Fu-Man Chu's page

Another thought is to remember Katrine, one of the first Skinsaw victims the party will investigate is Shayliss' sister. So during one of the romps, you can have Katrine interrupt by accident and the sisters have a fight to introduce her. That makes the connection that much stronger before starting part 2.

I'm actually at the point right now, and tomorrow's session will be dealing with the aftermath of Thistletop. I've been RP'ing all shopping sessions, in that way introducing the various personalities of Sandpoint, and after all the loot they collected, that's a good way of bringing Sandpoint alive.

Need some scrolls and potions? There's the pillbug. Wands? well, you'll have to go see so-and-so for that.

Plus, I'm stealing the idea that they'll have to escort the imprisoned Tsuto to Magnimar for trial, where of course they will meet Ironbriar.

Here's how I ended up re-stating Lyrie as a Magus. My players are all very experienced gamers, and min-maxers in addition; that combined with 5-6 PCs meant I buffed up Lyrie quite a bit more.

The encounter was quite memorable for them. They managed to capture her alive and stabilize her in the neg hp, but one PC in particular really hates her and has attempted to kill her twice as a captive (once by throwing her off the bridge connecting Thistletop! The paladin jumped in afterwards and make some incredible swim checks - and burned hero points - to rescue her.)

From all the posts I read before running, it seemed like bringing Sandpoint to life was quite important. And so I really tried to slow my players down - who, like yours, were chomping at the bit to get into action.

I opted to spend a lot of time with Madame Mvashti doing card readings for the PCs when they first got to town, as she "saw their aura" was going to be vital to the "rising darkness"; and made them RP getting rooms and board. I did have a quick encounter with several goblins attacking Mvashti as she was out and about on one of her walks with some druid initiates to foreshadow the goblins attacking. After however, I extended the Swallowtail festival out to a week, and had the goblin attack towards the end of it.

For my action heavy group, it was hard for them to handle - they started suspecting all the action was to be found in town, so they went around sneaking around town to inspect the new cathedral, went out to Chopper's Isle to poke around, etc.

One session was spent with them just finding all the various games at the festival - one player ranted that this was the first session he's ever played in over 25 years where there wasn't a combat. Made me smile 8-).

But, I'm glad I did because one the action starts in earnest with the Glassworks, it gets VERY dense VERY quick. And so taking the time with Sandpoint made it come alive to them, and they have built up quite a connection with it. So much so, that the discovery of who's behind the goblin attacks comes as a great shock; leading to lots of anger and malice towards the antagonist; and after taking care of N, great sadness upon learning (via another poster's wonderful suggestion of dream sequence flashbacks) what drove them to that point.

So, yeah - TLDR - it is very much worth it.

In the Runelords game I'm running, Shayliss sought out the high charisma drow warrior who was getting lots of attention for his "exotic" elven appearance. I had them previously at the store when they were looking for supplies and so had encountered her and her father before; unbeknownst to the group, they had left her smitten with him.

She stalked him until he was out alone one night after being fitted for a custom shield and lured him to the store to "show him something". He was stunned by the change in situation as the suddenly naked girl embraced him in the basement. Pushing her back, his reply of "I do not wish to have offspring with a surfacer" came out as a sneer with his Diplomacy roll of 3.

Rejected, Shayliss began to cry, sobbing about how her sister Katrine had Banny, but no one loved her; and what was wrong with her, wasn't she as beautiful as her?

Completely mortified, he tried to comfort her with a few words, enough that she once again embraced him. Just as he heard footsteps begin down the steps.

A clever use of darkness and stealth led him escaping without being caught.

I mainly wanted to use the opportunity to introduce Katrine before starting Skinsaw. However, the other players now bring up the incident every session at least once 8-).

My group just killed Ripnugget and Bruthazmus in the landing at D1 before retreating back across the rope bridge to rest when we ended the session last night. The next foray, they are going to face the rest of Nualia's remaining allies.

I had been toying around with the concept of changing Lyrie into a Magus, and I was wondering if anyone else had done that. I did a few searches, but didn't come up with anything. I had been thinking that as it is, she's not any sort of match for any competent group without some melee folks to keep them off of her. And then I really liked her picture in the AE and her mini that shows here with a sword, rather than just a dagger.

Since the main reason Nualia hired Lyrie was for her Thassilonian, arcana and knowledge, I figured that Magus still had access to much of that, plus would make her a more interesting combat encounter.

So, any thoughts?

I agree with the recommendations to build up the PC relationships with the Sandpoint NPC's as much as you can. I started running this for the first time a few months ago, and this past weekend had the first "big reveal" with Tsuto showing up. By then, the player's were all very invested in the lives and backgrounds of the NPCs, and so really cared about Ameiko, and disliked daddy. The satisfaction of finding who was behind the goblin attack was tempered with the ambivalence of Lonjiku's death.

I had four sessions before the Glassworks just running it as an investigative mod with minimal "combat" to build up the familiarity of the group with the NPCs. (Other than the initial attack, the goblin under the bed, and the boar hunt, I added the "side-trek" from Wayfinder #7 to look for Lucendi). I used face-cards for the first time, and they really enjoyed it. One player mentioned that with the cast of "people" they met, the face cards really helped them to make the NPC's real to them, and not just abstract names.

Specifically, whenever they asked to buy or sell something, I had them roleplay it through; and I would have the 2 PC's that were originally from Sandpoint (before having left 7 and 8 years previous for "studying in Magnimar" and "ostracized") make untrained Knowledge (local) checks to know a few facts about the NPC. In learning these tidbits, it made the characters real.

- Recommended to buy silken ceremonial armor from Lonjiku at the Glassworks, where he is rude and abrupt to the PCs as he's fretting over his guilt
- Going to Rynshinn to buy the silken armor and "knowing" that her single mother was a victim of the Chopper
- "Remembering" Quint as the strange old man whose door they used to throw rocks at as a kid and run away from before her caught them; but now find that he has valuable information (interspersed with some incorrect ones to make the PC's have to discern - such as "that's not a lighthouse! That's a weapon the ancient Thassilonias used to defend their lands from the elves from the forest who were trying to invade the human territories!")
- Mayor Deverin's love is now Sandpoint since losing her bethroed to the Chopper

Hope this helps!