I'm not running KM now, but I am slotted to run it after we are done with Savage Tide. One of my potential players was musing about a druid/dread necromancer character concept. "Sounds dark," says I, and then I get to thinking, "Well, how _will_ people react to that?"
The lightbulb in my head flickers, and I think about the Stag Lord's abusive father, the mad hermit, and the bear-priest of Erastil at the lost Temple of the Elk. OK, once I looked them up, they're not all really druids, but as they are people who live alone in the wild and/or Erastil{nature} priests, they can be thought of that way. Oh, and I forgot Jhod Kavken screwing up and executing the wrong man. All of them gone nuts and/or killed folk. To quote a notable nutcase, "Does that seem right to you?"
Opinions? Comments?
So far, I'm thinking of tying it to Nyrissa's influence on the area, or tie it more closely to politics in Brevoy*, as the Erastil* temples suffered some sort of convulsion, and many priests were driven out after they killed a lot of their people.
* or their equivalents, as I intend to use my favorite world instead of Golarion.
Dragging this old thread out from the back of the closet...
Well, that player didn't go for dark-druid, but I've still been wondering about all the NPC dark/mad druids. My current thinking is that this is not the first time Nyrissa tried to break into the world to obtain Briar.
Maybe twenty years ago, she tried to gain it through human agents, and in the process of failing, she drove them to varying degrees of madness (Bokken's brother, Old Beldame, bear-priest, Stag Lord's father, another old noble they've met).
One of the PCs in my game had parents who were adventurers, I think they participated in breaking up Nyrissa's game then, and I can leave her a few clues about that attempt.
I like the concept, & it's started a thought process of my own... :(
However - Involving a PCs parents is a great lead in. You could have one
of them die (peacfully intheir sleep for a change!), & the other parent
give the PC the deceased one's old adventuring journal... Saying "Mum
would have wanted you to have this"...kinda deal. Clues about within!
Maybe instead of parents it was an uncle or aunt, who recognises a kindred
spirit in the PC - & leaves all of their old adventuring gear to the PC in
their will...? Who knows - your call.
Out of ideas, need to make my dinner...then roll off & be a player for a change.
Rise of the Rune Lords with my Half-Orc Witch - Grak! yeehaaa!
You have to remember the Stolen lands are not a nice place.
This is where the bandits, monsters and just plain wrong people go to hide, so it's reasonable that many of the people you meet there are not going to be shining examples of their type.
It's basically the Badlands until your party cleans the place up and gets it safe for settlement.
Philip: way ahead of you on that, Dad's still alive, Mom's been missing since the PC was 6, and older half-brother sent one of Mom's journals to the PC in the last session.
Next session, someone might show her the Secret Page spell on some of that--> foreshadowing for some sites in RRR.
Mum could have been living in the Fae realms all this time - & barely have
aged a year since she disappeared.
I'll be running something similar with one of my PCs - except the reverse.
He'll disappear for 4-5 years (during kingdom building), but have aged at
3 times that...give or take... :)
He'll also be coming back as a 'changed' man... Bum Bum Buuummmmm! :)
Perhaps as in my case - the influence won't have been 'N's - but rather
someone opposed to her. Someone unable/not allowed to interfere directly?
Don't forget, you've also got Akiros & possibly Kesten who have dark secrets
in their past...
Maybe you could approach each of your players (individually & telling them
that they're the only one you're approaching *evil grin*) & ask them to
provide you with a DARK SECRET FROM THEIR PAST... Ok - maybe heavy handed,
but if I didn't use all caps, would it make it more bearable?
You could then engineer into the story that ALL of the movers & shakers are
actually pawns of some sort of higher power...
Ok, going now. Last night it was to play (Grak didn't die = good), tonight
it's to drink - as I've just applied for a new job that pays 1/3 more
than my current one & I think I have an Ok chance at getting it...
ooooo-- I'd been thinking of Mom as dead, but being in Faerie is something I hadn't considered. I'm toying with having her changed into Evindra, but that seems too much.
I've already revealed Akiros' dark backstory-- I shifted him into one PC's missing older brother.
I'd asked players for lots of background ideas before we started, I got a full response from 2 players, partial response from 1 player, and nothing from the other 3; they're just here to hack stuff and take loot. As for secrets, dark or otherwise, I only got the one, so I'm running with that.
Currently, I'm wondering how to tweak Old Beldame, since they'll probably run into her next session. Right now, she seems like she's just plunked down there, and doesn't interact with the rest of the world.
I have her as an in-game resource on the Fey for my players. She
is after all a Fey Blooded Sorceress. I came up with the tying her in, in
this way, after I began working with one of my players about his PC travelling
into the Fey realms.
He's coming back changed - so mightent the same thing have happened to her?
He's unknowingly chosen the winter gate (I had him choose from a picture
of 3 different 'gates' into other realms), so will actually be picked up,
mentored (read tortured...heh heh heh) by agents of winter, & sent back
to oppose 'N' without knowing that's what he's doing...
So - for the Old Beldame, she'll either be from the wildfae camp, or summer -
haven't decided which yet.
The party (esp this player) have already met her, charmed (not magically),
& assisted her - so she told them that if they were ever in trouble close
to her home, "Just to call out my name". They've done so once & a pixie
arrived within a few rounds...but they 'haven't remembered(?)' since...
One of those things I guess - it's really only that player who's actually
into RP, the rest just turn up with character concepts which have no
personality & don't intereact with the 'world' just the event you place in
front of them...sigh... I'm a sucker for punishment...because I keep trying.
I used Nyrissa for a reason that there are strange magical plants, animals, and locations in the Stolen Lands. I put awakened animals, fey pools, and made the fangberries and radishes magical due to First World energy slipping over into Golarion.
Any dark corruption either in the Fey or the land is happening due to Old Gods from the Dark Tapestry reaching through a sealed portal on Candlemere. Just another reason for the party to stop the big V before he discovers Candlemere.
This does muddy the waters a bit as far as who the real villian is, so if your players prefer a direct storyline, it may not work so well.
Perhaps you could have druids and other forest folk going mad because the competing influences of the two worlds are each pulling them in a different direction.
Perhaps you could have druids and other forest folk going mad because the competing influences of the two worlds are each pulling them in a different direction.
