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This is a spoiler-filled resource thread for the second volume of the Gatewalkers AP, They Watched the Stars by Jason Keeley.
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The sidebar on page 33 refers to the Brimgate Walker character background in the Gatewalkers Player's Guide, but said player's guide contains no such background. I'm guessing that it got cut for space, but perhaps Jason or someone else at Paizo might care to enlighten us?
I'm curious given that this adventure path involves Ainamuuren and the saumen kar, if there will be an opportunity to take the Pactbound Initiate archetype from Lost Omens: Monsters of Myth? Seems very thematically appropriate.
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The sidebar on page 33 refers to the Brimgate Walker character background in the Gatewalkers Player's Guide, but said player's guide contains no such background. I'm guessing that it got cut for space, but perhaps Jason or someone else at Paizo might care to enlighten us?
Even the name, "Brimgate Walker" doesn't resemble the names of the other backgrounds. Either there was some renaming involved, or as you say, something got cut between the player's guide and the actual AP books.
I introduced back up characters going off with Ritalson in our first session.
Other options:
Ritalson has found a key and needs its gate checked out.
If you are not too worried about canon, I would put a gate in Sakuachi's path.
Or their deviant abilities keep them alive/immune to the fatal effects of the whale & sakuachi just needs to get her comatose friends to a better healer.
She could be a better healer as well (it is her destiny to meet the party ater all, perhaps she got them all back without knowing why (she has the mark--deviant ability is an adventure-team-recovery-unit).
Or maybe they go through a gate and end up Egede instead.
Or it is just a group that has been at odds with the folks in control of Egede (their living evil test being so questionable a test.)
Or you give everyone's character the summoner archetype and to they need to travel to Sarkoros (sp?) to learn about their god-caller abilities.
I'm curious about Zolivelli's LE alignment, not sure if that's some very deep corruption in Iomedae's priest in Egede or if it's just a typo.
Seems like nothing in the plot points towards her being more than a minor antagonist, but it would be nice if this was confirmed somewhere.
Creative Director
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I'm curious about Zolivelli's LE alignment, not sure if that's some very deep corruption in Iomedae's priest in Egede or if it's just a typo.
Seems like nothing in the plot points towards her being more than a minor antagonist, but it would be nice if this was confirmed somewhere.
Off the top of my head it sounds like a typo and they should be LG. A LE worshiper of Iomedae would be so strange and blasphemeous and wrong that such a character should be the focus of an entire Adventure, if not an Adventure Path. And even then unlikely to be something we publish since the whole "Evil NPC cleric worships good deity and seems to have that deity's permission to be evil" is a trope that is destructive and gross and not something that we'd likely do in a Pathfinder Adventure.
I didn't read this book but... let's assume that a lawful evil man recently decided to worship Iomedae and, while technically still evil and thus still subject to champions' Smite Evil, he's actively trying to become less evil than before... In this case, can this man be considered to have Iomedae's (temporary) permission to be evil?
By the way, I just realized that, in Second Edition, Smite Evil does not specify the target's alignment should be evil. Does that mean if a good champion wrongfully mistook a good goblin for a murderous raider used Smite Evil on him, this Smite Evil would still work?
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Creative Director
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I didn't read this book but... let's assume that a lawful evil man recently decided to worship Iomedae and, while technically still evil and thus still subject to champions' Smite Evil, he's actively trying to become less evil than before... In this case, can this man be considered to have Iomedae's (temporary) permission to be evil?
By the way, I just realized that, in Second Edition, Smite Evil does not specify the target's alignment should be evil. Does that mean if a good champion wrongfully mistook a good goblin for a murderous raider used Smite Evil on him, this Smite Evil would still work?
That'd be a GM's call. If it were in print, it would require a fair amount of text to give that NPC direction and support and flavor so it would be obvious whether that NPC was trying to do better, taking advantage of the faith, or something in-between, so that we would avoid folks taking away from the encounter that Iomedae allows evil worshipers to be evil.
As for the second question... the extra damage caused by Smite Evil is good damage. Good damage only harms creatures that have an Evil alignment. So if a champion uses Smite Evil on a creature that's not Lawful Evil, Neutral Evil, or Chaotic Evil, the extra damage doesn't hurt them, and the champion will know this and immediately realize they made a mistake that they might need to atone for (or at least apologize for and provide healing for the damage they DID do with their weapon). I'd say that a champion who used Smite Evil regularly as a way to "detect evil" wouldn't be a champion for long.
I didn't read this book but... let's assume that a lawful evil man recently decided to worship Iomedae and, while technically still evil and thus still subject to champions' Smite Evil, he's actively trying to become less evil than before... In this case, can this man be considered to have Iomedae's (temporary) permission to be evil?
Addition to what James said, because I feel there's another valuable distinction to be mentioned: if an evil person has just started worshipping Iomedae, they are not likely to have any of the training or temperament to become on of her clerics or champions. Any creature may throw a dart at a board and say they worship that deity regardless whether they follow the actual tenets (though I believe boons and curses are exactly the sort of tool for a lay character who repeatedly pays devotion to a deity whose tenets they violate).
In short, to me a LE creature who has chosen to worship Iomedae does not inherently have her permission to be evil because they don't need it to exist... but if they don't reform very soon after, they may find that calling on her name gets their attention enough to earn attention of her curse. To become a cleric takes more than just saying that you've switched teams, so I don't imagine any circumstance where an evil cleric can simply declare their deity changed and gain powers for it without first putting in the work to align oneself with that deity and their teachings - although as always what happens at other tables is up to their interests.
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The map for Nettleglens Clearing is pretty contradictory to the text of the encounter and larger map for Valmar's Burrow beneath, needing something like 15-foot squares to have the 2-1/2 squares of the well match up to 40 feet wide in the text. It's properly sized in the Foundry VTT version of the map, at least.
This does make the encounter against slow, tiny creatures a bit odd, but I actually like it as a chance to show off their ranged acid spit.
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I haven't run this yet, but running Alkoasha (the 10-headed cave worm/hydra) as a trivial threat encounter seems like a wasted opportunity with how excellent the art turned out. Some really great visuals for them and Ymynsallion's corpse.
Here's my take on a remastered 9th-level version of the creature if anyone else finds it useful for a moderate encounter here, I'm thinking of removing two brimoraks from the arson demon encounter to keep a trivial encounter in the section:
Alkoasha - Creature 9
Huge, Beast
Perception +21; low-light vision, scent (imprecise) 30 feet
Skills Athletics +22, Stealth +17 (+20 in water)
Str +7, Dex +4, Con +6, Int -3, Wis +3, Cha -1
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AC 27; all-around vision; Fort +19, Ref +16, Will +14
HP 150 ((body), hydra regeneration)
HP 25 ((head), Alkoasha's head regrowth); Immunities area damage; Weaknesses slashing 6
Alkoasha's Head Regrowth Alkoasha ordinarily has 10 heads. A creature can attempt to sever one of the hydra’s heads by specifically targeting it and dealing damage equal to the head’s Hit Points. A head that is not completely severed returns to full Hit Points at the end of any creature’s turn. A hydra can regrow a severed head using Hydra Regeneration. A creature can prevent this regrowth by dealing acid or fire damage to the stump, cauterizing it. Single-target acid or fire effects need to be targeted at a specific stump, but effects that deal splash damage or affect areas covering the hydra’s whole space cauterize all stumps if they deal acid or fire damage. If the attack that severs a head deals any acid or fire damage, the stump is cauterized instantly. If all ten heads are cauterized, Alkoasha dies.
Hydra Regeneration The hydra has regeneration equal to 3 x the number of heads it has. If Alkoasha’s body is missing any heads and the remaining stumps have not been cauterized, the hydra attempts a DC 30 Fortitude save after it regains Hit Points from regeneration. On a success, one uncauterized stump regrows one head; on a critical success, two uncauterized stumps regrow into one head each. The hydra’s regeneration only fully deactivates if all its heads are severed and all stumps are cauterized, at which point it dies.
Reactive Heads A hydra gains an extra reaction per round for each of its heads beyond the first, which it can use only to make Reactive Strikes. It can’t use more than 1 reaction on the same triggering action, even if a creature leaves several squares within its reach, and the hydra must use a different head for each Reactive Strike it makes. Whenever one of the hydra’s heads is severed, the hydra loses 1 of its extra reactions per round.
Reactive Strike [reaction] (see reactive heads)
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Speed 25 feet, burrow 25 feet
Melee [one-action] fangs +20 (reach 10 feet), Damage 2d6+11 piercing
Focused Assault [two-actions] The hydra attacks a single target with its heads, overwhelming its foe with multiple attacks and leaving almost nowhere to dodge. The hydra Strikes with its fangs. On a successful attack, the hydra deals damage from its fangs Strike to the target, plus an additional 1d6 damage for every head it has beyond the first. Even on a failed attack, the hydra deals the damage from one fangs Strike to the target creature, though it still misses completely on a critical failure. This counts toward the hydra’s multiple attack penalty as a number of attacks equal to the number of heads the hydra has.
Storm of Jaws [two-actions] The hydra makes a number of Strikes up to its number of heads, each against a different target. These attacks count toward the hydra’s multiple attack penalty, but the multiple attack penalty doesn’t increase until after the hydra makes all its attacks.
My party is about to start this book, and I'm getting a bit more into the details of upcoming encounters. One thing I noticed was that the myroga "starts off with a salvo of Ley Line Bolts", but that ability doesn't seem to be mentioned on the monster stat block. I assume it was cut for space, and that I should use Ley Line Empowerment followed by Rupture instead. Has anyone else noticed or done something similar in their game?
Ley Line + rupture is what I did. :)
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Ugh, this book caused the Glass Cannon to cancel their Gatewalkers Podcast. No one was having any fun playing this adventure.