Whispers of the Eclipse (3 of 6) GM's Reference

This is the Horizons of the Vast Module 3 Whispers of the Eclipse GM discussion thread. :)

Not sure of the best place to talk about this, but it appears there is a problem with the maps pdf for this volume. I cannot select the map image separately to the rest of the page, which makes extractions of the maps painful.

Is Verdant Blast supposed to be a cantrip? Seems a bit powerful for one.

120 foot line, 3d6 piercing damage with a reflex save for half.

Is Verdant Blast supposed to be a cantrip? Seems a bit powerful for one.

120 foot line, 3d6 piercing damage with a reflex save for half.

That definitely sounds like a level 1 spell to me. Though... even then it should probably have a shorter range.

Is Verdant Blast supposed to be a cantrip? Seems a bit powerful for one.

120 foot line, 3d6 piercing damage with a reflex save for half.

We had a typo there! It should be a level 2 spell.

Threl, the ambassador from Plaustov sure made a big change since first meeting the PCs in Planetfall. I'm just going to go for it and assume Threl used a serum of sex change. I'll go on about the cane though, like Threl thinks that will be the only thing the PCs will notice has changed.

Officially that seems to be what they've decided after-the-fact, which is quite frankly what I'd expect from JK Rowling and not Paizo.

It was a continuity error though so I'd say just go with whatever you prefer.

Anyone else find it funny that the Weydanasaurus is described as a herbivore in the text, but the art shows it eating a carcass?

Plant monster.

How have others adjusted the charter stats when adding Plaustov? They've been there as long as the PCs but it looks like they haven't done much and nothing is mentioned. It also feels weird that if they do absorb them, that Plaustov hasn't claimed any hexes yet? What have they been doing? Or is it just because they're a smaller charter and don't have resources? In my game's time its been 2 years, so it feels like they should have made some progress with expanding...

How have others adjusted the charter stats when adding Plaustov? ...

They landed on New Harmony with the same equipment and resources as the PCs but immediately had to face CR6+ wildlife. They've been hanging on by their toenails, being held together by their charismatic leader. But when she disappeared, unrest prevented them from expanding and some hexes had to be abandoned.

My group became interested in their neighbors and the planet, as a whole, way earlier then the AP assumes, so I had to improvise some world building.

I'm probably give them some free hexes and resource nodes honestly if they take it over, and any explored Mountain/Valley hexes. My main worry though is that the party will try to claim the moon as part of their settlement, LOL

What Styro posted above works and maybe that Valley mental Haze has fogged up much of what was claimed before. And the key people who did most of the claiming are missing so everything is confused/mis remembering what hexes are what. Or even a fire at the townhall records building burned all the legit computer documents from a food riot on what hexes are what as to legit and what needs to be explored or re explored.

Tom

So my players are about to enter the moon base, I see there is a huge expectation that the players continue through and explore the rest of the base evicting the inhabitants. Is there a reason they don't use the starship they acquired to just grab the people, maybe all the people, and then just leave? Is there a reason they can't leave I missed, or is there a result for if they take everyone and just go?

From what I recall, there is nothing preventing this course of action, other than the reluctance to leave a powerful enemy behind. If the players decided to leave, then the turncoat attack would likely happen in transit rather than in the moonbase. I would also expect there should be some consequences to leaving the Sceadinaur behind. Perhaps it follows the ship's wake back to the colony? Maybe it also attacks in transit?

That's what happened to my group. They saw no reason to rest and just ushed the group to their ship and brought them home. I had her snap on the way home as she left the influence of the sceadinuar and they had to fight it in the cramped confines of their ship. They ended up eventually heading back to retrieve RJ's body (but mainly because they knew there would be loot...)

Since there's an airlock, and I wanted to give a sense of age in the technology, I put a 30 second de/pressurize timer on it, so once up to 2 characters entered, the locks would need to cycle. When those characters entered the loading dock M2, I had it taking 30 seconds to depressurize before the outer doors would open, with a DC 24 engineering check to open some valves to release the pressure more quickly. I had a second, unspoken, part which was that they needed to close this valve. The characters then used life shield around them to create a barrier of pressurized air which I allowed to reduce the volume that the chamber needed to have filled, so they could get in the action quicker. I then described each turn how they could hear the airlock still making noise and a breeze in this moon base. After combat they picked up the clues and fixed the door.

If they decided to try leaving without clearing the dungeon, I figured they'd have to first figure out how to get the survivors out of there. The survivors had gear for a jaunt through the jungle, so I decided that they've been up here with just their jungle clothes and no pressure suits. Luckily for the players who didn't account for this either, there are 4x old space suits in N2 pg 33.

If they decided to do some wacky suit swapping shenanigans, not only would that take up time, swapping suits and moving people out one at a time, they'd have the airlock to contend with. Even with life bubble spells, the group would be stationary and exposed protecting the survivors.

Anyone note any rogh spots for your party in this module or anything you would change for ease of the party and or to make it more interesting?

Thanks

My group is almost done with mod 2 so prepping for this one :)

Tom

Anyone find any good maps for this module? I'm kinda stuck trying to find a Plaustov city map.

I was going to use the Space Colony Flip map but I used one side for the groups first settlement, then the other side for Fishfair in Mod 2.

I know I don't HAVE to have one, but I noted if you have a city map they can move around in the players get way more engaged instead of Theatre of the mind "Imagine this city X", then map for encounter X and so on.

Thanks for any suggestions here gang

Tom

Found a map, cost some $$ but glad I did as we just got done with session 3 and they made it to the city, talked to the acting mayor and are out and about in town trying to zero in the the 4 questlines.

Party now is split up one group to the bar and one to the race track :)

Can't wait for the next session in 2 weeks!!

Tom