I'm wondering if anyone's put together a list of Chopper's victims. If so....... share?
Also, one of my players is Anton Avertin, the son of Casp Avertin.
Ooh! Who's his mother? Does the mayor know who he is?
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Is the mayor's mother Almah Deverin [the young bard who 40 years ago managed to assuage the Varisians' call for blood payment after Alamon Scarnetti assault (ROTR1-60)]... mmmm probably not... who was she then... her uncle?
How was she related to Casp?
Is the mayor's mother Almah Deverin [the young bard who 40 years ago managed to assuage the Varisians' call for blood payment after Alamon Scarnetti assault (ROTR1-60)]?
How was she related to Casp?
The Deverin family history on p. 71 doesn't state Mayor Kendra Deverin's exact relationship with Almah, but I'd guess that she's her daughter or granddaughter.
Of more interest is that Kendra didn't want the job of mayor, but after her "close friend" Casp nominated her for it then she took it. There was some talk that they were going to get married, before he was murdered.
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This is a topic of great interest to me because I have decided to let my players experience the Late Unpleasantness as 0 level town children between the ages of 10-13. I tried to compile a list, and the only names I came up with were:
Vernah Povali
Wade Deverin
Casp Avertin
the unnamed former guildmaster of the Grocer's guild
To this list I have added the following:
3 sailors fresh off a Magnimar fishing boat
a lone huntsman in town to sell furs
a drunken Magnimar merchant staggering to his inn late at night who stumbled across Chopper in the act
Two murders significantly changed the town from what it used to be:
- the beautiful young selkie wife of Jargie Quinn. She can be found singing and happy at all times in the Hagfish, which is called the Red Herring (she has red hair) in better times. His sister, an annoying woman called Norah, also works in the bar, and is always telling Jargie about all the bad traits of his beautiful wife (Norah is quite unattractive and jealous). When the players first encounter the Hagfish, Jargie's tank will be full of beautiful coral and colorful fish, its water crystal clear. The tank will be synonymous with Jargie Quinn's internal happiness, containing polluted water and a hagfish after her brutal murder. Norah is also murdered, yet her legacy lives on in the name of his hagfish.
The Rusty Dragon was once called the Iron Dragon, and had a mounted metal dragon figure outside to advertise. At the height of his butchering, Chopper entered the Inn one night and killed the owner, his wife, his son, and the barmaid. After this, it sat abandoned and empty, as no one wanted to restart the business after the terrible event that took place there. Enter the young Ameiko Kaijistu, who comes in after several years abandoned and takes over the place, which by now is called the Rusty Dragon by locals, due to the fact that the metal figurine is completely rusted over.
Thats only 15, so I am still going to have to come up with a few more.. I think I might borrow some others mentioned in this thread, the diva of the theatre especially was a nice touch :)
In case anyone else is doing retro events in the town, I plan on having my players meet and talk to Jervis a few times in town, perhaps stopping to watch him carve his beautiful birds, as kids might do. Also, I am going to have a smuggling boat sink at night in the harbor, which one of them will see. It will contain a small treasure chest, so if they are enterprising, they can acquire a small amount of loot early in the adventure, by visiting this wreck when they are older. I am also adding in secret tunnels under some of the old buildings in town, which get burned up in the big temple fire, as well as secret caches in the temple of supplies and perhaps a weapon or two they can find. I am especially going to play up the various relationships between town children, as the two general storekeeper's daughters will be well known to the players, as will Nualia and some other townsfolk, but as children. Anyway, any more ideas people have about who to add to my Chopper list would be greatly appreciated.
If there was such a list, it may have gotten chopped from the module to save space.
I know this is old, but I'm planning on doing much the same - several players are going to be members of the same family, loggers and (distant) relatives to the Scarnetti family, people who the Scarnetti's view as easy to use as muscle and convenient scapegoats (in fact the Scarnettis blamed the attack on the native Varisian tribe on their family during the founding of Sandpoint).
I found this thread when looking for the same information.
While I intend to include some of the PCs elders in the victim list, I also like some of the ideas here. Letting the players view change in town will certainly allow them to feel like they are part of the town and enhance their connection to it. Do you have any of that old information lying around of things you added on and the enhanced victim list?
The fan-made side-trek "Chopper's Isle" (in one of the Wayfinder issues) lists two other victims of Chopper: the wife and son of Das Korvut the the blacksmith. Madellin was a standard Chopper victim, but Simon was kidnapped by him. The side-trek has further details about the boy's sad fate.
Ah yes, I have that link saved in case it becomes an issue, I almost hope it gets done way out of level range so that it can just be played for horror/sorrow factor.
For some reason, _both_ of my RotR groups made a bee-line for Chopper's Isle and explored it. I guess that the stories about the Late Unpleasantness make Chopper/his ghost an appealing red herring, despite the fact that it's some of the other NPCs from that time who are actually involved in the current problems.
The first group chose to explore it around L 3 just to be sure that there was nothing important there before they went to Thistletop. (They were a player down that day, so they also had to deal with a replacement NPC - which might have had a bearing on their plans.) That worked out well with some Pazuzu-based investigation, a bit of horror, and a dash of situational humour.
The second group went off to explore it while they were still L 1. O_o! As they had a ratatosk with a climb speed and cragkin half-orc, they actually got onto the island without too much trouble (taking 10, etc.). They were slightly sobered by the 30' pit trap (the dice were gentle on them: only 8 hp damage), but continued to explore anyway. When they found the remains of Simon, no one had any skill ranks in Knowledge (Religion) - which caused them problems. They had to fight the Attic Whisperer twice, as they didn't realise that it would reform one hour later, and they nearly had to fight it a third time before they thought to bring the remains to the temple for Father Zantus to identify. Luckily, Zantus nailed his Knowledge (Religion) check with a natural 20 ("Oh, yes, I wrote my doctoral thesis on this specific type of Undead. This is what ..."), and Das Korvut got enough closure to start weaning himself off the bottle.
All in all, I'm very grateful that the "Chopper's Isle" side-trek was written. I swear, that place has an adventurer-magnet embedded in it!
Due to the odd comments on Sheriff Avertin, I added a son of the same name; the son was the one courting Kendra, and one of the earlier victims, which was what drove the Sheriff to drinking and abusing his surviving family.
Old Enderaki Sorn could also easily be added to the list his death falls close enough to the time frame to make it an easy shift.
At least one member of the town watch is probably sensible to add.
Giving us (if you add to RedCelt32's list):
Vernah Povali
Wade Deverin
an unlucky town guard who ran into Stoot alone
the unnamed former guildmaster of the Grocer's guild
3 sailors fresh off a Magnimar fishing boat
a lone huntsman in town to sell furs
a drunken Magnimar merchant
the beautiful young wife of Jargie Quinn
the owner of the Iron Dragon
his wife
his son
the barmaid
Enderaki Sorn
Simon Korvut
Madellin Korvut
Sheriff Casp Avertin
This still gives plenty of room to throw in the odd PC uncle/cousin/family friend.
In my game the Skinsaw Man killed Jubryal Vishki, and also one of the PCs (Ted Waters). The name "Larissa the Swift" was a former PC whose player moved out of town.
Oh, Chopper victims. Thought you said Skinsaw victims...
Neville Bartos... no wait...
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I cast Resurrect Thread!
With the GM's permission I wrote my backstory so that Qakisst's adopted Varisi mother was one of the last victims of Chopper. It allowed my character to fit in well as a local and a foreigner at the same time.
Liandra Vishtani worked as a bard in the old White Deer inn before her untimely death just months before Qakisst was due to begin his apprenticeship under Savah Brevaniky. It added quite a bit to why Qakisst, an orphan from Qadira, is so devoted to the town and to its Varisi residents. It also gave Savah a weapon smith that works directly for her. No middle man.
One of my PCs is from Sandpoint, so I moved the "Late Unpleasantness" back to 10 years prior, in order to have Simon Korvut be a childhood friend of his.
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I was searching for some material, and was looking in on this thread - I noticed that I never posted the list of names I finally used.
I actually mad a hand out that looked like a marble engraving to represent a plaque set in the new Cathedral.
It read:
In Memory
Victims of Jervis Stoot
Wade Deverin
Arden Russel
Enderak Sorn
Vernah Povali
Samuel Taab
Trent Thorn
Torsten Deverin
Fodor Pagle
Dovid Chuus
Gillington B. Lossiven
Barth Sellers
Norah Quinn
Kalie Magravi
Melville Bartus
Vara Bartus
Stenly Bartus
Lina Hays
Louis Coln
James Little
Clyde Daris
Gregor Kesk
Simon Korvut
Madellin Korvut
Meredith Qui
Liandra Vishtani
and
Casp Avertin, who gave everything in pursuit of justice
Victims of the Wardienclyffe Fire
Nualia Tobyn
and
beloved Father Ezakien Tobyn
Most of those names I have at least a line of text about who they are.
Some are relatives of existing NPCs in town. Some I may have swiped from things I've read in the forums. Some I may have adjusted from the AP (such as Enderak Sorn) who I put on the list because I felt like having them be Chopper's victim.
Hey, no need for me to go around making up stories for background characters when I can swipe them. =)
I think 3 of them I have listed as unnamed victim 1, unnamed victim 2 and unnamed victim 3.
So they have no real "story".
If I were to redo this list, I'd rename a few more of them with family names that match up with people in town/in the AP/in the supplemental material I added.
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I tied in the Chopper story, with the legend of the Sandpoint Devil: some of the missing children were attributed to Stoot, but evidence was never found. My party was on edge every time they were in town, and the fog rolled in. Later, when the Devil returns to Sandpoint, my party engaged it, and found clothing of missing kids.