Need help / ideas for Nualia at Foxglove Manor

[justaguide]

So my party is heading to Foxglove Manor. I have changed the premise that Aldern has been the killer because a player read ahead and knows that aldern is the skinshaw man. SO, seeing that Nualia escaped, AND she went to Magnimar, talked to Xanesha (sp), who sent her back to the Manor with a suped up Faceless stalker where Aldern was collecting the fungus. I had the Faceless stalker turn into one of the PC's (who Nualia had captured and was going to sacrifice but escaped) be the "skinshaw man" doing all the murders in town. Made for some great RP seeing the look on their faces that their friend was killing people (who couldn't make those sessions) when they cast a talking dead spell and a tracking spell.

My rational is that the stalker is carrying on the sihedran ritual with a knife covered in the ghoul fungus and that is spreading the disease, AND she is also collecting people to sacrifice to help complete her turning into a demon. My question is, how do I have her in the basement of the Manor? I was also going to try to have Foxglove not kill his wife and that he has been trapped down there just collecting the fungus. So that they can see he was good and just fell on hard times. BUT its getting hard to rewrite a few of the haunts... I was thinking about making Iesha another of Vorel's wifes or mistress or something... OR maybe Nualia killed her?
but it seems that if Aldern survives, its too easy for him to just tell the PC's everything they need to know... so maybe he might succumb to the fever at the last minute...

Also maybe have a goulish army in waiting that Nualia was going to use to attack sandpoint? I was going to remake the laboratory to a large room that had been redone into a Lamashtu shrine as well. should I make Nualia a half fiend now? or is that such a long process that it wouldn't have happened in a month? I wanted the pcs to battle the stalker looking like them (we are new to pathfinder and they don't know that stalkers even exist). I want Nualia to escape the battle at the end too... Really I am having a hard time making it into a story, and not just oh at the end Nualia is there...

Any suggestions about any of it would be appreciated!

[Eltargrim]

1) You kind of need Aldern to have killed Iesha, else the whole reason he went to the Brotherhood for help goes *poof*.

2) That said, having BOTH the Skinsaw Man and Nulia at the end fight at Foxglove Manor is a TPK waiting to happen, especially if you bump up Nulia's power. Decide which one is the BBEG (looks to me like Nulia), and de-power the other one accordingly. Changing Aldern to a regular Ghoul or Ghast isn't all that game-breaking (and explains why the Revenant would tear him apart, too).

3) The faceless stalker needs to be there too, so they can tie up that loose end. Though the Faceless Stalker escaping, and taking the appearance of Aldern would set up the townhouse scene in Magnimar better.

[Aeshuura]

I would have Nualia either in the Foxglove Estate in Magnimar... Perhaps have her a "guest" at the Foxglove's when they arrive to investigate...

[justaguide]

My premise is to change this part of the story pretty much to have the twist be that Nualia not Aldern is behind the murders (since a pc 'knows' that aldern is suppose to murder), but then have it weave back in for the next chapter...

I see you are right the reasons he went to the brothers. So how about all that happens (the murder and whatnot...) BUT instead of Alern turning into the Skinshaw man, he is enslaved by Nulia when she arrives with her faceless stalker to take over the fungus production, in order to raise a ghoul army to attack sandpoint. Also killing both area peasants and farmers for sacrifices for her eventual transformation, having the faceless stalker look like a pc for the murders in order to taunt them into coming out to foxglove and get killed as part of a revenge tactic (she's mad since they messed up her plan at thistletop). She also on occasion, fulfills the sihedron rituals on occasion for Xanesha.

Your right on the BBEG, but I was thinking it would be a buffed up Faceless stalker (basically use a fighter CR 7 or 8) and a bunch of ghouls (from the ghoul army) while, Nulia is transforming? Sacrificing people? I want her to escape, maybe scare them and then fly off... Maybe they catch her in a transformation? coming out of a giant pod (like aliens or something) with new wings and gue all over her... so she is weak at the moment, cast some sort of awesome spell (don't know what that would be) that is a cloud or gas or something and then flies away... This would happen after the BBEG is defeated or the ghoul army is almost dead or something...

At the end Aldern is changed up or something, they can talk to him, but before he tells them all the answers he succumbs to ghoul fever and attacks them forcing them to kill him... OR his wife comes down and does it for them... I dont know...

Earlier, I used Nualia at thistle top sacrificing people in the temple while her hell hounds attacked the party (a few ran away), first she summoned Malkeshar (timing it right after they killed the hell hounds), then she sacrificed another prisoner and transformed her other arm. By this time the party had just killed Malkeshar (but he killed Orik who was helping them) so she fled...

What do you think?

[ecw1701]

I like what you've done with all of this. My group killed Nualia, but I'm going to have her be resurrected by Lamashtu (and made mythic, no less) to keep griefing them in the future. ;)

To answer your question: I wouldn't change any of it at all, actually. The whole point is Aldern kind of gets swept up in events and goes crazy, so let that stand. The tragedy of the Foxglove family all still works, the murder works, everything. Him being an elite Ghast still works; the only thing you need to have changed is him not being the actual murderer and Nualia pulling the strings.

Since as others have pointed out, the players have to go to Magnimar to keep investigating Alern's ties to the Brotherhood, so you don't want to paint yourself into too much of a corner. Unless you want Nualia to have had a brownstone in downtown Magnimar no one knew about. ;)