How did you get your players started in Whispering Cairn?

[leeb8]

Hey im about to put my players through this adventure path
i am however, having a slight bit of trouble figuring out the best way to get the ball rolling with the story - how do i get the players to investigate whispering cairn?

now i know there is the recommended map scenario, but what else? im just looking for other ideas... they may seem obvious, but id appreciate some info on how other dm's got things rolling with their players. thanks!

[Patman]

Look at some of the old Character Background posts. My group contains a Bard, who knew some legends, and when he heard the "adventurers" talking about Stirgenest, he decis\ded to find a few friends to explore "whispering". The Mage is an apprentice to Allustan, and he asked alot of questions too.

[philarete]

One of the PCs in my group is an "old prospector" type. He had been searching for the "motherlode" all over the Cairn Hills for years, and finally discovered one that, he thought, no one else had explored.

[EbbTide]

My players are all brand new, so I opted to start them off all standing in front of the cairn. I wrote character backgrounds for all the characters. I used the mage apprenticed to allustan hook. I made a half-elf fighter the son of the female lieutenant at the garrison (Mikela Vendarin, I believe). The halfling rogue's parents work in the kitchen at the emporium, and the halfling learned the tricks of the trade from an escape artist/slight of hand artist that performed for a while at the emporium. The cleric is a gnome cleric of heironeous that joined the order in search of glory and action, and was recently placed at the garrison. The elf ranger NPC I'm playing helping them is a member of the bronzewood lodge.

I figure I've successfully tied all the characters to diamond lake, and hopefully tied them into enough of the main entities that that they A) have access to the places the need to go, B) have reason to have knowledge of events going on without having to make them work to hard to gather it, and C) are going to be closely tied to big events ahead that key NPCs will be involved in.

[tony wikeruk]

Damn, had i noticed this thread i wouldnt of started a new one anywho look to starting the Age Of Worms.

[Sedgewick]

My players each had strong motivations for their characters which I tried to weave into the Diamond Lake backdrop. There is:

The gray elf wizard that resents his race for their isolationism and neutrality (which comes from the Greyhawk setting of Celene). She is a cousin to Ellival Moonmeadow who brought her to Diamond Lake as a retainer. He sponsered her at the Free City's magical university. She has also become an apprentice to Allustan, but has to try to hide it. She is willing to adventure to try to pay her way out of Moonmeadow's household.

The mountain dwarf fighter once trained to be a forge mage in his mountain hold, but let the fire out! And he was banished for his crime. He survived in the underdark with two other outcasts for a number of years, but in an ambush they were poisoned. The only cure sunlight. They found their way into one of Smenk's Diamond Lake mines. The mining foreman there on Smenk's orders would not let them come to the surface without paying a fine, a tax, and a toll. His companions gave all they had to him so he could pay the full amount. He was brought to the surface, but before he could return with the coin to save his brothers-in-arms, they perished. Torn with guilt and seeking revenge he drinks and brawls incessantly along the Vein. He still carries his companions' weapons as a memento mori... they are his only possessions.

The human rogue, friend to the dwarf, and the one that bails him out, was the son of a famous trapsmith in the Free City. The rogue came by his skills the hard way, by testing his father's diabolic devices from childhood. His father passed and the secrets to bypass his traps with him. The Free City's thieves' guild was not pleased and began to harass and blackmail the rogue's family (a sister and a mother). The guild also seized the character's estate and inheritance. He had no choice but to flee with his family. His mother and younger sister are secreted away with the gnomes of Grosselgrottel. He is on his own in Diamond Lake trying to make coin to send back to his family.

A human cleric has wandered into town, sent away from her own church because she is such a firebrand. In Diamond Lake she has made quick enemies of just about everyone, while crusading to end the injustice done the miners and their families. If she is to have any chance at success she needs greater resources. It would also be a good idea to get away from the town and lay low for a while, though she would never accept that.

The rogue has been key to getting the party on the path to the Whispering Cairn, he has overheard Khellek in Lazare's and recognizes the Seeker symbol. He also learned from some 'friends' he has at the Midnight Salute that Khellek is using some old Seeker documents to track a missing expedition (Ulavant's). These documents both list some of the items the expedition was carrying (like the magical short sword which now deserves to be named...) and misnotes the direction they went. Thus, Khellek and his party have gone to Stirgenest following a map that was upside-down.

Allustan is also useful in coloring what they'll find in the Whispering Cairn. He can explain the dimensions of the place "...sized for men who were not men in an age where out stature was not so small." and something about the geography "...the Cairn and the hollowed-out tor it occupies is part of a massive collection of caves, tunnels, and mines. This land is wormed-out beneath through-and-through."

The rogue got the party together simply because he thought they'd divide the loot fairly (they didn't know enough about one another to want to deceive each other). This rogue is already out 10% of his share for the finder's fee he owes a certain mistress at the Midnight Salute.