Hi everyone. I'm currently working on rewriting Book Two of Kingmaker 1E, Rivers Run Red. I have a couple of issues with the AP, though, and I'm in the process of rewriting different sections of it to address those problems.
Here there be spoilers on a 12-year-old AP.
The first problem is that Nyrissa sort of comes out of nowhere. There's a lot of stuff tied to her in the lore, but not a lot that the PCs will typically see. To fix that, I've invented a backstory in which the Eldest cursed Nyrissa by breaking her soul into three parts and imprisoning them in different demiplanes, each accessible from somewhere in the Stolen Lands. The Dancing Lady represents Nyrissa's desire for adoration, The Fellnight Queen is her hubris and desire to rule, and The Weeping Woman stands for her mourning the loss of Count Ranalc. Soulless Nyrissa herself lives on in Thousand Breaths. In Book Two, the PCs will encounter The Dancing Lady in place of the Giant Owlbear BBEG.
I also wanted to replace the trolls with a villain that's a bit more active. I settled on the Stroud Sisters, a coven of green hags from the River Kingdoms. They were called in by Nyrissa to pay back a favor. They'll be both more active than Hargulka and more subtle antagonists.
I've set it to allow comments but not editing, and I'm looking for feedback on the lore tweaks and on encounter changes. The two dungeons (Candlemere and The Court of the Dancing Lady) are still in the concept phase, but most of the rest of the adventure is ready to be looked at. Also, feel free to borrow ideas if you like it.
Hi everyone. I'll probably get started on our story tomorrow sometime. In the meantime, I know there was a question from Audria about magically-growing hair. Let me think about that one. I can't imagine an mechanical advantage to it outside of selling it for a profit, but I may just handwave that by saying it's not worth anything in-game.
In the meantime, it's good to have you on board. I'll be trying to post every day, but I expect we'll miss a weekend day here and there. I'll also let you know if I won't be around for a bit so you're not sitting here wondering where I am. I hope you all have fun here!
Go ahead and dot the gameplay thread. You can delete if after, if you want.
”The king is dying!” “What will become of Korvosa now?” “Who is this Chelaxian trollop who’s going to be our queen?” “It’s the curse, I tell you! The curse! For weeks, the rumors have been flying. Speculation runs rampant through the streets, and unease fills the air. From the East Shore to Old Korvosa, it seems like it’s all that anyone’s talked about. You've hardly noticed. All that’s on your mind is a message from an unknown writer.
I know what Gaedren has done to you. He has wronged me as well. I know where he dwells, yet cannot strike at him. Come to my home at 3 Lancet Street at sunset on the eighth. Others like you will be there. Gaedren must face his fate, and justice must be done.
It’s the eighth of Desnus, and it’s time you learned just what this mysterious writer knows about the man who ruined your life.
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Hi there. I’m GM Elfriede, and I’m looking to run my second favorite AP (behind Kingmaker). I’ve liked the urban adventure vibes of Curse of the Crimson Throne for a long time, and I’m aiming to take 5-6 PCs on this classic AP. I’m aiming for a pace of 1 post/day on weekdays, 1/weekend, though I may do more if I have time (I can't post during work, as I am an elementary school teacher).
Recruitment will be open until November 17 at 7:00 Mountain Standard Time. If submissions slow down before then, I’ll give 72 hours notice, then shut things down.
About Me:
I used to be very active on the boards as GM Aest, but lost access to the account. It was on an email address I can’t get on to anymore, so I’m back after a long hiatus. I’ve been a fan of Pathfinder and D&D since I was 14/15, when my friend DM’d a homebrew campaign for a couple of us. I like to use pictures to add to my description, and I generally have a few Pinterest boards hidden away for reference material.
Character Creation:
Race: Core races. I may be open to Tiefling as well.
Class: Core, Base (Unchained Summoner only, no Gunslinger), and Hybrid
Point Buy: 20 Point Buy
Gold: Average By Class
Traits: 1 Campaign, 1 Other. Up to one drawback for another trait.
3PP: Elephant in the Room Feat Tax Rules
Other Stuff: Background Skills are in play, any alignment is allowed, and HP is max at 1st level, roll or 1/2+1 after, your choice.
Background, Personality, and Appearance: I don't need a novel, but I am looking for something that's tied to your campaign trait.
We're a 5 player group in need of a GM for Skull and Shackles. Ours had a serious medical issue and had to step back from gaming, leaving us in need of help. We're currently on the cusp of a ship-to-ship battle in Book One.
We've had a real blast with the politicking on-board the Wormwood (maybe too much fun with it, to be honest), and we'd like to find a GM who can move us forward. We were maintaining a 1 to 2 post a day pace, with some flex on that for RP-heavy stuff. If you think that's you, please let us know!
It's got every location on it (I had to fudge a couple over in Pitax, since the hex grid I used wasn't 100% perfect and things were off by half a hex by the time I got over there), a key for what things mean, and it's all covered, including hexes with nothing in them. Let me know what you think, and feel free to make a copy of it for your own Google Drawing use!
Yes, this is a discussion thread that looks like a recruitment thread. My players are already selected, so there's no point in building a recruitment thread. Also, hi everyone from Skull and Shackles!
The early spring snowstorm raged outside the Burnt Onion. Inside, dockmen and poor laborers drank, shouting and singing rough drinking songs. And in the corner, one man finished talking with an obviously-impoverished baron, shook his hand, and started writing in his notebook, a dueling sword lying on the table to declare his allegiance.
The floor was sticky with spilled ale as the man’s writing was interrupted by a child’s voice, high-pitched and raised loud enough to be heard over the rowdy Fireday crowd. ”Scee-use me, ser! I got another possible for ye. Not quite as pro-fesh-e-o-nal as the last one, but ‘e might do!” The blonde-haired girl, dressed in an obviously expensive but nondescript surcoat, grinned up at him from the edge of his table, her missing front tooth obvious, and winked.
He sighed, putting his pen down for a minute and massaging his temples. ”Did you happen to ask about qualifications, Tiphane? You’re supposed to be making sure they’re ‘professional’, as you said, before they get to the interview with me.”
”Suuure I did, ser! Asked if ‘e’d ever been in a scrap, and when ‘e ‘ad more ex-pee-ree-ence than me, I said to wait there ‘till I got back. ‘Sides, if you ‘ired the noble I found to do the swampland, it’s just the bandits in the Greenbelt left, right? ‘Ow much qual-i-fi-ca-tions does ‘e need?” The girl shrugged, grinned, and waited for a direction.
”Abadar preserve us…” The man rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands. ”Alright, Tiphane, bring him in. Just a handful more, and I can be done with this riff-raff…” He went back to writing in his notebook as the girl dodged through a rousing drinking song to get his latest would-be recruit.
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Congratulations! After being accosted by a young page for looking “ad-ven-ture-y” while outside a tavern in Restov, you’ve been selected through a not-so-rigorous interview process to help deal with the bandit problem to the city’s southwest. Normally, that banditry might be solvable with guardsmen, but since the ruling family of Brevoy vanished, the kingdom’s been in a cold, civil war, and trained fighters are in high demand.
Not so much unblooded adventurers with stars in their eyes, though, and the bandit problem to the southwest needs any solution it can find; ne’er-do-wells, mercenaries, visionaries, and wannabe patriots. Anyone that meets Tiphane’s strict requirements:
Character Creation: Race: Core races plus Changeling.
Class: Core, Base (Unchained Summoner only, no Gunslinger), and Hybrid. Chained and Unchained versions of Barbarian, Monk, and Rogue are all fine.
Point Buy: 20 Point Buy
Gold: Average By Class
Traits: 1 Campaign, 1 Other. Up to one drawback for another trait.
3PP: Elephant in the Room Feat Tax Rules
Other Stuff: Background Skills are in play, any alignment is allowed (play well with others), and HP is max at 1st level, roll or 1/2+1 after, your choice.
Background and Personality: Assuming your character is local to Brevoy, the River Kingdoms, or the surrounding lands, I'd love it if you could include one or two NPCs for me to use later in the AP. I'd also like a paragraph or two of backstory and an idea of appearance and personality. We'll be starting off arriving at Oleg's Trading Post.
Primer: If you're curious at all about the region/don't know much about it, I wrote up this Northeast Avistan Primer. It's pretty basic info, but it might help get some idea of what's what here.
You do have the advantage of knowing exactly who's playing in this game, since all four of you were potentially interested, so if you want to have backstories that are tied together, this would be a great place for it. I'm also more than willing to answer any questions about how I see the setting, which I am adding to and modifying from the skeleton the book gives us.
I'd love to get started sometime the week of the 23rd-29th, but if Ellie's player needs a bit longer, I'm okay with that as well. I'm looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with!
Oh! And don't forget to dot in the Gameplay thread so you can track all this.
When the boats have been drawn up on shore, and the day’s catch has been hung in the smoking shed, the fisherfolk light their pipes and gather close round the fire, whispering tales of the witch who dwells in the flooded sea cave. “She’ll call up storms and dash your boat to splinters ’gainst the rocks,” one old-timer tells a young man just back from his first outing. “Aye, and she’ll drag ye down ’neath the waves and have her way with ye before ye drown,” another adds. A woman mending her husband’s nets tells her child to be good, “or the witch’ll come in the night and take ye from your bed, throw ye into her stew and make a shawl from your skin,” leaving the poor girl awake long into the night, staring wide-eyed and fearful into the dark. And for good reason—for in children’s stories lie truths that adult minds dare not acknowledge. —From "Folk Tales of the Lost Coast"
In the interest of letting you guys track this from your campaigns tab, feel free to dot in here. It should still track if you delete your post afterward, unless they changed the functionality in the last 3 or 4 years. We'll get started soon, once we've decided on a few things in the discussion thread.
Hi everyone. I have a couple of questions I'd like to ask you guys.
1. Just to be clear, what are your limits for villainous bad behavior? I know there's a concern about children in danger. The two sticking points in my plan for the adventure so far are 1. an orphanage from 300 years ago that needs help moving on, and 2. a changeling Calling. If either of those are going to be too sketchy, I can make adjustments to both parts of the adventure. I can also tweak stuff based on what you guys say here.
2. In the interest of getting to some of the hag action I'm sure you all signed up for a bit quicker, would anyone be opposed to starting at level 3? If so, you'd have 50% of normal wealth by level, since we're using Automatic Bonus Progression.
The Hags of Heibarr Prologue: The Regretful Recruitment
Heibarr’s broken, battered river gate gaped open, its portcullis hanging askew like a sinister set of teeth as the river flowed into its throat. The current pushed the Nixie’s Impulse through it, slamming the river boat into the tunnel’s side despite the captain’s cursing and heaving. *Skreee-Crak!* The sound of the portcullis giving way and screeching against the tunnel’s stonework sounded like hideous laughter, and the crash of its tons of rusted iron crushing the river boat like the hammer of a god.
A few bedraggled survivors, yourself included, swam to safety on the river stairs on the western bank; from the torches, a handful more had made it to the east shore. It wasn’t likely that any of you would make it to Pitax, though. Night was falling on Heibarr, and no one survived the night in the haunted town.
Welcome, poor, bedraggled souls, to Heibarr. The haunted town in the River Kingdoms has been abandoned for hundreds of years, after a year-long civil war due to a corrupt mayor and malicious cultists of Gyronna, and most riverboat captains won’t make the trip through after noon. Too bad the captain you bought passage from was feeling brave. Now, you’re trapped in the town with only your weapons, armor, and what you could carry; what you can salvage from the riverboat’s wreckage; and if you’re feeling bold, what Heibarr itself might give you.
Rumors tell of undead in this cursed town, but also haunts, traps, and hazards galore. And beware; not all residents of Heibarr are dead, and those who walk alive through its ruin are likely much more dangerous. Can you uncover Heibarr’s secrets and make the Sellen River safe for passage again…or at least, escape?
Character Creation:
Pathfinder 1E Level: First Level.
Races: Core, plus Changeling. If you’d like to play a changeling, please contact me with a rough concept before you put too much effort into it.
Classes: All, with the following exceptions. Summoners must be unchained, while Monks, Rogues, and Barbarians can choose. Gunslinger is not allowed, except for Bolt Ace. Finally, Samurai and Ninja alternate classes aren’t allowed.
Point Buy: Twenty Point Buy. Max pre-racial bonuses of 16, maximum of one 7.
Starting Gold: Max starting gold for class
Traits: Two, plus a drawback for a third if you’d like.
Optional Rules: Background Skills and Feat Tax Rules are in play. Variant Multiclass is okay too.
3rd Party: I’d prefer to stay away from third party, since I’m not very familiar with it.
In addition to the crunch above, I’d like a paragraph or two of backstory. Give me a reason your character would be taking a boat from Pitax to the south River Kingdoms. I’d also like a description of your character, both appearance and personality. I’ll be selecting characters based on party composition and the strength of each player’s entry; please enter only one character. I’m looking for 4 or 5 PCs. Recruitment will be open until next Saturday, the 13th, at 8:00 Mountain Standard Time, or until submissions stop coming in, with a 24 hour warning.
Heibarr’s broken, battered river gate gaped open, its portcullis hanging askew like a sinister set of teeth as the river flowed into its throat. The current pushed the Nixie’s Impulse through it, slamming the river boat into the tunnel’s side despite the captain’s cursing and heaving. *Skreee-Crak!* The sound of the portcullis giving way and screeching against the tunnel’s stonework sounded like hideous laughter, and the crash of its tons of rusted iron crushing the river boat like the hammer of a god.
A few bedraggled survivors, yourself included, swam to safety on the river stairs on the western bank; from the torches, a handful more had made it to the east shore. It wasn’t likely that any of you would make it to Pitax, though. Night was falling on Heibarr, and no one survived the night in the haunted town.
Welcome, poor bedraggled souls, to Heibarr. The haunted town in the River Kingdoms has been abandoned for hundreds of years, after a year-long civil war triggered by a corrupt mayor and malicious cultists of Gyronna, and most riverboat captains won’t make the trip through after noon. Too bad the captain you bought passage from was feeling brave. Now, you’re trapped in the town with only your weapons, armor, and what you could carry; what you can salvage from the riverboat’s wreckage; and if you’re feeling bold, what Heibarr itself might give you.
Rumors tell of undead in this cursed town, but also haunts, traps, and hazards galore. And worse not all residents of Heibarr are dead, and those who walk alive through its ruin are likely much more dangerous. Can you uncover Heibarr’s secrets and make the Sellen River safe for passage again…or at least, escape?
Anyone interested in a game set entirely in an abandoned town? It'd span through, at the highest, tenth level. If there's sufficient interest, I can have a recruitment up in the next day or two.
