Reading the Haunting of Harrowstone I meet with that question. The Profesor Lorrimor is the main reason for the PCs involving in the adventure (and the campaign), but we know nothing of him. The information we have is:
+ He is a sage and profesor (with some clues of supernatural interest but nothing clear).
+ He is a mage of some talent (level 7).
+ He live fifteen years in Ravengro (moved from Lepidstadt).
+ He have a twenty five years daughter.
I think that a brief biography of this NPC will be a great help for the DMs.
Thanks in advance and please excuse me for my poor english.
Really none of the information given about the profesor can be considered spoiler. A little vague will seem perfect to me, but the case is that the profesor is left totally no covered.
Yes, the backstories or the DM can givbe him background perfectly, but I think he's a figure sufficiently important to require more background in the campaign.
Thanks in advance and please forgive me for my poor english.
Well, from the Player's Guide, you can learn from the various class writeups that he's basically gone everywhere and done everything. (not useful, I know)
Alignment:
Associates:
He used to be professor (or at least a lecturer) at Lepidstadt and has many friends from there. I assume we'll get more information on him in book 2 (even if it's just a vague "this is what Lepidstadt people are like"). I'm waiting for book 2 to come out before I start this AP. Furthermore,
Religion:
Wes (the developer of this AP) came on the boards and said the professor was a devoted follower of Pharasma, and this explains why he is morally opposed to being raised from the dead.
But you're right, there's not much.
But I think its good that Professor Lorrimor is left a little vague; it means that the players can help build a picture of him with their backstories :).
That's exactly the point Alex. He is the guy who worked with each PC that one time when they where over there. He's the everyman granddad/adviser/mentor the PCs need to hook them into coming to Ravengro. Once you know what your PCs need him to be, feel free to flesh him out however you please with no fear of us contradicting you later in the AP or future products.
Alignment:
** spoiler omitted **
Based on the player's guide (and thus not a spoiler) I consider him to be a classic adventurer. I don't mean a PC, but someone who explores new lands, discovers new people for nothing more then curiosity and loot. The fact he's helped good aligned people simply meant that at the time those people had something he wanted (adventure, safety in numbers to explore a new area).
That said, I can see him making friends and helping those friends out in their time of need. This might have pushed him towards good aligned (at least guaranteed he wasn't neutral evil), but it wasn't motivated by doing for the sake of good, but instead helping out friends who in the past had helped him.
That said, that's simply my take. The AP might provide more information that makes him more good aligned then I'm giving him credit for. But regardless of what the AP says, when I run it I won't let his alignment stop him from going on a fun adventure when the opportunity arose (so at best he would probably be chaotic good if not just chaotic neutral).
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IMC, in Ravenloft, Lorrimor is a friend of Van Richten, an iconic NPC most players met in game. This helps a lot in making the professor even more friendly in the PCs' eyes.
Joël
Reading the Haunting of Harrowstone I meet with that question. The Profesor Lorrimor is the main reason for the PCs involving in the adventure (and the campaign), but we know nothing of him. The information we have is:
+ He is a sage and profesor (with some clues of supernatural interest but nothing clear).
+ He is a mage of some talent (level 7).
+ He live fifteen years in Ravengro (moved from Lepidstadt).
+ He have a twenty five years daughter.I think that a brief biography of this NPC will be a great help for the DMs.
Thanks in advance and please excuse me for my poor english.
Think Rudolph Van Richten
IMC, in Ravenloft, Lorrimor is a friend of Van Richten, an iconic NPC most players met in game. This helps a lot in making the professor even more friendly in the PCs' eyes.Joël
Did you add Ustalav as its own domain or running the AP out of another? I imagine Darkon would work well.
Indeed, in Ravenloft I did set Harrowstone (renamed the village after the prison) about 1 1/2 day north east of Martira Bay, in Darkon.
As I'd like to do the whole CC campaign, I'll check the others APs before I decide in which domain to put these, but I think #2 could be set in Lamordia.
Joël
Indeed, in Ravenloft I did set Harrowstone (renamed the village after the prison) about 1 1/2 day north east of Martira Bay, in Darkon.As I'd like to do the whole CC campaign, I'll check the others APs before I decide in which domain to put these, but I think #2 could be set in Lamordia.
Joël
I was just about to say #2 is tailor made for Lamordia based on what I've seen. I'm taking the approach of running the AP within Ustalav itself and I'm mulling over the possibilities of either 1) making it its own domain or 2) it becomes a new domain during the course of the AP or 3) keeping i separate and running Pathfinder and Ravenloft as separate worlds. I'm leaning towards option 2 for sheer dramatic potential and storyline possibilities.
I was just about to say #2 is tailor made for Lamordia based on what I've seen. I'm taking the approach of running the AP within Ustalav itself and I'm mulling over the possibilities of either 1) making it its own domain or 2) it becomes a new domain during the course of the AP or 3) keeping i separate and running Pathfinder and Ravenloft as separate worlds. I'm leaning towards option 2 for sheer dramatic potential and storyline possibilities.
Indeed, in Ravenloft I did set Harrowstone (renamed the village after the prison) about 1 1/2 day north east of Martira Bay, in Darkon.As I'd like to do the whole CC campaign, I'll check the others APs before I decide in which domain to put these, but I think #2 could be set in Lamordia.
Joël
The reason I chose Ravenloft is that I have an ongoing Ravenloft campaign (started 2003) and so I will try to add as much as I can from CC in it, providing the rest is as good as CC#1.
And I will add many Ravenloft NPC, retrofit the 5 major criminals to Ravenloft background, add my own campaign story arcs, etc.
The fun planning part for a DM :)
Joël
I was just about to say #2 is tailor made for Lamordia based on what I've seen. I'm taking the approach of running the AP within Ustalav itself and I'm mulling over the possibilities of either 1) making it its own domain or 2) it becomes a new domain during the course of the AP or 3) keeping i separate and running Pathfinder and Ravenloft as separate worlds. I'm leaning towards option 2 for sheer dramatic potential and storyline possibilities.
Indeed, in Ravenloft I did set Harrowstone (renamed the village after the prison) about 1 1/2 day north east of Martira Bay, in Darkon.As I'd like to do the whole CC campaign, I'll check the others APs before I decide in which domain to put these, but I think #2 could be set in Lamordia.
Joël
The reason I chose Ravenloft is that I have an ongoing Ravenloft campaign (started 2003) and so I will try to add as much as I can from CC in it, providing the rest is as good as CC#1.
And I will add many Ravenloft NPC, retrofit the 5 major criminals to Ravenloft background, add my own campaign story arcs, etc.
The fun planning part for a DM :)
Joël
Nice long campaign! I was in a Ravenloft campaign from '89-96 and that's the group that reformed to run this AP.
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As I'd like to do the whole CC campaign, I'll check the others APs before I decide in which domain to put these, but I think #2 could be set in Lamordia.
Speaking purely as one Ravenloft fan to others, here's how I might set it.
First, I'd keep it as the kind of tour through several lands that it's set up to be in Ustalav, so the following would be best for parties that don't mind walking.
I'd probably start things of in "The Haunting of Harrowstone" in Mordent, having the PCs drawn to Mordentshire or other town not on the map (even Ravengro itself) in much the same way as it's set up in the Carrion Crown Player's Guide, having them be related in some way to a scholarly ally in town, whether it be Van Richten or one of his near equally learned allies. From there, it'd be an easy thing to place Harrowstone outside of the town or nearby. The adventure could proceed pretty much as normal from there.
From there, we get into "Trial of the Beast", which starts with a good long overland journey and some encounters along the way. The PCs could meet the traveling freak show while they're passing through Dementlieu then go on to Ludendorf, which would take the place of Lepidstadt. From there the adventure can progress pretty much as normal, subbing in Schloss Mordenheim for Schloss Caromarc. (Whoa, that's all fits creepily well... I SWEAR it wasn't planned like that and that this is TOTALLY the first time I'm thinking about this. *awkward chuckle* Anyway.)
After that we get into "Broken Moon" territory, but there's no way I'd have the campaign swing all the way back down to Verbrek. Rather, I think I'd use the Forest of Shadows as the Shudderwood and use Corvin or a community on Lake Placid or Redleaf Lake as the Ascanor Lodge. From there I'd swing south to use the City of the Dead as Felgrau.
Departing from there there's another good long journey to the coast with "Wake of the Watcher". The problem here is that the closet coast is way farther away in Ravenloft than it is in Ustalav. I'd probably just hunker down and use Nevuchar Springs as Thrushmoor and then put Illmarsh farther away to the south, somewhere halfway between Nevuchar Springs and the border with Nova Vaasa on the coast of the Nocturnal Sea.
With the trip to Ravenloft Illmarsh taking us halfway down the coast, the closet cosmopolitan center to sub in for Caliphas in "Ashes at Dawn" would be Egertus. That adventure could play out there with little trouble nearly unchanged if you don't mind giving the city a bit of a vampire problem. Though, since it's already set up as a serial killer murder mystery, you might be able to spin Malken in there somewhere.
For the climax with "Shadows of Gallowspire" things get a little trickier. Thinks wrap up in a cursed mountainous wasteland. If you want to play things close to the way the AP presents them heading into Barovia and Mount Sawtooth might be a good place to drop Renchurch and Gallowspire, or even on to Forlorn, or even the mountains of Hazlik since that seems like good grounds for liches. This close to Castle Ravenloft, though, it gets pretty tempting to pull Strahd into the mix, and I might start thinking about respinning the whole plot as some new gambit by Strahd to escape the Demiplane of Dread by collecting and distilling essences from points of power across the domains into an elixir that would allow him to transcend, escape, or even become one of the Dark Powers. Runchurch could be near the village of Barovia and then you could sub in Castle Ravenloft and a fight with Strahd as the big badness at the end.
Actually... that sounds pretty @#$%in' sweet!
All of that said, having hopefully proven my Ravenloft cred, I'd also totally recommend checking out Rule of Fear. That's not to trick you into buying into a new campaign setting, but rather because - understanding that new Ravenloft RPG supplements are hard to come by these days - Rule of Fear has a ton of stuff that you might be able to fit into that campaign setting with ease.
Any way you decide to work this, be sure to tell us about it here. Heck this is probably worth starting up a new thread over, as I suspect there's plenty of other die hard Ravenloft fans out there for whom this might be right up their alley.
As I'd like to do the whole CC campaign, I'll check the others APs before I decide in which domain to put these, but I think #2 could be set in Lamordia.Speaking purely as one Ravenloft fan to others, here's how I might set it.
** spoiler omitted **...
I've decided to run the entire CC in Ustalav as the more I read on it, the more I like it (already pre-ordered Rule of Fear) but I might have the mists claim Ustalav as a new domain at some point on that I haven't decided. I guess it will depend on if, at some point in the AP, it just feels right for the mists to claim it. Golarion as a whole is a very well done world so I may just as easily keep the two separate.
Our group will always be huge Ravenloft fans, but Carrion Crown brought us back to the gaming table for the first time in a decade. We may very well therefore to make Golarion our new home, with intermittent Ravenloft campaigns from time to time.
Well welcome aboard then, sir! The Dark Powers would be pleased. ^_~
Well welcome aboard then, sir! The Dark Powers would be pleased. ^_~
Come to think of it, the Grand Conjunction/Grim Harvest story arcs would be a pretty good source of inspiration for a "Return of the Whispering Tyrant campaign." I'm going to have to work on that a little. . .
As you might be able to tell from my obscure Ravenloft reference of a message board ID, I also plan on running Carrion Crown in Ravenloft. Except only the last half. And with Castles & Crusades. I know. But it might work. Since my PCs are already 8th level no point in doing the earlier parts.
This is how I envision it . . .
The DPs, knowing that Vecna escaped only through a loophole, are trying to use another one to bring him back - something about if enough of his worshipers want him back on the Demiplane and conduct an obscure ritual, he'll be back. So they've arranged for some of his particularly fanatical followers from Cavitius - which still exists under another darklord - to learn of this ritual, and have brought them through the Mists to the Core to facilitate the assembly of the various parts of the plot so that it can be completed successfully. The first three parts have happened "off-screen" (possibly with a yet-to-be-played group of PCs) in Falkovnia, Lamordia, and Verbrek respectively.
The fourth and fifth parts of the AP will take place in Darkon, with Illmarsh on the coast of the Nocturnal Sea and Ashes at Dawn in one of the more cosmopolitan eastern cities (probably Martira Bay), with the PCs employed by Lady Kazandra of the Kargat to solve the vampire killing problem (with Jander Sunstar as the murderer). The sixth part, on the other hand, will take place back in Citadel Cavitius, as the PCs race to stop the Cult of Vecna from bringing him back to the Realm of Dread, possibly reduced in power this time but still powerful enough to beat the living daylights out of them.
Obviously, since none of these parts of the AP are out yet, it will be difficult to know how well this adaptation will work, but I'll make changes as I find out more about the AP.
As I'd like to do the whole CC campaign, I'll check the others APs before I decide in which domain to put these, but I think #2 could be set in Lamordia.Speaking purely as one Ravenloft fan to others, here's how I might set it.
** spoiler omitted **...
That's cool, thank you Wes :)
And Rule of Fear is already preordered a while ago :)
I thought of Mordent as the starting place, with the ghost theme, but with Godefroy's Gryphon Hill's ghost attraction, it changes the players's motivation. The players might say let them open the gate, and see how many get attracted by the House on Gryphon Hill, we'll fight what's left.
So I set Harrowstone in Darkon, I think it fitted the "baron who wanted revenues" theme. Azalin might have let them do it, as it provided another experiment/distraction for him.
A traveling freakshow in AP#2? :) I thought about Lamordia (golem theme) because I wanted to add to the Whispering Dudes the roguish Emil Bolenbach, the golem creator, or if that doesn't fit, as a "fan" who wants to know how it was created (or it could be Mordenheim himself). But Bollenbach could show elsewhere too.
Same for #3, I might add a famous villain to the cabal, or as a sometimes collaborator, Natalia Vorishkova, if that's not too far fetched.
And the one with abberations screams possibly for a link with the domain we crafted for the "under" Nocturnal Sea, in our NS Gazetteer (see the Fraternity's Library). Virundus is the undersea domain leader of Shay-Lot, NE Colossal aberration (aquatic), stuck in his throne room prison.
But I need to read the rest of the serie in order to set locations and NPC permanently.
Joël
My version of Petros is a bit more active. (At least, he was before he was dead.)
50 years later, Petros is one of the grandmasters of the Palatine Eye. He is killed fighting agents of TWW as they summon TSM's ghost for information that he had in life. Forseeing that he would likely fall one day, he had recruited the next generation of the Palatine Eye (though they don't know that yet) over the years, putting them in his will.
His soul is currently being held by TSM as his payment for the knowledge to TWW, hence Kendra is unable to resurrect him. If the PCs are able to recover his soul, he will likely play a Professor X role to them.
TSM is also way more active in my campaign. He already attacked them once in Kendra's house, trying to get Petros's journal. (It got destroyed by an errant explosive bomb from our alchemist, so now no one gets it.) Fortunately for them, Petros set up a series of wards to protect Kendra and the PCs in the house, which is now active.