Changes I'm thinking of making to Crown of Fangs

[Raincloud9]

I'm running Crimson Throne for my group of friends, and while I love the adventure as a whole, the sixth part was a serious disappointment in my eyes.

My two big complaints are that the rebellion section in the middle was unfortunately glossed over, and the final confrontation taking place outside of Korvosa. I'm thinking about rewriting a lot of it, and am looking for feedback.

My thoughts were to write a huge expansion of the rebellion section (using a lot of the suggestions in the GM Reference thread here). The general concept is to retake sections of the city, with the help of Kroft, Sabina, and any other allies the party has made. This can be done either directly by the party, or through commanding the rebellion forces from the Gray District headquarters war-room. The number of Rebellion Points accumulated during the castle-raid sections determines what allies and resources are available to the party. This allows them to take advantage of the allies they've made, reconnect with old friends/family now that they're back in the city, and put a serious thorn in Ileosa's side. Ideas I'm working with are retaking Old Korvosa from whatever force my group leaves in control (Arkonas, Cerulean Society, etc), opening up the City to trade again by stopping a blockade in Endrin Square, and clearing out the Bank of Abadar to add more funds to the war effort. The result is that as they take over more sections of the city, they also topple more of the giant statues that Ileosa has erected.

These statues wouldn't just be a token symbol of the blood, sweat and tears the citizens are shedding for Ileosa's plan, they would be actual collection devices, storing the blood she needs. This leads to my second fix: the final dungeon being IN the city, or rather, beneath it. I feel like the whole point of the campaign is to save Korvosa, and removing the party from the city for the final battle cheapens the reward. Instead, I want to put that dungeon in catacombs beneath the city, and every statue that gets toppled provides an access point into the catacombs. The map that the party finds in the castle shows a layout of the catacombs, and the more statues the party topples, the closer they can get to Ileosa. I.e. if they retake the whole city during the rebellion phase and topple all four statues, they can get much closer. If not, they'd have a much longer trek through the catacombs to get to her, diminishing the likelihood of success when they finally reach her. The final dungeon would be the same as in the book, just set in a cavern underneath the city instead of in the swamps outside of it. I'd probably have to replace the Boggards with a more appropriate enemy, but with the same back story as to how they came into Ileosa's service.

Thoughts? Suggestions? I want to make the finale as epic as the adventure leading up to it, and what is written was wholly underwhelming.

[Lakesidefantasy]

I like the idea of bringing the everdawn pool into/underneath the city. You could connect all of this to the Runelord Sorshen and make use of the vampires in her service (un)living under the castle.

[MrVergee]

As my group is not really into too long dungeon crawls, I also want to focus more on the rebellion and helping the city. For that purpose I will skip Scarwall completely and take the PCs back to the city instead, where they will aid in the rebellion and get ready to face Ileosa (my conversion includes both an adapted version of Academy of Secrets and The Harrowing).

I've outlined my alternative storyline in this thread. Maybe you can find some inspiration there.

[Raincloud9]

Ah, see I'm excited for my party to get to Scarwall, because I'm curious as to how they'll handle it.

I'll have to check out Academy of Secrets and The Harrowing, that sounds like a great place to get some more ideas.

[MrVergee]

Raincloud9 wrote:

Ah, see I'm excited for my party to get to Scarwall, because I'm curious as to how they'll handle it.

I'll have to check out Academy of Secrets and The Harrowing, that sounds like a great place to get some more ideas.

I certainly understand your enthusiasm for Skeletons of Scarwall; as far as dungeon (or rather castle) crawls go, it is definitely one of the finer examples.

My group is just not that much into long crawls, and with Castle Korvosa coming up in the next chapter, it would be too much. We also invested heavily in roleplaying with many of the players on the Korvosan scene, so returning to the city faster and diving even deeper in the NPC interaction pool will fit our campaign better.

Academy of Secrets is set in Korvosa, but takes place during the Breaching Festival, which occurs on the last Sunday of Desnus. This timing might not fit your campaign (although you could just change the date) and the motivation to join in the festival can be hard to fit in as well. The module has the PCs join the competition of trying to break into the Acadamae to gain a big monetary reward. Since the PCs in Curse of the Crimson Throne have more urgent goals (stopping the BBEG) and are possibly on Korvosa's most wanted list, joining the festival could seem out of place.

That is why I changed the approach to this module.

My take:

When the PCs learn of Ileosa's infernal contract, which was forged with a contract devil in the Acadamae, they realize they have to destroy it to weaken the queen. One copy of the contract will be with Ileosa somewhere, but the other one is with the contract devil. To find him (or to find out more about him) the PCs need to infiltrate the Hall of Wards, where the Acadamae's best kept secrets are stored. As it happens, breaking into this ward is also the goal of the Breaching festival, so this allows you to insert an adapted version of the module. I broke down my version of the adventure in the following chapters:

- The PCs find out more about infernal contracts and the Acadamae through research and information gathering.

- Since the Cerulean Society, Korvosa's thieves' guild, is probably the most experienced at attempting to break into the Hall of Wards (they get a yearly invitation to join the festival), the PCs contact guildmaster Boule with the help of Glorio Arkona. He can tell them more about the way to get into the Hall of Wards, advise them on which approach best to take and he can even arrange for an inside contact.

- The Acadamae is heavily populated by imps, who are everywhere and see everything. They are the best 'alarm' imaginable. So the PCs will have to devise a way to distract the imps, by enlisting the aid of the city's pseudodragons. The PCs convince the pseudodragons of Dock Trade (see 'Guide to Korvosa', p. 24-25) to help them draw away the imps.

- The PCs infiltrate the Hall of Wards, pretty much as described in 'Academy of Secrets', but preferably without getting noticed. Inside the Hall of Wards they discover the demiplane Belzeragna, where the contract devil resides. From him they can get his copy of the infernal contract Ileosa made.

Of course the PCs will also have to find the BBEG's copy of the contract and destroy both version to take away the infernal advantages.

The Harrowing is even less obvious to insert in the story.

My take:

In my version of the story the PCs do not go to Scarwall and so they do not get a hold of Serithial to combat Ileosa. Instead the Shoanti - at the end of 'A History of Ashes' - tell the PCs to find the grave of the Shoanti shaman who helped Mandraivus defeat Kazavon and who hid the dragon's teeth in the mastaba. He should be buried somewhere in Korvosa, and when the PCs find him they have to breathe a magical flame in his bones to revive his ghost. He will be able to give them strength to fight Kazavon (or whoever is wielding his power = Ileosa). The problem is that the site of his grave has been lost to the ages, but Zellara - being a ghost - should be able to feel it out and guide the PCs to it.

When the PCs get back to Korvosa, the heavy infernal influence that has taken hold of the city, is too much for Zellara to take and she is 'swallowed' by her Harrow deck, which is actually a gateway to a demiplane, the Harrowed Realm, as described in the module 'The Harrowing'. It will take Zellara a while, but at some point she is able to contact the PCs and open the gate to the Harrowed Realm for them. The PCs enter the demiplane and manage to free Zellara from the clutches of its Harrow card residents, most notably the blue dragon Zassrion, the lord of the realm who was fashioned after the Tyrant card. Afterwards Zellara will be free to guide the heroes to the shaman's grave, which I placed in the sinkhole below the Kendall Arena.

The obvious tie between 'Curse of the Crimson Throne' and 'The Harrowing' is the Harrow deck. By making Zellara's help indispensible to fight Ileosa, the PCs have no choice but to free her, which gives me the opportunity to use this module as well. I will be adjusting the CR of the NPCs, because the adventure as written is aimed at level 9, while I'll be using it at level 12. Still 'The Harrowing' is a fantastic module, so I'm happy I found a way to include it.