|
contains spoilers.
Beyond the doomsday door arrived in the mail today and after reading the foreword I had to stop and post here.
I'm simply too shocked to read that so much flavor on my favorite fey - Redcaps - got cut! This cut section simply *screams* to be made into a downloadable PDF...So, paizo, pretty please with sugar, honey, and a freshly picked cherry on top, PLEASE would you tell us what Tito Leati had in mind with the redcaps?
Creative Director
|
| 31 people marked this as a favorite. |
We generally don't do web enhancements as PDFs because the work that goes into creating something like that is equal to the work we put in on a print product. We DID just do a web enhancement for "Curse of the Lady's Light," but that was an unusual situation brought on by an article tangle that forced us to cut a significant (but not necessarily load-bearing) section of the adventure.
But simply posting stuff like this to a messageboard when folks are curious is a lot easier, especially when I still have the words handy. So, here they are—note, these are roughly developed but uneditied, and they may have spoilers and/or errors in them as relates the final adventure as published. (The mannerisms themselves are a bit over the top and some would argue silly—and I also wasn't 100% comfortable with setting up the in-print precedent that redcaps talk in this way which would force us to stick to that in other redcap-related products where such mannerisims would likely grow increasingly unwelcome and complex; as a result, let me remind folks that the cut content below is
The redcaps recruited by Ardathanatus served as his primary infantry against the clerics during the initial attack on the abbey—as the elf had anticipated, the larger and more threatening giants drew the majority of the resources for defense away, allowing the deceptively dangerous little fey to invade the Abbey Grounds through the collapsed walls of the chapel (the ruined structure’s loss of religious iconography being a particularly fine development in the redcaps’ estimation).
During the past weeks, the redcaps have started growing restless, and they’ve been sending bands out to stalk the Lost Coast Road in longer and longer forays to prey upon travelers and the like. Recently, the redcaps have come to the conclusion that the humans have abandoned the road. While they’ve been able to gather plenty of supplies from their raids for the immediate future, the loss of regular raiding opportunities has begun to gnaw at their patience. As a result, they fell to bickering, and today their number is but half that that originally stormed Windsong. The current number is just enough for an additional two more-powerful redcaps—Roy Flaxkbeater and Larla Clankypump—to keep the others in line.
Nonetheless, the redcaps have grown increasingly vocal in their boredom and frustration, and if the PCs are sneaky (or if they manage to capture a redcap as a living prisoner), they can learn much from eavesdropping on them. Should the PCs spy upon the redcaps, they might indeed learn something interesting about their enemies. Most of the time the redcaps jabber in a nonsensical and baffling mixture of Aklo, Giant, and Sylvan, such that listening to them and making sense of what they say requires skill; in all three languages. Now and then, though, they lapse into Common—alas, when they do so, their accents and tendency to apply nicknames to everyone and everything can confound even those using magic to understand them.
Listed below are several example snatches of conversation that the PCs might pick up on while spying on or interrogating the redcaps.
A comment about Sufestra’s ability to petrify victims: “Mah wuid. Ah woods ne'er hae imagined 'at a body day a hoosemate ay mine, if she is gey scunnered, coods make me aw stiff an' cracked astoned!”
A reference to the redcaps’ fear of Sufestra, and of how they’fe thought better of reflecting her gaze back at her because that would petrify the doomsday key and get them all in trouble: “Ah tauld ye, wee jimmies! 'At hen taunts us. She gi'es us glaikit orders tae make rocks ay us. Ah say, obey fur noo. We will hae uir shot oan 'er a body day, but we main nae make 'er faa intae pieces loch th' Bloo Lassie, ur we wulnae be able tae use 'er key. Min’ it!”
A line about Luthask being a powerful undead being: “When he isnae kickin' yer crease, ye woods hink 'at Massife Anes is deid as a duirnail. He sits aw day withit movin'. He doesnae swatch loch he is thinkin' in onie case.”
A reference to Casamir Azmeren and the fact that he took refuge in the Pharus Pharasmae, where he uses create food and water to sustain himself: “Th’ Auld Swallertail isnae gonnae anywhaur as lang as we keep an yak oan 'at lighthoose, but he wulnae come it onytime suin. Ricle is a win’poke nae big enaw tae blaw aff 'at shiny hut. An' Auld Swallertail main gie his scran an' bevvy frae Flappy Lassie, th' a body he is aye blaitherin' abit.”
A line referring to the petrifying of captured women, including Koriah Azmeren, and the cannibalistic tendencies of the redcaps: “On’t ye hink 'at Ricle is a radge heed, sons? He likes kimmers aw peely waly an' stoaner as staine. Ah bit 'at wild moggie frae th' woods got th' treatment, tay. Ah say, meat is guid when it is aw bludy an' juicy. That’s righteoos!”
A comment about the fears of the redcaps of performing sentry duty in the main building of the Abbey: “Cheil, listen tae me. Ah pure prefer carryin' rocks aw day than keepin' watch aloyn in 'at close. Aw those religioos picters gezz th' creeps, an' 'at gantin glass wi' een 'at follaw ye. Ykes!”
A short guide to common nicknames the redcaps use for key characters in the Abbey is listed below—feel free to use these nicknames in conversations the PCs may have with the redcaps during interrogations.
Ardathanatus: Ricle Peaks (perhaps confusing him with the boogeyman who uses the same name)
Casamir Azmeren: Th’ Auld Swallertail
Desna: Flappy Lassie
Koriah Azmeren: Th’ wild moggie
Luthask: Massife Anes
Pharasma: Th’ Bloo Lassie
Sufestra: Th’ Hen
Underrumble: Yamasoth
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Oh my sweet mercy. This is just-- Flappy Lassie-- my sides hurt.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Did you ever see a lassie flap this way and that way...?
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Is like trying to understand my glaswegian friend after she's been hitting the Scotch!
Is Luthask a "massive anus"??
Or just a "Hugh Jazz"?
This thread (and the Lady's light thing) need to be linked somewhere central - maybe on the AP page - so that people can find them when they're ready to run the AP.