Replacement for Harrowstone?

[Wyrd_Wik]

Hi all, an odd request but I thought I'd put it out on the boards. Putting a group together and we've more or less agreed on Carrion Crown. However, I ran the first book before and one of the players has also Gmed that adventure. I quite like Harrowstone and might just run it again (the player has no problems doing that either and I would change things up enough to keep him on his toes) but I would be curious to hear any suggestions for adventures I could use to replace Harrowstone? Even a PFS scenario(s). The only thing is I still want to incorporate Lorrimor and the funeral as the hook to tie the group together. Any thoughts?

That or suggestions as to how to put Lorrimor into Trial of the Beast?

[tonyz]

Incorporate Rise of the Runelords part 1, just have the Whispering Way working with Nualia.

[MartinB]

The main links from Haunting of Harrowstone into the rest of the Carrion Crown AP are:

Spoiler:

• Introduction of the whispering way - it's easy for inattentive players to miss their full activities at Harrowstone (what were they doing there? Why did the haunts suddenly start affecting the surrounding area?) and Auren Vrood's role in killing the Professor. This should set the PCs to having a desire to get their revenge on Vrood and chase the Whispering Way.
  
• Background on how spooky and undead haunted Ustalav is.
  
• A push to get the PCs to Lepidstadt for part 2 and an introduction to Judge Embreth Daramid who asks them to investigate the beast's guilt/innocence.
  

I think those are the main links to the rest of the campaign. There are plenty of suggestions in the boards about how to make part 1 link more into the rest of the AP.

So, you can go with just about anything else that gives the PCs a reason to get to Lepidstadt when they're level 4 and have a reason to hunt out the WW.

RotRL 1 as tonyz suggests might work, Nualia working with the WW is a good idea. You may have to change goblins out for undead - not sure how many goblin tribes there are in Ustalav (if you decide to base part 1 there), but a WW necromancer sending undead around the area could work. This may also tie into something with the rumours of ghouls in Clover's Crossing NE of Ravengro. The WW could raid Sandpoint to get something that they need to create the Carrion Crown - attacking the graveyard while the PCs are at the Professor's funeral? Or, perhaps they were responsible for the original burning down of the cathedral and killing the professor when he tried to investigate?

Vrood might have moved on to Lepidstadt, but left a WW Necromancer behind to keep undead roaming the countryside and populate Thistletop (or wherever you place the final dungeon crawl) with undead instead of goblins.

One thing to keep in mind with RotRL is that it is designed for the fast XP track whereas Carrion Crown uses medium, so you would have to find ways to fill out for more XP to get the PCs up to 4th for Trial of the Beast.

But, really you could do virtually anything as long as the links into the next section and the campaign as a whole are there. There is plenty of scope to run a few adventures in Canterwall, Western Lozeri and/or Vieland covering off links from part 1 into part 2 and setting the general background for spooky Ustalav - there are a few ideas in Rule of Fear that could be expanded on. You could still run the funeral anywhere in this area and have some hooks in the Professor's will to get the party adventuring a bit before heading to Lepidstadt - coming up with a investigative murder mystery for the PCs to find out how the Prof died and who was responsible could be a good initial push for the players.

There are a couple of PFS scenarios that I know of that are set in Ustalav: #47: The Darkest Vengeance (levels 1-5 set in Karcau) and #3-16: The Midnight Mauler (levels 3-7 set in the old capital Ardis) these might give you some ideas.

[Victor Zajic]

Haunting of Harrowstone is one of my favorite pathfinder adventures. Just run it again if you trust the players who have encountered it before not to be jerks about it.

[Pirate Robot Ninja]

There's a decent number of suggestions throughout these boards for ways to change up Harrowstone. Vesorianna as the main BBEG in the prison, for instance. That might throw your players for a loop. Or coming up with new and interesting ways for the 5 prisoners to haunt your players while in town. You could also re-design the prison layout to throw your player off.