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Yesterday my party finished Sound of a Thousand Screams, silencing Nyrissa's plotting forever and reclaiming their lost kingdom.
Wow has it been a wild ride. From defending a fort in the middle of nowhere from bandits and ruffians to slaying an elder fae who literally had 5000 hit points, every moment of Kingmaker has been absolutely fantastic for me and my players. After running this campaign for three and a half years it has finally come to a close. We'll be talking about this one for a long time to come.
I wanted to thank Paizo for creating the most thrilling adventure I've ever had the honor of GMing (and mercilessly customizing to fit my own desires). I also want to thank my players - both those who were there to the end, and those for whom life got in the way. This campaign wouldn't have been what it was without all of you.
What follows is a tribute to the Six from Cambreadth, the final group of PCs who challenged Nyrissa and overcame everything I could throw at them.
Originally a spy sent by house Orlovski to keep tabs on Restov's interests in the Stolen Lands, Sky served the burgeoning nation of Cambreadth as spymaster ("head of accounting", as he preferred to be called). When the current ruler was called away to lead a faction in the Brevic Civil War, Sky eagerly stepped forward to fill his place. Revealing his true identity, King Lloyd Orlovsky ruled fairly but with cunning from his thone in the capital of Haven, seeing the kingdom through many perils - including the betrayal of King Irovetti of Pitax. When the Stolen Lands were stolen away into the faewild by Nyrissa, Lloyd took up the mantle of Marshall, leading the Six from Cambreadth into Thousandbreaths to face Nyrissa's greatest minions. Wielding the Stag Lord's former bow - now enchanted as a mythic artifact of legendary power - King Orlovsky is an archer without peer and a wise ruler. Advised by a mysterious raven spirit and surrounded by friends and associates, Lloyd seeks to lead Cambreadth into a glorious future.
Evita journeyed into the Stolen Lands in hopes of finding vengeance for the theft of a stolen heirloom - the last memento of her dead parents. Instead, she found love, truth, and a home - things she had given up on in her former life. Between marrying the reformed bandit Happs Bydon, becoming mother of a wonderful girl named Sage, becoming Royal Assassin of Cambreadth, untangling a Red Mantis plot that started before she was born, and killing her not-as-dead-as-she-thought parents with her own hands, Evita has lived a wild and tumultuous life... and she wouldn't have it any other way. In Thousandbreaths she faced her greatest challenges yet, with her husband and daughter stolen away by Nyrissa and every moment fraught with peril. She rose to those challenges and above, however, killing the great dragon Ilthuliak and wielding the legendary fae-slaying sword Autumnsong against the Queen of Forgotten Time. Now, with her family and her home reclaimed, Evita might settle down for the quiet life she never had. Or... she might not.
Sent by her coven to stop a great evil threatening the Stolen Lands, Vah-kanta never would have guessed how her life would change forever. After a short time adventuring with the founders of Cambreadth, she found herself whisked away by the Old Beldame - a witch whom she originally believed to be responsible for the very evil she was sent to stop. Instead, she uncovered a plot by her coven to manipulate her and her twin sister Lauranna into serving Nyrissa in kidnapping the Stolen Lands. Reunited with her friends after a great battle - but not before the Old Beldame was killed and Lauranna kidnapped - Vah-Kanta killed the members of her former coven herself and then set her sights on Nyrissa. Eventually forced to slay her own sister - or at least the twisted monster Nyrissa had made her - Vah-kanta became consumed by vengeance. In Thousandbreaths, at last, she would find her redemption - sacrificing herself to allow Nyrissa to be destroyed. Now, returned to life and reunited with her sister she finds herself free of the shackles of revenge for the first time. Where she will go from here - besides possibly pursuing her burgeoning romance with the swordsman Yoshi - is anyone's guess.
Of all the founders of Cambreadth, perhaps none have changed so much as Pax. Originally a wandering monk struggling with a split personality - an evil sorcerer named Lee - Kai's mind fractured more and more over the course of his adventures. The discovery that Lee was the original personality and Kai the insane fragment nearly shattered him. Finally he reached a breaking point upon being captured by Anais, a twisted night hag in the service of Nyrissa. Using an eldritch ritual she reshaped his body into a fiendish warrior of immense power. In the crucible of her torture, however, Kai and Lee finally reconciled with each-other, fusing their minds and becoming the mighty Pax Caducus. Pax slew the night hag and fled back to his friends - who almost repudiated him for his new, horrible form. Determined to prove himself and win back the trust of Evita - whose daughter he was the godfather of - Pax had magical shackles forged to contain his demonic powers and swore an oath of nonaggression. Despite this, he found himself forced to fight with everything he had to reclaim his kingdom - even at one point breaking free of his shackles in order to save Evita's life. Now, in the aftermath of Nyrissa's death, Pax has been cleansed of his demonic influence and given new form once again. What he will do with this newly clean slate remains to be seen...
Already a swordsman of great renown, Yoshi traveled across the Crown of the World to the distant lands of Avistan to demonstrate his skill in the legendary Rushlight Festival. Recruited by King Orlovsky to ensure Cambreadth's victory in the festival, Yoshi proved an asset beyond anything the rulers of Cambreadth could have dreamed. Proving himself in battle against the forces of the traitorous Irovetti, Yoshi found the challenge he'd always searched for. Deep in the depths of Irovetti's palace, however, he made a discovery that would change his life: The legendary sword Briar. Forging a bond with the elder-forged blade that was unlike anything he'd ever known, Yoshi reached a level of skill few even dream of. When Briar told him of her wish to put an end to the threat of Nyrissa, Yoshi knew he'd found his calling in life: The battle that would define him as a swordsman. After fighting his way through the countless challenges of Thousandbreaths, Yoshi finally was able to confront Nyrissa. Putting his life on the line, Yoshi slew Nyrissa with Briar's help. Unfortunately, Briar was forced to sacrifice herself to return the Stolen Lands to their rightful place. With the bond that had defined him broken, Yoshi is now adrift and purposeless... except, perhaps, for the quiet attraction he has found himself developing towards a certain elven witch.
Brother of the original ruler of Cambreadth, Hawkrum was part of the expedition Restov sent into the Glenebon Uplands. The rest of his party slaughtered by Irovetti, Hawkrum was held captive for years in the hopes that he'd be a bargaining chip against the nation of Cambreadth. Finally set free of his imprisonment with Irovetti's fall, Hawkrum reveled in the chance to wade into battle against whomever proved convenient. Spurred on more by his faith in Gorum and a desire to one-up his brother than any loyalty to the founders of Cambreadth, Hawkrum nevertheless proved a mighty ally. Many were the times the Six from Cambreadth would have fallen without Hawkrum's powerful divine magic and mighty earthbreaker. Finally, Hawkrum faced the greatest battle of his life in the all-powerful elder fae Nyrissa... and couldn't have been more happy. With her defeat, Hawkrum is anything but satisfied; rather, he has already set out in search of his next battle and an even greater foe...
Is this the end (for this group of PCs) or is there something after the kingmaker kampagne?
Can you post the kingdom and/or city discriptions?
There is a little bit more to come for this group of PCs; I'll be running them through a level 20 epilogue adventure I'm calling A Conquest in Fire; that'll be just one session though.
I will be running a full-fledged sequel campaign, but it'll be set 20 years in the future and involve a new group of PCs (one of which will be Evita's daughter Sage).
We didn't use the kingdom building rules for all of book 6 so it's hard to remember everything, honestly. xD I don't have exact stats Cambreadth at hand, but it was pretty expansive. It covered basically everything except Thousand Voices and the majority of the Slough (they went around the top of the swamp to avoid having many swamp tiles).
Cities:
Haven - Located at the old Stag Lord's fort, Haven is the capital and by far the most developed city. It is also the center of a portal network developed by the kobold wizard Rishak Scalemind (wizard 5/mage of the arcane order 7/loremaster 5; a PC who didn't participate in the final battle). This portal network allows instant travel between the capital and any other city in Cambreadth, although it can only transport about a dozen people per hour.
Svetlan - Formerly Oleg's fort, Oleg agreed to let the PCs make it a city so long as they made him mayor and named the city after his wife. Svetlan is a relatively undeveloped city, but IIRC is the location of a University of the Arcane Order, founded by Rishak.
Varnhold - Annexed after it's vanishing, Varnhold has had a tumultuous existence. Abandoned no less than twice AFTER the vanishing (once due to attack by Brevoy, the second due to an army of undead lead by Vordekai's reborn Champion) the city hasn't developed much until very recently.
Tatzlhoff - Founded on the site where the party slew a group of dangerous tatzlworms, Tatzlhoff has also had a difficult life. It's citizens were first attacked by the forced of Baron Drelev, and then later put into a magical and deadly sleep by the Nightmare Rook. However, Tatzlhoff enjoys the personal protection of Pax Caducus - he considers it his home town - as well as the order of monks he founded there; they operate out of an impressively large cathedral dedicated to Irori.
Tonguesten - The annexed Fort Drelev was renamed after its capture. Populated largely by merchants and refugees from the Pitax War, Tonguesten is a cultural melting pot; it's not uncommon to walk into its waterfront market and see bog striders, boggards, and lizardmen all aggresively (but peacefully) hawking their wares.
Pitax - Other than being freed from its oppressive rule (and its new ruler having much better musical taste), Pitax is much the same as it was before. A very developed city already, the PCs mostly left it to its own devices. It did get included in the portal network, however.
The kingdom also includes two "cities" independent from the PC's rule - both the kobolds and the lizardmen were taken into the kingdom as vassals and given dominion over their personal hexes.
Awesome ending! =D Congratulations =)
Congrats Max! Sounds like a great time was had by all.
Congrats on finishing KM, its a long road.
Looks impressive, well done!
We are currently looking at 4 years (ooc) and 10 years (ic) and we have just "ended" book 4. Long road indeed, but sooooo many possibilities!
Congratulations, MaxAstro! Wrapping up this campaign is quite a feat!
Congratulations! I'll have to make a thread like this once my party clears the campaign...
...that is, if they can survive through Sound of a Thousand Screams with their lives and kingdom intact.
I think one of the coolest bits for me is how thanks to my player's decisions, certain NPCs got a much bigger role than I think Paizo could ever have expected them to. XD
In the very first fight, the PCs ended up capturing Happs rather than killing him - mostly by accident. Several of the PCs, with Evita arguing loudest - wanted to execute him. The party cavalier, however, wanted to keep him alive and try redeeming him; he managed to convince the rest of the party to let him try.
A couple nat 20 diplomacy rolls later and Happs was reconsidering his choices in life. Later, at the Stag Lord's fort he saved Evita's life when Dovan almost killed her. And the rest, as they say, is history. :)
Howl-of-the-North-Wind also played a huge role in this campaign. I originally gave him an only slightly larger role, but Kai's player took a really big liking to him and convinced the rest of the party to keep him around. By the end of the campaign, Howl (and his "spy network" of wolves) had become one of the kingdom's most useful allies.
HAH!! The Howl bit sounds exactly like Rannulf, a Worg my party ran into on a Random Encounter roll back in Chapter 1. I ended up bumping up Howl to a Winter Wolf and making him and Rannulf pack-lord rivals to further cement his alliance with the PCs, and the party even went so far as to make him their Marshall.
claps
Bravissimo, MaxAstro!
Nicely done, I can only hope under the wise guidance of GM_solspiral that our group will make it to the end in one piece. Were doing stuff between book 2 and 3 at the moment, so we got a ways to go. I can only hope Meloney Chandler and her nation of Woodhaven will be as impressive as your lands, good job duder.
