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Hi!
I begin running CC this weekend with a wonderful, intelligent, role-play intensive group of players who I have been running with for over ten years. I plan on setting up a campaign journal (which once set up I'll post a link to here or something ... thinking of using Obsidian Portal, not sure yet) but thought I'd just post some of the things I intend on doing to flesh things out a bit. I apologize for the long post and will put sections into Spoilers ... for space and because ... well spoilers :) I'd be happy to hear any feedback. Thank you!
Rather than have my players choose a campaign trait from the Players Guide, I did one-on-one sessions with them, about 2-3 hours each, where they got to RP out an encounter with Prof. Lorrimor. Details on these are below:
1. Arwaith (goes by Wraith): A true Azlanti gunslinger. Her parents (Sarnax and Arani) were from two hidden Azlanti bloodlines. Sarnax was once an old adventuring friend of Lorrimor's and a member of the EOPE. They were murdered by agents of House Thrune while travelling in Five Kings Mountains, but their baby, Arwaith, was saved (see Khorik below). Lorrimor, Father Grimburrow and Scrivener (a tengu Oracle with the blind curse and waves mystery) both of whom had also been adventuring friends with Lorrimor were also present when the baby was saved. Baby Arwaith was given to Scrivener to hide her from House Thrune. She was thus raised in the Shackles on a tengu priate ship (Scrivener was also a crew member). She knew nothing of her heritage or history. Then when she was about 20, Lorrimor and his daughter Kendra came aboard as passengers looking for their friend, Grimburrow, who had journeyed to the Shackles to look for Arwaith (who now went by Wraith and was the first mate on the ship). After a confrontation with the Queen's Hand of House Thrune, her past was revealed to her and Lorrimor gave Wraith her parents' inheritance and helped to set her up in Magnimar with a new identity. She has a close friendship with Kendra. She received essentially Rich Parents as her campaign trait.
2. Khorik Deephammer: Dwarven cleric of Torag. A little over twenty years prior to the events of the campaign Khorik was assigned to a patrol on a dwarven road in Five Kings Mountains when he came across the ruined carriage and dead bodies of Sarnax and Arani (see above). He chased the murderers (agents of House Thrune) down some dwarven tunnels with his fellow dwarves and saved the baby daughter of the two. Grimburrow, Lorrimor and Scrivener arrived soon after (worried when Sarnax and Arani had not shown up to where they were supposed to meet). Khorik blessed the child who was given to Scrivener to place into hiding amongst the Tengu. He was given Defender as a campaign trait (When adjacent to an ally with less AC than him, Khorik provides them with +1 AC. If its Wraith (above) than that is increased to +2 as he feels extra protective of her.
3. Iamjos: Varisian Universalist wizard. Caught up in the riots in Korvosa at the death of the King (from the events of CotCC AP), Iamjos was knocked unconcious during the ordeal and awoke in a jail cell. In the cell across the hall were Prof. Lorrimor and Adivion Adrissant (Lorrimor's one time student and now academic rival ... think Indiana Jones and the french guy). The two were arguing about something when a memeber of the Queen's Hand showed up to interrogate Lorrimor about the whereabouts of Arwaith (see above), now residing in Magnimar. The interview did not go well and the priest of Asmodeus left. Iamjos helped free Lorrimor and Adivion and during their escape encountered the priest of Asmodeus again doing battle with Father Grimburrow (who had come to free the professor). Afterwards, Lorrimor invited Iamjos to Lepidstadt to get away from the anarchy in Korvosa where for the last year he has been a professor of ancient languages, and trying to woo Kendra.(due to his use of charm and diplomacy to get out of jail he recieed Silver Tongue as a campaign trait. Granting him +1 to diplomacy checks and +2 to his enchantment DCs)
4. Kazzar: Silver-scaled Kobold summoner. Kazzar was exiled from his tribe at an early age due to his strange coloring, which was seen as an ill omen. He lived in the wilds of the mountains in the west of Ustalav for a few years, sometimes befriending travelling Varisian nomads. During one such stay with the Varisians, he heard fighting in the night and getting up from camp discovered down the road Prof. Lorrimor fighting off an attack from Adgrif Yoderbie (agent of the Whispering Way from the Rival Guide). Lorrimor had been trying to track down Adgrif (hard with the guy's invisilibilty) for a year or so now after first encountering him in Virlych (see Victor's story below). Kazzar helped to scare off Adgrif (mainly using his eidolon which looks like a silver dragon) and brought Lorrimor to the Varisian camp (this is the same group of Varisians by the way that are later encountered in Book 6 of the AP). Lorrimor, fascinated by a silver scaled kobold summoner, invited Kazzar to Lepidstadt to basically study him. Over the next three years Kazzar has become his research assistant (and is now rather erudite with tweed suits and a monocle). Due to the exposure to higher education he received Learned as a campaign trait (+1 to Knowledge <Arcana, Religion, History and Planes> and two of those are class skills for him).
5. Sir Victor Nicolov: Ustalavic Aasimar Paladin of Iomedae. Victor was born amongst nomadic Varisians in Ustalav (incidently the same Kazzar would befriend years later) who, while travelling in Lastwall exposed him to the crusaders there. His mother, a Harrower (the same who becomes possessed in book 6), knowing he was special left him with the church when he was about 10. Raised in the church, he soon became a young knight (hoping perhaps one day to become a Knight of Ozem), although he had no idea he was an aasimar. During his first assignment on patrol in Virlych with two companions, he arrived at a wayside camp for the Knights of Ozem. There a wounded Father Grimburrow asked for their aid. He and his friend, Lorrimor, had been investigating a nearby graveyard from before the time of the Whispering Tyrant. They had tracked who they believed were graverobbers there. Being injured, claiming to have been attacked by some foul power there, he asked them to go save Lorrimor. Victor and his companions travelled to the fog-shrouded graveyard where they were attacked by a haunt, which sent strangling chains out of the deep fog (killing one of Victor's friends). Eventually defeating the haunt, they heard a noise from a crypt. Victor went on alone to investigate and found within Lorrimor, tied up, and two others (Adgrif from above and Mierela Tsilda also from the Rival Guide). They intended on killing Lorrimor for meddling in what they were trying to do (they were trying to discover if they could capture the graveyard's haunt in a test run for Harrowstone). They fled when Victor arrived but not before Mierela summoned four skeletons to attack Victor. Just as he was about to be overwhelmed, Father Grimburrow arrived in the crypt ... angry at himself for being too old to save his friend, he had followed and just in the knick of time. He destroyed the skeletons and they saved Lorrimor. They discovered what looked like a large haunt siphon in the center of the graveyard and when Victor went to destroy it, it released a darkness. Light spread from Victor's hands (his aasimar Light ability revealing itself for the first time) and he was spared death from the foul magic. He escorted both back to Ravengro and has kept in touch since. His campaign trait is Death Guard, due to his survival of the evil haunt siphon which gives him a +1 vs death effects and negative energy attacks.
So those are the players and their relations with Prof. Lorrimor, not to mention Father Grimburrow and Scrivener and for Iamjos also Adivion (who I played as once having been betrothed to Kendra before Lorrimor disapproved). Each has now received word of Prof. Lorrimor's death and are travelling to Ravengro. That was much longer than I thought. I'll post other parts of where I'm expanding on it in another post.
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Next some fleshing out of some of the NPCs
Prof. Lorrimor & Company: The most important group is Lorrimor obviously and also his old adventuring group. When he was much younger, about forty years prior to the campaign, he travelled all over the place with a group of friends. This included Father Grimburrow from the AP. It also included Scrivener, a tengu oracle who was blind and liked to collect baubles and ribbon (which he keeps in an ever increasingly heavy and overstuffed handy haversack on his back); Marjori Red, a tall Amazon of a woman from Alkenstar with a love of guns and who had a crush on Lorrimor before he got married. Judge Embreth Daramid (from Trial of the Beast), who had not been married at this point and went by her maiden name ... Grimburrow, the priest's younger sister. This was before her barrister days as well. He eventually married, was initiated into the EOPE and settled down in Lepidstadt.
Father Grimburrow: Long-time friend of Lorrimors and almost 30 years his senior. Grimburrow is usually described by his friends as "Well he's nice ... well ... not nice perse." He lives up to his name and always suffers being torn away from his quiet parish in Ravengro to go on one of Lorrimor's fool adventures. As they aged, he travelled less and less, following his younger sister's model (as she married and became a magistrate in Lepidstadt). I plan on giving him an interesting take in the AP. As soon as I saw his picture in the book I thought, "This guy needs to have a story." And so he'll have on. The day after the funeral he will go off, leaving a message to the party giving his apologies. He is really off to track down to the Whispering Way and the murderers of his friend. The party will always be sort of on his heels from then on out until he'll have a tragic demise at the hands of Auren Vrood. I can't wait to play that one out.
Adivion Adrissant: Once a student of Lorrimor's, he eventually became an academic rival. He had wooed and been betrothed to Kendra at one point before Lorrimor put a stop to it. The two respect each other, even like each other, but Lorrimor finds Adivion's particular fascinations troubling. Adivion will be present at the funeral and reading of the will and as there are 5 PCs, he will also be the sixth pallbearer. He will leave the next day back to Caliphas.
Kvalca Sain: Sain will also be at the funeral, but really only be briefly mentioned and his true identity not revealed then. I just wanted to make a connection there for the PCs so that when Sain is dead, its just another part of the Lorrimor tragedy.
Scrivener: My own creation, the tengu oracle I mentioned above. Scrivener, just because I love the character, is going to have some role to play in all of this. At the time of Lorrimor's death, he lives near Mordant Spire in a tengu colony. He will be overcome with a prophetic vision, incorporating not only the events of the Carrion Crown but also some aspects of some of the player's storylines. Most importantly he will see a great evil possibly for the young girl he helped raise (the PC Arwait from previous post). He will travel to Ustalav in a search for the group, so while they'll be on the heels of the Whispering Way, he will be on their heels.
Lacramoria: This is the Varisian harrower who is possessed in Book 6. She is important for a few reasons. First, she is the grandmother of the PC Victor from the first post. Also it was her travelling clan that befriended the PC Kazzar. Also she is the only one who knows the true secret of her family, the Nicolovs ... the family from whom the Prince of Wolves will arise. Whee.
That's it so far... other NPCs will be more fleshed out as well ... such as Judge Daramid being Grimburrow's sister and such. We'll see how it all goes :)
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Here is the change I'm making to Lorrimor's will. Information in <>'s is a description, if any, of the item. Stuff in bold is new text added.
See the Players section above for info on the particular people mentioned.
“I, Petros Lorrimor, being of sound mind, do hereby commit to this parchment my last will and testament. Let it be known that, with the exception of the specific details below, I leave my home and personal belongings entire to my daughter Kendra. Use them or sell them as you see fit, my child.
"To my colleague, Professor Iamjosh, this small token of affection. It was given to me in my youth by Father Grimburrow as a sign of friendship. I now leave it to you with the same intention. Bear it well. <black-gold ring with two scythes framing a rough piece of obsidian. Ring of Counterspells.>
"For my old friend, Father Deephammer, I have a special gift that I retrieved five years ago when on an excursion in Katapesh. I give it to you to return to your people or for yourself as you see fit. <Crown of the High Priest of Torag of Tar-Urkatha near Katapesh, no magical properties.>
"To my assistant, Master Kazzar, I have left instructions with Dean Viacarri to offer you my rooms, my library and my academic seat at the University. Well loved by the students, and learned as well, I am sure you will succeed me well in your new role.
"To Lord Adrissant, my old pupil and friend, I leave you that which you have always asked of me. I regret if you felt I kept it from you out of spite, for that was not my cause. Use it well, in my memory. <A grey, leather bound book wrapped in silver cord, obviously of great age. There is information in the book which Adivion needs for his Carrion Crown ritual. He's been trying to get this book for a long time.>
"For Sir Victor, I had meant to pass this on to you when you next travelled through Ravengro. I had extended some inquiries into the matter of your family, trying to track them down as you mentioned. While your immediate family, which I understand is nomadic, was not found, a friend of mine at Quatrefaux Archives in Caliphas did send me a very special item, which he discovered in their collection. I am afraid I know not what it means perse or where it came from, but it is a start. <black leather scabbard with silver frame and wolf's head and the Nicolov name written on it. At the moment, no magical properties.>
"Wraith. You have lost more than you know, but I have been eased these last few years knowing finally that you are safe. After speaking with Kendra and acquiring the proper legal documents from Mayor Hearthmount, I give to you that which was taken from you. A name and family. From this moment forth, according to the laws of the Immortal Principality of Ustalav, you may claim the name of Lorrimor and are recognized as Kendra's adopted sister and heir.
“Yet beyond the bequeathing of my personal effects, this document must serve other needs. I have arranged for the reading of this document to be delayed until all principals can be in attendance, for I have more than mere inheritance to apportion. I have two final favors to ask.
“To my old friends, I hate to impose upon you all, but there are few others who are capable of appreciating the true significance of what it is I have to ask. As some of you know, I have devoted many of my studies to all manner of evil, that I might know the enemy and inform those better positioned to stand against it. For knowledge of one’s enemy is the surest path to victory over its plans.
“And so, over the course of my lifetime, I have seen fit to acquire a significant collection of valuable but dangerous tomes, any one of which in the wrong circumstances could have led to an awkward legal situation. While the majority of these tomes remain safe under lock and key at the Lepidstadt University, I fear that a few I have borrowed remain in a trunk in my Ravengro home. While invaluable for my work in life, in death, I would prefer not to burden my daughter with the darker side of my profession, or worse still, the danger of possessing these tomes herself. As such, I am entrusting my chest of tomes to you, posthumously. I ask that you please deliver the collection to my colleagues at the University of Lepidstadt, who will put them to good use for the betterment of the cause.
“Yet before you leave for Lepidstadt, there is the matter of another favor—please delay your journey one month and spend that period of time here in Ravengro to ensure that my daughter is safe and sound. She has no one to count on now that I am gone, and if you would aid her in setting things in order for whatever she desires over the course of this month, you would have my eternal gratitude. From my savings, I have also willed to each of you a sum of one hundred platinum coins. For safekeeping, I have left these funds with Embreth Daramid, one of my most trusted friends in Lepidstadt—she has been instructed to issue this payment upon the safe delivery of the borrowed tomes no sooner than one month after the date of the reading of this will.
“I, Petros Lorrimor, hereby sign this will in Ravengro on this first day of Calistril, in the year 4712.”
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I'm inserting aspects of people's character stories into the adventure path, as well as NPCs they had encountered in their one-on-one sessions. Certain things I'm weaving in....
1. Starting about 20 years ago, House Thrune has been hunting a bloodline of true Azlanti. I'm still developing their reasons for this. Arwaith's (aka Wraith) parents, Sarnax and Arani, were living in Osirion then. Sarnax had been an old adventuring friend of Prof. Lorrimor's and was from one of the few families in hiding of true Azlanti blood. He married Arani, from another one of those families and they had Arwaith 23 years prior to the events of the campaign. House Thrune had tracked down Sarnax and Arani who departed Osirion on the run and were travelling from Larrad in Five Kings Mountains to Tar-Kazmukh where they were to meet Lorrimor, Father Grimburrow and Scrivener. Lorrimor had promised Sarnax who was also a member of the EOPE a safe house in Ustalav. Sadly they were waylaid by an agents of House Thrune. This is before the founding of the Queen's Hand (from the Rival Guide). Lerwynn Skathos though was at the time an agent and was present as well as an Imp named Rizzit (a private agent for the crown). They killed Sarnax and Arani and kidnapped the baby Arwaith but were themselves waylaid by Khorik Deephammer and his dwarven patrol. The baby was saved and placed into hiding with Scrivener in the Shackles amongst tengu pirates. The Queen's Hand, now founded, eventually tracked her down and discovered her at the same time as Lorrimor. She was saved and went into hiding in Magnimar with Lorrimor's help. The Queen's Hand continues to search for her and will probably make a few showings during the course of events in the AP, probably during Books 4 and 5. I'll work out what House Thrune's real purposes are by then.
2. The Whispering Way has many agents and two of them (also in the Rival Guide) are Adgrif Yoderbie and Mierela Tsilda. They have had a run in with Prof. Lorrimor before and Sir Victor was present then. Also Kazzar has had a run in with Adgrif. I will probably bring them back into the story if there seems to be any weak points in connecting the dots later on. A run in with one or both of them can help redirect the party towards tracking the Whispering Way if needed.
3. Father Grimburrow. I can't get enough of this guy. I plan on having him depart Ravengro the day after the funeral. He's very old now and he suspects his best friend, Lorrimor, has been murdered. He's a singular minded person who prefers to do things alone and so doesn't inform the party of his suspicions. However I can use him to help leave hints behind as the party moves through the story to keep them on track. He's just a few steps ahead of them at any given moment and always closer to getting Vrood. During the one-on-ones, the players have really come to like Grimburrow. During the Vrood fight at the end of the third book, he will give his life to save them during the battle ... or something to that effect. In any case, his death will be tragic but meaningful (something similar to Gandalf's death in LotR).
4. House Nicolov. The PC Sir Victor's family is the Nicolov family, who are nomadic Varisians who travel throughout Ustalav and Lastwall. He has not seen then since he was a boy and joined the church of Iomedae. What he doesn't know is that House Nicolov is destined to produce the Prince of Wolves. They a branch of the royal family of Ustalav who after the destruction of the kingdom by the Whispering Tyrant never returned to their noble roots, but instead became a nomadic clan. As the story progresses hints and clues will be left that may one day reveal Sir Victor to be that heir, but that will probably be material used for post Book 6 in continuing the adventure.
5. Kendra. As per the will, Arwaith has been made Kendra's adopted sister. Also Iamjosh intends on wooing her. At the end of Book 1, Kendra will tell the PCs that she is leaving to Caliphas where she will stay with Adivion until she sets up a home there. When Book 5 rolls around, I'll use her possibly to help guide them in what they're supposed to do with the vampires, or possibly something tragic ... haven't worked that out yet. But with her strong ties to the PCs, stronger than presented in Book 1, I will definitely use her more.
6. Scrivener's Prophecy. I mentioned this somewhere in a previous post I think about Scrivener the oracle's prophecy. He'll me traipsing just out of reach of the PCs along with Father Grimburrow, on his own mission, and occassionally interacting with the PCs where its appropriate.
Just some of the ideas I have. I'm sure they'll develop and change as I go and as I respond to what the PCs do :) Again, any input is happily accepted!!!
Hi Helaman!
Thanx for the response.
I don't foresee an accident. The Arwaith PC isn't of that mode where she'd off Kendra for money. She has her own inheritance from her parents (Sarnax and Arani).
The book, I'm assuming you're referring to what Adivion received from Lorrimor is not the Carrion Crown recipe itself. Its just a piece of the puzzle for Adivion that won't come into play for some time. Basically it gives me a prop that I can either play with or not, depending on need later.
I am lucky in my players. When we ran our big 3.5 campaign back a few years ago (we journaled it out back then on the Wizards forum as the Calcryx Campaign, it went from lvl 1-28 and covered City of the Spider Queen and lots of other stuff), it was a big success. And mainly because of the players. They eat up story elements like Popeye eating spinach and throw back amazing storylines of their own creations back at me. The more I give them, the better I get back. I'm purposely going to keep things fluid for this reason, but I like to flesh some things out because they're the type to delve into something that may seem small and I like to be prepared.
Talk about a group that goes out of the box. Luckily they turn it into a tesseract of fun :) (god, I hope someone gets that physics joke).
I am lucky in my players. When we ran our big 3.5 campaign back a few years ago (we journaled it out back then on the Wizards forum as the Calcryx Campaign, it went from lvl 1-28 and covered City of the Spider Queen and lots of other stuff), it was a big success. And mainly because of the players. They eat up story elements like Popeye eating spinach and throw back amazing storylines of their own creations back at me. The more I give them, the better I get back. I'm purposely going to keep things fluid for this reason, but I like to flesh some things out because they're the type to delve into something that may seem small and I like to be prepared.Talk about a group that goes out of the box. Luckily they turn it into a tesseract of fun :) (god, I hope someone gets that physics joke).
Sounds like a great group. How did you find them, and can I get some? :)
Sounds like a great group. How did you find them, and can I get some? :)
They're all my old and close friends, we're all in our 30s, for the most part, so its a nice mature group. *looks at Kazare who plays Kazzar whose name I obviously got wrong* Well mature is a relative term. *goes to chase Kazare out of the thread full of spoilers with a baseball bat* Heh. :)