|
Bit of a heads up:
We are a group of PFS DM's who play in the same Rise of the Runelords game. The rule is each of us runs an ap in this campaign and my turn is coming up with the Hook Mountain segment.
Our last battle was in the Clock Tower with Xanesha. She survived and ran away to fight another day.
Where would be an appropriate time for her to reappear in the next segment? Would she make a deal with the Fort Rannick types or should I bring her in earlier along just before/after the Graul place?
Thanks
The module says she won't go to Lucretia. She could end up either with the giant and ogre group at the final battle of the Hook Mountain set, or she could join up with M in the fourth chapter (and have leveled up a couple of times since).
|
The module says she won't go to Lucretia. She could end up either with the giant and ogre group at the final battle of the Hook Mountain set, or she could join up with M in the fourth chapter (and have leveled up a couple of times since).
Huh, I don't remember that, but it's been a while since I ran through that part of the campaign. I could see her going to Barl or M though.
-Skeld
I had her go to Lucretia (this was before the AE where it said she wouldn't). Then both sisters escaped and went to Barl. Then they both escaped again and went to Mokmurian. Then they both escaped again and went to Ceoptra. Then Ceoptra turned Lucretia into a Hungerer, but Xanesha escaped again. Despite the elf Eldritch Knight (and sole survivor from the beginning to end) declaring her 'ilduliel'.
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Xanesha also escaped my party at the end of The Skinsaw Murders. This was the original 3.5 sorceress version of Xanesha, though we were playing Pathfinder. My wife, the GM at the time, simply had her disappear with no intention of bringing her back.
I was the GM at the end of The Hook Mountain Massacre. As the party returned to Magnimar, I realized they were low on experience and treasure and should have a side quest before Fortress of the Stone Giants. In addition, the party membership had changed since Burnt Offerings, and four of the six party members had never seen Sandpoint. Likewise, two of the players were unfamiliar with the town. The side quest could serve as the re-introduction to Sandpoint.
The party had not encountered the dire bat dread ghoul nor found Vorel Foxglove's phylactery in Foxglove Manor. The side quest would be Return to Foxglove Manor. And Xanesha was behind it, She would lure the PC to a doom that no sixth-level character could survive (she was ignorant that they had leveled up in just a few weeks--that kept catching the NPC villains by surprise).
Upon returning to Magnimar, the party first visited the magic shop with their loot from Hook Mountain. I had them roll a Perception check when they spotted a brown-haired woman in the shop. The Wizard was suspicious enough to cast Detect Magic and check her out, spotting her +2 dagger, +1 Ring of Protection, and Ring of Youthful Appearance.
She mockingly reciprocated, casting Detect Magic herself, and then she recognized the heroes of Magnimar who had stopped the Skinsaw Murders and saved the mayor. She introduced herself as Deedee Baythorne, of the Baythornes of Korvosa, and she had a business proposition for them. She had been hired by the sisters of Aldern Foxglove to handle the estate of their brother. But she had learned in Sandpoint that it was haunted, and she valued her sanity too much to risk its haunts. The heroes who had already overcome the hazards of the mansion would be the best to eliminate the haunting. She would pay them 2000 gp each.
They traveled together by ship to Sandpoint and the party learned more about Deedee. She was a sorceress, drank too much, slept around (including with the party rogue--he never lived that down), and detected as Evil. She explained the evil was because she did the dirty work of the Baythorne family, and she made no apologies for it, either. The players found the character to be refreshing in her honest coldhearted selfishness.
Deedee Baythorne was really Xanesha. My wife and I had ruled that inherent transformation was not detectible by Detect Magic; otherwise, faceless stalkers would be too obvious. Xanesha had been in lamia matriarch form and wearing the Medusa Mask when the party battled her, so a plain physical disguise of cutting and dyeing her hair, aided by a real Ring of Youthful Appearance to soften the lines of her face, had passed a Perception check. She hid her characteristic gear, such as the Impaler of Thorns and her Sihedron Medallion, so that those would not give her away.
Justice Ironbriar--one of the original Brothers of the Seven--had told her about Vorel Foxglove. Her suggestion for unhaunting the house by casting Ghostbane Dirge on the phylactery deep under Foxglove Manor would finish Vorel's interrupted transformation into a lich. And Vorel would finish them off.
The new party members got to encounter the haunts of Foxglove Manor themselves, safe with experienced guides. The party killed the lich--they too had deduced that Vorel would manifest as a lich and had prepared. And the lich had materialized with several valuable magic items to loot.
Deedee paid them, too. She hid her disappointment, because she was not particularly disappointed. She realized that this party, given some inside information, could take out her boss and rival Mokmurian and she could step into the power vacuum. She started to play both sides against each other. When the stone giants invaded Sandpoint, in lamia form she helped a stone giant escape with a stone from the Old Light by casting Invisibility on him. Next in human form she cast Flight on the rouge so that he could fly up and attack the dragon Longtooth. Afterwards she told the party that she had seen a lamia matriarch cast Invisibility on a stone giant at the Old Light and overheard their conversation about Stone Tell.
That last was a mistake. Though Deedee/Xanesha used a Wand of Nondetection every day, the party tracked down her hidden gear and deduced her identity. They got some secret revenge with an Explosive Runes boobytrap, but did not reveal to her that they knew. To keep her under their eye, they took her with them to the Fortress of the Stone Giants.
Xanesha defected back to Mokmurian at the first opportunity, getting his favor again by telling him all about the adventurers who defeated the raid on Sandpoint. Yet she had left the party with a map of the underground tunnels from the river.
She had more chances to play double agent in other modules. Finally, at Xin-Shalast she sided with the party for real. She liked them better than Karzoug.
Xanesh became the regent in command of Xin-Shalast whenever the PCs are off on an adventure. She ruled according to their rules rather than her evil nature, because she knew that she was not strong enough to rule without their support. But she maintained secret police to sometimes deal with problems in her own way.