Pathfinder Banewarrens

Adapting the Banewarrens super-dungeon to the Pathfinder system and setting. Blog by Lucas J.W. Johnson (floerian), Banewarrens content copyright Monte Cook, Pathfinder content copyright Paizo Inc.

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in my pathfinder game

My player, a Cleric of Adabar: I should engage that follower of Zon-Kuthon in a rap battle, and then we can team up and form an act called "Death and Taxes."

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Did character creation tonight with the group! Started by introducing Golarion, then taught the basics of the system and started walking them through character creation. Only one of four players had ever played 3rd ed. before (all had played at least a little 4th ed) and the process reminded me how complicated the Pathfinder system could be (especially after the relative simplicity of the Serenity system).

Still, I think it’s mostly a matter of time and comfort; it’s a lot to take in all at once, but they’ll get the hang of it. It’s interesting, though, to consider how so much of the strategy of the game might rely on knowing some of the more intricate parts of the system (especially when you’re not completely tailoring the adventure to the PCs). Ability damage, negative levels, damage reduction and needing weapons made of special materials, how much magic items cost and why, etc etc etc.

Frankly, it will be a good test of my aforementioned desire to let things play out as they play out (not trying to maximize the challenge or manipulate things so people don’t die, etc.), as well as my ability to a) customize a pre-made adventure as we go to the players I have to maximize their fun, and b) make sure they’re given the opportunity to learn the things they need to know about the game (by, for instance, encouraging them to make Knowledge checks so that after a few sessions they’ll take the initiative to do so on their own)...

The group ended up being really interesting, too:

The leader is an alchemist from Kintargo, a Pathfinder member and follower of Iomedae (covering the healer role as well as some knowledge and social skills). There’s a Cheliaxian elven magus spelldancer who is interested in ruins and ancient magic, and is also a Pathfinder. An urban ranger half-orc outcast who’s travelled a lot but been in Kintargo for over a year; also a Pathfinder (covering the trap finding requirement). And an ifrit gunslinger from Qadira, who spent a lot of time in the Mana Wastes finding and selling firearms before travelling abroad to make more money selling firearms--then running out of firearms to sell and turning to being a mercenary.

The group certainly covers all the necessary skills, and has a few locals who might know some legends about the Banewarrens, as well as local politics (Inverted Pyramid, Church of Iomedae, Pathfinder Society, Cheliax noble houses...). I’m looking forward to seeing how they work together and how the campaign plays out!

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Campaign Traits

In the course of browsing through Pathfinder resources, I came across Traits -- and more specifically, the Campaign Traits of Adventure Paths. I think it’s a great idea to create a list of campaign-specific traits that not only give the PCs bonuses that they may need in the course of a campaign (when they don’t necessarily know where it’s going) as well as encouraging them to build the campaign’s setting and feel into their characters from the start. (All my players will be new to the world, so I want to do as much as I can to encourage them to learn about it and really integrate their characters into it.)

Therefore I compiled a list of campaign traits taken from some of the adventure paths that are particularly appropriate for the Banewarrens, as well as creating two of my own specific to the campaign. (They’re *maybe* a little more powerful than typical traits, but a) I want to encourage characters to be local to the area, and b) the Banewarrens is deadly and I don’t mind giving them a slight edge against the deadlier aspects.)

I’ll also be encouraging regional traits to Cheliax and religion traits for Iomedae or Asmodeus.

I altered the texts of a couple of the traits below to fit with the campaign.

Campaign Traits

Born Beneath the Spire: You were born in Kintargo and have always felt the weight of the dark spire rising high above the city. Rumours of ancient legends about the evils that rest at the top of it--or even far below it--have intrigued you since you were a child; you've always been able to sense the pall of evil. You gain a +1 trait bonus on saving throws made against spells and effects with the [evil] descriptor and on saving throws against spells and effects originating from an outsider with the evil subtype. You may use detect evil as a spell-like ability once per day.

Hardened by the Spire: You were born in Kintargo and have always felt the weight of the dark spire rising high above the city. Evil seems to seep from it in the dead of night, and you've suffered nightmares all your life--but it has also hardened you to its ways. You gain a +1 bonus on saving throws against negative levels and ability score damage.

Diabolist Raised (from Council of Thieves adventure path): All your life you’ve lived within the grip of devil-possessed Cheliax. You care little for the religion of your country, but that is the way of life in the most magnificent empire in the world, and who are you to question the faith of the empire’s rulers? Certainly not a fool like some of your more idealistic acquaintances, possessed of bizarre ideals about personal freedoms and egalitarian rulership—who can say whatever happened to them? You know of Hell and the rigidity of its grim rulers, you’ve seen devils and how they might be employed to the betterment of those with the might to control them, and you know of the dark faith of your country. You might not be a devil worshiper yourself, but there are realities to living in Cheliax, and it’s always good to know what’s really going on behind the scenes. Your knowledge of diabolism grants you a +1 bonus on Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Sense Motive checks made against Cheliax nobility, and a +1 bonus on all saving throws made against mind-affecting attacks from devils.

Infernal Bastard (from Council of Thieves adventure path): You are a tiefling. You might be an escaped slave, a hidden shame, or a homeless vagabond, but whatever your upbringing, life has been particularly hard on you. You have suffered greatly, nearly starving to death one winter, nearly being beaten to death by racist sailors one summer, and so on. Whether or not these experiences have made you a bitter and cynical scoundrel or a pious and hopeful optimist is up to you, but one thing is certain—you are something less than even your tiefling kin. Perhaps it is a result of your hard life, or perhaps it is due to some fault in your fiendish heritage, but you lack a tiefling’s standard resistances to cold, electricity, and fire—instead, you merely have a +2 bonus on all saving throws made against these effects. Likewise, you do not have the ability to use darkness as a spell-like ability once per day—instead, you may choose any one 0-level spell that you can instead use at will as a spell-like ability.

Seeking Adventure (from Legacy of Fire adventure path): The Pathfinder Society has long intrigued you—tales of the exotic lands and strange discoveries made by Pathfinders have enchanted your dreams and fired your imagination since childhood. When Pathfinders came through your village or neighborhood, they immediately enthralled you with their stories and knowledge. Yet at the time, you were far too young to join them, and when they left for adventure you had to stay behind. Now that you are of age, you’ve traveled to a Pathfinder lodge to apply for membership. The application process went well, and you’re now a full member. You begin the game with your own wayfinder. A wayfinder is a magical compass that grants you a +2 circumstance bonus on Survival checks to avoid becoming lost, and can be commanded to emit light as the spell (CL 5th) as a standard action.

Trap Finder (from Mummy's Mask adventure path): Forgotten dungeons and ancient tombs have always held an appeal for you, and you’ve never been able to resist the urge to delve into these lost sites in search of knowledge, treasure, or both. You may not have received any formal training in the roguish arts, but you’ve nonetheless become skilled at spotting and disabling hidden traps. The catacombs and ancient ruins said to run below Kintargo seem like the perfect place to put your skills to the test. You gain a +1 trait bonus on Disable Device checks, and that skill is always a class skill for you. In addition, you can use Disable Device to disarm magic traps, like a rogue.

Ancient Explorer (from Skulls and Shackles adventure path): You are a student of the ancient history of Golarion, especially tales of ancient Azlant and Azlanti colonies around the Inner Sea. You gain a +1 trait bonus on Knowledge (history) and Knowledge (local) checks, and one of these skills is a class skill for you. In addition, you gain Old Azlant as a bonus language.

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With that, I'm ready to introduce my players to the game and setting, have them make characters, and get started. As the game develops I'll continue to give updates on how it plays out and any further changes or updates I make!

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Kicking off the Adventure

The inciting incident of The Banewarrens involves a dark elf escaping from the Banewarrens and causing chaos in the street. A bane himself, Tavan Zith causes anyone who nears him to suddenly and violently manifest sorcerous abilities. The PC's come across the chaos he's causing and have the opportunity to stop him.

His original stats are that of a drow ex-monk. And while I was going to leave most stats as-is, generally, I find myself unable to now: drow didn't exist in Golarion until after the fall of Azlant, meaning a drow could not have been imprisoned in the Banewarrens.

I decided to remake his stats, making him a regular elf, and increasing his monk level by 1 in order to keep him the same CR. I also updated all of his monk abilities and fully converted him to Pathfinder; this is the first major encounter in the game and I want to make sure it's a decent fight. (Yes, already going against my GM philosophy a little bit...)

In the stats below, I've kept him as close to the original stats as possible, with the same ability scores, and most of the same skill and feat choices, adding only a couple where old ones are redundant or inexplicable.

Tavan Zith – CR 8

Male elf ex-monk 8

CE medium humanoid (elf)

Init +9; Senses Perception +17, low-light vision

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AC 22, touch 22, flat-footed 16 (+5 Dex, +4 Wisdom, +2 monk, +1 dodge)

hp 48 (8d8+8)

Fort +9, Ref +14, Will +13; +4 vs enchantment

Defensive Abilities evasion; Immunities disease, sleep

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Spd 50 ft.

Melee +11 unarmed (1d10+1) or flurry of blows +11/+11/+6/+6 (1d10+1)

Special Attacks flurry of blows, stunning fist (8/day, DC 18, stun or fatigue)

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Str 13, Dex 20, Con 10, Int 15, Wis 19, Cha 10

Base Atk +6/+1; CMB +9 (+11 trip); CMD 22

Feats Blind-Fight, Deflect Arrows, Dodge, Improved Initiative, Improved Trip, Improved Unarmed Strike, Stunning Fist, Weapon Finesse

Skills Acrobats +16 (jump +24), Craft +13, Diplomacy +11, Perception +17, Stealth +16, Swim +12

Languages Azlanti, Elven

SQ fast movement, high jump, ki pool (8 points, magic (+20 ft. Speed, +1 attack, +4 dodge, +20 jump)), maneuver training, purity of body, slow fall 40 ft., wholeness of body

Other Gear cloak of resistance +3

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Alabastiel Goldenhanded

Alabastiel's family came to Cheliax several centuries ago from the Mwangi Expanse, on board a Chelish exploratory vessel to negotiate trade. Celestial blood runs in their veins from generations past, their relatives holding revered positions in their original villages. When Aroden died and Cheliax began turning to diabolism, her family fled north to Korvosa in Varisia to escape the devils.

Alabastiel sees Morania's party as an opportunity to evaluate the state of Cheliax and see what she might be able to do about it. Her archon blood makes her more interested in law and order than morals, and though she despises the teachings of Hell, she has heard that common folk still manage to get along in the new order. She also sees her role in the party to keep a moral and orderly eye on the others; she worries that without moral guidance, Morania may neglect the good in favour of knowledge and power, and without lawful guidance, Cassus and Dravius's good intentions will cause more harm than good.

Alabastiel spends most of her downtime in meditation, leaving the administration of the group to others. She is a strong voice for law and morality, though, when discussions happen, and a stalwart ally in combat.

Alabastiel Goldenhanded – CR 6

Female archon-blood aasimar monk 6

LG medium outsider (native)

Init +2; Senses Perception +13, darkvision 60 ft.

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AC 20, touch 19, flat-footed 16 (+1 armour, +3 Dex, +4 Wisdom, +1 monk, +1 dodge)

hp 53 (6d8+18)

Fort +8, Ref +8, Will +9; +2 vs. Death, energy drain, negative energy, necromancy, enchantment

Defensive Abilities evasion; Resistance 5 negative energy; Immunities disease

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Spd 50 ft.

Melee +8 unarmed (1d8+3) or flurry of blows +8/+8/+3 (1d8+3)

Special Attacks flurry of blows, stunning fist (6/day, DC 17, stun or fatigue)

Spell-like abilities (CL 6; concentration +6)

1/day—continual flame

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Str 16, Dex 17, Con 16, Int 12, Wis 18, Cha 11

Base Atk +4; CMB +9 (+11 disarm); CMD 25

Feats Deflect Arrows, Dodge, Extra Ki, Improved Disarm, Improved Unarmed Strike, Step Up, Stunning Fist, Weapon Focus (unarmed strike)

Skills Acrobats +11 (jump +17), Climb +12, Escape Artist +11, Intimidate +11, Perception +13, Stealth +11

Languages Common, Polyglot, Celestial, Varisian

SQ fast movement, high jump, ki pool (9 points, magic (+20 ft. Speed, +1 attack, +4 dodge, +20 jump), maneuver training, purity of body, slow fall 30 ft.

Combat Gear potion of cure moderate wounds; Other Gear bracers of armour +1, belt of dexterity +2

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Cassus and Dravius Corial

Cassus and Dravius Corial are half-elven siblings local to Kintargo. Pathfinder Society agents and general free spirits, they're not particularly happy with the state of Cheliax, but are more inclined to stay in Kintargo and adventure in the surrounding regions than to do anything about politics.

Dravius is the elder brother, an expert duelist with a keen interest in mechanical – and magical – traps. He's never been particularly personable other than with his brother, and tends to let him do the talking – other than cracking the occasional joke.

Cassus is the younger, and outwardly the utter opposite of his brother. He's charismatic, personable, and delights in storytelling, often acting out different roles, much to the delight of his audiences. He's the face of the adventuring group. Like his brother though, he does pour himself into his studies – in his case, broad knowledge of everything he can get his hands on, with a focus on history.

(pictures from Final Fantasy XIV)

Cassus Corial – CR 6

Male half-elf bard 6

CG medium humanoid

Init +3; Senses Perception +12, low-light vision

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AC 18, touch 13, flat-footed 15 (+5 armour, +3 Dex)

hp 37 (6d8)

Fort +2, Ref +8, Will +6; +4 vs bardic, sonic, and language-dependent effects

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Spd 30 ft.

Melee mwk silver dagger +5 (1d4-1/19-20)

Ranged mwk shortbow +8 (1d6/x3)

Special Attacks bardic performance 18 rounds/day (countersong, distraction, fascinate, inspire competence +2, inspire courage +2, suggestion)

Bard Spells Known (CL 6th; concentration +10)

2nd (4)—cure moderate wounds, invisibility, locate object, suggestion

1st (5)—charm person, cure light wounds, disguise self, identify

0 (at will)—detect magic, ghost sound, light, mage hand, prestidigitation, read magic

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Str 10, Dex 17, Con 10, Int 14, Wis 13, Cha 18

Base Atk +4; CMB +4; CMD 17

Feats Arcane Strike, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Skill Focus (perform: oratory)

Skills Acrobatics +12, Knowledge (arcana) +10, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +9, Knowledge (engineering) +9, Knowledge (geography) +10, Knowledge (history) +14, Knowledge (local) +14, Knowledge (nobility) +9, Knowledge (nature) +9, Knowledge (planes) +10, Knowledge (religion) +10, Perception +12, Perform (oratory/Diplomacy/Sense Motive) +16, Perform (act/Bluff/Disguise) +13, Spellcraft +11

Languages Common, Elven, Infernal, Azlanti

SQ bardic knowledge +3, versatile performance (oratory, act), lore master 1/day

Combat Gear potion of cure moderate wounds (2), selection of scrolls; Other Gear +1 mithril shirt, mwk shortbow, mwk silver dagger, 10 mwk silver arrows, 10 mwk cold iron arrows, 10 mwk adamantine arrows

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Dravius Corial – CR 6

Male half-elf rogue 6

CG medium humanoid

Init +5; Senses Perception +13, low-light vision

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AC 20, touch 15, flat-footed 15 (+5 armour, +5 Dex)

hp 45 (6d8+6)

Fort +3, Ref +10, Will +4; +2 vs enchantment

Defensive Abilities uncanny dodge, evasion; Immunities sleep

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Spd 30 ft.

Melee mwk rapier +10 (1d6+2/18-20)

Ranged mwk shortbow +10 (1d6/x3)

Special Attacks sneak attack +3d6

Spell-like abilities (CL 6)

0—detect magic (3/day)

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Str 14, Dex 20, Con 12, Int 15, Wis 15, Cha 9

Base Atk +4; CMB +9 (trip +11); CMD 21

Feats Agile Maneuvers, Combat Expertise, Improved Trip, Skill Focus (sleight of hand), Weapon Finesse

Skills Acrobatics +14, Appraise +11, Climb +11, Disable Device +16, Escape Artist +14, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +11, Perception +13, Sense Motive +11, Sleight of Hand +17, Stealth +14, Use Magic Device +8

Languages Common, Elven, Orc, Infernal

SQ trapfinding, trap spotter

Combat Gear potion of cure moderate wounds, ring of featherfalling; Other Gear +1 mithril shirt, mwk rapier, mwk shortbow, mwk thieves' tools

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Morania Ghoran

Morania was born in Taldor, where her wealthy – but losing influence – family made sure she had the best educations money could buy. She went to Absalom and trained both in arcane magic and in the Tian-Xia art of the katana. There, she also gained great interest in the Pathfinder society and the promises of ancient Azlanti magicks. After getting everything she could out of her family, she broke ties (despising the corruption and decline of Taldor bureaucracy) and started travelling Avistan in search of adventure and ancient power.

On her way to a promising lead in Varisia, she took a ship to Kintargo, where the Pathfinder society hooked her up with the Inverted Pyramid, who had some details about her Varisian lead. There she met the bard Cassus (and his roguish brother Dravius) who agreed to join her on the adventure. They took a ship to Korvosa, and while investigating their destination, met the monk Alabastiel, who knew the area and agreed to join them with the goal of bringing down the brigands who were causing chaos in the area.

When their adventure ended, successfully, the all returned to Kintargo -- Cassus had intrigued Morania with his stories of the spire that towered over the city, and she wanted to learn more while they rested before their next adventure.

Morania tends toward being laconic. She is short and direct, her interest in ancient magic, not people.

(picture from Final Fantasy XIV)

Morania Ghoran – CR 7

Female Taldan human magus 7

N Medium humanoid

Init +2; Senses Perception +1

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AC 20, touch 13, flat-footed 17 (+7 armour, +2 Dex, +1 Dodge)

hp 49 (7d8+7)

Fort +6, Ref +4, Will +6

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Spd 20 ft.

Melee +1 katana +11 (1d8+5/18-20)

Ranged touch attack +7 (varies)

Special Attacks spell combat (-2 attack), spellstrike

Magus Spells Prepared (CL 7th; concentration +15)

3rd—haste, vampiric touch

2nd—bull's strength, force anchor, bladed dash (x2)

1st—shield, shocking grasp (x3), true strike

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Str 18, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 19, Wis 12, Cha 11

Base Atk +5; CMB +9; CMD 21

Feats Combat Casting, Dodge, Exotic Weapon Proficiency (katana), Spell Penetration, Weapon Focus (katana)

Skills Climb +8, Fly +6, Knowledge (arcana) +14, Knowledge (planes) +14, Ride +9, Spellcraft +14, Use Magic Device +10

Languages Common, Azlanti, Draconic, Kelish, Infernal

SQ arcane pool (7 points, +2), knowledge pool, magus arcana (close range, arcane accuracy (1 point as a swift action to gain a +4 insight bonus to attack rolls until the end of her turn)), medium armor proficiency, spell recall

Combat Gear potion of cure moderate wounds (2), scroll of fireball; Other Gear +1 breastplate, +1 katana, spell component pouch, spellbook

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The Rivals

When I started (re)learning the Pathfinder system, I made a few 6th-level NPC's to get my head back into the system, and to figure out what the approximate power level of the PC's will be at the start of the game. Also because it was fun.

As I started learning more about the world as well, I decided that I might introduce these NPC's to the campaign as side characters of some kind. A different adventuring party currently based in Kintargo that can be friends or friendly rivals of the PC's – as well as helping anchor them in the wider world a bit more. I can then also use them to help initiate any sidequests I might want to introduce (if, say, the PC's are behind on XP). There are also a couple places in the Banewarrens that I might insert them as well – for instance, later in the adventure the Inverted Pyramid sends a previously-unmet NPC to join the party and help them out for a while (for some plot reasons). Rather than use someone new and random that the group has never met before, I could easily use someone from this rival group, someone they already know and possibly trust. I think it will help add some nice depth to the game.

The rival group will be Pathfinders (helping tie them into the world and introduce the Pathfinder Society to the PC's). A couple (the arcane spellcasters) will also have links to the Inverted Pyramid. How much they get involved in the Banewarrens themselves will depend on how the adventure plays out!

These four characters and their backgrounds will follow over the next couple days.

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A note on my GMing style

I'm a writer/storyteller first and foremost, and so my tabletop games have always focused heavily on the grand stories they tell and to a large extent the roleplaying aspect of the games. However, I'm also a nut for interesting systems, and have been known to min/max and to plan out extravagant battles and the like, to the point where it was perhaps taking away from the full game experience. After all, battles in D&D (3.5/Pathfinder and 4th ed alike) can take a long time, and especially at higher levels, keeping track of all the bonuses and modifiers and oh-hey-don't-forget-the-+1-for-bless is time- and mind-consuming. The systems are also, to a large extent, built around that, around balance, making sure that this encounter will be not-too-hard-but-not-too-easy, and adhering to that ends up with thought processes like “You have to spend money on the Strength belt otherwise you'll be underpowered” and “I need a golf bag for my adamantine, cold iron, good, silver, flaming, and bludgeoning weapons in order to deal with damage reduction.” It gets to the point where if you don't have the latest supplement, you're not going to be able to optimize yourself, and then you won't be strong enough! A couple years ago, it was all getting a bit much for me. I kept feeling myself drifting away from the storytelling and roleplaying I wanted to be doing.

Then last year I ran a campaign using the Serenity RPG rules. There are no character levels in Serenity; there are no magic items of ever-increasing quality. There are no CR's. A couple hits from a gun has a good chance of killing anyone, PC or NPC. Assets and Complications are as much about roleplaying as they are about stats, and combat abilities are bought with the same pool of points as non-combat.

It was a major transition, and it allowed me to care far more about the story and roleplaying than any perceived “balance.” Things were challenging because I asked my players to react to situations, not because this bad guy has more hit points than the last one. (I mean, there was a bit of that; I wanted some combats to be more challenging than others, and by the end I'd foolishly let my players have too much access to good explosives so I had to make up excuses for tougher bad guys to try to counteract that.)

Mostly, it allowed me to change my frame of mind: rather than aiming for perfectly-balanced challenges, I made myself be thrilled when the players got through something more easily than I'd anticipated. Wow, that battle I thought would be really tough was actually really easy? Awesome. Good for you. And also, now we can get back to the roleplaying (because while shorter than D&D battles, Serenity battles could still take a while).

One of the things I'm most excited about now that I'm returning to Pathfinder as a system is trying to bring some of that sense back with me. It helps that I'm using a pre-made adventure: I have less skin in the game, less personal pride about balance and stats. But ultimately I want to go into this campaign with a “que sera sera” mindset. The PC's get through a battle really easily? Fantastic. One of the PC's dies because they weren't careful enough around traps? I told them it might be deadly. They can raise the Raise money or make a new character.

Sometimes the PC's might take too long doing something, and one of the NPC factions gets through part of the dungeon. Part of me might regret the lost battle opportunity—that was a cool encounter!--but I'm not going to let it. The adventure is designed so they don't do every battle! That's fantastic!

This mindset will also help with some of the 3.0 rules if I choose not to adjust them: I don't need to update that character's stats to make it more balanced; she has the stats she has.

Like I said, the systems are designed such that a mindset of balance is somewhat inevitable; but I'm hoping to hold onto as much as I can from what I learned playing Serenity. We'll see how it goes.

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Organizations - The Pactlords of the Quaan and House Vladaam

One of the major villains of the Banewarrens is an organization of intelligent monsters that seeks one of the powerful banes within the dungeon. Their ultimate goal is the destruction of humanity. Their origins are tied somewhat to the origin story of the Banewarrens themselves, but they're basically a plug-and-play evil monstrous group. Ultimately they don't need much integration into the world. Perhaps their origins are tied to the aboleths.

Finally, there's House Vladaam, a noble family in the city with fiendish heritage. That fits into Cheliax really really well. Make the family having been a minor noble family hiding their infernal heritage and worship until Cheliax became diabolist, at which point they were early and fervent supporters, in exchange for which they were given greater power and are now the most powerful family in Kintargo. The main player, daughter of the patriarch Navanna Vladaam, wants the power that the Banewarrens holds (and the secrets that may lie beneath) to further her personal influence in Cheliax, and further her family's personal goals outside of the government's—finding the ancient fiends from the time of Azlant rumoured to be bound beneath the city (perhaps in the Darklands). (This part of their motivations doesn't really come into play in the adventure.)

Having the most powerful noble family in Kintargo be strong diabolist supporters does suggest that Asmodeus's presence might be felt more than previously discussed; however, in the adventure as written, only 3 members of the family are mentioned, or even seem to exist... It might make sense that the family is much bigger, but most of it has moved to Egorian to peddle their influence in the capital. Thus, only a few members are left in their hometown, and the diabolist presence is back to being less important.

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Organizations - Inverted Pyramid

One of the other major players in The Banewarrens is an organization of arcane spellcasters, researches, sages, etc., called the Inverted Pyramid. The text suggests that they're a fairly widespread arcane organization, whose headquarters is in (actually, above) Ptolus, but they can just as easily be a relatively local and relatively small group (who nonetheless have some fairly high-level members).

The only somewhat important piece of history is that in ages past, the Church of Lothian made an edict that arcane magic was the work of devilry and sought to eradicate mages; the Inverted Pyramid was formed to protect its members and save important arcane knowledge. (As mentioned before, the Church has since become more progressive.) However, other than its fear that the Church will return to these less-progressive beliefs, this fact isn't really important to the overall story.

Partially in an attempt to tie the Banewarrens adventure into the wider world a little more, I'm thinking it has loose ties to the Pathfinder Society—a lot of members of the Inverted Pyramid are also Pathfinders. This would make sense in that Pyramid and Pathfinder members alike would seek ancient ruins and whatnot looking to find and preserve ancient magicks. It would also make sense for the Pathfinders to have an interest in the Banewarrens, and rather than try to bring a new faction fully into play (when there are already 4 major factions besides the PC's involved in the adventure), their influence can be felt through the Pyramid.

There just remains the matter of their conflict with the Church of Iomedae. Since they're made up of powerful spellcasters interested in magic and power, and since I'm making them fairly local to the area, it might make sense that they're also supporters of Cheliax's infernal dealings. While all members might not be diabolists themselves, they would have an outward alliance with the diabolists—at least for their own preservation. Therefore, though not an evil organization (a major point in the adventure is that they might be allies of the PC's, and while they're mostly out for themselves, I don't want them to be clearly evil) they would still feel threatened by Iomedae gaining the power to strike back against Cheliax's infernal rule. (They would also hide their infernal alliance from the PC's, allowing for a feeling of betrayal later on—something that might happen anyway in the course of the adventure when they try to seal the Banewarrens with the PC's still inside.)

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Organizations - The Church of Lothian

There are four major factions that are involved in the Banewarrens adventure and get embroiled in the schemes and the PC's.

One of the major players in The Banewarrens is a Lawful Good church that follows a fairly Christ-like god. They're a fairly important player in the wider Empire, but the extent of their involvement in The Banewarrens is a) being a Lawful Good-aligned entity in the city, b) being infiltrated by an evil monstrous organization, and c) seeking a particular evil artifact within the Banewarrens, which they believe to actually be a cursed good artifact prophesied to help the church bring about its goals.

In Golarion, Cheliax followed (and in fact took a divine mandate from) the god of humanity, Aroden--until the god died a hundred years ago and Cheliax turned to diabolism to maintain order. Meanwhile, Aroden's herald, Iomedae, took up most of his followers. Iomedae is a Lawful Good deity with many of the same ideals as Lothian in Ptolus, and with the setting in Kintargo away from the diabolic centres of Cheliax, it could make sense that Iomedae still has a lot of influence there.

The sourcebook Cheliax, Empire of Devils doesn't say much about Kintargo, but it does say that the church of Asmedeus, the Dark Prince, is only nominally worshipped there, that they'll do the things they're supposed to when the Cheliax navy is in port and then go back to normal. So as long as most citizens at least pay lip service to the devil prince, the church of Iomedae could still have a large presence.

The only other piece that may not fit is that the Church of Lothian had, in its past, a rocky relationship with arcane magic, and the sword they now seek in the Banewarrens has anti-arcane abilities. This fact threatens one of the other major players in the adventure, the Inverted Pyramid (which I'll talk about next), who work against the church a bit as a result. I've seen no indication that Aroden or Iomedae have or had any anti-arcane/anti-magic leanings.

Perhaps the Church of Iomedae in Kintargo believes the sword will help them strike back against the new Infernal overlords of Cheliax and return the empire to Iomedae's worship, and wrapped up in its anti-devil/anti-binding abilities are anti-arcane abilities that could also be used against the mages of the Inverted Pyramid. I'll explore that next.

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Setting the Adventure in Place

The default setting of Ptolus is a small city, a port city. In theory, it could be placed just about anywhere.

Basic backstory says that the city was part of an empire that's crumbling. It also includes a powerful Christianity-like church that plays a major role in the adventure, and is made out to have strong influence throughout the empire. But as long as the church is a good-aligned religion, the empire and connection to it aren't really important.

The more important thing to consider about the setting is that Ptolus lies in the shadow of an impossibly-high stone spire, at the top of which lies the ancient tower fortress of the man who created the Banewarrens (and subsequently became an evil warlord). The spire was formed when the very earth itself reacted negatively to all of the evils stored in the Banewarrens (which are under the tower, and thus under the city), and thrust the tower away from it.

The fact that the Banewarrens are under the city is pretty important to some adventure points, and while it could be somewhere else entirely, I'm trying not to change much about the adventure if I don't have to. And that means the spire, which ends up being a location in the dungeon, also needs to exist in the city.

If I'm trying not to change Golarion much either to make them both fit, I can't reasonably use a major city centre. Because people would talk about that spire.

Upon learning of the Spire of Nex outside Absalom, I considered using that, since it already exists by a major city. However, not knowing enough about it, it sounded like too much about that spire was already established; it also stands a ways away from the city; and I know there's lots of existing information about Absalom that I don't want to change. In fact, I'd like to use the map of Ptolus included in the adventure as my city map (again, to change as little as possible), so again, it can't be a major existing city centre.

Andoran was another option for the setting, having seceded from a crumbling empire and being a generally cosmopolitan area, but a giant spire right on the Inner Sea would get a lot of attention. Plus there's another consideration: if this is an Azlanti structure, why is it so far from the ruins of Azlant?

Which made me wonder if I should place it in Varisia. It's a frontier area with several city centres, massive architectural ruins, and could easily include the City Under the Spire without causing much fuss. However, I'm not sure the backstory works as well in that case; since it featured in the very first Adventure Path, the history of that area is well-documented, and the creator of the Banewarrens would necessarily have featured in the Runelord conflicts. That would require a) too much research into the details of that history and b) too many alterations to the adventure.

Ultimately, I'm currently set on placing the Banewarrens in Kintargo in Cheliax. The town is described as a cosmopolitan port city, far enough from the centre of Cheliax politics to be a place where revolutionaries might meet in safety, meaning it won't be as closely affected by the current diabolical situation ruling the empire. Like Ptolus, it's on the edge of an empire that no longer has much influence over it.

It also seems like a city that doesn't have a lot of existing lore, so I can just swap in the Ptolus map. And while it's a port city for trade to Varisia and Arcadia, it seems far enough off the beaten path to host the giant spire without raising too many eyebrows. Plus, being on the western coast of Avistan, it could easily have been the location of an Azlanti colony, explaining why the creator of the Banewarrens was there. If there had been massive conflicts between good and evil, it could have been fairly localized, at least to that cape, and not affected Thassilon or the rest of Azlant very much.

It's looking pretty ideal. Plus if I want to through in some hell knights or something, I certainly can.

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Setting the Adventure in History

In theory, the Banewarrens could be placed just about anywhere. It's a dungeon that holds evil magic items, built by a saint who wanted to lock away evil magic items before he himself turned evil.

However, the specifics of that character and his story (and the history of the Banewarrens) do come out during the course of the adventure, and to hold to my goal of doing as little additional work as possible to run the campaign, I want to keep intact as much of that history as possible (so I don't need to go through and adjust tons of boxed text, background info, even the structure of the dungeon).

Luckily, the default assumptions about the creation of the Banewarrens is that it happened 18,000 years in the past – or at least long enough that no one really knows much about it, but vague records might exist somewhere. The creator was a powerful cleric who wanted to lock away all the evil in the world and usher in an age of peace and glory.

It's pretty easy to place this in Golarion's history: Azlant. An ancient powerful civilization that was destroyed and that no one knows a whole lot about.

Now, in the Banewarrens, this cleric ended up being corrupted by all the evil he'd collected and the whole thing resulted in a massive war of good versus evil until extremely powerful adventurers managed to defeat him and seal the Banewarrens away, and it clearly can't be quite as world-shattering an event in Golarion as it is by default or else it would have had more ramifications around the world (and I'm not prepared to make any declarations that this contributed, say, to the downfall of Azlant; I want to change Golarion as little as possible).

But it's pretty easy to assume that in an age of a powerful and advanced civilization, a crusade to eradicate evil by one particularly powerful person, leading to major conflict and lots of death, could take place without world-altering ramifications. I mean, it sounds pretty much like a high-level adventure, and the world always tends to return to some kind of default after even those.

So we make the story of the Banewarrens not quite as world-spanning as it assumes, and places it in time during the reign of Azlant. Now we benefit from instant interest: lots of people and societies would be interested if the entrance to ancient Azlanti ruins were suddenly opened. And it places it quite nicely in the history and mythology of Golarion.

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The Banewarrens Adventure

The Banewarrens is an awesome adventure. At its core is a super-dungeon, a dungeon crawl with lots of standard monsters, traps, and puzzles, the kind of thing I haven't done in a long time. But the Banewarrens is so much more than that. Four different factions are involved in the exploration of the dungeon, helping or hindering the PC's along the way. They could even be ahead of the PC's in the dungeon, setting off traps and killing monsters—or letting monsters loose—before the players can even get there, making for a constantly changing, dynamic dungeon.

The story is that thousands of years ago, a powerful good cleric decided to try to rid the world of evil by sealing all powerful evil—from artifacts and creatures to diseases and curses—into a labyrinth of vaults called the Banewarrens, in order to usher in an era of peace and goodness. But the pure concentrated evil made the earth itself thrust the Banewarrens away from it, creating an impossibly tall spire of land. And meanwhile, the cleric lingered over one of the evil artifacts a little too long—and transformed into an evil warlord, hoarding the Banes and using their power to destroy all good in the world. Only a group of powerful adventurers and their allies were able to stop him. Now what are left of the evils of the Banewarrens are sealed away—supposedly forever.

Except that a group of monstrous entities has found a way in once more, and now powerful groups vie for the artifacts within. The PC's must explore the Banewarrens, and ultimately try to reseal it—this time forever.

The dungeon is very interesting because it was originally built as a vault of evil artifacts—meaning that it's full of deadly traps protecting powerful items that the PC's likely don't want to bypass or obtain. They need to explore without letting more evil into the world, and while stopping other groups from doing so. Then later in the dungeon, they find the results of the cleric becoming evil, where he transformed parts of it into dungeons for good creatures or looted his own vaults for their power.

As mentioned, the entire time multiple factions are exploring the Banewarrens besides the PC's, meaning that the status of the dungeon can change over time, and depending on how the players handle different situations—who has the master key, what their goals are, who has accomplished what, and who the PC's want to help. Plus the dungeon-crawling is interspersed with multiple returns to the city to deal with the other factions.

Needless to say, I've wanted to try it out since I first got it.

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Dealing with the 3.0 Rules

One of my goals with running a pre-made adventure (rather than making my own, which I usually do) is so that it's less of a burden on my time; ideally, I put only as much time into the game as I want to, and never feel like I have to do some work to prep for the game if I'm otherwise busy.

The rules of D&D 3.0 are based on the same structure as Pathfinder, so the systems are compatible. Since the adventure gives stat blocks for all the important characters and monsters, I could very easily run the campaign completely as-is, just using updated monster stats when it refers me to the Monster Manual. (The only things I'd have to keep in mind are changes like redundant skills, but that's easy to do on the fly.)

That said, there are some fairly important changes that 3.5 and Pathfinder did make to 3.0, and one of those is that monsters in 3.0 tended to have significantly lower hit points. I do not yet know how that will play out.

I also do enjoy mucking about with character and monster stats, and while I don't want to have to do so, I might want to at times.

So my current plan is to run everything basically as it is presented in the adventure, unless there's a character whose stats I'm particularly interested in updating. If, after the first few encounters during actual play, it's clear that my PC's are steamrolling the enemies, I'll default to just doubling everything's hit points going forward (unless the problem is clearly stemming from something else).

I'll note any specific changes I make here as I go along!