Hello, Moonbeam, since you’re about to start the fourth installment of this AP, I’m letting you know what I have planned for it. Warning, there are many spoilers ahead.
So here’s an overview of my version of A History of Ashes. This adaptation is not meant to diminish the merits of the original adventure. I just allow myself to be inspired by all the great things Paizo has published, using what I feel fits my group best.
- I’m starting the adventure with a great escape from the city. Kalepopolis has been freed, and since he is an ex-marine of the Sable Company, he wants the PCs to help him free the hippogryphs from the Great Tower. They also use the flying mounts to escape the city in style.
- The PCs will then stop at Harse and travel to Janderhoff to negotiate with the dwarves. Depending on the result they can secure the dwarves’ sympathy or aid in harboring fugitives, providing weapons for the resistance or even promising to provide military aid if necessary. The PCs will also be able to do some magic trading in the city.
- The PCs make for Kaer Maga. While travelling up the halflight path, they are attacked by a Red Mantis assassin and some half-orc hirelings. In the city they can also do some magic trading, visit an augur and pick up the first rumors that the Shoanti are massing for war.
- The PCs hike into the Cinderlands to visit the Skoan-Quah. They meet Krojun of the Sklar-Quah, who is here to summon all able-bodies warriors to war. After an innocent game of Sredna and the Bone Council, Krojun challenges the PCs to an alternative version of the Burn Run. They have to outrun a stampede of aurochs through a small canyon.
- Afterwards Thousand-Bones invites the PCs to sit with him and the council in a steam hut, where they lose consciousness and visit the spirit world. The Shoanti spirits approve of the PCs and grant them a vision of what might happen if the Shoanti attack Korvosa. After the vision one of the PCs is briefly contacted by someone else who has also entered the spirit world and who is seeking aid. He is the son of the Quahjothka (clan chief) of the Sklar-Quah and he needs help in Urgir, the capital of orc infested Belkzen.
- To be able to get into Urgir, the PCs need a token from one of the orc chiefs. They negotiate with chief Kroghut of the tribe of the Broken Spine and are given a mission to obtain a token. The PCs have to pay a visit to one of Kroghut’s subordinates who has gone incommunicado, only to find out that his village has been plundered by harpies (a reprisal for the theft of one of the harpies’ bracers). The PCs defeat the harpies and free the surviving orcs, which gets them a token from the Broken Spine tribe.
- The adventure in Urgir is based on a Dungeon adventure, “In the Shadows of Spinecastle” from Dungeon # 148. The Shoanti they are looking for is a spy in the city who has disappeared. The PCs have to suffer the maltreatment of the orcs while searching for the Shoanti spy. When they finally locate his home, they discover his diary, in which they find clues to trace him to old, secret underground dwarven crypts. The PCs enter the complex and fight the rogue Pathfinder Arnois Belzig and his orc allies, who are searching for an old dwarven artifact (a key that opens some doors in the city that cannot be opened without it). The Pathfinder has captured the Shoanti spy, who came snooping for the key as well, thinking it might aid him in his spying business. The PCs free the Shoanti and flee the city.
- The PCs return to the Skoan-Quah, where most warriors have already left to join the Shoanti army. The village is attacked by the Red Mantis, who traced the PCs to this place and have been awaiting their return (it also makes more sense for them to attack the village when its warriors have left).
- The PCs are joined by Thousand Bones when they travel to the place where the Shoanti army is gathering for war. Their past deeds (especially saving the leading chief's son) are sufficient to grant them an audience with the war council. They learn that the Shoanti are gathering an army of over 4,000 warriors and shamans (including rocs and mastodons) and are planning to leave for the plains of Korvosa in two weeks, when all their allies have arrived. In their negotiations the PCs have two objectives: learning what the Shoanti know about the great evil in the mastaba and buying more time before the army goes to war.
I’m also planning on skipping ‘Skeletons of Scarwall’ in favor of returning to Korvosa and aiding the resistance while looking for the burial grounds of the old Shoanti ally of Mandraivus, whose bones they will have to infuse with the breath of life (given to them by the Sklar-Quah sunshaman). He will then tell them how to combat the evil from the mastaba (instead of going through Scarwall to get a sword).
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Oh wow, that is indeed a very different story than the one written! Good job on coming up with all of these ideas! I like how you got inspiration from the Pathfinder journal, nice touch.
I like your idea about the hippogriffs as well, unfortunately it's too late for me to use it in my campaign. :(
I think there's some potential for fun in Kaer Maga, however in my case, the group bypassed Kaer Maga entirely by using some Dimension Doors to go up the Storval Rise directly. They've avoided any interaction in Harse, Sirathu and Kaer Maga. Boy am I glad I didn't spend too much time brainstorming for events to happen in those cities, only to have to throw that material in the garbage. :)
For the part about being attacked in the halflight path in Kaer Maga, how are you planning on convincing them to take that approach rather than the regular path into Kaer Maga? Eando Kline took that part because he likes exploring, but when given the choice between something boring and uneventful, and something exciting which the GM spent hours preparing, PCs are always sure to take the boring choice. :)
I'm also curious to see what you'll do with the 5th adventure.