Gatewalkers AP: Book 2 Chapter 4 Recap and GM Insights

Over on D20Saves, I’m running Gatewalkers, one of the latest APs from Paizo! From the official website:

After they walked through that glowing gateway, nothing was ever the same. A band of characters become paranormal investigators to determine the cause of a global amnesic episode. Their quest takes them to lands near, far, and outside this reality altogether. Along the way, the characters meet fellow “gatewalkers,” defeat alien monsters, and explore strange realms touched by the Missing Moment. And when it comes time to learn the grim truth of what happened to them on that fated summer night, what then?

Warning: The first part of this blog will cover what happened in the stream, so there are spoilers for the end of Book Two. Part two will include my thoughts as a GM, so there are major spoilers for the AP overall.

Check out the playlist here if you want to watch the previous episodes.

Chapter Four recap

Chapter four takes place in the long abandoned city of Domora, former home of the Godcallers of Sarkoris. The PCs, determined to help their baby Godcaller fulfill her destiny, branch out over the city to research what they can. After a fair amount of mucking about, they realize they need to investigate a cistern that may contain the magics and lore she needs. After a chat with the spirit Ruun, they run a gambit of challenges, finally allowing Sakuachi to transform into a white owl, her soul bonded to the god of old. They all agree to return, finally, to Ustalav to check in with their patron.

GM thoughts

Okay, seriously, if you’re a player in my stream, DO NOT KEEP READING. Don, James, Jorge, Daton, Ricardo, CLOSE THIS TAB.

Investigation. The players enjoyed the investigations in this chapter, which had a nice balance between lores and skills to keep everyone busy. It helped that each investigation included clearing out some nasties, so even our meatiest-headed characters were vital to moving forward.

Cistern. Most of the cistern was perfectly fine, but the challenges themselves were a bit samey. I decided to spice things up and change two of the encounters. Rather than two stone owls, room F12 had two Griffons, and F7 had two Elite Giant Mantises. I kept F11 the same because the stone owls are kind of cool.

Sakuachi the owl. In the book, Sakuachi keeps her human form… but I decided to just use the owl and give her some limited telepathy. Any powers she has in the book have also been stripped for now, since the players aren’t hurting.

Overall book thoughts

This AP is probably amongst the lowest ranking of the Paizo 2e APs, and it does have some flaws… but flaws that I think are easy enough for a GM to solve without rewriting the whole book.

For me, making Sakuachi a ghost and killing off her party helped fix many of the issues with book two. Also, putting Skywatch in a different plane helped focus that particular chapter. Without it, the whole book hinges on the players helping this random group of strangers out. My players will happily follow plot hooks, but I could have also seen them just leaving and going on their way.

Now, if homebrew is your bag, this is a book that you could absolutely remove and replace with your own adventures! All you really need to do is make sure the players get back to Ustalav, so if you want to do a roadtrip-style adventure, that would totally work. Just make sure they don’t get to Ustalav under-leveled… or do, and watch the struggle bus kick off. It’s your circus, you do what you want with your monkeys.

Looking forward

I am very excited to get back to Ustalav. It’s been on the players’ to-do list for months. They also love investigating and chatting with NPCs, so I think the mansion is going to be fun for them.

Some complain about the long overland travel section, but I feel like it fits perfectly with Lovecraftian mythos. Creepy travel in a hostile landscape with no way to go but forward? Chef’s kiss. Man loved him some unforgiving expanses.