This is a spoiler-filled resource thread for GMs running the Agents of Edgewatch Adventure Path, specifically for the sixth adventure, "Ruins of the Radiant Siege."
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Now that copies are slowly getting into subscribers' hands, I'm beyond excited to hear any comments and opinions from folks who run their PCs through this module, my first AP entry.
I'll also field any questions about it here so as to avoid filling my Ask Me Anything thread with spoilers.
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Now that copies are slowly getting into subscribers' hands, I'm beyond excited to hear any comments and opinions from folks who run their PCs through this module, my first AP entry.
I'll also field any questions about it here so as to avoid filling my Ask Me Anything thread with spoilers.
I will say, so far, the second chapter is incredibly interesting as a read. Everything about Kharnas and his history was very interesting and I can't wait for my players to learn about it in play. It's taking a lot of my willpower to not show them the lore and all that about him and say "Man, look at how cool this part is!" ^-^
Some thoughts, written down as I read my PDF:
Did we never get artwork or a singular overall description of Graveraker? I can't quite figure out it's shape or structure, and I'm thinking that means I am overlooking something obvious.
Jesus, that final fight inside Graveraker... that's a 220 XP Extreme encounter with no apparent mitigation. A +4 enemy is absolutely brutal! Especially with minions. I can't think of a tougher fight I've seen in a PF2 AP yet. Chaos mages expected to chip in?
Dig using the research subsystem! Very cool start to chapter 2.
Holy s~!+, a second +4 encounter? This one is only 200 XP. Amber is clearly trying to kill us all. :)
The final confrontation being only a regular 180 XP extreme seems tame by this point.
Overall, seems really cool! Warpglass seems very cool, though it's unfortunate it's 17+ material. The PCs go up against some hilariously dangerous baddies in this one--should be wall-to-wall accolades from the city on successful completion.
I'm a little confused on the Siege Castles backmatter--are these optional encounters to sprinkle in throughout the AP?
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I will say, so far, the second chapter is incredibly interesting as a read. Everything about Kharnas and his history was very interesting and I can't wait for my players to learn about it in play. It's taking a lot of my willpower to not show them the lore and all that about him and say "Man, look at how cool this part is!" ^-^
>:)
I do have a question about chapter 2.
When researching Kharnas, the library options they have seem to max out at 30 points. Forae Logos at 15, Arcanamirium at 10, and College of Mysteries at 5 maximum RP. Am I missing where the final 10 is supposed to be, because they only earn the handout at 40 RP?
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I do have a question about chapter 2.
When researching Kharnas, the library options they have seem to max out at 30 points. Forae Logos at 15, Arcanamirium at 10, and College of Mysteries at 5 maximum RP. Am I missing where the final 10 is supposed to be, because they only earn the handout at 40 RP?
The research skill use and the locations were actually a really cool bit that was added during development from a less structured set of suggestions I wrote to get the PCs information on Kharnas, his tower, and ways to get in. They did a really awesome job with it!
As such I didn't set the maximum RP numbers for the three sites. But I'd either add another location that could add 10, or adjust the three sites such that the 40 total could be achieved. Or be mean and make your PCs parse together the clues to the prismatic wall puzzle from the murals and other things buried under Fort Tempest. :)
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I do have a question about chapter 2.
When researching Kharnas, the library options they have seem to max out at 30 points. Forae Logos at 15, Arcanamirium at 10, and College of Mysteries at 5 maximum RP. Am I missing where the final 10 is supposed to be, because they only earn the handout at 40 RP?
The research skill use and the locations were actually a really cool bit that was added during development from a less structured set of suggestions I wrote to get the PCs information on Kharnas, his tower, and ways to get in. They did a really awesome job with it!
As such I didn't set the maximum RP numbers for the three sites. But I'd either add another location that could add 10, or adjust the three sites such that the 40 total could be achieved. Or be mean and make your PCs parse together the clues to the prismatic wall puzzle from the murals and other things buried under Fort Tempest. :)
All good solutions, personally I'll probably just add another location! Thank you. ^-^
Maybe I just missed it, but what should the HP of the mortal shells used by the Agent of the Grey Queen Astradaemons be?
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Damn, this looks fun as hell! I'm a big of Terimor's look and design. I do have a couple questions though:
1. Have we been shown what Graveraker look like? I keep imagining the big construction machine from that old "Are You My Mother?" book.
2. So Terimor orchestrates Starborn getting imprisoned and tricks the Grand Council into electing her acting-Primarch which fulfills the Twilight Four's deal with Norgorber and gets her a spark of his divine power, then...what's next? She just goes to her new fortress, being influenced by the Cane, and...just devolves into madness? I feel like I'm missing her future goals somewhere.
An idea: Terimor's magnum opus is to literally steal the entire city of Absalom. With Graveraker, the Cane, and Norgorber's power I feel like its entirely reasonable for her to just teleport the entire city (and everyone in it) to another plane, likely Norgorber's turf below Axis.
Have we been shown what Graveraker look like? I keep imagining the big construction machine from that old "Are You My Mother?" book.
That's been my big question too.
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Graveraker has been a mysterious thing since book one. I don't recall if it's purpose as a Tyrant's Grasp Cleanup Bot was mentioned then, but it is somehow big enough to be an entire massive building flattening creation (including their foundations), and yet also fit in the circus tent.
I... I just wanna know. What does it look like!? I don't know how to describe it to my party. They're climbing up it's chute, ignoring it's wheel-bucket-feed system... and it's this amorphous blob.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 8
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I’m picturing something akin to THIS
But, you know, fantasy’d up a bit.
Real disappointed we didn’t get an illo though.
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 8
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Damn, this looks fun as hell! I'm a big of Terimor's look and design. I do have a couple questions though:
1. Have we been shown what Graveraker look like? I keep imagining the big construction machine from that old "Are You My Mother?" book.
2. So Terimor orchestrates Starborn getting imprisoned and tricks the Grand Council into electing her acting-Primarch which fulfills the Twilight Four's deal with Norgorber and gets her a spark of his divine power, then...what's next? She just goes to her new fortress, being influenced by the Cane, and...just devolves into madness? I feel like I'm missing her future goals somewhere.
An idea: Terimor's magnum opus is to literally steal the entire city of Absalom. With Graveraker, the Cane, and Norgorber's power I feel like its entirely reasonable for her to just teleport the entire city (and everyone in it) to another plane, likely Norgorber's turf below Axis.
Ooh, I like that idea a lot.
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I’m picturing something akin to THIS
But, you know, fantasy’d up a bit.
Real disappointed we didn’t get an illo though.
It's just crazy to me that out of everything in the AP, a major plot device and also DUNGEON location is an ambiguous 'thing'.
We have a running joke that all the illustrations by the guards of the missing excavator went missing, so no one is sure what it looks like.
It's certainly a relief, and somewhat amusingly appropriate, that the only instance of such a missing of a clear depiction is an excavation machine powered by raw chaos. Why not describe it exactly as that "ambiguous thing", wich shifts and evolves as it tears through matter?
Hello, loving the read so far!
I am wondering if the power couplings puzzle could be brought to a VTT in a better manner than just the skill check?
Do people here have some ideas?
I'm thinking maybe I design the puzzle and port player A and player B's vision to an alternate map that IS the puzzle, and only player B has vision, and they can make 3 slides per turn? Imma have to think more on that...
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Hello, loving the read so far!
I am wondering if the power couplings puzzle could be brought to a VTT in a better manner than just the skill check?
Do people here have some ideas?
I'm thinking maybe I design the puzzle and port player A and player B's vision to an alternate map that IS the puzzle, and only player B has vision, and they can make 3 slides per turn? Imma have to think more on that...
What you're describing sounds a bit like the game Keep Talking and No One Explodes. It has one person defusing a bomb, while another has the bomb manual. The defuser has to describe what they are seeing, while the person with the manual tries to look up those symbols. The manual is available for free online, and you could probably look up videos of it for examples of how it plays.
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I’m picturing something akin to THIS
But, you know, fantasy’d up a bit.
Real disappointed we didn’t get an illo though.
That real world excavator is actually one of the things I glanced at while writing, and what partially inspired me and my own mental image when I ran my players through it. The other thing I had in mind as inspiration, especially considering Blune's motivations and actions, was The Killdozer (google it). :)
An illustration would have been cool I admit. I didn't go heavily into a description in book 6 partially because it, or rather its vanishing, was focused on in one of the earlier AP chapters.
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 8
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That real world excavator is actually one of the things I glanced at while writing, and what partially inspired me and my own mental image when I ran my players through it. The other thing I had in mind as inspiration, especially considering Blune's motivations and actions, was The Killdozer (google it). :)
An illustration would have been cool I admit. I didn't go heavily into a description in book 6 partially because it, or rather its vanishing, was focused on in one of the earlier AP chapters.
Ha! I can definitely see the Killdozer vibes from the big set piece in your adventure.
The graveraker is in kind of a weird spot where it probably should have gotten an illustration in book 1, but all it does in that adventure is disappear while the PCs are doing something else, so I imagine it just slipped by.
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>:)
I will say, so far, the second chapter is incredibly interesting as a read. Everything about Kharnas and his history was very interesting and I can't wait for my players to learn about it in play. It's taking a lot of my willpower to not show them the lore and all that about him and say "Man, look at how cool this part is!" ^-^
Really, it was good to see you there. Hope you got the better of Norgorber in the fateful end.
What you're describing sounds a bit like the game Keep Talking and No One Explodes. It has one person defusing a bomb, while another has the bomb manual. The defuser has to describe what they are seeing, while the person with the manual tries to look up those symbols. The manual is available for free online, and you could probably look up videos of it for examples of how it plays.Hello, loving the read so far!
I am wondering if the power couplings puzzle could be brought to a VTT in a better manner than just the skill check?
Do people here have some ideas?
I'm thinking maybe I design the puzzle and port player A and player B's vision to an alternate map that IS the puzzle, and only player B has vision, and they can make 3 slides per turn? Imma have to think more on that...
Genius! I'm gonna do that!
Also as a side note: father infections rebirth at the end seems a bit on the light side. He doesn't pack quite the punch the others do, his spell list is lackluster, and his increase affliction ability is useless because he doesn't have poisons and neither do his demons (they have a virulent disease).
I'll retool him to have some vials of contact poison that he spreads on his claws (since he's immune) as well as his infector ability to be able to work on diseases.
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Seems there was a breakdown in communication while making this ap somewhere as the purpose/history/appearence of the radient spark completly changes somewhere between the 1st and 6th book
In the radient festival description of book one it's described as a lightning toped staff that could ressurect hundreads at once and was lost being stolen from the city by the angel binder to use in his attack against Absolm. Yet in book 6 it is a shiny prisim bound in a goden frame created by the Azlanti and corrupted by the laughing fiend as a way to trap/bind outsiders and was given to the angel binder long before the siege.
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In the radient festival description of book one it's described as a lightning toped staff that could ressurect hundreads at once and was lost being stolen from the city by the angel binder to use in his attack against Absolm. Yet in book 6 it is a shiny prisim bound in a goden frame created by the Azlanti and corrupted by the laughing fiend as a way to trap/bind outsiders and was given to the angel binder long before the siege.
I think one way to approach this could be to present the story and appearance from book 1 to your PCs as a bit of a hagiographic legend, with the later assumption being that over time the actual and considerably darker story of the Radiant Spark shifted through a game of centuries of telephone, source corruption, loss of sources, etc. Over thousands of years the story shifted from the darker truth to to one that made Absalom's defenders into even greater heroes and Kharnas the Angel-Binder into a greater villain for having stolen a holy artifact, etc.
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So, my party just got through with meeting a certain ganzi, and LOVED her.
How would you describe her voice/vocal mannerisms? I'm trying to settle on a good voice for such a well-loved character.
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So, my party just got through with meeting a certain ganzi, and LOVED her.
How would you describe her voice/vocal mannerisms? I'm trying to settle on a good voice for such a well-loved character.
I've usually played her as slightly high pitched, flippant, sometimes sarcastic, oft oblivious, prone to verbal tangents, frequently lewd with a lack of common social graces in her speech, but usually in quite good spirits with frequent giggles or laughter. Especially if she has some random voidworms tagging along to serve as a source of peanut gallery comments.
Vocal quality may vary depending on how much and what she might have imbibed.
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Absolutely loving that advice.
She used her rod of wonder on a whim, rolled a 98, and got shrunk down to tiny size. She's now riding on the swashbucklers shoulder like a chaotic little magic cannon and enjoying every ridiculous minute of it.
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Absolutely loving that advice.
She used her rod of wonder on a whim, rolled a 98, and got shrunk down to tiny size. She's now riding on the swashbucklers shoulder like a chaotic little magic cannon and enjoying every ridiculous minute of it.
OMG that is awesome, and that absolutely sounds like her. Those are the vignettes that I'm here to hear. Seriously, I've been grinning all morning from that.
I'd love to hear anyone else's tales of how she worked in their games!
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Absolutely loving that advice.
She used her rod of wonder on a whim, rolled a 98, and got shrunk down to tiny size. She's now riding on the swashbucklers shoulder like a chaotic little magic cannon and enjoying every ridiculous minute of it.
OMG that is awesome, and that absolutely sounds like her. Those are the vignettes that I'm here to hear. Seriously, I've been grinning all morning from that.
I'd love to hear anyone else's tales of how she worked in their games!
So looking forward to getting there, I'll be sure to post here when they do :)
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Also this is absolutely non-canonical, but take a look at @ilsetsya on Twitter. It's a good luck at personality, and game quotes from when I used her in my home game.
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Honestly she has turned what would have been an otherwise dark and dour series of events (the aasimar is descended from an astral deva who I decided was specifically the astral deva in the dungeon because DRAMA and so is OF COURSE very eager to destroy and free her progenitor and finally finish Kharnas' legacy) into a wild, madcap series of madness and we are LIVING for it.
Also, absolutely love those camarach monsters. Swashbuckler got exiled to Hell which set off a desperate search, lots of planar jumping via our oracle and wizard, and a chance to use one of my OWN favorite OCs as an NPC in the city of Dis where our swashbuckler ended up. A wonderful side adventure all because Il'setsya mentioned that 'getting swallowed by those things is A TRIP!' and everyone assumed she meant of a hallucinogenic nature, not a literal actual trip.
Thank you so much for this wonderful capstone to the AP.
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Honestly she has turned what would have been an otherwise dark and dour series of events (the aasimar is descended from an astral deva who I decided was specifically the astral deva in the dungeon because DRAMA and so is OF COURSE very eager to destroy and free her progenitor and finally finish Kharnas' legacy) into a wild, madcap series of madness and we are LIVING for it.
Also, absolutely love those camarach monsters. Swashbuckler got exiled to Hell which set off a desperate search, lots of planar jumping via our oracle and wizard, and a chance to use one of my OWN favorite OCs as an NPC in the city of Dis where our swashbuckler ended up. A wonderful side adventure all because Il'setsya mentioned that 'getting swallowed by those things is A TRIP!' and everyone assumed she meant of a hallucinogenic nature, not a literal actual trip.
Thank you so much for this wonderful capstone to the AP.
Oh that is great! Love the meshing of PC backstory with those elements of the AP. Wonderful stuff!
And adding that level of madcap craziness like that was absolutely intentional. Especially chapter 2 was exceptionally dark, so having her introduced in the prior chapter was an attempt to inject some amount of levity to the atmosphere. I'm not all bleak all the time. :)
I didn't make the camarach actually. That was another freelancer (I want to say Jim Groves, but I'm not absolutely certain).
And Il'setsya describing them as 'A TRIP' and it being uncertain if she was talking about it literally or metaphorically in the drug sense is absolutely on brand for her.
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I do have a question unrelated to the before; was the use of daemons based more on alignment or perhaps a hinting at some Norgorber/Horsemen unified plan? The four aspects of Norg and the Four Horsebois really... Really lines up well and I'd never noticed it before.
I do have a question unrelated to the before; was the use of daemons based more on alignment or perhaps a hinting at some Norgorber/Horsemen unified plan? The four aspects of Norg and the Four Horsebois really... Really lines up well and I'd never noticed it before.
I'd guess more of Norgyborgy being NE and daemons being NE. He probably has quite a lot in his employ. Beyond seizing control of Absalom and backstabbing each other, do we have any idea what the Twilight Four's plan was? What Norgorber's plan was?
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I don't know if Norgorber has an intent. The Twilight Four all share a lust for power, a devotion to their god, a fierce individualism, and the will to take over Absalom. Norgorber, both rewarding and amplifying their devoted's ambitions, seem to be content to make a masterful, grand plot happen, and rewards Olansa accordingly, with the knowledge that she won't change her ways, and divine power is only going to enable her further.
I can't say for sure, but I feel like Norgorber's aim in all this -- in general, really -- is simply to have people follow their sacred ways.
However, I do concur with what you said, OmegaZ, that it feels like nobody in the Twilight Four (besides Reginald, arguably) thought of what they'd do once they'd have won (and I really like your solution to make Olansa's magnum opus to steal Absalom itself and I will probably be stealing it for my own run). But, to be fair, between their backstabbing each other and a certain group of tenacious watchmen's constant disruption, they have had to change their plans several times. And I wouldn't put it past Olansa to prioritize eliminating the only people who can still threaten her before anything else in her reign as primarch. And if one's players are fortunate, they'll never know what she wanted.
I don't know if Norgorber has an intent. The Twilight Four all share a lust for power, a devotion to their god, a fierce individualism, and the will to take over Absalom. Norgorber, both rewarding and amplifying their devoted's ambitions, seem to be content to make a masterful, grand plot happen, and rewards Olansa accordingly, with the knowledge that she won't change her ways, and divine power is only going to enable her further.
I can't say for sure, but I feel like Norgorber's aim in all this -- in general, really -- is simply to have people follow their sacred ways.However, I do concur with what you said, OmegaZ, that it feels like nobody in the Twilight Four (besides Reginald, arguably) thought of what they'd do once they'd have won (and I really like your solution to make Olansa's magnum opus to steal Absalom itself and I will probably be stealing it for my own run). But, to be fair, between their backstabbing each other and a certain group of tenacious watchmen's constant disruption, they have had to change their plans several times. And I wouldn't put it past Olansa to prioritize eliminating the only people who can still threaten her before anything else in her reign as primarch. And if one's players are fortunate, they'll never know what she wanted.
Ditto on the stealing of Absalom plan, but i'm thinking of going one further and having it be part of her plan to go after the ultimate goal.
In Duskfathom, her power would be almost absolute, and she knows she can't keep the city there forever.... but she can keep it there long enough so that she can run the starstone citadel and claim the ultimate prize.... Godhood!
For those interested, I've made a Spellcaster version of Veksciralenix
Has the following spells (didn't bother adding others to keep the entry simple)
Cantrips: Shield
Level 1:
True Strike
Level 3:
Haste
Level 6:
Slow
Soothe
Level 7:
Energy aegis
time beacon
reverse gravity
Level 8:
Prismatic Wall
Maze
Discern Location
Level 9:
Heroism
Weird (framed as ennemies pulled from the past that attack the players)
Loses Draconic frenzy, Loses Draconic Momentum.
1st round: Tail whack time stop
Time stop
1st round: cast haste
2nd round: cast Heroism, reposition to 25ft away from PC
3rd round: cast Prismatic Wall behind his target PC and true strike
2n round: Use push with true strike (if no one triggered AoO) on tail to push a PC in the wall. Use breath weapon to stun people, use quickened action to attack or move (if you want to kite)
3rd rounnd cast weird and jaws+claw or use actions to kite.
All in all makes the fight more challenging :)
For blune, I decided to add a prismatic spray trap in front of him in the cockpit of graveraker.
He has a ring of maniacal devices, might as well use it !
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Just wanted to point out that for room B5 of the ruins under fort tempest, the Camarachs make no sense.
Basically there is no way shape or form for 3 gargantuan creatures to fit inside this tiny ass room with a portal.
I'mma load another map probably and have this be a sub/sub dimension that's bigger.
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Just finished running Agents of Edgewatch.
Overall I loved it, and it's very fun!
Loved the 6th chapter, it really managed to hold up even after the great betrayal that felt like the natural culmination of the campaign, in chapter 5.
One thing I'd note is that Olansa was kind of a pushover.
At 4d4+4d6+20 or so damage per attack, even while perma hidden, Olansa doesn't have a lot of damage potential vs a lvl 20 party.
even on a crit she'll maybe get a character to half hp on two attacks ?
Then the party can just heal that and hit her up.
Her only redeeming grace is the perma invisibility, but my party legit just waited her out.... it was more tedious and long than fun.
One fix would be to give her more divine spells. Maybe wail of the banshee or overwhelming presence or a lot of harm.
Nice work, congrats. It's always an achievement to finish a campaign, let alone an AP.
We've just started. We've done 1 session. I'll maybe see you on the other side in about 12 months... :-)
that was fast! I started in October and we've recently just entered the third book.
Congrats on finishing the AP! We're about to close book 1 :)
I used "Thor" from Borderlands 1 (but with magic) as a reference to give my players an idea of the Graveraker.
Maybe I just missed it, but what should the HP of the mortal shells used by the Agent of the Grey Queen Astradaemons be?
I'm about to start book 6 and I wonder this as well. Are the Agents Of The Gray Queen the monster and we're supposed to use a random statblock for the HP?
noticed a couple things:
entrance to A6 is locked (as stated in A5 text), but how it’s locked isn’t stated anywhere
When power core in A9 deactivated, is teleportation then possible? Otherwise Hestriviniaas’s Spatial Riptide does nothing
Maybe I just missed it, but what should the HP of the mortal shells used by the Agent of the Grey Queen Astradaemons be?I'm about to start book 6 and I wonder this as well. Are the Agents Of The Gray Queen the monster and we're supposed to use a random statblock for the HP?
I used a level 15 creature and that gave them 60 hp shells.
Funny enough in that encounter the sorcerer won initiative, didn't understand the other guards were terrified, and then horrid wilting killed everyone BUT the two astradaemons who were immune to the negative energy...
The paladin in the party was NOT happy...
Maybe I just missed it, but what should the HP of the mortal shells used by the Agent of the Grey Queen Astradaemons be?I'm about to start book 6 and I wonder this as well. Are the Agents Of The Gray Queen the monster and we're supposed to use a random statblock for the HP?I used a level 15 creature and that gave them 60 hp shells.
The body has a number of Hit Points equal to 3 times the level of the creature
which means lvl 15 would have 45hp
you could use the starwatch commando statblock from Book 5, they're lvl 11 though