VERY nice Brandon, can't wait myself for these tails and getting and GMing this!!
Wow, it's kind of a good thing I didn't win Superstar. My module idea was scarily similar to elements of this.
+1 on looking forward to this one!
And I had to check my Bestiaries when I saw the cover, as I thought that the monster was a mi-go at first. :)
Could we have some hints as this will be out this month
pretty please!!??
VERY much looking forward to running this for one of my groups first dip into the Occult :)
Thanks
Tom
AARGG, delayed again
Ratts
Tom
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I have a Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign going and intend to fit this module in at the end of part 2.
One of my players has just used his Downtime to find some dirt or secret information on the Arkonas. I don't want to give away the big secret just like that (you know what I'm talking about) but with the Arkonas' Vudra connections I cannot imagine this module to have nothing to do with them.
Is there any piece of information that comes to mind that I could slip him? Anything that might be picked up again or expanded upon by the module?
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I have a Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign going and intend to fit this module in at the end of part 2.
Is there any piece of information that comes to mind that I could slip him? Anything that might be picked up again or expanded upon by the module?
Hey there, Nullpunkt! I plan to address this with a big thread when the adventure debuts, but in the meantime I think I can give you the information you need even though the adventure isn't out yet--but let's spoiler it just in case:
As written, the events of HoHS take place 7 years after the blood veil riots, but it will be a simple matter to adjust to fit your needs, as I actually anticipated people doing just what you are. In the adventure, the secret you hint at (and the eventual results) is actually a very important background aspect of the occult revival that takes place in Old Korvosa. The poorer citizenry, abandoned by the government and church, and devoid of the charity and sponsorship of their benefactors in the family you mention, turn toward occultism in the wake of the events of CotCT. Seven years later, it has taken firm hold on Old Korvosa, and Bridgefront in particular.
You'll certainly need to account for the shift in that triggering event that leads to the occult revival, or just have players start noticing more fortune tellers and weird cult members on the streets after the riots. You'll also find some familiar faces and family names in HoHS--and need to account for the events in your own campaign to work them in properly. Most importantly, the major players in the shiver trade have shifted in a BIG way in the 7-year gap, so you'll need to make some adjustments depending on how the relevant events in your campaign settled out.
And that may be the best bit of info to let slip: a rumor that the Eel's End isn't the be-all-end-all of the shiver trade, and that there's an insidious cult that's much higher up on the food chain that's come to the forefront after Barvasi's fall. And when they take over the drug trade with Barvasi out of the way, things get much worse for Old Korvosa.
Does that help? I have little doubt that the second you read the adventure's background and see the players involved, you'll know exactly what to do! =-)
Thanks a bunch! This is why I love this company and the people they work with.
I think I already have a few ideas how to make everything work in my campaign.
At the very least, I will tell my player that the Arkonas have lately been much less charitable. Hard to tell, if that is because of the riots or for other reasons, but people are starting to get desperate and turn to Harrow readers, sooth-sayers, or worse.
nice, I will be doing the same for my group instead of one offing this as I originally intended, can't wait to get this into my hands!!
Cheers
Tom
Love the cover!
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Hi Brandon, how tied into Korvosa is this adventure?
Could this adventure be transplanted whole cloth into Ustalav?
Could this adventure be shoe horned into the Carrion Crown AP, and if it can, how would you tie it in t the events therein and with Advidon Adrisant?
Hey there! Lemme spoiler my reply:
You could indeed transplant this entire adventure to Ustalav without too much trouble--you'll just lose some of the canonical callouts and connections like Barvasi's Boys and Chittersnap, but that's OK. One of the core background events as written is the blood veil riots and the quarantine in Korvosa from Curse of the Crimson Throne, and the reverberating after-effects of a government betraying its own people. Short version: when both church and state turn their back on the poor, the poor turn their back on them. Looking for a similar situation in Ustalav, I would say the death of the Eunuch Prince and abandonment of Ardis in Ustalav and the shift of the capital from their to Calpiphas might stoke some similar rebellion and resentment in the former capital, and you've got 30 years for the population to stew and simmer.
The city you use will definitely have to be perched on water, so Ardis' location on the Senir River will serve perfectly. Another option is to sub the entire island of Old Korvosa for the city of Karcau on Lake Prophyria--with limited canon on that location you can do whatever the heck you want! Of course, Caliphas' location on Avalon Bay makes it a good candidate, too, but you may want to save it since Ashes at Dawn takes place there, unless you want to make Caliphas a little more of a home base for the AP. Overall, any metropolitan area perched on water should do, so long as you have a poor ghetto increasingly crowded from gentrification and stoked fires of resentment among the poor, which is the framing for wholesale turn toward the occult.
The level spread is 6-9th, which put this closest to the levels of Broken Moon if you're looking for a sub (sorry, Hitch!). Or just jimmy with experience points, slow it down a little since you're in the sweet spot, and do them both! Motivation should be easy, and have the Brotherhood of the Spider in league with the Whispering Way. Maybe have Judge Daramid direct PCs toward this adventure rather than Broken Moon--just make sure that there's a connection with the Whispering Way, ultimately, perhaps with a rumor that Adivion recently met with the leader of a powerful cult (Nahum Caligaro, recently-exiled leader of the Brotherhood of the Spider) who disappeared mysteriously after the meeting, with a host of strange occurrences in the wake of his disappearance. You'll know what to do with the rest!
You *could* make the Brotherhood of the Spider a branch of the Whispering Way, if you really wanted to have the PCs take on a sect of the cult that they don't have too many encounters with leading up to the finale (a common complaint about Carrion Crown being that PCs are always frustratingly one step behind the WW until the very end, and this could help alleviate that feeling). And two, it wouldn't take much more than a slight thematic shift to make the idol at the center of the Brotherhood's worship connected to Urgathoa: it could become a fly, for instance, and the cult becomes the Brotherhood of the Fly instead, which is actually pretty damned cool (and you'll want to cross-reference the Urgathoan Fly encounter from Shadows of Gallowspire for inspiration and redundancy-prevention).
My mind is kind of rolling with some cool ideas here, and I don't want to wall-of-text you guys any more than I already have. Mostly, I think there's a really great opportunity here to add some cool elements to the AP and help plug some of its perceived plot deficiencies! So glad you brought it up! If you have any other questions, let me know...
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Hi Brandon, how tied into Korvosa is this adventure?
Could this adventure be transplanted whole cloth into Ustalav?
Could this adventure be shoe horned into the Carrion Crown AP, and if it can, how would you tie it in t the events therein and with Advidon Adrisant?
Hey there! Lemme spoiler my reply:
** spoiler omitted **...
That's what i call fan service.
Will definetly pick this up.Thx Mr. Hodge.
Hey there! Lemme give you all kinds of coolThank you Mr. Hodge! I want sequel to your amazingly perfect Civil War Mythos adventure at Gen Con one day!
My pleasure, and thank you! I tried to write this one in such a way that it could kind of plug-and-play into other games and campaigns, because I know how popular the module line is for that sort of thing, particularly when they're used as additions to APs, so I'd already put a little thought into it!
As for a sequel to Black Cow's Milk, Black Hen's Egg, anything is possible. I've had some inklings to put together a classic go-rob-the-relic-from-the-rival-church scenario (well, that's a classic scenario in real-world medieval religious circles, if not RPG gaming), but we'll have to see if I can get it written before GenCon. =-)
Any new baddies in this?There's a new template for creatures spawned by the Dimension of Dreams.
What's it do?
What's it do?Any new baddies in this?There's a new template for creatures spawned by the Dimension of Dreams.
The Dreamspawn Creature is a curious one. It's what happens when someone is killed by a nightmare on the Dimension of Dreams while lucidly dreaming, and the nightmare creature uses the now-deceased person's body as a portal to partially burst through into the waking world.
They get thoughtsense, some immunities, a fly speed, and an mind-splitting aura that represents a sort of discordant feedback that results from the partially-open planar rift that creates the creature. Furthermore, the creature is permanently bound to the corpse of the dead dreamer it used as a portal to get to the Material Plane, so its partially-materialized form (it's sort of half-incorporeal) kind of drags the burst-open corpse around behind it, or internalizes itself within the corpse to try to pass off as an undead (or even living?) creature. And it can jump into a new corpse if it kills a victim, so these guys can be bad news if you let one get away.
What's it do?Any new baddies in this?There's a new template for creatures spawned by the Dimension of Dreams.The Dreamspawn Creature is a curious one. It's what happens when someone is killed by a nightmare on the Dimension of Dreams while lucidly dreaming, and the nightmare creature uses the now-deceased person's body as a portal to partially burst through into the waking world.
They get thoughtsense, some immunities, a fly speed, and an mind-splitting aura that represents a sort of discordant feedback that results from the partially-open planar rift that creates the creature. Furthermore, the creature is permanently bound to the corpse of the dead dreamer it used as a portal to get to the Material Plane, so its partially-materialized form (it's sort of half-incorporeal) kind of drags the burst-open corpse around behind it, or internalizes itself within the corpse to try to pass off as an undead (or even living?) creature. And it can jump into a new corpse if it kills a victim, so these guys can be bad news if you let one get away.
Please don't let Vaughan or Pett hear about this template, they've already caused enough damage. I weep for the characters.
Contributor
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Furthermore, the creature is permanently bound to the corpse of the dead dreamer it used as a portal to get to the Material Plane, so its partially-materialized form (it's sort of half-incorporeal) kind of drags the burst-open corpse around behind it, or internalizes itself within the corpse to try to pass off as an undead (or even living?) creature. And it can jump into a new corpse if it kills a victim, so these guys can be bad news if you let one get away.
Have you ever read Hellboy: Goodbye Mister Tod? That's where my mind went the instant I saw this thing. (The presence of a character named Giurescu was an obvious reference as well.)
Of course, as a famed student of the occult, it's possible that you're referencing the same source material as Hellboy, rather than Hellboy itself. ^_^
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Brandon,
Going to have to give this a look over for my new PFS character (Varasian psychic investigator). I'd already fluffed telekinetic projectile and unseen servant as him 'channelling' a dead family member, and it also 'explains' using inspiration.
Your 11/28/2015 post works perfectly for me, and allows for me to fluff in the Prince of Wolves novel boon, without having to try for a 'bad Ustalavan accent.' (Already use 'Bad Russian Accent' for my Irrisen base bard). I'm sure this is going to get the old brain box flowing.
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Sounds awesome, Matthew! There's a lot of stuff to work with in this one, so I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Kalindlara, ectoplasm and its use is one thing Mr. Mignola gets very, very right from a historical perspective, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for both Hellboy and his other work. Unlike many writers who have Ghostbusters-like conceptions of ectoplasm as nothing more than sticky green snot spirits leave behind like a snail's trail, he understands its historical significance and the underlying theories about how exctoplasm was *supposed* to work, and Goodbye, Mr. Tod is a fantastic example of that understanding at play. The mechanics of Johann Kraus are similarly spot-on, as is the character of Eustace St. John from Zombieworld, who's an ectoplasmatist archetype Spiritualist if there ever was one! I even have a half-completed blog post I promise to post before too long that studies Mignola's use of ectoplasm from a historical perspective. Stay tuned!
I wouldn't be surprised if that specific story didn't worm its way into my brain to inspire the Dreamspawn Creature template, but mostly I've been driven by a fascination with creatures that have a symbiotic relationship with their dead victims, and drag their corpses along with them. I played with this in some of the corpse-dangling daddy-longlegs spidery creations I did for 0One Games a while back, a few home-game beasties, and now this. I wanted the initial encounter to be surprising, unknown, and terrifying, and I figured a starving spectral dream-fog-thing erupting from the broken jaws of a murder victim was as good a way as anything to get things started!
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Just bought it and it looks awesome. The city map enclosed is also very nice.
Are there any thoughts of sanctioning this for PFS? I can think of a few people who could have a lot of fun with this.
It should end up sanctioned. I just put in a lot of work getting up to speed on some Adventure Path material, so I don't have a good timeline for this module.
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Ok, I bought this as I intend to run it for my group when they reach level 6 and.... WOW! reading/prepping for this is a delight.
Don't know who to spam about this, but one of my players is a gnome bard with the Lucid Dreamer feat, and I was wondering...
For instance, t'would be neat if someone with that feat could enter the caster's dreamscape by expending a use of the same spell, similar to the dream council clause...
Also, I notice that the effects of the shivers drug grant effects that are similar to the Lucid Dreamer feat... would you say someone with this feat can also perform the 'extra bits' listed under the shiver drug effects? (i.e. channeling vs. 'D.H.' for instance...)
Thanks a million for this awesome, awesome, awesome module! I'm... Hooked!
:P :P :P
I'm running this at a Convention pretty soon. I'm hoping this is now very close to being sanctioned. There is a bit of a clamour from the players.
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Wow. This is a fantastic adventure but it took me ages to get the GM prep sorted out. I've uploaded it to GM Prep along with a digest of the complex timeline. You're welcome to share.
Go to GM Prep
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What a fantastic resource! THANK YOU, Rob! I hope it will be put to good use by others running The House on Hook Street.
Thank you for the kind words (and great review!) as well. HoHS is indeed a complicated adventure, full of twists and turns and betrayals, and, like you, I believe it is worth the effort to run properly, and there's a lot of value in the gameplay of this one. I will note a couple of clarifications in your prep document: 1) Drune is not Myra's father. He was an early suitor (he lost out to Nahum) and her intimations lured him into using his family's funds to sponsor the expedition to the Mindspin Mountains, and 2) the dreamstone does not actually offer immortality, but rather power over the Dimension of Dreams, which is what Nahum's trying to claim. The immortality offered to *some* cult members (the most devoted leadership only, not everyone) is a power granted by the spider idol itself, and is part of the idol ruleset.
Hope that helps. Thank you for putting together this great prep document--wish I'd had it when I ran my playtests!
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I'm running this at a Convention pretty soon. I'm hoping this is now very close to being sanctioned. There is a bit of a clamour from the players.
Rob, I hope to offer this at Scarefest, our horror themed Halloween Convention in WNC, this Fall.... I am very hopeful John will get it Sanctioned before then... and big thanks for all the prep work!!!
I am currently running this game and I have a player who threw me a curve ball which I can't seem to find the answers to. The issue is they are running a tiefling with the alternate racial trait of being able to see creatures on the Ethereal Plane. While we have not progressed past the initial investigation, this has brought up a couple of concerns for me with this adventure. Specifically...
Also, as a native outsider whose soul & flesh are one, what are the effects of dreaming or shiver upon them?
Any help, advice or rules clarification would be appreciated.
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A: I haven't read the adventure in a while, so perhaps it addresses or changes this, but the Ethereal Plane and the Dimension of Dreams are two separate places. The ability shouldn't reveal anything (unless the adventure specifically invokes the Ethereal Plane).
B: Native outsiders don't work like that - their soul and flesh are separate. It's an implied part of their capacity to be raised or resurrected.
Any further questions? ^_^
Thank you!
No, I was just needing some clarification from an outside pov on the Ethereal Plane and the Dimension of Dreams.
As for the native outsider rules, I see now where I misinterpreted the mechanics.
Thanks again!
I am trying to run this through FG2, and in gridding the map discovered that there is at least one column where the grid is not the same size as the others.
What is FG2?
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Pathfinder Society Lead Developer
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I am trying to run this through FG2, and in gridding the map discovered that there is at least one column where the grid is not the same size as the others.What is FG2?
That's Fantasy Grounds 2, a popular virtual tabletop (VTT) program for running games online.
That's Fantasy Grounds 2, a popular virtual tabletop (VTT) program for running games online.
Ah, thanks.
I'm looking at running this for my group in the near-ish future. Thank you, Rob, for the excellent prep. It'll help a lot!
Mr. Hodge, I find the idea of the Lantern Man (from the Bridgefront Gazetteer) really compelling. I'm happy fleshing him out myself, but thought I'd see if you had any thoughts or ideas about him.
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Mr. Hodge, I find the idea of the Lantern Man (from the Bridgefront Gazetteer) really compelling. I'm happy fleshing him out myself, but thought I'd see if you had any thoughts or ideas about him.
Hello Andrew!
I'm a fan of the Lantern Man myself, and after many months of campaigning in my home game (which takes place in the aftermath of HoHS, which my group playtested, though the sequel started fresh with new characters at 1st level), he's set to return to the stage any session now. So here's hoping my players aren't reading...
The Lantern Man is Old Korvosa's most thorough--and most secretive--source of information. Although not particularly powerful in the traditional sense (see below), he has used his unique method of gathering information to assume this near-omniscient mantle of the ultimate information broker. He developed the divination spell that allows him to see through flames lit from a target pyre late in life, and weaved through the political structure of Korvosa to eventually manipulate the Arkona family into sponsoring the civic project to install street lamps in Bridgefront as a way to improve the quality of life for the poor citizens there. With the fall of the family (see Curse of the Crimson Throne), he was in a perfect political position to take over the infrastructure he had caused to be created, and steered it toward a private enterprise which he exclusively controls.
I don't have my laptop handy to reference the spell, which didn't make the cut into HoHS because I wound up diminishing his original role, but you cast it on a fire, and gain the ability to scry through it to see everything in a 10-ft radius through any other flame lit from the target fire. With multiple nightly castings, the Lantern Man can essentially spend his evenings staring at the source fire and shuffling through various visions taking place on the streets of Bridefront, as well as any homes of citizens that light their fires by his street lanterns. His Lamplighters, too, are well-compensated and exceedingly loyal young street rats taught to strategically light the lanterns and encourage citizens to light their fires from them, in what seems an overt act of generosity that is really nothing more than another mode of infiltration for the information-hungry Lantern Man.
In this way, he has grown exceedingly wealthy through blackmail, extortion, and information brokering. But it hasn't bought him improved eyesight--he is near blind from his efforts--nor has it improved his health or reversed the effects of his extremely advanced age. Though shrouded in material luxury in his concealed estate, his form is cripple, sickly, and exceedingly frail. His disposition reflects his resentment to being confined near-immobile within his residence, and he is sour and bitter at not being able to truly enjoy the fruits of his clever enterprise, which makes him a hard bargainer and shrewd negotiator that doesn't care for the money, but rather the power it gives him over those seeking his aid that he resents for their mere ability to walk, love, and see unhindered.
He is best used in a campaign as a last-resort, desperate effort to fill in any information gaps your PCs have faced. If they become stuck on a mystery or missed a vital clue, the Lantern Man can provide the information they missed, but at a steep price. It essentially gives an option for PCs to buy their way toward a solution if they have exhausted all other efforts where it doesn't make sense to otherwise backtrack to give them what they need to move forward. I leave the payment terms vague on purpose, because it should be adjusted for each group. Just make sure the payment is about more than money, and personally affects a PC in some way with a high collateral cost that makes the decision to get the information a difficult one.
That's how I use him! Feel free to ask further questions!
Great, that paints a much clearer picture and gives me plenty to chew on. Although it sounds like the PCs will regret meeting him, should the need arise...
As an aside, my long running Reign of Winter group recently finished Rasputin Must Die, which was quite the experience. In one of my favorite moments of the campaign, my oracle was able to
Thanks for your excellent work on both books, and for taking the time to respond!
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I am semi impressed with the maps. They look pretty, but they have a major flaw in that the grid is not even. I am trying to run this through FG2, and in gridding the map discovered that there is at least one column where the grid is not the same size as the others.
Yeah, this causes insanity.
I've run into the same issue as well. It's not an FG thing, it's something with the maps themselves. I've tried using Map Align, no luck there... and i've tried using good old fashioned math, no luck there either... it's not even just the house maps, but all of the maps. it's like they got stretched somehow. I've resorted to busting out the crayolas and just drawing them on graph paper and scanning them. they don't look as pretty as the originals, but they work.
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Had our Session Zero last night and nailed down PC classes:
Urban Ranger, Slayer, Psychic, and Mesmerist
The psychic and mesmerist settled on brothers who own an occult emporium on the corner of Wave and Shale Street. I'm glad we've got occult classes. They fit thematically and have abilities I'm not totally familiar with, so it'll be fun to see what surprises they come up with. Already plotting and scheming on ways to add the PC's personal connections to Bridgefront into the plot and cast of characters. Super pumped to start running this in two weeks!
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Had our Session Zero last night and nailed down PC classes:
Urban Ranger, Slayer, Psychic, and MesmeristThe psychic and mesmerist settled on brothers who own an occult emporium on the corner of Wave and Shale Street. I'm glad we've got occult classes. They fit thematically and have abilities I'm not totally familiar with, so it'll be fun to see what surprises they come up with. Already plotting and scheming on ways to add the PC's personal connections to Bridgefront into the plot and cast of characters. Super pumped to start running this in two weeks!
1st session in the bag!
One PC, a veteran of the events of Curse of the Crimson Throne, although the player didn't finish the whole AP, used their personal wealth to open a soup kitchen in the middle of Bridgefront. It made a great focal point for the other PCs' connections, since they all made characters that were interested in some way or another in uplifting the downtrodden in the district. Lots of good character moments with different NPCs, some useful rumors dropped in.It also made for a super tense encounter with the
Some interaction with guards afterwards, including unexpectedly untrusting PCs, though I shoulda seen that coming. They're set up to meet the Magistrate the next day, though we need to resolve the session's cliffhanger first: one PC's Very Bad Dream.
Both I and the players are excited to continue next week!
Rather than clog up the Product Discussion, I've created a campaign journal over in the Modules subforum.
