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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LeanAsc22" data-source="post: 9558928" data-attributes="member: 7049419">Hi! First of all I love the adventure. Its setting is great, same as the characters. I have some friends who wanted to play a relatively short campaign (15 sessions) so after checking out most of the PF adventures I ended up choosing this one. I enjoy mysteries and the investigator party. I decided to use The Dying Skyseer as a standalone adventure (from lvl 1 to 5) so I'll adapt encounters and everything, that's not the issue. My problem is that according to the book, and I quote:<code class="bbCodeInline">When a factory producess something Quital needs for his colossus but which the owner is unwilling to part with, he is likely to find his house aflame, or his business ignited. An outsider will offer to buy the factory while it burns, after which firefighters rush to put out the blaze. These new owners—proxies of Lorcan Kell—are of course cooperative to Macbannin’s interests. </code>I have some questions about this. <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">1) New owners: Would a distressed factory owner really take this shady offer? If this happened to me I would not accept it and report it to the authorities so they can open an investigation. Even if you accept, wouldn't the contract be invalidated due to lack of consent under a violent situation? And besides that, isn't Macbannin's plan too dangerous for the materials they need for the colossus? Setting a factory on fire could potentially lead to disaster if there are flammable materials, which would be common in a factory. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">2) Witchoil: Macbannin stashes witchoil flasks as an original test to see how witchoil worked using the souls of work accidents. I see the logic in that Macbannin wouldn't kill people just to get witchoil, he uses this flask method so he doesn't get his hands dirty. But are this stashed flasks the only supply? Because near the end of the adventure, it says that years ago Macbannin crafted the eldritch machine after slicing open the veil between the real world and the Bleak Gate in the laboratory to refine withoil and have an unlimited supply. Does this withoil already contains the souls of those who die? If it does, then why bother with the flasks in the factories? I tried to read it as if each flask combined with the Bleak Gate oil is so powerful as a fuel that they don't need that many souls. But then he has a crazy machine pumping it.</li> </ul>Standalone adventure: If anyone wants to read a bit more, I could use some help or feedback with the changes I'm making so that the adventure is more interesting as a standalone version.Since she won't appear later and there are already plenty of NPCs, I found no use for Gale. Nilasa is now the "fey terrorist" so she steals the documents and makes deals with Cippiano as in the book. I made it so that Nevard learns about the Bleak Gate events from a vision. The party still needs  to help Nevard with the Cauldron Hill part because he says that spirits have a stronger connection to the material world on the hill due to the witches. He says that they could find the spirit of Nilasa on top of the hill and ask her questions. I don't have a medium player so he could help them with that. I'll only use the vision about the fire and maybe give some more clues. I'm planning on making Lorkan Kell more important and take Quital's appearance out of the adventure. Lorkan knows about the operation (probably not the colossus but the witchoil and the stolen documents) and he would be the one who is at the church, he might have a caster with him to do the metal bar scene, or use a scroll. It would make sense for Lorkan to try to get the documents so that he gets a reward, besides extorting Wolfgang.I found Macbannin being the villain too obvious. He is a rich district mayor with a mansion on top of a cursed hill (even if it's well known that he protects the city from the spirits). I have players smarter than me and I think they would be too suspicious. Maybe so much that they think that it's a red herring. I thought about making Cillian the real villian, but the buttler being the villain is even more cliché. So I came up with this idea. Cillian is not a spy buttler, but a business partner sent from Danor to supervise the operation. Macbannin eventually learns about the colossus, which changes his mind and wants to stop the laboratory. When the players go up the hill, Cillian kills Macbannin in a way that frames the players and plants false evidence so they have to go to the RHC, meanwhile Creed wants to tie loose ends and sends the dragonborn brothers to set the factory on fire. That way he is now in charge of the operation and doesn't have to worry about Heward. At the mansion they fight and possibly arrest him.Thank you all for reading!</blockquote>

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