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[Let's Read] The Sunken Isles
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<blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9031022" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/j5mJrN3.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>The return to <strong>SpringBog</strong> marks a dramatic increase in the stakes of the campaign: due to Kumuhea’s tunnel network beneath it the entire island is going to sink. This is inevitable, and sensing weakness the Star Breather sent out an ecliptic army to kill and take back as many mirescales as possible. If the PCs don’t aid the evacuation effort, this will spell the virtual extinction of the mirescale race, for their survivors will be reduced to a bare handful of traumatized people. Beyond the cultist notes in the Ruins or the Event Compass, PCs may also learn of SpringBog’s dire fate from a mirescale villager in Makolf.</p><p></p><p>The evacuation of SpringBog is a combat-heavy series of encounters that feel like a disaster movie. The PCs and mirescale allies will be fighting off waves of ecliptics amid a slowly flooding swamp, and in addition to combat the party will have to help the mirescales fasten together sea vessels to evacuate the island, venture further inland to save the egg clutches, and help save the Flux in the still given it’s a necessary component for making moondew. During the final fight as the remaining mirescales set out to sea, a strange occurrence happens: one of the ecliptic, a giant serpentine fish, attacks its fellows. It telepathically communicates with the party to be prepared for “more will come; their voices grow louder.” This is the Keahi, an ecliptic who managed to avoid the Star Breather’s domination; if the PCs manage to save at least two settlements from genocide the creature can come to their aid in the final war.</p><p></p><p>The mirescale fleet sets course for Keyport. Although safe, they are understandably depressed due to losing their home, and there are short in-character texts for various NPCs thanking the party while also asking what they can do to be of help in their new home.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/o0vkKiW.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>During the 10th week, the PCs have three choices: Captain Keelhaul has docked in <strong>Keyport,</strong> which can be a prime opportunity to take him out early on; Turntail Swamp, which is home to a trio of hags whose magical powers may be of aid; and Kauhale, the kia’i’s ancestral homeland where the PCs can help forge an alliance between them and the land-bound races.</p><p></p><p>Regarding Keyport, Captain Keelhaul will start disassembling other ships in port to make repairs to the Bloody Twins, increasing its strength and power. Depending on their prior interactions the PCs who meet the Captain may find him initially friendly instead of hostile. In such a case he knows they are fated to fight to the death in the future and is content to show off his ship in a demonstration of power. The ship will gain more hit points every day it’s moored, although the PCs can sabotage the effort in various ways such as killing off undead dockworkers or damaging the figureheads if they’re still attached.</p><p></p><p>I suppose now’s a good time to talk about Keelhaul and his crew. The Captain is a large undead who is primarily a physical fighter with a cutlass and a flintlock pistol as well as a bite attack that can swallow Medium or smaller sized creatures. He can also chug down alcohol as a rechargeable special ability that grants advantage on his next attack and resistance from damage from the next attack. If he dies he explodes in a shower of rotten flesh as an AoE.</p><p></p><p>While quite tough, he doesn’t have any legendary or lair actions, which in this case is likely a good thing as he has an undead crew. This particular encounter doesn’t mention how many there are, but presuming the prior event in the Lifebearer Lagoon may include as much as 21 undead. Keelhaul’s undead pirates come in two varieties of stat blocks: Sunken Sailors who are undead wielding cutlasses who upon death explode into a shower of bones which use rat or quipper stat blocks depending on where they died, and Dusted Ancients who are undead with minor spellcasting capabilities with a mixture of druidic and arcane spells.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/HvP4VML.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p><strong>Kauhale</strong> rounds out our major population centers of the Isles of Manaki, sitting under Lifebearer Lagoon. There is fierce debate between the kia’i and decapodians whether Kauhale or Chitoni was the first technical civilization. There’s a variety of hooks provided for why the PCs would visit, such as meeting a kia’i NPC asking the party to check in on family or following up on rumors of ecliptic scouts in the area. Several of the kia’i speak in their native language in in-character boxed text, which is actually the Hawaiian language. In fact, some of the NPCs have short lists of real-world Hawaiian proverbs to use during the right situation, such as “no cliff is so tall it cannot be climbed.” Some notable locations in this underwater settlement is the Conch, its seat of government which is a coral building grown in the shape of a conch shell; a coral polyp farm on a plateau whose harvests are transported elsewhere in town or to the Living Wall; the Relinquit which is where the dead bodies of various islanders found at sea are stored before being taken to the Black Atoll for the Ceremony of Rebirth; and the Recordum, which is a coral structure containing all sorts of goods obtained from shipwrecks.</p><p></p><p>PCs who come to Kauhale for the first time will be directed to the Conch where they speak with Unu, their leader. One kia’i, Kimokea, is not as trusting of the PCs due to an overall dislike of things that come from the land, but Unu and other kia’i will be eager to accommodate the party. Even more so if they’re willing to help out with various side quests around town!</p><p></p><p>There’s an awful lot of quests and activities the PCs can take: they can look through the Recordum which is a collection of miscellaneous materials,* harvest some giant octopus ink for the tattoist Iolana, protect the spawning grounds from a wave of ecliptics, save one of the kia’i elders and his summoned water elemental against ecliptic attackers, and possibly discover Kimokea’s hidden whiskey stash, either stumbling upon it in the Relinquit or by earning his trust after some heavy drinking. The stash has bottles of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bb_w7nOBwg" target="_blank">Captain Jack,</a> which in fact is Keelhaul’s favorite brand of whiskey and thus could be a useful item in bargaining with him…or blowing him up.</p><p></p><p>*Including a new Ancient Ritual, Itero Ritual, which can allow up to six targets to go back 7 days in time, but they lose any non-memory benefits from passage of time including leveling up. They gain advantage on repeated actions and interactions made under similar circumstances as the week progresses to its original “warp point,” and its drawback is that if the hand-holding circle while casting the spell is broken it causes a d4 table of random effects such as aging the targets or jumping forward in time one week. This is an extremely potent spell, in that it pretty much acts as a save point.</p><p></p><p>Completing the quests gets the party rewarded a progressive number of gemstones and magic items, and they are later invited to a dinner party at the Conch. The PCs can socialize with the kia’i, learning more information about other locations in the Isles, talk about the growing ecliptic threat, get a Friend of the Kia’i Tattoo magic item inscribed on them,* and learn about strange growths in the coral at the Living Wall.</p><p></p><p>*Cast water breathing once per week, gain 10 foot bonus to swim speed, hostile kia’i instead start with indifferent attitude.</p><p></p><p>If the PCs don’t attend the feast, Unu will seek them out privately; he may also do this while they’re staying in air-filled guest rooms during nightfall. He’ll gift the party Wavesplitter, a magic dagger which is the oldest weapon in the Isles, forged from a magic pearl created by the oyster Gigas. He doesn’t want the PCs to let any other kia’i know that they have the weapon, for it is a priceless heirloom of their people. But Una understands that Wavesplitter would be better served in their hands in bringing peace to the Isles. Wavesplitter is a +1 dagger that must be attuned to. The attuned can breathe underwater, walk on liquid surfaces like Jesus, and once per day as an action can part sections of water in either a 60 foot radius or 120 foot long by 5 foot tunnel.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/g4EaFqr.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p><strong>Turntail Swamp</strong> is our final area of the 10th week. Occupying the northeast Island of Manaki, it is mostly uninhabited, and those intelligent life forms that do stay here have been touched by magic. The island was made by a portion of the Star Breather’s bile, and the swamp’s physical makeup has unique magic properties which acted as a beacon of opportunity for spellcasters and supernatural creatures. The major inhabitants are a community of intelligent otters, with Flip-Tail as a temporary ally for the PCs during their visit, the three Yala hags who came from a distant unknown land and live in their own mobile magic huts, and the lich Rimim Speki who used to be Skati Fylkir’s closest advisor before becoming disillusioned with his rule and went into hiding in the swamp. There’s also the visitor Captain Moku Va’a, whose grandfather was lost on the island many years ago and can also serve as a temporary ally. He can teach the party how to make reinforced nets which have a higher escape DC 15 than the typical net.</p><p></p><p>There aren’t many quests in Turntail Swamp; they will first meet Moku Va’a as they reach the shore, where he explains his search for his grandfather. His grandfather has been turned into a statue by Fela Yala, the middle-aged hag and former fling of Captain Keelhaul, and is kept in her hut. She turned the man to stone because she realized that Keelhaul would murder him in a fit of jealousy. If the PCs have soil from the Glowing Caves, the hag will turn him back in exchange for it. Otherwise they can find some soil in Rimim Speki’s tower, and the hag points this out.</p><p></p><p>The three hag sisters used to be friendly, but recent magical anomalies draining fresh water from the swamp has frayed their relationship. None of them know the cause but suspect the others of being responsible; beyond losing a drinking source, this also affects the swamp’s delicate ecology by also causing the plant and animal life to be less toxic and thus less harvestable for poison. The PCs can meet one of the hags thirsty for water, and if polite with her she can explain their predicament.</p><p></p><p>The party can look around the swamp for the other hags, whose huts are mysteriously empty. Flip-Tail will be running from a hydra as the PCs exit the third one, and if rescued will explain that the lost water is not due to intentional magic but rather the very ground shifting and causing the water to seep underground. Explaining this to the first hag will cause her to realize their mistake; the sisters will reconcile, and give the party various magic items as rewards. If the PCs are unable to solve this mystery the next time they return to the Swamp, the hags will have slain each other in a duel, and their huts will be wandering randomly.</p><p></p><p>The shifting ground is due to recent excavation by Kumuhea, under instructions from Skati who wants to “visit an old friend” on the Island. PCs looking into this mystery will eventually find the druid emerging from a moss curtain. The hags actually personally know her, surprised to see her undead and kicking. But their demeanor will quickly become hostile upon finding out that she is the cause of the freshwater draining. Kumuhea (along with four dusted ancients) and the hags will engage in combat, and the PCs can choose to aid one side. Helping the hags will earn their gratitude as well as them mentioning the lich in the sunken tower as Skati’s former advisor. If the PCs aid Kumuhea, this will improve her disposition to them as if they retrieved her body. If they already did, she will almost never be hostile to the party unless they’re hostile to her.</p><p></p><p>Due to action economy alone, Kumuhea is quite overmatched if the PCs side with the hags. Statwise she is a CR 11 druid who can cast up to 8th level spells, specializing in earth and and summoning magic, and as a rechargeable ability can cause a shockwave that turns nearby stone/earth terrain to become difficult terrain. As for the hags, each of them share the same stats: a CR 10 fey with quite a bit of HP, high AC, and a multiattack of 3 claw attacks, which make them pretty good melee fighters. But they also have a variety of utility magic, such as at-will darkness and hold person and they can cast fear and hypnotic pattern 3 times per day each. Like Captain Keelhaul, Kumuhea has no legendary or lair actions.</p><p></p><p>As for the lich and the tower, the structure is leaning 75 degrees at an angle. Walking in, the PCs will find Rimim Speki inside, angry at his inability to waterproof the building. He says that if the PCs can find his golden chalice won’t kill them and provide them with useful information. The chalice can be found in the lower levels, and the PCs will have to fight 10 sunken sailors in order to get it. In exchange, Speki will use the chalice to cast the Scry spell and see what Skati’s up to. The lich will explain his backstory, and tells the PCs that Skati seeks to return to his old seat of power in one month’s time (the Ruins during the 14th week).</p><p></p><p><strong>Thoughts So Far:</strong> These are an awful lot of interesting locations. I’m most fond of SpringBog’s evacuation, Redfield, and Kauhale. The evacuation really ups the stakes and shows the consequences should the PCs fail in their mission, while Kauhale and Redfield are neat communities with quests and conflicts that can be resolved in a variety of ways. I’m not really feeling the Entropy Abyss, as at this point in the campaign it really only has one place of interest to explore, in contrast with the Glowing Caves which has a variety of treasures, encounters, and characters. Almost every location has a good selection of treasures as rewards for quests and exploration, which is a big plus.</p><p></p><p>I do like how the consequences of choosing certain locations over the others have more direct effects. Not interfering with Captain Keelhaul’s ship repairs makes his vessel more dangerous when the party does fight him on the high seas, and failing to evacuate SpringBog will kill off virtually an entire community and thus useful NPCs and their services. I do feel that the potential battles with the Undead Lords at this time are rather lop-sided in terms of action economy: unless they’re canny, PCs can face an awful lot of undead in Keyport, whereas the fight against Kumuhea in Turntail Swamp can become a curbstomp. I’d recommend beefing up the druid or having a Contingency spell teleporting her away so that she can fight another day if she’d get KO’d. I’m also not feeling the new rituals: the ship-raising one is rather situational, and the one that can turn the party back in time is open to some powerful abuse.</p><p></p><p><strong>Join us next time as we continue on this adventure path, from exploring Kumuhea’s tunnel network to the undead siege of Chitoni!</strong></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Libertad, post: 9031022, member: 6750502"] [CENTER][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/j5mJrN3.png[/IMG][/CENTER] The return to [B]SpringBog[/B] marks a dramatic increase in the stakes of the campaign: due to Kumuhea’s tunnel network beneath it the entire island is going to sink. This is inevitable, and sensing weakness the Star Breather sent out an ecliptic army to kill and take back as many mirescales as possible. If the PCs don’t aid the evacuation effort, this will spell the virtual extinction of the mirescale race, for their survivors will be reduced to a bare handful of traumatized people. Beyond the cultist notes in the Ruins or the Event Compass, PCs may also learn of SpringBog’s dire fate from a mirescale villager in Makolf. The evacuation of SpringBog is a combat-heavy series of encounters that feel like a disaster movie. The PCs and mirescale allies will be fighting off waves of ecliptics amid a slowly flooding swamp, and in addition to combat the party will have to help the mirescales fasten together sea vessels to evacuate the island, venture further inland to save the egg clutches, and help save the Flux in the still given it’s a necessary component for making moondew. During the final fight as the remaining mirescales set out to sea, a strange occurrence happens: one of the ecliptic, a giant serpentine fish, attacks its fellows. It telepathically communicates with the party to be prepared for “more will come; their voices grow louder.” This is the Keahi, an ecliptic who managed to avoid the Star Breather’s domination; if the PCs manage to save at least two settlements from genocide the creature can come to their aid in the final war. The mirescale fleet sets course for Keyport. Although safe, they are understandably depressed due to losing their home, and there are short in-character texts for various NPCs thanking the party while also asking what they can do to be of help in their new home. [CENTER][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/o0vkKiW.png[/IMG][/CENTER] During the 10th week, the PCs have three choices: Captain Keelhaul has docked in [B]Keyport,[/B] which can be a prime opportunity to take him out early on; Turntail Swamp, which is home to a trio of hags whose magical powers may be of aid; and Kauhale, the kia’i’s ancestral homeland where the PCs can help forge an alliance between them and the land-bound races. Regarding Keyport, Captain Keelhaul will start disassembling other ships in port to make repairs to the Bloody Twins, increasing its strength and power. Depending on their prior interactions the PCs who meet the Captain may find him initially friendly instead of hostile. In such a case he knows they are fated to fight to the death in the future and is content to show off his ship in a demonstration of power. The ship will gain more hit points every day it’s moored, although the PCs can sabotage the effort in various ways such as killing off undead dockworkers or damaging the figureheads if they’re still attached. I suppose now’s a good time to talk about Keelhaul and his crew. The Captain is a large undead who is primarily a physical fighter with a cutlass and a flintlock pistol as well as a bite attack that can swallow Medium or smaller sized creatures. He can also chug down alcohol as a rechargeable special ability that grants advantage on his next attack and resistance from damage from the next attack. If he dies he explodes in a shower of rotten flesh as an AoE. While quite tough, he doesn’t have any legendary or lair actions, which in this case is likely a good thing as he has an undead crew. This particular encounter doesn’t mention how many there are, but presuming the prior event in the Lifebearer Lagoon may include as much as 21 undead. Keelhaul’s undead pirates come in two varieties of stat blocks: Sunken Sailors who are undead wielding cutlasses who upon death explode into a shower of bones which use rat or quipper stat blocks depending on where they died, and Dusted Ancients who are undead with minor spellcasting capabilities with a mixture of druidic and arcane spells. [CENTER][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/HvP4VML.png[/IMG][/CENTER] [B]Kauhale[/B] rounds out our major population centers of the Isles of Manaki, sitting under Lifebearer Lagoon. There is fierce debate between the kia’i and decapodians whether Kauhale or Chitoni was the first technical civilization. There’s a variety of hooks provided for why the PCs would visit, such as meeting a kia’i NPC asking the party to check in on family or following up on rumors of ecliptic scouts in the area. Several of the kia’i speak in their native language in in-character boxed text, which is actually the Hawaiian language. In fact, some of the NPCs have short lists of real-world Hawaiian proverbs to use during the right situation, such as “no cliff is so tall it cannot be climbed.” Some notable locations in this underwater settlement is the Conch, its seat of government which is a coral building grown in the shape of a conch shell; a coral polyp farm on a plateau whose harvests are transported elsewhere in town or to the Living Wall; the Relinquit which is where the dead bodies of various islanders found at sea are stored before being taken to the Black Atoll for the Ceremony of Rebirth; and the Recordum, which is a coral structure containing all sorts of goods obtained from shipwrecks. PCs who come to Kauhale for the first time will be directed to the Conch where they speak with Unu, their leader. One kia’i, Kimokea, is not as trusting of the PCs due to an overall dislike of things that come from the land, but Unu and other kia’i will be eager to accommodate the party. Even more so if they’re willing to help out with various side quests around town! There’s an awful lot of quests and activities the PCs can take: they can look through the Recordum which is a collection of miscellaneous materials,* harvest some giant octopus ink for the tattoist Iolana, protect the spawning grounds from a wave of ecliptics, save one of the kia’i elders and his summoned water elemental against ecliptic attackers, and possibly discover Kimokea’s hidden whiskey stash, either stumbling upon it in the Relinquit or by earning his trust after some heavy drinking. The stash has bottles of [URL='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bb_w7nOBwg']Captain Jack,[/URL] which in fact is Keelhaul’s favorite brand of whiskey and thus could be a useful item in bargaining with him…or blowing him up. *Including a new Ancient Ritual, Itero Ritual, which can allow up to six targets to go back 7 days in time, but they lose any non-memory benefits from passage of time including leveling up. They gain advantage on repeated actions and interactions made under similar circumstances as the week progresses to its original “warp point,” and its drawback is that if the hand-holding circle while casting the spell is broken it causes a d4 table of random effects such as aging the targets or jumping forward in time one week. This is an extremely potent spell, in that it pretty much acts as a save point. Completing the quests gets the party rewarded a progressive number of gemstones and magic items, and they are later invited to a dinner party at the Conch. The PCs can socialize with the kia’i, learning more information about other locations in the Isles, talk about the growing ecliptic threat, get a Friend of the Kia’i Tattoo magic item inscribed on them,* and learn about strange growths in the coral at the Living Wall. *Cast water breathing once per week, gain 10 foot bonus to swim speed, hostile kia’i instead start with indifferent attitude. If the PCs don’t attend the feast, Unu will seek them out privately; he may also do this while they’re staying in air-filled guest rooms during nightfall. He’ll gift the party Wavesplitter, a magic dagger which is the oldest weapon in the Isles, forged from a magic pearl created by the oyster Gigas. He doesn’t want the PCs to let any other kia’i know that they have the weapon, for it is a priceless heirloom of their people. But Una understands that Wavesplitter would be better served in their hands in bringing peace to the Isles. Wavesplitter is a +1 dagger that must be attuned to. The attuned can breathe underwater, walk on liquid surfaces like Jesus, and once per day as an action can part sections of water in either a 60 foot radius or 120 foot long by 5 foot tunnel. [CENTER][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/g4EaFqr.png[/IMG][/CENTER] [B]Turntail Swamp[/B] is our final area of the 10th week. Occupying the northeast Island of Manaki, it is mostly uninhabited, and those intelligent life forms that do stay here have been touched by magic. The island was made by a portion of the Star Breather’s bile, and the swamp’s physical makeup has unique magic properties which acted as a beacon of opportunity for spellcasters and supernatural creatures. The major inhabitants are a community of intelligent otters, with Flip-Tail as a temporary ally for the PCs during their visit, the three Yala hags who came from a distant unknown land and live in their own mobile magic huts, and the lich Rimim Speki who used to be Skati Fylkir’s closest advisor before becoming disillusioned with his rule and went into hiding in the swamp. There’s also the visitor Captain Moku Va’a, whose grandfather was lost on the island many years ago and can also serve as a temporary ally. He can teach the party how to make reinforced nets which have a higher escape DC 15 than the typical net. There aren’t many quests in Turntail Swamp; they will first meet Moku Va’a as they reach the shore, where he explains his search for his grandfather. His grandfather has been turned into a statue by Fela Yala, the middle-aged hag and former fling of Captain Keelhaul, and is kept in her hut. She turned the man to stone because she realized that Keelhaul would murder him in a fit of jealousy. If the PCs have soil from the Glowing Caves, the hag will turn him back in exchange for it. Otherwise they can find some soil in Rimim Speki’s tower, and the hag points this out. The three hag sisters used to be friendly, but recent magical anomalies draining fresh water from the swamp has frayed their relationship. None of them know the cause but suspect the others of being responsible; beyond losing a drinking source, this also affects the swamp’s delicate ecology by also causing the plant and animal life to be less toxic and thus less harvestable for poison. The PCs can meet one of the hags thirsty for water, and if polite with her she can explain their predicament. The party can look around the swamp for the other hags, whose huts are mysteriously empty. Flip-Tail will be running from a hydra as the PCs exit the third one, and if rescued will explain that the lost water is not due to intentional magic but rather the very ground shifting and causing the water to seep underground. Explaining this to the first hag will cause her to realize their mistake; the sisters will reconcile, and give the party various magic items as rewards. If the PCs are unable to solve this mystery the next time they return to the Swamp, the hags will have slain each other in a duel, and their huts will be wandering randomly. The shifting ground is due to recent excavation by Kumuhea, under instructions from Skati who wants to “visit an old friend” on the Island. PCs looking into this mystery will eventually find the druid emerging from a moss curtain. The hags actually personally know her, surprised to see her undead and kicking. But their demeanor will quickly become hostile upon finding out that she is the cause of the freshwater draining. Kumuhea (along with four dusted ancients) and the hags will engage in combat, and the PCs can choose to aid one side. Helping the hags will earn their gratitude as well as them mentioning the lich in the sunken tower as Skati’s former advisor. If the PCs aid Kumuhea, this will improve her disposition to them as if they retrieved her body. If they already did, she will almost never be hostile to the party unless they’re hostile to her. Due to action economy alone, Kumuhea is quite overmatched if the PCs side with the hags. Statwise she is a CR 11 druid who can cast up to 8th level spells, specializing in earth and and summoning magic, and as a rechargeable ability can cause a shockwave that turns nearby stone/earth terrain to become difficult terrain. As for the hags, each of them share the same stats: a CR 10 fey with quite a bit of HP, high AC, and a multiattack of 3 claw attacks, which make them pretty good melee fighters. But they also have a variety of utility magic, such as at-will darkness and hold person and they can cast fear and hypnotic pattern 3 times per day each. Like Captain Keelhaul, Kumuhea has no legendary or lair actions. As for the lich and the tower, the structure is leaning 75 degrees at an angle. Walking in, the PCs will find Rimim Speki inside, angry at his inability to waterproof the building. He says that if the PCs can find his golden chalice won’t kill them and provide them with useful information. The chalice can be found in the lower levels, and the PCs will have to fight 10 sunken sailors in order to get it. In exchange, Speki will use the chalice to cast the Scry spell and see what Skati’s up to. The lich will explain his backstory, and tells the PCs that Skati seeks to return to his old seat of power in one month’s time (the Ruins during the 14th week). [B]Thoughts So Far:[/B] These are an awful lot of interesting locations. I’m most fond of SpringBog’s evacuation, Redfield, and Kauhale. The evacuation really ups the stakes and shows the consequences should the PCs fail in their mission, while Kauhale and Redfield are neat communities with quests and conflicts that can be resolved in a variety of ways. I’m not really feeling the Entropy Abyss, as at this point in the campaign it really only has one place of interest to explore, in contrast with the Glowing Caves which has a variety of treasures, encounters, and characters. Almost every location has a good selection of treasures as rewards for quests and exploration, which is a big plus. I do like how the consequences of choosing certain locations over the others have more direct effects. Not interfering with Captain Keelhaul’s ship repairs makes his vessel more dangerous when the party does fight him on the high seas, and failing to evacuate SpringBog will kill off virtually an entire community and thus useful NPCs and their services. I do feel that the potential battles with the Undead Lords at this time are rather lop-sided in terms of action economy: unless they’re canny, PCs can face an awful lot of undead in Keyport, whereas the fight against Kumuhea in Turntail Swamp can become a curbstomp. I’d recommend beefing up the druid or having a Contingency spell teleporting her away so that she can fight another day if she’d get KO’d. I’m also not feeling the new rituals: the ship-raising one is rather situational, and the one that can turn the party back in time is open to some powerful abuse. [B]Join us next time as we continue on this adventure path, from exploring Kumuhea’s tunnel network to the undead siege of Chitoni![/B] [/QUOTE]
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