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.
Recap
This chapter features a trek across the unforgiving High Ice as the players make their way to the Nameless Spires. Though they’ve been given some tools to help them survive, it’s still a relentless journey that wears down not only their bodies, but their minds. Every day is a struggle to push forward, and the ice isn’t as uninhabited as they might have hoped. Every night is a battle with Osoyo, who sense their approach and tries to reassert his dominance over his former thralls.
Just as the journey seems likely to break the heroes, they enter The Dreaming with Snowy Owl. There, they witness a tearful reunion with Sakuachi’s grandmother, who seems to have been waiting for them. She helps them recover the last of their missing memories, offers them a final boon, and then moves their hut to within a day’s walk of the Spires. Osoyo must be resealed soon, or all of Golarion will suffer.
Jorge, Don, Ricardo, James, and Daton: I love you all, but you need to LEAVE this post now! Spoilers ahead!
GM thoughts
This is probably the second most griped about section of Gatewalkers. Personally, my players and I enjoyed it, but I made some modifications (shocking, I know).
Pre-rolling: In another AP I’m running [Frozen Link], there’s a section that requires rolling on multiple tables every day. I knew this could get fairly tedious and might lead to the players not seeing some of the cooler encounters. So, for this section, I pre-rolled every day. For the most part, I stuck to what I rolled, but in a few cases, I swapped in an encounter I knew they’d enjoy (my players love a good beatdown).
One thing I wish I had done was figure out how I was going to track expedition points ahead of time. If I were to do it again, I would have kept track of the total points rather than zeroing them out at 8 points. It’s less ambiguous, and I’ll take recalling my timetables from third grade over trying to figure out bad accounting.
Another change I made was killing off Seshu, the grandmother, in order to patch up a few plot holes. The first hole is why Seshu didn’t give poor Sakuachi the full details before she left on her journey. I played it off as Seshu not having the full details herself until she was sent to the graveyard. The second isn’t from the books, but from my players: Our Champion had been searching for his wife this whole time, since she was gone when he returned from the Missing Moment. Guess who else was dead?
I swear, I’m not usually this wanton with the death, but this dream was the last chance to tie up his personal plot neatly. Sorry, Jorge! I promise, I’ll let the next spouse live!
Looking forward
Up next is the last chapter of the AP, which still feels unreal. This AP moves fast if the players stay on task, but is still chock full of different backdrops and challenges.
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