Korvosa Breakfast Club's page

It's always important to invest time in humanizing and making the event-generating characters like Hemlock and Cressida Kroft (CotCT) relatable and enjoyable. I'm always saddened when I read people saying that the players "barely gave them the time of day" or "forgot who they were." That's on US as GM's. Those characters are the glue that hold it all together, and often represent some ethical or moral anchor to the story. In short, they SHOULD represent what's best and brightest in the city the heroes intend to fight for... even IF they have secrets or a darker side, they embody the hope thread that wends through the entire adventure.

To elevate any NPC, especially these central characters, you really need to do just two things. 1) Make them CAPABLE in their field, and show it onstage, or the PC's will begin to doubt the system and the person through and through, and can often project that on the town or city. And 2) Give them one or two small but humanizing traits that are memorable.

For Cressida Kroft, I simply had her be a little heavier in the hips and with a plate of some kind of bread, roll, or tart always on hand. She was constantly tired from working so hard, and I gave her a daughter she was trying to raise on her own while juggling the job. The players could relate. For Sheriff Hemlock, there was something about that first picture of him in the book that made me think, "he has a really stiff neck." Stupid, I know. But the first moment I showed him physically moving his shoulders when he turned his neck, the players just died laughing and fell in love with the guy. It only added to it when he accompanied them on a few early missions... like to the cemetery and to the Monster in the Closet investigation, acting as a commander.

It's the initial impression that counts. "Is this guy going to be worth my time? If not, get out of my way," is often how players approach an NPC. You have to sell it in the first moments or forever be chasing your tail. Once credibility is established, weave in an occasional act of kindness or mercy, and they'll be hooked.

Some people rush through the story from event to event trying to reach the end at breakneck speed... only to do the same with the next adventure. Why, I don't know. I think the best thing you can do for these characters is NOT to find them boring yourself. You have to find or create the gold there... and then rather than avoiding those scenes, lean TOWARD them, dive into them, and watch the players and the characters start to engage in new and different ways. If YOU believe it, they will. You just have to hook them right away.

Just closed out a two-and-a-half year Crimson Throne campaign with all the bells and whistles. What an epic adventure... kudos to this incredible team of writers, designers, and editors. Let's get to it. (I will only count deaths that were NOT immediate or fairly immediate resuscitations... only the ones that caused us real grief):

Name: Mori Arkona, Death 1
Details: Human Varisian-Vudran Monk 7
Adventure: Seven Days to the Grave
Location: Temple of Urgathoa, The Blood Vats
Catalyst: Rolth Lamm

In classic monk fashion, Mori used his impressive movement to leap past cultists and zombies alike to close on the real Temple threats: Rolth Lamm and Vreeg, both who'd been causing the party no end of trouble. On the catwalks, separated from help, he was just preparing to pummel Rolth and his cud-chewing chin into pulp when Mori failed his check against Hold Person. Rolth dim doored away from the closing Hellknight PC and summarily struck Mori down with a lightning bolt before he ever came to his senses. That's when the zombies began eating what was left of him...

Name: Mori Arkona, Death 2
Details: Human Varisian-Vudran Monk 10
Adventure: Escape from Old Korvosa
Location: Vivified Labyrinth, The Gizzard
Catalyst: Rajambari

After what could only be considered a capstone seduction by the upasunda asura in the torture chamber as Mori bargained for the lives of his imprisoned friends, the monk was able to tear himself away to escape her very dangerous clutches, and the two began a cat-and-mouse chase that bled over into the floor of the Gizzard. Within a round, the undead mastodons (rajambari) swung their tusks at both Senshiir AND Mori. She took damage and teleported back to the torture chamber to recover. But HE was horrifically gored and immediately torn in half with a critical hit, leaving the entire table stunned!

Name: Isac, Death 1
Details: Syrinx Witch 11
Adventure: A History of Ashes
Location: Acropolis of the Thrallkeepers, Pool of the Havero
Catalyst: Havero

Is it any wonder why this CR 24 immense monstrosity from beyond did Isac in? Oh the power of CONSTRICT!!! Though the tentacles were only CR 6, one was enough to wrap up the fragile seven-foot witch, first constricting him, crushing his bones, and then pulling him momentarily out into space! Things went downhill from there, but they WERE able to recover his body to give him a second shot at being a hero.

Name: Kamahl
Details: Human Shoanti Burnrider Cavalier
Adventure: A History of Ashes
Location: Cinderlands
Catalyst: Hel Behir

While the party bided their time to resurrect Isac, help came from the local Shoanti in the form of a burnrider named Kamahl, who offered to help them rescue another friend from the clutches of the Cinderlander. Bouncing back confidently from their success there, they rode across the sere landscape toward their next destination, where the ONLY random encounter we ran in the whole book... a hel behir... tore the cavalier out of his saddle, constricted him (yet again, CONSTRICT), and then swallowed him whole. It is fair to say that he might have survived had the PC he just rescued NOT included Kamahl in his electrical area effect as he tried to defend the party. This player was having a bad week.

Name: Isac, Death 2
Details: Syrinx Witch 14
Adventure: Skeletons of Scarwall
Location: D16 Cupola
Catalyst: Aerilaya, Banshee

Hell hath no fury like a banshee... and while some in the party had the fortitude to withstand the elven undead's shriek, and others had special boons from the Shoanti ancestors... Isac was dead and dormant during the Blessing of the Ancestors and had received no infused soul ability. Couple that with his kindhearted demeanor but fragile body (prone to leprosy throughout the adventure)... and the numbers just weren't in his favor this time. Down again, and for an investigation of a tower that yielded little fruit!

Name: Isac, Death 3
Details: Syrinx Witch 15
Adventure: Crown of Fangs
Location: Public Square at Castle Korvosa
Catalyst: Zarmangarof, Black Dragon (scaled up)

But by far the worst fate still awaited Isac, who struggled through the entire adventure to keep pace with his teammates... the Korvosa Breakfast Club. As the heroes finished rescuing citizens nearly burned alive in a wicker boar outside a noble's house by disguised rakshasas, the rebellion floodgates finally opened. The people in disgust poured out onto the streets in droves, marching on the castle despite the PC's strident warnings. As the castle responded by unleashing the trebuchets upon the masses, the party watched in horror as the titanic (not technically) black dragon dropped into flight in silhouette off the parapets. The group did all it could to prepare itself, aiding Sabina as she uses this moment to make her stand against the Queen. Bravely, as the dragon landed, Isac tried to fly within reach to use his witch's hex upon the monstrosity... only to be caught in its formidable acid pool... completely obliterating him. Forever. Despite a trip to Absalom to resurrect him, the player finally drew the black rock and Isac went the way of all earth. (A statue of him now stands in a square in the city, though)!

Name: Dustin Ford Lalatina "The Bone Shepherd", Death 1
Details: Human Chelaxian Hellknight 16
Adventure: Crown of Fangs
Location: Castle Korvosa, Stage Hall
Catalyst: Kayltanya

The assault on Castle Korvosa was surgical and precise, but that didn't stop Mistress Kayltanya and her Red Mantis Assassins from stopping the show. While the party dealt with imps and Maidens and a vexing Creeping Doom spell, Sabina (now run by Isac's former player) found herself DEMANDED by Sermignatto (the most devious and vile villain of the entire series) to find him in the Queen's chamber. The confusion of her actions created inner-party turmoil mid-battle, leaving the Red Mantis to descend like spiders upon them from the Salon above. While Dustin backed his way into a corner to check on Sabina, he found himself surrounded by Mantis. But his end came from Kayltanya... invisible and hovering near... unexpectedly. In a show of aggression, she used her next turn to take Dustin's head and taunt them with it. After a calculated retreat, they later found it mounted on a spike of the throne.

Name: Cypher
Details: Derro Oracle 16
Adventure: Crown of Fangs
Location: His Own Demiplane... check THIS out:
Catalyst: Sabina/Sermignatto

Having fled their initial strike on the Castle, the party fled to Cypher's personal demiplane to deal with the remains of Dustin. What they didn't know (players OR characters) was that Sermignatto now possessed their powerful arcanist, and they'd just invited him in. As the astrally-projected oracle laid his head down to rest, Sermignatto quietly dominated Sabina, forced her to slay her friend beside the already dead body of the Hellknight, slayed the derro's REAL body as well, snatched up Serithtial , and planeshifted away, leaving Sabina to starve and die of thirst with no way out of the pocket demiplane! It was the worst tragedy in the entire series, and WAS actually recovered from thanks to the quick-thinking of the arcanist during the briefest moment Sermignatto released him to recruit him.... but that is another story! This was a wild scene, and the entire reason we play this game!

Name: Dustin Ford Lalatina "The Bone Shepherd", Death 2
Details: Human Chelaxian Hellknight 16
Adventure: Crown of Fangs
Location: Castle Korvosa, Second Assault, Parapets
Catalyst: Barbed Devil

The party, barely pulled back together by Sylas, re-assaults the Castle to once and for all wipe the Queen off the board (unaware she's in the Sunken Queen). All forces of the enemy are as prepared as they are, however, and a massive counterattack meets them inside and outside. Serithtial blazes in Cypher's hands. Sylas faces off in a wizard's duel in Domina's Tower with Sermignatto, while below on the parapets Sabina Merrin and Dustin stand back-to-back against all the forces of hell. While Cypher strikes down Mavrokeras, unholy blights rain down from the local erinyes. Vavana picks away at them from another tower and Rolth Lamm (still vexing them) taunts them and hurls magic their way. But for all the flash and fury... it's a simple barbed devil who's able to slip into the battered Hellknight's defenses and once again impale him into oblivion. Cressida's folks are later able to resurrect him with the help of Bishop D'Baer.

What an epic wend-and-weave through plagues and deserts, Kaer Maga, dungeons, labyrinths, and boggard infested swamps! I have a hard time seeing how ANY adventure can live up to the heights and depths this one reached both emotionally and with sheer excitement. We had a 5-hour afterparty (recorded) to break it all down... and man, we're looking forward to moving backward. Rise of the Runelords, here we COME!