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After spending way too many hours converting Shackled City to Golarion and PF, I've finally been able to run it. So far, it's going great, although it's taken some unexpected turns.
First off, I decided I wanted Vhalantru and Thifirane Rhiavadi to play bigger roles in the adventure. I made Lord Vhalantru in charge of Cauldron's adventuring licenses. No license means no adventuring, and to get a license requires the sponsorship of a noble house. Vhalantru was able to get Thifirane to agree to sponsor them (after the party took care of a nasty rat problem for her). The party didn't much like the arrogant Thifirane, but they seemed to like Vhalantru. Exactly the result for which I was hoping.
The party wisely explored all of Jzadirune before heading down to the Malachite Fortress, but unfortunately for them, they quickly found Kazmojen while still level 2. They started running when Kazmojen knocked Fario and Fellian unconscious with one attack each. The last person out saw Orbius teleport in, claim Terrem, and teleport back out.
After that mess, they decided to prepare more carefully, and perhaps explore the Malachite Fortress first. Seeing as how Kazmojen stomped them so thoroughly, I figured he wouldn't bother increasing the guard - the clearly incompetent adventurers were no threat to him.
The party found Fario and Fellian in the prison cells and rescued them, as well as the other slaves, and with careful preparation, stomped Kazmojen as easily as he did them the first time. Unfortunately, however, the remaining three children - Deakon, Lucinda, and Evelyn - were no where to be found, since after driving off the party the first time, Kazmojen finished the sale to the durzagon. I left a receipt on Kazmojen, however, stating the children were sold to "Pyllrak Shyraat, denizen of the Darklands."
My players weren't exactly keen on the idea of venturing into the Darklands until Jenya told them the reward was for rescuing the children. Still, they detoured off to Kingfisher Hollow to investigate Kingfisher Sendings. That didn't turn out to be very useful for them (although they did meet Lord Aslaxin there, and informed him about the slavery ring and the entrance to the Darklands).
So with a rather timid attitude, they decided they needed to venture into the Darklands. At this point, I decided the rescue of the children was going to completely replace Drakthar's Way. Pyllrak would end up taking his new slaves to various Darklands residents and attempt to resell them.
The party has had to cope with numerous Darklands hazards, and rescued Evelyn from a rather insane derro vivisectionist alchemist, managing to sneak into and back out of the small derro village without attracting notice.
Next up was a duergar city, where Pyllrak sold the dwarf child Deakon to a wealthy merchant, who also happened to be a wizard hoping to sacrifice his new purchase to convince an imp to become his familiar. That fight was particularly brutal, but they just barely managed to save Deakon. Oh, and they hired away the wizard's slave kobold chef, Jean-Pierre (complete with outrageous French accent and attitude).
They found Pyllrak's discarded journal in a guest room in the wizard's house, in which he states he was planning on selling the last child, Lucinda, to the drow, though he hates to deal with them. They used the wizard's library to research the drow city and found that to get there, they'll have to pass through a dangerous fungal forest.
Our next session is tomorrow, in which they'll find the fungal forest and eventually discover that Pyllrak succumbed to the many spores floating in the air, and turned into a weird fungal version of himself (Fungal Creature template from Bestiary 4). Lucinda managed to sneak away and is hiding just past the forest.
Once they find Lucinda, they'll have to trek back. They've already been in the Darklands for around 2 weeks, and it'll probably take about the same amount of time to get back. But, unfortunately for them, the duergar have discovered they killed the merchant, and when the party passes by the city, the guards alert their superiors, who will send out several squads to apprehend the murderers.
Even worse, when the party returns to the entrance to the Malachite Fortress, they'll find it collapsed. Lord Aslaxin, upon hearing about such a potentially dangerous tunnel, had the Stormblades collapse it. Now the party will have to turn around (back towards the duergar squads they don't know about yet) and find another exit.
The plan is for them to just barely escape the vengeful duergar by the skin of their teeth through a narrow tunnel that leads to the surface. Just before they're gone, a duergar wizard will cast a fireball at them, which ends up collapsing the tunnel behind them.
I think when the party miraculously returns to Cauldron with the three missing children, I'll have Vhalantru reward them somehow; maybe a piece of treasure tailored to them, or perhaps a piece of property in the city. Just something to help them remember him as a good guy.
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After spending way too many hours converting Shackled City to Golarion and PF, I've finally been able to run it. So far, it's going great, although it's taken some unexpected turns.
First off, I decided I wanted Vhalantru and Thifirane Rhiavadi to play bigger roles in the adventure. I made Lord Vhalantru in charge of Cauldron's adventuring licenses. No license means no adventuring, and to get a license requires the sponsorship of a noble house. Vhalantru was able to get Thifirane to agree to sponsor them (after the party took care of a nasty rat problem for her). The party didn't much like the arrogant Thifirane, but they seemed to like Vhalantru. Exactly the result for which I was hoping.
The party wisely explored all of Jzadirune before heading down to the Malachite Fortress, but unfortunately for them, they quickly found Kazmojen while still level 2. They started running when Kazmojen knocked Fario and Fellian unconscious with one attack each. The last person out saw Orbius teleport in, claim Terrem, and teleport back out.
After that mess, they decided to prepare more carefully, and perhaps explore the Malachite Fortress first. Seeing as how Kazmojen stomped them so thoroughly, I figured he wouldn't bother increasing the guard - the clearly incompetent adventurers were no threat to him.
The party found Fario and Fellian in the prison cells and rescued them, as well as the other slaves, and with careful preparation, stomped Kazmojen as easily as he did them the first time. Unfortunately, however, the remaining three children - Deakon, Lucinda, and Evelyn - were no where to be found, since after driving off the party the first time, Kazmojen finished the sale to the durzagon. I left a receipt on Kazmojen, however, stating the children were sold to "Pyllrak Shyraat, denizen of the Darklands."
My players weren't exactly keen on the idea of venturing into the Darklands until Jenya told them the reward was for rescuing the children. Still, they detoured off to Kingfisher Hollow to investigate...
After seven years my group is about to finish Shackled City. It is quite a journey. I suggest you spend some time in the early parts of the adventure foreshadowing Adimarchus as well as introducing some of the Cagewrights to the PCs. I had Freija Doorgan as the owner of the local magic shop, Ardeth Webb as the Mayor's bodyguard, Shebelith as dean of the academy, Fish as owner of a tavern, etc. It makes the later encounters much more interesting.
Update: the party has just completed Flood Season. I decided to move the Demonskar Ball to after this chapter. Vhalantru is going to reward them by persuading Lord Aslaxin to invite them. I'll probably have the Demonskar Ball itself take place on the Winter Solstice.
The party has a (now ex-)member of the town guard, so he's gone to Terseon Skellerang multiple times, and I've managed to portray him with just the right amount of arrogance, desire to do his duty, laziness, and corruption. I imagine the player will be quite happy to see how Skellerang's story goes as the AP progresses.
Lord Aslaxin has already played more of a role than I expected, and since he's the father of one of the Stormblades (not to mention they sussed out that it was Lord Aslaxin that hired the Stormblades to collapse the tunnel to the Darklands), they don't really trust him. I think I'm going to replace one of the Cagewrights with him.
One of the party is a wizard who persistently attempted to acquire an audience with Thifirane Rhiavadi, to no success. He was very interested in her magical prowess, having seen her teleport way back in the first session. The player is moving out of state, so in his last session, I had her offer him a job creating magic items (soulcages, eventually), but he countered by wanting to be her apprentice. Perfect! Now that character can come back as a NPC. I haven't yet decided if he'll be a villain or a valuable source of information for the party.
Loving the campaign so far.