Kingmaker 2

[darklopez]

Hello,
I'm a DM from Germany so please excuse any bad language ;)

Me and my group are huge Kingmaker fans. We finished part 6 with a TPK similiar to the one FallOfCamelot described in the Obituaries-Thread. The Characters (Three were left, with an NPC, one Player moved during Book 4) went on to their respective gods and sometimes we dig them out to make some kind of Afterlife-Arena, where they face some high-level enemies. The TPK happened in June.

So I was thinking about a second Kingmaker campaign specifically designed for them. So from now on it's spoilers ahead:

The campaign shall play at least 100 years in the "future". Brevoy changed of course, civil war, return of the Conqueror, something like this. The Stolen Lands disappeared without a clue, just bare wasteland left. Nothing does anyone know about Nyrissa or the link to the first world. Nyrissa, wounded but not defeated, returned into the higher ranks, now a more powerful, dark fey-goddess.
Then, all of a sudden, the Stolen Lands reappear. They are just "there" again. The time in First World and under the influence of the fey-gods has twisted the land, and the players new characters are hired as an expedition team, to find out what happened. Meanwhile the river nations move their armies to the borders and send in their own teams for investigation.

I'm hoping to bring up old NSCs, places the players created and old enemys, but everything in a new, twisted way. While the characters explore the stolen lands (once again) hex for hex they shall find out, what has happened during the last hundred years and finally need to ressurect their old characters to their sides and face the new Nyrissa once again, to free the Stolen Lands from it's connection to the first world forever.

What do you guys think about this? Do you have any good ideas how I should proceed from here on, so it will become a playable campaign for my players?

My thanks in advance ;)

[FallofCamelot]

Ah my fame proceeds me :)

This all sounds like a really good idea. Some questions you have to ask yourself:

1) Why are the Stolen Lands back? Nyrissa could have got bored of having the Stolen Lands on her shelf but that's a lot of work to obtain something that she discards after a mere 100 years. Something else is probably happening. Has an enemy got to Nyrissa? Is this a new plan of hers? Or is a different force at work?

2) Who are the players? Are they decendents of the PC's? (Court in exile?) Are they a group sponsored by another nation? Or are they purely mercenaries?

3) What's the political situation? It's doubtful that the surrounding countries have remained static whilst the Stolen Lands have been "away". What has happened in the meantime? How has Brevoy and Restov's animosity resolved itself? What is the political situation in the River Kingdoms? Which nations have risen? Which have fallen? What of Numeria? How far has the Worldwound expanded?

4) What is the geography of the Stolen Lands now? The Stolen Lands have been exposed to the ever changing energies of the First World for 100 years. It is therefore doubtful that the Stolen Lands are how the players "remember" it. Move the geography around. Have mountains where there were plains before, forest where there was swamp and so on. Also the familiar locations from their previous investigations could now be far more significant. The Troll caves could have become a massive dungeon complex. The ruined castles and monestaries could now be massive brooding fairytale castles. Play with your player's expectations.

5) What awaits the Players? Who are your big bads? There must be more there than just Fay opposition, perhaps some Lovecraft inspired horribleness or undead in Vordakai's catacombs? What of the humans who were trapped in the Stolen Lands? Many of them will see intruders as an invading force rather than liberators. The Boggards and Kobolds would prove to be a major threat as well.

Basically you want Kingmaker 2 to be familiar enough that it feels like the Stolen Lands but you also want to make it a new and fresh challenge for your players. Continuity is key, but don't make the setting exactly the same. There should be some surprises along the way. I would even be tempted to kill off Nyrissa and have the big bad be a completely different opponent. In fact it would be a good twist to have the players think that they are going against Nyrissa only to find out that their opponent is someone else.

[Son of the Veterinarian]

Try this on for size. The Stag Lords fort didn't go along with the rest of the Stolen Lands and became a resting point for caravans crossing the new wasteland between Brevoy and the River Kingdoms. When the Stolen Lands return, the fort and it's inhabitants find themselves right in the middle of the restored terrain.

The PCs are inhabitants, perhaps even the rightful heirs of the lost kingdom, and must take charge of the situation. Securing their base, rescuing others who find themselves in the middle of the new lands, and dealing with the descendants of those taken with the Stolen Lands when it disappeared.

[Robert Brambley]

I think this is a FANTASTIC idea!!!

Kinda like the Lord of the Rings are always exploring amongst ruins/civilizations of old - seeing remnants of the kings of old before them.

This will give players a chance to see the ruins of their very own past civilization and give them a chance to explore it all - post first world corruption/taint.

"Oh look, theres the old famous Monument of _________" (insert monument from PC's kingdom that commemorated their old heroes).

"Here are the ruins of the town of ______ - the site of the legendary battle against Armag the Destroyer!"

That is something that I would LOVE to take part in.

Good luck.

The key of course is "why is it back?" as someone mentioned. Perhaps Erastil played a role in that.....

Robert

[darklopez]

You guys are great, thank you for helping me so much.

A point that didn't even got to my mind is how the wasteland is populated. It would be a good hook if the players are sent to rescue any survivors from a trading post. I'm not sure yet from which direction they should start and thus which kingdom they are allgined to.

I want to make this campaign running from level 1 to level 17-20, so I'm guessing it would be a good idea to set a milestone where the players battle Nyrissa about level 10-12. The levels before should be filled with exploration, getting an idea what happened before the lands got sucked into the first world (This the players know but their characters not) and what happened after that. I have two ideas in my mind:

1) The Stolen Lands were sent back as a way to serve Nyrissa as a bridgehead for conquering all of golarion. So the PCs have to raise their own army to push Nyrissas first world troops back into their realm and face them there. to accomplish this they need to rebuild the old kingdom and ressurect their old characters. Maybe they need to find planar allies too because the surrounding countries will have to fight at their borders against fey armies already. Some kind of good alligned feys army could be a good opportunity to bring back "General" Perlivash.

2.) The first world got conquered by a being of "infinite" power. Nyrissa escapes inside the stolen lands. She establishes her own kingdom and claims to be the rightful queen of these lands. After the PCs found and rescued the human populated cities from Nyrissas Generals they need to push back Nyrissas armys and face her, to find out what evil really await, should the conqueror of the first world finds out, how easily he can send an army into golarion via the connection between the first world and the stolen lands.

The first world was described as some kind of timeless place, so I think that all of the survivors won't have aged, even though they really spent 100 years in captivity. There will be a resistance group fighting the evil fey and there will be one or two intact cities inhabitated by oppressed humans. I think those should be on the western part of the map, around the castle of blades. The eastern part though should be devastated and overgrown. Maybe I could bring back Vorakai, who did indeed return (The players don't know about his weakened status per book, which forbits his return, so I could cheat a bit here) and found himself in this wicked first world. A "The enemy of my enemy"-Situation where they ally with a Lich could bring up interesting plost twists.
As Big Bad Boss Guys up to Nyrissa I was thinking about traitor NPCs (A corrupted Anti-Paladin Akiros Ismort could be fun), the return of the Quickling, Nyrissas Generals (I like the idea of some kind of season-realted Fey-Monster like the Duke of Frost (could be that guy from carnival of tears, he is fun) or a Queen of Autumn who withers her enemies) and the famous winged Owlbears. Oleg could have betraided the kingdom and become a proconsul for Nyrissa. I imagine him as a really fat guy, dressed all up in colours but totally corrupted (Maybe a Sorcerer now) who holds Svetlana as his slave (Like Jabba the hut).

This is it sofar, but please keep your good ideas coming. You are such a great help.

[Robert Brambley]

darklopez wrote:

The first world was described as some kind of timeless place, so I think that all of the survivors won't have aged, even though they really spent 100 years in captivity. There will be a resistance group fighting...

You can take this one step further - the citizens of the PCs kingdom that disappeared w/ the land have no memory of having been part of the normal material world.

When the new campaign puts the new PCs into contact w/ the old citizens of the old kingdom, as far as they knew they were ALWAYS part of that world, w/ Nyrissa, and are 'strangers in a strange land' in Golarion.

The new PCs find it hard to convince them that they were absconded 100 years ago - the old citizens just find this preposterous and crazy-talk.

Robert