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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9033741" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/sxwOFjN.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The 18th week represents the final section of the freewheeling pseudo-sandbox exploration of the Sunken Isles. There are three locations to visit: Skyreach Temple to stop Kada if he hasn’t been stopped in Week 17, visiting the King’s Tomb to gain the aid of a legendary dragon, or visiting the Living Wall to save it from an ecliptic siege. The negative consequences for not visiting the Tomb is that Skati ends up with a black dragon draugr ally during the final battle, but failing to save the Living Wall will cause a tsunami to destroy Keyport at the beginning of Week 19. That is, unless Keyport has already sunk due to Kada’s ritual.We’ll cover the King’s Tomb first.Content Warning: the backstory of one character, and the ensuing problems, involve a miscarriage. Using spoiler blocks to cover mention of this will obscure quite a bit of the section’s important parts plus the plot resolution, so those who’d rather not read about such material should skip to the Living Wall entry.Located on a prominent island to the south of Kadaur, King’s Tomb is named after a white stone monument of an architectural style not found on the Isles. It is in a state of disrepair due to people stealing the stone from its foundations to sell as “magic wards” elsewhere, and the wild rainforest makes the island overall unsettled. There is evidence that dragons used to live here, but now the most numerous intelligent inhabitants are sapient saber-toothed tigers who can communicate via nonverbal cues.The dragons that inhabited the Isles of Manaki had all long since died, being split between black and gold clans. The dragons lived on this particular island for millennia, not interfering in the development of the other races. The black dragon Kish and the gold dragon Quarala secretly fell in love, and produced an egg together. But when the baby dragon died before it could hatch, this made Quarala depressed and their relationship crumbled.When Skati Fylkir came to power, he learned about the dragons as well as Kish and Quarala’s relationship. He lied to Kish, convincing him that Quarala’s father Quing used magic to bring about the death of the child, which enraged Kish and the other black dragons against the gold ones. It didn’t take much for the black dragons to ally with Skati’s empire, and the gold dragons came out of seclusion to fight him. The dragons suffered major losses on both sides during the war, and when Quing died in battle, dragons came from all over the world to build the King’s Tomb. The survivors left the Isles in the belief that Skati was no longer a threat. Only Quarala, Quing’s daughter, remained behind to look over the tomb. Although Quing has since passed on, Quarala still lives as an ancient gold dragon. As for Kish, he is dead, but Skati will resurrect him as a unique dragon draugr for his war effort.The major hook for the PCs is hearing about Quing and the dragon’s power from Kada at Skyreach Temple, who will give the PCs the priceless zircon gem to bring if they didn’t take it already. Otherwise they may hear about it from the kia’i Iolana in Kauhale. The Tomb and its surroundings are a mini-dungeon crawl, with traps and roaming monsters on the stairway leading to the temple, a swarm of giant snakes lurking around a hidden back door into the tomb, and a series of hallways known as the Puzzleway containing randomly-generated traps. PCs who are kind to the saber-tooth tigers around the island may gain one as a guide to the tomb and its dangers. Quarala will meet the PCs as they reach the top of the stairs, and she will allow them entry if they mention Skati or give the zircon or similar offering of respect for her father. However, while they can enter the tomb, speaking with Quing requires the PCs to find one of the two missing pieces from Quing’s chess board, which can be found elsewhere on the island or in the tomb, and the saber-tooth tigers can lead the PCs to them if the party were nice to the animals. The book mentions that chess pieces can also be found on other islands before the PCs come here, although in trying a CTRL + F search I could find only one, being in one of Kumuhea’s tunnels.Once the PCs return with the chess piece, they can meet Quing at dusk, where his ghostly form appears at the top of the tomb’s outside. Quing will be happy to fight Skati, but he asks the PCs to help his daughter overcome her grief and find purpose in life. Helping out Quarala involves several quests, such as finding a lost pearl in the tomb, learning of her backstory, clearing a nearby waterfall of hydras and giant crocodiles, and finding her stillborn son’s body and giving it a proper burial next to Quing’s remains.Once the PCs help Quarala find a modicum of peace, Skati arrives to attack! Mounted on Kish flying through the air and leading a small war party of draugrs below, he seeks to erase Quing’s influence from the Isles permanently! Quing would ordinarily fight, but the dwarven lord’s magic prevents him from moving. Kish and Quarala will fight in the air, and one PC can mount the gold dragon. Eventually Kish will land on the top of the tomb, and Skati will use another of his Special Cutscene Powers to resurrect the body of Quarala’s son as a draugr to traumatize her. The baby draugr is of no threat to the party in being a CR 1 creature; Skati is just being cruel.The text notes that if Skati gets injured by Quing, he won’t be able to “regenerate at full strength for the remainder of the game.” This last sentence confuses me: the encounter doesn’t mention Quing participating, or how the PCs can help Quing break free of Skati’s Special Cutscene Powers. “Regenerate at full strength” implies that the dragon can negate his self-resurrection power, but that can also be interpreted to mean he can’t restore lost hit points from the dragon either.In terms of stats a black dragon draugr is a CR 19 undead that is basically a big dragon, but without legendary or lair actions* and its breath weapon deals necrotic damage and turns slain humanoids into lesser draugr.*Which is good, for Skati is already hogging the limelight with legendary and lair actions, and Quarala has such actions too.At the end of the fight, Quing is freed from Skait’s power and speaks well of how his daughter held herself in battle. He bestows his title of defender of the Isles upon her as she crawls to a resting place in the tomb to become a ghost. Quing can also bless Allay with a power if the PCs have the weapon.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/ok0lHzr.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The Living Wall is the other location, and as the PCs approach they realize that things are quite dire. Much like the prior ecliptic sieges it’s a series of combats, where the PCs have to provide aid to civilian and soldier NPCs in resisting the Star Breather’s minions as well as avoiding the collateral damage that comes from war. In addition to ecliptics, a tribe of merrow are taking advantage of the chaos to strike at their hated kia’i and merfolk foes. There’s even aboleth, a dragon turtle, and even some killer whales as hostile third parties spread between encounters. Wow, talk about a motley bunch!PCs who aided the kia’i during the siege of Kauhale can gain NPCs from that settlement as allies. In addition to saving people, the PCs need to prevent damage to the coral reef, for if it sustains enough damage it will cause wider ecological devastation to the Isles of Manaki. There are five major encounters: defending the oldest part of the reef against a small army of ecliptics, defending a newer section of reef from ecliptics fighting a dragon turtle lashing out at everything around it, rescuing one of the kia’i’s pet giant eel Itsk from collapsed debris and killer whales, helping two kia’i safely spawn while three aboleth attempt to attack them, rescue a group of Keyport refugees on a stranded ship from being attacked by ecliptics, and help some merfolk fight off a group of merrow. There are a lot of battles, and fortunately it takes place over a day or so, meaning that the party has access to both long and short rests. In addition to helping save the reef, successful encounters can grant the party various rewards. For example, saving Itsk grants the party his tooth, which is hollow and can be played like a flute to summon him.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/H0NywWV.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The 19th week is a very open-ended event: the various surviving forces and civilizations of the Isles of Manaki are gathering on the open seas near the Black Atoll to determine the fate of the region. The Star Breather is creating a powerful psychic pull for all mortals and immortals towards the Black Atoll for a grand battle. Given how differently events could have transpired in the campaign, this chapter is surprisingly short and doesn’t have any hard-set encounters. Instead it runs down a list of various allied and adversarial NPCs and organizations, and triggering factors for their participation in the battle. The ecliptics and the undead armies are the two primary antagonists, and in being hostile to each other this will make the war a three-sided (or more!) battle. The ecliptics will always be present, although if the PCs defeated most or all of the Undead Lords then their unliving armies will have become too disorganized and will be replaced with more ecliptics. If Kada hasn’t been allied with, he will be fighting against the PCs and the undead.PCs who were unable to save any of the cultures in the Isles from destruction will find only the undead and ecliptic forces fighting each other. If the PCs have been doing so well in preventing various enemy factions/NPCs from joining the war and their forces are quite sparse, a pseudo-easter egg faction will emerge: flamingo shrimplords and normal flamingos angrily attacking all sides in battle!Fight every flamingo ever!There are three pages worth of tables for Potential Allies and Enemies, giving helpful advice on how they end up participating, their ideal roles in battle, and the Rivals they are most eager to fight and destroy. The DM will need to create their own encounters, although for each fight the PCs will have aid from allies against enemy forces to which they are Rivaled. There is one unique ecliptic enemy to fight here that doesn’t appear anywhere else in the module: an Ecliptic Articulata. Basically it is a whale-like creature made of bloated organic matter assembled from all sorts of beings. It is the top tier of ecliptic, and other ecliptic accept orders from it as being the effective herald of the Star Breather.The Articulata will be a foe if the PCs killed any sufficiently powerful enemies in the adventure path and left a mostly-intact corpse, which will be used as its foundation. It is a CR 21 creature with legendary resistance and legendary actions with frightful presence and primarily melee attacks. It can deal close-range psychic and radiant damage via a legendary action, and also with a legendary action it can deal psychic damage and the frightened condition by imitating creatures its foes knew in life with the various bodies and souls built into its form. Not only that, it has proficiency in all of the good saving throws plus Charisma, and those range from +11 to +13. This makes the Articulata a very resilient monster, and it also has every major movement speed, so it can fight in a variety of terrain.Sadly, this section is all too brief, as the meat of the chapter is dedicated to the 20th week, where after the war’s end the PCs manage to reach the Black Atoll.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/6sSRe64.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The Black Atoll is home to a temple-like structure in the middle, surrounded by pitch-black water that gives the area its name. The wildlife around the atoll looks strange and deformed due to the Star Breather’s recent activity, and those swimming in the water within a half-mile radius must make a Wisdom save every minute to avoid swimming into the inky depths, remaining there even as they drown. Characters wielding ichor-dipped weapons or who approach the atoll by boat or otherwise not touching the water are immune to this call.The structure bears the same architectural style as the temple of Skyreach. There are various rooms brimming with powerful magic but overall are of small consequence at this point in the game. But one room is special, filled with writings of all kinds, such as detailing the Ceremony of Rebirth practiced by that of the kia’i Reclaimers. But more immediately useful to the PCs is the most powerful of Ancient Rituals: Obedient Mihi In Aeternum. This spell takes 1 minute to cast and targets a deity or similar being. The caster can then choose from one of three effects: commanding the deity to forget one thing and thus can no longer approach or interact with the forgotten subject; forge a pact with the deity, gaining equal dominion over its creations but the deity can challenge your actions which can make you both cancel each other out; or erase all memory of the deity as well as all that it created. The drawback for this ritual is that the caster and their descendants are destroyed, and all memory of them and their actions are erased.In order to meet the Star Breather, the PCs must descend to the lowest floor of the temple, into a circular chamber partially flooded with a portal to the Endless Depths. This is a mirror world with a version of the temple floating through a starry expanse. The face of the Star Breather faintly appears, seeming worlds away and requires a Wisdom save to move closer. At this point the Star Breather will welcome the party, complementing them as numbering among the bravest and strongest of its creations. But it will chastise the PCs for all the destruction they’ve caused, causing rivers of nearby ichor to reshape into scenes of past events as well as present conflicts in the Isles. The god then asks the PCs why they think the Isles are worth saving, questioning their motives and pointing out their mistakes and hypocrisies if applicable. All the while, the Star Breather’s face looms closer and closer, within weapon range…There are several ways the campaign can finish, with multiple Endings provided:If the PCs come up with good arguments against erasing the Star Breather’s “failed work,” it will spare the Isles and entrust them to safekeep the region, giving each PC the gift of half-immortality along with an appropriate Dominant Domain. The ecliptic will all vanish.If the PCs fight the Star Breather and the weapon Allay is used to deal the final blow, it will kill the god for good. But this will also spell the gradual end for the Isles of Manaki, for it is an extension of its life. But if an ichor-coated weapon that isn’t Allay is used to slay the Star Breather (or psychic damage, we’ll talk about its stats later), it will permanently lose connection with this reality and vanish. The ecliptic will all die.If Obedient Mihi In Aeternum is cast and the Star Breather is commanded to forget the Isles, it will forget its creation and vanish, and the PCs will end up back at the Black Atoll. The ecliptic will still be alive and destructive, and half-immortals will lose their powers and end up either dormant or mortal. If the spell is used to forge a connection with the Star Breather, the caster will appear as a second face next to the god. With the powers of a god, that PC’s player can determine what happens given approval by the DM. If the spell was used to erase the deity and its creation, then the world ends. This final result is also the same if the PCs fight the Star Breather and lose against it in combat.<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMfvZmhqW0A" target="_blank">So, what if the PCs go “screw God” JRPG-style and roll for initiative?</a> Well, his stats are something else, I tell you what. To start out with, the deity is the only creature that is too big to be constrained by the Gargantuan size category, bringing back the 3rd Edition Colossal! Furthermore, it is a celestial of Lawful Good alignment-<img src="https://media.tenor.com/wIxFiobxxbIAAAAd/john-jonah-jameson-lol.gif" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />-sorry, where was I? The Star Breather is a CR 30 creature, and has abilities that are appropriately powerful. It doesn’t have Legendary Resistance, but Godly Resistance: if the Star Breather fails a save, it can choose to succeed instead. It is also immune to every condition and damage type save psychic (which it has resistance to instead), and the only things that can physically damage it are weapons dipped in ichor, and it’s vulnerable to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage dealt by the weapon Allay. Additionally, the Star Breather has a mere 101 hit points, but regains all of its health at the end of each creature’s turn. It has truesight out to 5 miles, passive Perception and an Armor Class of 20, and its sole action is Command the Work where it casts one 9th-level spell and one spell of 3rd level or lower. For Command the Work, it ignores all material components and uses its 30 Wisdom as its spellcasting ability; with a Proficiency Bonus of +9, it is an excellent magician bar none. And on top of all that, it has legendary actions, each of which basically amounts to targeting all creatures within 60 feet and reducing a certain ability score by 2 or 4 on a failed save, and a score of 0 spells the death of the creature.So as you can tell, the Star Breather can easily wreck the party depending on how it Commands the Work, particularly if it wins initiative. In being able to cast any spell as an action it can basically fire off powerful spells that may have a much longer casting time. Furthermore, it can cast Wish to cast a spell of 4th to 8th level in getting around the 9/3 or lower restriction. It has no movement speed, but once again can easily get around this via teleportation magic. The Star Breather also doesn’t have to worry about losing concentration due to a failed save or damage, which is another point in the god’s favor.PCs who rely on debuff spells and non-weapon damage can’t do anything to the Star Breather, meaning it will fall to a weapon-wielding PC to destroy the god. And even then, it will require said PC to deal 101 damage in a single round. By 20th level, this shouldn’t be too hard for dedicated martials: a Barbarian with 24 Strength, Great Weapon Mastery, and a bonus action attack from something like Berserker or Polearm Master can do this. A Paladin won’t be so good, given that their smite ability is normally radiant damage which the Star Breather is immune. Interestingly, a Fighter has perhaps the easiest chance, given that firing off Action Surge lets them attack up to 8 times, maybe 9 times from something like Haste or an echo knight’s bonus attack.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/ZvSsqxM.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />In spite of the chapter’s name, it only has magic items, quite a number of which we already covered. We have a total of 35 new magic items, 14 of which are magic tattoos. We won’t go over every magic item here due to brevity, and will instead cover the most notable ones. For tattoos we have Mark of the Mant-i Striker, a decapodian tattoo which lets the wearer make a projection attack as a bonus action once per short or long rest, dealing 1d12 + Strength piercing plus 1d4 fire damage; the kia’i True Passage tattoo that lets the wearer teleport 5 feet to the other side of a touched door or wall once per short rest; a Jungle Companion tattoo of the Manaki which magically attracts a Tiny animal to direct the wearer to a nearby food source when entering an unclaimed jungle; and a mirescale SwiftScale tattoo which lets the wearer expend one of two daily charges as a reaction to gain a +2 to AC until the start of their next turn.The non-tattoo magic items include Abyssal Essence (found in a well on Seputus, can deal 3d6 necrotic damage as a ranged improvised weapon), Dragonfire Safe (can hold a dragon’s fire breath weapon to release as an action, dealing half damage), a Flamingo Whistle (calm hostile flamingos within 30 feet, summon Pheona Yala when in Turntail Swamp), Old Shell’s Mantle (built out of Old Shell’s molted carapace and forged into an armor, grants advantage on death saves and resistance to a random damage type that changes each dawn), Stone Flask of Duplication (can create more of a liquid every 1d6 days provided it is first dipped into an appropriate liquid; can duplicate potions of common or uncommon quality), Vomm’s Bonekeeper Staff (deals 1d12 bludgeoning damage as a weapon, can expend charges to do an AoE frighten effect), and the Wurm Bracelet (spend 1 charge to give simple commands to any wurms within 60 feet for 10 minutes).<img src="https://i.imgur.com/mQTtDTH.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />This serves as our general-purpose bestiary chapter, detailing all the new NPCs and monster types in the Sunken Isles. This section is not alphabetical, instead being grouped into six general categories.Native Cultures of Manaki covers general stat blocks for common NPC types of the new races. The decapodians basically serve as heavily “armored” melee fighters with a good variety of damage resistances, the kia’i are glaive-wielding spellcasters specializing in water magic, and the mirescales are basically stronger kobolds.People and Individuals is self-explanatory in covering named NPCs who are typically allies. Anson Drahl is a sturdy melee fighter who has a swim speed and can hold his breath for a long time underwater, the Bloody Twins are large constructs with a rechargeable singing attack that can frighten and possibly petrify creatures, Good-Eye is a mirescale warrior who is a melee fighter, and Onaona is a kia’i who can cast spells as an 18th level cleric.I’ve covered just about every Ecliptic. The only one I didn’t go into detail on is the Ecliptic Angler, who creates psychic traps to lure people away. They aren’t very physically damaging, but they’re immune to most mind-affecting abilities in being immune to the charmed and frightened conditions, can set a psychic trap with 1 minute of preparation that can force the target to approach the angler for 1 minute if they fail a Wisdom save, and have a Dazzling Gaze attack that can charm a target for 1 minute if they fail a Wisdom save (but can make a new save each turn).The Undead Antagonists have more or less been covered, too.Native Spirits of Manaki is probably going to be our largest section. This covers the Star Breather, half-immortals of all stripes, the Stewards of Skyreach, and Keahi. Iolana is a kia’i half-immortal who is a tattooist, being able to create weapons from her tattoos to attack. Her Dominant Domain is Fabrication in making her form unable to be altered against her will, and can direct spirits to inhabit items and thus make them sentient magic items. The 3 Stewards of Skyreach that aren’t Kadeus are all CR 6 constructs. They don’t have much in the way of special abilities decides having quite a bit of resistances and immunities, but Kadakim can damage and debuff targets via a Knowledgeable Insult, Kadagan can shift between a glass or liquid form as well as cast Blur or Color Spray at will, and Kadamy can use its threaded nature to make whip and garrote attacks that can knock prone or suffocate targets respectively. Makana Asteria is a very powerful CR 24 creature has peerless senses and a diverse assortment of magic spells up to 5th level, her Dominant Domain of Fate makes her immune to all spells of 5th level or lower that she doesn’t want to be affected by and can grant boons to creatures to reroll failed checks a limited number of times for the next week, can “mirror” a cast spell as a legendary action, and has an Immortalizing Gaze attack that can transform a creature into a stone, pool of water, or similar elemental essence. Quing is basically an undead gold dragon whose breath weapon deals poison and necrotic damage, whose legendary actions are appropriately ghostly such as turning ethereal or passing through a creature to deal necrotic damage, and his Dominant Domain Decay grants him immune to several energy types and can grant said immunities to up to six creatures for 1d8 days.Finally Keahi was one of the first ecliptic created, and witnessing the Star Breather’s atrocities during the campaign instills in it a spark of rebellion. It appears as a giant sea serpent, and is an Aberration rather than a Celestial. Keahi primarily fights with a bite and tail attack, and once an hour it randomly casts the Awaken spell on a random nearby object (it has no control over this ability). Keahi has the Dominant Domain Potential, granting it immunity to all conditions. Furthermore, it can take an action to make a creature see its ideal reality, having it add +1d6 to attacks, ability checks, and saves until the next short or long rest.Species pretty much covers everything else, with a preference for creatures of animal intelligence. We get a few CR 0 mundane animals such as albertonykus (easy to kill but whose carving claws can wreck nonmagical wood) or the dodo bird (you get 0 XP for killing one, you monster!), swamp otters (surprisingly strong CR 5 creatures with damaging bite attacks), and fungaloids* (a bipedal mushroom with a face who can release spores that inflict sleep or incapacitation).*This is an easter egg to another product published by the publisher Eldermancy, the Seeker’s Guide to Twisted Taverns. There are minor encounters in the Sunken Isles that can have the PCs stumble upon one of the taverns from that book.Thoughts So Far: The final few adventures are overall alright, with a few standing out. I love the siege of the Living Wall, as it feels appropriately high-stakes. The King’s Tomb also has a cool battle, but it’s precipitated by several fetch quests which feel out of line for the urgency of things. There’s an undead ruler and a mad god wrecking the Isles, and you want us to find missing chess pieces?! Chapter 7’s war was a bit of a letdown in basically telling the DM to make things up.The final encounter with the Star Breather feels suitably dramatic and cool, and I like how the campaign can be resolved in a variety of ways. I do feel that using Allay creates a bad ending to be a rather weak point. Beyond one vague tale that hints at this, the adventure has overall been playing up Allay’s potential and PCs may feel that using it goes in line with the epic high fantasy feel. The fact that using a non-Allay ichor-dipped weapon is the “best solution” for combat is rather unintuitive. I do feel that the battle against the god can make spellcasters feel short-changed given all the immunities, and the Star Breather is more of a puzzle battle than a straightforward combat which may not be to every table’s liking.The new magic items are a cool assortment, and I do like the emphasis on tattoos and how they’re commonly used among the Isles’ civilizations in line with everyday living. For example, several Manaki tattoos grant +1d4 on rolls for foraging various resources, while one of the Ikolf tattoos grants advantage on Charisma checks made to barter. There’s an awful lot of magic items that are appropriate rewards for an epic level 1-20 adventure path, and I do like how many of them are tied into the history and legends of the setting.Many of the NPCs and monsters look fine at first glance, although they’re the kind of opponents I’d only really get a true feel of in playtesting.Final Thoughts: Overall, the Sunken Isles leaves me with mixed feelings. A lot of work has been put into the books, and the designers have an immersive world and interesting story that can be played in a variety of ways. The setting is novel, the primary antagonists are multi-faceted, and the many locations for PCs to visit are sure to make every session feel like a brand new adventure is just around the corner. The campaign manages to take the best of both worlds between a linear format and a truly open-world sandbox, for players will still feel they have relative freedom in choosing what hooks to go after. The presence of optional side quests with rewards helps reinforce this feeling, too!But in spite of having a pretty complete adventure, there are parts of the Sunken Isles that feel unfinished or otherwise in need of some polish. Whether it’s the adventure’s railroady beginning or how several locations don’t take into account reasonable actions on part of the PCs, the Sunken Isles has sections which require the DM to fill in more work that shouldn’t have to be done.Furthermore, in spite of the 20 weeks, the campaign feels like it doesn’t give the PCs enough breathing room. For example, some quests assume that the party will make regular stops back to a settlement, like feeding Gigas new things to make him more willing to part with the pearl, but between the ocean travel and crafting/foraging there isn’t much room for adventurers to make many detours.But even so, I’d say that the good overall outweighs the bad. The aspects that are in need of deepest fixing are the initial railroads and the highly random number of enemies in various encounters, particularly during the ecliptic/undead sieges. But from my reading the core of Sunken Isles is strong enough to have a solid foundation built upon it. It has fewer holes than Historica Arcanum’s City of Crescent adventure, for instance, and looks more playable right out of the box.</blockquote>

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