My group has acquired the magic ring from the final large monster of Rivers Run Red. They want to cast Legend Lore on said ring.
This is an opportunity, I think, to foreshadow some of the latter books' characters that many GMs have noted (on podcasts and in the forums) seem tacked on.
The book provides:
I have provided this much on the ring, not much, really.
So, if you had your druthers, how would you handle legend lore on the ring?
My ideas:
Reveal the name of the creator? It is ultimately a meaningless word in and of itself, but I doubt that the PCs would then just let that name go. The owlbear sacked their city: I'd be ticked and want to find out more, thus distracting from Varnhold.
Go technical? Steer them towards the fey, provide enough to know that a powerful otherworldly creature created it to cause havoc upon the River Kingdoms, but no names, and then blow the ring up.
Go artsy? Give them images/emotions that they could try to decipher, but not reveal any words at all, and then blow the ring up.
Something else, something I'm missing, or a different approach, would be appreciated.
I haven't looked at your log as it popped up an adult warning and I'm at work. (If it's just language I'm fine with it, but nudity or gore [or descriptions of such] I'd prefer to avoid.) So just fair warning on that.
What I've done with my group is introduce the villainess by title only. They know their enemy is some "Queen of Forgotten Time", that she is a powerful fey spellcaster, and probably a Nymph (thanks to her manifesting her floating spectral head to the party a couple of times), advanced and likely with class levels. They don't know anything else about her. I've dropped the name Nyrissa once - as part of a story told to the party by The Puck, in an unrelated context - but they have not had any clues to connect the two. (Though, at a much later time, one player/character is starting to suspect that the two characters and their histories may be more connected than previously implied.)
So give them that. Tell them the ring was crafted by the Queen of Forgotten Time, Lady of Thousandbreaths, once-lover of Count Ranalc the Exile. That gives them a good chunk of information... that they can do nearly nothing with.
1. They would know Ranalc is theoretically on the Shadow Plane, but getting to him would be extremely difficult and risky, and there's nearly zero guarantee he'd do anything to aid them, especially if they were to make the mistake of revealing their intent to hunt Nyrissa down.
2. They would have no idea what Thousandbreaths is, or how to get there. Even if they manage to notice Thousand Voices on a map and travel there (which could cause issues with Drelev and Pitax well before the PCs are equipped to handle them) there's no guarantee the Castle of Knives and the House at the Edge of Time would be in sync when they arrive - and they'd have no idea how to get it so. That search would quickly come to a dead end.
3. The title isn't enough information on her to attempt scrying or anything other than research into old faerie lore. They might find the history of her title at best, but likely most mortal records would not connect QoFT=Nyrissa. If they mention her at all, it would likely be a fleeting footnote of her title in relation to Count Ranalc, and little more.
I haven't looked at your log as it popped up an adult warning and I'm at work. (If it's just language I'm fine with it, but nudity or gore [or descriptions of such] I'd prefer to avoid.) So just fair warning on that.
Ah! It's safe for work. It's a google site with the pre-constructed d20pfsrd template...which recommends adding that content warning to be safe rather than sorry. Perhaps I can remove that feature. Thanks [edit: done].
...that's...really good stuff, Orthos! Yes, a title will grant only that it's a female, that she's likely fey. It also leaves open 'motive,' which I could fill in over time while the PCs speculate wildly.
Thank you!