Foreshadowing the original CWs

[nib]

Fellow adventortures,

I've expressed my ideas about sticking with the original CWs (as opposed to using DD's brilliant alternative ending) in some threads and now have some pieces of info to share with others who have done or intend to do the same.

e.g.

I connected Virian Daraquor with some mines run by Vanderboren or Taskerhil (can't remember who was who).

I put a lot of humiliated corpses between Sasserine and Cauldron (if followed up upon, it would foreshadow Alurad Sorizan).

I definitely foreshadowed Mhad (through the Sasserine side-trek).

Nulin, I was able to put in quite early when the group decided spontaneously to stop an announced hanging (some newspiece I actually stole from some other in-game newsletter) by introducing him as the real culprit, a mysterious killer, who (they actually performed divination at the time) worked with a weapon from the infernal plane. They were able to bust out the innocent scape goat and make an enemy ;-)

I've used Zharik Dhor to make an appearance and let him know about the CWs who "abducted" his girl-friend (Gau Kleeoch) by just making her a good offer. He wanted to rectify the killing of his father, but the party preferred talking and actually (gotta hate/love those high Diplomacy skills) convinced him that they have a common enemy -> CWs. He then parted with some info on Gau.

I slipped them a few names using Kaurophon (my K. was teleported around by Freja Doorgan, knew that two high-level spiritual leaders are members and even had some description of Dyr'ryd, as it was stated in the HC that K. was chosen/selected by Dyr'ryd himself. When the party later discovered the notes of Fetor Abradius, they started to connect some strings and abused the Bard's Bardic Knowledge to get some more CW intelligence.

We're now just after the Rhiavadi house party and they know about 1/2 of the CWs by name and for about half of those, they have a vague idea of what role they play. They know most apprentices by name and/or whereabouts. After finding Thifirane's notes they'll likely repeat the name-game and will receive some more info.

By the time they get to face them in the fiery sanctum, I reckon they will know most, but surely not all of them by name and/or function. I don't think they must know everyone for the adventure to be interesting, otherwise, a clever group could really come up with strategies that make the attack on the sanctum too easy.

Anyway, anyone else who did or is about to do similar things, spread the word.

Cheers,
Nib

[PulpCruciFiction]

Thus far, I've only managed to directly introduce two of them - we're in the middle of Drakthar's Way at the moment. I'm hoping to introduce most, if not all, of them before the ending, and I'd like to make several of them into antagonists for other reasons so that the party has more reason to hate them.

The ones that have shown up are:

Spoiler:

Embril Aloustinai, as a judge at the trial of Keygan Ghelve (she voted to execute him, but the party wasn't suspicious since she's the priestess of the godess of death) and Thearynn Louvel. In order to foreshadow Kaurophon and make it less jarring when the party has to drop everything for Test of the Smoking Eye and go to Occipitus, I gave one of the characters a dream, telling him to seek the Two-Faced Scholar (IMC Kaurophon will have a deformed second face). To get some information on this scholar, he went to Bluecrater Academy and met with Louvel, a professor of magical studies at the school. The PC spilled all of the party's information to that point, so Louvel, a deeply paranoid man, indicated that the two-faced aspect might be a reference to Demogorgon. Then, as soon as the PC departed, Louvel faked his own death by blowing up the tower.

I've also managed to work a few of them into my PC's backstories:

Spoiler:

One of the PCs is the elder son of Lord Hollow, whose sister is Kyan Winterstrike. Daraqor came to town and managed to befriend the PC before the start of the campaign, actually using him to make introductions to high society and prevent the guards from arresting Daraqor on sight. Kyan and Daraqor fell in love, and the PC helped them carry out their illicit affair, culminating in the pair running off together. In the scandal that followed, Lord Hollow's second (human) wife convinced her husband to disinherit the PC and name her own half-elf son his heir.

Another PC is a half-orc raised in the town orphanage, mysteriously named for one of the town's greatest heroes, Desmond the Bold. About twenty years before my campaign began, there was a great battle as Gau Kleeoch led a demon legion to the walls of Cauldron along with Nabthatoron. In preparation for this assault, the adventurer-slayer Alurad Sorizan (an orc IMC) made contact with and managed to seduce Ardeth Webb, a member of the town's main adventuring group. Webb first led him to the home of Desmond the Bold, where the pair slew Desmond and Sorizan had his way with the fallen hero’s wife. The poor woman carried the baby to term, but couldn’t bear the sight of the reminder of that night, so she dropped young Desmond off at the orphanage and went to live in a Cuthbertine monastery. Webb and Sorizan then lured the remainder of the adventuring group (except the wizard Vortimax Weer, who will ultimately give the party some of this information) to a hidden location, where they and Vhalantru murdered them. The demon army was defeated, but the town hasn’t been the same since.

So that takes care of seven of them. For the remainder

Spoiler:

I plan on using the great ideas about Shebeleth Regidin that I’ve seen around the boards, which will be especially good since four of the five party members are closely tied to the church of St. Cuthbert. Dyr’ryd I figure I will give them along with the name of the Cagewrights as its leader since the cult was founded. As for the others, I am still trying to figure out how to best integrate them into the campaign, but I may wind up leaving some of them undeveloped, to give the PCs a sense that the cult’s influence was even greater than they had imagined it.

[Intrepid]

You guys are awesome... thanks loads!

[nib]

My party is on the brink of going for the fiery sanctum now, and they haven't really followed up upon the tiny clues I've handed them. Thus, they will (unfortunately) meet quite a few strangers. They will know nothing about Ardeth Webb, Thearynn Louvell, very little about Dyr'ryd and Shebeleth and only have vague ideas about Gau and Nulin (who they know best due to his interference with a string of murders in Cauldron). Frejia they might remember as Kaurophon told them about her, but I doubt it. I'll let you know , whether it was detrimental to the fun or not, not knowing their enemy more closely before the assault.

Cheers,
Nib