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Thinking about ways to build this crew up, both to help folks that want them to be recurring characters and those looking for ways to sell players on not just killing them off. Hoping to have something to post in about two weeks.
Currently on the plate are:
Non-hostile roleplaying hooks for each member that can play out in Wati.
Possible intra-group complications to play out within the necropolis
Possible post-showdown developments for each member
Possibilities for each member to serve as allies or rivals for the rest of the AP
Romance options for each member (even Kelthru and Velriana)
Member-specific adventure hooks for each member if allied
Admittedly it's probably best to wait until all of Mummy's Mask is out, but since folks are already playing... :)
Dotting this for later consumption and contribution. My only critique for the first installment was the lack of extra-party development.
I wonder what the Scorched Hand was assigned.
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What I found, in hindsight, was that the party were only vaguely aware that the Scorched Hand even existed before they went into the temple, since as far as they were concerned their rivals were just one of many different groups at the party in the Tooth and Hookah, no more interesting than the others. The adventure really needs to work in more interaction with them - it expects the party to stay in the Tooth and Hookah's rooms, so perhaps making them fellow customers with rooms of their own, sometimes exchanging a passing word or a friendly drink, would help players get to know them and give them reason enough not to simply murder them and dump the bodies.
I used a 3rd party plug-in adventure before sites 2 and 3 that briefly let them interact with some Scorched Hand members, but they really need more interaction through roleplay to fully exploit - show Khelru and Azaz being affectionate, let Idorii drop that she resents the Nethysian bullshit but Velriana pays well, let Velriana show she's a Nethysian zealot who doesn't actually like anyone and treats her teammates as employees rather than friends. One party, where the party's attention is drawn a half-dozen different ways, is not enough to get that across.
What I found, in hindsight, was that the party were only vaguely aware that the Scorched Hand even existed before they went into the temple, since as far as they were concerned their rivals were just one of many different groups at the party in the Tooth and Hookah, no more interesting than the others. The adventure really needs to work in more interaction with them - it expects the party to stay in the Tooth and Hookah's rooms, so perhaps making them fellow customers with rooms of their own, sometimes exchanging a passing word or a friendly drink, would help players get to know them and give them reason enough not to simply murder them and dump the bodies.
I used a 3rd party plug-in adventure before sites 2 and 3 that briefly let them interact with some Scorched Hand members, but they really need more interaction through roleplay to fully exploit - show Khelru and Azaz being affectionate, let Idorii drop that she resents the Nethysian bullshit but Velriana pays well, let Velriana show she's a Nethysian zealot who doesn't actually like anyone and treats her teammates as employees rather than friends. One party, where the party's attention is drawn a half-dozen different ways, is not enough to get that across.
What was that 3rd Party plug in?
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What was that 3rd Party plug in?What I found, in hindsight, was that the party were only vaguely aware that the Scorched Hand even existed before they went into the temple, since as far as they were concerned their rivals were just one of many different groups at the party in the Tooth and Hookah, no more interesting than the others. The adventure really needs to work in more interaction with them - it expects the party to stay in the Tooth and Hookah's rooms, so perhaps making them fellow customers with rooms of their own, sometimes exchanging a passing word or a friendly drink, would help players get to know them and give them reason enough not to simply murder them and dump the bodies.
I used a 3rd party plug-in adventure before sites 2 and 3 that briefly let them interact with some Scorched Hand members, but they really need more interaction through roleplay to fully exploit - show Khelru and Azaz being affectionate, let Idorii drop that she resents the Nethysian b#~*+$+# but Velriana pays well, let Velriana show she's a Nethysian zealot who doesn't actually like anyone and treats her teammates as employees rather than friends. One party, where the party's attention is drawn a half-dozen different ways, is not enough to get that across.
Legendary Games' "Beneath the Festered Sun." It's a very brief mention, but essentially you're meant to come away with that the Dog Soldiers and Daughters of the Desert are trying to help in other ways, while Velriana is too stingy for the Scorched Hand to get involved. But my party managed to persuade their cleric at least to offer his healing services for the duration of the Festered Sun curse. It's a neat little adventure that adds a bit of history and depth to Wati. It has two sequel modules, "The Lost Library of Thoth" and "Shrine of Serpents" but those are more conventional dungeon crawls with less roleplaying opportunities.
If you get it, DO NOT offer them the mansion reward. You've effectively given them a fortified base, which undermines the intended feeling of constant menace - like letting the heroes of a zombie movie start in the mall already. I found it really neutered the tension, and made the emergency feel more manageable than it should.
Returning to this thread, one thing that would have been nice for Book 3 onward would be options for the Scorched Hand as ongoing rivals, trying to get the mask back and get all the credit for stopping the cult. Although my party befriended Khelru and Azaz, and resurrected Idorii, they knocked Velriana out and handed her to the city guard who, because she was a Taldan noble, simply exiled her. So she wasn't available to be the revenant Book 2 expects, though I levelled her up to comparable CR and had her come back for a try at revenge, fleeing when it became clear she was overpowered. The rest of the original Scorched Hand have since gone their separate ways - Idorii hitching a ride on the Viking longship of another adventuring party, while Khelru and Azaz have headed to the Academy of Scribes to pursue less dangerous studies.
But as my players have discovered very recently, Velriana hasn't been idle since then, and has been active in Tephu getting in the good graces of the governor of the city, infiltrating the company of Muminofrah, and recruiting a new Scorched Hand of zealous Nethysians and those with a grudge against the party. The adventure expects her to be dead by this point, but it seems inauspicious for the character who's on the front cover of Book 1 to be unceremoniously killed before even the midpoint of the adventure. So my intent is that she and the new Scorched Hand will dog the party - they have no interest in the Cult of the Forgotten Pharaoh, though the Nethysian members have as much reason to keep the sins of the Sacred Order of the Blue Feather secret as Governor Deka An-Keret. Velriana is out for revenge - as daughter of a Taldan petty lord, if she doesn't have her grudges, then she has nothing.
The current lineup is a levelled-up Velriana and her Junk Golem, an Eldritch Scoundrel Rogue who has a history with the party summoner, and a goblin Magus with a grudge against the party goblin rogue. THere's still the Twilight Sage Arcanist to find an equivalent for, and the Occult Oracle, but they both have a connection to Nebta-Khufre (who is dead, but may not be for much longer). And if they survive to the party venturing out into the desert, they'll recruit a mad nethysian Desert Druid.