Seven Dooms of Sandpoint (GM Reference)

[grandpoobah]

How do the PCs put Jervis Stoot to rest after defeating his ghost? The adventure suggests taking out the Red Bishop.

In general, how do PCs figure out how to put a ghost to rest? I've always found this difficult. There's little indication why the ghost was released from his previous haunting spot, and even then - he's been there for years (or potentially only recently if the Red Bishop was the one that "woke" him up)

I was thinking of having the PCS do some Level 9 Research activities with Society, Diplomacy, SandPoint Lore, Occultism, Religion, etc.

But I don't want to give away the Red Bishop yet. Maybe they can learn to put the songbird head someplace safe - or learn that someone/something sinister woke him up and they still need to find that thing and defeat it.

Any other thoughts?

[James Jacobs]

When you include a ghost in an adventure...

Spoiler:

... you should always include the method by which that ghost is put to rest. Indeed, in this case, defeating the Red Bishop (the one who caused Stoot's transformation into a serial killer in the first place) defeats the source of his malevolence and puts that ghost to rest.

As for how the PCs figure it out? If the adventure doesn't give exact reasons, then this is a great time to rely upon Recall Knowledge. If the adventure doesn't go into greater detail you can assume that it's not a significant plot point for putting the ghost to rest, and that creating an entire research task about it is a bit over the top—UNLESS you want to lean into that plot thread as a GM.

Otherwise, having the PCs attempt a Recall Knowledge using a skill that's appropriate to the ghost in question (not always Religion) to figure out how to put them to rest—either after they encounter them once and see them in action, or after they hear a ghost story about their history—is the best way to handle that.

In this case, I'd suggest a Society or Sandpoint Lore check against the standard DC for a level 11 creature like Stoot, which is DC 28. On a sucess, I'd tell the PC "To put him to rest, you need to defeat the source of what distorted his soul in the first place and drove him to become a pattern killer, but in the meantime keep the songbird somewhere isolated so he won't come back to reclaim it." On a critical success, I'd tell them "The source of his corruption is Pazuzu, and that source is still active in the region—seek it out and destroy it to put Stoot to rest."

At this point, the PCs should be pretty close to finishing the adventure anyway, so maybe use the results of this to point them back into the depths of the Pit, with the reasoning being "there's an awful lot of demonic stuff in there... maybe that has somethign to do with it?"

[Sephalopod]

Not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but I'm having a bit of difficulty with what to do with Asmarelli.

The party came in through the boarded up door from the higher floor, defeated the ogre guarding her room, and then doubled back on themselves and took out all the rest of the cultists. They now want to head back to town.

Given that Asmarelli is described in the book as only up on that second floor to "mind the children" and would rather be with Jordus Munt - And also that she's smart and will be ready if she hears fighting - I'm struggling to work out what she would do if the party decides to explore the rest of the pit floor on a future day.

Could I add her to the Ascended Cultists down below, adding her to Jordus' crew? I'm concerned about removing XP from the floor they're on, as they've only *just* hit level 6. Does anyone have any experience with making these sorts of adjustments?