Raising the stakes and adding thematic touches throughout the books

[Harlan]

I originally was just going to post my one major idea, but I'll pepper what my group has done to keep things tighter together. My players have appreciated it because it keeps the Whispering Way or locations in the main view from the end of Harrowstone.

Obviously don't read this if you aren't running the game

1 - I introduced Advion at the funeral in book 1. I made him an old friend of the Prof. After the Haunting he took Kendra with him to Caliphas to help her recover and to encourage her to explore her inner power.

2. Book 2, while I understand the Earning your Keep roleplay elements of your encounters in Books 3 and 5 with the Order of the Palatine Eye, it was more fun to induct a few players into the order through the Judge. It really gave the players a feeling of a home base, and it also helped when they got jammed in certain situations with info, it was easier to use the network to keep the party moving in investigations if there were experts they could call on when they failed a couple of rolls and fixed some of those 20 sider issues of MAKE IT OR FAIL.

3. I let Caromarc hint that the Whispering Way had contacted him about the Lich elixir, and that he believed part of this was about his refusal to work with them. I used Caromarc to pass on a bunch of the lore about Tar Baphon and the doom he might cause. I also had the Beast held as a Prisoner in Renchurch, I gave immunity to the Whispering Tyrant whispers and beefed him up by Book 6, so if there were some really bad saves you still had the creature to draw attacks or attention and die atoning.

4. When they killed Auren Vrood in Book 3 I let them see the visions as written but I let the players know there had been a double cross by the Mi-Go and that the Raven's Head, a key ingredient, was out there and available, making the haste to get to it and the direction of inquisition in book 4 that much more intense.

5. I eliminated Illmarsh entirely. I moved the encounter to the sewers and space underneath Caliphas because I wanted to spend a little downtime in the city and let my players build some roots. The Dagon worshipers became Cultists in the city, and everything still went as planned. I eliminated the ocean encounters, but I ran everything else as an underground lake/city. If they hadn't defeated the Spawn I would have had it pushing its way out from the sewers and devouring townspeople's souls etc. The Mi-Go that go undefeated stop using the inferior Skum and start collecting people from above, etc.

6. Instead of the bloodline for the Whispering Tyrant being Count Galdana,I made it KENDRA. That's right, Advion had taken her right in front of the eyes of the players. Lorrimor's bloodline is a direct tie to the Whispering Tyrant, which is why he was hiding his daughter in that small town and collecting what he knew. I rolled this out in a very James Bond Bad Guy style, with clues from the Vampire Alchemist leading them to AA in Caliphas, a house. They fight him but he's a shifter/henchmen/clone. But there are enough clues to piece together the direction. There was enough of my players in the beginning trying to forge relationships with Kendra and had fought iwth her in Harrowstone, to make the stakes even greater to save HER vs some guy you hadn't met yet.

7. I let the lich wolf be reasoned with, and turned against Advion in jealous rage. His personality was too much fun to just make him soething you tried to kill and though you would have to eventually, allowing the unease of fighting with it was more fun temporarily

8. Also, after defeating the dragon I let the Order of the Eye arrive to help (and I was open to them appealing to Ludvik because vampires vs would have been badass), letting them battle zombies and foot soldiers. I wanted the last rush on the tower to feel less like a final dungeon crawl and far more epic as if once again the world rose against Tar-Baphon. So when you had the large numbers of zombies, I usually increased it by double and had some other soldiers kind of fighting along. I let a few of the Eye solider seem really hefty and badass (maybe more badass than the PC's) so they felt comfortable moving on. It also solved a predicament I saw coming of....running away and into something worse. I also wanted to be able to toss a character sheet to a dead PC so they didn't have to sit out the dungeon crawl and could continue to support the group going forward.

These are just some mid-day work rambles, don't have much a way to put a bow on em. Use them and comment as you see fit :)

[Joey Virtue]

I like some of your ideas I keep debating the Kendra and ties to The Whispering Tyrant.

If the players are Interested in the order I also Plan on letting them become minor members in book 2

Depending on how bad ass my party is by the end of book two if they can compete with the Abberant Promethan the Way might show up and take him and make him a pawn of the Whispering Way

[Level 1 Commoner]

Nice job man! Very similar to what I've been doing (just finished the Stairs of the Moon).

In my version Advion became Rykus Arnisant, the best pupil of Prof. Lorrimor, advisor of Aduard Ordranti III, monster hunter extraordinaire and direct descendant of General Arnisant who banished the Whispering Tyrant centuries ago. After years of pyrrhic victories Rykus developed a plan to destroy the Tyrant once and for all. But he needs a living descendant of the Tyrant for this: Kendra Lorrimor, who stems from a line of Tieflings fathered by the Tyrant with his Succubus advisor.

Professor Lorrimor spent much of his fortune to hide her heritage magically with a minor shapechanging artifact as he didn't want her to suffer from the same prejudices that drove her mother into suicide. These prejudices were also the reason why he moved to Ravengro after his days as a monster hunter came to an end. An isolated place like Ravengro minimized the risk that somebody would see through Kendra's disguise. Shocked by the proposal to sacrifice his own daughter for the greater good Petros severed all ties to Arnisant and started to actively study the Whispering Way. Rykus on the other hand infiltrated the Whispering Way and quickly rose to the highest ranks. He then set his plan in motion while pretending that everything he does promotes the return of Tar-Baphon. He even explicitly ordered Vrood to not hurt the Professor and Kendra as he didn't want any unnecessary harm. But Vrood misunderstood this order as a warning to not rouse the Order of the Palatine Eye and murdered the Professor. So the stage was opened for the PCs.

Kendra herself was in a state of denial regarding her heritage although she was very frustrated with her lack of success as a Wizard (arcane casting with int 12 is not fun!). During book 2 the group finally discovered her true identity and especially the Aasimar Paladin still tries to come to terms with her. Everything got even more complicated when her dead father started to appear in her dreams and warned her of the great danger ahead and infused her with a spark of divine power, which let her become a Life Oracle. Arnisant will send some minions in the following books to apprehend her but they will not succeed before book 5 when he finally takes the matter into his own hands.

After reading your post I'm thinking about a bigger role for the order in the second half of the AP. Count Caromarc, the Beast, Rhakis and several other important characters like Colson Daramid (the illegitimate son of Professor Lorrimor and Judge Daramid) will definitely make an appereance as allies during the epic battle for Gallowspire.

As much as I love the Lovecraft mythos the implementation in Wake of the Watcher feels a little bit too much and I'm not to happy about its current form. Your approach sounds like a good way to fix it.

I'm unsure if Arnisant turns out to be right with his plan or if he is going to be just another delusional fool who thinks that he can defeat the most powerful Wizard of all times.