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So, my players have just started RRR and I was figuring that since they named their capital city Erastia that I would have Jhod, their high priest, put out a call to hunt down the larger problem causing creatures in the new kingdom as a sort of dedication for the city. I was going to give the players the bounties for Crack Jaw, Howls-in-the-North-Wind, and Tuskgutter as a way of dedicating the city and claiming Erastil as the patron deity for much of the kingdom. I was figuring that the hunt would be funded either by Restov or by a noble moving into the new kingdom.
I then figured whatever new nobility that formed in the city might claim the animals as their house emblems, with Roy claiming the Tatzyl Wurm as his own when he founds Tatzylford.
As the PCs have come across 2 Vorgs and a pack of wolves already in their campaign so I really want to play up the Howls-in-the-wind as something important, and even vengeful for attacking packs for which he considers himself king over.
Any advice for making this great hunt actually great and not something south of mediocre or that was interesting but back to the plot now?
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I'm actually thinking of giving him levels in Barbarian, and going to tie in that after the Staglord's demise that Narissa approached the vorg as a third plot in the area, giving him a directive to harass and disrupt the settlers as well as an ability to enthrall other wolves (which works out well with a wolf being the druid's animal companion.) Howls in turn is growing more and more irritated that his subjects have fallen beneath the hero's blades and is taking the intrusion into his territory rather personally.
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Othniel: that's actually not too far off from what I did in my campaign. You can see the writeup here. I changed the name and location to fit some events that had happened really early in Stolen Lands, but I definitely made him one of N's henchmen.
Also, I love the idea of the minor noble houses of the area using the native creatures as their sigils. Consider it stolen!
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Howl-of-the-North-Wind is a Barbarian 3. He's fuming over the invasion of his hunting grounds,the disruption of one of his favorite food sources (bandits, though a few of the nice fat settlers have cooled him on this point)and that they killed his subjects. ( 3 vorgs and a wolf pack slain by the party thus far)
Gleaming Grin is his mate, his queen, and she is fey blooded sorceress that serves Narissa. Her compulsion magic has played no small amount in HotNW's rise to power in these lands. She is the one that complused Brutish Ways (Dire Wolf) to join Howl-of-the-North-Wind's hunting pack.
The reminder of the court is a pack of wolves (2d4) lead by the worg Jaw-of-the-River (Warrior 1). She's as clever as any worg, and will use different tactics to place the heroes in an ambush. She's also in a rivalry with Gleaming Grin, that might be exploitable if the party does talk to her.
I plan to run this as a series of combats ending with Howl and Gleaming Grin supported by the troll hounds from Dudemiester's scenario. I want to give the Party a vigorous test and most of all for this to feel memorable.
EDIT;
Merida, I loved your blow by blow account. I really like the ties you are using to make things tie together. I'm not so sure I want to make him half-jabberwoky though. Some type of help might be cool though. A Collar of DR 5/Cold Iron maybe? (My Aldori fighter has a cold iron blade so it would give her a chance to shine and the druid could give it to his wolf... maybe less then.. DR 2 perhaps. But it could be cursed... hmmm...)
Looks nice Othniel. Tell us how it plays out.
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If you give him the collar (which I think is a great idea), maybe N can use it scry on the PCs if they keep it. That's a pretty big "curse", but not one that will come into play immediately. You can even use it to bring in things like Fellnight Queen and Carnival of Tears, since she'll be tracking them.
The Jabberwock angle is something I'm trying to play up in my game, mostly to foreshadow Book 6, which isn't really done at all in the AP as written. It worked for my group, but if it doesn't in yours, no big deal.
I'm excited to see how this all turns out!
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(A lot of this is as my efforts to make the wanted poster side quests and kingdom building more role play heavy for the characters. I'm presenting these as courtly petitions for the council to deliberate on and then how they act on them with spur the characters towards dealing with the bigger problems that happen during the campaign. Its quite clear that a subsection of the party rather adventure than deal with the administrative stuff.)
So tonight I had Jhod pitch the idea of the hunt to the council. He brought in the trapper who had lost his leg to Tuskgutter who offered to become the royal fletcher to make them magical arrows, the fisherman who had lost his fishing spot and had his ship sunk by Old Crackjaw who offered the Ring of Feather Fall, and a Nobleman that had been losing his cattle and ranchers to Howl of the North Wind's raids. He said that if they were successful his cousin, who is a wealthier noble from Brevoy, would move down to their kingdom as to escape the coming civil war (and put 9 BP towards a noble villa).
They figured that the Sootscales were also being effected by Howl of the North Wind and so they decided to use this as diplomatic leverage to convince them to join their kingdom. They also figured that when successful with the Hunt they would bring their spoils back to their capital and have their first great big festival.
Our druid, Circe, also wanted to check out the hills on the otherside of the city, and when they did they found themselves ambushed by Jaws of the River, Brutish Ways and the 4 Wolves. Jaws of the River attracted their attention by sounding like she was crying like a human woman, which attracted the party towards her. However out of the corner of their eyes they saw the dark shapes of the wolves preparing for combat. Seeing the characters draw their weapons, Jaws-of-the-River's sobbing turned to a harsh and bitter laughter, wishing that she could be at Howl's side instead of Grin.
The fighter, Ilyanna, quickly damaged Jaws of the River, forcing her to run, and our Baroness Rogue, Talia, managed to run circles around Brutish Ways, while the remaining spellcasters found themselves surrounded by the wolves. The Witch, Bron, managed to sleep two wolves and Brutish Ways while two of the other wolves found themselves down and bleeding. The Bard, Petlivon, and Bron found themselves though rather beat up.
After the wolves had been coup-de-graced, Circe spoke with Brutish Ways (speaks with animal)who gratefully found himself cleared of Gleaming Grin's enchantments. He let them know that Howls of the North Wind and Gleaming Grin had a Fey patron (Narissa) who left Howls with gifts.
They allowed him to go back to the Tors, and thats what he did. Now they go to the Sootscales with the bargaining chip of Howls on their east bank. I was thinking of introducing Harguluk(sp?) as in Dudemister's monster kingdom rewrite off of that, but I think I might also want more time for them to build up.
Probably going to have Jaws of the River reengage them and then have Howl's come in with his force from the other side next time they fight.
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So I concluded this fight tonight. It started out with the Druid, Witch, Ninja and Bard finding Howls with Gleaming Grin and the escaped Jaws of the River and two troll hounds sitting beneath a ledge enjoying a meal. The ninja and the bard decided to sneak to the top of the ledge where they could easily shoot down on the wolves, but that turned when the witch cast sleep and only managed to sleep one of the troll hounds. The other hound and the females went to engage the spell casters in battle, while Howls woke the sleeping hound. Witch systemically tried to slumber hex each opponent while the druid used her companion and summons to set up the battle field. Howls perused the Ninja by climbing the ledge and manged to get him down to the single digits in health. The bard was infected with the fever and Gleaming Grin was in a spell casting duel with the witch. The druid did manage to feel Jaws of the River though.
It could had been easily been a TPK but our fighter showed up with 4 guards in tow. Quickly the fighter managed to kill one of the trollhounds and howls was brought into the fight as he pursued the ninja. The fighter managed and the witch managed to tear through Howls hit points after the witch slept him and the other troll hound was mauled by the guards.
Gleaming Grin tried to flee but the fight at that point but the witch cast web to keep her from fleeing and the fighter charged into the wretched worg without mercy.
Party was rewarded with some goods found in the Worg's den, Gleaming Grin's Pelt (which gives them a 500 gp discount on a magical cloak), the collar, and some knowledge of a fey from the summer court gifting Howls.
This sounds pretty awesome. I'll keep this in mind for future reference.