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This is intended to be a spoiler-filled resource thread (as in other AP subforums) for GMs running book 6 of The Threefold Conspiracy Adventure Path, "Puppets Without Strings."
All GM threads in this series:
1 - The Chimera Mystery
2 - Flight of the Sleepers
3 - Deceivers' Moon
4 - The Hollow Cabal
5 - The Cradle Infestation
6 - Puppets Without Strings
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I'll be starting this final volume sometime in the next two months (waiting on an original party member who had to take a perfectly-timed hiatus for the birth of his first child!), and want to get all my ducks in a row.
I've read and reread this volume several times, and I honestly think it's almost like a separate min-AP all its own.
There's a massive cast of NPCs. A number of complicated tasks that can be done in almost any order by the PCs. Several combats with specific floor-plans, and several other "quantum combats" that could be inserted at various points, triggered by various PC actions, but without specific maps (the Fleurasik enforcers, Tavin Arill's ambush, possible entanglements with House Rycast).
It's honestly a lot. I have the maps finished for the Jynma encounter on the train/tram, the
Is anyone else prepping this volume or already GMing it?
It's happening!
After nearly a 4 month hiatus (!!), the escapees of the Chimera's mysterious disaster will at last be heading to Absalom Station to reckon with the fallout of their conflicts with the various Reptoids with whom they've clashed, and to deal with the looming mindf&%$ of the Grays' revelations about the party's real identities.
Session 34 is next weekend, May 1.
Anyone who's planning to run Puppets Without Strings, or is already running it, feel free to hit me up with questions on how this insanity goes. There's a lot of moving parts in this Book.
Pw/oS is that and then some. Practically the only direction they're given is "maybe other directorate reptoids...?" and then cut them loose. I'm a little frustrated that the devs didn't even attempt to give real guidance as to what other individuals the non-Erem PCs might be cloned from.
From page 5 of The Chimera Mystery:
"...Zaxo and his team have orchestrated a plan to replace the imposters...The PCs are those clones."
The Adventure Background here in Bk 1 makes it clear that the PCs are all clones of Reptoids in deep cover as people in the Pact Worlds, a mix of "important leaders" and "assistants to the powerful".
From page 37 of The Cradle Infestation:
"...dossiers on each PC. Each profile is accompanied by a picture and brief biography of the individual the PC is a clone of..."
Yes, having each party member be assigned a concrete template individual by the AP would be convenient in some ways, but it also makes it less flexible. The writers presumably wanted it to be adaptable, so they just went with having one PC being a clone of a known, named individual who has a specific role in the final book. This of course gives plot hooks for future adventures should the party and DM want to go further.
Personally, I'm having the 3 other party members realize their templates are all GTFO, after the media ruckus from the Llaoe Arae incident. The only one who doesn't of course is "Erem" (differently named in my game) becuase of their lofty position. "Erem" just attempts to spin the news and do damage control for their own power's sake. The other Reptoids (who operate individually, not in a unified cell) are impersonating less-public and less-powerful individuals, but choose to withdraw or hide in various ways, and won't be relevant to the final Book of the AP.
First session of this arc begins today for my party, and will be soem homebrew fill-in material to get them back in character between Llaoe Arae and Absalom Station. I'm having them take a 1 week mandatory "vacation" on Bretheda, courtesy of Confluence and the Stewards, both of whom are debriefing them and getting their pieces in place for how to best use this mysterious party of strange doppelgangers. Going for a roleplay-heavy so the party can grapple with the story twist in character, and also do some Session Zero-esque planning for what they expect out of the story and their characters for this final arc.
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Pw/oS is that and then some. Practically the only direction they're given is "maybe other directorate reptoids...?" and then cut them loose. I'm a little frustrated that the devs didn't even attempt to give real guidance as to what other individuals the non-Erem PCs might be cloned from.From page 5 of The Chimera Mystery:
"...Zaxo and his team have orchestrated a plan to replace the imposters...The PCs are those clones."
The Adventure Background here in Bk 1 makes it clear that the PCs are all clones of Reptoids in deep cover as people in the Pact Worlds, a mix of "important leaders" and "assistants to the powerful".
From page 37 of The Cradle Infestation:
"...dossiers on each PC. Each profile is accompanied by a picture and brief biography of the individual the PC is a clone of..."
Yes, having each party member be assigned a concrete template individual by the AP would be convenient in some ways, but it also makes it less flexible. The writers presumably wanted it to be adaptable, so they just went with having one PC being a clone of a known, named individual who has a specific role in the final book. This of course gives plot hooks for future adventures should the party and DM want to go further.
Personally, I'm having the 3 other party members realize their templates are all GTFO, after the media ruckus from the Llaoe Arae incident. The only one who doesn't of course is "Erem" (differently named in my game) becuase of their lofty position. "Erem" just attempts to spin the news and do damage control for their own power's sake. The other Reptoids (who operate individually, not in a unified cell) are impersonating less-public and less-powerful individuals, but choose to withdraw or hide in various ways, and won't be relevant to the final Book of the AP.
First session of this arc begins today for my party, and will be soem homebrew fill-in material to get them back in character between Llaoe Arae and Absalom Station. I'm having them take a 1...
so how did the insanity go? we'll likely start book 6 - although not get very deep into it - in the next session...
i changed the gray plot which is driving the book, so i think i can skip quite a bit of the otherwise sure to ensure shenanigans with PCs running into their "original" versions...
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Ran the sniper encounter. It was fun, but only because I was later informed by a player that I was breaking the rules by adding trick attack damage to the sniper rifle.
Had I known that you can't do this, I would have added multiple attack robots to distract the party while he continued sniping at them.
BTW, what I did was put the party on an abandoned liquified thasteron dock at the base of the Spine... they walked 500 feet out into space to meet the contact... who was secretly an Assassin Robot. Then I had the sniper open up.
Were I to redesign my redesign, I'd take full advantage of the range of the sniper rifle (750'), and add flying attack robots to the challenge. That way the more mobile characters (2 ysoki had like these flying packs that let them move 350' in a full round action) would be more amenable to staying behind to assist the less mobile characters.
Additionally, one player went down to the dock the night before the encounter and set up a camera and bombs - the sniper blew right past the needed checks to avoid the camera and rejigger the bombs, so I had bombs blowing up along the dock as the players were running back - that was fun.
I had the sniper shoot his six bullets and try to jet, but our operative phase jumped into the room he was in, and they had a melee combat - which I rolled TRASH on, otherwise we'd have one less operative... meanwhile the mechanic managed to sneak into the room and was blasting both of them with his cone of cold gun. It was a fun combat, even if I did muck up the rules a bit.
I also used the phase shift, but they'd put a bomb on him when he was knocked unconscious... he had 1 HP and 1 RP left when he shifted through the floor and they blew him up. Which was good, because the squamous parasitical worms and bizarre vermin which infest the ruined levels of the station had already started to devour the reptoid's body by the time they got there...
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i guess we are about 5 sessions from completing the AP... very excited. i have some ideas about homebrewing the cycle of encounters before the end to make them a little more tense, and then probably going to run the last part as is, although i should probably spend a bit of time re-reading it...I'm curious, is your elected board ends up cannon or is there any changes? For my team the Kasatha was replaced by Uvali Rycast.
i haven't decided how it's going to end yet. but I'll let you know when we end in September (fingers crossed!)
I'm wondering about one of Zaxo's spells - his 1/day Gravitational Singularity. The book lists it with a DC of 26, but this makes no sense, as the spell has no saving throw. Instead, the singularity makes a combat maneuver with a bonus of 4 + caster level + key ability modifier. This is confusing because we don't know what Zaxo's key ability modifier is.
It's a Mystic spell, so if we assume it's Wisdom, his bonus is +24.
His highest bonus is his Intelligence at +10, so if we use that it's a +30.
Any idea which is correct?
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I'm wondering about one of Zaxo's spells - his 1/day Gravitational Singularity. The book lists it with a DC of 26, but this makes no sense, as the spell has no saving throw. Instead, the singularity makes a combat maneuver with a bonus of 4 + caster level + key ability modifier. This is confusing because we don't know what Zaxo's key ability modifier is.
It's a Mystic spell, so if we assume it's Wisdom, his bonus is +24.
His highest bonus is his Intelligence at +10, so if we use that it's a +30.
Any idea which is correct?
i would go w/ the text of the boss - so its a 26. Zaxo appears to be a mystic, btw.
There's a couple of errors vis a vis the rules with some of the built creatures - I'm thinking about the cybernetic golem in book 4. I told my players when they encountered it that the creature has an error, but that the error is cool, and I would be using it despite the fact that it broke the rules in a minor way.
They were fine with it.
He's the boss at the end. He should be tough, and they aren't going to know anyway.
That sounds fair - so he'd have a +26 to the roll, rather than a DC of 26. That's also a good middle ground between the two options for +24 or +30.
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That sounds fair - so he'd have a +26 to the roll, rather than a DC of 26. That's also a good middle ground between the two options for +24 or +30.
yeah, a DC of 26 would be way, way too low v. level 12 PCs.
and the text of the spell clearly has the singularity acting w/ an attack roll. probably just an error - most spells have DCs, not attack rolls.