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[Let's Read] The Sunken Isles
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<blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9031997" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/odhMrpk.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>It’s the 11th week, and things are steadily getting worse: food is being rationed, freshwater’s growing scarce, and up to half of the Isles’ population could be either dead or missing. If you might remember, Kada either has or asked to borrow Marrow from the PCs. He intends to use it for a ritual during this week, where he forms a pact with the spirits of the sea, sky, and storms which make sea travel even more dangerous.</p><p></p><p>But that brings up the next question. What if the PCs refuse to give Kada the weapon for whatever reason? Does he steal it from them, take it by force, somehow perform this ritual without the weapon? The adventure doesn’t say.</p><p></p><p>Once again we have three locations to visit this week. The first is Alaula Cove, where they can locate Ansaon Drahl, get an opportunity to attack and defeat Kumuhea, or otherwise sabotage her creation of undead wurms she’s using to excavate the tunnels. The second location is the Wishmaster’s Conclave, a hidden location home to a group of bored genies who can bestow wishes upon the PCs. The third location is Seputus, a formerly underwater city that rose where SpringBog used to be.</p><p></p><p>Let’s cover <strong>Alaula Cove</strong> first. It used to be Kumuhea’s former base of operations, and now she visits it regularly as well as the new Ruins where Skati is building up his forces. The Cove is home to the Keawe family, a small group of outcast Manaki who view Kumuhea as a visionary rather than someone to shun. Malu, their matriarch, knows how to read the druid’s unique script, and she’s in denial that their idol is now an undead and in league with dark forces. Her daughter Alamea has private reservations. Anson Drahl has left the lighthouse and is in a nearby hideout, and the party can get plot hooks for either rumored sightings of Drahl or valuable info on Kumuhea’s tunnel system.</p><p></p><p>Malu and her family won’t be initially hostile when the PCs visit; a flamboyance of flamingos act as the Cove’s alarm system, and will rush to attack the PCs. The normal flamingos are low-threat fodder, but a particularly large and threatening species known as flamingo shrimplords (God I love that name) have resistance to nonmagical physical attacks, a powerful multiattack beak, and a once per rest intimidating glare gaze attack that deals psychic damage. The flamingos can be called off by petitioning Malu to do so when she arrives 2 rounds into the combat to see the ruckus. She will recognize PCs who helped Kumuhea from the druid’s description of them, and trust them more. Through this trust the PCs can further learn about Kumuhea’s goals, albeit in a biased way, such as there are “plans in place” for Chitoni, having added fast-growing wurms to an underground stable, and that Kumuhea has a secret library in the Glowing Caves as well as a tunnel leading to it.</p><p></p><p>Drahl’s hideout is a camouflaged treehouse lined with various traps, and if the PCs never met him he’ll not trust them and may even attack if they sneak into the treehouse. But otherwise he can impart useful information about Captain Keelhaul: such as the fact he has a phobia of dogs, or he blinks rapidly whenever he’s about to attack, as well as his favorite brand of whiskey. If Keelhaul is already dead, Drahl will be both happy that his reign of terror is over but also sad due to the death of the only family left. He’ll then visit Keyport or Makolf to help defend that settlement, or can even accompany the party as an ally depending on their relationship with him.</p><p></p><p>As for the tunnels, they are an expansive underground network, with magically reinforced sections that keep any seawater “locked” from flooding the entire network via invisible barriers that it cannot pass through. But even with the aid of magic and wurms, Kumuhea’s project still has a long way to go, and there are lots of tunnels that are collapsed, incomplete, or scarcely patrolled. We have new unique random encounter tables passed on certain sections of tunnel. Kumuhea’s tunnel network becomes more expansive as the weeks go by, opening up into more locations. Technically speaking the PCs can make use of the network straight from week 1, although that’s unlikely given the enemies being much too strong for them.</p><p></p><p>Kumuhea has a private domicile in the Junction, a crossroads where all of the tunnels converge. Given that this is her primary home, she will be either hostile or curious as to why the PCs are there depending on their prior encounters.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I tried CTRL + F for this name, and couldn’t find it anywhere else in the book. I presume it’s from a prior draft of the Sunken Isles for a former name of Kumuhea. She’s also rescued in Chapter 4, not 5.</p><p></p><p>There is one benefit to attacking and slaying Kumuhea here, and if she had a positive relationship beforehand:* Before dying for real, she will give them the Wurm Bracelet, which lets the wearer exert control on the wurms both living and undead. Otherwise the flamingos will all depart once the PCs leave the tunnels, leaving a Swan Boat Feather Token behind.</p><p></p><p>*This would be an obscure unlockable in a video game.</p><p></p><p>Lastly, the other important location in the tunnel system is the Wurmery, a place where Kumuhea is raising batches of wurms. About a half-dozen immature wurms plus a grown undead wurm watching over them are here, along with many more cocoons full of wurm eggs. They’ve been fed corpses of people and animals, and some minor treasure can be found among the corpses. In terms of stats young wurms are burrowing animals that have great nonvisual senses and a nasty bite attack, and can move through solid rock as difficult terrain. As for the undead worm, it is the same but much larger, with more hit points, a multiattack bite, and immune to poison damage and the poisoned condition.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Hb8Ljgr.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p><strong>Wishmaster’s Conclave</strong> is a hidden underwater sanctum home to four genies (two djinni, two efreeti) who use it as a leisurely gathering place. The PCs may have heard of its location from Iolana in Kauhale, the hags of Turntail Swamp, or Larry Baker in Keyport if the PCs haven’t talked with either of the former NPCs. Due to the place’s secrecy, the PCs only know its general location in the open ocean, and the Conclave is protected by a powerful illusion making it look like some gigantic sleeping sea creature such as a kraken or purple worm. Typical anti-illusion features can detect the unreal nature, such as noticing some schools of fish partially swimming through it. The “mouth” of the illusion is in fact a portal covered by a watertight membrane, and the Conclave’s interior is richly appointed in a similar manner to a noble’s mansion complete with Unseen Servants. The room the PCs enter contains four valuable stones on a table, with writing on the ceiling giving instructions to use the stones to open nearby doors to meet the genies. Each genie has their own challenge for granting the party a Wish, and possibly magic items as bonus or alternative prizes. However, each wish has its own restricted activities beyond the limitations of the spell itself.</p><p></p><p>The djinni Bibbledraze asks the party to perform a sufficiently entertaining story, such as one of their past adventures, and it’s a simple DC 20 Performance check; this wish cannot grant the PCs weapons. The djinni Therafuze wants to test a PC in single combat and will grant two wishes instead of one, with the rest of the party and other genies watching them fight in an arena; these Wish’s limitations are that they won’t make the party richer. The efreeti Godmeat is rather eccentric, and wants the PCs to guess his name based on a pictographic puzzle along with a riddle:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>It may just be me, but I find this riddle really unintuitive.</p><p></p><p>Godmeat will attack the party as soon as he’s summoned, but stop if a PC rightly guesses his name and will then grant them his wish; his wish can’t involve life or death. If the PCs defeat him in combat without guessing his name, they’ll get a Circlet of Blasting and nothing else.</p><p></p><p>The efreeti Skegolom will only give his Wish if the party declares him the best of all the genies. They can do this by summoning and besting the other genies and giving him the other three stones. His wish has no additional restrictions, for after all he’s “the best of them all.”</p><p></p><p>Beyond gaining wishes, the genies can further aid the PCs if they help solve an ages-old argument among them. They all have riddles for the party, and want the PCs to decide which of them is the best riddler. Each genie has a unique magic item to give them if selected, but the losing genies will cast Bestow Curse on PCs. The party can gain other magic items if they convince the genies they’re all equally good, there’s a tie between two or three, or if they refuse to select a winner (in this case a PC has to show them that they’re a better riddler than all of them). Before the PCs leave, the genies will warn them about incoming danger at Chitoni and the Eastguard/Westguard Lighthouse in the coming week.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/CEKOrYx.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>Long ago, the Star Breather created a race of aquatic beings known as the minax. They were selfish people who only sought to enrich themselves and control the world for their own purposes, causing the god to deem them a failed people. It buried their city deep beneath the ocean, intending to later reclaim and remake them. But that day never came, and the minax lived in the dark depths of the ocean. That is, until Springbog’s sinking caused their city of <strong>Seputus</strong> to rise to the surface.</p><p></p><p>The minax’s government is an authoritarian aristocracy, and their leader Duxxack is aware that another minax by the name of Vomm is hoping to usurp him. In addition to this coup in the making, Skati’s cultists have ventured into the area in hopes of recruiting the minax to their ranks. The outcome of whether Duxxack or Vomm is the leader determines their foreign policy: if Vomm’s coup succeeds, he will ally with Skati in hopes of making their civilization a predominant power among the Isles. If Duxxack survives, he will take the long way and stay isolationist as they watch the rest of the conflict play out. If the cultists are slain and Vomm is in power, he will send the minax into the Isles to hunt and raid, not allying with anyone.</p><p></p><p>When the PCs arrive, an entropic ecliptic hunter will be attacking their city. Ecliptic hunters come in three sizes (lesser, regular, and greater) and Entropic versions have gained unique blessings from the Star Breather in the form of randomly-determined rechargeable abilities and enhancements to their physical form. Otherwise hunters are hit-and-run melee fighters with bite and tail attacks, but greater versions are effectively boss monsters with legendary resistance, frightful presence, and supernatural legendary actions such as pronouncing divine judgment in the form of psychic damage or generating a radius of magical darkness. PCs who help the minax guards fight the ecliptic can earn their respect and an audience with Duxxack this way. PCs who decide to attack both will be attacked by the minax as well, but the latter will attempt to call a truce if either the PCs or the ecliptic causes enough casualties.</p><p></p><p>Duxxack may be the lesser evil, but he’s still a very unpleasant person: he has quests to give, but he believes that the PC’s labor is compensation enough for not having them executed. It takes the words of one of his advisors to compensate the party with material rewards. The quests include reporting on who is occupying a nearby watchtower (the Skati cultists), stealthily investigating what Vomm’s forces are up to (some non-minax prisoners can be rescued too, who were kidnapped and interrogated by Vomm’s soldiers on the defenses of their home villages), and eventually assassinating Vomm. It’s possible that Vomm will try to convince the party to double-cross Duxxack and kill him instead.</p><p></p><p>We should talk about stats for the minax. They look like paler versions of the kia’i with resemblances to skeletal predatory humanoid fish. Statwise they come in two varieties: Guards are very strong maul-wielders with a variety of offensive and debuff spells, and their elders are similar but less physically powerful and have access to some more powerful magic. Both have immunity to poison damage, too. There are stats for kia’i guards and elders too, which are the same but no poison immunity, the guards wield glaives, and their spells tend to be less offensive and more battlefield control.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Hzbq1kK.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>Moving on to the 12th week, the PCs have to choose one of two locations under siege: the lighthouse of <strong>Eastguard or Westguard</strong> (whichever one the PCs visited last if they did, or determined by the DM otherwise) which is being attacked by the ecliptic, or the settlement of Chitoni which is being attacked by Skati’s undead army during the decapodians’ vulnerable molting season. If the lighthouse isn’t saved, its inhabitants will be slaughtered and its lamp extinguished. If Chitoni isn’t saved, then Old Shell will perish, the caves will crumble and sink into the thermal vent below the settlement, and the majority of the Isles’ decapodians will be gone.</p><p></p><p>Let’s cover the lighthouse first: the trigger for the ecliptic attack is that a galleon from a distant mainland nation is carrying valuable supplies to the Isles, and the ecliptics want to sink it and claim the materials while also destroying the lighthouse.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Once again, this is the only time in the book I can find the term “bakarai.” Presumably it’s a type of ecliptic, but what kind I don’t know.</p><p></p><p>Much like the evacuation of SpringBog, this quest is a series of combat encounters: during the first wave the PCs and their allies must prevent ecliptic haulers from reaching the lighthouse and extinguishing the light. Meanwhile, an ecliptic hunter is stealthily scaling the lighthouse wall to extinguish the flame. A character can manipulate the light to split, with one guiding the ship and the other revealing the presence of far more ecliptics in the water to warn the passing ship. Said ship will then fire on the ecliptics, reducing their number.</p><p></p><p>At some point during the fight, an ecliptic hunter will attack and damage the lighthouse (this can’t be prevented) which forces the PCs to obtain fuel barrels from the storage cave (which is currently occupied by ecliptic shockers) to relight it. Additionally, a pair of minax guards are hunting the nearby lapalapa, and their amber will be useful both as a weapon during the siege and to make the lighthouse shine ever brighter. If the PCs helped evacuate SpringBog, then Keahi will appear again to help fight the ecliptic army.</p><p></p><p>Once the PCs successfully repel the ecliptics, Skati’s forces haven’t been idle; realizing that the blood of his descendants and relatives is magically potent for sacrificial purposes, a team of undead draugr are dispatched to the lighthouse to kidnap Skree. If kidnapped, the PCs have an opportunity to save Skree by the 14th week. Later than that she will be sacrificed and turned into an undead.</p><p></p><p>The draugr are humanoid undead clad in medium or heavy armor and multiattack with shortswords and shortbows. Draugr warmongers are CR 1 cannon fodder, although Greater Draugr are CR 4, have a ranged Bloodshot attack, and can reawaken even if defeated 1d6+1 days later if their corpse isn’t burnt. Lesser Draugur are even weaker than warmongers in every way.</p><p></p><p><strong>Split into two posts due to length.</strong></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Libertad, post: 9031997, member: 6750502"] [CENTER][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/odhMrpk.png[/IMG][/CENTER] It’s the 11th week, and things are steadily getting worse: food is being rationed, freshwater’s growing scarce, and up to half of the Isles’ population could be either dead or missing. If you might remember, Kada either has or asked to borrow Marrow from the PCs. He intends to use it for a ritual during this week, where he forms a pact with the spirits of the sea, sky, and storms which make sea travel even more dangerous. But that brings up the next question. What if the PCs refuse to give Kada the weapon for whatever reason? Does he steal it from them, take it by force, somehow perform this ritual without the weapon? The adventure doesn’t say. Once again we have three locations to visit this week. The first is Alaula Cove, where they can locate Ansaon Drahl, get an opportunity to attack and defeat Kumuhea, or otherwise sabotage her creation of undead wurms she’s using to excavate the tunnels. The second location is the Wishmaster’s Conclave, a hidden location home to a group of bored genies who can bestow wishes upon the PCs. The third location is Seputus, a formerly underwater city that rose where SpringBog used to be. Let’s cover [B]Alaula Cove[/B] first. It used to be Kumuhea’s former base of operations, and now she visits it regularly as well as the new Ruins where Skati is building up his forces. The Cove is home to the Keawe family, a small group of outcast Manaki who view Kumuhea as a visionary rather than someone to shun. Malu, their matriarch, knows how to read the druid’s unique script, and she’s in denial that their idol is now an undead and in league with dark forces. Her daughter Alamea has private reservations. Anson Drahl has left the lighthouse and is in a nearby hideout, and the party can get plot hooks for either rumored sightings of Drahl or valuable info on Kumuhea’s tunnel system. Malu and her family won’t be initially hostile when the PCs visit; a flamboyance of flamingos act as the Cove’s alarm system, and will rush to attack the PCs. The normal flamingos are low-threat fodder, but a particularly large and threatening species known as flamingo shrimplords (God I love that name) have resistance to nonmagical physical attacks, a powerful multiattack beak, and a once per rest intimidating glare gaze attack that deals psychic damage. The flamingos can be called off by petitioning Malu to do so when she arrives 2 rounds into the combat to see the ruckus. She will recognize PCs who helped Kumuhea from the druid’s description of them, and trust them more. Through this trust the PCs can further learn about Kumuhea’s goals, albeit in a biased way, such as there are “plans in place” for Chitoni, having added fast-growing wurms to an underground stable, and that Kumuhea has a secret library in the Glowing Caves as well as a tunnel leading to it. Drahl’s hideout is a camouflaged treehouse lined with various traps, and if the PCs never met him he’ll not trust them and may even attack if they sneak into the treehouse. But otherwise he can impart useful information about Captain Keelhaul: such as the fact he has a phobia of dogs, or he blinks rapidly whenever he’s about to attack, as well as his favorite brand of whiskey. If Keelhaul is already dead, Drahl will be both happy that his reign of terror is over but also sad due to the death of the only family left. He’ll then visit Keyport or Makolf to help defend that settlement, or can even accompany the party as an ally depending on their relationship with him. As for the tunnels, they are an expansive underground network, with magically reinforced sections that keep any seawater “locked” from flooding the entire network via invisible barriers that it cannot pass through. But even with the aid of magic and wurms, Kumuhea’s project still has a long way to go, and there are lots of tunnels that are collapsed, incomplete, or scarcely patrolled. We have new unique random encounter tables passed on certain sections of tunnel. Kumuhea’s tunnel network becomes more expansive as the weeks go by, opening up into more locations. Technically speaking the PCs can make use of the network straight from week 1, although that’s unlikely given the enemies being much too strong for them. Kumuhea has a private domicile in the Junction, a crossroads where all of the tunnels converge. Given that this is her primary home, she will be either hostile or curious as to why the PCs are there depending on their prior encounters. I tried CTRL + F for this name, and couldn’t find it anywhere else in the book. I presume it’s from a prior draft of the Sunken Isles for a former name of Kumuhea. She’s also rescued in Chapter 4, not 5. There is one benefit to attacking and slaying Kumuhea here, and if she had a positive relationship beforehand:* Before dying for real, she will give them the Wurm Bracelet, which lets the wearer exert control on the wurms both living and undead. Otherwise the flamingos will all depart once the PCs leave the tunnels, leaving a Swan Boat Feather Token behind. *This would be an obscure unlockable in a video game. Lastly, the other important location in the tunnel system is the Wurmery, a place where Kumuhea is raising batches of wurms. About a half-dozen immature wurms plus a grown undead wurm watching over them are here, along with many more cocoons full of wurm eggs. They’ve been fed corpses of people and animals, and some minor treasure can be found among the corpses. In terms of stats young wurms are burrowing animals that have great nonvisual senses and a nasty bite attack, and can move through solid rock as difficult terrain. As for the undead worm, it is the same but much larger, with more hit points, a multiattack bite, and immune to poison damage and the poisoned condition. [CENTER][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/Hb8Ljgr.png[/IMG][/CENTER] [B]Wishmaster’s Conclave[/B] is a hidden underwater sanctum home to four genies (two djinni, two efreeti) who use it as a leisurely gathering place. The PCs may have heard of its location from Iolana in Kauhale, the hags of Turntail Swamp, or Larry Baker in Keyport if the PCs haven’t talked with either of the former NPCs. Due to the place’s secrecy, the PCs only know its general location in the open ocean, and the Conclave is protected by a powerful illusion making it look like some gigantic sleeping sea creature such as a kraken or purple worm. Typical anti-illusion features can detect the unreal nature, such as noticing some schools of fish partially swimming through it. The “mouth” of the illusion is in fact a portal covered by a watertight membrane, and the Conclave’s interior is richly appointed in a similar manner to a noble’s mansion complete with Unseen Servants. The room the PCs enter contains four valuable stones on a table, with writing on the ceiling giving instructions to use the stones to open nearby doors to meet the genies. Each genie has their own challenge for granting the party a Wish, and possibly magic items as bonus or alternative prizes. However, each wish has its own restricted activities beyond the limitations of the spell itself. The djinni Bibbledraze asks the party to perform a sufficiently entertaining story, such as one of their past adventures, and it’s a simple DC 20 Performance check; this wish cannot grant the PCs weapons. The djinni Therafuze wants to test a PC in single combat and will grant two wishes instead of one, with the rest of the party and other genies watching them fight in an arena; these Wish’s limitations are that they won’t make the party richer. The efreeti Godmeat is rather eccentric, and wants the PCs to guess his name based on a pictographic puzzle along with a riddle: It may just be me, but I find this riddle really unintuitive. Godmeat will attack the party as soon as he’s summoned, but stop if a PC rightly guesses his name and will then grant them his wish; his wish can’t involve life or death. If the PCs defeat him in combat without guessing his name, they’ll get a Circlet of Blasting and nothing else. The efreeti Skegolom will only give his Wish if the party declares him the best of all the genies. They can do this by summoning and besting the other genies and giving him the other three stones. His wish has no additional restrictions, for after all he’s “the best of them all.” Beyond gaining wishes, the genies can further aid the PCs if they help solve an ages-old argument among them. They all have riddles for the party, and want the PCs to decide which of them is the best riddler. Each genie has a unique magic item to give them if selected, but the losing genies will cast Bestow Curse on PCs. The party can gain other magic items if they convince the genies they’re all equally good, there’s a tie between two or three, or if they refuse to select a winner (in this case a PC has to show them that they’re a better riddler than all of them). Before the PCs leave, the genies will warn them about incoming danger at Chitoni and the Eastguard/Westguard Lighthouse in the coming week. [CENTER][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/CEKOrYx.png[/IMG][/CENTER] Long ago, the Star Breather created a race of aquatic beings known as the minax. They were selfish people who only sought to enrich themselves and control the world for their own purposes, causing the god to deem them a failed people. It buried their city deep beneath the ocean, intending to later reclaim and remake them. But that day never came, and the minax lived in the dark depths of the ocean. That is, until Springbog’s sinking caused their city of [B]Seputus[/B] to rise to the surface. The minax’s government is an authoritarian aristocracy, and their leader Duxxack is aware that another minax by the name of Vomm is hoping to usurp him. In addition to this coup in the making, Skati’s cultists have ventured into the area in hopes of recruiting the minax to their ranks. The outcome of whether Duxxack or Vomm is the leader determines their foreign policy: if Vomm’s coup succeeds, he will ally with Skati in hopes of making their civilization a predominant power among the Isles. If Duxxack survives, he will take the long way and stay isolationist as they watch the rest of the conflict play out. If the cultists are slain and Vomm is in power, he will send the minax into the Isles to hunt and raid, not allying with anyone. When the PCs arrive, an entropic ecliptic hunter will be attacking their city. Ecliptic hunters come in three sizes (lesser, regular, and greater) and Entropic versions have gained unique blessings from the Star Breather in the form of randomly-determined rechargeable abilities and enhancements to their physical form. Otherwise hunters are hit-and-run melee fighters with bite and tail attacks, but greater versions are effectively boss monsters with legendary resistance, frightful presence, and supernatural legendary actions such as pronouncing divine judgment in the form of psychic damage or generating a radius of magical darkness. PCs who help the minax guards fight the ecliptic can earn their respect and an audience with Duxxack this way. PCs who decide to attack both will be attacked by the minax as well, but the latter will attempt to call a truce if either the PCs or the ecliptic causes enough casualties. Duxxack may be the lesser evil, but he’s still a very unpleasant person: he has quests to give, but he believes that the PC’s labor is compensation enough for not having them executed. It takes the words of one of his advisors to compensate the party with material rewards. The quests include reporting on who is occupying a nearby watchtower (the Skati cultists), stealthily investigating what Vomm’s forces are up to (some non-minax prisoners can be rescued too, who were kidnapped and interrogated by Vomm’s soldiers on the defenses of their home villages), and eventually assassinating Vomm. It’s possible that Vomm will try to convince the party to double-cross Duxxack and kill him instead. We should talk about stats for the minax. They look like paler versions of the kia’i with resemblances to skeletal predatory humanoid fish. Statwise they come in two varieties: Guards are very strong maul-wielders with a variety of offensive and debuff spells, and their elders are similar but less physically powerful and have access to some more powerful magic. Both have immunity to poison damage, too. There are stats for kia’i guards and elders too, which are the same but no poison immunity, the guards wield glaives, and their spells tend to be less offensive and more battlefield control. [CENTER][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/Hzbq1kK.png[/IMG][/CENTER] Moving on to the 12th week, the PCs have to choose one of two locations under siege: the lighthouse of [B]Eastguard or Westguard[/B] (whichever one the PCs visited last if they did, or determined by the DM otherwise) which is being attacked by the ecliptic, or the settlement of Chitoni which is being attacked by Skati’s undead army during the decapodians’ vulnerable molting season. If the lighthouse isn’t saved, its inhabitants will be slaughtered and its lamp extinguished. If Chitoni isn’t saved, then Old Shell will perish, the caves will crumble and sink into the thermal vent below the settlement, and the majority of the Isles’ decapodians will be gone. Let’s cover the lighthouse first: the trigger for the ecliptic attack is that a galleon from a distant mainland nation is carrying valuable supplies to the Isles, and the ecliptics want to sink it and claim the materials while also destroying the lighthouse. Once again, this is the only time in the book I can find the term “bakarai.” Presumably it’s a type of ecliptic, but what kind I don’t know. Much like the evacuation of SpringBog, this quest is a series of combat encounters: during the first wave the PCs and their allies must prevent ecliptic haulers from reaching the lighthouse and extinguishing the light. Meanwhile, an ecliptic hunter is stealthily scaling the lighthouse wall to extinguish the flame. A character can manipulate the light to split, with one guiding the ship and the other revealing the presence of far more ecliptics in the water to warn the passing ship. Said ship will then fire on the ecliptics, reducing their number. At some point during the fight, an ecliptic hunter will attack and damage the lighthouse (this can’t be prevented) which forces the PCs to obtain fuel barrels from the storage cave (which is currently occupied by ecliptic shockers) to relight it. Additionally, a pair of minax guards are hunting the nearby lapalapa, and their amber will be useful both as a weapon during the siege and to make the lighthouse shine ever brighter. If the PCs helped evacuate SpringBog, then Keahi will appear again to help fight the ecliptic army. Once the PCs successfully repel the ecliptics, Skati’s forces haven’t been idle; realizing that the blood of his descendants and relatives is magically potent for sacrificial purposes, a team of undead draugr are dispatched to the lighthouse to kidnap Skree. If kidnapped, the PCs have an opportunity to save Skree by the 14th week. Later than that she will be sacrificed and turned into an undead. The draugr are humanoid undead clad in medium or heavy armor and multiattack with shortswords and shortbows. Draugr warmongers are CR 1 cannon fodder, although Greater Draugr are CR 4, have a ranged Bloodshot attack, and can reawaken even if defeated 1d6+1 days later if their corpse isn’t burnt. Lesser Draugur are even weaker than warmongers in every way. [B]Split into two posts due to length.[/B] [/QUOTE]
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