When I ran the Alaznist encounter her evocation spells weren't even the biggest problem, it was an early round Repulsion that most of the party failed that really killed them. She has a lot more up her sleeve than just evocation (as any good wizard should) and can pretty handily keep them busy while the ability is active.
same. Yeah, I don't see them willing to remove Sarenrae/Desna at this point either. Maybe Iomedae? I dunno. While the others would be interesting, I don't see their removal being that big of a narrative deal. I feel like the death of Abadar could be pretty huge.
Name: Jimballast Piscatoris (One-Tooth Jim) and Martella Piscatorius (Cross-Eyed Mary)
The PCs were deep into a fairly successful liberation of Tallgrasses caravanserai by the time they ran into Jondus. They had accidentally beelined for his sister without alerting the other guards and dispatched her efficiently (though her goat almost caused another obituary post). They managed to sneak in an coup de grace the sleeping Drake beside her office (seriously, a DC 15 stealth to not wake him seems low) and started to tear through the traitorous bandits with surprising ease. They took a couple nicks, of course, but nothing they were too worried about. At least until they summoned Jondus. It was Jim's fault that his killer noticed the combat. A casting of howling agony caused one of the officers to let out a blood curdling scream causing Jondus to come running down the stairs. As he makes his way the PCs finish off the mooks and begin to spread out to investigate the remaining rooms. Then they heard the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs behind them. I show them the art of Jondus, and immediately they burst into laughter because of his goofy name. In response, Jondus stomped towards Jim, himself an ex-member of the Taldan Military and confirm a crit to deal 60+ damage, crushing his skull and killing him instantly. His wife, Mary, instantly banished as her task of tormenting Jim is finally over. There is an almost sick irony in Jim's death. He was a veteran left crippled and abandoned by the army, blaming Qadira for his misfortune. He was killed by a member of the Taldan Horse masquerading as a Qadiran bandit.
Congratulations guys! I'll miss seeing you both troubleshooting on the forums. My group's nearing the end of book 3 so we're a long way off. Glad you enjoyed the campaign throughout though.
I think maybe the best way to deal with this is to swap the locations of the letters and just ignore what the AP says. Letters at Tallgrasses identifying himself can be explained away far easier than correspondence with actual hell demons. Yander could argue that the Tallgrasses letters were for the former inhabitants, or written to the traitors before their treachery was unknown. But I don't see a logical scenario where someone gets caught consorting with Divs and receives no consequences.
The Land of the Linnorm Kings has never properly hosted an AP unto itself, and it's got me curious - what Viking-adjacent stories do people want to spend 3 or 6 books with? I think it could be cool to have an AP dealing with the White Estrid/Belimarius conflict going on up there. Maybe the PCs could be viking warriors defending their homes from whatever ancient monsters the Runelord has unleashed. Though I don't know if I'd want to see the end of Belimarius so soon.
I'm struggling to figure out what ot do with Duchess Veleto. Tragically the PC she was interested in died before she had a chance to track him down, so she's just sort of hanging out at the manor. As written she doesn't seem to have much to contribute plot-wise, she doesn't become a threat unless the PCs try to turn her in (why would they), she doesn't have any information to share with them, she just seems like an unnecessary wrinkle that I don't really have an idea what to do with, and the players haven't latched onto. How have you guys used her in your games? Was she a thorn in the party's side, an unlikely ally, or was she just kinda there?
I like the idea actually. In the current system 1-10 seems too low and 10-20 seems too high, but a 6-15 campaign kind hits the sweet spot for a shorter AP imo. It allows the adventure to span a broader range of challenges and maintaining a smaller scope without flying off into the zaniness of high level play. I also feel like it would help the APs feel more complete without having to combine two disparate campaigns into one.
My players were obsessed with Vort from the moment they heard his goofy name, so naturally I had to expand his role a little bit. I decided to basically play Vort as a bit of a kook, his claim to the throne comes from being Stavian's Great Great Great Grandnephew 4 times removed as well as his popularity among the peasantry after the fall of Jambis. I'm playing him as kinda a Vermin Supreme type figure, someone with no real chance of winning, has a lot of weird ideas, and has no clue when to throw in the towel. Of course the PCs are not harboring him in Stachys, and there's already talk of "removing the competition" so who knows how it's going to develop from here.
No updates on the Pump House Propaganda, one of the PCs was eaten by a fish so most scheming was put on hold for a couple sessions. However, I definitely wanted to let everyone know how the party delt with the Telus situation. After learning that Mosle had stayed with his friend and keeping him alive all these years the party concluded that Mosle was Telus' true love. So they created a scheme to draw the Baron out so Mosle could plant a kiss on him. The hunter used his Boots of Spider Climbing to rush to the Baron's location, grapple him, and drop him to the floor, all so that Mosle could barge in and plant the kiss. It was a tough fight, and the hunter nearly died, but eventually they succeeded. The power of gay love won out! I thought this was a fun solution, anyone else's players have a creative solution for Telus?
Oppara is rife with chaos and intrigue in the wake of the Exaltation Massacre. Martella is likely not the only noble who was kidnapped or lost in the chaos. This could be a good moment to bring in any of the "Faces of the Senate" if you used them in your campaign, have them run into some trouble that the PCs can save them from. Maybe have some of them try to recruit the PCs as their own agents after hearing about their actions at the Exaltation Gala, paying them for missions around the city. You could also use the upcoming Persona Phases at the start of book 2 (if you're using the system) encourage the PCs to describe how they develop their persona, and integrate it into Opparan locations. A PC who's organizing a protest might head to The Narrows to talk to the city's downtrodden, another might organize a secret meeting with the corsairs in the Gray Market, another might perform acts of charity with the Sarenite priests at the House of Dawn's Redemption. Even if you don't plan to use the system, it might be a good idea to keep some of the roleplay elements, give the PCs the sense that they're building their own networks and reputations among the elites.
This was probably a reference to (or foreshadowing of) Strength of Thousands since the Mwangi book came out before that AP Spoiler: Though it could be something more. and the PCs are named the new Magic Warriors by the end.
Name: Sir Vesper Barbastelle
After The Night Swan attacked their festival, Baron Okerra invited the party to visit Pensaris to convince the party to help track down and bring the vigilante to justice. After a brief trip to Oppara to deal with some personal issues, the party decided to take the Baron up on the offer, and he offered to take them fishing in the nearby lake. Upon hearing legends of The General, a man-eating, barge destroying catfish, the party decided that they would try their hand at landing it. After hours of searching, and the bleaching bard interrogating the local fish, they finally found the creature's lair. It wasn't long after that the chattering of fish went quiet, and Vesper felt a pull on his line. With the aid of the party hunter they pulled their catch towards them... what they didn't know is that The General was hunting them. Initiative is rolled, Vesper goes first and readies and action to hit the fish as he came near, the Hunter fired Dignity's Barb but it disappeared into the murky waters. The General darted towards the little Tiefling who dared to hook him, opened his mouth and grabbed Vesper. The monk punches the fish, but can't free Vesper, the Bard blinds the fish with a well placed glitterdust, and the sorcerer throws some meteors. None of this is enough to free Vesper from the beast's mouth and with a final gulp our oracle goes down the creature's gullet. While the beast is taking a lot of damage from the outside, Koriana's Blade is not enough to slice through its belly, leaving Vesper stuck inside. If the party can just hit the fish one more time he might just live. It all comes down to the monk, one hit will save his friend. He goes to flurry and... natural one. The monk falls into the water, and Vesper is consigned to his fate. In the aftermath, the party decides to perform a harrow reading to decide if they should resurrect their fallen comrade, and proceeded to pull the worst spread I've ever seen. Not a single card represented a good outcome. The party deemed that a doom would befall themselves and Taldor if they brought him back, and so they thought that they should leave him for the good of the realm.
Reign of Winter sounds pretty perfect for what you're trying to do railroad-wise. Unless they somehow get off track early in Book 1 they're probably going to feel compelled to follow the adventure to its completion. The adventure also mostly takes place in the wilderness, with a brief diversion to a hostile city. There also aren't any subsystems like in Ironfang Invasion that can be difficult for a new GM.
I'm having this problem now too, they're torn between Lucretzia and Gul Gusairne as their main suspects but pretty confident that it's her. And I pretty much used some of your solutions. This is of course made all the more complicated given that in my campaign Lucretzia is one of my party's long lost cousin. I also made Selli into a Night Swan suspect for the reasons you listed but I aged her up a little because I feel like it's too obvious that a 15 year old girl is not the Night Swan. I have also made Night Swan sightings become more widespread in the region with other characters taking on the mantle for their own purposes. I've had Gurta Thresh in the Beggarwood pretend to be her, using the idea of the Night Swan to further her antiauthoritarian philosophy and act as a symbol of hope for others in the Beggarwood. And Atratus is already included in the book as a sort of red herring too, and is located near where the Night Swan is based, so there's a chance they'll look into her too. I plan on having Okerra be extremely paranoid of the Night Swan, blaming pretty much everything that's gone wrong in the county on her. Since he's already helpful after Crownfall, I'm having him recruit the PCs to go investigate what he thinks are Night Swan sightings. Since my PCs have mostly been focused on Stachys and don't seem too interested in exploring unprompted, so this should help them make the most out of the adventure. Once the party have helped out a bit the Night Swan is probably going to approach either the most radical party member or her cousin to try and figure out what their deal is. After that it's really up to the party how they handle her.
All Skeleton all the time, baby! If I ever play anything other than skeleton from this point forward then something's gone horribly wrong. Beyond that I'm not sure, I guess I'll wait for the player's guide.
More Hongal! I know we went there in Jade Regent, so it's probably pretty far down the list compared to nations we've not been to yet. Also from what I remember Ordu-Aganhei was more like a Minkaian city than a Hongali one, so I don't necessarily think that we've got all we can from the region. We barely know anything about Hongali culture (though the same could be said for most of Tian Xia) and it would be a great opportunity to get more info about General Susumu, because right now there's next to none. I also kinda want to know more about how the Hongal economy actually works, they're clearly inspired by the Mongols and other steppe tribes who often relied on raiding China and other wealthy lands, but Hongal only really has Chu Ye as a potential target and fighting a bunch of Oni seems like it would be difficult. The AP could be something akin to Frozen Flame, a 1-10 about the PCs leading their own khanate to greatness, or even a higher level one where the PCs take the fight to Chu-Ye and Shogun Tsuneni. The AP would also be a cool chance to showcase what Hongalis who aren't pure martial classes are like, show me Hongali wizards who fire off spells from horseback, or Hongali druids who ensure that the animals can graze regardless of where the clan travels.
I agree with The Raven Black that Tobyn being a failed priest of Desna is an important aspect of the character, it emphasizes how even the servants of the good deities can commit heinous acts in private. However, if you feel the need to change it such a radical change seems unnecessary. Tobyn is supposed to be something of a local legend, a wise old priest respected by a townspeople who largely worship good and neutral deities, making him (and thus much the town) devil-worshippers changes too much about the base setting and might turn the players off from wanting to protect them. Perhaps he could be a priest of Erastil or Abadar instead? Both are worshipped in town and have shrines in the temple, and being lawful deities they lend themselves better to Tobyn's let's say... stricter style of parenting. But it's your game so if you think he would fit better as an Asmodean then more power to you
I gave them only one mythic rank and it was when they entered Alaznist's demesne. Even just one made the encounters easier than they should have been imo. I wouldn't give them more unless you want Alaznist to be an easy fight.
Thank you both for the ideas, I ended up picking Micheaux because I think he's exactly the sort of emperor who would want to meddle in politics form beyond the grave. So far I've had the spirit help the oracle win a debate using obscure legal knowledge and had him forewarn about the cloaked figures in the senate. I was hoping to use Senator Nicodemus and her occult knowledge to drop a couple hints but the players didn't seem to interested in talking to her. I really like the idea of creating a new relic for the PC but I'll probably wait to see what sort of magic items the oracle is drawn to before designing it. Thank you so much for all the advice!
In my current campaign I have a player who is playing an oracle with the possessed curse and Intrigue mystery, the idea being that the character is possessed by a spirit which is helping him navigate Taldan politics by whispering secrets and rumors in his ear. The PC is also a Rakshasa-Spawn tiefling, so I decided to make him the secret son of Spoiler: The problem is that I'm struggling to find Taldan emperors that are not relevant to the AP that would be a good choice for a vengeful spirit. Does anyone here have a good idea of who the spirit could be? Milon Jeroth. And due to this connection to a member of the Immaculate Circle I thought it would be cool for the spirit to be the spirit of another Taldan emperor that somehow became attached to the PC instead of the intended target and is now looking for revenge against the immaculate circle. |
