So I started running AoW on Sunday and I was kinda hopeful about the plot. Done plenty of reading up and was familiar with the background.
Enter the PCs. Not much background on the PCs, basically along the lines of "Wild Elf Druid" and "Human Rogue" were the backgrounds my players had bothered to tell me about in advance.
After the players changed their minds a bit, including 5 mins before we started playing, we ended up with the following cast.
Male Wild Elf Spirit Shaman - From the High Forest
Male Wild Elf Scout - Also from the High Forest
Female Uthgardt Human Barbarian - From the Sword Coast
Male Human Paladin from Tethyr
(as you might have guessed I'm playing in Forgottean Realms)
Now I know this has been mentioned before but for this story it needs mentioning again. The plot hooks for the first story suck. Basically the characters are supposed to hear about some other party investigating a cairn and suddenly "decide" to investigate the Whispering Cairn which all the locals say are empty. Discussions with 1 of players out of session led me to quite rightly believe that I would get a response of "Well bugger that, if it's empty why should we go ?".
Knowing my players and knowing how dogmatic they can be about things I knew this hook would never work.
So I changed some of the background it so that in my background the Druids at the lodge were all elven and they had taken responsibility to defend the last remaining cairns from desecration. Meanwhile however Delfen (Allustan) discovers information that a Genie cairn may exist. As he is friends with the leader of the druids he doesn't want to upset them so he asks for their assistance to ensure that his agents (the Paladin and the Barbarian) won't accicdentally violate the wrong tomb.
He then gathers the characters together at his house, explains the situtation and asks for them to go effectively on an archaelogical expedition obtaining drawings, rubbings and gathering any items they may find for which he would be willing to pay.
That plot hook at least got the characters together and headed in the direction of the cairn. And it seemed to be going ok.
The wolves were a good threat but the party survived. The found the lantern but did nothing with it. They then found the wind trap but stopped after getting a rubbing of the face.
Then they went home.....
When asked why they were leaving their explorations there I got various replies along the lines of how the characters didn't want to desecrate a Genie's tomb !!
This wasn't helped as the party all too dogamtically claimed that it was part of their characters. I.e. The Spirit Shaman didn't want to anger the spirits. The Scout was a friend of the Spirit Shaman and didn't want to upset him. The Paladin couldn't reconcile with himself that desecrating a tomb was somehow allowable.
The only one who showed any interest was the barbarian but was overuled by the rest of the group.
Now maybe I didn't help with my plot hook of choice but I just saw 90% of the adventure go down the drain.
Fortunately I had the second adventure with me. So the campaign hasn't been completely derailed. Delfen (Allustan) has a worm and gets the players involved again. Though being typical players they insisted on searching the hills looking for unkillable zombies rather than searching the mine which is where they were told the worm came from.
I certainly despair. Still the characters came out of the first session with just 560 exp each and are now in a much higher level adventure. Should be interesting.
These players have what's coming to them.
Every player should understand, out of game, that they are playing a prepared adventure.
On the other hand, if they want to wander the hills looking for random encounters, that's cool, too. They're just not playing the adventure path anymore.
I haven't started running this yet, but I believe the best way to get this adventure on the right foot, is to have the players working in the town on very low wages. I'd even go so far as to describe a few things that happen at night outside and inside the various taverns. The players need to feel that they are in a crap hole of a city, and that there isn't any way out currently.
Enter the 3 adventurers from Free City. These adventurers are openly talking about how they plan to explore a nearby cairn. The players should be under the impression that all of the cairns have been plundered, and there is nothing left to discover. The arrival of 3 adventurers should reawaken their interest in exploring these dungeons. "Maybe the 3 Adventurers know something that the players don't." The players may think, that perhaps their is some treasure left to be discovered after all. Why else would 3 adventurers from Free City bother coming here.
I know it's too late now, but perhaps if those thoughts had been planted in their minds, perhaps they would have been curious to explore and become adventurers themselves.
So I changed some of the background it so that in my background the Druids at the lodge were all elven and they had taken responsibility to defend the last remaining cairns from desecration.
This is where you went wrong. You can't tell them to defend the tomb by raiding it. And yes, going into this adventure path a party needs to understand that they are in a module, not a freeform game.
IMO the default hooks provided are great. I think you might be forgetting the old maps. Your PCs shouldn't think the cairn is empty. The Whispering Cairn is new to the adventures, that's why they should check it out. You can also add the hook about the missing girl or even hear an old story about the "Seekers".
If they still don't bite, maybe even throw in nightmares about an undead boy (Alastor) who fled from Red Plague. You can always run the adventure backwards. The dreams can lead them to the Observatory, where they find Filge and the family bones first. Filge will provide evidence that they should go to Kullen, who will tell them they got the bones from the Land estate. Once they reach the Land estate Alastor could appear before them and lead them to the Cairn to get his bones. In exchange he could lead them through the traps.
Filge's actions would then be the main reason why the tomb is unearthed. In a small way, he could be seen as the harbinger of the Kyuss's defeat.
In reply to Takasi.
This is a good idea about running bits of the adventure backwards, thanks.
Just to clarify though as I never put it in my original post, the druids from the lodge had only committed to protecting the "Elven" cairns (in the Forgotten Realms the vast majority of these cairns belonged to the old Elven empire of Illefarn). That was the main reason for sending the Spirit Shaman along, to make sure that it wasn't an Elven cairn that was investigated. The party knew the tomb they were investigating belonged to a Genie.
I've just introduced the party to a couple of Tieflings from the mine who have sneaked out of a back way for quiet smoke (ok, I was working this one :-> ) and I suspect this will make them realise that they may have stepped into something bigger than they can handle.
I think the idea of focusing on Alastor Land is good though as it gives the Spirit Shaman a valid reason to go back to the cairn.
Creative Director
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Another route you can take is to go with the flow and adapt the reasons for exploring the Cairn. Your PCs obviously want to honor and respect the Whispering Cairn. So what happens when they hear that another adventuring group (not necessarilly Auric's band—maybe some thugs hired by Smenk to rob the place?) has gone in to the cairn with the intent of robbing it dry? The PCs could then return to the Cairn and find the first chamber despoiled; the elevators down ruined, etc. The other group would be trapped in one of the lower areas, and the PCs will need to track them down and stop them from ruining the cairn, and perhaps go about returning the stolen loot to its proper places. They still might run afoul of some of the tomb's traps and guardians. Make sure that the opposing adventuring party is decked out with enough treasure and magic to replace what the PCs would have gained by looting the tomb, and you're good to go.
And as they're exploring the tomb and fixing the damage that this other group caused, they'll come across the ghost, and presto! Adventure back on track.