When should the players find out about Karzoug?


Rise of the Runelords

Liberty's Edge

A little but if the adventure feels like moving goalposts. Xanesha is the villain. Then Lucrecua. Then Barl. Then Mokmourian.
When should the players find out their true adversary? When should they get a better idea of the plot and goings on?


When he speaks through Mokmourian.

Oh, with a high enough roll for Knowledge History they might realize he was the lord of Xin-Shalast, but you honestly don't know who the ultimate enemy is 'til fighting the Big M himself.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

It's not moving the goalposts, it's realizing that the fish you caught isn't the big fish. It's like the early Bond films - MI6 is originally just trying to find out why they lost communication with one of their operatives, and send Bond to look into it. He finds out that Dr. No is up to no good, but he tells Bond that he works for a previously unknown organization called SPECTRE. From there, Bond ends up working his way through more and more important minions of SPECTRE's organization until he finds out the Ernst Stavro Blofeld is the man pulling the strings.

This is sort of the same thing. Each Big Bad is taking orders from a Bigger Bad, and it's not until they fight M that they find out that Special K is behind damn near everything that's been going on.


I run this AP on the Dragonlance a Forums, and on The Tangled Web in PbP format. Keeping in mind that format is very narrative, I use Star Wars-style wipes to hint at, or introduce villains early on. It doesn't really work at the table, doing it that way, but I'm primarily an online GM. That's my medium. My players knew about Karzoug in my Prologue.


The PCs actually get a very early peek at Karzoug as a looping, programmed illusion at Thistletop. Canny players might connect this ghostly figure with the recurring image of the sihedron star, so that even if they don't know who he is, they'll at least have "encountered" him before the face-to-face after Jorgenfist.


Mine found out in book 3, there was a detour to Kaer Maga, where I ran part of The Asylum Stone, from the shattered Star AP. That deals with Kazog, their character don't know what he looks like however. My player do though, because they have all seen the front of the GM guide.

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