So two mods in......
Is it player centric or does it have reliance on npcs?
I like the preview art for the Strategy Guide. Well, I'm assuming that is the final cover art.
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Just got it. Personal Highlights:
Love for Psychopomps! My favorite outsider is finally getting an adventure that features them. In particular, we have two psychopomp NPCs. The excitable Nosoi Qasin, who sports a fetching Osirian funeral mask, and the alien Vanth Ajin.
Spells for summoning psychopomps! So far they're just for summoning Nosoi, Esobok, or Vanths, but here's hope for the future. I really liked this type of spell when I found in it Lords of Darkness 3, and glad it was used again here.
Esobok: I love psychopomps, so getting a new one is always a treat. These are savage guardians of death, and not safe for the living to be around. Something I particularly like is how they connect to Vanths, and those 'trained' by the soldiers of death gain additional powers. While most of Pharasma's servants are primarily devoted to the processing of souls, and so rather relatable to mortal creatures, there is also this second class that are totally alien, and indifferent to the fate of the living, and it makes the whole psychopomp type more interesting. Another interesting tidbit in this article is that psychopomps, more than other outsiders, retain a certain amount of their mortal selves.
Tekenu: Flying undead intestines and other visera that want to take your organs. Deliciously icky.
The article on the ancient gods is really good, and I like the new artwork we got. Kudos to the artist who did the piece on page 64.
This is the chapter of the AP I've looked forward to the most since it was announced! I can't wait to get my PDF D:
Other than Set, Osiris, and Shu, do any of the other deities have pictures?
So, we have two gods per page, with one of the deities on that page being illustrated. There are pictures of:
Anubis, Guardian of the Tomb, who is looking mighty sexy for the beefcake lovers out there.
Bastet, The Sly Enchantress
Horus, The Distant Falcon
Isis, The Queen of Miracles
Neith, Ruler of Arrows
Osiris, Lord of the Living
Ra, King of the Heavens
Sekhmet, Lady of Slaughter, also wife of Path
Set, Lord of the Dark Deseret
Wadjet, The Green Empress
Titles of the others:
Apep, Devourer of the Dawn
Bes, The Guardian Fool
Hathor, Mistress of Jubilation
Khepri, The Humble Hand
Maat, The Feather of Truth, who assists Pharasma.
Nephthys, Mistress of the Mansion
Ptah, Lord of Eternity, who may hear the prayers of all worshipers
Selket, Mistress of the Beautiful House
Sobek, The Raging Torrent
Thoth, Lord of Divine Words
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"Anubis, Guardian of the Tomb, who is looking mighty sexy for the beefcake lovers out there."
If you are in to guys with dog heads you're Set. Get it? See what I did there?
Sorry, climbing back in to my hole now.
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So, we have two gods per page, with one of the deities on that page being illustrated. There are pictures of:
Anubis, Guardian of the Tomb, who is looking mighty sexy for the beefcake lovers out there.
Bastet, The Sly Enchantress
Horus, The Distant Falcon
Isis, The Queen of Miracles
Neith, Ruler of Arrows
Osiris, Lord of the Living
Ra, King of the Heavens
Sekhmet, Lady of Slaughter, also wife of Path
Set, Lord of the Dark Deseret
Wadjet, The Green EmpressTitles of the others:
Apep, Devourer of the Dawn
Bes, The Guardian Fool
Hathor, Mistress of Jubilation
Khepri, The Humble Hand
Maat, The Feather of Truth, who assists Pharasma.
Nephthys, Mistress of the Mansion
Ptah, Lord of Eternity, who may hear the prayers of all worshipers
Selket, Mistress of the Beautiful House
Sobek, The Raging Torrent
Thoth, Lord of Divine Words
And Hathor, Sobek, and Khepri* show up riding a boat in the opener too. :)
*Mr. "OH GOD THERE'S A BUG ON MY FACE THERE'S A BUG ON MY FACE GET IT OFF GET IT OFF HAHAHHAAHA just kidding it is my face" himself. ;)
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I've only been able to sit down with the adventure for a bit here and there while I only have the pdf, but I"m really digging the "city edging towards" panic theme.
As suspected, the Wati article from book one really comes into play. If you get the PCs immersed in the town by the end of Book 1,you'll have a hell of a payoff in this one.
Really love culture-specific takes on outsiders, so that nosoi is much appreciated. :D
I was a bit disappointed that the earlier teasing about the character on the cover didn't really pan out, but there is another NPC that can pick up that slack. :)
Man, that is like some sort of recursive heresy going on with those
Waiting for that hardcopy to really be able to sit down with it. It's looking really cool so far.
FLUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMPPPPHHHHHH
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You listed only four, aren't there five?What are the other monsters in the bestiary?** spoiler omitted **Ugh. That's my mistake. We had to bump one of the monsters to a later volume, and I failed to go back and update the back cover text that refers to five monsters.
Sorry about that!
I was wondering about that - I wasn't sure if the advanced Shu was the 'fifth' or not.
Could we have a hint as to what it is? ;)
Still no Karkadann and
Can't wait to see those other creatures tho, creatures based on
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I have to say, the extras in this part (especially that on the Osirion Deities) make this worth the cost even without the adventure part. It is absolutely awesome!
The adventure itself wasn't as fun to read as others I've read...but reading is hardly indicative of how fun or good it will be to run. I would hazard a guess that this will be far more fun to run than other adventures, due to how it's designed.
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So two mods in......
Is it player centric or does it have reliance on npcs?
It's written to be player-centric, and depends on the PCs to fix everything, but there are a few more powerful NPCs in the sidelines who can push them in the right direction if they're at a loss. The general idea is that anyone in the city more powerful than the PCs is dealing with healing or protecting refugees, and the PCs are deputized to investigate because they're a known quantity to the church of Pharasma after the first adventure.
There is a GM reference topic, for those who need it.
Alright, who's responsible for the Tekenu?
Managing Creative Director (Starfinder)
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Adam: "Thurston, I want a swarm of guts, let's call it a gutswarm. Wait, let's name it something cooler."
Me: "I'm still focused on the original request... you want a swarm, but it's made of guts?"
Adam: "This is correct."
Me: "Well played Daigle. Well played."
Honestly, the monsters I got to develop received some pretty ridiculous code names. :D
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You both have very diseased minds and I love it :)
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Kudos on the tekenu. It gave me the creepy shivers.
Attention Daigle and Thursty: making gaming material isn't supposed to be fun. Cut out the shenanigans.
OR ELSE!
They are supposed to have fun, just not too much.
Still no Karkadann ...Just so you're not repeatedly disappointed, I'll let you know that the karkadann isn't showing up in Mummy's Mask. I know it's a desert creature, but it didn't fit the feel I was going for. (Osirion is Egypt, not Persia)
Ok, then I hope for Ichneumon the dragon slayer in one of the AP's its a Egyptian monster.
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... it pains me that this article on earth gods is double sized... sorry "ancient osirion" gods.... the earth golarion cross over hasn't been too bad up to where I am in half dead city, it's been pretty easy to remove it. I just hope this dosen't become more ingrained into the story.
Okay ... am I totally missing something here? I remember reading some reference to an earth-space/time-continuum-thingy in speculation before the AP came out. ... I own the first volume of the AP, but, I'm kind of lost on where earth comes in. Am I missing something in the fine print somewhere?
((Please put spoilers in a hide-button for those who may not wish to see the response.))|
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A variant-version of Earth is confirmed as existing in the Pathfinder cosmology. The PCs visit it during the Reign of Winter AP in the adventure Rasputin Must Die (where they go to Russia and rescue Baba Yaga from a trap and fight Rasputin). While I had my initial doubts about directly including Earth in things, Rasputin Must Die actually handled it really well and changed my opinion on the subject.
So the gods of Ancient Osirion are the Egyptian pantheon. I'm fairly sure that James Jacobs said at some point on the forums that after their attention turned from Ancient Osirion, they came to Earth for a bit in Egypt, and then went from there on to other places. So while Earth is connected to the Ancient Osiriani pantheon, I'm pretty sure it has no direct bearing on this adventure path.
The Mask! holy crap that's awesome.
also, NEW WIZARD DISCOVERY!
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Okay, I think this has shipped out to enough people that I can start sharing behind-the-scenes and deleted scenes bits, because I always write way more than I can fit in adventure!
Some minor spoilers ahead...
First of all, Ptemenib was originally going to be a trans man, and when I approached Rob about the idea I found out that Amber Scott had just turned over an adventure, The Worldwound Incursion, with a prominent trans woman. I was worried everyone would accuse me of trying to copy Amber's success, so I vagued up those parts of Ptemenib's background. And ultimately I regret that now, thought there's nothing in his background that specifically calls him out as a cisgender man, either. I haven't added any specifically trans NPCs to the upcoming <i>Divinity Drive</i>, mostly because it's extremely difficult to work in that much background on any NPC in a high-level adventure, but the next low- to medium-tier adventure I write hope to add a prominent trans man or genderqueer character. Unless Rob thinks he can take me in a fight.
In an later draft, Ptemenib had a young daughter who sought the PCs' help, but I started feeling a little uncomfortable having a child NPC running around in a zombie-choked city. So I replaced her with my favorite breed of psychopomp, but kept the name the same: Qasin.
All three of the appendix NPCs are bisexul, and an earlier draft of the tomb level had an encounter with the ghosts of two of Nebta-Khufre's lovers--a man and a woman--who died on the trek to Wati. This encounter, sadly, had to be cut for space.
The original draft of the Necropolis had a few additional red herrings for PCs to follow up on, including tracking down other adventuring groups who had disappeared in the necropolis and were assumed to either be victims of the undead, or the cause. My favorite was a band of explorers whose bard, unknown to them, was a pairaka div trying to reform herself, who snapped when the group was sent to loot an old Calistrian temple.
Just to be clear: These are all things I cut before the final turnover. Rob didn't deny any awesome content to you all. I did.
Woohoo!!
This is awesome Crystal.
(I'm not just an author I'm a customer and I'm running Chapter One in my home campaign right now)
BTW, I loved Chapter Two and I appreciate these behind the scenes peeks.
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Woohoo!!
This is awesome Crystal.
(I'm not just an author I'm a customer and I'm running Chapter One in my home campaign right now)
BTW, I loved Chapter Two and I appreciate these behind the scenes peeks.
I think I still have that encounter somewhere on my laptop. Want me to see if I can find it?
Yes! If Rob has no objection!
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Speaking of psychopomps, I really enjoyed your use of the various forms of them in this adventure. It is kind of hard, IMO, to find a way to incorporate them into adventures since they aren't generally antagonistic (which is the main way PCs will interact with them), but they fit in here very organically both in the adventure as well as- in a larger sense- the story that is going on around them in Wati.
Speaking of psychopomps, I really enjoyed your use of the various forms of them in this adventure. It is kind of hard, IMO, to find a way to incorporate them into adventures since they aren't generally antagonistic (which is the main way PCs will interact with them), but they fit in here very organically both in the adventure as well as- in a larger sense- the story that is going on around them in Wati.
I agree wholeheartedly. I am enjoying seeing psychopomps put to use.
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I'm pretty happy to see them implemented - though I don't find them terribly difficult to pull off. They're True Neutral, so they can be (un)intentionally opposing to any alignment.
Their primary objective is protecting souls (even against angels and demons alike), destroying undead, etc. But unlike marut inevitable, they're not lawful, so they're not bound to rules. Hells, the tactics and thoughts of individual psychopomps mary vary between one another.
Yes! If Rob has no objection!
Ditto please!