Planting seeds (early hints for later chapters)

[reefwood]

My gaming group has recently started this adventure path, and I only have the first 2 books right now. The other books are coming in the mail, but it will probably be several weeks before I can read through all of them. Therefore, I was wondering if people had ideas for laying the ground work early on challenges and characters that won't come into play until later in the adventure path?

I have read a few of the summary threads, which have given me a few ideas, and the party has met the Children of Westcrown and just rescued their leader from the Hellknights. Next up is Thesing and the Bastards... and maybe a little side venture with bandits targeting the PCs directly.

I am curious if there more info comes out later about who is on the Council of Thieves, aside from the Drovenge family? It would be good to perhaps work in some of the other families into the early adventures.

Secondly, I do hope to give more life to the Children of Westcrown. I like the ideas presented in other threads about the individual members having their own goals that they are bringing to the group or doing on their own. Also, I have tweaked the group slightly. Arael is a female half-elf (Rielle the Mother) who started things with her younger sister (Neela the Moon) and Javi the Falcon (a male human instead of Janiven) - who are the highest level members of the group. All the group members have code names and only some have revealed their real name to the PCs. The PCs are dwarves from the same clan which owns an ale house along the docks. Larko (the Woodsman) is a regular, and it was through him that the group learned of the PCs. Fiosa (the Torch) is a local who was raised in the Dhaenfens, and her nieces & nephews came to Westcrown to get out of the bogs. They signed up for an indentured apprenticeship, but when their contract was up, the noble family moved them into enslavement in an underground factory. The first leg of the story was Fiosa and her grandfather coming to the PCs for help. The toughest Children of Westcrown (Moon leading others who died during the rescue or quit after it - none of these are from the book) freed the halflings and took them through the sewers to the docks. They needed the PCs to house the halflings until their ship was ready to depart a couple days later, but of course, the PCs wound up having to help with the rescue since the CoW and halflings were being chased. Anyway, I got this idea from the write-up of how Fiosa joined the CoW... I just had it be that the PCs were involved with the freeing of halfling slaves, and these were illegal slaves, so it technically wasn't breaking the law to get them out.

Wow, I wound up typing much more than expected, so this is probably enough for now, but a few other things to note about the PCs:

-Fighter dwarf who took a campaign trait to have a sheriff contact - which is Durotas Arik Tuornos of the Rundottari. He came to Westcrown to help protect his family's holdings during this time of increased banditry (in part due to the younger Drovenges' scheming)
-Alchemist dwarf who took a campaign trait that gives him a place to stay and person to sell goods at +10%, so the PCs' cousin own the ale house, and it is where they live while in the city.
-Cleric dwarf who is a local who worshipped Asmodeus but fell from "grace" and now reveres Cayden. Also, he took the AP campaign trait that gives him a Pathfinder contact. It is going to be the priest of Cayden that showed him the light (after his fall from evil), and this NPC will probably replace the Pathfinder contact in the Sixfold Trial.

Oh, and I've been happy that the party hasn't concerned itself much with getting paid for their help, but to help give them a boost in that department, the Bastards will have several weapons from the weaponsmith they murdered that can be used by the PCs (and maybe CoW) or sold without guilt.

[Lord Fyre]

One idea that I have run across is to have a few handbills recruiting actors for the Six Fold Trial be visible in the first adventure.

Bonus: if you have time, make up a handbill as a handout and include it in one of the treasures in the Bastards' hideout.

Here is a who's who flowchart that someone else put up on this board.

[reefwood]

Lord Fyre wrote:

One idea that I have run across is to have a few handbills recruiting actors for the Six Fold Trial be visible in the first adventure.

Bonus: if you have time, make up a handbill as a handout and include it in one of the treasures in the Bastards' hideout.

Here is a who's who flowchart that someone else put up on this board.

Thanks for that link! It helps to know who makes up the Council of Thieves.

I did mention in the intro to this campaign that "murderplay" performances are becoming more popular in recent years. It fits in well with the sitting and was easy enough to add it in as a notable aside to the mayor's support of theater and opera. Also, the PCs went to see Thesing perform at the Limehouse in between battling the Hellknights and Bastards, and that theater happens to be in the same area as their base of operations - a tavern/inn owned by their cousin.

[barbazul]

I started the AP a few sessions ago and my party is about to go after the bastards.

I made several small changes to try to foreplay the most I could.

* I had them be present at a public execution carried out by Signifer Verennie and had the people present make casual comments about her ruthlessnes. I am planning on putting her somewhat in contrast to the paralictor in future sessions so it make more sense that they help him (or her) in book 6
* I changed bluehood to be Vanhwynne Malkistra, the elf vampire hunter from book 3. They only know she is a foreign vampire hunter, present at the city in seek for revenge and that she placed the reward because she has some unexplained interest in the shadows. I used this encounter to foreshadow the presence of vampires in the city and possibly (if they got it) that there is a connection between the vampires and the shadows. Also, having them know the living Vanhwynne will make meeting the undead one much more interesting
* My bard was the only one present when Thesing made his appearence and after that encounter they became almost mortal enemies (if insults could kill a person, that is). So he entered the show bussiness world to confront him. He is now about to be participate at a party the Ciucci family is throwing for their current guests. He will replace the sick mandolin player of a band of minstrels that has Caseinica as the lead voice. Robahl is going to "discover" her talent at the event and decide to hire her. Aulamaxa will also be present and their enmity will start that day. This lets me introduce several characters from the second book, as well as the Ciucci family and explain their trade hosting noble people in their house.
* I had one of the bastards hits to be the family of the excentric Rolan, the tinkerer. One of my PCs is a dottari who went to ask him questions about the attack, and he found that Robal was psychologically damaged by the experience (he found his daughter and wife slaughtered in his house) and got a rather strong fixation in his "masterpieces" that got stolen. I am planing on having Robal be one of the main vendors for exotic tools and pieces of craftmanship.
* I haven't introduced him yet, but I plan on making Sandor the strange the main vendor of magical things and divinations, and possibly Rance Lucca as well
* Chammady also made a minor appearence when the Dottari member of the crew interviewed the noble families about trading caravans being attacked. I played her as young and naive and very worried about his father bussiness being hit hard by the burglars, and started asking a lot (A LOT) of questions about the different threats in the city, specially those mysterious masked vigilantes and the player totally fell for it and spit way to much information about the lack of dottari capacity to handle the different issues arising. Obviously Chammady couldn't know that he was also a vigilante, but she now knows that the seeds of chaos she and her brother are planting are blossoming