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My Kingmaker game has been going on 3 months now. The party is level 7 and in the thick of RRR. I'll get you up to speed on my campaign thus far.
The campaign began in Restov, where the party attended a ceremony during which they were given their charter. They met the other adventuring groups who were also chartered. I took my own liberties with the Iron Wraiths and the fourth group who was hardly even mentioned.
Iron Wraiths: Led by the gallant Ser Warner Lionheart (an homage to a former player of mine, fellow GM and dear friend, Robert Brambley), a Paladin of Iomedae. His group eventually found the monarchy of Galanor in the Glenebon Uplands.
Souls of the Radiant Sun: Led by Dalaegar of the Eternal Flame, a Garundi man from Osirian who claims to have been given divine visions from the Dawnflower. In them, he was tasked with venturing into the Stolen Lands and found a kingdom, from which a holy crusade will be launched that will stave off the tide of an ancient undead horde that will awaken in the region and cause great havoc and suffering. His group of devout followers of the goddess found a theocracy called the Lambent Barony, at the northern tip of Lake Hooktongue.
Varnling Host: didn't change much about his group, however I made up a rather extensive Varn family that holds a great deal of power in the government. I also increased the standing of Maegar and his family within the swordlords as time progresses.
The party ventured out into the Greenbelt and did some exploring using Oleg's as their base. They befriended the Sootscales, found out that Svetlana is into Varisian curses when it comes to Kressle, liberated the temple of the elk, exterminated the Mites, and made friends with Tyg and Perlivash before taking on the Stag Lord.
When it was time to deal with the bandits, they infiltrated the Stag Lord's fort and slit his throat in his sleep and made short work of the rest. Only Dovan escaped.
Since then they have established the city of Crimsondale (no name for the country yet). After 2 and a half years of in game time the city is two districts. Tatzlford has been founded, as has the town of Glimmerscale, located in the Sootscale hex. The kobolds have been made citizens and live in Glimmerscale and in exchange they work the silver mine.
A major event was the 1 year anniversary of the town being founded, which when I ran the Carnival of Tears module. A third of the town's population was wiped out and the party's Magister Iorweth was killed in the battle. In the limbo between death and moving onto the afterlife, Iorweth was visited by a hooded figure cloaked in yellow. He offered to bring back those townspeople who had died in exchange for an unnamed price which he would collect in 10 years, to which Iorweth agreed. The slain townsfolk were revived that night, and only the party members remembered what had actually transpired.
There have been multiple encounters with dark fey that has caused a deep seeded hatred for fey to grow within my party. The Carnival of Tears was particularly excellent at accomplishing this. Oddly enough, the party is still able to give fey that they meet the benefit of the doubt, due to relationships they developed early on from benevolent fey like Tyg & Perlivash, Tiressia and Miri.
They have also encountered Hargulka, who I've made an Advanced Half-Green Dragon, Half Troll. I incorporated DM Dudemeister's fantastic ideas of having him establish a monster kingdom and going out and recruiting monsters to his realm the group encountered him at a banquet the Sootscales held, where he tried and ultimately failed to turn them against the party. The players have discovered the border of his kingdom in the south but have left him alone for over a year now. He has gathered Spriggans, a red scaled kobold tribe, Quicklings, Merrow and Grindylow to his cause thus far.
The players have made a lot of enemies but have also gained allies. They attempted to kill the Old Bedame (unsuccessfully) after breaking into her home while she was on her way home from gathering herbs. They managed to interrogate and turn Grigori into their double agent, having him feed false information to Fort Drelev via carrier birds while actig as town crier for Crimsondale. They have friendly relationships with Mivon, Gralton and Daggermark (to a degree). Galanor is also friendly, with Varnhold and are Lambent Barony on the neutral side for now. They are all still colonies of Restov (Rostland), and I am planning on introducing NPCs from the Brevish noble families and agents thereof soon to stir up some political intrigue as tensions and suspicions in Brevoy grow.
I also took the Old Margreve and inserted it to the south ofthe Greenbelt. It connects the Nalmarches, Embreth forest, and the forest south of Mivon all into one large forest being the Margreve.
There are many more details I've left out so please feel free to ask questions. I'm not at home right now so I can only post so much content without having access to all the details. I plan on elaborating later in future posts in this thread to provide updates and thoughts on future plans for hooks and story ideas.
I'd love to hear any feedback or suggestions. There are a ton of great ideas I've already seen on the Kingmaker boards and plan on incorporating and much as I can, but in the end it's really the players who'll decide which options they want to pursue so we'll see!!
THIS. LOOKS. FANTASTIC.
I find this thread inspiring for my own game! For my own purposes I might make Hargulka an advanced half-red dragon, but reading what has transpired gets me so pumped! Great stuff, DoomCrow!
I take it your players are shying away from the volatile mess that is Brevish politics? Like how does Issia feel about these colonies?
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I take it your players are shying away from the volatile mess that is Brevish politics? Like how does Issia feel about these colonies?
Restov has been actively deceiving the Dragonscale Throne. They were able to prevent news from reaching Issia for almost two years until it was leaked by someone in Restov. Once they found out, Restov spun a story about increased bandit activity that needed to be put down, which Issia does not believe yet applauds Restov officially for dealing with the bandits. They have begun sending agents and members of the families down to gauge the allegiances of the realms in the stolen lands. The overt agents will arrive shortly, but the covert ones have been there for months.
Interesting stuff. I believe, though, that the Iron Wraiths *were* the fourth group that was sent out from Restov. Besides the PCs and the Varnling Host in the east, it was Drelev who was initially sent to the Hooktongue Slough. Did you plan on replacing him with your new group or are you going to work him in some other way? It would probably be easiest to have him as an independent, otherwise you might be doing some very siginificant re-writes come book 4.
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My Kingmaker game has been going on 3 months now. The party is level 7 and in the thick of RRR. I'll get you up to speed on my campaign thus far.
The campaign began in Restov, where the party attended a ceremony during which they were given their charter. They met the other adventuring groups who were also chartered. I took my own liberties with the Iron Wraiths and the fourth group who was hardly even mentioned.
Iron Wraiths: Led by the gallant Ser Warner Lionheart (an homage to a former player of mine, fellow GM and dear friend, Robert Brambley), a Paladin of Iomedae. His group eventually found the monarchy of Galanor in the Glenebon Uplands.
Souls of the Radiant Sun: Led by Dalaegar of the Eternal Flame, a Garundi man from Osirian who claims to have been given divine visions from the Dawnflower. In them, he was tasked with venturing into the Stolen Lands and found a kingdom, from which a holy crusade will be launched that will stave off the tide of an ancient undead horde that will awaken in the region and cause great havoc and suffering. His group of devout followers of the goddess found a theocracy called the Lambent Barony, at the northern tip of Lake Hooktongue.
Varnling Host: didn't change much about his group, however I made up a rather extensive Varn family that holds a great deal of power in the government. I also increased the standing of Maegar and his family within the swordlords as time progresses.
The party ventured out into the Greenbelt and did some exploring using Oleg's as their base. They befriended the Sootscales, found out that Svetlana is into Varisian curses when it comes to Kressle, liberated the temple of the elk, exterminated the Mites, and made friends with Tyg and Perlivash before taking on the Stag Lord.
When it was time to deal with the bandits, they infiltrated the Stag Lord's fort and slit his throat in his sleep and made short work of the rest. Only Dovan escaped.
Since then they have established the city of Crimsondale (no name for the country yet)....
Awesome stuff Doom!! Wow a lot of rewrites huh?! I love it. Keep us posted.
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Interesting stuff. I believe, though, that the Iron Wraiths *were* the fourth group that was sent out from Restov. Besides the PCs and the Varnling Host in the east, it was Drelev who was initially sent to the Hooktongue Slough. Did you plan on replacing him with your new group or are you going to work him in some other way? It would probably be easiest to have him as an independent, otherwise you might be doing some very siginificant re-writes come book 4.
Yes I am ware that the Iron Wraiths are in the AP.. Let me clarify; they were mentioned as the fourth group, however no further details about them were written as far as their members, so I created the members to fill it out.
Hannis Drelev was sent to establish a realm by Natala Surtova, without King Noleski's knowledge. She financed the expedition, suspecting Rostland may do the same, and sent Drelev out to carve out territory and make preparations to take out the Rostlandic competition. Natala has more foresight than her brother and knows that it will be in the frontier-lands where the first battles for control over Brevoy will begin, and Issia cannot afford to lose ground. King Noleski would take the truth about Rostland's activities too harshly and openly accuse the Rostland bloc of noble houses of treason, thus plunging the nation into civil war and destabilizing the region.
Natala wants to prolong this as much as possible while she secures alliances elsewhere to prepare for this war properly. She has been seducing Prince Tzakiv Korya for months with late-night ship-to-ship rendezvous on the Lake of Mists and Veils, whispering promises of rulership over the entire region together should he sail his growing hordes across the lake from Orlov to Rostland when the time comes.
So yes..I plan on making many rewrites.
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I've done some foreshadowing of Nyrissa IMC so far, to give the PCs a bit of a hint as to bigger players in the mix behind some of the enemies they have or currently face.
After defeating the Stag Lord, they found on him one of the rings made from Nyrissa's hair. They were not able to determine the type of creature the hair came from. Later, during the Sootscale feast when they encountered Hargulka, the party's rogue Lumen spotted a similar ring on the half-troll's finger as he stormed out.
The group was not able to glean any information from knowledge checks when they discovered the dead unicorn. However, the party returned one year after discovering it after a new party member, a Fighter/Alchemist called Cat, began having dreams of the scene of the Unicorn's murder by Nyrissa, viewed by Cat as if she were there, but without sound. She could only feel the Unicorn's sense of surprise and betrayal, followed by the pain of it's horn's removal and it's death. After mentioning it to the rest of the party, the group returned and the area was just as Cat had seen. She saw what Nyrissa had looked like, which they began to speculate may be the source behind the rings. Spymistress Lumen dispatched one of her spies to try and gather information on this green haired woman.
Since then, Cat has had another dream. In it, she watches as a human male dressed in a kingly fashion is engaged in lusty behavior with none other than the green haired woman. She has never seen the man or know where they are, but she can tell that they are in a castle. Basically she had a vision of King Iorvetti and his Spirit Naga consort (who takes the form of Nyrissa as per Iorvetti's orders) consorting shall we say. It's a bit of a red herring since it's not actually Nyrissa, but it does point them in the right direction of when they directly encounter Pitax and Iorvetti.
So far they have only gotten periphery information about Pitax. A message came to them from Pitax respectively declining their invitation to Crimsondale's Founders Day festival (during which the Carnival of Tears took place, how convenient). They also are responsible for sending Grigori to cause discord (and ultimately failed) through agents working in deep cover at Fort Drelev (as they continue to infiltrate Drelev's community).
As far as recent events are concerned, the party just finished a series of harrowing adventures. The first stemmed from a Kingdom Building Event (Necromancer). One of my players created a NPC as part of a participation assignment, a young boy named Michael Yesinsky, whose father was a Necromancer of skill. The PC, a nameless Half-Ogre Inquisitor of Abadar, slew Michael's father and he has hated him since, not for the loss of his father but for the loss of Necromantic knowledge he could have gained. Michael became a small time Necromancer, using his dead to rob travelers as he searched the region for more knowledge to advance his art. He wandered into the Stolen Lands, and eventually found a cave in the Nalmarches that had been sealed off. After using his zombies to clear the rubble, he found a black tome bound in skin. He was only able to understand a small portion of the text, but it was enough for him to learn how to create a different kind of zombie (Apocalypse zombies from the Carrion Crown AP bestiary). This zombie had been originally developed in Geb, and it's Zombie Rot was a different strain of the disease which resisted magical removal.
Michael was able to create ten or so of these zombies when the party moved to deal with the Event. The nameless Inquisitor (whom I have dubbed Torquemada) got to the hooded Michael and dispatched him with a Crit which relieved him of his head. Torquemada didn't realize right away that it was Michael, only that the Necromancer was just a boy of 17. (I plan on using Michael later, as you'll see).
Lumen and Cat had become infected with this strain of Zombie Rot (as the zombies pop in a cloud releasing the disease upon death). The disease was faster acting than normal and resisted remove disease. Perplexed, they consulted with an alchemist.
Gareth Trudeaux, a mid-level alchemist answered the call and began to assist the PCs. After conducting some research based on what little the PCs knew about the strain, Gareth discovered that a rare kind of plant, Golden Nettleweed, could inhibit the resistive properties of the disease and allow remove disease to cure the afflicted. The only documented sighting of the plant, however, was in the Central Heart of the great forest in Mivon called the Old Margeve.
Setting out along the Sellen River towards Mivon, the party ventured into the Central Heart of the Margreve. The immense forest (as you remember it's addition IMC from my first post) is wild and untamed, so naturally there are no trails or man made paths to follow. The party set out through the rough brush and nettles in the forest as they journeyed towards the Central Heart. If anyone is familiar with the Margeve, they will know that each section of the forest has it's own powers and effects. One such effect in the Central Heart is that a person walking through the nettles have a chance every few minutes to contract Lycantropy (the forest picks the animal). So Cat, Lumen, the cleric Klath and the oracle Baron Nerle all contract the disease.
After a few days of travel in the forest the party arrives at a waterfall in the Central Heart preceded by a section of rapids. In this section stands a great tree on which grows the Golden Nettleweed. Surrounding the tree in the water stand five rocks that look eerily like people. These are a sect of Druids who long ago sealed away an Elder Vampire beneath their feet under the river bed. In order to complete the ritual, the sacrifice required was their petrification. As a result, no sunlight shines on that patch of land, and the river bed in that area as well as a portion of the river banks are black as ash. The party decided to just get the Golden Nettleweed now and come back to investigate these poor petrified people later. They smartly used a combination of ranged weapons to cut the weed off the vine on the tree and Mage Hand to deliver it across the river to them. They ground the weed into a paste and applied it to rotting areas on the infected, then injected the liquid extract into the afflicted's body. Once this was done, remove disease successfully cured Cat and Lumen. The group then set out for Mivon so they could get a boat ride home.
The next day saw the first night of the full moon. All who were afflicted blacked out and changed: Klath became a Bear, Lumen a wolf, Cat a Python and Nerle a Bat. This left them all unnerved as they awoke and wandered for hours naked before making it back to camp. They all made a pact to never tell anyone else in the group or the kingdom of this. The next two nights went similarly (although some had sense to tie themselves to a tree). After the full moon passed, the group chartered passage on a boat back up the river to Crimsondale.
Since then, they have entertained in their Court two princes (I thank my good friend Robert Brambley for this idea). The first is an Elven Prince who was tricked into giving up his Keep by a devious fey (the keep with the Baobhan Sith). The other is a Dwarven prince with ancestral claims to an ancient dwarven monastery (where the trolls reside). On a side note, since I used this idea and one of my PCs is a dwarf of a different clan, I decided to create a number of Dwarf Clans in the region who. Can be commonly found in Brevoy, the Stolen Lands, the River Kingdoms and other areas.
The Elf offered to swear fealty to Crimsondale should they gain his Keep back for him (he had been cursed by the fey so he would get lost whenever he searched for his Keep). The Dwarf offered Mithril for finding and clearing out the monastery and allow him to establish a realm of his own, which he would gladly ally with Crimsondale.
As of last game, the PCs found the Elven Keep. They defeated all of its inhabitants, including a demonic Satyr bard (one of Nyrissa's agents). Rigg managed to flee with his life intact, but not before inflicting heavy damage. On his initial spring attack he crit Klath the dwarven cleric and severed his spine (PF Crit deck), dealing 3d6 dex damage and leaving him paralyzed with 0 Dex. He was restored back to 7 Dex, but was later poisoned by the Grimstalker and went back to 0 (being a werebear actually saved Klath from being choked to death by the Assassin Vine. As he dipped into unconsciousness the inner bear took over and he changed, breaking the grapple and allowing Lumen to finish it off).
Now the group has rested and is on it's way to to a section of the Nalmarches where Belladonna is said to grow, but is guarded by Hodags who enjoy the taste of the plant after consuming their meat.
Will add some info on Dwarf Clans and other NPCs later.
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I've done some foreshadowing of Nyrissa IMC so far, to give the PCs a bit of a hint as to bigger players in the mix behind some of the enemies they have or currently face.
After defeating the Stag Lord, they found on him one of the rings made from Nyrissa's hair. They were not able to determine the type of creature the hair came from. Later, during the Sootscale feast when they encountered Hargulka, the party's rogue Lumen spotted a similar ring on the half-troll's finger as he stormed out.
The group was not able to glean any information from knowledge checks when they discovered the dead unicorn. However, the party returned one year after discovering it after a new party member, a Fighter/Alchemist called Cat, began having dreams of the scene of the Unicorn's murder by Nyrissa, viewed by Cat as if she were there, but without sound. She could only feel the Unicorn's sense of surprise and betrayal, followed by the pain of it's horn's removal and it's death. After mentioning it to the rest of the party, the group returned and the area was just as Cat had seen. She saw what Nyrissa had looked like, which they began to speculate may be the source behind the rings. Spymistress Lumen dispatched one of her spies to try and gather information on this green haired woman.
Since then, Cat has had another dream. In it, she watches as a human male dressed in a kingly fashion is engaged in lusty behavior with none other than the green haired woman. She has never seen the man or know where they are, but she can tell that they are in a castle. Basically she had a vision of King Iorvetti and his Spirit Naga consort (who takes the form of Nyrissa as per Iorvetti's orders) consorting shall we say. It's a bit of a red herring since it's not actually Nyrissa, but it does point them in the right direction of when they directly encounter Pitax and Iorvetti.
So far they have only gotten periphery information about Pitax. A message came to them from Pitax respectively declining their invitation to Crimsondale's Founders Day...
So, did the cure disease spell cure their lycanthropy also?
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So, did the cure disease spell cure their lycanthropy also?
No. For remove disease to work as a cure it must be cast by a 12th level or higher caster within three days of becoming afflicted, according to the Bestiary. They weren't aware of that knowledge and besides they were still in the forest by the third day outside of Mivon.
Now that they are beyond the three days, the only way to cure the lycanthropy is by consuming Belladonna (which is poisonous), allowing them another saving throw to overcome the affliction, hence the journey to find the Belladonna and deal with the Hodags.
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Here are the Dwarf Clans that the dwarves in the surrounding regions take their names from:
Axehaft
A clan of miners and smelters, these dwarves are beardless by choice, which is very strange to other dwarves. Clan Axehaft has members of the clan experienced in finding veins of ore, as well as gems. They are said to be able to smell ores and gems, and their practice of tapping the rock walls brought about the rumor that the stone tells them where veins and deposits are located.
Symbol – an axe and a cut diamond.
Brawnanvil
The most skilled clan with respects to smithing. These dwarves start working the forges at age 5, as soon as they can lift the lightest hammer. Brawnanvil is known to craft everything (even swords for humans and elves), although their work on axes, hammers, and maces is considered to be beyond comparison. Generally, however, they are considered to be some of the least skilled warriors in the dwarven nations. Known for keeping copious records of dwarven lore.
Symbol – a forge hammer in front of an anvil.
Ironbrew
Brewers and vintners, primarily, as well as glassblowers. Clan Ironbrew creates the world’s finest dwarven spirits (though generally do not allow them to be brought above-ground – the light ruins the potency). They are known for delicacies like mushroom ale, blackwine, and the most potent rye whiskey of all the clans.
Symbol – a bottle next to a mug.
Shalebreaker
Clan Shalebraker is known for it’s ability to excavate tunnels and mines with ease. Known also for their master Earth Wizards, Shalebraker fields brigades of tunnel hunters, dwarves specialized in clearing mines and caverns of vermin and enemies.
Symbol – a hammer amid a mine entrance.
Graygore
A clan mistrusted by all others. Rumors of deals with dark dwarves and dark elves abound, but have never been substantiated. As well, the practice of Necromancy has been rumored to occur within clan holdings.
Symbol – a bloodied fist, dripping blood into a pool.
Foehammer
Oldest and most respected of the Clans back in the Kingdoms of the Five Kings Mountains. This clan is famous for one primary reason – if they ally with another clan in battle, they always demand the vanguard. They specialize in both above- and below-ground combat styles and strategies.
Symbol – a bloodied axe.
I came up with the names (except for Axehaft, which is one of my players and Brawnanvil, which I got from Robert Brambley), and I unearthed some descriptions that matched what I was looking for.
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Original roster of characters:
Nerle, Gnome Oracle of Fire. Haunted by his brother, who he left to burn to death in order to save his possessions and self when his house and village was burned.
Lumen, Halfling Rogue. Past kept under wraps.
Raphael Medvyed, Paladin of Pharasma and third in line of succession to House Medvyed.
Iorweth Aldori, Elven Wizard/Fighter of the Aldori Swordlords.
Helio, Gnome Bard/Paladin of Shelyn.
Brae-tac, Human Druid with a Mammoth animal companion.
Updated Roster:
Duke Nerle [he likes to be called the Duchess (Doo-chess) for some reason]
Spymistress Lumen
Marshal Klath Axehaft of the Axehaft Clan, a male dwarven cleric of Gorum. Iorweth was killed during Carnival of Tears and so the player introduced Klath.
Magistrate (Custom position), a nameless male Half-Ogre Inquisitor of Abadar. Without a name and always masked, he is the Judge who keeps order and seeks justice through the Law in the Courthouse.
Cat, a female Rakshasa Tiefling Fighter/Alchemist. Taken in by a troupe of traveling performers (not the Carnival of Tears).
Maugrim, a male Half-Elf Barbarian. Searches for his father to claim vengeance upon him for killing his mother and grandfather.
Felice, a female Human Sorceress with the Red Dragon bloodline. A bastard of House Rogarvia.
As for the other characters, Raphael is General (NPCc, player left game due to work, schedule and pregnant wife), Helio abandoned the group (player moved away), and Brae-tac is assisting Jhod restore the Temple of the Elk (NPC player chose to play another character since he felt he didn't know how to play a Druid, switched to a sword-n-board fighter, then left game after 2 sessions due to scheduling issues).
Update from last night's game:
Felice was introduced to the party. Group found the Belladonna and the Hodags who guarded it. I used the adjusted stats for the 6 player Hodag and added an extra one for the fight. Fight ended in 5 rounds with an easy PC victory.
Doing some exploration in the hexes near that area, they found more signs designating Hargulka's territory to the south. Deciding to go north, they found Deadman's Drop and the cottage of Tenzekil Braybittle (from Fellnight Queen). The group met Tenzekil prior to his loss in the honey harvesting competition and thus Rhoswen had not contacted him yet. They got to see him as a quirky gnomish Druid who loved his bees and was prepping for the honey competition, which was 2 months away. He even helped prepare the Belladonna for consumption to help cure the afflicted PCs by making it into dissolvable tablets to put into their honeyed tea. As a comedic effect, for some of the hardier folks, he did a zen-master move where he inserted the Belladonna behind their eye directly into the blood/brain barrier with his thumb so they could fail the save vs the Belladonna to receive the save to Cure the Lycanthropy.
Anyway, after that 9 months of downtime from Kingdom building occurred, during which Tenzekil lost the honey competition to Loy Rezbin in Tatzlford. During this downtime the party did various things like research, practicing their skills, getting equipment, etc. They even got a request from their friends in Gralton asking for 100 men to put forth as part of an expedition Galt to destroy one of the Final Blades. Without any armies, some of the PCs decided to go themselves, which I will handle by email as a flashback. Lumen was also able to cure Kundal of his affliction and now he serves her as her bodyguard to repay his blood debt to her.
The downtime ended with an invitation from Loy and Latrisha Rezbin to attend the wedding of Elyin Rezbin, their son, and Kailah in Tatzlford. The game ended with the attack of the thousands of bees descending on the crowd and mass panic taking over.
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Sounds good. We are using the slow progression for ours, and really I'm amazed at how easy most of the encounters have been even @ their lower levels. I did note that towards the end of RRR, the trolls, even with their slow xp track, made the party leap ahead in levels. Level 1-3 seems to CRAWL along with slow track, but 4-6th have been a breeze. For a lot of side treks (a definite plus of slow track, you can sue a LOT of stuff before they become too tough for low level encounters) I made one of the barrows near the forgotten king into a outpost of a long dead dwarven sect charged with guarding a floating iron ring of weird metal (a gate to the nether realms, buncha demon faces forged into the floating ring)). This gave me a chance to use neat critters like the forge-spurned, caryatid columns and the occasional devil that popped out when the guards the PC's stationed there got a little too curious, unleashing those4-legged hell birds :) and once, a bearded devil. They have since sealed the chamber and have made sure road hexes give the area a wide berth. It of course will come into play at higher levels.
I don't know what it is, but they just man-handle groups of up to even 5 trolls at 4th level. They are very melee-oriented (Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Sorcerer). I blame it on their most useful item on the plains...their horses (and a brilliant mule named Dawson). My group seems to prefer little fast changing of the seasons. So much so, they've only got a castle, two houses and an Inn (named The Angry Owlbear, after its rampage crushed the half made Inn and did some damage to the castle).
They've made a bitter enemy in Restove after they killed some knights who were trying to stop peasants from leaving an evil baron's estate for the PC's fledgling town. One was the baron's 3rd son. I also had them gain some prestige by killing a bone hag in the slums of Restove, one that was snatching children in the sewers. We track by the month, but they want more adventure than book-keeping, so I don't see them having any real sized kingdom by the time the other adventures roll around. I do plan on having them visit Issia (the lords there are a little annoyed at the upstart PC's), where they will have to gain favor by finding a lords son from the Black Arrows...and thus the Hook Mtn Massacre.
But I've a bit worried, they really trashed the troll king and goons (and that's with me just giving them items mostly found in the modules. They did make healing belts, but had to kill a troll for each one...I even have one guy spending 5 gp a pop for alchemical fire arrows (+1d6 fire damage)...the Grauls are hardly tough enough based on their crap AC to really rate CR6+.
On a funny side note, they were more interested in getting a Raise Dead to bring back Mugluk, the hill giant who was their doorman, than one of the PC’s killed a few levels back (he went to deliver a horse by himself to the Belldame, and I let him roll for encounters…he rolled up a wyvern…)
Using Obsidian Portal for the adventure log http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/kingmakerinmichigan/adventure-log
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This is the party's capital city, Crimsondale
Crimsondale (Large City)
Alignment: NG
Government: Ruling Council
Corruption: +2 (Modifier to Bluff checks made against city officials or guards and all Stealth checks made outside (but not within buildings or underground)
Crime +0 (Modifier to Sense Motive Checks to avoid being bluffed and Sleight of Hand checks made to pick pockets)
Economy: +4 (Modifier to all Craft, Perform, and Profession checks made to generate income)
Law: +0 (Modifier to Intimidate checks made to force an opponent to act friendly, Diplomacy checks made against government officials, and Diplomacy checks made to call the City Guard)
Lore: +2 (Modifies Diplomacy checks made to gather information and Knowledge checks made using city resources to do research using in a library)
Society: +6 (Modifier to Disguise checks and Diplomacy checks made to alter the attitude of any non-government official)
Qualities: Insular, Rumormongering Citizens, Prosperous, Strategic Location, Magically Attuned
Danger: 10
Defense Modifier: 32
Population: 12,750; Districts: 2
Highest Level Spell available for purchase from spellcasters in town: 9th
Base Value: 16,000 gp (Any magic item equal to or lower than this base value in cost is available for purchase 75% of the time. Any nonmagical item from the equipment chapter in the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook is always available if its cost is lower than the city’s base value. Cities with multiple districts add the individual base values of each district together to determine the entire city’s base value, with an upper limit of 16,000 gp per city.)
Purchase Limit: 90,000 gp (The most money a shop in the city can purchase a single item from the party)
Buildings: Academy, Barracks, Black Market, Brothel, Castle, Cathedral (Abadar), Courthouse, Garrison, Guildhall, House (12), Inn, Mansion, Market, Mill, Monument, Noble Villa, Park, Shop, Shrine (Pharasma, Gorum), Tavern, Temple (Sarenrae), Town Hall, Waterfront, Watchtower, Winery
This is the party's capital city, Crimsondale
** spoiler omitted **...
All right. Give it up! How'd you do the map? I want details! Looks awesome and I'd love to do something similar...
Please? For cookies?
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My player used a Wacom tablet and a decent art program, and his hands did the rest.
As far as that other program goes, it's great except that the file is a webpage and not a picture, so you'd have to host it on a site or zip the file and email it to your players.
I was going to use it but my player came to me with his modifications and we went with that.
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The next thing I want to address is Hargulka's Monster Kingdom.
IMC, Hargulka isn't as he's portrayed in the AP. Much like in Dudemeister's game, my Hargulka is more intelligent, more cold and calculating and most importantly he's getting support from Nyrissa and her agents. I am taking Hargulka farther in my game, however, which is what I'll address now.
As I mentioned earlier, I've made Hargulka an Advanced Half-Green Dragon Troll. Presently my party has met him at the Sootscale feast and has discovered the sign-posted border of his kingdom, but have decided to leave him alone for now. It's been almost two years since they met him and I plan on advancing him to maintain his status as a threat to the group and their kingdom. Initially I thought about adding fighter levels and giving him levels in rogue as well, but at this point I am uncertain.
I also went ahead and created a Court for King Hargulka as I build his kingdom using the Kingdom Building rules. I'll give you the preliminary lineup:
Leadership for the Monster Kingdom of Hargul
Ruler - Hargulka
Councilor - Xizor, Will-o-Wisp (sent by Nyrissa as an advisor)
Grand Diplomat - Lucretia, Lamia Matriarch Sorceress
General - Nagrundi (reworked his stats and made him an Antipaladin of Lamashtu)
Magister - Elpis, Night Hag Witch
High Priestess - Mother Makoa, female Ogre Magi Cleric of Lamashtu
Spymaster - Riel, Female Green Widow Changeling Bard
Royal Assassin - Shred, Dark Stalker Rogue/Shadow Dancer/Assassin
Marshal - Borkov, Male Merrow Ranger (Leader of the Grindylow tribe)
Treasurer - Scrimjaw, Male Redcap (not sure what to do with this guy)
Warden - Kargadd, Rock Troll Barbarian
When I stat out everyone I'll be sure to post, along with my finished kingdom stats for Hargul.
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The next thing I want to address is Hargulka's Monster Kingdom.
IMC, Hargulka isn't as he's portrayed in the AP. Much like in Dudemeister's game, my Hargulka is more intelligent, more cold and calculating and most importantly he's getting support from Nyrissa and her agents. I am taking Hargulka farther in my game, however, which is what I'll address now.
As I mentioned earlier, I've made Hargulka an Advanced Half-Green Dragon Troll. Presently my party has met him at the Sootscale feast and has discovered the sign-posted border of his kingdom, but have decided to leave him alone for now. It's been almost two years since they met him and I plan on advancing him to maintain his status as a threat to the group and their kingdom. Initially I thought about adding fighter levels and giving him levels in rogue as well, but at this point I am uncertain.
I also went ahead and created a Court for King Hargulka as I build his kingdom using the Kingdom Building rules. I'll give you the preliminary lineup:
Leadership for the Monster Kingdom of Hargul
Ruler - Hargulka
Councilor - Xizor, Will-o-Wisp (sent by Nyrissa as an advisor)
Grand Diplomat - Lucretia, Lamia Matriarch Sorceress
General - Nagrundi (reworked his stats and made him an Antipaladin of Lamashtu)
Magister - Elpis, Night Hag Witch
High Priestess - Mother Makoa, female Ogre Magi Cleric of Lamashtu
Spymaster - Riel, Female Green Widow Changeling Bard
Royal Assassin - Shred, Dark Stalker Rogue/Shadow Dancer/Assassin
Marshal - Borkov, Male Merrow Ranger (Leader of the Grindylow tribe)
Treasurer - Scrimjaw, Male Redcap (not sure what to do with this guy)
Warden - Kargadd, Rock Troll BarbarianWhen I stat out everyone I'll be sure to post, along with my finished kingdom stats for Hargul.
Wow! I'd like to see the stats for the kingdom and for everyone. Nice job.
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Here are the stats for Hargul's Warden:
Nagrundi CR 14
Male Two-Headed Troll Antipaladin of Lamashtu 5
CE Large humanoid (giant)
Init +1; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, scent; Perception +24
==Defense==
AC 39, touch 12, flat-footed 32
(+9 armor, +6 shield, +1 Dex, +12 natural, -1 size, +2 deflection)
hp 187 (9d8+5d10+112)
Fort +28, Ref +11, Will +18
DR 3/-; Immunities Disease
==Offense==
Spd 30 ft.
Melee +2 unholy earth breaker +25/+17/+12 (2d6+21/x3), 2 Bites +22 (1d8+11)
Special Attacks Channel Negative Energy (3d6, DC 19), Smite Good (2/day), Touch of Corruption (2d6, 8/day), Cruelty (Sickened, DC 19)
Antipaladin Spells (CL 2nd):
1st (3/day)— Death Knell (DC 17), Murderous Command (DC 17), Protection from Good (DC 17)
==Statistics==
Str 32, Dex 12, Con 27, Int 13, Wis 16, Cha 24
Base Atk +11; CMB +23; CMD 34
Feats Alertness, Cleave, Cleaving Finish, Combat Reflexes, Cornugon Smash, Deadly Finish, Furious Focus, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (earth breaker)
Skills Bluff +12,Intimidate +23
Languages Common, Giant
SQ Aura of Cowardice, Detect Good, Fiendish Boon (servant), Plague Bringer
Combat Gear Headband of Alluring Charisma +4, +2 Dastard Adamantine Fullplate, +2 Tower Shield, Amulet of Natural Armor +2, Ring of Protection +2
Fiendish Servant
Nutar, CR 2
Dretch
hp 18
The combat stats are made as if Nagrundi was Power Attacking with his melee weapon. His stats will change when he uses his Smite Good on a target, giving him +7 to hit, +5 to damage, and a +9 bonus to his AC vs his smite target (deflection increases to +7, gains +2 profane bonus from armor). I have him wielding a medium sized earth breaker in one hand.
I'm not quite sure on the CR for him, however. The Bestiary states that it's a +1 to his CR for every two class levels unless they are key classes. For a combat type like a Troll, Paladin/Antipaladin aren't key. With the addition of his gear, however, I'm not sure what I should increase his CR to.
Frankly, my PCs are incredible and are likely to beat the crap out of anything I throw at them from the AP without modifying it somehow, and do it without breaking a sweat. I tend to not let my party go through everything thinking it's a cakewalk because this area is supposed to be untamed and ferocious for the last several centuries for a reason. I realize Nagrundi's gear is well over the listed chart for a Heroic NPC of his level but he's got to stand his ground alone against 7 PCs!!
I'll try to post more soon.
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Sorry for the piecemeal posts. Here are two more members of the monster nation of Hargul!!
Lucretia CR 10
Lamia matriarch sorcerer 4
CE Large monstrous humanoid (shapechanger)
Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +15
==DEFENSE==
AC 28, touch 17, flat-footed 21
(+1 armor, +2 deflection, +6 Dex, +8 natural, +2 shield, –1 size)
hp 181 (12d10+4d6+98)
Fort +11, Ref +16, Will +14 (+2 vs poison; +4 vs. visual effects)
Immune mind-affecting effects; SR 22
==OFFENSE==
Speed 40 ft., climb 40 ft., swim 40 ft.
Melee impaler of thorns +21/+16/+11 (1d8+9/19–20 plus 1 wisdom drain on first hit each round) or touch +19 (1d4 Wisdom drain, DC 24)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks wisdom drain
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 14th; concentration +22)
At will—charm monster (DC 22), ventriloquism (DC 19)
3/day—deep slumber (DC 21), dream, major image (DC 21), mirror image, suggestion (DC 21)
Sorcerer Spells Known (CL 10th; concentration +18)
5th (4/day)- flame strike (DC 23), slay living (DC 23)
4th (7/day)—dimension door, greater invisibility, divine power
3rd (8/day)—fly, haste, cure serious wounds
2nd (8/day)—hold person (DC 20), scorching ray, silence (DC 20), Blur
1st (8/day)—cure light wounds, true strike, mage armor, magic missile, shield
0 (at will)—acid splash, dancing lights, daze (DC 18), detect magic, ghost sound (DC 18), mage hand, mending, prestidigitation
Bloodline arcane
==STATISTICS==
Str 22, Dex 23, Con 21, Int 16, Wis 14, Cha 26
Base Atk +14; CMB +21; CMD 37 (can’t be tripped)
Feats Combat Casting, Eschew Materials, Extend Spell, Improved Critical (spear), Power Attack, Quicken Spell, Silent Spell, Toughness, Weapon Focus (spear)
Skills Acrobatics +22, Bluff +31, Knowledge (arcana) +22, Knowledge (local) +22, Perception +17, Spellcraft +22, Use Magic Device +31
Languages Abyssal, Common, Draconic
SQ arcane bond (sihedron medallion), bloodline arcana, change shape (fixed Medium humanoid form, alter self), Spells, undersized weapons, Wisdom Drain (Su)
Combat Gear impaler of thorns, medusa mask, sihedron medallion, snakeskin tunic, ring of force shield, ring of protection +2
Elpis CR 12
Female Night Hag Witch 5
NE Medium outsider (evil, extraplanar)
Init +5; Senses darkvision 60 ft. Perception +16
==Defense==
AC 30, touch 15, flat-footed 25
(+4 Armor, +5 Dex, +11 natural)
hp 160 (8d10+5d6+91)
Fort +15, Ref +9, Will +15
DR 10/cold iron and magic; Immunities charm, cold, fear, fire, sleep; SR24
==Offense==
Spd 30 ft.
Melee 2 claws +15 (1d4+5), bite +15 (2d6+5 plus disease (demon fever), DC 20)
Special Attacks cackle, dream haunting, evil eye (DC 17), misfortune (DC 17)
Spell-like Abilities (CL 8th, concentration +19)
Constant—detect chaos, detect evil, detect good, detect law, detect magic
At will—deep slumber (DC 16), invisibility, magic missile, ray of enfeeblement (DC 14)
At will (with heartstone)—etherealness, soul bind
Witch Spells (CL 5th, concentration +16)
3rd— Lightning Bolt (DC 18), Howling Agony (DC 18)
2nd— Fester (DC 17), False Life, Haunting Mists (DC 17),
1st— Bungle (DC 16) , Burning Hands (DC 16), Charm Person (DC 16), Fumbletongue (DC 16)
0 (at will)— Bleed (2), Touch of Fatigue (2)
Patron- Winter
==Statistics==
Str 21, Dex 20, Con 22, Int 20, Wis 16, Cha 17
Base Atk +10; CMB +15; CMD 30
Feats Accursed Hex, Alertness, Combat Casting, Deceitful, Dodge, Extra Hex, Toughness, Uncanny Concentration
Skills Bluff +21, Diplomacy +16, Disguise +16, Intimidate +14, Knowledge (arcana) +17, Knowledge (planes) +20, Perception +21, Sense Motive +21, Spellcraft +20, Use Magic Device +16
Languages Abyssal, Celestial, Common, Infernal
SQ change shape (any humanoid, alter self), heartstone
Combat Gear Bracers of Armor +4, Headband of Vast Intelligence +4, Wand of Fireball (5d6, DC 16, 25 charges)
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Ok there have been two sessions since my last adventure update. One of the former plays in the group has resolved his timing issues and rejoins the group. PC count is now at 8 members. PC is Raaz, a sword and board Fighter.
During the Kingdom building events, Arson came up and caused damage to the Brothel. The culprit, one Yatari Surtova, was caught and sentenced to hard labor in prison. He had been incarcerated for 2 months before a team of lawyers arrives in town with an extradition order signed by King Noleski Surtova for the prisoner to be sent to finish his sentence in New Stetven. Now of course, Noleski has not a clue about this, but his sister Natala has sent these lawyers. Yatari is Noleski and Natala's nephew, a firebrand she sent to cause trouble for the party. She didn't expect him to get caught so easily but he is family and she can't let her nephew rot in prison. It's a gamble, but the party oks the transfer. Yatari will likely walk, and may come back to exact his revenge on a larger scale.
After 9 months of kingdom building downtime, the party got an invite to Elyin Rezbin's wedding, as I mentioned previously. Tenzekil, once a quirky NPC who aided the party, has fallen and become corrupted by his Bleaching and Rhoswen's influence. He leads the assault on the wedding with his awakened bee swarms and Fellnight Spriggans and a decent battle ensues. With the defeat of his minions, Tenzekil is forced to retreat.
After speaking with Loy to get a better handle of the situation, the mist from the Fellnight Realm covers the area, causing panic in Tatzlford. To make things worse, the party can't catch a chance to rest when a dying dryad stumbles out of a tree and with her dying breath pleads Cat to help save her sisters.
Trudging through the mists, the party comes upon 8 Fellnight Spriggans about to dispatch Fira and Palombier. The party makes quick work of the creatures and free their captives. Fira gives the Judge a flower capable of seeing beyond the glamer of the fey mound to find the Druid Devarre.
More wandering through the mists eventually leads them to the fey mound where they discover the stones and Devarre's cabin. They sense something is off about him and when they push the issue the wisp possessing him attacks. The Judge and Raaz quickly pin Devarre and the wisp leaves the Druid and escapes into the mists. Devarre helps them find the source of the mist and tells them the legends of Rhoswen before being left to mourn his animal companion's cruel demise.
At Dead Man's drop, the group ascend up the slippery path of boulders from the lower pool to the upper pool. As they are pulling up the final member of their group, Klath, they are beset upon by 4 Greater Water Elementals. One is killed instantly by a pouch of Dust of Dryness, but then a tough and epic fight ensues. A plot twist card is used to make 'an ally suddenly appears', who is none other than Jhod Kavken, who helped preside over the wedding at Tatzlford and had been searching for the source of the mist himself. He provides a few crucial channels, as Klath is left languishing on the boulder path, slowly climbing up whilst one end of a rope is tied to him, and the other around Maugrim, who decides to abandon pulling up the dwarf by conventional means and charges an elemental, yanking Klath off his feet, up the path and face first into slick boulders.
One of the Elementals turns into a vortex and sucks in Jhod and Felice, bit luckily Felice has the effect of Water Walking upon her and floats to the top, whereupon she flies upwards and begins assaulting it with scorching rays. It eventually sucks in Doochess Nerle, Raaz, Maugrim and the Judge. Luckily, Nerle and Raaz also has water walking on them. Klath, bruised and cranky, makes it to the top of the path and joins the battle near it's end.
After all is said and done, the party is victorious but it was mighty close. Maugrim and the Judge almost drowned, Lumen would have died if not for the use of a Plot Twist card, but everyone survives. Just in time for them to be surrounded by Tenzekil and his illusionary gambit. Game over for the night on that cliffhanger!!
So thats where we are for now. It was a tough battle but with 8 PCs I need to up the ante sometimes to make things interesting. They definitely earned a hard-fought victory!
After a vote they went with the flag I posted earlier but with a different color scheme.
** spoiler omitted **
Obviously it's not MY flag, but I disagree. I think the yellow-green scheme really went better with both the antler and the hawk/falcon. Still, cool flag.
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Just had the latest session on Tuesday. The party has entered the Faengard and ended with the final stand of Tenzekil about to begin.
As the battle with Rhoswen draws near, I can't help but feel disappointed with the Fellnight Queen as she's written. I will be modifying the encounter and adding guardians, but I'm very tempted to modify Rhoswen as well. She just doesn't seem dangerous to be on a 'boss' level.
Any thoughts?
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Just had the latest session on Tuesday. The party has entered the Faengard and ended with the final stand of Tenzekil about to begin.
As the battle with Rhoswen draws near, I can't help but feel disappointed with the Fellnight Queen as she's written. I will be modifying the encounter and adding guardians, but I'm very tempted to modify Rhoswen as well. She just doesn't seem dangerous to be on a 'boss' level.
Any thoughts?
I enjoy reading about your game.
I also used bits and pieces from Realm of the Fellnight Queen. To make her a threat I sent a nightmare spell against the PCs, and ran the final battle with Rhoswyn at the beginning of the session. An unbuffed party stands little to no chance against Rhoswyn. Her opening salvos of polymorph spells can rapidly turn a party of PCs into songbirds or corpses.
Committing a TPK in the player's dreams is a good way to put a bit of fear in them. Otherwise keep them harried, and for Erastil's sake: Give her some minions! A couple of big Spriggan guards are a good idea.
For the record, I named Rhoswyn the Fellnight Princess, and she's the illegitimate daughter of Naryssa and one of the Tane, banished to the Fellnight Realm when Naryssa lost her capacity for love when it was locked away in a sword.
I'm working on a way to communicate that to the players who were in too much of a rush shutting down the link between the two realms to learn a lot about Rhoswyn. Although they "killed" her, the Fellnight Realm still exists and Rhoswyn will return later when the PCs need a back-door into Naryssa's realm.
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Thanks! I also enjoy reading about your game Dudemeister.
Tenzekil has addressed Rhoswen as 'Queen' when addressing the PCs, and IMC she too is Nyrissa's daughter. I've given Nyrissa the moniker of 'Empress', as she has the Queen of the Fellnight Realm, King of Pitax and King of Hargul under her command.
At the moment my party believes Rhoswen to be the Fey responsible for killing the unicorn whose corpse they found previously. In the Nightmare spell, she was shrouded in shadow and was not visible. I have let this play out as I believe it will make for a bigger shock when they find out she answers to someone else.
The Spriggans have already proven to be ineffectual against my party so I will be putting in more challenging guardians as Rhoswen pelts the party with spells. I'm at work right now but I will elaborate on this tonight.
I will also be posting Hargul's Kingdom stats current with my party's kingdom, as they have not yet dealt with his threat. At this point my party is just hitting lvl 8 and Hargulka will end up becoming a bigger threat than Rhoswen.
I'll also try to post more stats on the Leaders of Hargul.
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Apologies for my long absence from the boards! I had a move that I needed to take care of, and it's been hectic here ever since.
So, onto the game!! My party has finished Into the Fellnight Realm with the defeat of Rhoswen. Their cleric, Klath, however was slain by Rhoswen during the final battle via a critical and a failed save from a Disintegrate spell. Before they cut her head off she was able to foreshadow her mother Nyrissa, so her purpose has been fulfilled. I may bring her back later in the campaign, perhaps.
I had a recap of events and 1 year of downtime after the module for the group to rest and pursue any interests they might have. The party was able to redeem Tenzekil (from the module) and he now lives in their capital. They plan on building him an Apiary so he can continue making honey and revive his thirst for life. With this renewed purpose, his Bleaching has begun to reverse itself.
Fira and Palombier, also from the module, have decided to stay in the area and now live with Tiressyia and Falchos in their grove. The druid Devarre has become involved with the burgeoning community at the Temple of the Elk, where Johd Kavken is the head priest, and travels there frequently. The place has attracted enough pilgrims and faithful that it's begun its own town known as Stag's Hollow.
Lielaera Shantru, commander of the wood elf rangers in the module, has decided to keep her men at the abandoned elven keep, which IMC was reclaimed by the PCs for an Elven Prince who claimed it was his family ancestral home (thanks to Robert Brambley for that idea!!). The drunken treant Vinroot remains wandering through the Nalmarches in a happily drunken state.
After the downtime the party received a visit from Duke Maegar Varn and his entourage from Varnhold to discuss possible trade treaties and military alliances. Maegar brings news of civil war brewing in Brevoy and the possibility that their Rostlandic benefactors may not have been honest with them about their intentions.
Maegar's entourage consists of:
Miriam, his mother
Lyriina (another good name from Robert Brambley!!), Maegar's Eldest daughter
Marzena, Maegar's sister
Yuri Illance, halfling Spymaster of Varnhold
Cephal Lorentus, Magister of Varnhold
Slayne Raalos, Grand Diplomat of Varnhold
Maegar's father Bezentarr stayed in Varnhold along with his middle daughter Adira (also a Swordlord) to continue running the realm and protect it in his absence.
Rosala Varn, Maegar's youngest daughter and appointed Emissary of Varnhold in Falconcrest, had been stationed in the PC's kingdom for two years but was missing upon Maegar's arrival. A search of her Noble Villa revealed that Rosala had apparently been kidnapped and all the staff and bodyguards were slain in a horrific manner. Their corpses were reduced to dessicated husks, as if their life force energy had been sucked out of them. Each had a stab wound, which radiated traces of intense evil upon detection.
During the search for Rosala it was discovered that Red scaled Kobolds may be involved (which implies involvement from Hargul). The assassins otherwise used magic to hide their tracks, but the trail of the kobolds led them to their black market as their point of origin, which suggests someone may have smuggled them into the country. Hargul is indeed involved, as Hargulka's spies have intercepted communiques of Maegar's trip tot he PC's kingdom and he has put a plan in motion to create unrest between the two countries.
He had his agents infiltrate the PC's castle and steal a Stag Lord amulet from Lumen (Spymistress) and Raphael Medvyed (General). These silver amulets were won from the Stag Lord's Lieutenants and turned into amulets to commemorate their victory against him.
Hargulka used his underworld connections in the PC's Black Market to smuggle a team of his red-scaled Kobold Ninjas, led by the Doppleganger Assassin Nessrin, into the capital city of Crimsondale to kidnap Rosala. His agents then met up with the kidnappers and placed one of these amulets in with Rosala's personal items in an attempt to implicate Falconcrest in Rosala's kidnapping. The weapons they used to kill the staff are something I picked up from old school Ravenloft; daggers with crystal blades that drain soul energy from the body and into the blade to be stored and later deposited into a larger reservoir used for black magic. Death from the blade leaves the corpse a dessicated husk.
The character of Cat, the Rakshasa Tiefling Councilor of Falconcrest, decided to retrain fully as a Ranger with the Falconer archetype. She went off on her own to find a local soothsayer who claims she is the leader of a demonic army serving a secret society. She tracked him back to his hovel in an alley, but was ambushed by an adventuring group called the Claymores, who hunt demons and had been attracted to Crimsondale by this soothsayer's claims. After confirming her heritage, the Claymores put Cat to sleep and if not for a well played Plot Twist card, would have been killed via Coup de Grace. Her comrades managed to save her mid death-blow, but she almost died from Constitution drain anyway as her neck had been halfway severed. The Claymores were forcibly teleported away but will be back.
If that wasn't enough trouble, there's a serial killer loose in town who cuts his victims' faces off!!
Oh, and now my group has 9 players!! Arlandis is a Lion Shaman Druid, and Klath's replacement is a Saurian Shaman Druid named Holan, whose companion is a T-Rex. More to come soon!!
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Apologies for my long absence from the boards! I had a move that I needed to take care of, and it's been hectic here ever since.
So, onto the game!! My party has finished Into the Fellnight Realm with the defeat of Rhoswen. Their cleric, Klath, however was slain by Rhoswen during the final battle via a critical and a failed save from a Disintegrate spell. Before they cut her head off she was able to foreshadow her mother Nyrissa, so her purpose has been fulfilled. I may bring her back later in the campaign, perhaps.
I had a recap of events and 1 year of downtime after the module for the group to rest and pursue any interests they might have. The party was able to redeem Tenzekil (from the module) and he now lives in their capital. They plan on building him an Apiary so he can continue making honey and revive his thirst for life. With this renewed purpose, his Bleaching has begun to reverse itself.
Fira and Palombier, also from the module, have decided to stay in the area and now live with Tiressyia and Falchos in their grove. The druid Devarre has become involved with the burgeoning community at the Temple of the Elk, where Johd Kavken is the head priest, and travels there frequently. The place has attracted enough pilgrims and faithful that it's begun its own town known as Stag's Hollow.
Lielaera Shantru, commander of the wood elf rangers in the module, has decided to keep her men at the abandoned elven keep, which IMC was reclaimed by the PCs for an Elven Prince who claimed it was his family ancestral home (thanks to Robert Brambley for that idea!!). The drunken treant Vinroot remains wandering through the Nalmarches in a happily drunken state.
After the downtime the party received a visit from Duke Maegar Varn and his entourage from Varnhold to discuss possible trade treaties and military alliances. Maegar brings news of civil war brewing in Brevoy and the possibility that their Rostlandic benefactors may not have been honest with them about their intentions.
Maegar's entourage consists...
Keep up the stories. Always like to read how everyone's games go.
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Dot. Awesome! I'm about to start running Kingmaker for my group. This'll be the first premade AP I've ever run, so this is invaluable information. Thank you for sharing!
Dark you will find invaluable resources on these boards. There are a lot of very talented people that share their ideas and experiences. You will also love Kingmaker if you like the 'sandbox' style adventure and don't mind adjusting to your group.
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Thanks for the kind words, but it's the players who make it interesting!!
So I just got home from another session.
The heroes continue their investigation of the kidnapping and pursue the trail of the red kobold evidence they found at Rosala Varn's mansion. The tracks the druid Arlandis found lead them to the Black Market area of their city. After using Diplomacy to see what the word on the street is, a few 'concerned' citizens claim they saw a number of small sized, cloaked individuals led by a medium sized person, also cloaked, near the office of Rumbeard Imports. They question his secretary, who says her boss, Eltanin Rumbeard, is at his home for the night (this was late, around midnight). Rumbeard Imports owns this office, a warehouse and a private dock down at the waterfront. The party questions the secretary but she claims she doesn't know about any kobolds. After reviewing the cargo manifest, they see the last and biggest shipments were a caged owlbear youngling, a few cases of exotic wine with aphrodisiac properties and a package delivered to the office by courier from the warehouse. Nothing big enough to smuggle a unit of kobold ninjas with gunslinger sniper support and an assassin!!! (unless they all have necklaces of adaptation and jumped in a bag of holding, which was delivered in that package the courier brought to the office :p ) The party, not sure what to think about how these kobolds got here, decide to investigate Rumbeard's warehouse. Gotta love stealth insertion :D
At the warehouse, they don't find any evidence to support their theory. Security is polite and helpful, the warehouse is neat and clean, and no packages are suspicious. There are many crates that contain magical items, upon detection, and one in particular piques Duke Nerle's interest; a long cigar box sized box containing seven items of identical size, all of which radiate a magical aura. Nerle says he has a gut feeling about this one, and has city guards take the box to the castle vault for safekeeping, yet leaves the box unopened. It's scheduled to be picked up by the buyer's couriers in the morning, and Nerle says the couriers may pick up the package at the castle. Not finding anything suspicious, they decide to visit Eltanin Rumbeard at his home. On their way there, though, they discover that fires have broken out in three housing developments in the castle ward of their city.
The heroes leap into action, moving to put out fires and rescue stranded citizens. Moving from one neighborhood to the next, they help all they can, saving hundreds of people and many homes from being destroyed. They find the home of Eltanin Rumbeard in flames; his entire neighborhood has been engulfed in fire that they suspect to be the result of arson. Many buildings show signs of fire boring holes through buildings, and the spellcasters suspect it may the spell fire snake.
Moving into Eltanin's home, they find 16 bodies, burnt beyond recognition. The party discovers a secret door which leads to a hidden basement containing an altar/sacrificial chamber devoted to the Four Horsemen, particularly War. There are also many statues of Piscodaemons, just like the ones they found in the tomb underneath Oleg's Trading Post. In fact, one of the straggling PCs arrives at Eltanin's home to find Ged (see in posts above) standing outside, viewing all the destruction. He comments on being drawn here by the death and the evilness he feels from this place. This PC. Holan Dodge, is a new character and wasn't there when the party first met Ged, so he dismisses him as a 'creepy kid'. Below, the party begins defacing and smashing the statues and idols. The barbarian Maugrim finds a secret compartment along the altar/sacrifice table, which contains a scroll bound in human skin with runes covering the case written in blood. He gets nicked by a razor blade trap when he finds the scroll, and fails a Will save. A black spot appears on the back of his hand, which he can't remove. This concerns him to say the least and he goes back to the Black Market to find info on it, to no avail.
During this time, the nameless Judge heads back to the office of Rumbeard Imports, only to find Eltanin's secretary hanging from the conference room of the office with her lower jaw removed. He takes her to the cathedral of Abadar, where he has her interred to possibly raise her from the dead to find out what happened. After the fires have been put out, some of the group heads back to the castle while others go to the House of Shining Redemption (Temple of Sarenrae) to interview survivors and hopefully find Eltanin. Again they come up short, as none have seen him, but they do find a 8 year old badly burnt girl who claims to have seen the arsonist. Based on her description of him, it appears to be the arsonist they had previously caught and imprisoned, Yatari Surtova. He had been extradited to New Stetven by order of the King (really by his sister Natala), but was released immediately and after learning how to use magic to increase his destructive capabilities, is even more dangerous now.
Back at the castle, all the rucus has awoken Maegar Varn, who is informed of his daughter's capture and is furious, demanding action. The party tells him to help find her, and Maegar's response is to don his armor and begin convening with his council back in Varnhold through the magical assistance of his Magister.
Nerle and Maugrim decide to go back to the Waterfront and check out that private dock Eltanin's company owns. According to security, all the slips should have ships docked at them, however one large ship and two smaller ships are missing. It seems the kidnappers used the fires in the city and the response to put them out to their advantage and escape via ship on the Tuskwater. How convenient, like it was the plan all along! Hmm..
As the pair marches to the Wharfmaster's office, Maugrim feels the shadow of Death upon him. Using a Plot Twist card to reveal the source of the darkness, he sees Death staring at him, literally. The mark has drawn the attention of a Minor Reaper, and Maugrim gains 4 negative levels as he tries briefly to engage him in combat, and then decides to run for the castle. Nerle follows behind but doesn't attack the Reaper.
Once they get to the castle, attacking the Reaper summons another Reaper for the Judge, and another for Arlandis as he attacks that one. Seeing a pattern, the rest do not engage the Reapers and hang back to provide support. Castle guards attack the reapers and get their own, leading to 30ish guard deaths until Felice manages to get the guards from attacking the reapers and creating more for them.
Maugrim's Reaper is destroyed and his spot goes away, but he begins to hear the whisper of Death once again, telling him he cannot escape his death so easily (the first Reaper dies in 4 rounds of combat against 2 PCs and the other reapers are largely ineffective.) A larger shadow of Death begins to swirl and appear before them as combat continues.... And we pause the game due to time.
So the Grim Reaper appears before the party (he will engage the party in conversation, claiming he only wants the one who disturbed the scroll, that he must pay his debt to satisfy him. If they refuse or attack him, he'll lay some smack down upon them for their defiance. I may make a 'Supernatural' kind of deal with Maugrim; he's bent on killing his father and getting revenge for his family's death so bad that he may accept a deal that will keep him breathing until he manages to kill his father. Maybe not, we'll see.)
The kidnappers have gotten away with Rosala and are en-route to Candlemere, where Hargulka plans on having his team hand her off to the Dark Tapestry cultists there, making it look like they took her instead of him. He's already given a handful of his red kobolds to the cultists for their 'conversion' to the service of their Dark Master. He finds them useful as they are dangerous for Falconcrest and leading them to the cultists will hopefully remove them as a threat and let him move in with his armies to conquer a weak and leaderless nation. The party only encountered will-o-wisps at Candlemere and were run off before they could investigate the ruins thoroughly; they did not find the secret entrance and thus are not aware of the cultists.
What is more concerning is Yatari Surtova's role in this... was his arson just a well-timed coincidence, or was it part of the plan? That would make him in league with Hargulka, but would that mean his aunt Natala is, then as well, or is Yatari working on his own just to get revenge?
This is some really awesome stuff. I'm going to definitely use some of the stuff in here for some ideas in my campaign, starting with the necromancer event with the zombies who burst when you kill them.
Specifically, I'm going to have the necromancer have resurrected Kressle as a revenant. She was captured alive and interrogated. While the party was leaning toward sparing her and taking her back to be formally arrested, the party's magus violently slit her throat, citing the charter as justification. I let it go, but have been waiting for an opportunity for this to come back on the magus.
My party befriended the Scootscales and took a liking to Mikmek, and he was set up back at Oleg's under Kesten's tutelage. He trained and returned back to his tribe as their best warrior. And then trolls made their presence known. Hargulka, in an attempt to both cause problems for the fledgling kingdom and get them out of his hair, attempted to recruit the kobolds. Emboldened by their relationship with the PCs, they declined the trolls, which prompted them to attack.
Chief Scootscale and Mikmek led the defense, but kobolds are no match for trolls and their tribe was decimated. In the retreat, Mikmek's family was killed and this caused a long dormant bloodline inside him to awaken. Flames surrounded him and he lashed out an attack on the nearest troll, reducing him to ashes. This allowed the surviving tribe members to escape. Mikmek became a sorcerer and will apparently serve as Magister of the kingdom
Mikmek's story will serve as the first hint of the troll problem.
I still need to find ways to incorporate other stuff I've read in this thread and others on the forum. I really want to make the world feel more fleshed out for my players. I also want to make their choices have both positive and negative consequences, especially since I'm not sure how close to level 7 they will be at the conclusion of the module.
Thanks for the ideas!
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Specifically, I'm going to have the necromancer have resurrected Kressle as a revenant. She was captured alive and interrogated. While the party was leaning toward sparing her and taking her back to be formally arrested, the party's magus violently slit her throat, citing the charter as justification. I let it go, but have been waiting for an opportunity for this to come back on the magus.
I had the Stag Lord brought back as a Revenant against Lumen, the halfling rogue in the party who slit his throat while he was passed out drunk in his bed during the party's infiltration of the fort, then dumped his corpse into the river for Davik. He nearly killed her too, as the party happened to split up and she along with the Nameless Judge ventured out into the countryside by themselves to investigate rumors of a dead man walking out of the river. His return came a year in game time after his murder. A necromancer more powerful than the teen the party killed was involved, but the party never investigated how this Revenant came to be. I thought I included that in my previous posts but apparently I left it out, brain fart on my part.
This Necromancer is a member of the Whispering Way, and will have a larger role to play later on in the campaign. For now his machinations continue to go on undetected and unimpeded.
Next game is tomorrow, we'll see how things go down with the Grim Reaper and the kidnapping investigation (if they survive that is, *evil laughter*)
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Thanks for the kind words, but it's the players who make it interesting!!
So I just got home from another session.
The heroes continue their investigation of the kidnapping and pursue the trail of the red kobold evidence they found at Rosala Varn's mansion. The tracks the druid Arlandis found lead them to the Black Market area of their city. After using Diplomacy to see what the word on the street is, a few 'concerned' citizens claim they saw a number of small sized, cloaked individuals led by a medium sized person, also cloaked, near the office of Rumbeard Imports. They question his secretary, who says her boss, Eltanin Rumbeard, is at his home for the night (this was late, around midnight). Rumbeard Imports owns this office, a warehouse and a private dock down at the waterfront. The party questions the secretary but she claims she doesn't know about any kobolds. After reviewing the cargo manifest, they see the last and biggest shipments were a caged owlbear youngling, a few cases of exotic wine with aphrodisiac properties and a package delivered to the office by courier from the warehouse. Nothing big enough to smuggle a unit of kobold ninjas with gunslinger sniper support and an assassin!!! (unless they all have necklaces of adaptation and jumped in a bag of holding, which was delivered in that package the courier brought to the office :p ) The party, not sure what to think about how these kobolds got here, decide to investigate Rumbeard's warehouse. Gotta love stealth insertion :D
At the warehouse, they don't find any evidence to support their theory. Security is polite and helpful, the warehouse is neat and clean, and no packages are suspicious. There are many crates that contain magical items, upon detection, and one in particular piques Duke Nerle's interest; a long cigar box sized box containing seven items of identical size, all of which radiate a magical aura. Nerle says he has a gut feeling about this one, and has city guards take the box to the castle vault for safekeeping, yet leaves the...
Doom this is some awesome stuff!
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Doom this is some awesome stuff!
Thanks I appreciate it. It's a super-fun campaign with great players, exciting stuff happening and never boring.
I wanted to post this, as I just came up with it on the fly. These are the kobold ninjas of the Bloodclaw tribe that participated in the kidnapping of Rosala Varn. I have yet to stat out their sniper support or the assassin Nessrin, but I'll post them as well when I get to it.
Hargulka's crack team consists of 8 ninjas, 6 gunslinger snipers, all Bloodclaws, and the Doppleganger assassin Nessrin as their leader.
Bloodclaw Ninja CR 8
XP 4,800
Red-Scaled Kobold Ninja 8
LE Small humanoid (reptilian)
Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +13
DEFENSE
AC 28, touch 19, flat-footed 20 (+6 armor, +6 Dex, +1 deflection, +1 dodge, +3 natural, +1 size)
hp 88 (1d10+8d8+27)
Fort +6, Ref +13, Will +3
Weaknesses light sensitivity
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee +1 keen wounding katana +12/+7 (1d6+4/15-20/x2), poisoned (deathblade, 1d3 con/6 rds, DC 20 Fort, 2 saves), +1 keen wounding Wakizashi (1d4+4/15-20/x2), poisoned (deathblade)
Ranged shuriken +13 (4/x2), poisoned (deathblade)
STATISTICS
Str 16 Dex 22, Con 14, Int 13, Wis 12, Cha 8
Base Atk +7; CMB +11; CMD 27
Feats Toughness, Dodge, Outflank, Packfighting Swarm, weapon finesse, two-weapon fighting
Skills Acrobatics +18, Escape Artist +18, Perception +13, Stealth +18; Racial Modifiers +2 Craft (trapmaking), +2 Perception, +2 Profession (miner)
Languages Draconic
SQ crafty, red kobold, no trace +2, light steps, poison use, ki pool, improved uncanny dodge, ninja tricks (shadow clones, vanishing trick, pressure points-str, combat trick), sneak attack +4d6
Combat Gear: 3 potions of cure serious wounds, 2 doses of deathblade poison, Amulet of Natural Armor +2, +1 wounding katana, +1 wounding wakizashi, +2 mithral chain shirt, ring of protection +1
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Crafty (Ex)
Craft (trapmaking) and Stealth are always class skills for a kobold.
Red Kobold: These kobolds are pyromaniacs and make extensive use of fire, especially the alchemical and magical kinds. These kobolds gain a +2 bonus to the DC of any spell they cast with the fire subtype and a +2 bonus on saves made against fear effects. Most are a bit more arrogant than average kobolds.
Pack Fighting Swarm [General]
You and allies with this feat can coordinate melee attacks against a single target and are
adept at fighting side by side in close quarters.
Prerequisites: Small Size, Dex 13+, Base Attack Bonus +1 or higher.
Benefit: You can occupy the same 5-ft square in combat with any other allied, Small
creature who possesses this feat. When you attack a Medium-size or larger creature with
a melee attack, and at least one other ally with this feat threatens the target, you gain a +1
moral bonus to the attack roll. This bonus increases by +1 for each additional ally beyond
the first with this feat that threatens the same target. The total morale bonus imparted to
your attack cannot exceed your dexterity bonus.
Tactics: Bloodclaw Ninjas fight in teams of two pair (4) to utilize their Pack Fighting Swarm feat as each pair moves into flanking position. The Bleed from the wounding and the str damage from the pressure points trick will stack every time they hit, and the increased critical range will increase the chances of landing debilitating crits. Bloodclaw ninjas stay with their target until it has been eliminated,if possible, then move onto the next. They will use their vanishing trick if things get hairy and they need to egress and regroup for a counter-strike
I increased their CR by 1 to compensate for their above-average gear. Hargulka IMC doesn't have a large country, but his city is large and one of the ways he spends that extra BP is by outfitting his special troops, namely the Blooclaw Ninjas, Monks and Gunslingers, as well as his special forces, spies and assassins.
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Ok, the lowdown on last night's game! One member had to drop the game because of her work schedule changing, as I mentioned before. Three of the eight players could not make the game for various work and personal reasons last night, so the group was working with a crew of five!
The fight with the Reapers resumes! The Grim Reaper materializes and tells Maugrim that he has cheated him by killing his Minor Reaper and avoiding his doom. The curt half-elf barbarian responds in kind with snide (and gutsy) remarks to the Grim Reaper, who decides to teach him some respect with a Quickened Destruction. Maugrim burns a Hero Point to stay alive. The Reaper tells Maugrim that all his friends will die because of him, which prompts the barbarian to offer his life for theirs. The Reaper, perhaps out of sheer amusement, makes him a deal: He'll let him live until he strikes down his father and has his revenge for the murder of his mother and grandparents. Once he kills him, however, the Reaper will come for him again and they shall do battle, and he will surely claim him. He tells Maugrim "Your life and his are now inextricably tied together; as he lives, you live, and as he dies, so shall you perish." The Reaper then takes his leave, but leaves the remaining Minor Reapers to finish their mission against the others or die. The combat doesn't last long and the remaining two Minor Reapers are killed.
Before retiring to bed for the night, half of the group return to the Waterfront and question the dockmaster about the missing ships. The two smaller ships are the Reliant and the Green Lion, charter trading vessels contracted out by Rumbeard Imports to do business and haul cargo on their behalf. The larger ship, a galley called the Throaty Mermaid, is a smuggling ship. The party only learns the names of the ships and their size, but not their purpose, who was on the ships or why they left before they were scheduled to depart and without their cargo. The party decides to scry in the morning on the young Rosala Varn to discern her location.
The next morning the Druid Holan Dodge attempts to scry on Rosala Varn, who is being held by cultists on Candlemere Island beneath the tower. The intense evil presence from the Dark Tapestry influencing the area causes a backlash during the scry and the resulting images seen by Holan and Cat in the mirror he was scrying with drives Holan insane (as spell) and gives Cat a Phobia (as GMG) of her own reflection. Cat was able to get a glimpse of a young girl in her vision, as well as a tower on an island, leading the veteran members of the group to suspect Candlemere island.
After finding and paying for the removal of Holan's condition, they buy a teleport to the Lizardfolk village they subjugated and question King Vesket about the happenings during last night. One of the smaller ships veered towards the shore near the village and stopped for a few minutes before continuing to the river-mouth in the south, whilst the other ship docked at the island and has not moved since. The larger ship moved straight for the river-mouth and did not stop. Moving to the island, the party finds the Reliant docked and empty. The venture to Candlemere Tower, and begin to find many Haunts (courtesy of Tem from the Candlemere Tower thread). Cat falls under the ritual suicide Haunt, however she is subdued by the Nameless Judge via grapple and the Haunt neutralized with positive energy before she can spill her innards into the bowl.
Shortly after, they find a pit behind the altar and a tentacle grabs Duke Nerle by the foot and threatens to pull him in. Maugrim suceeds in freeing him but he is grabbed instead and pinned, pulled down into the pit and into one of the sucking maws of a Dark Young of Yog-Sothoth (actually its a Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath, and it posed a better challenge than the creature from Carrion Hill, I just changed the Dark God it spawned from :p). The Nameless Judge infliucts heavy damage upon it but he too becomes grappled and then pinned by the creature, and drawn into one of its sucking maws, draining his and Maugrim's Strength.
We ended the game on a cliffhanger due to time as it was late.
Will fill you in on what happens next week!! Feel free to start up a discussion, ask questions, etc. I'm happy to chat up a fellow GM.
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Ok, the lowdown on last night's game! One member had to drop the game because of her work schedule changing, as I mentioned before. Three of the eight players could not make the game for various work and personal reasons last night, so the group was working with a crew of five!
The fight with the Reapers resumes! The Grim Reaper materializes and tells Maugrim that he has cheated him by killing his Minor Reaper and avoiding his doom. The curt half-elf barbarian responds in kind with snide (and gutsy) remarks to the Grim Reaper, who decides to teach him some respect with a Quickened Destruction. Maugrim burns a Hero Point to stay alive. The Reaper tells Maugrim that all his friends will die because of him, which prompts the barbarian to offer his life for theirs. The Reaper, perhaps out of sheer amusement, makes him a deal: He'll let him live until he strikes down his father and has his revenge for the murder of his mother and grandparents. Once he kills him, however, the Reaper will come for him again and they shall do battle, and he will surely claim him. He tells Maugrim "Your life and his are now inextricably tied together; as he lives, you live, and as he dies, so shall you perish." The Reaper then takes his leave, but leaves the remaining Minor Reapers to finish their mission against the others or die. The combat doesn't last long and the remaining two Minor Reapers are killed.
Before retiring to bed for the night, half of the group return to the Waterfront and question the dockmaster about the missing ships. The two smaller ships are the Reliant and the Green Lion, charter trading vessels contracted out by Rumbeard Imports to do business and haul cargo on their behalf. The larger ship, a galley called the Throaty Mermaid, is a smuggling ship. The party only learns the names of the ships and their size, but not their purpose, who was on the ships or why they left before they were scheduled to depart and without their cargo. The party decides to scry in the morning on the young Rosala Varn to discern...
Heck of a cliff hanger Doom!
Pack Fighting Swarm [General]
You and allies with this feat can coordinate melee attacks against a single target and are adept at fighting side by side in close quarters.
Prerequisites: Small Size, Dex 13+, Base Attack Bonus +1 or higher.
Benefit: You can occupy the same 5-ft square in combat with any other allied, Small creature who possesses this feat. When you attack a Medium-size or larger creature with a melee attack, and at least one other ally with this feat threatens the target, you gain a +1 morale bonus to the attack roll. This bonus increases by +1 for each additional ally beyond the first with this feat that threatens the same target. The total morale bonus imparted to your attack cannot exceed your dexterity bonus.
Interesting feat. Shouldn't it be a Teamwork feat, however? (it won't matter most of the time but it would benefits Inquisitors and Cavaliers who would decide to pick it, also they could get them using their bonus Teamwork feats).
And your campaign development reads great.
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Just got back from another session and boy, this one was a doozy.
We left off with a Cliffhanger last week. The party was in Candlemere Tower, having just neutralized the 'Grisly Offerings' haunt Tem details in his post. Behind the altar is an 80 foot deep pit that houses a modified Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath named and changed in appearance to fit the purposes of Yog-Sothoth. They are discovering that this area is one of Wild Magic, and their spells and abilities are being affected by it.
This creature has 12 tentacles, two of which are 90 feet long and have been used to grab one of the PCs, Maugrim, and transfer him down to the smaller tentacles to be constricted and have his strength fed upon by the creature. The Nameless Judge literally dives into the pit and takes the damage to attack the creature, but is soon grappled and pinned by the tentacles, as is Maugrim. Nerle manages to get off a Vanish spell and Levitate and lowers himself to the bottom of the pit. Unaware of its tremorsense, he moves towards it only to be attacked and grabbed by one of its tentacles. Cat begins throwing her starknife at the creature, but finds she cannot do that much damage. The Rogue Lumen decides this is not a battle they can win and withdraws from the pit to a safe distance. The Druid Holan Dodge wildshapes into an elephant and dives in but he too is grabbed. All four become pinned and start having their strength fed upon, unable to do much besides attempt in vain to escape its grasp. The Judge uses his boots of teleportation and a lucky percentile roll to teleport to the base of the tower. On his way back to the pit he does not see Lumen, who is hiding.
Cat then gets grappled and is fed upon, an soon Holan and Cat fall unconscious from the constricting. Cat gains schizophrenia from the experience of being fed upon by the creature and becomes obsessed with it, wanting it to drain her dry. The Dark Young casts entangle successfully on the top of the pit, causing vines to burst from the ground around the pit's entrance. Torquemada senses defeat is imminent but makes a last ditch effort to grasp at victory. He runs to the edge of the pit (making his reflex save vs the entangle), dives into the pit and uses himself as a projectile to make a last-ditch attack against the creature, taking the falling damage and the attack of opportunity. His gamble pays off (as it only had 8 hp left), and he slays the spawn of Yog-Sothoth, freeing his companions and in the nick of time too (Cat and Holan would have died in 1-2 rounds from failing to stabilize).
As the group begins recovering from this fight and taking a deep breath, the Judge detects a crack in the wall of the pit where he sees someone watching him. He uses a Bluff to make a surprise thrust of his weapon to bludgeon the onlooker through the hole, knocking him unconscious and freaking out the other cultists inside the room. Cat, in the meantime, has found a fist-sized black gem with what appear to be green veins running through it inside one of the maws of the Dark Young and takes it for herself. Her affliction leads her to believe it is an egg of the creature she misses so terribly, and commits herself to seeing it hatch so she can create her own cult to Yog-Sothoth and its spawn. Lumen decides she wants to make an appearance and manages to climb down the pit halfway, fall the rest of the way into the mass of tentacles, Dark Young corpse and rubble while people are recovering without anyone (except Cat) seeing her. Lumen then pops up from the pile of tentacles, apparently having been a victim of the creature this whole time (or at some point in the battle). Cat keeps the fact that this isn't true to herself.
By the time he makes a hole in the wall big enough to pull his victim through, the other cultists have escaped the room and locked the door. The Judge manacles the cultist and, fearing he may be a caster, breaks all of his fingers. The cultist comes to and with a successful casting of Zone of Truth begins answering their questions. This, however is where things start to get hairy. The group had purchased two healing wands before coming to Candlemere, and so far have been casting spells and using magic items in a Wild Magic zone willy-nilly with no regard for what might happen should they get an unlucky roll.
Well things just got real.
Still at the bottom of the pit, they cast yet another spell and get the reverse gravity effect, which affects everyone, including the cultist and the body of the Dark Young. being at the bottom of an 80 foot deep pit, which is in the middle of a 40 foot high tower means a 120 foot trip to pain. In a hurried effort to use magic to cast levitate, fly, gaseous form, etc, one of them gets the reverse gravity effect. AGAIN. That sends them all back down the hole for another 120 foot trip. Holan Dodge, who cast fly on the way back down, tries to save his T-Rex companion Sharptooth from a pavement-smear fate but in the panic of the sudden change in gravity, twice, Sharptooth clamps down on Holan's outstretched arm and crits him, creating a situation in which Holan burns 3 hero points in 2 rounds and ends up with Sharptooth surviving at the cost of his left hand, the bones in his forearm and much of the flesh of his arm below the elbow save for fleshy ribbons. The Judge manages to assume gaseous form, Nerle is able to levitate but the rest are left taking a lot of damage (I ended up rolling very low on the damage on the second fall. miraculously, nobody died from this but hero points had to be burned to do it in some cases). The cultist they were interrogating wasn't so lucky.
The Judge peers down the halls of the complex where he hears howling winds and sounds of what he assumes are the cultists and bellows out an intimidating yell for them to show themselves. This is met by a voice calling for him to stick it where the sun doesn't shine. :)
Nerle decides to leave the tower and use his healing wand, hoping he can use magic outside of the tower with no ill effect. He didn't mvoe far enough away. A pit in depth equal to his level opens at his feet and his attempts to levitate fail. He falls the exact depth that the cultists's complex is at, which means the pit opens the ceiling in one of the rooms of the complex. Where he was coincides where the cultists' incubation chamber was, where they had 4 Dark Young embryos gestating in tanks of green slime (remember these things are immune to acid). Nerle crashes into a vat and begins being eaten by the green slime. By the time he gets a fire breath ability off and burns the slime in the tank and frees himself, he's gone from 12 Con to 4. The resulting HP loss kills him, but he burns the Hero Points to survive.
The kicker is, the group uses magic once again to try and heal Nerle, and the random effect from the Wild Magic is that everyone is affected by an area Heal spell, wiping out the ability damage and healing Hp but not the strength drain from the Dark Young. We end the session there.
You can't script this. I almost pulled my hair out when i rolled the reverse gravity effect, and then actually yelled 'No way!' when i rolled it again. Insane, total roller-coaster of a night.
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Just got back from another session and boy, this one was a doozy.
We left off with a Cliffhanger last week. The party was in Candlemere Tower, having just neutralized the 'Grisly Offerings' haunt Tem details in his post. Behind the altar is an 80 foot deep pit that houses a modified Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath named and changed in appearance to fit the purposes of Yog-Sothoth. They are discovering that this area is one of Wild Magic, and their spells and abilities are being affected by it.
This creature has 12 tentacles, two of which are 90 feet long and have been used to grab one of the PCs, Maugrim, and transfer him down to the smaller tentacles to be constricted and have his strength fed upon by the creature. The Nameless Judge literally dives into the pit and takes the damage to attack the creature, but is soon grappled and pinned by the tentacles, as is Maugrim. Nerle manages to get off a Vanish spell and Levitate and lowers himself to the bottom of the pit. Unaware of its tremorsense, he moves towards it only to be attacked and grabbed by one of its tentacles. Cat begins throwing her starknife at the creature, but finds she cannot do that much damage. The Rogue Lumen decides this is not a battle they can win and withdraws from the pit to a safe distance. The Druid Holan Dodge wildshapes into an elephant and dives in but he too is grabbed. All four become pinned and start having their strength fed upon, unable to do much besides attempt in vain to escape its grasp. The Judge uses his boots of teleportation and a lucky percentile roll to teleport to the base of the tower. On his way back to the pit he does not see Lumen, who is hiding.
Cat then gets grappled and is fed upon, an soon Holan and Cat fall unconscious from the constricting. Cat gains schizophrenia from the experience of being fed upon by the creature and becomes obsessed with it, wanting it to drain her dry. The Dark Young casts entangle successfully on the top of the pit, causing vines to burst from the ground around the pit's...
Sounds like everyone is having fun. Keep up the postings I enjoy reading them and will probably borrow some of your ideas.
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Had another great session this week.
Nerle has some words with Cat about her attacking him. In her defense, she was afflicted with insanity at the time, but the Doochess doesn't want to hear it. He creates the 'everybody gets one' law.
The party uses alchemical fire to destroy the rest of the cultists' incubation chambers. They proceed down the main hall, disarming traps as they go, but fail to detect a magic trap and set off a cone of cold.
Beyond the trapped door they find a mini-altar room with three cultists. During the fight they use magic creating deeper darkness/silence areas and another reverse gravity area. Despite this, they dispatch the cultists easily.
Next they enter the main area where the cultists have gathered. A ginormous bowl shaped cavern, a raised twenty foot dais in its center, where Rosala Varn lie drugged and unconscious. Two high priests flank her, ready to sacrifice her to finish opening what floats above their heads: a rift in the fabric of space and time to another dimension... another dimension.. another dimension.. (hehe), where Yog Sothoth waits to enter this world. Surrounding them in a circle are 30 cultists of various ages, plucked by madness from Crimsondale over time.
This bowl is under the effect of the spell Forbiddance against good and lawful characters, which affects 3 party members in some way. The battle is wrought with wild magic affecting the area, but all of the cultists are killed. Towards the end, a party member plays a plot twist card to turn an enemy to have the same agenda as the party, which is to seal the rift. Sudden clarity hits one of the high priests, and he sacrifices himself in order to seal the rift to atone for his actions done in madness. This causes the magic holding everything together to fail and the ceiling collapses, causing a massive cave-in. Lumen was able to hide in a secret room inside the dais with Rosala as everything was coming down to save her from being crushed.
Closing the portal eliminated the imminent threat of Yog Sothoth, but a splinter of himself managed to eek through (Tem's Willowisp Swarm creature). It attacked as the Judge freed himself and unblocked the door where Rosala and lumen were hiding. Everyone else was pinned and unable to free themselves when the creature attacked. Cat's Roc animal companion (a youngling, with stats and size that of a giant eagle) was able to fly down now that there was a giant 80 foot crater and helped to dig out Cat and Nerle during the fight. Maugrim freed himself with a plot twist card (auto nat 20) and joined the fray. Lumen and the Nameless Judge were badly wounded at this point, but the party prevailed with no deaths. There were 6 of them between 7-8 level, and they killed that Willowisp swarm fairly quickly. I even tacked on an extra 100 hp to keep things interesting but they still killed it pretty quickly. The party is right where they should be magic item wise so it's not that. I guess they are just that awesome :D
Regardless I am proud of them for completing this part of the plot. During their investigation of the complex they found the bodies of the red kobolds and sailors that had been given to the cultists along with Rosala by Hargulka's forces. They now know he is responsible for this mess, and will decide what to do this coming week.
Hi DoomCrow have just read though some of you'r post about the Kingmaker AP and it has given me some ideas for me own campaigne(THANKS) but I was just wondering if you rewrite some of the AP as some of the things I have not read yet.