I am about to start running the shattered star and this AP treats the RotRL, CoCT and SD APs as past events, but me and my group have only played the RotRL so can anyone give me a summary of the other two APs?
Thank you.
Well, there's what the public of Varisia would know... and what those campaign's PCs would know. How much depth of information are you looking for?
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Well, there's what the public of Varisia would know... and what those campaign's PCs would know. How much depth of information are you looking for?
The first, although i would like some highlights of second.
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But things started getting worse and worse an' my brother got kidnapped 'cause he was spreadin' rumors that the Queen, she's bad, yanno? So I kept me mouth shut and he were right 'cause now we's been made to build monuments outta things, like, we had to dismantle the watch an' the Sable Guard's gone an' we're takin' down the whole tower an' buildin' statues to the Queen but how are we gonna do it 'cause we don't got no food and nobody's been paid for nothin' for months and prices is so high and we all gots ta be bloodletting for the church of Asmodeus. The rest of the churches, they're not helpin' us, no, they's all closed their doors.
But then I hears about the dragon goin' down and the head of them Gray Maidens defected and Blackjack's come back an' the Queen, she's up and gone! Somethin' about adventurers and now we're free from the whore queen an' there's food an' we're gettin' paid again an' we're free!
Translate that as you will, or just get a level 1 commoner to recite it.
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The head of the Sable Company, one of Korvosa's peacekeeping paramilitary organizations, tries to assassinate the queen for her crimes. She kills him publicly and uses the excuse to disband the Sable Company. Around this time she starts wearing an Evil Artifact Crown, the Crown of Fangs. The PCs end up in Old Korvosa seeking the missing seneschal Neolandus. They find him and the missing folk-hero Blackjack (think Zorro) and escape Korvosa seeking aid.
The PCs end up on a laundry list of quests for the Shoanti to get the legend of an Artifact Sword forged by Iomedae herself. Then they get the sword, return to Korvosa with it, and find that Ilesoa's made infernal contracts right and left. Sabina, Ileosa's lover and the head of the Gray Maidens, defects out of love for the woman Ileosa used to be before she was corrupted by the Crown of Fangs. The PCs end up dungeon-crawling through Castle Korvosa, killing hordes of devils, Gray Maidens, and probably a quarter of the Red Mantis's world-wide network. Finally they chase Ileosa to Thassilonian Ruin and kill her, averting worldwide disaster.
What happens next to Korvosa is dependent upon who survived and what the PCs think would be a good monarch.
Thank you.
Question about the end of second darkness, does the everyday man knows about drows now?
Thank you.
Question about the end of second darkness, does the everyday man knows about drows now?
Unfortunately... that depends on what the PCs decided to do at the end of SD.
So up to you. But your Shattered Star PCs should at the very least have heard rumor and legend otherwise their lack of IC knowledge will lessen the impact of the drow showing up.
Ok great, do they also know of their elven origin and the way they became drow?
Ok great, do they also know of their elven origin and the way they became drow?
At the end of the AP, it is not common knowledge at all.. and it is something that the Elves have worked hard to keep secret. So, it would be up to you to decide how much the heroes who dealt with it have spread the word around.
That's one of the "Continuing the Campaign" pieces in this AP.. how to deal with the information the PCs now have, and what effects it might have if they spread the information around. Some of what they learn could certainly de-stabilize Kyonin if shared too freely too quickly, for example.
Creative Director
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Ok great, do they also know of their elven origin and the way they became drow?
That knowledge isn't as widespread, but without an active organization to cover the info up... the info will get out there eventually. How fast is up to the GM. It's not assumed to be general knowledge for Shattered Star.
In the campaign I'm a player in, we've just discovered the Great Secret. My character [Muzash the Well-Adjusted Half-Orc
{F2/C13 of Sarenrae at this point}] is thoroughly sick of elves and elven politics at this point, but he's not likely to spread the news.
Your milage will, of course, vary.
** spoiler omitted **
** spoiler omitted **
You might want to mention the great big tidal wave that flushed out the center of Riddleport as well...
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The part that no one has mentioned yet, but alluded to...
There *was* a "shadow government" of Elven traditionalists for a long time... the Winter Council... the Drow villainess was previously a revered surface elf heroine who fought the Drow repeatedly and was a member of the Winter Council.
Late in the AP, the PCs confront the Winter Council and see another one of them turn into a Drow. Now the PCs know the Winter Council's "dirtiest" secret.
The Lantern Bearers organization (and the Faction from the Faction Guide) are puppets of the Winter Council. The lower-ranked members don't know much beyond the need to fight the Drow and keep the secret of their existence... as you go higher, you learn more about the Winter Council, but even the Lantern Bearers don't know about the secret that regular elves can become Drow if they become wicked enough.
So.. if the PCs are successful, in addition to secretly saving Kyonin (and neighboring lands) from the threat of a guided meteor strike, the events in the AP can break the Winter Council's iron grip on Elven culture and politics.. which frees the Queen to do more to build alliances with those pesky non-Elves around Kyonin.
How the PCs handle the secrets they have learned is outside the scope of the AP, so if you have not run it and are just looking for the effects, you can make them as big or small within that as you like. Hopefully, this gives you an idea of the bigger picture involved.
One frequent criticism of the AP is that Elves as a whole come off as overbearing and unlikable.. that's mostly due to the influence of the Winter Council, but the contrast of life without them is missing, so people react like otarrus mentioned... "thoroughly sick of elves and elven politics".
Thank you all for your info.
Questions:
Are the latern bearers disbanded after the second darkness?
I have heard things about curse of the crimson throne
i have heard about a red dragon (Kazavsomething), something about Sorshen and infernal contracts
what about those?
On an unrelated note, both second darkness and curse of the crimson throne APs sound very good, i must either run them or play them some time in the future.
Things like what happens to the Lantern Bearers are largely up to you, as that would be something that would happen after the end of the AP. They could be re-dedicated, disbanded, somewhere in between, or there could be no immediate effect while people sort out what it all means.
If you had played the AP previously, it would have been up to the PCs to provide advice on that line, and help make those decisions in the "Continuing the Campaign" section.
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Thank you all for your info.
Questions:
Are the latern bearers disbanded after the second darkness?
I have heard things about curse of the crimson throne
** spoiler omitted **
what about those?On an unrelated note, both second darkness and curse of the crimson throne APs sound very good, i must either run them or play them some time in the future.
Crimson throne is usually considered one of the best APs.
as to your questions
For the most part, where the Shattered Star references the events of other APs, enough is explained in the background that you should not need to worry about what else is there, unless you want to add some specifics of those events in the background. In that case, you probably would want deeper details than a summary. If you just need to know what is public knowledge, the summaries given are pretty good. A lot of Second Darkness takes place out of the public eye, and even a lot of Curse of the Crimson Throne is mostly known in Korvosa.