What YOU need to know if you are running Age of Ashes (Hellknight Hill)

[@wolf7115]

Thanks for the tips! I'm running this one soon

[@oliverklar813]

Excellent advice! Thank you for that! Just prepping the campaign.

[@MrLargonaut]

Hey man, thank you for this. I scrambled for the past few weeks putting Fantasy Grounds Unity together and getting Pathfinder 2e loaded, and thanks to the time crunch I absolutely needed the help with the first module.

[@SageTowerGames]

Glad it could be of help!

[@thebluenomadgamingshow]

This is an excellent video with good advice. I am thinking about running this and love to see other pitfalls before I suck at it. Keep it up and do more like this.

[@danb2529]

Ran this recently as my first campaign, I noticed: (spoilers ahead): . . 1) The very first encounter has 49 NPCs and an exponentially growing hazard. It is harsh on the GM and the players. I had 2/4 players drop (one of them twice) and all of them had to use their hero points to beat this encounter. If they don't tackle the fire immediately it can get out of hand quickly. This might be realistic but it's a hard start to a brand new campaign. 2) minor gripe on ground floor of castle. One room describes an iron gate as ajar (cause another NPC picked the lock and left it open), the description of the same gate from the courtyard says it is locked and gives a DC to pick it. proof read fail. 3) It is the least secure citadel ever. It has multiple entries, stone battlements that collapse in (4?) spots after about a decade without maintenance, and 3 secret tunnels that lead to the lower levels. And the second chapter that deals with citadel repairs doesn't think the new owner might want to tackle these security blind spots. I added options to block off / collapse these tunnels (The PCs bought the Pickled Ear inn from the owner to secure that tunnel when they could afford it) 4) At a certain point the guide says that Alek (if he joined the party) leaves to go off and do his own thing. No suggestion that he might be persuaded to stay. Later on it references certain information that he might be able to offer if he is with the party, which he can't be because the guide told me he left already. I suggest GMs allow him to stay on right to the end of the chapter so long as he isn't taking the limelight from the PCs. One of my PCs wanted to take Hellknight dedication so I had Alek leave for the order HQ to make a case for him to join given the work the party were doing to clear out the citadel. 5) I had serious concerns about the 'keys' to activate the portals. My PCs sell off any stuff they don't find an immediate need for so you have to be careful to strongly telegraph the importance of a seemingly weak magic item that is so vital to the plot. 6) The encounter balance seemed okay in general for my players. Not too easy or hard given that rest and return to town is fairly easy at any point. They bypassed all the undead using handy insignias and cobbled together sets of armour to appear as hellknights, broke the bear loose to kill off half the cultists and used other nice non-combat ways around fighting in every single room. They also have 2 pet warg pups now !

[@SageTowerGames]

Yeah I would say most of that is rather accurate. Unless your party thinks of the water route right away, the fire becomes impossible to stop I feel. They really want you to highlight those water towers. Most of the outer damage to the Citadel is likely covered in the "Repair" costs. Although I didn't think about the Pickler Ear tunnel. Guess my players forgot about that one. And good to see my party wasn't only one with 2 pet warg pups. lol

[@BlackDragonRPGReviews]

The adventure says that Breachill is located in the foothills of the Five Kings Mountains. However, this town isn't shown on the map that comes with the Lost Omens World Guide. So do you think I could locate the town elsewhere, or is it imperative to the story that it be in the Shining Kingdoms?

[@SageTowerGames]

You could locate it elsewhere. The adventure treats Breachill as a hub and the players essentially travel to different regions with each book so maybe not one of those specific regions? Other than that, only thing that I would try to keep the same is the founding/history of Breachill as that lore can play a part in certain parts near the end.

[@BlackDragonRPGReviews]

@@SageTowerGames Awesome! Thank you for the response and the tips! I just subscribed!

[@mcdan84]

@@BlackDragonRPGReviews It's easy to tell where Breechill is located because it's less than a mile from Citadel Altaerin. The citadel is on the map in Isger, so there's no real guesswork here.

[@BlackDragonRPGReviews]

@@mcdan84 I guess I wasn’t very clear in my question. I don’t care where it’s supposed to be located, I just wanted to know if he thought it would mess up the story if I put the town somewhere else. My players reference the map in the Lost Omens World Guide, and since neither Breachill or the Citadel is located on the map, I can stick the town wherever and my players won’t know the difference. I just haven’t read the other 5 books of the AP yet and didn’t know if the precise location matters at any point and wanted to know what he thought about it.