Running Shattered Star AP Next - A Few Questions

[MechE_]

Background: I'm currently DMing Curse of the Crimson Throne and we're about to finish up within a few weeks. In addition to this, I'm currently playing (with the same group, but another guy is DMing) Rise of the Rulelords and we're going to finish up within a few months. So please no Rise of the Runelords spoilers...

I know there are a lot of questions, so if you can answer only one or two, that would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance for the help guys.

Questions:

1)

Curse of the Crimson Throne Spoiler(ish) Within:

At the end of the CotCT adventure path, there is mention of Runelord Sorshen's chambers being hidden beneath Castle Korvosa. I'm thinking of continuing the AP beyond the Queen's demise and having the throngs of Sorshen's undead army break free into the city, thus requiring the party go get together X months after the queen's demise to delve deep beneath the castle to vanquish this final challenge... My question is this - is Sorshen a player in the Shattered Star adventure path? A quick search gave me that her name came up in a lot of conversations about book 4, but it did not see like she was actually present.

2) Can Runelords be killed? I would assume they are not completely immortal. (Please remember, no Rise of the Runelords spoilers, so general information only here...)

3) The Shattered Star AP assumes that the Rise of the Runelords and the Curse of the Crimson Throne APs have completed (this is the reason I've chosen this AP) - is there any links to this AP I should be aware of from Curse of the Crimson Throne, or any that I should inform my Runelords DM of...? (If you are going to use Runelords spoilers here, please include a spoiler tag and I'll direct my DM to this thread without reading it myself.) I don't want to mess up the Golarion world and would prefer to set it up properly for Shattered Star.

4) For the purposes of the Shattered Star AP, which events happened first - Rise of the Runelords, Curse of the Crimson Throne, or did they happen subsequently? Does the AP make any mention of these time lines, and if so, does it matter?

5) How many years after the end of Runelords or Curse of the Crimson Throne does the Shattered Star adventure path being?

6) Curse of the Crimson Throne is very urban and pretty linear. Rise of the Runelords is less urban but has also seemed fairly linear up to this point. Is Shattered Star more urban, or not? Is it fairly linear? I've read a few "short spoilers", and they were VERY light on the details. I would appreciate a 3 to 5 page or so summary of the adventure path and I did not (admittedly) search for this, so feel free to link to a good one, if it's out there.

7) I would like some personal opinions from DMs who've run the Shattered Star AP - Did you like it? Did you players like it? Was there any sections of the AP you would change up a bit if you did it again? If so, how?

[Balgin]

Regarding your questions....
1: Pretty big spoiler stuff ahead so be careful.

Spoiler:

There's a tie in to that in book 2 of Shattered Star. It's tucked away somewhere secret so your players might miss it but it's very informative.*

There are a number of Sorshen clones scattered about Varisia waiting for her to die so she can inhabit one of the new bodies. However none of them have activated meaning that she is not dead. One such clone can be discovered in The Lady's Light and (due to a malfunctioning ancient magical trap) it is actualy possible that the clone might identify one of your party members as Sorshen and recieve them if they perish within the dungeon, creating not only a frightening and confusing new identity for one of your characters but amusing ramifications further down the line and some rather severe reprocusions nearer to the final encounter.

*In a secret room there is a mural depicting Sorshen's tomb beneath castle Korvosa and her reclining upon a great coffin, altar or funeral bier with her mouth open to recieve the blood that trickles down through many channels in the stoneswork. The implication is that she has become a strong and powerful vampiress although this is not explicitly stated. This might have been a plan that she never followed through on and maybe she's still alive in Varisia somewhere after all these years.

2: Yes. In fact, over Golarion's History some of the runelords have been slain by others who then took their place. Some of them have been replaced many times. Sorshen is one of the only few original runelords who has not been replaced (and thus is recognizible and identifiable).

3: Shattered Star book 2: Curse of the Lady's Light is basicaly a really well written love letter to Crimson Throne. It's got lots of tie ins, plenty of information on the Grey Maidens and Rune Lady Sorshen. You'll also find a full write up on each of the 7 rune lords in book 6 of Shattered Star.

4: As far as I know they're considered to have occurred in the order that they were published. So Rise of the Runelords first, then Curse of the Crimson Throne, followed later on by Shattered Star.

5: About 6-7 years. Maybe 10-12. Essentialy the Adventure Paths are considered to take place in the year that they're published. So Shattered Star takes place in 4712/4713 (just add 2500 years to the real world date when they were published to get a rough idea of when they happen in the Golarion timeline).

6: Shattered Star: Book 1's urban & dungeon crawl. Book 2's rural & dungeon crawl. Books 3-5 are rural & dungeon crawl and book 6 is urban & dungeon crawl (coming back to when it's beginning). You'll find the fact that at least half of each book is a dungeon crawl to be more of a factor than whether the other portions are going to be rural or urban. It's a pretty heavy duty dungeon crawl AP. Find out where the next part is. Go there. Don the Dungeon Crawl. Find out where to go next.

The portions between the dungeon crawls are quite freeform and not that linear (at least not in the first couple of books). How linear your experience within the dungeons is will depend on how creative the Gm and players are.

7: I've just finished running book 1. I'm just beginning to run book 2. I'm running it in a very roleplay heavy style (even in the dungeons) but also running it as written. This helps break up the monotony that some of the dungeons could devlove into if the players and the gm don't take the effort to help keep things fresh.

Yes. There are a few details I'd tinker with. When the players found an artistic representation of all seven of the runelords I hadn't got hold of book six yet so I couldn't show them the portraits :(. Additionaly at one point there was a foe using poison. There were two poisons present at that location and I accidentaly had the creature use the wrong poison (when I went to look it up they were both on the same page and I used the wrong one).

[thenovalord]

Make good use of the fine cities the early mods are set in. Breaks up the crawling. Allow good amounts of downtime for crafting etc...even use Ultimate Campaign / Gamemastery Guide

[leo1925]

First of all the Shattered Star AP assumes that 3 APs happened, RotRL, CotCT and Second Darkness.

Now to answer your questions:
1) No Shorshen (or any other rulelord) doesn't make an appearance in shattered star but shorshen (and maybe others) get mentions and some of the story is about them.
2) In general yes runelords can be killed, if your question is specifically about the last/currect runelords... well i have to ask you if you have finished playing book 5 of the rise of the runelords in order to answer you spoiler free.
3) Not a very big deal, the most important thing is that the world (at least Varissa) has changed because of those 3 events.
4) For the purpose of this AP i don't think that it really matters.
5) From my understanding it's a few years after (~5), there is a chance that i am confused with my campaign where i had to change a few things for Shattered Star because my players lost rise of the runelords.
6) Balgin answered this question quite well so i am sticking with his answer.
7) The group i ran it for is about to finish book one (we put the game on hold because of exams) and what i have to say is that there are WAY too many enemies who can't do squat to the party, if this trend continues to the next books i am going to do 2 things, 1st i am going to start emptying rooms and 2nd i am going to start replacing some enemies with tougher ones.

[Balgin]

Additional information on question 2: Of the seven runelords only two are the originals. The remaining five have usurped their forebears and taken their power (often by treachery and slaughter).

Not going to mention which ones but if five can be slain then it's pretty safe to assume the other two original runelords can be as well.

[Olwen]

In answer to your question 7…

I'm currently playing Shattered Star with my group and we started book 4 last session. It's been a fun ride so far, although with a few tweeks (as needed for every campaign).

I ran books 1 and 2 as written but replaced book 3 entirely (by No Response from Deepmar and chapter 5 of the Age of Worms AP for 3.5). I also made it very clear to my PCs that they didn't need to explore every single room of a dungeon to proceed forward. We don't use XPs, so it's easy for me to compensate for that. That's helped a lot with the flow and the door/monster/treasure feel of dungeon crawls. The group's goal is to find the shards, not to kill everything in the dungeons. We also have a healthy amount of roleplay, even in the dungeons. They are well designed and have ample opportunities to talk to people instead of just slaughtering them.

Book 1:

Spoiler:

great fun. The starting investigation was a nice way to get into things. The dungeon was varied, even though a tad long. My PCs completely bypassed the Tower Girls by making a deal with them.

Book 2:

Spoiler:

the best so far. One of my players tripped that trap and got transferred in Sorshen's clone. That's been a wonderful source of roleplay. In the end, the PCs actually didn't manage to kill Ashamintalu. They grabbed the shard, had to flee, and barely escaped (with a dead companion). So although quite a few encounters are easy and the PCs can steamroll through them, there are still some pretty brutal fights if the PCs aren't prepared.

Book 3:

Spoiler:

I completely skipped it because I found it was too much of a patchwork mix of things that didn't belong together. It's quite in line with Kaer Maga, but not something our group likes. We very much prefer a strong theme for a chapter and the Asylum Stone gave me the impression of going left and right with very little space for roleplay (except in-between dungeons). I also thought it would be better to have more action take place in Magnimar since the PCs are supposed to feel for the city in book 6 but, in fact, they only really spend book 1 in Magnimar. Since my PCs don't really care for the city, I felt it was necessary to give more screen time to Magnimar.

Book 4:

Spoiler:

it's looking good. The group actually entered through the back door of the dungeon (E1). I love that these dungeons are designed to contain multiple entrances, some easier to find than others, some more dangerous than others. It makes for more prep work, but it's so much more dynamic. In addition, the players feel far less railroaded through level 1, then level 2, then level 3, then level 4… that is if they are not bored to death by then. Great design from the Paizo team. Things also got pretty brutal in this book. Encounters are steamrolled through, the PCs get a bit cocky, and then they have a brutal encounter that kills a PC (saved by breath of life at this level, of course).

I should also add that I had removed a small number of the encounters in each chapter when they seemed out of place, or too repetitive without bringing much to the story. I haven't removed much, but I believe it's helped with the flow. Fights can take half an hour to an hour, even against equal CR enemies, and that can get boring after a while if there hasn't been many interspersed roleplay opportunities.

If you're interested by more details on how things unfolded for our group, I keep a campaign journal. I'm a little behind at the moment, but catching up!

[MechE_]

Thanks for all the responses so far guys - greatly appreciated.

Now, for a fre new, more pointed question:

What assumptions does Shattered Star make about the leadership of Korvosa? The reason I ask is that my party is finishing the AP soon and I want to leave the city in the proper state for the pickup of Shattered Star. Are the heroes supposed to save the city, slay the evil queen, and then move te city towards good? What about the Grey Maidens - it seems they are a part of the AP - who's in charge of them? Sabina? Does Field Marshall Cressida Croft appear in Shattered Star or not? What about Neolandus Kaolopolus (sp?) and Vencarlo Orisini?

A quick summary of which Curse of the Crimson Throne NPCs make appearances and their roles would be great!

EDIT: Skimmed Olwen's campaign journal - good stuff there. So it seems to the Grey Maidens are mercenaries fighting to bring a strong queen to the throne of Korvosa to replace Ileosa who fell just 4 years ago. It also sounds like whoever can be in charge of Korvosa. A quick search also revealed no mention of Sabina Merrin, Field Marshall Cressida Croft, Neolandus Keolopolus (sp), nor Vencarlo Orisini. Are these NPCs absent from Shattered Star? If so, I assume I could work them back in a few places to provide some continuity. Please only answer this part if you've completed the AP as I would hate to bring them out in favor of the PCs in book 2 only to have them unexplicably turn on them in book 5, etc.

[Olwen]

The three other Varisian campaigns are left very much in the background, in Shattered Star. I can't think of a single NPC from RotR, CotCT, or SD that makes it in Shattered Star.

For my campaign, I've left the whole Korvosa aspect very vague since we haven't played CotCT, but it's on the list of APs we may play one day. I only mentioned that the queen had been toppled, and that the new rulership was struggling somewhat compared to the efficiency of Queen Ileosa's iron grip (think France after the French Revolution, or Egypt at the moment). It's not clear to me how many of the CotCT NPCs you could bring back, though, given that Shattered Star never goes to Korvosa.

[MechE_]

My partys likes the teleport spell, so I can't imagine they won't find their way to Korvosa eventually. It is good to know that it never comes to the foreground though, that leaves me free to end it however I feel fits the current campaign without fear of ruining any future campaign threads.

Thanks for the info!

[Balgin]

The only assumption it makes about the government of Korvosa is that queen Illeosa is not in control and it's illegal to be a grey maiden. I think that here on the forums the authors have suggested that Vencarlo Orsini or Sabinna Merrin is likely to be running the city by this point if your group hasn't played through the adventure path already.