Mikmek has taken levels in Trapper Ranger and I was looking for an excuse to have him follow them around, but instead they made him temporary Spymaster while they investigate the Varnhold Vanishing. When they get back they'll have to decide whether to put things back as they were, or accept the Economy increase and Stability loss that come with their new Thieves' Guild.
I've toned down The Dancing Lady's madness - they are a mostly female party so she didn't have a massive advantage even with the level of Bard I gave her, and they basically ended up in a standoff, so I decided to dial back the consequences of leaving her alive. However, she still doesn't think like a human at all. She agreed to keep to herself and not to drain anyone to death, but then local men started mysteriously aging - she was taking her half-drained victims to the First World so that they could spend time recovering. Totally in keeping with the letter of her agreement, and she still has no idea why the PCs were upset with her.
Since I'm making some changes to the later story, I've also given her Evindra's water clock, but it's such an awkward object that I can't even get the players to accept it as a gift. She'll need to cause some more trouble soon so that I have another excuse to offer it to them.
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Sticking to just those provided in the books. My game has a ton of extra NPCs added through various events, which my players seem to like a lot better than some of those the AP gives on its own. But of the latter, these two stand out:
Mikmek is the group's Court Assassin/Royal Enforcer, the right-hand-man to the Spymistress, and all-around Everyone's Favorite Super-Kobold. He survived a crit from the centipede in the Mite warrens and the group has considered him invaluable ever since.
And Elga Verniex is one of if not my group's favorite NPC to see me play. I based her heavily on Granny Weatherwax of Discworld, complete with rebuilding her as a Witch and giving her a cat familiar. She provided information and reincarnate services for the party for quite some time, was an absolutely invaluable informant and source of lore, and generally all-around respected by the PCs, to the point where she said "If you lunkheads still need me when it's time, call me back and I'll come, if only to straighten you idjits out." So when she finally died of old age, they got her apprentice to reincarnate her, bringing her back as a gnome. (First reborn words: "I'm shrunk! What did you do wrong?!") Said apprentice ended up becoming the Magister's wife... making Elga basically his mother-in-law. Still just as cantankerous as ever, but physically much younger and more active now.
Honorable mentions go to Dovan, Hargulka, and Vordakai, which the group says they really enjoyed the way I played as villains. I'm eagerly looking forward to the opportunity to use Dovan's slimy voice again.
Elga's also pretty popular with my lot. I also rebuilt her as a Witch and pushed her up a level (making her the only person they knew who could successfully use mending on the Lonely Warrior's sword).
They eventually convinced her to be Magister ("I'll think about it. I think better over a nice cup of Black Rattlecap Tea"), and we've yet to see what happens when she dies of old age, but it's likely to happen soon.
My players are two sessions into Kingmaker, and so far, their favourite NPC is Varn, who I played in a short introductory scenario. They thought he was friendly, likeable, polite, and an all-around nice guy. The party sorcerer does not get along with the Levetons - he flirts with Svetlana, and asked Oleg if "everything was working alright down there".
The party also seems to enjoy my portrayal of Oleg, as a surly, deep-voiced man with a horrible stereotypical Russian accent. I can't wait until they start meeting more people...
Everybody loved the boggard, whose name I have forgotten in book 1, or 2, and irrovetti in book 5 that we had to change the plot. Alot
Everybody loved the boggard, whose name I have forgotten in book 1, or 2, and irrovetti in book 5 that we had to change the plot. Alot
I'll be forever thankful to that boggard for what he did.
Dear Perlivash and Tigtittertug will always have a place in my heart as well.
Still playing the first part of the AP, mine party didn't seem to like so much Jhod or Kesten, but in the last session when they finally meet Perlivash and Tig they definitely loved them!
Maybe they could became more closer with Johd in the next session (I hope to play soon) when the priest will be with the party to go to the Temple of the Elk... maybe
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In my campaign, Bokken has a chemical addiction to fangberries, which have caused him mental damage that can only be repressed by more fangberries. That's the real reason that the fangberries are Bokken's secret ingredient.
I just found the first time my players encountered him in our pbp campaign:
"HI THERE YALL. I'M GREENBELT BOKKEN. THIS IS MY HUT. YALL COME TO BUY MY POTIONS? I MAKE THEM MYSELF FROM INGREDIENTS. I COLLECT THE INGREDIENTS, I COLLECT THE SECRET INGREDIENT, I BRING THEM TO MY HUT, I MAKE THE POTIONS FROM THE INGREDIENTS. YALL WANT TO BUY MY POTIONS? YALL CAN BUY THEM RIGHT NOW HERE IN MY HUT."
"YALL I ONLY HAVE FIVE POTIONS LEFT. I WROTE THEIR LABELS BUT I CAN'T READ, SO YALL HAVE TO READ THEM YOURSELF."
Greenbelt Bokken indicates five small vials that are clearly labeled. Two are labeled as Cure Light Wounds, two are labeled Endure Elements, and one is labeled Cure Moderate Wounds.
((The first four cost 50 gold, and the CMW costs 300 gold.))
"YALL CAN BUY THEM IF YOU WANT. RIGHT HERE IN MY HUT. I CAN MAKE OTHER POTIONS FOR YOU, ALSO. HEEEEEEEEEEY. YALL WANT TO GET SOME FREE POTIONS? I CAN MAKE YALL SOME POTIONS ON THE HUT IN THIS HUT IF YALL CAN FIND ME SOME FANGBERRIES. THEY GROW ON FANGBERRY BUSHES. FANGBERRIES ARE MY SECRET INGREDIENT."
After Bokken gets his hit of fangberries, he's a much more rational and verbally pleasing individual. My party hasn't encountered this second side of Bokken's personality, yet, because the fangberry bushes are the last encounter they defeated before they went off to take on the Stag Lord. Now that their exploration charter has been completed, I upped the bandit activity in the area to encourage them to end the Stag Lord's threat, so they felt some urgency to do so, and haven't yet had a chance to see Bokken's sane side.
My group is halfway through Rivers Run Red.
They love them some Sootscale. They negotiated an accord with the Kobolds who made some big demands of the party. Basically they have to build a foreign district in the capital before the Kobolds will give up their mine. They stop by from time to time to talk to Sootscale, who they see monthly at the Council meetings, they made him Royal Assassin.
The realize that he's been upgrading his gear, but they've been busy expanding the kingdom and trying to get enough BP together to build his Foreign District. They have noticed that he seems more skilled now, and they have noticed that there are more Kobolds, including different colored ones running around the mines now. They chalk this up to 'him taking care of the rogue Kobold problems around here.'
So much fun to be had.
One player also took on Auchs as a project, though he's having trouble understanding that some people are just evil. He even bought him a Headband of Intellect +2 with the Knowledge (Local) skill built into it. He didn't really stop to consider how giving a bully with a huge amount of strength the ability to formulate more complex plans and a knowledge of the local towns might be bad. Auchs has actually buddied up with a crimson haired gnome named Jerik who now works with Auchs at a brewery owned by the player.
Jerik mans the small bar and Auchs is the barrel mover/bouncer. The player has started to figure out the two are actually running a gambling and loan sharking ring out of the back. But he figures as long as the number of broken legs stays down and he doesn't specifically -ask- if that's what they're doing, it's golden.
The Cleric of Erastil is trying to reform Akiros, who has become the group's Warden/Mayor of Narlhart (the town they built at the Temple of the Elk.) He's waffling on what he should do with his life, but at this point has actually shifted to simply Neutral and is willing to consider that he turned his back on Erastil, not the other way around. Lots of good RP.
The player who took on Auchs has an odd habit with NPCs, when he sees them, he solves whatever the problem is by giving them a job.
Auchs is causing trouble? He can work at the brewery!
Some loggers are chopping down trees around this nice Nixie's pond? Come work in our town, we'll even build you free houses!
An infected Barbarian berserker werewolf who killed a small child!? Wasn't your fault! Drink this wolfsbane! Don't worry, we used the kingdom's treasury to res the kid! Have a job as a town guard!
Oh no! A bard rabble rouser?! You think it's so simple, here, be treasurer for a month, see how easy it is! (That one didn't work out.)
Perlivash and Tig were also hits, but the players have been working in the South and generally letting the Fey do their own thing up North atm.
Edit: I know this is too long, but I had to share my Bokken, who is an Alchemist.
The first time the group arrives they see a ramshackle shack wedged up against this massive upright rock in the middle of rolling plains. All around are massive scorched patches of earth. The get close and knock, a timid voice asks "Who's there?" The proceed to negotiate entrance to the poor fellows hut and learn about him. In the middle of the conversation he lets out a shriek and yells "GOPHER!" Suddenly a flask is tossed and the group duck as it sails out and explodes.
This happens every time they talk to him. Once they just asked to come inside. He agreed, served them tea, idly opened the door and tossed a bomb at an imaginary gopher and kept on talking.
It was only after they found the Mite's workshop that they discovered the cages with the gophers and the training equipment that made them run towards the scent of Bokken's cabin for food... and crude time-bomb alchemical fire backpacks for the gophers. Then it made sense.
One player still swaps secrets with Bokken on how to make the best gopher-getters (bombs).
It helps that my Sootscale and Mikmek are LN, not LE, as are most members of their tribe, so the PCs don't have anything to fear from them as far as backstabbing or landgrabbing. They're currently occupied with working on an underground tunnel to connect the Sootscale silver mine with the gold mine a little bit northwest; once they get that done, they'll want to connect both mines to the Old Sycamore barrow. Once they get that done there'll be a sizable little under-country beneath Iomrall for Kobolds and the occasional other small-sized creature willing to live in a subterranean dwelling. (Note that in my world Dwarves are sailors rather than miners by typical trade, so that doesn't include them, despite being one of the few Medium-sized races that could conceivably live comfortably in such a place.)
Andostre, I love your Bokken's voice-- I wish I had done that.
Thanks! I have no idea how my players will like Bokken once they encounter his other side, but it was fun for me, so I went with it. His voice was inspired by the sketch of him in the back of the first module. Right now, he makes them pretty uneasy.
In my game, the first time the PCs arrived at Bokken's hut, they found him butt-naked (but with a shirt on...) singing non-sense loudly and tending to his tomato plants, while a bunch of farm animals ran freely around him.
While talking, he frequently stopped to stare blankly beside him and talk to 'mommy'.
When they asked him to come with them to Oleg's, he grabbed a pig nearby and shouted that he was the one in charge, now, and instructed him to make sure 'everyone will go to bed early'.
The PCs avoid Bokken ever since.
I ripped off Iroh from Avatar: The Last Airbender for my Bokken, and replaced the picture of him in the book with something closer to that source. The group even found him sorting through the weeds in his yard looking for tea leaves.
All the NPCs favor heavily into my KM game, but especially:
Lily Teskertin (statted as a rogue-cum-master spy prestige class, had a long running liason with a PC before he got reincarnated as an oviparous critter.)
Hargulka was a popular villain who had a long running bit, although he was only on-screen twice.
Jhod has been drug along to some weird places with the group, and lived to tell about it (errr, mostly; well, he got better...).
Kesten Garess has been popular as a hit-point sponge when the barbarian can't play.
I have a ton of home made NPCs (especially druids) who feature prominently in the adventure path - I have a full circle fleshed out.
Sure, listed here:
A lot of names were pulled from quest-givers in the covers of the KM books.
One of the pcs created a druid circle he belonged to as well. Dedicated to keeping lamashtu in check
Lily Teskerten became a bit of a socialite party girl and started chasing the Bard/Ruler - he thought it was fun until he started courting and Lily became an embarrassment. Although Lily always had a dashing young officer or artist on her arm - she always smiled sweetly at the ruler :P
And Tig. I set a lot of the NPCs from RRR up in a small village by the ford across the river Gurdin - imaginatively called Gurdinford. While we were still playing at the local level, Gurdingford became a regular stop off point - and the party watched Tig grow up. They met his pet giant centipede while it was still a baby and watched him demonstrate his affinity for animals by placing a weasel down his trousers ...
And it went on and on. Eventually they paid for him to train under a Druid
Tig in my game became Tanna (mostly because the only child token I had on hand at the time was a girl's) and she ended up going to the school the PCs built in Tatzylford, partially funded and run by one Belle Leighn - formerly known as the Dancing Lady.
IMC the DL was an ex-human from the get-go, cursed by one of the fey queens for the crime of trespassing centuries ago; during her stint as the sadistic Baobhan Sidhe, she developed an interest in magical botany and created a bunch of plant monsters using dead humanoid stock. (For example, the dead bandits Kressle and Topper Red got used to make Kelpies. Kressle died a second time in a single round, ignominiously and without getting a line of dialogue, despite the opportunity for revenge.) One of the other things she made as an "incomplete Alraune", and after the party killed her, the only survivor of the battle, Rigg Gargadilly, tossed her corpse inside to bring back the woman he was infatuated with.
Unfortunately for Rigg, Belle woke up as an Alraune not with the DL's personality but her original human one. Rigg ended up running off and joining Hargulka in spite, while the PC's found Belle wandering around the woods (thanks to a tip-off from Perlivash and crew) and took her to Tatzylford to re-introduce her to civilization. (And because that's where most of their high-level guard NPCs were stationed at the time, so if she went berserk there was someone besides the PCs who could stop her.) She ended up teaming up with a local cavalier named Verity Leclair to jointly found Tatzylford's academy and bardic school, where not only does Tanna attend, but also our Ruler's two nieces and a few other notable child-age NPCs. Belle herself has become one of the closer NPCs to the group, mainly due to everyone in the party now being able to sympathize with having to go through reincarnation.
I'm playing both Sootscale and his kingdom as lawful evil, but not EEEEEEVIL. They're weaker than the humans and they know it, so they're not likely to try anything direct. But at the same time, they're opportunistic little buggers. And Sootscale does genuinely care about his people's welfare.
I play them the same way, with the exception of Mikmek who has been studying the humans and been influenced by their ways, including the worship of Iomadae (the group's patron deity).
A thief called Dastan (also the Royal Enforcer) is the favourite of one of my players, because he is the most complicated simple man he knows. Players liked him enough, that when they found out he only had eyes for a priestess called Kira (yes, the Iconic), a women he considered above his station, they spared no expense to track her down, and reunite him with his true love... Needless to say, Dastan is very "indebted" to the players.
Slightly OT but this AP really benefited from a big party.....I ran it to 7 players. It meant many kingdom roles where players. The other benefit of this was that each pc could 'control' 1-3 npcs and give them life
So some used some in the mod, others brought in family members etc. By the end many pc's had wives husbands, kids even . The long timeline really aided this
Damn shame they lost and the kingdom is in a forgotten snow globe on some feys shelf
Easily my fav AP and none has felt very satisfying since
Easily my fav AP and none has felt very satisfying since
Sounds like it's time for a "get the kingdom back from N" sequel.
I have been thinking that, but now played the latter mods off serpents and jade I have really gone of high level play