After seeing a synopsis about what happens at the start of Book 6, I wonder if this is something that gets the PCs a large number of angry looks.
Mayor: If only you didn't go chasing down those shards we wouldn't be in this mess!
Don't know, but looking forward to finding out. I thought the pdf's were getting released today but no sign yet.
Well, of course. Isn't it always the adventurer's fault?
sounds like a perfect moment to use the 10 minute step, special ability taught by chronomancers. (path of magic by legands&lairs, old 3.0 3rd party book)
oops.. shouldnt have added that last shard, lets step back 10 minutes in time :p
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After seeing a synopsis about what happens at the start of Book 6, I wonder if this is something that gets the PCs a large number of angry looks.
Mayor: If only you didn't go chasing down those shards we wouldn't be in this mess!
Well, looking at the synopsis of the last adventure in an AP would get you an angry look from your GM, that's for sure.
Well, now that I have part 6, it doesn't look like the PCs will get blamed, assuming they help out with the ****storm that follows after putting it together, and beat the monsters that attack the city. If anyone gets blamed, it's the Pathfinder organization and Sheila Heidmarch, not the PCs.
Seriously, that putting together an ancient artifact of sin is going to have some ramifications is a no-brainer . . .
It shouldn't be considered an artifact of sin, should it?
Seriously, that putting together an ancient artifact of sin is going to have some ramifications is a no-brainer . . .It shouldn't be considered an artifact of sin, should it?
** spoiler omitted **
This is correct.
Yeah this has been my concern with the AP since the beginning. And while yes Xin's Sihedron should be about the seven virtues the experience of the players as thejeff pointed out throughout the campaign will be very much the opposite. Anyways, have to wait to read it but basically yeah if the deal is by bringing the pieces together we bring about our own destruction I'll need to change that when I run this AP.
if the deal is by bringing the pieces together we bring about our own destruction I'll need to change that when I run this AP.
I'm not sure why this misconception has proliferated. The basic gist of the setup is "if we put these pieces together, something bad will likely happen. If we DON'T, then something far, far worse will."
In other words,
But the threat isn't vague and undefined, unless I read the first book wrong. It's the Runelords waking up. There isn't anything vague about that. The hook is:
"Karzoug woke up recently and we barely stopped him. Other Ruleords may follow, maybe even several at once. Let's find this artifact to give ourselves a fighting chance in the event that scenario happens, even if we may suffer a smaller calamity in regaining that defense."
That's the hook of the whole AP. The threat is the Runelords, and the defense the Sihedron. Varisia has just faced a dire threat in Karzoug's reawakening, and those in power are taking steps to prevent further threats from awakening.
Those in power, along with the PCs, know that some vague calamity may result from the Sihedron's reformation--that much is vague even if we know what actually happens now. But given the threat posed by Karzoug, and the future threat of others, the Pathfinders are willing to take that risk, and advise the PCs as they best can.
Not that those changes don't sound great! I just don't agree that the threat that spurs the Sihedron's recovery is vague.
Brandon pretty much nailed it on the head in the last post, but to put things in perspective even more:
I think because the "something far, far worse" is vague and undefined? They're not making preparations to deal with a specific threat, but grabbing for power in case something comes along. There's no guarantee it will. They've got along this long without the Sihedron.
Besides the fact that the threat isn't vague or undefined (as Brandon points out), the last part of your statement (bolded) is where the mistake in perspective ultimately lies.
The people of Magnimar haven't "gotten by for this long" at all. Magnimar isn't a well-established nation like Osirion which has stood for thousands of years against foreign threats and looming disaster. It's a colony barely one-hundred years old which has yet to deal with a single major threat. It doesn't have a storied history.
The colonists don't think "we've now settled and conquered this land and all it holds. We can prepare for anything." Rather, in my opinion, the underlying social current of Magnimar comes across more like, "oh crap, our founders were stupid enough to build a colony out in the middle of vast and terrible wilderness in the shadow of an ancient empire. And now, we might have accidentally woken up ancient evils beyond our worst fears because we built our house in their backyard. We must prepare for the horrors to come at any cost."
I've only read up to the Doomsday Door thus far and thus still need to give Dead Heart a read but I tend to agree with thejeff if the Runelords are the danger that brings about the necessity to reconstruct the Sihedron and take the risks involved in that then the Runelords or some related evil needs to be on the stage to make the threat imminent and urgent and to warrant such a desperate gambit. I probably shouldn't comment furhter until I actually have a chance to read Dead Heart. Perhaps the party has been led along by their benefactors who think they can control the Sihedron? Sin of pride and all that I suppose. All right I guess I should just read the damn thing!
thejeff, I think the part you're missing here is that Shattered Star assumes all three of the early Varisian APs have occurred.
Karzoug came back
Korvosa was nearly taken over by another enemy from the past
There ARE Drow! And they nearly caused another earthfall!
And that's all within the last 5 years. A growing sense of "what's next" is understandable, I think.
That's my take on the setup here, Urath. But I'll also note that a lot of this background stage dressing was the responsibility of earlier modules when the PCs first sign on. I can't vouch for how extensively that was done. In other words, by the time of Dead Heart of Xin, these presumptions should have been setup well before my chapter, and should have driven PC action well before the reformation ceremony. But given the assumptions of the Varisian disasters and upheavals of the last five years, I don't think the Pathfinders' action are at all presumptuous, and I can't imagine PCs not taking that hook. "Let's give ourselves a head start on defending ourselves against future Runelords awakenings" seems like a great reason to adventure to me...especially when I remember how many home games started with "hey, look a hole in the ground! :-)
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Another vote here for the threat driving the hunt for the Sihedron being real enough. After the disasters and nearly averted horrors of the first three APs combined coupled with sages screaming "The Runelords are coming!", I can see the motivations being well founded.
Probably going to spice it up with additional rival factions involved and some possible manipulation by a resurgent cult of Lissala and/or well-intentioned idealists with overly romantacized perspectives of Xin's Thassilon too. (probably with Sheila Heimdarch getting tangled up with that and resulting in a "My gods what have we done" when the events of Dead Heart of Xin actually happen.
(keeps listening for the delivery guy to arrive with mine)
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Probably going to spice it up with additional rival factions involved and some possible manipulation by a resurgent cult of Lissala...
This is what I'm doing. I'll be using the 'Lissala' metaplot PFS modules from Season 4 (and one from Season 3).
The modules haven't all been released so far, so I haven't got it all mapped out yet. I'm likely going to have to do some re-statting of the final parts to make them higher level threats.
Another vote here for the threat driving the hunt for the Sihedron being real enough. After the disasters and nearly averted horrors of the first three APs combined coupled with sages screaming "The Runelords are coming!", I can see the motivations being well founded.
My group and I have just played the part of Curse of the Lady's Light when the PCs find Sorshen's _clone_, meaning that Sorshen herself is still alive somewhere. I plan to emphasize that as we go along and use it that to make the threat of the runelords rising more prevalent: "Karzoug rose just 5 years ago, and it is now clear there is at least another runelord alive somewhere! Oh my…"
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Definitely going to have folks back at the manor touch on that if the PCs don't already draw that conclusion!
Probably going to spice it up with additional rival factions involved and some possible manipulation by a resurgent cult of Lissala...This is what I'm doing. I'll be using the 'Lissala' metaplot PFS modules from Season 4 (and one from Season 3). ** spoiler omitted **
The modules haven't all been released so far, so I haven't got it all mapped out yet. I'm likely going to have to do some re-statting of the final parts to make them higher level threats.
I'm probably going to play them a bit differently. Like more subtle, possibly "poisonous friend" types as a whole rather than straight villains. Setting them up as a traditionalist Lissalan cult that adheres to the "Good Old Ways" of Xin and setting them against the more typical sin cultists that have kicked up recently since the Runelords started resurfacing will hopefully help there.
Basically hoping to build up Xin and his Thassilon up as much as possible in the PCs' minds before the truth of how far they fell short of their idealized image and their betrayal and downfall at the hands of the Runelords can be milked for maximum weight and tragedy. :)
Now I'm really tempted to have Sheila Heidmarch eventually join their cult, though without being completely compromised by them when the full truth comes out.
...now I'm wondering if any PCs might wind up joining....
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I would like to point out to all the skeptics here that think reconstructing the Sihedron should seem like more danger than it's worth - I think that without reading ahead to the last part of the AP, you would have never thought that.
Yeah, ok, I get it, each part in the Rod of Seven Runes is tied to a sin instead of a virtue, even though it was created to be tied to a virtue. That can bring you to suspect that something might be off about the shards, sure.
But examine the curse on each shard more carefully - They only affect the person carrying them, they are not really what you'll call "destructive", and most importantly it seems like something as simple as combining the shard with an Ion stone can neutralize the curse. If I was a player in this campaign, I'd certainy think that if the Sihedron is constructed while the Ioun Stones are in place, nothing can go wrong.
So when the PCs collect the shards and a moment before they construct them into the Sihedron, they have little reason to fear them. They might expect, oh, I don't know, something as scary as a blast of magical energy, or maybe even a summoned monster with CR 18 or whatnot.
But anticipating an entire city to rise out of the depths right by Magnimar, sending waves of monsters with it's more literal tsunami waves of water, throwing a city into chaos? Ah ah. No way players should suspect them unless the GM has given them extra reason to. Not as the AP is written.
TheJeff, think of it like this - do you believe that the most responsible thing Gandalf could do in Lord of the Rings was look for the One Ring when he began to fear that Sauron might return? I think the situations are identical. The One Ring, while devestating if ever calimed by Sauron, is merely a corrupting curse on it's bearer before that. The seven shards should remind players of the One Ring - a tool of subtle evil that can and should be claimed by someone responsible in case it's needed to fight a greater evil. No one reading Lord of the Rings would expect citys to pop from the depths because someone is using the ring. Your players shouldn't see this coming from the Shards either.
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Probably going to spice it up with additional rival factions involved and some possible manipulation by a resurgent cult of Lissala...This is what I'm doing. I'll be using the 'Lissala' metaplot PFS modules from Season 4 (and one from Season 3). ** spoiler omitted **
The modules haven't all been released so far, so I haven't got it all mapped out yet. I'm likely going to have to do some re-statting of the final parts to make them higher level threats.
I'm probably going to play them a bit differently. Like more subtle, possibly "poisonous friend" types as a whole rather than straight villains. Setting them up as a traditionalist Lissalan cult that adheres to the "Good Old Ways" of Xin and setting them against the more typical sin cultists that have kicked up recently since the Runelords started resurfacing will hopefully help there.
Basically hoping to build up Xin and his Thassilon up as much as possible in the PCs' minds before the truth of how far they fell short of their idealized image and their betrayal and downfall at the hands of the Runelords can be milked for maximum weight and tragedy. :)
Now I'm really tempted to have Sheila Heidmarch eventually join their cult, though without being completely compromised by them when the full truth comes out.
...now I'm wondering if any PCs might wind up joining....
Whenever I start planning a campaign based on an Adventure Path I always have waaaaaay more ideas of directions things could go than would ever make sense. At first I try to throw in everything and as time goes on I throw out more and more of the side paths and parallel plots. One such plot had Sheila Heidmarch, being the huge fan of all things Varisian and Thassilonian, deciding to organise a new set of Runelords for the 'modern age'. Obviously it was a totally gonzo idea and got dropped pretty quickly, but she was going to base her Runelords on the seven virtues of rule and pick appropriate NPCs from previous APs to make up the bulk of them with a few of the PCs parents or friends of the family making up the rest. They were going to work in secret for the good of Varisia, and ultimately it was going to be them behind the missions to recover the Sihedron and not the Pathfinder Society.
Another plot involved one volume of Runelord Zutha's Tome of Gluttony falling into the hands of a prominent NPC and thus having them begin the slow transformation into the Runelord of Gluttony.
There were also sideplots with greedy members of the Decemvirate knowing what the reconstruction of the Sihedron would do, and not caring for any collateral damage that was caused as long as they get their agents to discover/loot Xin's city much more quickly than they got to loot Xin-Shalast. They want to get in on the ground floor this time around and not miss any of it.
Another plot had Magnimar's Forever Man learning of Ileosa's schemes (from Curse of the Crimson Throne) from the Gray Maidens in Curse of the Lady's Light and hoping to gain immortality by completing a similar ritual at the Sunken Queen.
Then there was the Hellknight witch whose patron was secretly Nyarlathotep who would try to manipulate events to open a permanent portal to Leng in Into the Nightmare Rift and use the Sihedron to awaken Mhar from beneath his mountain.
I wouldn't have been able to fit it all in, but it would have been a wild ride!
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I think because the "something far, far worse" is vague and undefined? They're not making preparations to deal with a specific threat, but grabbing for power in case something comes along. There's no guarantee it will. They've got along this long without the Sihedron.
I get the setup, I just don't buy it. It's not the kind of argument that justifies extraordinary measures and extraordinary risks. If you gamble with everyone's lives while trying to stop the monster, you're a hero. If you do just in case a monster comes along, then you're the threat.
I think, if I run this, I'm going to steal a villain from later in the series and let the Pathfinders and thus the PCs find out that Cadrilkasta has found one of the shards and is looking for more. Then they've got a specific threat to deal with: follow the chain of shards and hope to catch up with her, rather than let her catch up with them. Or preempt her from descending on Magnimar looking for the next shard.
Of course, they won't know she's fallen victim to the curse of Sloth until they find her, so the plot doesn't have to change.
If it helps, I'll go right out and say it.
The "Something far, far worse" is me foreshadowing another AP I'm going to do at some point in the future. One that will assume the Sihedron has been rebuilt and goes from there.
That said... those who think that the plot twist in this adventure will cause problems should make extra sure to read the foreword to Pathfinder #66, where I talk about how to troubleshoot the plot if it starts causing problems.
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Well, "Other Runelords may follow, maybe even several at once." Or not. Or maybe in a couple hundred years. Or a couple thousand.
So maybe vague isn't the right word. Not imminent, maybe?
I can see people being scared by Karzuog's awakening, but AFAIK there's no evidence that suggests the others are also waking up. I mean, they could, but they could have at any point in the last however many thousand years since the fall of Thassilon.Maybe I'm just paranoid and cynical, but as a player, I'd be suspicious of anyone claiming such motivations. I'd assume, at best they were more concerned with the fame and glory of finding such an artifact and at worst, had nefarious plans for it.
Why would I invent 7 runelords if I only ever intended to have 1 of them cause problems? ;-P
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thejeff, I think the part you're missing here is that Shattered Star assumes all three of the early Varisian APs have occurred.
** spoiler omitted **
And that's all within the last 5 years. A growing sense of "what's next" is understandable, I think.
Yes, also excellent points. A LOT has been happening in Varisia lately, and Magnimar is indeed paranoid about what's coming.
If it helps, I'll go right out and say it.
The "Something far, far worse" is me foreshadowing another AP I'm going to do at some point in the future. One that will assume the Sihedron has been rebuilt and goes from there.
What what what? Oh, that's pretty scary... but what assumptions does it make about what happened to the re-assembled Sihedron? I have a feeling one of my players is going to want to hold onto it.
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There's a lot of rumbly-grumblies going on in Varisia, especially in regards to the end of Runelord nap-time. Lissala's cult is trying to re-awaken Runelord Krune. One of Sorshen's many clone bodies has been found- one of your PCs might be walking around in Sorshen's flesh even now- and the former queen of Korvosa used one of her devices to almost wipe out a city to gain immortality. Hell, the "continuing the campaign" article's got a stat block for a devotee of Zutha who's getting close to bringing that one back. I'm more worried about the ones we HAVEN'T heard rumors about- what are THEY up to?
Mechalibur, if I may put on my hat of disguise to pretend to be James Jacobs and put words in his e-mouth, Id assume that the Sihedron itself is important as a catalyst for one of the Runelords waking up, but where it is is NOT important. If I had to guess, Xanderghul would be particularly interested if the Sihedron was reassembled and the old boss supposedly came back. And when it was proven that Xin was totally dead, well, why not just take over a continent while waiting for the coffee to brew?
Did I mention that Xanderghul's horacalcum pants will send the PCs to 1963 Britain to become part of the Mod craze and stop an invisible polar bear from destroying the Enterprise? Check out the latest book Classic Space-Time Anomalies Revisited for more!
What I'm worried about is that players will ultimately be disappointed with the Sihedron itself.
After all the build-up of "a mighty artifact of protection," what the characters will actually get is something that's great for tactically enhancing the defensive capabilities of a small party of adventurers. It doesn't protect cities, it doesn't smack down Runelords. It appears to have no uses outside of combat. It's really nifty, but it's not all that.
Unless, of course, it has greater powers yet to be revealed that will only awaken in the face of the Really Bad Things of which James speaks... ^.^
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I could see "awakening" the Sihedron for greater effects in a post-AP thing. I might even steal that idea.
But I think the plan all along was that a group of heroes (the PCs), gaining strength and expertise assembling the thing, enhanced by the Sihedron, are the power that can stop threats to Varisia at-large. The group will be nearing the cap of the level spectrum by the end of the AP, and there's very little a group of artifact-powered PCs can accomplish.
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TheJeff - while I see your point, it should be noted that those refusing the ring did so when knowing that the option they are choosing is trying to destroy it instead of using it as a tool or a weapon. They never said it was a bad idea to guard it, only a bad idea to try to use if instead os sending it with a little hobbit into the heart of Mordor in an attempt to destroy it. each of those refusing the Ring still would have prefered to know where he is so that they could keep it away from Sauron, they just didn't trust themselves enough to not try to use it.
Anyway, arguments can be cast in either direction, but if you can present the story as a "find the One Ring and keep it locked somewhere until the day will come when we will need to go cast it into Mount Doom to destroy Sauron", I'm pretty sure they will agree that the quest is important and will not suspect anything terrible to happen when they construct the Sihedron.
The parrlel is not exact, of course, but in good ways. For example, unlike the One Ring which is a known tool of evil, the seven Shards are merely broken parts of a creation of a man embodying the Seven Virtues, which drives home even harder that constructing it in case it's needed one day is a good idea.
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I could see "awakening" the Sihedron for greater effects in a post-AP thing. I might even steal that idea.
But I think the plan all along was that a group of heroes (the PCs), gaining strength and expertise assembling the thing, enhanced by the Sihedron, are the power that can stop threats to Varisia at-large. The group will be nearing the cap of the level spectrum by the end of the AP, and there's very little a group of artifact-powered PCs can accomplish.
So what we get is the Pathfinder League of Varisia, comprised of "Golarions Greatest Superheroes"....when seven heroes first came together to repel the Thassilonain Emperors invasion...:p
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So what we get is the Pathfinder League of Varisia, comprised of "Golarions Greatest Superheroes"....when seven heroes first came together to repel the Thassilonain Emperors invasion...:pI could see "awakening" the Sihedron for greater effects in a post-AP thing. I might even steal that idea.
But I think the plan all along was that a group of heroes (the PCs), gaining strength and expertise assembling the thing, enhanced by the Sihedron, are the power that can stop threats to Varisia at-large. The group will be nearing the cap of the level spectrum by the end of the AP, and there's very little a group of artifact-powered PCs can accomplish.
So is it:
"By your virtues combined, I am Captain Sihedron!"
or
Valeros: ...and I'll form the head!
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Another plot had Magnimar's Forever Man learning of Ileosa's schemes (from Curse of the Crimson Throne) from the Gray Maidens in Curse of the Lady's Light and hoping to gain immortality by completing a similar ritual at the Sunken Queen.Oh wow. I have to roll with this now. :D
Go for it. Let me know how it works out.
Since Shattered Star is a sequel of sorts, and since the Forever Man is such a cool character, the way to link them up just screamed out at me.
I was assuming that the PCs would make peace with Oriana and the Gray Maidens and bring them back to Magnimar. Sometime thereafter, one of the Maidens was going to be kidnapped by one of the criminal elements of the city, unknowingly doing the bidding of the Forever Man. I had intended him to have heard through underworld channels of Ileosa's aims and simply needed the final clues put together by reading the thoughts of this captured Maiden (I was planning to give him the Thought subdomain). There would be a race against time for the PCs to find the captured Maiden before her usefulness was less than her captors will to keep her alive.
Once the PCs had followed clues (probably once they'd reached levels in the mid-teens) I'd effectively re-run the Sunken Queen encounter area from CotCT but with the Forever Man and Norgorber-related minions populating it.
"Karzoug woke up recently and we barely stopped him. Other Ruleords may follow, maybe even several at once. Let's find this artifact to give ourselves a fighting chance in the event that scenario happens, even if we may suffer a smaller calamity in regaining that defense."
Or maybe... we should ask for help from those guys who just kicked Karzoug's face in? And maybe the group that ganked the queen of Korvosa and now runs the city too. In fact, why Runelords aren't shaking in their pants at the thought of invading a region inhabited by such powerhouses?
A more realistic reason for even considering rebuilding what clearly is a dangerously corruprive artifact (and do note, that the danger of heroes losing to Xin and dooming Varisia is not insignificant, so you CAN, in fact, cause an utter disaster by reconstructing the Shattered Star) is that winners of RotR or CotCT now became the threat. Maybe slayers of Karzoug are established themselves as his heirs by the right of conquest and now are rulng his surviving (or even resurrected) minions at Xin-Shalast, maybe the saviors of Korvosa now look suspiciously like autocrats of it and are pushing neighbors around with their power.
The adventure path, however, fails to adress those possibilities.
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FatR, what you're asking is for Paizo to account for the actions of home groups and the conclusions and varied storylines of those Adventure Paths in countless home games the world over, the likes of which would make DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths look like a cupcake party. The possibilities you list are possibilities, but there are infinite others played out all over the world by home groups. I don't think PCs or GMs would take too kindly, for example, to being told at the start of Shattered Star: "Oh, by the way, your LG heroes from RotRL are now tyrannical rulers in control of Xin-Shalast."
The furthest Paizo was willing to go in that regard, as James and others have said on multiple occasions, is that the events of those APs came to a satisfactory and reasonable conclusion, and those assumptions are outlined for you in Book 1. And lots of people were turned off by those very basic assumptions because it conflicted with the end results of their home games. Given that reaction, I think going even further down that rabbit hole as you outline would have been a wholly unreasonable request in a market where Paizo is trying to appeal to the highest common denominator by assuming the most likely and logical outcomes of their previous work.
But if you want to make those assumptions for your home game, get after it. It sounds fun. But such assumptions are well beyond the scope of what authors are given to play with in the format of Adventure Paths, and what developers are willing to assume as the basis for AP plotlines and their effects on home games.
Ultimately, your posts reminds me a bit of the "why didn't the eagles just fly Frodo into Mordor?" argument. Sure, they could have. But we wouldn't have much of a story, would we? Heck, we could all save ourselves the trouble and just put out a one-page press release that said "OK everyone, instead of a 6-issue AP arch, we've decided that a group of heroes from RotRL teleported around, kicked everything's ass in the course of a week, and saved Magnimar before breakfast. The End." Heck -why do APs at all?
And the directors of Die Hard could have made a short film where John McClain gets killed in the first 15 minutes. But where's the fun in that? =-)
FatR, what you're asking is for Paizo to account for the actions of home groups and the conclusions and varied storylines of those Adventure Paths in countless home games the world over, the likes of which would make DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths look like a cupcake party.
No, I'm asking to pay at least a lip service for the two most obvious general outcomes of previous adventure paths, once we assume that PCs had won (as writers did) and then they didn't inexplicably die or wanish (as writers didn't). If your plot disintegrates from that much, maybe you should consider not making a sequel. Not that I would ever consider running any AP without significant plot adaptations (to particular PCs and my setting, for starters), but I feel that with Shattered Star I'd need to rewrite everything but dungeons. Here we come back to the fact, that crafty players probably will be highly reluctant to reassemble the Shattered Star, and suspicious of people who suggest this. "Totally-Not-The-Big-Bad dupes you into handing him the McGuffin" is one of the most common ways of screwing main characters over in fantasy stories. Corruption by Artifacts of Doom is just as frequent. And if people who send you on the artifact chase pay no thought to existence of, at least, the group that defeated Karzoug, treachery-o-meters of my players will probably go off the charts. Wouldn't at least sidebar dealing with possible impact that old PCs have on the setting be nice, or, failing that, a more solid immediate justification for the quest that "Oh, Runelords might still be a threat"?
Ultimately, your posts reminds me a bit of the "why didn't the eagles just fly Frodo into Mordor?" argument. Sure, they could have. But we wouldn't have much of a story, would we?
I'm not in the mood to writing an extensive essay on Gandalf's decision-making process and metaphysics of Middle-Earth (one cannot understand the former without understandinf of the latter), so I'll just say that your post reminds me of people that defended Mass Effect 3.
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We can't make any assumptions about PCs, unfortunately. Furthermore, the PCs who play through an AP are close to max level, and as such aren't appropriate for new adventures.
Both of those are among the top reasons why we don't normally do direct sequels to an adventure path.
In the case of Shattered Star, we decided specifically to ignore those two problems and simply assume that the heroes who may or may not have played in previous APs have moved on to other parts of the world or the Great Beyond, have died, or have retired—in any event, the assumption is that they are not available for help during Shattered Star.
Obviously, if that's not something a GM wants to incorperate into his or her Shattered Star campaign, that's fine. The GM in that case knows what the previous PCs were up to, where they are now, and what their interest would be in aiding the events of Shattered Star. If the GM doesn't want those PCs to be involved, he or she needs to work with the players to come up with reasons why those old PCs aren't present. If the GM and the players can't decide, then there's really two choices that I can think of off the top of my head...
1) Run Shattered Star with those old PCs. They'll crush most of the encounters, but for some groups, that could be fun. The GM could, of course, upgrade all the encounters in power to give the high level PCs some extra challenges, but that brings up all sorts of other weirdness in-world.
2) Run a different Adventure Path.
I'm SURE there are other solutions to the problem, and I'd love to hear some of them... but the baseline assumption for Shattered Star is that the previous heroes are simply not available.
As for at least paying lip service to the triumphs of the previous PCs in prior APs... we do that quite a lot. If those PCs weren't there to stop Karzoug, Illeosa, or Allevrah... the landscape in which Shattered Star takes place would be DRAMATICALLY different.
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I'm SURE there are other solutions to the problem, and I'd love to hear some of them...
1) Start Shattered Star 20, maybe 30 years after the conclusion of these previous APs - PCs from those APs should be dead, old, or simply somewhere else. A neat solution since it also allows the GM to apply the changes that came as a result of previous APs to the game world and see how it changed in the last several decades.
2) the good old "don't place all your eggs in one busket" trick - sure, there are like 10, maybe as many as 15, people who are incredibly powerful in Varisia and have a history of stopping world-ending menaces. Some of them even stopped one of the runelords! But seriously, would you place the fate of the nation (maybe even the fate of the world) on the shoulders of 15 people? Why not at least have a back up plan? like, say, unearthing an artifact so powerful it has been known to hold all 7 runelords at bay even when they were at the height of their power...
3) Have the idea of assembling the Sihedron come not from Shiela and the Pathfinder Society, but from on of the ex-PCs from a previous campaign. For example, "Hey there Sheila, I'm kind of busy ruling Korvosa right now, but let me prupose an idea, a plan to ensure our nation's saftey against a potential uprising threat.Find a group of young, ambitious Pathfinders, and task them with one of the biggest scavnage quests in the history of your order..."
4) Stress the idea that the threat coming to Varisia could be HUGE. who said that the next time any of the runelords awakens, he/she will be kind enough to do it as slowley as Karzoug did? who is to promise that no more that 1 runelord will rise at a time? How good are a bunch of super strong adventurers if 6 runelords suddenly come back to life togather? no band of adventurers are competent enough to handle that by themselves.
Some combination of these 4 should suffice nicely, I think.