After a long hiatus, some friends and I are diving back into gaming, and I was elected DM. I'm going with the True20 conversion of Rise of the Runelords. I was all jazzed to get started, when what should arrive at my doorstep but one of the coolest 1st level adventures I've seen in a while: Hangman's Noose!
Now I'm thinking of starting the characters as ordinary commoners, making their night of horror in HN their "trial by fire" that unites them as a group. The underlying themes of sins and vengeance in HN seem to mesh nicely with the Adventure Path, as does the "vice/virtue" mechanic in True20.
I'm thinking of moving the whole thing to Magnimar instead of Absalom to make that easier. This would allow some foreshadowing of Justice Ironbriar, since he is the natural one for the party to report to about the secrets learned in the courthouse. I'm also intrigued about the Gentle Repose effect of the Sihedron Medallion. If one of the party members ends up sacrificing himself, perhaps the powers that be allow the corpse to lie in stasis while the rest of the party runs a little errand in exchange for a raising...
My big hook to RotR, though is that I plan to have Sir Rekkart be Nualia's biological father, and his dying wish (particularly if he sacrifices himself for the party) is that they track her down and deliver his message of remorse over abandoning her at birth. (I am correct in that we don't otherwise know who her parents are, right?) This will give them a specific reason to go to Sandpoint and dig into the town's history.
Unfortunately, I have only had time to read Pathfinder #1 in detail, and some of #2, and skimmed the rest. For those of you more familiar with the Adventure Path, is there anything in that hook that wouldn't work? Or does this spark any other ideas? Thanks!
Should work great Orphyon! Thanks for the kind words on HN! Hope it works out great for you and yours!