So, my players have reached the final phase of Carrion Crown (Spoilers!)
Dungeons of Golarian leaves a lot of holes for you to fill in the details. So that's what I want help with now.
The Well of Tears has a mithral gate that is described as CR 15, with strange gravity to allow you to walk down the walls of the inner tower, with small inner
chambers with "powerful guardians and wards," left unspecified. What would you include on this path? I'm thinking maybe a symbol of weakness, and to draw on the beastiary in the back of Shadows of Gallowspire I thought maybe it'd be fun to include a Morrigna Psychomp, and a wing of 8 gargoyle guardians to alert her, but if anyone's got anything spicier I'm interested.
By the way, the party is an alchemist, an investigator, an inquisitor, an oracle and a paladin, all at level 16.
So the next part of Gallowspire is listed as The Great Seal, at CR 15. This level is for proteting the great seal, and it's supposed to have more traps - suggestions? Maybe Greater Positive Pulse as a symbol or something? But it's also supposed to have 3 ghast cavaliers at level 14 (old crusaders buried here) that can tell you about the history once beaten. If anyone has a cool build for these guys or suggestions I'd love them, I've never played a cavalier.
Additionally, "One loyal servant to the Whispering Tyrant can be found here. Her name is Iliamaniss (NE elf vampire druid 14)— she has been scheming for nearly 100 years, trying to find a way to undo the Great Seal, and she’s claimed several rooms in the dungeon as her workshops and chambers for powerful elemental and undead minions." So this is fun and offers some neat opportunities. Got any favorite underutilized plant creatures, or plant related undead suggestions? Magical experiments gone wrong?
Another by the way - my goal is to have the party confront the Whispering Tyrant himself at the end at level 20, and get killed to lead into the next campaign Tyrant's grasp. In the beginning of Tyrant's Grasp [Spoilers] your players are dead. I want to adapt part one of that adventure path The Dead Roads to fit around this conclusion to Carrion Crown [/Spoilers]
Shadnusaptera (LN sphinx oracle 12) is the final guardian of the seal. How did they write in a guardian sphinx and not include a riddle? Thoughts on mystery/curse? I figured a petrifying trap or creature here would be cool too.
Beyond the gate there is a ruined level, with a powerful ghoul calling himself the Prince of Fangs (CE male ghoul wizard 17) - how you gonna tell me level 17 wizard and no more details? Id appreciate advice on this as well, cus damn there are a lot of wizard choices to make by level 17, and I have not played one either.
The upper crypts are supposed to be cr 18, and just full of bodies and minor undead. I'm thinking morgs, and juju zombies with brawler levels for combat maneuver, aid another overwhelming tactics
Then we've got the catacombs, which are CR 19 and supposed to contain just all the bones - all skeletons and floor bones, hiding level 18 rogue and fighter skeletal champions. This part does make mention of unique all bone critters down here, but this did come out when only beastiary 1 + 2 were out - does anybody know about any cooler big skeletal beasties? Additionally, there's a ancient black dragon ravener named Istravek, which is hella cool, and a room with I'm guessing like 6 demiliches, and maybe another haunt like the library of Renchurch?
The Silent Shrine is our first CR20, featuring a level of evil shrines where positive energy doesn't work to hurt undead and a cool undead trio - Crying Kings (NE mummy wizard 19). Again with high level wizards with no stat blocks. I'm thinking i'll include the Shadow Cleric (cr 17 cleric of norgorber) from the npc codex, and some Masters of Undeath (cr 14 clerics of urgathoa) from the same.
The Black Caverns are CR 21, natural caverns with a negative energy crystal. SO I'm going to include every type of Nightshade, some shadow ropers, and an Oblivion (CR 20 ooze from the plane of negative energy).
The Pillar (CR 22) offers just about nothing in the way of suggestion other than a bunch of high level casters. I'm thinking Doomsayer (cr 19) a level 20 bard in the npc codex, supreme hunter lvl 20 ranger as a ghoul from the same, blade lord lvl 20 rogue as a vampire, Arisen Sorcerer lvl 20 sorcerer as a lich, mithral wizard CR 19 Fighter 2, evoker 8, eldritch knight 10 as a grave knight, and Darkstar (Halfiling Rogue 10, Shadowdancers 10) as a ghost.
Now, the last two levels offer the greatest challenge to the players and the dm. The lower crypts (cr 23) has the tyrant's greatest generals, bodyguards and consorts, as well as a dank clone of tar-baphon. So this is one of the biggest brainstorm projects along here. I think I will use Erum-Hel (Male unique mohrg assassin 10/trickster 6) from Undead Unleashed, he beat the then mortal iomedae during the shining crusade. I'm thinking I'll build a Cavalier Bodyguard wraith lvl 20. But I'd like to build a rad mythic Urgathoan girlfriend but I'm not sure which way exactly to go with that, and a unique gargantuan undead.
And then there's tar baphon, from mythic
Ok, as a plot point, your PC's would have to be utter morons to be contemplating breaking the great seal to get at TB. He's been known to kill gods... they aren't gods, and are presumably not interested in letting TB loose on the world.
So you need to add something special to the plot, a way for a band of mortal types (your current party) to sneak past the great seal ( and theoretically sneak back)... What the PC's don't know is that this is a trick, set up by the Whispering Way, that will in fact weaken the seal. Thus enabling TB to actually break out in Tyrants grasp (ie now he can cast his spell effectively); the whole plot is in fact, all their fault... Should produce some motivation.PS. I wouldn't worry too much about the lower levels. Once you get past the great seal, don't pull any punches, and you should see a TPK pretty quick.
I was under the impression that if you had a part of the Shield of Aroden, you could pass through the Great Seal without breaking it. I thought it could make sense if the sphinx guardian maybe had a piece of that shield. It states in Dungeons of Golarian that the sphinx is prevented from aging due to the great seal, but I figured that could easily enough be from possessing a shard of the shield in proximity to the seal. I was thinking of letting party talk t the sphinx and maybe try and convince her to let them use it.
I like the idea of the party bringing about the freeing of Tar-baphon.
In Tyrant's Grasp
I was under the impression that if you had a part of the Shield of Aroden, you could pass through the Great Seal without breaking it.I'm pretty sure that's not the case; doesn't TB have one permanently welded into him (pre Tyrant's Grasp) : "Initially, the Tyrant tried to get rid of the burning shard of the Shattered Shield of Arnisant (as the Shield of Aroden became known after it was shattered) still lodged within himself"?
I like the idea of the party bringing about the freeing of Tar-baphon.
In Tyrant's Grasp ** spoiler omitted ** so it would fit in nicely.** spoiler omitted **
Oh! Didn't realize that's where we ended up. I had read the first book of Tyrant's Grasp a minute ago, but have still needed to finish up Shadows of Gallowspire (probably this weekend!), so I'm a little fuzzy on the details.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Greetings.
If you want to have your characters go down inside Gallowspire, i would suggest a kind "far finale" scenario, which have your players a 8 years timeskip, and then have them play the s10.98 pathfinder scenario Siege of Gallowspire, which sees them as veterans being contacted by pathfinder society to lead the exploration.
In this way, you can have your level 15 players actually enjoy having reached such threshold and become something important in Ustalav, or having other adventures, when then the time comes to return again to a very different gallowspire.
Obviously, at the end of the dungeon they should find the WW. Either himself, or a non mythic version of himself created by a certain obelisk, which is eager to punish the players for having stopped "his" freedom 8 years before.
Greetings.
If you want to have your characters go down inside Gallowspire, i would suggest a kind "far finale" scenario, which have your players a 8 years timeskip, and then have them play the s10.98 pathfinder scenario Siege of Gallowspire, which sees them as veterans being contacted by pathfinder society to lead the exploration.In this way, you can have your level 15 players actually enjoy having reached such threshold and become something important in Ustalav, or having other adventures, when then the time comes to return again to a very different gallowspire.
Obviously, at the end of the dungeon they should find the WW. Either himself, or a non mythic version of himself created by a certain obelisk, which is eager to punish the players for having stopped "his" freedom 8 years before.
This is a really handy suggestion, thank you! I've been surprised and rewarded by the number of scenarios that are relevant, Hungry are the Dead has a bit about people taking down lesser seals.
I was under the impression that if you had a part of the Shield of Aroden, you could pass through the Great Seal without breaking it.I'm pretty sure that's not the case; doesn't TB have one permanently welded into him (pre Tyrant's Grasp) : "Initially, the Tyrant tried to get rid of the burning shard of the Shattered Shield of Arnisant (as the Shield of Aroden became known after it was shattered) still lodged within himself"?
Actually, in dungeons of Golarian it says:
The Knights of Ozem have feared for many years that the power of the Great Seal is waning, and that the Whispering Tyrant might soon be free. Instead of waiting for the seal to fail, they have decided to send a group of heroes inside Gallowspire itself to attempt to find the lich’s phylactery and destroy it before he can escape. Using a fragment of the Shield of Aroden, the Knights can transport the PCs into the dungeon just beyond the Great Seal.