My #131 FINALLY arrived yesterday, and I spent all evening reading Prince of Redhand and the backdrop article instead of doing the urgent homework projects I had planned to do. On the whole, it's a great adventure, and I'm looking forward to spicing it up with a few extras to tie in with my PCs' backstories and my plans for a post "Dawn of a New Age" high-level intrigue campaign.
I had a few nitpicky questions occur to me as I read through, and would appreciate clarifications and/or pointers about where to look to get details.
1. Is there any more on Prince Zeech's history? He's celebrating his 20th anniversary of "liberation" from the Shield Lands, according to the adventure (or 20th anniversary of rule according to the AOW overload). LGG says the "liberation" happened in 577 and AOW is set in 595--which means 18 years. My impression was that Zeech was already the local lord for some time before he broke away from the Shield Lands. Is this true, or did he take over by a coup d'etat in 577 and then immediately break with the Shield Lands? A little more background on his rise to power and break with the Shield Lands would be helpful. (The archived threads on Zeech didn't answer this one very clearly).
2. Zeech is in his early 40s, but has a half-fiend daughter (Hemriss) who is an 18th level character. Assuming that he wasn't consorting with fiends in that way before his "fall" 18 or 20 years before, his daughter is at most 19 years old. How did she get to be such high level so quickly?
3. The backdrop places Alhaster east of the mouth of the Eel River. The 4 part Greyhawk map that came out last year shows Alhaster more or less just west of the Artonsamay River's mouth. Is the Eel River a smaller (heretofore unmapped) river flowing south out of the wastes near the rift and emptying into the Nyr Dyv just west of the mouth of the Artonsamay? I had envisioned that Alhaster would be very close to the mouth of the Artonsamay, which would make sense, since that river is a major trade artery for the bandit kingdoms (as well as C. of Urnst and Tenh), and it would seem to have made sense that both a Shield Lands lord and a bandit prince would want to tap into that source of trade/booty. So exactly where does Alhaster sit in relation to the mouth of the Artonsamay? (This is kind of important for my future campaign plans).
4. The Living Greyhawk Bandit Kingdoms website listed an adventure involving Prince Zeech's recent nuptial celebration (ca. 592 or so, if I remember rightly). I haven't seen the wedding adventure, but has AoW made any attempt to incorporate LG campaign details as "Greyhawk canon?" Is Zeech married? Or were his nuptials ruined somehow? Or did he somehow dispose of this recently acquired bride?
I know this is a bit bogged down in Greyhawk trivia, and I don't mind inventing my own answers to these questions, but if there are any relatively canonical answers, I'm interested to hear them.
Creative Director
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1. Is there any more on Prince Zeech's history? He's celebrating his 20th anniversary of "liberation" from the Shield Lands, according to the adventure (or 20th anniversary of rule according to the AOW overload). LGG says the "liberation" happened in 577 and AOW is set in 595--which means 18 years. My impression was that Zeech was already the local lord for some time before he broke away from the Shield Lands. Is this true, or did he take over by a coup d'etat in 577 and then immediately break with the Shield Lands? A little more background on his rise to power and break with the Shield Lands would be helpful. (The archived threads on Zeech didn't answer this one very clearly).
There's not much more on Zeech's history, but the further you dig into Greyhawk history, the more conflicting information you'll find. For Zeech, it's best to assume that his rule of Alhaster and the Shield Lands has lasted for 20 years, and that he views the start of his rule of the city as the start of his liberation, even if the Shield Lands themselves didn't fall until later. And of course, since there's really no control over how long a particular group of PCs will take to get from "The Whispering Cairn" to "Prince of Redhand" (it might take some groups several years, especially in games that enforce training time or other manditory down time), nailing down the specifics of Zeech's history before your players reach and start "Prince of Redhand" can cause more trouble than it's worth. For Greyhawk purists, it's probably best to simply change the number of Zeech's anniversary from 20 to whatever works for your campaign; it doesn't really matter in the end what number anniversary it is—just that it's AN anniversary.
2. Zeech is in his early 40s, but has a half-fiend daughter (Hemriss) who is an 18th level character. Assuming that he wasn't consorting with fiends in that way before his "fall" 18 or 20 years before, his daughter is at most 19 years old. How did she get to be such high level so quickly?
Zeech's consorting with fiends Hemriss is indeed about 20 years old; she spent a few years of her late-teens as an adventurer/assassin/troublemaker. Once you take up the Adventurer lifestyle, you level very quickly.
3. The backdrop places Alhaster east of the mouth of the Eel River. The 4 part Greyhawk map that came out last year shows Alhaster more or less just west of the Artonsamay River's mouth. Is the Eel River a smaller (heretofore unmapped) river flowing south out of the wastes near the rift and emptying into the Nyr Dyv just west of the mouth of the Artonsamay? I had envisioned that Alhaster would be very close to the mouth of the Artonsamay, which would make sense, since that river is a major trade artery for the bandit kingdoms (as well as C. of Urnst and Tenh), and it would seem to have made sense that both a Shield Lands lord and a bandit prince would want to tap into that source of trade/booty. So exactly where does Alhaster sit in relation to the mouth of the Artonsamay? (This is kind of important for my future campaign plans).
Alhaster is about 40 miles west of the Artonsamay river; the Eel River does not appear on the big maps of Greyhawk since it's a smaller river that flows up toward (but does not reach) White Plume Mountain. There's probably a city closer to the mouth of the Artonsamay River that's in ruins now, and the river itself is certainly a hotbed of trade and piracy, but Alhaster itself is set back from the "front," so to speak, to give its inhabitants a bit more safety from easy reprisals from Urnst.
4. The Living Greyhawk Bandit Kingdoms website listed an adventure involving Prince Zeech's recent nuptial celebration (ca. 592 or so, if I remember rightly). I haven't seen the wedding adventure, but has AoW made any attempt to incorporate LG campaign details as "Greyhawk canon?" Is Zeech married? Or were his nuptials ruined somehow? Or did he somehow dispose of this recently acquired bride?
Age of Worms makes no attempt to incorporate LG campaign details at all, primarilly because we need to be able to move VERY quickly on adventures and art and elements in Dungeon becasue it's a monthly magazine. We simply don't have the luxury of coordinating Age of Worms adventures with the LG campaign, so there are no intentional ties between the two. As presented in "Prince of Redhand," Zeech is not married and never has been; he's not the type of guy who'd last that long in a relationship with a woman (at least, not in the version we're presenting in Age of Worms).
I had a couple of questions on this adventure myself.
1. Lord Kilraven. In the adventure, it states that he's served 3 generations of of Redhand lords, but in the backdrop, it states that he's served Zeech for 19 years since the death of "his" (Zeech or Kilraven?) father from the Red Death (576 CY). (I could have it the other way around, as I don't have the lastest issue with me at present). Am I right in assuming that this was to mean that the Kilraven family has served Redhand for 3 generations, not the current Lord Kilraven?
2. What is the standard coinage used in Redhand? I'm assuming it's a variant of the old Shield Lands coinage (no pp) listed in the LGG. I was thinking of using something like Zeech (gp), Angel (ep), Flail (sp), & Wheatsheaf (cp), but I'd prefer to use something "official."
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Creative Director
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1. Lord Kilraven. In the adventure, it states that he's served 3 generations of of Redhand lords, but in the backdrop, it states that he's served Zeech for 19 years since the death of "his" (Zeech or Kilraven?) father from the Red Death (576 CY). (I could have it the other way around, as I don't have the lastest issue with me at present). Am I right in assuming that this was to mean that the Kilraven family has served Redhand for 3 generations, not the current Lord Kilraven?
Yes... the Kilraven family has served for 3 generations.
2. What is the standard coinage used in Redhand? I'm assuming it's a variant of the old Shield Lands coinage (no pp) listed in the LGG. I was thinking of using something like Zeech (gp), Angel (ep), Flail (sp), & Wheatsheaf (cp), but I'd prefer to use something "official."
Those are fine names for coins in Alhaster, although there isn't a mint in the city. I assume that there's a strong mix of various coins from throughout the world in Alhaster since so much of their trade comes in the form of piracy and banditry.
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4. The Living Greyhawk Bandit Kingdoms website listed an adventure involving Prince Zeech's recent nuptial celebration (ca. 592 or so, if I remember rightly). I haven't seen the wedding adventure, but has AoW made any attempt to incorporate LG campaign details as "Greyhawk canon?" Is Zeech married? Or were his nuptials ruined somehow? Or did he somehow dispose of this recently acquired bride?
For the LG lore, Zeech was engaged in a strictly political marriage to a Lady from Balmund. Zeech, in the Living Greyhawk Bandit Kingdoms, is portrayed as...well, not terribly discerning regarding the gender of his companions. (In the source material he is depicted as effite and very decadent, traits that were magnified when he began being used as a recurring character in the region).
Robert Little
Former LG Bandit Kingdoms Triad
4. The Living Greyhawk Bandit Kingdoms website listed an adventure involving Prince Zeech's recent nuptial celebration (ca. 592 or so, if I remember rightly). I haven't seen the wedding adventure, but has AoW made any attempt to incorporate LG campaign details as "Greyhawk canon?" Is Zeech married? Or were his nuptials ruined somehow? Or did he somehow dispose of this recently acquired bride?For the LG lore, Zeech was engaged in a strictly political marriage to a Lady from Balmund. Zeech, in the Living Greyhawk Bandit Kingdoms, is portrayed as...well, not terribly discerning regarding the gender of his companions. (In the source material he is depicted as effite and very decadent, traits that were magnified when he began being used as a recurring character in the region).
Robert Little
Former LG Bandit Kingdoms Triad
Thanks, this is helpful. A prince who has been ruling for 20 years must have given at least a little consideration to both diplomatic alliances and the begetting of a proper heir. Henriss obviously doesn't fill the bill, in that department.
So, I think I'll model him a bit on Louis XIV's little brother in the last few volumes of the 3 Musketeer series--the decadent and effeminate prince, who is possessive of his wife, but more interested in his "male favorite". (Perhaps the toadying Professor Montague Marat has moved into this role, worming his way into the Prince's favor as part of his scheme to secure a title of nobility for himself.) His wife is unhappy at the lack of attention and is perhaps flirting with other men behind his back. This could make the party interesting . . . Of course it also makes things complicated--because one must definitely figure out how Lashonna relates to these figures--presumably she is manipulating the Prince's affaires d'amour as well as his affairs d'etat. And perhaps Henriss is conspiring to prevent the conception of an heir. (If I decide not to add the Prince's wife to the mix, I guess I can have it so that Henriss saw to it that she met with an accident).
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Creative Director
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Lashonna does not normally take steps to hide her alignment or thoughts, although neither is she a fool. She knows that if she uses defenses like antimagic or other flashy, obvious methods to cloak her true nature she's even more likely to arouse PC suspicions than if she doesn't. A single true seeing spell reveals her true form to be an undead vampiric silver dragon. Spells like detect evil and detect undead can reveal her true nature as well. What divination magic has a hard time revealing is her devotion to Kyuss; theoretically, something like commune could reveal this if the PCs think to ask the right questions, but for the most part you should only reward the PCs with this information if they're exceptionally tenacious and paranoid.
"Prince of Redhand" is designed to acclimate the PCs to interacting with evil NPCs in order to achieve a greater good, so hopefully by the time they get to "Library" they'll already have come to terms with the fact that they'll need to interact with evil NPCs in non-combat ways. So hopefully, the start of "Library" can come off smooth.
If you're still worried that the PCs will learn about her true nature, chances are solid that Lashonna's worried too. Change the nature of her meeting with the PCs as detailed in the "We Don't Work For Vampires" sidebar on page 61. It might be enough for her to simply send one of the PCs a package that contains a copy of Balakarde's journal and a copy of her speach to the PCs as a letter. The PCs likely miss out on the foreshadowing of the enemies they'll face on the island in this case, of course, but that's just the way it happens sometimes.
When it comes down to it... Lashonna's advice to the PCs is good advice. They'll certainly need to destroy Dragotha's phylactery before they try to destroy him, otherwise they'll only end up with a temporary solution to the problem. And of course, if they head directly to the Wormcrawl Fissure from "Prince of Redhand" they'll likely get ruined, since the average EL of an encounter in the Wormcrawl Fissure is about 19 or 20.
Again, keep in mind that Lashonna's a CR 23 monster. She's a very old silver dragon vampire, which means her Will save is higher than +24 (standard Will save for a very old silver dragon), which should be enough for her to resist a spell like detect thoughts or zone of truth. If it comes down to a fight, you can jury-rig her statistics by applying the vampire template to a very old silver dragon (if you don't own Draconomicon). In such a case, you're likely to have a suddenly truncated campaign, or you can proceed as the sidebar in the magazine suggests and have the surviving PCs (possibly survivng simply because Lashonna lets them survive so they can unintentionally do her bidding by destroying Dragotha) find whatever they need to find in the ruins of her manor to send them on to Tilagos Island.
Or you can assume she has a Mind Blank effect on her for the conversation at the start of Last Resort. If the PCs are still suspicious of her (and someone who has NO alignment will probably make them suspicious indeed...) they can use divinations to arse out her history later, but I assume that since she reveals that Dragotha is one of Kyuss' minions, and that eliminating Dragotha as a threat will help in preventing the Age of Worms (or so the PCs will believe...), it's likely they'll smush Dragotha and worry about Lashona later.
But perhaps I give the average player too much/too little credit.
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Or you can assume she has a Mind Blank effect on her for the conversation at the start of Last Resort. If the PCs are still suspicious of her (and someone who has NO alignment will probably make them suspicious indeed...) they can use divinations to arse out her history later, but I assume that since she reveals that Dragotha is one of Kyuss' minions, and that eliminating Dragotha as a threat will help in preventing the Age of Worms (or so the PCs will believe...), it's likely they'll smush Dragotha and worry about Lashona later.
But perhaps I give the average player too much/too little credit.
All the "Billy Goat tri-fecta Toll clause": when in doubt, point them at the bigger target.