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I wanted to know what people thought of adding the very interesting Courts of the Shadow Fey to Kingmaker. I have been toying with how to fit it in and have kind of come up with this....
During that time, a prominent and influential tyrant by the name of Vordakai ascended to power and began to strive for ever increasing swaths of land to cater to the growth of his nation and people. As his kingdom expanded west, it finally reached the border of Count Ranalc, a powerful fey lord of the First World known to other fey as the “Eldest”. This land had very strong ties to Count Ranalc’s own personal home in the First World and he assumed ownership and right over it.
Vordakai met with very swift and powerful resistance as he expanded to the east and finally it culminated into bloody war between the two kingdoms. The armies of the fey met the cyclopean kingdom in battle after battle that devastated the landscape and to the horror of Count Ranalc destroyed all the elements of life and nature that he so held dear.
Finally, Count Ranalc met with Vordakai and sealed a truce that the fey-lord would withdraw his armies to the First World and allow the cyclops to rule in peace over his land for a period of three generations. During that time, Vordakai and his kin would establish and develop more land further south and east of the Stolen Lands and when his cyclops kingdom could be sustained, they would withdraw from the land and rule would revert back to the count. The pact was sealed with blood and was simple in wording.
“Three generations of cyclopean rule and then the Lands reverted to Count Ranalc with all cyclopean influence to leave it forever.”
Two generations passed quickly with the cyclops anxiously trying to expand their kingdom while using Count Ranalc’s lands to fuel their armies. They met with large resistance from the Azlanti who fought back fiercely.
Generations past and the grandson of the first Vordakai, also named Vordakai in his honor looked in dismay as his kingdom stood poised on the brink of retreat from a land that the cyclops still needed. In desperation, Vordakai turned to the dark arts of necromancy and with dark magic extended his life-span considerably at the cost of his sanity and the desecration of his family’s previous bonds with nature worship and animism. As he grew in power, his kingdom fell to decay. Finally, in an act of perversion and necromantic energy that devastated land and creatures alike, Vordakai fueled his transformation to lichdom. Now with his rule never-ending, he had no fear and could rule without having to ever return the land to the Fey-Lord.
However, he did not count on Earthfall and with it an end to his aspirations and the nation of Koloran. As time passed and the dust settled, the now First World Eldest, Count Ranalc returned to his lands, known to him as his “Stolen Lands” to reclaim them. He was shocked to realize that he was still barred from entering. Vordakai had survived.
However, the devastation of Earthfall was even greater then Vordakai expected and when he finally rose from his torpor, he found himself diminished. Anxiously trying to regain his lost power, he began the process of trying to charge his magic from the life energies of the land and people; however, this time they were prepared. In the end, those who he was attempting to command rose up against him and trapped him in a crypt of his own design hidden away in westernmost Casmaron.
Count Ranalc, unable to enter Vordakai’s realm once and for all left his “Stolen Lands” in frustration and returned to the First World to rule. It was there that he met Nyrissa and wooed her as his consort. When Nyrissa claimed that she was an “Eldest”, the other Eldest released the Jabberwocky, plucked away her “love” and formed Briar with it and banished Count Ranalc to the Shadow Plane. As a token of their disdain, they handed Briar to Count Ranalc so that he could always remember what he had lost.
Lost from the First World, Count Ranalc tried to regain as much of his former life as possible. Using shadow magic as well as his own formidable power, he reshaped Briar into a facsimile of his Nyrissa and together they gathered fey under their banner to rule in a mockery of courtly politics and romantic idealism. Briar, herself, grew to become a powerful entity in her own right and soon assumed the mantle of leadership while Count Ranalc slipped into disrepute and insanity.
And the Stolen Land’s destiny. Well, that is up to the players to decide.
So with the destruction of Vordakai (which we'll revert back to the true Vordakai and not "an apprentice" at the end of Book 3, the PCs unknowingly have ended the ban on Count Ranalc (who is assuming the role of the Moonlit King) in "Courts" and when they return to their capital city, we can just get it started right there with some adaptation.
This is a very rusty start and I have to really flesh it out, but just wondering about thoughts. I really LIKE Courts and I will figure out some way to incorporate it. I just felt this was a creative way to do it.
Might consider it once I own a copy of that in my hot little hands...
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Certainly.
Quick synopsis.
The PCs discover that they can petition the King and Queen of the fey and journey to the Shadowland where they attempt to curry favor and increase their status in hopes to actually gain an audience with the Queen. (Using a new Status mechanic to do so). Favor is gained from performing tasks, making alliances with NPCs, and fighting duels. Very courtly and Renaissance like.
Finally, when they meet with the Queen, they are able to go to find the King, possibly end his rule in the process, and finally gain acceptance and the return of ownership of the kingdom to them.
Why do I like it, especially for Pathfinder?
1. Complex Skill Checks. This is one of two things that I thought 4th edition did right. Basically, a task requires thought about what you should do and then roll skill checks to try to do it. You need to get a certain amount of successes before failures.
Even if you don't like Complex Skill Checks, the text goes into exhaustive detail about what can be done with many of the skills making it very easy to say "Yes or No" if a player asks can I do this.
2. Rituals. This is the other thing I like about 4th edition. I like the idea of very complicated powerful spells "outside the scope" of the 1-9 levels that require multiple casters to perform them for a profound effect.
Basically, when I bought this book, I also got a good rules supplement that I can take into my other Pathfinder Games. The only "beef" that I have is that somebody who has not read 4th edition would have NO IDEA what these concepts are about. It could make it difficult, but I can easily give a primer to whoever needs it.
Why do I like it for Kingmaker?
1. Courtly battle and intrigue with great descriptions about agendas and politics. Rules for duels. Rules for Status and how to advance in status. Very real benefits to status advances. VERY FLESHED OUT NPCS! Fey, fey, and more fey. Courtesans and knights.
Basically, the politics of court in a otherwordly atmosphere.
Finally, I like it because since it is in another plane all together, time can work differently and my PCs can be there for months and when they return it is only a week or whatever. They can pick up where they left off, wiser in the way of politics and court, more experienced, and with connections to factions that are different and interesting.
That's my 50 cent piece.
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Courtly battle, status advances, and Fey NPCs... sold!
One thing that I was honestly not looking forward to was generating a ton of fey NPCs to flesh out the winter and summer courts in my game. Even if they are shadow court NPCs I can repurpose. Besides, I have a shadow court in my game as well, members of both courts who have been corrupted, maimed or tainted by Dark Tapestry or shadow magic.
I'm liking this as well, to mine ideas and NPCs for if nothing else. Can we get a link? =D
Indeed, sounds very intriguing. Linkage would be awesome!
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here ya go its an Open design/Kobold press product.
nice little module, and I think I will also fit this in...those complex skill checks are interesting. In my Kingmaker, I am playing up the leakage from the First World into this plane ("Fey Storms", "Fey Quakes", lots of Fey wandering encounters that "are not from around here"). I have been looking for a "hook" to pivot the campaign around, and I think this will do nicely (thanks!)
Where does Narissa fit in, why doesn't she travel to the Courts and free (or at least visit) her lover? Perhaps she was banished to the swamp as a Hag, as another suggested (only regaining her memories on the solstices, when travel on the shadow road is blocked). Until she regains Briar, she is limited, etc.
also, if they deal with the first world threat entirely through this "module", how does the war with Pitax fit in? Did Briar (shadow narissa) somehow travel from the shadow plane (where the count was) to the stolen lands at the same time the count became the winter king? And who is the queen, and other than agreeing (maybe) to cancelling the claim, how does she fit in? I think she should know all about narissa, probably briar as well (so if the party befriends her, they will learn the entire story)
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the party explored the lonely barrow last night...I made the final creature a Koloran Cyclops Barbarian wight. This was a King of one of the tribes that fought Vordakai ~10,000 years ago. Emphasized how the skeletons were weaponless and had no clothing, with a few badly corroded lumps here and there that may have been weapons at one time. Only the +2 Fey Bane Bastard Sword (which I said was a non-human weapon equivalent to a bastard sword) survived, as well as a jade necklace strung on a gold chain....(they will have to take the sword back to Restov to sell, and have been developing contacts with the Seers and the Wizards, ultimately to build their own Library to fund their research, so they will get some pre-earthfall history - "only a few scraps of the ancient texts survive")
I would simply replace Narissa with the shadow fay queen. When the king ruled, he put all of these evil fey to the job of taking over the stolen lands, and now his wife reluctantly goes along. Replace the last mod with courts, it's about the right level, and will give the campaign a great ending.
Nick
Replace the last mod with courts, it's about the right level, and will give the campaign a great ending.
I am very confused. The last mod of Kingmaker, Sound of a Thousand Screams is 15-17th level. The Kobold Press book we're talking about, Courts of the Shadow Fey is 7-10th level.
There are scale up notes within Courts, but it most it has you go up by 2 CRs for each encounter. That's still not close enough to the right power band...
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Yeah. If anything, the appropriate villain swap would be Vordakai, swapping out Varnhold Vanishing for CotSF. Which I'd personally recommend against, if only because I think VV is one of the highlights of the KM campaign.
Good point. I stand corrected.
If you did want to replace them, you could theoretically do so. But it wouldn't simply be a cut-and-paste swap - you'd have to advance, add levels to, or otherwise ramp up all the CotSF characters to challenge an endgame-level party. But if you give it a shot, let us know how it goes =D
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here is my draft plot (advice for improvements welcome);
Before Age of Legends, due to some obscure Cosmic Imbalances, this portion of the Material Plane was ceded to the Fey, and a similar portion of the First World was ceded to the Material Plane (a sort of "Ying-Yang" arrangement). The Gods were behind this, and it resolved some indiscretion of theirs (which they do not wish to become known).
"Ownership" of these Regions was not defined at time of the swap, this resulted in eons of warfare (both from locals attempting to possess and destroy the regions). On the Material Plane, this manifested itself mainly as war between the Cyclops and the Fey. Ultimately, Vordekai led the Cyclops, and Count Ranalc led the Fey. During what was shaping up to be a world-altering clash, the Gods again intervened (Erastil, Ragadahn, Yhidothrus, and Corchanus) to broker the "3 generations" agreement - the Vordekain Cyclops would rule for 3 generations, then the Ranalcian Fey would rule for 3 generations, and so forth (enforced by a divine forbidding)...peace was at hand!
except the 3rd generation of Vordekain became a Litch (through an alternate process not involving "death" per-se), thus preventing the change of ownership. Count Ranalc was furious, and declared these lands to be "Stolen", but soon found other distractions (Narissa). Then Earthfall occured, and Vordekai-Litch was almost destroyed, but managed to survive (albeit in a lesser-form and in slumber). All that has survived of this to common knowledge is the title, "Stolen lands".
Narissa does her thing, is punished by having her spirit broken; Briar is given her ambition, the Unicorn is given her hope, the beldame is given her endurance (explaining why she is so long lived), the hodag is given her courage - her cunning goes some where as well (just realized). Narissa is held in the First World, in the material zone (to further punish and limit her); however on the midsummer's day and midwinter's day, the two material worlds are "in-phase" and she is able to use her (limited) powers to influence things. She inhabits a "shadow court", designed to hold and amuse her. Count Ranalc is also there - they swap leadership (he rules the winter, she rules the summer). The Count is largely insane from his years in exile.
For thousands of years, lacking hope/ambition/endurance/courage/cunning she flounders, only slowly learning things. Recently she has re-discovered the Stolen Lands, and begun to "possess" through dreams confederates (The Stag Lord, Troll, King of Pitax, etc). The Stag Lord killed the Unicorn (at her command), and she regained her hope.
As the PC's find (and likely slay) the beldame and the hodag, she will gain more (endurance and courage). At this point she lacks only ambition and cunning.
Then Varnhold will happen, Vordekai will awake, etc. Lacking his full power, Vordekai will be loath to risk himself by leaving his secret lair. Instead he works remotely as best he can, through confederates, spies, and dupes. Eventually the Party stumbles on him, likely defeating him. This will end the divine ban, and revert title to the Fey for 3 generations. It is very unlikely they will suffer a Litch to exist, and if they do it will gain much of it's previous powers back (gain levels) and destroy the PC's and their fledging kingdom(and probably Brevoy as well).
The Count is the new owner, and then his son and grandson shall rule (which might be a very, very long time). However, the Count is locked up in the dungeon of the shadow court, unable to take posession. The Cyclops (long extinct) are barred from entering, but humans (and other races) are fine, having been considered "animals" back then. No one seems to have seen fit to "update" the terms (or even remembered much about this, 3 of the Gods having died and Erastil quite content to let this region "rot" for his animals benefit). When humans entered (600 years ago) Aroden sent priests to ensure the treaty was not violated...in the more recent incursions 60 years ago Aroden was dead, and Iomedae was still assuming the divine mantle so did not have time for this matter. The Gods (with Iomadae as their representative) does not want the Fey to rule this region until the end of time, so seeks to "negotiate" a new treaty with the Fey. In my world, Iomadae is behind this new effort (having put dreams in the Lord Mayor of Restov to select the PC's in the first place, after a "street riot" took the lives of the previous group, who where mostly fey). The party has a cleric of Iomadae. The temple was converted to a temple of Aroden (instead of Erastil) - it is now being converted to Iomadae...(on "Inheritor Day" no less).
So the Count will petition the Queen (Narissa) to take possession for him. Ironically this is exactly what she wants but cannot initiate (lacking ambition herself). So she will send the Hidden Ambassador, etc. And the Shadow Courts module will kick-in (with adjustments).
The PC's will travel to the Shadow Courts, and eventually become the consort of the queen (Narissa!), and convince her (if they are smart) to give them oversite of the stolen lands (which she will do, lacking her cunning and ambition and having lost interest in the Count for now). The PC's will then travel home, content that they have dealt with that threat.
Then they will do the Pitax stuff, and find Briar. Depending how they handle that, when they ultimately face her one of them will have slept with her (making her defeat that much sweeter)
*slow clap*
You hit the spot on some things that I've been thinking about for a few years. Well done sir!
One thing I need to change: Beldame is actually a valuable NPC in my game, known as "oldie" or "golden oldie".
Very nice work indeed!
Thanks Rickmeister, that is high praise!
there are of course many rough spots and holes, and most of this is a compilation of what others have already posted, so I cannot take credit for it.
I plan on running Narissa in the shadow court kind of like the queen of hearts in alice in wonderland - flighty and not really connected, but in charge and with powerful agents at her beck and call(and a whole host of fawning sycophants giving suggestions she follows because she lacks will). She will not appear to be that big of a menance, her court will be the real challenge...and a contest will likely result between the party's male elf druid and male sylph king to become the new consort of the shadow queen (the rest of the party being half-orc and assimar).
The mad hermit (Bokken's lost brother) was part of the last attempt at colonization 60 years ago, and "went native" when it failed. Curious over the years why the old beldame did not appear to age, he began to covertly study her. One mid-summer's day while the old beldame was "channeling" Narissa, the (not yet mad) hermit had the misfortune to get caught. Narissa blasted his mind, driving him insane. He now fears even the mention of the green lady, the old beldame, or any fey (or the first world even). Any hint of conversation along these lines will drive him into a frenzy, causing a surprise attack. This was decades ago, and he no longer can even contemplate returning to civilization...and will fight to the death to prevent it. If defeated, the PC's will recover his notebooks from 60 years of exploring ruins and digging up pot shards...they will provide much of the story of the war between the cyclops and the fey, and the start of the stolen lands, as well as much concerning the old beldame (but nothing about narissa).
All of the local creatures fear the old beldame (and her scarecrow), even the trolls keep their distance from her (encouraged by narissa). They are focused on building their own kingdom and shaking down travellers on the renewed taldorian trade route (the PC's have already heard rumors of the troll raids on caravans). The Elves of Mivon have a tenative truce with the trolls, and are trying their best not to get involved in a war (preferring instead to meditate in their tree houses). If the PC's succeed in the shadow courts, the prestige will carry over to the elves of mivon (and they will likely ally with the PC's kingdom over mivon).
by the end of module 3, the relationship with Restov will be on the rocks (the lord mayor having lost his position in a vote-of-no-confidence brought on by failures at the Brevoy court and the expenditures to the party's kingdom). War with northern brevoy will be imminent.
I am pretty much eliminating module 4 (keeping the parts I like), replacing it with the Shadow Courts module....when the PC's return, they will find they have a new prestige with most folk (including brevoy and restov, who will seek a treaty while they face off), and pitax will appear no more fawning than all the rest - when they invite the pc's to a friendly tourny...and the pc's fresh from a court experience, fighting duels for prestige, etc. are very likely to fall for it!
When they find briar, and realize it is an artifact they are certain to research the story (if they have not already). The war to the north, allies to the south, the east already won, the kingdom will head west...
By this point it is my hope they have everything pretty much figured out (at least smart enough to not sell briar - they are selling the +2 fey bane bastard-like relic from the wight lair without even a research roll...despite me having the party npc sage checking stuff out the next morning and declaring the ruins to be "possibly before earthfall").
I am trying to figure out some advantage the consort of narissa will have during the final show-down....a free "taunt" power, making narissa focus on the consort for that turn? an extra hero point that can only be used in relation to narissa? one free "spell cancel" (simulating a well timed jibe or taunt)?
assuming narissa is defeated, the gods will deem the contract fulfilled, and the linkage between the worlds will be removed. The stolen lands will be stolen no more, belonging to the humans who now live their (the PC's kingdom).
True, but i'm sad there are not rules for it. :(
OK, my PC's are about to do "V"....having just finished exploring all their hexes, with a flourishing Kingdom, and a fore-knowledge of an upcoming "purge" (every few months, our group hires "2nd stringers" that are 3 levels below, to "clean-up" what the main PC's missed...these guys ran into a Sphinx, who answered 3 questions after they answered 3 riddles).
They cleared a complex south of the trolls (unique to my campaign) that was used by the Cyclops as a forge and armory...and discovered a shaft with an illusion to make it look like a well, that concealed a chamber that held an Iron Golem, that was holding a permanently invisible and non-detectable "Briar" (I am dropping book 5, so Briar has not yet been found in my campaign, despite the efforts of several agents the PC's have run into). They do not know what it is yet, but know it is likely "the special sword" everyone is looking for....
During the last winter (during which they managed to "cure" the Old Beldame of her insanity, and stop the possession using PFE, then convinced her to move to the PC's capitol into a specially prepared chamber with PFE,etc) they encountered some "barbarians" in the woods just outside their kingdom, and questioned a survivor to discover that Armag "the twice born" plans to attack the trade route, blocking it...so for the last few months they have been diplomatically gathering armies and resources to field armies (since they are still only 20 hexes or so). They were planning a recon to find out what this is all about, when they received word that Varnhold was empty (they visited last year and got a good "bonding" with some of the locals). So "N" is down to just a few bestial "vessels" she can possess during the solstices....I should mention that during the previous solstice, the Sorceror cast "unnatural lust" on the Old Beldame (who was possessed by "N" at the time), and she rolled a "1" to save! The "target" the Sorceror chose was none other than the Baron PC, so now "N" is in love with the PC Baron!
They rushed over to Varnhold (one PC is a Druid who can change into a Roc and carry everyone using a special harness they carry inside a bag of holding) in time before the last of the farm animals died from starvation, so the Druid got to question them. The crows attacked, and the druid questioned one of the scattered after it was over, and found out about "H". They got to where the tracks ended on the hill, then cast "commune with nature" (finding only the spriggin camp), followed by a clever use of "commune" to pin down the location of the Villagers to one of 3 hexes, and less than 900' underground. They spotted "H" at distance spying on them, captured him and began to question him getting only "my master will punish you for this!" Then "BOOM" feathers everywhere....
Tomorrow they plan to fly over those hexes, repeating the spells again. I expect they will rather quickly find the complex (and fight the wyverns pack)...and ultimately slay "V".
That is when ownership of the Stolen Lands reverts to the Count for the first time, but since he is "missing" it reverts to his "wife", N. Who (in the role as Shadow Fey Queen, ignorant of the goals of "N" in between the solstices) she sends her Emissary (the hidden ambassador) and petitions Erastil to stop the purge, and change the sky to pink as a sign of the new "enlightened rule" of the Fey. Since "V" was the last of the Cyclops, the Fey will control these lands until time ends.....unless the PC's travel to the Court of the Shadow Queen and makes a petition....which will result in ~100 years passing "Rip Van Wrinkle" style, during which time Brevoy will ultimately capture Restov ...and Numeria will put down Pitax. My PC's found 5 silver dragon eggs, and reared them (offspring of the slain silver dragon). They are secretly keeping them in a hidden cavern protected by the Mik-Mak and the Kobolds they befriended in book one....so upon their return, the dragons will be 100 y.o. and grown-up, and the Kingdom of greater Brevoy will be a hot-bed of despair and waiting for a spark. Mivon is still simmering (the PC's forged some strong bonds there) and even elements in Restov will remember the PC's....plus they should have the favor of the Shadow Queen who will grant her new "lover" a Fey army or two....the Battle for Brevoy will begin (5 silver dragon riders vs. 2 older red dragons, Fey armies, Allies, etc).
Did anyone successfully run Courts of the Shadow Fey in Kingmaker?
I decided to set the opening chapter of Courts of the Shadow Fey in Sevenarches in the River Kingdoms. From there, the PCs went to the Shadow Plane and the Courts of the Shadow Fey in Midgard.
Running the adventure required access to the Pathfinder Chronicles Guide to the River Kingdoms and the Midgard Campaign Setting source book.
It takes a little effort to replace all of the early Zobeck references with Sevenarches and the corresponding Golarion deity. After that, they make their way into Midgard proper and there is no need to replace anything as the PCs become entrenched in Midgard.
It worked quite well and has made for the most complex sandbox adventure I've ever seen.