Have any of the rest of you had villains who just kept surviving? It looks like I'm going to have an antagonist from Burnt Offerings still around during Hook Mountain Massacre (and possibly beyond).
Tsuto Kaijistu has, frankly, been lucky. The PCs were slow in going to the Glassworks, so he and the Thistletop goblins had left by the time they arrived. They took several trips to Thistletop, and it got to the point where Nualia really was going to kill Ameiko. When the party split and a rescue group snuck her out, Tsuto surreptitiously made sure they escaped then went to capture some replacement sacrifices.
After a while, the party managed to kill Nualia, but never even saw the stuff Tsuto did to fight them. They took Nualia's body back to Sandpoint, where she was laid out in the cathedral for a viewing. Tsuto stole her corpse and went to Magnimar, where he stashed her corpse in her townhouse. He had also stolen all the party's magic items, and he was bartering those away for a scroll of Raise Dead when the party caught him. In the ensuing ruckus, Tsuto was captured and Nualia's body was burned.
Then a cleric of Abadar cast Abadar's Truthtelling on him, and the questions were such that he weaseled out of them without ever lying. The PCs have turned him over to the Magnimar authorities, and he's going to be tried by Justice Ironbriar.
So after he's acquitted, what's Tsuto going to do? I think that the ideal at this point would be to shuffle him off-screen for a bit and bring him back later, but I'm not sure what's a good point. What are his motivations at this point? He can't get Nualia back (since a True Res is out of his league) so all he's going to want is revenge. It looks like the sawmill is going to survive and that the PCs are never going to twig to Ironbriar, but Xanesha will likely be killed. The Skinsaw Men will thus carry on, but with no connection any more to Karzoug.
Suggestions are welcome.
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Wow. Your PCs are incompetent.
If I were you, I would, first of all, nudge them toward the Brothers somehow; they're too much fun to miss.
2. Tsuto is fairly smart; he's not exactly a mastermind, but he can figure out how to hire muscle and go after the PCs, discredit them, or otherwise mess with them. Going after specific loved ones might be a valid strategy; anyone they get too friendly with might find themselves judo-chopped and dragged off to some nefarious end, possibly involving a tank of acid or something (he is LE, after all.)
Every time they come home to Sandpoint, have Tsuto-created social troubles. He's a social villain now, not a legit combat menace. Have him try to ruin their lives, make them suffer, not kill them.
Another option - Have Ironbriar convict Tsuto, but only on "lesser charges" and give him the option of joining the Black Arrows rather than going to prison. He can then take the role that was assigned to Kaven...
So far, there's two enemies they couldn't kill:
Melfeshnekor the Barghest (they tried a couple of times and surived by dumb luck) and Xanesha, the Lamia Matriarch Sorceress (who managed to flee, to their chagrin - which is partially because I told them what stuff she took with her :))
They (and by that, I mainly mean the duskblade) are planning to return to Thistletop one of these days, to kill Malfeshnekor, and they hope they can catch Xanesha for a rematch.
I think that Tsuto will soon be free. He's not actually guilty of the charges being brought against him (though he's guilty of a whack of other stuff), so if Ironbriar is careful with how Abadar's Truthtelling is used then this can be easily proven and Tsuto can be released.
I hope to use him to motivate the PCs to head toward Hook Mountain, particularly now that Shalelu is dead. Since the PCs are guilty of some of the charges brought against Tsuto, I think he might lead them into a trap where Hellknights can arrest them and bring them to trial. My only worry is that I'm not sure how they'd get out of that one. The Hellknights are really tough, Ironbriar is crooked, Abadar's Truthtelling will get the PCs into even hotter water, and they're giantkin goblinoids and thus subject to discrimination anyway. Ideally, then, he'll try to lure them into the trap and fail, then they'll find out that he has run off to Turtleback Ferry (on Xenesha's advice, to work for Lucrecia).
Meanwhile, Erylium has a bunch more sinspawn--at least one of which has a level of barbarian--and she awaits the coming of a hobgoblin prophet of Lamashtu. Thistletop has been retaken by goblins, this time from the Hornhead band (who live just northeast of the Mosswood). Though the PCs promised the sheriff that they'd investigate remours of undead at the Hambley farm they actually got sidetracked and never made it that far, so the ghoul plague is spreading. This is hastened by the fact that Grayst has finally succumbed and broken free of Habe's. Swarms of undead ravens have been seen over the Brinestump Marsh, and one of the faceless stalkers the PCs encountered and injured has fled back there, where she's causing trouble. Xanesha has relocated( and strengthened Ironbriar's situation), and her plans to murder the Lord Mayor of Magnimar are nearing fruition.
My players are having fun, but they have developed a bad habit of leaving bad guys loose behind them. I think that they will soon be facing a great deal of trouble.
Kudos on a some great development of the various storylines! Thank you for sharing.
I think that Tsuto will soon be free. He's not actually guilty of the charges being brought against him (though he's guilty of a whack of other stuff), so if Ironbriar is careful with how Abadar's Truthtelling is used then this can be easily proven and Tsuto can be released.
I hope to use him to motivate the PCs to head toward Hook Mountain, particularly now that Shalelu is dead. Since the PCs are guilty of some of the charges brought against Tsuto, I think he might lead them into a trap where Hellknights can arrest them and bring them to trial. My only worry is that I'm not sure how they'd get out of that one. The Hellknights are really tough, Ironbriar is crooked, Abadar's Truthtelling will get the PCs into even hotter water, and they're giantkin goblinoids and thus subject to discrimination anyway. Ideally, then, he'll try to lure them into the trap and fail, then they'll find out that he has run off to Turtleback Ferry (on Xenesha's advice, to work for Lucrecia).
Meanwhile, Erylium has a bunch more sinspawn--at least one of which has a level of barbarian--and she awaits the coming of a hobgoblin prophet of Lamashtu. Thistletop has been retaken by goblins, this time from the Hornhead band (who live just northeast of the Mosswood). Though the PCs promised the sheriff that they'd investigate remours of undead at the Hambley farm they actually got sidetracked and never made it that far, so the ghoul plague is spreading. This is hastened by the fact that Grayst has finally succumbed and broken free of Habe's. Swarms of undead ravens have been seen over the Brinestump Marsh, and one of the faceless stalkers the PCs encountered and injured has fled back there, where she's causing trouble. Xanesha has relocated( and strengthened Ironbriar's situation), and her plans to murder the Lord Mayor of Magnimar are nearing fruition.
My players are having fun, but they have developed a bad habit of leaving bad guys loose behind them. I think that they will soon be facing a great deal of trouble.
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Hmmmm...So far Orik and Lyrie have survived. Tsuto had his tongue ripped out by the Shoanti barbarian for lying, and subsequently hanged himself (in hindsight, I should have just had Aldern turn him..oh well...).
They beat Nulia and her hounds, and they bested Malfeshenkor, barely. Erylium was not problem, thanks to some nasty bow crits, harassing summoned flying creatures, and grapples (a hell of a lot of lucky rolls)
Orik joined the heroes. Lyrie is in jail, awaiting transport to Magnimar, where she will probably escape or be acquitted and come back to haunt the PCs later. Just don't know where yet.
they bested Malfeshenkor, barely.
Wow! How did they do that?
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they bested Malfeshenkor, barely.Wow! How did they do that?
Looking over the posts, I'm wondering. In the third round he dropped the fighter (Orik) and the barbarian. Looks like a lot of luck. He missed several attacks, overlooked the dwarf ranger in lieu of the trying to take down the cleric who kept the barbarian up for a couple of rounds. The barbarian did do about 1/2 of the damage to it while it was up.
Sorcerer attacked w/ magic missiles from range for 5 rds straight. And they had Shalelu and the party rogue flank him for the finishing move. Looks like they consistently rolled lots of over 20s or better on their attacks, and hit more often then not with the blink/conceal and the initial invis.
Here's an update.
The PCs cleared out most of the Catacombs and Thistletop, but left Erylium and a charged runewell in the former and nothing at all (including anything preventing more goblins from moving in) in the latter.
They tangled with a bounty hunter from Magnimar on a side quest, who became convinced that they are the serial killers responsible for the "star killings" in Magnimar, and he reported as much to the town authorities. When the PCs showed up a day later demanding the assistance of the town watch they were arrested for murder, and ran away.
Back in Sandpoint, they complained loudly about the process. Their location was reasonably well known, so Magnimar authorities sent a message to Sheriff Hemlock directing him to send them back to Magnimar for trial. That's where we've left it.
I think that the sheriff is going to urge them to trust the justice system, and send them back to Magnimar with an escort (including a legal advisor). Justice Ironbriar will try the case, convict them of murder, and offer them a reduced sentence if they serve in Fort Rannick. (He knows that his boss, Xanesha, was interested in these guys but doesn't know why. Shuffling them off for a bit seems like a safe bet to him.)
We'll see where it goes from there.
Your campaign is really original, Tbug. Very well done. :)
Thanks! We're having a great deal of fun. :D
Lots of thinking outside the box taking place on both sides of the DM screen!
I love how you're making the various situations in the region progress in parallel to each other, rather than waiting patiently for the PC's to get to them.
I think that this is the key benefit to having an adventure path rather than a stand-alone adventure or even (to a lesser extent) a home game. The entire structure has a story flowing through it, so that if (or when, in our case) the PCs ignore what's going on it's still possible to keep the story advancing.
The plot has advanced a little. Justice Ironbriar has sentenced the PCs to death, and they're on the run. They're currently leaving Wartle for Whistledown, so pretty soon we'll have a table of giantkin goblins interacting with a village full of gnomes--if that's not a fun roleplaying session then we might as well give up gaming. :D
Loving the left field nature of your game- any chance of an update?
Thanks for the kind words! You can read all the details in the campaign journal, but I'll summarize here for you. :)
They went poking around various places near Turtleback Ferry, and were sifting through the rubble of the Graul house when a squad of hellknights arrived from Magnimar. After a very tough fight they managed to kill all the hellknights, but now they don't know what to do since it seems pretty clear that they can never return to Magnimar and/or Sandpoint.
They wanted something to do while figuring that out, so they went to check out the huge dam they'd heard about in hopes that they could have some fun tearing it down. When they got there they discovered that a bunch of ogres attacking the resident trolls. I mentioned that the PCs are giantkin goblins, right? Specifically, three of their four grandparents are goblins and their maternal grandmother is a troll. She was in charge of the Skulltaker trolls residing on the dam.
There was a big fight, and the ogres took down Grandma and then threw her three hundred feet over the side of the dam into the pool below. All thoughts of fighting abandoned, the PCs had some very tense rounds while they tried everything to prevent her from drowning. They succeeded (barely), and the rest of the Skulltakers finished off the ogres. That's where they've left it. Grandma is worried because it seems clear that the dam (and her home, and her tribe) will soon be washed away because of the damage already inflicted.
To address the original topic, after Justice Ironbriar sentenced the PCs to death he also sentenced several NPCs to the same fate, and they're accompanying the PCs. Tsuto is one of these.