Hello everyone. I've recently started to run a group of friends through Rise of the Runelords and I was thinking of something to do for a level or so between Burnt Offerings and the Skinsaw Murders to help with the level gap. I was thinking about having Father Zantus send them on an errand of some sort to Windsong Abbey. Has anyone used the Abbey at all in their games? I've heard that it actually comes into effect in the Shattered Star campaign...however, it appears that takes place years after ROTRL and what is going on there probably hasn't occurred yet. I also don't want to take away from that adventure path as you never know when or if we might run some more.
I have time...currently they just finished off Elyrium...although they haven't finished off all of Wrath yet (Korvovus? spelling...is still left to go). All in all it will probably be 3-4 more sessions before they finish burnt offerings as well as an undoubted break in there as well as we tend to play 2 games simultaneously with 3-4 weeks on one then the other to allow the GM's to refresh.
I know others have ran various modules in between...the prominent ones escape me but I know one involves a run in Magnimar, and the other up near Wolf's run. However, I want to keep things more localized and I figured a 2 day trip up to the Abbey for Father Zantus and a minor "mystery" there could help tie in nicely with The Skinsaw Murders. Just wondering over all if anyone has used the Abbey and might have some ideas plus maps etc that could work in nicely. Thank you all in advance.
I haven't read it myself, but I believe Beyond the Doomsday Door (Shattered Star 4 of 6) deals with some dungeons below the Abbey. There might be some information on the Abbey in this volume which could prove helpful to you. It's meant for characters about twice the level of yours though, but for information purposes only it might provide insight.
There are some abbey maps from another adventure here that you might be able to tweak to your needs here.
I don't know much about the Abbey's purpose besides what's available in wiki format, which is:
Windsong Abbey was built as a pacifist refuge for followers of all religions to come and resolve their doctrinal and political differences in a non-violent manner and to peacefully further their own goals.
Keeping that in mind, here's how I'd tie it in to Skinsaw Murders:
A conference of sorts is being held to discuss the encroachment of Asmodeus worship in southeast Varisia, as brought in through Chelaxian immigrants/missionaries. Representatives from the major civilized religions of Varisia are in attendance, as well as a mid-level Hellknight representing the "cooperative" side of the Asmodean sects (and as a not-too-thinly-veiled show of might). Father Zantus either accompanies them or sends an acolyte or two from the cathedral to represent the various deities that the cathedral is dedicated to.
Shortly after they arrive, a highly-contagious disease starts spreading through the delegates, causing fatigue, coughing, rash, and ultimately death in about a week. This is blood veil, the disease engineered from Vorel's Phage by the Red Mantis assassins who bought the diseased rats from Foxglove Manor. By mutual agreement, no one is allowed to leave, lest they spread the plague outside the Abbey. Strangely, the Hellknight appears to be completely unaffected the disease- he/she is kin to Kasanda Miromia (Foxglove), Vorel's wife (and thus immune to blood veil/Vorel's Phage thanks to Kasanda's spirit watching over her relatives from beyond the grave).
The disease was actually brought in by a follower of Urgathoa, posing as a worshipper of a different deity or a member of one of the other clergy's entourage. The goal was to sow chaos and perhaps sway some folks to seek out Urgathoa's grace to let them survive the disease.
Plenty of opportunity here to do a murder-mystery type thing- suspicion of course falls on the Hellknight first, as some sort of plot to destabilize the established religions of Varisia or some such, but in this case the Hellknight has nothing to do with it, and in fact is the only person who it's safe to allow to leave to go get help/remove disease potions/etc.
Just spitballing ideas, but it might be a possible direction to go with an interim adventure and introduce more of the setting. I'd have the Hellknight have the last name Miromia, and include that name somewhere in Foxglove Manor as well (Kasanda's portrait is the logical choice) to tie it in later.
