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Okay, my favorite moment in our Kingmaker campaign so far was when Topper Red(in our campaign, a woman who pretended to be a man and was eventually made Spymaster of the group's new kingdom) arrived in town to tell the group that there is a town to the north that seems to be run by Nugrah, the Stag Lord's father, a reincarnated goblin version of Dovan, a hated NPC, and a Will-o-the-Wisp that survived two combats with the group and has become a recurring villain. Serving them as they build their small but evil empire are the defeated but since-ignored Mites and a tribe of Kobolds that has resisted all efforts to assimilate and has a yellow-skinned leader who was raised from the dead after Tartuk slew his tribe.
The moment that made it awesomesauce for me as a DM? The player character who said, "A town full of villains? Are you effing kidding?"
The most fun part for me will be the later reveal that explains what force nudged the old druid into creating a mirror image of the community the PCs are building. Until then, I will have to be satisfied with knowing that they have a vile enemy to the northwest that financed its kingdom with the buried loot they never found because they were too honorable to raid a burial cairn(until later, when the exact same situation happened but involved a "treasure map," go figure. For those DMs of Kingmaker reading this, yes, I did add substantially more treasure to the Barbarian Cairn in Part 1 than it lists...it was necessary to find some explanation for why creating a kingdom is possible for anyone without a 50 BP head start when our group in particular came very near to collapse when they started building.
Anyway, I was just giddy after tonight's session and wanted to celebrate by sharing with all of you. Good night to all and Kingmaker continued to be the best AP I have ever run. May the Grim Harvestman overlook you all.
Greetings, fellow travelers.
I am just wondering, if you could tell me how Nugrah escaped. I am currently "re"designing the encounter with the Stag Lord and have been toying with the idea of having Nugrah reincarnate his dead son (to take revenge). My problem is that I cannot think of an elegant (satisfying) way of having Nugrah escape from his abode in the cellar.
My group is quite industrious when it comes to making sure, nobody gets away alive (and looting, especially the paladin of Iomedae *sigh*).
Also, my group will deliver the Stag Lord's body to Davik Nettle, so I have to think about a way to steal the body from the group, while they transport it to Nettle's crossing, but first things first.
Ruyan.
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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I am just wondering, if you could tell me how Nugrah escaped. I am currently "re"designing the encounter with the Stag Lord and have been toying with the idea of having Nugrah reincarnate his dead son (to take revenge). My problem is that I cannot think of an elegant (satisfying) way of having Nugrah escape from his abode in the cellar.
Meld into Stone, wait until party leaves, walk out. ::shrug::
Also, regarding Davik Nettle, have him retrieve the body after the party dumps him into the river and reincarnate him, but have the Stag Lord come back... wrong...
This thread is giving me all sorts of evil ideas, given Dovan & Auch actually escaped in my game. They have since turned up working for, and playing on the old loyalties of Akiros, whom one of my two groups had recruited to act as their Warden (at least until that group combusted and their kingdom collapsed). I've been developing them as a political faction for the other PC Kingdom in my campaign to contend with as they cannibalize the remains of the 1st PC kingdom.
I had completely forgotten the same group that had recruited Akiros had also let Nugrah live and set him free (party Druid insisted).
Whee! Villains with Reincarnate! The possibilities!!!
Greetings, fellow travelers.
The problem with meld into stone is, as far as I understand it, that you remain really close to the surface of said stone.
Now, my group has a paladin (should have stated that in my first post, sorry), who basically "scans" his surroundings with detect evil *all* the time - and he definitely will do so in the lair of the BBEG.
And since detect spells are only blocked by 3ft of dirt or 1ft of stone, I think I will not get away with Nugrah hiding inside the walls. ALso, just for the record, Nugrah will have lvl 7 in my game - so reincarnate is possible for him to cast.
Hm, maybe just play on the "I am an old, broken, decrepit, abused man, who has been held prisoner here (who is evil, but none-the-less...)".
Any other ideas?
Ruyan.
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Well, the fact that he only detects as Faint evil might help him, should he have to try to talk his way out. Also, he could use the whole "I'm an old man, beaten constantly by my monster of a son, woe is me" which is actually the truth.
The spell description doesn't say how close to the surface you are when you use the spell: only that you need to use it on a block of stone that's big enough to accomodate the user.
Anyways, another idea: while he's Melded, and sees that he's horribly outclasses, he can do another thing: Stoneshape. He has it as a domain spell, so while Melded, he can use Stoneshape to create an escape route, and hobble on out of dodge while the party's distracted with the loot from the basement (and that loot will keep them busy for a long while). Heck, he could probably even find his son's body, Wild Shape into a large sized creature (a bear, maybe), and carry it out into the wilderness.
Greetings, fellow travelers.
The problem with meld into stone is, as far as I understand it, that you remain really close to the surface of said stone.
Now, my group has a paladin (should have stated that in my first post, sorry), who basically "scans" his surroundings with detect evil *all* the time - and he definitely will do so in the lair of the BBEG.
And since detect spells are only blocked by 3ft of dirt or 1ft of stone, I think I will not get away with Nugrah hiding inside the walls. ALso, just for the record, Nugrah will have lvl 7 in my game - so reincarnate is possible for him to cast.
Hm, maybe just play on the "I am an old, broken, decrepit, abused man, who has been held prisoner here (who is evil, but none-the-less...)".
Any other ideas?
Ruyan.
I wouldn't allow for *constant* scanning by a paladin. The description of the paladin's Detect ability says it's a move action that targets one person or object at a time, as opposed to the actual spell which covers an area. So, imagine trying to look at everyone and everything near you for 3 seconds at a time, individually. You'd never get anywhere or do anything.
If my player argued that he would take that extra time to do it on everything, I'd just rule that it's too exhausting to do so. The ability is meant as a "Is this merchant really an erinyes or bandit in disguise" as opposed to a "If there's evil in my vicinity, I know about it".
Greetings, fellow travelers.
Thanks for the ideas. Didn't think about the stoneshape spell - thanks, Sect. But I think, I will go for some role-playing and in-party-arguing with this poor, old man :-)
Well, *constant* scanning was an exaggeration, but he does scan every person they meet before deciding on actions, which starts to annoy me. And area scanning will start, when they start exploring on horse back.
I know, that players are rather paranoid about being caught flat-footed so to speak and as a paladin of Iomedae, he thinks I am trying to constantly bring him in a situation, where I can play on his virtues/code of conduct (which he put together!) with him coming out on the losing end *sigh*. I am not THAT mischievous ;-)
Anyways, thanks for the cool ideas.
Ruyan.
If the Paladin in my game scanned every person, I would immediately have all good/neutral folks be one step "worse" in the attitude towards the Paladin. Hostile would be a 'in the face' "what you don't trust anyone and want to kill me!".
-- david
Papa.DRB
Well, *constant* scanning was an exaggeration, but he does scan every person they meet before deciding on actions, which starts to annoy me. And area scanning will start, when they start exploring on horse back. I know, that players are rather paranoid about being caught flat-footed so to speak and as a paladin of Iomedae, he thinks I am trying to constantly bring him in a situation, where I can play on his virtues/code of conduct (which he put together!) with him coming out on the losing end *sigh*. I am not THAT mischievous ;-)
In my campaign, Nugrah used Wild Shape to turn into a bird and flew away after he saw that he had no chance.
Greetings, fellow travelers.
Thanks for the ideas. Didn't think about the stoneshape spell - thanks, Sect. But I think, I will go for some role-playing and in-party-arguing with this poor, old man :-)
Well, *constant* scanning was an exaggeration, but he does scan every person they meet before deciding on actions, which starts to annoy me. And area scanning will start, when they start exploring on horse back.
I know, that players are rather paranoid about being caught flat-footed so to speak and as a paladin of Iomedae, he thinks I am trying to constantly bring him in a situation, where I can play on his virtues/code of conduct (which he put together!) with him coming out on the losing end *sigh*. I am not THAT mischievous ;-)Anyways, thanks for the cool ideas.
Ruyan.
Remember, people who are evil but under 5 hit dice don't even come up as evil. They don't have an evil aura. Only people who are clerics of evil gods, aligned outsiders or evil undead even have a faint aura at 1 to 5 HD.
So he's scanning Oleg, Svetlana and others... they don't even show up. They could be murder-loving blood-dancing babykillers, but their HD is too low to show up as evil. So just remember to reinforce that while people and creatures are still under 5 HD :P
On the flip side, he could just beg for mercy and then escape. If the paladin kills him when he begs for mercy, well, I hope he likes being a commoner with a good BAB.
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In my campaign, Nugrah used Wild Shape to turn into a bird and flew away after he saw that he had no chance.
same here...hearing / watching from belowground, he was able to ascertain that SL, Beaky, and all the named NPC's were either dead, dying, traitors, or incapacitated in some manner.
discretion being the better part of valor, he bounced, a la bird-form, and left the treasure & bedding behind.
blighter, here we come!