Book 3 Questions *SPOILERS*

[itaitai]

My players will soon step into Karahai to relight the lantern and i'm wondering how other GMs ran this part.

How did your players get in and move about the fortress without being seen? It is said that during the day there are merchants in the periphery path while during the night most of the NPCs are asleep, making the player to possibly miss every interesting encounter.

About the terror points. How would the players know to haunt and scare the the fortress NPCs without me outright telling them they can do it?
The book gives an example of setting up a grisly scene with a body, but why would they do it on their own volition?
It feels weird guiding them into doing stuff their character wouldn't naturally do on their own.

Also, it is said that the fortress is shielded against incorporeal creatures.
They can't pass through walls and require 3 actions to pass through doors.
However, i didn't see anywhere that implies the players are incorporeal and can pass through objects. Did i maybe miss it?

[taks]

Looking forward to responses.

[James Jacobs]

Here's some (hopefully helpful) clarifications:

Spoiler:

Entering via stealth: The PCs at this point are 9th level, and the non-statted merchants and other folks on the periphery path are low enough level that a fight against them wouldn't reward XP; as such you can safely assume that as long as the PCs use stealth and time their approach to the fortress is automatically successful (feel free to have the players roll Stealth and Perception checks if you want to give the illusion of threat, but they should successfully approach Karahai regardless of the result). Only once Terror is at 2 or higher are there significant threats in the form of exorcists that the PCs might have to contend with. Once inside, the fortress is intended to be a dynamic location, and that does mean that the more alarmed its inhabitants get, the more they move around and you as the GM will need to adjust encounters on the fly. We try to give enough information at the baseline so that you'll have the tools you need to do so.

Terror Points: If the players don't intuit this element, then consider having them encounter a villager or merchant along the way who freaks out when they see the PCs, calls them ghosts, and then runs away. Alternately, after their first foray into the fortress, it's likely they'll end up fighting and killing SOMETHING in there, and then if they just leave the body as-is, have them hear a scream a bit later and then announce they earned a Terror Point, after which you can tell them about the mechanic. If this doesn't give a strong enough hint, don't be too timid about saying directly to the players something like, "The locals apparently see you as ghosts... you might be able to capitalize on that by acting the part and starting to spread some fear around the place!" If you want, you can gatelock this hint behind an easy Society check if any PC asks about Karahai as they approach, or if anyone asks about the village or fortress defenses or possible entrances.

Incorporeal: The PCs are not automatically incorporeal; the baseline of their manifestation in the living world is in the form of semi-solid ectoplasmic versions of themselves and as such they aren't incorporeal, so for most PCs, these wards on Karahai's walls won't factor. However, some PCs might select the dematerialize major spirit power, which DOES let them be incorporeal for a short time.

[itaitai]

James Jacobs wrote:

Here's some (hopefully helpful) clarifications:

** spoiler omitted **...

Awesome!

Great tips and thank you for the response!