Plot idea help


Kingmaker


Hello amazingly creative KM people!

I will be running a KM game here shortly and I have a PC that has given me some great back story. I really want to weave it in so that it is there for at least the first 4 books or so.

Some info:

Druid

Not from the brevoy area, but became a druid before entering the area.

Family and tribe attacked by evil creatures (he has orcs down, but that needs to be changed for this AP I'm thinking)

Mom and friends killed (allegedly). Most of the tribe tries to move on and heal, but PC and a few others can't get over it and let the vengence in their hearts lead them to seek retribution.

This is a major motivation for this PC to enter the stolen lands, seeking answers about the "bad Guys" who did this.

Since I don't want this PC side quest to be done in the first book or two, I am hoping for ideas to make it BIGGER.

Less obvious and less "oh look, I tracked and killed my evil nemesis in the first book. Now what".

Thanks for reading and any ideas are greatly appreciated.

Dave


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I have a similiar situation with a rogue good conjurer wizard from Cheliax. My suggestion is switch the orcs to evil fey, specifically spriggans. Book three features them prominently, and a showdown with Agai as the true murderer would be kind of awesome, especially if you gave him one of the PC's friend's old weapons. In books one and two you can sprinkle rumors about the massacre around. Maybe Tig-Titter-Tut or Tiressia offer condolences, not knowing where the offenders are, and the evil fey in the Forgotten Keep could taunt the druid, recognizing him as one of the survivors. And of course, as Agai lays dying, he spills tells the PC that the slaughter was handed down from a powerful fey named Nyrissa.

Scarab Sages

A lot of this is going to depend on what villians and background you decide to add to your Kingmaker game. There is a big space in the middle of book 2 to add quite a bit and also in between several of the middle AP books.

We might need some more info....how much are you involving outside kingdoms and politics. Where is the druid from? You could range from adding some flavor about a neighboring kingdom to having a potential mass combat enemy depending on the answers to this question.

Are they the investigative type where you could have a convoluted conspiracy for them to trace out bad guy by bad guy, or would it have to be a more obvious and straightforward line. In the latter case, you may have to make your druid players BBEG higher level, so he has to waitand aspire to kill this person vs having to figure out the villian first.

My suggestions for an enemy:

The obvious choice would be an agent of Nyrissa, but I would have to know more about what country your druid is from and how it tied into the Stolen Lands. You pretty much have to make it a neighboring country or she would not bother with them.

Another obvious choice would be the Staglord and his men, but you said you wanted it to run beyond book 1, which this choice would be unlikely to do.

Some barbarians from Armag's tribe, perhaps even including him (Book 4)
or the priestesses of Gyronna would be a decent long term choice.

Pitax wouldnt really make sense because then the PC would not bother with the Stolen Lands, instead going directly into the offending kingdom for retribution.

I suggest you make it a very wicked witch with Fey ties. You can leave the details fuzzy for now, other than letting the players know she was sighted in the Stolen Lands. This can be just one of her bases of operation, the others being in the Hooktongue, perhaps Brevoy, or anywhere else you like. Who she ultimately works for is up to you and you don't even really need to decide that until later on if you like. This way you can help lead the PCs to whatever area you like based on witch sightings, and let the druid find more clues as he plunders each of her secret hideouts.

As you add more material to your campaign, you may find a perfect tie-in for your witch somewhere along the way. I use this story device fairly often with my players, letting them progress other threads before connecting the dots.

Dark Archive

Just tossing out some other ideas if you wanted to use Pitax from Book 5 as the BBEG...

spoiler:
You could change his hated enemy to trolls.
Maybe Irovetti sent out some of his trolls that ran afoul of your druid's people by accident (and they got hungry).
Or the tribe was on a resource that Irovetti wanted?
Or if they're quite a distance from Pitax, maybe they were in the way of a trade route he was trying to establish to somewhere else?
Or maybe it was just a case of mistaken identity. The trolls were sent to kill ANOTHER tribe that had committed some (real or imagined) slight in the Pitax court. Irovetti's not the most stable of guys, after all...
OR you could stick with orcs and give Pitax a force of orcs. They already have an elite cadre of trolls, not a stretch to imagine they would hire orc mercenaries.
Although if you use trolls, you could also tie it in with Hargulka. Maybe he was one of the raiders that attacked the tribe (but not behind the actual attack. Probably save that for Irovetti...)

Just brainstorming some ideas.


I like the spriggans idea -- they pop up later on, and can be advanced pretty easily to be added in throughout if you want (in the 5th/6th books). They are also the perfect minions of Narissa to be used as needed.

Something a number of folks do is add in "Realm of the Felnight Queen" (module) in the middle of book 2 for additional fun. It can easily be dropped into your kingdom with minimal effort and is a fantastic first world tie in.

spoiler:
Many weave it so that Rhoswyn, the BBEG at the end of Felnight Queen is an ally or sister to Narissa, tying them closer and giving the players more of a link into the true BBEG (Narissa) earlier on. You could have it so that the druid's enemy were Spriggans allied with Rhoswyn, thus pulling the thread at least into the second book of the AP. Perhaps Rhoswyn has some oracle abilities and advised Narissa to send a team after this druid as she saw the druid helping to destroy Narissa? Rhoswyn's tie with Narissa then could jump you all the way to the end of the AP if you weave it well.

All in all you're asking the right questions and working the right angles. Orcs are quite rare in the Stolen lands (that's not to say you couldn't insert some) but fey are more in line with the aim of the AP.


Spriggans do show up a couple times, so they'd be a good enemy for your druid PC. Best of all, you can name the enemy Z. Deutsch ... and the druid can have his eventual showdown with Spriggan Z. Deutsch.

=========

In seriousness, I think that for Kingmaker, you'd want to change the orcs in his background to fae. To give his plotline some extra oomph, I would think that he should confront the fae mastermind around book 4 or 5 to make it a story beat rather than the ultimate conclusion of his story. You could also consider making the killers undead cyclopes. That would set him up to face off against Vordekai in book 3. That might make a good story beat; after that, perhaps his story arc can turn to healing rather than vengeance.

Speaking of "story," are you using story feats?

If so, consider letting him take the Vengance or Nemesis story feats.


This is why this forum rocks!

I ask a question and in just two hours I get some great ideas.

I certainly would have put more info down for you to digest, but this is the crux of what we have right now concerning his back story.

I'm loving the fey witch idea. I like intertwining character side plots into the main plot, but keeping them distinct also. Spriggans I had not even thought of, so thank you for that one.

I keep hearing about Felnight Queen. Seems I should pick that up and take a good look see.

I did get the Carnival of tears based on comments from this board, likely a traveling carnival that visits during book 2 or so. I don't want this tied directly to Narissa, but maybe as a side effect? Or maybe completely unrelated???

Would adding Carnival and Realm of the Felnight Queen both to book 2 be a bit much though? I'm not concerened about XP as I'm just leveling them at certain points in the books, but I don't want to "Fey them out" too soon.. If that makes sense.

I don't want to replace the Rushlight Tourney with Carnival as others have posted either.

Anyways, Thank you everybody for your great ideas. I will put them to good use!

Dave


I've got the Carnival as well, can't wait to run it - should fit in well with the harvest festival that is fast approaching! I would caution against running the carnival inside the Felnight Queen, as they feel like very different stories with some common thread (nasty fey). My plan is to give them Carnival soon, then wait a year or two (giving them time to do other things (explore, invesitgate, negotiate) and some kingdom building, then wrap in Fellnight towards the end of Book 2.


pennywit wrote:

Spriggans do show up a couple times, so they'd be a good enemy for your druid PC. Best of all, you can name the enemy Z. Deutsch ... and the druid can have his eventual showdown with Spriggan Z. Deutsch.

=========

In seriousness, I think that for Kingmaker, you'd want to change the orcs in his background to fae. To give his plotline some extra oomph, I would think that he should confront the fae mastermind around book 4 or 5 to make it a story beat rather than the ultimate conclusion of his story. You could also consider making the killers undead cyclopes. That would set him up to face off against Vordekai in book 3. That might make a good story beat; after that, perhaps his story arc can turn to healing rather than vengeance.

Speaking of "story," are you using story feats?

If so, consider letting him take the Vengance or Nemesis story feats.

I missed this the first time, but I love the story feat tie ins. I even have UCAM... Doah!

I agree with completing the personal side plot before the Big Bad at the end.

Now that I just picked of Realm of the fellnight, I'm liking the spriggans as the race of nemisis here. Fellnight Spriggans...Fun!


Dave Rinehart wrote:


I missed this the first time, but I love the story feat tie ins. I even have UCAM... Doah!

I agree with completing the personal side plot before the Big Bad at the end.

Now that I just picked of Realm of the fellnight, I'm liking the spriggans as the race of nemisis here. Fellnight Spriggans...Fun!

I dare you to name one Z. Deutsch.


pennywit wrote:
Dave Rinehart wrote:


I missed this the first time, but I love the story feat tie ins. I even have UCAM... Doah!

I agree with completing the personal side plot before the Big Bad at the end.

Now that I just picked of Realm of the fellnight, I'm liking the spriggans as the race of nemisis here. Fellnight Spriggans...Fun!

I dare you to name one Z. Deutsch.

You know, I just might. Just for whiggles and giggles.

"I'm Sprig Ann and this is my brother ZeDoiche"

I could say that 10 times and my players are likely not to even notice...


X frikking D!!!

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