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Hey All,
So my group and I are about to start a new campaign where we will be able to swap out GMs once someone runs out of steam/ideas/reaches a naturally stopping point and then we can continue on with the same characters while someone else takes a turn at running. I volunteered to GM first and have the basic gist of my game outlined. We are using a as of yet unnamed PFS like organization that will be asking the players to go investigate or do certain things, we will use this to help transition from one GM to another.
I am just looking for some general critiques on what I have so far ideas or criticism. This is for a group of about 4-5 level 1 characters.
Also if you are one of my players please stop reading here.
The Adventure will take place in the small (700 people) logging town of Sellens Hollow, which will be having its mead festival when the PCs arrive. A good portion of the towns current population is made up of Seasonal Loggers who just moved into their tent town by the mill.
Firstly the PCs will meet with a representative of the organization in Almas, Andoran and from there be tasked with going to the town of Sellens Hollow just north of Bellis in Andoran. Their contact says the organization intercepted a coded message and all they have been able to decipher thus far is "Sellens Hollow", "Protected" and "Item". He wants them to go find out what, if anything this message could pertain to, and if it doesnt pan out to pick up several cases of their famous honey mead.
The PCs will arrive to Mirth and Merriment during the mead festival and be able to partake in several games and meet some of the NPCs in the city. From here its up to them to find out what they can about city and meet the characters who I've fleshed, this is will be a good opportunity for roleplay and interaction.
From here the PCs should figure out this is a very productive logging town, and that for some reason the city and surrounding area are not troubled by Fey attacks like so many of the other Andoran logging villages. Also they should find the mayor is a bit of a womanizer who recently lost his Symbol of office, a rainbow hued crystal staff that looks as it were a tree branch.
-They will have several people to investigate as the staff went missing when the seasonal loggers showed up, but also several liaisons the Mayor had with females of the town.
At this point the adventure will take a turn, during the night a contingent of what look like andoran soldiers will show up under the helm of Connor August an fairly well known Eagle Knight Captain. Depending on knowledge checks the PCs may know that he was one of the youngest Eagle Knights to reach captain, and in his last command its rumored he had become unstable and threatened innocents to defeat some chelish slavers. What they dont know is that he was promoted to captain and then silently forced to retire as his actions were quite heinous and the Eagle Knights did not want to lose face and thought the fall of one so popular would be bad for Morale.
Connor has since been seduced by a chelish devil binder and been turned to their cause. They believe there is an artifact in this town that keeps the fae from its borders and they want to twist its magic to use the fae agaisnt the people of Andoran. This is part of a greater plot that I will continue later of Chelish/Andoran Hostilities. This artifact is the Mayor Missing Staff that has been part of the leadership of this town since it was founded.
Conner and his men Arrive under the guise of reports of forced labor/slavery/magical persuasion in the town. This explains some of the wizards he brought going around the town detecting magic and questioning everyone. His men spread false information to the townspeople that this is politically motivated due to the towns high production and this was all done to appease some of the lumber consortium and let the local lumber union they need to join the consortium. Hopefully this will lead to some interesting conflicts in the town with the PCs trying to discover what is really going on.
Over the next few days the PCs will have the chance to notice several things to tip them off, mainly some of the Andoran Soliders are wearing what look like non standard uniforms (eagles of the wrong size, in the wrong place), or the Soldiers looking more chelish in features, with purple eyes and pale skin, that they try to hid with makeup. Also the will encounter several soldiers trying to harrass the locals, most likely making unwanted advances on some of the locals when the PCs are near. Lastly they can find one of the clerics that came along has an Asmodean Holy symbol under his robes(he will have an excuse if questioned).
Once they start to realize something is afoot Connor and his men, about 40-50 start rounding up the loggers and holding them in the lumber warehouse and then taking the women and children from the city and holding them in the City Hall. The townsfolk are all cramped and the guards are obviously using threats to the safety of the women and children to keep the men in line. They also board and take over Sellens Pride the only river boat at dock right now, and setup patrols around the city.
The PCs can go into custody or escape that will be up to them, Either way they will learn (if they haven't earlier in their investigations) that Connor is looking for Renne a lady of the Night and the one the Mayor thinks took his staff, but she is no where in town and had fled into the forest when Connor first arrived fearing the Mayor would ask their help in finding what she took (her plan was to hop the riverboat and sell the item to start a new life).
From here its a bit open ended eventually Conner will find out that Renne fled into the forest after ransacking the town and torturing the townsfolk. Its up to the PCs if they want to look for Renne or try breaking out the townsfolk and leading a revolt.
Presumably at some point it will be Connor and some of his associates leading a party into the woods and leaving the town at the hands of his men. I would expect the PCs now to try and revolt at this point, and then follow Connor and the Chelsih Devil Binder into the woods for the final confrontation. When confronted the Binder will flee leaving them face Connor as he has cornered Renne.
Its this last part that im a little shaky on only because it can go several different ways, but I have several important NPCs named and created along with locations in the town so I feel we should be able to work with whatever the party wants to do. So any thoughts, is it something you would want to play, things you things are to forced or unexplained? I plan for this to take maybe 3-4 sessions and level the players to 3 at the end.
Questions/concerns/suggestions:
-Why does the mayor care about the symbol of office? Tradition? Does he know its power? Will the PCs care about getting it back? What is their reward? I would suggest making the mayor likable to encourage their willingness to help.
-How did Connors get seduced by the devil binder? He seems pretty staunchly against Cheliax if he threatened innocents to defeat their slavers. Was he tricked/enchanted? Why is he helping Cheliax now?
-How will they find out about the holy symbol under the robes of the cleric? Seems like that might be hard to pull off naturally.
-If you're worried about canon, then the fact that there's only one boat docked on the Sellen River (heavily traveled according to the Inner Sea World Guide) is puzzling especially during a mead festival. If you're not worried about canon (which is perfectly fine, and something I would encourage), then don't worry about it! :)
-What will happen if they chase after the devil binder and kill him/her? Don't assume he/she will live unless they have exceptional means of escape. Many campaigns can get cut short if a main villain is supposed to escape, but then dies prematurely!
I like the opportunities for roleplaying in this, but I see very few combat opportunities for a while. Is your group ok with this? If so, fine. If not, then try to rework stuff so there's more combat early on. A good fight in the beginning of an adventure can help to draw players in. Here are several options that could be cool if you want more combat:
1) On the way to the town, they encounter several (say, 3?) Chelish soldiers attacking a lone Andoran soldier on patrol, maybe trying to rip his tabard off and saying not to damage it. This would serve as a nice easy encounter that would foreshadow the Chelish soldiers trying to impersonate Andoran soldiers.
2) Maybe when Renne takes off, the fey start coming into town. It doesn't have to be overwhelming, just a few encounters. The townspeople could react to this strongly, emphasizing how rare this is and thus making the powers of the staff more impressive.
Hope this helps! It sounds like a promising start, and I hope that you and your group have fun with it.
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Thanks Daethor some good things to think about.
-For the Mayor it will be more a personal issue of him losing what has been in the town since its founding, he does not know of its power, but I suppose for the story he doesn't really need a strong desire to retrieve it.
-The PCs will be compensated for their time hopefully encouraging them (Also they will have to deal with retrieving the staff and opening the village up to possible fey attacks.
-They will be able to meet the Mayor during the mead festival where hopefully they will take place in several skill checks/festival games
-Connor's story will be one of the fallen hero he was driven to extremes to fight what he thought was his Ideals (freedom and liberty) and now sees Andoran as abandoning him by forcing him to retire and this is the ultimate F U to his former Country (He wasnt really the best person to begin with its mostly Andoran propaganda and a drive to win no matter what)
-He will be fighting for Cheliax to scorn Andoran but also because he believes the Devil Binding truly loves him, even though she is just using him, I'm thinking if I stat here she will be a High CHA summoner or sorc.
-The Holy symbol issue will most likely be as the Cleric is trying to subdue a townsfolk or in a fit of anger beats one of the local halflings, If they dont make the perception check I don't think it should cause much trouble
-For the Devil binder I might stat her for this reason, she will probably go invis and run, if they kill her I can replace her later on with another chelish representative.
-I am ok ignoring cannon a bit
-Our group is pretty strong at roleplaying but we all love a good combat. I plan on having them visit the the local bee hive run by a gnome (who has lost part of their head in an unfortunate crafting accident, which is why the artifact does not bother her)and having her attempts at selective bee husbandry result in a swarm attack for the group.
-Hopefully when the PCs find the soldiers forcibly coming onto the townsfolk one night they will have a dust up to try and stop that
-The next fight would be one I consider a big one where the PCs are trying to be brought into custody, if I know my players this wont happen. They will likely have a good fight against one of the conjurors and should be fairly tough, level 4 conjuror and 2 level 1 warriors(depending on party size.
-I do think that when she leaves town some of the woodsmen might start reporting issues with fey in the woods so this could definitely play a part if we are a little combat light.
Thanks for the ideas and helping think everything through.
Nice ideas! Some more thoughts:
Having a large contingent of bad guys is fairly dangerous for the PCs especially if they are not too sneaky.
Sometimes what works is something like this: Connor and his backer are wealthy relative to the folks in the town. Maybe he arrives with not so many men but buys off one of the Logger's Guilds (perhaps there are, say two in town; One that upstanding and one that's not so much). Maybe the local militia leader is displaced with one of the family members of the "bad" guild. Then you have the militia and one of the prominent guilds under sway of Connor - but perhaps they could be redeemed (not needing to fight *everyone*) with some roleplay and detective work. Additionally, they could recruit the "good" guild to help them.
The bad guild's logging warehouse could be the site of bad practices by the binder and the newly converted evil loggers. Could make for some interesting melee around water-driven saws and grinders.
The binder could sow fear throughout the town by conjuring in some infernal baddies - e.g. The "fey" are back and martial law need to be brought down to "save" the town. Of course, the PCs might be able to produce evidence that these are not fey (although it could be hard if you make the devils go "poof" when they die; e.g. They'd need to draw in the devil to fight somewhere witnesses could corroborate - and it would still be difficult as who knows a devil from a fey?);
Connor could pull the strings from the darkness, all the while befriending the PCs and giving them "advice" or leading them into traps (an ogre cave, ambush, what have you) - Be careful here, maybe he sets up others up to dispense the "information".
The climax could center around some sort of ritual once the town is under firm control - Maybe the artifact that wards the town is something to be used in this.
Good luck!
~D
A Dryad, a low level Kitsune, or maybe a Gnoll druid might be a good nature group leader. This would create a good third army to make things more interesting. Maybe the artifact was once used to keep humans from attacking the woods. They want the staff too.
The devil binder might come back as a devil, fast. Irony is good.
Thanks Daethor some good things to think about.
** spoiler omitted **...
No problem! Glad I could help. I'd like to write adventures someday, so it's good practice for me to look over other people's ideas and think about them. Let me know if you want feedback on any other ideas, and I will gladly provide it.
Seems like you've got your bases covered well. Sounds like a fun adventure :) Good luck!