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I wonder if it has tie-backs to Carrion Crown :-) Else I'd be wanting to write something into it. I'm currently GM'ing my way through CC - would be nice if the next campaign I do for these players can use the same characters or something :-)

I've just finished the whole thread, as I'll start running this book on the 4th of december. Thanks for all the ideas and suggestions everyone; I'll probably borrow a few :-)

Recently finished book one and 'master' Elkarid presented the first letter to the party. They loved to hate it :-D Quite a fun moment.

My BB is staying in Ravengro, in the Laughing Demon, observing the proceedings quietly. Given he's actually present, I gave my PC's a small chance of running into him.

Of course they did; they talked to him on a info hunt. I'm sure they have no idea who he really is, so he just presented himself as a well-to-do historian, in Ravengro by chance.

My question to my fellow GM's is this; would he refer to this conversation in letters? I'm on the fence about this. At one hand, I read him as not being able to resist gloating a bit, at the other hand, he might think it's too big a hint they've already seen him face-to-face.

What are your thoughts?

The player more or less challenged me to mess with him, based on his Patron and chose the Healing patron because he figures that this Patron is the one I can do the least with. This is all in good fun; we both know we like this kind of thing. As I had a 'challenge accepted' moment, I went with the 'it takes one to know one' route. But bouncing this off of various Pathfinder has proven quite valuable :-)

I've been thinking and I think I'll go with keeping it vague instead of tying 'my' Witch to Urgathoa (or Sarenrae, for that matter).

Here's the idea. After the first stage of the battle in which Urgathoa's champion'll go down, there will be a brief respite. The Witch'll hopefully touch the body or have some other meaningful interaction, setting off a vision.

In this vision, she'll see a manifestation of the Disease Domain and some of the gods that reside there or use it - if pressed on information about what happened, I'll hand-wave it as a extra strong Communion of sorts, made possible by Urgathoa's special interest in her champion. Urgathoa uses this connection to start the second stage of the battle.

Hopefully the Witch'll take this as a implication that her Patron is Urgathoa or a other 'Disease Deity'. But I'll put a hint in the vision that it's not the case and that the Witch her special condition, e.g. the whole communion/patron thing, set this up.

Adding that to the mix would certainly work. As I was thinking about it, I figured that Urgathoa would keep giving power to the Witch to maintain the temptation.

Though that's rather valid way to look at it, I wonder how to dress that narrative up. Where does the Witch get her powers from when it's in limbo whether she accepts or rejects Urgathoa?

Giving full disclosure; mentioning Sarenrae at all is because I don't want to force the player to have an Evil Patron for his Witch, but giving him an option. Having the option to be either Urgathoa or nothing at all might work as a narrative, but seems iffy to me rules-wise.

Oh, I like that idea! Consider it taken ;-)

As for that revenge...IMHO, that could be a whole campaign of it's own. Deities plan for the ages and this happening may elicit a response in a decade or so - I'd have this piece of plot as an extra, not as a main focus :-)

Thanks for the reply; I'll see that as a vote of confidence :-) Got a fair bit of experience as a player, but the GM'ing gig is new for me ;-) Although I think I know the Witch's player well, I still can't predict his response, but I'm sure we'll roll with whatever I can think of.

And fair point on Witch Patrons...Rereading their description, I might reconsider naming anything or anyone all too specific. Having her Healing coming from a source of Disease still seems like a nice twist to me.

Recently, I've started running a campaign. For each of my players I've planned to do a little personal plot and it's one those plots I need advice on and/or a sounding board for.

One of the players is playing a Witch with the Healing patron and in "Seven Days to the Grave" I'm planning to reveal the identity of her patron to her: Urgathoa. I know she doesn't have Healing in her portfolio, but she does have Disease and whatnot and my reasoning is that 'it takes one to know one'.

In the AP, Urgathoa makes very direct contact with the party. I'll tweak/tell it in a way that she takes special interest in the Witch, have some dialogue and threaten the Witch because the party struck down one of her champions. The Witch, according to Urgathoa, will need to make amends or else...

Urgathoa('s vision) gets cut short by Sarenrae - such direct interaction is rare and Sarenrae senses a chance to hinder her adversary Urgathoa and also offers to take the Witch in.

Fellow GM's (and players who are not my players ;-): does this sound like an awesome idea or a load of poppycock? Would you like it if this was to be a twist for your character? Any unforeseen consequences you're thinking of?

I have the same plan, as it happens. Not there yet by a long shot - just started The Haunting of Harrowstone - but I plan to upgrade Illmarsh to a small city as a base and take it from there.

My first session has taken place in the mean time :-) It's fun for me to note that my predictions about their behaviour were more or less accurate ;-)

Based on Loki_Thief's excellent work, I've made my own letters, as ultimately, I believed this letter sending is the best idea to increase the Big Bad's presence in the campaign. Loki_Thief, and/or anyone else, interested in what I've made out of it? I promise it differs enough that it's potentially interesting ;-)

Reading the brief, that certainly seems the case. Guess I might take a chance and grab it :-) Thanks for the tip!

Planning ahead is often a good idea and given that I've seen Wake of the Watcher mentioned as most 'jarring' in terms of theme, I decided to peruse this thread.

Basis for the argument seems to be that Lovecraftian Mythos is all fine and dandy, but not befitting for a Gothic Horror campaign. I'm inclined to agree and reading this thread, the idea of doing something with plague stuck for now.

I've got the idea of this town filled with Plague worshippers, with a Black Death theme, complete with Plague Doctors and whatnot. Maybe they secretly worshipped Urgathoa and got in over their heads or somesuch. Basically roughly the same plot, but instead of a Elder God, the PC's need to stop Urgathoa from popping up.

I've been reading the big sticky'ed GM reference thread for HoH, and I've come up with the following plan:

Adivion is present on the funeral. He doesn’t disguise himself (yet) then, but I won't explicitly point him out. Just something along the lines of 'there are few attendants; town notables, an older aristocrat and others who apparently knew the Professor'.

I'll 'deus ex machina' that he sticks around in town long enough to see or hear of a deed of some skill, such as defeating the Stirges, a other town haunt or one of the five in Harrowstone. This piques his interest and he decides to keep tabs on them. Towards the end of the book, he'll give a forewarning in the guise of a soothsayer.

Also by that time, he'll be interested enough to keep tabs the rest of the campaign, which'll be my cue to send letters, use Feather Tokens, Enter Image, Project Image, etc. as I deem appropriate.

My apologies for slightly derailing the current train of thoughts, but I'd like to add the generic note that I've just finished reading through the whole thread :-) I've gotten quite a lot of fun ideas from this thread, so thanks to any and all participants!

Both for my own and other's future reference, I'll surmise most of my ideas and planned changes below. I've got a separate thread for my own plans on foreshadowing the Big Bad, so I'll add those ideas over there. Anywho:

- Kendra will ask the PCs to aid with a few small problems to be expected when her father died; swatting away unwanted suitors, getting a few administrative details right, perhaps distributing some old knick-knacks to other villagers. I want to cement the idea that her father foresaw that she'd need help after his death and that those 30 days are useful to his daughter, even beyond the non-mundane troubles of Harrowstone and the WW.
- I'll add in side-quests from 3rd party sources as the pace needs and my budget allows, such as Legendary Games' Adventure Path plug-ins.
- I'll simplify the fire in the town hall; have it be a 'moving walls trap'.
- I'll start off the AP with a carriage ride as a ways of introducing the PCs to each other, the world and combat. Combat'll probably be against bandits or some such - mooks they can kill without repercussion. This'll help my new players get into the combat system. Undecided if I'll connect the mooks to the WW.
- Though I guess it should be considered logical, I oughta feel free to amp up the horror feel and spookiness; add extra visions/ghost sounds/etc.
- The Professor's journal will be on his body...and he'll deliver it to the PCs himself ;-)

That's about it, I think. Anything else I really should change/add?

Gah, too many fun options! ;-)

Glad I've got time to think about it.

It's another fun option, must admit.

When you say, "had a more effective impact", what do you compare it to?

I know something like Project Image existed, but Enter Image is new for me. Sounds like a fun one; I'll take it into consideration. Thanks for providing that nugget of information!

Now, as far as the riddles go, I suspect I've got a good few months to go before I'd have to present the first one :-) Thanks for thinking along :-)

I'll be running this AP as a GM, starting the end of December. So far, my PCs have the following planned; a Elven Fighter, a Human Inquisitor of Pharasma, a Changeling Witch with the Healing Patron and a Tiefling Alchemist.

I suspect that either the Fighter or the Witch will act as leader and the other one as 'lieutenant'. For the Alchemist, it's her first Pathfinder campaign (and P&P RPG), and know the player's character, I fully expect her to test things and be a bit of a hellion. Lastly, I hope/expect the Inquisitor to be the moral compass, or at least the main driving force, remind the party to move on and whatnot.

Oh, that's good stuff! But I am still curious what people think of my plans ;-)

Hello everyone!

At the end of December, I'll start my first stint as a GM with the Carrion Crown adventure path. I've done some reading already and one of the pieces of advice I want to take to heart, is the foreshadowing of the Big Bad. Obviously, this discussion will contain spoilers ;-)

So, with that out of the way...

My current plan is to have Adivion Adrissant show up towards the end of each book, disguised as a old man, a soothsayer of sorts, and offering the party some cryptic riddle/forewarning of things to come in the next book.

The idea is that way over at the Gallowspire, he's Scrying on the proceedings and being the clever fella he's being portrayed as, he figures that the party may influence things and decides to toy with them.

Given I think it gives the party interesting opportunities to have him bodily present, he will be bodily present, but not unprepared:
1. He'll wear a Ring of Mind Shielding.
2. He'll wear a Hat of Disguise.
3. He'll have access to Word of Recall for if things get hairy.

Now, two questions for any and all readers:
1: Any thoughts or suggestions on the above set-up?
2: Any ideas on the wording of the riddles for the specific books?

I like trash ;-) And thanks, that's the one!

I seem to remember a Feat or somesuch that allowed Alchemists to use alchemical substances in a performance and/or for a bonus in the Perform Skill. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

Thanks for all the comments, people! My questions have been answered and I've got plenty of ideas to move forward :)

Going with a Tiefling that either has Claws or Bite does have the advantage of having a back-up plan :) Think I've got a working concept, here ;)

As far as the Draconic Bloodline goes, the wording is remarkably different from the Abyssal one :-/

If that's the case, it sure looks like the Bloodrager is more like I'd want, with either the Abyssal or Draconic Bloodline.

Speaking of the latter, do I understand correctly that the Draconic Bloodline grants permanent Claws, as opposed to the Abyssal Bloodline?

I'll be starting a new Pathfinder campaign soon-ish, so I'm researching a new character. Inspired primarily by anime (for those in the know: Alucard from Hellsing and his unarmed style), I'm considering making a 'supernatural', anti-heroic character that is built to take down foes unarmed, ripping them apart.

The races I'm considering so far are the Tiefling and Dhampir. The classes I'm considering are Brawler and Bloodrager.

Due to my research, I've got some questions about the Tiefling Brawler combination I can't quite get an answer to. I've been trying to find these answers on this board to no avail. So, here goes:

1. If I make a Tiefling Brawler who has claws as per the Tiefling Alternate Racial Trait "Maw or Claw", how many times do I attack at first level for how much damage, while unarmed? Two times 1D4 as per the text of that trait? Or one times 1D6, as the Brawler Class states that a Medium Brawler does 1D6 unarmed damage? Do I get to choose? Or something else?

2. Second question is basically as above, but now at second level, with Brawler's Flurry thrown into the mix.

3. Brawler's Flurry is virtually the same as the Monk's Flurry of Blows. However, the Feat "Feral Combat Training" doesn't mention it. I guess a DM could allow me to use it anyway?