| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Hi everyone,
I've been reading these boards for a while now, trying to soak up the collective wisdom in preparation for my own CotCT game.
We finally started a few weeks ago and are about a third of the way through Edge of Anarchy and are having a blast.
I have some ideas for changes to the campaign but would like your input:
First, the set up of the encounter does not make very much sense. If Rolth has “long been a thorn” in Cressida’s side why wouldn’t she send her guards in to deal with him, instead of hiring the PCs. At least in the other encounters up to that point (All the World’s Meat, Eels End, the Shingle Chase) there’s a reason that makes sense for why she would prefer to have things handled by outsiders.
Second, how did Cressida/Thousandbones find out a) that Rolth is involved and b) the location of one of Rolth’s supposedly "secret" lairs. This just seems a bit too convenient. I realize that this encounter is supposed to foreshadow Rolth, but I've got other plans on how to do this (see below).
Third, the derro don't really play any roll in the rest of the campaign so I feel like I could cut them out without losing any of the story. Also, from my reading of it, Vreeg comes off as a bit of a cartoonish encounter, as I imagine this little insane humanoid flying around the room raining down undead creatures from his robe of bones. Don’t get me wrong, I think it could be a very cool encounter (kinda like some of the goblin fights in Burnt Offerings), but it feels a bit out of place with the rest of the tone of CotCT.
I do like the “Dead Shoanti” hook though, as it explains tensions between Shoanti and Chelish better than any exposition on my part and also sets up future encounters with the Shoanti really well. So I'm planning to replace the "Chelish Ambassador" hook from Eel's End with the "Dead Shoanti" hook.
My players have already met Vencarlo and interacted with him a great deal, so I don't need him to be there at the start of Eel's End. In this case, the “Dead Shoanti” hook goes off exactly the same, except it was Devargo (not Rolth) who purchased the corpse and hung it up from one of his ships as a warning for other Shoanti to stay out. Because one of the PCs is Shoanti, I’ll have Thousandbones approach the group directly with the request to get the body back.
What do you guys think?
The hook would be that the PCs are invited to a party at the Ornelos’ mansion to celebrate the quelling of the riots and the return to order in Korvosa.
Ahead of the party, the PCs could be approached by Vencarlo (or some other NPC) who has learned from his mysterious patron (Glorio Arkona) that a necromancer named Rolth has hired someone will try to sneak into House Ornelos to steal something. For the first three books of CotCT, I’m hoping to set things up so that Glorio Arkona and Ileosa are waging a political war between each other with the PCs caught in the middle.
The actual party could feature many of the important characters that appear later in CotCT such as Glorio and/or Melyia Arkona, other nobles, Marcus Endrin, Cressida Croft, priests of Abadar or Asmodeus, Zenobia Zenderholm, etc…
Once the PCs sneak into the Asmodean knot, things would work more or less as described in the adventure except that Sian Daemodus would become a Red Mantis Assassin.
Advantages of doing this is that it would foreshadow the Red Mantis before CotCT book 3. Also, it would support the Asmodeus/Devil theme that seems to run through book 6, but is mostly absent from the rest of CotCT.
I’m not sure if I should use CoT Book 4 The Infernal Syndrome as I don’t want to add too much extraneous material to CotCT as one thing I appreciate about it is that the BBEG is obvious and PCs’ focus is clear throughout the AP. However, the explosion that happens at the start of CoT book 4 would give a reason for the PCs to leave Korvosa as Ileosa could conveniently put the blame on the PCs.
I’m also thinking of having the horned devil Mavrokeras being the one imprisoned in the Nessian Spiral instead of the Pit Fiend Liebdaga. That way it would foreshadow CotCT book 6. In that case, I would not run CoT book 4 other than to have the big explosion happen at the end of CotCT book 3 as the impetus for the PCs to leave Korvosa.
One thing I struggle with though, is if it makes sense for the PCs to be running around the Ornelos Mansion without Toff Ornelos knowing about it, but I was thinking that I’d make it so that Toff is estranged from the rest of his family. Also, the historical character of Volshyenek Ornelos would replace the characters of Avengen and Dargentu Vheed from the CoT AP.
Another question is what could Rolth be trying to steal from the Asmodean Knot (i.e. what could replace the Chelish Crux?) If possible, I'd like it to be something that ties in later in the CotCT AP.
Thoughts? Ideas? Is there anything I’m forgetting or haven’t taken into consideration?
Thanks! And sorry for the long post.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Hi Laric
I like the way you're trying to make this campaign your own. I'll give some feedback on your ideas, also under the spoiler sign.
The idea of pitting Glorio Arkona against the queen, though not openly but through scheming and sneaking, is one that appeals to me too. In my campaign, the Arkona's will be behind the riots in the city that follow the death of King Eodred. A few well-spoken orators (bards) try to influence the commoners' opinion on the new queen and her inexperience and inability to rule. Arkona's objective is to seize the throne for himself.
Some parts of the CoT AP might fit nicely into your campaign. The second installment has received very good feedback, so using that is definitely a good idea. Here's my take on how you could use this.
The Ornelos family and its Acadamae are trying to help the queen by experimenting on 'blood clones' to create a clone army of Gray Maidens. Using the blood of innocent girls, mixed with devil blood, powerful Acadamae wizards (transmuters) want to create an equivalent of the simulacrum spell that allows them to instill the combat skills of a "model" into a large number of clones.
At this stage, the experiments are still far from perfected. The PCs happen upon an escaped 'early model' clone, who has no recollection of who she is. When the meet her, she is naked, confused and disoriented, somewhere in the streets close to the Acadamae. The PCs care for her and puzzle out that she came from the Ornelos estate. After a few days she mysteriously explodes into a pile of blood. Examining the blood reveals traces of strong transmutation magic, so strong that only the most powerful transmuter of the Acadamae could handle it.
The PCs are now interested in finding out more about the Ornelos estate and when they do some research, they learn that one of Toff Ornelos' grandsons, Akmelek Ornelos, is an avid admirer and supporter of the morbid plays that are featured in Exemplary Execrables, the theater in Old Korvosa that is owned by Pilts Swastel. He is aiding in the newest play, either as an actor, producer or illusionist who helps with the plays special effects. He is also planning a big celebration at the Ornelos Estate after the play's premiere.
Here you can insert your adaptation of The Sixfold Trial, both the first part and the second. Use Pilts Swastel as the director instead of Robahl Nonon. You can even introduce Salvator Scream as the artist who paints the background settings, but he seems to have lost his inspiration and doesn't do a great job at it.
In the second part the PCs get invited to the party and sneak into the Asmodean Knot, where the early experiments on blood clones were performed. The transmuter is (conveniently) absent, but there is another infiltrator, an agent of the Arkona's (a rogue from the Cerulean society). Having Mavrokeras be there as the imprisoned devil is actually an excellent idea. He has been aiding the transmuter with his experiments and might even reveal some information to the PCs. Maybe he even tries to trick the PCs into setting him free ... If you want to use some Red Mantis assassins, you could have them be there as guards.
As for Toff Ornelos being absent at the party - the nobleman is notoriously asocial, so he tries to avoid public events at all cost. Since the Acadamae has been closed down because of the riots, Toff sees it as his 'duty' (or as a convenient excuse) the be present at the Acadamae.
This scenario allows you to foreshadow a lot of NPCs: House Ornelos and all the nobles who are invited to their party (although I would focus on the sons and daughters of the noble families, rather than the heads of the families), Pilts Swastel, Salvator Scream and of course Glorio Arkona himself, who will most definitely be present at the opening of the Sixfold Trial play. (I don't immediately see a hook to include Rolth the necromancer, although you could have him be the one who sold Gaekhen's body to Devargo Barvasi in the Eel's End encounter.)
You would also be using the 'blood clone' hook, which has been suggested in several threads on these boards. The idea is to have blood clones next to the 'regular' Gray Maidens. This allows you to have more powerful Gray Maiden adversaries in the final adventure without creating a suspension of disbelief (What do you mean, these common girls were recruited yesterday and they are level 6 fighters today??? Now you can have them be level 8 fighter, or even higher, and provide an excellent excuse for them to be so powerful: they are clones!). This also gives you the opportunity to add in another side trek in the final stages of your campaign, as the PCs will come across these blood clone Gray Maidens in combat (when they are killed, they also disintegrate into a pile of blood) and will want to stop the blood clone production (which I will be setting in the catacombs of the temple of Asmodeus in my campaign).
Hi Laric
I like the way you're trying to make this campaign your own. I'll give some feedback on your ideas, also under the spoiler sign.
** spoiler omitted **...
Thanks MV! Lots of good ideas there. Some comments:
I also like the idea of introducing Pilts Swastel and Salvatore Scream ahead of EfOK, but I don’t think that the play is a good fit for my group of players. Perhaps I’ll just have Swastel and Scream present at the party so the players can interact with them.
I had forgotten about the Acadamae closing its doors because of the riots and subsequent plague, so thanks for pointing that out as it will easily explain why Toff Ornelos is not around.
With regards to the “Chelish Ambassador” hook, I agree with you that it is cool, but the problem I have with it is that it doesn’t really have anything to do with the rest of the campaign. If I decide not to use the "Dead Shoanti" hook for Eel's End, I think I would probably switch the "Chelish Ambassador" hook to be about getting evidence or a testimony from Devargo that Glorio Arkona was behind the riots. The worry I have with this approach is that the PCs will try to storm Palace Arkona too early in the campaign and get themselves killed.
Finally, I hadn't come across the "Blood Clones" idea before, but that's an interesting way to spin things with regards to the Gray Maidens.
In follow up to my concerns about the Shingles Chase encounter with Pathfinder rules, another idea I had:
The hook would be that after word had gotten out that King Eodred had been murdered, the PCs would hear about the accused murderer having been captured by the Hellknights. In order to question Trinia, the Hellknights would have whisked her away on the
Trying to avoid causing an incident by having the Sable Company make an overt aggressive move against the Hellknights, Marcus Endrin would ask the PCs to ambush the Hellknight Carriage before it makes it to Citadel Vraid and bring Trinia back for questioning.
Advantages of this is that it would give an explanation for why the Hellknights decide to withdraw from Korvosa (and don’t appear in subsequent installments of the AP) and explain why Ileosa would want to move forward on creating a military organization loyal only to her (i.e. the Gray Maidens).
Hi Laric
I see no flaw in your reasoning. It sounds like a perfect idea.
or you could just
** spoiler omitted **
I hadn't heard about that scenario. Thanks! I'll check it out.