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I need some advice for how to makes this story better. What can I add with roleplay to make this a more fun experience?
Shades of Ice One and Two were magnificent for the setting. But this one... it just feels blah, and I need some advice for how to breathe some life into it so that it just does not fall flat.
Hmm
I need some advice for how to makes this story better. What can I add with roleplay to make this a more fun experience?
The first 4 encounters aren't very great (A through D) but it can be interesting if they try to talk with the natives. They don't speak common, so you can have an interesting time with players trying to pantomime. That might be fun, depending upon how into it your players are willing to be.
The "Tale of the Snowmask Clan" challenge should be played up exactly as that -- a skill challenge, and I'd accept the module's advice to award circumstance bonuses based upon player participation.
That gives you 1 to 3 potentially goofy/fun player acting moments. That's good, because the fights aren't difficult, so roleplay fun is about all you've got so far.
For the final fight, it flat-out killed my character the first time I played through (I suffered a crit from that flaming burst greataxe, insta-dead). However, as a GM almost all my run-thoughs have been underwhelming. Without a crit, that final fight is boring, especially if the PCs got help from the tribe. They can then just overwhelm the enemy, fast. Players will be left asking, "But I thought we might get a dragon fight...?"
So I've made sure to have the NPCs be antagonizing gits. This doesn't change any part of the fight, but it helps the players to feel that extra booyah! when they win. Also, I take full advantage of the tactics listed -- she should have True Strike and use Hand of the Acolyte to hurl that axe through the air at someone casting, or if the True Strike is expiring, hurl it at the nearest weak target -- and she can afford to attack defensively for a +2 to AC (-4 to attack roll but who cares with that big bonus from True Strike). That opening attack seems to frame the fight -- even without a critical hit, you're probably going to hit even a high AC character, and her AC will be a little higher too, and that combo seems to make players go "Whoa. She's tough. Be careful!" She's a glass cannon and probably dies fast after that, but if you can spam some negative energy maybe that helps the fight to seem more scary?
However, that's not really role play. That's just mechanics of a fight. At the end of the fight, you can play up the interactions with the tribe over Jedrek's Shard. Text about that is in the conclusion. If you have time to role play it, it's a tension-filled debate. Maybe.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Minnesota—Minneapolis
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Rather than make the tribe antagonistic, I had them take pride in combat ability. Since my group talked of wanting revenge on the traitors, the chief offered to stay back while the group did so.
When two of the mooks fled, the chief blew a horn and tried to pantomime that the players didn't need to pursue the fleeing cowards. Once they were back at camp, a more complete explanation was given.
The story is weak here, as is the background. Hmm and I took the concept of the tribe protecting the tomb in The Mummy and adapted it to here. It was still weak, but at least that was somewhat better and fit what was written.
Rather than make the tribe antagonistic
Just to be clear, when I wrote this:
I've made sure to have the NPCs be antagonizing gits.
...I was referring to the NPCs at the final fight -- in other words, the evil woman that you fight. The enemy. Not the tribe.
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There is a lot of importance in having the players listen to and appreciate Chief Hiryla's story (read it slowly, and at a good volume), as it explains a good bit about the events in the first 2 parts of the series, and prepares them for the stakes of the final battle of the trilogy.
Sometimes GMs fall into the trap of rushing through walls of text, but you'll want to make certain that doesn't happen here.
Venture-Captain, Minnesota
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My group had an epic encounter with Chief Hiryla. They had just survived the auroch stampede, and the whole tribe was very impressed with the witch that failed to make the climb check and faced the stampede fearlessly head on.
(This was not the witch's interpretation of the event, which made it all the funnier.)
They called her "She who was trampled by aurochs... and lived!" or "Hoof face" for short, and brought the Pathfinders in for the storytelling session. One of the players asked if he could use his perform flute, and he and another character acted out their entire previous adventures, with the flute player acting out all the flute music, including a fast and furious melody for the auroch stampede. It was so marvelous I gave them their full RP bonus, and they got swept up in the whole exchange of tales.
It really saved what was otherwise a really lackluster adventure for me.
Hmm