In my campaign, set in Ancient Greece, arcane magic is outlawed, but arcanists still exist, it's just punishable by death and everyone thinks they're evil.
In the first bit of my campaign, people start going missing. PCs trace them to a mountain and find the dead have risen, something never heard of before.
Everyone will assume it's the arcanists who are behind this, and I'm going to let them think that for a while. It's actually Thanatos, spirit of death, who's teamed up with primordial Chaos and they're framing Hadēs, but anyway.
After the PCs return to the city and inform the king, I'd like to start the Skinsaw AP, but reskinned with different enemies. What I'm asking, is how do you think I should make the first bit flow into the AP, and what additions/subtractions should I take away from the AP? Any ideas welcome!
One thing I'll do is have some cultists/arcanists in the undead mountain dungeon wear runes of Hadēs, but inverted, which only a very good knowledge of religion with reveal. This is sort of a spiteful thing to Hadēs, like "yeah we imprisoned you and now we're warping your holy symbol". I'm using that instead of the Runelord star thing.
An addition I'm going to make will be dreams of Hera, queen of the gods, leaving odd gifts and dreams for the PCs to guide them, in preparation for her becoming their mythic benefactor later on. She can't reveal herself fully as Zeus, king of the gods, has banned contact with mortals until the crisis is over.
Two of the PCs' backstory includes a kidnapped friend, taken by an evil wizard, with a magic pendant. So it looks like I should fit in the friend somewhere in there too.
Any ideas appreciated, I don't yet know much about the AP, aside from a rough idea of its plot; I'm going to have a good read tomorrow, but any pointers would be much appreciated. :)
bump
I think that the Skinsaw Murders is a great potential inclusion; here are the bits that I would consider:
a) The murderer should be introduced some time before the murders begin, as a non-threatening harmless sort. He has not yet been twisted or turned undead, even if he is desperate about certain things in his life.
b) Ideally, the PCs should have a strong connection to the town in which the murders take place (or the NPCs who start dying, even if it's the brother or daughter of an NPC that the party associates with).
c) The clues left by the murderer might refer to the kidnapped friend in same way. The murderer might have a family association with the friend, or be someone who has known the evil wizard. The connection would not be revealed in the notes/clues, but would become obvious later in the investigation. The notes might imply that the friend is going to die, or that the friend is the murderer, etc.
d) Perhaps Thanatos/Chaos benefit from the inscriptions on victims, and there should be a particular reason why the victims are targeted. In RotRL as it stands, it's a bit about the victim's personality/character. In your campaign, it could be people who specifically worship particular gods in favour of others. It might be people who aren't well-liked, so that the maximum number of murders might occur before it's taken seriously by authority figures. It could be well-loved people, to disrupt community in favour of primordial Chaos.
My two cents.
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Bleeyargh has a lot of good points.
I'd consider making the tie between the victims that they're somehow associated with Hades, whether they're his followers or people obsessed with death or tied with lesser parts of his portfolio.
If you're feeling mean, replace Foxglove with the kidnapped friend.
I wouldn't do that, though... I'd probably tie the evil wizard in with the overall plot. Perhaps the amulet has the symbol they're using (or Hades's normal symbol), marking it as important to the plot in some way.
You could even have him be the step up from the skinsaw cult at the end (either instead of Xanesha or past her).
Cheers!
Landon
Thanks a lot guys, got lots of great ideas now. I think I'll have Aldern/Alderos (imagination yeah!) as a sacrifice victim in the first dungeon, which, if they're are clever, could mean the PCs figure out the arcane cults (instead of the Brothers) that Aldern works for don't have a very strong connection to the undead.
Plus I quite like the idea of ghasts in Skinsaw; it's a cool thing to develop more interesting types of undead than just the skeletons and zombies my group is used to.
I like the idea of them being connected in some way by a deity, maybe one that is traditionally a rival of Hades, like Zeus. In this way Thanatos and Hekate (giver of arcane magic) are further framing Hades.
Thanks again!