This is my alpha version of something I'm putting together for my players. I figured I could get some good insight and help some people out.
What this is:
Playing RotRL with the Kingdom Building rules available from the SRD or the Book of the River Nations, same stuff.
What are you doing:
Well I wanted to present my players with a sandbox and just let them have fun. I've already modded in a second area with a massive dungeon known as Rappan Athuk, but its completely ignorable.
How are you dealing with X problem from Y book?
Don't know all that yet, but it will likely consist of me adding contents from books 3+ to a map above this one. I never really liked how far away the rest of the adventure took us.
Ok so there was an incident in the game where a player was grappled and drug underneath 40' of water by a monster. A second player who is standing above the water, a paladin, used Litany of Escape.
Does it work? As I understand the spell is language dependent, which I believed means the target has to be able to hear and understand the speaker. Being 40' underwater, I couldn't find any rules on how that would affect their ability to hear so I defaulted to the using ranged weapons penalty, -2 per 5 feet as a rule of thumb to keep the game going. I had the player try and make a DC26 Perception (DC10 plus 16 for distance) to see if it worked. Several players argued that sound travels better over water, yet I cannot understand someone yelling at me out of water, while I sit at the bottom of my pool. (Yes I know you can't apply physics to the fantasy game, so HELP!) Thanks in advance.
I know my players won't actually do this, but they have gained the use of a siege catapult. Their teleporting in the current region has been nerfed so what if they decided to fire themselves from a catapult?
With feather fall?
What if they had cast fly first?
As I said this is just for fun. What other strange ideas can anyone think of?
As per the spell teleport can be made more hazardous or impossible due to "strong physical or magical effects".
1. Does this mean that STRONG WIND inhibits teleporting? To what extent? What would be more good examples of strong physical effects?
2. What qualifies as a strong magical effect? For instance could someone teleport into a Tiny Hut or Secure Shelter? My interpretation of strong is relative to the use of strong in strong winds, strong currents, which have mechanical representations in the rules.
3. "More Hazardous" Is it reasonable to increase the mishap percentage to represent being more hazardous? It doesn't have any specific examples in the spell text. For example in my home game one region with a powerful magical effect has increased the percentage by +50. The region surrounding the effect by +25. Another more focused area devestated by "epic level" magic is impossible to teleport into. Agree or disagree?
4. In an area that shifts constantly like a desert with high winds, in short, what modifiers would you use if any?
Ok had a situation in game come up where a player character was killed by a Dread Wraith, rose as a wraith from constituion drain, and then was killed again.
Can he be brought back to life with Raise Dead?
I thought once the undead was slain he could, but I have heard otherwise. Please cite your answer. Thank you in advance.
Two of the three items in the order (2884385) show as pending, just wondering if the book has shipped out yet. Ordered on the 12th and it still looks the same, thanks.
I'll be leaving out any specific references to any adventures. No spoilers, just questions. I'm sure this comes up in a dozen adventures anyways, its just to darn fun as a DM.
So an evil outsider offers to grant twisted wishes so long as they are your heart's desire. Ultimately these wishes are true in a way, though they often come at great cost to others who may not understand.
A paladin wishes to restore a region to its pre-evil state and wishes it so from the outsider. The wish is granted though the paladin is presented with a knife to spill the blood of an innocent to a nature creature that will rekindle natural growth, which in theory could remove much of the taint. He refuses to spill the blood and the wish ultimately fails because of it.
Is it evil to make a wish knowing well that the consequences could be dire, even though those consequences are not known beforehand? Should he become unlawful for making a deal with a being of such chaos? Should he at least become neutral for his wish? Or would you let it slide since he didn't follow through.
Typically I regard evil actions as conscious choices, even if the outcomes are unclear. Intention over effect. Agree or Disagree and why?
Alright so I'm sure everyone has run into this situation.
Players need to or decide to cut through a stone wall, say hardness 8 90 hitpoints per foot and three feet thick. Mechanics wise I don't see any real reason to say that they couldn't eventually batter the wall down (using weapons or not) and mechanics wise if they have power attack it probably won't take that long.
Is there some rule or reference out there about breaking your weapon and maybe how it would happen? I mean maybe even have a break check on the weapon when hitting hard materials? Just seems silly to wail away on a wall with your masterwork or magic weapon, but its doable.
Ok now what about when the players start busting out adamantite weapons? Are other dm's letting them cut through stone and steel like a hot knife through butter?
Just curious.
Edit: Most of the rules say x hitpoints per foot/inch, is that a 5'x5' section? How big is the hole they cut?
I'm going to try and keep this post short, but in my opinion what we really need out of an Adventure Path is a series of small towns. First, I'd like to reference without any real spoilers Sandpoint from the RotRL AP where the players become small town heroes and probably even get to know two dozen locals by name. Essentially the players come in and clear out all the local dangers. Now without going all Buffy the Vampire Slayer "Hellmouth" where everything centers around one place eventually the players move on to the next area, but I've noticed they usually aren't as NPC rich as the first one, maybe because of the inherent danger of higher levels, maybe not. I'm reading another AP for mid levels, the Slumbering Tsar, and its got another really cool small town that adventures are based around. What I'm getting at is that I think a really good adventure could be designed where players don't really stay in the big cities, kind of clearing out local dangers as they go, might make a good adventure. Small towns usually have their own dynamics, a constant influx of new folklore, and alot of NPCs that the players will need to get in contact with, but they aren't big enough that nameless commoner 105 becomes the norm.
I hope someone can make sense of my post and knows what I'm talking about. I think it would be a great backdrop for a larger story, either that or I just like tons of flavorful npcs.
There are going to be tons of spoilers in here so if you are playing stop reading, this adventure is pretty awesome so don't ruin it for yourself.
Ok, so I've read the first three books and have a decent handle on the Desolation and the Camp. I've been reading the play-by-post thread called "The Camp-Forward", which has been great for a visualisation. I've got a few questions and concerns.
The Distance: Bard's Gate is 300 miles or so from the Camp, I was looking through to find some kind of travel encounters for the trip, because its a long way. I set this up as 150 miles up a river and 150 miles through stony plains. So far my group has made it up the River with a few attacks in some woods by a troll and some ogres. I need something to round out the rest of the trip for the last half. From the adventure description there is just nothing between Bard's Gate and the Camp right? In my game I exchanged Magnimar for Bard's Gate and set the Camp in the Cinderlands in place of Urglin. To isolate the area, I told them Kaer Maga was hostile to travelers, but this still leaves Turtleback Ferry on the way. I am using bits of RotRL AP3 for some filler content and using the encounter tables and Fort Rannick to make the trip dangerous. So any suggestions for the trip from Fort Rannick/Skull's Crossing to the Camp (previously Urglin) through the Desolation (previously the Cinderlands).
NPCs: I'm concerned with a lack of npcs for the players to interact with, besides the Camp and that group of dwarves are there any settlements big or small in the region I have missed? Are there any things other DM's have done to break up the "desolation" of the Desolation? I know there's a few monster interactions and a couple of hostile demihumans. I know my players and they are going to want to talk to non-threatening npcs. I'd even go as far as to put other camps of adventurers out in the wasteland just to have some conversations, what have others done, did I miss something?
The Weather: There's some mention of the weather being horrendus in the region, but there aren't any real specifics other than some nasty stuff in the encounters table. To touch on this I modified the base rules for bad weather and doubled the range of non-normal weather and reduced the chances of normal weather. Am I making this to difficult or is this what was intended? I don't have my chart handy, but there's at least a 50% chance every day of the weather being miserable for one reason or another including heat waves, windstorms, or cold snaps.
Hunting and Fishing: Even though it starts mid level there are some modifiers to survival checks in the area, from what I've seen a flat +5 from the adventure looks like the fix. In some areas, it specifies no plant life, so I would assume you really can't use survival for food in those areas. Since by and large it said water was difficult to find I have in my notes that all water found not specifically defined in the adventure as safe to drink is infested with Dysentery and Filth Fever to show how dangerous it is to drink out of a non-Well. It makes the Camp almost a must, except clerics can make water and rings of sustenance aren't that hard to find. Notably during a Heat wave water consumption is increased x3, I really wanted to make the region as volatile as the book makes it out to be. Am I going to far?
I'm sure I'll think of more and keep this thread running, thanks in advance.
Just throwing alot of ideas around to see what sticks. My group is currently on book 3, after finishing RotRL. I'm meshing in parts of Second Darkness so if you don't want to see any spoilers from either, stop reading.
Book 1 & 2 - I mostly ran this adventure straight out of the book, except adding in the troll kingdom. We started using the rules from the River Nations book instead of the KM rules. I barred the selling of magic items through economy rolls, but added in more economy resources into hexes like spices, gems, horses, ruins full of antiquities, and trade agreements. My group has always been low on build points, generally keeping no more than 20-30 before spending down.
Book 3 - I ended up making negotiations with the centaurs much harder and played up the racial tensions and its really keeping the players on edge, but they have a shaky friendship with them. I dropped in the city of Celwynvian from SD book 3 into one of the bottom hexes (11,3) and the players have heard rumors of a secret elven war. They also found some paperwork where Maegar had ceded the hex to Kyonin. Later after retreating from Vordakai's lair I had V rise up and send armies of dread zombies south into Mivon, Celwynvian, the centaur camps, and all the surrounding hexes to gather up minions. Eventually full fledged war has broken out with Vordakai and Restov has retracted its bridges and shut its gates to the undead plague. Mivon has become an unlikely ally as they have sent an army into the stolen lands to block a pass that the undead have been using to get into their kingdom. A diplomat reminding me of the diplomat from 300 came to the players kingdom and lavished them with gifts touting an alliance as long as they would respect Mivon's "traditional" northern border which is all of the southwestern quarter of the Nomen Heights. This coupled with the land they ceded to the centaurs, the entirity of the Dunsward plains has left them with a narrow corridor of property in the Nomen Heights.
As far as Celwynvian I had the drow stage an attack outside their capital disguised as the elves of the Shin-Rakarath to provoke them into war. Inside the Armageddon's echo I'm thinking about having a shadow of Karzoug be smart enough to create a "realstuff" version of himself, possibly creating a new superpower in the region.
Books 4+ I'm looking at running some kind of sympathetic Nyrissia story where the players can at least feel sorry for her even though what she's doing is tearing their world apart. My players have expressed interest in aiding or starting the Brevic Revolution, one of them is from Orlovski and his family is being taxed into poverty for their seditious actions. I'm also debating running with the Choral in a Bottle ala Vordakai and Nyrissia temporary alliance, which will give a good twist at the end.
I'm not sure where to go with the shadow Karzoug since Xin Shalast is so far away. I'd probably go with the scenario that RotRL hasn't happened yet. My group pretty much skipped book 6 so I definitely want to incorporate it somehow, even if it requires moving it to make it relevant.
Thoughts ideas?
I'd also like to do something special with briar, like heartrenching and sad.
Did anyone think about the similarities between the sudden disappearance of house Rogovaria and the Varnhold. It just seems like there should be some creepy old guy with a twitching eye somewhere talking about doom and gloom spouting wild theories about House Rogovaria and Varnhold.
Did anybody think about possibly having Vordakai animate dead this Linnorm Skeleton? It says its of immense size, so I'm guessing it might be collossal.
My players are a big fan of the mass combat rules, I'm debating having V raise it and it be so ginormous that they might bring an army to fight it.
Are there any other good undead spells/things I could use with this skeleton if the PC's themselves fight it? Specifically looking for an intelligence template or something around their level that would be interesting.
Note to GM
This is meant as a lead into parts of the Varnhold Vanishing without giving any real information that would tip off the players to Vordakai. It can be used as a supplement to the Lonely Barrow (Greenbelt, Area F) or placed as its own adventure site.
Adventure Background
In the Age of Darkness, a long extinct dwarven kingdom emerged into the Stolen Lands led by King Khadgar of Temol who drove his country to the surface in hopes of fulfilling the Quest for Sky. The end of the journey to the surface was bittersweet as Khadgar’s nation was met with an orcish uprising in the bloody kingdom of Vordakai. Attacked from the moment of their arrival, King Khadgar was killed in the first major conflict with Vordakai. It took less than a decade for the dwarven nation to collapse and fade in the wake of the necromancers. Though the kingdom fell its ruins have remained relatively untouched in the last five millennia. Eroded by the wilderness only a small flora covered hill remains where long ago the dwarves had built a surface keep. In time passing barbarians found a collapsed passage and converted the surface ruins to bury their dead never realizing what lay beneath.
Adventure Summary
The adventurers find and explore the barbarian cairn only to discover signs of dwarves and possibly an ancient dwarven lift that leads into the outlying area of the extinct dwarven settlement. In their investigations they accidentally stumble upon lost dwarven engineering marvels, dwarven clockwork, guardians, and a massive warren of cannibalistic morlocks who have taken residence in the ruins. In exploring the ruins the adventurers will finding artifacts of the lost kingdom of Khadgar as well as a strange magical tome taken from the servants of Vordakai.
So at the end of RRR I've decided to mesh in large parts of Second Darkness into the campaign. The only real rule is to keep all the locations within the Kingmaker setting. Luckily, I had just enough time to squeeze in some of book 1... This is a work in progress.
Important Locations:
Nomen Heights Lake Silverstep area S, add the island the Devil's Elbow from SD Book 2.
Nomen Heights 11 Down 3 Over, add the elven cities of Crying Leaf and Celwynvian*.
*I know its kind of hard to rip the city from where it is, but it works and to have a lone lost city at war. I'm sure this could cause some problems with them and Kyonin if they tried to take it. I definitely want to add some more "stuff" to the nomen heights map so it might be beneficial to add something in the surrounding hexes. It needs to be far from Restov, but I don't think it hurts the story.
II. Rivers Run Red
A. The dark cloud from Shadow in the Sky settles of the capital city.
B. Using the entire Devil's Island story, except the part with pc's competing with bandits in their port.
C. This could provoke some interaction with Maegar Varn so its good to get them involved in the story.
III. Varnhold Vanishing
A. Using the city of Crying Leaf and Celwynvian almost entirely. My players have alot of elves in the party so its pretty easy.
This is a bit of custom content for an adventure I'm running and I was looking for some ideas.
What happened:
An female elf druid (player) who is the grand diplomat for her kingdom released a non-epic demon from petrification believing she was an half-elf bard trapped for at least a millenia. In return the disguised demon offered to do any favor that she asked, of course the pc not knowing asked her to help free her father*. The demon asked her if this was her wish and the player concurred the demon smiled and cursed itself that until the deed was done or she was released that it must do everything in its power to release him. Soon after the demon telepathically informed her of its plans to slaughter each and ever elf including possibly elven royalty to release her father at which point she begs the demon not to. At this point the demon offers** the player the chance to relenquish the curse if she would do a deed for the demon instead. She agrees only if the demon will not leave the bounds of the Tanglebriar or other planes and now owes the demon a favor.
*Her father is an elven ambassador in Kyonin who had been put into house arrest for supposedly waisting to many resources on developing good relations with his daughter's kingdom.
**At this point the demon has explained to the girl's father that she has made a contract with his daughter and that if he is willing to do it a favor she will release his daughter from her current contract.
Now, I'm planning on holding the favors over her head for a while, but I'm interested to see what people think I should have her do. She's a high ranking member of her country's government and she is also trying to forge good relations with Kyonin. The demon itself is a servant of the greater demon inhabiting the Tanglebriar, Treerazor. I would assume that the demon itself wants to maximize the effect of its contract. The player also now carries an evil mark that brands her as the property of the demon.
I've added an elf gate and the npc Quilindria (Second Darkness) to this area. Quilindria has currently been turned to stone, can communicate telepathically.
One of my pc's is an elf so I'm really playing up the connection with Kyonin.
Second Darkness AP5 Spoiler Required:
So if you've read the 5th book you get introduced to Quilindria the Succubus, now for purposes of the AP I have reduced her level, but otherwise she's the exact same character and I'm using her content almost completely except for her connection to the Queen. I'm using her as an infiltrator trying to find ways into the elven capital and in this case she has found one leading directly to the Lotus Hub, unfortunately for her she was turned to stone years ago by the evil fey after loosing a riddle contest when confronted by Dancing Lady. This does a few thing like giving the PC's a chance to travel to Iobara, except that the elven kingdom is horribly racist against humans, but if they can get the portal functioning I might give them a +1 Economy for it, but that will definitely require some diplomacy with the elves.
The primary reason for adding this is that one of my players is the daughter of an elven ambassador to Restov and her father was recently imprisoned after being accused by the Winter Council of using the kingdom treasury as a slush fund to send his daughter, all fluff. The fluff is that he is wasting time sending resources and entertaining diplomatic relations with a nation that has no cultural attatchment to Kyonin, the player has been tasked with finding historically relevant cultural connections with the old kingdom of the elves and to prove that the Stolen Lands were a significant part of their history. I wanted to a way to keep that elven politicing rp aspect and have a plausible reason for having a population of elves be in the kingdom without having them travel through the River Kingdoms.
Now of course in the future I'm sure I can develop some kind of plot where the Winter Council says its too dangerous to have a portal to the capital in barbarian hands (the PC's).
Lastly, I'm trying to open up something so eventually there may be a plot with Treerazor to take the portal as a backdoor into the elven capital. I'm trying to find feasible plots for the high end game and more reasons for mass combat, my players really like the army building stuff.
Thoughts? Questions? Its always good to have the vast and creative ideas of the paizo forums!
My players' awesome Adventure Blog:
http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/kingmaker-lures-of-majesty/wikis/hom e-page
What kind of awards would you give the player characters for winning a mass combat? I'm referring to army vs army battles. I'm working on adding alot more mass combat starting in adventure 2, but I think I need to supplement the pc's with some BP so it doesn't dramatically stunt their kingdom's growth.
So what kind of rewards for winning, especialy BP wise.
So my players are itching to try out some mass combat and I have a few concerns. Right now I'm setting up to have a couple of CR1 (Using River Kingdoms Rules) armies roving around and the fluff isn't as important right now as not torpedoing the game.
Anyways the way I'm intending on using these is probably have one bandit army roving around as a "test" battle for the PC's, having it have a minor impact on the kingdom. After the original test battle I'll probably bring in a few small Troll armies to conclude book 2.
Maegar's Forces are around as a hireable mercenary army if the PC's get into trouble. I want them to have friendly relations, thoughts?
Tiger Lords, well in Book 4 Drelev's Fort has already surrendured to Pitax and this is after Drelev defeated Armage's barbarians. I'd like to have at least the threat wandering around outside of their map right now. Sort of as a "hey there's a war to the west as well". I don't think this could screw anything up unless the PC's tried to help out Drelev too much, he's already bitter about their prosperity anyways.
So my questions this time:
Is book 2 to early to start using small battles?
Is it too much of a reveal to have the tiger lord armies attacking to the west?
Thoughts on tying Maegar more into the story this way?
Hey guys,
I've seen some disccusion on the forums about each set of rules and was wondering whether I should run the AP with the rules that come with it OR whether I should convert over to the River Kingdom's rules.
Now we are about halfway through AP2 and I'm not sure its worth the headache to use the other rules, I've seen people mention that the high end mass combat is going to be wonky. I absolutely intend to take this game into the level 20 region with some post-AP Runelords stuff. My party completed that AP previously and I want to do something with it.
So:
Question 1: Should I bother with it?
Question 2: In the future when running homebrew games, would it be my best option to use the Kingmaker rules, the River Kingdom stuff, or just hand waive it? My players really enjoy the kingdom building so this is an important topic for me.
Question 3: I've heard stuff about the magic item selling becoming a real problem later in the adventure. I don't let my players munchkin the game to death so will this be a problem? Has it been a real problem for non-munchinkin groups?
Question 4: The Kingmaker Mass combat rules, do they work? I've seen some discussion about whether they are workable or not, opinions/discussions?
One of my players is playing an elven noble, daughter of an elven ambassador in the Rostlands for the nation of Kyonin. Last night she recieved some grave news by elven messenger.
She has been planning a wedding in game to an npc elven knight from Kyonin who is part of her backstory. One of the things I've required of her is that since they are both nobles, that the wedding be somewhat lavish and to ensure that, she has to work out alot of arraingments for elves to come visit their capital for the celebration. Basically I told her to invest the equivalent of 1 build point and it might possibly generate some economic revenue for her kingdom. She has been working very hard to form a friendly relations with Kyonin and I figured I'd spice it up for her since it was her birthday. I wanted to really play up the politics of her working things out with a mostly racist and xenophobic country. Please let me know your thoughts.
The Letter:
Most honored Ambasador Haldir Arolen,
It is with the most regretful sincerity that our enlightened and benevolent Queen Telandia Edasseril must decline further economic and cultural exchanges with the barbaric human settlement of Svenheim. In accordance with our traditions and most holy of missions, it has been deemed by the Winter Council with the authority of the Queen that treaties and exchanges with the floundering nation will be suspended indefinitely. Ambassador Haldir Arolen your pleas to continue ties with barbaric lands that have no cultural significance with the historic lands of our motherland Kyonin have placed a burden upon the crown. This burden you have inflicted is during a time of war with the region of Tanglebriar. Your questionable motives and frivolous abuse of the treasury to the benefit of barbarous humans and familial gains will surely result in an upcoming punitive council to discuss these unnatural and traitorous acts. It is by the authority of the Council that you are hereby confined to your noble villa in Iadara on pain of death pending your trial. All of your personal holdings and wealth have been seized until the trial at which time you may present your defense.
High Inquisitor Khalandill duly appointed representative of the Winter Council in service of Queen Telandia Edasseril, long may she reign.
My group of players decided to post their adventures to a website as well as their maps as they develop them. If you are interested in reading about the adventures of Baron Sven and his companions here ya go!
Ok, just curious, did anyone have a PC try to woo Svetlana? The player knows she's married, but wants to try it anyways. I figured I'd at least give him a roll for it. Do the Leveton's have a huge part to play in the upcoming adventures? Some drama would be fun to add to the game I think and he's going to try and keep it secret for a while.
I figured it was like this rather than handwaving it,
Svetlana Helpful DC0
Affair +10
Charisma +4 (says she's attractive)
He's a barbarian +2 (sounds like she likes civilization)
Just saved her life -5
DC11 seems about right to me...at least temporarily
So far my players have made it out of Restov and just finished the initial battle at Oleg's Trading Post. Some key points of interest.
We turned Nikta's Crossing (from book 3) into a neat side adventure where they got to meet Maegar Varn (the Nomen Heights group). He bragged about finding a decent map of the region (the Map folio map) while playing a dice gambling game (the example in the GameMastery Guide). The players having found no other reliable maps in the region gambled several items, until finally they bribed him to borrow it for a few hours so they could copy it. Other notable things, my players sometimes are on the fence and a little soft hearted, so when they saw bandits hanging from the wall and one in a crow's cage out in the cold weather it really set the scene for them. Locals had talked about some starving and going hungry because of bandits, because when you rob from people who don't have much, they do without and my players toughened up a little. Additionally, I had a drug dealer try and get our barbarian player hooked on drugs (from GM guide), I really wanted to try out those new rules.
So anyways, they got snowed in (using the weather chart for a cold climate) for a day and finally took off down to Oleg's. I had to give them a new map, because in book 3 you get an accurate map of the Restov-Oleg's journey, not in book 1. They get there and I play up the dark abandoned post atmosphere, but they hear some hammering noises. Now I'm a big fan of goblinscomic and I'm not a huge fan of racial steriotyping, so my first NPC is a lone goblin in a broken breastplate sitting in the fort chowing down on some meat. I had them preroll initiative as I always do in any situation just to raise tension. And the wizard, who was scouting for some reason, hailed the fort and the goblin starts yelling for Oleg. The tension in the room was huge and then a great look of relief passed over, they all got a little laugh about GetsthePig the goblin hunter.
My player's kept on trying to talk to Oleg, and Svetlana was described as a russian mail order bride, but they finally started listening to her as Oleg waived them off. My players figured out subtley that Oleg was very unhappy that they were mercenaries on a charter, not soldiers. They had a little discussion about how Oleg was probably not happy that they were there to claim land, not just protect them, it played out well. They were told about the bandits and the players designed a little wooden contraption that would slam the gate shut basically involving an engineering roll and a huge log and some rope. Given my group is 7 players, I doubled the number of bandits and the fight went off really well. My players interrogated the bandits and allowed the first one that surrendured to live, they executed the rest for banditry, especially Happs because he was yelling out racial insults to the elves the whole battle as he shot them (think Goblinslayer from Goblinscomic).
I had a carbunkle show up when the barbarian was chopping down a tree, he thought his character was hallucinating and the Gunslinger completely failed his perception so its a running gag now that the barbarian sees floating catapillars with jewels in their heads.
Overall, my players love this adventure so far. I was happy to find the entry on Maegar Varn (I think its in book 3/1?), so I could introduce him as a likeable and capable swordsman before book 3.
I've played up the cold climate alot, making my players check for weather everyday in fear of a blizzard or snowstorm, we have a very Game of Thrones atmosphere.
The party: Conan-ish Barbarian, Racist Elven Druid, Great Expectations (the book) Cavalier, Godchild (descendant) Oracle, Conniving Beggar Bard, Wandering Gunslinger, On the Run Wizard
First of all I loved this adventure and so did my players, but having finished it there were a few things I wished I could have changed in the story, and a few things I did. Hope this helps someone.
Book 1 - I made Nualia into a victim, possessed by the demon in the stone head. My players eventually took her down and she became the cohort of a player who was playing her younger sister. I pushed hellknights alot in this adventure as some badguys and had Madam Niska actually be a dragon turtle who watched over the local shoanti. The town was up in arms when the Hellknights wanted to search her house for a shoanti rebel in the region and they nearly had a riot.
Book 2 - My favorite book, I loved the intrigue, I did alot more with the docks district and the scarzani thugs, had some player's arrested when they started messing with the operation. Didn't change much other than I had the chief put out a citywide APB against the "murderous band of adventurers" when they got to close to the truth. Had them get set up in an abandoned mansion with a loose tiger from the zoo and some dead townguard bodies.
Book 3 - I liked this, but my players didn't. They hated being away from Sandpoint and they did nothing with the fort. Several mentioned they would have rather had me mix in something or bring it to Sandpoint in some way. They loved the npcs and all hide wives, husbands, kids, and great friends there. If I could have, I would have placed this significantly closer to town.
Book 4 - Yet again away from town, yes some NPCs were involved, but they were largely kept away from the players. The saving grace was the library, we did alot with that. During the attack on the town I had more giants and had the red dragon godzilla fight with Niska, I let her die off here and the players were ready for revenge. They really didn't want the town burning to the ground.
Book 5 - Major Change. The stone heads could easily have been put somewhere out in the woods near town and the stones in the church could easily have been the portal to the runeforge. I know its a little exotic to move it away, but my players were begging to go back to Sandpoint at this point. I really wish something significant would have been done with them.
Book 6 - By this time my players were so ready to get back to Sandpoint that they wanted to breeze through this one and start Kingmaker. In the end, the epic story took a backseat to their families and castle they had started building in Sandpoint on Chopper's Isle. I think we might as well of had a portal in the Runeforge lead to Xin Shalast rather than hoofing it all the way there.
Overall my players loved the centric around a little town story, they really wanted it to be the Sunnydale (buffy the vampire slayer) of the game. And had it been more close to that I think they would have enjoyed it more. Also they started begging to go check out Hollow Mountain and got a little irritated when it wasn't part of the core game.
Hey guys, my group just finally finished RotRL after 2 years and we are now onto Kingmaker. I've been frantically trying to find all sorts of good things to throw into this game and add alot more color in they style of RotRL Book 1 (a bazillion NPC's).
Anyways, so far my biggest note was that after reading book 1, I was incorrectly assuming that the walk from Restov was straight south to the Greenbelt, I later noted when reading book 4, it wasn't the case. But my point is, how necessary is the Map Folio? I've debated using it, but I'm not sure I want to reveal a map to the players, it may take some of the exploration feeling out of the game, your thoughts?
Aside from that I'm trying to mesh in some extra content, I've adapted the setting to use the Cold Climate, but just not checking hourly, my group really likes Game of Thrones the tv show. The other thing I'm doing is meshing in a 2nd Edition Module that spans levels 7-20 roughly the Dawn of the Overmind trilogy. Of course I'm going to have to make a homebrew write up for illithids due to the copyright stuff.
Anyways I'm just looking for insight. I've seen some mention about dropping the Lyre of Building, Fabricate, and Wall of Stone type stuff out of the game, and yeah I'm going to drop it.
The Gamemastery guide has alot of neat stuff to help with random memorable npc's and the humanoid encounters sections (prostitutes, beggars, thieves, etc).
Most notably I have a group of 7 players, which is large, yes, but I run them low magic and typically beef up most of the encounters. As far as purchasing magic items, I was thinking of only letting them buy the random goods their town pops (erfworld reference anyone?). There's also a guideline about what items are available in Restov, ie. 2d4 minor 1d4 medium random items or something. Anyone feel this is going to put them at too much of a disadvantage?
Just looking for any advice, good sidequests, etc.
Ok last night we reached the conclusion of the Skinsaw Murders and my party had a rough time with the Scarecrow in the Shadow Clock. I had alot of fun making the stairs and adventure in themselves almost along with the falling bell my players really were getting excited. Right after the defeat of the shapechanger guys I had Xanesha make a villan's entrance by bursting through the ceiling where the players were at. The party only had one front line fighter who got critical chunky salsaed on round 2 for something like 75 damage. The surviving players were scrambling around yelling at each other in character to collapse the floor under her until they recognized the fly spell. In the end they took her down with a combined effort and a lot of luck. As she was escaping the party cleric who never enter's combat ran up and inflicted wounds on her. Just gotta say it was an exciting game.
I know my players and ever since I read a thread on here that said the giant head on the Hambley farm might have been the cockpit for a collossal golem, my players have been in awe of Thassilon. I added a little sidequest where Madam Niska told the shoanti player to go in and gather the "holy shoanti relics" that were inside the place, because an archeologist from Magnimar had bought the farm after the Skinsaw Murders. Anyways, inside the head they found a gigantic mirror and a set of armor with dozens of chains extending from it, something akin to Neon Genesis or Robot Jocks.
So I was sitting around and thinking, where would be a good place to throw in a good fight between two collossal Thassilonian golems, I'm thinking somewhere near the end of AP#6. And realistically it probably needs to fall to pieces during the epic battle. It would be some really cool imagery for the players to see one of these big golems climbing out of a big hole in a mountain or something like that.
I'm looking for ideas here, I haven't read AP#6 in any detail yet. Anyone see the cover for the Elder Evils book? Something like that.
I was in a player in a previous attempted running of this adventure, but the group disbanded. Half of the group has rejoined and half are new players and now I'm running it. I'm looking for a few quick tips and some brainstorming on how to alter things so its "new" for even the old players. The previous game successfully completed the "all the world's meat section", but skipped most of it except for the boss because of some good planning.
Here are my objectives.
*Make Korvosa seem friendlier.
*Add a crapload of NPCs to talk to, I only have book 1 and I have ran Rise of the Runelords twice, is there an npc section in any of the books like in the first adventure? If so, which book?
*Significantly change the beginning, but keep the story on track. Notably the Old Fishery will have to change somehow, whether Gaedren Lamm is there or not. Its not like it was a secret location from the PC's so I need a twist.
*Add in additional little missions.
*Remove any time constraints from the adventure
So far I've made Zellara into the daughter of a murdered fortune teller, so the player's always have someone to come back and talk to.
This is just something I've knocked out really quick. I used it in both of my groups that I have ran for. It needs maps probably, but I'm no good with mapping software. Please feel free to tweak it.
*****
This is in no way a challenge to any copyrights by Paizo, because they are awesome. Material has been adapted from the community forums, particularly the Pathfinder Journal of Moonbeam, who is also awesome.
*****
Background:
At the beginning of the late Unpleasantness a number of strange occurrences happened including the disappearance of Das Korvut’s 5 year old son Simon. Simon was his father’s son and at an early age took to going with his father on hunting trips out into the wilds, particularly fox hunts. On his first hunting trip the boy and his father hunted down a young fox pup, Das Korvut captured it and helped his son to train it as a pet. When his son went missing Das Korvut and his wife Madellin scoured the town, later Madellin became one of Chopper’s first victims. Unknown to anyone was that Chopper had kidnapped the boy and was over the next month raising him as a protégée, trapping the terrified boy in a small room and forcing him to recite the abyssal litany of Pazuzu. When Chopper was finally killed no one saw the secret passage that had become Simon’s prison and he and his fox starved to death in the cold dark. The remains of Jervas Stoot’s house concealed a stone covering that led to the remains of ancient catacombs beneath where the Chopper had placed all of his offerings to his demon god.
With the loss of his entire family, Das Korvut became soured and took to drinking heavily and became very abusive to his customers and friends. He blames everyone involved for not finding his son and killing Jervas sooner. Adventurer’s themselves seem to anger him, because “They should have been around to stop him” and blaming them in particular. Das Korvut is a capable and strong fighter and can be very dangerous in his drunken rages, lately his neighbors have heard him howling in the night. In his dreams, he sees the ghost of Chopper and can hear the sobs of his little boy. Even some residents of Sandpoint sometimes see on clear nights a little boy chasing a fox through town sobbing only to find nothing when they look.
Synopsis:
The player characters can choose to investigate Chopper’s Isle, which the locals insist is haunted and rightly so. They have a chance to find some significant clues as to the existence of the Sandpoint Devil, more history about the Chopper as well as his haunt, and releasing the tortured spirit of Das Korvut’s son who has been trapped as an Attic Whisperer.
Chopper’s Isle
The island is close to Junker’s edge and will quickly gather a crowd of on looking children if the adventurer’s are popular. A throng of orphanage children as well as worker’s from Gorvi’s trash business might sit and watch the adventurer’s search the haunted island.
A. The Cliff
An island at high tide Chopper’s Isle is a craggy cliff that at its closest point is about 80’ away from Junker’s edge. The cliff face has been rounded off by erosion over the years making climbing it difficult (DC15), if any care is taken the site where the wooden stairs once climbed up the side provides better handholds (DC10), though it is still a dangerous proposition given the height of the cliff.
B. The Cliff’s Top
The surface of Choppers isle is rocky but has some grass and many hardy oaks on it. Its roughly two acres of land that is unfit for farming. The oaks grow heavy with Pete moss that seems to sag sadly from its branches. Nearly every tree has limbs that have been carved in the shape of hawks, eagles, and vultures a few long dead trees have been shaved down leaving only delicately carved cranes that seems to have aged well enough over the past 5 years. There are several significant landmarks on the island claw marks, a tangle of bones, and the remains of Chopper’s House.
Looking around (DC15 Survival) reveals some strange claw marks that lead to a cliff edge where nestled in a group of loose rocks there is a human skull, hip bones, cow bones, and a few goblin bones. It may become apparent that the bones have been gnawed on by a toothy mawed creature with a strong jaw, there are a few thick femur bones that have been snapped into pieces, the remains appear at least a month old. The tracks are from the Sandpoint Devil whom once a month returns to this island with its kills on the full moon. Some study of the tracks will reveal they are from a three clawed quadruped of large size and weight that can probably fly. The creature itself is smart enough to understand that this site is holy to its god Pazuzu so it jealously guards the island and will track down scents that it finds there, but over the last 5 years no one has been here so it has become complacent.
Development: If the PC’s are interested the Sandpoint Mercantile League is eager to sell the property, which is rumored to be haunted. For 2,000 gold they are willing to sell the island to anyone who wanted the property, a bit of bargaining (Diplomacy DC15) can lower this price to 1,000 gold as they are very eager to sell it. Typically a building can be constructed for 1 gold per square foot, just to keep the numbers simple.
C. The Burned Remains of the House
The remains of Jervas’s house are precarious, the remains of fire damaged timbers have been overgrown with briars and vines and its quiet easy to step and fall through, but can be avoided by anyone who can see them. These holes are still hard to spot in daylight (as Camouflaged Pit Trap, CR3, Perception DC 25) at the same time moving some of the loose debris around can reveal the outline of a stone covering that can easily be lifted by one person.
The Ruins
The ruins are an extension of the Catacombs of Wrath, but the connecting tunnels have long since collapsed well beneath the water level. The complex is small and Chopper had added a few decorations. The architecture can be recognized as the same within the Catacombs of Wrath (DC15 Dungeoneering/Engineering).
A. Main Chamber
A steep and zigzagging staircase leads down into this area, during daylight hours very little light filters down into this room which is dominated by a rearing statue of Pazuzu, the abyssal lord of evil flying creatures. (see Hordes of the Abyss). Characters who fall into this area may at first think the statue is alive given its quality. The room is 40’ tall, and 40 circular, two stone doors lead out of it West and East. The statue itself is in a fearsome pose as if ready to attack. Its talons and eyes are made out of eben gemstones (14 worth 10 gp each.) The walls of this room have roughly cut words written in abyssal, it repeats Pazuzu over and over again. It is rumored (Knowledge Religion DC 20) that invoking the name of Pazuzu will garner his unwanted attention. In truth, it will call the Sandpoint Devil to investigate as soon as it is dark. If anyone falls into this room they may be see a crying child in the corner sobbing, but it is hard to hear him from above. If anyone talks to the child it walks towards them sobbing and when it gets within melee it moves its hands from its eyes revealing the skeletal face of a canine (See the Attic Whisperer). Even if the Attic Whisperer is defeated, until the spirit of the child is released both the haunt of the Chopper and the Aura of Sobs (see Attic Whisperer) are present in the entire area.
Creatures: Attic Whisperer (1)
B. West Door – The Offerings Room
The door to this room is much like the turnstile doors within the Catacombs of Wrath, inside the room is a ghastly scene. One entire wall is covered in small alcoves although only half are filled with what appears to be tens of pair of preserved eyeballs and pinned to the adjacent wall there pittoned to the wall are nearly 30 human looking tongues, remarkably preserved. If anyone crosses into the room they may think the eyes are watching them, but this is just the Haunt of Chopper, some of the tongues may appear to wiggle and move as well. In one corner of the room there is a pedestal with a tome of prayers written in abyssal to Pazuzu, they are crudely written in blood and the book is most likely made from preserved human flesh. It was Jervas’ attempt to understand his visions and dreams, inside there are a number of rants including some hinting that Jervas wanted to meet another servant of Pazuzu and his attempts to summon him. (The Sandpoint Devil).
C. East Door – Haunted Hallway (CR 3)
This turnstile door opens into a short corridor that is where Chopper’s Haunt resides. There is a rusty dagger lying on the floor, which Chopper dropped at some point the night he died. The first character to enter this hallway sees what appears to be a man wearing a bird hooded cloak and bird feather spaulders (shoulder armor) mumbling and hitting his head against a wall leaving a bloody smear. He turns to the first character to enter revealing hollow bloody eye sockets and dribbling blood from his mouth, he pulls a dagger out from under his bird feather cloak and charges that player. Only the first player to enter the room can see this.
Chopper’s Haunt: Will Save DC 15, per round, for 1d4+3 a round for 4 rounds save ends, as the haunt of Chopper makes stabs and cuts at the character. The haunt can only manifest every 24 hours.
D. The Spiral Stair
The hallway continues past to a spiral staircase that leads down some 120’ feet. It ends in saltwater, but a player who can see can swim down and out into the bay through an underwater hole in the cliff face, where a nearby shark may be attracted to any character who has been bleeding recently. The stairwell itself has a cleverly hidden secret door (Perception DC20) that leads to Simon’s Prison.
E. Simon’s Prison
This sad room when opened seems to rush with air when opened as well as a single cry from a small child can be heard, but quickly quiets. The door itself on the inside is marked by the small claws of the fox that tried to scratch its way out. Another crudely written litany of Pazuzu lies scattered in the center of the room where Simon had discarded it. In the back corner of the room is a pile of sheets and what appears to be a sleeping body the size of a child with a teddy bear underneath. Underneath the blankets, the skeletal remains of Das Korvut’s son Simon rest and until they are given a proper burial his ghost will reappear and the haunt of Chopper will still stalk the halls. If the corpse is taken above ground the ghost of Simon and the small fox seem to dart out of the ruins for a moment and look back wistfully at the players before disappearing.
So the party has just captured Nualia and taken Orik and Lyrie and released them under a watchful parole. In my game Nualia was possessed by Malfeshnekor who still hasn't been seen yet. Most of Thistletop has been explored except the last level, Orik led them straight to Nualia when he was defeated. One of my PC's is Nualia's sister who is very sympathetic to her as well as the love interest of a certain you know who from AP2. The players never deactivated the runewell under the town. They are also building a bridge to Chopper's Isle to build a fortress, they got a cheap deal on the "haunted" property. I've got a neat story to run over there with the Attic Whisperer or the Sandpoint Devil, not sure which or both yet. Lyrie is teaching Thassilonian to one of the PC's. I've already had Hellknights ransack the town looking for a fugitive and the Black Arrows already stopped in and one of the players tried to rob Kaven, which resulted in a bloody mess and a pissed off Kaven.
Just trying to brainstorm here, maybe I could add a secret tunnel underneath the Cathedral and expand on the Catacombs or do something for the lighthouse. Any ideas, they are level 4.
Here's the situation. I've got a tiefling sorcerer named Kynaris who's backstory consists of him having an incestuous relationship with his sister who was later mentally dominated/charmed by a noble in Magnimar for his devious experiments. The noble's name is Lord Xeno and he's experimenting by trying to breed sorcerer's. Kynaris' lover is some kind of talented sorcereress, with a dark prophecy surrounding her, and has been a part of this for some time against her will. At some point Kynaris snuck into House Xeno intent on breaking his love free, but as they were escaping they were caught and Xeno reinstituted his charm spell on her and forced her to stab him in the back. Now he falsely believes she is in love with Xeno, thus he fled to Sandpoint and is now heartbroken and lives out of a bottle. Naturally, I'm trying to write in all of my player's backstories and mesh them with the adventure.
I'm thinking that I can take out the Seven's Sawmill and replace it with this noble's estate. Lord Xeno's stats are somewhat irrelevant since he just needs Charm Person or something similar and a decent charisma score to concide with backstory. What I'm looking for is ideas for neat little rooms to put into the estate and maybe a few ideas on how to work in the whole Skinsaw Cult into this. I really like the innate danger of the Sawmill with its gears and saws and would like to include a "danger room" as it were. Maybe sometype of mechanical coglike steampunk tinkering room where the cultists can push/be pushed into the works.
Right now I'm thinking Lord Xeno is probably Justice Ironbriar's favored pupil and I'm not planning on replacing the Shadow Clock tower because its got alot of neat imagery. For some reason I'm thinking Sweeny Todd. Anyways, just looking for people to bounce some ideas around. Naturally Xeno can't be too high level and I don't mind him being a little tough, I just need some kind of compulsion that could force Kynaris' lover to stab him in the back against her will.
As the story goes, after he was stabbed Xeno's men (probably the cultists) did bad things to him and threw him in the sewer and left him for dead.
After the goblin interrogation Shuten executed the manacled goblins, the townguards present had no comments and hauled the bodies away. The party met up at the Rusty Dragon after talking again to Belor Hemlock who said the Norther Gate had been opened and a ladder in the boneyard was found giving the goblins easy access to it. The party began investigating for a possible insider, this "longshank" that the goblins had been refering to.
Reece disguised himself and went around town asking questions, trying to find someone who perhaps had a grudge against the town. He found out that the Scarnetti family had alot of problems with the locals. After pondering this information the heroes reorganized the Rusty Dragon, they had some suspicions but decided to move on them in the morning, given the rampant festivities. Several of the men recieved love notes as well as Ellris.
Early the next morning Morgrym began thinking like a dwarf wondering how the goblins invaded the town from the south, none of the guards reported anything strange. He began looking for maps and locals who might know about possible tunnels or caverns beneath the town, his search led him to Madam Niska Mishvanti and Volioker the dwarven locksmith. He visited Volioker who greeted him well, but knew nothing, he directed Morgrym to Madam Niska, but she never answered her door. Mogrym knew that she was a higly respected local religious leader and an elderly old woman so he chose not to batter her door down, he gave up on her.
Reece, the Beguiler, and Shuten decided to investigate Jerrl the guard on duty at the north gate, they were greeted by his wife as he had been injured during the festival, somone had apparently sapped him. The blow was high on the back of his head and under magical compulsion he couldn't provide the Beguiler with any additional information.
Later in the evening Aldern Foxglove met with the heroes at the Rusty Dragon, paying them a sum of money for their help and inviting them on a boar hunt. Apparent to the heroes the young and handsome noble had become quiet smitten with Ellris and she for the first time seemed to give in to the advances of another. Shuten and Reece decided to stay behind and do more research, while the other rode off on their hunt. Aldern listened well and asked many questions of Morgrym who was apt to speak of his great and noble families deeds, but moreso Aldern asked the fair Ellris of her life and family. She was hesitant, but opened up some, Aldern later asked her if he could enjoy her company more regularly, she agreed, but he said he had a trip to Magnimar he needed to take, but would visit her at his first opportunity. Ellris seemingly had taken a liking to Aldern, the charming but overly inquisitive noble, as well. At least at the time, she hasn't noticed his wedding band.
When they returned to town, Shuten and Reece had found that a local that works for Titus Scarnetti had been asking alot of questions about Ellris, his name was Banny Harker. Morgrym was still interested in solving the puzzle of how the goblins got into town, and Kynaris was busy being drugged by the Beguiler. A young woman came in and pleaded for help with her rat problem, looking between the tiefling and the glaze eyed Kynaris. Morgrym quickly jumped up and the other heroes as well, the young women insisted only one of the brave heroes would be needed, but they insisted giving each other strange looks. She stormed off yelling "forget it, I'll deal with them myself", but the heroes followed her out, she turned around and yelled at them several times to leave her alone, but the beguiler persisted to follow her. He stepped on noisily on some debris as she neared her home spotting him all alone and her attitude changed dramatically. She invited him in and he agreed following her down into the basement where he suspected she would spring some kind of trap on him, she pointed into a corner where the rats were and finding none, he spun around to find her half undressed. The beguiler capitalized on this opportunity.
A short time later a burly man with fists like meaty boulders yelled and charged down the stairs at him, he was apparently too distracted to care at first. Taking it hard on the chin, the half-elf beguiler responded by casting sleep on Vin Vinder. Freaked out by this Shayliss began screaming and ran outside half naked, the Beguiler slowly walked outside waiting for a guard to arrive. Shayliss told the guard how he had seduced her and ensorcelled her father. With some quick talking the guard was convinced it was a misunderstanding and told the half-elf to leave. Lustful yet infuriated Shayliss watched him walk away.
At the Rusty Dragon the party saw their half-elf friend walk in with a shiner on his eye, and he proceeded to tell them a story about "BIG RATS!" and how he had valliantly slain them. Some of the heroes looked at him strangely, but their night continued on, they drank on the house by way of the locals.
Halfway through the night, they were awoken by a woman banging on their doors it was Amelee and her children, she told them that a goblin had hidden in her son's closet and her husband was in a rage to kill it and she thought he needed help. Seeing the bite marks, the party rushed to her aid without even putting on their armors. Once at the house the heroes found Petal the family dog with a terrible gash in its head lying dead on the floor. They saw the body of a man being jerkily dragged into a closet. Reece launched to grab the body and started tugging it, his halfling strenght prevailed, but a goblin with a wicked looking knife charged him and slit his throat open ear to ear. Horrified the rest of the party charged in and quickly killed the goblin, Ellris saved Reece's life as well as Amelee's husband Alergast.
*And that's when I noticed it was 1.30 am and I had work this morning. So far the AP has gotten great reviews from this group.*
My players are foaming at the mouth for this guy to be a fount of information on these strange runes they are slowly finding all over the place. So far they have found them in the Catacombs, Chopper's Isle, the Cathedral Stones, and in various Shoanti Tatoos. I had Madam Niska Mishvanti clueless to their meanings and in my game she is an elderly Dragon Turtle shapeshifted.
Thassilion was around 10,000 years ago and basically all that remains at this point are some wierd symbols and occasionally some buildings. My player's might strangle me if I don't dangle a carrot for them, so how much should I reveal about anything?
I'm having difficulty with presenting Magnimar as a living city to the players, they are still in AP#1 and are so intertwined with Sandpoint and all of its people. I find it hard to describe the City of Monuments as anything other than "people static" such as a city full of bustling crowds and paper pushers.
Did any NPC's just jump out at anyone besides the obvious BBEGs (big bad evil guys). Moonbeam mentioned a player who was reincarnated by a druid, but I couldn't find the character. Maybe I skimmed over him.
I know the Lord Mayor, but my PC's are likely to be disgusted by the awesome and repugnant NPC.
They also took a short trip to Magnimar to do some shopping, Ethram Valdemar was kind enough to give them free passage on one of his ships. Ameiko Kaijitsu also came having to file some paperwork with Magnimar's High court.
Furlana decided to separate from the group and do some research into some strange symbols they found in Chopper's Isle, she decided a temple of Asmodeus would be a good place to start. She finds one and quickly finds herself detained by a townguard who takes her down to the Shadow District for booking. He takes the fey's staff away and throws her in a cell with her pleading to get her staff back. (Her staff is like a Dryad's tree if she gets to far she will begin to die.) They tell her if she will just sign some papers they will let her go and she can have her staff, unfortunately she can't read what they want her to sign, it was in infernal. She refuses to sign and casts Message, her party shows up and threatens the "town guards" who are just Scarzani thugs, after some threats they agree to release her for 40 gold. The party leaves Magnimar with a bitter taste in their mouths.
The Heroes return to Sandpoint just in time to have dinner with the very appreciative Alergast and Amelee, who's son the heroes saved from a goblin in the closet. Apparently, Furrlana brings up Nualia and Amelee gets upset, later revealing that Amelee feels terribly guilty for torturing the dead Nualia in school when they grew up. Amelee reveals that her academy clique teased the poor girl and told Tobyn that she was secretly meeting a boy named Delek down at a cave at night.
The players go down to the beach to the cave and they find a heart scratched into the cavern wall it says D loves N. Presumably Delek loves Nualia, but strangely its been scratched out by a long gouge mark. They begin next game at the cavern, that leads back to the Catacombs of Wrath.
I've borrowed this other idea from somewhere, if I could remember who I would give credit.
Additionally: There is a horror writer from Magnimar who has recently purchased a small home in Sandpoint, Fry (human female, LE expert 6) writer of the novel series A Black Tommorrow. She once murdered a servant to get insight into a novel she was writing. Either ways, sometime after the PC's start exploring the Catacombs of Wrath she pays them to accompany them through the Catacombs and for their first hand knowledge of Tsuto and his motivations for murder. The ghost of a little dead boy is too much for her to resist, she'd definitely want to at least pay the PC's to escort her safely up Chopper's Isle, maybe to excavate it.
The way this might play out is that Fry approaches Korvut after he starts having his mental breakdown after reportedly seeing his boy's ghost. Of course this makes Korvut fly into a rage and he gets thrown in jail. Fry or Zantus approaches the PC's with this information. The player's could also be witness to the outburst when Fry confronts Korvut. Any kind of research like this could benefit her upcoming book.
So does anyone think that the guy who runs the theives guild in Sandpoint might want to throw a hail-mary and try and get the adventurers to attack Sheriff Belor Hemlock?
OOC one of my players thinks the guy is shady and IC one of my other players is a member of the theives guild and isn't above doing shady things. He's already beat someone half to death to wring some money out of them for the guild.
Once the Tsuto Journal starts making its rounds through the townguards, I'm sure Jubyral(sp) might see an opportunity to get rid of Hemlock. The scarzani aren't above murder obviously, it wouldn't take much for them to set something up. It wouldn't take much to forge some battle plans and plant them in Hemlock's house or have them capture a goblin, plant them, and have it get loose in town.
The one player thinks that Hemlock might actually be the Chopper and has murdered Jervas Stoot. Its already been proven once in my game that the players will listen to rumors. They force entried the orphanige when they heard people talk about there being monsters in there.
I might just end up with a dead Hemlock. Is Belor or Jubryal (sp) specifically important to the story? Is Jubryal smart/crazy enough to try and pull something like this off?
Ok I borrowed and adapted works from two great minds. Tintagel and Moonbeam, hope ya'll don't mind. I borrowed Tintagel's Nualia Dream, Moonbeam's calendar, and someone else's idea for a Desna Dream journal... which just turned into a diary. Be warned this may be a little graphic, but I think it works well to flesh out Nualia and possibly let people feel sorry for her.
Nualia Diary:
Erastus 18, 4698
Dad said he was working on my birthday cake so he let me end my studies early today. I got outside and there were some boys from the academy, they threw rocks at me and one hit me. I have a huge bruise, it bled some too. They called me a freak and laughed at me. I was crying so father says no one else is as gifted as I am and that my silver hair and violet eyes are a blessing from the goddess Desna. He said I’m an angel.
Ruthona 1, 4700
Master Gandethus gave us an impossible amount of work today and I was trying to finish up when I noticed Amylee and the other girls at snickering and pointing at me, again. I did what teacher said and tried to ignore them, but they wouldn’t stop. I excused myself from my studies and hid in the bathroom for a little while, but the girls had piled furniture in front of the doorway. I was locked in there all afternoon and half the night, I screamed but no one helped me. When the candle went out it was so dark, I was scared I was going to die. Mr. Jervas came by and let me out; he was making some pretty wood birds for the stairs. I’m never going back to Turandarok again, Ezakien can’t make me. He’s not my real dad anyways.
Pharast 10, 4700
I was walking home from the academy today, I took a shortcut past Cracktooth’s tavern and a bunch of boys from school were following me. They were saying disgusting things and hollering at me. One of them called me a slut; I started running and dropped my work. Dad wanted to know why I was crying, but I just wanted to be alone.
Pharast 24, 4700
I wasn’t wearing my hat today and while I was at the market picking up some things for dinner and an old woman snipped off my braid with some scissors. She told me that silver angel hair was good luck as she walked off. I didn’t know what to say, but now I have a bald patch.
Gozran 5, 4700
I was walking down Cliff street minding my own and about ten of the farmers in for the harvest started mobbing around me. They started telling me to cure them of their rashes and boils. I tried to be nice, but when I said I couldn’t one of them pulled my hair and started yelling in my face to cure his warts. They started asking me when they should plant their crops, like how should I know. One of them told me I was the “blessed of Desna” and that my voice could drive away the voices he was hearing and he was haunted by evil spirits. I finally pulled away but one of them pulled out some of my hair, they chased me all the way to the church. I locked myself in and they finally went away.
Gozran 15, 4700
Father told me today that I would be sent to the Windsong Abbey on my 17th birthday, he didn’t even ask me. I don’t want to be a nun, I love Desna, but that’s not what I want. He’s not letting me go out until I do perfect on the verses, catechisms, and scriptures. I’m going to spend the whole summer locked up in this church.
Calistil 3, 4701
I met a cute older varisian boy today from Magnimar, he took me on a picnic on a cliff that overlooks the Old Light. He talked to me like I was a person, we stayed there for hours. I might be in love. Is this what love feels like? His name is Delek Viskanta.
Calistil 29, 4701
My love threw rocks at my window and I climbed out tonight. We walked along the beach beneath the glassmakers factory. We found a little cave, we made love. Delek says that he loves me and we will get married and go to Magnimar.
Erastus 21, 4701
Father says he’s going to send me away to the Windsong Abbey. I think I’m pregnant, I’m going to tell Delek tonight when we sneak out. More later…
How could he! He told me he loved me, he told me he was leaving for Magnimar and that he had been lying to me. He told me he didn’t love me, he called me a fool and a stupid girl. He walked away, what am I going to do? I can’t tell my father.
Erastus 22, 4701
Father yelled at me again, he called me a harlot and told me to go pray to Desna. I stayed at the altar for 3 hours and she didn’t answer me. Desna doesn’t care about me, she thinks I’m worthless too, why did he do this to me. Delek, why do I still love you? I hate you.
Ruthona 23, 4702
I finally snuck out of the church, I just had to get out. It was dark and I saw Mr. Stoot, he had dropped a few of his carved birds and they had shattered. I helped him pick them up, he told me that I was still beautiful to him and that I shouldn’t go out at dark, it wasn’t safe.
Abadius 26, 4702
They killed Mr. Stoot. They said he was the Chopper. They said he killed Mrs. Deverin’s fiancé and cut off her arm. I can see his house burning from the top window of the church. I keep having these dreams, I don’t feel well at all, I think the baby knows I’m upset.
Abadius 27, 4702
Something is wrong. I’m so sick, something is wrong with the baby. There’s blood, it’s too soon, I’m only 7 months. I saw dad talking to Hannah, I don’t want to loose my baby. Dad won’t even look at me. I wish Delek was here.
What I would really like to do is put it on a burned parchment looking page. The effect is to give Nualia some history accessible to the players, drop some interesting NPCs out there like Hannah, and of course possibly give them a reason to feel sorry for her.
Let me know what ya'll think. I plan on introducing this the same way someone else suggested. Have a Desna worshippers dream book get lost and have either the Player or a NPC to direct them to the the Curious Goblin, where mistankenly someone brings out Nualia's diary.
lost book Adventure 2 reference:
Of course the Dream Diary in my case is stolen by Aldern, because that's his lust obsession.
