We are finally about to start on the CoT adventure path. I gave my players a healthy amount of info about the setting and had them read the Player's Guide and Cheliax, Empire of Devils. Here is what our party looks like:
Human Ranger (Urban build from APG)
Human Rogue
Dwarf Fighter
Elf Witch
Elf Oracle (life mystery, haunted curse)
One of my players is particularly awesome when it comes to background stories and role playing. Here is the doc he created, which covers the backstories of the 2 humans and the dwarf:
Now, onto the hooks. There is a lot to work with, and I have some ideas of my own, but I definitely want to tap into the fountain of creativity here on these forums and hear your ideas as well.
For clarification, Finchtown is the name of a particular neighborhood in southern Westcrown - similar to a New York borough, but smaller.
The two elf characters have little or know background info as of yet, so I have to figure out how to tie them in.
Here are a few of the ideas I came up with so far:
1. The oracle lives in a fishmonger's basement, and is haunted by the spirits of those good men and women who have been written out of history by the Thrune leadership. I wanted to spotlight the way that history is rewritten to suit the needs of the current monarchy and give the setting a 1984 feel. I figure I can draw him into things by having the Dottari discover that in addition to selling fish, the fishmonger was also selling Flayleaf - which isn't so bad in and of itself, but he wasn't paying taxes on his profits from the drug. In the end, the oracle ends up homeless and is somehow drawn to the Velvet Songbird - maybe by hookers, maybe by the ghosts that haunt him.
2. The witch is a female, and I have absolutely nothing to go on for her, so I was thinking about having her be a prostitute at the Velvet Songbird, but not a very popular one. As a favor, Mia asks the detectives to give her a job with them so she can clear a spot in her stables for a tiefling prostitute. Tiefling companions have experienced a recent surge in popularity among the minor nobility, and Mia currently doesn't have any is losing business as a result. I really don't have any ideas as to where her witch powers came from, though.
3. Miss Mia, the madame of the Velvet Songbird brothel, has heard rumors that the Hellknights believe that the inflammatory publications that have been circulating lately are originating in Finchtown. She warns the detectives to clear their office of anything illegal, as the Hellknights are expected to be performing searches over the next several days, looking for the source of the printed materials.
4. One of Snaggle the ranger's contacts in the Dottari comes to meet him at the bar of the Velvet Songbird to share some information on one of their current cases. At the end of their conversation, he mentions the upcoming searches that are to be performed by the Hellknights. He mentions that even the Burning Temple of Asmodeus is on the list of buildings to be searched. Since Snaggle spent most of his childhood there, he figured he'd be interested. This could lead to an interesting challenge where the party has to disassemble the printing press and hide it somewhere else in order to avoid Father Signus being caught. If Knowledge(Engineering) and other such skills aren't used, the press will likely be broken in this process. If the party does nothing, Father Signus will be caught and taken to Citadel Rivad.
5. Depending on how things play out, something bad should happen to the PCs friends, whether it be Miss Mia (I'd rather leave the brothel in place as a base for the players) or Father Signus. This when I would have Janiven approach them. I would also probably have her as someone who was also raised in Father Signus' orphanage, to make her offers more meaningful to the characters.
Some sidebar hooks:
1. Later, as the party (hopefully) flees the Hellknights in the sewers, the party encounters 1 or 2 tieflings. If the party defeats them and searches them, they will find the wooden coins imprinted with devil's heads and/or have the bastards of erebus rob the velvet songbird at some point. I feel that the party needs a stronger reason to go after them at the end of the adventure.
2. I would LOVE at some point to get Ihgrim, the womanizing rogue in front of Chammady Drovenge. The absence of Chammady and Eccardian in this episode kind of bothers me. I haven't read anything beyond the first adventure yet, so I'm unsure how strong the hooks are with these two villains, but it seems like it would be fun to entangle the party's rogue in some sort of tryst with Chammady, preferably as a part of a scheme where Ihgrim is trying to obtain information, wealth, or both.
3. When the party meets the Children of Westcrown (I will be encouraging the party to come up with a better name for this group), they notice that Yakopulio (the potential rogue) is wearing a beatiful jade pendant. In fact it is the one the detectives have been hired to recover. It could be a nice challenge to get it back without creating conflict within the newly formed rebel group. And if they go about it in a more forward and direct way, well hey, that can be fun too!
I want to sprinkle as much content from the player-created document into the story as possible. One of my biggest regrets from the last campaign I ran was only using the player background to explain how they got to the start of the adventure. Once we started playing it was never referenced again, which was my noob mistake.
I would also like to find a meaningful way to reward the player who wrote the doc, without making him more powerful or making the other players feel bad. He doesn't really care about in-game power anyways, as he is much more story and role playing oriented. I was thinking of allowing him to choose a second trait (I allowed everyone only one trait since we have a party of 5). Any other, more interesting ideas would be welcome. Although I suppose the best reward I can give him is to build the story around this background doc he gave me.
Thanks in advance for any ideas you share, and I hope you find some of this info usable in your own games as well.
P.S. - Big props to the guys over at the Chronicles podcast. Their last episode covering the Bastards of Erebus was simply amazing and gave me a ton of useful info that makes me feel a TON more confident about running this adventure than I did just a few days ago. Here is a link to the episode:
Whoops, bad link. Here is a fixed one:
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He added some location details for the neighborhood. It's good stuff. Feel free to lift it if you find any of it useful. These are all keyed to locations on the Westcrown map, but I don't think I'm allowed to post the map.
(A neighborhood of Westcrown)
Finchtown is a small community in southern Westcrown. It has a large temple in the center, with the neighborhood built around the temple. It’s name comes from the brightly colored birds that have nested in the neighborhood.
1. Tarmag Residence:
This is a simple one story house. Gunstar Tarmag (half-orc fighter) works as a guard for the mayor’s office. He keeps to himself.
2. Morthorse Residence:
This is an immaculately kept two story house. Madame Solinda Morthorse (human, age 83). Madame Solinda is the previous owner of the Velvet Songbird. She is old and suffers from minor dementia. Miss Mia and her Dolls take care of all of her affairs. Madame Solinda goes to the Velvet Songbird every morning and drinks until someone has to bring her home.
3. The Velvet Songbird:
A brothel and entertainment venue. Its four stories make it the tallest building in Finchtown. It has a large stage and bar area that take up two stories with a balcony that overlooks the stage. The third floor is filled with rooms dedicated to prostitution. The top floor is a mix of residential and office space.
The establishment has 10 resident prostitutes and is owned and run by Miss Mia Floon (14th LVL Human Bard, age 48 & ex-slave of The Burning Temple of Amadeus). All of the resident prostitutes (known as Mia’s Dolls) are currently under bardic training from Miss Mia. Every night two of Mia’s dolls open for a touring national act. Miss Mia is known as a very convincing woman and nearly always gets her way. Mia’s dolls love working for her and there is a waiting list of women waiting to get in.
In the back, up four flights of stairs, on the top floor is a small detective agency run by Snaggle and Ihgrim Lichskar – ex-guardsmen and scoundrel respectively, and a young dwarf with a drinking problem.
4. The Finchtown Inn:
This three story inn is pridefully painted the red and black of Asmodeus. The first floor is a parlor area with a piano and a giant shrine to Asmodeus. The entire interior is also in a red and black motif. The second floor has four rooms for guests. The third floor is the home of the proprietors.
The Finchtown Inn is owned by the Gigbatchi family. Francolio, Bel and their 10 children – ages 0 to 13. They are Asmodean zealots! They go to The Burning Temple of Asmodeus every day and try to convert everyone they meet, even practicing worshipers of Asmodeus. Francolio is a gruff quiet man. Bel is always pregnant and loves to gossip. The 10 children are neighborhood nuisances and troublemakers. Several of them have oddly devilish features like rows of razor-sharp teeth or eyes that occasionally glow red.
5. Finchtown Bistro:
This two story building is a café with outdoor seating that gets a little dangerous near the giant pear tree. It serves simple food and drinks. The owners are a young couple Jonyve Croi (a master pastry chef, age 29), and Dina Croi (beautiful, but a drug addict, age 23). They open early in the morning and all of Finchtown smells like whatever they are cooking. They are a very popular spot, and are always crowded.
Jonyve manages the kitchen with a staff of two. He makes wonderful pastries, but is obsessed with making a torble pie (Pathfinder adventure past vol. #25 bestiaries). He has figured out a way to neutralize their acid, prepare and cook the torble. It is like nothing anyone has ever tasted, yet delicious. He loves the idea because of the abundance of torbles in Westcrown, so he won’t have to spend any money on materials. The problem now is that the torble pie keeps causing the eater to go temporarily blind, deaf or any number of problems. He constant tries to use his neighbors as guinea pigs for his next torble pie recipe. Some neighbors keep eating the pie due to the exciting taste and end up miserable for the rest of the day.
Dina is a flirty young woman who is obsessed with drug use. She runs the front of the bistro with a staff of two. She is constantly doing some drug, or talking about drugs. She is an efficient manager despite constantly being in another world.
The couple fights loudly all day, but makes passionate love every night. This is their routine.
6. Finchies’ Paradise:
This three story building is owned and operated Duga Toredo (Human Merchant), brother of Alvedi Teredo.
The top floor is Duga’s home. Duga dresses like a noble, but doesn’t really know how a noble dresses. He is good at talking, but will never hear a word you say. He lives a lavish lifestyle and he has a good view of the city. He likes to show house guests his view of the city, then tell them how good a view it is.
The second floor is designated for Armor. He’s got it all plate armor, chain armor, leathers. What’s that? You are looking for some mythryl? Duga can get that for you with a “small” down payment. What do you mean you put a down payment on some armor three weeks ago? Don’t worry; he just needs some more money to get it through customs.
The first floor is for weapons. He’s got it all flails, swords, pole arms. What? You say you need that scabbard fixed. Just a quick non-refundable maintenance fee and you can pick it up tomorrow. What do you mean you left it here yesterday? You can’t rush fine craftsmanship. Did you want to upgrade to a jeweled hilt? He’s got a good gem man.
The basement is for special customers. He has a collection of slaves for sale. What do you mean they look malnourished? He’s been eating like a champ. What do you mean that girl looks dead? She’s just tired from exercising all day. Duga’ll sell you her for a discount.
Duga doesn’t go out into Finchtown as the neighbors seriously despise him. Many neighbors have been trying to figure out a way to kick him out of the neighborhood. If you need a weapon or armor fixed you're better off going to Bucky Fellini or Crag Meatfist.
7. The Giant Pear Tree:
This 50 foot tree is the only known tree to produce the fruit known as the giant pear. A giant pear looks like a watermelon sized pear. It is too tart for human consumption, but the finches love it. It is probably the biggest reason the songbirds stick around. The tree is dangerous as several people are wounded each year from falling fruit
8. Fellini Residence:
This is a two story building shabbily painted off red and dark grey – practically mocking the status quo. The first floor has a large iron door that rolls up like a garage door. This opens up to a workshop for swords… only swords. The top floor is an apartment.
Bucky Fellini (Human Ranger, age 51) works as a dottari at station F. He is a low ranking guardsman. His bad attitude has kept him from promotions his entire career. He lives alone. His wife and children were killed in an unfortunate shadow beast incident. He has since made it a point to go out every night and kill one, and has for the past 20 years. People in the neighborhood know that he is a Shadow Hunter, but he refuses to talk to anyone who would bring it up.
Bucky has trained himself in the art of blacksmithing and will only make large swords. He will take orders and do repairs. He only works as a sword smith as a hobby, but a very dedicated hobby. He likes to leave his large door open while he works and is often surrounded by the local children. He likes to teach them smithing and telling stories.
9. The Burning Temple of Asmodeus Rectory:
This two story house is connected to the temple through the basement. It is immaculate and bedecked with all things Asmodeus inside and out. Signus Pratt lives here with his child slaves.
10. The Combat Mill:
This is a large barn-like mill. In the main room is the pulverizing stone that mills the grain. Hundreds of bags are in either corner, some as uncracked wheat and the other as bagged flour. The mill is owned by Wolven Kolganer, an extremely rich merchant. The mill is run by seven slaves that Wolven named after animals. Goat is in charge. He manages the entire operation. Dog and Puppy work upstairs putting the grain on the mill stone and bagging the resultant flour. Mule, Horse, Camel and Mustang work in the basement pushing a giant wheel around in a circle all day. They are giant hulking men.
For five hours a day the slaves mill the grain. Then, after they eat lunch, they train in the back to fight in the blood sport arenas. They fight once a week. They are known as Wolven’s Pride. Nobody has died in three weeks. They are doing pretty well.
11. Grain Silo:
This is a silo that the Combat Mill uses to store grain. It is about thirty feet high and is covered in graffiti.
12. Wiscrani Wonders:
The two story building has three doors in the front. Two of the doors are fake and rigged with a magical practical joke. The shop itself is filled with secret doors and goes into the second floor and into the basement. Nobody know where the proprietor, Kinst Rago (Human sorcerer/bard) sleeps. He is a borderline insane practical jokester. The shop itself is filled with the most bizarre things found in Westcrown. Most of the items are mundane yet strange (a music box with a lich ballerina in it), valuable (the scepter of a forgotten king), or magical (eye patch of invisibility). He is a powerful man, but acts like Willy Wonka with a.d.d. mixed with Pee Wee Herman. The shop is completely cluttered and it is almost impossible to tell what is of value and what is worthless.
13. Devil’s Due Bookstore:
This two story building has runes of hell glowing at its entrance. It is painted crimson and black and radiates evil. The top floor has curtains with flowers on them and an herb planter hanging from every window. The proprietors are Tingmus and Dayn. They are openly gay and best friends with Haripan and Charipan from Animali Exotique. They are very active in the community.
Tingmus’ father was a renowned Diabolist and opened the bookstore when he retired. He would frequently hold rituals in the basement of the store. Some of the most unspeakable horrors ever witnessed by man came out of that cellar. He died several years ago and Tingmus took it over.
Most of the books inside are highly sought after diabolistic tomes. Although those books are the big money maker for the store, Tingmus and Dayn are focusing more on books about botany and home repairs.
Tingmus and Dayn have a beautiful apartment above the bookstore, but the bookstore and the cellar look the same as when Tingmus’ father owned it. They are seriously scared to go into the basement.
14. Pub & Potions:
This three story building is owned by two retired adventurers, Crag Meatfist (dwarf fighter) and Yaril Fleish (Elf wizard/alchemist). It is a potions house and specialty Dwarven Ale Distributor.
Crag is an experienced brew master and has spent all of his time adventuring picking up tricks and secrets to create dwarven ales rarely tasted outside of their homelands. It is his passion, and every dwarf in Westcrown has stopped by to chat with Crag. He distributes his beer to nearly every pub in Westcrown. He also brews one style of beer for the human population called “Sissy Drink.” It is a Westcrown favorite.
Yaril is an accomplished alchemist and has spent all of his time adventuring picking up tricks and secrets in alchemy. He sells mostly potions and alchemy items, but he does dabble in a small amount of other magical items such as scrolls, wands and wondrous items.
The space is awkwardly set up with the pub and potion store on each half of the store, separated by a three foot high wall. Yaril put up the wall recently because too many drunken dwarves were knocking over his potions.
The basement is three times the size of the shop and houses an incredible alchemy lab and brewery.
Yaril occupies the third floor, while Crag lives on the second floor.
15. The Burning Temple of Asmodeus:
This temple was originally built for Aroden. Shortly after it’s construction beautifully colored finches began to nest around the holy sight. Shortly after the unrest caused by Aroden’s death, the temple was converted for the worship of Asmodeus. It’s entrance is one of the known tourist destinations in the city as it touts old style Aroden architecture with sleek modern Asmodean style.
The Burning Temple always has 6 to 10 slaves. They are always children, and normally demihuman. After a certain age Signus Pratt (Priest) will often release them of their bondage. The higher ranked priests of Asmodeus have always thought of Signus as weak for this practice, but they understand that he wants children slaves that can act in the community but are under his thrall.
The temple is run by a low ranking priest of Asmodeus named Signus Pratt (63 year old human). Signus is generally a quiet man. He will generally preach the word of Asmodeus only when asked for specifically. He doesn’t push the religion down people’s throats. It is probably this lack of zealotry that has kept him from making his way up the ranks in the priesthood. He has been a priest at The Burning Temple for over forty years, and is respected by the community.
16. Tenthook Residence:
This is a one story shack. Lumpy Tenthook (Human, age 43 – looks 55) is a frumpy, nervous man. He is the resident pianist for the Velvet Songbird. He is afraid of his overbearing wife Catrine. Their three children (ages 8-15) bully him. He loves going to work to get away from the torment of home.
Lumpy’s father is Bullit Tenthook (Human fighter/rogue, age 103), a famous adventurer and member of the Pathfinder organization. Lumpy has done everything in his power to keep his father quiet, but he sits outside (either in front of the house or in Finchtown Square) and tells everyone tales of his adventures. He forgets a lot of things…or does he. The Westcrown government found out who he is recently, but feels that he is going to die soon. A deranged old geriatric isn’t a threat to them.
17. Bonice Residence:
This is a well kept one story house with a beautiful flower garden in front. Rayk Bonice and his three daughters Pearl (16), Ruby (18) and Jade (19) live in a house that is a memorial to Rayk’s dead wife. Rayk works all day at the docks to support his girls. In front of him they are perfect little angels, but as soon as he leaves they indulge in as much vice as they can handle. Pregnancies have been prevented with magical abortions. They have all overdosed on drugs at least once. Pearl is a thief. Ruby sells hallucinogenic drugs, and doesn’t pay taxes. Jade organizes diabolical little schemes to defraud someone such as: sleeping with a married man only to blackmail him, having neighbor kids getting hit by horses and demanding payment, etc…
18. Animali Exotique:
This two story building is it’s own miniature zoo. It has pens on the outside on both sides. It has 20 cages of all different sizes hanging on all sides of the building filled mostly by finches and strange birds. It is an exotic pet store. The proprietors are two eccentric sisters (human) who love animals. The store started off just selling songbirds, but has grown with the two weird women to carry all manner of domesticated (and sometimes not) animals. They purchase most of their animals from druids and rangers. They keep the dangerous and illegal animals in the basement.
Haripan and Charipan Hunanini live upstairs amongst their animals. They are obsessed with three things: animals, gardening (they take care of the whole of Finchtown Square almost on their own), and their fallen noble family.
19. Finchtown Square & Hellknight’s Prowess Statue:
Finchtown Square is the center of Finchtown and where the neighborhood residents meet and hold festivals. It has many trees and benches. Finchtown Square is filled with beautiful songbirds in the spring through fall. It is a well known place to visit for courting couples.
Finchtown Square also acts as a hub for the local businesses as most will have an entrance on both the main street and the square. The gem of the square is the entrance to The Burning Temple of Asmodeus, which is often a tourist destination.
Hellknight’s Prowess is a statue of a Hellknight holding a woman’s severed head. It is a 20 foot tall bronze behemoth in the center of Finchtown Square. Behind it is the community’s well, and at the statue’s base is a plaque that simply reads, “Hellknight’s Prowess: To Commemorate the Finchtown Riot.” Once a month a group of Hellknights come to the square to polish the statue and flex their muscle for the once rebellious neighborhood. The residents know to stay out of their way, but the visitors are not as wise.
20. Dottari Station F:
This is a two story building with a fortress-like façade. It is painted in the black and crimson of most Westcrown government buildings. The Station boasts flags for Cheliax, Westcrown and Finchtown. Although the building is not officially in Finchtown, it has always associated itself with the neighborhood.
The top floor is used for the higher ranking guards and investigators. It is an open space filled with desks. There is an enclosed office in the back reserved for the district captain, Dontei Mhartis.
When one walks into the entrance into the 1st floor they are greeted by a large intimidating desk. Behind the desk is a large open area filled with desks and low level guardsmen. In the back is a large locked area that is the armory.
The basement has two levels. The first sublevel is filled with interrogation rooms, a small torture chamber, and the employee lounge. The second sublevel is filled with the holding cells and is twice the length of the building. Some people have been down there for a long time. There are rumors that there are secret tunnels running from some of the cells to the sewers.
This city guard station has around 70 guards in its employ. It is a bustling building with roughly 30 guardsmen in it at any given time. All the other stations, and some locals, refer to the station F guardsmen teasingly as “finchies.”
Dontei Mhartis is the nephew of the mayor and brother of the leader of all the Dottari. He has always looked up to his brother and wanted to follow in his footsteps, but he is a f!&+ up and a scoundrel. He is now a sad middle aged man who hates his job. He spends most of his days in his office wasting other guardsman’s time with jibber-jabber. He does zero police work.
It is Rork Hammerhand (Dwarf fighter) who actually runs the Station. His desk is right next to Dontei Mhartis’ office. He is a tough cop and love, love, loves upholding the law to the letter. He also dabbles in diabolism.
21. Toredo Fish Co.:
This is an open fronted shack that is filled with troughs of questionably edible fish. The proprietor, Alvedi Toredo (Human merchant, brother of Duga Toredo), is a mean spirited fat guy who is always eating/covered in fish. He has two hafling slaves (Tibolt and Garie) that he beats in public and normally keeps chained to his waist – not because they would escape, but because he likes to keep an image of himself as a mean dude of Cheliax. Alvedi doesn’t really care so much about the fish business. He is much more interested in secretly selling drugs, even though it would probably be easier for him to just apply for a license. Deep down he is actually a sweet man who treats his slaves with respect in private.
There is a small latched cellar door in the back of the shack that Alvedi used to throw the fish guts, but now is occupied by an elven soothsayer whose name ironically is Omun Soothsayer. He keeps to the foul cellar only leaving occasionally to gather water. He is known to the neighborhood, but only the fearless actually approach him.
22. Alvedi Toredo Residence:
This is a small one story house connected to the back of Toredo Fish Co. It is a stinky, dirty place. Alvedi is a giant fat man who never wears a shirt and is always covered in fish guts. His house definetly reflects this. He is and forever shall be a bachelor. He has a small basement that is its own apartment for his halfling slaves Tibolt and Garie. They have it set up super swanky and try not to let Alvedi go down there.
here is the corresponding map. (it is in the ankle of the boot that is westcrown)
hopefully it doesn't break any rules, but if it does feel free to delete this post :)