What to play between adventures?

[Marios]

Hello all!

So... subject says it all, right? My party consists of 5 PCs, therefore, unless I upgrade the encounters in the AP's adventures to reflect this, they'd be one level below the expected (by the AP) level for as much as half the AP.

Since my players are rather, hmmm.... how should I put this... well, less than competent combat-wise (albeit great role players!), I'd prefer to leave the encounters as they are.

So, I'm looking for modules / pathfinder society scenarios to run between the AP's adventures... My requirements are the following:

a) The adventure should be set either in Ustalav or somewhere that's really "nowhere" so that I can easily fit it (anywhere) in Ustalav

b) The adventure theme would be nice to revolve around Tar Baphon / The Shining Crusade / whatever might fit nicely in an Ustalavic Campaign

c) The adventure should not revolve around themes that are found in the AP. It should avoid undead as much as possible.

It goes without saying that I do not mind some altering, especially plot-wise, so that the adventure fits better in my campaign.

I did my homework and came up with the following:

- The Feast of Ravenmoor to be set somewhere between Ravengro and Lepidstad (would probably set it on the other side of lake Lias, across from Ravengro)

- City of Golden Death, where they would reach the Isle of Terror via a magical portal located in the vicinity of Schloss Caromarc, in pursuit of agents of the Whispering Way

- The Harrowing, after they defeat Auren Vrood

What do you people think? Any suggestion will be highly appreciated!

[Karameikos]

Other folks have run into this challenge as well.

Check out this thread for a few ideas.

[Erik Freund]

I wish I had Feast available to me when this AP first came out. I think it would make for a great interlude between books 1 and 2 (which is the only interlude in the AP without a timecrunch). Also, the plot involves a riff off of a diety important to the area. I think it would really bolster the mood.

I'm not too familiar with Golden Death. For my campaign, I will likely crib variously modules or parts of modules from Margreve to fit into the interlude between books 2 and 3.

I don't think Harrowing is thematically appropriate. I know, I know, it has Harrow Cards, but it's too Alice-in-Wonderland. It looks like a BLAST, and one of the better modules Paizo has put out, but it jars with the themes of Carrion Crown too much IMO.

Instead, for the gap between 3 and 4, I'm actually cooking up my own module to fit in here. Once I have it ready, I'll share for people to download. It's going to be a full-length (targeting 20k words for the final draft) adventure set in Rozenport with an adjoining dungeon in the form of an Orrey, trying to follow the "format" that this AP seems to follow. I'll make some posts to these boards when I get close to releasing it.

[Karameikos]

Erik Freund wrote:

Instead, for the gap between 3 and 4, I'm actually cooking up my own module to fit in here. Once I have it ready, I'll share for people to download. It's going to be a full-length (targeting 20k words for the final draft) adventure set in Rozenport with an adjoining dungeon in the form of an Orrey, trying to follow the "format" that this AP seems to follow. I'll make some posts to these boards when I get close to releasing it.

Care to share more on the concept? Does the orrey help PCs through the dungeon, take them to the dungeon or become the objective at the end of the dungeon? I'm curious to see how the three pieces (Rozenport, dungeon and orrey) intersect.

[Marios]

At first let me thank you for your replies!

I'd like to mention that I'm looking for already fleshed out modules / adventures as I do not have the time to design my own based on a few good ideas / suggestions... :(

Naturally I would love to see anything you people may come up with! Count me in for a review or whatever feedback you may need!

What is the Margreve that you mention?

[Erik Freund]

Behold, the Margreve. The single best 3PP for PF, in my opinion.

A quick overview: the book is broken into three sections:
- The first section is a gazetteer (like a setting book), with short writeups and lots of plot hooks, but not deeply fleshed out. Has a map and some special rules for exploring the unique environment.
- The second section is a bestiary. Bunch of Slavic-style woodland monsters.
- The third section, and longest section, is a collection of adventures. Many of them are of the format of "dark fairy tales", some are just other strange, creepy things that you can do in a dark Slavic forest. They run the range from levels 1 to 10.

I'm principally using it in my Kingmaker game right now (as there's a large forest nearby that I felt the need to make creepier), but it would be great to transpose various elements into the Shudderwood.

---

As for the module I'm writing up myself, I don't want to drag this thread OT. I'll put up more in the next month or so when it's a little closer to ready: I still have a few thousand more words to go in the first draft. Then I'll spill a lot more beans. (Sorry Karameikos, I'm not ignoring you!)

[Marios]

Erik Freund wrote:

Behold, the Margreve. The single best 3PP for PF, in my opinion.

A quick overview: the book is broken into three sections:
- The first section is a gazetteer (like a setting book), with short writeups and lots of plot hooks, but not deeply fleshed out. Has a map and some special rules for exploring the unique environment.
- The second section is a bestiary. Bunch of Slavic-style woodland monsters.
- The third section, and longest section, is a collection of adventures. Many of them are of the format of "dark fairy tales", some are just other strange, creepy things that you can do in a dark Slavic forest. They run the range from levels 1 to 10.

I'm principally using it in my Kingmaker game right now (as there's a large forest nearby that I felt the need to make creepier), but it would be great to transpose various elements into the Shudderwood.

Hmmm... sounds really interesting! "Dark fairy tales"? What's not to like?

Erik Freund wrote:

As for the module I'm writing up myself, I don't want to drag this thread OT. I'll put up more in the next month or so when it's a little closer to ready: I still have a few thousand more words to go in the first draft. Then I'll spill a lot more beans. (Sorry Karameikos, I'm not ignoring you!)

Looking forward to hearing more about this!

[Windspirit]

Just slightly off topic...but give it a go. Yesterday (when we normally would have played) it turned out that 2 of my key layers where sick, so I just played with tem a one-nighter We Be Goblins. It was SUCH a awesome night...lots of beers and fun.
What I want to say it’s nice to just pause the Horror for a night and have some fun.

[Marios]

Windspirit wrote:

Just slightly off topic...but give it a go. Yesterday (when we normally would have played) it turned out that 2 of my key layers where sick, so I just played with tem a one-nighter We Be Goblins. It was SUCH a awesome night...lots of beers and fun.

What I want to say it’s nice to just pause the Horror for a night and have some fun.

I completely agree and that is the reason I want the intermediate adventures to have different themes than the main AP (hence "The Harrowing" which as previously stated is more like Alice in Wonderland rather than Horror).

I have a mind of running "We be goblins" with the premade "characters" on some similar night as you describe... I won't tell them anything of course, it'd make a nice surprise! ;)

[Windspirit]

Marios wrote:

I have a mind of running "We be goblins" with the premade "characters" on some similar night as you describe... I won't tell them anything of course, it'd make a nice surprise! ;)

Yeah do that.....lots of fun.

I used the pre-created characters, Printen them out (color), put them into the Envalopes and gave them to the Players (Randomaizing them).

Spoiler:

I broke out the Beer and some food when the big party started and we had massive amounts of fun.
In regards of preparation: if you really want to super prepare you find the Licktoad village in Brinewall Legacy on Page 16-19, but I didnt needed to use it at all. The only think taht needs some looking at is the fight with Vorka. Her spells and especially her familiar. In the Adventure it says that she uses her Desna Candle to startoff, but that actually dosnt do much and makes her very rooted to the spot. I would opt for her to use a PaperCandle instead.