Hey all,
So I introduced my new group of players into Pathfinder by running them through Hollow's Last Hope and then wrote my very own adventure to overthrow the Mayor (which I'd love to sell on the cheap for others to enjoy, though not really sure how to go about that or the legality behind it).
Anyway, as a result my party began Strange Aeons at level 3.
At the start of the campaign they had no armour or weapons, so the first encounter with Scaen, even at level 3 was very tough for them, but they pulled through!
Next session it's highly likely they're going to be fighting Zandalus and The Tatterman.
I have a level 8 NPC running around and keeping an eye on them (little do they know, he's a friend from their past) and my game is very narrative driven, but as I have this NPC more as an observer right now (he only turned up because he'd not heard from his girlfriend - the Druid of the party, in 6 months) trying to piece together what's going on, he hasn't revealed who he is or even that he knows the party. The parties memory of his old self has appeared in many of their dreams and even as full bodied apparitions - A by-product of the dream situation, but his armour currently hides his features and he isn't able to see the shared dreams or apparitions of his past self.
As a side note: The party wanted me to have my own character and thankfully haven't realised this is the same guy they loved from Hollow's Last Hope. I've just dubbed him "Mysterious Man" and play him...mysteriously, but also evasive to a lot of their questions, only revealing what he knows when I want for narrative reasons. He dropped in through the sky from his Griffon, which is currently not around and knew the chances of getting out were slim.
That said, I have him as a fallback plan in case things go sour for the party, but with the focus mostly on the PC's, I've been thinking about how to make this encounter both frightening and a challenge to the party of 3.
So, what I've done is rolled a perception check for Zandalus to know when the party are near (which he passed), allowing him to have Bear's Endurance already in effect and then when The Tatterman appears, he comes in with 70HP and due to party level, I've replaced his ability to cast Dream with Deep Slumber. He's a Nightmare creature, not a Dream creature. Also, the experience shared between all 3 PC's will bump them up to level 6 in time for the next book.
That's it.
Is there anything else you'd recommend doing or do you have any further suggestions in general?
We're using Hero Points which I introduced after the Ranger kept going down in every combat of Hollow's Last Hope (and also due to the fact he said if his character dies he's no longer playing - putting me in an awkward position really), but the party consists of:
An Arcadian Human Ranger 5 (Guide)
An Ulfen Skinwalker (Were-Bear) Druid 3 (Nature Fang)/Fighter 1 (Unarmed)/Barbarian 1
A Mwangi Half-Elf Fighter 5 (Crossbowman modified for normal attacks, not readied actions)
The NPC is a Human Cavalier 5/Swashbuckler 2/Fighter 1 (Dragoon) with a Griffon Mount and a Mithral Double-Spear - Gimmick is fall damage with Boots of the Cat.
We're having fun though and as I modified Red Destiny and made some additional dream sequences, if you'd like me to post them I'd be happy to.