Creative Director
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When you include a ghost in an adventure...
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?"
I was wondering this about the maps as well. Map tags off does not remove the traps for Whistlefang Lair which is absolutely annoying. Any luck finding something that works?I'm starting some long term prep for this one, and i was thinking. I would like to have the maps of the level of the pit professionally printed.
I was wondering if anyone knew of versions of the maps available that have had the secret doors and areas removed. The map pack that comes as a PDF has the ability to remove labels, but it doesn't appear to have a 'player friendly' version as some have had in the past.
Not yet. I will likely end up photo shopping (well gimp) my own versions to have printed.
If and when I do I will be sure to post them here for other people to use, assuming thats kosher with paizo forum policy (I'm not selling it, and it's something paizo doesn't have available for sale, so I would think it would be fine but someone please let me know if not)
Did you ever do this? I will be running Seven Dooms soon and this would save me the trouble of doing it myself.
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Do y'all have any tips on creating a stronger tie between Rusthenge and Sandpoint?
My players started with Rusthenge and are now 5th level in Sandpoint (with the Town Council meeting on the immediate horizon).
What I did was have each character have a reason they wanted to get to Sandpoint. (The cleric was going to become the Abadar cleric in the Cathedral, for instance.)
Then I had them all on a Varisian ship called The Bladed Scarf, which was downed in an unseasonably furious Desnan-storm shipwreck off the coast of Chakikoth Isle. (And one of my favorite GM moves in quite a while: one of the Varisian sailors, a suave Lothario braggart, claimed, just as the storm was coming in, that he had seen Desna, butterfly wings and all, in the rigging, come to grant him a kiss. He DID see a winged figure ... it was, of course, the Red Bishop.)
Once the PCs bonded in and under Iron Harbor, and finally got a ride to Sandpoint on The Swordfish, it was smooth sailing from there. So to speak.
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What extras have people put together for the adventure that might be useful for other GMs? For example, I:
(1) Created a listing of Sandpoint Info for each character based on their skills and background. Some of the info overlaps, but by the nature of character backgrounds, most of it doesn't. For example, one of my PCs is a gnome whose extended family sails up and down the Lost Coast, with Sandpoint being a port-of-call. So he knows a lot about the gnomes, arcanists, and magic item vendors in the town.
(2) I created a streamlined listing of all the locations in Sandpoint, with brief NPC info, and room to make notes in play. I invented a lot of NPCs for this. For example, I have the staff of the Sandpoint Cathedral listed, which is many more NPCs that in either 7D4S or Light of the Lost Coast.
(3) I did a bespoke, incremental, format to read for the call spirit ritual. Because I love the old Deryni books, I used a lot of that kind of language (calling the quarters and so on). My players really enjoyed it.
(4) I wrote a vignette where the cleric of Abadar PC saw an absolutely emotionally wrecked Zantus and Audrahni dancing in the Cathedral, saying their goodbyes. The strong implication was that in Abstalar's youth the two were lovers, and he's never full gotten over it.
(5) I wrote up short summaries of the seven factions, going through the adventure (and Light of the Lost Coast) to list (and often invent) the membership of the factions.
(6) I've done semi-detailed write-ups of all 37(!) outlying farms, including inhabitants, livestock, crops, and interesting trivia. (total population of the farms in my Sandpoint? 172!) I also divided the farms into "sub-regions" with their own names. For example, the farms the farthest distance from Sandpoint are called the "Hell and Gone" farms, and -- shhh! -- they're enmeshed in a (non-murdery) Norgorber cult.
(If anybody's interested in any of this stuff, please feel free to email me: jeff dot wilder at gmail dot com. I can provide as Word doc or PDF. Just be aware that some of it mentioned the PCs in my game, so minor changes would be needed.)
Did you ever do this? I will be running Seven Dooms soon and this would save me the trouble of doing it myself.
We extracted the maps that needed tag removal (all but the Pit/Area C maps) from the original Interactive Maps PDF and Photoshopped them to clean them up. I don't know if they are fit to print (the native resolution on several of them is around 64 pixels per square) because I use the MapTool VTT, but I would be happy to share them if we can confirm that it's allowed.
Just have it affect everyone in the party. 95% of PCs pre-remaster weren't Chaotic Evil, so it'll have the same result.
Unless someone in your party is playing a character that is sanctified unholy or did something particularly vile recently, then have it not affect them.
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Creative Director
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In Chapter 6, there is a Hazard in G3 called The Watching Lords that only affects non-chaotic-evil creatures. How did people handle this in the Remaster where there is no alignment?
In a remastered world, it gets a bit murkier, but unholy creatures and creatures who worship fiends or other sinister cults should not be affected. Everyone else can trigger it. Means the GM needs to be more willing to make judgment calls, of course.
If I were to remaster this encounter, I'd say it was triggered by everyone except for unholy creatures and those who willingly serve or worship unholy creatures, which means all the NPCs and monsters further in can come and go without fear of triggering the trap.
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Creative Director
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So I'm prepapring to run Seven Dooms for my group and it's a great and lovely read through.
I do have a question though: In Chapter 8 J6 Vekensvok is mentioned wielding a mithral scythe against the party. But what are the modifiers and damage numbers for the scythe? Are they different from an Intellect Devourers talon strikes?
When occupying the lampad's body, as mentioned in the tactics for them on the third paragraph of the 2nd column, mentions that they use the earthen fist Strike (using the lampad's normal values, as detailed on page 188 of Pathfinder Bestiary 3) rather than use the mithral sickle (not scythe). There's not a lot of reason for them to favor the sickle (which would probably just do 1d4+2 damage) when the earthen fist does 2d10+2 damage. This is further explained on that area's Treasure entry, that they only used it as a harvesting tool for the reasons listed. AKA: That sickle is in there as treasure for the PCs, not as an attack option for the monster.
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I'm still a little new to the rules, but I'm a bit confused on selling/buying gear and Settlement rules. It seems that Sandpoint is a Settlement 4, which means PCs can buy/sell items with a level equal to or lower than 4. However, I noticed that different locations within Sandpoint have higher or lower levels (e.g. Brodert's House is Location 7 while Rovanky Tannery is Location 3). Does this mean PCs can purchase/sell items greater than level 4 at these specific shops (assuming it makes narrative sense)? If not, where do PCs go to sell their high-level gear? Magnimar?
I'm still a little new to the rules, but I'm a bit confused on selling/buying gear and Settlement rules. It seems that Sandpoint is a Settlement 4, which means PCs can buy/sell items with a level equal to or lower than 4. However, I noticed that different locations within Sandpoint have higher or lower levels (e.g. Brodert's House is Location 7 while Rovanky Tannery is Location 3). Does this mean PCs can purchase/sell items greater than level 4 at these specific shops (assuming it makes narrative sense)? If not, where do PCs go to sell their high-level gear? Magnimar?
I'm not sure on the official ruling of it, but I've been having it be based on the location with Settlement 4 being the default if there's no other information.
Unless your group just wants to trek to Magnimar for a "shopping episode", I recommend making higher level gear available *to order* from the shops in town. Folks like Quink and Vorvashali Voon would have contacts in Magnimar (or elsewhere) and could, with time (and potentially an upcharge/owed favor), get just about anything.
IIRC, Magnimar is a two day round trip from Sandpoint, so I'd say a week is a fair amount of time for something to arrive. We've been doing that for so long, my players make orders well enough in advance that I haven't been as diligent in tracking it as I could be. They're also Admired by the Runewatchers, so I assume Quink and the gang are pulling some strings for them.
For example, they knew they would be wanting Resilient armor runes, so they mentioned it to Quink well before the runes would be level appropriate. He didn't get them in until it made sense level-wise, but the advance notice meant he had some in stock. The party still had to apply the runes, etc.
James Jacobs responded to a similar question (to me, I think) regarding levels in settlements. The individual shop/NPC levels are for interactions, not earn income tasks, e.g., if you get into an influence encounter, use the NPC's (or store's) level.