I didn't end up changing anything as written surrounding the Mandibles of Fate, but I still think it's worth doing a quick writeup, because I think it ended up being a really great example of the power of thinking narratively and rewarding cool player ideas!
So, today we'll be going through three things: 1. The race through the desert. 2. Navigating/assaulting the Mandibles of Fate. 3. The fight with the King of Biting Ants and the aftermath.
Let's jump in!
The Race Through The Desert
I originally wanted to rewrite the descriptive text to give the players a bit more to latch onto when making their choices. I didn't end up having time, and am not going to go back and do so now - I don't think it's strictly necessary, but it might help! More important as per usual is being generous about letting players try wild things, like using wing tattoos to carry their bike in the air for short periods (Athletics?) to get a good view!
The bigger problem I have with this section is the pacing. I really love that each little section of desert is "everyone does One Thing and probably makes a check about it" - I think more challenges in APs should be like that! However, it's way too easy for that to devolve into "here are 3-4 random encounters that don't matter." My instinct is to make the individual sections easier (I used the table for 4 for my 5 player group and it seemed like an okay balance, still a little tough if anything), but either keep or raise the numbers in the final table. Or make the encounter rarer, and have taking up time the more impactful bit.
The one fight I would make sure happens if possible is the fight against the Mageslayers. I think it's important in a magic-focused campaign to have advance warning that you might have to face creatures like this.
I'm not gonna flesh that out any more, but if you do, please let me know!
The Mandibles of Fate
The players raced into the heart of the airship, and were immediately beset upon! It was a really tough fight, between the Mageslayers on main deck and the ones making ranged attacks from near the escape boats - thankfully, the players fought well, using reaction or single-action spells to trigger the counters and using positioning to keep the main casters viable! Two of the Mageslayers escaped and fled below, warning them of what was coming.
I wanted to give the PCs a rest, and so I thought "what might these scientists do in reaction to an invasion?" My answer was twofold: secure the important research, and gather more information. I had them detach eyes to spy back on the PCs, so that when the PCs decide to attack, their foes were ready! The Mageslayers defended the entrance to the Queen's lair, and the scientist monsters ended up fleeing (one successfully, taking a lifeboat, and the other unsuccessfully, being cut down before he could escape). I actually had them flee sooner than the module said, once it became clear that they were losing, because I think from an RP perspective they are more allies of convenience than true believers.
The meeting with Jatembe and their rest in the techno-chamber thing went about as you'd expect.
Their meeting with the Queen was very fun though! They didn't attack - instead, they created an illusory King of Biting Ants, came up with a convincing enough case that the King might want the Queen to simply leave the ship, and succeeded on a very high deception check! So, I had the Queen kill her formorian guards with a look of hate in her eyes and take the second lifeboat (along with the workers who'd just been hiding in various corners). It was both a very fun plan from the players, and a welcome break from an otherwise very combat-heavy sequence. Plus, the players got to feel kind of like bad guys for how manipulative that was, which led to some fun / conflicted character moments!
The King Of Biting Ants
This fight was epic! Our Witch started out by casting overwhelming presence, which I think basically saved them, because otherwise the Nemhaith was going to wall of force the party in half, making the fight much more difficult from the jump! The witch also cast disintegrate on the second Soul Cannon - I made her roll to counteract, which she succeeded on, blowing a hole in the side of the airship and preventing the King of Biting Ants from summoning a second undead! Honestly, she was extremely clutch throughout this whole sequence, and kind of single-handedly shaped the course of the adventure. High level spellcasters are so cool!
Also on that note, the King of Biting Ants cast time stop and then buffed himself a TON, which made him very difficult to nail down (my players have not learned their lesson about disappearance yet). The PCs instead focused down the cultists, but before they could take out the Nemhaith, it managed to get its wall of force off, locking the martials in with the King and the spellcasters on the other side. Even so, the Martials were slowly whittling him down, so he cast black tentacles on the casters to slow them down and then fled out side of the ship! The anadi rogue climbed out after him, using the hole the Witch had created earlier, and that's where we ended the first session of this two-session fight. Already an epic combat, but it wasn't over yet!
The next session, the King of Biting Ants cast Quandary on the Rogue to buy some time and get some more buffs back up on himself. The Witch rushed upstairs, and the Fighter climbed out the window to escape the Wall of Force (using Athletics, since he didn't have a climb speed like the anadi did), and the Oracle was stuck in the Black Tentacles for several rounds before finally escaping.
The Ranger, however, decided not to join the party! I'd described the ship as beginning to plummet from the lack of a pilot, and - seeing that the controls were designed for ants - he wild-shaped to try to get the airship working! I had him roll Acrobatics, Fortitude, and Nature every round, since he was but a single ant trying to do the job of a whole swarm, but eventually Jatembe summoned some spectral ants to try to help him.
The fight on the top deck was difficult and slow-going, with the King inflicting Persistent damage and then invisibly escaping away. The Rogue eventually escaped, and the Witch first had her own Quandary counter-spelled and then got Quandary'd herself! I'm glad my players were good sports about that spell, it could definitely be a bit of a feels-bad, but as my witch said "It's like I'm spending my whole turn to permanently slow him" which definitely keeps it balanced. Eventually, however, with the Oracle joining, it was 3-on-1, and the King was low on health, so he climbed back down to the cockpit, ousted the ranger, and sent the ship into a nosedive! The party were able to take him out shortly thereafter, with the Oracle sending an Eclipse Burst to catch the fleeing ants, but the ship was still plummetting!
The players have a lot of flight options at this point, so they managed to get out pretty easily - except for the Oracle, who jumped out before activating her flight tattoo! I gave her a check to see if she could activate it in time, and the Rogue a chance to catch her with an air spell, but they both failed their checks and the Oracle almost died from falling damage! Thankfully the Rogue was able to stabilize her in time, so everyone was able to laugh about it afterwards.
And thus ended a pretty freaking awesome fight!
Advice for GMs
If I had to distill all that into a single piece of advice for GMs, it would be this: Think 3-dimensionally! Not just literally (though also literally in this case as you've got a whole-ass airship to play with and the encounter areas are pretty boring on their own), but also in terms of what the NPCs would do! Think beyond the fight in front of you, get inside their heads, and have them react accordingly.
This scenario is really cool and epic - you just have to help bring that out a bit!
That's all for now - time to start prepping Book 6! I know I want to revamp the influence challenge at the beginning, given my previous thoughts on those, but beyond that we'll see!
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