| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
It's interesting the places (I think) I can see the seams between the author's turnover and the final product. My group is in chapter two and the walkway above the lake in areas C4 and C5 jumped out at me. It's described in the readaloud text for both areas (in fact, it's a majority of the readaloud text for the two areas!), has the same transparent walls the players encounter elsewhere, has a secret door leading from C8, ... and is completely unused. It's like having a door with intricate carvings described in detail that leads to an empty closet. It really stands out.
I vaguely remember a Vanessa Hoskins appearance on Know Direction before the adventure was released where she mentioned that she wrote one level to be able to be flooded and a Paizo person said that that element didn't make it through to the final product. I wonder if the ledge is where that would have happened.
|
Hey guys, my party is quickly approaching getting to book 2 (maybe two sessions away) and so I've been starting to paruse book 2 and . . . well I have a question.
How bad would it be if I changed up the Cooperative blade in my campaign? The thing is, if I hand it out as is, no one in my party will use it. We have two people proficient in martial weapons, but one is an inexorable Iron magus (two handed weapons) and one is a Ranger with Rogue dedication, so he wants an agile and/or finesse weapon. I was thinking of either changing it to a bastard sword or a short sword. Is that a major problem? Should I just forget about it and let the players pick up other items instead?
Hey guys, my party is quickly approaching getting to book 2 (maybe two sessions away) and so I've been starting to paruse book 2 and . . . well I have a question.
How bad would it be if I changed up the Cooperative blade in my campaign? The thing is, if I hand it out as is, no one in my party will use it. We have two people proficient in martial weapons, but one is an inexorable Iron magus (two handed weapons) and one is a Ranger with Rogue dedication, so he wants an agile and/or finesse weapon. I was thinking of either changing it to a bastard sword or a short sword. Is that a major problem? Should I just forget about it and let the players pick up other items instead?
Not bad at all. Neither bastard swords nor shortswords are particularly stronger or weaker than longswords, just useful for different characters. You wouldn't even have to change your description very much.
|
Well based on how party treated Carman Rajani after they convinced him to come with them to adventure in abomination vaults since they first met him, since Urivian had no reason to not "ambush party on level 7 after they got tired down after few encounters" with Carman being npc party member, I had Carman pull of heroic sacrifice of "Run! They can't take my soul if you leave!" to save party.
Its fun when player shenanigans create new situations down the road that book didn't strictly expect ;D
How bad would it be if I changed up the Cooperative blade in my campaign?
I changed all the four items from the Roseguard into actual relics. The co-operative blade was remade into a scimitar with fire powers (since I have a champion of Sarenrae in my group). It has worked fine and my players are having fun with them.
I changed all the four items from the Roseguard into actual relics. The co-operative blade was remade into a scimitar with fire powers (since I have a champion of Sarenrae in my group). It has worked fine and my players are having fun with them.
I'm very interested in this, could you link me what you made of the relics? My players are getting close and I'm still wondering what to do..
I'm very interested in this, could you link me what you made of the relics? My players are getting close and I'm still wondering what to do..
Yeah sure, haven't finished them all yet with their Major Gifts but this might make me do it :-) I'll try to have them done and linked this week.
|
|
Had fun with turning Ysyondkhelir encounter to more dynamic than "two creatures fight in 3x3 room with party" xD He escaped (pcs came from secret door) to the witch warden room, lured it to attack pcs, then escaped to main chamber where levaloch Urevian had summoned to hunt pcs came to reinforce him
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The arena maps balcony level and floor level do not align properly. The lower left balcony should be shifted 5ft to the right and the left and right ends of the upper balcony aligned with the ground floor perimeter. Also the stairs from the balcony level to the arena floor should most likely show a wall on the arena side, else the portcullis at the bottom is useless.
I'm not sure how the players are supposed to get into the Plinth room (C7) if the locks are on the plinths inside the room and the doors are 2ft thick stone walls until unlocked. Is there a teleporter to this room somewhere?
I'm not sure how the players are supposed to get into the Plinth room (C7) if the locks are on the plinths inside the room and the doors are 2ft thick stone walls until unlocked. Is there a teleporter to this room somewhere?
Two angled plinths stand here, one in the alcove to the east and another in the alcove to the west. A single door leads north; the south wall opposite it bears the outline of a door but no handle or latch.
…
The eastern plinth features a lock with a round keyhole; turning the proper key in this lock opens or closes the northernmost door in the passage to the south (the outline visible in this room) with a grinding noise. The western plinth has four holes clustered together in a metal plate; turning the proper key in this lock opens or closes the southern of the two doors, also with a loud grinding noise.
Emphasis added. The stone wall doors controlled by the plinth locks are the two on either end of the passage to the south (the short hall connecting C7 to C8). The door in the northern side of C7 (leading from C1 & C4) is just a regular door, and would most likely be how the heroes get here.
Note: For anyone using the hardcover, this is room F7 (with references to rooms F8, F1, & F4).
Hey guys, anyone notice that the varian vicious black pudding (p. 22) has a reaction with no trigger? Anyone know what that is about?
In the hardcover, this is changed to a free action.
I'm not sure how the players are supposed to get into the Plinth room (C7) if the locks are on the plinths inside the room and the doors are 2ft thick stone walls until unlocked. Is there a teleporter to this room somewhere?Two angled plinths stand here, one in the alcove to the east and another in the alcove to the west. A single door leads north; the south wall opposite it bears the outline of a door but no handle or latch.
…
The eastern plinth features a lock with a round keyhole; turning the proper key in this lock opens or closes the northernmost door in the passage to the south (the outline visible in this room) with a grinding noise. The western plinth has four holes clustered together in a metal plate; turning the proper key in this lock opens or closes the southern of the two doors, also with a loud grinding noise.
Emphasis added. The stone wall doors controlled by the plinth locks are the two on either end of the passage to the south (the short hall connecting C7 to C8). The door in the northern side of C7 (leading from C1 & C4) is just a regular door, and would most likely be how the heroes get here.
Note: For anyone using the hardcover, this is room F7 (with references to rooms F8, F1, & F4).
Thanks for the reply. I figured it out. Makes a lot more sense that way.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Rest in Peace, Carman.
My group really struggled with how to deal with Carman, and ended up letting him come with them to open the lower levels. But no one told Carman that his job was done once the barrier was open, so he kept tagging along.
They didn't really want to keep him, but they also didn't want to take his sword from him, nor did they want to let him leave with the sword in case it was needed again later. The players kept making comments about "maybe he'll die along the way somewhere" but in character, they wanted to be "good" so they didn't want to help that happen.
Carman whined a bit. He clearly didn't understand why they were going to all this trouble - "The mayor isn't even paying you to do all this???" - although once they (finally) found some treasure, it began to make more sense to him. They even gave him a returning hammer so he'd be more effective.
He climbed down shafts with them to help destroy some oozes. He fought the basilisks with them, and Carman unfortunately succumbed to petrification - but since he had the sword, they had to unpetrify him. He was amazed that they saved him! Now they're his best friends!
Soon afterward, they encountered strange bounding beasties, and Carman (with his sword) was knocked down a hole into deep water. One of the PCs tossed an everburning torch, and Carman yelled out that he saw "big snaky heads floating on the water! They're all around me! They're popping up like daisies!" And since Carman still had the sword, they knew they had to save him. The PCs in the room above quickly tied off a rope even as they finished off the last bounder. Carman meanwhile dove to recover the Everburning Torch (they're worth money), then scrambled up onto a bank, taking one fearsome bite from the nearest hydra! The rope came down into reach, and Carman bravely leapt forward onto the hydra's back, evading one snapping tooth-filled maw, then climbed the rope to safety!
The party was beginning to appreciate Carman. Sure, he's selfish, and evil, and self-centered, and greedy, and obnoxious. Yeah, he's a jerk. But he's their jerk.
So with a newfound spirit of camaraderie, they ventured into a maze of narrow, twisting halls. Where they triggered a horrifying trap. It slices! It dices! Several members of the group took damage, including Carman. And while most of the group leapt to safety in an adjacent room, Carman was just too slow, and was struck by three more blades! (a crit, initiative, then a crit that dropped him below zero so Dying 2, and two more hits that took him directly to Dying 4). The party fighter, also struck by two of those blades, survived and grabbed as much of Carman as she could before leaping to safety. Alas, there was nothing the medic could do.
The party was saddened. "We were just beginning to sorta like the guy!" they proclaimed. It took them several minutes to gather themselves. (And Carman.)
tl;dr
That hallway trap is brutal! PCs who take damage from the initial triggering event can be taken out very quickly if too many of the blades end up in their section, especially if they lose initiative to the trap. Kind GMs may want to limit how many blades can threaten the PCs in the initial trigger and round 1.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
My group just got to that scything trap. 3 blades rolled for the hallway that had 3/4 of the party still. 2 of them are dying.
Rather than just brutally murder them, put the trap as last in initiative in round 1.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Is it intentional that you get XP for killing Chafkhem but not for using diplomacy on the encounter? A lot of encounters explicitly give the same XP for the non-violent solution. Feels a little bad. The 30 XP sidequest doesn't make up the difference.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Is it intentional that you get XP for killing Chafkhem but not for using diplomacy on the encounter? A lot of encounters explicitly give the same XP for the non-violent solution. Feels a little bad. The 30 XP sidequest doesn't make up the difference.
There's a couple places like this in the adventure. I've been giving full XP for bypassing/befriending any enemies even when it's not specifically noted. I want to reward this sort of behavior!
Is it intentional that you get XP for killing Chafkhem but not for using diplomacy on the encounter? A lot of encounters explicitly give the same XP for the non-violent solution. Feels a little bad. The 30 XP sidequest doesn't make up the difference.There's a couple places like this in the adventure. I've been giving full XP for bypassing/befriending any enemies even when it's not specifically noted. I want to reward this sort of behavior!
Yeah, I'm doing the same I think.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I don't understand the map of getting from C10 to D12.
On the map of level C if you take either side stair down you eventually will go down a central stair to the southeast.
But on the map of level D, you still see the 2 side stairways from c10, but now the central stair down goes northwest into d12. which is the opposite direction of what it show on map of level C.
My party just whooped up on Urevian (partially due to a bad call on my part involving Wall of Force and line of effect rules for spells, but I digress...)
Is there really no treasure listed for him?
Shenanigans are afoot in the laboratory level. The party fled the destrachan after it's seugathi researcher dropped the walls. I'm not entirely clear why the destrachan didn't attack the seugathi, but the text says the seugathi is in control. Still, I feel like the destrachan wouldn't necessarily return to captivity after chasing the party for a floor or two...
Meanwhile, after beating Shadow Malice in the battle of the bands, the party hired the waiting morlocks to clear the rubble from the tunnel on the arena level. Then the party set up the exhibition match between the skulk pugilist and and Warped Brew Tavern manager. Party then murdered the winner and took all the loot.
With the bar less crowded, they finally snuck behind the bar and into the kitchen. After finding the prisoners, the party tried to active the adjacent teleportation circle... And crit failed. Unleashing a void glutton.
It popped off from there as the drider bouncer realized people were trespassing. The party briefly skirmished with her before the void glutton gutted her. I opted to let the party escape the Glutton at the cost of losing an NPC prisoner... The rock gnome got caught, but the traumatized skulk lashed out and saved the gnome at the cost of her own life.
So now I have two CR 8 monsters running around loose, and I don't think I want them to just chill in their original place. I'm thinking the Void Glutton will murder Shadow Malice, but might eventually go find it's brethren in Belcorra's retreat.
Meanwhile, the destrachan will probably find the hired morlock crew and massacre them... And possibly blast it's way the remaining rubble. Having it plague the Otari countryside feels fun, though venturing above ground might be outside of its comfort zone as a cave dweller.
I don't understand the map of getting from C10 to D12.
On the map of level C if you take either side stair down you eventually will go down a central stair to the southeast.
But on the map of level D, you still see the 2 side stairways from c10, but now the central stair down goes northwest into d12. which is the opposite direction of what it show on map of level C.
I'm just going to say that the single staircase from C10 to D12 comes to another landing that has another pair of stairs on either side that circle back down to the area and connect with the two staircases on D12. It's the only way really to make those two maps connect, because you're right, those two designs as drawn don't connect at all!
I'm having the same issue with the stairs dropping down from C20 into C26, because the stairs start at B26 and go all the way down into the arena, but you also see stairs coming from C20 in the same spot. To solve this, I just blocked off the stairs at C20 and made the arena inaccessible from that observation deck.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
B2. Large Monster Holding. There's a Rusty Grate Pit (Hazard 6) with a Stealth DC 0.
Is that "Stealh DC 0" a typo?
I'm looking over the Building Hazards rules, and all of its stats seem to align with a Hazard 6 Low challenge, about the middle point of the range, so it would seem that a DC 20 would have been what would be expected.
I'm not saying I want a player to fall into the pit...but I really want a player to fall into the pit. :)
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
B2. Large Monster Holding. There's a Rusty Grate Pit (Hazard 6) with a Stealth DC 0.
Is that "Stealh DC 0" a typo?
I'm looking over the Building Hazards rules, and all of its stats seem to align with a Hazard 6 Low challenge, about the middle point of the range, so it would seem that a DC 20 would have been what would be expected.
I'm not saying I want a player to fall into the pit...but I really want a player to fall into the pit. :)
In my hardcover compilation version, it says this grate pit is "Stealth DC20 (expert), or 0 if the grate is open."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
In my hardcover compilation version, it says this grate pit is "Stealth DC20 (expert), or 0 if the grate is open."
So now I have the hardcover compilation version, and I see that change. I've also noted two other changes from the booklet:
- they removed the two shadows in Smuggler's Refuge!
- they fixed the map issue in C20 (Hardcover F20) to block off the stairs so they only come down from B26.
Anyone have their players take the imp up on the offer for the Devils Luck contract? And following on that, any good ideas for fake info on failures and crit fails to decipher the contract?
My players are about to remove the barrier on Floor 4. I replaced "ask people in town for the Roseguard Icons and they turn them over immediately" with some customized sidequests for each of the PCs.
The party asked Oseph for help earlier and he turned over the Cooperative Blade to them early! They've managed to mollify Carman by promising to return the sword to him when they're done with it, so I think they're just going to get away with the Fighter getting punched in the mouth once over it and Carman's not going to pull his stunt.
Very excited to see how this goes once they get to Urevian!
|
I know it's a pretty standard convention, but I wish the map numbering did not revert to A with the start of this book. I doubt many people will run book 2 or book 3 on its own, and it would make more sense to have the map numbered sequentially since it's all one big dungeon. So maps A through K instead of A-B-C-D-A-B-C-D-A-B-C.
I totally agree. Very confusing.
Just noticed Carman isn't trained in Crafting. Oversight, or intentional since he won the business in a dice game? He carries hammers around which implies he can actually smith, but I am amused by the idea that he can't.
So there are morlocks and other creatures waiting to have fleshwarp done on them on level 6... where are they coming from? Do they just come up from level 8 without Urevian or his guards stopping them? .. and once they've had their operation, do they just go back down into the dark unchallenged?
Also, isn't the vault a little small to contain an army to take Absolom?
.
There are at least a couple points where the Vaults connect to the Darklands in ways that go "beyond the scope of this adventure." And the lower areas of the vault are quite roomy. Plus, an army doesn't necessarily constitute a million troops when you can teleport level 15 monsters around.
|
|
So the teleportation circle from the Mead Hall to the Testing Grounds sends them there with the sigil "challenger" on their forehead. And "victor" when they return.
I don't see anything that otherwise changes how these teleportation circles work. Is there anything to prevent the PC from using the circle to travel to the Testing Grounds and immediately return? The change of the sigil implies that maybe they need to actually prevail in the Testing Grounds, and the circle is described as "charred" but the text doesn't say that this end is broken.
As far as I can see, there is nothing to keep them in the Testing Grounds if they just want to bail out. Did anyone handle this differently?
|
So the teleportation circle from the Mead Hall to the Testing Grounds sends them there with the sigil "challenger" on their forehead. And "victor" when they return.
I don't see anything that otherwise changes how these teleportation circles work. Is there anything to prevent the PC from using the circle to travel to the Testing Grounds and immediately return? The change of the sigil implies that maybe they need to actually prevail in the Testing Grounds, and the circle is described as "charred" but the text doesn't say that this end is broken.
As far as I can see, there is nothing to keep them in the Testing Grounds if they just want to bail out. Did anyone handle this differently?
I allowed them to teleport back as they were badly outclassed by the destrachan but the magic of the circle put the word "loser" on their foreheads, which seemed punishment enough and in keeping with the intention of the setup.
On the Stat block for Urevian, it shows he has Wall of Force as a 5th level spell, but isn't it a 6th level spell?
Is that intentional, or simply a typo?