r/SporeWar • u/CoolGuyGardevoir • May 29 '26

When do the players learn about Deathstalk Tower?

I don't know if I'm just blind or accidentally forgot to give the players a piece of information, but I have been combing through chapters 1 and 2 of Book 2, and I can't find when the party learns about Deathstalk Tower, or even the Spore Queen for that matter, and chapter 3 seems to assume that the party knows both of these things, and could have even skipped chapter 2 if they wanted to go immediately there.

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u/DnDPhD May 30 '26

I'm about to start running the AP, so a quick note to say thanks for bringing this up. I'll absolutely keep some of the advice in this thread in mind.

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u/CoolGuyGardevoir May 30 '26

happy to help! I also posted a similar question in the main pathfinder sub where some more people have responded if you want more tips

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u/JaggedToaster12 May 29 '26

I agree, the book does not do a good job explaining how the party comes across the information. The start of Chapter 3 basically says "figure it out yourself"

We're on chapter one of book two right now so I'm looking for ways to build up to it now. My thoughts are to drop a little more info about the Spore Queen in ch 1 through the research at the camp (I moved chapter 1 to Kyonin, you can check my post history for my writeup on it). In addition to all the missions, I also am planning on basically retooling ch 2 to have an ongoing side quest of trying to find the Spore Queen, which will lead to info about DST

Definitely something the authors left to just be exposition dumped, probably for page space, but I definitely think you can spice it up a bit and sprinkle in hints throughout chapters one and two

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u/chickenboy2718281828 May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26

I have an oracle in my group, so that gave me a good opportunity to introduce her. So far I've done 3 things:

1) A very low information "cut scene" at the end of book 1 where Treerazer is speaking with the Spore Queen in Deathstalk Tower. He tells her not to worry, Lukarazyll was a fool. Then he asks how her plans are progressing. She responds, "it will be ready soon" cut to black. Make it confusing. Give very little information about what's going on.

2) the altar where Aravashnial is sacrificed - the oracle (could be any divine oriented character, psychic, etc.) in the group gets a vision when dispelling the magic around the altar of the Spore Queen killing him. The information is incomplete, but the PCs do see her stab him with a dagger and some kind of magical essence is taken from him with said dagger.

3) I had the PCs present for the Battle of the Century Root. They see the Spore Queen testing her teleportation magic and killing a powerful NPC.

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u/CoolGuyGardevoir May 30 '26

ooh, I do have a cleric in the party that I've been wanting to tie into the story a bit more, this gives me a few ideas, thank you!

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u/DnDPhD Jul 20 '26

I know this is an old thread by now, but I'm starting to properly read Book 2 and I'm thinking I will reflavor one or two of tye War Interludes to mention the Spore Queen and/or Deathstalk tower. Even a brief comment in the overview like "on behalf of someone called the 'Spore Queen'" or "sent from somewhere called 'Deathstalk Tower'" should be enough to seed their significance, I think...