Tag: dnd

Gatewalkers: Stripping it for parts

I adore Paizo’s Adventure paths. They’re a huge timesaver for busy GMs, and not just those who want to run a long pre-written campaign! You can easily pull out interesting scenarios from the APs. After that, you can rub off a few serial numbers. Slot them into your custom campaign with no one the wiser. I’ve written about this for other APs, and now it’s time for me to give Gatewalkers the same treatment.

Book One

Seven Arches

The book in medias res, with the crew approaching a town with a bit of a mystery. A curse that had killed any elf who entered the town’s perimeter, before a few weeks ago, would die instantly. The crew is there to do some clandestine tests to see what might have changed. This involves running around, dodging guards, and digging for more information. It could lead to the next scenario. Alternatively, it could lead to one custom for your campaign.

Potential hooks:

  • You’ve been hired by the Pathfinders to check out what might have changed at Seven Arches. They’d go themselves, but they’re a bit banned…
  • The group stumbles into the town on their own while travelling. They realize something is off after they’re intensely interrogated to see if their crew includes an elf.
  • The group has some reason to check out the arches in town, and find out they’re fake!
  • Honestly, it’s a nice town for the group to run through, restock, and chat with locals. Paizo added some good details!

Greenleaf Forest House

A dungeon IN THE TREES! This is a super fun and challenging ‘dungeon’ for low-level characters. A group of rogue druids have taken over a formerly friendly enclave and are causing problems. PCs will have to find a way to free their captives and drive out the interlopers while surviving nature’s wrath.

Potential hooks:

  • This can be a standard job posting during a regular campaign. It might be offered by one of the enclave members who managed to escape.
  • More amusingly, the players could be en route to meet the friendly druids. They don’t realize their contacts are all tied up in a closet.
  • They might stumble upon the druids while travelling. Initially, they might think the druids are nice. Then, they discover the druids’ plans to level the nearby town “for the good of nature.”

Kaneepo Invesgitation

The players find themselves trying to investigate a mystery in a town that, quite frankly, doesn’t want them around. This is a fun investigation that involves a bit of digging, a bit of charm, and a bit of fisticuffs, culminating in a portal to another plane. Because Kaneepo doesn’t show up in this investigation, you can easily swap him out with the BBEG of your choice. You could also import him into your game, since his connection to the overall Gatewalkers plot is fairly loose, and it’s easy to play him as a fey that just loves shit-stirring.

Potential hooks:

  • The group has tracked their current quarry to a small farming town.
  • The group stumbles into this odd town, and while most of the farmers ask them to move along, a sympathetic NPC begs them for help. Their friend, Hatria Pebblesworth, was recently killed, but no one wants to look into it.
  • Heck, go ahead an import Kaneepo into your campaign, since taking him down makes for a decent arc.

The Thinlands

While technically in the First World, this is a part of the plane that is bathed in black and white. Therefore, this could easily be plopped in the Netherworld (Legacy: The Shadow Plane) or in a particularly grim part of Golarion. As for the actual content of this section, it features a compact yet challenging ‘dungeon’ with a varied set of challenges. Some, players can charm their way through, some require some brainpower, and some require some form of violence. Also, due to the nature of how it’s written, it really needs to be done in one go, so players have the additional challenge of minding their resources. Annoyed that your players insist on resting every time they take a break? Throw this a them!

Potential hooks:

  • A local has been kidnapped, and his family is desperate to get him back (The final room has a hostage in it, so swap them for whoever is interesting)
  • Again, you can just add Kaneepo to your game! This plus the “Kaneepo Investigation” sections could easily fill a few sessions.
  • The players stumble onto the hideout and realize it may be corrupting the land around it, leeching color from an otherwise normal area.

Castrovel

Yes! The planet! The book features a gazetteer for running adventures on Castrovel, which could be used to kickstart a whole adventure on its own. If you want to keep it to something more guided, however, Book One has an interesting way of introducing the characters to life on the Elf homeworld. They start off in the wild, with no idea where they are (they think they’re still on Golarion), and they have to fight their way through a dense and dangerous jungle to get to the one sign of civilization they can see. I will say, as a GM, I loved watching the players argue about which part of the Mwangi they’d been teleported to until they finally realized what was going on.

If you’re worried as a GM that you might be stranding the players somewhere, don’t worry: This part of the adventure has a way for them to get back to Golarion.

This arc has three parts: Struggling through the wilds, some dungeon diving, and getting back. Because they’re fairly separate, you don’t have to run all three, and can handwave any connecting tissue fairly easily. While I loved all three sections, I’d say getting back was my favorite encounter, since it hops the players all over the solar system before dumping them where they need to be.

Potential hooks:

  • Running all three: A strange portal needs investigation! Stepping through, unfortunately, strands them in a strange land as the portal collapses as soon as they exit it.
  • Running all three: A trap sends them ‘away’ and they have to find their way back
  • Just the city and dungeon: The elves of the city need information about a ritual to protect their new settlement. Being academics, they really need some muscle to help them out.
  • Just getting back: The portal could be anywhere! Use it to give the party a shortcut from one place to another, but at a cost.

Book 2

While much of Book 2 revolves around an NPC trying to fulfill her destiny, I’ve found you can pretty much remove or downplay her role without changing the entire story. That makes Book 2 easy to mine from!

Skywatch

Skywatch is a town that has been mysteriously abandoned, and is now beset by those who would plunder what was left behind. It has a number of fun encounters, both social and fisticuffs (including fighting a piece of furniture that had me cackling as a GM). It could be an interesting place for a group of PCs to run into, or be hired to check out.

Potential hooks:

  • The party has been braving the wilderness for a while now, and could use a chance to restock. Pity that the town they’ve stumbled onto is in such disarray.
  • Word is that the formerly cloistered city of Skywatch is no longer sealed off from the rest of Golarion! The crew has been tasked with seeing what they were up to.
  • A group of researchers need to get up to the observatory in the center of town. Unfortunately, not only is the observatory surrounded by looters, but several members of their party have disappeared while attempting to scout.

Mermaid’s Tear

At one point, the Gatewalkers party needs to get across a lake, and ends up on a slightly-haunted ship that’s otherwise sea-worthy. Captain Adney was a favorite NPC for my group, and it made an otherwise colorless journey memorable. Acquiring the ship involves a few steps which can be handwaved, but I found the dungeon to be a nice one-session size. Also, you can’t have a haunted ship without some weird events while you travel, which are included in this arc.

Also, the ship being haunted and only functional while haunted makes it easy to remove from play, if you don’t want your players to have unlimited mobility.

Potential hooks:

  • Your players need to get across a body of water, but all the regular captains are either booked or unwilling to carry them. They hear a rumor about an ‘abandoned’ boat nearby that could be used if it proves seaworthy, though…
  • The Temple of the Water Lord can be run independently, and could be a great challenge for a group that wants to learn a particular ritual from the fey waiting at the end.
  • If you just want to run the seafaring parts, the crew has been hired to hunt down the Red Duchess, a Chelaxian vessel that’s gone rogue for unknown reasons. Previous parties have been sent to look into it, but haven’t returned, which is making the locals nervous.

Egede

A town that’s been taken over by religious zealots, with the potential for spawning a cult! In the AP, it’s easy for the PCs to blow past the plot, but it’s a fairly interesting encounter that can fall out multiple ways. Do they get the zealots to back down and realize the error of their ways? Do they play along? Or do they decide conversations are for commoners and solve their problem with violence? Depending on what they do, they might inspire some already unstable locals to form a following. While in the AP, this is meant to push them to move on, it could be the start of a bigger adventure.

Potential hooks:

  • Your players stumble into town to restock and rest and end up caught up in the local politics.
  • They’ve been hired by someone whose brother is being held for a ‘trial.’ Once the party is in town, they realize how deadly said trials are.
  • Post-hook: If they accidentally create a following, the PCs have to deal with a cult forming around their ‘miraculous’ accomplishments. Seriously, make it awkward.

Crossing the Scar

If you need your players to cross the wilds of Mendev or the Scar, this is a good chapter to grab. It includes not only random encounter tables, but also some unique encounters that feed into how damaged this region is, and a bug dungeon that had so many bugs. It does include an escort quest, but this can easily be removed or downplayed.

This is a great place for those who invested in Survival to shine, especially if they don’t have a chance to buy magical yurts beforehand.

Potential hooks:

  • A group of pilgrims have asked the group to guide them to a sacred site across the scar.
  • Reclaimers want to hire the party to find out what happened to some other members of their organization.
  • You can use Valmer’s Burrow on its own. Valmer has a habit of taking people back to his hidey hole, so if the party has a beloved NPC he could grab…
  • This section also includes some ruins that can be used on their own, allowing PCs who love investigation a chance to flex.

Book 3

Lepidstadt

Lepidstadt is the largest settlement in Ustalav, and makes for an interesting place for a party to set up camp for a while. I will say that if you want more details, you may want to check out books from the PF1 days. Rule of Fear and The Carrion Crown would be good places to start. Still, if you just need something to vibe off of, what’s in Book Three should suffice.

Potential hooks:

  • The party has to do some research at the local university, but quickly find out that the professors want rather gruesome favors before they’ll help.
  • The party has been hired to find a missing loved one, who was last seen heading into Ustalav with their wares. There’s also troubling rumors of cults and secret societies who are always looking for new members… or victims.
  • The council has hired the party to track down the Beast of Lepidstadt, a legendary monster of the region who is blamed in the recent murder of a rich merchant. Not everything is as it seems, though. Is the monster actually guilty? And why hire outsiders for this job?

Ritalson Manor

Ritalson Manor starts off as a nice break for a tired party, and slowly descends into a the realization that not only is their host an occultist murderer, but that they were lined up to be his next victims. My players loved it, since it offered a mix of research, social interactions, and mayhem. Though it ties in with the overall Gatewalkers plot, it wouldn’t be too difficult to scrub that off of the set-up. The other party could be from any faction friendly with the party, and the discoveries in the basement could tie into any larger plot.

Potential hooks:

  • Ritalson is a fellow Pathfinder who has invited the party to his manor for a small gathering of the minds. He’s been held up elsewhere, so they’re told to enjoy his manor until he arrives.
  • The party has been hired to look into the disappearance of a party of traveling academics. Rumors place them at Ritalson Manor, but the local law enforcement has been reluctant to act against such a pillar of society with no evidence.
  • The party stumbles upon the house deep in the wilds, and are surprised when they’re offered a chance to sleep in soft beds for free. A dark storm gathering to the west makes this a tempting proposal…

Abandoned temple

If you’re bouncing around somewhere cold and want a relatively small dungeon to explore, the Abandoned Temple could easily be slotted into your game. Once serving Findeladra, it’s infested with Blackfrost and creatures that fell to its taint long (or maybe not so long) ago. It also features a nice treasure at the end of it: An Explorer’s Yurt, which is indispensable when exploring hostile regions, or travelling with a bard who whines a bit much.

Potential hooks:

  • Scouts from a local town have gone missing, and the sister of one of them has begged the explorers to find them, or at the very least, what befell them.
  • A terrible blizzard has slammed into the party, forcing them to take shelter in the temple until it’s passed.
  • Do your players need to find some notes to push the campaign forward? Turns out, their quarry holed up in the temple for a while and may have left something behind…

Across the High Ice

This section was rather controversial for many GMs and players, but personally, I liked it. Yes, it’s grueling, but that’s what travelling across a frozen desert should be. It also has a number of interesting encounters, both for combat and setting the mood, that keeps it from becoming totally monotonous. A GM might will need to find a different shortcut if they want to completely scrub the Gatewalkers plot, but this can be done by halving the distance on the map.

Potential hooks:

  • The party is at point A. Their target is at point B. They need to hoof it.
  • The party triggers a teleportation trap and ends up at the Crown of the World. Thankfully, they stumble into a cache of gear right away, but they still need to figure out how to get home… (So, reverse the map)
  • The party has been asked by the Pathfinder Society to do some scouting for them. They’re sure to get a big payday, but they need to gather enough data to earn it…

The First and Last Temple

This temple in the Nameless Spires is the capstone of the AP, finally allowing the players to deal a metaphysical black eye to the stupid fish that caused all of their problems. It’s also a nice size dungeon that could keep a group of players busy for a session or two. It’s filled with fights, traps, and a few weird, otherworldly nerds who will happily talk and/or steal the party’s brains. There’s also a few places where a GM could drop clues for their own campaign, if they need a place to do a lore dump.

Potential hooks:

  • The BBEG the group has been following stayed here for several months, researching… something? Replace what’s on the murals with your own details.
  • Strange occurrences have been popping up around the Crown of the World, and the party is being paid to look into it.
  • A cosmos oracle has been besieged by visions of disaster, and is convinced the temple holds the key. Even better if you happen to have an oracle in your group…

Final thoughts

I thoroughly enjoyed running Gatewalkers as is, but I also understand that some GMs prefer to run their own thing, or aren’t interested in the overall plot. Even so, it offers a ton of things you can grab and reuse without ever stealing your players’ memories or making them amnesiac criminals.

Quest for the Frozen Flame AP: Book 3 Summary and GM Experience

Every year, one of the talks at PaizoCon involves upcoming adventures. When they said they had an upcoming AP that involved megafauna, I squealed so loud I woke our dogs. Megafauna are awesome, especially if you can ride them, but in many campaigns, they’re simply not practical to keep around. If you’re wandering around the frozen tundra, though, they could actually be useful in most situations! I immediately started collecting players. As soon as I was able to read the first book, we got cracking, playing monthly sessions of 2-3 hours each.

Just over three years later, we finished book three, with the PCs having gone from minor players in a dying tribe to movers, shakers, and saviors of the great northern tundra.

Warning: I'll be gleefully spoiling the books past this point, so if you plan on playing in a Frozen Flame campaign, close this tab!

Summary of Book Three

From Paizo:

The Broken Tusks find sanctuary at last in the settlement of Hillcross, but invading frost giants quickly force the clan’s scouts to lead their mighty following’s defense against the siege and take on new titles. To put a stop to the slaughter, the newly named Mammoth Lords take the fight to their foes by riding their bestial mounts through the sucking muck of the Tamarnian Tar Forest. At the heart of these black woods, amid the ruins of a half-sunken crusaders’ castle, the heroes wield the sacred light of the Primordial Flame to defeat their ancient enemies once and for all.

The overall plot of book three revolves around not only keeping the Primordial Flame, but also removing its curse. The only lead they have in that department is to follow the path of the former Tusk who took it (Metuak), which is leading them towards Hillcross, a large, magically enchanted encampment used by the various tribes to rest and connect with each other.

The first chapter involves the Broken Tusks getting pulled into the politics and interpersonal dynamics of Hillcross. Besides having PC Glow, they also have a magical artifact that gains them a certain amount of attention. The quiet can’t last long, though, as Ivarsa and the Burning Mammoths finally track the crew down and begin an assault on Hillcross.

The PCs help repel the first assault, but realize they really need to continue on their quest. Leaving their tribe behind to help defend Hillcross, they make their way west into the Tamarnian Tar Forest, a land blighted by multiple evils. After some fighting (so much fighting) and meeting some allies, they finally make their way to the Metuak’s prison, Castle Grimgorge. There, they face down not only their tribe’s troubled past, but what remains of the Burning Mammoths.

How’d it go?

The players

My players continued to really enjoy this AP, getting into their roles as Big Damn Heroes every chance they could. They never missed a chance to recruit people to their following, and probably kept track of who they had better than I did. They also loved the final showdown with Pakano. I’ve run quite a few Adventure Paths, and never have my players hate anyone as much as they did Pakano. Some players might have cried foul for having to defeat an NPC twice, but mine relished the chance to put him down again.

No lie, their primary goal for going to Grimgorge was punching him in his stupid face again. Removing the curse was secondary.

Speed run

For this AP, I wanted to try a new way of speeding the AP up. While I have no issues with running APs as is, I also love playing around with them to see how tweaks can change how the content feels. In this case, I wanted to try doing a ‘speed run.’ Every time we started a new book, the players would be at the max level for that book. They wouldn’t level up again until the next book, when they would level up to the max for that book. So, for book one, they started at level three, for book two, they were level 8, and for book three, they were level 11.

I was delighted to see that my theory held. Combats early in the books sailed by, and became appropriate challenges by the end. They weren’t so powerful that everything was a cakewalk, but they did feel pretty darn powerful. One side-effect for this AP was that they didn’t hesitate to explore everything, since they had more time on their hands. A lower-level group would have had to rest more, meaning the time limit would have started bearing down on them, so they might have opted to skip swaths of the hexploration or some of the side-quests.

And yes, three years for three books seems like a long time, but we only played one two-hour session a month. According to my back-of-the-envelope math, that puts us at about the same rate as most APs. Had we been playing in non-speed mode, I have a feeling they would have skipped quite a bit to stay on track.

My thoughts

The biggest shock for me with this book was how hard the fight with Pakano and Ivarsa was. My players are ruthlessly competent, so they often curb-stomp boss fights. It proved to be a challenge, with PCs going down a few times. This was a good thing, though. The party hated Pakano with every fiber of their beings, so they relished a longer fight.

I really enjoyed running Hillcross and the politics there. It was a nice break from hexploration, and was a chance for the PCs to roleplay in a more open space.

Speaking of hexploration, while still good, it wasn’t as good as what was in Book 2. That’s not saying it was bad! Book 2 was Doublestuff Oreos, and Book 3 was original Oreos.

Finally, Book 3 is a great payoff for PCs who have invested in collecting a following. How many people they’ve gathered changes the outcome of the battle of Hillcross and how their tribe is viewed going forward.

Recommendations

ABP is still vital for this AP. Hillcross is he first major city the PCs run into, and they’re almost done with the AP at that point. If you don’t want to use ABP, make sure you have multiple crafters in the party and adequate downtime for them to get everyone geared up.

Also, by the time this book rolls around, you might have a group where every PC is mounted. Make sure everyone has read the rules on mounted combat, and that you’ve thought about how to potentially deal with mounts that can fly. This is important not only for battlemaps and how you represent them, but how they might skip encounters by going high. I’m a huge fan of players figuring out creative ways around problems, but I also like to be prepared.

The hexploration is set up differently in this book, with each hex requiring a different flat check and then a roll on another table. Set up a quick reference! I printed out all of the tables and taped them into my notebook so I wasn’t constantly paging back and forth in my PDF.

You also need to keep very careful track of lieutenants and following numbers. This changes the end of the book!

Finally, make the group consider who carries the Primordial Flame very carefully. It can’t be swapped around on a whim, and losing it sucks. While keeping hold of it isn’t that hard, generally, there are a few places in the AP where someone will attempt to take it. If the attempt succeeds, a PC could be in for a world of hurt for a while.

Who is this AP for?

As much as we all loved this AP, it won’t be for everyone. It’s one of those gems where some groups will dive into it, and others will fight it every step of the way. I would recommend it for groups where:

  • The players are into wilderness survival. Though the AP doesn’t force the issue often, a GM could easily build it into their hexploration.
  • Someone is really into crafting. Because there are almost no cities, the party will be reliant on crafting to gear up. This could be a player’s moment to shine!
  • The players enjoy finding non-violent solutions to encounters. This AP is rich with situations where a bit of roleplay can earn long-lasting rewards.
  • The players love exploration. Every book features a section with a hex map that could easily be expanded to add PC specific encounters along the way, if a GM wants.

So who isn’t it for?

  • Lone wolf groups. This AP assumes that the players will build a following over the three books. Failing to recruit (or even striking off on their own) can make some encounters more difficult and lead to a less satisfying ending overall.
  • Groups who prefer city adventures. There’s only two of them, and one of them, you’re sneaking around and not doing a lot of shopping or galivanting.
  • A group that is motivated by loot and gold, and not by causes. Seriously, there’s not a lot of loot in this adventure, and the reason for doing things boils down to “It’s the right thing to do” or “This will help the tribe.”

That said, I think it’s a fun AP for a group who is willing to go all-in on the premise, and has a gratifying dénouement for those who make it all of the way through.

Against the Aeon Throne: Book 1 – GM thoughts

Ages ago, I grabbed a good chunk of the Starfinder RPG off of Humble Bundle. As a system, it’s always fascinated me: Magic and sci-fi with a healthy sense of humor mingled with world-shattering threats to keep things interesting. When my Abomination Vaults game ended, I asked my pool of players if anyone might be interested in magic and guns in space.

I got an enthusiastic response. The players were all experienced with RPGs, with everyone having experience with Pathfinder (some 1e, some 2e, some both). Only one player had ever played Starfinder, though, so we were still readying ourselves for a learning curve.

The party:

  • Trox Nanocyte
  • Vesk Vanguard
  • Kitsune Witchwarper
  • Dirindi Operative
  • Human Mechanic + his artillery drone
  • Lashunta Technomancer
  • Lashunta Envoy
  • Kasatha Mystic

Yes, it’s a large party, but we operate on a quorum system. If four players can make it, we play, and assume the other PCs are off doing something else. So far, though, games have hit at least 80% attendance, so we’ve still had a large party on average!

Thoughts on moving to Starfinder 1e

First off, I’ll say that everyone in the game has loved Starfinder, and I’m kicking myself for not starting a game sooner. This fun world has been sitting on my shelf for years!

There have been a few hiccups that, while not insurmountable, would be worth considering for any other group looking to try SF1e out.

  • Experience is a double-edged sword. The group is made up of highly experienced players, but sometimes this tripped us up. SF1e rules are similar to PF1 and PF2, but they’re not the same. The first few sessions had us mixing in rules from the Pathfinder systems at random until we got serious about looking everything up.
  • Starship combat threw us for a loop. I’m sure an experienced group could have tackled the few starship combats in Book One in under an hour. We took an embarrassingly long time. For book 1, I wanted to use the standard rules, but moving forward, I may move to the cinematic system from Starfinder Enhanced.
  • Some habits needed to change. Loot is less valuable in SF1e. If you’re not going to use it, you should probably leave it. Also, one cannot get by just swinging a vibroblade. You need a gun in space.
  • Encounter balance is… different? Because our group was large, I thought I’d rebalance the encounters so that everyone would get a turn. Except, when I ran the numbers through a calculator, it turned out I didn’t need to adjust anything. I still need to look into how the system is balanced, but in practice, the encounters were perfectly fine without adjustment.

Thoughts on Book 1

Spoilers ahoy after this point!

Dear lord, this book moves fast. Looking at our recordings, it took us 19 hours to finish book 1. Had we been more experienced, I’m sure that would have been closer to 15. A book of an AP usually takes us closer to 24 hours. Some might say that having a larger group made it move faster, but I’m not sure about that, since it also slowed us down (more abilities to look up, more pauses to ask about a mechanic, etc).

Also, this AP has a much slower leveling curve than others, which has been a boon for a new group. You only hit three at the end of book 1, while other first books have you ending at 4. I have to say, I was impressed with how much the crew could do at super low levels, so I’d say this is system where you probably don’t want to skip the early levels with newish players.

That said, I do feel like Against the Aeon Throne is a good candidate for a speed-run. You’re gated between books, so players can’t sequence-break the encounters. The low levels mean the players wouldn’t be getting too much of a power boost, but they could churn through some encounters faster, and have slightly better odds of accessing some lore and paths that are locked behind skill checks. It could turn the AP into something closer to an adventure if your group isn’t looking to invest in a long-term campaign.

I’ll probably be back here soon with thoughts on book two, because we’re darn close to finishing part two. Like I said, it moves FAST.

Abomination Vaults: Stripping it for Parts

I’m a huge lover of Paizo’s Adventure paths. They’re a huge timesaver for busy GMs, and not just those who want to run a long pre-written campaign! You can easily pull out interesting scenarios from the APs, rub off a few serial numbers, and slot them into your custom campaign with no one the wiser. I’ve written about this for other APs, and now it’s time for me to give Abomination Vaults the same treatment.

Overall notes

Abomination Vaults is a unique campaign in that each chapter is a floor. Because of how the vaults are set up, there’s many floors you could pull out on their own and plop into a campaign. Creatures tend to stick to their designated areas, so there’s no worry about the floors bleeding together. They also tend to all have their own theme, based on who’s moved in.

You also don’t have to use the whole floor, since many have encounters that are self-contained enough to pull out and plop in the basement of some BBEG’s lair or in your own dungeon.

  1. Overall notes
  2. Book one
    1. Otari
    2. Floor 1: Ruins of Gauntlight
    3. Floor 2: The Forgotten Dungeon
    4. Floor 3: Cult of the Canker
    5. Floor 4: An abandoned retreat
  3. Book 2
    1. The Stolen Blade
    2. Dorianna’s Dreams
    3. Floors 5 and 6: The Arena and Labs
    4. Floor 7: Soul Keepers
  4. Book 3
    1. Floor 8: Decaying Gardens
    2. Floor 9: Hunting Grounds
    3. Floor 10: The Temple
  5. Final thoughts

Book one

Otari

One major thing you can pull from this book is the town of Otari. It’s a small port town that’s perfect for adventurers just starting out. It’s filled with interesting characters who have their own potential plots going on, and it’s not too far off from Absolom. It could be a fun place for PCs to start their adventure, stock up, or save at some point.

Floor 1: Ruins of Gauntlight

The first floor is completely above ground, so it would fit in any swamp-like setting. It’s filled with the sorts of creatures you could see cramming into a deteriorating structure, including natural creatures, the fey, and even an undead or two. There’s even non-combat encounters, including a brownie that my group adopted (Tangletop!) and a tribe of mitflits (who my players immediately slaughtered).

Possible hooks:

  • The PCs need to clear this old fort / lighthouse / whatever out for cold hard cash.
  • The party stumbles upon the structure and decides to make it a new hideout.
  • They’re there to ‘rescue’ the soulbound doll Mister Beak (the previous owner doesn’t know the doll left of his own accord and has fallen in with a bad crowd).
  • The locals think the old outpost is haunted, but it turns out that this is just Tangletop trying to keep the other creatures nearby away.

Floor 2: The Forgotten Dungeon

This is the first floor that’s completely underground. It has an interesting mix of creatures, with a dose of undead, aberrations, and even some infernal! The overall vibe I get from this floor is that of an abandoned villain’s lair. The old experiments have broken loose, the old staff has been turned, and the devils are stuck until their contract is completed. This also features a fight with a river drake that thoroughly handed my players their butts the first time they encountered it.

Possible hooks:

  • That drake has taken up residence in an abandoned structure outside of town, and it’s bothering the residents. The party has been hired to get rid of it… but no one knew that the abandoned mansion wasn’t so abandoned.
  • If you have a BBEG in your campaign, this could be an old lair of his before he upgraded. Crawling through it could give your party more information about their potential rival.
  • If you want to make allies of the morlocks, they want their old digs back, but aren’t quite up to the task of clearing them out. They do have their old boss’s funds, so they’re willing to throw money at the problem! Just don’t ask what happened to him…

Floor 3: Cult of the Canker

An undead library! This floor is a library populated by intelligent undead, so could fit in many places: Geb, a necromancer’s lair, the site of a former cult that went in a bit too hard… And, being a library, it’s a great place to drop lore or information that would be difficult to deliver via NPC. It also features an NPC who became a fast favorite of my group: Augrael! He’s a friendly ghoul who really just wants to sit in his cubby hole and read his books (I made him a fan of bodice rippers, but you do you). He’s not a fan of his ‘coworkers’, so he can offer a place for the party to rest and heal.

Possibly hooks:

  • This library used to belong to the group’s patron, but it was taken over by a cult of undead morlocks.
  • This library belongs to the BBEG of the campaign, and could offer clues about their motivations and abilities.
  • It could be a non-combat location if your party is in Geb or an otherwise undead-friendly location.
  • The group has been tasked with delivering books to Augreal… they just have to find him first amidst all the hostile undead.

Floor 4: An abandoned retreat

The theme for the fourth floor is a luxurious retreat for a villain that has been long abandoned. Of course, other creatures have moved in, and some unfortunate individuals were never able to leave. There’s a mix of undead, aberrations, and demonic, so a little bit of something for everyone. The main goal of this floor is to find the ghost of a long-dead adventurer so he can give you a lore dump, but he can easily be swapped out for anything that would suit your campaign better.

Possible hooks:

  • Something has been harassing the local town… turns out it’s a werewolf, holed up in some local caves. Time to problem solve!
  • If you have a BBEG, this would be a great place for the players to learn about them without being face to face.
  • Or, heck, clean up the descriptions slightly and pop your BBEG in there! They could take the place of the voidglutton (who can be rough on a level 4 party)
  • An adventuring party lost one of its members when they separated in the dungeon. They’ve come down with a case of being lily-livered, so have hired you to find their friend.

Book 2

Book two includes quite a few side quests for the party, and they’re fairly easy to pop into most campaigns.

The Stolen Blade

A famous sword, passed down over generations, has been stolen. The owner knows who it was, but doesn’t know where the culprit is, and doesn’t reveal to the party why the thief may actually have a claim to it. This quest has the players bouncing around town a bit to find clues, then cornering the thief in a cave before he can run off with his prize.

Dorianna’s Dreams

The party has been approached about a young woman in town who’s been suffering from increasingly strong nightmares, none of which she remembers upon waking. Her father is desperate to find the cause and do whatever it takes to heal her. This has the party doing some investigation based on their own wits (or what wits they can hire), and leads them eventually to a confrontation with a creature from Leng.

Floors 5 and 6: The Arena and Labs

These floors go together, if you’re plugging whole floors into your campaign. The first is the largely abandoned lair of a BBEG (starting to see a theme?), while the second level is occupied by various groups that have moved in. The most striking feature is one that spans both floors: An enormous colosseum that currently houses a shanrigol behemoth, but this could be swapped out for most gargantuan creatures. Outside of the arena, there are signs of terrible experiments being done in the past, some of which are still being carried out.

The arena isn’t the only feature of the floors. Floor six has a tavern, with its very own punk band!. Honestly, if you steal anything from this book, let it be these guys. They deserve to make it big in more campaigns.

Possible hooks:

  • Once again, this is a good addition to any campaign where the players are chasing a somewhat unhinged BBEG. There’s lots of places to sprinkle clues about what their nemesis can do, and hooks to where they should go next.
  • A talent scout has contracted the party, with rumors of a band with a hot new sound… they just have to make their way to them. Easy money!
  • The party hears a rumor of an undefeated champion somewhere near their home. It’s not really their problem… but someone keeps luring young idiots to challenge it, and no one has come back…

Floor 7: Soul Keepers

This floor is more devil-y than some of the others, and includes a puzzle that has the players collecting various keys around the dungeon in order to open a magically sealed door. It also has a collection of stasis chambers that can have players either saying “Let’s poke every button” or “Absolutely not” and turning their heel. The ‘big bad’ of the floor is a contract devil eager to make a deal in order to get a soul owed to him, so meeting him could lead to a fun new plot or a blow-out of a fight.

Possible hooks:

  • Set this in Chelliax, and it’s just another admin building! If the players aren’t on the offensive, they have a handful of interesting NPCs to talk to. If they’re there to throw down, it’s already thematic!
  • Odd requests have been popping up on the request board in town: Find certain creatures, but do not kill them. Capture them, then leave them in a clearing outside town. The mayor wants to know what’s behind this.
  • If the party is morally grey, they receive a letter requesting help tracking down a certain ne’er-do-well and bringing him to a newly rented office in town. It reads like the guy owes someone money, but something feels off…
  • A tiefling bounty hunter has gone missing, and his partner is desperate to find him. Everyone thinks he just skipped town, but she knows him better than that…

Book 3

Normally, by the last book in an AP, I don’t have much to suggest when it comes to plundering. AV, however, still has lots to borrow and shove into your own games! Book three has a few clusters of NPCs, some interesting dungeons, and a big set-piece for whatever BBEG you might have in your campaign.

Floor 8: Decaying Gardens

The major NPCs of this floor are a group of Calgni cultists… but nice ones! They probably won’t turn the party into soup since they’re so intent on finding their oracle who hears whispers from a magical MacGuffin. They’re more than happy to work with the party, given that they’re polite and don’t poke them too hard about their strange beliefs. On the less cult-y side of things are a small party of Drow / cave elves who are hunting these wild caves for food and sport. The caves also feature wee bog mummies (their original bodies came from deep gnomes) and a delightful mix of deadly flora and fauna.

Potential hooks:

  • The friendly cult is in freakout mode, since their oracle wandered off. They need you to find him and bring him back, unharmed… though one might bribe the party to lead him somewhere even more secret, and tell only her the location.
  • The drow have been tasked with getting this floor under control, but they’ll begrudgingly admit they bit off more than they could chew. Since the party is hanging around and looking dangerous anyway, maybe they could help out?
  • Not far out of town, the roof of a cavern has fallen in, revealing dangerous previously unknown in the peaceful village. The mayor is asking for someone to come and ‘neutralize’ the cave, either through negotiations or violence.

Floor 9: Hunting Grounds

This floor has two groups of NPCs that you could easily pluck up and place into a campaign that has any access to the underdark. The first is a sizable enclave of Drow (the ones the hunters on floor 8 belong to, but you can easily just use them) who are stuck where they are due to previous vows, but would really rather go home. The other is a group of Caligni who would also prefer to return to their main settlement deep in the Underdark, but are blocked from going back. There’s also a group of immediately hostile urdefhan and an abandoned temple that could be scooped up and reused.

Potential hooks:

  • The Drow hunters have lost track of a precious MacGuffin (a crystal lens in the AP, but it can be anything). They can’t return to their people without it, but their attempts to find it have been thwarted by a cave system filled with dangerous flora and fauna.
  • The Caligni outpost was only supposed to be out here for a few months, mapping this section of the Underdark. While they were working, however, their way back has been blocked by a dragon. Being a selection of slightly sturdy cartographers, they’re stuck where they are until someone takes care of the problem for them.
  • A mysterious temple has been discovered outside of an abandoned settlement. The party is hired to check it out and document it for a local historian. This could easily lead to floor 10, or a plot of the GM’s choice.
  • A town has been reporting disappearances, mostly of scouts or individuals who live alone in the outskirts. An investigation points to a cavern that’s supposed to be empty… or at least, it was.

Floor 10: The Temple

The last floor! This entire floor is a gauntlet, with the players being pushed through various challenges meant to wear them down. That isn’t a metaphor, by the way. It was literally built for the followers of the BBEG of AV to prove themselves. For your players, it could be that, or it could be the barriers set in place by their foe to slow them down.

Potential hooks:

  • Obviously, this could be put in place by their nemesis to keep their inner sanctum from being invaded by the unworthy. If you do this, you may want to remove a room that’s explicitly set aside for their peons to rest in before entering the sanctum.
  • This could also be presented as a challenge to overcome. A local lodge has set it up as a way to train potential Pathfinders more efficiently than tossing them to someone more experienced and saying “Good luck!”
  • Or you could do a bit of both. The party has been tasked with infiltrating a local cult, and if they choose the sneaky option, they could pretend to be members in order to get a shot at the big boss.

Final thoughts

AV is hands down one of my favorite APs, mostly because it’s filled with so many fun and varied encounters. I really hope more people give it a go, either as an AP, or inserting chunks of it into their ongoing campaign.

Exploring Abomination Vaults: A Dungeon Crawler Experience

On September 15th, 2024, my group finally finished the epic dungeon-crawling Adventure Path known as Abomination Vaults. When I first heard that Paizo was putting out a mega-dungeon, I was stoked. While I haven’t been able to do many, I’ve always been enamored with the idea of a campaign focused on one dungeon, where things get more dangerous the deeper you go. Having a modern one where I didn’t have to convert the whole thing was doubly exciting.

The deets on us

The sessions were held once a month, for about three hours each. This may seem like a short amount of time to many, but this was an extremely focused group bent on getting to the bottom of the vaults. I don’t think we had a single session that we spent on fluff.

Even so, it wasn’t a short campaign. We ran from April 2021 to September 2024, with only a few skipped months due to holidays and scheduling issues. Doing some back-of-the-envelope math, I think AV is more dense than your average Paizo AP. One book is usually six four-hour sessions for my groups, and by my calculations, AV took us a quarter longer than your average AP. This math feels right, because AV is super dense. Every inch of the ten 40×70 grid maps is filled with something to fight, figure out, or talk to. There are encounters you can skip, but most players won’t want to leave potential enemies at their backs.

We had a shifting cast of characters since this was a campaign where we worked on a quorum rather than insisting everyone was there. The crew:

  • Kobold Thaumaturge
  • Strix Swashbuckler
  • Cave Elf Fighter (Bows)
  • Kobold Alchemist (Mutagenist, but threw lots of bombs)
  • Tengu Sorcerer
  • Dhampir Oracle

The oracle had to drop due to Real Life Cool Shit, so we swapped in the Iconic Kyra to follow the group around and keep them on their feet.

We used Automatic Bonus Progression, but no other variant rules since the AP didn’t recommend them. Yes, Virginia, you can play without Free Archetype.

Overall takeaways

This is an awesome AP. I squealed when they announced it, then worried it wouldn’t live up to my expectations. It really did, though. Hell, it even exceeded them, since it’s easy to have a dungeon crawler that starts to, well, crawl. The pace kept moving along at a nice clip, and there was always something to find just around the corner. Every floor is themed, so you don’t have to stress out too badly if a PC is less effective for a while. Things will swap around, I promise you, and it will give players a chance to dig into what else they could be doing to help their fellow party members.

One interesting thing as a GM was that much of the game was spent with me sitting back while the players planned. For me, this was a nice break from APs where there’s more roleplaying from me to get the story moving forward. Not that I mind running NPCs (I enjoy it!), but man, it was kind of nice to give them a map of what they’d explored, then sip my tea as they talked about where they wanted to go next, and how they should prep.

This is also one of the few APs that I could see running again since so much of the story comes out based on where the players go, and what they pick up along the way.

The elephant in the room: Difficulty

On Reddit, this is often considered a super deadly AP, with groups racking up body counts before they’ve found the first set of stairs. Meanwhile, our group had zero deaths. There were a few close calls, but that’s expected in PF2.

That’s not me saying that these other players were just clueless! We had a few advantages that many AV groups don’t have:

  • Experience. Over half the players were experienced with PF2, and all of us were experienced with TTRPGs of a similar ilk.
  • Old farts. When I say ‘experienced’, I don’t mean five years. Some of us are in our fourth decade of gaming. This means many of us came from an era when dungeon crawls were common. We already understood the metarules behind them, like pulling back when you need to, exploring carefully, and being prepared to run.
  • For some games, we had a larger crew. This alone can help balance for a creature that the group isn’t quite built for.
  • The NPC healer came in clutch. Sometimes, I just had her waiting by the stairs to heal after battles, but that was enough to keep the group out of the danger zone.
  • Shorter sessions meant no one got mentally exhausted, which can be the biggest killer in games.

GM suggestions

Prep in advance. In many APs, you can make an educated guess as to where your players could go in the next session. After all, there’s only so many encounters they can run into based on their current location. This is not the case with Abomination Vaults. Once a group is on a floor, nearly every room will be a possibility. So, if your players are close to going to the next floor, make sure you have it ready to go. And this isn’t just the creatures: Keep an eye out for interactions between encounters. Sometimes, running into a friendly NPC first can negate another room, or finding a switch or a clue can make another encounter less (or more) difficult.

Rest! Emphasize to your players that they’re the ones who control when they rest, and that there’s no gun to their head to push forward. They can fall back to town or a safe hidey-hole and rest as often as they like. While my players tended to only rest at the end of a session, there were a few times that they had one rough fight, noped out, and rested while they made a plan. They also chose to rest a few times when key daily resources were depleted rather than push forward with just cantrips and big sticks.

This goes for players, too. Being tired will kill you in this AP, so if players are starting to flag, it might be time to go back to town and have some fun, non-lethal interactions there.

Player map. I gave my players a map of where they had been at the start of each session, which gave them a chance to plan on their own. You can do this by hand, or you can do what I did on Roll20 if that’s your VTT.

  1. At the start of the game, make sure Explorer mode is on.
  2. Make sure your vision is attached to your players’ tokens.
  3. Put their flag on the floor you want to make a map of.
  4. Log in as a player.
  5. Take a screenshot.
  6. In the image editing software of your choice, fiddle with exposure until all of the areas are more clearly defined.

It’s a bit of work, but it’s better than dealing with an endless Q&A about where they’ve been and it gives them something to mark up if need be.

Stairs are not an invitation, not a summons. Another important thing to drill into your players: Just because they found the stairs to go down doesn’t mean they have to go down. Depending on which direction the players go, they could find the stairs down just a few rooms in. Going down immediately means they skip much of the content, and that they’ll likely be under-leveled for what they’re about to face. So, remind them that they likely don’t want to leave hostile forces at their back, and try to get them to hold off going down until they’ve cleared at least 80% of a floor.

Leash your murderhobos. The Vaults are full of things that want to kill the players, but they also are host to a number of friendly NPCs and factions. If murder is what they want to do, okay, but some of the fights that this could kick off are extreme or just very boring. Also, they’ll need information going forward if they really want to get the full story of what’s going on in the Vaults.

Lock all doors. If your players are the kind to wander and open every door willy-nilly, consider locking all doors until they come to them. The encounters are dense on these maps, with many starting the second the players stumble into them. You can also feel free to let them fuck around and find out! You do you, boo.

Otari fun! Don’t ignore the town! My group did less lingering there due to the nature of our time slot, but if you have more time to play with, make sure to play up the town plots. There’s a ton of cool characters and hooks to dig into that can help bring the town to life.

By the books…

Book one

Favorite bits: Augreal, the bookworm ghoul, and Tangletop, the grumpy sprite. The group immediately adopted both of them. They made a point to bring Augreal bodice rippers every time they did another dive, and hired Tangletop to keep their rooms in order. They also slowly grew more fond of Magiloy the Bartender. Amusingly, outside of a few required conversations, they ignored the main NPC with the most backstory and hooks.

Roughest bits: The vampiric mist was a bit of a struggle, though they got through it. There was also a drake that thoroughly stomped their butts. This was the fight that drilled home that, yes, sometimes they were going to have to run and come back later. Not only did they run, but they didn’t come back to deal with it for a few levels.

Book two

Favorite bits: Oh my god, the punk band. Paizo put a legit punk band in their mega-dungeon, and I had so much fun with them. I even had their set playing throughout that dungeon in the background. The players ended up getting them gigs in Otari, much to the distress of some of the locals. I also loved the fact that they could see the shanrigol behemoth well before they had to interact with it, leaving them with a growing sense of dread.

Roughest bits: To be honest, the behemoth wasn’t the toughest fight because they were able to prepare for it. The hardest part of this book was dealing with the seugathi, who had a habit of attacking from areas the PCs couldn’t reach (or sometimes see!). By the end of this book, they were practically foaming with hate any time they ran into one.

Book three

Favorite bits: This book was full of social interactions, but my favorite was the drow encampment because one of the players was playing an agoraphobic cave elf. The whole campaign, his character was grumpy about being forced to walk back to town all the time and hang out with a bunch of ‘upsiders.’ They met the drow, and he was suddenly Mr. Social, macking on all the ladies and playing made-up card games with the off-duty guards.

Roughest bits: This book featured the most instances of running and coming up with a plan. There was a huge spider, a huge mole rat, a terrible bird, and some creatures hidden in caves in the wall. Thankfully, this was also the book that had the most comfortable places to retreat, which was important since they refused to activate even one teleportation ring.

Final thoughts

I absolutely loved running Abomination Vaults. It lived up to my highest expectations, and even as the GM, I was excited to see how each session would turn out. Even if you aren’t interested in running an AP, this one is worth grabbing so you can strip it for parts. Each dungeon can be run on its own as a standalone adventure and could easily hold plot points for your homebrew campaign. It’s one of the few APs that I could see running again in the future, if a new group was interested. Once the maps are set up, there’s remarkably little for me to do but wait for players to choose a direction.

Pathfinder 2e Adventure Paths: My GM and Player Recommendations

Every few weeks, someone on r/Pathfinder2e asks for thoughts on what AP their group should run. In the spirit of “I’m tired of writing out my response every time”, I figured I’d make a blog post about it instead.

Yes, I mostly blog to save myself time later.

What I’m including

I’m including every AP that I’ve at least experienced part of, either as a GM or a player. I also include how I ran it (since I sometimes like to switch things up and run APs in a non-conventional way).

I’m not including Adventures, even though I’ve experienced a few. Maybe a blog post for another day!

The Adventure Paths

Agents of Edgewatch

Role: GM
Game type: West Marches
Status: Mostly completed

I ran Agents of Edgewatch as part of a West Marches game, which worked shockingly well. I had to move the main elements of Book 1 to our town, but they were fairly easy to transplant. For later books, I added teleportation circles to the town that were only active for those working their way through the adventure. This did require removing some bits, but no one missed them.

I enjoyed running it so very much, and it’s one of the rare APs that I find myself wanting to run again. It’s full of so many fun set-pieces, and being set in Absolom could give players a chance to really branch out during the adventure. If your players do like to wander, grab a copy of Pathfinder Lost Omens: Absalom, City of Lost Omens. It’s filled with lots of hooks and little details that can bring the campaign to life.

That said, let’s talk about the elephant in the room: The first part of the book has you working as guards who make their money by getting it off of the people they’re guarding. I highly recommend just paying them to keep the peace, rather than taking the property of the people they’re policing.

If you want a high-level review of the cool encounters, check out my blog post about stripping AoE for parts.

Abomination Vaults

Role: GM
Type: Standard
Status: In progress Done!

This is hands down one of the best APs I’ve ever run. I’m going to put a huge caveat on that statement, though: I love dungeon crawls, and so do the rest of my players. There’s something very satisfying to me, clearing levels one by one, plunging deeper into unknown depths. Not every player is into this sort of set-up, though. Players really, truly need to understand that they won’t be leaving Otari, and that the thing they will be dealing with for ten levels is the dungeon. The dungeon does switch up themes as you go, but you’re not going to some exotic new locale or running into a town of completely new NPCs.

That said, you are fairly close to Absolom so a lenient GM could work in some sidequests there. My players never bothered, opting instead to order what they wanted through a weekly caravan. Like, I said, we like dungeons.

From the GM side, you should either grab the modules already on your favorite VTT or settle in for a lot of prepping. Because players can go any direction, you can’t just prep the ‘next few’ areas. Once they’re near a floor, you should have it ready to go. On the flip side, this AP does allow you to be more passive as a GM. Most of the time, I was sitting back while the players discussed where they wanted to go next. I didn’t have to run complex social encounters or dinner parties, and most NPC interactions were limited to just one NPC. It’s a pretty chill experience until it’s killing time!

Some warnings:

  • Quarters are tight, so limit bodies. This means discouraging too many minions. It can work, but if everyone has a wolf, someone is going to be sitting in the hall in some encounters.
  • Emphasize that the players should not go down until they’ve cleared most of the floor. They will get their butts handed to them.
  • Rest is important! If the party is low on resources or sitting on a nasty disease or curse, they should go get that fixed before moving forward.

I wrote more about Abomination Vaults in its own post!

Fists of the Ruby Phoenix

Role: Player
Type: Standard
Status: Complete

This is one we streamed over on D20Saves with a group of experienced players. It was an absolute blast, and delivered on what it promised: A bunch of heroes entering a fighting tournament and accidentally saving the world. There’s a fair mix of social and combat as well as some traditional combats, so you can’t afford to create a group of one-trick ponies.

This is a high-level AP, so it’s not one I would throw at new players. You really should know what you’re doing with your characters and running complex encounters.

Strength of Thousands

Role: GM, then player
Type: West Marches, then stream
Status: Started, abandoned, started again!

This AP didn’t work quite as well in a West Marches game, so it was abandoned fairly early. I did read the first part, though, and it’s left me aching to either run or play in this one for legit years. How can you resist a Magic School AP? Also, book one had one of the best collections of NPCs I’ve seen in an AP ever.

Thankfully, one of the GMs over on D20Saves has agreed to run it for us, so I’m getting another crack at it!

Quest for the Frozen Flame

Role: GM
Type: Speed run
Status: In progress Done!

I’ve been blogging about this AP book by book, so you can check out my previous posts here. In short, it’s a great AP for players who are down for a wilderness campaign that focuses on surviving, exploring, and building a following. I want to be clear, though: When Paizo said it was a wilderness campaign, they meant it.

Some suggestions:

  • Have a spreadsheet ready to keep track of renown and followers gained. You don’t want to have to backtrack and figure it out because suddenly it matters at the end of a book.
  • Dear lord, use ABP. The loot is sparse.
  • Make sure players know they can take downtime to craft items they might need. They will not have access to cities. In fact, the players in my game are in book three and just heading to their first major encampment.

Gatewalkers

Role: GM
Type: Standard
Status: In progress Done!

This is another game that’s being streamed on D20Saves. We’re currently in Book 2, and it’s been a wild ride. Book one especially has a lot of hard lefts that no one in the party predicted. This is a great AP for people who happily follow plot hooks, but may be a struggle for a party who resists going with the flow. Also, some of the fights are deceptively hard. If your party is too squishy, you’ll run into trouble quickly.

I have a series of GM posts about prepping and running this AP if you want a more in-depth review.

Stolen Fates

Role: Player
Type: Standard
Status: In progress

And other D20Saves stream! We’ve only just begun, but so far, it’s been an intriguingly weird adventure. Amusingly enough, we’ve had more gates in book one than we had in all of Gatewalkers. In fact, I feel like this would pair well with Gatewalkers as a follow-on adventure to get the players to level 20.

And that’s it!

I’ll update this post as I finish / start new APs. For now, this is the complete list as of July 2024! Rankings are highly subjective, if I were giving out awards:

  • Favorite overall: Abomination Vaults
  • Most likely to run more than once: Fists of the Ruby Pheonix
  • Most modded: Gatewalkers
  • Most niche: Quest for the Frozen Flame

Caves of Chaos for PF2: The Creatures!

Way long ago, I wrote a blog post about revamping an adventure that was older than most of the players on our server: Caves of Chaos, from Keep on the Borderlands. One thing that post was missing was a specific breakout of what exactly I shoved in the caves. I figured I could get to that later, since I didn’t feel like deciphering my notes at the time. Well, a scant four years later, I’m finally getting around to that.

Look, I’m consistent. I’m not fast.

Background

This isn’t a republishing of the Keep on the Borderlands. You’ll still need to acquire the original book (available on DriveThruRPG or the Internet Archive) to see how the various caves interact, since some of them can repopulate others, some have allied with others, and some are at war. Also, it’s an interesting dive into RPG history!

I didn’t include any adjustments for the Keep part of the Keep on the Borderlands. That’s the part I feel can most easily be replaced by something campaign-specific (maybe you already have a keep you know about!) or adjusted for the flavor of your table. Heck, maybe the players don’t even want a keep, and are fine with roughing it in the nearby woods.

Each cave has been given a level, and each room in the cave has been given an encounter level. Encounters were built assuming a standard 4-person party. Keep in mind, though, that while caves get harder as they go further in, nothing is stopping the players from rushing to the other end of the valley and taking on the hardest caves first. If this is how your players roll… make sure they have back-up characters at camp.

Because of the cave system layout, players should be encouraged to scout caves to figure out what might be in there. Presumably, there’s detritus outside of the cave mouths that give a clue as to what might be inside. I include these for each cave, but it’s basically a hard-level DC for a Recall Knowledge to identify the specific creatures, or an at-level DC for Survival to identify the family.

Caves

Cave A: Hidden Kobold Lair

Information:

  • Level 1 cave
  • Find: DC 15 Perception
  • Scout: DC 15 Survival – Creatures from the Kobold family. Maybe a dozen?
  • Recall Knowledge: DC 17 Society – A clutch of kobolds reside here, preying on caravans as they pass.
  • In the hallway leading in, there’s a Hidden Pit trap.
RoomLevelCreature(s)Treasure?Notes
1Low3 Kobold Warriors
2Trivial1 Rat Swarm
3NoneDoor is locked with a poor lock. DC 15 to open
4Moderate2 Kobold Scouts
5Severe1 Kobold Mage
3 kobold Warriors
6Moderate5 Kobold Warriors

Cave B: Hidden Orc Lair

Information:

  • Level 2 cave
  • Find: DC 13 Perception
  • Scout: DC 16 Survival – Medium sized creatures, probably of the Orc family. Maybe a half-dozen?
  • Recall Knowledge: DC 18 Society – Orcs are near here. Not quite enough to be a warband, but still, a sizable number.
RoomLevelCreature(s)Treasure?Notes
7Trivial2 Orc Brutes
8Moderate2 Orc Warriors
9None
10NoneYes
11NoneYesLocked (simple): DC 20
12Severe1 Elite Orc Warchief
2 Orc Warriors		YesSecret door: DC 18 Perception

Cave C: The Other Orc Lair

Information:

  • Level 2 cave
  • Scout: DC 16 Survival – Medium sized creatures, probably of the Orc family. Maybe a dozen?
  • Recall Knowledge: DC 18 Society – Orcs are near here. The makings of a small warband.
RoomLevelCreature(s)Treasure?Notes
13NoneYesSecret door: DC 18 Percep
14Moderate2 Orc Brutes
2 Orc Warriors
15Low2 Orc Brutes
16Severe1 Elite Orc Warchief
2 Orc Warriors
1 Orc Brute		Yes

Cave D: Goblin Horde

Information:

  • Level 1 cave
  • Scout: DC 15 Survival – Creatures from the Goblin family. Maybe a dozen?
  • Recall Knowledge: DC 17 Society – At least a dozen goblins have holed up here.
RoomLevelCreature(s)Treasure?Notes
17Trivial2 Goblin WarriorsYes
18Trivial2 Goblin WarriorsYesA goblin can spend actions to get the Ogre in Room 22 to join them. This will turn the encounter from Trivial to Severe.
Secret door: DC 15 to notice
19Moderate1 Goblin Warrior
1 Goblin Commando
1 Goblin Pyro		Yes
20Severe1 Goblin War Chanter
1 Goblin Pyro
1 Goblin Commando		Yes
21Moderate4 Goblin WarriorsSecret door. DC 20 to notice (Level 1, very hard)

Hobgoblins in room 29 may come in, but not during combat.

Cave E: Ogre Cave

  • Level 3 cave
  • Scout: DC 18 Survival: A large creature lives near here. Probably an ogre?
  • Recall Knowledge: DC 20 Society: An Ogre Warrior lives in this cave.
RoomLevelCreature(s)Treasure?Notes
22Trivial1 Ogre WarriorYes

Cave F: Hobgoblin Tribe

  • Level 3 cave
  • Scout: DC 18 Survival: Hobgoblins live near here. Maybe two dozen?
  • Recall Knowledge: DC 20 Society: A large tribe of hobgoblins have set up here. There are signs that they have taken prisoners recently.
RoomLevelCreature(s)Treasure?Notes
23Moderate1 Hobgoblin Archer
2 Hobgoblin Soldiers		Yes
24Low3 Hobgoblin SoldiersThere is a reward back in town for rescuing the prisoners.
25Low2 Elite Hobgoblin SolidersYes
26Moderate2 Hobgoblin ArchersYes
27Moderate2 Elite Hobgoblin SolidersYes
28Trivial1 Hobgoblin SoliderYes
29Moderate1 Elite Hobgoblin Archer
2 Weak Hobgoblin Soliders
30Severe1 Hobgoblin General
2 Weak Hobgoblin Soldiers		Yes
31Moderate6 Weak Hobgoblin SolidersYes

Cave G: Clutch of owlbears

  • Level 3 cave
  • Scout: DC 18 Survival: There’s signs of owlbear scat. The air is weirdly moist. It doesn’t look like a large number of them live here.
  • Recall Knowledge: DC 20 Nature: This cave hosts a clutch of owlbears.
RoomLevelCreature(s)Treasure?Notes
32Low1 OwlbearTreasure
33ModerateGrey Ooze
2 Ooze Mephits		Treasure
34Severe2 Owlbears

Cave H: Bugbear Alley

  • Level 3 cave
  • Scout: DC 18 Survival: A tribe of creatures from the bugbear family have set up here. Less than a dozen.
  • Recall Knowledge: DC 20 Society: A tribe of bugbears have set up here to prey on caravans.
RoomLevelCreature(s)Treasure?Notes
35Low2 Weak Bugbear Thugs
36Severe1 Elite Bugbear Tormenter
1 Bugbear thug		Yes
37NoneYes
38Moderate2 Weak Bugbear Thugs
39Moderate2 Bugbear Thugs
40None
41None

Cave I: The Maze

  • Level 3 cave
  • Scout: DC 18 Survival: You see signs of creatures going in, but not coming out.
  • Recall Knowledge: DC 20 Nature: This cave is wild, and likely houses wildlife…
  • Recall Knowledge: DC 20 Society: …and something that likes twisty passages.
RoomLevelCreature(s)Treasure?Notes
42Low6 Bloodseekers
43Moderate2 Weak Stag Beetles
44Low3 Hunting Spiders
45Severe2 MinotaursYes

Cave J: Gnoll Cult

  • Level 3 cave
  • Scout: DC 18 Survival: A large number of bipedal creatures have set up here. Probably gnolls, around a dozen.
  • Recall Knowledge: DC 20 Society: There are markings around this cave. Gnolls live here, likely cultists.
RoomLevelCreature(s)Treasure?Notes
46Low2 Gnoll Hunters
47Moderate2 Gnoll Hunters
1 Gnoll Cultist
48NoneYesLocked with an Average Lock (DC 25)
49Moderate2 Gnoll Cultists
1 Weak Gnoll Hunter
50Severe1 Gnoll Sergent
1 Gnoll Cultist
2 Weak Gnoll Hunters		Yes

Cave K: Death Cult

  • Level 4 cave
  • Scout: DC 19 Survival: A number of humans reside here. So may no longer be alive… About two dozen.
  • Recall Knowledge: DC 21 Society: Lots of humans come and go from this location. A dropped locket hints at recent captives being taken inside.
  • Recall Knowledge: DC 21 Religion: The way some of these creatures move points towards there being undead in the cave.
RoomLevelCreature(s)Treasure?Notes
51None
52Moderate2 Skeletal Champions
53Moderate4 Zombie Brutes
54Low2 Corrupted Priests
55NoneGravehall trap, in the hallway leading out. Trigger upon messing with the shrine or removing items.
56Moderate3 Grioth Cultists
57Severe1 Zombie Lord
2 Shambler Troops
1 Dirge Piper
58LowHaunt: Entombed Spirit
59Severe2 Weak Priests of Kabriri
60None
61Moderate1 Elite Necromancer
62Moderate1 Wraith
63Moderate2 Elite Gelatinous Cubes
64Moderate1 Annis HagThe hag is disguised as one of the prisoners. She’s 50/50 on killing the heroes who just rescued her, since she could be their next target.

Final thoughts

Treasure. I don’t lay out specific treasure that can be found. The GM can sprinkle whatever the group needs most. If there’s a town nearby, they’ll want gold, but if they’re opting for more of a wilderness setting, then they’ll need gear. Also, it’s possible to strip the caves of treasure completely and have bounties set on each cleared cave.

Not everyone is ready to rumble. Keep an eye on the room descriptions. Guards, of course, are always ready to fight, but if they’re lounging around eating lunch and playing cards, NPCs need time to be alerted, grab their weapons, and get to the fight. This is very important when it comes to caves where the encounters are right on top of each other.

The Caves are fluid. I found most players cleared caves in one go, but if they fall back, keep in mind that the various groups have allied with each other. If you leave someone alive, they’ll combine with their allies, which changes the balance going forward.

I hope some of you try this out! It’s a really fun module to break out, especially since so much of the story comes from how the players react to the caves. It’s also an interesting piece of history that stands up surprisingly well to the test of time.