W1: Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale Questions

[tbug]

I'm running this as part of my all-aristocrat Curse of the Crimson Throne game. I'm puzzled by some stuff.

The vale contains some serious monsters, including a chimera, a hill giant, and a medusa, that aren't detailed at all. It would seem that monsters this powerful should have their presence felt at least a little in the plot. I'm going to name them and give them backstories, but if any of you have already done this then I'd be interested in reading about it. The hill giant, I figure, will be a refugee from Mokmurian's recruiting drives (in RotRL).

I suspect that one of the first things that will happen after the party arrives in the vale is that Leutnant Leroung of the Sable Company will begin an extensive aerial survey of the vale. I suspect that she'll see Oakbrow's home and possibly the old druid circle fairly easily, and maybe the bugbear camp. A scout once saw Lord Vardak's fortress from fairly far away, so she might see that, too. They might end up doing things in a very different order as a result.

My party is primarily a diplomatic one, and it seems likely that they'll negotiate with the King of Roses. According to the text, if he's made friendly then "he pretends to agree to stop the attacks, and then cheerfully resumes them as soon as the PCs' backs are turned." (p. 10) Doesn't this seem odd? Why wouldn't he explain the problem and tell them why he can't stop the raids? Certainly if the make him helpful instead of friendly he'll tell them all he can (though this is DC 40, and so a little tougher).

The bugbears seem out-of-flavour for Golarion bugbears, and I'm clearly going to have to rework them. I think I'll post about this separately. They need to be sneaky and frightening, and possibly getting into the fort during the night in spite of the guards, or something.

The lizardfolk seem oddly concerned with Fort Thorn. I think I'll make it so that they only care about the road being built through the forest, since that's almost in their swamp. According to Classic Monsters Revisited lizardfolk in Golarion don't tend to care much about stuff away from their watery homes.

I don't understand the intent of the lake pollution. Fort Thorn is upriver from the lake. I guess it's a haunting that supernaturally spreads against the stream, but is that what Mr. Bulmahn had in mind when he wrote it? It seems odd that this wouldn't be mentioned. Unless I figure out how this was intended I'll just go with that. (Incidentally, do we know the name of the river that leads from Mist Lake toward Nidal?)

Finally, I thought it was funny that Lord Vardak, a sorcerer, was somebody's apprentice. :) I can see them sitting around drinking. "Can you can invisibility yet?" "Nope." "Hmm, better have another beer then. You too."

[Reckless]

Honestly, this adventure was frustrating to run on several levels.

My players decided that since the goal was to insure the road got built, they should just hang out with the road crew and help them as much as possible. They chased some of the leads, ignored others. They were playing a fairly mercenary group, and if it didn't directly lead to the goal, they weren't too interested in it.

Spoiler:

The "bomb" over the fort was the final nail in my dislike of this module as a DM. The characters flew up, examined it, saw that it was immobile but otherwise unprotected, threw a bag of holding over it, and threw it in the river. Better to loose a bag of holding than the fort. Then, they demanded payment, and had to be convinced ooc that the Sorcerer had to be confronted.... as far as the characters were concerned, thay had everything they had come for and had completed the road, their jobs were done.

Overall, it is a decent sandbox adventure, but between the layout, some ham-fisted plot trains(

Spoiler:

a curtain the PCs can't get through no matter what, an immovable bomb, the King of Roses doesn't care how much he likes you, etc.

) , and the unanswered questions, this module needs a lot of work on the part of the DM to be successfully run.

In Jason's defense, the module came out before Bugbears got the reworking in CMR, and that's probably why they're treated more as standard mercenaries.