Hi, My group just finished Spire, and I know they will love Alhaster. They really enjoyed the free city, so much that I think my next campaign will be primarily city based.
Anyways, I want them to really get the flavour of this city, besides just the couple side treks and the main adventure. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas to make this city feel more real?
There was another post a few months ago asking for the same thing, with no replies. I will quote it :)
"was there any specific scenes or descriptions you have used to get the "flavor" of Alhaster across to the PC's. Convesations with a commoner or an altercation with one of the Blessed Angels. Describing things is not one of my strong points, and I like to hear how other people present settings so that I may learn from them and improve upon this deficit of mine.
I have PC's that tend to rush thru things and I'd like them to stop and take notice of the scenery for once."
I am reading the backdrop and I am coming up with a couple ideas
Area 39 - Traitors Graves - Maybe have someone on display, sort of crucified here, maybe the pc's can save him, maybe the angels wont like that?
Area 34 - the great project - The PC's will certainly explore this. This would be a great place for the PC's to see forced labour. Maybe some old slave gets tired, and they whip him to he starts working again, or maybe the whip him till he dies...
Area 22 - Church of Kord - One of my players is a cleric of Kord, so they wil certainly go here. Anyone got any ideas for this area?
Area 17 - Alhaster Arena - My pc's liked the Champions so much, I bet they will like to go here. Maybe I will have a tournament with very different rules (to the Death?). Maybe the crowd boo's if you dont kill your opponent... or maybe worse someone else jumps in and kills for you?
I also want some sort of situation where they can see typical Alhaster justice... something like they see a rich person perform a crime and bribe his way out, and then some innocent standby gets arrested for what the rich person did... Only problem with this is that I do not want to force them to fight the angels...
Any other ideas? :-)
I am reading the backdrop and I am coming up with a couple ideas
Area 39 - Traitors Graves - Maybe have someone on display, sort of crucified here, maybe the pc's can save him, maybe the angels wont like that?
The angels certainly wouldn't like anyone attempting to pull down the displays. Have them show up immediately if the PCs try to do something like that, with a stern warning not to interfere in "criminal justice" - or they could face the same fate. Have them roll for Spot checks - DC 5 notices that the area suddenly becomes devoid of civilians and also the presence of multiple angels - say 4 or 5 of them hanging off of nearby rafters.
Area 34 - the great project - The PC's will certainly explore this. This would be a great place for the PC's to see forced labour. Maybe some old slave gets tired, and they whip him to he starts working again, or maybe the whip him till he dies...
I dunno. Alhaster is ruled by evil, but it is also ruled by law. Whipping a slave until he dies doesn't strike me as a very lawful act. Just enough to knock him unconscious - then he gets carried away to the temple of Hextor.
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Howabout showing some Blessed Angels deal out "justice" to a petty criminal, such as a cutpurse? Or surprise your players with a priest of Hextor giving alms to the poor. When an orphan grabs the priest's robes with his filthy hands, the astonished priest merely smiles. Later, the child's dead body could be discovered by the PC's.
In my campaign, two of the PCs were a cleric and paladin of St. Cuthbert, and secretly conocoted plans to reconsecrate the church. They had to hide out, and thus brokered a deal with the church of Kord. They had limited space, but the power of 15th level characters can perform many deeds in return. My crafty PCs figured that the angels wouldn't set foot on consecrated ground.
As for the arena, due to a near month break from the campaign, two of the in-town players were aching to play, and I loved the campaign so much so set up a series of fights in the arena. Mine was a little more no-holds barred, with just 5 rounds to prepare and giants and beasts thrown in. I think I used BoneSplitter (Half Green Dragon Ettin Barbarian) as an arena champion.. He's from the Dungeon of the Crypt module, Vampires of Waterdeep Arc. I also thew some Were Boar Hill Giants at them, at risk of derailing the campaign with Lycanthopy.
Those were the main two I drew upon besides the stuff in the module.
As for the areas, I made the church of Kord little more than a ruined Hovel that the PCs spent their off time heliping to repair when the resting their. All of the stained glassed windows had been broken and covered by boards and sheets which still seeped wind. There were very few cells left as some had collapsed into ruin over the years. I used this to kind of show a stage of decay between a healthy church, the failing church of Kord, and the ruined church of ST. Cuthbert.
The Arena was a hollow mockery of the Free City, with a blood covered red-sanded floor, pikes and spears aranged against the walls of the pit, some with heads of ex-convicts slain in the fights (Zeech's justice, and sometimes when he attends, the ominous fabler could animate the skulls like in the banquet to speak praise). A little macabre, but hey, they whole town kind of is.
One of the reasons I love AoW is how the cities/backdrops help to define the adventures. I remember how my PCs cried out how they couldn't wait to get out of Diamond Lake. Then, they got to the Free City, and Midnight's Muddle--the section covered in the backdrop--was a curious mix of the loathsome (I made sure to play up Forwell Hog) and the pleasant. Then Magepoint, and the party fell in love with the place. But, inevitably, they had to go to Alhaster. Fortunately, they all detest it more than anything...but in a good way.
Here's how I portrayed Alhaster, and Redhand:
On the way to Alhaster, I read much from the brief description of life in Redhand on p.84. This showed Redhand as a nation of many oppressed by the few. The presence of monster races (bugbears, orcs, etc) helped. But the fun really hit in the city.
The party saw very little of the Blessed Angels, firsthand. I had the Watchers, the cities police, constantly grouped together, harassing citizens, and acting like good ol' boys. The people of Alhaster greeted the PCs constantly, with visibly strained cheeriness. When a Blessed Angel would pass in the sky, everyone turned their heads skyward, and went pale. The sense of fear from the numerous people in town helped give a palpable tension to the city.
Our party tried to stay at the Deluxury first. Arhmin Loratio, the owner, became an uber-snob, annoying and sardonic, demanding hundreds of gold a night...well, the party looked around town, and crashed at the temple of Kord, where they went so far as to donate to the generous and forthright priest, Lanthis. He, and other NPCs in town, were good sources of rumors. A party member went to the temple of Wee Jas to investigate the prescence of an NPC of my own. Almerah Kosen became particularly memorable for being a real ice queen--she berated the PC for coming from Diamond Lake, and flouted her own standing in town. (For you Argento fans, I played her like the character "Miss Tanner" from the movie, Suspiria.)
But one of the singularly most noteworthy events--short of Zeech's gala--was the public execution, detailed in Event 6: The Justice of Zeech on p. 58. The descriptive text will leave your players stunned.
This adventure is all about the backdrop, if you ask me. Make Alhaster deplorable--I could go on for all I did--but make sure to emphasize through the presence of innocents that taking violent action against those in power puts those innocent citizens in danger. This gives the PCs the mindset to see justice--not just vengeance--done.