An...eventful first session of Carrion Crown [Spoilers]

[Pirate Robot Ninja]

This is largely a venting post, as I haven't DM'ed in a while and am not yet inured to the frustrations of the party demolishing my carefully lain plans. There are also some...interesting corners they've backed me into that I would love the community's help with.

The Players:
Reginald Howbatten - human bard(archivist) - A haughty and condescending intellectual, who also works at the University of Lepistat and viewed the Professor as his principle rival (though this feeling was not mutual)

Brother Attaway - human cleric of pharasma - A travelling priest, who makes a living scribing and healing for locals at the many towns on his long circuit. As a priest of Pharasma he is also heavily invested in the battle against the Undead, and indeed picks his route to investigate recent uprisings of undead or rumours of necromancy. He and the Professor were allies in this endeavour, and Brother Attaway is deeply saddened by his friend's sudden passing.

Urzog - orcish ranger, favoured enemy undead - Urzog is a bounty hunter, though with a particular loathing for the undead. He once saved the professor's life, and the professor helped him out in return. Though he was never close with the Professor, he felt it his duty to see the man put to rest.

Golthoa - an orcish barbarian, played by the girlfriend of Urzog's player for just this session.

Sir Artius Aerulian - human paladin of iomedae (Undead Scourge) - Born to a family of minor nobility, he was still very young when an uprising of undead slew his entire family. Professor Lorimer was among those who responded to the threat, and after interviewing the child about his experiences made sure to see him put into the guardianship of a local Temple of Iomedae, where he grew up to be a holy warrior sworn to hunting the undead.

Elijah Tibbs - tiefling inquisitor of Iomedae - driven from society by the upsurge of his demon blood at puberty, the tiefling took to a life of vigilanteism in the name of his Goddess, battling against the evil forces that resulted in his accursed form.

The Game

Okay so seriously, *****SPOILERS*******. If you're in my group (and I know you're here reading this), then go no further. Seriously. Stop right now.

For everybody else....

I started the game with a bit of exposition, describing as Brother Attaway made his way down the familiar roads of Ravegro towards the home of his old friend. Kendra met him at the door and they exchanged pleasantries. The rest of the PCs had already arrived and gone to sleep, and Kendra found him dry clothes before showing him to a room.

In the morning he awoke to the sounds of conversation and clattering dishes. He came downstairs to find Kendra in the midst of serving a breakfast of eggs and ham to a motley collection of characters. Everybody introduced themselves then. The Archivist makes some snide remarks about the "uncivilized folks" in their midst, and already sparks are starting to fly. At this point I'm just glad I convinced the cleric not to go Undead Lord.

The other mourners arrive, and I let the players know that a number of them would be expected to serve as pallbearers. Four volunteer, including the two orcs. The procession makes its way to the Restlands, and Gibs and his compatriots confront the party as to be expected.

As the dialogue plays out, the bard attempts to dissuade them with (condescending) reason. To back it up he rolls a one on diplomacy. Gibs is having none of it. "Get 'em, boys!" Initiative is rolled and the Archivist goes first, backing him and his STR 8 CON 10 ass right back up. Kendra stands her ground, while the two orcs abandon their positions as Pallbearers to advance on the thugs with weapons drawn.

Now a spindly cleric and Paladin shouldn't be able to hold the casket (obviously), and I'm about to have them drop it as per the rules. But...the orc barbarian is looking like she's wanting to smash some s!@%, and I'm getting the distinct feeling that some peasants are about to die, so with a couple surprisingly high strength the checks I allow the Paladin and Cleric to set it gently (though unceremoniously to the ground).

Good thing, too, because the orcs and tiefling immediately resort to deadly force. Acid melts the face off one of the thugs (down to -2). The ranger trips two, but the barbarian boots one of them in the face...twice (down to -7). Seeing their buddies so easily dispatched the rest of the thugs book it.

The thugs dispatched, the party then turns to the matter at hand. For some of the party members decide to administer to the injured thugs (thankfully sparing them from death and thus -12 trust points right off the bat). For the rest...

...well for the rest it's the allegations of necromancy. They decide to check out Lorimer's corpse. At his funeral. Best of all the barbarian, hammer in hand, decides to just sunder the damned thing open. However she swings poorly and it glances off the thick wooden exterior, merely managing to marr the beautifully lacquered wood (rolled a 1 to hit). The Archivist reminds her that she can actually just OPEN the thing. Which they do, discovering the professor's smashed head.

Kendra shouts at them for a while, then storms off. The Inquisitor chases after her to try and make amends, while the Paladin goes back to the house to get the weapons he left behind "because these people are crazy." He arrives back just in time for quite likely the most awkward funeral in history.

The encounter earns the PCs 500 xp and -3 trust points.

This follows with a reading of the will. Following, Kendra uses the key left with the will to open her father's strongbox. The PCs find inside the journal and the books. They use a few history checks on the locked book to discern its purpose, but fail to roll well enough and don't even bother trying to open it. However the journal piques their interest, though each for wildly different reasons.

After reading the journal, the orcs leave convinced that Gibs is a member of the Whispering Way and decide to stalk to his house, joined by the inquisitor. The Archivist decides to go to the Unfurling Scroll and see what he can find. The Paladin and Priest go to the temple of Pharasma, the Paladin now convinced that Lorimer was murdered by a conspiracy of the townsfolk. Poor diplomacy checks and hostile RPing starts conflicts at BOTH the locations. The orcs, meanwhile, follow Gibs as he leaves his home while the inquisitor ransacks his house (finding next to nothing).

The orcs follow Gibs as he stumbles down the road towards the Laughing Demon. As they arrive they notice a very large bouncer standing at the door (Zokar's brother). Rather than experience a "we don't serve droids here" moment he sneaks around the side, finding a window he can overhear Gibs' conversation through. The barbarian, however, decides to make a run at the front door instead.

However, as she approaches the bouncer, who is leaning against the doorframe, puts his foot against the other side of the door to block the way.

"If yer lookin' fer food, you can head 'round back. They'll feed ya from the kitchens."

"I'm...meeting a friend here. He told me to meet him."

"That may be, but you can still head 'round back."

"I'm just meeting him for a beer. I have gold. Don't you want my gold."

"This here's a private establishment. We can take money from who'ever we want, an' your money's no good here. I'll say it one more time: you want food, you can get it 'round back."

"But...my friend is meeting me. My friend Gibs."

"Oh yeah? HEY GIBS, COM'ERE." He waits as Gibs stands up and weaves over towards the door. The ranger, sensing trouble, peeks his head up to look through the window.

"You know this banner-topper?"

"Her?! She's onna them outsiders whos attacked us in the Restlands!"

"Is that so? See, you're not welcome here. Best be on yer way then, Orc"

The barbarian won't be dissuaded so easily, though.

"I...just...want...a...beer." She draws her warhammer. Both Gibs and the bouncer change their tune somewhat at the prospect of standing in the way of a 19 STR orcish barbarian, and back off. As she enters the inn the rest of the tavern stands up to glare. The room is silent as a tomb, all eyes on her as she strides across to Gib's table and sits down (waving at the other orc as she sees him in the window. He grimaces and ducks down out of sight).

"Barkeep! Get Gibs here a beer!"

Zokar senses trouble is brewing, but unsure what else to do taps the keg. It seems to take forever for him to pour. He then carries it around to Gibs, and sets it in front of him. Gibs takes one look at the beer, another at the one buying it...and moves to push it off the table. The Orc gets ready to draw her warhammer.

Luckily, before any more innocent peasants are close to losing their lives, the Archivist finishes up at the Unfurling Scroll and starts looking for a drink. He (thankfully!) manages to pick the right establishment and enters just as the room is about to explode. He actually makes a diplomacy check for once, and manages to both diffuse the situation and begin an evening of plying Gibs with liquor to pump him for information.

The rest of the party retreats and meets up. They all decide that the only possible course of action is to go explore Harrowstone. At night. At level 1. Oh joy. Some steel locks on the gates keep them from entering easily, though, and after Benjen Caeller come spook them investigating the strange lights and noises of them banging on the gates then scaling the walls with torches, they decide to come back in the day.

Meanwhile the Archivist spends the entire evening plying Gibs with liquor until he is literally at the point of passing out. A miraculous 20 on a strength check is enough to lift the passed-out drunk through the door and drag him back to his house, where he proceeds to wait until he wakes up to interrogate him about the Whispering Way. A finally semi-conscious Gibs has no idea what he's talking about, and a 25 on sense motive is finally enough to clear Gibs' name of Whispering Way involvement.

The party sleeps then spends the next day studying the books in Professor Lorimer's strongbox, breaking open the locked book but being unable to decipher its meaning.

Post-Thoughts

Holy crap, that didn't go as I expected! From cracking open the Professor's casket AT HIS FUNERAL, to picking fights with (albeit super racist) villagers, to trying to break into Harrowstone the very first night, the party did all sorts of stuff I wasn't super prepared for. I think I did an adequate job of containing the potential fallout, but still...

My biggest difficulty is going to be, I think, finding ways to help the party gain back the town's trust. With their antics and natural trust mechanics they've fallen quickly to 16 and are sinking fast. I think if the village gets too much more unfriendly towars them some heads are going to roll.

My second problem is that there was no room for a nighttime desecration the first night, what with Gibs being babysat all evening. However, I think that with his name cleared I'm well set for the following evening. Not to mention that the orc barbarian, whose player will not be returning, is very well placed to become...art supplies.

My third problem is that the party is VERY likely to attempt another exploration of Harrowstone. If not tomorrow, then the day after. My thoughts are to deactivate the more dangerous haunts on their first attempt at exploration, and have a few areas be blocked off only to "mysteriously" open in later visits. What do you guys think of that?

Luckily for me several of the party members strongly feel that the cache should be the next stop. I think start up next session with them making an attempt on the cache, only to return to find their orcish friend decorating the town monument. Hopefully that will be enough to distract them away from Harrowstone for the time being, though it might cause irreparable rifts with the town. I feel that playing the town sherriff as suitably sympathetic afterwards, and determined to bring the killer to justice, may give them the ally they need to bring them around on the town.

Though they might just as soon start waterboarding random peasants, the way this is going.

Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?

[Juda de Kerioth]

i like what i read, maybe you need to take a look at this
http://paizo.com/products/btpy8tgb?The-Murmuring-Fountain
and this:
http://paizo.com/products/btpy8tgc?The-Fiddlers-Lament

those are kind of expansions for HoH that my party realy enjoy

[Keep Calm and Carrion]

I think gaining the town’s trust should be extremely difficult for your party at this point. Unless your players devote themselves to the task of reconciliation, perhaps you should instead roleplay the town being terrified of them.

This is a Pharasman town. Molesting a corpse is frowned upon in just about any culture--in this town, it’s an abomination. If they did it right in front of Grimburrow at the funeral, that impression isn’t likely to go away.

This is a Canterwall town. The Palantinate of Canterwall shares a border with the orcish nation of Belkzen, and has to patrol it aggressively to keep human towns and villages from being looted, burned and enslaved by orcish reavers. You’re absolutely correct in playing the village as super racist. You’ve got two full-blooded orcs in the party, making no effort to blend in or fade back in human lands. Of course that will cause trouble.

Actions have consequences. So long as Kendra speaks up for them, they’ll have a safe place to sleep, and it’s probably a good idea to roleplay her forgiving the breach of Lorrimor’s coffin in light of the murder. But perhaps the shopkeepers should close up, the sheriff should shadow them, the councilors avoid them, and the church and loan association should double their guards. You can prevent further incidental loss of trust by roleplaying everyone as so afraid of the PCs that they avoid them completely or are pants-wettingly polite. When they clear out Harrowstone, make it clear that the reward the council offers them is “please leave town before anything else happens” money.

Your party of six is quite capable of handling the first two floors of Harrowstone at level one. They would do better if they had the gear from the false tomb, sure. The ghost touch bolts and haunt siphons would be particularly helpful. But between a cleric of pharasma and two anti-undead full-BAB folks, one of them immune to fear, they’ll be fine. Heck, the archivist can countersong the piper if he thinks of it. Just make sure to give them plenty of info when they make their Knowledge Religion checks on the haunts.

But if you really want to throw them a lifeline, perhaps you should lay a second trail of crumbs to the false crypt. You could be as unsubtle as having Kendra say, “Look, I understand why you wanted to check my father’s body, but you handled it badly. If you want to make it up to me, check out that false crypt he mentioned in his journal...maybe that will explain some things.”

[Pan]

The only clue I gave my players at the beginning of the AP was research, research, research. I didn't pull any punches after that. My players know that though and have learned to run when they get in over their heads. Seemed to work well.

I know you are thinking of pulling a trick on em and making spots inaccessible until later but, I would advise against it. Maybe give them a pep talk about the place being no match without proper preparation. If they want to hang themselves still after giving them the rope at least you warned them.

spoiler:

I spiced up the tomb and hidden cache encounter by dropping the random vermin fight. Instead I had prepped up a bunch of beheaded. One for each PC. An acid spitter, a screamer, a flamer, and a hair tangler. Boy those are fun monsters to use find em in the bestiary.

[Raith Shadar]

I didn't even worry about the trust mechanic. The party did their thing as their trust fell. They didn't interact much with the town folk.

[carn]

"Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?"

"My third problem is that the party is VERY likely to attempt another exploration of Harrowstone."

Let them hear stories about people being killed up there, that is enough and fair warning.

"They all decide that the only possible course of action is to go explore Harrowstone. At night."

Let the archivist stumble across a nice fairy tale book, in which a group of heroes decides "Lets attack them at night, then they are the strongest and there is more glory for us." with half of them dead afterwars and roll a DC 0 dungeneering check for him and upon acess inform him, that according to his knowledge about strange and unnatural creatures, attacking when they are strongest is not the absolutely best plan in the world.

"At level 1."

If i remeber correctly, they cannot get to level 2 without going to harrowstone. Take care about the balconey, the scythe might be too dangerous for lev 1. Make sure they realize, that the probably cannot damage it easily and that it does not prusue them. The real danger is, if they manage to destroy the scythe and open the door behind it, then they are in serious trouble.

If they keep to the ground floor and the outside, they should be fine.

[Bloodaxe]

My solution is to let them die. If they refuse to role-play and do all the wrong things, they fail and die.

[magnuskn]

Actually, as far as the account goes, the party is doing their roleplaying quite well. The Orc Barbarian seems to be the only really disturbing factor and that character (and player ) is gone now.

Losing the trust of the town is a feasible thing that can happen. You can work against that (if you so like... it's not a requirement that the people in Ravengro keep being your allies. The important thing is that the PC's stay motivated to explore Harrowstone and then continue the main plot of the AP) by accelerating some of the events which should happen before the PC's explore Harrowstone, so that the PC's get the chance to build up some trust points again. This also helps with getting the PC's nearer to level two, which they actually shouldn't reach before entering Harrowstone, IIRC.

[Blackbot]

Just throwing this in:

The trust mechanic is poorly thought out. It has been repeatedly stated that if you want to use them you really should double every reward - that's the only way (without granting "off the book" boni) they will ever reach the upper trust levels.

"Blocking" certain ways in Harrowstone seems pretty railroady to me - as a player, I would be seriously disappointed by Devil May Cry-esque "You can only pass if you killed everything in this room"-doors. You could, however, tell them OOC that it is quite possible in your campaign to face things you should better run away from and keep the monsters closer to their original point - maybe they don't hunt them all the way off the property, but just out of their room or off their floor. They become stronger later on, but have to stay near their "home" at first.

Also, you might be able to reinstate the trust through paladin and cleric. Something very open maybe - have them slay some walking undead while being seen by a couple of well-known people.

How is the relationship between Grimburrow and the cleric of Pharasma? In my group, while he was a Half-Orc, nobody in town wanted to cross Grimburrow, so they begrudgingly respected him. If the group manages to win over certain key people, they might get back on their feet pretty soon.

The tiefling and the orcs, though...yeah, they will have difficulties. They confirmed every prejudice the townfolk had against them: Needlessly brutal, life isn't worth a damn towards them. When they meet the children, maybe one of them could shout something about "Get away from them, my daddy told me that green one almost killed him! I saw the scar!"
Or let her cry because he "Would never harm anybody" or something like that. Show them that violence against normally peaceful people can have consequences.

[Trinite]

Yes, it's the classic "Jerk Villagers of Ravengro" problem, common to many who run this adventure. :) It actually sounds to me like you've done a pretty great job so far! I'd love to play in that game!

Tips:
1. If you want to use the trust mechanic, you'll need to either double the rewards or come up with extra methods for them to increase trust. The math just doesn't work out as-written.

2. Even if the village in general is hostile, have a few specific NPCs be friendly, like Zokar or Benjen. That way the PCs will at least feel like they have *someone* worth helping.

3. How to keep them from going to Harrowstone too early: also a very common problem. Have Kendra or Benjen strongly suggest the importance of research. Point them to the hidden crypt. If they're all over Gibbs, just have some other villager become the blood-letter perpetrator (maybe Father Grimburrow? ;D).

Various other suggestions:

Check out the amazing ideas and advice that have been kicked around on the main GM Advice thread. There's tons of great advice there; it really improved my game when I ran it!

And finally, I always take the opportunity to promote this alternative version of the final battle, which I think is one of the best things I've ever read on the forums.

[Blackbot]

Just how I fixed those common problems:

1. Trust points:
While I used those very lightly anyways I completly threw them out the window once the party (led by the paladin) reorganized the whole village (after the burning city hall): They set up camp (and by "camp" I mean "relocated almost everybody in town") around the temple, organized paramilitary patrols to defend against the undead and pretty much just took over control when everybody was too shocked by what happened to object.
Seriously though, use them as a guideline at most.

2. "Jerk Villagers":
Pretty much how Trinite said it. Some of the villagers were really nice to them and most weren't jerks to all of them. Just towards every non-human. Plus, Old River. ;)

3. "Too early into Harrowstone":
I pretty much outright forbid them to enter Harrowstone (and by that I mean the characters were forbidden by the constable to go there) because of the legends surrounding the place, embracing the "Don't fix what's not broken"-philosophy. After all - there's nothing weird going on and who knows what these outsiders would stir up there? No, better keep them away from there...

Of course, there was nothing stopping them from breaking the chains at the gate and just enter, but that wouldn't have made things easier for them with the townfolk and since they were all in all not trying to piss them off too much (after all, they had to stay there another 29 days...) it worked to keep them off.
Plus it might just add fuel to the fire if you present them even more possibilities to get into fights with the dear villagers...

(Gah, it's getting late. I'm starting to rant and keep on telling from my own group. I'm just proud of these guys.)

Trinite: Can you link the post you mean directly, please? You have to klick on the timestamp to the left of "Flag|List|Reply" and use that link instead of the normal URL on top.

[Devastation Bob]

I vote "Jerk Villagers of Golarion" for the next sourcebook.

[Pirate Robot Ninja]

Wow, lot's of great feedback! Thanks everybody.

Rather than reply one-by-one I'm just going to try and group all my replies together by theme.

1) My general narrative direction. Once again, ****IF YOU'RE IN MY GROUP, DO NOT READ.****

Spoiler:

So the boyfriend of the orc player specifically requested that his girlfriend's character, since she will not be coming back, be "brutally murdered by the undead." I think this is to differentiate his character's backstory from that of the Paladin, who both previously had the "family murdered by the undead" backstory.

So what I've decided to do is this. Harrowstone has lain dormant, but due to the influence of the Whispering Way is slowly reawakening. I've already lain the groundwork for this when the Paladin detected evil while they were examining the site from the outskirts:

"You reach out with your mind and your faith, looking for traces of evil. You detect nothing...and yet...at the very edges of your senses, it is almost as if there is something flickering there. Like a shadow flitting at the very edges of your vision, that disappears as soon as you turn your head to see."

The Paladin's player is smart, and I think he picked up on pretty close to what that meant: there is something evil there, but it lies dormant...for now.

This is the first part of my plan to draw the players away from Harrowstone. By downplaying the evil there I've perhaps knocked down exploring the prison a priority peg or two. They're still pretty obsessed with investigating the Professor's murder, but have at least decided to explore the cache first, as they know it's not a pressing or imminent concern.

The second part of my part of my master plan will come the first night of next session, as the spirits of Harrowstone awaken and reach out for the first time. Many are still too weak to cause direct effect, but I think at least one player will hear eerie fiddle music drifting through the night (I've re-skinned the Piper as the Fiddler, to make use of some creepy violin music I found online). Another player will be awoken by strange dreams, and come down the stairs to find Kendra shuffling items oddly around the house. If interrupted, she'll look at them confused before asking.

"I...I was wondering...how do you spell your name?"

They'll also notice that the orc barbarianess' sleeping cot is empty, with the ranger snoring peacefully on the cot beside. A foreshadow for what is to come, as a loud rapping breaks the PC and Kendra out of their haze.

Whomever opens the door will find Sheriff Benjen standing there.

"I... Y'all...y'all should come with me. It's...I'm so sorry."

The party will stir from bed and follow after the Sherriff, who will talk awkwardly but circularly, not really sure how best to describe what has happened. Unfortunately for them they'll see soon enough. It's the barbarianess, of course. Butchered and violated by TSM and his unwilling accomplice (who was hopefully "cleared" of wrongdoing by the Archivist last session). Her broken body is impaled on the statue's bronze spear. Beneath, written in her blood, is emblazoned the letter 'E'.

Sheriff Benjen will explain to the party that this is not the first time such a thing has happened. A blood-written 'V' appeared only a couple days after the Professor's body was found. This gave credence to what many townsfolk had suspected all along - that the professor was a necromancer or witch, engrossed in the study of the dark arts. Benjen's deputies found a goat slaughtered a half mile or so away and suspected it was some cruel trickster, but the rumour was already out and the poor Sheriff had little power to stop it.

Hopefully that will be enough to occupy the players, and draw them away from Harrowstone...at least for the time being. I'll give them a day or so to investigate (the rain will pick up shortly after the body is found, and the tracks will lead nowhere this time) before I start throwing the optional events at them, hopefully twigging them on the need to investigate the five prisoners. I'll try to introduce the town dog Old River as well, likely in a sympathy-inducing moment with Gibs-the-animal-lover. I can see the two old mongrels having some common ground on which to bond, right? Just because TSM isn't a fan of animals doesn't mean that Gibs isn't...

2) The "Jerks of Ravengro"

So yeah, I definitely see how people have problems here. I probably went a little overboard on the "jerk" aspect, seeing as how the party did so poorly with their first impressions. Even the cleric was around for the casket opening, so I figured he didn't make a very good impression on the Priest (with whom he already had some interaction).

Zokar I did play as friendly to the PCs, even if his brother wasn't. I was going to play the Alchemist as friendly too, but...you know...opening the coffin and all that. Not quite sure what to do there.

I think I'll go through the NPC list and find some other people with reason to be friendly.

3) "Early Entry to Harrowstone."

Spoiler:

Originally I'd thrown some heavy steel chains over the gate (to replace those the Professor had broken with acid, like he had with the locks to the cache). However my PCs just climbed the wall when they failed to break them, so hopefully my gambit pays off, and the PCs are too preoccupied in town to venture into the prison again.

However, in case they do this was my plan:

Rather than "railroad" the PCs with artificial entry points, my plan was to have Harrowstone be much older and more decrepit than is explained in the AP. There will be more collapse, fewer open rooms, and more apparent decay. However, as the power of the haunting begins to awaken the prison will slowly return to its original state, to evidence the growing power of the prison.

By "slowly" I mean over the course of a visit or two, depending on how often they choose to venture in there. I don't want to pull my punches too much, but I also want very much to set up TSM as the BBEG of this module, and that is undermined if they encounter and defeat him too early.

My plan was for the first entry to be largely devoid of any blatant haunting. However, if they delve far enough in they'll awaken, and I'll activate all the haunts for their trip back out.

4) Trust

So I haven't actually told my players about the trust mechanic, per se. I've described how the villagers are slow to trust them, and described how what they did was...bad. But they don't know the numbers, nor that there are any.

I'm not above giving them trust rewards for all sorts of things, and indeed rewarded the Archivist with one for successfully disarming the confrontation with the barbarian. Hopefully some of the "optional events" will help out here.

I'm also considering throwing in a festival in the next couple of days, or at least having Kendra drop hints that one is coming up and that the PCs would do well to pitch in and earn the villagers' trust that way. My party has plenty of strong bodies who are getting themselves into trouble whilst they wait for the intellectual-types to sort things out for them. Might be a good way to keep them occupied? :P

5) Roleplaying

Just to be clear, I am absolutely pleased with my players' roleplaying, and have zero complaints in that department. Even the new players have been jumping in and exploring their characters, and I'm super proud of all of them.

It's just that the way they're roleplaying their characters is entirely not what I expected, and has shot my carefully lain plans all to s*+$. If I could only herd them back in the right direction everything would be golden.

Anyways, thanks for all the help, folks! I have another week and a half to get ready for my next game, so I'm determined to be better prepared for next time. I know now what I need better notes on (the NPCs and locations), and what I need to prepare ahead of time (a bit of exposition here and there, and some dialogue). The highlights were definitely the parts where I had prepared the most, so I'm going to try and slot more of that in.

Cheers!

[Trinite]

Blackbot wrote:

Trinite: Can you link the post you mean directly, please? You have to klick on the timestamp to the left of "Flag|List|Reply" and use that link instead of the normal URL on top.

Oh, sorry! I messed up that second link entirely. Here it is: http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2p06z?Question-about-The-Splatterman-Spoilers#1 4

In a nutshell:

Spoiler:

Plot twist! Vessoriana is the final boss instead of the Splatter Man, and she's accompanied by a "super haunt" consisting of special effects from each of the five main prisoners.

EDIT: the rest of that same thread also has some good advice on things you might do if the PCs kill the Splatter Man first (the third common pitfall of this adventure).