Frank Williams 624's page

Will this AP be fully supported in foundry vtt similar to how abomination vaults was supported?

I planted an opportunity before my players even started FoP. On the same bulletin board that they learned about Bort’s caravan, I also had a flyer recruiting crew members aboard a ship setting sail for Absalom and then on to ports in Mwangi...

I ran FoP well before getting to see the slithering, but if the orc alchemist who made the ooze escapes he could be a reoccurring bad guy, possibly seen again in The Slithering....

After FoP, I had my players travel to Absalom with the Tamli and the caravan so she could find more lucrative trade work. While there the players took a field commission by the pathfinders and I ran PFS module 1-08 (or maybe it was 1-07, which ever one takes place in Absalom) and then I ran 1-04, Bandits of Immenwood. I had Tamli's wagons replace the wagons in the mod and used the plot hook item of that module to get the PCs interested in heading to Kibwe and the Mwangi Expanse. Then I ran the tavern brawl PFS quest to high light them getting around the pirate blockade and everyone leveled to lvl 5 just as they are arriving to Kibwe.

If people are interested I can expand on what I did and the plot hooks, this is just a super short summary.

I really like this idea a lot. Let me know how it goes. Have you considered him being brought back by Angazhan has some half demon spawn thing?

Party of 5 characters were VERY low on resources after clearing the top floor of hocum's. They decided to go down under the statue, met Yiggliv, had a conversation with it and found out Nox and more Asmodeans were down there. They then turned around and left. Yiggliv never attacked them, however Yiggliv did communicate telepathically to Nox that the players were there....

So what does Nox do? Does she just continue going over the soul tomes? Does she pack up and leave? I'm assuming she moves Mephiry in with her, and sets the Asmodean Redactors on alert status.

Thoughts from anyone what she might do?

Thanks for the speedy answer! You have certainly made our rotating circle of GMs much happier!

Hi everyone, I am pretty new to PFS. I had a few questions about end of scenario/module rewards.

In a scenario the GM gains a chronicle sheet, but does not gain any "boons". What exactly is a boon? Does the chronicle sheet specifically say? Example: In Cofirmation, does the GM gain all the stuff on the chronicle or just exp, prestige, gold, and item access?

Is this the same for a module? Example: Rise of the Runelords: Thistletop. Does the GM gain everything on the chronicle sheet? Or does he/she miss out on any "boons"? (same question as above... how do I know what qualifies as a boon?)

Thanks for helping out!

I play in a serpent skull campaign and we use lego-mini-figs, for all the important npcs and PCs and it is AMAZING. I'll get some pictures up of the lego guys. I don't think we can post pictures of the NPCs from the module... can I? If so I'll post the mini-fig next to each NPC pic. It really makes the NPCs stand out to us... we are like..."oh, yeah that guy!" all the time.

Some bad guys have been lego too.... like lego stegosarous or lego cannibal tribe people... all very distinct and memorable.

Name:Bolrim (the king)
Race: Human
Classes/levels:Cleric of Abadar 6
Adventure: Rivers Run Red
Location:Troll lair
Catalyst:Hargukala (sp) rolls a natural 1 on his reflex save,detonating a necklace of fireballs while near the king. He dies.

Name: Bolrim (the king)
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Cleric of Abadar 9
Adventure:Varnhold Vanishing
Location:Random encounter cave
Catalyst:A greater cyclops called to the mountains by vordakai is hunted down by the party... then promptly crits King Bolrim killing him outright.

Name:Bolrim (still the king somehow)
Race:Human
Classes/levels:Cleric of Abadar 9/Holy Vindicator 1
Adventure:Blood for Blood
Location:Random Swamp Hex
Catalyst:Random encounter with the daughter of Ilthuliak, Scarsissax. Caught party completely unawares. King sacrifices himself distracting the dragon (dragon rips king apart with full attack and a crit on the bite) allowing the barbarian general to full attack and kill the dragon.

Name:Mulholrun (the general)
Race:Half-Elf
Classes/levels: Barbarian 13
Adventure:War of the River Kings
Location:Irovetti's palace
Catalyst:The Ogre Mage (forget his name) goes on an amazing crit spree after disarming the barbarian and drops him. Bye bye rage hit points = bye bye barbarian.

Well I ran my party of 5 PCs through this part of the module... they encountered the ghost, began getting beat on, and then teleported away. They now know (through divination magic and interrogation) that the cloudkill weapon was a ruse. They have no reason to go back to Whiterose Abbey at this point and they are now preparing to assault pitax with an army of their own and attempt to assassinate Irovetti.

I have debated sending the cleric in the party a dream implying that something important has been missed/left behind at Whiterose Abbey... but this seems very cliche...

Any advice to get my players to go back there at some point so they learn of Nyrissa and the sword and all that jazz?

Or does it not really matter, and they can just figure it out some other way.... like when the blooms just start.

Frank

My party has survived the first assault from Irovetti and fell hook line and sinker for the whole "WMD at whiterose abbey". After being nearly destroyed by the ranger wererat my party is fairly beat up and is about to go explore the bottom of the well. They are contemplating resting in the abbey also. Either way they are gonna run into the ghost and his "lights".

My question is this. After reading the strategy in the module, the ghost seems very direct in his tactics. It seems this could be an absolutely brutal battle with the ghost showing up, zapping some people, then fading away into the ground or wall or where ever.... only to show up and zap the party again for some ability damage or with spells. However, the module seems to imply the ghost is slightly insane, so maybe he would just sit and blast away.

My question is this.... how did you run this encounter and how did it turn out? Would you change anything about the encounter or tactics? I have 5 level 12 PCs with a level 10 cohort. Thanks for any advice!

Frank Williams 624 wrote:

Quote:

Depends on how you play out the war itself. If you do "war in the background", it should play out in anywhere from 2 to 4 sessions. Waging war in full will add to this, especially if you've elected to take things a bit further than "scripted".

I'm going to play out the war. I've decided to include a little mini adventure where the PCs are invited to join the Outlaw Council. This will let them meet Irovetti, and encourage them to hopefully attend the tournament once they see everyone else is planning to attend... well, at least the major River Kingdoms are planning on attending. I am planning on having a blitz attack on Fort Drelev that is coordinated with a minor attack on Varnhold. The Varnhold attack will consist of one flight of Wyverns. Fort Drelev will be attacked by the humans and trolls. If they don't immediately start the battle at Fort Drelev with some early gains, Irovetti's forces will lay siege to it.

How important is it that the PCs are level 13 by the start of this?

Frank

I suggest the wyverns hit Varnhold early enough that the attention of the PCs is drawn there. Once the "western army group" crosses the border en route to Fort Drelev, the PCs will be forced to decide. I would suggest - given the baddies' information gathering capabilities - that "eastern army group" pack enough punch to actually draw decent strength to deal with them.

Planning is everything. Varnhold in this case is the feint to draw your PCs main strength east to deal with that threat. It needs enough strength to succeed in that goal before the hammerstroke lands upon Fort Drelev. The Catspaw Marauders are mounted - and the wyverns are intelligent. They can "pair up" with the Marauders to strike Varnhold from the east. This attack needs to hit early enough to permit "western army group" enough time to reach Fort Drelev from the kingdom's western border (at least theoretically unhindered) while the main strength of the kingdom was drawn eastward to repel...

Good point... but Fort Drelev is much better defended that Varnhold by my players. They do not suspect an attack in the East but are cautious (very cautious) about an attack in the west. Drelev and their capital is defense +16 and varnhold is only +6. I was thinking that the bad guys would just lay siege to Drelev... since with +16 defense it is almost impossible to take that city.

Depends on how you play out the war itself. If you do "war in the background", it should play out in anywhere from 2 to 4 sessions. Waging war in full will add to this, especially if you've elected to take things a bit further than "scripted".

I'm going to play out the war. I've decided to include a little mini adventure where the PCs are invited to join the Outlaw Council. This will let them meet Irovetti, and encourage them to hopefully attend the tournament once they see everyone else is planning to attend... well, at least the major River Kingdoms are planning on attending. I am planning on having a blitz attack on Fort Drelev that is coordinated with a minor attack on Varnhold. The Varnhold attack will consist of one flight of Wyverns. Fort Drelev will be attacked by the humans and trolls. If they don't immediately start the battle at Fort Drelev with some early gains, Irovetti's forces will lay siege to it.

How important is it that the PCs are level 13 by the start of this?

Frank

Ok, so my group of 5 players have finished part 4 and explored all of the hooktongue map. Their kingdom is in the neighborhood of 115 hexes and seem to be ready to start part 5. However they only just hit level 12. My question is are they ready to start part 5 even though they are at level 12, or should I create some content (a possible invitation to join the Outlaw Council, or perhaps Ol' Hooktongue wakes up, or perhaps something happens at Candelmere, or maybe all three...) and try to get them to 13 before I start the War of the River Kings?

Any advice is much appreciated. Also, this part seems like it might require the least number of sessions to finish... is that correct?

Thanks,

Frank

Is Sepoko's +1 icy morningstar really a +1 frost morningstar or a +1 icy burst morningstar?

I made it +1 icy burst morningstar. (but it looks like the one in the picture, so my PCs just gave it to Gorum the Boggard in exchange for his services as a scout when ever they need him in the slough)

So as an alternate reason to start the module, here is what I ended up doing. This just gives more reason for an actual assault on the PCs nation.

After my PCs dealt with the boggards (a mini-adventure designed to get them closer to level 11) they decided to tie up a loose end that has been bugging them. Dovan of Nisiroth (from Stolen Lands) had escaped. They scryed him and then teleported to his location ot try and capture him. He had assumed the mantle of Drelev's "Royal Assassin". So the PCs teleported in to what they assumed to be a nice room at a nice inn to capture Dovan. In actuality they teleported into Fort Drelev's castle. Dovan, using his Cape of the Montebanc, D-doored away and the castle went on alert. The PCs had no idea where they were (since Scry only gave a 10 foot radius around Dovan) they heard the alarm and just teleported back to their capital.

Baron Drelev assumes this is a kidnapping attempt, blames the PCs as aggressors against his nation, the Drelev Demense, and declares the PCs enemies of the nation and calls for a meeting on "neutral ground" in Mivon.

Whether or not the PCs take the bait (which I doubt they will), their nation gets attacked as Drelev moves for "vengence". This lessens the ties Drelev has with Pitax initially in the PCs eyes, which I like since I like Pitax as a "wild card" nation to the west.

You could adapt this easily by just having Drelev's assassin target someone important to the PCs and when the PCs retaliate have Drelev declare them enemies of the state.

Does anyone see any plot issues with this that I am not thinking of??
I hope this makes sense...

Regardless, I think the battle is a little too easy for the villagers to win without PC intervention which is why I'm going to be using the tougher armies as listed a couple posts above (with the full mass combat rules).

I agree. I ran a full combat battle at Varnhold after my PCs waited a year after it disapeared hoping Vordakai would "go away". It was attacked by an army of dread zombie villagers. I used full mass combat rules and Varnhold held but on the last round both armies ended up destroying each other. My PCs were very lucky with rolling up until that point and the fact Varnhold had walls and a watchtower was a huge bonus to a much weaker army unit the PCs used. There was also a cleric and wizard PC casting spells that was a huge help. The other PCs ended up fighting off a dread zombie Kesten Garess. Overall my players really enjoyed the mass combat rules. I've just gotta stall and start the battle in Tatzylford just before my PCs hit 11th level.

Am I missing something on the Battle of Tatzelford?

The PCs are supposed to win. But the attackers are 8/15 and the defenders start at 0/10. The PCs, if they did not have forewarning, can use the various defense things, which are +3 each, but get only 3 of them. So the defenders end up with a total considerably below the attackers' (attackers have +13 in total, defenders only +9). Maybe if the points are put in really asymmetrically the defenders might win, but it looks like on odds they will lose.

This could be changed by having the PCs throw spells: if they throw a 5th level spell each of the three rounds, that's another +5 and the fight looks somewhat equal--assuming that you can do that in addition to the three defensive preparations, which is logical but not what the rules seem to say. But still, +13 vs +14 is not something you'd want to bet on with only three rolls--it's basically a crapshoot.

My player would not put up with this, since his chance of winning would be a LOT higher by simply ignoring the militia and fighting it himself. 10th level characters, after all!

Has anyone run this straight? What happened?

The mass combat rules cannot be used without scaling things up unreasonably. (We just realized we're heading, in the transition between Varnhold and Blood, for a fight with 40 ogres on one side and 18 giants on the other--but 40 ogres is less than the smallest possible ogre army, darn it. I think armies need to be allowed to be quite a bit smaller.)

I plan on using the units given in the earlier posts with the cavalry and barbarian horde. I'm mach ran it and the PCs will usually always win with my group. Keep in mind though that mine have created several military units in most of their cities. (500 heavy cavalry unit with a second unit of 100 archers is their main "mobile" unit I suspect they will defend a town with.)

Frank Williams 624 wrote:

Ok, I notice the module suggests the PCs are well into level 11 when they go after the baron and level 12 when they go after Armag. At the start of this my PCs are just barely into level 10. Should I hold off on the "surprise" attack to kick off this module and perhaps play up the PCs getting rid of the Boggards and secure their east border (the random encounter and a few set encounters should put them into level 11 by that point) and then run the surprise attack? Any suggestions on level 10 group in Drelev keep vs. level 11?

Yes, I would definitively do this. I have the same problem happening now in my own group. This, plus the fact that my party went straight to the barbarian camp (to rescue the daughters was their top priority after defending Tatzlford) makes it a bit hard for them as the encounters are somewhat too hard.

Yeah, this is what I'm going to do next session. I am not going to use Gorum though, instead I plan on having some of the PCs leaders come up with the idea of opening trade through the river would REALLY benefit their kingdom's economy and draw the attention of the other kingdoms (like Daggermark, Mivon, and Pitax) in the area (something the PCs want to do anyway). Scouts have been sent by the kingdoms NPC leaders as well as some pathfinders, and one who escaped (thank you little letter from the ecology of boggards article) will relate that the boggards block any river traffic. If the PCs think to go see Gorum then he will reward them with the fly and come with them but they may not think of it.

Also that is a great idea concerning the barbarian tribes vs. fort drelev. I'm sure my party will assume the barbarians are the easier target, not the fort, and go to the camp to get beat down. I'll have all three of them be (father plus daughters) in the castle, but the two will have been moved "at the last second" to the barbarian camp.

Kingmaker
Rivers Run Red - Trolls, special trolls, necklaces, ouch

Blood for Blood - already mentioned but the skeletons and Armag is NASTY

The Jabberwok - have not ran this yet but I look forward to the look on my players faces when I say "The eye lazers are touch attacks"

Ok, I notice the module suggests the PCs are well into level 11 when they go after the baron and level 12 when they go after Armag. At the start of this my PCs are just barely into level 10. Should I hold off on the "surprise" attack to kick off this module and perhaps play up the PCs getting rid of the Boggards and secure their east border (the random encounter and a few set encounters should put them into level 11 by that point) and then run the surprise attack? Any suggestions on level 10 group in Drelev keep vs. level 11?

Barbarians - Small Army of Humans (Barb 5) - CR 2
hp 13; DV 12; OM +2
Tactics: Relentless Brutality
Speed 2; Morale +1

Cavalry - Medium Army of mounted Humans (Ftr 3) - CR 2
hp 11; DV 12; OM +2
Tactics: Sniper Support
Resources: Mounted, Ranged Weapons
Speed 3; Morale +1

I'm going to use the above armies (and trolls of course) for my group. They wanted to get into making military units really early, and have some units of their own. None stationed in Tatzylford because it keeps getting the random kingdom event "plague". lol. But they have ALOT of BP also so they can activate some military untis. Thanks for the above suggestions!

Frank

So I finished up Varnhold Vanishing last night. Took 2 sessions. (5 hours each, with 5 players)

Adding the Horseman of War (advanced centaur antipaladin 4) worked really really well. Also, Vord was level 10 wizard. It slowed down the party's advance to engage Vord and gave him time to gloat and be all crazy like. Once he D-doored away he jumped back in and on the next round used the auto-20, cyclopes ability then confirmed with ray of enfeeblement. Even with the save the barbarian lost 8 strength. That made the fight go even longer. I barely altered his spell list and he was effective. Grease was also very effective. So was bestow curse for the save penalty, followed by dominate person on the ranger/archer. The fight took about 25 rounds, but that is counting time he dim-doored away to heal and super buff (basically resist energy and displacement and healing which took him 10 rounds)

Overall a very epic and memorable fight.

I think it is a bit over-powered for a cleric build and mechanically unappealing for a paladin.

Cleric overpowered? well...

I have a cleric in a game I run whom is planning on dipping into this PrC for 1 level, maybe 4, starting at level 10. He is built around channeling positive energy. His main weakness at level 9 is he has a weaker AC (22-24 range) even when buffed. However, he is targeting this class for its 1st level AC ability and heavy armor prof. He has 8 dex and with some common magic items at level 10 (amulet of nat armor +2, ring of prot +2, full plate, heavy shield) and some common buffs (magic vestment on armor and shield = +2 AC each) Being a channel monkey he also had a phylactery of positive energy channeling (the one that adds 2d6 channeling dice) crafted for himself. He'll have 27 AC then use his 1 channel ability for a +7 bonus to AC to get AC 34 at level 10. Honestly, gear wise that is not overpowered for level 10 (he may be under geared) but he can push an even higher AC than 34 with some other buffs and magic item purchases that would not be very expensive.

I think in this specific case it really really really is a great class for a cleric and is great for any channel focused cleric. So great, that it is not an option to skip it, and is a must to take a minimum 1 level in this if your build is slanted towards channeling energy.

Considering her background, I'd go for "war".

Question is: how much influence has V on bringing her back and how much is her "reincarnation" influenced by her background?

Concerning V, both "war" and "death" fit best, IMO.

I've decided to bring her back as "war". I made her "advanced" template centaur antipaladin 4. This doesn't sound too tough, but the fact she is in the room with V and equipped her flail (wielding it two handed) and full plate makes her somewhat tough and should stall the PCs from engaging in melee with V right away. She should be able to do some solid damage too before eventually getting beat down. I'm thinking of also giving her 2 potions to drink before combat starts. Bulls strength and Bears Endurance seem good for a "war" aspect. I don't want to make her overly nasty, just somewhat tough and make my PCs think, "you know, we could have saved her, but instead she was turned completely evil, in part because we were too scared to come here". I plan on including a small "research" tablet by V about how he has fostered her being upset of the fact no one came to save her and turned it into anger and hatred, eventually creating an "anti-paladin".

Yep, defintely going to be giving her anti-paladin levels. If Vordakai's familiar sees the party coming up to the valley of the dead, he will stop memorizing Animate Dead for some other useful spell. Vordakai is currently +1 wizard level higher in my campaign. The party will be level 9 when they reach him most likely. Xamanthe be an anti-paladin 5 centaur using a shield and javelins with horshoes of the zephyr, in the same encounter with Vordakai? Too hard? Too easy? Just right? Thoughts anyone?

Also, what horseman should she represent? The 4 Horseman were Death, Pestilence, War, and Famine?

My thoughts for each would be....
Death = attacks with Javelins of Slaying (like arrows of slaying but javelins)
Pestilence=hoof attacks causes random diseases
War=not sure about this one....
Famine=fatigued/exhausted status (fort save resist) from hoof attacks

Any ideas? I have two weeks to prep this.

KArui Kage above is correct. Will-o-wisps are trivialized by a wand of magic missle, see invisible, and resist energy castings. A 7th level party with a wizard and a cleric by themselves can handle this encounter, especially if they know will-o-wisps are the enemey they will be fighting.

(See above posts for the circumstances leading up to this...)

So the PCs decide to continue ignoring Vordakai, even after receiving information that states that the longer he is free, the more powerful he will become. One year after the initial vanishing Vordakai decides it is time to launch phase two of his plan. He goes to the Nomen Heights, and causes them to "vanish". At the same time he sends an army unit of 200 dread zombies lead by Kesten Garess-now a dread zombie himself after being in Varnhold during the "vanishing"- to destroy Varnhold, which has been claimed by the PCs as part of their kingdom.

The PCs are off exploring hexes and a bad random monster encounter results in a Great Cyclops (name may be wrong, but the CR12 version). The party slays the beast after a horrific battle in which the cleric and barbarian both die. The party discovers a message from Vordakai calling the Great Cyclops back to the "old kingdom". The party then runs to Restov raises everyone, and decides to wait the rest of the month in Varnhold recovering.

Then the 200 deep dread zombies attack.

The party had a 100 man "paltry militia" unit in Varnhold and Varnhold had walls. I won't post the details unless people want them on each army, its modifiers, and what the PCs did during this battle, but through a combination of terrible rolls on my part and hot rolls on the general's part, the militia holds of the zombies for 2 rounds. Then on the 3rd round we both roll 20s and both units are obliderated. Varnhold is saved, for now, but defenseless.

The party now decides to warn the centaurs and finds them "vanished", except for Aeroca Silverfire who was left paralyzed in a field, where a bunch of wolfs have begun eating her. The party realizes finally they have made some serious errors and vow to hunt down and destroy Vordakai. And that is where we ended.

My questions for you

1. With 5 solid players how long does Vordakai's lair take to get through? I was guessing maybe two 5 hour sessions. What do you think? Any especially strange/difficult parts I need to look out for?

2. Vordakai is going to have Xamanthe Silverfire as a Horseman(woman) of the Apoclypse "bodyguard". Antipaladin levels or ranger levels added to her?

3. Vordakai killed all the male centaurs, insuring is utter victory over the Nomen tribe. He is now working on turning the females into dread zombies. Not that my PCs are going to wait, but how long should it take to establish/create 200 centaur dread zombies?

Despite the fact that I've killed more PCs than I can remember, my players are completely fearless and very much surprised when they die. Thankfully, there's been no TPKs yet, but I wouldn't bet against it for the future.

I've had two deaths in VV so far. The party baron/cleric died in a random encounter that lead to a mini-adventure when they decided to "go check out the slough" and an adult black dragon (daughter of Ilthuliak even though the PCs don't know that yet) wasted the cleric with a vicious strike power attack crit bite attack. The party than goaged the dragon into emerging and ambushed him. With some great rolling the dragon went down. I honestly thought there was going to be a TPK. Death two was when the wizard unbuffed fell into a spiked pit trap got hit by all 4 spikes, 1 crit and 3 normal damage and he died. I could see some deaths from the dread zombie cyclops "I just rolled a 20" attack if those crits start confirming. We'll see what happens.

Maybe you could have some centaurs escape V's attack (if you want to follow Tem's suggestion) with some new insight on who he is/was, why the centaurs were guarding the valley and some other historical insight and get them to move against V.

Again, I would see him as having had enough time to having gained true lichdom again (especially with the centaur campaign) and the area should be teeming with undead.

Ruyan.

First of all, thank you Tem and Ruyan.

Yes, it would make more sense to make the Centaurs vanish, not Varnhold. I like the long term effects of losing the centaurs, or if they do rescue some of them, the centaur unit later on would be smaller. Then perhaps once they go missing the PCs will be encourage to find out what the hell is going on. If not an army of centaur dread zombies riding towards Varnhold with an undead Aeroca Silverfire leading them would be nasty. The party is about 1/3 of the way to level 9. My players have stated they are going to try and wrap up some lose ends (getting a roc egg, getting manticore quills for one of the leaders crazy followers) in about a week of game time. With 5 PCs and a cohort I think might be able to handle V, that is IF they go after him. If they decide not to check him out, the plains where the centaurs roam can become an undead corrupted field for the centaur army. We play again January 30th. Does it seem like my PCs are behind on exp?
I want to upgrade Vordakai with 1 more level of wizard and perhaps have him have a specific set of spells to deal with that "growing, but still pathetic and puny, "nation" west of Varnhold. (he'll have had a while to research them.

1. Dread zombie template slapped on a centaur. See here

V is used to having been the lord over hundreds of slaves back in the good old days. So he would start overtaking the whole area, if not stopped by the PCs. Again, I can not understand, why the group ingnored him. With one year having passed by, he had enough time to gather...

My group has ignored him (and still is) because they are terrified of him. There conversation literally went like this last session.

It then took my group the better part of 7 game months to claim hexes out to Varnhold and begin "fortifying" it. During this time, they went and met the centaurs and it just scared them even more. They saw a raven following them, but just scared it away by summoning an air elemental.

Solution = I think I'm going to make the centaurs get attacked by Xamanthe and a bunch of zombies under her control (the original Varnling Host) as Vord makes Varnhold "vanish" again. The centaurs will win the battle, but blame the attack on the "human expantionist", and begin to gather a large centaur army. Peace can be restored by restoring and dealing with what stirs in the Valley of the Dead. The centaurs will give 30 days before they ride forth and obliterate Varnhold and any trace of meddling humanoids from the Nomen Heights.

What do you think?

Ok, so this is my first post so it is kinda long, and I apologize if I don't come across pro level.

My group (5 PCs, 15 point buy, 1 cohort) are half way into Varnhold Vanishing. I have hit my first major hiccup in the campaign at this point. I would like some friendly DM advice on how to play it out.

In game time it has been 10 months since Varnhold "vanished". My PCs have pushed to claim the city of Varnhold since it is now empty, they don't want the city to rot away into the wilderness. They have sent a crew consisting mainly of the PC's followers and some other hirelings to begin settling the city and making it operational again. (I charged them 1BP per building to restore them to "operating" status.) The PCs have met and made an uneasy truce with the Nomen centaurs... 4 months ago. So two huge questions.

1. 4 months ago Xamanthe the centaur went missing into the Valley of the Dead... I assume she has not survived the experience. Should I have her come back as a dread zombie centaur? Perhaps some other undead? She was tortured after all... any suggestions on what type of undead she would return as?

2. Once a full year goes by the Occulus is active again. I'm thinking Vord would then walk(or whatever) over to Varnhold again and make it "vanish" again. Obviously using the raven to see when the PCs are not there. Should I have Vord do this? How should this effect unrest? (I am thinking 2d4 unrest)

And one small question...
If the PCs continue to ignore Vord, what would he do? Does he slowly but steadily gain information and than launch an undead army attack, moving into Varnhold? Does he start his own undead nation? The Dread Zombies (especially human or centaur ones) could be smart enough to be Kingdom advisors... perhaps the Valley of the Dead becomes his capitol city and he moves to seize the PCs empire?