Candide's page

Yeah, do not assume that earth traditions are accurate for Golarion. In Korvosa, if a king or queen dies, the surviving king or queen has the lawful claim to the throne. This is, in fact, relatively standard for most monarchies in Golarion. Regardless of whether there's a child or not, and regardless of who was King or Queen first.

I suppose I should have made that clear, but that was such a primal underlying assumption that the entire AP is based on I thought it was obvious.

I basically assumed that was how it was. The AP doesn't mention anything about pursuing rightful heirs to the throne. It's just not part of the story because she's aggressively ridding the city of undesirables.

So after the PC's kill Gaedren Lamm, they emerge onto riots in the streets of Korvosa. Various people yell things about Ileosa being a usurper, or various other things. The Guide to Korvosa mentions her as someone who has mentioned Korvosa being a "backwater-burg" and hating its inhabitants.
SO, the PCs have likely lived in the city for long enough to know that she hates the place. How much dislike for the city have you had her show publicly? I don't want people to immediately suspect her from the first adventure.
I'm listening to the audio drama now, and it has a little more detail about her thanking the PCs. I intend to run this AP as a podcast, so I want to have dramatic and impactful scenes.

What have you GMs done in your games?

So my players did some epic fail moves last session. They threatened a Nascent Demon Lord...

Gelderfang and Nezirrius went amazingly well for them. They were good fights, but not as momentous as I had built them in my mind.

After that, they rested and were spooked by the idea of Rapture of Rupture. The city is not tempting to them, so that's probably my fault or they are just thinking "It's a demonic city, I shouldn't want any of this" even though at least one character is not super-good in outlook.

So they hear rumors about people trying to get noticed by Shamira at The Harem of Ardent Dreams. They barely make the diplomacy check, and she brings them in. The Sorceress takes point, instead of the Ranger who HAS Diplomacy. She rolls poorly on the check, and her points are mediocre. Shamira is unimpressed as per the book on a fail, and tells them to leave. Sorceress play says "my Intimidate is much better, I'll try that". Only the Fighter protests. She rolls super low as well, saying something along the lines of "yeah, well you better tell Nocticula etc..."

I took this as they linger, as described in the book. Shamira enters combat, Time Stop and Delayed Blast Fireballs kills 3/4 party members. Ranger is left standing asking if he can leave with his friends corpses. We stopped the session there for the night.

So I know there is an out for them as per the module of Nocticula raising them and having them give her something in return, separate from what the adventure outlines. But what? Also, would Shamira kill the last character, or maybe Dominate him and send him away? The latter is more interesting, as her goals could be slightly different than Nocticula's.

Thank you for any help you guys can give.

I've been wanting some Wayne Reynolds art as a tattoo for some time. I might have him sketch my favorite PC from Runelords(a Tiefling Paladin of Sarenrae) and use it.

That's cool Liz! I wondered if Paizo people had pathfinder related images. Y'know, brand loyalty and all that. Haha.