This is a spoiler-filled resource thread for the third volume of the Blood Lords AP, Field of Maidens by Jenny Jarzabski.
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I think this is my favorite volume of the AP so far. Chapter 1 is a series of mini-dungeons with good potential for RP in between. Seldeg Bhedlis as a traveling companion is very fun. I love the way chapter 2 is written with the multitude of approaches that players can take, and the back matter on Holomog is captivating. Not sure how I feel about the dollhouse dungeon in chapter 3 yet, but either way it’s a quick detour and doesn’t take up the bulk of the chapter.
I find it very interesting that the PCs find out who the ultimate villain of the AP is at the end of this book but can’t do anything about it. I hope book 4 gives solid guidance on what to do if the PCs try ratting Kemnebi out to Geb.
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It escalates by having the PCs personally approached by Seldeg Bhedlis, Geb’s head graveknight, to go after Iron Taviah, so there’s some extra responsibility being thrown their way. But I’d say the biggest change is that it sees the PCs interacting with people outside of Geb for the first time, and they have more autonomy than ever in how they approach it. They could be diplomatic with the factions in Holomog, they could turn them against each other, or just kill them all.
Oh, and at the very end of the adventure, Geb asks the PCs to stand in front of him personally.
This AP seems interesting but I am just on the cusp on being fully sold.
Do we know of there are any uses or ties for Reputation in this book? I was hoping the AP would have more political intrigue but even the reputation system has had little impact in the AP so far.
I think I would be sorely disappointed if that system didnt get used for 50% of the story.
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This AP seems interesting but I am just on the cusp on being fully sold.
Do we know of there are any uses or ties for Reputation in this book? I was hoping the AP would have more political intrigue but even the reputation system has had little impact in the AP so far.
I think I would be sorely disappointed if that system didnt get used for 50% of the story.
I would expect that to come into play more fully once the players become Blood Lords themselves.
Um... who is Aeolaeka
Page 83, also known as "stone azatas."
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In Chapter 2, Lasheeli Aminda has come to the Field of Maidens to retrieve the statues that were once her aunt and grandmother, whom her profile on page 90 says she barely knew.
"Barely" being the keyword that confuses the hell out of me. Lasheeli is stated on page 41 to be in her early 20s. Geb created the Field of Maidens nearly 400 years before the events of the Adventure Path.
Putting aside the question of how long-lived Lasheeli's mother must have been when it's clearly implied she and her sister are the first aasimar in many generations, how does Lasheeli "barely" remember family members that died nearly 400 years before she was concieved?
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I made some adjustments to the set-up of Chapter 1 for roleplaying and continuity reasons.
First, instead of separate conversations with both Berline and Ortagar, I had Berline send Mhyurk with a dinner invitation. Mhyurk arrived within minutes of Seldeg leaving the party’s manor, and the invitation stated the theme of the dinner party was “Gossip!” In addition to the PCs, Ortagar was another guest for dinner. Ortagar and Berline divided up the content that Berline was to share.
For gossip, Berline shared the story about the woman pledging servitude to the reanimators; Ortagar shared a story about how he and Berline played a joke on Governor Seven-Stomachs by inviting him to a dinner party, while both of them wore clown suits, telling the governor this fashion is all the rage in Yled right now – and that Seven-Stomach’s hosted his latest council meeting in his own clown suit. Then they asked the party for their gossip (Berline being quite interested in what’s up with Seldeg).
I removed all of the content from the dinner party where Ortagar spoke about Taviah’s cottage and the shadows. From a continuity perspective, that didn’t make sense to me. The cottage is at least two-days travel from Graydirge. Before the PCs visited the cottage, none of Berline’s sources knew exactly where it was. And the forest itself is portrayed as being threatening and dangerous. So it was a stretch for me for Ortagar to have a contact who glimpsed Taviah at her cottage (or for that matter, have such informed knowledge about Taviah’s shadowy fate).
Instead I created a new scene to share this information. Since Seldeg’s latest information placed Taviah in Thornhearth, the fastest and most direct route would involve taking a trail that cut through the Axan Wood. While on the trail, the party once again encountered Drusilla (the fey/huldra from Graydirge), along with her new house spirit, Smirtlbin (who Drusilla took in after the cottage turned carnivorous, recognizing that they had both been victims of Taviah). Drusilla thanked the party for avenging her true love Neboah, but then shared what the PCs already knew: that Iron Taviah has returned.
Then Smirtlbin, who still has a strong otherworldly connection with the cottage, says that the shadows that consumed Taviah when she was defeated have now returned her. Seldeg can then speculate that this could be the work of shadowcasters, or other specialists in shadow magic, and that a short detour to the cottage could well be worthwhile. If Smirtlbin did not survive the encounter with the PCs in Graveclaw, his information could alternately be provided by Drusilla.
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In Chapter 2, Lasheeli Aminda has come to the Field of Maidens to retrieve the statues that were once her aunt and grandmother, whom her profile on page 90 says she barely knew.
"Barely" being the keyword that confuses the hell out of me. Lasheeli is stated on page 41 to be in her early 20s. Geb created the Field of Maidens nearly 400 years before the events of the Adventure Path.
Putting aside the question of how long-lived Lasheeli's mother must have been when it's clearly implied she and her sister are the first aasimar in many generations, how does Lasheeli "barely" remember family members that died nearly 400 years before she was concieved?
Unfortunately book 3's main characters are underdeveloped and have plot holes. Kerinza, Lasheeli, and Rhino all have motivations that make little sense and needed a lot more development. Maybe victims of the page count? For Lasheeli, I'm running it like her aunt and grandmother were afflicted with the Curse of Stone from the Stone Sisters in the field of maidens instead of them being soldiers from ~400 years prior, which as you pointed out doesn't make any sense.
I'm still struggling to make Kerinza make sense.
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In Chapter 2, Lasheeli Aminda has come to the Field of Maidens to retrieve the statues that were once her aunt and grandmother, whom her profile on page 90 says she barely knew.
"Barely" being the keyword that confuses the hell out of me. Lasheeli is stated on page 41 to be in her early 20s. Geb created the Field of Maidens nearly 400 years before the events of the Adventure Path.
Putting aside the question of how long-lived Lasheeli's mother must have been when it's clearly implied she and her sister are the first aasimar in many generations, how does Lasheeli "barely" remember family members that died nearly 400 years before she was concieved?
I made a very subtle change to Lasheeli's background regarding the statues she is seeking to retrieve. I had them be Aminda ancestors from the time of the pirate queen's invasion of Geb. I also made an adjustment to the curses on the Aminda family - that the excesses of Omwa Daol is what led to the downfall of the family over generations, but that the curse of sickness and weakness that afflicted her ancestors began with the generations immediately after the two Amindas were turned to stone and abandoned on the Field of Maidens.
With the ascension of Celeste Aminda to Omwa, one of the curses on the Amindas appears to be broken. But the ancestors haunting her dreams suggest that the second curse remains. It may have skipped Lasheeli and Celeste, but it lurks waiting to come back on future generations. For the sake of her future children and those of her sister, Lasheeli has been driven to the Field of Maidens to bring her lost ancestors home.
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I am running Blood Lords for my group on Foundry, using the official AP for it, and for the most part this book is pretty good. I did however run into kind of a DM trap tonight. In Gristlehall there is a Fossil Golem, and this creature has several things going on, but the one thing that caught us off-guard was its Fossilizing Touch. On a hit, it forces a Fort Save (with a decently high DC) that on first failure, causes the target to become Slow 1 for one minute. Then the next time a target is hit with the effect that also has Slow 1 from it, they become petrified permanently. This is the first time the group had anything do that to them, and one player wound up petrified. This derailed the adventure, forcing the group to leave Gristlehall and make an emergency trip to Mechitar, the closest city. Here is why it was a problem. First, there is nothing in Gristlehall that can fix this, it also is a level before the party can cast Stone to Flesh, so they cannot inherently handle it either. Also the map for Mechitar doesn't appear in the Foundry AP until the next book (Ghouls Hunger). So this is a bit of a trap that could force the DM to have to either be really fast on their feet, or break the session to set the stage for the party to fix it. I just wanted to make other folks running the AP aware of this in the tail end of Field of Maidens so they can plan for/counter this situation in advance.
I appreciate the flag on this big time. My group will soon be reaching Gristlehall. My first thought based on your insight was to give Lasheeli a greater Salve of Antiparalysis (based on stories that the Stone Sisters can cause petrification). She would either give the PCs the salve once she was ready to return to Holomog, or the PCs would find it on her after her defeat.
However, while prepping for the encounter with The Rhino I realized that there is a means to unpetrify a character within this adventure, but it's subtle and well hidden - and only works if the PCs succeed at gaining influence with The Rhino.
The Nwanyian's Aeolaeka Azata guardian has Stone to Flesh at 6th level. Furthermore, the border to Nwanyi is not far from Gristlehall, with Gristlehall being basically on the route home for The Rhino's company.
My PCs had a successful recall knowledge on the Aeolaeka when visiting The Rhino's camp and learned about the stone/earth based spells the Aeolaeka has at its disposal. But in theory, The Rhino could also boast about these abilities as part of her cover story – claiming to bring the guardian because she believes (incorrectly) that the Aeolaeka can unpetrify Stone Sisters.
Since my PCs were successful in their parlays with The Rhino, I'm going to use the Aeolaeka as my backdoor should anyone get petrified in Gristlehall. The Nwanyian troop will move more slowly than the PCs on their route home to Holomog. The PCs will emerge from Gristlehall and see the tell-tale sign of smoke from the Nwanyian camp a few miles away. That will provide another roleplaying opportunity with The Rhino where they can creatively insult each other.
In Chapter 2, Lasheeli Aminda has come to the Field of Maidens to retrieve the statues that were once her aunt and grandmother, whom her profile on page 90 says she barely knew.
"Barely" being the keyword that confuses the hell out of me. Lasheeli is stated on page 41 to be in her early 20s. Geb created the Field of Maidens nearly 400 years before the events of the Adventure Path.
Putting aside the question of how long-lived Lasheeli's mother must have been when it's clearly implied she and her sister are the first aasimar in many generations, how does Lasheeli "barely" remember family members that died nearly 400 years before she was concieved?Unfortunately book 3's main characters are underdeveloped and have plot holes. Kerinza, Lasheeli, and Rhino all have motivations that make little sense and needed a lot more development. Maybe victims of the page count? For Lasheeli, I'm running it like her aunt and grandmother were afflicted with the Curse of Stone from the Stone Sisters in the field of maidens instead of them being soldiers from ~400 years prior, which as you pointed out doesn't make any sense.
I'm still struggling to make Kerinza make sense.
Yeah, Kerinza isn't making sense to me. She summons the characters to her abode, yet strangers entering her private home is "terrifying" to Kerinza? So to protect her, they lock her in the bedroom closet AND the maid is welcoming the PCs to tea as they enter??
I'm thinking she willingly invites them, but unbeknownst to her her soulbound dolls have interpreted her instruction "protect me" crudely. Now that they know that strange people are visiting (which has never happened before) they lock up Kerinza... but their other orders to welcome guests for tea are also in effect. So they're under conflicting instructions
Been trying to prepare chapter 1 of book 3, and I am not sure what the deal with YSHULA is
What does it want from the players, and when does it want to give them the key?
Says it will give the players the key if they are allied, but what do it want the players to do?
I have a PC in my party that has a close tie with Kemnebi. She was a jungle elf displaced by Mastrien Slash's advance, and as a child was taken in by Kemnebi at Gristlehall. As she got older she was given vampirism by Kemnebi himself, so she is a vetalarana too. I'm concerned it might be too obvious too early that Kemnebi is responsible because of how much she knows about being a vetalarana. I was thinking I would delay some of the clues (specifically those in Thornhearth), and then later on try to convince her that it was actually her who turned Taviah into a vetalarana. Any suggestions for this situation?
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If I recall correctly, this is the adventure that reveals at the end that Kemnebi is the one behind the poison plot. The issue for the PCs becomes establishing enough evidence and political capital to safely expose him.
Delaying the clues early is a great option. Another way to play it might be to lean into the vetalarana angle as in the PC believes from their personal history that Kemneni would be direly offended by someone putting a stain on what it is to be vetalarana. That he would want to eliminate such a scourge to the "bloodline".
How did you handle the influence system for this book? Any changes?
And I am a bit confused about this part:
"The entire party is assumed to work
together, so influence rounds include every character"
So is it 1 roll for the entire party, or does each member roll and increase influence each "round" ? And does it increase for each member or only once each round?
thanks!