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Just to let you know, I've had this in mind for a while. My group finished Book 1 this weekend, so this will now go into my planning process.
Yup, my group just started Book Two in earnest a week ago, and this stuff is already been planned to proceed in the storyline, though I'm switching it up a little by putting a hobgoblin emissary in with Hargulka, since the reason why he's doing what he's doing in my AP involves him being recruited into the Red Hand (with invasion slotted for Book Three) . . .
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My PCs are in this part of the adventure right now, and they've managed to get basically every denizen of the Narlmarches and Kamelands on their side. The Lizardmen got involved in a civil war, and the side that supported the PCs ended up winning, the Sootscales are long-time allies of theirs, and they've got tons of fey support.
My question is: what monsters are left for the trolls to recruit? I randomly rolled a couple of hydra encounters a few months back, so I've decided that they've got a hydra or two, and they've got those red kobolds (led by Tartuk!) as well. But without the lizards and without the Dancing Lady (who they also took care of), who's left?
I was thinking of giving them back Munguk, or another giant or two, and possibly a company of orcish cavalry mounted on elk. Is that going to be too much on top of 75-100 trolls and 200-300 kobolds?
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In my game the PCs recruited practically everyone on their side. So I didn't add anyone. The reward for being good guys is that the badguys end up outnumbered by a lot. A couple of troll armies are pretty challenging for the armies the PCs can muster with their BP at the end of Book 2.
If the PCs feel like big ass heroes then you've done your job as the GM. The personal combats in Hargulka's stronghold will be challenging enough. I put the army stuff in Book 2 basically as a tutorial/training ground for mass combats later (book 4 & book 5).
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My group starts on Hargulka's lair tomorrow. He'll have a few Lizardfolk allies inside since the party made a point of obliterating nearly everyone on that island - the hunting parties out at the time were the only survivors. They weren't exactly unbiased when Hargulka offered them the chance at revenge. Rigg will be in there somewhere as well, with two or three more levels under his belt.
Everyone else though - including the ex-Dancing Lady, after Rigg's attempt to bring her back to life didn't work the way he intended - they've allied with.
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First half of Hargulka's Lair ran last night. Party got inside easy thanks to lousy coinflips for the troll in the tower, despite both the magus and oracle rolling negative Stealth. The oracle using silence to cover their approach helped as well.
Added several lizardfolk archers to the troll groups, but the party steamrolled over them for the most part. The trolls at least took a beating, and could give one back in return if they rolled well.
The rogue got hammered back down the stairs in the feast room after she popped out of stealth to hit the troll there for a 70-point sneak-crit. He had a grip on the table already when she appeared, and replied to her attack by slamming the stone table into her - shattering it against her and the wall in the process - nailing her for 40+ points in return and throwing her back into the first room. Then the dragon breathed into the room and the magus launched a fireball and it was pretty much downhill from there.
The rogue was awesome yet again in the barracks, she downed her potion of invisibility and snuck up to the two trolls to tinker with their ballistae - which they were holding in their laps at the time, aimed at the door and waiting for someone to appear - and rigged them both to misfire before they noticed she was there. They pulled the triggers when the magus came around the corner just after; one shot went wild into the wall, the other popped back and smacked the troll in the face for a crit fumble card (confused 2 rounds). The samurai then tore them apart, while the rest of the party got swarmed by Nagrundi's Trollhounds.
Nagrundi, at that, I made a 3rd level Barbarian [Invulnerable Rager, True Primitive] on top of his normal stats to account for my party's higher level. In particular, I gave him the Lesser Hurling rage power. He tossed a trollhound at the magus in his first round, nailing him for a nasty crit, and tore the Oracle's Fire Elemental to pieces in the same round it appeared. He was still kicking after the two trolls in the barracks and the three trollhounds were all dead, and didn't go down until the entire party ganged up on him, and nearly took the Barbarian/Cavalier and Samurai with him.
Next week is Rigg (now a 10th-level Rogue [Assassin]) and Kargadd (now Barbarian 5), followed by the throne room encounter - Hargulka (Fighter 7, Mythic Champion 1), his Advanced Giant Trollhound, and Enlort (a 6th level Invoker, similar to the 3.5 Warlock). After that will be the Owlbear Colossus battle as Hargulka's death triggers the activation of its ring and Nyrissa sends it marching toward their capital.
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Also for your amusements: the paranoia of my oracle player.
You realize how the Hargulka fight is probably going to look?
Elegy’s the very reserved and ladylike one in battle, and she’s been visibly showing signs of DO NOT WANT the entire dungeon...doesn’t want to be here, honestly terrified of dying a second time...and she’s only cast like...four spells of her daily allotment at this point.
It’s going to look like she’s just absolutely lost it and is venting every frustration, minor or major, deserved or not, on him in a flurry of eldritch energies from the best dressed berserker.
This just amuses me.
...
So is Elegy just being paranoid about not using any of her resources?
We’re gonna get to the end, Hargulka’s pulling a Wizard of Oz and is a mite behind the curtain...everyone glares at Elegy for still having all her spells for...that. The Hargulka we saw way back a year ago is a major image effect. After all, we never did interact with him...he could ostensibly be under a constant illusion...and most of the trolls could have a terrible will save and never see through it.
This right here is why I don’t adventure design.
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Just wanted to pop in and say how much I love everything you all are adding to an already great adventure! Giving me great ideas as I just begin my preparations for running Kingmaker.
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And, at long last, it's done.
The finale was a MASSIVE showdown. The party not only lured out Hargulka, Enlort, and his Hound, but Kargadd (who in addition to his five levels of Barbarian [jotunkin], also had the dreadnaught template from Silverthorn's Book of Templates) and Rigg all at once by the Rogue trying to shoot Enlort (and being foiled by an illusion - the Invoker's dusk step spell combines invisibility with a minor image of the caster left behind in their place, muahahahah) and the Oracle blasting Kargadd's room with an order's wrath at the same time.
Kargadd got in a crit-confirmed-Felling Strike confirmed on the first attack, forcing a DC 40-something save-or-die from the Samurai, and Rigg a couple of rounds later pounced and finally got a successful Death Attack on a PC by nixxing the Rogue. Thankfully the Oracle was able to breath of life both of them ASAP, and easily blew the caster check on Rigg's True Death out of the water. It took the party quite some time to take Kargadd apart, and he was hitting back for pretty massive damage the whole time. About halfway through his rampage Hargulka finally came around the corner and we got this amazing exchange:
Hargulka: *sees a satyr-looking swordsman, a snake-man swordsman, a dragon, a giant white spider with a blue snowflake on its back, and a thing that looks like an elven woman covered in a cloak of leaves* "I don't know who the lot of you are but you are NOT welcome in my lair! Prepare to be crushed!!"
Of course, he recognized the Magus's sword shortly after, and despite going white-haired and extremely pale (from her more Romani look as a human) the Duchess's human form still had the same basic physical features, so it didn't take Hargulka long to realize exactly who he was fighting and get into the battle with more gusto. He gleefully ripped PCs down to near-death with a few full-attacks and one very nasty Vital Strike Crit that nearly KO'd the Magus, while Enlort picked away at the party with his summoned swarm (Invokers can throw their Blast attack through their swarm, and thus avoid dismissing their invisibility while still attacking! Muhahahhaahhahah!!) and Rigg attempted a few more Death Attacks that never panned out.
The turning point was when the Oracle made her one big hostile spellcasting rather than just plinking away with her crossbow or eldritch bolt or healing people. She called up a holy ice spell, Primal Manipulated it into Acid, and hurled the entire thing in spear mode at Hargulka point-blank, and rolled near max damage. He went from smug to stunned in about three seconds flat. About this time Enlort whispered "Long Live the King!" in his ear, just loud enough the nearby PCs could hear, then went invisible and fled to Thousand Voices. He'll show up again, much higher level and leading Nyrissa's gang of changeling children (the sons and daughters of her male minions - Staggy, Hargulka, the guy from Varnhold, my Irovetti stand-in, my Choral stand-in, and any others I might be forgetting and didn't remove) in Thousandbreaths.
The second session of the finale ended with his death, then Nyrissa speaking through his severed head (then exploding it in a fireball of half acid/half electricity - that combo, and the green lightning it's associated with, has kind of become her calling card) that injured the party and killed Rigg (who voluntarily failed his save to avoid being further tortured by the Rogue and her cold-iron dagger - she was deliberately making a point of NOT killing him). They then hear the rumblings and run outside to see the troll army dispersing and their own army staring dumbfounded at a castle-sized Owlbear stomping off through the woods toward their castle.
BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!
The party determined they were too battered to pursue and that the thing would not be able to reach the city overnight, and chose to rest. The Oracle healed up the party as much as needed, then spent the rest of her spells healing soldiers. Come morning, they gathered up their caster NPC allies - Chief Sootscale (retooled as a Tarn Linnorm Sorc, after the defeat and death of Tartuk he took issues into his own hands and retrained to become his tribe's own darned shaman), Cesca the Beldame's apprentice (witch), Akiniyi the Arachne Diplomat (Divine Sorc), Perlivash (now with levels in Maestro Sorc), Tyg (Daredevil Bard), and Ledipte (a sprite Magus I added to the fey duo) - and came up with a plan to climb/fly up to the beast's head and ritually disrupt or dismiss the Queen of Forgotten Time's rune on its forehead while General Jaekah and his +1 sundering adamantine greataxe took care of the ring of the jabberwock's rage on its claw.
The plan worked out about as well as intended, really. Jaekah smashed at the ring, which first attacked back with acid/lightning eye rays then used Nyrissa's hair inside to mimic a black tentacles when Jaekah broke through the first layer of the ring. The rest of the party found themselves confronted with a pair of green Will-o-Wisps called Eyes of the Queen, given acid and electricity resistance and the ability to cast acid/electric lightning bolts and fireballs a few times. They managed to do some decent damage to the party before being eradicated, and then Elegy nailed the rune with a break enchantment and beat Nyrissa's caster level DC (which I believe was 35?) with a close-but-not-quite roll boosted by a sudden surge of Mythic power.
Nyrissa herself - or as Puck refers to her in the journal, the Lady of the Glowing Floaty Head - appeared in another disembodied-spectral-head of green light to berate and chastise the party just in time for the Rogue Lilith to finish climbing up the Talonquake's chest and toss one of her elixir of improbability-filled arrowheads down its gullet. At the exact same time, Jaekah dealt the final blow to the ring, shattering it and dismissing Nyrissa's influence over the massive owlbear.
For the elixir - a long-standing super-alchemical item I use in my games, almost always made when the alchemist is intoxicated or otherwise not in full control of their faculties and still chooses to work their craft; Lilith for example was blind drunk when she made it - I roll on the rod of wonder charts from the core plus the Variant Rods 3pp book. It came up "leaves grow all over the target", but since Jaekah broke the ring at the same time I decided the surge of Nyrissa's magic being scattered supercharged it.
The Talonquake is now a nearly-300-foot-tall super-tree vaguely shaped like a gigantic owlbear with a tree growing out of its upward-pointing beak, standing one hex southwest of the Lizardfolk Island. Lilith has claimed it as her demesne, and is calling in Bokken (a druid in my game) to help her make it habitable without damaging the living wood.
That's it. RRR is finally over, after about nine months in the running. It's been an amazing and wild ride. The players are taking at least a year of well-deserved downtime, which gives me a chance to give the Duchess her promotion, introduce Varn and the other colony/charter lords, toss in the neglected Malzagorda Niska plot-hook (and its attendant Armagk foreshadowing), and then take a break for one of my players to run a two- or three-week one shot before diving into VV.
I can't thank DMD enough for all the inspiration, ideas, tricks, traps, suggestions, recommendations, and assistance he's provided in this thread. My players thought the entire thing was a blast, and the one who's played through KM vanilla before kept praising all the changes made and echoing how much they improved the flow of the entire chapter. I owe ya big for this one, and it's been a blast. I'll probably be borrowing liberally from your VV thread as well, now that I'm there, so looking forward to browsing that one again in more detail in preparation for the fun to come.
My one regret is that I've set the bar so high with Hargulka and the Talonquake that it's going to be a challenge to make sure Vordekai, Armagk, my replacements for Irovetti and Choral, and everything in So1kS measures up.
Keep on rocking, Dudemeister.
Huzzah!!
Can't wait.... what will it be?
I bet it will be more greatness from the DM!
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Good stuff. I especially like the Erastil worshipers - I will probably steal that for my game, since my players' kingdom will almost certainly have a different dominant religion (PC cleric of Cayden, PC druid, others not very religious).
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Hi Dudemeister, wanted to say thanks for this.
I've run it several month ago and my players really enjoyed the whole monstrous kingdom theme.
But, my players handled it differently in the end:
The encountered the wondering giant and befriended him and convinced him to lead them to Hargulka's base. The size of his force did not deter the party and they did not even consider raising an army.
The wizard PC went in flying invisible as they noticed a gathering beneath the cave opening. The gist was the some of the trolls were not happy with Hargulka gathering forces and wanted to raid some farms for food. Hargulka shut the dissenters down but the party wasn't convinced it'll hold.
They decided to make a risky move and sneak into the lair using flight to come from above the entrance in the early hours of the morning (risky cause if things went south they would have to fight their way out, with no fly and only one invisibility). As they rested before the attack, a party of trolls went past them and headed north, the party didn't like that but wanted to keep their strength for Hargulka, they'll track the trolls later; and at any rate they sent a message to Tatzalfod to be prepared.
Needles to say the fought their way through the lair and killed Hargulka, but by the time they finished him, it was already morning and the camp beneath the lair was stirring awake.
They decided on a scare tactic: they took hargulka and the rock troll's head and placed it on spears, and went out just outside the door. The party's cleric (with high diplomacy and intimidate) started a speach on how they killed their leader and they should all move away before they kill all of them, etc. etc.. for good measure, the a silent image of a silver dragon was added to the mix. I asked for several Diplomacy and Intimidate rolls and the player even used a Hero Point at some point to increase the score. Good role-playing and good rolls got the trolls to scatter.
They got some responsible NPCs to lead the captures slaves to their capital city (the closest one) and started to track the group trolls they saw splitting off last night. The chase was on and at one point they caught up with them and attacked.. this scattered the bunch of trolls but still some headed towards the farms (they sent a message to their people at the capital to recruit a small militia and get quickly to the farms). Some more chases, and finally less than a mile from the farms, they caught up with the other trolls and killed them all.
Of course, as they were celebrating (and celebrated) this feat, a breathless rider came and recounted the horrors of the attack on their capital by an enormous owlbear...
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I'm so glad people are still enjoying this.
I've been holding off on releasing my notes for Steampunk Pitax, because we're playing it right now and I want my players to just relish being the first and only group to deal with that for a while.
I hope people put up more play reports about Hargulka's monter kingdom for years.
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Having just finished the campaign tonight (after 3 years of gaming) I was asking my players to say what had stood out to them most, and recall some of the moments of it they remember most fondly (both good and bad), almost universally the part they all mentioned was fighting 'King Hargulka' and his trolls.
From the unexpected meeting at the feast to trying to rescue the prisoners from him and the desperate battles against his army with their fledging military. The even named the only surviving army of the battles against him 'The Troll Slayers' and made Profession: Brewer rolls after he was defeated at the time to create a brand new beer they called 'Trollsbane Beer'. They put up statues to commemorate the victory and made it one of the kingdoms yearly holidays (Burnt Troll Day :P), all in all, I just wanted to say thank you again for the additions you put up for this AP and the inspiration you provided, it really stood out and added a lot to their memories of it, so from my players and I, thank you DM :)
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My group has been playing KM since 2012. They absolutely loved the Hargulka story line I borrowed from you.
But, they're about to enter Armag's tomb and will be ready for book 5 soon. We need your Pitax conversion DM! We needs it!
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My group just began a finally wrap-up of the Stolen Lands. There is a lot of political stuff happening right now in my game but...
Noleski Surtova (a Warrior-King, part of the reason it has been so hard to get others to recognize him as King, his diplomacy skills are not overly sharp, and most of his schemes were spurred by his sister) was poisoned at the betrothal ceremony in Restov for Ioseph Sellemius (not just the Lord Mayor but the Sword Baron in my campaign as well) and Lady Alexis Orlovsky (daughter of Lord Poul Orlovsky, who is the epitome of a politician in all ways). While the party was out in the Stolen Lands, the King/Lord Regent died which sparked a violent retaliation by the Surtovas blaming Restov, and Lord Orlovsky met with Natala Surtova, switched sides and was named Lord Regent.
The remaining Swordlords fled to the Stolen Lands, trying to rally around an old border keep (replacement for Oleg's Trading Post), the current man poised to become Sword Baron who wants to strike back at the Surtova is none other than Maegar Varn (a non-aldori trained Swordlord, basically an Urban Barbarian, that challenged and killed another Swordlord inheriting his position). Unknown to Lord Varn, the Lady Alexis Orlovsky carried with her the charter (last will and testament of the Lord Mayor/Sword Baron Ioseph Sellemius) passing part of his estate and the authority of the Stolen Lands to the party.
We will see how they deal with Lord Varn... but the Stag Fort was never dealt with; a large army of bandits (the Stag Bandits were far more organized and larger influence in the Greenbelt) appeared charging for the convoy, only for the group to realize that they were being chased by an army of wolves. The PC poised to be the new ruler, managed to convince them to turn on the wolves and lead the convoy forces into a flank attack. The surviving bandits (lead by Falgrim Sneed, who is a disgraced and exiled Swordlord form rival of Kesten Garess, who is a young Swordlord) were given amnesty and joined the "expedition" after the battle.
The group just learned that a monstrous troll has been self-styled the Troll King and is trying to smash out a monstrous kingdom in the southern Greenbelt, he chased the bandits out of the Stag Fort by ripping off the heads of their current leaders (a vile druid that keeps talking about his "Green Goddess" and Dovan of Nisroch) and fed them to a two-headed monstrosity. Thus the party has been introduced to this storyline as they begin Rivers Run Red+ (or Act II: There Will Be Blood of my campaign).
Ironically they keep trying to make Sense Motive checks against Falgrim, as they think the whole thing is made up!
Thank you, Dudemeister!
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Sounds cool to me =) I personally liked the idea that Hargulka was more of the brawn behind the thing (though not without some cunning himself) and that Nyrissa and Enlort, the Invoker "court mage" I added, were the brains. But having Hargulka be the mastermind can be equally interesting. Let us know how it goes =)
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I was thinking of adding a green hag with some bard levels (savage skald archetype) as Hargulka's personal advisor/diplomat. Although I kinda like the idea of making Hargulka some kind of leader-type as well.
Weird question: What do you guys think Hargulka looked like as a kid?
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2) I'm definitely leaning toward Hargulka the Bard. How does it sound if I give him a low voice, with an impeccable English accent, and have him say things like, "Why, yes, you have your little kingdom. And soon, my followers and I shall invade, throw down your walls, enslave your children, and bake your bones into bread. Canape?"
Yes. All of the yes. You should definitely do this. Classy villains are always fun, especially if they're expected to act like a hulking monster.
For fun examples there's the line "You do know what those who underestimate tigers say don't you?"
"No, what?"
"Oh god help me I'm being mauled to death by a tiger."
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/954/shazamtawkyew6.jpg
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1) I need to set up Hargulka's kigndom. I'd like to have more there besides trolls and his human slaves. So .. um ... what other critters are likely to hang out with Hargulka? Ogres? Giants? Orcs? Goblins? Lawyers?
A couple of hill giants wouldn't be out of place, a forest giant or two either.
Definitely goblins. Maybe a few hobgoblin commanders.
How did your PCs do in negotiations/etc. with Vesket and the lizardfolk? If poorly or things broke down to hostilities, put some lizardfolk in Hargulka's bands.
Weird question: What do you guys think Hargulka looked like as a kid?
A pyromaniac troll kid.
Someone like this!
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Haha, maybe wielding a two-by-four that says "hooman crusher" on it?
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My players haven't encountered the Lizardfolk yet. I actually tossed out almost all the RRR sidequests in favor of GM specials. I'm not even sure my players have noticed the lack of sidequest cards. They've been quite busy with fairies and with interspecies politics.
I think the Lizardfolk was the only one I ran unchanged. I did minor rewrites/tweaks to the Lonely Barrow and the Dancing Lady, and completely revamped Candlemere and Howl-of-the-North-Wind. I ended up forgetting about Kundal - I still don't know if I'll ever do anything with him - and delaying the Gyronna Cult event til between CH2 and 3, also greatly adjusted.