I know others have discussed running this in Eberron, but has anyone actually done it, and if so how did they do it. I know Eberron a lot better, but it seems to fit into Golarion better. The only issue would be if the PC's try to leave the area to go to another nation to shop, and I don't know the nations that well. They don't either, but I like to be accurate about the world that I am going to use.
|
The fledgling nation of Q'barra seems to be a good fit. Its a remote part of Khorvaire surrounded by dangers on all sides, a fuedal-based government, and a frontier land full of refugees from the Last War looking to carve a life for themselves. Sounds about right.
The capital of Newthrone could be sponsoring adventurers to aid in taming these lands with the promise of making a name for themselves and riches. With Lhazaar pirates to the east and north, deadly valenar elves to the west, and the Endworld Mountains the nation is effectively cut off from the rest of the continent. Thick jungles and forests, a river valley that turns into a swamp, and ancient demon-age ruins abound here as well.
The fledgling nation of Q'barra seems to be a good fit. Its a remote part of Khorvaire surrounded by dangers on all sides, a fuedal-based government, and a frontier land full of refugees from the Last War looking to carve a life for themselves. Sounds about right.
The capital of Newthrone could be sponsoring adventurers to aid in taming these lands with the promise of making a name for themselves and riches. With Lhazaar pirates to the east and north, deadly valenar elves to the west, and the Endworld Mountains the nation is effectively cut off from the rest of the continent. Thick jungles and forests, a river valley that turns into a swamp, and ancient demon-age ruins abound here as well.
Awesome thoughts. I may have to change some of the threats, but it might work. Maybe those barbarians in one of the later books can be a Valenar tribe. Pitax could be replaced by a city-state or nation ruled by a charismatic pirate who has become a king. I will keep the Fey as is.
Great, let us know how it works out for you! I too am planning at some point to run Kingmaker. I may have to run it in Eberron since I'm such a big fan of the setting.
I also have an idea of putting AoW as a subplot of the Kingmaker campaign Golarion, decisons decisions.
5 years after the Last War ended the towns on the border between The Eldeen Reaches, and Aundair underwent various calamities. People committed violence against one another without cause. Unknown diseases wiped out villages. Unexplainable animal stampedes caused many deaths. Eventually people moved out. The area between the Wyvern River and Alvirad was considered to be cursed. 300 years later a nation, Brevoy, took form. The nation did not last 100 hundred years before the daelkyr escaped his prison, and led an army against the nation. He under estimated the small nation and was defeated, but not without great cost to the nation. There was much political backstabbing, and civil war split the nation in two. One is Issia, and the other is Rostland. In their weakened state they could defend themselves against Aundair, which had waited several centuries to reclaim their land. Aundair allied with Issia, and now has one of its princes in charge. Rostland has decide to quietly set up satellite colonies in the hopes that a power play might give them what they need to make the nation free again.
What is not known is that the land that is about to be attempt to be reclaimed is under the control of a powerful fey.....
A) leads in the Kingmaker AP
-------------------------------
<if I try to tie AoW into it>
B)...with good intentions but possible disastrous results. She was a main contributor to reason why Kyuss was defeated before. She siphoned off some of his power allowing him to be defeated, but she was also corrupted. She knows Kyuss will return soon(the word does not mean much to those who are immortal) and she knows she can't defeat him in her current state. She plans to deliver a portion of the Eldeen Reaches to a higher power in order for the help she needs to defeat Kyuss.
The PC will hear rumors, and may even do certain chapters of AoW as sidequest, but they won't know the severity of the situation until much later on. As for the previous chapters that they wont be participating in there will be another band of adventures taking on the Ebon Triad*. I will most send the message that they were defeated at some point. At this point it will fall to the PC's to deal with the forth coming threat, known as The Age of Worms.
* I will be sending information about the NPC adventuring group's success to the PC's.
Yes I am running this in Eberron. Heavily converting the story behind it though. It's been a lot of work but a lot of fun. I initially considered Q'barra and that can work great too but this was my first chance to play in Eberron and my players are all new to the setting so I HAD to make the Mourning as large an event as I could.
The year is 996 YK. The Treaty of Thronehold has just been signed the day before.
The "Stolen Lands" are the lands given by King Boranel to Cyran refugees to be administered by Prince Oargev. Though they are still Brelish lands for now. The area is known as the Greenbelt but those not happy with the decision consider the lands "stolen." The bandits have become Swords of Liberty come to drive the Cyrans out and embarrass Boranel. Since the Swords operate in a cell structure I said the leaders of a cell are usually known as Sword Lords. The Stag Lord becomes a unique Sword Lord come to the Stolen Lands to prey on the Cyrans. What has been lost to history is that these lands were considered stolen from the Dhakaan Empire long before. A curse rests upon the land and is the reason they have never been heavily settled since the goblins.
The PCs started off Cyran POWs released from near the Lurching Tower headed to the town of New Cyre, though currently it's just a refugee camp. Attacked on the road by Swords they kill some, capture and question others. Upon arrival in New Cyre they seek out and immediately offer their services to their Prince. As veterans of the Last War and having just proved their worth against the Swords Oargev tasks them with mapping the Greenbelt and stabilizing the lands, sending them to a small outpost run by Oleg. A former quartermaster in the Cyran army... So currently they are struggling to rebuild their lost kingdom from pretty much scratch.
Over time they'll find Oargev is planning on seizing the land from Breland and claiming it fully in the name of Cyre. For the moment though they must lie low seizing treasure and arms, securing allies, building their town (and I'm adding army) eventually Oargev will be either killed or wounded in some manner that leaves him comatose. So the PCs as members of his cabinet will have to step up.
Many of the "fey" encounters are being slightly retooled as Aberrations. A daelkyr lord lies under the land. Tasha, the Laughing Madness of Despair has plans to rise from her prison. The Stag Lord and others become her pawns in this and have been retooled into Daelkyr Half-Bloods. The Druid Negrah becomes the Stag Lords mother, an Orc Gatekeeper.
My PCs have only in the session before last killed the Stag Lord and gotten Akiros and Auchs(Changed to a warforged) to join them.
I could go on. The nation that will most likely attack them is Darguun. Though Breland is still a possibility. Though I am leaving the door open for Breland to grant them the lands through shrewd diplomacy. (One of the PCs is a half-elven Bard shunned by her Phiarlan family and she prefers talking to fighting. She'll most likely become Councillor and then Ruler after something terrible befalls Oargev.)
Shady, that made me weep. Brilliant repurposing of Kingmaker.
Does that mean you're placing the Greenbelt in the eastern corner of Breland near the border to the Mournlands? What about the other regions being introduced in the AP? What city will serve as Pitax?
I thought about Cyre too. In my world some of the fog/mist has lifted or been removed with powerful magical, up to the DM of course.
I used a lot of aberrations in my last AoW run. I am sure they are starting to wear out their welcome, especially the Dolgaunts. They make excellent monks.
Shady, that made me weep.
Well I've always thought that as a DM if I can make just one person cry I've done my job...
Brilliant repurposing of Kingmaker.
Oh you meant like Happy Tears? That's kewl too... I guess.
Does that mean you're placing the Greenbelt in the eastern corner of Breland near the border to the Mournlands? What about the other regions being introduced in the AP? What city will serve as Pitax?
Yes I kept New Cyre in the same place. I toyed with putting it near Droaam but I decided to not mess with the map because I have this beautiful laminated poster of Khorvaire. So I broke it out and put it on the table. On top of that goes their hexmap and on top of that goes battlemaps when combat starts. It really helps my players. They're so new to Eberron they still ask things like "What/Where is Aundair?" and I can just point it out.
I try not to plan too far ahead and let my players shape things. I also don't know exactly how War of the River Kings is going to be so I have to wait before I know exactly how I'm going to convert something like Pitax. My current ideas are that Pitax will be either Starilaskur, Rhukaan Draal or Skullreave upgraded to a larger settlement. Or possibly some combo. I may split the players. Some go to Starilaskur and others to Draal/Skullreave. There's the outside possibility I'll replace Starilaskur with Wroat.
The invading barbarian general will definitely be an ambitious Hobgoblin warlord eager to topple Lhesh Haaruc. The Axe of course a Dhakaani artifact that will secure him the support of the Heirs of Dhakaan. At least one member of Parliament will be in league with him to destroy New Cyre and ignite a war between Daarguun and Breland. Both sides thinking they can beat the other. Kind of a Star Trek VI thing.
What I did with the map was sort of turn it on it's side horizontally. This puts the Trading Post near the bottom right. From Oleg's spot on the Orien Trade Road if you follow it to the south then as soon as you go off map then you've hit New Cyre and the mountains. To the North the land becomes too firmly Brelish to be explored freely. If you've got a map of Khorvaire basically cut a little rectangle just above and to the left of New Cyre and right above the mountains. We're not sweating the exact distances on the map though it's definitely smaller in sq. miles.
The Varn Hold Vanishing map I haven't decided on. Either it will be the area right (East) of New Cyre near where the mountains end. Towards Kennrun. Or further west again where there's a sizeable gap in the mountains. Towards Sterngate. In this case I might move the areas of the map the PC's will want to avoid claiming (too close to Sterngate) or add them in conjunction to the regular stuff (making them Brelish villages/towns they can't mess with) Varnhold itself I'm also still working on. Probably a Brelish village a number of Cyrans have settled in. Since New Cyre is mostly a refugee camp with a lot of tents until the PCs start building it's not a great place to live.
I thought about Cyre too. In my world some of the fog/mist has lifted or been removed with powerful magical, up to the DM of course.
I used a lot of aberrations in my last AoW run. I am sure they are starting to wear out their welcome, especially the Dolgaunts. They make excellent monks.
You could do what I do. Aberrations in name only. I use the stats as is for the Fey (including appearance, I was pleased to find many fey in Golarion apparently look really freaky!) but just say yeah these are fey twisted by the Daelkyr. Like how Orlassk is said to have made the Medusas which mechanically are monstrous humanoids. Same for freaky plants like a Scythe tree (wtf?!) Odd ones that high Knowledge checks can reveal as specific creations of the Daelkyr Lord Tasha with different features from your usual aberrations. So mechanically they'd still be fighting something new if they've worn thin that way.
I also thought about either moving New Cyre over by Droaam, or making them Brelish settlers retaking lands stolen by the Hags and monsters of Droaam. This lets them war freely with the inhabitants (not recognized by treaty) and then you can go heavy on monstrous humanoids and plenty of other classics.
Instead of a Daelkyr Lord can easily be a Rajah. Make them fiends and evil outsiders instead.
Or just keep them fey. Make Thelanis coterminous and/or put a manifest zone there. I'd make it Coterminous as that puts a timer on Narissa's plans and means the final battle can take place on another plane so things can get truly crazy. And since apparently part of Narissa's plan is making the land First Worldish you can make part of her plot using the coterminous period to unnaturally rip open some sort of permanent manifest zone. Hello Eldritch Machine.
This makes the Eldeen Reaches work really well. You can place it in the Twilight Demesne. Hello famous manifest zone to the Plane of the Fey. And the Hooktongue Slough area can be moved to the Shadow Marches which are quite close to the Twilight Demesne. Yrlag can be Pitax.
I see Q'barra has Bastura Swamp which would probably work nicely for Hooktongue Slough. Ka'rhashan is the largest lizardfolk community in Q'barra and could work great as Pitax.
Cheers Shady, that is very nicely done! Those of us running Kingmaker in Eberron should definately start putting together a list of suggestions and conversions.
By far I find the suggestion of a New Cyre reclaiming the most provocative idea yet.
I put a Dragonmark in one of the otherwise empty hexes. When put together with a few other marks in other empty hexes the PCs will be able to piece together a part of the Prophecy. Each separate line will be one Mark from one hex.
Fear the Kingmakers, power raised in Lands Stolen
If bought by Blood in trade For Blood and
the Rivers Run Red then Holds will Vanish
If Kings War the Sound of a Thousand Screams
will be as laughter to power risen anew
It needs work. I'm not great with prophecies/rhymes in general. I'd love suggestions for it. I'd like some ideas on how to obscure the position of the lines. Make it less obvious which line follows which so I can look forward to seeing what order my players decide to put it together.