#1: In History of Ashes, the Shoanti are getting ready to attack Korvosa and there is several mentions of the Shoanti attacking villages down from the Storval Rise. How exactly do the Shoanti get down from the Rise to make these attacks?
Wouldn't they have to sack Kaer Maga first? Does Kaer Maga allow Shoanti armies to pass through? Secret tunnels? Throw slaves off the edge until a bridge or corpses forms?
#2: Are the PCs supposed to know that the Skar-Quah are preparing for war at the start of the adventure (it's not mentioned in the Neolandus info) or do they learn this during the adventure?
Yeah, I didn't quite understand that either. I'm probably missing something, but there is a lot of land between the Storval Rise and Korvosa. Is there some huge Shoanti army that's going to march across the land? Are they going to sack every town and settlement on the way? How do they bypass Kaer Maga?
It just seems like the Shoanti are a long ways away from Korvosa to be mounting an attack on it, and why is the ire directed at Korvosa and not Kaer Maga.
Kaer Maga lost a lot of influence to Korvosa over the lst years. They definitely might allow the Shoanti to pass, hoping for both groups to hurt each other and afterwarsd emerge as a powerful player. Instead of increasing your army, just make sure your enemy diminishes there own.
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
#1: Kaer Maga's only one way to get down the Rise. It wasn't built there because it's the ONLY way... it's an ancient Thassilonian ruin at one of the highest points along the rise and as a result was a natural place for folk to flock to when they were looking for an easily defensible fortification. The Storval Rise itself has plenty of other areas where you can climb up or down, though, if you've got a good Climb skill (like barbarians tend to have). It'd be a matter of massing at one of these points, then creeping down the steep slopes/cliffs, regrouping at the bottom, and then continuing on. It's not a FAST process, to be sure, but it's certainly not impossible, especially along areas where the Storval Rise is only a few hundred feet high. And that said... Kaer Maga probably wouldn't bat an eye at a war band of Shoanti entering from the top and exiting from the bottom, provided they pay the price. If things in Pathfinder #10 come to a point where the PCs fail and the Shoanti attack on Korvosa DOES happen... they'll probably take an earlier route and invade the lowlands along some remote and shallow stretch of the Storval Rise northwest of Kaer Maga.
#2: The lowlanders more or less assume (and are more or less correct in their assumptions) that the Sklar-Quah are always on the verge of war on Korvosa. As the PCs head up into the Cinderlands... they should be armed with these rumors, and as they explore, they should find them to be fact, especially once they speak to Thousand Bones; I believe that when they talk to him is the first point they receive concrete proof about the Sklar Quah massing for war.
|
Creative Director
|
Yeah, I didn't quite understand that either. I'm probably missing something, but there is a lot of land between the Storval Rise and Korvosa. Is there some huge Shoanti army that's going to march across the land? Are they going to sack every town and settlement on the way? How do they bypass Kaer Maga?
It just seems like the Shoanti are a long ways away from Korvosa to be mounting an attack on it, and why is the ire directed at Korvosa and not Kaer Maga.
Another thing to keep in mind... Korvosa's messed up and her military is crippled. It wouldn't take a massive army of barbarians to do a lot of damage... but at the same point it's unlikely that the Sklar Quah army would succeed. It'd be a bad scene for both Korvosa AND the barbarians, which is one of the things Thousand Bones points out to the PCs. By convincing the Sklar Quah to not attack, they're saving not only a lot of Korvosans, but a lot of barbarians from needless death.
Hmmm, I don't know. The adventure has it being difficult for a party of 10th level PCs to get up the Rise, but easy for a whole army of Shoanti to get down/up with some regularity (and bring spoils of war with them, or they sack the farmlands for the fun of it?). "They've got a good climb skill" doesn't seem like enough (and it also begs the question, what about their horses?).
Perhaps the Thousand Bones' clan is guarding the graveyard and a tunnel passage or something.
Perhaps the Thousand Bones' clan is guarding the graveyard and a tunnel passage or something.
That's solid too DFM. I suppose 16th level Sun Shaman could probably draw up some divine solutions too.
You guys always blow my mind with how sharp you are with the details. It's a credit to the game world's development that geographical continuity issues are already arising. Little Golarion is growing up fast (sniff, sniff).
To be honest I just assumed the Sklar-Quah would ride down through a route through the Mindspin Mountains (admittedly not a safe trip but if they had the chops to raid in the past perhaps they could do so again). In fact, I'd wager they've probably got a bunch of hidden routes cut into the rise itself, the Wyverns, as well as the Mindspin to keep their foes perpetually guessing from where they will come from.
But now that I think about it - wouldn't it be even more dramatically appropriate if this time around the hypothetical route was through Bloodsworn Vale? Possible? Yeeehaw Tshamek!