|
Things might get bad.
I've been hinting that there was more to Chopper's rampage than just a crazed psycho killing people. I played up a possible involvment with demon worship and perhaps demonic possession that overtook him via Ilsoari Gandethus.
Ilsoari has become the mouth for information from me, and that was not the intent. I had planned on using him for some random red herrings, but my ad libing mouth got the better of me, and now he's our mage's go-to source. I only recently pushed the party in the direction of Brodert Quint, only because I had the headmaster say that the info they sought was not in his realm of knowledge and that Brodert was a Sage of ancient empires and engineering marvels.
But during my ramblings I had thought that if the group needed more exp(party of 6) I'd have them investigate the island. The only person really, really interested is our group's Illusionist/Rogue. And in his pursuit of info, I let slip potential info regarding involvement of Pazuzu, especially if there was a Temple of Lamashtu beneath the town. Plus, I've been using cheap movie/parlor tricks by having random people say things like, "Mother is disappointed in you." "You shouldn't have upset Mother". The sound of birds flapping inside buildings when there are none and no one else hears it. The feeling of being watched when they are outside(particularly the Illusionist) and no one is, but... there are large gatherings of birds. I had one of the girls at the Pixie Kitten turn to him during a trist and say "The Lord of the Air WILL devour the Mother and you will help." I also used a stolen True Detective moment with a huge flock of birds, all sorts, migrating towards the island and then swarming into a pattern that only the Illusionist saw. I may have done too much...
So now, we just finished up the Caverns, the Quasit barely escaped, and I used someone's suggestion of having her attempt to go deeper into lower levels instead of the openness of the outside world. I just got an email from the Illusionist that he wants to investigate the island. Alone.
Well... that's all good, I can't help but thinking it's a death trap for him if he's lucky, a new npc for me at the worst.
Chopper's Island by itself is a great adventure for a group, but a solo mission, yeah not so much.
So I'm at a weird impasse. I hadn't meant to veer this far off of the adventure path, but it's what I love about DMing. Impromptu and the repercussions of characters action on that world.
The gnome illusionsit... if he goes by himself will encounter a spirit of a murdered child(ala the adventure) and an aspect of the Chopper/Pazuzu who will attempt to possess him. Or in the least, start influencing him alot.
So beyond, the "what do you think", are there rules for possession(which can be a jerk move), and should I have the Lord of Air posses him or just cut a deal with him. I was thinking a deal of recovering the bones of Chopper or some other figure of importance, or perhaps one of the original families of Sandpoint and send him to the old cemetery.
I see sooooooo much options for roleplaying but am really concerned about running him alone and killing him. Or worse.
RotRL DM's you are my only hope.
|
Lol. Well, it can be a tough one. Basically, you need to look at your style of play and your characters. Can they deal with a PC death? How would they react if one of their own came back from the island COMPLETELy different from when he left? Would they ignore it? Would they kill him? Would they save him? My group has, at one point or another, chosen each of these.
My players once labeled me as a "killer GM", as I claimed over 65 kills in one campaign. As I told them, I don't dice kill, but I kill stupid. And they learned. Eventually. I did loose a lot of story telling potential, but in the end, they still had fun, and learned to think smarter. They've gotten a lot better. But that's my group. If one if my players were to suggest this, I'd look at him, most likely dead-panned, and just say "ok".
And then kill him.
Honestly, if you have built up THAT much stuff, and your player STILL wants to go by themselves, let them. If you think your players can deal with a PC death, and you can weave a new character into the story, do so.
The players need to understand that while the story centers on them, the world does not. What they do, and what they say, has a real effect on the world, and how people treat them. If they treat a merchant like poop (say Vin Vinder), it WILL come back to haunt them. If they ignore heartfelt and sound advice from Shalelu, she might not want to help them when they need it.
If your gnome illusionist ignores all of the creepy evil signs and portents being thrown at him, so be it. He might get lucky (or smart) enough at the last second to pull back and regroup. But, if he goes ahead with it, let him get possessed. And run with it. Think about the roleplaying possibilities of the players attempted to rescue and recover their comrade!
I'm afraid I'm in the, "Seriously? You go to the haunted island ALONE?!?! OK, go ahead and roll up a new character," camp.
I think it has the makings of a wonderful one-on-one adventure. Spooky and dangerous. You might even be able to convince him to go back and get help by making the first encounter a near-death experience. Otherwise, I love the idea of doing a one-off adventure and having him get possessed. I believe ghosts can possess people -- you might want to look them up for good rules of possession. If I recall, it's like a Soul Jar and you get Will saves to try to retake your body.
The player might have a lot of fun playing himself as possessed -- I know I would.
|
|
Good stuff. Yeah, I found an entry on d20pfsrd.com that has a write up of Pazuzu and one of his abilities listed is... possession. But the Soul Jar idea is good too.
And they guy playing is a top notch gamer. He once played a boar mount to a gnomish paladin and stole the show. So he's a capable rp'er, and so possession is a long game story we could do. Especially since, I think I'd have ol Paz empower him to thwart Lamashtu, while eating away at his soul.
And death is an option. We had two encounters in the caverns that had 1-2 players dying at various points and people had thought they were all tough and I wouldn't let them die.
So they realize their mortality, and it's a good group. But this sense of "I must do this without endangering the group" thinking came outta left field for me. Not a true problem, just something I'm having to wrap my head around.
Thanks, it's really got me thinking.
There doesn't have to be anything up on Chopper's Island at all, necessarily. When my party got it into their heads that they needed to go there, all they found was Stoot's burned out house, a creepy dead tree with the claw marks of some large bird on one of the branches (which I intended as a tie-in to the mothman in Jade Regent, which we had already played - this is being run as a prequel essentially), and a worn idol of some kind of 4 winged demon - the ranger is still carrying that around and it may provide some surprises later. So, foreshadowing/flavor stuff, but no actual encounter.
|
|
Sure I could go that way, but after much debate, I am thinking I may want more Paz involved in this campaign. If nothing else, the "enemy of my enemy" and potential for the temptation of power fits with the way things are going. Plus the whole, "things not meant to know" works great too. See I'm not running in Golarion, but the Forgotten Realms. Set in the coastline of Thesk, north of Teflamm. So I have ancient Rus flavor, mixed with eastern mysticism, and middle eastern occult, all due to the placement. Plus it was the setting everyone wanted to play in, we took a vote and everything. :P
|
Just out of curiosity, if you're running it in the Realms, why haven't Elminster/The Seven Sisters/Driz'zt/The Harpers/et. al. solved this problem already? That's always the big sticking point in playing in the Realms - that space is filled with big powerful good guys, and I can't see any of them sitting by while an ancient evil from 10,000 years ago comes back.
On a related note, what sort of ties did Thassilon have with ancient Netheril?
|
|
Because yeah... the events have recently unfolded, plus, what's the point of using someone else's characters to win the game. :P
And while it might be a sticking point, they are not omnicient. And if they really were that way, then there'd be no evil at all, right? Big world, big problems. Elminster might be nice and powerful, but he's got his hands full, the Harpers are dealing with issues in the Heartlands, Driz'zt is in the north, the Chosen have their own issues. And even if they were involved, they often use proxies to do their bidding. At least in my games, should I use them.
It predates the Netheril empire which was only established -3859 DR. If Thassilon was a 10,000 year old empire, then it's quite older than the Netherse. And it was more closely related to the Imaskari empire, in region and age.
|
|
Whoops, just noticed it had half a thought in that last post.
Imaskar was the first overpowering human empire, predating even Netheril. It was responsible for the creation of the oldest empires still in existence, the ancient empires of Mulhorand, Unther and Chessenta. They were the first astronomers and the first to give names to the planets. Their artificer-kings held tremendous power and respect, leading forays into other planes to bring back otherworldly slaves for use in building the cities of Imaskar (one such plane was Earth's). Later, Southern elves and the Shou (at least, people from Kara-Tur) helped them to improve their knowledge and expand their power, further strengthening the empire.
The empire was destroyed in -2488 DR by a cataclysmic uprising among their Mulan and Untheric slaves assisted by the incarnate gods of the slaves themselves. By this time it is suggested that the slaves in Imaskar numbered in the tens of millions. The war that followed was brief but catastrophic, and the destructive battles between the Imaskari artificer-kings and the slave's vengeful gods destroyed most of the empire, whilst the freed slaves looted and burned the once proud cities. The event led to the creation of the Raurin Desert.
|
|
So we played last week and in-between the time I wrote the initial post here, and last night another side quest popped up.
One of my players, an Alchemist, wanted to make Holy Water. After explaining, you're an Alchemist, Jim, not a priest; we worked out a way for him to get quite of few vials if he did a service for the Church of Lathander(one of the seven operating in Sandpoint). Sure he says.
Ok, bait taken.
So I pull up a plan for him to meet with a seller who has a map to a relic that the church wants. He is to hand off a letter of credit to the man, who in turn gives him the map. The map is a map to the Storage Vault of Alantes. A 3 room dungeon(at best), which I picked up specifically for this side quest. And then I dug through my old dungeon magazines and found an awesome one involving a cloaker who is feeding on a small hamlet that has a cememtary. It's attacking at night, moaning, eating people and leaving only bones - must be an undead.
So the plan is the group goes to the hamlet to meet the merchant seller, who decided to check out the location of the vault entrance, it's in the cemetery and can only be accessed under the shadow of night. He and his assistants were attacked (feared) by the cloaker and he is the only survivor and he dropped the map. That was several days ago, and the creature has feed a few more times.
Enter the party, they meet him, and the railroad begins.
So with that taken care of I spoke with the player who has been inquiring about Chopper and Pazuzu. I used Brodert Quink as my mouth piece for info on demon's, possession, how it is believe that the Thassilonians openly operated with demons. Which he was all "ok, cool." about. He expressed to me he likes the idea of playing a possessed person. Or potentially working for Lamashtu's competition, which is how I've been angling this... kinda.
Two other things have happened, and for whatever reason I could not stop myself last night.
I had been prepping them since day one, every tenday or so, a caravan of merchants comes through and that there might be one who deals with magic items.
I did, and they did. But I had generated a ton or just junk(Thank you Raging Swan Press) and a couple of nice items but with really high price tags. Like a wand of Cure Moderate Wounds. Even with all they're money combined the party doesn't have enough. So my player from above(see Chopper Island) asks, "by any chance is there any thing that we could to lower the cost? Do you need guards, pick an item from a seller. Anything?"
I could not help myself. "Why yes," I purred in my bad Middle Eastern accent. And explained after they dropped their third companion(They are the Three Dragons of the Golden Road) off in the village where we are going to get the map of Alantes, they were attacked by Harpies. One of their pack animals carrying an important shipment of items was taken, as well as two of their me. If the party could recover the items, and the men, they could work out a substantial discount for the wand - in a nutshell- it was actually about an hours worth or roleplaying discussing things, making up legends and buttering up the party.
Even as I said the words, I could not believe what I was doing. But they ate it up and we were having fun.
And earlier in the game, my son's character had ordered a masterwork weapon be made by Das Korvut and it was scheduled to be picked up. I had him find Das being beaten, and his armory ransacked by 3 local Scarzni thugs who encouraged him to rethink his need for protection.
I expected my son to hold back, wait for them to leave and then tend to the NPC and investigate later after he had more info.
Sigh
No, he charges in grappling one of the men and nearly killing him; while threatening the other two to leave, not come back and remember who did this to them.
Oy... then after they leave he talks with Das who thanks him apologizes for the axe not being ready, they took it, and he the laments about the loss of his family. He gets consoled, then my son says, "can I see where those guys went?" Sure why not. He explores the dock, most people avoid his questions about them, as they have an idea who he dealt with. Two dockers tell him to shut up or he'l bring down the wrath of the Scarzni, to which he laughs and continues. I have him see one thugs, who had been keeping an eye out for him in a nearby alley. And of course, my son chases after him. Insults, and words are thrown bout, the thief/thug scales one of the buildings like a parkour athlete, and the half-orc fighter in full armor chases after him. Gets close, but falls in a jump between buildings.
So I've got 3-4 adventures setup that are vaguely related to the AP. And I can't stop. I'm starting to wonder if I goofed, or I just need to just calm down and run with it.
I was thinking more about the Harpy encounter today, I've been hinting more and more about Pazuzu's and Lamashtu's influence in this area. And how it's been increasing. Like they might be one upping each other, as one of my players said, and I went "sure". Mouth won't stop.
Anyway... I was thinking about making it a complete red herring. And instead of harpies it was ... something else. What that something was, I have no idea at the moment. But the cloaker and the Storage Vault may kill a couple of players.
Spoilers....
The Storage Vault has a Gray Ooze(nasty, nasty, nasty), confined spaces, and large custom plant/aberration monster. And I think Harpies might be too much. Any suggestions for an alternative? Or should I just reskin the harpies into lesser creatures that are "like" them but just not as powerful?
What level are they?
It's not too hard to turn the danger down; the ooze can have half hp and do half damage (it's a baby); one of the harpies is away visiting relatives (and as the PCs know they're harpies they can prepare for it); reduce the song DC a bit, and so on.
All I'm going to say is, when it sounds really fun to play in your campaign, you're not doing anything wrong.
All I'm going to say is, when it sounds really fun to play in your campaign, you're not doing anything wrong.
Here! Here! Consider that motion seconded.
If your players are having fun and it's got your creative juices working, everything must be good.
As it says in Book 1 itself, the first book is not directly tied to the AP plotline, it's intended to get the players engaged into Sandpoint and the world. Sure sounds like that's what your doing.
Also, the AP should be treated like the Pirate's Code - they're more like guidelines. No reason to follow the script exactly as written if you can have more fun doing something different.
|
|
They're 3rd level at the moment, They've been ripping through most encounters of the AP with not much loss of resources and that's with me beefing up the encounters. Y'know adding additional Sinspawn(or additional monsters), upping HP on baddies that sort of thing. And God love 'em, they're tricky and just plain smart.
So...
I was thinking of adjusting the Harpy or digging through either Midgard Bestiary or the Tome of Horrors to find something nastier but on level.
And thanks NobodysHome.
I've been trying not to deviate too much from the AP, but I've already blown the mytho's involved by including Pazuzu and more demonic influences in the region. But the more I play the more I make decisions/choices that are more in line with story arcs and ideas we've started, not the AP. Which is fine, but sometimes that rules lawyer in me peeks out. :D