My group has proven to be as unruly as I expected they would, despite the fact that they have made a genuine effort to "game seriously" for this adventure path.
First of all, they went straight to Harrowstone, without much investigation in Ravengro. Their logic was thus - We suspect foul play in Petros Lorrimor's death, therefore we will investigate where he was found. So they know virtually nothing about any of the subjects they might have investigated in Ravengro, and missed all of the events that would take place there.
What I need to do is two-fold. First of all, get them some info that they will find useful in the remainder of the adventure path. Then, ensure that they reach the appropriate level to succesfully continue, considering that they have missed out on about half of the experience they should have gotten.
They have not entirely completed Harrowstone yet, but they will have this week. My thinking was that I could put someone in the dungeon that escapes and kidnaps Kendra Lorrimor, perhaps carrying her away to Saffron House where they must rescue her. I was thinking that it should be a member of the Whispering Way that accidentally got trapped inside Harrowstone somehow, but escapes while the PCs fight one of the five main ghosts.
Does anyone have a suggestion as to how I might accomplish this? Is there a particular monster that could co-exist with/ hide from the undead of Harrowstone for 18 days and still have been part of the Whispering Way delegation that stole the warden's ghost?
Or is there some other ideas that anyone has?
Thanks in advance for the help!
The PCs are camping at Harrowstone instead of walking back down to a comfortable bed and a hot meal in Ravengro which is like 15 minutes away?
I wouldn't give them any information, to be honest. They eschewed it. At the same time, however, did you have Kendra suggest researching, have the town be presented as important and did you have Kendra suggest researching what they might be getting into again before they went? If nobody brought up looking through the books, and they read the Professor's Journal which explicitly suggests looking through the books for what he was looking for, and ignored it... well, they can rot.
So they're just going through Harrowstone for no reason at all? "There are ghosts here-- do any of them know about the Professor's death" is their goal? That's... wacky.
I can't think of a good way to really present that. The PCs, if they're camping at Harrowstone and refusing to go to Ravengro, will likely not return, so they'll likely never learn that Kendra was kidnapped. There's not much you can do.
dlaw008 wrote:
What I need to do is two-fold. First of all, get them some info that they will find useful in the remainder of the adventure path. Then, ensure that they reach the appropriate level to succesfully continue, considering that they have missed out on about half of the experience they should have gotten.
There's not that much info that you need for the rest of the AP, though. Harrowstone is pretty self-contained. Basically it's "these cultist guys have taken the jailer's ghost for some unknown purpose".
The xp, yeah, that's a thing. Need a side trek or two.
If they're not totally ghosted out, Hangman's Noose is an excellent horror adventure for low (1st or 2nd) level characters. You do need to run it in a town, mind.
dlaw008 wrote: Is there a particular monster that could co-exist with/ hide from the undead of Harrowstone for 18 days and still have been part of the Whispering Way delegation that stole the warden's ghost?
Another undead, of course. A wight or a ghoul, say. (Note that Pathfinder allows these bad boys to acquire class levels.) Make him CR 4 or 5.
The Whispering Way believes that humanity is just the precursor or larval stage for becoming undead. So, they all want to eventually become powerful, self-willed undead -- liches or vampires. A WW cultist who ended up as a wight or a ghoul would probably be mocked as a pathetic failure (at least by those with a CR higher than his). So, that could explain him getting left behind... if the rest of the WW were higher level, they'd view him as expendable; if low level mooks, then they were probably heartily sick of his nasty temper and bad attitude, and delighted to see him get stuck. So, he'd be cranky as hell, even on top of the standard undead unpleasantness.
Flavor: add a trap... say, a portcullis-style gate. Have him be crushed and impaled under it. When the PCs show up, he plays possum, pretending to be a mere corpse, in the hope that the PCs will free him. The PCs may reasonably assume this is a trap that somebody else sprung. (But who? Who is this guy?) Give him a Bluff or Stealth check against their Perception, with maybe a +2 modifier for him if they don't examine the "body" closely.
If he fails, well, he can try bargaining his way out -- maybe with some information about the Splatter Man, say. If he succeeds, well then: the PCs lift up the gate, releasing him. (Say they have to lift it to pass.) And when the PCs come back... ha ha, the body is gone. That should make them thoughtful.
Doug M.
Ice Titan wrote: ... well, they can rot. I totally agree...looks like your players are used to Go to A, Kill B and then go to C....
I would use one of the Haunts and KILL the hole group OFF. Then after the shock settled a bit, they awake. Its the morning of the Funeral....
I would make sure the players KNOW that CC is NOT a Hack-and-slay. If you let it pass you will have lots of more trouble in the following modules. tHoH is a good prep for them to understand research, preparation etc.
E.g.: I have my players write down every piece of equipment they have and say where it is. Its not like they have a Golf-cart and a caddy. Resulting in the point that they actually forgot Rope @ Kiandra’s and had to go back...
PS: Camping anywhere in Harrowstone but The wardens office should result in a sleepiness night and s allot of wandering monsters...Thats how you would have kept the PC out and in Ravanegro.
Actually you guys have the wrong impression of my group. They are headstrong and prone to chaos for sure, but we come from a solid role playing background. This is our first pathfinder game after years of champions, world of darkness, Dresden files, fiasco, houses of the blooded, etc. They treated Prof Lorrimor's death like a murder mystery. They questioned the locals about who had motive, who was acting strangely, and so forth. To their way of thinking investigating the scene of the crime was the obvious next step. I don't want to punish them for trying just because they completely whiffed.
dlaw008 wrote: Actually you guys have the wrong impression of my group. They are headstrong and prone to chaos for sure, but we come from a solid role playing background. This is our first pathfinder game after years of champions, world of darkness, Dresden files, fiasco, houses of the blooded, etc. They treated Prof Lorrimor's death like a murder mystery. They questioned the locals about who had motive, who was acting strangely, and so forth. To their way of thinking investigating the scene of the crime was the obvious next step. I don't want to punish them for trying just because they completely whiffed. Have the Ghost of the Wife of the Warden whisper in their ears as a haunt type encounter before they reach her room... "Know your enemy... Know what you fight against".
You can also change the haunts around slightly so that they are NOT fully dispelled until their names are invoked when they are dispelled... and the wife ghost can confirm they were "quietened for just a rise and fall of the moon, and do still reside, rebellious, within these walls until one who names them and their crimes can quieten them for eternity."
Investigating where the Professor was found dead should be outside the walls to keep them from going in too early. IMC the spirit ranger took the Spirit Planchette and promptly failed his Will save vs the possession! It was awesome. The party alchemist and ninja climbed the wall to the southernmost guard tower to inspect the statue that fell for signs of foul play, but neither had Knowledge (engineering) nor any ranks in Profession (stonemason) to prove the statue was sabotaged.
If they entered the prison and the CR's of the encounters didn't drive them back you probably didn't use the Random Encounter tables enough. Drive them out. The prison doesn't want to be cleansed, so make it act that way!
--SherVrock Holmes
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