Skeleman's page

I've just finished wrapping up book 4, and to put it lightly, it was not the favorite for either myself or my players. Their characters were especially upset at the attitudes of the Illmarshers all around. They managed to leave (barely) without burning the entire place down and hunting down the Sherriff for his head. I'm curious how this setting and events played out with other groups. I'm also interested in hearing how other characters handled the fallout in the town and the political vacuum caused by the removal of the church and the mayor.

I have been working up an idea for a series of side quests for my party to add a little more into the back-story and to feed them information they might not get from the printed content. My idea is based off an encounter I adapted from one of the suggested changes within Schloss Caromarc, changing the mummy encounter to be an intelligent mummy Magus. The party had some great RP with the mummy (via Telepathic Bond due to language barriers), mainly focusing on him trying to keep the party from killing him outright. The mummy is ancient, but was animated when the Whispering Way came through to act as a trap, only fully animating once any other living creatures came within the room. The cultists were not aware the mummy would be intelligent though, so he was free to act on his own.

I RP'd the mummy as being a mage-priest from an ancient Osirian culture, and when he was informed about the looming necromantic threat, he became keenly interested in not having his fragile undead form destroyed, and having his eternal spirit forever destroyed, nor is he interested in falling under the control of an undead overlord. He simply wants to return to his afterlife, but this is contingent upon the proper death rituals being performed before his form is destroyed. It took a lot of convincing, especially for the Pharasmin Oracle and the undead hating Ranger, but eventually the party agreed to help this mummy find his peace, which will require finding and performing the necessary ancient death rituals, while the mummy offered to help them learn more about the cultists who were causing all of these problems.

The second reason for this encounter was to provide some encouragement for the party to continue looking for the Count and the Beast further in the keep, and second to introduce the Harrow card mechanic into the campaign, as I had not been using it initially because I was lacking the physical cards. The mummy offered to aid the party in a group style "vision quest" to learn about the cultists. The visions were themed around a Harrow reading which led into a series of visions showing the events of the cultists at Harrowstone, the Count's encounter with the cultists, their taking control of the Beast, and the encounter between the Beast and the Promethean leaving the Beast nearly destroyed in the final encounter chamber. All of the visions were portrayed in an Osirian/Arabian theme so as to keep things from being too obvious. Following the visions, the PC's awoke and the players received their Harrow cards.

Following the visions, the mummy explained that he was going to travel to the locations he remembered from his living years to seek out the rituals that he would need. He used a Teleport scroll written on his wrappings after telling the party he would contact them down the road.

My plan for continuing this storyline is to have him return to the party with information on the rituals he needs, and their retrieval. There is only so much a mummy can accomplish on his own, trapped in a bizarre, unfamiliar future. My other desire for this story was to let the PC's learn more of the back story of the pertinent NPC's. I like the ideas I found on these forums about expanding the relationship between the Professor and Adivion and others.

My plan is to introduce a story showing a younger, college-age Petros, Judge Embreth (as Petros' girlfriend), Father Grimburrow, and a teenage Adivion (as Petros' apprentice). This group is commissioned as adventurers funded by Count Caromarc to explore ruins of ancient Osiria. These expeditions are how the Count came into pisession of the mummy, but they are also where Adivion first found the clues that would lead him to discover the Carrion Crown elixir. Ideally I would like to have these encounters split up into two or three mini-adventures, spaced out between the end of Book 3 and the rest of the campaign, with the final revelations in the visions allowing the PC's to have that "shock and awe" moment of villainous realization.

I haven't gotten to the point of fleshing out these adventures, but i wanted to put my ideas up here to see what people thought. Alot of my side ideas come from inspiration I have gotten from all of your posts, and I'd love to hear what people thought.

I would have the town Sheriff offer to accompany the group on their investigations. This will work for Book 1, but you may need to consider other options when it comes time to move forward in the story.

Alternatively, you could just actually be Evil. The Detect Evil abilities do not even register a normal Evil person until they are level 5. This is conveniently when you can start casting Nondetection if need be. Once you hit level 7, you can enchant your bonded item as a permanent Ring of Mind Shielding for a reasonable cost. If you want to start as a Neutral alignment, these are options also if you start to slip early.

I had a couple characters introduced in my campaign while in the middle of Book 1. The first was playing an Alchemist. The party had already had some business dealings with the NPC alchemist in the town, and I was playing up the friendly/slightly romantic interest between her and the Professor before his death.

The second PC I introduced came into the game while the party was investigating the prison.

There are likely easy ways to add new PC's for your game too, just think about that the party is doing, and add a little twist of your own.

I've been poking around these forums for a while as I've been running my game. We are about a year into the game, and have reached the mid-point in Book 3. The core group has remained throughout with slight variations.

Goldes: Elf Ranger - She hates undead, and ever since she got that Bane vs Undead bow, it's been a problem. She is developing some interesting ideas on how to deal with a certain condition that has developed here in Book 3 that may lead to some interesting situations.

Ophelia: Human Oracle (Bones\Wasting) - Awakened as an Oracle after her drowning death. She still looks like a corpse and has made it her mission to destroy undeath. Became a devoted follower of Pharasma after meeting Father Grimburrow.

Nuo: Halfling Summoner - Uses his high Charisma to try to constantly tell the rest of the party to follow his commands just like all the creatures he summons do. Is accompanied by "Yella", his angelic-looking majestic golden retriever with a people-face and hands (and newly grown horns). Say what you want, he's a good boy.

Tom Wade: Half-elf Inquisitor - A self-styled monster hunter and follower of Abadar. Tom started out multi-classing as a split even Ranger/Inquisitor, but after 5-6 levels he asked really nicely to not be that way anymore.

Anya Caliphvaso: Human Archaeologist Bard - Anya began as a straight Rogue, after making it into the later half of Book 2 having only landed a handful of sneak-attacks, and sinking several feats into sub-par archery when compared to Goldes, agreed that a change might be for the best. This new class combo seems to be more enjoyable.

Clio: Human Fighter - Clio was study-buddies with Kendra before she dropped out of school to transfer into fighter school and study sword-theory. Clio stayed with Kendra when she moved to Lepistadt (when the player went on hiatus to study abroad).

Greg Stolvich: Human Alchemist - Greg joined with the party after the fire in Book 1, though has been infrequent due to real-life work issues. During times he has been unavailable, Greg has taken over duties at a certain business in Lepistadt.

Oddel: Human Evoker Wizard - Joined the party in between Books 2 & 3 as a representative from an interested Order. Has added a lot of punch to the party power level.

The Beast is slow and dim-witted, which led to his capture at the beginning of the book, having woken up from being controlled confused and disoriented. He doesn't understand the whole trial process and just keeps repeating his claims of innocence. But that being said, when push comes to shove, and it's him versus the burning man, he's going to look out for Number 1. The Beast has exceptionally strong survival instincts and knows that he can overpower any obstacle he's up against. I cannot see the Beast simply allowing himself to be led off and burned to death.

I would have Vrood use the Seasage Effigy to conjure a barrier of spiritual energy, controlled by several singing Banshees. In order for the party to pierce the barrier, the Banshees must be defeated, but the Bard must first use his Countersong ability on each, or they will focus their deadly song on the party. Something to that effect would be pretty good, I think.