Caleb T. Gordan's Varnhold Vanishing

[CalebTGordan]

Parts 1 and 2 didn't need very many changes. I mostly added more NPCs and included Tales of Margreve elements.

I am starting VV soon and I am going to have a few changes to it.

Starting Part 3 Out
In part 1, in the sidebar about the other groups sent out to found nations they had Meager Varn as a low level but eager to please sword lord. In Part 3, they changed things altogether and had him be pretty far off from a swordlord. I had already established him as an NPC using the information from Part 1, so I stuck to that. Because I have a PC who is a swordlord, the two have a connection and are on good terms.

In the couple of years since the founding of Varnhold, Varn hasn't been doing very well. At first, he tried to war with the centaurs to force them out of the area. When he lost too many men he made a deal with them. He would pay them a monthly tribute to stay in the Duunsward and not attack any of his colonists. Unfortunatly, the little war also cost him more time and money than he had.

The swordlords loaned him resources and money in hopes that he would be able to found a city like the PCs did. This wasn't the case, as he proved to be as much as failure of running a city as he was in winning wars. After two years, the swordlord found themselves in a tough political situation as Sutova began moving troops and started calling their debts.

Nearly bankrupt, with little actual land claimed, and desperate, he offers to sell the PCs land. The 24 hexes west of the Tors de Levenies for 12 BP. He travels personally to present the deal.

The Meeting
Meager Varn, Willas Gundarson, Caspar Morgarion, and Howitt Gurney travel to the capital of the PC's to present the offer. They haven't yet explored West of the mountains, so they don't have maps yet. They are also hoping to gain some council and ideas on how to further expand their own kingdom. They hope that the new ally will also be able to provide further financial aid should things turn south again.

Willas Gundarson will end up slipping that he is searching for treasure. He knows that there are ruins and lost treasure in the area, but hasn't yet found anything. He will probably ask a PC for some tips on how best to find some.

Caspar Morgarion, the Varnhold cleric of Erastil, will have a jolly old time with Jhod and be very excited about the old temple in the woods, promising to come visit more often because of it.

Howitt Gurney, Varn's weapons master, will be interested in the weapons the party has and brings a few of his own as a gift.

Inserting Nyrissa
One of the party members is already an agent of the Eldest and was charged to find Briar and the missing protector. Three agents of Nyrissa have been taken down and on each was an iron ring wrapped and fused with green hair. Also, the Staglord and Hargulka talked about "Her" openly.

The PCs are very aware of Nyrissa and on the lookout for her. One is even forming a secret group to seek her out and find ways to battle her.

In this part, she is going to be more subtle and offer Willas a clue to a treasure that will greatly help Varnhold. This ends up being Vordakai's tomb, and the events surrounding the bracelet he finds are the same as in the book. She does this knowing that eventually the PCs will have to deal with him and that no matter the result she will have one less foe to worry about.

Giving the PCs Time
I am going to let the PCs have some time before the town of Varnhold vanishes. With 25 more hexes to explore, two missions within them, and several points of interest for them to travel to they have some good reasons to look east.

During that time they are going to be free to do kingdom building. One practice that I started doing was having an event or two each month that was more RP related to keep all the players involved. This would also give them opportunities to create policy and flesh out their kingdom more. Here are some of the events they will be seeing.

- Svetlana gives birth to twins and is unable to perform her duties for a month.
- The Church of Erastil is not pleased with the church of Calistria setting up churches in rural areas.
- Brevoy is cutting all ties, even ending their trade agreements. Economy takes a -1d6 penalty.
- Mivon is very pleased with how the rivers have opened up and send a representative to negotiate trade.
- The fey are willing to work out agreements to keep their homes safe.
- Daggermark sends representatives to welcome the new lords of Rosewyld.
- The aquatic fey are not pleased with the overfishing of the lakes and rivers.
- A division starts to appear within the citizenry about who the nation should support between King Survota or the Swordlords.
- Grigs have begun to cause issues with their pranks on the farmers in a single hex.
- One village has intentionally killed a family of brownies, causing outrage and a call for justice from the fey.

The Vanishing
This happens like it does in the book. A jade ring (mistaken as a bracelet because of its size,) is stolen and wakes up the lich Vordekai. He uses divination to find it and discovers the village of Varnhold. He eventually goes to the outskirts of the village. Using his artifact, the oculus of Abaddon, he magically called the entire town to him. He then trapped all of them within soul jars and teleported back to his lair.

The Town of Varnhold
It was much larger than the map shows, which is just the center of the town. Unfortunately, the spriggans burned or destroyed too much of the town to really explore anywhere else. Some of the buildings on the map are going to be burned out as well just to help sell the destruction.

So far, that is as far as I have thought out, as it is going to be a month or so before the group gets to the vanishing.

[Philip Knowsley]

Nice one Caleb. You've given me a few ideas for my own campaign...(as always...) :)

[CalebTGordan]

I decided to split Varnhold Vanishing into two parts.

Part one is per-vanishing and part two is the vanishing.

Pre-Vanishing
Besides the areas to explore there are going to be cave entrances hidden by waterfalls that empty into Lake Silverstep. In the Guide to the River Kingdoms by Paizo, there are some details about The Stolen Lands that are only found there. One of them is that there are caves at Lake Silverstep that go under the mountains.

These caves are going to be extensive but I haven't worked out exactly what will be in them.

There are also going to be three kingdoms along the shores of Lake Silverstep. One a fairy kingdom, one a Grigg kingdom, and one an Atomie kingdom. They argue over who has the Western shore.

[CalebTGordan]

Vanishing
This pretty much is going to be ran as it is in the book with one exception. I am going to go with the writer's original concept of the centaurs gaining their name from a valley they call in their language No Man Valley. They were originally given the name because they guarded over the valley of the dead to make sure that no man entered it and disturbed the slumbering evil within. They forgot over time why they were guarding it, but remembered that a nightmare of a creature named Vordakai dwelt there.

I also had crossing the Blood Furrows become a trial for the PCs to gain the centaur's trust.

I am going to change the Chulchek tribe a bit too. Their original caves were the smaller ones surrounding a much larger and deeper cave. Inside the larger cave is a Great Cyclopes, which they worshiped at first and then just paid tribute to keep it satisfied and calm. They abandoned the caves and moved into the abandoned fort to get away from the great cyclopes. This of course, enrages it when the PCs come poking around and wake it up.

Because I changed VV to have a BBEG tie in for the overall plot, I also changed the specter encounter in Vordakai's lair. There Gunnerson, now an undead and angry ghost, will attack the PCs like normal at the location given in the adventure. The change is that he will be yelling, "You betrayed me! You sent me here to find treasure and instead I found death!" and other such angry rants. Some of his yelling will hint closely to Nyrissa giving him a map that sent him to the island and promising that it leads to riches. Because all of her other agents had iron rings wrapped in green nymph hair, he too will wear such a ring.

Conclusion
I plan on the party discovering that Varn had a wife and son. The wife will have been killed, leaving the PCs to figure out what to do with the son and several other orphaned children they discover. Besides that, there will be some other problems for the party to deal with.

First, the centaurs do not wish to join the kingdom, and they take anyone claiming their lands as an act of war. The camp the party visits is actually just one portion of the whole Nomen tribe, and they are very experienced in war.

Second, Varn is going to need some serious rebuilding. Many of the more important and skilled people there were killed and looters took much that was there. While the spriggans may have moved in, they were not the only looters to pick the place over. There is also the mater of orphans that needs to be dealt with.

Lastly, a silver dragon is going to show up and demand to know what happened to his sibling. While silver dragons are good aligned, this one isn't going to be very happy to hear that the PCs do not have an answer and he will demand a tribute. There is a possibility that party may be able to convince this dragon to take up residence in the old silver dragon lair and become an ally.

I may have more custom encounters for VV. I will return and post them if I do.

[CalebTGordan]

My group has hippogriff mounts to fly them anywhere at this time. One personal change that I am going to put in is that the hippogriffs will refuse to fly over No Man Valley unless the rider succeeds at a DC 25 Handle Animal check. Because only one member of the party can possibly make that check, they will have to approach on foot.

[CalebTGordan]

I discovered that there is a lack of about 15,000 to 20,000 xp in part three to level the group up to 10. I decided to put a module into the caves and upon searching I found Crucible of Chaos. I will be adapting it to better fit, but there isn't much needed on the setting side of things. Most of the work preparing for it will be converting it Pathfinder.

First Impression:
The module takes place in the Tors de Levenes. The mountains are riddled with cave complexes, and while there are monsters in the caves there are not very many tribes. The caves do not lead to the Darklands. They do hold many, many ancient cyclopes ruins. One of the lost ruins was a large cavern, with an open top that allowed the sun to come in. The cavern is heated by geothermal vents and water comes in from underground rivers. A few of these rivers flow to Silverstep lake.

Inside this cavern lays the setting of Crucible of Chaos. This location has been free of discovery for so long because the heat of the vents causes the top opening to be covered in clouds for so long, and the cave complexes are maze like. The lizardfolk and the shoggoth venture into the caves occasionally and prevent any dangerous threats from setting up a lair. They know the nearby caves well enough to avoid being lost, and spending a week in the caves is considered a coming of age ritual for the lizardfolk.

The compass will be in Vordakai's possession. It was in Varn's possession, but he thought it was just an antique compass. It was drained of magic until Vordakai took it and recharged it, recognizing that was a ancient magic item from the runes ringing around the outside of it. His own notes on it will hint that it is supposed to point toward "home" instead of north, and that a second needle indicates that the distance to that location puts it in the nearby Tors.

[CalebTGordan]

More special kingdom events that I have added to my list:

Tradesmen are enjoying the roads that span the young kingdom, but so are the highwaymen. (Most of the smaller highwaymen are able to be tracked and handled by the marshal and his men, but he needs additional resources of 1BP and men to capture a particularly dangerous man that has killed several town guards.)

While most of the fey and intelligent "monsters" have aligned themselves to the kingdom, there are some that refuse to recognize the kingdom's claim to the area and instead claim to follow a different queen. (This is causing some unrest in the kingdom. There is concern that this fey queen could have agents and aligned fey to her rise up and harm the kingdom at anytime. 1 unrest from kingdom wide worry.)

Bandit activity is very low, but there are still some attacks along the edges of the kingdom. (The general wishes to handle it himself, as his men need to test themselves. He desires 1BP worth of resources to hunt the bandits and attack them at their base.)

The church of Abadar seeks to build a temple bank in the main city. (+5 to economy for two months if this is done in the next month.)

Merchants are petitioning to open up the rivers and make them more safe for river boats and trade. (Someone needs to investigate the possibility of locks and bypasses to bring river trade to Restov. DC 20 survival or Knowledge Geography check from the NPC. It takes one month to do the check.)

Fishermen are starting to crowd the lakes and rivers and need a place for their ships. (A waterfront needs to be built. 1 unrest for each month this doesn't happen.)

A division starts to appear within the citizenry about who the nation should support between King Survota or the Swordlords. (An offical decree needs to be made. DC 22 diplomacy check from the king needed to avoid 1 unrest.)

Small villages along the main roads are complaining about travelers bullying them and not paying for services. (1d4 unrest. Stability check and official action needed to avoid further unrest.)

Grigs have begun to cause issues with their pranks on the farmers in a single hex. (The farms in that hex cannot be used that month. An agent needs to be sent to deal with the matter. A DC 18 diplomacy check from the agent. Action takes one month.)

A group of craftsmen of all types wishes to have more space in the cities that they can work in. (More workshops are needed. If they are built in the next month the economy check gains a +5 bonus for a month.)

The aquatic fey are not pleased with the overfishing of the lakes and rivers. (1d4 unrest. An agent needs to be sent to talk to the fishermen. Official action needs to be taken as well. Loyalty check needed to avoid further unrest.)

The fey are not known to settle down or give into proposals of marriage, but there have been a few occasions recently of this happening. Some of the communities are looking down on this, while others are supportive. (Official statements are needed.)

Restov has been keeping its distance from the nation's politics, trying to avoid anything that could be considered conspiring or plotting. The Surtovas, on the other hand, have recently extended an invitation to talk about opening trade and peaceful relations. (An agent needs to be assigned to do the negotiations. They will need to succeed at a DC 25 diplomacy check. Success means they have favorable trade agreements and the kingdom gains a +2 to future economy checks. Failure means they are not able to come to a favorable agreement.)

Pitax is some ways away and does not have an easy route to the kingdom. Nonetheless, they have sent representatives and wish to discuss trade and diplomatic relationships. (This is actually a ruse. They want to insert spies into the kingdom. No favorable trade can be had.)

Not all of the fey are good and mostly harmless. Some of them are very deadly and settlers have already clashed with a few of them. (An agent needs to sent to find and identify the fey. Then action needs to be taken to deal with them. DC 20 Diplomacy or Nature to find all the dangerous fey. Finding them all takes 1d3 months. Dealing with them is up to the kingdom.)

A cabal of druids desires a meeting with the group. (A tree very sacred to their order needs to be moved and they desire a spot for it within the kingdom. It does not need to be in a forest hex.)

A courtier is acting oddly and has been spotted in areas she shouldn't be. (The courtier is Susan DeVau. If directly asked she claims she is embarrassed to admit that she is having a relationship with a guard. That is true, but she is also trying to find any dirt on the party to be used by Natala Surtova.)

Wandering, savage Cyclopes have been spotted in the mountains and a couple have taken out homesteads not yet under the kingdoms protection. The general wishes to go and handle the situation.

The treasury is missing some of its funds. (Lose 2d4 BP. There was a clerical mistake. An investigation into the matter is needed.)

A government official NPC is getting married to a young woman from a family of aristocrats. All is well.

Citizens are accusing each other of being followers of Gyronna. Most of the time there is no evidence to back these claims. (The cult has started to encourage this behavior. A few more of their vile children have been found, but besides that they are leaving no evidence. 1 unrest, Loyalty check to avoid 1d4 unrest.)

The church of Iomedae wishes to buy Kameland horses for their Calvary in Last Wall. (Automatically sell all Horse resources, Economy check to sell 1d3 more.)

Varnhold has finished scrapping many buildings they couldn't use anymore, resulting in 8 BP that can be used in that city. They desire a permanent building to house widows and orphans while they rebuild their life.

With a growing kingdom, comes both good and bad. (Happens a a kingdom size of 80.

The good: 750 gp monthly allowance to all government officials, 1000 gp to the king.

The bad: Everyone needs more help in doing their jobs, and as such there have been many unexpected new hires. Some of the people are not clear on their duties and as a result there have been mistakes and wasteful spending. 2d8 BP is lost as a result, some organization is needed.

The not so bad: The Kingdom has become known as an accepting place for people of all races and types, and as such small communities of unusual people have begun to pop up.

A considerable thieves guild is building up in Stagsfall. This organized crime organization is extorting, stealing, and conning people, mostly outsiders from other nations. (This is the work of a minor government official. Someone needs to investigate. Because she is close to the leaders, the DC to find her is 30)

The Hippogriff stables are being outgrown by the operation. A ranch is needed to handle the growth and training. (Lose access to the Hippogriff stables until the ranch is built. Ranch gives one medium good.)

The Spymaster desires to start branching his network out into neighboring kingdoms. He asks for a six month allowance of 5 BP per month for training and supplies. He promises to use some of the resources allotted to recruit already trained agents.

The Queen is pregnant!

The bandits are growing creative and a few merchants traveling through the kingdom have been pressed into paying illegal road tolls. Oddly, no farmers, adventurers, or common folk have been hassled by the bandits, and the bandits do not seem to stay in a particular area for more than a few days.

An adventuring party of halflings a have started to stir up the giants in the area. They have already killed two. The local farmers are protesting because they have been giving the giants a monthly gift of livestock in exchange for protection from deadly predators. One of the killed giants was a hill giant who had come to the area looking to raid the farms but ended up staying and becoming a valuable asset for the farms. The other is a stone giant that had wandered out of the mountains on some unknown quest. The party claims they were attacked first and that the giants had stolen livestock, while the farmers claim the livestock was given to the giants and that the party has been looking for trouble.

Goblins have been spotted in the area, mostly at small junk piles, but a few recent fires are making the locals fear the goblins are going to be trouble.

Varnhold has become home to several Swordlords fleeing a possible war. They have brought their families with them, and as a result they are asking for an established school or academy to educate their children and teach them the traditions of Aldori swords fighting.

The high priest want to establish just a single city district around the Temple of Erastil.

Monster attacks are down but the marshal wants to establish a dedicated party to investigate and hunt the more dangerous monsters. He desires a one time payment of 20 BP that will pay for initial training and equipment. He hopes to fund future training and equipment with any treasure found in monster lairs.

[Daronil]

Love this stuff, Caleb. I especially like the idea of tipping the PCs into "Crucible of Chaos". I'm always on the lookout for how to incorporate modules into APs - so far, I've managed to fit "Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale" and "Realm of the Fellnight Queen", but I hadn't thought of CoC until you mentioned it.

[Rickmeister]

"Carnival of Tears" is working out VERY nicely!

[CalebTGordan]

I decided not to do Realm of the Fellnight Queen because I didn't wish to confuse my players. I had set up Nyrissa very well by the time they would have been able to run through it, and I felt two nymph queens would have just been too much.

I totally missed Bloodsworn Vale, which looks like something I could have actually used early on.

Carnival of Tears is a bit too far into the horror theme for me, and I think it would have detracted from my campaign. I do plan on looking it over for inspiration when it comes to building my Witchmarket adventure I plan on inserting between parts four and five.

[Daronil]

I'm actually thinking of running RotFQ and doing my damndest to make sure Rhonwen escapes at the end, because I like her better than Nyrissa...if she does, I'll simply swap out Nyrissa for a more advanced version of Rhonwen as the BBEG.

[Rickmeister]

I like it. Maybe they are sisters, lovers, or something. She escaping would trigger certain hate aspects ;)

[CalebTGordan]

If this is going to turn into a discussion on how to use Fellnight queen, could we move it to a discussion about that? I don't mean to be rude, but I do have a few more things to add here and none of it is about modules I wont be using in my game.

For my thoughts on Nyrissa, see the discussion (I think I started) where I discussed her in super detail.

[Daronil]

Well, two posts isn't exactly a thread derail, but okay.

I'm not sure on where you stand with Bloodsworn Vale. You mentioned wishing you'd run it earlier, yes? If you were still interested, I'd be happy to help with up-levelling it to suit your players' levels.

[CalebTGordan]

Well, where I would have used it was in or after Part 2. Not because of levels, but because the fey influence is much stronger in that book than anywhere else and the Narlmarches are a great location for that module.

I could probably put it into Thousand Voices at level 12 or so, or be part of Book 6 where they have to fight their way to Nyrissa. I won't know until I get that point though, and I will have to really look at Bloodsworn.

What I am thinking I will end up doing, because the group keeps talking about the possibility of doing a few cohort sessions, is running a few of the modules as is but have the group create whole new characters just for those scenarios. Essentially, the modules happen within the kingdom, but not handled by the main party. The main characters might still benefit in that they could gain one or two of the best items discovered, and being successful in the modules will give benefits to the kingdom, like bonuses to the Kingdom stats, free buildings, or some other bonus.

If I did that there are a good number that I am considering adding in. Bloodsworn Vale, Crown of Kobold King (ran with an all Sootscale kobold party,) The Harrowing (we have a harrow deck fortune teller witch in the main party,) and Fangwood Keep are all modules I am interested in running in this way, but the players are ultimately going to be the ones who decide how many of these we run and maybe even which ones.

Others that I think would be fun to try out in this way but have a less likelihood of being run would be Feast of Ravenmoor, Mask of the Living God, Curse of the Riven Sky, Thornkeep, and No Response From Deepmar (changed to No Response From Candlemere if the party really does turn it into a prison island like they keep saying they will.)

[Rickmeister]

Well, if you want my two cents:

I did something similar. Due to some mix-up and faulty time management, my group (Mithurdane 1) saved a certain Fort located in the Hooktongue. They however missed some very nice things in the Nomen Heights, which bugged me.

Second trigger was the fact there was some *** with some players, who decided after 3,5 years this just wasn't for them anymore.

Rant:

Turns out that one of them re-started Kingmaker with them.../rant

So, I went ahead with those still game, and attracted two superb new players, and we decided to make a secondary party with in-game hooks (Mithurdane 2). As a sort of bonding "exercise" they are currently doing "Festival of Tears" (slightly modified) and they will be asked by the ruler to explore some parts of the Nomen Heights, thus enabling them to experience the missing parts (centaurs ftw!) and even create some follow-up characters in case things go badly.

In my other Kingmaker group, I will use "Festival of Tears" but without the "after the fireworks" part, just as a way to have some fun and do some candy apple munchin' and sack racing.

I'm also thinking about, but wondering what I will do with "Realm of the Fellnight Queen." I might just use it, but in the borderlands with Mivon, and will edit it slightly to have Roswynn in the end either escape ("My sister will hear about this!") or die cursing ("Sister, avange me!")