Harrow draw in Crown of Fangs (Spoilers)

[Paz]

I tried to keep the subject line intentionally vague to avoid spoilers. My PCs have been playing through CotCT (pretty much as written) and are on the verge of going to the Sunken Queen. At the end of last session, they drew from the Harrow Deck of Many Things. While none of the draws were devastatingly bad (apart from The Idiot, which was immediately countered by the Winged Serpent) I'm hoping that other GMs can give me some advice about the more ambiguous cards.

The Brass Dwarf: the player chose immunity to fire; what would be a good vulnerability to give him? I was thinking of cold.

The Vision: any advice for the true or false vision, presumably relevant to the AP?

The Betrayal: the PC who drew this doesn't have an obvious ally to apply this to; I'm not sure which adventure path NPCs this could be used on without derailing the story somewhat. The PC is a Shoanti; would applying this effect to the Shoanti people as a whole be appropriate?

The Mute Hag: this PC (elven wizard) doesn't have much of a backstory, so I'm stumped on a secret that can be revealed. Any suggestions for an 'entirely believable lie'?

Any advice is gratefully received!

[graywulfe]

Paz wrote:

I tried to keep the subject line intentionally vague to avoid spoilers. My PCs have been playing through CotCT (pretty much as written) and are on the verge of going to the Sunken Queen. At the end of last session, they drew from the Harrow Deck of Many Things. While none of the draws were devastatingly bad (apart from The Idiot, which was immediately countered by the Winged Serpent) I'm hoping that other GMs can give me some advice about the more ambiguous cards.

The Brass Dwarf: the player chose immunity to fire; what would be a good vulnerability to give him? I was thinking of cold.

Spoiler:

The Queen has an Icy Burst weapon so the Cold vulnerability has a chance to see play. As an alternate idea, all of the Boggard champions have thundering weapons so Sonic could make an interesting choice. and don't feel too bad about using the more optimal option, The Erinyes haves flaming burst weapons so his immunity will see play.

Paz wrote:

The Vision: any advice for the true or false vision, presumably relevant to the AP?

I got nothing here, yet. If I think of anything I will post it.

Paz wrote:

The Betrayal: the PC who drew this doesn't have an obvious ally to apply this to; I'm not sure which adventure path NPCs this could be used on without derailing the story somewhat. The PC is a Shoanti; would applying this effect to the Shoanti people as a whole be appropriate?

Spoiler:

My best suggestion here would be Krojun Eats-What-He-Kills, from History of Ashes, if the party made a good impression on him. I would NOT consider applying the effect to the entirety of the Shoanti people as fair or reasonable.

Paz wrote:

The Mute Hag: this PC (elven wizard) doesn't have much of a backstory, so I'm stumped on a secret that can be revealed. Any suggestions for an 'entirely believable lie'?

Again I got nothing here.

Paz wrote:

Any advice is gratefully received!

I hope what I did give helps.

Graywulfe

[Wyrd_Wik]

Oh the deck... one of the most memorable and fun parts of the AP. Led to some interesting developments. Spoilered as a tangent

Spoiler:

One of my players pulled the waxworks I think it was. The one that created 1d6 evil versions of the character who oppose the goals of the original. I asked him to roll a d6 so of course he rolls a 6. Later on they encounter a group of thieves all with a striking resemblance to the PC save they all have dark goatees..

Paz wrote:

The Vision: any advice for the true or false vision, presumably relevant to the AP?

The Betrayal: the PC who drew this doesn't have an obvious ally to apply this to; I'm not sure which adventure path NPCs this could be used on without derailing the story somewhat. The PC is a Shoanti; would applying this effect to the Shoanti people as a whole be appropriate?

The Mute Hag: this PC (elven wizard) doesn't have much of a backstory, so I'm stumped on a secret that can be revealed. Any suggestions for an 'entirely believable lie'?

Any advice is gratefully received!

The visiion I would foreshadow Kazavon rising after the defeat of Ileosa.

Re the betrayal you can bend it somewhat. Did the party slay Sermignatto? He could puppetmaster an ally - Blackjack or Cressida being the likely candidates.
That said if the party is about to go into the Sunken Queen there isn't very much left to derail.

Hag - got nothing. Successor to the rule of a realm? .. not much to go on.

[Paz]

Thanks for your replies, there's some good food for thought there.

Our next gaming session has been postponed a week, so if anyone has additional thoughts, I'm all ears.