Finishing Early: Wrapping Up The Plot by Book 4

[Wolfgang Volos]

I've tried running through Council of Thieves two times now, and I haven't been able run the full adventure either time. The first run was cut short due to players outright quitting and moving away. This, the second run, is being cut short by my sudden moving four hours away. I intended to have enough time to run through all six books, but the time for my departure has been pushed up quite a bit and I've had to adjust accordingly.

Plans:

Part of that adjustment is the decision to finish the campaign at the climax of Book 4, The Infernal Syndrome. It has been said by many that after the end of Book 4 many groups have had trouble with "where do we go from here?" The climax is hard to top honestly. I'd like to work in the rest of the plot and make it the 'true' ending of the Path. My players have just started Book 3, What Lies In Dust. They haven't explored the Pathfinder lodge yet but are going to in a session or two.

I figured I could work Ilnerik into Dhelvhaven so that my players could wrap up the shadow beasts problem, which has been their main motivation throughout the story, and they could answer a lot of the questions surrounding the Pathfinder background plot. Then when it came to the Nessian Spiral, they could encounter Eccardian Drovenge himself trying to make a deal with the pit fiend. I would foreshadow some of these encounters and make sure they felt correct but I'd like some opinions on how these could work or could go terribly wrong. I know it makes the Path really short, but I only have so many more sessions before I move away. Hopefully I can finish it this time.

[Fabius Maximus]

You could consider leaving out part 4. It reads like it's a very good adventure. It just doesn't fit well into the AP.

Part 5:

My group's just finished What Lies In Dust and I will not send them into the Spiral. Rather, I'll skip to Mother of Flies. I made Ilnerik the shadow leader of the Council by holding Eccardian hostage (and making him a vampire called Jair) and using his sister as a socialite to bring him the city's leaders so that he can dominate them. The PCs don't know about the whole conspiracy yet, anyway.

The downside is of course that you'll have to adjust the encounters to fit a lower level party.

[Wolfgang Volos]

I have considered leaving out the fourth book to jump to the fifth, but my current run of the AP is very player driven. Unfortunately I must run the fourth book if I want the adventure to make sense to my players.

Player Driven:

During the second adventure, The Sixfold Trial, my players were having a blast. Not only did they really get a kick out of the murder play, but they also nailed all of the social interactions during the dinner. They had to wait for certain people to get really drunk in order to gather their rumors, but for the most part they were hitting all of the DCs as well as roleplaying the interactions in a fun and believable way.

As such, they learned from the General before he left about the imprisoned pit fiend underneath the mayor's manor. Inside of The Asmodean Knot they destroyed the ball of chains, which had attacked a curious ranger, and they heard the mighty laugh of the pit fiend as the link to The Knot was severed. With Avengen's Edge in hand, they got a pretty good idea of what was going on with the Knot and the pit fiend imprisoned below. They feel very responsible for the destruction of the chains that bonded the devil (that is what they believe happened when the ball of chains was destroyed, who am I to tell them otherwise?).

The players really want to get into the Nessian Spiral, but for now they are taking care of Dhelvehaven because it is a more immediate and interesting threat. They've surmised that if they solve Dhelvehaven they will eliminate the shadow beast threat and then be able to relax about the City's safety for long enough to break into the Spiral. I really can't skip the fourth book.

[Fabius Maximus]

You could just tack it on after the 5th, and having all Hell break loose after the PCs exit the dungeon. The problem is that the AP string the players along endlessly until they even come close to the solution.

My players seem to be very careful. They didn't go near the "ball" after it started lashing out at them. They didn't want to be "cured", either.

[Lord Fyre]

Fabius Maximus wrote:

You could consider leaving out part 4. It reads like it's a very good adventure. It just doesn't fit well into the AP.

** spoiler omitted **

That is a significantly better plot then the one in the AP.

[Fabius Maximus]

Lord Fyre wrote:

Fabius Maximus wrote:

You could consider leaving out part 4. It reads like it's a very good adventure. It just doesn't fit well into the AP.

** spoiler omitted **

That is a significantly better plot then the one in the AP.

Why, thank you. *blushes*

If you don't want to change much, I guess the original could work better if you give the PCs more information than originally intended. They need to know more about the Council after part 2. All the background info for the GM is just chaff if it doesn't come into play.

What Lies In Dust:

Also, be consistent. I just noticed today that Aylin pays for information about the whereabouts of all the missing Pathfinders. The thing is: Loremaster Liriam cannot be found in Westcrown, since he left the city for Absalom in the early stages of the Chelish Civil War, which - apparently - Aylin doesn't know. The PCs have no way of finding that out.