Thursday, January 14, 2016

Wrath of the Righteous: The Sarkorian Prophecy


The Sarkorian Prophecy is a Pathfinder Society adventure for level 11 characters which it set in the rather interesting city of Storasta.  I thought it might make for an interesting segue into the very special rift-closing book featured in the actual adventure path by dropping in a few of the bark pages of that mysterious volume that sat among the text itself, thus tying the whole thing together a little more smartly to the players' own actions.

Of course the monsters as written in that book are rather … dull … for a level 12 mythic tier 3 party which is fair considering that the book is written for an average level 11 non-mythic party.  Also there were far too many demons in it for my liking as Storasta's flair for me is the chance to get into some plant-kicking action.
Due to the teleportation muddle that occurs around Storasta, they set upon a slightly different plan.  Firstly they had Aravashniel teleport them to the nearest held city which was in Numeria (interesting fun times will happen there later but they didn't investigate so that'll make the Iron Gods campaign path even more fun) and then the rest of them team (Eliska the dhampyr oracle/rogue, Dantalion the half-succubus cleric/magus, Lex the umbral dragon/ninja disguised to look bronze, Alphy the tiefling monk/bard and Osprey the Pathfinder Druid who was along for the ride to show them the way) made the rest of the journey to Storasta using Wind Walk.  This allowed them to bypass all of the terrain obstacles but the abyssal tornado coming their way got them to hide all right.
So I had them face (yet another) night hag which was beaten rather simply since she had no means of hiding her alignment or changed shape.  Silly Pathfinder scenario.   The pair then decided to resurrect the paladin as a favour to Ollysta Zadrian (who had mentioned the loss of her paladin before they left).  They then sent the paladin back home with one of Dantalion's many spells.  They rested for a bit in the tunnels before setting off in Wind Walk some more down the weed-choked path through the vegetation that the tornado had hollowed.
Then they were attacked by two Ropers which gave them an interesting challenge and managed to last a few rounds.  When you're geared to fight demons, aberrations and plants suddenly become difficult.  Once in front of the Pathfinder lodge, I replaced the glabrezu (which they'd fought before) with two Baregara just to mix things up a bit.  Then they went into the Lodge and took out the various Shadow Pathfinders, though they figured out first that they weren't members of the Ivory Labyrinth when Dantalion strolled in with full half-succubus glory and demanded to know why they were late.  The reactions on the Shadow Pathfinders faces as they tried desperately to lie and pretend they were demonic subordinates rather than face them in battle was priceless.  They were subdued for later interrogation and Osprey kept an eye on them while they gave chase to the others.
They chased the main villain, who was both Shadow Pathfinder and cultist, through a tunnel that led out from the outskirts of Storasta into a wide open plain of cracked earth with lava peeking through the cracks.  I had the giant scorpion running alongside him as an assistant and surrounded him with swarms of a helpful CE version of hellwasps.  They were taken out pretty easily still, especially once the villain was surrounded by a blade barrier and attacked by flying PCs.  I added a sub-mission via Eliska Zadrian that they should capture his familiar as she'd guessed he was a witch (Oracles gotta be good for something and it felt like a neat little side-mission).  They succeeded in taking out the witch and saving the scorpion.
Weirdly enough I noticed the villain had Greater Teleport on his spell list….  I know that teleports go a bit off in this zone but surely he'd try it if in battle but it wasn't in his write off so I claimed to myself (and later, after the battle, to the PCs) that he'd already expended it that day.
We finished the session with the sight of a Crag Tarn flying toward them (CR 14).  They had time to escape but I put it on the table as a test to see just how potent they were.  So the next game they fled back to the tunnel entrance and then went all out on the Crag Tarn to take it down.  They were successful and managed to kill it before it could attack them (since it had been spotted quite a way off).
This makes me wonder if I can pull off having the Book 6 brothel occur earlier … such as a more interesting place to situate Minagho's rift but the CR 19 enemies in that book are probably a *little* too powerful for even my intrepid heroes.  Especially as there are so many of them.  So instead I might place it in one of the other interesting sites around and decorate it up.  Perhaps place the structure in the cradle of the Yathscar?  Or in the forest of burning dryads where they must fear the green dragon + succubus rider?  Not sure yet, but wherever it'll be, it shall be fun.
Tee hee … could always make them try all of the above in their search of it!  What do you think?

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