| 6 people marked this as a favorite. |
So after reading all the different ideas and plans put out by so many of you that have been great.
Im starting this Path in the next month or so once we finish up The Dragons Demand.
So I want to pool the ideas that many of you have used or think will be good into one thread so I will start with some of mine.
Adivion Adrissant will be more present through out the AP starting as a helpful aid in the end being more like Leckner to the party being Agent Sterling.
Im going to add Carrion Hill between book 3 and 4 with the changes here on the boards.
As for the Individual Adventures:
Harrowstone
- Adivion will be present at the funeral and offer to buy the professors collection and offer for Kendra to come and join him if she would ever desire in Caliphas.
- It will be against the Law to go to the Harrowstone.
- Going to add things in the journal about Clovers Crossing and Way activity also there.
- Vrood will use Circle of Death and there will be evidence of this at the harrowstone.
- Im adding the encounter with the book spirit from Kendra. (here on the boards)
- I upped some of the challenges with in Harrowstone because I have five players that are good players.
- Adivion will leave a letter for the PCs in Ravengo.
On the way to Lepistad the PCs will go through Clovers Crossing, here im going to add both encounters with some Whispering Way Undead and Ghouls.
-The Whispering Way are here to mine and steal the onyx that created the sink hole and they are keeping the ghouls at bay once the party kills the Whispering Way Undead Agents the Ghouls will be free to come after the PCs.
More to come as I get to them
Sounds good so far! Seems like you are addressing some of the problems of module inter-connectivity from the start, which is one of the few flaws I've found with the AP as a whole.
I have been taking a lot of stuff from your posts please keep it up.
Glad to help!
Don't do "against the law to enter Harrowstone" unless you have some way for the PCs to get there -- otherwise law-abiding players like, oh, paladins or clerics of Abadar may have some difficulties.
|
While level wise Carrion hill fits, story-wise you have things to consider.
Otherwise I had a blast good luck.
Don't do "against the law to enter Harrowstone" unless you have some way for the PCs to get there -- otherwise law-abiding players like, oh, paladins or clerics of Abadar may have some difficulties.
The town is going to deputize them it investigate so they hang out in town and do research about everything instead of charging off strait to harrowstone like many party's already have
| 10 people marked this as a favorite. |
My players reacted really positively to Kendra so I kept her around. Most of the big changes I made started around Book 5 and continued into Book 6 so they may not be that helpful if you aren't planning on running the whole AP.
Introducing Adivion early is the best thing to do by all accounts.
- I replaced Vrood with Adivion entirely. He escaped from Feldgrau in Book 2 by blowing up the floor and dropping the PCs into the basement of the tower while he escaped. This did a good job of establishing him as the big bad early on, built some animosity, and made him more visible to the PCs.
- At the end of Book 1 Kendra decided to accompany the party to Leipdstat to attend the university there, mainly so that she could stick around in the adventure and get some more face-time with the PCs throughout Book 2.
- The Order of the Palatine Eye and the Knights of Ozem are both the remnants of the Shining Crusade, the research and militant arms respectively. I made 'em less scholarly and more like that secret anti-monster place under the Vatican in that flick Van Helsing.
- At the end of Book 2 Kendra takes her leave of the PCs as they depart Leibstat, they are tracking the whispering way to the the hunting lodge in Book 3 and she is traveling to Caliphas to continue her studies.
- Books 3 and 4 were pretty much as written.
- Kendra takes the place of Abraun Chalest in Book 5. Since she left the group she has become an initiate of the Palatine Eye to follow in her father's footsteps.
- Lucean Galdana and Edjurius Mott were basically merged into the same character, a powerful Count with ties to the monarchy and a powerful standing army. He's the head of the Order in Caliphas and he's dedicated to helping the PCs any way he can. He's helpful and friendly instead of an obstructive jerk.
- After they get Ramoska out of hock with the vampire king he tells the party that the Carrion Crown elixir is intended for only one recipient, the final living heir of the Whispering Tyrant. He also tells the party that he doesn't know who that is but his tomb can be found in St. Lymerin Abbey.
- When they boot the witches out of the abbey the party finds an inscription on the tomb listing the paladin-generals of the shining crusade and providing the following details: The only reason the Whispering Tyrant was defeated all those years ago was that one of his human generals, his son, turned to the side of good and betrayed him, opening the way for the Crusade to take Gallowspire. The name of the general is scratched at the bottom of the inscription: Antillos Lorrimor, Kendra's ancestor.
- When they get back to town they found out that Kendra has been kidnapped and whisked off to Renchurch. Galdana says that if the whispering tyrant is awoken it's curtains for the undead-free world. He'll gather his troops but that will take time, the party should make a beeline or Renchurch and try to rescue Kendra.
- They do, and the first half of book 6 happens.
- Then Galdana arrives at the head of a big ass army, the largest Ustalav has ever seen. The Whispering Tyrant's return is past the godzilla-threshold for the whole country so they pulled out all the stops, this is truly the second Shining Crusade. It's a good thing too, because Adivion chugged the CC Elixir right after he got word that the PCs sacked Renchurch and has been animating an equally big ass army of undead at Adorak.
- The Shining Crusade launches a full out assault on Adorak with the PCs at the head. The big scary dragon dude is wrecking the army's business and the PCs have to take him down. But even with the dragon gone the negative energy storm centered on Gallowspire is bolstering the undead army, the good guys can't hope to win.
- The PCs cut their way to the tower, fight their way to the top, find Adivion, kick his ass, and toss him off the edge. The storm abates, the good guys wrap up the undead army, everything is hunky dorey.
Yeah, I will probably steal all your book 5 and 6 stuff. My players just finished their first visit to the vampire lord, so we'll be in time to implement a lot of the necessary changes. Now I just need to actually remember to do it, heh.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
So another Add on to the entire campaign
We are using the crit and fumble deck
So the players really dont like the fumbles because it hurts more players then the GM
But one of our players had a great idea
The fumbles are literally the cursed lands of Ustalav and the Whispering Tyrant influencing what happens, so the higher level NPCs when they should fumble wont because the Tyrant but the PCs will and all the mooks will also
What do you guys think?
That's actually a great idea. I like it a lot. I might have to borrow it.
This is great stuff!
So the funeral went well the only NPC they really remember so far is Adivion cause he was pushy with Kendra about buying the professors Library
So the funeral went well the only NPC they really remember so far is Adivion cause he was pushy with Kendra about buying the professors Library
Glad to hear it went well. I'm curious how you handled the particular set of NPCs you had planned to have at the funeral, and
My first session is coming up on Sunday, so I am in my last throes of prep!
I never limit what my players can play
I ran a wake the evening of the funeral and the will reading wasn't till the next day and the judge had already left for lepistad
I ran a wake the evening of the funeral and the will reading wasn't till the next day and the judge had already left for lepistad
No not really I didn't give them the journal yet either they had to destroy the book spirit before they got the journal
No not really I didn't give them the journal yet either they had to destroy the book spirit before they got the journal
Good to hear.
|
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
I had Adivion (as simulacrum) appear at the funeral as well as a new NPC, an alchemist by the name of Dr. Jamison Kelly (Dr. Jekyll if the players realize later). Dr. Kelly came on behalf of Count Galdana who was unable to attend. A Sense Motive from the PCs revealed that Adivion was little disappointed at that information. Both are members of the Palatine Eye, and the PCs also picked up secret gestures between Kelly and Adivion.
Since this is a four-character group, I wanted to have NPCs around that the PCs could go to for help. This will include Kendra but also Dr. Kelly. I've also decided that Adivion is going to try to groom these PCs into allies. He will hear about their assistance with Harrowstone and investigation of Prof. Lorrimor's death, and he will send them each some special armor once they reach Lepidstadt as gifts. That armor will be the first step in his effort to turn the group into Graveknight body guards as well as keep an eye on them.
There's a pretty good chance they will get the book open on the Secret Order of the Palatine Eye, and I think this group will likely attribute the gifts to the Eye and not to something more nefarious.
|
|
Since this is a four-character group, I wanted to have NPCs around that the PCs could go to for help. This will include Kendra but also Dr. Kelly. I've also decided that Adivion is going to try to groom these PCs into allies. He will hear about their assistance with Harrowstone and investigation of Prof. Lorrimor's death, and he will send them each some special armor once they reach Lepidstadt as gifts. That armor will be the first step in his effort to turn the group into Graveknight body guards as well as keep an eye on them.
By the end of Phase 1, the armor was all crafted from parts of a crag linnorm (mentioned in Book 6 actually). Each was suitable for the character's class and +1 as well as some sort of wondrous item power built into it: bane baldric for the inquisitor, improved feint for the slayer, elemental metamagic rod for the magus, and soothsayer's raiment for the oracle. For Phase 2, each time they take negative energy damage (hit points, drain, or ability damage), the armor takes a step towards their transformation into a graveknight by gaining another ability, typically a weaker version of what graveknights can do.
1. Energy damage - Ruinous Revivification/Channel Destruction - energy type appropriate to the character, either energy damage they've recently taken or recently dealt, fire is the default.
2. Devastating Blast - 30 foot cone of energy damage, 2d6
3. Natural armor increases by 1
4. Summon skeletal horse as per graveknight
5. Desecrate aura
6. If the character dies after this point, it rises as a graveknight as per the armor ability of graveknights.
All but the oracle is currently at step #2. In our next session, they will be fighting a high level cleric of Shub-Niggurath, and I expect them to bump a couple more spots. However, when I had the armor trigger the Devastating Blast on a critical hit, the party learned that the armor is cursed via a high Detect Magic/Spellcraft and that Adivion Adrissant is perhaps not their friend.