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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9029926" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/0P3r3H9.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Important Note: I should’ve addressed this in the prior post, but Captain Keelhaul’s brother leaves the PCs as soon they rescue the undead pirate, forcing them to swim back to shore without a boat. Anson Drahl is too afraid to face him at the moment, as Keelhaul would surely kill him upon meeting.Hey everyone, I was really sick last night so I was unable to do much work in getting a post up. But fortunately I’m feeling a lot better.For the fifth week of the adventure, Manaki’s resources are starting to dwindle, with more freshwater bastions at risk of loss, and Kada’s supernatural tampering along with the ecliptic and undead forces are making the Isles more dangerous. The PCs need to find a seaworthy vessel to explore more of the Isles, and the abandoned ships in Keyport are a great opportunity. There are several choices ranging from sailing canoes to even galleons, although there aren’t anywhere near enough people to help crew the latter type of ship. If the PCs aided Captain Keelhaul, he will tell them where to find a hidden ship of his, the Keeler Queen, behind a hidden wall of flowers near the town. But since it’s been a while, it’s in a decrepit condition and needs additional repairs.As for the sixth week, the PCs can choose to visit either Chitoni or SpringBog. Reasons to visit Chitoni include hearing of their legendary artisanship in hopes of getting special gear forged, while for SpringBog they could’ve heard that strange things are happening there from a mirescale NPC or RockJaw hoping to open up a trading route between his swampy home and Keyport. Both areas are primarily new settlements to visit, with various NPCs and minor quests the party can undertake to gain their trust and favor.Chitoni appears as a series of rocky islands with small tide pools and little else, but a vast network of undersea tunnels is the heart of their community. While visiting, the PCs can:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">gain proficiency in smith’s tools from the artisan Hamhand the Red</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">also do quests for him in finding monster parts to forge magical armor as a reward</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">participate in a one-on-one duel in an arena where they can gain magical tattoos as a reward</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">use bait to lure out some dangerous sahuagin so that the decapodians can do some maintenance.</li> </ol>Two NPCs serving as revered figures in the community are also of interest. The first is Old Shell, a half-immortal decapodian of prodigious size whose life force is tied to Chitoni; if he dies, the community will crumble. The other is Gigas, a giant oyster who is harboring a magical pearl he hopes to make just perfect in the coming weeks. Old Shell is expecting the PCs and wants to meet with them, and he can direct the party to help the community via the aforementioned side quests. He (as well as Gigas) have Goodwill scores which can be altered by PC actions. Higher scores give the PCs access to more privileged knowledge about the Isles. As for Gigas, he is most eager to consume new and interesting things, and PCs who bring him enough edible items of sufficient rarity and quality increase his positive disposition. This helps lower the DC for Persuasion in convincing Gigas to give up his unique Pearl, which can be used to forge a variety of magical items. But by the 12th week the pearl has increased to an even greater size, allowing for more powerful options.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/YN9iL6h.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />SpringBog is a flat and boggy island, and its majority of solid terrain is marshy and muddy. The mirescales build their dwellings upon wooden walkways and logs lashed together, with boats used to cross over deeper and larger sections of water. The major gathering place for SpringBog is the Uncracked Egg tavern, which serves as a gathering point and entertainment area. Their major source of freshwater comes from the Eye, an underwater vent which shoots into pockets of seawater around the island to turn into fresh water. The most accessible part of the Eye is an almond-shaped pool with a mud wall built around it, giving it the appearance of an eye from above.RoundBelly, the owner of the Uncracked Egg, is the closest thing to a community leader, and his still creates the unique magical alcohol Moondew from a supernatural resource known as the Flux. A drop is added to each drink, and the resource can also be later used to help forge the weapon Allay. There’s also LickSpittle, a mirescale trader who has picked up quite a few things on his travels and can tell the party about some of the future places to explore.There are four major quests the PCs can undertake at SpringBog, and most come from RoundBelly. One involves inspecting the Eye for oddities given its recent disturbing red coloration, where the PCs will fight ecliptic shockers* that spring out from the water. This is the first time the mirescales become aware of these monsters, although their eldest villager SmashThumb mentions hearing about such monsters when the gods and spirits become angry.Another quest has the PCs scour the island for non-flux moondew ingredients, where they visit specific areas on the island and possibly risk random encounters while doing so. A third side quest involves helping SmashThumb’s grandson court a woman he’s interested in via helping hunt a fearsome beast, come up with a suitable gift, and teaching him some good dance moves. The fourth quest has the PCs make an acquaintance with GoodEye, a mirescale warrior who asks them to accompany her on a hunt and later challenges them to a drinking contest. A PC who bests her can gain a Heartripper, a type of magic spear that can be thrown and magically draw a struck target back to the thrower, or once per long rest turn into a thrown bolt of lightning that’s an AoE attack.*Medium-sized flying eels who can shoot lightning as a ranged attack or poisoned pins, along with a variety of divination and debuff spells.So to cover the mirescale’s trademark magic item, moondew is a potion with a 1d12 table of random effects. This reflects the flux’s chaotic energies, and the effects range from replicating the effects of existing potions (Animal Friendship, Growth, Mind Reading, Healing) as well as various other effects such as resistance to various elemental energy types, increasing someone’s Strength, regaining expended spell slots, and a few negative effects such as becoming drunk for 1d6 hours or other creatures gaining advantage on Charisma checks in interacting with the drinker.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/ApO5zNV.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />After making contact with the decapodan and/or mirescale settlements, the PCs have two more locations to visit by the seventh week. The first is either the Eastguard or Westguard lighthouse whose inhabitants and quests are the same (the lighthouse the PCs don’t pick is overrun in an ecliptic attack), or the Primal Archipelago. The hook for the lighthouses is that they serve as a vital tool for ships sailing to and from the Isles, and due to the increased danger those responsible for refueling were unable to make the trip. It thus falls to the PCs to help make a fuel shipment when a Makolf villager asks for their help. As for the Primal Archipelago, LickSpittle in SpringBog will mention to the PCs that bandits at this island chain are looking for a standing stone inscribed with an ancient ritual. Guessing correctly that it’s one of Kumuhea’s forbidden spells, he urges the PCs to destroy the stone if they find it but are welcome to learn the ritual itself if they never make any copies of it.Covering the lighthouse first, it is common for certain types of criminals and other outcasts in the Isles of Manaki to be assigned to working at Eastguard and Westguard. They live away from the original community where they did harm, and their service helps the rest of the Isles. Not all labor is necessarily forced or imposed. In some cases, those who feel they need to atone for some misdeed also come to the lighthouses. Anson Drahl can be found here, and depending on the lighthouse in question he can reveal some useful information about his brother: that one of the hags in Turntail Swamp was romantically involved with Captain Keelhaul and may know of a way to take him down, or hoping to intercept a shipment of the Captain’s favorite drink and lace it with something that can kill an undead. Not a poison, but perhaps an explosive…The other lighthouse inhabitants include the half-dwarf half-human bard Ginning who made a few enemies during the Gathering Festival of last year, the Manaki warrior Pika who accidentally killed a friend during a sporting accident, and the old Ikolf woman Skree who spends her spare time crocheting and reading her impressive book collection. There’s also a nearby community of lapalapas living in a nearby cove. They’re an intelligent species of humpback whales with horns who produce a magical gray amber that can burn on top of or even underwater. It is thus a valuable trade good and also serves as fuel for the lighthouse.PCs visiting the lighthouse during week 7 arrive (after a random encounter or two at sea, DM’s discretion) on the eve of a storm, with red lightning strikes like that seen at Fylkir’s Fall. While grateful for the shipment, Skree notes that the amount isn’t enough to last until the next supply run. There is some gray amber that can be mixed with the oil to make it last longer, but the cave where it’s stored is currently overrun by aquatic owlbears attracted by the smell. PCs must be careful, for using fire during the fight can risk explosions that burn away the amber.Over the next few days the PCs can further aid the lighthouse by performing side quests and labor in exchange for items, such as shoring up the defenses, locating a lost magic stone that can slow down the erosion of rocks the lighthouse is built upon, and swimming down to a sunken ship to salvage goods from it (and fight some sharks scavenging the corpses of sailors). PCs who earn Skree’s respect learn that she shares a bloodline with Skati Fylkir, and she has family members loyal to him. Skree mentions a series of nearby Ruins at which they’re believed to be scavenging, which is a possible location to visit in Week 8. The party can also learn that the lapalapas are incredibly afraid of the island of Redfield, for there are monsters there.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/LIhdrRw.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The Primal Archipelago is located in the northeastern section of the Isles of Manaki, a stretch of unclaimed wilderness due to the huge and dangerous creatures calling it home. Some Ikolf settlers sought to build lighthouses among the islands, which were quickly abandoned. Currently the archipelago is home to a group of bandits/pirates led by Bartholowmew “the Barrel,” who seeks to get rich off the archipelago’s natural resources as well as find its untapped legendary magic. Currently they’re using one of the abandoned lighthouses as a home base, and their entire group numbers nearly 50 people. The bandits may not be initially hostile to the party, who will be taken to their boss. But if the PCs share why they’re actually visiting the island then they will attack the party. Otherwise Bart will attempt to make a deal with them, where if they can find a lost weapons shipment from a sunken ship he will consider the party allies. The sunken ship has quite a bit of weapons (none magical, unfortunately). Helping out Bartholomew can count their crew to be a possible allied group during the war at the end of the campaign. Otherwise transporting the weapons back to Makolf can greatly increase that settlement’s defenses.Beyond Bart’s crew, there’s a druid by the name of Xavier D. Drake who got marooned on the island, managing to survive by befriending the animals and becoming a druid. A t-rex, the sole remaining of its kind on the archipelago, has become a steadfast companion of Drake’s who he nicknamed Lady. Lady’s home is near Kumuhea’s standing stone. In fact, Xavier was the pilot of the crashed ship, and the party can gain his and Lady’s help in fighting Bart’s bandits. The bandits are aware of Xavier’s existence, albeit only as a wild man who rides upon beasts like they’re horses, and one of the Hook Brothers (the bandit gang’s chief scouts) believes that he knows where to find the ancient magic.The Standing Stone can be translated via the proper magic or an Intelligence Check. Its magic is Nihil Edo, a level 8 spell that requires 1 hour to cast and lasts (more appropriately, the aura it generates) for 8 hours. Upon completion of casting, all nonliving edibles within 30 feet of the caster turns to dust, but in exchange every creature of the caster’s choice that comes within 30 feet of them gains enough nourishment to sustain them for 7 days. Beasts that also enter this area become charmed by the caster for 1 hour on a failed save. Its drawback is that any creature nourished by the spell after 7 days gains 1 level of exhaustion that only goes away after 1d6 days.This spell is an infinite food glitch!Upon leaving the island, the next hook occurs as a small winged fiendish creature (a quasit or imp) lands upon the ship, desperately pleading for aid and flies off in the direction of Redfield, one of the Week 8 islands to explore.Thoughts So Far: The 5th through 7th week locations are a clear upgrade in comparison to the first stretch of the adventure path. The PCs have more overall freedom in making their choices, and the side quests in the settlements and lighthouse provide good opportunities to learn both more about their locations, get useful items, and earn the goodwill of the communities. The Primal Archipelago has an open-ended means of resolution depending on whether the PCs side with the druid or the bandits. But I have to say that the idea of attacking a bandit camp with a friggin’ t-rex is just awesome!Join us next time as we visit a bunch of other places in the middle levels of this adventure path, from an island hosting a devil-demon war to the underwater settlement of the kia’i!</blockquote>

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