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Although I haven't even started playing this wonderful AP yet, I've been preparing it for play and customizing it for my group's style and taste. My preparations finally reached the end of module 6, but I feel there are still some roads that remain to be travelled.
1 Ileosa's revenge: Ileosa returns from hell to get her revenge on the PCs.
2 Lorthact's plot: the PCs have to defeat the exiled Duke of Hell Lorthact before he can reclaim his place in Hell.
3 Sorshen Rises: the undead vampiric followers of former Runelord Sorshen plague the streets of Korvosa to harness enough blood to have their old master rise from ages of sleep.
4 Rulers of Korvosa: different factions vie for power in a city without a ruler.
5 The Everdawn Pool: the PCs examine the powers of the Everdawn Pool.
6 One other, obvious possibility for continuing the campaign is destroying the Crown of Fangs. It is not mentioned in this section of the book , but hinted at in the appendix on the relics of Kazavon, which suggests that the fangs can only be destroyed if struck by a holy sword forged by a once-mortal god.
I was wondering if anyone elaborated on one of those ideas and what they did with it. I'd be very interested in hearing about those campaigns.
My own take on the suggestions to continue the story:
1 Ileosa's revenge: not necessarily the road I'd choose.
2 Lorthact's plot: I already included the Academy of Secrets module in my storyline, having the PCs discover Ileosa's infernal contract (the devil's version of it). So the Ornelos family is already involved in the story, as allies to the queen. Although the PCs did not confront any of the Ornelos nobles personally, they might find headmaster Toff Ornelos and his puppetmaster Lorthact as adversaries after killing the queen. There might be a story here.
3 Sorshen rises: again not a road I'd follow.
4 Rulers of Korvosa: this will definitely be included in my campaign. Two elements in my personal campaign will play an important part in this storyline:
- the Arkona's have been engineering a lot of the unrest and turmoil in the city after the king's death, they have been working behind the scenes to discredit the queen so they can seize power themselves;
- one of the PCs is actually the bastard son of Eodred (and one of his harem girls). There will be some minor hints supporting this story in the campaign, but they will finally find out the truth from Venster. This makes the PC heir to the throne, but claiming it will not be easy.
5 The Everdawn Pool: since I'm cutting this section from the story by just having the PCs face the queen in the castle, this option does not work for me.
6 Destroying the Crown of Fangs is actually the most interesting option to me, since it fits in perfectly with the storyline of the AP. Once the PCs have defeated Ileosa, they are stuck with a very powerful, evil artifact. Now they are responsible for guarding or destroying it.
The PCs could learn through divine magic how to destroy the fangs and start a quest for a holy sword forged by a once mortal god. Iomedae fits this picture nicely, being a LG goddess who fights with a sword and who was once human. The question then is where the PCs would be able to find such a sword. Are there any existing modules or final chapters in other APs that could be modified to tell this tale?
As mentioned before, I'd be very interested in any suggestions and ideas.
1: Not really for me either.
2: Very plausible, and I hear sometime in the near future may be some suggested stats for Lorthact as well in a supplement book.
3: I'd have to agree here as well. I like having paizo stat-backing on this before attempting it.
4: The Arkona situation hangs greatly on the actions of your PCs in Ch3. Many groups in the forums here wiped that House from Korvosa. My PCs were silly enough to leave both alive and are carrying their items, so they are likely to see one or both infiltrating the underground resistance when they get back.
5: If you are cutting it, can I ask what you are doing to adjust? There's some leveling that will be left out as well as Kazavon's attempt at resurrecting himself.
6: Well, read Ch6 more carefully, as the sword they are referring to is in fact Serithtial. So, that artifact can be easily dispatched. Depending on how the PCs interact with the Brotherhood of Bones, you could easily connect their association there with a plot hook to then go off hunting these other artifacts and destroying them before the Brotherhood can get their claws on them.
The Arkona situation:
Glorio will not present himself as an enemy to the PCs, since he would rather use them in his own schemes to fight the queen, so it is not sure it will actually come to a fight in 'Escape from Old Korvosa'. Even if it does, Glorio will be a tiefling sorcerer (I'm not partial to the rakshasa hook), who are by nature hard to kill because of extra-dimensional escape possibilities. And even if Glorio is killed, his puppet from the thieves' guild, guildmaster Boule, will see to it that he is resurrected.
In short, Glorio will still be around and he will still be interested in joining with the PCs. He might even join them when they invade the castle to kill the queen, and if the PCs don't let him, he will infiltrate the castle with his own minions. He might even try to grab the crown of fangs for himself after the queen is killed.
He will certainly contest the PC's claim to the throne and put himself forward as a candidate ruler.
Cutting the Everdawn Pool:
I have already exhausted the blood cloning idea for the creation of the Gray Maidens (the clone army, lol). It would seem silly to repeat it with the Everdawn Pool. I'll also be leaving out Kazavon's attempt at resurrection, since it mostly serves as a 'cut-scene' and the powerful dragon is not really meant to rise again (CR 25!). Moreover, I don't like the idea of the dragon resurrecting with only one of his relics present.
As far as leveling is concerned, my PCs level at set points anyway, so I control their level. I'm planning to have them be only level 13 by the end of the adventure and I'm adjusting the adversaries to fit their strength (not too much, because my players are very experienced and do possess 'some' power play skills).
On Serithial:
First of all, I don't think Serithial is meant to destroy the fangs. Page 59 states that a strong blow from the blade will sunder the crown, but Kazavon's indestructible fangs will just drop on the floor, since they can only be destroyed by the method given in the Relics of Kazavon article.
Secondly, Serithial will not feature in my campaign. Although Skeletons of Scarwall is a fantastic dungeon crawl, my group hates long dungeon crawls, so I'll be cutting this adventure completely (also because the PCs would be absent from the city for too long IMO). Instead the PCs return to the city with a different mission: find the bones of the Shoanti shaman who helped defeat Kazavon and hid the fangs in het mastaba.
While they are looking for the shaman's grave, the PCs will have a bunch of other adventures, which will tie in to the resistance and which will already feature some of Ileosa's infernal allies:
- locating the resistance,
- taking out a 'false' blackjack (one of Ileosa's devils),
- saving noble families (Bromathan and Leroung) who have been placed under house arrest (encountering another devil on the way),
- invading the temple of Asmodeus to stop the blood clone production of Grey Maidens (encountering four of Ileosa's devil pets),
- infiltrating the Acadamae to find out more about Ileosa's infernal powers, simulating the Breaching festival and finding one version of her infernal contract (obviously based on the module 'Academy of Secrets', but including extra hooks, such as gaining information on how the Breaching festival works from the thieves' guild or enlisting the help of the pseudodragons in Dock Trade to distract the imps guarding the Academy grounds),
- converting the Bank of Abadar to the cause of the rebels,
- fleeing from the rebel hide-out when the resistance is compromised and red Mantis and Gray Maidens invade its headquarters,
- freeing captured rebels from the Longacre Building (which will feature another devil) and the Kendall Amphitheater (which will be an arena in my campaign) before the prisoners are put to the sword by the arena's gladiators and monsters,
- freeing Zellara's ghost from the Harrowed Realm after she had previously been sucked into her deck of cards because of the overwhelming infernal presence in Korvosa (obviously a conversion of the fantastic adventure 'The Harrowing'),
- finally discovering the grave and bones of the Shoanti shaman and gaining his blessing (instead of giving the PCs a blade like Serithial, which only one of them can wield, the shaman will grant all the PCs temporary powers to fight the one who is using the Fangs of Midnight, more fun for all the players instead of just one).
This is all a build-up to the infiltration of Castle Korvosa. If the PCs play their cards right, they'll go for Ileosa's infernal contract first, so they can destroy it, diminishing her powers considerably and sending away her remaining devilish allies, before confronting the queen herself.
On the Brotherhood of Bones:
It might be getting repetitive, but I'm also cutting them from my campaign. The most important reason for that is the fact that I'm skipping Scarwall in which the Brotherhood plays its most significant role. I also have more than enough interesting NPCs already (both from the adventures as written and a lot of extra's) and I'm giving a lot of attention to PC-NPC interaction, so I feel that I can cut those NPCs (even one as intriguing as Lauri, I know).
As you can see, I'm converting the AP quite a bit. That does not mean that I don't like it, on the contrary, I absolutely love it! But that is just my style, I use what I like and add other things and adventures to tailor the adventure to my taste (and my players'). This is also the reason I want to include at least three things in my campaign: (1) negotiating a peace treaty with the Shoanti who have amassed an army and are marching on Korvosa; (2) establishing a new ruler in Korvosa and (3) destroying (or hiding) the fangs. Only then the story will be complete!
Cheers!
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Although I haven't even started playing this wonderful AP yet, I've been preparing it for play and customizing it for my group's style and taste. My preparations finally reached the end of module 6, but I feel there are still some roads that remain to be travelled.
** spoiler omitted **...
Unless you have fairly passive players I think that you might be over planning things.
In my experience, a campaign tends to take on a life of its own. The characters befriend some NPCs, make enemies of others, latch onto some side plots with a tenacity that would make bulldogs blush and totally ignore other things.
As a result of the above, I've already made fairly substantial changes to the AP. And expect to make more.
I think that it is very, very likely that my campaign will proceed past the end. But I haven't a clue in what direction. The players have far, far too much influence on things for me to know.
All the artifact destruction techniques described in that chapter destroy the artifacts, but not the bones that they were made from, as I understand it. I believe the intention is that to utterly destroy Kazavon, you need to collect all the artifacts, sunder them as described, and then take further steps to destroy the bones, which may involve resurrecting Kazavon and killing him a second time.
Unless you have fairly passive players I think that you might be over planning things.In my experience, a campaign tends to take on a life of its own. The characters befriend some NPCs, make enemies of others, latch onto some side plots with a tenacity that would make bulldogs blush and totally ignore other things.
As a result of the above, I've already made fairly substantial changes to the AP. And expect to make more.
I think that it is very, very likely that my campaign will proceed past the end. But I haven't a clue in what direction. The players have far, far too much influence on things for me to know.
Very true, the campaign does take a life of its own and my players certainly get the chance to do that, since they're not passive players at all.
Still, I like having my bases covered, so I tend to plan a lot, probably overplanning it, as you say, but that's just the nature of this beast. I don't even mind investing some prep time in things the PCs might skip, because sometimes there are more than one way to achieve a goal, e.g. I have made two versions of Ileosa, one with her devil powers and one without. If the PCs manage to break her infernal contract, they'll have a much better chance of beating her, but if they don't, she'll be a lot harder to beat.
Now I do have to say that our group generally doesn't mind going where the GM wants them to go; as long as they find it fun and believable (this last element is quite important, actually). So I plan a lot of variation and interaction ahead. I also try to foresee which questions the PCs would like to see answered. I've been playing with this group for a long time, with some of them for over twenty years, so I have a pretty good idea of what they like.
Still, if you reach the end of your campaign and add some nifty extra chapter(s), I'd love to read about them.
All the artifact destruction techniques described in that chapter destroy the artifacts, but not the bones that they were made from, as I understand it. I believe the intention is that to utterly destroy Kazavon, you need to collect all the artifacts, sunder them as described, and then take further steps to destroy the bones, which may involve resurrecting Kazavon and killing him a second time.
You are right indeed, Revan, thanks for pointing that out.
According to the RAW a holy sword only destroys the crown, pretty much like Serithial does in the module, but not the fangs. Still, nothing prevents a GM to alter the RAW if there is an exciting adventure in it.
Did you play the AP yourself? And, if so, did you add anything after Crown of Fangs?
I DMed the game in college. While I didn't add anything past Crown of Fangs, as it took us the whole year to get to the end, the epilogue did see the Paladin (from a bankrupt noble house and the son-in-law of Vencarlo Orsini) becoming the new King of Korvosa; the gnome Illusionist had used his wish from the Harrow Deck of Many Things to ensure that next ruler of Korvosa would rule long, justly, and prosperously, effectively breaking the curse. The Paladin had also fallen in love with Trinia over the course of the game, taking her as his cohort when he took the Leadership feat, and she became the Queen, known as a great backer of adventures due to visions she had received from the Harrow Deck of Many Things. The gnome Illusionist also elected to deliberately sacrifice his spellcasting to Disjoin the Fangs. Since he had become a worshiper of Desna after an experience in the globe beneath the Acropolis of the Thrallkeepers, I ruled that this led to him starting over as a 1st level Oracle of the Heavens.
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So I have written an extra chapter for the AP. It will involve a lot of roleplaying, but I've added a touch of combat as well. I'll give you an outline, but I'll put it under a spoiler tag because some elements might indeed be spoilerish for players.
So my 7th installment to the AP is a scenario that describes the fight for the throne. As I already stated in my original post, I made two changes to the AP that will greatly affect this scenario:
- the Arkona's have been working behind the scenes from day one to destabilize the city after the king's death, in an attempt to seize power themselves;
- one of the PCs is actually the bastard son of Eodred (and one of his harem girls). This makes the PC heir to the throne, but claiming it will not be easy, since there is no real evidence to prove this claim.
Here's an outline of my scenario:
- Neolandus Kalepopolis calls for a meeting of the Peerage Review (council of the leading noble houses, which will consist of seven members in my campaign). The PCs can defend their claim of the throne, but the Peerage Review declares itself incompetent to make such a decision and decides to assemble 'the great council'.
- The great council consists of 21 members: ten noble houses, three highpriests (Abadar, Sarenrae and Pharasma), field marshal Cressida Kroft, six representatives of the districts and one seat for the PCs. Kalepopolis will preside, but has no vote.
- The first meeting of the council results in 3 candidates for the crown: Glorio Arkona, one of the PCs and Aaron Endrin (the eldest son of Marcus Endrin). Each of them gets a chance to defend their claim, but the vote is divided (no one should get the majority at this stage). The council will reconvene in three days.
- The next day the PCs are invited to Glorio Arkona's house for dinner. He tries to get them to drop out of the race. Glorio is also trying to manipulate other council members to vote for him, making a lot of promises, some threats and even dominating one of them.
- The next day there is a big parade in the streets of Korvosa in which the PCs are expected to join. After some festive encounters the PCs are attacked by Red Mantis assassins, who were secretely hired by Glorio Arkona. He hopes it will look like Red Mantis revenge.
- The PCs should put in their own efforts to win votes. If they don't, Glorio will win the second vote. If they do exceptionally well, they might win the crown at this session. Chances are pretty big that Endrin will lose out with just a couple of votes left, but neither the PC nor Arkona will have a majority. This calls for a third vote in another three days with only the two best candidates remaining, Arkona and the PC.
- Glorio Arkona will go even further to gain votes: he uses the Cerulean Society (the thieves' guild) to pressure some council members into voting for him. He will continue making promises to others to gain their support. The PCs will have to put in a serious effort to counter his manipulations.
- A very likely turn of events includes the PCs taking out the thieves' guild. An adaptation of "Blood of Malar" in Dungeon magazine # 126 will put the PCs on the trail of the Cerulean Society's hide-out, where they can end the threat of the guild.
- On the night before the final vote, Mercival Jeggare organizes a grand feast to celebrate the victory over queen Ileosa. Through the different events at the feast the PCs get a chance to shine. Keppira d'Bear, a loyal supporter of the PCs, also encourages them to use this opportunity for a public divination session. With 'speak with dead' (with Eodred and possibly Venster) and 'commune' she tries to prove that the PC is Eodred's son. This might prove harder than she thinks, though, since most of the information gained should be vague and ambiguous.
- The next day is the final vote. Depending on the actions of the PCs they might win or lose the vote. If they do well, one of them gains the throne, if they don't Glorio Arkona is crowned king.
When I return to this campaign, which should carry the group through to level 20, I'm of a mind to incorporate various elements:
1. Who sits on the throne? This will be the first hurdle. In the current instance, there's a severe power vacuum. The city guard is a shadow of its former self. The Sable Guard has been disbanded. The Arkonas are broken. The church of Asmodeus' part in Illeosa's mad schemes is now common knowledge and the people aren't happy. There will be a lot of power plays, political as well as mercantile and criminal.
2. Illeosa's Revenge? Maybe...but if so it will be used as a red herring to distract from:
3. Rise of the Runelords Part Deux. Sorshen stirs, prompted by the awakening and activity of a trio of ancient Azlanti vampires seeking to bring back their lady.
Hello again guys, we are about to complete the CoCT and i was thinking about continueing the story. Can anyone suggest of one or two scenarios up to level 20??? Really thank you for any help :)
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As players the Arkonas annoyed us to the point we exterminated the lot of them. Our Paladin had his own little personal crusade going.
As players the Arkonas annoyed us to the point we exterminated the lot of them. Our Paladin had his own little personal crusade going.
I'm planning to play Glorio more as a manipulator than as an enemy. But even if the PCs kill him, he has the Cerulean Society behind him who can have him resurrected. Think about how your paladin would feel if he suddenly met Glorio again after having killed him.
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As players the Arkonas annoyed us to the point we exterminated the lot of them. Our Paladin had his own little personal crusade going.I'm planning to play Glorio more as a manipulator than as an enemy. But even if the PCs kill him, he has the Cerulean Society behind him who can have him resurrected. Think about how your paladin would feel if he suddenly met Glorio again after having killed him.
At the level of annoyance the Arkonas caused us the Paladin would be happy to raise and kill the whole family several times at his own expense. :-)
At the level of annoyance the Arkonas caused us the Paladin would be happy to raise and kill the whole family several times at his own expense. :-)
Lol, I hear you! So it seems like an excellent idea to make Arkona a recurring NPC. He certainly has the means and the network to be resurrected.
I made Rolth the Necromancer an Alchemist with the simulacrum discoveries, so the second time they fight him (when he's hiding out in Old Korvosa with Emperor Swastel) its actually a realistic simulacrum of him. Imagine their surprise later when I decide to have him show up again!
They also have vowed to go back and 'finish the Arkonas' but haven't yet, so that will be very interesting later as well.
Rolf got away in my campaign. He (and his crazy girlfriend) will be showing up again to cause more misery later.
Rolf got away in my campaign. He (and his crazy girlfriend) will be showing up again to cause more misery later.
You've got to love those recurring villains!
I'm also going to give Rolth a 'girlfriend', only she'll be one of the PCs' sister, who was taken from Lamm's Lambs in the prequel sessions.
Rolf got away in my campaign. He (and his crazy girlfriend) will be showing up again to cause more misery later.You've got to love those recurring villains!
I'm also going to give Rolth a 'girlfriend', only she'll be one of the PCs' sister, who was taken from Lamm's Lambs in the prequel sessions.
Nice. I always love making it personal. I was referring to the elf, Jolistina, in that very "Masque of the Red Death" sort of encounter in Seven Days to the Grave. She actually surrendered and they took her back to the guardhouse and locked her up. (It was rather funny. They had taken out the zombies and were pounding her pretty good when she began to retreat and started mumbling "banana...banana...". They couldn't figure out what was going on until she got hit again and dropped to 0 hp. Then she collapsed and wailed "The safety word is 'banana!'")
I had Rolf bust her out while they were busy in Old Korvosa.
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Here's an idea based on the OP's #3, below are relevant things for PCs to notice:
• The Academae's become completely shut off, with no sign of guards or even hired porters.
• There are a lot more Shoanti in the Korvosan Guard.
• There's three-way religious violence between the churches of Abadar, Asmodeus, and Pharasma.
• There are a lot less clerics in general, many of them having gone off to the Worldwound.
• The Cerulean Society has changed their protection racket to a percentage which scales with an institution's income.
• Other criminal groups have disappeared.
• People in general have disappeared, especially when going out at night.
• The people are working as hard as they were under Ileosa but don't look oppressed.
• There are blocks of white marble around every construction site, wherever there isn't black marble being removed.
• The GM asks the players what they are and aren't comfortable with. (It's OOC but it should be a big clue.)
It was rather funny. They had taken out the zombies and were pounding her pretty good when she began to retreat and started mumbling "banana...banana...". They couldn't figure out what was going on until she got hit again and dropped to 0 hp. Then she collapsed and wailed "The safety word is 'banana!'"
Shadowborn, that is awesome. Wish I had seen that before my party got to her and beat her to a pulp.