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Session Two
Our second session started with six eager players, though not the same six players as the first session. The elven crusader Llana hung back with Kressida Croft at Citadel Volshyenek while the dwarven fighter Ziri Zanulbar joined the party, momentarily, as they made preparation to visit Verik at All The World’s Meat. (Later to be replaced by Fole, Priest of Abadar.)

All The World’s Meat

After a bit of recon work the party easily finds All The World’s Meat arriving around mid morning to a line of poor eager for their daily cut of meat. Through Diplomacy checks the party learned a few things…
• Verik Vancaskerin and a four ex guards run the joint. Known as the Cow Hammer Boys they hired a few local muscle to help out.
  
• The Cow Hammer Boys take in shipments of livestock most mornings, butchering the animals and handing out meat to the poor.
  
• While the source of the deliveries isn’t known to anyone, they have been showing up daily for the past five days now.
  
• The local population sees the Cow Hammer Boys as heroes feeding the hungry while the queen sits in her palace unconcerned about the welfare of the less fortunate.
  
• There is also rumor that the Cow Hammer Boys are very helpful in solving other problems and one need but ask for the “Night’s Special Cut” to get an audience with them.

  The party starts off asking how they can help feed the poor. The Cow Hammer Boys, not willing to divulge much information, confide in the party that livestock supplies are low and anything they could do to bring in more livestock shipments would be a huge boon. The party, unsure if these people are on the level or nefarious, regroup to think about what to do next.

  At this point the party splits up with Stone and Grayson continuing the conversation with the boys up front while the rest of the party sneaks around the backside. Stone and Grayson start to ask about the “Night’s Special Cut” while Ostiver, Soul Eater, Liam, and Ziri head around back.

  Around the backside of the building the party quickly removes the obstacle of a locked door from their way, break into the hold pens, and plan to steal a few chickens only to offer them back to the Cow Hammer Boys in a ploy to win over their good graces. Such a plan is sure to work??? but curiosity gets the better of them and they press into the shop proper once again removing locked door leading into the Killing Floor.

  Up front Grayson and Stone make little progress as they tank Diplomacy roll after Diplomacy roll but keep up an effort that is obviously starting to irritate the Cow Hammer Boys.

  In the Killing Floor it doesn’t take long before one of the Cow Hammer Boys stumbles upon the party. Ostiver hides, Ziri tries to talk, and Soul Eater charges. The fight is quick. Poor Baldrago lost only his head while his twin brother Malder is knocked unconscious and hung from a meat hook in the Meat Locker. Liam uses a Message spell to get the attention of Grayson and Stone and the party regroups in the back of the shop. With one Cow Hammer Boy dead and a second serving time in the Meat Locker the party doubles down on their mission to bring Verik back to Croft.

  Searching the Killing Floor yields an important clue. While looking around Ostiver found traces of human blood mixed in with the animal blood being drained into the sewers below. Perhaps there is more going on! Ostiver decided sampling the wares might be a horrible idea.

  Stone sneaks up the hallway leading into the Shop Front and arcane locks the door closed while the party stealths up the staircase to the living quarters above in search of Verik. By stealth I mean everyone BUT the new party member Ziri makes a stealth check. Ziri bangs into everything in sight, stumbling into a room with four armed henchman ready for battle. This fight is quick and a decisive victory for the party as they dispatch the four mooks. The biggest issue they had was maneuvering six people around a small room full of axe hungry henchman. Down below the rest of the Cow Hammer Boys continue to throw themselves against a door that just won’t open in a futility only multiple sub 5 rolls could make.

  As the battle winds to a close the door to the south quarters opens Verik standing in the doorway glaive at the ready with Ilyana, a voluptuous sorcerous a step behind. Annoyed at the disturbance Verik lashes out with his glaive while Illyana fills the room with lightning. This fight turned deadly when two party members fell to Illyana’s lighting attacks and Verik beheaded the poor dwarf Ziri with a x3 glaive crit. Those things hit like a truck! Grayson ended the fight, though, when he landed a color spray on poor Verik followed by Soul Eater cleaving a poor Illyana in half with such force that she shattered through the window and landed in the middle of a crowd of hungry peasants out front.

  The party quickly bound Verik, looted the room, and rushed out in the ensuing confusion. Included in the loot they found was a letter written by a mysterious woman known as Meliya. The letter said…

  Verik my love make all haste to the abandoned butchery All The World’s Meat in Five Corners. The time for preparations is upon us. Gather your crew. I’ve arranged a number of shipments for delivery but I fear they may not be enough. It’s always been your ability to improvise that I love the most. Though it will be a while before I see you next I often think of you. When the time is right Rolth, an associate of mine, will contact you. Do as he says and we will be together again. Soon the corruption that plagues this city will burn in the fires of purity and the whore of a queen consumed by the flame.
  Meliya
  

Blackjack and the Hellknights

On their way back to delivery Verik to Croft, the party stumbled across a group of Hellknights publicly executing looters while a crowd of horrified people watch. Accused of looting, the Hellknight captain convicted each looter to a punishment of beheading, their heads to be strung up as warning to others lawbreakers. Just as the first looter would be executed Blackjack makes his appearance, shooting the captain in the shoulder while yelling out “Hellknights you have failed Korvosa for the last time!” In the chaos Blackjack frees two of the looters (who flee) and then runs as the Hellknights give chase. One Hellknight remains summoning in a trio of legion devils for support and prepares to continue the executions.

Unwilling to let the looters be executed, the party approaches the lone Hellknight unsure exactly how to act. What ends up happen perplexed even me.

Grayson decides he cannot allow the executions to continue and calls the Hellknight to stand down.

Ostiver hides.

Stone uses Disguise Self to take on the appearance of Blackjack and calls out the Hellknight.

Souleater charges!

The legion devils prove tough to take down but eventually the party bests the devils and Hellknight.

At the end of the fight there is a concern from the party at killing the Hellknight given the lawful right of the Hellknights to dispense order in Korvosa. Those thoughts are laid to rest, though, when Ostiver darts out of hiding and shanks the Hellknight a few times ensuring he won’t tell anyone how the party stopped the lawful Hellknights from punishing looters stealing from local shops… And then there was Blackjack… And Blackjack again…

Ambassador’s Letters

A week or so later, back at the citadel, Croft had another mission for the party. Cheliaxian ambassador Darvayne Gios Amprei was being blackmailed by Devargo Barvasi, a local crime lord, to provide funding for an anarchist movement preparing to move against the crown.

The party asks Croft how they came across this information and she introduces them to Vencarlo Orisini, a long time friend with many contacts around town. Vencarlo, looking into who this Meliya might be at the request of Croft, learned about Amprei and the blackmailing. Vencarlo is pretty vague about exactly how he got this information and the party doesn’t really press him for it.

At the Eel’s End, Stone disguises himself as a wealthy noble seeking an audience with Devargo. Stone tries to barter for the letters with Devargo asking for a huge sum of money in return for them (something like 5,000 gps.) Stone promises to return with the money.

The next day Stone comes back to Devargo with an empty chest he claims has the gold in it. When pressed to open the chest so Devargo can check the goods combat ensues, the trap door to the Ettercap flings open, and a bunch of wannabe gangsters die to party attacks and spider venom.

Devargo quaffs his potion of invisibility and jumps below.

The party also jumps below, kills a bunch of spiders and the Ettercap, then search the area but don’t find Devargo who gathered up his magical items and fled the ship. Still the party recovers the letters for Croft.

To Kill a King

After things settle down a bit the party is ushered to a meeting with Queen Ileosa on a matter of utmost urgency. In the castle the party finds an enraged Ileosa yelling at the servants. Something is definitely up! Calming down to talk with Croft and the party, Ileosa lets the party know that she is impressed with the actions they have taken to ensure order in Korvosa following the unfortunate MURDER of her husband. That’s right! Ileosa lets the party know that it wasn’t natural causes that led to her husband’s death as previously suspected but an elusive poison administered by a skank painter Trinia. Just a week before falling ill, Trinia was hired to paint a portrait of the king. During those painting sessions Trinia slipped slow acting poison into the king’s wine that masks itself as a disease thus making diagnosis and treatment extremely difficult.

The party asks how this information was uncovered and Croft lets them know that a few days ago one of the guard captains in the castle reported a pair of guards missing. A search of the guards barrack uncovered letters between the guards and an unnamed person instructing the guards to hand over the poison delivered to them to a painter named Trinia to be used in poisoning the king. The guards have been found and apprehended, captured while trying to fence some expensive jewelry at a local pawn shop.

A furious Ileosa begs with the party to bring Trinia back, alive if possible, to her. Ileosa wants Trinia to answer for her crimes but does promise a full trial before any action taken against her.

The party wants to speak with the two apprehended guards before heading off after Trinia but Croft insists they get Trinia first then she can arrange to speak with the guards telling the party it would take a few days to arrange for them to interrogate the guards.
The party is unhappy with that answer but bureaucracy takes time Croft tells them.

The party finds Trinia’s residence without too much trouble. Once there they send Liam and Ostiver around to keep an eye on the backside while the rest head up.

Trinia, upon hearing the party approach, bolts. It takes Ostiver a few rounds to spot her running away from the apartment but he jumps into pursuit with the rest of the party a few rounds behind. Eventually Ostiver’s skill at maneuvering through an urban chase prevails and he tackles Trinia.

With Trinia captive, the party rushes back to her apartment thinking of what to do next. So far the prevalent party thought is Trinia must be framed. Possible plans include hiding her away at the fish factory, sneaking her out of town, or handing her over to the authorities (this being the least popular option.) Liam reminds the party that the apartment is under watch by the Sable Company Marines so they already know she’s been captured.

Unconvinced that Trinia could be guilty but seeing no way to smuggler her to safety the party decides it best to interrogate her at her apartment then decide the best course of action. Trinia, having just been chased from her home and tackled on a rooftop has no desire to cooperate and refuses to answer questions. Soul Eater tries to intimidate Trinia with threats of bodily harm should she fail to answer their questions. Trinia grows more stubborn! Finally the party decides the best way to get the truth is through a Zone of Truth spell the newest member, Fole a priest of Abadar, has memorized (this being the new character that replaced the recently beheaded dwarf.) Trinia fails her save and the questioning starts. When it’s all over the party learns that Trinia is a staunch supporter of anarchists, hates the queen something fierce, is glad the king died, is familiar with Meliya, and treasures the day the government topples. She never admits (or denies) that she poisoned the king so the party is sure she must be innocent! Unfortunately the Sable Company Marines come for her and the party has no option but to hand her over.

Of importance, the party learns Meliya is a Vudrani leading an anarchist revolt against the throne. Some investigation into the Vudrani reveals that almost all Vudrani in the city are link with House Arkonas.

Dead Warrens

The final encounter for the night led the party to the Dead Warrens deep in the Grey District. The two apprehended guards were broken out of prison while the party went after Trinia and escaped the citadel. Croft is pissed and asks the party to see if they can track them down. A few Survival and Diplomacy checks later the party learn of eye witness accounts of the guards disappearing into the Grey District at a place called the Dead Warrens.

In the Dead Warrens the party fights crazy Derro, learns that the guards were butchered by someone called Rolth, and that Rolth is in leagues with Meliya. After defeating Rolth’s derro apprentice, the party finds a note from Meliya

Rolth I pray your preparations are in order. Our “superiors” expect results and I will not disappoint. Better to be one of your experiments then fail. Bring your shipments to the staging area. With the muscle you provide and the cattle I’ve gathered from the streets we will bring low this dretch of a city so our masters can remake it in their glorious image. I can barely contain the excitement to come. Oh how blood will flow like water down the street.
Meliya
PS I expect to see you personally when you make your delivery.

Written hastily on the note in a different hand is an address “47 High Lane off Field Marshal Avenue” and a date “Rova 13 Oathday!” and a note “Bring backup” Rova 13 Oathday is two days away.

I have to disagree with you about the legality of the sacrifice. You fail to consider that, since the queen agreed with the sacrifice, that made it legal. As for the girls being charmed, people vastly overrate what charmed means. They treat the caster as a friend, it doesn't override their personal choice. At worst, they are willing to be sacrificed to another deity, just maybe not Asmodeus. Furthermore, their resurrection proves nothing more than 9 of them had no issues with coming back.

People riot for any reason or no reason. The presence of rioting says nothing more than people objected. As an example, the American Revolution began in part as riots against the actions of Britain, despite those actions being fully legal.

I agreement with Val'bryn here. It's pretty clear that, had the sacrifices been willing, they would have been legal and even had the blessing of the queen. The only thing that questioned their legality was the notion that multiple woman seemed to be under a compulsion or charm effect.

Now, making that kind of sacrifice illegal in someone's campaign is totally cool. If you use the source material as a basis for legality though the law seems to indicate that willing vs unwilling is where the line gets drawn.

Necromany is not forbidden within the walls of the city, but stealing corpses, killing people or having undead wander the streets certainly is. So necromancers still have to abide by the rules and laws of the city. The same goes for Asmodeus priests. They cannot make human sacrifices, but they are allowed to operate in the city, sticking mainly to the contract side of their deity (at least openly, Ornher Reebs might develop some very illegal schemes in your campaign behind the screens, if you want him to).

The question then is: why was Rolth expelled from the Acadamae? For doing 'normal' necromancy stuff but breaking the laws of the city (e.g. stealing corpses to experiment upon)? That would never be a necromancy headmaster's judgement. In my campaign the PCs learned that he did not only experiment with flesh golems, he also tried to graft undead flesh upon living tissue, which went too far, even for the Acadamae's standards.

Point of clarification. Human sacrifice (or elven / dwarven / halfling / etc) is not illegal. Sacrifice of unwilling people is illegal. At the opening of the newly created temple to Asmodeus there was a sacrifice of 13 virgin woman offered up. I believe this is detailed in the Guide to Korvosa. Since the 13 virgins were suppose to have been "willing" it was legal.

While I haven't gotten to this point with my group yet I already plan changing the contents of the adventure dramatically. Instead of focusing on the Shoanti at all this chapter is getting replaced with an adventure where the party frees Kroft from being captured by the Hellknights and unravels more of the mystery of what is going on with Ileosa.

Scarwall is probably changing as well to take place in the dungeon under Castle Korvosa or one of the other dungeons under Korvosa. For a city sitting on a mountain of ancient ruins it's disappointing that the adventure path doesn't really incorporate them much.

I've started the Edge of Anarchy with my party. Getting ready I made a number of modification (many can be see in my previous post). This thread will contain the outline for the Edge of Anarchy module that I'll be using along with the per session breakdown of how things played out. I've made a good amount of modifications to how things flow making changes to the backstory to better link all the modules together.

Curse of the Crimson Throne – Edge of Anarchy Outline

Pre Campaign
Ileosa Arvanxi….

Minor noble of House Arvanxi in Cheliax.
A devil worshiper of Mahathallah learns about Sorshen, the runelord of lust, and a device deep beneath the backwater “colony” of Korvosa that would grant Ileosa eternal life.
Knows that the Everdawn Pool will require the blood of Korvosa to activate.

Five years ago….

A young 19 year old Ileosa made her way to Korvosa and manipulated her way into the King’s bed and his heart.
They were married in under 6 months.
Over the next four years Ileosa gained a reputation amongst the city as a promiscuous spoiled rich brat more interested in her life of luxury then the king or ruling Korvosa.

Two months ago….

Ileosa stumbled across the Fang of Kazavon.
Imbued with the strength of Kazavon’s spirit and emboldened by his cruelty Ileosa decided the time was right to seize control of Korvosa.
Worked with the Red Mantis and tricked the king’s own brother Venster into poisoning Eodred with an illness neither medicine or magic could cure.

Campaign Starts
Meeting a King….

King Eodred on his deathbed, though he takes all efforts to convince others to the contrary.
The party dispatches Gaedren Lamm, recovers the Queen’s brooch, and in returning it to the palace gains an audience with the king and queen.
Get the impression that Ileosa is a loving wife worried about her ill husband and grateful for the party for returning her jewelry.
The king acts the part of a gracious king, rewarding the party for their efforts.
King provides the party with additional work, a mission to the Bloodsworn Vale to uncover activity that threatens the completion of a major road that promises to bring in more trade from Cheliax.
The party spends a week or so in the Bloodsworn Vale uncovering who is killing off the workers building the road through the mountains towards Cheliax.

Back in Korvosa….

King has pasted away and the crown now sits on the head of his “Whore Queen” wife Ileosa.
King rumored to have died from advanced leprosy that resisted all attempts at healing.
Rioting dominates the streets providing opportunities for criminal elements to thrive and bringing in a swift and cruel response from the Order of Nail at request from the throne.
Ileosa calls upon her Red Mantis allies to dispose of the Seneschal Neolandus Kalepopolis, eager to replace him with someone more akin to her disposition.
She also has Venester murdered to prevent him from talking about Ileosa’s role in killing the king.
Party meets Cressida Kroft who hires them for a series of missions.

All The World’s Meat

Party sent to deal with a group of Korvosan guard deserters.
Let by Verik Vancaskerkin leading a gang that calls themselves the Cow Hammer Boys.
Cow Hammer Boys, under the orders of Verik, hire themselves out to deal with “problems” using he bodies at food to feed the masses of starving people.
Verik is working under orders of his lover “Meliya” to recruit a peasant army capable of going all French revolution on the throne.

Ambassador’s Letters

Kroft sends the party to retrieve the embarrassing letters of Cheliaxian ambassador Darvayne Gios Amprei.
Amprei blackmailed by Meliya to provide funding and support for the revolution.
Letters stored at Eel’s End by crime boss Devargo.
Amprei comes clean once he gets his letters back regretting that he doesn’t have much info to share just that he was making anonymous gold drops every over night to avoid embarrassment.

King’s Murderer

Ileosa learns that the death of her husband may not have been natural causes but murder.
A guard captain comes forward with information that two guards under his duty recently went missing.
Letters found in the guard’s barrack led the captain to believe that they were supplying poison to a painter Trinia Sabor to use in poisoning the king.
Queen reaches out to the party to find this painter and bring her alive to the castle so she can face justice for what she’s done.

Finding the Guards

Kroft gives the party mission to find the two missing guards that were supplying the poison.
Track the guards down to the Grey District and the Dead Warrens.
Party learns that Rolth has an agreement with Meliya to supply constructs to assist in her attempt to overthrow the throne.
Guards are found dead, their body parts used in a pair of carrion golems Rolth intents to deliver to Meliya.
Party finds reference to where Meliya is staging the attempted coup.

Preventing revolution

Kroft lets the party lead a detachment of guards with the support of the Order of Nail and Sable Company Marines to raid the warehouse and put an end of the threat.
During the fight Meliya gets away but the party is able to put down the resistance.
Party finds evidence that Meliya was working for House Arkonas.

Justice be done

Ileosa thanks the party for their efforts and invites them to the palace for a party in their honor.
At the party the trial of Trinia Sabor occurs.
The trail is overseen by the high priest of Asmodeus.
Trinia admits guilt, insults the queen, and cries out that only anarchy can free Korvosa from corruption.
Headsman arrives and the execution gets underway.
Blackjack appears from nowhere and saves Trinia, giving his speech against the queen, and escapes.

What Really Happened?

Meliya is actually Ileosa.
Ileosa planned the revolution and laid the seed to place blame on rival house Arkonas.
The guards didn’t actually supply the poison and Trinia didn’t actually administer it. Ileosa used her strong enchantment powers to force the confessions out of them as a way to strengthen her own position with the public and place more suspicion on house Arkonas.

After the chaos of the failed execution, things in Korvosa return to normal. The Hellknights from the Order of Nail return to their castle outside the city and the state of anarchy returns to the law and order the city is known for with Ileosa behind the throne.

First session coming up on Saturday and narrowed in on all the modifications for Chapter One.

Adventure starts off as per the Adventure Path. Party meets up at Zellara's house (before the campaign each player has already been sent the message from Zellara to meet up at her house.) The message specifies a meeting at noon to reduce the chances the party busts up the Old Fishery at night.

Old Fishery is mostly unchanged. I added some additional mobs and used beefed up versions of the named mobs I got from Skeld.

I've also used the idea that Skeld had to send the party off to the Bloodsworn Vale. The king (still alive) commissions the party to investigate delays in a road to Cheliax at the behest of the Sable Company Marines. I've taken parts of the Conquest of the Bloodsworn Vale adventure modifying it to suit my desire for a short excursion from the city (3-4 days would be perfect.)

Bloodsworn Vale will have the party look into road workers that have recently gone missing and include four main encounters

• There is a goblin and lizardman villages in the vale. Though they have never been hostile towards Fort Thorn or the workers they are the first suspects. Both tribes are innocent and should the party travel to visit them will find a group of Hellknights recently brought to the vale cleaning them out.
  
• A drake was spotted around the vale and investigation of the worker's campsite indicates that the drake might be involved in the attacks. The party can track it back to it's lair and dispose of it. No sign of the missing people show up in the drake's lair though.
  
• Deeper investigation into the worker camp site will lead the party to a grove of roseblood sprites that worship a nymph that lives near their village. The nymph made a deal with a family of owlbears to provide tribute, in the form of living sacrifices, to the owlbears in return the owlbears would leave the nymph and her sprite worshipers alone. The nymph uses the sprites to lure in workers that then get charmed and shipped off to the owlbears for dinner. A nymph and village of sprites is a bit much for a 2nd level party to clear out so hopefully they offer to dispose of the owlbears in return for the nymph to call off stealing workers!
  
• Owlbears are the ones eating workers as snacks and the party can lay the smack down on them!

Once done the party returns to Korvosa to find the place in utter chaos.

From here I'll run things mostly by the book just adding in a few encounters.

• Hellknight Justice - This encounter consists of four Hellknights stopping a dozen looters from ransacking local villages. When the party comes across them the Hellknights have the looters tied up and the leader of the Hellknight patrol is pronouncing judgement on them. Ofcourse that judgement is execution with plans to string the dead bodies up along the street as a warning to any other would be looters. Before the executions happen the Hellknights get attacked by arrows and run off in chase leaving just one of their patrol behind to complete the executions. That lone patrol will be aided by a pair of Legion Devils that show up. The party can intervene, ignore what's happening, or attempt to speak with the Hellknight and even convince him to allow the party to take the looters to the Korvosa Guard.
  
• Marine Down! - This encounter I've stolen from Turelus and you can find it here.
  
• Dusters - In this encounter the party runs afoul of a group of Dusters looking to shake down the party for some quick gold. This could set the stage for move involved Duster action in later chapters.
  

I'll post how things went next week! I expect we'll get about half way through the Chapter One material over the weekend (we usually play 10-12 hour sessions.)

What is VITAL is that they craft characters that are likely to stick together after the fishery and have a deep love and connection to the city (ideally family or something). Anything that is not going to make them jump on a ship and sail to Magnimar (or Absalom) at the first sign of trouble

My solution to this was to tell the players that the campaign would be about saving the city of Korvosa from bad stuff about to happen to it. I then gave them to details of the city (recaps from the Guide to Korvosa book) and told them that whatever characters they made, it would be up to them to create characters that WANT to save this city. In that way I'm forming a social contract with the players in the game so we have a shared understanding of what to expect from the campaign.

My idea was to have Kazavon erupt out of the slain body of Ileosa and their fight against him the ultimate encounter of the campaign. Since one of my players is basically playing the reborn soul of one of the original party to contain Kazavon in the first place I think this makes a lot of sense and should bring closure to that character's personal story arc.

Finished up with book six and I've got some work ahead of me.

The part about aiding the rebellion is great stuff but I'll need to elaborate on this. Has anyone come up with a system to track party progress towards aiding the rebellion or any other Adventure Paths that introduce such a system?

Initial idea is to break down the city into logical groups. This could include...

• City Guard
• Sable Company Marines
• Hellknights
• Shopkeepers
• Cerulean Society
• Shoanti
• Noble Houses
• Etc

Then as the players interact with or do things either favorable or opposed to the various organizations around the city they will earn a reputation score with that group. When the times comes to rally the troops in the final act this reputation score will play a key role in how successful the party is at finding missions and allies to oppose the queen.

Next up....

Was anyone else put off about the introduction of Sorshen, the Runelord of Lust, in chapter six? I don't think she was mentioned or alluded to anywhere else that I can remember in the book but all of a sudden she is the driving force behind what the Ileosa is doing in chapter six. I don't want to remove her. Most of my group is playing through Rise of the Runelords now (one of my players is the DM and I'm playing in the game) and I think they will love the little things that link the two adventure paths together (they are going to love the part Vorel Foxglove plays in the plague) but as is I feel Ileosa just randomly learning about Sorshen in the final chapter and making her grand plan right at the end of the adventure path lackluster.

I'm thinking of ways to introduce Sorshen from the start. Most likely Ileosa found the book before the campaign starts and has coveted eternal life but lacked the guts to actually do anything about it. She knew all about the Everdawn Pool and lusts to activate it knowing the sacrifice required but it wasn't until Kazavon's influence she could act on those desires.

How can I lay the seeds of this from the beginning without giving away the queen as a vain unlikable person. She is savvy enough to manipulate a party of low level adventures without breaking a sweet after all.

Any ideas? Maybe there is a spread of Lustful crimes around the cities as the riot happen caused by a runewell of Lust activating in the vaults under the city when Ileosa tapped into Kazavon?

I'm also pretty sure I need to move the Sunken Queen portion of the adventure to occur in the Pyramid under Castle Korvosa. This just makes to much sense. The idea of Ileosa activating a machine that will wipe out the city of Korvosa from under Korvosa makes way more sense then activating the machine from hundreds of miles away....

I don't know if you've read my journal, but it contains similar elements to the ones you're planning on using, like the PCs working for the seemingly innocent queen first, more focus on Korvosa, more foreshadowing, clearer introduction of the Gray Maidens, the king dying while the PCs are out of town, so the riots have time to grow ... I also kept the PCs more in Korvosa (I skipped Scarwall and had an alternative storyline in Korvosa instead). Anyway, you're welcome to mine my log for inspiration, although it is quite lengthy to read.

I started reading through your campaign journal. Some really good stuff there!

I also did something similar to this: the King was alive, but sickly, and the Queen appeared concerned about him and his condition.

Your thread is the one that gave me the idea!

As far as getting the Hellknights on your side goes, that's Neolandus' job: the seneschal has the ability to depose the monarch. So that lets the Hellknights act. Of course, they still may have to be convinced to act, which might involve some negotations... maybe even a sidequest or two.

I've got some ideas about the Hellknights. One option is to have the party uncover records from the queen that she has no intention of paying the Hellknights for their services rendered. As an organization purely in it for the gold that should cause them some second doubts.

Chapter Four: A History of Ashes
I already know Chapter Four is going to need significant work. I want the party to start in Korvosa for this chapter. The Hellknights are going to play a larger role here. Possibly Croft will be arrested by the Queen and held by the Hellknights. The party can break her out and learn more about what’s really going on. Croft still isn’t convinced the queen is evil yet but she’s learned about Deathhead Vault and knows the answers to who is behind it all is there. The party can assault the place, learn about the truth of the Grey Maidens, and find evidence that Ileosa is really behind it all.  

Chapter Three: Escape from Old Korvosa
Real real rough thoughts. The party won’t be forced to flee Korvosa at the end of Chapter Three. I want them to stick around for parts of Chapter Four where the real Ileosa gets revealed. 

Chapter Two: Seven Days to the Grave
I’m not at the point where I’m planning encounters for this chapter yet so this is going to be more generalized thoughts that will develop as we get closer to running Chapter Two.

Initial Thoughts
I want to use this chapter to create the circumstances under which the Grey Maidens come to power. To that end I’ll change the motivation of why Ileosa brought the plague to Korvosa. This plague is meant to accomplish three things. First, create a state of chaos in the city focused in an area that Ileosa doesn’t care about (the poor). Second, provide the answer to the chaos so she can publicly declare victory and establish order under her leadership. Third, replace the Sable Company Marines with her own Grey Maidens.

Ileosa will be the one that brings in the party to investigate what is happening as a personal favor for the queen. Doctor Davaulus and the Queen’s Physicians will have evidence planted by the Red Mantis (working for Ileosa) pointing blame at the Arkonas family. This will cause the Arkonas family to cry foul and lead to their actions in Chapter Three. In reality the doctor and physicians were working for Ileosa as written.

The Grey Maidens present in the Chapter assisting with the plague will be replaced with Sable Company Marines that Ileosa charmed to do her deeds (she is suppose to be a high level enchanter after all!) The Grey Maidens are going to make an entrance right at the end of the Chapter supporting the party in their final push to deal with the temple and then to deliver the antidote to the city that the party develops. This will give the Queen the perfect reason to disband the Sable Company Marines and replace them with the Grey Maidens in Chapter Three without anyone suspicious as to why she is doing it.

Chapter One: Edge of Anarchy
Heavily influenced by the amazing work of Skeld and ideas of others on the forums I plan to make the following changes to Edge of Anarchy.

Story Changes

• The king is still alive after the party deals with Gaedren Lamm. When the party finally returns the brooch to the queen they have an audience with both the king and queen that will portray the queen as a very loving and worried wife scared of the thought of ruling should anything happen to her husband. The queen makes it a point to personally thank the party, perhaps even taking an interest in one of the party members she plots to build a deeper connection with in the future.
  
• The party will be introduced to Marcus Endrin who has need of a party of adventurers to investigate some disappearances plaguing a small mining town to the east of Korvosa. He hires the party for the job and sends them on their way. The primary purpose of this is to get the party out of the town such that the descent into anarchy feels less sudden on the party. Thanks to Skeld for the great idea and basis of the side adventure! In addition to removing the party from Korvosa as the city falls to chaos this gives the party a great opportunity to interact with the Hellnknights while learning what law and order from a LE organization is like. I plan for the Hellknights to play a large role throughout the entire campaign.
  
• The Dead Warrens encounter will see some minor modifications. Instead of retrieving the body parts from the murdered Shoanti, the party is sent to retrieve an amulet he wore. This amulet will bear the symbol of the Jade Phoenix Mage providing a link between the ancient Jade Phoenix Mages, the Shoanti, and the Cinderlands that becomes centerpiece in later chapters.
  
• Intertwine NPC appearances from key players in later chapters and lay the foundation for the Grey Maidens recruitment drive. These could be mentions in passing or mini encounters designed to give the party a deeper involvement in Korvosa and the people that shape it.

Mechanics Changes

• Given the size of the party most encounters need to be modified to accommodate for the greater party power. To do this I’ll be adding to the number of opponents in each encounter as well as improving the ability of key opponents the party faces. Each change I’ll document when I recap the party exploits in the coming months.

Keys to Accomplish in Chapter One

• Have the party learn more about and build ties with Korvosa. This could be a favorite bar or restaurant, getting in good with the Korvosa Guard or the Sable Company Marines, developing commerce ties to sell looted items, discover shop keepers that can assist them in finding rare magical items, or building relationships with underworld elements.
  
• Introduce future NPCs with key story roles early and allow the party to interact with them before their time in the story comes.
  
• Keep the queen seeming innocent through the chapter so her turn later in the story has more meaning.

The Mining Town (Rough Outline)
Party arrives at the Mining Town and learns that the Hellknights have also just arrived. Learn that the town has had a number of disappearances over the past few months (5 total occurances).
The Hellknights heard about the problems and offered the leader of the town to solve the problem for a nominal fee to which the leader agreed.

Party uncovers a few leads.

• There is a tribe of goblins and lizardfolk that have both been neutral towards the town historically but have recently started to squabble with each other. About a month ago that squabble lead to a mining cart carrying ore back from one of the mines in the mountains getting attacked and damaged. No one was seriously injured but the town has always disliked having fowl creatures like goblins and lizardfolk so close making them easy scape goats. In reality neither the goblins or lizardfolk have ever caused problems for the town before. Should the party investigate they will learn that the Hellknights eradicated one of the villages ( the first the party visits) and is laying siege to the next one the party visits. The Hellknights are vicious in their assault leaving no goblin or lizardfolk alive even going out of their way to track down and kill anyone trying to flee.
  
• Tracking the nearby area will uncover some bear tracks the party can follow back to a cave of bears. Though vicious the bears don’t actually have anything to do with the disappearances.
  
• Deeper into the mountains past both the goblin and lizardfolk homes lives a nymph worshipped by a small coven of pixies. About two months ago a pair of owlbears migrated into the area and has been causing all sorts of problems for the nymph. Eager to server their goddess, the pixies learned they can satiate the owlbears if they drop off unsuspecting humans every week or so. Here the party can either wipe out the pixies and nymph or make a deal with the nymph to kill the owlbears in return for her promise to leave the mining town alone.

The Party
So far I only have concrete information on one party member (still lacking a name)

Player #1 Human Warblade (Book of 9 Swords) / Wizard / Jade Phoenix Mage (Bo9S). The first player to submit his character idea wants to play a character that started off training in magic at the Theumanexus College and swordplay at the Orisini Academy. He wanted to stay true to the fluff of the Jade Phoenix Mage but adapted to something relevant to Golarion. This all worked out perfectly!

• Having a character with ties to Theumanexus College would help the party out with their arcane needs while ties to Orisini Academy would give the character greater positive relationship with Grau and Vencarlo.
  
• The Jade Phoenix Mage backstory was also easy to adapt in such a way that this character could feel central to the unfolding story. For those that don’t know the history of the Jade Phoenix Mage, heavily abbreviated, involves a great evil that the original 13 Jade Phoenix Mages contained when they learned that it wouldn’t be possible to destroy the evil. The souls of the 13 Jade Phoenix Mages are reborn again and again (a Phoenix like cycle of rebirth) in new Jade Phoenix Mages to ensure that this great evil never wakes again. I made Kazavon the great evil that the Jade Phoenix Mages contained giving the character a great conclusion to his personal story arc at the end of the campaign.

Player #2 Possibly Halfling Rogue going Whsiperknife (Races of Wild)

Player #3 Possibly Barbarian / Crusader (Book of 9 Swords) This player likes to pick class combinations that seem counter to each other and make them work. Last campaign he played a Paladin / Monk.

Player #4 Human Beguiler (Player’s Handbook 2) / Wizard / Ultimate Magus (Complete Mage)

Player #5 Talks about being some kind of skill monkey and threatens me with Spellthief (Complete Adventurer) but that class sucks!

Player #6 Can’t make up his mind

Player #7 No clue

I will be starting my Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign in a few weeks. The party consists of 5 to 7 players (depending on who shows for a session.) All players have played extensively with each other over the past 10+ years so there is good player synergy at the table. We are all friends at the gaming table and outside of gaming.

Goal of this thread

While I like the CotCT adventure path a lot there are some modifications I plan to make (both small and large) to tailor the experience to my players and the type of game I like to run. My hope is this thread will help me work through those modifications, document how things turned out, and get feedback from the larger community.

Overarching Story Vision
I want to accomplish a few things with the story that will drive all the changes I make.

• Queen Ileosa is a master of manipulation and should be played as one. She isn’t going to let slip the horrible things she plans for the city. Instead she should use all of her skills to manipulate the party into being her pawns and only be revealed as the villain she is after considerable effort by the players to find out what is really going on.
  
• The campaign should focus primarily on the city of Korvosa with adventures happening outside of Korvosa only if there is a very compelling reason why those things couldn’t happen within the city.
  
• Korvosa needs to come alive as a city of people living honest lives trying to better themselves. Korvosa is a LN city meaning most of the people in the city are law abiding and on the level with those they deal business with. This is a city worth saving not a den of scum and villainy best left to burn.
  
• NPCs and factions introduced over the course of the campaign should be recurring and meaningful to the party and story unfolding.
  
• The story should weave in character backgrounds whenever possible giving the characters a greater connection to the events unfolding around them.

Game Mechanics
I’m playing this as a 3.5 campaign with moderate Pathfinder influences.

• We will be using the Pathfinder skill system with modification to how class skills work. At character creation each character can select any skill to place their skill ranks in. They gain training in all those skills. While this makes it easier for a character to gain training in a skill (such as a Stealthy Fighter.) I feel this gives players more flexibility to make flavorful characters without the need to multiclass to make skills work.
  
• The Pathfinder CMB / CMD system will get adapted for the campaign. Feats related to combat maneuvers (Trip / Sunder / Grapple / etc) will use the Pathfinder version over the 3.5 version and all bonuses from 3.5 material related to combat maneuvers will be halved.
  
• We will be using a few subsystems such as Intrigue, Contacts, and Reputation to track how the characters relate to and can interact with the various factions that operate in Korvosa.