats.
Nothing worth reporting happened in my last session (PC level discussions and crafting calculations plus reading Weslen's letter).If there are any major debriefing callouts - things you would change if running again or advice for others running it - then please let us (and future GMs) know.
We've played a couple times since my last report. They are about 25 minutes into their assault on the citadel. They have cleared out the east towers and the majority of level-2. After they killed the 3 gargoyles in h11 I gave them a few rounds and had the 4 gargoyles from h26, the 4 npcs in h10, AND the 2 trolls from just below all attack at once(the larger troll scaling the side of building), as they all were in earshot of the first battle. The pcs didn't even break a sweat facing 3 encounters at once.
They next went down the trapdoor and came to the alchemy lab, and I wanted to play Oktar as not agressive since they once were allies back in Stonehome. But the pcs basically just rapid-shotted them and killed them before they could escape out the other side of the room. I don't think a couple of them even got to act. And also I had the 3 smiths(which I just made into evil duergar) and witcheater from the far north begin to attack, and eventually the shadows from up the slope will join in but we quit mid-combat.
I think they can do the whole thing without resting at this point. I am adding the Warmonger to the top floor by the 4 alchemists, so that could be tough.
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Not much to report in the last few sessions.
PCs easily made the DCs to influence the war council members.
Obsik dimension doored away during Gossamer's blow up but was chased with a Discern Location after quickly discovering the programmed illusion.
Euphoric Tranquility was used to question him but didn't get much info, so after finding out he was persona non grata at Kraggodan he was handed over to Gossamer for Accressial Court justice.
Wizard and summoner tried out some big bang long range spells from Kraggodan on the Ironfang troops on the plains below the mountain while the other groups that are attacking the other onyx towers moved in to position.
Expecting the incursion on Fort Phaendar to start next session.
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had a couple of sessions.
Party sent the rogue in to scout the fort - she has +45 stealth, so even without being invisible is next to impossible to spot - and carried the gem from the wizard's cat's eye crown.
She thought the intelligence office was empty so the rest of the party teleported in (using clairvoyance via the gem to get the location right).
Rawheads had been hiding in the shadows so a quick battle happened. I asked the fighter's player what he was most afraid of and he blurted out "myself, naked", so that's what he saw 2 of heading his way. Lots of jokes about how the temperature must be cold, but he made both saves so no lasting scars.
Party found the extra intelligence and used the ring gate to get it back to Longshadow, then wizard summoned some dinosaurs to attack the river gate as a distraction.
Guards and giant made fairly light work of the dinos, but it did attract the troop there.
Party tried to sneak across to the Onyx Tower while the battle was going on and all did well on sneak except for the summoner.
Maltagra spotted her and dropped a fireball on her.
Faerie dragon fired a fireball (from wand) back at the "raven" but it was unaffected.
Trickster dimension doored herself and the fighter past the tower portcullis to take out the Ironfang Shadows. Rogue bowshot to death one of the guards by the slave pen (using 4 of the +3 goblinoid bane arrows) while her faerie dragon familiar used a wand of stinking cloud to catch Ettoran and the other guard.
Wizard summoned some movanic devas to attack the river gate guards again and dropped an empowered fireball - which wiped out the troop and knocked out the giant (who had taken some damage from the dinos). Angel finished it off.
Summoner eventually made it to the tower and wizard dimension doored rogue, summoner, and herself into the main chamber just after the trickster had opened the doors.
That activated the golems. Maltagra landed on the other side of the still shut tower porticulis and called out that the tower had been breached.
Sickly green glow appears within the tower walls and battle with the golems is about to start.
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Golems went down quicker than expected and Maltagra had summoned a couple of barbed devils to join the fight but both of the devils SLAs were interrupted by attacks of opportunity (invisible PC and one with reach).
Forgot to do the golem swift action attack as well but enough damage was dealt around to require a heal on the fighter and several mass cure serious wounds.
Wizard dimension doored fighter outside to fight Maltagra, but she hit the fighter with her chain and stunned him. Didn't last as another heal got him back in the fight, otherwise he could have gone down.
Off camera had the battle at the gate between summoned devas and guards continue, plus faerie dragon released slaves from pen and they piled on Ettoran.
Wizard saw one of the honour guards dimension step to hit one of the devas with quivering palm before the wizard cast icy prison on the guard and the fighter shot it to pieces after Maltagra had been killed.
Next step is up to the tower's second level (they realise they are on the clock and haven't checked the other rooms on bottom level).
Rogue spotted the disintegrate trap and the summoner sent a summoned angel in to trigger it (made the save so didn't die).
Will love to hear about your Scabvistin fight!!
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My players have been steamrolling the Onyx Citadel.
I combined H28 and H29 and threw in the Warmonger too and they easily won. They then went to H34 and stomped the golem there. For some reason they didn't continue down, and went back up and easily whooped Azlowe and company. Then went to H32 and easily discharged the trap, a ring of evasion and a measly dc-16 reflex save did no damage.
Z and 3 honor guards d-doored in, and they got demolished, Zanathura failed against an Agony Hex and was nauseated, I had given her the earth-glide as a bonus, so she was able to escape while doing absolutely nothing, but luckily took no damage in her 1 round of action.
So now they are at the doorway to the final fight, which we will play out next time for our final session #80. They have done it all without resting. I am going to just have all 4 obsidian golems already active and Shakkhib will be there too along with Zanathura and Azaersi. I doubt it will be challenging. Maybe I'll throw in a couple ruby-wings.
My players have been steamrolling the Onyx Citadel.
...
I doubt it will be challenging. Maybe I'll throw in a couple ruby-wings.
Mine streamroll a lot as well. The Arlantia fight was tougher because she had seen their tactics and could prepare for them. I'm going to amp that up for Azaersi. She has had ample time to prepare and unless my players come up with new tricks the final fight could be a slog (unless they go down the diplomatic route - which I very highly doubt).
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4 level 18 PCs, eidolon, L18 NPC rogue, and 2 summoned angels were always going to be more than a match for Scabvistin and his honour guard, but the honour guard managed to stun the eidolon and with Scanbvistin did enough damage to get the summoner to dismiss the eidolon before it died.
I gave Scabvistin Improved and Greater feint and added longarm to his duelist vambraces.
Feinting on the fighter enabled sneak attack damage for all of the bugbear's attacks (though some were mitigated by the fighter's light fortification armour).
The summoner (invisible) started to summon again but Scabvistin heard her and told the Honour Guard to 'get the spellcaster' so it used abundant step and quivering palm (beat the total concealment and made the hit). Summoner failed the save, but still had Groger's 'gift'.
Gave the summoner's player the choice of going with a random roll for race or one I had chosen. She trusted me enough to go with my call so I privately showed her.
Trickster tried Breath of Life but Summoner made the save to resist it and reincarnated as catfolk.
Wizard tried baleful polymorph on Scabvistin and bounced to the honour guard but both made their saves.
Rogue managed to kill the honour guard, and after Scabvistin was blinded (courtesy of Holy Aura from one of the angels) the fighter managed to kill him (but not before he had almost been knocked down himself (trickster got a heal on him to keep him up)).
PCs now have control of Fort Phaendar.
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We played the final session a couple days ago.
The party was victorious and let's just say the country of Oprak isn't going to exist in this version of Golarion.
Things I changed:
1. Azaersi and Zanathura both were pre-buffed with min/lvl spells. It was no surprise the party was coming.
2. For Zanathura I swapped out Elemental Aura for Fly and had it cast on both Azaersi and Z.
3. I gave Zanathura Quicken Metamagic feat. This allowed her to get Displacement cast and some other goodies like Vampiric Touch (which crit for 18d6!) Acid Arrow etc.
4. I removed the limitation on Immediate Actions for Azaersi. So that she had 1 swift and 1 immediate available each round. Too many Swashbuckler abilities rely on swift/immediate.
5. Shaakhib was there
6. Started with 2 Obsidian Golems on round 1, and then the 3rd on round 2 and the 4th on round 3.
Overall, Azaersi was dropped to 14 HP in 1 round, I was able to get displacement on her and Shaakhib cast a wall of stone to cut her off from the party for a minute. She was able to Cheat Death twice, but eventually died, and never got a crit. It kind of feels like if you get lucky with a crit/death attack the fight can swing pretty far.
Zanathura lasted longer. She got a crushing hand on the Archer Ranger. And on the opening round our Witch got his Destruction spell turned back on him with Spell Turning and he dropped to -4 hp.
Overall a lack of any healing really makes the encounter kind of easy. If I did it again I would maybe swap out one of the Golems for a Witcheater Cultist to cast Heal.
In the end I was happy with the campaign and glad the party won (as the last AP I GM-ed ended in a book-6 TPK (Iron gods))
We played the final session a couple days ago.
The party was victorious and let's just say the country of Oprak isn't going to exist in this version of Golarion.
Things I changed:...
thanks for the tips.
Was thinking the same though worried that adding a heal or 2 for A is just going to extend the final slight into a slog (hit, hit, heal, rinse, repeat).
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bump to L19.
Stone Road to the Vault has been taken and pech encountered. The fighter offered booze as a welcome.
Since we were playing on St Patrick's Day, pech now talk with an Irish accent.
Picnic in front of Stonehome was interrupted with the arrival of Shaakhib. Party managed to make themselves hidden before the shaitan gave his ultimatum. Scrying sensor was detected and pech refused the ultimatum.
We stopped at the initiative roll.
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Reverse Gravity by the wizard on Shaakhib and the golem. I had the genie sink his foot into the earth to stay grounded and the golem punched the ground and held on before they both managed to move themselves out of the area of effect.
Attacks on Shaakhib revealed the Shield Other effect.
Wizard caught Shaakhib in an Icy Prison and the fighter pushed it back into the reverse gravity area but Shaakhib Plane Shifted away.
[There was a bit of table discussion about whether or not the icy prison would go as well. In the end we had it shift with the genie though I originally had it stay, and after doing a bit more research probably would have it stay behind.]
Golem got a breath of gas on the eidolon but didn't really stand a chance.
Archive next and the sandmen. Everyone passed the sleep effect (multiple times) so didn't take too long for them to get whacked as well.
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Couple of sessions since last update
Encounter with Oktar went predictably with the eidolon rushing in and saying "surrender or die" then proceeding to attack without waiting for a reply. This was while half the party (including fighter and wizard) were still in the southern exhibition room. He only got a to down an extract of greater invisibility and say that they were fighting without honour and that they might be better to work against a common enemy first before he was cut down.
Trickster decided to disintegrate the front of the vat holding the invisible goblin and coup de grace it as the rest moved on.
Amazingly there was compliance with the clockwork angel's demands and the group successfully moved past it and the sandmen before meeting Ziguch.
Everyone saved vs the mind fog (in fact there wasn't a single failed save on either side in the first couple of rounds).
The party noticed the immortal ichor in round 2 and the wizard shapechanged into a gorgon and breathed on it - first failed save - petrified ichor.
The ichor failed its second save to get out of it, and while not breathed on again - enough damage was done by the fighter and spellcasters to shatter the petrified ichor and free Ziguch.
Sandbox was used and Ziguch dismissed the party saying that they could take what they wanted except for the rod (powering the lights) and not to interrupt the experiments.
On leaving the archive Kraelos was outside stonehome making demands (I added an extra troop as well).
Once again the party decided that as it was Ironfang hobgoblins the appropriate response was to enter into "extreme negotiations" - meaning kill them all quickly.
Buffing the rogue with greater invisibility and letting her fire off goblin-bane arrows at Kraelos (and her faerie dragon familiar dropping the largest bead from the newly acquired necklace) left Kraelos one small hit from death before he even got a chance to act.
The fighter charged in and missed with a 1, but the eidolon got in a swing and off flew the hobgoblin's head. The troops put up a bit more of a fight and did some damage with their volleys, but when the wizard shapechanged (it was still active) into a dragon and breathed a couple of times (coupled with the damage output from the fighter and rogue and another couple of beads from the necklace) it was game over.