|
I am thinking of placing Blackcove on one of the islands near Sandpoint. I can remember reading about an island with fishermen on it.
I am going to run from Shore to Sea with the events of Burnt Offerings and The Skinsaw Murders happening around but not to the characters... Just to add an extra level of strange happenings going on.
The basic premise behind the adventure is that they are Pathfinders from the Magimar Lodge and have been sent to Sandpoint to investigate Quinks claims that the Old Light was some kind of weapon.
They arrive just after a band of heroes have driven off the goblin attack and a posse is chasing down the survivors.
When they go down to the water to look at the old light is when the events of from the module start.
Is there any tips or ideas anybody would like to throw my way....
I have the same idea, but there is a problem that has bugged me :
Creative Director
|
Well...
Having the ruins be Thassilonian instead of Azlanti isn't really that huge a change, to be honest, since Thassilon was founded and built by Azlantis.
I would certainly change the Asmodeus elements in From Shore to Sea to be a more Varisia-friendly deity, though; Gozreh or Desna would be the best choices.
|
|
Well, I went ahead with the plan, and it went pretty well so far.
Only drawback : it's pretty tough to frighten old beard RPGers who have played a lot of Cthulhu, especially when they are in a fantasy world with "optimized" PCs.
However, it works mostly fine. We are at about 2/3 of the adventure, and they are starting to worry a bit about their transformation. They have not yet picked all clues, and are looking at everything they may have missed.
One thing : one player keeps ranting that "this island will doubtless disappear at the end of the adventure, because it's too good on loot to be just laying there".
So : Whaddya think ?
Should I sink the island at the end, provoke some other cataclysm or just let it there with its curse being enough of a deterrent to protect it? Opinions ?
Hmmm... that's a pretty good idea.
However it might detract from the rest of the campaign. I would not want them to have them miss on the fun on HMM...Still, I'll keep this in mind. Thank you
The villagers may offer to keep an eye on the island for them... They may even be awarded the deeds to the island.. So if you are looking to change things up or take a break in the campaign.. I villager could turn up and tell them that some people are poking around on the island.
I am, of course, curious about the "loot" problem and what the perception is about too much stuff on the island. I'm pretty sure I didn't leave a lot of excess treasure laying around, with the exception, perhaps, of Azlanti antiquities which have been known to raise an eyebrow or two. What is it that the PCs assume is there on the island to be plundered? Certainly there are more avenues for adventuring (lots of unresolved ruins to explore) but nothing that won't be earned through fighting inhabitants or having to get through strings of will-o'-wisps first.
Which, come to think of it, is probably your best solution. When the PCs start to get a little too "sticky-fingered," have old Corpsetallow (the will-o'-wisp's leader) give the PCs a not-so-subtle warning that their job is done and they'd best the the island in peace...or they'll be in for a 'shock' when a few hundred of the old 'wisp's glowing followers appear around them and escort them off. I think that is a much better solution than a cataclysmic event...no need to shut the whole site down for adventuring, because there is still fun and dangers to be had there.
For expansion, be sure and check out the web extra of "Ten Unexplored Ruins of Nal-Kashel" that we released as a Chronicles: Pathfinder web extra here.
And, if you like what we did for this island, be sure and check out my chapter on the Sun Temple Colony in the upcoming Lost Cities of Golarion. You get to see what some of the Azlanti stuff on Nal-Kashel, like the orbiting lenses and some other broken technology discovered on the island, actually does when it works!
|
|
Thank you Brandon.
I do not think there is too much treasure, as in "adventuring gear". I think he believes that the discovery of the island itself is just too good of a treasure itself. Plus the artifact.
He may be planning a gold rush kind of thing. He may be planning to sell the location to academics worldwide. I'm not sure.
It may be too because I have stressed to them early on in the campaign how old and powerful was the Azlant empire, and they were not expecting to find ruins this fresh.
I think I'll take the will o'wisp solution. Should be enough to sober them, especially after the boss fight in the end, when they should not be so fresh.
Thank you for this excellent adventure, and I'll be sure to pick Lost Cities when it comes out.
Merry Christmas to all.
|
Well, I went ahead with the plan, and it went pretty well so far.
Only drawback : it's pretty tough to frighten old beard RPGers who have played a lot of Cthulhu, especially when they are in a fantasy world with "optimized" PCs.
However, it works mostly fine. We are at about 2/3 of the adventure, and they are starting to worry a bit about their transformation. They have not yet picked all clues, and are looking at everything they may have missed.
If I may, I would have been far more worried about the transformations if their negative effects had not been so strong.
The way they are, it was obvious to me from the very beginning that we would get our hands on some way to undo them. Because otherwise, our characters would just never be able to complete the whole RotRL AP which stereofm is mastering for us (and where he implanted this scenario).
I think that you should make the transformations less hindering, so that if they stayed for good, the character would still be able to complete an AP but would not be as efficient as originally designed.
Threatening experienced players and min/maxers such as I with a playable but mechanically underwhelming character is far worse (and more credible) than threatening to completely ruin/kill the PC.