My Changes to RRR - Hargulka's Monster Kingdom

[DM_aka_Dudemeister]

I follow one key rule when making decisions like that:

Will this be Rad?

So do what you feel is raddest for your players!

(I vote giant horror troll. Although magic immunity is lame, I'd go with decent Spell Resistance).

[pennywit]

BTW: Thought I'd follow up on the remnants of my Monster Kingdom adaptation. Way back in Blood for Blood, my players sent Dovan and Auchs to scout out the trolls and report back. Dovan and Auchs got captured. Dovan escaped, but the trolls caught and ate Auchs.

How It All Went Down:

Hargulka and his honor guard met the PCs on Candlemere Island for a parlay ... and (per Dudemeister's suggestion), Hargulka tossed them a sack with Auchs' bones in it. This actually pissed off my players enough that they attacked Hargulka. Massive, massive melee ensued. Hargulka actually went down early, but his honor guard (including a few wisps) fought back hard. The battle came down to most of the PCs out for the count, and the party druid against the last honor guard troll ... victory.

The players had a separate battle with Talonquake, but there was still the issue of the Monster Kingdom.

Aided by a goblin witch named Brocatta, Nagrundi took over rule of the Monster Kingdom, which was a goblin/troll coalition. My players checked out the monster settlement, and decided it was too tough to attack immediately. So, they decided to trade BP to get back Nagrundi's human slaves.

The ensuing months saw a couple skirmishes between the Troll settlement and the PCs' kingdom. But with Hargulka dead, Nyrissa had turned elsewhere. Because trolls and goblins aren't exactly known for their farming abilities, they turned to raids for food. My players had a strong enough army to discourage raids, but (still) didn't feel confident enough to attack the monster settlement. They had a few border skirmishes, including one pitched battle where the lizardfolk allies betrayed the PCs during mass combat (In mass combat, I sometimes use Plot Twist cards to introduce a random element).

My players have secondary PCs, so I ran those secondary PCs through Fangwood Keep. I put Fangwood Keep down on the border with Mivon, and staffed it with hobgoblins who had fled from the monster village. These hobgoblins didn't raid the players' kingdom -- they just wanted to be left alone. So my players (after adventuring beneath the keep) decided to let the hobgoblins have it.

Meanwhile, I had the monster settlement (called Urgleton) to deal with. I had expected my players to invade it eventually, but they didn't. So ... I decided to tie it into an Undead Armies arc I tacked onto Varnhold Vanishing. With food shortages, the goblins and trolls of Urgleton began worshipping something called the Cult of the Red Eye. Members of the cult would offer themselves as willing sacrifices before a great crystal tree, and they would be reborn as undead (typically skeletons or zombies).

Basically, this was a second front for my players to deal with as Vordakai awoke and started making trouble with the centaurs, Varnhold, and the Kobold Kingdom of Sootscale.

Over the course of VV, the Monster Kingdom, now and Undead Kingdom, would (as part of the events cycle) occasionally send armies of skeletons and zombies to raid my players' capital, keeping them on the defensive and worried about what might happen while they were away from their capital city. (In point of fact, a large undead cohort DID try to raid while they were away. However, the treasurer (whose player isn't fond of diplomatic encounters) stayed behind. That player, who had apparently been studying the mass combat rules pretty closely, put together a pretty good defense of the kingdom while the Baroness and the others were away making nice-nice with Aecora Silverfire.

After my players (using an extended skill challenge cribbed from Dudemeister's VV mod) finally reached a preliminary treaty with the centaurs and realized that Vordakai had been sowing dissent across Stolen Lands with illusions and necromancy spells AND that the Undead Kingdom of Urgleton was in league with Vordakai!!, they decided it was time to go on the offensive. They started by exploring the Valley of the Dead, only to find a massive army of cyclops zombies arising from beneath the great stone markers!!

This meant war. The heroes first turned their eye to Urgleton. They marched their armies into the settlement. During the day, they put to the sword an army of skeletons and zombies that wandered the settlement. At night ... vampire spawn awoke, swarming over the players' armies. Meanwhile, from the fort at center of town, the vampire goblin witch Brocatta and her lieutenants emerged to do battle with the PCs. This was, unfortunately, a rather one-sided battle, as the players were extremely prepared and had long outstripped Brocatta in personal power.

As the last of the undead hordes fell, my players turned their attention to the great crimson crystal tree that was at center of the town. The Baroness, bearer of the legendary Lonely Blade, and the PC barbarian, Warden of the Kingdom, bearer of a legendary axe, took their weapons to the great crystal tree. After several blows, it shattered, raining ruby-red crystal down on Urgleton.

At this final defeat, the heroes turned. They ordered their armies to burn Urgleton to the ground, all of it.

And the Monster Kingdom, the Undead Kingdom, was no more.

Thanks, Dudemeister, for a great mod, and a great story.

[DM_aka_Dudemeister]

Wow, that went in such a different fantastic direction. Well done Pennywit sounds like your players had a great time.

[KenderKin]

I am so using this!

I am thinking that throwing in A Dark and Stormy Night (first level module) into the mix.

This module adds:
1) Weather can be dangerous
2) Bad things happen at night
3) The convention of "storm-peace" allows PC's to possibly meet some of the monster kingdom subjects in a non-combat scenario.

[Norin d'orien]

aaaand giant troll of horror it was! my players enjoied the encounter, i ruled the troll would get the deflection bonus, the fast healing and a SR of 18 ( i went for a CR7, he was all alone in the dungeon after all and they would get to him at their full strenght, so not that much of a challenge).
seeing their face as i described first Shtishhak (Nooooo, him again!)
and then him entering in the troll from the beast overstretched mouth generating all sort of lights in the room (also dazing the ranger and his tiger companion for the first round) through the body of the rocky troll was priceless.
I also made him recite the phrases you suggested and the chopped head was simpli glorious.
they have no clues...

[Tarondor]

I've been using Dudemeister's Hargulka's Monster Kingdom idea. My PCs have encountered Hargulka at the Sootscale Mines and have just now encountered the Narthopple Expedition (who were attacked by a troll, not kobolds). They're hot to track down the troll and get some information, or at least strike a blow for their kingdom.

I'm worried they're following the troll problem too closely and not taking the time to build up XP and levels. They know that they're facing an increasingly unstable kingdom future until the troll issue is solved, but they're only 4th level (there are 7 of them).

I had hoped that having interesting places marked on their map by Jubilost Narthopple might cause them to head to those hexes, but no such luck.

Any suggestions (other than let them TPK?)

[RobRendell]

Tarondor wrote:

I'm worried they're following the troll problem too closely and not taking the time to build up XP and levels. They know that they're facing an increasingly unstable kingdom future until the troll issue is solved, but they're only 4th level (there are 7 of them).

...
Any suggestions (other than let them TPK?)

I'm sure Dudemeister will come up with awesome suggestions, but what occurs to me is that if they learn the scale of what they're facing, they might decide that building up their kingdom in order to muster and support armies is the best thing to do.

If they're heading into Monster Kingdom territory, they could come across evidence of Hargulka's troll armies, such as an unmissable trail of churned up mud and troll footprints leading to an area where they can spy on a "tiny" army of trolls being drilled. "Alright, wheel right, march! Kragg and Thrump, don't bunch up! Less than 40 feet between soldiers and you're fireball fodder! Trunksplitter, keep those trollhounds moving and with their noses to the ground!" Make the drill sergeant someone other than Hargulka, so it's apparent that this is *a* squad, but not necessarily *the only* squad. A tiny army is still 25 trolls, which should be pretty daunting to even the most gung-ho 4th level characters, and seeing them training intelligently and with an attempt at discipline should strike terror into anyone with a brain.

Alternatively (or as well), have their Barony Spymaster start getting reports about the Monster Kingdom... maybe at first just a chance encounter by a lucky trapper or an escaped slave who got away to tell his tale, but hopefully the Spymaster will start organising rangers and spies of his own to sneak into the Monster Kingdom to keep the barony informed. If the players see that Hargulka's kingdom starts off on par theirs in terms of BP income, kingdom stats etc. but is building up most slowly, they might see that they can out-compete him on that front. The intelligence reports can also indicate that Hargulka isn't imminently about to launch an all-out assault, so they don't have to panic about that.

And of course, Dudemeister's various adventure hooks in this thread give you good ways for the players to try to weaken the Monster Kingdom before a direct assault. Liberating slaves, wooing the Lizardfolk from the Troll Kingdom, taking out Howl of the North Wind and his pack when they're by themselves rather than part of a troll army... all safer ways to slow down Hargulka's expansion and reduce his power than charging in against his capital. You could make it that a successful mission against the Monster Kingdom counts as an automatic success on the Loyalty check in the "Troll Sightings" minor event for that month.

Ooh! You could make it that the Lonely Warrior's legendary blade is

Spoiler:

Corrosive or Flaming instead of Fey Bane

. If the players hear rumours of this, it might get them searching for the Lonely Barrow to get their hands on this useful troll-slaying weapon. You can always drop in a replacement weapon later in the AP, such as

Spoiler:

making the +3 Greatsword in the Wyvern Bluffs in Varnhold Vanishing (location W3) into a +2 Fey Bane sword

.

[DM_aka_Dudemeister]

What RobRendell said.
;)

[RobRendell]

DM_aka_Dudemeister wrote:

What RobRendell said.

;)

Well, coming from you that certainly gave me a thrill :) Thank you!

I thought I'd share the latest development in my game with the Abadar-following Baron Hamysil who established a trade treaty with Hargulka. Despite the treaty, I ran the "Assault of the Fairy Nest" event, figuring that it still applied as an indirect and sneaky way to destabilise the players' barony. When they eventually tracked down Thruggnir the Stinky Egg Troll the Baron was incensed, and as they hiked back through the Narlmarches with Thruggnir's blackened bones Hamysil was composing and re-composing his scathing letter that he was going to send to Hargulka.

I rolled for wandering monsters when they entered the hex east of Garuum, and it came up with an encounter. So I rolled for what they encountered, and got a 77... forest, 77, oh, 2d4 trolls. I rolled the 2d4 and got 7. That's a lot of trolls. I do all my dice rolls out in the open, so my players knew they'd encountered 7 of something.

Not wanting a TPK, I decided to steal the idea I had above for Tarondor, and they came across a swathe of damage through the Narlmarches heading north. The party's ranger was not there that night, but another character had also invested in Survival and rolled well, so he was able to identify the trail as troll tracks heading north, about three hours ahead of them, in large numbers. They of course mounted up and headed after the "invasion force".

I figured that there was no way they could leave such a major incursion into their land at liberty, but also would probably TPK against 7 trolls, so I had the trail split in two. Four trolls continued north making a bee-line for the Temple of the Elk, where Jhod Kavken was living basically alone, while three peeled off to the west heading for Garuum.

The players had a nasty choice of which group to follow, not knowing what damage the ones they didn't follow might do, but they eventually chose to protect Jhod and headed north. They were on horseback and the trolls were on foot, so they were able to catch up in less than two hours. To convey the idea of disciplined trolls, when they caught up they saw the four trolls working in shifts - two would blaze the trail clawing through the forest while the two following behind resting, and then they would swap and the rested trolls would start to blaze the trail while the others rested.

Due to good tactics, courageous decisiveness and good dice rolling by the players, not to mention some woeful dice rolling on my part (bloody Witch's Slumber Hex), they actually wiped out the four trolls without taking a scratch. So they doubled back and managed to get to Garuum in time for me to run the "Trolls and the Froggy King" event pretty much verbatim.

One of my players sent this in an email after the session:

Quote:

I should also point out that apparently Rob's random encounters table reads something like this:

...
65-75: encounter d4 wolves
76-79: start major war with nearest neighbour
80-83: meet kindly old women who provides d4 cure light wounds potions
...

[DM_aka_Dudemeister]

Sometimes the dice have a story to tell and we can only marvel as they change the game in front of us.

[Norin d'orien]

Totally going to use your random encounter table then...

[GM T.A.U.]

Next Saturday mine party will begin with the Assault on the Faerie Nest, since we spent the last sessions in kingdom building phase only, and I used the Troll's Diplomacy encounter as a Kingdom Event.

The Baroness's Diplomacy skill (Mythically enchanted with her Display of Charisma path ability) litterally humiliated King Hargulka, and left the Kobold Kingdom in a solid alliance with the PC's Kingdom. Hargulka left the Sootscales'lair without any fight with the Party, and so now it's time for them to face the consequence of their political exuberance... starting from their little friends Perlivash and Tyg.

[Curghann]

I really like everything I see here and plan to use the vast majority of it mostly as written.

One potential issue I see with my kingdom is that the Paladin in the group has thus far been completely unwilling to do any kind of negotiating with anything he detects as evil.

When the group encountered the boggard, he refused any efforts at parlay and made the creature pick up the weapon it had thrown down so he wouldnt be attacking an unarmed creature when he rode it down.

(I'm handling that, so no need to diverge into a large discussion about Paladins, their codes, etc).

My issue is that while the group has finished the Stag Lord, and will be getting their second charter shortly (about a week, in-game), they havent completely finished mapping out the Greenbelt and havent dealt with the mites or the kobolds at all.

I'm assuming that the paladin is going to simply declare them all evil and lobby for the complete wiping out of the kobolds and the mites. This leaves me little opportunity for "The Feast".

My only hope is that the group will spend a few months starting up their kingdom before heading back down to deal with the kobolds/mites, and by then I can have Hargulka already having stepped in and dealt with the mites on behalf of the kobolds and arranged for a loose treaty between them, likely involving a few of H's trolls being allowed to stay there and monitor things from their caves.

More likely, the group is going to get their seed BP, maybe wait a month and then while things are building up, they'll head down to deal with it themselves.

If the kobolds are wiped out, what might be a good replacement or adjustment to The Feast to introduce H and his "nation" to the group? I want to give them a good amount of time to build up their nation (the book recommends ~1 year) before making them really feel like they need to go start dealing with some stuff.

Any ideas on how to salvage The Feast?

[redcelt32]

I really encourage you to give your party a chance to interact with the mites and kobolds. Some of our biggest party debates and most interesting RP moments came from dealing with both groups. The initial feast encounter with Hargulka as presented here works extremely well if the PCs are on friendly terms with the kobolds. However, if you think the party prejudice will be too much to overcome, then perhaps your plan makes more sense.

Just a friendly reminder that in Pathfinder, nothing under 5HD radiates evil to paladins except evil clerics, undead, demons, or antipaladins. So he is metagaming saying they are evil unless his character background includes interaction with kobolds. Second, make them LN, that's a good way to handle it, and probably really close to what is intended as they are presented.

I love paladins both as a GM and player. Kingmaker is the perfect game for your paladin to have to deal with church politics. Clerics, inquisitors, temple guards and paladins will definitely not always see eye to eye. Usually paladins only have to answer to their gods, but in Kingmaker they should definitely have to fall in line with the hierarchy of the mother church. He might like the chance to move up within the church and gain more acclaim from that as well as combat.

[Curghann]

Appreciate the sentiment but we're playing with 3.5 rules mostly so detect evil still works that way.

I've been toying with making some of the kobolds not evil, especially the leader. But then again, it would be very interesting for in party politics if some wanted to kill them and others wanted to parlay.

The party knows where the mite lair is, so I'll prolly just make the kobold prisoner not evil so they'll at least talk to him. Then I'll make some of the kobolds not evil.

[pennywit]

Quote:

Just a friendly reminder that in Pathfinder, nothing under 5HD radiates evil to paladins except evil clerics, undead, demons, or antipaladins.

And lawyers.

As for this scenario, I think you might try to re-engineer your kobolds and mites into actual warring settlements (on the scale of a small village). That way, they become the first bit of diplomacy the players must handle. And either one can be the scene for a diplomatic dinner with Hargulka.

Also, if you don't mind my cheap plug, you could try placing a convo with Hargulka at the Dancing Lady's place; I've got a scenario you could adapt.

[DM_aka_Dudemeister]

Ugh, the worst kind of paladin is the non-negotiating kind.
There is a real danger Kingmaker will be reduced to a total slaughterfest, losing the best nuances and intrigues of the campaign.

But Kingmaker is also a sandbox and if your players are happy with the way the Paladin plays and want to run a kingdom of hardline jerks, that's how it goes.

I would recommend making both the kobolds and mites neutral with leanings towards lawful and chaotic respectively with some evil members (the Mite's chief and his cronies/The kobold wizard and his loyalists) that way your Lawful Butthead paladin can't use magic as an excuse to commit genocide and the players might need to get a bit clever with removing the evils that are as cancers in the hearts of these burgeoining societies.

If your Paladin keeps it up though, Hargulka's monster Kingdom might be very short indeed when Hargulka and his cronies turn his paladin to paste in the negotiations with the kobolds.

[T.A.U.]

Assault on the Faerie Nest worked very well for mine Party, combining a lot of aspects and thoughts I have for the next sessions:
a) The PCs were gifted of some kobold eggs to foster during the previous encounter (Troll Diplomacy). In the months those kobolds hatched. Mine players are still preparing their kobold's Mini-Me secondary PCs (next session will be the first of our "Koboldmaker" spin off, but I foreshadowed them as little kobolds wandering around the Castle and the capital...
b) I had them pick up some rumors (the troubles caused by Perlivash in all the farms and kingdom in general, the sightings of Worg and Wolf in the hills, the Old Badame is a hag... and so on)
c) During the investigation part (the party was disguised, not appearing as the lord founders) the old lady also said: "those monsters! (referrint to the kobolds) even the baroness guests them in her castle! And they goes around stealing and robbing a lot!" (one of the kobold PC is an Unchained Rogue)
d) They successfully rescued Tig, killing the stinky troll. Since they already had annexed the Nest's Hex to the kingdom I rewarded them with a +1 Stability instead of a free annexation. Now the good fairies of the northern Narmarches forest are a valuable aid to the Warden and the Spymaster (both Catfolks: one of the PCs and her NPC sister).
e) On their way back to the capital (at the former Staglord fort location), since it was also during the proper moon nights I introduced the Kundal event. They investigated it, tracked him and saved him from licantropy. But they decided to not have him affront a trial for the murders he committed. (The had created a constitution of their kingdom were a trail is mandatory... but wrongly presumed that a public trial could produce Unrest for them... who am I to said that NOT doing the trail is going to produce unrest... see point e)
f) Kundal was sent away to the kingdom's other city (former Temple of Elk), to serve with the Marshal's Blackfeathers'guards. They choose to mislead the capital's population by spreading the false rumors that "the Worg who lives near in the hills is responsible for the deaths". They used the same old lady of the investigation part to spread those lies around the capital.
They are now preparing for hunting Howl-of-the-North Wind, to bring him "justice" for the people of their kingdom...
e) Doing so they wrongly supposed none of the guards initially involved in keeping Kundal prisoner is going to talk... guess, when a certain bard will come into the capital a drunken castle's guard will speak a lot about this topic with him... *evil grin*

[Curghann]

Are these encounters intended for a party of 4? If so, has anyone converted them for 6 players?

[DM_aka_Dudemeister]

My group is 6 players :-)

[Curghann]

Thanks Dude!

[ShockAndAwe]

Ok, I don't know if anyone still checks this, but I started GMing Kingmaker for my group of 4, which quickly became 6, about 5 months ago. We just started book 2 and I have been using the heck out of the monster kingdom idea. My problem is, even tho I portrayed him as an obviously untrustworthy BBEG, my party agreed to Hargulka's terms that they would colonize no further south and then stayed and had dinner with him. Nagrundi, and the guard.

Any advice on how to still push his agenda without feeling like I'm blowing off their "alliance"? I know Hargulka has no intentions of keeping it, but I'd like to do something more creative. Some way to make it seem like it's their fault the treaty was broken. Idk. I'm open to anything. They just surprised me with that. I expected a fight and to just leave them all unconscious, but they actually pulled out their map and asked him where they can't go haha

Thanks Paizo and Dudemeister for the incredible campaign and awesome addition.

Daniel

[pennywit]

If you run this per Dudemeister's specs, Hargulka is still dealing with one reality: He's got a lot of hungry trolls, and trolls aren't much for agriculture or hunting. If you're interested in a political game, then you've got an excellent opportunity here for some alliance-building and shifting. You've got the PCs, Hargulka, the lizardfolk, the Dancing Lady, and the kobolds and/or mites. There's a lot of potential here for Hargulka to start leaning on one of these factions or the other (and one of them to come to the PCs for help).

From Hargulka's standpoint, this isn't really a lasting peace treaty. This is him muscling in on the humans, and finding that they're very easy to bully. So if he's clever (or he has a clever advisor, perhaps the Gyronna priestesses?), Hargulka's going to start coming to the PCs with more and more demands, slowly escalating over time. A few BP here, a few BP there. If your PCs are anything like mine, they're going to strategically build one or two towns to maximize BP. Hargulka's going to set his eyes on that town ...

You could also set up the Dancing Lady (or the other residents of her tower) as alternate antagonists.

[DM_aka_Dudemeister]

Pennywit's suggestions are pretty solid. Keep track of the BP the PC's are giving to Hargulka and use them to buy more fortifications for his town, and more armies for his eventual invasion of the PC territories. Then you have the Spymaster learn what Hargulka's been buying with his BP.

Hilarity ensues.

[KenderKin]

So I have jumped off this version yet again!!!

In my new version the iconics chartered to explore the greenbelt traveled down and met the mites, kobolds, ratfolk, and goblins. They made a treaty with the four nations. The treaty was delivered to Oleg, but right afterwards the iconics met an unfortunate end at the hands of Kressel and the full bandit crew. The bandits then went to harass Oleg, and the new PCs...one of each goblin, kobold, mite and ratfolk....discovered the bodies and are headed to Oleg's.

They will inherit the charter...due to the treaty.

And they will get the full Kingmaker experience..... Play by post starting in Jan. "We be Goblin(?) Kings, Kingmaker edition"!!!

[pennywit]

Another idea for ShockandAwe:

The players might have made a treaty with Hargulka, but that doesn't mean other kingdoms are going to honor it. Other factions, including a Brevic noble house, Mivonese swordlords, Maegar Varn's community, or the Narthropple expedition might choose to settle somewhere in the territory the players ceded to Hargulka ... and that faction will promptly grow their own little kingdom. Lots of story potential here. This faction will (of course) clash with Hargulka, and then put your players in a fun position.

I would suggest moving to other plotlines, such as the Gyronna cultists, the Kundal plotline, fey incursions, Brevic politics, or (if you're feeling feisty) some kind of adventure in Varnhold, while you keep this "new kingdom" plotline on a slow boil.

Do they side with the trolls and keep their word? Or do they side with their fellow humans/gnomes/whatever? If you keep this at a slow boil and give your players updates (via their spymaster and grand diplomat) on the new kingdom. If they want more information, they can use an Espionage Edict (see Ultimate Rulership) to learn more.

For added fun, rev up your alternate plotline (whatever it is), and have the Hargulka/rogue kingdom plot blow up at exactly the least convenient moment for your players.

[ShockAndAwe]

Awesome Penny and dude, and thanks for the quick replies. We play again in a week so I'll have plenty of time to implement. Especially like the demands for BP to "honor the treaty" and then the spymaster hearing about what he's doing with it. I've been kind of stingy with information for the postmaster because I fear sending them down rabbit trails or send them chasing encounters that end up being way high CR

Very excited to play Grigori and to kidnap Tyg. The loss of Perlivash will especially sting because he's their grand diplomat. They wanted the good fey to be more welcoming of their intentions. Though their choice has become somewhat of a joke to surrounding kingdoms.

Thanks so much for the quick replies. Great community on here. My players will be grateful, too. I'll post how it goes :)

[pennywit]

ShockAndAwe wrote:

Awesome Penny and dude, and thanks for the quick replies. We play again in a week so I'll have plenty of time to implement. Especially like the demands for BP to "honor the treaty" and then the spymaster hearing about what he's doing with it. I've been kind of stingy with information for the postmaster because I fear sending them down rabbit trails or send them chasing encounters that end up being way high CR

In my campaign, I typically use Stability or Loyalty checks for gathering routine information. My players also had the option of sending their Spymaster to find information for them. I'd make skill rolls to see if he succeeded. If my players remembered to send equipment (i.e., potions of invisibility) with him to help, he'd be more likely to succeed.

My players' kingdom is bigger now (we're getting into book 4), so I also implemented the Espionage Edict from Legendary Games' Ultimate Rulership.

[pennywit]

If you page through this thread, BTW, you'll see how far mine went off the rails. I decided to beef up Hargulka into a better-sized kingdom with goblin followers. My players sent their spymaster (Dovan) to spy on him, Dovan got caught, and Auchs (then my players' favorite NPC) got caught and eaten. My players then attacked Hargulka and his bodyguards at parlay, leading to an incredibly tough battle. My players dispatched my Talonquake pretty quickly (kind of disappointing me), but they didn't attack the trolls immediately. They ended up in a situation where they didn't want to attack the trolls, but the trolls weren't capable of taking out their kingdom. So I ended up turning the Monster Kingdom into an Undead Kingdom that menaced my players from one side for much of VV.

[ShockAndAwe]

pennywit wrote:

In my campaign, I typically use Stability or Loyalty checks for gathering routine information. My players also had the option of sending their Spymaster to find information for them. I'd make skill rolls to see if he succeeded. If my players remembered to send equipment (i.e., potions of invisibility) with him to help, he'd be more likely to succeed.

My players' kingdom is bigger now (we're getting into book 4), so I also implemented the Espionage Edict from Legendary Games' Ultimate Rulership.

What kind of information would this include? General info about events and growth or more specific information? Examples would be greatly appreciated, too. I love learning from all of you more experienced GMs and players

[kadance]

I gave my spymaster a number of spies based on the kingdom size and how many extra BP's they wanted to spend on spying. Each spy could be given a target (the kobolds, any of the Brevic noble houses, Mivon, Varnhold, etc.) and an operation (Intel Gathering, Assassination, Sabotage, Infiltration, etc)

I assigned a DC and time period based on distance and circumstance. Each spy had a bonus (that went up as they successfully completed missions), and the spymaster rolled a complex skill check (stolen from 4th edition D&D) for each spy on each mission. The outcome was based on the margin of success/failure (critical success, success, failure, critical failure) and could result in the spymaster's goal being met, bonus BP's or intelligence, a waste of time, or even the detention or death of the spy.

The checks gained bonuses for equipment given to the mission, extra BP's dedicated, assigning multiple spy's, etc.

The part you're probably interested in:
If Intelligence Gathering is the mission, but the spymaster can't/won't indicate what kind of intel is needed, I used the following table to randomize the result:
1: Economic (how many BP's they have, where their money comes from, who they're trading with)
2: Political (who they love, who they hate, where their ties are strongest/weakest, what they plan on doing)
3: Military (where are their armies, how large are they, where are they moving, how large an army can they raise and how quickly)
4: Infrastructure (Important buildings, number/location of roads and hex improvements)
5: Covert (where their spies are, what they're looking for, where/who they're defending)
6: Geographic (what hex might have something the target hasn't found)

[pennywit]

The URulership Espionage Edict is kind of neat. You spend BP on a sliding scale to uncover minor or major secrets, and then you make checks to see if your relationship with the target kingdom is damaged. Also, you can use the Espionage Edict to do things like sabotage the enemy's capital.

[TMP]

Just wanted to add my voice to the chorus of "thanks" to Dudemeister. Your awesome work lives on, years later! I'm running "Stolen Lands" right now, and will certainly incorporate your "monster kingdom" angle in the next chapter.

[dinketry]

So...shiny....

-Dink

[Minotaur of Justice]

Thanks for this wonderful idea! I was also unsatisfied with the trolls as written. I thought I would also share what my party has made of your wonderful idea.

We had already played a significant portion of the adventure before I had found this, however. They had done a lot of hex-crawling and taken care of several problems.

What they did before:

Tiresa and the Scythe Tree
Narthropple's expedition (hired to do hexcrawling)
Corax and the Nixie
Howl of the North Wind
The Lizardfolk
Hodag's Den
The Wandering Giant (Munguk was recruited for booze)
The Slain Townsfolk
The Cultists
The Rabble Rouser

I made Hargulka into a much bigger threat than you did. The PCs have advanced quite a bit and would have little trouble with him as you've written him. Allow me to cast Wall of Text to explain.

The backstory:

I made him a half-black dragon troll Warlord 8 (Dreamscarred Press Path of War class). I replaced all his racial HD with class levels, which is something I tend to do with monster as I hate RHD.

As far as his Kingdom goes, it's a little more stable than one would expect from a group of trolls. The reason? Hargulka's children. He is around 150 years old and has several dozen children leading over 300 trolls. Being stronger and tougher than normal trolls, they can impose order on the normally unruly creatures.

Hargulka has a vision for his people, one imparted to him by Nyrissa. He wants to create a kingdom where the "monsters" rule and the traditional races are hunted like vermin or are slaves. He's actually made a decent go of it. He claimed 3 hexes and cleared them for farming using normal PC races as slave labor. He has named this nation Unsnearklund, which is Giant for The Land of Change.

He's been raiding trade routes for several months and has a lot of slaves. He even captured a small clan of dwarves traveling to recover an old dwarven outpost. Unfortunately for them, that just happens to be the location the trolls have used as their base. They've expanded this outpost into a small town that has several "normal" businesses and even supports mines (iron ore and gemstones). This capital city is called Iggacrord, meaning Crown Jewel.

Hargulka isn't doing this alone. The Warlord has had the backing of Pitax from the start. King Irovetti doesn't like the idea of a new River Kingdom upsetting the balance of power. He's been financing Harlgulka with 20 build points a month (much of his kingdom's surplus earnings.) He believes that he can use Hargulka to destroy the PC's kingdom indirectly as he fears direct action will provoke Restov, and more importantly, Mivon to action.

In addition to Pitax's financing, the Warlord has made an alliance with the Dancing Lady and her fey. He has even married her and made her his consort; they even have had an heir. The Dancing Lady has used her influence with the local evil fey to increase the crop yield of the farms in the 3 hexes.

First Contact:

The PCs had encountered some trolls in their wanderings and there had been some rumors of troll activity to the south (where the trolls had set up some roving patrols to stop the few independent traders that traveled in that direction. They got curious and started to investigate. The determined that the heaviest activity was in the SW, so they headed that way to investigate. They eventually reached the hex adjacent to Unsnearklund. The troll signs are much more common here. Just before the border, they ran into a patrol of them.

After a hard fight, they kill all of the trolls except for one of the patrol leaders. This troll looks different than the others. It's bigger, stronger, and has black scales mottling it's green hide. They attempt to interrogate him, but he laughs in their faces and tells them that they should just kill him and get it over with. Y'larra, a Kellid Barbarian princess, informs him that they won't be killing him. No, instead they will deliver him home quite safely, dressed and swaddled as a baby human girl. The thought of such humiliation before his father terrifies the troll and he spills all he knows in exchange for a quick death. They learn about the size of the troll force and that they occupy a fortified position. He didn't know about the Dancing Lady, so he couldn't tell them about that. Armed with this information, they kill the troll and head back to their capital.

A little over a week later, a frantic kobold from the Sootscale mines enters the town bearing a message from Chief Sootscale. They must come to the mine in one week's time or the kobolds will be lost. They PCs make haste to the mine, as Hargulka anticipated. He is introduced to the party by a very nervous Sootscale, who invites the PCs to join them for a feast. Hargulka warns that any attempt to break the peace of the guest-right will result in him dismembering Chief Sootscale first (he does this in Draconic so as to not alarm the kobold.)

At a large table just outside the entrance to the mine, Halgulka explains to the PCs the futility of trying to civilize the Greenbelt. It's always belonged to the "monsters" and any attempt to claim it for the "civilized races" is doomed to fail. He offers them 3 months to evacuate the lands or he will reclaim it in the name of the monsters. He also offers Chief Sootscale and his kobolds a place in his new monstrous kingdom.

After much back and forth, the PCs manage to get him to admit the inherent racism and slavery that lies at the foundation of Unsnearklund. Using this information, they convince Chief Sootscale that his best interest lies with the party. Also, because I made Hargulka's escort too small, they challenge him to a fight. Since the challenge was made formally, he does not consider the peace to be broken. They move to one side, where the PCs throw up some quick buffs while the trolls get ready to fight.

The fight is actually pretty long. The PCs were unaware of the fey sorceress that accompanied the trolls and their spellcasters got shut down by a stinking cloud spell. After that, its a knock down-drag out fight that the PCs barely lose. They might have won had the sorceress not surprised them. In the end, however, they are all knocked unconscious.

After a bit, Maeve the oracle comes to when the Chief poors a potion down her throat. She revives the rest of the party and they gather themselves. Apparently the kobolds had used some trapdoors they made in the side of the cliff and ambushed the trolls with some alchemist's fire they used in the mine and drove them away. Unfortunately for the party, the sorceress used major image to broadcast their defeated bodies in the skies over the nearest farms, the settlement at Oleg's, and the capital at the Stag Lord's former fort. They also discover that they were all missing 1000gp each that the trolls had stolen.

Now they must go back to their people and face them with hard news.

Sorry for being so long-winded. Brevity has never had much of a place in my writings...

Up next: Preparing for War!

[Minotaur of Justice]

Part 2!

Steps to war:

Upon returning to their capital, Stagfall, the PCs are met with a very worried population. The people and the guards line the street as they enter the town and every one has a worried look on their face. The PCs go to the market square and address the people. They say admit that there was an emerging threat, but they had believed they could contain it. Had they not been good leaders thus far? They admitted to being defeated by Hargulka, but said they were winning before trickery on the monsters' part. After a successful bluff check, the crowd was mollified. The PCs promised to work with the rest of the council (their kingdom is an oligarchy with the council more or less equal) and that this threat would be dealt with. With this successful speech, the PCs mitigated some of the unrest (2 instead of 4.)

Now they have to figure out what to do about this new threat. They don't have a large enough army to fight them directly, a single medium army of 100 4th level fighters (ACR 3). They just had their last kingdom turn prior to meeting Hargulka, so nothing can really be done right now, but they can make plans. They plan to recruit another medium army from their reserve militia. Keston, who is the general at this point, also mentions hiring some mercenary companies and they agree to put the word out.

They also decide to put the word out to the local fey that are friendly to the kingdom. Previously, they had rescued a nymph from beneath the Candlemere Tower. The nymph had been in stasis for centuries, but resumes being the leader of the local fey. She lived with Tyressa at her grove. They send the centaur PC to go speak with her, but when he got there, all he found was carnage. Tyressa's tree had been burnt down and there were satyr bodies all around. The nymph was nowhere to be found. He returned with the rest of the party and they tracked the attackers to they tower of the Dancing Lady.

The Dancing Lady's Demesne:

They spy out the tower and the walls, noting the large figures on the walls. The large hole in the wall had been crudely repaired, but would hold long enough for the inhabitants to muster a defense. They were spotted and one PC lost a short, one on one, battle with the quickling. They heal her and beat a retreat for a few miles while they use a familiar to send for the army. After a few days, the army arrives with Munguk in tow. They devise a plan of attack in which the army would distract the defenders and allow the PCs to come in from the back. It works and they rout the 25 trolls and 25 spriggans that were defending the place. They also killed the quickling and the grimstalker on the way in.

The tower itself is locked up, so the PCs decide they will tackle it on their own. They send the army back with some rescued dwarven and human slaves who had been used to make repairs. The party decides to use one of the windows part way up the tower to get in. After fumbling through some traps, they get to the top of the tower, One PC barges in to a room lit in red to find the Dancing Lady and two anthropomorphic animals waiting. In the background, the nymph Tirenae is suspended in some sort of ritual. They take the Dancing lady down with some difficulty as most of the party failed their Will saves, leaving 3 out of 7 to fight. The ritual ends with the death of the DL but Tirenae is unconscious from a lot of CON damage since the ritual was fueled by her blood. They also rescue an elven magus that the DL was keeping alive to feed on. Just before they left, they discover the secret room that turned out to be the nursery for Hargulka's heir. They take the infant, which Tirenae claims when she regains consciousness.

Up next: Victorious Return!

[RobRendell]

Minotaur of Justice wrote:

They plan to recruit another medium army from their reserve militia. Keston, who is the general at this point, also mentions hiring some mercenary companies and they agree to put the word out.

Here's a suggestion - maybe make the mercenaries come from Maegar Varn. I believe he was a mercenary captain before he received his charter to found Varnhold, and he certainly has an interest in preventing the monster kingdom from taking root in the Greenbelt. He's tied up defending his lands from centaur barbarian raids and can't spare an army or anything like that, but if the PCs' barony can pay he knows this mercenary company who he swears by...

(If he can be paid by the PCs kingdom to fight an enemy he would want defeated anyway, it's win-win from his point of view.)

It might be a good way to introduce him as a character if you haven't already, and to cement good relations between the two neighbouring baronies.

[kadance]

For that matter, Baron Drelev wouldn't mind insinuating spies helping his neighbors.

[Curghann]

DudeM,

Looking for some help with inspiration. My party had a pretty nasty go of it at the Dancing Lady's castle with one of the PC's dying and the rest barely limping away. Another PC should have died, but he has the healing devotion feat (playing 3.5) and when he was left to assumeduly bleed out he was stabilized. The other ran and was being toyed with/hunted by the quickling when the session ended.

I had the PC who missed the session end up rescuing the fleeing PC from the quickling and they both went back to find one of their friends actually alive.

The DL was killed by the Knight, but he was ripped to shreds by Teorlian for killing her. T dragged her corpse away after collecting his assassin vine comrade and headed off into the forest.

With this having been such a climactic event in our campaign, I'd like to bring Teorlian back to give the party a chance for some revenge, but T doesnt really seem like much of a schemer to me.

So far, I've run your party at the kobolds and howl of the north encounters. I have the captured fey set up to run when they get back from their current foray into the wild. Was curious if you had an idea for a good spot to plug Teorlian in by chance.

They're currently dealing with the lizardfolks, having wiped them out but were surprised by the WoW as they searched for the child.

[JohnB]

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[DM_aka_Dudemeister]

Curghann wrote:

DudeM,

Looking for some help with inspiration. My party had a pretty nasty go of it at the Dancing Lady's castle with one of the PC's dying and the rest barely limping away. Another PC should have died, but he has the healing devotion feat (playing 3.5) and when he was left to assumeduly bleed out he was stabilized. The other ran and was being toyed with/hunted by the quickling when the session ended.

I had the PC who missed the session end up rescuing the fleeing PC from the quickling and they both went back to find one of their friends actually alive.

The DL was killed by the Knight, but he was ripped to shreds by Teorlian for killing her. T dragged her corpse away after collecting his assassin vine comrade and headed off into the forest.

With this having been such a climactic event in our campaign, I'd like to bring Teorlian back to give the party a chance for some revenge, but T doesnt really seem like much of a schemer to me.

So far, I've run your party at the kobolds and howl of the north encounters. I have the captured fey set up to run when they get back from their current foray into the wild. Was curious if you had an idea for a good spot to plug Teorlian in by chance.

They're currently dealing with the lizardfolks, having wiped them out but were surprised by the WoW as they searched for the child.

Well, I don't know your party and such as well as you do.

But the first possibility I can see is that Hargulka would see these monsters as very useful fellows indeed, and add them to his Monster Council (add encounters with these creatures to the battle at Hargulka's Cave).

Another option is that Nyrissa names the Quickling her emissary and messenger, essentially making the little monster her "Diplomat" that she sends to the PCs kingdom to make demands and the like. IF you do this, wait until late book 3 or early Book 4.

A third option is to add him to the Fey encounters in Varnhold, (I have expansions related to that too). I'm sure a speedster in a battle full of size-changing monsters would be a frightening addition.

Hope that helps spark some inspiration for you :)

[poptartdemon]

So, absolutely loving this idea, and I've toyed with it a bit. And, with my players, and with how things played out, I currently have Rigg, Vesket, and the Spirit of Visshak all allied (and alive) with Hargulka. Which is the only fight we have left. My PCs don't want to provoke him, as they're unsure of his intentions, and I'm considering having him provoke them with some gruesome or otherwise outrageous message. But I'm a bit worried about the difficulty. Party of four (aasimar veneticus witch 6, dwarven warpriest 6, hobgoblin samurai 6, and human viking 6.) I'd also considered, with all that's gone on, whether or not any of them (Vesket particularly, but maybe Rigg) would have another level yet.

Does this, combined with everything else they'll face, seem like it would be too much? It's a boss fight, I WANT it to be tough, but we also do story levels rather than by-experience levels, so I could give everybody level 7, but then my viking has leadership and intends to grab a dedicated healer, probably a cleric of Shelyn... Just curious on thoughts here.

[DM_aka_Dudemeister]

poptartdemon wrote:

So, absolutely loving this idea, and I've toyed with it a bit. And, with my players, and with how things played out, I currently have Rigg, Vesket, and the Spirit of Visshak all allied (and alive) with Hargulka. Which is the only fight we have left. My PCs don't want to provoke him, as they're unsure of his intentions, and I'm considering having him provoke them with some gruesome or otherwise outrageous message. But I'm a bit worried about the difficulty. Party of four (aasimar veneticus witch 6, dwarven warpriest 6, hobgoblin samurai 6, and human viking 6.) I'd also considered, with all that's gone on, whether or not any of them (Vesket particularly, but maybe Rigg) would have another level yet.

Does this, combined with everything else they'll face, seem like it would be too much? It's a boss fight, I WANT it to be tough, but we also do story levels rather than by-experience levels, so I could give everybody level 7, but then my viking has leadership and intends to grab a dedicated healer, probably a cleric of Shelyn... Just curious on thoughts here.

The Challenge Rating rules are more guidelines, but even so you don't want to weight too much in the enemy's favor. I would maybe pair them up in various areas of Hargulka's Fort (or make them commanders of some of Hargulka's troll squads). Spread the challenge around a bit. You aren't looking to punish the players for allowing recurring villains to exist. Otherwise they burn and salt all the bodies of every badguy they come across and you'll lose out on all the fun of characterizing these fiendish foes.

[RobRendell]

Well, it's been a wild ride, but my players have finally put an end to Hargulka's Monster Kingdom. Thank you once again for this inspiring stuff, Dudemeister. It's been a blast - I reckon Hargulka is going to be a villain they will remember for a very, very long time.

One thing I added to the whole situation was an idea I stole from Spatula, that the ring of Nyrissa-hair worn by Hargulka sent dreams about Briar, dreams of lust and power. Hargulka became obsessed with the idea that he couldn't win the war with the PCs' Barony until he found the sword that he was dreaming about. This has foreshadowed Briar nicely, justified why the 50-troll army didn't just steamroller the PCs early on, and also meant that in the end, Hargulka waited and searched for so long that his starving army of 50 trolls defected, attacked the PCs' town without him. The delays had given the PCs enough time to build their own armies and get in mercenaries from Varnhold. Once they'd defeated the troll army, the PCs travelled to Hargul and basically got to go through the original dungeon as written... it all flowed so naturally.

Highlights include

• The Monstrous Feast: the Paladin decided he had to challenge the troll king to a duel, and everyone was very impressed when Hargulka honourably used non-lethal punches to club him into unconsciousness. With the Paladin out of the way, the Abadar-worshipping Baron then set up a trade deal with the trolls where he sold them food. In exchange, they started getting minor magic items and low-valued jewellery, which eventually turned out to be stolen from River Kingdom immigrants enslaved by the trolls while en-route to the PCs' barony. The Paladin and the ex-slave Cheliax-escapee Halfling Witch were not impressed.
  
• The random encounter which caused seven trolls to invade the players' territory to assassinate Jhod Kavken and bully Garuum into joining the Monster Kingdom, essentially re-creating DM's "Trolls and the Froggy King" encounter directly from the random encounter table.
  
• After collecting black rattlecaps, a prolonged chase through Monster Kingdom territory from the Mud Bowl to the ford being pursued by Howl of the North Wind (a Winter Wolf and Warden of the Monster Kingdom) and his pack of Worgs.
  
• Meeting the Forest Drake, flattering him outrageously, and on discovering that he could breath acid, paying him 2,000 gp in gems to help them fight the trolls come Spring. They also "gave" him the recently cleared Forgotten Keep as a new home.
  
• After rescuing a pair of worked-out River Kingdom slaves from the Lizardfolk village, given by the trolls to be tormented by the Spirit of Stisshak (substituted for Tig Tannersen), they fought and defeated King Vesket and drove off the Spirit of Stisshak, but managing to convince the remaining lizardfolk not to fight. They successfully argued the lizardfolk couldn't trust the trolls not to retaliate in force, and helped them relocate to a hidden campsite north of the Murque river.
  
• Having learned from the slaves rescued from the Lizardfolk village about the slaves in Hargul and the horrifying truth behind the valuables they were accepting in trade for food, they annulled the trade deal and organised a daring strike into Hargul to rescue the slaves at the outset of Winter. Coordinating with a diversionary raid by a tribe of Alseid from the southern Narlmarches who had declared war on the trolls, they managed to get over 100 refugees from Hargul through 20 miles of snow-bound forest to the boats they had waiting in the Murque River. The so-called Twenty Mile March was gruelling and many of the refugees collapsed from cold, hunger and exhaustion, but healing magic got them back on their feet (along with distributing supplies from the saddlebags full of food and winter blankets they'd brought, and putting the worst of the escapees on horseback). The Baron, at considerable personal risk, stayed behind alone (aside from his horse, for swift escape) in the slave stockade for hours after the others headed off, maintaining a Major Image of everything at the stockade being normal, which delayed the main part of the pursuit long enough that they got to the boats ahead of the 50 troll army. The trollhounds and worgs did catch up, but not before they got the refugees past the ambush point they'd set up with their own realm's 25-man Ranger army (plus some PCs) where they managed to slay all the monsters.
  
• On learning about Hargulka's sword obsession from some of the rescued ex-slaves who could speak Giant and understood the gossip between their troll overseers, the party started creating fake rumours and treasure maps implying that they were searching for it too, and hinting that the sword was in dangerous locations like Candlemere Tower and the Forgotten Keep. They actually tricked Hargulka into following one of these clues and going to the Forgotten Keep (witnessed by the Baron who was regularly scrying Hargulka), where he slew the Forest Drake and took the PCs' gem payment but found no thorn-wrapped sword.
  
• The PCs travelling to Varnhold to engage Maegar Varn and his Varnling Host (I re-purposed the name for an army of cavalry) to help fight the trolls, giving me a chance to show off the town and introduce various NPCs from Varnhold... the PCs liked Cephal Lorentus the pigeon-fancying wizard with his crazy notions of pigeons carrying messages, and they've taken some of his pigeons back to their barony to try sending messages to him once Winter ends.
  
• The final confrontation with Hargulka, after every other troll and non-trollish ally had been slain or won away from him, in the last room of the Dwarven Outpost, alone except for his trollhound pet (which he'd trained to bite him if he fell down in battle, after learning of the party's Witch and his tendency to Slumber everything in sight).
  
  Quote:

  As Hargulka is battered under the onslaught of the party, he starts to rant "This can't be happening! She promised me! The Queen of Forgotten Time promised that the rivers would run red with the blood of your people!" Irminric's greatsword strikes the final blow, and the mighty troll warrior slumps to his knees "No... she promised..." before collapsing to the ground. The trollhound bites Hargulka as trained, and then Willam throws a bomb at the trollhound, killing it. In the silence that follows the explosion, Hargulka's closed eyes suddenly open glowing green and a female voice speaks from his dead mouth: "The promise shall be kept. The Talonquake attacks the town even now!" Then the body slumps to the ground again.

[DM_aka_Dudemeister]

Great work RobRendell, who says you need to be high level to engage in epic adventures?

It seems both you and your players had a good time, and really felt those ethical Civilization style quandaries. I'd love to hear how Talonquake goes, and how you go with Varnhold later on.

[Gargs454]

RobRendell wrote:

Awesome stuff

This is what I love so much about this AP. There is so much room to make this AP your own and spin completely different tales from other groups. My biggest complaint with this subforum is that there is so dang much good stuff to pilfer that I'll never get to use it all! :)

Sounds like an amazing ride, with a frantic journey to the capital still ahead! Lucky for me, despite only being two sessions in, my group has already had a random encounter with 4 trolls heading south, so this will make the idea of HMK even better (and no, the party didn't try to fight them -- although the ranger did almost shoot one troll before realizing that the troll had yet to notice the party).

[JohnB]

Which is, of course, one of the reasons I am running the AP for a second time with a different group of players :)

[JohnB]

Which is, of course, one of the reasons I am running the AP for a second time with a different group of players :)

[Gargs454]

Aye, a second running is definitely a possibility. Of course, there are a lot of other campaign ideas rampaging through my head too. :)

[Electric Cat]

Dudemeister, did you ever work up rituals for the other spirits of the land? I'm looking at playing with those a little more. One of my party members has brought Talonquake's body back to town to turn into a shrine to the spirits of the land and the Greenfaith.