I've run through Rise of the Runelords and now I want to GM it. One of the changes I want to make is to work in some of the Shattered Star AP early on, specifically the Curse of the Lady's Light while they are in Manginar. I figured I could insert it in right after the end of the Skinsaw Murders and before they set off for the Hook Mountain Massacre. I like the idea of foreshadowing the Runelords involvement early on (it IS the Rise of the RunelordS after all, no?) as well as expanding their time in the city. I also have a player/character for whom the embodiment of Sorshen's clone would be perfect. I think some interesting developments could be worked in throughout the AP all the way to the showdown with Karzoug at the end.
I'm struggling with exactly how to introduce the side quest though - a request by the governor? Introduce Sheila Heidmarch after she has heard of the PC's success in rooting out the Skinsaw Cult? Should I skip the Sihedron pieces as a maguffin and use something else or nothing?
We level at predetermined points in the campaign rather than track xp, and that allows for the PC's to spend more time at one level than at another - but what encounters do you think will need special attention for the potential CR disparity? Are there other pieces of SS that you think I could work in without much difficulty? I'm not particularly worried about keeping to the integrity of the SS AP, the focus is the RotRL all the way, but I don't want to leave out something that could potentially expand or enhance the experience.
If you really want to use the Lady's Light as a setpiece, I would recommend not even bringing the sihedron shard into it, other than possibly something just too dangerous/uncontrollable to remove from the tower. Instead I would go with the PC's possibly finding notes about another 'enterprise' Xanesha is pursuing there, possibly pertaining to ancient Thassilon, or not as you think. You know your players after all.
The thing to keep in mind is that what is in the Lady's Light can potentially spoiler/foreshadow a lot of what is going on in RotRL, which largely assumes the PC's/'society in general' knows just this side of nothing concrete about Thassilon.
As far as the rest of SS goes, the next in the AP, 'the Asylum Stone' has the most directly to do with Karzoug, so you might consider having the PC's go there rather than/'in addition to' Runeforge, to gather the intelligence they need to confront him. Unfortunately, 'as written' the Asylum Stone is going to be significantly lower in difficulty than your PC's will be prepared for by that point in the AP.
Another factor to consider would be the inhabitants of the Lady's Light. That group is there because of what happened during the Curse of the Crimson Throne AP's endgame - which is why ShSt is recommended for running _after_ both RotR and CotCT. (Also after SD, but I'm not sure if that is so important.)
Another factor to consider would be the inhabitants of the Lady's Light. That group is there because of what happened during the Curse of the Crimson Throne AP's endgame - which is why ShSt is recommended for running _after_ both RotR and CotCT. (Also after SD, but I'm not sure if that is so important.)
I can see that being an issue in some campaigns but we don't have any plans to run Crimson Throne. Those events can be simple backstory without affecting anything we want to do.
If you really want to use the Lady's Light as a setpiece, I would recommend not even bringing the sihedron shard into it, other than possibly something just too dangerous/uncontrollable to remove from the tower. Instead I would go with the PC's possibly finding notes about another 'enterprise' Xanesha is pursuing there, possibly pertaining to ancient Thassilon, or not as you think. You know your players after all.
The thing to keep in mind is that what is in the Lady's Light can potentially spoiler/foreshadow a lot of what is going on in RotRL, which largely assumes the PC's/'society in general' knows just this side of nothing concrete about Thassilon.
As far as the rest of SS goes, the next in the AP, 'the Asylum Stone' has the most directly to do with Karzoug, so you might consider having the PC's go there rather than/'in addition to' Runeforge, to gather the intelligence they need to confront him. Unfortunately, 'as written' the Asylum Stone is going to be significantly lower in difficulty than your PC's will be prepared for by that point in the AP.
Yes, I just don't see inclusion of the sihedron as being a good idea, especially without the rest of the pieces and the quest that comes with it. Need to find a new motivation though.
As far as being too spoilery, I figure the cat was kind of out of the bag given the title of the AP, that, yes, Runelords would indeed be involved. I don't mind the foreshadowing and, in fact, think it might enhance the experience by serving to tie together seemingly disparate parts of the campaign. I'm not going to be too heavy handed in exposition though, I promise you that.
I'll give Asylum Stone a more detailed browsing to see what, if anything, can be done.