MrVergee's page

I'd also be very interested in some Curse of the Crimson Throne figs and non-combat commoners and nobles as well.

I'm also going to use the Acadamae as the place where the PCs go to look for Ileosa's contract devil, especially since I'm skipping Scarwall in favor of a series of rebellion adventures.

The trip to the Acadamae also makes for some nice roleplaying encounters. The PCs contact the thieves' guild (most likely through the Arkona's) and negotiate with them to gain more information on the challenges of the Breaching festival (since they'll be copying the festival when infiltrating the Acadamae). If their diplomacy checks are good and they pay enough money, guildmaster Boule even sets up inside help from an ambitious student.

The PCs also have to convince the pseudodragons of the city to stage an attack om the Acadamae's imps, who are acting as the Acadamae's 'alarm system'.

1. Where are the Sable Company headquarters? It is stated that Midland is "the home district of both the Korvosan Guard and Sable Company", but we also have The Great Tower and Endrin Military Academy. I´m confused.

2. Where are Ornelos Manor? It is mentioned, but I don´t get where it is located in the city. Is it by The Acadamae?

The Great Tower is the headquarters of the Sable Company. I haven't found anything in Midland that fits the bill.

Most noble manors have not been pinpointed, to give DMs the chance to put them somewhere themselves. I would definitely place Ornelos manor close to the Acadamae. Looking at the map of Korvosa, I would go for the largest building on Ornelos Street, to the west of the Acadamae grounds.

Dotting this thread forever. This is making for a great read! :D

Second that, I think this thread is quite an inspiration.

I'm currently prepping this adventure for my future Crimson Throne campaign. Here's my catch:

Short version:

- The PCs learn that the queen has made an infernal contract with a devil to give her extra powers. If they want to confront her, they'll have to break the contract first, to make her less powerful.
- They also learn that she got this contract through her allies in the Acadamae, so this is the place where they'll have to look for more clues.
- Since the Acadamae's most treasured secrets are hidden in its best defended building, the Hall of Wards, the PCs will have to achieve the same goal as the contestants in the Breaching Festival, gaining entry to the Hall of Wards.

Long version:

I'm skipping Scarwall completely to refocus on the city and the resistance against Ileosa. I'm planning to use 'blood clones' in my campaign, powerful female fighters who were created by magic from the blood of Korvosan girls (somewhat like the simulacrum spell) and who serve the queen as grey maidens.

The PCs trace this blood clone factory to the temple of Asmodeus, where the second in command betrays highpriest Ornher Reebs in the hopes of becoming the new leader of the Asmodeus church in Korvosa. If the PCs agree to let her live and give her permission to keep the temple of Asmodeus open, she offers them information in return.

She tells them that the queen has entered into an infernal pact with a contract devil in the Acadamae. This has made the queen even more powerful, so if the PCs want a fighting chance against Ileosa, they'll need to break the contract first. If the PCs want to trace the contract devil, they should go to the place where Ileosa signed it, the Acadamae. She also gives the PCs information on contract devils and on how to break the contract.

The PCs gather information and learn that the Acadamae's best kept secrets are hidden in the Hall of Wards. So in order to find these secrets, they will have to gain entry to that building, just as the competitors in the Breaching Festival.

The PCs contact the thieves' guild to learn more about the breaching festival and the 'theoretical' way to gain entry to the Hall of Wards. Armed with this information the PCs will be ready to play the adventure.

I'm planning on DM'ing this AP somewhere in the future, and I'll be suggesting to my players to go with the urban ranger, but then again, I'll make it even more urban than it already is. Still, even as written, the urban ranger would fit better.

Curse of the crimson throne is a great AP indeed. Four of the six adventures take place in an urban setting, the city of Korvosa. In parts 4 and 5 the PCs leave the city. If you're willing to put in the work, you can reduce the amount of time and adventure outside of the city.

The encounter with Lady Andaisin is tough enough as it is. I wouldn't add anyone else. Arkminos is a loner anyway, he wouldn't seek the company of too many others.

I see two options: you can have him run, maybe create or gather some more undead and confront the PCs again later.

The other option is much more appealing roleplay-wise. After he has noticed that his 'allies' have been killed, he might offer the PCs to help them find a cure for the plague. He could become some kind of untrustworthy ally, which creates all kinds of roleplaying opportunities.

Have the Stormblades clean it up, as Maevis suggested. Of course, they will get all the glory for defeating the enemy, whereas the PCs are the ones who ran away!

Sissyl wrote:

I guess it is just me who wants a political and intrigue campaign set in Andoran and Galt. *sigh* Ah well, that just means I am 38 votes short. :-)

Nope, not just you. There were about 6 or 7 votes for something Galt related.

Count me in for a political or mercantile campaign filled with intrigue. Don't really care about the setting. I guess any big city or kingdom/empire will do.

Whenever I prep an adventure, I print it out and go through with a set of highlighters. I mark up all the important text with different colors, so I can find things more quickly (blue for important details, green for treasure, red for hazard/encounter/tactics, and yellow for skill-related info). I've toyed with the idea of breaking blue further down by adding orange and purple to the mix (maybe orange for environment purple for deep background or something).

-Skeld

This is actually a very good idea. I used to do the same in my dungeon magazines, although I only used one colour. But highlighting is definitely a good option. If you don't want to 'damage' your books too much, you could also underline the gist with a soft pencil.

I also make a print out of my maps and I add little notes with the most important details, such as creatures, traps, DCs for skills, treasure location ... This gives me all the necessary information at first glance, very, very handy!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Hello, Moonbeam, since you’re about to start the fourth installment of this AP, I’m letting you know what I have planned for it. Warning, there are many spoilers ahead.

So here’s an overview of my version of A History of Ashes. This adaptation is not meant to diminish the merits of the original adventure. I just allow myself to be inspired by all the great things Paizo has published, using what I feel fits my group best.

- I’m starting the adventure with a great escape from the city. Kalepopolis has been freed, and since he is an ex-marine of the Sable Company, he wants the PCs to help him free the hippogryphs from the Great Tower. They also use the flying mounts to escape the city in style.

- The PCs will then stop at Harse and travel to Janderhoff to negotiate with the dwarves. Depending on the result they can secure the dwarves’ sympathy or aid in harboring fugitives, providing weapons for the resistance or even promising to provide military aid if necessary. The PCs will also be able to do some magic trading in the city.

- The PCs make for Kaer Maga. While travelling up the halflight path, they are attacked by a Red Mantis assassin and some half-orc hirelings. In the city they can also do some magic trading, visit an augur and pick up the first rumors that the Shoanti are massing for war.

- The PCs hike into the Cinderlands to visit the Skoan-Quah. They meet Krojun of the Sklar-Quah, who is here to summon all able-bodies warriors to war. After an innocent game of Sredna and the Bone Council, Krojun challenges the PCs to an alternative version of the Burn Run. They have to outrun a stampede of aurochs through a small canyon.

- Afterwards Thousand-Bones invites the PCs to sit with him and the council in a steam hut, where they lose consciousness and visit the spirit world. The Shoanti spirits approve of the PCs and grant them a vision of what might happen if the Shoanti attack Korvosa. After the vision one of the PCs is briefly contacted by someone else who has also entered the spirit world and who is seeking aid. He is the son of the Quahjothka (clan chief) of the Sklar-Quah and he needs help in Urgir, the capital of orc infested Belkzen.

- To be able to get into Urgir, the PCs need a token from one of the orc chiefs. They negotiate with chief Kroghut of the tribe of the Broken Spine and are given a mission to obtain a token. The PCs have to pay a visit to one of Kroghut’s subordinates who has gone incommunicado, only to find out that his village has been plundered by harpies (a reprisal for the theft of one of the harpies’ bracers). The PCs defeat the harpies and free the surviving orcs, which gets them a token from the Broken Spine tribe.

- The adventure in Urgir is based on a Dungeon adventure, “In the Shadows of Spinecastle” from Dungeon # 148. The Shoanti they are looking for is a spy in the city who has disappeared. The PCs have to suffer the maltreatment of the orcs while searching for the Shoanti spy. When they finally locate his home, they discover his diary, in which they find clues to trace him to old, secret underground dwarven crypts. The PCs enter the complex and fight the rogue Pathfinder Arnois Belzig and his orc allies, who are searching for an old dwarven artifact (a key that opens some doors in the city that cannot be opened without it). The Pathfinder has captured the Shoanti spy, who came snooping for the key as well, thinking it might aid him in his spying business. The PCs free the Shoanti and flee the city.

- The PCs return to the Skoan-Quah, where most warriors have already left to join the Shoanti army. The village is attacked by the Red Mantis, who traced the PCs to this place and have been awaiting their return (it also makes more sense for them to attack the village when its warriors have left).

- The PCs are joined by Thousand Bones when they travel to the place where the Shoanti army is gathering for war. Their past deeds (especially saving the leading chief's son) are sufficient to grant them an audience with the war council. They learn that the Shoanti are gathering an army of over 4,000 warriors and shamans (including rocs and mastodons) and are planning to leave for the plains of Korvosa in two weeks, when all their allies have arrived. In their negotiations the PCs have two objectives: learning what the Shoanti know about the great evil in the mastaba and buying more time before the army goes to war.

I’m also planning on skipping ‘Skeletons of Scarwall’ in favor of returning to Korvosa and aiding the resistance while looking for the burial grounds of the old Shoanti ally of Mandraivus, whose bones they will have to infuse with the breath of life (given to them by the Sklar-Quah sunshaman). He will then tell them how to combat the evil from the mastaba (instead of going through Scarwall to get a sword).

I had some lofty plans of doing a complete make-over of the 4th adventure, as I am not so happy with it... But after a number of hours brainstorming about it, it became way too complicated, so I reverted mostly to the adventure as-is. I am now planning on just changing the Moon Temple part to replace it with part of the adventure "Curse of the Riven Sky", and to flesh out a little bit (but not much) the Acropolis of the Thrallkeepers.

** spoiler omitted **

Hi, Moonbeam. I've written up a brief summary of how I'm planning to run the 4th adventure. I'll post it in the CotCT boards.

The mechanic we're using in this campaign is that every character has one action point which they can use to avoid a bad fate (such as dying). It brings them to -1 HP and stable.

So far, action points have been used on the following occasions:

So if we weren't using that mechanic, almost the entire original cast of characters would have died already! Not fun for anyone, myself included.

I admit that the players find this campaign harder than Savage Tide. We came close to a TPK more often in this one than in Savage Tide. I guess one of the reasons is that I'm not a mean DM, but I don't "soften" the encounters unless I really feel that the players are getting upset. Also, I am super-careful as a player, so when I was playing Belessa in Savage Tide, I was often the voice of reason, making sure that the group wasn't acting TOO carelessly... (after all, it was my job to heal their sorry asses when...

I did notice that your group seems to split up quite a lot, both in role-playing encounters and in combat. The fact that you have only three players surely accommodates that: it seems easy to leave out Zeeva and either Hipazia or Kaeso and everyone at the table is still involved in the session. It also makes for a more interesting story when the different characters can explore some individual storylines.

But when your party is in combat, they seem to split up too (being careless, are they?), often triggering several rooms at the same time. That makes combat a lot harder, though it also makes it much more realistic and memorable. Thus, the action point mechanic is a good way to handle any mishaps.

Having a DM PC surely has a downside: you want to keep the character more low-profile so your players can decide on which course to take, rather than the DM. It’s only natural. Also, you don’t want the DM PC to be the star in every combat encounter, that honor should be reserved for the players. Zeeva is first and foremost a supporting character. That might make it harder sometimes to make her the focal point of the journal.

Great! Thank you very much for the compliments, that's really the "fuel" I need to keep on writing week after week!

As you guessed, french is my first language. It's cool that you are Belgian, I am actually half Belgian in case you didn't already read about it. Unfortunately, I've only been to Belgium once, so I can't say I am so in touch with the culture. :( Is french also your first language?

I am assuming you're not going to play CotCT before a year and a half because you're already involved in another campaign, is it also a Paizo Adventure Path? I'm curious to know which one. :)

I also feel bad that I stopped writing from Zeeva's point of view. There's a level of detail that can't be related as the DM-narrator, but I'm having a harder time doing an in-character journal this time around, as Zeeva is only a DM-PC rather than a full-fledged character. I had an easier time, and with better results, with my Savage Tide campaign journal.

First of all, the compliments are well deserved. I hope to be albe to read your logs until the campaign ends.

I did indeed read about the fact that your half Belgian, but I actually live in Flanders, the Dutch speaking part. French is taught is our 'second' language, though, so I do understand and speak some French, but it is very rusty.

At the moment we're playing through a completely different campaign, 4th edition's Scales of War. A friend of mine is the DM. The campaign is okay, but I'm not such a huge fan of the 4e ruleset as my friends. Still, I do think they will follow me to the Pathfinder rules when Scales of War is finished (the DM has a strong voice in picking the system). We've been playing for little over two years and we're just about to hit the level 20 mark, which still leaves us 10 more levels to go (since 4e goes up to level 30).

I'm curious to see what you're going to do with the 4th and 5th installment of this AP, because some people didn't like these adventures quite as much as the rest of the campaign. I'm planning on changing them quite a bit. If you would like to exchange some ideas, the CotCT boards are the right place. I'm not going to give away any spoilers in this journal, since your players read it.

Waw, Moonbeam. I've recently disovered your campaign journal and have been going through it with nought but a smile on my face and a warm glow in my heart. I really love the way your handling this adventure path. Your party feels really immersed in the city and so many of its citizens. You put the roleplay into RPG!

Funny thing is that I've been preparing this adventure path for over a year now (still, it won't be for at least a year and a half that we'll come round to playing it) and I've been going through the Curse of the Crimson Throne boards so many times, but never bothered to really dive into the campaign journals. My word, I'm glad I finally did.

Just like you I want to bring out the roleplaying as much as possible and I'll definitely be using some of your ideas. I also prefer to put a lot of preparation into my game, so I can custom it to my group's taste. Your changes will prove a source of inspiration (though they'll force me to rewrite my earlier adaptations: some of your ideas are just too good not to use).

Three more notes:

I must admit I miss Zeeva's reports, they were absolutely wonderful to read, but I'm still very glad we can follow the rest of your adventure through the GM perspective and I respect the fact that you need to make choices to manage your time. But still, Zeeva's diary was an absolulute delight, her writings are truly missed.

I am also amazed at how well you write in English. I'm guessing French is your mother tongue, so Kudos for your excellent mastery of English. You even edit your material excellently, for in this lengthy journal, I recall stumbling upon just one minor typo.

If your still looking for your (100 %) Belgian fan to complete your European Union fouding country base, you did. I'm from Belgium, and yes, my fellow readers, we might be a bit weird from time to time, but overall we're not that bad :-)

Ok, 5 x2 + 2 x 1, here we go.

DM1: The Whispering Cairn + Three Faces of Evil: both are set in Diamond Lake and tie in to some extent, so have them done by one DM.

DM2: Encounter at Blackwall Keep: kind of stand-alonish, but the lizardfolk prove to be rather weak, so your dM will need to boost them a bit.

DM3: The Hall of Harsh Reflections + The Champion’s Belt: both take place in the Free City, so it makes sense to have 1 DM develop this. They also prove a bit more difficult to DM, so give this to someone who can handle it.

DM4: A Gathering of Winds: more of a stand-alone type and not too hard to handle. You might want to give this one to your least experienced DM.

DM5: The Spire of Long Shadows + The Prince of Redhand: the second adventure is heavier on the role-playing side, so make sure to hand this to a DM who feels comfortable making up conversations and socializing.

DM6: The Library of Last Resort + Kings of the Rift: by now the higher level combats start, requiring someone who is at ease with number-crunching and roll-playing (yes, roll, as in roll the dice).

DM7: Into the Wormcrawl Fissure + Dawn of a New Age: for this you would need someone who likes reading, because I would suggest that your last DM not only reads these two adventures, but the complete adventure path, so he can make sure to leave no loose ends and understands what he has to do to bring the campaign to a close. Of course, the high level combats continue, which are definitely more complicated than the lower level encounters.

Since an AP is an ongoing story, it will be hard to divide it amongst seven people who all get a look at just one or two parts of the whole. That will make it extremely difficlt to see the big picture, it won't allow for much foreshadowing or tying in the adventures. I'm afraid you'll just water the AP down to its barest essentials and you'll be missing a lot of the fun you could be having with just one DM. You'll also be creating a huge problem of spoilerish meta-knowledge, because if people are preparing the next part(s), they're bound to find out more things about the plot.

In fact, it would probably be a much better idea to run seperate stand-alone adventures if you're planning on using so many DMs. I mean, I could understand switching between two DMs, who promise to keep their meta-knowledge out of the game, but that will be extremely hard with every player at the table knowing (a lot) more than his character. You won't run into this problem when using stand-alone adventures.

I suggest asking your DM privately to adopt your current character as a recurring runaway antagonist, and make a new character.

I think the shortest answer in the thread is actually the best. Have your Pc become an enemy in the hands of the DM and create a new character yourself. This way the other PCs will see the consequences of their actions and you still get to enjoy creating a very memorable NPC, certainly if the DM succeeds in making him a recurring character.

Korvosa has four bigger temples: Abadar, Asmodeus, Pharasma and Sarenrae. There is also a smaller temple dedicated to Shelyn.

Of those Sarenrae is the most likely to have paladins, though Abadar and Shelyn have paladins as well. I'd choose a paladin who is aligned to one of the churches you want to use later in the AP. I'd go for Abadar or Sarenrae.

Of course, there can be paladins of any god present in the city, even if there is no church to their god.

Well, just make sure the PCs learn about the lair and let them decide what to do. They seem to fear the dragon, which is nice, so if they decide to confront her, see to it that they are not disappointed. So, I'd definitely level the dragon up to make her a real challenge. Combined with her children, she'll be a true match for the PCs.

If the PCs don't follow up on the Ilthane lead, don't worry about it. You can always use her later in the campaign. The PCs will miss out on the wonderful potions she keeps in her lair, but that's their loss.

If the PCs don't visit the lair before the party, I'd even play out their fear that Zeech might be Ilthane. Stress his raven black hair and the bestial glare he sometimes gets in his eyes. You could even have him sniff his food before eating it or lick his teeth when he sees blood in the celebration events. It fits well enough with his character, even without being a dragon.

The nice thing is that the PCs suspect the wrong NPC of being a dragon. The one they ought to fear, Lashonna, should benefit from that, since the PCs will be focussing on the wrong NPC.

MrVergee, those are very interesting ideas indeed! Let me know how it is going.

I will certainly post my experiences on these boards, but the campaign won't start for at least another year or so, since our current campaign (in which I am a player) still has a long way to go.

That doesn't prevent me, though, from already preparing Curse of the Crimson Throne. I really like this AP, but I'm making some small, but also some major changes and additions. This requires a lot of time and by starting this early, there is no pressure. On top of that I like the mental challenge of reworking adventures to suit our group's taste.

I'm currently working on the fifth installment. I've decided to totally skip 'Skeletons of Scarwall' (not because I think it is a bad adventure - it looks like an excellent piece of castle crawl, but my group is just not into mega-dungeons). Instead I’ll have the PCs return to Korvosa, where they will aid in the rebellion.

Dungeon magazine had two adventures about robbing a bank or vault:
- Vlindarian's Vault in Dungeon # 141 for level 18 characters;
- The Aundairian Job in Dungeon # 147 for level 5 characters.

I haven't played either of these, so I don't know if they are any good. I remember that I liked 'The Aundairian Job' better and I think it will fit in better with your heist idea, although it is only for 5th level characters.

You can determine the pace during the first half of the AP as you see fit and easily add other adventures. Once the campaign turns into high gear, it is much more difficult to slow down the pace.

I'm planning on playing a prelude adventure first, with the PCs being kids in the service of Lamm. It will take place four years prior to the start of the adventure, against the background of Ileosa's arrival in the city.

The PCs will experience firsthand some of Lamm's evil, before being rescued from his clutches by the mysterious Blackjack. This way their hatred for the old man will be heart-felt.

The encounters I’m planning are:
- a rat hunt in the sewers to gather food for Gobblegut;
- an experiment to ‘milk’ dream spiders in an old abandoned theatre (which will fail);
- an encounter with the purchaser of the dream spider milk, an ugly alchemist (Rolth);
- the failed escape of a fellow lamb, who is cruelly killed before the eyes of the other lambs and whose corpse is later fed to Gobblegut;
- a pickpocket trip to the Golden Market on Korvosa’s birthday, where they witness the king visiting his people and a beautiful girl staging an accident to get the king’s attention (Ileosa);
- the girl also looses a brooch, the PCs find it and have to hand it over to Lamb;
- one of the PCs being molested by Lamb;
- a couple of weeks later the king is planning to get married to the girl he met in the market, the celebration will take place on Saint Alika’s day;
- a Varisian actor who hires some of Lamm’s lambs to perform in his play (an adaptation of the Pied Piper), including some theatrical exercises to prepare the children (for the PCs for roleplaying fun);
- on the king’s wedding day, the PCs military parade which ends in the Korvosan guard giving the new queen a small private guard: the Grey Maidens;
- during the play the PCs discover an old woman under the stage who directs the rats on stage and find out she is a wererat (who will help them later in the AP to find the wererat lair);
- later that night the PCs have to join Lamm while he’s picking up some stolen goods;
- Lamm starts drinking and playing the dice where looses badly, so he sells one of the PCs to a captain to cover his losses;
- on his way home Lamm is pissed-oof and takes his anger out on the PCs, when Blackjack steps in to save the PCs;
- (optional) the PCs return with Blackjack to Lamm’s hide-out to free the other lambs;
- Blackjack sees the PCs off to a safe foster family.

One of the PCs’ sisters is also a little lamb. She will end up a Grey Maiden.
There will also be a traitor lamb who will be part of Lamm’s gang when they’ve grown up.

I DM'ed a session in the hereafter once, where the PCs were witness to the power void in the realm of the god of death and took advantage of the chaos there to find a way back to the realm of the living.

I've had other characters be approached by their gods (or even another god who needed a boon from the PCs) and sent back to accomplish some goal. This is actually a great way to make an adventure's or the campaign's goal the PC's goal as well.

Sounds like a blast. I especially like the fact that you took the AP and made it yours, adding in your own twists to suit yout players and their style.

And welcome to the active side of the boards, HH.

I'm also planning on making the dagger more powerful so the party will keep it until the third installment. Identify will not show the true nature of the dagger and so , yes, it will keep on reporting. As the previous poster said, that's what makes the Arkona's know what the PCs have been doing.

This will become even more important in my campaign, as I'm planning to have the Arkona's pull the strings on many of the anarchists in the city.

This is why I don't use XP anymore.

We do the same, no XP, the DM just tells the PCs when to level. We've actually been playing like this for over a decade.

It does sound like a decent plan to send someone after them, provided the bad guys know where to find the PCs. The question is whether Trogomor would join this retaliation party himself or not. Maybe he would still prefer to stay in the castle.

If the enemies don't know where to locate the PCs, you could have the Gray Maidens invade the houses of known allies of the PCs, so they realize the queen's troops are after them and their actions have consequences.

We finished Curse yesterday too.

We had a good time throughout, but the role-playing in part 4 felt a little pointless since it couldn't really affect the outcome (except negatively), so we kind of breezed through it.

Gratz. I've read similar comments on part 4, so I'm trying to rewrite it. I'm also planning on having the Shoanti start a real war campaign on Korvosa and the PCs' actions and interactions will have a great effect on these war plans and its timing.

Has anyone already mentioned that the first, low level book in every AP is usually quite nice to very good?

I think this part of the adventure is actually very good for the PCs as far as shopping is concerned. Korvosa is a city in turmoil and chaos, who in the city has the luxury to happily buy and trade expensive magic items anymore? So the PCs will need to search outside the city anyway.

I'll have them join Neolandus on his trip to the dwarven citadel Janderhoff and help him in his diplomacy attempts. Depending on their results the PCs will make the dwarves break off contact with the new government of Korvosa, have them harbor fugitives, have them support the rebels in the city with weapons or even provide military assistance if necessary. While in Janderhoff, the PCs will have ample opportunity to sell AND BUY (weapons and armor and stuff).

The second shopping opportunity presents itself in Kaer Maga, as mentioned by the previous poster. According to the information on this city "Tarheel Promenade is one of the best places in all of Varisia to buy magic items", in "The FLame that Binds" for example.

I'd say that in these troubled times both locations are better equiped for trading than Korvosa, so the PCs can actually take advantage of their trip to the Cinderlands to do some trading.

Gratz! What were the highlights and the lows of this campaign for your group?

We don't bother with this kind of equipment. We assume every adventurer has his gear and don't waste roleplaying time on that. Likewise, we assume that enemies who get killed have some cash on them. But we don't keep the books on that and just say that this cash covers the basic living cost of the PCs (eating and sleeping at normal inns).

In our group there is usually one NPC to round out the party.

This NPC is only mildly controled by the DM. His or her character sheet is handed to one of the players, who controls the character in combat and in most of the interactions (although the NPC is always a low profile character in interactions).

The DM takes over the NPC occansionally to launch some ideas the group is missing or to moderately steer the group in a certain direction if the road ahead is unclear.

There are some advantages to this NPC joining the party:
- it can fill out weak spots in the party (at the moment we have three players and we're missing a tank, so our DM gave us a tank NPC;
- the NPC can tie in to certain plot points and join the party for a limited period of time, which makes the party more involved;
- the NPC can be used for dramatic effect (e.g. in the last campaign I DM'ed, an NPC joined the party for some time - even developed a love interest with one of the PCs - and was then brutally killed which greatly enhanced party involvement in the plot);
- as I already pointed out, the NPC can occasionally be used by the DM to launch ideas, although these occasions are very rare;
- when we have very lengthy in-party-discussions, the NPC can give the DM an opportunity to participate a bit, instead of just sitting by and listening for 2 hours on end. The DM wants to have some fun too during his roleplay evening

I love politics, and thus I would love to see a throughly rich political ap. That is the one I am looking for to seeing the most.

Same here. Political intrigue and lots of role-playing would be very nice.

A harrow reading consists of 2 parts:

- the choosing: in which the PCs draw one of the nine cards that have the adventure suit;
- a normal reading: in which nine cards are put one the table, coming from the complete deck with all the suits.

So the PCs will always pick one card with the adventure suit in the choosing (which will get them 1 harrow points).
During the normal reading the PCs might get more cards with the appropriate suit (0 to 9, which will get them 0 to 9 extra harrow points).

Well, no one can answer that question for you but you. Did you play Shackled City as a DM or as a player, because that is not really clear to me?

I can understand the attraction of DM'ing a campaign you played in and loved as a player. I would never run the same campaign as a DM twice.

I DM'ed both SCAP and AOW. My personal favorite was Age of Worms, but starting a new campaign will certainly require a lot more work of you. Still, that is the challenge being a DM is all about.

If you do choose to do AoW, be sure to check these boards for tons of good ideas to make the campaign even better.

It seems like you get a lot of adventure into one session. How many hours do you guys play per session?

Sounds like an intense first session. Congrats on a great start. (You might want to use some blank lines in your text to improve readability.)

I also introduced a new element to the campaign: blood clones. (...) I decided that the Gray Maidens are not "a few hundred battle-ready women somehow hired from the region" which seemed a bit hard to believe for me, but rather some clones made of a small number (15-20) of women, duplicated from the originals and strengthened to be combat-worthy via some ancient Thassilonian magic uncovered by some Acadamae mages who work closely with the Queen.

Have you figured out how the magic for creating blood clones works? Simulacrum is a 7th level spell and creates a clone that has only half the HD and cannot heal. If you want something even more powerful, it will be hard to do, without requiring even more potent magic. Of course your idea of ancient Thassilonian magic might come in handy here.

BTW, if they are 'blood' clones, I suspect they require lots of blood as an ingredient.

I also introduced a new element to the campaign: blood clones. (...) I decided that the Gray Maidens are not "a few hundred battle-ready women somehow hired from the region" which seemed a bit hard to believe for me, but rather some clones made of a small number (15-20) of women, duplicated from the originals and strengthened to be combat-worthy via some ancient Thassilonian magic uncovered by some Acadamae mages who work closely with the Queen.

The group first encountered one of these experimental clones who had lost all memories. She later died in a pool of blood. That was weird for them.

Then some time later, they met the original woman the clone had been based on!

Hmmm ... the clone wars. A nifty idea indeed. I'd been thinking about how to incorporate a growing force of Gray Maidens into a believable evolution of events. I'd worked out different sources for the Maidens to recruit from: some female soldiers from the Watch and Sable Company, more Gray Maidens being brought over from Cheliax and a steadily increasing number of new recruits (possibly forced), but they would have to be low level, which won't make them a challenge for the PCs.

I'll definitely give this clone idea some serious consideration. It would also allow for a great adventure during the higher levels, in which the PCs have to infiltrate and destroy the clone factory.

In fact, this adventure gives you one of the easiest options for sleeping ever. Since the followers of Kyuss cannot leave the giant ring of black rock, the PCs only have to get over the wall to rest in relative safety. I think the adventure is written with this in mind, because finishing it in one run seems almost impossible.

If your players don't abuse the rest and repower button, they should be fine outside the wall. If you feel they start abusing that option, you can always hit them with a powerful jungle predator as a random encounter.

4. Weave in the history between Korvosa and the Shoan-Ti in the early parts of the AP. Part 4 has the PCs spend a lot of time with the Shoan-Ti and if they don't know anything about them or their history with Korvosa, or their impending aggression against Korvosa, it can seem out of place.

I'm preparing the game for some indefinite time in the future. I'm also creating a newspaper, which is published once in a fortnight. Since it is in my native tongue, Dutch, it won't be of service to you guys, but I'm adding a 'History of Korvosa' section on the backpage, so I'll be able to give my players a lot of background information through that section.

Please add a vote for Political/Mercantile Intrigue.

You can basically replace it with anything major or world changing that happened in your own campaign world. It is definitely fun if you can link some of the old prophecies to events you've played in previous campaigns.

I DM'ed this AP a long time ago in the Forgotten Realms. I placed it in Turmish, a small country enclosed by moutains on the northwestern shores of the Vilhon Reach.

I used the city Gildenglade on the verge of the Aphrunn Mountains as my replacement for the Shackled City. The official background for Turmish allowed for the SCAP setting, but was also vague enough to give the DM ample opportunity to adjust it to his taste and to the AP.