I know there was a recent Shatterhorn thread, but this question was never answered. How do the PCs find out about Shatterhorn? I've scoured 13 cages and don't see how they learn about it. The beginning of SonS says they "should know about the existence of the second Cagewright lair by now." How?
The location of Shatterhorn can be given to the PCs in several ways:
1) It is included in the private notes of one of the defeated Cagewrights.
2) Nulin surrenders after Ardeth is killed, and he reveals the location when the PCs interrogate him.
3) Divination magic. I don't like this option, however, because if it was possible to find the Cagewrights base with a divination spell, someone would have found it a long time ago.
Keep in mind that by the time the PC's are ready to tackle Shatterhorn, they should be capable of discovering its location without it being spoonfed to them. They should have captured several sources of notes by this time that hint at it, they should have access to divination and scrying, and they should know enough to realize that researching this organization called the Cagewrights might produce some valuable information.
Let them do the legwork on their own. You don't necessarily need to have a preformatted hook from one chapter to the next if you have a motivated group.
I suppose if you really needed something you could have Nidrama come and relate to them pretty much all the information contained in the opening, history portion of the hardcover... lay the plot bare. This would give them the location of the final cagewrights and give them pretty big motivation to stop Adimarchus.
That said, it seems pretty heavy handed... on the other hand... what is the point of all the background if it never comes out? But is this the right time?
Sean Mahoney
I suppose if you really needed something you could have Nidrama come and relate to them pretty much all the information contained in the opening, history portion of the hardcover... lay the plot bare. This would give them the location of the final cagewrights and give them pretty big motivation to stop Adimarchus.
That said, it seems pretty heavy handed... on the other hand... what is the point of all the background if it never comes out? But is this the right time?
I think that in Chapter 11, it makes the most sense to reveal from the notes that the Cagewrights have been co-opted by a powerful imprisoned demon lord named Adimarchus, and that their real goal is to free him. I would suggest that revealing his exact location at this point is unwise - you want that final bit of information to serve as added incentive for the PCs to track the last Cagewrights to Shatterhorn.
The final reveal about exactly where Adimarchus is and that the only way to end things once and for all is to kill him should probably come in Early Chapter 12 with the reappearance of Nidrama after Smoking Eye Vhalantru comes to play.
Eric "Critic of the Dawn"
The Macguffin I'm using is that Skullrot is has some pretty strict security measures. One of them being that only someone who has been to Skullrot can find his way back. (If you want to get downright nasty, make it so that only someone who has been imprisoned in Skullrot is able to find his way back).
To get to Big A, the pcs need to find someone who's been there, and willing to guide them. The most logical location to find someone like that would be Shatterhorn (Embril perhaps), although in that case willing may be an overstatement.