I guess one of the advantages in running something a year or two late is a lot of people have gone before me, and by reading a lot of critiques and Actual Plays a wealth of ideas are presented for me to use.
So -- I've done some work foreshadowing of the The Big Bad of Chapter 6 in Chapter 1 -- little things, but the group is drawing some interesting conclusions.
They have already been critical of the less significant "minor quests" in Stolen Land. There are a number of minor quests in RRR that the group is probably going to have very little interest in. And many of the minor quests point the players' characters at locations -- and plain old rumours will do the job well enough.
My question is this: What Pathfinder Modules could be adapted to "flesh out" RRR?
Realm of the Fellnight Queen seems a little to closely paralleling the action in later chapters.
Revenge of the Kobold King might be a good fit -- since the PCs did cause a certain powerful kobold to pass away. [a]And[/a] the players are convinced a powerful necromancer is at work in the region after they found a dead unicorn.
And someone else posted on how they had used Carnival of Tears -- and I think a "Feast of Fools" over the Winter Solstice would work wonders and come in right about the six or seventh month of Kingdom building.
Any other recommendations? Or Organized Play modules that might be suitable?
More info on our game can be found here.
I dropped Fellnight Queen in between Chapters 2 & 3, with the following changes:
The forest has become the Narlmarches, and the town of Bellis was a new city in the PCs' kingdom (where the abandoned elven keep is currently located).
The dryad seeking help from the PCs is now Tiressia, and several other members of the fey conclave have been changed to recognizable NPCs from earlier explorations.
The battle between local fey and Fellnight invaders will be played out using the mass combat rules from Kingmaker Chapter 4.[/i]
While it's possible that later adventures will seem overly familiar after including Fellnight, I hope to frame them as a sort of narrative motif -- ie. "all this has happened before and will happen again."
Once Fellnight is done, I may also drop in The Harrowing. It's not quite as germane to the Kingmaker setting, but it's a delightful self-contained adventure with a fairly light tone (useful to contrast with VV, or with Carnival of Tears if you plan to run that one).
Are you looking to flesh out RRR or pad it out? If you're just looking to fill in the xp/gold that would be missed for deleting the quests, you can easily just kind of slide it in on the sly.
Fer instance, if you don't think your players would be interested in having their royal PCs run another fetch quest to kill a giant turtle (or what have you) you can wait until they do it on their own or are drawn there by rumors. Once they've killed the turtle without any prompting from the locals, they quietly get a little xp bonus for the battle (equal to what they would've gotten for finishing the quest) and when they get home, their treasurer reveals their "petty cash" fund has gone up by however many goldpieces they would've been paid by the peasant turtle-hater.
The numbers work out in the end, but the new baron doesn't feel like he's being hired by his subjects.
I dropped Fellnight Queen in between Chapters 2 & 3, with the following changes....
Hmmm. Certainly something to think about. I haven't read the module, but the description definitely struck me as something that was a relatively close parallel. We already have a green-haired fey character who -- if she survives to that point -- it will be hinted at that she is Nyrissa's daughter. True? probably not, but it's already something they've speculated about, having found some green hair in conspicuous places.
Are you looking to flesh out RRR or pad it out?
Pad it out I guess.
We've done a bunch of extra stuff in Stolen lands -- it is quite possible that between the Stag Lord's demise and the XP boost for kingdom formation the PCs will be fifth lvl before the end of the next session. So they'll have nice new levels to try on when I drag them all the way to New Stetvin to meet the Big Boss of Brevoy and accept their new charter (and title) at his hands.
I'm not really a fan of "random encounters" -- so even the "dangerous thing happens in the Stolen Lands" moments are basically pre-scripted by me. Some are tough, some are little more than a nuisance. And some might be detours into entire adventures.
Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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For the witch side story at the beginning of RRR I ran the Pathfinder Society adventure "The Pallid Plague." I changed the cultists in that module to be part of the cult of Gyronna instead of whatever it originally was (some undead loving god; don't remember who). It worked extremely well, and set up some very interesting interactions with the fey. When I moved into "Carnival of Tears," the PCs relationship with them, and the fey motivations behind the carnival, made perfect sense. Better yet, the Cold Rider at the end of the "Carnival of Tears" can easily be replaced by a reincarnated version of the Stag Lord that Nyrissa unleashes on the fledgling barony. This act has made for great fun in my game.
Also, in the "Conversions" section of the message boards, someone did a phenomenal job converting the 1E adventure "Tomb of the Lizard King." I plan on inserting this in toward the end of RRR, using it to bridge the gap between RRR and VV.
[Edit] Oh, and DM_aka_Dudemeister's expansions have been absolutely awesome, by the way. They were so good that I pretty much did a standing back flip when I found out he had moved on to Varnhold Vanishing, thus allowing me to steal those, as well. I highly recommend them.
For the witch side story at the beginning of RRR I ran the Pathfinder Society adventure "The Pallid Plague." I changed the cultists in that module to be part of the cult of Gyronna instead of whatever it originally was (some undead loving god; don't remember who).
I'll take a look! I already have a couple plans for the Gyronna cultists -- I'm always willing to flesh them out.
Better yet, the Cold Rider at the end of the "Carnival of Tears" can easily be replaced by a reincarnated version of the Stag Lord that Nyrissa unleashes on the fledgling barony.
Depending on what the PC's do ... I don't know if Nettles and the Shrike River will be willing to give his body up!
Oh, and DM_aka_Dudemeister's expansions have been absolutely awesome, by the way.
Can anyone fire me a link? He's kind of prolific!
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Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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For the witch side story at the beginning of RRR I ran the Pathfinder Society adventure "The Pallid Plague." I changed the cultists in that module to be part of the cult of Gyronna instead of whatever it originally was (some undead loving god; don't remember who).I'll take a look! I already have a couple plans for the Gyronna cultists -- I'm always willing to flesh them out.
Agreed. Plus, any work you do with the Gyronna cult will have a big payoff in book 5. I plan on doing the same thing with Tomb of the Lizard King; the driving force behind Sakatha will also be the cult of Gyronna, instead of whatever demon they used to follow.
Better yet, the Cold Rider at the end of the "Carnival of Tears" can easily be replaced by a reincarnated version of the Stag Lord that Nyrissa unleashes on the fledgling barony.Depending on what the PC's do ... I don't know if Nettles and the Shrike River will be willing to give his body up!
Nyrissa didn't really give Nettles a choice in my campaign. And it's an excellent way of providing a little more foreshadowing of her for the group. Ultimately, she is the driving force behind everything in my game...
Oh, and DM_aka_Dudemeister's expansions have been absolutely awesome, by the way.Can anyone fire me a link? He's kind of prolific!
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Thanks for the kind words Drogon, and providing the link.
I have had spotty Internet lately so I couldn't post it up myself. I also threw in a mash up of Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale and Fellnight Queen during RRR.
I'm up to book 4 now and I'm not sure what expansion material to put in there at the moment, it's a strongly plotted adventure that doesn't need heavy expansion.
Thanks to Drogon for the link, and thanks to DM_aka_Dudemeister for the work! That was a great read, and there's a ton of great stuff for me to use.
I'm really almost obligated to use parts of Revenge of the Kobold King focusing on poor old Tartuk -- despite strands of green hair and a bunch of Fey politics they've been part of, the dead Unicorn has my group convinced that a human necromancer (from Mivon) is at play in the region.
And -- since we have a powerful-but-not-human NPC capable of high level necromancy -- I may be expanding the Lonely Barrow a bit. Too far away to be part of Hargulka's demesne, but not too far away to be an ally.
That being said, the survival of the Sootscales was a hotly contested point for my group, and came down to a two-two split with the fifth character abstaining, then finally conceding to let them live -- for now. I love the "Troll Feast" -- that's going in for sure. But I think I'm going to make the downfall of the Narthropple Expedition kobold-free. Or make them green.
Oh man, thanks for starting this threat!
While I already know quite well, how I'll insert NotFNQ in my campaign and will use DM's material mostly as is, you just gave me the perfect idea for my escaped Tartuk!
I had planned to use him as a pet in the end of RRR to the trolls, but this is much better (and I can keep my troll-half-dragon visiting Hargulka to unleash on the PCs).
I've had that module sitting on my shelf and now I finally get to use it.
Same with the kobolds in my game; cleric (of Torag - go figure) is dead set on eradicating them, the baron protects and supports them and the paladin was absent at that session, but I finally got him via his code and "showing them the right way...").
So, thanks again for the idea on using Tartuk!
Ruyan.
No problem Ruyan -- we're all in this together!
I think I've finally "trained" my group of Kingmaker "murder hobos" to talk first and kill/loot later. Still, the kobolds have been so much fun for me to RP with, I'd hate to see them "turned into XPs".
I'm super-impressed by Dudemeister's initiative, and I can proudly say I'm stealing about 70-80% of it for my game. :)
Sure, sure. It's a give and take here and I have my share of both :-)
It's just that I was a little disappointed with Tartuk as written. He's just too weak at that level - the bigger the satisfaction after he made his escape from the Kobold liar so I could use him again.
Having him return with his own dungeon is so much better than putting him as a side-kick with Hargulka (although that combo would have been deadly...).
Ruyan.
It's just that I was a little disappointed with Tartuk as written.
Yes -- I added Fire Breath (2nd lvl spell, breathe a 4d6, a 3d6, and a 2d6 15' cone of flame) instead of Minor Image, and Burning Hands instead of Silent Image, and made him a Red Kobold (increasing fire spell DCs by +2).
I also got rid of the "reincarnated Gnome" story. It was a really neat aspect, but it wasn't anything that was ever going to effect the game. And a fire-breathing Kobold with fear spells? He can intimidate his way right to the top. There is no doubt in my mind that if another month had gone by the Sootscales would be the Tartuks.
If you can find my Previous 2 Adventure Blogs from running KM they have some Idea's, but here are some of the things i have done in book 1 and 2.
- Oleg has only 1 Arm... Do to an adventuring Accident
- Oleg's wife is Pregnant, and gives birth during the Bandit Attack. Does the healer go help her or stay and help the party? If they go help her the healer gets to name the baby (2/3 of our healers have been female players).
- Gavin the Goblin. Every Player has loved Gavin. I use this fig for him and play him more or less as a somewhat Absent Minded Goblin Bard (5th), with an insane Intelligence and Charisma. One party found out through Legend Lore, and other Divination's that he was once an Ancient Silver Dragon, who made a trade at the Fey Market and ended up a Goblin
-Fey Market. There is a small Blurb about it in book 6. The party is woken up by a Council Member... A Tent town has appeared outside the city and thee are MONSTERS in it!! They show up and its Fey and Fey Touched Monsters. Frost Giants with 6 arms serving Ice Cream, Fire Giants with 3 Heads Telling Ghost stories, Etc. You can get most Anything you want from the Fey Market... But at a Cost. Common Costs were the Dragon and knight toys, Vial of Blood, Hair, And a Tap of a Reincarnate Wand. One player Exchanged for a Permanent Reincarnate, that had a 50/50 chance of Working when they died. If it failed, there Soul was Destroyed Completely. Anything Cold Iron or Fey bane came with Negatives as well, like -5 to will saves vs fey magic.