I didn't read it quite that way. Appreciate the good word and the help.
My party in the campaign I am running has pretty much gotten to the end of Book 3, with the final task being to investigate the Cult and figure out just what's going on in the Bower. I followed some advice on this thread and made the reveal of Carrius when they went to services for the first time, so that was a fun move. Anyway, in talking about planning how to investigate and infiltrate the cult, one of the party made an offhand comment of "Maybe we should just buy the theatre and then evict them. What started off as a joke turned into getting in contact with the city administration, searching through public records and deeds to find out who held the deed (I said that it was under custodianship of the Mercantile Council due to a ownership vacuum), worked a deal to set up a shell corporation, secretly funded by the Bank of Abadar (who were more than happy to help oust the cult) to get their hands on the deed. One of the party (with the Noble Scion background) has kept on putting pips in Profession (barrister) as a joke, but it's paying off handsomely now. Now they can legally go in and evict the ne'er-do-wells without any violence (hopefully). What started off as a joke of "let's buy the building" ended up taking up half a session of legal wrangling, appearances before local planning boards, and tax assessments, loan conditions, and a bevy of other municipal administrivia. It's things like this that remind me why I love this game so damn much.
So I've been running my gaming group through CotCT on and off for a few years now. They all have enjoyed the game when it's been based in Korvosa, as I think I've done an OK job creating the city and giving them all the opportunities to roleplay and explore within the framework of the story. Even though some of them were happy to Escape from Old Korvosa, a majority of them weren't really too pleased with venturing out into the Cinderlands, but a few of them did come around. What my group didn't really dig was that they felt railroaded a bit by the quest nature of History of Ashes, and I did my best to modify that to alleviate some of their frustrations. We are at a point where I've been told flat-out that they want to return to Korvosa to start the uprising and get rid of the queen. They've worked out deals with the Sun and Moon clan to send troops to help support the citizens in revolt with the hopes that there will be some sort of path to peace once Neolandus is back and a rightful ruler is restored to the throne. I also know that my group is not really the biggest fan of a massive dungeon crawl. To that end, I'm thinking I want to skip Scarwall. "Wait a sec, Rosey" you are saying, "You need to get Seriathal!" I've already worked knowledge of the sword into the story through their discussion with the Sun Shaman, and I've dropped many hints and hooks that the sword was recovered from barbarians some time ago and is sitting dormant in a forgotten chamber below Castle Korvosa, waiting until it sensed the time that Kazavon returned and would make its presence known (which was done when three of my players used the globe in the Acropolis). So, I want to skip Scarwall, have them get the sword from below the castle, then continue with freeing the city (and everything in Episode VI). The party consists of the following 9th level characters:
Has anyone done this successfully? What are some pitfalls I need to watch out for? Will my party get themselves TPK'd if they go into Episode VI without another level or two? Any help would be most appreciated! |
