Sothis and Adventure #3 (Spoilers!)


Mummy's Mask


We're currently playing through Mummy's Mask, and are on Adventure #3, and the party have been researching through the libraries. Last session, they got 2/3 of the way through the Dark Depository, ending the session by getting the transcript of the interrogations of the creators of the Mask, and finding out the Heart was taken to Sothis.

... so naturally they ended the session wanting to go to Sothis to look for the heart, unaware the heart has possessed the now-leader of the Cult of the Forgotten Pharoah, and thus in the Parched Dunes.

This has left me wondering where to go next session, but there's a complication: one of our players is leaving next session, and two new players are joining the session after next, so either things need to wrap up for that player next session and a good jumping point needs to be available in two sessions time, or I ask if the old player minds holding on for a bit and the others join a little later.

So with that in mind, plans for the next session could be:

GO OFF BOOK: I simply encourage the players to head to Sothis; next session gives leaving player the chance to stay behind, and new players join either in Sothis or on the way to Sothis. I have to create my own sub-quest in Sothis, as the players learn what exactly happened to the heart and how it is in the Parched Dunes (possibly working out a way to let them seek out the tomb at the end of Book 3, possibly for different reasons).

Downside of this is I know absolutely nothing about Sothis! But I suppose there's a whole book on the city, so I might just have to pick it up.

2. SOFT RAILROAD: I inform the players through plot that the heart is with the Cult of the Forgotten Pharoah. Probably the best way to do this is to have cultists enter the Dark Depository start of next session, and have them openly talk about reuniting the ka and the ib for their mistress. They could even talk about Chisisek's tomb and their operations there, giving the players further direction to head into the desert and seek out the end of Book 3. Would mean realistically I'd want to ask to delay old player leaving and new players joining, since it'll take a few more sessions to finish up events in Tephu (but the players would get to find all the gritty things there like the live mummifications, and the fourth library).

3. HARD RAILROAD: Someone - probably from the Temple of Nethys in Sothis - mysteriously arrives in town, tells the party they've found out about their investigation, actively informs them of events in Sothis and that the Cult of the Forgotten Pharoah, and tells them they know the cult have made camp in the desert. A bit agency removing (I'm literally telling the party to go to the desert), but would pretty directly point the party into the Dunes for the whole strech before Book 5; and the out-of-game schedule still works fine (old player leaves when we agreed, new players come in when I said they could).

Thoughts?

Naturally going off book sounds best in principle, would just need to think of something interesting to happen in the capital. Had we not had the player switcheroo, I'd probably be include to go with the soft railroad, just so the players could see the rest of that section of the book, but I guess none of it is strictly necessary for the story and what is can be replaced with a stronger mystery sounding the heart.


Going off book will require a decent amount of work on your part and, unless you add in something worthwhile for the PCs to gain in Sothis they'll feel like they went there for kind of nothing.

What I did, based on what someone else said in the GM thread for book 3, was almost as soon as the PCs left the Dark Depository they heard a rumour of something important being stolen from below the... whatever it was that the heart was buried below.

As for introducing new characters, change what I just said in that paragraph and have two PCs show up from Sothis searching for the heart. They don't know what it does nor why someone would steal it so they've come to Tephu to scour the libraries to try to learn what the heart could be used for and therefore hopefully find a clue as to what the thieves may have done with it.
And the rest of the group happens to overhear them asking to speak with Deka An-Keret or they find the two new PCs being attacked by some cultists or something.
For next session though, with the original players, before the two new ones join, have them fight the cultists on the island or come up with someone for the players to do in town for the session.


The adventure does say that, as the party leaves the library, they hear two Nethysian clerics chatting about a theft from the Sothis temple. Though honestly, I think it would be fun to let them keep going, and investigate it themselves.

For my own game (nowhere close yet, still in book 1), I've considered *deliberately* sending them to Sothis. For one thing, it's a new place in Osirion, a cosmopolitan metropolis with resources not available in Wati or Tephu. If I want to expand the Dark Tapestry part of Neferuset's backstory and tie it into the Doomsday Clock lore, and weave that as more of a factor in the adventure, then that's an excuse to visit Menetnashne's Orrery under the Black Dome, especially if they visit Tephu's Eye of the Heavens first and get a bit of Dark Tapestry lore. For another, it can give a possibility of exposing more of the Sacrosanct Order and demonstrating that, while they're not necessarily hostile to the party specifically, and might even be persuaded to help stop Hakotep, they're just as keen to keep their role in enabling events a secret, not to mention the embarrassment of losing the heart from right under their noses; and thirdly, it has the possibility of meeting a court representative, such as the celestial gynosphinx Nazmi, if the Ruby Prince hears that the heroes of Wati and "friends" of Muminofra have arrived, and he is interested in knowing what threat might threaten his kingdom, or if he needs some service done. It also gives the party a chance to see how the nation works - the Council of Sun and Sky debating legislation and considering cases, international merchants trading in relics strictly regulated by the Ministry of Antiquities, who actually runs the day-to-day affairs for the Ruby Prince, etc.

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